The Skittering Chaos (Worm/Hazbin Hotel)

[Thread Necromancer]

I forget if you've mentioned it but do echidna clones have souls?

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I'm leaning towards yes they do, very weak souls since most of them don't live very long. If I were to rate their power level it would be around the same power level as a new born babe dying in early in life. Depending on the time that they died at, they would be easy prey for any who wish to either take advantage of them, more so than usual with newbies, or kill them forever such as during a purge.

 

[VisV]

If Danny is even dead. He could be puttering around on either Earth Bet still or managed to get into the Mega city. If he has gotten into the Mega city, which is highly likely since he does live in Brockton Bay. He'd probably be bothered that people are basically trying to erase Taylor's contributions to saving the world, if he even knows that much about what happened.

As a side note, the Undersiders are basically in charge of the Portal to Earth Gimel, why the hell are they so powerless in Gimel if the controlled the portal. I bet the heroes came in and held them at gun point to force them to give up control and probably had the sword of Damocles over their heads which is why Lisa ad the rest of the Undersiders don't do much since any wrong move could provoke the sword to fall and slice them.

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That's our best guess yes.

But you know what that sounds like to me?

It sounds like a whole lotta people who are going to be getting a very very rude awakening when they die and wind up in hell... and considering that a lot of people die during ward... well taylor's gonna have plenty of people to stick on pikes around her territory soon enough.

Not for unpersoning her, no they just go to hell for that, but for fucking with her family. (Because the undersiders are part of her family at this point)\\

Action's come with Consequences~ They'll have to pay with blood.~

Starting with Marche of course!

I mean its hell, she's not exactly gonna get any nicer down here now is she?

Besides! it's not like she's killing anyone!

 

[ElegiacCrown]

I'm leaning towards yes they do, very weak souls since most of them don't live very long. If I were to rate their power level it would be around the same power level as a new born babe dying in early in life. Depending on the time that they died at, they would be easy prey for any who wish to either take advantage of them, more so than usual with newbies, or kill them forever such as during a purge.

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On the one hand, that does mean the majority of them probably got killed or dragged off. On the other hand, it does mean that some of them might still be crawling around hell.

While the clones themselves had the desire to destroy everything their original cared about, after they died it's possible that they mellowed out, or just accepted that their goal was ultimately impossible (or they're still hung up on it, but I'd like to think having to deal with more immediate concerns for a two year period would have stopped that). I'm imagining that the three Taylor clones, Chitter/Scurry and the two bug controlling ones, all share an apartment in hell, maybe doing jobs that they know Taylor would never have been willing to do. Given how much of Taylor was caught up in "fine, I'll do it myself" maybe they all lean towards being minions or something. Or they're all prostitutes, just to really fuck with Taylor's head.

 

[VisV]

On the one hand, that does mean the majority of them probably got killed or dragged off. On the other hand, it does mean that some of them might still be crawling around hell.

While the clones themselves had the desire to destroy everything their original cared about, after they died it's possible that they mellowed out, or just accepted that their goal was ultimately impossible (or they're still hung up on it, but I'd like to think having to deal with more immediate concerns for a two year period would have stopped that). I'm imagining that the three Taylor clones, Chitter/Scurry and the two bug controlling ones, all share an apartment in hell, maybe doing jobs that they know Taylor would never have been willing to do. Given how much of Taylor was caught up in "fine, I'll do it myself" maybe they all lean towards being minions or something. Or they're all prostitutes, just to really fuck with Taylor's head.

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Gonna point out that, all of they're souls probably look different, meaning they are no longer physically identical to taylor.

 

[Thread Necromancer]

On the one hand, that does mean the majority of them probably got killed or dragged off. On the other hand, it does mean that some of them might still be crawling around hell.

While the clones themselves had the desire to destroy everything their original cared about, after they died it's possible that they mellowed out, or just accepted that their goal was ultimately impossible (or they're still hung up on it, but I'd like to think having to deal with more immediate concerns for a two year period would have stopped that). I'm imagining that the three Taylor clones, Chitter/Scurry and the two bug controlling ones, all share an apartment in hell, maybe doing jobs that they know Taylor would never have been willing to do. Given how much of Taylor was caught up in "fine, I'll do it myself" maybe they all lean towards being minions or something. Or they're all prostitutes, just to really fuck with Taylor's head.

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I thought that there were only two of them, those being Chitter and Scurry. Granted it's been a while since I've read the Echidna arc, in fact that was when I dropped Worm since I learned Taylor joined the Protectorate.

 

[VisV]

I thought that there were only two of them, those being Chitter and Scurry. Granted it's been a while since I've read the Echidna arc, in fact that was when I dropped Worm since I learned Taylor joined the Protectorate.

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Taylor being part of the protectorate is only relevant in the fact that she basically gets ground down into robotic shell of a human being.

Oh and the s9 thousand and the lead up to gold morning. but the rest of it is kinda pointless.

 

[Thread Necromancer]

Taylor being part of the protectorate is only relevant in the fact that she basically gets ground down into robotic shell of a human being.

Oh and the s9 thousand and the lead up to gold morning. but the rest of it is kinda pointless.

