6 stories
Enigma
Michael Smith lives a meaningless life of routine and boredom. But when Enigma, his favorite childhood comic book hero, inexplicably comes to life, Smith finds himself on an obsessive crusade to uncover the secret behind his improbable existence. Teaming with Enigma's comic creator, Smith encounters an insanity-inducing psychopath, a brain-eating serial killer, and a suicide-inciting clown posse as his quest uncovers hidden truths about both his idol and himself.
Twig
The year is 1921, and a little over a century has passed since a great mind unraveled the underpinnings of life itself. Every week, it seems, the papers announce great advances, solving the riddle of immortality, successfully reviving the dead, the cloning of living beings, or blending of two animals into one. For those on the ground, every week brings new mutterings of work taken by ‘stitched’ men of patchwork flesh that do not need to sleep, or more fearful glances as they have to step off the sidewalks to make room for great laboratory-grown beasts. Often felt but rarely voiced is the notion that events are already spiraling out of the control of the academies that teach these things. It is only this generation, they say, that the youth and children are able to take the mad changes in stride, accepting it all as a part of day to day life. Of those children, a small group of strange youths from the Lambsbridge Orphanage stand out, taking a more direct hand in events.
Claw
Joshua Munce, Sheila Hardy, Dan Whitely, Max Highland, Tonya Keifer, Marvin Su… this pair has many names, but those names aren’t their own; they’re names to sell. In a rigged and crumbling system, the only way to get ahead is to circumvent the rules, but that comes with its own risks. Police, investigations, prison. There are other ways, more insulated, which are to play assist to help those people. Helping them to disappear, cleaning up messes, escrow services for the handling of good, payment, or guests. Always keeping it professional, keeping things insulated, with layers of distance. When others panic, with too many variables to consider in the heat of the moment, they can do the thinking. Who would suspect this mom and dad with two kids?
Pale
Power, knowledge, and promises. Who could say no? After all, Others and those inducted into Other ways cannot lie, and they say it’s okay. Why would anyone say no? Perhaps because of the drawback; that nothing comes for free, and this power, this knowledge, and these promises come with an expectation. “Something terrible happened, of a scale that words cannot easily convey. We need you to look into it. No need to solve it. Simply… look into it.” A modern supernatural web serial by Wildbow
Ward
This is a sequel, the events following that of the web serial Worm. The unwritten rules that govern the fights and outright wars between ‘capes’ have been amended: everyone gets their second chance. It’s an uneasy thing to come to terms with when notorious supervillains and even monsters are playing at being hero.
Pact
Blake Thorburn was driven away from home and family by a vicious fight over inheritance, returning only for a deathbed visit with the grandmother who set it in motion. Blake soon finds himself next in line to inherit the property, a trove of dark supernatural knowledge, and the many enemies his grandmother left behind her in the small town of Jacob’s Bell.
