After the stifling atmosphere of the television studio, the night air felt cool, too clean and refreshing. In the background and across the water, the city was going dark. There was still only so much power to go around.
She was glad for the puffer jacket she’d bought with the bonus from her last payday. In a way, she’d needed to push herself to start thinking about the cold weather and what it meant. Her hands and face were cold, now, but her body was warm, and that helped the rest of her. It meant she could stay outside in the cold and the quiet.
Her breath made her glasses fog up, the lenses catching the small amounts of orange light from the nearby streetlight, illuminating her entire visible world with orange light, which would fade as the condensation receded. She could avoid it by directing her breath to one side, or controlling the output, but as soon as she turned her thoughts to something, she would forget and her glasses would fog up again with that alarming amber glow. Tonight had been important- more important than she’d anticipated.
She’d heard the discussions, the insinuations. She’d been asked once or twice to chime in with her opinion on things. She had been the escort for Kenzie to go to the television studio, and she’d waited in the darkness of the wings as the show started.
Even up to that moment, she hadn’t expected the gravity of it.
If she was anything more than an idle smoker, she would be puffing away right now. If she were a drinker, she would be tipping something back. Maybe, anyway- she still had work to do. The right-now wasn’t so important. It was that if she were anyone else, anything else, she would be able to do more than stand in the dark, her hands in her pockets, fogging up her glasses with her eyes wide.
It wasn’t that she didn’t know what to do with herself, exactly. She knew. If she were asked, she could have spouted off a checklist of things, ordered them by priority, and given the go-ahead, she would do it.
It was the herself, the she. It was the notion that she liked capes. They were neat and she’d always been enchanted by the notion of them. She’d told herself that she had no major illusions when it came to what capes were. They were human but they were humans with a lot of power. That could be a very bad thing and it could be a terrific thing. It depended on the person. She’d told herself they were flawed. Even when Mrs. Dallon took the gloves off and made it look like she was a superhuman lawyer, not just a superhuman in costume, Natalie had kept her perspective in check, or so she liked to think. Mrs. Dallon was a person to look up to, one with a lot of talents, but she was a person.
Those were things she could watch out for. The awe, the hate, the seeming perfection, the perspective or lack thereof. Early work, past classes, upbringing, everything in her life up to this point had primed her to watch those things. She could point to just about any bad incident in her upbringing or past and think of the big lesson she’d taken to heart.
This… she’d always thought capes were cool. It felt like just yesterday that she’d been Kenzie’s age, utterly enchanted by the idea of getting powers and doing something. That moment when she saved people. The moment when the villain was about to win. The moment when bystanders depended on her, or clapped for her because she’d won. She’d been enchanted by the magical powers of one book, the biological alteration scenario of a television series. When she reflected on the fantasies of childhood and adulthood both, it was the moments that stuck with her. Endless replays in her head of a given monumental scene, the crux of a decision.
Not even all good moments, either. Just moments, the key scenes. When she’d wanted to be a lawyer, it had been with a mind to having those moments in the courtroom. When she’d started working with the capes, a part of it was that she’d wanted to be adjacent to those moments.
Tonight had had a few of them. She’d been adjacent.
Except they weren’t any moments. Time didn’t stop, and there was no room to think about each decision. Events came, they went, things moved on, people adapted, conversations led to them and from them.
Standing here in the cold, glasses so fogged up and amber-tinted she couldn’t even see through them, she wondered if she was trying to stand in that current and find or create a moment.
But it couldn’t be manufactured. There was no moment here, only a checklist of things to do, each thing with its own priority.
Best not to leave Kenzie alone too long, either. She cleaned her glasses of condensation while walking from her car to the building.
Her hands remained in her pockets even though the steps of the fire escape were narrow. She knocked, and it was Victoria who opened the door.
“You don’t need to knock,” Victoria said.
“I’m thinking I should take Kenzie home.”
“Okay.”
“Let me get my stuff,” Kenzie said. “I want to take stuff home to work on.”
“Go easy,” Victoria said. “Don’t work on your things too late, or spend too much time watching feeds.”
“Okay, I can take stuff to work on in the morning though, right?”
“Not too much,” Natalie said. “Whatever you can take in one trip. We’re all tired and we don’t want to be going back and forth from the car to unload.”
“Okay. One trip, hmm.”
“I’ll take one bag,” Natalie said.
“Thank you,” Kenzie replied, almost sing-song, already gathering her things.
Rain and Ashley were offline and gone. Byron was packing up. Sveta was with Victoria, and Chris- sometimes Natalie had to look twice to spot him. He was sitting in a different corner than his usual.
“Do you want a ride, Chris?” Natalie asked.
“No thanks, I live close.”
“Byron?”
“I’m close too, but thanks.”
“I live in the other direction,” Sveta said, “I’m going to hang with Victoria for a bit.”
“Okay,” Natalie said.
“Thank you for coming tonight,” Victoria told Natalie. She looked down, Natalie observed. Like it was a week after her cat had died, and she had just reached the point where she could hold it together.
Eight arms? Three heads?
She had questions and she couldn’t ask. Others had questions and they wouldn’t ask. It felt almost like a moment and it was gone by the time she’d recognized it.
“Take care, Nat,” Byron said, in passing. The air felt colder in his wake.
“You too,” she told him. She stepped out of the way so he could leave.
Kenzie hurried over to her, a bag in hand. “Laptop and cords.”
“Got it,” Natalie said, taking the bag.
Then Kenzie was gone, back to her desk, sorting through lenses and components. Some of Rain’s things, maybe? Natalie tried to keep track of them so she could be a better guardian, but she wasn’t sure if she could really demand that of herself. There were tables and corners of tables where it looked like a television, radio, and a few flashlights had been dismantled and broken down into their constituent elements. Kenzie’s work areas were sorted by color, with a collection of bits of glass, bulbs, and lenses.
Rain’s work areas that hadn’t been cleaned up were in piles, crowded in by the wolf trap, chains, and knives Rain had brought in. There might have been an emphasis on the sharp-edged, ragged breaks where plastic or metal had snapped off.
“Victoria,” Natalie said, pulling her eyes away from those ragged edges. “How are things?”
“Do you mean overall or with me, specifically?” Victoria asked.
She’d meant Victoria, specifically. “Both, I guess.”
Victoria’s gaze was heavy, searching.
When Victoria did answer, she said, “Same answer for both. It’s going to sting at first. We anticipated that. But we’re already seeing the hero teams responding, and it’s the reception we wanted. It’s gratifying. My parent’s team, Mayday sounds like a yes. Shorewatch is a yes. Auzure is yes.”
“Some civilian responses too,” Sveta said. “People without powers, supporting our side.”
“I don’t really get it,” Natalie said. The show didn’t seem to go that well.
“It’s what we expected, with a couple of unwanted surprises along the way, obviously,” Victoria answered, checking her laptop, then stretching a bit as she turned away from it. “I’d hoped for a bit of a healthier balance of positivity to negativity.”
“It’s only one good message for every twelve bad, I think, but the number should improve as the night goes on,” Sveta injected a note of hope into her voice.
“It might, and only up to a point,” Chris said. “The bad is going to keep outnumbering the good.”
“Thank you, Chris,” Sveta was a bit sarcastic.
Victoria seemed to mostly ignore them, fixing her attention on Natalie, “this is what we wanted.”
Was it? How?
But Natalie didn’t miss those fleeting moments, when Victoria was mid-stretch or talking about how this was expected or wanted, when she looked a lot like Carol had a few times back at the Wardens’ office. Not happy, far from happy in this case, but fully confident.
