"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.
Ratcatcher is a rodent themed superhero, who would eventually become a part of Foresight.
Personality[]
Ratchatcher is an agreeable person who speaks with a lisp.[3] She has a playful side and could get along with people, even non-humans.[4]
Had a reputation for being a hot head and a walking disaster.[5][6]
She had not joined the Wardens or Foresight.
Relationships[]
Burnish[]
Was friends with the Heroic Blaster.
Crystalclear[]
Warmed to the disfigured Thinker,[1] did not seem to realize that he was effectively blind and could not see her unmasked appearance.
Tress[]
Seems to have a rapport with Sveta.
Appearance[]
Is a bit on the short side. She has mentioned that people tend to find her face disturbing without the mask, but her exact appearance has not been described.[7] This combined with her unusual eyes and lisp may suggest a deformity, power-related or not, but this remains ambiguous.[8] Her face is heavily scarred.[9]
As a cape she wears a wire and paper-mache rat mask which covers her face. The more elaborate version of her costume features a belt with various mousetraps on it, a denim jacket and shorts, and shirt and socks with a lively striped pattern. Dot appreciated it.[8] Also wore a simplified costume incorporating a sleeveless top in warm weather.[3]
Abilities and Powers[]
Can see small detached objects regardless of the obstacles between her.[10] She was not able to sense internal objects but she was able to see small things whether animate or inanimate.[11]
Like Hellhound, she keeps trained animals, in her case rats.[12] She seems to have trained or commanded her rats to retrieve the objects that she found, and further says she can get her rats to open doors for her, in another. She could probably maintain an awareness of them while they were out of reach. This may be why she says that rats can "talk" to her.[13]
Following the shift in powers she was able to scrutinize minute details of people, able to see the Parahuman Plague as it stole it's way to it's hosts.[9]
History[]
Background[]
She's probably had a natural thinker trigger, and may have had powers from a very young age.[7]
Spent some period of time as a villain, but was trying to reform by the start of Ward. Her reputation for inappropriate social behavior was apparently more of an issue than her villainous track record on this front.[2]
Ward Start[]
Worked at the Gimel Portal in The City there she met Crystalclear.[14]
Tried to stop a stowaway.[11] The thing told her that her friend Burnish had died. While Ratcatcher was heartbroken, she was still willing to give the creature water before sending it back through the portal. The thing betrayed her trust, fled, and killed three of her trained rats in its escape.
Post-Fallen fall[]
May have been on duty when word came that sabotage for the portals was going on. Regardless she survived and continued working near the portals.
Was willing to help when the refugee intake center saw a massive influx of people, later got involved stopping in the Cheit-backed terrorist attack there.[15]
Became a recruiting contact for Breakthrough.[16]
Got assigned in parahuman prison camp as an undercover agent.[13] Was contacted by Breakthrough when dealing with a breakout.
She went into the tunnels to try and deactivate the system she split up into a team with Crystalclear, Tress and Swansong. After the actions of the the allied parahumans swamped the tunnels with large amounts of water Ratcatcher withdrew into the ventilation ducts and exited.[17]
Emerging from them Ratcatcher searched out the teacher-drugged food, possibly helped by Natalie, and was able to find and bring the materials to a secure location. Despite this she was still captured and was tied up but not before she took some of the food herself. Ratcatcher was able to signal Antares to get the flyer to go and investigate.[18]
Post-Time Bubble Pop[]
Ratcatcher had failed recruitment to Foresight. Victoria and Tattletale paid her a visit.
Post-Attack on Teacher[]
She was being tested by Foresight again.[2] Presumably, succeeding this time.
The Ice Breaks[]
Ratcatcher received the Victoria's plague from Crystalclear after some persuasion.[19]
Chapter Appearances[]
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Fanart Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 “Ratcatcher seemed to take to you,” Relay commented.
“Did she?” Crystalclear asked.
“That’s the impression I got. You didn’t seem too bothered, either.”
“She seemed like a nice kid. Weird but good.”
