Wait a Minute... (Guy in Worm with Trouble in Terrorist Town powers)

[Phili]

Chapter 23: Hangin' Out With The Crew in The School Yard Bar?

January 6, 2010, Wednesday. Brockton Bay, Dave's Apartment.



Dave woke up… again. He had forgotten yesterday to try and figure out exactly who was waking him up after he concluded it was enemy action, but he'll figure it out today for sure!

Why do I keep waking up? Who is doing this to me? I bet my soul mate Miss Militia doesn't have to deal with waking up every single day.

---

Bagel in toaster, orange juice poured, water for tea in the kettle on the stove with the stove turned on; Dave was ready for the start of the day.

Good Morning Dave!

So, you haven't unlocked your 'False False Swipe' yet, but progress has been made. I thought about things a bit, and decided to disable any roles you might get with shops in them for today. You see, shop items naturally take up soul room, and you need soul room to get your false swipe thing, so having more shops unlocked means your soul will need more room for shop items that it then can't use for other things. Don't worry though, math dictates that each thing you unlock that doesn't have a shop will make you more likely to unlock something with a shop later. Also, it won't exactly take long to get your False False Swipe thing going, probably a couple more days at most of going out as a Scyther. Anyways, today, your new role is the Good Boy! This one works a little differently than you might expect. Instead of blinding whoever kills you for fifteen seconds or whatever, you can decide in advance how long you want whoever kills you to be blinded for. And of course, you can unblind whoever kills you at will at any point. Because of this, the default blinding length I have set it for is 'forever'.

Huh. "You've gotten good at explaining things without writing them in English." Dave offered a compliment to Daf.

There are no walls in soul space Dave, you can't make me bash my head against one!

"Have you considered adding them?" Dave wondered.

*Sigh* Just… whatever. I give up. Maybe you'll be able to read my perfectly normal English letters after your soul grows more or something. Like, I had heard humans got weird, but every bit of knowledge I have says that you should be able to read these, and that if you somehow couldn't you wouldn't be able to understand it at all.

"There there," Dave patted his own head as he started eating his breakfast.

---

"I'm going to classes Dave; the college starts up again today after Winter break." Bella told him when he went to bother her—in his normal form this time.

"I'll go bother Crystal then!" He decided as Bella walked to her car.

"She has classes too." Bella told him bluntly.

"Uhh…"

Bella sighed. "High schools probably have the rest of the week off if you want to bother the rest of New Wave, and the older generation are full time heroes aside from Brandish, so they might be willing to take you on a patrol or something." She caved and gave him the information he needed.

"Thank you Bella! I love you!" Dave said gleefully.

"I heard that you said that to Miss Militia too, does she know you have feelings for another woman?" Bella asked with a strange expression on her face.

"Miss Militia is my soul mate." Dave confirmed.

"Just… whatever. Sorry Dave, I really need to leave now in order to not be late to class. I'm sure you can manage to entertain yourself without me and Crystal somehow. If you give strong enough puppy dog eyes, and we manage to finish our homework early enough, the three of us might be able to hang out later today." Bella said, before she left to go to her classes.

---

Dave was in his Scyther form, walking along on his way to the Pelham house. It was a nice sunny day, and he waved to a couple of people he saw along the way. One of them even waved back.

"Hey, can we talk for a second?" Someone said to him from the side.

Dave turned and found… a person. He never would have expected that. He was a rather tall man with visible muscles and wearing sunglasses.

"My employer would like to speak with you as soon as you are able, and she said that –"

"Alright let's go!" Dave interrupted. How convenient, something to do!

"Oh, uh, alright. Follow me please." The mean said, before walking in a different direction, occasionally glancing back to see if Dave was following him.

They quickly arrived to a parked car, and the man said "Come in please, I'll drive you to meet my boss."

"Sure thing." Dave agreed.

After the man started driving, Dave quickly grew bored and asked, "So, are you kidnapping me?"

"What? No, of course not, we don't do that kind of thing." The man said in an offended tone.

"What kind of terrorist refuses to kidnap people?" Dave asked, puzzled.

"What? I'm not a terrorist? What would give you that idea?" Now the man was just confused.

"Well, who else would see a green bug monster with swords for arms, and decide to try and bring them back to their boss? Oh wait, I see now. You're a poacher!" Dave happily concluded.

"No! Ew, I got shivers from hearing that. Do you have any idea how incredibly evil a poacher is? The shit they pull makes the Nazi dog-fighting rings look like top-notch humanitarian animal welfare clubs…" The man started going on about how evil poachers were.

Great, he's just like Sarah. Another speech-happy maniac. Although, now that I think about it, none of the other terrorists I've met so far have given me a kidnapping vibe either. Both New Wave and the Protectorate actually give me the impression they would object to kidnapping. Wait a Minute… I object to kidnapping! Am… Am I a bad terrorist?... Nah.

---

The car pulled up to a fairly fancy bar called 'Palanquin,' and the driver said, "well, here we are."

The driver, Jeff, turned out to be a really nice guy. Apparently, he was a bouncer at this place, but the boss wanted to talk to Dave for some reason, and he volunteered so he could drive his new car around the city.

They walked in, and Jeff led the way upstairs and knocked on a door. "I brought him boss, should I open the door?"

"Yes, please, come in." A female voice answered from the other side of the door.

Jeff opened the door and stepped in, waving for Dave to go in with him as he did so.

"Here he is boss."

"Thanks Jeff, I hope you had a nice ride. You can leave now, please close the door on your way out." A woman in a moderately armored costume and a welder's mask said.

Jeff left, saying "hey, hit me up on your way out," as he did so.

"What a nice man." Dave commented in his best Florida accent, before turning to the rest of the room.

"Allow me to introduce us, I am Faultline, this is Gregor, he is Newter, and that is Labyrinth." She said, pointing at each other person in the room in turn, Dave recognized them anyways of course. Gregor being the large man with translucent skin and internals, to the point one could see his skeleton; and Newter being an orange-skinned man with a rather cool tail. Labyrinth was probably in her late teens, and wore a green dress with a maze on the front and a simple mask.

"Okay." Dave said. Everyone looked at him expectantly. "Oh right, I'm supposed to introduce myself back, I go by Trouble!"

"It's good to meet you Trouble. You see, we wanted to reach out to you as soon as we got word of a new, local, Case 53. I imagine you have been very confused. May I ask when you woke up without any memories?" Faultline politely asked.

