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

AmbarGriss · Mar 10, 2018

Poor Clock... He will have a panic atack next time he sees a ladybug.

blackarrow · Mar 10, 2018

AmbarGriss said:
Poor Clock... He will have a panic atack next time he sees a ladybug.

For real?! Aw, poor Clockblocker. He really needs a therapist. Does heroes have a therapist who might help them after each fight? Because it looks like they really need one.

AmbarGriss · Mar 10, 2018

blackarrow said:
For real?! Aw, poor Clockblocker. He really needs a therapist. Does heroes have a therapist who might help them after each fight? Because it looks like they really need one.

I'm just joking actually

But there is a therapist for parahumans, but she is only going to show up waaaaaay in the future.

blackarrow · Mar 10, 2018

Hello again, good and bad people alike. I call this hour the RIGHT TIME for another demonstration of how AGITATED I can be while I'm reading Worm 3.10 | Worm. With our Knight of Time KO, our Bug Master being a winner for moment, Witch of Space having fun with bending the rules of space at her will and our Team Captain playing kickboxing with Hellhound's puppies, the bank robbery fun is going on

. I'm still a little pissed about what Bug did to poor Clockblocker but at least she didn't kill him (I'm still positive despite everything, see?)

Six good guys were still in action, as far as I knew. Clockblocker was down, and posed no threat unless someone walked into his reach where he was lying down, or unless we took longer than the ten or so minutes it would take his power to release him. Angelica and Brutus were playing a macabre game of tug of war, using Aegis as the rope.
The rest of the battlefield was chaos. Patches of darkness covered everything, and the landscape was distorted. In some of the areas Vista had warped, the rain wasn't falling in a straight line. One spot in particular had the rain moving horizontally before it dropped to help fill a massive puddle thirty feet across, where her power had made an indent in the ground.

Aegis and Clockblocker were more or less dealt with. As Vista was the last remaining priority target, I directed my remaining swarm towards her. They wouldn't reach her quickly though, as the rain bogged them down, and both puddles and distorted space forced a more roundabout route for the bugs.
Bitch, still riding Judas, came rushing out of a cloud of darkness, splashing through the huge puddle. Kid Win and Gallant opened fire on her with laser beams and painfully bright blasts of energy. She was moving fast and unpredictably enough that Judas only took one or two glancing hits. The distance between her and Vista rapidly closed.
Vista raised her hand, and the surface of the street bulged upward into a short wall. As it grew, the wall caught one of Judas' forepaws, tripping him. He fell, and his rider was sent tumbling head over heels.
Bitch got to her feet before Judas did, but only managed to take a single step before one of Gallant's blasts clipped her. I winced. His light blasts were charged with energy that made the people struck feel a particular emotion. Gallant could blast you with one that made you hopeless, scared, sad, ashamed…
Bitch screamed, and it was a long and primal noise, filled with rage.

This whole battleground turned into an indescifrable mess. The surroundings are entirely fucked by Vista, who's very powerful for her age (I can watch for two chapters her power in action, its one of the coolest powers), Angelica and Brutus are having fun

with poor Aegis

and Kid Win/Gallant decided to act, trying to save the situation. Gallant even enraged Bitch with his emotional beams (I'm shivering at the thought of what Heartbreaker might really do if they have powers similar with Gallant+ since they're so fucking evil as Lisa described them. They must be a PAIN to fight with). The more than usual angry Bitch will probably ends up turning against her teammates or hurting herself. Good strategy, Gallant.
GALLANT'S POV: Thanks, my lady.
Me:

I was still inside the bank, watching things unfold through the window, barely able to hear it, and it still made my skin crawl. So he'd shot the dangerous psychopath with a blast that made her angry. Someone would have to explain that one to me at a later date.

Whirling, still screaming, she pointed at Gallant. Apparently that was order enough, because Judas charged at the teenager that was dressed like a science fiction Lancelot.
Bitch didn't attack him though. Without her dogs at her back, essentially without powers, she went straight for Vista. She was focused enough to stay on the priority target.
Vista was ready, though. As Bitch tried to close the distance, the roadway between her and the young heroine stretched out, until the distance she had to cover was two, three, four, five times as far. Vista then pinched the space behind her closer together, crossed a third of a block with a single skip, and then returned it to normal. I swore under my breath, and not just because my bugs had a lot more distance to travel. My head was pounding again, and it was getting steadily worse.
Was someone's power at work, giving me a headache? There wasn't anyone in the Wards, I was pretty sure, who could mess with your head like that. Gallant could mess with your emotions, but he had to hit you with a light blast to do it. The person on the roof, then? I was fairly confident there wasn't anyone in the Protectorate or New Wave who could affect me like this.
Bitch gave up on Vista and whistled for Judas. The dog responded immediately, abandoning his skirmish with Gallant, who was trying and failing to stand. A wash of darkness consumed him before he managed to pick himself up.
Kid Win opened fire on Bitch as her dog returned to her. Given the excessive distance between them – it would have been a hard shot to make before Vista stretched the area that Bitch was standing on – meaning his aim was wildly off target. He stopped, changed a setting, and fired a fresh salvo. This time, the lasers came out in more of a staccato spray, like you'd expect from a machine gun.

At least Bitch was focused enough to remember who are her foes and attacked both Gallant and Vista instead. But Vista's powers proved to be a challenge impossible to be won by Bitch. Kin Win shows everyone how dangerous nerds....I mean thinkers can be when they want to be and start shooting around with his superweapon (good thing is that he doesn't have a good target- you need some more practice, Kid, do you hear me?)
KID WIN'S POV: I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER THE SOUNDS OF MY AWESOME LASERS! PEW PEW!
Me:

, this whole fourth wall's breaking is starting to creep me out!

One of the lasers caught Bitch in the center of her stomach and laid her flat. Judas guarded his owner by hunkering over her, blocking further shots and obscuring my view of her.

Near Vista, a large figure staggered out of the darkness, shadows still clinging to him, bellowing and screaming incoherently about bugs. He thrashed for several moments, then collapsed into a heap a short distance from Vista.
Someone that large could only be Browbeat. Vista apparently reached the same conclusion I did, because she took a few steps closer to him, looking around helplessly for a way to help him.
An instant after I realized that I didn't actually have bugs on Browbeat, the figure struck Vista across the side of the head, laying her flat.
I saw the briefest glimpse of Grue's skull mask before he and Vista were covered by a fresh tide of his darkness.
"Bitch, Vista, Clockblocker, Gallant are out of action, I think," I called across the room to Tattletale, who was still hammering away at a keyboard. "We've got Aegis handled for the time being. Not sure what happened to Browbeat, but there's only him, Kid Win and the person on the roof to deal with, now. We can make a break for it soon."
"One last thing to do," Tattletale grinned to me, "I'll be right back. Keep an eye on things here."
"What? No – Tattletale! Dammit!" I shouted, but she was already running, heading back into the offices that we'd been through on our way to the bank.
I didn't have time to dwell on her leaving. Flickers of light outside the bank caught my attention. Kid Win was flying fifteen feet above the ground on his hoverboard. In front of him, pieces of a massive device were materializing, shimmering into existence like you saw with the transporters on Star Trek. It was only one or two steps away from being complete, but you could tell what it was.

I'm trying to imagine how dangerous and supreme fucked up Kid Win would be if he was a supervillain. Just imagine him working in tandem with Bakuda. He can make weapons of mass destruction that only in SF movies you can see. Hell, he'd make a miniature Death Star and it would be enough to hold an entire continent under terror. Everyone should thank to all Gods they believe into for this teenager choosing the good side

. Brownbeat and Vista are out of action....WHAT THE FUCK, GRUE? Well, at least that wasn't so bad, it is actually much better than what Bug did to poor Clockblocker. Grue, punching the teenage girls (Rachel, Vista) since...forever.

A gun, no less than fifteen feet long, with a barrel three or four feet across, all turret mounted on a circular platform not unlike the board he was riding.

"Shit," I whispered to myself. I sent my bugs after him.
He swiveled the cannon to face Judas, who was still guarding the spot where Bitch had fallen. A bolt of light erupted from the cannon and sent Judas flying beyond my field of vision. He fired another shot, at a greater distance, presumably at the fallen dog.
Then he swiveled and fired off two more shots in quick succession, blasting Aegis and the two dogs that were gripping him.
The dogs and Aegis were all sent flying into the wall of the office building opposite the bank. While the dogs didn't get up immediately, a bloody and tattered Aegis was on his feet in an instant, and in the air a moment later.
He got to a good height – maybe two or three stories up, and stayed there, likely to get his bearings and survey the situation.
As my bugs approached the Kid, he took notice and maneuvered his cannon to decimate the swarm. I spread them out, but he simply pulled a lever and released a flamethrower-like blast of lightning and sparks, eliminating virtually all of the bugs I'd sent out into the street.
The scant few that that remained, I sent towards his face, to crawl beneath his visor and into his nose and mouth. It wasn't enough.
Then Kid Win aimed the cannon straight at me.
I jumped for cover the moment I realized what he was doing. There was a muffled sound, more a very large person someone hitting a punching bag than what I'd expect a laser cannon to sound like, and the window exploded.
What was he doing? We had hostages inside. I turned to check, and saw there weren't any hostages near me.

I'm praying too to never see Kid Win turning to the dark side, for any reason. He's already scary without being evil. He doesn't give any fuck about destroying property or hurting hostages (unless someone told him that all hostages escaped). I'm not sure if you have any chance to fight against his FUTURISTIC SUPER CANON, Bug, your best friend SWARM is pretty useless here. Also, I noticed that Bug doesn't know about Amy's powers since she doesn't believe that someone from New Wave can give her headaches. She either doesn't know Amy or Amy appears to public opinion only as a healer, not as a complete biology manipulator. She hides what she can really do, in the same manner, Undersiders (except Rachel) are doing. Heroes should have their own secrets.

Did he know that? Heat sensors in his visor? Was someone watching me through the cameras and passing him info? Damn it! There was too much I didn't know, and Tattletale wasn't around to fill me in.
Grue sprinted between two clouds of darkness, raising one hand to send a blast of his power towards Kid Win, obscuring the Kid's line of sight. Kid Win responded by ponderously maneuvering himself and the cannon out of the top of the cloud of darkness.
I swore under my breath and sent a command for more of the bugs I had inside to drop from the ceiling and go outside to attack. There were a good few bugs near Clockblocker, who were getting free of the time stopping effect he'd laid on them. I added those to the assault.
My legs buckled as my headache worsened tenfold. Worse, the response from my bugs was sluggish, like I was ordering them to move through mud. I felt a momentary panic, but there wasn't really anything I could do. I grit my teeth and ordered the attack anyways, then forced myself to run for the other side of the bank, in case he could somehow detect me and shoot through the walls to hit me.

I glanced through the windows for Aegis as I passed them. Through the rain, and the darkness that lingered on the surface of the windows, I spotted him. His white costume was wet with rain and ridiculous amounts of blood, and he was diving straight for the bank like a human missile. Damn it.
Inexplicably, his descent wavered, then curved. He flew straight into the ground, full force, hard enough to crack pavement. One of the dogs, I couldn't tell which, had managed to extricate itself from the rubble of the shattered wall and rushed at the fallen Aegis.
Kid Win was occupied trying to do three things at once – he was maneuvering out of the way of the clouds of darkness Grue was setting in his way, making return potshots at Grue as Grue zig zagged between spots of cover and with every free moment, he was blasting hundreds of my bugs out of the air. If my power was at full strength, my bugs probably would have reached him already, but something was interfering. That, or I'd overexerted myself. The bugs were slow to react, slow to move and some were slipping from my grasp, returning to their instinctive behavior. Making matters worse, I wasn't blind to the fact that every time I gave a command, my headache got exponentially worse.

Kid Win is the kid poster of the MAD SCIENTIST who's trying to be good and help people but he's still a wildcat when it comes to situations like this one. Also, he's one army kid. I like him, he's badass and cool and can fight alone pretty good against 3 Undersiders, but he kind of creeps me out for some reasons that I can't explain yet. I'm not saying that he might not be entirely good, maybe he's a good kid, but he's pretty violent for a hero, especially when he fights. He reminds me of Alec, who's laid back boring most of the time, but he gets excited everytime when he sees a violent scene. Hmm, I personally find this Kid the most interesting Ward so far, in the same manner I find Amy the most interesting New Wave member. I'd like to read more about this Kid

. Btw, I was wrong, Bug isn't weak against Kid Win, but her headaches stop her from concentrating properly over her power. After all, even if you have a superpower, you still have to concentrate in order to use it. Nice work....Amy Dallon.

With Kid Win occupied as he was, the dog had a clear path to Aegis. Aegis didn't try to run this time. He stood his ground and reached for his utility belt. He retrieved something that looked like a miniature fire extinguisher.
Then he pulled the pin.
For the second time in a matter of minutes, I dove away from the window. It wouldn't be a grenade, but the option that made the most sense- I squeezed my eyes shut and covered my ears just in time. The explosion the flashbang grenade made was enough to leave me breathless, and there was a stone wall and some fifty or so feet between us.

I chanced a careful look through the window as soon as I'd recovered, hands still over my ears. The dog was reeling, making pained sounds, and Aegis was pummeling it, using his flight to close the distance and add more momentum to his swings. When the dog, Angelica, I saw, looked like it was starting to recover, he grabbed two more flashbang grenades from his belt with one hand and pulled the pins with the other, dropping them to the ground just below him.
I ducked behind cover again, but they didn't go off. When I chanced another look, I saw the tables had turned. Where the flashbangs had been dropped, there was a smudge of Grue's darkness covering the ground. Angelica was having it out with Aegis, and Regent was striding out of the darkness, in Kid Win's direction.
I'd forgotten about Regent. It made sense that he was working from a discreet position like I was. He probably would have been the one to alter Aegis' flight path.
Seeing Regent approach, Kid Win turned his turret-mounted cannon in his direction. Before he could fire, though, Regent raised two fingers, and Kid Win lost his footing on his flying skateboard. The cannon shifted until it was pointing straight up, as the young hero dangled from the handles, his weight altering the trajectory of the cannon. His board clattered to the ground a few feet away.
Regent made a dismissive wave, and Kid Win let go with one hand, his fingers and arm curling backwards in a palsied fit. Regent repeated the gesture, and Kid Win lost his grip on the controls, dropping a good twenty feet to the asphalt.

Sometimes I'm creeping myself out with my predictions or coincidences. I just made a comparison between Kid Win and Regent appeared out of blue and fucked Kid Win, giving him a nice out from fight. I'm in the same situation, Bug, to my shame I forgot that Regent is outside, along with Bitch and Grue. My bad. Regent is awesomely badass when he stops being boring. Well, Kid Win, at least you tried. You tried hard, Kid

, your bosses and teammates will be proud of you. But not for property damage and threatening the civilian lives as well.

As Regent approached to stand over him, Kid Win reached for his laser pistol. He scowled in frustration as his fingers continued to twitch and curl involuntarily, instead of closing on the handle of the gun.
With an almost relaxed air, Regent shoved the end of his tazer into Kid Win's side.

I don't know if it was the sense of relief, but I couldn't help but laugh as Regent collected the fallen skateboard and began a wobbly ascent to the floating cannon turret. He aimed and began firing at Aegis, who was forced to scramble out of the way.
"What's so funny, psycho?"
I whirled to face the voice, and saw the freckled, brown haired hostage that had been glaring at me when we'd first taken control of the bank lobby. After that, I saw only stars as she slammed something large and blunt into the side of my head.

BUG'S POV: I was a Bug Master too until I took something into the side of....
AMY'S POV: You're fucked, you sadistic bitch, now I'll get to do to you what I did to that skinhead, only the opposite thing.
Well, that's not a good situation for Bug but I think that Tattletale will save her (she's inside the bank, she just left somewhere to do her tattletale-things). How Tattletale can save Bug? Well, she can either hit Amy from behind, or talk to her, defeating her with her own secrets (but I doubt that Amy will let her talk) or just shoot her. I'm very, very curious about the clusterfuck I'm going to see for sure in the next chapter.

