Let's read Worm and its sequel Ward by Wildbow (One chapter/every day)

HeWhoAdds · Mar 28, 2018

AmbarGriss said:
I forgot how much I hate that cunt of a mam, FUCK YOU Armsmaster!

But he's SO COOL. I'd buy Armsmaster-brand underwear if they existed.

blackarrow · Mar 29, 2018

Hello, nice and naughty people. Last chapter ended very, very BAD for Undersiders, with Skitter's Swarm being MERCILESS SLAUGHTERED (RIP Swarm) by Armsmaster's electromagnetic weapon, Grue being out of the fight, Bitch's dogs being threatened by the same Arms, and Regent being captured like an absolute DUMBASS by Lady Rambo. I'm thinking that either Regent might make an unexpected move and force Miss Militia to drop her weapon, or their boss will come into their help along with his Army. I just can't see what else they can do, Tattletale's power might be useless because Armsmaster is certainly well-prepared against manipulation type powers, having a lie detector in his helmet and maybe many others impressive gadgets. All in all, the situation is pretty shitty 6.06 | Worm

"Surrender," Armsmaster ordered us.
"No," Grue retorted.
"You're only going to embarrass yourself if you prolong this."
"We have you outnumbered five to three, eight to three if you count the dogs," Grue answered. "I can see your buddy Velocity lurking over there."
"What do you hope to accomplish? I admit, it was clever to control the battlefield, to dictate each engagement so it occurred on your terms, and to use our own weapons against us… but those weapons no longer work. None of your weapons work," Armsmaster turned his head to look at where Miss Militia had Regent at gunpoint. "Which means you can stop trying to use your power on me, Regent. I've got a little blinking light in the corner of my H.U.D. telling me you're trying something. I've set up psychic and empathic shielding, to protect myself from you and Tattletale."

I glanced at Tattletale. He was psychically shielded against her? How did that work?
Then I remembered. When we'd gone up against Glory Girl and Panacea, hadn't Tattletale said she read minds? And now Armsmaster had bad info and was figuring he was immune.
"I don't need to read you," she told him, "You're the only one with shields, so your teammates and the PRT staff don't have any psychic shields up, and I can read them to get anything I need. You're not the best inventor, but like most tinkers, you've got a knack. Yours just happens to be condensing and integrating technology. Only works in your immediate presence, but still, you can stick way more technology in a space than has a right to be there… like your Halberd."
Armsmaster frowned. "You're lying."
Damn it. I wish I could've told her he had a lie detector built into his helm. But I couldn't without explaining that I knew him.

Arms is VERY WELL prepared against Undersiders, but not pretty much against Tattletale. She doesn't exactly reads minds, she only have a superpowered intuition and can fill the gaps of information, but this dumbass genius honestly believed all the wrong information Glory Hole gave him about Tattletale's power

. Still, I'm not relaxed at all because he might tell few words about Skitter's undercover bullshit, which might destroy everything that was build during this month between her and Undersiders (except Tattletale). I think that Grue might forgive her, I don't know if Regent is forgiving type or not but Bitch would be so MAD for betrayal, because one of the greatest qualities of a dog is loyalty and this is what Bitch also values the most in people...If this loyalty is actually a fake one, then not even God can save Skitter from Bitch's revenge.

Tattletale took it in stride, grinning, "Sure, fibbed about the reading minds bit. Not about your weapon and power. Let's see… to deal with my buddy Grue, you've made that thing a fancy tuning stick. Sensing vibrations in the air, translating them into images with that fancy helm of yours?"
Grue cracked his knuckles. He'd gotten the message. Darkness wasn't going to do much. Armsmaster, for his part, gripped his weapon tighter. An unspoken threat to Tattletale.
"And the ass-end of that stick of yours is using the brass in between the floor tiles to help transmit an electrical charge to the area around you for fancy bug zapping. Did you set that up before coming here tonight, knowing the way the floor would be put together?"

He didn't reply.
"Guess not. Happy coincidence that the setup you put together works as well as it does in here, then."
Again, no reply. She grinned a fraction wider. She went on, "You can tell I'm lying, huh? That's awesome."
Armsmaster's weapon turned to point in her general direction. She didn't back down.
"So you'll know I'm telling the truth when I say your team hate your guts. They know you care more about rising from your position as the seventh most prominent member of the Protectorate than you do about them or the city."
In the span of a second, the blade of the halberd broke into three pieces, reconfigured, and fired in grappling-hook style at Tattletale. The tines closed together, forming a loose ball shape as it flew, striking her solidly in the stomach. She crumpled to the ground, arms around her middle.

MORE REASONS TO DISLIKE THIS ASSHOLE WHO PRETENDS THAT HE'S A HERO BUT HE ONLY CARES ABOUT HIS PERSONAL FAME AND HE DOESN'T HAVE ANY MORALS ABOUT HURTING A TEENAGER WHO DIDN'T DO ANYTHING HARMFUL TO HIM -well, Tattletale kinda tried to manipulate him but he shouldn't reacted like this, attacking her so ferocious. This is a disproportionate response, Arms, do you hear me? Its like someone is trying to piss off verbally a cop and he pulls out his gun, shooting them. Even if they surrendered already- Fuck you, half-baked hero. Two more stunts like this in the future and I'm going to be happy if a villain will kill you, Arms

. Also, I'm not surprised why his teammates hates him. If I were a hero myself, I'd refuse to work alongside Armsmaster or Shadow Fucking Stalker. I won't feel good and safe in their company.

The head of the weapon reeled in and snapped back into place atop the pole.
"Bastard," Grue spoke.
"Apparently, according to your teammate," Armsmaster replied, seemingly unbothered.

I gathered my bugs, poising them near and above Armsmaster in case I needed them to act quickly.
Armsmaster turned his head in my direction, "Skitter? You, especially, do not want to irritate me any more, tonight."
The bottom of his Halberd tapped the ground, and the bugs perished. I glanced at the floor as he did it. Sure enough, the broad tiles had little lines of metal -bronze?- dividing them.
There was a flurry of action where Regent and Miss Militia were. She appeared to drop the machine gun, and Regent took that chance to pull away. He didn't get one step before she regained her balance and dropped into a low kick that swept his legs out from under him. Her machine gun dissolved when it was halfway to the ground, turning into a shimmer of dark green energy that arced back up to her hand. It rematerialized into a gleaming steel machete. Regent stopped his struggles the second she rested the point of the bladed weapon against the side of his throat.
Armsmaster watched it all unfold without twitching a muscle. Even if he didn't care much about his teammates, he apparently trusted Miss Militia to handle herself.
"Grue. You've shown you can dismiss the effects of your power," Armsmaster spoke, "Do so now."
"Somehow," Grue retorted, "I'm not seeing a major reason why I should listen."
"Um, got a sword pressing against my neck here, guy," Regent pointed out.
"…Not seeing a major reason," Grue repeated himself.
Regent let out a little laugh, "Fuck you."

Miss Militia's power is UBER -COOL. As much as I don't like weapons (and I don't like Regent's situation), I have great pleasure to watch her turning the machine gun into a machete, I wonder if her power have a limit of used weapons- there were only war weapons or even more futuristic weapons like lasers or Jedi swords? She can create more than one? She can allow other heroes to use them or she's the only one who can do that? So many questions about Miss Militia's powers. Also, I'm sure that her trigger event must be related to a war where she took part, either as a victim or a soldier. Maybe she was so traumatized by all the death around her and she felt like she can't protect herself that her ability to create weapons came in her help when all her hopes were lost.
I like the short conversation between Grue and Regent, funny

.

Armsmaster dispassionately watched the exchange, then spoke, dead serious, "Look at it this way. If there are witnesses, Miss Militia will have a far harder time selling the idea that she stabbed your friend in the throat in self defense."

He glanced in the direction of his second in command, and Miss Militia gave a small nod in response.
Would she? Probably not, I suspected. Could we risk it? That choice was up to Grue.
Grue glanced over at where Regent lay. After a second, he made the darkness fade. The people in the crowd were mostly huddled on the ground, trying to fend off the stinging and biting swarm. The dogs lurked at the edges of the room, and Bitch was astride Angelica. Velocity, in his red costume with the racing stripes down either side and two stripes meeting in a 'v' at his chest, wasn't that far from her. I suspected they had been squaring off.
I found Emma in the crowd. Her dad was huddled over both of his daughters, as though he could shield them from any danger, and Emma's mom was hugging her around the shoulders.
Somehow, that really pissed me off.
Armsmaster glanced my way, "And the bugs."
Reluctantly, I pulled them away from the crowd. I settled the flying bugs on the intact portions of the ceiling. I glanced up at the bugs and sighed. Then I glanced at Emma again.
This was really not how I wanted this to end. Me arrested, my scheme a failure, Emma getting off scott free with a family, friends and no major consequences for all the shit she'd pulled?
"Sir," I spoke, trying to sound confident. Would Emma recognize my voice? "Let me check on Tattletale."
"You can do that once you've surrendered," he spoke. He changed his posture so his Halberd was pointed in my general direction. I winced. I did not want to get the same treatment Tattletale had received. Or would he not do it with people watching?
My eyes darted in the direction of the crowd, to Tattletale, who didn't look up to talking. All eyes were on the scene. Why had he gone out of his way to get an audience? Could I use it? What had he been so upset about, when I'd met him at the ferry? What had Tattletale gone out of her way to stress to us about Armsmaster?
Reputation.

I highly doubt that Miss Militia will kill Regent, not even if Armsmaster will order her to do it. She doesn't seem like a cold-blooded killer to me. Maybe she had to kill people in war, but she did as self defense, and this situation is clearly not self defense when Regent doesn't represent any danger to her. Shadow Bitch Stalker, I can see her killing Regent and smiling behind her mask while she does that, yep, but not Miss Militia. As for Emma, I feel bad at stomach only by typing her name alone (no villain is able to disgust me so much with their actions, not even Bakuda or Lung or Kaiser, like she's doing with her mere presence). That's a BIG REASON for you to not surrender, Skitter, you have to escape and your bully should be fucked so bad that she'll become paranoiac afraid to even leave her house, because she might met you again. That would be one of the worst and well deserved punishment for her

.

"I need to make sure you didn't do any serious damage," I spoke, just a hint of accusation in my voice.

"She's fine."
"I want to verify that for myself," I said, standing. How far can I push this? "Please, she was surrendering and you hit her so hard."
"You're lying."
"The fuck she is!" Regent joined in, "Tattletale walks up to you, ready to be cuffed, and you smacked her across the room, you fucking lunatic!"
I didn't dare to glance at the crowd. Armsmaster was the person we needed to get a reaction out of, here.
"Enough. This is a fabrication," Miss Militia spoke, her voice raised maybe a bit to carry to the rest of the room.
"Why do you think we're so reluctant to surrender, if that's the treatment we'll get!?" Regent shouted, "It's not like we're not totally fucked!" Miss Militia moved the machete to remind him it was there.
Armsmaster's head turned toward me. This was my huge gamble. How would he respond? If he called me out as a traitor within the Undersiders, would people buy it, would my team buy it, or would it only hurt his credibility? He didn't know that Tattletale would be able to tell it was truth.
"Miss Militia has a blade at my teammate's throat," Grue broke the silence, "I think it's pretty clear you don't pull your punches."
Armsmaster turned to his teammate, "Perhaps a less lethal weapon would be more appropriate."
Miss Militia's eyebrows knit together in concern, "Sir?"
"Now." He left no room for argument. Then, to ensure they still had control of the situation, he turned to his nearest available hostage.
Me.
I was flat on my back and couldn't back away fast enough to escape, especially with my having to slip my arms from the straps that held the tank of containment foam to my back. He pointed the head of his weapon at me as he strode over to me, the threat of his firing it serving to keep me subdued. I glanced at Grue, but he was frozen, two of his teammates at the mercy of the city's leading heroes. Tattletale was struggling to her feet, but she couldn't accomplish much.
Above Regent, the sword shimmered and turned into that black and green energy. In that moment, Regent struck, drawing his knees to his chest, then kicking up and to the side to drive both of his heels into Miss Militia's upper stomach. A second later, he shoved both of his hands in the direction of her collarbone.
The black-green energy of her power continued to arc around her without solidifying as the contents of her stomach began violently heaving their way out of her mouth, spattering into the flag-scarf that covered the lower half of her face and overflowing onto the floor. Regent had to roll to one side to avoid being bathed in vomit.
I took advantage of the distraction and brought every bug in the room down from the ceiling, sending a fair majority of them toward Armsmaster. He swiped at his face to remove them, then lifted his weapon. I grabbed for the pole with both hands before it could strike the ground, and pulled myself across the floor to situate my body between the pole and the ground.
It didn't feel like I thought it might, the electrical charge. As the end of the Halberd made contact with my body, it was as though someone had dropped a handful of live snakes onto my chest and they were writhing in place there, a single tendril rushing up the skin of my right arm and over my fingertips. It didn't hurt much at all.

Good job, guys

. Tricking Miss Militia into turning her machete into a non-lethal weapon then taking advance of the situation like a BOSS. I feel pity for her however, Armsmaster should be the one to be hit like this, too bad he have protective armor. Including around his dick. Fuck Arms with his protected dick. The good thing is that the electrical charge is reasonable harmless to humans, the bad thing is that Armsmaster still have upper hand(s) over the fight.

