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Characters / Worm Brockton Bay Heroes

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The various heroes found in Brockton Bay. Many are part of larger organizations whose tropes can be found on the Sponsored Heroes page.

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Protectorate Members

    Armsmaster / Defiant 

Colin Wallis

It struck me just what made Armsmaster a step above other tinkers, above other people with the ability to invent and perform mad science, and it wasn't the insane amounts of training he had probably put himself through. Tinkers tended to have a knack, a special quality specific to their work. According to Tattletale, Armsmaster's ability let him cram technology together and still have it work. Other tinkers were limited in what they could carry and have access to at any given point in time, but Armsmaster? He had a solution for every problem he'd been able to think of, without having to worry about economy of space, the weight of his hardware and the room on his utility belt, or whatever. And with all of that, his main gear, his armor and Halberd, were still devastating and completely reliable in their own right.

"Since the day I got my powers, I’ve seen myself as a soldier in a greater war. Good against evil, order against chaos, mankind against the likes of the Slaughterhouse Nine and the Endbringers. It’s a war on every front. And sometimes that’s called for ugly choices."

Leader of the Brockton Bay Protectorate when the story began. A tinker specializing in efficiency (generally manifesting as miniaturization). Fights with his Halberd and a heads-up display that incorporates a combat style simulator and a Lie Detector, among other features. Met Taylor on her first night out right after she and the Undersiders had fought Lung, and convinced her to keep her part in Lung's apprehension secret — which, incidentally, let him take credit for it. Unfortunately for mutual good relations between him and Taylor, Armsmaster got in deep trouble when Lung began to suffer severe tissue damage from the spider bites while in custody, which no doubt contributed to how Taylor's offer to become The Mole for the Protectorate in the Undersiders was harshly refused. Their relationship generally went downhill from there.

Armsmaster's costume consists of midnight-blue body armor with silver highlights and a visor that covers his eyes and nose. He wears a neatly trimmed beard.

He was silently placed under house arrest in the PRT headquarters after the Leviathan fight for breaking the truce twice (first by arranging the death of villains to give himself a one-on-one shot against Leviathan, second by outing Skitter as a mole), but after Mannequin targeted him he was allowed to escape by Dragon so he could help her fight crime as the hero Defiant.

