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

HeWhoAdds · Mar 4, 2018

blackarrow said:
Btw, I'm aware that there's Worm fan art. My friend (who recommended me Worm) shows me, at times, fan art with the characters I know already. She doesn't let me google after art because I might get spoiled. So, I know how characters look like and some of them look exactly how I imagined .

Personally, I haven't really found any Worm fanart that really captures how I picture most of the character in my head.

AmbarGriss · Mar 4, 2018

blackarrow said:
Can't wait for us to change impressions about chapters. I want so much to know other people's opinions, but, yeah, spoilers. At least can you tell me your favorite Undersiders? Just curious. If you don't want, I won't mind

I love Tattletale, my other favorite Undersider is one who will join the team in an future arc.

blackarrow · Mar 5, 2018

Hi. Guess what time is? Right, time for a new chapter's review 2.09 | Worm. My friend told me that this is the last chapter of Arc 2, then it is followed by an Interlude. The second Interlude so far. I'm trying to visualize from which character's POV the Interlude will be told. I'm thinking at one of the Undersiders. While my favorites are Lisa and Brian, I think I want more to see an Interlude about either Rachel or Alec. I personally find Rachel the most interesting Undersider, she's the kind of girl that you both feel very sorry for her and on the other side, you just want to strangle her. She's the Pit bull of the story, like a dog used for fights, who's trying to find her peace and acceptance among humans, but is not very successful. As for Alec, I don't know nothing about him, besides maybe being french and having an artist soul. And being funny. But I don't even know his power. Or maybe I'll find out how Undersiders got their powers in the first place. I have a feeling (I know I'm bothering you with my feelings, sorry

) that each of parahumans have meet Scion in a moment of their lives and the golden alien gave them powers, in the same way he did with Andrew (RIP). Or maybe the meet another parahumans with the gift to give them powers, like a para-chain reaction. Anyway, I feel sorry for this Arc ending so quickly. It was longer than the first one, but still...I wanted to read more.

As Brian and I returned to the loft, I felt more than a little apprehensive. It wasn't just that I was going to be around Bitch again, but I was also having to face Lisa and Alec. After shouting and talking about quitting the team, I was turning around and going back. A part of me wanted to apologize, but a larger part of me felt I shouldn't. I had been justified in everything I had said and done, right? Maybe it was just because I wasn't used to violence or raising my voice.

As I'd feared, there was a bit of an awkward silence as we reached the top of the stairs. Bitch was sitting in a chair beside one of the tables, her dogs nowhere to be seen. As she saw me, she scowled, but didn't say anything. Alec grinned as I came back, but I couldn't decide if it was because he was glad or if it was at my expense. I didn't know him well enough to guess either way.

"Glad you came back," Lisa told me, a bit of a smile on her face, "Alec, can you go get the first aid kit? It might be in the storage closet."
While Alec did that, Brian sat me down on the arm of the couch and I pulled off my sweatshirt to get a better look at the damage. I pulled the bottom of my tank top up around my ribs to get a look at where one of the dogs had been gotten at my stomach and back. My clothes had taken most of the damage, and I'd only suffered three or four shallow-ish scrapes. There was bruising and some raw areas where I felt tender, but I figured I'd recover from that in a day or two. I had a cut on my ear, which would be harder to hide, but I was pretty sure I could keep the incident from my dad without him raising hell.

Yea, you need to hide these wounds from you dad, another lie you're going to invent in a way that poor Danny will believe it. Danny is the character I feel the most sorry for, he's constantly lied by his own daughter, he constantly worries for her safety, he's impotent to do anything despite wanting to do so much, his wife is dead, he blames her for her own death, all in all he's the poster dad of all the dads with a very screwed up life. I think everytime when Danny and Taylor will talk, I'll feel the uncontrollable need to hug the hell out of Danny.

There was only one spot of real damage, a puncture where it looked like a fang had buried itself deep in the top of my forearm and then dragged an inch or so down towards my wrist as it made its exit. The area around it was already turning colors with bruising. I wasn't sure how deep the puncture was, but I was pretty sure it should have been hurting more than it did. The blood from the injury had trickled down my arm, and was still welling out.

"Christ," I said, mostly to myself.
"That was awesome, you know," Alec told me, as he returned with the first aid kit, "I didn't think you had it in you to kick someone's ass." I glared at him, but he just sat on the back of the sofa, his legs kicking like an excited kid.

"I think we're going to clean that and stitch it. Tattle's power should give us a better sense of whether stitches are necessary," Brian said, quietly.
"Alright," I agreed.
I would hardly describe getting stitches as a bonding experience, but Bitch more or less stayed quiet throughout the process. We were both sat down and told to sit still while Brian both cleaned and sewed up the hole in my arm and the tear my kick had made in Bitch's ear. Brian insisted I take two Tylenol, though the pain was still limited to a mild ache in my arm. I grudgingly obliged. I'd never liked taking pills, and never felt they made a real difference.
"You have first aid training?" I inquired, to make conversation and break the tense silence.
Alec complained, "We all do, Brian made us all take a comprehensive class less than a week after we were gathered as a team. Such a pain in the ass, believe me. He'll make you do it too."

Brian is the TEAM DAD!!! He protects his team, he trains them into giving first aid, he convinces them to not leave the team, he's exactly the man good at everything, the glue that hold Undersiders together. On the other side, Alec is the TEAM CHILD. He's funny, childish, moody, he admires people beating the crap out of each other and he likes drawing stuff. Lisa is the TEAM BRAINS and Rachel is the TEAM DOG. Cool!

"I already did," I admitted, "One of the first things I did." I jumped a little at a snarling from my left, but it was just Rachel cussing as Lisa taped a cotton pad to her ear.

Brian just looked at me and flashed that boyish smile again. I looked away, embarrassed that a guy like him would get pleased like that on my account. He got up to head to the bathroom, garbage from the bandages, sutures, cotton swabs and ointments in his hands.

With Brian gone and Lisa absorbed in trying to patch up Bitch's ear, I was left with Alec. To make conversation, I said, "Alec. You were going to tell me what you do. You go by Regent, right?"
"The name is a long story, but what I do is this." He looked over his shoulder at Brian, who was returning from the washroom with a damp washcloth in hand. Brian, mid-stride, stumbled and fell onto the floor.
"Way to look good in front of the new girl, gimpy!" Alec mocked his teammate, laughing. Grateful for the break in the tension, I couldn't help but laugh too. While Alec continued laughing, Brian got to his feet and ran up to the smaller boy, at which point he got Alec in a headlock and began punching him in the shoulder repeatedly. This abuse only made Alec laugh harder in between his cries of pain.

Taylor also has first aid training. So, she's good at helping her teammates when they're hurt. That's nice to know. Finally, a demonstration of Alec's power. It looks like he can control people's movements, that's a pretty neat power. He can make people stop from shooting him or using powers against him, he can escape easy from his followers, he can catch someone that he's running after without breaking a sweat, he can possible making flying people fall down the asphalt or into ocean, thus killing them. His powers have so many possibilities. Maybe this is the reason that he calls himself Regent- because he takes temporary control upon people's movements. Nice play fight between boys btw.

Lisa turned to me, smiling at the prank and play fighting between the boys, "It's a bit complicated to explain, but basically, Alec can get into people's nervous systems. This lets him fire off impulses that set off reflexes or make body parts jerk into motion. It's not a dramatic power, but with timing, he can make someone fall over midstep, drop something, lose their sense of balance or pull the trigger on a gun."

I nodded, absorbing the information. It sounded very underwhelming to me, but I was willing to admit I could be underestimating it.
"Well," I said, after a long pause, "I think I pretty much get what everyone can do, then. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Bitch can turn those dogs into those freakish monsters I saw the other night?"
Sitting a few feet away, Bitch muttered, "They aren't freakish."
Lisa answered my question, ignoring her. "Rachel can do it with any dog, actually," she said, stressing the name, "And no codenames when we're not in costume, 'kay? Get in the habit of using the right name at the right times, and it's that much harder to slip."
It was hard to think of Rachel by her real name. Bitch seemed really fitting given the stunt she had pulled. I apologized to Lisa, "Sorry."
Lisa gave a small nod in response, then told me, "She can use her power on any dog, but only Brutus, Judas and Angelica are trained well enough that they'll listen to her when they're pumped up."
Ah, so that was it. "And Brian makes that oily darkness that screws up your hearing. The Parahumans wiki said it was darkness generation."

Lisa can explain Alec's power BETTER than me. I wonder if he can even stop people's heart, giving them a heart-attack. This screams to me like a possible serial murderer, if Alec would have been a a crazy demented man. Luckily for people, Alec is more like an childish occasional burglar than anything else.
It looks like Rachel can't mind control her monster dogs, she can only turn them into monsters and train them to listen her. This is pretty dangerous because if the trained dogs will die, she'll remain without any dogs (she won't be crazy enough to use her powers on an untrained dog who will attack her first). Rachel has a very strong power, but limited in its resources. While the other Undersiders (especially Taylor)'s powers have almost unlimited resources.

Brian smiled, "I put that into the wiki myself. It's not wrong, but it does catch people off guard when they think they know what you can do, and there's something more to it."

Lisa added, "It's not just hearing. It also cuts off radio signals and dampens the effects of radiation."
"That's what her power tells her, anyways. I haven't had much chance to test that part of things. I get by as is," Brian said. He turned his hand palm up and created a handful of the darkness. It was like smoke, but so absolutely black that there was no texture to it. It was like someone had taken a scalpel to reality and the blackness was what was there when everything else was gone. I couldn't even gauge the dimensions of it, unless I looked at it from a different perspective. Even then, with the way the darkness shifted and billowed like smoke, it was hard to judge the shape.
More of it just kept pouring from his hand, climbing upwards to cover the top of the room. As the light from the windows near the upper edges of the room and the florescent bars on the ceiling was cut off, the room got a great deal darker.
"What time is it?" I asked.
"Nineteen minutes before five," Lisa said. She didn't look at a watch or a clock as she said it, which was unsettling. It was a reminder that her power was constantly available to her.
He closed his hand into a fist, and the darkness thinned out and disintegrated into strands and tatters, and the room brightened again. I looked at the light coming in from the windows and was surprised it wasn't later.

So Brian can kill someone using darkness to mask his presence, Rachel can make her dogs rip people's throats (and even eat them), Alec might give them heart attack, Taylor can make her insects kill people in thousands of ways and Lisa can find people's weak spots and might use what she knows against them. Thanks God they aren't a PSYCHO SERIAL MURDERERS group because the entire Brockton Bay would have been monumentally screwed. I'm sure there are parahumans psychos in this world and even groups of parahumans psychos and I'm also convinced that our heroes....I mean villains will confront them at a certain point in the story.

Brian asked me, "Do you have somewhere you need to be?
"Home, I guess," I admitted, "My dad will wonder where I am."
"Call him," Lisa suggested, "Now that the introductions are over with, you can just hang out for a bit, if you want."

"We could order pizza," Alec suggested. Then when Lisa, Brian and Bitch all made faces, he added, "Or maybe everyone's sick of pizza and we could order something else."
"Stick around?" Brian made it a question.
I glanced at Bitch. She was sitting on the table behind one of the couches and looking like a mess, with a bloody bandage over one ear, blood smeared below her nose and lip, and a bit of green around the gills that suggested she was feeling a little worse for wear. With her in that state, I didn't feel particularly threatened. Staying meant I could work to get things more copacetic and maybe dig for a bit more information. I'd also missed socializing with people – even if it was under false pretenses with a group that included an apparent sociopath. It had been a sucky day. Just chilling out sounded good.
"Okay," I decided, "Yeah, I think I'd like to."
"Phone's in the kitchen if you want to call your dad," Lisa said.
I looked over my shoulder as I headed across the loft. The others got settled on the couches, with Alec turning on the TV while Lisa and Brian took a second to clean up.

I also noticed that each of their power represents a common human fear: Taylor- fear of bugs, Brian- fear of darkness, Alec- fear of not having control over your body, Rachel- fear of dogs and Lisa- fear of having someone knows yours secrets. Thanks God than no one have a power related to MIRRORS or MANNEQUINS (these are my worst fears. I know they're irrationals but I'm really, really scared of mirrors and mannequins. I'm not scared of bugs, dogs, fire, water but I'm scared of this shit lol). I hope that this story will not have a parahuman able to use mirrors in fight or one able to bring mannequins back to life "shudders". Please, my dears, tell me if there are parahumans with mirror or mannequin powers in order to prepare myself for NIGHTMARES! Thanks a bunch.

I found the phone and dialed my dad.
"Hey dad," I said, when I heard the phone being picked up.
"Taylor. Are you alright?" He sounded worried. It was unusual, I supposed, my not being home when he got back from work.
"I'm fine, dad. Is it cool if I hang out with some people tonight?"
There was a pause.
"Taylor, if there's anyone that's making you make this call… the bullies or someone else, tell me everything is fine. If you're not in trouble, tell me your mother's full name."

I felt momentarily embarrassed. Was it so unusual for me to hang out with people? I knew my dad was just trying to keep me safe, but it was bordering on the ridiculous.
"Annette Rose Hebert," I told him, "Really dad, it's cool."
"You're really okay?"
My gaze roved over the kitchen, taking in the details, as I gave him my assurances.
"Better than ever. I kind of made some friends," I said.
My eyes settled on their dining room table. There was a stack of money, wrapped with a paper band just as the money in the lunchbox had been. Beside the money, plain as day, was the dark gray metal of a handgun.
My attention caught by the gun, I only barely caught my dad's question. "What are they like?"
"They seem like good people," I lied.

More LIES for poor dad "sighs". At least they also hold some truth in them: Taylor got new friends. Friends that she plans to betray. They don't see like "good people", Taylor. They're GOOD PEOPLE. Even if they have fucked up powers and...a handgun. I think Lisa is the one who's using the handgun because her powers kind of sucks at direct fight. Taylor, change your mind, please, don't betray your new friends. I trust you that you'll do the right thing

.

Later with a new chapter, my dears, bye for moment.

blackarrow · Mar 5, 2018

AmbarGriss said:
Well... About your fear of mannequins... Be prepared.

I have a feeling that there are parahumans that can either give life to mannequins, turn other people into living mannequins, or turn themselves into mannequins, being indestructible in this way "shudders". Holy shit, I think I'll need all the hugs when I'll reach those parts. At least I hope they're either heroes or nice villains (I will still be scared, of course, but a little less than usual)

AmbarGriss · Mar 5, 2018

blackarrow said:
I have a feeling that there are parahumans that can either give life to mannequins, turn other people into living mannequins, or turn themselves into mannequins, being indestructible in this way "shudders". Holy shit, I think I'll need all the hugs when I'll reach those parts. At least I hope they're either heroes or nice villains (I will still be scared, of course, but a little less than usual)

Oh, sorry I deleted my post because I thought it wounld count as a spoiler

Well... You got the fear theme of the Undersiders pretty quickly actually, if you pay atention to the parahumans of other teams and gangs you may notice that they follow their own themes too.

HeWhoAdds · Mar 5, 2018

AmbarGriss said:
Well... You got the fear theme of the Undersiders pretty quickly actually, if you pay atention to the parahumans of other teams and gangs you may notice that they follow their own themes too.

Yeah, you might notice that Empire 88 has a SUBTLE THEME.

AmbarGriss · Mar 5, 2018

Can't wait for the next arc

blackarrow · Mar 5, 2018

Hello again. Time for a new...Interlude. So, last chapter I tried to figure out from which character's POV this Interlude will be told. Either one of the Undersiders or how Undersiders became a team or one of the villains teams previously mentioned -Empire 88 or Faultline's Crew (sorry if I made some mistakes with their names, they're still new for me and I'm trying to memorize them- but I have a good memory in general

) or maybe how Bakuda and Oni Lee are trying to release their boss from prison. I'm interested to read about any of these groups, unless one of them have a parahuman with MANNEQUIN BASED POWERS "shivers". Then I won't be happy at all "hugs herself". Let's start, then, and hope for the best

Arc 2 (Insinuation) | Worm

There were very few things, in Victoria Dallon's estimation, that were cooler than flying.

Ok, this is not Rachel, neither Lisa but a new character. Victoria Dallon. No code name yet. Hmm, she can fly. I wonder if she's belongs to one of the villain groups or she's solo.

