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Amelia, Worm AU [Complete]

1- We don't know that.

2- She collided with multiple iterations simultaneously.
We know that Cauldron's flesh garden is in an impact crater on one Earth, and that their one Earth is still co-located with Earth Bet enough that Scrub + Labyrinth holes hit the surface rather than deep space. We saw the latter at the end of the Echinda fight.

Meh, it's really not important.
 
OK. So. Is anyone going to talk about Morood Nag's shadow shit? Holy. Crap. Honestly. If she was that powerful how did she not just win everything by herself? She could have just gone to every warlord outpost and eaten everything there, until she was literally unstopable. There has to be some sort of upper limit. Right?
 
OK. So. Is anyone going to talk about Morood Nag's shadow shit? Holy. Crap. Honestly. If she was that powerful how did she not just win everything by herself? She could have just gone to every warlord outpost and eaten everything there, until she was literally unstopable. There has to be some sort of upper limit. Right?

"Man, that would be so boring" seems like a great excuse until she need to go all out.
 
OK. So. Is anyone going to talk about Morood Nag's shadow shit? Holy. Crap. Honestly. If she was that powerful how did she not just win everything by herself? She could have just gone to every warlord outpost and eaten everything there, until she was literally unstopable. There has to be some sort of upper limit. Right?

Africa lacks the population density in this story to pull off true exponential growth. Parahuman warlords make city growth a huge problem as cities are valuable -> parahumans fight over value -> fighting destroys city. It would impose a fairly harsh cap on density. Also, she LIKES her home country and doesn't want to depopulate it. While she can and does wander into the camps of her enemies and depopulate them, it doesn't have the scale of Paris.
 
Africa lacks the population density in this story to pull off true exponential growth. Parahuman warlords make city growth a huge problem as cities are valuable -> parahumans fight over value -> fighting destroys city. It would impose a fairly harsh cap on density. Also, she LIKES her home country and doesn't want to depopulate it. While she can and does wander into the camps of her enemies and depopulate them, it doesn't have the scale of Paris.

I just think that it's a little teensy weensy bit overpowered. Conisdering that she has complte control over her shadow, and as we just saw had it running over literally everything, it doesnt make any sense to me. Just my opinion. I would (personal opion nothing against story) put some sort of upper limit on the shadow.
 
Amelia, Ch 317
Amelia, Ch 317


"I was afraid of this," Lisa muttered as we watched the blackness that was everything we could see on Bet. Not everyone had the cross dimensional viewing tech, after all. "Dammit, I really hoped I would be wrong."


The inky darkness dissipated moments later.


"Dimensional anomaly designated as Endbringer Beelzebub is no longer registering on my scanners," Dragon reported. "It appears to be over."


"Atropos reporting," Lily spoke over the coms, sounding tired and miserable. "I... Moord Nag has been... are you planning to try to save her? Because it's going to take tinker tech to do it."


Lisa glanced at the others. Including a quick look at Alexandria, who was still missing her right arm. This is them imitating Taylia, again. Or were they? The glance didn't last much longer than a blink, and she'd looked at everyone. Was I being paranoid?


"We have to try," she replied. "What happened isn't her fault. Her power overwhelmed her ability to stay in control. We're sending someone over to perform emergency surgery. We can't risk bringing her to Avalon until we know for certain she wasn't infected. While we're on the subject, please make sure she stays unconscious."


We don't know that Beelzebub can infect Yggdrasil, but we don't know that it can't. "Do it," I spoke in the suit. Riley was still in her hideaway. Clarice shunted over almost immediately. We had plenty of healers here. Me, Cao, Sanction, Boost, and a handful of new Protectorate members that may or may not have been from our Mass Trigger experiment. For the time being, we were doing patch jobs. Actual healing would take significant time and effort. As rare as healers are, there were fewer still that could achieve something like regrowing limbs.


On the plus side, the new protocols we used for these battles made it so there were only dozens of potential wounded, instead of hundreds.


"I thought that the Endbringers were supposed to be getting weaker," Chevalier's voice was an accusation. "This doesn't feel like weaker to me. Even at our worst, we've never lost three cities in six months before."


Nice of him not to add China and India to the mix. Victoria watched him and us. She's worried, afraid there will be a fight. I looked over at Taylor, still unconscious. If I needed any more proof that the Endbringers hated us in particular, I got it today. The bug monsters that controlled the infected were insect enough that her powers could see their senses. Not enough for her to control, just to watch. I didn't have much choice but to render her unconscious. It was kinder that way.


