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

blackarrow · Apr 5, 2018

ExNihilo said:
For all that he is terrible, he is occasionally cunning. If you had what amounts to perfect mind-control, you could stop most capes in their tracks by mind-controlling them. But some capes, like Dragon or most Tinkers who put their minds to it, can build robots. Obviously, taking this guy in, or ICBM'ing his mansion, would be a great PR move. So why haven't they?

Yep. Too often, socially incompetent translates to stupid. It doesn't help that [Redacted].

Of course he's smart. All assholes- so far- are smart. Even the Trio of Bitches. You can't be a successful asshole if you're not smart. Well, maybe the exception are Uber and Leet. Actually, they're quite opposite, not very smart and cunning, but even they're pretty successful since they have a youtube channel with lots of subscribers.

AmbarGriss · Apr 5, 2018

blackarrow said:
Of course he's smart. All assholes- so far- are smart. Even the Trio of Bitches. You can't be a successful asshole if you're not smart. Well, maybe the exception are Uber and Leet. Actually, they're quite opposite, not very smart and cunning, but even they're pretty successful since they have a youtube channel with lots of subscribers.

Youtube was a mistake.

ExNihilo · Apr 5, 2018

blackarrow said:
youtube channel with lots of subscribers

A lot may be pushing it.

Na'vi · Apr 6, 2018

I finally caught up now. And I have to say I'm a Coil fan he's probably only the few people that could actually Broken Bay into a better place.

ExNihilo · Apr 6, 2018

Na'vi said:
I finally caught up now. And I have to say I'm a Coil fan he's probably only the few people that could actually Broken Bay into a better place.

Welcome! I saw you catching up, nice to see you.

I would disagree with Coil making the city better, though. I'm really not sure how.

He kidnapped the niece of the mayor, crippled the city's post-Leviathan recovery, and was just a

Cauldron plot to test parahuman feudalism.

In what ways did he make the city better?

blackarrow · Apr 6, 2018

Na'vi said:
I finally caught up now. And I have to say I'm a Coil fan he's probably only the few people that could actually Broken Bay into a better place.

.....Ok, its your opinion, I won't argue with you, everyione have the right to like what they want and to believe what they want. What do you think about Lung (I still think he'll escape from Birdcage through a general prison break and will be back in action), Kaiser and Heartbreaker? And who is your favorite character(s) (besides Coil)? Characters that I know about, please

.

blackarrow · Apr 6, 2018

Hello, wizards and muggles....Oh, wrong thread, sorry

. What time it is? The 7.03 | Worm TIME! Last time, some bonding and vet job with Taylor and Rachel. Now, who knows? I still have this bad feeling that something might happen in Rachel's shelter and if my theory will prove to be right, then the situation will be kind of fucked, because Taylor doesn't have her costume and would be unable to fight properly in case of an attack. I'm not sure if an attack will happen in this chapter or in the next one, but my theory is that Hookwolf didn't give up at his revenge idea and will try to attack the shelter, maybe by himself or with the help of a couple of other aryan parahumans, and Rachel will have to fight by herself with her trained dogs and the less trained dogs. Maybe Taylor will hide somewhere and help her from distance. But I'm sure of an attack from Hookwolf: he's too much of a primitive bastard to understand that he should listen to his boss instead of his own stupid thirst for revenge and this whole setting SCREAMS for a fight. Let's see how fucked Rachel/Taylor or Hookwolf will be in this case.

I was nervous, returning to Bitch's spot with lunch in hand. It wasn't just that I'd left her alone with an uncontrollable beast composed almost entirely of fangs, nails, bone and muscle. It was that it was lunchtime.
Between countless run-ins with the bullies, getting in contact with the Undersiders and the bank robbery, it felt like stuff seemed to go down around noon.
I was relieved when I got back and there wasn't any carnage. A dozen or so dogs greeted me, many poking their noses into the paper bag I held. I navigated my way through them to Bitch, who was sitting on a pallet of concrete blocks by the open back wall.
Sirius was lying beside her with his head on her lap.
"Food?" I offered.
She reached down, so I got a chicken souvlaki wrap and a coke out of the bag and handed them up to her.

As she peeled the paper away from one end of the wrap, I found myself a spot to sit on a part of the wall where it was incomplete or damaged. The weather had worn at the concrete blocks, and some greenery had managed to grow in the cracks, making for a not entirely uncomfortable seat. Outside, behind the building, there was a field of uncut grass surrounded by chain link fence. As they lost interest in the food, dogs wandered out there, chasing one another or baiting others into playing, trampling that long grass flat enough that we could see them. The view of their playing was accompanied by a soundtrack of endless barks and snarls.
A white dog with a nub of a tail and chestnut colored patches on its body and over its ears approached me, sitting to stare at me as
I took my first bite of my wrap.
I swallowed, and I told the dog, "No. This is too good to share, and it probably wouldn't be good for you anyways."
The dog cocked its head quizzically.
"You are awfully pretty, though," I told it.
I heard a scoffing noise from Bitch's direction. I turned her way just in time to see her glance away.
"What?"
"You should never own a dog."
That was fairly harsh, especially coming from her. "What are you basing this on?"
"Most dog owners are retards, and the most retarded are the ones who pick a dog because it's cute, or because its pretty, without knowing anything about the breed, the temperament, the dog's needs."

I just want to suffocate Rachel with my HUGS "hugs her quickly, then runs away", if I won't be afraid of her reaction, of course. She's basically the VOICE OF REASON here. Indeed, Rachel, a lot of people should never own dogs or any animals. They treat them either like they're toys, like they're their slaves good only for work or fight for their amusement, or they're something to beat up everytime when they're angry. They should never own an animal, if they behave like this. I love humans, in general, but I have to admit that we're worse, much worse than animals. At least animals become violent when they're hungry, they're scared or they're traumatized. We become violent for the same reasons too, but also for our own entertainment, our pleasure, our greediness, our uncontrollable revenge, our vices, and many other things that we should not be proud of. Animals are innocent in their aggressiveness, they only know basic things, while we're responsible for everything we're doing, since we know a lot more than basic stuff. I was attacked and bitten by 3 dogs once, an event that send me to hospital for almost 2 weeks, yet I can't bring myself to blame them for their behavior (it was my fault, because I had a small ball in my hand and I was playing with in my way to my home, and maybe they interpreted that it was a rock I was planning to throw at them. As I said before, animals are innocent, maybe they're beaten up with rocks by humans and they defended themselves in the only manner they knew against possible further attacks).

I sighed, "Fuck off, Rache. I can say it's a pretty dog without saying I'm going to take it home."
"Whatever," she didn't take her eyes off the dogs in the back field.
"No, don't brush me off. You want to start something, fine. But if you do, you gotta hear what I have to say. Listen to what I have to say. Acknowledge me, damn it."
She turned to glance at me. She wasn't frowning or glaring, but her gaze was so dispassionate it made me uncomfortable.
"Come on, you know me pretty well. All the others describe me as careful and cautious, though I'm not entirely sure why. Do you really think I'd pick something as important as a dog, a new addition to my family, without researching, first?"

She didn't reply. Instead, she turned her attention back to the dogs outside.
"Right," I said. "I wouldn't."
I didn't press things any further. We finished our wraps, I dug one piece of the foil-wrapped baklava out of the bag, set it down on the paper from my wrap and bunched up the foil around the remainder to throw up to Bitch. When I was done eating my dessert and licking my fingers clean, I hopped down from my seat on the wall, found a ball and started throwing it for the dogs.
"Here," Bitch told me. I turned around, and she handed me the blue stick that had been jutting out of the zipper of the backpack. It was plastic, molded to have a handle with finger-holds on one end and a cup on the other. As a dog brought the ball to me, I experimentally pressed the cupped end down on it, and the ball snapped into place.
When I whipped it forward, the ball went flying, five times as far than it had when I'd used my hand. Most of the dogs stampeded after it, racing to be the first to grab it or chasing after the ones in the lead.
It was nice, enjoying the sunshine, playing with the dogs, having no responsibilities or pressures for the moment.
I turned to look over my shoulder. "Can you tell me about some of them? The dogs?"
Bitch frowned, but she didn't refuse me. "This is Sirius. He was bought as a puppy for some twelve year old, then grew too big and unruly to stay in the house. He was caged outside and ignored, his nails grew too long, and he wound up with an infection in his foot. They decided it was easier to leave him at a shelter than pay for medical care. Since he wasn't trained or socialized, he came off too wild and excitable to get adopted. I got him in the week he was due to get put down."
"That's fucked up," I looked at Sirius, who was sleeping. "How do you know the story?"
"I know some people that volunteer at shelters, from when I used to. They let me know if there's a dog that deserves a second chance. Not that many don't."
"Ah."
"The one you were talking to a few minutes ago is Bullet. She's the smartest in the group. Her breed craves exercise, they're meant to run around all day with hunters… except she was used as a beta to warm dogs up for one of the dogfighting rings around here and her shoulder was torn up pretty badly. Even with the shoulder healed as well as it's gonna get, it hurts too much for her to run as much as she needs."

Animals and kids are the most innocent beings on this world

. My heart literally HURTS reading Rachel's stories about these abused dogs. Even if I'm not a dog person, I just can't stop my tears right now. Rachel is not only more smart and rational than I gave her credit until this Arc, but her heart is also in the right place, she loves her dogs so much and understand their pain and suffering and want so much to help them....You know what? Rachel quickly become one of my favorite characters. I'd be devastated if she'll ever die. I think I'll cry a lot along with her dogs that I'm sure they will start "crying" in their own way after her. She also have- despite being an antisocial murderer- an innocence of hers that make me want to hug and protect her from people who want to hurt her. Exactly like a dog, she's aggressive to protect herself and her pack of dogs and she can't understand many things about human behavior. Thank you, Wildbow, for creating such unique character as Rachel Lindt alias Bitch (I'll never call her again Hellhound because she doesn't like it

).

I spotted Bullet in the crowd. Sure enough, she was lagging behind the rest. I thought maybe she was favoring one leg.
"If your power heals, why doesn't it help her? Or Angelica's eye and ear?"
Bitch shrugged. "Lisa said it has something to do with me making a 'blueprint'. It's babble to me. All I know is that it doesn't help older health problems. It gets rid of disease and cancer, and parasites, and most damage they take when they're big. That's all."
"I think I get it," I told her. I looked at Bullet, who had stopped running and was sitting in the middle of the field, watching others run. "Do they all have stories like that?"
"Most."
"Damn," I felt a pang of sympathy for the animals.
The herd of dogs returned to me, and a shaggy dog dropped the ball at my feet.
"Good dog," I told it. I threw the ball, aiming to get it near Bullet, and the herd of dogs rushed off again, with more than a few excited barks.

Bitch and I weren't conversing, but neither of us were conversation people. I was too socially clumsy to maintain small talk for any length of time, and Bitch was… well, she was Bitch. So we sat, minutes passed between each exchange of dialogue, and it somehow didn't bother me. It was letting me pick and choose what I was talking about very carefully.
"It's too bad dogs can't have trigger events," Bitch mused aloud. "If they did, some people might think twice."
I could have argued the details, pointed out that most people weren't aware of the ins and outs of trigger events, I could have argued that some things could get worse if dogs could get powers. It didn't feel necessary.
"Yeah," I agreed.
That was the extent of that dialogue. We enjoyed another long silence and the dogs competed with one another to fetch the ball.
The sound of a breaking bottle and very human shouts disturbed our peace.
"These guys again," Bitch snarled, moving Sirius' head from her lap and hopping down from her seat on the pile of concrete blocks. The black lab turned his head to watch as she stalked towards the front of the building. Bitch whistled for her dogs and Brutus, Judas and Angelica rushed to her side.
"What's going on?" I called after her, moving to follow.
"Stay inside," she told me.
I did as she asked, but that didn't mean I didn't try to get closer, to get a better picture of what was going on. I approached one of the boarded up windows at the front of the building and peeked through a gap in the plywood.

You know what? I kind of want animals to have superpowers, cause I would really like to see a horse who's beaten up by his master till blood fighting back with his powers and kill the idiot human. Or a cat or a dog tortured by assholes to teach them a painful lesson. How cool would be that? Or a hunted animal to start hunting the hunter?

Not permanent superpowers (because they'd unable to keep them under control) but enough to protect themselves against people responsible for making their lives a hell. Aaaaaaaaand....it looks like I was right. Hookwolf and his people decided that today is the day when they'll kick a Bitch's ass and steal her dogs. Or this is what they believe they'd do

.

Bitch had her dogs standing around her, and she stood opposite a group of seven or so people. They ranged from thirtyish to twelve in age. It wasn't hard to figure out who they identified with. Half of the guys were blond or dyed blond, and the others had shaved heads. The youngest was a twelve-ish girl who'd taken a razor to her scalp, too, leaving only her bangs and the hair hanging around her ears and the back of her neck. The detail that confirmed my suspicions of their affiliation was the number eighty-three that I saw etched on one of the guys' t-shirts in permanent marker.

The white supremacists loved codes in numbers. If you were suspicious about whether a number was one of their codes, the number eight was a good clue, since it cropped up a lot. The eight referred to the 8th letter of the alphabet, H; Eighty-eight stood for H.H. or 'Heil Hitler', while eighteen pointed to Adolf Hitler in the same way. The eighty-three wasn't one I'd seen before, but I knew it would have stood for H.C… Heil something. Heil Christ?
In any case, these numbers had been a way to keep one's racist feelings on the down low, around those that weren't already affiliated, until Kaiser's predecessor formed Empire Eighty-Eight here in Brockton Bay. The move had pushed an ultimatum on the more secretive racists in the area, forcing them to either join the aggressive, active group in the public eye or retreat further into hiding. It had also drawn crowds of the more diehard white supremacists from the surrounding regions to Brockton Bay. When people with powers, Kaiser included, started to congregate in the group, Brockton Bay became something of a magnet for those sorts. One of the bigger collections of racists above the bible belt. Quite possibly the biggest congregation of racist supervillains.
A guy, thirty or so, was holding a carton of empty beer bottles. He held one by the neck, tossed it into the air and caught it again, then whipped it in Bitch's direction. I flinched more than she did as it shattered explosively against the front of the door.
"We told you to get of here," he sneered at her.
"I was here first."
"Doesn't matter. We're claiming this neighborhood, and that barking is driving me up the fucking wall."
"You've said so before. Try earplugs."
He grabbed another bottle and threw it, hard. Bitch had to lean out of the way this time, to keep it from hitting her shoulder.
"Can't do business wearing earplugs, you dumb whore," the man put his hand on the head of the partially bald girl, who made a face at Bitch.
"Then don't do business. I don't care."
He reached for another bottle, then stopped. A slow smile crossed his face as he looked to a teenage boy that was standing just beside the bald girl, "Thing about something as goddamn irritating as that barking, is it gets us talking about how we could deal with it. Tom, here, had my favorite suggestion. He said we could soak hot dogs in antifreeze and throw 'em into the field back there. Whaddya say?"
The day Empire Eighty-Eight had gotten its name hadn't been a good day for our city.

Finally, I learned about the mysterious 88 from Empire88. So, they call themselves Empire Heil Hitler. I'm disappointed with this piece of information. Too simplistic . Those fuckers don't have much imagination. So, they're not send by Hookwolf (surprising enough) but neither by Kaiser, they're just pissed off because Rachel is messing with their bussiness. Well, prepare to have your white ass kicked by this girl, you CUNTS. I'm going to have so much fun seeing dogs ripping through them

.

Fuck. I looked around the inside of the building for something I could use as a mask, but there wasn't anything. Why hadn't I brought my costume? The situation was a hair away from devolving into a bloodbath, and my civilian identity was plain to see. I couldn't even work from inside the building, without risking that someone might have heard about my power or how I operated, and come in after me.

I could only see Bitch from behind, but I saw her turn her head to evaluate the group. Maybe sizing up how long it would take her dogs to murder them all.
"If you were going to do that," she said, "You would have done it before now, and I'd kill you for it. Either you're too scared to really do something about it,which you should be, or Kaiser told you hands off."
It was the last attitude I would've expected from her. Bitch, being level-headed?
The man with the bottles sneered, "Nah. See, we heard that howling earlier. So did some of our neighbors. Kaiser did tell us to play nice, but way I figure it, if we tell Kaiser you started this shit, and he asks around to check our story, he's gonna hear there was howling before there was fighting."
"You know who I am," Bitch threatened them, "You know my abilities. You're really going to fuck with me, here? With my dogs around? Really?"
I heard, rather than saw, the sound of a gun cocking. The teenage boy, who I identified as Tom, raised a gun in Bitch's direction.
"Still think you're tough?" the man mocked Bitch, "Guns are the great equalizer, y'know? My son here wants a place in the Empire, and to do that, he's gotta earn his stripes. Killing you would be a good way to go about it, I'm thinking."

