Editing List of Possible Futures (section)

==Possibilities==
What could have happened; counterfactuals. Given the fact that Worm was written serially without a clear end initially in sight, the twists and turns that the story could have taken fascinate readers.

===Apollyonverse Worm===
A hypothetical world based on a What-if: the Warrior and the Thinker encountered the Entity known as [[Apollyon]] instead of [[Abaddon]], and were subsequently consumed by the larger Entity. In this, Apollyon decides to modify the Thinker's plan to induce a faster cycle for Earth, making the involved powers weaker but much more numerous. It makes the [[Superweapon]]s less powerful than the Thinker's "Endbringer Lites", but numbering in the hundreds, and also makes parahuman powers rather minor in strength, being half-as-strong or even weaker than normal, but having four or five times as many of them present. It also does not care for trying to preserve the species to prolong the experiment for maximum data; humans will either kill or be killed in Its cycle.<ref>[https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/15156805 Oneshot Post] by Wildbow, Archived on Spacebattles</ref>

===Valhalla Worm===
A hypothetical world based on a What-if: parahuman powers were arranged to be much weaker initially, but killing a parahuman improves one's own powers, expanding the capability of the power or expanding one's repertoire. None of main cast would be friends in such a world, if they even show up at all.<ref>[https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/15156805 Idea post] by Wildbow, Archived on Spacebattles</ref>

===Taylor joins Wards===
Given Taylor's mindset at the beginning of the story, this was very unlikely to happen, but Armsmaster is one of the few people that wouldn't have just scared Taylor off on meeting her, due to his short and soft approach about the Wards. Miss Militia, while much nicer, would push much harder for the Wards and set-off Taylor's prejudices against authority in response, pushing Taylor away. Assault would have had a decent chance, but he most likely wouldn't be alone, and Taylor can't handle multiple people socially at that point. The official hero teams represent everything she doesn't want - the social structure, the institution, a force so big that it breaks down the walls she's carefully constructed in the compartmentalization of her life and mentality. It might be better for her (i.e. they deal with the bullying), but she has a strong aversion to the idea of joining - it would take a crazy confluence of forces to drive her down that path. In all likelihood she would have come off from the encounter finding the Hero/Villain thing intimidating, redesign her costume(eg. add a Hood), develop battle plans and become more strategic with her fighting, and ultimately taking a 'morally grey hero'/Vigilante role and having Shadow Stalker as a not-really-that-invested mentor.<ref name="TW">[https://redd.it/640tqt Speculation by Wildbow on this What if]</ref>

===The [[Brockton Bay]] [[Elite]]===
The Elite are a West Coast organization and as such have largely stayed there, beyond some minor involvement. An expansion into New York means that they've secured the entire west coast (from Alaska to California) and are now pushing into major Eastern Cape cities including New York and Brockton Bay. Such a major project requires a secured home base and means that the larger organization will have committed resources that they can bring in for a rotating selection of capes when they move into the city, the rotations preventing opponents from forming a proper counterattack.

They will start off with a charm tactic against various Rogues and Independent heroes; Parian, for example, would receive a substantial payment, access to the Elite's networks and everything she'd need for her clothes shop to become stable on the fashion front, with a threat of violence if she doesn't join the Elite in a timely manner. They would even bring in New Wave as a [[Corporate Team]] and for a brief time cause a momentary peace in the city, before they turn their attention to the other villain groups.