"They are weaker," Lisa insisted. Alexandria took her position, not quite between them, but in both of their lines of sight. That message was clear enough that I didn't need Thinker powers to puzzle it out. "But they're not holding back as much. It's like... who would you rather fight? Someone like Director Calvert's soldiers, here, but they want to take you alive. Or someone like me whe I have a gun and am going to use it."


"Right, your theory that the Endbringers are holding back," Chevalier responded. He sounded skeptical of the idea.


"It's not a theory, they are holding back so hard it hurts," Lisa responded. "Or they were, at least. Endbringers come with inhibitors. Programmed limits that they're not allowed to violate, or can only violate for short periods of time. Any one of the original three had the ability to end all life on Bet within a month or two. They don't because... well, that's part of the program they follow. And each time we hit them hard enough to hurt them, they lift inhibitors and fight harder. That's why we don't wound them and drive them off. They either leave when they want to, after they reach their designated kill counter for the day or whatever. Or we kill them in the first blow. But the newest Endbringers are coming with fewer inhibitions to start with. Fighting the way the first three only started fighting after years of heroes learning how to fight them in their easiest setting."


"So the new ones are weaker, but fighting harder," he summarized.


"See, sis," Vicky quipped. Sis? What is that about? "Why couldn't you have just said that?"


"The older ones were fighting harder, too, before the end. Behemoth and Leviathan used tactics never seen before. Even the Simurgh did, I assume she foresaw what we would do. It's elegant, in its own way," Lisa continued. "But it's ultimately all psychological warfare. You hurt us, we hurt you back harder. A way to beat us down, leave us demoralized. It's..." she hesitated for a second.


"It's bullying," she concluded. "That's what it really is at its core. Like a cruel child tormenting a small animal. Every time we build up, they are there to break us down again. Or maybe it's more subconscious than that, I don't know. But this new Endbringer, Beelzebub, is easily the least powerful of the new Endbringers. I'd expect Barghest to be the strongest, because he's the one that didn't have to escalate during the fight. All the others, we fought enough to force them to use tactics early that ordinarily would have waited for dozens of fights."


"This sounds like we should be advocating for not fighting the Endbringers," Chevalier responded. "Run, hide, and spread out so they kill as few people as possible with each attack, but avoid actually fighting them?"


"Isn't that what the colony worlds are for?" I cut in. It was true, wasn't it? Fuck, we can't even beat the god damn Endbringers unless we catch them by surprise. How are we supposed to be a match for Scion, when the time comes? Is that the strategy we need? To give up on survival and hit Scion now, hope we can do the damage we need to win it before he realizes he needs to fight back?


"That's... not actually a bad thought," Lisa mused. "It won't work, not now, not after they've spent so many years fighting us. It's too late for it to make any difference now. If we could go back in time and convince the first group of heroes to just not engage Behemoth in battle?" She shrugged. "Well, we can speculate for the rest of our lives. Lives that promise to be very short if we don't find a way to improve beyond this, or abandon Bet entirely. I don't think the Endbringers will follow us to the other worlds. Their programming doesn't seem to understand the idea, or they'd have already targetted Aleph, Dalet, and the other advanced timeline worlds."


"You're saying it's hopeless?" he asked. "That there's no way to fight back?" He stood. It took a special kind of man to look imposing while missing an arm, but Chevalier pulled it off.


"I'm saying we keep trying," Lisa countered. "We know how Beelzebub functions, now. We've seen the worst that the new Endbringers can unleash. There are no more surprises, there are no more surprises for them to throw at us. We've seen the worst they can do, and we survived."


"Survive the loss of entire cities every few months?" Alexandria asked. "I wish I shared your optimism."


"Should be the last city lost," Lisa responded. "Or, at least, the last that's irrecoverable. Tohu and Bohu, now that we know their tactics, can be countered. Force it to choose capes other than Khepri and Atropos before we start our next attack. We may even be able to kill them the next time they manifest, they don't really have methods to protect them from our Endslayer combinations. Barghest, we already know Eidolon beats handedly. We just use that tactic and the worst we face is a few mil in property damage. We could just stand there and let it do its thing, then bring everyone back."


Eidolon, who had opted to quietly watch the exchange, nodded. I wondered what was going through his head.


"Khonsu's meant to be unkillable, and he probably actually is," Lisa continue. "But we don't need to kill him. Not right away at least. Thanda counters him pretty completely, with Khepri and our weapons as backup. Beelzebub is beatable with some time. By the next time we see it, we'll have studied the samples and worked out counter agents. There has to be a way. Maybe a new breed of weapons for the swarm. Do you think we could build, I dunno, shunt-bugs? Like beetles that swarm over everyone, fuse into a single life form, and then shunt to Avalon?"


