Worm

by John McCrae

  In civilian guise, she’s skinny to the point of being scrawny, with glasses and long curly hair she maintains as a desperate grasp at a single feminine feature. Her gawky or nerdy appearance is marked by a wide mouth and large eyes.

  As Skitter, she wears a costume of black spider silk and gray armor panels, a yellow-lensed mask that features a mandible-esque design around her jaw. Her hair blows free. Depending on the situation and the state of her costume, she occasionally wears a skirt or shawl of black spider silk with ragged or torn edges, for protection, concealment, and to offer more surface area for her bugs to crawl on. When battle ready, bugs crawl over every surface of her costume, including her hair and mask. The carapace-like panel of armor at her back serves as a utility compartment, holding her weapons and various items.

  Danny Hebert – Taylor’s dad. A single father, he worked at the Dockworkers association, as head of hiring and Union spokesperson. Given his positions, had a lesser role as an activist of sort, trying to find some way to revive the docks and promote job growth in the northern and eastern parts of the city. Has something of a temper, but has been careful not to direct it at his daughter. This repression may have, combined with her own silence, played a part in their estrangement. Since she began her career as a villain, a fact Danny is ignorant of, she’s distanced herself and left both home and school. As of late, they’ve been striving to reconnect.

  Danny is a tall man, the source of his daughter’s thin figure. Not necessarily attractive, he’s a self-professed nerd, despite his association with the more rough-edged Dockworkers.

  Annette Rose Hebert – Taylor’s mom. Not in the picture, as she died in a car crash six months before Taylor started high school. She was an English professor at the local college.

  Emma Barnes – Taylor’s onetime best friend. Around the time High School started, Emma started hanging out with Sophia Hess and Madison Clements, and began bullying Taylor as a way of distancing herself from a traumatic incident. An attractive, red haired girl, Emma is an amateur model who does occasional photo shoots for local magazines and department stores.

  Sophia Hess – Emma’s best friend, a member of the track and field team. Not liked by many, beyond Emma and Madison, as she’s fairly notorious for being mean spirited. Taylor mentioned that Sophia’s own brand of bullying tends more towards the physical than any of the other girls – tripping, punching, kicking, shoving, and so on. Currently in juvenile detention. Sophia is dark skinned and athletic, owing to her membership on the track and field team. See Shadow Stalker in the Wards section, below.

  Madison Clements – One of the more popular girls, a friend of Sophia and Emma. Petite, described as ‘cute’, somewhat more juvenile than her friends in the ‘pranks’ – such as pouring juice on Taylor and encouraging other girls to vandalize Taylor’s desk or her stuff.

  Mrs. Knott - Once Taylor’s homeroom and computer sciences teacher, a masculine woman. She was Taylor’s favorite teacher, mostly due to the fact that she let the advanced stream of the class study on their own. Proved sympathetic and ultimately unhelpful in relation to Taylor’s bullying situation.

  Mr. Gladly - Once Taylor’s World Issues teacher. A popular teacher for the popular students, short and gregarious, ‘Mr. G’ noticed Taylor’s problems in his class, but elected not to act on the bullying after Taylor turned down his offers for help.

  The Undersiders

  Core GroupThe Undersiders themselves have advanced from being a minor (if elusive) group of teenaged villains to the leaders of Brockton Bay’s underworld, first becoming one of the five major players for the city, then either surviving the incidents that removed the other players or removing their adversaries from the area. Once based under Coil, they turned on him. Each member now controls a major area of Brockton Bay

  Skitter, Taylor Hebert – See Taylor, above. Leader of the Undersiders.

  Tattletale, Lisa Wilbourn (Also Sarah Livsey) – Controls central Downtown, though she doesn’t show much presence. Seventeen years old, Tattletale possesses enhanced intuition, with the ability to close gaps in her knowledge or draw natural conclusions from related areas of knowledge. This renders her a master at obtaining information, cracking encryption and playing head games with her enemies.