“Yeah,” Sveta said.
“I hope it keeps that course then,” Natalie said. The words felt hollow when she still wasn’t sure about it all.
Victoria smiled. She turned to Kenzie, who had stopped bustling and rummaging and now stood still. “Are you ready?”
“Got my stuff,” Kenzie said. She had a very full cloth shopping bag full of junk, slung over one shoulder. She’d grabbed a bag of snacks.
“Alright,” Natalie said. She put a hand on Kenzie’s shoulder, guiding her to the door. “Good night, Breakthrough.”
Victoria smiled in response, while it was Sveta’s turn to look wearier as she smiled as well.
Because Natalie had addressed them as ‘Breakthrough’?
Emboldened, Natalie added, “Keep me on speed dial, in case there are issues. After shows with that ideological a bent, people sue, threaten, or otherwise use lawyers to try to bully or influence the narrative. Cries for censorship, cries against. Don’t respond and don’t panic. Call me and let me call the people who can handle it.”
“Got it,” Victoria answered her, all tired seriousness. “You have Gil’s number?”
“Gil? Oh, Gilpatrick? Yes.”
“Drive safe. I’ll be patrolling, burning off restless energy, starting when the messages start slowing down.”
“Next month then?” Chris asked.
“Go home, Chris,” Victoria said. “We’re done for the day, and you’ll be missed if you’re out too late.”
“Mmf.”
Natalie turned away from everything, stepping back outside.
All of the tech stuff went into the back seat of Natalie’s beetle, seats folded forward to provide access. Nowhere near as much space as Tristan’s truck, which she had driven earlier. Feeling how cold the car was as she leaned into the back to set the bag down, Natalie was sure to grab a blanket while she was in the back seat.
“I like your car,” Kenzie said, settling into the passenger seat. She looked surprised as Natalie draped the blanket over her lap. “Thank you.”
“Heat and fan struggle if I need to accelerate a lot while going up any hills,” Natalie explained. “Let’s get you cozy.”
“I still like it, struggle or not. Ooh, I wonder if I could soup it up somehow. I wonder how I’d do it.”
“Ask before you do anything, please,” Natalie said, as she got belted in. The steering wheel was cool, but not so much that it would be bothersome over the long term.
She drove. The amber of the streetlights swept into the car, followed by a sweep of darkness, lingering just a fraction of a second too long, before the next sweep of amber. It was as though the city had adjusted the spacing to save on resources, and so it was somehow less than what she’d grown up getting used to.
At least the roads were more or less clear.
Another her would have made tonight the sort of night she would have sped down the highway, letting her foot rest more heavily on the gas, letting herself experience the thrill.
She drove the speed limit, sticking to the right-hand lane, only moving to allow ample space for mergers. Hers was the car that other people zipped by.
In the other seat, Kenzie leaned her head against the window, staring not at what was beyond, but at the hypnotic play of light against the glass just in front of her eyes. Light from the dash, light from the city beyond.
No happy smiles, no bubbling vivaciousness, no excitement.
“Are you okay?” Natalie asked.
“Yes. I’m super,” Kenzie replied, her head not moving.
“You sure? You don’t sound super- it’s allowed to not feel super.”
“I mean it,” Kenzie said. The amber light of streetlights swept into the car’s interior. A chance trick of light played off of her eyes, making the natural moisture appear to be glowing yellow-orange. Light passed over the little girl’s face, and there was a line below her eye where it looked like her face was a thick mask, a hole had been cut in, and the glow of the streetlights came from within the mask, not outside.
Kenzie turned her face away, pulling the blanket up so it covered her shoulders, and gripped it from within to tug it close to her body. “I feel more okay than I have since Ashley and Rain turned themselves in to go to jail.”
“Why? Because-”
“Because my friends had my back. I got to spend the day with my favorite person. Did you see the emails? People are cheering for us- for me.”
“It’s good you’re happy. I don’t want to take away from that, but-”
“But some people are being awful? Hateful? Scared? All my life, people have been that way. For a long, long, looong while, everyone was like that,” Kenzie said. “If five million people watched that, and one in thirteen people that care enough to say something about it are saying something nice? That’s a times-infinity improvement. And Breakthrough had my back.”
“Got it,” Natalie said.
“Infinity times six,” Kenzie said, sounding almost like she was falling asleep. It was nine o’clock at night, so she wouldn’t have been faulted, but Natalie knew she usually stayed up well past that point.
A long day, in other ways.
“Infinity plus five, maybe. Chris sucks sometimes, and he didn’t really help. But then there’s you and you’re part of Breakthrough, and you have my back?”
“Yes,” Natalie said. “I don’t know if I’m part of it, but I will have your back. Best I can.”
“And it’s not just because you’re getting paid?”
“No.”
“Or because you get to see more of Tony?”
“No idea what you’re talking about.”
“It’s Thursday tonight. He’s staying over. He’s your boyfriend, isn’t he?”
“He definitely isn’t,” Natalie said. “And don’t- don’t try playing matchmaker.”
Oh please God, don’t try playing matchmaker.
“No promises. My current score is infinity and six. I think that’s pretty amazing. Who wouldn’t be psyched to have someone with that good a record giving them some help?”
“I-”
“Right?”
“No, not right. Kenzie, it’s complicated. I like things the way they are now.”
“But he’s not your boyfriend.”
“Not exactly.”
“And you want him to be your boyfriend.”
“Yes, but. It’s weird and it’s fragile and I don’t want to ruin a good thing by trying to shoot for a maybe-great thing.”
“I like that. It’s a good way of putting it.”
“Thank you,” Natalie said. The drive remained quiet, the lights sweeping through the car, the traffic denser closer to the broken portal in Norwalk, but still manageable and polite. All the same, her heart was pounding.
“I’m mostly teasing, by the way,” Kenzie said. “I know I’d be the worst relationship doctor.”
“Please don’t tease me, Kenzie,” Natalie answered, gripping the steering wheel, her heart still racing. “Today has been stressful enough, and we don’t know what tomorrow will bring.”
“We’re okay,” Kenzie said. “This is all according to plan.”
“You think so?”
Kenzie nodded, serious, before hugging the blanket tighter to her body again. The car wasn’t even that cold anymore. The girl’s expression was solemn.
“You’re really okay? You’re happy with this outcome?”
“I told you!” Kenzie raised her voice, blanket falling from her shoulders to fold across her lap. She was indignant, adding, “I said!”
“Okay, okay!” Natalie replied.
The trip continued, with idle chatter, and no mention of Tony, thankfully.
Kenzie’s neighborhood was dark, her home illuminated by flashlights, lanterns, and candles, by the look of it.
“No power, ugh,” Kenzie said. “I won’t be able to build tonight, or check on things.”
“That’s not a complete tragedy. You might get a full night’s sleep,” Natalie said.
They let themselves in.
“Hi Tony!” Kenzie called out.
“Hi!” the call came back. “Did you eat?”
“A while ago. Do you have snacks?”
“I’ll put something together. Get yourself ready for bed, okay?”
“Is Dave still around?”
“He left a while ago. The game you guys were playing is still where you left it. Your move, apparently.”
Kenzie carefully put her bag down, kicked off her shoes, and bounce-skipped to the living room. Natalie took her time getting her jacket off, boots off, and putting away Kenzie’s shoes. She was relieved in a way to see Kenzie being a bit messy and normal.
When she looked up, Tony was there, at the door to the living room. Natalie felt a bit of trepidation as she joined him. Seeing what Kenzie was up to meant standing right beside Tony.
