Fanfic / Are You Afraid of the Dark? (Worm)

Are You Afraid of the Dark? is a Worm fanfic by ack1308, who is also author of Another Way, Recoil, I'm HALPING, Hope Comes to Brockton Bay, Security! (Worm), and Wyvern.

In the 90s and early 2000s, Brockton Bay was stalked by two unpowered assassins, Danny & Anne-Rose, Killers for hire, or "D.A.R.K." for short. Anyone who the Marquis wanted dead, they would kill. Anyone who went after them would die. And they took the credit for Jack Slash being sent to the Birdcage in a wheelchair. And then, a few years ago, they disappeared.

In January 2011, with his daughter in the hospital, Danny Hebert buys a puppy. Then some Empire thugs who pick a seemingly unassuming target hear a catchphrase that wasn't heard in years — "Are you afraid of the Dark?".

The fic is ongoing but updates rarely.

Can be also found on FanFiction.Net (here), Sufficient Velocity.com (here), and Questionable Questing (here).

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This work contains examples of the following tropes:

• Adaptational Badass: Danny Hebert is an explicit Expy of John Wick. Annette was also a professional assassin before her death as well.
• Adults Are Useless: Defied.
  • Once Danny decides to get his act together, he becomes a much more effective father.
  • When Danny takes Taylor (and Chewie) to Arcadia, the vice principal turns out to be both sympathetic and understanding of her issues, and offers several options for her to start fresh with a better chance of finishing the year on a high note.
• Always a Bigger Fish: The Dark is this to the Empire goons unfortunate enough to be in his crosshairs.
• Apologetic Attacker: Hookwolf actually has a lot of respect for the Dark, but he feels he can't just ignore killing Cricket.
  Hookwolf: Sorry, man. Cricket's one of mine, y'know? She's not just Empire. She's a fighter like me. Someone puts her in the ground, I gotta make that someone pay, even if it's you that did it. It's a fighter thing. You understand.
• Badass Normal: Danny, otherwise known to the cape scene as Dark, is not a parahuman. He has no superpowers, no special abilities, nothing except experience and training in gun handling and stealth and general assassination skills. Despite lacking superpowers, he can kill capes like Cricket and Jack Slash. This is what sets up his status as The Dreaded.
• Battle Couple: Danny and Annette together were a very scary team, back when she was alive.
  She saved my life twice during that fight; I saved hers once. I'm not sure exactly when it was I started to fall for her, but it might have been about the time she shot the guy in the eye, seconds before he would have gutted me with a baling hook.
• Best Served Cold: Seven years ago, a teenage boy murdered the hero Fleur as his way to get into the Empire Eighty-Eight. The Dark just got paid to balance the books.
  I want you to look him in the eye as he dies, and tell him New Wave sends their regards.
• The Blade Always Lands Pointy End In: At least, when thrown by someone as skilled as Danny, who can and does throw a switchblade into someone's eye.
• Boom, Headshot!: The Dark is quite good at these.
• Boring, but Practical: When the Undersiders ask for the favor Danny owes them to be paid by him ensuring the Empire 88 is taken down, he simply calls Assault and tells him the identities of their capes. Quick, effective, and requires no effort or risk on his part.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: Danny muses aloud about whether Taylor might like a puppy or a kitten to help her feel better, while twisting a mugger's wrist. Sadly, he isn't able to get any advice from the guy except screamed profanity. Then he takes a look inside the mugger's gun (which he keeps) and gently chides him for not taking better care of it.
  The car had gone through the intersection and ten yards beyond before Danny figured it was time to release the punk's wrist. Glancing in the mirror, he could see the shaven-headed thug as a vague form rolling and bouncing on the asphalt behind the car.
  Puppy, he decided. I'll get her a puppy.
• Cavalry Betrayal: Sophia believes Alan came to save her from Danny and is all but frothing at the mouth, shouting at him to kill the hitman. Unfortunately for her, Alan is not there to save her and kills her himself.
• Character Catchphrase: Whenever the Dark announced himself, he would always say, "Are you afraid of the Dark?" While most new capes don't recognize the meaning, those like Kaiser and Assault know of it.
• Combat Pragmatist:
  • As befits a true Professional Killer, Danny has no interest in sportsmanship, only effectiveness. His memoirs make that philosophy plain.
    If defeat means death, then winning at any cost is the only sane strategy. Losing because you played fair has the same end result as just plain losing.
  • He's pleased when Taylor shows ruthlessness even in playing Monopoly.