I wanted to say that they'll not stand the slightest chance to shoot her dogs once they're in their monster forms, but then I realized that they can shoot her even before she'll have a chance to use her power. And Taylor can't do jack shit, because her identity would be discovered, unless she'd try to kill them all. Which is not a thing that I can see her doing, at least not now (not because she can't but because she doesn't want. Yet). Ok, she have two options, either to call the other Undersiders in their help (but, until they'll arrive....) or to cover her entire face with a mass of bugs and use them as a mask (I know it sounds crazy and disgusting and maybe she won't do that, but if I were in her place, I'd rather do that than let Rachel die. After all, I won't be in danger to shallow bugs since I'm the one controlling them. Still disgusting, but it would be the right thing to do

).

I didn't wait to hear the rest of the dialogue. There was no way this wasn't going to come to violence, now. I pulled off my shoes, then ran in my sock feet across the concrete floor, keeping as low as I could. I found the knife that Bitch had used to open the bags of dog food, then stuck it in my back pocket. Still nothing I could see that would work as a mask. I wasn't even wearing a sweatshirt or enough extra layers to use a piece of my clothing for a mask. It had been too warm a day.
Which left me one very unpleasant option.
I exerted my power, and was glad to find that the grassy field and the half built building had a fair supply of bugs to work with. Grasshoppers migrated my way, and I emptied a wasp nest that nestled in the wall above the unfinished second floor. Blackflies that had been enjoying the copious amounts of dog waste flew my way, and innumerable ants and spiders formed the remainder of the swarm.
All together, they streamed my way to gather on my skin, crawling up my legs and torso, some turning downward to cover my arms. As one, they covered every inch of my body, even creating a mass over my mouth and glasses to obscure everything. It didn't tickle as much as I thought it might, but I did shudder.
I'd need a shower after this. Ten showers. And I'd pay to use a gym or pool or something, so I didn't have to endure the craptacular shower at the loft while I scrubbed my skin raw. Ninety percent of my rationale for designing a costume that covered my entire body was for this exact reason, damn it.
Why hadn't I brought my costume? Why?
I flinched at the deafening roar of a gunshot. Waited with my breath held, until I heard the murmur of conversation at the door again, Bitch's voice. A warning shot?

OMG, she's doing what I wanted her to do. And she's not covering only her face in bugs but also her entire body. COOL (I'd have covered only my face btw, because I'd be scared permanently to not be able to control so many bugs on my body and because of this fear I might lose control over some of them "shudders"). Ok, I'm going to call Taylor....POKEMON SKITTER. Since she's "costumed" but not exactly Skitter and she looks like a monstrous bug type pokemon. Hell yeah, take that, assholes! Who's this pokemon? Pokemon Skitter ready to hit you with her SUPER EFFECTIVE special attacks

.

I grabbed my cell phone from my pocket and sent a text out, selecting Brian, Lisa and Alec as the recipients:
Half a dozen skinheads here. At least one gun. Need backup.
My phone vibrated with a reply a few seconds later. Brian:
Omw. was headin home. will take minute.
No immediate reply from the other two. My phone displayed the time as 1:38. Close enough to lunch for me to mark it as a continuation of the trend. I was going to develop an anxiety disorder over this. I texted him directions, informing him to look for the building with the crane.
Enough bugs had gathered to cover me, with plenty to spare. I'd wanted to be absolutely sure I was covered, so I piled them on top of one another, several layers deep. It was stifling. I was forced to breathe through my nose, and my vision was obscured by the bugs that had collected on my glasses. More than that, it was hot in the midst of the dense swarm. Still, I was happier enduring it than risking being identified.
I looked out the nearest boarded up window that I could see through, and saw that the group hadn't moved. The man with the bottles said something, but I couldn't make it out. My leaving to grab the knife and send the texts had carried me out of earshot.

I ran back to the front door, keeping to the same half-crouch as before, to ensure nobody saw me through the gaps in the boards on the windows. I pulled my shoes back on, straightened, took a deep breath, and opened the door.
"Jesus fuck!" a twenty-something skinhead cursed as I moved to Bitch's side. I had a vague sense of what I must have looked like – a tower of swarming insects with vague human definition to it, giving the loose shape of a head, with vague indents in the 'face' where my eyes were.
Even Bitch's eyes widened a fraction as she saw me.
"The hell?" she muttered.

Its Pokemon Skitter, who else? Your fight is over now, you all can go home before this pokemon will mess with you. You won't like her attacks. For example: Biting, Stinging, Punching, Slicing, even Poisoning. Have fun, bastards!!! Cause I'm sure I'm gonna have a lot of it

!

I stayed quiet, keeping my attention on their group.
Bottle man looked me over, then spoke in a low voice, "Tom, was it? Would you do the honors and deal with this amateur horror show?"
The teenage boy, turned the handgun my way, pointed at chest level. He smirked and grinned, "My pleasure."
The scene with Bakuda and her minions hadn't been so different. Only difference was, Tom didn't hesitate a second when it came to pulling the trigger.
The sheer force of the gunshot left me reeling, and it hadn't even hit me.
I had dropped to a crouch as I stepped outside, leaving most of the bugs where they were above me. Some had fallen down, but the overall structure had remained more or less stable, each of the bugs gripping one another and spreading out enough to fill in the gap of the vacated head and chest area.
From what my bugs had experienced, I knew the shot had passed only inches above my head, around the center of my chest. The swarm down where I crouched was denser, to support the structure above them, so I couldn't see through them as easily. I could only wait with my breath held, hope that the bugs offered me enough cover to hide my real self.
"The fuck?" Tom spoke. I moved the bugs in front of my eyes so I could get a partial look at him, and saw him backing away, gun still raised.
I'd borrowed a trick from Grue, and figured it only made sense to borrow one from Tattletale, too.
When I spoke, I hissed the words, and at the same time, I had every bug in the swarm make noise: buzzing, chirping and droning in time with my words, doing everything I could to sound less human. "Guns are not going to work when my body is like this."

Putting my hands on the ground, bringing the upright mass of bugs with me, I crawled forward a step. I saw almost everyone in their group move away. Only the man with the bottles remained where he was, and he used one outstretched arm to keep Tom from retreating as well.
My ploy was working. As Tattletale had done with Glory Girl and Panacea, then again with Bakuda, I could sell the idea I had powers I didn't to mislead and misdirect.
"Shoot, boy!" The man tightened his grip Tom's shoulder.
The teenager obeyed, firing thrice more into the swarm, aiming too high to hit me. Two more shots struck where my chest would have been. The third passed through my fake 'head'.
Tom, his eyes wide in alarm, decided to change targets. He swung his arm to my right to point his handgun at Bitch.
I lunged forward, drawing the knife and swinging it in one motion. I stabbed Tom in the thigh, as Bitch simultaneously evaded to one side. Through a combination of my attack, Tom having to adjust his aim and Bitch's movements, the shot went astray.
As Tom fell over, I collapsed the swarm on top of him. Avoiding touching him directly, I pulled the gun from his hand, retrieved my knife, and stabbed the point of the knife down on his palm to eliminate any possibility of him retaliating or grabbing for his weapon.

After this fight, everytime when Tom is going to watch a Pokemon episode, he'll scream in terror and panic and hate the first moment when a bug type pokemon will make its appearance. But he will still have nightmares for months after this little horror show, without necessarily having to watch Pokemon. Pokemon Skitter traumatized him for life. Even Rachel is surprised by this display of creepiness, ingenuity and scary shit. I can understand her, Pokemon Skitter can be ruthless and dreadful when she's being discovered by random pokemon trainers and have to fight back.

On an impulse, I drew the knife across his forehead. According to Brian, cuts to the forehead were rarely serious, but they bled enough to look like they were. It was a fact that people that staged fights often played up, and a technique boxers used to blind their opponents with blood in the eyes.
I left some of my bugs on and around Tom as I moved away from him. He screamed frantically and struggled to crawl away.
It was more brutal an approach than I might have liked, but as I interpreted it, any effect I generated by injuring him like this, would hopefully prevent others from joining the fight, and would lead to less people getting hurt in the long run. I didn't like
Kaiser's followers, I had zero respect for them, but I didn't want to see them torn apart by Bitch's dogs.
"This territory is ours," Bitch growled at them, as people backed away. Brutus, Judas and Angelica were larger now, their skin split with bloody spikes of bone sticking out of the gaps. "Leave."
"Kaiser will hear about this!" the bottle man shouted.
"Leave!" Bitch shouted.
Tom, still mindless with pain and fear, jumped at that command. He tried to pull himself to his feet and failed, falling to the ground again with a ragged scream. When he reached out, imploring his friends for help, the skin of his hands and face were almost completely covered in bugs and blood. It did a lot to help spook the rest into a retreat. Most of them fled.
The bottle man cautiously moved forward to Tom's side. I didn't move from where I stood/crouched as he bent down to help Tom stand and limp away.
"Fuck," Bitch muttered.
"I'm sorry," I said, "I hope I didn't do anything wrong by stepping in."
She shook her head.

"I mean, maybe if I hadn't come out, it wouldn't have gotten violent."
"He was working up the courage to shoot me," she spoke. "It's fine."
"What are you going to do?"
"What?"
"I mean, they're going to come again. Maybe soon. Depending on what they say or who they complain to, there might be people with powers the next time around."
"I'll manage."
"I know this is your space, I think it's perfect, but maybe you should consider moving somewhere-"
She gave me a hard look. "Do you want to get hit today?"
I shut my mouth.
"I'm going inside to pick up the shit. You can help, or you can go back. Doesn't matter to me."
I looked over my shoulder in the direction the skinheads had retreated.
"I'll help," I decided aloud. "I said I would, and you might need backup if they decide to come back in force." Besides, I'd texted Brian to come, and he'd need a proper recap of what had gone on.
She only whistled twice for her dogs to follow her back inside, glancing back to see they were still following. She looked at me, and I wasn't entirely sure, but I thought maybe she didn't look as angry as she usually did.

Coil will also hear about this, you bottle asshole. And he won't like that you tried to kill one of his people BEFORE doing it himself when the right time will come. EMPEROR vs SNAKE, that would be what I call an awesome fight between two GENIUSES OF EVIL!!! Pokemon Skitter ruined the day(s) of the pokemon trainers, Rachel is not so angry anymore, Taylor is going to hep her with shoveling the dog shit and Brian will have a very pleasant view of the girl of his heart doing this rather spectacular job

. This is so romantic, I think I'm in love with Wildbow's talent to bring romance in the very soul of his story.

Good night, pokemon lovers and pokemon haters, and pleasant dreams.

ExNihilo · Apr 6, 2018

Fun times all around. It's been a while since I've seen Pokemon Skitter, but I know it exists. It is impressive how quickly she manages to integrate herself with Rachel, though. If you think about it, she is probably Rachel's first friend since she triggered. Which is kinda messed up.

One thing I dislike is how little middle ground there is between Highly Sympathetic Character and Complete and Total Asshole. I can think of... three? Purity,

Echidna

, and, um, I had a third? Everyone else is either basically irredeemable outside of truly tremendous work, or utterly sympathetic, as in, I may not like what he/she is doing, but I understand why.

AmbarGriss · Apr 6, 2018

ExNihilo said:
Fun times all around. It's been a while since I've seen Pokemon Skitter, but I know it exists. It is impressive how quickly she manages to integrate herself with Rachel, though. If you think about it, she is probably Rachel's first friend since she triggered. Which is kinda messed up.

One thing I dislike is how little middle ground there is between Highly Sympathetic Character and Complete and Total Asshole. I can think of... three? Purity,

Echidna

, and, um, I had a third? Everyone else is either basically irredeemable outside of truly tremendous work, or utterly sympathetic, as in, I may not like what he/she is doing, but I understand why.

This is something I like about Worm, wildbow can make petty assholes in such a natural way.

ExNihilo · Apr 6, 2018

AmbarGriss said:
This is something I like about Worm, wildbow can make petty assholes in such a natural way.

And so varied too! They are often petty assholes in completely different ways!

blackarrow · Apr 7, 2018

Buna, prietenii meei (Hello, my friends- in romanian) there's a new fresh chapter begging to be reviewed 7.04 | Worm and I just can't turn a blind eye to it. Last time, we discovered the existence of a new pokemon, a bug type one, named Skitter. That pokemon was pretty aggressive, stabbing and slashing and using bug attacks to bite and sting some ignorant pokemon trainers. Love how, sometimes, Wildbow can go pretty AU with his story, showing us that Worm and Pokemon crossover can be actually pretty and exciting

. Also, this Arc made me FALL IN LOVE with Rachel. Nope, not that kind of love that you might think about (I'm heterosexual and even if I was bi, my type of girl woulds have been Lisa

anyway. Rachel is....too wild for me

) but I love her as a great character she's and she quickly became one of my favorite Undersiders. Welp, I like all Undersiders now; well, I like Alec less because I still don't know much about his personality, but this is the first time when I like an entire villain group, in most of the stories I read about villain groups, I like one or two members, but never all of them. This is something really new and unique to me. Alright, before I'll start, I'll try to imagine what kind of ending each Undersider deserves, even if I'm sure that some of them will end up getting killed, because we can't have a perfect good ending in a story like this

.
-Taylor: she deserves to become the Hero of the whole world, to save everyone lives and everyone to admire her and show her gratitude, The Trio of Bitches to beg for forgiveness from her in their knees and Taylor to turn her back to them, not even looking at them, marry with Brian and have a beautiful family with him.
-Lisa: she deserves to be the one who'll take down Coil (especially if he blackmails her or is her father and abuses her) then to either lose her power (if this thing is even possible) or to find a way to turn it off so she can feel better in the company of people, without bothering that she can find their secrets all the time, then find a boy that she can love with all his flaws and become maid of honor at Taylor's wedding.
-Brian: deserves to get enough money to offer his sister a good and secure future, to get married with Taylor the Hero of the World and have a beautiful family together.
-Alec: deserves to be the one who'll kill his father, take his siblings with him, turn them (with their accord, if course) into his personal army, become feared and respected in the city if not in the entire country and so powerful that all gang leaders will tremble in fear only by hearing his codename.
-Rachel: deserves to have the biggest army of dogs possible, become feared and respected as Alec, be happy in her own wild world (I just can't see her having an relationship, neither het or gay, for me Rachel is an asexual and aromantic person, but one doesn't need obligatory to be in an relationship in order to be happy

).
Alright, I think I'm too idealistic regarding Undersiders' well deserved fates, but one can dream, ok?
Also, I want Danny to become the Mayor of Brockton Bay. He's the only person I can see being able to change the city into something better. Also, the only one GENUINELY INTERESTED to make the city a better place. Nobody else is really interested to do that.

Brian arrived as Bitch and I were trudging through the field with shovels and trash bags in hand. Not the image I wanted him to get of me, but I was glad to see him nonetheless.
I'd rinsed off using the tap at the dog's water trough, but I was still covered in dirty paw prints, grass stains, and my skin still itched with the feeling of bugs crawling on me. I had little doubt that with my wet hair and the state of my clothes, that I looked pretty damn grungy.
"There's bullet holes in the front door," Brian spoke from the other side of the chain link fence, raising his voice to be heard over the torrent of barks. He was wearing his costume and helmet, but had the visor flipped up and he wasn't shrouded in his darkness. From a distance, he'd look like some guy in motorcycle gear.

"Quiet," Bitch ordered, and the dogs fell silent. Seeing what the other dogs were doing, the few who hadn't learned the command stopped after one or two more barks as well.
"Yeah, they fired off their guns a few times," I told him.
"And you're still here," he said, in mild disbelief.
"My call," Bitch told him.
"It's a bad call," he admonished her.
"I'm not leaving."
Brian folded his arms. "Is your pride or stubbornness worth getting those dogs hurt?"
She scowled and looked down at the dogs.
"The thing they said about the hotdogs," I spoke, quiet, "About poisoning your dogs. You couldn't stop them unless you were here twenty-four seven, and maybe not even then."
"It's cowardly," Bitch spat the words.
"They're cowards," I told her. "Pretty much the definition of anyone who joins a hate group. But even if they did take a more direct approach, would you be able to handle it? Could you deal if twenty people showed up with guns? Or if Night and Fog dropped by at three in the morning, when it was just you and these guys?"

