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

AmbarGriss · Apr 30, 2018

Armmaster, how the mighty have fallen, except you were never that mighty.

ExNihilo · Apr 30, 2018

AmbarGriss said:
Armmaster, how the mighty have fallen, except you were never that mighty.

Eh, Protectorate EastNorthEast is nothing to scoff at.

AmbarGriss · May 1, 2018

ExNihilo said:
Eh, Protectorate EastNorthEast is nothing to scoff at.

I'm talking about Armsy, not the Protectorate itself.

ExNihilo · May 1, 2018

AmbarGriss said:
I'm talking about Armsy, not the Protectorate itself.

He's the leader of...

He didn't get there by slacking off.

Prince Ire · May 1, 2018

And Armsmaster's arrogance and glory-seeking finally catch up with him. Its interesting to contrast him with Glory Girl, who is also arrogant but not nearly to the same extent. I can't see Glory Girl thinking she could take Leviathan in one on one combat and certainly not getting a bunch of people killed to ensure it happens.

And of course Vicky is a teenager while Colin's a grown man, so she's way more likely to simply outgrow some of her character flaws with time than he is.

blackarrow · May 1, 2018

Hi, non-arrogant heroes, villains and rogues, this is the right time for reviewing another chapter of this AWESOME Arc (the best one so far) 8.8 | Worm. So, Skitter was exposed by the man who acted, even from the beginning of this story, more like a villain than a hero (and not some kind of lovable villain or not even a villain that I'd love to hate, but a very insufferable and annoying and boring one) as an undercover agent, as expected Undersiders sans Tattletale felt betrayed and angry (I agree with their reactions, everyone would have reacted the same, maybe even worse) and Skitter ran away from the hospital (I'm still puzzled how Legend and Miss Militia allowed her to run away, without even trying to stop her. But maybe they're too busy with arresting Armmaster to care about anything else anymore). I'm sure that Skitter is feeling alone now, completely alone and abandoned by everyone. Maybe she'll go to her father, there's no other place for her to go right now. On the other side, Tattletale will convince the other Undersiders members to take Skitter back, because they can't do too much without her (and this is a true fact), she's the real powerhouse of the group, even more than Bitch. They need her, she needs them, they can't stay separated for a long time. Besides, there's the thing with Dinah, she should be saved whatever it takes, no matter the costs. I'm so mad knowing that a day spent without them trying to save her is another lost day for this child, going slowly but surely on a path that might lead her to the impossibility to ever recover mentally and physically from her captivity.

Maybe I'll sound stupid regarding to the parallels I'm making, but I feel like Dinah is the symbol of innocence in all its purity and if this innocence will be lost forever, being completely spotted by corruption and evilness, everything else will be lost in this story and there will be no hope left anymore for good people to win against the bad ones. Save Dinah- save the hope for a better future; destroy Dinah- destroy this hope. She's more like a symbol than an actual character. Or at least this is how I interpret her role in the story.

How was a city like Brockton Bay supposed to pay its respects to all the heroes, villains and miscellaneous others that died to protect it? Until about five years ago, the answer had been a funeral.
It really hadn't worked out.
On the surface, it was a great idea, had made for an amazing scene. Grand speeches about great moments of true selflessness from even despicable villains, good guys doing the most heroic of sacrifices.
Except problems started to stack up. Could the people in charge of the event really let someone stand up and give a eulogy for someone like Kaiser? If they did, you earned the wrath of the dozens or hundreds of people who'd had their lives changed for the worse by Empire Eighty-Eight.
The uneasy solution had been to avoid saying anything about the local villains, beyond the fact that they had participated, but problems had stemmed from that, too. Subordinates or teammates of the fallen villains had made a scene over these omissions, sometimes during the funerals, and villain participation in Endbringer situations started to decline.
More issues came up, rooted in the reality that people who went out in costume were more theatrical or dramatic as a rule. Too many vying to take the spotlight, hero and villain alike, even some of the fallen, with measures or requests placed in advance. It didn't happen every time, but enough events became sideshows and media circuses that the whole purpose of the events was defeated. The media was banned from recording the event, but the capes who'd sought to stand out only tried harder. Fights had erupted.

So the funeral services became less frequent. Then they stopped altogether.
A memorial was simpler. All who had joined the fight could be treated equally. There could be no snubs, really, nor could there be insults, dramatic oaths, taunts or speaking ill of dead rivals and nemeses before cameras or audiences of capes. It was simply a dedication to the dead, a list of names, sometimes with a statue, if the groups involved could decide on something that didn't too closely resemble a particular hero or villain. Ever a difficult, delicate balancing act.
Brockton Bay's memorial had no statue. It seemed to be black marble with stainless steel in the core of the monument, so that the etched letters stood out in a metal gleam, even reflecting the sun's light if the time and viewer's position was right. The overall shape formed an obelisk, with the corners and base unpolished and rough, only the four sides smoothed and polished. It was out of the way, placed atop Captain's Hill, at the base of the mountains to the west of the city. I wasn't sure if it was put there to stay or if they intended to move it after reconstruction and city revival efforts.

Ok, while Taylor is visiting the Memorial built for all people who died during the Leviathan Battle (I wonder how much time passed between the hospital scene and the Memorial visit. Maybe few weeks?) I want to talk a bit more about Armmaster (until this guy will not get his arm back, I won't stop calling him like this

) because despite being an absolute JERKASS, he's also one of the most interesting characters in the entire story and I have a feeling that the hospital scene was not the last time when I saw him, he'll appear again, in the future. Surely he'll not be send to Birdcage, nobody will risk for mass media to find out about what he did during the battle and create a public outrage. He'll be send to another city, in great secret, and Miss Militia will take his position as the head of the BB Protectorate. I'm angry because a person who killed someone accidentally was send to Birdcage while another person who killed/put lives in danger on purpose will be almost free like a bird but life is "wonderful" like this

. Anyway, I wonder if Colin is someone able to CHANGE, to learn from his mistakes (most evil deeds than actual mistakes) to grow up and become a better person. I'm not sure if he can do that, if he'll ever do that, I don't have faith in him. I want so much to give him another chance, to trust this man that he's not so bad like he seems to be, but...I can't, I didn't saw anything at him that might give me hope, he doesn't even seem to have regrets over what he did, he still believes that he did what it was necessary. I usually believe in second chance, even if I'm suspicious regarding most people, but Colin....I don't feel like he deserves a second chance. I don't know, I feel sorry for him, for his wasted potential- he could have been such a GREAT hero, but instead he not only destroyed this expectation from him but he also destroyed himself only because he wanted- more than doing his job as a hero and protecting people, more than anything else- fame and glory. Maybe his power messed somehow with his brains, forcing him to act and think like an emotionless cyborg, but this is NOT an excuse. The brains are still his, they don't belong to his power, not his power rules over him, but he rules over his power, he controls it and he decides what to do with it. Rachel's power also messed with her brains, yet she's fully capable to do great sacrifices for someone else. Colin..."sighhhhhhhhhhhs" alright, I'm going to give him another chance. If he'll change in the future, even a bit, I'm ready to forgive him and trust that he have the potential to become a better man. If not, then fuck him FOREVER. Colin, watch out, man, I'm keeping an eye on you. Everytime when you'll make another appearance.

Even with the memorial being out of the way, set down in place five days after the attack, it had taken a full week before the worst of the crowds were gone.
Four times, I'd felt compelled to come see it and pay my respects, only to see the press of people and turn back.
Now I was here, along with a little less than a hundred people, only a small fraction of whom were actually viewing the obelisk. Others sat on the hill or picnicked. As strange and vaguely inappropriate as it seemed, I couldn't really blame them. The memorial had been put here, specifically, because the rest of the city had been devastated.
In any given area of Brockton Bay, there was flooding, shattered streets, collapsed buildings, septic conditions or ongoing reconstruction. Often three or four of those things at once. More than half of the city was without power, two thirds had no running water, and even with the rest of the country and the world pitching in, uneven food distribution, health concerns, lack of facilities and rampant looting and crime made for dangerous living. Buses were leaving every hour with evacuees, but the city was still thick with crowds of people just struggling to get by. Too many were people who had no relatives or friends to go to, who wouldn't leave their remaining possessions behind to be taken by unscrupulous thieves. Captain's Hill, for now, was a place that was safe, dry and clean.

I walked around the monument, noting the names.
Escutcheon / Tyrone Venson
Erudite / Mavis Shoff
Fenja / Jessica Biermann
Fierceling /
Frenetic /
Furrow /
Gallant / Dean Stansfield
Geomancer / Tim Mars
Good Neighbor / Roberto Peets
Hallow /
Herald / Gordon Eckhart
Humble /

Lets be clear, I'm giving Colin a second chance only because he's... a hero (as bad as he's, he's still one) and I usually have an idealistic view of heroes. I love these people (along with vigilantes) and I believe that they can see past their mistakes and change into better versions of themselves. Colin is selfish, yes, but he never actually realized his mistakes and he strongly believed that all he did was for a heroic cause. He's deluding himself but if he'll ever open his eyes and see how wrong he was, he might change himself and try this time more righteous and selfless methods to become the famous hero that he always wanted to be. On the other side, for example, Coil is an EVIL villain that I won't give him any second chance. Because he'll never change, he's fully capable of realizing how much his actions hurt innocent people (he even admitted that what he did to Empire88 was not really that good, because he put in danger their families), but he is incapable of stopping doing what he's doing, because he doesn't really care. He doesn't care how many innocent people he'll hurt in the future, as long as he'll gain the absolute power, his obsession and final purpose. He isn't even insane (like Bakuda for example, who was both evil and so over the top insane that she didn't even realized how cruel and violent she really was- everything was a game for her, a game where she was a big bad cat filled with explosives and the rest of the people were defenseless mice. She had her fun, helped her boss and made people piss on themselves in fear. She was like an insane child playing with real guns). But Coil is not insane, he's fully aware of what he's doing, he knows that he's bad but doesn't give a fuck. He's the definition of an completely heartless and selfish man who'd sacrifice even his own family for his well-being.
.........."sighs" Looking over the names on the Memorial, I noticed Gallant's name. So, he died in the end.

RIP Dean, a lot of people will miss you so much. Victoria must be emotionally crushed, I don't want to put myself in her skin. She lost so much

.

Gallant was dead. Unsettling to think that I'd met him and fought him. Or, rather, I'd fought against his team in the same skirmish, even if we hadn't actually paid attention to one another in the fight. Now he was gone.

I could guess that the ones without names either hadn't given permission for their names to be released, hadn't written any will or had reason to keep their names private, protecting teammates. I circled the monument, walking around to the right.
Impel / Corey Steffons
Iron Falcon / Brent Woodrow
Jotun /
Kaiser / Max Anders
Manpower / Neil Pelham
Mister Eminent /
Oaf / Wesley Scheaffer
Pelter / Stefanie Lamana
Penitent /
Quark / Caroline Ranson
Resolute / Georgia Woo
Saurian / Darlene Beckman
I noted Iron Falcon on the list. A few nights ago, trying and failing to fall asleep, managing a half-sleep where my thoughts drifted, I'd made the connection between the boy I'd helped and the 'Iron Falcon down' report I'd heard from the armband. The name had maybe stuck with me because I could remember reading about how it was becoming a trend for heroes to go the easy route and stick -hawk or some other bird of prey on the end of their names. Laserhawk, Flame Falcon, Steel Eagle, and so on. It had become unfashionable, but apparently Iron Falcon had stuck with it.
If his name was here, it meant he hadn't made it. Hadn't it been a problem with his leg? How did that kill someone? It was hard to figure out how I felt about it. Disappointed? Sad for him?
It was hard to figure out how I felt, period. Not just about the dead.
I shivered, and rubbed my arms to warm up. It was sunny out, but cool air rolled down from the nearby mountains, and the amount of moisture in the air made for a damp cold.
Should have brought something warmer to wear. I stepped back and out of the way so a pair of parents with a toddler could pass by me.
Rubbing my sleeves against my arms, I traveled around to the right, to the far side of the memorial, which faced the city.
Sham /
Shielder / Eric Pelham
Smackdown / Jennie Ryan
Snowflake / Charlotte Tom
Strider / Craig McNish
Uglymug /
Velocity / Robin Swoyer
Vitiator /
WCM /
Zigzag / Bennie Debold and Geoff Schearn

Speaking about Bakuda, maybe you won't believe me, people, but I kind of miss her. Of course, I'm very ok to know her being dead or whatever fate she had after her fight with Lung (I'm convinced that she didn't stand a chance against the Chinese Dragon) because she was a TWISTED PSYCHO RUTHLESS BITCH, but she was also pretty entertaining and completely unpredictable -the kind of villains that I love to hate. I was never bored with her, she was FUN with her ridiculous insane behavior (unlike Coil, who's a pretty boring villain and not very interesting anyway. Yes, he's evil and sadistic and ruthless, but still boring). Bakuda was more like Joker (one of my favorite villains), so twisted and over the top and everything else that CREEP ME OUT and make me INTERESTED in a villain in the same time. I don't like serious, bussiness-like type of villains (but I'm VERY ok with nerd villains, even if they're boring. Blame my obsession with nerds

), I like the villains who scream for the entire world to hear them about how freaking evil they're, who kill people left and right with a constant creepy smile on their face and without any pricks of conscience, who brutally torture innocents just for shit and giggles, insane people who doesn't have any real purpose but to do as much evil deeds as possible, wild cards basically. Endbringers seem to do evil for the sake of doing evil, also they're pretty interesting, especially with their battle strategies, but they're cold, predictable killing machines, not something to be fascinated with. Lets be clear, I don't like these Joker type villains as people (I'm actually disgusted by them and I want them to die as painful as possible or even having worse fates than death) but I like them as villains, is a difference. They're interesting, they're catching my attention, I have fun reading about them (even if I also feel a lot of pity for their victims and I rage everytime when they escape) but...I think you understand me. In real life, I'd run as far as possible from these people (and so fast that people would call me the woman Usain Bolt

), here, in fictional world, they entertain me. Someone on this thread said that there will be another character similar with Joker. I can hardly wait to get to know him/her and maybe FINALLY have a villain that I'd love to hate

(and no, if is a "HE", he won't become my fictional Joker type villain boyfriend, I can assure you this. Maybe I'm nymphomaniac in fictional world but I'm not THAT crazy

rofl

.
Back to serious things: Velocity is dead

. Last time I saw him in Trickster's company, fighting shoulder by shoulder against Leviathan. RIP Robin. Pretty weird about the heroes who share the same codename. Zigzag. They're not even brothers with similar powers, like Jessica and her sister. Maybe they're two different persons who happened to share the same codename. But if it was that, then their names and same codename should have been written separated, something like: Zigzag/Bennie Debold and Zigzag/Geoff Schearn. This is getting more and more weird and confusing as long as I'm thinking about. I have a theory, maybe he was a single parahuman with Dissociative identity disorder. He had different real names (one for each different personality) but the same codename and people knew about his affection, so they wrote both his personalities on the Memorial, both of them being considered as making the supreme sacrifice during the battle. Wow, that would be so cool, a parahuman with split personality. I hope (I actually PRAY) that I'm going to see a LIVING one in the future, even if they'll have a minor role, because this is one of the most fascinating, interesting and disturbing mental disorders.