That's... can that be done?


"It's possible," Dragon agreed. "The shunt drive really requires little more than a faraday cage to properly generate the field. The organic tech is the hard part, specifically allowing it to contain enough power to achieve the dimensional waveform. As long as there's a functional shunt drive attached to any part of it, you could theoretically shunt an entire world at once, if you had enough energy to make it happen. There are limitations to work around. But with a year until the next time he shows, that should be achievable."


"And suddenly, Beelzebub's terror weapon is mostly useless," Lisa responded. "That's the thing about fear. It's only scary when you don't know how to fight back. When the target finds a way to mitigate the effects, you're left with nothing but a distraction. An annoyance. They might not be dead yet, but that's just a matter of time. The Endbringers have already lost the war. The next one or two Endbringers will be even weaker, in their own way. More blatant, more immediately frightening. And then, nothing. There's no scope left, the Endmakers didn't think to save their best for last. They have no tricks left."


I wasn't quite sure I believed her, but I had to hope. I looked over at Taylor. We can't take much more of this.


====================


A/N- The thing I hate about this chapter is that some of the people reading it are going to think it's a response to certain peoples' complaints about the Endbringers.

Nope.

Had this, have the next, and Scion all mapped out. Including the general outline of this speech Lisa just gave.
Hehe. Yeah, you didn't actually think I was actually going to tell you what it was, did you?

:p


Also. Yes. The Moord Nag thing was intentionally anticlimactic. (Waits for bitching about THAT now, too.)
 
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A/N- The thing I hate about this chapter is that some of the people reading it are going to think it's a response to certain peoples' complaints about the Endbringers.

Lies! You intentionally take what I say and make it worse just to be contrary!

But holy crap, making Taylor have sensory input but no control over that mess....fuck, you're sick, twisted, and utterly depraved.

Have a gold star, you have out-done me.
 
The bug monsters that controlled the infected were insect enough that her powers could see their senses. Not enough for her to control, just to watch.

I'm reasonably certain that's not how Queen Administrator works. Either the organism has a simple enough nervous system to be controlled, or it doesn't. There's no gradient, it either works or it doesn't.

Unless the "bugs" have an organic nervous system that isn't actually connected to anything but senses, and the rest of the body "moves" through being manipulated by a telekinetic force like Shatterbird's power. Which seems like a lot of trouble to go through just to traumatize Kephri, honestly.
 
Which seems like a lot of trouble to go through just to traumatize Kephri, honestly.

And that is the entire point, the Endbringer's are unable to cause lasting damage to any of Pantheon the regular way, now they are trying to tear apart their minds and their will to fight.
 
I'm reasonably certain that's not how Queen Administrator works. Either the organism has a simple enough nervous system to be controlled, or it doesn't. There's no gradient, it either works or it doesn't.

Unless the "bugs" have an organic nervous system that isn't actually connected to anything but senses, and the rest of the body "moves" through being manipulated by a telekinetic force like Shatterbird's power. Which seems like a lot of trouble to go through just to traumatize Kephri, honestly.

This likely happened exactly BECAUSE it wanted Taylor to suffer as much as possible. The bugs having a secondary insect brain based sensory system with no motor control is exactly the kind of thing that one could design in an artificial life-form to torture an insect controller.
 
I'm reasonably certain that's not how Queen Administrator works. Either the organism has a simple enough nervous system to be controlled, or it doesn't. There's no gradient, it either works or it doesn't.

Unless the "bugs" have an organic nervous system that isn't actually connected to anything but senses, and the rest of the body "moves" through being manipulated by a telekinetic force like Shatterbird's power. Which seems like a lot of trouble to go through just to traumatize Kephri, honestly.

Or both Taylor AND the Endbringer have control. But the Endbringer's control is stronger. Like arm wrestling Alexandria. Just because you lose doesn't mean your arm didn't work (although that may change in the process of losing). It just means it didn't work enough.

Remember- this info wasn't given to you from Taylor's PoV. You don't know what it looked (felt) like to her.
 
They filled their planet. Not their universe.

At least, as far as I recall.
Correct. All possible iterations of their planet in all possible universes, which number more than the number of particles in any given universe(between 10^80 and 10^85), so probably enough to fill ONE universe if they so chose, which they didnt.
 
Correct. All possible iterations of their planet in all possible universes, which number more than the number of particles in any given universe(between 10^80 and 10^85), so probably enough to fill ONE universe if they so chose, which they didnt.

If those numbers are correct, surely they should fill multiple universes? Each entity is planet sized or larger according to SB, if there's enough entities to cover more planets than there are particles in the universe... entities are BIG.