Classification: Tinker/Efficiency and Economy of form

  • Absurdly Sharp Blade: Armsmaster co-created with Dragon a nano cloud Halberd that can turn anything to dust. He does more damage to Leviathan with it than the rest of the heroes and villains put together.
  • Arch-Nemesis: Early on in the story, Taylor states that he's the closest thing she has to this.
  • Armor-Piercing Attack: Immediately before Leviathan attacks, he creates a modification to his Halberd which uses nanomachines to cut through anything by destroying molecular bonds.
  • An Arm and a Leg: Loses his left arm fighting Leviathan.
  • The Atoner: As Defiant, he seems to be trying to make up for his past mistakes.
  • Authority Equals Asskicking: Pretty solidly the most dangerous Cape in Brockton Bay in a straight-up fight, as befits the leader of its Protectorate team.
  • Battle Couple: Fights alongside Dragon as a couple.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: Mentions in interlude 7 that he'd 'give his left foot' to no longer require sleep, like Miss Militia and Dragon. Which turns out to be pretty close to the trade he ends up making.
  • Berserk Button: Mannequin hits it when he suggests that he and Armsmaster are not so different.
  • Byronic Hero: He ultimately has good intentions, but he has a habit of putting his ego and pride ahead of the greater good.
  • Character Development: After his fall from grace he takes a long self-examination and realizes he's been a dick. It gets to the point where he publicly acknowledges to Taylor that his dickery played a massive role in her Start of Darkness.
  • Combat Clairvoyance: The combat style simulator in his helmet gives him this, provided he has enough intelligence on his opponent beforehand.
  • Cool Bike: In his first appearance, he arrives on the scene riding a tinker-tech motorcycle.
  • Create Your Own Villain: He eventually realizes he played a role in creating Skitter, though Taylor privately admits the choice was mostly her own.
  • The Cowl: He's the closest character to that particular archetype, being a gruff person who has a more cynical and shadowy demeanour.
  • Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Completely averted as part of this serial's general aversion of A.I. Is a Crapshoot. He becomes much more well-adjusted and a generally better person after adding some metal bits.
  • Cyborg: When he becomes Defiant, he's turned himself into a cyborg.
  • Defiant to the End: When Mannequin attacks him he refuses to submit even when it looks like he's going to die. Guess which second superhero alias he chose afterwards for himself.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: While it was a massive team effort, Defiant was ultimately the one who launched the finishing blow on Scion.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: At the end of the story, he's in a happy relationship with a fully unchained Dragon.
  • Empowered Badass Normal: Comes back as the Cyborg hero Defiant after being increasingly crippled by Leviathan and Mannequin.
  • Enemy Mine: Sort of, after Taylor becomes Weaver, and they're technically on the same side. Eventually, the two of them develop a working relationship, albeit, one very blunt and to-the-point with very little in the way of pleasantries.
  • Explaining Your Power to the Enemy: One of his favorite tricks is explaining how the combat style simulator in his helmet lets him see his opponent's every move before they make it.
  • Fallen Hero: When it comes out that he violated the truce during the Leviathan attack, Armsmaster quickly becomes a pariah amongst the capes of Brockton Bay.
  • Fights Like a Normal: Armsmaster is a highly-skilled martial artist who augments with tech.
  • Gadgeteer Genius: His tinker powers allow him to miniaturize the technology he creates, meaning his Halberds can hold quite a lot of tools.
  • Genius Bruiser: Very smart and very strong.
  • Grappling-Hook Pistol: A standard piece of his halberds is a grappling hook attachment.
  • Glory Hound: His Fatal Flaw. It's what drives him to break the Endbringer Truce and attempt to gain the reputation as the Man Who Defeated Leviathan Singlehandedly. After this blows up in his face, he takes a long look at his life choices and realizes he's been a huge prick and drops this.
  • Hard Work Hardly Works: He had to spend time and money training and building just to get to his position, let alone retain it. This makes him really hate Dauntless for getting an easy ride to the top from his powers.
  • Hazy-Feel Turn: When he leaves the PRT and starts working with Dragon.
  • Hero Antagonist: To Skitter, being a superhero who opposes her.
  • Hyperspace Arsenal: Armsmaster's particular Tinker specialization is efficiency, which allows his creations to be far smaller than they should be by reducing the size and number of components. He can pack more tech into his Halberd than he has any right to.
  • Ironic Nickname: Immediately after the fight with Leviathan.
  • It's Not You, It's My Enemies: He mentions in Interlude 11d that he intentionally avoided forming personal relationships precisely so that they couldn't be used against him.
  • Jerkass: His arrogance and tendency toward tunnel vision can make him act as one. After his fall from grace, he works on it as part of his character arc.
  • Jerkass Realization: Dragon helps him realize his treatment of people in general, and Taylor in particular, was wrong. He slowly starts to improve under her influence.
  • Kick The Son Of A Bitch: Two of the villains he sets up to die are Kaiser and Fenja, who are Neo-Nazi supervillains.
  • Meaningful Rename: After he was locked up for breaking the Endbringer truce, the Slaughterhouse Nine tried to recruit him to their gang of murderers. Instead, with Dragon's help, he broke out of house arrest, rebuilt his body with cybernetics, and under the name "Defiant" fought alongside her to bring the Nine to justice.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Taylor realizes just how bad Dragon's condition is after Defiant actually says thank you to her.
  • Overshadowed by Awesome: Armsmaster resents Dauntless because he's getting steadily stronger every day with little effort, due to how his power works, and is expected to become one of the top dogs at some point in the future. Meanwhile, Armsmaster is a Gadgeteer Genius that has to stay up nights to update his gear and train, getting less results for more work.
    • He eventually gets over this syndrome. He doesn't seem to have any problem being relegated to, essentially, Dragon's sidekick later on.
  • Powered Armor: His super suit augments his abilities.
  • Pragmatic Hero: With shades of the Unscrupulous Hero. Two illustrative examples:
    • His arranging the death of multiple villains, including a fifteen-year-old girl he knew to be a mole, in order to give himself a chance to defeat Leviathan in a one-on-one fight.
    • He also considers Blasto mere collateral damage while trying to kill Bonesaw. After a moment of consideration Blasto agrees with him.
  • The Sleepless: His augmentations after he becomes Defiant allow him to approach within six minutes of this.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Starts out as the very opposite, but after his Heel–Face Turn, he becomes this, partially due to Dragon's influence.
  • The Resenter: To Dauntless due to him getting stronger with little effort, whereas Armaster has to work all the time.
  • Robosexual: As his very close relationship with Dragon, an AI shows.
  • Took a Level in Kindness: He's never really got outright kind, but he's much more at ease and understanding due to Dragon's influence.
  • Trash Talk: A habit of his when fighting villains is to engage in trash talk.
  • Understanding Boyfriend: He proves to be this after Dragon revealed to him that she was an artificial intelligence.
  • We Can Rebuild Him: Becomes Defiant thanks to Dragon.
  • Weapon Specialization: His weapons of choice are futuristic Swiss-Army Weapon halberds, even after he comes back as Defiant.
  • Worf Had the Flu: Most of the times he's defeated in-story are due to ancillary factors that give him a significant handicap. The only enemy who has defeated him when he was armed, prepared, and going all out was Leviathan:
    • When the Undersiders attack the fundraiser it's only the presence of an audience that prevents him from singlehandedly trouncing them. Because so many civilians are watching, he doesn't want to use violent methods, which allows the Undersiders to escape. Later, when he pursues them, the Undersiders' allies catch him off guard and literally curb-stomp him.
    • When Mannequin attacks him in the PRT headquarters he's missing an arm and almost all of his equipment, effectively rendering him powerless.
    • When he and Dragon try to capture Skitter at her school he is unable to use most of his weapons with civilians in the way and is further hampered by not caring very much about capturing Skitter in the first place.
  • Workaholic: Until he developed a relationship with Dragon, he had little personal life — any time not spent on his official duties was spent training or working on his equipment, although it is implied that he will occasionally watch movies or shows.
  • Would Hurt a Child:
    • Or at least he was willing to kill Bonesaw, but as a member of the Nine she's a special case.
    • Skitter believes he tried to set her up to be killed by Leviathan along with Kaiser and Menja, but it's somewhat ambiguous whether he actually intended to kill her or just was willing to risk it.

    Miss Militia 

Hannah

Miss Militia had a bazooka as long as she was tall, and was firing a series of warheads into Leviathan. She wasn't reloading, either. Between shots, the weapon crackled with energy, fresh ammunition loaded into the chamber by her power. One projectile fired off each second.

Member of the Brockton Bay Protectorate, and Armsmaster's official successor as its leader. She later becomes temporary Director of the Brockton Bay PRT as part of the deal Skitter made to turn her coat. Her power comes in the form of a kaleidoscopic blur which forms itself into various weapons (already armed and loaded) in her hands. Her costume is a military uniform tailored to accent her curves with an American-flag scarf hiding her lower face and a matching sash around her waist.

One of seven children who were the only survivors of a small Kurdish village attacked in 1985 by Turkish soldiers. She had her trigger event while she was being used as a human minesweeper by said soldiers. Most of the survivors were evacuated to the U.K., but when her power caused problems with the metal detector she ended up being rescued by an American and brought to the United States, where she was fostered and given a place in the Wards, and her name was anglicized from Hana to Hannah.

She is also one of the only people who remember the vision she had during her trigger event.

Classification: Changer, Blaster(?)

