"Mr. Fixit" is a Worm fanfic by Rorschach's Blot. It's an alternate continuity where Greg triggers off-screen with the Thinker power to know how to fix things. Nothing on the level of Path to Victory, but at the level where he combs through the dump and pawnshops for broken phones that he can repair and resell. The closest thing he has to superpower is a set of goggles that he thinks belonged to Leet that sport X-Ray Vision, which just required re-soldering a power-cable. Naturally, he decides that the best use of his powers is to attend Endbringer battles, where he's assigned to Search and Rescue due to his lack of offensive or defensive powers. He's incredibly successful, saving double digits of people, and refusing to leave the field for the three days that the heroes fight Behemoth. He refuses any accolades, and also refuses Ward membership, since they would forbid him from attending Endbringer fights. He attends the next fight. And the next one... and keeps surviving, and keeps saving people. He's also completely unaware of his fame, as he never checks into the section of the PHO website devoted to Endbringer fighters, deciding that was for heroes, not people doing mundane search and rescue. Only one person is aware of his true identity. Can he fix a broken girl named Sophia Hess?
It can be read on Fanfiction.net here
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This work exhibits the following tropes:
- An Offer You Can't Refuse: When Lightning Lass triggers and kills her superior officer and the serial rapist he wanted to pardon, the Protectorate basically tells her that either she can join up as a hero who "Triggered when a villain Mastered her into killing her superior officer" or go to prison for murdering her superior.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Greg breaks through Sophia's "predator and prey" mentality by asking her if the person who taught her that was a good person. As the one who taught her was the same attempted rapist that caused her trigger event, she realizes how wrong her thinking was.
- Awful Truth: Lightning Lass reveals to Greg and Sophia that society is much worse off than anyone lets on and those in the know give it maybe ten years before civilization collapses entirely.
- Berserk Button: Never insult the Unknown Parahuman around other capes. Merely saying something that can be construed as an insult will get them on your case. A troll who mocks him during an Endbringer battle is on the receiving end of an irate Thinker airing every bit of embarrassing dirty laundry he has and emailing all that information to both the troll's father and the girl he has a crush on.
- Boring, but Practical:
- Greg's dedication to Search and Rescue. It's far less glamorous than actually fighting, but he saves so many lives that he becomes The Paragon to parahumans in general. His methods of getting better are simply exercising more and taking relevant classes such as EMT training.
- Tagg, via the PHO, reminds people that they're more than their powers when it comes to wanting to help with Endbringer battle aftermaths. A doctor who can control fire is still a doctor, which is generally more useful.
- Break Them by Talking: In response to an insensitive PHO user posting an Endbringer fight livestream and making fun of the Unknown Parahuman, another user who must have Thinker powers starts posting all the things the first poster doesn't want people to know, from the fact that he's on the verge of flunking out of school to his bed-wetting issues to that the STD test results he's waiting for will be coming back positive, as well as telling him that they're e-mailing this to everyone from his crush to his father. Within three pages, they're posting that he's calling his father but crying too hard for the man to understand him.
- Broken Pedestal: Sophia lost all her love for her mother when the woman blew off hearing her drunk boyfriend nearly raped her daughter.
- Brutal Honesty: Lightning Lass is very up front in her dealings with the Unknown Parahuman and Shadow Stalker, if only to earn their trust.
- Coat, Hat, Mask: Greg's initial costume consists of "black welding goggles, bandages wrapped around his face in a poor imitation of the invisible man, his dad's old fishing vest, a trench coat, and the hat from the Halloween before when he'd gone as Indiana Jones". His later versions largely just incorporate better material and additional life-saving implements.
- The Determinator: Greg persists no matter what. In a later chapter, he's swept off to sea by Behemoth, and is found swimming, pushing a raft with another survivor on top.
- Didn't Think This Through: Vista uses her power to connect the space above Greg's and Sophia's heads to her ears so she can listen in on them from miles away. When they hear her muttering, she realizes the connection goes both ways and she has to stay silent.
- Dirty Cop: Lightning Lass's superior when she was a PRT officer was willing to pardon a serial rapist (whose victims ranged in age from seven to eighty-five years old) because the bonus for getting a villain to rebrand was bigger than the one for convicting a villain.
