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

blackarrow · Aug 3, 2019

Hi, my friends. Last time, there was an Interlude. An Interlude that I equally hated and I loved. The second interlude that I had extreme mixed feelings for it (the first one was Carol Interlude- I felt a deep sadness for everything that happened until Amelia got to Birdcage but also a deep happiness when she finally meet her father

). A lot of things happened during Fuck You Cody/YangBan Interlude. First, the whole Yangban bullshit reminded me of a phrase from a very popular dystopian book

"If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a PARAhuman face - forever."

(George Orwell- 1984. I recommend reading this book) Yep, this is what Yangban are doing. Treat parahumans (basically human beings who are a bit different from regular human beings only because they have powers and they're partially influenced by aliens) as SLAVES, good only to fight to protect Mother China, their individuality is forbidden to them and on top of everything their own life/body/mind are strictly controlled like they're only pieces of a huge paramilitary machine. Absolute disgusting. Slavery- Brainwashing- Mind Control. Everything I HATE is comprised in a single organisation that proved to be worse than even Cauldron (yes, Cauldron kidnaps random people and turn them into "monsters" then they wipe their minds so they forget everything about their kidnappers and tormentors BUT they still have their personalities intact, they're still their own individuals and are free to live their lives- as bad as their lives are now but they're allowed to be free people at least). But Yangban DESTROY people's minds turning them into slaves for the Red China FOREVER

. No more freedom, no more individuality. If Cauldron is the face of the experiments made by fascists (numbers tattooed, experiments on people), Yangban is the face of communism's destruction of individuality and brainwashing. Both of them are bad, but MIND CONTROL scares me a lot more than body horror (this is one of the main reasons why I hate Masters' powers. The other one is that most of Masters are fucking assholes and jerkfaces

).
From the same Interlude, I also learn a lot of stuff about Fuck You Cody. Most important: EVERYONE SHOULD BE AFRAID OF FUCK YOU CODY BECAUSE HE'S THE KIND OF PERSON WHO'S ALMOST AS DESTRUCTIVE AS AN ENDBRINGER, WITHOUT BEING A S-CLASS HIMSELF.
Imagine Fuck You Cody being involved in different and completely unrelated situations:
-A child losing their toy:
Cody: Don't worry, kid, I'll get you a new toy.
The poor child runs away, screaming.
For God' sake, Cody.

-A girl breaking up with her boyfriend:
Cody: Don't worry, beauty, I'll be your new boyfriend.
The poor girl faints.
For God' sake, Cody.

-Broken Victoria asking for her sister to come and heal her:
Cody: Don't worry, I'll bring her for you.
Broken Victoria lifts from bed using her OWN FEET then runs out of Asylum, screaming from all her mouths.
For God' sake, Cody.

-Cauldron complaining that they lost another man:
Cody: Don't worry, you can recruit me.
Doctor Mother: Doormaker, can you open a portal to an Earth where he can't find us? Pleeeeeeease...Do it. QUICKLY!
For God' sake, Cody.

Bonesaw getting bored because she's all alone for two years:
Cody: Can I keep you company, little girl?
Bonesaw shivers and cries: MOOOOOOOOOOOOMMYYYYYYY!
For God' sake, Cody.

Cody finds the portal to his Earths and want to walk through it:
Finally, home.
Earth Aleph moves by itself from ITS OWN ORBIT.
For God' sake, Cody.

Cody getting angry on Simurgh for his messy life:
Why you did this to me, you bitch?
Simurgh telepathically replying: I'm sorry, I think I went too far "freezes in the midair for the rest of the year".
Fuck you Cody, you're scaring everyone!

Leaving the (no) jokes aside, the situation is pretty awful, if not downright horrible: Tattletale is injured, she's alive but I doubt that she can talk for a while and talking is her main weapon+ a precious tool for everyone else

. Chevalier- one of the BRAVEST heroes- got an ugly scar across his stomach and back but maybe he's not dead (MAYBE) and Accord is VERY ASYMETRICAL DEAD. Millions of innocents will probably die because Cody killed a strategist and incapacitated another one because this asshole couldn't wait until the battle was over and Behemoth forced to leave to punish the man who sold him

. Cody will probably die because he have now like hundreds of very pissed enemies and his death will be very satisfactorily but how many people will die as a direct consequence of his actions?
A NEW ARC...CRUSHED. This title is as optimistic as Extermination was

. Can't wait to read it and.... lose count of Behemoths' kills Crushed 24.1

Each time I stopped, I took a second to try to grasp the situation. The streets were flooded with people, and it was only getting worse. The troops we had on the ground were struggling to make headway, and from my vantage point, I could tell that things were getting worse.

"Tecton!" I called out, as I returned to my roost.

He looked up at me. Even with his heavy body armor, he was struggling with the mass of people who were pushing and squeezing their way past him.

I pointed, "Go through the building! ASAP!"

He looked at the building, then raised his gauntlets. The piledrivers slammed into the wall,
punching out a rough, door-shaped hole.

He strode through, then did the same for another exterior wall. The Chicago Wards flowed
through.

Weaver is flying and ready to kick Endbringers' ass. But she's out of Endbringers' ass. Does Behemoth have an ass too? I don't remember that his description mentioned the existence of an ass. Anyway, he's enough of an asshole to need another ass :lol. Oh, Weaver, if only you'd know that Tattletale and Chevalier are injured (I refuse to believe that Chevalier is dead until I'll get the confirmation)...Maybe if she'll send bugs everywhere to scout for her, probably she'll discover the disaster that happened in the control room and let everyone know that Chevalier is injured and save his life in this way. Tattletale is injured herself and can't talk, I don't think she'll be able- given these conditions- to help Chevalier. But Weaver...Weaver can save him.
I like how Weaver works with Tecton. They're making a good team and...I almost ship her with him (I don't give a fuck that Weaver doesn't like Tinkers too much, I ship whatever I want

). He's a nice guy, smart and heroic and he'll probably have a good influence on Weaver in the same manner she can make him act more badass and without being afraid of his own limits. They can help each other a lot. Unless Tecton have already a girlfriend. Or a boyfriend. Or he's asexual. Or he doesn't like Taylor's personality type. Or Taylor herself still can't forget Brian

.
Btw, I noticed something. Wards (including Weaver) are wearing metal armors. Behemoth have power of lighting. Their armors are basically LIGHTING CONDUCTORS. So, they're living targets for Behemoth. WTF are you wearing, you stupid children? Who told you that wearing metal around Behemoth is the best idea? This idea can seriously win a Darwin Prize, man

. Now I'm starting to wonder if Accord wasn't more logical when he made his people to dress in an elegant manner than whoever made heroes into LIVING TARGETS FOR BEHEMOTH. My head hurts seeing so much stupidity EVERYWHERE.

"Reshape it," he said. He was still half-walking, half-jogging, but he stretched a white-gloved hand out four feet, touching a sign. His hand smeared against it as though it were more liquid than solid, coloring it the same white as his glove. The sign oozed back into the wall, virtually disappearing, and Annex removed his hand, slowly reeling in the extended flesh. The sign remained where it was, compressed against the wall, the surface flat.

Golem had to stop running to demonstrate. He dropped to one knee and plunged a hand into the street.

Ahead of us, there was a crash, a grinding noise. A hand made of pavement was reaching out of the ground, five feet long from the base of the wrist to the tip of the middle finger. The fingers seemed to move in slow motion as the hand pushed against stopped cars that were sort
of in our way, shoving them to one side of the road.

When she didn't pull herself together enough to reply, Tecton set a heavily armored hand on her shoulder, "She's a metallokinetic. Shape and move metal, short-range, including the stuff she's wearing. Some enhanced strength and durability, too."

More stuff about powers. Hell, yeah. Annex is like an inverse Vista. He merges himself with the objects around, turning himself into some kind of living space. A bit complicated, but very cool power. I was right about Golem. He's an earthbender. But he can also affect metal or any other available surface. Affect metal like his father but have additional influence on stone too. He creates huge metal and stone hands (how cool is that? I love his power. Wildbow is a MASTER at creating some of the most original powers I've ever seen

), its enough for him to stick his hand inside a rock or piece of metal then crush his enemies with giant hands coming out of ground. He can crush Jack for death if he isn't interrupted by something else. Faster than Jack can cut him with his knives. AWESOME. However, I don't want to see Jack being crushed to death. He doesn't deserve to die so fast. Cuff is a metalbender as I said first time when I meet her. She also seem pretty innocent- no, Weaver, don't judge her, she's scared shirtless, yes, but she's there because deep down she's a hero and she wants to do heroic things despite not being exceptionally brave. I admire her for being like this: she wants to save lives even if she's afraid for her own life. This is the exactly opposite of being a selfish coward. I just want to hug her. She's cute

.
Finally, they noticed that they're lighting rods. Congratulations but you still got Darwin Prize for demonstrating on your own skin that wearing metal armor during a fight with a SENTIENT STORM OF LIGHTING is not the smartest idea ever. Don't try this at home, kids

.

"You sure?" Tecton asked. "Because this makes a pretty good lightning rod on its own."

Both Annex and his costume merged into the base of the tower, and gradually climbed up to the point where the upper part still stood. He could only 'annex' part of the object at one time, it seemed. No surrounding a whole building. He set about breaking the bonds, and the crane's arm began to bend. Cuff caught one end of it, then began heaving it towards the tower's base. The other half snapped off, and Annex helped guide it down, sliding it against the crane's shaft.

"Middle finger extended," Grace suggested. "A big 'fuck you' to the Endbringer."

"That'd look bad for the PRT," Tecton told her.

"Tell them it's the most efficient form," she said, with a shrug. "Have to make it as tall as possible."

"No," Tecton said. "Index finger would work nearly as well, and New Delhi might take offense at a metal statue of an obscene gesture in the middle the disaster area."

"A 'v'," Cuff suggested, making the gesture with her index and middle fingers. Her voice was shaky, her confidence rock bottom. "For victory. Almost as good."

Annex's power is absolute fascinating. He can avoid being injured if he's cornered by merging with the stuff around him. He can be the best spy (almost as good as Imp) if he's lucky that hew doesn't have to spy on Masters. He can break things apart or pull them back together. His power have plenty of utilities

.
They're building a lighting rod using a crane, a tower and Gollem's giant hands? For what? Hmmm, maybe they want to use their lighting rod to distract Behemoth's attention so they can act behind his back. I don't know what they can do to him and they don't have Tattletale to help them with informatiom about his weaknesses but if I were in their place, I'll distract this attention in order to have enough time to save as many injured people as possible. Maybe they can't defeat Behemoth but they can save lives. Knowing Weaver, this is probably what she have in her mind too.
Awww, Cuff is a little ball of cuteness <3. "V" for Victory instead of Middle Finger? Awww, why not Middle Finger, Cuff? I like Grace idea more but Cuff is too much of a sweetheart and respectful towards New Delhi's citizens to offend them with the Finger. She's so considerate, I barely know her and I already like her. Well, I'll be less considerate and use the Finger but I agree with Cuff too

.
Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay for "V" for Victory. Or...."V" for Vendetta?

A lightning bolt lanced out from the midst of the cloud of smoke, striking the hand.

There were whoops and cheers from the Chicago Wards. I managed a smile.

"A 'v'," Golem said, his voice small.

"I get it. You're calling Behemoth a big vagina."

"It's for victory," Cuff said, sounding annoyed.

"That's lame," Imp said.

"Really lame," Regent echoed, "I prefer the vagina thing."

"Way you dress," Grace commented, "I wasn't so sure."

"Ohhhhh," Imp cut in, she elbowed Regent, "Ohhhhh. You going to take that?"

Regent only laughed in response, shaking his head.

"Is the little princess feeling brave?" Grace taunted Regent. "Come on."

Yessssssssss "applause"

. They did it, they really did it! They can save as many people as possible now that Behemoth doesn't pay them any attention, being too busy with "V" and Legend/Eidolon's attacks. Too bad I can't enjoy this scene as much as I wanted because my mind keeps bringing me at 3 questions: is Tattletale really ok? Is Chevalier still alive? Will Fuck You Cody be FUCKED? Can't be happy if I don't know what I should know

Scion is "busy" like always. He'd rather save cats from trees than people from Endbringers. What are humans for this golden alien after all? He got the "priorities" right. They should need a Scion Signal or call Lisette everytime when they're in deep shit. If Lisette is the one who control Scion now maybe she can call him, I don't know, telepathically? She must have developed a method of communication with Scion just like Kevin Norton apparently had, when he asked Scion to do stuff for him and the Flying Oscar listened him. But they don't know about Lisette and can't contact her. They don't even know about Kevin. Unless Kevin or Lisette will be willing to contact them.
Regent and Imp are delicious as always :lol. Still not enough funny dialogue to make me NOT FORGET about Tattletale and Chavelier. If they only know about them...

When everyone was gone, Grue approached me. I felt myself tense up. Despite the adrenaline that already pumped through me, my heart rate picked up as he closed the distance.

He held my arms just above the elbows, very nearly encircling his middle fingers and thumbs around them. Large hands, thin arms. I'd put on a little muscle mass over the past few months, or he'd be able to do it for real.

And he rested his forehead against mine, as if he were leaning against me, despite the fact that he was maybe half-again to twice my weight.

The one I was helping was a child, burned. She wasn't any older than ten.

She said something incomprehensible. Another language.

"English?" I asked.

She only stared at me, unable to understand me any more than I understood her. Her eyes were a little glazed over, but the pain in her expression and the fear suggested that the benefits of being in shock were receding.

"Why did you come?" I asked. "I mean, I get why we all came, on a level, but… no offense, you're in a totally different headspace."

"For my mom and dad," she said.

Poor burned little girl

. She's injured and scared and traumatized. She doesn't understand english and her parents probably died. Man, its not enough that I'm sad over Chevalier and Tattletale, now I have to be sad for poor civilians, for so many people who'll die because of Behemoth and Fuck You Cody Perdition. So many innocent lives wasted between an animal monster's hate for humanity and a human monster's pure selfishness. My heart cries for every single lost soul. This is exactly what I hate (among other things). Seeing innocents dying

. I'd rather prefer seeing heroes/heroic villains (except for Tattletale because I'm her bitch, that's why

) sacrificing their lives for civilians, because this is a hero's ultimate job, right? You're doing an excellent job, Weaver, Bitch, saving as many innocents as possible. Bitch is using her dogs to carry wounded. Bitch, my respect for you is going over...

Sorry, couldn't help myself

. I think nobody will approve me using old memes instead of new ones...
"Number Man approves"
YOU'RE THE LAST PERSON THAT I NEED TO APPROVE ME, YOU ~~HOT~~ ASSHOLE. MOVE YOUR NAKED ASS ON THE BATTLEFIELD AND ACTUALLY HELP, IF YOU REALLY WANT TO HELP

!!!
Weaver and Grue hugged. What a nice moment between two ex-lovers >3 >3. Its nice and sad and beautiful and hopeless...My heart will cry bloody tears if Grue will die now because this whole "last hug" seems like a huge ass red flag to me, weaving from the top center of the Great Wall. Undersiders are awesome and everything, but they're still humans and Death avoided them so far but one day, it will notice them and they'll not be so lucky anymore.
Cuff is love, Cuff is life

. She's fighting Behemoth for her parents, not for herself, neither for the rest of the heroes. Nothing is more moving and emotional than fighting to protect your family. FAMILY SHOULD MATTER FIRST, MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE. FAMILY SHOULD BE A SACRED THING FOR ANYONE, well as long as they don't have an awful family. If Cuff fights for her parents then they must be good parents, right

?