  • Action Girl: She's hands-down one of the strongest female superheroes in the story.
  • Amicable Exes: Used to be a couple with Chevalier.
  • Bottomless Magazines: Miss Militia doesn't need to reload her weapons due to her power, unless she's using special ammo.
  • The Cape: Imagine a female, naturalized citizen Captain America who uses guns due to her power and you've got Hannah.
  • Captain Patriotic: She fought for the right to include the scarf and sash in her costume because she loves the country.
  • Childhood Friends: With Chevalier.
  • The Gunslinger: Vaporizer variety. In big fights, Miss Militia specializes in big explosions and lots of them.
  • Gun Twirling: She does this briefly in Interlude 7.
  • Hero Antagonist: To the Undersiders.
  • Immigrant Patriotism: Her Interlude reveals that she was a Kurdish girl who embraced America as her new homeland (Americanized name, patriotic costume) after she was rescued by an American soldier and adopted by an American family.
  • Morph Weapon: As a result of her passenger gathering info from her mind about different conventional weapons during her trigger event Miss Militia can form the semi-sentient energy she controls into any weapon, either firearms and melee weapons, save for the most primitive such as catapults.
  • Nerves of Steel: Regardless of how chaotic the situation may get, she continues to think clearly and act.
    • During the final fight, she gets pissed off at the use of Canary's power to keep people from retreating after Doormaker goes down. Not because she was going to retreat, but because of the implication that she might.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Is willing to work with the Undersiders when their interests align. She also genuinely apologizes to Taylor when she learns the full extent of what Sophia did to her and why Taylor hates the protectorate.
  • Required Secondary Powers: According to Word of God her passenger helps withdraw time, aiming, and weight.
  • The Sleepless: She technically doesn't sleep — when she does put her head down, instead of dreaming, she remembers, eidetically. She doesn't do it much. This is due to her passenger being extremely restless.
  • Superhero Packing Heat: She is accompanied by a semi-sentient energy that can transform into modern military armaments.
    • This extends up to strategic fusion bombs, as seen when she executes a combination attack with Simurgh and some force-field users against Zion and literally wipes away the cloud with one bomb.
  • Wearing a Flag on Your Head: Her costume includes an American-flag scarf.

    Battery 
Every action had an equal and opposite reaction. It was the way things were supposed to work. Action and consequence.
A former member of the Wards who graduated to the Protectorate, her power gives her super-speed, super-strength, super-durability and minor electrical powers... in bursts, after intervals spent charging.

Classification: Mover; Breaker(?)

  • The Atoner: For her involvement with Cauldron.
  • Battle Couple: Is partners in both combat and in marraige with Assault.
  • Charged Attack: Battery's power works by charging herself up in return for enhanced speed, strength, and durability, on top of minor electrical powers.
  • Dirty Business: The favors she does for Cauldron; allowing Madcap to turn his coat — although most of those favors are not really "dirty" and Assault actually does redeem himself.
  • Fast as Lightning: Battery has the ability to charge up her electrical powers for several seconds to give herself a significant speed boost.
  • No Name Given: She briefly took the name Jamie as a pseudonym when she bought powers from Cauldron to fight Madcap with, but we never learn what her real name is.
  • Redemption Equals Death: Dies trying to stop the Nine in defiance of Cauldron, courtesy of one of Bonesaw's spiders.
  • Shock and Awe: She gets a few seconds of electrical powers along with the strength and speed.
  • Theme Naming: Assault and Battery.
  • Tron Lines: Her costume has these.

    Assault 

Ethan (Madcap)

Battery's partner, obviously, and a manipulator of kinetic energy, momentum and inertia — able to absorb and redirect them at will. He previously worked as a jailbreak specialist under the name Madcap, but after he was caught he joined the Protectorate and began to woo Battery. They eventually married.

Classification: Striker 7

  • Battle Couple: Is partners in both combat and in marraige with Battery.
  • Defecting for Love: It is strongly suggested that his Heel–Face Turn was motivated by his interest in Battery.
  • Energy Absorption: His power works by absorbing and redirecting kinetic energy, momentum and inertia.
  • Hero Antagonist: After Battery's death he has had a definite grudge against the Undersiders due to blaming them for it.
  • Inspector Javert: Falsely blames Skitter for the death of his wife after the Slaughterhouse Nine arc.
  • Love Redeems: Became the hero Assault due to his love for Battery.
  • Meaningful Rename: Changed his name from Madcap to Assault as part of his defection to the heroes (and to highlight his interest in Battery).]
  • Slap-Slap-Kiss: His relationship with Battery starts out like this with the two of them initially having issues getting along due to his past as a villain.
  • Stalking is Love: His requirements for joining the heroes boil down to: enough anonymity so that he won't have repercussions for being a villain, and being on the same team as Battery so that he can hang out with her all the time. Armsmaster notes that there was a time when dealing with Battery's harassment complaints against Assault made up a significant portion of his job as team leader.
  • Theme Naming: Invoked Trope on his end. Assault and Battery.
  • Thou Shalt Not Kill: Held to a strict no-kill rule when he was a villain, part of what enabled him to bargain his way into the PRT when he was ultimately caught.

    Triumph 

Rory Christner

A former baseball player who gained a minor Healing Factor and the ability to make sonic blasts when his father bought him one of Cauldron's Super Serums as a way of getting an edge at the game. A recent graduate from the Brockton Bay Wards into the Protectorate.

Classification: Brute(?); Blaster

    Dauntless 

Shawn

An up-and-coming Brockton Bay hero who can empower items by infusing them — once or multiple times — with his power, adding abilities to the items as he charges them. Wields an "arc-lance", a shield that can become a force field, and boots of flying. Frozen in time by a Bakuda-bomb deployed against Leviathan.

