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Wardens
The preeminent hero group. It's done its best to step up to replace the Protectorate, helped by the fact that many of its members were former Protectorate heroes, but isn't quite to the same level. In General
- Big Good: The largest hero group in the new setting.
- Extranormal Prison: After the issue with Cradle is resolved, the Wardens have selected an empty Earth to use as their new prison. Inmates are dropped off with supplies needed to survive in the wilderness and are checked up on occasionally. Unlike the Birdcage, this is not a life sentence and once their sentence is up the prisoners will be retrieved.
- Heroes "R" Us: Protects Earth Gimel and has the other major hero teams under their umbrella.
- Super Team: The hero team that takes on the greatest threats post-Gold Morning.
Chevalier
The leader of the Wardens. He was a major member of the Protectorate before its dissolution. For his tropes in Worm, see here.
Classification: Striker, Thinker
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Gets subjected to this by Mama Mathers during the raid on Teacher, but stoically endures it without breaking.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Gets easily captured during the attack on Teacher, because his power got shut down, and without it his armor is too heavy to move.
- You Are in Command Now: He stepped up to take over the protectorate when the Triumvirate started falling apart and kept the position as the Wardens formed from its remains.
Brandish
Carol Dallon
The biological mother of Victoria Dallon and the adoptive mother of Amy Dallon. Triggered at a young age during a traumatic incident when she and her sister were kidnapped. Carol formed a one-sided bond of trust with one of her kidnappers, and the betrayal she felt when the man later tried to kill her resulted in her triggering. The trauma she sustained as a result of the incident scarred her for life, greatly skewing her perception of people and ability to form relationships and bonds of trust with others. After the events of Gold Morning Carol is no longer officially a member of the Wardens but is still well-respected and continues to work as a member of the legal department. She has completely forgiven Amy for the role she played in Victoria's hospitalization, and due to her warped worldview cannot comprehend why Victoria refuses to do the same, resulting in their relationship being severely strained and antagonistic. For her tropes in Worm, see here.
Classification: Striker, Breaker
- Abusive Parents: Her treatment of both Amy and Victoria frankly isn't all that great, ranging from neglect in the case of Amy to refusing to respect Victoria's wishes, on top of passing down her black-and-white view of the world to them, which gave them no end of trouble in Worm.
- A Family Affair: Revealed to have slept with her brother-in-law Neil in her youth, because her sister trusted him, and thus he was one of the few people she could trust as well. As it occurred sometime when Victoria was conceived, even she is uncertain whether Neil or Mark is Victoria's biological father.
- The Atoner: Openly admits to Vicky that the main reason she's trying to give Amy a better chance is that she realized her intolerant behavior was a major factor in her ultimately snapping and mutilating Victoria.
- Blatant Lies: Tries to pull a surprise meeting between Amy and Victoria. When the rest of the family, well aware of Victoria's lingering trauma and resentment towards her sister, express concern, she audaciously claims Victoria not already knows already, but is totally fine with it.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: In addition to overtones of Black-and-White Insanity. Carol views people in terms of good and evil, and cannot understand why Victoria can't forgive Amy for what she did to her. Having decided that Amy is now "good", she cannot seem to comprehend why Victoria's view of her does not change as well. Is also known by her daughter to consciously and unconsciously manipulate the people around her, and sees this as normal interaction.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Ward explains more of her backstory- she and her sister were kidnapped because the kidnappers thought their family was richer than they actually were, but their parents couldn't pay the ransom that was demanded, hence why the kidnappers decided to kill them. When Carol and Sarah returned with powers, their parents didn't know how to deal with them and sent all three of their children off to boarding school instead of actually trying to help. Carol never got the help she needed and it impacted her sorely throughout the rest of her life.
- Easily Forgiven: Played totally straight unlike the rest of her family, who avert this hard. Despite hospitalizing and severely traumatizing Victoria, she has totally forgiven Amy and seems to treat her far better than she actually treats her biological daughter.
- Hypocrite: For all that she preaches about morality, she's pretty amoral herself, being emotionally abusive to both her daughters, and having an affair with her brother-in-law at some point.
- Manipulative Bastard: Constantly tries to get Victoria to forgive Amy regardless of the former's feelings, in ways both subtle and unsubtle:
- In the first arc alone tries to surprise Victoria with Amy at a family barbecue. When Victoria calls her out and tries to excuse herself with the loophole she told her daughter she invited "everyone", which includes Amy.
- Later when Victoria is forced to approach her for legal advice in setting up her new team, Carol bluntly asks her to sit down with Amy again. When this route predictably fails to get the desired result she sends a law student who's in her pocket to advise her daughter in legal decisions while reporting back as to what she's doing and not-so-subtly coaxing her to reach out.
- No Hero to His Valet: The public and her subordinates at work seem to adore her, but her family whom she deals with personally are well aware of her emotional baggage. Her husband tellingly no longer lives in the same home as her, and she manages to fall off speaking terms with Victoria in the first arc alone.
- Parental Favoritism: Her own daughter tellingly describes her as only having the capacity to feel real love, empathy, and compassion for a limited number of people, including at most only one daughter.
- Parental Neglect: Her toxic dynamic with each of her children in turn. In Amy's case, it was at best simple neglect and at worst treating her like a criminal in her own home. In Victoria's case, it's an utter Lack of Empathy and unwillingness to respect her daughter's wishes.
- Pet the Dog: In Arc 17, she immediately contradicts and undermines Narwhal's inappropriately timed and placed dressing down to Vista, pointing out all the ways that what Vista did was actually a good thing, immediately after Narwhal finishes.
- Required Secondary Powers: Brandish is not bothered by intense lights, which is fortunate given her power manifests as hard light weapons. This also allows devastating combos where she carries Flashbang's grenades while in her breaker form which detonate shortly after she regains human form, letting her take advantage of the chaos created by the bright explosions.