And the bugs around Armsmaster didn't die. Very few of the ones on me, even, perished.
I'd known spider silk was insulated to some degree. I was really glad that it was insulated enough. Really, really glad my interference was enough to stop the energy from conducting through the area and zapping the bugs out of the air.
"Hm," looming over me, Armsmaster made a noise of disapproval, "Not smart."
"Bitch! Dogs!" I hollered, "Grue! Shadow me!"
Of all the times to lapse into caveman grammar. Still, he smothered me and Armsmaster in darkness.
When Armsmaster managed to wrest the Halberd from my hands, I had enough bugs on him to tell he was bringing the bottom end of his Halberd down hard against the floor, away from me. My bugs didn't die, and continued to settle on the exposed skin of his lower face, crawl up under his visor. The charge or whatever other stuff he had going on to direct it wasn't conducting through the darkness.

Before he could strike at me, I headed in the other direction. Staying in close proximity to Armsmaster wasn't a good idea, with my power being one that worked at range, and him being the close-quarters combatant. I felt him move away from me, clawing the bugs away from his mouth and nose, heading out the opposite side of the cloud of darkness to strike the ground, kill off the swarm I'd set on him and then turn his attention to the charging dogs.
I wasn't two steps outside of the darkness when I had Velocity in my face.
Battery and Velocity were both speedsters of a sort, giving them the ability to move at a ridiculous pace. They were very different kinds of speedster, though. As I interpreted it, from all the stuff I'd read online and in the magazines and interviews, Battery could charge up and move at enhanced speeds for very short periods of time, sort of like how Bitch's power pumped up her dogs, but concentrated into a few brief moments. It was a physiological change, altering her biology and then altering it back before it became too much on her body.
The actual act of moving at the speeds these guys could manage was an incredible strain on the body. There were only one or two parahumans on the planet who could manage that kind of movement without any workarounds or limitations, and Battery and Velocity weren't among them.
Velocity, in contrast to Battery, was more like Shadow Stalker. He changedstates, and while I had no idea what this meant exactly, whether it was him shifting partially into another dimension or altering the way time or physics worked in relation to himself, I did know that it made him able to move very fast, without needing to rest like Battery did. Fast enough that my wasps couldn't really land on him, and those that did were dispatched before they could start stinging.

Velocity is like Flash junior, he's a speeder, but with very limited powers. Even so, she might be dangerous enough for Skitter, especially since his speed makes her Swarm kind of useless. Maybe Bitch's dogs will save her, if they're fast enough for Velocity, that is.

The drawback, though, was that while he was moving like that, he wasn't hitting as hard, probably for the same reasons he wasn't shattering his bones by hammering his feet against the ground ten times a second, getting torn to shreds by friction or running out of oxygen due to an inability to breathe. His speed came with a reduced ability to affect the world around him and be affected by it. He couldn't hit as hard, couldn't hold or move things as easily. An effective loss of strength proportionate to how fast he was capable of moving.
So as fast as he was moving, having him hit me wasn't much worse than getting punched by an eight year old.
Problem was, he was hitting me a lot. His perceptions were ramped up, too, which meant he had the luxury of what must have been seconds in his own senses to see my reactions, calculate the best place to stick that next punch or kick to knock me off balance or inflict pain. It was less like being in a fistfight and more like being caught in a gale-force wind that had every intent of screwing me over.

Velocity was forcing me to back up, stumble and overall just working to herd me in one direction – towards an open window. Either he'd force me through and leave me hanging from the ledge, helpless to avoid arrest, or I'd have to give up or let myself be knocked to the ground instead, at which point it would be pretty much over. Once I was down, he'd either keep up the onslaught until another cape could finish me off, or he'd turn off his power long enough to knock me over the head a few times with a chair or something.
Across the room, Grue was working with two of the dogs and Bitch to keep Armsmaster hemmed in, while one of the dogs and Regent were keeping Miss Militia out of action.
I couldn't win this one on my own.
"Grue!" I hollered. I got struck in the mouth three times before I could bring an arm up to fend Velocity off and speak again, "Need cover!"
He spared me a glance and a blast of his darkness. In an instant, I was blind and deaf, with only my bugs to go by.
But Velocity was slowed down, and I had my suspicions that it wasn't just the fact that he had to use his hands to find me before striking. Grue had said that Shadow Stalker's powers were somehow less effective in his darkness. Could that apply to Velocity too? Or was it just the extra resistance of Grue's power versus normal air, combined with Velocity's low strength?

I'm impressed by how many powers Grue can affect with his SUPER-DARKNESS. I have some theories (of course, THEORIES, surprising, eh?) about why this keeps happening- with Grue fucking up Shadow Bitch Stalker and Velocity's powers but I'll write about tomorrow. Pinky promise. Now that Velocity stopped from his job to punch Skitter to death, she can use bugs to bite him, while he's being nearly powerless and senseless to fight back.

My bugs were now successfully settling on him, oddly giving me a better sense of his movements than my eyes had, and I was directing them not to sting or bite, so he wouldn't have an easy time finding them. They began to cluster on him, and somehow I felt like that was slowing him down even more.
The onslaught had been softened, and he wasn't half as effective at keeping me off balance, now. He couldn't effectively see my posture to know the optimal places to strike, so I was able to get my feet firmly on the ground. I lashed out twice with my fists, but my hits lacked impact. Something to do with his power, I suspected, as well as his ability to move fast enough to roll with any hits he felt connecting.
So I grabbed a weapon he couldn't react to, my pepper spray, and directed a stream of it into his face. Then I instructed the bugs I'd gathered on him to bite and sting.
The effect was immediate, and dramatic. You've never really seen someone flip out until you've seen a speedster flip out. He fell to the ground, stood, tumbled over a chair, then was up the next second, lunging for a table, blindly patting it down in the hopes of finding something to wash his eyes out with. I felt him slow down dramatically, increasing his own strength enough to allow himself to check the cups and pitchers.
I had bugs on the table he was searching, and the only liquid there was wine. Anticipating he would continue looking for some relief, I moved closer to the table nearest me.
Sure enough, he darted over to the same table and began searching. I took one long step to my left, reached behind my back, and gripped the foam handle of my extendable baton with both hands. Like a golf club, I swung it up and between his legs.

My rationale was that I needed to hamper his mobility, but I didn't want to deliver any permanent injury, which was a possibility if I hit him in the knee or spine. Besides, the Protectorate had top notch costume designers, and what male superhero with an expensive costume would go out without a cup? Right?
Unless, the thought crossed my mind as Velocity keeled over, he'd foregone the cup for extra mobility and to reduce friction.
I'd find some way to make it up to him, after all of this was over with.

OMG, Skitter, you wrenched his dick too!!! And this is not one of my stupid jokes about dicks, this is exactly what happened. See, that's the reason why I can't stop making tasteless jokes about Skitter, the Destroyer of Dicks. Because Wildbow can't stop describing Skitter destroying dicks. When he'll finally decide to stop, then I'll stop myself too. Until then...let this girl who not only got superpowers, but also an irrational hate for dicks, to do what she's the best at doing

. Poor Velocity though

.

He pulled weakly against my grip as I brought his left arm and his right leg together, and cinched them together with a double-set of plastic handcuffs. I then cuffed his right arm to the table in front of him. Velocity was out of action, for all intents and purposes.
Though every impulse told me to get out of the darkness and get a look at what was going on, I stayed put, crouching and feeling out with my bugs. With their legs and bodies serving as thousands upon thousands of tiny fingers I could use to feel out my surroundings, I got a sense of the situation.
Since doing whatever he'd done to Miss Militia, Regent had taken to standing guard over her. He had one hand outstretched in her direction while she struggled on the floor, dry heaving now, with her limbs twitching. Tattletale was with him, one hand still pressed to her stomach, but she was standing, watching the crowd for anyone who might step to Miss Militia's rescue.

Which left only Armsmaster. Except 'only' wasn't the right word. Bitch, her three dogs and Grue had Armsmaster surrounded, and even with that, I got the impression that he was in control of the situation.
He'd formed the head of his halberd into a loose ball again, and had the chain he used for the grappling hook extended partially so it could serve as a flail. There was something of a stalemate as my teammates remained where they were, staying spaced out, just out of reach of the weapon. Armsmaster, for his part, was standing in a loose fighting posture, holding the long pole of his Halberd as he swung the flail head in a loose figure eight.
Brutus growled at his quarry, moving a half step too close, and Armsmaster seized the opportunity. The chain extended with a faint whirr and the flail moved with surprising quickness to collide with Brutus' shoulder. From Brutus' reaction, I would have thought he'd just been hit by a wrecking ball. Either Armsmaster was far stronger than he looked, or there was something about his weapon that was giving it a little extra oomph. Given that he was a tinker, it could have been anything.
Armsmaster didn't stop at felling Brutus. As he finished giving the ball the necessary momentum, Armsmaster reversed his grip and lunged at Grue, swinging the bottom end of his weapon like a baseball bat. Grue avoided the swing by stepping back and ducking, but wasn't able to recover quick enough to avoid the follow-up. Armsmaster kept moving forward, not pausing as he slapped the end of the pole back into one of his hands and rammed the midsection of the pole against Grue's chest, hard. Grue hit the ground with enough force that he almost bounced, and was driven hard into the ground a second time as Armsmaster brought the end of the pole down into his stomach.

I'm now afraid for the boys of Skitter's team, including their boss. Piss her off and they can say RIP to their dicks. So, watch out Regent. Watch Out Grue. Watch out, Coil -especially you, Coil since...well, if he have snake features for real then he also must have

two dicks (google and see snakes having two penises).

Double-trouble

. Armsmaster is an absolute jerk of a hero, but even I have to admit that he's also the most BADASS one. He's not only very smart, but he fights by himself with so many enemies in the same time and manages to beat the crap out of them. I have to respect him at least for his BALLS.

Without thinking, I stepped forward out of the darkness, then stopped myself. What help could I offer by jumping in there?
Bitch whistled for a dog to attack, but Armsmaster was already reacting, drawing his elbow against the chain to control the movement of the flail's head. He dropped the pole and grabbed the chain to pull the ball towards himself, caught it out of the air with his free hand and turning in a tight circle to preserve the momentum from flail-head's flight, slammed it full force into Angelica's ear. Bitch had to skip back out of the way as Angelica collapsed to the ground where she'd been standing.
Without glancing down, Armsmaster put one armored boot underneath the pole as it rebounded against the ground, then kicked it straight up to chest level. He caught his weapon in one hand and reeled in the chain. The flail-head snapped back into a blade shape as it reconnected with the top of the pole.
Two dogs and Grue down, and he'd made it look effortless.
It struck me just what made Armsmaster a step above other tinkers, above other people with the ability to invent and perform mad science, and it wasn't the insane amounts of training he had probably put himself through. Tinkers tended to have a knack, a special quality specific to their work. According to Tattletale, Armsmaster's ability let him cram technology together and still have it work. Other tinkers were limited in what they could carry and have access to at any given point in time, but Armsmaster? He had a solution for every problem he'd been able to think of, without having to worry about economy of space, the weight of his hardware and the room on his utility belt, or whatever. And with all of that, his main gear, his armor and Halberd, were still devastating and completely reliable in their own right.

While Armsmaster had his back turned to her, I saw Tattletale step to one side, surreptitiously.
Judas lunged, and in the same moment Armsmaster reacted, Tattletale made a move for the crowd, drawing her gun.
I glanced towards Armsmaster, and my view of him was blocked as Judas collapsed to the ground between us. Through my bugs, I sensed him extend his weapon towards Tattletale, felt the recoil as the head of it rocketed off. The grappling hook caught her gun hand with enough force to screw up her aim, and the tines of the hook closed around her arm.
He reeled in the chain at the same time he pulled it back toward him, and in doing so, flung Tattletale across the floor. The tines let her go just in time to send her careening into one of the flimsy cocktail tables. Armsmaster jerked the pole of his weapon to control the flight of the hook as it reeled back in, striking Tattletale's gun out of the air and shattering it into pieces.
"No hostages," he said, "No guns."
Grue started to stand, fell, then managed to stand successfully on his second try. The three dogs Armsmaster had dropped were taking longer to get upright. Angelica shook her head violently, twice, paused, then did it again.
Armsmaster looked at Bitch, then slapped the pole of his weapon against the palm of his armored glove.
"Rachel Lindt, AKA: Hellhound."
"Armsmaster, AKA: dickhole," Bitch retorted.

Fuck, he injured Tattletale again. Well, this time he did it in self defense, but still....DON'T HURT MY TATTLETALE, YOU IDIOT. Indeed, Bitch, Armsmaster aka THE MOST AWFUL HERO OUT OF BROCKTON BAY THAT PROTECTORATE SHOULD BE ASHAMED TO HAVE, EVEN IF HE'S INCREDIBLE BADASS, HE'S STILL A PIECE OF SHIT OF A GLORY SEEKER AND AGGRESSIVE TINKER. Man, he makes me write all the time in caps, this is the effect he have on me. Fuck him and his invincible dick.