Dave wondered why they wanted to reach out to him after hearing of a Case 53. Maybe they heard about how he was a chill cool guy from the same source that informed them of a new, local, Case 53?

"I woke up on January 1, 2010 with amnesia, why do you ask?"

"You see," Faultline began, "we have been investigating the origins of Case 53s, and we are, as you might guess," she gestured to Newter and Gregor, "rather sympathetic to their plights. So, we wanted to offer you a few things, none of them being contingent on each other. The first, which you may of course think about, is a spot on our team. We are like family, so there would be growing pains as we all get accustomed to each other, but I thought I should mention that offer first. Aside from that, even if you should refuse that, we wanted to offer to get you set up with an identity; and Gregor and Newter wanted to share their experiences with picking their names so you could give your own proper consideration."

"Oh, I already picked my name, and I apparently still had my ID on me when I woke up… or I woke up in someone else's apartment wearing their clothes I suppose. Nobody has claimed I was stealing their identity though. It was a great coincidence really, the name I picked out turned out to be the name on my ID, which I thought really was astoundingly unlikely." Dave explained.

"Hmm, those are quite unusual circumstances for a Case 53, regarding your ID, perhaps you subconsciously remembered your name?" Gregor mused.

"Guys, this could be a clue! These are really unusual circumstances for a Case 53, right? They never have any sort of identification on them when they wake up with no memories!" Newter said excitedly.

"I thought it was more likely that reality was rewritten so my ID matched the name I picked than me subconsciously remembering my name." Dave replied to Gregor's musing.

"You did?" Labyrinth seemed to perk up at that. It was actually quite cute. "Does your power rewrite reality in some way?" She asked.

"I… have no idea!" Dave said proudly.

"Um… what?" Labyrinth was confused for some reason.

"My power does lots of things, I never actually asked it if it did the ID thing though. I'll grant you; I haven't actually tried to rewrite reality myself. When I woke up, my powers were mainly guns, double jumping, being really easy to kill, and transforming." They all nodded along until that last bit.

"Wait, transforming?" Faultine asked.

"Yeah, like this." Dave said, then transformed.

Everyone screamed, three guns shot at him and reality spontaneously broke, specifically to cut him in half. He died instantly.

Spoiler: What he transformed into: Buff Winnie the Pooh.

red shirt instead of blue of course.

Author's Note: I'm starting to get sick, so the quality may be a little lower than usual… I won't really be able to tell if it dips, because again, I'm starting to get sick. It shouldn't affect the schedule too much, I've written stuff in advance specifically for this type of issue, so by the time you see this chapter I might already be better… hopefully. All I usually do the day a chapter goes up is proofread it one last time and check the word count and decide if I need to put up another chapter if the first one is too short.

And today, we unlock the Good Boy role! Also, I started putting the days of the week in the date and location thingy at the start of each chapter. I looked up what day of the week January 1, 2010 was and went from there, but Dave didn't actually think about what day of the week it was until this chapter, so the previous chapters won't get that added through the magic of editing. I sure hope Wildbow matched the days of the week with the real-life dates, otherwise that could get awkward upon reaching canon time periods.

Anyways, the Good Boy role, now Dave can accept headpats! Also, some people might draw comparisons between the Good Boy powers and certain other parahuman powersets, one in particular really, and draw strange conclusions, but I'm sure it'll be fine. If anyone correctly guesses what I'm referring to there, I will award the first person to do so a Burrito Point (as long as they do so before that comparison is first made 'on-screen' of course).

And uh… nothing else really happens this chapter… Yup, nothing at all.

Regarding his ID, I've been planning that in the background for a while now, and I'm looking forward to the reveal of what exactly is on his ID. That probably won't happen for a bit though, Dave is much too smort to be tricked into revealing his real name to these terrorists! He will be trying to get an extra ID out of them though. There is a name he wants to use, and I want him to use it as well. If anyone correctly guesses it, I will award them One (1), dingus Point. A rare and powerful currency, only bestowed upon those blessed by the dingus. A hint for what he wants his ID to be is: It was the name of an episode of TTT.

As of just before I upload this chapter, it looks like nobody successfully guessed that he would be meeting Faultline's Crew next, even after he was walking around as a Scyther. Did… did people believe me when I said who he was meeting was unrelated to the walking around as a Scyther thing? If so, I guess that's just one of the limitations of text instead of speech. Maybe I should have said 'definitely unrelated' instead of 'totally unrelated' or something.

 

[Phili]

If anyone can correctly guess why exactly I was thinking about what I was thinking about when I made the title for Chapter 23, I will award them points. Your first major hint is the chapter title itself of course. Your second hint is that I named chapter 23 just now after I proofread it a final time before I uploaded it, and the chapter I was working on most recently was Chapter 28.

If anyone can correctly guess exactly what was going through my mind when I named it, and they do so before chapter 28 is released, I will award them: 15 Terrorist points, 10 Burrito points, 5 Dingus points, and 3 Rainbow Dingus points.

This bounty offers so many points for a reason, and that reason is that I'm somewhat doubtful anyone will successfully cash in. I may award partial points for partial guesses though, don't expect very many points for partial guesses though. If anyone guesses it spot on though, I will beg the site staff to add something to their avatar to indicate they are some sort of god. I don't know if the staff will do it, but I will beg them for it.

Rainbow Dingus points are the new, final point currency for the story, and are only awarded for things I'm fairly sure are not going to be obtained. Don't get me wrong, it's totally possible, but in order to guess it someone would need to be fairly well versed in two separate franchises aside from Worm, one of them being Yogscast TTT.

If someone guesses it after Chapter 28 is released, but before the idea in my notes that made my mind go onto the train of thought that resulted in this chapter name actually happens, I will award them 1 of each type of point, including a Rainbow Dingus point, though that may be a bit too easy to warrant a Rainbow Dingus point, they will get one anyways.

I'll only add Rainbow Dingus points to the Scoreboard after someone actually gets one, because... I'm not sure anyone will get any for a while.

 

[Blitz9876]

"Yeah, like this." Dave said, then transformed.

Click to shrink...

Goddamnit Dave. XD

 

[SpaceWhale]

i dont blame them for shooting. if i saw a buff winne the poo i'd shoot a rocket launcher

 

[Wonderbread16]

I wonder if he will ever transform into picolas cage randomly

 

[Phili]

Chapter 24: Dave's Popular Phase Has Begun?

January 6, 2010, Wednesday. Brockton Bay, The Palanquin.



