"There was no long-term, and trying to cling to one would only spoil it all."
This article contains spoilers regarding the ending of Worm and plot of the sequel.
Natalie Matteson is a law student and legal go-between for Breakthrough.
Personality
Sees things through the lenses of her profession. Is interested by her new job. Tries to make sure everyone is keeping to the rules.
She considers her own stress response patterns atypical,[1] worrying over ordinary things and yet very calm in the face of danger.[2] In the face of deadly danger, she considers regretting not acting to protect others a worse fate than death or maiming.[3] She'd thought capes were cool and imagined getting powers since she was a kid.[4] In her imaginings, it was the critical defining moments that stuck with her, good or bad,[5] and she was disconcerted after the interview at the way time just kept flowing, continuous.[6] Kinda like Chris.
Relationships
Family
Natalie is a lawyer in deifeance to her mother's wishes.[7]
Carol Dallon
Carol is Natalie's mentor and considers the younger women to be exceptional.[8] Natalie admired Carol's cultivated confidence[9] and talent.[10]
Breakthrough
Had a rocky start with the group. Disaproving of the team's actions often especially during the early undercover operation.[11]
She defended Kenzie in the face of armed attackers [12] including getting stabbed for the kids sake.[13] She has become accepted by the group.[14]
Tony
Her "sex buddy"[2], not boyfriend: Natalie no wanting want to 'ruin' what they had.[15] Found him intimidating and very attractive.[16] She spent some time recuperating with him,[17] even bringing him around to meet Carol, her mentor, and Carol's husband.[18]
Appearance
Natalie is five foot two inches, shorter then average and squat. She keeps her hair shorter then normal and wears large glasses.[19]
Victoria wasn't impressed with how Natalie dresses,[20] even though she dresses well but respected her abilites regardless.
Abilities
Smart and knows her work,[21] and is able to keep an exceptionally cool head in dangerous circumstances. A fact recognized by lawyer much senior to her.[8]
Equipment
Briefcase, wherein lurk all the deadly instruments of her craft.
History
Background
Unknown but likely normal and sane. Thought capes were pretty cool, and imagined getting powers and being a hero. [4]
Gold Morning
Survived, when many didn't.
Early-Ward
Was matched with victoria and her new team by Carol, her mentor.[22]
Had a hand with the groups infiltration scheme, which she was largely skeptical about.
Helped plan the Mathers compound assault, namely the legal side of things.[23]
Post-Fallen fall
Was at the interrogation for one of the people who helped sabotage the portals.[24]
Defended Kenzie from an attempted kidnapping. Later recuperated in a hospital where she had to endure the ministrations of her extended family.[25]
After being releashed she was swept up in Team Breakthrough usurpation by Goddess and was shanghaied into becoming a "witness" for the event.[26]
She was able to work out a plan that freed her team with the Help of Ratcatcher.[27] She was in the group when they opened discussions with Mayor Jeanne Wynn, but she kept silent throughout the negotiation; not noticably particpating.[28]
Post-Goddess' Takeover
Was recuperating with a friend, it is unknown what two healthy adults could possibly do together, especially after one survived a high adrenaline near death experience.[17] Though one can speculate.[14] Victoria sent her a thank you gift through Carol.[8]
Natalie was noticably absent for a time but kept working for the group through text and similar devices.[29]
She was back to work a week later in time to hear about Chris.
Post-Time Bubble Pop
She started attending banishment procedures of uncontainable parahumans.[30]
Natalie joined the delegation of Breakthrough and Wardens to Earth Shin, where she was questioned by local authorities in private.[31] Later in the week she returned to Shin alongside Kamil Armstrong to recover Breakthrough from Shin's prison.[32]
Post-Attack on Teacher
She was participating in outlining new laws for parahumans.