The invisible forcefield that extended a few millimeters over her skin and clothes just made it better. The field kept the worst of the chill from touching her, but still let her feel the wind on her skin and in her hair.
Bugs didn't splat against her face like they did against car windshields, even when she was pushing eighty miles an hour.
Spotting her target, she whooped and plunged for the ground, gaining speed where anyone else would be slowing down. She hit the asphalt hard enough to crack it and send fragments of it into the air, touching ground with her knee and foot, one arm extended. She stayed in that kneeling position for just heartbeats, letting her platinum curls and the cape that was draped over one of her shoulders flutter in the wake of air that had followed her descent. She met the eyes of her quarry with a steely glare.

She'd practiced that landing for weeks to get it right.
The man was a twenty something Caucasian with a shaved head, a dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, jeans and work boots. He took one look at her and bolted.

She seems to have PLENTY of superpowers. She can fly, projects a forcefield around her body, has super strength, is very fast and apparent invincible. Wow, did you won at superpowers lottery, girl?!? You reminds me of Supergirl, but I think you're villain otherwise you won't be obsessed to catch (and maybe kill) an apparent normal human. Did that man did something to you? To your gang of superpowered thugs?

Victoria grinned as he disappeared down the far end of the alley. She rose from her kneeling position, dusted herself off and ran her fingers through her hair to tidy it. Then she raised herself a foot off the ground and flew after him at an easy forty five miles an hour.

It didn't take a minute to catch him, even with the head start she had given him. She flew just past him, grazing him. An instant later, she came to a dead stop, facing him. Again, the wind made for a dramatic flourish as it stirred her hair, her cape and the skirt of her costume.
"The woman you attacked was named Andrea Young," she spoke.
The man looked over his shoulder, as if gauging his escape routes.
"Don't even think about it, fugly," she told him, "You know I'd catch you, and trust me, I'm already pissed off enough without you wasting my time."
"I didn't do anything," the man snarled.
"Andrea Young!" Victoria raised her voice. As she shouted, she exercised her power. The man quailed as though she'd slapped him. "A black college student was beaten so badly she needed medical attention! Her teeth were knocked out! You're trying to tell me that you, a skinhead with swollen knuckles, someone who was in the crowd watching paramedics arrive with an expression bordering on glee, you didn't do anything!?"

Oh no, this Victoria lady is a VIGILANTE, not a villain. Cool, and that bastard she tries to catch is a skinhead. A neo-nazi. A FUCKER who beat up a woman only because she was black. Gosh, I hope Victoria will dismember you, you damn bastard. And if she'll not kill you, I hope Brian will be the one who'll do it (even if I know he's not a killer but he's a black man and I'm sure that he won't be so kind with those crazy white-nationalists).

"I didn't do nothing worth caring about," he sneered. His bravado was tempered by a second look over his shoulder, as though he'd very much like to be elsewhere right that moment.
She flew forward, her fists catching him by the collar. For just a moment, she contemplated slamming him up against a wall. It would have been fitting and satisfying to shove him hard enough against the brick to crack it, then drop him into the dumpster that sat at the wall's base.
Instead, she pulled up a little, bringing the two of them to a stop. They were now just high enough above the ground that he'd feel uncomfortable with the height. The dumpster, mostly empty, was directly below him, but she doubted he was paying attention to anything but her.

"I think it's a safe bet to say you're a member of Empire Eighty-Eight," she told him, meeting his eyes with a hard stare, "or at least, you've got some friends who are. So here's what's going to happen. You're going to either tell me everything the triple-E's have been up to, or I'm going to break your arms and legs and then you're going to tell me everything."
As she spoke, she ratcheted up her power. She knew it was working when he started squirming just to avoid her gaze.
"Fuck you, you can't touch me. There's laws against that shit," he blustered, staring fixedly over one shoulder.

Break his arms and legs, I don't care. Let him crippled for life (I hate so much people like him). I will agree with whatever you'll do to him, Victoria, oh, Goddess of Justice. Man, she's such a cool vigilante! And he's a member of Empire 88. So, this Empire 88 is a white supremacist bullshit. Got it. I wonder what kind of superpowered Hitler their boss is.

She turned up her power another notch. Her body thrummed with current – waves of energy that anyone in her presence would experience as an emotional charge of awe and admiration. For those with a reason to be afraid of her, it would be a feeling of raw intimidation instead.

"Last chance," she warned him.
Unfortunately, fear affected everyone differently. For this particular asshole, it just made him dig in his heels and become obstinate. She could see it in his body language before he opened his mouth – this was the sort of guy who reacted to anything that spooked or unsettled him with an almost mindless refusal to bend.
"Lick my hairy, sweaty balls," he snarled, before punctuating it with a spat, "Cunt."
She threw him. Since she could bench press a cement mixer, though it was hard to balance something so large and unwieldy, even a casual toss on her part could get some good distance. He flew a good twenty five or thirty yards down the back road before hitting the asphalt, and rolled for another ten.

"emotional charge of awe and admiration"? Wow, she must be Glory Girl that Taylor was talking about (yes, told you I have a pretty good memory, thank you). So, I was partially right about her, along with her 196836735787432 powers she also has a GLORIOUS AURA that she uses to make people either fall in awe or fear for her. Ha ha ha ha, she threw him on the asphalt and she doesn't care that he might broke all his bones. Glory Girl, you made me fall in awe and admiration for you even without using your powers on me.

He was utterly for still for long enough that Victoria had begun to worry that he'd somehow snapped his neck or broken his spine as he'd rolled. She was relieved when he groaned and began to pull himself to his feet.
"Ready to talk?" she asked him, her voice carrying down the alley. She didn't move forward from where she hovered in the air, but she did let herself drop closer to the ground.

Pressing one hand against his leg to support himself as he straightened up, he raised his other hand and flipped her the bird, then turned and began to limp down the alley.
What was this asshole thinking? That she would just let him go? That, what, she would just bend to his witless lack of self preservation? That she was helpless to do any real harm to him? To top it off, he was going to insult her and try to walk away?
"Screw you too," she hissed through her teeth. Then she kicked the dumpster below her hard enough to send it flying down the little road. It rotated lazily through the air as it arced towards the retreating figure, the trajectory and rotation barely changing as it knocked him flat. It skidded to a halt three to five yards beyond him, the metal sides of the dumpster squealing and sparking as it scraped against the asphalt.
This time, he didn't get up.

Victoria, what the hell? With all my admiration for you, you just killed the nazi guy. You killed him BEFORE you actually obtained information about Empire88 from him. You could have killed him AFTER that. Hmm, you're a good vigilante, but a bit stupid, I think. Or maybe you got too angry and you're unable to control your strength. What you're going to do now, Vic?

"Fuck," she swore, "Fuckity fuck fuck." She flew to him and checked for a pulse. She sighed, and then headed to the nearest street. She found the street address, grabbed her cell from her belt and dialed.

"Hey sis? Yeah, I found him. That's, uh, sort of the problem. Yeah. Look, I'm sorr- ok, can we talk about this later? Yeah. I'm at Spayder and Rock, there's this little road that runs behind the buildings. Downtownish, yeah. Yeah? Thanks."
Victoria returned to the unconscious skinhead, checked his pulse, and listened intently for changes in his breathing. It took a very long five minutes for her sister to arrive.
"Again, Victoria?" the voice disturbed her from her contemplations.
"Use my codename, please," Victoria told the girl. Her sister was as different from her as night was from day. Where Victoria was beautiful, tall, gorgeous, blonde, Amy was mousy. Victoria's costume showed off her figure, with a white one-piece dress that came to mid-thigh (with shorts underneath) an over-the shoulder cape, high boots and a golden tiara with spikes radiating from it, vaguely reminiscent of the sun's rays or the statue of liberty. Amy's costume, by contrast, was only a shade away from being a burka. Amy wore a robe with a large hood and a scarf that covered the lower half of her face. The robe was alabaster white and had a medic's red cross on the chest and the back.
Our identities are public," Amy retorted, pushing the hood back and scarf down to reveal brown frizzy hair and a face with freckles spaced evenly across it.

Well, good, the skinhead is not dead. Yet. Victoria is calling her sister who's a healer (she has a medic red cross on her chest and back). Her name is Amy. Wow, these two sisters seem to be so different from each other, its like they're not even real sisters. I like how Vic cripples assholes while interrogating them and her sister quickly jumps in her help, these vigilantes are doing a pretty good job together. I'm surprised that people know their identities. So, heroes let them do whatever they want, despite being...violent?

"It's the principle of the thing," Victoria replied.
"You want to talk about principles, Glory Girl?" Amy asked, in the most sarcastic tone she could manage, "This is the sixth – sixth! – time you've nearly killed someone. That I know about!"

"I'm strong enough to lift a SUV over my head," Victoria muttered, "It's hard to hold back all the time."
"I'm sure Carol would buy that line," Amy said, making it clear in her tone she wasn't, "But I know you better than anyone. If you're having trouble holding back, the problem isn't here -" she poked Victoria in the bicep. "It's here-" she jabbed her sister in the forehead, hard. Victoria didn't even blink.
"Look, can you just fix him?" Victoria pleaded.
"I'm thinking I shouldn't," Amy said, quietly.
"What?"
"There's consequences, Vicky. If I help you now, what's going to stop you from doing it again? I can call the paramedics. I know some good people from the hospital. They could probably fix him up alright."

I wonder who this Carol is. Maybe is their mother, but why Amy is calling her on her name? What if Amy is adopted? I'll hold onto this theory. It looks like Amy is not very happy with this whole vigilante stuff. She only helps Victoria (who''s confirmed to be Glory Girl, yay for me) because she loves her, even if she might not be a sister. But she also judges her lack of self control and she isn't afraid to tell her what she thinks about her even if she might make her angry. Hmm, interesting relationship between these two sisters.

"Hey, hey, hey," Victoria said, "That's not funny. He goes to the hospital, people ask questions."
"Yeah, I'm well aware," Amy said, her voice hushed.
"This isn't, like, me getting grounded. I'd get pulled into court on charges of aggravated assault and battery. That doesn't just fuck with me. It fucks with our family, all of New Wave. Everything we've struggled to build."

Amy frowned and looked at the fallen man..
"I know you're not keen on the superhero thing, but you'd really go that far? You'd do that to us? To me?"
Amy pointed a finger at her sister, "That's not me. It's not my fault we're at this point. It's you. You're crossing the line, going too far. Which is exactly what people who criticize New Wave are scared of. We're not government sponsored. We're not protected or organized or regulated in the same way. Everyone knows who we are under our masks. That means we have to be accountable. The responsible thing for me to do, as a member of this team, is to let the paramedics take him, and let the law do as it sees fit."
Victoria abruptly pulled Amy into a hug. Amy resisted for a moment, then let her arms go limp at her sides.
"This isn't just a team, Ames," Victoria told her, "We're a family. We're your family."
The man lying just a matter of feet away stirred, then groaned, long and loud.

So, those two are members of New Wave (another name of a group I have to remember later)? I guess this group is an official vigilante group, accepted by heroes but disliked by people. Not all members are violent, Amy seems to hate violence, but they agree that they must be more firm with villains than heroes usually are. Interesting, this Interlude was more interesting than I thought at first.

"My adoptive family," Amy mumbled into Victoria's shoulder, "And stop trying to use your frigging power to make me all squee over how amazing you are. Doesn't work. I've been exposed so long I'm immune."

"It hurts," the man moaned.
"I'm not using my power, dumbass," Victoria told Amy, letting her go, "I'm hugging my sister. My awesome, caring and merciful sister."
The man whined, louder, "I can't move. I feel cold."
Amy frowned at Victoria, "I'll heal him. But this is the last time."
Victoria beamed, "Thank you."
Amy leaned over the man and touched her hand to his cheek, "Slingshot break to his ribs, fractured clavicle, broken mandible, broken scapula, fractured sternum, bruised lung, broken ulna, broken radius -"
"I get the point," Victoria said.
"Do you?" Amy asked. Then she sighed, "I wasn't even halfway down the list. This is going to take a little while. Sit?"
Victoria crossed her legs and assumed a sitting position, floating a half foot above the ground. Amy just knelt where she was and rested her hand on the man's cheek. The tension went out of his body and he relaxed.
"How's the woman? Andrea?"

So, I was right again (I so love when I'm right "is bragging about herself until poor people will get sick and tired to read her bullshit"), Amy is the adoptive sister. But she loves her sister, she has a kind and compassionate heart and I already like her

. The first hero I like so far- Amy Dallon. She also has a pretty neat power: she knows instantly people'a affections, she heals them with a touch and she's immune to Vic's awe inducing aura. I hope that you healed Andrea, Amy.

"Better than ever, physically," Amy replied, "I grew her new teeth, fixed everything from the bruising to the scrapes, and even gave her a head to toe tune-up. Physically, she'll feel on top of the world, like she had been to a spa and had the best nutritionist, best fitness expert and the best doctor all looking after her for a straight month."
"Good," Victoria said.
"Mentally? Emotionally? It's up to her to deal with the aftermath of a beating. I can't affect the brain."

"Well-" Victoria started to speak.
"Yeah, yeah. Not can't. Won't. It's complicated and I don't trust myself not to screw something up when I'm tampering with someone's head. That's it, that's all."
Victoria started to say something, then shut her mouth. Even if they weren't related by blood, they were sisters. Only sisters could have these sorts of recurring arguments. They had gone through a dozen different variations on this argument before. As far as she was concerned, Amy was doing herself a disservice by not practicing using her powers on the brain. It was only a matter of time before her sister found herself in a situation where she needed to do some emergency brain surgery and found herself incapable. Amy, for her part, refused to even discuss it.
She didn't want to raise a sensitive issue when Amy was in the process of doing her a major favor. To change the subject, Victoria asked, "Is it cool if I question him?"

She did healed her. And she's better than ever.

I'm so happy. Amy, you're great, you know? You're also very realistic and you know the limits of your powers since you don't want to heal human brain. You're afraid that you might fuck things up and you don't want to let people in a vegetative state forever. You're more cerebral, smart and careful than your step sister, Vic.

"Might as well," Amy sighed.
Victoria tapped the man a few times on the forehead to get his attention. He could barely move his head, but his eyes lolled in her direction.
"Ready to answer my questions, or do me and my sister just walk away and leave you like this?"
"I… sue you, he gasped out, then managed an added, "Whore."

"Try it. I'd just love to see a skinhead with a few broken bones go up against a superheroine whose mom just happens to be one of the best lawyers in Brockton Bay. You know her, right?"
"Brandish," he said.
"That's her name in costume. Normally she's Carol Dallon. She'd kick your ass in court, believe me," Victoria said. She believed it. What the thug didn't understand was that even if he lost the case, the media circus that would be stirred up would do more damage than anything else. But she didn't need to inform him of that. She asked him, "So do I get my sister to leave you as you are, or are you willing to trade some information for relief from months of incredible pain and a lifetime of arthritis and stiffness in your bones?"
"And erectile dysfunction," Amy said, just loud enough for the thug to hear her, "You fractured your ninth vertebra. That's going to affect all nerve function in extremities below your waist. If I leave you like you are, your toes will always feel a little numb, and you'll have a hell of a time getting it up, if you know what I mean."
The skinhead's eyes widened a fraction, "You're fucking with me."

So, their mother, Carol, is both a famous lawyer and a superheroine named Brandish. Brandish means to shake something (possible a weapon) menacingly. So, she's pretty good with weapons, I guess. She might be a very good swordwoman or a markswoman. This bastard better starts talking because the Dallon sisters will fuck him up. And not in the way he might thinks

.

"I have an honorary medical license," Amy told him, her expression solemn, "I'm not allowed to fuck with you about stuff like that. Hippocratic oath."

"Isn't that 'do no harm'?" the thug asked. Then he groaned, long, loud and with the slightest rattle in his breath, as she removed her hand from his body.
"That's just the first part of it, like how freedom of speech and the right to bear arms is just the first part of a very long constitution. It doesn't look like he's cooperating, Glory Girl. Should we go?"
"Fuck!" the man shouted, then winced, tenderly touching his side with one hand, "I'll tell you. Please, just… do what you were doing. Touch me and make the pain go away, put me back together. Fix me?"
Amy touched him. He relaxed, and then he started talking.
"Empire Eighty-Eight is extending into the Docks on Kaiser's orders. Lung's in custody, and whatever happens, the ABB is weaker than it was. That means there's territory for grabs, and the Empire sure ain't making progress downtown."
"Why not?" Victoria asked him.
"This guy, Coil. Don't know what his powers are, but he's got a private army. Ex-military, all of 'em. At least fifty, Kaiser said, and every one of 'em has top notch gear. Their armor's better than kevlar. You shoot 'em, they're back up in a few seconds. 'Least when you shoot a pig, you can be pretty sure you broke a few ribs. But that's not the fucked up thing. These guys? They've got these lasers hooked up to the machine guns they carry around. If they don't think bullets are doing it, or if they're after people who are behind cover, they fire off these purple laser beams that can cut through steel. Tear through any cover you're standing behind and burn through you too."

