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

Leila Hann · Jun 25, 2018

liberty90 said:
I only suggested that I see similarities between Cauldron actions and some very questionable stuff done by real intelligence agencies in the 50' 60' and '70. Not that stuff is great or good to do for "national interests", mind you.

Wasn't talking about you.

rafuki22 · Jun 25, 2018

blackarrow said:
Well, its my opinion, first of all, and I have all the right to have my own opinion about certain events and to judge people, like everyone else I'm sure is doing, more or less. So, please, stop making me feel bad because I have my own opinions, friend, this is what you're doing almost all the time by telling me that I'm wrong if I think like this or like that. Let me see with my own eyes if I'm wrong or right about something, ok? And I didn't said that Cauldron might not be well- intentioned extremists. I said that even if they're well- intentioned extremists, I'll still DISLIKE them. Because they directly make experiments on people, use people to do nasty jobs for them and indirectly kill thousands of people by letting criminals escape. How many people Shatterbird and Siberian killed and will continue to kill because they're free to do as they please, instead of being capture/killed? Well- intentioned extremists are usually huge assholes who kill innocent people/let innocent people be killed because they have some good (or what they perceive themselves as being good) purposes in the end. But they're still criminals, even if they're fighting for saving a city, a country or a whole world. They're fucking murderers and I hate them. Alright? I don't care about Cauldron's reasons. I care about the super-nasty things are doing. Under no reasons someone is allowed to torture/kill INNOCENT people.

Ahhh yes? The undersiders commit nasty things (not always for good reasons) and you support them in spite of everything.
(They can be, "they can be," good, but, according to you, a criminal is a criminal, and they should not be forgiven for their crimes, unless they repent of their actions, as long as they are not too horrible...it is not realistic (Of course, I could be wrong, and I would appreciate it if you corrected me)).
You know, the territory only for bitch, bugs inside clockblocker, and many others (not always necessary), self-justifications, etc ...
This is, of course, my opinion.
So do not try to make me feel bad for making you feel bad, an opinion, apparently negative, it's not that bad, you do not need to be defensive.
It rhymes?

blackarrow · Jun 25, 2018

Leila Hann said:
Oh boy, you've ended up in a fight with the Cauldron Defense Force. This could get ugly.

I'll comment more on this subject later in the story. But for now, I'll just say that your assessment of them at this point in the story is the same as mine during my first reading.

I don't want to fight over Cauldron with people. I'm glad we have the same opinion about them, at least during our first reading. But I'll NEVER stop thinking about them as criminals (since THEY'RE criminals) even if I'll find out that they want to save the world. As long as they allow innocent people to be killed, then they're criminals and they'll always remain criminals to me. Doctor Mother is a huge bitch and I'll think like this about her until she'll redeem herself by sacrificing her own life for her "idealistic" plans, not other lives. Or she'll admit that she's a CRIMINAL and allow heroes to arrest her and punish her accordingly. Want to save the world? Find other successful ways to save the world, more peaceful, not the most ugliest and murderous one. You can't do the right thing with such awful methods.

blackarrow · Jun 25, 2018

liberty90 said:
Cauldron reminds me somewhat of...

Project MKUltra - Wikipedia

(...) Several known deaths have been associated with Project MKUltra, most notably that of Frank Olson. Olson, a United States Army biochemist and biological weapons researcher, was given LSD without his knowledge or consent in November, 1953, as part of a CIA experiment and committed suicide by jumping out of a window a week later. (...)

Edgewood Arsenal human experiments - Wikipedia

Now imagine if CIA will purposely let terrorists escape only because they're their terrorists and they might be useful for them later. This will make them worse than the terrorists that they let escape. Because countless of people will die once they let the terrorists escape.

blackarrow · Jun 25, 2018

rafuki22 said:
Ahhh yes? The undersiders commit nasty things (not always for good reasons) and you support them in spite of everything.
(They can be, "they can be," good, but, according to you, a criminal is a criminal, and they should not be forgiven for their crimes, unless they repent of their actions, as long as they are not too horrible...it is not realistic (Of course, I could be wrong, and I would appreciate it if you corrected me)).
You know, the territory only for bitch, bugs inside clockblocker, and many others (not always necessary), self-justifications, etc ...
This is, of course, my opinion.
So do not try to make me feel bad for making you feel bad, an opinion, apparently negative, it's not that bad, you do not need to be defensive.
It rhymes?

Its a big difference between Undersiders and Cauldron. Except for Rachel and Alec (and you can see that Rachel and Alec are NOT my favorite Undersiders) they didn't killed innocent people. They only hurt heroes when they have to fight back. I can't see Taylor deciding: wow, in order to save Dinah and to stop Coil, I have to kill an entire city of people, because this is the only way to do the right thing. No, all she's saying is: in order to save Dinah, I have to expand my territory, attract people by my side and impress Coil. This is not how a well- intentioned extremist will see the things. So, unless Taylor and Lisa will start slaughtering parents and children and random bystanders, I'll continue to love them and agree with whatever they're planning to do involving Coil (as long as their plan don't involve murdering non-villains). Yes, I'm subjective but I'll always hold onto my beliefs no matter how wrong or right they're.

Undersiders are not Magneto (from X-man)- for example- who decided to eliminate the non-powered human race in order to protect his mutants. Undersiders (especially Taylor and Lisa) are good people who are forced to do some nasty things because they can't do what they're planning to do without playing villain role. They're more like anti-heroes than everything else.

rafuki22 · Jun 25, 2018

blackarrow said:
I don't want to fight over Cauldron with people. I'm glad we have the same opinion about them, at least during our first reading. But I'll NEVER stop thinking about them as criminals (since THEY'RE criminals) even if I'll find out that they want to save the world. As long as they allow innocent people to be killed, then they're criminals and they'll always remain criminals to me. Doctor Mother is a huge bitch and I'll think like this about her until she'll redeem herself by sacrificing her own life for her "idealistic" plans, not other lives. Or she'll admit that she's a CRIMINAL and allow heroes to arrest her and punish her accordingly. Want to save the world? Find other successful ways to save the world, more peaceful, not the most ugliest and murderous one. You can't do the right thing with such awful methods.

Unfortunately, you are not right, it will be very difficult to save the world from the most powerful villains and the endbringers in a moral way, unless you are a super-powerful self insert of the first worm cyoa.

blackarrow · Jun 25, 2018

rafuki22 said:
Unfortunately, you are not right, it will be very difficult to save the world from the most powerful villains and the endbringers in a moral way, unless you are a super-powerful self insert of the first worm cyoa.

You can save the world by finding ways to evacuate all people to other worlds through portals, build some powerful device to help you send your enemies away, create viruses and infect the villains with them or try to negotiate with the right persons who can help you save the world. But NO by killing innocent people. This is a big NO. People who think that by killing innocent people they can save the world are even bigger scumbags that the villains. You can't defeat a monster by being a worse monster than him.

rafuki22 · Jun 25, 2018

blackarrow said:
You can save the world by finding ways to evacuate all people to other worlds through portals, build some powerful device to help you send your enemies away, create viruses and infect the villains with them or try to negotiate with the right persons who can help you save the world. But NO by killing innocent people. This is a big NO. People who think that by killing innocent people they can save the world are even bigger scumbags that the villains. You can't defeat a monster by being a worse monster than him.

I'm sorry to say this but ... saving a world like worm, without casualties, is almost impossible.
I explain why.(In addition, you assume, from what you have said, that governments and humanity as a whole will cooperate.)
Have you seen our world?
It's dying, all because almost everyone is stupid, they can not see beyond their pride and greed, not to mention the problems of politics, and do not make me talk about ethnic or religuous problems.
Now think, power corrupts, and superpowers even more, in a world with superpowers you will not see the world adopt the ideals of my hero academy, but adopt those of a dark marvel (although it is already quite dark by itself) or even worse.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions, there is no harm that does not come well, these are very true sayings, but, like all sayings, there are exceptions, subversions, etc ...
But even then, sometimes, the only thing you can do is to abandon everything that made you human, transform yourself into a monster, and hope for the best.
Even then, it would probably be a better result than the alternative.
Ps: Did you know that there is a theory that vista is jack slash?

Pps:One more question,would you choose to save a whole city of strangers, or your family? I? My family, of course, depending on the circumstances.
I hope I did not overwhelm you.