    He couldn't have been prouder. His entire career had been predicated on figuring out what the target was doing, then cheating as hard as he could. Entire cemeteries were filled with people who'd chosen to fight fair. Taylor was showing that she was a Hebert through and through.
• Cover Innocent Eyes and Ears: Taylor knows what's going on, but she's still relieved to be sent out of the room before Mr Barnes shoots Sophia.
  Danny: Why don't you go up and check on Chewie, hon? Make sure he's not gotten lonely yet.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Anything the Dark inserts himself into is bound to end up this way, which is impressive since Danny isn't a parahuman. He assaults an Empire gathering and kills around thirty people including two parahumans, rescues his target, and walks away with just a scratch on his arm.
• Curse Cut Short: Hookwolf has just figured out what Danny is doing and started to swear when the car-lifting electromagnet activates and yanks him off his feet, interrupting him mid-word.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Both Kaiser and Assault are familiar enough with the Dark to understand how he operates. When Kaiser is trying to get Krieg to understand that the Dark wasn't behind the recent armored truck robbery, he points out that if the Dark wanted money he could just collect any of half a dozen unclaimed bounties for some of his past kills.
• Deadly Dodging: When fleeing on a motorbike from Hookwolf, Danny makes a sharp turn, which Hookwolf doesn't quite manage to follow, hitting a vehicle.
  There was a 'dog chasing parked car' joke somewhere in there, but he decided to let it be.
• Death by Adaptation:
  • Jack Slash had his knees shot out and was shipped to the Birdcage as a cripple. He didn't survive that long afterward once inside.
  • Cricket was easily dispatched by the Dark.
  • Hookwolf was crushed by an electromagnet.
  • Sophia, who survived all the way to Ward, is killed off by Alan, who is ragingly pissed at her for corrupting his daughter.
• Defiant to the End: Danny offers Hookwolf a chance for some last words. The result: "Just do it!"
  He stared Death in the eye, and the Dark stared back.
• Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?: When Danny and Taylor visit the Undersiders, he literally drinks tea with them while explaining how things will go. Lisa is terrified, Brian is grumpy, Alec is respectful (though snarky) and Rachel is extremely respectful.
• Disposing of a Body:
  • Similarly to John Wick canon, after killing five men, Danny calls a specialised service to place an order, and pays them with a gold ingot left in his mailbox.
    Danny: Pizza for five, extra topping. Going to need some garlic bread, too.
  • He later discusses options with Taylor, who comes up with staples like burying in the woods or under fresh concrete.
    "All good ideas," he said approvingly. "I've used them all in the past. But there's one you missed."
    She frowned. "What's that?"
    He indicated to take the next left, heading north. "Let them find it. But you muddy the waters at the same time."
• Don't Make Me Destroy You: The Dark regularly offers to let people simply leave if they're not his target. The smart ones accept; the dumb ones die.
• Double Tap:
  • When a pile of bodies twitches, Danny instinctively shoots three times, and it stops moving.
  • He then waits for Hookwolf's body to stop twitching before shooting him in the back of the neck, just to be sure.
• The Dreaded: While newer capes don't recognize the name, many older ones are rightfully afraid of the Dark. When Kaiser learns Dark is tearing through his Empire because they took his dog, he not only tells everyone to not go after him, but to shut down their dog fighting ring for good measure.
• Entertainingly Wrong: After Tattletale sets up Coil to impersonate the Dark (in hopes that the Dark will kill him in retaliation), Danny and Taylor show up on the Undersiders' doorstep — and Tattletale quite naturally assumes that he's found out what she did and taken offence, leaving her terrified into near-speechlessness. Alec has never before seen her so scared, and is impressed. Taylor is a little confused by her reaction; they actually have no idea what Tattletale did, they were just sent to her as a possible source of information about Coil.
• Exact Words: Before J-dog will talk, he makes Danny promise not to shoot or stab him. So, after finding out what he knows, Danny strangles him.
  Danny: Never said anything about not killing you.
• Expy: In case it hasn't occurred to you, Danny is all but stated to be Earth-Bet's very own Babayaga.
• Face Death with Dignity: Once it's clear that he can't win or escape, Hookwolf looks Danny in the eye and yells at him to "Just do it!"
• False Flag Operation: Lung is absolutely convinced the Dark is this, assuming the PRT are doing the same things the Yangban did, and refuses to consider otherwise.
  • Coil has a fake Dark attack a bank truck in broad daylight, prompting Kaiser and Assault to immediately cover their own asses.