Ah, Amy is a medic. Good to know. A superpowered medic. Kaiser seems to be the leader of those FUCKERS. Kaiser means Emperor in german. Seems very legit to me. Kaiser- Empire88. I wonder what kind of powers this bastard have. Maybe he can make random people scream instantly: HEIL, KAISER!!! then become absolute fanatics, ready to do anything he wants from them, while believing that Empire should rule the world for 1000 years. Thankfully, he can't make many moves because of another guy. Coil. WHAT A CODE NAME THIS GUY HAS! I bet his superpower is

to turn himself into a cosmic green snake (I'm great at guessing, right?

)

Ok, he has a kick ass army and he surely can fuck both ABB and Empire88 up. I think I like already this Coil dude. He's a villain but he does fuck up WORSE villains than him.

"Yeah. I know about him. His methods get expensive," Victoria said, "Top of the line soldiers, top of the line gear."
The thug nodded weakly, "But even with money to burn, he's fighting us over Downtown territories. Constant tug of war, neither of us making much headway. Been going on for months. So Kaiser thinks we should take the Docks now that the ABB are on the outs, gain some ground somewhere easier. Don't know any more than that, as far as his plans."
"Who else is up to something? Faultline?"
"The bitch with the freaks in her crew? She's a mercenary, different goals. But maybe. If she wanted to branch out, now would be the time to do it. With her rep, she'd even do alright."

"Then who? There's a power vacuum in the docks. Kaiser's declared he wants to seize it, but I'm willing to bet he's warned you about others making a play."
The skinhead laughed, then winced, "Are you dense, girl? Everyone's going to make a play. It's not just the major gangs and teams that are looking for a slice of the pie, there. It's everyone. The Docks are ripe for the taking. The location's worth as much money as you'd get downtown. It's the go to place if you want to buy black market. Sex, drugs, violence. And the locals are already used to paying protection money.

Faultline is a woman? Finally, a woman leader (so far are only men leaders and as I girl I enjoy seeing women leaders from time to time. I don't know yet Undersiders' leader's sex, but I hold hope that is a woman as well- "small pleading voice in the distance" please, be a woman, please, be a woman...). But I still think that she likes burring people alive when she's getting bored. Also, she has freaks in her mercenary crew. God, hope she doesn't have a MANNEQUIN FREAK cause I'll flip my shit!

It's just a matter of changing who they pay to. The Docks are rich territory, and we're talking the potential for a full scale fucking war over it."

He looked up at the blond superheroine and laughed. Her lips set into a firm line.
He continued, "You want to know my guess? Empire Eighty Eight is going to take the biggest slice of the Docks, because we're strong enough to. Coil's going to stick his thumb in just to spite us, ABB is going to hold on to some. But you're also going to have a bunch of the little guys trying to take something for themselves. Über and Leet, Circus, the Undersiders, Squealer, Trainwreck, Stain, others you've never heard of? They're going to stake out their ground, and one of two things is going to happen. Either there's war, in which case civilians get hurt and things get bad for you, or there's alliances between the various teams and solo villains and shit gets even worse for you."
He broke into laughter yet again.
"Come on, Panacea," Victoria said as she stood up, touched ground with her boots and brushed her skirt straight, "We've gotten enough."
"You sure? I'm not done yet," Amy told her.
"You fixed the bruises and scrapes, broken bones?" Everything that could get her in trouble, in other words.
"Yeah, but I didn't fix everything," Amy replied.
"Good enough," Victoria decided.

Hmm....The two incompetent villains again, Uber and Leet, Circus villain girl again, Undersiders, Squealer (another villain who might hypnotize people/make them fall asleep or make them deaf with their powerful squeals), Trainwreck (a villain who cause train/car accidents with a simple thought), Stain (another villain who might absorb blood from human bodies in the shape of stains, thus weakening them). Amy's code name is Panacea. FITTING!

"Hey!" the skinhead shouted, "The deal was you'd fix me if I talked! Did you fix my cock?" He tried to struggle to get to his feet, but his legs buckled under him, "Hey! I can't fuckin' walk! I'll fucking sue you!"

Victoria's expression changed in an instant, and her power flooded out, blindsiding the thug. For an instant, his eyes were like those of a panicked horse, all whites, rolling around, unfocused. She grabbed him by the shirt collar, lifted him up and growled into his ear, her voice just above a whisper, "Try it. My sister just healed you… most of you, with a touch. Did you ever wonder what else she could do? Ever think, maybe, she could break you just as easily? Or change the color of your skin, you racist fuck? I'll tell you this, I'm not half as scary as my little sister is."
She let him go. He collapsed in a heap on the ground.
As the two sisters walked away, Victoria pulled her cell phone out of a pouch on her belt with her free hand. Turning to Amy, she said, "Thank you."
"Play safe, Victoria. I can't bring people back from the dead, and once you've gone that far…"
"I'll be good. I'll be better," Victoria promised as she dialed with one hand. She put the phone to her ear, "Hello? Emergency services? Requesting special line. New Wave, Glory Girl. Incapacitated criminal for you to pick up, no powers. No, no rush, I can hold.
Looking over her shoulder, Victoria noted the thug, still floundering and half-crawling, "He's not going to get up?"
"He'll be numb from the waist down for another three hours. His left arm will be iffy for about that long, too, so he's not going to move unless he can drag himself somewhere with just one limb. He'll also have numb toes for a good month or so, too," Amy smiled.
"You didn't actually…"
"No. Nothing was broken, and I didn't screw up anything, beyond a temporary numbness. But he doesn't know that. Fear and doubt will complete the effect, and the suggestion becomes a self fulfilling prophecy."
"Amy!" Victoria laughed, hugging her sister with one arm, "Weren't you just saying you weren't going to mess with people's heads?"

Fuck your cock, you damn bastard. Say thank you that they healed you and let you alive. If I were in Amy's place, I wouldn't be so kind. Amy is even more POWERFUL than I know so far. She can fuck people biology forever. Wow, she seems to have great biology and medicine related powers. If she also have power over animals and insects, imagine what she can do to Taylor and Rachel only by touching their "friends"? She might be a very dangerous foe for them if she wants "shudders". The good thing is that she's peaceful but if her sister or mother would be in danger...maybe she won't be that peaceful anymore. She also is pretty cunning, she fucked the skinhead mentally only to have him confess to Victoria. Wow, wow, you're such an amazing character, Amy. As for your sister, she's pretty ok, but she's also VERY arrogant, aggressive, and believes that if her mother is a lawyer and they're heroes, nothing can touch her anymore, not even the law. Hmm, I like her but not so much, I'm not very impressed by people who are so arrogant even if they have good intentions.

Alright, tomorrow I'm going to start the new Arc. Good night, sweet people and thank you for watching/commenting my review.

blackarrow · Mar 5, 2018

AmbarGriss said:
Can't wait for the next arc

You know what? I can't wait either.

AmbarGriss · Mar 5, 2018

You know, when Glory Girl was presented in this chapter she left me divided, on one hand she fucked with a stupid nazi, but on the other hand she is too arrogant and reckless. (But she did fucked with that nazi, so she can't be THAT bad).
Panacea on the other hand, I liked her immediatly because of her cool powers and Biology is my favorite subject.

blackarrow · Mar 5, 2018

AmbarGriss said:
You know, when Glory Girl was presented in this chapter she left me divided, on one hand she fucked with a stupid nazi, but on the other hand she is too arrogant and reckless. (But she did fucked with that nazi, so she can't be THAT bad).
Panacea on the other hand, I liked her immediatly because of her cool powers and Biology is my favorite subject.

I'm glad when people share some of my opinions

. Amy is now one of my favorite characters, along with Taylor, Lisa and Brian, but not only because of her powers. She has also a good heart and she's very smart and these are qualities that I like to see in people. My favorite school subject was History and the one I hated the most was Math. I know that I'm going to see in this story lot of technology and maybe math stuff because of tinkers, but I guess I can live with that as long as they're interesting enough to keep me awake while reading

.

AmbarGriss · Mar 5, 2018

blackarrow said:
I'm glad when people share some of my opinions . Amy is now one of my favorite characters, along with Taylor, Lisa and Brian, but not only because of her powers. She has also a good heart and she's very smart and these are qualities that I like to see in people. My favorite school subject was History and the one I hated the most was Math. I know that I'm going to see in this story lot of technology and maybe math stuff because of tinkers, but I guess I can live with that as long as they're interesting enough to keep me awake while reading .

Luckly, despite the number of Tinkers in the story, they talk too little of math.
There are 12 classifications of parahumans and Tinker is only one of them, but they are only explained waaaay in the future.

blackarrow · Mar 6, 2018

Hello, good people. Time for a new Arc. As a reminder, I'll tell my opinion (in details) about the second arc only after I'll finish the whole Worm. I'll create reviews for each Arc and I will tell what I liked and what I disliked about them. I'll also create reviews for important (and relevant, according to my own beliefs) characters of the story and I'll analyze in details each of them. Alright, back to the Arc 3, called Agitation. I think this title is related to the gangsta war that is going on at the Docks, everyone is super-agitated, wanting territories and money and power and influence for themselves. We have 5 main villainous groups: ABB, Empire88, Coil's Super Army, Undersiders and Faultline's Crew...of Mercenary Freaks (this one sounds ominous as hell, I'm not sure I'm eager enough to learn more about them), a couple of solo villains and 3 heroic groups: Protectorate, Wards and New Wave and a huge Agitation between them. Did I forgot something? Arc 3 (Agitation) | Worm

Tuesday morning found me running again, first thing. I woke up at my regular time, apologized to my dad for not having breakfast with him, and headed out the door, hood of my sweatshirt up to hide the mess of my uncombed hair.
There was something appealing about being out and about before the city had woken up. I didn't usually get out quite this early, so it was a refreshing change. As I headed east at a brisk jog, there were no cars or people on the street. It was six thirty in the morning, and the sun had just finished rising, so the shadows were long. The air was cool enough for my breath to fog. It was like Brockton Bay was a ghost town, in a good way.

My training regimen had me running every morning, and alternating between more running and doing other exercises in the afternoons, depending on which day of the week it was. The primary goal was to build my stamina. In February, Sophia had goaded some boys into trying to catch me, I think the goal had been to duct tape me to a telephone pole. I had escaped, helped mostly by the fact that the boys hadn't really cared enough to run after me, but I found myself winded after having run just a block. It had been a wake-up call that came about just when I was starting to think about going out in costume. Not long after, I had started training. After a few starts and stops, I had settled into a routine.

Ok, this review is going to start with a nice: FUCK YOU, SOPHIA :turian:

. That stupid bitch had to convince others to run after Taylor, she couldn't move her ugly ass to do this job by herself. Taylor mentioned in the first chapter that Sophia was pretty good at running at school team track so why she didn't ran herself after the target of her bullying? Double fuck you, coward annoying bitch. Taylor should learn how to properly fight- I mean hand to hand combat, because there are moments when powers might not be entirely useful (maybe she'd had a headache making for her impossible to concentrate, maybe she'd be in great pain- another hard to concentrate reason, maybe she'd have to fight against an enemy that can't be affected by bugs). If she wants to be an respectable villain, its not enough for her to have powers and be good at running. My opinion.

I was more fit, now. While I could hardly say I was heavy, before, I'd had the unfortunate combination of a slight bulge for a belly, small breasts and broomstick-thin arms and legs. It had added up to me looking something like a frog forced to stand up on its hind legs. Three and a half months had burned away the body fat, leaving me very lean, and had given me the stamina to run at a steady jog without leaving me panting for breath.
I didn't aim to just jog, though. I steadily increased my pace with every block I ran as I headed towards the water. By the fifth block, I was running.
My general approach was not to get too worried about counting the miles or measuring the times. That just felt like it was distracting me from my own awareness of my body and its limits. If it felt too easy, I just pushed myself a step further than I had the previous day.
The route I took varied every day, at my father's insistence, but it usually took me to the same place. In Brockton Bay, going east took you to one of two places. You either ended up at the Docks, or you ended up at the Boardwalk. Because most areas of the Docks were not the sort of place that you just breezed through, given the vagrants, gang members and general crime, I stuck to main roads leading past the Docks and to the Boardwalk. It was usually close to seven by the time I got to the bridge that went over Lord Street. From there, it was a block to the Boardwalk.
I slowed down as the sidewalk ended and the wooden platform began. Though my legs were aching and I was out of breath, I forced myself to keep a low and steady pace rather than just stop.

As usual, she doesn't like her body type, she doesn't like how she looks like, she always have this very low opinion about herself that sometimes piss me off. Taylor, stop, please, I think that some girls would love to have your body (no fat, very lean and with a lot of stamina, even I envy you a little

). Besides, there are guys around who like small breasts, not everyone is obsessed with huge balloon boobs. I'm sure that the boy who'll like you will accept you with everything good and bad about your body "hugs".

Along the boardwalk, people were starting their day. Most places were still closed, with the top notch security systems, steel shutters and iron grates protecting all of the expensive stores, but there were cafes and restaurants opening up. Other stores had vans parked in front, and were busy loading in their shipments.
There were only a few people out and about, which made it easy to find Brian.
Brian was leaning on the wooden railing, looking over the beach. Balanced on the railing next to him was a paper bag and a cardboard tray with a coffee in each of the four pockets. I stopped beside him, and he greeted me with a broad smile.

"Hey, you're right on time," Brian said. He looked different than he had when I saw him on Monday. He was wearing a sweater under a felt jacket, his jeans didn't have any rips or tears in them, and his boots were shined. On Monday, he had given me the impression of a regular person who lived at the Docks. The fashionable, well fit clothes he wore today made him look like someone who belonged on the Boardwalk alongside the customers who shopped in stores where nothing cost less than a hundred dollars. The contrast and the ease with which he seemed to make the transition was startling. My estimation of Brian rose a notch.
"Hey," I said, feeling just a touch embarrassed at having taken so long to respond, and feeling painfully under-dressed in his presence. I hadn't expected him to dress so well. I hoped my being out of breath was enough of an excuse for the delay in response. There was nothing I could do about feeling unfashionable.
He gestured towards the paper bag, "I got donuts and croissants from the cafe over there, and a coffee if you want it."

Wow, she's meeting Brian. Great. So...this is a dating thing?

Just joking, as I said before, I don't ship them unless I'm convinced that BOTH of them have romantic feelings for each other. You know what? I have a bad feeling that something unpleasant will happen. With all those skinheads fucking things up around, what if some of them will notice that "stupid negro thug" and his "white trash bitch" (from their POV) and will DARE to attack them out of blue? I'd laugh with tears to see them having their asses kicked by the "stupid negro". Yeeeeeeeeeeah!!!

"I want," I said, then I felt dumb for the awkward lapse into caveman speak. I blamed the early hour of the day. To try and save face, I added, "Thanks."

I fished out a sugar-dusted donut and bit into it. I could tell right away that it wasn't the kind of donut that was mass produced at some central factory and delivered overnight to the shops for baking in the morning. It was freshly made, probably right at the store a block away, sold right out of the oven.
"So good," I said, sucking the sugar from my fingertips before reaching for one of the coffees. Seeing the logo, I looked over at the cafe and asked, "Don't coffees there cost, like, fifteen dollars a cup?"
Brian chuckled a little, "We can afford it, Taylor."
It took me a second to process the idea, and as I made the connection, I felt like an idiot. These guys were raking in thousands of dollars on a given job, and they had given me two thousand dollars up front. I wasn't willing to spend the money, knowing where it came from, so it was just sitting in the cubbyhole I kept my costume in, nagging at me. I couldn't tell Brian that I wasn't spending it, either, without risking having to explain why.
"Yeah, I guess," I said, eventually. I leaned my elbows on the wooden railing beside Brian and stared out over the water. There were a few diehard windsurfers just getting ready to start the day. I guess it made sense, since there would be the occasional boat going out on the water, later.
"How's your arm?" He asked.

