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Gleaming 9.12

Victoria Dallon, known publicly as Antares and formerly as Glory Girl, is a cape superhero aligned with the Patrol Block and is a former member of the New Wave. She is the daughter of Carol and Mark Dallon, and the adoptive sister of Amy Dallon. She is a prominent character featured in Worm, and the main protagonist of Ward.

Personality[]

Early Worm[]

Victoria was a hot-tempered and prideful cape,[21] partly as a result of her powers.[22] She enjoyed fighting and was prone to using excessive force on her enemies.[23] Despite this she genuinely believed in being a hero and helping others.[24]

She was very protective of her family.[22][25] She liked to give people the false impression that she was truly invulnerable.[26]

She was taking a university course that offered information on parahumans, despite not being done with high school.[27]

Post-Slaughterhouse Nine[]

Victoria found Amy after she healed Mark and ran from their house. Victoria attempted to calm Amy down, but worn out Amy, unable to hold back anymore, imprinted love for herself into Victoria's brain, causing Victoria to leave in disgust.

Victoria was among the Protectorate heroes who battled Crawler and was horrendously injured by Crawler's venom. As a desperate temporary protective measure, her sister transmuted her body into a hard case with a hodgepodge of body parts (multiple arms, legs, and heads), using the flesh of rats, cats, dogs, and whatever else was available. Unfortunately, this stressed Panacea to the point of breakdown, and she forgot how to put Victoria back together.

Victoria was sent to live in the Parahuman Asylum. Although at first she sublimated her forced infatuation into anger at the violation, eventually she was reduced to begging to be reunited with Amy,[28] as well as derailing every conversation to her sister at later stages.[29]

She was extremely worried that her family would stop visiting her in the Asylum.[30]

Ward[]

She had two years after being mutilated by her sister to reexamine how she did things before,[31] leading to her changing approach. She struggles with the (ir)reality of her restored body[32][33] and had to re-learn day to day life.[34] By Y1, she had abandoned her Glory Girl identity, and stated that the identity could stay dead.[35] She has stated that she didn't believe in forgiving and forgetting.[36] She is very self conscious.

She was willing to help a self-described supervillain figure out the PHO interface, describing herself as "unfortunately afflicted with desire to help people" and noting that "you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar".[37]

She was understandably upset when she was rejected from university. She wrote a list of fourteen "unreasonable ... semi-possible" reasons she might have been rejected, although the rational part of her knew that it was likely because there simply were not enough places. She described herself as having "gotten good at effective brooding".[38]

During the Ward she slowly regains her ability to function as a super-heroine, although at the cost of moral compromises and personal day-to-day happiness.

Reputation[]

The public assumed that she had died after the Slaughterhouse Nine.[39]

With her team she has started to build a new reputation as a problem solver.[40]

Relationships[]

Panacea[]

Initially, Panacea tended to take on the role of keeping her in check.[22] They grew up as sisters, and were extremely close as a result.

After two year period of unnatural obsession with Amy[28][29], Victoria is strongly intended to never meet with her again[41], going so far as avoiding Amy's name in her thoughts.

Victoria believes Amy to be one of the scariest people on Earth. She is so traumatized by what Amy did to her, that even seeing someone who vaguely reminds her of Amy is enough to send her thoughts spiraling.[42]

Victoria is so adversarial of Amy now, that when Amy tried to touch her, Victoria responded by attacking her, and almost killing her.[43]

Gallant[]

While theirs was a sometimes tempestuous romance,[44] Victoria believed she might marry him someday. When he died, she described it as "the lowest point in my life" 'up to that point.[45]

Vista[]

Got along well with Vista helping each other deal with the aftermath of Leviathans attack. Vicky took strength from the fact that the girl was still being a Hero after Gold Morning. They have a fairly close relationship, referring to each other as 'Big V' and 'Little V'.

Crystal[]

Her cousin by birth and one of her only surviving family members. They chat regularly on PHO, exchanging messages. Crystal goes by user name Glitzglam there.[38][46]

Sveta[]

Befriended the case 53 while in the Asylum together.[47] Was able to convince Weld to give her friend another chance at getting out home.[48]

Undersiders[]

Despite only encountering Tattletale once prior to her breakdown, Glory Girl had a strong dislike of her. When Tattletale taunted Amy about her secrets Victoria became angered, threatening to have both Tattletale and Skitter jailed in the Birdcage. During her later confrontation with Tattletale, Glory Girl makes it very clear that she blames her in part for what happened with Amy (though Tattletale does express remorse for her own role). During Ward the, two continue to be antagonistic toward each other, but eventually forge working relationship with some amount of mutual respect.

Victoria had a very mixed opinion of Skitter; she acknowledges Taylor's heroism but also condemns what she saw as Taylor's needless brutality (in particular her murder of Alexandria). Nevertheless she was disgusted by what Taylor went through, criticizing Madison Clements when the latter admitted her role in Taylor gaining powers and her rise as a supervillain, but acknowledges that Madison only owns partial responsibility for Taylor's decisions.[36] She did not remember Taylor's involvement in the battle against the Slaughterhouse Nine.

Victoria does not hold strong feelings against Foil for changing sides,[49] but is still wary of Rachel.[50]

Jessica Yamada[]

Victoria has a close relationship to her former therapist, meeting with her early on in ward to discuss her future. Jessica later confides in Victoria and asks her for help with several of her patients, giving Victoria a task, and direction at the beginning of Ward.

Ashley Stillons[]

After some time they have grown to appreciate each other.

Kenzie Martin[]

Initially just saw her as a happy kid but started to appreciate how deep and complex her issues actually were.

Once Victoria became aware of why she smiled so much she was able to read Kenzie's body language much better.[51]

Rain O'Fire Frazier[]

Victoria is frustrated by Rain a lot of the time, but understands and appreciates that he is trying his best, to be his best self.

Anelace[]

Victoria is attracted to Anelace, but not interested in having a long term relationship with him. This ultimately culminates in them sleeping together. They later start dating.

Appearance[]

GloryGirl

Glory Girl and Panacea by aerryi

Early Worm[]

Victoria is a tall, platinum blonde, young woman. As Glory Girl, she wears a white one-piece dress that ends in a skirt at her mid-thigh with shorts underneath, an over-the shoulder cape, high boots and a golden tiara with spikes radiating from it.[52]

Post-Slaughterhouse Nine[]

Victoria had become a conglomeration of disparate body parts, vaguely resembling Eden.[53][54] She had three heads, eight arms, and ten hands, amongst various other body parts.[55]

She was unable to speak because the connection between her lungs and mouths was too complicated. For two months her only methods of communication were her aura and painstakingly communicating through coded blinks. Eventually she regained enough control to type and make use of a text-to-speech synthesizer, but it was still a slow and painful task.[56]

Early Ward[]

After Gold Morning her body was restored to its previous form.

Victoria abandoned her Glory Girl identity, and initially wears mostly casual, civilian clothes or some generic, backup costumes.

New Costume[]

Antares-C

Illustration by Cyrix on Reddit

With Weld's help, Victoria crafted a new costume for herself, using designs she had long been working on. Two store-bought hoodies and some old armor of her father's were cannibalized to create it. The design was inspired by her old Glory Girl costume, her newly-reshaped forcefield, a desire to differentiate herself, and a practical need for increased protection because she was leaving her forcefield down more often, among other influences.[57] It was intended to be weighty, but still form-fitting in the torso and arms.[58]

The costume featured a hood and removable sleeves.[59] The cloth was black with (eventually) white trim, re-purposed from a hoodie.[60][60][61] The hood had metal decoration at the edge,[59] a metal ornament at the peak of the hood with rays forking upward.[62]

The armor of the costume was described as gold or white-gold.[62][60] It had a flat breastplate with decorative "rays" in the center, overlapping a second piece of armor that covered her collarbone and upper breast. The armor around her legs was similarly decorated.[59][60] Spikes projected from the shoulder pads,[63] four parallel "rays" and then a fifth shorter one slightly apart, curving toward the front and leading into similar decoration on the breastplate.[64] When she posed with her hands on her hood they pointed backwards.[65]

A protective mask hung from the belt for use in serious situations.[60]

The gloves were fingerless and decorated[59] with back-swept spikes that were sharp enough to be used to cut things.[66]

Abilities and Powers[]

Victoria has the classic Alexandria package of flight, invincibility, and superhuman strength.[67] She also radiates an aura that makes her allies more inclined to respect and look up to her, while making her terrifying and intimidating to her enemies.[68][69]

Her passenger is a bud from Manpower[70]and Brandish,[71][72] and also pinged off of Gallant.[73][74]

Forcefield[]

Victoria's invincibility and strength is the result of an invisible forcefield that extends a few millimeters over her skin and clothes.[75][76] She or her passenger subconsciously controls whether others can make skin-to-skin contact with her[20], though she had gained enough control to suppress her forcefield at will.[77]

It needs to recharge for 1 to 2 seconds[69] after it receives a heavy impact, or after a few seconds of sustained fire (such as a beam or jet of water.) Even a strong punch can be enough to trigger this effect, and it takes longer to recharge after holding off a sustained hit. Her own super-strong punches and kicks cause it to flicker off and revive.[78] This makes for a fragile invulnerability.[24] Dealing with sustained fire causes her shield to take longer to regenerate. It does not consider machine-gun fire to be a single sustained attack, but rather a series of individual blows.[78]

When Victoria first triggered, her forcefield did not protect her clothing. With time, it began to protect her Glory Girl costume as well, although the skirt was only inconsistently protected.[79]

While active, it can block even a direct hit from Scion.[80][78][81] The field protects her from the cold and bugs during the flying, but still allows her to feel the wind in her hair.[82]

Certain pockets of air close to the cracks into Shardspace can slice Victoria's forcefield by sending different portions to different realities.[83] The Ripple shaker from the Taught can throw out distortions that could tear her forcefield and continue without stopping, though it leaves her forcefield in tatters.[84] Cradle, at his strongest, can draw silver lines[85] capable of cutting straight through her forcefield without collapsing it.[86][87] Luckily, if Victoria drops or knocks out her forcefield, her power will recover its original state after it recharges and comes back up.[88] Rain O'Fire Frazier can always do the same as Cradle by drawing a silver line and then activating it; however, if she drops her damaged forcefield, it would take a minute to recharge instead of a bit of time.[89] Note that the Ripple shaker, Cradle, and Rain lack All-or-Nothing powers,[90][91] which suggests her forcefield is not All-or-Nothing.

All-or-Nothing powers such as Foil's charged objects, blasts from Damsel of Distress, and headbutts from Torso can knock out Victoria's forcefield and continue without stopping.[92][93][94][95][96] Extreme hits such as those from Torso, Damsel, and Scion also caused her forcefield to take a few seconds longer to regenerate than normal.[95]

Strength[]

Her strength is primarily generated through the forcefield,[97] and operates through a similar mechanism to Manpower's.[70][73] She's capable of deadlifting slightly above fourteen tons, however functional limits depend on the grip and the distribution of mass.[98] For example, she could bench press a cement mixer (if she was careful about balancing it),[99] lift a truck, etc.[100][101]

She was strong enough to casually launch a man or a metal dumpster over seventy-five feet,[99][102] or throw a small object like a mirror or a handful of loose change with bullet-like speed and force.[101][103] (Given that her strength is related to Manpower's "explosive strength",[73][70] and Manpower imparts additional speed and force to objects he throws,[104] it's possible she may be able to throw objects even harder than her baseline strength would imply.)

The Wretch[]

Wretch by scarfgirl

Illustration by Scarfgirl

Following Gold Morning, Victoria's forcefield is stuck to her previous form, before Amy corrected it, causing it to extend beyond the bounds of her body in the shape of her mutated form.[79] She referred to this phantom-memory forcefield as the 'Wretch', since the extended and misaligned forcefield expressed a degree of independence.[105][106][107] Victoria had to be mindful about it, so as not to wreck surroundings accidentally. However, in some situations, she was able to position it to protect other people.

After sustaining a big hit, the delays for bringing the Wretch back up will be longer than usual.[108]

Eventually Wretch learns to manipulate objects without instantly destroying them. It was able to arm itself with improvised weapons and guns during the Attack on Teacher's Compound, and later throw objects with a great effect.[109]

After her Journey to the Shardspace, Victoria gained near perfect control of her forcefield. She was able to use it with impressive dexterity, doing things like braiding her hair, carrying a cell phone and picking up a team mate without harming them. She is capable of moving her forcefield independently of herself, adding some rotational power to her arsenal.[110] This can be used as a crude fan in situations involving gas.[111]

When the Firmament was damaged in the fight against the Titans, the shape of her forcefield changed once again, decreasing in 3 times. Now with less arms and legs, her forcefield is at a halfway point between its original form and its full wretch form. She also started getting sensory information through it.[112]

In it's new form, the Wretch has less arms but the remaining arms are closer to each other, better enabling Victoria to move things around. She can use her forcefields fingernails to cut things in combat.[113]

Following the emergency healing from Chris Elman, Victoria loses fine control over the forcefield yet again.[114]

This lack of control does not last long, as she comes to terms with her shard and gains full control over her forcefield. Victoria is now capable of selectively creating arms and mouths and other parts of her forcefield, without being forced to unleash the entire thing at once.[115] By invoking memories of the time that Amy had turned her into a flesh coffin, Victoria is capable of emerging from inside her forcefield and having it act independently of herself.[116] In doing so, she is still capable of using her flight and her aura, but is no longer protected physically.

Flight[]

As Glory Girl she could fly at almost 80 mph.[117] She raises that to a slight excess of 100 mph as Antares, keeping up with a train travelling at that speed.[118] She is still able to fly even when her forcefield is inactive.[119]

As long as her forcefield was active to protect her, she was capable of flying straight through walls.[120]

One one occasion she was able to survive being accelerated into the blur by Ballistic,[121] it is unspecified which powers assisted her in that, but the situation demonstrates that Victoria can handle acceleration way out of non-lethal range.

Victoria is noted by Crystal as being very good at aerial maneuvering, noting that Victoria can spin around in mid-air without getting dizzy, something she is not capable of.[122] Victoria has used this to her advantage before, notably when taking out Etna, who has similar middle ear issues to Crystal, that make it difficult for her to perform sharp turns in midair.[123] However, she has no meaningful advantage when compared with some breakers.

Aura[]

Victoria can radiate an energy that makes anyone within her presence feel an emotional surge of awe and admiration. For those with a reason to be afraid of her (e.g., her foes), it is a feeling of raw intimidation instead.[124][68] Her aura can bypass cover.[125] It can also affect insects created by the Mother of Mothers.[126]

Victoria's aura is not a true Master power;[127] it is a Shaker/Master power.[19][128] No instances exist in Worm and Ward where a character compared her power to that of Heartbreaker or Cherish; for example, Taylor compared Heartbreaker with Amy (i.e., when Victoria's mind was modified[129]) and Gallant (i.e., unlike Gallant, Heartbreaker lacks a visible attack vector and his effects are long-term or permanent[130]). Her aura does not have long-lasting effects; it was not a factor behind Amy's issues.[131][132] Note that Victoria used her aura around Brandish, Flashbang, Laserdream, Shielder, and even Gallant more than she used it around Amy; Amy did not go out patrolling.[132][133] Wildbow explicitly confirms that Victoria's aura had no effect/influence on Amy's behavior and sexuality.[134][135][136]

She is able to turn this aura off[137] because it is a power that she has to willfully turn on.[138][139][140] Indeed, Victoria has full control of her aura; no instances exist in Worm where she accidentally used her aura or lost control. For example, she did not use her aura during the Battle at the Gallery,[141] class PARA-103 at the PRT conference room,[142] the fight between the Wards and the Travelers,[143] the fight against Bitch's dogs,[144] her meeting with Amy who ran away from home,[145] and her meeting with the Undersiders and Amy group.[146][147] She also did not use her aura on Amy at Spayder and Rock.[148]

Only in rare atypical circumstances has Victoria used her aura in domestic family environments. At a family reunion in the City, when Victoria learned about Amy's invitation, had a PTSD episode, and intentionally used her aura in an attempt to dissuade those following her escape, Carol was shocked that Victoria actually used her aura on her here.[149]

When turned on, Victoria can dial the power of her aura up and down: its minimum setting is fairly subtle in effect.[20] She can also push out or pull in her aura[150] to control its range (i.e., radius);[151] her maximum range is at least 100 feet.[152] The closer one is to Victoria, the more powerful the effect of her aura.[153][154][155] By taking actions that complement the emotional charge, she can also enhance her aura's effect (e.g., breaking a table to better intimidate her foes).[156]

It is possible for one to resist her aura if they notice/understand what they are feeling and put themself in the right headspace (e.g., Carol,[149] Tattletale at the hospital complex[157]), especially if she makes the effect obvious.[158] Some individuals such as Lung, Bitch, Krieg, and Victor process her aura differently and get angrier instead; however, Victoria can use this to provoke them on an emotional level and distract them.[159]

After Gold Morning, Victoria starts trying to be more deliberate with how she uses her aura.[160] For example, she starts using it with physical contact or at point-blank range to more effectively stun her targets.[161][154]

After the Firmament was damaged, her aura was altered.[162] Instead of forcing people to feel fear or awe, her aura now forces people to feel something akin to interest or attraction to her.[163] Following a revelation during her second visit to the Firmament, Victoria gained the ability to choose what emotion her aura projects, based on her own feelings and memories.[164]

Emotion Resistance[]

As Victoria gained her aura by triggering in Gallant's vicinity,[165] her power makes it difficult for him and some other emotion-based parahumans to read or influence her (e.g., Gallant,[166][167] Crystalclear,[167] Snag,[168] Love Lost,[169] Cradle,[170] Roman[171]).[172]

Connection to Shard[]

Main article: Fragile One

Victoria has a very strong connection with her shard, as shown from its own perspective. Her shard has expressed a strong desire to help her achieve anything she would set out to achieve.

