Why couldn’t they have put the cell phones away before they started sparring?

Such a teacher.

Why couldn’t they put the cell phones back in the box…

Leah lay dying, and Stormtiger had one hand pressed to his throat, blood billowing from a cut that may or may not have nicked an artery.

Guys, I think Leah might not become an elite.

Just a hunch.

Hookwolf tapped into his core, the ‘heart’ from which his metal sprouted inside his body.  He could feel it start to churn with activity, and the metal he already had encasing each of his muscles began to stir.  Soon it was lancing in and out of his pores, criss-crossing, some blades or needlepoints sliding against others with the sounds of whetted knives.

Getting ready to fuck up the source of this carnage. Someone’s gotta pay, or at the very least stop.

In a few seconds, he had covered his body, to protect himself from further attacks.

That’s important too.

Two trainees and one of his graduated Chosen were dead.

Rude, Shatterbird.

…actually, this is the first instance we have of one of the Fellowship members actually killing someone in these Interludes, other than them talking about having killed. That might be supposed to tell us something about Shatterbird. Perhaps she’s more reckless about these things than the others we’ve seen?

They’d been wearing glasses, and the glass had penetrated their eyes to tear into their brains.

Ahhh. Yeah, that risk is a thing that’s been built up ever since 10.6 (though I didn’t recognize it for what it was in that particular chapter, since it was more vague then than in 11.1).

I didn’t think of the potential for the glass to go all the way into the brain and outright kill them that way, though.

The others were all wounded to some degree or another.  Some had been hit by the glass that flew from glasses others were wearing, others from the windows, and one or two others had patches of blood rapidly expanding around pockets where cell phones had been stowed.

Hm, Taylor was probably right when she suggested that the pocket might not be a safe location for Danny’s glasses either.

By the way, I wonder if Cricket’s reactions are good enough to dodge the glass completely.

So why is Shatterbird the one who’s presumably taken an interest in Hookwolf?

Could Shatterbird be a changer, able to turn into a bird and to have one of the most literal cape names we’ve seen in the story?

Or maybe she’s not after Hookwolf after all. I do suppose Cricket wouldn’t be a bad addition to the Slaughterhouse Nine.

But no, I’ve been predicting Hookwolf’s nomination ever since the nomination plot was revealed (though at this point it’s beginning to look like none of the nominations are going to actually work out except Bitch), and there’s got to be a reason he’s the POV, rather than Cricket.

Cricket reached to her side and picked up a small silver tube.  She pressed it to the base of her throat, and her voice came out sounding distorted and digital, “Something’s wrong.”

Hm, what’s up? Did you notice something that gives away the presence of today’s Slaughterhouse member?

“With the fight?”  Hookwolf asked, raising one eyebrow.

Cricket opened her mouth and pressed the tube to her throat to reply, but didn’t get a chance.  The windows shattered with an explosive force, knocking the majority of the people in the room to the ground.

Shatterbird! 😀

Certainly knows how to make an entrance.

I wonder if her power somehow involves vibrations and Cricket could feel them due to some aspect of her power.

Hookwolf was one of the few to remain standing, though he bent over as shards of glass tore through the layer of skin that covered his metal body.

Ow.

He took a moment to compose himself in the wake of the blast.  His ears rang, and he bled from a dozen cuts, but he was more or less fine.  His people were not.

Most people don’t have a metal body underneath their skin, so the glass can go deeper.

They groaned and screamed in pain, accompanied by the sound of car alarms going off outside.

Hm. That suggests it’s an area effect, rather than letting her target whatever glass she chooses. Makes sense.

Cricket stood from her seat in the corner and limped forward.  She’d refused the same help that Othala had granted Stormtiger, both for the injury to her leg and the damage she’d taken to her vocal chords when she’d had her throat slashed, in a time before he’d met her.

Oh, huh.

Does that make her sound like a cricket?

It would have taken a few days at most to restore her to peak condition, but she valued her battle scars too highly.

Yeah, some people do. That’s entirely fair.

“Up for this, Leah?” Hookwolf smiled.  Cricket’s injury to her leg slowed her down some, but the young woman was anything but a pushover.

True. She was quite the threat back in Buzz, and I could see her not letting the leg injury change that too much.

Bradley nodded and stood at attention.

Hookwolf turned to the blond girl. “Leah, was it?”

I won’t blame him if it’s wrong. I had trouble with the names of some people after spending nearly every day of the week with them for three years, and Hookwolf’s dealing with 34 people who have been her for three days.

She looked surprised to be picked, but she nodded.

“Menja likes you.  I don’t.  You get one chance to prove me wrong.  Menja?  Who would you set her against?”

Hey, at least he’s honest.

There weren’t many options.  Stormtiger couldn’t walk, Menja wouldn’t nominate herself, and it wouldn’t just be a hassle to go get Rune, Othala or Victor, but each of the three were either too powerful in a brawl or effectively powerless.  That left Hookwolf himself and-

“Cricket,” Menja said.  “Same reasoning.  Leah’s quick, Cricket’s quicker.”

Hm, makes sense, I suppose.

Also, I’m guessing Othala is on the “effectively powerless” side of that. That would make sense if her power is to give others powers.

Do I know Victor’s power? I don’t think I do.

It wouldn’t do to let the man defeat Menja, and it was looking increasingly possible that he might.

Oh, nice. That sounds like a success.

It would hurt her pride and weaken the position of his powered lieutenants in comparison to the unpowered ones.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Besides the whole Nazi thing,

Hookwolf seems to be much more competent and reasonable as a leader than I was expecting. Certainly a much healthier one for his subordinates than Kaiser ever was.

“Good man,” he said from behind his mask.  He offered the man a hand, and Bradley took it.  “Well done.  Welcome to the Chosen’s elite.”

Good job, you piece of shit.

I mean, just because he was the underdog in that fight doesn’t mean he’s not still a Nazi. There’s a reason he’s here in the first place. I doubt we’ll be meeting any decent people in this chapter.

Hookwolf watched with approval as the two squared off.  It was clear from the start that Bradley was thrown off guard by how strong Menja was, and doubly apparent that he wasn’t used to fighting someone with better reach or more power behind their hits.

Yeah, to be fair, most opponents aren’t like Menja.

Many opponents in this world aren’t like anyone.

But he was trained, and he was familiar in how to use his body, and he adapted quickly.

Which makes knowing how to adapt one of the most critical skills in a battle, even more so than it already is in our world.

Bradley shifted to the defensive, and Menja struck with sharp kicks to his side and lunging steps forward to jab at his face.  He timed a grab and quickly shifted to an arm lock, forcing Menja to bend over.

Not bad!

For just a moment, it seemed like he had control of the situation, but Menja snapped back to her normal size, slipping her arm free, then struck at him, simultaneously growing.  He was shoved to the ground.

Whoop.

“Enough,” Hookwolf said.

So, how’d he do? Was that good enough to not be embarrassing?