- Stepford Smiler: Brandish is well respected and admired by her colleagues, but with those who know her personally the mask slips as her true nature slips through. Victoria describes her appearance and behavior as feeling fake and scripted at times.
- Teen Pregnancy: Ward reveals that she had Victoria when she was 18.
Legend
The sole remaining member of the Triumvirate, a trio of the world's most powerful heroes and the founders of the Protectorate. Following the Cauldron scandal Legend stepped down as a leader but continued his heroics, and in the Wardens he remains a powerful ally. For his tropes in Worm, see here.
Classification: Breaker/Mover, Blaster
- Energy Weapon: He can shoot powerful lasers with a variety of effects, and his Breaker/Mover power is to basically become a laser.
- Heal Thyself: During a fight with several Titans in Radiation 18.7 he is injured and uses his breaker form and lasers to heal himself.
- One Riot, One Ranger: The Wardens' response to many Class-S threats is to simply send Legend to deal with it. He can, completely on his own, handle basically any threat that can be defeated by sheer explosive power.
- Person of Mass Destruction: He single-handedly forces Sleeper to go dormant again in Sundown 17.9, by the simple expedient of leveling about 30 square kilometers of city.
- Sole Survivor: Last living member of the Triumvirate following the end of Worm.
Valkyrie
Ciara (Valkyrie, formerly Glastig Uaine)
Originally one of the most feared parahumans in the world and a willing inmate in the Birdcage. She was released for Gold Morning, varying between one of the strongest members of the defense and Scion's only ally before eventually siding firmly against the mad Entity. Afterwards, she was persuaded to become a hero by Jessica Yamada and joined the Wardens. For her tropes in Worm see here
Classification: Master/Trump, Striker
- Back from the Dead: She's been working to do this with her ghosts and has had several successes already. It's not a perfect process, as they only come back with as much personality as she (and their shard) remember from them and often have distorted features relating to how they'd looked and how she remembers them, but it's better than nothing.
- Creepy Good: As someone whose power revolves around controlling the fully sentient phantoms of cape who've died around her, people view her as this. Apparently, she's had the "your power is innately wrong" conversation at least once a day since joining the Wardens.
- The Nicknamer: She refers to most parahumans by a title relating to their shard.
- One Riot, One Ranger: As one of the most powerful capes in existence, the Wardens often allow her to deal with major threats on her own, such as a "Tinker 15" whose superweapon threatened to drain the entire atmosphere of a world. Sometimes members of her Flock come with her, sometimes they don't need to.
- Summon Magic: Her power allows her to summon "ghosts" of parahumans she's harvested that have their powers and personalities. She always has at least three out whether they can be seen or not and can summon more with a proportional decrease to the power of all active ghosts.
- Too Awesome to Use: Eidolon. He's immensely powerful, but his battery is near empty and she considers the cost of recharging it to be too high.
- Touch of Death: In her interlude, she demonstrates the ability to instantly kill and harvest parahumans she touches.
- Workaholic: She never takes a break, to the point that her "vacation" is running search and rescue for portal victims in a desolate Earth, and even that was only because she ran out of higher priority problems to deal with.
Weld
A Case 53 whose body is made entirely of metal, formerly a Ward and later leader of the Irregulars. For his tropes in Worm, see here.
Classification: Brute, Changer
- Better as Friends: He cares for Sveta, but she is incapable of providing him the physical satisfaction he craves. While she does undergo an operation to get a more human body, their relationship is irreparably damaged as a result of this fact being aired by Teacher.
- Blessed with Suck: His power has some great bonuses, but any piece of metal that touches his body will automatically fuse to him without any way to unfuse it.
- Extra-ore-dinary: Limited to his own body, but he can reshape it however he wants.
- No-Sell: His body counts as inorganic to powers that only affect organic materials, while also counting as organic to those that only affect inorganic materials. As such, he's completely immune to quite a few powers.
- Official Couple: Is currently in a relationship with Sveta.
Vista
Missy Biron
A former Ward from the same city as Victoria. She has the power to selectively warp the space around her, which she has greatly refined and strengthened since her last appearance. For her tropes in Worm, see here.Classification: Shaker 9
- Affectionate Nickname: She and Victoria have one for each other. She is "little V", while Vicky is "big V".
- Character Development: Between Worm and Ward, Missy has grown up quite a bit, both maturing emotionally from the depressed and fatalistic preteen she was, and developing her skills as a cape. In particular, she has developed both the sheer strength and fine control of her power. During the fight with March, she was not only able to basically twist a large portion of old Brockton Bay into a pretzel, but also shorten March's rapier enough to turn an impalement into a scratch without March noticing. Later she repeats this feat unseen, from a distance, allowing Foil and Imp to finally put March down permanently.
- Faking the Dead: Fakes her own death in the fight with March by using her power to shrink March's rapier and reduce the stab to a graze, then taking advantage of March's tendency to do an Unflinching Walk away while her victims die. Vista was at the time using her power to basically fold the city in on itself, and she did get knocked unconscious by the explosion, releasing her hold on the environment, which further convinced March (and others, including the reader) that Vista had indeed been killed.
- Has a Type: As Victoria jokes, apparently it's unattainable guys in armor.
- Kid Hero: She's still a teen and joined superheroics at the ripe old age of thirteen.
- Mundane Utility: With her refined control, she's able to thin or thicken her clothes to adjust to temperatures, and stay comfortable without the need to change anything.
- Odd Friendship: To the surprise of Vicky she seems to have formed one with Bitch of the Undersiders, even asking her other friends (all of them being heroes) if it's okay to invite her to a "Brockton Bay reunion" and even vouching for her to the others.
- She Is All Grown Up: Downplayed but Victoria notes she dresses a bit more provocatively than when she was younger.
- Space Master: Her power lets her distort space, allowing her incredible control over the battlefield.
