Aminadab_Brulle
Decimus Computator
Trying to use Mental Out on a man who'd escaped from the clutches of Yangban's mind controllers is a bad idea.
Rule number three is that Behemoth hates the city of Lyon.
A Flung Light (Worm/minor toaru cross)
- Location
- Earth
Trainwreck saw two newbies jump the empire and thought he could go sabotage the trucks and be gone before the newbies lost that fight.
It.. uh.. didn't go that way
Coil definitely would've, if he could've. But he sent some of his mercs in the other one instead.
He did not like what Dinah had to say regarding his chances of succeeding in BB plummeting
But he also found out that Mental Out was unlikely to become his problem anytime soon unless he did something to gain her attention. So he considered her not his problem until he found out she got the Undersiders arrested.
Rule 4 is that Levi hates somewhere I think it was Madrid as it swam a long way inland up a river, crossed a long stretch on foot to get to another river which it could use to get to the place just to atk it.
Leviathan, "You thought you were safe from me because you are landlocked! You. Thought. Wrong!"
- Location
- Earth
Hyderabad in India. It's several hundred miles inland.
Though there is a connection to the ocean via the Musi River through the Krishna River.
Leviathan must've sneaked the entire length of the river to get there, roughly 1400 kilometers or 870 miles.
He truly must've hated that city.
Spectrum
Tell me a secret~
- Location
- Behind you~
I sure hope that's not foreshadowing for how their next action is going to turn out.
She's still riding the high of that and I can't blame her. To thinking that she'd possibly have to wait years to having some good progress in basically a week is fantastic. Maybe they can help the Greyboy victims as well.
Okay nice to know that there was some punishment but honesty wasn't nearly enough in my opinion and Madison wasn't mentioned.
Acting weaker is useful.
Power growth is a really big deal in Worm. Powers are pretty much static and you can only really learn new tricks. But Espers are different and can grow.
Can't have shit in Earth Bet or Brockton Bay.
Missed this before cause it got posted while I was either reading the chapter or typing but first it's really dumb because of the eye starburst that appear making it fairly obvious with the only saving grace being a lot of masks will hide eyes. I would say tho the truce is kind of a joke anyway since when discussing Taylor having seen Sophia unmasked Legend says there have been multiple past incidents but they have been intentional international attempts. During the Behemoth fight the Yangban on top of trying to trick people into joining their power network that carries master effects also went around using a teleportation power to kidnap downed capes which they got away with too.
Additionally on top of it being the spirit of the truce an actual written part that of it is that no-one will take advantage of the truce for personal gain or to advance their faction. Except in that scene we also learn that the prt uses the immediate aftermath to approach other capes to try and make deals normally recruitment pitches but also things like buying services such as info from capes such as thinkers or tinkers. This has multiple issues where firstly they do so with capes like Alexandria and Legend who are extremely big name capes that also only ever leave their cities for truce events such as the s9 or endbringers.
One of the larger reasons for the anti ABB truce for example was that if it went on much longer then one of them would end up coming to deal with them and mess with everyone else while they were there because that's how the prt uses them and they knew if they got taken down before then they wouldn't come.
It's also an issue where both of them have thinker powers so by personally meeting the person they and the prt are getting extra information on top of the advantages of their huge reputation but as covered they only have the chance to do so because of the truce or to put it bluntly they are taking advantage of an opportunity they only have because of the truce to advance their faction. This can also be said to a lesser extent for other heads such as Chevalier or even Armsy with all his sensors, scanners and how tinkers can gain inspiration from seeing other powers and tech.
Finally while a weaker argument they also take full advantage of anything revealed in the atk during Echidna for example Taylor got Clockblocker to freeze a bit of spider silk she gave him which ended up being connected to a strung up line that cut Echidna in half when she ran through it. Shortly after when the prt unmasked Taylor in Arcadia he had a gauntlet that shot out the fingers but was still connected to it by wires which he could then freeze. Taylor also suspected that the reason they knew her id to reveal it was because of how there were some clones of her in said atk which were of course unmasked.
