Oh, because the PRT doesn't like people stealing their thunder?
I'll be eagerly Watching this one. It sounds interesting, and I don't think I've ever seen Coil get taken out that way. I wonder if Taylor can or will end up in the Undersiders? I have to imagine that Singularity knows about them by now, but we haven't heard anything, which is worrying (either they don't exist, he's running his own black ops with them now, or maybe they just haven't shown up yet).
I'm curious how this is going to go. Looks like a fun bit of kingdom reclaiming in the future, which ought to be good. I want to see what happens when someone tries to take care of the town, and is actually capable of it. I'm guessing Hurricane Levi is still going to hit the East Coast, though, because between the incoming chaos and any remaining draw from Noelle and Singularity's unique powers, there might be some kind of EB target going on.
I'm suspecting that he'll be prepared if that does happen, though.
Where in the timeline is this, actually? I think this is early in Taylor's outings, and yet Noelle has been here a shortish time and Coil already had Dinah. Maybe that's just convenient timing on one of his grab attempts, though.
It's less politics and more an example of why people keep poking the tiger.
It doesn't matter if it's a kid who'll bring a stolen gun to school or fire atomic lasers from his eyes the next day.
The fact is that people as a whole are stupid, and they'll keep doing stupid things that any rational person would look at and go "Why are you doing this stupid obviously suicidal thing?"
And always, always, the answer is "I didn't think anything bad would happen to me." or its uglier cousin "bad things shouldn't happen to me. They happen to other people."
Let's be honest. Singularity is, quite literally, the gentleman villain. He's polite, classy, doesn't do collateral damage and all that, but he's still a criminal. I don't know what crimes he actually committed, since it's never shown, but it's obviously on a scale high enough that he warranted regular dust ups with various Protectorate capes all the way up to Hero.
Let's be honest. Singularity is, quite literally, the gentleman villain. He's polite, classy, doesn't do collateral damage and all that, but he's still a criminal. I don't know what crimes he actually committed, since it's never shown, but it's obviously on a scale high enough that he warranted regular dust ups with various Protectorate capes all the way up to Hero.
I'll make a point to bring it up in-story at one point or another, but @Axel got it pretty right; Singularity's stolen a number of things (money, various electronics, scrap metal, and so on), gone overboard fighting a "few" villains, refused to submit to any authority except for during a crisis (and even then, sometimes), claimed dominion over a territory and participated in gang violence, and so forth.
To boil it down to the essence of the matter: he's a villain because he consistently does whatever he wants. Generally speaking, what he wants to do are technically good things in some light - mentoring (sometimes protecting) the Wards, punishing other villains, improving the lives of the Hereafter - but the fact remains that nobody has any control over him.
It's why Hero said "I'd vouch for you" to him, implying he needed vouching to be a Hero.
I didn't bother until after they came up to Lacey. Perihelion and Kinematic were obvious once I thought about it. Transverse couldn't then be anyone else. Template and Locus... Well, either of those could be a reference to Echidna's power, so they were an enigma until I opened the spoiler, but they had to be Noelle and Genesis.
I didn't bother until after they came up to Lacey. Perihelion and Kinematic were obvious once I thought about it. Transverse couldn't then be anyone else. Template and Locus... Well, either of those could be a reference to Echidna's power, so they were an enigma until I opened the spoiler, but they had to be Noelle and Genesis.
She was comfortable in the armor now. Well... sort of. They'd practiced and trained, and wearing it no longer felt awkward – she was used to the way it made her feel less encumbered than wearing nothing, she was used to the way the flight systems responded, she was used to the vision enhancements built into the helmet. But there was still something surreal about wearing powered armor. Some... embarrassing childish wonder that she couldn't get to go away no matter how hard she tried to normalize her situation. It was cool, no matter how stupid that sounded even in her head.
"Oh, shit," Marissa's voice came through the helmet as if she was standing next to her rather than hovering a dozen feet away. "That's... you weren't kidding about the fallout."
Below them, the docks were... her first instinct was to call it 'chaos,' but that wasn't quite accurate. There was some kind of pattern in play, her instincts told her. She couldn't figure out the purpose of the roiling masses of gray-black nanomaterial, but they weren't uncontrolled. Not completely. They bunched together in pseudopods and tendrils nearly the size of the buildings around them before dissolving again, rippled across the ground like storm-born waves, and twisted on themselves... it was beautiful to watch even as it gave her a headache.
"Are we close enough?" she asked, not keen on descending further if it wasn't necessary.
"Yes. Extend your hand."
"Is that really necessary?" Even as she questioned it, she held out her palm and watched as the sea of machines stilled, slowly sinking down and almost resembling plain ground again. Except for one twisting, chaotic sphere that continued to swirl in on itself.
"No, and yes. We will speak at length later; when you are clad in armor, your body language must speak with more depth and volume... and all your actions send a message. You declare to anyone watching that you commanded my machines to cease. Any who would dispute the existence of the new Hereafter must contest with that."
She considered that as she stared at the endless motion of the sphere. "And it gives the impression that I need the gestures?"
"You learn rapidly, Locus. Well done. Treat your secrets as tools; give them out when you must, but never do so needlessly."
Marissa – no, we're in costume, Perihelion – descended slightly more. "What about that last piece?"
"I am examining the data... ah. So that's why they never disabled themselves. Almost respectable."
Noelle's eyes narrowed a bit at the way he said that. That tone of... dismissive irritation... she sucked in a breath. "Is that a prison?"
Perihelion's helmet whipped towards her. "What?"
"Yes. You look upon the Gray Boy, Jack Slash's pet sadist."
Noelle reflexively backed away, hanging a bit higher in the air.
"His power requires line of sight. Be unafraid; it has been long since he was trapped."