"Send this message to Defiant," I said. "You said she was dead. You said you verified."

The reply crackled so badly it was almost inaudible. "Reply from Defiant. I saw the body myself, we checked her DNA, her … readings, we matched against the mountings for her prosthetic eye … carbon dated it to verify."

He didn't even need to ask who I meant.

I pressed the button, "Ask Defiant who the hell that's supposed to be, if it's not Alexandria."

Weaver, I just want to smack you. That flying brick is NOT Alexandria you know and you understandable hate. That is Pretender taking over Alexandria almost dead body "wants to puke over all this Master bullshit power and strategy

" and he's using her to fight Behemoth. Think, my sweet summer child, think. Alexandria is fucked. You fucked her lungs with your bugs. Pretender have this vomit inducing power. He got "kidnapped" by Cauldron. Alexandria was Cauldron's most dedicated agent. Why they did "kidnapped" someone who can POSSESS BODIES? Just to have him knitting fedoras and pants for Contessa and Number Man

? Weaver, right now you're too tired to think. Try to rest for like few seconds then you'll realize that the man you lost to Cauldron is the same controlling Alexandria's body. At least PreAlexandria is helping. Cauldron is helping even if not enough. Where is Contessa and Number Man? They're too busy collecting more people for Doctor Mother's fucked up experiments, eh

? Thank you for HALPING, jerks, but you're still jerks. I'm sure that PreAlexandria is not as strong like normal Alexandria was but any help is welcomed, right?
Scion, how many people will have to keep dying until you'll get your shit done by doing what Kevin asked you to do

? The most powerful being in the story is the most useless piece of shit. Useless until he'll probably meet Jack and let himself being influenced by him. Then you'll see how USEFUL he'll become. Useful like...destroying one Earth at every single minute

.
MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNN.........

I think I found Yangban victory sign

Victory is coming by voyo09 on DeviantArt

www.deviantart.com

Good night and sleep well, my friends.

blackarrow · Aug 5, 2019

Taylor and Lisa by DamienDraidecht on DeviantArt

www.deviantart.com

blackarrow · Aug 12, 2019

Hello, my dear friends. Last time, we got a kick- ass message addressed to Behemoth, the giant V for Victory (even if a giant middle finger would have been a better choice

), Behemoth burning and killing civilians as usual

, Weaver saving lives as usual, Undersiders making team with Wards to fight against the lighting kaiju and Fuck You Cody still alive, free and possible doing even more stupid and destructive things 🤬. We also got Cauldron's involvement, with them sending Pretender in Alexandria's body to help the rest of Triumvirate keeping Behemoth busy enough so he won't kill more heroes and civilians. Maybe things happened in just one Chapter. And it is the first Chapter of an Arc with such an adorable title: CRUSHED. Can't think at more adorable and optimistic titles than this one 😒.
We also got a lot of new cool powers, something like:
Gollem's power

Annex's power

https://emptyeasel.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/melting-clock.jpg

....and Cuff's power

http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/28500000/Friendship-is-Magic-my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-28564514-1920-1080.png

Cuff is too adorable to continue to live in such a dark and horrible world....Oh, no, forget what I just said. SHE MUST SURVIVE. Even in such a dark and horrible world. It needs more people like her 🙂 Crushed 24.2

If I'd had any doubt it was Alexandria, it was banished when she followed up the attack. Behemoth started to rise to his feet, and Alexandria struck. It wasn't a punch with a great deal of wind-up, and she only crossed fifty or sixty feet before driving it home, but the impact was undeniable.
Behemoth absorbed the blow, and redirected it into the ground. He didn't move, as though the blow had never struck home, but the ground around him shattered like the surface of a mirror. Fragments of rock and clouds of dust flew up around him, and a three-story building on its last legs tumbled over. The damage to the ground made him sink a fraction.

In a fashion, she was doing the same thing the lightning rod had been, buying all of the rest of us a small reprieve. There was no guarantee, and there wouldn't be any until he was driven off or we moved a hundred miles away, but she was making the rest of this just a little easier, reducing the destruction
just a fraction unless he specifically took the time to work around her.

"Alexandria," I said.

"You murdered Alexandria," Regent commented. "Remember? You're a horrible person, doing things like that."

"You leave her alone!" Imp said, uncharacteristically. "She feels so bad she'sseeing things."

"Can we try to stay serious?"

"Don't be too hard on them," Tecton said. "Some people use humor to deal with bad situations."

"It's true," Regent said, affecting a knowing tone.

"No," Grue responded. "They're just idiots. You two keep your mouths shut. The adults are talking."
Imp raised her middle fingers at him.

He turned to me, "It's Alexandria? You're sure?"

"Can you ever be sure of anything? Clones, alternate realities, healing abilities… there's any number of possibilities."
In the distance, a glowing orange sphere flew into the sky. It reached a peak, then descended, crashing into the distant skyline.

Poor Weaver, she still have no idea that Alexandria is not Alexandria but Pretender pretending to be Alexandria. Come on, Weaver, is not that hard to think and MAKE CONNECTIONS. Anyway, looks like Pretender is pretty good at controlling Alexandria's powers that are still intact, but he doesn't have any experience with her way of fighting. Understandable. Behemoth doesn't recognize the trick, he doesn't have any idea that he's not fighting Alexandria anymore, only her avatar. Alright, just keep him busy enough time for heroes to evacuate/save the injured. Thank you for helping, Pretender. You're an ass and a traitor, but at least you're helping 😁. Any help matters.

"Message from Defiant," my armband declared. "Alexandria confirmed gone from PRT custody."

"For now it's an unknown factor," I said. "And there's one really big knownfactor that's tearing through this city, and we should be devoting all our attention to it. To Behemoth"

He narrowed his eyes. Except that wasn't the sum total of the change in his expression. His face hardened, drew tighter, high cheekbones somehow more prominent in the dim, lips pressed together. "No."

"No?"

"Not our duty. Yours."

"It's everyone's duty."

"We handle enemy you don't see, you costumes help enemies above ground. Scare Prathama away."

Like it's that easy. "We need your help. Everyone's help."

"No. We show ourselves, and all ends badly. We fight subtle war. Better to lose today and fight subtle war tomorrow."

Better to let Behemoth win than to show themselves and lose whatever edge they hold against their current enemies?

"You see me, I am done. Finished. You see all of us, they are done. No."

Maybe India had its own share of capes, on the same scale as the Slaughterhouse Nine. Cleverer capes who worked in the background.

Or maybe they were just deluded, too set in their ways, afraid to fight and searching for excuses.

"Go. Defeat him," he told me.

Grue was waiting. Or Grue was coming down here, maybe, with Rachel and the others. If they saw him, an intruder without invitation, would they act?

"Okay," I said. "We need a vehicle if, um…"

I trailed off as I mentally registered what my bugs were sensing.

A rush of cool, air-conditioned air in a space that had no right to have any, off to one side, the appearance of a person where there shouldn't be any.

"Weaver?"

I'd stopped talking, my attention caught by this visitor. She was close. All of the details matched the person I'd sensed inside the Kulshedra. The clothes, the hair, the dimensions, even the way she moved.

Purposeful, unhurried.

"It's her. The one who took Pretender."

Weaver got confirmation that Alexandria's body was stolen, but she can't still make the connection between heroes losing Pretender to Cauldron and who stole Alexandria's body and why. Man, Weaver, you're too tired. Go to sleep then you'll feel much better, I think. But she can't because she NEEDS TO SAVE LIVES. She can't rest when she's so damn busy 😁.
Wow, the indian COLD parahumans are truly COLD. They don't even want to cooperate with Weaver and her Merry Band of Heroes and Villains. They want to fight alone. Stupid...stupid, stupid, stupid. When you have such a murderous kaiju coming to destroy everyone's ass, you still refuse to work with heroes from other countries in order to stop him from RUINING YOUR OWN COUNTRY ☹. Good thinking, indian cold parahumans. I'm impressed "vomits tons of sarcasm all over keyboard".
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand....HELLO, CONTESSA, WHAT'S UP 🕵️‍♀️? Why did you come here? To help people fighting Behemoth? To use your instant win power to kick Behemoth's ass and save New Delhi? Bullshit. She's there to KIDNAP more people in order to use them for Doctor Mother's SICK EXPERIMENTS 👩‍⚕️. You can't convince me that she won't do that. Well, I hope that she'll also offer some helpful advises, but maybe I'm way too naive when it comes to motherfucker Cauldron.

"No!" I called out, once I realized what was happening. I thought of what the Eidolon clone had said, about them experimenting on people, kidnapping people from alternate worlds. "You can't trust her!"

But the people here were scared. Once the first few people tentatively made their way through, they ran for safety, running out into the open field,
disappearing behind tall wild grass.

"What the hell is Cauldron doing? Do you want to start a war?"

She shook her head. "No war. But we need soldiers."

That was all the confirmation I needed.

"Wards!" I called out. My bugs and my Wards converged on her.

Contessa just confirmed that I wasn't wrong about her intentions. Thank you, Contessa. Much appreciate. You're halping. Really, truly halping (well, at least they convinced Pretender to kick Behemoth's ass as Alexandria which is the nicest thing that Cauldron did so far). Well, ok, what are you planning, Weaver? Please, don't tell me that you're going to ATTACK her. Weaver, this bitch defeated (while alone) some of the strongest mercenaries in this world, Faultline's Crew. She also literally destroyed Kenta's thugs and created a motherfucking dragon. Weaver, you'll lose to her 😬. You don't know her power, you don't know her weaknesses, you don't know her fighting style, you don't know nothing about her. DON'T FIGHT HER. DON'T SACRIFICE THE LIVES OF THE HEROES UNDER YOUR LEAD BECAUSE YOU WANT TO PROVOKE CONTESSA. She CAN and she'll kill everyone if she's pissed enough. Maybe Golem and Tecton can do some damage to her but if she's a Combat Thinker with precog power as I predicted then she'll be aware of every single attack and evade it with the grace of a feline. She's that good, Weaver, trust me. She's a bitch, but she's excellent when it comes to kicking ass. Don't do something that you're going to regret very soon 😠.

"Coordinate!" I said, my voice tight. I activated the thrusters on my flight pack in an attempt to tear way, but she wrenched me to one side, tilting my upper body while using one leg to block my lower body from following suit. The end result was that the thruster only pushed me into the wall. I managed to avoid slamming my head against the surface, but I was now pinned against a solid surface. She still had my wrist behind my back.

Dodge this, I thought. I commanded my bugs to attack from every direction.

The Wards were taking my order seriously, attacking simultaneously. Annex was looming, a spectre in the ground, raising up to try to engulf her, Golem was beside a wall, already reaching into it, and Tecton was kneeling, pressing his gauntlets against the ground. Cuff and Grace had heard my order, and were stepping into view, advancing from behind the others.

The woman laid her free hand over the hand she was twisting behind my back. Then she pressed my own fingers down into my palm, hard.

The control mechanism, I thought. Too late. My bug was already moving towards the off switch when the thruster kicked in. She swept my feet out from under me, and the thruster drove me into the ground. The bug touched the off switch, but the impact had locked up the controls.

I hit Annex on my way down, buying the woman time to step back out of his reach. The bug managed to turn off the thruster, but I was already sliding across the floor, right through the lower half of Wanton's telekinetic storm body and straight into Tecton's gauntlets.

The piledrivers fired into the ground a fraction of a second after I bumped into the gloves. He'd likely aimed to place an effect directly beneath her, but my collision with the gloves had knocked his aim off by a fraction. It was directed into a wall, creating a crack ten feet high.

The crack, in turn, summarily severed Golem's outstretched hand of granite.

The woman pulled her suit jacket off and held it out, sweeping it through the air to catch the thickest collection of my swarm within. She folded it closed, simultaneously breaking into stride, heading right for Wanton. Grace and Cuff were just behind him, with Tecton directly behind them, and Golem and I off to one side. Annex was still pulling his spacial-distortion body together into something more useful.

Bug Hoe, don't do it...
Weaver:....Does it!
OH MY GAWD!!! 😱😱😱
Weaver, go to fucking sleep, you're fucking tired. You're so dumb that I'm almost under the impression that someone stole your brains. First, you have no idea who that "Alexandria" really is, second you ATTACKED Contessa without her attacking first despite everyone telling you that she's the BOOGEYMAN OF CAPES 💀. More than that, you're forcing the rest of the heroes to fight her. I hate Contessa for what she represents (but she's starting to become the only Cauldron member that I like and I actually give a fuck about) but I hate stupidity more than I hate her. You DESERVE to have your ass kicked by her, Weaver, I'm not going to support you when its clearly that not Contessa started this fight in the middle of a humanitarian disaster created by an unstoppable monster. Instead of conserving your forces and fight Behemoth, you're attacking Contessa like a bunch of morons. I understand that she must be stopped from kidnapping more people, but its not the right time now ☹. As long as her weaknesses are unknown, you can't really stop her, Weaver, and she'll probably kill some heroes who might be useful in Behemoth's Battle. Your lack of logic and constructive strategy HURTS me, Weaver. With all their sins, Cauldron probably hate Endbringers as much as everyone else (except for Endbringers's Fallen Brides, of course) and Contessa is not there to help Behemoth or stop heroes from killing him. Behemoth is your common enemy right now, there's still time for Cauldron after New Delhi will be safe. Gosh, I'm so frustrated right now with Weaver's decision that I feel good seeing Contessa beating the crap out of her 🕵️‍♀️🤜🐛.

"What I mean is that I can see the paths to victory. I can carry them out without fail."

I felt my heart skip a beat at that. She'd volunteered an actual answer?

"The fuck?" Grace asked.

"She's lying," Wanton said. "That's ridiculous. It's not even close to fair."

Powers aren't necessarily fair, I thought.

"My power is a form of precognition," she said. "Unlike most such powers, other precognitive abilities do not confuse it. That said, there are certain
individuals it does not work against, the Endbringers included."

Contessa won easily, as expected. She's indeed a Combat Precog using what she calls "Path to Victory" (that should be better called Instant Win). She can win against anyone because she predicts what her enemy will do in the next second and stop them. She can also look into the future and see the best and most optimal path she needs to take in order to obtain an easy victory. Did I got her power right 🙂? I think I did, her power doesn't sound complicated. She's like a walking and talking LUCK and VICTORY. Damn, her power is so freaking OP. I'm sure she must have her weakness (except that Endbringers represent blind spots for her power because they're immune to precogs) but she's not going to tell the heroes she just beat up about it, she's not Weaver stupidity level. Guys, let Contessa leave with her prisoners. I can't believe myself for saying that but what she's doing is less bad compared with what Behemoth is doing. Behemoth kills heroes, civilians, he's BURNING CHILDREN, for God' sake 😢. You can't stop Contessa from doing what she's doing but you can try to stop Behemoth. Or die trying. You can still save civilians. Or die saving. Because...I think that Scion will not save the day this time.