  • The Dark accidentally sets one up by killing Sophia. Black Ward known for patrolling in Empire territory turns up tortured and dead, so the PRT blames the white supremacists. Plus, the gun was one of the ones Danny had recently taken from an Empire member, so forensics pointed to them.
• Game of Chicken: Rather than block or dodge Cricket's kick, Danny aims a pistol downward; if she continues, the kick will connect, but she'll lose a kneecap. She flinches first, moving her leg away.
• Guns Akimbo: Danny at one point does this, the gun in his right hand aiming left and the gun in his left hand aiming right. His stated reason is that that makes it easier to shoot guards standing behind a door as you enter.
• Honor Before Reason: Why Hookwolf attacks the Dark. It doesn't end well for Hookwolf but at least he gets to Face Death with Dignity.
• Imperiled in Pregnancy: Defied. Kayden is still heavily pregnant with Aster during the events of the fic, and despite Max's insistence for her to be a Pregnant Badass in the Empire's time of need she runs for it to protect her baby.
• Implacable Man: The Dark. It doesn't matter what you throw at him, he will not stop until his target is dead and god help you if you come between him and his quarry. After Danny tears through the Empire and kills Cricket and Hookwolf, Kaiser immediately goes to appease him rather than continue making an enemy out of him.
• Implausible Deniability: After the man who killed Fleur is found killed in the same manner as Shadow Stalker, the PRT come up with a couple theories, including that the man went mad and the way he was killed is just coincidence, before settling on a preferred one. Victor killed them both, the former in order to frame New Wave for ordering a hit and the latter because she's black. There's an unspoken agreement that they know their theory is bullshit, but it's "the one they prefer".
• It's Personal:
  • The Empire had beef with Danny after he sandbagged one of their gang members when they tried to jump him. Danny, in turn, goes on a rampage to get Chewie back when they take the dog from him and put it in their dog fight rings.
  • Later on, after sneaking into Winslow, Danny decides to pay Alan a visit. While he does back off when he learns Alan genuinely had no idea what was going on, both men agree to kill Sophia for nearly killing Danny's daughter and corrupting Emma.
  • Kaiser quickly dismisses the possibility that the Dark is the true culprit behind Shadow Stalker's death because he doesn't recognise the personal motive and knows the Dark wouldn't have done it for professional reasons.
• Jack the Ripoff: Tattletale persuades Coil that the smartest response to rumours about the Dark resurfacing is to set up one of his mercenaries to impersonate the Dark. (Her hope is that the real Dark will take offence and come after Coil.)
• Kill It with Fire: Danny is so angry at Taylor's treatment at the hands of Winslow's administration that he sets fire to the school.
• Kill Steal: Shadow Stalker gets quite annoyed at the string of muggers she finds beaten up and left in alleys, showing that someone is doing her job for her, and she's determined to have a talk with whoever is responsible. Which is exactly what Danny wants.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: The smarter people dealing with the Dark quickly give him what he wants so long as he's not after them, including an Empire 88 mook selling out another, with Stormtiger demanding that he better not have been lying to the Dark.
• Logical Weakness:
  • Cricket has highly sensitive ears, so when Danny's fighting her, he makes sure to fire his pistol right next to them, where it would be painful even to someone with normal hearing.
  • Zigzagged with Hookwolf who has a metal body. The Dark crushes him with an industrial electromagnet. While Hookwolf rightfully pointed out that he could just withdraw the metal back into his body, the Dark points out he can't do the same with his metal mask.
• Make an Example of Them:
  • J-dog is left with four men to help him turn Danny into a message not to mess with the Empire. (They get cleaned up by "Kwiksmart Pizza Delivery".)
  • Danny's career notes mention that on the few occasions he took a rescue mission, which invariably involved a large body count, he always made a point of taking out the person who ordered the kidnapping.
    It was my way of ensuring they didn't ever do it again.
  • On the other hand, he doesn't believe in killing just to send a message. If he kills someone, it's because that person needed to die.
    Western Union works just fine. The only message a death should convey is that someone needed to be made dead.
• Make Sure He's Dead: When Danny sees one of a pile of bodies twitch, he instinctively fires into the pile again, three times. There's no more movement after that.
• Mugging the Monster:
  • Two Empire thugs decide to rob what turns out to be a retired professional assassin. It doesn't end well for them, their buddies, Hookwolf's dogfighting ring, Cricket, or Hookwolf himself.
  • Danny deliberately goes out looking to attract muggers, and leaves a trail of injured and unconscious bodies behind him. All to attract Shadow Stalker's attention so he can take her down.
