#but anyway remember last week when i was upset out of my mind and liveblogging racism live from gay club.

[transgaysex]

amount of people ive had a hand in getting kicked out of a college gay club: 2

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: Avengers #207: Beyond a Shadow...

May, 1981

“After countless centuries HE LIVES AGAIN! THE SHADOW LORD COMETH!”

He cometh riding upon a tornado like its a mighty sand worm. What a guy, this Shadow Lord.

Honestly seeing the Avengers tumbling about in a tornado cracks me up every time. Especially Wonder Man who looks nonchalant about it aside from being ass over head.

So I don’t think we’ve really talked about it but this period of Avengers is kind of between main writers.

Since issue 200 and its four writers, we’ve had David Michelinie and Roger Stern on the two-part adaptation of that Ultron novel, David Michelinie for that weird story with the Crawlers in the sewers; Jim Shooter, David Michelinie, and Bob Budiansky for the Yellow Claw two-parter, Bill Mantlo for the everything is on fire story and now Bob Budiansky and Danny Fingeroth for this issue and the next. We start getting a consistent writer again starting in #211.

I wonder what was going on behind the scenes around this time.

Anyway, onward.

So we start the issue with who I assume is the Shadow Lord. But he’s not riding a tornado, like Pecos Bill. He’s standing on an invisible ocean structure of some kind. Apparently a mysterious invisible ocean structure of some kind that hasn’t been seen for almost two millennia.

And yet, someone has kindly painted the title of the issue in English on the mysterious invisible ocean structure of some kind.

Some guy, maybe the Shadow Lord: “The dreaded time has at last arrived, the moment I prayed would never come... the moment I knew would surely come. He is soon to return, and only the power entrusted to me is capable of stopping him. And even that power may not prove sufficient.”

“With every passing second, my city and myself pass ever more fully into the Earth’s plane of existence. Would that the cause of my return here from the barren vastnesses of the Shadow World was as joyous as the glow of this new day’s sun.”

“But the grim responsibility of an entire race is my unwelcome inheritance. It is a duty I cannot shirk. Alas, I must take what comfort I can in knowing that no matter what the result of the coming debacle, I will at least be free to rejoin Ayshera, she whom my heart holds most dear... though whether our reunion will be in celebration of victory -- or in darkest mourning for the ashes of this planet -- none willy truly know until the final battle.”

Some Guy sure is helpfully monologuing his entire life story here. And even so he manages to be vague, inside his own mind, about the nature of the threat he faces. Way to preserve the mystery, Guy.

Also, he’s from the Shadow World so he may be a Yugioh.

Anyway, as one might expect, a city appearing in the middle of the ocean out of nowhere is of alarm so US aircraft carrier Poseidon shows up and starts yelling at Some Guy.

Some Guy decides that they sound mad but he doesn’t have time for lengthy explanations so instead he gestures and the winds and waves start whipping up.

Welp! Seems like the US Poseidon is going on an Adventure!

Meanwhile, Mt. Vesuvius!

Yup. Its that kind of story, the kind partially set at Vesuvius.

Some archeologists are digging in the foothills of the mountain in what has been a fruitless several weeks of archeology but one of the archeologists finds a hand shaped object which may be a hand.

They mistake it for a statue at first but realize its actually a perfectly preserved lava mummified corpse.

And while they’re busy congratulating each other about how wealthy and famous this discovery will make them, they fail to notice the hand moving its finger shaped fingers.

And elsewhere again, the best damn thing.

A cowboy shouts “SLAP LEATHER, YA GALOOT!” and then gets shot by a cannon.

This isn’t the Wild West of the America, this is a spaghetti western film set and the director is very upset at Black Bart’s shitty death acting. How hard is it to get hit by a cannon and then to fall down and pretend to die like you just got hit by a cannon?

You wouldn’t think there’s a wrong way to get shot by a cannon but you’d be wrong.

Simon Williams, Wonder Man: “I’m sorry, Mr. Bertolini. It’s just that, being Wonder Man, it’s hard for me to pretend those cannonballs are hurting me when I can hardly feel them.”

Mr. Bertolini: “True, signore Wonder Man, but I hired you because I thought you could-a act!”

Oh yeah, Mr. Bertolini talks like Mario. So that’s another tally for Marvel’s respect of other countries and cultures.

Aside from this being the seventh take on a ‘guy gets hit by a cannonball, beefs it’ scene, cannonballs are expensive. The cannonball that bounced off Wonder Man’s midsection looks fine but maybe you can’t just reuse them.

The filming breaks for lunch and Wonder Man wanders over to where his moral support is.

His moral support, of course, being Beast.

And he is moral supporting but he’s also multitasking with some women because even in Italy, women are just fascinated by blue fur. Furries are universal.

Wonder Man doesn’t feel supported though and this lousy spaghetti western film is a good opportunity for him.

If you remember, the last project we saw him get was as a cheetah print leotard wearing muscle man on a kids show and he got fired for making the host Uncle Elmer look ridiculous.

(Revealed to Simon’s chagrin in #194, lost to mishap in #201)

Being in an actual movie, even a spaghetti western, is the boost his career needs.

(I think we need to confront the actual possibility that Wonder Man is not a very good actor. But he might be a good stunt man if he can learn to act like things hurt)

Wonder Man’s publicist Rachel Palmer shows up as well and wow. Rachel has never appeared before and given the fillery nature of these chaotic no consistent writer times may not appear beyond this story. But you instantly get the sense of their working relationship.

And they have good banter too.

Wonder Man: “Wait. There she is -- Rachel Palmer -- the apple of my eye, the light of my life, the bane of my existence!”

Rachel: “If you delivered your lines that well in front of the cameras, Simon, you might actually keep this job -- which’ll make it just a little easier to hype you as a star back in the States.”

Wonder Man: “Your encouraging words are a constant source of inspiration, Rachel. But I’d appreciate it if you’d confine them to your press releases.”

Rachel: “You’ve got me all wrong, Simon. I hope this whole thing turns out well for you. Really.”

Wonder Man: “And for yourself. After all, if you make me a big name, you can ride along on my coat-tails and become a media hotshot -- instead of being stuck as a flak for Grade D Westerns.”

Rachel: “No, Simon. I--”

Wonder Man: “Forget it, lady. I’m a big boy. I know that all’s fair in love -- and show biz.”

And then he walks off towards his trailer, satisfied at getting the last word with someone whose job it is to make him look good. Beast says that he thinks Wonder Man was too hard on her and that Rachel probably digs Wonder Man.

Wonder Man: “Maybe you’re right. But I still can’t get over feeling that Rachel’s motivated by sheer self-interest and everything else places a distant second.”

(I’m pretty sure she does dig Wonder Man because unbeknowst to Wonder Man and Beast, she follows them to the trailer, wanting to convince Wonder Man that she’s not as self-serving as he thinks and also to invite him to a romantic dinner)

Anyway, Wonder Man’s social life isn’t important. At all. And not right now. Because when he and Beast go into Wonder Man’s trailer and discover the Avengers’ emergency signal briefcase is BEEP BEEPing.

It’s Cap and there’s an emergency situation that demands immediate investigation.

A brand new island city has just popped up in the middle of the Mediterranean slash off the coast of Majorca from out of nowhere and the government wants the Avengers to investigate.

Presumably the US government.

Because if I know anything about mysterious island cities appearing from nowhere - and I know exactly one thing - by jingo, they start wars!

Beast is enjoying his vacation so asks why the US Sixth Fleet doesn’t handle it instead. They’re actually paid to do things while on an ocean. But Iron Man just says that the fleet has had problems.

And with a little reading comprehension we can guess what problems. Because we’ve seen it. Its not a mystery.

Iron Man has a Stark plane sent to pick Beast and Wonder Man up and fly them to Majorca. Or somewhere thereabouts. I don’t know if Majorca has or had an airport.

Wonder Man bemoans that he’ll never be a movie star if he keeps leaving the set to go have exciting comic book superhero adventures.

Which is a little like complaining about being too handsome. Ya jerk.

And remember how Rachel Palmer was peeping on them? No? Scroll up a little and look at the above panels again. Back? And remember how Rachel Palmer was peeping on them?

Her media senses are tingling and telling her that she should definitely go check out the city that appeared in the middle of the ocean. She’s much intrepid for not a reporter.

Meanwhile, some slice of life filler fluff that doesn’t matter but that I find delightful.

And if this liveblog isn’t about sharing things that I find delightful then what is it about? Exhaustively recounting plots to comic books from decades ago? That’s just a side benefit!

The call to action back at Avengers Mansion comes right when Wanda is having Vision move a couch.

Vision: “Wanda, while it may be true that I am capable of moving this couch about all day, it seems a gross misuse of my android abilities to do so.”

Wanda: “Maybe if we just move those shelves then you just put it down there. We’re Avengers, not interior decorators.

This is the content I eagerly crave.

So back in not America, Beast and Wonder Man complain about the plane ride but passing over the ocean they see what trouble the Sixth Fleet was having.

Some Guy, Possibly Shadow Lord managed to strand the Poseidon aircraft carrier fully on a deserted island.

And I was wrong about the plane taking them to Majorca. Its apparently taking them to Poseidon because it lands on the ship’s airstrip so the two Avengers can consult the stranded sailors about what the heck is going on.

Captain Paul Garrison tells them that they were investigating the mysterious new island/city (not mentioning that they were also yelling at it) when a tidal wave suddenly swelled up and carried the Poseidon several miles and left it on this island.

And apparently the same thing happened to any other plane and ship that attempted to approach the island. Thwarted by winds and waves.

Damn you, nature!

Anyway, its all rather mysterious but Wonder Man figures

“Well, we were sent here to investigate. So... let’s investigate.”

And Wonder Man rockets off to investigate the city. While giving Beast a piggyback ride.

Which. Amazing image. Bless this issue for its bounty of amazing images.

Bear in mind that the captain said that the aircraft carrier was carried several miles. Wonder Man’s belt rockets have impressive duration considering he can’t be carrying much fuel on his person.

When they reach the city, they find a localized hurricane hovering right above it. But Wonder Man just flies down through the eye of the storm to get to the city.

Some Guy Shadow Lord is surprised because he had been expecting big boats and planes. Not a guy with rocket pants and a blue gorilla riding on his back.

But he’s able to shoo them away just as easily as any big thing, with a wave of his hand summoning a wind that carries Wonder Man and passenger Beast away from the city.

Meanwhile, Rachel Palmer is also here. She spent all her money renting a plane and then a boat but she’s going to get to that mysterious city and get an exclusive inside story!

So is she a journalist? Or what? She’s Lois Laneing but as far as we’ve heard her job is to convince people they want to see Wonder Man do stuff in movies.

Wonder Man spots her and tries to fly to her rescue but two water spouts spurt up to ruin this rescue plan.

The first one launches Rachel’s boat into the air and smashes it to pieces. The second blasts Wonder Man out of the sky preventing him from saving Rachel from falling to her death.

But unseen by either of the Avengers, a strong breeze safely lowers Rachel to the ground of the city.

Because what is an Avengers comic without men developing weird and intense feelings for a nearby woman.

Some Guy: “How beautiful she is, how like my own Ayshera. And, also like Ayshera, she is courageous... and more than a little headstrong.”

Cool. I hope this doesn’t get weird. Or that we’re not asked to sympathize with a guy whose only ‘sympathetic’ trait is a possessive attraction to a woman. Looking at you, Living Laser. And, I guess, Graviton.

Anyway, Wonder Man doesn’t see Rachel getting rescued by an airbender so he works himself into a lather.

Wonder Man: “That sinks it! It’s one thing to attack naval ships and planes... one thing to attack Avengers... But when he kills an innocent woman who could do him no harm -- that guy’s gonna answer to WONDER MAN!”

Honestly, I think you’re selling Rachel short. I’m sure she could do harm if she put her mind to it.  Like, what if she covered him in bees. That would suck.

Anyway, Wonder Man rages through the city’s protective winds and then gets SAFUUSH!’d between two walls of solid water.

He’s left sputtering and disoriented in the ocean. At least until some hooks hook down from the Quinjet, hook Wonder Man, and then hook him up into the ship.