Personally though I think they knew her id because of Dragon's forced compliance since after Regent dumped the contents of Sophia's phone online mainly about the bullying she wondered why he'd do it. Dragon was curious about her and wanted to talk to her again since she knew they'd spoken before but didn't know about what since that suit was destroyed right after due to her restrictions making her lie it on one of kid win's guns that Taylor had taken and used which was about to violently explode from being used by a non tinker to block it with to stop people dying. Solely due to that she then without consulting anyone considered what if Taylor is Skitter and thoroughly examined Taylor's life including a lot of sources she shouldn't have been able to freely access before eventually finding a fairly old photo of Taylor which she ran comparison software on with a picture of Skitter and got a match.
Greyboy ones are actually iffy the prt is fully capable of getting them out but somehow there's a 90 odd % chance that they'd trigger on getting released and needless to say but most of them aren't in a good place mentally plus the looping effect probably makes it more complicated.
It's not just acting weaker that's useful since actually jobbing is needed in some cases to keep things non lethal. Pho is still a joke tho since it's worth pointing out that Taylor used it and the cape wiki in canon for info and she had some rather large knowledge gaps such as not knowing about triggers or tinker specialties. The info she had on even Lung from it was incomplete with his higher stages such as either wings or extra arms being an unconfirmed rumour and it missed a lot such as his enhanced senses. Other than Racheal the undersider's pages were also really sparse and made worse by them adding false info plus well there's the fact Taylor researched all the villains of the bay but missed them which implies the wiki lacks categories or Taylor somehow missed them.
Broadly yes tho there are some things like Taylor's range gradually grew after she triggered and the whole powers get stronger the closer they are to their triggers thing. Additionally aside from those like Dauntless there are also tinkers and totemic capes one from ward for example basically gets powers from animal bits such as luck from a rabbit's foot or enhanced eyesight from a cat's eye which have a lot that can be explored so allow growth from discovering better options. In verse they are huge tho because most cape's have really janky powers due to the whole no superspeed and only brutes getting enhanced strength or durability which combined with the attitude of capes means a lot are willing to go far for a power boost or to recruit a powerful cape especially one that starts weak. Heck Ward outright says brutes are a desired staple in teams because even mid rated ones can roll teams due to being able to take and dish out more damage than normal and the easiest way to deal with them is have them fight another brute which they like anyway since they don't have to pull their punches as much.
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So, speculation: with the way things are going, Coil's plans are largely being advanced just by staying out of Mental Out's range: she's somewhat systemically dismantling all the existing power structures (with the probable exception of Faultline):
Taking out Bakuda, taking out Kreig, generating scandals that hit both Piggot and Armsmaster, etc. He just needs to stay active, have Mental Out not get any leads on him, and he should be good to take over Piggot's chair, as well as bump off both the E88 and the ABB.
The issue for him comes in that the closer he gets to that state, the harder keeping off Mental Out's radar will be. If she ever gets to the point of "visiting" PRT headquarters on a spy hunt, and he's in office, he's screwed. If he makes director, and she's still pretending to need remotes, any conversation between them screws him over. If she gets close to any of his troops that aren't Trainwreck, or otherwise immune to her power, he's screwed.
On Mental Out's side, she's being very effective in taking out existing organizations: dismantling Sophia's Clique, damaging the E88. She's largely left the ABB intact past Bakuda, but that's probably because it's hyper-dependent on just 2 capes, despite rivaling the E88: take out either Lung or Oni Lee, and the E88 probably immediately move to takeover the docks area, which she wouldn't want. But she's neglected the need to put anything in their place: Coil might get Piggot's spot without trying, we could see a repeat of the Boston Games as outside groups move in to replace the E88 and ABB, who knows.
speculating about the next few chapters, it will either be the first big fight, which isn't just a Mental Out autowin; or it will be the thing that makes all the factions realize that unless you have something that protects against her, Mental Out just autowins. She can't really be ambushed outside of by Case 53s or breakers, her range is enough that you need a sniper or better to take her from outside of it, and she's escorted by an electrokinetic whose picking up hacking
Taking out Bakuda, taking out Kreig, generating scandals that hit both Piggot and Armsmaster, etc. He just needs to stay active, have Mental Out not get any leads on him, and he should be good to take over Piggot's chair, as well as bump off both the E88 and the ABB.
