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

AmbarGriss · Oct 14, 2018

blackarrow said:
I forgot to add a H, my bad. Thank you for your observation. What is your opinion about him?

I actually think he was a pretty weak character we read for the first time. I don't know why, but its hard for me to relate with him.

blackarrow · Oct 15, 2018

Hello, lovely buddies. Time for the second part of Chapter 8. Last time I got to know, through Trickster, my Worm-verse "clone" in the person of Accord, a businessman like villain, who rule over a part of Boston with the IRON FIST OF ORDER AND DISCIPLINE.

This guy clearly isn't very sane, as he's so eager to kill Sundancer over an interruption and Trickster over a cigarette. His mind is wrong, but compared with other crazy supervillains roaming around, he seems a little more "kind", fair and ready to give a second chance if the offender will impress him with something. Unlike Coil, who never heard about second chance as he was more than ok to kill anyone that he perceived as being a traitor/useless or dangerous to him or Jack, who only pretended to give Cherish a second chance while he was plotting with Bonesaw and Mannequin her demise. Accord is a "second chance man" but only if his maniacal need for order will be satisfied. Anyway, better than the alternatives.

I'm also eager to meet Blasto and I have a feeling that he's going to kick Travelers' collective asses out of his lab with the help of his Sentient Plant Army. Cause one most be either crazy or suicidal to attack a Tinker in their lair, where they're strongly defended by their creations. But we're not going to see this badass surreal fight because we have some problems with Noelle right now and Perdition (Cody's codename is one of the best and most badass codenames and nobody can deny this

), who just can't keep his hands for himself, developing a weird kink of touching Noelle and be cloned?!? by her each fucking time. Let's see if my theory about cloning will be confirmed Migration 17.8

Krouse pulled the car into the driveway. Oliver was outside, and hurried to Krouse's side.

Oliver was taller than him, now. The baby fat was gone, and he was fit. Krouse had wondered at times why Chris had been so attractive to the ladies. He didn't wonder with Oliver. Oliver was attractive in a way that meant he could model, he was naturally athletic, he was even smart. It was scary how fast he was picking up new skills.
But he was still Oliver. Whatever gradual transition his power was offering, it hadn't changed the person at the core of it; an insecure, socially stunted teenage boy. In a way, it had made it worse. Oliver's face and body changed according to his basic perception of attractiveness, and that changed a little every time he saw a new face. In little ways, his face changed day by day, to the point that it wasn't always easy to recognize him.

Oliver changed, but not that much. He only changed physically and in terms of intelligence, but not emotionally. He didn't grew up in the true sense of word, he didn't became a true man standing for himself, he remained the same mommy boy, his power only helped him to look good and change his appearance according to every new person he meets (looks like he doesn't have control over his power if these changes happen in a sporadically manner) until he becomes almost unrecognizable. Poor boy, he was a victim of his own mother and now he's a victim of his own power.

Now I understand why he can't control his power. Noelle can't control her power either. Because they both drank half of the vial. The full power must have worked like this: the person who drank it got the abilities of super-strength, regeneration, cloning?? and their appearance would have been normal, without additional eyes across the tight. Also, they'd be able to have full control over their powers. Oliver drank the part that would have given Noelle normal looks, without altering her body and Noelle drank the part that would have given Oliver super-strength, regeneration and cloning?? And neither of them can control their powers because their half of vial isn't enough for getting their powers under their control. Looks like they're controlled by their own powers, not viceversa. Krouse, its not your fault, but you FUCKED both of them. You fucked both of them, son.

Fuck you, Simurgh, Krouse thought. They'd all been forced to deal with their individual tragedies. Noelle's went without saying. Jess hadn't gotten to walk, Luke hadn't gotten to fly, Oliver got a physical and mental overhaul without any fixes for the real problems, and Marissa had been thrust into the situation she'd fought so hard to escape, where she was forced to pursue a life she didn't want.

Krouse's tragedy was waiting for him inside.
As for Cody's…
Oliver helped Krouse move the body out of the passenger seat.
They grunted as they carried it through the front door. Krouse double checked nobody was observing. He'd parked briefly to remove his costume, then swapped himself and the body for people in another car before continuing en route to their current hideout. It was the middle of the day, and virtually everyone in this neighborhood would be at work or at school, but he feared some college student or elderly person would just happen to be outdoors or walking a dog. It would make things complicated.
Accord wasn't so wrong on that subject. Things were better when they were simple.
Krouse and Oliver dragged the body to the middle of the living room. It joined two others. Each was different in the mutations, in the distortions and impurities. Each of the three bodies was Perdition. Was Cody.
He looked at Ballistic, Jess and Oliver. "Three? You're sure?"
"Sure enough," Ballistic said.
"How's she?"
"Upset. You're going to have to talk to her, calm her down."

My cloning theory got CONFIRMED. I feel proud of this confirmation, but also scared as shit when I'm thinking about what will going to happen in the future. It will be easy for Noelle to touch Undersiders and clone them then use their clones against them. We're going to see Skitter fighting against "Skitter" or "Tattletale" trying to bully Tattletale to death? (as you probably noticed, I'm going to refer at clones using quotation marks to make the difference between them and the real persons, because its more easy this way than repeating the word "clone" -insert any codename- over and over again) Or a couple of "Eidolons"using their powers to bring hell on Earth while Eidolon will try his hardest to stop them? I wonder if she can clone animals or insects too. That would be really emotionally painful and traumatic for Bitch if she'll be forced to kill the evil clones of her dogs. I mean, they're clones, but they're still dogs, they're still Bitch's babies.

And even worse, it looks like "Perdition" still had the same emotions as his original so...what if all the clones are exactly just like their original in terms of memories, personality and emotions, only the twisted, evil and manipulated by Noelle versions? Will Grue be able to kill "Imp"? Will Imp be able to kill "Grue"? Will heroes be ready to kill the other versions of heroes? Noelle's power is both a psychically horror show and an emotional and mental crushing nightmare.

Krouse winced, nodded.

They all stared at the bodies. This would be the third incident. Or incidents three through five, if he wanted to count it that way.
"How much damage done?" Krouse asked. "Anyone hurt?"
"A bunch hurt but nobody got killed by the one I went after," Jess said.
"Yeah, a few hurt," Ballistic said. He paused. "One dead."
"Fuck," Krouse said. "At least two dead at the hands of the one I stopped. Not as bad as last fall."
Ballistic shook his head.
"We… we can't let this happen again," Jess said.
"That's what we said last time," Krouse noted.
"She's getting stronger," Jess said. "And more volatile."
"We'll fix her," Krouse said, his voice a touch hollow. "We'll fix her, and we'll get home."
Just words. How can they believe me when I don't even buy it?
"Where is he?" he asked, breaking the lingering silence.
Ballistic pointed in the direction of one of the ground floor bedrooms.
"What happened?" Krouse asked.
"We don't know. Neither Cody or Noelle are saying."
"Fuck. Okay. I need a smoke, then we'll resolve this."
"Krouse-" Luke said. But Krouse was already out of the living room, pushing his way through the front door.
He stepped outside, sat on the front steps, took his time in getting his cigarette and lighting it. He finished the first, started on the second, and gave serious consideration to having a third after that.
He shut his eyes. Just need a moment of calm, a few minutes to organize my thoughts.
"Krouse."
He resisted the urge to sigh. Marissa was there, coming down the path from the driveway. "Mars. Glad you did okay with Accord. Sorry to leave you like that."
"It's okay. It was better that you went to deal with the situation. I couldn't have. I don't have it in me, even knowing they aren't real."
Krouse nodded, closed his eyes."He said I wasn't perfect."
Krouse froze, turned to see her leaning against the railing just beside him. She'd changed into civilian clothes. "You burned his place down, then?"
"No," she said. "He said I wasn't perfect, but that he saw what you meant. He said I was trying, despite myself. I… I don't know if that was a compliment or not."
"Ah."
"Um. He wants you to see him tonight. Nine sharp. And, um. He said that if I'm not the problem, he fully expects you to bring the real culprit. Did he mean Noelle?"
"Cody," Krouse said. "Shit. Not the way I wanted this to go."
"What!? Krouse, he's going to kill him."
"Probably."
"We can't!"
"We may have to. If we don't give him a scapegoat, he'll send assassins and homicidal underlings after us. We need someone to blame, not just for intruding on the meeting, but for the three very violent scenes that erupted in his territory earlier today. Not to mention that we can't afford to pack up shop and move right now, not while Noelle's as upset as she is. Between the two of us, I think we've charmed Accord enough that I'd bet we can get away with giving him Cody and paying him a fair sum. We do that, we can stay for ten days. We'll gather some funds and give Noelle time to quiet down."
"You're talking about killing a teammate."
"He was never a teammate. He was one of us, yes, but he never cooperated, never worked with the rest of us."
"We made a pact, a promise. To stick together, no matter what. To do what it took to fix Noelle and get home."
Krouse shut his eyes. "I know. Not an hour goes by that I don't think about it."
"You're breaking that promise if you give Cody up."
Krouse sighed, took a drag of his cigarette and blew smoke out through his nostrils.
"Krouse-"
"Mars. There's no reason he'd enter her room and intentionally touch her three times. You know that, I know that."
He turned around to glance at her, saw her frowning.
"What do you mean, Krouse?"
"I mean he waited until the rest of us were busy, then he entered her room and he enraged her. Because for there to be three points of contact, three uses of her power, she'd have to be the one making the contact. She'd be using her power on purpose, and she wouldn't do that if she wasn't berserk. I'm guessing he was badly hurt?"
"Broken arm, broken leg."
Krouse nodded. He took another drag of his cigarette.
"Why? How?"
"He had a goal in mind, only he didn't anticipate how fast she moves, how strong she is. He was trying to do one of two things. Either he did something general, said something, with the aim of making her go berserk… or he tried to kill her. One way or another, Cody wanted to end this. End our mission. Free himself. He doesn't give a fuck about the promise, so I don't see why the promise should protect him."

Accord is so crazy, man, but also awesome in his crazy ways of living his life. I appreciate him for considering that Sundancer tried hard to impress him, despite not being perfect (like he wanted). At least he admires people who are ambitious enough to try, even if they're not so great. And apparently he can keep his word- he was impressed with Sundancer's hard work and he spared her life.

He also loves punctuality but he proves to be merciless when it comes to punish the individuals who mess with his territory. I think I already have a like/dislike relationship with Accord, guys. Not love or hate or both yet, I still want to know more of him before finally deciding on my first impression about him. As for Cody, I think I have to agree with both point of views when it comes to his fate. Marissa doesn't want Accord to kill Cody over the crime of messing with his territory and she clearly is against sending him straight in the claws of the order-obsessed villain. She feels like she's betraying a teammate and friend in this way and she's not a traitor neither a back-stabbing friend. I agree with her. I'll never betray a teammate/friend like this either, no matter how many poor decisions they'll take.

But I agree with Krouse too. Cody lost his fucking mind. He's a danger for himself, for his team, for bystanders, for everyone else. He almost killed two small children- well, his clone did that, but he was the one who allowed the clone to exist by touching Noelle and waiting to be cloned by her. He must be stopped, he went too far and if the only way for them to stop Cody from cloning himself further and putting lives in danger is to send him straight to death then...they have to do what its necessary. As much as I agree with Marissa's POV and I'd have acted like her if I was there, I think Krouse is more pragmatic and rational than Marissa in this situation (and yes, I would have acted like Marissa but I'd have LISTENED Krouse, even if I wouldn't have liked this

). Krouse is the voice of reason and they should understand him especially since he's so sick of killing murderous clones of their mad teammate. Sorry, Cody, but you made your bed, you have to sleep on it.

"I don't- I can't believe that."

"You can't believe that Cody is that self-centered? Did you just come from an alternate universe with a different Cody?"
"No. I… I can almost believe it. But you're talking about killing. Or giving him to someone else so they'll kill him."
Krouse finished the cigarette and tossed it to the base of the steps, crushed it under his toe.
"Tell you what," he said. "Let me talk to the others. Maybe Cody too, just to confirm suspicions. We'll see if the others come to the same conclusion."
"Krouse, you're talking about sentencing Cody to death."
"He knew what he was getting into. And whatever else happened, three innocent people are dead because he fucked up. So we'll talk to the others. We'll come to a consensus."
"This is ugly. God, Krouse, it's still Cody."
"Yeah. It's not pretty. So why don't you take a break, clear your mind? Maybe go do a food run for Noelle."
Marissa frowned. "Hate these runs."
"We have to, and your turn's up."
"I know, I know. But people look at me funny when I bring a cart of meat and only meat."
"Tell them you're buying for a restaurant and the wholesaler dropped the ball today."
"It still looks weird."
"Maybe find a butcher? We've got a backyard here, if you want to get maybe two whole pigs, you can tell him you're throwing a party."
"Fuck it," she muttered. "Keys?"
Krouse fished the keys and the carton of cigarettes from his pocket. He tossed her the keys and tapped another cigarette out of the box.
"And stop smoking. You're killing yourself, Krouse."
"I know," he said.
She was all the way at the car when she turned around and hurried back to the front steps.
"What?" Krouse asked.
"I almost forgot. Accord. He wanted me to pass this on."
She handed him a piece of paper. There was a number printed on it. Different area code.
"What is it?"
"He said someone was trying to get in contact with you."
"Who?"
Marissa shrugged.
"For the record, Marissa, with guys like Accord, you can't almost forget to pass on messages, and you don't waltz in on a business meeting. Things could have turned out a lot different today. They still might."
"I… I don't want to interact with guys like him."
"We have to. Only way to go about it."
"I know. I just… next time we run into someone like that, I'll stay hands off. Keep my distance."
"Alright. Go, shop. Take your time. Give yourself a break, buy an ice cream or something. You have my permission and my orders to go distract yourself."
Marissa retreated to the car.
Krouse puffed for a minute on his second cigarette, pulled out his phone, and dialed the number.
"Hello?"
"Accord gave me this number."
"Then this would be Trickster, I presume."
"Yeah."
"I have a business proposition for the Travelers."

Accord KNEW Coil!!! Fuck this, fuck this shit. Accord is the one who sealed Travelers's fate by presenting them the biggest coward and man without word of honor in this story. I wonder if Accord knew that Coil was exactly the opposite of him: incapable to keep his word, ready anytime to back-stab his closest allies, a world class liar and manipulator. I wonder if Accord knew that Coil was keeping a little girl as his prisoner and "weapon" and abused her all this time. I wonder if he agreed with everything that Coil did. Because if he knew about Dinah and Coil's dictatorial dreams and fully agreed with everything then Accord is not a very different person compared from Coil, and this make me more sad than mad.

I was hoping that Accord was a better person that Coil, Jack, Lung, despite being a supervillain himself. The only ways for forgiving Accord for his connection with Coil were: if he was manipulated by Coil into trusting him, if he didn't knew about Dinah, if he knew about Dinah but couldn't do anything to help her because he didn't wanted to start an open war with Coil, if he knew about Dinah but honestly believed that she willingly helped Coil, not that she was his prisoner, or if he believed- in his madness- that Coil is an agent of order and he can't do anything wrong. Now I'm curious to discover how these two got to know each other and how much they knew about each other.

Krouse: welcome to Coil's web of liars and deceptions. May God have mercy of your soul because this snake will never have.

"Well, things have gone a little south with Accord, here, so I'm not quite sure where we stand, but I need to do this job for him before I take on anything else."

