Watching this thread is similar to watching a child view a video of a train wreck.
This is the part where the train is happily chugging along, although the brakes get stuck occasionally.
The best/worst part of this is knowing exactly how gruesome ba dum crash the first book is going to be after giving out glimmers of hope.
After all, one of the many taglines for this is "It gets worse".
Bored out of my mind. I have to do some chores but....I think reading a new chapter of Worm 1.05 | Worm seems to be way more interesting than doing chores. So, lets see how fast Taylor can run from a Dragon who might incinerate her from head to toe if she's not fast enough. Gosh, I hope that someone will jump in her help at the last moment and save her life, in the same manner she saved the kids' lives. Something like Deus Ex Machina, I wouldn't mind at all. After all, she's the main character. All main characters have something that is called Plot Armor. Well, at the very end of their story, they can die, if the author decided to be more dramatic/realistic about their fate but until then...Deus Ex Machina is their main weapon. Lol, I turned the whole promise of 1 chapter/day into 2 chapters/day. Hope that you don't mind, boys and girls.
You don't properly appreciate what superhuman strength means until you see someone leap from the sidewalk to the second floor of a building on the far side of the street. He didn't make it all the way to the roof, but he came to a point maybe three quarters of the way up. I wasn't sure just how Lung kept from falling, but I could only guess that he just buried his fingertips into the building's exterior.
I heard scraping and crunching as he ascended, and looked to my only escape route. I didn't harbor any delusions as far as my ability to get down the fire escape before Lung came over the top of the roof and deduced where I'd run off to. Worse, at that point he could probably just beat me to the street level by jumping off the roof, or even just shoot fire at me through the gaps in the metal while I was halfway down. The irony of the fire escape being anything but didn't escape me.
I wished I could fly. My school offered the choice between Chemistry, Biology and Physics, with Basic Science for the underachievers. I hadn't picked Physics, but I was still pretty sure that no matter how many I could gather together, jumping off the roof with a swarm of flying insects gripping me would be just as ineffective as the 9 year old superhero wannabes you heard about in the news, jumping off ledges with umbrellas and bedsheets. For the time being, I was stuck where I was.
So, he prefers to use his clawed hands for climbing the building instead of using his wings to fly? Hmmm, weird choice, but maybe Lung is not a very good strategist or maybe he's too angry at that moment to think clear. Taylor can't use her bugs to fly, this is a good (and logical, I must add) thinking. If only she'd have a huge-ass bee or wasp, something as big as a horse (now I imagine a bee the size of a horse) that can carry her on its back, that would be great. Pretty helpful. But she can't make her bugs grow at unnatural proportion, neither she can make herself small like a bug (the kind of power that Wasp- a Marvel superheroine- have). She only have mind manipulation, which is really not a great power. Well, it is great against people who are not Lung, but useless against people who are Lung.
Reaching inside the convex armor that covered my spine, I ran my fingers over the things I had buckled in there. The EpiPens were meant to treat anaphylactic shock from allergic reactions to bee stings and the like, and likely wouldn't do a thing to Lung, even if I could get close enough and find a point to inject. Worst case scenario, the injections would supercharge his power by prompting a surge of whatever hormones or endorphins fueled his power. Not useful, dangerous at best. I had a pouch of chalk dust that was meant for climbers and gymnasts, I had seen it in the sports store when I was buying the lenses for my mask. I had gloves and didn't think I needed the dryness and extra traction, but I had gotten the idea that it could be useful to throw at an invisible enemy, and bought it on a whim. In retrospect, it had been kind of a dumb purchase, since my power let me find foes like that with my bugs. As a tool against Lung… I wasn't sure if it would explode like regular dust could when exposed to flame, but fire didn't hurt him anyways. Scratch that option.
I tugged the little canister of pepper spray free from my armor. It was a black tube, three inches long, not much thicker around than a pen, with a trigger and a safety switch. It had been a gift from my dad, after I had started to go on my morning jogs for training. He had warned me to vary my route, and had given me the pepper spray for protection, along with a chain to clip it to my belt loop so it couldn't be taken and used against me by an attacker. In costume, I had opted not to keep the chain for the sake of moving quietly. Using my thumb, I flicked the safety off and positioned the tube so I was ready to fire. I crouched to make myself a smaller target, and waited for him to show himself.
Aww, her father gave her a canister of pepper spray to protect herself against thugs. He does cares for her and he's worried everytime she went outside for her running practice. This is actually sweet. So, I was right about the fact that her parents might not be bad people. I think that her father (at least) doesn't know about her mutation, otherwise he won't be so worried, since she has her powers always at her disposition. She doesn't want to tell him, maybe she's afraid that he'll reject her (because of the fear for her powers or simply prejudices against mutants)? I have a feeling that the moment when her parents will find out about her powers will be either one of the best moments of this story or one of the saddest ones. Okay, back to the story: PLEASE, Oni Lee, don't show your ass now, don't show your ass now, not now, PLEASE...
Lung's hands, still on fire, were the first thing to show up, gripping the edge of the roof hard enough to bend the material that covered the roof's raised lip. His hands were quickly followed by his head and torso as he hauled himself up. He looked like he was made of overlapping knives or spades, smouldering yellow-orange with the low temperature flame. There was no skin to be seen, and he was easily seven or eight feet tall, judging by the length of his arms and torso. His shoulders alone were three feet across at the very least. Even the one eye that he had open looked metallic, a glowing, almond shaped pool of liquid-hot metal.
I aimed for the open eye, but the spray fired off at a sharp angle, just glancing off his shoulder. Where the spray grazed him, it ignited into a short lived fireball.
I swore under my breath and fumbled with the device. While he brought his leg over the edge, I adjusted my angle and shot again. This time – with a small tweak of my aim mid-shot – I hit him in the face. The ignited spray rolled off of him, but the contents still did the trick. He screamed, letting go of the roof with one hand, clutching the side of his face where his good eye was. It had been vain to hope that he would slip and fall. I just counted myself lucky that however metallic his face looked, there were still parts of it vulnerable to the spray.
YESSS, she injured him. One of his eyes is still vulnerable and the pepper spray did its job flawless. Now, what is your next move, Taylor? Try to make him fall off the building? I doubt this will be the right thing to do- he's covered in metal, he won't be harmed. The street will be "harmed" instead of him. Don't you feel pity for the poor asphalt, Taylor? Seriously talking now:
Oni Lee, stay wherever you're, stay wherever you're...
Lung hauled himself over the edge of the roof. I had him hurting… I just couldn't do anything about it. My bugs were officially useless, there was nothing left in my utility sheath, and I would hurt myself more than I hurt Lung if I attacked him. Making a mental note to pick myself up a concealable knife or baton if I managed to live through this, I bolted for the fire escape.
"Muh… Motherfucker!" Lung screamed. With my back turned, there was no way to see it, but the roof was briefly illuminated before the wave of flame hit me from behind. Knocked off balance, I skidded on the gravel and hit the raised lip of the roof, just by the fire escape. Frantically, I patted myself down. My costume wasn't on fire, but my hair – I hurriedly ran my hands over it to make sure it hadn't been ignited.
Small mercies, I thought, that there was no tar used on the roof. I could just imagine the flames igniting the rooftop, and just how little I'd be able to do if it happened. Lung stood, slowly, still covering part of his face with his hand. He walked with a slight limp as he approached me. Blindly, he lashed out with a broad wave of flame that rolled over half the roof. I covered my head with my hands and brought my knees to my chest as the hot air and flame rushed over me. My costume seemed to take the brunt of it, but it was still hot enough I had to bite my lip to stop from making a sound.
He almost burned her!!! Wow, whoa, this is bad, this is really bad. He's on the roof, throwing flames at her and she can't even climb down the roof. She's completely at his mercy!!! (btw, I'm a bit surprised that he's able to talk while in his dragon form. But maybe the transformation didn't affected his vocal cords). Quickly, Deus Ex Machina bullshit, you have one job. One fucking job. Then do your job. Taylor must be protected with all costs. Whatever happens, I really don't care not even if a random giant hand will fall from the sky right over Lung, crushing him. As long as Taylor is okay I'm ready to accept this as something that it happened.
Lung stopped advancing, slowly turning his head from one side to another.
I held my breath and stayed as still as possible. What could I do? I still had the pepper spray in my hand, but even if I got him again, I was running the risk that he would lash out and bake me alive before I could move. If I moved first, he would hear me and I would get knocked around by another blast of flame, probably before I could get to my feet. Lung moved his hand from his face. He blinked a few times, then looked around, then blinked a few more times. It was a matter of seconds before he could see well enough to make me out from the shadows. Wasn't pepper spray supposed to put someone down for thirty minutes? How was this monster not an A-Lister? He suddenly moved, flames wreathing his hands, and I screwed my eyes shut. When I heard the crackling whoosh of the flame and wasn't burned alive, I opened my eyes again. Lung was firing streams of flame, aiming for the edge of the roof of the adjacent building, a three story apartment. I looked to see what he was aiming at, but couldn't make anything out in the gloom or in the brief second of light Lung's flames afforded.