The issue for him comes in that the closer he gets to that state, the harder keeping off Mental Out's radar will be. If she ever gets to the point of "visiting" PRT headquarters on a spy hunt, and he's in office, he's screwed. If he makes director, and she's still pretending to need remotes, any conversation between them screws him over. If she gets close to any of his troops that aren't Trainwreck, or otherwise immune to her power, he's screwed.
On Mental Out's side, she's being very effective in taking out existing organizations: dismantling Sophia's Clique, damaging the E88. She's largely left the ABB intact past Bakuda, but that's probably because it's hyper-dependent on just 2 capes, despite rivaling the E88: take out either Lung or Oni Lee, and the E88 probably immediately move to takeover the docks area, which she wouldn't want. But she's neglected the need to put anything in their place: Coil might get Piggot's spot without trying, we could see a repeat of the Boston Games as outside groups move in to replace the E88 and ABB, who knows.
speculating about the next few chapters, it will either be the first big fight, which isn't just a Mental Out autowin; or it will be the thing that makes all the factions realize that unless you have something that protects against her, Mental Out just autowins. She can't really be ambushed outside of by Case 53s or breakers, her range is enough that you need a sniper or better to take her from outside of it, and she's escorted by an electrokinetic whose picking up hacking
It wouldn't be as bad because that was because all the villains got wiped out while here Coil and the merchants would still have territory plus all the ones who don't hold it like Circus and the undersiders. It is kind of a safe bet tho that some will move in because as in canon the Teeth and the s9 will end up coming because they hold their defeats and retreats as their sole black marks on their history and are just waiting for an opportunity.
Picking out this small bit...why would Piggot lose her job here?
Shadow Archon
Protoss Preserver
- Location
- Louisiana
Well, Dinah still got kidnapped. It wouldn't be hard for Coil to make a few plans using Dinah's power to ensure Piggot gets ousted. "If I hired dangerous unstable Parahuman X to fight the wards and one of them were to die, would Piggot lose her job?" and so on.
He could even use Dinah's kidnapping itself to turn the mayor against Piggot to help grease that wheel.
...And this is why reading context matters!
Without Coil doing anything behind the scenes, things are still headed towards a Boston Games situation, and if that blows up, the PRT could hold Piggot responsible for it. She could be a sacrificial lamb for PR reasons or them blaming her for the Catch 22 situation of "Don't let the powder keg explode" but also "Keep the status quo going for stability" which only makes things worse when things do start to collapse.
You clear out the gangs, you leave a power vacuum for people like the Teeth to move in and potentially go wild. Sure, if the PRT and the Protectorate were the ones doing that, they'd have good PR in spades, but Nozomi's doing that mainly, and doing so in a way that very publicly snubs the local PRT and Protectorate branches. If the Teeth decide they need to do something drastic for rep, then that could be blamed on Piggot.
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Protag is also uncovering a lot of serious failures such as with Sophia, the nastier activities of the ABB she makes no efforts to stop and the Empire moles. Combined with how they directly said to Legend they wouldn't join their branch because of how much of a mess it is and pointed out flaws with the bank and she's both on the hook for a lot and the protag's own rising achievements mean it's pretty likely they'll want to recruit her and at least consider removing Piggot to make it a more appealing option.
FailLord
2050 lb bombs?
- Location
- Orange Star
People also forget that her friend's power is rapidly maturing into Railgun, lvl5 electromaster is no joke.
Also lol the future person getting Meltdowner as power.
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Honestly, I suspect it will be a while till we get more people going through the power curriculum program:
With Charlotte in, we're effectively out of canon characters that would be a good fit for it: they're either involved in larger groups, and can't be expected to keep Mental Outs ability a secret: the Wards, Amy, Victoria; or are massive assholes: the remaining winslow students.
Nozomi doesn't appear to have a larger friend group outside of Keiko, so nobody to pull in that way.