- Distant Finale: The final chapter is an epilogue with scenes set two weeks, one month, two months, six months, two years, five years, twelve years, twenty years, thirty years, forty years, and four hundred years after the ending. And it's heavily implied that Greg is still around fixing things in small and large ways.
- Eating the Eye Candy: After Sophia is forced to lay off Greg by Blackwell (basically, his ability and willingness to fix things around the school saves the school more money than they get for covering for Sophia as a Ward), she pursues him to prove that he must have dark secrets or is a member of a gang. She spends a lot of time peeking in on him in the locker room just to make sure he doesn't have a gang tattoo somewhere on a part of his body hidden by clothes...
- Famed In-Story: There's a great deal of speculation about Greg on PHO, with people insisting that he must have luck or healing powers to save as many people as he does. Also, a general consensus is that the reason he avoids any of the award ceremonies is because none of them are disasters where he is drawn to help.
- Expert Consultant: Having been to more Endbringer battles than basically anyone who isn't a member of the Triumverate, the Unknown Parahuman is considered an expert on how dangerous they can be and, to a lesser extent, what the search and rescue workers should bring with them. This becomes important when Amy needs to be told not to attend Endbringer battles. As he had already told Amy not to attend battles against the Simurgh, Lady Photon contacts him in hopes he'll tell her to stay away from the actual battles altogether for her mental health.
- Fights Like a Normal: Sophia disparages Vista for fighting this way despite being a petite middle schooler. She can expand or compress space to a ridiculous degree (enough that she can eavesdrop on a conversation from three miles away) yet the last official confrontation she was in consisted of her running up and tripping a muggle who was at least twice her size.
- Fix Fic: Not everything is completely sunshine and puppies, but many of the major terrible things in Worm aside from Endbringer attacks are prevented due to Greg's actions: Mrs. Hebert gets her brakes fixed and never dies in a car crash, Taylor and Emma remain friends, Sophia develops a less toxic worldview, Panacea gets the help she needs, the Endbringers are killed, Armsmaster finally gets the respect he craves, Scion disappears without destroying anything, and it's implied many other things get fixed offscreen when Greg realizes he can ask his power how to fix the broken world.
- Formerly Fat: When he triggered, Greg was notably out of shape and struggled to do any kind of exercise. Since he worried that others might die because he couldn't reach them fast enough, he started following self-help guides until he was fit enough to impress even Sophia.
- Gambit Pileup: Lightning Lass and Piggot are both manipulating each other and others for their own, generally benign, ends. It's rarely clear which of them, if either, actually has the upper hand.
- Happily Married: According to the Distant Finale, Greg and Sophia are married and have grandkids.
- Heart Is an Awesome Power: Greg's only power is to see broken things, and know how to fix them in a mundane way. When he's investigated, it's verified multiple times that he does not generate Tinker-level technology, and he's observed reading manuals to figure out how to do the things his power suggests. But it also lets him do things like see faulty brakes on Taylor's mother's car, or a leak in a nuclear power plant that Behemoth was menacing, and it gives him first aid steps when in a crisis. It's also implied that the power lets him (or makes him) persist to the limit his body can go.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: Greg views the Slaughterhouse Nine as far worse than the Endbringers, despite a much lower kill count. His power lets him know that the Endbringers are either programmed or forced to attack cities (he's not sure which) and there's no emotional investment in it; they're basically just doing their jobs. But the Slaughterhouse Nine choose to commit their atrocities and openly enjoy them, including leaving behind traps for anyone trying to help in the aftermath. To a lesser extent, he feels similarly about heroes and villains in general, stating that most of them are just making the world worse, even if they don't intend to. He only does Search and Rescue work specifically because he wants help as many people as possible.
- Humble Hero: Greg is entirely unaware of his fame in the cape community because he never reads the Endbringer section of PHO, believing it to only be for heroes who directly fight the Endbringers.
- Hypocrite:
- Greg advises Amy to look after herself as she'll end up saving less people if she burns out, yet he never eats or sleeps the entire time he's helping with search and rescue operations during an Endbringer battle, something he admits to.
- Carol insists that it's Amy's duty to attend Endbringer battles and similar disasters, such as the aftermath of Slaughterhouse Nine attacks, despite having never attended one herself.
