Scrib is right about most of the upper class capes not giving a fuck about The Endbringers. Moord Nag was shown to be especially effective but she had to be bribed to even consider coming to a fight. The Thanda wouldn't act outside of India, and when they finally did help on a wider scale they proved to be pretty good at fighting them. Most people who are on the level of the Triumvirate simply don't give a fuck unless it's right on their doorsteps.

 

Well, it is not quite that there would suddenly be more dangerous capes or that they would suddenly go crazy but without the Protectorate there would be a lot of independent hero teams uncoordinated with each other, there would be more villains as they would miss all the JOIN US propaganda and the government would have more trouble keeping capes contained. Also, having an organization with a fuckton of capes that you don't want piled on top of you if you stir too much trouble is a deterrent for crazy shit.

So no Endbringers wouldn't cause that much difference since there would always be strong capes that call for cooperation between heroes and villains (Nilbog, Echidna, S9, etc) but having no Cauldron means no Alexandria which means no Protectorate.

Also, Eidolon is worth like a hundred normal capes and both Legend and Alexandria are on the weight class just below him so the forces of order having them on call made a difference I think.

 

To be fair there are capes on their level. We don't even know Sleepers power, other than that they are dangerous enough to abandon an entire world just because he was there. Nilbog was a pretty powerful cape, he would have been a threat had he escaped the wall sooner to get nourishment and bio material.

 

You're confusing two AUs here. One is no Cauldron, which I wasn't discussing at that time, the other is no Eidolon.

In the former latter all this talk about powerful capes is meaningless, because they either help anyway (Legend, Alexandria) or fuck shit up anyway (Moord Nag, S9) regardless of whether Endbringers exist.

As for there being no PRT without Cauldron,you're correct, but not in the way you mean. There'll absolutely be some power. What probably won't happen is an organization as global as the PRT ended up. They might not end up in Canada but I think they would.

Of course, it might be even more radical if Alexandria is not pulling the strings.

 

Alexandria was a cauldron cape too. She was one of the Doctor Mother's first patients and was in hospital at the time she was given the formula. I believe it was terminal, though I'm not sure what disease it was. Either way, it cured her and Alexandria left with the Doctor Mother.

 

That was my point? The PRT was for normals but it was being run by Alexandria. Who knows who would have run it otherwise?

My fault I imagine. I mixed up latter and former there.

 

...
Maybe we have different definitions of society, collapse or something because what you mentioned is the real reason our current society collapsing would be inevitable.

If powers were only used in direct fights it would be easy to deal with. The real problem is that superpowers would cause political, cultural and economical revolutions at the same time. Together they would be one more widespread and present than any other in history and well you know how revolutions go.

Certainly what comes afterwards might be way better than our current one* but the period of transition wouldn't be pretty even if we assume that the people who get most abusable powers aren't willing or too stupid to do so and there isn't Entities around to 'correct' deviations from their goal.

*Might even be likely since considering the scales involved I think there isn't much leeway between 'better' and 'everyone dead'.
​

 

Maybe there should be a Worm ideas thread so this thread doesn't end up like, well, basically everything on Spacebattles.

Hope Through Overwhelming Firepower by Border42
A Worm/Diebuster crossover, and a story that's actually complete! With the caveat that it is pretty fast paced and can sometimes feel a bit rushed, but as the author told me, it is difficult to drag out a story that's basically the main character being better than everyone else,
so consider this a super!Taylor story, with a bit of humour sprinkled here and there, slightly crackish but generally coherent and an entertaining read.

 

Weaver Nine updated-twice (!). And I have no idea how to feel about Jack now.

On the one hand watching him think of ways to munchkin the power of others was disturbing because,well, he's Jack Fucking Slash.

On the other hand...he's such a magnificent bastard.

This fic is competing with Carnage for the Best Running Fic award.

 

God damn that's awesome. Trollviathan is the shit.

 

Didn't enjoy the interludes of Weaver wiping out the various villains in the city all that much, but freaking loved the last two chapters.

I don't think I've ever seen an Endbringer attacker written this well in Fanfiction before. This is on the same level as canon. Can't be easy to write an engaging Endbringer fight - most authors seem to try to get it done as quickly as possible.

I think this chapter we also got to see a bit more about Jack. It seems like in Weaver Nine, he at least tries to tell himself everything is for good reasons. Loving the Jack/Armsmaster partnership too.

