The Undersiders are a supervillain team operating in Brockton Bay.
Modus operandi[]
The Undersiders were originally thieves operating on a "get in, get out" mindset when pulling off their heists, using their abilities to guarantee success. They only fought to ensure their escape.
They became more aggressive after Skitter joined the team, using hit-and-run tactics in their battles.
Grue required them all to receive first aid training.[1]
Unlike many other villain teams, their criminal activity is on behalf of Coil, from whom they receive a retainer or salary of $2,000 a month.[2] The Undersiders later claim and rule over territory in Brockton Bay in Coil's place.
Months later, they usurp Coil, killing him, and take over Brockton Bay's criminal underworld, focusing on keeping the peace within the city. They gain many legitimate holdings, including an interdimensional portal.[3]
Structure[]
The Undersiders work with a flat leadership hierarchy. They don't have a single leader, but instead rotate based on the situation at hand and available members. Any member could theoretically take the role as leader. The remaining members loyally contribute to their various fights and activities.
Members[]
Name | Description |
---|---|
Bitch | Rachel is a homeless, orphaned girl whose closest company is her dogs. Can empower her dogs to monstrous sizes, growing a "flesh shell" around their bodies. |
Flechette/Foil | Lily, a former member of the New York Wards, defected due to her love towards Parian. Can imbue objects with energy that can violate the laws of physics. |
Grue | Brian was the acting leader of the Undersiders until he stepped down due to the trauma of his second trigger event. Can generate large amounts of smothering darkness that causes sensory deprivation. Upon his second trigger event, his range became more limited and he gained the ability to borrow powers from parahumans that come in contact with his darkness. |
Imp | Aisha, Grue's sister, recruited by her brother to ensure her safety. Can make people forget she exists, essentially rendering her invisible and imperceptible to most people. |
Parian | Sabah, previously independent, joined the Undersiders for funds to reverse Bonesaw's alteration of the residents of Dolltown. Uses her telekinetic power to animate large cloth golems. |
Regent | Alec, previously Jean-Paul, is the son of Heartbreaker. He joined for safety and independence under a cape team. Can interfere with the nervous systems of others, capable of gaining complete control if given enough time. |
Skitter/Weaver | Taylor wanted to become a hero, but ended up joining (and later leading) the Undersiders. She originally joined in the hopes of turning the Undersiders in to the authorities. Has absolute control over arthropods within a three-block radius. |
Tattletale | Lisa, original name Sarah, was forced into the Undersiders by Coil. She serves as a de facto leader at times, guiding the group and telling them what to do next. Can extrapolate information in order to make deductions. |
Chicken Little | Aiden is a junior member, he was taken in by Taylor as a young boy and cared for by Charlotte. He can control flocks of birds to a certain degree. |
Snuff | A murderer for hire, working under Tattletale. |
History[]
The Undersiders were brought together by an anonymous villain through a combination of subtle pressure and bribery over a year before the start of the story.[4] He offered them a monthly allowance contingent on them remaining together as a group as well as individual enticements for several members of the group.[5]
They gained a reputation as robbery and escape specialists, performing corporate thefts for their employer such as robbing the Ruby Dreams casino.[6][7] They were considered small-time, which was intentional on the part of their benefactor.[8][9]
Some time before the story started, they attracted the ire of Lung,[10] likely due to them operating within his territory without consequence for quite some time.[9]
Story Start[]
After their confrontation with Oni Lee, they ran into Taylor, who helped them deal with Lung. A few days after, Taylor joined the Undersiders with the intent to betray them later on.
They pulled a job in which they robbed a bank and fought the Wards. Later it is revealed that this is a ploy to distract the Protectorate while Coil kidnaps Dinah.
While retrieving their earnings from the bank job, the team was attacked by Bakuda. After narrowly escaping, they contributed in taking down the Azn Bad Boys alongside the other villainous groups.
After Bakuda's rampage, the Undersiders were directed to crash a Protectorate gala in order to humiliate the heroes and remind the public that it was the villains that had handled the crisis.
When Coil released the identities of the Empire Eighty-Eight to the public, the group was caught in the crossfire.