Leila Hann · Jun 25, 2018

rafuki22 said:
I'm sorry to say this but ... saving a world like worm, without casualties, is almost impossible.
I explain why.(In addition, you assume, from what you have said, that governments and humanity as a whole will cooperate.)
Have you seen our world?
It's dying, all because almost everyone is stupid, they can not see beyond their pride and greed, not to mention the problems of politics, and do not make me talk about ethnic or religuous problems.
Now think, power corrupts, and superpowers even more, in a world with superpowers you will not see the world adopt the ideals of my hero academy, but adopt those of a dark marvel (although it is already quite dark by itself) or even worse.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions, there is no harm that does not come well, these are very true sayings, but, like all sayings, there are exceptions, subversions, etc ...
But even then, sometimes, the only thing you can do is to abandon everything that made you human, transform yourself into a monster, and hope for the best.
Even then, it would probably be a better result than the alternative.
Ps: Did you know that there is a theory that vista is jack slash?
Pps:One more question,would you choose to save a whole city of strangers, or your family? I? My family, of course, depending on the circumstances.
I hope I did not overwhelm you.

"The problem with the world is that everyone isn't doing what I think is right. To save it, I need to become a total monster and impose my will on them by force. I am uniquely qualified to do this because of reasons."

Vayhle · Jun 25, 2018

I love reading worm live-blogs, thanks as always for doing this.

You be you, right wrong or just opinions are all good I'm just glad to watch while you share. Glad you don't let others get you down with their strongly held and expressed views.

blackarrow · Jun 25, 2018

rafuki22 said:
I'm sorry to say this but ... saving a world like worm, without casualties, is almost impossible.
I explain why.(In addition, you assume, from what you have said, that governments and humanity as a whole will cooperate.)
Have you seen our world?
It's dying, all because almost everyone is stupid, they can not see beyond their pride and greed, not to mention the problems of politics, and do not make me talk about ethnic or religuous problems.
Now think, power corrupts, and superpowers even more, in a world with superpowers you will not see the world adopt the ideals of my hero academy, but adopt those of a dark marvel (although it is already quite dark by itself) or even worse.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions, there is no harm that does not come well, these are very true sayings, but, like all sayings, there are exceptions, subversions, etc ...
But even then, sometimes, the only thing you can do is to abandon everything that made you human, transform yourself into a monster, and hope for the best.
Even then, it would probably be a better result than the alternative.
Ps: Did you know that there is a theory that vista is jack slash?
Pps:One more question,would you choose to save a whole city of strangers, or your family? I? My family, of course, depending on the circumstances.
I hope I did not overwhelm you.

No, you didn't overwhelmed me, I actually like to discuss these moral dilemmas. Wildbow is VERY GOOD at making people ask themselves what they'll do in certain situations (very few authors are actually so skillful). You ask me if I choose to save strangers or my family. Well, to answer your question, I'll TRY TO SAVE BOTH MY FAMILY AND STRANGERS, because all of them are humans and I care for any innocent human life. I'll find another way to save all of them, exactly how Taylor was able to save her father, people in her territory and people in the way to her house. I'll do anything in my power to save everyone, and if few of them will die at least I'll feel good about myself that I saved as many people as possible. But I'll not sacrifice on purpose anyone, I'll not willingly kill any innocent soul and I'll not allowed others to do the same, in the limits of my possibilities. I don't believe in "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" I believe that there are more roads than a single one that you can take if you want to reach the destination. There's not a single possibility in your life. There are many, many possibilities and if you truly want to be a good person, you have to choose the one which is the best for you and for others. That's the reason why I believe that the people who choose the very wrong ways to do good in the end (and I'm NOT referring here at robbing a bank or beating up someone or hurting a hero in fight, I'm referring at really bad things, as torturing/killing innocents, terrorists acts or the systematically killing of heroes) are the same MONSTERS as the ones who choose the very wrong ways to do evil in the end. Not a real difference between them.
Let me ask you a question: if your country's president is accused by other countries that he's a thread for the whole world and these countries will suddenly attack your country in order to kill your president and stop him, will you agree with their methods? Even if they'll kill your family, your friends, you'll still think that they're right to bomb millions people (including your loved ones) just to take one single down? There are many other methods to stop a single person, but they choose instead to invade your country and bomb the living daylights of you and your countrymen. Will you applaud them and call them heroes?
BTW, in a world with super-powers there are even more methods to stop a very evil person without sacrificing innocents than in our world. You can teleport them far away from your world, you can mind control them and force them to kill themselves, you can create powerful weapons against them, you can find their vulnerabilities and defeat them. Many, many other ways. No matter how powerful is someone, they can still be defeated. And not necessarily through murdering people who have no connection to these evils.

rafuki22 · Jun 25, 2018

Leila Hann said:
"The problem with the world is that everyone isn't doing what I think is right. To save it, I need to become a total monster and impose my will on them by force. I am uniquely qualified to do this because of reasons."

I'm not saying that, it's just that, sometimes, against ruthless situations you also have to be ruthless.
(Besides, I would take the world to ruin (although maybe I'm being very hard on myself)).
If you have read worm you will know what I mean.

rafuki22 · Jun 25, 2018

blackarrow said:
No, you didn't overwhelmed me, I actually like to discuss these moral dilemmas. Wildbow is VERY GOOD at making people ask themselves what they'll do in certain situations (very few authors are actually so skillful). You ask me if I choose to save strangers or my family. Well, to answer your question, I'll TRY TO SAVE BOTH MY FAMILY AND STRANGERS, because all of them are humans and I care for any innocent human life. I'll find another way to save all of them, exactly how Taylor was able to save her father, people in her territory and people in the way to her house. I'll do anything in my power to save everyone, and if few of them will die at least I'll feel good about myself that I saved as many people as possible. But I'll not sacrifice on purpose anyone, I'll not willingly kill any innocent soul and I'll not allowed others to do the same, in the limits of my possibilities. I don't believe in "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" I believe that there are more roads than a single one that you can take if you want to reach the destination. There's not a single possibility in your life. There are many, many possibilities and if you truly want to be a good person, you have to choose the one which is the best for you and for others. That's the reason why I believe that the people who choose the very wrong ways to do good in the end (and I'm NOT referring here at robbing a bank or beating up someone or hurting a hero in fight, I'm referring at really bad things, as torturing/killing innocents, terrorists acts or the systematically killing of heroes) are the same MONSTERS as the ones who choose the very wrong ways to do evil in the end. Not a real difference between them.
Let me ask you a question: if your country's president is accused by other countries that he's a thread for the whole world and these countries will suddenly attack your country in order to kill your president and stop him, will you agree with their methods? Even if they'll kill your family, your friends, you'll still think that they're right to bomb millions people (including your loved ones just to take one single down? There are many other methods to stop a single person, but they choose instead to invade your country and bomb the living daylights of you and your countrymen. Will you applaud them and call them heroes?
BTW, in a world with super-powers there are even more methods to stop a very evil person without sacrificing innocents than in our world. You can teleport them far away from your world, you can mind control them and force them to kill themselves, you can create powerful weapons against them, you can find their vulnerabilities and defeat them. Many, many other ways. No matter how power is someone, they can still be defeated. And not necessarily through murdering people who have no connection to these evils.

Depending on the situation (with that I mean, level of extreme threat) yes, I would agree ... but I would not applaud.
I'm quite ... amoral and pragmatic.
Also, with the superpowers there would be more ways to do evil, you see that it is doing very well to worm, also marvel and dc along the way.
Also, as kiritsugu emiya learned "You can not save everyone".

blackarrow · Jun 25, 2018

Vayhle said:
I love reading worm live-blogs, thanks as always for doing this.

You be you, right wrong or just opinions are all good I'm just glad to watch while you share. Glad you don't let others get you down with their strongly held and expressed views.

Thank you so much for your kind words. I'm usually a very stubborn person and I'll always hold onto my beliefs no matter what others will say. The only way for me to change my opinions if I'll decide myself that I'm wrong about something, otherwise I don't change anything for anyone. I'll give you an example. I participated at some amateur mixed-gender mountain bike racings. Just 2 girls and 18 boys. Most of boys taunted me to give up, using really bad and sexist insults, saying that this is not a sport for girls and anyway a girl is incapable to do anything against boys. The other girl finally gave up, saying that she wants to train better and she'll try other time. But I didn't gave up and guess on which place I finished the racing? 19th place

. I wasn't the last but it wasn't great either. Most of the boys taunted me again, telling me that I should have listened them and even sending me to cook them food (you know the usual sexist joke). I didn't cried, I didn't suffered, I was actually proud of myself. I didn't told them anything. And I continued to train myself, more and harder. Next racing, I got the 6th place. 6th place from 20 competitors, only another two girls this time but one abandoned the racing due to an accident and another one finished on the last place. The boys didn't said anything anymore. But I was the one who told them something this time: train better, harder and believe in yourself. And never let others put your down. And be optimistic because there are always moments when you can be better than last time.

blackarrow · Jun 25, 2018

rafuki22 said:
Depending on the situation (with that I mean, level of extreme threat) yes, I would agree ... but I would not applaud.
I'm quite ... amoral and pragmatic.
Also, with the superpowers there would be more ways to do evil, you see that it is doing very well to worm, also marvel and dc along the way.
Also, as kiritsugu emiya learned "You can not save everyone".