What? Something is attacking Lung? Something jumped in Taylor's help? OMG, this is the best thing that I read about during the entire fight against Lung. Whatever is attacking Lung, I don't care if is a hero or another villain. As long as they can keep him away from hurting Taylor, anything is alright for me. I'll flip my shit is there's someone with giant hands powers attack, I'll start to seriously think about my capacity to predict things with such accuracy...and to question my sanity...and my very own existence.
With no warning, a massive shape landed atop Lung with an impact I could swear people heard at the other end of the street. The size of a van, the 'massive object' was animal rather than vehicle, resembling a cross between a lizard and a tiger, with tangles of muscle and bone where it ought to have skin, scales or fur. Lung was now on his knees, holding one of the beast's sizable claws away from his face with his own clawed hand.
Lung used his free hand to strike the creature across the snout. Even though he was smaller than the beast, the impact made it rear back. It took a few short steps back in reaction, and then rhino-charged him off the edge of the roof. They hit the street with an audible crash.
There's no a giant hand...but there's a giant...lizard tiger monster thing. Whoa, whoa...okay! That's great, that's great as long as Lung is fucked by that monster. Maybe is a hero with shapeshifting powers, who can turn into that creature. Or maybe is a hero able to summon creatures. Either way, Taylor, you have to thank to your lucky star. This "dashing" hero/heroine saved you from a certain death. So, we're going to get to know this amazing person who just saved a fellow heroine?
I stood, aware I was shaking like a leaf. I was so unsteady on my feet, from the mixed relief and fear, that I almost fell over again as two more impacts shook the roof. Two more creatures, similar to the first in texture, but slightly different in size and shape, had arrived on the rooftop. These two each had a pair of riders. I watched as the people slid off the backs of the animals. There were two girls, a guy, and a fourth I identified as male only because of the height. The tall one approached me, while the others hurried to the edge of the roof to watch Lung and the creature duke it out.
"You really saved us a lot of trouble," he told me. His voice was deep, masculine, but muffled by the helmet he wore. He was dressed entirely in black, a costume I realized was basically motorcycle leathers and a motorcycle helmet. The only thing that made me think it was a costume was the visor of his helmet. The full-face visor was sculpted to look like a stylized skull, and was as black as the rest of his costume, with only the faint highlights of reflected light on the surface to give a sense of what it was. It was one of those costumes that people put together out of what they can scrounge up, and it wasn't half bad if you didn't look too close. He reached out a hand towards me, and I leaned away, wary.
Oh, they're like 4 heroes, not just one. 2 boys and 2 girls. NEAT! They're riding those creatures that are similar with the one that attacked Lung. One of the boys is dressed like a biker. Cool, he seems the badass type of hero. Maybe he's the one who summoned those monsters. But...wait a minute!!! He said that Taylor saved them from trouble. What?!? So...they're the kids that Lung wanted to kill? But, they don't look like kids, exactly. I think I get it. Those four heroes (or vigilantes) made Lung very angry by trying to destroy his bussiness and have him arrested (or even killed since he's a bad guy). He called him "kids" because they must be younger than him, maybe by Taylor's years. Ok, I got it now. Taylor saved them and they saved her in turn. Nice work, buddies.
Withdrawing his hand, the man in black jerked his thumb over one shoulder, "When we got word Lung was aiming to come after us tonight, we were pretty freaked. We were arguing strategy for the better part of the day. We eventually decided, fuck it, we'd meet him halfway. Wing it. Not my usual way of doing things, but yeah."
Behind him, one of the girls whistled sharply and pointed down at the street. The two monsters the group had been riding on bounded across the roof and leaped down to the street to join the fight. The guy in black kept talking, "Wouldn't you know, his flunky Lee is there with a half dozen guys, but Lung and the rest of his gang are nowhere to be found," he laughed, a surprisingly normal sound for someone wearing a mask with a skull on it. "Lee's no slouch in a fight, but there's a reason he's not leader of the ABB. He got spooked without his boss there and ran. I guess you're responsible for that?" Skull-mask waited for a response from me. When I didn't offer one, he ventured towards the edge of the roof and looked down, then spoke without turning to look at me, "Lung is getting creamed. The fuck you do to him?" "Pepper spray, wasp and bee stings, fire ants and spider bites," the second of the girls said, answering the question for me. She was dressed in a skintight outfit that combined black with a pale shade of blue or purple – I couldn't tell in the dark – and her dark blond hair was long and windblown. The girl grinned as she added, "He's not holding up too well. Gonna feel a helluvalot worse tomorrow."
Ok, so, why they didn't called the Protectorate if they knew that Lung was coming after them? Maybe they're really vigilantes (like Batman and Punisher) and heroes doesn't actually like vigilantes, because they're doing some pretty dirty work, despite having noble purposes. Ha ha ha ha, Oni Lee is a fucking coward! I was terrified by a fucking coward, can't believe this shit. With all his super-crazy teleportating bullshit of power, he decided- in his heavily mandarin accent "fuck this, fuck my boss, fuck my mooks, I'll save my damn skin". So, one of the girls is the one who summoned the monsters; she can also control them (this seems like a kick-ass power indeed). Another girl knows EXACTLY how the battle between Taylor and Lung went. Maybe she's a psych mutant, she can either look and see into the past or read minds.
The man in black suddenly turned to look at me, "Introductions. That's Tattletale. I'm Grue. The girl with the dogs-" he pointed to the other girl, the one who had whistled and directed the monsters. She wasn't in costume unless I counted a plaid skirt, army boots, a torn-up sleeveless T-shirt and a hard plastic, dollar-store rottweiler mask as a costume. "-We call her Bitch, her preference, but in the interests of being P.G., the good guys and media decided to call her Hellhound instead. Last and certainly least, we have Regent."
"Fuck you, Grue," Regent retorted, with a chuckle and a tone of voice that made it clear he wasn't really that offended. He was wearing a white mask, not quite as decorative or made up as the ones I associated with the carnivals in Venice, but similar. He'd placed a silver coronet around his short black curls, and wore a ruffled white shirt with skintight leggings tucked into knee-high boots. The outfit was very renaissance faire. He had a build that made me think more of a dancer than a bodybuilder. Introductions done, Grue looked at me for several long moments. After a few seconds, he asked me, "Hey, you okay? You hurt?"
Okay, okay, okay. So, their vigilante/hero names are Grue, Tattletale, Regent and...WHAT KIND OF RESPECTABLE GIRL WILL CALL HERSELF BITCH? Mother of God, this is so crazy!!! Well, if she likes to be called like this then who I'm to judge her? I'll have a little fun now and try to guess their powers after their code names and judging by what I saw them doing so far. Bitch can either summon monster dogs out of thin air and mind control them or she can turn normal dogs into monsters than mind control them afterwards. If you ask me what kind of power I want her to have, prefer the summoning part because turning normal dogs into monsters seems to be PAINFUL as hell and, while I'm more like a cat person than a dog person, I don't like when animals are hurt. Tattletale have psych powers- see in the past, read minds or instinctively know everything about someone just by looking at them. Those are the kind of powers I'd absolute LOVE to have, one of the coolest powers ever. Imagine the things someone can do with them. Now, Grue. I know that "Grue" is a fictional monster who live in the dark. And this very nice and caring boy is dressed entire in black and calls himself Grue. He can either turn himself into pure darkness or generate darkness, making his enemies unable to see him. As for Regent, he can go like this: BOW TO ME, PEASANTS, I'M YOUR MOTHERFUCKER KING! and when everyone, enchanted by his royal Venice presence, were doing exactly what he told them, he started to laugh in their nose: "FUCK YOU, IDIOTS, I'M JUST A DAMN REGENT! BUT I LIKE HOW QUICKLY I TRICKED YOU! I'm sure he can...mind control people (but only temporary) to do his biding or maybe shapeshift into them and take their place (temporary) pretending he's them. Ok, my brains are on fire now, too much thinking lol...next.
"The reason she's not introducing herself isn't because she's hurt," Tattletale told him, as she continued to lean over the edge of the roof and watch whatever was going on at the street level, "It's because she's shy."
Tattletale turned around and it looked like she was going to say something else, but she stopped, turning her head. The smile she'd been wearing faded, "Heads up. We've gotta scram."
Bitch nodded in response and whistled, one short whistle followed by two long ones. After a brief pause, the building was suddenly rattled by impacts. In just moments, the three creatures of hers leaped from the alleys to either side of the building and onto the roof. Grue turned towards me. I was still standing on the opposite end of the roof, by the fire escape. "Hey, want a ride?" I looked at the creatures – dogs? They were bloodied, snarling creatures out of a nightmare. I shook my head. He shrugged. "Hey," Tattletale said to me, seating herself just behind Bitch, "What's your name?" I stared at her. My voice caught in my throat before I was able to get the words out, "I don't… I haven't picked one yet." "Well, Bug, a cape is gonna show up in less than a minute. You did us a solid by dealing with Lung, so take my advice. Someone from the Protectorate shows up, finds two bad guys duking it out, they're not going to let one walk away. You should get out of here," She said. She flashed me a smile. She had one of those vulpine grins that turned up at the corners. Behind her simple black domino style mask, her eyes were glittering with mischief. If she had red hair, she would have made me think of a fox. She kind of did, anyways.