The entire team joined the fight against Leviathan.
Post-Leviathan[]
After a brief fallout when Skitter's true intentions on joining the Undersiders were revealed, Tattletale eventually convinced Skitter to return to the group and for the Undersiders to accept her back.
They kidnapped Shadow Stalker and used her in an attempt to infiltrate the PRT ENE Headquarters. During the infiltration, they stole valuable information from the PRT.
The Undersiders were eventually charged by their benefactor to seize territorial control of most of Brockton Bay. They did so, and to the public, it looked like they did so in an alliance with The Travelers.
They fought against the Slaughterhouse Nine, and played a large part in driving them out of Brockton Bay.
Post-Slaughterhouse Nine[]
A week after the Nine were driven out, the team met and decided to turn against Coil.[11]
Fought against multiple of Dragon's suits.
They actively began to pursue Coil after his attempt to kill Skitter and, after successfully killing him, seized control of all his assets. However, as a final act of spite, Coil released Echidna from her prison.
Post-Echidna[]
The Undersiders assaulted the PRT ENE Headquarters again in retaliation for the exposure of Skitter's civilian identity.
Skitter left the Undersiders and joined the Protectorate as Weaver on Dinah's advice to work toward preventing the world from ending. Weaver and Tattletale remained in contact through coded messages.[12]
During Behemoth's attack on New Delhi, Regent sacrificed himself, distracting Behemoth to save Weaver and Imp.
When the group was invited to the Khonsu Meeting, Tattletale had Cauldron pick up Weaver.
The Timeskip[]
The Undersiders remained the uncontested rulers of the Brockton Bay underworld for close to two years.
Post-Timeskip[]
The Undersiders took part in the extermination of the Slaughterhouse Nine-Thousand.
Gold Morning[]
Tattletale was the one to suggest that Panacea alter Oliver to look like Eden, which shattered Scion's will to fight.
Post-Gold Morning[]
After Gold Morning, Bitch, Foil and Parian, and Imp form their own individual groups, referred to by Imp as the Sons of Bitch, the Needlepoints, and the Heartbroken respectively.[13]
While the group effectively dissolved as a coherent entity but evolved into a larger alliance that let people help each other out.[14] Regardless they still decided to counter Teacher and his designs as he represented the largest single threat to the fragile peace.[15]
The former teenage villains succeeded in handicapping the much older and presumably more experienced Teacher.[16]
Early-Ward[]
The former teenage villains succeeded in handicapping the much older and presumably more experienced Teacher.[17] They are seen as major players in the City, holding authority over the New Brockton area. They're known to be affiliated with the Heartbroken, and Tattletale recruited Chicken Little, a young parahuman with the power to control birds and a bud from Skitter's shard.
The Undersiders worked with Cradle's cluster group to attack the Mather's Fallen camp. Following the attack, Tattletale explained how she was using this opportunity to offer Cradle a chance at Goddess level power by exploiting Rain's cluster group.[18]
Post-Time Bubble Pop[]
Bitch, Foil, Parian, and Snuff fought alongside The Shepherds as a first-wave attackers in Wardens' assault on Teacher's Compound.[19]
The Ice Breaks[]
The team joined the assembly of capes within the Wardens HQ who were being briefed about the Titan threats.
The Undersiders and The Heartbroken were assigned in the same group as Breakthrough, The Major Malfunctions and Deathchester, and stationed in the ruins of Mathers compound between Titan Eve and Titan Oberon.[20] Later, they had to fight both of the titans,[21] and more.
The Undersiders, together with The Heartbroken, stood in the way of Titan Fortuna going to Earth Shin portal.[22] Evidently, they evacuated before thing went too dangerous.