Classification: Striker/Trump

  • And I Must Scream: During the Leviathan fight, he gets thrown into a blast from a Bakuda bomb and gets trapped in a bubble of glacially slow time. Normally that would mean he'd simply see the world outside moving at superspeed while he moved normally, but a panicked use of his power on his helmet ensured he saw the world outside move in real time while still trapped in his basically immobile body.
  • Buried Alive: He triggered while trapped inside a van underneath a mudslide. While trapped, he also used his power on a knife to give his schizophrenic girlfriend a (successful!) C-section.
  • Deflector Shields: He uses his shield to create one.
  • Good Parents: He is very much a kind and considerate father for his son Addison. Dauntless knows Addison needs time to process things before talking about them and always makes sure he gets that time, never outright lied to him about being a cape, and eventually even revealed his Secret Identity.
  • Hard Light: His power causes his weapons to take this form.
  • The Magic Touch: The empowering he does to his equipment is gradual and he can only do it once a day, but after a few years, Dauntless became one of the strongest non-Triumvirate capes.
  • Mundane Luxury: Averted. He was perfectly happy living out of a van and off the land with the woman he loved. In the present, his sizable Protectorate salary is mainly used to provide for his son, while the rest goes to charity.
  • Nice Guy: Very much so. When his girlfriend said she couldn't handle raising a kid with him, he didn't fight it because he knew it was what was best for her and he made sure to never demonize her to their son. When he marries again, he knows full well that she's not the best for him but knows that she's good for Addison. He even set up and funds an entire charity dedicated to helping teens with mental health problems and other crises have a way forward.

    Velocity 

Robin Swoyer

Another member of the Brockton Bay crew, able with his power to shift into a super-speed form, although in said form his ability to affect the outside world is reduced. He originally joined the military in order to learn Chinese and Russian, but grew dissatisfied with millitary service, the despair leading him to trigger. Killed by Leviathan.

Classification: Breaker, Mover

    Adamant 

A member of Legend's team in New York who was transferred to Brockton Bay after the Echidna fight. Wears a combination of metal bands and plates connected with chains over a black bodysuit. Reportedly a bruiser of some kind — his powers apparently include the ability to reshape the metal of his armor.

Classification: Brute(?)

    Sere 

Another Protectorate cape brought in to Brockton Bay after the Echidna fight. His costume consists of a desert-tribal style robe in white and a white mask with light blue lenses for the eyes. His power allows him to draw in moisture from his environment, even through forcefields and armor.

Classification: Blaster(?)/Shaker(?)

  • Making a Splash: His power allows him to draw in moisture from the surroundings.

    Dovetail 

Another cape transferred to Brockton Bay at the same time as Adamant and Sere. She flies and puts out a trail of slivers of light — slivers which balloon out to make soft forcefields when they hit solid objects. These forcefields can be broken and escaped without too much trouble, but by targeting a single enemy with enough of them she can keep them still enough to bury in containment foam. (She carries a small containment-foam dispenser for this purpose.)

Classification: Mover, Shaker, Blaster(?)

  • Barrier Warrior: She can create forcefields, but without containment foam they're fairly easy to break out of.
  • Flight: Her secondary ability.
  • High Collar of Doom: Has a flared collar built into her costume.
  • Weak, but Skilled: Doesn't exactly have the best power, but is skilled at working with it in tandem with a built-in containment foam dispenser inside her suit.

The Wards

    Weld 

"There was mention of me maybe climbing the ranks. I’m marketable, but I’m a freak, too."

One of the so-called Case 53s. His body is made of a variety of metals — mostly a dusky dark grey, but with silver tracing his musculature and silver eyes. He has a degree of control over the shape of his body — enough to shape-shift his arms into weapons during combat. He was a member of the Boston Wards until he was brought in to lead the Brockton Bay Wards after the Leviathan attack; he later moved on to become the leader of the Irregulars after the Noelle fight.

Classification: Brute; Changer

  • Big Damn Heroes: For almost the entire main cast in The Echidna Arc. He hacks his way into Echidna's body and rescues almost all of the Undersiders and quite a few others.
  • Blade Below the Shoulder: His primary means of combat.
  • By-the-Book Cop: Described in one place as a "company man", he plays by the rules, fills out all the paperwork correctly, and obeys orders.
  • Chrome Champion: As a consequence of being made out of metal.
  • Cursed with Awesome: He's perceived this way relative to other Case 53's, since he's able to assume a form that, while still non-human, doesn't look monstrous and doesn't have unstoppable urges, as well as having an extremely good power that is linked to his physical make-up.
  • Genius Bruiser: One of the reasons that he doesn't like being classified as a 'Brute' for his powers is because he's sharp — on several occasions, such as during the meeting in Plague 12.2 when he pegs Coil's source on Jack Slash's apocalypse as being Dinah Alcott, he is among the quickest to put facts together and figure out what is happening.
  • Good Is Not Dumb: A substantial number of readers consider Weld to be the single nicest and most heroic character in the entire series. This doesn't stop him from being Properly Paranoid about Shadow Stalker being controlled by Regent.
  • Fatal Flaw: A low-end version of No Social Skills, as seen in his introduction, where his attempts at revitalizing his new team are foiled by the fact that he doesn't understand what they're going through and didn't even bother to remember the names of their two dead members. Ultimately leads to his downfall when the Irregulars turn on him to form a lynch mob against Doctor Mother, although he survives.
  • Heroic Self-Deprecation: He sees himself as a Fake Ultimate Hero as leader of the Irregulars, admitting to being afraid in spite of his fearless persona.
  • Hero Antagonist: To the Undersiders. Notable for being one of the few such antagonists who actually qualifies as a pure hero.
  • Made of Iron: Literally in some places.
  • Primal Fear: Although he could survive it, the prospect of jumping into the ocean and walking to safety along the ocean floor terrifies him, as he would be totally isolated and without his only real source of entertainment: music.
  • One Hero, Hold the Weaksauce: Due to his peculiar physical makeup, Weld sits in the middle of a happy optimum with regards to the Manton Effect i.e. powers that only work on flesh don't work on him and powers that only work on inorganic matter also do not work on him.
  • Only One Name: Since he's a Case 53 who has no memory of his previous life. His therapist wants him to pick another name, but we never see him do so.
  • Relationship Upgrade: As of Ward, is in a stable relationship with Sveta/Garrote.
  • Secret Public Identity: Has no separate civilian name.
  • Shapeshifter Weapon: He frequently uses these in battle.
  • The Sleepless: He also doesn't eat, drink, or breathe.
  • Super-Toughness: He's made out of metal. It takes one heck of a hit to so much as affect him.

    Aegis 

Carlos

“Punctured lung, ma’am,” Aegis rasped, “I think there’s a hole in my front and back.” As if to demonstrate, he stuck his fingers into his chest cavity.

