Skittering Campione
is a Worm and Campione! crossover where Taylor killing Scion results in her becoming a Campione.
Taylor Hebert has been known by many titles during the course of her young life: Daughter, friend, victim, villain, warlord, hero, monster, savior… But now, awakening in a whole new world after defeating Scion, she will have to bear a new unexpected title: Campione.
Tropes:
- Absence of Evidence: The Council of the Sands comes to the conclusion that, since it shouldn't be possible for a normal person to become an Un-person to the degree that not even they can find out anything at all about her, that Taylor has criminal ties and has somehow managed to erase all record of her existence. They're wrong, but it is a logical conclusion based off of what they know.
- An Ice Person: Taylor uses an ice Blaster power during the fight with Leviathan.
- Barrier Warrior: Anit is highly skilled with wards.
- Benevolent Boss: Anit notes that she could have chosen worse for a master than Taylor after getting to know her better.
- Blood Knight: The Shards of Infinity Authority seems to, as Taylor lampshades, represent this aspect of Scion. In combat scenarios, or when Taylor is preparing for a future conflict, it's cooperative, almost eager, but it tends to drag its feet otherwise, giving her powers even she finds dubiously useful, like a Thinker power that lets her know the elemental composition of anything, down to the molecular level, at a glance, or giving her combat powers when she's trying to get a power that can analyze her half-made Tinker-Tech supercomputer and find out why it is working when it shouldn't, only for it to jump to a useful one almost instantly when she starts thinking about future conflicts.
- Boring, but Practical: Taylor’s strategy for dealing with supposedly unblockable One-Hit KO powers? Simply don’t get hit in the first place. Eternity’s Sight certainly helps in that regard, what with how it allows her to sense everything around her.
- Cassandra Truth: Anit is skeptical when Taylor tells her stuff from her past, like that she was a warlord in control of her hometown, and that the first god she killed was a parasitic, multi-dimensional, space whale.
- Combo Platter Powers: Taylor, like all Campione that live long enough to slay multiple gods.
- Cosmic Plaything: When Taylor goes to fight the Campione-verse Leviathan, she lampshades her status as this.
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Taylor, having fully expected to die in the process of beating Scion, is a little unsure of what to do now that she's a Campione.
- Discard and Draw: Taylor loses her parahuman ability, but gains the powers of a Campione.
- Entertainingly Wrong:
- Due to a lack of knowledge of Taylor's origins and her Authorities, the magic organizations of the Campione Earth (specifically the Egyptian Council of the Sands) come to believe that she's a criminal who's had any records of her origins erased to the point that they cannot find them, has Seer powers that she might not be aware of (due to her getting info from Pandora), and have come to conclusions about her powers that even some of them have trouble really believing despite it being the logical result(s) based on the available evidence, like her fighting a golden ice god in the Sahara.
- Various groups have been coming up with guesses as to Taylor's origins based on her non-Campione skills and various comments she makes. The leading theories are crime lord and ex-CIA black-ops assassin. Once Lisa arrives on the Campione version of Earth, she deliberately throws fuel onto the fire by spreading misinformation for giggles.
- Anit herself, disbelieving Taylor's brief explanation of Scion, believes that Taylor's first god was a god of creation of some kind, due to all the effects Shards of Infinity can produce. She later wonders if it was the God of the Bible.
- Evil Laugh: Taylor lets one out when Anit tells her that magic can be considered a skill... right after she's found a power that, in a manner similar to Uber's, allows her to learn and retain skills really fast. Anit later freely admits that she was more than a bit unnerved by it.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Taylor when using a Tinker power.
- Genius Ditz: Doni, as usual.
- The Glomp: Taylor nearly knocks Lisa down to the ground when she finds out she's in Egypt.
- Hired to Hunt Yourself: In a now canon omake, Agent Skitter is assigned to gather intelligence on the sheer number of odd situations happening in Egypt. Agent Skitter is, of course, the identity Taylor made for herself in order to get that Government stipend.
- Hollywood Hacking: Taylor, when combining temporary hacking powers with her Tinker-Tech supercomputer, is able to hack easily enough to create a flawless fake background for herself, even being able to slip inside of the Pentagon's systems and give herself a government payroll with ease (which accidentally gets her assigned a mission in one omake, which is later declared canon due to a reader poll).
- Lisa, already a good hacker, becomes even better as a result of not having to deal with the Master/Stranger and anti-Thinker defenses put into practically everything important on Bet.
- Incredibly Obvious Tail: Taylor has been aware of the Council tailing her and Anit, noting them with ease, and even Anit notices when Taylor points out one who is panicking because Doni is in town.
- Instant Expert: Downplayed, but as stated above under Evil Laugh, Taylor finds a way to use her Shards authority to allow her to learn magic incredibly fast and even helps Anit improve, along with other skills, though she currently has to practice to retain the boost.
- It Gets Easier: Anit asks Andrea if dealing with Campione gets easier. He replies that it doesn’t, but you get used to it.
- Legacy Character: Agent Skitter despite only being two to three weeks old tops. Taylor made it so that she would get funding from the Government, and felt that she was owed some government money after all she did back on Bet. When the US Government decides to activate Agent Skitter in response to all the events that happened in Egypt, Taylor has Lisa take over.
- The Minion Master: Taylor acquires an Authority from Khepri that allows her to create and control sand constructs. After defeating Leviathan she gains the power to summon a sea serpent shaped construct made of water.