"This is more of a long-term job."
"We don't really do long-term. We don't stay in one place for long."
"I'm well aware of your circumstances."
Trickster took a long haul on his cigarette. "That so?"
"I know Accord through a mutual acquaintance. Through this acquaintance and my own resources, I've gathered a fairly robust set of data on you Travelers."
"That sounds vaguely threatening."
"I suppose it might, to individuals trying to avoid scrutiny. Rest assured, it is just the opposite. I know what issues you face, Trickster, and I am offering you a solution."
"A solution?"
"I'm offering three things, to be precise. Work for me. Help me achieve my goals and I will allow you to achieve yours."
Krouse leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees. he held the cigarette in one hand and the phone in the other. "What do you know of our issues?"
"I know what the PRT knows. I know you appeared out of nowhere, that a Luke Casseus and a Noelle Meinhardt were admitted for care to St. Mary's hospital, yet there are no such students on any high school rosters."
"We're not from there," Krouse said.
"Then why did Luke Casseus put down Madison, Wisconsin as a place of residence?"
Krouse suppressed a groan.
"Rest assured, Trickster, there is no need for any alarm. The fact that I know these things is an asset to you. A contact of mine in the PRT has taken over your case file and requisitioned all details on your encounter with Myrddin. That case will not be pursued further."
"And why are you doing this for us?"
"Because I have goals of my own, and I believe one can't be too careful. When hiring expert help, I prefer that help to be loyal. I will get that loyalty by giving you what you desire. Everyone has their price, and my research into you Travelers has been done with the goal of discovering what that price is."
"Yeah? Let's hear it. What's our price?"
"All the money you require, for one. So long as you're in my employment, I will pay for whatever you require. Even if it is nearly one thousand, five hundred dollars in groceries per week."
"How generous."
"Number two? I will send you home."
Krouse stopped, the cigarette dangling from his lips.
"A man in power like myself has contacts. Through one of these contacts, I have access to a man who can create doorways between worlds. The caveat is that I won't have the power, funds or leverage to request assistance from this individual until my own goals are met."
"So we have to help you for you to help us."
"Exactly, Trickster. As for your other problem, well, that is a more daunting task."
Noelle.
"You said you could help."
"I can't guarantee anything. I can offer all of my resources, which are considerable, and all of the resources I will have, which are even more so."
"Sounds pretty wishy-washy."
"Perhaps. But when making an argument or making a sale, I find it's best to lead with the second best offer, move on to the weaker ones, and then close with the best. I am offering you one more thing."
"What?"
The man on the phone told him.
It was another minute before Krouse hung up.
Krouse spent fifteen more minutes sitting on the front steps of the house. It was the first time in a year that he'd had a moment to stop and think and he didn't reach for his cigarettes.
When he stood, he was in something of a daze.
He stepped back inside.
"Krouse," Luke said, "We need to talk about what we're doing with Cody."
"Later," Krouse said.
"What's going on?"
"Going to go talk to Noelle."
"She's pissed, Krouse. She'll flip out on you, and I'm not doing this again. Iwon't fucking hunt down deranged mutant clones. Especially not yours."
"Not an issue. She'll like what I have to say."
"Krouse-"
"After, Luke," Krouse said. He spun around, faced his friend. "I think we've got what we're looking for."
"What?"
"A way home. Maybe even a fix for Noelle."
"How? Who?"
"Some supervillain in Brockton Bay. Wants us to work for him for a little while. There's more, but…"
"But?"
Trickster met Luke's eyes, "I want to tell her first. Everything that's happened, I have to."
"We deserve to know too, Krouse. We've been working at this as long as you have. We've had our hopes up and had them dashed too. Too many times."
"I know. I know. Just… I'll tell you after I've told her. I think this is it."
He caught a glimpse of Luke's expression as he turned away. A look of deep sadness. Krouse hesitated.
What was he supposed to say?
"Just a few minutes," Krouse said, "I'll be back, then I'll explain."
He made his way to Noelle's room, knocked.
"Go away."
"It's Krouse."
There was a long delay.
"What do you want?"
"I want to come in," he said.
"No you don't."
"I do. Please."
There was a long delay. He took that for assent.
Noelle didn't meet his eyes as he entered. He noted the mangled bedframe, the splintered wood from the boxspring, and the mattress torn in two. An oak cabinet had been demolished, and both bedside tables were in ruins. There wasn't a single intact piece of furniture left.
He turned towards her. "I-"
"Don't look at me," she said.
He stopped, then he seated himself on the floor with his back to the remains of the cabinet, his back to her.
"Come to talk?" she asked. "Keep me company?"
"I was planning on doing it a little later. Things are kind of a mess out there, you know. The Cody situation."
"Nobody keeps me company any more. Only you."
"Yeah. But that's not why I'm here."
"You want to know what happened with Cody."
"I know what happened with Cody. He tried to kill you."
There was a long silence.
"I can't die, Krouse. I've tried. Tried to end it. Spare you guys from looking after me. I can't. Nothing works."
"Yeah."
"I'm one of them. Or I'm becoming that way."
"Maybe."
"An Endbringer."
He felt a chill, and it wasn't the early spring temperature.
"Maybe. Or maybe you're more like those monsters that were dumped on the street."
"They could die. You told me that you killed one of them."
"Probably. But I saw another one die, you're right."
"And my power, if I get stronger, if I get more out of control-"
"You won't."
"I'll be just as bad as the Simurgh. In a different way. I touch someone, and then I spit out copies. Uglier, stronger… meaner. I can't control them. If I got my hands on one of the major heroes? Someone like that Myrddin guy?"
"You won't. Listen to me, Noelle. I was just talking to someone. We may have an answer."
He heard her shift position, flinched despite himself.
"You've said that before," she said.
"This sounds like it. He's not saying he might be able to make something that can get us home. He's saying he already knows someone who has a way. Someone who goes back and forth. And he knows people. Scholars, scientists, this one girl with powers he didn't explain, who knows stuff. Like Accord does."
"The guy you saw today?"
"Yeah, the one I told you about," Krouse was getting excited, despite himself. "The way this guy described it, there's a solution out there, and he can get it."
"Krouse, it's- it's not that easy."
"I know. I know it's not easy, but there was a third offer on the table. A third thing he was giving us. He said we should consider it a bonus."
"What?"
"Hope, Noelle."
"I don't understand."
"He just got someone working for him, and this person can see the future. And she says there is a way to help you. Definitely. Chances are low, but he says he's confident he can maximize them."
"He could be lying."
"No, listen. The Simurgh? This guy said she has a weakness. Two ways where she can't see the future. Two ways to break free of her cause and effect."
Noelle didn't say anything.
"The first way, you've got to be basically immune to powers. Scion is. He's immune to precognition, throws everything out the window when he shows up. I saw it when he fought the Simurgh. She couldn't automatically dodge his stuff, because she either couldn't read his mind or she couldn't see the attacks before they happened. So he hit her, a bunch of times. I saw it."
There still wasn't a response.
Krouse was getting more excited, had to press his hand flat against the floor to stop it from shaking. "And the other way? There's thinker powers that mess with her ability to influence events. If another precog gets a hand in events, the Simurgh automatically shuts them down and vice-versa. The way this guy said it, the precogs get overloaded with the second-guessing the other precog, on top of having to figure out all the quantum possibilities and split paths. And this guy? He has a power that messes with precogs some, and the precog working for him has a power that will help circumvent the Simurgh's power. Get it? So long as we work for him, we're free of it. No more cause and effect. No more feeling like we're doomed no matter what choice we make. We go from that kind of safety to home. To our world."
Krouse turned around, and despite himself, he was smiling. He had to blink rapidly to clear the tears that were collecting in his eyes, threatening to run down his face.
Noelle was perched on the ruined bed. Her fingers were clutching a sweatshirt, with no shirt beneath. Still the Noelle he'd always known.
From the waist up.
Around where her pelvis should have been, she'd changed. The mass of tissue left her tall enough that she had to hunch over to avoid hitting her head on the ceiling, and she was lying down. Half of it was angry, red, wrinkled or blistered. The other half was smooth tissue, dark greens, dark brown and pale grays. The head of an animal, half-bovine and half-canine, extended from the front, large as a horse from the back of its skull to the tip of its flaring nostrils. Another head was in progress, emerging just to the left. Two forelegs extended to either side of the heads, rippling with powerful muscle, ending in something that fell between claw and hoof, massive and easily capable of tearing through steel.
There were the fingers and thumb of a hand, extending from her right hindquarters, each digit thicker around than Krouse was, with another, smaller limb extending from the palm. Her rear left hindquarters featured only a mess of tentacles, some bearing partial exoskeleton, some long enough that they had to encircle the massive head and numerous limbs, or wind in a wreath around her as she lay down, lest their coiled mass fill the master bedroom of the house and leave Krouse nowhere to sit. Despite the apparent lack of bones, the tentacles were capable of supporting her weight.
She didn't expel waste. She only grew, or she reinforced what had already grown.
She'd tried to starve herself, to die of thirst. It had turned out badly. She'd gone berserk and killed forty people in one autumn night. Their tissues had played a large part in building the massive fingers and thumb that extended behind her.

....................OH, GOD, OF GOD!!!!! Noelle went full monster. At least where her pelvis used to be. She have additional human limbs, fingers, even parts of animals- this is the confirmation that she can clone animals too (poor, poor Bitch; I don't want to put myself in her shoes not even for a second when she'll be forced to kill her "babies"

). Parts of the clones remain trapped inside her body, making it bigger and more monstrous (this is the explanation for why her clones look monstrous too; since she can't control her power, she can't create clones who look exactly like their originals because she absorbs parts of them inside her body and can't pull them out) "sighs and gives Noelle a big hug, no matter what will happen afterwards". Krouse holds onto the fake hope that Coil will help them and he tries to convince Noelle to believe too, even if she's more skeptical than him.

He also holds onto the possible fake hope that Simurgh's plans can be destroyed by another precog's intervention (I highly doubt that Dinah can be strong enough to fuck with Simurgh's plans; while she's pretty strong, I don't think she'll stand a chance against Simurgh. Maybe Cauldron have better Precogs than Dinah but I wonder if they're really interested in taking Simurgh or any other Endbringer down). But its good to know that Simurgh have weak points that can be exploited by the right people.

The others didn't know quite how bad things had gone, then. He'd managed to shield them from the news reports, the total body count, had kept them moving from city to city until the story died away. They knew people had died, they didn't know it was forty.

It was bad. A bad situation overall, one that had Krouse retreating from the house in the dead of night, just to find the most remote location he could reach, to weep, to scream his frustration, rage, shame and guilt and not worry about the others hearing it.
But with all of that, with her sheer intimidating presence, he was nonetheless able to look up and meet Noelle's eyes. Hers were welling with tears, too.
"I believed what he was saying," Krouse said. "I think this might be it. Our best chance."
"You think so? We can hope?"
"We can hope," he repeated, whispering the words, as much to himself as to her.
A wave crashed against the beach.
He hurt all over. His body wasn't listening as he told it to move. His hand slipped on the pavement as he tried to push himself up off the ground. There was sand filling the cracks in the pavement, denying him traction.
He flipped himself over onto his back, instead, then sat up. He wobbled as he stood.
The first thing he saw was Jess. Jess in her wheelchair, at the edge of the grass, where it dropped down to the beach. She was staring at the ocean.
"J-" he started to shout, had to force more air into his lungs before he could.
"Jess!" he hollered.
She didn't move.
Sundancer was lying beside him. He raised her mask and checked that she was breathing. She was just unconscious.
His eyes roved over the empty lot. No people. No soldiers. No other parahumans.
His eyes settled on a dense cluster of seagulls.
Krouse nearly fell as he made his way towards them. He didn't miss the tracks Jess's wheelchair had made. She'd been here.
She'd seen.
The seagulls scattered as he approached. He saw a white feather that had been left behind, ground it under his toe as he might one of his cigarettes.
The birds had been gathering around a mark. A stain. There wasn't a better word to sum it up.
It was blood. Enough blood that whoever it had belonged to wasn't alive anymore. Drag marks extended off towards one side of the lot. The soldiers had taken the body, and the seagulls had taken much of the remaining gore. All that was left were bits of skull, and little fatty blobs that might have been brain. The bullet would have passed through and shattered the cranium, by the looks of it.
He had no doubt as to who had died here. Could remember the scene as it had been just before he'd been knocked unconscious, could remember where people had been standing.
Another wave crashed against the beach. He heard the seagulls cawing angrily, wanting the morsels that littered the ground in front of him.
Krouse spent a very long time staring at the stain.

At first I thought that Accord's men killed Cody but then I remembered that Coil was headshot by Skitter so the blood stains and the fragments of skull and brains belong to him. Rest in fucking Pieces, you monster.

So, Trickster is in present now. Everyone else is in present. And the present looks darker than their past. They lost this fake hope that they're holding onto. Noelle is a free woman now, free to go and kill Undersiders and everyone else that she considers as being responsible for her fate. Noelle is crazy, unstoppable, with powers that she can't really control, with enough rage and frustration in her soul that she won't care about her inability to control her powers, free and mad and powerful. Trickster is completely broken, Jess is completely lost, Ballistic is now by their enemies' side and Sundancer is unconscious. And I'm crying here for all these poor broken souls. Fuck you, Simurgh. Fuck you, Coil. You two almost worked together to destroy Travelers as persons, I fucking swear "hugs all Travelers, including Noelle".

I just discovered that this is the last Chapter of this Arc and I didn't had the occasion to meet Blasto in person. WTF, Wildbow? I can't believe you deceived me with such an interesting Tinker and you didn't satisfied my curiosity about him and his work. I mean...a Tinker who can create sapient plants. So much potential WASTED. Anyway, I'll hold onto the hope that Blasto will make his appearance in the future thanks to the POV of other characters or even better, his own POV. I also want to know what happened to Cody and what's up with Accord. How he'll react when he'll find out that Coil was killed in such a MESSY way? Will he discovers Skitter/Undersiders and plan his revenge on them? So many things I'm eager to know.

Finally, this Arc is done. I survived to it. So, did I got a fucking prize for reaching the finish line? If so, which one?

Good night and sleep well, my friends.

blackarrow · Oct 15, 2018

AmbarGriss said:
I actually think he was a pretty weak character we read for the first time. I don't know why, but its hard for me to relate with him.

Maybe because you don't have OCD. I relate with him because we're both obsessed with order and perform some routines repeatedly, freaking/bothering the hell of people around us. I think I'll get along pretty well with Accord in terms of understanding our common pain but I'll hate his willingness to kill people so easy while he'll hate my very emotional nature in general. We'll be like...vitriolic partners. Sort of.

KnownParadox · Oct 15, 2018

Hey @blackarrow, if any hypothetical evil clones were to show up in the future, check the tag list, they'll have they're own cape names, and I want you to discuss them, they're pretty cool.

rafuki22 · Oct 15, 2018

blackarrow said:
Hello, lovely buddies. Time for the second part of Chapter 8. Last time I got to know, through Trickster, my Worm-verse "clone" in the person of Accord, a businessman like villain, who rule over a part of Boston with the IRON FIST OF ORDER AND DISCIPLINE. This guy clearly isn't very sane, as he's so eager to kill Sundancer over an interruption and Trickster over a cigarette. His mind is wrong, but compared with other crazy supervillains roaming around, he seems a little more "kind", fair and ready to give a second chance if the offender will impress him with something. Unlike Coil, who never heard about second chance as he was more than ok to kill anyone that he perceived as being a traitor/useless or dangerous to him or Jack, who only pretended to give Cherish a second chance while he was plotting with Bonesaw and Mannequin her demise. Accord is a "second chance man" but only if his maniacal need for order will be satisfied. Anyway, better than the alternatives. I'm also eager to meet Blasto and I have a feeling that he's going to kick Travelers' collective asses out of his lab with the help of his Sentient Plant Army. Cause one most be either crazy or suicidal to attack a Tinker in their lair, where they're strongly defended by their creations. But we're not going to see this badass surreal fight because we have some problems with Noelle right now and Perdition (Cody's codename is one of the best and most badass codenames and nobody can deny this ), who just can't keep his hands for himself, developing a weird kink of touching Noelle and be cloned?!? by her each fucking time. Let's see if my theory about cloning will be confirmed Migration 17.8

Oliver changed, but not that much. He only changed physically and in terms of intelligence, but not emotionally. He didn't grew up in the true sense of word, he didn't became a true man standing for himself, he remained the same mommy boy, his power only helped him to look good and change his appearance according to every new person he meets (looks like he doesn't have control over his power if these changes happen in a sporadically manner) until he becomes almost unrecognizable. Poor boy, he was a victim of his own mother and now he's a victim of his own power. Now I understand why he can't control his power. Noelle can't control her power either. Because they both drank half of the vial. The full power must have worked like this: the person who drank it got the abilities of super-strength, regeneration, cloning?? and their appearance would have been normal, without additional eyes across the tight. Also, they'd be able to have full control over their powers. Oliver drank the part that would have given Noelle normal looks, without altering her body and Noelle drank the part that would have given Oliver super-strength, regeneration and cloning?? And neither of them can control their powers because their half of vial isn't enough for getting their powers under their control. Looks like they're controlled by their own powers, not viceversa. Krouse, its not your fault, but you FUCKED both of them. You fucked both of them, son.