No problem if you're amoral and pragmatic, as long as you don't kill people, I'm perfectly fine. Even if you're like Alec, I don't have anything against, I'll still talk with you without any resentments. As you probably noticed, I'm quite the opposite: I'm an idealistic person who only wants what is good for everyone. Except for bad, evil people. But I'm willing to give some bad people who truly want to redeem themselves a second chance. Even in Worm, there are some villains that might redeem themselves (one already turned into a hero- Ethan) but some are already beyond any redemption. I mean, I can't see Mannequin, Jack, Coil, Heartbreaker, ever wanting to redeem themselves. There is no salvation for them, only in death.

rafuki22 · Jun 25, 2018

blackarrow said:
No problem if you're amoral and pragmatic, as long as you don't kill people, I'm perfectly fine. Even if you're like Alec, I don't have anything against, I'll still talk with you without any resentments. As you probably noticed, I'm quite the opposite: I'm an idealistic person who only wants what is good for everyone. Except for bad, evil people. But I'm willing to give some bad people who truly want to redeem themselves a second chance. Even in Worm, there are some villains that might redeem themselves (one already turned into a hero- Ethan) but some are already beyond any redemption. I mean, I can't see Mannequin, Jack, Coil, Heartbreaker, ever wanting to redeem themselves. There is no salvation for them, only in death.

I would not call myself similar to alec, I can still feel emotions and, sometimes, I surprise myself with my optimism.
And I do not agree with you, they do not deserve death ... they deserve to suffer what they have caused others to suffer, to be forced to live their triggering moment (or the closest thing) again and again and again.
Although I am not a sadist, I do not especially enjoy causing misery and death, but I would kill people if it were really necessary.
As you can see I am the kind of little empathetic person who watches videos of epic and painful failures. Also, you would be surprised by the worm villains in some fanfictions.

KnownParadox · Jun 25, 2018

Snare 13.1 seems a little different from what I remember.

(Hint: I think you mislabeled your thing up there.)

blackarrow · Jun 25, 2018

Hello, people from everywhere (yes, even you, Cauldron's employees and lawyers

) and welcome to a new Arc called Snare Snare 13.1 I think this Arc will be about

either Coil/Undersiders/Travellers trying to catch S9 into a trap or S9 trying to catch everyone else into a trap. But since snares are traps for catching birds or small animals, I think that Undersiders will capture somehow Shatterbird and use her against her teammates. That would be something with which I'll wholehearted agree. Ok, back to our talk about Cauldron. Why they want Battery to help Shatterbird and Siberian escape, despite being mass-murderers? Someone told me on this thread that Shatterbird bough her power from Cauldron so she's their client, she kills for them. Siberian, if my theory is right, is a robot who might act following someone's orders. Someone from Cauldron. What if the Tinker who created her is a Cauldron's member and is still alive? And the only way to stop Siberian is to kill them? That would be great but its pretty difficult for our HEROES to kill someone when they don't know where they can find them. If the respective Tinker lives in Cauldron, its not an easy feat to locate where the fuck Cauldron is and especially kill their man (or their woman). So, the Doctor wants Siberian and Shatterbird to escape for what exactly? To kill for them? Or to stop Jack from destroying the world? Maybe cauldron have precogs who told them what Jack is planning and they use their sleeper agents, Siberian and Shatterbird, to stop Jack. They pretend they work for him and help him, but at the right moment, they're activated under Cauldron's order to stop him from fucking the world. This is one of my theories about the reason why they want two of the most dangerous S9 members alive and free. But I don't get why Cauldron didn't find better ways to stop Jack than setting two criminals free. They could have send their parahumans after him- he wouldn't stand any chance without Siberian's protection. Or poison his drink. Or have him injected with an unknown and untraceable virus that will affect only him and not even Bonesaw would be aware of. Or MUCH MORE BETTER, find the person that Jack wants to influence or kill in order to cause the end of the world, kidnap them and keep them away from Jack until he'll be killed. There are more ethic and easy methods to do the right thing than letting 2 women responsible of probably thousands of deaths roam free. That's another reason why I HATE well- intentioned extremists. They choose the most complicated and evil ways to do the right thing when they have so many possibilities to solve everything in a more peaceful manner. Fuck them and their blindness. Well, I don't exactly want Doctor Mother to die. I want for her to live as long as possible in order to see all her plans FAILING BADLY. She wants Siberian and Shatterbird alive and free? I want them to be killed so this plan will fail (among other reasonable reasons). She wants for Battery to do nasty things behind Protectorate's back? I want Protectorate to find about what Battery is forced to do and stop her. She wants Jack to be stopped? I want Jack to not be stopped by Cauldron but by Theo or anyone else who's not Cauldron. In this way, all their plans will crash and burn. Even if they want to save the world, let the world be saved by someone else rather than by them (anyway, the world will be saved because there's Worm 2, right? There won't be Worm 2 if everything was destroyed in Worm 1.

) I want for Doctor Mother to see all her plans ruined then to either surrender herself to be arrested by heroes or come face to face with one of her unwilling experiments and receive a taste of her medicine from them. If this shit will happen, I don't care about anything else. I'd be very satisfied anyway.

Brian was waiting for me as I passed through the door and into Coil's underground base. He held a paper out to me.

Sirs and Madams,
The terms of engagement are as follows:
1. Three days to each member of the Slaughterhouse Nine so we can conduct our tests. Tests will be performed one after the other, with eight rounds in total.
2. A successful test or the removal of a candidate who has failed a test will earn the tester bonus time. 3-12 hours for a successful test depending on the number of candidates remaining and 24 hours for an execution.
3. Should a tester suffer a sound defeat at the hands of any individual during their allotted time, they will be penalized one day of allotted time.
4. Each tester operates independently, with no hands-on assistance from other members of the Slaughterhouse Nine. Assistance may be bought, bartered or otherwise rendered in a hands-off manner, possibly including medical assistance, information, provided equipment and suggestions.
5. Candidates may receive assistance, hands-on or otherwise, from Brockton Bay residents only. We are fully aware that Legend and his teammates are in Brockton Bay. Should they interfere with a tester, all candidates will lose the protection of any rules, all terms offered here will cease and the threat implied in point eight will be carried out. This only applies to confrontations with the active tester.
6. The Slaughterhouse Nine will handle the punishment of any members of their own team, in the event of failures, the inability of the tester to perform at least a partial round of testing or killing a candidate without notification.
7. Should the defending parties have two or more candidates remaining when the eighth round of testing concludes, the Slaughterhouse Nine will depart Brockton Bay without incident and refrain from returning for three years at a minimum.
8. If and when the Slaughterhouse Nine do eliminate five of the six candidates, or if any candidates leave the city, the Slaughterhouse Nine are prepared to penalize the city for their failure.
Mannequin is the first to carry out his round of testing. He has two days remaining.
We will be in touch.

Oh, Gosh, S9 wrote a contract for their candidates, with all the instructions they (S9) have to follow. This seems very fair to me, and I really hope that Jack will keep his promises and actually follow his own rules, not just pretend to follow them. So far Jack seems a weirdly honest psychopath, but who knows what he's hiding beneath his apparently willingness to accept others' deals and follow instructions. He's a psychopath first of all and one can never expect from a psychopath to be the most righteous guy around.

"Where is everyone?" I asked, handing the paper back to him.

He pointed down the hall.
"Christ," Brian said, shaking his head as he walked, rereading the terms. He opened the door for me.
Coil was inside, at the end of a long table. The Undersiders sat at one side of the table, with Circus sitting at the farthest edge, beside Coil. The Travellers, minus Noelle, sat along the other side. I took note of the blond teenager who wasn't even wearing part of a costume. Oliver. Coil was the opposite, as fully covered as ever. Everyone else was costumed but they had their masks and helmets off.
I got my first good look at Lisa since I'd left her bleeding in Ballistic's headquarters. The scar ran from the corner of her mouth to the corner of her jaw, and dark stitches ran down the length of it. The slang term for this kind of injury was a Glasgow smile or a Chelsea smile, but the term seemed ill-fitting. Where Lisa often had a grin on her face, the cut pulled the corner of her mouth down into a perpetual lopsided-frown rather than a smile.
Bitch gave me a dark look as I entered, but many of the others were smiling.
"The people in my territory are singing your praises, Skitter," Ballistic said.
"My territory too," Alec added.
"I didn't do anything that special. My power did the work."
"And you kicked Mannequin's ass," Trickster said. He leaned back in his chair, balancing on two of the legs, his feet on the table. "You had a busy night."
"Honestly, I didn't kick his ass. He got some of my people, he thrashed me, I got a piece of him."
"No," Lisa said, her voice quiet. She couldn't really move one corner of her mouth when talking, so her words came out slightly slurred.
I saw her work her tongue in her mouth and then take a sip of water, wincing. Brian had updated me: the cut had probably damaged one or more of her salivary glands, and she'd have dry mouth until it healed. Maybe forever.