Anyway, the upshot is that there are a LOT of them.
 
If those numbers are correct, surely they should fill multiple universes? Each entity is planet sized or larger according to SB, if there's enough entities to cover more planets than there are particles in the universe... entities are BIG.

Anyway, the upshot is that there are a LOT of them.

They werent planet size back then. They were smaller.
 
They werent planet size back then. They were smaller.
If those numbers are correct, surely they should fill multiple universes? Each entity is planet sized or larger according to SB, if there's enough entities to cover more planets than there are particles in the universe... entities are BIG.

Anyway, the upshot is that there are a LOT of them.
^What Zanfib said. They werent planet sized then. When ALL of them turned into TWO BIG ONES, then and only THEN did they become the size of Zion and Eden as they are before shedding shards
 
If those numbers are correct, surely they should fill multiple universes? Each entity is planet sized or larger according to SB, if there's enough entities to cover more planets than there are particles in the universe... entities are BIG.

Anyway, the upshot is that there are a LOT of them.
You do realize they don't turn the entire planet into mass for their bodies. Chances are, the vast majority of that material gets consumed/fissioned/antimattered/exotic bullshitted into pure energy to supply themselves and their life cycle. These bastards use a LOT of power.
 
You do realize they don't turn the entire planet into mass for their bodies. Chances are, the vast majority of that material gets consumed/fissioned/antimattered/exotic bullshitted into pure energy to supply themselves and their life cycle. These bastards use a LOT of power.
Originally, they only blew up the planet in order to launch themselves into space. They didn't eat it.

Not sure if that changed over the various cycles, but IMHO the idea that they never changed their launch procedure has a sort of brutal elegance.
 
Originally, they only blew up the planet in order to launch themselves into space. They didn't eat it.

Not sure if that changed over the various cycles, but IMHO the idea that they never changed their launch procedure has a sort of brutal elegance.
The thing that occurs is that they focus onto one world, pull as much/all of the energy of the world onto a single iteration then draw down the energy into themselves and their offspring.

The side effect of drawing untold amounts of energy onto only a single/few worlds generally results in melting/exploding of the planet.
 
The thing that occurs is that they focus onto one world, pull as much/all of the energy of the world onto a single iteration then draw down the energy into themselves and their offspring.

The side effect of drawing untold amounts of energy onto only a single/few worlds generally results in melting/exploding of the planet.
Here's what they do:

Interlude 26 said:
They spend time reorganizing themselves, shifting the sheer masses of shards they have acquired into forms useful for another task.

Once they are reformed, they leech all of the heat and energy from countless worlds and concentrate it in a single reality. The energy boils the oceans of silt-choked waters, disintegrates the landmasses.

Their bodies form into a large, complex shape, with only small fragments in this one world. The extensions of those same fragments extend into other realms, in concentrated, specific shapes, made for a purpose: to survive the next step.

The energy is released, and the planet shatters.

The shattering is so extreme that it extends into other worlds, through the same channels that the fragments used to extend into other realities. Every single one of the remaining habitable worlds is destroyed in the ensuing blast.
1/ Blowing up the planet is not a side-effect, it's the whole point.

2/ They don't eat the energy.

3/ They destroy every iteration of the world (by accident or negligence).
 
They destroy all the planets they exist on because they can't be fucked putting effort into shielding them during lift off.

They're not very creative things, magic space whales. Eventually they will figure out that they don't need to, I guess, but they probably don't really care either. They're done with the place so what's it matter?
 
It actually specifically states other "habitable" worlds which seems to imply deliberate maliciousness. Perhaps in an attempt to prevent the rise of advanced civilizations that might be threats/competitors for resources? Pure supposition.
 
Yeah, you know, up until this point, Pantheon may have been in the 'Get Eidolon some help' category when they find out he is the Endbringer.

Now? They will likely be in the 'We will remove the brain from your body and do science to it, while keeping you alive and able to feel everything. AKA: Give him to Riley."

Well, maybe. At the very least, a Death sentence.

That shit is just too fucked up.
Removing emotional responses from the equation, giving Eidolon the Coil treatment (aka radical but non-life-treatening personality chirurgery) is probably one way that would preserve his powers while stopping the Endbringer-itis.
Honestly if they can figure out it's actually Eidolon, the most merciful method of resolving the problem is to lobotomize him. Remove his ability to think freely, he does exactly what he is told but has no thoughts of his own. He might even suggest it himself because that would at least leave his meat-robot body behind to put his powers to good use while removing the creativity that brought about these horrors.
And I see I am not the only one who considers it.