"If this goes any further, I can't promise those animals of yours won't suffer permanent damage."
I could see her eyes move behind the eyeholes of her mask as she cast a sidelong glance to her left to look at Brutus, then to her right, at Angelica. Then she met his gaze, "You do lasting damage to any of them, we'll find you and do ten times worse to you. Trust me, old man, they know your smell, we can track you down."
Again, the pole slapping against his glove with a sound of metal against metal.
His tone was measured as he asked her, "Why risk it? You've already lost. We had enough footage of your dogs that I was able to put together a simulation of their fighting patterns. I know how they attack, how they react. I know how you think in a fight, the commands you give, and when. All of that is wired into my suit, into my heads up display. I know what you and your beasts are going to do before you've decided on it. None of you are walking away."

"It's not just me and the dogs," Bitch spoke.
"Your friends? I may not have a simulation set up for him, but I'm better than your leader, Grue. Stronger, better armored, better equipped, better trained. If your friend Regent turns his attention from Miss Militia for more than twenty seconds, she will shoot one or all of you, not that he could do anything to me if he bothered. Tattletale? Unconscious. Skitter? Not a threat."
What was he doing? Why was he so focused on getting Bitch to admit it was over?
Reputation, yet again. He needed to salvage this situation, and the surest way to do that, to recoup his losses and come out of this looking okay, would be to get the meanest, toughest, most notorious of us to bend at the knee and concede defeat.
He really didn't know Bitch, though.
She pulled her cheap plastic dog mask off and threw it to one side. It was only a formality, really, since her face and identity were public knowledge. Her smile, as it spread across her face, wasn't the most attractive. Too many teeth showing.
"Lung underestimated her, too," she told him, looking at me.
Armsmaster turned to look, as well.
Seriously? I mean, really, Bitch? Passing the ball to me? I didn't have a plan. There wasn't much I could do, here.
"Velocity?" Armsmaster queried me, casual.
I shrugged, miming his casual tone, while feeling anything but, "Dealt with."

Skitter: ...Velocity is still crying like a baby over his ruined goodies.
Armsmaster:..."stares"....
Skitter: Lung was lucky that he have regeneration powers, otherwise he'd have stayed on toilet like a woman for the rest of his life.
Armsmaster: You gotta be kidding me.
Skitter: Once I discover how I can stick bees inside your armor without any further difficulties, no technology on earth can save what you treasure the most, apart from fame.
Armsmaster: You little shit....

"Hm. I think-"
As he spoke, I faced Grue and jerked my head in Armsmaster's direction. Armsmaster wasn't oblivious, and took my cue as reason to drop into a fighting posture. There was nothing he could really defend against, though, as Grue shrouded the two of us in darkness a second time.
The worst possiblity, that Armsmaster would tell the Undersiders what I was planning, was dealt with for the moment. I doubted Armsmaster would continue to talk while under the effects of Grue's power.
Which left me the problem of dealing with the guy. I could sense the bugs I had on him moving, as he came through the darkness, towards me. At the very least, if I could draw him away from the others, I could buy them time.
I ran for the glass door that led to one of the outside patios. I glanced over my shoulder, and sure enough, I saw Armsmaster emerging from the cloud of oily shadow. He spun on his heels to swing his flail into Judas, bringing the dog down as it emerged right after him, then whirled to face me again. As I got outside, the chain reeled in, bringing the flail head back to the top of the weapon. He paused.

Why? There was only one reason he'd be staying back and reeling in like that, instead of closing the distance to get me in his reach.
I took a guess. Knowing that the attack would come faster than I expected, from what had happened to Tattletale on the two occasions, I threw myself to the floor of the patio.
The ball came flying out of the end of his weapon, but my attempt to dodge did little good. He whipped the chain to shift the sphere's trajectory, and simultaneously opened it into its oversized grappling hook form. The thing hit me in my side, with the tines passing over each of my shoulders and under my armpits. I grunted with the impact, and as I tried to stand, I nearly slipped on the excess chain that spooled around me in the grappling hook's wake. I felt the claw of the hook tighten around my chest.
On the far side of the patio, Armsmaster planted his feet and raised his weapon to start reeling me in.
No, no, no, no, no.
I was not going down like this.
Not with Emma fucking Barnes and her asshole lawyer dad in the crowd.
I started to gather my bugs from inside, but stopped. No use bringing them here, when Armsmaster could murder half the swarm with that souped up bug zapper he'd worked into his Halberd. I moved my bugs into position indoors.
Still shaky from the hit, thankful for the armor I'd built into my costume, I managed to grab the excess chain below me and wind it around the patio's railing behind me. If Armsmaster wanted me, he'd have to come to me, dammit. I wasn't going to make this easy.
The chain grew taut, and Armsmaster tugged twice before deciding it would be less trouble to approach than to add to the property damage. He closed the distance to me on foot, pausing only to free his chain from the patio railing. He reeled in his chain to pull me the remaining two or three feet to him.
"Skitter. I would have thought you would be quicker to surrender."
Nobody else was in earshot. "Whatever side I'm on, I don't exactly want to go to jail. Look, my offer stands. I've almost got the last bit of detail I need from these guys."
"Something you said you'd have weeks ago," he replied.
"There's no other way you're going to salvage this, Armsmaster," I stood as straight as I could with the grappling hook around me. The damned thing was heavy. Tattletale had gone out of her way, even got herself knocked out of action, to let us know how important Armsmaster's status was to him. I needed to use that. "Only way you won't look incompetent is if you can say I only got away because you let me. That all of this tonight happened because you let it. Because letting me get away with this meant I could get the info on who's employing the Undersiders, on where the funding, equipment and information is coming from. Then you clean up, and it's two supervillain groups dealt with in the span of a week. Tell me that doesn't sound good."
Armsmaster considered for a moment.
"No," he answered me.
"No?"
"Don't expect anything other than a prompt arrest for you and your companions for your antics tonight," he shook his head, "A bird in the hand, after all…"
He gave me a little shake, as if to make it clear just who the bird was.
I took a deep breath, "You were right, Armsmaster."
"Of course," he spoke, absently, pushing me against the railing with one hand. His grappling hook released me, reconfiguring into what I suspected was the same setup that had fixed Lung to the ground with bars of stainless steel, back in my first day in costume. It was shaped like a rectangle, and there were two 'u' shaped bands of metal with electricity arcing around them, the tips of each 'u' glowing hot enough to melt against any surface.
"This was over from the moment we stepped into the room," I finished.
Nearly seven hundred hornets exploded from underneath my panels of armor, all latching onto him, biting and stinging relentlessly, flowing underneath his visor, into his helmet, his nose, mouth and ears. Some even crawled down beneath his collar, to his shoulders and chest.

HOLY MOLLY!!! She fucked him up with wasps (my prediction was Gold, even if I said bees, not wasps). Make them crawl straight to his dick, please, do it for me. He's an asshole who deserve the worst kind of fuckery (I personally think that Arms would make a better villain than a hero but I'll explain tomorrow why). Let the wasps have fun with him- after all, he's a dick from head to toe, so everywhere they'll crawl, they'll still find a piece of a dick. Wow, what a good strategy you had, Skitter. You're the best, gurl

.

I threw myself at the tail end of his Halberd, hugging my body around it. With one hand he lifted me and the Halberd both, and slammed us against the ground. Again, I felt those tendrils of electricity running over me, on top of the pain of having my stomach caught between the pole and the ground. I was very thankful, the second time tonight, for the panels of armor I'd implemented into my costume design.

He repeated the process, lifting me two or three feet off the ground, then slamming the pole and me down again. After the second time, I had to fight to place myself beneath the pole again in anticipation of a third hit, knowing he would weather the onslaught of hornets longer than I did this abuse.
Rescue couldn't have come a second later.
Bitch, an unconscious Tattletale and Brutus were the first ones over the edge of the patio. Brutus bumped against Armsmaster as he passed, knocking the man off balance and giving me the chance I needed to heave myself upright and pull the Halberd from his grasp. I held it in my hands, and he was too distracted by the swarming hornets to even realize it.
I threw the Halberd over the edge of the patio and ran toward the door leading back inside. I caught Grue's reaching hand as he and Judas bounded through, so he could swing me up behind him.
As we leaped from the patio's edge, I looked behind us and saw Angelica and Regent following. Grue was banishing his darkness, to make the mess we'd created all the more clear for those of our audience that hadn't yet managed to flee. Our objective was to humiliate, after all.
For much the same reason, maybe as a bit of a spiteful 'fuck you' to Armsmaster, who'd made this all so much harder than it had to be, I left my bugs where they were, arranged on the wall to the right of the patio and the floor in front of it. Half were gathered into the shape of two large arrows pointing to the patio door, one on the floor and one on the wall, while the other half were arranged into bold letters spelling out 'LETS GO'.
I wrapped my arms around Grue, holding him tight as much in anticipation of our landing on a nearby rooftop as a farewell hug.
Chances were good that this was my last job as part of the Undersiders.

Undersiders tonight: they humiliated heroes, they humiliated the best one of them, they destroyed the party, they ran away (injured but successful), Skitter learned how to write with the help of Swarm (also, grammatically correct), and Coil is going to hiss in happiness because his employers were IMPRESSIVELY GOOD. All's well that ends well.

OMG, its so LATE. Gosh, this chapter was very long

. Good night and sleep well, my lovely friends.

blackarrow · Mar 29, 2018

AmbarGriss said:
I forgot how much I hate that cunt of a mam, FUCK YOU Armsmaster!

Yep, he's awful. But he'd make an excellent villain, more dangerous than any other villain I saw so far. I mean, right know he can't kill people right and left, because he is a hero and he have to behave like this (or at least try to). But give him to possibility to do what he wants, take away from him all society induced morals and he'll make Bakuda and Lung SHIVER in fear only by hearing his name. Because he'll be completely ruthless, less crazy than Bakura, a lot smarter than Lung and Kaiser, and he'll not joke around and be tricked so easy. He'll be HELL of a villain.

ExNihilo · Mar 29, 2018

Poor Miss Militia, she doesn't deserve any of this.

blackarrow · Mar 29, 2018

ExNihilo said:
Poor Miss Militia, she doesn't deserve any of this.

I agree 1000% with you. The same you can say for poor Velocity too. Well...he did attacked and punched Skitter, but still....what she did to his dick was painful, poor him

. Also, I'm glad to see you back.

HeWhoAdds · Mar 29, 2018

blackarrow said:
MORE REASONS TO DISLIKE THIS ASSHOLE WHO PRETENDS THAT HE'S A HERO BUT HE ONLY CARES ABOUT HIS PERSONAL FAME AND HE DOESN'T HAVE ANY MORALS ABOUT HURTING A TEENAGER WHO DIDN'T DO ANYTHING HARMFUL TO HIM -well, Tattletale kinda tried to manipulate him but he shouldn't reacted like this, attacking her so ferocious. This is a disproportionate response, Arms, do you hear me? Its like someone is trying to piss off verbally a cop and he pulls out his gun, shooting them. Even if they surrendered already- Fuck you, half-baked hero. Two more stunts like this in the future and I'm going to be happy if a villain will kill you, Arms . Also, I'm not surprised why his teammates hates him. If I were a hero myself, I'd refuse to work alongside Armsmaster or Shadow Fucking Stalker. I won't feel good and safe in their company.

Ok, normally I'm the one defending Tattletale, but... this is a superhero fight. Getting hit is pretty much par for the course. What's Armsmaster supposed to do, gently toss kittens at the Undersiders until they peacefully surrender? He didn't pick this fight.

I mean, he's still a dick for NUMEROUS other reasons, but hitting someone who LITERALLY crashed your party and started shit isn't exactly a massive superhero faux pas.

Assembler · Mar 30, 2018

blackarrow said:
Faultline is here, in her civilian clothes (no name for her? "sighs"),

Melanie Fitts, according to an early draft of a story about the Crew.

blackarrow said:
Newter is using his bodily fluids to...drug the girls??? God, man, uh, I like you quite a lot, but I don't agree with what you're doing. Drugs are BAD, and what you're doing is BAD, ok? Well, people on this thread said that Newter's drugs don't create dependence but...still BAD "sighs".

They knew exactly what they were getting into when they agreed, and Newter's drugs have no side effects. If they're going to do drugs, Newter's a far better dealer to go to than the Empire or the Merchants.

blackarrow said:
I still don't get why she can't cut the green wood. What is the deal with green wood and Manton Effect? Its not a living being wtf!!!!

Green wood is still alive enough for Faultline's power to be unable to cut it.

blackarrow said:
Btw, guys, I think I got myself spoiled a little with a Worm picture. I searched after something on DeviantArt and I noticed a picture where I recognized Glory Girl, Panacea and an elegant lady that I don't know about yet (with a black dress/top, blonde hair and scarily long-ass nails). I think she's a heroine since she's in the same picture with two heroines. Just don't tell me her codename or name, I'll find out when I'll met her .

What search terms were you using? Because I'm interested in seeing that picture.

AmbarGriss said:
Everyone loves Brian

Not most of the fandom.

blackarrow said:
They all should wear night-vision goggles

Wouldn't help them see through Grue's darkness.

blackarrow said:
this dumbass genius honestly believed all the wrong information Glory Hole gave him about Tattletale's power .

Technically, it was Panacea who gave the Tattletale information to the Wards and Protectorate, and she genuinely believed it.

blackarrow said:
I wonder if her power have a limit of used weapons- there were only war weapons or even more futuristic weapons like lasers or Jedi swords?