With Charlotte's power likely able to get Nozomi's mom out of the time bubble, she's not really tempted to give a bunch of randoms powers looking for a golden bullet.
The quality of Light's writing is such that I don't see him making a quick OC just to have Nozomi give them powers for no particular reason.
So it'll take time to either introduce new characters that will eventually get into the program, or for circumstances to change pretty strongly about Nozomi's secrecy, with Nozomi either being very desperate (maybe S9 attack?) or the program's existence leaking (maybe through an Echnida clone?).
FailLord
2050 lb bombs?
- Location
- Orange Star
True,
Although I was making a poke at how PR unfriendly Mugino's power is, you basically only use it when you want to Fre/nda someone.
And that it makes you throw every important fight.
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Yeah. There aren't many options for power development in Nozomi's immediate vicinity. There are probably a couple of students who would be acceptable though. We don't know much about them however. So that's probably not happening unless Light wants to make another OC. Nozomi also doesn't really have any incentive to give out more powers currently. She can save her mom and the combination of their powers can counter just about everyone in the city.
Kind of why joining the PRT is likely an eventuality just to have access to candidates in large numbers.
Mugino's power is apparently VERY lab-valuable, and can be used for scifi radiation transmutation, she just likes to do mafia shit instead to kill with it so that part isn't very developed.
TBH thats a good principle. if you can give out powers you should be looking for personality and moral qualities, rather than just slapping them onto random people who'd act for-or-against your plans at random.
Come on Cauldron, its not THAT hard just to give powers to people trying to make things better.
I'm pretty sure she is a parahuman: she both had a (very anomalous) trigger vision, and if she wouldn't, she would know it, being able to see into her own brain. She'd probably have remarked on the absence of a Corona Pollenta if she wasn't.
... Actually, this has been asked before:
But if they make things better, less people will trigger, and they'll get less pulls on the power-gatcha. And you know how addictive those things are. Cauldron spends all of their disposable power vials on creating more gatcha pulls in the public.
One thing I actually think is interesting is that almost every single parahuman who resulted in Kephri were natural triggers or extremely early vials. They were also triggers that Cauldron specifically didn't influence or didn't know what they were doing yet. The combination was Taylor, Amy, Bonesaw, Clairvoyant, and Doormaker. Amy and Taylor were born in Brockton Bay which Cauldron specifically isn't influencing from their births and past their triggers. Riley/Bonesaw was triggered by Jack who isn't fully influenced by Contessa because of his power, then she spends years with the S9 which again isn't properly influenced. Then Doormaker and Clairvoyant were within the first 10 vials. What this means is I actually don't think them pulling the power gatcha was actually helpful.
They gor five golds in the first 10-pull and got hooked
Prisoner Transport
- Location
- Earth
Prisoner Transport
Wednesday, 27th April – Brockton Bay, DowntownThe prisoner transport would leave the PRT Headquarters in the early afternoon. A check of the publicly available information about Arcadia High School showed that it coincided with just enough time for anyone taking part in one of the vocational programs to get out of school.
Like the wards which were rumored to all go to Acadia. I knew that wasn't true for all of them, but it likely was for most of them. At least Tattletale had staked her bank robbery plan on that. I hadn't delved deeply enough into Sophia's mind to find out for sure though. It wasn't worth the risk of some tinker-tech bauble actually noticing that.
I wasn't sure if they would involve them directly against the Nazis. I could see them placed on patrol routes to free up Protectorate personal instead.
The transport itself would follow Winter Street past the Towers until it hit the driveway to the Interstate Highway 95 where it would make it's way north into Canada where the Baumann Parahuman Containment Center was.
It was the only prison that never had a breakout by a parahuman.
If only it had managed to achieve that without being a violation of human rights on an unknown scale. Unknown only since the PRT refused to answer questions about what exactly went on inside, except a boilerplate that Dragon was taking care of it following all applicable regulations and laws. No letters or messages were allowed. No visitors were allowed, no prisoners ever were released. All imprisonment was for life.
Even if they were wrong about it.