Victoria believes that her shard is enforcing her intuition around certain events, in almost a pseudo-Thinker ability.[173]

Equipment[]

Victoria Gun by Nocturne

Gun by Nocturne

Victoria frequently makes use of tech gifted to her by Kenzie, specifically a camera that she can place in her eye that provides her with a HUD.

Later in the story, Victoria is gifted an enormous fourteen ton laser cannon by Dragon. This cannon shoots a golden beam that is capable of damaging Titans and knocking down buildings.[174] It has no appreciable recoil, allowing her to use it alongside her forcefield without her forcefield popping.[175]

History[]

Background[]

As a kid of known superheroes she was welcomed in the circle of elite students. Unlike her sister she was more receptive to this, although it made her question her social position. Later she recalls this situation as the starting point for her growing disillusionment with life at the time.[176]

Prior to gaining powers, Victoria wanted to be a superhero more than anything. This led her to play sports, an area she could finally shine, as well as to begin dating a hero.[177][178]

Victoria triggered in 2009, at 14, when she was fouled in a basketball game.[179][180] When she jumped to make a shot, another player slammed into her mid-air bruising her sternum, and she began flying.[181][182] Around a year after triggering, Victoria had been hurt in an attack by a gang called the Chorus. Amy triggered as a result, and healed her.[183]

It was publicly known that she was dating Dean Stansfield. It was something of an open secret among the heroes that Dean was actually the secret identity of the hero Gallant.[38]

At one point she met Madison Clements, Emma Barnes and Sophia Hess at a photo-shoot. Despite initially being friendly she was put off when they made fun of a disabled girl (never quite getting along with Emma afterwards.)

Victoria was taking college courses as other parahumans did, though she did not cross paths with Aegis or Faultline.[38]

Boston Games[]

Victoria was too young to follow the first generation of New Wave to Boston, but she helped with the organizational stuff.[184]

Story Start[]

After spotting a thug guilty of assault, Glory Girl whooped and landed in a practiced motion before she gave him a head start as he bolted. She caught up to him quickly, told him the name of his victim and said that she would catch him if he tried to run. When he denied doing anything, she used her power to intimidate him, grabbed him by the collar, and lifted him into the air, above a dumpster. She then threatened to break his arms and legs if he didn't tell her everything. He swore at her and she threw him.[75]

Glory Girl worried that she had killed him before she spotted him moving. She asked if he was ready to talk only for him to try limping away. Angry, Glory Girl kicked the dumpster and sent it towards the man. After it hit him and the man didn't get up, she checked his pulse, found the street address, and then called her sister for help.[75]

When the Undersiders attacked the Brockton Bay Central Bank, her boyfriend Gallant invited Glory Girl along. She landed on the roof while the Wards lined up outside the building. Panacea sent her a text after she attacked Skitter with a fire extinguisher, which prompted Glory Girl to enter the bank lobby through the window. Skitter took Panacea hostage with a knife and Tattletale reappeared from the back office where she had gone for unknown reasons. Tattletale claimed that she is a psychic and proceeded to back up the claim by giving information about the circumstances behind Panacea's adoption. She then threatened to reveal a secret of Panacea's that she claimed would tear her family apart.

Panacea escaped Skitter's hold but was quickly knocked out by her batton instead. Glory Girl blasted the two villains with her aura and threw Tattletale into Skitter, talking at length about her intentions to have the pair thrown in the Birdcage. Tattletale was able to figure out Glory Girl's forcefield, and used a small handgun to disable it so Skitter's bugs could swarm Glory Girl and the Undersiders could escape.

In the aftermath of the fight at the bank, Panacea dealt with the physical effects caused by the insects, but she claimed Glory Girl was 'sulking' because of the mental shock of getting hurt while being nigh-invincible.

Glory Girl attended the fundraiser to celebrate the defeat of the ABB, representing New Wave. When the Undersiders raided it she seemingly was incapacitated by Tattletale using containment foam and played no further role in the fighting.

When the secret identities of Empire Eighty-Eight were revealed to the public, Purity went on a rampage across the city in response to the PRT taking custody of her daughter Aster. During a large scale battle between E88 capes and local heroes, Glory Girl fought alongside Laserdream, Lady Photon and Aegis against Purity, who was assisted by Crusader and Rune. The fight was difused when the Undersiders arrived and Tattletale gave Purity directions to recover her daughter from the PRT.

She participated in the battle against Leviathan.[185]

Post-Leviathan[]

With her father hurt and her boyfriend Gallant dead, Victoria was left adrift, unable to gain emotional support from her sister who was dealing with her own issues.[180] After a brief feeling-out period,[186] she joined the Wards[187][188] as a probationary member.[186]

Victoria was among the Protectorate heroes who battled Crawler and Mannequin in preparation for an airstrike, and was horrendously injured by Crawler's venom, surviving only because Skitter carried her away from the battlefield on Atlas.

Post-Slaughterhouse Nine[]

Confronted with an impossible amount of stress, Panacea suffered a breakdown and made Glory Girl reciprocate her love. She forgot how to put Glory Girl back together and, in trying to heal her, warped her into a mass of flesh made of the body parts Panacea found most appealing.[180][189][190]

Glory Girl was placed in the Parahuman Asylum, where she was treated by Jessica Yamada and communicated through blinks.[191] She eventually was able to painfully type out messages on a computer.[56] Her family would sometimes visit her, but often skipped visits.[192] She was able to make friends with Sveta however.

Post-Echidna[]

Continued to take Parahuman courses online while in hospital.[193] Had various forms of therapy so she could adapt to her circumstances.[194]

Around this time she got her parents to tell her about what had originally happened with Marquis.[195]

Gold Morning[]

Glory Girl fought in the final engagements of Gold Morning. She was used to block a beam from Scion at one point during the battle.[80]

She was later reunited with her sister, thanks to Khepri.[7]

While Amy was able to correct Victoria's body, all the way to when Amy first 'misstepped', she decided to let Vicky decide if she was going to keep her memories, after first turning off all her emotions so Vicky could decide 'rationally'.[17]

Post-Gold Morning[]

Victoria would regularly visit Earth Bet through the portal in the east of the City to search through abandoned buildings. She agreed to provide some of the materials she had found to a library in the City.[46] At some point she set up a tarpaulin to try and prevent the old family home in Brockton Bay from being wrecked by rain, but suspected it was a lost cause.[196][197]

She had applied to Nilles University and been turned down a year before Y1.[38]

She had a job connected to a high school[198] as an expert in parahumans. Students at the school had classes for half a day, and worked various jobs the other half, one of those jobs was adjacent to the school Patrol Block.[199]

She applied to Nilles University again, but after some time waiting[200] - despite excellent qualifications and references - she was rejected again.[38]

Madison Clements contacted her seeking information about Taylor Hebert (and expressing regret for whatever role she may have had in Skitter's birth). Victoria admitted that she had deeply mixed feelings about Taylor; she acknowledged that Taylor had been a hero and while she didn't say it recognized that she had saved the multiverse from Scion. However, she also condemned many of Taylor's actions (in particular Taylor's murder of Alexandria). She also criticized Madison for her previous cruelty towards Taylor; in spite of this she gave Madison advice on how to try to be a better person (especially since Madison was planning to be a teacher), warning her that redemption was not about forgiveness but trying to do better.[36]

Early Ward[]

Victoria was forced to publicly use her powers when a mercenary group attacked an event the patrol group was protecting, resulting in her dismissal.[201]

She applied to almost every major superhero team, but they all turned her down for one reason or another.[202] She participated in patrolling during the rioting, as well as assisting during the Broken Trigger that occurred.

Jessica Yamada eventually reached out to her to get help with a therapy group she had been working with. Seeing as they wanted to be a team Victoria decided to help them.

Victoria set her new team up against a group of B-list villains in the Cedar Point district.

She convinced the Wardens to back the Mathers Compound Assault. At the start of it she captured some bikers on the outskirts of the Fallen village and then led her team as search and rescue inside. The rescue efforts shortly devolved into series of skirmishes with incoming and local villains.

In aftermath she unsuccessfully pleaded Patrol Block leaders to pursue Fallen retreating into The City. Then, she and her team had a meeting with The Undersiders and together they deployed to New Boston to catch Fallen remains. Victoria was able to capture Vince Crowley. After short interrogation, combined team rushed to Fenway station and was able to secure it with the assistance of local Patrol.

Post-Fallen Fall[]

Got involved in legal stuff. Appeared on the talk show Hard Boiled along with Capricorn, Lookout and Swansong in order to defend Kenzie against the allegations made against her by her parents. Victoria spoke publicly about Gold Morning, and revealed the truth about Scion. 

Victoria reveals the truth of her forcefield to her team.

Breakthrough's appearance on Hard Boiled attracted the attention of Goddess. After discovering that Amy has some kind of connection with Goddess, Victoria decided they should go ahead with the meeting. Breakthrough met Goddess through Lookout's projections in order to protect themselves from her influence, but this proved pointless, as Goddess was able to master them regardless. 

Amy is not pleased with this turn of events. Goddess attempts to use Breakthrough to master even more capes. It is revealed that Byron has not been affected by Goddess' master ability due to Case 70 shenanigans and tries to stop everybody. He gets his ass kicked by Victoria, until he manages to get through to her by invoking Master-Stranger protocols. Goes with Byron to meet The Major Malfunctions who have found a crooked guard working for the prison. When they meet them, they are attacked by Teacher's thralls. They handle these goons until they are reinforced by the prisons pharmacist, who is a powerful cape. She fights them off and escapes.

Once they return to base, Kenzie figures out how Teachers portal machine works and devises a way to trap them on the prison world. She enacts her plan, and Goddess arrives at the base, mastering Byron.

The attack on the prison commences, and as they are leaving the hideout, Amy attempts to touch Victoria. Victoria nearly murders Amy in response. The attack on the prison commences.

Breakthrough, Goddess and members of Foresight fight off various Teacher thralls. Lung, Blindside and Kingdom Come arrive. The team reunite with Rain and Ashley, and meet up with Ratcatcher.

Victoria, Rain and Byron fight Lung and the pharmacist while Goddess fights random capes in the background.[203] After a long battle, Victoria manages to capture the pharmacist, allowing Goddess to gain control of Lung. Goddess senses danger with her power, while Victoria makes a deal with Coalbelcher. Teacher plans to starve them all out. Chris and Amy arrive with Goddess' clustermate.

Breakthrough, Damsel of Distress III and Monokeros enter a tunnel and fight Blindside. Eventually getting passed him, they find that Kingdom Come has mastered Sveta and is unable to control her body. Byron floods the place, stopping them from setting off the ankle bombs. Victoria rescues everybody and they escape the tunnel. Monokeros tries to take Kenzie and gets kicked down a hole. The prisoners are all free, and Chris is revealed to have left Breakthrough.

The team and everybody in the prison prepares to fight The Wardens. Natalie and Ratcatcher point Victoria to some drugged food, which allows her to break free of Goddess' compulsion. She spreads the food around, before Goddess attacks them. Chris then hits her with a surprise attack and successfully kills her. He and Amy then leave with a lot of the prisoners to take over Earth Shin.

Post-Goddess' Takeover[]

Went shopping with the remaining members of the team, as well as some hangers on and new additions. Had an intense girl talk with Sveta.

Found out that the Undersiders were on the move, and went to investigate with the rest of Breakthrough. Finds out that March is after them with a team of mercenaries. Meets with Faultline and her crew, who now go by Palanquin. Tattletale is present, and informs them of how capes in clusters can siphon powers from one another.

Breakthrough went to investigate Love Lost and her group, by staking out Lyme Centre. End up getting into a fight with an electricity tinker, and destroying the guns that Love Lost has just purchased.

Victoria goes to meet a returning Crystal and Weld with Sveta, and meets Golem and Cuff. She is then called into a crime scene, where The Navigators have been attacked, and dismembered. After discovering they are alive despite their grievous injuries, Victoria helps the police and ambulances, and tries to gain any information she can about the attack from Nailfarer. When she informs the other heroes in her network, some of them decide to go on the offensive.

Her and a group of capes return to the crime scene to do some investigating. She gets hit on by Anelace and handles it pretty awkwardly. The entire group is attacked. Victoria fights back against the attackers, including a cape called Noontide and an unnamed man. Sveta kills Noontide. It turns out Kenzie, Ashley and Tristan have all been shot.

Later, Dragon gives Victoria Yamada's notes and she finally discovers Chris's past.

Having not yet told her team about the recent revelation, Victoria and Breakthrough defend a police station from Bitter Pill and her group. After this, Vicky finally tells the team what she has learned and they do not take it well.

Vicky takes Kenzie back to her apartment with both Ashleys and does some research. She is attacked by Imp who threatens to burn all of her stuff, but eventually they sort out a deal and the Undersiders team up with Breakthrough to take on Love Lost, March and Cradle.

The teams split up. Victoria, along with Rain, Foil, Parian, Chastity Vasil, Candy Vasil, and Aroa Vasil have been assigned to hunt down Love Lost. They run into Lord of Loss and Nursery. They successfully make it into Love Losts hideout, and gather some intel. Parian is attacked by Nurserys baby, and the team is surrounded.

Victoria fights off a cape who she compares to a hockey puck, while the others escape. She then takes the fight to Lord of Loss. Using Rains emotion ability to give her pseudo thinker powers, she manages to defeat Lord of Loss, but has to pull a Nursery baby out of her throat in the process. She then discovers that something terrible has happened to one of the other groups.

She discovers that the rest of her team has fallen victim to Cradles separating whip and that they have all been horribly maimed in some way. With this knowledge, the Hunt for Cradle begins.

He had retreated to Earth N, so Victoria follows him with a coalition of capes, including members of her team, the Undersiders, the Harbinger Clones, and her parents. There, they find that Cradle has assembled an army of mercenaries. A large scale battle breaks out, with some of the residents of Earth N assisting the heroes, including the likes of Moose.

During the battle, Victoria mistakenly hurts her mother with the Wretch. The damage done is enough that Brandish has to revert to her Breaker form in order to not die. Pushing on, Victoria continues fighting, until eventually Cradle is cornered, and with the assistance of Citrine, captured.[204]

Later, she watches as the Kronos Titan stands over the horizon.[205]

Post-Time Bubble Pop[]

Victoria is a part of the group that oversees the exile of Drillbit, Sightly, Copse, and Happyland.

Jessica Yamada returns, and speaks to every member of Breakthrough, excluding Victoria. Later, they talk one on one, and Yamada reveals that she believes Victoria to be a threat to the team, as an incriminating diary had been found in her possession. One that Victoria did not write. She leaves the Wardens Headquarters, checks her computer, finds the planted diary and shows it to Tattletale. Together with Sveta, they follow Tattletale's lead to figure out who manifactured the diary. During this process, Victoria meets Ratcatcher again, uncovers The Old Man[206] at the Earth Nun villain hub and gets confronted by Engel's emotion power, which almost causes a mental breakdown. However, with the help of the Case 53s, they are able to identify Teacher as the definitive suspect, forcing him to make a move and proving that the diary was not real.

Once back at the Wardens HQ, Dragon apologizes to Victoria for the suspicion. Shortly after, during a meeting with The Wardens and several team leaders, including Victoria, Dragon reveals that she is an AI.[207] Victoria begins to disregard the teachings of her therapist and decides to prioritize her cape-life over trying to have a civilian life.[208][209] While the heroes and Tattletale talk, Victoria and Jessica have a short exchange, after which Victoria turns to Mr. Bough and proposes a deal. Bough is to restore Sveta's body in exchange for a more comfortable stay in exile. Sveta and Vista burst in, but Bough accepts the deal and with Sveta's consent, the operation begins some days after and succeeds.

The Wardens plan a coordinated attack on Teacher, who resides in Cauldron's old compound. The attack is being delayed by several days due to preparations and team Breakthrough ends up having to confront Gary Nieves in public, who reveals that her sister has mutilated another person on Shin, in a similar way to what she did to Victoria.[210] The group teams up with Miss Militia, Golem and Vista to meet the leadership of Earth Shin. Together with the leadership, they also encounter the Dallon parents, Chris, Marquis and Amy.[211]

Brandish is recovering from her injuries and signals to Victoria, that they are in need of help.[212] Victoria confronts Amy, while Miss Militia speaks to Luis and the other leaders of Shin. Amy reluctantly admits, that the victim of her power use was Hunter. Vicky offers Amy to visit the Wardens HQ, so that she can talk to a therapist, but secretly hopes that the Wardens decide to dump Amy into the prison world. She also threatens Amy, that she will ensure her punishment, if Amy can't restore Hunter. Their talk ends and the group returns to Miss Militia. Luis then orders for the group of Gimel capes to be arrested. Trusting Miss Militia, they comply.[213]

Team Breakthrough, Vista and Golem end up in a prison on Earth Shin. Amy and her parahumans remain in supervision nearby. Once in private, Kenzie reveals that she is still connected to the rest of her new team via her tinker tech. Vista openly confesses to Byron Vera. Right on the next morning, the group is violently attacked by both guards and prisoners. They try to defend themselves without using their powers and suffer severe injuries. One of Victoria's hands gets skinned.[214] They have a short meeting with Citrine, who came to negotiate for their freedom. Victoria is led to a medical station, where she gets drugged and knocked out.