She turned back to us, but she didn't respond. The portal closed, top to bottom.

Contessa basically:
Path to WIN a battle: Instant win.
Path to WIN the heart of a man (or woman): instant win.
Path to WIN at lottery: instant win.
Path to....take out my goddamn fedora: ERROR. This path can't be found. Fedora is part of your scalp. You'll die if you'll forcefully take out.
Contessa: Damn it. My power is not perfect 🕵️‍♀️👎.
Thank you for not hurting anyone, Contessa, you defeated them without causing major wounds. You know that they still need to fight Endbringers and you took care to keep them in relative good condition (compared with what she did to the poor Faultline's people or to Kenta's thugs, she treated the heroes with kid gloves). Good, good, Contessa...Guys, I think I just found the only Cauldron member that I like. Of course I still 1000% hate what she's doing (and I'll always hate it no matter the reasons) but compared with Doctor Mother and Number Man, she's almost like a good person trapped in a bad place

. Well, if she's indeed a person and not what I think that she might be but I'll explain more once I'll finish with this liveblog.
I think is not wrong if you like a person but you hate their actions, right? For example, I like Bonesaw but I find every single one of her actions too repulsive to even describe in words. I hate her actions so much that sometimes I imagine strangling her until her soul leave her body. But other times I'm asking myself how this child became like that, what turned her into the little monster that we know and loathe

? Jack must be responsible for this smart, carefree and so broken monster girl's current behavior. Yes, she's just a child, children are usually modeled by the adults in their life. They're like pieces of plasticine that can be used by adults to build anything they want. During these moments, I...I just want to hug Bonesaw and keep her away from Jack. I'm wrong for liking someone whose actions are so fucking WRONG and evil

?
Contessa might be exactly like Bonesaw. Not a victim to Doctor Mother (however I'll not be surprised if she's actually a victim to Doctor Mother) but a person who choose to do something very wrong despite not being a bad human being herself. Clearly that Contessa is not so bad compared with the cold and merciless Doctor Mother or the cruel and sociopathic Number Man. This is the impression she gave me after her fight with Wards. She could have hurt them, kill them (Number Man TRIED to kill Rime...that ~~hot~~ bastard 🤬) but she choose to make the fight as easy as she could for her without bleeding her adversaries. I'm a hypocrite for hating Cauldron yet not hating Contessa that much? Damn, I feel so morally conflicted when I like/almost like/hate less than I should do someone who's actions are so wrong from my perspective (I also hate some of Taylor's actions but she's one of my favorite characters. WELP!).

"Armband, status of Tattletale?"

"Out of commission."

By all rights, I should have reacted, cried out, declared something. I only felt numb. This was falling apart too quickly.

"Status of the other Undersiders?"

"Two injured. Parian and Grue."

We don't have the organization. Our command structure is down

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

. Tattletale is gone, either dead or too hurt to fight.

He struck one area with lightning, and explosives detonated. A massive forcefield went up a moment after they triggered, and the explosion was contained within, a cumulative effect that soared skyward.

For a solid twenty, thirty seconds, the sky was on fire, and the Endbringer tore through our defenses, making his way to a building with capes clustered on the roofs. They weren't, at a glance, our offensive capes. They were our thinkers, our tinkers, the ones our front line was supposed to be covering.

The woman in the suit had declined to share the other reason her power wouldn't let her simply solve the Endbringer crisis.

The answer I'd declined to share with the other Wards was a simple one. She had the ability to see the road to victory. Maybe, when it came to the Endbringers, there was nothing for her to see.

Great, more of my favorite characters are injured: Grue and Parian

. Tattletale is missing in action but I KNOW that she's ok, Chevalier's fate is still uncertain and Accord probably started to rot. Who's going to be the next Ambassadors' boss? Citrine should be, she's his main lieutenant after all. Maybe Citrine will be a less crazy and more emphatic boss than Accord. MAYBE.
Too many deaths because Fuck You Cody couldn't wait for the battle to be over before he killed Accord

. Too many deaths because Weaver challenged Contessa to an already lost fight instead of actually saving injured. See, this is why I hate stupidity. More people are dying because of someone' stupidity and uncontrollable anger issues than pure malice

. Weaver, I'm afraid of your next decisions because...well, you weren't very bright so far. You still need time to get used with your hero identity, I'm sure about, but...this is an important battle where people are DYING. Forget that you have issues with your new identity and remember how good you're at strategy, not as Skitter, neither as Weaver, but as Taylor. Before being Skitter or Weaver, you're still Taylor and you'll always be Taylor

. I need Taylor the STRATEGIC GENIUS , not Weaver the idiotic hero or Skitter the brutal villain. This is not the time for brutality or stupidity. This is the time for NOT ALLOWING BEHEMOTH TO BURN MORE CHILDREN.
Ok, my theory about Contessa: if she's not a person, then maybe she's....Doctor Mother's Projection. Maybe Doctor Mother drank from the same vial as Manton and got similar power, creating an indestructible projection. Maybe the key to defeat Contessa is to...go after Doctor Mother. I guessed correctly that Siberian was a projection back then, maybe I'm going to be right this time too. But I don't wanna to be right because as I said before, I'm starting to like Contessa

. If she's just a projection projected by Doctor Mother herself and not a real person then...I can't like her anymore (but I'll still be fair and appreciate Doctor Mother a bit for not hurting the heroes).

Good night and sleep well, my friends.

blackarrow · Aug 20, 2019

Hello, my people. A new Chapter, a new update, as you already know. Last update was pretty eventful. Tattletale and Chevalier's fate is still unknown (I know that Tattletale is alive but I don't know if she's still in the command center or she left to find help for Chevalier. I also know that she's a villain and Chevalier is a hero but Tatttletale is not the kind of person who'll let people die only because they're her theoretical enemies and she's usually very pragmatic: Chevalier is also the enemy of Behemoth and the enemy of my enemy is my friend kind of thing. Chevalier have the main command over all hero groups and I can see Tattletale- if she have a small chance to save him- doing anything in her power to keep him alive. They'll be fine, if I will keep telling myself this- even if the reality might be different- I will feel a little better and less stressed

).
Probably surprising for many of my readers who know about my personal feelings for Cauldron, I found the only Cauldron member that I can not only tolerate but I can also LIKE. Not "like" in that sense that I will suffer if she'll ever die or that I want to hug her everytime when I see her but "like" in the sense that she's a little much better than her teammates and she's also an OP badass- I enjoyed quite a lot watching her fight, especially when she's holding back enough so she won't hurt her adversaries. Well, Contessa, I appreciate what you did with heroes, but why you didn't the same thing with Faultline's Crew as well

? Why you had to hurt THAT BAD my favorite kind- hearted mercenaries? Maybe they reacted with excessive violence when she attacked them or she was too pissed because they're after Cauldron's ass, while heroes are more busy with fighting more mundane enemies like Behemoth. Only Contessa knows what was in her mind when she decided to make her response to Faultline's Crew so disproportionate compared with the one given to heroes (maybe because heroes had to stop Behemoth while mercenaries were only good at doing...their mercenary stuff?). Contessa also asked nicely Caldeon's future victims to follow her to their imminent nightmare instead of just kidnapping them, which is a slightly change in her modus operandi. Well, manipulation based on empty promises is just as bad but at least Contessa didn't used brute force for once. Poor naive people

...On short, Doctor Mother SUCKS, Number Man SUCKS but Contessa SUCKS LESS. Promising...
Enough with the Contessa's positive traits, lets go back to Behemoth Battle's Next Supervictims Crushed 24.3

His target: the command center. Our flying capes weren't working fast enough to clear the entire rooftop, and every shaker we had -every cape capable of putting up a forcefield or creating a portal, raising a barrier- was busy trying to slow down the brute. The Chicago Wards, or most of the Chicago Wards were among them.

Golem, to his credit, was going all out. Hands of stone and metal rose from the ground to shield defending capes and balk Behemoth's progress. I could make out Hoyden, leader or second in command of the Austin Wards. She wasn't on the front lines, but was defending the mid-line capes. It made sense with how her power worked, as her defensive powers provided more cover from attacks at greater ranges. She threw herself in the way of lightning bolts and stood between Behemoth and the wounded. When lightning struck her, detonations ripped out from the point of impact, seeming almost to short out the currents.

She began releasing spheres of light from the lantern, each larger than a human head, slow-moving but numerous. Their trajectories were unpredictable, some striking friendlies, others carrying forward towards Behemoth. Where they struck friendlies, they only exploded in brilliant showers of sparks. When they touched Behemoth, they sheared right into him, cutting two or three feet deep before flickering out.

While heroes are doing their best to keep Behemoth busy/save people, Weaver is looking after Tattletale. Of course, Tattletale is her best friend and key element for this Battle. I like how Dispatch uses his superspeed to save the injured and Revel, the heroic asian woman, fights Behemoth with lights summoned from her lantern (the lantern seems to be the conductor for her power, just like Myrddin's wooden staff was for the so called wizard. Some parahumans need their "magical wands" as conductors for their powers, and I see this as a weakness- take their toys away from them, they're SCREWED).
I have a new theory about Endbringers' apparition and purpose. Simurgh have Tinker powers, right? She can copy Tinkers technology and become as good as them, if not better. What if she copied a bio-Tinker's power and used the knowledge she accumulated to create Endbringers? What if Leviathan and Behemoth are her baby monsters

? She looks almost human, just like Scion, its a possibility that they belong to the same humanoid looking species, the other Endbringers are literal monsters and as Tattletale noticed, they're never truly alive, partially explaining Simurgh's Tinkering with them. I think that she can create more Endbringers and the only way for humanity to destroy them forever is to kill Simurgh, the brain behind their existence. Maybe humanity can't destroy her but Scion...well, yes, if he'll decide that saving a cat from a tree can wait but saving millions of people from Endbringers is something that CAN'T WAIT

. Simurgh's purpose? To destroy humanity but not fast. She's sadistic enough to play sadistic games with humanity and see how much they're willing to resist her. She can order her babies to blow up Earth Bet if she'd like but that would be too boring and less exciting for her cruel personality. She's a player with impressive imagination and the humanity is nothing but her play things. I like Wildbow's idea to create an alien different than the usual ones: not an alien who want to rule over humanity or destroy it fast but a sadistic one who like to play with humanity just like cat plays with the mouse before eating it

.

"Arbiter," I responded. One of Rime's underlings. The one with the social danger sense, forcefield and sonic beam. I supposed her forcefield wasn't quite large enough or versatile enough to offer a bridge down to the ground. "I've got other stuff I need to pay attention to. Don't suppose you speak French? Or Spanish?"

"Portuguese," she said. "And no, but give me a moment."

"I don't quite understand, there's a gap in translation, but he says he's pregnant with his dead teammates," she said. Her voice cut through the noise,
"They're asking for him to be rescued next."

Pregnant with dead teammates?

Suddenly the little faces on his armor seemed twice as creepy. I really hoped that was a tragically bad translation. Parahumans could be so fucked up sometimes.

"Thank you," I told her. "For helping keep this sane. If it comes down to it, and the cords don't hold, I'll lend you my flight pack. I can control it remotely."

"Give it to someone else before you give it to me," she said, without looking at me.

"You've done your duty. Go to your friend. Figure out what's going on," Arbiter said.

I stopped by Tattletale's bedside. I'd found her within instants of the temple falling in my range. Her lips moved as she recognized me, but no sound came out. My eyes moved to the tube sticking out of her throat.

"You really gotta stop doing this," I said.

Arbiter is so freaking heroic and nice

. Not only that she saved Weaver from a certain demise when she stopped Augustin Price with her forcefield but she prefers to be left behind so she can save more parahumans with Weaver's spider silk ziplines. She encouraged Weaver to go after Tattletale. Arbiter is going to climb high on the list of my favorite heroes if she'll continue being so awesome <3. She seems to be omnilingualist, learning portuguese in a matter of seconds. Learning another language so fast is one of the most useful powers and Arbiter already have this. Plus summoning defensive/offensive forcefields, another useful power.
Speaking about powers, that parahuman with the power to "remain pregnant with his dead teammates" have a CREEPY ASS power, no doubt

😰. The third most creepy power after Mannequin and Nilbog's stuff of living nightmares. Any power that let someone pregnant with ANYTHING is hellish creepy, I don't have enough words to describe how creepy it IS. What he's going to do with his dead teammates? Give birth to them? Like babies who'll grow up normally or like babies who develop into adults in a couple of minutes? They'll live something like...a second life? What about triggers, what about their powers? Wildbow, EXPLAIN this unsettling bullshit, please, I need to understand what kind of Horror Passenger this unfortunate parahuman got 🤢.
Tattletale is well, she'll have troubles speaking for a while but she's alive and this is all that matters. As long as she can write, then won't be hard for her to use her power, right? No, Weaver, she'll never stop doing what she's doing no matter how many assholes will try to stop her. This is Tattletale and if something will ever stop her that will be DEATH

. Well, DEATH death, not coming back as a "fairy" avatar or as a man's baby

.

Accord was dead? What did that spell for the Undersider-Ambassador alliance?

But she was already handing me the next piece of paper.

you go. find it. find his objective.

"Kismet, balance thinker," the Caucasian said. He wore a white robe with a hard, faceless mask that had only slits for the eyes.

"And the other two?"

"As far as I can tell, Fathom and Particulate. Best translations I can give. My Punjabi isn't strong."

"Their powers?" I asked, with a restrained patience.

"Displaces people or things to another dimension, filled with water, brings them back. Particulate's a dust tinker."

What the fuck is a dust tinker? Or a balance thinker, for that matter?

According to Tattletale, Behemoth have a target. I don't think he's after nuclear weapons since they can't hurt him. He's after a parahuman who CAN HURT HIM or a second Echidna. Leviathan wanted to release/be cloned by Echidna. Behemoth wants to be hurt by another powerful parahuman so he'll become unbeatable. He's acting like Crawler. I'm not sure how you can stop him from reaching his target, Weaver, but you can locate his target and bring them as far away as possible from Behemoth or hide them somewhere where the monster can't find them. But Behemoth seems like he can "feel" their presence as he's walking in their direction....Weaver have to be faster than Behemoth or somehow block his ability to find his target.
Balance Thinker is....someone like Accord? Keeping the world in balance and equilibrium? Well, his power must work a bit different because I noticed that there is no such thing as two powers being 100% similar. An example, New Wave have similar powers but with some noticeable differences between them. As for dust Tinker....use dust to build his stuff? Dust constructions?
Btw, my dad (who's one Arc ahead from where I'm with the story) warned me that there will be a character in this Arc (an indian parahuman) that I'm going to hate more than I already hate Cody and many other assholes. He hated HIM so much that he wanted to be a character in the story just to have to pleasure of strangling that man with his bare hands

. He called him a disgusting psychopath. I don't think is Kismet, he seems like a ok guy. He even thanked Weaver for her help and gave her the phone she was asking for. Alright, there's still more left of this Arc so...lets see if my father is right (he's usually right

).
I think that Undersider-Ambassador alliance will be stronger now that Accord is dead. Nobody will want to kill Tattletale anymore and they'll STRONGLY cooperate to protect Accord's plans and make them work and to find Fuck You Cody and teach him a thing or two about REVENGE 🤝 .