Aww, Brian arrived so fast. Well, not as fast as I would have liked, but Taylor did a pretty good job herself, without his help. But, if I were to be honest till the end, I kind of wanted for Brian to play the role of the protective bad boy and help the girls (call me old fashioned, narrow minded, I don't care, but I damn LOVE men who are protective toward the women, especially THEIR women. Protective men are one of my weaknesses, give me one like this and I'll swoon over him all day long

). From what I noticed so far, Brian is a protective guy toward people from his life: he's doing his best to take care of his sister also he preferred to sacrifice his life back when Bakuda played tag with them in her jeep than to see his team dying. Maybe this is one of the reasons why he's my worm-verse fictional boyfriend (seconded by Newter), his protective, helpful, caring side. A bad boy with a heart of GOLD

.

"I can handle myself."
I sighed a little and planted my shovel in the ground. I had to think of a way to convince her. If I lost my patience in the face of her stubbornness, she would win the argument, and we would all lose.
"I know. But isn't it better to rely on us? To actually handle this instead of going it alone, hiding and letting those fuckers have the power?"
"I'm not hiding," she gave me an angry look. "I'm protecting-"
Brian interrupted her, "Protecting your dogs would mean taking them somewhere safe."
She shook her head violently. "No. I do that, the fuckers win."
"I've been there," I told her. "Really, I know what you mean. But our number one priority is keeping you and those dogs safe. Once we've handled that, we can focus on dealing with any threats."
She drummed her fingers against her thigh, looking back toward the building.
"We are going to deal with them?" she made the question a challenge.
"Yes," Brian spoke. "I don't like that these guys are moving into this area. I don't like that they'd go so far as to attack a member of our group. If we don't do something to respond soon, it's going to hurt our rep. We need reputation, it protects us, gives people reason to think twice before they fuck with us."
Bitch nodded. "Okay."
Brian quirked an eyebrow, "Okay what?"
"I'll go, and the dogs come with."
He smiled, "Good. I don't think I can hop this fence without getting on the bad side of those dogs, so I'm going to meet you around at the front door. I'll call Coil on the way"

"Alright," I said. As he turned to leave, I raised my hand in the lamest little goodbye wave ever. Even though I was pretty sure he didn't see it, I was left mentally kicking myself for doing it.
I glanced at Bitch, who was giving me a peculiar look.
"What?" I asked her, feeling painfully self conscious.
"You like him."
"N-," I started. Before I went on to protest, I had to stop myself. Bitch would appreciate straightforwardness and honesty more than anything else. I wasn't sure I could afford to come across as dishonest or two faced, with her. "…Yeah. I do."
She turned to head back inside. A horrible thought struck me at that moment.
"Do… do you like him?" I asked her.
She turned her head to give me an angry look, one I couldn't read in the slightest.
"Because if you do," I hurried to add, as I started to walk after her, "Hey, you were here first. I'll back off and keep my mouth shut if you want to make a move."
There were about five seconds where she was very quiet. My pulse pounded in my throat. Why did I care so much about this?
"You should offer to sleep with him."

I honestly was drinking from a cup of milk and I spit out half of it on my desk and even some on my keyboard when I read Rachel's suggestion for Taylor to sleep with Brian

rofl:

rofl: I'm starting to cough, my desk is a mess but I'm...I'm laughing, fuck

rofl:

rofl: Give me a sec....Ok, back. Oh, my God, you killed Taylor, you BITCH! She's dead, she's absolutelt and utterly dead. Not even her STRONG willpower is enough to keep her alive. You did what Lung and Bakuda were unable to do, Rachel. Are you proud of yourself?

"I-uh, what?" I stammered. Relief mixed with embarrassment, and the abrupt change of topic left me struggling to get my thoughts in order.
"It's what guys want. Tell him you're available if he ever wants to fuck. He'll accept right away, or he'll start thinking about you as a possibility and he'll take you up on it later."

"That's- It's more complicated than that."
"It's complicated because people make it complicated. Just cut the bullshit and go for it."
"I don't think you're wrong about there needing to be less expectations and rules and rituals around dating, bullshit, as you put it, but I don't think I can do what you're suggesting."
"Whatever."
I realized, belatedly, that she'd actually offered me advice. As… I struggled to find the word. As misdirected as her suggestion might have been, especially with Brian, it was probably the most blatant gesture of goodwill I had seen from her, next to her telling Armsmaster that she thought I could kick his ass.
"Thank you, though," I told her. "I'll, uh, I'll keep it in mind."
"Don't care if you do."
We crossed the building's interior and Bitch unlocked the door to let Brian inside. For a second, I thought her bluntness would lead to her telling Brian outright that I liked him, but it wasn't the case. She was more focused on keeping the more unruly dogs from slipping outside and stopping them from barking at the new visitor than on our discussion.
"I can't get hold of Coil," Brian informed us.
"I couldn't get Lisa or Alec, before," I replied. "You think something's up?"
He nodded, "Maybe. You stay here with Rachel. I'm going to go check on the others."

From now on I'll have to stop drinking or eating something while I read/review Worm, and not because of violence and gore but because of something funny and ridiculous that a character might say/do (or even their codenames). I don't want to destroy my computer or having an unfortunate accident. So, Rachel said that because this is how she interpreted people's mating, in the same manner she saw at dogs. When a female dog is in heat she signals this to the male dog so Taylor should do the same (according to Rachel's POV) if she wants Brian's attention. I don't blame Rachel for this logic, this is the only way she can understand how relationships work.
I'm kind of worried for Lisa and Alec, they don't give any sign of life and I have a bad feeling about this. What if they're attacked as well, either by the nazis or by Alec's father who decided to make his presence in Brockton Bay when nobody expects.

"No," Bitch spoke. "I don't need babysitting, and I'm getting annoyed being badgered by you two. Taylor goes with you. I'm going to stay here and pack up."
"Not a good idea," Brian said, with a shake of his head, "If you get attacked in the meantime-"
"-I have Brutus, Judas and Angelica. I managed on my own for years, dealt with people tougher than those fuckers. If there's trouble, I run."
"And if they take one of your dogs hostage?" I asked her. "One of the ones you can't use your power on, yet?"
A dark look passed over her face as she considered that. "Then I run… and I get revenge another day, on my terms."
Brian tapped his foot for a few seconds. "Okay. If there's trouble, it'll be good to have Taylor at my back. If and when I get hold of Coil, I'm going to see about getting you some trucks, and people to drive them. In the meantime, stay alert, and don't get yourself killed."

Bitch scowled, but she nodded.
"Taylor, we should go. The sooner we check on Lisa and Alec, the better I'll feel," he was already moving as he finished talking.
The moment we were out of earshot, he pulled off his helmet, tucking it under one arm, and asked me, "What happened?"
I told him, explaining everything after the point Bitch and I heard the ruckus the bottle man and his gang were causing.
"Funny that it's Kaiser that's having trouble controlling his people," Brian mused, when I was done.
I wondered if he was still sore over what Kaiser had said at the meeting.
"Coil upped the pressure the moment the truce against the ABB was broken. I would be surprised if Kaiser didn't have his hands full with that," I replied.
"You're defending him?"
It wasn't often that I felt acutely aware of the difference in our skin colors, but being asked if I was making excuses for the white supremacist supervillain was one of those moments.
"I don't want to underestimate him, is all," I said.
Brian sighed, "Yeah. Maybe you're right. But Kaiser was willing to demand restitution for the attack on his dogfighting ring, and I'm more than willing to do the same for this attack from his skinheads, if it comes down to it."
"Both events having something substantial to do with Bitch," I noted.
"I'm aware of that fact," he told me, frowning. "She's useful, she's a credit to the team, but she comes with some problems. We've dealt with it in the past, we'll deal with it in the future."
"Right."
"How was she? Any fights?"
"Nothing serious. No, it was actually kind of nice. I might even do it again, if she let me."
"Really," he replied, skepticism clear in his tone.
"Really."
"What changed?"
"I'm figuring her out, I think. How she operates, how she thinks."

Brian, don't be so harsh with Taylor for telling what she believes about the whole situation with Kaiser and his people. She doesn't defend him, she's not racist, she only made a statement. And I agree with her about Coil's pressure. I won't be surprised if Coil actually pissed off the nazis in a way or another. Brian, you should not trust Coil, he's the last person you should trust, this snake man is only for himself, he doesn't care about you, he doesn't care about your sister, he doesn't care about the good of the city. All he cares is for his own person (and maybe for his girlfriend/wife/kids if he have). I fucking swear, if he did something to piss off the Empire88, then he's a worse person than them. Because pissed off nazis are dangerous for innocent citizens and the whole city will be on the edge of war. People don't need more violence in their city, Bakuda's attacks were enough for them, they want a peaceful life

. Fuck you, Coil, if you put people's lives in danger for your HUNGER for POWER.

"I've spent ten months on the same team with her, and I haven't even come close to getting how she thinks. I can usually keep her from going too far or hurting someone, keep her mostly in line and get her to follow directions, but I haven't had a conversation with her yet that didn't make me want to bang my head against a wall."
"That might be the problem. You're in charge, she looks up to you, respects you, but…" I paused. How could I word this without getting into the particulars of her mode of thinking? "…But you're something of an authority figure in our group, and her personality demands she tests authority. Especially when she's insecure."
Brian considered that. With a note of approval in his voice, he commented, "You have been giving this some thought."

"I think that you'd have a much easier time handling her if you took an official leadership role in our group. Not just being the sorta-kinda leader, but actually taking the position. If you're not comfortable with that, or if you think the others will make it too hard, well, she'll probably get more comfortable with relying on you as someone in charge over time, as you prove you can handle it."
"It's been ten months, how long does she need?"
"And she's had how many years, without parents, teachers, bosses? I mean, even when she had foster parents, I don't think it was sunbeams and rainbows, y'know?"
He rubbed his chin. "…Yeah."
"Tell me she hasn't gotten at least a bit better in the course of those ten months."
"Marginally."
"There you go. It'll only improve from here on out."
He offered me a theatric groan in reply.
Brian was walking with long strides, and he had long legs, which forced me to do little jogging spurts to keep up. It wasn't tiring, I was fit enough from my running, but it was embarrassing to feel like a small child trying to keep up with a grown-up.
Either way, we did make good time getting back to the loft.
Brian put his finger to his lips as he pulled on his helmet and flipped his visor down, emanating his darkness to hide the costume. I grimaced and brought bugs up to cover my face, calling more from the area to form the beginnings of a swarm. Brian – Grue now – reached out and coated the front door of the loft in darkness, then opened it without the slightest of creaks or squeals. Before we ascended the metal stairs leading to the second floor, he coated them in a layer of his power to render our footsteps utterly silent.
I didn't anticipate the scene in the living room of the Loft.

More talking about Rachel and...the loft....Everyone is dead, Pokemon Skitter, Grue- EVERYONE IS FUCKING DEAD. Maybe not, but its a scary thought. I don't wanna Lisa and Alec to die so soon, exactly when I planned for them such bright fates

.

The TV was on, showing ads. Alec lay on the couch, his feet on the coffee table, a meal on his lap. Lisa sat on the other couch, laptop resting on her legs, a phone to her ear. She turned her head as we came upstairs, gave us a funny look, then returned her attention to her laptop.
"Why the fuck aren't you answering your phones?" Grue raised his eerie voice. He flipped up his visor and banished the darkness around him.
Lisa frowned and held up a finger. She continued talking into the phone, "-don't agree with this, and if you'd asked me, I would have said you shouldn't do it. No, yes, I think it's an effective measure."

She pointed to the laptop, and I stepped forward, moving the bugs off my face and down to the center of my back, where they would be present but not in the way, resting on cloth rather than skin. I looked at the screen.
"My problem is that it's not just them. It's their families," Lisa spoke into the phone. "Unspoken rule, you don't fuck with a cape's family."
I read the contents of the email she had open. I felt a ball of dread settle in the pit of my stomach. I leaned over the back of the couch and put a hand on her shoulder to steady myself as I reached down to press the pagedown key on the laptop. I read more of the email and then hit the button again to scroll down again.
When I'd read enough of the page to verify my suspicions, I hit the home key to return to the very top of the page. I checked who else had been Cc'ed on the email and the time it had been sent.
"Fuck," I muttered. "Fuck!"
Lisa looked up at me, frowned, then spoke to the person on the other end of the phone, "Can we finish discussing this later? I've got to talk to my team about this. Kay. Later."
The email was a list. At the very top of the list was Kaiser. Following his entry were his lieutenants, Purity, Hookwolf and Krieg, and the rest of the members of Empire Eighty Eight. It wasn't even limited to people with powers, noting some powerless captains and even some of the lower level flunkies.
The list included pictures and text. Beneath each of the villain's names was a comprehensive block of data, noting their civilian names in full, professions, addresses, phone numbers, the dates they moved to the city and the first appearances of their costumed identities in Brockton Bay. There were pictures of them in costume paired with pictures of their alleged civilian identities, roughly matched in angle and size for easy comparison. Most of the entries had zip files attached, doubtless with more data and evidence.
Kaiser. Max Anders, president and chief executive officer of Medhall Corporation, a pharmaceuticals company based in Brockton Bay. Father of a Theodore Richard Anders and an Aster Klara Anders. Twice divorced, currently living in a penthouse apartment downtown. Drives a black BMW. Native born to Brockton Bay, son of Richard Anders. Richard Anders, according to the email, was Allfather, the founder of Empire Eighty Eight. From the pictures, it was clear to see how the armor fit around his face and body, how both Kaiser and Max Anders had the same height and body type.

Ok, great, Lisa and Alec are not dead but.....SOMETHING BAD REALLY HAPPENED. Exactly what I was afraid the most. I swear, I might be a parahuman with the power of making all my fears becoming real. Even in my day-to-day life, most of things I'm afraid of become true, for some reasons. That would be the suckiest power someone can have. And I have this power, I'm more and more convinced about. Welp, my life hates me!!! From what I understand, Coil used Lisa to expose the identity of Empire88's members. While, in theory, is a good idea because they're all fucked, in reality is one of the most malicious and evil idea someone can have. If I had, until now, a little drop of sympathy for Coil, most for his intelligence, now this little drop is gone. Coil is PURE EVIL, he's worse than Kaiser and Lung together. The only villain who's still worse than him is Heartbreaker, but Coil can surpass him as well, if he'll start torturing and molesting children in the future. I mean, the parahuman nazis' families will be in DANGER, they might get killed by their enemies as soon as their husbands/wives, children are exposed. Theo, Aster, they....Oh no, no, poor children. They don't deserve this shit. They don't deserve their lives to be destroyed by a power hungry SNAKE without heart. Let's not talk about regular citizens. The nazis will become so enraged since they have nothing to lose anymore and they'll fuck up the whole city. Lots of innocent people will be killed. So, Coil wants to make Brockton Bay a better place by killing its citizens. Well, you're going to be successful soon, you SNAKE-ASS.

There were other images as well, showing Max Anders with a gorgeous twenty-something blonde, and Max Anders with an older brunette woman at a coffee shop, their table strewn with what looked like paperwork. I scrolled down to confirm my suspicions, the blonde appeared in another picture with her twin sister. Fenja and Menja.

The brunette woman was Purity, according to the email. Far mousier than I might have thought, given the sheer presence she had in costume. Real name, Kayden Anders. Interior decorator. Single mother of one Aster Anders. Purity was promoted to Kaiser's second in command in the same week that Kayden Russel took Max's hand in marriage to become Kayden Anders. Their separation occurred within the same time period as Purity leaving Empire Eighty Eight to apparently strike out on her own. Little citations pointed to files apparently in the attached zip file.
Krieg was alleged to be a James Fliescher. Head of a pharmacy chain, in turn connected to Medhall. Father of three, married. According to the notes in his block of information, he took a vacation twice a year with his family. The email stated that the zip file had copies of inter-company emails where he'd told his coworkers he went to places like South America or Paris, and flight records showed that he was lying. He always went to London. Twice a year, every year, for nearly twenty years. Not once, during these trips, had Krieg been seen in Brockton Bay.
The list went on. And on.
Every piece of information connected to others. Even the info on the mooks like the ones I had met earlier with Kaiser's business, showing how they were employed as low level employees of Medhall and its derivative businesses. It seemed like everyone had a criminal record except the people at the top.
In short, It was comprehensive enough it would take a special kind of willful ignorance to not buy into what the email was selling.
The email had been sent not only to Lisa, but to the Brockton Bay Bulletin, a half dozen other local news stations, and several national ones. Everyone that mattered, and a few that didn't.
The email had been sent at 1:27 pm this afternoon. Less than an hour ago. That was the really bad news.

Krieg's real name is James, right, I'll remember this when I'm gonna meet this bastard. I'm surprised that Kayden kept her husband's name after divorce. So, my suspicion proved to be true. She still loves him (no woman who would really hate her husband would keep his name after divorce, unless her maid name sounds very stupid OR she still have feelings for him

). So, nazis are utterly FUCKED, their families are utterly FUCKED, the regular citizens are utterly FUCKED, the heroes might be utterly FUCKED, the whole Brockton Bay is going to become a war zone. Hell, I think that not even Undersiders are safe enough. I can't even say that my HATE for Coil is over 9000. This meme is not sufficient enough to contain it. I have to make a new notebook special for him where I'll write the most painful ways this character should be killed

.