Tomorrow with new chapters. Bye and good night, friends and foes.

blackarrow · Mar 10, 2018

AmbarGriss said:
I'm just joking actually
But there is a therapist for parahumans, but she is only going to show up waaaaaay in the future.

Wow, poor therapist lady. I wouldn't want not even for a fortune to be in her skin. She must be either payed like a Queen or she must really, REALLY likes what she's doing. Btw, hope that people will not criticize you, thinking that you just spoiled me. This is not exactly a spoiler. If you would have told me what therapist is going to do and if she's a good or a bad or something in middle person, then that would be a spoiler. Also, I don't want to be told something like: stop liking a certain character because he/she will become evil in the future/or will turn to be evil; or stop hating the trio of Bitches because they'll turn good in the future/or they're misunderstood souls with a fucked up childhood. First: that would be a spoiler (to talk about a certain character's future) and I think I should be left alone to decide myself how much I like/hate/I'm indifferent to a character, how much I'll change my opinion about them (or not) or how I feel about their backstories. Hope everyone understand. And thank you for information, btw, I honestly appreciate it

AmbarGriss · Mar 10, 2018

Oooh, next chapter is my favorite of this arc.

can't wait for your reaction :lol

blackarrow · Mar 11, 2018

Hello, agitated people from everywhere, time for new shenanigans in 3.11 | Worm. Bug can be either supreme fucked by Amy or Tattletale might appear out of blue and supreme fuck Amy, saving her teammate (i'm not afraid that Amy might kill Bug, she's not a murderess, but she can still mess up with her biology, for example paralyzing her until the Protectorate will arrive and take her into custody. Btw, I really liked this whole Bank Robbery battles. Such a beautiful MESS! Lasers, superpowers, space fuckery, monsters, darkness, everything one can expect from an usual fight between robbers and cops

. This is my favorite fight so far. The second favorite one was the fight between Bug and Lung- I was scared shirtless during that fight because I was expecting Oni Lee to appear at any given moment behind Taylor :lol.

I crashed into the office chair behind me and both the chair and I toppled to the ground. The armor of my mask had taken the worst of the hit, but it still hurt as much as anything I'd ever experienced.

The girl glowered at me from behind her mop of frizzy brown hair. In her hands she was gripping a fire extinguisher. Behind her, past the lights that were flickering across my field of vision, I could see the hostages streaming upstairs. It was disorienting, because the bugs I'd left on them were telling me they were still in the corner of the lobby, staying still. I could feel one spider shift slightly as the person it was riding exhaled, then shuddered a little, even as I saw that same person stumbling and nearly falling on the stairs in their haste to get away.

I reached for the bugs, tried to tell one to move, and everything went wrong. There were no words the words to describe it, exactly. It was like feedback. If my brain had been a computer, I got the feeling I'd only be getting hundreds or thousands of error messages popping up across the screen. It was painful, too, just compounding until it felt like my brain was being used as a punching bag.
I pressed my hand to my head, wincing at the pain, and it wasn't just from being bludgeoned with a fire extinguisher. The headache was at near-migraine levels now, and I desperately wanted to tear off my mask and try to throw up, if only to relieve of the nausea that was welling up. I was getting an idea of why I'd been feeling so off.
"What the fuck did you do?" I asked the girl.
"You don't need to know that." She swung the fire extinguisher over her head at me, and I scrambled out of the way, grabbing the edge of a table to haul myself to my feet as I did it.
She didn't chase me. Instead, she reached into her jacket pocket and retrieved a cell phone. She started to punch a number into the keypad with one hand, the other holding the fire extinguisher. Her eyes were trained on me.

So, Amy did hit Bug with a fire extinguisher. And now she's using her cellphone to call her sister on the roof, right? Indeed she's doing this. Bug, do something, if Glory Girl will come, bank job will be Undersiders' first failure (and probably the last one because one just can't plan another robbery while in Birdcage). I was right, Amy modified the spiders somehow so she can use them against their own Master (people are lucky that I don't have superpowers because I have a pretty good imagination with using any given power

). I'm surprised that there were still hostages inside "glares daggers at Kid Win and smacks him upside his head" You could have killed people with your super canon, genius. Your bosses will confiscate your gadgets for sure. And maybe keep you away from missions for a while.

There was no way I was going to let her make that phone call, whoever she was dialing. I went on the offense, lunging towards her as I reached into the armored compartment at my back and retrieved the extendable baton. I pulled the trigger and flicked it out to one side. Eighteen inches of black painted alloy with a weighted tip snapped out from the foam-grip handle.

Her eyes widened as I swung the baton, but she had the presence of mind to drop the phone and heft the fire extinguisher up to block the attack. Her grip on the fire extinguisher wasn't good enough for her to keep hold of it, so it clattered to the ground. She backed away rather than risk trying to pick it up again.

Her eyes widened as I swung the baton, but she had the presence of mind to drop the phone and heft the fire extinguisher up to block the attack. Her grip on the fire extinguisher wasn't good enough for her to keep hold of it, so it clattered to the ground. She backed away rather than risk trying to pick it up again.
The girl retreated as I advanced towards her. I stopped when I was standing over her cell phone. I collapsed and sheathed my baton, then bent down and retrieved the fire extinguisher. I smashed the phone with the butt end of it.
"Shit. I liked that phone," she muttered.
"Shut up," I retorted, the pain making my voice strained, harder edged, "What the fuck did you do to me?" I pressed the heel of my free hand against my forehead, as if the pressure could help stave off the pain.
"I… don't think I'll tell you."
"Who the fuck are you, and who were you trying to call?"
"Actually, it was a text, not a call, and it went through," she said. Then she smiled at me.

Tattletale, its time to make your apparition and save the situation because otherwise Bug will be completely defenseless from the moment when Glory Girl will be there. No matter what you're planning to do, Tattletale, at least try to do something. Maybe she left to call the entire team inside, especially since there's nobody else outside for them to fight against.

At the same moment I uttered the word 'Who', one of the windows at the side of the bank shattered. A blur of white and gold slammed into the center of the lobby hard enough to send fragments of marble tile skittering over the floor to my feet, halfway across the room.

The figure straightened, dusted herself off and turned to glare at me. Almost casually, she backhanded the marble and oak table to her left that held all of the withdrawal and deposit slips. With that lazy swing of her arm, she annihilated the table, doing so much damage to it that nobody would ever be putting it together again.
It's humiliating to admit, but I nearly wet myself. I'm not sure my reaction would have been much different if she didn't have a power that made her flat out terrifying. Literally, that's what her power did. Had I done something heinous in a past life, to deserve going up against Lung on my first time out in costume, and Glory Girl on my second?

"Hey sis," Glory Girl tilted her head to one side, to look at the brown haired girl, "You okay?"
The girl, who could be none other than Amy Dallon, Panacea when she was in costume, offered Glory Girl a beaming smile, "I am now."
Glory Girl's sister had been among the hostages. Damn it. At least I knew who she was now. She could heal with a touch, and if what she'd done to my powers was any indication, that wasn't the full extent of her abilities. Glory Girl and Panacea were celebrities, even if Panacea had generally avoided the spotlight as of late. They were among the most famous of the local heroes, arguably among the most powerful of the kid capes, they were pissed at me, and I was stuck in a room with them.
And my powers weren't working.

Glory Girl came like the WRENCHING BALL she's, Amy laughs on the inside, feeling victorious and protected by her sister (love how much these sisters care for each other despite not being blood related. Its cute) and Bug...
BUG'S POV: I think I'll have to buy diapers for the next time when I'll go out in costume, if there's a next time, that's it.

Glory Girl stepped towards me, and I scrambled for Panacea. She scrabbled for a grip at my costume, trying to grab at my glove, then at my mask, but the moment I drew my knife, both she and Glory Girl went absolutely still. I grabbed Panacea's chin and maneuvered so I was standing behind her, my knife pressed to her throat.

"Count yourself lucky, bug bitch, that your costume covers your entire body," Panacea murmured to me, "Or I'd maybe give you a heart attack. Or cancer."
I swallowed hard. I wasn't counting myself as particularly lucky at this point.
"It seems we have a stalemate," Glory Girl said.
"True," I replied.

"So are we just going to stand around here until reinforcements arrive for one side or the other, tip the scales in someone's favor?"
"I could live with that. Last I saw, my side was winning."
"I helped Aegis out of a jam on my way in, so he's keeping your little friends busy. You should also know that the Protectorate is on their way from a wine and dine with Brockton Bay's finest at the Augustus Country Club. Can't speak for them, but I know I'd be royally pissed if some little snots dragged me away from a chance to have the club's chocolate mousse."
Panacea made a little laugh, "It is good, isn't it?" then in a lower voice, she whispered to me, "What if I fucked up your taste buds, you little terrorist?

So, the Undersiders are busy with Aegis. "Great" news, people. And the Dallon sisters started threatening Bug who, in meantime, took Amy as her hostage. Glory Girl can't do jack shit against the villainess because her sister's life is in imminent danger. I enjoy her moment of weaknesses, the invincible girl is not so invincible anymore when someone fucks her emotionally. However I hope that Bug will not hurt Amy accidentally

.

You threaten the lives of innocents, I can go that far. I can do anything with your biology. Make everything you eat taste like bile. Or maybe I'll just make you fat. Morbidly, disgustingly fat."

"You can shut up now," I tightened my grip and pressed the knife a fraction harder against her throat. Between the stress of the moment, the pounding headache and the fact that fucking Glory Girl was standing not fifty feet away, I didn't need little sister distracting me with nightmarish imagery.
Glory Girl spoke up, "It's not just the Protectorate, either. You just took a member of New Wave hostage, threatened her life. There's a pretty damn good chance my mom, dad, aunt, uncle and cousins will be showing up, too. Brandish, Flashbang, Lady Photon, Manpower, Laserdream, Shielder… how are you going to manage, then?"
Fuck. I had no reply to that. I kept my mouth shut. I was barely able to focus, now, as my head throbbed. My vision was wavering around the edges, and my grip on my bugs was virtually gone. Most had freed themselves from my influence entirely, and were buzzing around the light fixtures or crawling for darkness. It was all I could do to stay standing and keep my hands steady.
"Drop the knife and surrender, and I'll make sure you get leniency."
"I've read up on the law enough that I know you don't have the power to make any deals," I said, "No go."
"Okay. Then I guess we wait."
A few long moments passed.
Glory Girl turned her attention to her sister, "I wanted to go to the mall for lunch, but noooo," Glory Girl said, "You needed to go to the bank."

So the New Wave is compose only from Victoria and Amy's relatives? Hmm, time to guess for powers for New Wave parahumans. I said before that Brandish might summon and use weapons, Flashbang might summon and use flash grenades, Lady Photon might create energy blasts, light or electromagnetic radiation, Manpower should be like a male Powergirl (DC), he can fly, has super strength, Laserdream might shoot lasers from their eyes or hands and Shielder might create forcefields. I noticed a common theme in New Wave family: the members can either fly, have light/energy based powers, super strength and can protect themselves with forcefields (except for Amy who doesn't really belongs to the family). So, its a pretty ENERGIC FAMILY, eh? Try to imagine having this entire family up your ass. Fucking nightmare wrapped up in beautiful colors.

"It was either going to the bank or wind up broke for that double date you're forcing me into."

"Ames, the guy I'm setting you up with is a sixteen year old millionaire. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect him to foot the bill for dinner and a movie."

"Could you two please shut up?" I growled.
"Do they have to? It's all very informative," Tattletale joked as she sidled into the room. She hoisted herself up to the edge of one of the teller's stations, then greeted Glory Girl, "Hey Glory Hole."
Glory Girl's face twitched.
"Hey, Tattletale," I called out, my voice a touch strained, "Not that I'm not glad to see you, but could you avoid antagonizing Alexandria Junior?"
"Eh. You seem to have things under control. Why not set the bugs on the prom queen?"
"Prom queen?" Glory Girl asked.
"Um," I cut in, before either of them could say something that started a fight, "First of all, she's invincible. Second, again, bad idea to irritate someone who can swing a schoolbus like a baseball bat. Third, my hostage here did something to fuck up my powers."
"That last bit sucks," Tattletale sympathized. Then she took a closer look at Panacea, "Shit. Amy Dallon? Grue is going to kill me, for missing that. You look different than you did when you were showing up in the news. Are you wearing your hair differently?"

Call me sadistic but I kind of like this mundane conversation between the sisters while one is at knifepoint and the other one can't react without putting her sister's life in danger. TATTLETALE SHOWTIME NOW! everyone shut up now

. Hi, Tattletale, you arrived just at the right time. Glory Hole? What, you called Glory Girl as GLORY HOLE!?! Omg (my dirty mind knows what Glory Hole means

)

rofl:

rofl: Poor Glory Girl, Tattletale mentally knocked her out with just two words.

"Tattletale," I interjected, again, "Less small talk, more problem solving. Glory Girl said the Protectorate and maybe New Wave are en route."

Tattletale glanced at Glory Girl, then frowned, "She's not lying. Let's start with problem three, since you're not looking so hot. Your powers aren't working?"

"Can't control my bugs, got a major headache."
"Think I know why. Let me fix that for you," Tattletale said. She hopped down from the teller's station and started to walk towards me and Panacea.
"Don't move," Glory Girl warned.
"Or what?" Tattletale whirled to face the girl, smiling, "You'll beat me up? You can't do anything while my teammate has a knife to your sister's throat. Sit. Stay. Good girl."
Glory Girl glowered at Tattletale, but she didn't move.
"I think it would be better if you stayed back," I warned her, "You get in Panacea's reach, she'll touch you and give you a stroke or something."
"Can she? Sure. Will she? Definitely not. She's all bark, no bite."
"Try me," Panacea taunted. I reasserted my grip and reminded her of the knife against her throat.

GLORY HOLE.....

rofl:

.....MOTHERFUCKING GLORY HOLE...I can't stop, I'm laughing with tears, sorry people. I wonder what Glory Girl's boyfriend, Gallant, will have to say about this. No wonder why Tattletale is my friend's favorite character (she currently reads Ward but she refuses to tell me a single word about Worm or Ward, she only told me that Lisa is her role model in life- except for the villainous side, of course. Well, I personally still love Taylor more. I have something in my mind: maybe for the next Halloween, I'll go out as Bug and my friend as Tattletale, its going to be so cool if she'll agree). Oh, God, Wildbow, I love you man, you ROCK. Now Tattletale is going to find a way to break the control Amy have over Bug's powers, isn't she? Yep, she'll do that!

"I'd really prefer to avoid tempting fate," I said, carefully.

"Fine, fine," Tattletale said, raising her hands in a placating gesture. She walked over to the branch manager's desk and opened a drawer.
"You pull a gun out of that drawer," Glory Girl threatened, "And I'll fucking break you."
"Enough with the threats you can't follow up on. It's not a gun," Tattletale grinned, raising her hands again. A keychain dangled from her left thumb.
"Keys," Glory Girl said.
"The keys of manager Jeffry Clayton. Type A personality, totally. Control freak. The kind of guy who loves to have absolute control over a meeting."
"First of all, who cares? Second, how do you know this?"
"Come on," Tattletale smiled, folding her arms, "Villain 101. You don't give info to the hero in a gloating monologue."

"Right," Glory Girl agreed, "Always worth a try."
"I'll tell you anyways."
Glory Girl raised an eyebrow.
"No reason not to. Actually in my advantage to let you know. I'm psychic. I read his mind when we had him hostage, like I'm reading yours right now," the lie was so smooth I almost believed it.

She's keeping them busy with all the unnecessary and annoying lies so she'll have time enough to help Bug with her problem. Tattletale have one of the most powerful weapons at her disposition: her own mouth and her ability to lie, even if is not always very convincing. Also, she seems a bit like a BULLY to me, but I have to follow more of their conversation in order to be sure about that.