Has to be weapons ordinary humans can make, so no making Armsmaster's halberd.

blackarrow · Mar 30, 2018

Hello, good and bad friends. Last time time, BOTH Protectorate and Wards were more or less painful humiliated by Undersiders, who managed to crash their party then ran away, without any of them being seriously injured or arrested. This is the good news. The bad news: Emma and her dad (and Shadow Stalker since I'm strongly suspicious she's also Sophia) SURVIVED. Actually, this bad news is awful bad. I just can't see anything worse than this. Ok, before I'm going to start the new chapter 6.07 | Worm I want everyone to make an exercise of imagination. Imagine a very strong and smart villain. A villain with genius level intellect. Or better said, a tinker, one of the best ones. One capable to create awesome and very lethal weapons, near indestructible armors and incredible gadgets. One who's obsessed with fame and power and would do anything to gain them, including to kill a whole city. An arrogant one, but an excellent fighter and very hard to be defeated in a battle if he's not hold back by any morals and limitations. One vengeful and spiteful and ruthless and very well prepared villain. Interesting image of a villain Armsmaster, right? This is him if he wasn't a hero. Do you know what? I kind of want Arms to become a villain. I want to see his slow ascension on villain path, maybe he'll see that being a hero isn't very satisfactorily for him and he'll see his potential as being a better supervillain. I WANT NOW a villain Armsmaster, one who will not give a shit about anyone and anything but himself, one who'll be more interestings than the actual villain we had so far. I wonder if this will happen for real in canon, because that would be a great and well executed turn of events for a character who show already signs for being opposite to his actual occupation. And since I already "asked" Sundancer why did she became a villain, now I'll "ask" Armsmaster why did he became a hero. He could gain fame as a villain too, even more easy than as a hero.

Leaping from rooftop to rooftop was not as awesome or efficient as it was on TV and in the movies. Even if it was the dogs doing the brunt of the work, they weren't the most graceful of creatures, they weren't built to be ridden, and we didn't have any saddles. There was also the distinct issue of there being buildings of wildly varying heights, similar to how Brian's neighborhood sported old Victorian style buildings amid apartments and condos. As Judas hopped down from the side of a six story building, dug his claws into the side of a neighboring building to slow his descent, then jumped the rest of the way down to the asphalt of an alleyway, I was genuinely concerned the landings would dislocate my hip.
In short, I was grateful to be back on terra firma.
"Need a hand!" Bitch called out, a moment after Brutus set down. She had a prone Tattletale lying across her lap and Brutus' shoulders, and it looked like Tattletale was falling off, despite Bitch's best efforts to hold on to her.
I reluctantly let go of Grue as he slipped down from Judas and rushed over to help. I silently lamented having included the panels of armor on my chest and stomach, which had been a solid barrier between my body and his back as I clung to him on our retreat from the Forsberg Gallery.

Whatever my regrets, I wasn't oblivious to the matter at hand. I hopped down off Judas' back and hurried over to help with Tattletale, just a step behind Grue. It proved easier to slide her down to the sidewalk than to get her back up onto Brutus' back. Grue did the heavy lifting, while I focused on keeping her head and arms from hitting the ground or getting caught under her. As I bent down to help ease her to the ground, I could already feel the stiffness in the muscles of my thighs, back and stomach. I was glad I'd done my morning exercise earlier, because there was no way I was going to be able to go anywhere tomorrow.
I glanced around us. Cars were zipping past on the streets at either end, but there weren't many pedestrians, and none appeared to have spotted us, thus far. My suspicions were that most people in the downtown area who were out and about would be near Lord Street, celebrating the end of the curfew. People would be acting out their relief over the end of the ABB situation, making up for time they'd spent cooped up in their homes during the six nights of curfew.
"Anyone see capes following?" Grue asked.
"I didn't see anyone, but I wasn't really looking. That's usually Tattletale's job," Regent replied.
"She can't give us any info like this," Grue pointed out.
"Wait," I told him. I reached back into my utility compartment and fished out the changepurse. I removed the tissues I'd wadded up inside to keep the change from rattling and found one of the three tiny white packets at the bottom of the bag. I tore the packet open and held it under Tattletale's nose.
"Smelling salts?" Grue asked.
I nodded. "You asked if anyone had any after we put down Über and Leet. I made a mental note to have 'em for next time."
"I bet half of us did," Regent replied, "The weird thing is that you actually followed through, dork."

Funny how Armsmaster became, thanks to the last 2 chapters, the most interesting and fascinating hero to me. Even if I strongly dislike him, I want so much to learn about him, about his past, about his feelings/emotions (others that thirst for glory), about his relationship with other heroes (its hard to believe that there's not single person who doesn't hate him; maybe a family member, maybe a good friend who tolerate him), I'd be more than ok with an Interlude dedicated to this terrible man and terrible hero.
As for our other "heroes", they escaped without being followed (apparently) by anyone (but I smell a trap anyway) and Skitter is well prepared as always. Nothing surprising here, she's planning on all occasions before going anywhere. I think that if she'll ever decide to go on a REAL date with Brian, she'll fuck everything up, because she'll keep planning every little detail of their date in every second until Brian will be like: Fuck this shit, I'm OUT! and run away even faster than Velocity. And Fireflies will die

.

"What's weird about that?" I asked, a bit defensively.
He was distracted from replying. Tattletale stirred, turning her head to get her nose away from the smelling salts. I moved them back under her nose.
She woke, mumbling, "Okay, stop."
"Welcome back," Grue told her.
"How do you feel?" I asked.
"My stomach feels like someone ran it through a blender, and my arm hurts like hell, but I'm tougher than I look," she said. Not one second later, she groaned and huffed out a breath, "But I'm going to need help to stand."
Grue and I helped her. She was hurting, and moved at a glacial pace. It was made more difficult by the fact that she apparently didn't want either of us to touch her right arm.

"What'd I miss?" she asked, as if to distract from the fact that she was moving like an old woman.
"Tee el dee arr, you got bitchslapped and knocked out, it was down to Bitch and Skitter, and we still got away," Regent shrugged.
Tattletale froze in her tracks. Since Grue and I were still easing her to a standing position, I was forced to shift my grip to ensure she didn't fall.
"Shit," she managed to fit more invective into that one word than some of the people from my dad's work could manage in ten, and some of those guys were seamen. Tattletale turned her head, "That's not-"

Oh....GOD, what a TWIST of TWISTS....something bad is going on. Unexpected

rofl:. So, what will happen? Heroes trapped them? It must be the work of Armsmaster, this man doesn't have any idea when to give up. Let's see what you have prepared for them, Arms. Bring it on!

"Not true," Armsmaster spoke, echoing her words as he rounded the end of the alley.

He looked worse for wear. The lower half of his face had welts on it, not many, but some. I'd instructed the hornets to sting so they weren't coiling their abdomens, which meant they weren't squeezing the venom sacs and injecting venom with every sting. I'd only injected enough venom to make it hurt a little, to distract. After I'd beaten my retreat, though, I knew some would have stayed on him, and a few would have stung him after I was out of range and no longer able to control the hornets. The welts weren't the bad part, though. What caught my eye, though, were the six thin trickles of blood running down the lower half of his face. Hornet bites weren't necessarily capable of penetrating skin, as much as they might hurt, but there had been a lot of them, and if a few happened to bite in the same location, or if they caught the edge of an eyelid or nostril? Maybe. I noticed his Halberd in his right hand.
When I looked at our remaining escape route, Dauntless was at the other end of the alley. Brockton Bay's rising star. It would have been easy to peg him as a tinker, but he apparently wasn't. His power let him, according to details he'd leaked when he'd appeared on TV and in magazines, imbue his gear with a little bit of power every day. Thing was, every bit of power he parceled out had permanent effects. Every day, he was just a little bit stronger than he'd been the day before. A little bit more versatile. It was expected that he would eventually surpass even the likes of Alexandria, Legend and Eidolon, the 'triumvirate' of the Protectorate, the top dogs. That kind of made him a big deal in Brockton Bay, a hometown hero.
I didn't follow that stuff, didn't buy into the hero worship. I'd always found the capes interesting, I'd followed the non-gossipy news about them, but with the exception of a phase around the time I was nine where I'd had an Alexandria t-shirt and had my mom help me find pictures of her online, I had never really got giddy over any particular hero.
Dauntless packed a few trademark pieces of gear. He had his Arclance, a spear he held in one hand that looked like it was made of white lightning. His shield, fixed to his left forearm, was a metal disc about the size of a dinner plate, surrounded by rings of the same kind of energy that made up the spear. Finishing his current set of empowered items were his boots. His feet looked like they were encased in the white crackling energy. If rumor was to be believed, he was working on empowering his armor as well, but I couldn't see any hints of that energy on the costume. It was white and gold, and his golden helmet was in the Greek or Spartan style, with slits for the eyes, a band of metal covering his nose, and a slit running down lower half of his face. A band of metal crested the top, like a mohawk.

I'm bombarded with twists and turns from all sides. I "never" guessed Armsmaster coming to get his sweet revenge over such humiliation (my sarcasm is going to poison me. Faster than I anticipated). We also have Dauntless (I honestly didn't expected him, I almost forgot his existence, maybe because he didn't do anything during the gallery fight). His costume is very cool, kind of similar with Armasmasters, but cooler, maybe because of his spear and shield. He can also enhance his gears with power and he seems as powerful as the most powerful parahumans heroes- Alexandria, Legend and Eidolon (never heard about this one before; in greek mythology, an eidolon is a spirit-shadow of either a living or a dead human. So, maybe he can enter into a spirit-shadow state or he can steal the soul of a person and use it in combat, fighting for him or empowering him).

You could see the frown crease Armsmaster's damaged face as he turned his focus to me.
"I threw your Halberd off the side of the Gallery," I spoke before he could. "Did Dauntless fetch it for you?"
He didn't voice a reply right away. As if to demonstrate, he threw his Halberd straight up in the air. It disappeared into a storm of glowing blue lines as it reached the peak of its ascent, simultaneously rematerializing in his hand. Hadn't I seen Kid Win bring his cannon to the site of the bank robbery in the same way? A piece of borrowed technology?
"I'm not about to put so many eggs in one basket without sufficient safeguards," Armsmaster told me. His voice was tight with repressed anger.
No bugs. Damn it, I had no bugs, again. I'd emptied my armor of bugs when I attacked Armsmaster, and I'd left them and the rest of the swarm back at the Gallery when I made my retreat.

"Surrender," he intoned.
"Thinking about it," Tattletale spoke.
"Decide fast," Armsmaster growled.
"Why did you guys stop here?" Tattletale murmured to us, "We're, like, half a block from the parking garage where we stashed our ride."
"I wanted to make sure there were no pursuers before we peeled out," Grue replied, "Good thing, too."
"Right," Regent's voice was thick with sarcasm, "Because this is so much better than them finding us as we put the key in the ignition."
"Guys," I cut in, whispering without taking my eyes from Armsmaster, "Answers. Solutions."
"Get to the parking garage," Tattletale told us.
"Our situation there won't be any better," Grue countered.
"Get to the parking garage," She hissed through her teeth, as Armsmaster took a step forward.
The alley was wide enough for two dogs to stand shoulder to shoulder, and I saw Bitch directing two of the animals to stand
between us and Armsmaster before Grue blanketed everything but Armsmaster and the dogs in darkness.
The darkness didn't last more than three seconds. There was enough time for Grue to place his arm against my collarbone and shove me back against the wall, and then he removed the darkness around us. There was a smell like burning ozone. Had Dauntless used his spear?
It was immediately clear that Dauntless didn't have much darkness around him. He was holding his shield arm up, and it had formed into a bubble-shaped forcefield, extending in a ten foot radius around himself, touching both walls on either side of us. The forcefield was serving to block off the darkness, and while I wasn't sure, I suspected that the field was actually eating through any darkness that touched it. It was making a continual sizzling, crackling sound that drowned out the traffic on the roads around us.
Dauntless advanced a pace, and the forcefield moved a corresponding distance closer to us.
After a second short advance from Dauntless, Grue had to back up a step to avoid touching the field of crackling white energy. A step that closed the distance between us and Armsmaster.

Both Armsmaster and Dauntless are so freaking strong. Armsmaster can teleport his weapon around like its child play and Dauntless have an forcefield that can screw with Grue's darkness. Not funny. I hope Dauntless is not as bad as Armsmaster because he's so cool and I don't really want all the cool heroes to be such assholes. I don't know what else you can do with these guys, Undersiders. Unless your boss will decide to come in your help, or other villain teams will attack them out of blue, like a fucked up for them karma, you're going to be arrested and I'm going to read the rest of the Arcs with you presenting the everyday life in Birdcage. As much as I want to look inside the super-jail, I'm not sure I'd really like to do that for the rest of the story.

"Armsmaster hates you," Tattletale told Dauntless, raising her voice to be heard over the crackling sound the forcefield was generating, "He hates that you're the next big thing, the guy that's going to be better than him. That you get the easy road to being a big name in the Protectorate, and he's the one that has to stay up nights, reworking his stuff, compiling simulations, coming up with new ideas, training in the gym for hours and hours on end. Every second of work he puts in, he gets more and more resentful of you. Why do you think you were the one member of the team he sent off to patrol the city and watch over the Wards, instead of having you come to the party?"