• Never Bring a Gun to a Knife Fight: A true expert like Danny knows that one of the counters to a gun is to get up close with a knife, close enough to knock the gun barrel aside and stab the gunman many times. (The other option, if you're far enough away, is to get behind solid cover.) The first two men who invade his home die messily this way.
  Knives don't run out of ammo, after all.
• Noodle Incident: The Dark has met with Contessa at least once.
• Not Me This Time:
  • Empire 88 was not responsible for killing Shadow Stalker. The Dark was. Kaiser's attempt at de-escalation is to find whoever did it and hand them over to the PRT.
  • The Dark wasn't responsible for an armoured car robbery attributed to him. Assault/Madcap knows him well enough to know that that isn't at all his style and he doesn't need to make money that way.
• Oh, Crap!: Boy oh boy, where do we even begin?
  • The first Empire goon when his target turns out to be dangerous.
  • Two more Empire goons when their intended target whispers "Are you afraid of the Dark?" Or rather, one of them recognises the phrase, and descends into panicked swearing without pulling a weapon, which is why Danny lets him live.
  • Every Empire Thug in the dogfighting Arena when the Dark shows up.
  • Danny when Hookwolf shows up.
  • Hookwolf when he sees Cricket dead.
  • Hookwolf when the Dark uses an industrial magnet on him.
  • Kaiser when he finds out the Dark killed two Empire Capes.
  • Assault when the Dark becomes active again.
  • Director Piggot when she hears Armsmaster wants a go at the Dark.
  • Shadow Stalker when she gets caught by the Dark.
  • Sophia when she realizes the girl she's been bullying was the daughter of the most feared professional assassin in the city.
  • Sophia when she realizes she's about to be executed, via a bullet to the head at point-blank range in a soundproofed basement, without anyone willing to rescue her.
  • Assault when he finds out the Dark has a personal vendetta against Shadow Stalker.
  • Kaiser and Assault when Coil has a fake Dark rob a bank truck.
  • The Undersiders when the Dark stops by to ask some questions.
  • Kaiser when he finds out the Empire is blamed for Shadow Stalker's demise.
  • The Empire 88 flunkies in two different bars when Danny comes looking for Fleur's killer.
  • Larry Peterson, the man who murdered Fleur back in the day when he realises the Dark has come for him and that his 'friends' want nothing to do with him now.
  • Frankoff, the Dark impersonator when he meets the real Dark.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Kaiser and Assault note that, prior to the killings of Cricket and Hookwolf, the Dark never killed Capes. It turns out the motivation was a personal vendetta and the two Capes were caught in the crossfire.
• Papa Wolf:
  • After getting Chewie back, Danny turns his sights to Winslow, destroying the school and learning who was behind the bullying campaign against his daughter. Needless to say, Shadow Stalker was fucked the moment the Dark learned about her.
  • After learning that Sophia turned Emma against Taylor and tormented her for over a year, Alan explodes into rage and willingly goes along with Danny's plan to kill her. He even pulls the trigger himself.
• Pass the Popcorn: Director Piggot recommends this as the best response for the other gangs when the PRT is cracking down on the Empire, "if they have the sense God gave a rock."
• Pet the Dog: Part of why Danny takes care of the Empire the way he does (calling Assault and giving him their identities) is to smooth over any hard feelings when he made the man an accessory to Shadow Stalker's murder.
• Professional Killer: D.A.R.K. would receive jobs by email, and send proof of death and payment details back. When Taylor asks her dad about whether his targets deserved to die, he responds that they generally did, but that wasn't his reason for going after them, because if he tried to kill everyone who did terrible things, the city would be filled with bodies. He is, however, adamant about being paid (except in cases where It's Personal).
  I command high prices because I'm very good at what I do; if I'm going to kill someone, I need to be sure that the client really wants them dead. When there's no money involved, I'm not motivated to go out and kill people. There's no reason for me to do so.
• The Promise: Both Danny and Annette swore that, if either of them died, they would retire from the business to raise Taylor properly. Danny ultimately breaks that promise after being kidnapped by the Empire and having his dog taken, since he needs to step up to protect Taylor from people like Shadow Stalker.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: The Heberts have an actual puppy, and are, naturally, helpless before his power.
  Chewie, being an opportunistic little mooch, gobbled down the bacon and eggs we'd given him then came to us looking for more. I, being the strong-willed and independent young woman that I am, of course gave him more. All I had to do was look into those soulful puppy-dog eyes and my resolve just crumbled on the spot.