He was intimidating. Doubly so by candlelight. He was growing out his red hair, and it was long enough that locks curled around the tops and to the backs of his ears. His red hair and beard looked amazing in the warm light, and the play of light and shadow made the shape of his face, his neck and his adam’s apple very noticeable. He wore a long-sleeved t-shirt, what might have been silk pyjama bottoms, and slippers.
Approaching to stand closer meant she wouldn’t stare at him, but now she could smell his body soap, shampoo, and whatever else it was he used. He’d just showered recently.
“Laser chess,” Tony said, by way of explanation. The corner of his t-shirt sleeve at his bicep brushed her shoulder as he raised a hand to point.
“Kenzie mentioned it on one of our car trips,” Natalie replied. “Hard to visualize, hearing about it.”
Kenzie moved a piece, then hit a button. A visible laser reflected across the various pieces, leaving the board to stab toward the easel where Kenzie’s mother had once had her paintings.
“Move decided?” Tony asked.
That got a nod.
“Good. Get ready for bed,” Tony said. “I’ll get your snack.”
Kenzie ran off to do just that. Tony and Natalie didn’t move from their positions, looking into the now-unoccupied living room.
“You’re better at the kid-handling than I am,” Natalie said.
“I raised my littlest brother. You’ve crossed paths with him. When you were at my apartment?”
“Oh. Yeah. I thought that was your roommate.”
Tony shook his head, but the way he shook it- not just because she was wrong.
“Today was kind of a holy shit day,” Tony said.
“You watched the show?”
“Everyone did. The five of us were in group chat discussing. You didn’t look in?”
Natalie shook her head.
“I don’t blame you. You probably had your hands full.”
“I wish. I would have liked to be able to do more. I just… tried to keep an eye on Kenzie, give feedback.”
“That’s important,” Tony said. “Do you want a snack too? I’ve got blueberry muffins.”
“Sure. Please,” she said. “I’m going to go get changed, I’ll grab it when I come back downstairs.”
“I’ll warm it up,” he said. “Coffee? Tea?”
“Coffee. I have work I should do,” she said. She didn’t leave right away. “I was wondering-”
“Yes?”
“The reception. What did the group think? What did you think?”
“Of the show? I think a lot is going to depend on what others say. Some pretty freaky, wild stuff. The powers and the…”
“Alien?”
“The lies,” he said. “The Triumvirate lied? Legend, Alexandria, Eidolon? The secrets being kept? I mean, we knew there were secrets, but this is something else.”
“Yeah. Were the others upset?”
“Not upset. Wondering. Processing. Why? Is there backlash already?”
She nodded, eyes widening for emphasis.
“Are you okay? Are they okay?”
“I’m fine. A bit shell-shocked. Kenzie’s… as happy as I’ve seen her. The others… it’s not my place to say.”
“We’re on their side. Nobody’s leaving Kenzie’s rotation here or changing how we do it.”
She felt her forehead crease as she thought on that.
“Go get changed. I’ll warm up your snacks. We’ll get her put to bed like responsible caregivers, and then we’ll talk. Or you can do your work and we can… you want to hook up Saturday or Sunday? Or both?”
Both, was her immediate thought. She did her best to switch to unflappable lawyer mode, like Carol so often did. “Saturday? My apartment? We’ll figure out if Sunday works from there. We can chat then.”
“When not otherwise occupied,” he said.
Aaaaa, she thought.
“Perfect,” she said.
He smiled, “I’ll look forward to it.”
Aaaaa, she thought, again. She wasn’t sure she trusted her legs not to go out on her if she tried to walk away, but she knew she’d look like an idiot if she stayed.
She headed up the stairs without wobbly knees failing her, grabbing one of the electric lanterns from a stair on the way up, and headed to the room that she shared with one of the other girls- a daughter of one of the family law administrators. Their schedules overlapped by the one day, at the tail end of Natalie’s shift, but they’d only crossed paths with a couple of seconds of contact shared with them each time. As a result, Natalie only knew the girl by the things left in the one corner of the room she’d claimed. Natalie had her own corner, with clothes, toiletries, books, and some of her computer stuff.
She had two sets of sleep-clothes, which included a flannel two-piece set with a buttoned top with a collar, and then the nightie she’d bought but never worn. Modest enough to wear around Kenzie without feeling weird, but… Tony would like it, if he liked anything she wore.
She agonized over the choice, and she wished she had some sense of what was right, or appropriate, or good. She second guessed herself, then second guessed herself again.
Natalie picked a piece of lint off of the flannel as she emerged from her room. Kenzie was just down the hall, leaning over the counter, brushing her teeth. The girl wore a silver silk nightdress with a silk headscarf wrapped around her hair, the hairpin she’d been wearing earlier in the day helping to keep it in place.
Natalie waited until Kenzie was done.
“You do have to take that hairpin off at some point.”
“I know. I’ll take it off before I go to sleep. Is Tony sleeping upstairs?”
“I don’t think he is. He usually takes the couch downstairs. Why?”
“I was just thinking, if you wanted to share the same room, you should. I wouldn’t mind.”
“N- no, Kenzie. That would be weird.”
“But you guys do that when I’m not in the way or around, I’m pretty sure, and so I don’t want to hurt that by being in the way or being around. He’s great and you’re great, and you’d be great together. If it’s because you’re worried I’d watch you on camera, I wouldn’t. I took cameras out of the bedrooms and turned them away from places people sleep because I like you guys and trust you.“
Apparently there had been no need to dance around the subject of her physical-only or physical-mostly relationship with Tony in the car ride here.
Also, cameras?
“No.”
“Because I’m not really paying attention to that stuff and I could do much less creepy research online if I was, that didn’t involve anyone I knew. I think if really wanted to figure it out, I’d start with studying videos of kissing I’d do that and work my way up, so I’m good at the general stuff before I get to the advanced-”
“Kenzie.”
Kenzie stopped.
“There are blueberry muffins downstairs.”
“Yes!”
Kenzie practically flew down the stairs.
A heavy crash downstairs made Natalie freeze.
It was a moment, not a fleeting one, not a missed one, or the sort that hit so hard it rippled, making the decisions that were to come after that much more difficult. It was the kind that she’d thought about as a kid.
There were voices below. Multiple male ones. Another crash.
“Kenzie!” she hissed the word.
Kenzie was already coming up the stairs on all fours.
The moment Kenzie was confirmed upstairs and safe, Natalie ducked into her room. Phone.
She had numbers. Police. She texted rather than call. If she had to call, if there had to be a back and forth, it would take too long.
Glass shattered downstairs.
Victoria’s contact, Gilpatrick. A repeat of the prior message.
She was in the middle of typing a message to Victoria when she heard footsteps on the stairs, with voices, a back and forth between a guy and a girl. Kenzie tried to put herself between the stairs and Natalie, but Natalie pushed her back.
“I’m the hero here,” Kenzie said, insistent, dead serious. “Let me protect you.”
“Do you have your gear up here?”
Kenzie shook her head. “Some in the bag in the hallway, but that’s mostly scrap. I didn’t bring the eyehook or any of the really useful stuff because you said you didn’t want to make too many trips.
The pair came up the stairs. A twenty-something guy and a teenage girl with bleached hair. The guy had a knife.
Natalie had seen knife wounds, once. It was so, so easy to do horrendous amounts of damage.
“Can I have your phone?” Kenzie asked.
“No,” the guy said. “Don’t be stupid.”
Natalie looked down at her phone in her left hand. The screen had a large red ‘connect’ icon with a slash through it.