When she wakes up, she is alone with Amy and notices that the skin of her hand has been provisionally regenerated. The two sisters talk. Amy confirms that she used the opportunity to peek into Victoria's psychology. It is unclear if she changed anything. Implications suggest that Amy abused Victoria in the time before she went to the Birdcage.[215] Amy also reveals a little bit about the Shard's endgame[216] and parts of Teacher's plan.[217] Victoria convinces Dot to ensure that Amy doesn't bring herself into more trouble. Once back with her team, she declares Master-stranger protocols on herself out of the suspicion that Amy altered her. The team brings her into the loop, namely that the Wardens mounted the attack on Teacher without them and that Sveta has been taken into custody.

Antares talks to Sveta. Then Kenzie informs the team that she was able to overhear a meeting between Shin officials.[218] Breakthrough assumes that an assassination attempt is being planned by Yosef's faction to frame them. Since Kamil Armstrong is being sent by to pick them up upon release, they suspect he will be the target. They convince some of the other prisoners to start a riot as a distraction. Using Vista's power, they escape from their cell. A fight with Chris and Coalbelcher breaks out, while Crock o’Shit escorts Armstrong. Breakthrough wins the fight and Vicky convinces Chris to play along.[219] Meanwhile, Crock o’Shit prepares to execute Armstrong, but Sveta rescues him. Breakthrough is released, the assassination thwarted.

Laserdream welcomes Victoria and her mother back on Earth Gimel, while her father remains on Shin with her sister.[220] Victoria hides that she is mentally unwell. After returning to the Wardens HQ, she attends Citrine's meeting for the upcoming second wave of the attack on Teacher's base. Most of the Wardens, Advance Guard, Foresight and The Shepherds were part of the first wave, all of which are now missing in action.[221] Team Breakthrough leaves Kenzie and her team of children behind, proceeds to fight some of Teacher's thralls and enters Teacher’s facility through one of Teacher's portals, together with Imp, The Heartbroken, Love Lost, Colt, Fume Hood, The Major Malfunctions and some of Citrine's Mortari capes.[222]

Within Teacher's facility, the heroes are almost immediately involved in non-stop fighting. Victoria helps to defeat some thralls and moves on alone, reaching the Gallery, where a rather large portion of Teacher's army fights Balk, Stonewall and other presumably first-wave heroes. Victoria gets almost immediately shot out of the air by a sniper thrall with enhanced accuracy, but the Wardens save her life and take her into their PRTCJ flyer formation, where she witnesses how the Wardens kill dozens of teacher's minions.[223] The rest of Victoria's group catches up with her and while leaving Balk's formation, she notices that one of the flying capes among them is Lady Photon, her dead aunt.[224]

Antares is able to exchange a few words with her undead aunt, but the fighting continues. The heroes retreat deeper into the former Cauldron compound. They end up fighting more of Teacher's parahumans, this time unenthralled ones. Victoria hesitantly kills for the first time in her life, after Rain confirms that she should do it.[225] During the short downtime after the encounter, Victoria calls Kenzie to give her a status update. There she finds out, that Kenzie has discovered dangerous intel from Teacher. She arranges for Tattletale to look after Kenzie.

She and her group are victorious against three Saint-modified Dragon-mechs[226]. Following Imp's plan to free a high priority target from within the compound's cell block, the raiders split up. The Custodian guards the cells. Antares and her team keep her busy, while Imp frees the prisoner: Contessa.[227] Contessa fends off the Custodian and offers the present heroes and villains three options for how her power should be used to stop Teacher's plan. The group holds a vote. While doing so, Teacher collapses an entire part of the compound to hinder Contessa. They survive due to Contessa's directions. While Teacher's army begins to surround them, Contessa joins with two Harbinger Clones and Mortari capes, demanding an answer. Most of the others reveal their choices to each other and due to Sveta's inteference, they decide to not give Contessa an answer, but she already figured it out.

Contessa gives them instructions for the upcoming fight. Antares, Rain O'Fire Frazier, Colt, Love Lost, Juliette Vasil and Chastity Vasil fight Valefor, but not before Antares sees Mama Mathers, becoming affected by her power. Before killing Valefor, Rain asks Victoria for confirmation to kill, which she grants him.[228] Afterwards, the group gathers again to move on to the next step of Contessa's plan. While doing so, Victoria realizes which option Contessa has chosen and that it was also the option she had chosen herself.

Is next seen under attack by Secondhand of the Speedrunners. She gets away mostly unscathed, but Byron Vera is badly injured.[229] Receives backup from the Undersiders and hears about the death of Swansong and Samuel Vasil. Enraged, she and the rest of Breakthrough move towards Teacher's location. While doing so, a strange phenomenon occurs, where her forcefield begins to act on its own in an unusual, highly coordinated way. Teacher reveals that Shards reside in a dream dimension, similar to the dreamscape of Rain's Cluster. Once arrested, Vicky has the opportunity to kill him, but does not use it. Immediately after, a traitor among the Wards teleports away with Teacher and Legend.[230]

Post-Attack on Teacher[]

Victoria falls ill after the fight for several days. Dinah Alcott appears at the Wardens headquarters and attempts to convince the heroes that Contessa is dangerous and needs to be dealt with. Also, she alerts Breakthrough about Damsel of Distress III attacking evacuees of The City with her team "Deathchester". Before moving out to stop her, the others point out to Victoria, that the unusual behaviour of her forcefield played a major role in Teacher surrendering and not executing his plan. Victoria realizes, that she had not been in control of the Wretch during those moments. She does not tell them about it.[231]

A similar event occurs during the fight against Deathchester, after Mockument agitates her. This time around, Victoria is a lot more conscious of the improved coordination.[103] Breakthrough and the Huntsmen manage to convince Damsel III to stop the pillaging with a ceasefire. She and her team then confront Deathchester at their hideout, together with Etna. Victoria offers Damsel III assistance with establishing Deathchester as a villain team, in exchange for the stolen goods, information about Swansong's memory-bleed-through and an extension of the ceasefire.[232] She then visits The Undersiders together with Kenzie and Natalie, to grab Kenzie's remaining tech. The Heartbroken lash out towards Kenzie, but the situation quickly de-escalates. Tattletale and Kenzie's friends join them on the nightly tinkering adventure.[233]

The meeting with Deathchester takes place at the old headquarters of Breakthrough. Together with everyone else present, Victoria witnesses what happens inside of the dream room of Rain's Cluster.[234] Worried over the life of her teammate, she and her team enter the dream room via Kenzie's tech. Just as they arrive in the dream, Cradle's Shard attacks. Also, Victoria now has one of the 15 sections of the dream room, but there are no walls that could stop the Shard.[235] She suffers a severe burn while fighting it and as the fight seems lost, she orders for her team to go after Cradle.[236] After dispatching Cradle and Grasping Self, they leave the dream room and enter greater Shardspace.

Damsel shows the dream team how to do a full dream-body recovery.[237] Victoria traverses Shardspace, sees visions of memories inside of Shardspace-crystals and finds out about Gallant's secret of him being a Cauldron Vial-cape.[238]

She moves on ahead and finds a group of Shards working together with fifty of Teacher's thralls, messing with one of the dimensional fissures.[239] Tattletale convinces the team to move towards her part of the Shardspace, against Victoria's concerns. They run into Tattletale's Shard, The Negotiator, who alerts one of Teacher's Shards. Victoria uses the opportunity to question the Negotiator Shard's memory, stumbling on several harsh guesses about her family and friends until Tattletale steps in. Teacher's pet-Shard chases after Victoria and she successfully calls her own Shard for help. It follows a brawl with Damsel and Victoria against Teacher, his thralls and his Shard, where Victoria destroys Teacher's control network before waking up.

Victoria and her team face an angry Defiant.[240] She is still shaken from the event. The Wardens have great concerns regarding Victoria's increasing sync with her Shard. Strangely, Dragon's lie detector triggers when Victoria says her own name, but not when she says that she wants to save The City. Her team gets split up, out of action until further notice and not allowed to use powers. She visits her mother and confronts her about her parentage. While Laserdream and Carol argue, Victoria moves outside, breaks off the fingernail of the hand that Amy healed and uses her power, noticing that she has control over it again.[241]

Visits the Wardens headquarters on the next morning with her mother and cousin to see Valkyrie, who sent for them so that they can meet Lady Photon. Victoria convinces Valkyrie to share information about the Shardspace. Together with Vista, she meets Clockblocker and Kid Win on the garden balcony of the compound, both of whom are part of the Flock.[242] They deliver a message from Valkyrie to Victoria, the same advice that Glaistig Uaine had given to Khepri.[243] Victoria reveals her intention to bring all the heroes closer to their Shards as well, similar to herself.[244] Narwhal then calls for Victoria, because Amy has become the new main threat. Victoria however has the suspicion that Amy isn't the real problem.[245]

Attends the meeting with Narwhal. Jessica Yamada and Wayne Darnall confirm that Victoria has not been mentally altered by Amy. Victoria gets briefed on the emergency situation. Amy wants her as negotiator.[246] Victoria snaps during the negotations and begins to threaten Amy. Amy gives in to Victoria's demands, but too late, since The Titan already went on the offensive against one of Amy's creations. Also, Victoria tells Jessica that she knows about the event regarding Bonesaw.[247] Victoria watches how Chevalier stops The Titan. Cinereal assigns someone to get more info out of Victoria. Victoria's forcefield acts on its own again.[248] Later, Jessica explains what happened to her and why she chose Victoria to look after her therapy group. The Wardens conclude that Victoria is to remain benched, where as the rest of Breakthrough is active again. Out of loneliness and prior interest, she visits Anelace and sleeps with him.[249]

Later, Victoria begins to talk direct to her Shard, even letting it braid her hair.[250] She returns to the Wardens and gets access to a computer to check on her team, which is investigating her sister. Kenzie secretly contacts Victoria and establishes a connection to Tattletale.[251] Victoria has a suspicion about some of Amy's capes, expecting a skirmish against the Wardens' investigation team. Together with Tatteltale, she manages to stop the fight by convincing Amy of her instability. Vicky assumes that her recent precognitive suspicions were given to her by her Shard.[252] While she takes a break, the Wardens call her and put her through to her dad. They argue over how to deal with Amy. After that, she calls Tattletale and they talk about potential threats.[253] She figures out that anti-parahumans are secretly the real threat.[254]

The Ice Breaks[]

Victoria is informed that everyone is allowed to use powers again. After getting scolded by Miss Militia for breaking the rules again, she angrily flies back home, only to find it destroyed. Using her improved power, she rips the ruined building apart to recover necessities and her costume. While doing so, she also tests the boundaries of the dimensional rift. Once returning to the former Cauldron Compound, she sees that the heroes have gathered everyone who they could find to help, including The Undersiders, her team, family and sister.[255] There she assists The Wardens in spreading information about Shardspace.

After the speech, she gets sent to the old Fallen Camp with her team and affilates, positioned in between Titan Eve and Titan Oberon. She requests artillery from the Patrol Block on scene.[256] She returns to the Wardens' headquarters for defensive supplies, then moves on to the battlefield with her group, where she assists in fighting Titan Oberon. Inmidst of the battle, Tattletale tells her about their grim future.[257] Victoria ensures that the rear groups retreat alive, and helps Foil and Damsel to harm the titans. They retreat just in time for Titan Skadi to arrive, demolishing parts of their reinforcements.[258] With Parian's full potential, they manage to hold Oberon and Skadi back for long enough that Eve can retreat towards Kronos.[259] She continues to help Legend fight Skadi, but twists her foot in the process and gets swatted by Oberon, dropping into a dimensional crack to catch her fall. While retreating from the battlefield, she visits Titan Eve to talk to her, after which she heads back to the Patrol Block, where she meets Lightstar. They tend to her injuries and realize that Victoria is suddenly losing a lot of hair. Jasper shows up to calm her down.[260]

Receives a custom made laser-cannon from Dragon. Seeks out Tattletale to resolve a problem between Lookout and Rachel. Tattletale clarifies that the hair loss came from a chemical burn.[261] Victoria talks with Natalie and the rest of her team and takes a quick nap at Rain's old house in the Fallen Camp. After waking up, she gets the idea to send unpowered people into The Shardspace to overwhelm and sabotage titans from that side.[262] She speaks to the people of Earth Gimel through Kenzie's tech and about five thousand volunteers join her cause. Together with The Wardens, she leads them into Shardspace. Titan Skadi attacks the convoy and Victoria shoots her with the laser-cannon, after which more Titans move in to join the battle.[263] The laser-cannon's charge is quickly spent after the Titans of Fortuna arrive.[264] Victoria hands the empty power cell to a tinker and flies off to recharge the cannon, then enters Shardspace to protect the volunteers from Skadi. While leaving to fetch her cannon to help with digging, she notices that the Shardspace's crystals project the ugly and shameful memories of parahumans and potential parahumans to the volunteers.[265] Vicky and the volunteers bomb Shardspace so hard that it temporarily incapacitates capes and titans. It also slightly changes some people's powers, including Victoria's Wretch. After suffering another flashback to her trauma due to Engel, Victoria helps fend off the Ophion titan again, then leaves with her team to join the fight against the Titan Fortuna.[266]

She fights the new titans created by the second Ice Break and attempts to save Snuff, but fails and breaks the laser-cannon in the process. Has to withdraw to get it repaired. Briefs with her team on the new situation, Chris Elman included.[267] She explores the new properties of her forcefield while fighting the Ophion Titan, but gets stabbed by the titan's spikes and has to accept Chris's help to fix her leg. Chris tells her about Amy wearing bits of her skin. Deciding that they can't make a difference on the battlefield, Breakthrough heads back to Shardspace, leaving Tristan and Sveta behind.[268] With Tattletale's help, they make it to Titan Fortuna's part of Shardspace, where Sveta, Byron, Chris and Harbinger V catch up with them and they get a look into Fortuna's memories.[269] Victoria gains insight on the Entity and The Eye's origin. Chicken Little follows them into Shardspace and leads Victoria to an area where she sees images of her loved ones, which she interprets as her Shard being in love with her. She tells her Shard that she loves it too[270] and goes through two trigger-related flashbacks. Once back with her team, Fortuna shows them a possible future of The Simurgh winning.[271] Breakthrough investigates a little further and Victoria gets an idea on how to defeat both the Simurgh and Fortuna at once.[272] She decides to seek out Amy for help with her plan, going against the advice that Victoria had given to her earlier and Amy turns her down, refusing to use her power again.[273]

Victoria convinces Kenzie to surrender her tech to Dragon after an incident with The Heartbroken[274] and joins the Wardens in their attack against The Simurgh, for which she reclaims the laser cannon.[275] Simurgh uses The Machine Army as a distraction to attack the Wardens Headquarters. With the help of Defiant, they chase after the Simurgh. Victoria's call to Bonesaw happens. She asks the girl to help her cause a genocide.[276] The heroes fight their way through the Compound until Simurgh attempts an ambush. Through a flashback induced by the Simurgh, Victoria receives another upgrade to her power. With her newfound power, she is able to turn the tables on the Endbringer. Defiant orders Victoria to move ahead and stand guard for Dinah Alcott, assuming that she is the Simurgh's target.[277] On their way, the group runs into Bloodplay, who injures Byron and Victoria. Chris helps them tend to their wounds at the laboratory.[278] Victoria moves on alone, finding the Simurgh having taken control over the Mathers Giant. She fights her way through Simurgh's trickery with the help of The Undersiders and Dinah, using an injection provided by Chris to remove Simurgh's control over the Mathers Giant.[279] Antares attempts to hit Simurgh with Torso, but that plan fails, so she uses Rain instead by putting him inside of her forcefield. Together they manage to bisect the Endbringer, who's remaining half escapes.[280] Despite them mostly successfully fending off the Simurgh, Chris stopped going along with Victoria's plan. Victoria fights and defeats Chris, even while heavily injured.[281] Victoria is sent to the compound's infirmary, where Tattletale confronts her about the genocide plan. Victoria manages to convince Tattletale of it. Semiramis heals her wounds. Vicky speaks to Contessa, informing her that Fume Hood and Dauntless will help defeat The Simurgh.[282]

Defiant encounters her after the Simurgh's defeat. Victoria and her team found a way to set the genocide plan in motion even without Chris's help, beginning with themselves.[283] As it turns out, Victoria's plan merely puts every infected parahuman to sleep, including herself. Civilians are given the cure. Victoria falls asleep at the old Breakthrough headquarters, dreams of past fights, then encounters Gallant and Swansong. After twelve hours of sleep, a civilian wakes her up. She dumps her costume, then checks on Kenzie at the Wardens HQ, where she runs into Tattletale again.[284]