"We KILLED HIM!" Newter said in panic as the body of Buff Winnie the Pooh fell to the floor, full of bullet holes, but weirdly not sliced in half after Labyrinth split reality halfway through his body.

Then, buff Winnie the Pooh, who was still half-naked like normal Winnie the Pooh and only wearing a shirt, albeit with the genital-less Barbie-style groin, but an extraordinarily sculpted ass, suddenly disappeared from the floor where his body had fallen and reappeared standing up.

"Don't worry guys, I survived!" Winnie the Pooh said in a… strange voice. A Robin voice in fact.

Everyone screamed again.

---

"So, you're not a Case 53?" Newter asked.

"Not as far as I'm aware," Dave said cheerfully, back in his Scyther form. Apparently, according to Newter, he needed to 'Turn it off, turn it off, oh god my eyes! Turn back to the green bug monster with blades for hands please!' So, he did.

"But, you said you had amnesia?" Newter asked, though it wasn't really a question, he said it questioningly.

Before Dave could spiral down that rabbit hole of thought, he answered, "Yup, I woke up on January 1, 2010, with no memories that significantly match Earth Bet, but I got a common-sense package."

"You call that common sense?" Gregor asked as everyone else sweatdropped. Newter even collected his sweatdrop in a little bottle and stored it away somewhere.

"Yup," Dave said, trying to give a thumbs up, and realizing he had just stuck out a bladed arm ad Gregor instead. "Pretend I gave you a thumbs up." He added.

"Then how do you know you're not a Case-53?" Newter asked, trying to drag the topic back.

"Well, my normal form looks like a normal human. I talked about it with New Wave, and while they had various theories on why I might have amnesia, the Case-53 theory was discarded fairly quickly. Apparently there is some sort of tattoo I would have had, but my normal form doesn't have any, and none of the forms I can turn into have the tattoo that they described to me."

"Oh," Newter said with disappointment.

---

After everyone settled down a little from the excitement, Faultline got around to her previous offers.

"I take my promises and commitments seriously, so the offer for the new identity is still in place if you want it. As for the team… you would be welcome to join us. Based on what you said about using guns, as you can tell," she referred to her, Newter, and Gregor all reflexively shooting him when he transformed, "we don't shy away from something as practical and useful as guns, unlike the Protectorate who make even Miss Militia use rubber bullets against Nazis."

"I haven't thought about any teams yet. Although, this is the third team I've been offered a place on in less than a week. Could it be… the legendary popular phase?" Dave wondered aloud and got distracted before he could actually answer the offer.

"As for the ID, yes please, I already know what I want it to be called. It is actually extraordinarily useful for someone like me that can transform to have multiple identities. I would appreciate it if you made the identity exactly Twenty-One though. It is objectively the second-best age after all." Dave replied to Faultline's other offer.

"What's the best age?" Newter asked curiously.

"Eighteen of course!" Dave gave a V sign to the room filled with only people over eighteen and a single sixteen-year-old… only to realize he was just holding out his blade hand again, which didn't have any fingers. "Pretend I'm holding up a V sign with my fingers."

"Man, I feel so much better about my appearance now," Newter whispered to Gregor, who nodded seriously at the idea of not having fingers or thumbs, or even anything like tentacles to use instead.

"Ahem," Faultline coughed. "I would like to propose a pact of information. If you find any information on Case 53s, you will let us know and give it to us, and in exchange, we will let you know if we find any information about your memory loss. We would also let you know if we find out about anyone asking around about you. Given your whole… resurrection thing, we would still fight you if a job required it, but we won't ever attempt to permanently capture you. Sound fair?" She proposed.

"Sure!" Dave agreed happily. After all, he theorized combat would be an excellent way to grow his soul space, and he would guess that combat against new and varied opponents would help even more. Though… he should probably actually ask Daf about that. If they weren't going to try to capture him, they weren't even really a threat. Not that he would be particularly vulnerable to capture anyways, given he already had a Teleporter leading to his home he could use at any time. He needed to remember to set up more of those later.

"Yay, new friends obtained!" Dave cheered.

"Wooh!" Newter and Labyrinth cheered with him.

"Here, as a new friend perk, I'll give you some of these." Dave handed out his party toys.

"You each can have two smoke grenades and two discombobulators and two communal bomb defusers." He said, explaining the smoke and discombob grenades, along with the defuser, and after demonstrating the smoke grenade in the room, Faultline politely requested just having an extra discombobulator they could test on their own somewhere private, and not indoors in a meeting room filled with relatively fragile objects.

"Sure thing!" Dave agreed.

"Oh yes," Dave remembered. "Please don't attack hospitals." He requested.

"Um, dude. We don't do that anyway." Newter said after giving him a weird look.

"You're not very good terrorists, are you?" Dave asked, before ignoring Newter's spluttering denial of being a terrorist, which was exactly what a terrorist would say. "Anyways, I've been using my Health Stations to heal people, and I'll be going around to other hospitals to heal people there as well, so I was worried idiots might attack the hospitals, either while I'm not there to defend them thinking I'm dumb enough to leave the Health Stations there –which… I am, but I have smart friends—or while I am there to defend them, but risking collateral damage. So, if you agree to not do that kind of thing, I'll agree to heal you whenever you want. I will need a burner phone of some sort though, unless you want to send Jeff every time."

"You can heal?" Gregor asked with interest.

"Yup. Nowhere near as well as Panpan but it is faster and it can do brains. It will heal people to their 'peak health' state as best it can, but it won't help with things like cancer. It will treat all the symptoms, but it won't get rid of any of the cancerous cells or anything, so the symptoms will just come back relatively quickly."

"Oh," Faultline put the pieces together quickly, "so it won't work on Case 53s?"

"What? I mean it will heal them to their peak state, but unless being a Case 53 is actually a temporary condition caused by extremely thorough surgery or a parahuman effect that would go away on its own, it won't 'heal' away the Case 53-ness. At least, that's what Panacea told me, and she said she tried to heal one shortly after she got her powers, but her power told her the Case 53 'form' was the default state that the body naturally healed to."

"I do have some burritos and hotpockets if you want to try them though." Dave continued. "They have power-fuckery-ified nutrients, so if any of you have any nutrient deficiencies or exotic nutrient requirements, it will fill those for you."

"Wait, your healing power works through burritos and hotpockets?" Newter questioned.

"Yes? What else would they work through?" Dave asked with confusion.

Newter raised a finger, then thought about it for a moment. "You know what, fair enough."

---

After leaving his new friends ten burritos and ten hotpockets to eat as they pleased, Dave left the Palanquin. He waved to Jeff on his way out, and handed him two smoke grenades and two discombobulators.