  Lisa (Tattletale’s civilian guise) favors a more subdued or traditional style of dress, and makes a habit of having her hair tied back, knotted or hidden in a bun. Described as fitting somewhere in the middle of the scale between average and pretty, Lisa has straight blond hair, a smattering of freckles across her nose and a perpetual vulpine grin.

  Tattletale wears a black mask around her eyes, covering her freckles and leaves her long blond hair down, in contrast to her civilian self. Wears a lavender and black costume with thick vertical and horizontal bars of black, with the emblem of a stylized eye on her chest. Sports a belt with a holstered gun.

  Grue, Brian Laborn - Controls the West side of the city. His powers allow him to generate a darkness that consumes or dampens visual and most auditory information, as well as some specific signals. This serves to blind and nearly deafen those within, confuses the sense of touch, dampens the effects of radiation and weakens the powers of those within (to varying ends). Since his second trigger event, Grue has the ability to use a single, weaker, less informed version of a power anyone within his darkness possesses. This second trigger event proved traumatic enough that he’s stepped down from his position as group leader.

  Brian is a handsome, muscular African-American eighteen year old with a strong jaw and a boyish smile. He is a martial arts hobbyist (if not a dedicated follower of any particular style) more inclined to match his fashion to a particular situation than identifying with any one style.

  As Grue, he wears a fanged demon mask and a costume of thick, porous spider silk that lets the darkness smoulder around his body. The design of the costume allows the flow of his darkness to frame his mask without obscuring it, so that he may choose to let his opponents can catch glimpses of the face in the midst of the darkness.

  Bitch, Rachel Lindt (Also Hellhound) – Controls the fringes of Brockton Bay, and the yet-to-be-repaired areas. Bitch can empower dogs with vastly increased size (in the order of three thousand or more pounds), enhanced strength, durability and agility and an asymmetrical covering of bony plates and spikes, exposed muscle, and calcified flesh. Aggressive and antisocial, she favors the company of her dogs over people. With no secret identity, the line between Rachel and Bitch is blurry. In either case, she retains holdovers of her early adolescence as a homeless person.

  Sixteen, she likes heavy jackets with thick fur collars or hoods, heavy boots and bargain bin clothing. She’s taken to wearing a dog mask made by Skitter, emulating the appearance of one of her enhanced dogs, but has been known to wear dollar store plastic dog masks in the past.

  Regent, Alec (Also Jean-Paul Vasil) – Controls the southeast end of Brockton Bay, a shantytown area which suffered badly from the attack. Sixteen, Alec is fairly amoral, stemming from a childhood spent growing up under the shadow of the emotion controlling supervillain Heartbreaker. His powers allow him to provoke uncontrolled movements or spasms of particular body parts, but his true abilities come to bear when he can gain long-term access to a victim, decoding their nervous system and gaining complete and total control over their body.

  As Alec (civilian guise) he is described as more pretty than handsome, though undeniably attractive. Lanky, with European descent and black curly hair, he wears expensive if not particularly attention-grabbing clothing, preferring to buy new clothes rather than wash something and wear it a second time. Makes a habit of wearing white.As Regent, he wears renaissance-era clothing, with leggings and loose fitting shirts. His mask is in the style of a Venetian mask, with an attached silver coronet.

  Imp, Aisha Laborn - Controls the southernmost end of the city, up to the points the urban area ends and Rachel has her claim. Brian’s younger sister, triggered following Leviathan’s attack on the city, when t
hugs from one of the roaming gangs attacked her and her father. Her power renders her unnoticeable, to the point that people she attacks don’t remember she attacked them.

  As Aisha (civilian), she’s a fourteen year old girl with a decidedly trashy and attention-getting fashion sense.

  As Imp, she wears a form-fitting black bodysuit and a gray mask with slanted black lenses for the eyes and two short horns curving back over the top. Was using a taser for some time, but has taken to carrying a knife.