Her plan worked somehow and Fortuna surrenders. Victoria leaves Breakthrough, but continues to do work with The Wardens.[285]

Ward Epilogue[]

Victoria rejoins Patrol Block.[286]

Chapter Appearances[]

Worm Chapter Appearances
Insinuation
1. Insinuation 2.1 Absent
2. Insinuation 2.2 Absent
3. Insinuation 2.3 Absent
4. Insinuation 2.4 Absent
5. Insinuation 2.5 Absent
6. Insinuation 2.6 Mentioned
7. Insinuation 2.7 Absent
8. Insinuation 2.8 Absent
9. Insinuation 2.9 Absent
x. Interlude 2 Debut
Agitation
1. Agitation 3.1 Absent
2. Agitation 3.2 Absent
3. Agitation 3.3 Mentioned
4. Agitation 3.4 Absent
5. Agitation 3.5 Absent
6. Agitation 3.6 Absent
7. Agitation 3.7 Absent
8. Agitation 3.8 Absent
9. Agitation 3.9 Absent
10. Agitation 3.10 Absent
11. Agitation 3.11 Appears
12. Agitation 3.12 Appears
x. Interlude 3 Mentioned
Shell
1. Shell 4.1 Mentioned
2. Shell 4.2 Mentioned
3. Shell 4.3 Mentioned
4. Shell 4.4 Absent
5. Shell 4.5 Absent
6. Shell 4.6 Absent
x. Interlude 3.5 (Bonus) Absent
7. Shell 4.7 Absent
8. Shell 4.8 Absent
9. Shell 4.9 Absent
10. Shell 4.10 Absent
11. Shell 4.11 Absent
x. Interlude 4 Absent
Tangle
1. Tangle 6.1 Absent
2. Tangle 6.2 Absent
3. Tangle 6.3 Absent
4. Tangle 6.4 Absent
5. Tangle 6.5 Appears
6. Tangle 6.6 Mentioned
7. Tangle 6.7 Absent
8. Tangle 6.8 Absent
9. Tangle 6.9 Absent
x. Interlude 6 Absent
Buzz
1. Buzz 7.1 Absent
2. Buzz 7.2 Absent
3. Buzz 7.3 Mentioned
4. Buzz 7.4 Absent
5. Buzz 7.5 Absent
6. Buzz 7.6 Absent
7. Buzz 7.7 Absent
8. Buzz 7.8 Absent
9. Buzz 7.9 Appears
10. Buzz 7.10 Absent
11. Buzz 7.11 Absent
12. Buzz 7.12 Mentioned
x. Interlude 7 Absent
Extermination
1. Extermination 8.1 Appears
2. Extermination 8.2 Appears
y. Interlude 8.y Absent
3. Extermination 8.3 Absent
4. Extermination 8.4 Absent
5. Extermination 8.5 Absent
6. Extermination 8.6 Mentioned
7. Extermination 8.7 Mentioned
8. Extermination 8.8 Mentioned
z. Interlude 8.z Absent
Sentinel
1. Sentinel 9.1 Absent
2. Sentinel 9.2 Absent
3. Sentinel 9.3 Appears
4. Sentinel 9.4 Appears
5. Sentinel 9.5 Mentioned
6. Sentinel 9.6 Absent
Parasite
1. Parasite 10.1 Absent
2. Parasite 10.2 Mentioned
3. Parasite 10.3 Absent
4. Parasite 10.4 Absent
5. Parasite 10.5 Absent
6. Parasite 10.6 Absent
x. Interlude 10 Absent
x. Interlude 10.5 Absent
Infestation
1. Infestation 11.1 Absent
2. Infestation 11.2 Absent
3. Infestation 11.3 Absent
4. Infestation 11.4 Absent
5. Infestation 11.5 Absent
6. Infestation 11.6 Absent
7. Infestation 11.7 Absent
8. Infestation 11.8 Absent
a. Interlude 11a Appears
b. Interlude 11b Absent
c. Interlude 11c Absent
d. Interlude 11d Absent
e. Interlude 11e Absent
f. Interlude 11f Absent
g. Interlude 11g Absent
h. Interlude 11h Appears
Plague
1. Plague 12.1 Absent
2. Plague 12.2 Absent
3. Plague 12.3 Absent
4. Plague 12.4 Absent
5. Plague 12.5 Absent
6. Plague 12.6 Absent
7. Plague 12.7 Absent
8. Plague 12.8 Mentioned
x. Interlude 12 Absent
y. Interlude 12.5 Absent
Snare
1. Snare 13.1 Mentioned
2. Snare 13.2 Mentioned
x. Interlude 13.5 (Donation Bonus) Absent
3. Snare 13.3 Absent
4. Snare 13.4 Absent
5. Snare 13.5 Absent
6. Snare 13.6 Absent
7. Snare 13.7 Absent
8. Snare 13.8 Absent
9. Snare 13.9 Absent
10. Snare 13.10 Absent
y. Interlude 13 Absent
Prey
1. Prey 14.1 Absent
2. Prey 14.2 Absent
3. Prey 14.3 Appears
4. Prey 14.4 Appears
5. Prey 14.5 Appears
6. Prey 14.6 Appears
7. Prey 14.7 Absent
8. Prey 14.8 Mentioned
9. Prey 14.9 Absent
10. Prey 14.10 Appears
11. Prey 14.11 Mentioned
x. Interlude 14.x Absent
y. Interlude 14.y Absent
Colony
1. Colony 15.1 Absent
x. Interlude 15.x Appears
2. Colony 15.2 Mentioned
3. Colony 15.3 Absent
y. Interlude 15.y Absent
4. Colony 15.4 Mentioned
5. Colony 15.5 Absent
6. Colony 15.6 Mentioned
7. Colony 15.7 Absent
z. Interlude 15.z Absent
8. Colony 15.8 Mentioned
9. Colony 15.9 Absent
10. Colony 15.10 Absent
i. Interlude 15 Appears
Monarch
1. Monarch 16.1 Absent
2. Monarch 16.2 Absent
x. Interlude 16.x Absent
3. Monarch 16.3 Absent
4. Monarch 16.4 Absent
5. Monarch 16.5 Absent
6. Monarch 16.6 Absent
y. Interlude 16.y Absent
7. Monarch 16.7 Absent
8. Monarch 16.8 Absent
9. Monarch 16.9 Absent
10. Monarch 16.10 Absent
z. Interlude 16.z Mentioned
11. Monarch 16.11 Absent
12. Monarch 16.12 Absent
13. Monarch 16.13 Absent
Queen
1. Queen 18.1 Absent
2. Queen 18.2 Absent
x. Interlude 18.x Absent
3. Queen 18.3 Mentioned
4. Queen 18.4 Absent
y. Interlude 18.y Absent
5. Queen 18.5 Mentioned
6. Queen 18.6 Absent
z. Interlude 18.z Appears
7. Queen 18.7 Absent
8. Queen 18.8 Absent
f. Interlude 18.f Absent
i. Interlude 18 Absent
Scourge
1. Scourge 19.1 Absent
2. Scourge 19.2 Absent
3. Scourge 19.3 Absent
x. Interlude 19.x Absent
4. Scourge 19.4 Absent
5. Scourge 19.5 Absent
6. Scourge 19.6 Absent
7. Scourge 19.7 Mentioned
y. Interlude 19.y Mentioned
z. Interlude 19.z Absent
Scarab
1. Scarab 25.1 Absent
2. Scarab 25.2 Absent
3. Scarab 25.3 Absent
4. Scarab 25.4 Absent
5. Scarab 25.5 Absent
6. Scarab 25.6 Mentioned
x. Interlude 25 Absent
Sting
1. Sting 26.1 Absent
2. Sting 26.2 Absent
3. Sting 26.3 Absent
x. Interlude 26.x Absent
4. Sting 26.4 Absent
5. Sting 26.5 Absent
6. Sting 26.6 Mentioned
a. Interlude 26a Absent
b. Interlude 26b Absent
y. Interlude 26 Absent
Speck
1. Speck 30.1 Absent
2. Speck 30.2 Absent
3. Speck 30.3 Absent
4. Speck 30.4 Appears
5. Speck 30.5 Absent
6. Speck 30.6 Absent
7. Speck 30.7 Appears
Ward Chapter Appearances
Daybreak
1. Daybreak 1.1 Debut
2. Daybreak 1.2 Point of View
3. Daybreak 1.3 Point of View
4. Daybreak 1.4 Point of View
5. Daybreak 1.5 Point of View
6. Daybreak 1.6 Point of View
7. Daybreak 1.7 Point of View
8. Daybreak 1.8 Point of View
x. Interlude 1 II Absent
Flare
1. Flare 2.1 Point of View
2. Flare 2.2 Point of View
3. Flare 2.3 Point of View
4. Flare 2.4 Point of View
5. Flare 2.5 Point of View
6. Flare 2.6 Point of View
7. Flare 2.7 Point of View
x. Interlude 2 II Absent

Trivia[]

  • Antares literally means "rival/opponent to Mars". This was originally due to the star Antares having a similar luminosity to the planet Mars in the sky. You could spin it as "opponent of War", which fits the peace-making theme of Ward. Capricorn correctly mentions it is also called Alpha Scorpii as the brightest star in the constellation Scorpius.[287] It also has multiple links in other mythologies.
    • According to a 1978 novelization of Superman: Last Son of Krypton, about a DC comics superhero with powers similar to Alexandria, his home planet of "Krypton" is said to orbit the star Antares.[288]
  • Vic's favorite beverage is iced teas.
  • Vic was a protagonist in an early draft of Worm titled "Guts and Glory" alongside Panacea. That story would have had an alternating perspective to showcase their change.[289]
  • Glory Girl appeared in an early draft of Worm titled "Myriad" where she assaulted Skitter during Skitter's first outing as a cape on the assumption that she was a villain. However she paid for this mistake.
  • Victoria's blood type is B negative.[290]

Fanart Gallery[]

References[]

  1. “You probably caught my name, I’m Kenzie.”

    She was extending a hand for me to shake. I shook it, then turned the chair a bit as I sat down. “Victoria. Some call me Vicky, but I’m using that less these days. You can use it if it’s easier.” - Excerpt from Flare 2.5
  2. “I want you to have a place that’s yours, Vic.” - Flare 2.1
  3. 3.0 3.1 “Do they have to? It’s all very informative,” Tattletale joked as she sidled into the room. She hoisted herself up to the edge of one of the teller’s stations, then greeted Glory Girl, “Hey Glory Hole.”

    Glory Girl’s face twitched.

    “Hey, Tattletale,” I called out, my voice a touch strained, “Not that I’m not glad to see you, but could you avoid antagonizing Alexandria Junior?” - Agitation 3.11
  4. With all that in mind, I still stopped in my tracks when I read the note.
    Turn around and fly home, Glory Hole
    -TT
    They’d asked around, huh? - Flare 2.7
  5. “I couldn’t help but notice your use of ‘Glory Hole’. Seemed unnecessarily antagonistic.” - Glare 3.1
  6. “Eh. You seem to have things under control. Why not set the bugs on the prom queen?”

    “Prom queen?” Glory Girl asked. - Agitation 3.11
  7. 7.0 7.1 I watched the individual members of the swarm touch ground. The girl with healing powers had been placed deliberately next to a living pool of flesh with multiple heads of golden hair. The healer’s hands were covering her face, but she didn’t step away.

    Her hands slowly lowered, and she laid her eyes on the monster, which was actively, ineffectually reaching out for her. - Excerpt from Speck 30.7
  8. Love Lost was in Nailbiter’s cupped hand, crouching, holding one finger for balance. I couldn’t tell how hurt she was.

    “I’ll deign to let you two help me against the wannabe Alexandria and the girl with the paint,” Damsel said, dismissive. - Shadow 5.3
  9. “Hey, little V,” I said. “Not so little anymore.”

    “Hey big V,” she said. “What a time to meet, huh? We need to hang out.”

    “We do. So much,” I said. - Excerpt from Shadow 5.7
  10. “It was really nice to catch up some,” Vista said. “I’m sorry it’s always sandwiched between horrible stuff.”

    “We’ll meet up, do something easy.”

    “Yeah, please. And take care of yourself, big V, please? If your cousin is worried then I’m worried.” - Polarize 10.11
  11. “This okay?” I asked. “Me coming over? Little V?”

    “Sure. Big V.” Her expression cracked slightly. A faint smile. - Excerpt from Sundown 17.3
  12. Tattletale fixed me with her best ‘are you serious’ look.

    “You said you’d help Cradle, but you didn’t want to know what happened to the kid,” I said. “We thought you needed to see the consequences of your actions.”

    “That is pretty ripe, coming from the princess of damage and her troupe of walking disaster areas,” Tattletale said. “I have looked you guys up, read files, you know.” - Pitch 6.8
  13. And, last but not least, Vista. She had to be seventeen now. As old as I’d been when I’d been hospitalized. - Excerpt from Shadow 5.7
  14. As a superteam that is also an extended family, New Wave has several junior members that gained powers of their own. These individuals are nineteen year old Laserdream and fifteen year old Shielder, the children of Manpower and Lady Photon, and seventeen year old Glory Girl, daughter of Brandish and Flashbang. - Edit by Wildbow
    Not in the list of retracted edits.
  15. Wildbow:
    Victoria & Amy in College
    Victoria is already taking college classes at the local University. She's studying parahuman sciences part time while still in high school (note her mentioning that she's already taken Parahumans 101 in 9.3). Her grades were good enough she could have skipped a grade, but she decided to stay in High School for mornings only, so she could remain in touch with friends and enjoy her senior year. - Comment by Wildbow on Spacebattles
  16. I had to be something more than a twenty-one year old woman, unarmed, against a man five inches taller than me who was armed with an axe. - Polarize 10.13
  17. 17.0 17.1 “Gave me a body again. Um. She made me seventeen again. Walked back the clock, as if it… I don’t know. So she didn’t take two years of my life from me in body, like she did in everything else. I’m physically nineteen now, apparently.”

    “You said body, mind and spirit. She fixed one of the three. Did she undo the effect on your emotions?”

    I drew in a breath, sighed heavily. I nodded. “She actually- she turned off my emotions. Suppressed them. Then she asked me what I wanted.”

    “What did you want?”

    “I remember thinking, you know, it was really possible she wanted me to say that I wanted to go back to liking her. And if she did think that, then it was unconscionable. Divorced from all emotion, I thought it was unconscionable.”

    “Okay.”

    “And divorced from all emotion, I thought I’d be fair. That I’d give her the benefit of a doubt. That I’d assume that wasn’t what she meant or wanted. I told her I wanted to remember.”

    “To remember?”

    “Those two years,” I said, my voice hollow. I drew in another deep breath. - Excerpt from Daybreak 1.8
  18. “Not your father,” Carol said. “But I thought once that he might be.”

    “He might be,” I echoed her.

    “You had so much of him in you, and your power… for pretty much the entire year before your sister triggered, I was in dread. Neil was too. You-” she looked at Crystal, “-Understand, please, it was that I spent so long unable to trust anyone. It took me years to warm up to anyone. Years to get close to Mark. But we had our rough patches, and then there was Neil, and I could trust him more easily because Sarah trusted him-” - Sundown 17.1
  19. 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3 Brute forcefield & strength.
    Master-shaker aura.
    Mover flight. - Comment by Wildbow on Reddit
  20. 20.0 20.1 20.2 Shaker, not stranger.

    She can dial it up and down. See interlude 2 and Yamada's interlude.

    Minimum level is B, max level is G. - Comment by Wildbow on Spacebattles
  21. "I can't do that. I'm calling your bluff, and if I'm wrong, I'll face the consequences of whatever you say."
    "Very principled. Very self-involved too, that you think the secret and the consequences have to do with you and your overzealous nature. They don't. They have to do with her." - Agitation 3.12
  22. 22.0 22.1 22.2 Glory Girl has demonstrated some anger management problems starting from Interlude 2. She is highly protective of her family. Her inability to be hurt coupled with her aura, which makes people inclined to like her respect her and look up to her has apparently made her somewhat arrogant or proud. Her sister (not related by blood), Panacea seems to have taken on the duties of keeping Victoria's ego in check. - Wiki edit by Wildbow
  23. Interlude 2
  24. 24.0 24.1 Glory Girl wants to prove herself and be a true heroine, she believes in doing good, but her power is deceptively fragile and she's impulsive. Thrown into an Endbringer city, very aware of the new eyes on her and her performance, well, it doesn't give her great odds, but I wouldn't write her off either. I give her 50-50 odds, and how Glory Girl goes dictates how Panacea goes. - Spoilers All What If (Wildbow, Reddit.com, 2016-03-17)
  25. Unfortunately for me, Glory Girl saw it all unfold.

    "Nobody fucks with my family!" she shouted, and her power cranked out full-bore. - Agitation 3.12
  26. She's not really invincible. That's just an idea she likes to put in people's heads. She has a forcefield around her entire body, but it shorts out whenever she takes a good hit, comes back online a few seconds later. - Agitation 3.12
  27. "Bullshit," Glory Girl said, "The brainpower you'd need to interpret and decode someone's unique neural patterns would need a head five times the usual size to contain it all. True psychics can't exist."