"Don't use 'em all in one place." Dave said cheerily.

"Sure thing man, take care. Wait, what did you just give me?" Jeff automatically replied before realizing he was holding grenades. Dave had already left by then of course.







Author's Note: Ah, there we go. Another team met, and another recruitment attempt. Dave truly is popular eh? Sickness update: it is 8/7/26 when I write this, and I am worse than yesterday. It is actually throwing off my fingers a bit when I type because my reflexes are weird. It ain't fun. I have the ideas, but the fingers do not obey, ☹. Well, this kind of thing is why I made a backlog when I started, so go foresight I guess.

I was going to make this chapter longer, but I ain't feelin' it, much like Mr. Krabs, so this is gonna be a pretty short one. If I get better quickly enough, I'll have written more, so this will be released with another chapter, so I guess you'll know how I'm doing when this comes out based on that.

I've been thinking of doing a Behind the Scenes thing I would put in the extras or index as a sort of supplementary thing while I'm sick, where I would share things like what my original plans were and information that is unlikely to ever be found out in the story itself. Well, it'll probably have already happened by the time you see this if I decide to do it; if it hasn't and you want to see that sort of thing, let me know and I'll do it.

 

[BlueCladOne]

Hope you feel better soon!

 

[Phili]

Chapter 25: You Can't Just Drink the Super-Powered Soda Without a Pizza to go With It!

January 6, 2010, Wednesday. Brockton Bay, The Pelham House.



Dave knocked on the door. And waited. And waited. And… looked suspiciously at a garden gnome. He tried to point his fingers at his eyes, then at the gnome's eyes to indicate that he was watching it, then realized he was still a Scyther, and didn't have fingers. He settled for glaring at the gnome. He was considering if the best solution to this scenario was a shotgun, a sniper rifle, a bomb defuser, an incendiary grenade, or dominating it into submission.

After some thought, he decided to start with the domination to be safe, and was about to start T-Posing when the door opened, revealing Neil in his civilian clothes. "Hey Trouble." The man greeted, and Dave took a moment to realize he had addressed him by his cape name because Dave was in his Scyther skin, and thus could not safely be called "Dave" while outside.

"You have a gnome." Dave informed Neil.

"I'm… aware?" Neil sounded confused as if he didn't see the problem.

"Do you want me to handle it for you?" Dave asked.

Neil sighed for some reason. "Just… come in, and don't do anything to the gnome please."

Dave shrugged and agreed, it was their business what they wanted to do with their explosives after all.

---

After Dave went in, he found Sarah and Mark were also inside.

"Hello," Dave greeted. "I made new friends."

"That's nice, who were they?" Sarah asked, immediately revealing why the internet, in all of its glorious wisdom, had labeled her Photon Mom.

"Faultline's Crew." Dave answered.

"That's—huh, actually that makes sense in hindsight." Mark started before looking back at the Scyther staring at him.

"They sent a guy—Jeff, he's a bouncer at their club, nice guy, hates poachers, a real environmentalist and animal right's advocate—to pick me up. I agreed because I thought they were kidnapping me, but it turns out he was offended when I asked him that." Dave began his story as Neil also sat down, while Sarah grabbed a teapot from the kitchen and poured him a cup.

"… Then, they were offended when I told them they weren't very good terrorists." Dave continued his story when Neil interrupted.

"Were they offended because you said they weren't very good terrorists or because you said they were terrorists at all?"

"You know… I'm not sure." Dave admitted, before continuing his story as the three (present) adults of New Wave shared a look.

---

"Well… that… could have gone better," Sarah started with a slightly pained expression. "You probably shouldn't have given them anything, especially the grenades that could help them escape, though the bomb defusers are probably fine." She began.

"That said," she continued with a warm tone, "you did an excellent job in getting information on their goals, insight into their dynamics and methodology, a free burner phone, contacts with probably the best possible option as far as villains in the Bay go, and getting concessions regarding what jobs they will take, particularly with jobs involving hospitals."

"Yes, praise me more!" Dave preened, much to Mark and Neil's amusement and Sarah's exasperation.

"As I was going to say anyways," Sarah continued after trying to figure out if she should stop her planned praise, before deciding positive reinforcement was probably the best thing to do, even if she was slightly more reluctant to give it now. "You did something particularly hard for Parahumans, in the form of using diplomacy instead of violence upon meeting Capes from the opposite side of the law. I wanted to reinforce that doing that is a good idea generally, but you shouldn't count on it working out anywhere close to this well in the future. This was probably almost the best possible realistic outcome for meeting a Villain team for the first time—flipping them into becoming heroic is off the table from a realism standpoint, though it has happened. However, I wanted to warn you against trying it with the Empire 88 or the ABB, as they are a completely different kettle of fish, and will likely just try to kill and/or capture you; though the Empire in particular may be interested in recruiting you, and they are absolutely stupid enough to try to recruit Capes by force." Sarah finished her speech with a warning.

"Also, next time you go out, you are bringing a bodycam, just in case you actually get kidnapped and decide to go along with it again." She added on with slight exasperation.

"Well, I think we should talk about the revelations of Faultline's Crew when more of us are here," Mark said, before continuing. "Did you two come to a decision regarding our original topic?" He asked Neil and Sarah.

"Yes," Neil said, while Sarah nodded.

"In that case," Mark turned to Dave. "All three of us would like to use your PhD Flopper item if you are still willing," he said.

"Huh, I thought only Sarah was interested, but sure." Dave said as he pulled out five PhD Floppers and set them on the table. Three were for Mark, Sarah, and Neil, with the last two being for Carol and Crystal.

"I decided that I'm not very likely to accidentally trigger the explosion from falling," Mark started, "and the immunity to harm from falling is too useful to pass up on a team of flyers, where any of them aside from my wife could use their strength or forcefields to carry me, and I could drop into a point within enemy lines, triggering the explosion and not being harmed by the fall. I can also 'explain' to any particularly 'smart' opponents, that I figured out how to use my explosions to cancel out the force of the fall."

"I had similar thoughts," Neil said. "My forcefield means I don't need to worry too much about explosions or being harmed by falling in the first place, but it also means I am less at risk of accidentally setting off the explosion. Meanwhile, it opens up the same possibility for me as what Mark mentioned, where a flyer can carry me and drop me down as needed to cause the explosion. And of course, everyone that drinks it will become immune to Mark's explosions, which opens up a lot of tactical possibilities depending on how it interacts with our forcefields."