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From what I've heard not much relevant happens after Tagg dies, though I still haven't read that part either. I just got past Accords interlude where the Fallen and Butcher's gang decide to fight against the Undersiders.

 

[ElegiacCrown]

Gonna point out that, all of they're souls probably look different, meaning they are no longer physically identical to taylor.

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True, but they already weren't exactly like Taylor from a physical perspective, so there are probably still some similarities soul-wise.

I thought that there were only two of them, those being Chitter and Scurry. Granted it's been a while since I've read the Echidna arc, in fact that was when I dropped Worm since I learned Taylor joined the Protectorate.

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Yeah. Chitter and Scurry are one clone, the rat controller, and there are two unnamed bug controlling clones who might also be named Chitter/Scurry since the clone names are closer to types than actual nomenclature.

From what I've heard not much relevant happens after Tagg dies, though I still haven't read that part either. I just got past Accords interlude where the Fallen and Butcher's gang decide to fight against the Undersiders.

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There's a couple good scenes in there, Taylor does another eye gouge but this time on Valefor and with maggots, the infamous chili scene that cements Taylor as truly a villain, and the scenes immediately following her turning herself in are decent, but yeah, Taylor being in the Wards and the time skip aren't great and while Taylor has decent interactions with the Undersiders during the S9000 arc (I'm a big fan of the Nice Guy scene) it's not terribly interesting.

 

[Thread Necromancer]

the infamous chili scene that cements Taylor as truly a villain

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Chili scene? This I gotta hear.

Edit: WAIT better yet, don't tell me so I have a reason to keep on reading Worm and to get to that Chili scene.

 

[VisV]

Come to think,,, the Kult of Kephri probably needs at least one cape involved, because i doubt that most normals would really know what the fuck happened during gold morning.

So you need someone who was actually there and willing to pass down the story.

Combined with them resorting to occult shit to summon up their new god, this would probably be a cape from the Adepts or some other cape group who believes in magic.

Also I find it ironic that taylor has done more to deserve a religion based off her than god has in this universe.

I wonder if being worshiped will make overlord skitter more powerful...

 

[Thread Necromancer]

Come to think,,, the Kult of Kephri probably needs at least one cape involved, because i doubt that most normals would really know what the fuck happened during gold morning.

So you need someone who was actually there and willing to pass down the story.

Combined with them resorting to occult shit to summon up their new god, this would probably be a cape from the Adepts or some other cape group who believes in magic.

Also I find it ironic that taylor has done more to deserve a religion based off her than god has in this universe.

I wonder if being worshiped will make overlord skitter more powerful...

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Their devotion to a demon of all things would assure their fall to Hell. It is a common trope that guaranteeing a soul falls to Hell grants a demon more power. Who says it's different here?

 

[ElegiacCrown]

Their devotion to a demon of all things would assure their fall to Hell. It is a common trope that guaranteeing a soul falls to Hell grants a demon more power. Who says it's different here?

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I have a question. How much do they realize that they're worshiping a demon and not a god? Is it something like they know she's a demon but believe she's more deserving of worship, do they legitimately think she's a god, do they think she's like an evil god, or are they one of the oblivious groups where it's obvious to everyone else that they're following a demon but they can't believe it?

 

[Thread Necromancer]

I have a question. How much do they realize that they're worshiping a demon and not a god? Is it something like they know she's a demon but believe she's more deserving of worship, do they legitimately think she's a god, do they think she's like an evil god, or are they one of the oblivious groups where it's obvious to everyone else that they're following a demon but they can't believe it?

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I'm leaning towards some combination of Greek Hero worship, and a Fallen splinter cult who sees Khepri as a saint. They splintered after Golden Morning and are actually just in its infancy. The one who will take over, Oliver Thorn is more a charlatan who got caught up in things and is basically doing Satanic roleplay with partial Egyptian theming to try and both not disappoint his crazy friends and keep from getting shived for betraying their trust.

Oliver Thorn though is partially a true follower as he is a big fan of Skitter and tries to live up to her example.

Don't have much time, Ill expand on it further later.

 

[shade argost]

Now the next question is if they continue the Taylor worship after going to hell will that further empower Taylor?

 

[Thread Necromancer]

Now the next question is if they continue the Taylor worship after going to hell will that further empower Taylor?

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At the moment, no. It ain't that simple, she isn't a god and thus doesn't automatically get their power. The only one that has that privilege is the Satan himself and that's more he gets a portion of the person power when they get sent to Hell. However, once a deal is struck, well, then Taylor can start benefiting from her worshipers dying and going to Hell. It doesn't have to be a direct deal with everyone. Just a representative and then every member of the Khepri cult when they die empowers Taylor more.

