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

HeWhoAdds · Mar 8, 2018

blackarrow said:
Kid Win because he's also a kid

I'm pretty sure Kid Win is 15-17. Not quite as young as Vista.

Assembler · Mar 8, 2018

HeWhoAdds said:
I'm pretty sure Kid Win is 15-17. Not quite as young as Vista.

Yeah, he's 15. A little younger than Taylor and Alec.

blackarrow · Mar 8, 2018

Hello, heroes (and villains, because you're humans too

) people , I'm sure you're EAGER to read another stupid crap coming from my fucked up mind in 3.05 | Worm "holds up a placard where it is written": Danny Hebert, Vote for the Next Brockton Bay's Mayor. I think he'd be the best mayor. I also think that he'd be a much better american president than the actual one but I'll keep my mouth shut because I don't wanna turn this thread into a political debate

. Now, let's see where the conversation between Bug (because she's in costume) and Armsmaster will go. I'm thinking at two possibilities: Bug will tell Armsmaster everything about bank robbery and he'll stop it or she'll let some details aside but he'll be smart enough (if he's a tinker, he surely is smart) to find them himself then he'll try to stop the bank robbery.

"A favor," he answered me, as if he needed to say it out loud to himself to believe it. The tone gave me pause. Had I misread him, that first night, when I gave him credit for Lung and assumed he was grateful?
"Yeah," I tried to sound confident, "But I should explain things first. First off, the Undersiders offered me a spot on their team. I took it."
His reaction was subtle. His chin rose a fraction, he shifted his weight fractionally, and the grip of his armored gauntlets tightened enough on his Halberd to make a faint metal-on-metal screech.
"I think you'd better start making sense, fast," he spoke in a calm voice, even as his body language was making me want to back away.

I took a deep breath, trying to calm my nerves, "I've been thinking a fair bit about the conversation we had last Sunday. It seemed odd how you accepted I was a good guy as fast as you did. Would I be right in guessing you either have a lie detector built into your helmet or some power that works more or less the same way?"
He didn't hurry to give me a reply, taking a few moments before telling me, "Lie detectors can be fooled, even mine."
"Well, tell me if anything sets an alarm ringing, or if your instincts tell you I'm lying. I was a good guy then, I'm a good guy now. I joined the Undersiders because you said you were having trouble getting info on the guys. Now I know their faces, I know the names they're using, I have a pretty good idea about what their powers do, and I know where they're living."
His posture relaxed. He slapped the pole of his Halberd against his back and it snapped into place. "If that's the case, then you've done us a great service. Would you be willing to come to the Protectorate Headquarters and present that information to the team?"

I wonder if Bug will accept his proposition, I mean to go to Protectorate and tell them everything she knows so far about Undersiders. But that won't be a good idea because she doesn't know yet their boss' identity. And she needs to find who he's because otherwise she won't help them with almost nothing. Besides, nobody can convince me that Lisa doesn't know already about Bug's planning to betray them. If Lisa knows and Bug doesn't have information about their boss, she'll fuck things up so badly, she'll both fail to both help heroes and she might put the life of her dad in danger. You just don't mess with villains and think that everything will be perfect. Change your mind, little Bug, you still have time.

My heart leapt. Meeting the local Protectorate, with Miss Militia, Triumph, Velocity, Dauntless, Battery and Assault? I could imagine seeing their reactions to everything I'd found, telling them about my fight with Bitch, maybe about my part in the fight with Lung, if Armsmaster was cool with that. Hearing their stories in turn.

"I can't."
"Why not?" his response was so quick it was very nearly an interruption. His tone and posture were both hostile again in a flash. I was glad he wasn't still holding his Halberd, because I think he might have pointed it at me.
"There's one more thing I need to find out for you," I said, raising my hands in a sort of surrender. I needed to find out who their boss was. I couldn't tell him that, though. The less he knew, the less likely Tattletale would know I told him anything. At least, I was hoping that was the case.

More heroes for me to try to completely mess up their powers

. Velocity, I think this hero have super-speed, maybe pretty similar with Flash, they can move so fast that you'll be unable to see them. Dauntless -something related to being brave, fearless. This hero can intimidate people in a certain manner that they'll piss themselves only by hearing his/her code name alone and he'll laugh in the face of a full transformed Lung who's blasting countless flames towards him. Also, he'd play billiard with Bakuda's bombs and play tag with Oni Lee, while calling the villain's mother names. Battery and Assault? Physical violence and the threat of violence

, I think these heroes are siblings, they're kind of thugs in the heroic world, one is assaulting people (villains, of course, after all they're heroes for God sake) around and the other one actually beat the crap out of them. Let's see how wrong I'll be. Bug is right here, she doesn't know who the boss is and she can't tell him much.

"So tell me what you know and then go find that last detail."
"I can't," I answered for the second time in ten seconds, hating myself for doing it.
"You'd better have a good reason, or I'm dragging you to the PHQ and we'll see how well you tease when you're in front of the entire team."
Which would be a disaster. I swallowed hard, "What if I told you there was a spy in the PHQ?"

"You'd be setting off the lie detector. Try again."
I bit my lip. I'd been hoping that phrasing it as a question would throw it off.
"There's something at play that's for all intents and purposes, a spy in your ranks."
"Mostly true. What is it?"
"I can't be any clearer without them figuring out I told. Just my being here is really risky." If word got out as to how Lisa's power worked, I was almost positive she'd know how.
He stared at me for several long moments, "The Tattletale girl."
Armsmaster had come to the conclusion more or less on his own. I hoped that was enough to keep Tattletale from drawing a connection to me. Still… fuck.
He stared off towards the PHQ for a few long moments. Without looking at me, he asked, "So you're not willing to provide any concrete information. Why did you call me?"
"They're planning something. They want me to help them. I do this, maybe one or two other jobs, I'm sure I can get that last essential detail, and you'll have what you need to capture these guys."
He didn't reply.
So I asked my favor, "I need to know that if things go sour or if I need to sabotage their plan, I'll have you to pull my ass out of the fire and keep me out of jail."
"What are they planning?"

Watch out, Bug, Big Sister is Watching You. Never forget this. I have a very fucked up theory (what, another one? What a surprise "sarcastic tone") about Armsmaster's identity. What if he's the same person with Undersiders' boss? What if he's that Coil? He's playing at two sides: respectable Protectorate's leader and less respectable Undersiders' leader. He's a villain who pretends to be a hero or a hero who turned (in time) to the dark side for power and money, probably. I mean, he's smart (Undersiders' boss is also smart), he's military type (Undersiders' boss is also military type) and he rather seems to manipulate Bug than actually being genuine interested in her information. Why he's manipulating her, you might ask? I think he wants to TEST her, to see if she might be a loyal and non-backstabbing member of his team. He asks her about information because he wants to see how much she's going to tell him and how far she's willing to go into betraying the team. If this is true, then Coil is a very clever motherfucker who deserve....to be shoot into his dick and into his head because he's manipulating teenagers to do his criminal deeds. Just fuck him!

"I can't say," I admitted. If I told him, Lisa might know I'd ratted the team out from any changes in the response time, extra guards or whatever else. However justified my silence was, I could see Armsmaster getting increasingly irritated.
"Is it murder? Is someone going to get hurt?"
"No," I said, "I'm pretty sure no civilians are going to get hurt, unless things go really wrong, which is something I'm hoping to prevent."
He frowned, then stopped gazing out the window to look straight at me. "I'm not giving you any protection."

I clenched my fists at my sides, "This is the only thing I need, and you've got them!"
"You're a stupid girl," Armsmaster said. He gave me a moment to let the words sink in.
"I-"
He didn't give me a chance to speak. He bowled over me, his voice rising as he spoke, "You're asking for my permission to carry out a major crime. At least, I assume it's a major crime, because you wouldn't be asking otherwise! You want me to stand by so you can play your little spy game with a team that has two murderers on it!"

He's manipulating her. He's clearly manipulating our poor, confused, idealistic, sometimes naive Bug. He pretends that he knows that there are two murderers among Undersiders because he wants to make her scared, afraid of them to see how far she'll go into betraying them. He's playing with her emotions, with her feelings, with her mind. This scum of a man thinks that he's awesome because he's playing with a young and inexperienced girl. Fuck you, Armsmaster/Coil, with dedication! (but if the murder thing is true, I can see Rachel and Alec being the two murderers of the group. Rachel might have killed someone with her monster dogs and Alec might have gave people heart attacks, maybe even accidental).

Two? I could believe that Rachel had maybe killed someone at some point, manslaughter if nothing else, but who else would? Eyes wide, I asked him, "Who-"
I didn't get to finish my question. Armsmaster talked over me until I shut my mouth and listened. "Do you think you're clever? In the real world, undercover cops have handlers. They have someone to report to, someone that can call in backup at any time. You? You're a middle schooler with delusions of grandeur."

"I'm not in middle school."
"Oh, well," he crossed his arms, "I stand corrected on all counts." The sarcasm in his voice was palpable.
I protested, "And if I did have back-up or a handler or anything like that, they'd know. The way I'm doing this is the only way this could work. Use your lie detector, you'll know I'm telling the truth about this."
"I know you believe you're right. That doesn't make it god's honest truth."
There was something about hearing all this from Armsmaster that made it twice as hard to take. I opened my mouth, but my brain just couldn't piece together a coherent response. I shut my mouth again.
"Abandon this charade, little bug girl, before you bite off more than you can chew. Tell me what you know, right now, then go home. I don't care if you put your costume away for good or if you sign up for the Wards, but don't go on with the solo act. That's my recommendation."
That stung. I tried again, "I gave you Lung, full credit. You can't give me the benefit of a doubt?"
"You gave me a dying man!" Armsmaster bellowed, startling me, "That was on my shoulders! I had to put up with two days of losing command of my team, two days where they confiscated my Halberd and power armor! I was interrogated, all my equipment taken apart and checked! All because you couldn't resist using your bugs to give that man a fucking near-lethal dose of poisons!"

Even if he's not Coil, Armsmaster is still an asshole of a hero: all he cares is for his fame, his glory, his name, he seems to care only about himself, no about justice, not about protecting other people, not even about trying to be a little more kind with a girl that listened him when he convinced her to give him full credit for Lung's capture and who's trying to help heroes. He's also arrogant and he seems like he's looking at other people like they're nothing in his "heroic eyes". I don't like this kind of hero. Wow, so far they're 3 VERY FLAWED heroes: the arrogant and overbearing Glory Girl, the bloodthirsty bitch Shadow Stalker and the arrogant, manipulator and obsessed after fame Armasmaster (possible Coil/Undersiders' leader). With such "heroes", Brockton Bay doesn't even need villains, I fucking swear.