Relay made a small sound. “Don’t, uh, say that around her. She’s older than you. Heh.” - Excerpt from Interlude 2 II - ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 We’re trial-running Ratcatcher again. Because, y’know, everything with the city isn’t stressful enough, we gotta give second chances to depraved, hilarious ex-villains with a thing for rodents. - Excerpt from Sundown 17.7
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Crystalclear was aware that Ratcatcher wasn’t alone. He turned his head a little, then pointed at the pocket of Ratcatcher’s top. It was a sleeveless top, tight-fitting in the way a costume was supposed to be, but it had a hoodie-like pouch in the front. There was a small life form in there, the thing’s perspective fuzzy in a way that suggested it was asleep, in whole or in part.
Ratcatcher made a pleased sound, then reached into the pouch. The disturbance woke the creature, but she didn’t act like it was upset as she held it in her two hands.
Crystalclear could guess what the thing was from its dimensions and Ratcatcher’s name. “Does it have a name?”
“Raththputin,” Ratcatcher said. She picked up a walkie-talkie, “The attractive older gentleman in the peacoat, hairy earth and eyelatheth to die for. Thomething thown into the coat. Naughty.”
“…I can see Ratcatcher has joined us…” the walkie talkie buzzed in response. The buzzing turned into crackling. “…nimize colorful commenta…” - Excerpt from Interlude 2 II - ↑ - Excerpt from Interlude 3 II
- ↑ “You handle that then, if you’re comfortable. I’ll go with Ratcatcher to the access tunnels.”
“We could use a thinker and a level head,” I said.
“I’m kind of under orders to be the level head for Ratcatcher, and I don’t want to go anywhere near that fire, in case I blow a mental fuse. I don’t think this is really negotiable,” Crystalclear said.
“Ugh,” Ratcatcher said.
Ugh is right. Crystalclear is just about the only person who isn’t Goddess influenced, who knows what’s going on. - Excerpt from Gleaming 9.10 - ↑ Black 13.5
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 He blinked a few times with his one eye, noticed that Ratcatcher had taken off her mask, gray furred and full-face, and decided to keep his gaze averted, for privacy’s sake, and because looking at her would let her see his face.
He concentrated, and he produced another chunk of glass, feeling it stab from the underside of his eye and out, sliding through everything in the way without doing real damage. He was careful to shape it in his mind so there wouldn’t be any sharp edges resting against his eyelid or brow.
He turned his face Ratcatcher’s way. “How do I look? Symmetrical?”
“Yeth.”
“Thank you,” he said.
“Thank you,” she said, with emphasis on the ‘you’.
“Why?”
“Not many people look me in the fathe when my mathk is off and keep from flinching,” she said.
Crystalclear’s response was cut short. - Excerpt from Interlude 2 II - ↑ 8.0 8.1 “Not so fatht,” the woman said, as Dot skidded on the floor, stopping.
The woman was small, as humans went, and she wore a costume that covered most of her body. Her mask was roughly cone-shaped, but the paper or wire that kept the mask pointy had been dented or damaged at one point, and the nose drooped a bit. Rodent-like, with ears sticking out and back at the side, flat against the side of her head. The eyes behind the eye-holes were large, dark, and moist. If Dot unfocused her eyes a bit, it looked like there was nothing behind the eyeholes. Dark hair draped around in front of the ears and down the back of the woman’s head. As pointy as the mask was, she wore a hood or a hat with a point going the opposite direction.
She wore a jacket, denim, with a threadbare collar, a striped shirt beneath, and a thin chain belt with mousetraps dangling from it. Her socks were striped as well, extending high enough that they just barely met her denim cut-off shorts.
Dot was willing to admit that if she was going to die, at least it was at the hands of someone with a good aesthetic. - Excerpt from Interlude 3 II - ↑ 9.0 9.1 I reached out and gave his hand a squeeze.
“I can thee it,” Ratcatcher said. “Tiny movementh of tinier hairth, all over your hand, your fathe.”
Crystalclear nodded.
“Come,” Ratcatcher said. “You can give a girl a kith on the cheek, or hold her hand if you’re thicken.”
She pushed her mask a bit aside. There was scar tissue on her cheek and chin. Her hand reached out, and her pet mouse poked its nose out of the sleeve.- Excerpt from Last 20.10 - ↑ Ratcatcher joined Crystalclear in the booth, sitting on the counter by the phone.