Anyways, as I was saying about Oliver Thorn. Good ol' Ollie here when he first found out about Skitter was when he lived in Brockton Bay and then Leviathan hit. Oliver found himself getting absolutely not help from the PRT, not that he expected any, since Oliver doesn't exactly like or support the PRT and Protectorate and generally thought that the funding could go somewhere else. After all, why the hell were the American tax payer paying for the protection of Canadian cities and such? Why all the unconstitutional bullshit? Why can they never seem to get anything done about damn near anything despite seemingly having both the money, the power, and the mandate to go in and clear out these hives of scum and villainy? Despite the fact that Heroes were outnumbered 3/1 across the board, that didn't mean that the job is impossible. After all, the villains are divided, and why the kid gloves, especially with those that don't help out with the Endbringer battles? To say the least. Not to mention, most of Oliver's youth was spent basically being manipulated and influenced by conspiracy theorists that believed very crazy stuff, such as manifestations, lay lines, and general SCP like shit. None of which was real and him finally realising this was part of the reason he left small town America for Brockton Bay.

Oliver ended up being a person who was surviving in Brockton Bay in what became Skitter's Hive. There he started to gain an admiration for Skitter as she defended them, fed them, and generally did a better job than the PRT, Protectorate, and Government. Soon enough his admiration grew enough that he started to look to Skitter as a role model and truely became a fan. It threw him for a loop when Skitter joined the Protectorate though and he suspected some sort of blackmail or something. After Golden Morning however the reason for joining with the Protectorate became clear and he once more became a fan and highly respects her self sacrifice to the point where if someone starts talking shit about her or how she was just trying to take over the world he gets incredibly aggravated. If he thinks he can get visibly aggravated in some way without being caught out for being visibly aggrivated, he will. Clenched fists, a hissing breath through his teeth, an ugly sneer appearing on his face. He doesn't know much about what happened. Some friends he made lead to him being almost adjacent to the Fallen, not a member but a trusted outside affiliate of the Fallen, if only because he was friends with some.

As a side note, he doesn't like the Fallen or what they are doing or worshiping he just accidentally ended up friends with some of their members.

Because of this connection, he learns about Taylor's self sacrifice, how she teamed up with the Endbringers and mind controlled nearly every cape and basically traumatized nearly all of them.

From there, he hears talks from some members about possibly worshipping Khepri as a saint, and Oliver, hoping to encourage a more possitive role model to his friends, as because of her story of self sacrifice and such, reinvgorated his fanaticism for Taylor, and possibly lead them away from the Fallen, or at least possibly improve the actions of the Fallen. Eventually there is a bit of a split as they break from the Orthodoxy not on the best terms, by the suggestion of Oliver and start their own cult.

Then things progress from there...

This is only an early draft of Oliver's character and I'm not so certain how plausible it sounds.

 

[Miller At the Wash]

Actually sounds pretty plausible, might need a bit of fleshing out but as a bare bones plot it basically holds together.

 

[Vladicus]

This is only an early draft of Oliver's character and I'm not so certain how plausible it sounds.

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Interestingly plausible. Kid grew up with Tinfoil hats for a community, called their stupid and noped into Brockton Bay, where the government proved to be one big disappointment after another. Then comes this person dressed in insects and silk giving him food, shelter and hope and he starts admiring her. Then comes the disappointment again as she leaves them behind for unknown reasons even if he still thinks she din't want to leave them.., Then she returns, he learns that she saved them all and dies for it then the poor guy decides to both help his friends escape from a cult and starts his own with said friends after creating a little schism in the old faith.


Christianity started pretty much the same way and probably so did others, so the scenario you crafted is not only plausible it's realistic and backed with historical precedent too.

 

[Thread Necromancer]

The Skittering Chaos 5

Combat combat combat, it's all about the combat this chapter. so sit back, relax, and enjoy some mindless fighting.

Also does anyone have a trick to possibly check for past tense? I keep doing it by accident and I have to go over chapters multiple times to fix it.

As always feedback is highly appreciated.

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"End the call and hand me the phone," I tell Skidmark.

"What, but why?" I walk over to him and hold my hand out. He gives me the phone anyways, call still going.

"Weaver, you bitch! I heard what you fucking did! You think you can just fucking-" I hit the end call button on the phone and am greeted by a background with Brainiache's Demon form posing and taking a selfie with a long beaked brown bird holding a sniper rifle and a corpse underneath them. The snipe demon is looking proud and embarrassed at the same time as she is also posing with two fingers out while on top her kill. Her two fingers however are more hesitant and close to her body than Brainiache's. I assume that the snipe demon is Snipes. Must have been why she was so angry when Skidmark and Angel were taunting her about how we blew Brainiache apart.

"Angel, do you know how to find the number on these things?" I ask. Angel however just shrugs and pulls out a flip phone for me to see before putting it away. I look over to Skidmark.

"Yeah I can find it. Should be in the settings," I toss him the phone.

"Good, find it and put your phone into it. If we get separated we can keep in contact," I look over to Angel Dust. "Will you come along with us?"

"Hell yeah doll face, I can't let my dealer bite the dust. Who else is dumb enough to try and muscle in on Valentino's drug racket?"

"Hey! I thought me and Val was good!?" Skidmark remarks and Angel snorts as he lets out a small giggle.

"Pfft, you wouldn't even make it down the street if I wasn't bribing the local lieutenant with my sweet ass every time you came over."

"Less talking, Skidmark, get the number of the phone and then get your number into that phone, we need to get out of here quick before the mob comes," I try to get them back on task while I watch the stairs.