- Stuff Blowing Up: March uses her power on her and then turns for an Unflinching Walk while she explodes; unfortunately for March, Vista is able to limit the damage and survive.
Miss Militia
Hana/Hannah
A former member of the Protectorate in Brockton Bay. For her tropes in Worm, see here.Classification: Blaster
- The Face: Serves as the chief representative between Gimel and Shin following Goddess' death, which is one of the reasons she isn't seen during other crises.
- Super Hero Packing Heat: Her power is a blur of light that can form into any weapon she chooses.
Narwhal
One of the major members of the Protectorate before its dissolution. For her tropes in Worm, see here.
Classification: Shaker/Blaster
- Barrier Warrior: Her power is forcefields, though she's pretty creative in how she uses them.
- Jerkass: She dips into this when she chews out Vista in the middle of a small room full of people and implies that Vista will be denied the leadership position that she had been working toward for a long time, when there were far more important things to do, all because Vista spent what would normally have been her downtime after getting off of a long shift cuddling with her boyfriend.
- Mundane Utility: Her costume is just carefully shaped forcefields, which double as a sports bra.
Cinereal
The former leader of the Protectorate in Atlanta and now one of the leaders of the Wardens.
Classification: Shaker/Breaker
- Ashes to Ashes: A major part of her powerset is coating things in ash including herself, she can reform her body from the ash if needed. The ash can slowly seep into nearby materials and make them stronger; she can also reabsorb her ashes to heal, teleport into areas where this ash is present, and even set those ashes on fire exceeding temperatures of 1100 C.
- Good Is Not Nice: She's as much noted for her abrasive and no-nonsense personality as she is for her power. It's mentioned that this would have made her nearly untenable for a Protectorate leadership position for any city other than Atlanta, whose citizens uniquely appreciated having a hardass in charge.
- Healing Factor: Cinereal can coat herself in her ash in order to enter a Breaker state where she is healed from any and all injuries. This ability will even kick in automatically if she is mortally injured.
- Humanoid Abomination: Is one of the capes transformed into a Titan when reality starts to break.
- Playing with Fire: The other part of her power set lets light the ash that she coats her surroundings with on fire, she generally refrains from doing so.
- Small Role, Big Impact: A Downplayed Trope. Cinereal is one of the most important members of the Wardens, with her statue being given prominence in their headquarters equal to the likes of Legend and Chevalier. Despite this, she is perhaps the least developed of the Warden leaders to readers. However, this is mostly due to not appearing in Worm. In Ward, she receives roughly about the same amount of screen time as the other leaders of the Wardens do. When reality finally breaks during the conflict with the anti-parahuman activists at the end of Arc 17, she is one of the capes that is overtaken by her shard and transformed into a Titan.
- Teleportation: She is capable of doing this when in her Breaker state.
Solarstare
A young member of the Wardens who's friends with Vista.
- Character Development: An unusual case- she used to be reserved, quiet, arrogant and tended to look down on people. During a fight, she was thrown into a wall and wound up with a traumatic brain injury. Months later, after she'd learned to speak and read again, her personality had completely changed- she is now more crass, more empathetic, more outgoing, and has fewer filters.
- Eye Beams: As her name implies, she's able to shoot a golden beam from her eyes that's capable of harming even Titans.
- Life of the Party: What she has become after recovering.
- Supernatural Gold Eyes: Her eyes are pools of luminescent liquid that constantly flow into channels on her helmet.
Golem
Theo Anders
A former Wards member from prior to Gold Morning. Able to embed his limbs into an object's surface to create a larger version a distance away from a similar (not necessarily contiguous) surface, with the effect working more slowly when working on a larger scale. He is noted to have grown up significantly since Worm and is a well-respected member of the Wardens. For his tropes in Worm, see here.Classification: Shaker, Blaster.
- Ironic Name: Raised by white supremacists, his decision to take a name from Jewish folklore is a deliberate attempt to contrast his identity as a hero with his past.
- Took a Level in Badass: Even above and beyond the impressive personal progress on weight and fitness he made over the course of the Time Skip in Worm. When we first see him in Ward, Tattletale notes that he's put on significant muscle and cuts quite a figure.
PRTCJ
Laserdream
Crystal Pelham
Victoria's cousin and a former member of New Wave. Has the ability to fly and shoot lasers from her hands. The two have kept a good relationship and she shares her apartment with Victoria for a while after the disastrous family reunion. For her tropes in Worm, see here.Classification: Blaster; Mover; Shaker
- Mundane Utility: Has used her lasers to cut stuff, cook, provide light, and heat up a piece of metal to use as a hand warmer. There are no scissors in her apartment, and "laser-seared steaks" are mentioned as something of a cherished family recipe.
- The Pollyanna: Is very energetic and positive for someone who lost her entire immediate family.
Advance Guard
The Group as a Whole
One of the 3 most notable superhero guards besides the Wardens. Their philosophy seeks to move forward and remember the mistakes of the past and they are known for expressing this with a direct, aggressive approach to battle crime. This sometimes creates issues with the other teams when their impulsiveness disrupts the hero side's own plans. They wear uniforms with a futuristic style.
- Leeroy Jenkins: The group enters Hollow Point and picks a fight with the villains there with no research or advanced preparation, motivated by nothing but hearsay. Naturally, things rapidly devolve. It's noted that "rushing in" is their standard operating procedure, relying on speed and surprise to disrupt their opponents.
Shortcut
A cape with a volatile combination of pride and stubbornness.
Classification: Mover
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Even his own team seems to find his personality unpleasant.ReSound: Any of my team who want to act like decent human beings, follow me.
Everyone moved to get up. Someone put a hand on Shortcut's shoulder and prevented him from standing. - Humanoid Abomination: He turns into a Titan when the cracks spread further.