Natalie met with Victoria and Kenzie and drove them to Rachel Lindt's ranch. During the scene with Heartbroken there she was mildly assaulted by Juliette Vasil.[33]
She was present in the moment when Breakthrough entered The Shardspace. Seeing as every parahuman in the room was pulled in alongside them, she called Defiant.[34]
The Ice Breaks
Natalie visited her team at the field camp, and inspired Antares to push for regular humans being involved with The Shardspace.[35]
She was present when Rain and Patrol officers entered The Shardspace.[36]
Natalie met Victoria in their old HQ before the parahuman plague took a hold.[37] She was tasked with informing the City's refugees of their part in the final stages of the plan to counter Titan Fortuna. Lookout re-routed Presley' call to her.[38]
Trivia
- Natalie is derived from a Latin phrase essentially meaning Christmas Day.
- Matteson by contrast is a boring name meaning "Son of Matthew", with Matthew itself meaning "Gift of God".
- Probably a fan of the Bet versions of Pact and Twig.[39]
References
- ↑ “At a television studio? I wouldn’t mind, I don’t think,” Natalie said. “But I’m weird. There are a ton of things that bother me that other people treat as normal, and a ton of things I wouldn’t blink at things that annoy or freak out other people.”
“I respect that,” Chris said. “Yes, you have to find that nugget of you and cling to it. That stuff that makes you different.”
“It’s not anything fancy,” Natalie said. “I’m anxious about the stupidest stuff and I can get zen with routine work and chores. There are maybe three times in my life something horrible happened near me, and I kept my cool while other people were breaking down. That’s basically it.”
“Fancy enough,” Chris said.
“It’s really not,” Natalie replied. - Excerpt from Beacon 8.10 - ↑ 2.0 2.1 How could she feel so weirdly calm like this, and panic to the point of crying over an exam for a class she was doing well in? She could be held at knifepoint with zero idea of what to do and be almost okay, and yet when her sex buddy said he wanted to fuck her, she didn’t know how to deal. - Excerpt from Beacon 8.x
- ↑ She was finally here and she might die or be maimed for it.
No, that wasn’t even the worst possibility.
She was here, finally, and Kenzie or Tony might die, with her left intact, agonizing over how she’d had no heroism in the end.
For that, she couldn’t move. - Excerpt from Beacon 8.x - ↑ 4.0 4.1 This… she’d always thought capes were cool. It felt like just yesterday that she’d been Kenzie’s age, utterly enchanted by the idea of getting powers and doing something.
...
As a kid, she’d imagined getting powers and facing down impossible situations and weirdness like this made her think maybe it was what she was meant for. She could trigger, especially if it was only during the bad events, and-
And people who thought they might trigger didn’t. Wasn’t that the rule?
- Excerpt from Beacon 8.x - ↑ When she reflected on the fantasies of childhood and adulthood both, it was the moments that stuck with her. Endless replays in her head of a given monumental scene, the crux of a decision.
Not even all good moments, either. Just moments, the key scenes. When she’d wanted to be a lawyer, it had been with a mind to having those moments in the courtroom. When she’d started working with the capes, a part of it was that she’d wanted to be adjacent to those moments. - Excerpt from Beacon 8.x - ↑ Tonight had had a few of them. She’d been adjacent.
Except they weren’t any moments. Time didn’t stop, and there was no room to think about each decision. Events came, they went, things moved on, people adapted, conversations led to them and from them. - Excerpt from Beacon 8.x - ↑ “This wasn’t what I wanted for you,” her mom cut in. “You would have been safer going into medical school.”
“If I worked in a hospital, I’d have belligerent drug-seeking patients to deal with or something, and I’d be miserable. I’m working under some excellent lawyers and my prospects are good. I’m only three-quarters miserable doing what I’m doing. If I put up with the three-quarters I don’t like for a little while longer, I’ll be able to move to doing things I like. And I get to do this stuff with the hero team too. Scary moments aside, it’s really neat.”
“The hero team is too dangerous for what you’re getting.”
“You don’t even know how much I’m getting.”
“I know it’s too dangerous!”
“Thank you for coming, Victoria, you don’t have to feel obligated to stay for the family squabbling. Can you keep me updated? I may drop by at four or five.”
“You should rest,” her mom protested. - Excerpt from Gleaming 9.1 - ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 “Can I give you something to pass on to Natalie?” I asked my mom.