No service?
No power in the building, no service. If service had dropped like this, the texts might not have gone through.
“Drop it.”
Natalie bent down, letting the phone fall the remaining distance. She winced, hearing the sound. Phones were too expensive.
As the guy moved, knife in hand, she put herself between him and Kenzie.
“Kid,” the guy said. “Make this easier on all of us. We’ve got capes, and we’ve got you outnumbered. Come with us, and we’ll leave this chick and the guy downstairs in one piece.”
“Deal,” Kenzie said.
“No deal!” Natalie said. “What’s wrong with you guys? She’s a kid.”
“She’s got enemies, and she’s not exactly popular right now. As far as a lot of people are concerned, a lot of people who watch television, she’s fair game. If you get in the way, so are you. ”
“That’s not how it works. There is no ‘fair game’.”
“If we can get away with it, it’s fair,” he said.
“It’s really, really dumb to attack a tinker in her workshop or home,” Kenzie said. “You’re being recorded on cameras.”
“No,” Natalie said, quiet. “Not a good approach.”
“But they’re being idiots. They’re not going to get away with it, so it’s not fair or good.”
“You’re just making them desperate,” Natalie murmured.
“She’s not making us anything,” the guy retorted.
“I’m not making them desperate and I’m not making them anything,” Kenzie said. “Because I’m giving myself up.”
“No,” Natalie said, seizing Kenzie’s arm as Kenzie walked past her. “No.”
“Yes. You and Tony are cool and you don’t deserve this.”
“They’re going to hurt you.”
“Probably. Or kill me. That girl over there is Colt, hi Colt.”
“How do you know my name?”
“Her mom misses the hell out of her, since she left home to go be a henchman for Nailbiter. Nailbiter is in Love Lost’s group, and Love Lost’s group is all about violence and threats. Protection rackets, debt collection and doing hits on people. Sometimes hits with prejudice. Making it hurt.”
The guy smirked. Colt looked away, down the stairs.
Kenzie smiled back at the guy. How could she do that?
Natalie, already glancing back behind her to see Kenzie’s expression, glanced down. If her phone had landed screen-up, then she might be able to see if there was a signal. If so, could she grab her phone, grab Kenzie, and get into one room, barricading themselves in there?
The phone was gone.
Was Kenzie doing something? If so, Natalie could-
She had no idea what she was supposed to do. It was another moment and…
She could only trust.
“Colt,” Natalie said. “If you want out, if you’re trapped, you can call. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done, we can get you the best possible result.”
Stupid, to say it in front of the guy.
He advanced on her. She backed up, and she bumped into Kenzie. It let him close the distance by another step, the point of his knife moving toward her chest. She raised a hand, ready to defend herself in the meager way that a hand could fend off a knife, and he swiped out in the direction of that hand. She let it drop.
The knife’s point penetrated skin, stabbing her in the sternum, just below the collarbone. It might have been the particular spot, but the contact of metal on bone was surprisingly painful.
“Move,” he said.
How could she feel so weirdly calm like this, and panic to the point of crying over an exam for a class she was doing well in? She could be held at knifepoint with zero idea of what to do and be almost okay, and yet when her sex buddy said he wanted to fuck her, she didn’t know how to deal.
As a kid, she’d imagined getting powers and facing down impossible situations and weirdness like this made her think maybe it was what she was meant for. She could trigger, especially if it was only during the bad events, and-
And people who thought they might trigger didn’t. Wasn’t that the rule?
She was finally here and she might die or be maimed for it.
No, that wasn’t even the worst possibility.
She was here, finally, and Kenzie or Tony might die, with her left intact, agonizing over how she’d had no heroism in the end.
For that, she couldn’t move.
She watched the man’s expression twist. A twist of the knife followed, point still against bone, edge still in flesh. As she reacted in pain, her hands moving involuntarily, he flicked the knife out again, slashing at the hand as if it might reach. She backed away, hands dropping.
The pain followed a second later. Blood. He’d cut her as part of that slash. She started to react, and saw him brandishing the knife.
“No!” Kenzie said. “Please. Okay? I surrender for real, ignore her.”
“Don’t you dare,” Natalie said.
“Just- here,” Kenzie said. She pulled the silk scarf from her head. “Press this down on the cut. That’s what you’re supposed to do, right? Please.”
Natalie took the scarf.
Kenzie turned to the guy, hands out and to the sides. “Please?”
The guy didn’t wait. He bent down, reaching for Kenzie, seizing her by the shoulder. She ducked out of his grip, and pushed at his arm, knocking it away.
He brought the knife around- and for just a second, there was a distortion, three or four Kenzie heads and shoulders, a body at an angle.
As the distortion passed, Kenzie was gripping the man’s wrist with two of her hands over her head.
Natalie got to her feet again, stepping forward to help, to follow through before Colt could step in. Not that there was a real point. Kenzie held the wrist with one hand and moved the other, the hairpin held within, point raking along the length of the guy’s arm, wrist to elbow.
He dropped the knife, and Natalie hurried to pick it up. He kicked Kenzie, one hand gripping his wound, and Natalie, still rising to a standing position, hurled herself into him. She was smaller, but she caught him off guard- there was a chance that he could have resisted her or pushed back, but she had the knife, and she could see his eyes widen as he realized it. He let himself be driven back, to where he tumbled down the stairs, stopping as he collided with Colt, who was just around the bend in the stairs, positioned to brace herself.
“You don’t want this,” Natalie said, to Colt.
“They’re up here!” Colt hollered.
Natalie hopped down to the stair that was broader because it turned the corner, and kicked Colt. It helped the guy fall down a few extra stairs.
She thought about taking one hostage, just to buy time for help to arrive, if it was even on the way. Time-time for Kenzie to build something. Was that even possible?
Then she saw the man at the base of the stairs, wearing a shattered porcelain mask. She could see it in his eyes. He didn’t care.
He moved his hand, and there was a lawn dart in it.
It hit the wall behind her as she hurried back upstairs.
Buy time, bide time.
Into the parent’s bedroom. She shut the door, then worked to move the dresser into the way of the door. She sat with her back to the dresser.
Thuds hit the door, at varying intensities. Something hit it hard enough to splinter wood above.
“You’re bleeding.”
Natalie grit her teeth. Something hit the door with an impact that made the dresser move, Natalie’s head flying forward as the third object moving in the chain of conserved energy, then naturally moving back to crack against the wood.
“Can’t do much about it right now. Did you call help?”
“I gave it a try. And I did the projector thing, and glanced at the cameras. It was four people, two capes. Hookline’s got Tony.”
“Kid!” Kitchen Sink raised his voice.
“Hi!”
“I’ve got a burning plank in my hand right now. I’d say you have until it gets too hot for me to hold before it becomes your problem.”
“Um! We moved furniture, and my friend is bleeding enough she might be too weak to move it away.”
“Fine.”
There was a sound of wood clattering.
Natalie frowned.
“You’re not bleeding that badly,” Kenzie said. “Come on. Window.”
Natalie started to stand, and then fell, more out of the surprise of how difficult it was than out of the actual difficulty. She was actually weaker.
And it was actually a good amount of blood, now that she could see what she’d deposited on the floor in the short time since sitting. In the unlit room, it looked black on a gray floor.
Stay calm for Kenzie and Tony.
She climbed to her feet with Kenzie helping, and she made her way to the window.
Kitchen Sink was already outside. As her head popped up, he hurled something.
“I wish I had my stuff,” Kenzie said.
“Sorry.”