Awww, he's so caring! Brian, you crazy nice guy, stop making me love you so much "continues to fangirl over Brian to the Moon and back". Interesting how Taylor hides so many things for her father: her costume, her double identity, her new friends, her cellphone, her money, her wounds. But soon or later, all her lies will be disclosed. And let's see then what kind of explanations she'll give to him when she'll be cornered.

I extended my arm, clenched my fist and relaxed it to demonstrate, "Only hurts when I flex it." I didn't tell him that it had been hurting badly enough to cost me some sleep last night.

"We'll leave the stitches in for about a week, I think, before we take them out," Brian said, "You can go to your doctor and have him do it, or drop by and I'll take care of it."
I nodded. A turn of the salt-water and seaweed scented wind blew my hood back, and I took a second to push my hair out of my face and pull my hood back up.
"I'm sorry for Rachel and that whole incident last night" Brian said, "I wanted to apologize sooner, but I figured it would be a bad idea to bring it up while she was in earshot."
"It's okay," I said. I wasn't sure it was, but it wasn't really his fault. I tried to put my thoughts into words, "I think… well, I guess I expected to have people attack me from the moment I put on a costume, so I shouldn't be surprised, right?"
Brian nodded, but didn't say anything, so I added, "It caught me a little off guard that it came from someone that's supposedly on my team, but I'm dealing."
"Just so you know," Brian told me, "Just from what I saw after you left last night and as people were waking up this morning, Rachel seems to have stopped protesting quite as loudly or often about the idea of having someone new join the team. She's still not happy about it, but I would be surprised if there was a repeat performance."

I have a feeling (another one? What a surprise!?!?

) that Taylor and Rachel will end up becoming best friends. Yes, they started very bad with their whole villainous relationship, but I heard that some of the best friendship relationship actually didn't start great. I'm thinking at a very dangerous situation, where Taylor would have to save Rachel's life then Rachel will stop being such a Bitch towards her teammate and will learn to appreciate two things that every human being needs in his or her life: Friendship and Communication.

I laughed, a little too abruptly and high pitched than I would have liked, "God, I hope not."
"She's kind of a special case," Brian said, "I think that growing up the way she did kind of messed her up. No family, too old and, uh, not really attractive enough to be a good candidate for adoption. I feel bad saying that, but that's the way those things work, you know?" He glanced over his shoulder at me.
I nodded.
"So she spent a good decade in foster care, no fixed place to live, fighting tooth and nail with the other foster kids for even the most basic luxuries and possessions. My guess? She was screwed up before she got her powers, and with things happening the way they did, her powers pushed her into the deepest end of the antisocial pool."

"Makes sense," I said, then I added, "I read her page on the wiki."
"So you've got the gist of it," Brian said, "She's a handful to deal with, even for me, and I think she actually considers me a friend… or as much a friend as someone like her can have, anyways. But if you can at least tolerate her, you should see we've got a pretty good thing going with the team."
"Sure," I said, "We'll give it a shot, anyways."
He smiled at me, and I dropped my gaze, embarrassed.
I spotted a crab scuttling across the beach almost directly below us. I reached out with my power and stopped it in its tracks. Though I didn't need to, I extended my finger and pointed at it, then waved my finger lazily as I made the crab follow where my my index finger was pointing. Since Brian and I were both leaning over the railing, and there was practically nobody on the Boardwalk that wasn't busy with work or getting their store opened for the day, I was pretty certain nobody else would figure out what I was doing.

Rachel seems like a lost cause. I'm sure she has a lot of mental and emotional problems and she feels like she doesn't belong to humanity anymore- she finds her refuge into her own personal canine world, the only world that she still trusts and never betrayed her. I feel terrible sorry for her, I want so much an entire chapter with Rachel's backstory, I'm sure its going to be sad and nerve-racking but I hold onto hope that Rachel will learn that not all humans are evil and rotten like the ones that made her suffer and maybe she'll change, in this way, her personal views, who are wrong but also motivated in the same time.

Brian saw the crab dancing in circles and figure eights and smiled. Conspiratorially, he leaned closer to me and whispered, "You can control crabs, too?"

I nodded, feeling just a bit of a thrill at how we were huddled like this, sharing secrets while the people around us were totally in the dark. I told him,
"I used to think I could control anything with an exoskeleton or shell. But I can control earthworms too, among other things, and they don't have shells. I think all it takes is that they have to have very simple brains."
I made it run in circles and figure eights for a short while longer, then released it to go about its business.
"I should bring the others their morning coffee before they come looking for me. Want to come with?" Brian asked.
I shook my head, "I gotta get home and get ready for school."
"Ah, right," Brian said, "I forget about stuff like that."
"You guys don't go?"
"I take courses online," Brian said, "My folks think it's so I can hold a job to pay for my apartment… which is kind of true. Alec dropped out, Rachel never went, and Lisa already applied for and tested for her G.E.D. Cheated using her power, but she has it."
"Ah," I said, my focus more or less dwelling on the idea that Brian had an apartment. Not the fact that Grue the successful supervillain had an apartment – Lisa had mentioned that to me – but that Brian the teenager with parents and schoolwork to focus on did. He kept changing my frame of reference for trying to figure him out.
"Here, a gift," he said, as he reached into his pocket and then extended his hand.
I felt a moment of trepidation at the notion of accepting another gift. The two grand they had given me was a weight on my conscience already. Still, it would look bad if I didn't accept. I made myself put my hand under his, and he dropped a key with a short beaded chain looped through it into my palm.

Taylor can not only control insects and arachnids but now she can control crustaceans too. Gosh, it is only me or she becomes stronger with each Arc? Maybe her powers grow exponentially with the fights she's getting involved. I won't be surprised if she'll become capable to control Rachel's dogs and even...humans, very cool but still a bit creepy to think about. I swear, if after the next fight, Taylor will discover a new use of her powers, I'll be convinced that she becomes stronger with each battle. I also noticed that Brian seems to be the most studious one of the Undersiders. Lisa cheated, Alec wasn't interested and I think that Rachel is illiterate. GO BRIAN!

"That's to our place," he told me, "And I mean that. Ours as in yours too. You're free to come by any time, even if nobody is there. Kick back and watch TV, eat our food, track mud on our floor, yell at the others for tracking mud on the floor, whatever."

"Thank you," I said, surprising myself by actually meaning it.
"You going to come by after school, or should I meet you here again tomorrow morning?"
I thought on it for a second. Last night, not long before I'd left, Brian and I had gotten to talking about our training. When I had mentioned my morning runs, he had suggested meeting me regularly. The idea was to keep me up to date, since I wasn't living at the group's hideout like Lisa, Alec and Rachel were. It had made sense, and I'd agreed. It didn't hurt that I liked Brian the most of anyone in the group. He was easier to relate to, somehow. That wasn't to say I didn't like Lisa, but just being around her made me feel like I had the Sword of Damocles hanging over my head.
I'll come by later," I decided aloud, knowing I might chicken out if I didn't commit somehow. Before we could get caught in another thread of conversation, I gave him a quick wave and started my run back, the key to their place clenched in my hand.
Heading back home and preparing for school left me with a gradually increasing feeling of dread, like a weight sitting on my chest. I'd been trying not to think of Emma's taunting and my fleeing from the school with tears on my face.

Brian gave her the key for their lair. He trusts her, they all trust her. Taylor, I'll strangle you if you'll betray them, I don't care how keen you're to the hero idea but right now you have friends who like you and accept you exactly how you are. I'm sure that she'll first try to find out who's their boss then betray them when she'll have all the information about the mysterious leader. Or maybe...NOT. Let's see if Friendship is Magic in Taylor's case and will make her change her mind.

I had spent an hour or two tossing and turning in bed, the event replaying over my head while the throbbing of my wrist jarred me awake every time I started to drift off. Beyond that, I had been pretty successful in avoiding thinking about it. Now that the prospect of going back was looming, though, it was impossible not to dwell on the subject as I headed home, got ready and caught the bus.

I couldn't help but dwell on the coming day. I still had to face the consequences of missing two afternoons. That was a biggie, especially since I had missed the due date for handing in my art project. I realized my art project had been in my bag, and the last time I had seen my bag had been when Sophia was standing on it, smirking at me.
There was also the issue of going to Mr. Gladly's class. That usually sucked enough, what with Madison being in that class and my having to do group work with the likes of Sparky and Greg. Knowing that I had to sit there and listen to Mr. Gladly teach when I'd seen him blatantly turn his back to me when I was being bullied… that sucked more.
This wasn't the first time I'd needed to psych myself up to going to school. Deceive myself into going and staying. The worst days had been back in my first year at high school, when the wounds of Emma's betrayal were still fresh and I wasn't yet experienced enough to anticipate the variety of things they could come up with. Back then, it had been terrifying, because I hadn't yet known what to expect, didn't know where, when or if they would draw the line. It had been hard, too, to go back in January. I'd spent a week in the hospital under psychiatric observation, and I'd known that everyone else had heard the story.
I stared out the window of the bus, watching the people and the cars. On days like this, after being publicly humiliated, getting myself to the point where I was willing to walk through the door was about making deals with myself and trying to look past the school day. I told myself that I would go to Mrs. Knott's computer class. None of the Trio would be there, it was usually pretty easygoing, and I could take the time to browse the web.

Ok, time for something very unpleasant for me to read about. Taylor going to school and facing her bullies. More bullying shitty stuff? "sighs" It looks like. Let's see what kind of fucked up ideas those bitches have in their empty brains.

From there, it was just a matter of convincing myself to walk down the hall to Mr. Gladly's class.

If I just made myself do that, I promised myself, I would give myself a treat. A lunch break spent reading one of the books I'd been saving, or a rare snack bought from the store after school. For the afternoon classes, I'd inevitably come up with something else to look forward to, like watching a TV show I liked or working on my costume. Or, I thought, maybe I could just look forward to hanging out with Lisa, Alec and Brian. Outside of the part where I nearly got mauled by Bitch's dogs, it had been a nice night. Thai food, five of us lounging on two couches, watching an action movie on a huge entertainment system with surround sound. I wasn't forgetting what they were, but I rationalized that I had no reason to feel bad about spending time with them when we were – for all intents and purposes – just a group of teenagers hanging out. Besides, it was for a good cause, if it meant they relaxed around me and maybe revealed secrets. Right?
As I got off the bus, a pair of old notebooks in one hand, I just kept all that in mind. I could relax in Mrs. Knott's class, and then I just had to sit through three 90 minute classes. Maybe, it occurred to me, I could try and find and talk to my art teacher over the lunch break. It would mean staying out of the trio's way, and I could maybe work something out as far as doing another project or at least not getting a zero. My marks were okay enough that I could probably manage a passing grade with a zero on the midterm project, but still, it would help. I wanted to do more than just pass, especially with all this crap I had to put up with.
Mrs. Knott arrived at the classroom around the same time I did, and unlocked the room to let us file in. As one of the last of fortyish students to arrive, I'd wound up at the back of the crowd. While I waited for enough space to open up at the door, I saw Sophia talking to three of the girls from the class. It looked like she had just come from her track practice. Sophia was dark skinned with black hair normally long enough to reach to the small of her back, though she currently had it in a ponytail. I couldn't help but resent the fact that even with her being sweaty, dusty, and a notorious bitch, pretty much every guy in the school would still pick her over me.

I'm absolute convinced that most normal guys will NEVER pick up this outrageously annoying idiotic bitch Sophia over you or other normal cool girls, Taylor, but this is your opinion so I'd respect it. Well, if they'll start bullying you again, you can go straight to Undersiders' s lair and have fun with your friends.

She said something, and all of the girls laughed. Even though I knew, rationally, that I probably wasn't on the list of their top five things to talk about and that they likely weren't talking about me, I felt my heart sink. I moved up towards the jam of students waiting to get into the door, to break the line of sight between myself and the girls. It didn't quite work. As a group of students entered the room, I saw Sophia looking at me. She made an exaggerated pouting expression, drawing one fingertip in a line from the corner of her eye down her cheek like a mock tear. One of the other girls noticed and chuckled, leaned closer to Sophia as Sophia whispered something in her ear, then they both laughed. My cheeks flushed with humiliation. Sophia gave me a final smirk and turned to saunter away while the other girls filed into the classroom.

Kicking myself even as I did it, I turned away and walked back down the hall towards the front doors of the school. I knew it would be that much harder to go back tomorrow. For one and three-quarter school years, I had been putting up with this shit. I'd been going against the current for a long time, and even though I was aware of the consequences I'd face if I kept missing school like this, it was so much easier to stop pushing so hard against the current and just step in the other direction.
My hands jammed into my pockets, already feeling an ambivalent sort of relief, I caught the bus back to the docks.

"my sadistic side in action" I have a special place reserved for you, Sophia

. A good place for spending your holiday there. Its called Empire 88 and is full with super-friendly people who'll love you for your beauty, intelligence, bravery, good-heart and especially...you skin. They'll love you so much with everything they can give you: fists, feet, knives, guns, superpowers' torture. You'll feel so GOOD there, Sophia, you'll never want to leave that place again. At least not in a single piece "hugs Sophia with razors stuck in my sleeves". As for you, Taylor, go to your friends' lair. Right now. Have fun, girl and ignore stupid and ill-meaning people. A time for them to pay for what they're doing will come for sure. Soon or later.

Later with a new chapter, my friends.

AmbarGriss · Mar 6, 2018

You know, there is a lot of fanfiction of Worm around the web and your last paragraph made me wander If someone ever wrote a fanfic were Sophia meet someone from the Empire88.

blackarrow · Mar 6, 2018

AmbarGriss said:
You know, there is a lot of fanfiction of Worm around the web and your last paragraph made me wander If someone ever wrote a fanfic were Sophia meet someone from the Empire88.

Sadly, I can't read any fanfiction because I might get spoiled. As for Sophia, I hope that people will not see me as a racist (I'm white but I don't hate any race, I hate only evil and disgusting people) but she PARTICULARLY deserves everything bad to happen to her because of her bad nature (she's as bad as the other two from her gang). I'll never feel sorry for those girls, no matter what will happen to each. I'm way too disgusted by them to feel anything for them other than hate.

blackarrow · Mar 6, 2018

Hello, boys and girls, ready for a new chapter review? Ready or not, here we go 3.02 | Worm. Taylor is going to have FUN with her Undersiders friends, I think this chapter will be pure love. Hell, even if she'll not find anyone at home but Rachel, its going to be way more pleasant than at school, in company of the Trio of Braindead Bitches. Let's see how much fun she's going to have

.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the bus line that ended at the old ferry put me only a fifteen or twenty minute walk away from the loft that Lisa, Alec and Bitch called home. I could be spending a fair bit of time there before I gathered enough information or earned enough trust from them to turn them in to the authorities, so the convenience was nice.
It was a nice day, if a bit windy. The air was crisp and cool, the sky was a brilliant and cloudless blue that was reflected in the ocean, and the sand of the beach sparkled in the light of the sun. Tourists were already crowding the railings or migrating to the beach, pinning down the corners of their beach blankets under picnic baskets and shopping bags. It was too cold to go in the water but the view was spectacular. I enjoyed it for a few moments before venturing into the crowd. I walked with my hands in my pockets, as much to protect the stuff in my pockets as keeping the worst of the chill out.

Living in Brockton Bay, you learned stuff like that. How to protect yourself, what to watch for. I knew that the Vietnamese teenagers who were leaning against the railing of the boardwalk were members of the ABB, even if they weren't wearing their gang colors, because the only Asian kids in Brockton Bay that had that much swagger were already part of Lung's gang. I knew the tattoo on the arm of the guy lifting boxes into the florist's van that read 'Erase, Extinguish, Eradicate' meant the guy was a white supremacist because it had the letter E repeated three times.

More description. Can't comment so much over the city description because well...there's nothing to comment about. But is very nice to visualize it in your mind

. "Erase, Extinguish, Eradicate"...Empire88's motto seems to fit them perfectly, like a hand fitting a glove by its size. I kind of want this Empire88 to have a parahuman with fucking mannequin powers because only the most DEPRAVED, SICK, DEMENTED, TWISTED GROUP CAN HAVE THIS KIND OF FREAK MANNEQUIN PARAHUMAN and if Empire88 is not this kind of group, then I can't honestly thing at something worse than them. I swear, the first villain group who'll have this kind of member among them, I'll hate it with the force of over 9000 burning suns. 50% because it will make me crap my pants only by thinking about and 50% because you just can't have this kind of member in your team for any reasonable reasons at all (unless you're an unreasonable motherfucker yourself).