Dauntless shook his head. Then he raised his spear hand and tapped one finger against the side of his helmet.
"Ear buds," Tattletale sighed, "Armsmaster told him to wear ear buds, so Dauntless can't hear anyone but him. That's both brilliant and incredibly depressing."
Dauntless advanced two steps, quickly, and all of us, excepting Bitch and Angelica, were in a position where we had to hurry to step back. Regent was too slow, and his hand touched the bubble. A brief arc of energy traced from the field to Regent's hand as he pulled it back.
"Fuck! Ow!" Regent gasped. "Enough of this shit!"
He raised his other hand, and Dauntless stumbled. Regent then brushed his hand to one side, and Dauntless fell. As Dauntless used both hands to ease his fall, the forcefield dropped away.
"Go!" Grue bellowed, dismissing his darkness. Bitch whistled twice, hard, and the two dogs that were fighting Armsmaster hurried to follow.
Dauntless raised his spear to impede us. Grue, leading our retreat, leaped over the crackling beam of lightning and brought both feet down on Dauntless' helmet as he landed. The hero didn't recover before we were over and past him.
We were free of the alley. Two of the dogs surged past us, getting in the way of incoming traffic so we were clear to cross the street. Cars squealed to a stop as we moved.
We'd just crossed the threshold of the parking garage when Dauntless opened fire, striking Brutus no less than three times with jabs of his Arclance, then turning his attention to Angelica. The weapon could extend as far as he needed, elongating faster than the eye could follow. White sparks flew as it slammed into the animals, but the effect was minor at best. The Arclance was something between a solid and an energy, combining traits of both. It could hit hard enough, with an electrical charge to it to boot, but I suspected that using it on the dogs wasn't so different from using a hand taser on a bull elephant. They were too big, too tough.

Right, Arms hates this BADASS Dauntless too. I wonder if there's someone that Arms is capable to love. I wonder if he is capable to love people. He's not only fame-seeker and power-hungry, but he's also jealous on people who are better than him, even if they're in the same team with him. Why are you so broken, man? You're an absolute dick, indeed, but I'm still trying to understand you. Maybe your powers make you act like an robot rather than a human being? Maybe you're incapable of positive human emotions and you're not even a social being, because your mind constantly is fixed over your work and doesn't allow you to understand anything else but what you're building? Someone like Rachel, who's judging human interactions from the perspective of a dog (but instead of a dog, Arms is judging from the perspective of a robot, a heartless thin man kind of) Please, Wildbow, I NEED an Arms Interlude. I'm hungry after it

.
Also the ear buds is a fantastic idea. Arms "sighs", your heart is DIRT but your mind is GOLD.

Finding he wasn't having much effect on the animals, Dauntless aimed for us.
Regent disrupted Dauntless' aim, and the Arclance ripped over the windows of the building above the parking garage, bringing a rain of glass shards down on us as we made our way past the gate and into the garage.
Armsmaster exited the alley and spotted us. Intent on closing the distance, he sent his grappling hook out to catch the metal 'do not pass if you are above this height' bar above the door of the parking garage. The second the points of the hook closed around the bar, Armsmaster started reeling himself in, his metal boots skidding across the roadtop.
Bitch whistled, hard, and pointed to the bar. Judas lunged for it, catching both bar and grappling hook in his jaws. The chain holding the bar up snapped as Judas pulled, and Armsmaster's skid was interrupted as Judas pulled back on the chain that extended between them.
Armsmaster shifted to a run, managing to keep his feet under him as his trajectory changed. He extended his stick arm, and I saw a spray of blood fly from Judas' mouth, the dog rearing back in reaction. Judas let go of both the bar and the hook and backed away several paces, growling. As the hook retreated, I saw it wasn't in its grappling hook form, but the usual halberd-top, complete with blade, spearpoint, and no small amount of blood.

Armsmaster maintained his momentum, finished reeling in, then send the ball out again, his weapon back in flail-style. He brought Judas down, then brought the flail in a wide sweep to keep the other two dogs at bay. Dauntless continued his approach, stopping just behind and to the side of Armsmaster.
"My mapping program says there's three ways out of this garage," Armsmaster informed us, "The doors on the other two exits are locked, and I guarantee you won't have time to crack the lock or break down the door before I catch up with you. No more tricks, no more-"
He stopped mid-sentence, whipped his head to one side, then the other. "Wha-"
And then he disappeared.
A yellow painted concrete pillar, the sort that was used to keep cars from parking in front of the stairwell doors, or to protect the ticket vending machine from any collisions, appeared in his place. It hit the ground hard, then toppled onto its side. At the same time, we heard a series of heavy collisions from behind us.

Poor Judas

. But what's going on with Arms suddenly disappearing, being replaced with a pillar? What a minute....there's a villain who can teleport two objects or persons on each other places, as long as they have the same mass. TRICKSTER. Wow, Travellers are coming in Undersiders's help. This is the reason why Tattletale told everyone to run in the garage. Maybe she called Travellers before this mission started, without telling a word to her teammates. And this was their meeting point.

A steel giant with massive hands and a spout on its back that was spewing volumes of gray-black smoke had one hand closed around Armsmaster. Repeatedly, methodically, it slammed Armsmaster against the hood of a car.
Ballistic, with his football player build and angular body armor, stepped out of the shadows between the cars to Dauntless' left, just by the entrance. A girl I recognized but hadn't yet seen in person emerged from the right. She wore clown makeup and a jester's cap, with a teal and orange skintight costume complete with coattails. Bells jangled from the tips of her cap, her coattails, her gloves and boots. Circus. Her costume, makeup and color scheme were different every time she went out, but the theme was always more or less the same.
Dauntless moved to retreat, but Sundancer intercepted him, stepping around the front of the building and placing her miniature sun in the center of the entryway to bar exit.
I didn't have enough bugs to contribute, and had too little of an idea of what was happening, besides, so I stayed put and watched as the rest of the scene unfolded with surprising speed.

Armsmaster fought his way out from the giant metal hand, but found himself dealing with not just the machine, but a creature from the black lagoon, replete with crustacean armor and octopus tentacles in the place of arms and a face. He managed to fend them off for a few brief moments, until he swung his weapon at the octopus creature and wound up with a car bumper in the place of the Halberd. He didn't have a grip on the bumper as it materialized, so he fumbled and dropped it. Before he could recover from his surprise or his lack of a weapon, he found himself caught in the mechanical hand. The steam powered giant resumed his methodical thrashing of Armsmaster against the now-battered car, with the octopus-crab man standing patiently by.
Circus threw a handful of knives at Dauntless, only to have them deflected when he encapsulated himself in his forcefield-bubble. The second the bubble went up, though, I saw Ballistic reach down to touch the car parked beside him. When he used his power on the car, you didn't see it move. Rather, in the blink of an eye, it was gone from where it had been, abruptly in a position where it was virtually wrapped around the upper half of the forcefield. It started rolling off the other side before the forcefield gave way, then dropped to the ground a scant foot from Dauntless.

Travellers are kicking some serious heroes' asses. Ballistic is great and dangerous (but he also doesn't give a fuck about personal property, destroying things left and right. I don't think the owners of that car will be happy next day when they'll find a wreck instead of their car. I personally won't be happy). Genesis have an awesome imagination, since she can generate so many fantastical creatures. Hi, Sundancer, nice to see you again

! I don't have any idea about the steam powered giant trashing Armsmaster (new villain or someone already mentioned before but I didn't know his power?) and Circus....I know she's a solo villain which Undersiders tried to recruit in their team (also she taught Alec some new cusses

) and I predicted that she have circus related powers, including fire hoops, knives, trapezes, torches, ropes and so on.

Circus hadn't stopped moving. As the car hit the ground, her feet found positions on the undercarriage, and she was up and over, leaping toward Dauntless. She brought her hands back, and at some point I couldn't see her hands, she got a two-handed grip on a large, colorfully painted sledgehammer, colored streamers trailing from it as she swung it in Dauntless' direction.
Circus was one of those capes that had a whole pile of very minor powers. The ones I knew about were some minor pyrokinesis, the ability to deposit items into thin air, to retrieve those items just as easily, and greatly enhanced coordination and balance to round off the package. She was one of the more successful solo villains around Brockton Bay, a burglar and thief both quick and versatile enough to win or slip away if she crossed paths with a hero. If I remembered right, she'd been offered a position on the Undersiders and had vehemently refused.
Which raised the question of what she was doing here, with the Travelers.
Dauntless parried Circus' sledgehammer with his Arclance, and the Sledgehammer was gone in the next second, as though it had never existed. At some point in the meantime, though, she'd managed to slip a lit torch into one hand. She raised it to her mouth, and blew a large cone of flame in Dauntless' direction.

He staggered back from the torrent of flame, raised his shield, and widened it into a forcefield bubble again. Less than a second after the shield went up, Ballistic sent another car flying into it with enough force that the car rebounded into the ceiling, back to the ground and into the other side of the parking garage. The shield failed, flickering out of existence, and Dauntless reeled.
Circus took the chance to close in, torch gone, sledgehammer out. What followed was a brutal takedown, as Circus swung the sledgehammer twice, making it disappear rather than heftting it back for the next swing, which made the assault that much more relentless. She ducked low to avoid his Arclance, then spun in a tight circle as she sidestepped around him. As she rotated her body, the sledgehammer made an appearance once more. She carried through with the spin with the weapon in hand, driving it hard against the center of Dauntless' armored chest.
Dauntless fell, and the conflict was abruptly over, silent but for the crackle of Sundancer's miniature sun, and a single honking horn outside.

I was right (it wasn't hard to see anyway), Circus have circus related powers. She seems to have a hammerspace at her disposition from where she takes objects she needs in fight and then she pulls them back. She's also very agile and knows how to fight. She -almost single handed- defeated Dauntless. I like her power and her fighting style, I'd like to see her again, in the future. As for you, Ballistic, you're going to be on the shit list of all cars' owners from Brockton Bay if you don't stop wrenching their cars. What are you trying to do? Trying to compete with Skitter into collecting trophies? Skitter- destroyed dicks trophies and you- destroyed cars trophies? This is STUPID, man, and I mean it

.

The two giants, the machine and bizarre sea creature, approached us, with Trickster lagging behind them. I could see the machine-guy's face, a heavy cheeked caucasian with acne-scarred cheeks and long hair pulled back into a greasy ponytail, the upper half of his face covered in a metal mask and goggles, and now I could place him. He was Trainwreck, a fairly thuggish villain that hadn't made much of a name for himself. I couldn't say whether that was a suit or actually his body. For all I knew, he was some sort of coal-driven cyborg, or an unfortunate individual that'd been transformed by his powers much in the same way Newter and Gregor had.

And of course, that left the odd one out, the sea-creature, who could only be Genesis, from the Travelers.
Trainwreck dumped a beaten and bloodied Armsmaster to the ground, beside Dauntless. He took a second to examine the Halberd, which he held in his other hand, and then snapped it in his hands and squeezed the remains in his metal fist. He dumped the resulting debris over the unconscious heroes.
I looked across the assembled group. The Travelers and two villains that had never, as far as I knew, been on a team. Nobody was saying anything.
A smooth, self assured voice broke the silence. "I assumed, Tattletale, that when you asked to meet with me at the conclusion of your task, that you wouldn't be bringing the heroes with you."
A soldier in kevlar and a black balaclava was holding the stairwell door open for Coil. Dressed in the same black bodysuit with the image of a white snake arranged across it, Coil joined us, walking slowly, his hands clasped behind his back, taking in the scene with an appraising eye. Two soldiers followed behind him, guns in hand.
Coil. I felt my pulse quicken.
Tattletale made a pained expression. "Sorry."
Coil glanced around some more, then seemed to come to a decision, "No. I don't think there's anything to apologize for."
He paused, and all I could think was this is it. I've got what I need.
Coil spoke, more as though he were musing to himself than any of us, "I was feeling theatric. The plan was for the Travelers, Circus and Trainwreck to step out from the shadows as I made an impressive entrance. A shame it didn't play out, but I suppose it had a tactical benefit."
"Guess so," Tattletale grinned.
"Well, it seems you were successful tonight. Good. There are no more pursuers?"
"Nope."
"Emergency response? Other heroes?"
"All at least two and a half minutes away, I think."
"Then we'll take our leave. Undersiders, Trickster, I have a ride prepared, and I would like you to join me. I believe we have much to discuss."

So, the steampunk cyborg or poor guy who was experimented on is someone I heard about before- Trainwreck. Train who wreck-ed Armsmaster's Halberd- this was soooooooooo GREAT to see: Armsmaster both beaten up and having his main weapon reduced to pieces. No problemo, Arms, I'm sure you can create another one, maybe a better one. At least they didn't kill you, which was pretty nice of them. See? Nice villains, not everyone is an ass like you.
Hmmm....What I suppose to do with this "twist" that I predicted to happen 3 Arcs ago? Nothing, I guess. I'm more interested to hear Tattletale explanations to her team about why she didn't told them about Coil in the first place. Also, what the snake boss is planning with Undersiders and why Travellers are also working for him? On top of everything, I'm curious if Coil have- for real- two d....."goes quickly to sleep because she's tired and she's talking shit as consequence".