"I already explained my reasoning to you back when you first brought up the idea Dave," Sarah said, "but what Mark said inspired me a little. It is inevitable as you begin Parahuman combat that it will eventually be revealed that you have the same powers that we will have suddenly gained, though we will delay that reveal for as long as we can for the information advantage it brings. When someone does put it together though, it won't be clear if Mark somehow got new powers and granted them to the rest of New Wave as well as you through a Trump effect, or if you got the new powers and granted them to New Wave, and the obvious connection between the explosions and 'no fall damage' to a team of mostly flyers with an explosion specialist, will make people waste time trying to figure out what exactly happened, and if you, or a hidden other Parahuman, studied us to make Tinkertech, or used us as a basis for a Trump power somehow. Ideally, this will waste time, energy, and resources of anyone that considers fighting us, and might even make them choose not to fight."

---

"Where are the wee ones?" Dave wondered after a while of not seeing the younger generation of New Wave.

"Wee ones?" Mark muttered with confusion.

"Oh, Eric, Vicky, and Amy all went to the arcade, and of course, Crystal is at college," Neil said. "That is what you meant right?"

"Yup," Dave nodded. "Anyways, can I set up a teleport receiver pad here?" he asked.

"What exactly would it do?" Sarah asked.

"It would let me teleport to the pad… or anyone that had that teleporter device I suppose," he took out a remote-control-like object to show them. "Not that anyone could actually get it out of my inventory if I didn't purposefully give it to them."

Sarah thought for a few moments. "I think we can find a spot for it somewhere. It will need to be inside so you don't always have to come in your Cape identity, but I think we have room in the basement."

"Thanks," Dave said. "I need more places to put them so I can travel around more quickly in emergencies, like feeling really lazy… or if the city is attacked, I suppose. But mostly the laziness thing."

"We can see about setting one up for you at the hospital, they might appreciate having a way to get help from a Cape instantly, just in case any Cape is stupid enough to not realize you take back the Health Stations when you leave… or just as a precaution for when Amy is there and you aren't, that would mean an extra Cape – you—to defend them if someone attacked while someone else –who would already be there from our new arrangement— is protecting Amy and the Health Stations." Sarah offered.

"The protectorate will likely accept putting one on the Rig as long as they get to decide exactly where to put it," Neil added. "Though, that will mean revealing the teleporters to them. You will need to do that eventually, but it might be wiser to do so a little later to throw off predictions of your growth rate. Or don't," Neil shrugged. "Up to you really. It's just that, while I don't like to speak ill of allies, it is a poorly kept secret that information from the PRT leaks like a sieve to the gangs, and the Protectorate shares all their information with the PRT in Brockton Bay."

"I suppose I will wait a bit before asking the hospital and Protectorate then," Dave said disappointedly.

---

"Here is good," Neil said as he led Dave to the garage to place his Teleporter Receiver Pad (the garage was directly a part of the house, not separate, so there was no risk of people noticing Dave in his various forms constantly exiting the Pelham garage without going in whenever he went to their house). "We can set up some curtains to surround it for now, and just not let any guests ever visit the garage, which shouldn't be too hard."

"Cool," Dave plopped down the teleporter pad, then his phone rang. His normal one, not the burner phone he received from Faultline's Crew.

"Hello?" he said into the phone. "Oh, it's ready? You had to use a bunch of those thingies though? Okay, I'll be there right away." He hung up and looked at Neil. "Want to see how the teleporter works in action? I can teleport to my home, grab something and be right back if you want to watch?"

"Sure, just a second first though," Neil shrugged and agreed before calling, "Sarah! Mark! Dave is about to use the teleporter device; he's using it in about 30 seconds if you want to see it."

"30 seconds is fine right?" Neil confirmed with Dave, a little sheepish for making the statement without checking with Dave first.

"Yeah, that's fine." Dave confirmed.

After Mark and Sarah arrived, Dave waved to them and said "So, I just use this little thing, and press this button, then," he pressed the button, and his arms went straight down to his sides, then over the course of about two seconds he vanished.

"That was neat." Mark commented.

"Did he say when he was going to come back?" Sarah asked Neil after another 30 seconds or so had passed.

"Yeah, he said he just had to pick something up then he would teleport right back." Neil replied.

After another half a minute or so, the teleporter pad had a shape appear over it, that filled in to become Dave in his normal, civilian form over the course of about two seconds. His arms were straight down by his sides, but with a pizza box under one of them.

"My test worked," Dave said. "Something thin enough can be carried between the teleporter's arm and the side of their body. Their arms do still have to go straight down though, the teleporter forces that to happen when it teleports me. At least, for now it does; that might change on its own even if I don't try to change anything about it."

"You got pizza?" Neil asked.

"Yup, wanna share?" Dave asked in return.

After everyone nodded their assent, they returned to the living room and retrieved plates.

"It's just a plain cheese," Dave said as he opened the box, "so I hope nobody only eats the more exotic options."

"Why does it have like fifty of those little pizza holder things holding up the pizza? I've only ever seen one used." Mark asked.

"Ah, you see, I asked them for a very special pizza." Dave said as he lifted it up out of the box and showed them the pizza.

"That's… just a normal pizza though?" Mark said, still confused.

Dave flipped over the pizza, revealing the bottom of the pizza… also had sauce and cheese on it.

"It's a double-sided pizza!" Dave exclaimed.

Mark, Neil, and Sarah all face-palmed.

"It's perfect to eat together with the PhD Flopper!" Dave continued, deepening their exasperation.

"Fine." Sarah eventually folded after looking at Dave's hopeful expression.

Thus, the New Wave adults drank their PhD Floppers together with a double-sided pizza.







Author's Note: There we go, another New Wave meeting done, just the adults this time… aside from Crystal, who is technically an adult. New Wave has been doing stuff in the background and keeping Carol/Brandish in the loop, and talking among themselves, which I hope showed a little bit here. I also tried to reflect their cleverness, because they did think of hiding Vicky's forcefield limitations –and were successful until they encountered Tattletale, who literally has a Thinker specialty of 'figuring things out'—so they came up with plans to delay and confuse enemies with regards to their new powers.

Also, New Wave found out about Faultline's Crew's goal of learning about and curing Case 53s. It might make New Wave a little more sympathetic to Faultline's Crew, but I don't expect that to change too much.

After this, in the background, New Wave will begin training their members with the new PhD Flopper powers, and doing simulated exercises with the younger ones until they trust they will use it responsibly. Crystal and Carol will drink theirs off-screen as well, but they don't get any double-sided pizza with theirs.