"Coil did this?" I murmured.
Lisa nodded, tightly, "Yup."
"With your help, I'm guessing?"
"Only a little. He asked me a few times, to give him my thoughts on some stuff, put him on the right path, eliminate possibilities. I didn't think he'd get this far, or go this far. Once I got him on the right track, he apparently used private investigators and hackers to dig up the rest of this and get the photographic evidence."
"Fuck," I muttered.
"I don't agree with it," she said. "It's crossing a line. It's not just messing with the enemy, there's going to be a ton of collateral damage."
"Why weren't you answering your phone?" Brian changed the subject.
She blinked a few times, startled, "My phone was nearly a goner, so I grabbed a fresh disposable to talk to the boss. I didn't want to use the phone with the rest of your contact info in it, just to be safe. Alec was with me the entire time. He should've gotten any calls."
"Check your phone, Alec" Brian spoke, terse.
Alec did. His eyes went wide, "Oh fuck."
"Part of being a member of this team is being on call if we need you. I swear," Brian growled at Alec, "I'm going to kick your ass so hard-"
Lisa looked from Brian to Alec to me, "Something happened. Is anyone hurt?"
"Yes, something happened, no, nobody's hurt. That's really not what concerns me," I told her. I pointed to the screen, "Did Coil plan this? Is this a scheme of his, him using his power? Using his destiny manipulation or whatever to create some general coincidence, put us in a bad spot, and force us to join him?"

Lisa shook her head forcefully, "I didn't get the sense of anything like that, and that's not how his power operates. Besides, he expected we would agree anyways. He wouldn't jeopardize that with a gambit like this. It's too crude."
"So it was just him attacking Empire Eighty Eight on a new front, and a fucking bad coincidence for us," I said, as much to myself as anyone else.
"What's going on?" Alec asked.
I took a deep breath and tried to explain just how bad the situation was. "Coil just made a big play against the Empire, and it looks like it was anonymous. Bitch and I got in a fight with some of his underlings at almost the same time."
"I don't-" Alec started.
"Look at it this way," I interrupted, "Kaiser and every single one of his twenty-ish superpowered flunkies are going to be pissed enough to want to kill someone, after Coil went and turned their lives upside down. Kaiser and his people know who we are, from our cooperation against the ABB. Specifically, they know who Lisa is. So who are they going to blame for this, if not the group his people were just fighting with this very afternoon, the group with the very talented information gatherer in their ranks?"
"Oh." Alec said. "Fuck."
"Exactly."

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck...Lisa, YOU'RE TEARING ME APART, LISA (this fits so well here

)....fuck, fuck, my brain is broken, my mind is fucked, this chapter made everything go bad with the power of a whole BIG FUCKING BANG. The only person I'll blame for nazis coming after Undersiders and killing random citizens will be Coil, he's the one who should be blamed the most. FUCK THIS SNAKE, I was so damn right for not trusting him a single moment. And it looks like his power doesn't work as I imagined. Well, I think I know how it really works. He can fuck people's lives without putting too much effort. On the other side, this Arc is getting incredible exciting! So many fights, so much suspense, drama, YAY!!!

Noapte buna, prieteni (good night, frieends -in romanian) si somn usor (and sleep well). Va iubesc pe toti (Love you all)

blackarrow · Apr 7, 2018

I have a question, but don't spoil me anything, please, just answer me YES or NO. Coil would do WORSE things in the future that he did so far? I want to know because I have to properly prepare the "Coil Must Suffer the Worst Death in 1000 Ways" notebook that I was talking about

. Thank you.

ExNihilo · Apr 7, 2018

blackarrow said:
call me old fashioned, narrow minded, I don't care, but I damn LOVE men who are protective toward the women

*Marquis intensifies*

blackarrow said:
Coil would do WORSE things in the future that he did so far

Yes. Very much so. You ain't seen nothing yet.

blackarrow · Apr 7, 2018

ExNihilo said:
*Marquis intensifies*

Yes. Very much so. You ain't seen nothing yet.

What? You mean that aristocratic parahuman that Lung was talking about in Birdcage? Well, if he's a gentleman, then I might like him, despite being a villain. Now depends of what he's doing: if he protects women, but kill small children, I'll be like: FUCK, NO! But if protects both women and children, I'll be like: FUCK, YES! Another favorite villain

.

Oh, my God! Then I won't be sad that I'm wasting money on the notebook. It worth it! Thanks.

ExNihilo · Apr 7, 2018

blackarrow said:
What? You mean that aristocratic parahuman that Lung was talking about in Birdcage? Well, if he's a gentleman, then I might like him, despite being a villain. Now depends of what he's doing: if he protects women, but kill small children, I'll be like: FUCK, NO! But if protects both women and children, I'll be like: FUCK, YES! Another favorite villain .

Marquis: Not the worst villain in worm. That's all I'm saying.

AmbarGriss · Apr 7, 2018

blackarrow said:
I have a question, but don't spoil me anything, please, just answer me YES or NO. Coil would do WORSE things in the future that he did so far? I want to know because I have to properly prepare the "Coil Must Suffer the Worst Death in 1000 Ways" notebook that I was talking about . Thank you.

The shitshow is only starting.

Reveen · Apr 8, 2018

blackarrow said:
I don't blame Rachel for this logic, this is the only way she can understand how relationships work.

I mean, in all honesty it's probably the most well adjusted option anyone has put on the table. She puts it in a blunt, animalistic way, but it would probably be healthier in the long run to just put the fact that she has feelings for him out there instead of Taylor's current approach of not dealing with it and acting incredibly awkward around Brian or Lisa's approach of getting Taylor in better looking clothes and hoping that magically makes Taylor learn to not be incredibly awkward.

Even if she does what Rachel suggests in a more toned down and less explicitly carnal way, the only negative consequence of doing so is making their relationship awkward. But that's something likely to happen anyway if she continues to not deal with it and just keeps acting weird around him all the time.

I get the feeling that Rachel is actually speaking from experience, and though that experience might come from a social context that's very very different than the one Brian and Taylor are in, it's still human social experience rather than her being animalistic about it.

blackarrow · Apr 8, 2018

Hi, bad friends and good enemies. Buzz 7.5 is up and very impatient to be reviewed 7.05 | Worm Last time, there was a lot of discussions about sex. Precisely, how you can win a boy's heart by making sex with him, with Rachel in the role of psychotherapist. In fact, it happened like this, just to make a summary:
Taylor, just arriving at the Lair: Guys, I have something to tell to Brian, and I want everyone to pay attention to me.
Everyone: WHAT?!? We're pretty busy here, you know....
Taylor: Brian, I want to sleep with you. To have sex with you. To fuck you!!! TAKE ME! I'M YOURS! "proceeds to tear off her clothes"
Rachel: "High-five"
Lisa: D'awwww!!!!
Alec: I thought that it was something interesting. Boring, back to my game...
Brian: "quickly generates darkness around his face to hide his CRAZY BLUSH" GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY TEAM!
Taylor, disappointed: You SUCK at being a therapist, Rachel.

So, this is what happened during the entirely of the last chapter

.
And something less important to mention: The Snake Coil is a dick. A HUUUUUUGE dick.

"It's too dangerous to stay here," Brian spoke.
"What?" Lisa and I asked him, almost simultaneously.
"They've got too many heavy hitters and they have absolutely no reason to hold back anymore. After the ABB thing and the issue with Bitch earlier today, with the number of powered individuals they've got at their disposal, they can probably figure out our general location and go on the offensive. We can't afford to still be here if they decide to try and root us out or if they lay siege to the Docks."
"So, what, we run?" Alec asked.
"Tactical retreat. Just to be safe," Brian stated, his voice firm, "In case Empire Eighty Eight does decide to organize and come after us in force"
I spoke up, "Even if they don't blame us for this email that's outing them, secret identity-wise, I'm betting there's going to be more than a few that just want to hurt someone and vent their anger… and we did just get in a fight with their people. It makes us an easy target. I'm with Brian. I think we should lay low, at least for now."

"Okay," Lisa said, "I'm not sure I agree, but I don't see any harm in it. You guys think you can convince Rachel?"
"Already did," Brian said, "More or less. She's packing up at her personal dog shelter, and she'll be ready to go the moment transportation arrives. Lisa, first thing, I want you to get on the phone with Coil. Get that transportation – I'll text you directions to the place – and get Coil to make a statement, have him make it damn clear to Empire Eighty Eight that he's responsible for this email."
"I don't think he'll be willing, as far as 'fessing up."
"Tell him that I'm not going to sign any deal with him if he can't own up to this and get the heat off us, when we weren't informed and we didn't agree to taking this kind of action."
Lisa frowned, "Okay."

Brian's idea is an excellent and logical one but I doubt that Coil will accept the proposition. He'll either just don't do anything, because he knows that Brian is desperate for his money and he'll come back to him anyway, or he might blame someone else, possible Merchants (which would be credible because Kaiser pretty much offended Skidmark). Bet that Taylor is going to hide in Brian's apartment, more shipping fuel for me, Lisa and Rachel

.
AC: :33 < don't forget ac, friend.
Me: "pats Nepeta's head, stunned by this unexplained interference" Nope, I won't forget you.

"If he's as clever as he acts like he is, he'll find some angle to make it work."
"Alright. I'll try. What else?"
"Take Alec and find a place to stay with Rachel and the dogs. I think Bitch has more than one shelter like the one I saw today. If none of those places work, ask Coil for a place."

Lisa nodded, "Okay. What are you doing?"
"Taylor and I will stay at my apartment. It's out of the way, and so long as we don't go out in costume, we shouldn't run into trouble."
I'd be staying at his apartment? I could remember the tension from the last time I'd been there alone with him, just how aware I'd been of his presence. The idea of going there to stay overnight forced me to focus very carefully on keeping my expression impassive and my hands from fidgeting. I was glad for the distraction of Alec's response.
"The fuck?" Alec spoke, "You're telling us to get out of here, stay in some random place with a bunch of stray dogs, while you go home and kick back?"
"Do not get on my case right now, Alec," Brian pointed a finger at Alec, "As a member of our group, you agreed to answer your fucking phone when it goes off. I'm not much happier with Lisa, for not having a phone ready, but you're the one I'm really pissed at. From what I heard, if things had gone a little differently, one or both of your teammates could be dead. Because you guys weren't able to back them up when Taylor asked for it."
Alec's eyes narrowed, but he didn't reply.
Brian's voice was low, his tone controlled. "I'm angry enough that you should count it as a good thing that you're not staying at my place and having to put up with me. That's why you're not coming with me. I also need a level head with you and Rachel, and that means Lisa goes with you two. I'd leave Taylor instead, but I'd rather spread out the firepower between our two teams."
"Whatever," Alec looked back to the TV. "Forget I mentioned anything."
Before Brian could get on Alec's case again, I cut in to ask, "Shouldn't we all maybe stay together?"
"No," Lisa answered me, "Brian has the right idea. Together, as a group of five, we might draw attention from anyone keeping an eye out for our team. Especially if there's dogs around. Having two teams means we can mount a rescue or provide a distraction if one group gets in a bad spot."

OMG, she's staying at Brian's apartment for real. My whole face is brightened by a huge smug of satisfaction for being right. Also, Brian is back in his calculated boss (or rather Coil's lieutenant) of the team role and protective teammate. And he's doing a rather good job, everyone listen to him without protesting too much. Brian is the BEST BOSS. Gosh, how I can concentrate on review when I swoon so much over Brian? Damn you, Wildbow

.

"Keep your phones on and answer them if anyone calls. We take turns checking in on each other, every half hour, using the same passwords as before." Brian instructed.

"Got it," Lisa replied.
"If you really can't find a place to stay, and the dogs are safely put away somewhere, you can stay at my place. You'd be crashing on the couch and the floor, though."
Lisa nodded.
"Hey," I spoke up, hesitant, "Can I take five minutes to grab a shower and change while you guys hash out the rest of the details?"
Brian made a pained face, but he nodded, "Go."
Grateful, I hurried to the bathroom, stopping by my room to grab my costume, a fresh outfit, and my towel.
The shower was being more uncooperative than usual, and I didn't have the time to wait for it to decide to give me warm water, so I jumped in and endured the chilled water just long enough to rinse myself off, scrub the priority areas and get my hair wet.
I cranked the shower off, squeegeed the water off myself with my index finger and thumb, then hopped out of the shower to towel dry and run a brush through my hair.
When I was dry enough, I pulled on a pair of stretch shorts and then started to pull my costume on. Given that it was all one piece, barring the mask, belt and armor panels, I couldn't quite wear it under clothing without having to wear gloves and long sleeves.
That kind of clothing wasn't an option as the weather got warmer.
One option I did have, what I'd been ruminating on, after having my bugs crawl all over me to keep my identity concealed, was only putting it on partway. When the lower half of the costume was on, I folded the top half around at the waist, tying the arms together around me, like a belt. I put on jeans and a black and red spaghetti strap top that left some of my midriff exposed. To finish, I tied a sweatshirt around my waist, positioning it over where I'd tied the upper half of my costume.
I sized myself up in the mirror. The material was fairly thin and it stretched, so it didn't make me look bulkier. I'd have to see how comfortable the soles I'd built into the foot portion of the costume were inside shoes, but that was something I could adjust. Having the main part of the body pulled around behind my back meant I could hide the bulkier portion under the sweatshirt. So long as I didn't untie the sweatshirt where anyone could see, I was golden.
I hurried out of the bathroom, grabbed enough tops, underwear and socks to last me a few days. I rolled them up to make them compact, and stashed them in my backpack around the armor for my costume, my weapons, the rest of my utility compartment stuff, two books and six hundred bucks in cash. I slung the bag over one shoulder. Heavy, but manageable.
I left my room to rejoin Brian, tying my damp hair into a loose ponytail with an elastic while I walked. I paused for just a second to extend one leg, toe down to touch the ground, so a collection of beetles, roaches and spiders could crawl up my leg. They settled between my costume and my clothes.
I could deal with bugs being on me, so long as they weren't directly on myskin.
"Ready?" I asked Brian.
He nodded. He'd pulled off the leather jacket and had it in a gym bag with his helmet. He was wearing a guy's tank top, beige, leaving his arms and shoulders exposed. His skin glittered with the tiniest droplets of sweat, from wearing a jacket in the warm weather.
I pulled my eyes away before my attention could draw notice. I told Lisa, "We'll see you guys later."
"Have fun," she grinned.

Taylor is getting prepared to have a lot of fun at Brian's apartment "winks at Lisa". But before fun, I think they'll have some problems either on their way to apartment or right when they reach there. I mean, Worm is the kind of story where nothing works smooth, so I won't be surprised if they'd be attacked by nazis or they'd be trapped in the middle of a fight between parahuman nazis and heroes, or simply Taylor will faint because she can't handle seeing Brian's exposed muscles all the time. Either way, its going to be bad. Worm should have THIS as its motto: Either way, its going to be bad!

Brian led the way outside, and again, I paused at the door's threshold to collect some more bugs under my clothing and in my bag while I could still be discreet about it. It wasn't a lot, but it was something.
He seemed to be deep in thought, and there was good cause for that, so I didn't bother him as we walked to the bus stop.
"Am I being paranoid?" he asked me, as we arrived.
"I'm not the person to ask. As far as I'm concerned, when you're talking about capes, you can't take too many precautions. Especially with a group as influential as Empire Eighty Eight."
"I'll rephrase the question then. Do you think the others will think I'm being paranoid?"

"Honestly? Probably."
"Damn it."
Our conversation stalled when more people joined us at the bus stop.
"I just realized," Brian spoke, "I never asked if you even wanted to stay over."
I looked up at him. I wasn't sure how to answer without conveying my full feelings on the subject. Keep it simple. "I do. It's totally fine."
"After I was first introduced to the others, I did that a lot. The guys complained about it, and my sister's mentioned it too. I take charge, make calls."
"Really, it's cool. It makes sense, given…" I paused, keeping the civilians that were in earshot in mind. "…the situation, and I like your apartment, so I don't mind staying there."
"Yeah?"
"Definitely. Hell, I'd have you decorate my apartment when I got a place of my own."
He chuckled, "I'll do that for you if you make me that outfit we talked about before."
The costume. I'd almost forgotten.
"Thanks for reminding me about that. It sort of slipped my mind."
"Considering it?"
"Yeah. Maybe. It's a big job, but I guess I have more free time now, and, uh, yeah. That's pretty much it. I could maybe do it, sure." Obviously, I couldn't and wouldn't mention the fact that my decision to ally myself with the Undersiders for real was a factor.
"Yeah? I'd owe you."
"Gives us something to talk about while I'm staying over, too."
"I don't think we'll lack for conversation topics," he smiled at me. That boyish smile that I'd noticed on day one. If I was being honest, I would even say it was tied with his voice for the thing I liked most about him, aesthetically. It was maybe unfair to think so, but I generally saw the vast majority of teenage boys as awkward people that combined the traits of a child and an adult in the most unfortunate ways possible. Brian was the opposite, and it was his voice and his smile that really nailed the effect.
I felt my ears warming up in the telltale sign of an incoming blush and looked away, distracting myself with an exhaustive investigation of a brown paper bag by the side of the road. If I kept on that particular line of thinking about Brian's better qualities, I was guaranteed to wind up saying or doing something to embarrass myself.