My cloning theory got CONFIRMED. I feel proud of this confirmation, but also scared as shit when I'm thinking about what will going to happen in the future. It will be easy for Noelle to touch Undersiders and clone them then use their clones against them. We're going to see Skitter fighting against "Skitter" or "Tattletale" trying to bully Tattletale to death? (as you probably noticed, I'm going to refer at clones using quotation marks to make the difference between them and the real persons, because its more easy this way than repeating the word "clone" -insert any codename- over and over again) Or a couple of "Eidolons"using their powers to bring hell on Earth while Eidolon will try his hardest to stop them? I wonder if she can clone animals or insects too. That would be really emotionally painful and traumatic for Bitch if she'll be forced to kill the evil clones of her dogs. I mean, they're clones, but they're still dogs, they're still Bitch's babies. And even worse, it looks like "Perdition" still had the same emotions as his original so...what if all the clones are exactly just like their original in terms of memories, personality and emotions, only the twisted, evil and manipulated by Noelle versions? Will Grue be able to kill "Imp"? Will Imp be able to kill "Grue"? Will heroes be ready to kill the other versions of heroes? Noelle's power is both a psychically horror show and an emotional and mental crushing nightmare.

Accord is so crazy, man, but also awesome in his crazy ways of living his life. I appreciate him for considering that Sundancer tried hard to impress him, despite not being perfect (like he wanted). At least he admires people who are ambitious enough to try, even if they're not so great. And apparently he can keep his word- he was impressed with Sundancer's hard work and he spared her life. He also loves punctuality but he proves to be merciless when it comes to punish the individuals who mess with his territory. I think I already have a like/dislike relationship with Accord, guys. Not love or hate or both yet, I still want to know more of him before finally deciding on my first impression about him. As for Cody, I think I have to agree with both point of views when it comes to his fate. Marissa doesn't want Accord to kill Cody over the crime of messing with his territory and she clearly is against sending him straight in the claws of the order-obsessed villain. She feels like she's betraying a teammate and friend in this way and she's not a traitor neither a back-stabbing friend. I agree with her. I'll never betray a teammate/friend like this either, no matter how many poor decisions they'll take. But I agree with Krouse too. Cody lost his fucking mind. He's a danger for himself, for his team, for bystanders, for everyone else. He almost killed two small children- well, his clone did that, but he was the one who allowed the clone to exist by touching Noelle and waiting to be cloned by her. He must be stopped, he went too far and if the only way for them to stop Cody from cloning himself further and putting lives in danger is to send him straight to death then...they have to do what its necessary. As much as I agree with Marissa's POV and I'd have acted like her if I was there, I think Krouse is more pragmatic and rational than Marissa in this situation (and yes, I would have acted like Marissa but I'd have LISTENED Krouse, even if I wouldn't have liked this ). Krouse is the voice of reason and they should understand him especially since he's so sick of killing murderous clones of their mad teammate. Sorry, Cody, but you made your bed, you have to sleep on it.

Accord KNEW Coil!!! Fuck this, fuck this shit. Accord is the one who sealed Travelers's fate by presenting them the biggest coward and man without word of honor in this story. I wonder if Accord knew that Coil was exactly the opposite of him: incapable to keep his word, ready anytime to back-stab his closest allies, a world class liar and manipulator. I wonder if Accord knew that Coil was keeping a little girl as his prisoner and "weapon" and abused her all this time. I wonder if he agreed with everything that Coil did. Because if he knew about Dinah and Coil's dictatorial dreams and fully agreed with everything then Accord is not a very different person compared from Coil, and this make me more sad than mad. I was hoping that Accord was a better person that Coil, Jack, Lung, despite being a supervillain himself. The only ways for forgiving Accord for his connection with Coil were: if he was manipulated by Coil into trusting him, if he didn't knew about Dinah, if he knew about Dinah but couldn't do anything to help her because he didn't wanted to start an open war with Coil, if he knew about Dinah but honestly believed that she willingly helped Coil, not that she was his prisoner, or if he believed- in his madness- that Coil is an agent of order and he can't do anything wrong. Now I'm curious to discover how these two got to know each other and how much they knew about each other.
Krouse: welcome to Coil's web of liars and deceptions. May God have mercy of your soul because this snake will never have.

....................OH, GOD, OF GOD!!!!! Noelle went full monster. At least where her pelvis used to be. She have additional human limbs, fingers, even parts of animals- this is the confirmation that she can clone animals too (poor, poor Bitch; I don't want to put myself in her shoes not even for a second when she'll be forced to kill her "babies" ). Parts of the clones remain trapped inside her body, making it bigger and more monstrous (this is the explanation for why her clones look monstrous too; since she can't control her power, she can't create clones who look exactly like their originals because she absorbs parts of them inside her body and can't pull them out) "sighs and gives Noelle a big hug, no matter what will happen afterwards". Krouse holds onto the fake hope that Coil will help them and he tries to convince Noelle to believe too, even if she's more skeptical than him. He also holds onto the possible fake hope that Simurgh's plans can be destroyed by another precog's intervention (I highly doubt that Dinah can be strong enough to fuck with Simurgh's plans; while she's pretty strong, I don't think she'll stand a chance against Simurgh. Maybe Cauldron have better Precogs than Dinah but I wonder if they're really interested in taking Simurgh or any other Endbringer down). But its good to know that Simurgh have weak points that can be exploited by the right people.

At first I thought that Accord's men killed Cody but then I remembered that Coil was headshot by Skitter so the blood stains and the fragments of skull and brains belong to him. Rest in fucking Pieces, you monster. So, Trickster is in present now. Everyone else is in present. And the present looks darker than their past. They lost this fake hope that they're holding onto. Noelle is a free woman now, free to go and kill Undersiders and everyone else that she considers as being responsible for her fate. Noelle is crazy, unstoppable, with powers that she can't really control, with enough rage and frustration in her soul that she won't care about her inability to control her powers, free and mad and powerful. Trickster is completely broken, Jess is completely lost, Ballistic is now by their enemies' side and Sundancer is unconscious. And I'm crying here for all these poor broken souls. Fuck you, Simurgh. Fuck you, Coil. You two almost worked together to destroy Travelers as persons, I fucking swear "hugs all Travelers, including Noelle".
I just discovered that this is the last Chapter of this Arc and I didn't had the occasion to meet Blasto in person. WTF, Wildbow? I can't believe you deceived me with such an interesting Tinker and you didn't satisfied my curiosity about him and his work. I mean...a Tinker who can create sapient plants. So much potential WASTED. Anyway, I'll hold onto the hope that Blasto will make his appearance in the future thanks to the POV of other characters or even better, his own POV. I also want to know what happened to Cody and what's up with Accord. How he'll react when he'll find out that Coil was killed in such a MESSY way? Will he discovers Skitter/Undersiders and plan his revenge on them? So many things I'm eager to know.
Finally, this Arc is done. I survived to it. So, did I got a fucking prize for reaching the finish line? If so, which one?

Good night and sleep well, my friends.

Welp, you guessed it on your own.
Smart girl.

rafuki22 · Oct 15, 2018

blackarrow said:
Maybe because you don't have OCD. I relate with him because we're both obsessed with order and perform some routines repeatedly, freaking/bothering the hell of people around us. I think I'll get along pretty well with Accord in terms of understanding our common pain but I'll hate his willingness to kill people so easy while he'll hate my very emotional nature in general. We'll be like...vitriolic partners. Sort of.

I doubt it, relationships are more complicated than that.

blackarrow · Oct 15, 2018

rafuki22 said:
Ehhhh, institute, lack of motivation, what always happens.
But hey, my theory?
Do you remember that noelle drank half a bottle and Oliver drank the other?
Surely, probably, noelle would not have had physical mutations if she had drunk the whole bottle.

Yep, I explained in the Part 2 of Chapter 8 my theory about why both of them can't control their powers. Because they drank only half of the vial and this mistake affected their control over their powers. Plus, if Noelle had drunk the whole vial, they wouldn't have the problems they have now. No working with Coil to fix Noelle, not becoming villains to fix Noelle, no Noelle getting crazy, no broken Travelers, the things would have been so much different.

AmbarGriss · Oct 15, 2018

Your prize is despair and war.

rafuki22 · Oct 15, 2018

blackarrow said:
Yep, I explained in the Part 2 of Chapter 8 my theory about why both of them can't control their powers. Because they drank only half of the vial and this mistake affected their control over their powers. Plus, if Noelle had drunk the whole vial, they wouldn't have the problems they have now. No working with Coil to fix Noelle, not becoming villains to fix Noelle, no Noelle getting crazy, no broken Travelers, the things would have been so much different.

I just wrote that, but yes.
... Although the simurgh would also have planned for that.
Sorry.

blackarrow · Oct 18, 2018

Hello, lost and found souls. The Nightmare Arc just finished, its completely and utterly dead...Long Live the new Nightmare Arc -Queen. Oh, I'm flattered "blushes madly". Thank you for naming an entire Arc after me, my humble footman Wildbow.

How did you know what I'm for real? Poor attempts of joking aside, Queen means Noelle. She's like a Queen, controlling her servants- clones- and making them kill the persons that she perceives as being her enemies. Now I wonder how much control she'll have over them since she barely have any control over her power, but maybe her hate and anger will make her a little better at keeping her clones under a certain control. Plus, she's smart. She was described by her teammates as a very good tactician, she was the captain of the game team, she's very good at chess and other mind games and I think that won't be hard for her to be with a step above most of her "enemies". She's like the crazy and twisted version of Taylor. Two Master strategists confronting in a game of life and death.

She must hate Taylor to guts for killing her only "hope" left. Poor crazy Noelle. Poor naive Noelle. Out of all characters that are probably going to fight against Noelle, there are two characters that I'm going to care a lot for their fates. Vista -if she'll be dragged into this nightmarish battle- and Noelle herself

(but, as I said before, I'll be very ok if she'll be put out of her misery). Alright, all aboard the feels train...NEXT STOP: Hell Station Queen 18.1

The empty vault loomed before us, dark and fetid.

"It's that bad?" I asked. "Do we need to contact the PRT and Protectorate? Get the heroes on board?"
"No," Dinah said, quiet. "Not immediately."
The others looked at her. I couldn't see her, but I had a pretty distinct mental picture. A pre-adolescent girl, thin, with straight brown hair. Cursory inspection with my swarm suggested her hair was tied into a braid, but many strands were coming loose. Unless a lot had changed since I'd last seen her, Dinah would be pale. My mental picture of her was of a girl that was almostghostly. It said something that she was still able to command our attention with a few quiet words.
"One point seven percent chance she does any serious damage before dawn. We have time."
"Thank you," I said.
"Useful to know," Tattletale said, "But this is bad enough that we may have to go running to the heroes, eat crow and ask for their assistance, get it sooner than later."
Regent had followed Grue, Dinah and I down the stairs. He peered into the darkness, then said, "I don't think we'll have much pull with the white hats. Among other things, we've conquered the city, gave their heroes a series of spankings, gave the world-reknowned tinker a very expensive spanking, kidnapped one of their Directors and if I just heard you right, you just offed the replacement director."
He stepped back, moved his mask and whistled. I had to step back to see Rachel on her way from the entrance, her dogs following behind.
I couldn't help but cough at the rancid smell from the vault, which made me cough more.
"Hospital," Grue said, for the umpteenth time.
"Soon," I said.
"The heroes don't know we offed Calvert," Tattletale said.
"Yet," Regent added.
"My question stands. Do we need to contact them?" I said.
"Maybe. I don't know," Tattletale shook her head a little.
"What do you know?" I asked. "Because as far as the rest of us are aware, there's a teenage girl that's capable of tearing through two vault doors like they're nothing, and she's free, and she's pissed at us. Quite possibly at me, depending on how much she heard."
"Coil sent the Travelers to me for help. She's had some physical changes," Tattletale said. She traced one of the creases in the crumpled vault door with her gloved fingers. "They wanted to get a better idea of what was going on, so they could maybe change her back."
"And when I asked about her before, you brushed me off."
"Don't like admitting I don't know something," she said. "And I don't know the full story. They were working on the assumption that she's turning into an Endbringer."

Guys, please, STOP using Dinah and send her home RIGHT IN THIS MOMENT. She's missing her parents, her parents are missing her, she's a child who need to be with her family as quickly as possible, after months of pure hell.

You have no right to make her use her power again, after everything she went through. I don't care if a Proto-Endbringer will eat and clone the whole City, you can find solutions to defeat her WITHOUT USING Dinah. You're fucking smart, especially Skitter and Tattletale, how hard will be for you to find her weaknesses and exploit them? She's not fucking Simurgh, she is still a human being with the vulnerabilities of a human being. Crawler was also apparently invincible but he was screwed by some Uber-bombs. Siberian is still apparently invincible but her Master is one of the most vulnerable parahumans. So, in other words, you don't need Dinah to stop Noelle. You only need your brains, your powers and all the courage you can muster.

Btw, I have an idea about why Leviathan wanted to go after Noelle during his Arc. Because he knew about her power and wanted for her to touch him so she could clone him. Leviathan wanted to be cloned in order to doom the entire world without many efforts. Imagine 2 or 3 Leviathans wrenching shit around the world. Not an ideal imagine. How Leviathan knew? Simurgh told him (I don't know how they communicate, but they must have their ways) about Noelle and encouraged him to go after her. Simurgh is the brains behind every single one of Endbringers' actions. She's their Queen. Do you want to defeat them? Take their Queen away. They're like blind mice without her. Almost powerless blind mice despite their powers.

Noelle can clone Endbringers. I wonder if she can clone Scion too. Now I don't think I'll be happy if Scion will make his rare appearance during Noelle Battle.

That gave us all a moment's pause. Rachel had just descended from the walkway in time to catch the last part. She grabbed Bastard's chain to keep him from venturing into the vault, but her attention was on Tattletale.

"Seriously?" Regent asked.
"No. Well, it's what they were thinking. It's not what I think."
"Elaborate," Grue said.
"When I saw Leviathan, I got the distinct impression that the Endbringers aren't human and never were. Noelle? She's human. So I've got two running theories. Theory one is that she is turning into an Endbringer, with her body serving as the host to a growth that's eventually going to shed off the Noellebits and go full-monster."
"And theory two?" Grue asked.
"Someone's doing their level best to make their own Endbringer."
"Who?" I asked.
Tattletale shrugged, "No clue. Could be any of the major players. To figure out which one, I'm going to need time with the database on capes we downloaded from the PRT. Even then, I'm not sure it covers the high-clearance stuff we need."
"Off the top of your head?" I asked.
"Who could it be? The Protectorate might have been aiming to make an Endbringer with the idea that it could fight the other Endbringers, only for things to go sour. There's the group that made people like Gregor the Snail and Newter," Tattletale looked at me, "You remember that paperwork we found when we infiltrated the Merchant's party."
"Cauldron."
"Yes. There's also any number of megalomaniac tinkers out there who might have tried something. Bonesaw, Rattenfänger, Jamestowner, Blasto, Mosaic, Monstrum, some non-tinkers like Chrysalis and Nilbog, bunch of others."
"Too many," Grue said.
"But their powers don't fit this scenario that well, so it would have to be some alliance between two of them, or one would need to get ahold of the tools and blueprints from one of the others and reverse engineer it, or one had a second trigger event and their powers expanded."
"A lot of 'ors'," Grue said.
"Too many possibilities," Tattletale said. "We could be on the complete wrong tack, where I'm overthinking it, or I'm overlooking the most obvious possiblity, that she's just unlucky."
"What if we ask the kid?" Regent asked. He turned his attention to Dinah.
"Only if she's up to it," I said.
"Head hurts, still fixing things, putting all the worlds in the right places," Dinah said. She was clutching my wrist as though I were a life preserver and she was going to drown if she let go, but she stared at the ground as she spoke. "But I'll help now. I fear I won't be useful for much longer."
I fear? Who talked like that?

Regent, you piece of shit. Don't ask Dinah anything anymore. Her head hurts, she's tired, she's in pain, she's emotionally and mentally crushed, all she needs right now is medical assistance, rest and her lovingly family's support. Who talked like that? Easy to know, Skitter. Coil. Dinah kind of copied him- no, she isn't an evil mastermind, far from this- but she talks in the way he talked. Kind of. This is a bit sad because she copied some of his speaking patterns and maybe even mannerisms without even realizing this.

After only a month of imprisonment. Thanks God she didn't spend a whole year in his company. She could have died or WORSE- become a second Coil "hugs Dinah in a very protective manner".
As much as I DISLIKE them and all their activities, I don't think that Cauldron wanted to create an Endbringer. They're not responsible for Noelle and the fact that they wanted to sell this power to a client was either because that client paid them a large amount of money and they couldn't resist the offer or they wanted to create a powerful hero or villain (something that they're usually doing). They have no interest to create another Endbringer if they really want to "save" the world. Can't save the world while creating another destroyed of the world, right?