A flash of red caught my attention. The red dot from a laser pointer settled on the hood of Panacea's jacket. I looked at Tattletale, and saw that while she had her arms folded, she was holding a laser pointer that was attached to the keychain. I watched Tattletale draw a lazy circle around the spot she'd pointed to, on Panacea's jacket.

"Bullshit," Glory Girl said, "The brainpower you'd need to interpret and decode someone's unique neural patterns would need a head five times the usual size to contain it all. True psychics can't exist."
"Ooh, someone's taking Parahumans 101 at the university. Your parents pull some strings, got you into a university course before you were done high school?"
"I think you already know the answer, I'm just not buying that you read my mind to get it."
"Why is it so hard to believe? Legend can shoot lasers from his hands, lasers that turn corners. Clockblocker and Vista can mess with the fundamental forces of space and time. Kaiser can create metal from thin air. Conservation of mass, conservation of energy, basic laws of our universe get broken by capes all the time. All of that is possible, but I can't peek into your brain?"
Tattletale was still focusing the laser pointer on Panacea's hood. Since I was the only person in a position to see it, it could only be for my benefit. I pulled the hood back, investigated the interior and found nothing. But on the nape of her neck, I spotted one of my black widow spiders.

Fuck, why did you said what kind of power this Legend have before I'll even have time to guess? Hmm, Kaiser, the Parahuman Hitler, can summon metal from thin air. This is a hella STRONG and SCARY power to have. For example, he can create pillars of metal from floor and impale everyone around. Or from walls. Or from ceiling, an entire room can be turned into a HELL OF SHARPED METAL PILLARS. And if he can also bypass the Manton Effect, he'll fuck you by creating metal needles inside your own heart or little metal balls inside your brain. And when he's getting bored, he can make some nice decorations of metal swastikas and impress his people with his aryan artistic skills. Kaiser is METAL! I wonder why some people doesn't believe in psychics in a world where people can literally SHAPESHIFT INTO LEGENDARY CREATURES (dragon) and an alien randomly saves humans around. And many more. Its like one would say that they don't believe in magic while studying at Hogwarts

.

I pulled it off her gently, and felt the pain in my head worsen with the contact, the movement. Either by impulse or by reflex as I flinched at the pain, I crushed it between my fingers.

Immediately, the pain in my head dropped to a fraction of what it had been. The relief was so intense it was almost euphoric. I still didn't fully grasp what Panacea done, but I was getting a good picture of it. She'd somehow sensed what I was doing to control the spider, then altered things so the spider wasn't sending me the right information. A continuous loop of the wrong information, like when thieves in the movies spliced a video camera feed to repeat the same segment over and over. Either by accident or design, it had exponentially increased the interference every time my power reached for the arachnids in question. All building up to a metaphorical short circuit of my power.
I could barely fathom the subtleties and delicacy that would have required to set up.
"Glory Gi-" Panacea began to speak, but I tightened my grip, and she closed her mouth.
"Shhhh," I hissed at her.
"Scholars say you're wrong."
Tattletale grinned, "Scholars want me to be wrong, and their research reflects that. Telepathy scares the everloving crap out of people, especially since the only suspected telepath out there is-"

"The Simurgh," Glory Girl finished for her.
"Right. And when a fucking Endbringer is your precedent, people get spooked, just like you're spooked right now, at the idea that there's someone standing in front of you who can find your deepest darkest secrets and tell the world."
Tattletale was pointing to Panacea's upper arm now. It took me two tries to murder the spider. Before I'd finished, Tattletale was directing me to the final one, which I'd stashed on Panacea's ankle. I killed it by jabbing at it with my toe. The headache was completely gone a second later.
"Which is why you call yourself Tattletale, I see," Glory Girl was saying, "But you're a retard. We're part of New Wave. We have no secrets. That's the whole fucking point of our team. Heroes with no secret identities, no secrets, full disclosure, total accountability."
"For the record," Tattletale said, her voice very smooth and calm, "I fucking hate it when people call me stupid."
"Yet here the two of you are, and neither of you have powers that work against either of us. All you've got is a knife, and if you use it, you both die in the most painful way I think I can get away with."
"Oh honey, now who's being stupid? I've got the most powerful weapon of all,"Tattletale purred, smiling wickedly, "Information."

I was so RIGHT about the spiders thing. I'm glad when I'm right

. This Simurgh dude/girl is one of the They-who-must-not-be-named. Simurgh can also probably turn into a mythological giant bird (Simurgh is a mythical bird in iranian mythology btw) and have telepathy powers. Wow, these They-who-must-no-be-named are literally shapeshifters with different powers. And everyone is afraid of them. Bet that when they don't feel like scaring/torturing/killing people around, these supreme fuckers all read Lovecraft and laugh about how close are the things described in his stories to their powers.
YES, Tattletale, you have the most powerful weapon of all, indeed you have

.

Later, a new chapter. Bye and always remember a thing: KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!

AmbarGriss · Mar 11, 2018

All hail Tattletale and disgrace to Glory Hole \o/

Assembler · Mar 11, 2018

blackarrow said:
Also, I noticed that Bug doesn't know about Amy's powers since she doesn't believe that someone from New Wave can give her headaches. She either doesn't know Amy or Amy appears to public opinion only as a healer, not as a complete biology manipulator.

Amy doesn't exactly hide her ability to do biology manipulation (see her threatening the skinhead in Interlude 2), but all the talk about her powers in-universe tends to focus on her use of it for healing. In addition, not only was New Wave supposed to be away because of jurisdictional conflicts with the Wards (something which didn't happen because Amy was a hostage), Amy's power is touch-based and she wasn't touching Taylor directly, so Taylor had no reason to know Amy was in the bank fucking with her bugs.

blackarrow · Mar 11, 2018

Hello, again, with a new piece of agitation 3.12 | Worm where we can find about what kind of plans Tattletale have to get rid of both Glory Girl and Amy and escape with Bug before the reinforcements arrive. I'm sure she'll keep tattling, distracting their attention enough for Bug (or any other Undersiders) to take them by surprise, when they'll let their guards completely down. Girl Hole....

I mean Girl and Amy will be so humiliated if they'll lose because of gossips. See, girls, this is exactly why we should gossip less and pay more attention to surroundings

"Information," Glory Girl repeated.
Tattletale twirled the keys around one of her fingers, "For instance, it's not exactly public knowledge that Panacea was adopted."
"It's not a secret either. It's on official record."
"Falsified records," Tattletale grinned.
Glory Girl glanced at her sister.

"Let me tell you a little story. Correct me if I'm wrong on any of the details. Eleven years ago, just five years after capes really started showing up, there was a team operating hereabouts, calling themselves the Brockton Bay Brigade. Lady Photon, Manpower, Brandish, Flashbang, Fleur and Lightstar. They wind up taking on a villain in his own home and it's a pretty decent fight. They beat him, and because he was a real bastard, he got sent straight to the Birdcage."
"You can stop now," Glory Girl said, "Point made."
"Oh, I haven't even gotten to the good part. See, they found a little girl hiding in the closet. His little girl, a toddler," Tattletale grinned at Panacea, "Given the odds that someone with powers would have a kid with powers, and knowing how the little girl would never be able to have a normal life with word inevitably getting out about her past, they wound up taking her in."
"We know this story already," Glory Girl replied, her tone just a touch testy.
Whatever Tattletale was doing, I sensed it was giving us more control over the situation. I commented, "This is new to me. I'm sort of intrigued."

More heroes from New Wave. Sorry, I can't really help myself everytime when I see new codenames. Fleur might create flowers of light (since the entire family have light based powers) and Lightstar- little stars of light. If this is what these heroes can really do, then their powers must be so pretty

. I'd love to be able to create light flowers and stars, mostly because of the sheer beauty of the results. So, Amy's real father is a villain. And he's now in Birdcage. What are you exactly trying to say with this piece of information, Tattletale? Are you implying that Amy might become a villain in the future only because one of her parents is a villain? If you're implying this then you're wrong, my dear girl. Not all villains' children become villains and not all heroes' children become heroes. Depends of each's personality, own morals, mental sanity and their lifestyle

.

"The point I'm getting at, Glory Hole, is that I know that one detail you two don't. Or at least, I'm willing to look at all the little clues that you've got floating around your heads and figure out that one thing that you've gone out of your way to avoid knowing. Glory Hole's curious, but she avoids the subject because her sister desperately wants her to, and Panacea… Well, if I told her, I suspect she'd do something very stupid."
I could feel Panacea slump in my arms. The fight had gone out of her.
"So, Amy, you want to know who your daddy is?"
For a few long moments, there was only the sound of rain pattering on the windowsill, and the buzzing of the insects still in the room.

"It's that bad?" I asked in a half whisper, as much to Panacea as to Tattletale.
"It's not the man that would bother her so much. It's the knowing. Every hour of every day after hearing me say his name, she would wonder. She's terrified she'll start second guessing every part of herself, wondering if she inherited it from him, or if she was that way out of an unconscious desire to not be him. Knowing as much as she does already keeps her awake some nights, but knowing his name, knowing who he is and what he did? For the rest of her life, she would compare herself to him. Isn't that right, Amy?"
"Shut up. Just… shut up," Panacea retorted, her voice thick with emotion.
"Why? I'm on a roll. That's not even the most dangerous tidbit of info I've picked up, here. I know stuff that's just as bad."
I saw a flicker of doubt cross Glory Girl's face.
"I'll make you a deal, Glory Hole. You go in the vault, lock yourself in, and I don't speak on the subject. I won't say the one sentence that tears your family apart."

Oh, God, honestly, I don't like the game that Tattletale is playing with poor Amy. She uses not only her secrets against them, but even the things she doesn't know yet and she doesn't want to find about. Amy doesn't want to know her father's identity, because she's afraid that she might become like him one day (who knows what kind of terrible psycho fucker her father is!), she's unsure that she's a true hero at her heart (she even told Victoria that she's not keen to heroic things) and she doesn't trust herself enough (she seems to have a lot of doubts about herself- not wanting to heal someone's brain, not truly believing in heroic stuff, not wanting to know who's her dad). What Tattletale is doing now is called psychological pressure, something totally wrong from a moral point of view, but good because it might be the ticket to freedom for her and Bug. Oh, man, I feel so bad for Amy, I personally wouldn't be able to do that to her if I were in Tattletale's place, even if it would be necessary for my escape. Tattletale have a pretty dark and sadistic streak, I have to admit (I apologize to all Tattletale's fans including myself, but she can be pretty dark when she wants to be).

Glory Girl clenched her fists, "I can't do that. I'm calling your bluff, and if I'm wrong, I'll face the consequences of whatever you say."
"Very principled. Very self-involved too, that you think the secret and the consequences have to do with you and your overzealous nature. They don't. They have to do with her." Tattletale directed the laser pointer at Panacea's forehead, "You won't be tickled pink, either, but the aftermath would be hers to deal with. Humiliation, shame, heartbreak."
I could feel Panacea stiffen in my grip.
"Offer stands," Tattletale grinned, "For the next twelve seconds. Get in the vault."
"You're full of shit," Panacea spat the words.
"Then why are you so tense?" I asked.
"Eight seconds."
Panacea abruptly tore out of my grip, so violently I had to pull the knife away to keep her from cutting her own throat against it.

Tattletale scrambled to put a desk between herself and Panacea, but Glory Girl slammed into her, carrying her across the length of the room. They stopped just short of a wall. Not that Tattletale got away unscathed. Glory Girl shoved Tattletale into the wall, one hand over her mouth, and held her there.
While Panacea was distracted, I passed my knife into my left hand and gripped my baton.

(seriously, this scene made me tears up, I feel so sorry for Amy...) Glory Girl got super pissed and stopped Tattletale from playing further games with her sister's mind. Oh, fuck, that must be painful for Tattletale. Amy escaped from Bug's grip for moment and I guess that now they're going to fight, right? Glory Girl is too busy keeping Tattletale from saying Amy's father's name so she can't do jack shit to save her sister if Bug will smack her with the baton.

I pressed the trigger while swinging it, letting the momentum of the swing draw it out to its full length. Panacea saw me coming, but I don't know if she realized what I was holding. The length of metal struck her across the side of the head. She staggered a few feet, then went down hard.
Unfortunately for me, Glory Girl saw it all unfold.
"Nobody fucks with my family!" she shouted, and her power cranked out full-bore. My knees turned to jelly and my brain just gave up on rational thought. Glory Girl threw Tattletale at me like a very strong child might throw a rag doll, and I just stood there like a deer in the headlights.

Tattletale's body collided with my midsection, knocking the wind out of me. The two of us collided with a desk, sending a monitor and a plastic box of files to the floor. Paper and fragments of monitor scattered over the ground.
We were still reeling when Glory Girl started floating towards us. I was struggling, unsuccessfully, to heave wheezing gasps of air into my lungs, while Tattletale was gripping one of her arms tight against her body, making little whimpering noises.
"I'm going to pull in every favor I'm owed, and put myself in debt with the local D.A. and whoever else I have to, to get you both sent to the Birdcage," Glory Girl promised, "You know what that place is like? A prison without wardens. No communication with the outside world. No escapes yet, which is pretty amazing considering it houses all of the worst and most powerful villains we've been able to capture. We don't even know for sure if anyone's alive inside there. It's just a bucket where we dump scum like you, so we never have to worry about you again."

Awww, FUCK!!!! Glory Girl is not stupid. She used her emotional aura to mess with her foes' emotions then fucked both of them in the same time. This must be painful as hell. I think Tattletale's arm is broken. Poor Tattletale and Bug, I don't know what to say anymore. If your buddies will not come to save you, Glory Girl will turn you into her personal baseballs. Hell, she already DID!
What, nobody escaped from Birdcage? Not even the captured They-who-must-not-be-named (because I'm pretty sure the heroes captured at least one of them, unless maybe they just killed them instead, since they're so dangerous to even be arrested)? Then that must be a really SECURE prison. Kudos to the tinkers who created it.

"Bugs," Tattletale grunted at me, almost too quiet to hear.
I didn't catch her meaning, but I was still struggling to catch my breath, so I just shook my head at her.
"And no contact with the outside world means you don't go fucking talking about whatever Amy wants to keep private. I trust my sister, I trust she has a reason for keeping it to herself."
"Bugs. Swarm her," Tattletale said, taking lots of little breaths as she said it.
I caught her meaning. I reached for my swarm, and was glad to find that my power was working perfectly. Panacea's sabotage job had been undone when I'd killed the last of the spiders. I set every bug I could reach on Glory Girl.
Useless. It felt like I'd set them on unnaturally strong, slick glass.
"Idiots," Glory Girl's muffled voice came from the midst of the cloud of insects, "I'm invincible."

Tattletale used her good arm to prop herself up, groaning, "First of all, I warned you about calling me stupid. Second, no, you're not invincible. Not exactly."
Then she raised her good hand from her belt and trained a small handgun on Glory Girl.
The sound was deafening. You don't really get a sense for how intense gunfire is from TV and movies. As is, it was enough that it took me a few seconds to get a grip. Just a heartbeat later, I realized my bugs had broken through. They found flesh to latch on to, flesh to bite, sting, claw and puncture. Glory Girl dropped like a stone and started thrashing violently.

Glory Girl is even more ARROGANT than usual. She continues to see herself as invincible despite Tattletale actually finding her weak spot (I think either her handgun can break the forcefields OR Glory Girl's forcefield is not really that good). Good thinking, Tattletale, you and Bug fucked one of the most powerful parahumans I've seen so far. Despite her broken arm and the evident pain she suffers, Tattletale is awesome at quick and efficient thinking. Glory Girl kind of deserve the Swarm's Touch of Blessing, however she only tried to protect her sister (but her arrogance got a major negative point).