Krieg and Victor both would end up there if the PRT had their say. In their case I was absolutely sure they weren't wrong.
Othala was not part of this transport according to what information Kaiser bought. There was no mention about her at all. Perhaps they'll transport her another time separately? She would be much easier to transport without anyone she can use her power on.
Kaiser's plan began long before the transport ever left the PRT HQ.
All over the city members of the gang made themselves know. They threw stones through the windows of store fronts of what they considered acceptable targets. They stalked alleys in search of innocent people to beat up. They spray-painted their hateful slurs on walls and cars.
It wasn't something the PRT could let stand. They were forced to respond and spread their forces thin. From what I gathered Velocity was the first responder for most incidents.
The Nazi capes made a few brief appearances as well, though they made sure to never stay long enough to engage the heroes. It wasn't their purpose. The purpose was to be briefly seen so the cops would refuse to engage at all.
He went over the PRT assessment of me and BiriBiri. Then he cross-referenced it with his gentle interrogation of Purity and the much less gentle one of Alabaster. He dismissed BiriBiri near immediately as a standard blaster. Which was all she had shown to the heroes.
With this information he decided on how to best counter me. He interpreted me not taking control of Purity as me being unable to do so, correctly. He incorrectly surmised it was because of a range limit. He incorrectly assumed I needed to see my target with my own eyes.
I had gotten rather close to Krieg, Victor and Alabaster before taking control of them.
He decided to have several gathering spots instead of a single one to prevent me from taking all of them. Every gathering spot had lookouts and strict orders to immediately shoot me, alongside with timed check-ins to let others know something was going on if they failed to.
I had no desire to take down only part of them.
Today would be the Death Knell of an Empire.
He assembled a team to take me down in case a group got taken by me. He placed Alabaster in it as the only one known to keep breaking out of my control. He further filled it out with those capable of doing damage at range or while hidden. Crusader, to harry me with his ghosts. Rune for mobility and to throw spikes at me.
Kaiser did what he could to make his operation a success.
It was easy to ruin someone's plan if you knew everything they wanted to do.
"That is so creepy," Charlotte said over the rumbling of the van.
"I wish they'd stop talking," Keiko kept clenching her fists.
The Nazi goons inside the van were trying to hype themselves up for the coming fight. Of course they did so with their usual slurs.
"Just imagine their surprise when next they know they're waking up in a cell," I smiled.
It was enough for her to calm a bit. It'd be difficult to keep them unaware if they were literally getting fried.
We were inside one of the vans the Empire used to transport their goons to their chosen ambush spot about three blocks past the Towers. The road made a curve there and several buildings blocked the view the transporter had of the side alleys.
The driver and three other goons were inside with us unable to notice us at all. It took a little concentration to keep that going, but I had plenty of practice with that during school due to Yan.
We had approached the same way and with Kaiser's knowledge of who was where we had chosen the spot without any of those I wouldn't be able to get under my control. No Fog, no Night, no Hookwolf, no Alabaster. Purity was still in the hospital.
I shouldn't have trouble with anyone else, and I didn't with the only cape that was here. Fenja had to take over the lead here, though she was in another van.
We had the information about the powers of their entire roster courtesy of Kaiser's brain.
"You're sure I should have some of the grenades?" Charlotte asked in her new costume. It was the base form of BiriBiri's and mine without any logo for now. I had managed to scrounge enough together for one more, but besides today's equipment and some healing tech back in the base I was rather short on more materials.
"Best for all of us to have some. Alabaster's gonna be a mess if you don't nail him with the glue grenade. You're our best bet to do that before he gets too close to not get caught up in the splash zone," BiriBiri reassured her.
The other type of grenade we had brought was a much, much weaker version of Bakuda's suction grenade. It provided much less force on the suction, but for a longer time. It should be just enough force to outpace Fog's ability to move himself while he was in his breaker state. He could choose to get sucked up or revert at that point.
Each of us had one of each grenade. I hadn't had the time to make more.
To round out Charlotte's equipment we had bought a cheap bundle of throw darts and removed their fletching. She could use those by teleporting them inside guns or machinery to mess them up or carefully through loose clothing to pin someone down.