The man in the uniform who was talking to a shop owner wasn't a cop or security guard, but one of the enforcers the merchants of the Boardwalk hired to keep the undesirables from making trouble. They were why the Boardwalk didn't have beggars, addicts, or people wearing gang colors hanging around. If your presence offended or worried the tourists, they would step up to scare you off. If someone shoplifted or panhandled in the Boardwalk, they ran the risk that one or two enforcers would drag them behind one of the shops and teach them a lesson. Anything more serious than shoplifting or panhandling, well, there was always someone on duty in the floating base of the Protectorate Headquarters. Any of the store owners or employees could call the likes of Miss Militia, Armsmaster or Triumph in, given a minute. The tourism revenue the Boardwalk picked up earned a lot of goodwill from the government and government sponsored capes.

I headed off the boardwalk and into one of the alleys leading into the Docks. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw one of the uniformed enforcers staring at me. I wondered what he was thinking. Good kids didn't hang out in the Docks, and I doubted I looked the part of a guileless tourist.
The abandoned factories, warehouses and garages of the Docks all blended into one another very quickly. The colors of the building exteriors weren't different enough from one another to make buildings recognizable, and the people or piles of garbage that I had been unconsciously noting my previous visit had all shifted locations or been replaced. I found myself glad for the artistic graffiti and the row of weed-entangled power lines that I could use as landmarks. I did not want to get lost. Not here.
As I arrived at the foot of the huge factory with the Redmond Welding sign, I found myself wondering whether I should knock or just go on up. I didn't have to decide – the door opened just a second after I'd come. It was Brian, and he looked as surprised to see me as I was to see him.
"Hey," he said, "Lisa said you'd arrived. I thought you had school."

Tourists are VERY protected in this town. Great to know

! And nobody can't hide anything from Lisa because she's like a Big Sister, watching over the city like a huge eye in the fucking sky. If Lisa would go even more amazing than this then she'll explode because of the sheer pressure of awesomeness

. Two more heroes come into game. Miss Militia- she's a military type heroine, someone who's very good at building weapons, maybe she can turn her own arms into various weapons, or she can control the trajectory of bullets/rockets in a way that she never misses a target. Triumph is someone who looks cool in whatever they're doing, maybe someone like Glory Girl. Or they're superlucky, being instantly victorious at the end of each fight. I still don't know Armsmaster's power but I'm more and more fixated on the impression that he's a tinker good at building weapons/armors/vehicles.

It took me a few seconds to get my mental footing. Any demonstration or mention of Lisa's power kind of had a way of doing that to me, and that was on top of having a conversation sprung on me without a chance to prepare. "Changed my mind," I said, lamely.
"Huh. Well, come on up."

We headed upstairs. I saw Brian was wearing different clothes than what he had been wearing earlier in the morning. What he was wearing now bore a closer resemblance to his clothes from the day before – a green sleeveless t-shirt and black slacks with a lightweight fabric, like yoga pants or something.
Alec was waiting, leaning against the back of a couch, as we entered the living room. He was wearing a t-shirt with some cartoon or video game character on it and basketball shorts. He stood straight as he noticed us.
"Alec and I were sparring," Brian told me, "Lisa's on the phone in the kitchen. Rachel and her dogs are in her room. You can watch us, if you want, but no pressure. Feel free to use the TV, put on a DVD or play a video game."
"Don't save over any of my files, dork," Alec said. He'd started with the 'dork' thing last night. It wasn't exactly malicious, but it grated.
"My name is Taylor, not dork, and I wouldn't do that," I told him. Turning to Brian, I said, "I'll watch, if it's cool."
Brian smiled and nodded, while I moved to kneel on the couch and watch them over the back of it.
As it turned out, it was less of a 'sparring' session than an attempt on Brian's part to give a less than fully committed Alec some basic lessons on hand to hand fighting.

Even if Lisa is on the phone, she still knows what you're doing, guys, I'm sure. You can't escape from her WATCHFUL EYE. Nobody can

. Brian is teaching one of his "kids" to fight like normal humans. Awesome!

Please, Brian, give Taylor some lessons too. As I said during the previous chapter, she really needs to learn how to properly throw a punch.

It was one-sided, and not just because Alec wasn't trying very hard. Alec was a very average fifteen year old guy in that he had little muscle worth speaking about. Brian, by contrast, was fit. He wasn't big in the sense of a bodybuilder or someone who exercised just to pack on muscle like you saw with some of the people just out of prison. It was a little more streamlined than that. You could see the raised line of a vein running down his bicep, and the definition of his chest showed through his shirt.

Besides the difference in raw physical power, there was also the age and height gap. Alec was two or three years younger and nearly a foot shorter. That meant Brian had more reach – and I'm not just referring to the length of his arms. When he stepped forward or backward, he moved further. He covered more ground, which put Alec on the defensive, and since Brian was stronger, that put Alec in a bad position.
Brian stood without much of a fighting stance, hands at his sides, bouncing just a little where he stood. Twice in a row, I watched Alec swing a punch, only for Brian to lean out of the way. The second time Alec's arm flew by, Brian leaned in and jabbed Alec in the center of his chest. It didn't look like much of a punch, but Alec still sort of woofed out a breath and stepped back.
"I keep telling you," Brian said, "You're throwing punches like you'd throw a baseball. Don't bring your arm so far back before you punch. You're just broadcasting what you're about to do and it doesn't add enough power to the hit to be worth that."
"What am I supposed to do, then?"
"Look at how I'm standing. Arms up, bent, then I just extend my arm, wrist straight. Fast enough that whoever I'm hitting generally can't step out of the way, so they've got to either take it or block it."

Ok, so Brian seems to be the older one in the group, the tallest one and the strongest one (physical). Also, the best ninja to have around when you need to do your job in silence and fast. Alec seems to not be interested in learning how to fight at all. He's interested only in his video games, he doesn't give a shit about something else. Or this is my impression about him. Honestly, Alec is the last Undersider I like. I don't like Rachel either, but at least she's a very interesting character to read about. Alec is not even interesting, he's pretty boring, but I might change my opinion about him in the future, if I'll get to know him better.

"But you weren't standing like that ten seconds ago when I was punching you," Alec complained.
"I left an opening to see if you would take advantage of it," Brian replied.
"And I didn't," Alec noted with a sigh.
Brian shook his head.
"Well fuck this then," Alec said, "If you're going to go easy on me and still kick my ass, I don't see the point."
"You should learn how to fight," Brian said.
"I'll do like I have been and bring my taser," was Alec's response, "one poke and they're out cold. Better than any punch."

"And if the taser breaks or you lose it?" Brian asked. He needn't have bothered. Alec was already sitting himself down in front of the TV, remote in one hand and game controller in the other. Brian's disappointment was palpable.
"Mind giving me a few quick and dirty pointers?" I asked.
Alec sniggered, Beavis and Butthead style.
"Grow up, Alec," Brian said, "If you want to quit, fine, but don't be a dick." He turned to me and flashed that boyish smile.
Then we started.
I knew he was going easy on me, but he was still a damn tough teacher.
"Make two fists. No, don't wrap your fingers over your thumbs. You'll do more damage to your hands than you will to the person you're hitting, if you do that. That's better. Now jab at me, okay?"
I tried to emulate what he'd been describing to Alec. Arms up, bent, and extending my fist with a snap. He caught my right hand in his left.

You can't do jack shit with Alec, Brian. He only cares about his stupid video games "sighs". Why did you became a villain in the first place, Alec? You don't seem to have a single streak of evilness in your heart (at least Rachel is not an innocent angel, Brian and Lisa probably need money for their families and Taylor wants to impress heroes by collecting information about the group- so everyone have a reason), you're not even interested in this job and please, don't tell me you did it because of the boredom cause I'll flip my shit. At least Taylor seems to be interested in Brian's fighting lessons which is nice.

"Okay, now you're going to do two things different. Step into the jab so you've got your body's momentum behind the hit, on top of your arm's power. Second, I want your left arm up as you're jabbing with your right, and vice versa. If I see the chance, I'm going to pop you one on the shoulder or ribs, so be ready to fend me off."
I winced at the idea, but I played along. I jabbed, he stepped away, and he jabbed me in the shoulder. He didn't hit as hard as he could have – I think he only hit as hard as it took to make it hurt and drive the lesson home, but I suddenly felt a stab of sympathy for Alec.

Things continued in that vein. Brian didn't stay on one topic for long. When I started struggling with something, he shifted gears to another area that complemented or built on what I was having problems with. When I failed for the fifth time to fend off his retaliatory jabs at my shoulders and ribs, he started talking about posture.
"Rest your weight on the balls of your feet."
I tried it, then told him, "I feel like I'm going to tip over backwards if you hit me."
He bent down to check, and I lifted my toes two or three inches off the ground to demonstrate how I had my weight balanced on my heels.
"No, Taylor. The balls of your feet. He raised his bare foot and pointed at the padded part between his toes and the bridge of his foot.
"How is that a ball?" I asked, raising my own foot to point at the vaguely spherical part of the foot where the ankle met the ground, "this is the only part that looks ball-like."
"You guys are so lame," Alec chimed in, without turning around. Brian swatted him in the back of the head.
We moved on from posture, Brian's recommendations on balancing did help, to self-defense again. From there, we changed topics to the mental side of things, both for me and my opponent.
"So I throw a punch like I'm aiming to put my fist through them?" I confirmed.
"Right," Brian said, "Instead of just trying to make contact with the point where your hand meets their body."
"What about when they're attacking me?"

Alec, stop commenting, at least they're doing something useful, not what you're doing now. Its great to play games, yes, I agree with you, but in a fight you just can't tell your enemy something like: "well, let's play a video game to see who's going to win. If I win, I'll get to kill you, if you win, you'll kill me". Maybe Uber and Leet will agree with this shit but even they might not be so crazy enough.

"Best bet? Don't give them a chance. Stay aggressive and keep them on their heels. If neither of you have formal training, then that's going to give you the best odds. They won't be able to turn the tables on you unless you make a mistake or they can guess what you're going to do as you do it. Which is why you mix it up. Rights, lefts, punches, jabs, elbow, knee, kicks and if you're bigger and stronger than them, you can try tackling them to the ground. With all of that, you stay on them until they aren't in a position to fight back."

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

"Are you formally trained in anything?" I asked. I suspected he was, since the only other way for him to know as much as he was demonstrating was to have actually been in a good number of fights, and I wasn't thinking that he seemed the type to fight without reason.
"Ehhh," he hedged, "Some. My dad was a boxer when he was in the service, and he taught me some when I was little. I moved on to other stuff on my own – Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Krav Maga – but nothing really held my interest. I only took a few weeks or a month of classes for each. I know enough and keep in shape, which is enough to hold my own against anyone who isn't a black belt in whatever, which is the important thing, I think. Keeping up with the more serious martial artists is a full time job, and you're still going to run into people who are better than you, so I don't see the point in stressing too much over it."
I nodded.
We moved on to key areas to attack.
Brian pointed to the body parts in question as he explained, "Eyes, nose, temple, chin and throat are the areas above the shoulder. Teeth or ears if you can hit hard enough. I can, you can't."
"Sure," I said. I wasn't offended by his bluntness. He was stronger than me, so he had more options. Tip toeing around it didn't do either of us any favors.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

A piece of information about Brian's family. His dad was a boxer and taught him how to fight. Now, why he's talking about him at past? Either his dad is dead or he's just an ex-boxer. Brian, you're a pretty good teach. You're almost as awesome as Lisa. Fuck Shadow Stalker from trying to kill this amazing Grue. Whoever you're, FUCK YOU :mob:

!

"Below the shoulders, diaphragm, kidney, groin, knee, bridge of the foot, toes. Elbow is a good one if you can do anything with it," he took my wrist in his left hand and my shoulder in his right, extending my arm straight as he brought his knee up to gently tap the outside of my elbow. I could see how he would have screwed up or broken my arm if he'd done it full strength. He went on, "But in my experience, it doesn't come up often enough to worry about."
It was a little disquieting to hear Brian methodically describing how to break a human being. I saw him as a nice guy, if I ignored his career choice.

Not entirely by accident, I changed the subject, "I was thinking about investing in a weapon for hand to hand. When I was fighting Lung, fists were no good and I found myself really wanting a knife or a baton or something. Don't know if they would have been any good against his armor, but you know…" I trailed off.
Brian nodded, "Makes sense. You don't have a lot in the way of upper body strength, no offense."
"None taken. I tried to get something like a push-up routine going, but I got sick of it fast. At least with running, there's that sense of going places, you get the scenery."
"Push-ups get repetitive, yeah. Well, the boss is good about supplying us with gear. Lisa's the one who talks to him, she's talking to him right now, in fact. Put in a word with her if you want something like that.

Well, he's a NICE guy and a villain, Taylor, nothing to be surprised by here. Not all villains are bad to the core. Ok, the boss thing...HIM?!? Oh, ok, now I know this boss' sex. A man. Another man leader. Alright. I'm not going to be a feminist harpy so I'll hope that this boss will be a very interesting and well-meaning (as a villain can be, of course) man

. He seems very rich, since he can give Undersiders so many resources and money, and very motivated to lead this group. Maybe he have subsequent reasons? I just don't want him to use Undersiders for his nefarious purposes, without their knowledge. But if he'd do that, I think that Lisa should know. Unless he have methods to avoid her power working against him. Who knows...

It's untraceable too, so the good guys aren't going to be tracing any serial numbers or whatever from your weapon back to your purchase."

The fact that Lisa was talking to their boss made me very curious, all of a sudden. That said, I couldn't really traipse in to eavesdrop without being suspicious. Instead, since Lisa was out of earshot, I thought I'd seize the opportunity to ask, "So who is this boss of ours?"
Brian and Alec exchanged a look. When they didn't immediately say anything, I wondered if I'd pushed it too far. Had I been too nosy?
"Figured you'd ask," Brian said, "Thing is, we don't know."
"What?" I asked, "We have an anonymous sponsor?"
"It's really fucking weird, yeah," Alec said, then he hammered a button on the game controller, "Boom! Triple headshot!"
"Alec, stay focused," Brian sighed the words, with a tone suggesting he didn't expect to be listened to.
Alec bobbed his head in a nod, his eyes not leaving the television, before adding, "It's weird but it's basically free money, a good team, contacts, access to everything we need for stuff, and pretty much no drawbacks."
"Lisa knows, I think," Brian grumbled, "But she says that when she joined the Undersiders, she made a deal that she was going to keep quiet on the subject. I'm not sure if that means she knows who he is or if it's just to keep her mouth shut if her power tells her."
"So let me get this straight," I said, "This guy gathers you all together, offers you a salary and what? Doesn't ask for anything in return?"
Brian shrugged, "He asks us to do jobs, but most of the time it's stuff we'd do anyways, and if we say no, he doesn't make an issue of it."
"What kind of jobs does he ask us to do?" I asked.
Lisa's voice just behind me startled me, "This. Pull up your socks, boys and girl, because we're robbing a bank."

Lisa is the only one who knows their boss's identity but she keeps it secret from everyone. But why? I have a BAD feeling about this boss of Undersiders. He's might not be a good man (not even good as a villain can get). He's using them. He even uses Lisa and he might have something that he uses to blackmail her or maybe she doesn't know EVERYTHING about him. This is getting terrible ominous. But it only make me more curious and eager to find out what's going on. Also, this chapter ended in...Parahuman Ocean's Eleven, but with bank robbery instead of casino. Alright, let's do a bank robbery, wish you success, Undersiders. Just don't hurt innocent bystanders, ok?

Good night, my dears and have pleasant dreams.

HeWhoAdds · Mar 6, 2018

blackarrow said:
I kind of want this Empire88 to have a parahuman with fucking mannequin powers because only the most DEPRAVED, SICK, DEMENTED, TWISTED GROUP CAN HAVE THIS KIND OF FREAK MANNEQUIN PARAHUMAN and if Empire88 is not this kind of group, then I can't honestly thing at something worse than them.

lol

blackarrow said:
Honestly, Alec is the last Undersider I like. I don't like Rachel either, but at least she's a very interesting character to read about. Alec is not even interesting, he's pretty boring, but I might change my opinion about him in the future, if I'll get to know him better.