    "Ooh, someone's taking Parahumans 101 at the university. Your parents pull some strings, got you into a university course before you were done high school?"

    "I think you already know the answer, I'm just not buying that you read my mind to get it." - Agitation 3.11
  28. 28.0 28.1 Interlude 18.z
  29. 29.0 29.1 I’m glad I can communicate with you without you bringing every conversation back to the topic of your sister. - Excerpt from Shadow 5.4
  30. - Excerpt from Daybreak 1.6
  31. Were it my old self, without the two-year long reality check, I wouldn’t have been able to just stop after being on that verbal offensive. I would have pressed. - Excerpt from Shadow 5.4
  32. I floundered for a moment, then said, “I guess, just as an example, I remember taking a shower and having a moment where it really woke me up and I felt grounded in reality again. There were a few days of painfully cold and hot showers, trying to wake up and stay fixed in the present.”

    Sveta reached over to touch my arm.

    There had been other moments, too. Scrubbing myself until my skin broke, among other things. Too personal and raw to really share. - Excerpt from Pitch 6.7
  33. “Just, you know, I should be careful about giving or getting transplants. There’s a chance it wouldn’t be compatible with humans. Understand?”

    [...] “My maybe-not-one-hundred-percent-human self is going to fight like hell..." - Excerpt from Torch 7.2
  34. “I am, if I’m honest. Do you want to eat somewhere we can warm up and catch up on details, or…”

    She stopped.

    “Vic?” she asked. She rubbed Victoria’s back with her hand.

    No change in the tightness of the hug, no change in breathing, barely a movement.

    She looked at Aunt Carol, helpless, not sure what to say or do. Aunt Carol didn’t have anything to offer, her head turned to look at others, and Crystal had no idea if that was on purpose or by happenstance.

    “Vic. You okay?”

    Victoria broke the hug. Crystal got a better look at her cousin, and saw a hundred-yard stare, gaze averted, fingernails digging into the coat sleeve over forearm. The Victoria she’d seen after Gold Morning, who was still re-learning day to day life.

    By herculean measure over a span of a second or two, a rapid-fire set of tiny step-by-steps, Victoria adjusted posture, body language, and reasserted focus, then eye contact. To reassert the facade Victoria of last week, instead, if a more tired one. -Excerpt from Dying 15.a
  35. “I don’t want to be Glory Girl,” I said. “Someone remarked yesterday that they’d thought she died and… good. She can stay dead.” - Excerpt from Daybreak 1.8
  36. 36.0 36.1 36.2 Glow-worm P.9
  37. Glow-worm P.3
  38. 38.0 38.1 38.2 38.3 38.4 38.5 *Who's Victoria Dating, Gallant or Dean? I imagine it'd have to be one or the other in public or else his identity would have come out by now.*

    Dean, but it's sort of open knowledge among the heroes that Gallant is Dean, and Tattletale succeeded in connecting the dots. The Wards and New Wave don't necessarily cross paths all that much. Jurisdictions.

    [...]

    Aegis is 17, very nearly 18, old for his grade level, he's already graduated high school and is taking prelim college courses (not the same courses as Faultline & Glory Girl). He triggered at 15. - Answer by Wildbow
  39. “You’re Glory Girl,” Landon said.

    I’m not, I thought.

    “People said you died when the Slaughterhouse Nine attacked Brockton Bay back in twenty-eleven.” - Excerpt from Daybreak 1.6
  40. Interlude 9 II
  41. “Because she didn’t want to get carried away, she wanted to get me as close to normal as she could get me and stop herself there. Then she said- she’d ask if I wanted more fixes, and I couldn’t talk so I shook my head no. She asked if I wanted my memories of things erased and I couldn’t let myself have that because there’s nobody left in the world I trust enough to protect me from her, except me. So I told her no, and I told her never to show her face in front of me again. - Excerpt from Torch 7.2
  42. Shade 4.4
  43. Gleaming 9.8
  44. “I knew I didn’t have a chance with him. He was way older, he was rich, handsome. He was dating Glory Girl, or they were just getting over a breakup, or he was starting to patch things up with her for the millionth time. There was never a good time to talk to him one on one, unless we were out on patrol together, and I dunno what I would have said if there had been a chance.” - Excerpt from Sentinel 9.3
  45. "When I was at the lowest point in my life, when the boy I thought I might marry someday was dead, were you secretly elated? Were you happy Gallant died?" - Interlude 11h
  46. 46.0 46.1 Glow-worm P.1
  47. Flare 2.5
  48. Shadow 5.4
  49. Pitch 6.1
  50. Rachel Lindt was not my favorite person, but Vista raised a hand in a wave, and Rachel returned it, her expression dour. I could let this particular sleeping dog lie, if Rachel was willing to do the same. - Excerpt from Pitch 6.1
  51. I saw the almost-smile become more of a smile. Because her means of self expression was different, with a smile meaning something totally different, I had to parse eyebrows, eyes, mouth and body language individually and then piece it together to read her.

    Worry, guilt?

    “What did you do?” I asked.

    She froze. - Excerpt from Beacon 8.4
  52. She stayed in that kneeling position for just heartbeats, letting her platinum curls and the cape that was draped over one of her shoulders flutter in the wake of air that had followed her descent.

    [...]

    Again, the wind made for a dramatic flourish as it stirred her hair, her cape and the skirt of her costume.

    [...]

    Her sister was as different from her as night was from day. Where Victoria was beautiful, tall, gorgeous, blonde, Amy was mousy. Victoria’s costume showed off her figure, with a white one-piece dress that came to mid-thigh (with shorts underneath) an over-the shoulder cape, high boots and a golden tiara with spikes radiating from it, vaguely reminiscent of the sun’s rays or the statue of liberty. - Excerpt from Interlude 2
  53. Funny how parallels appear. Almost as if Panacea had been recreating something from something she saw in a trigger event. - Comment on Speck 30.5
  54. Because she went to the Birdcage, the Baumann Parahuman Containment Center, and she left you with eight arms, ten hands, three heads with one additional face that had no head or skull to go with it, two - Excerpt from Beacon 8.12
  55. “-and you needed special facilities,” he continued. “Because she went to the Birdcage, the Baumann Parahuman Containment Center, and she left you with eight arms, ten hands, three heads with one additional face that had no head or skull to go with it, two-” - Excerpt from Beacon 8.12
  56. 56.0 56.1 I wanted to say something, protest, and I didn’t have a voice. The computer was in arm’s reach, but it was a herculean effort to get a message out.
    [...]
    I reached for the laptop, started to type out my message for the text-to-speech speaker, using keys that were oversized and spaced out, with screwholes in the middle of each key for knobs and joysticks to be screwed in for when other patients had their turn. It was supposed to double as physical therapy for me, coordinating myself, making the effort to reach and reposition.

    The staff member had apologized, then turned to go notify other patients, closing the door behind her. I’d tried to vocalize and of course I’d failed. It was too long and byzantine a way from lung to mouth. - Excerpt from Daybreak 1.6
  57. Shadow 5.6
  58. I want the costume to have weight, while still being form-fitting at the torso and arms. - excerpt from Shadow 5.6
  59. 59.0 59.1 59.2 59.3 “Hood, layered long sleeves I can remove as needed for weather. Fingerless gloves with decoration. Metal decoration at the front and edges of the hood… like this image here. Spikes, like my old tiara, but at the shoulder, decorating edges of the hood, and at the breastplate… which would be structured on a basic level, just like this image.”

    The breastplate was flat, with only a slight curve to deflect blows. A matching, briefer plate rested against the collarbone and upper breast, the bottom part overlapping and sticking up slightly. - excerpt from Shadow 5.6
  60. 60.0 60.1 60.2 60.3 60.4 I wore my costume. The white decorative trim on the black fabric was missing, and I planned more ornamentation for my gloves, but the rest was intact. Spires of gold like my old tiara stood up at my shoulders, the middle-center of my breastplate, and decorated the armor around my legs and on my gloves. The decoration at my forehead was a weight that kept my hood down, and my hair draped out over my right shoulder. A protective mask hung from my belt, the curved surface resting around the curve of my thigh. I’d don it if there was danger, and if I didn’t need to speak. - Excerpt from Shadow 5.6
  61. I’d bought black and white versions of the same hooded top, picked for the slanted cut around the collar, shoulders, and the more sleeves. I could cut one up and use it to apply trim to the other and know the cut would match. Then I’d apply the additional elements that would make it a costume. - excerpt from Shadow 5.6
  62. 62.0 62.1 I turned my body so the white gold color of my breastplate would catch the light coming in through the window. I put my hood up, and the ornament at the peak of the hood with rays forking up slapped my forehead. - excerpt from Shadow 5.7
  63. Capricorn approached and stood next to me, his armored shoulder touching the spikes at mine. - Excerpt from Shadow 5.10
  64. “I need more information on the spikes before I do the rough shape,” Weld said. “You made notes on this. Five spikes at the shoulder, uneven?”

    “Rays more than spikes,” I said. “They space out, four, and then one shorter. Minor gap between the four and one.”

    “Any reason for the short one?” Weld asked.

    “Symmetry,” I said. “It curves in, so it’s more toward the front of the shoulder, and it leads into more of the same at the breastplate decoration.” - Excerpt from Shadow 5.6
  65. I settled into my pose, both hands on my hood, the parallel spikes that extended up from my shoulder now pointing back. - Excerpt from Shadow 5.7
  66. stepped into the bus, put the box down, and used one of the back-swept spikes of metal on my glove to cut the twine. - excerpt from Shadow 5.7
  67. Glory Girl – Member of New Wave, a teenager with blonde hair and a white costume with gold trim.  She has super strength, flight, and invulnerability, as well as the ability to generate an aura of awe around her, encouraging allies and intimidating foes. - Cast (spoiler free)
  68. 68.0 68.1 Glory Girl, Victoria Dallon (Incarcerated; Asylum) – Possessed of flight, invincibility, and capable of deadlifting over a ton.  She radiates an energy that makes her allies more inclined to like, respect and look up to her, while making her terrifying and intimidating to her enemies.  Following the conclusion of the Slaughterhouse Nine arc, Glory Girl was altered by her sister, in both mind and body, and was placed in an asylum for parahumans, where she currently remains. - Cast Page (In-Depth)
  69. 69.0 69.1 Victoria Dallon - Glory Girl -Emotion affecting aura focused on awe/intimidation, flight, enhanced strength, and personal forcefield that blocks one hit before taking 1-2 seconds to recharge - New Wave - Wildbow's Parahuman List, bolded edit by Wildbow.
  70. 70.0 70.1 70.2 Wildbow: Victoria's powers resemble Manpower and Brandish on a level.
    Wildbow: And because Manpower's shard fissioned off, it was pretty exclusively Photon Mom's power that went to Shielder and Laserdream. - Wildbow archived on SpaceBattles
  71. Q.Is Glory Girl's shard a bud shard from Brandish, or is she a first generation cape that happened to trigger in the Dallon household?
    A. Yes. - Wildbow on Spacebattles
  72. Brandish was living more of a life, she had her existence as a lawyer. So Glory Girl was more of a 'push' of a second gen. Less 'let's copy this person who isn't as active right now' and more 'let's mix it up'. - Wildbow on Reddit
  73. 73.0 73.1 73.2 All others who seek connections with hosts bring more cargo and capability than needed. Our mother-host discarded the greater shape of her inviolable defense. Our father-host discarded explosive strength and power. [...] That fleeting contact and the jettison that came with it would be another facet of us. An emotion power. - Excerpt from Heavens 12.all
  74. It was my mother, holding a swaddled baby. Her eyes full of warmth and exhaustion.

    It was my uncle Neil, playing with an infant me He sat cross legged, pushing me over, knocking me off balance, and messing with me. Sparring, on the most basic level.

    And Dean. Beautiful, sweet Dean, walking beside me.

    I watched the scenes change, rotating.

    Is this you?

    There was only one thing connecting those people to me. - Excerpt from Infrared 19.8
  75. 75.0 75.1 75.2 Interlude 2
  76. Re: Glory Girl, I’ll just say that her super strength and invincibility are linked. Hard to distinguish hitting something and being hit. There’s still that big impact, so Glory Girl’s invincibility does shut down briefly after she whacks something hard enough. Wearing armor that requires super strength to lift could be problematic if her strength comes and goes. - comment by WildBow on Interlude 15.x
  77. Being in the bus stop with my mom. Weird, because it had once been a happy memory. She’d been stitching up a cut on my forehead while I suppressed my forcefield. - Excerpt from Daybreak 1.6
  78. 78.0 78.1 78.2 Strong enough to tank a shot from Scion. Would hold up to a few seconds of sustained fire (as in, actually sustained; fire hose or beam, but not machine gun patter), but collapse immediately, with recharge suffering considerably for having to take the sustained hit.
    A punch/kick probably wouldn't bust it, unless it was delivered well enough to KO, augmented by brass knuckles, etc. But that's about the tier it's at where it starts breaking, and at that point it reacts in almost exactly the same way as it would to a blast from Scion... down for a couple of seconds, then popping right back up.
    Delivering a strong punch, kicking a dumpster or landing hard has the same effect, causing it to flicker off, then revive. - Wildbow on Reddit
  79. 79.0 79.1 Not a second trigger. I was well aware of that. When I’d first had my forcefield, it hadn’t protected my costume. I had two theories as to why.

    The first theory was that I’d grown, and the boundaries that the forcefield used to define ‘me’ had changed. I’d breathe out, breathe in, gain a pound here, lose a pound there, and it would adjust for the maximum bounds. It didn’t explain how my skirt was often protected, but I’d mused on that too, that my legs moved, my hair had been long at one point, I’d been shorter…

    I’d been that, the forcefield had adjusted, and that was the new upper bound of what I was, forever with me.

    It felt thin, as theories went.

    The second theory was that it was the Manton effect, that broad-as-bells term for the built in protections and limitations of the power. The theory was that the built-in protections of the power only protected what I saw as a part of me, and it had taken some time before the costume was that much a part of my identity.

    That that was me, now, as much as the costume I wore. - Excerpt from Daybreak 1.7
  80. 80.0 80.1 When the world had ended, the mind controlling entity that had seized us all and coordinated us for one phase of the attack had used me for this purpose. To take a hit from Scion. It had been almost absentminded. - Excerpt from Dying 15.5
  81. Glory Girl could take a direct hit from one of Scion's lasers.

    She would not be able to take a second hit, be it from Scion a handgun or a kitchen knife. - Comment by Wildbow on RPG.net
  82. There were very few things, in Victoria Dallon's estimation, that were cooler than flying.  The invisible forcefield that extended a few millimeters over her skin and clothes just made it better.  The field kept the worst of the chill from touching her, but still let her feel the wind on her skin and in her hair.  Bugs didn't splat against her face like they did against car windshields, even when she was pushing eighty miles an hour. - Excerpt from Interlude 2
  83. I landed with enough force it made my knees and hips hurt. I navigated around the slices in reality, putting out one of my forcefield hands that I could afford to lose.
    [...]
    The forcefield died. I had to experiment to see why. Certain pockets of air close to the cracks were dangerous, slicing any passing limb by sending different portions to different realities. Like thickets of nigh-invisible, ultra-sharp brambles. - Radiation 18.1
  84. He threw out the power, and it webbed out to every nearby surface before lunging forward. Before, it had been rings, a pillar. Always with a way through.

    This time, a wall, impassable.

    I veered hard right, put my foot out, kicking the actual wall, just to stop my forward momentum, then reversed course to get away and get back. My forcefield was up as part of the kick into the wall, and I felt the wall make contact with an extremity.

    I felt the forcefield tear. It didn’t die, but it remained in tatters, a body torn two, with limbs scattered.
    [...]
    Emboldened, I changed course, driving myself further up into the ceiling until the field finally died. The shaker’s wall passed beneath me. - Excerpt from Dying 15.2
  85. His power drew lines, and waited for his targets to meet the lines. They didn’t serve him when everything was at a standstill. - Heavens 12.9
  86. It wasn’t a bullet I had to worry about. I was flying, thinking I was safe, when lines began to appear. Silvery, but crisp, like slices in reality, reaching well over the building.

    Not meant for me, but dangerous all the same. I flew past one, and the Wretch had a limb extended. I felt the Wretch get sliced, felt the dim sensation that was the Wretch’s extended being part. The forcefield didn’t collapse. It cut.

    A gaping hole in my forcefield, now, where there had been a bit of torso and shoulder. - Heavens 12.7
  87. I took flight, aiming to go over, and saw Cradle move in the same instant he turned his head my way. I made myself stop, twisting, as the lines appeared.

    Sudden appearance, each one sharper than any blade, and capable of cutting through powered defenses. - Heavens 12.8
  88. A bullet clipped the Wretch, striking the very same hand that Cradle’s power had clipped. Much like my mom’s ball had been cut and then was intact after the fact, my own power had recovered when it had been knocked out and turned back on.

    But I was left momentarily exposed, my back to the enemy, nearly blind in the loose rain of flecks of mud.