  Parian, Sabah – Controls the northern end of the city. Not an official member of the group, but tied to their alliance. Once a ‘rogue’, Parian saw many of her friends, family and classmates die when the Slaughterhouse Nine attacked the territory she was protecting. In the hopes of protecting and supporting others, and perhaps giving the Undersiders a more moral voice, she has joined their alliance and taken control of a territory of her own. Parian’s powers allow her fine manipulation of smaller and lighter objects, and can ‘fill’ larger vessels to render them effectively heavy, dense and heavy-hitting. She has used this to fashion cloth dolls she animates. Wears a frock as a costume, with a porcelain doll’s face for a mask, and a wig of golden curls.

  Others

  The Undersiders are supported by several underlings.

  Forrest - Skitter’s current second in command. Burly and menacing with a thick black beard, he wears thick framed glasses and tight shirts. Played a role in both stopping Mannequin and helping out in Skitter’s territory afterward.

  Sierra Kiley – Skitter’s ex-second in command. A college student with long red dreadlocks, Sierra joined Skitter and soon became her second in command, after Skitter rescued her brother Bryce Kiley from the Merchants (it was found that he’d joined the group). Left Skitter’s forces due to moral concerns.

  Charlotte – Skitter’s cook and nanny, manages mundane things and looks after the lair. Charlotte is a dark haired sixteen year old who was was rescued from the Merchants.

  Bryce Kiley – Tattletale’s underling. Serves as a scout and errand boy. Ex-Merchant and brother to Sierra, above. Red headed and lanky, he lost one hand before leaving the Merchants.

  Minor, Jaw, Senegal, Pritt, Dmitri, Brooks - Tattletale’s soldiers. Minor leads, Brooks is a medic.

  Barker - Bitch’s underling, has powers. Short of stature, Barker creates a smoky material when he makes vocal noise, and can alter this material into various forms, typically a concussive explosion with size relative to the amount of substance.

  Biter – Bitch’s underling, has powers. A brute with a bear-trap jaw plate as part of his mask and spiked gear, he can alter the size of individual body parts.

  WagTheDog – the online username of an enthusiastic and devoted fan of Bitch, who joined her group in interlude 19.y (Bonus interlude #2 of arc 19).

  Superhero Teams of Brockton Bay

  The Protectorate

  In exchange for government funding and legitimacy, the Protectorate has agreed to follow a special set of laws laid out for capes, to accept bureaucratic oversight and cooperate with local authorities. Works in conjunction with the PRT, the Parahuman Response Team, a police/emergency response team trained to deal with ‘capes’ and the fallout of their altercations. Brockton Bay’s team is one of many such teams spread across North America.

  Miss Militia – Current leader of Brockton Bay’s Protectorate. Accompanied by a semi-sentient energy that can transform into modern military armaments, including guns, grenades and melee weapons. A side benefit of her power is that she does not need to sleep. Is actually a Kurdish refugee who triggered at a young age when Turkish forces attacked her village and abducted the children to use as bait for landmines and traps. Dark haired and olive skinned, Miss Militia wears a scarf and sash patterned after the American flag, with stylized, fitted army fatigues.

  Assault - A kinetic energy manipulator, capable of controlling energies of movement, acceleration and motion relative to himself and things he touches. Was once Madcap, a jailbreak specialist, but was captured by Legend and Battery, and joined the Protectorate. Eventually married Battery.

  Assault wears body armor with a visor covering the upper half of his face and a streamlined design, a reversal of his madcap costume, which had a grinning mask that covered the lower half of his face and featured bulky, spike-studded padding.

  Triumph, Rory Christner – Described as having the ability to emit shockwaves from his mouth, punching holes through concrete, rending steel or simply throwing opponents across a room. Tertiary benefits of his power have rendered him rather strong, with an optimized physique. The son of ex-mayor Roy Christner, he got his powers from Cauldron. Triumph wears a costume that blends gladiator armor with a lion motif, with a helmet that emulates a roaring lion..

  Adamant – A durable cape who showed up following the Echidna arc. Wears a black costume with metal plates chained together.

  Sere - A cape capable of drawing in moisture with violent force, wears a white robe and hard white mask, wreathed with pale clouds of ambient moisture.