Blasto is mentioned again. Awesome. When I'll get to see Blasto in person? Also, I miss Bonesaw, I want to see with what new horrible and monstrous ideas Jack's little bodyguard will come up, especially given the fact that Defiant and Dragon are hot on their trail. More new Tinkers mentioned, along with these two. Its easy to guess a Tinker's power if you pay attention to their codename. After all, the exactly definition of Tinkers are: superpowered mad scientists with one or more specialities. All you have to do it...guess their specialty(ies). Let's see: Rattenfänger (Rat-Catcher in german): experiments on rats/mice. Jamestowner (Jamestowner boats?): works with boats. Mosaic: this is the real Tinker- Artist, Bonesaw, watch out. We have a badass here.

Monstrum: basically the Tinker Nilbog, creating monsters using SUPER-SCIENCE, instead of pulling them out of his/her ass. Chrysalis: attack people with fucking butterflies. Oh, the HORROR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :lol

"Why not?" Regent asked.

"I'll get sick without the candy. Soon."
"Withdrawal," Grue said.
Dinah nodded.
"Fuck," I said. "We need to get her to a hospital so they can see her through it."
"I can see it," she said, and her voice was smaller. There wasn't any inflection when she spoke; the only indication that she had any emotion at all was the changing volume of her voice, more volume as she got more confident, less as she drew into herself. "I see myself getting sick, and it's so clear a picture, so many pictures it's almost as bad as being sick right here and right now."
"There's ways they can help you through it," I said. "I looked it up. The hospital can put you under, so you're not awake for the worst of it."
She squeezed my wrist a little tighter. "It's okay. I can see the chances and I know I'll be okay. So long as it's just once. Ask me questions."
Tattletale glanced at me.
"Go ahead," I told her.
"Chance she's turning into an Endbringer?" Tattletale asked.
"Those aren't the kind of odds I can give," Dinah said "It has to be something I can picture. Scenes."
"I thought so. And that'd mean I can't really use it to pin down who's behind Noelle's situation."
Dinah shook her head.
"Chance of trouble in the next twenty four hours?" I asked. "Violence, she attacks us, she attacks other people…"
"Ninety-nine point three four six three zero one percent," Dinah said.
"What happens in that not-even-one-percent chance?" Regent asked.
"I can't go looking. I have to ask, and figure it out from there, which hurts if I do it too much, or someone else asks, which makes it hurt less, because I can focus on the numbers and just the numbers."
"Okay," Tattletale said, "Chance she runs? "
"Twenty-three point three one one percent."
"That doesn't add up," Regent said. "Unless I'm way worse at math than I thought."
"She does some damage and then flees," Grue suggested. Tattletale nodded confirmation.
"Chance someone stops her?" Tattletale asked. "Defeats her, kills her?"
Dinah shook her head.
"You don't know?"
"I can't see it."
"Okay," Tattletale said. "That means we probably can't stop her with sheer firepower."
"Didn't see it."
"Okay. Thank you, by the way," Tattletale said. "Appreciate it."
"You're quite welcome," Dinah said, dropping her eyes to the ground.
Quite welcome. Dinah kept phrasing things in a funny manner. An old fashioned or proper way. It wasn't quite like how Coil spoke, but there were similarities. Was it a side effect of spending way too much time around Coil?
I didn't like the idea of that. That either Coil had molded her, or that she'd spent enough time in a pliable mental state that she'd adopted his speaking patterns.
"This situation is bad," Tattletale said. "We can't take her on, but we don't know enough about her to plan against her. I was going to reposition everyone so our territories covered the entire city, under the assumption that the Travelers were leaving. Now I'm suspicious they'll be staying, which complicates matters, and I don't want us spread too thin, either."
"We could get hold of Ballistic," Grue said. "Get his version of events."
"He went back to his territory. I'll make calls and see if we can bring him on board," Tattletale said. "I have two squads of soldiers that I'm keeping on retainer. They'll serve as my hands for right now, while I try and get myself sorted out here, establish this as my new headquarters. If you guys want to go to the hospital, maybe see about getting Skitter and Dinah looked after, I'll handle things on this end. We regroup at least an hour before dawn and we plan with whatever new information we have."
"No sleep tonight?" Regent asked.
"No sleep," Grue confirmed.
I turned to Tattletale, "We don't have access to all of Coil's resources, now. Or Calvert's, for that matter. Can you find us a doctor who we can trust?"
"Someone you can trust? No. But I can find someone not altogether untrustworthy."
We were just finishing sorting out who was going where when Tattletale called us with a name and an address.
The group heading to the hospital consisted of Me, Grue, Rachel and Dinah. I had the smoke inhalation and breathing problems, as well as the pain in my chest and my eyes to look after. Grue and Rachel had been shot. As for Dinah, we needed to make sure there weren't any severe problems before we sent her home. Regent headed back to his place with Imp for backup.
Dinah, Rachel and I settled in the back of one of Coil's trucks with Bastard and Bentley. Grue took the wheel.
I focused on canvassing the area with my swarm as Grue drove. Dinah had assured us that things were safe for the rest of night, but I couldn't ignore the existence of a dangerous pseudo-Endbringer with a very good reason to want to hurt me.
"You're quiet," Rachel said.
I turned my attention to her, then realized she was talking to Dinah.
"I considered saying something, but you would get upset," Dinah said. Again, the low volume.
"Huh," Rachel said. "Why?"
Dinah paused for long seconds. I wondered if she was trying to work something out with her power. "I was going to ask if I could pet your puppy, but it's… not my place. He's not mine."

Aww, Dinah wants to pet Rachel's dogs. She wasn't allowed to have a pet in her cell for such a long time, she missed everything that a child like her should enjoy: to have fun with her friends, to play with them, the affection and love of her family, to not have around her creepy adults who're only using her, to taste REAL candies, to pet an animal...I feel so sorry for Dinah, my heart is crying for her, she's such a sweet and innocent little girl who deserve everything that motherfucker Coil took away from her.

Please, Rachel, don't be a Bitch and allow this small angel to enjoy petting Bastard. I just hope that Dinah will not make the mistake to tell Rachel the percentage of the chances her dogs and wolf have to survive Noelle.

"He's not a dog. He's a wolf. He doesn't react like a dog will. And I'm trying to train him before he's old enough that he won't listen, and I don't need people mucking that up."

"Okay," Dinah said. There was no fight there, no resistance, total compliance.
Rachel put one boot against the edge of the bench across from her, a foot to the right of Dinah. As far as I knew, Rachel didn't take her eyes off the girl.
"Rachel," I said. "Just curious, but you're hoping to eventually adopt your dogs out, right?"
"To good owners. So?"
"Just saying, but as much as the owners need to adapt to the dog and understand the dog, the opposite is true."
I couldn't read Rachel's expression.
"The dog has to adapt to the owner?" She asked.
"Right. And that means the dogs need a chance to get used to people. Dogs and humans have a partnership, right? So they need to meet halfway in that understanding. Mutual understanding."
"Okay."
Enough time passed that I wasn't sure if she'd picked up on my meaning.
"You want to pet Bentley?" Rachel offered.
"Very much," Dinah replied.
"Bentley, go. Up."
Bentley hopped up between Dinah and I on the bench.
"Relax."
The bulldog turned around once, then flopped down on the bench so his head was pressed against my hip.
"Give him a sniff of your hand before you touch him," Rachel said. "Bentley's a good boy, but it's a good habit to get into with dogs. You don't want to surprise him and get bitten."
I kept still while Dinah took Rachel's suggestion and extended a hand. Without standing, he twisted himself around until his oversized head was in Dinah's lap.
Months since she's seen a dog, let alone touched one. How would that affect her in the long run? I hoped she wouldn't be in therapy for the rest of her life. I turned my attention to scanning the area, while Bentley reveled in the attention and affection.
It was another five minutes before Grue stopped the van and we had a chance to get out.
"Chance of trouble?" I asked.
"Fifteen point three three percent," Dinah answered.
"Can you tell me who causes the trouble?"
"I only know we'll be in there, so I have to look at each of us, one by one, and then I see the number."
"Okay."
"When there's trouble," she said, "It's you. Eighty percent of the time."
"Me?" I asked.
She nodded.
"Okay," I said. "I'll try to be good."
With 'Doctor Q', the man Coil had always referred us to, it had been one man operating solo. He'd known his stuff. But he'd been Coil's man, and we couldn't trust him until things had time to settle down.
This doctor's office had a staff, and they didn't even react as we entered.
"What do you need?" a woman asked. She had a musical voice that was almost irritatingly sweet. Condescending, like a kindergarten teacher or a character in a show for very young kids. Not to the point that I saw myself causing any trouble, but… yeah.
"Three of us took gunshots, but they didn't penetrate. Costumes stopped the hits, but I want to be sure there isn't lasting damage," Grue said. "The little girl needs a full checkup and maybe a brief stay, while she suffers withdrawal from some unspecified drugs or drug cocktails. And we've got one case of smoke inhalation coupled with severe chest pain."
"Understood. Your bill has been paid in advance. My mother and I will be looking after you," the young woman chirped. "Please come this way."
We followed. The place was like any old doctor's office, but I noted statues and innumerable picture frames, and the floor was tiled. Going by my swarm sense alone, I got the impression the place was upscale. And it was empty.
"You don't seem bothered to have supervillains coming through."
"We've dealt with supervillains before," she said, and the way she said it suggested she didn't plan on elaborating. "You'll need to remove your costumes and masks. You can each have a separate room to disrobe, and we'll be seeing each of you in turn. Rest assured, your privacy and safety is our top concern."
I could feel Dinah's deathgrip on my arm.
I bent down and murmured, "Do you want a separate room?" She shook her head.
I straightened and told the woman, "We'll share a room."
"Neither of you are bashful?"
"I'm blind," I said, "And no, I guess I'm not bashful."
"Blind?" Grue said, his head snapping around as he looked at me. Rachel did as well.
"Tattletale didn't mention it?"
"No. And you didn't either."
"I'm functioning. I probably won't when I can't use my power, but yeah."
"Is everything all right?" the young woman asked.
"It's fine," Grue said, heading into one of the rooms. He stopped in the doorway, turned to me, "We'll talk after."
I bobbed my head in a nod, then led Dinah into an empty room. As far as I could tell, everything was as one might expect for a doctor's office, down to the jar of tongue depressors and a bowl of lollipops.
"How's your head?" I asked. "Headaches?"
"Getting worse. But I'll get sick tonight, before the headache gets too bad, then it won't really matter."
"Oh."
"Do you have more questions?"
"Some, but I don't want to burden you, or make you feel like I'm using you."
"Go ahead."
"The end of the world. Did Coil ask about it? Did he get more details on what happens?"
"He would ask how the number changed, some mornings when he asked the usual questions, before Crawler came and I couldn't use my power for a while. He wanted to figure out what happened, but the only way to do that was to make guesses and see the numbers with my power. Every day, he'd always asked the same sorts of questions about whether one thing was safe or whether another was safe and chance of success for this plan or that. There weren't many questions left for the day after he was done asking all those, so it was slow."
I worked to take off my armor, unstrapping the armor to uncover the zipper. It wasn't easy, with the pain in my chest, and when it hit me, I'd have to suppress coughs to continue listening to Dinah. "I guess he figured he'd be around long enough to figure it out."
Dinah didn't respond.
"What's the chance the world ends, Dinah? That these billions die because of something Jack Slash does? Has the number changed?"
"It's changed. Ninety-seven point seven nine zero seven three percent."
Ninety-seven point eight. It's higher.
"What did you and Coil figure out? In terms of twenty questions?"
"People are spread out. I know you're there. You're different but you're there."
"And the others?"
"Sometimes there."
"Can you give me more details? How am I different? Which of the others are there?"
"I don't know. There's too many capes and too many capes with powers that make it fuzzy, because some powers make it harder and a bunch of those powers together make it impossible. I don't know what happens to start all of it and I don't know much of what happens during, but billions are dead afterward."
Damn. "Okay. You said we're spread out?"
"Yes. Five big groups, lots and lots of capes from all around the world, and armies. Coil asked a lot about that. He wanted to know about his chances for survival or the total number of casualties if he focused on one area over another."
"He wasn't interested in stopping it?"
"He asked about that at first. But nothing changed the numbers enough. He said it was better to accept that it's going to happen and do what he could to minimize the damage."
"Five major groups," I said. "You don't know why?"
She shook her head.
"Do you know if it's like, a natural disaster sort of mass-death, or death by violence, or…"
I trailed off. Dinah was already shaking her head.
"Alright," I said. I finished pulling my costume off, grunting at the pain in my chest, then sat on the bed in my bike shorts and tank top. Dinah sat beside me.
She looked up at me, and there was a hint of surprise in her voice. "You're burned."
"Yeah. Just a bit. Is it bad?"
"Not bad. But it looks painful."
"My chest hurts more," I said. Then, as if I were reminded of it, I coughed, hoarse.
We sat. I could sense the Doctor talking to Rachel, and 'heard' Rachel's raised voice with the bugs I'd placed on her. I didn't envy the doctor for having to deal with her as a patient.
"Theoretically speaking," I said, "Just in the interest of problem solving, or figuring out what's going to work or not, would the chance of this happening change if I just drove around America and killed everyone in my power's reach?"
"Not really," Dinah said.

Dinah wants to be helpful even when she feels sick and in pain. Her bravery and kindness are so very admirable, but she needs to slow down and remember that her own health matters more than all the plans for the world to be saved in two years. There's still a lot of time left of planning. Priorities matters. And the first priority is bringing Dinah back to her family. The second one is for Taylor to regain her sight and strength before Noelle's rampage. Glad that Rachel was such a sweetheart to let Dinah pet Bentley, I'm smiling while I wipe my tears away, this is such a moving moment.

I like the doctor specialized in working with villains, she seems cheerful and friendly, you know, despite her specialty. Don't be surprised that Grue is worried for you, Taylor. He's your boyfriend, its his job to be worried and feel protective towards his girlfriend. Be thankful that he isn't Krouse. If Krouse was in Grue's place, the doctor and her mother would have been in danger to have their eyes pulled out if they wouldn't cure Taylor's blindness in the next hour. And through a really shitty butterfly effect, Taylor would have lost the other senses too while still being blind. This is the beauty and despair of having Krouse as your boyfriend.

"Damn," I replied. If she'd said yes, I could have narrowed it down to maybe the eastern United States or the west, then cut it in half again with north versus south, or narrowed it down to certain states. Home in on the person or people that the problem centered around, dealt with them one way or another

Except that wouldn't work.
"Would you?"
"What?"
"Kill all those people, if you had to?"
"No," I assured her. "I'm not that kind of villain."
"You killed Coil, didn't you? I saw. Thirty-two percent chance it was you who did it. Five percent chance you couldn't and asked someone else to. Sixty percent chance you were dead."
"I killed him," I admitted. "But that was a special case."
"Okay," she said.
What I wouldn't have given to be able to read her expression.
"Does that bother you?" I asked.
She shook her head, but she said, "It did at first, when I first saw that possibility. But I had a lot of time to wait, and eventually the idea of being rescued mattered more than his life did."

I always knew that Coil was the biggest coward in the history of Worm. Even Atlas is more MAN than he ever was.

When Coil found out that the end of world can't be stopped he gave up at any attempts to find a way to reduce the numbers. Instead of sending his people to look after Jack and kill him anywhere they could find him, or alert his Cauldron buddies and ask them to locate Jack and terminate his life as quickly as possible, telling them eveything he knew about the man who'll destroy the world, he preferred instead to become to Mob King of Brockton Bay and throw the heroes out of the City, establishing his own rules and power. This is what I call...a fucking coward man. Cauldron hoped that Coil will save the world, Coil didn't gave a fuck as he couldn't even save his sorry ass.

Maybe this is the reason why they abandoned him to die like a WORM in the dust, they understood how useless and egocentric he really was. Even those fuckers are capable of having more morals than Coil. I'm glad that Dinah doesn't feel bothered by his death. She understood that her life mattered more than his life and she couldn't ever be free without him having to die. Despite her age, she's wiser than a lot of grown up people. Her way of thinking reminds me of Vista. But unlike Vista, the fatalistic and pessimistic type, Dinah have a more optimistic way of seeing the world around her.

"That's… pretty grim," I said. I didn't get a chance to say more. The female doctor was leaving Rachel's room, and Rachel was storming out.