    I flew to the underside of the square-shaped porch, my back hugging it, and the moment the Wretch returned, I used her to haul it up and away from the wall. - Heavens 12.8
  89. I didn’t want to drop the field, not when I needed it, not when it had eben damaged before and taken a minute to come back up, after being hit with Rain’s silver blade. When Cradle had hit it and knocked it out for a bit of time. I threw myself into the ceiling tiles, into lighting and wiring, carving a furrow. - Excerpt from Dying 15.2
  90. A silver blade cut through the air. Precipice’s answer to Love Lost’s scream. It hit the chains that Hookline had made, but it drew no silver lines.

    They’re protected by Hookline’s power, I thought. - Blinding 11.11
  91. I twisted in the air to watch the ripple. I could see more of Kenzie’s message appearing in my vision. My focus was on the others, though. Ashley blasted the ripple as it raced to her, like a car speeding down the highway. Caryatid took it head-on, breaker form active. A spike of it slipped through, but it didn’t look like anyone got clipped. - Excerpt from Dying 15.2
  92. “Any chance you could arm me with your spear?”

    “Specially made bolts, yes, if I had any left. This? No. The power would conduct to the part you held, and you’d hurt yourself.” - Radiation 18.5
  93. “Even with my forcefield?” I asked.

    “Hold it out?”

    I did. A bit of falling snow or ash settled on an outstretched hand.

    The spear shimmered, taking on a faint but complex hue like it had been dipped in a puddle with a rainbow sheen of oil on the surface. She laid it gently across my forcefield hand.

    The forcefield went down.

    I quickly put my mask on, just as a safeguard. I waited.

    The forcefield took a little while to get back up to full strength. I flexed my limbs, making sure nothing had been ruined.

    “No luck,” I murmured. - Radiation 18.5
  94. Damsel used her power, a slow-burning rumble of blackness in her clawed hands, just to my left. If I’d lowered my arm to my side, I would have touched it.

    I caught her other claw. The power burned there too.

    If one spark or flicker danced back toward her wrist, it’d hit my forcefield, and I’d lose that protection. - Radiation 18.6
  95. 95.0 95.1 I disengaged from my forcefield, visualizing and forming the cocoon shape, the ribcage splayed open so I could fly out. Then I turned it toward Torso. Forcefield arms reached out, grabbing him under the armpits, where his arms stuck out of the heavy armor that covered head and upper body only. I lifted him into the opening in the forcefield-

    His head lolled back, smashing into the forcefield. I felt it go, dashed to smithereens.

    For what felt like three, four, maybe even five seconds, my forcefield didn’t come back online. A problem that had only ever occurred with Scion-level hits and Ashley’s blasts. - Last 20.7
  96. Again, I repeated the exercise. Lifting him, hands reaching inside to brace his head.

    The area shook. He flinched, his head moved to tear free of the bracing grip, and he bashed my forcefield into oblivion with a small tap of the back of his head against the ‘shoulder’ of it.

    I clenched my fists. - Last 20.7
  97. Her strength is primarily generated through the forcefield. She hasn't actually been tested & is ballparking when she talks about what she can lift. - Comment by Wildbow on Spacebattles
  98. “How much can you lift?”

    “When I was Glory Girl, it was fourteen point six tons. But it wasn’t easy, and it gets weird when you express it as strength that isn’t straight lifting.” - Excerpt from Radiation 18.8
  99. 99.0 99.1 She threw him. Since she could bench press a cement mixer, though it was hard to balance something so large and unwieldy, even a casual toss on her part could get some good distance. He flew a good twenty five or thirty yards down the back road before hitting the asphalt, and rolled for another ten. - Excerpt from Interlude 2
  100. I hit him with strength that I could have used to lift up a truck- excerpt from Blinding - 11.8
  101. 101.0 101.1 Anger and instinct fed into my actions, as I went with the flow. I wanted a weapon and I didn’t even have the buckler or armguard. I patted pockets, found small change, and extended my hand. I let go of it, and it collected within the forcefield.

    Then, just as easily, it escaped the forcefield. A mouth or other cavity yawned open. The change leaked out and found another invisible trap to fall up into, one or two coins being lost in the process.

    I’d thought about this, a long, long time ago. As a ‘what if’. In reaching for the change, I hadn’t even consciously recalled the memory. It was only when I realized what was happening that I connected the thought.

    The change moved, then disappeared.

    I saw the violence, heard the impact of change striking car doors and icy road. I’d been plunging toward my caricature and now I changed course. My caricature was dead. A coin dropped from the top of the tallest building in the world wouldn’t kill someone. A handful thrown with the kind of strength and force that could lift trucks had a treatment like a low-impact shotgun.

    Fuck the ‘wretch’, I thought, the thought punctuating the full collapse of her body onto the road. - Excerpt from From Within 16.4
  102. Then she kicked the dumpster below her hard enough to send it flying down the little road. It rotated lazily through the air as it arced towards the retreating figure, the trajectory and rotation barely changing as it knocked him flat. It skidded to a halt three to five yards beyond him, the metal sides of the dumpster squealing and sparking as it scraped against the asphalt. - Excerpt from Interlude 2
  103. 103.0 103.1 “Holy,” Sidepiece said, as I disengaged from her other self’s remains. I reached for the Sidepiece caricature’s lower rib, then hurled it at Gibbet, finishing the action before I fully realized I wasn’t grabbing it with my hand.

    It hadn’t been my idea, I was pretty sure.
    [...]
    But I was pissed, hurt, sad, sick, and a little door had opened before, back in Teacher’s headquarters. Once opened, it didn’t close quite the right way again.

    Hands gripped the side mirror, and I twisted as the Wretch did the same. The mirror was flung so fast I had trouble tracking it with my eyes. It hit Trophy Wife, hard, and flew off with enough speed still driving it that it shattered a car window, striking ragged side first.

    Trophy Wife was tough, and we’d hit her where the trophy rack was attached to her back. But that was a hit that would have been bone-breaking without the armor, if not purely lethal. - Excerpt from From Within 16.4
  104. He twisted his hand around, and the shelf snapped over, the thicker midsection of the shelf slapping into the palm of his hands, fingers gripping it.

    He hurled it, and it wasn’t just that he was strong enough to treat it like it weighed nothing- he used his power to thrust it out. Damsel aimed to shoot it out of the air, but with the speed it flew, it connected with her hand a moment before the power annihilated it. Flecks of shelf struck Damsel’s face and shoulders. - Eclipse x.5
  105. Flare 2.4
  106. Glare 3.3
  107. Shade 4.3
  108. I backed off. Sustaining big hits like I had killed the Wretch’s stamina, made delays longer for a while after. I had to trust they had things handled. They had Wardens with them. - Excerpt from Dying 15.5
  109. From Within 16.4
  110. I moved the forcefield, with movements of my hand and with my own control over it. To give it spin, so it hurtled around me. The force of limbs and irregular shapes cutting through the air actually made flying forward harder, slowing me down. Titan Eve was creating a wall of hard gas in anticipation of the impact. I was going to have to deal with that too. - Excerpt from Radiation 18.4
  111. Dance with me, I thought. I made my forcefield spin once again. I could see the impact of the rotation and hands slicing against air on the gas around me, and maneuvered to use it, hands turning to be flat against the wind and fan it more, driving gas toward Titan Oberon, our most immediate threat. - Excerpt from Radiation 18.4
  112. “My forcefield shrank three sizes,” I said.
    [...]
    Using my forcefield hands to pinch metal together, curl ragged edges, and straighten what was bent, I simultaneously figured out the new limits of my forcefield. The reach of the arms, the number and position of them.

    My forcefield had long hair. Longer than I was used to. Less arms, less legs. Like it was halfway between where my old forcefield had been and where ‘the Wretch’ had been.
    [...]
    I felt the forcefield’s hair slip over a bare forcefield shoulder. - Excerpt from Infrared 19.3
  113. The hands on this form were closer together, instead of being spaced out across a larger body. I had two less, but it was far easier to pass something from one hand to the other, especially with all the hands being in areas around the torso.

    My last ‘fragile one’ hadn’t had a torso, so much.

    The fifth one was slow in coming at me. I didn’t flinch as it lunged for my head, then stopped where it was at.

    At my bidding, fingernails ran down the length of its body, head to the stinger it thrust out blindly, and two hands pulled the cut open, practically bisecting it. Crushed and twisted apart, one by one, the other wasps fell to either side of me. - Excerpt from Infrared 19.6
  114. I could feel the forcefield moving, despite my wishes. Reaching out, heads moving, mouths opening. The periodic arm was swung, hard enough to audibly cut through the air.

    Not as restless as it had been, but this was almost worse. - Excerpt from Infrared 19.7
  115. Last 20.1
  116. The scream latched onto the memory. Me, wrapped in a cocoon of stray dogs, cats, bugs. The cocoon had become a coffin, encapsulating me, after Crawler had eaten into me with acid.

    But that coffin had opened. Ribs with flesh strung between them had parted, revealing me within.

    I held onto that image, pushing out, trying to capture it.

    [...]

    “I need you to get me in there!” Sveta called out to me.

    “Okay, but- I don’t have my forcefield.”

    She gave me a confused look. Then a golden beam stabbed out, striking the shield the Simurgh was using to protect herself, until Byron pierced it with a spike of stone. She connected the dots, looking back over her shoulder.

    The Fragile One was there, visible in the shadows of dust. Chest open, ribs splayed, a hole big enough for me to move through. Her arms were extended, gripping the gun Dragon had given me, aiming it. - Excerpt from Last 20.3
  117. There were very few things, in Victoria Dallon’s estimation, that were cooler than flying. The invisible forcefield that extended a few millimeters over her skin and clothes just made it better. The field kept the worst of the chill from touching her, but still let her feel the wind on her skin and in her hair. Bugs didn’t splat against her face like they did against car windshields, even when she was pushing eighty miles an hour. - Excerpt from Interlude 2
  118. A train came, traveling west-to-east. I knew Sveta and Tristan would be boarding it. Had I been on foot, it was the one I would have caught.

    When the other train came, traveling the opposite direction, I followed it.
    [...]
    The train was old-fashioned in look, cars linked by couplings, and passengers could move between cars, with the space between each car being open to the air. Periodically passengers would step out to smoke or get fresh air. Most were parents with kids.

    At the caboose, a figure had stepped out onto the back. Rain.

    He climbed over the railing and jumped, while the train was going well over a hundred miles an hour. - Glare 3.5
  119. Glory Girl was flying over the stampeding dogs, a cell phone pressed to her ear, in Bitch's general direction. Ink and Bruno leaped to the side of a building and then leaped from that point toward Glory Girl. She struck Socks across the head, sending him flying to the ground, and Bruno slammed into her, knocking the phone from her grip. She brought her knee up into the dog's side and pushed herself away before he could drive her down into the ground.

    The heroine went for Bitch, who had only Angelica at her side. Angelica positioned herself between enemy and master, and Glory Girl hit the dog broadside. Angelica barely reacted, turning instead to snap at Glory Girl. Her teeth rebounded off the heroine's outstretched arm, and Glory Girl darted backward, to hover in the air. Catching her breath? - Excerpt from Interlude 11a
  120. I flew straight up, through the ceiling.  I felt my forcefield go down, bracing myself in case I brushed up against any wiring. - excerpt from Daybreak 1.5
  121. Ballistic slumped against her and grabbed at the collar of her costume for support. A second later, Glory Girl was a blur, disappearing into the skyline. [...] Glory Girl managed to make her way back two minutes after the Travelers were gone, helped with the last body that still hung on the wall. - Excerpt from Sentinel 9.4
  122. “But you can do that, see? You just did this thing, you can turn upside-down and right-side up without getting dizzy.”

    “I get dizzy.”

    “But you can do that,” she said. “I have to be careful about any serious flipping, or I’ll be green around the gills for five minutes.” - Excerpt from Torch 7.7
  123. I was fairly sure, just by seeing her fly, that she had a bit of the same issue Crystal did. Middle ear wasn’t adapted to flying, so the sharp turns and anything else gave her one hell of the roller coaster feeling, if it didn’t make her nauseous or threaten to make her black out.

    Option two, though, was to catch up to her when the constant turns had fucked with her most, tackle her, and use my flight and her disorientation to flip us both about ten times in three seconds, before arresting our movement and firmly depositing her in the nearest hillside. The crash landing on her part was more because of her disorientation than any exaggerated force on my end.

    She bounced. It wasn’t a huge bounce, but her flight was still ‘on’ as she rebounded off the hillside and that made her buoyant. - Excerpt from Heavens 12.5
  124. As she spoke, she ratcheted up her power. She knew it was working when he started squirming just to avoid her gaze.

    “Fuck you, you can’t touch me. There’s laws against that shit,” he blustered, staring fixedly over one shoulder.

    She turned up her power another notch. Her body thrummed with current – waves of energy that anyone in her presence would experience as an emotional charge of awe and admiration. For those with a reason to be afraid of her, it would be a feeling of raw intimidation instead. - Excerpt from Interlude 2
  125. My back to the wall, hands out and pressed to the uneven surface, I waited until I felt the vibrations of Moose’s running footsteps. It was hardly necessary, because Nailbiter kicked with her legs and screeched something at him, loud enough that Advance Guard and the therapy team could be aware of what was happening.

    I pushed out with my aura, hard, extending it through the wall.

    The thudding footsteps stopped.

    On the other side, I heard Moose’s voice, then a laugh.

    Yeah.

    Gave him pause, at least. - Shadow 5.5
  126. I used my aura.

    It did produce a reaction. They began struggling, fluttering furously. Then they came after me.

    There was no telling what the effect was. Agitation, attraction. Awe? Or was it something completely different, but filtered through the bugs’ senses to be something else entirely? Even with people, the same input could give a dozen different kinds of reaction. - Infrared 19.6
  127. If it helps, Glory Girl’s not a true Master in the classification sense. - Comment by Wildbow on Interlude 18.y
  128. Shaker/master, but not straight master - Comment by Wildbow on Cauldron Discord
  129. “No! That’s- that’s not her. That’s the change I made doing the talking, or the aftermath of it. Even if I removed all the neural connections that have been made since, there’s so much more in the emotional cocktails and hormonal balances. She’s channeling it into anger instead of… instead of love.”

    Love. The implications were so fucked up. It was the sort of thing Heartbreaker did. - Prey 14.6
  130. Heartbreaker was what you got when someone had a power like Gallant, the ability to manipulate emotions, and absolutely no compunctions about using it selfishly. Unlike Gallant, Heartbreaker didn’t need to shoot you with any blasts of energy to affect you. He just needed to be near you, and the effects were long term or permanent. - Buzz 7.1
  131. Brett3572: She’s probably a lot less messed up considering there’s no factor of bad parenting (at least Sarah seems to be a good mom) and no constant aura. Also, she maybe doesn’t repress her powers as much. All in all, probably less messed up. She might not even be obsessed with Crystal.

    Wildbow: Aura wasn't a factor. - Conversation with Wildbow on Reddit, archived on Spacebattles
  132. 132.0 132.1 Sveta said my words. “You never went out into the field, Amy. You hated caping. She used her power around her mom and her dad, around Crystal, around Shielder, and even her boyfriend more than she used it around you. At higher and lower intensities. If it had that effect, it wouldn’t have been you.”

    It was Amy’s time to freeze, to consider.

    “I’m vulnerable. Weak. Pliable. I was alone. They were actual family, and Gallant was emotion resistant.”

    I typed.

    “Family doesn’t mean anything to the agents, Amy. Second triggers don’t follow family lines. They go by association. Who’s closest and who’s most convenient. Do you think Crystal and Eric weren’t vulnerable in the years around their triggers? They triggered too. They were second triggers like you. They had their bad moments. They felt alienated, capes among regular citizens. They had trouble making real friendships. Mark- you know Mark had his own struggles, weaknesses.”

    I watched Amy’s expression through Sveta’s eye.

    I watched her turn. - Excerpt from Sundown 17.8
  133. “Hmmm,” Lung spoke, “The healer. A young heroine in New Wave. Brown haired, like you. When I was in custody, my flesh blackening and falling off, they had her come in and mend the worst of it. As I understand it, she does not patrol as the others do.” - Interlude 10.5
  134. Untrue, the premise Victoria's aura has affected Amy on that level has no basis in the story, WoG, or otherwise, and is in fact contradicted in the very first chapter they appear. Removed as this is misleading misinformation stated as fact. - Comment by Wildbow on Reddit, archived on Spacebattles
  135. Wildbow: I wondered if anyone would pay any attention to that.

    Edited to clarify: But no, none.

    It was never my intention to have this comment read as a confirmation of the theory. It’s probably my most regrettable comment, made in the adrenaline rush after writing a rather difficult chapter I’d looked forward to releasing, after 7 straight days of releasing chapters in my most intensive writing binge to date (as of then). I was pleased that someone was actively considering power interactions and I made this comment I thought (and frankly still feel) was vague. In the years since, many, many people have taken it as rock solid confirmation that Victoria was at fault for what happened. I wouldn’t give that kind of confirmation to begin with and put off clarifying the inverse for the same reason, but it remains pretty clear that it’s having a pretty damaging effect on the fandom so I’ve edited it to better reflect my original mindset. - Comment by Wildbow on Interlude 21.y
  136. I think you're really reaching with the 'general propensity'.