Now, some of you might think I made up the double-sided pizza thing. You would be wrong. Here you go: https://youtu.be/qDS3c1Rjc7o?list=PL3XZNMGhpynP4rbJJGg3NIpZJHB5QRVC1&t=80 It should be right there at the 1 minute 20 second mark, which is where that link should take you. That one was pepperoni though.

Next time… nothing special happens… promise ;P
I'll even give you a Yogscast Guarantee ™ that nothing happens next time.

 

[AAAustinYu]

DAVE HASN"T DIED ONCE THIS CHAPTER IMPOSTOR!!! /jk

 

[Phili]

Chapter 26: Finally, a Totally Normal Chapter in Which Nothing of Any Significance Happens at All.

January 7, 2010, Thursday. Brockton Bay, Dave's Apartment.



Dave woke up again, performed his morning routine, started water boiling for tea, poured orange juice, and set a bagel in the toaster.

Hi Dave!

There isn't a ton to say this time, you had some good growth in your soul yesterday. You had a couple questions about soul growth, and I'll tell you, you're on the right track, but aren't quite there yet, there is more to it than what you've come up with. The process of asking and trying to figure out this kind of thing is actually also great for the growth of your soul… so, uh, I'm not gonna tell you what you're missing. That would just lessen your growth. As much as I hate that trope about people not telling other people important things, there's not really any significant downsides to not telling you everything immediately when you have already figured out as much as you have. There's no harm in confirming things for you, so I can make myself feel better about being less like that stupid trope by telling you what you have correct though. Ahem. Your 'False False Swipe' is coming along nicely still, though it's not quite done yet. I saw you've noticed the new items in your traitor menu and have been stocking them up, so that's good. Anyways, new role! Time to roll for your role! Not really, I already did that, I spent the entire time you were sleeping installing the new role. That's basically why you still sleep instead of being a 'Noctis Cape' as the local humans call them. Anyways… again… your new role is… Detective! Yay. You do of course get a DNA scanner, and you do get a new one every round (so, every ten minutes, like usual), and they stack in your inventory like other things. They work just like in the game, so you know what to do there. You get the normal Detective power of checking bodies, and you will find out their name, their closest game Role equivalent if applicable and their 'alignment' if not, their occupation, what killed them, exactly how long ago they died down to the second, and who they saw last. You also get the Detective buy menu! Which is the buy menu with nonlethal options! Making your whole False False Swipe thing less important anyway! Yay! After I put in all that damn work in the background! Oh yes. You can also toggle the big blue box with a white D in it above your head, choosing to let either everyone see it or nobody see it.

Hmm. Maybe if I…? Dave thought, as he tried to do a handstand, failed, and settled for 'sitting' cross-legged upside down with his head on the ground.

Nope, still can't read it. Dave though as he tried looking at things upside down.

"Oh, you fixed it! I can read that one Daf!" Dave said happily.

THERE'S NOTHING FUCKING IN THAT ONE!!

"Oh, so you're right," Dave said as he returned right-side up. "It was those little black spots you get in your vision when blood rushes around in your body sometimes."

As Dave fished his bagel out of the toaster and spread cream cheese on it, he looked through the detective menu and saw an unusual option.

"Ooh, an upgrade option!" He found that it would let him take a dingus, and upgrade it to a Maxwell, while still having it be dingus, or Dingus. The upgrade claimed it also made the cat's name be a Schrodinger's name, where it was simultaneously 'dingus' and 'Dingus'.

Dave immediately used his first, and currently only, Detective credit to buy that. Then he whipped out his rainbow dingus, which began purring as he stroked it on the head, while he started to eat his breakfast.

---

Dave decided today would be the day, that he went out on his first solo patrol. While his Earth Bet common sense insisted that this was what heroes were supposed to do, he felt like it probably wasn't very effective at stopping crime if heroes only went out during the daytime. But who was he to go against the wisdom of the people of Earth Bet, it was their lives at stake after all, surely they had thought everything through to the best of their abilities, right?

He started off by finding an isolated area, where he changed from his civilian form into his Scyther form, he had to work on that False False Swipe after all; maybe he should just call it Swipe when he actually gets it though, False False Swipe is kind of a mouthful after all.

For now, he equipped a brand-new item, bought another brand-new item, and, having spent all of his current detective credits, sent off a message to Sarah saying he was going on a solo patrol.

Then, he took off, and began to look for trouble.

---

Vista

Well this is a shitty situation, she thought to herself. Facing down Hookwolf, alone in an alleyway, already wounded. And to make things worse, the wound was bad enough that it disturbed her concentration to the point that all of her changes to the local space had come undone. Not to mention, her comm was damaged in the initial ambush, so nobody even knew what was happening, and there was no hope of backup… at least on her side; Hooky might have already called his buddies.

Before either her or Hookwolf could decide on their next move, something fell directly between them and they both looked at it.

"Is… that a grenade?" She asked herself, only for it to explode and knock her back nearly a dozen feet, and doing the same to Hookwolf despite his mass of metal.

Then, a green bug man with knives for arms fell from the sky, directly onto Hookwolf, and exploded.

"Halt!" A male voice barked out. "You are under arrest for sexual assault of a minor, as well as regular assault of a minor!"

She blanked out. What? But, this was just a normal fight? What's going on?

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Hookwolf growled. "I haven't seen you before. You one of them Case somethings? The monsters? You think you can convince me to hand myself over on false charges like a fucking dumbass?"

"No," the bug-man thing that was probably a Case 53 hero said. "I believe you are not holding any bladed weapons, the only blades nearby are a part of your body due to your power, and a preteen girl's shirt is ripped open, with her chest spilling blood. Meaning, your body came into contact with a preteen girl's naked chest against her will. Your attack on her was legally considered assault from the beginning. Breasts are legally considered sexual characteristics, and touching them is already considered sexual harassment. Touching a sexual characteristic during an assault changes the assault to legally be considered sexual assault."

Huh, that actually kinda makes sense.

"Therefore," the bug-man continued, "you are a dirty pedophile like the human Master Victor."

"THIS WAS A WARRIOR'S FIGHT!" Hookwolf roared.

The bug-man looked doubtful, "You realize bragging about fighting a preteen ward cosplayer doesn't get you free drinks at a pub right?"

"SHE'S THE REAL DEAL YOU MORON!" Hookwolf roared again.