"Help me stand," Tattletale's voice was strained, "Using my power like that on them took a lot out of me."
I grabbed her good hand and helped her up. With one of her arms around my shoulders, we hurried out of the bank, together. She shoved the gun into one of the largest pouches of her belt.
"What-" I tried, but talking just sent me into a spasm of painful coughs. We were down the front steps of the bank before I felt like trying again, "What just happened?"
"She's not really invincible. That's just an idea she likes to put in people's heads. She has a forcefield around her entire body, but it shorts out whenever she takes a good hit, comes back online a few seconds later. I knew when I saw she had dust on her costume. Dust that her forcefield would keep off her. Fuck, this hurts."

"What is it?"
"She pulled my arm out of the socket when she threw me. Can you fix a dislocated shoulder?"
I shook my head. I knew how, generally speaking, from the first aid classes I had taken, but I doubted I had the strength to manage it, and I didn't want to waste time getting Tattletale in a good position to fix her arm when we needed to be gone.
The fight outside the bank was still going our way. Only Aegis was still in action, and he was hemmed in by the three dogs and Regent's borrowed laser cannon.
Grue stepped out of the darkness near me, holding onto Bitch much the same way I was holding Tattletale.
"Let's scram," I said.
"Let's," he agreed, in his haunting voice.

So her forcefield isn't that good like she made people believe. Got it, that's her weakness. I hope that Amy will be ok and not think too much at Tattletale's words

. Tattletale have her arm pulled out of its socket (oh, God, this reminds me when I had myself my right arm pulled out of its socket. My parents were present when the accident happened and I refused to let them helping me, crying and screaming in pain. Then my mom told me that I'm a stupid daughter for behaving like a toddler and when I screamed at her for talking like this about me while I was suffering, my father quickly pulled my shoulder back in. All he needed was for my mom to distract my attention. My mom hugged me and apologized but I wasn't mad on her anymore

. Good mothers know what is the best for their children).

"Hey G-man," Tattletale winced, "Pop my shoulder back in?"
Grue nodded. I helped brace Tattletale as he shoved her arm back into place. He asked, "What happened?"
"It was Glory Girl on the roof," I explained, then I coughed painfully a few times before adding, "Can we please get the fuck out of here?"

"You guys took Glory Girl?" Grue asked, incredulous, while Bitch roused herself enough to whistle for her dogs.
"In a sense," Tattletale replied, at the same time I nervously pointed out, "She could be coming after us any second."
We got on the dogs, and Regent fired a salvo of shots from the laser cannon into Aegis, hammering him into the side of a building until the wall around him collapsed. He then paused to jam his taser into the control panel. When the gun started to smoke, Regent made his way down, jumping the last four or five feet to land on a dog's back. He tucked the skateboard under one arm.
"Leave it," Grue said.
"But-"
"Tracking device. Assume any tinker worth a damn is going to have tracking devices in their stuff."
"It's true," Tattletale answered, as Regent turned towards her. "Sorry."
"Fuck!" Regent swore. He jammed his tazer into the underside of the skateboard like he had with the control panel, then threw it across the street.

Aegis can fight for weeks against Undersiders without breaking a sweat. Because this is how awesome this Undead Superhero is. Kid Win is going to be so pissed for having his skateboard destroyed and the rest of his stuff (more than sure) confiscated by the ones in charge of Wards. All heroes are pissed more or less, some are traumatized for life but all of this doesn't really mater as long as Undersiders's bank robbery was a SUCCESS. They have the money, they have the fame, they discovered Amy's real powers, they fucked (I hope not) her mentally and emotionally, they discovered Glory Girl's weak point (the Swarm is still fucking her up) and their boss will hug them and give them milk and cookies for their efforts. And everything ended well, like a cute and nice fairy tale

.

We were mounted with Bitch sitting in front of Grue, mainly so he could support her, and Tattletale behind me on Angelica, her uninjured arm wrapped around me. Regent was alone.
Grue raised his arms, and filled the street with darkness.
Angelica bolted, nearly unseating me, as she made a headlong run into the absolute darkness. I was on a creature more than twice the size of a horse, without a saddle, and she wasn't suited for riding in the same way a horse was. I had one foot resting on a horn of bone that jutted from her side, while the other dangled. My hands were gripping the straps we'd fitted her with, the only thing from keeping me tumbling backwards, head over heels, as she lunged forward at run that would probably outpace any cars on the road. Not that there would be any cars. The police and parahuman response teams would have the area blocked off around any potential cape fights. To make our escape all the more terrifying, I knew the dog couldn't see. She was following Brutus by scent, and Brutus was going by Grue's directions. The blind leading the blind.
I should have been terrified, my hands cramping, unable to see or hear, knowing I could tumble off at any second, but I was elated. Even when Angelica crashed into something hard enough to nearly knock us off, it didn't kill my enthusiasm. I hooted, hollered and cheered our victory, barely hearing the noise myself as the darkness absorbed it.

We'd done it. I'd done it. We'd escaped without killing anyone. The only ones who'd really been hurt at all had been the Wards, Glory Girl and Panacea, and that would be fixed when Panacea came to, for sure. Any property damage had largely been the fault of the Wards and Glory Girl. I'd maybe made some enemies, I'd scared some innocent people, but I'd be lying to myself if I said that could've been avoided. In short, things couldn't have gone better.
Okay, they could have gone a lot better, but the way they ended up? Pretty damn good, all in all.

They're even riding the monster-dogs through the utter darkness. Aww, see Taylor, life is not so bad. It has its ups and downs, but most of the time ups as long as you'll keep your optimism and you never give up, no matter what you're doing.
AEGIS'S POV: Nobody really cares for us, heroes? Why villains are so much more loved? I don't get it. They screwed my team...."sighs" Hate my job.

Aegis would have climbed out of the rubble by now, flown up for a bird's eye view. If Grue was doing what we'd planned, he was filling every street and side street we passed with darkness. Aegis couldn't see where or if we doubled back or what streets we took, so he could only identify our location by the places where fresh darkness appeared. If he tried to close in to get us, though, we'd be gone by the time he reached us. All he could do was follow our general location.
Just when I thought I might not be able to hold on any longer, we pulled to a stop. Tattletale and I slipped off of Angelica. Someone, probably Grue, pushed a backpack into my arms. Even working in total darkness, I managed to change into the set of civilian clothes we'd hidden away before we headed to the bank. I was handed an umbrella and gratefully unfolded it with my stiff hands.

It was tense, waiting in the darkness, with only the feeling of the rain on the umbrella to give me a sense of the world beyond myself and of time passing.
It was a long time before the world came into view again. Grue said his darkness faded after twenty minutes or so, but it felt like far longer than that. As the darkness cleared away, I saw Lisa sitting on the steps at the front of a shoe store, holding aleash in one hand and a paper shopping bag in the other. Angelica, as normal as she ever was, was on the other end of the leash, sitting patiently. All around us were shoppers and pedestrians, each with their umbrellas and raincoats, looking around with scared expressions and wide eyes. The sounds were refreshing after the silence of the darkness – falling rain and the murmur of conversation.
Lisa stood, and winked at me as she tugged on the leash to get Angelica following at her side. We joined the crowd of disoriented shoppers.
Assuming things went according to plan, Alec would be dropped off next, without a dog, and he'd change into civilian clothes the same way we had. Bitch, Brian and the two dogs would make the final stop at a storage locker near the Docks. Inside, they would change into their civies, relax for a few hours inside, and leave the money there for the boss to pick up. After taking a long enough break that the heroes would have abandoned pursuit, they would make their way back much as we were.
"Everyone came out of this unscathed?" I asked Tattletale in a low voice. I was sharing my umbrella with her, so speaking together in a kind of huddle wasn't strange looking.
"No injuries or deaths for us, for the heroes or for the bystanders," she confirmed.
"Then it's a good day," I said.
"A very good day," she agreed.
Arm in arm, we walked leisurely through downtown. Like everyone else, we craned our heads to follow the police cars and PRT vans that were rushing to the scene of the crime with sirens wailing. Two girls who just finished their shopping, walking their dog.

The Operation Lisa's Fives was an remarkable success

Indeed a good day.
HEROES (AND CIVILIANS)'S POV: :turian:

...What a fucked up day!!!!! Everything would have been so fine, if it weren't for you meddling kids and your stupid dogs!

Tomorrow, more chapters, good night everyone and have pleasant dreams.

AmbarGriss · Mar 11, 2018

This was the chapter that made Tattletale into my favorite Undersider.
The next interlude is one I like very much aswell

blackarrow · Mar 12, 2018

Hello, people from everywhere. Time for me to end your agitation with the Interlude of this Arc 3.x (Interlude) | Worm. At least this Arc was longer than the last 2 and the most interesting and exciting one so far (I'm not going into details about it before I'll finish the whole Worm, as I promised). But I like this Arc, I really, really liked it. Ok, let's see if I'll be right about the POV included in this Interlude. Possible one of the Undersiders' POV? Possible his or her backstory? Or everything will be about heroes and how they cope with this huge FAILURE? I guess they'll have to return to the Protectorate Headquarters and give explanations to their bosses. And their bosses will not be very happy about what they're going to hear. Not at all. And some naughty kids might get punished

.

The building housing the local Parahuman Response Team division didn't really stand out. The exterior was all windows, reflective enough to mirror the mottled dark gray of the sky overhead. Only a shield logo bearing the letters 'P.R.T.' marked it apart from the other buildings of downtown Brockton Bay.
Those entering the lobby would find a strange juxtaposition at work. On the one hand, you could see the various employees in suits, hurrying in and out of the building, talking in groups. A team of four PRT officers was on standby, each stationed at a different area of the lobby, outfitted in the best equipment money could buy. All had chain mesh and kevlar vests, helmets that covered their faces, and firearms. The equipment differed, however, as two of them had grenade launchers hanging from straps on their shoulders with bandoliers of various specialty ammunition across their chests, including a fire extinguishing grenade, an EMP round and various stun grenades. The other two had what appeared at first glance to be flame throwers; were they to pull the triggers, they would eject a thick, frothing spray of foam, enough to contain all but the strongest and fastest villains.

In stark contrast to this, there was the gift shop that would be thick with youths when school ended, sporting a selection of action figures, posters, video games and clothing. Four-foot tall pictures of the various Protectorate and Wards team members were placed at regular intervals around the lobby, each backed by bright colors.
There was a cheery tour guide waiting patiently by the front desk, smiling handsomely at anybody who happened to glance his way. On schedule, he would introduce tourists and children to the PRT offices, the armory, the training area and the parking lot with the parahuman containment vans, showing them what it took to manage the local heroes. For those willing to pay for the premium tour, wait up to two hours and suffer a PRT squad escort, there would be an additional stop on the tour – a glimpse of the Wards' Headquarters.
As a beleaguered team of young heroes staggered into the lobby, however, there was no tour, only a heavyset woman with a bob. She wore a navy blue suit jacket and skirt, and waited with a pair of stern looking men in suits just behind her. Wordlessly, she led them through a door behind the front desk and into a meeting room.

Yes, yes, yes, I was right. Heroes getting ready to be punished for their messy play. I suppose that the heavyset woman is one of the bosses. Cool, another woman leader! (I have to start counting everytime when a new woman leader appears only because they're so fucking SCARCE

in this universe). Ok, before they'll start talking with this supposedly lady boss, I think I'll do what I promised last chapter, namely I'll talk about why I believe that Tattletale (the official Queen of Gossips) acted like a bully during her verbal attack against Amy. While I can't (and I'll never) compare her with the Trio of Bitches, Lisa is a bit of a bully herself, especially in moments where she needs to use these bullying skills to save herself/her teammates. She enjoyed (apparently) making fun of Victoria, making her feeling miserable and showing her that her idea of superiority towards everyone is zero in her (Lisa's) eyes and Victoria is unable to scare her, no matter what she'd have done. Then, after she played for a while with Victoria, she decided to hurt her where she suffers the most, to attack her sister. In this way, Lisa both successfully enraged Victoria, making her to lose her cool and logical thinking and making Amy doubting even more about herself than she did before (and this whole apparent innocent question: -Who is my real father?- maybe will have some very bad effects in the future, shaking/even shattering Amy's already fragile mind- I so hope that nothing like this will happen). Yes, Lisa was a big bully during that scene, she made two girls feeling like shit under the terrible pressure of her sharply words. But, unlike the bullies at Taylor's school, this (the bullying thing) is part of Lisa's superpower, her only supernatural weapon that she can use against such powerful people with supernatural powers. She didn't had any choice left but to use this weapon and to hurt people with it, in the same manner Victoria injured her with her super-strength (her own supernatural weapon). Tattletale did the moralistic wrong thing, but this is everything that she could have done during that intense and apparently without escape moment. I don't blame her, but I can't help to notice what Lisa would do to someone that she'd PERSONALLY HATE. She'll finish that unlucky person for life, I never doubt about, they'll be completely and utterly crushed. And she doesn't need any kind of physical violence. Just few words

.

"Director Piggot. Ma'am," Aegis greeted her, his voice strained. His costume was in shreds, and was more crimson with his own blood than it was its original white. It was bad enough his civilian identity might have been revealed, if it weren't for the matted blood and the chunks of meat that had been taken out of him, some of the wounds nearly a foot across.

"Good god, Aegis," her eyebrows raised a fraction, "You look like hell. What's wrong with your voice?"
"Punctured lung, ma'am," Aegis rasped, "I think there's a hole in my front and back." As if to demonstrate, he stuck his fingers into his chest cavity.
Director Piggot didn't look away, but one of the men standing behind her looked a touch green around the gills, "I can take you at your word. You don't need to stick your arm all the way through your chest to demonstrate."
Aegis grinned and removed his hand from his chest.
Her expression hardened, "I wouldn't be smiling right now."
Aegis' grin fell. He glanced over his shoulder at his teammates. Gallant, Kid Win, Vista, Browbeat and Clockblocker were all wearing suitably somber expressions.
"This was a fiasco," she told them.
"Yes ma'am. We lost," Gallant admitted.

Whoa, she's the director of Protectorate. The biggest boss. And her name is Piggot. This doesn't sound to me like a code name, more like her real name. I'm not sure what kind of powers this madam Piggot have. I don't know her code name, I have no freaking idea (she must be a parahuman too, after all). Pig-got. Pig. Yeah, maybe she can transform herself into a pig. Or transform other people into pigs (kind of like witch Circe from Homer's The Odyssey). Anyway...WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING, AEGIS? Ewww, please, don't do that in front of tourists too because nobody will ever want to visit PRT anymore. And they'll lose most of the funds, all "thanks" to you.
AEGIS'S POV: "sticks the whole hand inside chest cavity and grins like an idiot"
Me: This man is sick, hopeless..."shakes head"

"You lost, yes. That's the least of it. You also caused horrific amounts of property damage. I'm afraid any and all destruction caused by New Wave's golden child is also your responsibility, since you invited her along. Without my say-so."
"I invited her," Gallant spoke up, "I'll take the blame, and you can take the costs for the property damage out of my trust."

Director Piggot offered him a thin and utterly humorless smile, "Living up to your name, I see? Yes, I'm sure that's the best way to get the message across. Your teammates and I know who you are under the mask. Of everyone here, myself included, you're the one most able to handle a fine of tens of thousands of dollars."
"I won't deny it, ma'am," Gallant choked out the words.
"I'm afraid I'm a believer in punishment, when punishment is due. Taking money from someone with money to spare is not going to mean anything. All of you will share the fees between you. Since I can't touch the trust funds the PRT established for you, I'll have to settle for docking your pay. Maybe next time, the rest of you can talk Gallant out of inviting his girlfriend along."
The protests overlapped. "It was her sister in the bank! She would have gone in anyways!" "I start college next fall!"
Director Piggot simply weathered the arguments and complaints. A more cynical person might even suggest she enjoyed hearing them. When a minute or two passed and it was clear she wasn't going to reply or get dragged into the arguments, the young heroes fell into a sullen silence. She cleared her throat and spoke again.
"Kid Win. I'm very interested to hear about this weapon you deployed on the battlefield."
"My Alternator Cannon?" Kid Win asked, cringing just a bit.