His attitude from the beginning of this meeting had been hostile. Now I understood why. I held my ground.

"That's not my fault," I told Armsmaster, my voice strained with anger. I gave voice to a suspicion that had been nagging at the edge of my consciousness since I'd heard about Lung being hospitalized, "I didn't dose him with enough venom to kill him. What I think is that the tranquilizers that you pumped into his system knocked out his ability to heal, which is what let the poisons do as much damage as they did."
We glared at each other, as much as people can exchange glares when they can't see one another's eyes. Still, it wasn't hard to imagine the expression on his face.
"If you contact me again, you'd better be prepared to answer every question I have. Beyond that, I'm not condoning anything about what you're trying to pull. You're on your own."
I would have been happy to storm off, or offer my own angry parting words. Except there was something else I needed from him. On the assumption that he'd take me up on my offer, I thought I'd ask as a last, minor favor. Now I was put in a situation where I might have to beg a man I really wanted to punch in the face.
"I-" I paused, trying to find the words, "I'm asking you to please not tell anyone we met tonight. No records, on paper or computer. Don't do anything different because of what you learned tonight. I know I can't make you. I don't have anything to offer you, besides the information I'm going to get. But if these guys get wind that I met you, it's going to go really badly for me."
"You made your bed. You have to lie in it."
"No," I shook my head, furious he was being so mule headed.

A sincere: FUCK YOU, ARMSMASTER! You disgrace of a hero. Maybe you're smart and brave and badass, I'll not say not but you fail several points at being a decent human being. You're forcing Bug into a corner to tell you what she knows even if her life might be in danger and you don't even try to protect her when she can't tell her everything you want to know. If you're Coil and this is a test, then at least you have the excuse of being a fucked up villain. But if you're a honest hero, then I'm gonna tell you that you don't seem too heroic so far. At least according to my opinion.

My fists clenched, "Don't toy with me here. Maybe you don't agree with what I'm doing, but I started this because I wanted to do you a favor. The least you could do is not screw with me on this, and get me hurt or killed because your fucking rep got a smudge on it."
I regretted my words as soon as they left my mouth, but I could hardly take them back.
"Fine," he decided, then dismissed me, "You can go, now."It was a dick move, that last bit, because I was following his order if I listened and it made me look bad if I didn't. Still, if there was any upside to the bullying I'd endured out of costume, it was that I could handle the little maneuvers of bullies and assholes when I was in costume, too. I left and didn't think twice about it.

I was pissed, and it was a lot easier to be pissed at Armsmaster than it was to be angry with myself. This hadn't gone the way I'd planned. I didn't even know if that 'fine' of his was an agreement to do as I'd asked, or if I was royally screwed the next time I went to meet with the Undersiders. There were two ways I could respond to this. I could either drop the plan and put away my costume like Armsmaster wanted, or I could pull off the undercover gig and prove him wrong.
Fuck it. I was going to rob the hell out of that bank. I'd win the trust of the Undersiders, I was going to figure out who was running the show, and then I was going to hand over all of the info.
To Miss Militia, I was thinking. Not Armsmaster.

Miss Militia? A better idea, maybe this one army-woman will be a little more heroic than this asshole Tony Stark wanna be (despite Tony being an alcoholic, selfish and arrogant man, at least I can't see him trying to manipulate/persuade such a young girl and putting her life in danger for his own fame). I don't know, maybe Armsmaster has also good parts of his personality but I don't like him so far (my opinion about him might change in a much better one or worse one in the future, depends of his actions and decisions). Also, if he's Coil...then FUCK THIS GUY FOREVER! Bug, think better about betraying Undersiders. As this asshole said, don't bite more than you can chew. At least he's right here.

Next time, a new chapter. Bye, naughty heroes and kind villains.

hellgodsrus · Mar 8, 2018

I really do like Taylor a lot, and I think she gets way too much shit from the fandom... but you're being pretty unfair to Armsmaster here. Look at it from his point of view.

You're a (relatively, we assume) experienced hero. You meet some kid on their first night out, who's managed to take down a big shot bad guy who they hand into your custody, and you take responsibility for... and it turns out he's on the verge of death. You then get blamed for basically almost killing someone while in the line of duty and have your equipment - your power - taken away from you. Then the kid shows up again, saying she's going undercover with a group of criminals, without any kind of handler to prevent her from just going criminal herself, unwilling to give any details about anything at all, and asking for a blanket pardon for any crimes she's going to commit. Of course you tell her it's stupid, and it's not that irrational to lose your temper with her either, though it's not sensible.

HeWhoAdds · Mar 8, 2018

blackarrow said:
villains, because you're humans too

Not Shadow Stalker tho?

blackarrow said:
Battery and Assault

Legit, the origin of Assault and Battery's cape names is one of my favorite parts of the Worm setting.

blackarrow · Mar 8, 2018

hellgodsrus said:
I really do like Taylor a lot, and I think she gets way too much shit from the fandom... but you're being pretty unfair to Armsmaster here. Look at it from his point of view.

You're a (relatively, we assume) experienced hero. You meet some kid on their first night out, who's managed to take down a big shot bad guy who they hand into your custody, and you take responsibility for... and it turns out he's on the verge of death. You then get blamed for basically almost killing someone while in the line of duty and have your equipment - your power - taken away from you. Then the kid shows up again, saying she's going undercover with a group of criminals, without any kind of handler to prevent her from just going criminal herself, unwilling to give any details about anything at all, and asking for a blanket pardon for any crimes she's going to commit. Of course you tell her it's stupid, and it's not that irrational to lose your temper with her either, though it's not sensible.

I'm surprised that Taylor gets so much shit from the fandom, she's one of the best main characters I've ever read about, she's both very flawed but also she has great qualities and I love her with all her flaws and qualities and I'm sure that my opinion about her will not change in the near future (unless she kills Vista with cruelty or torture a random child to death then I'll give her a lot of shit myself, of course. Those are the only reasons for telling myself: Taylor is full of shit, she deserves to die. But even if she kills- motivated- a hero, I'll still not stop loving her). Well, let's talk a bit about Armsmaster. First, I suspect him as being Undersiders' leader and he takes advance upon the fact that Taylor is willing to tell him information and is testing her loyalty towards group (please, don't tell me if Armsmaster is Undersiders' boss or not, that would be a spoiler), he's a manipulative villain who pretends that he's a hero. On the other side, if he's a true hero, he shouldn't have persuade her to give him information when she's clearly afraid to inform him (he could have told her: fine, if you don't have any information then leave and I'll send a hero to cover your back until you'll decide that is safe to tell us what you know. Something like informants' protection). After all, Taylor is not to blame for the whole Lung' shit. He persuaded her- in the first place- to let him take credit for Lung, he could have cover everything and pretend that nobody knows who defeated the angry chinese leader of ABB (a mysterious hero or villain). But he wanted fame, wanted to be glorious, wanted to take everything for himself. Only because of his greediness, the whole shit with him losing his equipment happened. Only because of his decisions alone. Then he tried to play games with a 15-16 years old girl while he's a fucking adult man with a lot of life experience. Nope, he's an asshole, an asshole who (so far) cares only for himself and nothing and nobody else. But everyone with their opinion, I respect and appreciate your opinion, just to let you know

.

Reveen · Mar 8, 2018

blackarrow said:
I'm surprised that Taylor gets so much shit from the fandom

A lot of the excessive shit she gets from the fandom comes from standard internet armchair behaviour. Where people act like the external pressures and situational stuff in the story doesn't exist or matter and all that matters is what she should have done in a spherical cow version of the story.

The shit with the Trio and a lot of the discourse is emblematic of that. A lot of it is "why didn't Taylor do X" and the answer is usually "because she's a depressed teenager, you nitwit."

AmbarGriss · Mar 8, 2018

I'm of the opinion that Armsmaster is a CUNT.

blackarrow · Mar 8, 2018

Reveen said:
A lot of the excessive shit she gets from the fandom comes from standard internet armchair behaviour. Where people act like the external pressures and situational stuff in the story doesn't exist or matter and all that matters is what she should have done in a spherical cow version of the story.

The shit with the Trio and a lot of the discourse is emblematic of that. A lot of it is "why didn't Taylor do X" and the answer is usually "because she's a depressed teenager, you nitwit."

I don't understand why people would judge Taylor from not acting badass in front of the Trio of Bitches. I mean, if she tried to use her powers against them, she'd have been arrested for assault and battery. If she'd have tried to beat them up, they'd have run crying at principal and make her appear as an aggressor (I'm saying this from my own experience. I beat up pretty badly the leader of my bullies OUTSIDE the school because I couldn't bear her constant abuse and next day her parents went to the principal and I was almost expelled from school- thanks God for having a wise principal who understood the suffering I went through and she decided to only suspend me from school for a week without any other further punishments). Taylor can do a lot of things against them but in the same time she can't do nothing against them (unless the school will decide to punish them accordingly or she might attack them as Bug, while they're going to the homes). She's exactly like her poor father: a man capable to make others crap their pants in fear of him but absolute impotent to help his daughter (Bug can fuck villains up but Taylor is incapable of protecting herself while in civil against normal teenagers. But not because she's weak, but because of the sometimes unfair law. And the money that can buy anyone if those Bitches are rich, of course). So, I don't understand why some people are judging her because of this thing that is beyond her power.

Axiomatic · Mar 8, 2018

While Armsmaster is totally a dick, there really is no way he could respond positively to "Listen, I'm a completely untrained civilian and I want to go deep undercover and infiltrate a gang, it's okay if I do all the crimes, right?"

AmbarGriss · Mar 8, 2018

Axiomatic said:
While Armsmaster is totally a dick, there really is no way he could respond positively to "Listen, I'm a completely untrained civilian and I want to go deep undercover and infiltrate a gang, it's okay if I do all the crimes, right?"

So is a teenager mindset.

blackarrow · Mar 8, 2018

Hi, people from everywhere. I'm ready to AGITATE your peace and tranquility with a new piece of my mind. Here comes like a wrenching ball 3.06 | Worm! After this intense and useless conversation with the arrogant hero (who might or not get better in the future) Armsmaster (who might or not be Undersiders' boss), Bug decided to ask for Miss Militia'a help and a better understanding. Maybe I'm going to finally know this Miss Militia during this chapter? I wonder if she'll be a more reasonable hero than what I saw so far (except for Amy, who's very reasonable, modest and kind, exactly like a true hero). I still trust in the good side of people who choose the heroic path

.

"Think of it as a game," Lisa said, "A high stakes variant of cops and robbers."