Director Piggot didn’t look away, but one of the men standing behind her looked a touch green around the gills, “I can take you at your word. You don’t need to stick your arm all the way through your chest to demonstrate.”

Aegis grinned and removed his hand from his chest.

The 17 going on 18-year-old leader of the Brockton Bay Wards at the beginning of the story, described as a teenager of Puerto Rican descent with long hair out of costume. Has two powers: flight, and a hyper-adaptable physiology: if any vital organ is damaged, another adapts to take its place.

Classification: Brute; Mover

  • Flying Brick: His Healing Factor allows him to play this role for the Brockton Bay Wards.
  • Genius Bruiser: Has already graduated high school and is taking preliminary college courses at the beginning of the story.
  • Good Thing You Can Heal: He invokes this during fights — because he doesn't have to worry about injuring himself, he can spend the entire fight riding the kind of adrenaline high that lets soccer moms lift cars off their children and throwing punches that break the bones of his hands.
  • Goomba Stomp: Leviathan crushes him to a pulp, successfully killing him.
  • Healing Factor: On top of his adaptable physiology.
  • Uninhibited Muscle Power: His powers allow him to use the benefits of adrenaline much longer than a mundane, allowing him to simulate Super-Strength.

    Clockblocker 

Dennis

“We’re fighting a war. The consequences don’t seem to hit the bad guys as hard. We fight Leviathan, and people act like we won, because the casualty rates were lower than they’ve been in nine years. Slaughterhouse Nine come, and again, there’s a lot of people who act like it was a victory because only half of them made it out of the city. Nobody but me seems to notice that, hey, those guys still lived. They escaped.”

A red-haired, freckled 17-year-old with thin lips. Was described in the cast page as the "unofficial second in command" of the Brockton Bay Wards, but was promoted to leader after Weld's departure. He triggered at 15 when his father had a bone-marrow transplant. His powers allow him to freeze people or objects for an indeterminate period between thirty seconds and ten minutes. This can be used offensively — e.g. by freezing an opponent and then chaining them up — or defensively — e.g. by freezing a piece of paper to make an indestructible barrier.

Has a bit of a rebel streak, as reflected by his choice of superhero name. His costume is a full-body suit, all in white, with animated images of clock faces on it.

Classification: Striker 7

  • Cynicism Catalyst: Finding out that the Triumvirate and a number of other Protectorate capes were agents of Cauldron caused a change in Clockblocker that he never fully recovers from.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Loves to snark.
  • Jade-Colored Glasses: After the Time Skip, Clockblocker's gotten even more cynical, calling humanity a "joke" and mentioning that we deserve what we get.
  • Killed Offscreen: During the battle against Scion. Taylor (and by extension, the audience) only finds out that he's dead when Glastig Uaine uses his ghost as a weapon.
  • The Lancer: For the Brockton Bay Wards, until his promotion to the leadership slot after Weld's departure.
  • The Paralyzer: When his power is used on people.
  • Time Master: Is a limited version of this, being only able to freeze people or objects time, and only for limited periods (between thirty seconds and ten minutes, randomly).
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: Not a lot, but he's definitely more prickly post-Time Skip. Quoth Vista:
    "Clockblocker used to be the funny one, now he’s the asshole grownup that tears the funny kid to shreds.”
  • Willfully Weak: Clockblocker knows full well the more dangerous aspects of his powers, but since the Wards don't allow lethal force, he doesn't use them.
  • Youthful Freckles: Of the traditional red-headed variety.

    Kid Win 

Chris

"All my problems so far, they’ve stemmed from me trying to fit myself into everyone else’s mold. It’s only when I broke away from that, started thinking on my own, that things started to make sense, all the pieces of the machine working in unison.”

A young brown-haired tinker on the Brockton Bay Wards. Flies around on a hoverboard fighting with laser guns.

Classification: Tinker 4/(Modular equipment)

  • Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: One of his running problems is losing focus halfway through projects and leaving them incomplete. He eventually figures out that the reason why he seemed to be specialized in laser guns was that they were easy to make, and his actual focus is Modular/Multifunction Equipment.
  • Failure Hero: Never actually wins a fight in the story, even as he undergoes Character Development and comes into his own as a Tinker.
  • Flight: With his hoverboard, when he hasn't taken the battery out to use on something else.
  • Gadgeteer Genius: The only one on the Brockton Bay Wards at the beginning of the story. He initially specializes in various kinds of guns, but he eventually figures out that his power works with technology with lots of different modes, instead.
  • Good with Numbers: Remarkably, inverted — he is, in fact, innumerate due to his dyscalculia, but works around it with computer assistance and use of his power.
  • Heroic Self-Deprecation: He's got some pretty bad self-esteem issues relating to his dyscalculia and his Attention Deficit Disorder. His Failure Hero status probably doesn't help with this.
  • Legacy Character: He intentionally modeled himself on Hero, the first famous heroic tinker.
  • More Dakka: After the Time Skip, he's covered his costume in so many guns that he looks like a sphere with legs.
  • Opt Out: Chooses to sit out the confrontation with the Slaughterhouse Nine when given a choice.
  • Swiss-Army Weapon: His true tinker specialty.

    Vista 

Missy Biron

''"One part of me, it’s like… I want us all to stay together...The other part of me? The colder part that’s being very logical, very rational? It says that won’t happen. We won’t stay together. Can’t. One by one, horrible things will happen to us. My friends will die, and if they’re lucky, they’ll die fighting. And I’m somehow okay with it. What does it really matter when the world’s supposed to end in two years?”

The youngest member of the Brockton Bay Wards at thirteen years old and simultaneously the senior team member by nine months over Kid Win, having joined when she was eleven. Vista wears a teal and green costume with a short dress, leggings and panels of body armor, including a breastplate, and has a green visor across her eyes. Has the ability to distort space -- stretching, compressing, bending, etc. — but the presence of living creatures interferes with her ability.