Ha ha ha ha, I love Piggot. She acts exactly how I'd have acted if I were in her place. She's going to punish them for the property damage Glory Girl and Kid Win (and the fact that civilians could have died because of Kid Win's Alternator Canon). She's going to confiscate Kid's canon, right? Yay, take that, Kid, you're a hero, you have to respect rules and play according to them. Only villains and vigilantes are allowed to not respect rules, and you're neither one of them (you could be but you believe in heroic values). Also, Piggot doesn't make differences between rich people like Gallant and less rich people like the rest ones. Witch each paragraph, my respect and approval for this lady boss is rising

.

"You'll have to forgive me," Piggot smiled, "The paperwork gets to be a bit much sometimes. Maybe you know where to find the documentation from our military and science teams, for this Alternator Cannon?"
"Christ, Kid," Aegis groaned under his breath, with his ruined voice.
Kid Win looked more upset about Aegis' reaction than anything else, "I, uh. I didn't get it officially cleared, yet. I just thought it would be better to use the cannon and do what I could to stop the robbery."

"That's where you'd be wrong," Piggot told him, "Fact of the matter is, the money that was taken from the bank falls very low on my priority list. You might even go so far as to suggest I don't care about it."
"Director-" Aegis started. He didn't get to finish.
"What I care about is the public perception of capes. I care about ensuring that we get enough funding to keep you Wards, the Protectorate and the PRT squads paid and equipped. Without that, everything I've worked to build falls apart."
"What are you going to do?" Kid Win asked her.
"The cannon gets dismantled, first off."
"No!" Aegis and Kid Win spoke at the same time. Director Piggot looked briefly surprised at the defiance.
"I started on the Alternator Cannon so I'd have something to bring out in case of a Class A threat," Kid Win said, "Getting rid of it would be such a waste. I don't care if I never get to use it again. Give it to your PRT squad. I'll teach someone how it works. You can mount it on one of your trucks or something."

Lady Piggot is a severe and non-nonsense boss but she's very fair. She's right in everything she's saying (from heroes' point of view, of course, villains would give not a single flying fuck about destruction and even about murders). But I don't agree with dismantling the canon, first because Kid Win worked hard (I suppose) at building it, and for all of his efforts, his invention deserves to survive, second because it can be used against bigger future threats (so, its too useful to be wasted). Please, Piggot, give it another chance!

Director Piggot frowned, "The amount of time and money that would require, for an event that might never occur… no. I suppose you can keep the cannon."
Kid Win practically sagged with relief.
"But whatever the power source is, you're removing it, and I'm keeping it under lock and key. If a Class A threat does come into play, I'll hand it over to you. And the cannon still goes through the standard review process for all Tinker created material. If it doesn't pass the review, if you were putting people and property at undue risk with what you pulled today, I'm afraid you could face a substantial fine or jail time."
Kid Win paled.
"Director!" Aegis grunted out the word, taking a step forward.
"Be quiet, Aegis," Piggot snapped, "Your trying to speak with a punctured lung physically pains me, and as much as I admire standing up for your team, your one lungful of breath is wasted here."

Kid Win turned to Aegis and offered a small apologetic smile.
"Kid Win, you're coming with us for a disciplinary review. Everyone else is dismissed. The tour group is going to be coming by your quarters in an hour, and there's likely to be more than a few reporters peering in the window. Try to clean yourselves up for the pictures that are undoubtedly going to appear in tomorrow's papers. Please."
The two men in suits marched a miserable Kid Win out the door after Director Piggot. Kid Win shot a worried look at his team before he was taken out of sight.
"We debrief," Aegis grunted, "Gallant or Clockblocker handles it. You two decide."
The team trudged out of the meeting room and made their way to their reserved elevator. It was Tinker-designed to impress the tourists as well as be far more secure. Interlocking sections of metal unfolded and slid apart as they approached, then closed behind them. The ride down was so smooth that it was nearly impossible to tell the elevator was moving.

She's also wise enough to punish Kid Win accordingly but to spare his canon. Yes, I like her, she had left me a very good first impression, this Piggot lady that I still have no idea what powers she have. Also I noticed that she's kind of like a mother towards Wards, I think she cares for them even if she doesn't want to let them know her feelings that she keeps beneath her severe exterior. I can see her as a childless woman (maybe she can't have children) so she secretly considers the young heroes as the kids that she never had. I bet she have a sad life story

. Anyway, she's the very first boss that I can say, for sure, that I sympathize with.

They exited into a long corridor of chrome steel.
"I'm going to have nightmares," Clockblocker groaned, as he tenderly touched the welts around his nose and mouth, "Nightmares with lots and lots of spiders."
At the far end of the corridor, they came to a security terminal. Aegis pointed at Clockblocker.
"Don't you usually do it?"
"Retina maybe detached," Aegis admitted in his halting voice, "Don't want to fail scan."

Clockblocker nodded hesitantly, then leaned forward to let the terminal scan his eyes. Steel doors clicked, then whisked open with a barely audible whirr, letting the young heroes and heroine make their way into the main area of their headquarters.
The room was roughly dome-shaped, but there were sections of wall that were able to be dismantled and rearranged on the fly. Some had been set up to give the various team members their individual quarters, while others framed the doorways that led into the showers, the filing room and their press/meeting room. A series of computers and large monitors were networked at one side of the room, surrounded by a half-dozen chairs. One of the monitors was displaying a countdown to the next tourist group, while others were showing camera images of key locations in the city. The Central Bank was one of them, a dark image punctuated by the red and blue of police sirens.
"Shadow Stalker is AWOL?" Gallant asked.
"Couldn't make it in time," Aegis grunted, "Told her to stay put."

I like how Aegis protected his teammates, he's not that bad, once you get to know him. And see past his little innocent DISGUSTING habits

. Fucking Shadow Stalker must be somewhere hunting down villains, torturing and killing them (even the harmless ones) while pretending that she's a hero and she's doing what is the best for city. Some Bitches never change...You just can't turn a Hoe into a H(er)o.

"She's going to hate that. Doesn't she have this huge hate-on for Grue?" Clockblocker asked.
"Part of the reason," Aegis grunted out the words, "I told her to stay. Don't need that. I'm going to shower. Patch myself up. You guys debrief."

"Sure thing, Chief," Clockblocker saluted. "Take care of yourself."
"Fucking mutant dogs," Aegis muttered, as he made his way to the bathroom. He was stripped out of the top half of his tattered costume before he was through the door.
"Vista? Can you go grab the whiteboard? Grab two?" Gallant turned to their junior member. Vista almost skipped in her rush to follow the order.
"What's going to happen to Kid?" Browbeat spoke up for the first time, "I don't know how all this goes. Is it serious?"
Gallant considered for a moment, "Could be, but my gut tells me Piggy just wants to scare him. He needs to stop testing the limits with the people in charge, or he's going to get in real trouble at some point."
"So, not exactly the best start to your new career, huh?" Clockblocker turned to Browbeat.
"Fuck, I wouldn't mind so much if I knew what happened," Browbeat stretched, and his muscles began to dwindle in size, "At least then I could figure out what to do better next time. All I know is that I was suddenly blind and deaf, and when I tried to move, everything bent the wrong way. Then I think I got tasered."
Vista returned, dragging a pair of whiteboards on wheeled frames behind her.

Ha ha ha ha, Shadow Stalker missed the occasion to fuck with Grue again. Take that, Bitch (not you, Rachel, I'm talking about a bigger Bitch than you). This news is music to my ears. Poor Browbeat, you just got pwned again by Regent. Well, don't be mad, you got beaten up by a professional villain, not amateurs like Uber and Leet. Would have been so humiliating otherwise.

"Hold that thought," Gallant told their newest member, "Hey Clock, you don't mind if I take point?"
Clockblocker was still using his fingertips to explore the raised bumps on his face, "Go for it. I'm going to procrastinate as long as I can on the leadership thing."
"You're next oldest, after Carlos. It's only going to be what, three or four months, before you're the senior member?"
"And I'll hold that position for not even the rest of the summer before I graduate and pass the mantle to you," Clockblocker smiled self deprecatingly, "No worries. Take charge."
Gallant took off his helmet and held it in one hand, running his fingers through his sweat-damp blond hair. He smiled winningly at Vista as she positioned the whiteboards so everyone could see them, "Thank you."

Gallant didn't need to use his power to get an emotional response from the thirteen year old heroine. She turned a bright pink. There could be no doubt for anyone present that she had a major crush on her senior teammate.
"Okay guys," Gallant said, "Before we get started, I think it's important to make some things clear. First off, most importantly, today was not a failure. I'd even say that today was a win for the good guys, and we start establishing that here and now."
He took a second to gauge his audience's disbelieving reactions, then smiled.
"The Undersiders. They've flown under the radar so far, but more recently, they've started pulling higher profile jobs. They hit the Ruby Dreams casino five weeks ago, and now they just robbed the biggest bank in Brockton Bay. This time we were lucky enough to get in their way. That means we finally have intel on their group."
He turned to the whiteboard and wrote the names of their opponents. Grue, Tattletale and Hellhound went on the first board, with lines separating the board into three columns. He wrote Regent on the second board, drew a line and then hesitated at the fifth and last column. "Did he name himself? The guy with the bugs?"
"Girl," Clockblocker corrected him, "I was talking to the hostages after the Undersiders made their getaway.

So, Aegis' name is Carlos? He seems like a mexican dude to me;

(my inner Karkat in all its glory) FUCK IT. THEY WERE ALL NAMED CARLOS AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED.
So, Carlos Vista, Carlos Clockblocker, Carlos Gallant and Carlos Browbeat. Nice to meet you guys

It looks like Vista have an innocent crush for Gallant. That's cute from her but it would be really disturbing if he'll return her childish crush. I mean, he already have a girlfriend (and cheating is a big NO for me) and he'd be a fucking pedophile (an even bigger NO for me; I hate those people with a burning passion). Please, Gallant, try to remain the gallant man you're, don't turn into a huge abusive jerk.

He said he was afraid to move because she was going to make it bite him. It took me a bit to realize exactly what he meant. Poor fella was in shock."

"But we don't know what she called herself?"
Nobody had any answer to that.
"Then we need to agree on a name for her, or the paperwork's going to be inconsistent. Suggestions for a name for the bug girl?"
"Maggot? Worm?" Browbeat offered, "Stick her with a crappy name?"
"We don't want to do that," Clockblocker sighed, "Maybe if we'd won, we could get away with it, but it doesn't look so good if the press reports that we got our asses kicked by someone called maggot."
"Stinger, Pestilence?" Vista suggested.
Clockblocker spun himself around in the chair and punched the names into the computer, "Taken. Stinger is some villain in California with power armor, a jetpack and homing missiles, and Pestilence is a creepy psycho in London."
"Skitter?" Gallant put the name out there.
There was a clatter of keys as Clockblocker checked, "It's not taken."

So, this Stinger is a thinker villain and this Pestilence is mentioned for the second time. He must be a british gentleman with the power to infect people with diseases and maybe he'll be relevant in the future. Skitter? Hmmm, I would have liked something like Hive Queen or Hive Mind, but I'm ok with Skitter too. Sounds cooler than Bug

.

"Then it's good enough," Gallant wrote the name up on the whiteboard, "Now we brainstorm. This is where we recoup our losses from the day, figure out an angle so we can win next time. So don't hold back. Share any detail, no matter how insignificant."
"Grue's power isn't just darkness. You can't hear in there either. And it feels strange too," Browbeat spoke, "There's resistance, like you're underwater, but not floating."
"Good," Gallant wrote that in Grue's column, "Next?"
"The mutants that Hellhound makes. The dogs? She doesn't control them with her mind. They're trained," Vista offered, "She tells them what to do with whistles, gestures."
"Yes, good, I noticed that," Gallant replied, excitedly adding another note to the whiteboard.

"The girl with the bugs… Skitter. It's just the opposite. She has a lot of fine control over them," Clockblocker added.
"Yes!"
"Also, according to the hostage I talked to, she said she can sense things through her bugs, which is how she kept an eye on the hostages."
It wasn't long before most columns were full enough that Gallant had to turn the whiteboards around to use the backs.
Carlos returned from the shower, wearing sweatpants and a towel around his shoulders. He was Puerto Rican, his hair long. His body was clean of blood, barring a few residual trickles from the mess of ragged wounds on his arms, stomach and chest. He had clumsily stitched the cuts and gouges together, which did surprisingly little to make them easier to look at. He sat down on a chair and added his input for the lists, which didn't amount to too much. He had been incapacitated for too much of the fight to have much to say.
There was an abrasive noise from the computer as every monitor suddenly flashed yellow. The Wards hurried to pull on their masks. Aegis grabbed a spare from a drawer by the computers.
The entrance whirred open, and Armsmaster strode in, accompanied by the winsome Miss Militia.

Oh, so Carlos is Puerto Rican, no mexican (close enough, I mean he's still hispanic

). New old characters here! Hello....Armsmaster, your plan to catch Undersiders with their guard down failed deafening. No glory for you yet, dude (and by no glory, I don't mean Glory Girl). And hello, Miss Militia, nice to finally meet you in person. You're the female version of Rambo with the supposed power to summon/control weapons

.

She wore a modified military uniform, tight enough in the essential areas to accentuate her curves, sporting a scarf around her lower face with an American flag embroidered on it, and a similar sash around her waist. Most arresting, however, was the large rocket launcher she held across her shoulders in the same way a weightlifter might hold a barbell.
"Armsmaster," Gallant stood up, "Good to see you, Sir. Miss Militia, always a pleasure."
"Ever the gentleman," Miss Militia's eyes hinted at the smile behind her scarf, "We brought a guest."
Following behind Armsmaster and Miss Militia was a teenage girl in an enveloping white robe. Panacea. She had an ID card on a cord around her neck, featuring her photo and the word 'GUEST' in bright blue letters.

"She was kind enough to volunteer to come here and patch you guys up," Miss Militia told the young heroes, "Can't send you home with horrible injuries and hundreds of bug bites, can we? That would give away the show."
She shifted the position of the rocket launcher on her shoulders, and it dissolved into a blur of green-black energy. The energy lunged and arced around her for a few brief moments, then materialized into a machine gun. It only held that form for a few seconds before it flickered and solidified into a sniper rifle, then a harpoon gun, and finally settled in the form of a pair of uzis, one in each of her hands. She barely seemed to notice, beyond the automatic action of holstering the guns.
"I wanted to thank you guys for coming to my rescue," Panacea spoke, shyly, "And for letting Glory Girl come with you."
Gallant smiled, then in a more concerned tone, he asked, "You two are okay?"
Panacea shook her head, "Tattletale found a way around my sister's invincibility. Glory Girl was bitten pretty badly, which is why I didn't come sooner. I think it hits you harder, psychologically, when you're pretty much invincible but you get hurt anyways. But we're okay now. She's healed but sulking. I- I'm alright. Bump on my head, but I'm okay."
"Good."

I was right. Miss militia is Lady Rambo, she's very patriot and she can summon weapons out of thin air. She might have also super-strength or her weapons are too light for her to hold them without any effort. What if someone else would take that rocket launcher? It will disappear inside their hands like it was nothing in the first place or it will feel as heavy as a real one? Very curious about more explanations about Miss Militia's strange powers

Aww, Panacea (since Amy is in her costume) arrived to heal everyone, right after she healed her sister. I guess she can't heal herself, since she still have that bump on her head where Taylor had hit her with the baton.

Armsmaster was at the whiteboard, going over the points. "I like this. But this one…" He tapped the column titled Tattletale, "Nearly empty."
"None of us ran into her, and the hostages didn't have anything to say about her," Gallant replied.
"Panacea may be able to help there," Miss Militia offered.
All eyes turned to the girl.
"I- A lot happened," Panacea hedged.
"Any detail helps."