Ok, Tattletale seems to know everything about a person just by being in their presence. Neat power (I kind of envy you, Tattletale, why do you have such a cool power that doesn't exist in real life? "let out a huge sigh"). Tattletale called Taylor Bug. Well, you can add Bug Queen and you'll have my first proposition for Taylor's codename. Those "kids" seem so friendly and helpful, I like them already. Especially Tattletale. She also knows that someone from Protectorate is coming (so, she can see in the future also knows personal details about people? How many cool powers do you have, Tattletale?) . So, they're neither heroes now vigilantes. They're...villains. Wow, I didn't expected at this. They seem to be like the nicest villains ever. They remind me of Brotherhood of Mutants from X-Men Evolution, but more nice than those. Cool, give me some helpful and kind villains anytime, i always appreciate this. After all, villains are people too, not all of them are entirely evil. Maybe those "kids" are small time thieves or tricksters or burglars, nothing too bad or too murderous. Compared with Lung, they're innocent angels.
With that, they leaped over my head, one of the three beasts hitting or stepping on the fire escape on the way down, eliciting a screech of metal on metal.
When I realized what had just happened, I could have cried. It was easy enough to pin down Regent, Tattletale and Bitch as teenagers. It wasn't much of an intuitive leap to guess that Grue had been one too. The 'children' Lung had mentioned, the ones I had gone to so much effort to save tonight, were bad guys. Not only that, but they had mistaken me for one, too.
Well, bad guys who saved you and treated you a lot nicer than those bitches at your school, Taylor, little Bug hero. They honestly believe you're a bad guy too, he he he, this is so much fun. What if...what if you'll become a villain too by helping them to fight against bigger and meaner villains? That would be completely unexpected. But kick-ass! I'll support you even as a villain, Taylor, as long as you don't hurt non-powered innocent people on purpose. I just love you, you daredevil crazy hero-villain girl! What a great character Taylor is "continues for a couple of minutes to fangirl over Taylor, the group of 4 villains and the story, in general."........................................................
..............."comes back to her senses" Bye, my dearests, see you tomorrow.
Watching this thread is similar to watching a child view a video of a train wreck.
This is the part where the train is happily chugging along, although the brakes get stuck occasionally.
The best/worst part of this is knowing exactly how gruesome ba dum crash the first book is going to be after giving out glimmers of hope.
After all, one of the many taglines for this is "It gets worse".
No matter how gruesome/crazy/hopeless this story will go, I'll still read it. After all I'm a BIG fan of Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead and The Handmaid Tale and these TV-series aren't exactly milk and honey and rainbows and happiness. Actually, I really want to get as worse as possible, its going to make the reading/my reviews even more interesting.
No matter how gruesome/crazy/hopeless this story will go, I'll still read it. After all I'm a BIG fan of Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead and The Handmaid Tale and these TV-series aren't exactly milk and honey and rainbows and happiness. Actually, I really want to get as worse as possible, its going to make the reading/my reviews even more interesting.
Alright, boys and girls, time for a new review. 1.06 | Worm. After she saved a group of NICE villains, and she was saved by them in return, Taylor is more or less ready to meet the first real hero of the story. I'm sure she's tired and scared and all she wants is to go home, but right now she has to wait for the hero and explain what she did to Lung (I wonder if Lung is still there or he ran away, after the 4 villains left with their monsters). Let's read and see.
I heard the cape arrive on his souped up motorcycle. I didn't want to be seen fleeing the scene of a fight, and risk being labeled one of the bad guys by yet another person, but I wasn't about to get closer to the street either, in case Lung was feeling better. Since there was nowhere to go, I just stayed put. Just resting felt good.
If you'd asked me just a few hours ago about how I thought I would feel meeting a big name superhero, I would have used words like excited and giddy. The reality was that I was almost too exhausted to care.
It looked as though he flew up onto the roof, but the six-foot long weapon the man held kind of jerked as he landed. I was pretty sure I saw the tines of a grappling hook retreating back into the end of the weapon. So this was what Armsmaster looked like in person, I thought. The largest superhero organization in the world was the Protectorate, spanning Canada and the States, with ongoing talks about including Mexico in the deal. It was a government sponsored league of superheroes with a base in each 'cape city'. That is, they had a team set up in each city with a sizable population of heroes and villains. Brockton Bay's team was officially 'The Protectorate East-North-East', and were headquartered in the floating, forcefield-shrouded island that you could see from the Boardwalk. This guy, Armsmaster, was the guy in charge of the local team. When the core group of the top Protectorate members from around Canada and the States assembled in that classic 'v' formation for the photo shoots, Armsmaster was one of the guys in the wings. This was a guy who had his own action figures. Poseable Armsmaster with interchangeable Halberd parts.
The biker hero name is...Armsmaster!! Lol, wut!?! Give me few minutes, cause this codename is HILARIOUS. OMG, so much fun with this story. Master of Arms. Armsmaster. So, he's a badass who's very good at fighting with his...arms? Maybe he knows instantly all kinds of hand-to-hand combat or maybe he has superstrength, like punch someone and send them flying into sky. Protectorate exists in more countries than one, including Canada (also they want to include Mexico). This parallel world seems to have the same countries as our world. The only different thing (so far) is that some humans have superpowers and they're either villains or heroes. I wonder if superpowered individuals who are neither superheroes or villains does exist in that world. Like everyday normal humans (with superpowers) who just want to be left alone, without being involved in fights.
He really did look like a superhero, not like some guy in a costume. It was an important distinction. He wore body armor, dark blue with silver highlights, had a sharply angled v-shaped visor covering his eyes and nose. With only the lower half of his face exposed, I could see a beard trimmed to trace the edges of his jaw. If I had to judge, with only the lower half of his face to go by, I'd guess he was in his late twenties or early thirties.
His trademark and weapon was his Halberd, which was basically a spear with an axe head on the end, souped up with gadgets and the kind of technology you generally only saw in science fiction. He was the kind of guy who appeared on magazine covers and did interviews on TV, so you could find almost anything about Armsmaster through various media, short of his secret identity. I knew his weapon could cut through steel as though it was butter, that it had plasma injectors for stuff that the blade alone couldn't cut and that he could fire off directed electromagnetic pulses to shut down forcefields and mechanical devices.
He indeed looks like a hero coming straight from SF movies. Or like Iron Man, with a lot of gadgets, a super-badass weapon, all screaming: I' m the walking and talking nightmare of every villains that are still breathing in this town. He also was polite and considerate enough to ask Taylor if she's gonna fight. Calm your man tits, Armsmaster, as long as you're not going to hurt her, she has no reasons to fight you. Neither she can, especially after the fight with Lung who exhaust her and almost got her killed.
Stepping closer to me, he tilted his head, "You don't look like one."
That stung, especially coming from him. It was like Michael Jordan saying you sucked at basketball. "That's… not intentional," I responded, not a little defensively, "I was more than halfway done putting the costume together when I realized it was already looking more edgy than I'd intended, and I couldn't do anything about it by then." There was a long pause. Nervously, I turned my eyes from that opaque visor. I glanced at his chest emblem, a silhouette of his visor in blue against a silver background, and was struck with the ridiculous thought that I had once owned a pair of underpants with his emblem on the front.
"You're telling the truth," he said. It was a definitive statement, which startled me. I wanted to ask how he knew, but I wasn't about to do or say anything that might change his mind. He approached closer, looking me over as I sat there with my arms around my knees, he asked, "You need a hospital?" "No," I said. "Don't think so. I'm as surprised as you are." "You're a new face," he said.
Michael Jordan? They also have the same famous people as ours. Duplicates. I wonder if Jordan of their world is superpowered and what kind of superpower he would have: like jump 30.000 feet into the air and hit random planes with the ball for fun and giggles? Armsmaster is a bit judgemental, he quickly believes that she's a villain only because of her costume. He's judging after appearances. Don't like those kind of people. I mean, look at Batman, he's all dressed like he'd be a fucking supervillain, but he's the awesome vigilante we all know and love. Even Green Arrow. His costume is not exactly heroic type, but he has the heart of a hero. Armsmaster, not everyone should dress in white, blue and pink to be a freaking hero, understand? At least, he agreed with her, he has a way to tell if people are telling the truth or not, I see.
"I haven't even come up with a name yet. You know how hard it is to come up with a bug-themed name that doesn't make me sound like a supervillain or a complete dork?"