Rachel rescued one or two, though the heroes might have debated the nature of the rescue. Her dogs seized people in their mouths, running, dropping them at a safe distance, before moving in to retrieve more people. Some of the rescued individuals were left slowly climbing to their feet, no doubt bruised from the dog's teeth and dripping with drool.

Grace, using her strength to carry the wounded. Wanton was venturing into more dangerous ground with the safety of his telekinetic body, returning to human form to help the wounded and trapped, then retreating with the same form, moving on to the next person. Cuff was helping a tinker.

Damn tinkers. Their stuff was making life so complicated, now. Too many things to keep track of. Antigrav, propulsion, sensing things with my bugs, paying attention to what I was sensing with my bugs, coordinating people, with sectors for them to cover, and now tracking the stuff with the scanner.

Was there a whole undercity beneath New Delhi? Some kind of subterranean realm of corridors and rooms, large and small? Did the good and bad 'cold' capes accidentally dig into each other's corridors at any point? Collapse sections of each other's undercity?

We approached, and I could see a cape inside, or a parahuman, if 'cape' applied. He was disheveled, with dark circles under his eyes, his skin pale, his beard and hair bedraggled. His clothing, by contrast, was opulent, clean: a rich indigo robe, a sapphire set in a gold chain, a gold chain for a belt, and a golden sash.

And above him, the energy. There were two golden discs, and something almost alive seemed to crackle between them.

"It's Phir Sē," Kismet said, backing away.

"The glowing thing in the air or the person?" I asked.

"The person."

"Who's Phir See?" I asked.

"Sē. He's one of the reasons the American girl's PRT can exist," Kismet said. "When they talk about disbanding it, the PRT only reminds them that monsters like this lurk elsewhere."

Phir Sē seems to be the asshole that my father hates. What this asshole ever did? He's someone like Coil? Like Fuck You Cody? Like the human version of an Endbringer? Like Jack? Kismet called him a monster. I'm sure he have a GOOD REASON to call him like that. Maybe Phir Sē is Behemoth's target. He's too destructive and Behemoth wants to find him, make him attack him, but the attack will only empower Behemoth even more. Or Phir Sē have a weapon and Behemoth wants to take it away from him before he'll be shot. Either way, I don't like this. Its written BAD all over ☹.
Particulate creates guns/devices that can turn things to dust, apparently.
Ok, time to know this Phir Sē and get an answer at this question: why everyone, including the american Protectorate see him as a monster. They must have good reasons, right

?

"Thank you," I said, still wary. Everything about Kismet's reaction was telling me this guy was to be feared, so I had to step carefully. "Can I ask what that thing is?"

"A weapon," he said. "A… how do you Americans say it? Time bomb? Only this is joke."

"He makes portals," Kismet said. "Using them, he can send things back in time. Something goes in portal B, comes out of portal A a few minutes earlier. Or the other way around."

"I want this on Behemoth. Do great harm. Even kill."

He wasn't even turned all the way around when there was a flicker. A man appeared just in front of Kismet. A teleporter.

And his forearm extended through Kismet's chest.

Then he flickered, like a bad lightbulb, and he was gone, leaving only a gaping hole where the arm had been. Kismet collapsed, dead.

"I don't think many top the Endbringers," I said.

"You want to hit Behemoth with this… time bomb," I said. "But… I think that's what he wants. He's holding back. My thinker friend, she said so. He's taking more hits than he should, and I'm just now realizing he might be doing it because he wants to be ready for when you hit him with this. He'll push it out into the ground, or into the air."

"Yes. This is likely," Phir Sē said. "This is what he may want. I hoped for the Second or Third. This will have to do."

"They've tried this stuff before," I said. "Nukes, gigantic railguns, tricks with teleportation and portals. It doesn't work. You won't do anything except get a lot of people killed as collateral damage."

"Then New Delhi pay for my mistake," Phir Sē answered me. "I have daughter there. She join bright heroes, popular ones. She pay for my mistake, if she still lives. I live, down here, spend life mourning."

"Worth risking this city? Your daughter? The lives of the heroes here?"

"Yes. Is worth."

"No," I retorted.

...AND THEY HAVE GOOD REASONS. Phir Sē is a MONSTER

. He's one of the most repulsive monsters who pretend that they're good guys I had the displeasure to read about in this story

. Not only that his man killed Kismet who was a pretty nice guy, but he's very willing to SACRIFICE HIS OWN DAUGHTER IN ORDER TO DEFEAT BEHEMOTH. HE ISN'T EVEN SURE THAT HIS TIME BOMBS BULLSHIT CAN KILL THE ENDBRINGER YET HE'S READY TO SACRIFICE HIS DAUGHTER+ MILLIONS OF LIVES FOR A SINGLE MOMENT OF ILLUSORY SUCCESS

. Killing his own DAUGHTER is something worse than anything bad Armsmaster ever did, for the sake of comparison between these two. Armsmaster- for his personal glory- killed a couple of villains and a nazi boss. Phir Sē- for his personal glory- is ready to destroy a city populated by millions and have his daughter die as well. A man who'll sacrifice his family is someone truly despicable (this is the reason why I admired Brian's decision for not helping Dinah because he cared for his sister's wellbeing more- Brian put his family above strangers; as much as I wanted him to save Dinah, I had to agree with Brian

). Yes. I know that this sounds selfish as hell, but family/friends should matter more than anyone else. I love humans in general but between sacrificing millions of people and sacrificing my own family, I'll never LET MY OWN FAMILY DIE no matter how much I'll hate myself afterwards for allowing millions to die

.
Besides, Phir Sē will not only kill his daughter but let the whole New Delhi in ruins. Behemoth will still be alive and probably thankful to this bastard for making his work easier. Time bomb will do next to nothing to Behemoth because this is exactly what the monster wants to happen. He wants to be attacked with the bomb so he can absorb its energy inside his body. He EATS radiations and energy. Phir Sē will end up making Behemoth stronger. Phir Sē is Cody+ Armsmaster + Darwin Award's winner of the century in one single person

. His poor hero daughter, my heart suffers already for her unfortunate fate. Unless Weaver will do something to stop this CRAZINESS. Something like...kill him? The downside is that his bodyguard will kill her as well. He can teleport and bypass Manton effect. Not a good combination for Weaver.

The woman in the suit told me there were people with their own agendas. Monsters. This is one of them, and he thinks we're kindred spirits.

"I tell you because you are ruthless, Weaver. Do not stop me," he said. "I die, focus waver, time bomb explode. Aimless, no direction."

"Indiscriminate," I supplied a better word.

"Indiscriminate," Phir Sē echoed me. "India gone. You die, even down here."

I raised my head, staring up at the two golden discs and the current that seemed to run between them. I would have thought it would be brighter.

"Hero fall. We wait," he said. "When fight cannot be won, I strike."

Fuck, Weaver can't kill this fucker

. She can't let him hit Behemoth with his time bomb because a whole city will die and this is what Behemoth wants to happen, she can't kill him either because a whole country will die. All she can do is...let him do his thing. BULLSHIT. Weaver is not someone to lose to some stupid asshole

. She still have alternatives to stop him. Like, sabotage his work to the bomb (he needs some time to create a time bomb as far as I understand) or...send bugs with a message to Arbiter exactly when Phir Sē will release his bomb, ask her to summon a forcefield around the bomb, use the forcefield to compress the bomb until its destruction, before it will even reach Behemoth. Or Narwal- is Narwal there? Her forcefields are stronger and they bypass Manton effect. Weaver can ask Narwal to safely explode the bomb with some of her forcefields inside another forcefield. This is my two cents strategy, now lets see what kind of strategy Weaver will adopt

. Because this is a problem worse than what Cody did. Worse than Accord's death. Worse than Chevalier being injured or dead. Millions of lives will be wasted. The life of a heroine will be wasted and her OWN FATHER will pull the trigger

. Weaver, if you'll not stop this asshole, I'll never forgive you. That bomb should not hit Behemoth. Do whatever you want just not let the bomb hit its target or explode outside a protective forcefield.
With more monsters like Phir Sē roaming around and destroying lives, Cauldron seems a little bit sympathetic. At least they don't hurt people belonging to their own family. My God

....

Good night and sleep well, my friends

blackarrow · Aug 29, 2019

Hello, good friends. Last time, there was this new character- an indian VERY COLD parahuman with the power to open time portals and create time bombs. He's obsessed to kill Behemoth, no matter the risks and consequences, even if he had to sacrifice millions of people, including the life of his own hero daughter. But, this is ok for him as long as Behemoth will die

. Any sacrifice is not a big deal if the big bad monster will stop existing. Including killing his own daughter...not big deal. This is, my dears, what I call WELL MEANING EXTREMIST. The worst kind of hero and villain combined in a single person. Hero because their intentions are theoretically good and idealistic (Cauldron wants to protect the world against whatever future threats- Scion?, YangBan wants to protect China and its citizens, Phir Sē wants to save his own country), but the paths they're following and their methods are absolute wrong and villainous (Cauldron kidnaps, experiments on people and create numerous villains, YangBan kidnaps people, buy slaves and use brainwashing on its members and Phir Sē WANTS TO KILL MILLIONS of people just to kill a single monster even if he himself isn't sure if he can kill Behemoth). Well meaning extremists are the most broken heroic villains and hypocrite villainous heroes ever

. This is the main reason why I'm so disgusted by them. I'd rather take a HONEST monster like Jack Slash who admit that he's a monster and he's incapable of not doing evil over a well meaning extremist ANYTIME, who claim that they can save the world even if they have to sacrifice probably more lives than they actually save (the first well meaning extremist that taught me how people like him think and why I should hate them was Magneto- X-Men. That man, nothing but a criminal and a terrorist, did actually more evil than good to his own mutants that he wanted to protect against "evil" inferior humans. He created more mess in their lives than the actual anti-mutants humans did. He taught me that well meaning extremists end up creating more mess than fixing things and I should never trust and accept them

). I don't accept Phir Sē's plan either and I think that it will end bad for civilians and not so bad for Behemoth unless Weaver will find a way to stop it or change it.
Besides, I'll never like a father who's willing to kill his own daughter just to defeat a villain. As much of an asshole Tagg was and as much as he wanted to see villains being murdered/captured, he was very protective towards his daughters and tried his best to keep them away from his own war against villains. He was an ass and a bully but he was also a good father

. Alan the Lawyer loves Emma despite this girl being a BITCH with capital letters. Alan the Scientist's brilliant mind crashed when his children were killed- he completely changed himself because his children were no longer alive and his life was incredible empty and lost without them (among other reasons). Marquis is a cold blooded villain but he's a hero for his daughter

. Danny still love and accept Taylor despite knowing that she's not his little innocent girl anymore

. Look at these very flawed people being good fathers. Then look at Phir Sē trying to kill a monster with the price of his daughter's life. Look at this very flawed person being a very bad father. DISGUSTING Crushed 24.4

"Three days. We thought an Endbringer would attack soon, so I prepared, to be ready when the time came. Too early, I had to stop, restart. This time, he came, but I am weary. The talking, is good. Distracting without being dangerous. Continue, please."

"Yes," I said. I thought for a second, then made my argument. "And you know the power of having all of the information. The power of having a group that can communicate that information. Communication is key, and a group that doesn't even need to communicate because they function so well together is better yet."

"Let's communicate with them. With everyone. Half the screwed up crap I've seen, it's been because we're fighting between ourselves. The best achievements, the truly heroic stuff I've seen? It's been when we worked together. So let's maximize our chances."

"I have none left, after ten years. No faith. We are a wretched, petty species, and we have been given power to destroy ourselves with."

"I have done it, Weaver," Phir Sē told me. "My wife, my sons, years ago. A similar problem on a smaller scale. I can walk through minutes, I could have walked back to save them, but I let them die because it meant a monster would remain gone. What merit is a gamble, a sacrifice, if you stake things that matter nothing to you?"

FUCK THIS!!! This ASSHOLE already killed his wife and his sons for similar reasons

. Now he wants to kill his only daughter left. This monster should be arrested and send to Birdcage because he's a murderer. Too bad that he's indian citizen and Dragon have no authority over people who are not americans or canadians. This sucks. Meanwhile more people will die because of this asshole who can't think at other working plans that doesn't involve the death of his family or other civilians 👎. Maybe if he'll end up destroying New Delhi and the survivors will know what he did (they'll know once they'll watch Behemoth being attacked with his time bombs) the indian authorities will arrest him for crimes against humanity. Because this is what he's doing. He's not Kaiser with his people attacking non-white people neither Lung giving drugs to kids or Merchants with their prostitution and drug rings. He's a genocidal...well meaning extremist. This is not cops and robbers like Tattletale and later Weaver described the parahumans interactions, this is almost S9 level of bullshit. Phir Sē should get a kill order if he'll manage to destroy New Delhi 👌.
Weaver. DO. SOMETHING. Anything will be fine except for killing him, because the whole India will be gone. What she can do?
-Contact Arbiter (through her bugs) and ask her to summon a forcefield right when the bomb will hit Behemoth.
-Contact Narwal (if she's there) and ask her to summon her powerful forcefields around the bomb and Behemoth.
-Contact YangBan (if they're not looking after Fuck You Cody and if they're still willing to save India) and ask them the same thing.
-Contact Eidolon and see if he have a suitable power to stop this disaster before happening.
-Ask P Alexandria to punch the time bomb as high as HE can in the sky

.

He saw me looking, glanced at Phir Sē, who had his back turned, then looked back at me. His eyes flicked over in Phir Sē's direction, his intention clear.

He had a solution in mind. A way to disable the explosion and stop Phir Sē.

Without thinking, I hauled on it, pulling it off-target. The gun hit one screen, two feet to Phir Sē's right, at stomach level. It exploded into a swirling cloud of black dust.

"Sort of," I said, and I smiled a little in return, behind my mask. This guy was borderline unhinged, too much power in too unstable a package, and I almostliked him.

"Let me go. We work together with the heroes."

"The heroes will die in minutes. Before you arrive."

Well, at least Weaver was able to convince this asshole and BAD PARENT to give her few minutes to communicate with heroes and convince them to do some TEAM WORK so New Delhi will survive to the time bomb even if Behemoth will die or not. Why Phir Sē refused to work with heroes is beyond my power to understand him. You asshole, have you ever heard of team work? Why are you so fucking arrogant, believing that you ca solve everything ALONE? When Weaver was Skitter, not a hero but a villain, she was very willing to work with heroes for the good of everyone instead of doing stupid things by herself and putting lives in danger (well, there were moments when she did stupid things and put lives in danger but never as bad as Phir Sē). Allow Weaver to teach you one or two things about team work, Phir Sē

. Watch and learn and stop your crazy filicide tendencies.
Thank you, Weaver, for stopping Particulate from accidentally committing a genocide if he killed Phir Sē. You're an excellent planner. You tested him and noticed that he really wanted to do something more dumb than Fuck You Cody. At least, Phir Sē can show some goddamn gratitude. Not that this makes him less of an asshole, but Weaver have a chance to change his plan and prove that being a well meaning extremist and working alone is something that people should avoid if they want to win and keep their humanity at the same time

.
I'm still afraid of something: what if Phir Sē will suddenly fall asleep? He's awake for 3 days, he's tired and he never stopped planning his attack on Behemoth all this time. This is a scary thought. Weaver should keep bugs around him and have them biting and stinging him the first second he's falling asleep

.