I didn’t know that the Quinjet had hooks for grabbing people out of the ocean but I am thrilled.

Ideally, the Avengers would use their newfound ability to vaudeville hook people into orbit more often. I can think of so many instances where it would be useful, or at least hilarious.

Anyway, Wonder Man apprises the other Avengers into the situation.

Meanwhile, not dead Rachel Palmer wakes up and finds the Shadow Lord brood slouching in a chair and watching her while she was unconscious.

She is alarmed that he’s just sitting there staring but he basically goes ‘DON’T WORRY I READ YOUR MIND TO LEARN YOUR NAME AND LANGUAGE’ and then decides to explain his entire backstory.

Shadow Lord: “The city in which we stand is the Shadow Realm and I... I am called the Shadow Lord!”

DAMMIT I KNEW HE WAS A YUGIOH!

Anyway.

THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO! Give or take! An ancient tribe decided to move to an island to isolate themselves from “primitive, superstitious neighbors who feared [their] more advanced society.”

Off to a good start with this guy.

Free of the mundane concerns of living in a world that hated and feared them, they were able to peacefully ALL BECOME WIZARDS WHO COULD CONTROL THE FORCES OF NATURE.

Maybe the X-Men are onto something.

So the Shadow Lord’s people learned to control, winds, waves, earth, and maybe fire so what I’m saying is that it was an entire island of Avatars.

Boom, sequel idea. Give me millions of dollars, Nickelodeon.

“Though veiled in mystery, rumors of our existence spread throughout the world. We were feared and shunned by the other peoples of the Earth -- which allowed us to continue our studies undisturbed.”

“Those who mistrusted anything they could not comprehend... they called us witches and sorcerers. Those who knew and understood us called us... the Earth Lords!”

“For centuries our sole purposes were to augment our knowledge of the Earth’s forces and to maintain the natural balance between these forces. Otherwise, we had no interest in the day-to-day affairs of the outside world.”

Maybe I was wrong about them being Yugioh. Maybe they’re the Time Lords from the Doctor Who.

Anyway, the Earth Lords were happy sitting on their island being Avatars but over the eons they sensed a disturbance in the Force, for I must reference all the things.

"Over the eons, we became aware of a seemingly immortal, human force of awesome destruction, one who could potentially plunge mankind into an irreversible slide to its doom.”

“Singlehandedly he could destroy towns. With an army beside him -- countries. Time and again, he did. It was when he finally joined the legions of Rome at the peak of the Empire’s power... that we first feared the balance of nature was in danger of being destroyed. Rome could forever take over the world.”

The Earth Lords tried on several occasions to destroy this menace. We don’t get to know what constituted these efforts and that’s disappointing because of what the final successful attempt was.

By 79 AD, they knew he was on the slopes of Mt. Vesuvius so they caused it to erupt, just to bury this one guy under hundreds of tons of rock and ash and lava.

Mission accomplished.

Except for the little thing where the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius also wiped out Pompeii and Herculaneum and other cities people know significantly less about, killing over 20,000 people.

As things go, that’s pretty dire amount of incidental deaths to kill one person. And the Earth Lords realize that this was a pretty major fuck up.

So they decided that they couldn’t be trusted with their powers and that they would disperse into the outside world to live and die as people do and have their powers dissipate over the years.

But before they did that, they discovered that the seemingly immortal guy they hit in the face with a volcano was somehow still alive somehow. Just trapped. Under hundreds of tons of rock and ash and lava that cooled into rock.

They killed thousands and didn’t even permanently kill the dude they were trying to kill? That’s pretty incompetent. They really can’t be trusted with their power.

Since he eventually might get out and resume being a dick, the Earth Lords drew lots and chose one of their number, the Some Guy later known as the Shadow Lord from the Shadow Realm, to forever watch over the city alone and await the day that the immortal guy would again walk the land.

And to help him solo the dude that took an entire city of people and a volcano to deal with, the Earth Lords concentrated all of their powers into this one Shadow Lord guy and taught him how to send himself and the city into a twilight plane of nothingness which is back to being called the Shadow World.

So this might also be Twilight Princess.

For two thousand years the Shadow Lord in the Shadow Realm in the Shadow World observed Earth and waited. And now, it seems that the seemingly immortal dude is back.

Rachel: “But I don’t understand. How can one man threaten a whole world -- and live for thousands of years in solid rock?”

Shadow Lord: “This is no mere man, my dear... this is the Berserker!”

And speak of the devil and we scene transition to him because we scene transition to Pompeii.

The lava mummified human figure that seemed to move before has stopped beating about with finger twitches and has gotten up to rampage around and backhand archeologists.

Don’t feel bad though. They were in it for the money and fame, those fiends.

Back at the city of Shadow Realm, the Avengers suddenly show up as a full team and basically enter swinging. Iron Man even blasts a wall for no reason.

Rachel tries to tell the Avengers that Shadow Lord means no harm but the Avengers can’t hear her over the sounds of Wonder Man loudly reassuring Rachel that they’re here to rescue her.

Iron Man exploding a wall for no reason probably also didn’t help.

So Rachel instead tries to tell Shadow Lord that the Avengers are a force for good. While he can hear her, he chooses to ignore her.

Using his powers of being the Avatar, he tries to pull a rocks fall but nobody dies. Rocks falling is something the Avengers deal with panache and also lasers and punches.

Some panache. Beast’s skycycle gets hit by a rock and he ends up leaping onto one of the spires of the city to avoid crash. And then, like a cat who climbs a tree except its a building in this context, Beast has a hard time figuring out how to get down from there.

While the larger Avengers punch and laser boulders and jump onto spires, Wasp just flies right in and shoots Shadow Lord in the eyebrow.

Amazing. Another good use of Wasp powers, being able to get in close while the opponent thinks the team is distracted at a distance.

Shadow Lord is none too pleased to be shot in the eyebrow by a tiny insect-sized flying woman and decides that a particularly karmic punishment is required.

Shadow Lord: “An insect-sized flyling woman! What sorcery is this? But if an insect you be, then it is only fitting I ensnare you in a cocoon of living wind... a cocoon which will grow and envelop your so-called fellow Avengers!”

And as Rachel still pleads with Shadow Lord to knock it off, he summons a giant tornado that suck in all of the Avengers (save Beast stuck up on his spire).

Shadow Lord even has the tornado carry him along, the better to continue mocking the Avengers as he carries them to their doom.

Shadow Lord: “You hopeless children! Did you actually think to defeat me, to deter me from my purpose? I who who command the earth and wind themselves to do my bidding?”

Yeah, dude. Definitely not sounding like a supervillain now. Cannot fathom why the Avengers are assuming you are one.

Iron Man manages to escape the tornado by firing his boot-jets at maximum, sending him flying free with a SHA-BOOSH! but also carrying him far away because momentum.

Shadow Lord then creates a whirlpool in the ocean and has his tornado carry the Avengers towards it. The whirlpool goes to the bottom of the ocean. Which then cracks open to reveal bubbling magma.

That’s right. The Shadow Lord is going to shoot them out of a tornado, into a whirlpool and into magma beneath the ocean floor.

Its. At least more precise than hitting them with a volcano, I’ll give him that. Definitely feels like overkill to go from rocks to tornado-whirlpool-magma execution but its definitely more precise.

Somewhat more precise.

Because when Iron Man manages to slow himself down to turn back he notices that a yacht is being swamped by the waves Shadow Lord is churning up.

And because of heroism, he takes the time to scoop the yacht out of the ocean and rest it safely on an island.

Geez. There’s a lot of boats being beached in this story.

Shadow Lord actually sees this. And a thought starts penetrating his thick skull that maybe he should have listened to Rachel.

Shadow Lord: “The armored one paused in his attack on me to save those people -- innocent people... which is more than we were able to do 2,000 years ago. Perhaps, as Rachel says, they are not agents of evil...”

He decides that he’ll stop throwing them out of a tornado into a whirlpool into magma but he doesn’t get the chance to put that train of thought on the tracks.

Beast waves Iron Man over. From his perch on the spire he’s noticed that the building he’s on is cracking from the strain of all the power Shadow Lord is throwing around even though he’s not been throwing it at that building.

So Beast deduces that the city is key to Shadow Lord’s power in some way and should have the shit beaten out of it.

And as Iron Man starts punching some wall, Shadow Lord doubles over in pain and the tornado he was about to dissipate dissipates.

The other Avengers get free and decide hey, follow the leader.

Jocasta: “The battle has truly just begun. Malevolent power such as this must not be allowed to exist. We must follow Iron Man’s lead and destroy the city -- totally!”

So unnoticed by the Avengers as they level the city into a pile of rubble, Shadow Lord staggers and swoons at Rachel’s feet.

But even dying, he still has some exposition bottled up.

To be fair, he’s been isolated for 2,000 years with no one to talk to.

He explains that the powers of an entire population of Avatars was way too great to be contained in one squishy mortal body so the powers were instead imbued in the city itself.

And with the city destroyed, it can no longer serve as a source of power and also can’t keep him alive anymore.

He’s honestly not too broken up over it. Since the Avengers are valiant and worthy, they can pick up his unfinished business while he goes and dies and gets to reunite with his girlfriend who died sometime during those 2,000 years.

Shadow Lord: “But please understand... I am as much to blame for today’s events as anyone... I bear you no malice... we misjudged each other. I have done my best... no more can be expected of a man... perhaps you will succeed... where I have failed. So do not mourn my passing... for me, death is but the long-awaited door that opens to my beloved... Ayshera.”

And the Avengers realize belatedly ‘we done goofed.’

“A sad -- and confused -- group of heroes grimly watches the passing of the Shadow Lord... and only then does the cruel truth reveal itself to them: what they had thought to be one of their greatest triumphs is instead... one of their most bitter defeats.”

Oh, and as I expect they’ll soon find out, the Berserker has been kicking the Italian army’s ass near Pompeii so that’s probably escalating into a bit of a situation and they just accidentally killed the guy who could have helped with that. Although in fairness, he deliberately ignored Rachel when she told him that the Avengers were heroes.

Like he said, he fucked up too.

Still, while its a bit of a Marvel tradition to have mighty misunderstanding fights, I don’t think they tend to result in people dying. One for the history books.

Next time: the Berserker.

Follow @essential-avengers​. Also like and reblog. And send me Avengers triumphs that are way more impressive than beating up a city.

[journeysintowebcomics]

Worm Liveblog #92

UPDATE 92: Daughters

Last time Taylor and Rachel started fixing their relationship somewhat, and Taylor proposed to the rest of the Undersiders the rather daunting task of fighting Coil. They have one week, maybe one week and half to succeed. Let’s continue!

And here it is, it has started: the interludes in the middle of the story, brought by the generous souls who donated to the author. This is one of them. To be honest, I’m not very sure about this...it feels kind of disjointed. I have liveblogged a few webcomics and since then something that’s starting to tick me off is intermissions happening in middle of the story. By now I can only sigh with annoyance every time they happen. More often than not it feels like it breaks the storyline. In this particular case it didn’t really do that because the arc was just starting, but in the future I hope these bonus interludes don’t happen in middle of the arc unless it’s like...another point of view or something like that.

It’s not clear right away who is the protagonist of this interlude. Seems to me it’s a young girl in...a cell, perhaps? A dungeon? It’s a dark place she can’t leave by their own will, seems to me. There’s also another young girl in here – a fellow prisoner? This is confirmed further when a man enters with a plate of food, giving it to them. The point-of-view girl thanks him, he hesitates but doesn’t let that stop him from closing the door and leave them still locked inside.

For a fleeting moment Dinah came to mind, but unless Coil recently kidnapped another girl for whatever reason and also stopped drugging her, it’s unlikely the girl this interlude is about is Dinah. Haven’t ruled out the other girl being Dinah, though. Very low chance but it’s there.

The other girl can’t believe POV girl thanked the man. Why’d she do such a thing to her captor? Hard to think it’d be just politeness.

She couldn’t justify it.  Her heart was pounding.  She stared at the plate.  Soup and bread: enough food for one person, barely enough for two.  She could have said she did it in the hopes that he would feed them more often, but she wasn’t sure she would be telling the truth.

“Let’s… let’s just eat,” she spoke.