[[Empire Eighty-Eight]] would present an obstacle but the Elite are capable of matching or even exceeding their manpower and possess superior strategic resources. Harassing individual E88 members with three of their own, carrying out targeted strikes on key members both in the field and at home and doubling down on any manpower advantage the E88 might try to bring to bear. Even with the E88 bringing in parahuman resources from [[Gesellschaft]] and the [[Herren Clan]], the Elite can bring in more capes as several established Elite bases throughout the West coast can safely strategize and send instructions to the members they will be contributing to such an effort, while the E88 are besieged in their home city and under constant pressure. Finally, as the PRT is already established on the ground with a previous animus to the E88, the Nazis will eventually have to withdraw from the city.<ref name="EB2">I'm imagining matching or exceeding E88 in numbers and beating them in strategy. Member of E88 goes out in costume or undertakes some activity? Elite sends out three to dish out the hurt. E88 sends out five people? Elite move out in force with double their number, a surprise attack, and the right capes to counter one or two key powers.<br><br>If E88 draws in tight & only moves out with their full numbers, they lose ground as they can't cover every approach. If they don't, they lose a war of attrition.<br><br>So what unfolds is that E88 probably taps the clans - the organization of families and groups that Othala and Victor were drawn from. They tap Gesellschaft, and borrow a few top-of-the-line capes, and they put up a good fight. It makes for a tough nut to crack, but the sheer resources at their disposal (the sheer number of bodies with a given cape potentially providing an answer to a given problem), the fact that this move out to the east coast is an initiative that Elite teams all across the western coast are contributing to, and the fact that they can't touch the Elite at home (it means they're fighting the PRT aboveground and the Elite belowground) while the Elite can most definitely hit them at home? It's a battle they eventually have to concede - likely with E88 backing off, ceding Brockton Bay & going elsewhere to regroup. - [https://www.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/5h4rzv/_/daxlqql Speculation by Wildbow on this What if, cont.]</ref>

The Elite will have brought its most dangerous members to the fore during this action against the E88 and other villains, like [[Bastard Son]] and others, before swapping them out with more stable Elite elements. Though the end result is the Elite as a stable villain faction, nominally set against the PRT as the stable hero group of Brockton Bay. All other factions, hero and villain, will have been pushed out, murdered or assimilated. While the larger [[PRT]] considers such a situation undesirable, they accept that Rogues will be inducted into the Elite as the cost of the stability, though the final decision of how the local PRT acts would be up to individual Directors.<ref name="EB1"> - [https://www.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/5h4rzv/_/daxgr0n Speculation by Wildbow on this What if]</ref>

===Leviathan attacks Florida===
If Leviathan attacks an alternate location, the dominos fall differently. The Brockton Bay Heroes (barring Velocity) go to aid in the fight. Chances are still notable that Battery, Assault, and Triumph die in the attack. Only a few Wards, specifically Aegis, Vista and Kid Win might possibly decide to attend, and if they do they have rather high chances of surviving. Armsmaster tries to prove himself with his combat engine, but the lack of data for local villain populations prevents him from setting them up to die against Leviathan. He decides to wait until things look grim and the combatant numbers thin before making an explicit request to fight Leviathan one-on-one. He holds his own and allows the others to regroup, and people back-up Armsmaster against Leviathan after the Endbringer K.Os the hero. Afterwards he gets a major amount of the credit in defeating the Endbringer, akin to Eidolon's victory against the Simurgh in Madison. Proving his worth as a leader and a member of the core Protectorate lineup, he does not lose his position as head of the Brockton Bay Protectorate like in the canon timeline. Dauntless, should he survive, gets his own team in a smaller city with a new department, a rising star in a growing department: the city in question would likely be St. Louis, Lexington, Pittsburgh, Stockton, or Anchorage.

Armsmaster asks for more cape heroes after the loss of Assault, Battery, and/or Triumph, and in light of the growing conflict from the Empire Eighty-Eight and ABB. The new capes would be free-floating ones in the vicinity, and likely to include [[Dovetail]], [[Adamant]] and [[Sere]]. New Wave, having joined the battle against Leviathan and suffered losses(does not matter who, besides Panacea and Glory Girl), might decide to move out of Brockton Bay in pursuit of new chances, possibilities, and public interest. They become a corporate team working with the Elite, but this and the loss of her family members puts greater pressure on Panacea. Exacerbated by the fact that there's less parental attention, she reaches her tipping point much sooner. If Brandish/Flashbang die, Lady Photon becomes leader of New Wave, and with Panacea as a new rising star inadvertently dragging her family along, she questions whether Brandish was right about the problems Panacea poses. Panacea is likely to join the Elite, due to being similar to Marquis and through them she can remember her dad.