Classification: Shaker 9

  • A-Cup Angst: Is self-described as a late bloomer, and isn't exactly crazy about it.
  • BFG: Post-timeskip she carries a massive laser pistol, with which she dishes out massive hurt to the S9K.
  • Broken Bird: Has a troubled home life, and due to the events of the story ends up becoming The Fatalist.
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars: Gets a scar fighting a cloned Murder Rat post-timeskip, but is actually quite glad about this.
  • The Fatalist: Has taken a fatalistic viewpoint of the world after seeing so many of her fellow Wards either leave or die, on top of being aware that the world may end in two years, and Weld even explicitly calls her one.
  • The Heart: Takes this position on the team after Gallant dies.
  • Just a Kid: Vista hates being treated like a child despite being one of the senior members of the Brockton Bay Wards, to the point that she dresses her own wounds and keeps them secret from the other Wards.
  • Kid Hero: The youngest member of the Brockton Bay Wards, though she's also one of the senior members of the Brockton Bay Wards due to triggering so early.
  • Mundane Utility: She uses her power to compact a set of survival supplies into a small, easily-carried bundle in Sentinel 9.5, and can make travel time shorter by distorting space.
  • Odd Friendship: Appears to get along fine with Imp post-timeskip. Both had the experience of being the Tag Along Kid, both are rather foul-mouthed, and as The Fatalist Vista probably appreciates Imp's fondness for Black Comedy, making them Birds of a Feather.
  • Off Screen Moment Of Awesome: Escapes from Coil's collapsing underground base after being cut out of Echidna's gut, evading Echidna and her clones, and killing Shatterbird in the process.
  • Secret-Identity Identity: She mentions in Sentinel 9.5 that she sees herself more as Vista than as Missy Biron, mainly due to the escape it provides from her troubled home life.
  • Sole Survivor: Of the remaining members of the Brockton Bay Wards as of Venom 29.2.
  • Space Master: Vista can distort space with the difficulty increasing with the amount of living creatures within her range.
  • Superhero Packing Heat: Starts carrying a big gun after the Time Skip, which she uses in combination with her powers.

    Shadow Stalker (Unmarked Spoilers) 

Sophia Hess

“I acted superior because I was superior. Still am superior to most. That comes with perks. Do what you want, get away with shit, get people to look past the stuff you want them to look past.

A crossbow-wielding crimefighter with the ability to shift into a shadowy form in order to pass through solid objects and move extra quickly. She began as a solo hero, but was arrested for nearly killing a criminal when she staked him to the wall with a crossbow bolt. As a condition of her parole, she was given probationary status in the Wards and required to use nonlethal ammunition, a requirement she ignores when the Wards aren't looking. Put in juvie in the aftermath of the plot where Regent controlled her.

Classification: Breaker 3 (Stranger 2, Mover 1)

