I’d hope for a bit about Clockblocker not being happy to see Taylor, but when I think about it, he might not have seen her in the first place. It’s a bit unclear how much footage of Skitter is available to the public at this point.

He fought alongside Flashbang and Brandish, and I could identify Krieg, Victor, Othala and Alabaster in their immediate vicinity.  Further away were Night, Fog, Panacea, Vista and Clockblocker.

Oh hey! Still no sign of the Protectorate proper, but there are a few Wards, at least.

I’m curious about Brandish’s powers. She sounds like she might be awesome, but I have no clue what her powers might be besides that they’re probably similar to Glory Girl’s in some way. That said, my working theory is that Lady Photon and Flashbang are siblings, so most of GG’s powers seem to come from her father’s side of the family. Maybe Brandish’s power involves respect or fear, which mixes with the light theme on the paternal side of Glory Girl’s family to give her the angelic aura of respect/fear.

Also of note in this quote: Othala is here, but Rune doesn’t seem to be. I had speculated that the two of them worked together, but unless Taylor just couldn’t identify Rune or they’re out of sight, it seems that may not be the case.

Maybe Laserdream’s lasers can cause the target to hallucinate, or something like that.

Mother and daughter shared the same general powers; flight, the ability to raise forcefield bubbles around themselves, and the ability to project lasers from their hands.  As a consequence, their fight with Purity was something of a light show.

More evidence that the nature of the powers can be somewhat hereditary. It’s worth noting, though, that this Arc also contained evidence that it’s not always the case, since we now know the powers of both Alec and his parahuman “father”.

Also, jeez, as if Purity’s power wasn’t a light show on its own, she’s fighting a team I’ve speculated to have light-based powers almost all around. Add that to the “this is very fitting” pile, I guess.

…

What if Kayden is a member of this family? We don’t know her maiden name. Maybe she was Kayden Dallon, or Kayden whatever-surname-Photon-Mom’s-part-of-the-family-has?

Below, it seemed, there was an all-out war.

Right, we still had a few of Purity’s cape subordinates unaccounted for, as well as many of her mundane ones, and not everyone on either side can fly.

Is the Protectorate down there?

As she targeted Glory Girl, one of Purity’s blasts of light slammed into the edge of a rooftop.  Debris showered down, but was deflected by a bright blue forcefield.

I wonder if the forcefields are differently colored based on who made them.

Also, I noticed that Taylor said Photon Mom and Laserdream shared general powers. That means each of them can still have additional powers or quirks to their powers that differ from each other, so that’s a thing to watch out for.

That would be Shielder’s power at work.

Oh, naturally.

Actually… that’s one of those minor differences right there, even if it’s not between the family members I was talking about – Photon Mom and Laserdream can make “forcefield bubbles around themselves”, but this forcefield was described neither as a bubble nor as around anyone.

The leader of New Wave had named herself Lady Photon, but in the wake of New Wave’s founding, and the revealing of their secret identities, the media had latched on to the idea of a superheroine mom and dubbed her Photon Mom.

Ahahaha

Like any true fandom.

*glances over at the Steven Universe, Undertale and Homestuck fandoms*

…

Huh. It’s actually extremely fitting that it’s New Wave that’s up against Purity. We’ve got a villain whose family was taken away because her secret identity was revealed, up against a hero team that is big on the whole family thing and has willingly revealed their secret identities.

It was apparent to anyone who followed cape news that the name really bugged her.

Hehe.

Lady Photon’s daughter and niece were in the air with her.  Laserdream and Glory Girl.

Respectively, I assume. Let’s see, how does this match up with my previous speculations about the family tree? Krixwell from 3.11 said:

“I have a feeling she’s listing them in the same order as the relations, though, which would make Flashbang Glory Girl’s dad

and Lady Photon her presumably paternal aunt.

Manpower would then be the uncle. Maybe a bruiser type, like Browbeat? 

Laserdream and Shielder are most likely children of Lady Photon and Manpower.”

It’s looking good so far!

Grue gave a hand signal, Bitch whistled to give the dogs the order, and we rode.

Angelica was happy to follow the others, which freed me from the burden of getting her to follow my instructions.

Ah, good.

That only left me the task of holding on and ignoring the ache in my leg muscles and stomach.

Tattletale was able to give us a general idea of which direction Purity was, using her power, and it only took us a few minutes to spot the telltale pillar of white in the distance.  Purity’s light, not aiming at a building, but lashing out.

Sounds like she was further away than I would’ve thought. Purity and her carnage sounded very visible from the descriptions so far.

As we got closer, the situation became clearer.  Purity, a flare of white against the backdrop of the gray sky, was surrounded by other figures, easy enough to make out with their predominantly white costumes.  New Wave.

This Arc is filled with the color white in a lot of ways, huh.

Nice to see New Wave is putting in effort to stop this. Is the Protectorate anywhere to be seen?

Hm… They could cause some trouble for the Undersiders if they (most likely Glory Girl in particular) don’t focus on Purity like they by all sound logic should.

Regent and Bitch were climbing onto Brutus, while Tattletale was examining her phone.  That left two dogs to ride.

I looked at where Grue sat, and decided it would be less awkward if I didn’t ride with him.  I approached Angelica, extended my hand for her to sniff, then climbed onto her back.

It’s probably best that Grue rides alone anyway, or in the back. We don’t want anyone to have to hold onto his chest.

“Tattletale,” Grue spoke.  “I thought we were in a hurry.”

She put the phone away, then climbed up behind Grue.

Although I’m not quite sure how much that’s necessary.

Hm… this means Taylor is alone on Angelica. Has she had the reigns on one of the dogs before? I don’t think so.

“Coil?” I guessed.

“Yep.”

“And he’s saying?”

“To be careful.”

Solid advice.

“You going to be okay?” I asked, as Grue zipped up his jacket.

Told ya we’d skip it.

So it seems we’re picking up about as close to where we left off as we could while still skipping the sowing and Tattletale’s explanation about whatever trick she has up her sleeve for dealing with Purity.

With his t-shirt removed, he was wearing the leather jacket over his bare, freshly stitched skin.  I couldn’t imagine it was remotely comfortable.

Nope, that sounds awful.

“I’ll be fine.  Let’s end this ASAP.  Bitch?  The dogs.”

I winced.  I wasn’t looking forward to riding.  It was too soon after our previous escapade, and I was still sore.

Ow, yeah, that doesn’t sound comfortable either. To be fair, though, this is pretty much what both of you signed up for.

Bitch whistled and pointed, and we headed out the front door of the church.  The moment we were outside, Grue hauled himself up onto Judas’ back, and I could see him hunch over for a moment in pain.

“Seriously, are you going to be-”

“I’m fine, Skitter,” Grue spoke.

Doesn’t really look that way, but alright.

He was creating darkness around himself, and his voice had that hollow quality to it.  “Just drop it.”

The ‘drop it’ line hit a little too close to home, echoing what I’d said at the mall after Brian’s rejection, and once or twice after that.

Oh boy.

Is he hurt by her unwillingness to talk about it, or is this maybe a straight instance of the same from his side?

Maybe he’s afraid of admitting weakness. Perhaps especially when he’s with the team, as de facto leader.

I was made acutely aware of that little rift I’d generated in what had been a fairly easygoing friendship.

😦

Remember how I mentioned my own trouble with working up the courage to confess to my first crush? This is a big part of what I was worried about. That taking it to that point, whether I got rejected or not, would eventually ruin the nice friendship we’d already had for many years.