A steady downpour of rain thrummed against the outside of the van Lisa was driving. The rain drowned out all other noise of the traffic around us and muted our view of the surroundings, making the interior of the car an island in the midst of downtown. Traffic was at a deadlock, so bad that Lisa had put the van into park and turned off the engine. To break the silence, I had asked Lisa why some villains didn't get their secret identities revealed when they got caught, and I'd apparently stumbled into one of her favorite topics. I supposed it was good that she was in a mood to talk, because I wasn't.
"I think," I ventured, "That it's a little closer to real cops and robbers than the schoolyard game."

"No, no. Hear me out. Grown adults running around in costume? Making up code names for themselves? It's ridiculous, and we know it's ridiculous, even if we don't admit it out loud. So there's capes like you and me, where we go out in costume and it's fun.

Ah, no Miss Militia? But Lisa instead? That's so much BETTER. Everytime when I see Lisa appearing in the story, I have such a big grin on my face. Look, you can see it here

. I love this girl so much. So, Lisa and Taylor are going to rob that bank and they're talking about parahumans on their way. How cute is that?

Also, Lisa is old enough to drive? Since Taylor said that she's an year older than her, and Taylor is 15-16 years old, then Lisa must be 16-17. Here in my country (Romania) you must have 18 in order to be allowed to drive. Maybe in US there is a lower age.

Maybe we have some agenda or goals, but at the end of the day, we're getting our thrills, blowing off steam and living a second life. Then there's the crazies. The people who are fucked up in the head, maybe dangerous if there's not something or someone to help keep them in line. The people who take it all too seriously, or those guys you wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of, even if they didn't have powers. Lung, Oni Lee, Heartbreaker," she paused. "Bitch."

I nodded.
"And there's the monsters. The really dangerous motherfuckers, who are barely human any more, if at all. The Slaughterhouse Nine, Nilbog-"
"The Endbringers," I interjected.

Wow, we have here some DANGEROUS MOTHERFUCKERS, more dangerous than even Empire88 and ABB. Ok, let's try to analyze this list of UBER-FUCKERS. Heartbreaker sounds like an absolute asshole or a bitch that I'll hate for sure if I'll get to know him/her. I think their power is to literally break people's hearts. Maybe by simply snapping their fingers, they can mentally break hearts in pieces, thus killing the respective people. They surely can bypass the Manton Effect if they have this power. Or maybe their power is not so literal, so they can affect people's emotions. Like Gallant, but much worse. They can make someone fall in love with them then the poor individual will all of sudden feel betrayed, then very, very depressed because of the betrayal, ending up killing himself/herself or going into a murderous rampage. Maybe they can affect more people than one in the same time. This Heartbreaker can either kill people or emotionally fuck them up so much that they'll up killing themselves or turning into homicidal maniacs. A BIG FUCKER!
The Slaughterhouse Nine: Sounds like a group of 9 murderous fuckers with superpowers. I think each one of them is very sadistic and completely fucked inside their minds. Maybe they see murders as something very funny to do or even like a child play. Creepy. I swear to God, if those fuckers have also a parahuman mannequin in their group, I'll HATE them forever ever.
Nilbog: If you turn this code name around, you can read it as Goblin. I have no idea why this man/woman called themselves like this and not in the normal way. But if they're so crazy, I'm not surprised of their choice. I think they can create an army of CANNIBALISTIC GOBLINS. And they can control them. Maybe they can turn people into goblins, they can possible turn a lot of Brockton Bay's citizens in cannibalistic goblins and fuck everyone up. Wow, that would be a power! And a creepy character!
Endbringers: I think they're a religious cult of superhumans (yes I'm sure that there are religious groups of superhumans around) that honestly believe that they can cause the end of the world. Maybe they have powers like mass murdering people around, and they're doing what they're doing in order to make the Apocalypse possible, because this is what their God/beliefs are telling them: a world in ruin, dead bodies everywhere and fire is their promised Heaven on earth. Demented fuckers! I swear to God, if those fuckers have also a parahuman mannequin in their group, I'll HATE them forever ever.
Wow, wow, those are real dangerous supervillains. Can't wait to meet them

I'm up to this challenge "she types this while she hides under her desk, shivering in fear of a possible parahuman mannequin among those fuckers".

Lisa paused, "Right. But you have to understand, ninety percent of what goes on when you're in costume? It's the first group. Adults in costumes playing full contact cops and robbers with fun-as-fuck superpowers and toys. This mindset applies to the people without powers too. Way I see it, having a local team of superheroes is like having a sports team. Everyone's rooting for them, they make for great media that isn't about wars or the water crisis or whatever, there's merchandising and tourists… all good shit that the local government loves. But what good is having a team if there's no competition?"

"Which is where we come in," I figured out where she was going.
"Exactly. At the end of the day? We're not doing much harm. Property damage, theft. A few civilians get hurt if they don't move out of the way fast enough. But insurance payouts cover that stuff, and people aren't that much worse off. The property damage is covered and the injured bystander has a great story to tell at the water cooler. The city gets revenue in an indirect way, from merchandise, tourism and the rising property that come with being an exciting city.

"Compared to the psychos and the monsters out there, it's almost in the city's interests to keep us in circulation. Far as I see it, we're not that much better or worse than the so called good guys. We face more risk at the end of the day, with the possibility of jail time and physical danger, but we get a better payoff. We just took the path that was higher risk, higher reward."
"I'm not sure," I said, carefully, "That I buy all that."
"No? Then why don't they send people like Über straight to the Birdcage after his trial, like they are with Lung? The amusing but relatively harmless villains get a regular jail cell, they inevitably break out before the trial concludes, and the cat and mouse game starts again. Sure, there's the three strike rule, and he'll get sent to the Birdcage eventually, but the people in charge have to maintain some plausible deniability."

The way Lisa explains the games between heroes and villains sounds like all they're doing is to have fun and no get bored (I mean, heroes need villain in order to get more funds and attract tourists, the villains -the sane ones, no those crazy motherfuckers above- need heroes as a challenge and to brag themselves how awesome they're for facing heroes). Insurances are payed of, injured people are healed and everyone is getting what they want. Sounds cool in perspective but I'm not sure I'd want to live in a town torn apart by the constant battles between superpowered people. Its going to be awesome at first but with time it will turn into a nerve-wrenching and very stressing situation, with me always expecting to be killed at any given moment by someone shooting blasts of fire at me or bombing my house.

I didn't think there was a way I could argue against Lisa's theory without giving too much of my own perspective away. I just kept my mouth shut and turned my new knife over in my hands. Direct from our anonymous 'boss', it sported a blade a little over six inches long and a textured handle with three symmetrical indents on each side, for grip. According to Lisa, it was strong enough to use as a miniature crowbar, if I had a mind to. My extendable combat baton was tucked away in the panel of my armor where I kept my pepper spray.

"But the real evidence to my 'cops and robbers' theory," Lisa continued, "Is the reaction you see when someone crosses the line. You've heard about it happening. Someone finds out another cape's secret identity, goes after the cape's family. Or a cape wins a fight and decides his downed opponent isn't in a state to say no if he's feeling lusty? Word gets around, and the cape community goes after the fucker. Protecting the status quo, keeping the game afloat. Bitter enemies call a truce, everyone bands together, favors get called in and everyone does their damndest to put the asshole down."

"Like we do with the Endbringers," I said. I sheathed my knife.
"Holy fuck," Lisa said, slapping the sides of the steering wheel with her hands. I think if the van had been moving, she would have hit the brakes for emphasis. Traffic was starting to move, though, so she started up the car and put it into gear, "Twice, you bring up the Endbringers in as many minutes. You're being morbid. What's going on?"

Birdcage also is the name of the super-jail where the villains are going. Wow, it would be really bad karma for a villain with bird like powers (wings, control over birds, control over feathers) to go there. I'm very interested to see how that Birdcage is working., how it can keep the prisoners from using their powers to escape (with the help of collars, microchips, special walls build by tinkers?). I wanna a whole chapter explaining Birdcage, please. I also noticed that everytime when a parahuman is fucked (in any way), all parahumans, even if they hate each other, make truce between them in order to punish the bastard who dared to fuck (in any way) the unfortunate parahuman. That's pretty good, for villains. Well, they'll gain some favors from the avenged parahuman (or from the group that parahuman belongs of), but at least they help, ok?
Lisa seems to be clearly terrified by those Endbringers bastards. And all parahumans seem to work together everytime when Endbringers attack, it looks like. What the hell? How dangerous those fuckers really are? Maybe they can turn themselves into some terrific Lovecraftian-creatures, so powerful that everyone have to fight against them. Anyway, they're a big NO, DON'T EVEN MENTION THEM, for Lisa and knowing Lisa, I believe her 150%. Those shapeshifting Lovecraftian monsters religious nuts are not something to joke with.

I stared out the window at downtown Brockton Bay, hundreds of people with umbrellas and raincoats, a few intrepid individuals bolting down the street with a briefcase or newspaper over their head, to ward off the downpour as they made their way to or from their work on their lunch hours.

It was hard to talk to Lisa, as much as I liked her as a person. I felt like I was walking on eggshells. If I said something, would that give her the puzzle piece she needed to figure me out? I had been lucky so far, but relying on luck sucked. I was counting on this ruse continuing, whether it was because I enjoyed the temporary companionship of Brian, Lisa and Alec, or because I wanted to get Grue, Tattletale, Regent and Bitch carted off to jail and prove Armsmaster wrong. I was aware how paradoxical those two interests were.
But right now, maybe for the first time since Bitch had set her dogs on me, I felt painfully out of place in the group dynamic. We were robbing a bank, and I was the only one who was guilty about it, apparently the only one who was worried about the safety of the bystanders and hostages.
Then there was the fact that Armsmaster had said that two members of the Undersiders were murderers, and doubt was tainting every interaction I had with these guys. When I was smiling about a joke Alec made, was I enjoying the joke of a killer? I liked Brian, but now I was looking back on how he had pointed out how to brutally disable someone in a fight, and I was wondering if he'd ever gone that one step further and snapped someone's neck. It wasn't a hundred percent impossible to imagine that one of the secrets Lisa was so fond of keeping included murder, either. I felt like every interaction with these guys was spoiled, now, and there was nobody I could ask to clarify the lingering questions.
Still, staying quiet now would only make her more suspicious, and if she turned the full extent of her power on me, I doubted my undercover ruse would withstand her attention. I confessed with a half truth, "I got in an argument with someone last night. I think it was mutual disappointment, got pretty heated, hurtful. I guess I'm a bit angry, and my confidence is a little shaken."
"Well, fuck them," Lisa stated. I raised an eyebrow in response.