  • Achilles' Heel:
    • Electricity. Shadow Stalker can pass through surfaces while using her power, but she's just as vulnerable as an ordinary person if she comes in contact with a live current. (Possibly more, since her power means places like her heart and brain can be directly electrocuted.)
    • Stuff like pepper spray also has a nasty effect on her due to gases being directly absorbed into her body while in shadow form.
  • Arch-Enemy:
    • Shadow Stalker has been gunning for Grue ever since she discovered that the latter's power interferes with her own.
    • When Skitter accidentally discovers her identity, Shadow Stalker starts gunning for her as well. Ironically and despite ample reason, Taylor does not reciprocate. She almost never gives Shadow Stalker a second thought after the Parasite arc unless someone else brings her up and instead views Armsmaster as the closest thing she has to an arch enemy.
  • Asshole Victim: What Regent did to her was ridiculously cruel and vindictive, not to mention absolutely terrifying, but it sure is satisfying after what we've seen her do.
  • Boxed Crook: As a vigilante who nearly killed someone, she didn't have much of a choice when it came to joining the Wards. She's later released from prison to assist in the fight against Scion.
  • The Bully: She's one of Taylor's tormentors at school. Her specialty is in the physical side of things, whilst Emma handles the emotional stuff. It also turns out that she has a habit of bullying other people in her superhero identity, like Vista.]] Taylor rather bluntly tells her that she's a cowardly bully at heart, and as such is not used to fighting people who can actually fight back.
  • The Bus Came Back: After being Put on a Bus she shows up again briefly during Emma's Interlude in juvenile hall, and later reappears in the main story when Taylor decides to let her out to help against Scion.
  • Create Your Own Villain: She was the one who caused Taylor's trigger event, and she came to consider Skitter her Arch-Enemy.
  • Dark Is Evil: A borderline example. She has darkness-based powers, and despite being a "hero", she is a bullying Social Darwinist and the Token Evil Teammate of the Wards.
  • Dirty Coward: Taylor tells her that she only attacks people who can't really fight back. When Brian stands up to her when she bullies Taylor she quickly flees.
  • Enemy Mine: Reluctantly works with Taylor against Scion. Even then she admits that she wants to see what Taylor's made of herself.
  • Evil Mentor: After learning about Taylor being Skitter she tries to pass herself off as one, claiming that Taylor owes her for what she became.
  • Evil Virtues: Physical courage, discipline (in terms of training and fitness).
  • Fate Worse than Death: From her perspective at least. Even though she survives, she will be forever forced to live with the knowledge that Taylor was better than her.
  • Freudian Excuse: She really doesn't like her mother's ex-boyfriend. Regent speculates that he may have emotionally abused her, and she's passing it on to everyone else in kind. During her conversation with Taylor in Extinction, she flat out admits that when she was dragged to the principal's office that one time she was angrier that Taylor had an actual parent at the meeting than at the fact she was in trouble.
    • The possibility that her trigger event affected her mind, or that her passenger was especially violent compared to most others, is raised as well.
    • It is heavily implied by Wildbow in the Stranger document that Sophia's trigger event was caused by being unable to escape the predatory attention of her stepfather.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: Admits to Taylor that she was genuinely jealous that Taylor actually had a loving father compared to her mother's emotionally abusive boyfriend.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: Her mother mentions that she's been diagnosed with chronic anger issues. It shows. A lot.
  • Hidden Depths: In one of her conversations with Skitter post-Scion attack, she mentions feeling envious towards Taylor due to her father supporting her when she was bullied, whereas her own family didn't even bother to show up, to the point that she was more angry about that than being in trouble in the first place.
  • Horrible Judge of Character:
    • She decides that Taylor is weak within seconds of meeting her, an impression that is reinforced in her mind when Taylor never physically retaliates to the bullying.
    • She's also wrong in viewing Emma, who blunders whenever Taylor actually stands up to her and freezes when placed in actual danger, as strong.
  • In a Single Bound: She can use her shadow state to leap great distances, which is how she does her Roof Hopping navigation of Brockton Bay.
  • Informed Flaw: Her cowardice; Shadow Stalker's actual behavior is ambiguous. She flees the bookstore after Brian stands up for Taylor and tells her to back off, not to mention advocating trying to run rather than go up against Scion. On the other hand she did fight in two Endbringer battles, including one against Behemoth that wasn't even in her hometown. During the fight with Leviathan, she risks her life to get closer to him so she can do more damage and is nearly killed for her trouble. She reveals in her interlude that the reason that she hunted Grue so single-mindedly was that he could fight back and wouldn't go down.
  • Intangibility: One of the effects of going into her shadow state is turning intangible so physical attacks can't harm her.
  • Jerkass: Shadow Stalker is a major asshole.
  • Loners Are Freaks:
    • Does not get along with any of the Wards and prefers to work alone... because it allows her more opportunities to hurt people.
    • Even among her admittedly large social circle as school, only Emma might legitimately be called a friend, and she had to be heavily traumatized (and arguably brainwashed) for that to happen. Everyone else appears to be little more than sycophants (who were more interested in sucking up to Emma than her) and some guys who probably just thought she was hot.
  • '90s Anti-Hero: She's every bit the archetype of the violent anti-hero, but basically everyone hates her for it. Furthermore, she is used to show it as a Deconstructed Character Archetype. Her primary targets, Grue and Skitter, are very sympathetic characters in their own right, showing that her philosophy is a sham she uses to justify her violent behavior, and the Wards are very glad to get rid of her after Regent humiliates her — they don't even bother to stop her imprisonment. The main reason they go after the Undersiders is solely because she happened to be a teammate, not out of personal like for her.
  • Pay Evil unto Evil: Her philosophy as a vigilante and even as a member of the Wards. Ironically subjected to this by Regent.
  • Put on a Bus: Regent runs her out of Brockton Bay after ruining her life via his powers for messing with Taylor.
  • The Social Darwinist: Believes that people less vicious than her (e.g. Vista and Taylor) should stay in their place. Which is out of her way. She also only helped out Emma because she tried to fight back against her ABB assailants. After Taylor visits her from a position of power (and after having been revealed as the most powerful overlord of Brockton Bay's Criminal Element) she tries to claim credit for what Taylor became, saying that Taylor took her "lessons" to heart.
  • Sociopathic Hero: The reason she joined the Wards was that it was part of the probation for her use of deadly weapons during her vigilante career. As a member of the Wards, she is strictly prohibited from doing so ... which hasn't stopped her from using them anyway on those she sees as enemies.
  • The Straight and Arrow Path: She fights with twin crossbows.
  • Teens Are Monsters: She's Sophia Hess, a violent teenage bully.
  • Token Evil Teammate: Of the Brockton Bay Wards, being the most amoral and openly violent of the lot.
  • Trick Arrow: The tranquilizer bolts and other nonlethal ammunition for her crossbow.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Has one upon finding out Skitter's identity during Interlude 20, to the point she smashes the TV the prisoners are watching in rage.
    She rose from her seat, aware of the guards advancing on her, and kicked the television screen, shattering it, amid the protests and swearing of her fellow inmates.

    A second later, they were tackling her. Two guards at once, forcing her to the ground.

    She screamed something so incoherent that even she would have been hard-pressed to interpret it.
  • With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Two different sources speculate that, like Rachel, her powers affected her personality. Pre-trigger Sophia Hess had no sociopathic tendencies or anger issues.

    Gallant 

Dean Stansfield

An empathic cape that can generate bowling ball-sized concussive blasts of energy that alter emotions in addition to packing a punch. On and off boyfriend of Glory Girl. Wears a silver and gunmetal power suit that is maintained by Armsmaster.

Classification: Blaster

  • Charm Person: He takes great care not to be one, though he has the capability. Other characters have noted that his powers essentially make him a Lighter and Softer version of Heartbreaker.
  • Emotion Bomb: His beams inflict emotional states of his choice in those they strike normally, though Bitch's canine-like mind makes it a bit more random.
  • The Empath: One of his powers is seeing emotions in everyone.
  • The Heart: Is in many ways the anchor of the Brockton Bay Wards.
  • Non-Idle Rich: It is mentioned in passing that his family is quite wealthy.
  • Powered Armor: His tinker-made armor grants increased strength, but 80% of it is focused just on allowing him to move quickly while in armor.

    Browbeat 

A new member of the Brockton Bay Wards at the beginning of the story. Powers include short-range telekinesis and a capacity to alter his own biology.

Classification: Brute

  • For Science!: Word of God states that at one point in high school, he walked off the side of a boat into March-temperature water because 'he just felt that impulse you sometimes have when you wonder "What would happen if..." and followed through'. This led to his trigger.
  • Growing Muscles Sequence: One of the uses of his power is to bulk up.
  • Intelligence Equals Isolation: His Word of God backstory describes how he was a fairly sociable person but his intelligence led to a tendency to overanalyze everything and be disconnected from life, leading to him losing his connections with other people as well.
  • Master of Your Domain: He can repair his own wounds by concentrating on them.
  • Measuring the Marigolds: His personality can be best described as missing the forest for the trees.
  • Mind over Matter: His short-range telekinesis.
  • Punch-Clock Hero: He's mainly in the Wards because they can help him with his power, and dislikes getting involved in conflict.
  • Retcon: In February of 2019, the story was edited so that he died in the battle against Leviathan. The following tropes only applied to his character before the edit:
    • Back for the Dead: Shows up for the Echidna fight, but Glow-worm has Vista reveal that he died offscreen during it.
    • Killed Offscreen: Was killed by Echidna during her fight, but it wasn't explicitly revealed until Vista mentions the people she's lost in Glow-worm.
    • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After Leviathan wrecked the city, he left town with his family and joined a different branch rather than stay and help.
  • Shapeshifter: Can alter his features, but doesn't use that aspect of his powers very often.