It’s still too early to know for sure what to think about this girl, but she seems...I’m not sure what’s the word. Kindhearted? Naïve? I don’t know. She’s a nice girl, that’s what I’m trying to say.

There’s no time for that because the scenario changes to a different person. It’s Alan and Carol...it took me a moment, but I think they’re Panacea and Glory Girl’s parents? No, wait, it was Mark. I think Carol – Brandish – is the mom, but I’m not sure who Alan is.

Carol is dealing with the possibility of closing the office because of the city getting condemned. Right, she’s a lawyer. She’s gathering files and getting busy, but she’s not okay. She has stuff to be worried about, since this is clearly the present, unless Brandish had been in another condemned city before.

Yup, this is the present. I bet she’s worried about Glory Girl. She must be missing right now, after all. But nope! Looks like it’s not that. It’s less motherly and more frustrated reasons to be distracted.

Line by line, Brandish talks about how things led to her husband getting a brain injury that led to a very sad situation we readers are very aware about. We all know how it ended:

Carol smiled, but it wasn’t a happy expression.  “So imagine my surprise when, after weeks of taking care of my husband, wiping food from his face, giving him baths, supporting him as he walked from the bedroom to the bathroom, Amy decides she’ll heal him after all.”

I imagine how it was like for Carol, yeah. There’s this healer in her family who ironically isn’t able to heal him, because she can’t heal brains. Weeks later, you find out that was a lie, and the healer sat on her hands for all these weeks before finally deciding to help. Of course we all know it wasn’t like that! We know about Panacea’s plight. However, Carol doesn’t. To her it looks pretty awful, leaving aside her husband’s recovery, and now, she’s going to spread the word about this to other people, causing damage to Panacea’s reputation. Great, as if that girl didn’t have enough problems in her life. With some luck her stained reputation won’t reach wherever she’s going to go after Glory Girl is healed.

The Slaughterhouse Nine’s visit to Panacea also doesn’t help. Mark must have told her about how that visit went, right? So she must be aware he was healed at their behest. If so, then the impression she has of this is even worse, because it took a supervillain coercing her to finally heal Mark, meaning she didn’t do it willingly. Of course she’d be upset!

Victoria went looking for her after she ran away, returned home empty-handed.  I think she was even more upset than I was, with Amy taking so long to heal Mark.  She was almost inarticulate, she was so angry.”

“Your daughters are close.  The sense of betrayal would be that much stronger.”

So far from the truth. I don’t doubt Glory Girl maybe felt confused and all, but she was very willing to forgive her at first. If it wasn’t for Panacea losing control of her powers because of her emotions for a moment, things may have ended in a much more peaceful manner.

And now, like I said earlier, Glory Girl is missing. She was thinking about joining the Wards, so this mission alongside them may have been her way to prove herself. It...didn’t go like expected at all. Welp! While Glory Girl isn’t anywhere in my list of characters I like, I feel bad for her. I hope Panacea removes from Glory Girl the love she hastily had implanted in her and then goes away. Glory Girl will be majorly upset with that, but it’s for the better to do that anyway, I think.

They know the Undersiders took her for medical attention, but apparently Brandish doesn’t know where in the city the Undersiders are at. Huh. Battery knew where Skitter was, at least. I doubt she kept that to herself, so the Protectorate must know what territories the Undersiders have taken – at least some of them, right? Kind of surprising Carol hasn’t been able to get any leads. So now she’s distraught and came here to get herself busy and calm down. I can relate to that. Pretty normal reaction, yup.

Alan tries to offer help but it’s not that simple. There’s nothing they can do other than continuing the search...

“Welcome back to Brockton Bay, Mr. Barnes.”

Oh! I remember now! I think. Wasn’t Emma’s father a lawyer named Alan? I think it once was mentioned Barnes is her last name? I don’t really remember, but yeah, I think this is Emma’s father. Emma and family must be back in Brockton Bay.

Some time later, Carol seems to have fallen asleep, presumably not in her office. Back at home, most likely. She woke up because a stranger has arrived.

It took me like a dozen lines to realize this is the past, with the girls trapped. My bad. Anyway, these are Carol and Sarah. Now that I think about it, this may be how Photon Mom and Brandish met, right? Because New Wave is a group where two families decided to leave aside any ‘secret identities’ stuff and just admit what their real identities are. I don’t think a pair of random families without any sort of ties would agree to shake the status quo like that. The other possibility is that Carol and Sarah are family. I don’t remember if Carol and Sarah were related, honestly.

These girls have been trapped here for quite a while, it seems they were held as ransom or something, because now a man comes to kill them, saying time’s up. This is the moment Sarah has her awakening. Neat! And like anyone would do in her situation, she uses her newfound powers to fight back against the man threatening them, and it’s pretty bloody. Yikes.

She couldn’t bring herself to protest.  For the first time in long weeks or months, she felt a flicker of hope.

Weeks or months?! I did think it had been a couple weeks, at least, but I didn’t think it could potentially be months! That must have been quite a nightmare for them.

Speaking of nightmares, heeeeere is the other guy! The man who had been bringing them food. This time no amount of ‘thank you’ would make him hesitate, I suppose because his partner in crime’s battered corpse must still be around, so he raises a gun and shoots.

He’d tried to attack them?  Carol couldn’t understand it.  He was the one who’d taken care of them.  When he’d appeared, she’d been happy.  And now it felt like that had been ruined, spoiled.

She felt betrayed and she couldn’t understand why.

Okay, now I know the word I’m looking for is ‘naïve’. I guess it’s not out of the question a criminal can change their mind and all that, but it sounds like Carol took for granted he’d help them. True, he did show some hesitation that one time, but unless he showed hesitation every single time or other signs he was reconsidering this all he wasn’t going to switch sides just like that. Also, there’s a bloody battered body on the floor. Can’t have appealed to his good side.

The man shoots and heeeeere comes the trigger. This is the moment Carol gained her powers. I must say, I really like there has been parts where people other than Skitter have been shown gaining their powers. It has really driven home how traumatic it is to be in the kind of situations that’d get them their powers.

In this case, the vision Carol is having is of an egg opening and a lot of creatures bursting out of it, taking partners and flying away. Quite the vision! So far it had been visions of much older creatures, ones that were dying. I wonder if this is meaningful in some manner, if the vision depends on the person or something like that.

When the vision is over, Carol found herself on the floor. Sarah had tried to defend them, but I suppose the bullets were a lot to protect themselves from, and now that Carol had her trigger event, it’s her turn to fight back. She makes a weapon and attacks, it’s like a laser sword. The man’s limbs are cut and soon, well, he’s dead. That’s the end of this kidnapping and it’s pretty clear this is going to have some nasty psychological trauma on her.

You know, with all these traumatic situations required to have trigger events, it’d be great for new parahumans to consult a psychiatrist. It’s a shame so few have the chance to do so, I suppose.

Back in the present, Lady Photon is here to see her. She brings what could be interpreted as good news: they made contact with Tattletale and struck a deal. Good! If there’s someone who can deduce Glory Girl’s location it’s her. Maybe not with precision but she could perhaps say the general area? Where would Panacea take Glory Girl, anyway? Not a hospital, because she needed to work on her.

The information wasn’t free, of course.

“She wanted a two-week ceasefire.  The Undersiders won’t give any heroes or civilians any trouble, and we ignore them in exchange.”

“That gives them time to consolidate, get a firmer hold on the city.”

“Maybe. I talked to Miss Militia about it, and she doesn’t think they’ll accomplish anything meaningful in that span of time.  The Undersiders have their hands full with white supremacists and some leftover Merchants, the Protectorate and Wards aren’t part of the ceasefire and they’ll be putting pressure on the Undersiders as well.”

Ah, clever. She bought the Undersiders enough time to be able to focus on Coil without any other distractions. I have to wonder if, when Coil is defeated – because I think it’s a foregone conclusion they will! The enigma is how they’ll achieve it – the heroes will find out the Undersiders did it. That’ll make them even more dangerous in the eyes of the heroes.

Indeed, what Tattletale gave them in exchange was the location of both Glory Girl and Panacea. It’s time to go see them! I hope Glory Girl is almost healed by now, so Panacea can get on their good graces before she leaves. Some good reputation even in a place you’re not going to return to is always good, after all.

This interlude is jumping everywhere in the timeline. Back in the past, it’s Brandish in the Brockton Bay Brigade, confronting Marquis – Panacea’s father. They cornered him in his expensive house, Marquis isn’t worried at all. Hm! Is this going in the direction I think it’ll go! I hope it is! It would show how Panacea was adopted by Carol.

Looks like Marquis’ power is to manipulate bone. In a moment many bone spears erupt through his body in what must be a really weird thing to see, but it’ll be effective nonetheless. Bone is kind of a weird material, sometimes it’s depicted as brittle, other times as rather sturdy. I’m guessing Marquis would be able to control the density and hardness of the bone, right? In that case, he could make it as sturdy or as fragile as he wants.

The bone spears weren’t to impale anyone, instead they break off and are transformed into shapes that’d leave open wounds if the heroes get careless. It was to get bone exposed, I think. One of them’s bones in his foot break.

Alright! The heroes’ strategy is to attack constantly. Hit hard and hit often! It’d work better if Marquis couldn’t make a shield of bone, expanding it until it was larger than him, protecting him from Lady Photon’s blasts. I was already thinking ‘could they attack his back somehow?’ when Brandish thinks about how Marquis’ usual strategy is to get out of sight and then burrow to somewhere else.

Marquis emerged from the floor a short distance away, driving a spike of bone up through the ground and then deconstructing it to reveal himself.

I can imagine him encased in a drill made of bone, spinning through the floor and all, haha! But yeah, I must say, this power is pretty interesting, from what I have seen. It’s kind of quirky but also quite fearsome in the right hands.

Apparently he’s trying to protect something and he’s not being straightforward about it. Protecting his daughter, perhaps? It’s an anomaly in his behavior, one that puzzles Brandish.

His power let him manipulate bone.  If it was his own, he could make it grow or shrink, reshape it and multiply it.   It made him, in many respects, a competent shapeshifter.  His abilities with the bones of others were limited to a simple reshaping, and there was a nuance in that the longer his own bone was separated from his body, the less able he was to manipulate it.  Every second he was wasting talking was a second that the bone splinters he’d spread over the area would be less useful to him.  He was putting himself at a disadvantage.

I’m not certain, but I think Marquis has a finite amount of material to work with. Otherwise it wouldn’t be that much of a problem, he’d make more bone spears and replenish the bits of bone he’s not able to control so well. Also, now I see the purpose of the bone spears was for them to break and scatter around. Clever!

So yeah, Marquis is usually known for turning everything around to his advantage, and that isn’t happening here even though he put two of the heroes out of commission in like five seconds flat. Something is distracting him, Carol thinks. In the moments the narration takes to tell all this stuff, Brandish is blindfolded with bone and Lady Photon is imprisoned in a column. Only Manpower and Brandish are available right now, and they’ll try the plan the heroes had agreed all along.

The plan is charging straightforward and even lunging at the weapons Marquis makes. Luckily for them, Marquis is focused on making things as nonlethal as possible, instead trying to imprison them and even undoing a scythe of bone when there’s a chance it can kill Brandish.

Kind of a random thought right now, but I can kind of see how Panacea and Marquis are family, in terms of powers. Panacea has biological manipulation as well, just that instead of just bone like Marquis, she can handle pretty much the entirety of a living being’s biology. The similarity is faint, but it’s there. Must say, the topic of parents and children’s powers being related in some manner is pretty interesting to me.

Anyway, Marquis tries to get away, chance Brandish uses to slash the protection there’s over a closet, which she then tries to impale. Marquis emerges in middle of them and gets stabbed in the shoulder. Ouch!

“What were you so intent on protecting?” Manpower asked.  “This where you stash your illegitimate gains?”

Marquis chuckled.  “You could say that.  The most precious treasure in the world.”

It definitely is Amy. Pretty sweet of him to say such a thing of her. Seems like a sincere remark...it’s a shame things are like this and, well, Marquis had to be taken away. Leaving aside that he’s a villain and therefore does pretty awful stuff, seems to me he genuinely loved Amy. Amelia.