    I think you're reaching more with 'all those WoG posts about how Vicky's Aura did affect her sexuality'. If 'all those' posts existed then they would have been posted a lot in the amy defense threads. But the only one people cite is a "that's interesting, isn't it?" type post that people seem to be taking and running with.

    My early-in-my-writing-career reticence to outright and directly say "This was rape" in conjunction with Amy not wanting to outright admit what she did is being twisted. Failure as a writer, maybe. I make mistakes.

    At the same time, I do think it's a mark against people's character when they leap strenuously to the defense of Amy, when what she did was rape anyway. Take the most charitable interpretation of what she did, disregard everything I said in the link above and you still have gross bodily violation (literally violating and warping the body) against someone who had protested, resisted, and been incapacitated. Done for selfish reasons, as Tattletale outlines an alternate path that Amy ignores.

    To say that's not rape, Victoria didn't remember, is little different from saying 'it's not penis in vagina sex so it's not rape' in conjunction with 'she was sleeping/drugged so it doesn't matter what I did.'

    If you take the aura thing and run with it, it translates so easily to the same kind of sentiment that says, "She dressed provocatively, so she kind of deserved it/she owns some of the responsibility." As a recent chapter outlines, a lot of people were in the area for Victoria's aura over time. Only one violated her.

    That ain't great. - Comment by Wildbow on Reddit, archived on Spacebattles
  137. She can shut this off, but the effect is described as being fairly subtle, and it is implied she usually has it on to at least some small degree. - Wiki edit by Wildbow
  138. “What are the restrictions? Minimal power use?” I asked.

    “The powers you can use are restricted based on the power,” he said. “Powers you willfully use or turn on are a no. That would be your aura, Antares. Probably your power, Capricorn. Sveta should be fine. Lookout should be fine. Precipice…”- Excerpt from From Within 16.3
  139. The man looked over his shoulder, as if gauging his escape routes.

    “Don’t even think about it, fugly,” she told him, “You know I’d catch you, and trust me, I’m already pissed off enough without you wasting my time.”

    “I didn’t do anything,” the man snarled.

    “Andrea Young!” Victoria raised her voice. As she shouted, she exercised her power. The man quailed as though she’d slapped him. “A black college student was beaten so badly she needed medical attention! Her teeth were knocked out! You’re trying to tell me that you, a skinhead with swollen knuckles, someone who was in the crowd watching paramedics arrive with an expression bordering on glee, you didn’t do anything!?”

    “I didn’t do nothing worth caring about,” he sneered. His bravado was tempered by a second look over his shoulder, as though he’d very much like to be elsewhere right that moment. - Excerpt from Interlude 2
  140. I activated my aura. - Daybreak 1.3
  141. Tangle 6.5
  142. Sentinel 9.3
  143. Sentinel 9.4
  144. Interlude 11a
  145. Interlude 11h
  146. Prey 14.3
  147. Prey 14.4
  148. “Hey sis? Yeah, I found him. That’s, uh, sort of the problem. Yeah. Look, I’m sorr- ok, can we talk about this later? Yeah. I’m at Spayder and Rock, there’s this little road that runs behind the buildings. Downtownish, yeah. Yeah? Thanks.”

    Victoria returned to the unconscious skinhead, checked his pulse, and listened intently for changes in his breathing. It took a very long five minutes for her sister to arrive.
    [...]
    Victoria abruptly pulled Amy into a hug. Amy resisted for a moment, then let her arms go limp at her sides.

    “This isn’t just a team, Ames,” Victoria told her, “We’re a family. We’re your family.”

    The man lying just a matter of feet away stirred, then groaned, long and loud.

    “My adoptive family,” Amy mumbled into Victoria’s shoulder, “And stop trying to use your frigging power to make me all squee over how amazing you are. Doesn’t work. I’ve been exposed so long I’m immune.”

    “It hurts,” the man moaned.

    “I’m not using my power, dumbass,” Victoria told Amy, letting her go, “I’m hugging my sister. My awesome, caring and merciful sister.”

    The man whined, louder, “I can’t move. I feel cold.”

    Amy frowned at Victoria, “I’ll heal him. But this is the last time.”

    Victoria beamed, “Thank you.” - Excerpt from Interlude 2
  149. 149.0 149.1 Whirlwind of fucking chaos and emotion indeed.

    “You invited her,” I said, again. More emotional this time. “She’s in the house?”

    My mother rallied, composing herself. Now she looked confused. “I told you I invited everyone.”

    “She’s actually in the house,” I said.

    I backed away again, and my mother threw the gate open, taking several steps on the driveway, stepping on crushed gravel with bare feet.

    I raised my hand, indicating for her to stop. She continued forward.

    I threw my aura out, one push.

    My mother stopped. Crystal stopped in her tracks, already at the fence. People rose from their seats.

    “I thought you knew,” she said. “I very clearly said everyone. It was supposed to be a family reunion with everyone getting together again for the first time in… in a really long time.”
    [...]
    I turned to go.

    I heard the gravel under her feet as she gave chase, and I pushed out with my aura, hard.

    “Do not use your power on me, Victoria Dallon. That has never been okay, and it doesn’t work anyway.” - Daybreak 1.7
  150. My focus in the moment was on Kitchen Sink.

    I landed so I was a foot behind him, pushing out with my aura.

    “Run,” I said.

    He turned, wheeling around with hand drawn back, a rather large, full bottle of alcohol gripped by the neck-

    I smashed my forehead into his nose. When he didn’t immediately go down, I did it again. I didn’t give him a chance to recover from there. My forcefield was down throughout the process, as I stayed within a foot of him, my aura buzzing with the range pulled closer to me, active and focused on him. - Shade 4.5
  151. “Swansong,” I said, my voice stern. I used my aura, the radius just wide enough to catch her and none of the audience. She snapped her head around. “No.” - Excerpt from Breaking 14.3
  152. I pushed out with my aura, for maximum range. I wasn’t sure the power mattered, but I gave that my all too. I squeezed my eyes shut.

    The aura reached the woman and reached the flame she held. The aura ignited- the woman’s fire spread across powers like flame across oil, and I’d filled the space within a hundred feet of me with ambient power. Gas. Aerosol. - Gleaming 9.5
  153. Blindside was pressing against my back, and my aura was stronger the closer people were to me. I controlled the aura’s expression to keep it small and more concentrated.

    Awe. Catch them on an emotional level.

    Blindside stumbled back. - Daybreak 1.4
  154. 154.0 154.1 I stopped only a few feet short, hitting him with my aura instead of my fist. Full-strength, point-blank, a hit to the emotional rather than the physical.

    The reaction was much the same as if I’d punched him. Forward movement stopped, reversed, an off-balance stumble backward.

    “Holy fuck,” I could hear Tristan.
    [...]
    As with Chris, I used my emotion aura.

    As had been the case with Chris, the effect was immediate and profound. She stumbled back much as if I’d flown into her and given her a strong shove, her eyes wide.
    [...]
    I used my aura, which was more effective when people were close, and she was wrapped around my head.
    [...]
    I left her to limp toward the wall while I flew to Tristan’s side. I landed beside Kenzie, hard, pushing out with my aura.

    She twisted around, gun in hand, and I caught the gun, snatching it out of her hand. - Excerpt from Glare 3.3
  155. A blast of her power made the other two men back off, but that meant they moved closer to me, and deeper into my aura, which was more intense as they drew closer to me. Caught in the middle, they stopped, paralyzed. Swansong turned to look at the contents of the car, one hand still out. - Dying 15.1
  156. Imagine a therapy session with Jessica, Victoria talking through her past. The fact she put herself in that situation, the times she lost her temper, her personal pride, and all of that, weighing it against the need of a cape to do as animals do and flash bright colors, make noise, and make dramatic displays to scare away opposing animals, to do a little property damage because the demonstration of a broken table is better overall than the demonstration of a caved-in face, and because her aura works better with some action behind it? Throw in family shit and social pressures and institutional pressures, just to fog things up? - Comment by Wildbow on Reddit, archived on Spacebattles
  157. “Tell me,” I told her.

    “No.”

    Tell me,” I told her, again, rising to an upright position, my toes a half-inch off the floor. I used my aura, pushing at her. Big.

    All throughout the hospital complex, conversations stopped. Everything went quiet.

    Tattletale stood strong. “You haven’t convinced me. You’d take Rachel from me? Grue? Again? Imp? Chicken fucking Little? The Heartbroken kids?”

    “Potentially. People will die no matter what happens, Tattletale. It’s a question of whether it’s one hundred percent or sixty or twenty five percent. If we do nothing it’s one hundred percent.”

    “If we do nothing the Simurgh might win. We live.”

    “We won’t be us and you fucking know it, Tattletale,” I told her.

    She was silent. There wasn’t a hint of a grin on her face. - Excerpt from Last 20.9
  158. “Stretcher or surrender?” I asked, amping up the aura in a subtle way. Too big of a push could scare, but it also was a thing. Something people could push back against.

    I could use it here to play it subtle, drive the moment home. - Pitch 6.8
  159. But Lung was part of the handful I’d fought where I could input fear and get anger. Dean had run into the same thing, with emotions other than fear returning the same output.

    Some people, especially those of a more feral stripe, just processed things in a different way. The upside was the tactical advantage in it, if I could adjust my expectations fast enough.

    The downside was that I had to make that adjustment. Most of my costumed fighting experience was that my enemies would hesitate, get sloppy, or back off, but Lung, like Bitch, like the cooler but still dangerous Krieg or the seemingly unflappable Victor who would still act differently when under the influence of my power, attacking faster and more recklessly. They were the people who were angry at the world, or those with the natural predisposition to fight rather than fly.

    It meant I had his attention. Even before I activated my aura, it still meant he was keeping an eye on me, because he had experienced it before. Actually using my aura helped, provoking him on an emotional level. - Gleaming 9.11
  160. “It does,” I said. “Not necessarily in the ways you’d expect, pushing people away or any of that. It makes a mess. It makes people unpredictable. I have an awe-fear aura so I’ve seen this at work.”

    “I almost envy you,” Ashley said. “To have something you can so casually employ.”

    “It’s not casual,” I said. “Because like I said, it’s complicated in terms of the mess it makes of things. I’ve been trying to be more deliberate about how I use it.” - Flare 2.6
  161. The one who had given Jasper the finger, though, he had just a little bit more to prove. I put my hands on him. I pushed him, and he resisted.

    I pushed him with my aura, small, closer to center, a pulse of intimidation just for him, to break his posture and resolve. My hands pushed him the rest of the way. He landed on his ass. - Daybreak 1.3
  162. “Coming down!” I shouted, as I saw a spot. I flared my aura a bit, which made some people stop in their tracks. The reaction wasn’t shock and fear like I expected. - Excerpt from Infrared 19.3
  163. I hesitated, and then I asked, “Is it awe, fear, or something else?”

    “It’s always been fear. I’ve never felt your awe, exactly,” he said. “So maybe it’s the awe? I don’t know.”

    I frowned. “If you had to give it any label at all, what would you call it?”

    “Interest? Attraction. Like when I noticed Erin for the first time.” - Excerpt from Infrared 19.7
  164. I could choose what emotions I put out there, now, but it wasn’t as simple as choosing from a tidy little list. Just the opposite. I dug into memories and the rawest, deepest feelings I had. A moment of clarity midway through therapy at the hospital. Moments, my thoughts wandering at night, where I’d jolted awake with a realization. The feeling after I’d smeared my mother against a wall, and realized it was my fault. Each of those memories was like an exposed nerve, and the screaming in my head was salt on those nerves.

    I’d wanted ‘wake up’ but the feelings I dug into as I broadcasted weren’t quite that. - Excerpt from Last 20.4
  165. Andrew Greaves: We know that Glory Girl is a second generation Cape, and the origins of her force field power are rather obvious. But what about her empathic aura? Where did that come from?

    It's well known that second Triggers involve polling any other Shards within range and such, but does this also happen with first Triggers? Could Gallant have already been a cape and nearby when she Triggered?

    Wildbow: You're thinking along the right lines, re: the source of her aura, Andrew. - Another comment by Wildbow on Spacebattles
  166. 20:05 Ridtom: I wonder what Dean sees when she uses her aura? Just a spotlight?
    20:05 Prothean: A really angry/impressive/sad/whatever person
    20:05 Prothean: ?
    20:07 Wildbow: Maybe he's interested in her because he can't get a perfect read on her - Comment by Wildbow on IRC, archived on Spacebattles
  167. 167.0 167.1 As someone with the ability to control emotions, I was supposed to be harder to read and affect. It was why I’d deflected Crystalclear earlier.

    It was why Dean and I had gotten along. Even why we’d been possible. - Excerpt from Daybreak 1.5
  168. He threw a trio of fat shurikens at me. My forcefield blocked them, saw them bounce off, one landing on the bed, two falling to the floor beside me.

    I kicked the bed to bring the more solid bedframe to where I could grab it, and rammed the end of the bed at the corner where he was. The shurikens detonated behind me, and on the bed in front of me. Something that wasn’t fire or anything of the sort. Something jumped between them, like electricity but not. Where it touched me, my heart jumped, my mind stumbled, and feelings welled.

    All of the doubts, fears, and hesitations inside me magnified, multiplied. It paralyzed me for the moment.

    This, at least, was something I’d been trying to get a handle on. Here, my resistance applied. - Daybreak 1.6
  169. I could feel the effect of it, even from a distance. My heart rate picked up, and for a moment my thoughts and feelings spooled out. There were a hundred things I was holding in my heart and head that had to sit there. There were worries, irritations, traumas, and causes for outright fucking fury that I couldn’t do a damn thing about. Just being on the periphery of the effect made them swell up and jostle together.

    Sveta’s arm tightened around me. I could hear the thump, thump, thumpthump of her tendrils against the inside of her body.

    I met her eyes. I could instantly tell that she’d been affected more than I had.

    I was resistant to emotion effects, because I generated them. Snag had hit me hard because he’d hit me where it hurt the most.

    My rage? It was there, beneath the surface, but it wasn’t a weak point. It was a regular point. - Shadow 5.3
  170. I closed my eyes. I was aware that Cradle probably wasn’t keen on picking a fight with me because Lionwing had called his emotion power a kind of emotion reading or feedback response. If my resistance to emotion powers factored in, I might seem a little fuzzier.
    [...]
    But for the rainfall patter of Sveta’s tendrils on the walls of the station, we were silent, as we darted after Cradle.

    He stood at the threshold to the portal, and he seemed genuinely surprised to see us. If Cradle wasn’t as quick or effective in assessing me and how to target me, it might have had to do with my emotion resistance. If he had difficulty with Sveta, it might have had to do with the fact that there were no veins for her emotions to run through, her brain maintained a different construction. - Heavens 12.9
  171. I lifted him.

    He used his power on me for just a second, inflicting rage. The effect was dampened, half-strength, but I still dropped him, and he writhed on landing.

    We stood, huffing at each other, glaring.

    I reached for him again. Again, he used rage, and my grip on his collar was fierce. - Last 20.5
  172. The little benefits of powers, like Byron’s cold resistance and my relative resilience to emotion powers. - Heavens 12.8
  173. But I was aware I was part of a partnership. And I’d be damned if I entertained even the notion that Amy was overcoming her own partner’s pressures, while succumbing to my own.

    Nudges, intuitions, feelings.

    Influences. I was aware I was acting different, since the connection had come back up. That I had hints, I had benefits. A kind of security. A new kind of vulnerability. - Excerpt from Sundown 17.8
  174. I might have been borrowing against the future to buy time in the present, but I aimed for areas of the city that were shaky. Breaking down road with shots from the laser cannon. Knocking down buildings. - Excerpt from Infrared 19.1
  175. I didn’t have forcefields in that same sense. I saw a damaged section of her armor, blasted it, and continued blasting as I plummeted. In the last few seconds of my descent, I twisted in the air to get to where I could kick my laser cannon up and away, and carried on down without reorienting myself. I could only dive while shooting because the weapon had no appreciable recoil. No real Newton’s Law of Motion at play here. No bullet being fired forward, gun kicking back in response. - Excerpt from Infrared 19.1
  176. Gleaming 9.2
  177. Wildbow: @ the topic - Glory Girl wanted to be a hero more than anything, she couldn't, she was frustrated, joined a sports team where she could give her all and actually shine, and connected with another hero in a romantic sense, out of that deep-seated need.
    Wildbow: Which isn't to say she didn't care about him, mind you.
    Wildbow: Took a bad hit, pent up frustration came to the fore, bam - Wildbow on IRC
  178. Infrared 19.9
  179. Shell 4.3
  180. 180.0 180.1 180.2 Comment by Wildbow regarding story arc
  181. Unsportsmanlike conduct between players. She jumped to make a shot, someone else slammed into her in mid-air, and she didn’t fall to the ground until she stopped flying. - Comment by Wildbow on Interlude 18.y
  182. “My entire life leading up to that basketball game, I wanted so horribly badly to be a hero, you know? It felt like I thought about it every ten minutes. My parents were heroes, my cousin was, my aunt and uncle were, and everything revolved around it. I wanted it all so badly it hurt, and I didn’t have it for years. Then that basketball game, and I wanted to have something where I was the hero, where I got to stand out. Because sometimes it felt like my parents didn’t see me.”