It was shorter than the other lists, the last list of names, so there was space at the bottom. Someone had used the empty space to etch words into the marble. It was crude work, with scuff marks around each notch where the tool had been off target. The letters were all in capital letters, all straight lines – the 'o's were squares, the 'B's two triangles joined at one corner.
KOOROW BULLIT
MILK STUMPY
BROOTUS JOODUS
AXIL GINGIR
How long had it taken her? She would have had to come late at night, well after the crowd had left, sat there with a chisel, hammer and flashlight, painstakingly chipped the letters into the marble. If she even had a chisel. She might have done it with a screwdriver or something else she had at hand.
I bent down and ran my fingers over the letters.
"Sickening." I glanced over my shoulder to see the father holding the toddler. He shook his head, added, "Vandalizing this? So soon?"

THIS IS HEARTBREAKING. Rachel wrote the names of her dogs, as best as she could. Brutus and Judas are dead (still I'll never understand why Rachel named her dogs after two of the biggest betrayers in the history- Brutus betrayed Caesar and Judas betrayed Jesus (biblical history is still history)- this is very ironic, judging by the fact that she's so damn loyal. Also, I'm impressed that she knows bits of history, despite not being very educated. Rachel, if you like history, then you can be my pal for life. We can talk for hours about dogs and history). RIP Judas, RIP Brutus

. At least Angelica is still alive, she was too sick to be able to fight, "luckily" for her. Speaking about Angelica, I didn't saw the Weeping Angel's name anywhere so it looks like she survived. Fog must be happy that his wonderful wife survived, fuck them. At least they fought with heroism but still fuck them.

"They're names, and this took time," I said in answer, turning back to the memorial. "They mean something to someone."
"I think you're right," a girl said.
The father didn't respond, just continuing to walk around the memorial. I waited until the father was gone before I stood, checked to see that most of the people who'd been visiting were off getting their lunches, the rest out of earshot. I turned to face the girl, sticking my hands in my pockets.
Lisa'd had the sense to dress warmer than me. Her hair was up in two tight buns, just behind her ears, and she wore sunglasses, an oversized sweater and a skirt with tights underneath. She had a backpack slung over one shoulder. She smiled lightly, almost sadly.
"You getting by?" She asked me.
I shrugged, "I've got a cot in one of the shelters for people who lost their homes, and I have some of the cash I brought with me, so I have the basics of what I need. Not sure if Coil cancelled my bank account or what, but I might have that too. I'm surviving."
"I figured you would be. What I want to know is if you're okay."
I shrugged. How did I respond to that? Confess that I wasn't sleeping? That I had nowhere to go? That I was angry enough in general that I'd been asked to leave one shelter, for yelling at someone who hadn't entirely deserved it?

Could I even bring any of that up?
Instead, I guessed, "So. You knew?"

Aww, hi, Lisa

you came to take Taylor back into the team, right? Finally. But...Taylor...are you fucking insane? What is wrong with you? You rather prefer to sleep in the shelter instead of going home? You still have a house, a father who's worried sick for you and what are you doing instead of going to see him and live with him? Sleep in a random shelter? Fucking insane girl, don't make me want to give you another black ball. With this behavior, you'll be replaced by Rachel soon in my list of favorite characters, Taylor, I'm warning you. "sighs" Insane stupid girl "shakes head".

"Yeah," Lisa replied, bobbing her head in a nod. "I'm so sorry."
"You're apologizing?" I asked, caught by surprise, "I'm the one who planned on screwing you guys over."
"But you didn't. You changed your mind. Me? I had an idea of what you were up to, I lied to you, misled you. Manipulated you. Kept it all a big secret. And
I'm sorry for that. Really."
"How long did you know? When I was lying on my cot in the shelter, wondering whether you did know, thinking back to your expression and the things you've said in the past, I thought maybe it was when I decided to leave the group over…" I paused, looked at the people nearby, who might or might not be in earshot. "…you know. But no. You've known from the start."
"Since before we met."

That was unexpected. "What? How?"
She turned her head, surveying the scene, the handful of people still around the monument, "Over there?"
I nodded.
We walked over toward the railing above the sheer drop to the base of the hill. The position gave us a view of the entire city. There was the ocean, the coastline with crews and machinery clearing away the wreckage of buildings and the PHQ. Blinking lights marked the barriers and trucks around the perimeter of the massive hole Leviathan had made in the upper end of Downtown. The hole was still largely filled with water. People were still trying to verify if it would ever empty on its own, or if it would be a permanent part of downtown.
I couldn't make out the details of the Docks, but I saw flattened and ruined buildings. I'd scouted it early one morning, pulling on my costume and traveling the streets at an hour that even the roving mobs were asleep. From a distance, with the help of my bugs, I'd verified it. The loft was gone.
My dad's house was intact, at least, if not in the best shape. Still, even with two nights in a row with barely three hours of sleep between them, I'd held off on returning. Too much I couldn't explain.
Lisa leaned on the railing, "I didn't think we'd win."

"Since before we met" Lisa's moment of SINCERITY confirms my theory about how Undersiders really recruited Taylor. The whole fight against Lung was planned by them (more exactly by Tattletale), they pissed off Lung enough to make him want to kill them, they waited for Bug (how she was called back then) to "save" them and they recruited her afterwards. Everything was planned thoroughly. Lisa, you're a WONDERFUL MASTERMIND "claps, honestly impressed".

I joined her, leaning beside her. Maybe she could read something in the fact that I put myself far enough away that she couldn't reach out and touch me, couldn't push me over if she had a mind to. Paranoid. Looking over the city, thinking of the devastation, the hundreds of thousands of hungry, dirty, homeless people still in the city, I thought aloud, "Did we?"
"We're alive. That's a win in my book."
I didn't respond, and a silence stretched between us.
"Okay," Lisa told me, "No more secrets."
"Sounds good," I admitted.
"And I'm trusting you to use that brain of yours to know what parts of what I'm about to say should stay between us."
"Okay."
"Imagine this. You walk down a street in an unfamiliar city, you've got an appointment to go to, but barely any directions. You follow?"
I nodded.
"You come to a branching path. Do you go left, do you go right? Whatever decision you make, you've got to live with it, walk down that path, and if it's wrong, you have to figure out how to get over to the other path. And that keeps happening, until you get where you need to be. Maybe you got lucky, picked the right paths, got there on time. Maybe you were unlucky, and you were late."

I nodded, not sure where this was going.
"That's everyone's situation, day-to-day, making choices. Through resourcefulness, like using a cell phone to call for directions in our hypothetical situation, or talent, like me using my power, we can make it more likely we find the right paths, but we inevitably come to a choice between A or B at some time, right?"
"Right."
"What if you could choose both? Choose both A and B, so your A self knows what your B self knows and vice versa. When you know path B is the right choice, you can make it so. The world where you chose to go down path A is gone, vanished, so when you comes to the next choice, you can do it again."
"Sounds pretty useful."
"Trick being that you can only have two realities running in parallel at a time, and the only differences between those realities hinge on the choices and calls you make. So you delegate. You find people who will follow orders. Sometimes you send them out to do something in only one world, so that if things don't go the way you want, you can default to the reality where you didn't send them. Or, in simpler terms, in one world, you flip a coin. In the other, you hold on a second, delay, say something."
"Until every coin you're flipping gives you a heads. You're talking about Coil," I realized.
Tattletale nodded.
"He's been doing that from the start?"
"Some. The bank robbery, he had our back. But timing was sensitive, and I guess he wanted to maximize the chances that he'd get Dinah, so he didn't have a concurrent reality where he kept us out of action. And, according to him, we succeeded in both cases, though Bitch got hurt in a fight with Glory Girl in the other one. Lucky for us, I suppose, that the world where she didn'tget hurt was the same one where Coil got his captive."
I winced. Even an offhand mention of the role I'd played in what happened to Dinah elicited a painful stab of guilt.
"We didn't have him for the fight with Bakuda, but we did have him for the fundraiser. He had the other version of us in reserve."
"And the fight with Empire Eighty-Eight?"
Lisa frowned, "Apparently that was one case where he saved our hides. Remember that call I got? Telling me to be careful? Same thing he did with the bank robbery. Tells one version of me to push us to be careful, tells the other to go in for direct confrontation. Knowing how he works, I try to nudge us in one direction or the other. The group of us that went in for the headlong attack? We got taken down."

......................................................................................

............................................

..................

Here we have Lisa talking about Coil's power, who sounds like one of the most OVERPOWERED POWERS FROM THE ENTIRE DAMN STORY. I think I'm starting to understand it. He controls the timelines, precisely two. There are always two Coils, in one timeline he's saying/doing something and in another one he's saying/doing something else. He's basically invincible, if he's killed in a timeline, he'll live in another and I guess he'll replace the timeline where he was killed with the one where he's alive, making impossible for someone to kill him for real. If Undersiders fail into a timeline, he'll replace it with a timeline where they're winning. This ABUSIVE ASSHOLE is a God. Move aside Triumvirate, move aside Scion, we have a real God here. He also seems a Thinker, probably the most powerful one. Lisa is only 7, she won't stand any chance against Coil, with all her plans. Sorry, Lisa, but my hopes that you'll ever defeat this bastard are pretty low, now that I know (and understand) his power.

"That happened?" my eyes widened. That would have been the fight with Night and Fog, and it hadn't been pretty as it was. "Did we die?"
Lisa shrugged, "Not sure. He didn't elaborate, often doesn't, unless it's key info. But Coil decided not to go with that option, so it was clearly worse than what did happen. Or worse in his eyes."
"Damn," I muttered. What had happened? Not knowing was almost worse than hearing we'd all been slaughtered.
"Anyways, point of this explanation is this: Knowing we had an imminent fight with Lung coming, knowing Lung planned to pyrokinesis our general area until he rooted us out, got civilians to finger us or brought in enough capes to make life difficult for us, I called Coil. He said he'd help, told us to wait five minutes, then take the more direct route, straight into the heart of ABB territory.
"We go, we take out a contingent of ABB gangbangers and scare off Oni Lee. Then I get a call back from Coil. The other reality? We left earlier, went a different route. Got in a fight with Lung before you showed. You decided to attack both our groups while we were occupied fighting each other, worn out, only Lung was stronger at that time, too strong for you to do too much. By the time you realized you'd have to work with us to stop him, which wasn't long, it was too late. Lung was too tough."
I tried to picture that scenario.
"I got away, managed to call Coil, let him know what had happened. Coil, in turn, informed me in this reality, the one you remember. Told me to watch out for a junior hero in the area."
I nodded.
"So I told the group to hold up, fibbed a bit about needing to use my power, get a sense of things, like Lung's location. I was hoping that you were a new member of the Wards, that you'd call in help and deal with Lung without our involvement, that you'd leave, or even start the fight on your own. You attacked him on your own."

She shrugged, smiled a little, gave me an apologetic look with a tilt of her head, "And my plan worked out. Of course."
"Of course," I replied, dryly.
"It might have ended there, but then Grue mistook you for a villain, and you didn't correct him. It was interesting enough that I played along. The idea of recruiting you came when he was finishing his introductions."
"So everything I've been through, all of this, it's-"
"My fault, pretty much. That's why I'm saying I'm sorry. I mean it, too."
I sighed.
"It's okay," I told her. "I think… I think if it happened again, I'd still want to be part of the group, want to have met you guys. I'd want some stuff to go down differently. Dinah, my dad, having things come out like they did after the battle with Leviathan."
"We can't take back what happened," Tattletale said. "But we can try to fix it. Some of it. You could go back home. Face the music. Tell your dad some or all of what happened. You could go somewhere else, or I could convince the others to leave you and your dad alone, if you wanted to do that."
"I'm not ready to go home just yet."

