Krixwell Liveblogs

“A non-cape.  I don’t know the details, but she’s in a secure location.”

That’s a pretty decent way to put it.

Amy fidgeted.  “I’m getting out of here.”

Aaand this is where she needs to be told about rule 8.

“Where?”

“Away.  I don’t want to be a part of any of this.”

“You can’t leave.”

“Why not?  I can find a place to hole up and hide until it blows over.”

It needs to be in Brockton Bay, though.

“So long as you’re in Brockton Bay, they’ve got someone who can watch you.  Can watch any of us.  She reads emotions, and apparently uses them to find us from half a city away.  It’s probably how they found the candidates in the first place.”

Yep, and you can’t go out of Brockton Bay, or they’ll consider the game won for them.

“Then I’ll leave the city.  I was going to anyways.”

“Fuck, I wish I still had the list.” I muttered.  At a normal speaking volume, I said, “No, you can’t leave town, either, because Bonesaw prepared a plague or something.  If you are a candidate and you leave the city, they’ll use it.  They explicitly said they were using it as an incentive for the two heroes that they picked as candidates.”

Oh right, now I remember! It was mentioned in the encounter with them by Ballistic’s base last Arc.

Wait, shit, that would be one of the main reasons why that Arc was called Plague, wouldn’t it.

I could have pressed for more details there, but I suspected she’d keep to the conversation better if I gave her the info instead of demanding it.

Probably true, yeah. I like how Taylor is handling this so far.

“They’ve set themselves a time limit to test and eliminate the six candidates.  Their goal is to test the candidates and kill the ones who fail, until there’s only one.  Our goal is to save them.  So when Tattletale figures out you’re here instead of with your family, and when we know that the sixth candidate is apparently a hero, it gets our attention.”

Honest and to the point. That’s good.

I give it a 78% chance that Panacea is about to deny being a hero.

“Who- who are the other candidates?”

“Regent, Bitch, Hookwolf, Armsmaster-”

Alright, not immediately at least.

Also I guess she’s about as surprised to hear Armmaster listed as Sierra? Although she was there for him being confronted about his actions in Extermination, so who knows.

Alternatively, Taylor might be stopping because she’s unsure how to mention Noelle.

“Armsmaster?”

“Yeah.  Though it might be like Cherish is doing to Regent, more to screw with him than for legit reasons.”

Nah, this one’s legit. It’s nice to see Taylor seemingly giving Colin some benefit of doubt now, though.

“Ok.”

“I can see it, though.  I’ve interacted with him.  He really did cross the line during the Endbringer attack.”

“And the fifth?”

I do wonder how much of this softness is Taylor wanting to avoid Panacea being put off by Taylor’s old antagonistic view of Army.

I hopped down from Lucy’s back.  “I just want to talk.”

“I can’t outrun those dogs, you’ve got me outnumbered and you’ve probably got more weapons than me.  I think you’re in a position to do whatever you want.”

Yeah, I suppose that’s true.

Panacea does seem a bit dejected. There’s less… spite in her voice. The Panacea we met at the bank robbery would likely try to do something rather than just accept defeat without a fight.

“Good,” I said, “Because like I said, I just want to talk.  I could get rid of my weapons if that would make you feel any better.”

“It wouldn’t, really.”

Even besides the sense of apathy here, the dogs are weapons enough regardless of how many smaller ones they throw to the sides.

I saw her step back a little, and I could tell she was ready to bolt.  We were in a position to catch her, for sure, but it would be more detrimental than anything.  If we chased her down, any dialogue I had with her afterward would be an interrogation, not a conversation.

Does she feel like she can run after all?

I suppose at least she could keep her distance from Taylor right now, now that she’s off Lucy, but otherwise bolting wouldn’t do much unless Panacea went somewhere the dogs couldn’t follow.

Panacea was waiting in an alley when we arrived, arms folded.  Her brown hair was tucked underneath an army green mosh cap, the brim pulled low.

Well, at least approaching her won’t be too hard, if she’s willing to just stand and wait. She doesn’t seem happy about her company, but she does seem to accept that they’re arriving without trying to run away or anything like that.

She looked exhausted, worn out.  She had that same devastated look in her eyes that I had seen in her cousin and aunt on the day of the Endbringer attack.

Makes sense. She’s practically lost her family, like they had that day. Even if in her case, it was a choice, she’s not going to be happy about it.

“I see you’ve got the two other horsemen of the apocalypse with you.  Where’s number four?”

Heh. Still got a bit of dry wit, good to hear.

I shook my head.  “Horsemen of the apocalypse?”

“Nevermind.”

Is Taylor not familiar with them, or did she just not expect to be likened to one?

Hm…

• Pestilence = Skitter
• War = Bitch
• Famine = ???
• Death = Grue

She scowled.  “Whatever.”

I took that for assent and turned Lucy around.  With a shout, I got her moving.  I kept the phone in one hand while I rode, waiting for Lisa’s response.

Yeah, as far as assent goes, that’s probably the best you’ll get.

Also, Taylor! Don’t use your phone while riding! It’s unsafe! Do something safer, like fighting some of the country’s deadliest superpowered psychopaths.

It didn’t matter.  She found me before I found her.  Or, to be more specific, she found my bugs before I found her.

Oh, hey. So did she deliberately step into a bug swarm to alert Taylor or something?

There were enough flies in the city that most people didn’t give a second thought to one landing on them, especially if it landed on their clothing.  I habitually used my bugs to check people nearby for weapons or masks, and when I checked the people in a building three blocks away, one of the bugs brushed against Panacea.

Oh – Panacea, not Lisa!

Well, then. If she pulls a similar trick as at the bank, I guess Taylor’s in for a headache.

She must have been able to tell it wasn’t an ordinary bug.  As she’d done at the bank robbery, she used her power to scramble them and force whatever mechanism my power activated in their systems into a feedback loop.

Feedback loops can be pretty nasty.

Before it could incapacitate me and my power, I swept up the bugs with larger dragonflies and flying beetles and promptly murdered them, feeding them to other bugs in the area and pulling them apart.

Brutal, but I suppose it had to be done, to stop the feedback loops.

Grue looked my way.  Should I capitulate and tell her that we could send Genesis, to give her what she wanted, or would it be better to get her to agree, and risk angering her?

The team should not play to the whims of Bitch for fear of her outbursts. They should consider the points she’s making – which are actually not that bad this time, though self-centered – fairly, absolutely, but just giving her the right of way because she’ll get angry otherwise is a bad habit to get into.

As odd as it might be, I gravitated toward the latter option.  Bitch responded better to firmness.

That too.

“She’s supposedly in Ballistic’s territory, which is close.  Five minutes there, up to five minutes to talk, five minutes to get back,” I said.

Oh yeah, that’s not too bad.

“Fifteen minutes out of our way,” Grue said.  “And anything we find out about the Nine or their candidates can potentially help you, Rachel.”

Nice one, Grue – turning it into a benefit for her specifically, to suit the self-centered nature of her own arguments.

“Okay.  Text me the address.  I’ll ask the others and we’ll call Genesis in if necessary.”

“Cool.”

I like this development a lot. Skitter and Panacea have one of my favorite dynamics, and now Skitter is about to try to connect with Panacea on a whole different level.

Maybe it will give her some insight into how she can deal with Bitch, too, pulling these threads together.

I hung up.  Grue and Bitch had already returned to me.

“What is it?” Grue asked me.

“Panacea’s in a shelter, and she shouldn’t be.  Tattletale finds it strange, and I agree with her.  She wants us to check Panacea out.”

Nice summary.

“Why?” Bitch asked.  “None of our business.”

It might be more of their business than she thinks. But I can absolutely see where Bitch is coming from here – from her perspective, they’re about to do the same thing to Panacea as they just did to her, namely be nosy about her behavior.

The parallels are fairly strong, and it’s going to be interesting to see whether Panacea acts like Bitch when someone she hates comes asking if she’s okay, or if she’ll open up easily due to a vulnerable state of mind.

“It could mean answers.  We’re looking for a sixth candidate, and we can’t protect candidates like you if we don’t know who they are.  Maybe Panacea is the sixth, maybe someone she knows, like Glory Girl.

Bullseye.

If nothing else, I can raise the subject of whatever plague Bonesaw has that’s supposed to scare the candidates and the local heroes into playing along.”

Eesh.

“It also means I have to wait before I check on my dogs and the rest of my territory.”

I was going to say she didn’t necessarily have to come along, but splitting up is probably a bad idea right now. Especially considering she’d want the others’ main mode of transportation back.

“Maybe.  I don’t really think so.  Wouldn’t somebody else work better?  You guys aren’t far from that spot.”

“Who would you send?  Sundancer and Ballistic are threatening by their very nature.  I’m not up to it, and she hates me more than she hates you.  I wouldn’t trust Bitch, Regent or Trickster to handle it, I think you’d agree with me there.”

“Genesis?”

Genesis, maybe – I don’t know her well enough to tell either way, but she seems nice enough.

Grue shouldn’t be too bad either, though he might not have the subtlety required to deal with Panacea’s emotional state, which I suspect will be a lot less… okay than before Interlude 11h. Plus, he’s not that great at communication, especially with girls, and his outfit is spooky.

Huh. Skitter might genuinely be the best option.

Lisa sighed.  “We could send Genesis.  Is she with you?”

“She’s resting.  Or at least, she’s recuperating from using her power.  If something comes up, she told us to call her, and she’ll have one of her creations with us in a minute.”

Ahh, I see.

“Your call.  The Travelers seem decent, but they’re hiding something, and I really do think you’d be a better person to talk to her.”

Hiding something they sure are. It’s not like the Undersiders don’t have secrets too, but Lisa knows better what secrets Taylor has than what secrets Genesis and co. have.