Wait for it. Alec's got hidden depths, yo. He's tied with Brian for second-favorite Underside.

AmbarGriss · Mar 6, 2018

Hohoho, next 2 chapters we are intruduced to a lot of new capes

. Can't wait for your reaction.

blackarrow · Mar 7, 2018

AmbarGriss said:
Hohoho, next 2 chapters we are intruduced to a lot of new capes . Can't wait for your reaction.

Well, I freaking love to guess new parahumans' (I prefer to call them parahumans rather than capes btw) powers judging by their code names. I know that I'm not right most of the times but I still have a fun time doing it. I also like to guess each new villain group's purposes and their common theme.

blackarrow · Mar 7, 2018

Hello, guys and girls. I'm thinking that I have to do a new review, don't you all agree with me? Chapter 3 of Arc 3 3.03 | Worm. Hmmm, as I said before, there are two people in this story that I don't trust at all, no matter how nice and helpful they appear at the first glance. Those people are Scion and Undersider's boss. Why I don't trust them at all? Because: Scion is an alien who have no reason at all to help and protect humans, especially since he didn't grew up on this parallel earth and he only came here when he was already an adult (or whatever "adult" means for his golden species). The only reason for being so 'kind" and "generous" is to use humans for his purposes when he thinks that the right time will come. On the other side, Undersiders' boss have no reason at all to not show his identity to his team (except for Lisa), to make his people do some pretty strange jobs (like going against ABB, pissing off their boss, robbing banks- since he already seems to be rich) unless he's planning something (like getting involved in the gangsta war over Docks ) and he's just using them to have his Divide et Impera dream come true. That's it, I don't trust them and I'll never trust them, no matter how hard they'll try to convince me, as a reader, that they're ok fellas. I'm not a naive person, neither a naive reader. Let's see how the Operation: Lisa's Five, the most daring bank robbery in the history of Brockton Bay

will go!

"No," Brian intoned, "Such a bad idea."
Lisa still had the phone in her hand. Bitch had arrived just behind her, and stood in stark contrast to Lisa's jeans, sweater and tight ponytail, with an army jacket, and virtually no attention paid to her hair. The littlest of the dogs, the one-eyed, one eared terrier, trailed after her.

"Come on," Lisa wheedled, "It's a rite of passage for dastardly criminals like us."
"Robbing a bank is moronic. We've been over this," Brian closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, "You know what the average haul is for hitting a bank?"
Lisa paused, "Twenty thou?"
"Exactly. It's not millions like you see people getting away with in the movies. Banks don't keep a lot of loose cash on hand, so we'd be pulling in less than we would for most other jobs. Account for cost and the fact that this is Brockton fucking Bay, where banks have a little more reason to keep the amount of cash in their vaults to a minimum, and we'd be bringing in twelve to sixteen thou. Divide five ways and it's what, two or three thousand bucks each?"
"I could do with an extra three thousand dollars to spend," Alec said, putting down his game controller and shifting his position on the couch to follow the conversation better.
"On what?" Brian asked. When Alec shrugged, Brian sighed and explained, "It's a horrible payoff for the amount of risk involved. There's three big superhero teams in this city. Figure there's another dozen heroes that fly solo, and we're almost guaranteed to get into a fight."

Alright, I'm going go let these people making plans about bank robbery without my impertinent interruptions

and I'm going to talk about who their boss might be. So, let's see, what do we have now? We know 4 big villain bosses: Lung, Kaiser, Faultline and Coil. So: Lung can't be because he has only asians in his gang and there's not a single asian in Undersiders. Faultline is a WOMAN, I'm going to exclude her because of her sex (and the fact that Undersiders are not mercenaries, but mostly because of her sex). Kaiser will never accept a black man in his team (and even if he never meet Brian, I'm sure that Lisa had to tell him details about the people that he hired). The only one who remained in my books as a possible boss for Undersiders is Coil (but I need more information about him to confirm my supposition). Maybe there's another boss around or...maybe even a hero who might play as a villain in their free time, exactly what Taylor is trying to do now.

"So?" Bitch spoke for the first time, "We win fights. We won before we had her." She raised her chin in my direction as she said that last word.

"We won because we picked our battles. We wouldn't have that option if we were cooped up in the bank and waiting for them to come to us, letting them decide how and where the fight happened."
Lisa nodded and smiled as he spoke. I thought for a second that she was going to say something, but she didn't.
Brian continued, getting pretty passionate as he ranted, "We won't be able to slip away like we have when things got a little out of control in the past. Can't avoid the fight if we want to get away with anything worth taking. The bank is going to have layers of protection. Iron bars, vault doors, whatever. Even with your power, Lise, there's a limit to how fast we can get through those. Add the time we have to spend managing hostages and making a safe exit, and I pretty much guarantee that there will be time for a cape to get wind of the robbery and slow us down even more."
Alec said, "I kind of want to do it anyways. Hitting a bank gets you on the front page. It's huge for our rep."
"The runt is right," Bitch said.
Brian grumbled, "Not fucking up is better for our reputation in the long run." His deeper voice was really good for grumbling.
Alec looked at me, "What do you think?"

Still don't want to be rude towards some hard working people who are talking about doing their jobs properly. I want to talk about my stupid fear for mannequins, if that's ok with you, people. When I was little, I watched a horror movie called Wishmaster (the main villain of the movie was an evil genie -a demon with the power to make people's wishes come true, but in a very twisted and mortal manner for them). This genie was asked once by a woman to make her young and beauty forever. And he turned her into a mannequin (but inside she was still alive even if she couldn't move, talk or even blink). Because of that stupid scene, I was affected by an irrational fear for mannequins, thinking that they might be living people trapped inside (even when I'm going to shopping, I refuse to even look at mannequins, feeling very disturbed by their simple presence). So, my dears, please, I'm begging you, when there will be a chapter about a paarahuman mannequin, you can tell me something like this: hey you dumbass girl, next chapter have a mannequin based parahuman so...be ready. That's all I want you to tell me. In this way, I'll prepare myself before reading the respective chapter. Pretty please.

I'd almost forgotten I was a part of the discussion. The last thing I wanted was to rob a bank. Hostages could get hurt. The fact that it would potentially put me on the front page of the paper wasn't a high point, either, if I ever wanted to drop the supervillain ruse and become a hero in good standing. I ventured, "I think Brian makes a good case. It seems reckless."

Bitch snorted. I think I saw Alec roll his eyes.
Lisa leaned forward, "He does make good points, but I have better ones. Hear me out?" The rest of us turned our attention to her, though Brian had a frown that made it seem like it would take a lot to convince him.
"Ok, so Brian said similar stuff before, before we hit that casino a few weeks ago. So I was kind of expecting this. But it's not as bad as it sounds. The boss wants us to do a job at a very specific time. I got the sense he was willing to offer a fair bit if we went the extra mile, and I negotiated a pretty good deal.
"The bank robbery was my idea, and he liked it. According to him, the Protectorate is busy with an event on Thursday, just outside of town. That's part of the reason the timing is so important. If we act then, there's almost no chance we'll have to deal with them. If we hit the Bay Central, downtown-"
"That's the biggest bank in Brockton Bay," I interrupted her, half-disbelieving.
"So everything I said about them having security and being careful is doubly true," Brian added.

Ok, it looks like Coil or whoever their boss is seems to listen to Lisa's suggestions (so he's not exactly mind-controlling her, but maybe he blackmails her with something, with her family, with a close friend of hears...because I can't see Lisa keeping his identity away from her teammates's knowledge without having any reasonable reason to do it). So their boss want them to rob the bank while the Protectorate members are out of the town because he doesn't want those meddling big heroes to mess with his plans. Good thinking, he's a smart guy.

"If we hit the Bay Central, downtown," Lisa repeated herself, ignoring us, "Then we're hitting a location just a mile away from Arcadia High, where most of the Wards go to school. Given jurisdictions, New Wave won't be able to jump on us without stepping on the Wards' toes, which pretty much guarantees we go up against the team of junior superheroes. With me so far?"

We all nodded or murmured agreement.
"Figure that's happening in the middle of the school day, and they won'tall be able to slip away to stop a robbery without drawing attention. People know the Wards are attending Arcadia, they just don't know who they are. So everyone's constantly watching for that. Since they can't have all six or seven of the same kids disappear from class every time the Wards go off to foil a crime without giving away the show, chances are good that we'd go up against a couple of their strongest members, or one of the strongest with a group of the ones with less amazing powers. We can beat them."
"Okay," Brian begrudged, "I'll accept that we'd probably do alright in those circumstances, but-"
Lisa interrupted him, "I also got the boss to agree to match us two for one on the haul. We bring in fifteen grand, he pays us thirty. Or he gives us enough money to bring our total up to twenty five, whichever is more in the end. So we could walk away with two thousand dollars and he'd pay us twenty three thou. So as long as we don't wind up in jail, we're guaranteed five thousand dollars apiece, bare minimum."
Brian's eyes widened, "That's insane. Why would he do that?"
"And," Lisa grinned, "He'll cover all our costs, just this once. Equipment, information, bribes if we want 'em."

They're going to fight against Wards, the junior heroes. Nice strategy, guys

. I have a feeling that (judging by the last Interlude), Glory Girl and Panacea will enter into action and they have to fight them as well. Let's see, since I like Amy I think I'll will review the bank robber chapter (or chapters) from two point of views in the same time (even if Amy will not appear). From the point of view of Undersiders and from the point of view of the Wards. I'll try to cheer for both sides, putting myself in everyone' shoes. And I'll do the same thing everytime when Undersiders will have to face heroes (of course, if there will be heroes that I'll dislike then I'll be by Undersiders' side 100%. And if they're other villains, fuck them -Undersiders 100%). Let's see how this will work

.

"Why?" I echoed Brian's earlier question, disbelieving. Lisa was throwing around sums of money that I couldn't even wrap my head around. I had never even had more than five hundred dollars in my bank account.
"Because he's sponsoring us and it stands to reason he doesn't want to fund a team of nobodies. We manage this, we won't be nobodies. That, and he really wants us to do a job at that particular time."

There was a few moments of silence as everyone considered the deal. I was frantically trying to think of a way to try to convince these guys it was a bad idea. A bank robbery could get me arrested. Worse, it could lead to me or a bystander getting hurt or killed.
Brian beat me to it, "The risk to reward still isn't great. Five grand each for hitting what may well be the most fortified location in Brockton Bay and an almost guaranteed confrontation with the Wards?"
"Second most fortified location," Lisa countered, "The Protectorate Headquarters is the first."
"Fair point," Brian said, "But my argument stands."
"It'll be more than five grand for each of us, I guarantee you," Lisa told him, "It's the biggest bank in Brockton Bay. It's also the hub of cash distribution for the entire county. Said cash gets transferred in and out by armored cars on a regular schedule-"
"So why don't we hit one of the cars?" Alec asked.
"They have ride-alongs or aerial cover from various members of the Wards and the Protectorate, so we'd be caught in a fight with another cape from minute one. Same problems that Brian's talking about, as far as getting caught up in a fight, difficulty accessing the money before shit goes down, yadda yadda. Anyways, the Brockton Bay Central has cars coming in twice a week, and leaving four times a week. We hit on a Thursday just after noon, and it should be the best day and time for the sheer size of the take. Only way we're getting away with less than thirty thousand is if we fuck up. With what the boss is offering, that's ninety thou."

They're going to hit the biggest bank in the city. But why their boss is so interested in robbing this bank if he already have so much money at his disposition? "scratches head, thinking" Maybe there are important documents there and he needs them in the shortest time possible. But Lisa was the one who came up with the idea about bank robbery, not him. Such a mystery....

She folded her arms.
Brian sighed, long and loud, "Well, you got me, I guess. It sounds good."
Lisa turned to Alec. There wasn't any resistance to be found there. He just said, "Fuck yeah, I'm in."
Bitch didn't need convincing any more than Alec had. She nodded once and then turned her attention to the scarred little dog.

Then everyone looked at me.
"What would I be doing?" I asked, nervously, hoping to stall or find holes in the plan that I could use to argue against it.
So Lisa outlined a general plan. Brian made suggestions, good ones, and the plan was adjusted accordingly. I realized with a growing disappointment and a knot of anxiety in my gut that it was almost inevitably going to happen.
Arguing against the bank robbery at this point would hurt my undercover operation more than it helped anyone. With that in mind, I began offering suggestions that – I hoped – would minimize the possibility of disaster. The way I saw it, if I helped things go smoothly, it would help my scheme to get info on the Undersiders and their boss. It would minimize the chance that someone would panic or be reckless and get a civilian hurt. I think I would feel worse if that happened than I would about going to jail.
The discussion went on for a while. At one point, Lisa got her laptop, and we debated entrance and exit strategies while she sketched out a map of the bank layout. It was uncanny, seeing her power at work. She copied a satellite image of the bank from a web search into a paint program, then drew over it with thick bold lines to show how the rooms were laid out. With another search and a single picture of the bank manager standing in front of his desk, she was able to mark out where the manager's desk was. That wouldn't have been too amazing, but without pausing, she then went on to mark where the tellers were, as well as the vaults, the vault doors and the enclosed room that held the safe deposit boxes. She noted where the fuse box and air conditioning vents were, but we decided we wouldn't mess with either of those. That stuff was cool in the movies, but it didn't do much good in real life. Besides, this was a robbery, not a heist.

While Taylor is thinking about how she can uncover their boss and find everything she can about him, Lisa makes some really cool plans about bank robbery. I think that reading a book or watching a movie is very unpleasant at all for poor Lisa, since her power doesn't have a "turn off" button. She's going to know how the book and movie will end just by putting together the details she'll notice. There's no spoiler, no twist, no surprise for her. Being Tattletale might be a pain sometimes "hugs Lisa".

While we worked, Alec got restless and went to make an early lunch. Of the four of us, I got the impression he had the least to contribute, at least strategically, and that he knew it. I wasn't sure if he just didn't have a very tactical mindset or if he just didn't care that much about the planning stage of things. My assumptions led to the latter, as he seemed more willing to go with the flow than Brian or Lisa.

He brought us a plate of pizza pockets along with assorted sodas, and we ate as we wrapped up the plan.
"Alright," Brian said, as Lisa shut her laptop, "I think we have a general idea of what we're doing. We know how we get in, we know who does what when we're inside, and we know how we want to get out. Keeping in mind that no plan survives contact with the enemy, I think the odds are still pretty good."
"So, the enemy," I said, resisting the urge to wince at the realization that I would be up against good guys, "My only experience fighting in costume… or even just fighting, is against Lung, and that didn't go well."
"Don't sell yourself short," Brian said, "You did better than most."
"I'll rephrase," I said, "It could have gone better. We're going up against the Wards and they aren't pushovers."
Brian nodded, "True. Let's talk strategy and weaknesses. You know who the Wards are?"
I shrugged, "I've researched them. I've seen them on TV. That doesn't mean I know the important stuff."
"Sure," he said, "So let's go down the list. Team leader: Aegis.

Ok, Aegis is a child hero. And Wards' leader. Hmm, I said before that this Aegis might turn people into stone with a simple glare or summon an impenetrable shield. Let's see how wrong I was

You'd think he has the standard Alexandria package, flight, super strength, invincibility, but that isn't exactly right. He does fly, but the other two powers work differently than you'd expect. See, he isn't invincible… he just doesn't have any weak points. His entire biology is filled with so many redundancies and reinforcements that you just can't put him down. Throw sand in his eyes and he can still see by sensing the light on his skin. Cut his throat and it doesn't bleed any more than the back of his hand would. The guy's had an arm cut off and it was attached and working fine the next day. Stab him through the heart and another organ takes over the necessary functions."

"Not that we're stabbing anyone through the heart?" I made it a hopeful half-question, half-statement.
"No. Well, it wouldn't be a bad idea to stab Aegis through the heart just to slow him down. If you did it with something big enough. The guy's like a zombie, he gets back up within seconds of you beating him down, keeps coming at you until you're too tired to fight back or you make a mistake."
"And he's super strong?" I asked.
Brian shook his head, "Lisa, want to field this one?"
She did. "Aegis isn't strong, but he can abuse his body in ways that makes it seem like he is. He can throw punches hard enough that they'd break his hand, mangle his joints and tear his muscles, and his body just takes it. He has no reason to hold back, and he doesn't need to waste any time protecting himself from you. He can also draw on adrenaline… you've heard stories like how little old grandmothers lifted cars off the ground to save their grandkids?"
I nodded.
I nodded.
"That's adrenaline at work, and Aegis can do that for hours at a stretch. His body doesn't run out of steam, he doesn't get tired, he doesn't exhaust his reserves of adrenaline. He just keeps going."
"So how do you stop him?" I asked.

