Because of our story focus on Brockton Bay we kinda get into this reader bubble that everything has to happen there as I’ve seen you have fallen into any times. What do you see the world being like, knowing what you know now, that the world was predicted to end in 20-something or so years, that the US has the biggest most regulated hero group in the world, the ENE region we are in being a big hub for them, and knowing 3rd world countries have more capes?

…oh. Fuck. Unregulated militias of parahumans, end time prophets, cults supporting the Endbringers, parahuman terrorism, parahuman warfare… things are probably not looking good out there, huh.

Also, re: the reader bubble – it’s true I’ve focused a lot on Brockton Bay, right down to suggesting that this already terribly broken city is going to get attacked by two more Endbringers and still have people living in it. I don’t think it’s so much because of the focus on Brockton Bay, though, as the focus on Taylor. Apart from Interludes and Interlude Arcs, everything we see is currently through the lens of Taylor “Skitter” Hebert. Anything we’re supposed to experience outside of those exceptions will need to be experienced by Taylor, which means it needs to happen somewhere Taylor is. (Taylor hearing about events from elsewhere while she’s in Brockton Bay counts. She’s experiencing hearing about that.)

If the Endbringers won’t come to Taylor, Taylor will have to go to the Endbringers. Or we’ll have to switch main POV characters.

Since it didn’t show up in any of the wrap up chapters to Arc 14, any thoughts on how the aftermath of the Amy/Victoria plotline is going to play out? Where do you see those two characters going from here? Do you think either of them will be able to go back to their old lives after this is all over?

Victoria maybe, but not quite. It wouldn’t be her old life because Amy would be gone, not to mention the possibility of lasting physical and mental effects of Amy’s healing. And then there’s New Wave shutting down and Victoria joining the Wards instead… yeah, no, things won’t be the same. She’s also likely to keep hating Amy. I don’t think all of that hate was redirected love like Amy suggested, and I don’t think Amy healing the mental change is going to make her feel much more positively about the situation.

And yeah, I don’t think Amy’s going to stick around with Victoria after that, or try to face her family. She’s probably intent on trying to get a private sector job like she told Taylor, though I’m not sure how well that’s going to go.

> Would this third reality Legend is suggesting the Case 53s come from perhaps be Earth-Bet? Our world?

Are you thinking of Earth Aleph (revealed in 3.4 to have Star Wars prequels)?

Yes. Yes I was.

Some asks have called the Wormverse Earth-Bet, as a counterpart to Earth-Aleph, and I mixed them up. Whoops!

We have heard about The Number Man before, in a context that might explain some influence if Legend know of that other job of his. From 6.8 when the Undersiders met Coil face to face for the first time, “And before I forget, I arranged individual accounts for each of you with a supervillain banker by the name of The Number Man, as paying for tonight’s job in bills, naturally, was unfeasible.”

Oh! Yeah, it did seem vaguely familiar.

So this means Cauldron has (indirect?) ties to Coil and the Undersiders as well, even if the latter don’t know it. Interesting.

I suppose The Number Man – and by extension Cauldron, depending on how tightly he works with/for them – has the option of freezing the accounts of many supervillains at once if they feel the need to some day.

I also suppose The Number Man has a hand in making sure the payments to Cauldron aren’t trackable.

Legend and his fellows were already established as top heroes when Siberian first showed up. If he had a Nemesis, it wasn’t Siberian.

Right, good point.

I think, to the extent I actually remembered how the Nemesis program worked at all, I may have had it backwards.

So obviously we don’t get to know the mystery woman’s deal yet, but care to guess which singular power would be enough to deal with/delay the whole Triumvirate?

Maybe a selective AoE time-slowing ability? Except the woman seemed nervous, afraid she wouldn’t be able to take them on, suggesting she might not be able to get out in time herself.

Let’s see, what do we have among the Triumvirate… We’ve got flight/lasers/regen, flight/invulnerability/memory, flight/anything.

It could be a form of power canceling, but we’ve already had that power with Hatchet Face, so it’d need a new twist on it.

Ooh, here’s a fun one: Her power isn’t all that strong, she’s just a taxiporter, able to quickly the Triumvirate and herself to somewhere else in or out of the Cauldron compound, allowing the Doctor to escape. Her nervousness might be over the consequences of doing that for her.