Coil is Worm-verse Lord English from Homestuck. Lord English have absolute control over timelines, the same with Coil, LE was a snake like alien at his core, Coil have snake motifs, LE was invincible, the same with Coil (I know that he should have a vulnerability, but I just can't see one now), LE was the ultimate villain, Coil is one of the most powerful villains. Wormstuck (Taylor controls bugs- trolls were literal alien bugs; we also need two lovely badass lesbians and one super annoying and arrogant spider bitch and everything will be GREAT). In one reality, they died during their fight with Lung, in the actual reality, they pretty much fucked Lung. Coil saved them only because he needs them (despite his god like power, he still needs people to do his jobs), not because he cared for them, of course. Alright, now I both hate Coil and I'm afraid of him, such a repulsive and scary villain. You can't run away from him, you can't kill him, nothing. Because he'll fuck you in another reality. He'll always fuck you in another reality.

Taylor, go first and see your father, have a long talk with him (you don't have to tell him about your villainous life, but at least talk to him, he misses you terrible) then return back to Undersiders because YOU STILL NEED TO SAVE DINAH. Yes, you're going to fight with a GOD, and your chances are now almost equal with zero but at least....try it. Try it, Dinah shouldn't be drugged and tortured anymore, she should return home and be a happy child with her lovely family. With all my sincerity, if I were in Taylor's place, I'd try to save Dinah (even if I'll be scared out of my mind), no matter what will happen to me. I will be unable to live with myself, I'll hate myself if I'll abandon her

.

"No? I mean, I knew you hadn't gone home yet, but I thought maybe that was our fault, you protecting your dad, staying away from places we'd know you frequent."
"I'm still hurt, still mad at him. Mad at myself, too. I guess, more than anyone, I expected my dad to understand, to give me the benefit of a doubt. And going home would be going back to the way things were, which is the last thing I want."
"So you don't want to go home, you obviously don't want to go to the Birdcage, and you turned down an offer to join the Wards."
I hesitated, "Yeah."
"So, what are you going to do?"
"I don't know."
"Become a hero? Strike out on your own?"
I shook my head, stressed the words, "I don't know."

"No hard feelings if you want to go that way. Again, I can talk to the others, ensure they don't go straight for revenge or any of that. We don't hate you, now, hurt as some of the others might be. Except maybe Bitch. She probably hates you."
"Really, I don't know," I told her, exasperated, "I don't like or even respect any of the heroes I've met, I don't even see the point of it. As villains, we faced down other villains. It wasn't so different from what I'd be doing as a hero… but what did we really accomplish? What does anyone accomplish, if all we end up with is this?" I gestured out at the cityscape stretching out below us.
"Maybe you don't know what you want to do because what you really want to do is come back."
I didn't reply for a minute. The quiet was disturbed by the noise of not-too-distant helicopters moving over the city, some capes flying alongside them as guards. It would be another drop of much-needed supplies.
I sighed, "They wouldn't have me, and those guys won't budge on the thing with Coil and Dinah. Not really."
"Probably not. I mean, even if they took you back, you'd have to eat crow, accept a few concessions, like Coil's 'pet'. There'd be no more playing around.
You'd have to go all-in, from here on out, if you expected to convince them you were legit."
I shook my head.
"You want to be forgiven for what you did? It's not going to be easy. There's going to be a sacrifice on some level. And that starts with giving up that stubbornness, being willing to talk to them. To talk to me. You might even change your mind, find yourself able to look past thing with the girl, for the sake of having friends, doing the things you want or need to do in other areas."
I stood away from the railing, stuck my hands in my pockets to keep them warm. "Never."
"Never's pretty final. If you're so certain, what do you have to lose by hearing everyone out? Hearing me out? I've got coffee and lunch in my bag, we can sit down, talk it all out. If you're willing, we can then go meet the others. I'll talk to them with you, back you up, keep Bitch from murdering you."
I shook my head, turned and rested my back against the railing, looking at the memorial, rather than the city.
So many dead. So pointless. What was wrong with this world, that it was this fucked up? That people like Sophia and Armsmaster were heroes? That there couldn't even be a proper funeral for the people who had given their lives, because of a small handful of grandstanding idiots?
The wind blew hard from the north, cold, blowing my hair into disarray. I pushed my hair out of my face, tucked it behind my ear. When I gave Lisa a sidelong glance, she was putting her hood up.
She spoke without looking at me, "I'd go on, ask about whether you prioritize friends or morals, talk about how you've grown as a person in so many ways since joining us, except my power informs me that you just settled on a decision."
She was right. As I stared at the monument, a goal was crystallizing in my mind, a focus. I knew, now, what I wanted to do.
I had to change things. I had to be better than them. Than Armsmaster, Sophia, Coil, and all the others.
"Yeah," I replied. She turned to glance my way.
"And does this plan feature the Undersiders?"
I gave her my answer.

Her answer is YES, 100% sure. She'll return to Undersiders and she'll still think at ways to save Dinah (saving Dinah will become an obsession to me, really

). I think that even Lisa never abandoned the idea to help the little girl, but Lisa is a lot smarter (and wiser) than Taylor and have ways to put her plans in motion, without anyone knowing this, not even Taylor. I'm still pissed because of Taylor's refusal to meet her father, or at least give him a sign that she's alive and well, I'm still SCARED SHIRTLESS thanks to Coil's ridiculous strong power (but I have to admit that is cool and badass anyway), but at least this chapter ended in a very positive note. Taylor is back to the team and ready to kick asses. Asses covered in scales

.

Good night and sleep well, my dear, awesome friends.

blackarrow · May 1, 2018

AmbarGriss said:
Armmaster, how the mighty have fallen, except you were never that mighty.

I still gave him a second chance. But just one chance. Maybe I'm way too naive but I hope he'll change in the future.

blackarrow · May 1, 2018

ExNihilo said:
There's a reason that may not be the best option. Nothing to do with his character, though.

He'll either die

, he's asexual/aromantic or gay. Except for dying, I'll be ok with his choices as long as he's happy, ~~even if I'll still feel disappointed~~. But he can still be my aromantic/gay best friend, right?

ExNihilo · May 1, 2018

blackarrow said:
I like the villains who scream for the entire world to hear them about how freaking evil they're, who kill people left and right with a constant creepy smile on their face and without any pricks of conscience, who brutally torture innocents just for shit and giggles, insane people who doesn't have any real purpose but to do as much evil deeds as possible, wild cards basically

blackarrow said:
OVERPOWERED POWERS FROM THE ENTIRE DAMN STORY

Not really? Most high-level heroes still thrash him, because if they go searching for him, two shots isn't enough to find a win condition. Think Eidolon, equipping locator power, shield/Defence power, and offense power, and in both timelines finds him and shoots him full of electric death. Two shots is powerful, but if you've ever played a hard video game, sometimes, two tries isn't enough to beat a boss.

blackarrow · May 1, 2018

ExNihilo said:
Not really? Most high-level heroes still thrash him, because if they go searching for him, two shots isn't enough to find a win condition. Think Eidolon, equipping locator power, shield/Defence power, and offense power, and in both timelines finds him and shoots him full of electric death. Two shots is powerful, but if you've ever played a hard video game, sometimes, two tries isn't enough to beat a boss.

Yes, but if he'll die in a timeline, he'll know how he died and he'll know how to protect himself in the second timeline, so Eidolon might be unable to kill him again, in the same way (or this is how I understand).

ExNihilo · May 1, 2018

blackarrow said:
Yes, but if he'll die in a timeline, he'll know how he died and he'll know how to protect himself in the second timeline, so Eidolon might be unable to kill him again, in the same way (or this is how I understand).

Both timelines are happening at 'the same time' so to speak. So if Eidolon gets super nettled at Coil for whatever reason, he's going to be attacked in both timelines simultaneously. As an example, one he's in his Bond Villian Base, the other he's in his civilian house. In Base TL, Eidolon goes to the base, in House TL, he goes there. He can collapse and split all he wants, Eidolon is right behind him.

blackarrow · May 1, 2018

ExNihilo said:
Both timelines are happening at 'the same time' so to speak. So if Eidolon gets super nettled at Coil for whatever reason, he's going to be attacked in both timelines simultaneously. As an example, one he's in his Bond Villian Base, the other he's in his civilian house. In Base TL, Eidolon goes to the base, in House TL, he goes there. He can collapse and split all he wants, Eidolon is right behind him.

You're telling me that even Taylor can kill him in both timelines if she wants? Wow, you're making like its pretty easy to fight Coil. Ok, I'll take your word but I still have a feeling that is not going to be so easy.

ExNihilo · May 1, 2018

blackarrow said:
You're telling me that even Taylor can kill him in both timelines if she wants? Wow, you're making like its pretty easy to fight Coil. Ok, I'll take your word but I still have a feeling that is not going to be so easy.

Well, Taylor can't eat through solid stone and bypass all Coil's mercenaries quite like Eidolon can, so she'd have to find sometime when both of Coil's timelines are vulnerable. Which he is trying to avoid. That isn't helped by the fact that he loves using body doubles. So, in theory easy, in practice, not so much.

blackarrow · May 1, 2018

ExNihilo said:
Well, Taylor can't eat through solid stone and bypass all Coil's mercenaries quite like Eidolon can, so she'd have to find sometime when both of Coil's timelines are vulnerable. Which he is trying to avoid. That isn't helped by the fact that he loves using body doubles. So, in theory easy, in practice, not so much.

Alright, thank you for explaining his power, now I understand better. So, both timelines are happening at the same time, not one after another as I thought. So he's not that invincible, but still he is a pretty powerful parahuman. I'm still afraid of him, even with the knowledge about how his power really works I can't shake this fear of him. He's a dangerous scary motherfucker. But still Taylor should fight to save Dinah, no matter what.

AmbarGriss · May 1, 2018

Can't wait for the next arc

Prince Ire · May 2, 2018

Now that you're done with the Leviathan arc, its safe to reveal that Taylor straight up could have died during the arc. And not just in an in universe sense that she was in danger, but out of universe as well. Wildbow has stated that he was actually rolling dice for anyone who wasn't completely irreplaceable for the overarching plot to determine who lived or died in the battle, and at this point in the story Taylor hasn't reached irreplaceable yet. So he rolled for her as well, and if the rolls had gone a certain way he would have killed off Taylor and continued the story from the perspective of a new character.

Assembler · May 2, 2018

blackarrow said:
(I wonder how much time passed between the hospital scene and the Memorial visit. Maybe few weeks?)

Ten days.

blackarrow said:
Pretty weird about the heroes who share the same codename. Zigzag. They're not even brothers with similar powers, like Jessica and her sister. Maybe they're two different persons who happened to share the same codename. But if it was that, then their names and same codename should have been written separated, something like: Zigzag/Bennie Debold and Zigzag/Geoff Schearn. This is getting more and more weird and confusing as long as I'm thinking about. I have a theory, maybe he was a single parahuman with Dissociative identity disorder. He had different real names (one for each different personality) but the same codename and people knew about his affection, so they wrote both his personalities on the Memorial, both of them being considered as making the supreme sacrifice during the battle. Wow, that would be so cool, a parahuman with split personality. I hope (I actually PRAY) that I'm going to see a LIVING one in the future, even if they'll have a minor role, because this is one of the most fascinating, interesting and disturbing mental disorders.

The whole Zigzag thing gets explained fully in the sequel by a living example of the phenomenon. So you have that to look forward to.

blackarrow · May 2, 2018

Hello, friends, welcome to.....another Interlude. The second one for this Arc 8.x (Interlude) | Worm and it looks like the last one because right after there's a new Arc. Hmm, a wild guess? Protectorate's POV about Armmaster's arrest and how much they're missing their fellow deceased heroes? Armmaster's POV about his failures? Empire88's future plans after the death of their supreme leader? Or I'm going to get to know Legend? Or how each Undersider (except for Lisa) reacted after the Big Reveal? I'd love to see an Interlude based on any of these 5 assumptions

. But before I'll start, I'm going to talk a bit about my future plans after I'll finish Worm, maybe some people are interested to hear about. Right after I'll finish the story, I'll talk about each Arc, what I liked the most and I disliked about the respective Arc, then I'll talk about characters (the ones that I find the most interesting, or I like the most or even I dislike the most. Not all characters, of course, I'll make selections. You might be surprised about my choices

). After I'll finish with characters' analyzes too, I'll make a general analyze of the entire story. And after that, I'll start Ward (I hope I'll have enough material of Ward to read and review when I'll reach it). Alright, back to our usual businesses.

Coil held firmly to the philosophy that one couldn't be too paranoid.

"bangs her head against the desk" Oh no, something I wasn't expected (and I didn't wanted)- Coil's Interlude. The character that I HATE have his own Interlude. An Empire88 Interlude would have been better than this one. "sighs" Alright, at least I'm going to see, probably, Coil's power in action and maybe I'll understand it better, because I still have few question marks left (I know that you're probably laughing at my foolishness right now :redface:

but in my defense Coil's power is related to physics and I was NEVER good at physics or math or chemistry. Ask me whatever you want from history, politics, arts, even psychology, these are the subjects that I'm pretty GOOD at

but if you ask me something from math, I'm going to tell you that at least I'm able to count and that's enough for me

). But anyway, I know that you're going to help me with things that I don't understand, cause you're nice people

. Alright, let's see if I'll find more about Coil's personal life, what he's doing when he's not an all powerful and scary crime lord and especially when he's not creepy with his pubescent hostage.