The bug-man shook his head with exasperation. "How stupid are you? Do you seriously think, that the Protectorate, would let a Shaker nine, go out on her own, and not even give her a single weapon? Not a knife, or pepper spray, or a taser, or a gun, in a city filled with kidnappers and pedophiles like you? You seriously expect anyone to be so incredibly moronic that they would believe the Protectorate could possibly be that absurdly stupid? Anyone that actually believed that would need to be studied for the new and interesting problems with their brain, to think an organization like the Protectorate could be that stupid and shortsighted."

Well, when you put it like that… Vista thought.

"I am a benevolent opponent mister Hookwolf, I will give you a chance to run away." The bug-man finished.

"Why would I do that?" Hookwolf asked ferociously.

"Well for starters, I already sent up a flare before we started talking, along with calling for backup from other Heroes."

"That just means I have to kill you and the brat before anyone gets here!" Hookwolf declared as he charged at the bug-man.

The bug-man just shot him with a pistol he was suddenly holding. Wait, how is he holding that anyway with his arms like that?

Then, as soon as the bullet hit Hookwolf, Hookwolf just froze, completely still.

"That'll only hold him for a few seconds, here lass, take this and run quickly so he doesn't have an extra target." The bug-man said as he tossed her a… color-shifting cat?

"It'll heal you and anyone else in proximity to it, but it takes a while, go, before I need to waste more of my freeze bullets." The bug-man said, before shooting Hookwolf with the pistol again, somehow timing the bullet to hit at the exact moment after Hookwolf started moving.

Vista had to fight herself between her desire to stay and fight and help and her training to not get in the way after being injured, but she managed to start limping to the edge of the alley, when Hookwolf unfroze again.

The bug-man shot Hookwolf again, then tossed the gun aside. Presumably it was out of bullets. Then he pulled out a slightly different pistol, this one a little bigger, and shot Hookwolf with it. Hookwolf instantly caught on fire, not that much seemed to change for the remaining few seconds he was frozen.

"Ahh! You think a little fire can hurt me? I FOUGHT LUNG!" Hookwolf screamed.

"It was worth a try; besides, I find it's quite hard to see and fight while on fire," the bug-man said calmly.

Wait, does that mean he has experience with fighting while on fire? This guy is so cool.

Then, the bug-man pulled out what Vista thought of when she thought of a gun in Brockton Bay. A two-handed automatic rifle of some sort, that shot a hail of bullets, all of which hit right Hookwolf right in the face.

"Tch, so his power gives him the reflexes to shield his eyes huh? I can't exactly bring out a sniper here to try and outspeed his power's reflexes. Maybe the nostrils?" The bug-man, who was at this point obviously a Tinker muttered.

Then, just as the fire around Hookwolf died down, the bug-man shot him again with the fire gun, before pulling out a handheld device of some sort, and after pressing a few buttons on it, the bug-man suddenly shrunk to maybe a fourth or a fifth of his original size.

I see, he made himself a smaller target. Also, clearly a Tinker. Wait, does what he said mean that he actually hit Hookwolf's eyes with multiple bullets from an automatic weapon, while Hookwolf was moving and on fire? So cool— Fuck! Vista's train of thought was cut off as a loose piece of brick got flung into her leg and cut open. It must have gone flying from Hookwolf's hooks flailing around.

She was near the edge of the alley, but she was a lot slower now with her leg injured. The cat purred suddenly, and while she didn't feel any more mobile, she felt a lot less at risk of dying from bleeding out to her chest wound. Fuck, what am I gonna say about this? She thought, as the battle went on behind her.

"STAY STILL!" Hookwolf screamed.

"I don't think I will," the bug-man said, acting like a kung-fu master, but actually real instead of being in a movie.

"I warn you," the bug-man said, "this weapon is extremely lethal, and I have yet to test it against a Brute, it may actually kill you if you don't back away now."

"Hah," Hookwolf sneered. "So you're just like the rest of the heroes, SOFT!" he screamed the last word as he attacked again.

The bug-man seemed to brandish his knife-arms, one if which seemed a little longer than before, though she had a hard time telling with all the fire and the bug-man being so much smaller than before, though he seemed faster.

The bug man's knife arm thing met Hookwolf's metal, and sheared off a huge chunk of it.

"Hmm, I wasn't expecting that." The bug-man admitted. "I thought it would just kill you after I hit any part of your body with it enough times, probably four or five times."

What kind of hilariously lethal weapon did this Tinker build? How come I've never heard of a Case 53 Tinker like this? The way he moves means he must be extremely experienced, and he must have been active long enough to build all this stuff.

For some reason, Hookwolf reacted strangely to something that shouldn't have actually harmed him.

"Oh?" the bug-man seemed to have noticed as well. "I see, while it isn't what I hoped for, it seems it is more than enough to kill you. Perhaps you have a weakspot? Yes, that would make sense. Some kind of internal organ? Not the brain, you didn't care about your face being hit, a core of some sort perhaps?"

Hookwolf attacked even harder and more viciously than before, with the Bug-Man dancing around the attacks using his small size to his advantage. He even seemed to almost double-jump a few times, perhaps his wings were fully functional instead of decorative like she had thought considering their size?

"I see I was right, so you have a core that I can hit, and you believe it will be damaged or destroyed by my Knife if it hits." The bug-man observed, still as calm as before.

"Just need to take out the threat and the witness," Hookwolf growled.

"Witness?" The bug-man turned, and saw her. "What? I told you to—" he got cut off as a blade went straight through his entire chest, before he sort-of glitched out and his body reappeared slightly outside of where the blade had pierced him.

"Leave!" The bug-man shouted at her.

I'm going as fast as I can. She thought as she continued limping. These fucking Brockton alleys were obviously designed by city planners high off their minds. Who needs an alley this long? Wait, I'm a fucking moron. I can make it shorter with my power. Is this what blood loss does to my ability to think?

As she began spreading her power through the alley to make it shorter, she saw the bug-man take another chunk off of Hookwolf's side.

Hookwolf, just dissolved from his wolf form and turned into a sea of hooks. Since when can he do that? She thought incredulously.

The bug-man just began methodically taking swings at various chunks of the massive wave of hooks that took up an entire chunk of the alley.

Then the bug-man just set the entire thing on fire again with another bullet from the fire gun, then fired it straight up where the bullet turned into a flare after it broke above the buildings.

"Shit," Hookwolf said after seeing the flare go up, before grabbing one of the sheared off parts of his body and hurling it straight at her.