But Lady Photon was already reaching for the door, pulling it open.

A girl. A child, not much younger than Vicky. The girl was brown hair, freckle-faced, and clutched a silk pillow to her chest.  She wore a silk nightgown with lace at the collar and sleeves.  It looked expensive for something a child would wear.

“Daddy,” the girl’s eyes were wide with alarm.  She clutched the pillow tighter.

I wonder if the reason why Amy was hidden in the closet, if it was to protect her or if he also intended to hide her for some reason. Doesn’t seem like the heroes knew he had a daughter.

“I have enemies.  Would you like to see her fall into their hands?  It wouldn’t be pretty.”

I’m not surprised a parahuman would hide the existence of their family, especially if you’re a villain with lots of powerful enemies. Of course if the heroes found out, then the enemies could find out too. He really was trying to hide her, not just protect her. And now that he has been captured, it’s up to the heroes to decide what to do with her.

“The motherfucker has a kid?” Lightstar muttered the question, as if to himself. “And she’s, what,  five?”

“Six,” Marquis answered.

Six. Vicky’s age, then.  She looks younger.

Six years...I’m a bit surprised Amy didn’t remember her father. Six year-olds are self-aware and it’s possible to remember stuff from back then. Faintly, but it’s possible. It’s not out of the question Amy may have forgotten Marquis, but yeah...it’s surprising to me. Well, there are other factors that cause memory loss, such as intense trauma. That’d depend on if Marquis getting arrested was intensely traumatic for Amy, though.

While Marquis talks about what happened to Amy’s mother and about how he enjoyed a lot his life with Amy, Brandish hates everything. Something about Marquis makes her remember the moments back from when she got her power. I don’t...really see the similarities, honestly.

That cultured act, the civility that was real.  Marquis was fair, he played by the rules.  His rules, but he stuck to them without fail.  It didn’t match her vision of what a criminal should be.  It was jarring, creating a kind of dissonance.

This kind of character is interesting, but I feel he’d have more impact if this was explained in some more detail. True, we already know one of his rules, and we can kind of deduce others from the fight, I guess, but I think there’s a chance to go deeper into this. Although...there wouldn’t be much of a point, I guess. Marquis isn’t going to appear again after this – most likely.

Young Amy doesn’t want them to take her dad away, she wants him to stay and rejects any consolation. The heroes can’t do anything but call the PRT and just take Marquis away. Later, Lady Photon has Amy by the hand and seats her in a car. Hm! Amy was calmer than I thought she’d be, if she accepted to get on the car so easily.

Leaving the girl in foster care is not a good idea because if anyone finds out she’s Marquis’ daughter, she’ll be targeted, kidnapped, and exploited for her powers. Brandish gets a bad feeling and asks Lady Photon to adopt her, proposal that is rejected because they already have two children and no possibility of having another. Instead, Lady Photon suggests Brandish adopts her. So that’s how Amy got into this family! And Brandish didn’t want her at all. I think that had been said before, but it sure hits harder when you see it happen.

Brandish doesn’t want Amy, and her husband may have clinical depression. It’s not an ideal family for an adopted daughter, especially one who just saw this bunch of strangers take away her father. She had even shouted at them she hated them. It really is a tragic there were no better options for Amy, because this is far from ideal.

“It’s not just that,” she said.  “You know I have trouble trusting people.  You know why.”

The change on Lady Photon’s face was so subtle she almost missed it.

“I’m sorry to bring it up,” Brandish said. “But it’s relevant.  I decided I could have Vicky because I’d know her from day one. She’d grow inside me, I’d nurture her from childhood… she’d be safe.”

That perceived betrayal scarred her much more than I expected. Maybe it was Stockholm’s Syndrome? The term gets thrown pretty lightly in some stories, so I don’t really how grave it is in reality. From what I read here in a rather superficial research I just made, it’s pretty rare but it’s generally positive emotions and thoughts towards people who have wronged you, as illogical as it can be. Not sure if that fits, though. The cases I read about here indicate those feelings stayed for a very long time, unlike in this story, where Carol felt betrayed pretty quickly. I don’t dare to just call it naiveté, though.

Nothing else to be said here. Brandish will take Amy, even if she doesn’t want her. Nobody else can do it. And that’s the story behind this family. Goodness gracious!

Back in the present, Carol isn’t full of joy when she encounters the daughter she didn’t want. Yup, they found Panacea and therefore Glory Girl must be around too. Brandish immediately asks where’s Glory Girl; Amy’s response is that she’s sorry. Sorry for having kept her and made everyone worry the Undersiders had kidnapped her or something, I guess.

The location is a ruined neighborhood, possibly a random abandoned house. When Carol had arrived, Amy rushed outside to block the door – and yield at the first push once they try that, because compared to Brandish and Lady Photon, Panacea isn’t an obstacle at all. They ask for explanations, giving her the chance to say what’s going on.

“I didn’t want her to fight.  And I didn’t want her to follow, or to hate me because I used my power on her again.”

Again?

“So I thought I’d put her in a trance, and make it so she’d forget everything that happened. Everything that I did, and the things that the Slaughterhouse Nine said, and everything that I said to try to make them go away.  Empty promises and-“

So she did manipulate her memory again. She did break her own rules again and did what she thought was best. Erasing the memories of what Jack had said and everything Amy replied is more than I expected, but maybe it’s for the best. How will Brandish and Lady Photon react at these news? I doubt they’ll approve Panacea modified someone’s memory, but will they become angry?

They didn’t have much of a reaction to that. Alright.

Something in Amy’s voice alerted Brandish something was wrong, so she forced her way in and rejected Panacea’s hand when she tried to stop her. Amy was fearful, both staying against the wall and pleading her to stop going further into the house, while Brandish got upstairs and saw the only open door around, entering without hesitation. When Brandish stops, Panacea hurries to get there to explain.

You know, nothing good happens when someone has to say ‘please, let me explain’. I already dread what I’m going to read.

Amy kept talking, her voice strangely monotone after her earlier emotion, as if she were a recording.  Maybe she was, after a fashion, all of the excuses and arguments she’d planned spilling from her mouth.  “I wanted her to be happy.  I could adjust.  Tweak, expand, change things to serve more than one purpose.  I had the extra material from the cocoon.  When I was done, I started undoing everything, all the mental and physical changes.  I got so tired, and so scared, so lonely, so I thought we’d take another break, before I was completely finished.  I changed more things.  More stuff I had to fix.  And days passed.  I-“

Brandish clenched her fists.

“I lost track. I forgot how to change her back.”

...you know, the more I read this, the more I felt this...strange sensation inside me. It was the same weird sensation of nervousness, like intense dread, I even had goosebumps. I reread it all when I pasted it here and I still felt that. Guess that means it’s pretty effective writing, eh? I can say without exaggeration this is the most...nervous, I guess...I have felt reading Worm so far.

A caricature. A twisted reflection of how Amy saw Victoria, the swan curve of the nape of the neck, the delicate hands, and countless other features, repeated over and over again throughout.  It might even have been something objectively beautiful, had it not been warped by desperation and loneliness and panic.  As overwhelming as the image and the situation had been in Amy’s mind, Victoria was now equally imposing, in a sense.  No longer able to move under her own power, her flesh spilled over from the edge of the mattress and onto the floor.

...

...

...

...well then.

I’m glad I’m having a very hard time picturing this. Usually when I read something, I imagine it pretty vividly, but here I’m having some trouble picturing Victoria’s current state. Just from the description here it’s horrifying. I’m glad I can’t process just how awful it is.

...but dang, I’d have never thought something like this would have happened to Glory Girl. I didn’t like her, but that doesn’t mean I thought she’d have such a...I don’t even have words to describe it well. If Jack heard about what Panacea once she broke her own rules did...well, he’d be pleased he managed to push her towards doing something like this, even if it was pretty much an accident.

Last time these two had appeared in the story Glory Girl was recovering and Panacea was...not completely stable, but she seemed to be okay enough. What’ll Skitter think of this? Will the Undersiders find out?

Now what? What’s going to happen to them? No way anyone will let Panacea get anywhere close to Glory Girl again, and there’s not an abundance of parahumans with healing powers or the ability to manipulate someone else’s body. And Panacea...no way the heroes are going to just brush this aside. Is she going to be prosecuted for this? Sorry for the rambling, I guess I’m at a loss for words.

Obviously, Brandish isn’t taking this well. Her first thought is that this is a betrayal, and she was about to hit Panacea with her weapon when she finally took a good look at her.

The girl was so weak, so powerless, a victim.  A victim of herself, her own nature, but a victim nonetheless.  A person sundered.

Yeah, that’s...an apt description. Goodness, all this is pretty messed up. It takes all the fighting will out of Carol.

Some time later, Dragon and Carol are talking.

Carol stared as Amy shuffled forward.  The cuffs weren’t necessary, really.  A formality. Amy wasn’t about to run.

She’s going to the Birdcage, isn’t she. Geez, what an unfortunate end for her character arc. Unless there’s an arc happening in the Birdcage or something – a viable possibility, given how dangerous the Undersiders will be known as if their plans work! – Panacea isn’t going to appear again.

Just...just some recognition for how complicated Panacea is. I find that appealing and also very pitiable.

The armed escort would be waiting.  No court- Amy had volunteered, asked to go to the Birdcage.

No surprise there, she must be feeling a horrifying amount of guilt, so intense only going to the Birdcage will be a step towards getting rid of it. I don’t think she ever will. This isn’t the kind of thing you ever forgive yourself for.

Surprisingly, Carol gives Amy a rather tight hug. I don’t think there’s any love, but she’s sorry. Amy gets into the truck and off the transport goes towards the Birdcage, to never leave that place ever again.

Carol nodded. “Two daughters gone in the blink of an eye.”

“Your husband decided not to come?”

“He exchanged words with her in her cell this morning.  He decided it was more important to accompany Victoria to Pennsylvania.”

What I do find surprising is that Carol was the one to stay with Amy instead. She never wanted her, after all. I thought she’d want to avoid being anywhere close to Amy after...after what she did to her daughter. Guess the defenseless, hopeless and desperate Amy did strike a chord in her, enough to sympathize with her enough to stay and say goodbye to her. Too little, too late, though.

“You didn’t want to see Victoria off to the parahuman asylum?”

“Victoria is gone.  There’s nothing of her left but that mockery.  Mark and I fought over it and this was what we decided.”

Maybe it’s unkind of me to say such things, but with this it seems like she refused to say goodbye to Victoria because in Carol’s eyes she doesn’t exist anymore – all that’s left is whatever was the result of Amy’s mistakes. In contrast, Mark still thought of her as a daughter and wanted to see her off. Am I being too harsh with Carol by thinking like this? Maybe. But that’s what comes to mind.

Amy is gone, but Carol doesn’t leave yet. Instead she requests to watch Amy’s arrival to prison. Dragon has no problem allowing that, so after a few hours of waiting, Carol finally gets to watch it. Amy arrives, Dragon turns on the sound so Carol can hear what happens inside.

A second later, the sound cut in.  An announcement across the prison PA system: “-one-two, Amy Dallon, AKA Amelia Lavere, AKA Panacea.  Cell block E.“

You know, this must be quite a shock for anyone who knows who Panacea is. I bet many will be wondering how the hero who went around healing people in hospitals and stuff was sentenced to spend the rest of her life in the Birdcage. I imagine there’ll be lot of questions, and Amy will refuse to answer every single one of them, I bet.

Or maybe not, because Marquis enters the scene. With his protection, Amy will be left alone. Lung is behind him and is blocked so Marquis approaches Amy alone.

“I’ve been waiting,” he spoke.

Welcome home, Amy? I’m not sure if meeting Marquis again is good or bad for her. I just hope it’ll be good. At least she’ll have someone to trust in here – if she trusts him, that is.

This is the end of the chapter; Carol goes away after seeing Marquis meet his daughter again. Before I stop writing, though...

The day I cease seeing her as his daughter and see how she could be mine, he takes her back, she thought.

I understand how Carol feels – I think. I understand the traumatic reasons behind her complexes, I understand it’s very difficult for her to trust anyone, and I understand in her eyes Amy was a walking reminder of Marquis.