    “That’s been a recurring idea. You talked about their missed visits.”

    “They came a lot,” I said. “I know that. My dad more than my mom. But every missed visit was a horrible thing, and the little things mattered so much when I had nothing else. Um. And this basketball game, I know I’ve talked about this before. But this one girl kicked my freaking ass. In my face, knocking me over, intercepting every pass, blocking every shot. She didn’t have any powers or anything, she was just… good. Better.”

    “A lot of things came into focus in that moment.”

    “Every time she or one of her teammates beat me, I could see the look of disappointment on my parent’s faces. In the other moments, they looked so bored. And it was boring, you know. No parent wants to go sit through amateurs doing badly at a high school sport.”

    “Some do.”

    “Anyway, she hit me hard, she said something about me being overrated, and it was the last straw. Realizing I stood so far from family, that I didn’t want to be there, but I had no other choice, my sternum was hurting where she’d driven her elbow into me. I got my powers.”

    “Years of wanting, leading up to that.”

    She’d caught the thread I’d wanted to lay out. It helped. “And then just under three years as Victoria-slash-Glory-Girl. And then… hospital.” - Excerpt from Daybreak 1.8
  183. Even the day she’d triggered, now that I thought about it. Almost a year into me having my powers, a gang called the Chorus had attacked a mall in Brockton Bay. I’d gotten hurt, Amy had triggered, and she’d healed me. The gang didn’t endure our retaliation or Coil’s expansion of activities as he’d claimed more of downtown. It had seemed like such a rare, clear-cut case of a trigger event providing an answer to the problem at hand, no fuss, no muss. - Excerpt from Breaking 14.10
  184. “Yes. During the Boston Games,” Ashley said, as Mrs. Yamada stood and went to get the water.

    “I was a little too young. I followed along back at home, where we made the dining room into a kind of headquarters, putting up a few bulletin boards. I colored in the maps and moved pins as the territories changed hands while doing homework and stuff. - Excerpt from Flare 2.5
  185. Extermination 8.1
  186. 186.0 186.1 New Wave may be disbanding. My mom suggested that if I wanted to keep being a hero, I should consider joining the Wards. So I’m here, checking things out. [...] They’re willing, if I agree to some extra rules and stipulations. They’d be putting me on probationary membership, like they did with Shadow Stalker. I came by to get a sense of things, see if it’d be worth going through the hassle instead of going solo- Excerpt from Sentinel 9.3
  187. When you had nothing, you groped for anything, even if it was the person who’d brought you to that point.

    I’d reached out back then, too. I’d turned to the Wards, because my mom had been the only person doing anything to keep New Wave in motion, the team had been falling apart, and I’d needed something. Because the tests and briefings made me feel closer to Dean, reminded me of the study sessions. Because the first time I saw her after the Endbringer attack, Vista had hugged me, because Dean, and it meant something to me that there was someone else properly upset for him. - Daybreak 1.6
  188. “Are you ex-Protectorate?” he asked. “I might have missed that if it was in your application.”

    “No. Ex-Ward, but only very briefly.” - Flare 2.1
  189. - Excerpt from Interlude 15.x
  190. Colony 15.2
  191. Interlude 18.z
  192. My visitors, my family, had decided that because they didn’t know how long the lockdown would be, they would come another day. It was a long trip. [...]

    The message had been left unfinished on my screen, only a few words of what I’d wanted to say. Even completed, the statement wouldn’t have meant anything to the staff member, and they wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. All I’d wanted to express was that my family had missed the last two visiting days as well. - Daybreak 1.6
  193. “I used to admire that side of you. It was a good thing when you were doing the physio, and when you were watching those videos of university classes. Which were incredibly boring, I’m sorry.”

    “They were the highlight of my day.”

    “They were so boring. I don’t know how you make powers boring, but they managed. But you had the mental fortitude to push through it.”

    “I enjoyed it,” I said. “Really.” - Excerpt from Shadow 5.6
  194. It made me think of the hospital. Of a time shortly before she’d left with Weld. A couple of weeks before, maybe. Physiotherapy, working on my manual dexterity, they’d given us video games and controls we could use. Sveta had done a lot of it, and picked up more of it for the social aspect, so she’d joined me to egg me on.
    [...]
    It was a bittersweet memory, which was about as good as things had gotten, then. Two or so weeks later, Weld had gone to see her. I could remember her anticipation leading up to the meeting. She’d been so upset over the Case fifty-threes defecting en-masse from the Protectorate and Wards, and Weld’s visit had turned that around.

    It hadn’t gone well. I wasn’t sure exactly what had happened. Then Weld had come to see me. He’d treated me with more human decency than I’d had out of anyone but my therapists, patient advocate, or the other patients for months. He’d been patient, ignored my ramblings, he’d been gentle, asked what he could do for me. It couldn’t have been easy. I’d been a mess.

    I’d convinced him to go back to her, with a renewed perspective. Later on, I’d given them my blessings. She’d walked away from the hospital with her hero and freedom. Weld had gotten my only real friend and one of my only unabashed, unpaid-for allies. - Excerpt from Shadow 5.4
  195. There were other thoughts. In trying to get my parents to talk about Amy, the Wretch had typed out one word, asking for the story we’d never really gotten to hear in full.

    M-A-R-Q-U-I-S.

    My dad had told the tale. Somewhere in there he’d said something about Marquis’ prize- Amy. I remembered because anything to do with Amy had been something to fixate on, back then. I remembered because there was something to the story that connected with what my mom had said, about the villains and their treasures. Connecting those dots had helped bring the already vivid mental picture of the scene to life. - Excerpt from Beacon 8.6
  196. Glitzglam: K. Im visiting 2. field exercises today tomorrow. team want to meet for drinks on day off.
    I think I might take off nstead. home 4 sure. m/b u?

    Point_Me_@_The_Sky: I’m okay. But do me a favor?

    Glitzglam: anything

    Point_Me_@_The_Sky: If you stop by? I set up tarps by house. Make sure they still there & no water getting through? Lost cause maybe - Glow-worm P.5
  197. Glitzglam: and speaking of places. I got 2 take off becuz my place is 2 be doing drills

    Point_Me_@_The_Sky: Be safe. Say hi to the family for me. I’ll drop by soon. - Glow-worm P.5
  198. Point_Me_@_The_Sky:  Might go for long trip before h.school semester starts + I get busy with work.  Visit home. - Glow-worm P.5
  199. Daybreak 1.1
  200. Glitzglam: Have u got that email yet?
    Glitzglam: ? ? ?
    Point_Me_@_The_Sky:  If this is a pep talk it isn’t a very good one.
    Glitzglam: Thats a no huh?  fuck - Glow-worm P.1
  201. Daybreak 1.7
  202. “Only one was actually posting any openings, a corporate team, Auzure. Foresight and the Attendant were open to interviewing me. There are two other big teams; one gave me a hard no, and the other is folding into the Attendant and won’t exist soon, they didn’t give me a response yet, and with how the talk with the Attendant went, I don’t think it’d work out.”
    [...]
    I was pretty sure Advance Guard had turned me down because of my background, the two year gap prior to Gold Morning. Others had their reasons for rejecting me. - Excerpt from Flare 2.2
  203. Gleaming 9.11
  204. Heavens 12.9
  205. Heavens 12.none
  206. Black 13.8
  207. Black 13.11
  208. “If we can’t beat Teacher, we might have to make hard decisions,” I said, still trying to get to grips. I was aware of Engel behind me.

    “Hard? I don’t follow,” Sveta said.

    "Whether we take our lumps, play nice, and trust that people will turn around… or if we stop treating them like they’re a consideration?”

    “Them?” Sveta asked. “Civilians.”

    “Victoria, no,” Sveta said, sounding genuinely horrified. - Excerpt from Black 13.11
  209. Jessica wanted to get us to a place where we were dealing. Where we were equipped with the skills to battle our own issues, to handle conflict and confrontations. I’d tried that. I was so, so weary of it. The game. The back and forth. Consideration, when none was extended back. It was so hard, so difficult. I was so tired of dealing. I wanted to at least consider what we needed to do so things were dealt with. - Excerpt from Black 13.11
  210. “Your sister, Antares, who is supposedly being watched, apparently just did to someone else what she did to you four years ago, when she put you in the hospital. She was sick then, she’s sick now, and no, I don’t think anyone’s watching closely enough." - Excerpt from Breaking 14.3
  211. Breaking 14.4
  212. Breaking 14.5
  213. Breaking 14.6
  214. Breaking 14.8
  215. “I mean, it’s obvious that that kind of side of me is going to be bigger and more pronounced in comparison. You took all the parts of me you liked and mashed it all together into a big pile of lovey-dovey ‘Vicky’ you could cuddle with, kiss, use-”

    She shook her head, violent.

    “Don’t shake your head at me. Yes. You used me to soothe yourself. You said you loved me but well before you made me into the w- into that mess that had to go to the hospital, you made me into something that wasn’t Victoria, for your own selfish wants.” - Excerpt from Breaking 14.9
  216. Dot clambered up her arm to her shoulder. “The ‘because’ is that Scion’s species’ life cycle didn’t stop just because he did. Even if you don’t fertilize an egg, the chicken is still going to lay it. All of the passengers are going to fumble together for connections, gather and translate power, and they’re going to… try to spread themselves to other places of interest.” - Excerpt from Breaking 14.9
  217. “Teacher’s exploiting the system,” she said, her voice almost emotionless. “He’s going to pick a fight sooner or later, and it’s going to be devastating. He manufactured a crack, he’s going to intentionally create more. Each one gives him more access to the system and more control over the levers and knobs that decide everything else. He can force-create a Dauntless and the ones he makes will listen to him.” - Excerpt from Breaking 14.10
  218. "Kenzie looked around, then slapped the wall. She blinked a few times. “Listened in on the phones, my team gave it to Miss Militia to translate, she got back to us while you were gone.” - Excerpt from Breaking 14.11
  219. Breaking 14.12
  220. “What happened?” Crystal asked, hugging back. “Where’s Uncle Mark?” “He’s staying behind, to keep an eye on Amy,” Aunt Carol said. - Excerpt from Interlude 15.a II
  221. “A few hours ago, our precogs and danger sensers gave us our best numbers yet for an attack on Teacher’s facility. Many members of Warden leadership, Advance Guard, Foresight, and the Shepherds entered. We received regular status updates-” - Excerpt from Interlude 15.a II
  222. Dying 15.1
  223. Dying 15.2
  224. My eyes settled on the culprit. The forcefield cape. The feeling crystallized as I caught her looking back at me with those eerie eyes. Aunt Sarah. - Excerpt from Dying 15.2
  225. “Do I count?” Rain asked. “Yeah. But do you really want to make that call? Because I really don’t.” “I don’t either. But I think it’s necessary. This guy won’t stop unless he stops for good.” - Dying 15.4
  226. Dying 15.5
  227. Dying 15.7
  228. “Do I?” Rain asked.

    My turn to answer.

    Aware of Colt, I nodded. Excerpt from Dying 15.8
  229. Interlude 15.y II
  230. Interlude 15.z II
  231. “The guns,” Sveta said. “You picked up six guns, using your forcefield.”

    I looked through the portal at the distorted picture beyond it. I thought of the rising anger, the frustration at Byron’s condition and not fucking knowing. Then the black mood that had settled in, as Kenzie had reported that Swansong was dead.

    In the midst of that mood, the Wretch hadn’t moved how I’d wanted it to.

    I’d moved like it wanted. - Excerpt from From Within 16.3
  232. From Within 16.5
  233. From Within 16.6
  234. From Within 16.7
  235. And then, as though a light switch had been flicked, the scene was gone, and we were in the room, divided into fifteen sections, each haphazardly connected to the last.

    I had my costume and my buckler, but not my flight. I hurried over in Sveta’s direction, crawling at first, then staggering, and crossed the boundary. - Excerpt from From Within 16.8
  236. From Within 16.9
  237. From Within 16.10
  238. “You couldn’t confide in me? You couldn’t say ‘hey, I bought my powers’?” I asked. “You had to lie about triggering, and dealing with that? Did it even happen?” - Excerpt from From Within 16.11
  239. And fifty of Teacher’s goons, dressed in white, carting in technology, working to build something connected to this tear. Working with the agents. - Excerpt from From Within 16.11
  240. From Within 16.12
  241. Sundown 17.1
  242. Sundown 17.2
  243. “I’m supposed to tell you that you need anchors,” Clockblocker said. “You need things to hold onto. Things from your past. Your family. Yourself.” - Excerpt from Sundown 17.3
  244. “I want to open lines of communication,” I said. “I kind of did, last night. I called for help, and the Wr- my agent answered.”

    “And you said you have more control,” Kid Win said.

    “I want that for everyone,” I said. “Everyone on our side. Can you tell me anything that would help? Ways to close the communication gap, so we can reach out?” - Excerpt from Sundown 17.3
  245. What are you doing, Amy?

    And why the hell does it feel, deep in my gut, like this isn’t the thing we should all be worried about? Are we overlooking something or someone in that long row of green and lime-green lights? - Excerpt from Sundown 17.3
  246. Sundown 17.4
  247. Sundown 17.5
  248. I brushed his hand aside before it could make contact. My arm and hand hadn’t moved in the course of the brushing aside. I’d meant to do it and I hadn’t.

    It had been a brief, natural expansion of my forcefield, a brief, natural movement of an arm that had no meat beneath the skin, no bone beneath the meat, and no and no rejiggered rat or feline DNA in blood, bone, meat, or skin. Above all, it had been a gentle touch. - Excerpt from Sundown 17.6
  249. Sundown 17.6
  250. Still there? I asked the void, my arms flat at my side, my hair still in the process of being braided. Good. Excerpt from Sundown 17.7
  251. Sundown 17.7
  252. Sundown 17.8
  253. Sundown 17.9
  254. Sundown 17.10
  255. Radiation 18.1
  256. Radiation 18.2
  257. Radiation 18.4
  258. Radiation 18.5
  259. Radiation 18.6
  260. Radiation 18.7
  261. Radiation 18.8
  262. Radiation 18.9
  263. Radiation 18.10
  264. Narwhal shouted. Capes hurried to the one side. Ophion’s creation was attacking. A tide of flesh.

    I added my gunfire to the response, flying up for a vantage point that didn’t risk shooting some cape in the back of the head, then putting shots in the thing.

    Until I pulled the trigger and nothing came out.

    I dropped it, undid the clasps, and hauled out the power cell. - Excerpt from Infrared 19.1
  265. Infrared 19.1
  266. Infrared 19.2
  267. Infrared 19.5
  268. Infrared 19.6
  269. Infrared 19.7
  270. Infrared 19.8
  271. Infrared 19.9
  272. “Let’s say we can get to this window of opportunity you’re talking about,” Sveta said. “What do we do then? You wanted them to stumble?”

    “That’s the basic idea. And for that, we need… something big.”

    “Big in what sense?”

    “Big in the messy sense. In the… blood, guts, altering our machinery sense.” - Excerpt from Infrared 19.10
  273. “Can we count on you?” I asked, and my voice was softer. “We need help.”

    “No,” she told me.

    “No?” I echoed her.

    “I’m going to keep talking to Dr. Darnall as long as he’s willing to listen. Even if it’s only for the next two hours. He was telling me about doctors, nurses and burnout, the effects it can have. Um. He said other stuff, it made sense. I can give you guys information if it helps, I have a good mental picture of how a lot of this fits together. But… I think it might be better if I never use my powers ever again.” - Excerpt from Infrared 19.10
  274. Infrared 19.g
  275. Last 20.1
  276. “It would need to be deployed. I’d have to get it from here to there,” she said. “What is it?”

    “It’s… genocide,” I answered her.

    Chris was staring into my eyes.

    “Oh. Of?”

    “Us.” No use dressing it up. - Excerpt from Last 20.2
  277. Last 20.3
  278. Last 20.4
  279. Last 20.5
  280. Last 20.7
  281. Last 20.8
  282. Last 20.9
  283. Antares hummed. It was faint, like a tuning fork. Her teammates did the same.

    [...]

    She took him by the hand.

    With one gauntlet, he moved her arm up to a part of his forearm where skin was still skin. He felt the hum shiver through flesh, making subtle changes.

    A death sentence, like the one she and her team already carried. Excerpt from Interlude 20.a II
  284. Last 20.11
  285. Last 20.e1
  286. Last 20.end
  287. Torch 7.8
  288. Mugasofer on Reddit
  289. Amy and Victoria were considered early on as protagonists for a story set in this universe, called 'Guts and Glory'. The story would have alternated between each perspective on a chapter by chapter basis and covered many of the same events that have already occurred. - Edit by Wildbow, not on the list of retracted edits.
  290. “Do you happen to know your blood type off the top of your head?” Doctor Close asked me, as he jotted some things down.

    “B negative.” - Excerpt from Last 20.9

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Leader AntaresCapricorn RedSwansong 
Members LookoutCryptid TressPrecipiceCapricorn Blue
Associates The WardensNatalie MattesonDamsel of Distress IIIAdvance GuardThe UndersidersThe Chicken Tenders
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