Glory Girl, being impulsive, desiring to prove herself as a true heroine, and being in an Endbringer city with new people watching her performance, has a 50-50 chance of dying. Whether she lives or not dictates how Panacea goes. Panacea may revive a dead Glory Girl, either legit revival or create a parasite/internal puppet that lives under the skin and gets the heart pumping and the brain operating, creating a Panacea-dependent life sustaining system. Either way, she has to undo brain damage or create a facsimile of life. This becomes another force that pushes for success in their new situation, pulling Panacea up and away from normalcy and family. Gallant is a saving grace in this case, and may possibly join New Wave but is very unlikely. He becomes a remote figure offering guidance, trying to steer things away from the bad, and if Glory Girl and Panacea join the Elite he might offer advice and tip them off as to what the Elite is. Unfortunately, he would not be able to be there for Panacea's descent to darkness.

Most of the Undersiders do not participate in the Endbringer fight, though Tattletale aids as part of a fact-finding mission. Joining a team of Thinkers, she is able to provide some inklings on Endbringer makeup, which subtly alters the response and the offense against Endbringers in subsequent months and years, and may cause Tattletale to be targeted by the Simurgh, both more aggressively and much sooner than she did in New Dehli in canon. Tattletale has very, very poor chances of making it to Gold Morning. The remaining Undersiders continue under Coil's employ against Armsmaster's Protectorate, though the group takes on Trainwreck(who becomes an uneasy acquaintance of Rachel) and hired mercenaries from Boston and New York. Coil has the Undersiders target smaller settlements and cities around Brockton Bay while keeping the Travelers as his heavy hitters in the city itself. He goes for broke hiring mercenaries and has Über and Leet hold part of the city. The Undersiders become more distant and less 'together' being in the cities around Brockton, everyone acts in pairs or alone, but can still force the (stronger) PRT ENE to send members out and respond, which loosens the PRT's hold on the city.

The Slaughterhouse Nine arrive in the area, causing difficult isolated conflicts that become a crisis and further strains the PRT. Coil, through Dinah, leaks info on Jack Slash ending the world in order to increase the strain further. Dinah remains under Coil's control through threats and Master influence from hired mercenaries, but joins the Wards alongside Chariot under the pretext of wanting to stop the end of the world. Coil targets Gallant's family's business to distract Gallant, which adds to the pressure from Gallant's peripheral focus on New Wave, then kills the boy if Gallant doesn't respond to prompts to go elsewhere. Leaks provided by Kid Win and Skitter make Piggot aware of the moles and suspicious of Dinah, respectively, but struggles to actually leverage this. Her focus is divided between Brockton Bay and all of the neighboring territories facing coordinated attacks, her plate is full, and Armsmaster isn't cooperating.

Coil outs the E88 and causes them to inevitably split into "clans", with the Empire not having a foothold in the city due to Coil consistently winning engagements, the Travelers hitting them hard, and the PRT maintaing a strong initial presence. Kaiser leaves for Boston and allies with Accord, which in an indirect way gives Coil influence over Kaiser through his ties to Accord. The clans remain in Brockton, with the more aggressive white supremacists banding together but ending up beaten by various local forces and splintering. The elements (of Rune, Othala, Victor, Hookwolf, et al) that don't leave remain as solo agents. Hookwolf might drop the white supremacist thing entirely.

When the PRT is strained to breaking, Coil hires mercenary Capes to attack his own complex and free Echidna, engineering for her to cause controlled destruction to the city in much the same role Leviathan did in canon. Afterwards Piggot is accused of failing her duties, allowing Coil's persona of Thomas Calvert to take over a relatively strong PRT. Managing both the city and the Protectorate, Calvert stabilizes Brockton Bay and its flourishing cape population, and stamps out any rogue elements. Armsmaster finds out from Piggot enough to know the truth, but having never found humility or face inhumanity, he enslaves Dragon to his control and willing works with the villain because Coil put him on the world stage.

