A Bug in the Game
Worm + Gamer OC
A companion story to Co-Op Mode (11552343)

So what do I mean by companion story?

I originally signed up to be a beta for Co-Op Mode. When Faria Lyton asked me to write a Taylor interlude, I was glad to do so. From there I started writing additional interludes from Taylor's perspective. Initially I intended them as a temporary thing, but after some discussion with FL, I've decided to continue them going forward. While I'll still be giving input to FL, I'll be following his plot. James is still the protagonist of Co-Op Mode. Taylor will be the protagonist for A Bug in the Game. These stories will be substantially the same except for a variation in the order the chapters are presented. For the first two arcs there is a large amount of overlap in the content with the same events just being seen from two different points of view. Since I agreed to make my role more permanent, we've also decided that we will try to separate our separate segments more, leaping frogging through the story with first one story, then the other advancing the storyline. Hopefully that will work out.

Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction and is not for profit. Worm belongs to Wildbow. The Gamer belongs to Sung San-Young. Faria Lyton's work is used with permission and will be credited when used. Cover art of Lady Bug is property of Necoc Yaotl and used with permission. Large kudos to Faria Lyton for originating Co-Op Mode, for being willing to share it with me, and for continuing to drive the plot. Thanks to Necoc Yaotl for her awesome art skills.

Noob 1.1

Seventh period art, class and the school day ended in fifteen minutes. My first day back after my extended absence had been relatively quiet. Just whispers and comments about being crazy and locked up. Those just seemed to be normal school rumors. Emma, Sophia, and Madison, my terrible trio of tormentors, had remained quiet. However, that fit their pattern. After every escalation in their attacks, they backed off for a while. I was cautiously optimistic that there wasn't an ambush planned on my way out. Fortunately, I was prepared. I already had my books from my locker. I'd just duck out a side door and I was done for the day.

Despite missing a few weeks I was already caught up in art, so I had a little bit of free time. I turned to my notebook to resume working on a good cape name. I had brainstormed quite a few, but it was surprisingly difficult to come up with a bug name that didn't suck or make me sound like a villain: Creep, Creeper, Creepie-Crawlie, Swarm – all villainous; Ladybug – too cute; Firefly, Lightningbug – implied powers that I didn't have; Wasp, Spidergirl, Yellowjacket, Mantis – all Earth aleph fictional superheroes, not bad, but species specific; Queen Bee – not really, it reminded me of Emma; Queenie – sounds like a puppy; Bug Girl – juvenile; Buzz – the sound insects make, sounded male; Skitter – how insects move, vaguely villainous but possible; Insecta – no, just no; Phalanx, Armada – referring to commanding an army of bugs, maybe, but I bet they're taken. I needed something that sounded truly heroic. People don't like bugs in general, and swarms of bugs looked scary. I needed something to offset that.

I frowned at my extensive list of rejects. None of these really worked… my eyes landed on ladybug. From a fluke of my writing there was a bit of a gap between the y and the b. Hmm, what about two words, Lady Bug. That just might work. Lady Bug, I tried it on for size. Lady had good connotations, not just a woman or a girl, the female equivalent to a knight. It just sounded heroic. It wasn't by chance that a lot of superheroines were named lady something. Lady Photon was a Brockton Bay example. It also sounded mature which was a bonus. Taken together they became ladybug, which also worked. Ladybugs were cute and non-threatening. Even little girls who would run screaming from something as harmless as a grasshopper liked ladybugs. It took the scary out of my powers. Separate it out as Lady Bug, I could play to a regal theme, queen of the swarm. I would be using swarms of bugs to attack, and that was scary no way around it, but I'd be a female knight passing judgment on evildoers. I could use ladybugs and butterflies for public appearances such as talking to the press and the stay-off-drugs talks at schools. At night I could switch to moths and fireflies. Only bring out the bad bugs for combat. Yes, it could work. Lady Bug wasn't a villain. She wasn't cute. She was a kick-ass hero.

Costume! I needed to scrap all my ideas and start afresh. No way in hell I was going with a big round armored suit that was red with black dots. I needed something regal. Would a crown be too pretentious? Or would it have bad connotations reminding people that I was a master? Hmm, I could try some sketches both ways. I could play up on the lady/knight with my armor. Perhaps some kind of plate that crossed insect armor and knight armor? I've seen that before in fantasy sketches, very faerie, very cool. It could be done, but it would have to be silk based and just look metal. I wasn't a brute. Real plate mail would wear me down, but I'd already been playing with the idea of using chitin to reinforce my silk.