Both Dinah and I turned toward the door before the doctor had even touched the handle.
The woman entered and hesitated a fraction when she saw us staring. Her voice was just as cheery as her daughter's. "Hello! I'm Dr. Brimher."
"Hello," I said. "Have trouble with my teammate?"
"She was uncooperative. I suppose we'll have to refund the amount that was already paid for her care. I hope that's alright. Everything indicated she was fine, healthwise."
"So long as she was fine."
She perked up a little at that, "Well then! Who's first?"
"Her," Dinah said, before I had a chance to speak.
The overall checkup went much as I'd expected. I was diagnosed with a fractured rib, the smoke inhalation was apparently something that should have been treated earlier, but I wasn't showing any lingering signs of mental or personality changes, and I wasn't dizzy, so she let me off with instructions to breathe deep. I got a cream for my burn and three bottles of eye drops for my eyes.
"Once every two hours," she said. "And as for you, little miss, you seem undernourished."
"I haven't had much of an appetite for a while."
"Infection?"
"Involuntary incarceration," I said.
"Ah. Well," the woman's voice jumped up a notch on the cheeriness scale, "None of my business."
"It wasn't me," I said. "We weren't keeping her prisoner."
"Of course. I wouldn't act any differently if you had been."
"Really?" I asked.
Dinah grabbed my hand. I forced myself to shut up.
"Well. What drugs were you taking, sweetie?"
"I don't know."
"Can you describe what you felt when you took them?"
"Felt good. Calm. Relaxed. Very sleepy, thinking through a thick soup."
The woman was scribbling with a pen. She shook it to banish the fly that I'd landed on the end.
"And now? You're a little flushed."
Was Dinah showing symptoms that I couldn't see?
"I'm hot, and my legs ache. I'm sweating, but that might be because I'm hot. That's all for now. Later, I'll be throwing up, and crying. I'll be very tired but I won't be able to sleep."
"You've been through this before?"
"No. Not much past this. This will be the first time. Hopefully the last."
"I… see. The time of your last dose?"
"I don't know. I couldn't see a clock. But things start getting bad in one and a half hours," Dinah said. "They get to the very worst in one day."
"Can you put her in a coma?" I asked. "I read about it."
"No. I wouldn't feel confident in doing that without knowing the substances in her system."
"Then do a blood screen first," I said. "If it's a question of money-"
"No," Dinah was the one who spoke. "Has to be the hard way."
"Why?" I asked.
"Because there's a seventy point one five nine percent chance that I relapse if I don't. The cravings get too bad and I can see more cravings in the future and it gets to be too much and I go looking for some eventually," there was a hint of hysteria in her voice.
I sighed. "Okay. No induced coma."
"One bad week," Dinah said. "Six days."
"Okay then," the doctor said. Still chipper, strangely sounding pleased at this situation. "I'll go prepare a room so you have a place to rest. I'll grab some things to help quiet your tummy, too."
A moment later, she was gone.
"I can stay with you," I said. "At least tonight."
"You need to go and help the others with Noelle."
"I will. But first I'll see you through tonight, okay?"
She nodded.
We sat in silence for a few long moments. The doctor stopped in to say something to Grue, and there was something about her voice, the higher pitch…
"Hey, Dinah, since I can't see, can you do me a favor and tell me if you see anything around here that says 'Medhall'?"
"Medhall? No. I don't think so. Why?"
"These guys are too comfortable around supervillains, and this place is too expensive. Medhall was the company that Kaiser ran, and he also ran the biggest gang of villains in town, before Leviathan came. I'm just wondering if this was the place the white supremacists went to when they needed medical care."
"Oh. I don't know."
"If it is, I'll have to have words with Tattletale. And I guess I can see why you saw me possibly causing trouble. If they said something to Grue, that'd probably do it."
Dinah nodded.
I sighed. "A week to recuperate?"
"Six days. Eight percent chance I need another day to rest," her voice seemed a touch tight, maybe a little anxious. I wasn't sure I could blame her.
"I'm not leaving you in their care, okay? We'll spend enough time here for me to get the details on what to do and what to look out for, and then we'll find another place to rest up."
"Okay," she said, and her voice was far quieter than it had been since we'd rescued her.
It caught me off guard. The quiet. I'd pegged the changes in volume as being tied to her confidence, but the way she'd dropped her voice, it suggested she was anxious about something. Something she apparently wasn't sharing with me.
"Mind if I run a few more questions by you?"
"I should save my strength, so only a couple more?" She was still quiet as she replied.
I wasn't sure if Dinah was aware, but the bugs I'd placed on her shoulders sensed the movement, the way she drew her shoulders in.
She was afraid? Was it the impending withdrawal?
"Okay," I said. "Chance we come out of this okay?"
"Sixty four point two percent chance."
"And chance the rest of the city does?"
"…Not as high. It depends how I ask the question, but if I do-"
"No. I get it. If you could ballpark it?"
"Eighteen point two two five eight percent."
"Okay. There's going to be some catastrophic damage, then?"
"It's very likely."
I sighed. I still had to figure out what we were doing about Noelle. There were roughly eight hours before we had to address that issue. Five or six hours before we really needed to act on the knowledge, calling in help, hiring assistance or notifying the heroes. This was a threat just one step below an Endbringer. Hopefully Ballistic would brief us on her powers, and Tattletale could get us on target as far as her location or weak points.
Tattletale might have been the ruler of Brockton Bay in a general sense, but I was still team leader of the Undersiders. I was blind, we had a pseudo- Endbringer to tackle, and the lives of everyone in the city potentially hinged on it.
Just had to consider my options.
"Fifty eight point five," Dinah said, and there was a hint of emotion in her voice.
"What? What's that number?"
"It's my chance of getting home."
"Why is it so low?"
She shrugged.
Did that mean she didn't know, or she wasn't willing to use her power to find out?
Then I sensed her lean slightly away from me, and I got an inkling why.
Me.

YOU? The percentage of Dinah's chance to go home dropped because of...YOU, Taylor? Why? Let me guess...because you're thinking that you should keep Dinah for yourself, to use her against Noelle. Well, FUCK YOU if you think like this, Taylor, just fuck you. :anger:

You have no right to keep Dinah, even if you're in a life-and-death situation. I don't care how you'll handle Noelle, its your business, its your own personal fight, but you have no fucking right to abuse this child further, continuing Coils "work". No matter how desperate you're, take Dinah back to her family in the next moment you're out of the hospital and forget about her and her power. She's not an animal to be exploited by people without heart, she's a human being, a CHILD, who deserve to be treated with the same respect you, Taylor, want to be treated by others. Or you don't want, because your hate yourself and you don't believe that you deserve any respect, but Dinah deserves respect and a normal life, far away from the wars of crazy and evil people. Be a human being, Taylor, not a monster. Please.

It was so seductive, when I thought about possible risk to my dad, to the people in my territory, to my teammates and friends, and even to me, to think about drawing on Dinah's assistance. With Dinah's help, we could avoid the worst case scenarios. And maybe in some not-quite conscious way, I was thinking about how to retain her help, one way or another.

If she was sick, after all, I could look after her while dealing with the situation. Just a week of keeping Dinah close, drawing on her abilities to help everyone, and to ensure her safety. With that in mind, and the way she'd clutched at me for security, I'd been assuming she'd stay with me for just a little while.
She knew that. She saw the numbers changing.
And just with that, there was a breach in trust. The savior wasn't quite what she'd expected? Dangerous, even? It explained why she was anxious.
"Dinah, listen," I said. "I can guess what you're thinking. I don't want to be that person. I don't want to trick myself into believing it's right or better to keep you, that it serves the greater good or whatever. Because that's a slippery, fast road to doing what Coil was doing."
She turned her head to look at me.
"We'll get you home as soon as possible, okay? Within twenty-four hours. And if there's more risk, if there's more danger to me, or to you, or everyone? I'll shoulder that, okay? I'll make sure we come out of this okay. You can go home. You deserve to go home."
A full minute passed before she responded with a murmured, "Thank you."

"exhales deeply" THANK YOU, Taylor, thank you for being a HUMAN BEING and not a monster like Coil and everyone else who'd have used Dinah without any care for her being. You're still a good person, even if you're capable of doing some really awful things, you remained a good and honorable person deep inside.

Fuck the general idea of the greater good. The greater good right now is to see Dinah smiling after weeks of captivity while her parents are hugging her, everyone being happy and content that they're able to see each other again. This is the greater good.

I'm proud of you, Taylor, for acting the way I'd have acted without any second throught while in your shoes.
What a PERFECT ending of the first Chapter.

Good night and sleep well, my friends.

blackarrow · Oct 18, 2018

AmbarGriss said:
Your prize is despair and war.

Better than nothing at all. I'm a simple girl, I'm ok with everything.

blackarrow · Oct 18, 2018

KnownParadox said:
Hey @blackarrow, if any hypothetical evil clones were to show up in the future, check the tag list, they'll have they're own cape names, and I want you to discuss them, they're pretty cool.

They have their own codenames? OMG, this is amazing...but also sad. Because they're self-aware and they know what they're doing but they act the way they're "programmed" to act and its pretty tragic. Isn't enough that I feel bad for Noelle, I'll feel bad for the clones too.

Random Lurker · Oct 18, 2018

@blackarrow You know, one of the best things about following this thread is seeing your predictions and analyses of characters, then thinking "Man, is she going to be surprised with how right/wrong she was when she gets to the relevant chapter later."

Vayhle · Oct 19, 2018

Odds that I get to pet the puppy if I ask? 2.998712%. odds that I get to pet the puppy if I sit quietly and look at it? 44.91226%. (Rachael sees her being quiet, odds honed further step by step til she gets to pet the puppy)

rafuki22 · Oct 19, 2018

blackarrow said:
Hello, lost and found souls. The Nightmare Arc just finished, its completely and utterly dead...Long Live the new Nightmare Arc -Queen. Oh, I'm flattered "blushes madly". Thank you for naming an entire Arc after me, my humble footman Wildbow. How did you know what I'm for real? Poor attempts of joking aside, Queen means Noelle. She's like a Queen, controlling her servants- clones- and making them kill the persons that she perceives as being her enemies. Now I wonder how much control she'll have over them since she barely have any control over her power, but maybe her hate and anger will make her a little better at keeping her clones under a certain control. Plus, she's smart. She was described by her teammates as a very good tactician, she was the captain of the game team, she's very good at chess and other mind games and I think that won't be hard for her to be with a step above most of her "enemies". She's like the crazy and twisted version of Taylor. Two Master strategists confronting in a game of life and death. She must hate Taylor to guts for killing her only "hope" left. Poor crazy Noelle. Poor naive Noelle. Out of all characters that are probably going to fight against Noelle, there are two characters that I'm going to care a lot for their fates. Vista -if she'll be dragged into this nightmarish battle- and Noelle herself (but, as I said before, I'll be very ok if she'll be put out of her misery). Alright, all aboard the feels train...NEXT STOP: Hell Station Queen 18.1

Guys, please, STOP using Dinah and send her home RIGHT IN THIS MOMENT. She's missing her parents, her parents are missing her, she's a child who need to be with her family as quickly as possible, after months of pure hell. You have no right to make her use her power again, after everything she went through. I don't care if a Proto-Endbringer will eat and clone the whole City, you can find solutions to defeat her WITHOUT USING Dinah. You're fucking smart, especially Skitter and Tattletale, how hard will be for you to find her weaknesses and exploit them? She's not fucking Simurgh, she is still a human being with the vulnerabilities of a human being. Crawler was also apparently invincible but he was screwed by some Uber-bombs. Siberian is still apparently invincible but her Master is one of the most vulnerable parahumans. So, in other words, you don't need Dinah to stop Noelle. You only need your brains, your powers and all the courage you can muster. Btw, I have an idea about why Leviathan wanted to go after Noelle during his Arc. Because he knew about her power and wanted for her to touch him so she could clone him. Leviathan wanted to be cloned in order to doom the entire world without many efforts. Imagine 2 or 3 Leviathans wrenching shit around the world. Not an ideal imagine. How Leviathan knew? Simurgh told him (I don't know how they communicate, but they must have their ways) about Noelle and encouraged him to go after her. Simurgh is the brains behind every single one of Endbringers' actions. She's their Queen. Do you want to defeat them? Take their Queen away. They're like blind mice without her. Almost powerless blind mice despite their powers. Noelle can clone Endbringers. I wonder if she can clone Scion too. Now I don't think I'll be happy if Scion will make his rare appearance during Noelle Battle.

Regent, you piece of shit. Don't ask Dinah anything anymore. Her head hurts, she's tired, she's in pain, she's emotionally and mentally crushed, all she needs right now is medical assistance, rest and her lovingly family's support. Who talked like that? Easy to know, Skitter. Coil. Dinah kind of copied him- no, she isn't an evil mastermind, far from this- but she talks in the way he talked. Kind of. This is a bit sad because she copied some of his speaking patterns and maybe even mannerisms without even realizing this. After only a month of imprisonment. Thanks God she didn't spend a whole year in his company. She could have died or WORSE- become a second Coil "hugs Dinah in a very protective manner".
As much as I DISLIKE them and all their activities, I don't think that Cauldron wanted to create an Endbringer. They're not responsible for Noelle and the fact that they wanted to sell this power to a client was either because that client paid them a large amount of money and they couldn't resist the offer or they wanted to create a powerful hero or villain (something that they're usually doing). They have no interest to create another Endbringer if they really want to "save" the world. Can't save the world while creating another destroyed of the world, right?
Blasto is mentioned again. Awesome. When I'll get to see Blasto in person? Also, I miss Bonesaw, I want to see with what new horrible and monstrous ideas Jack's little bodyguard will come up, especially given the fact that Defiant and Dragon are hot on their trail. More new Tinkers mentioned, along with these two. Its easy to guess a Tinker's power if you pay attention to their codename. After all, the exactly definition of Tinkers are: superpowered mad scientists with one or more specialities. All you have to do it...guess their specialty(ies). Let's see: Rattenfänger (Rat-Catcher in german): experiments on rats/mice. Jamestowner (Jamestowner boats?): works with boats. Mosaic: this is the real Tinker- Artist, Bonesaw, watch out. We have a badass here. Monstrum: basically the Tinker Nilbog, creating monsters using SUPER-SCIENCE, instead of pulling them out of his/her ass. Chrysalis: attack people with fucking butterflies. Oh, the HORROR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :lol

Aww, Dinah wants to pet Rachel's dogs. She wasn't allowed to have a pet in her cell for such a long time, she missed everything that a child like her should enjoy: to have fun with her friends, to play with them, the affection and love of her family, to not have around her creepy adults who're only using her, to taste REAL candies, to pet an animal...I feel so sorry for Dinah, my heart is crying for her, she's such a sweet and innocent little girl who deserve everything that motherfucker Coil took away from her. Please, Rachel, don't be a Bitch and allow this small angel to enjoy petting Bastard. I just hope that Dinah will not make the mistake to tell Rachel the percentage of the chances her dogs and wolf have to survive Noelle.

Dinah wants to be helpful even when she feels sick and in pain. Her bravery and kindness are so very admirable, but she needs to slow down and remember that her own health matters more than all the plans for the world to be saved in two years. There's still a lot of time left of planning. Priorities matters. And the first priority is bringing Dinah back to her family. The second one is for Taylor to regain her sight and strength before Noelle's rampage. Glad that Rachel was such a sweetheart to let Dinah pet Bentley, I'm smiling while I wipe my tears away, this is such a moving moment. I like the doctor specialized in working with villains, she seems cheerful and friendly, you know, despite her specialty. Don't be surprised that Grue is worried for you, Taylor. He's your boyfriend, its his job to be worried and feel protective towards his girlfriend. Be thankful that he isn't Krouse. If Krouse was in Grue's place, the doctor and her mother would have been in danger to have their eyes pulled out if they wouldn't cure Taylor's blindness in the next hour. And through a really shitty butterfly effect, Taylor would have lost the other senses too while still being blind. This is the beauty and despair of having Krouse as your boyfriend.

I always knew that Coil was the biggest coward in the history of Worm. Even Atlas is more MAN than he ever was. When Coil found out that the end of world can't be stopped he gave up at any attempts to find a way to reduce the numbers. Instead of sending his people to look after Jack and kill him anywhere they could find him, or alert his Cauldron buddies and ask them to locate Jack and terminate his life as quickly as possible, telling them eveything he knew about the man who'll destroy the world, he preferred instead to become to Mob King of Brockton Bay and throw the heroes out of the City, establishing his own rules and power. This is what I call...a fucking coward man. Cauldron hoped that Coil will save the world, Coil didn't gave a fuck as he couldn't even save his sorry ass. Maybe this is the reason why they abandoned him to die like a WORM in the dust, they understood how useless and egocentric he really was. Even those fuckers are capable of having more morals than Coil. I'm glad that Dinah doesn't feel bothered by his death. She understood that her life mattered more than his life and she couldn't ever be free without him having to die. Despite her age, she's wiser than a lot of grown up people. Her way of thinking reminds me of Vista. But unlike Vista, the fatalistic and pessimistic type, Dinah have a more optimistic way of seeing the world around her.