“Oh, don’t- I don’t blame you. It was smart and right to not want to bring everything. It’s just- being a tinker sucks sometimes.”
Natalie chanced another look outside. Kitchen Sink was creating and tossing away things. One in each hand. Utensils, vases, toys.
He’d found one he was keeping. She could barely see it in the dark.
A stick? A stick of dynamite, unlit.
“We need to throw something out there. Don’t let him figure something out,” Natalie said.
“Got it. Books?”
“Whatever.”
Natalie did what she could to open windows. Kitchen Sink threw something at the window, but it only cracked the glass. She got the window open partway.
Kenzie had hardback books. Natalie reached for the first.
“You’re hurt.”
“I’m pretty sure I’m still stronger than you.”
“Well, that’s rude.”
With a two-handed grip on the book, Natalie heaved it through the open window, in Kitchen Sink’s general direction.
There was a return throw. She checked immediately after. He’d moved a step to the side.
Another throw- her shoulder hurt with the movement, but adrenaline carried her through.
After her third throw, she heard vehicles. She could hear Kitchen Sink shouting. She chanced a look – he’d lost the dynamite at one point.
The group of capes were running off to one side, all together. Colt, the guy from the top of the stairs.
The focus of the vehicles was on the house- they didn’t give chase. But they weren’t alone.
A shape like an eel crossed with a large wolf paced into the scene, weaving between the trucks, where patrol officers were just emerging.
Kenzie leaned out through the window, past the broken glass before Natalie could stop her, and pointed in the direction the bad guys had gone.
The eel-thing, which had to be Cryptid, ran off.
“He came,” Kenzie said. Her voice was soft. “Infinity and seven.”
Natalie nodded. She reached for a pillowcase beside the bed, and pressed it to her cut.
“I’m sorry you got caught up in this,” Kenzie said.
“It’s what I signed on for.”
“I don’t think it is. I think we really kicked the hornet’s nest.”
Natalie nodded. “Tell them about the fire.”
“You can’t?”
Natalie wasn’t sure if she could. “Conserving strength.”
“Guys!” Kenzie called out. “There might be a fire upstairs!”
People broke into a run, a straggler emerging from the patrol truck with a fire extinguisher.
The shout had drawn attention. Victoria appeared, landing on top of a truck, eyes searching, before she found faces peering through the window of an unlit room. She flew to them.
“Are you okay?”
“Got cut,” Natalie said.
“She’s bleeding a lot.”
“Let’s get you out of there. I’ll lift you down. Come on.”
Natalie began to work her way through the window, which didn’t open all the way. Nice house as it was, there were still shortcuts in construction. Victoria helped her.
Victoria’s voice was reassuring. “We’re getting our forces together. Same as Trial and Error. This doesn’t go unanswered.”
“My-” Natalie started. She wasn’t sure how to label Tony. Stupid, to have that be the thing she stumbled over in this moment.
“Tony’s scraped up and scared, but he’s otherwise fine,” Victoria said.
Natalie nodded. With that, she could pass out.
I really, really want to know the rules of laser chess.
Also, goddamn, Love Lost. Going after a preteen’s civilian identity?
Might be a reference to this: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/91034/laser-chess
Popular-ish game that’s been around for a while.
Look up the game Khet. It’s probably really similar. Short version, pieces have mirrors on them. For your turn you can move a piece in a straight line, or you can turn a piece. Pieces struck by the laser not on a mirrored side are destroyed and removed from the board. Striking the opponents “king” (the piece with the laser diode in it) wins the game.
The version I had as a kid had laser diodes in the board and the king as a piece that lacked mirrors. It was fun while the battery lasted (I don’t remember if we figured out how to replace it…probably?)
I mean, when like 30% of your entire mind is made up of eternal shrieking rage and loss which is perfectly infinitely renewed second by second, when you are literally living your entire life trapped in the moment you saw your daughter’s head get split open….
I feel bad for Love Lost, but I also expect nothing but insanity and savagery from her. Ever.
Vote for vengeance!
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Yeah, what would your dead daughter think?
Of all the scumfuck comments I’ve ever seen, I hated this one the most. Go fuck yourself.
Username checks out
Laser chess for the win!
Typo thread!
Victoria seemed to mostly ignore them, fixing her attention on Natalie, “this is what we wanted.”
Uncalitalized start of dialogue!
“I’d start with studying videos of kissing I’d do that and work my way up,”
Punctuation ?
“If you get in the way, so are you. ” ”
Extra spaces before closing quotes.
“We’re on their side. Nobody’s leaving Kenzie’s rotation here or changing how we do it.”
She felt her forehead crease as she thought on that.
————–
My fucking heart dropped as soon as I read this. GOD DAMNIT, that was close. Why do I care so much about Kenzie and Natalie?? You’re too good at this Wildbow!
Nailbiter is going off Ashley’s Christmas card list for trying to hurt her favorite person.
But also: never try to get at a Tinker in their home or workshop.
And breaking more Rules? Victoria is going on the warpath after this, I’m sure. Very glad Natalie survived, she’s nice and deserves to not get the usual fate of normies caught in the middle of cape affairs.
Yeah I think she might let Chris do his thing when he catches them. They’re gonna start hitting back harder.
Especially because she herself has lost a family member because of people going after them in their secret identity…
You know why no compitant military allows their soldiers/aviators to execute downed pilots?
Because it paints a target on themselves for retaliation- there’s a non-zero chance those morons signed their own (literal) death warrants- this kind of escalation is a threat to everyone, cape, villain or neutral-ish.
Why does throwing books at Kitchen Sink disarm him of dynamite? I think I need a wiki-and-Reddit dive.
This was violent, and in many ways an escalation, but it still feels drastically milder than the previous chapter and than previous interludes. Interesting effect, that.
It’s the shock from role reversal. Usually it’s him throwing miscellaneous crap at other people.
Kitchen Sink: How DARE you?
Natalie: How dare YOU??
Totally. He’s the “Throws stuff at people” guy not the “Get’s stuff thrown at him” guy. He was caught off-guard.
Agreed on the mild feeling. Don’t get me wrong, it’s well written and will definitely move the story along, but it feels less complex and cerebral than the previous ones. More straightforward and to the point. I just kinda wanna get onto the next arc.
Kenzie’s first assignment tomorrow is reliable electricity generation. Also Natalie is kind of awesome for holding off the “throws lots of stuff” guy by throwing books back at him while bleeding profusely. Also I’m eagerly anticipating the upcoming multi-team beatdown, sure to be extra-inspired by just-now-introduced-as-love-interest Tony’s seemingly inevitable death in Hookline’s rope.
Although… there seems to be a fairly good chance that the Hollow Point rejects are a cat’s paw for a more formidable foe. When pursuing retreating morons, stay disciplined and don’t get too far ahead of your allies. That goes for Cryptid especially.
Please phrase Kenzies’ electricity tech in the form of a camera, inside a box.
Well sure it will be a giant boxy camera that is self-powered, with enough extra capacity to power a house and workshop too. (Alternatively, enough extra size to be a house and workshop too.) It is a basic Tinker skill, to phrase what you want in terms of what you can make.
I find it amazingly sad how Kenzie has reached a point where nobody can trust her when she says she’s happy. Her laughs can be artificial, her smile can be fake, and any physical pain can be hid with projections.
That said, I also find it absolutely amazing how her team is willing to help her anyway. They are all there for her and a few can even see past her facade. The part that got me is when she said “infinity plus 7”. I almost cried at that moment.