Her portal was perhaps twenty feet across, circular, and cold water gushed out, as if forced by an incredible pressure.

It was the sort of defensive measure that you employed when there weren't any frontline combatants left. A desperate, violent one, like Sundancer's sun. My bugs found her ear, and I communicated as clearly as I could, "Run."

She didn't hear. Doggedly, she stood her ground, drenching Behemoth, widening the portal's radius. So hard to tell just how much, without losing bugs to the spray. Twenty five feet? Thirty?

"Run," I tried again. I muttered, "Run, Ligeia."

The portal closed, and Behemoth managed to claw his way back, simultaneously fending off Eidolon, the lighting growing stronger with every passing second.

He lurched, and dropped several feet, the ground shaking. The light show marked the geyser spraying up around his leg, apparently having sunken into a portal.

Close it, I thought. Sever it.

But she didn't. Not an option, it seemed.

I was on my way to catch up to them when Ligeia was struck down. A chance lightning bolt had struck her, just like that. Behemoth surged to his feet.
Lightning traced the arc of the water that still geysered up, less impressive with every passing second.

"I found what Behemoth wants," I told her. "Where's Rime?"

"Dead," Golem said. He carried a small child, and was falling behind,

"Prism, but she's injured," Grace said.

"Yellow bodysuit now," Golem said. "She stripped out of the dress when he pushed past the command center."

He flowed into my costume, and I could feel him against my skin, his body strangely cold and smooth. A lump of him stuck out over one shoulder. His head, not quite normal, not quite his specter form, had formed itself in my shoulderpad.

Ligeia, the mermaid Ambassador, died, but not before fighting Behamoth like a badass she was. RIP Ligeia. So, Ambassadors lost, in just one day, their boss and one of their members. They're villains who didn't hesitate not even for a second to fight Behemoth in order to protect innocent lives. Your boss was an asshole, but you're great guys, Ambassadors

. They quickly become my third favorite villain team. Citrine KNOWS BATTLEFIELD FASHION, unlike Accord. No more uncomfortable dress, YAAAAAAAY FOR BODYSUIT POWER

💪! Take that, Accord, Citrine is smarter and more pragmatic than you're and she'd make a better leader than you.
Rime, the ice hero, is also dead. RIP Rime

. You survived Number Man but not to Behemoth as well. Prism is injured, Grue is injured, Tattletale is injured, I still don't know about Chevalier's fate. The things are not so bright and hopeful but I trust Weaver that she'll do something about the time bomb bullshit. A number of heroes and civilians died but at least there aren't millions.
Weaver, you're lucky that Annex isn't a pervert and you're staring into a story not anime. Imagine having him comment about your boobs while he's inside your costume 😱. WORM SHOULD NEVER BECOME AN ANIME. WE DON'T NEED THIS SHIT HAPPENING IN THE WORST MOMENTS .

The Undersiders were there, fighting. Three stuffed goats and the dogs provided an added barricade for them to hide behind, while Foil was firing her needles. Regent held her quiver, handing her bolts to fire, while Imp lurked on the far side of the street, her back to the wall. Citrine was peering between two dogs, erecting a field of golden light near the Endbringer.

"Gah!" Regent cried out, as I landed, folding the wings back into place. "Jesus fuck!"

Right, I had two heads. "Out, Annex."

I could only hope he'd bounce back. To business. "Revel. American cape with sort of an Asian-themed costume, lantern. Where is she?"

"Zapped," Regent said.

Revel was in Dispatch's company, alongside a cape in white, with a starburst worked into his helmet, radiating from the eyeholes and the gap for his mouth.
She was lying down, using a piece of rubble for cover. She stirred as the ground rumbled, marking Behemoth's rapid footsteps. Not a run. It felt off, saying something like him was running. But a lope, like how a gorilla might move, that fit.

"A local cape has gathered up a whole mess of energy. Enough to wipe India off the map. He's planning to hit Behemoth with it, in two or three minutes."

"It won't work," Exalt said.

I found the Yàngbǎn and approached. They were reacting even before I'd landed, turning, hands raised to attack. There were twenty of them, or close to.

"English?" I asked the Yàngbǎn.

"The Yàngbǎn pulled an assassination attempt on Chevalier," Exalt told me.

Twenty Yàngbǎn members. Exalt. A dazed Revel. Dispatch. The Chicago Wards. The Undersiders. Citrine. Me.

Why couldn't the Yàngbǎn have helped like this sooner? From the very start of the fight? Damn people. Damn them all, for their idiocy and selfishness and their small-mindedness.

No wonder why so many non-parahumans (including some parahumans) believe that parahumans are weird. Because...THEY ARE WEIRD, this is the truth. Lol at Regent's reaction seeing Weaver having "two heads"

. Amazing how Wildbow can insert some humor and funny scenes in the middle of such gruesome battle. This is what I call TALENT 👍.
Chevalier is still alive

. Good, a good news compared with so many bad news I just received about the other fighters. Revel is ok too - you can't fight against her energy with more energy, Behemoth. Do you hear that too, Phir Sē? You will never stop a fire if you fight it with more fire, but you're not smart and well-meaning enough to get it. YangBan are going to help- only because they want to redeem themselves in the eyes of foreign heroes after what their Darwin winner member did to Chevalier. They're well meaning extremists/para-military, yes, and they're disturbing as fuck and I'll always hate them, but at least they're not genocidal terrorists like others

.
I already like Exalt. Even he realized that Phir Sē's plan is nothing but a dumb, partial selfish, small-minded, doomed to fail plan. Now, about my forcefields surrounding the time bomb like a sphere and have it explode inside them idea....Will be strong enough to keep the explosion inside and no break under so much pressure? Narwal and YangBan can create pretty strong forcefields but I can't see Narwal anywhere and YangBan's forcefields can still break, they are not invincible. What about Eidolon? Can he tells his core power to create something to keep the bomb inside and not let its energy resulted after explosion to affect what is outside? Weaver, try Eidolon, he's much better than Arbiter or YangBan

.

There was a yelp, and I could see Imp, all at once, sheltered by a wall that was shrinking in size with every second the blast continued. She held the Yàngbǎn member who'd strayed too far away from our main group in her arms.

He'd seen her. Sensed her. And now, behind a wall no more than three feet high, she had nowhere to run.

I pushed past Yàngbǎn members, unstrapping my flight pack, tearing at the parts that fed down to my gloves, to get it off. If I could get it to her…

The Endbringer switched to fire, and it passed through. It seemed to halve in intensity, but that was enough. I could hear Imp scream in alarm and fear.

Imp screamed again as he directed another wave of flame her way. It was a scream of pain this time.

OH, NO, OH, NO................HE'S GOING TO KILL MY IMP

. MY THIRD FAVORITE UNDERSIDER AND MY FAVORITE LITTLE NINJA ASSASSIN POLTERGEIST. You can't, Behemoth...you can't do it. Imp SHOULD LIVE, she should live and continue to scare people to death like the badass poltergeist she's and take care of the people in her territory and be the good and protective little sister for her brother and I'll continue to love and cherish her and watch her having fun with Regent on Weaver's expense and...No, I....I'm afraid to read further

. I don't want Imp to be the first Undersider who'll die. Yes, is much more better than Tattletale, but...she's just a kid. She's funny and nice and badass and annoying (sometimes) and...BEHEMOTH, stop noticing her, ok? She's not there, there is an empty place where she should be...nothing to see there....nothing....😰

"Fuck it," Regent said, his voice almost inaudible. He was looking at Imp.

"Regent," I said. When he rose to his feet, I raised my voice, "Regent!"

"Hey Shitcrumb!" Regent hollered, backing away from cover. "Easy-"

Behemoth dropped the flame attack. I could see Yàngbǎn members raising forcefields as he reached out, casting a bolt of lightning in Regent's direction. The forcefields did nothing, not even softening the blow in any measurable way.

Regent was snuffed out, dead.

....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................REGENT DIED......................................................................................................................................IN IMP'S PLACE. HE GAVE HIS LIFE SO SHE'LL SURVIVE.......................................
I'm fucking shocked!!! I'm happy that Imp is alive but....Regent....I never liked him, for me he was nothing but a rapist and a human controlling Master. My least favorite Undersider. Everything about him was something that I disliked. His power, his personality, his behavior, his Classification, his...everything (except for his looks because he was a pretty boy...effeminate, but pretty. I also liked his sense of humor). Yes, this rapist and asshole SACRIFICED HIS OWN LIFE for someone else who wasn't himself. Did he redeemed himself? No. He did plenty of ugly stuff and I can't see this gesture as his supreme redemption. Did he changed my way of seeing him? Not exactly. But he saved Imp. He LOVED her in his own sociopathic way and he decided- in the heat of the moment- that her life is more worth than his life. He saved Imp and this is PRETTY HEROIC coming from someone like him (and from anyone else doing the same noble self-sacrificing gesture). Phir Sē is ready to sacrifice his daughter, Regent died for a friend. This is what I call HEROIC, what Regent did. Loving someone more than you love yourself....even if I doubt that Regent ever loved himself.
I....Good night, Regent. Rest in Peace, Alec. Bonne nuit, Jean Paul. Repose en Paix, Prince (I'll create a separate post including few words/fanart about Alec, after I'll finish with this Chapter. What a Chapter....)

She crouched by Regent, touched his throat.

She shouted something. A string of swear words, insults aimed at Regent.

"Come on!" I screamed the words at her. It took me a second to get the flight pack going again. I steered it, like a fish on dry land, towards her, as Rachel hauled me up onto a dog's back.

"Weaver," Phir Sē said, almost half a mile away, still in the room with the monitors, "If he advances any closer to me, I won't have any option but to strike.

"Sorry about your pal," Tecton said.

"Behemoth killed your friend," Tecton added.

"And Leviathan killed my dogs," Rachel said. "They both pay."

"Eidolon's power… he chooses what powers he gets?"

Told you...told you, Eidolon's power will help them. I'm such a good strategist, my problem is that I'm too emotive and I'd do something very stupid on battlefield BEFORE I'll save people with my quick strategic thinking

. Eidolon can trap Behemoth inside a forcefield then Phir Sē can hurl the bomb through his portals right inside Eidolon's forcefield surrounding Behemoth. Only Behemoth will be affected by the bomb if Eidolon's forcefields are strong enough to hold. Gosh, tell me that this plan is your plan too, Weaver. Distract the Endbringer's attention and allow Eidolon to do his thing just like Regent distracted his attention...I'm having tears in my eyes

. I didn't cried when Regent died but now...told you that I'm way too emotive for my own sake....
"wipes away more tears" Ok, time to kick this asshole's ass and turn him into a hole, without NOBODY ELSE DYING. I know that the bomb will be next to useless, but at least they can try. NOW that Weaver have a plan and Eidolon is here.
I like how Bitch have her priorities in the "right" order. First, her dogs, then her teammates. This adorable bitch...

"This'll work?" Imp asked. Her voice sounded more hollow than Grue's did when he used his power. I jumped a little to hear her suddenly speaking beside me.

The Endbringer moved his hands in anticipation of a clap, and Exalt used his power. Blades of wind, a hundred strikes in a moment, a thrust of telekinetically controlled air from across the city, rushing past Behemoth, making the Endbringer stumble. The clap arrested.

Eidolon caught Rachel with one arm, and extended the other towards Behemoth.

"Now," my bugs told Phir Sē, as the field surrounded the Endbringer, a forcefield, extending into the Earth, surrounding Behemoth on all sides, a cylinder.

Phir Sē's portal opened beneath Behemoth's feet, aimed upward, and a plume of light speared into the sky, consuming Behemoth, covering him.

Eidolon's power held. He'd had the situation explained, had been given time to let his power build up to full strength, and his passenger had supplied something with a durability on par with Clockblocker's ability. Inviolable.

Not quite Behemoth, but a skeleton, something like a skeleton. Emaciated, a black-red frame dripping with ichor, it had all of the key features, the basic underlying structure with the horns and the gaping mouth, the claws and the way the shoulders were broad enough to host his bulky frame, but a good eighty percent of him had been torn away, shredded. A skeleton covered in a veneer of meat.

Behemoth wasn't any weaker than he had been. Not in terms of what he could dish out. As much as he was wounded, he was healing. Even from where we stood, I could see him healing, flesh expanding, swelling, regenerating.

He was continuing to make his way towards Phir Sē, who had formed another portal, was gathering power for a second strike.

Behemoth was reduced to a skeleton but he can regenerate so is ok. I SAID THAT ITS NOT GOING TO WORK

. Phir Sē, you'll not have enough time to build enough energy for a second strike. You needed 3 days to build a city destroying bomb, you can't do NOTHING during the time that Behemoth needs to reach you. At least you probably realized that- if it wasn't for Weaver and her brilliant plan (OUR BRILLIANT PLAN

)- the entire city would have been annihilated. Your daughter and millions of people will probably survive and Behemoth will probably leave after he'll finish killing you. Or Scion will finally save the day. There's still hope, but not for you, Phir Sē. You're roasted. Unlike Regent, I'm not going to miss you. Bye, bye, you crazy fanatic.
Weaver saved the say (sort of), now the heroes (or better said, the survivors) should admit that she's on the right way to become on of the greatest heroes ever. But the true heroine here is Dinah. She created Weaver, after all. Behind every strong heroine there's an even stronger precog

.
Behemoth Skeleton vs the World- next round. Coming....soon.
Gosh, hope that I'm not going to cry after another Undersider

.