YOU? The percentage of Dinah's chance to go home dropped because of...YOU, Taylor? Why? Let me guess...because you're thinking that you should keep Dinah for yourself, to use her against Noelle. Well, FUCK YOU if you think like this, Taylor, just fuck you. You have no right to keep Dinah, even if you're in a life-and-death situation. I don't care how you'll handle Noelle, its your business, its your own personal fight, but you have no fucking right to abuse this child further, continuing Coils "work". No matter how desperate you're, take Dinah back to her family in the next moment you're out of the hospital and forget about her and her power. She's not an animal to be exploited by people without heart, she's a human being, a CHILD, who deserve to be treated with the same respect you, Taylor, want to be treated by others. Or you don't want, because your hate yourself and you don't believe that you deserve any respect, but Dinah deserves respect and a normal life, far away from the wars of crazy and evil people. Be a human being, Taylor, not a monster. Please.

"exhales deeply" THANK YOU, Taylor, thank you for being a HUMAN BEING and not a monster like Coil and everyone else who'd have used Dinah without any care for her being. You're still a good person, even if you're capable of doing some really awful things, you remained a good and honorable person deep inside. Fuck the general idea of the greater good. The greater good right now is to see Dinah smiling after weeks of captivity while her parents are hugging her, everyone being happy and content that they're able to see each other again. This is the greater good. I'm proud of you, Taylor, for acting the way I'd have acted without any second throught while in your shoes.
What a PERFECT ending of the first Chapter.

Good night and sleep well, my friends.

Seriously,to think that Taylor is as evil as coil,how can you trust someone if you can not see things in a logical way?Changing opinions as fast as you change clothes?
"Sigh"Seriously,instead of centr-you know what?No matter,focus on Dinah all you want,the day I win the bet will be one of the best days of my life...maybe.
But think that among those billions there are thousands of families, children, grandparents, dogs, etc ...
But you do not care about them,you do not read about them,therefore,it does not matter.
But you read about dinah and empathize with her and what she has suffered,despite the fact that many worse things have happened to many people in our world and the world of Worm.
Out of sight,out of mind.
Eyes that do not see,heart that does not feel,in fact.
I can not blame you for thinking like that,but this is my opinion.
A death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic.

blackarrow · Oct 19, 2018

rafuki22 said:
Seriously,to think that Taylor is as evil as coil,how can you trust someone if you can not see things in a logical way?Changing opinions as fast as you change clothes?
"Sigh"Seriously,instead of centr-you know what?No matter,focus on Dinah all you want,the day I win the bet will be one of the best days of my life...maybe.
But think that among those billions there are thousands of families, children, grandparents, dogs, etc ...
But you do not care about them,you do not read about them,therefore,it does not matter.
But you read about dinah and empathize with her and what she has suffered,despite the fact that many worse things have happened to many people in our world and the world of Worm.
Out of sight,out of mind.
Eyes that do not see,heart that does not feel,in fact.
I can not blame you for thinking like that,but this is my opinion.
A death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic.

First, I CARE for Dinah a lot. She's a sweet little girl who didn't deserved not even half of suffering that she went through. I'm very protective towards people I care for (even fictional ones) and I'll HATE if someone else will try to hurt Dinah again. I don't think Taylor is as evil as Coil, because she refused to use Dinah against Noelle. But if she would have accepted, yes, there wouldn't be too many differences between her and Coil: anyone who's using a child (especially a child in such a poor health condition) for whatever reason have no excuse in my eyes. They're are really despicable people. I wouldn't do such thing not even to save my country. As I said before, I'm personally against sacrificing a single life (innocent) to save thousands. Every innocent life matters and one can find other ways to save everyone else (or as many people as possible), its not like the only solution left is a sacrifice. Well, I'm ok if Noelle will die because- while she's innocent, she's also very dangerous to everyone else and can't be apparently stopped through other means (well, if they can stop her without having to kill her, then its even more better

). But I'm not ok if Dinah will be sacrificed in order to stop Noelle, which is a path that- thankfully- Taylor refused to follow. No, I don't change my opinions so fast, I'm holding onto the same morals I had all my life. Apparently nothing can change them. Like or not, is my way to see the world.

blackarrow · Oct 19, 2018

Vayhle said:
Odds that I get to pet the puppy if I ask? 2.998712%. odds that I get to pet the puppy if I sit quietly and look at it? 44.91226%. (Rachael sees her being quiet, odds honed further step by step til she gets to pet the puppy)

All in all, Rachel was a sweetheart during the petting scene. One of her rarest moments of sweetness in this story. Now imagine her being older and having a child of her own. Not a puppy, but a real child. Can you imagine Rachel as a good mother?

I think I need to read a fanfiction featuring Rachel and an adopted infant. Gold.

blackarrow · Oct 19, 2018

Random Lurker said:
@blackarrow You know, one of the best things about following this thread is seeing your predictions and analyses of characters, then thinking "Man, is she going to be surprised with how right/wrong she was when she gets to the relevant chapter later."

I'm the Harbinger of Doom (omg, what a cool and badass codename!!!), everytime when I predict bad things, they're going to happen. But when I'm thinking at good things, they almost never happen. For example, I predict that everyone will be screwed during Noelle's rampage. This will happen. Another prediction: Dinah will go to her parents and be 100% safe. The result: her parents might die and she'll be injured/kidnapped again. Yep, I'm the evil version of Dinah.

Random Lurker · Oct 19, 2018

blackarrow said:
I'm the Harbinger of Doom (omg, what a cool and badass codename!!!), everytime when I predict bad things, they're going to happen. But when I'm thinking at good things, they almost never happen. For example, I predict that everyone will be screwed during Noelle's rampage. This will happen. Another prediction: Dinah will go to her parents and be 100% safe. The result: her parents might die and she'll be injured/kidnapped again. Yep, I'm the evil version of Dinah.

See? Even this post has me holding my tongue about something. I sometimes wonder how much you agonize over what you say because of this.

blackarrow · Oct 22, 2018

Hello, my lovely creatures. Time to see if Taylor will keep her promise about bringing Dinah back to her family and how happy Dinah and her family will be when they'll see each other after such a long time without any contact between them.

I'm convinced that this Chapter will be another very emotional Chapter, unless something unexpected will happen and Dinah will not have the occasion to see her parents. Or worse, she'll go home and see them...badly injured or dead.

Better stop using my Harbinger of Doom's superpowers and try to think at something else than dark predictions with eighty eight point nine percent chance to happen in the near future. Let's see which parahuman can stop Noelle or at least injure her bad enough to slow her down. Undersiders have clearly no chance against her. All Tattletale can do is to discover as many weaknesses as possible about Noelle and inform everyone else, Bitch's actions will only get her dogs cloned, Regent's power is useless but he controls R Shatterbird and her glass might do some damage to Noelle but she'll regenerate so its not that great, Grue might be able to borrow some of Noelle power and use it against her, but with not a very lasting effect, Skitter will have her bugs clones and turned against her (but she's a great strategist so I'm sure that she'll come up with some fantastic combat ideas

). Did I forgot someone? Nope, lets move on...From Travelers, only Genesis and Sundancer can damage Noelle, because Genesis' projections can't be cloned (since they aren't biological and from what I understand, she can only clone biological organisms) and Sundancer's sun might be powerful enough to even kill Noelle BUT....they won't do anything because she's their friend and they aren't so eager to hurt their friend, even if she went batshit insane. Trickster WILL HELP Noelle against everyone else, risking to get killed in this fight (but in his eyes, his life doesn't matter; all that matters is Noelle's life). He can help her by simply teleportating everyone near Noelle so she can clone them without trying to catch them herself. From heroes: Clockblocker (he can contain her for a while by freezing her), Miss Militia (fires her guns to Noelle, without having to get close to her), Kid Win (attacks her with his superweapons, from distance), Weld (since he doesn't have anything organic in him, not even his brain, there's no risk for him to be cloned). Dragon and Defiant would have given Noelle a run for her money too, but they're too busy now trying to kill some assholes WORSE than Noelle.

Triumvirate will be very capable to fight Noelle and kill her, but I'm afraid that if she'll touch just one of them, she'll have a very powerful clone (or clones) by her side. Imagine her touching Eidolon...I don't want to imagine this shit so its better if Triumvirate will not get involved this time. Let's start this clusterfuck of an adventure and hope for the best

Queen 18.2

"They won't take me back."

"They will."
"I saw it," Dinah whispered. "Before I ever met Coil. The fear in their eyes. When I said the numbers and I was right. They're scared of me. They were relieved when I got taken. They won't want me now that I'm free."
"They will want you. Just wait," I said. "They'll welcome you with open arms, and there won't even be a hint of fear."
"I look weird. My hair's all dry and dull, and I haven't been eating that much. I always felt sleepy, or edgy, and was never hungry, even when my stomach was growling. And maybe I didn't eat some because it was my only way of fighting back, the only time I could choose something, even if it was bad for me."
"It doesn't matter."
"It does!" There was a note of desperation in her voice. "They'll see me and I'll look different and they'll think about all those moments when I left them feeling nervous and how there's a bunch of stuff I haven't even mentioned because it's that bad. I'm not even human anymore."

Dinah, do you have two arms? Yes, you have two arms. What about two legs? You have two legs. Two eyes? Indeed you have two eyes and a mouth, nose, hair, skin and so on. You're a perfectly NORMAL human being. Stop seeing yourself as a monster.

Not even Noelle is a monster, despite looking and acting like one. But she's still a human, a broken, desperate, mentally sick human. Broken Victoria is still a human. Weld (and any Case 53) is also a human being. I don't want you to think at yourself as being a monster, only because you have a power that allow you to have a glimpse of the future. Do you know who are the REAL monsters? "People" like Jack, Hookwolf, like the ones who created Case 53 and superpowered villains, Nilbog, nazis and any other twisted asshole who have nothing better to do in their lives than making the other people's lives as miserable as possible. They're the real monsters.

Coil was also a monster, despite his human appearance. Not the powers, neither the looks make someone a monster, but their personality, decisions and actions. You're a little angel, Dinah and if your parents will refuse to take you back ONLY because of your power, then they're HEARTLESS SCUMBAGS who deserve to end in Noelle's stomach "hugs Dinah". I mean, if I had a child like Dinah, I would have accepted and loved her even if she'd have the power to kill me with a single touch. You can't call yourself a parent and turn your back to your child because you don't like something about them or you're afraid of them. This is NOT how a parent should act.

I'm almost afraid to read further because I might scream at my screen until I'll remain without voice (or my neighbors will throw me out of my apartment

) if her parents will not take her back. :rage:

"You're definitely human, Dinah."

"Then why do they call us parahumans? Doesn't the 'para' part mean half? Paraplegic, only half your body works. Parahuman, half human."
"Not exactly. It means beside, which is how it's used with paraplegic, or paragraph. It can also mean extra or beyond, like paranormal. We're next to human, or more than human, depending on how you look at it. I think it's pretty apt. Powers, in a lot of ways, make the best and worst parts of our humanity stand out. And that depends on the choices we make. Your parents can't judge you for stuff you didn't choose."
"How… how do you even know that?"
"Which?"
"The meaning of the words."
"My mom taught English," I said. "So I was always sort of introduced to that stuff. And after she passed away, I maybe started paying more attention to it because it's the sort of thing she would have done. A way of remembering her."
"Are you an orphan?"
"My dad's alive. I don't have as much contact with him as I should."
"Why not?"
"It seems like every time I get closer to him, he gets hurt or put in danger. Or I only get close because of the hurt. I don't know."
"You should get back in touch with him. Parents are important."
"I know."
"My parents won't take me," she said. She made a croaking noise, and I touched the bucket she was holding to ensure it was in position, held her braid so it wouldn't get in the way as she tried to empty her stomach of contents that were no longer there.
I sighed, waiting until the worst of it had abated. When it looked like she might tip forward and fall with the puke bucket into the space between the back seat and the front seats, I caught her shoulders and leaned her back, carefully.
"How's the pain?" I asked.
"It ends later."
"I know it ends. But how is it now?"
"Hurts all over. Painkillers didn't do anything."
"Yeah," I said. They couldn't give her anything narcotic, not with the way the doctor was suspecting that Coil had dosed Dinah with a mixture of opiates and tranquilizers to keep her artificially content and mellow.
"They're not going to take me."
It was becoming a refrain.
"They will," I said. "I know you can't use your power right now, but they will."
"And even if they do take me, it'll be weird, because they can't ignore my power now. They pretended I didn't have one. Pretended I was an ordinary kid. Pretended the headaches didn't mean anything, like they pretended the heart disease wasn't a thing."
"Heart disease? You?"
Dinah shook her head. "Not me."
She didn't elaborate. Related to her trigger event?
"Don't worry," I said. I might have gone on to try to reassure her, but I wasn't sure what to add. I didn't know her parents.
"They'll turn me away. I'll have to come to stay with you. Or Tattletale. And then it's like it was with Coil. Not as bad. No drugs, no being locked up. But I'll know I can never go home."
She was shaking, I realized. Trembling.
"Dinah, listen. That's the drugs talking, okay? That's all it is. As relaxed as they made you before, they're making you rattled now while you're in withdrawal."
She made an incoherent noise in response.
I leaned towards the front seat. "Do you have a brush?"
The driver, supplied by the doctor's office, responded with only one word, "Comb."
"Comb will do."
He opened the glove compartment and reached back to hand me a small comb, not even as long as my hand.
"Here," I said, "Let's get you more presentable, so there's one less thing to worry about."
I pulled off the elastic that held her messy braid together and began combing it straight.
There wasn't much time left, and still so much I should be saying, doing or asking.
Do we come out of this okay?
We'll come out of this okay.
Can we stay in touch?
I'm sorry I played any part in this happening to you.
Either I didn't have the courage or I couldn't find the right words. Dinah wasn't in much of a state to converse, either.
Either I didn't have the courage or I couldn't find the right words. Dinah wasn't in much of a state to converse, either.
I settled for tidying her hair, braiding it from scratch, and putting the elastic band in place. Maybe it wasn't as nice as it would be without the braid, but this would be easier to manage while she was recovering.
Not even a minute later, I was holding that braid back while she hung her head over the bucket, the both of us waiting to see if she would start heaving up mere teaspoons of bile or if this latest spell of nausea would subside. I was avoiding putting bugs on her skin, but I was aware of how she was drenched in sweat to the point that it was soaking through her clothes. She was feverish, too. My swarm could tell the difference in her temperature, even through her clothes and scalp.
The car pulled to a stop.
Dinah startled, as if shaken by the realization of what it meant.
"Can you go on your own?" I asked. "Or maybe we could sit you down on the edge of the front lawn and beep to signal your parents?"
"Go," she said.
"What?"
"Go. I'll stay in the car. You see if…"
She paused. I wasn't sure if it was because of nausea or something else.
"If?"
"If they want me?"
I thought about arguing. About assuring her that they would. Then I reconsidered. I got out of the car and crossed the front lawn to the front door of her house.
I hit the doorbell, but neither I nor my bugs could hear a sound. No power, or it wasn't hooked up.
I gripped the heavy iron knocker and rapped on the door.
Two stray fruit flies found the parents in a bedroom on the ground floor. They stirred, one sitting up, but they didn't approach.
I knocked again.
The dad got a cast iron pan for an improvised weapon. It was almost comical, cartoonish. Through my swarm, I could almost make out his words as he assured his wife, "…don't know…"
Whatever started or ended the sentence, I didn't catch it.
I stepped back before he cracked the door open, pan held like a weapon out of sight.
He saw me and slammed the door shut in the next instant.

Dinah gave you a very good advice, Skitter: go and see your poor dad again. My heart is crying for Danny, he doesn't even know what happened with his daughter after the terrorist attack during the Mayoral Debate and if she's ok.

He must go through pure HELL. Danny's life is HELL.
Mr Alcott's reaction though...
Mrs Alcott: My dear, who was at the door?
Mr Alcott: N-nobody, honey. Don't worry, there's...there's nobody at the door.
Mrs Alcott: Someone knocked. I have a good hearing.
Mr Alcott "becomes pale as a ghost, starting to shiver from all his joints": Alright, its just a villainess dressed in the most ugly costume I've ever seen and surrounded by a huge swarm of bugs. Nothing to worry about, dea..."faints"
Mrs Alcott "shakes her head, sighing": Men..."goes to open the door"

I pushed the door open before he could lock it, winced at the pain that caused with my fractured rib.