Good night, people, have pleasant dreams.

blackarrow · Mar 30, 2018

HeWhoAdds said:
Ok, normally I'm the one defending Tattletale, but... this is a superhero fight. Getting hit is pretty much par for the course. What's Armsmaster supposed to do, gently toss kittens at the Undersiders until they peacefully surrender? He didn't pick this fight.

I mean, he's still a dick for NUMEROUS other reasons, but hitting someone who LITERALLY crashed your party and started shit isn't exactly a massive superhero faux pas.

Well, I understand now Armsmaster for hitting Tattletale like this, but right in that moment I felt like he was hitting me- her pain was my pain (since she's one of my favorite characters, I always almost feel what my favorite characters- not just Worm, but any other works of fiction- are feeling: pain, sorrow, sadness, like its a telepathic connection between me and them). Its scary to think like this and feel like this but when either Skitter/Tattletale/Grue/Sundancer and few others I like are injured, I can feel their pain (like a phantom-pain) and I'm suffering and I rage because of that, even if I know -afterwards- that they're only characters (as a confession, when Skitter was injured by Bakuda's grenade, I had a pretty hard time to read about the pain she went through, I had to stop few times to calm myself down and remind myself that she's not real, the pain is not real). I'm imagining what if these characters will be tortured, experimented on or on the verge of death "shudders" and I'd be afraid about what I'll feel during those moments. Maybe I'm too immersed in what I'm reading, this must be the explanation for this weirdness. I'm enough cold blooded in every day life but I'm an emotional wreck when I read stuff. Its hard to be a young person and nobody understands you (not even yourself

).
Also, he could have toss kittens at her and not let her pet them until she'll surrender. She'd have done it. Nobody would resist to kittens

.

Assembler · Mar 30, 2018

blackarrow said:
And since I already "asked" Sundancer why did she became a villain, now I'll "ask" Armsmaster why did he became a hero. He could gain fame as a villain too, even more easy than as a hero.

My guess is that Protectorate PR campaigns stirred his desire to be looked up to the way Alexandria, Legend, and Eidolon, then just called the core Protectorate members, were. So when he triggered, he immediately signed on with the Protectorate, hoping to eventually join or surpass the core. Which means his hatred of Dauntless stems from jealousy, since he can get everything Armsmaster wants without putting in anywhere near the work he has.

AmbarGriss · Mar 30, 2018

And at last Coil shows himself.
I'm curious tho, how did you guessed that Coil was the boss?

blackarrow · Mar 31, 2018

AmbarGriss said:
And at last Coil shows himself.
I'm curious tho, how did you guessed that Coil was the boss?

Easy deduction. Undersiders were always well armed, they had military weapons. Tattletale said that their boss provided those weapons. They need a military type boss (or one with access at military stuff) for those kind of weapons. Coil leads an Army of ex-soldiers. Then, Kaiser (white-supremacist), Lung (asian-supremacist), Faultline (woman), Trickster (nomadic), Skidmark (druggie) couldn't be the leaders so only Coil remained (no-supremacist, man, living in Brockton Bay, level-headed). And the last one, he's too smart and cunning and only a smart and cunning person can play with more teams than just one. I think that almost everyone guessed right, I'm not the only one. It was so easy like taking a candy from a 5 years old child

. But honestly, I was surprised that he also paid Travellers to work for him. This is something I didn't expected to happen.

AmbarGriss · Mar 31, 2018

blackarrow said:
Easy deduction. Undersiders were always well armed, they had military weapons. Tattletale said that their boss provided those weapons. They need a military type boss (or one with access at military stuff) for those kind of weapons. Coil leads an Army of ex-soldiers. Then, Kaiser (white-supremacist), Lung (asian-supremacist), Faultline (woman), Trickster (nomadic), Skidmark (druggie) couldn't be the leaders so only Coil remained (no-supremacist, man, living in Brockton Bay, level-headed). And the last one, he's too smart and cunning and only a smart and cunning person can play with more teams than just one. I think that almost everyone guessed right, I'm not the only one. It was so easy like taking a candy from a 5 years old child . But honestly, I was surprised that he also paid Travellers to work for him. This is something I didn't expected to happen.

And, as this chapter revealed, hi also have Circus and Trainwreck on his payroll.
Not bad for someone who apparentaly have no other capes on his group.

blackarrow · Mar 31, 2018

Assembler said:
What search terms were you using? Because I'm interested in seeing that picture.

This is the pic Worm. I was browsing Digital Art to find something cool for my desktop background and I found this picture.

ExNihilo · Mar 31, 2018

blackarrow said:
This is the pic Worm. I was browsing Digital Art to find something cool for my desktop background and I found this picture.

That is

Damsel of Distress

Should probably spoiler that picture, she hadn't been introduced yet.

blackarrow · Mar 31, 2018

Guys, I decided to sort all Worm characters I know (pretty well) so far into Hogwarts Houses. Let's see how wrong I'm with my estimations.

Hufflepuff: Alec, Brian, Vista, Gallant, Brownbeat, Sundancer, Elle, Gregor, Newter, Amy, Danny
Gryffindor: Taylor, Rachel, Brian, Victoria, Aegis, Miss Militia
Ravenclaw: Lisa, Taylor, Director Piggot, Kid Win, Bakuda, Armsmaster, Faultline
Slytherin: COIL (especially him), Lisa (sorry, Lisa, but you're pretty manipulative and cunning), Armsmaster, Max, Lung, Bakuda
The Trio of Bitches would be instantly rejected by the Sorting Hat even before they'd put it on their heads, so no House for them.

I wonder (I'm actually pretty curious) what is your opinion

.

ExNihilo · Mar 31, 2018

blackarrow said:
Hufflepuff: Alec, Brian, Vista, Gallant, Brownbeat, Sundancer, Elle, Gregor, Newter, Amy, Danny
-Alec is hard to sort, for reasons not yet explained. Hufflepuff would be a choice, though he could also be a supremely unmotivated Slytherin.
-Vista would make a good Gryffindor, though I wouldn't say Hufflepuff was entirely wrong.
-I'm going to use the Luna Lovegood clause to put Elle into Ravenclaw. But Hufflepuff wouldn't be a bad choice.
Gryffindor: Taylor, Rachel, Brian, Victoria, Aegis, Miss Militia
-Rachel may be Hufflepuff, as she is truly desirous of companionship, just of her dogs. Gryff works too though.
Ravenclaw: Lisa, Taylor, Director Piggot, Kid Win, Bakuda, Armsmaster, Faultline
-Lisa would make a good Slytherin, if Coil hadn't [Redacted], but Ravenclaw works as well. (You do mention this)
Slytherin: COIL (especially him), Lisa (sorry, Lisa, but you're pretty manipulative and cunning), Armsmaster, Max, Lung, Bakuda
The Trio of Bitches would be instantly rejected by the Sorting Hat even before they'd put it on their heads, so no House for them.
-Armsmaster would be a pretty poor Slytherin. He's straightforward and is mostly suffering a small inferiority complex.

Overall, pretty accurate. Of course, rarely is someone entirely in one house, but still.

Loveland · Mar 31, 2018

blackarrow said:
Guys, I decided to sort all Worm characters I know (pretty well) so far into Hogwarts Houses. Let's see how wrong I'm with my estimations.

Hufflepuff: Alec, Brian, Vista, Gallant, Brownbeat, Sundancer, Elle, Gregor, Newter, Amy, Danny
Gryffindor: Taylor, Rachel, Brian, Victoria, Aegis, Miss Militia
Ravenclaw: Lisa, Taylor, Director Piggot, Kid Win, Bakuda, Armsmaster, Faultline
Slytherin: COIL (especially him), Lisa (sorry, Lisa, but you're pretty manipulative and cunning), Armsmaster, Max, Lung, Bakuda
The Trio of Bitches would be instantly rejected by the Sorting Hat even before they'd put it on their heads, so no House for them.

I wonder (I'm actually pretty curious) what is your opinion .

Wildbow himself actually wrote a short crossover with Harry Potter. The story itself doesn't have any spoilers past where you are, but the page it's on does, so here it is copy and pasted.

"Well," Hagrid said. He seemed a bit put out, but he wasn't in a position to say so. "Well. I've never seen anything take to, well, anything quite so fast as Fluffy there's taken to you."

Even with her stocky build, which was closer to Hagrid's body type than the average eleven year old's, Rachel struggled to keep her feet as three massive heads fought for her attention. A tongue licked the side of her head, and her hair, which had already been sticking up in virtually every direction, was left even messier.

"Uh huh," Rachel said. "Good boy. Boys. Whatever. You can stop now. Gotta- Unf. Gotta get to my room, or the stupid painting won't let me back in. Stupid older kids yell at me if I sleep on the stairs."

Hagrid eyed the girl's house colors dubiously.

She reached up, scratching the beast's jowl, rubbing it against its teeth. The other heads knocked her this way and that, fighting for the same treatment. "He needs bones."

"What?" Hagrid asked, surprised.

"He needs bones!" Rachel said, very loud.

"No, lass. I'm not deaf, though I might be if you keep that up. Why are you saying he needs them?"

"His teeth are bothering him."

He gave her an appreciating look, which was just about the only thing he could do, without either giving up the secret to handling Fluffy or making the girl's situation worse.

"Aye, girl, you're right. I'm just surprised you figured it out. Hard to get anything big and strong enough for a creature like him."

"Whatever. Oof. I need to go now. Help me make him stop?"

Hagrid sighed.

Maybe the girl wouldn't figure it out.

"Cover yer ears," he said.

She managed.

He did the usual, humming the same song he'd used to lull Fluffy to sleep when Fluffy had been just a pup.

He expected to have to explain, curious looks, or something of the sort.

Instead, the girl just collected her scattered things, wiped her spit-slick hair down, and opened the door to go.

"Don't get so turned around again, y'hear?" Hagrid said.

"Uh huh," the girl replied. "Bye Fluffy. See you soon."

Hagrid blinked a few times. By the time he processed the idea, the girl was already gone, feet clumping on stairs.

He poked his head out the door, ready to tell her not to, but his heart wasn't in it. He had his fondness for animals, and as Dumbledore had mused, the only thing that might hold an equal space in Hagrid's heart might be his desire to pass on that fondness.

He'd been a little caught off guard, seeing the girl, but talents were talents, and the House prized individuality. Little Rachel Clegane was definitely an individual.

He saw her stop at a fork in the hallway.

She turned around, clearly irritated.

"I know my way around a city, or outdoors, but this stupid place is a stupid maze," she said, her voice too loud, carrying all the way to him.

"You want to go right, lassie," he said.

She looked one way, then the other. She raised one hand, counting on her fingers.

"Point," he said.

She pointed down one hallway.

"Yeh," he said. "You'll find house Ravenclaw that way. Don't get turned around now."

blackarrow · Mar 31, 2018

Hi, guys and girls, I'm back with another crazily BORING review 6.08 | Worm. I'm very curious to see with what other TWISTS Wildbow is coming, after the "BIG", "UNEXPECTED" and "AMAZING" reveal of Coil being Undersiders' boss and Travellers' employer (I'm sure that he's paying Travellers as well for their work; even parahuman villains need to eat after all

). But what is honestly surprising me is the connection between Tattletale and Coil. What is the deal between them? Why only Tattletale was allowed to know about him before everyone else? Also, she seems pretty submissive to him, she listens him, so I'm thinking of two ways of why Tattle is acting like this in front of Coil: he's either mind controlling her (through his power or a tinker made machine)/blackmails her with someone dear to her OR....bada bing bada boom he's HER FATHER. Yep, he seems like a grown up man (maybe around 40), Tattletale never said anything about her parents so...it won't be too far-stretched for Coil to be her father. So, these two are my teories explaining their unusual connection and Tattletale's submissive attitude.
Coil: Lisa, I'm your father.
Lisa: Fuck........noooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

We didn't dally, stopping only to let Bitch direct her dogs into three separate vans Coil had waiting at the back of the garage. Once that was done, we all rushed to the vehicle Coil had waiting, an armored limousine. It wasn't too different from a regular limousine, but the sides and top were flat, and the front end was squatter. All in all, it gave the general impression of something exceedingly solid.

I wondered if it was too conspicuous. It was distinctive enough that it Could make us too easy to track. Coil didn't seem like a stupid guy, though, and time was short enough that we couldn't afford to take the time to debate it. I climbed inside after Grue, keeping my mouth shut for the time being, and my eyes open for details.
The interior was all black leather, the windows tinted dark. Coil's black costume against the black background made him rather hard to make out as he settled into a chair at the far end, his back to the driver's seat. If I squinted a little, it looked like only the snake stenciled on his costume was there, hovering in empty space. We seated ourselves on the leather cushioned bench that lined one side of the limousine. Trickster, the only Traveler to come with us, sat at the far end, facing Coil.

"My dogs-" Bitch started.
"Will be taken care of, I assure you," Coil replied. "You will find your dogs and the vans you used to arrive awaiting you when you depart."
Bitch pursed her lips, looking angry, but didn't say anything.
"I wish," Coil told us, "To perform a small demonstration. Because I would prefer to establish a few things before I move on to discussing the larger picture."
He reached into a cup holder to his left and retrieved a roll of quarters. He undid one end of the roll, then doled out a number of quarters into his palm. "If you would catch these and place them on the backs of your hands."
He flipped a coin in Tattletale's direction. She caught it and slapped it against the back of her hand,
"Heads."
"Heads," Grue said, as he caught the next.
Coil double checked I was ready to catch it, then threw it my way.
"Heads," I spoke, as I slapped it down.
And heads again for Bitch and Regent.
I leaned forward, reached behind me, and retrieved my coinpurse. I found a silver dollar, showed Coil, and then flipped it. I caught it and slapped it down. Heads. I nodded.
"Probability manipulation?" I asked him, "Enhanced luck?"
He shook his head, "No. Just the opposite, Skitter. I control destinies. I decide outcomes."