Yes, Lisa, fuck Armsmaster, just fuck him (I believe that Lisa knows about Taylor's little meeting, maybe she doesn't know about Armsmaster, but she surely KNOWS something). Taylor, listen to Lisa, all she's telling you is very wise and encouraging. And stop thinking who might be the murderers in their group. What if Armsmaster lied you? And even if he's right, maybe they killed in accidents, or to defend themselves. Or to get revenge over people who did them wrong. As long as they treat you nice (with the exception of Rachel so far) and you don't know their previous lives, why you should be scared by them? Stop thinking so negative about people that you're working with, that are now YOUR FRIENDS

and treat you so much better than people at your school or in your neighborhood (hope you'll change your mind about the meeting with Miss Militia).

She went on, "See, I know you. Believe it or not, I like you. Did from the time I saw you on that roof, opposite Lung. You know how we fear the unknown? Well, I know stuff, that's my whole thing, and that motherfucker is one of the very few people who can spook me. You, Taylor, stood up to him."
In a manner of speaking, anyways. The way I remembered it, I'd been curled up in a fetal position when the Undersiders came to my rescue. I didn't correct her.
"So this guy or this girl that's got you down in the dumps? I say fuck them. They don't know you. They don't know what you're capable of."
I would have stopped myself if I could have, but the irony of her statement was too rich. I grinned, looking out the window to hide the expression from Lisa.

Lisa LIKES you, Taylor, she likes you as a friend, as a....sister. She knows how awesome, how strong, how brave, how ambitious you're, she knows all of those and she knows for sure about your mole plans but she still is willing to believe you and to give you a chance. She encourages you and reminds you that you have a supporter in her in this moment when you feel so alone and discouraged. And what if they're murderers? Doesn't matter as long as they're the friends that you never had

.

"I saw that. Don't think I didn't. So I've shaken the doldrums from you. Good. Now look to our left."

"Who uses words like doldrums, anymore?" I voiced my thoughts as I obeyed her instruction. She only chuckled in response.
As I realized what I was looking at, through the rain and the past the traffic, I swallowed hard. It was a stone fixture six stories tall, with crenelations on the roof and balconies, stone gargoyles at the corners and iron grilles on the windows. The entryway had wide stone stairs like a courthouse, with statues of rearing horses with wild manes on either side. The name of the institution was etched into the stone above the doors. The Brockton Bay Central Bank. A virtual castle.

"In twenty minutes or so, we're going to be leaving there, tens of thousands of dollars richer, the adrenaline rush of victory pumping through our veins," Lisa's voice was barely above a whisper, "Now tell me. Can you visualize that?"
Not really.
"Yes," I tried.
"Liar," she said. Then she winked at me, "It's okay. An hour from now, you'll be rolling in money and laughing about how pessimistic you were. Promise."
Lisa pulled the van around to circle the block, then pulled into an employee parking lot behind a restaurant. As she pulled into the parking lot, bringing us right to the back corner of the bank, I pulled on my mask. Lisa did the same, then took a few seconds to smear her eyelids with black facepaint so they blended in with her mask. I wasn't so lucky as to have any final touches to apply, so I watched the rearview mirror nervously. It felt like an eternity, but was probably closer to a minute, before Brian pulled a second van into the alley that led into the lot. He parked his van halfway down the alley, blocking anyone else from coming through.
As I opened the car door and hopped out into the pouring rain, I managed to say the words without choking on them, "Let's go rob a bank."
Lisa grinned.

Bug, Tattletale, Grue, Regent and Bitch are getting ready to rob the bank. Finally.

. Welp, people, I'm conflicted about who I like more: Taylor or Lisa? I think is a tie between them for now but Lisa (with each apparition) is raising in my favorite characters list with the speed of the light. Or better said, the speed of KNOWLEDGE.

Tomorrow with new chapters, good night, awesome people.

HeWhoAdds · Mar 8, 2018

blackarrow said:
Maybe in US there is a lower age.

Typically you can get a drivers license at around 16 in the US. Whether Lisa actually bothered with that whole process is an open question

blackarrow · Mar 8, 2018

HeWhoAdds said:
Typically you can get a drivers license at around 16 in the US. Whether Lisa actually bothered with that whole process is an open question

Yes, after all, she cheated during her exams. I won't be surprised if she cheated for her drivers licence too. Or maybe she didn't even bother to obtain one. After all she's a villain and villains don't bother with such mundane things

.

blackarrow · Mar 8, 2018

AmbarGriss said:
So is a teenager mindset.

Indeed. When I was a teenager, I was such a big idiot that Taylor looks like a genius compared to me. I think most of teenagers make some very bad decisions at times, thinking that they're doing actually something good. Wildbow portraits pretty realistic this teenager girl.

AmbarGriss · Mar 8, 2018

Next chapter: Sartuday morning cartoon fight

rofl::lol

blackarrow · Mar 9, 2018

Hello, agitated people all around the world. Time for a new chapter of our favorite SF superhero story 3.07 | Worm. Last time, a couple of boys and girls, who happen to be by the other side of the law, decided to rob a bank because this is the usually the favorite way of villains to pass the time, it looks like. I noticed something, that Endbringers are exactly like The One Who Must Not Be Named (you know who) from Harry Potter. Their name should not be be mentioned because it won't be good for anyone. They're like the biggest baddies in a world with villains who compete each other who's the worst.

Grue was already out of his vehicle and halfway to us by the time Tattletale and I had shut the doors of the van. He was using his power at a low degree over the entirety of his body. The darkness soaked into and through the porous leather of his costume, making him look like a living shadow. Brian had showed me how the visor had vents at the edges, to direct the effect of his power around the sides and top of his head, so it wouldn't obscure the face. It wasn't that he couldn't see through the effects of his own power – he could. He'd explained that the vents were there to create an effect where you could see glimpses of a black-painted skull floating in the vaguely human shaped form of even darker black. When he had the money to spend, he had told me, he was going to get a more complete costume custom made for him in the same way, to expand on the effect.
"Let's move fast." His voice echoed, reverberated, with a hollowness to the sound, like something alien and far away. He was using his power to play with the sound, "Tattletale, see to the door. Bug, with me."

Together with Grue, I returned to the van Lisa had been driving. Grue grabbed the handle of the sliding door and hauled it open, then scrambled out of the way as the contents came pouring out.
I chuckled at the image of this spooky supervillain being caught off guard. I'd packed the entirety of the van, minus the driver and passenger seats, with bugs. As the door opened, they spilled out to pool on the wet pavement beneath the door.
"Got enough?" his voice echoed. I thought maybe I caught a touch of humor in his tone, behind the influence of his power.
I smiled behind my mask, "Let's hope."
A drive earlier in the morning had given me the opportunity to gather this swarm.

While our buddies are getting ready to rob that bank, I feel like I don't want to distract their attention for moment, so I think I'd rather prefer to talk about my predictions about the villains that Taylor and Undersiders (or Taylor and heroes but I have a feeling that she'll remain with Undersiders until they'll either die or the story will end) will have to face, each order these fights will happen. I think that first they'll have to face Bakuda and Oni Lee while these bastard will try to free their boss from Birdcage. Maybe, once free, Lung will try to get sweet, sweet revenge upon Taylor and Undersiders. After ABB, I think the next war will move to Empire88 (they're obviously stronger than ABB, they seem to have more resources and they'll turn Brockton Bay into the regional Fourth Reich if they're not stopped). After Empire88, its possible for either Heartbreaker or Nilbog (you and your weird ass and not easy to memorize cod name's choice

) to come into action, maybe both together or one at time, then Slaughterhouse Nice and the second to last- The Ones Who Must Not Be Named "whispers- Endbrinders". The last one that they'll have to fight will be Scion (bet that Wildbow is so sure than nobody would ever believe that Scion is the ultimate villain hi hi hi hi hi. I'm kind of sorry to disappoint him

). This is the exact order I can visualize the future challenges of our heroes...I mean villains. I don't know where I have to include Undersiders' boss if he'll turn against them when he will not need them anymore (I don't know about his powers and if he might or not have other aces up his sleeves) and I don't know either about Faultline's crew but maybe (once I'll find more about them) I might include them as well in my list with challenges.

It was surprising how many bugs there were in the city, hidden from sight. At any given point in the city, I could generally draw out tens of thousands of bugs from inside walls, sewers, attics, lawns, trees and even places you would think were too clean or occupied to have any creepy crawlies lurking about, and I could do it over a matter of minutes.

These weren't just the bugs I could draw in at a moment's notice, though. Traveling the city had given me the chance to be picky. These were the good ones, each of them fast enough to keep up with me, or capable of being carried by those that were. More than that, though, the majority of them were either durable sorts like the larger centipedes, cockroaches and beetles, or capable of stinging and biting, with bees, wasps, ants and blackflies making up their bulk. To round out their number, I'd gathered moths, houseflies, and mosquitoes, who weren't the best attack bugs out there, but were easy enough to get, and served to distract the enemy or bulk out the swarm.
There were three hundred and fifty cubic feet inside the rear of the van. Tattletale had told me that. When they were packed in just tight enough that they wouldn't damage each other or spill past the barrier and into the front seats, it added up to a pretty amazing amount of insects. I called them out of the van and watched as their mass seemed to expand as they spread out.
We joined Tattletale at the side door of the bank. I had to admit, I admired the sheer change she was capable of pulling off when donning her costume. Rather, I should say, I admired the effort she'd gone into as Lisa, that made her so different from her Tattletale persona. Her mask was narrow, only really surrounding her eye sockets, covering her eyebrows, some of her nose and some of her cheekbones, but it hid the freckles on the bridge of her nose and changed the apparent lines of her face. Her hair was down and loose, damp from the rain, in contrast to how it was always in a ponytail or braided when she was 'Lisa'. Her costume was skintight, beaded with droplets of water, lavender with bands of black across the chest and down the sides of her arms, legs and body. An image of a stylized eye, only visible in the right light, given it was dark gray on black, was worked into the costume's design. A compact 'utility belt' sat diagonally across her hips, sporting a variety of compact pockets and pouches.

But I wonder how Taylor will be able to fight against such hella powerful enemies. Maybe if my theory about her getting stronger with each fight will prove to be correct, she might become insanely powerful at the end. Or maybe she can come up with smart plans that would allow her to identity the weakness of enemies and know how to defeat them in this way. Anything would be good. Back to story, love Tattletale's costume and the swarm that Bug brought with her at the place of crime. She's gonna swarm the hell out of poor people in the bank, isn't right? Man, I don't want to be in their shoes.

Regent was keeping watch, a few feet away. From what I'd seen while we prepared, I now knew his costume was deceptive. He still wore the hard white mask with the silver coronet, but he had shown me how the interior of the mask had foam shaped to the contours of his face, with only his mouth left free, so he could talk without being muffled. In a similar vein, the loose white shirt he wore covered up a mesh vest that was molded to the shape of his body. He was idly twirling a scepter in his fingers. The scepter wasn't purely thematic – apparently the crowned orb that topped the scepter had two electrodes built into the tines, for the taser that was built into it. It was all about misdirection, misleading and giving the impression of vulnerability.