He chuckled, and it sounded warm, very normal, "I wouldn't know. I got into the game early enough that I didn't have to worry about missing out on all of the good names."
There was a pause in the conversation. I suddenly felt awkward. I don't know why, but I admitted to him, "I almost died." "That's why we have the Ward program," he said. There was no judgement in his tone, no pressure. Just a statement. I nodded, more to give a response than out of any agreement with the answer. The Wards were the under-eighteen subdivision of the Protectorate, and Brockton Bay did have its own team of Wards, with the same naming convention as the Protectorate; The Wards East-North-East. I had considered applying to join, but the notion of escaping the stresses of high school by flinging myself into a mess of teenage drama, adult oversight and schedules seemed self-defeating.
So Wards are the young heroes? They trust kids to do heroic jobs, I see. But it looks like Taylor doesn't want to be a Ward, because she's afraid that she'll meet the same bullies that made her school life an absolute hell. Even worse, bullies with superpowers. She doesn't want to repeat her unpleasant experience. I'm sure that there are bullies in Wards too because, even if those teenagers have superpowers, they're still humans FIRST, and they act with good and bad sides like every other non-powered humans. No difference. I agree with you, Taylor, you don't need more bullies in your life.
"You get Lung?" I asked, to change the subject from the Wards. I was pretty sure that he was obligated to try and induct new heroes into either the Protectorate or the Wards, depending on their age, to promote the whole agenda of organized heroes who are accountable for their actions, and I really didn't want him to get on my case about joining.
"Lung was unconscious, beaten and battered when I arrived. I pumped him full of tranquilizers to be safe and temporarily restrained him under a steel cage I welded to the sidewalk. I'll pick him up on my way back." "Good," I said, "With him in jail, I'll feel like I accomplished something today. Only reason I started the fight was because I overheard him telling his men to shoot some kids. Only realized later that he was talking about some other villains." Armsmaster turned to look at me. So I told him, walking him through the fight in general, the arrival of the teenage bad guys, and their general descriptions. Before I finished, he was pacing back and forth on the roof. "These guys. They knew I was coming?" I nodded, once. As much respect as I had for Armsmaster, I wasn't in much of a mood to repeat myself.
So, Lung was arrested by Armasmaster and he'll go to jail. I suppose they have a special jail, able to contain superpowered mutants. Like having collars around their necks that can block their powers. Or a microchip surgically implanted in their spine to stop them from trying to escape by generating terrible pain. Or maybe a very futuristic jail from where they can't escape because its walls are made in a way that their powers are useless against. Everything is possible when dealing with superhumans. Now Armsmaster and Taylor are talking about the 4 villains. Great, time to learn more about my favorite villains so far.
"That explains a lot," he said, staring off into the distance. After a few moments, he went on to explain, "They're slippery. On those few occasions we do manage to get in a toe to toe fight with them, they either win, or they get away more or less unscathed, or both. We know so little about them. Grue and Hellhound were working on their own before they joined the group, so there's some information there, but the other two? They're nonentities. If the girl Tattletale has some way of detecting or tracking us, it would go a long way towards explaining why they're doing as well as they are."
It kind of surprised me to hear one of the top level heroes admitting to being anything less than perfectly on top of things. "It's funny," I said, after a few moment's thought, "They didn't seem that hardcore. Grue said they were kind of panicking when they heard Lung was coming after them, and they were casually joking around while the fight was going on. Grue was making fun of Regent." "They said all this in front of you?" he asked. I shrugged, "I think they thought I was helping them out. The way Tattletale talked, I think she thought I was a bad guy too or something." With a touch of bitterness, I said, "Dunno, I guess it was the costume that led them to that assumption."
Hmm, Armsmaster knows about this group, maybe he was watching them for a while, besides he (and other heroes) got in few fights with them. They escaped, but they didn't killed any hero, otherwise Armsmaster would have mentioned this. So, they're not murderers. Awesome. I think Tattletale is their leader. She seems to be the most powerful in their group, she knows so many things about everyone and they seemed to listen her back when they're talking with Taylor. Yes, they're not hardcore at all. Bitch seems to be the most dangerous one, because of her creatures who fucked Lung up forever, but other 3...I wonder why they became villains because this lifestyle is clearly not suitable for them. Depends of circumstances, maybe they didn't have any other choices or they're forced to play as villains. By someone more or less evil than Lung.
"Could you have taken them in a fight?" Armsmaster asked me.
I started to shrug, and winced a little. I was feeling a little sore in the shoulder, where I'd tumbled on the roof after being blasted by Lung's flames. I said, "Like you said, we don't know a lot about them, but I think that girl with the dogs-" "Hellhound," Armsmaster said. "I think she could have kicked my ass on her own, so no. I probably couldn't have fought them." "Then count it as a good thing that they got the wrong impression," Armsmaster said.
"I'll try to look at it that way," I said, struck by how he easily he was able to employ the whole 'take a negative and turn it into a positive' mindset I'd been trying to maintain. I envied that. "That a girl," he said, "And while we're looking forward, we need to decide where we go from here." My heart sank. I knew he was going to bring up the Wards again. "Who gets the credit for Lung?" Caught off guard, I looked up at him. I started to speak, but he held up his hand. "Hear me out. What you've done tonight is spectacular. You played a part in getting a major villain into custody. You just need to consider the consequences."
Maybe Taylor could fight against each one of them, at time, but NOT all of them together. They'd crush her. Tattletale would predict every of her moves, Bitch would make her monster dogs attack her, Grue would use his darkness powers (whatever they're) and Regent mind mind control her or whatever he's doing. Taylor won't stand any chance against them. Armsmaster gave Taylor more confidence in herself by telling her that she did a great job. Nice, Armsmaster, thank you for encouraging her, she really needs to hear some good words from someone else who is not her father (her mother). Armsmaster, so far, seems like a super-serious, hardworking guy, but also very fair when it comes to express himself in front of other people. A bit judgemental, but let this be his only flaw and it will be perfect.
"Consequences," I muttered, even as the word spectacular rang in my ears.
"Lung has an extensive gang throughout Brockton Bay and neighboring cities. More than that, he has two superpowered flunkies. Oni Lee and Bakuda." I shook my head, "I know about Oni Lee, and Grue mentioned fighting him. I've never heard of Bakuda." Armsmaster nodded, "Not surprising. She's new. What we know about her is limited. She made her first appearance and demonstration of her powers by way of a drawn out terrorism campaign against Cornell University. Lung apparently recruited her and brought her to Brockton Bay after her plans were foiled by the New York Protectorate. This is… something of a concern."
Oni Lee is a fucking coward, nobody should be afraid of him anymore. Bakuda is a terrorist, and she's a woman...in a group called Azn Bad Boys (at least they aren't sexist). This seems like a japanese name and I googled it and I discovered that "bakudan" means "bombs". Great, a terrorist who either builds bombs or force people to become suicidal bombers. She's also a Tinker, it looks like (I think Tinkers are like Sparks in Girl Genius webcomic, super-scientists who can manipulate science in a way that it allows them to invent/build anything they put their mind into. For everyone who's interested in Girl Genius Online Comics I recommend reading it. Its one of the best webcomics involving science, adventure, romance and lots of clusterfuck and it deserves more readers. Give it a chance and maybe you won't regret it).
I started to shrug, but remembered my sore shoulder and nodded instead. It was probably more polite, too. I said, "Covers anyone with powers that give them an advanced grasp of science. Lets them make technology years ahead of its time. Ray guns, ice blasters, mechanized suits of armor, advanced computers."
"Close enough," Armsmaster said. It struck me he would be a Tinker, if his Halberd and armor were any indication. That, or he got his stuff from someone else. He elaborated, "Well, most Tinkers have a specialty or a special trick. Something they're particualrly good at or something that they can do, which other Tinkers can't. Bakuda's specialty is bombs." I stared at him. A woman with a power that let her make bombs that were technologically decades ahead of their time. No wonder he saw it as a concern.
"Now I want you to consider the danger involved in taking the credit for Lung's capture. Without a doubt, Oni Lee and Bakuda will be looking to accomplish two goals. Freeing their boss and getting vengeance on the one responsible. I suspect you're now aware… these are scary people. Scarier in some ways than their boss." "You're saying I shouldn't take the credit," I said. "I'm saying you have two options. Option one is to join the Wards, where you'll have support and protection in the event of an altercation. Option two is to keep your head down. Don't take the credit. Fly under the radar."
So, Tinkers are Worm-verse Sparks. I got it. Armsmaster seems to be a Tinker himself, if he was the one who build his armor, gadgets and weapon. Besides, he seems like a pretty smart guy so its possible for him to be a Tinker. Bakuda would be GREAT as an ISIS member. She'd even make a scary ISIS leader, but I know that patriarchal ISIS would never agree to have a woman leader, no matter how badass she's. I wonder if there's an ISIS and Al-Qaida in that world. Imagine them as being FREAKING LIVING nightmares if they have superpowers, besides their already established terrorist fanaticism and thirst for spilled innocent blood "shudders".