“What do you do, Crythtalclear?” Ratcatcher asked.
“I see through walls. I can see contraband.”
“I can too,” Ratcatcher said. “I thee thmall thingth, wherever they are.” - Excerpt from Interlude 2 II - ↑ 11.0 11.1 “You’ve got a thtowaway.”
Dot froze.
“A thtowaway?” was the response. There was a sound of an impact, light.
“Thomething thmall.” - Excerpt from Interlude 3 II - ↑ Ratcatcher held out a hand. Dot was wary, but she ventured closer.
“Thay hello to Raththputin,” Ratcatcher said. “Thtay in my pocket for now.”
[...]
It was another minute until she realized two things.
Ratcatcher had friends.
The convenient openings in the vents and leading from vent to the inside of the walls of the station were there because of those friends.
Dot had dealt with rats before, but these rats were the sort that were very ugly and very large. In the right light, they might have been mistaken for very ugly, small dogs. Dot had always liked that story when the King read it from the scary children’s book. The children got the dog and the dog turned out to be a Mexican sewer rat.
These rats were that sort, apparently, and they smelled like Ratcatcher’s pocket had. - Excerpt from Interlude 3 II - ↑ 13.0 13.1 “I do,” Ratcatcher said. “We’ll want more firepower. My friendth reported a few powerth.”
“Then I’ll come,” Tress said. “It’s- it has to be better than talking about master-stranger protocols and doubting myself or my teammates.”
“I’m still not sure I get those protocols,” Rain said. “But I’ll do what the team needs. Do you need wall-breaking power? Get past any secure doors?”
“No,” Ratcatcher said. “I can get through motht lockth quick. Or my friendth can.”
As if to punctuate that last statement, a mouse poked its head up from her prison uniform collar, followed by a much larger rat.
“You talk to rodents?” Rain asked.
“No. Not mush. Only crathy people talk to rodenth. But rodenth talk to me. Very different.” - Excerpt from Gleaming 9.10 - ↑ Interlude 2 II
- ↑ As if thinking about them had summoned them, he saw how the girl with the rats was part of the crowd, and her eerily terrible mask with its bent nose was made all the worse by the dim lighting that came from low, below-the-neck angles.
“I’ll help,” she said. “Even though I’m on break.”
She turned to go.
[...]
He saw the woman with the rat mask. She ran low to the ground, straight toward the source of gunfire. - Excerpt from Interlude 7.y II - ↑ I looked around the room. The two members of our group who were in jail were present, as were Tristan, obviously, and Kenzie.
[...]
“And Sveta?”
“Stuck around with the people she was talking to. Ratcatcher and others Ratcatcher has talked to. They got to talking and she wanted to keep chatting. She’s on her way back, but she was a good ways away.”
“That’s good. Rapport,” I said. - Excerpt from Beacon 8.8 - ↑ “Ratcatcher ran?” I asked.
“She went up one of the ventilation ducts that isn’t supposed to hold a person,” Crystalclear said. “We thought she’d get help.”
“We haven’t seen hide, hair, nose or tail of her,” I said. “Goddess won, we think. And we destroyed the server.”
[...]
I spotted Ratcatcher on my own. She was standing on the back of a pickup truck, ropes binding her hands to the spoiler. I got Crystalclear’s attention, nudging him, and pointing. I saw him nod.
There were enough parahumans around us that we couldn’t talk. The noise was too much. He tried anyway, saying something about how she was too big a pain in the ass.
No Natalie. No Ratcatcher. - Excerpt from Gleaming 9.14 - ↑ How had they managed it? The building had been collapsed.
Rats. Mice.
It might have been Natalie who gave Ratcatcher the direction, Ratcatcher who did the lifting. Had they known they were going to be caught, and laid this as a trap? Something that anyone coming through might pick up and share? - Excerpt from Gleaming 9.15 - ↑ Last 20.10
[]
| Leader | Brio • Countenance (Second-in-command) |
|---|---|
| Members | Anelace • Effervescent • Relay • Typhlosis • Crystalclear • Ratcatcher |
| Associates | The Wardens |