"LE SIGH" For all people who believe that I defend Undersiders unconditionally, I have a confession to make: I want to beat up Taylor to a pulp for putting herself down all the fucking time. I'd take a great pleasure beating her for fucking hours until she'll stop being so miserable and self- hating and will start behaving like any normal person, by admitting her loses when they exist and her wins when they exist. I mean, even S9 admitted you won in front of Mannequin and you still think you didn't won only because few of your people got killed and he gave you few good kicks. Gosh, you make very difficult for me to support you during moments like this, girl "sighs". Even if you don't trust yourself, at least trust everyone else when they are telling you that you did a great job "shakes her head, sighing again". Also, poor Lisa...she have such a huge scar as a result of Jack's injuring her. I wonder why Coil couldn't find a healer, since he have so many connections everywhere. But maybe he's too busy now with this whole war to protect S9's candidates to care about a teenager being scarred like this. Lisa will be healed, I'm sure about, but not right now.

The really scary part was that she might have suffered some nerve damage as well. How much of that half-frown was because of the direction of the cut and the way the stitches pulled, and how much was because her nerves were damaged enough that her face was drooping?

She caught me looking and gave me a wink. She took another gulp of water and cleared her throat before speaking again. "They took one day from Mannequin because they thought he lost."

"If the enemy thinks they lost," Brian said, "That's a good enough reason to think you've won."
I privately disagreed, but I didn't say anything. I pulled up a chair and sat at the corner of the table furthest from Coil, wincing at the pain in my ribs as I bent down.
"So," Brian said, "You intend for something like this to happen when you made your suggestion, Tattletale?"
Lisa shrugged, "Sorta. Thought he'd take the bait, didn't know how far."
"It's not all advantageous," I said, thinking aloud. "Yes, we're now in a position where we could win, with some planning or luck, and the plan we were hashing out at our last meeting might be easier, now. But we're also facing pretty heavy consequences if we fail… heavier consequences. And there's a lot of places where this could go wrong. We don't even know who all the candidates are."
"Me, Bitch, Armsmaster, Noelle, probably Hookwolf and someone in Faultline's crew?" Alec said.
"No. Jack said they picked two heroes. Hookwolf, yes. But their last pick is a hero, not one of Faultline's," Lisa said.
"And we can't say for sure who this person is or what actions they plan to take," I said. "Too much hinges on everyone else's willingness to cooperate and play by the rules, and the stuff that happened at the last meeting of the city's villains makes me skeptical."
Brian nodded. "It's important that we find this person, make sure they play along, so we don't wind up
losing before this game of theirs even starts."
"There's other problems here," I said, "We can't forget what Dinah said about Jack. If he leaves town, it could mean disaster. If we win, we could all lose in the long run, because it'd mean he left town and
Dinah's prophecy would come true. Hell, a lot hinges on whether the Protectorate is on the same page as us. If they arrest him and take him out of town…"
"It could mean the end of the world."
"Right," I said.
"Hookwolf has proposed an all-out attack," Coil spoke for the first time since my arrival. "He wants to gather the more powerful members of his alliance together into an army and attempt to overwhelm the Nine and kill Jack Slash in the chaos."
"That won't work." Brian shook his head. "These guys specialize in dealing with crowds, and they're experienced when it comes to that sort of thing."
"Hookwolf believes our local capes are collectively strong enough to do what other groups couldn't."
"Maybe they are, but I wouldn't bet on it. We should be focused on what wecan do," Brian said.
"You guys are better set up for information gathering and escapes," Trickster said. "We could take them on, depending on who it is and how small the group is, but I don't know how well we'd do in those
circumstances."
"Crawler couldn't reach Noelle where we've got her stashed," Trickster said, "I'm not sure what the others could do."
"What about when Siberian comes after Noelle?" I asked. "Will the same measures stop her?"
"Probably not," Trickster replied.

They don't know yet that Merchants (sans Scrub) are dead. Neither Hookwolf knows this as he's prepared for a full war against S9, even with the price of creating chaos and killing lots of innocents in the process. I'm sure that he'll not manage to kill Jack before Jack will leave the city+ his direct attacks will only make S9 angrier and more vengeful and the lives of citizens even harder than before. I said before that I'd agree with a systematic bombing of the city but only after everyone will be evacuated. And since you can't evacuate all the people without S9 finding about your plot, then the only thing you can do is using your smartness to take them down, keeping the numbers of collateral victims as low as possible. But Hookwolf is not a wise man neither he ever give a fuck about the security of other people. He cares for his own people, but he'll sacrifice anyone else for "victory". Besides, his ambition to put the war over territories in front of any alliance between his people and UT already cost him the extermination of Merchants. Maybe Merchants wouldn't have died if everyone would have helped everyone against S9, fighting the same war, not becoming two alliances, fighting two different wars against the same enemy. Well, but why should I care about Merchants in the first place? Their deaths was a blessing anyway. FIP, Merchants, meaning Fuck In Peace.
The only reason why I feel at least 15% bad for Merchants is: less people to fight against S9.

"This would be a lot easier if you'd tell us more about her," I pointed out. "Unless you think she can hold her own against the Nine, we're going to be helping protect her."

Trickster frowned. "There's not much to say. She's in containment, and if she doesn't stay where she is, things would get worse, fast."
"So she's dangerous, and she's not entirely in control of her power?"
He tilted his chair forward until it was flat on the ground and set his elbows on the table, hands clasped in front of his mouth. He glanced down the table at his teammates. I wasn't sure, but I thought maybe he glanced briefly at Coil.
With a resigned tone, he told us, "She's dangerous enough that if Siberian got to her, I think she'd make it out okay. The rest of us wouldn't."
The table was silent for a moment. I could see something in the faces of the Travelers. Pain? It wasn't physical, so perhaps it was emotional? It could be fear, guilt, regret, or any number of other things.
Trickster's words reminded me of what Sundancer had said back when she and I had fought Lung.
Sundancer had held back in using her power because she was frightened about hurting bystanders or killing the people she attacked. Her power was too hard to use without hurting someone. Ballistic was
the same. Was Noelle another case of the same thing? That same too-powerful ability, only on a greater scale?
Brian sighed. "We'll deal with Noelle's situation when it comes up. We have three targets they're going to be coming after, with a fourth if we consider that Mannequin'll be after Skitter. If we split into two groups, then we can maintain enough offensive power to defend ourselves against the ones like Mannequin, Burnscar, Jack or Shatterbird."

Sundancer cut in, "Which makes me wonder… Sorry if this is a crummy idea, but what if we waited for Jack's turn, and then tried to kill him?"
"No guarantees there," Brian answered her. "I think we'll have to be proactive in going after him. Maybe we can use Hookwolf's distraction, maybe he'll get cocky and make a mistake."
"Doubt it," Tattletale said, "He's lasted years doing what he does."
I couldn't help but nod in agreement.
"Besides, he goes last," Tattletale finished.
"To get back to what you were saying, you were proposing dividing the teams?" Coil spoke.
"Yeah," Brian said. "Bitch has offensive power of her own. Skitter does too. If there's no complaints, we could play this largely geographically. Maybe me, Imp, Bitch and Skitter? If you guys can put your differences aside?"
It was only when Brian mentioned Imp that I realized Aisha was present. I'd almost missed her. I wanted to believe that it was because she was sitting at the end of the table and there were four of my teammates between us, but I couldn't be sure. It would be damn nice if there was some sort of gradual immunity to her power.
"And maybe someone else who isn't raw offense? Circus?" Brian suggested.
Coil spoke before Circus could reply. "No. I pulled her off of a task as a precautionary measure, as I had one aspect of my long-term plans derailed last night with Trainwreck's demise at the Nine's hands. I would rather she did not fall to an unfortunate coincidence of the same nature."
"No problem," I said.
"Whatever," Bitch answered, noncommital.
"What happened?" Sundancer asked.
"They've eliminated the Merchants," Coil said.
I wasn't sure how to feel about that. The Merchants were scum of the worst sort. It wasn't just that they polluted everything they touched and did some reprehensible things. They reveled in it. They wanted to be the lowest of the low. On the other hand, it was a point for their side. Seven or eight parahumans we no longer had to fight the Nine with.

I won't be surprised if Cauldron will ask Coil to release Noelle on streets for the same reasons they want Siberian and Shatterbird to leave the city. Eveything is possible when it comes to them. Another thing: Noelle is so powerful that only Siberian will be fine if they'll fight, all others will be boned. This is very assuring, thank you for this positive piece of information, Krouse.