I wasn't prepared to make a decision like that. Usually, I went to sleep at eleven or so, waking up at six thirty to get ready for my morning run. At my best guess, it was somewhere between one and two in the morning. I was emotionally exhausted from the highs and lows of the evening, and I could barely wrap my head around the complications and headaches that would come from joining the Wards, let alone having two insanely dangerous sociopaths coming after me.
On top of that, I wasn't so ignorant as to miss Armsmaster's motives. If I opted to not take the credit for Lung's capture, Armsmaster would, I was sure. I didn't want to get on the bad side of a major player.
"Please keep my involvement in Lung's capture secret," I told him, painfully disappointed to have to say it, even as I knew it made the most sense. He smiled, which I hadn't expected. He had a nice smile. It made me think that he could win the hearts of a lot of women, whatever the top two-thirds of his face looked like. "I think you'll look back and see this was a smart decision," Armsmaster said, turning to walk to the other end of the roof, "Call me at the PHQ if you're ever in a pinch." He stepped off the edge of the roof and dropped out of sight. Call me if you're ever in a pinch. He'd been saying, without openly admitting, that he owed me one. He would take the lion's share of the credit for Lung's capture, but he owed me one. Before I was all the way down the fire escape, I heard the thrum of his motorcycle, presumably carrying Lung towards a life of confinement. I could hope. It would take me a half hour to get home. On the way, I would stop and pull on the sweatshirt and jeans I had hidden. I knew my dad went to sleep even earlier than I did, and he slept like a log, so I had nothing to worry about as far as wrapping up the night. It could have gone worse. Strange as it sounds, those words were a security blanket I wrapped around myself to keep myself from dwelling on the fact that tomorrow was a school day.
Good choice, Taylor, let this experienced hero takes the credit for Lung, not you. I know its not fair, you're the one who caught him, but you can't risk to have A MAD SCIENTIST TERRORIST and A COWARDLY TELEPORTER BOTH coming after you and try to kill you. Experienced heroes know better how to handle this shit; all you have to do, as Armsmaster said, is to fly under the radar and stop doing heroic things for a while until those two will get arrested as well. Oh man, this story becomes more exciting with every chapter, I hope Lung will never escape because, if he'll see Taylor again walking at night in her costume, he'll remember her and fuck her up once for all. She might not have the same luck she had during the first fight.
Can't wait to read the next chapter. Until then, bye, my friends
You know what? I'm very curious about this girl "Bitch". Judging by how she calls herself, the fact that she never said a word when her buddies talked with Taylor, how she can control the dogs and her simple but thematic costume, I think she's not exactly a social person, she seems more like an antisocial person than anything else. One who barely talks. A part feral kid kind of. I was always fascinated by antisocial and feral individuals. I think she'd be a character that I'd have pleasure to read/study about.
Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Are you ready for a new review? Here you go then 1.x (Interlude) | Worm This chapter is obviously an Interlude. So, there's not a normal chapter, like Wildbow got me used to. Maybe the point of view will switch and we're going to see other character's point of view, not Taylors. I wonder WHO!!! I'm thinking about the 4 villains, maybe I'll find more about them than the few scraps of informations that I have so far. Btw, I know that I said that I don't like spoilers, but I really want now to know if the 4 villains have a name, as a group. Cause is a little tiring and undignified to keep calling them: the 4 villains. So, can you tell me their group name? Pretty please? Thank you.
"We don't know how long he had been there. Suspended in the air above the Atlantic Ocean. On May twentieth, 1982, an ocean liner was crossing from Plymouth to Boston when a passenger spotted him. He was naked, his arms to his sides, his long hair blowing in the wind as he stood in the sky, nearly a hundred feet above the gently cresting waves. His skin and hair can only be described as a burnished gold. With neither body hair nor clothes to cover him, it is said, he seemed almost artificial.
"After a discussion including passenger and crew, the liner detoured to get closer. It was a sunny day, and passengers crowded to the railings to get a better look. As if sharing their curiosity, the figure drew closer as well. His expression was unchanging, but witnesses at the scene reported that he appeared deeply sad.
"'I thought he was going to crack his facade and cry any moment', said Grace Lands, 'But when I reached out and touched his fingertips, I was the one who burst into tears.' "'That boat trip was a final journey for me. I had cancer, and I wasn't brave enough to face it. Can't believe I'm admitting this in front of a camera, but I was going back to Boston, where I was born, to end things myself. After I met him, I changed my mind. Didn't matter anyways. I went to a doctor, and he said there was no sign I ever had the disease.'
Screw the 4 villains's point of view, screw Armasmaster's point of view, screw Taylor's parents' point of views, we're going to read this Interlude from the point of view of a....FREAKING FLYING PERSONIFIED OSCAR PRIZE!!! How cool is that??? I mean, HOW COOL IS THAT?!? OMG, so this Oscar Prize flies, heals cancer with a single touch and make them super-emotional. All while looking majestically in all his shameless nakedness. Ok, this is a thing...He's clearly not a human, or at least not a normal human. He's either an alien or a mutant who can change his skin color, in the same manner Lung can turn into a dragon.
"'My brother, Andrew Hawke, was the last passenger to make any sort of contact with him, I remember. He climbed up onto the railing, and, almost falling off, he clasped the hand of the golden man. The rest of us had to grab onto him to keep him from falling. Whatever happened left him with a quiet awe. When the man with the golden skin flew away, my brother stayed silent. The rest of the way to Boston, my brother didn't say a word. When we docked, and the spell finally broke, my brother babbled his excitement to reporters like a child.'
"The golden man would reappear several more times in the coming months and years. At some point, he donned clothing. At first, a sheet worn over one shoulder and pinned at either side of the waist, then more conventional clothes. In 1999, he donned the white bodysuit he still wears today. For more than a decade, we have wondered, where did our golden man get these things? Who was he in contact with?
"Periodically at first, then with an increasing frequency, the golden man started to intervene in times of crisis. For events as small as a car accident, as great as natural disasters, he has arrived and used his abilities to save us. A flash of light to freeze water reinforcing a levee stressed by a hurricane. A terrorist act averted. A serial murderer caught. A volcano quelled. Miracles, it was said."
Whatever he's, he has a looooooooong list of superpowers. He can fly, heal, prevent disasters, light based powers, summon clothes (that's a really useful power and I'm deadly serious about), I can compare him with Superman. But Superman didn't appeared on earth out of blue, while he was already a grow up man. He was a kryptonian raised by human parents even since he was a baby. An alien who learned to love humans and help and protect them. On the other side, this Oscar dude barely arrived on earth (if he's an alien, that's it) and started helping people without any reason at all. Maybe he's a superpowered human and he decided to help others when he discovered his powers. But why he was naked at first? If he was a human, then he had to know that humans just don't walk around (or rather fly around) completely naked. Weird indeed.
"His pace increased, perhaps because he was still learning what he could do, perhaps because he was getting a greater sense of where he was needed. By the middle of the 1990s, he was traveling from crisis to crisis, flying faster than the speed of sound. In fifteen years, he has not rested.
"He has been known to speak just once in thirty years. After extinguishing widespread fire in Alexandrovsk, he paused to survey the scene and be sure no blazes remained. A reporter spoke to him, and asked, 'Kto vy?' – what are you? "Shocking the world, caught on camera in a scene replayed innumerable times, he answered in a voice that sounded as though it might never have uttered a sound before. Barely audible, he told her, 'Scion'. "It became the name we used for him. Ironic, because we took a word that meant descendant, and used it to name the first of many superpowered individuals – parahumans – to appear across Earth. "Just five years after Scion's first appearance, the superheroes emerged from the cover of rumor and secrecy to show themselves to the public. Though the villains followed soon after, it was the heroes who shattered any illusions of the parahumans being divine figures. In 1989, attempting to quell a riot over a basketball game in Michigan, the superhero known to the public as Vikare stepped in, only to be clubbed over the head. He died not long after of a brain embolism. Later, he would be revealed to be Andrew Hawke.
He's CLEARLY AN ALIEN. He never rested in fifteen yeas as he continued to save people and do "miracles". This...Scion (at least we have a name for him now and it sound like a name for a freaking God) was the one who GAVE POWERS to people. Andrew Hawke (Rest in Peace, man, you did your best) was in contact with Scion and he got superpowers. So Scion created those...parahumans (they're not mutants, they got powers from an alien). But...why? Why Scion cared so much for humans in order to keep saving them and empower them? This is something very suspicious about Scion. I mean, he can't be like Superman. Superman cared for humans because he was raised among them, while Scion doesn't seem to have anything human in him (except for his appearance), his behavior is very alien like and he was able to barely said a word in so many years. You know what? I DON'T TRUST SCION. Now at all, there's something rotten about him. Maybe I'm wrong but this is my opinion.