So now a question. What would you call that cryptid form? My guess is Lurking Anger.
I suspect someone’s going to be calling it “Oh god, please no, I’m sorry!” by the time the night is done.
You know, you’re exactly right. Although I do hope that person is one of the villains who planned this and says it while in Cryptid’s grasp.
Where oh where is the upvote button when you need it?
Eel-like could be Anger. Last one we saw was like a massive grub, so it’s a similar shape. Wonder if this one’s pregnant, too, or if that’s just Brooding.
My guess is it’s the yet-unnamed fourth Anger form. It’s mobile enough that I don’t think it’s Brooding or Repressed, and Blind Rage seems … unlikely. On the other hand I may be underestimating the speed of Repressed Anger. We don’t know what Chris prepared for today, though, so it’s hard to be sure.
Goddamn Natalie, you’ve earned the title of Legitimate Hero.
Good lord I was so stressed out reading this.
Seriously. Although kenz is pretty badass for a tinker with no power or weapons.
Whelp, Go Natalie. As far as awesome unpowereds go, letting yourself get stabbed to protect a kid might not be the most showy of moves, but takes some serious guts.
~Teian
It takes a good sternum, guts are terrible at being stabbed.
I don’t think this is an isolated incident, really. The rules of the game are breaking down. This is going in a bad direction.
Vote for Ward!
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“Eight arms? Three heads?”
Someone’s going to think that looked much cooler than it actually did.
“If we can get away with it, it’s fair,” he said.”
If. The key word is If.
“Victoria’s voice was reassuring. “We’re getting our forces together. Same as Trial and Error. This doesn’t go unanswered.”
And oh look. You aren’t getting away with it. So odds Kenzie recorded that so he can get it played back mockingly?
Perhaps it will get played back more for Nieves than for Colt? “Here’s a dirtbag stabbing non-capes and trying to kidnap a child. You have been a real inspiration for him Gary!”
Nah,that’s just more proof that capes are inherently dangerous and uncontrollable and need to be stopped.
But, it was a non-cape stabbing a non-cape.
Fuck Gary!
As satisfying as that would be, we both know Gary would just stick his head in the sand and insist she faked it. Although maybe less so since Natalie was present, can vouch for it, and even has the wounds to show for it/
“Pfft. You’re falling for this ‘Natalie’ scam? Don’t you see? She’s just another of Lookout’s projections. Yes, of course she can make tactile projections. Are you going to take her word on it? She’s a known liar!”
Lol second or third rate villains coming my after breakthrough? They better gets their affairs in order. Especially if Ashley breaks out.
Man. I’m so glad the Natalie is getting the D.
Good girl. Get that D.
Oh yeah, and don’t die from bloodloss.
Natalie needs to internalize the principle that Kenzie has cameras in every room in the house.
I was kinda waiting for her to be sufficently trapped to get a Trigger Event despite expecting one, but guess not. And while she did well, I expect she doesn’t meet the recruitment criteria for the Dragon’s Teeth.
I wonder if the grieving mother behind that sad email from the previous chapter was actually Love Lost.
Ohhhhhhh. Yeah that’s almost certainly right. Nice catch!
Good call!
Well, I suppose the New Triumvirate has the advantage of containing only one liar.
I mean, I don’t think the former serial killer has lied once.
I’m pretty sure she lied to herself a whole lot in order to be the sort of person who would be interesting to Jack Slash, to be fair.
That’s Valkyrie. The former serial killer in the New Triumvirate. Not Bonesaw. Valkyrie’s only know interaction with the Nine was when she was hunting the most powerful parahumans she could find and killed Grey Boy, using her power to ensure he stays dead.
Naaaaaat omg don’t die!!! ;o;
if natalie isnt a repressed bisexual ill eat my shorts
she wants the V
Who says it’s repressed?
I love the contrast between Taylor always complaining about Tinkers being OP and Kenzie thinking that being a Tinker sucks.
Only sometimes.
It’s short game vs long game. Taylor prepared for everything so she’d arguably be more terrifying as a tinker. Kenz wants to help NOW. Plus she’s a kid so flying and punching through walls sounds way cooler than making cameras.
I have become shockingly invested in Natalie’s love life shockingly quickly. Maybe it’s just that she’s such a side character that her relationships aren’t necessarily a plot target and are therefore safer to invest in, but I find myself really really rooting for her to get that D and maybe also a nice cuddle chat with a side of feelings.
”she’s such a side character that her relationships aren’t necessarily a plot target and are therefore safer to invest in”
This is a thing. This is so much a thing that it needs a name. The Murderous Author Effect? The Wildbow Effect? The GRRM Effect?
Here’s something I think Victoria is missing, and it’s the reason I don’t think this whole notion of enforcing lines in the sand will work anymore.
Previously capes, heroes and villains, existed as identities which were easily separable from the person behind the mask. It wasn’t expected for people in civilian gear to show off their powers. Tinkers didn’t work barefaced on a construction site to get stuff done, Brutes didn’t take public jobs on the police force, etc. And part of this was because powers were something of a game, and part of it was because if you wanted to strictly monetize or get utility out of the power, you typically didn’t in the fashion which elevated you in some way above ordinary life even if you weren’t acting as a cape. Possibly most important, capes did not gain prestige or power in their civilian identities. The privileges of being a cape were kept very distinct and separate from civilian lives. And most importantly, people’s lives, their day-to-day lives, were kept very separate from anything to do with powers. There was a little direct personal interaction.
So when capes fought one another, it was easy to separate their conflict from a conflict between people. A cape going after a civilian identity was a clear violation of a boundary. That made it very easy to rally people around me idea “that was uncalled for, that crossed the line”.
But now … what line? Tinkers are working in construction sites, brutes are part of the police force, capes are helping to maintain day-to-day order and perform basic security functions, the world was broken by capes, there are giant portals on the skyline, villains are seizing personal power, and insofar as many capes still wear costumes … well that doesn’t represent the split identity anymore because many of them simply to live as their cape identity.
Now when people come after Kenzie’s civilian identity? There’s not a clear-cut boundary which is being violated. Kenzie performs her duties in large part as her civilian self, with the cape name being mostly a token gesture. The crimes she stands falsely accused of we’re supposedly perpetrated by her in her civilian identity. The risk of her surveillance technology and evidence manipulation isn’t being weighed on some cape game board, people are worried how that will affect their personal judicial system as it is created. What might happen if she leverages that power against them personally.
I don’t think Victoria is going to find the support she thinks she will from the public, when it comes to retaliating against this transgression with extreme force. Because so far as the public is concerned … there was no transgression. A crime sure. But the line Victoria thinks has been crossed no longer exists.
oh, she’s not expecting retaliation or outrage from the public. she knows exactly who she can count on. she has a list
Falsely accused of?
Not only did I learn that it’s “soup it up”, not “soop it up”, but this chapter had my favorite prose/paragraph so far. When she saw through Kenzie’s mask in the streetlight. And saw through it when she was showing her happiness, naturally, in a way only the audience understands. Yes, she seems sad, Natalie, because she’s happy. That perfect streetlight bouncing off her holomask:
“Yes. I’m super,” Kenzie replied, her head not moving.
“You sure? You don’t sound super- it’s allowed to not feel super.”
“I mean it,” Kenzie said. The amber light of streetlights swept into the car’s interior. A chance trick of light played off of her eyes, making the natural moisture appear to be glowing yellow-orange. Light passed over the little girl’s face, and there was a line below her eye where it looked like her face was a thick mask, a hole had been cut in, and the glow of the streetlights came from within the mask, not outside.