Okay, so Coil have a bullshit OP ability to control and manipulate people's fates. Like a King over everyone's karma. Powerful is not enough to say about him, he's RIDICULOUS powerful (I think he's the most powerful villain so far). I mean, if he wants someone dead, that person would die, no matter what they'd do to save themselves. If he wants someone to be successful, that person have instant success, without breaking a sweat. That's the reason why Undersiders were always successful in their missions (because Coil decided their success). Well, they also fought bravely (maybe because he also let them to fight by themselves, admiring their efforts, intelligence and ambition and only helping them when the situation became way too dire for them). Now I understand so much. NEAT power to have, this is an Omega level power, a God level power. Coil, you surprised me, with all my honesty, you left me speechless (fuck Glory Girl's power, fuck Panacea's power, fuck Circus' power, now I want to have Coil's power

).

"That still sounds like probability manipulation to me," I said.

Tattletale leaned forward, to look past Grue and face me, "No. Well, it is, but only in the biggest, bluntest sense. But I can vouch that he's telling the truth, vague as it is."
"When I asked what his powers were, at the meeting, you said you didn't know," I accused her.
"No," she shook her head, "I said I couldn't say. Which is true. One of the contingencies for my getting to be part of the Undersiders and get the funding he offered was that I would keep the details a secret, and I've got to do that until he says otherwise, sorry."
Coil placed his elbows on the armrests and steepled his fingers in front of his mouth, or where his mouth would be if his mask showed any part of his face. "I feel that keeping potential enemies in the dark is a necessity. To those ends, rather than risk having her as an enemy, I sought out your Tattletale and hired her, with enough incentive to keep her loyal and silent on the matter."
"And us?" Grue asked.
"I won't mince words, Grue," Coil answered, "My choice to form the Undersiders was a gambit. If you failed, got yourselves killed, injured or arrested, then that simply meant there would be less parahumans in this city for me to be concerned about. That isn't to say I didn't assist you or that I attempted to steer you towards failure. I did just the opposite. All I mean to say is that I was prepared for the eventuality."

Coil did something to "convince" Tattletale to do what he's telling her to do, always. This is getting more and more clear with each word spoken by Coil and Tattle. This guy is a BIG manipulative asshole, truly a slytherin in the clearest sense of word (even bigger than Kaiser). And if he'll turn out to be Tattle's father then he's also an abusive parent who's using his daughter for his own interests. I think I'm going to HATE him more than Kaiser or Lung, despite loving his power

. He also said that he didn't actually helped Undersiders by using his power (or this is how I understand from his word), he let them fight completely by themselves, wanting to see if they're good enough for him or not. Coil, I think your real name is Mr Jerkiness, isn't right?

Grue tilted his head slightly, "And if we succeeded?"

"Then you naturally find yourselves sitting here, proven to be capable," Coil leaned back. "Worthy to hear my proposal, as the Travelers already have."
"I can't help but notice you didn't test them the same way you tested us," Grue spoke, "We've worked for you for nearly a year."
"The Travelers have an established track record. With this in mind, I contacted them and requested they come to Brockton Bay. They heard my offer, and I was hoping Trickster might give his reply tonight."
All eyes turned to Trickster. He didn't hurry to reply. He reached into the fold of his jacket, found a pack of cigarettes, tapped one out, placed it inside the mouth-slit of his mask and lit up. He placed one hand on his hat to keep it in place as he rolled down the window to blow the smoke outside.
"If you're not bullshitting, if you're making a good faith attempt at providing a fix, we're in," Trickster spoke, not looking at Coil.

"Excellent," Coil replied, not twitching a muscle. There wasn't an iota of surprise there.
"Fix?" I asked Trickster.
"That guy," Trickster tilted his head in Coil's direction, "Is offering my team a temporary solution to an ongoing problem, with promises that he's going to look into a possible permanent fix."
"Vague," Regent spoke. Trickster shrugged.
I couldn't quite get a sense of these guys. I spoke up, "This wouldn't have anything to do with what your teammate said about you guys pulling a ridiculous number of jobs, like you're trying to fill a bottomless pit with cash?"
He turned to one side to let out a long exhalation of smoke, then answered, "My teammate needs to keep her mouth shut about private business."

Oh, so the Travellers don't want money. They have a problem that only Coil is able to fix it. I don't have any slightly idea about what it might be. I still don't know the Travellers as persons to think now at a theory regarding this mysterious problem. Maybe they have a very powerful nemesis that they can't get rid off without Coil's help? Who knows, I need more details. As for Sundancer...Trickster, if you'll dare to hurt, to even lay a finger on that wonderful girl from your team, then...I'll absolute agree with the fandom hating you. Only an absolute monster would hurt someone so kind and caring like Sundancer (gosh, now I feel so anxious for Sun, I pray that he'll not do anything to her

).

Which, in no uncertain words, meant I should drop the subject, and that I was probably right. Probably not my best call, raising a subject pretty much guaranteed to touch a nerve.

"So," Grue spoke to Coil, "You've provoked our curiosity, which I'm sure was your intent."
"Yes. First off, let me show you what I desire," Coil spoke. He touched a button beside the cup holders to his left, and the windows rolled down. I looked outside, and saw the darkness of a tunnel. As we left the tunnel, we found ourselves overlooking the rest of the city. The bay and the city both were spread out beyond us, a cityscape lit up by constellations of orange-yellow and white dots and the faint light of the moon above.
I looked back to Coil, and saw him gesturing to the open window.
"The city?" I asked him.
"The city, yes. Desiring to take over the world is not only cliche, but unrealistic," he replied, his voice sibilant, smooth. "I will, for the time being, content myself with seizing this city for myself. Cliche still, I might admit, but rare few do even this with any measure of success."

"Isn't it kind of obvious you're trying to do that already?" Regent asked him.
"Perhaps, but contrary to popular expectations, I do not aim to limit my control to the organized crime of Brockton Bay. I would control everything. Government, courts, law enforcement, business, and much more."
"Ambitious," Grue spoke. I thought I might have heard a change in his tone of voice. Doubt?
"Quite. But rest assured, Undersiders, I am already moving into my endgame."
"Endgame?" I asked.
"Think, Skitter. Who are the major players in this city? What has changed? The ABB is wiped out, with the very plan I proposed at the meeting. Empire Eighty-Eight is reeling from the plays I made today, and I fully expect to finish them off in the coming weeks, hopefully with the assistance of you, the Travelers, and my other recruits. The Wards and the Protectorate are in a tenuous position, now. I took steps to ensure the public knows their heroes played only a partial role in stopping the ABB, and your actions tonight served to shake confidence in them further. If the matter is pushed further, I expect there will be a restructuring of the group structure. Perhaps members will be exchanged with other nearby Protectorate groups, someone else might be put in charge, new rules, regulations and quotas put in place. Whatever the case, it will be some time before they regain their footing and re-establish their reputation. By the time this occurs, I will be settled in my new role."

Typical evil master: wants complete power over the city and maybe (later) over the entire country (not over world indeed, but over the country is something possible and realizable even without having superpowers. Just look at the dictators in our real world

). Coil is obsessed after power, in the same manner Kaiser is but he's a lot smarter than the nazi leader: he's planning to eliminate Empire88 and even heroes from the city/people's hearts; he already eliminated ABB so everything works as he's planning. Coil, don't limit yourself at a single city, fucking become the president of US and you'll have the world showing you respect.

He let that sink in. "Who else is left? New Wave isn't in a position to take control. They are powerful but too controversial, with even less trust from the public than the Protectorate. The Merchants under Skidmark's leadership are too weak and self centered to make a serious play. Faultline's group is mercenary, and conservative use of my power has made me an exceedingly wealthy man, leaving me the option of purchasing her cooperation if and when it is necessary."

"There are scarce few who are in a position to impede me, as I make my play, and I'm not only speaking of capes. I've quietly been purchasing properties throughout the Docks and will aggressively purchase more in the final stages of my plan. Two of the three mayoral candidates for this June's election were bought and brought to this city by me, much as I purchased my elite soldiers to aid me in controlling the streets and hampering the Empire's business. The city council has its elections in September, I will have similar agents placed throughout by then, as well. When I say I am nearly finished, I am not speaking in ambiguities. I am saying that the dominoes have been set up and the first of them are already falling."

Well, I thought, there goes any doubt I had about the Protectorate not caring what was up with the Undersider's sponsor. Shit. Was he really that close?
"Leaving only you and your role in this," Coil finished.
"Which is?" Grue inquired, a challenging note in his voice.
"Taking over this city is pointless if I do not keep it, Grue. I hand picked you Undersiders because I needed allies who were comfortable being situated in the North end, the Docks, the Boardwalk, the Trainyard, the outskirts to the North. I picked you because I saw you had potential, yet you were not so high profile as to demand the immediate attention of authorities. This freed you to be overlooked until you were more established. It allowed you to grow both practiced and comfortable as a team, and to establish a reputation for yourselves. In my efforts against Kaiser, I have not only been whittling away at his Empire, but I have worked to keep him occupied so you would not be sandwiched between two major factions in the early stages of your group. You had only the ABB to deal with, and you held your own for nearly a year. Skitter joining your group was sufficient to tip the balance."

He's going to have a puppet mayor, the Undersiders will become his personal Crime Lords and Ladies, my God, this Coil is super-dangerous. And ruthless. And doesn't actually give a shit about the city or its citizens, he only cares about POWER, POWER, POWER. I won't trust a single word coming out of his mouth. I can imagine him even being a cruel person, beating up children, drowning kittens and shooting puppies (sorry to say that, Bitch, but let's admit this: Coil is that kind of individual with God powers who would do absolute any evil shit).

"So. If you accept this deal, I would have you control the Docks and the surrounding area. You're not overly disliked, you've proven yourselves resourceful and capable. I would have you guard against any parahuman trespassers and squash any gangs or groups in your territory, should they not submit themselves to my command and control. If this project proved to be a success, I would have you be my agents in expanding to nearby cities. But I digress, that is long term, only a possibility."

"And what do we get in all this?" Regent asked.
Coil replied, "I expect that wealth and power go without saying. Beyond that, I leave it to you to name your terms. As I explained what I desire, I leave it up to you to decide what you would ask for, in exchange for your cooperation."
Nobody hurried to reply. We exchanged glances with one another, trying to gauge each other's reactions. Trickster finished his cigarette, tossed it out the window and rolled the window up.
Coil broke the silence, "Bitch. I am aware of your collection of dogs. More than one isolated building containing strays and dogs due to be euthanized. Animals that you rescued, retrieved and gave shelter."
All attention turned to Bitch. She looked angry, opened her mouth to speak, but Coil interrupted her before she could.
"No. I would not interfere with your business. I respect your passion. But at the same time, I know it likely pains you, that you have only so much time to spare, to visit these locations, to feed these animals you have rescued and give them the individual attention and care they need."

Bitch glared at him. If looks could kill.
"I could provide the resources you need, to fully equip the buildings and make them comfortable for the dogs. Assistants to care for the animals and work under you as you see fit. I would have the city give the same sort of funding to anyone who adopts a sheltered animal that is provided to foster parents, with oversight, of course, to ensure that the animals are being properly cared for, that the system is not gamed. There would be no more dogs cooped up in shelters, awaiting euthanasia. What would you say to that?"
"I'd say you're fucking with me."
He didn't press the issue, instead, he turned to the next member of our group. "Regent. A hard young man to please, because you grew up wanting for nothing, and you expect largesse, luxury and idle entertainment as a matter of course."
"What do you know about how I grew up?" Regent challenged him.
"I know what the Protectorate knows. Not long after Lung was brought into custody, Armsmaster began pushing for details on your group. Staff at the PRT offices were tasked with looking through old criminal records and reports of lesser known parahumans, trying to find parallels. Find if perhaps a supervillain in another area perhaps moved to Brockton Bay, changing their names, costumes and methods. They found you."

I'm getting more and more anxious (also, I'm still thinking at what Trickster is planning to do with Sundancer for not being able to keep her mouth shut) This chapter is a carousel of anxiety to me "sighs". Its DARK, and not the dark kind of gore and ultra-violence that I can tolerate without any problems. But DARK because a REPULSIVE snake of a man is trying to manipulate some teenagers to become his own personal criminals and enforcers, by promising them that he's going to help them. Maybe he's doing the same with Travellers too (actually I'm more and more sure about this because Coil is the kind of man who can't be trusted with anything). Trickster seems either too naive or too desperate to believe Coil. Manipulation over manipulation over manipulation and at center is a human who like to play by God with other humans. Why sucky people have the best powers? Why?

"Ah," Regent leaned back in his seat. "Shit."