"Um. I'm sorry," she said, looking down at the ground, "I got smacked across the head, but my power doesn't work on myself, and I'm not really the type to go out in costume and get into fights, so having my life threatened, I dunno. All that… I can't put my thoughts in order just yet."
"The sooner-" Armsmaster started.
"It's fine," Miss Militia interrupted him, "Amy, why don't you start taking care of the Wards? If something comes to mind, anything the Undersiders said or did, or any clues you think might help, share it afterwards, alright?"
Panacea smiled gratefully at the heroine, then turned to the group, "Who needs the most help? Aegis?"
"I'll live," Aegis said, "I can be last."
Gallant hesitantly raised his hand, "One of Hellhound's dogs slammed into me. I think I might have a broken rib. Paramedics cleared me, but I want to be extra sure I'm not risking a punctured lung or something."
Panacea frowned, then gestured to the far end of the room, "I'll take a look at you over there?"
"Go figure, Glory Girl's boyfriend gets special treatment," Clockblocker grinned to make it clear he was just poking fun. Gallant just smirked in response.
The pair went to Gallant's alcove, and she sat him down on the bed before laying a hand on his shoulder. She pulled her hood back and furrowed her brow.
"You don't have a punctured lung. You've got one fractured rib, but you're not even in that much pain. Why-"
"I lied. I wanted to talk to you, alone," he took her hand.
She scowled and pulled her hand back like he'd bitten her. As if to make doubly sure he wouldn't grab her hand again, she folded her arms.

Love myself when I'm right: Panacea can't heal herself. So if she'll ever be badly injured, everyone else would be so fucked with their main healer incapacitated. She also wants to talk to her sister's boyfriend, I dunno about what but it seems important. Carlos is the nicest Ward so far. He genuinely cares for his teammates, defending them in front of Piggot and letting himself to be healed after everyone else. Impressive, I like this weird, disgusting but with a heart of gold teen

.

"You know I can sense emotions," he said, "Everyone's emotions, like a cloud of colors around them. Can't turn it off. It's just how I see the world."
"Victoria mentioned that."
"So you're an open book to me. I know you're scared. No… you're terrified, and that's why you're not talking."
She sighed and sat on the bed, as far from Gallant as she could.
"I never wanted these powers. I never wanted powers, period."
He nodded.
"But I got them anyways, and I got international attention over it. The healer. The girl who could cure cancer with a touch, make someone ten years younger, regrow lost limbs. I'm forced to be a hero. Burdened with this obligation. I couldn't live with myself if I didn't use this power. It's such an opportunity, to save lives."

"But?"
"But at the same time… I can't cure everyone. Even if I go to the hospital every night for two or three hours at a time, there are thousands of other hospitals I can't visit, tens of millions of people who are terminally ill or living in a personal hell where they're paralyzed or in constant pain. These people don't deserve to face that, but I can't help them all. I can't help one percent of them if I put in twenty hours a day."
"You have to focus on what you can do," Gallant told her.
"Sounds easier than it is," Panacea answered, with a touch of bitterness, "Do you understand what it means, to cure some of these people? I feel like every second I take to myself is a second I've failed somehow. For two years, it's been this… pressure. I lie in bed, awake at night, and I can't sleep. So I get up and I go to the hospital in the middle of the night. Go to pediatrics, cure some kids. Go to the ICU, spare some lives… and it's all just blending together. I can't even remember the last few people I saved."
She sighed again, "The last person I really remember? It was maybe a week ago, I was working on a kid. He was just a toddler, an immigrant from Cairo, I think. Ectopia Cordis. That's where you're born with your heart outside your body. I was putting everything in the right place, giving him a chance at a normal life."
"What made him so memorable?"

Gallant can't turn off his power, just like Tattletale (he can also feels people's emotions, not just weaponize them). Both of them have powers that in the same time are blessings but also curses. So, there are 3 kind of powers among parahumans: the ones with full control over their powers (most of parahumans), the ones who can't turn off their powers (Tattletale, Galant) and the ones whose powers sucks (Uber and Leet apparently). And Panacea resents her healing powers. She hates them. More doubts climbing up the stairs of her fragile and unstable mind. She feels like she can't save everyone (I'm going to talk more about Amy and her doubts related to her ability to do great things with her powers, but in the next chapter. Pinky swear).

"I resented him. He was lying there, fast asleep, like an angel, and for just a second, I considered just leaving him. The doctors could have finished the job, but it would have been dangerous. He might have died if I'd left him on the table, the job half done. I hated him."
Gallant didn't say anything. Scowling, Panacea stared down at the ground.
"No, I hated that he would have a normal life, because I'd given up mine. I was scared that I might intentionally make a mistake. That I might let myself fuck up the procedure with this kid. I could have killed him or ruined his life, but it would have eased the pressure. Lowered expectations, you know? Maybe it would have even lowered my own expectations for myself. I… I was just so tired. So exhausted. I actually considered, for the briefest moment, abandoning a child to suffer or die."

"That sounds like more than just exhaustion," Gallant replied, quietly.
"Is this how it starts? Is this the point I start becoming like my father, whoever he was?"
Gallant let out a slow breath, "I could say no, that you're never going to be like your father. But I'd be lying. Any of us, all of us, we run the risk of finding our own way down that path. I can see the strain you're experiencing, the stress. I've seen people snap because of less. So yeah. It's possible."
"Okay," she said, just under her breath. He waited for her to elaborate, but she didn't.
"Take a break. Tell yourself it's something you have to do, to recharge your batteries and help more people in the long run."
"I don't think I can."
They sat in silence for a few moments.
He turned towards her, "So what does this have to do with what happened at the bank?"
"She knew everything. That Tattletale girl. She said she's psychic, and from what she said, what she knew, I believe it."
Gallant nodded.
"You know what it's like, to talk to people like her? Like you, no offense? You build up this mask, you delude yourself into thinking everything is normal, and you force yourself to look past the worst aspects of yourself… and then these Gallants and Tattletales just strip you naked. Force you to confront it all."

Oh God, my heart is breaking in pieces because it can't handle so much pity for Panacea

. She's such a miserable human being (or rather she feels like one) she wants to do so many good deeds but she's too mentally exhausted to continue (despite trying her best to NOT LET EVERYONE DIE). Panacea, you're a human being (before you're a para, you're human first), you're not Scion to save everyone without any rest, stop being so HARD and UNFAIR with yourself.
She's also starting to become a bitter enemy to Tattletale. I think she'll turn Tattletale into her personal nemesis. Tattletale, be careful, because this well- intentioned but troubled girl is not someone you can joke about. She might even have a pretty vengeful side. Sometimes, our own words are the ones who fuck us the most.

"I'm sorry."
"You said yourself, you can't turn it off, right? Can't really blame you. It's just… it's hard to be around. Especially after dealing with Tattletale."
"What did she say?"
"She threatened to talk about stuff. Stuff worse than what I just told you, I guess.
Threatened to tell me things I just don't want to know. Said she'd use what she knew to ruin my relationship with Victoria and the rest of my family," Amy hugged herself.
"My sister's all I've got. The only person with no expectations, who knows me as a person. Carol never really wanted me. Mark is clinically depressed, so as nice as he is, he's too focused on himself to really be a dad. My aunt and uncle are sweet, but they've got their own problems. So it's just me and Victoria. Has been almost from the beginning. That smug little monster threatened to tear my sister and I apart using yet another thing I didn't want, another thing I had no control over."

Gallant started to speak, then stopped.
"What?"
"Does… does this have anything to do with the, erm, rather strong feelings you have towards me?"
Panacea went still.
"I'm sorry," he hurried to say, "I shouldn't have brought it up."
"You shouldn't have," she stood up and started towards the door.
"Look, if you ever need to talk…" he offered.
"I-"
"You probably won't want it to be me, okay. But my door's always open, and you can call me at any hour. Just letting you know."
"Okay," she replied. Then she reached over to him and touched his shoulder, "There.
Bruises gone, ribs touched up."
"Thank you," he replied, opening the door for her.
"Take care of my sister, okay? Make her happy?" she murmured, as she hesitated in the doorway.
"Goes without saying." They rejoined the main group.
Every head in the room turned as Panacea picked up the marker by the computers. With a grim expression on her face, she began filling in Tattletale's section of the whiteboard.

Her family is pretty MESSED UP

. At least towards her. They doesn't seem to accept her, they don't even want her after all these years. Except for Victoria, she's the only good thing in her miserable life, apparently (as I said, next chapter I'll talk more about Amy). Panacea likes Gallant but she keeps her feelings for him under control because she just can't break her sister's heart by stealing her boyfriend for herself. Panacea is the BEST sister someone is blessed to have

. I like Gallant right after Carlos and Piggot and I feel like Tattletale got now her first nemesis.

Later with the first chapter of the new Arc. Bye, friends...

AmbarGriss · Mar 12, 2018

Ah, Panacea... So powerfull and yet so lonely and hopeless.

blackarrow · Mar 12, 2018

Hello again, people

. We're leaving the Agitation (now I understand why it was called like that- because of the whole agitation during the bank robbery), and we are going for Shell. Huh? We're going to see Taylor alias Bug alias Skitter controlling an army of...crabs? Or we're going to see her getting out from her emotional shell and becoming a closer friend to Undersiders? Maybe she'll even tell them about her personal problems and maybe they (especially Lisa) will help her with burning 3 bitches alive (both literally and figurative speaking

)? Who knows, everything is possible in Shell 4.01 | Worm

"You actually showed up."

I looked up from my math textbook to see Emma looming over me. She was wearing an expensive dress that had probably been a gift to her after one of her modeling contracts, and her red hair was up in the kind of complex knot that looked ridiculous on ninety-five percent of the girls that tried to pull it off. She could make it work, though. Emma was one of those people who just seemed to ignore the social awkwardness and minor issues that plagued everyone else. She didn't get zits, any style she wore her hair or clothes in looked good on her, and she could break pretty much any social code of high school and walk away unscathed.
God, I hated her.

Mr. Quinlan had ended class fifteen minutes early and instructed us to do some self study, before leaving the room. For most, that was a chance to play cards or talk. I'd set myself the task of getting all the homework done before class ended, to free up my weekend. At least, that had been the plan, before Emma interrupted.
"Funny thing is," I replied, turning my attention back to my notebook, "You're the only person today who seemed to notice I was gone. If you aren't careful, I might actually think you cared." I wasn't being entirely honest there. My art teacher had noted my absence, but that was only after I'd reminded her I hadn't turned in my midterm project.

Ah, nothing unusual at the start of this chapter. Just Taylor having to deal with the breath of death of one of the Bitches. And a new teacher, hello Mr. Quinlan! Since things are very, very normal (nothing changed, only Taylor being a little more bold), I think I can safely discuss about Amy for a while. Amy, Panacea, this beautiful "disaster" she's. The natural daughter of a jailed villain, the adopted daughter of a family of powerful and apparently respected heroes. A young parahuman who can play with any kind of biology like its nothing in her hands. She could have the entire world at her feet, she could be loved and feared and admired and respected and everything else she can just wish of. Yet, paradoxical, she doesn't have ANYTHING of the things mentioned above. She hates her natural father, she doesn't even know his name, she's afraid that she can be (deep inside her soul) just like him, that one day, she'll follow him into doing petty crimes. Her family (except for Victoria) doesn't care about her. Her foster mother doesn't even want her. Maybe they only allow her to exist in their lives because of her powers alone, they NEED her powers, but they doesn't need her as a PERSON, as their child. And even if Victoria seems to love her, I think even she is using her (the whole episode with the skinhead, when Amy told Victoria that Vic always called her in her help) so Vic also needs Amy's powers, even if she might also care about her. Amy is very powerful, yet she's very weak (in her opinion)- she can't save everyone and she hates herself for this, she was ready to let that malformed child to die because of her intense negative feelings towards herself and her powers. Amy likes a boy but he "belongs" to her sister, she's neither admired and respected by people she knows and another parahuman just bullied the hell out of her without showing any fear in front of her. Amy feels lonely, she IS alone, she hates herself, she's bullied and used by people, her entire life is a complete mess. I'm afraid for something, that she might turn into a villain in the future. And a very dangerous and unforgiving villain. If someone or something will traumatize her HARD enough, she might snap because she, Amy Dallon is basically a tickling bomb. I love this girl, she's my favorite hero so far but I can hardly see for her a nice and positive future, especially since she's getting worse with each apparition (and not because she's bad, but because of what's going on inside her mind, her soul and around her)

Amy seems to be a tragic character and I feel so sad thinking about her. Ok, back to Taylor trying to BURN a bitch.

"People didn't notice you were gone is because you're a nobody. The only reason I paid any attention to it is because you bother me."

"I bother you," I looked up from my work again, "Wow."

"Every time I see you, it's this irritating little reminder of time I wasted being your friend. You know those embarrassing events in your past that make you cringe when you think back on them? For me, that's basically every sleepover, every juvenile conversation, every immature game you dragged me into."
I smiled, then against my better judgement, I told her, "Right. I love how you're implying you're even remotely more mature than you were then."
Strange as it sounds, I was actually relieved to have Emma here, getting on my case. If this was all she was able to do to me today, it meant I probably wouldn't have to deal with any 'pranks' in the immediate future. What really ratcheted up the anxiety levels was when she ignored me and left me alone. That was, generally speaking, the calm before the storm.
"Really, Taylor? Tell me, what are you doing with yourself? You're not going to school, you have no friends, I doubt you're working. Are you really in a position to call me immature, when I've got all that going for me and you just… don't?"
I laughed loud enough that heads around the classroom turned in my direction. Emma just blinked, bewildered. As much as I didn't want the money, I was technically twenty five thousand dollars richer than I had been thirty six hours ago. Twenty five thousand dollars were waiting for me, and Emma was saying she was doing better than me, because she got a few hundred dollars every few weeks to have her picture taken for mall catalogs.
"Fuck you, Emma." I said it loud enough for others to hear. "Get a clue before you try to insult people."

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahaha haha ha ha ha....BURN, BITCH!

rofl:. Look, Emma-bitch, some useful advises for your BURN Home Remedy for Burns: 11 Home Remedies to Soothe | Reader's Digest. My God, Taylor, tell her, tell her what you have on your soul, she deserves to hear everything. I swear to everything I hold dear, if I were in Taylor's place, I'd have opened my heart to Lisa and tell her everything about the Trio. Lisa would know better than anyone how to completely and effectively destroy them without lifting a finger. But Taylor is less selfish than me and its possible that she doesn't want to use Lisa to solve her problems

.

With that said, I grabbed my stuff and strode out of the classroom.
I knew I was going to pay for that. For standing up to Emma, for laughing in her face. It was the sort of thing that would push her to get creative and think about how best to get revenge for that small measure of defiance.
I wasn't that worried about skipping out of class five minutes early. If history was any precedent, Mr. Quinlan probably wouldn't be coming back before class ended. He routinely left class and just didn't come back. Popular guesses among my classmates leaned towards Alzheimers, or even that our geriatric teacher with a sagging gut could be a cape. I was more inclined to suspect that drugs or a drinking problem were at play.
I felt good. Better than I'd felt for a long, long while. Admittedly, there were painful stabs of conscience when I thought too much about the fact that I'd actually participated in a felony, or the way I'd terrorized the hostages. Could I be blamed if I went out of my way not to dwell on it?
I'd slept like a baby last night, more due to sheer exhaustion than sound conscience, and I woke up to a day that kept surprising me with good news.
Brian had met me on my morning run, and he treated me to coffee and the best muffins I had ever tasted, while we sat on the beach. Together, we had taken ten minutes to go over the morning papers for news about the robbery.
We hadn't made the front page for any of the major papers, the first bit of good news. We made page three of the Bulletin, coming behind a one and a half page story on an Amber Alert and a General Motors advertisement. Part of the reason we hadn't attracted all that much attention was probably because the bank was hedging about the amount taken. While we had escaped with more than forty thousand dollars, the paper was reporting losses of only twelve. All in all, the story had been more focused on the property damage, most of which was caused by Glory Girl and the Wards, and the fact that the darkness we'd used to cover our escape had stopped all traffic downtown for an hour.