Well, now that you’ve shed blood and fought off some dumbasses, I think you can start with the knowing.
Also, Kenzie? Where are your defense turrets? You’re a tinker who builds emplacements! How have you not outfitted your house with defense turrets, or at least fitted the ceilings with spring-loaded drop cameras? Get on the ball, girl!
Nice work with the hairpin, though. Improvised clones and and improvised weapon. Multipurpose holdouts FTW.
She should weaponize the off switch on her phase cameras. You walk in front of her bedroom door and knives with zero resistance fall into your head–then, still moving pretty fast, phase solid again.
I briefly considered that she could keep a phasing rapier-shaped “camera” in her body cavity or her forearms or wherever, but that would get ugly if a nullifier of some sort hit her. I guess she needs to have a Rain-arm full of cameras that just happen to be shaped like throwing daggers. (As a bonus, she could actually still use them as cameras, too.)
A nullifier wouldn’t stop her tech from working. Just her ability to build tech (probably not an issue in a fight). So it’s entirely feasible. Still dangerous though.
She’s hindered a LOT by the fact she can’t build guns. She might be able to make a big, immovable box that can serve as a flash gun, but the problem with a big, immovable box that acts as a flash gun is it’s not exactly subtle. Unless it’s fitted with a chameleon circuit like the one she gave Cryptid.
But there’s also the fact that the villains know they’re attacking the house of a Tinker, and were probably expecting to need to face defence turrets. And if they’d seen a big, immovable box, they’d keep away from it and try to attack elsewhere. And they’d need power, and I just bet they engineered the power cut so they didn’t have to worry about any serious defences, because a big immovable box with a flash gun and chameleon circuit requires a lot of power.
Of course, she could weaponize that expectation by having the big, obvious box do nothing except sit right outside the only way into a safe control room, while multiple small, camera-based defense systems with their own power sources are set to only activate when the main power is cut off.
The problem with trying to avoid big immovable boxes is that houses are full of them. Refrigerators, ovens, dishwashers, AC units, water heaters, cupboards, chests, etc. Lots of things you can passively disguise one as without having to use active camo. You can also embed the big immovable box in the wall, floor, or ceiling so that only one face is exposed to the entryway, possibly covered by a retractable wall panel, or the tried-and-true picture frame.
As for power, that’s what batteries, generators, and fuel cells are for. All of which fit nicely into the big immovable box paradigm… or you just grab an off-the-shelf model, since these are mundane tech. Bonus points if the shelf belongs to a bad guy. 🙂
Ultimately she could just live inside one of her boxes (big as a house, obviously).
Then if she’s got undesired guests she’ll just turn their location into a labyrinth filled with their worst nightmares while eating popcorn in the next room.
The next level is pulling a Cube (with less torturous stuff inside, probably). Maybe build the new Birdcage even, now that she’s got in touch with Dragon.
This reminds me of some of Taylor’s fights in Worm. Victoria’s power means that she can fight anything, even if she can’t always win, but Taylor often came across people who were flat out immune to most things she could throw at them. Natalie getting stabbed and trying to stall Kitchen Sink had some of that same desperation.
so I have a thing for badass lawyers
on a completely unrelated note, new favorite character!
Is this the first reference to a twig TV show in Ward?
I wonder if Riley watches that show…
Holy crap, this chapter took me from forgetting Natalie even existed to considering her one of my favorite characters.
(So, uh… chances Vicky’s gonna need to hit up her sister for a favor? Preferably before Nat bleeds out?)
This is very worrying, but not all that surprised.
These are the equivalent of growing pains for a fledgling “Hero Network”.
Victoria already displayed the willingness and ability to organize several Hero teams to attack a villain group that gets out of line.
It’s only natural that, at least for a little while, Villains will try to challenge or crush such a system before gets onto its feet.
‘Oh. Yeah. I thought that was your roommate.’
“Tony shook his head, but the way he shook it- not just because she was wrong.”
What did she mean by that?
My interpretation is, sometimes people will shake their head in amusement or disbelief at how off the mark another person may be- say, thinking that they’re roommates when they’re actually fuck-buddies
She meant that he while he was shaking his head in negation, he was also shaking his head as part of his “Today was kind of a holy shit day” comment. So, kind of a sad, tired head-shake, slower and spanning a wider angle than a normal one. Probably with his eyes closed, otherwise he likely had his gaze lowered or raised rather than meeting her eyes during the actual shaking. Maybe some eyebrow action as well.
There are reasons to shake your head at somebody other than signaling a factual negation — exasperation, amusement, et cetera. If Natalie were sure precisely what was up with this headshake, she’d tell us so, but she’s not.
My guess is that he thinks her misapprehension about his brother was cute, somehow.
Chris may be a jackass sometimes… but I also gotta wonder if he’s the one who has Kenzie’s back more than anyone else here (except Swansong, obvious).
Like… I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he was the one patched into her camera’s when all this started going down.
How to put it….
He’s mean to Kenzie, and teases, and pokes at her but… I’m not sure if he even has an opinion on anyone else on the team. I’m not sure he CARES about anyone else on the team enough to form an opinion.
Kenize he interacts with. Usually negatively (except when in Wan indulgence form), but also like… the fact that when V showed up at his orphanage, one of his main points while ranting at her was “Why are you checking in on me rather than her.”
Or them scheming the prison hack together.
*Shrug*.
They seem like siblings.
Awful, dysfunctional siblings.
And I would not like to be this pile of chumps when Chris catches up with them, as this seems like one of the few things he would take personally.
Or not- guess we’ll wait and see.
I’ve had this impression for a long time. Chris just doesn’t have the right gears in place to show affection or care properly, so the fact that he shows _anything_ towards Kenzie is significant.
Also, I am SO looking forward to the torture-fest when Laser-Focused-Murderous-Rage Cryptid catches up to those assholes.
Also also, what are the odds Ashley just said “fuck it, EVERYBODY DIES NOW” and broke out of jail the instant she found out about the attack in an attempt to get to them before Chris can do it?
Seriously, though. These asshats have made a _poor life choice_ tonight…
So I’ve been meaning to raise this for a while and a chapter break is as good a time as any:
Jessica was worried about someone harbouring secrets and being a bad actor in the team and told Vicky to watch out for them.
I don’t think she was talking about Rain, whose deal was known to a couple of group members in broad strokes.
So… am I wrong, and it was Rain, or is this anvil still dangling over out heroes’ heads?
as much as I hate to say it, it’s probably the one who Vicky and the audience will least expect- Sveta. What, specifically, Sveta wants out of this whole thing that will be to everyone else’s detriment, I’m not sure yet.
At this point, I guess Sveta does seem the most likely? There hasn’t been any foreshadowing though. Sveta doesn’t have relationships with many people outside the team, that we’ve seen. She loves Weld, hates Cauldron, and has only slightly more complicated feelings about the Irregulars.
I wouldn’t be surprised if a lack of foreshadowing ends up being meta-foreshadowing instead.
Maybe she’s a Goddess plant and isn’t even aware of it ?
Cue paranoid flip-out that any single one of them could be a Goddess plant, including non-capes due to Monokeros.
(if I just fire everywhere, surely I’ll be right about something !)
Goddess Plant. Sveta. Heh.