Btw, I think that Crawler will be also fine if he'll go against Noelle. Oh, Gosh, Aisha.....

I swear, if there is such thing as an Aisha Interlude, this is the most fitting song (I'm going to listen this song during it):
Sorry, Aisha, don't feel offended, but its so DAMN TRUE. Coil knows about Merchants' demise and he let others know as well. I'm glad that Taylor is thinking like me: doesn't give a shit about Merchants as persons, only about the remaining number of fighters.

Sometimes our ideas coincide. Just sometimes.

"Also, I would prefer her involvement in my operation stay under wraps. She can defend Noelle and myself for the time being."

"Then Trickster? Or Genesis?" Brian asked.
"I would rather stay close to Noelle," Trickster said. "If Genesis is willing, that would be fine."
"And that leaves Ballistic, Sundancer, Trickster, Noelle, Regent and Tattletale for the second group. We stay together, we keep an eye on our territories to watch for trouble from Hookwolf's contingent, and we keep an eye out for opportunity. Tattletale? You're good watching the downtown areas?"
Lisa nodded.

"And Skitter has the sensory abilities to check areas of the Docks where the Undersiders have territory."
"I'll need to visit each area in turn. Unless we have some people to pass on messages, and a means of communication."
"I arranged a delivery," Coil said. "You'll each be provided with a satellite phone before you leave, with mobile phones to use when the towers are in operation again. It won't be immediate, but I have shipments of new generators, appliances, laptops and other necessities on the way. With the information Hookwolf has provided us about Shatterbird's power, I think we could shield the most necessary pieces of equipment with soundproofing in case of a repeat incident."
"My bugs did hear something just before the blast hit," I said. "Is her power ultrasonic?"
"Something like that. Tattletale believes that Shatterbird's power causes glass to resonate at a very particular frequency, where it generates that same resonation in other pieces of glass with the aid of her power, perpetuating the effect until it runs out of large pieces of glass to affect."
"And," Lisa said, "She probably has a reason for hitting the entire city like she does." She took another drink of water. "Big pieces of glass help transmit the signal, maybe smaller shards help her in another way. Probably helps or allows more delicate movements."
"I'm not saying I'm not happy to be getting more concrete information on how they operate. I just wish it was against the ones we don't have any idea how to stop. Like Crawler and Siberian," I said.
"We use the same strategy we used to fight Aegis," Brian said. "When fighting an opponent who won't go down, you run, you distract, you occupy them with other things, and you contain them to buy yourself time to do what you have to do."
He was right. It just wasn't ideal. Avoiding or containing them was easier said than done, for one thing, and it was less an answer than a stopgap measure.
"We've addressed the most pertinent crisis, then," Coil said. "Is there anything else? Any ideas or requests?"
"I had an idea," Aisha said.
"No," Brian said. "I know what you're about to say, because we talked this over. It's a bad idea."
"Let's hear it," Trickster spoke up, leaning forward. Brian scowled, and Aisha smiled wickedly.

Ok, they split into groups so they can watch for territories and keep an eye on S9 at the same time. A lot of things to do at the same time but I'm sure they'll do just fine. I have another theory about the whole Noelle Nightmare. Doctor Mother said that some vials can heal diseases or physical affections. What if Noelle was severely injured during Travelers' fight with their first Endbringer (possible Noelle didn't have powers back then) and Krouse asked the Doctor for help? The Mother Doctor offered to "heal" Noelle by making her drink a vial with powers. Noelle got powers but something went terrible wrong and she had to be isolated from society in Coil's base. This might be the reason why she blames Krouse for everything. This might be the reason why Krouse feels GUILTY for what he probably did to his girlfriend. But I won't blame him. He was desperate to save her and when we're desperate to save someone we love, we can make regrettable mistakes.

I still hold onto the hope that Noelle can be saved before the shit will go down. And yes, I want to hear Aisha's idea too. Maybe she'll impress everyone with her suggestion. Brian, let the girl talk, damn it.

"The biggest threat from these guys is that they could strike at any time, from any direction. So why don't we spy on them? We find out where they are, and then we keep tabs on their movements. I can handle one shift, Genesis does the next. They won't notice me, and Genesis can stay concealed."

"It's far too risky," Brian said. "You joined this team so I could stop you from getting yourself killed."
"It would be nice to know what they're up to," Trickster cut in.
"They won't even know I'm there."
"You think they won't know you're there," Brian said. "There's a distinction there. It's important, and it could either lead to a minor advantage-"
"A huge advantage," Aisha said.
"-Or it could lead to you being turned into a human test subject for whatever fucked up idea Bonesaw had recently," Brian finished, ignoring her.
"No! I got a power, and it's a useful power. Except you don't want me to use it, because you think it's going to stop working all of a sudden, or someone is going to see me-"

"Dragon saw you," Brian said. "And you're only alive because she doesn't kill people."
Looking at Brian and Aisha, I knew this discussion would get worse before it got better. I cut in before either of them said something regrettable. "Imp. It's a good idea, but they dohave a way of sensing you. Cherish can sense emotions, and if Dragon is any indication, your power primarily works through sight, hearing and touch. Like Grue's. She can probably find you and track you down."
"We don't know that," Aisha said.
"It's a pretty good educated guess, I think. I know you want to be useful, but we can make more use of you if you're with us, going up against someone like Mannequin or Shatterbird, who are far less likely to be able to see you. Help us defend ourselves."
"This sucks!"
"Imp," Grue said, as he glanced at the others at the table and frowned, "We're in the company of our employers and our peers. Let's stay professional and discuss this after."
"Professional? You asshole, you're the one who's refusing to use my talents because I'm your sister. I've been on the team longer than Skitter was when you guys were robbing a bank and fighting the ABB."
"You're younger, and she's more level-headed-"
"Enough," Coil said. It served to shut them both up.
For a few seconds, anyways. Aisha scowled. "Enough is right. I'll see you guys later."
"Hey!" Brian stood from his seat.
I think I wasn't the only one to look up at him and wonder why. He looked at us, similarly confused, and then sat down just as quickly as he'd stood.
Lisa looked pensive. I nudged her and asked, "You okay?"

Alright, I agree with her about spying on S9. Much better than keep an eye on them. But I'm not sure I agree with her doing the spying this. Yes, she's the best

in the whole world, but she's not without any weakness. Cameras can see her, robots can see her, Cherish can feel her emotions, there are so many risks for her. Bonesaw have robotic spiders, what if they will see her and make Bonesaw pay attention to her as well? Even Bonesaw herself might have tiny camera implanted behind her eyes, to help her see invisible people and notice unnoticeable people. I kind of agree with Brian. Genesis will be better at spying because even if they'll notice her projections, she's far from danger since her body is somewhere else. Even if they might go after her body, she's in Coil's base and Coil will know what to do to protect her. Aisha, listen....what? I'm getting so confused. What the....? Why I was talking about Aisha in the first place when she isn't even in this Chapter? And why everyone is as surprised as me? What the hell is going on?

"Yeah," she replied. Then she looked at Coil, "Hey, while you're asking for suggestions, I have an idea?"

"Anything helps."
"You think you could get your hands on some surveillance hardware? Skitter's working on some new costumes, and I was thinking we could have something like small cameras mounted on our masks or helmets."
"I can inquire with my usual suppliers. Why?"
"Well, we've got one teammate that's sort of hard for the rest of you to keep track of, and I think it might help. And if nobody objects, I'm kind of wanting to take a less hands-on approach from here on out. I've batted a pretty low percentage as far as injuries over the last few months of action… Glory Girl, Bakuda, Leviathan, now this incident with Jack. If I had a means of communication and the gear to give me some eyes on the scene, I think I could be more useful."
Coil looked at Brian.
"I gave you a hard time about your having to take the same risks as the rest of us, back when you first joined, but I think you've done your share. So long as you're contributing," Brian said.