"Yeah yeah, just a sec," Skidmark says while waving vaguely in my direction as he has his head stuck in Brainiache's phone.

"Angel do you have Squealer's number?"

"Sure do, had it ever since Skids here passed out on my couch one time after a bender and ended up here instead of home by accident. Actually how we first met."

"Cute," I comment. While that was a nice story and such, we need to stay focused here. "Skidmark, where's Squealer right now?"

"Probably went to meet with the rep to drop off the sheit. So she'd be a coupla blocks away now at least. Uh, that way I think," Skidmark points off in a direction.

"Angel, any place over there where we can meet Squealer at without getting onto a main street?"

"Yeah sure, I know a place. I've been on a few corners over there. There's a discount shop called "Faust's Discount Deals." We can take the side streets and a few of the shorter alleyways to get there quickly enough."

"Good, call Squealer and tell her to meet us at Faust's. Skidmark, have you put your number in there yet?"

"Yeah I got it in there and shit," I can hear the gunshots getting closer while we talk. From what I saw, Valentino's enforcers were trickling in to try and defend the street, but they hadn't been able to muster in full force. They could maybe hold off the crowd of vigilantes back for a couple of minutes, but they would be pulling back soon to regroup and counter attack. We need to be gone before they are routed.

"Good, pass me the phone. let's get moving then. I don't want to be here when the mob shows up," Skidmark tosses me Brainiache's phone and I slip it into a pocket that was in my dark Weaver costume. The gunfire is getting louder and more numerous as we wait around. Where before it had been a couple of people shooting, it is starting to sound like a war down there.

"Fucking hell, how many are out there?"

"I don't know, looked about maybe a hundred or so out there fighting a couple groups of Valentino's men," I start making my way down the stairs, making sure to check corners, and I use a bit of magic to transform my mask back on. Angel Dust's neighbours hopefully hadn't gotten a good look at my face, the few that had peeked out had ducked back into their apartments when they saw me walk out of the apartment and execute the ones I had shot through the wall. Other neighbours peek their heads out as we pass, looking at us with curious eyes. As we get near the ground floor, the gunfire has gotten closer. I look to Angel.

"Is there a back door?"

"Yeah, just down the stairs."

"Good, you take point. You know these streets better than I," meanwhile Skidmark has been fiddling with his phone, has started calling someone, and finally the ringing gives away to Squealer's voice.

"Hey Skiddy, any trouble?"

"Yeah, mother fucking vigilante shits fucking showed up to fuck up Skitty."

"Wait shit really!?" we descend the last set of stairs and just as we reach the bottom a pair of demons, a monkey demon and a bovine demon, are running in. Myself and Angel open fire on the demons, I fire five shots from my carbine, two into the monkey demon in front, a chest shot and attempted head shot, and three into the bovine demon behind the monkey. The first is filled with small arms fire from Angel while the one behind I manage to slot two of the three shots into his head. I feel a small rush of energy as the two die.

I note my accuracy, decent, but not as good as when I had my bugs. I'm really missing my bugs right now. They had allowed me to cheat with guns, almost allowing me to trace a line to the target and I could guide my body to fire along that line. Now though, I have to rely on the accuracy I had gained during my time in the PRT firing range. While I'm accurate, without my bugs I'm more likely to miss.

"Jesus! I'm coming Skiddy!"

"Babe, we're gonna get the fuck outta here! Meet us at, uh, where the fuck is Faust's?" we follow Angel as he makes his way around the stairs and towards the back of the room, I take the rear and keep my carbine trained on the front door. Someone else tries to get through the door, I see a gun and let loose another three shots. None connect however and the demon about to enter takes cover by the doorway. I send another two to keep him and anyone else pinned. Then I follow Angel Dust and Skidmark through a door to another hallway.

"Back door's this way," Angel says. While I had been shooting, Angel had returned to just using two hands and is only carrying two relatively light looking pistols, likely so he won't get weighed down. I wish I had the opportunity to pay attention to him pulling and putting weapons away. A power like Miss Militia's would be a god send at this moment, not having to worry about ammunition or even having a more destructive weapon to make our pursuers question whether we're really worth it.

"'Kay that's fucking great and shit but I still don't fucking know where Faust's is!"

"It's down Sucker's street, if you see a Chinese restaurant lookin' place, go down that road, that's 180th ave but the sign for that avenue got blown up a month ago and no one has replaced it. Faust's place has an inflated demon mascot in front."

"You get that?" Skidmark asks into his phone. We near the end of the hall and outside of the window a figure appears. Angel however lets loose a barrage of pistol shots. Causing spider web cracks to spread throughout the glass as the figure on the other side splatters the window with red.

"Sucker's street and 180th, gotcha, see you there."

"If she gets the time, tell her to cover up the merchant's symbol!" I call out to Skidmark. I see the door we had just gone through open up behind us as we reach the end of the hall. I fire five shots through it before following the others to the back door that is nearby the window. The back door is hiding in a little alcove that is hard to see from the hallway. I feel another rush of energy. Seems I hit someone.

"-up the Merchant stuff on the side!" Skidmark calls into his phone before hanging up and running through the door. It's some sort of fire escape but as we go through no alarm fires off. Guess that was disabled some time ago.