"The fire exit at the back is protected by a digital passkey," Tattletale explained while she crouched at the keypad, staring at it, "Every employee has the number to get in if they need to, but that rarely happens because opening the door sets off a bunch of alarms. That password is easy. The interesting thing that the employees don't even know is that the capes and SWAT teams have a special code they can put in if they need to make a quiet entrance with no alarms going off. To do that, you punch in the regular code, 3-7-1, but you hold the one down, then press the number sign and the asterisk keys down at the same time… Voila. Try it."
Grue pulled on the door. We waited in tense silence for a moment for the angry blare of the alarm, but none came. Tattletale grinned at us. "What'd I tell you?"
Grue signaled, and we were joined by Regent and Bitch with her three dogs. The animals were the size of small ponies, their flesh having swelled and expanded enough that their fur had split at the seams. Muscle and bone showed beneath, and the arrangement of said anatomy wasn't exactly typical. The change was slow enough that you couldn't see it if you were looking for it, but if you looked away and looked back a moment later, you could tell they were bigger, that bone at the shoulder was longer, the eyes were deeper set, and so on. Spikes, spurs and an exoskeleton of bone growths had appeared to fill or cover gaps and grow in at places where the bone was already close to the skin. The tail of the smallest dog – Angelica, I think Rachel called it – was twice as long as normal and prehensile, now, and the other two were well on their way. It looked like someone had torn out a pair of human spines, the meat still hanging off them, and attached them one to the other before tacking the end to the dog's hindquarters.

Bitch's monster dogs' image is "ADORABLE". If she'll ever feel the need to visit Silent Hill, all she should do is to take her cute monster puppies with her and the locals there will welcome her and her pets with open rotten arms (or claws, or tentacles, or even complete lack or arms). She'll feel there exactly like home

. Hell, her dogs can even find play buddies in Double Heads and Sniffers dogs, they're totally nice when you get to know them better.

Bitch, for her part, was just wearing a jacket with a fur ruff collar and a cheap, hard plastic mask of a bulldog. The dogs had been given the rear of the second van, allowing Bitch to work her power on them as Brian drove. Being able to do the change more slowly meant she wouldn't prematurely exhaust herself or the animals by rushing the job on site.

We made our way into the back hallways of the bank's ground floor, Bitch's dogs leading the way, my swarm pulling up the rear. The clock had started running down from the moment we'd parked in the alleyway; that was the point where people might have thought something was up. Now that we were inside, though, someone knew, or would know any second.
At this very moment, chances were, some guard in the room with the security cameras would be making a call to 911 and reporting a crime in progress by costumed criminals. If Tattletale was right, the Protectorate was too far away to be called in, so they would contact the Wards. We had five or ten minutes before trouble showed.
Each time we passed a room, Grue, Regent and I would double check it. The first few were empty, but as we reached one room, a dog took notice, and Grue raised a hand to plunge the room into darkness. A second later, he stepped back into the hallway, twisting the arm of a cringing thirty-something man in a gray suit behind his back. I hadn't even realized Grue had entered the room in the first place.
In the next room, Regent grabbed another hostage. I caught a glance of the man, graying hair and thick around the middle with a pink dress shirt and no jacket, staring at us with eyes wide. He opened his mouth, I think his intent was to cry for help, but broke down into coughs and sputters instead. A second later, he keeled over and collapsed onto the floor. He tried to climb to his feet, but his elbow buckled and he hit the ground a second time. While he continued to struggle, Regent strode into the room with an almost lazy air, grabbed him by the collar and shoved him towards the hallway where we stood. Defeated, Pink-shirt didn't resist, half-walking, half-crawling forward as he joined us. He met eyes with the other employee, but didn't say anything.

Grue and Regent are doing some pretty good job at being intimidating and scary and aggressive. So far this bank robbery screams guaranteed success to me.
BYSTANDERS' POV: That jerk dressed completely in black along with the other fucker who look and act like a spoiled prince think that they're great if they scare and intimidate defenseless people with their powers. But if the heroes will arrive, they'll crap their pants and beg for mercy, sons of bitches. Hope the heroes will arrive soon and fuck them so badly that they'll be unable to walk properly for a couple of years. Wait...WHAT?

We only passed a dozen offices, but it felt like three times that number. Grue was on point, glancing into each room and watching for danger from up ahead, with Regent keeping an eye on rooms to our right. That meant I was paying attention to the rooms on the left, as well as keeping an eye out by way of the swarm to our rear. Each time I looked into an office, lunchroom or conference room, I prayed it would be empty. I didn't want to be any more responsible for all this than I had to.
When I saw the last office on the left was vacant, I was relieved enough that I nearly forgot my role in the next stage of the plan.

We reached the front lobby of the bank, and Bitch's dogs charged into the room. They were nightmarish, barking, growling and shaking themselves in a spray of bits of fur and blood as they abruptly grew another foot taller at the shoulder. I had a moment's glimpse of twenty or thirty bystanders and another six or so employees of the bank before the lights went out. Grue used his power, and the room was plunged into darkness, the volume of the screams and wails dropping to utter silence in a matter of seconds. We stood in the entryway to the lobby, and there was only nothingness where the bank lobby had been.
"Your move, Bug girl," Tattletale said, reaching forward to put a hand on my shoulder.
I closed my eyes. With a mental command, my bugs flooded into the room from the hallway behind us, flying and crawling over, under and around us to spread through the room. I noted each person in the lobby as my bugs made contact with them, and left several bugs crawling on each individual. I took five seconds to double check I'd gotten everyone, and belatedly remembered the two employees we had brought forward from the back offices. A group of bugs returned from the darkness, brushing my skin on their way to make contact with the pair.

They work SO GOOD in team. I'm proud of them, MY Undersiders, they're so badass and cooperate with each other so perfect, I pray for this bank robbery to a be huge success (and no innocent person to get hurt).
BYSTANDERS'S POV: First darkness and violence, now nightmarish creatures and insects. These villains are monsters, they use ones of the worst fears of people as their powers and they're not afraid to show it. They might kill someone if the heroes will not appear any time possible or if they feel like. You can expect anything bad from such calculated, well-organised, cruel and heartless villains.

"Done," I said.
Grue swept his arms forward, and the darkness parted. We moved into the room as a group. Pink-shirt and the younger guy collapsed to the ground as we walked. I supposed it was Regent's work there. Some of Grue's darkness clung to the surfaces of the doors and the windows, but the room was otherwise clear in a matter of moments, lit only by the florescent lights. Everyone except for us was lying on the floor, crouched behind a desk, or huddled in the corners. Two of Bitch's dogs were standing in front of the main entrance, while the smallest was standing near the vault. All three of the monsters were the size of cars, now.
"Fifteen minutes," I called out to the room, my heart in my throat, "We won't be here any longer than that. Stay put, stay quiet, we'll be gone before fifteen minutes are up. You'll be free to give your statement to the police and then go about your day as usual. This isn't a TV show, this isn't a movie. If you're thinking about being a hero, don't. You'll only get yourself or someone else hurt."

I held up my hand, finger outstretched, a familiar spider perched on the tip, "If you are thinking about running, making a phone call or getting in our way, this is a good reason to reconsider. This little creature and her one hundred sisters that I just brought into this room are under my complete control." I had the spider drop from my fingertip, dangling by a thread, by way of demonstration.
"She's a black widow spider. A single bite has been known to kill a full grown human, or put them into a coma. You move, talk, try to find or kill the spiders I just put on your bodies, in your clothes, in your hair? I'll know in split second, and I'll tell them to bite you several times."
I stopped to let that sink in. I looked over the room. Forty or so people. I saw a full grown man with a tear rolling down his cheek. A teenager with freckles and brown curls was glaring at me with raw loathing in her eyes.

TEENAGER WITH FRECKLES AND BROWN CURLS? Wait a minute, where else I saw this description? Hmmm, here, I suppose "Amy retorted, pushing the hood back and scarf down to reveal brown frizzy hair and a face with freckles spaced evenly across it.". AMY? AMY!?! Amy indeed. My dear medical heroine. She's in the bank, in civilian. And despite your excellent villainous discourse and your intimidating posture, Bug, I think you must be very, very careful at your surroundings. Amy is a powerful parahuman and now I'm not so sure this bank robbery will be a success anymore. Or at least, not a flawless success.
AMY'S POV: "-I wonder how that bug bitch is controlling her bugs. If I'll find out how, it won't be hard for me to touch one of her spiders and turn them against her or fuck them up in a way that she'll be fucked up through them. Just give me a moment, bug bitch, just give me a moment. Maybe I'm not keen to heroic things but this doesn't mean I won't stop you from hurting these people."

At one of the counters, a matronly bank employee was shaking like a leaf.
My taking hostages like this? It had been my idea, so help me. As horrible as it was, it had been necessary. The worst case scenario was some regular schmuck in the bank pulling some stunt and getting themselves or others hurt or killed. I couldn't let that happen, if I was in a position to help it. If it meant keeping them quiet and out of the way, I was willing to terrorize them.
As I saw the effect I'd had on these people, that justification felt really thin.
I was going to hell for this.

I hope not, Bug, I hope not, the hell is already reserved to others, like yours bullies, the bad villains, the very bad villains...you're just an inexperienced, kind-hearted, idealistic and at times gullible teenager that is trapped now in a pretty fucked up situation.
AMY'S (AND BYSTANDERS) POV: The hell have a special place for people like you and your comrades in crime, bug bitch.

Later with a new chapter, bye for now.

HeWhoAdds · Mar 9, 2018

blackarrow said:
I noticed something, that Endbringers are exactly like The One Who Must Not Be Named (you know who) from Harry Potter. Their name should not be be mentioned because it won't be good for anyone.

There's a VERY good reason for this.

AmbarGriss · Mar 9, 2018

Wow, I wasn't expecting you to get the Panacea clue so quickly

blackarrow · Mar 9, 2018

AmbarGriss said:
Wow, I wasn't expecting you to get the Panacea clue so quickly

I'm sorry for not being too modest, but I have a pretty good intuition (my friends are always telling me this) but I think I'm just very careful at details. I pay attention to people/places's descriptions and I never forget them.

Axiomatic · Mar 9, 2018

When Taylor goes undercover, she goes deep.

AmbarGriss · Mar 9, 2018

Axiomatic said:
When Taylor goes undercover, she goes deep.