Awww, Taylor's shyness is so cute. She feels so embarrassed and awkward around the boy she have a crush on, and its perfectly understandable. Every teenager girl at her first love would act like this, its normal especially since girls are more scared than boys (well, I might be biased here, but its my point of view, sorry) about their feelings, if the boy is the right person for them, if they might be rejected by him or not, and how the respective boy will treat them during their very first night spent together (if he'll be caring and tender enough or much less than expected. You get the point). Since Taylor never had a crush before, less a boyfriend, also she's a bit anti-social on the top of everything, she can't do what Rachel told her to do, not even close to the suggestion. She'll die in shame if she'll ever dare to do something. Maybe they'll get to kiss one day, but I just can't see more than a kiss. At least, not in the near future. Also, we still don't know if Brian feels the same for Taylor.

The bus arrived and we climbed on. I flashed my school ID, while Brian paid with tickets. I found an empty seat, and Brian stood next to me, holding the pole. He was close enough to me that his leg pressed against my arm. Even though I could have moved my arm away, I left it where it was.
I wasn't the sort of girl Brian would be attracted to. I knew that. I could settle for just his presence and friendship. I could enjoy it if there happened to be casual body contact between us, even if it was a bit pervy.
Our brief conversation had let me relax and start to enjoy the possibility of an evening in Brian's company, but what I saw next was a bucket of cold water in the face.
The bus had stopped to pick up passengers, and Sophia Hess was among them. Her sleeveless polo top was long, extending down to her waist, and clung tight to a slender body with curves and a chest I'd never have. The tennis skirt she was wearing was only barely long enough to be decent. More than one set of eyes turned her way as she boarded the bus, Brian's among them.

She was oblivious to the attention and to my existence, preoccupied with a conversation over the phone. She looked annoyed, bored, and distracted, as the person on the other end did most of the talking. Probably a parent.
The bus continued on its route, more people filed in, and the people near the front moved further back. I stared at her, waiting for the moment she would see me and make eye contact. I wasn't sure what she'd do, or what I'd do, but that moment held every iota of my focus.
She was Emma's best friend. The person who had shoved me into the locker, back on the day I'd gotten my powers. On countless occasions, she had pushed and tripped me, often several times a day. She'd knocked me down the stairs, when I was near the bottom of the flight, even got others to do similar things. Given that she'd been suspended after my last meeting with her, I somehow didn't think she'd walk away without confrontation if she saw me.

And this whole cute scene changed when Shadow Bitch Stalker (I'm 100% convinced Sophia is Stalker and you can't tell me otherwise because THAT WOULD BE A SPOILER!

) in civilian ATTACKED! Well, not exactly attacked, but her simple presence is enough to destroy everything in its way, like an uncontrollable fire. Funny that she has no idea that her nemesis in costume Grue is the same person as Brian and her nemesis in civilian Taylor is right there, in the bus. I want her to notice Taylor and try to do something to her once they'd be out of bus and have Brian go all PROTECTIVE BOYFRIEND MODE over her. That would be the best way to end this chapter

).

My leg bounced restlessly. Without thinking about it, I'd readied myself to leap out of my seat, to defend myself, get out of the way, or respond to whatever happened. My thoughts looped through possible things she might do, things I might say or do in response.
Sophia put the phone away, and gazed out the window for a moment. When she'd seen everything there was to see of transition point between the Docks and Downtown, she glanced over the bus' interior. Her eyes paused on advertisements running along the top of the bus, then settled on Brian.

The appraising look she gave him was unmistakeable. It lingered long enough that it probably would have been uncomfortable for him, if he'd been aware of it.
Or maybe not. Maybe he would've liked the attention from a girl that looked like her.
Bleh.
She still hadn't seen me. I could see why – I was sitting, and she and Brian were standing, and there were others between us, obscuring her line of sight to me.
I startled when something moved to my left. It was just the person sitting next to me standing to get off at the next stop, but it made me aware of just how tense I was. I reached up and touched Brian's elbow. When he glanced down, I moved over into the empty seat and pointed to the vacated spot.
He smiled and sat down beside me.
My pulse was pounding in my throat, and I couldn't tell him why, not here. I waited and tried to organize my thoughts, as people from the front of the bus moved toward the back. It took some doing, but I avoided looking at Sophia.
I reached up and put a hand on his shoulder, used it to rise high enough to murmur in his ear, "Do me a megahuge favor? I'll explain after."

Without reading further than "megahuge favor", I think I have a clear idea about what Taylor is asking Brian to do. They're going to kiss, to piss Sophia off and to show her that her nemesis in civilian have a boyfriend now while she's still single. Even if I don't agree with making a boy that probably doesn't like you back kiss you just to enrage someone, still I'm enjoying watching Sophia having the second worst day of her life, after her possible trigger moment. GO, TEAM FIREFLIES!

"Of course," his voice was barely audible over the noise of the bus. He turned his head just enough to look me in the eye, and my heart skipped a beat.
"Just play along." I put two fingers on the side of his chin, turning his head, and rose out of my seat just enough to touch my lips to his.
I expected electricity, fireworks, all that stuff you hear about. I thought my heartbeat might race, or that my thoughts might dissolve into that chaotic mess that I'd experienced a few times in the recent pass.
What I didn't expect was the calm. The tension melted out of me, and all the worries, anxieties and conflicting thoughts faded into the background. It was like the sense of peace I got from waking up at the loft, times ten. All I thought about was the contact, how nice it was, the feeling of his lips on mine.
I broke the kiss and looked him in the eyes as I settled back in my seat. Even before he opened his mouth to say something, I was giving him the smallest shake of my head. He closed his mouth.
When I looked away, I felt his arm settle around my shoulders.
I looked and didn't see Sophia at the front of the bus. When I checked over my shoulder, I found her near the back. She was staring at me.
I imagined it wasn't so different from that primal sense of satisfaction Bitch had felt when she'd set the dogs on me. Except where Bitch had lorded it over me with a smug smile, I didn't change my expression from the light smile that was already on my face. I gave Sophia a moment's eye contact and nothing more, before turning to face the front of the bus once more. She wasn't worth it, wasn't worth spoiling this.

I avoided looking back to see what she was doing or checking if she was still there. When Brian asked me if I minded stopping to go shopping before we went to his apartment, I nodded.
I had taken Lisa's advice, trying to improvise, be more impulsive. I had also done as Bitch had suggested. I'd let Brian know I was interested, kind of. Not to the extent she'd suggested, but it was something. Definitely something.
Except I'd just forced matters with Brian, and now I not only had to explain, but I had to deal with a night of awkwardness in his company, on top of the threat of action from Empire Eighty Eight.

FIREFLIES KISSED. SOPHIA IS KO'd (yeah, take that bitch, yeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaah, you're still single and the "stupid" girl that you bullied have the best boyfriend) and I hope that Taylor will not be too disappointed (eve if I'll be a bit disappointed myself

) if Brian will not share her feelings. After all, love is something that cannot be forced

.

Good night, good and bad friends, bad and good enemies, and sleep well "throws little hearts full with love to everyone, because she's in the mood."

blackarrow · Apr 9, 2018

Hellooooooooooooooooo, people, we have a new chapter here 7.06 | Worm waiting to be slashed by my dumb review. I won't spare anything, I'm the Slasher of Chapters, absolute merciless and ruthless. So, what I'm going to see during this chapter? Something like:
Sophia, looking after Taylor and Brian being happy and in love: Fuck this nerd bitch. First she got me suspended for two weeks and now she's stealing that hot black stallion that I just lay my eyes on. Not fair. This day can't get worse than this.
Some Empire88 mooks, right behind her: We can make your day even worse, you stupid black bitch. Come on, boys, let's have fun...
Sophia: Oh...shit....

But I'm not going to see this, because the only things that will happen are exactly then ones I'm afraid of, not the ones I want to happen

. Its like a supreme rule.

"So, about that 'favor' I just did you…" Brian began.
I glanced around at the other people who were departing the bus, still more were waiting at the stop. "Can we talk about it later? In private?"
He gave me a curious look, but he replied, "Of course."
I knew I was making it worse by procrastinating, that I'd only get more awkward if I dwelled on it. Whether I admitted my feelings or told him about Sophia, both felt too personal to talk about with the crowd of strangers following us off the bus.

We'd gotten off the bus at a mall I'd never been to. It wasn't one of the ones with any major chains or stores in it, but it wasn't small enough to deserve the label of 'strip mall' either. There were more people milling around than I thought there might be, given that it was still mid afternoon; high school students and nine to five employees wouldn't be out yet. I realized there were more than a few people in their late teens or early twenties with backpacks and bags. College students.
"Next bus going by my place should come in half an hour, but we can stay longer, if you want," Brian told me.
"What did you want to get?" I asked him.
"Bus tickets and some stuff for breakfast. This is the closest spot to my apartment that has both."
"Okay."
"You need anything?"
"Toothbrush, toothpaste, and I was thinking about grabbing a book."
"Don't worry about the toothbrush or toothpaste, I have extra stuff set aside for Aisha when she comes, and replacing that before then is easy. Want to go to the bookstore, and I'll meet you there when I've got what I need?"
"Sure."
That might have been the point we went our separate ways, but the grocery store and bookstores were in the same direction. We walked together, in awkward silence, until we saw a crowd outside a store.
It was an electronics store, with computers and TVs in the window. The number of people had reached critical mass and was drawing more onlookers, to the point where it was hard to find an angle where we could see the screens. At least, where I could see the screens – Brian was tall enough to see over the average person.
The images displayed on the screen were the same as the ones I had seen in the email, earlier. Max Anders and Kaiser. Kayden Anders and Purity. The blondes as Fenja and Menja. The broadcast flickered through all of them: Hookwolf, Krieg, Night, Fog, Stormtiger, Othala, Cricket, Rune, Victor, Alabaster, the Crusader… the list went on. The screen shifted to two news broadcasters. In the top right corner of the screen, there was the usual story of the moment image, showing Max Anders sitting at a table at some event, with a swastika followed by a question mark hovering above him.

Alright, I smell a fight between Taylor and Brian and Empire88, as soon as possible, maybe even starting with this chapter. The good thing is that they have the costumes at them and maybe they'll find a hidden place to put them on before the fight will start. The bad thing is they're only two against a lot of assholes, so its not going to be an easy fight. More new nazi parahumans to have a guess about their powers based on their codenames alone (my other most pleasant thing to do during reviews, besides AWFUL role-playing

). Stormtiger: they might have a tiger motif at their costume and they control weather, summoning powerful storms. Or they can create a tiger out of storms and bad weather; Othala: I know that Othala is a rune used by real life nazis to promote racial purity, but I have no idea what this parahuman can do, sorry; Cricket: they can literal control crickets, or they can make some sounds similar with crickets, affecting individuals around them. Or they can jump very high, maybe from street directly on a tall building; Rune (another rune): No idea about their powers

; Victor: okay, another parahuman who's using his real name as a codename (besides Gregor; well, Gregor is not his real name since his memory was wiped off and he can't remember his identity, but this is the name that he took for civilian life and he's also using it as costume name). This one is clearly a man who probably can make people piss on themselves if only by telling them his name: Victor...Victor "guaranteed pissing themselves"; Alabaster (ok, the parahuman nazis have some weird ass codenames, this is a sure thing): since Alabaster is a soft rock, maybe they can turn their body into alabaster or use alabaster in fight; Crusader: They fight in the name of Christianity, they use crosses enhanced with "mythical" powers (probably flight, super-strength and super-speed) as their main weapons, or any religious object that they can enhance. Too bad that the others on the list aren't mentioned because the fun with guessing their powers just started

.

"Word's out," Brian spoke to me, quiet. "If they didn't know about this already, they do now."
I nodded without turning away from the screen. The broadcast changed to show Armsmaster and Miss Militia with a man in a suit and tie, addressing a crowd of reporters.
"We're probably not going to see anything new here," Brian whispered to me, "And we can't hear anything through the window.
We'll text Lisa, let her know it's on the news, and she can handle the information side of things."
I nodded and joined Brian in walking away.

"It's clever," I murmured, glancing around to ensure nobody was in immediate earshot, "I don't know if I agree with how the boss went about it, I think it sort of crosses a line, but I can see the reasoning. Controlled chaos, keeping everyone that matters busy and off-balance so he can advance his own agenda."
"It does cross a line, yeah. We'll have to see how that works out."
I saw the bookstore to my left, "I guess this is where we part ways?"
"Sure. I'll meet you in a couple of minutes."
Being around Brian was tense, in a way. I found most social situations awkward, and the only way I could cope was by planning out what I'd say, considering and anticipating everything in advance. Around Brian, though, I got so flustered and distracted that I couldn't do that. That led to me feeling like I sounded dumb, created awkward pauses. It only got worse as I became aware of any of it. That was where the kiss had been so nice, settling my thoughts and giving me a sense of tranquility for that all too brief moment.
Except things were worse now, and Brian and I had a discussion looming. Worse, I'd been so focused on not screwing up the dialogue now, in the present, that I hadn't had time to think about what I'd say in the immediate future.
In short, as much as I liked his company, liked him, I was glad for the break and the chance to calm down and get my thoughts sorted, so I could handle it when the conversation happened.
The used bookstore wasn't organized in the slightest. There was a heavy musty smell, and the racks were organized haphazardly. There were fantasy books and science fiction both classified under 'fantasy', which irked me, and non fiction was one broad category that took up an entire wall. If there was a system to sort the books, I couldn't see it, and many of the shelves had books on their sides, stacked atop one another, sometimes two or three layers deep. Some of the fuller shelves had books stacked on the ground in front of them, requiring careful steps to avoid knocking anything over or stepping on a stray book.
The sole occupant of the store was an elderly black man that sat behind the counter, leaning back in a chair with his hands folded on his stomach. The television played a little too loudly for the store's old school atmosphere. Some courtroom show.
After checking out the selection of fantasy books in the middle of the store, I navigated my way to the back, keeping an eye on the signs identifying each section. The Romance section had way too many books in it. So did Mystery, as far as I was concerned. Both genres tended to be a little too repetitive and samey for my tastes.

Wait, Brian and Taylor, this shitstorm is only at its beginning. Soon, the whole Brockton Bay will be into chaos, with parahuman nazis fucking around everything. All "thanks" to the "formidable" idea of your dear, dear boss. But Coil will not give a fuck if half of city will be destroyed, he can quickly give enough money to his mayor soon to be puppet in order to fix the city, he/she will appear as a charitable and well-meaning person in the public eyes and everyone will elect them as mayor. And then, Coil will have all the power. I'll be damned if he won't do that, shooting two birds in the same time: destroying Empire88 and saving the city through his puppet. Voila!
Taylor doesn't like romance books. Well, Taylor, aren't you romantic at your heart just a little? Surprising, I was expecting her to be a romantic person, maybe because of the scenes where she day-dreamed at Brian

. I personally like to read romance books, but good romance, not CRAP like 50 Shades of Grey or Twilight (unfortunately for my wasted time that I'll never get back, I read all these books, from start to finish, to see why they're so bad -yep, I always finish what I'm starting to read, even when I'm physically disgusted by it). I'm convinced now that people didn't exaggerated at all. 50 SoG is even worse than Twilight. We need a parahuman power to erase these books from existence and from people's memories).

As I disappeared behind a row of shelves, the man at the counter called out, gruff, "Don't be shoplifting because you think I'm not paying attention!"
"Alright!" I called back, feeling silly as I said it. I wasn't sure how else to respond.

I found the Instructional section and spotted the item I'd come into the store for in one of the stacks on a lower shelf. Dog Psychology: The Basis of Dog Training.
With minimal experience being around dogs, I needed more information, if I was going to continue relating with Bitch. I'd known I wanted a book on the topic of how dogs thought & related to others, and I was glad to have found it.
I tucked the book under one arm, then picked up another book on tailoring, as a possible reference for future costume design. Flipping through it, I wasn't too impressed. I checked out another.
My thoughts froze as a hand touched my hair. I belatedly remembered Brian. I tried and failed to organize my thoughts. I'd forgotten to plan out what to say to him, and what would he be doing touching my hair?
I started to turn around, only for the hand to seize my ear and wrench it hard enough to make my legs buckle at the pain. I was shoved over and my body's weight and momentum weren't enough to pull my ear free from my attacker's grip, with the skin joining my ear to my head paying the price. I felt like my skin was tearing, and I couldn't even scream as my breath hitched in my throat.
I collapsed on top of a pile of books, and the white-hot pain surrounding my ear was so overwhelming I wasn't entirely sure if my ear was still being held or not. A knee pressed against my side with enough force I had little doubt that most or all of my attacker's body weight was on top of me. Long fingernails stabbed into my cheek, forcing the skin in between and against my teeth, as my assailant gripped the side of my jaw.

Troubles for miss Hebert, as usual. She was attacked at shoppings. I'd be so pissed if someone would attack me when I'm doing my shoppings. I think that person would be dead in a minute. Nothing and nobody never ever should interrupt me from shoppings

. I was ready to say that the attacker might be a nazi but then I asked myself: why would a nazi attack a white girl without any reason at all- they could have attacked the elderly black man first, he would be an excellent target for them; also, the attacker have long fingernails, meaning that they must be a girl. S-O-P-H-I-A. She have no honor and no dignity and zero intelligence to accept that she lost in front of Taylor and she acts like a thug to prove that she can win using force, because force and violence is the only things she knows.

It not only forced my mouth painfully open with the pressure of my cheek against my own teeth, but it pressed my face hard against the pile of books beneath me. My cry of protest was reduced to an incomprehensible, muffled noise, which became a primal groan as my ear was twisted again, the opposite direction as before.
"Something you should know about me," Sophia's voice was dulcet, "The reason I'm such a good runner? It's not that I'm driven to win. It's that I really, really hate losing."

She wrenched my ear again, changing the direction again, and I cried out. If she went any further, I was positive the skin would tear and the ear would come off entirely. I struggled, but the books slid beneath my hands and knees, giving me minimal traction.
"And I hate losing the most when it's to a depressing queef like you," she rocked her right hand back and forth against my cheek, as if she wanted to drive her fingernails through the skin. Her thumbnail bit into the underside of my jaw.
I have bugs inside my jeans and backpack. I can end this.
With both hands, using her grip on my ear and jaw, she lifted my head up and plunged it down hard against the pile of books beneath me. It wasn't the worst hit I'd ever taken, but it still left me reeling.
I couldn't afford to take too many hits to my head. Though my concussion was more or less healed, I'd be susceptible to a relapse of symptoms and future concussions for a while yet. I just had to use my bugs to get her off me, buy myself time to get my knife and baton and…
…and then I'd be fucked. I'd do more damage to myself in the long run, outing myself as the girl with the bug powers. I'd never be able to go home to my dad.

This bitch PISS ME OFF TO NOT END. I really hope to be Shadow Stalker for real because I'd finally have a female parahuman which I'd hate as much as I hate male parahumans like Kaiser, Coil and Heartbreaker. I mean, Bakuda is dead (I'm sure about this) so now I don't have any other female parahuman that I want to RAGE at everytime when I see her. Equality of the Sexes, damnit

. Taylor can't use her powers because she can't show her costume identity in front of one of her worst enemies, but the same I can say about Sophia too- she also have a secret identity to hide. So, fisticuffs then. Come on, Taylor, you were trained by a fighter stronger and better than Sophia, don't disappoint Brian by staying there and enduring.

Sophia let go of my cheek to cover my mouth with her hand. Using this fresh hold, she wrenched my head as far to the right as it would go, so I could see her looming over me, her hair hanging down around her face. She looked like a panther, black-skinned, savage, teeth bared just a little as she panted.
She let go of my ear and tapped hard against the lens of my glasses as she continued, "This is your reminder that everyone has their place in life, Hebert, and you should stick to yours. Trying to act better than you are only embarrasses you and irritates me, get it?"
She yanked on my ear again, as if to make her point clear.
"Nod if you understand, and I'll let you run off home."
I glared up at her.
My fingertips traced against the books on the bottom shelf until I found the hardcovers. I got hold of one, pulled it free, and in the same motion, drove one of the corners of the text into Sophia's side

She fell over, and I flipped onto my back to swing again, switching to a two-handed grip to add more power to the swing. The time it had taken me to get into position for another swing, however, bought Sophia time to get out of the way. I had Brian's tips on fighting in mind, keeping on the offensive, and the only way to do that was to fling the hardcovered reference book at her head. She used her arms to knock it out of the air, then winced, rubbing her arm.

Everyone have their place, you fucking sick and disgusting bitch? Everyone have a place? Well, if I'll tell you that your RIGHT place should be being the NAZIS' LITTLE COCKSUCKER, you're going to be happy with this place? Right, bitch, I think you'll be happy

. Come on, Taylor, hit her again. Break both of her legs so she won't run anymore during both her civilian and Ward life. In this way, she's not going to bother anyone again at school and Grue will not be injured anymore (I'm sure that she'll not be able to resist 3 minutes against Brian in a fight if they're not using their powers or their weapons. Brian will sweep the floors with her). I fucking swear, the first person who'll give Sophia a very harsh life lesson, will become instantly one of my favorite characters for this action alone, even if they're someone that I hated at first

.

"What the fuck is your derangement?!" I shouted at her. "In what twisted perspective is it all right to stalk and attack someone because they kissed a boy?"
"It's not just that," Sophia started toward me, then stopped when I let my backpack fall to the ground and straightened, ready for another confrontation. "You got me fucking suspended. I don't care about missing class, but I'm off the track team until further notice. And it's all because you ran off to whimper for the grown-ups. I need that shit."

"Boo fucking hoo. If I knew it mattered that much to you, I'd have written a letter to your coach days ago, just to drive the point home and make sure you never got back on the team."
Sophia gave me a look of pure loathing, "You're a coward, Hebert. A rat. You know you're a nerd, you're flat chested, scrawny. Nobody likes you, nobody wants you for a friend, you're not good at anything. So you run, you hide, skip school, stay quiet, don't do anything with your waste of a life. And if things get tough, if anyone decides to have a little fun at your expense, you go crying to the people in charge, because you can't take it."
My ear throbbed. I put my hand up to tenderly touch the base of it, and pulled away when I felt a bitter stinging pain in response. My fingertips were red with blood when I lowered them.
"FYI, it was Emma's dad who called the meeting at the school, not me," I replied without anger in my voice. I was sobered by the sight of my own blood. Odd as it sounded, I felt more comfortable with the situation. I'd dealt with more serious fights, and I felt like I could handle this better, having seen the blood, knowing the ante was higher.
"You still told someone."
"So what if I did? What did you expect, that I'd keep my mouth shut, put up with it?"
"That's exactly what I expected. It seems you didn't get my point about knowing your place." Her eyes flickered to the spot where she'd just held me down. "Maybe you'll get the message after round two."

Well, Taylor have four loyal friends now, while you have two bitches as bad as you as your friends, and one of them is a backstabbing bitch who might stab you too when you'll expect the least. Taylor is smart and cunning and an excellent strategist who took down one of the most powerful parahumans ever, Lung. You're just a Ward who try her best to kill a rather harmless villain- Grue- and you fail at this job too. Taylor is an amazing human being and a strong parahuman being, despite her flaws, while you're a zero from all point of views. Maybe you have a cool power, but you're still a big, clear ZERO. Understand, Sophia? This is what you're. Now shut up and go to hell, leave Taylor alone if you don't want to have your ass kicked by either her or her boyfriend.

She started toward me, and I had a good sense of how this would go. She was my height, but she was a stronger than me, with more room for muscle on her frame. Not that she was fat, or heavy in any way, but her physique was athletic, slender, and mine was that of a scarecrow – just plain thin.
There was also the broader context – I was already hurting, and she wasfucking psycho. If it came down to it, I suspected I'd get the worst of it in the fight, unless I either found a way to get to my weapons in my bag or used my powers. That didn't mean I wouldn't be able to do some damage to her in the meantime, it just meant she'd kick my ass in the process.
If that was how it turned out, I was okay with that.
"Enough," the male voice cut in.

Taylor' s knight in shining dark armor had come in her help. I have a big grin on my face when I'm thinking how bad Brian is going to kick Sophia's ugly ass. Brian, you're a real man, you're stronger and faster than her, kill the bitch and save your girlfriend

.

Sophia halted in her advance. She turned an impassive expression to Brian, who stood to her left. He set plastic bags of food on the ground as she watched. "The boyfriend."
Brian looked at me, and there was a touch of concern in the expression.
I turned my attention back to her. "Meet Sophia. One of the girls that's been giving me a hard time at school."
The look of concern disappeared from his face in an instant. It was replaced by anger.

"She's lying," Sophia told him, without the slightest trace of hesitation. "She cheated off me for a test, and got us both suspended and-"
"Shut up," Brian's voice was low, not much different from his normal speech, but Sophia got the message. She closed her mouth. He turned to me, "Are you okay?"
"My ear hurts like hell, and I don't even know what she did to the side of my face, but I'm alive."
"Good."
Sophia bolted, and there were only two ways to go – through me, or past Brian. She chose the easy road, dashing toward me, and I lunged for her, aiming to grab her, slow her down enough for Brian to step in.
Except she was faster than I'd anticipated, proving her position on the track team wasn't just for show, and even my last-ditch effort at grabbing her wrist fell short.
Brian and I gave chase, and were stopped when the guy from the front counter emerged and stepped partway between us and Sophia.
"What's this?" he looked between us. Behind him, Sophia turned to face us, assessed the situation and then backed up a few steps with the old man's back was turned to her.
"She attacked me," I said.
"Looks that way, sure, but the girl said it was justified, that you stole something from her on the bus. Asked me to stay at the counter and turn up the volume on my show while she got it back."
"It's a lie," I told him.
The old man ignored me. He looked at Brian, "I thought you'd be on the other girl's side, not sure I would've let you past if I knew it was any different."
Why had he come to that conclusion? Because Brian and Sophia were both black? I didn't like that assumption, that I was automatically the bad guy, here.

I think the elderly back dude is an racist fuck. He's clearly biased against white people, since he sided Sophia and he's surprised that Brian would defend a white girl. Yep, there are racists even among black people, nothing surprising here. Now Sophia might escape because of this asshole. And she still have both her legs unbroken. Fuck! Taylor, you need more training, you're good but you can be better

.

"No," was Brian's curt reply. "My friend is right. That girl attacked her."
Sophia backed away another few small steps, behind the old man. When Brian moved forward, the old man got in his way, angry. "Hey now, I'm not going to have any more fighting in my bookstore."
Sophia saw her chance and ran. I raised my hand, as if I could somehow reach out and stop her, then dropped it.
It took us another two minutes to wrap things up with the old man. He accused me twice more of being a thief and gave us a dressing down for causing violence in his store. When he started demanding we go to the back with him and talk about the damage and mess, Brian grabbed my arm and guided me out of the store, ignoring the old guy's insults and shouts of protest. We took the quickest route out of the mall and started walking down the street.

I'd left the dog psychology book behind, I realized. That bummed me out as much as anything. I hadn't really won or lost, as I saw it. Any injuries I'd sustained were balanced out by the fact that I'd fought back, and that Brian had been there to back me up.
Well, that was my gut feeling, anyway. It was entirely possible that I'd change my mind after I saw how bad the damage was to my face and ear.
Might as well know sooner than later. I gestured to the side of my head and asked Brian, "How bad is it?"
"I think that ear's going to need stitches," Brian told me. "You've got a tear in the skin by the earlobe."
I nodded, mute.
"You want to press assault charges?"
I shook my head. No money to do it, no use in trying. She had Emma's dad backing her up, and the only witness was the old guy from the bookstore, who had given me the distinct impression he sided with Sophia over me.
"So that's what you've been dealing with at school?" he asked.
I shook my head. When I tried to speak, a surge of emotion made my voice reedy. It took me a second to figure out how to get the words out, and the end result was that my voice sounded hollow and robotic, "That was the worst she's tried to hurt me physically. Guess it's different outside of school. I can defend myself more, but she has less reason to hold back."

Fuck that racist old man, he's as bad as the nazis (I equally hate any racist person, ok, no matter their race and what kind of other race/group of people they hate). Alright, thanks God that there's no Sophia anymore. Everytime when one of the Trio of Bitches appears, I'm starting to feel nauseous, they have this effect over me. I'm curious if they're going to discuss about that kiss on the bus and what Brian have to say about it.

"So I suppose the," he cleared his throat, "Kiss on the bus? It was for her benefit?"
I swallowed hard, in an effort to get my voice more normal. I probably wouldn't get another chance. "Some, yeah. Some was for mine."
He turned toward me, eyebrows raised a fraction.
I shrugged, doing everything I could to sound more casual than I felt. I wasn't sure how successful I was. "I, um, I like you. You don't need to make a bigger deal of it than it is, I just-" I floundered as I tried to find the words, already regretting opening my mouth.
He didn't speak, giving me a chance to continue, "I think you're good looking, I like you as a person. I respect you, more than any of the others, because you're smart about what you do, career-wise. You know. And because you're so comfortable in your own skin, so confident. I admire that."
"You sound so analytical," Brian offered me a slight smile, but he looked a little pained, "Going through the points, step by step, like you're checking things off a list."
"That's not- I'm not trying to."
"I'm not criticizing you. I'm saying it seems very you."

"No. I just thought, um, you've gone out of your way to spend time with me, you were meeting me on my runs, invited me to be at your place alone. I've noticed maybe there was more casual body contact, and thought it might be intentional, a signal, guy flirting, I dunno. The present, the amber…" I trailed off. It had sounded like a stronger argument in my head than it did out loud. Except… what was I trying to argue? Was I trying to convince him he liked me?
"Ah, geez. I'm sorry if I sent the wrong signals."
My heart dropped.
"You've got to understand, the only girls I've spent time around are Aisha and Lisa… Bitch doesn't count, you know?"
I nodded, tightly.
"Even when I was attending high school, I was always gone the second classes ended. Meeting my dad at the gym, working, or going home to plan some costumed burglary or whatever. You know? I don't have much experience, being around girls. I don't really think that much about the relationship thing, outside of noticing when I see a good looking girl. It's something I always figured I'd get to later, when I wasn't so preoccupied."

Brian is a VIRGIN?!? I honestly didn't expected this, OMG. I expected him to be the only sexually experienced Undersider. Lisa and Rachel are clearly virgins (but I'm sure that Rachel doesn't mind this at all) also Alec must be a virgin too (he's way too lazy to have his way with a girl

), Taylor is also a virginal little thing but Brian...this was completely unexpected. WHAT A TWIST! I almost forgot that he just friend zoned her, so no more Fireflies for me to ship. He only likes her as a friend. Ok, I can live with this shrunken ship, as I respect Brian's wishes and I hope that Taylor will do the same

.

I offered another nod, not trusting myself to open my mouth.
"So if I gave you the wrong impression, I guess it's partially because I have no idea what I'm doing, and because I'm an idiot when it comes to stuff like that. I don't see you that way. It's… more like you're my sister, someone I want to protect, and help, and support. I like you as a friend, I can even see us being best friends, somewhere down the line."
Like his sister. A friend.
"If there was more body contact or if I was spending time with you, or any of that other stuff you mentioned, I promise I wasn't teasing or anything. If any of it was conscious on my part, it was meant to make you feel more welcome, let you know you've got me around, because I knew you had a rough time of it at school."

And pity. There's the trifecta. "It's okay. You can- you can stop now."
We walked a few seconds in oppressive silence.
"I'm sorry. I feel like an asshole. Like I'm kicking you while you're down."
I shook my head, "It's fine. Not a big deal. Just drop the subject?"
"Alright."
I bobbed my head in mutual agreement and swallowed the lump in my throat. In a different place or situation, if Brian wasn't around, if I had privacy, I might have cried. I didn't have that luxury, so I focused on putting one foot in front of the other, controlling my breathing, reading street signs and store names, and just focusing on anything that wasn't Brian or the conversation we'd just had.
The walk back to his apartment was long-ish, maybe half an hour, and was peppered with only meaningless small talk and long, wordless pauses. We got up to his apartment, and he started putting things away and getting the first aid stuff together. I turned on the TV to liven up the awkward quiet.
I didn't have to wait long before something caught my eye. It was on channel 4, a live update on the Empire Eighty Eight situation. From the looks of things, there was no doubt in my mind that Kaiser's people were giving Brockton Bay their response to the email.

I was hoping that Sophia's day will be awful, but instead it was Taylor's day the awful one

. She have a wounded ear, her object of her crush just rejected her as polite and honorable as he could and Empire88 will soon destroy the city, to the Snake's satisfaction "hugs Taylor, then smiles evilly" Well, a bad day for you, a good day for me "makes grabby hands at Brian" YOU'RE MINE NOW, ONLY MINE! (I can be pretty selfish sometimes

).

Good night and sleep well, friends, also many hugs from me.

ExNihilo · Apr 9, 2018

blackarrow said:
Well, Taylor, aren't you romantic at your heart just a little?

Wrong kind of romantic, unfortunately. It's not a huge spoiler, but I don't think we've talked much about Taylor's Mom, so I'm holding off.

AmbarGriss · Apr 9, 2018

You know, I forgot how unlucky Taylor was at this chapter. I mean, everything that could go wrong Just went wrong.
She is like the chew toy of the universe.

ExNihilo · Apr 9, 2018

AmbarGriss said:
You know, I forgot how unlucky Taylor was at this chapter. I mean, everything that could go wrong Just went wrong.
She is like the chew toy of the universe.

What was the fan created term for that? 'Being Taylor is Suffering' or somesuch?

AmbarGriss · Apr 9, 2018

ExNihilo said:
What was the fan created term for that? 'Being Taylor is Suffering' or somesuch?

Yes, Being Taylor is suffering.
There is also the term I like to use: "It gets worse".

LordYam · Apr 10, 2018

blackarrow said:
Hellooooooooooooooooo, people, we have a new chapter here 7.06 | Worm waiting to be slashed by my dumb review. I won't spare anything, I'm the Slasher of Chapters, absolute merciless and ruthless. So, what I'm going to see during this chapter? Something like:
Sophia, looking after Taylor and Brian being happy and in love: Fuck this nerd bitch. First she got me suspended for two weeks and now she's stealing that hot black stallion that I just lay my eyes on. Not fair. This day can't get worse than this.
Some Empire88 mooks, right behind her: We can make your day even worse, you stupid black bitch. Come on, boys, let's have fun...
Sophia: Oh...shit....

But I'm not going to see this, because the only things that will happen are exactly then ones I'm afraid of, not the ones I want to happen . Its like a supreme rule.

Alright, I smell a fight between Taylor and Brian and Empire88, as soon as possible, maybe even starting with this chapter. The good thing is that they have the costumes at them and maybe they'll find a hidden place to put them on before the fight will start. The bad thing is they're only two against a lot of assholes, so its not going to be an easy fight. More new nazi parahumans to have a guess about their powers based on their codenames alone (my other most pleasant thing to do during reviews, besides AWFUL role-playing ). Stormtiger: they might have a tiger motif at their costume and they control weather, summoning powerful storms. Or they can create a tiger out of storms and bad weather; Othala: I know that Othala is a rune used by real life nazis to promote racial purity, but I have no idea what this parahuman can do, sorry; Cricket: they can literal control crickets, or they can make some sounds similar with crickets, affecting individuals around them. Or they can jump very high, maybe from street directly on a tall building; Rune (another rune): No idea about their powers ; Victor: okay, another parahuman who's using his real name as a codename (besides Gregor; well, Gregor is not his real name since his memory was wiped off and he can't remember his identity, but this is the name that he took for civilian life and he's also using it as costume name). This one is clearly a man who probably can make people piss on themselves if only by telling them his name: Victor...Victor "guaranteed pissing themselves"; Alabaster (ok, the parahuman nazis have some weird ass codenames, this is a sure thing): since Alabaster is a soft rock, maybe they can turn their body into alabaster or use alabaster in fight; Crusader: They fight in the name of Christianity, they use crosses enhanced with "mythical" powers (probably flight, super-strength and super-speed) as their main weapons, or any religious object that they can enhance. Too bad that the others on the list aren't mentioned because the fun with guessing their powers just started .

Wait, Brian and Taylor, this shitstorm is only at its beginning. Soon, the whole Brockton Bay will be into chaos, with parahuman nazis fucking around everything. All "thanks" to the "formidable" idea of your dear, dear boss. But Coil will not give a fuck if half of city will be destroyed, he can quickly give enough money to his mayor soon to be puppet in order to fix the city, he/she will appear as a charitable and well-meaning person in the public eyes and everyone will elect them as mayor. And then, Coil will have all the power. I'll be damned if he won't do that, shooting two birds in the same time: destroying Empire88 and saving the city through his puppet. Voila!
Taylor doesn't like romance books. Well, Taylor, aren't you romantic at your heart just a little? Surprising, I was expecting her to be a romantic person, maybe because of the scenes where she day-dreamed at Brian . I personally like to read romance books, but good romance, not CRAP like 50 Shades of Grey or Twilight (unfortunately for my wasted time that I'll never get back, I read all these books, from start to finish, to see why they're so bad -yep, I always finish what I'm starting to read, even when I'm physically disgusted by it). I'm convinced now that people didn't exaggerated at all. 50 SoG is even worse than Twilight. We need a parahuman power to erase these books from existence and from people's memories).

Troubles for miss Hebert, as usual. She was attacked at shoppings. I'd be so pissed if someone would attack me when I'm doing my shoppings. I think that person would be dead in a minute. Nothing and nobody never ever should interrupt me from shoppings . I was ready to say that the attacker might be a nazi but then I asked myself: why would a nazi attack a white girl without any reason at all- they could have attacked the elderly black man first, he would be an excellent target for them; also, the attacker have long fingernails, meaning that they must be a girl. S-O-P-H-I-A. She have no honor and no dignity and zero intelligence to accept that she lost in front of Taylor and she acts like a thug to prove that she can win using force, because force and violence is the only things she knows.

This bitch PISS ME OFF TO NOT END. I really hope to be Shadow Stalker for real because I'd finally have a female parahuman which I'd hate as much as I hate male parahumans like Kaiser, Coil and Heartbreaker. I mean, Bakuda is dead (I'm sure about this) so now I don't have any other female parahuman that I want to RAGE at everytime when I see her. Equality of the Sexes, damnit . Taylor can't use her powers because she can't show her costume identity in front of one of her worst enemies, but the same I can say about Sophia too- she also have a secret identity to hide. So, fisticuffs then. Come on, Taylor, you were trained by a fighter stronger and better than Sophia, don't disappoint Brian by staying there and enduring.

Everyone have their place, you fucking sick and disgusting bitch? Everyone have a place? Well, if I'll tell you that your RIGHT place should be being the NAZIS' LITTLE COCKSUCKER, you're going to be happy with this place? Right, bitch, I think you'll be happy . Come on, Taylor, hit her again. Break both of her legs so she won't run anymore during both her civilian and Ward life. In this way, she's not going to bother anyone again at school and Grue will not be injured anymore (I'm sure that she'll not be able to resist 3 minutes against Brian in a fight if they're not using their powers or their weapons. Brian will sweep the floors with her). I fucking swear, the first person who'll give Sophia a very harsh life lesson, will become instantly one of my favorite characters for this action alone, even if they're someone that I hated at first .

Well, Taylor have four loyal friends now, while you have two bitches as bad as you as your friends, and one of them is a backstabbing bitch who might stab you too when you'll expect the least. Taylor is smart and cunning and an excellent strategist who took down one of the most powerful parahumans ever, Lung. You're just a Ward who try her best to kill a rather harmless villain- Grue- and you fail at this job too. Taylor is an amazing human being and a strong parahuman being, despite her flaws, while you're a zero from all point of views. Maybe you have a cool power, but you're still a big, clear ZERO. Understand, Sophia? This is what you're. Now shut up and go to hell, leave Taylor alone if you don't want to have your ass kicked by either her or her boyfriend.

Taylor' s knight in shining dark armor had come in her help. I have a big grin on my face when I'm thinking how bad Brian is going to kick Sophia's ugly ass. Brian, you're a real man, you're stronger and faster than her, kill the bitch and save your girlfriend .

I think the elderly back dude is an racist fuck. He's clearly biased against white people, since he sided Sophia and he's surprised that Brian would defend a white girl. Yep, there are racists even among black people, nothing surprising here. Now Sophia might escape because of this asshole. And she still have both her legs unbroken. Fuck! Taylor, you need more training, you're good but you can be better .

Fuck that racist old man, he's as bad as the nazis (I equally hate any racist person, ok, no matter their race and what kind of other race/group of people they hate). Alright, thanks God that there's no Sophia anymore. Everytime when one of the Trio of Bitches appears, I'm starting to feel nauseous, they have this effect over me. I'm curious if they're going to discuss about that kiss on the bus and what Brian have to say about it.

Brian is a VIRGIN?!? I honestly didn't expected this, OMG. I expected him to be the only sexually experienced Undersider. Lisa and Rachel are clearly virgins (but I'm sure that Rachel doesn't mind this at all) also Alec must be a virgin too (he's way too lazy to have his way with a girl ), Taylor is also a virginal little thing but Brian...this was completely unexpected. WHAT A TWIST! I almost forgot that he just friend zoned her, so no more Fireflies for me to ship. He only likes her as a friend. Ok, I can live with this shrunken ship, as I respect Brian's wishes and I hope that Taylor will do the same .

I was hoping that Sophia's day will be awful, but instead it was Taylor's day the awful one . She have a wounded ear, her object of her crush just rejected her as polite and honorable as he could and Empire88 will soon destroy the city, to the Snake's satisfaction "hugs Taylor, then smiles evilly" Well, a bad day for you, a good day for me "makes grabby hands at Brian" YOU'RE MINE NOW, ONLY MINE! (I can be pretty selfish sometimes ).

Good night and sleep well, friends, also many hugs from me.

Yeah everyone can be racist. In some places other groups are still treated like punching bags (Romani in Eastern Europe.....yes many can be obnoxious but the Murders and kidnaps babies is false and most are actually normal people).

blackarrow · Apr 10, 2018

Hi, everyone, I'm going to make your life miserable again with another butchered review 7.07 | Worm because even if I appear as a goody two-shoes most of the time, I'm actually a little devil in disguise....muhahahahahaha :mob:

. Alright, so last time I was impressed by two very important TWISTS, like all Undersiders being VIRGINS and Taylor getting BOTH friend-zoned and sister-zoned. Well, there were less interesting stuff like Sophia's vicious attack and Empire88's response to Coil's shenanigans, but these are so insignificant that I don't wanna lose time talking about them. Let's talk about the interesting stuff: I hope that Wildbow is not going to be the second Hussie, by creating really cool and cute ships then sink them exactly when you're starting to become involved in them (for people who already know what I'm talking about, Hussie "killed" all the best ships in Homestuck; the only good ship that survived to his massacre was RoseMary- Rose+Kanaya, all others were either destroyed or they're just plain awful). I wonder what will happen if Taylor will later fall in love with a nice hero and he'll share her feelings. That would be a twist and a complicated relationship, because she's a villain, after all, even if one with a heroic heart. Still a villain. But I wonder which hero, maybe one that I know already or maybe one who'll appear later in the story. I'm thinking at a possible relationship between Taylor and Kid Win, since they're both by the same age, very smart, motivated in fight and perfectionist, also their battle back at bank robbery was pretty violent. There were many examples in literature and movies when enemies became friends or lovers, so it won't be something unique and never seen before

. I'd start to be afraid by my own mind if Kid Win X Skitter will happen (I also kind of wish for Kid Win to become a villain; he have the potential for this and if he'll start building lethal stuff, he'd make a great villain team with Skitter, even if they're not going to be lovers). The heroes that I'd love to become villains are Kid Win and Armsmaster, but Armsmaster would be such a jerk of a villain, however he'll have more freedom to manifest his true desires and ambitions

. Ok, enough talking....We have some JOB to do here.

Purity floated above the docks, an oversize firefly against a blue-gray backdrop of sky. She came to rest over a building that had been half built and left abandoned, a small crane jutting out of the middle of it. A building I recognized as Bitch's place. Her improvised dog shelter.
"Brian!" I called out. "You want to see this!"
The cameraman tried to zoom in and focus on Purity, but only intensified the lens flare effect that followed her.
He zoomed back out just in time to see her take action.
The beams of light that blasted from her palm weren't straight. There was a bit of a spiral to them, as they formed a rough double helix. The end result was wider than Purity was tall, tearing into the building to topple the crane against one wall. She turned the light on the other walls, obliterating them.
It took her less than a minute to level the building and pulverize any part of the structure that stood higher than the sidewalk.
She paused, and hovered there in the midst of the dust and the motes of light that had followed in the wake of her power. She turned and shot the next-closest building, directing a smaller, tighter beam at one corner where the structure met the ground. She hit the next corner, then swept the oscillating shaft of light through the ground floor to obliterate any supports that stood within. The building toppled messily with brick walls sloughing off and cresting plumes of dust.

The building hadn't even finished falling down before she started work on the next two, devoting one beam to each.
"Were there people in there?" I asked, horrified both at the idea and at what this woman was capable of doing. "What about those other buildings?
Brian was behind his couch, watching, "There might have been, and there might be."

The NAZISHITSTORM already started. Purity is destroying buildings left and right with her beams of light. She's impressive powerful and....PISSED OFF (I hope those buildings are empty but I'm not exactly convinced about that. Also, I pray for Rachel to not be there, but somewhere else. I don't want to be worried about her fate during this entire chapter and maybe the following ones). I can understand why Purity is so mad, maybe something bad happened to Aster or someone threatened to bring harm to her baby girl (I swear, the people who even threaten to hurt an innocent baby are the worst people in my eyes. I just can't imagine how someone- under ANY circumstance- can hurt a baby, its even hard to think about). Purity is just a mother who's trying to protect her little girl. But, on the other side, I also feel bad for her possible victims. Both sides have to suffer because of fucking Coil "sighs". I wonder where is Aster and Theo's father. What he's doing in order to protect his family? Knowing him, I think he's trying his best to save his sorry metal ass by leaving Brockton Bay and leave his family behind. That would be the most COWARDLY thing a man would do, however from what I remember, Kaiser relied mostly on his giantesses' help during his fight against Lung so I won't be surprised if he'll abandon his family, leaving all the fight on Purity's shoulders.

My need to hurry overrode my modesty. I stood and pulled off my top, leaving just my bra on, making sure to keep my back to Brian. I removed the sweatshirt I had tied around my waist and untied the arms of my costume.
"What are you doing?"
"Getting ready," I put my arm through one arm and worked my fingers into the gloves.
Brian walked around the couch and I hurried to raise the top half of my costume and clutch it to my chest, covering myself. He put his hands on my bare shoulders and exerted enough force to push me back down to a sitting position. I complied, stiffly, reluctantly.

He pulled his hands away a little more quickly than he might have a day or two ago, jamming them in his pockets. I hunched my shoulders forward self consciously.
Brian took a deep breath. "Not your job."
"They're doing that because of us," I adjusted my grip on my costume top to free a hand so I could point it at the TV. The cameraman was retreating from the scene, and the image was wobbling as the camera rocked with his movement. The spark of light that was Purity was moving in his general direction as she leveled more buildings.
"Because of Coil, not us. The heroes will be the ones to take care of it," Brian retorted.
"They could be hurting innocent people."
"Given who these guys are, I'm pretty sure they've been hurting innocent people for a long time."
I turned to frown at Brian, "You know what I mean. We-"
"Undersiders," A female voice cut into the conversation. "Protectorate. Take note."

Kudos to the cameraman for being such a BADASS non-powered civilian and continuing to do his job even if he might die any second. I'm IMPRESSED!!!

Also I can understand Brian for not wanting to get involved. He knows how over-powered Purity is and he knows that she's not alone (I'm sure she also have her people helping her) and he's sure that they won't have many chances against MAD NAZIS. He doesn't allow himself to die and let his sister without someone who can take care of her and protect her. He's a rational guy and I like his way of thinking. But if I were there, I would have acted like Taylor rather than Brian, because I would feel sick everywhere if I'd let innocent civilians to die. Well, I'm usually a more emotional person even if I know that sometimes I should be less emotional about things. Curse this stupid heart.

Our heads turned back to the television screen. The camera showed a brilliant glare that could only vaguely be made out as a face. The view shifted, and I heard her command, "Hold it."
The camera steadied and focused on Purity's face, from ground level looking up. I suspected the cameraman was on the ground.
"You took the most important thing in the world from me," her voice was without affect, flat. "Until she is returned, this doesn't stop. I will take this city apart until I find you or you come to stop me. My subordinates will murder anyone, everyone, until the matter is settled. I don't care if they are genetically pure or not. If they haven't allied with us already, they missed their chance."
She bent down to take the camera. While the image swayed wildly, Purity spoke, "Night, Fog. Demonstrate."
The camera steadied, fixed on a man and a woman in gray and black costumes, respectively, featuring cowls and cloaks. Behind and to the side of them was an unnaturally pale and white haired young man.
The man in gray evaporated into a rolling cloud of white-gray fog, moving toward the camera. Purity took flight, moving up and above the scene, keeping the camera focused on the cameraman. As the camera rose and the view of the scene expanded, I could see Crusader off to one side, leaning against a wall with his arms folded.
As the mist enveloped the cameraman, Night strode forward, disappearing into it. The timing of what happened was wrong, too soon after she entered the fog. There was a ragged scream, and then blood sprayed out of the mist to paint the surrounding road in dozens upon dozens of long splashes of crimson.
The fog moved as though it had a mind of its own, congealing into the man once more. When he had fully pulled himself together again, there were only a few spatters of blood six or so paces from where the body had fallen, and Night, standing in the middle of the road. No body, no clothes, no blood remained where the fog had passed.
"We are not the ABB," Purity spoke, not bothering to turn the camera back to herself, "We are stronger, both in powers and in numbers. We have discipline, and thanks to you, we have nothing left to lose. I will have my daughter back, and we will have our restitution."

OMG, they killed the poor BRAVE cameraman!!! Rest in peace, you AWESOME MINOR CHARACTER. I'll always remember you (when someone will ask me about Worm after I finish reading it, I'll tell them that one of my favorite characters from this story is a minor cameraman who did his job until the very last minutes of his life, despite knowing that he could die any given moment

). So, Fog can turn into a fog, as I said first time when I heard about him. Night is a she and she can...disappear into the fog Fog and kill people there. Then she can make their bodies disappear like they're never there in the first place. I don't understand her powers yet (teleportation of bodies, maybe?) and the way she's killing people (knife, dagger, machete, sword, claws?). Mystery. Anyway, those two bastards are incredible badass together so better to be avoided. Purity, you killed an innocent cameraman (and maybe other innocent persons). I understand that someone kidnapped your daughter and you're desperate to find her but still...this is not the right way you should act. I wonder if Lisa might help Purity to find and save her daughter without making more victims than she already made. I doubt that Purity will accept Undersiders' help but if Lisa would be able to save her daughter, she might not say no (after all Purity doesn't know about Coil being Undersiders' boss+ she doesn't even know that Coil was the one who send the emails). Quickly, Brian, Taylor, call Lisa before the situation will go irreparable out of hand.

Purity dropped the camera, and the view spun lazily as the camera hurtled to the ground. There was the briefest of glimpses of the trail of light that marked her departure, before the camera hit the ground and the television went black. After a moment, the 'BB4 News' logo appeared on the screen against a blue background.
"Crap," Brian said.
"So. If you're not going to go after them to save people," I wasn't able to keep all the bitterness out of my voice. "Maybe you'll do it for our rep, after we got called out like that?"
"That's not- Taylor, I don't want people to get hurt or killed, either. I'm not a villain that aims to hurt people. I'm just being practical."
"You didn't answer my question. What are we doing now, after hearing that?"
"We're calling Lisa. Or you are, and I'll take care of your ear while you do it."
I nodded. I took the opportunity to get my top back on while he got the first aid kit, and grabbed my cell phone. Brian used saline and a wet cotton wipe to wipe around my ear, and I dialed Lisa. She picked up on the first ring.
"Lemon J," I told her.
"Bumblebee S," she replied. "No immediate danger, but the situation doesn't look good?"
"Right," I replied.
Brian put the cotton wipe aside. It was a red-pink with flakes of my dried blood on it. He prepared another to continue working.
"You see that bit on TV?" I asked her, "Hold on, I'm putting you on speaker for Grue." I'd used his codename for security's sake. I fiddled with the keypad to get the phone to speaker mode.

Lisa's voice was tinny through the low quality speaker. "Purity? I saw the bit on TV. From what I picked up, child protective services and a contingent of capes went into her place and walked out with her baby while she was at work, before she even had a chance to hear about the email. Mama bear snapped."
"Tattletale," Brian spoke, "Did you talk to Coil?"
"Coil says he told Kaiser straight up that he was responsible for the emails. I believe him. If Purity and Kaiser's other subordinates don't know, Kaiser either hasn't seen fit to tell them or he's intentionally keeping them in the dark."
"What? Why would he do that?" I raised the phone closer to my mouth to ask her.
"It makes a warped sort of sense to me," Brian answered for Lisa. "He lets his people believe we're responsible, with Purity's group gunning for us and the Protectorate. Hookwolf hates us anyways, because of Bitch, so he goes along. Kaiser lets them deal with us, with all that fury and hate and no-holds-barred torture, murder and maiming that comes with blaming us. When we're dealt with, or when it's convenient, he tells them the truth, turns that bloodthirst against Coil. His people won't ever be scarier or more vicious than they are right now. Why not maximize the damage?"
"Doesn't that fall apart if Coil admits, publicly or to the members of Empire Eighty Eight, that he's responsible?" I asked.
"Yes," Lisa's tinny voice replied, "But Coil won't. He was willing to talk to Kaiser, fess up to the man himself face to face, but going with a more public route risks putting him in the spotlight, drawing attention to himself, and he's not going to do that. I suspect Kaiser knows that and is accounting for it."

Yeeeeah, they called Lisa. So, child protective services took Aster? She wasn't kidnapped by Empire88's enemies? Ok, that's good, actually GOOD, but still, they should return the baby back to her mother so she'll stop murdering people and destroying buildings. I know that this was the right thing to do, I mean, to take her child because she's a supervillain criminal, but right now, they must make an exception and give her baby back. After all, she's a good mother, in her own way, and they'll stop an eventual massacre. Win-Win.

"So what's next?" I asked, "I think we should do something to step in, but Brian was saying that he thought we should continue to lay low. Before Purity said her piece, anyways. Not sure if he's changed his mind." I gave him a look.
"I haven't," Brian spoke, loud enough to be picked up by the phone. He dabbed ointment on my ear, making me wince. "Sorry."
I wasn't sure if the apology was over his stance in the discussion or the medical care.
"According to the news and my, um, inside source," Lisa spoke, referring to her power, "Purity hasn't stopped. She's doing strafing runs across the Docks. She moves too fast for anyone but Dauntless or Velocity to catch, and she hits harder than both of them combined. She's knocked down four more buildings while we've talked, I'm pretty sure. How long before she happens to knock over our hideout?"
Brian pursed his lips.
"And she leads her own sub-group within Empire Eighty Eight, so I'm betting that Fog, Night, Alabaster and Crusader are on the streets, doing their own thing. I dunno about you guys, but I have friends in our neighborhood. I'm very not cool with that."
Brian sighed, "Fine. We go. But no direct confrontation until we have a game plan, especially not before we reunite our two groups. Where are you guys?"
"Holed up on the far side of the Trainyard, with the dogs," Lisa answered, "Not a bad spot. Better than the building Purity tore down. Don't know why she was set up there instead of here."

Coil is a fucking COWARD for not admitting to the public that he was the one responsible for this mess. So, another flaw this man have: COWARDICE. Glad that Rachel and her dogs are safe also it looks like Lisa wants to stop this madness. Please, Lisa, tell Purity where the fuck is her child and help her take her baby, you don't need more fighting, especially with those nuts people. I don't wanna read about more innocent souls getting killed because nobody wants to give Purity her baby back. Its both ridiculous and horrible.

I heard a voice on the other end that was probably Bitch's, though I couldn't make out the words.
"So. We meet?" Lisa asked.
"We meet," Brian replied. "I'm going to call Coil for a vehicle, and to ask him a few questions, hear for myself that he talked to Kaiser. However long it takes for the ride to get here, it should give me time to stitch Skitter up."
I winced.
"Patch her up? Why?"
"Not relevant to the current situation. We'll explain later," he said.
"Later then. Take care of yourself, Skitter" Lisa hung up.
Brian held up the needle and thread, "Let me apologize in advance."
■
"You see kids get their ears twisted in the movies and on TV all the time. What you don't get is how much it fucking hurts," I touched the part of my mask that covered my bandaged earlobe. It was throbbing, due in part to Brian's ministrations.
"Just leave it alone. The painkillers will kick in soon."
"Alright."
We sat in silence for a few moments. I stared out the small window at the back of the vehicle. Very few cars were going in the direction we were.
The interior of the vehicle that Coil had procured for us was filled with medical equipment. There was a gurney, which I sat on, a second smaller type of gurney that could be disassembled and reassembled as required, up near the ceiling. The interior was efficiently packed with medical supplies: an oxygen tank underneath the bench where Grue sat, a heartbeat monitor, lifejackets, tubes of all shapes and sizes, lockers and drawers with pills, splints and bandages.
It was, to all appearances, a real ambulance. I couldn't say whether it had originally been an ambulance, and Coil had added extra compartments for weapons and for my bugs, or if he'd gone the other way and built the vehicle from scratch, to accommodate his additions.

At least Coil had the decency to send an ambulance to take Grue and Skitter to a safe place. I'm literally on the edge because I know that something bad will happen in the next moment and they'll be attacked on their way, possible by Fog and Night. I don't want to imagine where Night is going to teleport them if this is her true power. Maybe they can take them hostages to make the other Undersiders surrender, everything is possible when it comes to this madness.

We slowed down, and Grue leaned towards the front of the ambulance, "What's the holdup?"
"Blockade coming up," the driver spoke. He and the woman in the passenger seat were Coil's people, decked out in paramedic's uniforms. "No sweat."
He flipped a switch, and the siren blared. Seconds later, he was revving up and moving without difficulty. I looked through the rear window, and saw a line of police cars and PRT vans behind us, moving to close the gap they'd just opened in their formation.

"Hey, are we okay?" Grue asked me. He was outfitted in costume, helmet on and visor down.
"Hm?"
"I get the feeling you're angry."
"If I'm angry at anyone for that thing outside the mall, it's myself. Can we just drop that topic forever and forget it ever happened?"
"No, no. I mean, are you angry that I didn't jump out of my seat to go fight Empire Eighty Eight, before we knew everything that was at stake?"
"Oh," I flushed, and my ear throbbed in response to the rush of blood. Could've kicked myself. "I honestly don't know. I wasn't expecting it. I see the lengths you go through to take care of your… family member, I think of you as a pretty honorable guy, you know?" This was veering closer to the conversation-that-was-not-to-be-spoken-of than I'd like. I deliberately left that thought hanging.
Grue rubbed the back of his neck, "I'm not sure I'm as good a person as you're making me out-"
An impact rocked the ambulance, tossing Grue out of his seat and nearly knocking me heels over head. The ambulance veered out of the driver's control, tipped, and landed on its side, bringing Grue against the underside of the stretcher I'd been sitting on. The spare gurney and the contents of drawers and lockers around the interior spilled free and scattered around us.

He IS a HONORABLE, BRAVE and DECENT MAN, Skitter, don't ever change your opinion about him, unless he'll completely change his personality in the future. He's also very logical and pragmatic, he just can't fight against a woman with powers stronger than his+ her minions who are also hella powerful. He'll die then you'll start blaming yourself that it happened because of your insistence to go saving lives. I know that we both feel the same- lives should be saved- but right know its a pretty impossible situation if you'll try do this using violence. And....I was right again (damn my sick predictions), they're attacked. Hope there are not going to be Night and Fog, hope there are not going to be Night and Fog, please, don't....anyone, but not them or Purity (Night and Fog kind of managed to scare me, ok? I'm afraid of them, have to admit, especially since Night's powers are so freaking weird and still unknown).

"Fuck!" the driver swore. "Fuckshit!"
I pulled free of the tubes and the half of a gurney that had fallen around me, and crawled toward the front to look between the two front seats.
It didn't look so different from Bitch's dogs in general shape. It was a little larger, too, maybe, but that was a hard call to make. It was hollow, its limbs were thinner than the dogs, and I couldn't really draw a line between what was the actual 'meat' of the body and what wasn't, because the entire thing was a chainsaw whir of serrated blades, hooks and needle points, shuffling and shifting around one another, rising and falling, all moving too fast for the eye to follow. Altogether, it maintained a general quadruped shape with a tail and elongated snout.

Walking on either side of it were two people. There was a pale, tall man with the sort of muscle-heavy build you only saw on cons and bodybuilders. He wore black slacks that were in tatters around his feet, had chains wrapped around his forearms, hands and calves, and a blue-white tiger mask. On the opposite side of the metal beast was a twenty-something girl with a gymnast's build and scars criss-crossing her exposed skin. Her hair was shorn to a bleached blond buzz cut, and her face was covered by a metal cage.
The blender of dangerous looking metal bits dissolved, each of the hooks and blades retracting into the skin of the man at the center of the thing's chest. As the front legs withdrew into his shoulders, he dropped into a crouch on the street. He wore a wolf mask of sheet metal that had been crudely bent into place, framed by long, greasy blond hair. Hookwolf.
Rumor had it that Hookwolf, back in the day, had been one of the top fighters in a parahuman fighting ring in New York. He'd grown greedy, killed the man that ran it for access to the vault with the night's earnings, and had made a good number of enemies in the process. It had been a group of white supremacists local to that area that had given him shelter and support, happy to side with him because the man he'd killed had been an 'acceptable target'. Maybe the ideology was real for Hookwolf from day one, maybe it was an act that had become reality when he found he enjoyed having people celebrate him for enacting his most twisted impulses and racking up a body count. Either way, I suspected that there were few things he wouldn't do for his 'Empire' nowadays.

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES, no Night and Fog. Gooooooooooooooood, someone that Skitter and Grue can actually fight. I hope. So, Hookwolf, the stupid guardian dog of Kaiser, I think the man with blue-white tiger mask is Stormtiger and I have no idea who the girl might be. A wild guess: Rune?!? Alright, two against three, that won't be so bad. Depends of how strong the nazis actually are. But they're not Night and Fog so everything is fine

. And now I got the confirmation the the main motif for Empire88 is metal: almost everyone have metal based powers or metal based costume. METAL!

Stormtiger, the man with the chains and tiger mask, and Cricket, the girl, apparently tied back to the same circles of parahuman prize fighters that Hookwolf had once been part of. I couldn't begin to guess their motivations for following him, but I suppose it hardly mattered. Hookwolf was dangerous enough on his own. With friends?
"We run," I muttered. Hookwolf and his buddies had their backs turned to us and were walking toward the police barricade. Stormtiger flexed his hands, and the air blurred around them, congealed into a half-dozen pale, translucent blades that jutted from each hand.
"We have guns," spoke the driver, "We shoot them from behind."
"No," Brian spoke, "It won't hurt Hookwolf, and I suspect Cricket and Stormtiger could do something about it, or they wouldn't be so brazen about walking towards those cops. Skitter is right. We retreat. Ready?"
Grue blanketed the back doors of the ambulance in darkness to mute the noise as he cracked it open to cover the outside as well.
Noiselessly, the four of us backed out of the ambulance.
Grue flooded the block with darkness, and I scattered my bugs out from the surrounding area and the compartments in the ambulance's interior to follow in the wake of the darkness, spacing them out to cover the ground and the other objects around us, giving myself a swarm-sense of my surroundings. I grabbed the hand of the woman 'paramedic' and pulled her away from the middle of the street, toward the sidewalk. Brian brought the driver in the same general direction.
My bugs felt someone come after us, fast. I didn't have time to get out of the way and lead Coil's faux paramedic to safety as well, so I shoved her in one direction and leaped in the other. The man leapt into the space we'd vacated, and I felt a rush of wind set my hair to whipping around my face.
There was an explosion of sorts, a blast of wind powerful enough to lift me off the ground and push away a fair share of Grue's darkness. Stormtiger stood in the epicenter of the clearing, reforming the translucent 'claws' around his raised left hand.

He used one of the translucent blades on his hand to tap the side of his tiger mask's nose as he turned to look down at me. When he spoke, his voice was deeper than Brian's, "Don't need to see you, sweetie."
I was really, really growing to hate enhanced senses.

So, the girl is not Rune but Cricket and Stormtiger is able to create wind powered claws (before this chapter I said something about being able to create literal storm tiger. Hmmm, not very close enough

; also she have enhanced senses, since he heard/or smelled Grue and Skitter through Grue's darkness). Great, I bet that Skitter already HATES this day. And her whole life of suffering. Well, see the positive side, Skitter, THEY'RE NOT Fog and Night.

Good Night, my friends, and Foggy dreams.

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

Totally not four rats in a trench coat

SPACE!

SPACE!

SPACE!

Totally not four rats in a trench coat

SPACE!

SPACE!

SPACE!

Totally not four rats in a trench coat

Castro-Trudeauist

SPACE!

Totally not four rats in a trench coat

SPACE!

Totally not four rats in a trench coat

Banned Forever