Tag: Arc 9

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“So a big priority will be safeguarding incoming supplies from relief efforts, protecting key areas of the city so it can recuperate from the disaster.”

“Yes, for the time being.”

Makes sense.

“Let’s see, the next group is… Fenrir’s Chosen?”

Okay, this one I don’t remember hearing about before. Are they new?

Fenrir is a name heavily tied to the apocalypse (specifically the Norse apocalypse, Ragnarok), and that’s exactly what the Endbringer attack was for the city. An apocalypse.

“One of two major offshoots of the Aryan villain group, Empire Eighty-Eight, which fell apart after the death of their leader, Kaiser.  

Oh, it’s one of the E44s… did Hookwolf nab control over that and change his name, or was there another wolf villain around?

Fenrir’s Chosen are led by Hookwolf.  Violent, utterly merciless, and reveling in the current chaos.”

Ah, well, half right. Didn’t change his name.

But yeah, a wolf taking charge after an apocalypse? The Norse allusion makes loads of sense.

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“So they’ve got, what, a following of homeless?”

“Brockton Bay doesn’t, or didn’t,  have many that you could strictly call homeless, as there were so many abandoned buildings to squat in.  When the Endbringer attacked, he chose the area with many of these buildings.”

He did ruin a lot of the Docks.

“I think I remember, yeah.  The area where the fight started didn’t exactly look upscale.”

“The sad irony of this is that the defending parahumans protected that area, while other locations were leveled by the tidal waves.  That area, known to locals as the Docks, was not under the control of any organized crime or villain organization even before the attack.

Because of the events of Arcs 1, 4 and 5… leaving it open for the Merchants. Damn it.

After the battle’s conclusion, it was swiftly occupied by the Merchants and growing numbers of their followers, and is now one of the areas with reliable shelter.

…I mean, at least they’re doing that much. They’re still pieces of shit, though.

Not entirely, but more than many.  By the time our local heroes were finished with search, rescue and minimizing damage, their number of followers had reached a critical mass.  In the past several days, they’ve begun attacking the city infrastructure, the airport, grocery stores, malls and they’ve repeatedly seized medical supplies and food as they come in.”

I see. Thus the need for the guards around the supply helicopter in 8.8.

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“Context.  They’ve become a rallying point, representatives and leaders for those on the lowest rungs of society.  Too many civilians who were the have-nots think allying with the Merchants is a way to become the haves.

Hm. So they’re growing… maybe they’re even going to end up being the ones to take the Alternative Beep Boops’ place at the Docks?

People that were angry, disenfranchised or both have gravitated towards the group, are seeking to overturn the social order.”

Of all the groups to rise to power in the wake of the Endbringer attack…

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“Okay.  The team sounds well rounded, I can work with that.”

Yeah, it does, doesn’t it. We’ve got Kid Win for attacks, Shadow Stalker for stealth, Clockblocker for buying time by putting enemies out of commission for a while, and Vista to make the battlefield fit their needs.

She handed him a stack of files, “Here’s the files on local factions, including your new team, and a file on the solo heroes and villains.

Wouldn’t it have been good to give him some of this before he arrived? I mean, it’s been over two weeks since they decided to put him here. Might as well give him some time to do his homework before he came to town.

You’ll have limited access to the databases as well, which you should be familiar with, but this should get you the essential details to get underway.  I’ve ordered those files loosely by priority, so you’ll find the most need-to-know information at the top of the pile.”

Sounds good.

Weld took the folders and opened the one for the Wards, glanced through it to memorize the faces of his new team.  Then he went to the next file, “Then the top priority as far as opposition goes is… the Archer’s Bridge Merchants?  Superpowered drug dealers.  A Shaker 2, Tinker 2/Mover 3 and a Shifter 4.  These aren’t big numbers.  Am I missing something?”

…yes, why are those high-priority all of a sudden? Were they the ones who attacked the airport? Doesn’t sound like them, though.

Also, “big numbers” kind of sounds like the numbers in the classification do indicate something about the strength of the power rather than some sort of subclassification.

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“Geez louise.  The others?”

Good to see Weld appreciates the value of having two manipulators of spacetime itself on the team.

“Kid Win is a Tinker 4.  Guns and antigravity devices, primarily.

I wonder if he can combine those to make an antigravity gun.

Shadow Stalker is more ambiguous.  Breaker 3, sublabels are Stranger 2, Mover 1.  Her particular nature as a ‘breaker’ makes her superlight, semi-gaseous, transparent and capable of passing through solid surfaces.”

Hm. It seems like most of the designations are more about what the powers do to the person wielding them. So a Breaker breaks their body apart, like Shadow Stalker and Fog.

I wonder if Stranger, if it’s not a misc category like I thought, covers those who can be not fully corporeal in the material plane. Those who can phase through things, for instance, like Shadow Stalker and Danny Phantom.

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“I certainly hope this ‘rivalry’ isn’t going to hamper your ability to lead this team and work with her.”  There was no humor in her tone.  Just the opposite.

No, it sounded like they get along fine. Flechette might respect Weld a bit less than the rest as a leader, but I think it’ll be fine.