Every moment of every day was a delicate balancing act, anticipating any number of unseen threats from every possible angle, whether he was speaking with his subordinates or simply rising to meet the day.
In one reality, he was safely ensconced in his underground base, costumed, with no less than twenty armed soldiers between himself and the multiple sets of heavy metal doors. He had spent his night reading, following the news and checking his stocks. His location was known only to those who worked for him, individuals paid well enough that even if they did have reason to attack him, their 'coworkers' would have incentive to stop them.
Second reality: He was waking up in an ordinary, slightly rundown home in the southwest end of the city. He prepared and ate his breakfast, then stepped outside in his bathrobe to pick up the paper and the mail, pausing to wave to the neighbors as they led their two girls out of the house. The flooding hadn't affected their neighborhood as much as others, but the schools weren't yet up and running, so the mother and father would be taking their girls to work with them for a short while.

He headed back inside, showered, then dressed in a button-up shirt, khakis and a silk tie. He got in his four-year old prius and headed into the city. What was normally a ten minute drive took him three-quarters of an hour, as he was forced to detour around destroyed roads, fallen buildings, and reconstruction work, move with the other drivers in a perpetual traffic jam from the moment that he left the little cul-de-sac where his house was. To all appearances, he was an ordinary man leaving for work. His identity, fabricated, was complete, a real job at a real company, records going back ten years in health, taxes, dentistry, house payments and more.

Whhhhhhhhhhhhhhhoooooooooow, he's a normal human being in the timeline were he's not a crime lord. He doesn't even have snake features otherwise his neighbors would have moved far away from his house. So, he looks like....a perfectly normal man. Just a very thin perfectly normal man. I seriously didn't expected that, I was under impression that he have physical mutations, like Gregor and Newter. So, Coil is not a case 53. Ok? But why he's still called Coil, even in civilian? Please, don't tell me that his real name is Coil because that would be ridiculous. I never heard about this name before and its kind of weird for a man to be called Coil. But if Wildbow decided that its ok then who I'm to argue with the author himself? I'm going to respect his choice of names for his characters.

The soldier that met him was known to the other soldiers as Creep. No captain would have the man in their squad, his predilections made him unemployable in the public sector, and the fact that Coil was the sole person who could and would provide him with the 'payment' he craved makes Creep as loyal as men can get.

Everyone had a hook, a vice or something they needed on a primal, desperate level. Sometimes that need needed to be created, or nurtured, so it could later be hand fed. Those people who were driven by such things, carried that craving for something especially close to the surface, were among Coil's favorite people, coming in a very close second to people who were useful. Those who were both useful and desperate for something Coil could provide?
Well, they were the Travelers, Creeps and Grues of the world.
Wealth would have to suffice for anyone and everyone else.
Creep remained the one individual that had the opportunity to discover Coil with the mask off, so it was worth buying his loyalty. The man waited in the front seat of the white van, eyes forward, until he heard the three knocks on the back door of the vehicle. He pressed a button, opening the door to allow Coil to enter.
Once inside the back of the van, hidden from Creep's view by a barrier between the seats, Coil removed his clothes, folding them neatly. He donned his costume, his second skin. A zipper was hidden in the image of the long white snake that weaved up around the body of the costume to the head. He drew it together around himself, tucked the metal tab of the zipper into a flap at his ankle. The fabric of the costume allowed him to see and breathe through it, but was an opaque black-gray to outside observers in all but the brightest light.

Coil have a very loyal man called....Creep? And this man have some fucked up predilections and only Coil can provide him with what he wants the most?!? I think I'm out of air, I feel very uncomfortable right now. This Interlude is disturbing as fuck. This guy Creep must be a pedophile and maybe Coil provides him with kidnapped little girls or little boys. Maybe even with...Dinah. Shit, I must stop thinking at this because I'm feeling worse and worse with every passing moment. This Interlude feels more like Heaven for pedophiles than actual Coil's Interlude. I swear, if either Coil or this Creep will ever make some improper gestures towards Dinah, I might abandon this Interlude because....I'll be completely our of my comfort zone. I'd rather read about Endbringers killing everyone on earth without feeling so uncomfortable than adult men raping little kids (mostly because Endbringers aren't real and I'm usually not so affected by something that is not real).

He was spending less and less time in his civilian identity, these days, to the point that he was pondering dropping it altogether. He could be Coil full-time, when the base was fully set up. For now, though, so long as he needed a bed, and a place to get away from the noise of construction, the ruse was necessary.
He seated himself in the one chair at the back of the vehicle.
To outside observers, Creep was an ordinary laborer driving an electrician's van to the construction site. Coil's underground base had fallen just beyond the scope of the massive lake in the middle of downtown. Had the crater extended another forty or fifty feet, it might have done more than crack the interior walls, cost Coil months of time rather than days, hundreds of thousands rather than thousands.
Creep directed the vehicle down the ramp and into the parking garage. He stayed behind with the van as Coil departed.
Coil entered a doorway in the lowest, most secluded corner of the parking garage, entering a room with an electrical system behind a metal cage. Opening the door to step into the cage, passing around behind the electrical box and passing through the concealed doorway there, he reached the heavy vault door that marked the entrance to his underground base

Even after he was inside, with two employees waiting to greet him, a contingent of his squad captains standing at the ready, he remained careful. Back in the other reality, he stood from his computer, traveled into the room beside his own. He paused in the doorway, staring at the girl who lay on the cot. She was dressed in white, unmoving but for the rise and fall of her ribcage, her eyes open.
"It's morning, pet. You know what questions I ask you."
"It's morning?" she asked, head rising. "I feel like I just had dinner. Candy?"
"No, pet. It's too early. Now please answer my question."
Petulant, she replied, "Zero point two five two percent chance there's any problems here in the next hour. Three point seven four four one percent chance there's any problems before lunchtime."
"Good girl," he spoke.

Back to Coil's "pet". Pet, again "siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiighs" (I can't even make jokes, this Interlude messed so much with my brains that I can't really have fun even if I try

). At least he didn't entered in Dinah's room which is ok, given the already disturbing situation. He asks her his usual questions and I hope that he'll let her alone for the rest of the day. Also, keep the Creep away from her, preferably few light years distance. So, in a reality Coil is a working man and in another reality he demands Dinah to use her powers for him. 2 realities that are happening in the same time, but they're different. I wonder if Dinah was kidnapped in the reality where Coil is a worker. I think she was, because the timelines are parallel, so almost everything that happens in timeline A also is happening in timeline B, but there are still differences. Timeline A with Coil in civilian- he's a worker hiding his identity as a crime lord. Timeline B with Coil in costume- he's a crime lord hiding his identity as a worker. But in both timelines Dinah was kidnapped and used by Coil. Wow, A light bulb went on over my head !!! "does a little victory dance".

With that, he collapsed that world where he had stayed up all night, studying the news, following international business trends, tracking the details on his troops' most minor operations – he helped ensure the success of the major ones with his power. The reality swiftly faded, leaving only the world where he had a full night's sleep, ate a hearty breakfast, drove to the base with Creep. Only the memories and knowledge remained.
Standing before his employees and soldiers, he divided realities once more, leaving only a heartbeat between the erasure of one existence and the creation of another.

He often wondered if he really was creating the realities, or if it was solely in his perception, foretelling futures to the extent that they hinged on his actions.
He'd asked his Tattletale, and she hadn't had an answer for him.
He had hated these moments, before he'd acquired his pet and the assurances she provided. These were the times when he was most vulnerable, when he'd just started a fresh use of his power, his selves so close to one another. It was sadly inevitable, unless he found a way to expand to a third world. Though he knew the chance of danger was miniscule, that his pet could not lie to him if she had wanted to, he still made efforts to distance the two worlds as much as possible.
The first reality: "Captains, with me. Empire Eighty-Eight is divided, and I'm going to direct you on a series of strikes to ensure we deal as much damage as possible before the two factions can merge once more."
Two groups traveling in separate directions. One of his selves traveled with the troops, down the metal staircase to the lower level, the other moving in the other direction, across the metal walkway, the two employees hurrying to keep up with his long strides.
He eyed the base as it was developing. The massive quantities of crates and boxes were being unpacked, bunk beds for soldiers on call, a fully equipped medical bay, stocks and facilities for the kitchens, innumerable weapons. It was taking shape, fine details emerging where there had been only right angles and neatly organized stacks boxes.
He owned the company that had built the underground shelters in Brockton Bay and neighboring cities. Hiding the details on his base in construction was a matter of intercepting information at the right time and place, paying with his own money rather than the city's, controlling what was reported and to whom.
His pet's powers had assured him that nobody would be noticing any disparity anytime soon.
"The Travelers' room," it was more statement than question, but it required an answer.
A man in a sweater and small round-rimmed glasses, Mr. Pitter, spoke, "Done. Individual rooms, furnishings, kitchen and wardrobes. Some minor modifications are needed to make it more handicap accessible, but they could all move in today."
The other: "I wish to survey the base. Captains, as you were."

He can also collapses realities- if he doesn't like a certain timeline, he collapses it and keeps only the favorable timeline. I hope I got it right. In the civilian timeline, he's not a simple worker, but the owner of a company. He also have rooms for Travelers in his base, because he NEEDS them and they NEED him to probably fix an injured member of their team during their first Endbringer Battle, if my theory is right. But where is this injured Traveler?

"And the containment facility?" he asked, though he already knew the answer, from the interruptions while he spent the night in the facility. He'd heard the noise of the work just hours ago, been informed that people were arriving.
"The vault door was placed just last night. She was-" Mr. Pitter paused, "Agitated. We had to call Trickster in to talk to her. He's here now."
"I'll speak with them."

Wow, my theory is right. There's another Traveler member who got hurt, became sick or went insane, and is a "she". She's also someone apparently close to Trickster because it seems that she talks only with him. She's either his sister or his girlfriend. That's the reason why Trickster is so desperate to work for Coil. He really cares for this girl, whatever is sister or girlfriend. Trickster doesn't seem such a bad guy, at least so far.

"Yes sir."
He didn't like interacting with people, especially not subordinates as important as the Travelers or Undersiders, without the ability to create or banish the reality if the discussion didn't go his way. Here, he was safe. His other self was giving orders on movements, targets to attack, individuals to watch out for, informed by the night he had spent tracking the deployments and patrol patterns of the Protectorate and Wards.
He let Mr. Pitter take the lead as they headed to the Traveler's apartments. The man was small, unassuming, ordinary. A registered nurse, he had an exemplary eight-year record of acting as nanny and caretaker to a pair of very ill children. Then he had found out his wife had cheated on him, attempted to divorce her. Deciding that wasn't acceptable to her, the woman had set about dismantling his life, ruining his careers, friendships, familial relationships and everything else, laying accusations and planting evidence of the worst sort of crimes. The sort of accusations and suspicions that a male nanny had to be leery of at all times.
Mr. Pitter was one of those particular people who was both useful and bought with stronger things than currency. He would ensure the Travelers were comfortable and well stocked. More specifically, he would take care of Dinah, ensure any and all dosages were clean and properly administered, that the girl was kept in the best of health. All he had required was for his wife to disappear, the chaos and problems the woman had caused him discreetly sorting themselves out in the aftermath of her death. He had gone from being a broken man to a person who was so unflinching in his duties that it had given even
Coil pause.

Ok, we have a male nurse called Mr Pitter who seems like a nice person. His wife was a an absolute bitch who deserved anything that Coil decided to do to her (I think he killed her) and Mr Pitter became grateful to Coil, accepting to become a nanny for Dinah. He treats Dinah well, doesn't look like he's abusing her as I suspect Coil or/and Creep are/is doing. He also takes care of Travelers too. I like this man, he's an angel compared with Creep.

Mr. Pitter knocked on the door, waited. It was almost a minute before it opened.
Trickster stood in the doorway, unmasked. His skin tone was darker in a way that left his ethnicity ambiguous, to the point where the boy could have been a darker skinned Caucasian, biracial, Middle Eastern or Eastern Indian. His dark hair was long, hanging to his shoulders, and a hook nose coupled with a widow's peak gave him something of a severe appearance. His eyes, normally sharp, were bleary with sleep.
"Are you really that sadistic, Mr. Pitter? I get dragging me here at five in the morning if Noelle needs it, but waking me up three hours later?"
The 'nanny' didn't reply, instead stepping out of the way, to give Trickster a better view of Coil. Trickster leaned out of the doorway to look his employer up and down, picked some sleep from the corner of his eye with his thumbnail. "Damn it. Okay."
"Thank you," Coil replied, "I would like to speak with your friend, downstairs. Past experience has suggested this works best if you act as an intermediary."
"I don't know if that's a great idea."

"Indulge me. Would you like me to wait while you wash your face? Get dressed?"
"If we're just going to talk to her, and if you don't have anything else for me to do, I'll probably go straight back to bed, after."
"As you wish."
Trickster pulled on a black bathrobe, cinched it around his waist, then stepped onto the metal walkway.
"Is there at least anything I can tell her?" Trickster asked. "Anything encouraging?"
"Nothing definitive. I had intended to introduce Tattletale from the Undersiders to this situation, ask her for her opinions. That is, if she doesn't already have some idea of what's going on. Either way, her talents might turn up some details we have missed."
"Had intended? I take it that she can't, now, because of what happened at the hospital?"
"Something like that. She's informed me that there's currently difficulties within her group and requested that I not distract her or give her tasks until things have been settled 'one way or the other'. Her words."
"That's not really anything that's going to give Noelle hope."
"No. No it isn't."

Gosh, Trickster is a rather handsome boy

. I think he's american- indian, because male indians usually keep their hair long. Noelle is the name of his girlfriend (or maybe just a good female friend of him) and he's so worried for her, he really loves her. Awww, I'm starting to warm up towards Trickster, he's someone who seems to do anything for people he cares for, including to work for Coil (who might never let him and his team go or maybe even straight up murder them when they're not use anymore; there's a huge risk for anyone who work for Coil).