- Mythology Gag: The first Heretic God that Taylor fights? Khepri. The Second? Leviathan in a port City. Taylor even says that the Universe is doing this on purpose.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Taylor is interrupted in the process of Thinker power enhanced research by Zaliki, who has brought Anit and a trained assassin to his unannounced meeting with her. He had hoped to use Anit's presence as a bridge, while presenting his stooge to her service, but a poorly timed dramatic pause allowed her to choose Anit for her service, allowing her to both avoid having to deal with the assassin and keeping Anit from being punished for defying orders and helping her.
- Another case is where Taylor grabs one of the tails the Council send after her and all but screams at him to get the city evacuated when Leviathan comes.
- Noodle Incident: Apparently at one point Taylor managed to burn down a warehouse practicing a new trick with her swarm, and even Lisa was stumped by how she did it. All she could figure out with her powers that Taylor had somehow gotten a hold of some thermite, ultimately deciding that she didn't want to know more.
- Oh, Crap!: The Council's reaction to Doni showing up.
- Omniglot: Taylor, as common for Campione.
- The Omniscient: Taylor's Eternity's Sight Authority from Scion draws inspiration from her old swarm sense, allowing her total understanding of everything going on around her in an eight block radius, making her effectively omniscient within that spherical zone when it's active (also effectively making everything around her "line of sight" for powers that are limited by that, like Oni Lee's teleportation power). Unfortunately, the longer it's on and the more information she absorbs, the worse the migraine she gets as a result is.
- It even helps her gain information on Authorities her foes use.
- Only Sane Woman: When Anit tells her about the other seven Campione, Taylor comes to the horrifying conclusion that she's the normal one among them.
- Lord Harakty is perhaps the only Council mage that doesn't apply Underestimating Badassery to Taylor.
- Outside-Context Problem: Not only did Taylor pop up out of nowhere, with any information regarding her past speculation at best, but no one is even sure what god she originally killed to make her the Eight Campione in the first place. Part of the reason she's believed to be a Seer is how her sudden entrance into the Campione-verse sent existing Seers into a tizzy from the disruption to their visions. Even if she wasn't a Campione (notoriously hard to predict for Seers) and getting info from Pandora, her sudden entrance into the world has sent even Alice for a complete loop.
- Physical God: Scion is powerful enough that despite not technically being a Heretic God, Taylor's role in slaying him is enough to justify Pandora making her a Campione anyways. Taylor even lampshades that she can now remove the "like" from her mental image of Scion as "god-like".
- Quantity vs. Quality: The Shards of Infinity Authority gives powers based on the Worm classifications, with the duration shortening the greater the power level is.
- Seers: Thanks to Pandora directing her to two Heretic Gods in a row, the Council of the Sands think that Taylor has Seer blood.
- Simplified Spellcasting: Discussed by Taylor and Doni, it takes more willpower and energy, requires some practice to do properly, and may result in the effect being a bit less powerful, but you can use an Authority without needing the full incantation.
- Super-Empowering: Taylor can use her Shards of Infinity Authority to empower others instead of herself. Anit is amazed by how strong even a relatively weak power is.
- Super Mode: Taylor's Golden Hero Authority essentially turns her into a female version of Scion's Avatar with Super-Strength, Super-Toughness, and the ability to control her density.
- Swiss-Army Superpower: Taylor's Shards of Infinity Authority allows her to pick a power category and intensity for an available "shard" and apply it to herself or someone else. Evidence suggests it works better during combat scenarios.
- Anit actually lampshades this after noting all the various powers Taylor has used with the same incantation, and theorizes that her first god was a creation god of some kind.
- Suicide Mission: Anit Khalfani and some other mages were essentially sent on one of these when they were ordered to keep civilians away from where Khepri was manifesting while the Council desperately tries to find a solution, no one expecting them to delay him for long. Lucky for them, Taylor showed up.
- Teleporters and Transporters: One of the shards Taylor uses in the Leviathan Battle gives her a teleportation/duplication power much like Oni Lee's power. It's limited by line of sight, but when combined with Eternity's Sight making Taylor The Omniscient within eight blocks of herself...
- Too Dumb to Live: Zaliki, especially with his plans to manipulate Taylor despite trying to do that kind of thing to a Campione being considered equivalent to suicide. Lord Harekty considers him a suicidal fool, and even his loyal assassin can't help but have doubts after seeing Taylor and Doni's duel, and the damage done to the battlefield afterward, despite it just being a spar.
- Underestimating Badassery: Due to Taylor's lack of experience with the magical world, a power hungry member of the Council of the Sands, one Zaliki, believes that he can manipulate her and thus gain the patronage of a Campione. To say he's out of his league would be an understatement.
- Lord Harakty, leader of the Council (who notes Zaliki as a suicidal fool) notes that even the other Council members forget that, if their theory of her being a criminal who made herself an Un-person is true, then she would have had to become involved in the criminal underworld at a fairly young age (given that she is apparently only nineteen) and survived in a career that would require great skill, cunning and resourcefulness to make it that far, and that her lack of magical knowledge (that she is doing her best to correct) does not mean that she's a fool.
- Un-person: It's believed by the magical groups that Taylor, of whom they can find no records whatsoever, is a criminal that has had any record of her past completely erased to the point that not even they can find any information on them.
- Villain Team-Up: Zaliki is eventually approached by a Heretic God, later confirmed to be Anansi, to ally against Taylor.