- Hypocrite Has a Point: Greg tells Amy she has to take better care of herself and bans her from attending Endbringer fights except to help with the aftermath, insisting she'll save more people in the long run by not burning herself out. While he absolutely doesn't practice what he preaches, Amy was dangerously close to either a breakdown or possibly committing suicidenote and needed to be told to stop by someone that nobody would question.
- I'll Pretend I Didn't Hear That: Whenever Sophia almost slips up on Greg's secret identity, Lightning Lass questions her in a way that lets the girl correct herself, remarking that she's training her to think on her feet.
- In Spite of a Nail: Despite never losing her mother or Emma, Taylor still eventually triggers with unspecified insect-themed superpowers.
- Irony: Lightning Lass was assigned to Brockton Bay as a punishment, with everyone assuming her career was functionally over after she murdered a superior officer. By the epilogue, she becomes head of the Protectorate as a whole.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: At the start of the story, a serial rapist parahuman known as the Boogie Man was going to be given a full pardon in exchange for rebranding. In the middle of his boasting that he'd told his arresting officer he'd never do jail time, she shoots him twice in the chest then shoots her superior who was offering the pardon. When the former survives, the officer triggers and fries the villain and her superior with her new lightning powers.
- Laser-Guided Karma: After her mom's boyfriend tried to rape her (and her mother did nothing about it), Sophia filled his car with as many stolen drugs as she could carry in two trips after raiding a Merchant stash. According to her, the last time they heard from him, he was begging Sophia's mom to send him money so he could buy protection while in prison and is heavily implied to be suffering regular Prison Rape.
- Memetic Badass: In-Universe. The Unknown Parahuman is already respected for going to several Endbringer battles in a row (eight total in the story) but what raises him up to memetic status is his refusal to ever stop working until either the job is done or he physically collapses. When he's swept out to see in his second battle against Leviathan, he's found pulling an injured villain on a makeshift raft, prompting other survivors to say he "Only took so long because he was rescuing someone else. On his own, he'd have calmly swam back to shore and acted like nothing happened." It reaches new heights when a livestream shows him outright ignoring Leviathan only a few feet away from him to focus on rescuing an injured heronote . Someone suggests his trigger event was despair over "juggling dynamite and rattlesnakes while riding an angry bull across a tightrope over the grand canyon and realizing he's still bored."
- Mistaken for Badass: The Unknown Parahuman sparing Leviathan (who's mere feet away) a single glance then going back to helping his patient is viewed as possibly the most badass thing anyone has ever done. In reality, Greg just knew he couldn't do anything about the Endbringer so he elected to focus on what he could do: try to keep someone alive.
- More Expendable Than You:
- Lightning Lass's reason for going to her first Endbringer battle: Every branch is unofficially required to send at least one hero and she's a nobody with a career that won't go anywhere.
- Greg always holds this viewpoint, preferring to sacrifice himself rather than potentially let someone else die or get hurt. His second Leviathan fight sees him swept out to sea because he gave his life jacket to someone else, then he tries to have a rescue chopper take the villain he rescued and insists he can swim back to shore on his own (with several broken bones and a crushed foot) until they tell him they have room for both of them.
- Mr. Fixit: This is essentially Greg's power. He sees things that are broken, and knows how to fix them.
- Necessarily Evil:
- One particular Slaughterhouse Nine attack leaves most of the survivors as zombies that are still rational and behave as though they're uninfected, forcing the responders to kill anyone who isn't cleared. Greg finds an entire classroom of small children whom his power tells him are all infected.
- In the epilogue, former Chief Director Tagg is actually glad to have people question the necessity of the quarantine zones, particularly the Simurgh ones. In his words, less than twenty years prior, no one even considered they were anything but a necessary evil. That people do now means things have improved to the point they aren't.
- Not So Above It All: Piggot apparently gets her kicks by having people record her underlings' reactions to uncomfortable conversations, such as Vista learning that Sophia is more pleasant because she's having sex (or so they assume).
- Not What It Looks Like: Two different groups have their own theories about why Shadow Stalker has become notably more pleasant towards others. Vista assumes she's been Mastered while the PRT thinks she's "getting a regular pipe cleaning". In reality, she's just made a genuine friend whose opinions she values.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Carol and Sarah get into a remarkably violent fight offscreen that clearly involved using their powers. However, the chapter is told from the perspective of the kids, so all the readers see is Amy's reaction to Sarah having multiple bruises, cuts, and burns when she comes home.