Now, for Endbringer criticism. No, this does not deserve the term "criticism", too shallow. But frankly, it's tedious. The latest Endbringer fight for all that it was, can be summed up in my eyes with a few sentences.

New Endbringer - minionmaker.
Lily figures out that the zinger is revenge for Leviathan and goes to EB shelter, but fails to protect the civilians.
Endbringer makes zombies who are prisoners in their own bodies and spread out the infection on contact.
Paris is dead and cordoned.
Crystal is forced to become a murderer in her own eyes when fighting against the zombies.

That's it.

The next chapter adds two things:
Coil and Moord Nag are called to contain the outbreak. Two paths are taken... neither is going all that well.

And now, the latest chapter.
A/N- The thing I hate about this chapter is that some of the people reading it are going to think it's a response to certain peoples' complaints about the Endbringers.

Nope.

Had this, have the next, and Scion all mapped out. Including the general outline of this speech Lisa just gave. Hehe. Yeah, you didn't actually think I was actually going to tell you what it was, did you?

:p

Also. Yes. The Moord Nag thing was intentionally anticlimactic. (Waits for bitching about THAT now, too.)

Well that's very interesting. My guess is Lisa has figured out that the Endmaker has some means of perceiving them, so the speech is to intimidate them or ruin their inspiration. Alternatively it's just a morale booster.
Peanuckle has essentially voiced my opinion. Lisa was doing extreme trash talk at the Endmakers. No vision. No tricks for the last. No unexpected actions. No true power left. Annoyance, she calls them.

All this goes to one single thing - Lisa is baiting.

And going back to my boring Endbringer whining - Lisa has also said much of what I feel. Endbringers have stopped being perceived as unstoppable engines of destruction, and became an annoyance. For me who is sitting on Earth that never felt touch of Entities, the tragedies, deaths and destruction they wrought, amount to little. I am left with watching Pantheon teen drama.

As is, the only point I can find to all the Endbringers?

Can all of you people even imagine just how pressed will Scion be, once all the Endslayer combinations are tested against him? Training mode for Scion battle, that is all the Endbringers amount to, nowadays.

Frankly, with the current setup? I'd love to see someone cross Amelia with NGE - because all the Endbringers and the Angels walking around... One is very reminiscent of another.
 
Can all of you people even imagine just how pressed will Scion be, once all the Endslayer combinations are tested against him?
My guess is "not very." Even in canon when Taylor was doing this with 5000+ parahumans, he wasn't giving a single fuck.

The key to Scion's strength is twofold: First, his real body is hidden in a shielded dimension. The Warrior and the Thinker separated the dimensions and walled them off before the cycle began in order to maximize results and ensure safety. Sting can breach this blockade, but anything else is useless.

Second, Scion is optimized towards fighting. All the best combat powers, nullifiers, precog, PtV (admittedly expensive, but not so much that he won't use it at all) and no limiters of any sort. Scion is capable of casually cracking landmasses and is exceptionally difficult to do any real harm to. On top of that, his powers are already plugged into each other the way that Pantheon is still learning how to perform.

There's two ways to beat Scion: Fight him hard enough to make him spam PtV and wear down his energy stores, which would probably result in most of the species being dead anyways; and get him to allow himself to be killed, which is what happened in canon, and required him to go on his rampage first, so that he'd be indulging his emotions and vulnerable to sudden swings.

No matter how advanced Pantheon gets, it doesn't change the fact that the Passengers themselves were hard-coded to be either harmless to the Entities or simple to defeat. I find it highly unlikely that any combination of powers could put Scion into a difficult position if he were to put any sort of effort into the fight. If everything else fails, he just triggers his unblocked PtV and wins.
 
Can all of you people even imagine just how pressed will Scion be, once all the Endslayer combinations are tested against him? Training mode for Scion battle, that is all the Endbringers amount to, nowadays.
The problem with that is that Endbringers don't even come near Scion's level. He has a significant amount of ridiculously strong powers (though he prefers his single, OP power) that are only tempered by his inability to find fucks to give, and in canon his interest in making people suffer rather than actually killing them.

It's sort of like comparing walking over hot coals to walking into a volcano, when it comes to Endbringers and Scion.

Sure Pantheon has quality when it comes to combat tactics, but Scion has quantity in the raw power sense.
 
You do realize they don't turn the entire planet into mass for their bodies. Chances are, the vast majority of that material gets consumed/fissioned/antimattered/exotic bullshitted into pure energy to supply themselves and their life cycle. These bastards use a LOT of power.

What does that have to do with their size? I'm saying they're planet sized because that was the size generally agreed upon in the SB debate thread, not because they eat planets or anything like that.
 

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