Coil nodded. "I'll see what we can prepare."
Lisa smiled a little, using only the one side of her mouth.
Our canine mounts raced through the streets with impunity. The glass that covered the roads, the lack of windows, windshields or working dashboards in the few cars that still ran all contributed to the glacial pace of traffic. There was little for the dogs to watch out for, no moving vehicles and few bystanders.
Every stride the dog took made the bag I was carrying bang against my hip and made every injury I had explode with pain. I clenched my teeth and endured it. There weren't many other options. I could hardly complain to Bitch.
Bitch was well in the lead, and there was a kind of aggression to how she rode. She pulled ahead, evading cars by only a couple of inches, forcing them to swerve, and she goaded Bentley faster with kicks and shouts.
We hadn't raised the topic of Bitch and her nomination for the Nine. I think the others hadn't wanted to add tension and the possibility of argument or violence to the already complicated situation. I know I hadn't. My last real interaction with Bitch was when we'd parted ways after the fight with Dragon. I'd told her we were even, but there had been some anger and hurt feelings on both sides. I was the last person she wanted to have grilling her.
Bitch made Bentley slow to a walk as she reached my territory. It still took us a good thirty seconds to catch up.
Using my power, I signalled Sierra and Charlotte. Grue, Bitch and I climbed down from our dogs and then led them forward.
"Mannequin slipped by you once," Grue said. "You going to be able to keep an eye out?"
"I had some ideas, but I'm running low on resources," I said. "Let me see what I can do."
Genesis began to appear a short distance away, near Bitch. A blurry, beige and yellow, vaguely human-shaped figure coalesced into being. The shape then sharpened into features and alter in hue until there was the figure of a teenage girl, vaguely cartoonish. By the time we reached her, she looked indistinguishable from a regular girl. She had auburn hair, freckles, and thick glasses. A small smile touched her face as she stretched her arms and legs.
"Everything good?" Grue asked her.
"Good enough. I'm going to keep this shape until Coil's people can deliver my real body. Then I'll need to recuperate some."
"Sure."

Yep, I agree with Lisa getting tired of being injured by everyone. She suffered the second worst injuries right after Taylor. Injured by Glory Girl, injured by Bakuda, injured by Armsmaster, injured by Leviathan, injured by Jack....being Lisa is suffering. Brian, Alec, Rachel, you LUCKY BASTARDS. You never suffered not even half of Taylor/Lisa's injuries. Not fair, not fair. I mean, I like you a lot, Brian, but your only injury was caused by Cricket. On the other side, Taylor went through HELL and returned back. I'm not saying that they should be injured more, I'm just saying that....its not fair only for the pretty girls (Taylor is not exactly pretty but she's prettier than Rachel anyway) of the team to be so fucked all the time.

But maybe I should keep my mouth closed (or rather my fingers away from keyboard) regarding this ~~unfair~~ situation because either Rachel, Alec or Brian might die in the future and then I'll feel bad for them and look behind and regret these words.

It appears that Genesis modeled her new projection after her own looks. I'm sure this is how she looks for real: auburn hair, freckles, thick glasses. She's cute.

PS: it was only a joke, ok? I don't want anyone of Undersiders to be severely hurt, not even Alec ~~-even if he still deserves his dick and balls being removed from their place~~.

Bitch scowled at me. Bastard, her puppy, stood beside her. He had received the brunt of her power, and looked roughly as large as an adult great dane. The features were different from her usual dogs. The spikes had more symmetry to their arrangement, and the muscles looked less like tangles. It tugged briefly on the chain that led from her hand to its collar, and she pulled back sharply. It didn't pull again, though it was easily powerful enough to knock her over.

My people met us as we entered the neighborhoods where my lair and the barracks we'd set up were.
Sierra and Charlotte were in the lead, the three ex-ABB members behind them. The O'Daly clan stood at more of a distance, all either members of the family, friends or romantic partners. Other, smaller families filled in the gaps. My 'gang' numbered nearly fifty people in total.
"Holy crap," Genesis said.
"It's why we wanted to set up base here," Grue said. "Skitter's the most established of us."
"I've been focusing on structural repairs and building when I'm not helping my teammates," Genesis said.
"I don't have many threats to get rid of, and it was the best way for me to be productive. And meanwhile you're further than I expected to get in half a year."
I couldn't bring myself to feel proud. "I guess I'm motivated."
Genesis whistled, looking around. There were some looks of confusion as she strode forward into the crowd. I suppose it was unusual for a teenage girl to be in the company of three known supervillains and a mass of monstrous dogs.

"Sierra," I said. "Status?"
"We're nearly done with the second building. There isn't a lot of elbow room, so we've been cleaning up the road."
"Good. No trouble?"
"Not that I know of."
I pulled the bag from over my shoulder and handed it to her. "Distribute these to the people in charge of the various groups. Work it out so you can pass on messages quickly, and get any necessary information to me asap."
"Okay." She grunted as she took the bag.
"Genesis," I spoke. "You said you were doing some rebuilding?"
She slapped her stomach, "Made some mortar, just a matter of sticking stuff back where it's supposed to be, if it's obvious enough."

I like Genesis now that I know her a little better. She seems nice and helpful.

And I'm so glad that FINALLY Skitter is proud of herself- she have nearly fifty people in her Skitter's Lair, this is a reason for anyone, even for the most self-hating person, to feel proud of themselves.

Gosh, I was warned that Mannequin will appear during this Chapter, for his second day of testing and I'm DREADING the moment when he'll make his HORROR APPEARANCE. I have my icecream ready in my fridge, all the lights in my house turned on and....I think I'm ready. Anyway, I wonder what chances he might have against Skitter, Grue, Bitch, Genesis since Skitter was enough to kick his ass. But since he's a Tinker, its possible that he added countless other new weapons to his shell body and Skitter isn't aware of them. I think that there might be another person who can kill Mannequin forever, besides Sundancer and Faultline. Flechette. Her arrows can penetrate through absolute everything, even Skitter's costume

. If she was there and willing to kill Mannequin, she could have penetrate his shell going right to his brains and instantly kill him. I think she can penetrate Siberian's body too, be flash or metal. Too bad that Flechette isn't an Undersider or Traveler "sighs".

"Want to see what you can do, before your body gets here?"

She nodded and headed off. My minions rapidly backed away from her as she began dissolving.

"Charlotte?"
"Yes?"
"How set up is the building you guys were working on?"
"Mess is cleaned out, but we haven't moved much in."
"That should be fine."
"We ready?" Grue asked.
I turned to face him and Bitch. "Just about. Bitch, there's a space set aside that we can use for your dogs. We'll patrol through the various territories in an hour or so, stop by your territory and pick up some supplies for them, and you can bring your dogs here." I had to resist adding an 'if that's okay'. Firmness would work best with her, even if it did carry the risk of provoking her.
"Fine."
"Good," Grue said. "Let's go rest and eat. We can wait for Genesis and the other gear Coil's dropping
off."
I had enough bugs nearby to start setting up my early warning system. With the assistance of a horde of flying insects, I began guiding spiders through various points of my territory. They drew out lines of silk across alleyways and doors, windows and rooftops. I couldn't spare the spiders, so I placed ants on each line. They would feel it if there was a vibration, not as well as the spiders, but well enough.
Ten thousand tripwires for Mannequin to navigate past.
My expectation was for the lines to maybe give me an early warning of Mannequin's approach, sometime in the coming hours, maybe in the dead of night.
I didn't expect to find him in the span of a minute.

.............TIME FOR ME TO MOVE MY LAZY ASS TO THE FRIDGE AND GET MY ICECREAM BEFORE ITS TOO LATE FOR ME..........

A figure on a nearby rooftop was striding through the webs and avoiding the bugs.

I stopped. "Mannequin."
Everyone else froze. Even the dogs seemed to mime their master's stillness.
But he was already leaving, moving with surprising swiftness as he pushed through another few lines of webbing at the edge of the roof furthest from us. A second later he was on the ground, moving through an alleyway.

"We could go after him," Grue asked.
"We couldn't catch him, I don't think," I said, "And he may be trying to bait us into a trap. Or maybe he wants to loop around while we give chase and kill my people. Shit, I didn't think he'd come so quickly."
"We weren't exactly inconspicuous."
I frowned.
Mannequin was on guard for a trap, enough that he'd probably noticed the tripwire and decided to retreat. Mannequin and I had an estimation of one another, now. Neither of us wanted a direct confrontation. Both of us would be wary of traps or trickery. He was a tinker, he would have prepared something to ward against the tactic I had employed last time. Topping it off, amassing people to please
Coil had the unfortunate side effect of making me more vulnerable to Mannequin's attacks. He could hurt me without even getting close to me, the second I let my guard down and gave him an avenue for attack.
The only ambiguous advantage we had over him was that he was working with a time limit. He needed to test Bitch and get revenge on me, in addition to dealing with all of the other candidates, and he had less than forty-eight hours to do it.
I wasn't so sure that was a good thing. It was beginning to dawn on me what we were in for. Forty eight hours of being on the edge of our seats, unable to sleep deeply, constantly watching for attack from Mannequin or from Hookwolf's contingent.
When we were done, we faced seventy-two hours of the same thing. We'd be that much more tired, that much more likely to make a mistake. Then we'd have to do it again. And again, and again. Eight rounds in total. From my altercation with Mannequin, I knew we wouldn't make it through even the first few encounters without some loss, some injury or casualty. By the time the eighth round of testing rolled around, what kind of condition would we be in? What condition would my territory be in?
I'd initially seen Tattletale's deal with Jack as a good thing, a miniscule chance at success, with some drawbacks and negative points.
The more I dwelled on it, the more daunting it seemed.
"You okay?" Grue asked me.
"A little spooked," I admitted.
He set a hand on my shoulder. "We'll make it."
Speaking from the perspective of someone who had gone toe to toe with these guys, I wasn't so convinced.

