Worm

Worm is a Web Serial Novel centered around Taylor, a teenager with a superpower that lets her control bugs.

Bullying features as a major element in the plot and character development. Taylor suffers physical, emotional and social attacks at the hands of a Girl Posse in her school. To escape from all this, she holds on to a dream of becoming a superhero. Things don't quite go as she hoped.

Taylor quickly gets swept up in the chaos and complexities of the 'cape' community of Brockton Bay, a coastal city in the Northeastern United States. Cape politics, factions, rivalries, information warfare and the individual problems of the people beneath the costumes put even the heroes in something of a gray area. Taylor's actions in the midst of this leave her in a situation where she's forced to make some hard choices, facing the reality of having to do the wrong things for the right reasons.

Worm launched in the summer of 2011 and has since updated regularly with installments released on Tuesdays and Saturdays. The story has earned much praise, with reviewers and readers citing creativity of individual powers, flow of writing, detail and action scenes as selling points of the work.


 * A-Cup Angst: Taylor's not happy with her lack of boobs, curves or any real femininity.
 * A Day in the Limelight: Interludes are placed between story arcs, each a chapter centering around another individual or group, offering events or exposition from their perspective.
 * Adults Are Useless: Played straight with Mr Gladly and Taylor's head teacher. It's played with in regards to the other adult characters.
 * Aerith and Bob: Rachel's dogs are named Brutus, Judas, and Angelica.
 * Agony Beam: Bakuda using a grenade that has this effect.
 * All There in the Manual: The cast page describes the powers of several characters who haven't been seen much in the story.
 * Alpha Bitch: Emma.
 * And I Must Scream:
 * Anyone Can Die: And how!
 * Ax Crazy: Bakuda, who Tattletale surmises as suffering from multiple psychiatric issues, and seems to really enjoy hurting others.
 * Badass Normal: Coil's mercenaries, who fight alongside and against superheros and supervillains with only training and (relatively mundane) technilogy.
 * Becoming the Mask:
 * Bungling Inventor: Leet. His power lets him create inventions decades ahead of their time, but the closer a project is to something he's made before, the higher the chances of a spectacular misfire or failure. He's something of a joke as a consequence.
 * Can't Have Sex Ever: Newter's bodily fluids are contact hallucinogens, to the point that even trace sweat on his skin can render someone incoherent. As one reader points out, this poses certain difficulties in the bedroom.
 * Compelling Voice: Canary's singing ability, although it didn't do her much good.
 * Conflicting Loyalty: Taylor struggles to make a call between friendship and doing what's right.
 * Dark and Troubled Past: Just about everyone with powers in the setting. There's a reason for this, however..
 * Deflector Shields: Dauntless, Lady Photon, Laserdream, the aptly named Shielder.
 * Empty Shell: Labyrinth. Her Reality Warper powers came with the unfortunate side effect of making veer unpredictably between lucidity and this, to the point that on bad days, she doesn't eat unless prodded and doesn't talk. She has her good days, but the strength of her power is directly related to how out of it she is at the time.
 * Energy Absorption: Assault absorbs kinetic energy.
 * Evil Versus Oblivion: When the Endbringers attack the heroes and villains call a truce to fight against them.
 * Eye Scream:
 * Flying Brick: Aegis and Glory Girl.
 * Fountain of Youth: Panacea is mentioned to have the ability to de-age someone twenty years with her healing abilities.
 * Gadgeteer Genius: People with the "Tinker" class of superpower, such as Armsmaster, Leet, Bakuda and Dragon, though some are more competent than others.
 * Good Is Not Nice: Very few of the good guys showcased thus far have actually been genuinely good people.
 * Grappling Hook Pistol: Armsmaster has one in his trademark weapon.
 * Gravity Sucks: Bakuda fires off a grenade that creates a miniature black hole.
 * Hard Light: Dauntless and Purity.
 * Heart Is an Awesome Power: Although Taylor's power doesn't sound too impressive compared to most major capes, she keeps coming up with creative ways to apply her abilities, and by doing so has taken down opponents more powerful than herself.
 * Hulking Out: Lung. As long as he fights, he gradually transforms, gaining scales, enhanced strength, healing and enhanced proficiency with his pyrokinesis, to no known limit.
 * Identity Amnesia: One interlude touches on a whole subgroup of people with powers that have no memory of their pasts.
 * Kick the Dog: Bakuda does this twice in short succession.
 * Love Potion: Heartbreaker has the ability to control and manipulate emotions, which includes making people fall in love. He's used this to form a harem of beautiful women that commit crimes for him and wait on him hand and foot.
 * Lovecraftian Superpower: Night, the effect Rachel has on her dogs counts as this as well.
 * Mad Bomber: Bakuda.
 * Mugging the Monster: The trio of bullies would probably reconsider what they're doing if they knew about Taylor's powers.
 * My God, What Have I Done?: Taylor is haunted by guilt and nightmares for what she has done as Skitter.
 * Mysterious Employer: The Undersiders get funding and missions from one.
 * Not Good with People: Rachel connects more with dogs than people.
 * Overshadowed by Awesome: Armsmaster resents Dauntless because of this. Dauntless is getting steadily stronger every day, due to how his power works, and is expected to become one of the top dogs at some point in the future. Meanwhile, Armsmaster is a Gadgeteer Genius that has to stay up nights to update his gear and train, getting less results for more work.
 * Perception Filter: Imp's power seems to work this way, to the point of making people forget she was ever there in the first place.
 * Perpetual Smiler: Lisa/Tattletale.
 * Puberty Superpower: Most appear to get their powers in their teenage years.
 * The Bullies: Emma, Sophia and Madison.
 * The Fettered: Taylor refuses to use her powers to get back at her bullies. This holds to the extent that she won't even use her powers when it is pointed out she could do it without getting caught, nor does she give her bullies lice or crabs when she could use this to humiliate them and track their movements to avoid them. She justifies this in saying she's worried about it being slippery slope and that she doesn't trust herself not to go one step further, but her friends don't buy it. Given who her friends are, though...
 * The Infiltration:.
 * The Omniscient: Lisa/Tattletale's power, generally speaking. It's not perfect or all-encompassing, leading to occasional cases where she's Not So Omniscient After All.
 * The Reveal: A particularly big one comes at the end of Chapter 8.6:
 * The Worm That Walks: Taylor makes herself look like this by surrounding herself with insects when she is caught in a fight without her costume on. This not only disguises her but also intimidates her opponents with a giant, creepy-looking humanoid insect swarm.
 * Took a Level in Badass: Taylor does this over the course of the story.
 * Utility Belt: Taylor's utility compartment. She stashes necessary items and weapons in the armor panel that covers her back.