Good night and sleep well, my friends.

blackarrow · Aug 29, 2019

THE PRINCE WITHOUT A CROWN

Credit: DeviantArt

THE PUPPETEER WITHOUT "FEELINGS"

Credit: DeviantArt

THE GAMER PLAYING WITH YOUR OWN LIFE

Credit: DeviantArt

THE VICTIM WHO MADE OTHER VICTIMS

Credit: DeviantArt

.......THE BEST FRIEND SHE HAD

Credit: DeviantArt

HER HERO

Good night, sweet Prince.

blackarrow · Sep 4, 2019

Hello, my friends. Last time, a time bomb exploded and a monster got turned into a skeleton. But this doesn't mean that he's close of dying, on the contrary. He keeps regenerating and kicking ass and kicking ass and regenerating like there's no tomorrow . Phir Sē, the one responsible for attacking Behemoth with the time bomb, will probably be the monster's first victim after this failed assassination attempt. Behemoth was severely injured by a mere human and he'll never accept this half-defeat. He'll go after the cold indian parahuman to teach him a lesson about messing with Kaijus

. Meanwhile, a lot of heroes/villains helping heroes were injured or killed, Weaver became (ever if nobody will recognize her like this) the heroine of New Delhi, saving the city from an impeding doom when she worked with Eidolon to stop the bomb from destroying the city and killing all its inhabitants and concentrating the explosion only on the beast and Scion still save cats from trees instead of doing more useful things...like saving humans from a monster. Btw, I googled Phir Sē (to see if this is his real name or his parahuman codename in hindi) and I got something like: 'Once Again'. So, his parahuman codename in hindi. Fits with his time powers. Ok, since everyone (hero, villain, monster) deserve to say something nice about them, INCLUDING well- intentioned extremists (for example: Coil was...a smart guy, Jack is...a smart guy, Skidmark was...a funny cunt, Emma is...a pretty bitch, Mannequin is...FUUUUUUUUUUCK, Heartbreaker is...FUCK THAT GUY, Sophia is...good at shooting people

), I'm going to say something nice about Phir Sē, before he'll die. Like an eulogize. First: he's incredible strong, almost Triumvirate levels. If he's capable to build a time bomb whose explosion crippled an Endbringer and was very close to completely annihilate a city, then he's a very powerful parahuman. Probably that, given enough time (and if Behemoth will not kill him now), he'll make a time bomb capable to destroy a whole continent and use to try to kill the other Endbringers- he'll never stop killing these pesky monsters even with the risk of blowing up the whole Earth

. Bakuda would have loved this guy (call it love at the first sight if you prefer) if she was alive and they'd have meet. A couple made in Heaven...of bombs and explosions. Second: he listened Weaver (in the last moment, but it still matters) and worked with her despite his annoying unwillingness to work with other people. The city was saved and Behemoth injured only because he allowed her to coordinate the whole operation in his place. Good choice, mr 'Once Again'. Enough with eulogize, lets get back to businesses Crushed 24.5

The fight with Leviathan in Brockton Bay had been a good day. We'd lost people, we'd lost good capes, but we'd more or less bounced back, made it three-quarters of the way back to where we needed to be, in a matter of months. There had been ugliness, infighting, a hell of a lot of doubt, but we'd started to make our way back to where we should be. It had been the lowest number of casualties we'd had in an Endbringer attack in years, not counting a few of the Simurgh attacks. A good day.

Tecton had pulled ahead of the group, and turned abruptly, skidding to a stop. Cuff's body was folded over the back of the bike, limp. The Yàngbǎn had two more bodies with them, as well. I'd taken my flight pack back from Imp, and was airborne as he raised a gauntlet to get my attention. I descended to meet him, and we were soon joined by Dispatch, and Exalt, who carried an unconscious Revel.

"He went underground," Eidolon informed us.

"He ran? It's over?"

I felt a pang of guilt, a swelling lump in my throat. I'd never really gotten to know Regent, not to the extent that I'd gotten to know the others. He hadn't really revealed much about himself, either. I'd reminisced before about the intimacy of friendships, about the sharing of vulnerabilities, allowing others to be close, exposing oneself to possible harm. I'd done it with Emma, back in the day, and I'd suffered for it. I'd allowed myself to form a kind of intimacy with the Undersiders, and it might well have been a reason we'd survived this far. Regent hadn't established that kind of intimacy with us.

Except maybe for Imp.

He'd hidden so much. I'd only glimpsed the seriously disordered personality that lurked beneath the outer image of the lazy, disaffected teenager, had only seen traces of that part of him that just didn't care that he could enslave a person's body and leave their mind as little more than a helpless observer. And beneath that aspect of himself, he'd had something else, something that had driven him to distract Behemoth so Imp might live.

My eyes fell on Eidolon. Was there a similarity to Regent? Lies, deception, a false face behind a false face behind a false face?

...but the most important thing that happened in the last Chapter: Alec died

. And not died like died in the fight or doing something stupid or trying to run away and leave everyone behind him. He died after he sacrificed his life for another human being. For his only friend he ever cared about, in his own way. Because I think that he CARED for Aisha (maybe it wasn't love like we know and feel for someone close to us, but something was there, Alec was capable of some feelings that only he knew and felt, feelings that made him took this extreme decision, preferring to die instead of allowing his friend to die. SOMETHING WAS THERE AND I'M SURE THAT MY AFFIRMATION IS NOT WRONG NEITHER TOO IDEALISTIC). Alec wasn't completely empty like he believed himself to be or lacking a heart like his sister lacked. He was a very troubled teen, a sociopath incapable of many human feelings but capable to love and cherish a single person in his own way- I can compare him with Number Man, who's also an extremely troubled sociopath but he still consider Jack a close friend of his despite their differences in opinions and actions and his departure from Jack's group. Even the worst sociopaths/psychopaths have someone or something to love, Jack and Heartbreaker loving the power they have over their groups, for example

. Alec, despite being a sociopath, a rapist and a criminal, loved Aisha and PROVED his love for her by making the supreme sacrifice. No, what he did doesn't redeem him in my eyes (I feel nothing but disgust for rapists to an absurd degree, even more than for mere criminals

) but...he did one of the most beautiful gestures someone can do and for this thing alone I'll always RESPECT and CHERISH his memory. I'll remember Alec not only as the first Undersider who died but also as the boy who saved his best friend paying the highest price one can ever pay

. Self- sacrifice is something that I always admire in a human being (hell, I admire Kaiser for his self-sacrifice and he was nothing but a scumbag).

The sound of the fighting stopped with a crash. Where was the motherfucker? I rose higher to check, but saw neither Behemoth nor the cape who'd been binding him. He'd burrowed.

It was quiet, all of a sudden, if not quite silent. The defending capes were spreading out, and were hovering in place or holding positions, rather than bombarding the landscape. The lightning and fire had stopped, and no shockwaves ripped through the city. The rumbling was intermittent, mild when it wasn't almost imperceptible. The ringing in my ears was louder than the ambient noise.

"He's underground. He may be coming for you," I informed him, speaking through my swarm.

"I assumed," Phir Sē responded. "Thank you."

"You need to leave, soon."

"I have a way out. I'll leave when trouble begins. Could you rid me of the bugs? When you leave them, they fly about me, and I cannot afford distractions."

I hesitated, then removed the bugs, shifting them to nearby rooms and corridors. I left only a pocket of them to communicate with. "Be safe."

"You as well, Weaver. Thank you, for the cooperation."

"Have you gained a bit of faith?"

"Faith gained in this, perhaps, faith lost in another."

"I know what you mean."

"Good bye. If we both live, perhaps we talk again, in a less dangerous time."

"Good bye," I responded.

Well, their last exchange of words was pretty ok. Now, Phir Sē, look in front of you. You'll see Weaver and you'll understand how a true heroine looks like. If you look behind you, you'll see Behemoth's opened mouth just waiting to taste you and you'll understand that Death is so close to you that you can touch it in matter of seconds. Bye, bye, Phir Sē, I quite enjoyed reading about you and your power, even if you pissed me off most of the time

. Now lets see what the others are doing and how the rest of Undersiders will cope with Regent's death. My best bets?
Aisha will suffer the most but she'll refuse to show it, instead she'll probably go after Heartbreaker and fucking kill him as punishment for destroying Alec's life (and I'll support her 100% even if is going to be difficult to kill a Master who can feel her presence based on her emotions and fuck with her emotions even before she'll realize that. I think she'll need additional help to take Heartbreaker down).
Lisa will hardly give a fuck (the only one that Lisa give a fuck about is Taylor and maybe Brian a little).
Rachel doesn't give a fuck ( naturally because Alec was a human being NOT a dog)
Brian will blame himself because he was injured and he wasn't there to help his teammates and being the leader that he wanted to be

.

"You okay?" Tecton asked, as he caught up with me. He held Cuff in his heavy armored hands, as though she were a small child.

"Saying goodbye to a self-professed madman. Is she okay?"

"She's breathing, but I can tell she's hurting."

Clockblocker had fallen. I looked for him in the crowd of injured. I didn't see him. Then again, I had my suspicions already. This only helped justify them.

"Skitter," Grue said, as I approached. Tattletale stood at his bedside, her phone in hand. There were no curtains here. No privacy. This was all improvised, care facilities hashed together with what the locals had on hand. He still wore his helmet, but he had his jacket off. He noted the arrival of the others.

"Regent's dead," Imp said.

I could see Grue go still.

"No, Grue," I told him. "You want to feel bad? That's allowed, but I forbid you from taking the actual blame for this."

"You can't do that," he said. His voice was hard. "I'm team leader, not you. I'm supposed to pick up the slack, remember? I'm supposed to manage these guys. So don't turn around and decide shit like this, when you left. I dropped the ball. I didn't move fast enough, I got hurt, and because of that, I wasn't there to help, to lead."

He sighed, heavy. "Fuck."

"Fuck," Imp echoed him.

"Fuck," Rachel followed, from the entrance to the room, as if we were toasting Regent in our own messed up way. Tattletale was nodding.

"Fuck," I agreed.

"Christ," Grue said. "What do you even say to that? How… how do you even pay your respects to a guy like him?"

"Yeah," Imp said, her voice small. "I'm going to fucking kill his dad for him."

Ha, Grue and Imp reacted just as I imagined them reacting. Grue blaming himself for Regent's death, Imp promising to kill that MONSTER of his father (it will be cool if Imp will convince his children to help her and each of them will take turns to torture their father before they'll kill him in a very detailed Interlude

). They're all Masters and they should be able to control humans just like their father is. However, I can imagine Heartbreaker being immune to his children's powers in the same manner Cherish and Regent were immune to each other power. Clearly Imp needs help in her mission to defeat this absolute despicable human Endbringer. I just don't know who might help her. Someone immune to Heartbreaker's power? I wonder if some of children are immune to his powers but they can affect him with their own powers. Afterwards, I imagine Imp taking his children under her protection and teach them how to live like normal people

. Well, she's not the best example of a social and role model person but she'll be the best protector of those poor children. Once Imp is motivated to protect someone, not even the devil himself will stop her. Imp with a family of little Masters is incredible scary, creepy and terrible

but Imp with a family of little children who deserve to have normal lives after such a long time of slavery is something truly wonderful and precious

. I support Imp killing Heartbreaker AND becoming a parent figure for his twisted, feral and sociopathic children.

There was a rumble, with a shaking that affected the whole structure. Something distant, beyond my power's range. A heavy crash. Somewhere in a northwesterly direction.

Phir Sē, I thought. Had that been his complex?

I lowered my voice "Rachel, maybe you can do me a favor?"

"Hm?"

I ordered my thoughts, then voiced them, "Grue and Tattletale are too injured to help out. I'm focused on other stuff, and Parian and Foil are looking after each other. Can you keep an eye on Imp?"

He tried again, earnest, "Okay, here's a cheat I learned in a leadership seminar. It's called active listening. Someone says something, a complaint, or a criticism, or they're excited about something that happened to them. For a lot of us, our instinct is to offer a solution, or expand on an idea, to fix oroffer something. The key is to think about how they're feeling, be receptive to that, and parrot it back to them. They just got a new car, and they're happy about it? A simple 'that's excellent' or 'you must be so proud' works. It leaves room for them to keep talking, to know you're listening. For your teammate who just lost someone she obviously cared about, just recognizing that she's upset and she's right to feel upset, that's enough."

I opened my mouth to say something, but I couldn't even begin to sum up how useless this advice was to Rachel in particular.

"That's retarded," Rachel told Tecton.

Yes, yes, Rachel is right

. Your advice is RETARDED. Sorry, Tecton, but your advice, while cool if addressed to a someone who isn't Rachel, is retarded for Rachel. She doesn't need something like that. She doesn't understand something like that. Want to convince her to take care of Imp? Then talk using her language:
'Yo, Bitch, your teammate needs someone to keep an eye on her. Want to help? Then treat her like you treat your dogs. You love your dogs, you take good care of them. Can't you do the same for Imp? Try to think at her like...she's your dog. Then everything will be so easy for you two.'
See, Tecton, isn't hard to talk bitch language

.
RIP, Phir Sē, you Triumvirate level madman.

I turned to her. "Rachel, did you ever have a dog with a deep attachment to another person or dog? Someone they lost, before they found their way to a shelter, or to you? Where they were still dealing, after the fact?"

She gave me a one-shouldered shrug.

"How would you treat that dog?" I asked.

"Basically, though? You'd just be there, right? Do that for Imp. Stay close, make sure she doesn't run off, as much as that's even possible with her, and give her the benefit of your company without intruding into her space. Make sure she has all of the basics, both in the near future and in the next few days."

"And just like a dog that's had a recent bad experience might snap, bark or growl, you need to understand that she might do the same. Only it'll probably take a different form. She'll swear a lot. She'll probably try to get a rise out of you, try to provoke you or someone else. That's how Imp growls."

"How was your advice better than mine?" Tecton asked. He sounded a touch offended.

"Skin's badly burned, but the burn didn't go much further than that. She'll have the most amazing scars, too. No serious internal or mental damage, as far as we can tell, but her muscles convulsed so badly they broke a bone."

The ground shuddered. Again, as before, the rumbling intensified.

Behemoth emerged with a plume of gray-brown smoke, and the landscapeshattered. It was Tecton's natural power, taken to an extreme. Fissures lanced out in every direction and disappeared into each horizon. Secondaryfissures crossed between each of the major ones, like the threads of a spider's web.

Weaver knows how to talk bitch

. Tecton is a slow learner but he's smart, he'll get used with bitch language (of course, if he'll survive long enough). Poor Cuff, poor idealistic and innocent heroine, her wounds look nasty even if they're not life threatening

. Behemoth, after he finished with Phir Sē, want to claim more victims, as revenge over his half-defeat, and now he attacks a temple full with injured and people dying. It looks like the less injured are trying to create a last stand against the monster even if their hopes that they'll hurt him more than a time bomb injured him are very low. Well, at least they try to stop him from killing all the heavily injured in the temple and even if they'll fail, their failure will not be completely in vain. People will remember them as the heroes who fought until the very last moments of their lives to protect the ones unable to protect themselves while facing a virtually impossible to kill monster

. But the hopes are not lost yet. No way Wilbow is going to kill all the Undersiders in a single Chapter, almost all the most important heroes and more important, the main character. Behemoth's attack will be stopped by the collective efforts of everyone or Scion will FINALLY bring the cat back into the loving arms of the generic crazy cat lady then will notice that people in India have a serious problem of some colossal proportions and is NOT A GIANT CAT IN A GIANT TREE

.

Behemoth emerged from the smoke. He was more robust than he had been, but that wasn't saying much. Seventy percent burned away, perhaps. The regeneration had slowed, but it was still functioning to a degree. He'd recuperated, built his strength, and he'd used the time to, what? Burrow through strategic areas? Had the distant rumbles been controlled detonations or collapses at key areas?

"Last stand!" a male cape I didn't know hollered the words, his voice ragged with fear and emotion.

Behemoth, three or four hundred feet away, responded to the shout with a lightning strike. Our capes were too slow to erect barriers, and the protection insufficient. Capes died. For the first time, I averted my eyes. I didn't want to know how bad the casualties were. Our numbers were too thin.