The rough sketch I'd made didn't look anything like what I wanted. I was half-decent at art, but I wasn't skilled enough to pull off quick sketches. It took me a lot of redrawing to get something half-way decent. So, was I really up to building my own costume? My spiders didn't make that much silk. It might take me weeks or even months. If I wanted to be Lady Bug, then I had to look regal. I was pretty sure I could pull off a dark black silk suit with bug eyes, armor plates and maybe some mandibles, but maybe I should involve a professional. Fortunately there was professional fashion designer in Brockton Bay, Parian.

That rough idea quickly blossomed into a plan. I could trade spider silk cloth and thread for her expert help in costume design. It turned out to be surprisingly easy to track down Parian. She was openly registered as a rogue. Brockton Bay University flaunted that she was enrolled in their fashion design program. While they kept her civilian id secret, they posted pictures of her studio and gave out contact information. Even though she was still a student, she already did costume work. There was no catalog of prices. Apparently each Parian design was a one-of-a-kind original. She also had a few testimonials from capes and other celebrities. Based on her own costume, a well-done Victorian era doll look, she did good work.

Getting together enough silk to offer in trade turned out to be much harder. I could locate spiders easily enough, but I had to individually learn to identify each species and there were only a few species that I was interested in as silk producers: black widows and golden orb spiders. Darwin's bark spiders would be better than either of them. However, they were also native to Madagascar so unless I turned villain and broke into a zoo they would have to wait.

My original plan was to go with black widow silk. Dragline black widow silk is unusually elastic, even better than kevlar. That made it perfect for absorbing impact damage: knives, fists, blunt objects and hopefully bullets. Golden orb spiderweb didn't have that same elasticity, but had an even higher tensile strength. That made it better for nets, snares and cocoons. I wasn't initially going to bother with golden orb spiders, but they earned their name because of the color of their webs, not the color of the spiders themselves. Now that my costume plans for Lady Bug called for being a knight in shiny armor, gold tinted silk armor would work with my theme better.

It wasn't easy finding golden orb spiders. They were more commonly found south of Brockton Bay, but diligent searching during my morning runs had turned up a few. They proved to be easier to work with than black widows. Black widows are very territorial. While I could easily override that with my powers, if I left them too close together and went out of range my widows would eat each other. Golden orb spiders were more willing to coexist with each other. After weeks of working collecting, breeding, and managing my spiders I was finally able to get my silk production up to where I could actually make a deal with Parian and be able to follow-through instead of offering her samples and promises.

I had already set up an account for my new identity on PHO. Lady_Bug had been available to my great surprise and I'd pounced on it. Under my Lady_Bug alias I dropped an email to Parian about being a new cape whose powers included the ability to make spider silk cloth. I then gave her some details about the properties and some links to verify. I asked for her help in designing a costume and offered to pay in spider silk. She was understandably cautious, but a few emails back and forth and we had a meet set up.

Parian chose the location and time: BBU on a Saturday night. The academic buildings lock up on the weekends, but she apparently had a key and promised to meet me in one of the fashion design labs. That worked for me. While I hadn't been a frequent visitor to BBU, I'd been there more than once with my mother. I showed up hours early and used that time to do some research on potentially useful insect species in the undergraduate library which was open twenty-four seven and within range of the art building. I was reading up on bullet ants when my bugs alerted me to a woman unlocking and entering the art building and moving to our appointed meeting room. I returned the books that I couldn't check out and went to meet her.

My costume was really lacking. Lady Bug was a lady, so I'd borrowed some of my mom's old professional clothes that dad had never thrown out. Mom had favored pastels but I found a neutral tan suit with matching skirt that suited my needs better. I even wore her heels. They were a little large on me, but I was able to pin them in place. Nothing about my outfit screamed cape until I added the hat that I'd purchased from a thrift store and customized it by attaching a golden silk veil to hang down and hide my face. I wasn't entirely happy with the look, but the whole point of this meeting was to design my costume so it really wasn't worth putting too much effort into my temporary look. I wasn't going to impress a fashion designer with my dress sense anyway. I had my own plan for making a memorable meeting.

Ladybugs had proved to be much easier than spiders to maintain. I literally had pounds of ladybugs in my basement now. Every day I'd skim off the older ones that had already mated and laid eggs and feed the old ones to my spiders. I'd dropped off a coffee can full of ladybugs to infiltrate the art building earlier and now I sent a portion of them in to distract Parian. I had them spell out my name, Lady Bug in swirling letters while others made simulated flowers and firework explosions. While they kept Parian's attention I quietly entered. "Hello Parian. I'm Lady Bug as you may have guessed. Thanks for agreeing to meet with me."

Parian spun around and laughed. "Really, I never would have guessed. It's a pleasure to meet you. Such an interesting power. Now, let's talk." She gave a wave to the corner of the room where a gigantic gorilla plushy, easily twice the size of a real gorilla, moved from alert to a sitting position.