But, despite all that, I’m having a pretty hard time sympathizing with Carol. I just...can’t, for some reason. It’s tragic, pitiable, some would even say pathetic, but despite all that I just am unable to sympathize with her. Maybe because the thought of a small child being blamed for something out of her control rubs me the wrong way. It’s the kind of thing that’s very unfair, you know?

But even though I don’t sympathize with Carol I can’t despise her. Maybe precisely because of how pitiable she is. I’m not sure what kind of emotion Mr. Wildbow was aiming for, but I’m sure he managed to tug the right heartstrings in a lot of people, even if in me it may not have the right effect.

Also, I’ll miss Panacea. I warmed up to her throughout the story, maybe because she was a complicated character. Oh well. She had a good run.

Guess next update the arc will continue? We’ll see next time!

Next time: in six updates

[stormquill]

Misconduct, Ch. 8 [Soldier 76/Reader]

You have an extremely inappropriate crush on your commanding officer. Maybe if you work hard enough, you’ll stop having feelings.

[ AO3 Link ]

Author's Notes: Collaboration with @antiloquist. Follow the blog @ http://miss-conduct.tumblr.com/

Chapter Notes: jesus christ the response to last chapter was the biggest one yet. getting the chance to read all your reviews and concrits and liveblogs was an absolute delight. best holiday EVER. this chapter's not quite as exciting, i'll admit, but it features a conversation that needs to be had.

He gave you a week.

The timeline for recovery itself was fine—thanks to the wonders of modern medicine, a couple of days was all you really needed to heal completely. You knew, however, that more time recovering meant less time to prepare for the upcoming mission—you could feel yourself rusting away with every second of inactivity in the infirmary, and by the time Dr. Ziegler cleared you to return to training, you were so ecstatic you could have kissed her.

You refrained, though, because Captain Amari was one of the last people on earth you wanted to make angry.

You returned to your routine at once. Zarya eased you back into your normal strength training regimen at a reasonable, yet challenging pace. Winston, who was currently attending a UN convention halfway around the world, contacted you daily at 3:30am local time to discuss your new tech while you worked on it in front of him over video conference. In your downtime, you managed to fill two notebooks with contingency plans. This time, you would be more than prepared.

There was no way you were going to let your Commander down a second time.

It wasn’t until day five when you realized you hadn’t actually seen very much of 76 over the course of the past week. Once in a while, you suspected he left on his mission without you, but then you’d catch glimpses of him stalking down a hallway with paperwork or using the training bots at an ungodly time of night, and the sight of him would dispel your fears. You figured you’d reconvene whenever he was ready to discuss the details of the mission. He was probably busy preparing for it, himself.

Unbeknownst to you, however, it was more than just the mission he was worried about.

After Dr. Ziegler shooed him out of the infirmary, he intended on catching a half-hour’s rest before getting back to work, keeping in alignment with his normal routine, but profound exhaustion and a missed alarm turned a half-hour into an hour, into two, into nine. 76 woke up in the middle of the following afternoon not remembering what day it was, suffering the disorienting ill-effects of his first full night’s sleep in years.

So much for his normal routine.

Once he recovered from his weariness and finally got some food in him, the unwanted weight of mental clarity settled on his shoulders, burdening him with the task of questioning what he’d done with you while he was drunk on anxiety and insomnia.

What on earth had possessed him to act that way, to surrender himself to sudden emotion like some pathetic, immature teenager? Now you were under the unambiguous impression he was interested in you—and, even if he was, you should’ve been the last person to ever find out.

76 was relieved when Dr. Ziegler cleared you for training, knowing your health was no longer in jeopardy. There was a small, regrettable part of him, however, that wished you’d taken longer to get back on your feet, that a week would be far too little time to make a full recovery and he would be forced to leave without you. But there you were, back to the grindstone in no time at all. You finished building the second prototype of your beacon. Your progress reports from Zarya and Winston were nothing short of glowing. 76 expected nothing less.

Why did you have to be so damn stubborn?

The thought of someone putting themselves in harm’s way for his benefit was something he hadn’t experienced in years, not since he was in charge of his own platoons, an entire lifetime ago. You didn’t need his protection, though—you weren’t a child, or a civilian, or some damsel in distress. What happened in Romania could have happened to anyone in your place, and considering the circumstances, you dealt with the situation far better than many others would have. You were no different than any other agent—no less talented, no less able—and to treat you as such because of some stupid crush was an insult to you and all you were capable of.

His interest was an insult to you, as well.

You were young, strong, brilliant, and you deserved more than what some old soldier past his prime could ever begin to offer you. He should have been the bigger person from the start—he should have quashed this infatuation before it got this out of hand. Instead, he selfishly chose to satiate his impulsive curiosity, quelling the wonder of how you’d feel in his arms if he reached for you in that hospital room, then and there without hesitation, and to hell if anything else in the world ever fit so perfectly against him.

He asked himself if he regretted it, and he could do nothing but run his hands through his hair once he found himself answering no.

-

76 found you in the weightlifting room, because of course you’d still be training at this hour.

You lit up when he entered. “Commander!”

Had you always smiled at him that way?

He lowered his eyes from yours to kill the warmth in his chest, but averting his gaze only meant it landed to take in the rest of you. You’d paired a standard-issue workout top with loose, yet form-fitting sweatpants. Your chest rose and fell as you caught your breath, your sweat-slicked skin flushed with effort and exhaustion. It was impossible to avoid noticing just how well you’d taken to your training regimen since he first brought you here, with the sculpt of your arms now toned and well-defined, and the firm thickness of your thighs built up from months of running and lifting.

Bits of your ponytail stuck out in place, and you tucked some of the frizzy strands behind your ear.

“You should’ve told me you wanted to see me, sir,” you laughed, embarrassed. “I would’ve left early and hit the showers, I’m a mess.”

He held his breath, for a moment or two. You were going to give him a goddamn heart attack.

You, on the other hand, were still far too worried about seeming weak, so you were pushing yourself twice as hard to prepare yourself for the upcoming assignment. You didn’t notice your Commander’s gloved fingers twitch when his eyes ran over you, or how his throat bobbed as he swallowed—you were only focused on doing your next thirty pull-ups without stopping.

Resting a hand on your opposite shoulder, you rotated your arm in an attempt to loosen up a little. “Are you here to discuss the assignment, sir? My journals are back at my quarters, I can go grab them if you want.”

“Journals, plural?”

“Yes, sir. I have no idea where we’re actually going, yet, so I...well, I made general plans for every environment I could think of to serve as templates for future missions.”

“How many books?”

“Two, so far. Almost three.”

“In less than a week.”

“Correct, sir. I got my polyphasic schedule back on-track, and I didn’t realize how much more time it gave me in my day. I looked over my plans from the last assignment, cooked up a bunch more for the next one, and I even had time to review my contingencies for...” You stopped yourself at once. “...other things.”

“...other things?”

“Nothing important.” You ran the palm of your hand over the back of the other. “Anyway, you’re here to discuss details of the rescue mission, right? We’re leaving in a couple of days, we should probably go over those sooner rather than later.”

Watching you fidget, 76 couldn’t help but remember what Zarya said that day in her office.

(“They rub their hands, then, yes? They do this when they are scared.”)

The gesture left him at a loss. He couldn’t think of a reason why you’d be scared, right now—you never showed any hesitation in discussing your plans with him before. He found himself deeply unsettled by the fact he had no idea what was going through your head.

You knew, though.

”Talk to me.” His tone was gentle, but urgent.

“...about what?”

“You make plans like crazy whenever you’re worried about something,” he said. “Tell me what’s on your mind. Are you concerned about the mission?”

You offered a smile. “Would you believe me if I said yes?”

“No, but I had to start somewhere.”

There was no voice behind the solemn laugh you breathed next. It was startling how well you’d come to know each other over the time you’d spent together, like strangers who were similar enough to already know one another completely. It had only been a few months, but you couldn’t remember what life was like before you heard the sound of his voice every day.

That didn’t make these kinds of things any easier to talk about, though.

You’d always been absolute shit at opening up to people, fearing the awkwardness would outweigh any closure you may have received from it. You wanted to fast-forward to the part where this conversation was over, so you could skip having to hear yourself put your ridiculous thoughts into words and delve straight into dealing with the following embarrassment.

Taking a deep breath, you found the courage to meet his eyes again. “I...needed a way to cope.”

“Cope?”

“Well.” You were getting redder by the second, gesturing aimlessly with your hands. “You know, with...it’s just kind of humiliating, knowing that you knew that I...I mean, I always figured you’d be upset if you ever found out, so whenever I got nervous thinking about it, I planned ahead for negative outcomes. Best case scenario, you roll your eyes and write me up for misconduct—worst case scenario, I’d have to transfer to EcoPoint: Antarctica because you’d boot me out of here and never speak to me again.”

“...you had contingency plans for that?”

Embarrassed, you rubbed a hand over your face. “There was a flowchart.”

“In case I got angry over...this.”

“Yeah.”

Neither one of you could put a name to this, whatever this was, this strange Schrödinger’s relationship that managed to be dead and alive at the same time because neither of you were brave enough to tear the lid off the box. You’d always considered him knowing about your feelings as an irrefutable negative, with no room to entertain the thought of a happy ending. He saw reflections of his own anxieties in the facets of yours, and the realization made his stomach churn.

“How long have you been worried about this?” he asked, voice softer than usual.

You laughed, again, the sound dripping with unease. “How long have you known?”

“Not that long.” 76 rubbed the back of his neck. “Don’t give me too much credit, Zarya had to bring it to my attention.”

You were mortified. Now you were worried about coming off as someone who fawned over him obnoxiously, like some stupid teenager who couldn’t shut up about their crush.

“I—I never told her!” you proclaimed.

“You didn’t have to,” he replied.

“...oh.”

That only made you feel worse.

You couldn’t help but wonder what even motivated Zarya to bring such a topic to light in the first place, and what kind of conversation they could’ve possibly been having that would make the subject of your romantic interest even tangentially relevant. Zarya seemed like the last person on earth to waste time gossiping about other people. Or were you simply that obvious all this time?

(What had McCree said? Something about a wolf in sheepskin?)

“It’s a good thing she pointed it out, too,” 76 continued, noticing the dejection on your face. “Wouldn’t’ve occurred to me, otherwise. Didn’t even cross my mind someone like you would bother looking twice my way.”

Someone like you.

The subtle compliment made heat flourish in your cheeks again. Several days ago, you believed him finding out about how you felt would mark the end of your friendship, and now you two were doing the tenacious dance of possible reciprocation.

76 picked up on your nervousness, and it made him nervous in turn. This feeling of wanting, of being wanted, was a luxury he hadn’t afforded himself in years. Personal relationships were the first to be sacrificed in his line of work, and he’d resigned himself to living out the rest of his years on his own a long time ago. It would have been fine by him—it would have been fine, if he hadn’t met you.

He remembered your reaction when he held you in his arms, when you relaxed so wholeheartedly against him; it had been the body language of someone who cared for him, who trusted him, wholly and without question. He felt light whenever he thought about that moment, about how comforting it was to have someone that close to him, again, and the warmth the memory filled him with made him hate himself a little more than usual.

76’s eyes landed back on you, studying the shift in your expression. Your cheeks were still tinged with scarlet; you looked as if you had something important you wanted to say, dancing at the tip of your tongue and the edge of your thoughts, but you feared the words would come out all wrong.

“I’m fine with the way things are right now,” you finally admitted. “I don’t want to make things weird.”

“...is it weird?”

“No,” you replied, “and that’s what kinda scares me.”

You were right, he knew. All of this, once you pushed through the initial formalities of basic training, was comfortable. If anyone was making things weird, it was him—he had been the one to just up and wrap his arms around you completely out of the blue and without warning, not even bothering to read the situation properly, or ask your permission beforehand. But it felt natural, somehow.

This felt natural.

And he wanted to keep you safe more than ever.

Sometimes, when he shut his eyes, violent images of you bleeding out in his arms appeared in the pitch-darkness of his mind’s eye. Any rational person would have been put off missions for a while after an experience like that, and yet here you were, gearing to get back on the field with him not even a week after your brush with death. Did you understand just how much danger you were putting yourself in? Was it because of your misplaced affection that you were willing to put your life on the line for him?