Eidolon landed to one side. The Triumvirate had often posed in that classic 'v' formation, with Legend in front, Alexandria to his left, Eidolon to the right, the lesser members in the wings, Eidolon was now apart from the rest of the group. His cape didn't billow, his posture was slightly slumped. He was tired, on his last legs.

That answered my question, I supposed. Pretender couldn't take over a corpse, but there was no reason for him to take over Alexandria if she was alive and well. Cauldron had collected Pretender, and they had him controlling her because she was no longer of any use to them on her own.

"Hold the line," Exalt called out. Other capes translated for him, echoing his words with only a few seconds of delay, in four or five different languages. "We defend until the ones inside can be evacuated, and then we leave. There's nothing left to protect here."

A thin heroism, but that was heroic, wasn't it? Protecting the wounded, defending the ones who'd put everything on the line to stop this monster.

Yep, the last stand. Until Behemoth will retreat, the injured will be evacuated or Scion will save the day. I still hold onto the hope that Scion will save the day

. I don't like him and I'm more and more convinced that he'll be turned evil but if there's someone who can kill an Endbringer without giving him any chance to regenerate, then Scion is our man. ~~Edward~~ Kevin Norton gave Scion clear directives: kill orders for Endbringers. Lets see how much Scion is willing to listen to his former master until the end. I still want to believe that this Arc will end well (yes, a shit load of victims and the first Undersider dying but most of our favorite heroes/villains will survive along with most of New Delhi's citizens

). Damn it, Worm is not a horror story, is a superhero story (with horror elements, yes, but still a very dark superhero story, not horror). Don't argue with me cause you'll lose. I have the best argument in my favor. The first Undersider who died is Regent. In horror stories/movies, one of the golden rules is that if you have a group where there is a black man, the one who always die first is...yes, the BLACK MAN. Brian is still alive so...this is not a horror story because it doesn't respect one of the golden rules of a horror story. And since is not a horror story, it can't have a bad ending. Gosh, my logic is flawless

.

My friend send me this picture with Alec casually puppetering Sophia. If the puppet wasn't Sophia, I'd have hated this pic so much despite the great talent behind it. But...is Sophia so everything is fine

.

Credit to: ArtLounge (u/ArtLounge) - Reddit

Good night and sleep well, my friends.

blackarrow · Sep 4, 2019

Your immediate reaction when Alec died. What was your reaction? How did you feel? He was a major character so I had to ask this question. Besides, for my own curiosity

.

blackarrow · Sep 8, 2019

Hello, my friends. Last time, there was something like: HEROES+ VILLAINS' LAST STAND AGAINST BEHEMOTH'S WRATH. Who'll die? Who'll survive? Will Scion FINALLY MOVE HIS USELESS ASS AND SAVE THE DAY? Because I don't know how they'll survive without Scion's last moment intervention or Behemoth being called by his mommy, Simurgh, because his play time expired and he needs to go to sleep

? Ok, you probably noticed that I wasn't so tense and panicked during this battle as I was during Leviathan Battle . Yes, there were few moments were I had to hold my breath and pray for a miracle: Fuck You Cody fucking everything and almost killing my fav character, Phir Sē ALMOST fucking up everything (I don't think this guy is dead; he probably was saved by his teleporter buddy just in time- he's smart, he'll not risk his life so easy without having some safeguards at his disposition), Imp almost dying followed by Regent' selfless sacrifice. But, during Leviathan Battle, I was tense all the fucking time, without being able to catch a breath. Why this change in my behavior? Maybe because I got used with Endbringers and so many people dying in Wormverse (Wildbow's version of Leviathan was something new to me, besides it was the first time when so many people died in just a single Arc). But this time, I was aware of what Behemoth can do (thanks to Alexandria interlude), I knew that Wildbow have fun killing lots and lots of characters (including lovable characters

) so I was well informed about what I should expect from an Arc called Crushed. You probably noticed too that I'm no longer afraid of Mannequin as I was first time when he made his completely unpleasant apparition. Because I got used with him, I started to know his fighting skills and attacks better while he was fighting the good guys and knowing that underneath that hard shell there were human organs instead of more layers of shells made me see him more like an insane human- cyborg who just happen to look like a living mannequin than an actual living mannequin. I still find him downright creepy and I'm not eager to see his clones in action (not at all, sir) but he doesn't scare me as much as he scared me before I got used with his character

. Look at how much the ordinariness can change someone. I mean, my biggest fear is still mannequins and I feel so bad for Endbringers' victims but Mannequin himself doesn't scare me that much and Endbringers' battles are less tense as the story develops to its end.
Btw, I'd like to tell you the opinions of my best friend and my father about Alec's death. My best friend was very shocked. She couldn't believe that he was death and she still hoped that he was just injured until Aisha confirmed his death. Then she started to cry, just like me. He was her third favorite Undersider.
My father: he didn't cared about his death that much. Or about the character himself. He only cared about Alec's power- he loved his power and he was pissed because he'll never see that power in action again once Alec died

. I think my father is TROLLING me because he knows how much I hate most of Master powers and he always talk with nothing but awe and admiration for this kind of indescribable awful powers. Or maybe he's honest and he truly love Master powers (especially since that he always keep saying how much he'd love to be a Master with the power to "TURN PEOPLE HE DOESN'T LIKE INTO COMPLETE OBEDIENT SLAVES WITH ZERO FREE WILL"

) but this still piss me off to not end. Its hard when your dad loves something that you hate. Its hard and nobody understands...

Looks like we have an Interlude instead of The Last Stand. Ok, either we're going to see The Last Stand through the eyes of everyone involved there (not just Weavers), or have Citrine's backstory and see her reaction after finding out that the sadistic and sexist man of her dreams is fucking dead or have Phir Sē's backstory and find more about the reasons behind his personal vendetta against Endbringers or Chevalier's backstory+ all the heroic feats he did until he got hurt. Lets see how close I'm with my predictions Interlude 24

Hero ushered him into the headquarters. "This is the last one. I'd like you all to meet Chevalier."

There was a chorus of replies. Mumbled greetings with one exceedingly enthusiastic response from a girl in the crowd. It was almost mocking.

Chevalier ventured inside, a touch hesitant. Not afraid. He'd told himself he'd never be afraid again. No. But this was unfamiliar territory. The others were difficult to read. Nine youths.

There was a boy, also, who had a professional looking costume, black and green. It was a costume that had no doubt cost money, with leather and a utility belt, a leaf emblem over his heart. Around him, Chevalier could see a vague nimbus, as though he could see only the brightest and darkest parts of some landscape that the boy stood within.

In the same way that the forest seemed to hang in the periphery of the boy, an older woman loomed just behind the girl. She was kindly in appearance, like a next door neighbor, with hands burned black from fingertip to elbow.

Close enough. Chevalier's backstory. I think that I'm going to enjoy his backstory, I already like this hero. Oh, hello, Hero. Man, I remember his death and I feel so bad for him

. He appeared to be such a nice guy. In fact, he and Legend were the only nice and truly heroic Cauldron's members. They're like a light shining through so much darkness around them. Why Hero had to die? Why Alexandria didn't died in his place? I couldn't see Hero being ok with human experiments if he knew about them even if I doubt that he could do something to stop Doctor Mother and co (but at least he could have tried). "sighs" Good people die first, exactly when the world needs them the most

. Ok, back to Chevalier. This is the time when he was recruited as a new hero and he meets his new teammates. What is his power again? I remember that he said that he can combine different weapons into one single weapon and different armors into a larger armor, something like that. He seems to be a Tinker and a Thinker because he's good at building stuff and he have the knowledge of the best items he can combine to create the best weapons. Something like that.
I wonder if I'll be able to recognize some of the future old heroes in these young heroes from the past. Lets see...I don't have any idea who might be the first two heroes but there's something that caught my attention. Chevalier (I hope that I'll learn his name before the end of his Interlude) have VISIONS. He can see other people behind the people he was looking at. Like...they're ghosts or specters. People that nobody else except him can see. Now, this can go in one way or another. Chevalier is a person with schizophrenia and he just hallucinate or these weird visions are a second power of his. Like, he can see the future of people and the older woman behind the young heroine will be the young heroine in the future. I prefer to think that he's a precog, much better than suffering from schizophrenia

.

At the far end of the scale, opposite the two professional, serious looking young heroes, there was a girl with a shield and sword. Her helmet sat on the table beside her, a homemade piece of equipment with ridiculous mouse ears at the sides. It wasn't a great helmet either; it didn't offer enough peripheral vision, was more decorative than protective. She stood off to one side, but two others had gathered near her. She was grinning, the one who'd stood out from the rest with her over the top welcome.

The images weren't an unfamiliar thing, but this was the first time he'd been confronted with so many in one place. It was distracting, unnerving.

Chevalier's attention fell on the girl; her white and gray jacket was short enough that it didn't reach the small of her back, a blue tank top with a shield emblem on the front. Her scarf, a complimenting shade of blue, was wrapped around her lower face, bearing the same emblem. She sat in a chair, elbows on her knees, toying with a knife.

In that instant, the knife disappeared, and there was a flare. The images were suddenly distinct, glaring, an image appearing in a flash, so brief he might have missed it. A cluster of children, blood, their faces stark with fear and in one case, pain.

Chevalier watched the exchange carefully. His eyes fell on the figure behind Hero, and he tried to focus his attention on it. It moved with glacial slowness, a four-legged creature with legs so long that the 'window' around Hero didn't even show its main body. Finger-like appendages at the base of each leg carved diagrams and ideas into the 'soil' beneath as it walked.

"We've got the serious part down," the girl with the mouse ears said. She drew her sword, thrusting it into the air, "Huzzah!"

"The important thing to remember," Hero said, "is that you've got time. You have time to figure out who you want to become, time to figure out what this team will become, time to breathe. To be kids again."

Oh, no, I recognize that army type girl. She's Hannah or Miss Militia. I think I recognize the mouse girl too even if I never had her description before this interlude. She's Mouse Protector, the heroine that was captured by S9 and transformed into a sad monster by Bonesaw after the mad bio-Tinker combined her with her worst enemy in the same body

. I recognize her only because of the mouse theme and I know that Mouse Protector should have a mouse theme. Aww, she seemed so fun and happy. Knowing that she was like this make Bonesaw's crime even more monstrous than it was already. I think that Bonesaw's only acceptable excuse for her horrible behavior is if she's suffering from Stockholm Syndrome and she feels like she must do the worst things to make Jack happy and proud of her or Jack manipulates her in some way (not even a super-sad backstory will serve as an excuse; she already went too far for almost all excuses...But she's still my fav S9).
I think I'm starting to understand Chevalier's visions. They're not visions of future neither insane hallucinations. They're...visions of people's trigger events. Looks at Hannah's trigger event that we already know about: children, fear, blood. Maybe the old woman with burned hands behind the unknown heroine was her mother who died being burned alive and the girl triggered as result. Chevalier's second power is that he can see people's triggers. Not super cool power, mostly scary and creepy because he's witness at so much pain and suffering and he can't do anything to stop the visions, looks like this power is beyond his control

. Or maybe it was behind his control back then, now he have better control over it. Hope so, for his own mental sake. I don't understand Hero's four-legged creature "trigger"....It doesn't sound like a trigger event, more like an extension to his Tinker power, unless he watched a four- legged giant monster stepping on someone dear to him and he triggered, which is not impossible in this universe but less probable in the context. Chevalier can see both trigger events and people's invisible extensions of their powers? Huh? How many powers this man have?
I wonder what Chevalier sees if he will look at Weaver. Tons of used pads and endless misery and bugs...Eww, he'd surely hate this power 🤢.

"I'm curious why you sat next to Hannah," Hero commented, as he served himself some cake.

"Maybe," Hero said. He laid a hand on Chevalier's shoulder. "But it's good that you did. She could use a friend. Might make a world of difference, in the long run."

"We're all ignoring the obvious reason," the girl with the mouse ears said, getting in Chevalier's way as she reached for a plastic fork. "He thinks she's hot. He wants the poontang."

"You didn't figure it out yet? Chevalier's the vigilante that went after the Snatchers," the leaf-boy said.

"No," Chevalier said. He used the distraction to push past her and get to the area where the two-liter bottles of soda were lined up. He poured the drinks for himself and Hannah. "They were ordinary people. Bad people, but ordinary. Except maybe the leader."

Chevalier felt strangely calm as he spoke, "Not like that. Alexandria caught up with me at the very end. When I was trying to decide what I'd do with him. She told me she'd stand by and let me kill the guy, if I really had to, but I'd go to jail afterwards. That, or I could come with her. Come here."

Chevalier shrugged. I'm not sure I did.

He was still angry. Still hurt. His little brother's absence was still a void in his life.

Aww, Chevalier and Hannah. Not a bad ship, Chevalier is a cool 1000+ powers guy and Hannah is a great person and heroine

. Surprise, surprise, Chevalier was a vigilante before becoming a hero. A vigilante with a personal vendetta against the people who killed his brother, looks like. Well, he wasn't wrong in what he did. He punished some assholes who hurt his little brother, something like anyone in his place would have done if they had the power to do it

. I actually admire him for his vigilante life especially because of the fact that he stopped some monsters from killing more children in the future. He was about to permanently stop their boss too if Alexandria wouldn't have stopped him from killing that bastard. Well, she actually was willing to let him kill him but she threatened him with jail afterwards. Aren't you nice, Alexandria? A sincere fuck you, Alexandria. Nobody threatened you with jail when you kidnapped and tortured so many people, nobody punished you when you hurt INNOCENTS (until she made the big mistake to fuck with Taylor, of course

), yet you didn't have any qualms to punish a desperate man who wanted to avenge his kid brother. What he did was the RIGHT to do, love for our family/friends can make us do some really crazy things, even turn us into "monsters" willing to inflict pain and suffering on the same monsters who hurt what we loved the most. Yes, a society where everyone can be a vigilante and get revenge on more or less assholes who wronged them will be an absolute chaos, an uncontrollable anarchy, but...sometimes...we need some good old fashioned vigilantes in our lives too, just to make us feel more protected against evil people who prey on our lives

. Not "vigilantes" like Sophia, but vigilantes like Chevalier. I think I'd have loved more a permanent vigilante Chevlier than a hero Chevalier but he's fine in any role. He's a good person, he's crazily brave and his determination make him so endearing. I think I love this guy.

Marun Field, December 13th, 1992. Behemoth.
São Paulo, July 6th, 1993. Behemoth.
New York, March 26th, 1994. Behemoth.
Jakarta, November 1st, 1994. Behemoth.
Moscow, June 18th, 1995. Behemoth.
Johannesburg, January 3rd, 1996. Behemoth.
Oslo, June 9th, 1996. Leviathan.
Cologne, November 6th, 1996. Behemoth.
Busan, April 23rd, 1997. Leviathan.
Buenos Aires, September 30th, 1997. Behemoth.
Sydney, January 18th, 1998. Leviathan.
Jinzhou, July 3rd, 1998. Behemoth.
Madrid, December 25th, 1998. Leviathan.
Ankara, July 21st, 1999. Behemoth.
Kyushu, November 2nd, 1999. Leviathan.
Lyon, April 10th, 2000. Behemoth.
Naples, September 16th, 2000. Leviathan.
Vanderhoof, February 25th, 2001. Behemoth.
Hyderabad, July 6th, 2001. Leviathan.
Lagos, December 6th, 2001. Behemoth.
Shanghai, April 23rd, 2002. Leviathan.
Bogotá, August 20th, 2002. Behemoth.
Lausanne, December 30th, 2002. Simurgh.
Seattle, April 1st, 2003. Leviathan.
London, August 12th, 2003. Simurgh.
Lyon, October 3rd, 2003. Behemoth.