- It's All About Me: He thinks everything Victoria did at the community center was all to make him look bad. For context, what she did was fight a team of parahuman mercenaries pretty much on her own because she refused to let them kidnap someone who wanted to be a hero.
- Jerkass: Is shown to be blunt, dismissive, and assumes the worst of others. He really has it out for Victoria for exceptionally petty reasons.
- Pride: Tons of it. He even takes a moment to brag to Victoria about how damaged her costume is, while he was untouched after a prolonged fight with the Titans. Victoria notes this isn't a mark of accomplishment (we never see much evidence that his power is useful in direct battle), and that some of his own teammates are scuffed up enough to not appreciate his boasting.
- Sitcom Archnemesis: To a degree. He's definitely the most minor annoyance Victoria has to deal with regularly, but his unwillingness to accept help or work with her has caused problems that affect plenty of other people to not-so-minor degrees.
Spright
Classification: Mover/Trump
- Chivalrous Pervert: Begins flirting with Victoria practically on sight, and makes no effort to hide his interest in sex, but respects her choice to turn him down.
- Innocently Insensitive: Casually copies Sveta's power multiple times, which manifests as tendrils that he can grow and disappear at will. Sveta herself is not happy about seeing him use her own power better than her and with none of the issues that come with being a Case 53.
- Power Copying: Can sense and copy Mover powers.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Pretty much always seems to be the voice of reason for Shortcut.
Tritium
A member of Advance Guard whose reserved personality makes her an odd fit for the team.
Classification: Brute; Mover; Shaker
- Atomic Superpower: Using her powers causes her to emit radiation, which builds up the more she fights. As she was initially unaware of this, she inadvertently killed her family, coworkers, and many bystanders through her acts of heroism.
- Blessed with Suck: Her powers cause her to emit radiation while they're in use, effectively benching her most of the time and leading to the deaths of her family, friends, coworkers, and innocent bystanders before she figured it out.
- Flying Brick: She is an Alexandria package, possessing flight in addition to super-strength and near-invulnerability.
- Godzilla Threshold: She's normally held back except for the most dangerous of missions due to her inability to shut off her radiation when her powers are in use.
- Heroic Sacrifice: She willingly turns off her invulnerability while being hit by an attack to prevent herself from irradiating the area and killing her allies. She ends up being brutally killed as a result, with Victoria describing the result as "a spiral of what looked like a red towel being whipped around in a spiral".
- Meaningful Name: Her cape name is shared with a radioactive isotope of hydrogen and she has radioactive powers.
- The Quiet One: Noted by Victoria to be reserved, making her an odd fit for the highly aggressive Advance Guard.
- Required Secondary Powers: Tritium is immune to her radiation.
- Signature Move: Her "nuke punches" that use radiation.
- Super-Strength: As part of her Alexandria package she's got enhanced strength when her powers are active, being capable of punching through buildings and trading blows with the Impaler Titan.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: She dies within mere paragraphs of being introduced, taken out by the Impaler Titan.
The Attendant/The Shepherds
The Group as a Whole
Another of the main superhero groups besides The Wardens, the current team is the result of 2 similar superhero teams joining into one. Noted to be more on the conservative side of things, harkening back to "what was lost" with Gold Morning. Noted to have lots of reformed and religious capes.
- Politically Incorrect Hero: Many of them are right-wingers, and casual homophobia isn't uncommon despite being heroes.
- Religious Bruiser: Not the original membership, but the group now contains a few religious capes after absorbing another team, The Shepherds, whose name they also adopted.
Moonsong
Brianna
A former teammate of Capricorn and the daughter of a Congressman with powers over gravity and a grudge against Tristan. Infrared 19.d reveals that she's half-Japanese on her father's side and half-Italian on her mother's.
Classification: Shaker
- Amicable Exes: Byron was romantically involved with her in the past when they were both members of Reach. This no longer seems to be the case in the present, though they still clearly care a lot about each other.
- Character Development: By Infrared 19.d she seems to have let go of her former prejudiced views, referring to Furcate by her proper gender in her inner monologue and remembering with disgust how she used to think being the daughter of a Congressman made her better than other people.
- Corporate-Sponsored Superhero: Was once part of the corporate-sponsored hero team Reach prior to Gold Morning.
- Cosmic Motifs: Apart from her cape name, Moonsong's outfit is adorned with crescent moons.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Was a member of the hero team Reach with Tristan and Byron. She loathes Tristan to the point that in Glare 3.6, she almost starts a fight with powers, and openly accuses Tristan of having killed an old teammate deliberately, referring to him leaving his brother trapped after lying about his death. She was also traumatized by Furcate dying in her arms after Gold Morning.
- Gravity Master: Can combine zero-g and enhanced gravity to throw opponents off their game, and can use her powers on herself to move near-silently, though it requires more concentration if she happens to be floating during it.
- Heel Realization: Infrared 19.d implies that having to deal with Nazis and other far-righters as teammates has made her a bit more cognizant of how stuck up and prejudiced she was in the past.
- Love at First Sight: Capricorn's Interlude implies Brianna got a crush on Byron from the moment they first met.
- Mundane Utility: She can use her gravity powers to make her hair appear more floaty.
- Noble Bigot: Prejudiced against Tristan due to his sexuality and refers to their transgendered teammate Furcate as male while under stress, yet is also one of the few people to offer Byron emotional support, apparently out of the goodness of her heart. She also genuinely becomes closer to Tristan and emotionally supports him after Byron's "death".
- Politically Incorrect Hero: Back when she was in Reach Moonsong was casually homophobic to Tristan and transphobic to Furcate, misgendering the latter while asking Byron why the former had to be openly gay all the time, initially unaware of the fact that the twins are aware of everything that happens while the other takes control of their body.
- Took a Level in Badass: In flashbacks showing the Capricorn twins' days in Reach, her gravity powers do little more than stagger Paris, a supervillain who has a lot of experience but is physically a baseline human. In the present, she can create enhanced gravity powerful enough that even the super-strong Victoria struggles to move under the sheer force.