I doubt that Emma will be capable to even talk for a while after those BURNS you gave her, Taylor. Well, at least newspapers are talking about your robbery, you became little celebrities, this is something to be proud of, even if is not a good thing (but for all the efforts you put in, all the pain you all endured and all the hard fight, its still something memorable and victorious

).

I'd been quietly elated by all of that. Anything that downplayed the magnitude of the crime I'd helped commit was a good point in my book. The next mood booster was the fact that I'd gone to school. It sounded dumb, rating that as an accomplishment when others did it every day, but I had been very close to just not going again. Having skipped a week of afternoon classes and three days of morning classes, it was dangerously easy to convince myself to just skip one more. The problem was, that just made the prospect of going to class again that much more stressful, perpetuating the problem. I'd broken that pattern, and I felt damn good about it.

Okay, so I had to admit things weren't a hundred percent perfect as far as school went. I'd talked to my art teacher, and she was giving me until Tuesday to hand my midterm project in, with a 10% deduction to my mark. I'd also probably lost a few marks in various classes for being absent or not handing in homework assignments. One or two percent, here and there.
But all in all? It was a huge relief. I felt good.

I caught the bus to the Docks, but I didn't head to the loft. I made my way up the length of the Boardwalk, until the shops began thinning out and there were longer stretches of beach. The usual route people took was driving in through a side road outside of town, but for anyone hiking there, you had to take a shortcut through a series of very similar looking fields. My destination was just far enough away that you'd think you'd maybe missed it.
Officially, it was the Lord Street Market. But if you lived in Brockton Bay, it was just 'the market'.

You know what I want to see the most? An entire chapter (or maybe even an entire Arc) featuring only prisoners in Birdcage. I'd love to see their interactions, how bad most of them are, how bad is the place they're imprisoned for their crimes, their backstories, their conversations, EVERYTHING. I hope so much for at least a chapter about Birdcage, its going to be one of my favorite chapters for sure. Maybe I'll even get to know Amy's father, too see how much or less his daughter is similar with him is the terms of personality, mindset or even powers. I hope my wish will become true. Do you hear me, Wildbow? DO YOU HEAR ME?
WILDBOW: Sorry, random reader, I can't hear you over this majestically keyboard typing more awesome chapters.
Me:

I swear, these reviews become weirder and weirder...

The market was open all week, but most people just rented the stalls on the weekends. It was fairly cheap, since you could get a stall for fifty to a hundred dollars on a weekday and two hundred and fifty to three hundred on weekends, depending on how busy things were. The stalls showcased everything from knick-knacks handicrafts put together by crazy cat ladies to overstock from the most expensive shops on the Boardwalk, marked down to ten or twenty five percent of the usual price. There were ice cream vendors and people selling puppies, there was tourism kitsch and there was a mess of merchandise relating to the local capes. There were racks of clothing, books, computer stuff and food. If you lived in the north end of Brockton Bay, you didn't have a garage sale. You got a stall at the market. If you just wanted to go shopping, it was as good as any mall.

I met up with the others at the entrance. Brian was looking sharp in a dark green sweater and faded jeans.
Lisa was dressed up in a dusky rose dress with gray tights, her hair in a bun with loose strands framing her face. Alec was wearing a long sleeved shirt and slim fit black denim jeans that really showed how lanky he was.
"You weren't waiting long?" I asked.
"Forever," was Alec's laconic response.
"Five minutes at most," Brian smiled, "Shall we?"
We ventured into the market, where the best the north end of Brockton Bay had to offer was on display. The worst of the north end was kept at bay by the same uniformed enforcers that you saw at the Boardwalk.
While Alec stopped at an isolated stall featuring cape merchandise, I commented, "I guess Rachel can't exactly hang out with us, huh?"
Brian shook his head, "No. Not in a place like this. She's well known enough that she'd catch someone's eye, and from there, it's only a short leap to figuring out who the people she's hanging with are."
"And if she saw that, she'd go ballistic." Lisa pointed to a rotund old woman carrying a fluffy dog in her arms. It was wearing a teal and pink sweater, and was trembling nervously. I didn't know my dog breeds well enough to name it specifically, but it was similar to a miniature poodle.
"What? The sweater?" I asked.
"The sweater. The dog being carried. Rachel would be up in her face, telling that woman it's not the way a dog should be treated. Screaming at her, maybe threatening violence, if one of us didn't step in to handle things."

Taylor is spending SHOPPING TIME in the company of her possible future lover Brian (you know what they say Taylor -"once you go black you never go back". There must be a truth behind this

) her possible future best friend Lisa and her...partner at playing video games Alec. Great time, I wholeheartedly agree. Having fun with your money after the robbery success? Let's have fun then

.

"It doesn't take much, does it?"

"To set her off? No it doesn't," Brian agreed, "But you gradually learn how she thinks, what pushes her buttons, and you can intervene before a situation happens."

Lisa added, "The big trigger for Rache is mistreatment of dogs. I think you could kick a toddler in the face, and she wouldn't flinch. But if you kicked a dog in front of her, she'd probably kill you on the spot."
"I'll, uh, keep that in mind," I said. Then, double checking that nobody was in a position to overhear, I figured it was as good a time to ask as any, "Has she killed anyone?"
"She's wanted for serial murder," Brian sighed, "It's inconvenient."
"If the courts actually gave her a fair trial, if she had a good lawyer, I think she'd get manslaughter at worst, maybe reckless endangerment. At least for the events that happened then." Lisa said, her voice pitched low enough that nobody else in the crowd would pick it up, "It happened just after her powers manifested. She didn't know how to use her abilities, or what to expect of them, so the dog that she had with her grew into the sort of creature you've seen the others become, and because it wasn't trained, because it had been abused, it went out of control. Cue the bloodbath. In the time since then? Maybe. I know she's seriously hurt a lot of people. But nobody's died at her hands since we've been with her."

Minus their "Pitbull". They left their "Pitbull" at home because she is too aggressive especially with people who treat their dogs bad. So I was right about Rachel being one of the murderers (Armsmaster was also right, he didn't lied here). Since her powers first appeared during her staying at a foster home, maybe she was somehow triggered by her foster parents abusing a dog and she went completely mad and fucked them up by instinctively transforming the dog. This is how I interpret her backstory with the information I have so far. So...some powers can be triggered? Its possible, what if Taylor was triggered by the whole bullying thing and her powers manifested as a wish to fight back against bullies? What if someone was injured in front of Amy and she was triggered enough in order to try save that person? Hmm, that would be a VERY INTERESTING THEORY and I'd like to see how its going to work (and if I can guess the triggers, wildly guessing things being one of my favorite parts of reviewing this story)

"Makes sense," I said, distractedly. So that's one. Who was the other murderer in the group?

Alec returned from the stall wearing a Kid Win shirt.
"I like it," Lisa grinned, "Ironic."
We continued our roundabout walk through the market. We were still on the outskirts, so there weren't many people around us. Those that were around us weren't likely to overhear, unless we used words, names or phrases that would catch their attention.
"Where do we go from here?" I asked.
"It's just a matter of handing the cash over to the boss later tonight." Brian picked up a pair of sunglasses and tried them on, "He takes it, does what he needs to with the papers, and gets back to us with our pay. Clean, untraceable. Once we've picked up our share, we kick back for a little while, plan our next job or wait for him to offer us another one."

I frowned, "We're putting a lot of trust in him. We're giving him a pretty big amount of money, and we're expecting him to come back and pay us three times that amount? Plus whatever he feels the papers are worth? How do we know he'll follow through?"
"Precedent," Brian said as he tried on another pair of sunglasses, lowering his head to examine himself in the mirror that was hanging from the side of the stall. "He hasn't screwed with us yet. It doesn't make sense for him to to pull a fast one, when he's already invested more than that in us. If we were failing most of our jobs, maybe he'd keep the money to recoup his losses, but we've done well."
"Okay," I nodded, "I can buy that."
I felt kind of conflicted about the 'take it easy and wait' plan. On the one hand, taking a break sounded awesome. The last week had been intense, to put it lightly. On the other hand, it sort of sucked that we wouldn't be out there on another job, since I'd be waiting that much longer for a chance on getting more details on the boss. I'd just have to hope I could find something out tonight.

So far Rachel and Amy have pretty similar life stories and when I say similar I mean both are utterly fucked up. But quite opposite in the same time. One of the girls is a part feral teen who have no idea how to behave around humans but she loves so much the company of dogs, understanding them better than anyone else (also she loves HERSELF while in their company), the other girl is an educated and proper teen who knows how to behave in the company of humans but she hates so much her OWN company and she have big issues to accept herself. Ah, my beautiful disastrous babies

.
"He hasn't screwed with us yet" -You said big WORDS here, Brian: as long as your boss still needs you, he doesn't have any intention YET to screw with you. When he'll consider that you'll be useless to him then...you're going to see his real face (maybe both literally and metaphorical).

"Come on," Tattletale grinned at me, grabbing my wrist, "I'm stealing you."

"Huh?"
"We're going shopping," she told me. Turning to Brian and Alec, she said, "We'll split up, meet up with you two for dinner? Unless you want to come with and stand around holding our purses while we try on clothes."
"You don't have any purses," Alec pointed out.
"Figure of speech. You want to do your own thing or not?"
"Whatever," Alec said.
"You're a jerk, Lise," Brian frowned, "Hogging the new girl to yourself."
"You get your morning meetings with her, I want to go shopping, cope," Lisa stuck out her tongue at Brian.
"Alright," Brian shrugged, "Fugly Bob's for dinner?"
"Sounds good," Lisa agreed. She turned to me, eyebrows quirked.
"I'm down for Fugly Bob's," I conceded.
"Don't spend so much you draw attention," Brian warned.
We parted ways with the boys, Lisa wrapping her arm around my shoulders and going on about what she wanted to get. Her enthusiasm was catching, and I found myself smiling.
Murderer. I had to remind myself. One of these three was a murderer.

The laid back Alec is the second murderer, especially when he stops being laid back and become serious. The next chapter will be about....VILLAINOUS SHOPPING WITH THE QUEEN OF GOSSIPS AND THE QUEEN OF THE SWARM. Beware! I think I'm going to like a whole chapter with two girls just shopping around since I'm a pro at shopping too . Finally I'll feel like I'm on my own battlefield

.

Good night, my dears and sleep well.

blackarrow · Mar 12, 2018

AmbarGriss said:
Ah, Panacea... So powerfull and yet so lonely and hopeless.

Let me guess, Amy is one of your favorite characters? Dude, if this is true then we have pretty similar tastes in Worm characters

.

AmbarGriss · Mar 12, 2018

blackarrow said:
Let me guess, Amy is one of your favorite characters? Dude, if this is true then we have pretty similar tastes in Worm characters .

Yes she is

along to Tattletale, the not-yet-revealed undersider and some others who haven't showed up yet.

HeWhoAdds · Mar 12, 2018

blackarrow said:
Let me guess, Amy is one of your favorite characters? Dude, if this is true then we have pretty similar tastes in Worm characters .

Conversely, I don't actually like Amy that much? To be fair, that might be from too much exposure to the fandom, but... eh.

We'll get to have some fun discourse on Amy later in the story

AmbarGriss · Mar 12, 2018

Are you accepting recomendations?
There is a webserial thats pretty similar to Worm, its called Heretical Edge, but it's fantasy instead of sci-fi.
I'm not asking for another "Let's Read" tho, its just something that I thought you might enjoy too

blackarrow · Mar 13, 2018

HeWhoAdds said:
Conversely, I don't actually like Amy that much? To be fair, that might be from too much exposure to the fandom, but... eh.

We'll get to have some fun discourse on Amy later in the story

I don't understand what fandom might have against Amy. I (let's say) understand that they don't like Taylor because they believe that she can do something by herself against bullies and they're disappointed because she doesn't do anything, Amy is a broken teenager who even if she might become a villain in the future, I'll still not condemn here because she never had any real permanent human support in her life (except for Victoria, but Victoria seems to care so much about herself to look somewhere else) and I'll continue to feel sorry for her (yes, I'll judge/condemn her future action, but I'll not condemn her as person). There are worst people than Amy around, people who are completely monsters (as Lisa said). And people who might appear innocent but they're monsters on the inside. At least Amy is honest about herself: this is how she is and she feels like she can't change anything because she doesn't feel capable of (and there's nobody around ready to give her a helping hand). Kudos to Wildbow for creating such amazing, complicated, compelling, broken characters. These are the characters I enjoy reading about. Simple and typical characters bore me to death.

blackarrow · Mar 13, 2018

AmbarGriss said:
Are you accepting recomendations?
There is a webserial thats pretty similar to Worm, its called Heretical Edge, but it's fantasy instead of sci-fi.
I'm not asking for another "Let's Read" tho, its just something that I thought you might enjoy too

Thank you for suggestion. I'll give it a look (I'm not going to even read the summary because I want to read completely blind just like I'm doing with Worm). The only thing I knew about Worm previously was that Taylor is the main character and she has bug powers

.

blackarrow · Mar 13, 2018

Hello, friends. I just came out from my Shell to present you another chapter 4.02 | Worm The second one of this Arc. WE'RE GOING TO....SHOPPING, in the company of two lovable young ladies, Taylor and Lisa. I'm convinced they'll gossip during their dastardly shoppings (Lisa can't really help about

) and maybe Taylor will open her heart in front of the Gil-Who-Knows-Almost-Everything and will tell her about the Trio of Bitches. From there everything will be easy to handle for Lisa. Just one small step, Taylor. A small step for you a big step for other girls who might be bullied in the future just like you.

"We're updating your wardrobe," Lisa decided, after we'd left the boys behind.

"What's wrong with my wardrobe?" I asked, a bit defensively.
"Nothing, really. It's just very… you. Which is the problem."
"You're not making me feel better, here."
"You're a cautious person, Taylor. I like that about you. I think it's an essential addition to the group dynamic," she led me to a collection of stalls where there was a lot of women's clothing, and quickly drew three dresses from a rack.
"Brian's cautious."
"You and Brian are similar, but I wouldn't say he's cautious. He's… pragmatic. You both are. The difference between you two is that he's been doing what he does for three years, now. Two years of experience, before he joined the group. So a lot of what he does is automatic. He doesn't give a second thought to the little things he's done dozens of times already. He takes a lot for granted."
"And I don't?"
"You're observant, detail oriented and focused. More than any of the others. You watch, you interpret, and then you act with this careful, surgical precision. That's a strength and a flaw."

SHOPPING, SHOPPING, FUCKING SHOPPING

...Forgive my fangirlism about shopping, sometimes I have my little innocent girly things

. So, Lisa noticed that Taylor is exactly opposite to Brian, despite being similar in some ways. Taylor in inexperienced but she's always planning and thinking before acting, while Brian is experienced and he's the one who's acting without planning with surgical precision. Lisa should become a psychiatrist. She'd be the very BEST one!

"What does this have to do with my clothes?"

"Your personality is reflected in your fashion choices. Muted colors. Brown, gray, black, white. If you are wearing something with color to it, you're wearing it under a sweatshirt, sweater or jacket. Never anything that would stand out. Never showing much skin. While most people our age are picking clothes with the intention of defining an identity for themselves, fitting into a clique, you're focused on staying out of sight and not attracting attention. You're being too cautious, overthinking things you don't need to, always making the call to play it safe."
"And you want to change that." I sighed.
"I'm suspicious you're capable of surprising everyone, yourself included, when you drop your guard, start being bolder and improvise. Not just when circumstances force you to. I'm not just talking about clothes, you know."
"I kind of got the drift."
"More to the point, I'm seeing you alternate between the same two pairs of jeans every day, when you got a paycheck for two grand five days ago. If I don't make you buy clothes, I don't think you're going to."