I'm still convinced that Tattletale's deal was a very good one, compared to the alternative, I'm convinced that they'll make it, even kick Mannequin's ass for the second time and I believe that I should save enough icecream for tomorrow.

NO MATTER WHAT YOU'RE DOING, NO MATTER HOW BADLY YOU'LL BE INJURED, DON'T LET THIS BASTARD KILL YOUR PEOPLE, SKITTER. PROTECT THEM AS BEST AS YOU CAN.

Good night and sleep well, my people. Don't let anyone bring you down or tell you that you can't do this or that. Or you are not good enough to do something. Do whatever you feel like and most important, always trust your own strength and skills without being arrogant about. Even if you fail, hold your self -deprecation back, rise your head proudly and tell yourself that next time you'll do better and you'll see that...next time you'll DO BETTER.

blackarrow · Jun 25, 2018

KnownParadox said:
Snare 13.1 seems a little different from what I remember.

(Hint: I think you mislabeled your thing up there.)

rofl: Thanks for pointing to my mistake. No problemo, I fixed it. In my way.

blackarrow · Jun 25, 2018

rafuki22 said:
I would not call myself similar to alec, I can still feel emotions and, sometimes, I surprise myself with my optimism.
And I do not agree with you, they do not deserve death ... they deserve to suffer what they have caused others to suffer, to be forced to live their triggering moment (or the closest thing) again and again and again.
Although I am not a sadist, I do not especially enjoy causing misery and death, but I would kill people if it were really necessary.
As you can see I am the kind of little empathetic person who watches videos of epic and painful failures. Also, you would be surprised by the worm villains in some fanfictions.

Well, I strongly believe too in a fate worse than death, something like 'I have no mouth but I must scream'. Some villains really deserve this kind of fate but the problem is that there are villains that can't have something worse than death because they either become immune at it (Crawler) or they're simply unaffected by it (Siberian). At least these two deserve a quick death otherwise can't be stopped. Well, if Siberian is indeed a robot and she's controlled by someone, that person behind her can suffer a fate worse than death because they're a normal human.
I would kill people too but only if they'll try to kill me or my family.
Please, don't tell me that people create in their fiction even WORSE villains than in canon because that would be kind of hard to believe. Not because people don't have imagination but because its kind of hard to be more SICK (in the good sense of word) than Wildbow.

ExNihilo · Jun 25, 2018

blackarrow said:
Skitter's Lair

The Hive sounds like a good name for it. Suitably spooky, bug themed, great puns, bees, what's not to like?

rafuki22 · Jun 25, 2018

blackarrow said:
Hello, people from everywhere (yes, even you, Cauldron's employees and lawyers ) and welcome to a new Arc called Snare Snare 13.1 I think this Arc will be about
either Coil/Undersiders/Travellers trying to catch S9 into a trap or S9 trying to catch everyone else into a trap. But since snares are traps for catching birds or small animals, I think that Undersiders will capture somehow Shatterbird and use her against her teammates. That would be something with which I'll wholehearted agree. Ok, back to our talk about Cauldron. Why they want Battery to help Shatterbird and Siberian escape, despite being mass-murderers? Someone told me on this thread that Shatterbird bough her power from Cauldron so she's their client, she kills for them. Siberian, if my theory is right, is a robot who might act following someone's orders. Someone from Cauldron. What if the Tinker who created her is a Cauldron's member and is still alive? And the only way to stop Siberian is to kill them? That would be great but its pretty difficult for our HEROES to kill someone when they don't know where they can find them. If the respective Tinker lives in Cauldron, its not an easy feat to locate where the fuck Cauldron is and especially kill their man (or their woman). So, the Doctor wants Siberian and Shatterbird to escape for what exactly? To kill for them? Or to stop Jack from destroying the world? Maybe cauldron have precogs who told them what Jack is planning and they use their sleeper agents, Siberian and Shatterbird, to stop Jack. They pretend they work for him and help him, but at the right moment, they're activated under Cauldron's order to stop him from fucking the world. This is one of my theories about the reason why they want two of the most dangerous S9 members alive and free. But I don't get why Cauldron didn't find better ways to stop Jack than setting two criminals free. They could have send their parahumans after him- he wouldn't stand any chance without Siberian's protection. Or poison his drink. Or have him injected with an unknown and untraceable virus that will affect only him and not even Bonesaw would be aware of. Or MUCH MORE BETTER, find the person that Jack wants to influence or kill in order to cause the end of the world, kidnap them and keep them away from Jack until he'll be killed. There are more ethic and easy methods to do the right thing than letting 2 women responsible of probably thousands of deaths roam free. That's another reason why I HATE well- intentioned extremists. They choose the most complicated and evil ways to do the right thing when they have so many possibilities to solve everything in a more peaceful manner. Fuck them and their blindness. Well, I don't exactly want Doctor Mother to die. I want for her to live as long as possible in order to see all her plans FAILING BADLY. She wants Siberian and Shatterbird alive and free? I want them to be killed so this plan will fail (among other reasonable reasons). She wants for Battery to do nasty things behind Protectorate's back? I want Protectorate to find about what Battery is forced to do and stop her. She wants Jack to be stopped? I want Jack to not be stopped by Cauldron but by Theo or anyone else who's not Cauldron. In this way, all their plans will crash and burn. Even if they want to save the world, let the world be saved by someone else rather than by them (anyway, the world will be saved because there's Worm 2, right? There won't be Worm 2 if everything was destroyed in Worm 1. ) I want for Doctor Mother to see all her plans ruined then to either surrender herself to be arrested by heroes or come face to face with one of her unwilling experiments and receive a taste of her medicine from them. If this shit will happen, I don't care about anything else. I'd be very satisfied anyway.

Oh, Gosh, S9 wrote a contract for their candidates, with all the instructions they (S9) have to follow. This seems very fair to me, and I really hope that Jack will keep his promises and actually follow his own rules, not just pretend to follow them. So far Jack seems a weirdly honest psychopath, but who knows what he's hiding beneath his apparently willingness to accept others' deals and follow instructions. He's a psychopath first of all and one can never expect from a psychopath to be the most righteous guy around.

"LE SIGH" For all people who believe that I defend Undersiders unconditionally, I have a confession to make: I want to beat up Taylor to a pulp for putting herself down all the fucking time. I'd take a great pleasure beating her for fucking hours until she'll stop being so miserable and self- hating and will start behaving like any normal person, by admitting her loses when they exist and her wins when they exist. I mean, even S9 admitted you won in front of Mannequin and you still think you didn't won only because few of your people got killed and he gave you few good kicks. Gosh, you make very difficult for me to support you during moments like this, girl "sighs". Even if you don't trust yourself, at least trust everyone else when they are telling you that you did a great job "shakes her head, sighing again". Also, poor Lisa...she have such a huge scar as a result of Jack's injuring her. I wonder why Coil couldn't find a healer, since he have so many connections everywhere. But maybe he's too busy now with this whole war to protect S9's candidates to care about a teenager being scarred like this. Lisa will be healed, I'm sure about, but not right now.

They don't know yet that Merchants (sans Scrub) are dead. Neither Hookwolf knows this as he's prepared for a full war against S9, even with the price of creating chaos and killing lots of innocents in the process. I'm sure that he'll not manage to kill Jack before Jack will leave the city+ his direct attacks will only make S9 angrier and more vengeful and the lives of citizens even harder than before. I said before that I'd agree with a systematic bombing of the city but only after everyone will be evacuated. And since you can't evacuate all the people without S9 finding about your plot, then the only thing you can do is using your smartness to take them down, keeping the numbers of collateral victims as low as possible. But Hookwolf is not a wise man neither he ever give a fuck about the security of other people. He cares for his own people, but he'll sacrifice anyone else for "victory". Besides, his ambition to put the war over territories in front of any alliance between his people and UT already cost him the extermination of Merchants. Maybe Merchants wouldn't have died if everyone would have helped everyone against S9, fighting the same war, not becoming two alliances, fighting two different wars against the same enemy. Well, but why should I care about Merchants in the first place? Their deaths was a blessing anyway. FIP, Merchants, meaning Fuck In Peace.
The only reason why I feel at least 15% bad for Merchants is: less people to fight against S9.