He moved as if to swing at me, then dropped his arm as he reconsidered in the face of the thick cloud of bugs that stirred around me. I wasn't sure how much he could see. There weren't any streetlights, or lights on inside, but I would be backlit by moonlight.
"I'm not here to cause trouble, Mr. Alcott," I said. "And I don't mean to scare you."
"What do you want?"
"I brought Dinah."
He froze.
"If that's alright," I said.
Not turning away from me, he shouted, "Anna!"
His wife exited the bedroom to stand in the doorway, peering out into the hallway. She reacted as she saw me.
"Extortion?" he asked. "We don't have anything. You can take anything we have here, but it's not much."
"Not extortion. The man who took her died. I'm bringing her back."
"Please," the mom said. "Where is she?"
"Before I go get her," I said, "You should know. There's no sign he touched her. He didn't hurt her, not physically. He did everything he could to take care of her, in a utilitarian sense, but she was still a prisoner."
Without working eyes, I couldn't see their expressions. Horror? Grim acceptance?
"She was drugged, often and heavily. She's in the middle of recovery, and it isn't pretty. No narcotics, no painkillers, and no tranquilizers, maybe for the rest of her life."
The mom made a subvocal noise.
"She's an addict?" the dad asked.
"Yes. And she's a touch malnourished, and above all she's scared. I wouldn't have brought her yet, but I thought it was more important that I get her away from anyone who would do what Coil did, using her for her power. I wanted to get her home."
"She has abilities, then?" the dad asked.
Why else would Coil take her and keep her?
"An ability, to be specific," I said. "Does it really matter?"
The dad shook his head.
"I'll go get her, then."
I walked out to the car and opened the door next to Dinah.
"They don't want me. They won't."
"Come on," I said. I extended my hand.
"Maybe we should wait until I'm not sick anymore. If they see me like this, they might have second thoughts."
"They won't. And we agreed you should go home sooner than later. Come on."
She put her hand in mine, and I could feel it shaking in the half second before I got a firm grip. I supported her as she got out of the car, then walked her back toward the house.
Mrs. Alcott made a noise somewhere between a moan and a cry as we approached the front door. I moved my bugs out of the way and let go of Dinah the second her mother embraced her, right in the middle of the front lawn. The father was only a step behind, dropping to his knees to wrap his arms around them. A family reunited.

...........................Nope, I'm not crying, it's just raining on my face. Yep, this is what its happening. Its raining outside, I live on the top floor and the roof must be broken because my entire face is WET.

Fucking rain, man, fucking rain...Jesus Christ, this is one hell of an EMOTIONAL MOMENT, one of the best ones. Dinah was so afraid that her parents will refuse to accept her but all her fears were gone in the moment when her mom and dad welcomed her with open arms. They love her and they don't give a shit about her power, for them she's still their child, no matter what. They're good family, everyone in their family is good people: the mayor- Dinah's uncle, Rory- her cousin, her parents, Dinah herself. I'm feel so very happy reading about a nice and caring family like this, especially in a story where they're so very few nice and caring families, fewer than the fingers of one hand.

It was a rare thing, I was finding, that a family was both intact and functioning. Too many of the people I'd interacted with so far were separated from the families they should have by death, by pain, misunderstandings or abuse.

I turned to leave.
"Thank you," the dad called out.
I almost stopped. Then I kept walking towards the car.
"Don't thank me," I said, without looking back. I wasn't sure if I was loud enough for him to catch it.
It didn't feel good, but it didn't feel bad, either. I'd played a part in her being taken from her family. Maybe a small part, but a part. I'd done something to make up for that. The real sacrifice, the real atonement, would be dealing with what came next. Dealing with Noelle and the end of the world without using or abusing Dinah's powers.
I wasn't sure I felt good about that. I'd gotten this far by making the most out of every resource I had available, and by being smart about things. This was throwing away a resource, tying my own hands. The decision felt dumb, even as I knew it was the right thing to do.
I climbed into the car. Settling into the middle of the back seat, I swept my bugs over the area as a matter of habit.
Two folded pieces of paper were stuck in the flap behind the driver's seat, where they hadn't been before. I picked them up, tried to view them with both my regular eyes and my bugs, then settled for tucking them into my belt.
Had to get someone to read them for me later.
"Where to?" the driver asked.
"Downtown. I'll tell you where to stop."

Be PROUD of yourself, Skitter, at least this time, please. You returned Dinah back to her family, her parents are grateful to you, you defeated such an evil man like Coil, you did a lot of GOOD things in such a short time.

Man, I can see how Skitter Clone will defeat Skitter in a fight. All "Skitter" should do is to tell Skitter how much she hates her, because she sees her as responsible for the death of many people, also accusing her for not being able to protect people in her care. Skitter will admit that "Skitter" is right and will abandon the fight, surrendering herself to whatever Noelle will plan to do to her. This is the fastest way for someone to bring Skitter down. Especially for an evil clone sharing the same memories and flaws. Maybe I'm wrong, but I see Skitter as being one of the most vulnerable Noelle's adversaries. Her own clone will DESTROY her.

The others were gathered outside Tattletale's new headquarters. The Undersiders were all there, Bastard and Bentley included. Ballistic was present as well, though I hesitated to call him a member of the group.

There was also someone who I hadn't expected. Parian. My recruit, after a fashion, the doll girl was dressed in a crisp new frock, accompanied by a giant stuffed penguin fashioned from cloth.
"You're late," Ballistic said.
"Had an errand to run."
"Sent the girl home?" Tattletale asked.
"Yeah."
"Good," she said. "Feel better?"
"Some," I replied. I turned to Parian. "Didn't expect to see you here."
"Tattletale got in touch. I… I apparently missed a lot."
"You're up for this?"
"No. But I want to know what's going on, in case it affects my territory."
"She's taking over my shelter and the surrounding area," Tattletale said.
"Makes sense," I said.
"Glad everything's getting sorted out," Grue said, "But we've got an hour and forty minutes until dawn, and we really need to deal with the present situation."
Tattletale said, "Let's talk as we walk, then. We have one sighting of Noelle. She left ten minutes ago, and I doubt we'll run into her, but we could get info, something that'll let us track her, or we'll at least be in the right general area. Sorry, Skitter. We found Atlas, but he's stashed halfway across the city. So transportation might be a little awkward."
I only nodded.
Parian took the penguin apart and created a longer, broader form: a dachshund, in black and white.
"This is so lame," Imp said. "How are you supposed to build a decent rep if you're caught riding a wiener dog?"
"It's the only thing long enough," Parian said.
"Snake?"
"Too much wear."
"If you don't like it," Grue said. "You can walk. It's functional."
"You've fallen so far, man," Regent murmured, wry, "You used to care about these things."
"Because they kept us alive, kept our enemies off our backs. I don't care too much about anyone dumb enough to ignore the fact that we own this city but care about how we travel."
"I could ride Bentley," Imp suggested.
Regent commented, "You're calling him by his real name, now? Didn't you call him slobberjaws, just a little while ago?"
Rachel was looking at Imp. Glaring? "You're not riding him."
"You really care?" Imp asked.
"Not about the name," Rachel said. "About respect."
Imp groaned audibly, and Regent laughed.
My bugs helped me catch the muttered exchange between the pair.
"Why?" Imp asked, in her most wounded voice.
"Payback." Regent replied.
Rachel was looking at me, the offer unspoken.
I accepted it, reaching up to take Rachel's hand and using her help to climb onto Bentley's back, settling in behind her.
We walked briskly alongside the cloth dachshund that bore the burden of the rest of the group; Grue, Tattletale, Regent, Parian and Ballistic.
"Everyone's kosher with me taking the seat of power?" Tattletale asked. "This isn't me being manipulative like Coil, but I do consider us partners, I want us working side by side, even if our roles are different."
"Partner? You're in charge, aren't you?" Ballistic asked.
"I'm… headquarters. Ops. Management. Skitter's our real leader, our field commander. If it comes down to it, she can call the shots. I'll back her up."
"If she's up for it," Grue said. "She's blind, and neglected to mention it before the events earlier tonight."
"It doesn't matter that much. I don't need my eyes when I can use my power," I said.
"I'll have to take your word for it."
"What are we up against?" I asked, aiming to change the subject. "Ballistic, can you fill us in?"
"It's why I'm here. Consider Noelle a triple threat," he said. "She's strong, she's got nothing to hold her back, now, and she's smart."
"She was your team leader, right?" I asked.
"She was the leader before all of this started, yeah. You have to understand, she's a natural tactician, and tacticians come in two varieties. There's the strategists that think things through, innovate, and analyze. Then there's ones that go by instinct. Noelle's the latter. Not to say she isn't good if given a chance to plan, but she can get a sense of the current dynamic on an intuitive level, play things by ear while making spur of the moment calls. Those calls turn out to be the right ones, not because she's lucky, but because she grasps the situation so quickly that it looks like she didn't give it any thought at all."
"She's quick witted, then," I said.
"Not exactly what I meant. Might be that I'm extrapolating too much from too small a sample of info. Far as I know, she's never been in a serious fight, but when you add that to the whole strong and desperate bits I just mentioned, it makes for a scary combo."
"How's that?" Grue asked.
"Right now, she's scared, angry, desperate and frustrated, except all the dials are turned up to eleven," Ballistic said. "She can't hold back her emotions like she used to. She goes berserk at the drop of a hat, and this? Losing what she sees as her last shot? That's more than a dropped hat. If she were a person who relied on her brain in a crisis, she'd be at a disadvantage, because she's not in any position to think straight. The way she reallyoperates, though? She won't be any less effective because of that fear and panic. I don't plan on getting in her way. I'm sitting out on this fight, for the record."
"You're out? You're not working with us?" Grue asked.
"I'm holding territory, but I'm not a member of the team."
"Same," Parian said, "Sorry."

Any piece of dialogue between Imp and Regent is PRICELESS.

I don't like Regent but I think that he have GREAT CHEMISTRY with Imp. They're just adorable together as friends and possible, even as lovers. I'd love to read an entire Arc with only these two making fun on others' expense and having an overall great time together.

And...hi, Parian, so nice to see you again. I missed you girl, my sweet Rogue Master. I understand that you don't want to fight against Noelle, due to your general pacifistic nature and probably fear that you won't survive her, even if I'm sure that you'd have done a great job holding her busy with your giant stuffed animals. She can't clone them and you could have stayed at a certain distance and control them from there but...its your decision and I'd have to respect it. I wonder if Flachette will decide to fight- after all, she's a hero and if heroes will consider Noelle almost as dangerous (if not similar dangerous with Endbringers) and will gather together to stop her, using any means, I think Flechette will not say no to an eventual confrontation. She'd be a great addition to the battle. Her needles-darts can penetrate Noelle' skin, no matter how thick it is. She can even kill her if she hits the heart "shudders".

And now the question for 1 million dollars. Will "Imp" be able to notice Imp? Will Imp be able to notice her clone? How in the hell Imp's power will work against basically herself? That would be very interesting to see.

"You don't have to be sorry," I said. "But I think you're underestimating how bad this situation could be. I don't think we can afford to have anyone sit out."

"She's scary," Ballistic said. "Let's settle for that. You don't get within Behemoth's range, you don't aim for the long fight against Leviathan, and you don't send everyone against the Simurgh at once, or you're screwing yourself over. Trust me when I say this is better all around if I skip this fight. She knows me, and she'll use me against you."
"You talk about her being clever, but she didn't seem that on the ball when we talked to her over the phone, back in your base," I said. "You guys were lying to her about Tattletale, about Dinah, and other stuff. If she's that clever, why didn't she pick up on it?"
Ballistic sighed. "Honestly? She put her trust in Krouse, in Trickster. He betrayed that trust, and he did it pretty damn well. I don't fault him for it, exactly. She couldn't know the whole truth, or we'd be in exactly this situation, just at a worse time."
"But you do fault him for something," Tattletale said.
"He became team leader more because he's fast at thinking on his feet than because he's good at making the right call. He took it on himself to make a whole lot of wrong calls. I let a lot of that slide because he used to be a friend. And maybe because they weren't blatantly wrong. Just a little wrong, a little disagreeable. But at some point every call was a disagreeable call and every word out of his mouth became a white lie. He started lying to us for what he saw as our own good. Not Noelle with her delicate state, but us."
"And you realized he was never going to change," Tattletale said. "His focus would always be on Noelle and himself, no matter what happened."
"Yeah. We shouldn't discount Trickster, by the way. Either as a threat or as a possible solution."
"I hadn't forgotten the possibility that he'd stick around and make life harder on us," Grue said, "But solution?"
"Yeah. Whatever else, I'd say Noelle still believes in him. We can use that. If we're willing."
"And that's only if we can get him on board," I said.
Ballistic nodded.
"What does she do?" Grue asked.
Ballistic sighed. "Besides the ridiculous super strength, durability and the regeneration?"
"Besides that," Grue said.
"To put it briefly, if it's dead, she absorbs it and it becomes a part of her-"
"Powers included?" I asked.
"Don't know. Haven't had cause to believe it. In terms of raw material, raw mass? Yeah. She eats, she grows. But here's the thing. If she absorbs something alive, she clones it. More clones if she's angrier, we think. We don't have a large sample size of incidents."
"Clones?" I asked. "Isn't that an advantage for us?"
"No. Because whatever they are, the extras come out wrong. They come out ugly, their powers don't always work exactly the same way, they're screwed up in the head, but all that aside, they're stronger, tougher, they have the memories of the parent. Sometimes that means they're just homicidal. Other times, it means they're just as sane as you are, but their priorities are reversed. They want to end your existence, kill everything you want to protect, hurt everyone you care about, and dismantle your life."
"Evil twins," Regent said. "She makes evil twins."
Ballistic nodded. "And that's why I'm sitting this one out. She'll come after me if she sees me, especially if she heard the bit about my defection. If she gets me, that's even worse, because the clones she'll get are capable of killing anyone and everyone here, easy."
Bitch spoke for the first time. "Animals too?"
"Animals too. And microbes too, based on stuff she's said before, though she might just treat them like she does dead material. I don't know. For all we know, it ties into some other power."
"Do the clones have an expiry date?" I asked.
"Not as far as I know. Any time we've had to deal with them, we were pretty ruthless in putting them down. They sort of made a point of being too problematic to be left alone."
"They're still people," Parian said.

I agree with Parian regarding the clones. They are still people and even if they're evil, its not exactly their fault. Noelle made them to be like this, or better said, her power can only create evil clones. I know that I'll feel terrible sorry for the poor clones (especially if my favorite characters are cloned) but its necessary for the villains/heroes to kill them if they can't stop them otherwise.

Hard choice but...think at the clones as rabid animals or zombies that deserve to be put out of their misery before making more victims. I agree with Ballistic too when it comes to Trickster. If Trickster will not be restrained or kept away from Noelle until she'll be defeated, he'll be a great helper for her. He'll not be convinced to not help/protect his girlfriend, especially since he must hate Undersiders (and anyone who'll dare to hurt her) almost as much as Noelle hates them. I think that, before stopping Noelle and her clones, you must stop Trickster.

"No," Ballistic replied. "They really aren't. Trust me on that count."

"I've got soldiers at key locations, keeping an eye out," Tattletale said. "Just a few guys, and I'm paying them an astronomical amount. I won't be able to keep it up for more than a few days."
"Which is how you got this lead?" I asked.
She nodded.
"Okay," I said, "Good. But we'll need a way to deal with her. Ballistic, you said she regenerates?"
"Not that fast, but fast enough. Her lower body is tougher, but her upper body isn't exactly vulnerable. I've seen her take bullets and barely even flinch, and that included one to the head. They do damage, maybe, but it heals too quickly for it to matter. And I think she's gotten bigger and tougher since I saw her last."
"When was that?"
"Maybe a week after we got to this city. A while before Coil put in the first vault door, there was just a garage door. I didn't want to risk getting too close, not with the lethality of my power and the damage she could do. Her appetite's increased, so it might be a pretty dramatic difference in strength from the last time I saw her out and about. You guys are going to have your hands full trying to kill her."
"I don't want to kill her," I said. "Not unless we absolutely have no other choice."
Ballistic turned my way, and he had a funny tone in his voice as he asked, "How do you think you're going to handle this?"
"Containment," I said. "If I get enough spiders together, I could try to surround her in web."
"Not going to work," Ballistic said.
"It almost worked against Crawler."
"She's stronger than Crawler."
"Then we go to the heroes. We get their assistance," I said. "Containment foam on top of my web. Vista to slow Noelle down, Clockblocker to put her on pause."
"Tattletale told you, didn't she? That we think she's turning into an Endbringer. Why is lethal force okay against Leviathan but not against Noelle?"
"She's still a person, under it all," I said. "She deserves a chance."
"You don't seem to care at all about the subject of killing a friend, Ballistic," Tattletale added.
"She's not my friend. She's not the person I knew. Maybe she has the same memories, fragments of the same personality, but that's only surface stuff. Because even the bits that look like Noelle aren't really anything resembling the original. She wouldn't be able to heal bullet wounds like she did if they were. Stands to reason the bits that think like her aren't either."
"Pretty cold," Tattletale said.
"Fuck you," Ballistic replied. He slid off the stuffed animal's back. "I hope what I said was useful, and I wish you luck, but fuck you. You don't get it."