"Shit," she said, as she desperately warped space to make the massive object miss her. She could tell she wasn't going to make it in time though.

"Shit," the bug-man said while giving her a big smile, as the mass of blades that were meant for her hit him, and he fell to the ground in a massive pool of blood and returned to his original size.

"WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO?" Hookwolf screamed as soon as the bug-man's body dropped. He flailed around a bit and began shrinking.

"I got him, I know I did. I think I got the girl too." Hookwolf muttered, even though she should be rather obvious and directly within line of sight to the mass of hooks that was slowly turning into a man.

"Shit, how the fuck did he blind me?" Hookwolf said, as he slowly dragged himself out of the alley.

Vista couldn't believe her luck. Hookwolf was somehow blinded? Wait, that smile. She remembered the bug-man's final smile as he repeated her and Hookwolf's swear. He knew it would happen, he somehow blinded Hookwolf before he died. She thought as she finally got out of the alley, only to encounter Lady Photon.

Lady Photon took one look at her and the rainbow cat in her arms and said "I see you encountered Trouble." As she scooped Vista up on to her forcefield and began flying away.

"Wait, there was a hero back there, a Case 53 Tinker, he saved my life from Hookwolf, we should retrieve his body." She weakly protested as the forcefield wrapped her wounds.

"Yes, that would have been Trouble, did he give you the cat?" Lady Photon asked as the city sped by them even faster. "And no, it is far more important we get you to where you can safely be healed. I am taking you straight to my home, Panacea is already there and there are some of Trouble's Healing Stations as well."

Oh I see, the Case 53's Cape name was Trouble. He sure gave Hookwolf a lot of that. Which was probably the idea. Wait, shit, did she just say Trouble's Healing Stations? Did I just get a fucking HEALING Tinker killed saving my ass?

Doing her best not to dwell on that, she answered Lady Photon. "He said the cat would slowly heal me, and everyone around me, but he emphasized it was slow." She said as she pet the rainbow cat again and it purred.

"I see, that was the cat he offered Miss Militia as a token of love if I recall."

Fuck, as if I couldn't feel any worse. Did I just get Miss Militia's boyfriend killed too? Although, I wonder if that means… Vista did her best not to think about her mentor—and closest thing to a real mother figure she had—doing the horizontal tango with the bug-man from before.

"She rejected of course after she found out how young he was," Lady Photon said, as if hearing that the person she got killed was young and promising was that much better.

Lady Photon landed in front of the Pelham house just then. Shit, I must have lost a lot of blood, I'm almost certain that Lady Photon isn't that fast. Just how much did I miss?

Lady Photon protectively placed her arms over Vista's chest and helped her hold the rainbow cat as they went in the door.

"So, what happ—" Vicky cut off when she saw her. "Little V!" Vista shrunk into Lady Photon's arms further at her friend seeing her like this, weak and vulnerable, the opposite of how she wanted to be seen.

Flashbang and Manpower looked over and saw her with Lady Photon's arms around her chest. Their eyes darted to the blood covering her and the torn shreds of her costume's shirt.

"We'll leave, you handle this." Manpower said immediately after tightening his fist, before he and Flashbang immediately left, they brought along Eric with them out of the room.

They exited just as a Vicky-rocket reached Vista and grappled her into a tight hug, while the rainbow cat smoothly slid out from between them onto Vista's shoulder.

"Little V!" Vicky repeated with her head on top of Vista's.

Amy, in her Panacea robes quickly dragged Vista out from the crushing hug. "She has a chest wound Vicky, don't crush her so I can start working on it. What…" Amy trailed off.

Lady Photon spoke upon seeing Amy's confusion. "From what I gather, Vista was fighting Hookwolf and Trouble intervened. Trouble gave her the cat and claimed it would slowly heal her and everyone in an area around it over time, but with an emphasis on slow."

"So, you met Trouble," Vicky began, maybe trying to distract her, from what though? Oh right, what Trouble said when he first landed, I guess it does look like that from the outside. So that's why Manpower and Flashbang left, and brought Eric with them. "What did you think? I knew he was strong and getting stronger, but I didn't realize he could handle Hookwolf yet. Pretty impressive for such a fresh trigger right?" Vicky said as Amy quieted in concentration.

Fuck! I thought he was an experienced Cape from another city. Did I seriously get him killed saving my ass? It sounds like he was a fresh trigger with a ton of potential, able to HEAL, friends with the people I care about and look up to, and based on what Vicky said, a Tinker only barely into their craft with a ton of future strength that I got cut off. Fuck! Vista began to wallow in misery at Vicky's words as the cat continued purring and her wounds began to close thanks to Amy's healing.

"Yes, he was… the coolest Hero I've ever seen," Vista admitted, not seeing the weird look on Amy, Vicky and Lady Photon's faces.

"I'm… I'm sorry Big V," Vista began. "I… your friend got killed saving me because I didn't run away from the fight fast enough. I was light-headed but wanted to help, but couldn't think straight enough to actually do anything to help and just ended up being a distraction that let Hookwolf get him." She admitted, crying a little. She hated crying, it made her feel weak and childish.

"Oh, well—"

There was a knock on the door. "Is Vista decent?" Manpower's voice came through.

There was a look of realization on Vicky's face, and she checked the clock for some reason. She quickly threw a towel that was already nearby, though Vista wasn't sure why they had towels in the living room, around Vista's chest, before calling, "she is now!"

The door opened, and in walked… the bug-man? Or Trouble Vista supposed.

He was just as cool as before as he walked in and said, "Oh, I see you are being healed. You can continue stroking my dingus even after you are done if you want."

Wait a second… What?







Author's Note: If you aren't familiar with the Yogscast Guarantee ™, well, if you read the last Author's Note then this chapter, you should have a pretty good idea of what it entails. So, how did the fight scene go? It was my first ever real action scene, but I hope it was at least a little better than the first 'fight scene' where Dave and Neil bowled over five drugged up thugs. There were quite a few things going on in the fight that Vista didn't necessarily understand, though I hope most of you understood what was happening. If not, don't worry, there will be an After-Action-Report type thing next chapter, made easier by something from right after the stuff with Faultline's Crew. I will award a Terrorist Point to the first person to correctly guess what I am referring to.

Also, we got to see Dave's 'cool side' in this chapter, so that's pretty neat. I liked showing off the extent of his Combat Thinker power from the Old Man, as well as its limitations. He doesn't actually have enough firepower yet to seriously harm any high-level brutes though, so he wasn't able to actually beat Hookwolf in a straight fight yet.