“Of course.”
I put my bag down and fished inside. “A bit of a thank-you for looking after Lookout and an apology for her having to put up with us while we were mind controlled. She did well.”
“I have an eye for exceptional people, Victoria,” my mom said.
“You do.”
I handed over the package, gift wrapped as best as I’d been able with the supplies I’d had. - Excerpt from Polarize 10.1 - ↑ Natalie didn’t miss those fleeting moments, when Victoria was mid-stretch or talking about how this was expected or wanted, when she looked a lot like Carol had a few times back at the Wardens’ office. Not happy, far from happy in this case, but fully confident.
...
She did her best to switch to unflappable lawyer mode, like Carol so often did. - Excerpt from Beacon 8.x - ↑ Even when Mrs. Dallon took the gloves off and made it look like she was a superhuman lawyer, not just a superhuman in costume, Natalie had kept her perspective in check, or so she liked to think. Mrs. Dallon was a person to look up to, one with a lot of talents, but she was a person. - Excerpt from Beacon 8.x
- ↑ Past the curtain, I could hear Ashley’s power.
“Hey!” Prancer called out. “Civilian property. They pay us, we leave their stuff alone.”
Ashley said something I didn’t hear. Nailbiter sniggered.
Natalie was going to get upset with us again. - Excerpt from Shadow 5.5 - ↑ “I’m not making them desperate and I’m not making them anything,” Kenzie said. “Because I’m giving myself up.”
“No,” Natalie said, seizing Kenzie’s arm as Kenzie walked past her. “No.” - Excerpt from Beacon 8.x - ↑ The knife’s point penetrated skin, stabbing her in the sternum, just below the collarbone. It might have been the particular spot, but the contact of metal on bone was surprisingly painful. - Excerpt from Beacon 8.x
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 “How was your vacation with your boy?” Tristan asked. He was asking Natalie.
“He’s not ‘my boy’. It was nice.”
“Did you tour the sights?” Tristan asked. “I guess there aren’t many sights, with the city being new.”
“We hung out. We drank, we completed a one thousand piece puzzle.”
“I hope you did more than that,” Ashley remarked.
“I don’t think I’m going to talk about that, thank you.”
“It sure sounds to me like he’s your boy,” Tristan said.
“Victoriaaa,” Natalie said.
“Yeahhh?” I asked, drawing my voice out in the same way.
“Did you ask me along just so you could throw me to the wolves?” - Excerpt from Blinding 11.2 - ↑ “Kenzie, it’s complicated. I like things the way they are now.”
“But he’s not your boyfriend.”
“Not exactly.”
“And you want him to be your boyfriend.”
“Yes, but. It’s weird and it’s fragile and I don’t want to ruin a good thing by trying to shoot for a maybe-great thing.” - Excerpt from Beacon 8.x - ↑ He was intimidating. Doubly so by candlelight. He was growing out his red hair, and it was long enough that locks curled around the tops and to the backs of his ears. His red hair and beard looked amazing in the warm light, and the play of light and shadow made the shape of his face, his neck and his adam’s apple very noticeable. He wore a long-sleeved t-shirt, what might have been silk pyjama bottoms, and slippers.
Approaching to stand closer meant she wouldn’t stare at him, but now she could smell his body soap, shampoo, and whatever else it was he used. He’d just showered recently. - Excerpt from Beacon 8.x - ↑ 17.0 17.1 The others. Oh. I turned back toward my mom, and put my bag down. “Can I ask about Natalie?”
My mom smiled, and she acted like we hadn’t just had a heated exchange of words. “She’s well. Healing from that chest wound while spending some time away with a friend.” - Excerpt from Polarize 10.1 - ↑ “I actually wanted to talk to Natalie,” my mom said. “Check that she’s managing okay, with everything.
[...]
“Oh, Natalie brought Tony, I’ll introduce you,” my mom told my dad. She laid a hand on my arm in passing.
[...]