There has been at least a little bit of foreshadowing regarding Sveta. When Ashley got Victoria alone during her moving party, she was very specific that Victoria not neglect Sveta. Since then, of course, we’ve had Victoria consistently not spend time with Sveta, and she’s reminded us of that a few times. There was also that message Sveta got from an old acquaintance. But that could all just as easily be foreshadowing something else, e.g. building up to an Irregular luring Sveta into a trap under the guise of reconciliation and torturing her to death, after which Victoria will feel guilty for not being involved enough in Sveta’s life to see the manipulations and regret that they never did take that shopping trip they wanted.
But if Sveta is the problem, the issue likely pertains to her lack of a proper body. She’s been stressed about that. Ways this can go wrong include selling out the team to buy the services of somebody like Podmaker, Riley, Amy, or Nilbog, breaking down and going on a murder spree, or realizing that she can carve the face off a teammate, smush herself in there, and interface her tendrils with their nervous system to take over. Or rather than wanting a body, it could be as simple as wanting better control over herself, in which case she might be going to Teacher for help.
We also shouldn’t ignore the possibility that Jessica Yamada was full of shit. She could have been mistaken, or she might have misled Victoria in order to give her a much needed sense of purpose. Or she might have been Satyr.
My prediction for Yamada’s whispered question to Antares after they find her: “Did you know that Rain is in the Fallen?”
That would be pretty funny, but she’s probably already aware that Victoria knows since their conversation in about whether something bad is at play with the group happened right after Victoria told her that “Rain revealed his situation,” to which Yamada replied, “I heard.” There could be a misunderstanding in there since they never explicitly stated which of Rain’s several situations they were each talking about, but I doubt it.
On the other hand: “Did you know that Kenzie framed her parents?”
As far as internal bad actors, I’m still putting my bets on Capricorn (one half or the other… probably Tristan)….
Alternatively, its no individual one of them that’s bad, but SOMEONE has lined up the probabilities with a scheme in mind (Ziz, Fortuna, Some other precog), and the poor shmucks are all just dominos lined up and ready to fall into place.
Dinah let us think the end of the world was inevitable, but she’s been pulling the strings all along. Now she’s gearing up for round two!
I only just noticed that it seems like all the arc chapter names are related. They’ve all followed a pattern of being related to light or darkness, but even the three darkness ones are related or “created by” light. Sorry if someone else has already mentioned this, I don’t always read all the comments.
Glow-worm – light/glowing
Daybreak – light
Flare – light
Glare – reflection of light
Shade – darkness
Shadow – darkness
Pitch – this one is maybe a stretch but pitch is the resin you burn on a…
Torch – light/fire
Eclipse – darkness
Beacon – light
It’ll be interesting going forward seeing if this theme continues.
Actually another quick thought right after posting, but Torch and Beacon made me think of them being used as a Ward against darkness. Super circumstantial but at least an interesting tangent. Again this will be dependent on future arc names.
and now you’v ementioned this, Flare could be assocaited with sending a flare from a falre gun calling for aid. Pitch can be everyoe decde to ptich in. (Though I think I mentioend that one previously in another arc.)
…Glare emight have been a good title to use in the rc where Amy and Victoria are finally once again in the same place at the same time.
Sorry if I sound harsh, but wasn’t that completely obvious from the 2nd arc in ? The title is never the only interesting word to focus on in wildbow’s works – Worm’s 26.x being the ultimate wham example.
Anyway, you might now also appreciate how ‘Glow-worm’ serves as a literal bridge between the insect-related-chapters of Worm and the light-related-chapters of Ward.
Re: pitch. It’s black – as pitch. Also used in other common idioms: pitch black, pitch dark (and corresponding substantives with additional -ness suffixes).
This also ties into Victoria naming herself after a star, which itself is also a reference to the light theme most of her family has, both in names and powers.
I’m not sure if Victoria dug that deep back when she chose ‘Glory Girl’, but Glory is also light-related in its own right.
I just never really looked at the arc names all together or noticed, regardless of if you think it was obvious or not.
I’ve been reading since Worm but never thought to see if the arc names were related, it just never occurred to me until now. Looking back I see Pact’s are all legal terms and Twig’s are all idioms.
And all of Worm’s relate to insects. Even if not directly, but they’re all insect-related, like all of Ward’s are light/dark related. And even dark is related to light, if only by its absence.
That’s why Glow-Worm is called Glow-Worm; it’s both light and insect.
This was already all mentioned above.
The last time I checked Kenzie’s tinker specialization is extra-dimensional lenses rather than cameras. Wide-angle for a flash-bang equivalent and narrow focus for a laser perhaps?
I’m thinking that Kenzie might develop something similar to balefire from the Wheel of Time series. An extra-dimensional laser beam that can burn the intended target out of the space-time continuum. We’ve already seen her take time-lapse video of the past and there’s nothing saying that powers need to be fair. Perhaps that’s only wishful thinking 😛
#dontfuckwithkenzie
Every time I read about Kenzi smiling, I’m reminded of Bicth and her stilted ability to read facial expressions. Kenzie is proabably the one person that bithc would read write, if I’m right… for I don’t think Kenzi is smiling, rather baring her teeth and getting ready to bite.
I can’t help but think that the villains attacking natalie might end up being a bit of a blessing in disguise for breakthrough. This happened to them not even 12 hours after they were on TV where they were being criticized for what kenzie was doing at home and Victoria directly called out how protecting Kenzie’s identity was incredibly important.
So of course IMMEDIATELY after they stoke up a bunch of anger around Kenzie, she’s attacked in her home and her UNPOWERED caretaker is grievously wounded. And a knife wound is the kind evidence that she can’t be accused of falsifying.
The blame for this can easily land right at the feet of Gary and the hosts of the talk show, and might just take the heat off breakthrough.
Of course Kenzie could “falsify” a knife wound. That is to say, she could give Natalie a real knife wound and then the two of them could lie and claim it was done by her attackers.
I really sympathize with Natalie, both on the whole “I wanna be a superhero!” thing and the “I don’t wanna screw up a friendship!” thing. Admittedly, it’s nowhere close to physical, but whatever. I think she’s pretty cool.
Don’t mess with Kenzie! I can’t help but think of Natalie filling some sort of void that Yamada left behind. This chapter really made me like her a lot more.
I always love chapters like these. Non-capes being heroic. Reminds me of Sierra’s interlude.
That’s a pretty poor move from those villains, its just going to add fuel to Victoria’s bonfire.
Maybe its a calculated move by Tattletale through a puppet intermediary. That seems like a stretch, but maybe Tattletale is aware of Victoria’s efforts to organize the heroes into a more cohesive whole to address the threat of war from Chiet and other big problems and sees this as a positive overall.
So… Team Poor Life Choices has decided to make an appearance. All that remains is to see what remains and who gets there first. Chris eldritch whateverthe, Ashley missing a leg with giant holes between the prison and Kenzi’s house. Capricorn has a wide variety of things. Sveta having a tug of war with herself and some lucky guys. Veronica probably just shielding herself from an attack and then wretch solving the problem… And that’s just Breakout. What about Carol coming down cause her subordinate/student was attacked or similar. Kenzie had issues, but Breakout has allies.
If successful, this may have been possible. As while they probably coulda kissed their keisters goodbye, the loss of the major surveillance unit could hamper pursuit. Failed? well… I’d say they probably should run, but think most of the people are not movers, and a lot of Breakout is fast.
I actually do not think TT is behind this. She’s loud, rude, and unabashedly villanous, but I don’t think this is something she’d do. In part, because it did fail rather spectacularly, and even a few of the undersiders woulda gone against her. Most of the undersiders, if i remember right, are villans only because they don’t exactly follow the rules, and are generally goodish people. Admittedly, Lisa is borderline, but not exceptionally stupid.