Wow, he's like a FUCKING ZOMBIE. I was a little bit partially right with the invincibility shield, only that he doesn't need one because his biology is so FUCKED that he's invincible from head to toes. Even if you cut him in pieces, he'll pull himself together, come after you and FINISH YOU. You can't stop him, you can't kill him (I wonder if you shoot him directly in his brains? Does his heart starts to function like a brain? This guy is hilarious freakish). Also I noticed that Alexandria can fly, is super-strong and invincible. Kind of like Glory Girl (my theory with her having the best memory in the world is officially dead. RIP, theory).

"You don't, really," Brian said, "Best bet is to keep him occupied, keep him sufficiently distracted or stick him somewhere he can't escape. Trap him in a dumpster and throw it in the river, you can get a few minutes of relief. Which is all harder than it sounds. He's the team captain, and he isn't stupid. Rachel? Sic your dogs on him. A two ton canine or two should keep him out of our hair until we're ready to run."

"I don't need to hold back?" Bitch asked, her eyebrow quirked.
"For once, no. Go nuts. Just, you know, don't kill him. Alec? You're the backup there. Keep an eye on Aegis, see if you can't use your power to throw him off. Buy enough time for a dog to get its jaws on him and he's probably out of action."
"Sure," Alec said.
Brian extended two fingers and tapped the second, "Number two. Clockblocker.

Even if you try to kill him, Rachel, you'll fail because this guy is official immortal. Deal with it

. Thanks God that Aegis is not a villain. OMG, Clockblocker..........HAHAHA HAHA HAHA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

rofl:

lol

lol....Sorry, guys, but I can't...this code name is....PRICELESS. I think this hero's power is to LITERAL STOP two people when they want to feel good in each other's company. The other power I can think of is to stop time, but I'm sure this will not be the correct power to have.

Let it be known, I fucking hate people who mess with time."
"He stops time, if I remember right?" I inquired, as much to stay in the conversation as to get the clarification.
"More specific than that," Brian said, "He can stop time for whatever he touches. The person or object he touches is basically put on 'pause' for anywhere from thirty seconds to ten minutes. Only good thing is that he doesn't control or know how long it's going to last. But if he gets his hands on you, you're out of action. He'll either stand next to you and wait until you start moving, then touch you again, or he'll just tie you up in chains and handcuffs so that when his power wears off, you're already in custody."

"Long story short, he touches you, you're boned," Alec said.
"The upside is that whoever he touches is also untouchable. Can't be hurt, can't be moved. Period. He uses that defensively, and he can do stuff like throw paper or cloth in the air and freeze it in time, making an unbreakable shield. You don't want to run into something that's frozen. A car that drove into the side of a piece of paper that Clockblocker had touched would be cut in two before it budged the paper."
"Noted," I said.
Brian continued, "The third heavy hitter on the Wards is Vista.

Ok, I was right about the second power, it seems that he CAN stop time. Maybe he can secretly travel back in time too (like one of my favorite characters from Heroes, Hiro Nakamura). Interesting power to have and pretty powerful, I must add. I think that Taylor can attack him with bugs and he'll have to freeze them in time and then he'll remain like this, trapped into a scary condensed mass of bugs until the Undersiders are able to run away. This is the only method of fighting that might be used against him successful. But still his code name is funnier than Armasmaster

rofl:

rofl:. I just can't.... Alright, now Vista: Lisa can use her hacker skills to infect this hero Vista with software bugs and everything will be fine

. Or they might have powers related to teleportation around places, maybe being even better than Oni Lee.

You know that myth about how the capes that get their powers young are exponentially more powerful? Vista's one of the kids who keeps the myth alive. Clockblocker is sort of a one trick pony, his trick involves screwing with one of the key forces of our universe, but it's just one thing. Vistaalso messes with physics on a fundamental level, but she's versatile.
"Twelve years old, and she has the power to reshape space. She can stretch a building like taffy, so it's twice as tall, or squeeze two sidewalks closer together so she can cross the street with a single step."
"Her weakness," Lisa added, "Is the Manton effect." She turned her full attention to me, "You know what that is?"

"I've heard it mentioned, but I don't know the details."
"Wherever our powers come from, they also came with some limitations. For most of us, there's a restriction about using our powers on living things. The reach of powers generally stops at the outside of a person or animal's body. There's exceptions for the people with powers that onlywork on living things, like you, Alec and Rachel. But the long and short of it is that the Manton effect is why most telekinetics can't just reach into your chest and crush your heart. Most people who can create forcefields can't create one through the middle of your body and cut you in two."
"Narwhal can," Alec cut in.

Aww, Vista is so young. She's only 12. Please, Undersiders, don't hurt this kid. She wants to be a hero, just don't crush her dreams

(all of sudden, I feel protective towards this kid). So, no teleportation powers but she has space powers instead, she can reshape space according to her wishes and deeds. Cool. So, we have a kid girl with space powers and a kid boy with time powers. Yes, Homestuck (Jade and Dave) in full action here, indeed

. I think Narwhal is just a horned whale who gained superpowers and more or less sapience and decided to help humans to fight villains (because fuck logic!). It can project forcefields that can bypass Manton effect and cut people into pieces. Cool whale! (I am going to talk about this Manton effect later, ok?)

"I said most," Lisa said, "Why these restrictions exist is a question nearly as big as where we got our powers in the first place. The capes that can get around the Manton effect are among the strongest of us."

I nodded, slowly. I wondered if that had something to do with why Lung didn't burn himself, but I didn't want to get further off topic, "And Vista?"
"Vista can stretch and compress space. She can also do funny things with gravity. Thing is, the Manton effect keeps her from stretching or compressing you. It also makes altering an area a lot harder for her if there's more people in that space. So if all of us are in one room, chances are she won't be able to affect the whole room."
"But," Brian added, wiping a string of cheese from the corner of his lip, "Every time we've run into her, she's been faster and overall more powerful with her power, and she's had new tricks. Every second she's on the battlefield is a second things become harder for us. We take her down sooner than later. Aegis, Clockblocker, Vista. Those are the ones we're most likely to run into, and whoever else winds up coming, they're the ones we have to deal with, or we're fucked.
"Let's quickly go through the rest. Kid Win."

Vista is BADASS but still a kid who must be protected with all costs. Kid Win is another kid who's winning with all costs. He's like: fuck you all, I win, no matter what you're going to do against me I win even before you're making a move "sticks out his tongue, flips the bird and flies away on a cloud of pure victory, carried on Triumph's head. The Undersiders are like: The parents of this kid failed into raising him properly, while the Protectorate appeared out of blue to arrest them."

"Tinker," Lisa said, "Flying skateboard, laser pistols, high tech visor are staples for him. Expect something new, depending on what he's come up in his workshop. He's mobile but not that threatening."
"Triumph?" Brian said.
"He turned eighteen and graduated to the Protectorate. Don't have to worry about him," Lisa said.
"Gallant."

Hmm "is disappointed" nothing impressive here, he's just a thinker who's good at making...toys. He seems like the least dangerous Ward to fight against. I said "he seems" because you can't never be sure with sparks...I mean thinkers. They might be full of surprises. Wow, talking about Triumph and Triumph is here lol. He's a man but nothing about his power. Also, he won't be among Wards. Ok, next...Gallant: makes woman fall in love with him only by being a gentleman towards them. Maybe he also have some emotions based powers that allow him to be an irresistible Don Juan.

"Glory Girl's on and off boyfriend, he pretends to be a Tinker in the same vein as Kid Win, but I think he just runs around in secondhand armor with a fresh paint job. His thing is these blasts of light. Getting hit by one feels like a punch in the gut, but the blasts also mess with your feelings. Make you sad, make you scared, ashamed, giddy, whatever. Not that bad unless you get hit by a bunch in a row. Don't."

"That just leaves Shadow Stalker. Bloodthirsty bitch," Brian scowled.

Alright, he have emotions based powers that allow him to emotionally hurt people by hitting them with emotional blasts. Close enough. Shadow Stalker is a woman, ok. From all heroes, I want her to be injured the most. Fuck this bitch. I said before that she can either turn into a shadow, she can control shadows or she can possess people. Let's see how wrong I was.

Alec explained to me, "She's got it in her head that Brian is her nemesis. You know, her number one enemy, her dark opposite. She's been going after him every chance she gets."
"She was a solo hero," Tattletale said, "Vigilante of the night, until she went too far and nearly killed someone, nailing him to a wall with one of her crossbows. The local heroes were called in, she got arrested, and made some sort of deal. Now she's a probationary member of the Wards, with the condition that she uses tranquilizer bolts and nonlethal ammo for her crossbow."

"Which she isn't," Brian growled, "At least, not when she comes after me. That arrow she shot through my side had a fucking arrowhead on it."
Tattletale shook her head, "Her powers and Brian's sort of have a weird interaction with one another. Shadow Stalker can sort of transform. She becomes extremely lightweight, can pass through glass and thin walls and she's nearly invisible. Only thing is, while she and the stuff she carries are all wispy in her transformed state, the stuff she shoots with her crossbow only stays that way for a half second. Then the effect wears off and it's a regular arrow flying towards you. So she can leap between rooftops, almost impossible to see, hard to even touch, and all the while she's shooting very real arrows at you."
"So what do you do?" I asked.
"Her power doesn't work well while she's inside Brian's darkness, for whatever reason. She isn't as fast or agile, he can see her better, and she can't see him in the darkness," Tattletale told me, "So it becomes something of a very intense game of tag, with one very fast person that's essentially blind and deaf but carrying lethal weapons, while Brian, the other, is trying to take her out without getting shot."
"Let's avoid that," Brian said, "It's too time consuming and she may want to use that kind of scenario to delay us. Just don't get shot, and if you see her or see the opportunity, inform the team and do your best to take her down without losing sight of a priority target.

Fuck this vigilante bitch (I like vigilantes, but this bitch injured Brian), fuck this parahuman bitch with Shadowcat's (from X-Men) intangibility powers, fuck this hero bitch who thinks that was cool to make Brian her nemesis without any reason at all, fuck everything about Shadow Stalker. She's a bully in the world of superheroes, looks like. I'm convinced that I'm going to dislike her very much. At least until she gives up at hunting Brian down and trying to kill him # protectBrianandVistawithallcosts.

"So that's the plan, then?" I said, "So many maybes."
"That's the way these things go, Taylor," Brian said, his tone a bit terse, "I think we've done a pretty good job of covering all the bases."
"Oh, I didn't mean to sound like I was criticizing your plan-" I said.
"Our plan," Brian interrupted.
I didn't want to think of it that way. Instead, I said, "I'm a touch nervous, is all."
"You don't have to come," Bitch said, her tone a touch too casual.
"In all seriousness," Brian told me, "If you're having second thoughts…"
"I am," I admitted, "as well as third thoughts, fourth thoughts, and so on. But I'm not going to let that stop me. I'm coming with."

"Good," Brian replied, "Then we've got the rest of today and tomorrow to prepare. Taylor? You can meet me on your run first thing. I'll have a cell phone for you. You can text Lisa with anything you think you'll need, like those weapons you were talking about. Look up models and brands ahead of time if you want something specific."
"What's her number?" I asked.
"I'll put it in the phone before I give it to you. Lisa? You confirm the job with the boss, talk to him about the other stuff."
"Got it."
"So unless there's anything else, I think we just planned a bank robbery before noon," Lisa said with a grin. I looked at the digital clock displayed under the TV. Sure enough, it was half past eleven.
I couldn't help but wonder if that was a good thing.

Everyone agreed with robbing the bank. AWESOME. Let's rob that fucking bank and make our boss proud of us!

Later with a new chapter, my dears. Bye!

AmbarGriss · Mar 7, 2018

Ah, Shadow Stalker. A piece of work she is, and one of the most disliked characters I believe.
She does not deserve such cool powers.

blackarrow · Mar 7, 2018

HELLO! What time it is? Right, time for robbing the bank in chapter 4 3.04 | Worm The plans were made, we know about the Wards that will try to stop Undersiders from doing their illegal job now all we have to do is to watch them actually DOING IT! As I promised, I'll review each scene from two points of view so I previously apologize to all people who love Undersiders (I love them too) but everytime when I'll do heroes' POV, I'll criticize the villains using a very harsh tone because I'm sure that heroes will not be happy with whatever Undersiders will do to them and their point of view will not be too kind towards them. Honestly, if I were a hero, I'd think the same about those...fuckers with nightmare powers who attack me with darkness, bugs, monster dogs and I have to both stop them from stealing people's money and defend myself and my teammates.

"I'll be there. Yes-" I saw a light in the living room window and put my hand over the lower half of my cell phone while I briefly investigated. Damn, my dad was home. I put the phone to my ear, "I'm sorry, I've got to run. No. No. Look-"
As I heard the front door open, I snapped the phone shut and jammed it into my pocket. I'd apologize for hanging up later. I definitely didn't want my dad to see the phone. I didn't think he would stop me from owning one, but ever since my mom's death, cell phones had carried strong negative connotations. That, and I'd have to explain where I got it and how I'd paid for it.

Brian had given me three identical cell phones – all disposables – first thing in the morning, and I'd decided to go with him to the loft rather than head to school. The way I figured it, I didn't have much of a chance of focusing on classes with Thursday's bank robbery occupying my attention on top of the stress of just being there and waiting for the other shoe to drop as far as my skipped classes. Besides, I rationalized, it didn't make a lot of sense to go if I knew I would be skipping again to go rob the bank. I'd promised myself I would go the day after tomorrow. Face the music.
I'd spent the day with the group.

Alright, while Taylor is busy having fun with her friends before doing the "bankjob", I'll talk for a while about this Manton Effect. My opinion is that it was discovered by someone named Manton and named after that person (possible a doctor or a tinker in medical field). So this effect can stop parahumans from affecting living beings with their powers. That's the reason why Lung wasn't able to start a fire INSIDE Taylor and burned her from inside out. Brian can't generate darkness inside someone's brain and fuck them for life. On the other side, there are parahumans able to bypass this Effect. Taylor can attack people by making insects to enter in their orifices (also she can control insects in the first place), Alec can make people lose their control over their movements, affecting their neural system, Rachel can transform dogs (another living beings). I guess Vista is unable to stretch and compress humans in the same way she can do with the space around her. But the horned whale (I'll seriously think that it is a whale until proven otherwise, ok?) Narwal can kill people by creating forcefields inside their bodies. Now the question is...why some parahumans can't affect living being and others can? Maybe because some powers are so dangerous that people who are using them have to protect themselves against them, thus unconsciously creating this Effect. For example, Lung can burn himself if he's not limited to the Effect. Brian can fuck his entire body if he's not self-protected. Vista can compress herself, thus killing herself is the absence of this effect. On the other side, Taylor and Rachel can't hurt themselves because their powers are only about control/manipulation of other living beings. This is what I got so far. Maybe later I'll learn more about this interesting Manton Effect and I'll have a better (and more coherent) opinion.

Rachel had been out of the apartment, the others weren't specific on why and I wasn't interested enough to risk looking too curious by asking. So it had just been me, Brian, Alec and Lisa. We'd hammered out the fine details of the robbery and I had decided what weapons I wanted Lisa to ask the boss for. I had elected for both a combat knife and a telescoping police baton. The knife would serve for emergencies and those people who were just too tough to hurt with the baton. The baton, twenty one inches long when fully extended, was for more general use, offering more clout than I'd otherwise get with my fists. Lisa had promised I would have them for tomorrow.