"The golden age of the parahumans was thus short lived. They were not the deific figures they had appeared to be. Parahumans were, after all, people with powers, and people are flawed at their core. Government agencies took a firmer hand, and state-"
The television flicked off, and the screen went black, cutting the documentary off mid sentence. Danny Hebert sighed and sat down on the bed, only to stand just a moment later and resume pacing. It was three fifteen in the morning, and his daughter Taylor was not in her bedroom.
You know what? I have a crazy theory about why Scion empowered humans. Maybe his species was destroyed by a more powerful/advanced alien species and he flew away and found this parallel Earth and decided to create parahumans in order to have them help him in the future to fight against his enemies. Maybe he's going to use the parahumans, once they're entirely "trained" according to his wishes. He helps people only because he wants to trick them into believing that he's their protector and to convince them more easy to fight along with him when his foes will find this parallel Earth as well. He's not helping people. He's USING people. What if Scion will prove to be the ultimate villain? Like, after people will help him into defeating his foes, he can take their powers afterwards then have them killed and keep this Earth for himself as his new planet. I know you're laughing your ass off at my crazy (and probably too far-stretched) theories, but I believe what I want to believe. Until the author will prove me otherwise, okay?
And now we have a new point of view. Taylor's dad. Hello, mr Hebert, what's up? Worried for your heroic daughter, eh?
Danny ran his hands through his hair, which was thinned enough at the top to be closer to baldness than not. He liked to be the first to arrive at work, watching everyone arrive, having them know he was there for them. So he usually went to bed early; he'd turn in at ten in the evening, give or take depending on what was on TV. Only tonight, a little past midnight, he'd been disturbed from restless sleep when he had felt rather than heard the shutting of the back door of the house, just below his bedroom. He had checked on his daughter, and he'd found her room empty.
Countless times, he had glanced out the window, hoping to see Taylor coming in. For the twentieth time, he felt the urge to ask his wife for help, for advice, for support. But her side of the bed was empty and it had been for some time. Daily, it seemed, he was struck by the urge to call her cell phone. He knew it was stupid – she wouldn't pick up – and if he dwelt on that for too long, he became angry at her, which just made him feel worse. He wondered, even as he knew the answer, why he hadn't gotten Taylor a cell phone. Danny didn't know what his daughter was doing, what would drive her to go out at night. She wasn't the type. He could tell himself that most fathers felt that way about their daughters, but at the same time, he knew. Taylor wasn't social. She didn't go to parties, she wouldn't drink, she wasn't even that interested in champagne when they celebrated the New Year together.
Poor Danny, he's so worried about his very introverted and a bit anti-social daughter "hugs Danny". I pity him, poor man. He cares so much for her well being, he can't even rest without knowing her at home, in safety. As for Taylor's mother, she's absent. They're either divorced, they're separated or WORSE...she's dead "hugs both Danny and Taylor". Its sad, no matter what happened to her mother, more reasons for Taylor to feel alone and abandoned. But she still has her caring father, which is a great thing, yes?
Two ominous possibilities kept nagging at him, both too believable. The first was that Taylor had gone out for fresh air, or even for a run. She wasn't happy, especially at school, he knew, and exercise was her way of working through it. He could see her doing it on a Sunday night, with a fresh week at school looming. He liked that her running made her feel better about herself, that she seemed to be doing it in a reasonable, healthy way. He just hated that she had to do it here, in this neighborhood. Because here, a skinny girl in her mid-teens was an easy target for attack. A mugging or worse – he couldn't even articulate the worst of the possibilities in his own thoughts without feeling physically sick. If she had gone out at eleven in the evening for a run and hadn't come back by three in the morning, then it meant something had happened.
He glanced out the window again, at that corner of the house where the pool of illumination beneath the streetlight would let him see her approaching. Nothing.
The second possibility wasn't much better. He knew Taylor was being bullied. Danny had found that out in January, when his little girl had been pulled out of school and taken to the hospital. Not the emergency room, but the psychiatric ward. She wouldn't say by whom, but under the influence of the drugs they had given her to calm down, she had admitted she was being victimized by bullies, using the plural to give him a clue that it was a they and not a he or a she. She hadn't mentioned it – the incident or the bullying – since. If he pushed, she only tensed up and grew more withdrawn. He had resigned himself to letting her reveal the details in her own time, but months had passed without any hints or clues being offered.
Ok, now I have tears in my eyes. I'm serious about, this is sadder with each paragraph. The first chapter who made me cry (I'm not ashamed to admit, I'm never ashamed of my emotions. Emotions are very human like after all. People who said that they're ashamed of their emotions, because they feel weak, are unskilled liars. They're the most emotional ones, they only try uselessly to hide this). Danny knows about the bullying but he can't do any shit because Taylor doesn't communicate with him. She either doesn't know how or she's too afraid (maybe because of his possible reactions against the bullies) to do it. She was so bad bullied, once, that she went through a trauma for a while. More than ever, the Trio Bitches who bullied her DESERVE TO DIE A SLOW, PAINFUL DEATH. I'll smile happily if I'll see them getting killed in one chapter, and when I say something, I keep my word (besides I have a dark, sadistic streak in me). No mercy for them.
There was precious little Danny could do on the subject, either. He had threatened to sue the school after his daughter had been taken to the hospital, and the school board had responded by settling, paying her hospital bills and promising they would look out for her to prevent such events from occurring in the future. It was a feeble promise made by a chronically overworked staff and it didn't do a thing to ease his worries. His efforts to have her change schools had been stubbornly countered with rules and regulations about the maximum travel times a student was allowed to have between home and a given school. The only other school within a reasonable distance of Taylor's place of residence was Arcadia High, and it was already desperately overcrowded with more than two hundred students on a list requesting admittance.
With all that in mind, when his daughter disappeared until the middle of the night, he couldn't shake the idea that the bullies might have lured her out with blackmail, threats or empty promises. He only knew about the one incident, the one that had landed her in the hospital, but it had been grotesque. It had been implied, but never elaborated on, that more had been going on. He could imagine these boys or girls that were tormenting his daughter, egging one another on as they came up with more creative ways to humiliate or harm her. Taylor hadn't said as much aloud, but whatever had been going on had been mean, persistent and threatening enough that Emma, Taylor's closest friend for years, had stopped spending time with her. It galled him.
Emma is a monster who deserve to be psychological tortured (every fucking day) until she'll completely lose her mind FOREVER and become a vegetable for the rest of her life (to see how it is to bully someone).
Fucking disgusting inhumane bitch (I still feel sorry for her parents but maybe they're exactly like her in terms of personality). I bet that Madison was the mastermind behind that grotesque bullying that put Taylor in the hospital. Poor Danny, poor Taylor "hugs them both, while wiping away few fresh tears and thinking at various tortures that those bitches should go through".
Impotent. Danny was helpless where it counted. There was no action he could take – his one call to the police at two in the morning had only earned him a tired explanation that the police couldn't act or look for her without something more to go on. If his daughter was still gone after twelve hours, he'd been told, he should call them again. All he could do was wait and pray with his heart in his throat that the phone wouldn't ring, a police officer or nurse on the other end ready to tell him what had happened to his daughter.
The slightest of vibrations in the house marked the escape of the warm air in the house to the cold outdoors, and there was a muffled whoosh as the kitchen door shut again. Danny Hebert felt a thrill of relief coupled with abject fear. If he went downstairs to find his daughter, would he find her hurting or hurt? Or would his presence make things worse, her own father seeing her at her most vulnerable after humiliation at the hands of bullies? She had told him, in every way except articulating it aloud, that she didn't want that. She had pleaded with him, with body language and averted eye contact, unfinished sentences and things left unsaid, not to ask, not to push, not to see, when it came to the bullying. He couldn't say why, exactly. Home was an escape from that, he'd suspected, and if he recognized the bullying, made it a reality here, maybe she wouldn't have that relief from it. Perhaps it was shame, that his daughter didn't want him to see her like that, didn't want to be that weak in front of him. He really hoped that wasn't the case. So he ran his fingers through his hair once more and sat down on the corner of the bed, elbows on his knees, hands on his head, and stared at his closed bedroom door. His ears were peeled for the slightest clue. The house was old, and it hadn't been a high quality building when it had been new, so the walls were thin and the structure prone to making noise at every opportunity. There was the faintest sound of a door closing downstairs. The bathroom? It wouldn't be the basement door, with no reason for her to go down there, and he couldn't imagine it was a closet, because after two or three minutes, the same door opened and closed again.
At least she returned home after such a long night. I think she's convinced that her father is sleeping now. She doesn't know the pain that the poor man is going through at that hour, his impotence to help her, to protect his dearest daughter against those monsters. If she'd have known all of this, maybe she'd give him a sign that she's at least ok. My heart cries for the suffering of this poor parent.
After something banged on the kitchen counter, there was little but the occasional groan of floorboards. Five or ten minutes after she had come in, there was the rhythmic creak of the stairs as she ascended. Danny thought about clearing his throat to let her know he was awake and available should she knock on his door, but decided against it. He was being cowardly, he thought, as if his clearing of his throat would give reality to his fears.