Skitter still works to fight against this system and engine much bigger than her. Reaching out to the disenfranchised, the people who lost their teams, scattered mercenaries and the heroes who broke away from the PRT, she forms a ragtag group striving against this reality that Coil has engineered. In the end, she bands together with the remaining Undersiders who survived the Slaughterhouse Nine, and works with Saint to defeat Armsmaster (taking away Dragon at a pivotal moment) and attempts to topple Coil.<ref name="LB">[https://redd.it/4arfdp Speculation by Wildbow on Reddit]</ref>

===Panacea joins the Undersiders===
Imp proves important in getting Panacea to join when the Undersiders rescue her from the Slaughterhouse 9's initiation, being able to convince her due to Tattletale realising that Panacea cannot respond to rational reasoning in her state. However, Amy doesn't change sides so much as be kept in "suspension" by the Undersiders, with her not fully joining and instead only helping under a number of increasing codes and rules, such as fixing people modified by Bonesaw, and mostly refuses to use her power in large part.

With Panacea, the Slaughterhouse are ousted and broken, Bonesaw is taken out of the picture, and only Cherish, Siberian and Jack Slash escapes, with Jack not learning of [[Dinah]]'s end of the world prophecy. Glory Girl is not transformed into [[the Wretch]] by Amy, leaves to Philadelphia to get long-term help due to the changes to her brain, and [[New Wave]] escalates against the Undersiders, believing that Panacea has been kidnapped and possibly brainwashed by Skitter or Tattletale, or Mastered by Regent. New Wave tries to gain help from [[the Guild]], but are initially denied for various reasons. However Coil takes the brief absence while New Wave is out-of-town to recruit more capes to keep the Heroes outnumbered, and to be more "chaotic" to make the Undersiders and Travellers look more acceptable by comparison. The chaos capes, such as [[Damsel]], [[Blasto]], and [[Barrow|Lost Garden]] start to congregate in Brockton Bay and launch various attacks against visiting Heroes, which results in the Guild agreeing to step in, with the PRT treating Brockton Bay as something that the Heroes need to win to boost morale.

The Undersiders lay low to avoid the increased surveillance and the Thinkers trying to find them, and to help support Panacea and Grue. Coil has them release Shatterbird to the PRT, then uses moles in the PRT to have Shatterbird escape. Shatterbird, without Jack's influence, forms her own flock of Independent Villains, including Damsel, to oppose the Undersiders. Glory Girl returns mostly fixed and, seeing the consequences of Panacea only fixing Bonesaw victims, reaches out to her.

Here the timeline can go down one of two major roads:
===='''1: Panacea Leaves'''====
If Panacea walks away from the city's conflicts, unable to be convinced by Tattletale to join the Undersiders and use her powers, the small wars are won and the city isn't condemned. New Wave and several Independent Capes fold into the Protectorate/Wards. Shatterbird's flock is ousted from the city and becomes almost a second Slaughterhouse Nine. Coil as his Thomas Calvert identity becomes PRT Director of Brockton and has Dinah as among the new recruits, seizing control of the city's cape element in exchange for sacrificing leadership of it. Cauldron decides that the city's Project Terminus has failed and become free to step in without fear of ruining the experiment. They kill Noelle, Trickter leaves, the Travellers are returned home under the condition of becoming Cauldron agents on Aleph, and the Triumvirate enters and cleans up the rest of the city. The Triumvirate is still outed as connected to Cauldron.

Panacea and Glory Girl reconnect, leave New Wave and join the Guild. Panacea slowly becomes more comfortable using her powers. The Undersiders leave and Skitter becomes intent on dealing with the "monsters" due to some really grisly & irredeemable things she did in Guild-occupied Brockton Bay and the memories of the Slaughterhouse and Shatterbird's flock(along with some two-way influence Panacea had on her and she did Panacea). She leaves her dad and Brockton, and throws herself into more conflict trying to find answers (i.e Shatterbird's connection to Cauldron, Cauldron in general, things Tattletale picked up regarding the Triumvirate). She and the Undersiders may possibly contact Cauldron and are asked to work to help the latter, with the Undersiders picking up new recruits and giving Cauldron Vials to some of their unpowered allies.