Did you think being selfless would help him see you in that light?

“If I told you I wasn’t interested,” he started, choosing his words with searing precision, “would you still be volunteering yourself for this mission?”

The concern in his voice was tangible. The question itself was posed as little more than a gentle inquiry, a hypothetical that should’ve really only had one answer.

But for a split-second, you hesitated.

That was more than enough for him.

“That’s what I thought,” he growled, turning on his heel.

“W—wait, wait.” Trying to take back control of the conversation, you darted around in front of him and raised your hands. “That’s a really heavy question, sir, you just...caught me off-guard there, is all.”

“Hesitation is an answer in and of itself.”

You scowled at him. “No, it isn’t. You drop a bombshell like that without even giving me a chance to process what you’re implying?”

“And what is it I’m implying, Reader?”

“That you don’t trust me to want to do my job without the promise of being owed something at the end of it,” you barked. “Especially after what I did in Romania, as stupid as it was. Regardless of how I feel, we’re still a team, Commander—if you want me on this mission, I’ve got your back. You don’t owe me anything for that.”

“Neither do you.”

Your brow knitted together, pleading. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

He paused.

The idea of you being by his side on this next assignment was equal parts comforting as it was terrifying. He was at war with himself; he wanted you to feel free of any sense of obligation, but he also wanted you around as much as he could possibly have you. It didn’t make sense—there was nothing he could provide that a younger, more stable prospect couldn’t, and he couldn’t see anything coming from this except your own demise.

He hated this, wanting you as much as he did.

What would you think of him if you knew?

Minding his silence, you lowered your head enough to level his eyes. “...talk to me.”

There you were, using his own words against him. He shouldn’t have been surprised. You’d always been a fast learner.

The cruel humor in all this hadn’t escaped his notice. He always stressed how important communication was both on and off the battlefield, about how good teamwork was about trusting in one another, and now, after getting you to admit what had been troubling you, he was the one hesitating?

What a damn hypocrite. No wonder why you snapped at him.

“I don’t want to lead you on,” he said, firmly.

(Oh.)

“What happened in the infirmary was inappropriate,” he continued. “I pushed boundaries I never thought I’d toe in the first place, but I did anyway, and now we’re here. I can’t tell you if this is going anywhere. I don’t know if it should.”

You frowned. He had a point. Above all, you were both in a military setting, and as military representatives, professionalism and protocol reigned supreme. There was no room for superfluous fraternization, not between people like you.

“It’s okay, Commander,” you reassured. Your smile didn’t quite reach your eyes. “I’m an adult, I can handle a little rejection.”

“I’m not rejecting you,” he said quickly.

Too quickly.

All you could do was blink at him and give him a nervous smile. “Now I’m confused.”

“I’m the one who brought you in,” he explained. “I’m your superior officer, agent, and I’m...almost twice your age, for crying out loud. You and I, we’re...” He growled under his breath. “I have rank over you, and I have no intention of taking advantage of the trust you’ve placed in me.” He paused for a moment, gathering the last of his words behind an uneasy sigh. “I’m an old, washed-up has-been, sweetheart, and I’m in a world of trouble. Don’t feel obligated to set your grave by mine just because I taught you how to dig.”

The term of endearment he sprinkled in there still made your heart flutter, in spite of yourself. There was no embarrassment, no gnawing hole in your chest, no overwhelming urge to cry. If this wasn’t rejection, and this wasn’t reciprocation, then it meant that this just...was. And for now, that was okay with you.

Better than Antarctica, at least.

You were surprised at how direct he was being about all of this, even moreso at how much better it made you feel, not mincing words or dancing around the issue. Your Commander had always been a straightforward man, and you supposed he was never the kind of person to waste time playing games. Despite spending years as a wanted vigilante skirting the law, he respected protocol more than anyone; it made sense for him to be cautious about this, even if the thought of him being hypervigilant about not taking advantage of his position made your heart swell. It was indescribably honorable, and sweet, how concerned he was about doing this right.

But you had to do this right, too.

“Interest or not, I’m not letting you go out there alone,” you said, tone brimming with resolve, “and interest or not, you waited for me to get out of the hospital wing. We have a job to do, so...try not to overthink this. Not right now.”

“You’re the one with all the contingency plans,” he mused.

“True,” you laughed, “but we have more important things to worry about.”

“Now you sound like Zarya.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Feeling much better than you thought you would, you found yourself more than ready to put this entire situation on the backburner in order to move forward with the mission, but you could tell he wasn’t quite there yet. He was closing himself off, bit by bit, falling silent as he folded his arms over his chest and looked away. You could almost read the flurry of anxious thoughts swarming his mind in the silence, the worry carrying mindfulness away from the man standing in front of you.

You reached for his face, gently, taking his chin into your hand before turning his head back towards you. His visor was cold to the touch.

“Let’s get her out of there, Commander.”

A low, tired growl rumbled in the depths of his throat as he sighed at your attempt to ground him. The reaction sent shivers rushing down your spine—the rough sound of his voice could put your very soul at ease.

He rested a gloved hand along the length of your wrist, and the red of his visor levelled your eyes, again.

“I’m with you.”

[journeysintowebcomics]

Worm Liveblog #74

UPDATE 74: Aisha Does What She Can

Last time Skitter had gone to try to convince Panacea to cooperate and not be a lone wolf trying to run away from the evil. Maybe it’d have gone well if it wasn’t for Mannequin crashing the negotiations and ruining everything. Now Panacea is upset and away, Mannequin is going to attack Skitter’s territory again, and a couple of Heckpuppy’s dogs are dead. As usual, the arc starts with the deck stacked against the main characters. Let’s continue.

...it’s another interlude. There’s plenty of interludes recently. Mr. Wildbow must have received boatloads of donations often, if he had to write interludes every two or so chapters! I wonder how many chapters in the future are interludes.

I skimmed these first few paragraphs and I again can’t find out who this interlude is about. Maybe it’s like the last one, and it’s about a character’s civilian identity. There’s Sam, there’s Celia. Sam is a heavyset man, Celia sounds like a middle-age woman.

Looks like this is a junkie reunion. There’s pissing off the fire escapes, there’s powder to be snorted...I’d think they’re with the Merchants, if it wasn’t because that group is dead and gone. Oh, looks like they really were Merchants. The remaining Merchants stole some of the merchandise when Skidmark died, and kept their stashes. Two of them go to indulge in the drug, the other two don’t.

Aisha had to hop out of the way so she didn’t get sat on.

Oh! It’s Aisha! Is this the place she ran off to after Grue rejected her plan to go spy on the Slaughterhouse Nine?

She watched the dialogue between her mother, her mother’s boyfriend of the week and her mother’s new friend with a dispassionate expression.

...oh. Well...this sure is heavy. The middle-age woman is pregnant, and she’s Aisha’s mother. Aisha isn’t exactly happy about these developments.

The first place her mind went, before joy at the idea of having a brother or sister, before anger at her mom for letting it happen and not using protection, was hope.

...the idea of having a brother or sister? What about Brian? This wording seems to imply she doesn’t have one. Does that mean this is the past? Aisha is his younger sister, isn’t she? Hm. Maybe this interlude is about Aisha. This could be some time before Grue started the process to adopt her.

The thought of her mother having another kid isn’t pleasant, and Aisha hopes that doesn’t happen – because it’d be better for the kid. After all, Aisha herself didn’t exactly have a nice childhood, the kid should be spared from it.

How much of Aisha’s problems were because of her mom’s lack of self-control and how many others were because of this environment?  She’d grown up with a mom who’d never mentally or emotionally aged past fourteen or fifteen.  A new man in the house every week or two, with his own idea of how things should work, Celia generally content to let him run things however he wanted.

Pretty harsh environment to grow in. Especially since it sounds like the man never stays for long. The lack of stability and constant stream of different men coming around can’t have helped her at all, especially since some of them were abusive. One of them had broken her arm. Yikes, I knew Aisha’s life had been pretty rough, but reading it makes it more...hm...it’s the old show, don’t tell. It’s easier to imagine how it was like when you actually see it.

Being ignored by her teammates and told to go to her room and play along for everyone else’s sake was another.

I was wrong, this is the present. I suppose what I read earlier was just a bit of confusing wording. So this is where she ran to when her teammates rejected her plan.

While they all enjoy their drugs and don’t even say a word to her – not to offer her drugs, not to even be dismissive to her – because of her power. When she loses her concentration, people forget about her. Ah. So she has to actively make an effort to make everyone realize she’s there? I thought it’d be backwards, that she needed to focus in order for people not to see her. Something I like about these interludes is that they sometimes give a chance to see how the powers work, right from the parahuman’s understanding of it.

Not that it was invisibility, really.  It was memories.  People forgot her as soon as they saw her, to the point that they didn’t register her presence.  She could feel it, her power rolling over her skin, jabbing outward, invisible to sight, touch and anything else, making contact with the people around her and pushing those memories away.

See? It’s like some sort of miasma. Like a cloud of vapor that envelops people and make them forget about her. I suppose that’s why she has to focus to stop others from forgetting her. She has to keep her power bottled to some extent, or at least not be as effective as it could be.

The more they try to remember her, the more she slips away, but it’s not like by trying to ignore her they will remember her. In the end it seems she’s the one who has the most control over who can see her and who can’t – even if it’s not complete control, as seen in Skitter sometimes forgetting about her. She can’t even will herself to make it work harder, if she does that, it just doesn’t work.

Aisha thinks about how easy it’d be for her to take all these drugs and walk out, maybe Coil could decide what to sell, and her mother would have no more drugs, and would maybe get her life in order. Rather unlikely, unfortunately. Getting your life in order is much more difficult when there’s someone nearby who indulges in the habits you want to leave. She’d have to change a lot about her life, and that’s not easy at all.

No.  If she got rid of the drugs, it was more likely that someone would erupt in anger.  Sam or her mom, getting violent, verbally or otherwise.  It would do more harm than good.

Well, yeah, that’s a given. No matter how high they are right now, they’ll notice it’s gone, and since they’re the only people around...it wouldn’t end with a friendly ‘well, shucks, guess we gonna leave now’. It doesn’t stop Aisha from leaning forward and stomping away the weed her mother was smoking, and mom reacts with disbelief.

Aisha used her hand to cover the papers and whispered, “No.”

Again, the dazed blinking.  Her mother asked, “Sam?  Got any more papers?”

She can use her body to hide small objects from sight! And it’s like they’re not there anymore! That’s promising! I think it extends to objects she’s touching, since of course nobody sees floating trinkets she’s carrying. She would be perfect to deliver stuff and steal, as long as there are no cameras or anything like that.

What follows is rather poignant. Aisha tries to convince her mother to stop taking drugs, to have some consideration towards her future kid, and to get her life in order. Of course since she’s not perceived by anyone in this room, she’s talking to the air, this is the stuff she would like to say to her mom but doesn’t dare to.

Was it cowardice that kept her from confronting her mother, or the knowledge backed by years of experience that it wouldn’t make a difference?

The second one, most likely. It’s hard to care and try to convince other people if you know they wouldn’t listen to you. Why to waste breath when you know it’s going to be futile? Besides, they wouldn’t be in a state to listen to the teenage parahuman with the horned mask if she made herself known right now.

Maybe, if everything with the Nine worked out and Coil got control of the city, maybe she could get her mom some help, or report her to the police.

They aren’t exclusive, I think. Reporting her to the police could lead to she getting help, especially if Coil’s the one arranging it. It won’t be pretty, it won’t be pleasant, but maybe it’s for the best?

Aisha didn’t come here just to be away from the Undersiders for a bit, she’s also her to gather some of her stuff. She tried to be like a girl scout, it seems, and it didn’t go as expected. Her troublesome personality, most likely, may have gotten in the way. She picks up a few notebooks to take notes, her binoculars...she’s going to do her plan anyway. Brian better not find out or he’ll blow a gasket, and rightly so, I’d say. Since they killed the Merchants, they may still be over there. She’s following their trail of destruction. Take notes, Theo, this is a way to find them in like two years.

...