- The Paragon: His refusal to stop helping others until either there's no one left to help or he physically collapses inspires many capes and causes them to follow the Unknown Parahuman's example. At least one villain pulled a Heel–Face Turn after Greg spent two days swimming him back to shore after a battle against Leviathan, and hundreds more signed up to help with the aftermath of Endbringer battles even if they don't actually fight.
- Parental Neglect:
- Greg's parents are gone so often that he became used to functionally living alone, including them missing his birthdays, which is implied to be his trigger event.
- When Sophia was nearly raped by her mother's drunk boyfriend, her mother's response was to tell her to block her bedroom door when they drink.
- Parents as People: Greg's parents do genuinely care for him but are terrible at showing it and tend to focus too much on their jobs, such that Greg is "used to" them missing his birthday.
- His mother works nights as the nursing supervisor at one of the hospitals and is usually asleep whenever she's actually home. But she offers Greg sound advice when he's traumatized by the aftermath of a Slaughterhouse Nine attack, including getting him and his girlfriend a month off school so he can recover, and makes sure they're both safe should they start having sex.
- Greg's father is a firefighter chief who's around even less often than his wife. He's also emotionally (and possibly physically) abusive under the guise of Tough Love but is proud of Greg whenever the boy stands up to him and admits he hates himself for how he treats his son yet feels he has to for the boy to survive.
- Respected by the Respected: The Unknown Parahuman has a perpetual Endbringer Truce declared on him by several criminal organizations due to him only responding to Endbringer battles and helping with other S Class threats, along with being the single most dedicated Search and Rescue member at any one of those events. More than one hero and villain refers to him as a legend and a shining example due to his willingness to go to every Endbringer battle since he triggerednote and refusal to even acknowledge how much good he's done. The man himself, Greg Veder, just sees it as doing his duty and doesn't even consider himself a hero or veteran of the battles. According to an omake, this caused the Simurgh to single him out at Canberra due to Eidolon being jealous that other people respected the Unknown Parahuman so much.
- Slow and Steady Wins the Race: When they race, Sophia beats Greg for the first several races but around the seventh or so will start losing every one due to the differences in their training. Sophia, as a track star, trained predominantly for raw speed while Greg trained to run as long as possible.
- So Proud of You: Greg's father (finally) lets his son know he's proud of him when he learns a part of how Greg is helping others.
- Trading Bars for Stripes: A variation. Villains who have been arrested are sometimes offered the opportunity to fight an Endbringer instead of going to prison. Gorilla Green, one such villain, admits afterwards that he feels he should have done his ten to fifteen year sentence instead.
- Tranquil Fury: After spending hours shifting through rubble to reach a faulty Endbringer shelter then fix it's broken ventilation systems, the Unknown Parahuman calmly remarks to Armsmaster that he knows it would be wrong to murder those responsible for the shoddy design, but he's struggling to come up with a reason why.
- Violently Protective Girlfriend: When Greg's father threatens him, Sophia grabs a butcher's knife with the full intent of murdering him should he lay a hand on Greg. When the man learns, he's proud of his son for landing such a good woman.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Greg's father is a firefighter, and claims to be a strong believer in tough love. His mother works at the hospital at night which means he only occasionally sees her when their schedules intersect. Greg is overjoyed when they express approval of his decision to take EMT and firefighter training.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Sarah calls out Carol, first over the phone then later with her fists, over her abuse of Amy. Most notably, Carol basically forces Amy to attend Endbringer fights and clean-up operations of Slaughterhouse Nine rampages then tells the teen to "get over it" when she's traumatized by the events.
- X-Ray Vision: Greg's only recorded power is his goggles, which he found in a junk yard and repaired the power supply on, that lets him see through things, an ability which becomes incredibly useful when attempting to locate survivors.
- You Need to Get Laid: Mistakenly concluded in retrospect by the PRT about Shadow Stalker when she becomes noticeably less antagonistic roughly around the same time she gets a boyfriend and starts taking birth control, at least after investigating to make sure there isn't a more sinister explanation like her being Mastered. In actuality, she and Greg hadn't gotten past cuddling yet, and Sophia's improved attitude is due to Greg being a more general positive influence rather than "regular stress relief sessions."
