But it was interesting, she had to admit.  The landscape of people here was so different.  So many people here were so insecure, so worried. 

Makes sense.

And on some level, I have to agree. The social structures in Brockton Bay have gotten a little more interesting after Leviathan, if not exactly healthy.

Most were on the brink of some kind of emotional breakdown, needing just one event, one piece of bad news before they broke down completely.

Sounds like a recipe for more parahumans. Brockton Bay as it is right now would be an excellent target for a trigger attack by one of those parahuman supremacist organizations I’ve been suggesting the existence of ever since trigger events were introduced. Shatterbird could probably trigger a bunch of people at once, too.

Others had already been broken, or they’d turned vicious and started preying on their fellows, seeking out vengeance on those who had wronged them in a past life.  In their pre-Endbringer life.

Like many of the Merchants.

She’d had her doubts about coming to Brockton Bay.  It had been a turn off to know that areas lacked power, that still more areas lacked working plumbing.

It’s not a particularly inviting place these days, by first world standards.

But Burnscar and Bonesaw had both been excited to come, and Jack Slash had bent to Bonesaw’s wishes, pushing for the group to come this way.

We already know Burnscar had other reasons than just violence and abuse of a post-Endbringer situation to want to go to Brockton Bay. Could the same be the case with Bonesaw?

Crawler, Mannequin and Siberian had seemed fairly indifferent.

Sounds about right.

Not that Crawler or Mannequin showed much emotion.

Yeah, and I’d imagine Siberian isn’t all that interested in cities, besides the sheer amount of prey.

She’d thought she had an ally in Shatterbird, at least, but the woman hated her, and the uptight bitch had gone along with the plans to visit Brockton Bay just to ruin her day.

Hah! I kinda doubt how accurate that is, but…

Wait.

Nope, it’s probably at least mostly accurate. If there’s anyone around here who would know for sure exactly how others feel about her, it’s the girl who can listen to people’s emotions and accurately identify their targets.

So why does Shatterbird hate the Newbie? Does it have something to do with not having been the one to recruit her? Or maybe it’s just a conflict of personality, like Shatterbird not caring for Newbie’s more casual attitude.

Let’s see if we can’t find out what the Newbie actually calls herself today. At least one of her names would be nice. 😛

“Hey!”

She could sense her passenger climbing out of the jeep, hear the garbled murmurs of warning, questions.

“What are you doing, man?”

There was a burst of fear from all three, then the sound of multiple guns firing.  She smiled.

Welp, looks like the suspicion, tension and paranoia just kicked in.

The authorities would have a hell of a time figuring out what happened there.

Yeeeah, especially since it seems likely they don’t know about the Newbie being in the Slaughterhouse yet.

…so let’s read some more Worm!

He pulled the gun away, dropped it into his lap.  He crumpled over, his hands to his head, then moaned, “No.”

Is that a “no” of “no, I can’t shoot you”, or “no, please stop messing with my head”? Or maybe “no, this can’t be happening”?

She was close to her destination.  She pulled the jeep to a stop and hopped out, the other jeep pulling up just a ten or so yards away.  Two soldiers got out.

“Hey, fellas! How’d you like becoming my thralls along with your comrade? :)”

“Hey!” someone shouted at her.

She turned her back to them, slipping her ear buds in.  The music had looped back to the first track.

Looks like she doesn’t give a shit.

Also that’s a short playlist, how long have you been deleting stuff from it?

She got her phone out and skipped forward a few times, pausing to delete one song.  She sang along, “Love me, love me, you know you wanna love me…”

Just like at the beginning of the chapter. This would make a fantastic bookend with that, but… this doesn’t seem to be anywhere near the end of the chapter.