Following Valkyrie's titanification Grue returned to The Undersiders.[23]
Only Rachel Lindt and Foil deployed to the initial battle with The Simurgh, while everyone else stayed at the Wardens HQ.[24]
They were in the vicinity of the battle with The Simurgh and The Mathers Giant, and were dragged into it while attempting to protect Dinah Alcott.[25][26]
Fanart Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ Insinuation 2.9
- ↑ Insinuation 2.7
- ↑ Scourge 19.7
- ↑ Coil founded it, a little over a year prior to the story's beginning. Tattletale's interlude has their first meeting. - Spacebattles
- ↑ Interlude 8.y
- ↑ I looked up Grue. There was actually information about him, but nothing detailed or definitive. The wiki stated he had been active for nearly three years, dealing in petty crimes such as robbing small stores and doing some work as an enforcer for those who wanted a little superpowered muscle along for a job. Recently, he had turned to higher scale crime, including corporate theft and robbing a casino, together with his new team. His power was listed as darkness generation in the sidebar under his picture. The picture seemed crisp enough, but the focus of it, Grue, was just a blurry black silhouette in the center. - Excerpt from Insinuation 2.2
- ↑ “The Undersiders. They’ve flown under the radar so far, but more recently, they’ve started pulling higher profile jobs. They hit the Ruby Dreams casino five weeks ago, and now they just robbed the biggest bank in Brockton Bay. This time we were lucky enough to get in their way. That means we finally have intel on their group.” - Excerpt from Interlude 3
- ↑ I think there was a fic where her power was on her Parahumans Online page? You're wayyyy off base if you think she even has much of a page or if anyone would know enough to put it there. The Undersiders are on the level of 'this page is a stub' for the wiki. - Spacebattles
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 “Taking over this city is pointless if I do not keep it, Grue. I hand picked you Undersiders because I needed allies who were comfortable being situated in the North end, the Docks, the Boardwalk, the Trainyard, the outskirts to the North. I picked you because I saw you had potential, yet you were not so high profile as to demand the immediate attention of authorities. This freed you to be overlooked until you were more established. It allowed you to grow both practiced and comfortable as a team, and to establish a reputation for yourselves. In my efforts against Kaiser, I have not only been whittling away at his Empire, but I have worked to keep him occupied so you would not be sandwiched between two major factions in the early stages of your group. You had only the ABB to deal with, and you held your own for nearly a year. Skitter joining your group was sufficient to tip the balance.” - Excerpt from Tangle 6.8
- ↑ Faultline answered him, “His team hit the Brockton Bay Central Bank a week ago. They’ve gone up against Lung several times in the past and they’re still here, which is better than most. Not even counting the events of a week ago, he knows about the ABB and he can share that information with the rest of us.” She gave Grue a look that made it clear that he didn’t have a choice if he wanted to sit at the table. He dipped his head in the smallest of nods in response. We’d discussed things beforehand and agreed on what details we’d share. - Excerpt from Hive 5.1
- ↑ Colony 15.1
- ↑ For several dangerous minutes, I’d seriously considered going back to the Undersiders if this mission got derailed. I’d stopped myself before I got too far into that line of thinking, knowing it was a trap that would lead to me compromising, giving up in a way. Playing into the Directors’ hands.
No, I wouldn’t go back. I missed them; scarcely an hour went by where I didn’t wonder how they were getting by, but I wasn’t allowed to contact them. I wanted to know how Imp had changed in response to Regent’s passing, if Grue was getting enough support, or if Rachel was managing in the cold on the other side of the Brockton Bay portal. Was Tattletale using her power too much, still? How was Sierra managing as a corporate magnate and front-man for a villainous organization?
Hell, how was the Boardwalk getting on?
They were questions I couldn’t ask or answer without raising red flags with the people who were watching me for the slightest excuse. I’d cheated and sent letters, written by my bugs, delivered to a mail box while I was hundreds of feet away, and I’d received ‘fan letters’ with coded messages from Tattletale. It wasn’t enough, didn’t have the details I craved. - Excerpt from Scarab 25.3 - ↑ Interlude: End
- ↑ “Sure,” I said. I paused. “Speaking of you showing up, I’m surprised the rest of your old team didn’t turn up too, for old time or camaraderie’s sake.”
She turned. With the way the light came through the tunnel, I could see the eye symbol on her chest in a slightly different shade of purple, hidden where the vertical bar met the horizontal, and the shadows meant I could no longer see her eyes or expression. Maintaining the same tone, she said, “No, you’re not surprised. You know full well they’re well positioned too. They’re doing their own things. They’re still a resource I can and will tap.”