...hm. There won’t be time for that, anyway. Jack and the others won’t stay in Brockton Bay for two years, and if he gets out, everything is doomed. It’s a shame, Theo maybe won’t get his time to shine. Oh well.

Investigating that area doesn’t give many clues. There’s a lot of bodies, a lot of blood, and contrary to popular belief, cops won’t babble loudly about everything they find, for the convenience of anyone who turns out to be listening. She has to search whatever she can, and it takes a long while before she finds something that could be considered a trail. Fresher blood in higher amounts. It’ll be the moment of truth, if she really found them, she’ll finally find out if the Slaughterhouse Nine can feel her presence. It’s my opinion that Cherish definitely would, and maybe Mannequin and/or Crawler would because they both seem like they’d have a different way to sense stuff around themselves, compared to everyone else, so...yeah. I hope she’ll be okay. She may have behaved like quite the brat during that meeting, but that doesn’t mean I want something bad to happen to her.

Not all the slaughterhouse Nine members are here. There’s Crawler, there’s Shatterbird, there’s Burnscar, all of them relaxing as if they’re not a bunch of bloodthirsty murderers. Guess she’s not going to find out if Crawler can see her, since he’s asleep. True, some of the eyes all over his body are open, but...ah, I don’t know if that’s enough to keep tabs on everything around himself.

Bonesaw is here too, with some of her mechanical spiders.

Aisha moved quickly aside as a spider moved from the kitchen, past her and to the table. Whatever cameras or artificial intelligence it used, it didn’t seem to notice her.

Maybe they neither have cameras nor artificial intelligence. Maybe Bonesaw controls them with her brain, directing them and making them do what she wants. It’s plausible, isn’t it? So of course they wouldn’t react – she’s not aware Aisha is here, so the spiders don’t react to her.

Aisha had never killed anyone, but here she was, holding a lethal weapon.  She could slice Shatterbird’s throat and they wouldn’t even realize she was there.

They would realize something was wrong, of course. Suddenly someone has an ugly wound from side to side of her neck, and nobody would fail to notice that. Besides, there’s also the matter of Bonesaw being here. She could revive Shatterbird later, and it’d be like nothing happened, all it’d do is make them know someone managed to attack them while supposedly being invisible. Also, Aisha thinks for a moment it may be possible Shatterbird will see her in her last throes and use her power to kill her. There’s plenty of broken glass around, after all. Burnscar and Crawler could hit blindly around, and her odds of not dying aren’t high. So...this is high risk, high reward.

Slowly, she walked over to Bonesaw, navigating around the drones.  Could she kill the kid?

On the one hand, Bonesaw was the one who kept the other members going.  Removing her would take a lot of problems off the board. She could finish off Bonesaw and run for cover in the kitchen, out of Burnscar and Shatterbird’s line of fire. From there, it was only steps to the front door and safety.

On the other hand, it was still murder, and it was a kid.  A kid that had a hundred kills under her belt.

A lot of heroes and villains wouldn’t have qualms about this, Aisha. She may be a kid, but she has so much blood in her hands not many would pull any punches when dealing with her. In terms of morality, obviously it’s wrong. It’d be pretty messed up if you didn’t hesitate. It’s a life, you can’t do something like this and not have something wrong with you. In terms of how much people would blame you...well I don’t think anyone would care. The only thing that’s stopping Aisha here is the natural reticence everyone should have. I’m so glad about this.

She was still hesitating when it’s revealed the man Bonesaw was currently wrists-deep working on is still alive. Let it be known she currently has his torso all open because of course she does, what else did you expect, and he’s feeling every second of it. That makes all doubts Aisha had about attacking a kid vanish. There comes the attack!

She plunged the knife into Bonesaw’s bare throat.

Bonesaw screamed, shrill and loud, which caught Aisha off guard.  With a knife in her throat, the girl was screaming?

Of course. Of course it can’t be that easy. It’d have been anticlimactic to lose a Slaughterhouse Nine member so early, especially one as threatening as Bonesaw. Of course. I’m pretty sure a few of the members are going to die at some point during Worm – my personal predictions is that the Siberian and Crawler will die, because it’d be satisfying to read about the strongest members being defeated. Jack will die because...you know, that’s the point of the Slaughterhouse Nine arc. And...hm, other than these three it’s hard to know who will die. Maybe Burnscar, as the one with the least focus so far. Maybe Bonesaw, since she’s Jack’s friend.

Anyway, Bonesaw doesn’t die no matter how hard Aisha tries. She slits her throat and buries her knife into Bonesaw’s eye. It doesn’t kill her but it still hurts a lot. Her screams of pain get Shatterbird and Burnscar’s attention, who react immediately, making fire and glass fly around to hit invisible threats. Crawler wakes up too.

“Is it Jack?” Burnscar asked, looking around, then turning to the window, “What the hell?”

Given what happened, it’s not much of a stretch to think it was Jack. It’s a blade injury that seemingly happened out of nowhere. He also wouldn’t have any problems killing someone in the team if he had a reason to do that. Bonesaw argues it isn’t him, because he knows where to strike to kill someone with as many protections as she put on herself and on him. The logic...kind of holds, I guess.

Aisha backed toward the front door.  She stopped as Crawler appeared in the doorway that led from the kitchen to the front hall, looking through to see his teammates on the far end.  His voice was a mangled mess of sounds that only barely approximated anything like speech.  “I don’t smell anyone.”

Lucky Aisha, he can’t detect her smell. That’s kind of valuable information! It’s a pity it won’t be any good for her, since she has no way to hurt Crawler at all, unless somehow he’s very weak to tasers.

Burnscar proposes to torch down the place and run, the idea is rejected because Mannequin may not find them if they move too far from their current hideout. Besides, there are other things to be worried about:

“Quiet,” Shatterbird cut in.  “It’s less about you being hurt and more about the fact that someone had the audacity to attack us here.”

That can’t happen too often. Jack is going to be so interested when he hears somebody dared to attack them right while they’re in their hideout. Aisha may want to keep that to herself, though. Brian is going to have a conniption if he finds out Aisha tried to slit a Slaughterhouse Nine member’s throat. He was very upset when Skitter fought Mannequin, since there was only 50% chance of winning, he will be livid Aisha almost got in a confrontation she was likely to lose.

Although...I wonder...Dinah’s power isn’t affected by the likes of Aisha, right? If she’s asked about Aisha anything, will she be able to answer? I wonder...

Thanks to her power, she’s able to sneak back to the lobby of the building, where she finds out there are new victims from the usual activities of the Slaughterhouse Nine. Jack is here, and he’s making Cherish do the grunt job. May as well get something useful out of her before her impending doom, yeah? This is the time for the big test. Does Cherish sense Aisha?

She has options. She can go for Cherish and attack her, she can go for Jack and attack him, and although it isn’t mentioned, she could try running away. Attacking Jack would be useless, that’s clear. Bonesaw did say he has the same protections than her. Cherish is likely not to have such protections, because why to give them to someone who is bound to die and/or break in despair in the future?

Deciding to attack Cherish, she follows her into the room she’s hiding corpses in, and that goes exactly like I expected.

“Put the weapon away,” Cherish said, her voice quiet.

Yup, detected. It’s not perfect, of course, she can’t hear or see Aisha, all she knows is that there’s someone here, and gets ready to scream for Jack’s help unless Aisha cooperates.

“Put your weapon away,” Cherish said, her voice quiet and carefully measured, “We only have a few seconds before Jack gets suspicious.  Listen.  I want to strike a deal.”

Oh my goodness, she’s desperate! She doesn’t know who is here, right? So later when she finds out she made a deal with the Undersiders, Regent included, she’s not going to like that. If she already knows about Ausha then she’s really, really desperate. This will be interesting.

The interlude ends here, but I’ll go to the next chapter. I want to know how badly things are in Skitter’s territory before she gets there. Mannequin is ready for revenge!

Mannequin not only has the advantage of having left this random alleyway a minute or two before Skitter and the rest, he also has surprising speed, and isn’t trying to mask himself from Skitter’s bugs. He’s just running at full speed towards her territory. A couple paragraphs later, it’s shown they had another problem they had to take care of before parting towards her territory, so Mannequin has even more advantage.

We’d lost a couple of minutes as we helped Bitch retrieve Lucy’s real body.  It was eerie to see.  When the dogs grew, they really appeared to be adding mass, literally growing and stretching.  Somewhere in the transformation, after they weren’t recognizable as the animals they had once been, their real bodies were reformed inside a placenta-like sac. Mannequin’s gunshot had opened a hole in Lucy’s chest and penetrated that membrane to kill the real dog within. We’d used my knife and Grue’s raw strength to help pull the dog free in a grim sort of anti-childbirth.

Ah, so that’s why they can shrug off some bad injuries and appear as good as normal once it’s all over. I see! I like this explanation. It also explains why the dogs just shed all that flesh and bone, it’s not theirs, their real body always was inside the large monstrous dogs. Of course they’d shed that...shell. Also, gross.

Doing this may be what convinced Heckpuppy to cooperate, lending her dogs as vehicles. Not that it’s giving them any chances of catching up to Mannequin before he gets to the territory, he’s outrageously fast.

Everyone except Heckpuppy is...well, not in top shape, but they’re healthy enough to keep going. Heckpuppy has a bad wound on her stomach, it’s still bleeding. She better not overexert herself. That can be fatal. Skitter is worried, but it’s not like they can stop to give Heckpuppy first aid, not when there are a lot of civilians in danger.

He could apparently see my bugs and since our last confrontation he’d gained the ability to see the spider silk I was placing on him or in his vicinity.  It was remarkably high-resolution vision for someone who hadn’t been able to notice that I didn’t have a pool of blood spreading out beneath me during our last fight.  Or was his inability to see that because he was calibrated to see the small things?

Maybe he just can see them now. If he couldn’t see those before, and now he can, the simple explanation is that he made improvements to his seeing abilities. It doesn’t have to be any more complicated than that, I’d say. At least this does confirm it’s unlikely the same tricks than in the first fight will work again.

That doesn’t stop Skitter from trying to trip him with some spiderwebs, at least to know where he’s going. The problem is that, well, he’s moving through ways she didn’t expect, and faster, too. Out of her range.

Heckpuppy’s dogs are the only weapon they have, since Mannequin must have counters for the insects, and Grue’s darkness doesn’t seem to affect him. Well, no, they do have another option: Genesis. She’s still in the territory! And she’s highly versatile, she may have a way to fight Mannequin. The problem is that...well...it would be great to tell her some useful information to fight Mannequin, as otherwise, she’d go in there with whatever knowledge she already has, but there’s no time for that. They’ll have to trust her to fight well. Skitter also calls Sierra to get her to take everybody to a safe place.

Sierra sure took calmly the return of Mannequin. Good for her, staying level-headed despite the awful situation.

Skitter tries to think of a good plan to keep tabs on Mannequin, the one plan she thinks of will take too long.

Mannequin stood in the center of the road, his back to us.  Half a dozen of my people were lying on the road, unconscious or dead. I couldn’t see any blood.  There were a couple more people in nearby buildings that had fallen as well.  How had he reached them?  Why hadn’t Genesis and Sierra been able to get everyone out?

...welp. Skitter is going to give herself a psychological flogging for this later. It’s somewhat strange there’s no blood, though. Mannequin’s methods are not clean, they’re not harmless. He has a lot of blades, and a penchant for killing people in awful ways. I find it hard to believe he wouldn’t have taken the chance to gouge Skitter’s heart out by killing some of her new employees. These must be unconscious, not dead...maybe he wants to kill them right in front of Skitter, so she feels powerless.

They arrived just in time to see Genesis’ form dissolving, he had just defeated her. At least she managed to stall him enough for everyone else to arrive, that should count for something.

He turned our way, and his mouth opened like a ventriloquist dummy or a christmas nutcracker. It jiggled up and down, silently, mocking.  Laughter without sound.

...comparing a murderous villain to a ventriloquist dummy or a Christmas nutcracker is...kind of a bad choice of words. I’m trying to picture it in my head, and it looks silly every time. At least the heroes took offense to his mocking, Heckpuppy charged forward to attack. It was a trap, though. The bugs right on Mannequin die first, so...whatever he’s doing, it expands from him and outwards. While the dog and its rider manage to avoid the worst, they got close enough to be affected.