Tribute
David
A former teammate of Moonsong and Capricorn with the power to improve the mental and physical abilities of his allies at the expense of his own faculties.
Classification: Trump; Thinker
- Character Death: Dies during the Titan fight.
- Heroic Willpower: He manages to find the strength to resist becoming a Titan when the ice breaks.
- Power at a Price: The temporary physical and mental improvement he gives comes at the cost of his own.
- Super-Empowering: He can improve multiple people’s speed and strength, while also slowing down their perception of time.
Victor
A former member of the Empire Eighty-Eight gang in Brockton Bay. He has become a Hero and joined the Shepherds since Gold Morning. For tropes relating to his appearance in Worm see here.
Classification: Thinker/Trump
- Asshole Victim: Yeah, he had troubles he was keeping to himself, and his anguish caused him to be consumed by his shard and turn into a Titan. But he was also a violent neo-Nazi that used his powers to torture and take away basic life skills from minorities and LGBT people, and it's unclear how much he's reformed, if at all, in the present day. When Victoria hears about his fate, she doesn't exactly shed a tear for him, and even speculates that his past cruelty is the driving force behind the Titan's actions.
- Easily Forgiven: Zigzagged. He's been candid about his previous life even before Teacher's plot to reveal damaging information to the public, and has publicly stated to want to be a better person, which has granted him acceptance within his own team. However, the general public is not quite so inclined to forgive him, and Victoria notes that his public statements don't really come off as an apology.
- Heel–Face Turn: Went from a Neo-Nazi villain in Worm to join the heroes post-Gold Morning.
- Hidden Depths: He projects confidence and self-assurance in his interaction with Scribe to seemingly give her support, but Moonsong reveals he was dumped by his girlfriend and was actually the one seeking support from his old comrade.
- Humanoid Abomination: Is one of the capes turned into a Titan when reality starts to break.
- Power Parasite: His ability allows him to steal knowledge and skills (but not powers), and make them his own either temporarily or permanently. Exaggerated after becoming a Titan, where his ability starts to drain people of even their bodily functions.
Scribe
Tammi
Formerly known as Rune of the Empire Eighty-Eight. She has become a Hero, and joined the Shepherds since Gold Morning. For tropes relating to her appearance in Worm see here.Classification: Striker/Shaker
- Easily Forgiven: Averted. Unlike Victor, who at least has the support of his team, Victoria notes that Rune seems entirely isolated even within the Shepherds. Victoria notes that Victor wrote an apology letter about his past life, but Rune wrote no such letter and seemingly hasn't even tried to appear apologetic or remorseful. In a conversation with Victor she states her refusal to verbally apologize is because she wants to show she's changed with actions and not words.
- Heel–Face Turn: Went from a Neo-Nazi villainess in Worm to join the heroes post-Gold Morning.
- Irony: She's part of a Hero team with a heavy religious bent, but dresses in a classical witch outfit.
- Mind over Matter: Her power gives her telekinesis over objects she's "marked" with a specific rune.
- Reformed, but Not Tamed: She might be a hero now, but Scribe still has her rough edges and tendencies to use less than politically correct language to describe people, and admits fully changing is a process that can't be done overnight.
- Robe and Wizard Hat: Has switched from the sorceress robes that were seen in Worm to a traditional witch outfit, including a staff and hat.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Between their past histories as hero and villain in Brockton Bay, on top of their ideological differences, there's no love lost between her and Antares despite being nominally on the same side.
Foresight
The Group as a Whole
Last of the 3 most important superhero groups that work with The Wardens. They are "future-oriented" like Advance Guard but favor a more calculated, strategic approach. Prone to work with law enforcement. A good number of their members are thinkers. They have a ninja motif to their uniforms and many members use "cyclopean" masks that hide both of their eyes.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Their uniforms have a vague "ninja"-ish vibe and a "hidden eyes" motif, which is further personalized to all of the members. Their initial leader even has an additional pirate theme going on.
Anelace
Ethan
A member of Foresight who specializes in knives. He volunteers in the rehabilitation center and eventually becomes close to Victoria.
Classification: Thinker
- Blade Enthusiast: He uses knives in combat and named himself after a shortsword, showing he has something of an affinity for blades.
- Brought Down to Badass: Manages to defeat Contender while depowered inside his arena.
- Combat Clairvoyance: He is capable of taking on multiple armed gunmen with only a knife thanks to his Thinker power.
- Dogged Nice Guy: He shows a clear romantic interest in Victoria and asks her out more than once. Victoria isn't very interested in a long-term relationship with him but grows open to the idea of becoming romantically involved with him, even having a sexual fantasy about him that serves as an example of her gradual growth past her trauma. Eventually, restless and craving human connection, Victoria seeks him out for a one "night" stand. In the epilogue, it's revealed that finally they've turned this into a real long-term relationship.
Crystalclear
A somewhat absent-minded member of Foresight. He was initially a member of the Norfair hero group before it disbanded at the beginning of the story. His power makes crystals grow from his brain, covering most of his face and his eyes. This gives him a particular vision with some limited precognition, as well as the ability to shoot lasers. One of few characters in the setting that can get along with Ratcatcher.Classification: Thinker; Blaster
- Aura Vision: One aspect of his powers; every object he looks at has a white aura around it. In the case of humans, these auras are distorted based on the emotions the person is feeling.
- Body Horror: He has two modes of sight: normal and crystal vision. In order to change modes, he has to either grow crystals inside his head, piercing his eyes (though they don't harm him) to use his crystal vision, or, to see normally, he has to pull the crystals in his eyes out of his head. One of them is a foot long.
- Dark and Troubled Past: He was abducted as a child and told that he had been taken from his family by relatives for his own safety. This turned out to be a lie, but by the time the police caught up to them, his 'relatives' were having him run drugs for them, implicating him in their crimes.