  Defunct/Deceased Members:

  Armsmaster, Colin (Retired) – Once leader of Brockton Bay’s Protectorate chapter, he was ‘retired’ to house arrest after employing a scheme to try and set up a situation where he could fight Leviathan one-on-one, ultimately getting several participants in the fight killed. His power allows him to condense and interweave technology to create devices that are highly efficient and take up less space than they should. Armsmaster sported a costume in midnight blue and silver, with a high-tech halberd packed with technology. See Defiant, below, for his current identity.

  Battery (Deceased) - Had the ability to pause to let herself charge up energy, expending it to trade each second of time spent charging for several seconds worth of invulnerability, super strength, super speed and electromagnetic repulsion/attraction. Acquired her powers from Cauldron, and was ultimately asked to assist the Slaughterhouse Nine as part of her contract with them. She was going against her orders when she was slain by one of Bonesaw’s spiders. Battery wore a skintight costume with a ‘circuit board’ style pattern on it that glowed as she charged up.

  Dauntless (Deceased) - Armsmaster’s unwitting rival. Had the ability to empower items with a gradual, cumulative degree of power. Bore a spear with devastating arcs of electricity, a shield that generated forcefields and boots that let him fly, with other abilities not outlined in the story.

  Velocity (Deceased) - Had enhanced speed at the cost of a lowered ability to affect the world. Slain in the Leviathan arc.

  The Wards

  If you’re under eighteen, have superpowers and aspirations of being a superhero, odds are good that you’ll apply to the Wards. Essentially the same operation as the Protectorate, but is specifically for underage superheroes. Same funding, same requirements, same restrictions, but the young heroes are less likely to be deployed to the truly dangerous missions. Again, Brockton Bay’s team of Wards is only one of many spread across the United States and Canada.

  Clockblocker, Dennis – Current leader of the local Wards. Puts objects and people on ‘pause’ by touching them, freezing them in time for an indeterminate period. Frozen objects are rendered unable to move or be moved. Something of a rebel, he picked his name as a way of thumbing his nose at his superiors. Has struggled with a dad who had leukemia, the shifting leadership structure of the Wards and the local superhero teams as a whole, and his own perception of the teams in general.

  Wears a white costume with clock faces set across it, some animated, and a mask with a flat, opaque white pane. In his civilian guise, has red hair and blue eyes.

  Vista, Missy – The youngest member of the local team at thirteen years of age, Vista can bend, stretch, compress and distort non-living matter, effectively warping space. Missy has been heavily affected by the recent, intense and tragic events to strike the city and the local superhero teams, feeling the loss of her first crush and teammate Gallant in particular. Vista wears a teal and green costume wit
h a short dress, leggings and panels of body armor, including a breastplate. Has a green visor across her eyes.

  Kid Win, Chris – A ‘tinker’, Kid Win has the ability to invent things well beyond current levels of technology. After a long period spent struggling to find his niche, he discovered his powers didn’t center around laser guns as he’d thought, but around modular equipment. Initially modeling his outfit and his weaponry on Hero, the first tinker, Kid Win is in the midst of finding his identity. Wears a costume of red and gold, with red lenses and a characteristic red glow where he uses antigravity gear. As a tinker, his costume and gear change on a regular basis.

  Flechette, Lily – A crossbow-wielding cape that originally hailed from New York, joining the Brockton Bay Wards as a temporary member in the wake of recent disasters. A Japanese-American girl, she wears a deep purple costume with a visor, quiver, and narrow, platinum-white armor panels that flare out at the upper edges and taper at the bottom – mimicking the vague shape of an arrow or darts. Her power allows her to imbue nonliving material with the ability to ignore select laws of physics, to the point that they can pass through virtually anything, including Endbringers and forcefields, among other defensive powers. She carries an Arbalest, a large, two-handed crossbow, to launch needles as long as her arm – needles that carry the effects of her power, ignore gravity, and benefit from her secondary power of enhanced sense of timing. In a relationship with Parian.

  Defunct/Deceased Members: