It took a full minute for everyone to break off in the fighting and back off to a point where they didn’t feel immediately threatened.

So is this just halftime, or did the still-fighting population of the arena reach five, or…

So many injured.  How many of his own people had Skidmark just lost in this stunt?

Probably a lot, both injured and dead. We’ve seen some of the deaths happen, after the trigger event, and the narration, rules and people involved make it seem like there’s been more.

But hey. A single parahuman can be worth a lot of mundanes in some people’s eyes.

(I’m still 98% certain there are parahuman supremacist terror organizations out there whose primary goal is to cause as many trigger events as possible for the public. Doesn’t matter whether they show up in the story or not, I’m just pretty sure they’d exist in the setting.)

Did he care?  He stood to gain five new parahumans for his group.  Six if you counted the guy who’d had his trigger event.

To be fair, he could’ve gained the other five without this mess, but as I described last chapter, this whole thing is a pretty solid way to find the most useful people to give the super juice to. (With the exception that it doesn’t account for loyalty.)

I don’t think there’s much left of the chapter, but Skidmark told me to stop so– no, I’m kidding, let’s move on. 😛

The last group to tackle us had largely been beaten back.  Another group made some threatening moves, but they seemed to be in rougher shape than us.  Their leader was an amazon of a woman with a wild look in her eyes and matted hair, and I could see concern flash across her face as she looked us over and noted the disparity in the condition of our groups.

Yeeah, don’t even bother.

It struck me she was in a bad spot, knowing her group would be thrashed if she took us on, but at the same time, she couldn’t order her guys to back off without looking like a coward.

Hm. Tricky situation for both sides. I’m not sure how to solve this – backing off might give the amazon’s guys confidence and spur them on, but intimidation might also spur them on by virtue of them having the same “I’m not a coward” attitude as the amazon. Holding their place doesn’t solve anything either.

…move sideways?

Whatever decision she would have made, we didn’t get to find out.

Oh? Did the guy with the bursts of non-existence come too close, or something? I doubt it’s another trigger event, given that that would presumably cause another round in the tesseractid zone.

“Stop!” Skidmark hollered into his microphone.

Hm. Alright, sure.

I slapped her lightly across the face, “Lisa!  Need you to come back to reality, not go further into your delirium.”

I wonder if she would be able to continue filling in the blanks later, or if the imping would start preventing that.

The slap seemed to do it.  She shook her head, like a dog trying to shake off water.  “Taylor?”

“Oh hey, Taylor, you’re here.”

“Come on,” I helped her to her feet.  She almost lost her balance, but she was still recuperating faster than I had.

I’m sure her power is helping with that too, now that it’s directed towards the world she inhabits.

I wonder how long she’ll retain the knowledge she just obtained after she stops focusing on it.

Charlotte took over the job of ensuring Lisa was okay, and I moved forward to help back up the other guys.  With a knife in each hand, I stood behind the trio of Brooks, Senegal and Minor, ready to stop anyone who tried to slip by.

I kept my eyes closed.

Badass.

I could manage so long as I didn’t try to move and keep my eyes open at the same time.  It was swiftly receding.

That’s good.

I hurried to her side, while Brooks turned to rejoin the fight and help re-establish our front lines.

“Lisa!” I shook her.  She looked at me, her eyes unfocused.

Come back to this world, Lisa!

“They’re like viruses,” she said.  Her voice was thin, as if she were talking to herself.  “And babies.  And gods.  All at the same time.”

She did it.

She actually fucking did it.

“Viruses”, huh… that would be in line with the idea that parahumans are the result of absorbing a “seed” of a tesseractid. And implies that they might be using the parahumans to create more of themselves.

“Babies” implies a sense of immaturity. They don’t know what they’re doing, they don’t fully understand their impact.

“Gods” is… pretty self-explanatory in this case. Anyone could look at these beings and say “that’s some god-level shit right there”.

And Charlotte, who was helping me stay balanced on my feet, was staring at me wide-eyed.  I remembered her exclamation of surprise.

Yeah, what was up with that? Did she realize what Taylor’s instability means, by comparison with Skidmark & co.?

“Oh my god. You’re [a parahuman]?”

Or, “You’re [like them]?”

If everyone on stage with powers had been affected, and Lisa and I were reacting the same way, it couldn’t be that hard for her to put the pieces together.  Charlotte knew.

Seems like it. She might not know which parahumans you are, but she seems to have figured out you are among them. And if she knows anything about trigger events, or figured that too out from what just happened, she might also have figured out since when.

I looked to Lisa, for advice or ideas, but she was still slumped over, and she wasn’t recovering.  Why?  If this was some kind of psychic backlash from someone else having their trigger event, had she maybe been hit harder because of her power?

Yeah, that’s what I was about to suggest too.

Hell, if she used her power on the tesseractids, that’s definitely bound to have caused a psychic overload.