- Failed a Spot Check: One consequence of his thinker powers is that, while he can see in ways others cannot, he also frequently misses things that would be obvious to regular humans and non-Thinker capes. The biggest aspect of this is that while he's using his crystal vision he's colorblind and can't see faces. Also doubles as a Meaningful Echo to his trigger, a major part of it being his frustration at never realizing how obviously suspicious the things his "aunt" had him do were.
- Gemstone Assault: Can throw crystals that pass through obstacles, home in on their targets, and explode.
- Seers: Crystalclear's power allows him to see a short time into the past and future.
- Super-Senses: He can see through walls.
Ratcatcher
An eccentric cape and former villain with a rat theme, a lisp and, an odd taste in clothing. Carries several trained rats with her as companions. She's often treated with disdain due to her appearance and quirks, but she is shown to be both extremely brave and very competent, despite her alcoholism. One of her rats is named Ratsputin.Classification: Thinker, Master (possibly)
- Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Her attempt to become a permanent member of Foresight fell apart after she sent unsolicited texts to the team's leader while drunk, but it appears that only some of the texts were hers, with Teacher's team taking over after she passed out or left her phone.
- Animal Motifs: She has a rat theme and even keeps rats as pets.
- The Beastmaster: Appears to have some sort of power over rats, but apart from mentioning that they "talk" to her, the exact nature of the power remains unknown.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Nobody can deny that she's a bit on the odd side, but her actions on the job speak for themselves. She's crucial in stopping Goddess from taking over the whole city, and during the Cheit military attack on a refugee camp, she's described darting towards the machine gun fire, essentially attacking an army head-on despite not having any particular physical powers that we know of.
- Funetik Aksent: She has a heavy lisp, implied to be caused by some sort of facial deformity.
- Super-Senses: She can pick up small, hidden objects.
- The Alcoholic: She insists that she doesn't have issues with alcohol, but her argument is less than convincing:Ratcatcher: Then yeth. I wait until five to drink. They thay you're thuppothed to wait until later in the day to drink. That way you're not an alcoholic.Vicky: What time do you get up?Ratcatcher: Three or four?
The Major Malfunctions
The Group as a Whole
- Damned by Faint Praise: They've been a team for six years... and never actually fought any villains or criminals.
- Day in the Limelight: They're the viewpoint characters of Interlude 17.x.
- Don't Split Us Up: The reason they didn't join the PRT- they were afraid that they'd be split up.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: They finish Ward in a good place, as a powerful and respected superhero team, in good spirits, with a new and powerful teammate, and Victoria and Sveta as friends and mentors. But they went through some major strife (no pun intended) to get there.
- Jumped at the Call: They're incredibly eager to help out Breakthrough.
- Kid Hero: They're all in their teens, and triggered as pre-teens.
- Meaningful Rename: In the epilogue Last 20.e5, it's revealed that after Limerick joined the team, they renamed themselves to The Majors.
- Tragic Dropout: They all dropped out of school to become heroes.
- True Companions: They're the only real family they have.
Caryatid
Carrie
Classification: Breaker/Thinker
- Afraid of Needles: Has a fear of needles due to her abusive stepfather having their mother drug her and her brother whenever they were home at the same time.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Her stepfather didn't like kids, so when she didn't have school and her parents were around, her mother would drug her and her brother to keep them out of the way. After they were rescued by the government, her brother cut her out of his life despite her wanting to see him, resentful that she got powers out of the ordeal while he got serious medical problems. In addition, once while she was drugged one of her stepfather's friends came into the room and made some... uncomfortable comments while touching on her and later after coming off of a more severe trip talked about pain in her midsection, leaving open some uncomfortable possibilities.
- The Resenter: Her brother, Ari, hated that she got powers and he didn't, and also that she recovered from the effects of the drugs while he was left incontinent.
- Stone Wall: Her alternate form is nearly completely indestructible, but she doesn't really have any offensive abilities.
- Super Mode: Hers is indestructibility with enhanced awareness when still, and she doesn't need to eat while in that mode. It's implied to be a reflection of her trigger event taking place while drugged and immobilized.
- Trauma Button: Anything to do with alcohol, drugs, or needles. She flat out told Withdrawal and Finale when they first met in person that if any of them ever used drugs or alcohol, she'd be gone.
Withdrawal
Classification: Tinker (Agility frames/Physics defying fluids)
- Color Motifs: Originally Pink but branched out into other colors found in neon colors. Part of his weaponry is a giant syringe full of an unknown pink fluid, and he has glowing pink eyes.
- Dark and Troubled Past: He was an alcoholic and drug user at the ripe old age of twelve and triggered during a forced detox at the prospect of having to go back home to his mother again.
- Giant Medical Syringe: Withdrawal wields this, unlike most examples he isn't shown stabbing anyone with it. Instead, he uses it as an applicator for the non-newtonian physics-defying nano-fluids his powers let him make.
- Parental Neglect: His mom was happy to live just barely above squalor because anything else would require effort, and she expected him to be thankful for it.
- Powered Armor: His costume is a variant that Victoria refers to as an agility frame.
- Straight Gay: In Interlude 17.x, he mentions that there was a boy he liked kissing when he was younger.
- Uncertain Doom: During the battle in Brockton Bay he was seen suspended over a fatal drop by Tempera's power. March noted that the effect of her power would soon fade, leaving his fate looking grim. He ultimately does survive, although he is injured, and is seen leading the team in the epilogues.
Finale
Bella
Classification: Blaster
- The Baby of the Bunch: Mentally, not physically. Despite being aged around sixteen, she's mentally around ten or eleven. Interlude 17.x reveals she had a learning disability even before she triggered, with Interlude 17.y clarifying it as being developmentally delayed.