Ballistic is so sick and tired of this shit that he doesn't even care what will happen to his teammates anymore, especially with Noelle. He just wants for this nightmare to end and he understands better than the rest of his team that...Noelle is no more the old Noelle anymore. She's now...the new Noelle created by Simurgh and pitted against the world. She's a mockery of the former Noelle, someone that you feel sorry for but you also know that there's no way to have their original version back no matter what. She's like...an evil clone herself. A "clone" that live now only for revenge and punishment. Ballistic is very rational and I appreciate his arguments, even if it pains me to hear him talking like this about a former friend.

Parian's animal had stopped, but Ballistic was already striding away, in the general direction of his lair.

"Go on," Tattletale urged Parian. The stuffed dog started walking again.
"You told me I could protect people," Parian said. It took me a second to realize she was addressing me. "How do I do that?"
"We could use your stuffed animals. If she can't absorb them, then they're frontline combatants we can use."
"I don't want to fight."
"I really don't think we have a choice. You fought Leviathan," I said.
Parian shook her head, "I almost wish I didn't. I only did it because I promised myself when I was a kid, when I first learned about the Endbringers, that I would fight them if I ever got powers. That's why I did it, because I didn't want to betray the kid version of myself."
"Wouldn't your child-self want you to do this?" I asked.
"I don't know. But I didn't make any promises to myself about this."
Tattletale cut in. "Heads up. I don't think we're the only ones checking out the scene."
"Who?" Parian asked.
"The Protectorate. The Wards. If you're not up for a potential fight, this is the time to back off."
"The Wards?" Parian asked.
Tattletale nodded.
"I'll stay. I won't fight, but I'll stay. I made my decision and I'll own up to it."
It's at least one more body on our side, giving them less reason to pick a fight.
"We do this peacefully," I said. "We need their help, so we avoid confrontation."
"This isn't going to work," Regent said. "Just saying."
"We'll try it anyways," I replied.
I could sense the heroes well before we reached them, gathered by a ruined building. I used my bugs to get their attention before we appeared around the corner.
"Undersiders," Miss Militia spoke, rifle raised and pointed in our direction. The other members of the local hero teams were at the ready just behind her. I noted Flechette gesturing, Parian shaking her head.
"Miss Militia," I responded, when I realized none of the others were responding. Should have hashed this out with Tattletale. She can do the negotiating with hostile parties better than I can.
"You do this?" She jerked her head in the direction of the wreckage, not moving the rifle. Her voice was hard.
"Indirectly," I replied. "But not really, no. I don't know what that is, exactly."
"I find that hard to believe," she responded. "A hell of a lot of damage, reports of howling eerily similar to the reports we've had for Hellhound's animals, and let's not forget your penchant for kidnapping the good guys. Shadow Stalker, Piggot, Calvert…"
Kidnapping heroes?
With my bugs, I did a head count. Someone was missing.
How? Dinah said Noelle wouldn't do any major damage before dawn.
"Vista," I finished Miss Militia's thought. "You're talking about Vista."

......I'm glad to see Miss Militia and Flechette, two of my favorite heroes, but I'm NOT HAPPY at all to hear that Vista was kidnapped. Vista is one of the heroes that I'm feeling the most protective towards, even if she's so strong and fearless. Who kidnapped her? Trickster, to give her to his monstrous girlfriend so she can eat her and then spit clones with space distortion powers? Or Noelle already ate her and now she's filling the area with dozens and dozens of little evil Vistas? Gosh, I REFUSE to believe that Vista might be dead until I'll get the confirmation.

Until then, I'll pretend that she's either in danger of being eaten or she's already in Noelle's stomach but the digestion is very, very slow so her teammates might save her in time. They should make an alliance with Undersiders especially since the villains know now more about Noelle than everyone else. Miss Militia is a wise and tolerant heroine, but she still is fucking wrong considering "people" like Shadow Stalker and Cowardly Calvert as good guys. I mean, I can understand that she doesn't know who Calvert was in reality but Shadow Stalker...a good guy?!? Come on, Miss Militia, you're so idealistic its hurt.

Good night and sleep well, my friends and....#ProtectVistaWithAnyCost.

AmbarGriss · Oct 22, 2018

I hope you like Star Wars, because we are going to see the Atack of the Clones

rafuki22 · Oct 23, 2018

AmbarGriss said:
I hope you like Star Wars, because we are going to see the Atack of the Clones

HA.

blackarrow · Oct 23, 2018

AmbarGriss said:
I hope you like Star Wars, because we are going to see the Atack of the Clones

I'm a HUGE Star Wars fan.

But I love the old movies more than the new ones. Attack of the Clones indeed. We even have a LUKE here, too bad that he isn't eager to use his FORCE. :lol

rafuki22 · Oct 23, 2018

blackarrow said:
Hello, my lovely creatures. Time to see if Taylor will keep her promise about bringing Dinah back to her family and how happy Dinah and her family will be when they'll see each other after such a long time without any contact between them. I'm convinced that this Chapter will be another very emotional Chapter, unless something unexpected will happen and Dinah will not have the occasion to see her parents. Or worse, she'll go home and see them...badly injured or dead. Better stop using my Harbinger of Doom's superpowers and try to think at something else than dark predictions with eighty eight point nine percent chance to happen in the near future. Let's see which parahuman can stop Noelle or at least injure her bad enough to slow her down. Undersiders have clearly no chance against her. All Tattletale can do is to discover as many weaknesses as possible about Noelle and inform everyone else, Bitch's actions will only get her dogs cloned, Regent's power is useless but he controls R Shatterbird and her glass might do some damage to Noelle but she'll regenerate so its not that great, Grue might be able to borrow some of Noelle power and use it against her, but with not a very lasting effect, Skitter will have her bugs clones and turned against her (but she's a great strategist so I'm sure that she'll come up with some fantastic combat ideas ). Did I forgot someone? Nope, lets move on...From Travelers, only Genesis and Sundancer can damage Noelle, because Genesis' projections can't be cloned (since they aren't biological and from what I understand, she can only clone biological organisms) and Sundancer's sun might be powerful enough to even kill Noelle BUT....they won't do anything because she's their friend and they aren't so eager to hurt their friend, even if she went batshit insane. Trickster WILL HELP Noelle against everyone else, risking to get killed in this fight (but in his eyes, his life doesn't matter; all that matters is Noelle's life). He can help her by simply teleportating everyone near Noelle so she can clone them without trying to catch them herself. From heroes: Clockblocker (he can contain her for a while by freezing her), Miss Militia (fires her guns to Noelle, without having to get close to her), Kid Win (attacks her with his superweapons, from distance), Weld (since he doesn't have anything organic in him, not even his brain, there's no risk for him to be cloned). Dragon and Defiant would have given Noelle a run for her money too, but they're too busy now trying to kill some assholes WORSE than Noelle. Triumvirate will be very capable to fight Noelle and kill her, but I'm afraid that if she'll touch just one of them, she'll have a very powerful clone (or clones) by her side. Imagine her touching Eidolon...I don't want to imagine this shit so its better if Triumvirate will not get involved this time. Let's start this clusterfuck of an adventure and hope for the best Queen 18.2

Dinah, do you have two arms? Yes, you have two arms. What about two legs? You have two legs. Two eyes? Indeed you have two eyes and a mouth, nose, hair, skin and so on. You're a perfectly NORMAL human being. Stop seeing yourself as a monster. Not even Noelle is a monster, despite looking and acting like one. But she's still a human, a broken, desperate, mentally sick human. Broken Victoria is still a human. Weld (and any Case 53) is also a human being. I don't want you to think at yourself as being a monster, only because you have a power that allow you to have a glimpse of the future. Do you know who are the REAL monsters? "People" like Jack, Hookwolf, like the ones who created Case 53 and superpowered villains, Nilbog, nazis and any other twisted asshole who have nothing better to do in their lives than making the other people's lives as miserable as possible. They're the real monsters. Coil was also a monster, despite his human appearance. Not the powers, neither the looks make someone a monster, but their personality, decisions and actions. You're a little angel, Dinah and if your parents will refuse to take you back ONLY because of your power, then they're HEARTLESS SCUMBAGS who deserve to end in Noelle's stomach "hugs Dinah". I mean, if I had a child like Dinah, I would have accepted and loved her even if she'd have the power to kill me with a single touch. You can't call yourself a parent and turn your back to your child because you don't like something about them or you're afraid of them. This is NOT how a parent should act. I'm almost afraid to read further because I might scream at my screen until I'll remain without voice (or my neighbors will throw me out of my apartment ) if her parents will not take her back.

Dinah gave you a very good advice, Skitter: go and see your poor dad again. My heart is crying for Danny, he doesn't even know what happened with his daughter after the terrorist attack during the Mayoral Debate and if she's ok. He must go through pure HELL. Danny's life is HELL.
Mr Alcott's reaction though...
Mrs Alcott: My dear, who was at the door?
Mr Alcott: N-nobody, honey. Don't worry, there's...there's nobody at the door.
Mrs Alcott: Someone knocked. I have a good hearing.
Mr Alcott "becomes pale as a ghost, starting to shiver from all his joints": Alright, its just a villainess dressed in the most ugly costume I've ever seen and surrounded by a huge swarm of bugs. Nothing to worry about, dea..."faints"
Mrs Alcott "shakes her head, sighing": Men..."goes to open the door"

...........................Nope, I'm not crying, it's just raining on my face. Yep, this is what its happening. Its raining outside, I live on the top floor and the roof must be broken because my entire face is WET. Fucking rain, man, fucking rain...Jesus Christ, this is one hell of an EMOTIONAL MOMENT, one of the best ones. Dinah was so afraid that her parents will refuse to accept her but all her fears were gone in the moment when her mom and dad welcomed her with open arms. They love her and they don't give a shit about her power, for them she's still their child, no matter what. They're good family, everyone in their family is good people: the mayor- Dinah's uncle, Rory- her cousin, her parents, Dinah herself. I'm feel so very happy reading about a nice and caring family like this, especially in a story where they're so very few nice and caring families, fewer than the fingers of one hand.

Be PROUD of yourself, Skitter, at least this time, please. You returned Dinah back to her family, her parents are grateful to you, you defeated such an evil man like Coil, you did a lot of GOOD things in such a short time. Man, I can see how Skitter Clone will defeat Skitter in a fight. All "Skitter" should do is to tell Skitter how much she hates her, because she sees her as responsible for the death of many people, also accusing her for not being able to protect people in her care. Skitter will admit that "Skitter" is right and will abandon the fight, surrendering herself to whatever Noelle will plan to do to her. This is the fastest way for someone to bring Skitter down. Especially for an evil clone sharing the same memories and flaws. Maybe I'm wrong, but I see Skitter as being one of the most vulnerable Noelle's adversaries. Her own clone will DESTROY her.

Any piece of dialogue between Imp and Regent is PRICELESS. I don't like Regent but I think that he have GREAT CHEMISTRY with Imp. They're just adorable together as friends and possible, even as lovers. I'd love to read an entire Arc with only these two making fun on others' expense and having an overall great time together. And...hi, Parian, so nice to see you again. I missed you girl, my sweet Rogue Master. I understand that you don't want to fight against Noelle, due to your general pacifistic nature and probably fear that you won't survive her, even if I'm sure that you'd have done a great job holding her busy with your giant stuffed animals. She can't clone them and you could have stayed at a certain distance and control them from there but...its your decision and I'd have to respect it. I wonder if Flachette will decide to fight- after all, she's a hero and if heroes will consider Noelle almost as dangerous (if not similar dangerous with Endbringers) and will gather together to stop her, using any means, I think Flechette will not say no to an eventual confrontation. She'd be a great addition to the battle. Her needles-darts can penetrate Noelle' skin, no matter how thick it is. She can even kill her if she hits the heart "shudders". And now the question for 1 million dollars. Will "Imp" be able to notice Imp? Will Imp be able to notice her clone? How in the hell Imp's power will work against basically herself? That would be very interesting to see.

I agree with Parian regarding the clones. They are still people and even if they're evil, its not exactly their fault. Noelle made them to be like this, or better said, her power can only create evil clones. I know that I'll feel terrible sorry for the poor clones (especially if my favorite characters are cloned) but its necessary for the villains/heroes to kill them if they can't stop them otherwise. Hard choice but...think at the clones as rabid animals or zombies that deserve to be put out of their misery before making more victims. I agree with Ballistic too when it comes to Trickster. If Trickster will not be restrained or kept away from Noelle until she'll be defeated, he'll be a great helper for her. He'll not be convinced to not help/protect his girlfriend, especially since he must hate Undersiders (and anyone who'll dare to hurt her) almost as much as Noelle hates them. I think that, before stopping Noelle and her clones, you must stop Trickster.

Ballistic is so sick and tired of this shit that he doesn't even care what will happen to his teammates anymore, especially with Noelle. He just wants for this nightmare to end and he understands better than the rest of his team that...Noelle is no more the old Noelle anymore. She's now...the new Noelle created by Simurgh and pitted against the world. She's a mockery of the former Noelle, someone that you feel sorry for but you also know that there's no way to have their original version back no matter what. She's like...an evil clone herself. A "clone" that live now only for revenge and punishment. Ballistic is very rational and I appreciate his arguments, even if it pains me to hear him talking like this about a former friend.

......I'm glad to see Miss Militia and Flechette, two of my favorite heroes, but I'm NOT HAPPY at all to hear that Vista was kidnapped. Vista is one of the heroes that I'm feeling the most protective towards, even if she's so strong and fearless. Who kidnapped her? Trickster, to give her to his monstrous girlfriend so she can eat her and then spit clones with space distortion powers? Or Noelle already ate her and now she's filling the area with dozens and dozens of little evil Vistas? Gosh, I REFUSE to believe that Vista might be dead until I'll get the confirmation. Until then, I'll pretend that she's either in danger of being eaten or she's already in Noelle's stomach but the digestion is very, very slow so her teammates might save her in time. They should make an alliance with Undersiders especially since the villains know now more about Noelle than everyone else. Miss Militia is a wise and tolerant heroine, but she still is fucking wrong considering "people" like Shadow Stalker and Cowardly Calvert as good guys. I mean, I can understand that she doesn't know who Calvert was in reality but Shadow Stalker...a good guy?!? Come on, Miss Militia, you're so idealistic its hurt.

Good night and sleep well, my friends and....#ProtectVistaWithAnyCost.

You should know, after reading hundreds of pages of worm, that hope does not thrive there.
The fact that you still have hope left is your most admirable quality.
... But, it is diminished by your stubbornness.
Note: can someone guess the reference?

blackarrow · Oct 23, 2018

rafuki22 said:
You should know, after reading hundreds of pages of worm, that hope does not thrive there.
The fact that you still have hope left is your most admirable quality.
... But, it is diminished by your stubbornness.
Note: can someone guess the reference?

I'm the most OPTIMISTIC bitch you'll ever meet. I never lose my hope, both in my real life and the fictional life of numerous books/movies/TV series I lay my eyes on. I'm 100% convinced that I'll not lose my hope that Worm will have a good/bittersweet ending not even if Jack will be successful in his mission to destroy the world. I'm sure that some people will be saved and he (or whatever Apocalypse he'll bring upon the world) will be stopped in the end. I've read some shit DARKER than Worm and I still had hope. The same goes for my life too. The hope that everything will turn to be ok in the end and the trust in myself and my own strength/ people I care for helped me a lot to overcome some hardship I experienced in my 21 years of existence. Maybe I'm still too young but I experienced a lot of shit and I faced it with more or less success because I knew that I should not give up no matter what. And I never lost my hope, this is more important than anything.
Hell, if there will be a ZombieApocalypse in our world and I'll be one of the few survivors, the other first thing I'll do (besides killing zombies) will be to look after other survivors and try to build a community with them and start a new life in a new world.

Thank you for your compliment.

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

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rafuki22

Anti-nihilist(maybe).

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