“Gotcha,” I said. - Excerpt from Glare 3.1 - ↑ Imp sighed. “Teacher’s plan. It’s dumb. We’re supposed to worry about this shit?”
“No,” Tattletale said, watching on the monitors as the others from the meeting made their way downstairs. “Teacher isn’t a threat. Or he isn’t a big one. You were talking symbols before?”
“Symbolic shit, yeah.”
“Consider Teacher a symbol. Things are starting into motion, the quiet is coming to an end, and he’s… if not a threat, he’s a gatekeeper to one.”
“He’s a smug dick,” Rachel said. “You give the go-ahead, we tear him apart.”
“It’s a little more complicated than that,” Tattletale said. “There are dynamics to pay attention to, group interactions, politics, there are unwritten rules, and the nuances of what happens if and when we’re viewed as the aggressors when we violate the truce. Not to mention the danger if we disrupt whatever he’s setting up and inadvertently set it off. Like we sort of did with Jack, though that was more exception than rule.”
Imp sighed. “Teacher’s plan. It’s dumb. We’re supposed to worry about this shit?”
“No,” Tattletale said, watching on the monitors as the others from the meeting made their way downstairs. “Teacher isn’t a threat. Or he isn’t a big one. You were talking symbols before?”
“Symbolic shit, yeah.”
“Consider Teacher a symbol. Things are starting into motion, the quiet is coming to an end, and he’s… if not a threat, he’s a gatekeeper to one.”
“He’s a smug dick,” Rachel said. “You give the go-ahead, we tear him apart.”
“It’s a little more complicated than that,” Tattletale said. “There are dynamics to pay attention to, group interactions, politics, there are unwritten rules, and the nuances of what happens if and when we’re viewed as the aggressors when we violate the truce. Not to mention the danger if we disrupt whatever he’s setting up and inadvertently set it off. Like we sort of did with Jack, though that was more exception than rule.”
[...]
“So,” Rachel said. “What happens?”
“What happens is we go kick teacher in the balls and drop him down an elevator shaft,” Tattletale said. “Hopefully in a way that doesn’t leave us looking like assholes.”
Rachel nodded, satisfied. - Excerpt from Interlude: End - ↑ “We might have to revisit the truce we made,” Jeanne said. “We thought the Undersiders knocked him down enough pegs that he wouldn’t recoup fast. It seems he’s more resourceful than that.” - Excerpt from Interlude 5x II
- ↑ “We might have to revisit the truce we made,” Jeanne said. “We thought the Undersiders knocked him down enough pegs that he wouldn’t recoup fast. It seems he’s more resourceful than that.” - Excerpt from Interlude 5x II
- ↑ Pitch 6.8: “Yep. She proceeded to take over earth Shin, with all other parahumans acting as her lieutenants. All other parahumans on that world, mind. No exceptions. Which the organization deemed fine, because they got to keep her in their back pocket, even while they couldn’t control her. She is, or was, a grab-bag, she found a way to pull free of her cluster, and she came out of it with a set of powers that would each be world-class on their own.”
- ↑ Dying 15.6
- ↑ Radiation 18.2
- ↑ Radiation 18.4
- ↑ Infrared 19.4
- ↑ Infrared 19.f
- ↑ Last 20.2
- ↑ Last 20.5
- ↑ Last 20.6
[]
Leader | Grue ‡ • Skitter ‡ • Tattletale |
---|---|
Members | Bitch • Foil • Imp • Parian • Regent † • Chicken Little |
Subordinates | Atlas † • Barker • Biter • Cassie • Charlotte • Forrest • Bryce Kiley • Sierra Kiley • Chicken Large • Snuff |
Associates | Accord's Ambassadors • Bitch's Dogs • Coil's Organization • The Heartbroken • The Needlepoints • Sons of Bitch • The Chicken Tenders |
Leader | Coil † • Tattletale |
---|---|
Members | Dinah Alcott ‡ • Chariot • Creep • Leah • Pitter • Trainwreck † • The Travelers ‡ • The Undersiders |
Associates | Accord † • Circus ‡ • Faultline’s Crew • Leet ‡ • Über ‡ |