They headed back onto the walkway, then down the stairs. A vault door, twenty feet across, was set into the concrete wall. It loomed over them, three times as tall as even Coil was.
Coil stepped to the side, gestured toward the small monitor and keypad to the left of the door.
Trickster touched a button on the keypad, "Noelle? You there?"
The monitor flickered. A girl's face took up most of the screen. Her face was framed with brown hair, greasy, and she had dark circles under her eyes. Her eyes moved as she looked at the monitor on her end, but she didn't reply.
"Hey," Trickster spoke.
"Hey," her voice had a ragged quality to it, as though she had screamed herself raw.
"Coil wants to speak to you."
There was a pause. "Okay."
Coil stepped forward so he shared the camera with Trickster. "Noelle. I'm sorry the construction work disturbed you. We shouldn't have been doing that so late in the night."

"You locked me in," Noelle accused him.
"For your safety, and ours," Coil spoke.
"You agreed to this," Trickster told her, "We talked about it. You asked us to do this."
"I know. I- I didn't think it would be this claustrophobic. Or lonely. I swear I'm getting cabin fever and it's only been a few hours."
Trickster opened his mouth, then closed it. When he finally found the words to say, he spoke, "You can call me any time."
"Except when you're doing a job."
"You can talk to Oliver, then, or Mr. Pitter."
"Oliver's still busy talking to you guys, and Mr. Pitter creeps me out."
Coil raised an eyebrow behind his mask, gave Mr. Pitter a glance. The man hadn't reacted.

Ok, I think this Noelle went insane during Travelers' first Battle with an Endbringer and she also have a very fucked up power, maybe she's the most powerful Traveler since Coil had to lock her inside that vault. She doesn't have super-strength and she can't teleport but there are powers worse that these. I don't know who this Oliver is, maybe he's Ballistic. Also, its weird that this harmless Mr Pitter creeps Trickster out, I wonder what kind of reaction he's going to have around Creep.

Trickster diplomatically didn't comment on Mr. Pitter's presence nearby. Calmly, he spoke, "We're working on a solution."
"You've been working on that for a month now!" She began to shout, which only added to the gravelly quality of her voice, "Fix this! Fix me! You did this to me, Krouse!"
"Noelle," Coil spoke, controlling his voice, "Trickster is not to blame. At the next possible opportunity, I will be inviting an employee of mine to speak with you and the rest of the Travelers. Her power will provide hints. I've also been in contact with the head of parahuman studies at Cornell. An expert in the field."
Her scream sounded through the intercom system, "That's just more poking and prodding and theories! You promised us you'd fix me!"
Punctuating her statement, there was a bone-rattling impact against the vault door. Almost every soldier on the lower level stood or turned to face the doorway, hands on their guns. Dust spilled out from the joins where the concrete walls met ceiling.
Irritating. Nothing more was going to come out of this conversation. At least he knew the one thing he'd sought to find out: she was getting worse. He used his power, obviating the reality with the raging girl in favor of the one where he was talking to his soldiers.

"-dersiders are otherwise occupied, so you'll be supported indirectly by the Travelers. Captain Heroux? How fast can your squad be ready?"
"We're ready to go at a moment's notice."
"Good," Coil spoke. "Be ready, I'll have orders for you in less than an hour."
"Sir."
Coil turned, leaving the captains to their assigned tasks. He glanced at Mr. Pitter, "The Travelers' quarters are all set up, I trust?"
"Yes. We just installed the heavy door in the middle of the night. Noelle was agitated enough that we had to call in Trickster to calm her down."
"I see."
"He's still here, if you want to talk to him."
"Let the boy rest. He'll be tired."
"Yes, sir."

......Noelle blames Trickster, whose real name is Krouse, for her situation. What your boyfriend/friend did to you, Noelle? On the other side, Coil said that it wasn't Krouse's fault. I believe the snake bastard this time, Noelle is crazy and paranoiac and believes that her friend is her enemy....wow, I feel so sorry for her.

She's an innocent victim of a fucked up Endbringer. I think that they fought Simurgh, the telepath Endbringher, and she somehow made Noelle go crazy. This is my new theory. "hugs Krouse" I don't know why fandom hates you, but you're a devoted and loyal friend (also, now I'm sure that he didn't hurt Sundancer as I was afraid he did), I like you

(maybe I'm naive, but I trust this boy from now on).

"Ensure the girl has a double ration for this morning."
"The costs-"
"Are my concern. With her sleep disturbed, she is liable to be… cranky. Let's ensure she has little to complain about. And Mr. Pitter?" he paused, "Speak with Duchene about the construction the second she comes in. I want that door on the lower level reinforced. Extend walls inward and put in a second door, if you have to. Schedule any construction for the middle of the day, so we aren't interrupting her sleep again, but I want it done as soon as possible."

The man nodded, correctly interpreted the order as a dismissal, and hurried off.
That left him with the one remaining assistant following after him. Cranston. "Anything urgent?"
"No, sir. The businesses you purchased are still struggling in the wake of the catastrophe, but we've received insurance payments-"
"Good. We'll discuss it later."
"Yes, sir." Cranston hurried off.
Coil returned to the end of the complex furthest from the entrance, entered his quarters. He paused at his computer to check his emails and the latest news feeds. Nothing crucial.
He divided realities. In one, he stayed at his computer. In the other, he entered the room reserved for his pet. "Good morning, pet."
"It's morning?" she groaned, sitting up. "I thought I just finished dinner. Candy?"
"You know my morning questions."
He already knew the numbers – he noted they had barely changed, as she rattled them off – but if he always canceled out the reality where he asked her for the chance of any danger in the morning and never asked again because it would be redundant, she would never remember. Even a mind like hers had its limits and boundaries.
"The chance my grand plan is a success, ignoring any uses of my powers?"
"Seventy two point two zero zero two one percent."
Pleasing. It was a number he could raise in the ensuing days and months with the use of his power. Interestingly enough, the number was better than it had been before Leviathan attacked.
"Chance the issues with the Undersiders will be resolved?"
"Don't understand."
He frowned. Another limitation. She needed to be able to visualize the scenes. "What is the likelihood that the Undersiders will still be serving under me, at the point in time my plan succeeds or fails? To one decimal point?"
"Sixty five point six. But they aren't all the same Undersiders."
"Oh?" he rubbed his chin, "The chance that my plan succeeds with this new group versus the old?"
"I don't understand. My head's starting to hurt."
"Just one or two more, pet. If the group changes, is it more likely that my plan succeeds? To one decimal point."
"Yes. Four point three to eleven percent, depending on who comes and who goes."
"One more question. What is the chance that I find a remedy to the Travelers' circumstances? To one decimal point?"
"Nine point five. Candy?"
A full seven percent lower than it had been before the Endbringer attack. Had a crucial individual died or left the city? Or was his running theory correct?
Was there a reason Leviathan had come here, beyond the chance to attack a city already under siege?
It was hard to ignore the reality, that Leviathan, from the time he arrived, had gradually moved closer and closer to this location, where the girl had already been ensconced. The Travelers had even picked up on that, called him, worried.
Something to ask Tattletale about, perhaps, when he introduced her and Noelle.

My heart almost stopped when Coil entered Dinah's room but he only asks her about numbers, which is as good as it can be in these circumstances. So, there's a little chance for Noelle to be sane again (surprising she seems to have super-strength as power, but she's not strong enough to escape from the vault). I don't know for which one to feel sorry the most: Dinah or Noelle. Both of them are victims of someone. Poor girls

. Leviathan seems to be attracted by the place where Noelle is locked, maybe....maybe Simurgh's telepathic attack turned her into some kind of human Endbringer and Leviathan knew this and tried to release her since she's like them now. This theory might be the worst theory I had so far but I can't think at something else. The whole Leviathan's interest in Noelle is very suspicious.

"It feels bad. Wanting the candy so much, knowing I'm going to want the candy, seeing it like I do. It builds up."
Seven percent lower. At what point did earning their loyalty fail to be worth the resources he was investing?
"Knowing I'll get sick if I don't get it, being able to see it, what it's like, the getting sick, and as it gets closer to happening, higher percentages, it feels more real, so clear a picture it's almost as bad as getting sick for real. Even if there's only a nine point two-"

"You'll get some to tide you over in a bit, pet," Coil interrupted her, in as reassuring a tone as he could manage. It was impossible to conceal all of his irritation at being disturbed from his thoughts, but she was distracted enough by her own problems that she likely didn't notice.
His plan was succeeding, though it had been delayed slightly by recent circumstances. Potential enemies were divided or reduced in numbers, the city all the more vulnerable to being seized. Victory was so close he could taste it.
Perhaps worthy of a celebration. Coil maintained his own vices. It would be unfair to expect more of himself, when he had the unique talent he did.
It had certainly been an expensive talent. Even with his ability to game the markets in a way that clairvoyants and precognitives couldn't detect, it had taken him years to pay it off. A maddening, frustrating endeavor, when he had already been thinking of plans he wanted to set in motion, having to postpone them.
And he still owed a favor, even now, up to a week's services. He couldn't be sure if he was powerful and secure enough to fight back if they demanded too expensive a price, or too much of his time at a point critical to his plan.
He canceled the reality where he stood at his pet's bedside, found himself still at the computer. Best to leave the world where his pet wasn't so tired, in case he wanted to ask more questions that morning.
The worlds he created weren't real. They were little more than an especially vivid, accurate dream. To enjoy a whole separate world, free of any consequences beyond the ones he wanted? It would be unreasonable if hedidn't indulge in it. Anyone would, given the chance.
These entertainments kept him centered, utterly calm. He needed that, after the irritation of dealing with the Travelers' girl.
He touched a button on his phone, "Mr. Pitter? My office."
"Yes sir," the reply sounded.

Dinah's situation brought tears in my eyes. Again. What a fucked up Interlude, drama all the way. Don't be so happy with your near victory, Coil, you might be now invincible but tomorrow you might become as vulnerable as an ant that Taylor or Lisa can crush under their feet. Who knows? As for the people who helped you (and who seem to be stronger than you, maybe power wise), I hope that you'll be unable to pay the favor back and they'll come after you to fuck you up. I have no idea who those people are but if they'll fuck you up, then they're GOOD people. Anyone who'll cut off Coil's head is someone GOOD.

He was on the brink of achieving his goals. It would be a laughable tragedy, to get this close, only to have his power fail him, to accidentally choose the wrong reality, or to have his other self killed by accident or malicious intent, forcing him to live with the ramifications of these idle amusements. For now, he wouldn't touch his pet, nor any of his powered subordinates. Not when he was this close.

A click of what appeared to be a part of his desktop wallpaper made his bottommost drawer pop open.
Mr. Pitter entered the room. "Sir?"
One reality: "My pet needs her 'candy', a low dosage, please."
The other: Another click of his computer mouse, remotely locking the doors. Mr. Pitter turned, alarmed, tested the door.
For now, even with the safeguard of his other realities, he would do nothing he couldn't explain away if he had to. He wouldn't entertain himself with anybody he couldn't replace. Mr. Pitter? Replaceable.
No such thing as being too paranoid, after all.

OH MY GOD! YOU KILLED MR PITTER, YOU BASTARD. You killed an innocent employer just for shit and giggles. Well, he still have a chance to survive, he died in one reality, but at least he survived in the second one. But if Coil will collapse the reality where Mr Pitter survived, he'll be dead. Depends of Coil and his sadistic nature. What an almost Gold-like power for such a disgusting, pervert, cruel snake of a man....Best powers for worst individuals. Life is "great".

Good night and sleep well, my friends. I'm still sad over Dinah and Noelle (even if Noelle will ever do something bad in the future, I'll never blame her; she's 100% a victim of circumstances) but at least I feel more relaxed because it wasn't something like a possible sexual abuse of a minor as I believed at beginning that is going to be. Thank you, Wildbow, for not making me throw your Interlude away

blackarrow · May 2, 2018

Assembler said:
Ten days.

The whole Zigzag thing gets explained fully in the sequel by a living example of the phenomenon. So you have that to look forward to.

Yeeeeeeeeeeeees, a living parahuman with split personality. What a treat! Even if they'll appear in the sequel, I can patiently wait, no problem. I'm so happy, I was always fascinated by those mentally ill people, I watched every movie featuring DID patients/psychos/killers, I watched real life videos, I read books about. I don't care if the personalities of that character will be all evil or all good or in-between, I'll find them anyway very exciting to read about

.

blackarrow · May 2, 2018

Prince Ire said:
Now that you're done with the Leviathan arc, its safe to reveal that Taylor straight up could have died during the arc. And not just in an in universe sense that she was in danger, but out of universe as well. Wildbow has stated that he was actually rolling dice for anyone who wasn't completely irreplaceable for the overarching plot to determine who lived or died in the battle, and at this point in the story Taylor hasn't reached irreplaceable yet. So he rolled for her as well, and if the rolls had gone a certain way he would have killed off Taylor and continued the story from the perspective of a new character.

SHOCKING!!! Wildbow actually planned to kill his main character and replace her with another character? Not many authors would do such risky thing for their story. At least Taylor was so lucky that not even her universe's God was able to kill her

. I'm glad that she survived, she's a worthy protagonist, even if I don't agree with her all the time and some of her decisions were either reckless or just plain MEAN. Well, if she'd have died, the only new main character that I'd have accepted to replace her would have been Lisa, someone much better than Taylor in many ways. I actually pray for Lisa to survive enough for featuring in the sequel as well and there to have the main POV.