The rabbit hole goes all the way to China.

blackarrow · Mar 9, 2018

Hello, fellas, I'm convinced you're all waiting for a new chapter to be reviewed. Here, take this one 3.08 | Worm along with its next review, of course. I think this chapter should be called: Place your bets- Undersiders vs Amy (I'm calling her on her real name because she's not in the costume). Who's gonna win? My humble opinion: first round will be won by Amy because she'll took everyone by surprise. Next round- Undersiders, mostly because they're five while she's alone then another round of fighting will be between Undersiders and Wards. Another fear I have is for Glory Girl to be there as well, either inside the bank in civilian or she might come with Wards. Glory Girl is basically Supergirl of Worm-verse, so she'd be next to impossible to be defeated in a fight. And I'm sure that there's no such thing like kyptonite in that world, neither it would work against Glory Girl.

"Any trouble?" Grue asked Tattletale.

"We're okay for now."
We'd gone over the plan until I'd been worried I would start murmuring about it in my sleep. I joined Tattletale, Grue, Bitch and the largest of the three dogs as we headed to the sealed vault door. Regent watched at the front doors with the two other dogs. His power had a good enough range that he could delay any approaching opposition long enough for us to get into position.

Tattletale took hold of the stainless steel wheel that jutted out from the front of the vault and spun it, then stopped it. She repeated the process, going right, then left, then right again, for an indeterminably long time. Just when I had the hopeful thought that maybe she wasn't able to get in, there was a sound of something heavy shifting inside the door.
The four of us hauled the door open, and Tattletale sauntered off to where the bank manager worked. She sat herself down at the computer, putting her feet up on the corner of the desk, and began typing away. From there, she could keep an eye on the media, watch the surveillance cameras and remotely control the door locks and alarm systems. All with the right passwords, of course, but that wasn't a problem for her.
Grue, Bitch and I started strapping a canvas harness onto the one dog that wasn't standing at the front doors. I was gradually working out which was which. I think Bitch called this one Brutus. He was the biggest, with the meatiest body, and he had a shorter snout. He'd been the Rottweiler, before.
He turned his massive head towards me, until the deep set eyeball was just to the left of my head. The pupil narrowed into a dot. There was just the bloodshot white of the eye and the yellow-gray of an iris as broad as my handspan.
I knew the worst thing to do would be to show fear or nervousness, so I was careful to breathe slowly and focus on buckling the straps and making triply sure they were fastened tight. I was maybe being a little too firm, just to ensure the Brutus didn't think I was weak or shy. Not that it mattered. I seriously doubted I could make him flinch, even with one of my weapons in hand.
With the harness securely fastened, we headed into the vault, Brutus standing at the door.

With Tattletale back to her hackwork, the operation Stealing Money from Random People for Shit and Giggles started. Amy still doesn't make any move. Well, its not necessary for her since I'll she can do is to work at the spiders that Bug covered people with. Bug might have an unpleasant surprise anytime soon. But I wonder why he didn't recognize Amy since her identity is public. She either didn't pay enough attention or she was way too concentrated into scaring shirtless the people inside the bank to care for any mundane details.

The vault was stainless steel from top to bottom with neatly banded bundles of bills organized into stacks. The stacks, in turn, were organized by the size of the bill, all neatly set up against the wall. On the wall opposite the stacks were drawers like an elaborate filing cabinet. They were pretty much just that. The bank kept copies of all important documents for the local branches here, in a fireproof vault, in case of disaster. The far end of the vault had another door, opening into an elevator that went down to the garage basement, where the armored trucks could be loaded. It was a shame it wasn't an option for an escape route. The door, the elevator and the garage itself were all firmly locked outside of specific times and days.

Bitch dumped an armload of bags onto the ground, and she and I got on our knees on either side of the pile and began stuffing one of the bags with cash. She took off her mask to see what she was doing better. Grue, for his part, withdrew a short crowbar from within the darkness that smoldered around his body. He set to cracking open the filing drawers with the squealing noise of metal creaking and bending.

As Bitch and I filled the first bag, we buckled it closed, cinched the accompanying strap tight around it, and with mutual effort, slid it across the slick metal floor towards Brutus. Grue turned away from the drawers to grab the bag, haul it up and attach it to the dog's harness.
It was a staggering amount of money. As Bitch and I worked, I started trying to count the money I was putting into the bag. Five hundred, one thousand, one thousand five hundred. Bitch was working just as fast as I was, so I could double that. Just taking a second to wrap my head around what the total amount would be per bag made me lose track.
We filled a second bag and slid it towards the door. Grue grunted as he heaved it up to the opposite side of the first bag and clipped it in place. While we filled the third bag, he clipped on one more – a bag filled with the contents of the first drawer he had opened. According to Lisa's briefing, the drawers would hold deeds, liens, insurance forms, mortgages and loan information. Apparently our employer was willing to buy these from us. I'd speculated about why – the most obvious possibility was that he could ransom them back to the bank. More intriguing was the thought that he wanted the information itself for his own purposes. Or, on a similar note, maybe there was something specific that would be found in the midst of the paperwork, and he was willing to buy it all if it meant keeping his true intentions unclear.
"I'm going to be sore tomorrow," Grue groaned, as he recovered from strapping the bag of papers into place, "And we haven't even been in a fight yet."

Cute, Bug and Bitch can become best buddies over the operation: Fill all the Bags with Money. All of Them

. This seem to be the only moment when they make a good team. I like how Bug is starting to have doubts over their boss's true intentions, she's sure he wants something specifically, but she just can't put her gloved finger over WHAT he really wants. Girl, I hope for your sake that Tattletale will find the necessary courage to tell your and to the other teammates what's up with this boss because otherwise your whole villain's play will not end well. Everything depends of Tattletale, I'm sure she knows so much yet she's not willing (or she doesn't dare) to TATTLE ABOUT.

"Sore and rich," Bitch spoke. I glanced at her and saw her grinning. It was disquieting. I'd only ever seen her sullen and hostile, so any smile would be kind of creepy. It was worse than that. Hers was the kind of smile you'd see from someone who had never seen one before and was trying to replicate one from what they'd read in books. Too many teeth showing, I suppressed a shiver and focused on the work.

We slid the third bag across the floor. Grue hooked it into the harness.
We can't put any more on here without it being a problem," he decided.
"The weight is even?" Bitch asked.
"Close enough."

Bitch stood and crossed the length of the vault to where her creature waited. She rubbed her hand on Brutus' snout like you might see a horse owner do, except Brutus most definitely wasn't a horse. She was rubbing her hand on exposed muscle, calcified tatters of flesh and bone hooks that jutted out of gaps and knots in the muscle. She managed to look almost affectionate as she did it.
"Go, baby. Go," she commanded, pointing to the front door. Brutus obediently loped off to the front of the bank and sat, his prehensile tail absently coiling around the door handle.
"Hey!" Bitch called out, then whistled twice, alternating between short and long. The smallest of the dogs, who was only recognizable now by her missing eye, bounded towards us in her excitement. Some of the hostages screamed in alarm at the sudden movement.
I winced. I didn't want to think about the hostages. They were already heavy on my conscience, and they were constantly on the periphery of my attention, as long as I continued using the bugs I'd planted on them to keep alert for any movement or talking.

A RANDOM CAT PASSING BY THE BANK'S POV (including dreams for future): Next day all the therapy clinics from Brockton Bay will be full of people suffering from cynophobia (fear of dogs). The therapists will be overwhelmed by so many patients, they'll all resign and then the town will turn into one lacking of therapists and filled with....cats. So, this is the story of how Brockton Bay became a paradise for cats.

"That's the one you call Angelica?" I asked, to distract myself. "The name doesn't seem to fit with what you call the others."

"I didn't name her," Bitch said. As the creature approached her, Bitch slapped her a few times on the shoulder, hard. It didn't hurt the animal though – Angelica just lashed her tail in what I realized was a warped way of wagging her tail. Bitch snapped her fingers twice and pointed at the ground, and Angelica sat.

I had already partially filled a bag when Bitch rejoined me.
"She had previous owners then."
"Fuckers," Bitch swore.
"They were the ones who made her lose her ear and her eye?" I asked.
"What? You think I fucking did it?" She dropped the money she had in her and and stood up, clenching her fists.
"Woah, no," I protested, shifting my weight so I could move out of the way if she got aggressive, "Just trying to make small talk."
She took a step toward me. "Coward. You know you can't take me in a-"

Wow, wow wow: we have a BADASS here. Bitch... please, Bug already kicked your ass wants, how sadistic with yourself can you be if you want to have your ass kicked twice? I mean, come on, Bitch, you know that your filling-bags-with-money's partner can take you in a fight anytime

. Besides, I think you all have more important stuff to do right now, don't you agree?

"Enough!" Grue shouted. Bitch turned on him, her eyes narrowing.

"If you can't work over there, then take over here." His voice was steady, firm. Bitch spat on the floor and did as he asked, taking the offered crowbar from his hand as they passed each other. Grue took over the bag filling where Bitch had left off. We quickly got a rhythm down, and four more bags were filled in a matter of minutes.
"We want to stay to load up the third dog or run for it?" I asked Grue, then added, "No use getting greedy." I would be happy to leave as soon as possible. I wasn't interested in the money, and I definitely wasn't interested in going to jail for it.

"How much do we have?" he glanced over in Angelica's direction
Tattletale answered for me, from where she stood at the door to the vault, "Forty one thousand, eight hundred. It looks like that's as much as we're going to get. The white hats are here, and it's not looking good."
We were out of the vault in a flash, and we joined Regent at the front doors, peering through the gaps in the wall of darkness.
Tattletale hadn't exaggerated. Our opposition was lined up on the sidewalk across the street, the colors of their costumes bright in the midst of the gloom of the rain and the gray of the city. Aegis, tan skinned, was wearing a rust red costume with a matching helmet, both with silver-white trim and a shield emblem. The cockroach, I'd come to think of him. The boy with no weak points.
A dozen or so feet to his right was Vista, wearing a costume with a skirt, all covered in wavy, swooping lines that alternated between white and forest green. She had some body armor worked into her costume design. Her breastplate was molded to give the illusion of a chest, but that didn't do anything to conceal the fact that she was still young enough that I could have kicked her ass in a straight up fistfight. If she was older than twelve, she was a late bloomer.
Clockblocker stood to Aegis' left. He wore a white costume, skintight, with interlocking panels of glossy white body armor placed wherever they could give him protection without inhibiting his movements. I couldn't see it through the rain, but I knew from TV that the armor had images of clocks on it in dark gray. Some of the images on the armor were animated so they drifted across the surface, while others were fixed in place with hands ticking. His helmet was faceless, just a smooth expanse of white.