After that, we kind of avoided the subject of the robbery, by some unspoken agreement. It wouldn't do to overthink it or risk getting too nervous. Either way, I had felt a need to burn some nervous energy, so I had helped clear out the storage closet around lunchtime, with Lisa and Brian's help. We'd sorted out the stuff, found a place for it all, and set up the room with odds and ends they had lying around. The stuff included an extendable clothes rack, a dresser, an inflatable mattress and a bedside table with a lamp attached. It was enough space for me to keep some toiletries, a spare change of clothes or two, my costume and my equipment. Lisa spent a lot of time talking about what I could do to make the space my own, what I could buy, how I could decorate, but I was happy enough with what we had there. I kind of liked that it was a bit spartan, because it sort of fit with how I didn't plan to be around that long while still feeling weirdly appreciative at being accepted as a part of the group.
Having tired ourselves out, we'd all collapsed on the couches and watched some of Alec's movies from Earth-Aleph, the alternate Earth that our Earth had been communicating with since Professor Haywire tore a hole between realities. Media was one of the few things that could be traded back and forth through the hole. Long story short, you could get books, movies and DVDs of TV shows from the other world, if you were willing to accept the price tag. The benefit? I got to spend the afternoon seeing how the other universe had handled episodes one and two of the Star Wars films.
Fact: they were still pretty disappointing.

Before reading this part, I was convinced 30-40% that Coil is their leader. Now I'm convinced 60% that Coil is their leader. I mean, he's leading a Super Army. He has the best soldiers with the best armors with the best guns (I suck at military stuff, I'm just repeating like a retard parrot what that skinhead told to Glory Girl). Lisa got a handgun, Taylor got a combat knife and police baton and Alec got a taser. Only someone like Coil could provide them with military/police weapons, not so hard to see not even for a military noob like me. Coil is 60% Undersiders' boss. And I'm 40% convinced that he can turn into a FUCKING COSMIC GIANT SNAKE EVERYTIME WHEN HE FEELS TO URGE TO HAVE SEX (poor you people who have to read my crap "hugs").

By the time my dad got in, I had pork chops defrosted, dusted with lemon and pepper and sitting in a frying pan, with vegetables in the microwave. Cooking was sort of something you started doing when you had only one parent, unless you really, really liked takeout.
"Heya," my dad greeted me, "Smells good."
"I started dinner a bit early because I have somewhere I want to be, tonight, If that's cool?"
He tried to hide it, but I could see a bit of disappointment. "Of course," he said, "Your new friends?"
I nodded.

"Let me get changed and then I'll ask you all about them," he promised as he headed upstairs.
Great. I hadn't had to answer these questions last night because my dad had been working late. My mind started racing to anticipate questions and come up with plausible details. Should I use their real names? Or at least, the names they had given me? I wasn't sure if that would be a breach of trust. I decided to use their real names for much the same reason I'd decided to use my own with them. It just prevented disasters if my dad ever happened to meet them, which was a terrifying thought, or if they called for me.

Now let's talk, until Taylor's dad will change, about this Professor Haywire who discovered Earth-Aleph (I suppose is OUR REAL WORLD but is considered parallel by Taylor in the same manner Taylor's Earth is considered parallel by our world). He must be a tinker who's good with physics and he uses his inventions to travel through parallel Earths (or at least to trade movies and books between them). Very interesting, I wonder if Scion is aware that there are more worlds than just one and maybe he did the same on other Earths like he did on Taylor's Earth. Maybe- if he's aware and he can physically travel between them he secretly collects an army of parahumans from all worlds (cause I doubt that there's only two worlds). Then he'll connect them at the end by destroying the space/time barriers between worlds and connecting them into a single, messy, hazardous one in order to have his army of billions and billions at his disposal. This is going to be such a HUGE mess that I'd love for sure (and yes, I believe in parallel worlds, I think there are a lot of worlds like our world, only slightly different, but we can't travel there and people from there can't travel here because of the time/space barriers that block our and their access and each other worlds. Basically, the gates to each world are closed for moment because of damn physics laws. I'm honestly not sure if I ever want them to be opened. Cause I have a bad feeling about this whole invasion of each other world. Its not going to end well. For nobody. I also believe in aliens).

I didn't need to worry about my dad hearing about four kids being arrested, all of whom had the same name as my 'friends', since most or all of them were minors and their names would be kept from the media under the law. I was also under the impression that the courts didn't always unmask capes when they arrested them. I wasn't entirely sure what was up with that. It seemed like something to ask Lisa about.

By the time my dad had come back downstairs, I'd resolved to try and keep my lies as close to the truth as possible. It would be easiest to keep everything straight that way. That, and I hated lying to my dad.
My dad had changed out of his dress shirt and khakis, into a t-shirt and jeans. He mussed up my hair and then took over the last bit of the cooking. I sat down at the table so I could talk to him.
"So what's going on?" he asked.
I shrugged. I hated feeling this tense around my dad. He'd never bugged me about the bullying, so I'd always been able to come home and sort of let my guard drop. I couldn't do that now, because I was just waiting for the other shoe to drop as far as my skipped classes, and my new 'friends' brought a whole mess of secrets and lies into the mix as well. I felt like I was on the verge of a terminal breach of trust. One mistake or a single concerned phone call from the school, and my dad would probably flip, and things wouldn't be the same between us for a long time.
"Are you going to tell me their names?" he asked. He set the food on plates and brought it to the table.
"Brian, Lisa, Alec, Rachel," I confessed, "They're alright. Get along with most of them."
"Where did you meet them? School?"

Taylor is telling her dad about her friends

. I'm sure she's not going to tell him a word about their activity and what she's going to do in their company, besides watching movies from parallel worlds and cleaning her future room at lair. But its a good start anyway.

I shook my head, "I wanted to get away from school for a bit, so I caught a bus downtown to catch a bit of a break. I ran into them at the library." Partial truths. You couldn't really catch a bus downtown and back during the lunch break – I'd tried, when I was avoiding the trio – but I doubted my dad would research that. I did sort of cross paths with the Undersiders at the library, though.
"They go to the library at lunch? What are they like?"
"Brian's pretty cool. He's the one I've talked to the most."
"A boy, eh?" My dad wiggled his eyebrows at me.
"Dad, stop! It's not like that," I protested. I doubted Brian had the slightest interest in me, not least because I was two or three years younger than him. Besides, well, I was me. I opted not to mention the age difference to my dad.

Changing the subject, I said, "Lisa's alright too. Really smart, though I haven't talked to her all that much. It's nice being able to hang out with another girl again, even if she's pretty different from me."
"If she's smart, she can't be that much different from you."
I could've kicked myself. I couldn't explain she was a bad guy, while I was an aspiring superhero, or exactly how she was 'smart'. I'd talked myself into a minor corner where I didn't have an answer ready, and I needed to avoid doing that. Fumbling for an answer, I said, "She's only a year older than me, and she's graduated high school already." That was the truth. She cheated, but she did technically graduate.
My dad smiled, "Impressive. Tell me they're all excellent students that can serve as good role models for you."

Oh my God, Danny ships her with Brian. He believes in FIREFLIES. Cute

. And yes, he's right about them being good role models for her. Brian is teaching her to defend herself. Lisa is a good friend and I'm sure that she'll never stab her from being like Emma did, Rachel is "teaching" her to stop being a pushover and actually stand for herself and Alec might teach her to socialize more with people by playing videogames. They're good role models for Taylor, Danny. I can assure you

(except for some robbery, everything is perfect).

I could have choked. Good role models? Them? I kept my composure and limited myself to a little smile and a shake of the head, "Sorry."
"Alas. What about the others?"
"Alec is the youngest, I think. Kinda hard to connect with. He's an amazing artist, from what I've seen, but I don't really see him draw. It seems kind of hard to get him interested or involved in anything. He always looks bored." As I said the words aloud, I realized they weren't exactly true. The two times I'd seen Alec react to anything had been when he'd played his little prank on Brian, tripping him, and after Bitch and I had been fighting. A streak of schadenfreude to his personality, maybe.
"And the last one? Rita? Rachel?"
"Yeah, Rachel. I don't get along with her. I don't like her."

My dad nodded, but didn't say anything. I was halfway expecting the typical parental line of 'maybe if you try to show interest in things she likes' or some other inane advice. My dad didn't pull that on me, he just took another bite of pork chop.
I elaborated a bit, to fill the silence, "She wants things her way, and when she doesn't get that, she gets mean. I dunno. I get enough of that at school, you know?"
"I know," my dad said. It was a good lead-in for him to question me about what was going on at school, but he didn't take it. He stayed quiet.
I felt immensely grateful, right then. My dad was respecting the boundaries I'd set, not pushing, not digging for more. It made this conversation so much easier that it might otherwise have been, and I knew it couldn't be that easy for him.
I felt like I owed him something for that. Sighing, I admitted, "Like, at school. The, uh, the people who're giving me a hard time? They sort of ganged up on me on Monday. Just, you know, taking turns insulting me. It's why I needed to get away and went downtown."

Alec stops being bored only when some violent shit is happening around him. Hmm, he kind of remind me of a sociopath. Sociopaths seem to be nice and charming and kind, but they lack empathy and conscience and they seem pretty laid back and bored until something exciting happen in their life (not obligatory violent things, but things that they interpret as being cool for them). I'm not sure, I don't want to call Alec like this (sociopaths are usually manipulative bastards behind their facade) but I want first to know more about him to have a solid impression. Or maybe Coil is a sociopath, manipulating Undersiders, for all I know.

I felt embarrassed, saying it, because it was humiliating enough to live through without having to recap it, and because it felt so disconnected from the rest of the conversation. But if I didn't say it right then, I don't think I would've been able to.

My dad sort of went still. I could see him compose himself and choose his words before he asked, "Not to diminish how much it sucks to get put down like that, but they didn't do anything else?"
I raised my eyebrows in question as I chewed. They had, kind of, but I couldn't really say 'They used Mom's death to fuck with my head' without having to explain the Emma thing.
"Anything like what happened in January?" he asked.
I lowered my eyes to my plate, then shook my head. After a few moments I said, "No. January was a one time thing. They've pulled smaller 'pranks' since then, hassled me, but no repeat performances on that front." I made air quotes with my fingers as I said 'pranks'.
"Okay," my dad said, quietly, "That's a relief to know."
I didn't feel like sharing any more. You'd think I would feel better, after opening up, but I didn't. I felt frustrated, angry, awkward. It was a reminder that I couldn't have a real conversation with my dad like I used to be able to. More than anything, I felt guilty. Part of the guilt was because I'd apparently let my dad think that every time I was bullied, it was like it had been that day, nearly four months ago, when things had been at their worst. I stabbed at a bit of fat with my fork.
"When were you going out?" My dad asked. I glanced at the digital clock on the stove and noted the time.

She still isn't willing to tell her dad about bullying and she's leaving to meet Undersiders. We're going straight to the bank robbery?

I was glad for the excuse to escape, "Now? Is that okay? I won't be long."

"Meeting your friends?" he asked.
"Just going to meet Lisa for coffee and conversation, away from the rest of the group," I told him as I stood up and moved my plate to the sink. The lie was heavier on my conscience after the open disclosure I'd just had with him.
"Here, wait," he said. He stood up and fished in his pocket for his wallet. He handed me a ten, "For the coffee. Sorry I don't have more. Have fun?"
I hugged him, feeling painfully guilty, then headed to the back door to pull my shoes on. I was just opening the door when I barely heard him say, "Thank you."
"Love you, Dad."
"I love you too. Be safe."
I shut the door, grabbed the gym bag I'd stashed under the back steps and headed around the house at a light jog. I held the gym bag low so my dad wouldn't see me carrying it.
I took the same general route I took on my morning runs, heading east, towards the Bay. This time, though, instead of turning up towards the Boardwalk, I headed south.
Back in its heyday, every inch of the city had been a bustling metropolis. Ships were coming and going at all hours, trains were coming through to deliver goods to be shipped overseas and the city teemed with people. The northern end of the bay – especially the area close to the water – was all about the industry. Ships, warehouses, factories, railroad and the homes for everyone who worked those jobs. You also had the ferry running across the bay itself.
The ferry was my dad's pet project. Apparently, it had been one of the first things to go when the import/export dried up. With the ferry gone, the Docks had sort of been cut off from the rest of the city, unless you were willing to drive for an extra half hour to an hour. My dad held the opinion that the lack of that transportation to the rest of the city was why the Docks had become what they were today. He believed that if the ferry were to start running again, jobs would be created, the people in the low income neighborhoods would have more access to the rest of the city, and the low-class, high-class, no-middle-class dynamic of Brockton Bay would smooth out.

Awww, Danny is the nicest and purest character from the entire story so far. He's my favorite non-powered character. More city description. This time Docks' description. Danny seems to also be a man who cares very much for the poor people, he's trying his best to help them, even if not everyone might agree to follow his ideal, for reasons that are mostly related to proverbial greediness. Danny should become the mayor of the city and everything will be perfect.

So when I'd been trying to think of a place that was fairly private but easy to find, I thought of the ferry. I could probably thank my dad for the idea.
I approached the station and found a disused restroom to change into my costume.

The building and the ferry itself were well kept, at least on the outside, which was one of the reasons my dad felt it would take so little effort to get things going again. Still, that wasn't the city's issue. They didn't want to provide the addicts and the gangbangers easy access to to the rest of the city, all the while paying to provide the service, for mere hopes of maybe getting improvements for the future. So the city kept the station and the ferry looking pretty for any tourists that wandered far enough south from the Boardwalk and maintained eternal 'temporarily out of service' and 'coming soon' signs up around the building and in the brochures. Aside from the regular replacements to keep them looking new, the signs hadn't been taken down in nearly a decade.
I ignored the doors to the station's interior, and instead headed up the stairs to the outdoor patio that overlooked the bay. There were some large panes of glass to break the wind, and stone tables and benches for those wanting to sit to eat. It was one of the best vantage points for seeing the PHQ in all its splendor. The headquarters was a series of arches and spires mounted on a retrofitted oil rig.

But why did she changed into her costume if she went to meet Undersiders? Wait a minute...what if she's not going to meet them? What if...Taylor, Taylor "shakes head", you're going to prevent heroes about bank robbery? Seriously?

Even the platform it was built on was beautiful, though, with hard edges and sweeping lines. The entire thing was lit up by tinted spotlights and set against a faint corona of shifting colors, like the aurora borealis trapped in the shape of a soap bubble. A forcefield, forever on, shielding the people who watched over Brockton Bay.

"Wasn't sure if you would show up," a male voice broke the silence.
I turned to face Armsmaster, "I'm sorry. I had to hang up on your receptionist. Real life called."
He looked somehow different than the first time I'd met him. His lips were set in a hard line, his feet set further apart. His arms were folded across his chest with his Halberd in one hand, the pole resting against his shoulder. It conveyed such a different attitude that I momentarily wondered if he was the same person under the suit.
"I need to call in a favor."

Yes, indeed she's going to do that. Hello, Armasmaster, nice to see you again. Your little mole wants to tell you something about...bank robbery. Or maybe not, I still trust Taylor to do the right choice and "forget" to tell him some certain details.

In this way, she'll play both the heroic and villain cards as best as she can.

Good night, my dears, see you tomorrow

.

blackarrow · Mar 7, 2018

AmbarGriss said:
Ah, Shadow Stalker. A piece of work she is, and one of the most disliked characters I believe.
She does not deserve such cool powers.

Love how Wildbow can instantly make you like/dislike a certain character without even knowing much about them in the first place. He's a writer skilled in both creating awesome fights/suspense and describing/fleshing out places/people. Things I'm very interested to see in the future: more fights, intense psychology of characters (I'm a fan of anything related to psychology; for example, I'm watching regularly psychological movies and read stuff), more explanations about powers, parallel worlds and aliens and more characters' background

.

AmbarGriss · Mar 8, 2018

Interesting that I had the contrary reaction when I heard of Vista.
I don't know why, but when I heard that she was just a kid with a big power I assumed that she would act like a spoiled brat

blackarrow · Mar 8, 2018

AmbarGriss said:
Interesting that I had the contrary reaction when I heard of Vista.
I don't know why, but when I heard that she was just a kid with a big power I assumed that she would act like a spoiled brat

Well, maybe because I love children very much (and animals) and I'm instinctively protective towards them. My friend told me that there will be a lot of child abuse in this story and I'm expecting the worst. Poor innocent children

. I absolute HATE children abusers (whatever is a physical/mental/sexual abuse) and I think that they're completely monsters, scums of the earth and deserve the worst punishments of all for what they're doing to children

. I'd hate any character in this story who will abuse a child for whatever reasons (I'd condemn even Undersiders if they'll badly injure either Vista during the possible bank fight or Kid Win because he's also a kid

). The only children I dislike are psycho evil children but even they are victims and I feel kind of pity for them.

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

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