How cool would be that?

Assembler · May 3, 2018

blackarrow said:
But why he's still called Coil, even in civilian? Please, don't tell me that his real name is Coil because that would be ridiculous. I never heard about this name before and its kind of weird for a man to be called Coil. But if Wildbow decided that its ok then who I'm to argue with the author himself? I'm going to respect his choice of names for his characters.

He thinks of himself as Coil even when he's in his civilian identity. By the way, fun fact you glossed over: His civilian identity owns the company that built all the Endbringer shelters in Brockton Bay. Fanon (specifically the fanfiction Cenotaph) named this company Fortress Construction.

blackarrow said:
I don't know who this Oliver is, maybe he's Ballistic.

He's not.

blackarrow said:
Yeeeeeeeeeeeees, a living parahuman with split personality. What a treat! Even if they'll appear in the sequel, I can patiently wait, no problem. I'm so happy, I was always fascinated by those mentally ill people, I watched every movie featuring DID patients/psychos/killers, I watched real life videos, I read books about. I don't care if the personalities of that character will be all evil or all good or in-between, I'll find them anyway very exciting to read about .

DID isn't the best way to describe it, but I'll let you find out what is on your own.

blackarrow · May 3, 2018

Hello, awesome people from everywhere. Last time I had to read and review to most unpleasant Interlude so far (because of the biggest fucker Coil, of course and the implied pedophile/rapist Creep), saved only by showing more about Travelers and their scary secret- namely Noelle, a poor young girl locked into the vault in Coil's base, for her own/and everyone else protection. Also she seems to be good friend with Krouse, maybe even his girlfriend, and he cares quite a lot about her, which is both sweet and sad (I hope they'll find a way to save her because she doesn't deserve this shit happening to her

). My theory (and I'll hold onto this theory) is that Noelle was affected somehow by Simurgh (I'm thinking at her because she's the only telepathic Endbringer, I can see her capable of attacking someone and letting them alive, but mentally broken to the point that they themselves become a danger). Simurgh didn't killed her obviously, but she turned her into a possible human Endbringer (I don't know how that would be possible, but given the fact that Endbringers seem to have like thousands of powers, anything is possible regarding to the abilities of these monsters). Noelle caught my interest and I'd be more than happy to read an entire Interlude about her. And one last thing before I'll start the next Arc. I remember something that Mr Pitter said about Travelers' rooms. They're modified for a person with disabilities. So, one of the Travelers have disabilities? Krouse, Ballistic and Sundancer seem ok to me, but I never saw Genesis apart from her projections on the battlefield. Why she's never on the battlefield? Well, I'm aware that she doesn't need to be thanks to her power but still its weird that she's NEVER present anywhere. Maybe she's blind, yep, she's blind and she can't be with her fellow Travelers everywhere without putting her life in danger. Not everyone is Daredevil, damnit. My God, Travelers have two people with problems in their team: Noelle and possible Genesis. I also noticed some similarities between Travelers and Faultline's Crew, except their villainous activities. Travelers have an insane girl (Noelle) and a member with disabilities and Faultline's Crew have an insane girl (Elle) and two members with physical mutations. Even Noelle/Elle names are pretty similar

. Alright, now back to our business with 9.1 | Worm. Sentinel. Guards or soldiers whose jobs are to watch over people. This Arc is dedicated to....heroes, if I'm not wrong? Taylor will meet heroes again and they'll try to lure her by their side? More heroes having the spotlight means that this Arc will be a gift to me

. Bring it on.

It was seven-thirty in the evening in a medium sized airport. Weren't there supposed to be people?
There had been staff, for sure. The odd staff member to greet him as he got off the plane, another to see him past the gates. Still, the terminals were empty, there were no crowds, the shops and restaurants were all closed. Only half the lights were on. For the first time, he was wondering if he was getting in over his head.
At least there were no people making the same old jokes about the metal detectors.
Baggage claim had three carousels, which should have been in operation, delivering a regular supply of people's luggage onto the conveyor belts, crowds gathered around them in anticipation. Instead, there was a single man in uniform with three large bags already piled onto a cart.

"I can take my bags, I'm stronger than I look."
"It's alright, son," the man replied, "It's good to have something to do that isn't cleaning up."
Son. That bothered him more than he cared to admit. Not that he had any ideas about his own ethnicity, but it was vaguely condescending. A reminder that people didn't know how to act around him.
"Alright," he conceded, "Where are we headed?"
The man gestured toward a set of double doors, then gripped the handle of the cart to push it in that same direction.
Stainless steel handles on the doors. He put his hands on the painted surface instead, pushed them open, and then held one of the doors open for the cart.
He was distracted enough that he almost didn't notice the group waiting for him.

WHO IS THAT POKEMON? Until I'll try an answer at this question, I want to talk about something related to Coil, something that I noticed during the Interlude, but I completely forgot to talk about. Not only that Coil calls Dinah HIS PET, but he also calls Lisa HIS Tattletale, which is pretty fucked up. He sees both girls as his personal possessions. Now, there's two theories I have in mind right now: Coil is either a hidden sexist, at surface treating women/girls almost like they're his equals, but deep inside seeing them as his possessions/slaves (I won't be surprised if he'll start calling Taylor HIS Skitter one day) or he considers only these two girls as being HIS because they're so important to his plans. Either way, this is disturbing and so typical to Coil. Ok, back to our pokemon. Since this Arc is called Sentinel I suppose this young gentleman is a hero, a hero who just arrived in Brockton Bay. He seems pretty strong, he seems polite enough, he doesn't remember his ethnicity, meaning that he have troubles with memory...possible a case 53? and there's that phrase about metal detectors. It's............Weld. Everything falls into pieces. Weld should move to BB Protectorate to replace the now dead Aegis, he's a metal boy with super-strength and he's a Case 53. Hope I'll be right about, but can't be someone else. Yaaaaay if is Weld. I'm so GLAD to finally meet him. Miss Militia spoke so nice about him: he's like a true hero- kind, polite, intelligent, strong, brave, I'm sure I'm going to love him

.

The group consisted of a squad of PRT officers with their regular assortment of nonlethal weaponry and a large woman with a bleached blonde bob.

Heeeellooooooo, Director Piggot (I recognized her after her blonde bob, ok?) long time no see you. I still don't know what kind of powers she have. I mean, she's in Protectorate, she must have powers (yes, there are normal humans who work for Protectorate, but they're simply employees/soldiers, not leaders. And you can't be a leader over a parahuman organization without being a parahuman yourself, right?). Maybe Piggot's powers are still a surprise, just like in Coil's case, and I'm gonna be surprised with another God-like type of powers

.

"Weld, I'm glad you made it," she managed to say the words without a trace of humor or smile on her face. She extended a hand.
He glanced quickly at her hand, checking there were no rings, then shook it. "Thank you, ma'am. Director Piggot, I'm assuming?"
"You assume correctly. Shall we?"
He nodded.
As they fell into step, he asked, "Where is everyone?"
"This airport was attacked by one of the local villain groups just three days ago. The front lobby and ticket claim were ransacked, and the airport has shut down for the time being, with only special cases such as yourself coming or going."

"I take it things are bad?"
"Yes. We have seen this type of situation before, if not to this extreme. Too many citizens here had been living paycheck to paycheck or were unemployed. There was a great deal of latent frustration and unhappiness with the status quo. A powder keg needing only a spark to set it off."
Weld nodded, "And the arrival of an Endbringer is a bit more than a spark. I see. I know the Endbringers tend to target areas where they know they can do the most damage. You think Leviathan did it on purpose? Attacked this city because he knew this would happen?"
"If someone raised the idea, I wouldn't dismiss it. But our focus should be on what we do in the here and now. Are you ready to take command of the local Wards?"
"I'm ready to try."
"Good. The team here is smaller than your old team in Boston. It currently consists of Clockblocker, Vista, Kid Win and Shadow Stalker. We had two members die in the attack, and a third left with his family when they evacuated."

So, the pokemon is really Weld

and he arrived at Brockton Bay to become the leader of Wards, replacing Aegis. He's going to have under his command Wards like Clockblocker, Vista, Kid Win, which is awesome, and Shadow Stalker, which is NOT awesome. Shadow Bitch Stalker, you're the black sheep of Wards, I hope you're not going to make troubles to his kind boy, he doesn't deserve to have to endure your bitchy behavior, especially when they're so many problems going on in the city, with local villains attacking and robbing right after BB is barely recovering from Leviathan's Battle. I pity you, Weld, you'll not have an easy job in this HELL on earth. Its not enough for you to be brave and physically strong, but you also need a lot of mentally and emotionally strength in order to succeed imposing law, order and peace. Good luck....Sentinel.

PRT uniforms opened the doors, and he followed the Director onto a helipad, followed shortly after by the other PRT uniforms and man with his luggage. A black helicopter with the PRT logo on the sides sat there, propeller already whirring in preparation for takeoff.
The Director took the hand of a uniform inside the helicopter, stepping inside, and Weld followed her up, refusing a helping hand. The helicopter shifted slightly with the addition of his six hundred pounds of weight.
When the door shut, cutting off the worst of the noise, he took the offered headphones and put them on. When he spoke, his voice came through the headphones crystal clear, without a trace of the ambient noise of the helicopter, "So there's only five of us?"
"There will be more. We've got a lead on a young man who could be joining as a new member, assuming we can get close enough to him to make the offer. I trust you know your classifications?"

"I do," Weld nodded. He'd memorized it as a rhyme, as suggested by his old boss. Maybe that had been the intention from the start:
Mover, Shaker,
Brute and Breaker.
Master, Tinker,
Blaster and Thinker,
Striker, Changer,
Trump and Stranger.
He was classified as a brute and changer, classifications meant for the unnaturally tough and strong and for those who could change their shape to some extent, respectively. He never liked the word brute being applied to him, even though he was aware that the labels had originally been intended for the PRT teams to identify and label villains, specifically. It was only later that they had been extended to identifying the heroes as well.

600 pounds= 272.16 kilograms. He's pretty heavy. Of course he's heavy, since he's cursed to absorb all the metal around him. Poor gentle soul

. I wonder how he doesn't absorb parts of the helicopter, but maybe it is made from a special metal that he can't absorbs. God, his power is a curse. He can't even eat like a normal person with inox cutlery, he can't stay around things made out of metal, and if he keeps absorbing, he can become ridiculous large and heavy, he might be unable to ever move again. Why only good people have the worst powers and the worst lives and evil ones have the best powers and the best lives? Coil doesn't have a single physical mutation. Fuck those mad scientists who did that to Weld, hope they'll be killed one day by some very strong and out of control experiments they're making. Karma is a bitch, but a fair bitch sometimes

.

"Right. This potential recruit is tentatively marked down as a Tinker/Mover. It isn't unusual for powers to emerge in the wake of an event as serious as this.
For this reason, we keep careful track of things to see if we cannot detect any new parahumans. This young man has been observed in the south end, moving at over a hundred miles an hour with the assistance of a mechanical suit. His inclusion on a local team would help fill gaps left by the death of Velocity, a local Protectorate member, and Armsmaster's retirement."
Weld nodded.
"Others may make themselves known, and we will approach each of them in turn. To help fill the gap in the meantime, Flechette is arriving from New York."
Weld chuckled, just under his breath.
"Something amusing?"
He was surprised that she had heard or noticed the laugh. "No, it's just that we know each other. Our teams are -were- friendly rivals, kind of. We'd meet two or three times a year and compete, just to spar and practice our skills against less familiar opponents. We'd joke around about which team was better, give each other a hard time."

"I certainly hope this 'rivalry' isn't going to hamper your ability to lead this team and work with her." There was no humor in her tone. Just the opposite.
"Um, no, ma'am," he replied, chastened. The helicopter lifted into the air. A glance out the window showed the sprawl of the city. It was dark out, but much of the city was unlit, nothing shining through the windows, no street lights illuminating the roads, nor the headlights and taillights of traffic.
Noting where he was looking, Director Piggot spoke, "Because the current situation is serious, and it isn't improving as fast as we'd like. You're going to have to be on the top of your game."
"Yes ma'am."
"Clockblocker and Vista are your best assets. Clockblocker is a Striker 7 with touch-based time-stopping. Vista is a Shaker 9. Large scale spatial distortion."

I'm with you, Weld. I don't like the Brute classification either. Its fitting for villains, but not for heroes. Weld seems to be a funny guy, quite opposite to Director Piggot's ultra seriousness, a good contrast. They're trying to lure a Tinker/Mover to become part of Wards. Wish you success with him. Flechette, the girls with crossbow and darts who fought so bravely against Leviathan. Great, I guess I'm getting to know her as well, right? Too bad that Parian is not a Ward, her power was so helpful during the Battle, but maybe they'll try to recruit her too. She can't leave this story since she was introduced like an absolute uncommon badass. Clockblocker is pretty strong as a Striker 7 but Vista is the best as Shaker 9. Imagine what she can do if she'll ever get to bypass the Mandon Effect. She'd kill people on great distances without moving a muscle. Armmaster is "retired" in another city, I guess.

"Geez louise. The others?"
"Kid Win is a Tinker 4. Guns and antigravity devices, primarily. Shadow Stalker is more ambiguous. Breaker 3, sublabels are Stranger 2, Mover 1. Her particular nature as a 'breaker' makes her superlight, semi-gaseous, transparent and capable of passing through solid surfaces."
"Okay. The team sounds well rounded, I can work with that."
She handed him a stack of files, "Here's the files on local factions, including your new team, and a file on the solo heroes and villains. You'll have limited access to the databases as well, which you should be familiar with, but this should get you the essential details to get underway. I've ordered those files loosely by priority, so you'll find the most need-to-know information at the top of the pile."