How had I missed an 800-pound gorilla? I suppose it was because I'd had my bugs looking for people. In a room full of cloth sample a plush animal, even a huge one, did not stand out to bug senses. That was something I'd have to work on. I found it a little ominous that Parian had wanted to have such a creation close-by, but that was a little hypocritical of me considering that I had my own swarm ready to defend me. I had my ladybugs settle down and took a seat that Parian had obviously set aside for me. "So what did you think of the sketches that I sent you?"

"They were quite good at getting your core concept across. I have some sketches to show you, but before I go into those, do you have the samples?"

"Of course." To be flashy I had lady bug squadrons airlift a couple of square yards of each silk cloth as well as both threads over to her. At least I tried to do so.

Parian must have exercised her power because the cloth and threads were suddenly yanked, pulled and stretched. "Ah, I see what you mean about tensile strength and flexibility. I've got the equipment to test it later, but just pulling on it with my power I can feel how tough the fabric is for something so thin. Yes, we can certainly work some kind of deal over this. Also while that black widow silk is tougher, this golden silk is simply gorgeous."

We'd already roughed out a deal by email. She'd help me design a costume and I'd provide her with enough raw silk to make another of her own. Parian was trying to talk me into not doing the hero thing at all and just joining her as a rogue to make specialty costumes. No dollar amounts had been mentioned, and I was certainly considering it, but there was nothing to say that I couldn't do business with Parian and still be a hero.

"Anyway, for now here's the sketches. I know you stressed maneuverability, but I want you to consider a dress. If you want to sell the lady part of Lady Bug, it's the best way to go." She pulled out a tablet and showed me a rough sketch of a dress fit for a queen including a vivid red cloak over it. "You're a master. You shouldn't be doing closer quarters combat anyway."

No, I shouldn't. However, from what I had read the PRT protocol for dealing with masters was get in their face and smack them around. I couldn't count on my enemies not doing the same. "No, I can't fight in that."

"Alright." She swiped the tablet. "Next image. This is the armor without the dress."

The sketch which was mostly what I wanted, armor half-way between a medieval knight and a beetle. "Hmm, I like it, but my breastplate has breasts." Breasts that I certainly couldn't fill. "My hips aren't that wide, and you have me in heels! I'm not wearing heels into combat."

Parian sighed. "Fine, no heels, however you might want to consider a hidden heel of an inch or so in your boots, it will help hide your secret identity. The same goes for the breastplate and hips. If you don't have it, we can pad it. You want full body armor. If you want to sell that as lady anything, you need it to be exaggeratedly female. Besides I'm fairly certain a large chunk of superheroines pad their chests too. You'll be in good company."

While I was flat enough to sometimes be mistaken for a boy, I didn't pad my bras. I knew a lot of girls did, but it just felt wrong. Not to mention that Emma would certainly call me out on it to the whole school if I stuffed my bra. However, this wasn't about covering up my inadequacies. It was about projecting an image, and maybe it would help me be a little harder to identify. "I see your point. However, back to practicality, how do I hide my identity while showing my whole face like that? What happened to the visor on the helmet?"

"That's not your face. That's a mask. People react better to faces. Let me give you an example. Do you remember when Shadow Stalker was independent and wore the hockey mask?"

"Yes, I remember." As part of my getting ready I'd been researching all the capes in Brockton Bay.

"One of the changes that came with joining the Wards is she now has a mask showing a woman's face. Sure, it's a tough girl face, but it's still a face. That's more relatable. I highly recommend the same for you. It also works as a red herring, people will assume it's based on your face."

"Alright. You've sold me on that."

"Now, one more piece. The cape. It's your ladybug influence. You were very clear on not wanting a fat and round costume. This has the ladybug spot pattern and split seam. I was going to suggest tear away fastenings so it can't be used against you in combat, but after seeing that aerial lift you did, could you do this with your bugs?" Under Parian's power the golden silk square lifted up and attached to her back like a cape.

"Sure I could do that…" Suddenly I was filled with possibilities. It wouldn't be difficult at all. Even better my cape would be immediately usable as a net which would be perfect for non-lethal takedowns. I'd been worried about how to do that. I could always have my spiders spin threads on the spot, but carrying a net with me into combat sounded like an even better deal. For that matter… "I said no dress, but could you design me a fly-away skirt? Something that looks like a skirt, but is actually several panels of cloth only attached to my waist by my bugs holding them in place?"

"I could do that. The design is easy. The hard part will be teaching you how to position all the pieces in the right places."

She couldn't see me behind my golden veil, but I was smiling from ear to ear. "Parian, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."