Well, until Sophia indoctrinates her like she seems to have done with Emma.

“Um, no, ma’am,” he replied, chastened.  The helicopter lifted into the air.  A glance out the window showed the sprawl of the city.  It was dark out, but much of the city was unlit, nothing shining through the windows, no street lights illuminating the roads, nor the headlights and taillights of traffic.

I knew this was a dark story, but…

Alright, jokes aside, I take it the electric network’s not quite fixed yet.

Noting where he was looking, Director Piggot spoke, “Because the current situation is serious, and it isn’t improving as fast as we’d like.  You’re going to have to be on the top of your game.”

Oh, absolutely.

“Yes ma’am.”

“Clockblocker and Vista are your best assets.  Clockblocker is a Striker 7 with touch-based time-stopping.  Vista is a Shaker 9.  Large scale spatial distortion.”

Hm. I may have to reevaluate some more of my classification thoughts. I guess Strikers are generally those with touch-based powers, such as Clocky, Rune, Panacea and Ballistic?

And Shakers, uh, shake things up a bit on the battlefield.

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Weld nodded.

“Others may make themselves known, and we will approach each of them in turn.  To help fill the gap in the meantime, Flechette is arriving from New York.”

Oh hey, needle gal! She seemed to get along with Sophia during the battle, so I have a feeling they’ll be working together a bit more.

Weld chuckled, just under his breath.

“Something amusing?”

He was surprised that she had heard or noticed the laugh.  “No, it’s just that we know each other.  Our teams are -were- friendly rivals, kind of.

Ooh, nice.

We’d meet two or three times a year and compete, just to spar and practice our skills against less familiar opponents.  We’d joke around about which team was better, give each other a hard time.”

Sounds like a nice relationship.

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He was classified as a brute and changer, classifications meant for the unnaturally tough and strong and for those who could change their shape to some extent, respectively.

Ah, I see, so changers don’t normally change other things, but themselves. Fair enough.

He never liked the word brute being applied to him, even though he was aware that the labels had originally been intended for the PRT teams to identify and label villains, specifically.  It was only later that they had been extended to identifying the heroes as well.

Makes sense.

“Right.  This potential recruit is tentatively marked down as a Tinker/Mover.

Hm. Do we know any of those?

Depending on the interpretation of Mover, I guess this would be a Tinker with either a side power of moving technology, or a specialty in tech that increases mobility.

The only example I can think of in the latter interpretation would be Dragon

(potentially – I’m still not quite sure on her specialty), though it’s definitely not her.

It isn’t unusual for powers to emerge in the wake of an event as serious as this.

Oh yeah, I suppose an Endbringer attack is a pretty strong contender for “shittiest day ever”.

And it sounds like this is a new character, then.

For this reason, we keep careful track of things to see if we cannot detect any new parahumans.

So that’s a thing they can detect? Interesting.

This young man has been observed in the south end, moving at over a hundred miles an hour with the assistance of a mechanical suit.

Ah, yeah, that’d be pretty easily detected.

Also explains why they have a hard time getting close to the guy.

His inclusion on a local team would help fill gaps left by the death of Velocity, a local Protectorate member, and Armsmaster’s retirement.”

“retirement”. Sure.

Rot in the Birdcage, you proud fuck.

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“There will be more.  We’ve got a lead on a young man who could be joining as a new member, assuming we can get close enough to him to make the offer.  I trust you know your classifications?”

Hm, interesting. Is this someone we know?

“I do,” Weld nodded.  He’d memorized it as a rhyme, as suggested by his old boss.  Maybe that had been the intention from the start:

Mover, Shaker,
Brute and Breaker.

Master, Tinker,
Blaster and Thinker,

Striker, Changer,
Trump and Stranger.

Ooh! Okay, so we’ve got some interpretation to do here:

  • Mover is obvious. Moves stuff. Telekinesis, launching and the like. Pretty simple. …Wait. I guess this could alternatively be those whose own movement is enhanced, such as fliers or speedsters. But then where do telekinetics fit in? Shaker?
  • Shaker sounds like a variant that can’t quite move things, but can make them react physically in some way.
  • Brute, we’ve been over with Lung. Physically strong and/or defended.
  • Breaker: Breaks stuff. Faultline probably falls under this.
  • Master: This one we’re well aware of. Covers Taylor and Paige, those with the power to control people or other living beings.
  • Tinker: Parahumanly skilled at technology. Tends to have a specialty, such as Bakuda’s bombs, Armmaster’s small technology or Leet’s one-time inventions.
  • Blaster: Ranged strikes, such as lasers. Lung also falls under this due to his blasts of fire.
  • Thinker: Those whose mind give them an upper hand, like Tattle.
  • Striker: Probably covers super-strength, among other things that would enhance one’s physical attack power.
  • Changer: Changes one thing to another, as with transmutation or transfiguration.
  • Trump: …powers that override other powers in some sense, maybe?
  • Stranger: Probably the miscellaneous category. I’ve said before that this system needs to have one, and this sounds like one. Alternatively, this could be “we don’t fuckin’ know”.