Fuck, all the Wards are already here. And they have some pretty fancy costumes, especially I like the most Clockblockers....

rofl:

whistle:...(sorry, I just can't type THIS codename without laughing my ass off). Nice hero outfit, you time master. The Immortal Zombie Ward Aegis is here too also #protectvistawithallcosts. Time for FUN....And my predictions about the first fight with Amy went wrong. But I'm sure Amy is planning something.

"Tattletale," Grue growled in his echoing, reveberating voice, "You know how I say you're a fucking dumbass sometimes?"

The three weren't alone. Kid Win was floating in the air to one side of Clockblocker. His brown hair was damp in the rain, he had a red visor and body armor in red and gold. His feet were firmly planted on his flying skateboard, which had a ruby glow radiating from the bottom. His hands were gripping matching guns. Laser pistols, or something in that vein. Kid Win was saying something to Gallant, who was standing a ways to his left. Gallant was an older teenager in a gunmetal and silver costume that blended the appearance of a pulp science fiction hero with a medieval knight.
On the opposite end of the line was someone I didn't know. He was big in a different way than Grue was big. The kind of bulk that made you think powers were at work. His muscle laden arms were bigger around than my thighs, and I thought he could probably crush cans between his pecs. His costume was little more than dark blue or black spandex with a diamond print. His mask was full-face, except for the eyes, and had a crystal attached to the forehead. He was the only person standing there who didn't have body armor. He didn't look like he really needed it.

"Who is he?" I asked, pointing.
"Browbeat," Tattletale sighed,

Kid Win looks like he is coming directly from '80 SF movies. Cool, Kid, nice work with your gadgets. I'm sure that when he's not in his costume doing heroic things, he's a total nerd who enjoys making new gadgets, playing games, watching SF movies, getting all red everytime when a random girl says Hi to him and...ESPECIALLY, wearing glasses. Tinker=Nerd=Obligatory Glasses. Logic. I have a soft spot for nerds, I like them, I really do (I'm a nerd myself and I wore glasses). A new character that Tattletale forgot to mention. Browbeat. Before looking at his powers, I'll try a wild guess: He has the superpower of bullying people until they can't take anymore. He's the king of bullies, exactly that person that you want to kill over and over and over again. Fuck, he's someone that the Trio of Bitches should be afraid of because he's a serious competitor. After all, he has the POWER, unlike those peasants.

"He's a point blank telekinetic, which means that he can move things with his mind, but only if they're within an inch or so of his skin. He can use it to throw punches that hit like freight trains, or shield himself from incoming attacks. He's also packing personal biokinesis, which means he's got a kind of ability to manipulate his own body. He can heal just by concentrating on an injury, and he's used it to bulk up. He might be capable of doing more on the fly, depending on how much he's trained since we saw him last. He's been a solo hero in Brockton Bay for a little while."

"What the fuck is he doing here?" I asked.
"We crossed paths with him once, Regent and Bitch beat him. Either he's here for revenge or he's joined the Wards very, very recently. My power's suggesting it's the latter."
"That's is the kind of thing you're supposed to inform us on well in advance," Grue hissed at her, "And there's not supposed to be six of them."
"There's seven," Tattletale said, wincing as Grue slammed his fist against the wood of the door. "There's someone on the roof. I'm not sure who, but I don't think it's Shadow Stalker. Might be a member of the Protectorate."
"There's not supposed to be six or seven!" Grue roared in his unearthly voice "There's supposed to be three, four at most!"
"I made an educated guess," Tattletale spoke in a low voice, "I was wrong. Sue me."
"If we get out of this in one piece," Grue spoke, his tone low and menacing, "We're going to have a long conversation."
I rested my forehead against the window. An armored section of my mask clinked against the glass, "Educated guess. It would have been nice if you had said it was an educated guess, way back when we were planning this."
Of our group, Bitch seemed the least daunted. "I can take them. Just let me go all out."

Oh "is disappointed", he's just a telekinetic with super-strength, self healing abilities, who already got beaten up by Regent and Bitch. Smile widely, Trio of Bitches, you don't have a competitor yet. The person of the roof might be Glory Girl, after all her sister is among hostages. Tattletale was wrong (she has her bad moments, nobody is perfect) and all Bitch wants to do is to maul the heroes. Be careful, Bitch, don't forget #protectvistawithallcosts before you'll do something.

"We're not going to fucking risk killing anyone," Grue told her. "We're not maiming anyone, either. The plan stands. We have the money, we run for it."
Tattletale shook her head, "That's what they want. Why do you think they're lined up like that? We bolt with the money from any of the exits, the person on the roof tackles us, incapacitates us or keeps us busy while the rest close in. Look at how they're sort of spaced out. Just far enough apart that if we try to go between them, one of them can probably close in fast enough to nab us before we get away."
"With my power-" Grue started.
"They still outnumber us. There's at least five ways they could take one of us down while we're running, even if they were going in blind… and Vista's in the equation. Figure any distance we need to cover is going to be much farther than it looks, and things get ugly. It wouldn't be a problem if there weren't so many of them."
"Fuck," Regent groaned.
"We can't just stay here," Grue said, "Sure, they're getting cold and wet, but our odds aren't much better if we force them to come in here after us, and if we wait too long, the Protectorate might show, too."
"We have hostages," Bitch said, "If they come in here, we take out one of the hostages." Somewhere behind us, someone moaned, long and loud. I think they'd heard her.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. It was a bad situation, and worse, I was afraid it was my fault. I'd warned Armsmaster something was going to happen. I could believe that he'd told the teams to be ready to go out in force. Even worse, he could be the unknown person on the roof. If that was the case, and Tattletale caught on, I was supremely fucked.
Fuck.
"We need to catch them off guard," I didn't realize I was speaking aloud until the words left my mouth.
"Sure, but how are we going to do that?" Grue replied.
"You guys are masters at the getaway, right? So we change gears. We fight them face to face."

Of course, if you all are going to fight against Wards, then you'll still have a chance. Glory Girl on the roof might fuck you pretty bad afterwards, but at least you tried. Trying MATTERS.
A RANDOM HOSTAGE'S POV: "moans long and loud in the background".

Good night, my fellas, and sleep well. Tomorrow...with Saturday morning cartoon fight "tips hat to AmbarGriss for his funny suggestion".

AmbarGriss · Mar 9, 2018

And its so fitting, what a happy coincidence

rofl:

blackarrow · Mar 10, 2018

Hey, guys and girls, welcome to SATURDAY NIGHT AGITATION 3.09 | Worm We're going into a clusterfuck of a fight, on the good side with an immortal zombie, a time stopper C-ockblocker, The Witch of Space of worm-verse, a very Gallant man, some random Brownbeat guy, the vigilante Dallon sisters and the bed side with 5 of the main human fears personified, some dogs who escaped from Silent Hill and the SWARM (From now on, I'll consider Bug's insect soldiers as a personified, non-binary gender character and I'll call them the Swarm. Because this is how I feel I should do, if someone have something to say against, he/she can say it now or remain silent

).

I can imagine how it looked to the Wards. One moment they were standing in the rain, waiting with a tense readiness. The next, the front doors of the bank slammed open, revealing nothing but total darkness. Just a moment later, eight hostages came stumbling through the darkness, out the doors and down the stairs.
Aegis' eyes opened wide behind his mask. He turned to look at Clockblocker, who gestured madly towards the ground. Turning back to the scene, Aegis bellowed, "Everyone leaving the bank! Get down on the ground now!"

He didn't get a chance to see if they listened. Darkness swelled at the bank's entrance, then flooded into the street like water from a broken dam. In seconds, the hostages were hidden from sight and the Wards were forced to retreat several paces to keep from being swallowed up.
Inside the bank, Grue mused, "That should give them a reason to think twice before blindly opening fire where they can't see. I'm liking this. We ready for part two?"
"Just don't hurt the hostages," I said, glancing back at the thirty that were still inside.
"The ones we sent out are staying put?" Grue asked.
I felt out with my power. The bugs I'd put on the hostages couldn't see or hear anything, and I wasn't sensing movement. "They're doing as we told them. They ran as far as they could before your power hit them, and then they lay flat on the ground, hands on their heads."
"Then I'm going," Bitch announced. She grabbed a bone spike that was jutting out of Judas' shoulder and heaved herself up to a sitting position on his back.
"No," Tattletale said, grabbing at Bitch's boot, "Wait."

Whoa, they're using the hostages to force Wards to not attack, because they might hurt people. They use them like human shields. Nice....work, Undersiders.

But it isn't exactly nice for the poor hostages. Btw, I have to talk about something that I noticed during the last chapter. I'm convinced now that Armsmaster is NOT Undersiders' boss. Otherwise, he wouldn't have told the Wards about the bank robbery (especially since Tattletale said that their boss needs some special documents), he wouldn't have tried to stop the robbery when he wanted for it to happen. You just don't shit in the food you're eating (what a nasty comparison I made, I know

) Now I'm 100% certain that he's not a villain. But I still think that he's 100% an ASS. And that Coil is the facto leader of Undersiders.

Bitch glared down at her, clearly annoyed.
"That hesitation before Aegis gave the orders to the hostages… it didn't fit.

"If you've figured something out, spit it out," Grue spoke in his echoing voice, "We need to move now, before they get reorganized!"
"Bitch, you're going after Clockblocker. Stay away from Aegis, got it?"
Bitch didn't even respond, digging her heels into Judas' sides and ducking her head to avoid hitting it on the top of the door as they raced out.
"What the fuck are you doing?" Grue growled, "She's going-"
"They switched costumes. Aegis is wearing Clockblocker's costume and vice versa."
I would have liked to see the expression on Brian's face, but as Grue, his mask covered everything. He just turned his skull-helmet back to the window, silent.
It dawned on me how badly that could have fucked us. Bitch's dogs would have attacked the person they thought was Aegis, and gotten tagged by Clockblocker instead. In one fell swoop, we would have lost the majority of our offensive power.
"Good catch," I told Tattletale, before raising my hands and directing a good portion of my bugs to drop from the ceiling and flow out the door.
Tattletale only grinned, before she made made her way back to the computer to continue her mad typing.

Aegis and

C-L-O-C-K-B-L-O-C-K-E-R

switched the costumes. Very smart of you two, very smart indeed. If it wasn't for Tattletale, you'd have been completely and utterly fucked. As Alec said, Lisa is half of reason that they never failed a job. Without Lisa in their team, they'd be like some blind, deaf and mute persons trying to orientate themselves in a labyrinth filled with traps. Lisa is LIFE, Lisa is LOVE. Lisa is perfect OMG.