Angel is behind a dumpster by the door and has swapped over to one of his custom decaled Tommy guns. Was that a quirk of his power or did he just like to make them that way?

I take cover by the door while Skidmark fires his pistol over the dumpster at a few demons that try to head down our alleyway. I spot a few downed demons laying on the concrete, bleeding out, and then I spot a demon poking his head out at the other end of the alley and trying to line up a shot at us. Lining up my own shot, I breathe out as I try to stabilise my aim, and send off a trio of shots. I see the first impact by his face, sending brick and mortar fragments flying out and joining the rest of the debis that is flying up from Angel's blind firing. The next two however seem to hit him, one in his chest, and the other catching his neck. Another rush of energy. If only I knew more than just how to blast everything close to me away.

I hear hoof beats from down the hall we just came from and I aim my pistol in my lower right arm towards the hallway. As someone comes sprinting down the hall, I open fire and nail him point blank with a half a dozen pistol rounds before I turn my carbine on him and deliver a couple rounds into his chest. The deer-like demon falls back and I see someone else behind him take cover by the wall. I turn my carbine on the drywall of where I think the demon is and let loose a couple shots.

"They're flanking us!" I shout and sporadically fire my pistols at the wall to keep them in cover.

"Damn I wish cherry was here right now," Angel comments as he reloads his Tommy gun and begins blind firing again.

"Gimme a sec I'll make sure the fuckers can't get us from there," Skidmark says and I'm about to ask what he means when he rushes over to me. I get out of his way as he goes past, then he does some sort of gesture with his hand, and I see a blue line form in front of the alcove. More blue lines start forming and sometimes they layer over top. Skidmark's power, or some magical equivalent of it. Good for area denial among other things.

I aim down the alleyway, watching for someone to poke their head out before looking behind us. The way is clear so we could move down it while under covering fire from Angel. Or maybe.

I look to Skidmark who's still laying down layers. It's gotten to the point where it is starting to look like some sort of tinker tech force field. Taking the risk, I poke my head in and use a bit of magic to return my mask into its original antennae form and watch as Skidmark lays down some more force fields. I watch as he quickly designates a line on the ground, and uses that to raise a barrier of magic. The barrier comes with a condition, almost... almost like some sort of, if statement from programming or something. it's close, kind of. Maybe that's my brain coming up with something familiar but it kind of fits with what I'm sensing.

He sets down a barrier and sets the condition of what happens when something interacts with the barrier without a second thought, making it a thin one way acceleration field. I... might be able to do something similar, or maybe even... reverse it? Or I could just add other effects to the barrier. Maybe make it so that whoever touches the barrier sets on fire? I would have to figure out how to make fire though and how exactly it fits together.

My musing is cut off as Skidmark breaks from cover and stands in the open opening fire with his pistol down the hallway. I hear a boom-

"Christ!" I shout but hear nothing. All I can hear is the boom of Skidmark's shots as they pass by his barrier, and the vibration shaking the building. It's like standing next to an explosion. My ears are ringing and everything I'm getting from my antennae is scrambled.

I look over and Angel is trying to say something while a second set of hands are holding his ears. I shake my head and morph my antennae back into my mask. Without the capacity to communicate I need to act and hope that the ringing goes away quickly. Following along with what Skidmark did, I start layering barriers down in the alleyway. Almost immediately I notice that the dust is getting worse down the alleyway as the debris kicked up by Angel's gun starts creating bigger divots and throwing up more dust and debris the more of Skidmark's barriers I put down. I don't put down as many as Skidmark however, I would rather not end up permanently deaf.

I move over to Skidmark and give him a shake. He looks over to me and I motion for us to leave with one of my arms. He nods and we both exit the building. Angel is reloading again and I shake his arm as well. He manifests a pistol but looks over first. I motion that we leave and he nods.

I look back and see a trio of demons come out of the dust only for the first to bounce off my barriers and fly back as if given a very powerful shove. I let loose a trio of shots from my carbine at the three stunned demons. More booms as they pass through and I see showers of red mist fly from each of the three demons as my bullets hit centre mass on each of them. Nearly instantaneously I feel a flow of energy as the demons die in the alleyway.

I'm definitely going to see if I can modify my new weapons with these barriers, especially if I can somehow reduce the sound of the bullet's additional acceleration. Maybe if I could figure out other conditions to add to it, I could add a muffling effect?

Angel rounds a corner and I am about to follow when another of the vigilantes approaches the barriers I had put down. He's a big demon covered head to toe with some sort of scrap armour and armed with something that looks almost like a cannon. He's also riding some sort of scrap moped or motorized bike. I raise my carbine and sight him, though when I pull the trigger but nothing comes out. While I have him sighted he raises his cannon and fires off to the side of the barrier, and I watch as the deep blue of the layered barriers decreases visibly. I turn back around and follow down the turn that Angel and Skidmark had taken. As I run to catch up with them I release the magazine, toss it into the bag I had at my side and rummage around for the other magazines. I grab a magazine and slot it in, then release the catch.

I feel a buzz coming from Brainiache's phone, I pull it up as we run and see a text pop up.