Weld took the folders and opened the one for the Wards, glanced through it to memorize the faces of his new team. Then he went to the next file, "Then the top priority as far as opposition goes is… the Archer's Bridge Merchants? Superpowered drug dealers. A Shaker 2, Tinker 2/Mover 3 and a Shifter 4. These aren't big numbers. Am I missing something?"
"Context. They've become a rallying point, representatives and leaders for those on the lowest rungs of society. Too many civilians who were the have-nots think allying with the Merchants is a way to become the haves. People that were angry, disenfranchised or both have gravitated towards the group, are seeking to overturn the social order."
"So they've got, what, a following of homeless?"
"Brockton Bay doesn't, or didn't, have many that you could strictly call homeless, as there were so many abandoned buildings to squat in. When the Endbringer attacked, he chose the area with many of these buildings."
"I think I remember, yeah. The area where the fight started didn't exactly look upscale."
"The sad irony of this is that the defending parahumans protected that area, while other locations were leveled by the tidal waves. That area, known to locals as the Docks, was not under the control of any organized crime or villain organization even before the attack. After the battle's conclusion, it was swiftly occupied by the Merchants and growing numbers of their followers, and is now one of the areas with reliable shelter. Not entirely, but more than many. By the time our local heroes were finished with search, rescue and minimizing damage, their number of followers had reached a critical mass. In the past several days, they've begun attacking the city infrastructure, the airport, grocery stores, malls and they've repeatedly seized medical supplies and food as they come in."

Kid Win and Shadow Stalker doesn't seem too strong to me which is something unexpected, because I was under impression that Kid Win must be a Tinker 6 or 7. I wonder what kind of Tinker Armmaster is. 8 or 9 must be his number, I can't see him lower than that. So, Merchants are the biggest villains of this Arc (and the next ones, probably). They're not very strong (they also have a Tinker but again, not very strong), but they terrorize Brockton Bay and they're attracting lots of people by their side. Kind of like ABB. I wonder what Empire88 is doing all this time.

"So a big priority will be safeguarding incoming supplies from relief efforts, protecting key areas of the city so it can recuperate from the disaster."
"Yes, for the time being."
"Let's see, the next group is… Fenrir's Chosen?"
"One of two major offshoots of the Aryan villain group, Empire Eighty-Eight, which fell apart after the death of their leader, Kaiser. Fenrir's Chosen are led by Hookwolf. Violent, utterly merciless, and reveling in the current chaos."
"And it looks like he's a Shaper 4, Brute 7, with the longest list of homicides or suspected homicides I've seen on someone who wasn't already in prison. Thick file, I take it he has lots of followers?"

"The largest group in terms of parahuman numbers, at present."
"And this second group, The Pure, is the second offshoot of that Aryan group, I take it?"
"Small but powerful. Their leader, Purity, is a Blaster 8 and Mover 4."
"Yeah, there's a Breaker 9, a Shifter 8 with Stranger 3 and a Master 6 in that group? I buy that they're powerful."
"Their leader has made overtures to us, offering cooperation in helping us regain control of the city. We have refused her for the time being. If she approaches you, you are in no way, shape or form permitted to agree to any deals."

Alright, my curiosity has been satisfied

. Empire88 is gone, but there are two nazis groups now. Fenrir's Chosen (Fenrir, a giant wolf in norse mythology, one of Loki's sons) lead by Hookwolf (quite suitable name for Hookwolf's group) whose classification as a Brute fits him like a glove fitting a hand. The other group is Pure, lead by Purity, a Baster 8 (not surprising, seeing how easy she blasted entire buildings and Leviathan). She apparently seemed more opened to heroes, but they refused her because....she's still a racist villain, even if she helped them with Leviathan. Of course, I can understand heroes' motivation.

"Noted. Let's see… Coil, powers unknown. The Travelers have high ratings on their powers, but their crimes are low end, pretty much. There's the Undersiders… three Master classifications in one team."
"Only one of whom is of any particular concern. Investigations into two members have suggested sociopathic tendencies, and if they're channeling their efforts into low threat activities such as robberies, we can afford to ignore them for the time being."
"Faultline's Crew. Mercenaries, low rating, mediocre rating, low rating… A Shaker 12? Seriously?"
"The girl has cognitive deficiencies that reduce the effective threat she poses, but yes. Again, that group is not an imminent threat. In the current situation, I might suggest you leave them be if you cross paths, conserve your group's strength for the priority opponents. The Merchants and Hookwolf's group."
"Okay. I'll have this memorized by the end of the week."
"I expect you will. That brings us to more mundane matters. You'll be enrolled full-time at Arcadia High School. It's close to the Wards headquarters, and your teachers have been informed about your special nature. I'm afraid there's no easy answers as far as your appearance and how the rest of the student body will react to you."

Weld looked down at his hands. His body, from skin to hair to bone, was all metal and alloys of varying types. "I've dealt with it before, I'll manage."
"We can't enroll you in the co-op program, as your absence would be noted, and would draw attention to others who are using the co-op program to mask their attendance in the Wards. It won't be easy, attending high school full-time, keeping up with your coursework and leading the team in your off hours."
"It's fine. I don't have to sleep much, anyways, so it's good to keep busy."
"Good to hear that. All that said, I have asked your teachers to make special arrangements, reducing expectations toward your homework, provided you are not struggling in any subjects. The Wards program will also provide tutors should you need them."
"Okay, cool."
"You'll have time to get into the swing of things without worrying about school, as the high schools are all currently shut down for repairs and to allow time for thorough investigation of the premises. When the schools are open, we'll have you take three courses and attend first year classes on parahumans at the University, if that suits you?"

Undersiders, 3 Masters: Regent (which I'm sure that he is the one of any particular concern

), Skitter and Bitch. The two members with sociopathic tendencies are Regent and Bitch. Tattletale is a Tinker 7 and Grue....a Shaker 6 or 7 and a Stranger 8 (I hope I got the classifications right

). Wow, Labyrinth is so damn powerful, the most powerful parahuman from everyone mentioned by Piggot so far. Shaker 12. Good Lord that she's isn't evil. Imagine what she can do if there's no Manton Effect. She would effectively create labyrinths INSIDE human bodies. How cool would be that?

I feel so sorry for poor, poor good boy Weld. Stupid bigots discriminate him because of his looks (even if he's rather handsome. Yes, I saw fan-art with Weld and he IS handsome) and his powers. Stupid assholes, you're just jealous because he's a better human being than you in every way possible "hugs Weld after she makes sure that she doesn't have any metal at her".

"Perfect."
"You'll be living in a private room in the Wards headquarters, and you'll have a monthly allowance of four hundred dollars in addition to the money put into your trust account by the program. We expect you'll spend this allowance on necessities, such as food and clothing. You do still eat, yes?"
"Yes," he answered her, bending the truth. While he did eat, it was a negligible amount. As he saw it, there was no real harm done if he pocketed some of that extra money and said he spent it on food. Given that his tongue was made of an alloy and the pleasures of food were a shadow of what they should be, it was only fair that he enjoy himself in some other way. He knew that some staff back in Boston had caught on, but they hadn't said anything. Director Piggot here gave him the vibe that maybe she wouldn't be so cool with it. He'd be more careful until he knew for sure.
"Your quarters have been checked and double checked, so there is no exposed metal, no screws, nails, frames or pegs."
"I appreciate the thought," he told her. His physiology had the unfortunate drawback that he couldn't help but attach to and absorb metal he touched. While it had been crippling when he'd first been found, dumped in a junkyard, he had learned ways around it. He could rearrange the metals that formed his body, separate them into their composite elements, and he extended this particular trick to push all the impurities in the metals out to his 'skin'. The impurities, unlike the metal that composed the rest of him, didn't bond, giving him the ability to handle things with his hands and teeth if he needed to. It didn't always work – at least once a week there was one embarrassing moments where he bonded with someone's wedding ring during a handshake or bumped into a shelf display – but it helped. Clothes helped as well.

in a more serious situation, such as when he was out on patrol, he could force parts of himself to melt and drop off, leaving a piece of himself behind, but it made him distinctly uncomfortable – pain wasn't the right word – until he replaced the tissue he'd lost. More often, he preferred to just tear the offending piece of metal from whatever surface it rested on, whether it was a segment of chain link fence or a hubcap. Whenever he did it, he'd have to spend as much as an hour dissolving the metal and absorbing it into his body. Either way, they were only emergency measures.
Which wasn't to say he was weak. Being made of materials and alloys as strong or stronger than steel from head to toe made him practically untouchable in a fight. In addition, his biology fell into some optimal middle ground between organic and inorganic. For those whose powers affected only living things, he counted as inorganic. The opposite was also true.

I bet that Coil must be a Thinker 12 and Dinah- a Thinker 5 or 6. Aww, this poor boy can't even eat properly because he can't feel the taste of food

. Wildbow, why you're such as jerkass with some of your nicest characters?

But at least he's invincible in combat and he can meld parts of his body and replace them later without feelings any pain. I'm imagining a possible fight between him and Hookwolf. HELL of a fight. They're going to FUSE so hard that no force in the world will be able to pull them away from each other. EVER. Better for both of them to stay away from each other.

"Do you understand why we have gone to this trouble for your sake, Weld? Why we are testing your ability as a team leader in a crisis such as this?"
"You're grooming me," he replied.
"Yes, but do you understand what we're grooming you for?" she pressed.
He knew, but he assumed she would prefer to explain. Besides, how she explained would inform him a great deal about his new boss's personality. "Not really."
"You likely know Director Armstrong in Boston, how he tends to prioritize research and understanding parahumans. I concern myself with more concrete affairs. Public relations, parahumans as a part of America."
Weld nodded.
"What Armstrong continually fails to grasp is that if we do not integrate parahumans into society, help society bend to accommodate your kind, there is no point in lab experiments or classifications. As bad as things might be with the periodic arrival of Endbringers and parahuman criminals, matters could be ten times worse if panic or prejudice takes hold from the public. You understand?"

"One thing, ma'am," Weld spoke.
"Yes?"
He took a deep breath. Not that he really needed it, but he did anyways. "Forgive me for saying so, but I get the impression you don't like or respect Director Armstrong?"
"Your point?"
"I just thought you should know he's something like a father figure to me. He's the one who recruited me to the Wards, got me up to speed. I've already made plans to go to his house for a bit this summer. Maybe I'm putting myself on your sh… in your bad books by saying so, but I just thought I should let you know I'll step up to defend him if you start putting him down."
"I see," tiny frown lines appeared between her eyebrows.
"Sorry."
A fire on a street below caught his attention. A car had been set on fire, and people were crowding around it.
Not noticing, Piggot pursed her lips, "Fine. My apologies for putting you in that situation. I won't say anything further about Director Armstrong for the time being. I was speaking of the need for public relations?"

Hmmm, so Piggot is not a parahuman, since she referred at parahumans as "your kind" when she addresses to Weld. Yet, she leads the Protectorate because...maybe she's a very competent non-powered human. Yes, she seems competent enough but...I don't know, I like and I respect her, but she seems a little bigot to me when it comes to parahumans. Like she doesn't tolerate parahumans but she's forced to do it, because of the nature of her job. I hope this is just my impression on the moment, because if Piggot will prove to be a bigot, then my appreciation for her will crush and burn. Parahumans are great people, most of them (even some of parahuman criminals), and it bugs me to not end when I see normal people hating all of them for some very stupid and counterproductive reasons. Please, Piggot, don't make me change my opinion about you, alright? I'm so happy seeing Weld being so protective towards the good boss Armstrong. He's not afraid to call Piggot out on her bullshit in a not so nice but respectful enough way. Weld, you and Legend are my favorite male heroes and I think you're already my first hero boyfriend

.

"Yes ma'am," he spoke, feeling somewhat relieved at her composure. He wouldn't feel a hundred percent okay about it until he verified her as someone who wouldn't find some other way to get back at him.
"As the number of parahumans first became clear, a long-term plan was established. In the early phases of the plan, much effort was dedicated to setting up the Protectorate and Wards, ensuring the public had heroes they could look up to, likable faces, likable personalities. Merchandising, interviews, tv shows, music, movies and more were all encouraged and supported with the idea of building up this image. Law, policy and rules for the official groups were all shaped with the idea of gradually building confidence in heroes."
Weld nodded.
"As we enter the next phase, our objective is to push the public a margin beyond their comfort zone. We are encouraging and promoting the existence of rogues, which is an unfortunate term that heralds back to the early days."

"Right," Weld responded. The term 'rogue' applied to anyone with powers who wasn't hero or villain, the negative connotations of the term tying back to an era when expectations had been rather different, much the same way the brute classification had been coined.
"This is a sensitive subject, slow to advance, as major corporations are particularly litigious when parahumans get involved. In simple terms, the big businesses do not want people with powers affecting the status quo, and it is very easy for them to derail years of work with one bad media campaign targeting parahumans."
"I see," Weld commented. He didn't like that in simple terms bit of what she'd said. Too many people implied he was stupid because he was strong. But could he really speak up about it, when he couldn't be sure if her choice of words came from an offensive or judgemental perspective? Or was he being overly sensitive?
"The second half of this phase is getting the public more comfortable with the outliers. The people with stranger powers, and stranger appearances. You're likable, Weld. You have a clearly unnatural appearance, if you'll forgive me saying so-"
Weld shrugged. He stood out. There were a hundred things that bothered him more than stares and comments on the subject.
"-but you have fans, and people are interested in you. You get higher ratings for your interviews than even the average handsome hero gets. You're second most popular for team leaders for number of youtube videos, possibly helped by a briefly lived internet meme featuring your face, and you have a blemish-free record, both academically and in your two years serving as a part of the Wards."