Grue and Regent headed out the doors, leaving Tattletale and I alone in the bank lobby.
For my part, I walked to the corner of the bank and peered out through one of the tall, narrow windows by the loan officer's desk. Tendrils of Grue's darkness still clung to the window, but I had a pretty decent view of the battlefield.
As I watched, that view distorted, as if I was looking into a funhouse mirror, or through a drop of water. The street, including the area with the darkness covering it, began swelling, broadening, and widening until the two sidewalks on either side of the street were more like semicircles than straight lines. It hurt my head to think too much about how Vista's powers worked. Or maybe the headache I felt looming had something to do with the fact that I was sending my bugs into the area Vista had distorted. It wasn't outside the realm of possibility that my brain was having trouble relaying my bug's positions to me as well as it should, in that area where geometry wasn't working quite as it should.

Either way, something was getting to me. I raised my hands to rub my temples, remembered my mask, and sighed, folding my arms instead.
I sent my bugs through the darkness and the warped space of the street. Each time they collided with someone inside the cloud of darkness, it took me a moment to figure out who the person was. Grue was the first I ran into, and the easiest to identify. Some of my bugs had tiny hairs on their bodies that could sense air currents, and the steady output of darkness around Grue generated something like a steady air current around him. Regent was harder – I almost mistook him for a hostage – but he was wearing the hard mask over his face. I left him alone.
I found the person I was looking for, Bitch, and tracked her movement through the darkness. My bugs could feel the vibrations of the dogs' footfalls on the street, the hot, moist huffs of air from Judas' nostrils, and the smells of the dog. His smell made a dozen instincts of mosquitoes and carrion flies kick into action, his scent was one of blood, meat and gristle, the vaguest hints of diseased flesh. I shivered. As Bitch and her dogs burst from the darkness, towards Aegis and Clockblocker, I had my bugs follow immediately after them.
She was going straight for Clockblocker, who was dressed as Aegis.
"No, no, no," I muttered, "You idiot."

Witch of Space in action. Fucking with the laws of geometry and making them her Bitches. Cool girl Vista. I'd be seriously pissed on anyone who'll hurt this little girl very bad. Bug has a headache but I don't think is because of Vista's funnyhouse playground, BUT because of Amy and her discreet medicinal play with some black widows behind Bug's back (maybe she transmits Bug those headaches through her spiders. I mean, this is what I'd do in Amy's place). Bitch...WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING? Tattletale already told you that they switched their costumes. You fucking goof Chihuahua. Bad...bad dog...
AEGIS' POV: Listen up, Cock...I mean Clock-blocker, sorry, Hellhound is being stupid. She's attacking you thinking you're me.
CLOCKBLOCKER'S POV: Again, captain. You don't tell me anything new about Hellhound. I'm still surprised how she wasn't arrested until now. Pure luck, I don't have any other explanation.

At the last possible second, she changed course and went for the real Aegis.
Aegis bolted the second the dog changed course, but it was too late. As he tried to fly out of reach, Judas leaped, nearly twice as far and high as I might have guessed something as big as he was could. The dog's prehensile tail wrapped around Aegis' torso. As they all fell, mount, rider and ensnared captive, Bitch shouted something I couldn't hear, and Judas whipped Aegis straight down, adding the force of the throw to the momentum of the fall.
I thought I might have heard the impact from the interior of the bank. Or maybe it was as auditory illusion and my bugs were the ones who heard it. Either way, Aegis hit the ground hard enough to kill an ordinary person.
He wasn't down for one second before he was on his feet again. In the same motion he used to get to his feet, he lunged for the dog and swung a fist at Judas' snout. He might have connected, but Bitch was already steering her steed back into the cloud of darkness. She flipped Aegis the middle finger before disappearing from view.
At the same time, Clockblocker was fighting off the bugs I'd sent out. Within a fraction of a second of a bug making contact with Clockblocker or his costume, he froze it. My power simply stopped telling me the bug was there, as if they had disappeared from the face of the planet. In reality, they were just suspended in time. Stuck in the air, immobile, untouchable.

But that same power could work against him, I was thinking. I made my bugs surge forward, surround him, aiming to cover his entire body. I was pretty sure he couldn't disable the effects of his power, so if he wanted to freeze all of the bugs I had crawling on him, he'd trap himself in a prison of his own making.
He was good at thinking on his feet, though, or he'd faced similar tactics before, because he had an answer for that. Clockblocker spun in a tight circle, freezing the bugs as his body rotated, so that they were only affected when the part of his body they were on was facing away from the bank. The result was that a cluster of bugs was left frozen behind him, and he was free to dash straight towards Aegis.

Good thing that Bitch changed her mind in the last moment and attacked the right person. Aegis battles with the demonic dogs and Clockblocker fights hard to clockblock the Swarm. I'm thinking, if Bug will manage to make Swarm enters into Clocky's orifices and he'll freeze them inside his own body, he'll be so monumentally fucked "shudders".
CLOCKBLOCKER'S POV: I hope I'm going to find the BEEP asshole who's using bugs to attack me and stop him before he'll BEEP (cause heroes doesn't swear) me forever.

While I'd been distracted by Clockblocker, Bitch had set Brutus and Angelica on Aegis. He was fending the two dogs off, but the white pane of his helm – Clockblocker's helm – was shattered, now, and his costume was torn with one piece of ruined armor dangling by a string of cloth at his armpit.

Brutus lunged for Aegis, but as he passed over the edge of the area Vista had distorted, he fell short. The dog's jaws clacked shut a foot away from Aegis' face, spittle flying.
Aegis responded by slamming both fists, fingers interlaced, into Brutus' snout. The dog crashed onto its side, giving Aegis the time to take flight once more, heading straight for the sky.
Angelica followed, leaping through the air just like Judas had a minute earlier. She missed, and hit the side of a building hard enough to make the windows around her explode in a spray of glass. I waited for her to fall, but she apparently had no plans to do so. She gripped the stone of the building and windowsills around her with her four claws, tensed, and leaped again from the side of the building.
If I was surprised to see that display of acrobatics from one of the dogs, I doubted there were words for what Aegis' must have felt, just then. Angelica seized the teen hero in her jaws and they plummeted together.
Angelica didn't land with all four claws beneath her, and she sprawled as she hit the ground. When she stopped, though, she still had Aegis, one of his arms and half his torso clasped between her teeth. She whipped him around like a dog might shake a toy. When she paused, he was still fighting her, slamming his free hand against the side of her head over and over. Loops and strings of drool mixed with blood hung from her mouth. At least, that's what I thought it was, from my vantage point inside the bank, peering through gloom and pouring rain.
Clockblocker had slowed down as I started throwing more bugs in his way.

Aegis have no problems at all fighting toe to paws with Silent Hill's canine monsters, and he even managed to beat up Brutus and Angelica (poor innocent dogs btw

) and Bug keeps sending her Swarm towards Clockblocker, trying to give him entomophobia (fear of insects). You know, things that happens usually during a bank robbery. Wards are pretty good fighters, they hold their ground in an admirable manner

.

I kept them between him and Aegis, so he couldn't close the distance and touch the dogs. He'd responded by ducking, weaving, spinning and swatting or brushing them off with his hands, so he could freeze them without setting barriers in his own way.
Then he decided to try ignoring the swarm. I seized the opportunity to bite and sting him twenty or so times. The surprise and pain distracted him from his evasive maneuvers, and he wound up clotheslining himself as he froze the insects on his face while still running forward. He went from a head on run to landing on his back with his feet still in the air.
I probably wouldn't get a better chance. I set the majority of the swarm on him while he was lying on the ground.
Keep them on the defensive, Brian had told me, while we sparred. Keep them guessing, change the way you attack.
I directed the bugs to the areas where his skin was exposed, and piloted them into the gaps between his skin and his costume.
Even with innumerable insects biting and stinging him over and over, he managed to climb to his feet and return to his attempts to reach the dogs. He knew as well as I did that he couldn't freeze them now that the bugs had made their way inside his costume. He'd have to rip his costume with his own strength if he did. I doubted it was that easy to tear, either.

It was ironic. I wouldn't have been able to do this if he hadn't switched costumes with his teammate. Clockblocker's usual costume covered every inch of his skin, like mine did. Probably for much the same reason.
"I'm so sorry," I murmured, just loud enough that only I could hear it. I gave the bugs a new order.
When the bugs started crawling up his nostrils with relentless intent, he managed to keep going, pulling himself to his feet and resuming his efforts to freeze the bugs while advancing towards the dogs. He snorted to try and clear his nose so he could keep breathing, but then he was left with the problem of needing to inhale. He couldn't do that without bringing bugs further into his airway, so he made the mistake of opening his mouth to breathe.
When a mass of bugs forced themselves into his open mouth, he staggered and fell. I think he was gagging, but couldn't see or hear well enough from my vantage point to tell.
At my instruction, more bugs forced themselves under the gaps in his costume and into his ear canals. Yet others, smaller ones, crawled in and around his eyes, using deceptive strength to try and force themselves in between and under his eyelids. I couldn't imagine what that felt like to him.

You did it, Bug, YOU DID IT. You traumatized a hero probably for life. Poor Clockblocker, he's lucky that Amy will heal him afterwards (if she'll not be injured too, of course) but still...this might be a big a a TRAUMA for him. I honestly expected that she'll do this, after all she didn't had any other chance to stop him "wants to hug Clockblocker but what he needs now is a healer, not a hug".
CLOCKBLOCKER'S POV:.................aaargh.........

Everyone had probably experienced the sensation of having a lot of bugs crawling on them, but these bugs were operating with a human intelligence backing them, to penetrate his eyes, ears, nose and mouth. They were working together, with a single minded purpose, instead of mindlessly crawling where their instincts directed them.

I don't know if it was calculated or something he did in a moment's panic, but he used his power. Every bug that was touching him disappeared from my reach.
Once I'd realized what he'd done, I pulled away every bug that wasn't affected. I didn't want to suffocate him, and he'd effectively pinned himself to the street with his power. The worst thing that could happen now was that he'd panic and throw up, choking on his own puke. I could do my part to avoid that.
I'd won. I wasn't sure what to feel. I felt a kind of elation mixed with the quiet horror of what I'd just done to a superhero.
I could settle that inner turmoil later and decide on a way to make amends to Clockblocker at the same time. There were still five Wards and a stranger on the rooftop to be taken out, if I wanted to stay out of jail.

No, Bug, you don't deserve a hug from me after what you did now. Love you quite a lot, my dear girl, but Clockblocker is only a hero doing his job, not a fame hungry hero or a villain, he didn't deserve this shit. On the other side, I wouldn't feel bad if it was Armsmaster in his place. Well, at least I hope that you will not going to do the same thing with Vista too

I hope and I trust you.
CLOCKBLOCKER'S POV:.....(what POV you still want? The poor young man is finished, he can't even speak anymore, get out of here!)

Next time, a new chapter. Bye, friends.

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

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