"How did you manage... I read up on him, when I was looking at your history. The PRT never confirmed what happened to him, only that he never appeared again after... what happened here. You..."
"Who even is he?" Perihelion moved beside her, staring down at the swirling prison. "You sound freaked, Locus."
"He... could make localized time loops. Little bubbles that would reset after so many seconds had passed. He was the only thing that didn't loop."
"That doesn't sound so bad. Powerful, but not –"
"He didn't loop because he reset anytime he was hurt. Or killed. Or... trapped."
For a second, Perihelion didn't respond.
"Oh. Fuck."
"You're sure he's still in there?"
"Yes. Even now, he claws at the walls. But he is no stronger than an ordinary child, and even with a thousand years to tear at them he will never escape from that cage. Even if he did... the trap serves its purpose. There are always more machines to replace any lost."
If she hadn't read the article, if she didn't understand the sheer scope of torture Gray Boy was responsible for? Hearing Singularity say that, in that tone of voice, would have made her sick. As it was, all she did was nod. "How did you manage it? I thought... every time someone tried to trap him before, it failed. He just... slipped out of it."
"Something you must understand is that all powers have limitations, even those born from a vial. Some are more or less limited than others, but no power is absolute. Gray Boy was capable of reversing himself... but there was a limit to how much time he could revert. If he were to commit himself to battle, become invested in it and refuse to leave for long enough..."
"...How long did you fight him here?" Perihelion's voice trembled, very slightly, and Noelle could picture the look on her face. Her friend had always had a weakness for those kinds of momentous occasions in stories.
"Long enough," Singularity responded. "It cost me much... but removing him from the world was a worthy goal."
"What did you do?" The new voice shocked her and she spun in midair, the suit humming softly as it maneuvered. Hovering just above her was...
"A vampire?" Perihelion's hands were raised slightly, but not yet pointed at the newcomer.
A woman in a black-and-white dress accented with silver metal, with blood surrounding her and hovering limply in the air. Blood control? That could be dangerous. The suit should hold up, if it comes to that...
"What. Did. You. Do." The blood around the cape swished, agitated.
"The machines here were out of control, and they weren't supposed to be," Noelle answered. No, Locus answered, the modulated voice still sounding somewhat strange in her own ears. "I fixed them."
"You fixed – bullshit. No Tinker can modify them. If it could be done, it would have been by now."
"Ah," Singularity said softly in her ear. "What a marvelous opening she's presented."
Taking his meaning, she took a breath and straightened her shoulders. Have to look the part, after all. "Well. I guess that's why we're the Hereafter."
For a moment, the girl stared. Then she laughed. "Yeah, sure. The Hereafter's dead, crazy woman."
So she said, but there was something there – some small hesitation. It reminded her of a team captain that had tried to bluff her once. And in response, the same almost-sadistic smirk fought its way onto her face. "Really now? Nobody told us that."
"Now is the time."
She gestured towards the nearest building, and for a moment the quiet streets below were filled with a soft sound. A shuffling, or a shifting, like blankets pulled across a mattress. "If we were dead..."
The cape backed away slightly as every building in the area grew a tag. An old tag. A black hexagon, stretched out to resemble the vague outline of a human face, blank save for two things: a pair of gleaming purple circles for eyes 'leaking' trails of light that rippled as though flowing downward.
"Nobody told us," Locus finished.
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Well that's Grey Boy dealt with and even more proof that if Jackie boy managed to survive he definitely wore his brown pants on his way out of town.
I wonder if Singularity would let people watch a video feed of him scrambling at the walls like the little rat he is.
There's probably a lot of folks who'd pay good money to watch his slow and constant mental degradation into the same insanity he forced his victims to undergo.
That could be bad unless Singularity shows up him self but well I think he knows he is going need to do that to show this ant a group stealing his name but His group
Nah, Duchess wasn't around for Singularity and the Hereafter. She was a young girl. She doesn't recognise the power armour.
Once Marquis meets the Hereafter, he'll know Singularity will be behind them. No one else could create that armour, and no one would dare to imitate the Hereafter.
Yes yes yes yes YES. Hahahaha. What a reintroduction to the world at large, can you imagine the "Oh Shit" sentiment around the country, I mean, the man has come back from the dead. That is bound to cause some reactions.
Amy had two limitations: organic only, and not herself. "Manton limits" are a rather fuzzy category of power restrictions centered mostly on either the organic/inorganic or human/other divides. Amy has a fairly standard example of the organic-only variety. Vista has an example of the inorganic-only variety.
Certain other power limitations are also considered Manton limits, generally reflecting how they treat humans in some way. For example, Trickster can pull a mailbox out of the ground and swap you with it, but he can't swap a pebble with your eyeball, or your fist with your heart. Virtually no telekinetics can scramble your brain inside your skull directly, even if they can throw you around the street hard enough to do it indirectly. And so on.
Self-immunity comes with a lot of powers- sometimes beneficially so, sometimes not- but isn't considered a Manton limitation.
Weld's schtick was that he counted as both organic and inorganic, so he was immune to any power that had a Manton limit at all, whether it was organic-only or inorganic-only.
Amy had two limitations: organic only, and not herself. "Manton limits" are a rather fuzzy category of power restrictions centered mostly on either the organic/inorganic or human/other divides. Amy has a fairly standard example of the organic-only variety.
Self-immunity comes with a lot of powers- sometimes beneficially so, sometimes not- but isn't considered a Manton limitation.
Weld's schtick was that he counted as both organic and inorganic, so he was immune to any power that had a Manton limit at all, whether it was organic-only or inorganic-only.
I think she's like her dad with blood instead of bones-- She can control her own and she can control that of other people if she can see it. So, you'd have to be bleeding for her to control your blood and she could only control the parts outside you. Of course, the simple solution to that is to use blood already under her control to injure you.