Please, guys, don't tell me that Weld can't be my hero boyfriend because he's either gay or he'll die.

Don't tell me anything, ok? I want to live with this illusion of him being my boyfriend as long as its possible. Thank you. I think that Piggot is right here. Weld is an excellent representative of parahumans, everyone will love and appreciate him. He's kind of like Beast from X-Men- a "brute monster" who apparently would scare people with his looks but with a genius mind and very well-meaning behavior (Beast is also my third favorite character in X-men, right after Professor Xavier and Wolverine

). Weld is Beast of Worm-verse.

"Thank you."
"Provided all goes according to plan, we intend for you to become a member of the core Protectorate team within the span of three to five years. Making your face national, even international, if you are willing."
"Wow. Yeah, I'm definitely okay with that, ma'am," he tried to feign surprise. Armstrong had already covered much of this.
"Of course, this hinges on your ability to lead your team, in the here and now."
"Of course."
"It seems we will land shortly. Any questions before we do?"
"One. I was hoping to arrange interstate training sessions with the New York and Boston Wards groups. As far as I'm aware, the local team doesn't do this. They barely have regular situation training."

"I recall Triumph made a request for something like this, a few years ago. I believe we refused him on the grounds that it was frivolous."
Weld squared his shoulders. He had to be assertive, here. "I'm firmly of the opinion that it would improve the local team's ability to cooperate and respond to a greater variety of situations. I'm totally prepared to eat any and all paperwork on our end."
"Eat the paperwork?"
"I mean I'll do it all, for the members of my team. Give you updates after any and all training sessions. Notes on improvements, lessons learned, weak areas, strengths, resources that could fill any perceived gaps."
"So long as you're prepared for me to put a stop to things at any time."
"Yes, ma'am."
"And," the Director paused a moment as the Helicopter touched down on solid ground, "It cannot cut into the regular patrol schedule. You and your team members would do this outside of the hours you're on clock for the Wards."
"I'll see if I can sell it to them. Thank you, Director," Weld stood.
Secretly, he was elated. The training games he'd led his team through back in Boston had been some of the more fun moments of his career. It had also allowed for a harmless but fun interaction with the New York group, giving them a chance to mingle, talk and share war stories. There was something about being able to mess with others on a level that you couldn't with teammates you had to fight alongside. If his new team liked the games half as much as he did, it would be a win in his book.

OMG, he's so damn assertive (in the good sense of word) towards Piggot, he'd make an EXCELLENT LEADER. As for training, he's right 100%. They need training so villains (except for Undersiders because they're MY villains

) should stop kicking their ass all the time. With so many villain groups around, they can't survive without a proper and ambitious training.

"Do you wish me to come down and introduce you?"
That earned a moment's consideration. Was this woman likable? No. Would the others like her? Probably not. Which meant that having her introduce him might be detrimental, associate him with someone they might view negatively.
"No, I don't think it's necessary, ma'am."
"Your old keycards will let you in. I'll have replacement identification sent to you shortly. In the meantime, I wish you luck."
"Thank you, Director," he handed her his headset and stepped through the door as PRT uniforms opened it. As if welcoming him into the city proper, there was the sound of a woman screaming down on the street below, the noise turning into a manic laugh in the same breath. Half the block was without power, and searchlights on the corners of the rooftop scanned nearby streets. PRT guards stood at the edge of the roof, armaments in hand. He relaxed at the sight of the guards – if they weren't acting on whatever was going on below, he didn't need to worry about it.

He took a deep breath, deep enough that he could feel the groan of the metal stretching to its limits inside his chest. Then he stepped off the rooftop and through the elevator doors. When the complex chrome doors shut, they cut off the noise of the helicopter entirely.
It was utterly quiet, inside the box. There was barely any sense of motion or movement from the elevator. Tinker designed. It had to be. He avoided touching the chrome walls or railing. It was probably coated with something, but emerging with a piece of railing stuck to him would make for a terrible first impression.
Stepping out into a hallway, he walked up to a security terminal. He swiped his identification card, spoke his name for the voice authentication, "Weld." There was a pause, and then the doors glided open.
His team was there, each with their masks off.
Clockblocker sat in a chair at the huge computer to the right of the room, swiveled to check out their new arrival, then stood, folding his arms. Red haired, freckled, thin lipped, he wore a costume that was all white, with animated images of clock faces on it. A white helmet sat on the counter of the computer terminal.
Shadow Stalker was leaning against a wall, thumbing through a smartphone. She had one foot against the wall, one arm folded just under her chest, her free hand resting in the crook of her other elbow. She looked up at him, stuck the phone in a pouch on her belt. She was dark-skinned, pretty, and from what he could see beneath her costume and her voluminous cloak, she had a nice body. Athletic figure. A part of Weld's adolescent psyche was relieved that there was some eye candy here.
Kid Win and Vista arrived from what the 'cubicles' at the far end of the spacious room. They weren't really cubicles, but sectioned off areas with beds and room for personal effects. The base in Boston had been similar. Kid Win was in civilian clothes, brown-haired, ruddy cheeked in a way that suggested he had been exercising until just recently. Very normal looking.
Vista was in pyjamas, her hair tied back into a ponytail. He'd had someone as young as her on his team in Boston, but the boy had been a Thinker, a limited precog content to work and communicate with them from their command station. This girl had been out in the field – three fingers on her left hand were bandaged, with crimson seeping in through the white. Her eyes were puffy, as though she'd been crying until very recently.
Should he comment on that? Offer support? He wasn't sure what to say, if it would even be welcome.
"Hello," he spoke. He received a chorus of muttered and murmured greetings in return.
"Look," he said, "I won't make a big deal of this. The guys upstairs want me in charge. It's going to take me a short while to get up to speed, but I hope to prove to you guys that I can and will work as hard as anyone."

Wow, Weld is NOT gay, confirmed by him taking a liking in Sophia's body (I hope you'll like only her body, not her personality as well). So, nothing can stop me from making him by hero boyfriend "apparate in the room, trying to steal Weld, but she can't do any shit on moment because he'd so damn heavy". Kid Win doesn't wear glasses "disappointed because she wants to see a Tinker/Thinker being 100% nerdy, including with typical glasses" (no Tinker or Thinker so far is wearing glasses

. I'd PAY to see at least one). "hugs the hell out of Vista" You poor, poor child, I have no other words...I'm suddenly so sad....

It was hard to say what he'd expected, but surely he should have gotten more of a response than some blank stares and glazed looks. Was it the wrong time for this? Every single one of them looked dog tired. Clockblocker looked like he was barely managing to stand.
"From everything I've heard, you guys are an excellent team, and I hope I can do you justice as a leader. It's my hope that we can improve on a winning formula. I've talked to the director about some special training-"
"Training?" Clockblocker interrupted, "You just lost me."
"If you'll hear me out, I think you'll like the idea."
"Have you seen the situation out there?" Clockblocker challenged him, "Less than an hour ago, I saved a guy I know from my high school physics class from being dragged into an alley by a half-dozen grown men. One of them stuck him with a needle before I got him away from them. The Hospitals are shut down or over capacity, so I brought him here. He's upstairs right now, getting drugs to ensure he doesn't get HIV."

Weld struggled to find something to say, failed.
Clockblocker went on, "Kid Win and I stopped some lunatics in gas masks from mixing ammonia and bleach into a poison gas. You know why? They wanted to off the people in an apartment block so they could loot the place and stay there. There's people going fucking crazy out there, and you're talking training."
"I didn't mean now," Weld protested, backpedaling, "I was thinking in terms of the future. The training would be something to look forward to, after this crisis has passed."
"You're assuming it's going to pass," Shadow Stalker replied, her voice tired. "Some are saying this is the way things are going to stay. I almost agree with them. This isn't the kind of city that bounces back from things."
I'm losing them. "I can't believe that. We've got to have hope."
"Pull a fifteen hour patrol out there, then come back and talk to me about hope," Clockblocker spoke. "You know, I could almost play along. Go with the blind optimism, say yippee to training. But you don't even mention the guy you're replacing? A few words for the dead? It's a matter of respect, bro."
"I didn't mean to dismiss them or their sacrifice. I just didn't know them, and-"
Clockblocker turned, swiping his arm angrily at his helmet to snatch it off the counter. Tucking it under one arm, he spoke to the others, his back to Weld,
"I'm going to check on my family. I'll head there in costume, in case I run into trouble, be back in the morning. Mind manning the console, Kid?"
Kid Win shook his head, "I need to take a break anyways."
Vista glanced at Weld, then asked, "Where do you guys need me?"
"Go sleep," Shadow Stalker spoke, placing a hand on Vista's head as she walked past the girl, "I'll start my patrol, go with Clock to make sure he gets home and that he has some backup. You can relieve me when I'm back, maybe get Clockblocker to go with you."
"Thank you," Vista's voice piped up, with a definite note of relief.
Helplessly, Weld watched as the team split up to go their separate ways, Kid Win sitting down at the far end of the computer station, Shadow Stalker and
Clockblocker heading for the elevator.
"I fucked up. I already lost them," Weld spoke, mostly to himself.
"No. They're just tired," Vista spoke from beside him. "And not just lack of sleep. You'll see what I mean. You could've mentioned Aegis and Gallant, but you can't be blamed if Clockblocker didn't give you time to get around to it. Nobody's really in the mood for speeches."
"Right," Weld replied, feeling lost, "Aegis and Gallant. They're the ones who died?"
Vista gave him a look that could only be described as pity. "You didn't even learn their names? Nevermind what I just said. Yeah, you fucked up."
Then she turned away and walked back to the cubicles. She was halfway there when he saw her rub at one cheek with the back of her hand.
"I… I just got here," Weld said, helplessly.
I just got told by a pre-teen, he thought.
"Shit," he swore under his breath. He found a chair in front of the computer and dropped the stack of file folders on the nearest flat surface. He plucked the file folder off the top of the stack, opened it and began studying.

I'm going to RAGE in...3...2...1....FUCK YOU, PIGGOT, JUST FUCK YOU FOR TALKING SHIT ABOUT YOUR PARAHUMAN SLIGHT HATE INSTEAD OF TELLING WELD WHAT HE NEEDED TO KNOW. YOU DIDN'T EVEN TOLD HIM WHO DIED, LETTING HIM FEELS LIKE HE DISAPPOINTED HIS TEAM. Man, I liked Piggot at first but now she's getting more and more bitchy and careless. I don't think she's that good (both as a person and as a leader) as she appeared at first. Poor, Weld, no, its not your fault, you're a very good guy with a strong heroic side who really wants to change how the things are working. You're just unlucky...Vista is more mature than her age and I'm pleasantly surprised. She's trying hard to hide her pain and she's so damn understanding towards her fellow Wards' sufferings. Clockblocker is emotionally CRUSHED and Sophia is SURPRISING supportive towards Vista (she seems to have a soft side around this child). Brockton Bay is worse than HELL. But I'm optimistic that Weld will do a great job with his team, winning their trust in him

. He have all the qualities to be able to do that.

Good night and sleep well, my friends. I noticed that this Arc seems to be dedicated 100% to heroes (no Taylor's POV during this first chapter) and I hope that all the other chapters will be like this- about Weld and his Wards. That would be more than I'm asking from an Arc to be perfect

.

ExNihilo · May 3, 2018

blackarrow said:
he considers only these two girls as being HIS because they're so important to his plans

I don't think it has ever come up, but I'm fairly sure he's an equal opportunity terrible person. If he had a male victim of similar importance he'd probably call him 'his' too.

blackarrow said:
Shadow Bitch Stalker

Don't bring Bitch into this, she didn't do anything wrong

blackarrow said:
I bet that Coil must be a Thinker 12

This is just the one I picked out, your classifications tend to be a little high in general. Can't say too much, obviously, but rankings 10+ are very rare.

blackarrow said:
But at least he's invincible in combat

He's metal, but not invincible. Sundancer, say, could melt him, not that she would. Sure, Skitter would have some trouble, as would Kaiser or Hookwolf, but Purity would beat him as well.

Vayhle · May 3, 2018

It's fun switching points of view like this. Such a great way to get to know characters.

Assembler · May 3, 2018

blackarrow said:
Too bad that Parian is not a Ward, her power was so helpful during the Battle, but maybe they'll try to recruit her too.

Stay tuned, Parian is going to be a thing eventually. And that degree of usefulness is nothing compared to what Wildbow has said she can be capable of.

blackarrow said:
Grue....a Shaker 6 or 7 and a Stranger 8 (I hope I got the classifications right )

By my estimation, Grue would be a Shaker/Stranger 7.

blackarrow said:
I bet that Coil must be a Thinker 12 and Dinah- a Thinker 5 or 6.

12 is a scale very few people reach. Back when the scale was established in the 90s, 10 was the highest score, given to whoever was the best in that particular area. Labyrinth was so much stronger than a Shaker 10 that she got a rating two points higher than theirs, but Coil is nowhere near the strongest Thinker, even if he does have a good power.

blackarrow said:
(no Tinker or Thinker so far is wearing glasses . I'd PAY to see at least one).

There is at least one.

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

Totally not four rats in a trench coat

SPACE!

Totally not four rats in a trench coat

SPACE!

Section XIII

SPACE!

SPACE!

SPACE!

Totally not four rats in a trench coat

Section XIII

Rocking the life

Rocking the life

SPACE!

Rocking the life