Jack Slash makes a new team using Cherish to turn Heroes into Villains, and they run into Shatterbird's flock, the latter who has now become an international villain group and has recruited Trickster. The two groups plan to reunite at Endgame and target the most powerful capes, including Panacea and the Undersiders. Many of the Undersiders die in time for Endgame and it is only with Golem stepping in late that it doesn't become a complete loss. Jack and Shatterbird's groups either draws Scion's attention with their actions, or target Scion outright. Cauldron, believing Shatterbird to be the Broadcaster, tries to intervene and turn the group against Scion. They fail, and Scion instead works with Jack's and Shatterbird's groups - some of the nastiest individuals around, all together and working in concert, with Jack guiding Scion.

===='''2: Panacea Stays'''====
If the constant conflicts causes Panacea to break down, she is convinced to stay in the city and start using her powers by Tattletale. The Undersiders then begin hitting back harder and with new tools given by Panacea, and become the main focus in the city. Coil dislikes how they aren't doing what he needs them to do, suspects they want to rescue Dinah, and plans let the Heroes keep beating the Undersiders down before choosing a moment when they weak to deal with them once and for all. The Undersiders can only survive if they have been modified by Panacea to be stronger and fitter along with some background processes. Tattletale has the full-time job of dealing with Panacea. Grue doesn't take well to the physical alterations and leaves, with Imp following not far behind. Trying to survive against everyone, the Undersiders become the chaotic element they were initially set-up to oppose.

The Guild has Brockton Bay condemned, having walls erected, everyone evacuated, and power and water shut off. Coil releases Noelle on Brockton as a final act before leaving to begin anew elsewhere, and regardless of whether the other Undersiders also leave or stay, Taylor stubbornly tries to build something of the mess while everything crumbles around her. Panacea feels that the Undersiders lied to her about giving her the support she needed, which she takes as proof she was right after all about 'Bad is bad, and nothing is redeemable'. In the ensuring breakdown, she commits several atrocities on the level of her turning Victoria's body into the [[The Wretch]] in the canon timeline, including doing it against several Undersiders. Although Taylor tries to reason with her, Panacea is only stopped by Jack Slash, who convinces her to join him as Bonesaw's replacement and plans to access the Birdcage and unlock the full potential of everyone within, which a broken Panacea agrees to and provides the resources needed.

Grue, who has since joined the Protectorate, returns with Golem and joins Skitter in fighting back. Although Panacea will listen to Golem, it is not enough and very much too late.<ref name="PU">[https://redd.it/6nurxq Speculation by Wildbow on Reddit]</ref>
===Taylor joins Cauldron===
If Taylor had failed to kill Alexandria, she is subdued and sentenced to the Birdcage instead of becoming a Ward as Weaver. However her transport to the Birdcage is intercepted by Cauldron on Alexandria's request, who explains the reasoning for the ruse, and in exchange for the Undersiders being left alone Taylor would become an agent of Cauldron for squads dealing with issues on alternative Earths.<ref>'''chlorinecrown''' wait, so in the other universe where alexandria, idk, has a tinker tech bug zapper on hand to prepare for the attack, what happens'''<br/>chlorinecrown''' the attempted murder charge is really easy to prosecute, she goes to the bird cage, undersiders discredited?'''<br/>Wildbow''' Evacuate the area, Taylor focuses on Alexandria, so it should be doable. Disable security cameras remotely, "Door." Nullify powers & bugs without room for counter-tactics. Taylor sentenced to the Birdcage. Alexandria reinforced in status, people reminded that the PRT is in power and has control, villainous takeovers elsewhere are discouraged, Taylor sentenced to the Birdcage. She...'''<br>Wildbow''' ...doesn't actually arrive, and gets brought on board with Cauldron, who tell her the ruse, that it was a setup to achieve certain ends and a plausible finish, and so long as she cooperates, the Undersiders are left alone.'''<br/>Wildbow''' They then have a resourceful parahuman for one of their squads dealing with alt!earth scenarios and issues.'''<br/>Wildbow''' Not the first, second, or even third priority, but better to make use of her than to just Birdcage her.'''<br/>Teller''' Would Taylor "escape" during transportation? Or would they just pretend they caged her?'''<br/>Wildbow''' The latter, most likely.'''<br/>Teller''' I wonder how Dragon feels about all this. Probably cranky.'''<br/>Wildbow''' Probably. - [https://spacebattles.com/posts/22604409 Conversation with Wildbow archived on Spacebattles]</ref>

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