"So I know who you are. I know that you went out of your way to get out from your father's thumb, and that it's quite likely that a part of you is driven to prove yourself to him, to pursue success, power and status in our circles."
"His father?" I asked.
"Not my story to tell," Coil waved a hand, "I leave it for Regent to share at a later date, if he chooses. All I mean to say is that I can give you that, Regent. Status and notoriety, perhaps enough to rise above your old man."
Regent nodded once, but didn't say anything. I would have liked to see his expression behind his mask.
"You must understand, Undersiders, I do not use fear as Lung did, or manipulation as Kaiser does. I would have you work alongside me because you know I am the person that is best equipped to provide what you desire, and that nobody else can or will give you a better offer."

Yes, you liar, you're using manipulation, and you're pretty good at this, better than Kaiser, better than anyone else. You're not using fear, I have to agree (for moment) but manipulation is your signature method to do businesses. I can see through your lies as best as I can see through a very clear window. Skitter, you should not accept his proposition. He'll turn you into a ruthless killer, you still have your morals, your good heart and compassion. Don't waste them for this bastard. The same I can tell about the other Undersiders, turn him down, please. At least Bitch doesn't trust him which is a start.

"Which sounds nice, sure," I countered. Could I poke holes in this plan, maybe derail it? "But I haven't quite forgotten that you just told us you were fully prepared for us to screw up somewhere along the way, and that you would have been perfectly okay with it happening. You would've shrugged, said 'less capes to deal with' and you would have dropped us and walked away."

Coil nodded, "This is true."
"So if we screw up later, it's going to be the same thing?"
"No," Coil spoke. Then he paused for a moment. "I understand your concern, but I have already informed you of a great deal, here. If you were arrested, or if half your team perished in action, it would be dangerous to abandon you, because you could divulge key information. This will continue to be the case."
I nodded, slowly, "Except you could provide false information to us, or stop providing key info."
"Look to Tattletale for the answer to that. I may have purchased her assistance, but I expect you consider her a friend, and vice versa. You could, I hope, trust her to verify that what I tell you is truth, and to know more about my plan that I divulge, in any case."

So if I wanted to argue the point further, it'd look like I didn't trust Tattletale. I wasn't sure I liked that, but I nodded. "Alright."
"Skitter," Coil spoke. "I came prepared, tonight, with offers in mind for the rest of your team. I can help care for Bitch's collections of rescued dogs, and help ensure less animals need rescue in the future. Grue is relying on me for a personal matter, and he knows that my taking power can only ensure that things go his way without difficulty. You, and you alone, Skitter, have me wondering what you desire, at the end of things."
Tattletale, to my left, leaned forward again, interest clear on her face.
I had to be convincing. No way was I going to let something slip past the radar and alert Tattletale now. So I gave it a serious think.
I kind of hoped someone would break the silence while I took the time to consider, maybe even distract
from me, but nobody did. Everyone patiently waited, putting me at the focus of all attention, a spot I hated being in, in or out of costume.
"The city," I replied, being careful to be as genuine as possible, to avoid alerting Tattletale, "You want to control it. Fine. I want you to make it work. Fix up the Docks so they aren't a shithole. Give people work. Clean up the drug trade, or the hard drugs at least. Straighten out the asinine bureaucracy of the government and schools and all that. That sort of thing."
Coil shook his head, "Not something I can offer you in good conscience, dear Skitter."
He raised his hand to stop me before I could open my mouth. Not that I was going to, but he did. "What you're talking about, I already intended to do, in large part. To give it to you as a gift would be little different than offering you an amount in cash, when I already intend to give you as much money as you require."
"So you're going to improve Brockton Bay," I said, carefully.
"Don't get me wrong. I will not claim to be a good person – I assure you I am not. That said, you are likely to discover I am a proud man. I would consider it a catastrophic failure on my part if this city did not thrive under my rule, a tremendous blow to my ego."
I nodded.
He continued, "Our desires on individual subjects may differ, however. I would argue there will always be crime, always be drugs."
"I'm not saying there won't. I'm just saying that there's room for improvement. When I was in grade six, more of my classmates could explain what a K-hole was than name a dozen countries."

At least he admits that he's not a good man, but he still doesn't admit yet that he's the WORST KIND OF A MAN (I apologize to all Coil's fans here, but I really, really hate this bastard. I can see him as someone who'd destroy anything he touches, turn anything still pure and innocent into misery and suffering. This is my opinion, ok? Don't kill me for that

). Skitter might accept his proposition because she still wants to do her undercover bullshit job. I can understand her for this but I don't want her to do something that she might regret later, either betraying Undersiders or genuinely helping Coil in his path to absolute power. Don't sell your soul to Satan, Skitter

.

"I am not promising quick fixes, Skitter. What I will tell you is that individuals like yourselves would control territories and be responsible for maintaining your own kind of order in those areas, with whatever means you saw fit. Over time, people would adjust to this, crime rates would decrease. I would simultaneously be controlling the flow of product into the city, reducing the distribution of the most problematic drugs, those that would lead to the most societal decay and crime, while making other, more benign product available in their place. Crime and drugs cannot be conquered, but they are animals I believe I can tame."

"And the city itself?" I asked. I thought of my dad, "Fixing the ferry?"
"Yes. Rest assured, if you were to accept my offer, I would fully expect you to contact me and speak up at any time you felt I was not following through in any department. I might be a proud man, but I would rather you injure that pride, even provoke it intentionally, rather than let me be complacent."
I nodded once, slowly.
"I have said my piece, then. I leave you to consider it, Undersiders. I recognize that this is not what you signed on for, in the beginning. I know it might not have the same appeal in the scope of costumed hijinks, and I'm prepared for the fact that that this might lead you to refuse this offer. All I hope is that if you do refuse me, if you decide you are more comfortable as simple uncommon criminals, that our prior arrangement will stand."
"You've invested this much in us, and if we say no, we can just walk away?" Regent asked him.
Coil spread his hands a bit, "What would you see me do? Murder you? Threaten you? Orchestrate an arrest? There is no guarantee any attempt on my part would be wholly successful, whatever I chose, and you may count it as a compliment that I would not want any of you escaping the attempt and coming after me as a dedicated adversary."
He knocked on the window behind him. Immediately, the limousine slowed down and pulled over. As I glanced outside, I saw we were in the Docks.
"Think on the subject. Discuss it and get back to me with your reply, the sooner the better, no later than a week from now. Tattletale, it should be obvious, but I formally free you from all stipulations in your contract requiring you to keep my identity as your sponsor private. You may give my contact information to your teammates."
"Sure thing," Tattletale replied.
"And before I forget, I arranged individual accounts for each of you with a supervillain banker by the name of The Number Man, as paying for tonight's job in bills, naturally, was unfeasible.

Ok, I'm trying to keep up with Coil's plans (who, despite being a rotten person to his core, he's also extremely intelligent and well-prepared for everything) but then I read about this supervillain banker who works for Coil and is called....Number Man. What the actually fuck? NUMBER MAN?!?

rofl:

rofl::lol. Finally, something funny in this chapter. OMG, this sounds like the NERDIEST CODENAME EVER FOREVER. Gosh, even more funny than Armsmaster, maybe right behind Clockbloker. I mean, what kind of person calls himself Number Man? He must be a nerd, a super-nerd villain. A tinker who either looks like a frail old man wearing glasses (academic type) or a young man with acne over his entire face, obligatory wearing glasses and looking like a total nerd (love nerds, btw). His power should be related by MATH. He can either calculate everything at the speed of light (like a human computer short of), or he can solve 2 rubik cubes in the same time in two seconds, or make huge concrete numbers fall over people, crushing them or empower himself with the power of MATH and PHYSICS. Like making his fists hit someone with light speed, walking on ceiling because the law of gravity became nothing for his feet, something extremely cool indeed. I'm also thinking that if he'll ever appear, I'll have to read his chapter(s) when I can't sleep because there'd be a lot of MATH's babbling and this is better than any sleeping pills. Ok, I got a little out of my hand with this Number Man

rofl:, sorry. I hope he'll be relevant because I don't want to feel like I wasted too much time trying to imagine this character

.

My men will provide you with your account information and the instructions for accessing these accounts as you retrieve your dogs."

Grue extended a hand, "I'm not sure what we'll do, whether we'll take this deal, but it's been good working with you thus far, and I hope to continue."
Coil took Grue's hand and shook it, firm, "Likewise, Grue, Undersiders."
We departed the vehicle. We were on the West end of the Docks, judging by how far the water was, and how close we were to the mountains that surrounded the city. Parked behind the limousine were three vans, each with two of Coil's soldiers standing by, alert.

As we walked by the end of the armored limousine, a soldier passed out envelopes to each of us.
We continued walking, and Bitch opened each door we passed, letting the dogs out. They were smaller, now. Judas, the tallest, only came up to my shoulder. Their external muscle, wet and wrinkled, hung off them like excess skin on a person who had lost a great deal of weight. The interiors of the vans were spattered with more excess flesh, blood and bone that had been shed. The final stage would be the dogs shucking off the last of the excess mass, revealing their normal shapes nested deep within, dry within a membrane, virtually untouched by the injuries they had sustained over the night.
As the last of the dogs, Angelica, was released and the vans and limousine pulled away, we headed back to the loft. Each of us too busy sorting through our own thoughts and dilemmas to be distracted with conversation, so it was remarkably quiet.
I have it. I've got what I need.
I just didn't know how I felt about it.

Coil: Skitter, if you don't stop starring at my crotch, something bad will happen to you.
Skitter:...."keeps staring".....
Coil: I'm warning you, miss.
Skitter:....Must....Destroy....
Skitter:...."dies in front of everyone".....
Coil: My dicks are not something that mundane people should destroy. They're God's dicks. Don't say I didn't warned you.

WITH SKITTER BEING DEAD, THIS IS THE END OF WORM, EVERYONE SHOULD GO HOME NOW.
Good night and sleep well, nice people

ExNihilo · Mar 31, 2018

blackarrow said:
Okay, so Coil have a bullshit OP ability to control and manipulate people's fates. Like a King over everyone's karma.

blackarrow said:
I won't trust a single word coming out of his mouth

Hmmm.

blackarrow said:
Number Man. What the actually fuck? NUMBER MAN?!?

blackarrow said:
He must be a nerd, a super-nerd villain.

I mean, you're not entirely wrong. But don't dismiss him just yet.

blackarrow · Mar 31, 2018

ExNihilo said:
Hmmm.

I mean, you're not entirely wrong. But don't dismiss him just yet.

Nope, I'll keep him buried deep in my mind, I'm actually pretty interested about him. After all he's the one who saved me from getting more and more anxious during this chapter and returned me back to my joke mode. I'm grateful to him because of this even if I might end up hating him when he'll finally appear

(depends of his personality and his actions, of course, not because of MATH based powers).

AmbarGriss · Apr 1, 2018

Now I can't wait for you to read Coil's interlude :/

HeWhoAdds · Apr 1, 2018

blackarrow said:
Ok, I'm trying to keep up with Coil's plans (who, despite being a rotten person to his core, he's also extremely intelligent and well-prepared for everything) but then I read about this supervillain banker who works for Coil and is called....Number Man. What the actually fuck? NUMBER MAN?!? rofl:rofl:rofl:rofl:rofl::lol. Finally, something funny in this chapter. OMG, this sounds like the NERDIEST CODENAME EVER FOREVER. Gosh, even more funny than Armsmaster, maybe right behind Clockbloker. I mean, what kind of person calls himself Number Man? He must be a nerd, a super-nerd villain. A tinker who either looks like a frail old man wearing glasses (academic type) or a young man with acne over his entire face, obligatory wearing glasses and looking like a total nerd (love nerds, btw). His power should be related by MATH. He can either calculate everything at the speed of light (like a human computer short of), or he can solve 2 rubik cubes in the same time in two seconds, or make huge concrete numbers fall over people, crushing them or empower himself with the power of MATH and PHYSICS. Like making his fists hit someone with light speed, walking on ceiling because the law of gravity became nothing for his feet, something extremely cool indeed. I'm also thinking that if he'll ever appear, I'll have to read his chapter(s) when I can't sleep because there'd be a lot of MATH's babbling and this is better than any sleeping pills. Ok, I got a little out of my hand with this Number Man rofl:, sorry. I hope he'll be relevant because I don't want to feel like I wasted too much time trying to imagine this character .

You joke, but the Number Man is actually pretty badass, IMO.

blackarrow said:
Skitter, you should not accept his proposition. He'll turn you into a ruthless killer,

hmmmmm....

I just... the dramatic irony here is too funny

hellgodsrus · Apr 1, 2018

AmbarGriss said:
Now I can't wait for you to read Coil's interlude :/

HeWhoAdds said:
You joke, but the Number Man is actually pretty badass, IMO.

What part of 'no spoilers' is so fucking hard to understand? Jesus christ guys, it's not exactly string theory. Don't reveal things that she hasn't read yet.

blackarrow · Apr 1, 2018

HeWhoAdds said:
You joke, but the Number Man is actually pretty badass, IMO.

So...a BADASS NERD. Cool, this is not something that I often see in works of fiction. Most of the fictional nerds are either library/lab rats or bookworms, but never badass. Actually, the only badass nerd I remember to read about (and is also one of my all time favorite fictional characters) is Hermione Granger (Harry Potter).

Bonus: Agatha Heterodyne (Girl Genius).

Let's read Worm and its sequel Ward by Wildbow (One chapter/every day)

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