Bigman: Went down allwy geton it birdy

Then another buzz as something else comes up. Was it some sort of group chat? These people had gotten organised fairly quickly, that or they had been working together for some time. Would make sense that in a city full of villains that the vigilante's would group up together.

Aerial Ace: k gotcha

"We got more company!" I shout as we enter onto a side street and I can kind of hear it. My shout is still somewhat muffled but at least the ringing from the bullets is going away quickly. People are looking and pointing at us, some have gotten phones out while it looks like a couple of thugs that had Valentino patches start scrambling about, some heading into alleyways towards where the main crowd of vigilante's are, while some are heading towards us. Though when they see Angel, he makes finger guns, pretends to shoot them and they stop looking our way. Seems they are on our side for now.

"Might be some kind of aerial attack," I continue.

"Mother fucker I hate fucking flyers!" Skidmark shouts back. Then just as we are about to pass by an alleyway that a squad of Valentino's thugs are entering, a jet of flame pours out, covering the gang members with flames. They scream out in agony while thrashing around, dropping and rolling but the flames stick to the ground like napalm. I watch the thugs thrash for a second. With the possible range on that flamethrower we might not get far.

"Skidmark! Barriers, now!" I shout and don't wait as I start putting down barriers. Skidmark, I note, starts putting down barriers immediately as the barrier layers we are setting down quickly create a bright blue glow. Angel, while avoiding the fire, steps out and begins opening fire with his Tommy gun. Once more, I'm nearly deafened as what looks like some sort of miniature Balrog gets pushed back by the bullets that Angel is putting down range.

"Come on!" I shout as hard as I can. I don't want to get caught up in a fight against some fliers. Sure I could possibly fly with my wings but I haven't had any practice with it whatsoever.

We break away from firing at the mini Balrog and head across the street away from the fighting. We are nearing another alleyway when I hear some sort of motor vehicle heading our way. I look and there's the scrap demon riding his moped this way with his cannon pointed right at us, while up above I see something. Not even thinking I dive for cover in the alleyway. I hear a blast and the building corner behind me breaks apart as it's hit by whoever is shooting at me. With that moped demon we are probably not going to be able to get away quickly enough. I roll over to the wall that will cover me from his view and sit up with my back against the building.

The scrap demon rounds the corner on his moped and I watch as he stuffs something in his gun. Seeing my chance, I fire a half a dozen shots into his scrap moped and two more at his gun. Scrap demon gets off his moped and is rearing up to clobber me with his spiky fists as I release a blast of magical energy and he smashes back into the wall. Seeing my opportunity, I do a half leap from crouch and straddle him. I jab both my pistols under his scrap helmet and into his unprotected chin. I start pulling the triggers on my guns as fast as they can fire as I mag dump whatever is left in my pistols into his chin. I also round my carbine on him and let loose two shots into where I think I can see eyes.

I feel a rush of energy, greater than both Brainiache and any of the other demons I've killed lately. I can kind of see into the helm and the picture isn't pretty. From the looks of it the skull of the demon had burst open like an egg. It just looks like a bloody mess inside of the helm and I can't even identify anything specific. As I get up from the dispatched demon, I realise that I'm covered in blood again.

"Fucking hell," Skidmark remarks as he comes over to see my handy work. "First Lung and now this, remind me not to fucking piss you off."

"You sure you ain't a spider?" Angel asks as he comes over. "Cause the way you straddled him, then killed him, well lets just say I know a nice black widow that's famous for that," bug jokes… fun. Maybe if we weren't in such a dangerous situation I could have taken a crack at that as well. Show off some of the bug jokes I had accidentally found while researching various bugs.

"Had I died in Brockton Bay, I might have been," I say as I gesture down the alleyway while my lower limbs handle the reloading of my various guns.

"Hey, never enough spiders around these days," Angel is about to turn when he looks up to something behind me. Without hesitation I turn, my carbine following as I aim at whatever Angel is looking at, only to see what seems to be a massive rising cloud of smoke.

"Oh shit… we gotta go," Angel remarks and I nod. I let my mask unfold for a second back into my antennae and I can sense a large amount of magic being used in that cloud of smoke. I reform my mask and Skidmark and I start following Angel again.

"What is that?" I ask as we run down the alley to another street.

"That'd be my boss. Valentino. Guess all the gunfire finally interrupted one of his shows. What you're seeing there? That's his smoke, kinda his thing. See he can make his smoke do all kinds of things."

"Like knock out everyone fighting?" I ask.

"More than just that. Lets say he can also make smoke tentacles and other stuff. Either way, I'd rather not get caught up in all that shit, and not just 'cause I don't wanna wake up naked and locked up in someone basement."

"Why's that?" Skidmark asks the obvious question.

"Other than I would really rather not wake up in some guy's basement naked and chained to the wall? Well let's see. I'd probably end up on Val's shit list for being around you, and you Merchants would end up working for Val as a bunch of whores, and I kind of like you guys, you get me drugs so I don't have to buy them from Val, so I don't really want that to happen to ya."