- Calling Your Attacks: Enforced. Her power lets her turn words into sonic detonations, so each onomatopoeia she says while using her power actually is her using her power.
- Explosion Propulsion: She has the ability to create a chain effect of explosions that throw people around.
- Make Some Noise: Her power allows her to generate sonic orbs with concussive detonations.
- Stepford Smiler: She ordinarily acts very cheerful, but becomes very self-deprecating at the prospect of being thrust into the limelight. She also becomes very upset at the thought of having done something wrong, even if it's minor.
Limerick (Spoiler Character)
Kurt Wynn/Harbinger Clone #5/Five
Limerick is one of the surviving Harbinger/Number Man Clones from the "Slaughterhouse 9000". For more about his appearance in the story prior to joining the Majors, see The Harbingers' entry under [1].
Classification: Thinker
- 11th-Hour Ranger: Joins the team in the epilogue chapters.
- Meaningful Rename: Chooses the name Limerick when he joins the Majors. He's a Number Man clone, but he's making a new name for himself. Additionally, a limerick is a five-line poem in which the fifth line rhymes with the first and second lines, but is usually the punchline to a dirty joke, which acknowledges both where he came from and his choice to stand apart from his "brothers".
- Around the time he joins, the team changes its name from the Major Malfunctions to The Majors to signify their greater experience and competence.
Reach
The Group as a Whole
- Headbutting Heroes: There was a fair amount of intra-group tension that only got worse over time.
- Heroes "R" Us: Reach was a popular corporate team initially based in Maryland.
- Slave to PR: A bit more focused on popularity over social media and merchandise than the Protectorate. Justified, since they weren't funded by the government.
- There Are No Therapists: Averted. For all the good that it does, Reach actually made an effort to take care of its members' mental well-being.
Capricorn
See their entries under Breakthrough.
Moonsong
See her entry under The Attendant.
Furcate
Kay
Classification: Master
- Back from the Dead: Revealed to be one of Valkyrie's Flock in Dying 15.3.
- Cat Girl: Their costume evokes this theme.
- Clones Are People, Too: Each Furcate is treated as their own, to the point that they develop some kind of system to decide who becomes the main body after remerging.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: According to Moonsong Furcate died in her arms during Gold Morning, presumably at the hands of Scion.
- Meaningful Name: 'Furcate' means to divide, and Furcate's a duplicator. It also fits a cat-themed hero.
-
Word of God points out that Furcate is an anagram for "curate F;" as Furcate often picks the version of themselves that is further ahead in their transition at the expense of physical or mental health to go on.
-
- Self-Duplication: They can split into 3-4 copies, with each acting on their own and having their own traits.
- Sweet Tooth: They’re shown to love the type of fruity hard candies that grandparents keep in their houses.
- Trans Tribulations: Had to deal with Moonsong constantly misgendering them during their time in Reach, which caused them a lot of grief.
Tribute
David
See his entry under The Attendant. Figurehead
Classification: Thinker
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Figurehead is a combat-thinker that can read people, but his observations become less accurate the more he knows about someone.
Steamwheel
Classification: Tinker
- Gadgeteer Genius: She makes large, bulky battlesuits to fight in.
- Steampunk: Steamwheel’s main suit is steam-powered with a giant wheel on the back.
Coiffure
Classification: Shaker(?)
- Character Death: She dies during Scion’s bombardment of the East Coast.
- Hard-Drinking Party Girl: She’s described as someone who “works damn hard and parties damn hard”.
- Prehensile Hair: Coiffure can use her hair for attack, defense, and movement.
Other
Dragon and Defiant
Colin Wallis (Defiant) and Dragon
Classifications:
Tinker (Defiant)
Thinker/Tinker/Trump (Dragon)
- Battle Couple: A devoted married couple that you very much do not want to find yourself facing on the battlefield.
- Cyborg: Defiant has taken advantage of his Tinker abilities to transform himself into a powerful and hyper-efficient cyborg.
- Fatal Flaw: Defiant's was his inability to place trust in others, placing all the possible burden on himself. Thanks to his Character Development, he is now capable of placing trust in others including Dauntless, who he once despised, and Victoria, becoming a much better hero for it, even as he still has to fight his old mindset.
- Gadgeteer Genius: While all Tinkers are this, Dragon in particular is among the strongest out there, and has the gear to show for it. Her weapons include a fleet of ships, a 12-ton artillery gun that every other Tinker in the setting practically swoons over, and a replica of String Theory's G-driver.
- Interspecies Romance: He's a human who has modified himself into a cyborg. She's an AI construct. They fight crime.
- No Social Skills: He has come a long way since Worm, but Colin still has difficulty interacting with people and often relies on Dragon to steer him during conversation.
- Old Shame: In-universe. Defiant deeply regrets the actions he performed during Leviathan's attack on Brockton Bay, which resulted in several heroes being killed, including Victoria's uncle.
- Tranquil Fury: Defiant becomes visibly furious, but controlled, when he finds out Breakthrough and the Undersiders went diving into the Shard space, after he specifically told them not to do so.
- Worf Had the Flu: Both make little headway during the assault on Teacher not only due to a lack of proper resources and preparation, but also due to Dragon being cut off from her downloadable network, rendering her mortal, and Defiant focusing more on protecting her.
Fume Hood
Lauren (Formerly Poison Apple/Rotten Apple/Bad Apple/Pomme De Sang)
Originally a small-time villain from Boston, she took advantage of the amnesty after Gold Morning to become a hero.
Classification: Blaster/Shaker
- Accidental Murder: Her poison clouds normally have no long-term effects, but she once accidentally used it on a pregnant woman, and caused her to miscarry. A lot of people were understandably pretty pissed about it, and this was the event that led to her turning herself in and turning her life around.
- The Atoner: Wishes to make up for her past as a villain. In her interlude, she notes that despite the hardships it involves, doing good is much more meaningful and satisfying than before, and is very considerate of using her power around bystanders.