"My dad will wonder where I got them," I protested, as she folded a pair of blouses over one of my arms.
"You borrowed them from me. Or they don't fit me anymore and I gave them to you. Or you can keep them at our place and leave him none the wiser."
"I don't like lying to my dad."

You don't like lying to your dad BUT you're lying him constantly, Taylor. You're lying him about what's going on at your school, about your powers, about your secret double life, about your new friends. That's the truth, Taylor, and you know it very well. You don't like but you can't stop doing because you know that there's no turning point anymore. Just be careful, the truth might bite you by your ass when you'll expect the least. I'm thinking what will happen if Danny will be attacked in front of Taylor while she's in her civilian clothes. She'll have to protect him somehow, knowing her she will be physically and mentally unable to run away and let her parent alone. She'll then be forced to show him all the secrets she keeps from him, there would be no other choice left for her.

She ushered me into a curtained off area that served as a change room. Through the curtain, she told me, "I envy you that. But if he hasn't figured out the reason your wardrobe has shrunk so much, chances are he's not going to notice if you have some new clothes."

I was halfway through pulling off my shirt when that sunk in, "What are you talking about?"
"Come on, Taylor. I'd suspect you had some problems going on even without, you know… a little bird whispering in my ear."
I hurried to pull on the first dress in the pile, then opened the curtain, "You're going to have to be a little more specific, before I can confirm or deny anything."
"Not that one," she waved at the dress, a plaid number, predominantly red and white. Annoyed, I shut the curtain.

From the other side of the curtain, she explained, "At first I thought your dad was abusing you. But I dropped that line of thinking pretty quick after I heard you bring him up in conversation. It had to be a major part of your life that's sucking, though, and if it's not home then it's got to be school. Brian and Alec pretty much agree with my line of thinking."
"You've talked about it with them," I dropped my hands from the buttons of the dress and let my head thunk against the shaky plywood wall of the change room.
"It came up when we were talking about you joining the group, and we never hundred percent dropped the subject. Sorry. You're new, you're interesting, we talk about you. That's all it is."
I finished doing up the buttons of the dress and opened the curtain, "Ever think I didn't want you prying?"
She undid the top button. "What you want and what you need are two different things. Cornflower blue is a keeper. Throw that one over the top." She pushed me back inside and shut the curtain.
"What I need is to keep…" I struggled to find a way of wording things that wouldn't raise red flags for any eavesdroppers, "these two major parts of my life separate."
"The suckish part and the non-suck part."
"Sure, let's go with that." I found a top and a pair of low-rise jeans in the pile of clothes.
"I could help make the suckish parts suck less," she offered.

Lisa is decided to help Taylor with changing her clothes, since the actual Taylor's clothes show how introverted, hidden and shy she is and she needs to become more extroverted, more bold and opened while wearing exactly the clothes that would reflect her possible changes in personality. Excellent advises, Lisa, both on the fashion and life part. And she wants to help her with the Bitches too without knowing yet what's going on. Lisa is GOLD!

I swear my blood turned cold in my veins. I could just see her showing up at school, taunting Emma. I think the prospect of facing down Glory Girl again would spook me less. I struggled to do up the top button of the jeans, which wasn't made any easier by my agitation. It took thirty seconds to get the button done up, and I swore under my breath the entire time. Where in the world had Lisa found jeans that were this tight onme? When I had them on, I opened the curtain and confronted her face to face.

"Having me try on clothes is fine," I told her, doing my level best to keep my voice calm, "But you interfere directly in my problems, and I'm gone."
"Just like that?"
"Just like that," I said, "I'm sorry."
She looked a little hurt, "Fine." Pouting a little, she waved a hand in the general direction of my clothes,
"What do you think?"

I tried to adjust the collar. I liked the abstract design on the right side of the shirt, but the v-neck collar came to a point near where my ribcage ended and my stomach began. "Top is cut too low, jeans are too tight."
"You need to get used to showing some cleavage. Like I said, be bold in your fashion choices."
"I'd be fine with showing some cleavage if I had anything to show," I pointed out.

Taylor is a scrawny girl yet those jeans are TIGHT for her!?! What the hell? I think a single leg of that jean will be tight enough for my ARM alone

. Anyway, Taylor refuses Lisa's help, she doesn't want for her new friend to get involved in her personal life. Ok, do as you wish, Taylor, do as you wish.

"You're a late bloomer?" she tried.

"My mom was a B-cup, and not always then, depending on the brand of bra. And that was after she went up a partial size being pregnant with me."
"That's fucking tragic."
I shrugged. I'd been resigned to being broomstick thin and flat as a board pretty much from the point I'd started puberty. I just had to look at the genetics on either side of my family to know what I was in for.

"And my condolences about your mom. I didn't know."
"Appreciated." I sighed. "I'm vetoing the shirt."
"Fine, you're allowed, but we're keeping the jeans. They show off your figure."
"The figure of a thirteen year old boy," I groused.
"You're taller than a thirteen year old boy, don't be silly. Besides, whatever you look like, whatever your body type, there's bound to be someone out there who thinks you're the hottest fucking person they've ever seen."
"Fantastic," I mumbled, "There's a sketchy pedophile out there with my name on him."
Lisa laughed, "Go, try something else on. But throw the jeans over the top. I'm buying them for you, and if you never wear them, I'll have to be content with you feeling guilty about it."

OMG, "There's a sketchy pedophile out there with my name on him.", Taylor, please, stop being such a drama queen sometimes. You're a teenager, not a little boy. And Lisa is so right, I'm sure that if a boy will really like Taylor "

at Brian" he'll like her with all her physically flaws, he'll don't give a flying fuck about the fact that her breasts are too small or she's too scrawny. True love makes WONDERS, Taylor, you'll see.

"Find me the same jeans one size larger, and I'll wear them," I negotiated. Then, before she could protest, I added, "They're going to shrink in the wash."

"Point. I'll go look."
Things continued in that vein for a little while, with Lisa doing a little shopping for herself, too. We stuck to talking about the clothes, and it was clear that Lisa was carefully avoiding the earlier topic. When we finished, the woman at the cash totaled it up on a notepad and passed the slip of paper to us. Four hundred and sixty dollars.
"My treat," Lisa said.
"Are you sure?" I asked.
"A bribe in exchange for your silence," Lisa winked at me.
"About?"
She glanced at the cashier, "After."
It was only after we'd left the stall well behind, the pair of us laden down with bags, that Lisa elaborated. "Do me a favor and don't go telling the gang how badly I let things slip, as far as Panacea being one of the hostages. If they ask outright, you can say, I won't ask you to lie. But if they don't ask, maybe don't bring it up?"

"This is the silence you're buying?"

Ah, Lisa is bribing Taylor for her silence over the failure related to Amy's presence inside the bank? Well, Taylor, listen your friend and keep your mouth shut about her mistake, how hard is to do some nice thing for one of your teammates? I'd do that even for free

.

"Please."

"Alright," I answered. I would have without the gift of clothes, but I think she knew that.
She grinned, "Thanks. Between them, I don't think those guys would ever let me live it down."
"Would you let them, if the tables were turned?"
"Hell naw," she laughed.
"That's what I thought."
"But about our earlier conversation… last I'll say on the subject tonight, promise. If you ever decide you do want me to directly interfere in any of your personal stuff, just say the word."
I frowned, ready to be annoyed, but I relented. It was a fair offer, not pushing anything. "Okay. Thank you, but I'm fine."
"Then that's settled. Let's go eat."
Fugly Bobs was fast food of the most shameless kind, sold out of a part-restaurant, part-bar, part-shack at the edge of the Market, overlooking the beach. Anyone who lived in the area had probably eaten there once, at some point. Anyone with any sense then waited a year to give their hearts a chance to recuperate. It was the sort of place with burgers so greasy that if you ordered takeout, you could see through the paper bag by the time you got home. The specialty burger was the Fugly Bob Challenger: if you could finish it, you didn't have to pay for it. It probably went without saying that most people paid.
Brian and Alec were already there when we arrived, and we ordered our food right off. Lisa and I agreed to split a bacon cheeseburger, Brian ordered a portobello-beef double-decker and Alec matched him with a Hideous Bob – Fugly Bob's interpretation of a Big Mac.
None of us were hungry, brave or dumb enough to order the Challenger.
Brian and Alec had been sitting outside so they could spot us when we arrived. After a brief debate, we agreed to stick to the table they'd been sitting at. It was by the window, so we could see the TV. It was still cool enough that most people had ventured indoors. The only others outside were some college-aged guys, and they were sitting on the opposite end of the patio, occupied with beer and the game on the TV. The primary benefit was that we enough had privacy to talk.
"I don't want to be a nag," Brian said, eyeing the piles of bags, "But I did say you shouldn't spend so much so soon after a caper. It's the kind of thing cops and capes watch for."

While our hero...I mean villains (sorry, I kind of confuse the terms when it come to Undersiders

) were eating junk food, let me talk about...triggers, because I was thinking at this for a while. If some of their powers are triggered (like in X-Men, when some of the powers of the people with Gene-X are latent, but they're activated upon certain triggers or stress) I think these powers must be connected with certain bad events in their lives. Bad events that allow these powers to kick in and help them to survive or protect other people they care for. I'll make a list with the main characters so far and try to imagine for each one what kind of situation they went through, based on what I know about their powers.
Taylor: her bug powers kicked in as a subconscious method to get rid of bullies, but she's too rational and she's thinking at consequences in order to use them against the main targets for their manifestation.
Rachel: her foster parents were absolute jerks with a dog she loved.
Brian: he had to hide somewhere, maybe he was on the run, he was followed by people who wanted to hurt him and he had to use darkness to escape from them.
Lisa: someone dear to her lied her or betrayed her and she was so traumatized that she got the power to reveal people's secrets, in order to protect herself from being lied again.
Alec: he was restrained by someone and he was able to release himself only by attacking that person's nervous system.
Amy: she had to save someone's life (or she inherited her father's powers or similar powers as him).
Victoria: she inherited her family's powers.
Kid Win: fascinated by SF movies and he wanted so much to build cool things that he saw there?!?
Carlos: he was involved in a car accident (or any other accident) and he had to protect himself by making himself immortal.
Clockblocker: again, accident and he had to stop time to protect himself.
Miss Militia: involved into war (as a soldier or civilian, depends of her age) and she was so traumatized that she got the ability to summon weapons to fight back against enemies.
Armsmaster: the same story as Kid Win, fascinated by technology!?!
Lung: trapped into a burning house and his pyrokinetic powers activated to protect him from being burned alive.
Bakuda: something related to terrorist activity- she was shocked enough that she got the power to fight against terrorist with...terrorism.
That's all for moment. When I'll have other ideas, I'll let you know.

"It's cool," Lisa brushed him off, "It only raises flags with the credit card companies or banks if it's a dramatic change in a given person's spending habits. I buy close to this amount of stuff every week or two."

Brian frowned. He looked like he wanted to say something in response, but he kept his mouth shut.
"So, what comes next?" I asked.
"Dinner, then dessert," Alec replied, his attention on the TV inside.
"I meant in terms of our," I lowered my voice, "Illicit activity." A quick double-check showed the college guys at the far end of the patio were still engrossed in the game. I couldn't make out anything they were saying, and they were being loud, so I was pretty sure they couldn't hear us.

"Is there anything you want to do?" Brian asked me.
"Something less intense," I decided, "I'm kind of feeling like I jumped into the deep end of the pool without entirely knowing how to swim. I'd prefer to get to know my powers better in the field, figure out how to deal with situations, before I'm up against people like Lung and Glory Girl, who are literally capable of tearing me limb from limb."
"Hah. Something easier then."
"If Rachel was here, she'd be calling you a wuss again," Alec commented.
"I'll just have to be glad she's not here, then," I smiled.
Our food arrived, and we used extra plates to divvy up our individual side orders so we all had a little bit of each. That left each of us a mix of fries, sweet potato fries, onion rings and deep fried zucchini on an individual plate. The sides alone would have been more than enough raw foodstuff for a meal on its own, but there were also the burgers themselves, each large enough to take up nearly an entire plate. Lisa and I cut the bacon cheeseburger in half, and we each took a portion.
"I guess you're not the type that gains weight," Lisa eyed me.
"I have to work to put it on."
"Dammit," she grumbled.
"If it's any consolation," I said, after taking a bite and wiping my mouth with a napkin, "This is going to be hell on my skin."
"That does help," she grinned.
Alec rolled his eyes, "Enough with the girl talk."
"What do you want to talk about, then?" Lisa asked him.
He shrugged and took a bite of his burger.
I had a suggestion. "I know it's kind of cliche, but when people with powers get together, isn't it kind of standard to share origin stories?"
Apparently, I couldn't have picked a better way to kill the conversation. Lisa turned away, for once without a smile on her face. Brian and Alec gave me strange looks, not saying anything.
"What?" I asked. I double checked there was nobody in earshot. "What did I say?"

Powers' origins? They're going to talk about THE ORIGINS OF THEIR POWERS????????????? OMFG, I didn't expected this...so soon. What a coincidence!!!! I just finished typing about what I think that the triggers would be and they're going to talk about them (probably) during the next chapter. I swear on everything you want, I didn't read further while I tattled about triggers, believe me

. Oh God, oh God, can't wait for the next chapter. I'm curious to see if I was right about at least half of Undersiders...

But later, not now. Bye for moment

.

HeWhoAdds · Mar 13, 2018

blackarrow said:
Taylor: her bug powers kicked in as a subconscious method to get rid of bullies, but she's too rational and she's thinking at consequences in order to use them against the main targets for their manifestation.
Rachel: her foster parents were absolute jerks with a dog she loved.
Brian: he had to hide somewhere, maybe he was on the run, he was followed by people who wanted to hurt him and he had to use darkness to escape from them.
Lisa: someone dear to her lied her or betrayed her and she was so traumatized that she got the power to reveal people's secrets, in order to protect herself from being lied again.
Alec: he was restrained by someone and he was able to release himself only by attacking that person's nervous system.
Amy: she had to save someone's life (or she inherited her father's powers or similar powers as him).
Victoria: she inherited her family's powers.
Kid Win: fascinated by SF movies and he wanted so much to build cool things that he saw there?!?
Carlos: he was involved in a car accident (or any other accident) and he had to protect himself by making himself immortal.
Clockblocker: again, accident and he had to stop time to protect himself.
Miss Militia: involved into war (as a soldier or civilian, depends of her age) and she was so traumatized that she got the ability to summon weapons to fight back against enemies.
Armsmaster: the same story as Kid Win, fascinated by technology!?!
Lung: trapped into a burning house and his pyrokinetic powers activated to protect him from being burned alive.
Bakuda: something related to terrorist activity- she was shocked enough that she got the power to fight against terrorist with...terrorism.

None of these are nearly depressing enough

AmbarGriss · Mar 13, 2018

The topic of trigger events is an interesting one indeed, one that involves a lot of mechanics, circunstacies and factors.

blackarrow · Mar 13, 2018

HeWhoAdds said:
None of these are nearly depressing enough

Lol, do you think that war and terrorism are not depressing enough? Maybe it's just me but I find them VERY depressing. I can't even think at something more depressing than these.

Assembler · Mar 13, 2018

Once you get through the next chapter, I can drop some clarifying WoG on triggers if that's okay with you, @blackarrow.

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

Totally not four rats in a trench coat

Totally not four rats in a trench coat

Totally not four rats in a trench coat

Totally not four rats in a trench coat

Rocking the life

Totally not four rats in a trench coat

Totally not four rats in a trench coat

Totally not four rats in a trench coat

Totally not four rats in a trench coat

Totally not four rats in a trench coat

Rocking the life