• Put on a Bus: Enforced on Emma, who is sent to a boarding school in Europe to keep her safe.
• Reckless Gun Usage: Danny has strong feelings about people sticking guns in their waistbands. He'll do it if he absolutely must, but he doesn't like it.
  Shoved down the front of the pants, the gun muzzle was guided with almost laser-like accuracy toward certain parts of the anatomy that every man held near and dear. Down the back, there were the leg muscles and the large arteries in the thigh to worry about. Just as importantly, the waistband depended on friction and luck to have the gun still there when it was needed. He much preferred a well-made holster.
• Revenge: It's been a long time, but once the Dark turns out to be active again, he gets paid for a hit on the man responsible for murdering Fleur of New Wave.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Lung insists that the Dark who robbed an armored car isn't the Dark, but that's because he insists the Dark doesn't exist, unlike Kaiser who knows it wasn't him because it doesn't fit his MO.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The Dark leaves dozens of bodies behind him as he tracks down Taylor's dog and gets him back. Because Taylor is in a difficult place and she needs that dog.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • Once the PRT decides to stop playing nice with the Empire, Purity decides the best thing to do to protect herself and her unborn child is to retire from caping entirely.
  • When Danny spares the guard outside the second bar, he decides to go home and not come back.
• Selective Obliviousness: Coil mentally complains about never having the easy comradery and friendship his mercenaries do immediately after giving an Implied Death Threat to one of said mercenaries on the off chance he uses his Jack the Ripoff routine for his own ends rather than Coil's. It never occurs to him that since he regularly threatens his underlings and has almost zero positive interactions with them, they won't get attached and only see him as a steady paycheck.
• Sensory Overload: While fighting Cricket, Danny repeatedly fires his pistol in her general direction even when he can't quite aim closely enough to hit her. Her Super-Hearing means she's very strongly affected by the firing noise, wincing and recoiling as if she's been punched. (In the end, he actually mortally wounds her with a knife, and only uses the gun to finish her off.)
• Shear Menace: After turning out the lights in his basement, Danny kills a man with a pair of gardening shears and takes his gun. Because of course Danny keeps his tools sharp.
• Shout-Out:
  • Subverted: While the Heberts name their dog Chewie, Taylor explains to Danny that it's because the pup is chewing on her sleeve.
  • Defied: Daisy the dog in John Wick is killed by the bad guys. Chewie lives.
  • Assault jokes to the Dark that a twain is something that goes on a twack.
  • The Dark explains his motivations to Sophia as "special circumstances".
  • The Dark lets the guard outside a bar walk away after this strangely familiar scene.
    The Dark: Hello, Frankie.
    Frankie: Dark. Shit, I never thought it'd be you who'd kill me.
    The Dark: Doesn't have to be. How many years has it been?^note How many men are inside?
    Frankie: About a dozen, I reckon.
    The Dark: Hm. Impressive.
    Frankie: You here on business?
    The Dark: Afraid so, Frankie. Why don't you just go home? I never saw you, you never saw me.
    Frankie: Thanks, I will. About time I got shut of these assholes, anyway.
• Spotting the Thread: Both Kaiser and Assault immediately recognize Coil's fake Dark as an imposter because of how outside the Dark's M.O. the incident was.
• Steel Eardrums: Zigzagged. Cricket's Super-Hearing makes point blank gunshots extremely painful even when they miss but no one seems bothered by firing a gun in confined spaces.
• Too Dumb to Live: Anyone who knowingly antagonizes the Dark, such as Shadow Stalker and Coil.
• Understatement: When Taylor asks Danny about his day, he doesn't actually lie to her, but he also doesn't tell her about killing dozens of E88 members including both Cricket and Hookwolf, all to retrieve Taylor's puppy.
  Danny: Oh, we had a little bit of excitement. Chewie got himself lost, but I found him again pretty quickly. That was about it, though. After that, we had a quiet night in.
• Use Their Own Weapon Against Them: Manpower throws one of Kaiser's blades through the engine of his getaway car.
• Villainous Breakdown: Sophia as she realizes she's about to die.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Danny has just finished fighting Cricket and is bandaging his wounds, when someone else barges in, whom he would really rather not fight. (Though it's not actually a phobia, just a poor match-up.)
  Danny: Why did it have to be Hookwolf?
• You Owe Me: To get information about Shadow Stalker, Danny calls in a marker from Assault, whom he saved from being Eaten Alive by Carnifex in the past.
  Ethan: Okay, yeah. That's some marker.

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