The best Worm fic around in my opinion. Didn't get into Carnage, and I think Cenotaph is a bit overrated - as someone mentioned previously, it gets rated highly simply because it's actually finished.

 

The problem I have with Weaver 9 is the writing style drops sharply in quality once it starts to focus on Weavers actions.

That said, I haven't read the newest chapters so I don't know if that trend continues or not.

 

I honestly think that this Jack is sincere about being good. That doesn't mean that he won't twist people to his ends but I feel as if he's going to stick to his stated goals. He might not be nice, but I think he is what he seems to be.

As for good Endbringer fights: Scarab has a great one. But that one is more one-sided iirc (or it's just more focused on Taylor) and that Leviathan is less awesome than Trollviathan.

 

I liked Cenotaphs Endbringer fight. Kept in line with canon in that the Endbringer stomps the opposition and the attempt to munchkin him backfires horribly.

In the Weaver Nine, the opposition is actually effective. My SoD can only tank this much.

 

Is it that effective? I mean, it's outright stated that none of them have managed to do shit yet. And this is despite giving Taylor, the so dubbed Munchkin Queen, almost every mundane resource she could want and then some. And they've been trying for years.

 

I think we all have to remember that Endbringers are not meant to be defeated. In their initial conception, they were unstoppable WMDs that were supposed to rile the shard-bearers up, and keep them on tilt. The notion that parahumans could actually kill one is sort of at odds with canon. That having been said, I do love Weaver 9 and how it depicts Taylor off the rails. And honestly? I don't think she'd have acted much differently in canon if she had the time required, and the lack of Protectorate scrutiny.

 

Yea, but, the Endbringer just tanks it and breaks out a new ability. I think of the Endbringer (Leviathan) as that unstoppable monster that's so fast you can barely keep track of it. You turn around to it and it's afterimage crashes into you, Leviathan already gone. It's that wild brutality that simply tears through dozen of capes, through the best traps you could build within seconds. It's that horryfying collateral damage, killing dozens of capes in the mere presence of it'S attacks.

It's the slow and inevitable destruction of it's target along with the devils intelligence, baiting you along and aiming for your weak points.

It's like a dozen man trying to kill an overgrown tiger with long needles. Yes, technically they could succeed, but the tigers faster then them, stronger then them and it can tank anything but a perfect attack.

In canon, Leviathan defeated the defending capes in one position before the others could really react. He was only stopped by Clockblocker and broke out of the restraints every available other cape put on him like it was nothing, all while shrugging of blasters. He baited in Armsmasters gambit and let it backfire, kind of. Scion drove it off and saved the day.

Behemoth was kind of similar, except more boring. He simply tanked everything, destroyed all the capes, record numbers, and got killed by Scion.

In Cenotaph, Leviathan turned around the wards Fletchette gambit horribly, maiming Alexandria and killing most of the wards. It got stalled by Armsmaster and eventually driven off by Eidolon.

In Weaver Nine, it just kind of sits there and tanks everything. Nobody named even died yet. It's like a raidboss. Where's that unpredictability? Where's that power the whole world fears? Where's the terror?

I doubt Leviathan will die, but it just seems anticlimatic. What Jack and Armsmaster did seems to be working, the Societies Think Tank actually exists instead of getting Simurghed. It's a very different message for morale. In canon, the Endbringers demolished their target city, beat the capes and only got driven of by Scion. Every singly Endbringer fight we've seen (minus Bohu and Tohu, but we havn't seen much of it) somebody thinks he's got a clever trick and every single time the Endbringer turns it around.

Armsmaster thinks he can solo one? Think again. Armsmaster gets maimed, Leviathan escapes surveillance, Armsmasters under house arrest later.
Phir See thinks he can bomb one? No, he can't. Phir See dies, along with milions of civilians. (Cenotaph) A combo using Fletchette can hurt Leviathan? Think again, it hurts Alexandria and Aegis, Gallant, Clockblocker and whoever else die. Moord Nag drives of Khonsu once and gets to be Leviathans next target.
In Weaver Nine, the tricks needs refinement.

I know I'm ranting. I really don't mean to say Weaver Nine is a bad fic, it isn't. I just wanted to clarify my point on this issue.

 

To find new Techno Queen chapters, you need to check Thread 2, in case anyone missed it.