"Like fuck would I let your boss ho my Squealer!" Skidmark shouts in outrage. "Or, uh, you," he adds lamely to me while we jog down the street. I didn't really expect him to care much about me anyways. I'm actually surprised that he actually cared enough to add that last bit. Granted he is trying to recruit me but still.

"What cow-tits? Nah she's got enough brain not to get caught after shit goes tits up. Nah nigga I'm talkin' 'bout you and Dollface," Skidmark?

"Me?" Skidmark echoes my internal question.

"Yeah you, you know, oh hey cross here, that's 180th ave, we're nearly there, just a straight shot down here to Sucker's street and we should be at Fausts. Anyways, you know that lesbian faun couple that Val's got around him all the time, stared in a couple pornos and such?" I have no idea what he is talking about but Skidmark nods along with what Angel's saying.

"Oh yeah, I seen them a few times when me and Squeals are winding down for the day with a nice movie."

"More like winding each other up to go for it, anyways, what if I told ya one of 'em used to be a buck."

"Wait shit really?"

"Yeah, no shit. Watch their debut, "Bad End for Erin," it's old enough that it's probably in the bargain bin or something like that. It's real nice shit. Like, you can see the moment when Erin goes completely fuck drunk when he…" I pull out the magazine from my carbine and quickly check the bullets I have left in the magazine before slotting it back in. I'm definitely not trying to distract myself from their conversation.

"Anyways, that's what he'll do to you if he ever caught ya, probably display ya like a trophy as another rival he crushed or some shit. Not that you're really a rival at all." Angel ignores Skidmark's outburst after such a remark and we enter into the alley that will lead us to Faust's and Squealer.

"And you?" Angel says looking me up and down once more. "Well with that face and that ass, and the fact that people are trying to kill you for being you, you'd probably be joining me up on those billboards," I stare at him hard but he doesn't elaborate, and I prefer it that way. There are much more pressing things to worry about than my possible forced employment in Valentino's organisation.

We exit the alleyway and I can see down the street an inflated demon doing an exaggerated pose with a bag of money. I can also see the Merchant's van, the Merchant's logo having been either erased or sprayed over with black spray paint. As I see Squealer see us, she starts the engine of the van. At the same time, I hear a phone chime as we start running to the van. I pull out Brainiache's phone and hit the accept call button, then speaker while we approach the van.

"You think you can get away that easily?" the person on the other end, Snipes, asks. Then I hear a shot, and pain lances through my right knee. I tumble to the ground, mere meters away from the van. The others turn towards me while I roll and look in the direction of the shot, using my legs to push me back along with my arms.

There are sounds coming from the phone but I ignore them. Snipes has us in her sight, I can see her, or rather I can see the glint of light reflect off her scope and a flash. I let out a blast of energy, and try to direct it forwards, while also putting down a barrier in front of me, trying to...

I feel something hit my head, and then darkness.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

I wake up, bolt upwards and let out a blast of energy forwards… and accidentally send Skidmark flying back. The van shudders as he hits the back and lets out an oof.

"Haha, holy shit you sent him flying," Angel says beside me. He's kneeling in the back of the van.

"The hell's going on back there?" Squealer shouts from the front. I look to the front and see the cityscape going by in the windows.

"Yup, moment you went down Skids started putting down barriers."

"Guess I put enough down or something, Oooooh, shit girl. Ah! Fuck my back. Agh. Mmmmmmhh."

"Yeah, that, plus your magic blast, I guess kept the bullet from hittin' ya too hard."

"How long was I out?" Angel shrugs while Skidmark pulls himself from the van doors I smashed him into while he presses a hand against his back, a pained expression.

"I don't know, a minute, the bullet didn't exactly get all the way through ya skull, it's actually kinda stuck there, Skids was trying to get it out when ya blasted him."

"Sorry," I apologise lamely to Skidmark. Skidmark just waves it off however with his other hand as slowly he starts looking less and less pained.

"Nah nah, it's fine. Egh. Good thing we left those guns though. Shit. Or ya'd have fuckin' blown my head off like that other poor fucker," Skidmark straightens up a bit and stands up once more.

"Did she try to follow us?" I ask, this time however, Squealer answers.

"Yeah she did. Had some guy with wings or whatever try to follow us, but we lost them in a couple of seconds. Wing guy was like a couple blocks away, and I turned onto the main road. Lots of vans like ours on it."

"Alright good," now that we're safe, I lay back once more, and let out a sigh. I let my costume unfold along with my mask, and just lay there on the van floor in my borrowed clothes. Quickly though, I lean up once more. Since we have some down time… Maybe?

"You know that's not the first time I've done that."

"Hmm, done what?" Angel asks.

"Mutilated someone while straddling them."

"Okay…"

"Right, Lung," Skidmark pipes in. "Didn'tchu cut out his eyes or some shit?"

"Wait really? Damn girl, you're brutal. Remind me to never let you take charge in bed, 'cause I'd rather not end up like some noble's play thing after they're done," Mentally I note to watch out for the nobility here since they seem to be rather excessive with their "playthings." Things die off after that as we ride on…

I had meant to make a joke there…


<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Poor Aerial Ace, always out of position to try to get the bad guys.