"Stop," Chevalier ordered. The artificial intelligence halted the scrolling. The scroll bar wasn't even at the halfway mark.

Brighter future indeed.

There were so many elements like that. Little things. He'd heard so many complain about how the Protectorate handled the attacks. How they were disorganized, inefficient.

He allowed himself a moment to think of Hannah. They'd dated briefly, then separated. It had been a high school romance, and they'd both been too busy to really pursue things. What had been one or two dates a week became maybes, then had ceased to happen at all. He'd graduated to the Protectorate, changed cities, and they hadn't said a word on the subject.

It was a piece of the puzzle, but that puzzle was still far from complete. Until they had more to work with, it was merely data. Glimmers of memories and dreams, the conclusion had been, after long discussions with Eidolon and the parahuman researchers. An effect of the thinker power required to manage his own ability, tied to trigger events in some fashion.

"You ready for this? Being leader for the first time?" Exalt asked.

In truth, there were three. The largest was thirty feet long, running from the ramp at the back to the cabin at the front, almost entirely set into the floor. There was no decoration on it. Only mass, sturdy craftsmanship, and the mechanisms necessary for the cannon that was set inside the handle and blade.

It would have been too heavy for the ship to carry, except he'd already used his power, drawing it together with a second blade, an aluminum blade a mere four feet long. Lightweight.

His ability to see the 'shadows' about people was an extension of this power. He could see the general makeup of the two weapons, the phantom images, the underlying physics, in lines and shapes and patterns.

It was about perspectives. Relationships. He'd drawn them into one blade, with the appearance of the larger, the properties of the smaller.

His armor was the same, only it was too large to bring on the craft. A veritable mountain of construction grade steel, as light as aluminum, with the decoration of a third set. It had required some concentration, to maintain the balances he'd set, but he was confident he could fight outside of the kill aura's range.

What an irony of a "bright" future we have here! Endbringers ripping the world apart

. The only good thing I can say is that the Earth Bet's version of my city, Bucharest, is not on the list of the cities visited by these giant, not very friendly tourists. Good, Bucharest doesn't need such rude tourists, go and bother other cities of other countries

.
So, his ability to see the trigger events is related to his main power, is not a secondary power. He sees trigger events AND extensions of people's powers, just like he can see the deepest details of his own power (or something like that). He needs to have these visions if he wants to find the best properties of various weapons to combine them into the perfect weapon (now I understand his power better; he doesn't combine different weapons inside a single weapon but different properties of different weapons. This is why he's a Thinker and a Tinker. Maybe he's also a Brute but he doesn't need super-strength in order to hold those swords. They're not exceptionally heavy, they're probably as light as a baseball bat because he combines elements NOT materials. Anyone with a moderate strength can lift a sword or wear his armor).
Ok, I read it again and I was wrong when I said that he combines only elements, not materials as well. Yes, he can combine materials too, but make them very light, this ability allowing him to create a sword as big as a tank but as light as a baseball bat. Think at Jack and how he's able to increase the cutting edge of his knives and swords. He can make them cut you no matter where you're standing (of course, if he can see you) but the knife's size will still remain a normal knife size and Jack is not super-strong to maneuver it. The only thing that change is the cutting edge (invisible to naked eye but very painful for skin). Chevalier's weapons are just colossal looking weapons but nobody with moderate strength shouldn't have troubles picking them up. Pretty difficult concept of his power, but so damn fascinating

. Everything about Chevalier is fascinating, except for the fact that we still don't know his real name.

Tattletale's 'shadow' peered around with a dozen eyes all at once, each set different in design, in appearance and apparent function. A mosaic. Accord's was a glimmer of an old computer, the edge of a desk that wasn't there.

"I can try. But more than anything, I'm not going to put people on the front line if I'm not willing to go there myself."

"Foolish," Accord said. "Everyone has their place in the grand scheme of things. You do yourself and everyone else a disservice if you try to put yourself where you don't belong."

Chevalier could sense the attacker by the movement of the shadows. He whirled around, only to find himself face to face with a cloud of the 'shadows'.

The Yàngbǎn, one of them.

An assassin?

He couldn't even make out the figure, behind the layers of images. Glimpses of twenty, thirty, forty trigger events.

It didn't matter. The attacker didn't have offensive strength. Two more attacks failed to penetrate Chevalier's armor. He advanced, swung, thrusted, and his opponent stepped back, narrowly dodging.

But the opponent was sloppy. Letting him get dangerously close between resets. It was a question of letting him make a mistake, occupying his attention, so the thinkers would be safe. A chess game, moving the knight to keep the king in checkmate. There was only so much space in the room, and he could position himself to force the Yàngbǎn member to move further, to have less time to act, leaving more room for a mistake.

"No," he could hear Accord murmuring, the word barely above a whisper. He chanced a glance at the pair. Tattletale had a hand on her holster, and Accord had stopped her.

I imagined the vision of Tattletale's trigger event being the phantom image of her brother killing himself. But Chevalier sees now the extension of her power, many eyes watching everything. I said something about the possible name for her Passenger: Providence Eye. What Chevalier is seeing fits my the image I have in my head for her Passenger. Good shit. Lol for Accord's phantom power. An old computer? I imagined it to be more like a broken golden scales but old computer seems like an interesting idea too 😆.
We're going to see Fuck You Cody's attack through Chevalier eyes. I think that Chevalier could have beaten this bastard to a pulp if he wasn't distracted by so many images of trigger events (for every Yangban member) that Fuck You Cody carried with him. He seems to be stronger than even a crazy man with 42 small parts of others' powers+ his own full power. Fuck You Cody was lucky in the end, he wasn't a skilled fighter neither a badass warrior, he was just a very lucky asshole. Look, even Accord helped him to win this fight

. He stopped Tattletale from turning Fuck You Cody into a swiss cheese and I have to admit that what Accord did was exactly what killed him. Fuck You Accord, you signed your own death because you didn't let Tattletale do the RIGHT thing. Not only that Fuck You Cody deserved to die but it was a matter of survival: they or him. When it comes to matters of survival, almost everything is allowed with just few exceptions. Killing the attacker wasn't one of the exceptions. So, everything got fucked up because Fuck You Accord wanted to test Chevalier, thinking that the hero can beat the attacker by himself without any exterior help (this is the only explanation I can find for his gesture to stop Tattletale. Anyway, is still a non-sense and very selfish to let someone fight by themselves without helping them). A test that failed, Fuck You Accord own stupidity and excessive testing nature was exactly what that killed him

. Because of him, Tattletale almost died, Chevalier almost died, thousands of parahumans and civilians died, Citrine will be heartbroken and world hunger will still not be stopped. I can't believe I liked this dumbass before, he's a perfect example that not all Thinkers are naturally smart. Accord makes Phir Sē seems like one of the most sane and intelligent people on Earth. Rest in fucking Hell, Accord.

I missed the fight, he realized, as he woke in a hospital bed.

The ground rumbled violently. He looked up to see Tattletale in the corner of the room, half of her attention on what was happening outside the window, the other half on a phone.

She approached the bedside, attention on the phone. She held it out for him to read.

A notepad executable read:

hes here. defenses crumbled in a minute. rime dead. melted off more than half his outer body and he still fighting. last stand to protect hosp'l for evac and he cutting them down

She showed him her phone again.

they stapled your gut up. if outer body is like this then why does he have it? useless.

His chest heaved, and he growled out each breath. The growling helped, on a primal level, but that wasn't saying much. Just sitting upright was bad enough that he thought he might pass out.

"My breastplate."

She brought the front portion of the armor, resting it on the corner of the bed. She tapped the phone.

His eyes widened. "We destroy the center, we destroy him?"

She pointed with two fingers, at her collarbone. The base of the throat, between the shoulders. Quite possibly the deepest set part of his body.

"Help me stand."

She sighed, making her way to the end of the room. She collected his Cannonblade from the floor by the chair. He'd made it as light as it could go in every respect, before he'd passed out. Even so, moving his left arm to try to hold it made him seize up in agony.

He'd never forgive himself if they lost this fight and he didn't even fight.

So, Chevalier almost have his guts out and he still WANT TO FIGHT Behemoth? He can barely stand yet he wants to fight in order to protect the other injured? OMG, my fucking God, Chevalier is the most HEROIC HERO you will ever see 😀. Move aside, Legend, move aside, Miss Militia, you're no longer my favorite heroes. Chevalier is my NUMBER ONE now. He's MY MAN 😍. Guys, gals, I just found my new fictional boyfriend. How old Chevalier is? I don't care anyway, I love him, he's so brave, so protective, so full of determination..."wipes away few tears" if he'll die, I'll RIOT. Don't you dare to take my man away from me, Behemoth. Don't you fucking dare. I'll be super-impressed if Chevalier will manage to hurt Behemoth in his delicate situation but I feel like he only fights against the windmills (a noble but useless and disappointing fight). Speaking about windmills, now I can't stop imagining Chevalier as Don Quixote and Tattletale as his loyal squire, Sancho Panza, fighting a useless fight against an invincible giant. My fucked up mind...😀
I can't stop fangirling over Chevalier. Please, survive, please, survive, my fearless and crazy knight.

And the bodies… people who had died because he'd failed them. Because he hadn't been able to defeat the assassin, to take his role at the front of the battle lines, where he could bait Behemoth into the various traps they'd laid.

They'd been in a car crash, in the middle of a vacation. Strangers had stepped in, crowding the car to help his little brother out, while his parents were reeling, moaning in pain. They'd tried to get him out too, but he'd been pinned, the car handle had been scraped away in the collision, the interior handle protected by the child locks. They'd left, and for hours, as the emergency services arrived and the rescue continued, he'd wondered why. He'd triggered, caught in the wreckage, but had been too insensate to do anything about it, to even realize the full gravity of what had happened in the midst of the chaos.

It was only later that he found out they were serial kidnappers. The crash that had broken his mother's leg in three places had been orchestrated. So had the collection of his little brother.

Three years later, when he heard about the group again, he put together a makeshift club and armor and set about hunting them down. He appeared in the news in the midst of tracking down the individual members, and again and again, they had described him as relentless, to the point that it had very nearly became his codename. Revenge had been all he had left.

The size of the weapon and the effect of the firing pin seemed to help with the jammed mechanism. That, or the transition to being closer to his largest blade had shifted something in a fractional way. The shot blasted Behemoth in the calf of his weaker leg, and the Endbringer fell.

Chevalier pulled his sword from the ground, swayed, and very fell over.

Defiant caught him.

Old friend, Chevalier thought, though he didn't have the breath to speak.

Free of the armor, he could move his weapon. It was slag, barely a sword anymore, but the core still had some density to it.

He made it grow.

Before he could, the sword's tip touched the core, and everything went wrong.

His power abruptly ceased to take effect, and the blades came apart, in its three individual pieces. They slid from the wound, falling down around him.

Chevalier watched as the worst of the smoke cleared, and he imagined he might have seen the glowing blur of the sun through the clouds.

Not the sun. It was a figure. Scion.

OMG, the monsters who kidnapped his little brother caused the car accident on purpose

. There are 3 reasons why they kidnapped his brother and tried to kidnap him as well. Either to sell him on the black marked for organs, to sell him to pedophiles or they themselves were pedophiles and they took him for themselves

🤮. I can't see any other logical reason. They fucking deserved everything that Chevalier did to them after he triggered, fucking sick people. I hope that Alexandria arrested their boss or...even BETTER....brought him to Cauldron, to serve as their guinea pig

(as much as I hate human experiments, I'm making exceptions for the assholes who hurt children. I think I'd have agreed with Doctor Mother and support her if her only guinea pigs would have been child abusers, rapists and mass-murderers. Too bad that she decided that innocents were more interesting to experiment on. Call me hypocrite as much as you'd like, but I'll never hide how much I HATE these monsters

).
Knight Chevalier managed to HIT BEHEMOTH'S CORE. He managed to injure an invincible monster, while he had to hold his guts inside his body and strategize in his head the whole fight ♥. And he didn't do that for fame (like the former Armsmaster did when he fought Leviathan) or on a wim. He did that so the injured can be evacuated in time. I'm crying...I'm crying over the sheer awesomeness of this MAN. He's just too badass for words. Thank you, Wildbow, thank you for creating a TRUE HERO ✌.
SCION!!! I KNEW YOU'LL COME TO SAVE THE DAY. I KNEW IT. NO, ISN'T LATE, MY HERO CHEVALIER, NEVER IS TOO LATE. AS LONG AS THERE ARE PEOPLE TO BE SAVED IS NEVER TOO LATE 😀😀.

He held Behemoth in his grip, released the Endbringer to fall two or three hundred feet to the ground, struck his falling foe with a beam of golden light, as if to shove Behemoth into the ground.

Again, he held Behemoth in his hands. Thinner than a skeleton, the Endbringer was little more than a stick figure from Chevalier's vantage point.

A stream of darkness poured from one of the helicopters, filling the street Behemoth lay in. For an instant, the Endbringer was almost entirely obscured.

Scion fired one more beam, and the darkness was obliterated, swept away.

As noise returned to the landscape, the stilling effects of Scion's light fading, Chevalier closed his eyes, listening. With the noise of the helicopters and distant fires mingling with the shouts and hollers of joy from the defending capes, he imagined he could hear the whole world cheering alongside them.

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS..............😀😀😀😀😀🙃🙃

BEHEMOTH IS DEAD. THE FIRST ENDBRINGER THAT SCION EVER KILLED. YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSS. HUZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH. NOW I REALLY DON'T CARE ANYMORE IF SCION WILL BECOME EVIL IN THE FUTURE AND HE'LL FUCK THOUSANDS OF EARTHS, RIGHT NOW HE DESTROYED BEHEMOTH AND THIS IS ALL THAT MATTERS. No, I still don't like him, but I'm super-happy with what he just did. Yes, take that, Behemoth. Simurgh, you just lost a child. Scion annihilated your baby and he'll do the same thing with the other baby. Time to give up and let humans alone or are you going to have more babies

?
"hears a faint song in her head" FUCK, NO. I'm gonna stop making fun of you, Simurgh, please, my winged beautiful queen, can you stop? I didn't mean to offend you...she must be so pissed....welp...

BEHEMOTH IS DEAD...BEHEMOTH IS DEAD....CHEVALIER IS THE BEST ♥♥...SCION DID IT...but lets not forget someone who was just as important as Chevalier and Scion, if no more...
THANK YOU, KEVIN NORTON, FOR SAVING THE WORLD ♥.
But...
...the song....
....doesn't stop....
🎵 Good night and sleep well, my friends 🎶

blackarrow · Sep 9, 2019

What was your immediate reaction when Scion appeared and killed Behemoth?

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

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