Her door shut carefully, almost inaudibly, with the slightest tap of door on doorframe. Danny stood, abruptly, opening his door, ready to cross the hall and knock on her door. To verify that his daughter was okay. He was stopped by the smell of jam and toast. She had made a late night snack. It filled him with relief. He couldn't imagine his daughter, after being mugged, tormented or humiliated, coming home to have toast with jam as a snack. Taylor was okay, or at least, okay enough to be left alone. Relief became anger. He was angry at Taylor, for making him worry, and then not even going out of her way to let him know she was okay. He felt a smouldering resentment towards the city, for having neighborhoods and people he couldn't trust his daughter to. He hated the bullies that preyed on his daughter. Underlying it all was frustration with himself. Danny Hebert was the one person he could control in all of this, and Danny Hebert had failed to do anything that mattered. He hadn't gotten answers, hadn't stopped the bullies, hadn't protected his daughter. Worst of all was the idea that this might have happened before, with him simply sleeping through it rather than laying awake.
This poor parent is full of anger...and impotence...and hate...and frustration, all those negative feelings are torturing him every day and every night. He can't do anything against bullies, he's angry and frustrated over his impotence, towards people who're hurting his daughter, towards the whole city for being so attractive and cool at its surface but so rotten and miserable at its core. He's impotent and filled with hate and desperation and Taylor is incapable of talking to him and be opened about her problems and both these people, father and daughter, are so beautifully flawed and so flawlessly imperfect.
He stopped himself from walking into his daughter's room, from shouting at her and demanding answers, even if it was what he wanted, more than anything. Where had she been, what had she been doing? Was she hurt? Who were these people that were tormenting her? He knew that by confronting her and getting angry at her, he would do more harm than good, would threaten to sever any bond of trust they had forged between them.
Danny's father had been a powerful, heavyset man, and Danny hadn't gotten any of those genes. Danny had been a nerd when the term was still young in popular culture, stick thin, awkward, short sighted, glasses, bad fashion sense. What he had inherited was his father's famous temper. It was quick to rise and startling in its intensity. Unlike his father, Danny had only ever hit someone in anger twice, both times when he was much younger. That said, just like his father, he could and would go off on tirades that would leave people shaking. Danny had long viewed the moment he'd started to see himself as a man, an adult, to be the point in time where he had sworn to himself that he wouldn't ever lose his temper with his family. He wouldn't pass that on to his child the way his father had to him.
He had never broken that oath with Taylor, and knowing that was what kept him contained in his room, pacing back and forth, red in the face and wanting to punch something. While he'd never gotten angry at her, never screamed at her, he knew Taylor had seen him angry. Once, he had been at work, talking to a mayor's aide. The man had told Danny that the revival projects for the Docks were being cancelled and that, contrary to promises, there were to be layoffs rather than new jobs for the already beleaguered Dockworkers. Taylor had been spending the morning in his office on the promise that they would go out for the afternoon, and had been in a position to see him fly off the handle in the worst way with the man. Four years ago, he had lost his temper with Annette for the first time, breaking his oath to himself. That had been the last time he had seen her. Taylor hadn't been there to see him shouting at her mother, but he was fairly certain she'd heard some of it. It shamed him.
Taylor's grandfather was a violent and impulsive man. Taylor's father is an angry and temperamental man, but at least he can control his aggressiveness. Or at least, he's trying his best. Now I understand why his wife left him, he was violent towards her and she was, understandable, afraid of him. Maybe she didn't completely abandoned her family, maybe she's seeing Taylor at times, when Danny is not in their near vicinity. I'll not judge (neither condemn or congratulate) Annette until I'll find more about her relationship with her daughter and her real reasons for leaving her family.
The third and last time that he had lost his temper where Taylor had been in a position to know had been when she had been hospitalized following the incident in January. He'd screamed at the school's principal, who had deserved it, and at Taylor's then-Biology teacher, who probably hadn't. It had been bad enough that a nurse had threatened to call for a police officer, and Danny, barely mollified, had stomped from the hallway to the hospital room to find his daughter more or less conscious and wide eyed in reaction. Danny harbored a deep fear that the reason Taylor hadn't offered any details on the bullying was out of fear he would, in blind rage, do something about it. It made him feel sick, the notion that he might have contributed something to his daughter's self imposed isolation in how she was dealing with her problems.
It took Danny a long time to calm down, helped by telling himself over and over that Taylor was okay, that she was home, that she was safe. It was something of a blessing that, as the anger faded, he felt drained. He climbed into the left side of the bed, leaving the right side empty out of a habit he'd yet to break, and pulled the covers up around himself. He would talk to Taylor in the morning. Get an answer of some sort. He dreamed of the ocean.
Yes, she's afraid that he might kill those bitches for bullying her and went to jail if she'll ever tell him about her problems. She cares for her father in her own way. Danny is such a difficult man to go along, very flawed and even dangerous (if he's pissed enough on someone) but in the same time, he's a GREAT father, he's doing his best for his daughter, he knows his flaws and is trying his hardest to control them, all in all, he's a very realistic character that I'm fascinated with, I suffer for him, I CARE for him, and I wish for him and his daughter to get closest in the future. Good night, Danny, and sleep well.
Good night everyone, and thank you for reading this review.
Oh, blackarrow, this is very important to remember going forward
NARRATOR BIAS
or, unreliable narrator.
This applies here a lot, so while Taylor's descriptions and impressions of people are accurate in some cases, other times... not so much
The black/white morality thing also gets messed with throughout the entire story, so look out for that.
Now, an important part of hero (and villan) teams is power combinations.
So imagine a person that can create disposable clones with all of their gear, suited up with bombs from a bomb tinker.
Taylor is not very easy to deal with either. She's introverted, gloomy (as she described herself in the first chapter) she doesn't even communicate with her father, she keeps everything for herself, she suffers in silence and thinks that she doesn't need anyone to know about (and help her with) her problems. This story seems to contain plenty characters that are not very easy to deal with in real life. Yet, they're beautiful and interesting in all their flawed behavior.
Oh, blackarrow, this is very important to remember going forward
NARRATOR BIAS
or, unreliable narrator.
This applies here a lot, so while Taylor's descriptions and impressions of people are accurate in some cases, other times... not so much
The black/white morality thing also gets messed with throughout the entire story, so look out for that.
Now, an important part of hero (and villan) teams is power combinations.
So imagine a person that can create disposable clones with all of their gear, suited up with bombs from a bomb tinker.
Well, I agree with you here. Every person in the world (fictional or not) might have their own point of views and preferences, different from each other. For example, while I like (so far) characters like Taylor, Danny and the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse (I'd love this kind of group name for the 4 villains lol), other people might not like the same characters as me and love characters that I absolute hate instead, like Emma and Madison. Everyone with their opinions, after all, and even fictional characters have their own opinions. Taylor might not trust Wards but there are people who would love to become one of them. Armsmaster might think about the group of four that they're despicable villains but maybe they have their own reasons to do what they're doing and other people might appreciate/admire them and so on...
I got it that Oni Lee and Bakura are dangerous if they work together (I'm also sure that Bakuda is dangerous even if she works all alone) that's the reason why I was so glad that Taylor agreed with Armsmaster to give him full credit for Lung.
Taylor is not very easy to deal with either. She's introverted, gloomy (as she described herself in the first chapter) she doesn't even communicate with her father, she keeps everything for herself, she suffers in silence and thinks that she doesn't need anyone to know about (and help her with) her problems. This story seems to contain plenty characters that are not very easy to deal with in real life. Yet, they're beautiful and interesting in all their flawed behavior.
his from the guy who says Taylor is a fuckup and that she steals credit for bitch's victories. Taylor makes mistakes and good calls, and carries virtues and sins throughout the series.
I fail to see how the fact that I have opinions contradict the idea that other people should be left to form their own opinions. Or how the fuck you think it's a good idea to make posts with semi-spoiler information in them.
Hello, my friends, time for a new review. I just noticed that I finished the first Arc and I'm going to start the next one, RIGHT NOW. Its called Insinuation and I have no idea what its all about. Maybe someone will insinuate something that is very important to the plot, this is all I can think for moment. I have to tell you something: after I'll finish Worm, I'll make a list with how much I like each Arc starting with the Arcs I like the most and finishing with the ones I dislike the most. I'll also explain the motivations about why I like more or less a certain Arc. Hope nobody minds. If you don't like, you don't have to read my stupid thoughts, after all. Everyone is free to do as they please. But right now, I'm not going to tell if I liked the first Arc or not (I'll do the same with every other Arc). But I took care to write somewhere my thoughts about it, so I won't forget when I'll reach the very end. Surprise, surprise. Alright, let's start with 2.01 | Worm
I woke to the muffled sound of the radio in the bathroom. Reaching over to my alarm clock, I turned it around. 6:28. Which made today a weekday like any other. My alarm was set for six thirty, but I almost never needed it, because my dad was always in the shower at the same time. Routines defined us.