- Bad Powers, Good People: The Good People part didn't used to apply, but now she's a hero whose power revolves around poison. Her powers are much more lethal that what she presents them as, but even as a villain she never used them that way.
- Book Ends: The first arc ends with her getting shot by an anti-parahuman, and being protected by Victoria, someone that has no obligation to do so. Arc 17 ends with her again getting shot by an anti-parahuman, being protected by her teammates, using her power on her assailants on its lethal setting, and having a broken second trigger in the aftermath, accidentally starting the second apocalypse.
- Children Raise You: Credits becoming a mentor to the Major Malfunctions to becoming a better person.
- Godzilla Threshold: Has a gas capable of killing anything it comes in contact with that she once created on a lark, but swore never to use it up until she has to in order to save the Major Malfunctions' lives from anti-parahuman extremists.
- Heel–Face Turn: Fume Hood was originally a petty criminal, but decided to become a hero at the start of Ward. After Tempera's death, Victoria points her to the Major Malfunctions' way, and she acts as a mentor to them.
- I Have Many Names: As seen above, she's been through quite a few aliases.
- In the Hood: As noted by her name, she normally wears a hood while in costume.
- The Mentor: Becomes one to the Major Malfunctions after Tempera's death.
- Person of Mass Destruction: Her gas clouds are normally non-lethal, but she can create special orbs of concentrated gas that kills life that comes in contact with it.
- Poisonous Person: Downplayed; her power allows her to create poison, but only when she wants to, and it takes the form of orbs she controls.
- Reformed, but Rejected: She accidentally caused a pregnant woman to miscarry. Despite turning herself in and going to jail for it, people are still mad about it, and it's continually brought up by her enemies.
- Tattoo as Character Type: Invoked, she brings up a tattoo of hers as proof that she's not the "thinking things through" type. Specifically, a tattoo she has on a... sensitive part of her anatomy.
- Theme Naming: All her names as a villain had something to do with apples.
Brandish
Carol Dallon
Victoria's biological mother and Amy's adopted one. A veteran heroine from the once-promising Brockton Bay superhero team New Wave, she's noted to be more natural at heroics than at being a mother, which somewhat explains her complicated relationship with both of her daughters. Is currently back together with Mark Dallon. She's an influential lawyer in her civilian identity.She has both the power to create light-matter weapons and to transform into a sphere-like object that is essentially unbreakable.
Classification: Breaker, Striker
- Blood Knight: Greatly enjoys fighting and is more than competent at it.
- Married to the Job: Far more comfortable and happy as a superheroine than as a wife or mother.
- Parents as People: Carol's many issues have made her greatly maternally challenged, as she's either neglecting her daughters or turning a blind eye to their worst impulses. Victoria feels like she can only show empathy to one daughter at a time, hence her 180 on her views of Victoria and Amy post-Worm.
Tempera
Classification: Shaker
- Art Attacker: Tempera constantly generates paint, which she can control and harden for combat.
- Character Death: March kills her during the attack on the ruins of Brockton Bay in Earth Bet.
- Tomboy: Wears her hair shorter than most men, and likes to help with construction projects.
Longscratch
Classification: Mover
- Teleportation: Can reappear at the ends of the furrows his claws produce.
- Wolverine Claws: Wears a buckler with three protruding blades on each hand.
Super Magic Dream Parade
A brash and confident three-person team consisting of Magic Knight Crash, Mystic Magic Impaler, and Dynamite Warrior Dash Fantastic. Victoria refers to them by acronyms due to their superhero name length.
- Animesque: In-Universe. They intentionally act like anime characters, further fueling the fan joke that ''Ward'' is an Anime.
- Beware the Silly Ones: They have over-the-top mannerisms, a silly team name, and cape names, and act like they're in an anime, but they're also one of the most dangerous superhero teams out there and quite happy and willing to use lethal force.
- Blood Knight: While they are legitimately heroic, they're not only willing to kill, but they're quite happy with it being the second if not first resort to a problem.
- Even Mooks Have Loved Ones: Magic Knight Crash knew two of Teacher's thralls once.
- Humanoid Abomination: Mystic Magic Impaler becomes one when the cracks spread further. Her team is offered the chance to name her, and choose to call her Titaness Amenonuhoko, although Victoria takes to calling her the far simpler "Impaler Titan."
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Mystic Magic Impaler's cape name implies that she specializes in impaling people.
- Large Ham: Acting over-the-top confident all the time, as if they were anime characters, is their trademark. It's possible that they do this in order to distract from their somewhat lethal powersets.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Their ridiculous names, dress, and mannerisms hide the fact that they're one of the more deadly superhero teams out there, and one of the most willing to use their powers to lethal effect.
- Only Sane Man: Victoria considers Dynamite Warrior Dash Fantastic to be a bit less unhinged than her teammates, and she's shown to be good at wrangling them into an effective fighting force.
- Rummage Sale Reject: All of their costumes are brightly colored and contrasting.
- Space Master: M.M.I has some sort of space warping ability she uses in tandem with her drill weaponry.
- This Is a Drill: Mystic Magic Impaler's primary weapon is a drill shaft.
- With a Friend and a Stranger: At least from Victoria's perspective, M.K.C and M.M.I. knew each other pre-Gold Morning, with Dynamite joining later.
Drillbit
Debut: Black 13.1
A street-level hero by his own choice who developed a substance abuse problem.- Extranormal Prison: Due to his substance abuse problem and numerous "last" chances, he's sent to the Warden's prison world. Notably, he's more sure this is the right call than even some of the people who sent him there.
- Humanoid Abomination: He turns into a Titan when the cracks spread further, becoming the second inhabitant on the prison world to do so.
- I Am a Monster: Downplayed, but he's certain the best way for him to avoid hurting anyone else or himself is to be exiled.