I won't be surprised if Cauldron will ask Coil to release Noelle on streets for the same reasons they want Siberian and Shatterbird to leave the city. Eveything is possible when it comes to them. Another thing: Noelle is so powerful that only Siberian will be fine if they'll fight, all others will be boned. This is very assuring, thank you for this positive piece of information, Krouse. Btw, I think that Crawler will be also fine if he'll go against Noelle. Oh, Gosh, Aisha..... I swear, if there is such thing as an Aisha Interlude, this is the most fitting song (I'm going to listen this song during it):
Sorry, Aisha, don't feel offended, but its so DAMN TRUE. Coil knows about Merchants' demise and he let others know as well. I'm glad that Taylor is thinking like me: doesn't give a shit about Merchants as persons, only about the remaining number of fighters. Sometimes our ideas coincide. Just sometimes.

Ok, they split into groups so they can watch for territories and keep an eye on S9 at the same time. A lot of things to do at the same time but I'm sure they'll do just fine. I have another theory about the whole Noelle Nightmare. Doctor Mother said that some vials can heal diseases or physical affections. What if Noelle was severely injured during Travelers' fight with their first Endbringer (possible Noelle didn't have powers back then) and Krouse asked the Doctor for help? The Mother Doctor offered to "heal" Noelle by making her drink a vial with powers. Noelle got powers but something went terrible wrong and she had to be isolated from society in Coil's base. This might be the reason why she blames Krouse for everything. This might be the reason why Krouse feels GUILTY for what he probably did to his girlfriend. But I won't blame him. He was desperate to save her and when we're desperate to save someone we love, we can make regrettable mistakes. I still hold onto the hope that Noelle can be saved before the shit will go down. And yes, I want to hear Aisha's idea too. Maybe she'll impress everyone with her suggestion. Brian, let the girl talk, damn it.

Alright, I agree with her about spying on S9. Much better than keep an eye on them. But I'm not sure I agree with her doing the spying this. Yes, she's the best in the whole world, but she's not without any weakness. Cameras can see her, robots can see her, Cherish can feel her emotions, there are so many risks for her. Bonesaw have robotic spiders, what if they will see her and make Bonesaw pay attention to her as well? Even Bonesaw herself might have tiny camera implanted behind her eyes, to help her see invisible people and notice unnoticeable people. I kind of agree with Brian. Genesis will be better at spying because even if they'll notice her projections, she's far from danger since her body is somewhere else. Even if they might go after her body, she's in Coil's base and Coil will know what to do to protect her. Aisha, listen....what? I'm getting so confused. What the....? Why I was talking about Aisha in the first place when she isn't even in this Chapter? And why everyone is as surprised as me? What the hell is going on?

Yep, I agree with Lisa getting tired of being injured by everyone. She suffered the second worst injuries right after Taylor. Injured by Glory Girl, injured by Bakuda, injured by Armsmaster, injured by Leviathan, injured by Jack....being Lisa is suffering. Brian, Alec, Rachel, you LUCKY BASTARDS. You never suffered not even half of Taylor/Lisa's injuries. Not fair, not fair. I mean, I like you a lot, Brian, but your only injury was caused by Cricket. On the other side, Taylor went through HELL and returned back. I'm not saying that they should be injured more, I'm just saying that....its not fair only for the pretty girls (Taylor is not exactly pretty but she's prettier than Rachel anyway) of the team to be so fucked all the time. But maybe I should keep my mouth closed (or rather my fingers away from keyboard) regarding this ~~unfair~~ situation because either Rachel, Alec or Brian might die in the future and then I'll feel bad for them and look behind and regret these words. It appears that Genesis modeled her new projection after her own looks. I'm sure this is how she looks for real: auburn hair, freckles, thick glasses. She's cute.
PS: it was only a joke, ok? I don't want anyone of Undersiders to be severely hurt, not even Alec ~~-even if he still deserves his dick and balls being removed from their place~~.

I like Genesis now that I know her a little better. She seems nice and helpful. And I'm so glad that FINALLY Skitter is proud of herself- she have nearly fifty people in her Skitter's Lair, this is a reason for anyone, even for the most self-hating person, to feel proud of themselves. Gosh, I was warned that Mannequin will appear during this Chapter, for his second day of testing and I'm DREADING the moment when he'll make his HORROR APPEARANCE. I have my icecream ready in my fridge, all the lights in my house turned on and....I think I'm ready. Anyway, I wonder what chances he might have against Skitter, Grue, Bitch, Genesis since Skitter was enough to kick his ass. But since he's a Tinker, its possible that he added countless other new weapons to his shell body and Skitter isn't aware of them. I think that there might be another person who can kill Mannequin forever, besides Sundancer and Faultline. Flechette. Her arrows can penetrate through absolute everything, even Skitter's costume . If she was there and willing to kill Mannequin, she could have penetrate his shell going right to his brains and instantly kill him. I think she can penetrate Siberian's body too, be flash or metal. Too bad that Flechette isn't an Undersider or Traveler "sighs".

.............TIME FOR ME TO MOVE MY LAZY ASS TO THE FRIDGE AND GET MY ICECREAM BEFORE ITS TOO LATE FOR ME..........

I'm still convinced that Tattletale's deal was a very good one, compared to the alternative, I'm convinced that they'll make it, even kick Mannequin's ass for the second time and I believe that I should save enough icecream for tomorrow.
NO MATTER WHAT YOU'RE DOING, NO MATTER HOW BADLY YOU'LL BE INJURED, DON'T LET THIS BASTARD KILL YOUR PEOPLE, SKITTER. PROTECT THEM AS BEST AS YOU CAN.

Good night and sleep well, my people. Don't let anyone bring you down or tell you that you can't do this or that. Or you are not good enough to do something. Do whatever you feel like and most important, always trust your own strength and skills without being arrogant about. Even if you fail, hold your self -deprecation back, rise your head proudly and tell yourself that next time you'll do better and you'll see that...next time you'll DO BETTER.

It is not that they choose the most difficult way, it is that they can not choose the easiest one.
Also, you keep your hopes too high, to read worm I recommend you expect the worst.
And finally, I'm waiting for you to finish worm to see your new opinion of the whole image.

rafuki22 · Jun 25, 2018

blackarrow said:
Well, I strongly believe too in a fate worse than death, something like 'I have no mouth but I must scream'. Some villains really deserve this kind of fate but the problem is that there are villains that can't have something worse than death because they either become immune at it (Crawler) or they're simply unaffected by it (Siberian). At least these two deserve a quick death otherwise can't be stopped. Well, if Siberian is indeed a robot and she's controlled by someone, that person behind her can suffer a fate worse than death because they're a normal human.
I would kill people too but only if they'll try to kill me or my family.
Please, don't tell me that people create in their fiction even WORSE villains than in canon because that would be kind of hard to believe. Not because people don't have imagination but because its kind of hard to be more SICK (in the good sense of word) than Wildbow.

The characters self inserts of the first worm cyoa (the majority) and the overpowered ocs can do it, and I do not mean that they are worse, although they certainly have their moments, I mean they make them ... human? Nice? ... I dare to say ... good? (Do not look at anything about worm cyoa, they have spoilers!)

Assembler · Jun 25, 2018

As I'm sure you've guessed, Mannequin keeps showing up in the next few chapters.

Birdsie · Jun 25, 2018

blackarrow said:
You can't do the right thing with such awful methods.

I know that I'm late to the discussion, but you've clearly never seen Fate/Zero.

Sometimes, to save a hundred people, you have to kill one. Sometimes, to save a hundred people, you have to let ten die as a side-effect. Sometimes, to save two people you have to brutally murder one. There is much moral ambiguity in any action and no action can truly be called one-hundred percent evil unless done with purely evil intent in heart.

Take Mannequin. Hadn't he experienced so much grief, he would be a good person right now. In that same way, anyone who'd experience what he went through might have come out evil as well. Is it his fault he couldn't stand against a force of nature? His victims, by consequence, only died because of what the Simiurgh did. And the Simiurgh did it because... well, no spoilers. Everything about one's decisions is a long predetermined chain of reactions, often invisible to the naked eye of the person becoming the next link in the chain.

You're a logical person from what I can tell, but most of the time you let emotions and assumptions cloud your assessment. Never judge a book by its cover is a saying that has applications almost anywhere.

Anyway, at this point in the story I was very wary of Cauldron and very well thought they could be up to something evil. They let innocent people die on a daily basis, but what large-scale organization didn't? They created villains, but they also created heroes like Battery. Clearly, something at play. So, yes. I had them tagged as: "very possibly evil," but not to the point of being this extreme about it:

blackarrow said:
-Doctor Mother Evil is an evil bitch who deserve to die.

Anyway, enjoying your reactions so far.

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

Anti-nihilist(maybe).

Anti-nihilist(maybe).

Anti-nihilist(maybe).

Anti-nihilist(maybe).

Anti-nihilist(maybe).

Anti-nihilist(maybe).

Not a sphere

SPACE!

Anti-nihilist(maybe).

Anti-nihilist(maybe).

Rocking the life

Sharp Talons Cleave The Worthy