Phew. That was a pretty decent chapter. Taylor sneaking up and nanobotting the minikaiju in the butt was definitely a highlight, and Scion was awesome. 🙂

So now things are looking up and down at the same time. Up in that Scion showed up and Leviathan is on the run, and down in that Taylor has only one functional limb and might be getting arrested instead of treated.

I mean, I can understand why the PRT is doing this, but that doesn’t mean I like it. There’s a truce in place to fight the bigger enemy, and if we suppose Tattle was right about most of the parahuman antics being a game, then abusing such a truce to arrest people on the other side is cheating.

(It’s possible that they’re not actually doing this, and the manacles are just a precaution against villains creating chaos in the hospitals, but let’s be real – this story is not one where people should get the benefit of the doubt most of the time.)

And I don’t care what the Hippocratic Oath does or doesn’t say – medical personnel siding with the heroes and prioritizing them over the villains, to the point of possibly not treating the villains at all, is awful. Especially when the villains are there as a result of heroic work anyway.

Next chapter, Taylor hopefully gets some treatment. We’ll probably also learn more about the medical efforts surrounding this whole debacle, unless we don’t have time for that before Taylor gets hauled off to a PRT holding cell or interrogation room.

See you next time!

This was great.

Armsmaster was fucking awesome in this chapter. Sure, he was underestimating Leviathan and being a prideful man seemingly only concerned with his reputation as usual, but he was genuinely a really badass fighter who provided us with what I believe to be the most visually cool fight so far in the story.

And, surprisingly, he didn’t actually die, in spite of about 3-5 different death flags. I doubt Wildbow is going to casually be like “oh btw Armsmaster bled to death” at the beginning of the next chapter, so I think he’s good for now, even if he’ll only be Armmaster from now on.

Meanwhile, Taylor finally found a way to help out! One that fits with what she’s been doing regularly ever since Agitation: Sticking bugs on people to track them. Along with the flier that was just assigned to Taylor, this also puts her in a position giving her an overview of the battle wherever it moves to.

Speaking of which, Leviathan appears to be moving towards one of the shelters. I should note that Danny’s also got a death flag or two on him (basically, if going for maximum angst for Taylor, it’d be a good time to kill him off just when he and Taylor have a conflict and she last saw him during a really stressful confrontation), though Armsmaster has just proven that such is survivable in this story.

So yeah. Next time, this bug is going flying! See you then! 🙂

This was a good chapter, but damn was it bleak.

More than 42 people died in this chapter, and that’s only the ones whose announcements we got to hear. That includes Tattletale, one of my favorite characters, though I was prepared for that due to the overlap between Interlude 8 and this chapter.

I’m not gonna lie: This is not my idea of a good time. I know this is one of the Arcs where people decide if Worm is for them, and if the story as a whole continues being this kind of bleak without lighter points in between, it’s eventually going to start leaning more towards a no. That said, I’m not going to end the liveblog as long as I’m still invested enough to want to continue, which I still am.

(Don’t tell me if it gets brighter or stays this bleak. That’s a thing I’ll just have to see for myself.)

So. The plan is no longer to win, but to survive until Scion – who apparently never stopped saving the world for a moment to buy a damn phone – shows up. I guess we’ll see in the next chapter how that works out for the capes protecting Brockton Bay.

See you then.

So is this where we call in Godzilla to step on Leviathan and save the day? I dunno, I haven’t watched any of those monster vs. monster kaiju movies (or really any kaiju movies at all).

The battle has started and at least one formerly unnamed cape, WCM, is dead and many injured. Dang it, Timmy!

At least we’ve learned a lot about the Endbringers, finally. There are three of them: Behemoth, Leviathan and the Simurgh. Behemoth is the strongest one physically, the Simurgh is the most cunning one, and Leviathan balances the traits out more and has a focus on water. Leviathan’s known powers so far include monstrous form, macro scale hydrokinesis with extreme range and capacity, “water echo” leaving water behind every time he moves, high movement speed (especially when swimming) and possibly weather manipulation.

And Brockton Bay just so happens to be situated on a sinkhole-vulnerable aquifer. Great.

We’re certainly in for a ride here, folks!

Next chapter, Taylor needs to figure out what she’s supposed to do in this battle as her comrades fall around her. This won’t be easy.

See you then!