 

[mperalta]

a lewd version of this on which Taylor is not so useless and not in a clusterfuck since the beginning would be nice I say you should do it

edit: maybe have her learn to use her bugs right away since the 'becoming a sex/torture slave is increasingly likely due to skitter low power at the beginning and a bunch of capes out to get her

 

[VisV]

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Poor Aerial Ace, always out of position to try to get the bad guys.

Click to shrink...

If Evil is the law... aren't the Villains the Good guys?

 

[VisV]

a lewd version of this on which Taylor is not so useless and not in a clusterfuck since the beginning would be nice I say you should do it

Click to shrink...

Taylor hasn't been useless to begin with, she's killed a bunch of people.

Like i hope we don't hang on to the magicless state she currently has for very much longer, but even without it she's been contributing a lot.

 

[Thread Necromancer]

If Evil is the law... aren't the Villains the Good guys?

Click to shrink...

That would be correct. I'm more talking from the vigilante's point of view.

 

[mperalta]

Taylor hasn't been useless to begin with, she's killed a bunch of people.

Like i hope we don't hang on to the magicless state she currently has for very much longer, but even without it she's been contributing a lot.

Click to shrink...

she killed a bunch of useless mooks, the moment someone competent shows up she gets sniped, that's not what I would call useful in a story where death is not permanent, and as such they have infinite mooks.

 

[ElegiacCrown]

Like i hope we don't hang on to the magicless state she currently has for very much longer, but even without it she's been contributing a lot.

Click to shrink...

She seems to be picking up magic relatively quickly, and she did just get a major power-up.

I'm thinking of possibly doing a lewd version of this story by adding some lewd scenes in, either in later chapters or rewriting some scenes/ adding some scenes here and there in the previous chapters to add some lewdness, maybe some groping of Taylor's tiny tits in chapter 1, and maybe a future scene I'm thinking of, as well as possibly having Taylor not be as distracted with reloading when Angel goes into detail about the porn he was watching in his chapter. Either way, just a thought.

Click to shrink...

I wouldn't be opposed to either a lewd version of this or a second NSFW thread where you put the lewd content that isn't going in the main story.

 

[Thread Necromancer]

a lewd version of this on which Taylor is not so useless and not in a clusterfuck since the beginning would be nice I say you should do it

edit: maybe have her learn to use her bugs right away since the 'becoming a sex/torture slave is increasingly likely due to skitter low power at the beginning and a bunch of capes out to get her

Click to shrink...

Since I don't want to get caught in the trap of starting a rewrite and then having the project die off, anything earlier than this chapter will only have minor edits if there is a lewd version.

 

[ElegiacCrown]

she killed a bunch of useless mooks, the moment someone competent shows up she gets sniped, that's not what I would call useful in a story where death is not permanent, and as such they have infinite mooks.

Click to shrink...

You mean she just slaughtered her way out of an ambush and survived an attempt on her life? Snipers are hard to deal with and she's still very new to both Hell and being a demon. Not every story needs to be "OP Taylor wins against everyone." Like, she didn't even die here she's got some people to work with, and she's encountered her first threat. This is a story with a plot, let the plot happen.

 

[mperalta]

Since I don't want to get caught in the trap of starting a rewrite and then having the project die off, anything earlier than this chapter will only have minor edits if there is a lewd version.

Click to shrink...

well, you should probably do a lewd version if you want more people to watch your story, while a lot of people do see this story, it's the NSFW part of QQ where all the people actually read the stories.

I started reading this thinking it was a lewd fic because it's in QQ for example. but i use wormstorysearch

also maybe dial down the escalation, seriously at current pace she is just going to become Valentino's sex slave because even in canon she couldn't have dealt with him, much less this barely powered version of her

 

[VisV]

she killed a bunch of useless mooks, the moment someone competent shows up she gets sniped, that's not what I would call useful in a story where death is not permanent, and as such they have infinite mooks.

Click to shrink...

She doesn't have her superpower anymore, and she survived getting sniped.

Quite frankly she's doing fine.

 

[VisV]

well, you should probably do a lewd version if you want more people to watch your story, while a lot of people do see this story, it's the NSFW part of QQ where all the people actually read the stories.

I started reading this thinking it was a lewd fic because it's in QQ for example. but i use wormstorysearch

also maybe dial down the escalation, seriously at current pace she is just going to become Valentino's sex slave because even in canon she couldn't have dealt with him, much less this barely powered version of her

Click to shrink...

Escalation is how she grows dummy. Seriously, she gets a little stronger with every demon she defeats.

Besides we all know this ends with her having valentino's head on a spike outside her new lair.

 

[Thread Necromancer]

well, you should probably do a lewd version if you want more people to watch your story, while a lot of people do see this story, it's the NSFW part of QQ where all the people actually read the stories.

I started reading this thinking it was a lewd fic because it's in QQ for example. but i use wormstorysearch

also maybe dial down the escalation, seriously at current pace she is just going to become Valentino's sex slave because even in canon she couldn't have dealt with him, much less this barely powered version of her

Click to shrink...

Valentino doesn't even know she exists yet let along any of her deeds in the overworld. He's too busy running shows and doing overlord stuff. This is going to be the first time he even hears about her.