She was a little ways away, having a conversation with Natalie at the very edge of the parkland clearing. - Excerpt from Beacon 8.2 - ↑ Natalie had her arms folded. Her hair was shorter than most boys wore theirs, with a curl at the forehead, her glasses seemed oversized for her face, and her forehead was wrinkled in worry or concentration. She dressed in clothes that made me think she’d picked clothes out of a magazine without reading the rationale behind those clothes. She wore a blouse that fit her body closely, made of a faintly reflective material, with a black ribbon tied where it drew the collar together. She wore a straight-cut skirt that started at the waist and ended at the knee, and dark hose, with tidy, heel-less business shoes. It was the kind of thing that made a model in a magazine look stunning, but Natalie was five-foot two, she didn’t really have a waist, and the outfit made both of those things very obvious. - Excerpt from Shade 4.1
- ↑ Shade 4.6
- ↑ Natalie had her arms folded. Her hair was shorter than most boys wore theirs, with a curl at the forehead, her glasses seemed oversized for her face, and her forehead was wrinkled in worry or concentration. She dressed in clothes that made me think she’d picked clothes out of a magazine without reading the rationale behind those clothes. She wore a blouse that fit her body closely, made of a faintly reflective material, with a black ribbon tied where it drew the collar together. She wore a straight-cut skirt that started at the waist and ended at the knee, and dark hose, with tidy, heel-less business shoes. It was the kind of thing that made a model in a magazine look stunning, but Natalie was five-foot two, she didn’t really have a waist, and the outfit made both of those things very obvious. - Excerpt from Shade 4.6
- ↑ Shade 4.1
- ↑ Shadow 5.6
- ↑ - Excerpt from Torch 7.6
- ↑ Natalie had family with her- a few young cousins or siblings, a few people of an age to be aunts and uncles, and a lone parent: a mom who was probably the complete inverse of my mom. Her mom babied her, getting water that she didn’t reach for, fretting, moving aimlessly. The main reason I thought the kids were Natalie’s siblings was that her mom looked very much like a mother of four that hadn’t slept, showered, and had pulled on whatever she’d had at hand. Natalie just seemed to lie back on the hospital bed and let it happen, making regular comments to the cousin or sibling nearest to her in age. - Excerpt from Gleaming 9.1
- ↑ Gleaming 9.7
- ↑ Gleaming 9.15
- ↑ “Antares,” Citrine said, greeting the group. “Rain o’ Fire, Swansong, Ashley Stillons, Lookout. Natalie Matteson. And, of course, Tress. Sveta Karelia.” - Excerpt from Interlude 9.z II
- ↑ I kept my mouth shut for the moment. On my phone’s screen, Nat had left me with only an ‘asking around’.
[...]
Still no response on my phone. I knew it was a lot to ask, shooting questions Natalie’s way, but in our recent contact, she’d asked that we continue to loop her in. I’d brought up where we were, and now she was phoning around.
[...]
Natalie (Lawyer):
I asked people about taking in s.piece or joint.
There is no room. Jails over capacity. Homes and apartments in populated areas being used as temporary accommodations.
Do not want minor villains unless lasting injury or murder AND ironclad evidence that can rush them thru system.
Gang leader yes s.piece or joint is a no.
Sorry. - Excerpt from Polarize 10.9 - ↑ Black 13.1
- ↑ Breaking 14.6
- ↑ Breaking 14.z
- ↑ From Within 16.6
- ↑ “Sorry,” Natalie said. “When you all passed out-”
“No,” I said. “No, it was right to go for help.” - Excerpt from Sundown 17.1 - ↑ Radiation 18.9
- ↑ Infrared 19.b
- ↑ Last 20.10
- ↑ Last 20.b
- ↑ She’d been enchanted by the magical powers of one book, the biological alteration scenario of a television series. - Excerpt from Beacon 8.x
| Leader | Antares • Capricorn Red • Swansong † |
|---|---|
| Members | Lookout • Cryptid ‡ • Tress • Precipice • Capricorn Blue |
| Associates | The Wardens • Natalie Matteson • Damsel of Distress III • Advance Guard • The Undersiders • The Chicken Tenders |