As a wave of fatigue swept over me, I wondered if I might be sick. It took me a few moments of staring up at the ceiling to remember the events of last night. Small wonder I was tired. I had gotten home, snuck inside and gone to bed at close to three thirty, just three hours ago. With all that had happened, I hadn't slept those full three hours, either.
I forced myself out of bed. As a slave to my routine, it would be wrong to do otherwise. I made myself change into sweats and walk down to the kitchen sink to wash my face, fighting to keep awake. I was sitting at the kitchen table, pulling on my sneakers, when my dad came downstairs in his bathrobe. My dad is not what you'd call an attractive man. Beanpole thin, weak chin, thinning dark hair that was on the cusp of baldness, big eyes and glasses that magnified those eyes further. As he entered the kitchen, he looked surprised to see me there. That's just the way my dad always looked: constantly bewildered. That, and a little defeated.
Time for a new day of the rest of Taylor's life. Just joking, she's very young, she's in great shape, she's a strong little lady, she has all her life nicely growing right before her eyes. Yes, I agree with Taylor about us being slaves of our routine. I personally will never feel entirely good if I'll not do things that I got used to do each freaking day, for example like listening music, talking with my cyberfriends on social websites (or real friends face to face) or (something still new that I already fell in love with) writing Worm's more or less non-sense reviews. Back to the story, maybe she'll start to communicate better with her father and share with him all her hidden fears, emotional pain she's going through, because I'm sure that Danny is more than ready to offer her a listening ear and all the help he can. Just try it, Taylor, you won't regret it. You don't have to tell him something about your fight with Lung or the names of your bullies. Just talk, tell him what you think and how you feel and is enough for moment.
"Good morning, kiddo," he said, entering the kitchen and leaning down to kiss the crown of my head.
"Hey, dad." He was already stepping towards the fridge as I replied. He looked over his shoulder, "A little glum?" "Hunh?" "You sound down," he said. I shook my head, "Tired. I didn't sleep well." There was the slap of bacon hitting the frying pan. It was sizzling by the time he spoke, "You know, you could go back to bed, sleep in for another hour or so. You don't have to go on your run." I smiled. It was equal parts annoying and sweet, that my dad hated me running. He worried about my safety, and couldn't turn down a chance to drop hints that I should stop, or be safer, or join a gym. I wasn't sure if he'd worry more or less if I told him about my powers.
"You know I do, dad. If I don't go today, it'll be that much harder to make myself get up and do it tomorrow." "You've got the, uh…" "I've got the tube of pepper spray in my pocket," I said. He bobbed his head in acknowledgement. It was only moments later that I realized I didn't have it. The pepper spray was with my costume, in the coal chute in the basement. I felt a pang of guilt at realizing I'd lied to my dad.
She's tired (with 3 hours of sleep, who wouldn't be?), she still feels sore from the fight last night and she refuses to talk to her father, besides a dialogue about routine things "sighs". That's not good, that's not good at all. Maybe she's more opened to her mother, maybe she'll call Annette later, when her father is not around and maybe we'll get to know what kind of relationship she has with her mother. So many maybe(s).
"I'll get it," I said, heading to the fridge for the orange juice. While I was at the fridge, I also grabbed some applesauce. As I returned to the table, my dad slapped some french toast on the frying pan to join the bacon. The room filled with the aroma of the cooking food. I helped myself to the applesauce. "You know Gerry?" my dad asked. I shrugged. "You met him once or twice when you've visited me at work. Big guy, burly, Black Irish?" Shrugging again, I took a bite of french toast. My dad was part of the Dockworkers Association, as the Union spokesperson and head of hiring. With the state of the Docks being what they were, that meant my dad was pretty much in charge of telling everyone that there were no jobs to be had, day after day. "Rumor's going around he found work. Guess with who." "Dunno," I said, around a mouthful of food. "He's going to be one of Über and Leet's henchmen." I raised my eyebrows. Über and Leet were local villains with a video game theme. They were pretty much as incompetent as villains could be while staying out of jail. They barely even rated as B-list.
So, Danny is the Dockworkers Association's spokesman and head of hiring. He's a rather busy man, I might add. Ha ha ha, I love how they're sitting at the table, eating and talking about villains like this is the most normal thing to do for people in their world. Man, this world is so similar with us, yet so different. People are so used with parahumans, villains or heroes that they include them in their everyday discussions (in the same manner superheroes geeks like me love to babble any time they can about their fictional favorite heroes and villains lol. The difference is that, in our case everything is pure fiction. While in their case, is everyday reality). Uber and Leet have video game related superpowers. Maybe they can create video game items out of thin air or maybe they can teleport people straight into videogames (nope, this would be a very strong power and Taylor already suggested that they suck at being villains). Or maybe they're thinkers capable to invent video game items, but they're not very good at their job. Lol, now I want so much to see those idiots in action. I see them as funny incompetents.
"They going to make him wear a uniform? Bright primary colors, Tron style?"
My dad chuckled, "Probably." "We're supposed to talk about how the powers thing has influenced our lives in class today. Maybe I'll mention that." We ate in silence for a minute or two. "I heard you come in late last night," he said. I just gave him a small nod and took another bite of french toast, even as my heart rate tripled and my mind searched for excuses. "Like I said," I finally opened my mouth, looking down at my plate, "I just couldn't sleep. I couldn't get my thoughts to settle down. I got out of bed and tried pacing, but it didn't help, so I stepped outside and walked around the neighborhood." I wasn't totally lying. I'd had nights like that. Last night just hadn't been one of them, and I had gone walking around the neighborhood, even if it was in a different way than I'd implied.
"Christ, Taylor," my father answered, "This isn't the kind of area where you can walk around in the middle of the night." "I had the pepper spray," I protested, lamely. That wasn't a lie, at least. "What if you get caught off guard? What if the guy has a knife, or a gun?" my father asked.
Tron? They also have the same movies as ours? Great, just great. Danny tries to talk with Taylor about more than useless villains and their henchmen, but his daughter continues to be stubborn and gives him only half of answers. As usual. He's honestly worried about the fact that she might be hurt. Poor father, if only he knew about the fire powers that the guy whom she fought had, he'll flip his shit and go crazy with concern. Maybe even lock Taylor in her room overnight. Which won't be a bad idea lol. Just joking, but still, she could have died if the 4 Horsemen of Apocalypse wouldn't give her a helping...paw.
"What's going on, that has you so anxious you can't sleep?" he questioned me.
"School," I said, swallowing around a lump in my throat, "Friends, the lack thereof." "It's not better?" he asked, carefully stepping around the elephant in the room, the bullies. If it was, I wouldn't be having problems, would I? I just gave him a one shoulder shrug and forced myself to take another bite of french toast. My shoulder twinged a little as it made the bruises from last night felt. As much as I didn't feel like eating, I knew my stomach would be growling at me before lunch if I didn't. That was even without accounting for the energy I burned running, let alone the escapades of last night. When my dad realized I didn't have an answer for him, he resumed eating. He only had one bite before he put his fork down again with a clink on the plate. "No more going out in the middle of the night," he said, "Or I'm putting a bell on the doors."
He would, too. I just nodded and promised myself I would be more careful. When I had come in, I had been so tired and sore that I hadn't given any thought to the click of the door, the rattle of the lock or the creaks of floorboards that were older than me. "Okay," I said, adding, "I'm sorry." Even with that, I felt a twinge of guilt. My apology was sincere in feeling, but I was making it with the knowledge that I would probably do the same thing again. It felt wrong.
No detailed word about bullies, as usual. Well, at least she apologized to her father, which is a good start. She's either afraid that he might keep his promise about the bell on the doors, or she honestly feels sorry about lying her father and hiding so many things from him. She loves him, its easy to see that, but she's not brave, motivated and trustful enough to tell him everything. I understand her, I understand her perfectly. But I also feels sorry for Danny. Very, very sorry.
He gave me a smile that seemed almost like an unspoken 'I'm sorry too'.
"Going on your run?" "Yeah," I said, put my dishes in the beaten up old dishwasher and bent down to give my dad a hug on my way to the door. "Taylor, have you been smoking?" I shook my head. "Your hair is, uh, burnt. At the ends, there." I thought back to the previous night. Getting hit in the back by one of Lung's blasts of flame. Shrugging, I suggested, "Stove, maybe?" "Be safe," my dad said, emphasizing each word. I took that as my cue to go, heading out the side door and breaking into an all out run the moment I was past the chain link gate at the side of the house.
He's very observant. He noticed her burned hair and she had to lie again. More baby lies climbing up the already huge pile of lies "sighs". I wonder if she'll go and visit her mother or meet her while she's running. I wonder if she'll tell her mother the same lies. I wonder so many things and I can't wait to read the next chapter.
A thing I'll do in a short time, after I'll eat something. See you later.