She kept fidgeting with them.
I didn't have the heart to tell her she could just as easily teleport them inside someone to devastating effect.
Night ought to fall easily by forcing someone to keep an eye on her. I should be able to take control of her once that was done as long as I ordered someone to keep an eye on her afterwards. She couldn't enter or leave her breaker state voluntarily, but always did so when she was unwatched or watched respectively.
I felt the other members of the Nazi's contingent enter my range as we approached the chosen ambush spot.
"It's as we suspected, I won't be able to take control of Hookwolf. He doesn't have a brain," I sighed.
Not even before he switched from his human-looking form to his preferred wolf-form. But even in the human-looking one he was more durable than he should be, so we had planned for that.
"Duh. He's a Nazi. None of them do, not really," BiriBiri joked.
Charlotte let out a chuckle, more out of tension than because it was that funny.
"Plan B it is for him-" "Beat him up with everyone," BiriBiri cheered.
Our van rolled to a stop as a near-late arrival, which suited me just fine.
The full might of their Empire was arranged here. Kaiser. Menja. Fenja. Hookwolf. Cricket. Stormtiger. Crusader. Alabaster. Rune. Night. Fog.
Dozens of goons armed not with piddle peashooters, but machine guns.
They had set up in the alleys where they couldn't easily be seen from the street.
Krieg and Victor were in the transport which was coming towards us with Triumph and Dauntless as an escort.
I smiled at the timing.
Everyone's attention was towards the incoming transport. Their lookout gave warning to Kaiser and he made the last preparations before the ambush.
His thoughts were smug about having managed to avoid me.
Which meant one van not spitting out as many goons as expected went easily overlooked.
"Wait for it," I held the others back for a moment, "Now."
Kaiser was just about to have the street erupt in spikes to force the prisoner transport to a stop.
Instead he did nothing at all as I forced everyone I could into a freeze under my control.
The transport drove by unimpeded. Dauntless' eyes went wide as he realized what they had just avoided.
"Hey, what gives.." Hookwolf turned to stare at Kaiser, "Oh. Fuck."
He looked from one of his comrades to the next. Every eye he could see showed starbursts.
"Shit," Alabaster agreed.
Fog kept silent while his namesake wafted off him as the last one of three left I hadn't managed to put under. I had managed to pull Night under and made sure to have several goons look at her so she wouldn't transform.
I forced back bile at what was left of Night's mind. She was broken beyond any chance of recovery. Following actions by rote memory beaten into her. I kept to the shallows of her mind. I didn't want to know more for once.
I stepped outside the van flanked by BiriBiri and Charlotte, who still had to choose a cape name.
The sound of gravel crunching under my boots made the Nazi's turn towards me.
Fenja and Menja positioned themselves between us at my command.
"You've done it now, girly. This no longer will stop at you," Alabaster blustered as he eyed my remote.
"It's been beyond time to have a run through the docks," Hookwolf growled, "I'll make sure to visit your parents, whore."
I ignored the insult. I had heard so much worse. I thought back to the day Father died. "You already have," I told him in an even voice instead.
I saw understanding flicker in his eyes. "To the death then," he swore.
The birdcage good as was that. So I didn't disagree.
Finally I stood before Father's murderer. Finally I had my chance for closure.
Next I knew instead of the shade of the alley the sun directly shone on me.
None of the Empire or my friends were in my range.
What the fuck happened?
I was in a construction site of a high-rise though only the scaffolding of it stood. Bags of cement, wheelbarrows, shovels, trowels, concrete mixers, explosives, crow bars, chisels, drills, hand saws and more tools of construction workers were scattered across.
I could see the towers in the distance.
I was roughly seven, eight blocks away from where I was.
Wait.. Explosi-?
Keiko stared at the cement bag where Nozomi was a moment earlier.
It landed on the ground with a jarring thud, the lettering of Fortress Construction half obscured.
She turned back towards Hookwolf who had turned into his name-sake and jumped at her.
"Uh-oh."
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