I wonder how much of that she would remember. We do know it’s possible to remember under certain circumstances, and I think it’s implied that the reason the other person we know of who remembers did so is because her power is a separated part of her psyche. It wouldn’t surprise me too much if Lisa’s power lent itself to remembering in a similar way, especially if she used it in the timeless moment. Then again, psychic overload might cause it to go the other way, too.

The boy screamed in some combination of horror, pain and rage, and flashes of the whiteness erupted randomly around him.

Ah, shit, here comes the “out of control” part.

Some caught people who were lying prone on the ground, others hit standing combatants, while most simply hit thin air.

The chances of Sierra not being happy at the end of this all just keep on rising.

A trigger event.  I’d just seen someone have their trigger event.

So you did, and it was a lot more interesting than I had expected.

But what had happened to Skidmark’s group, Tattletale and I?  I could vaguely remember something, thought about trying to put it into words, as if describing it could help call it to mind in a way that I could describe it, but they disappeared as I reached for them.

Judging by Skidmark’s reaction, it really does seem like this is a common occurrence when parahumans are close enough to other parahumans during their trigger event. He seemed to have experienced the same thing Taylor did and he knew what it meant. But none of them remember what they actually experienced, just the aftereffects.

I was reminded of Imp’s power.  Before I could get a handle on it, I’d forgotten entirely, and I was struggling to even remember what I was trying to do, my thoughts muddling the idea of it with my attempts to get my bearings.

Who’s Imp again?

But yes, it’s very reminiscent of that. It’s like the tesseractids are suppressing all memory of themselves in humans, whether that’s intentional or not.

Skidmark grabbed his microphone and broke into laughter, the nasty chuckles echoing through the area.

Alright. Whatcha got to say?

“Seems like one of you assdrips just earned his stripes,” he cackled.

Hm, did he figure out that there’s a connection between the tesseractids and trigger events, or is he just assuming that the motion sickness is the result of someone’s first, uncontrolled use of their power?

Alternatively, it’s possible he’s been present for trigger events multiple times before – Lisa did say he was using brawls like this to recruit new parahumans, like the subordinates behind him – so maybe he’s just noticed that trigger events cause motion sickness for other parahumans, not remembering the tesseractids.

I saw a flash of white from within the ring and it dawned on me what had just happened.

Alright, so what sort of power did the tesseractids bestow today?

Also, were they aware of future trigger events? I mean, planning to come back, and all that?

Another flash sparked in the ring, then a second.  Both were in close proximity to a boy no older than I was.

Got another young villain, huh.

Man, imagine if it had been Bryce. Although I’m still not ruling out that he might indeed end up with powers by the end of this.

White smoke poured from his eyes, nose, ears and mouth, with smaller traces flowing from his scalp, stirring his hair.

Well that’s pretty intimidating.

At least this was a natural trigger event, rather than one spurred on by super juice – I’m curious as to whether/how the super juice and the tesseractids may be connected by the way – so he shouldn’t end up as one of the monstrous parahumans. Probably.

He flinched as someone whirled on him and raised their weapon, and a burst of white light appeared two feet to the other person’s left.  A miss.

It seems like this person creates bursts instantly where they’re supposed to hit, rather than sending out any sort of projectile.

The person swayed toward where the flash had been, as if it had pulled at him.

Huh, interesting. Bursts of gravity?

The glowing boy stuck one arm out, towards his target, and another flash of white appeared a yard behind his target.

The man charged, and the boy tried a third time.  The blast intersected the man, and when it faded, the man’s upper arm, forearm, elbow, and the right side of his torso and hip were gone.

Welp.

Blood gushed from the area where his flesh had been carved away by the light, and his dismembered hand dropped to his feet.

Yeeeah, try not to get in this guy’s way.

It seems like it’s a sort of… burst of non-existence. The person swaying may have been due to air rushing into where it was just erased.

“Oh my god,” she murmured.  “You’re…”

Hm? Heavy? Or is this a reaction to Taylor being unsteady?

Or maybe whatever just happened with Taylor, seeing multidimensional beings and whatnot, had an outwardly visible effect on her?

Had I given myself away?  I hadn’t used that many bugs.

No, it was something else.  I could tell from the flies I’d placed on her head that she was looking up.

Hm… but didn’t you just place a bunch of bugs above you? I trust you when you say it’s something else, but I wouldn’t assume that based on this.

Her attention turned to me, then Lisa, and then back to the higher object.  I forced my eyes open, controlling my movement and my breathing to reduce the threat of nausea, and saw she was looking at Skidmark’s platform.

…alright, what’s that doing above them? Did they accidentally move much closer to it while fighting?

Skidmark was slumped against the railing, struggling to his feet.

Woah. You okay, there, buddy?

…how are the other parahumans looking? Is this motion sickness happening to all of them? We did see Lisa slumped over a bit too, which I thought was from having been attacked.

Squealer, Mush, Trainwreck and their other subordinates weren’t faring much better.

Seems like it. So did all of them see the beings?

Dammit, I need a temporary name for them. I’ve painted myself into a corner by using Karahindiba specifically for the one Hana saw, and now I’m forced to just call them multidimensional beings unless I make up a name for them.

How about tesseractids?