The dog collapses, and Heckpuppy has to crawl, gasping for breath. Needless to say, having a fresh wound on her abdomen won’t help that at all. Perhaps pushing Mannequin away will help? It may be some sort of...I don’t know, a gas or an electromagnetic field. Those are the two options I can think of. It’d have to be some sort of long-distance attack, though, something strong enough to push him away.

Gas. Colorless, scentless, swift to spread and it incapacitated in seconds.  If my bugs were any indication, it also killed its victims shortly after.

Ah, so that’s what it is. That’s new, Mannequin didn’t have that before. It’s both a protection against Skitter’s bugs – the spiders and all that wouldn’t be able to get close to him – and a way to keep everyone away from him. Not a bad move, and it’s a new challenge to overcome. Any big ideas, Skitter?

Her idea to save her teammate was to hope the wolf pup is well-trained and obeys when she tells him to fetch his owner. There was hesitation, but it worked. Good!

The puppy ran back to us.  There was nothing we could do for Bentley.

Heckpuppy is going to be so upset once she finds out another one of her dogs is dead. There’s really no way she’s going to consider for even a moment to join them.

Right, forgot Grue is injured. That’s going to make everything more difficult. In an attempt to gather and try to think of something that could be done against Mannequin, Skitter forces Bastard to come along, and talks to Grue. She suggests using his darkness to displace the gas. Hm...I don’t know if that would work, it doesn’t seem like the darkness displaces anything. If it did such thing, nobody would be able to breathe inside the darkness.

“We need a plan to win this,” he said.

“Priority one is surviving until we think of one,” I replied.  “Genesis will be back in action in a few minutes.”

“A few minutes is a long time.”

That’s correct, it’s a long time. I don’t think Mannequin would fool around for a few minutes, if he notices they’re trying to stall for time, he’ll attack and do everything he can to hurt them – or...well, to hurt Grue, because Skitter isn’t going to get the brunt of his revenge, physically.

Their current plan is to split up and look for clues run in different directions. Mannequin pursues Grue, like I thought he would. While it’s a reason to be worried about, this gives her some time to think, while she tries to keep tabs on them with her bugs. Looks like the gas comes from his ventriloquist puppet mouth. Great, just great. Mannequin’s got deadly halitosis.

Why was he here?  He wanted to hurt me.  He wanted to hit me where it hurt, and he’d done it.  He’d killed no less than ten of my followers.  Charlotte and Sierra could easily be among them.

Oh, right...now that it was shown he has killer gas, that explains why they weren’t moving. I fear this will get rid of the good will her workers had. People died while working for her. I’m sure they knew it could be dangerous, but they trusted Skitter and hoped she’d keep them safe. The amount of recruits will slow down considerably, I’d dare to say.

Now that he’s going to try to kill Grue, he’s shooting.

Okay.  So Mannequin was shooting now, when he hadn’t been before.

Were there other clues?  What had changed after he’d closed his mouth?

That you’re not around, perhaps? If he shot, he would risk hitting you? That’s what comes to mind, as unlikely as that could be.

Apparently that wasn’t it. It’s that before there was all that gas around him, and that’s why he couldn’t just shoot them. I had thought Heckpuppy was spared because...well...she hadn’t really failed his test, so he didn’t need to kill her yet, but looks like the reason she’s still alive is because shooting while in middle of his cloud of gas would have been a bad idea.

Maybe he hadn’t wanted to blow himself up.

That...that seems like an extraordinarily huge oversight. There has to be ways for him to create microorganisms to make deadly gas that wouldn’t be flammable. Was he so confident nobody would figure out it’s flammable he didn’t care about that? I guess...maybe that’s it, but still, it’s a really big oversight. It’s a huge weakness, especially because the gas comes from within himself. I don’t doubt he’s resistant enough to endure an explosion – I hope so, because otherwise that’d be really disappointing – so...yeah, maybe he’s gotten reckless. Part of me would even dare to say stupidly reckless, but hey, maybe there’s something I don’t know about the correlation between a gas’ lethality and its flammability. Maybe it’s impossible to make a deadly gas that isn’t flammable. Can’t say I know anything at all about that topic.

Skitter isn’t sure if she’s right or not, but it’s a plan, a last-ditch plan because the force of the explosion can cause a lot of damage. That may be why he’s not worried about flammable gas, because setting fire to it would be dangerous for whoever does it, anyway. Especially if it’s a parahuman that has no power related to fire at all. She starts preparing herself for such option, just in case.

My bugs crossed paths with me, and the items made their way into my hands.  A cheap plastic lighter and a packet of matches. I stashed the matches between my belt and my hip and slid the lighter into a small pocket in my utility compartment.

I really hoped I wouldn’t have to use them.

Twenty bucks she’ll have to use them before the chapter ends.

When Skitter arrives to where Mannequin is, she finds he defeated Grue and the dog he was riding, he’s at their mercy. Doesn’t seem like anyone’s dead...yet. They’ll die unless Skitter does something because, you know, crazed madman on the loose. Mannequin is pouring more gas around, maybe trying to keep Skitter away while he kills them with poison. Skitter uses this chance to measure just how much space the gas occupies, it’s a radius of four or five feet. That’s not so much! It’s like a bubble all around Mannequin, it doesn’t sound like it’ll expand much. He’ll have to get really close to his victims for them to die.

Grue had surrounded himself in a thick cloud of darkness, to the point that I couldn’t make out his arms and legs in the midst of it.  From what I could gather, he was getting some benefit from it, and was pushing the gas away.  How long could he sustain that, though?  Was the darkness filtering it out, or was he holding his breath, slowly suffocating?

I remember Grue’s darkness feels like it’s emanating from him. Maybe it emanates with enough strength to have a layer of air around him. It may not keep him alive forever, but it should buy him a few seconds, perhaps?

The confrontation happens. Skitter tells him to back off, Mannequin seems to wonder ‘if not what will you do?’

I raised the matchbook and, after checking again that my bugs were gas-free, lit it. A handful of my bugs carried it into the air.

“Or I light you up,” I said.

Everyone reading this owes me twenty dollars.

Since she had nothing left to lose – well, other than the territory and the lives of everyone in it, but you get the point – she decides all she can do now is try to hurt Mannequin and stop him no matter what, since her chances of impressing Coil are ruined, people died, and her teammates are in peril. Setting him on fire should be a way to do that. The threat is effective enough, Mannequin steps away from Grue, and lets him limp towards Skitter. In the brief moment Skitter kind of lowers her guard to steady Grue, Mannequin acts, aiming with his gun arm. That was quick! So of course Skitter grabs Grue and shoves him onto the ground.

Nothing happens because Mannequin doesn’t shoot just to miss and risk an explosion. He simply aims at Grue again, so Skitter shields him with her body, hoping Mannequin’s intentions of hurting her by killing her teammates meant she would be spared for as long as possible

I stared at his blank, featureless face, praying my instincts were telling me the truth.

Then he shrugged, and my heart fell.

Welp. See you later, Skitter, thanks for being a good main character. Contrary to what some would have expected after such line, the chapter doesn’t end, it still continues. Although she’s shot right on her chest, she’s not dead, and there’s an explosion. Mannequin did blow himself up. He better not have died like a chump.

“Hey, hey,” Grue said, “You’re okay.  You’re in one piece.”

Somehow. She does have armor in her costume, that may be what saved her life, since I don’t think the spider silk would have protected that well against bullets with a lot of strength behind them. Everything around them is blazing from the fire of the explosion, and Mannequin is...

I looked for our opponent, and I saw Mannequin virtually unscathed, lying in the shallow water.  The blast had knocked him sprawling, but he’d disconnected his parts so only lengths of chain attached each.

Ah, so that’s why such ‘weakness’ was here! He knew exactly what to do to not be affected by the explosion, and if whoever’s fighting him does what Skitter did, they’d put themselves on danger, not Mannequin. He just lets himself be all loose like a ragdoll while his opponents receive the brunt of the explosion. Not bad! I like this now. Not that he seems to like making himself explode, anyway. He did try to avoid exploding.

They all had just recovered from the explosion and about to do their next move when Bastard pounced, Skitter nowhere nearby to keep holding him back. Mannequin doesn’t have time to react and start spreading gas, he’s whipped around for...a few seconds, it seems...before he uses some of his blades to stabilize and stab Bastard on his snout. Heckpuppy is going to carve that carapace of yours into bowls for her dogs once you’re done for, Mannequin.

Yeah, didn’t expect us to be that tough, did you?

Maybe he did not, maybe he did. It’s hard to know what Mannequin’s thinking.

Before Mannequin could kill Bastard, Skitter managed to stop him, something Bastard uses to throw them both onto the ground, where Mannequin again tries to give himself some space by using some of that gas. Thinking fast, Skitter arranges everything so she can light it on fire. Hm! Now that Mannequin is on the floor, against a hard surface and therefore with no place to be thrown at like a ragdoll, he’ll receive the blast of the explosion head-on. Maybe this could damage him!

It happens. Using bandages and dragonflies, she carries some fire to where Mannequin is, and lights the gas on fire while Grue’s darkness protects them from the shockwave and the light that’d ensue. When they see again, they find Bastard is biting onto him, having received a boost from her owner. She’s okay! She’s conscious, and is so furious!

He grew to half-again the size he’d been, roughly as large as a small car, and when he bit down on Mannequin’s arm this time, he broke the material.  He adjusted his grip until he had Mannequin’s lower body and legs in a hold, but the material there proved sturdier.

Two arms in two fights, I thought, with a grim satisfaction.

Jack is so going to take this as another loss. You lost twice in two days, Mannequin. That’s humiliating.

The wolf keeps shaking Mannequin, hitting and throwing him around until another dog comes by, who takes over by reminding Bastard what’s the pecking order here. Taking their chance, Grue makes sure Skitter is holding Heckpuppy up, and approaches with a heavy piece of rubble.

“Ignore the head,” I said, quiet.  “Nothing important in there.  I’m not joking.  It’s a decoy. Get him in the chest.”

Grue nodded and hefted the chunk of rubble until it was over his head, point facing forward.

Would it puncture?  Hard to say.

I don’t think it will. True, this rubble is pointy, but...I remember last time that guy who helped Skitter hit Mannequin’s head with a big rock a couple times. It was the head, which is a decoy for everything important, and therefore would have less protection than what truly matters. You’d want as much protection as possible in the parts where you keep what keeps you alive. If the head, which is a decoy, didn’t crack, then the chest – more protected and sturdier – won’t crack...I think. Worth a try, though.

Everyone agrees it should be done, especially Heckpuppy, who is angry about the deaths of her dogs. Before Grue can do it, a shockwave of fire blasts them away. Grue shouts to someone they can’t interfere.

No.  I fixed my eyes on the scene.  Much worse than the Protectorate

This is the last line before I have to scroll down more. Let me guess, is it the Slaughterhouse Nine? Some of them, maybe Jack too?

Burnscar tapped her finger to one side of her nose.  “I won’t tell if you don’t.”

Oh, it’s only one. Not that it makes it any less bad. How did you get here so fast, Burnscar? Why aren’t you with everyone else?

Burnscar takes her time to go towards Mannequin, helps him stand up – he’s looking really bad, with a lot of cracks and slime leaking from inside his broken arm. Burnscar asks a couple questions,

He raised one hand, and Burnscar slapped it in a lazy high-five.

She turned towards us.  “There. He just tagged me in.  Forfeited his turn.”

...okay, this is bad. If the change is happening right now, then that means everyone who was going to be tested by Mannequin pretty much won his challenge, even if they do nothing. Well that was...oh well. A bit of a shame, I had hoped to see what everyone would do, but at the same time it’s satisfying Mannequin got so beaten up. It wasn’t an easy fight, and the result was good, at the cost of a lot of pain and the loss of two dogs.

The problem now is that another Slaughterhouse Nine member is taking a bite of the cake now. It’s Burnscar’s turn, and everybody is vulnerable and hurt. Just because of that she has the upper hand right now.

Not a moment of rest for the characters here, eh?

The chapter ends here, so Burnscar’s plans start next time.

Next time: in three updates