"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.
Secondhand is a villainous speedster who helps patrol Hollow Point with the Speedrunners. He later defected to the Fallen.
Personality[]
Crude, callous, and depraved. However, he is self-aware enough to bemoan the Fallen's influence on himself.[1]
Appearance[]
Undistinguished man with an average build, who wears opaque goggles and a flat cap.[2][3]
During the work he wears a protective, mostly utilitarian bodysuit.
Abilities and Powers[]
Secondhand is a time-stop speedster whose power puts him in a time-dilation state, where the world appears to freeze. It takes some time to activate and deactivate his power.[4] His power effects extend around quarter-inch from his body, converting surrounding elements to his speedster-state and enabling some breathing.[5]
While his power is active, his ability to physically interact with the world is severely limited, even air is experienced as dense as water, and heat is insufferable without protection, which all can lead to injuries. Carried weight also makes it harder to move for him. As a consequence, using his power for extended periods of time leaves him exhausted or even wounded.[6]
He could use his power to scout, patrol large areas,[7] to appear in the midst of a group of enemies,[8] dodging blows, moving to catch a falling ally.
Equipment[]
Initially, he used a suit that made him more forceful during his speed-up state, but exacerbated bodily damage.[9]
It was changed to a lightweight tinker-suit that allows him to engage his power for longer and with less risks to his health. It provides him with heat protection, supplies emergency oxygen, as well as batteries that accelerate his state transition or allow to move with more force, and visor overlays, that guide him through challenging airflows.[6]
He also carries remotely detonated explosive charges, similarly lightweight.[6]
History[]
Background[]
Secondhand joined the Speedrunners in Seattle.[10]
Early-Ward[]
Secondhand was assisting in Hollow Point, which put a heavy strain on his health. At the end of their Hollow Point stint Speedrunners have provided him with more acceptable tinker-suit.[9]
During the Mathers Compound Assault, Secondhand and his team showed their true colours as members of the Fallen.
Post-Time Bubble Pop[]
Secondhand was present in Teachers Cauldron base.[11]
During The Wardens' attack on Teacher's compound he successfully ambushed Antares and Capricorn, leaving Byron with grievous injuries.[6]
Trivia[]
- Secondhand usually means something that is passed to someone with there being a previous owner. Secondhand or the second hand is the part of the clock that needs to loop once before the minute hand ticks forward once.
References[]
- ↑ The Fallen were rubbing off on him. Not that he had been an angel before, but… he could only spend so much time with people who let him do anything he wanted, however he wanted, without getting a little fucked up. - Excerpt from Interlude 15.y II
- ↑ Secondhand was fairly normal in build, with goggles and a flat-top cap. He managed to not look old-fashioned. - Excerpt from Shade 4.3
- ↑ I turned away from the spectacle in front of me, looking for the one who might be coming after the ones who’d gotten Mama Mathers and Valefor. Behind us, to the sides-
In the midst of us.
Secondhand looked average, with flat, opaque goggles and a flat top cap, but he flickered intensely with afterimages and suggestions of places he might be in the future. The images were violent enough he looked ready to burst, and he was right in the middle of our group. I swung a punch, and he moved with enhanced speed, ducking it.
The quick movement pushed him over the brink, or so it seemed. He detonated, and everything moved like it was slow motion, as I was thrown off my feet, the wind knocked out of my lungs. Others were shoved back and away from him too. My skin felt like it was tearing apart, because the slow motion was real, and different parts of me were slowed, while others weren’t. My lower body was more affected, as was the part of me closer to the front.
It hit everyone except for Mama Mathers, who Secondhand zipped over to, to catch out of mid-air, and Valefor, who blurred, hair moving slightly, but the rest of him remained unaffected.
That would be Final Hour. The targeted slow-motion, granting a kind of protection. - Excerpt from Shadow 5.12 - ↑ He used his power again, thumb flicking the activation for the battery to accelerate the process. If he didn’t, it took a minute or two before he could use his power again. - Excerpt from Interlude 15.y II
- ↑ He waded through the mud that was the air around him, his power converting every quarter-inch into a medium he could breathe, at a rate slower than he walked. Air further away offered more resistance. - Excerpt from Interlude 15.y II
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Interlude 15.y II
- ↑ I had a sense of what Birdbrain and Braindead did, and there was a risk Secondhand would do a patrol when the meeting concluded, to see what their potential business partners were doing. - Excerpt from Shade 4.3
- ↑ From our first briefing on them, we’d know they had a guy who could appear at our most vulnerable point and catch us off guard.
I turned away from the spectacle in front of me, looking for the one who might be coming after the ones who’d gotten Mama Mathers and Valefor. Behind us, to the sides-
In the midst of us. - Excerpt from Shadow 5.12 - ↑ 9.0 9.1 With Prancer, he had had to use his power multiple times a day. Different suit, less of a walk through mud, but more taxing on his body, to the point that skin had been bruised, blood vessels in eyes and skin had broken, and his teeth had been loose. He had pissed pink and shit black, and he’d picked up a cough that didn’t go away. It had nearly killed him, and only the improved costume had kept him going, putting him in a place that was denser, but safer, that required a more methodical approach. He’d endured with that improved costume and motivated himself with the hope that rep they were picking up and deals they were striking behind the scenes were building up to something. They’d talked to the Crowley Fallen, they’d partied with them, and once that became a regular thing, it had given him enough to look forward to that he’d been able to get through the weeks. - Excerpt from Interlude 15.y II
- ↑ So it went. So it always fucking went. It was a chore, but it was a chore that was safe. Before Seattle it had been a once-a-week thing, but it got him nowhere. Then he’d signed on with others in Seattle, and they’d done okay. He’d had to scout like this daily, get in a fight a month, but he’d made enough to pay his share of rent. After Gold Morning, it had been much the same. - Excerpt from Interlude 15.y II
- ↑ Black 13.x