    Chariot 

Trevor Medina

A lanky kid tinker with big ears who started dashing about in the city in a high-speed armored suit in the wake of Leviathan's attack. Recruited into the Wards by Kid Win.

Classification: Tinker/Mover

  • Gadgeteer Genius: Like all mechanical tinkers — his powers focus on mobility.
  • The Mole: Coil's inside man, though the Wards are aware of this.
  • Opt Out: Chose to sit out the confrontation with the Slaughterhouse Nine when given the choice most likely due to his status as The Mole for Coil.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Disappears from the story after Coil died.

    Crucible 

One of the heroes transferred to Brockton Bay in the wake of Echidna. Has the power to create spherical forcefields and then fill them with intense heat, incinerating anything inside.

Classification: Breaker

  • Bad Powers, Good People: As Imp points out, his is a really bad power for being a hero. Fortunately, he doesn't have to fill his spheres with heat if he doesn't want to, and there's a lot you can do with just forcefields.
  • Locked Out of the Loop: Is completely locked out due to the Echidna fight being made classified.
  • Kill It with Fire: When he cuts loose.

The PRT (Parahuman Response Team)

    Director Emily Piggot 

Emily Piggot

It’s like the world’s gone mad, and I’m the only sane person left.

A heavyset woman with a bleached-blonde bob haircut, leader of the Brockton Bay PRT until she was injured by Circus as part of Coil's coup; is later seen working as a consultant. As Director, she had authority over the Protectorate team and the Wards team for the Brockton Bay area. Referred to as "Piggy" behind her back.

  • Beleaguered Bureaucrat: Running the Brockton Bay PRT wasn't anybody's idea of a sinecure even before Leviathan dropped in for a visit.
  • Career-Ending Injury: Her kidneys were destroyed during the Nilbog mission, among other accidents.
  • Combat Pragmatist: As reflected in her willingness to carpet-bomb the Slaughterhouse Nine without giving the Undersiders and Travelers a chance to escape.
  • Da Chief: The Director is responsible for commanding the local Protectorate, Wards, and PRT agents, as well as coordinating with other agencies.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Has quite a few sarcastic remarks for the Wards after the bank robbery fiasco.
  • Fantastic Racism: She hates and despises parahumans. That said, her feelings towards capes aren't entirely unjustified — during the Nilbog mission, where she was crippled and her entire squad killed, the supporting capes ran for their lives and left the normals to die.
  • Handicapped Badass: Was a PRT field agent before her Career-Ending Injury — has only gotten more hardcore since.
  • Meaningful Name: As well as a Punny Name. She's fat and a bigot.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: It's not obvious because she's seen mainly from the viewpoints of Taylor and the Wards, all of whom dislike her, but despite her abrasive personality and antipathy for parahumans, she's competent, treats her subordinates fairly, and is absolutely committed to the PRT's goal of promoting public acceptance of parahumans in order to maintain the Endbringer truce and prevent a catastrophic war between the powered and unpowered branches of humanity. Her successors in the job, Thomas Calvert and James Tagg, quickly teach everyone who had to deal with her the meaning of the old saying "better the devil you know."
  • Sole Survivor: One of exactly two survivors of the ground forces for the mission to take down Jamie Rinke i.e. Nilbog — her job as Director seems to have been intended as a sinecure to buy her silence about how badly the mission was bungled.

    Thomas Calvert 

A former PRT agent, and the other of the two ground forces survivors of the mission to take down Nilbog. Lost his job for a period of time for having shot his commanding officer for not climbing the rope ladder quickly enough. Eventually rehired by the PRT and brought in to serve as Brockton Bay's Director after Piggot was injured during Coil's coup.

  • In the Back: To his commanding officer for not climbing quickly enough.
  • Karma Houdini: Escapes long-term blame for shooting his superior officer because the PRT doesn't want to admit how badly they screwed up. Ultimately subverted when Taylor blows his brains all over the street.
  • Secret Identity: Is secretly Coil.
  • Social Darwinist: If his reasoning for shooting his commanding officer is any indication.
  • Sole Survivor: One of two individuals to survive the attack on Nilbog.

    Director James Tagg 

The third Director of the Brockton Bay PRT seen during the story, brought in after Coil/Calvert's death. A hard, angry man, whose voice has the rasp of a longtime smoker. Married with two adult children.

  • Cruel and Unusual Death: Taylor's hornets, brown recluses, and black widows stinging and biting him even after she's knocked out.
  • Cynicism Catalyst: Having to hunt down kill the victims of the Simurgh, who looked and acted like normal and well-adjusted people but would snap and kill due to her effect, gave him a cynical us-versus-them mentality.
  • Determinator:
    • Is fully prepared to spend the next several years losing to the Undersiders because he figures that once the situation is stabilized and help comes from elsewhere the people will forget that PRT lost but they'll remember it fought.
    • Even as Taylor's stinging and biting wasps and spiders attack him repeatedly, he continues trying to stop Taylor until she's knocked out and he succumbs to his injuries.
  • Eye Scream: Taylor's hornets sting him in the eye repeatedly during her assault.
  • General Ripper: He's apparently been unhinged ever since the Simurgh attack.
  • Jerkass: He acts like a massive asshole to Taylor.
  • Knight Templar: If his reasoning for going after Skitter through her father is any indication.
  • The Mole: The first Simurgh attack? He was on contain-and-clean-up duty and it's strongly affected his attitude and judgment. He might not have heard the song or got a tattoo, but it's likely his rise to Director was a planned knock-on effect.
  • Revolvers Are Just Better: Has a revolver strapped to his ankle.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Puts a girl who is officially noted to be "prone towards fits of extreme violence" in a cell under the PRT building, which is infested with millions of bugs from her previous time easily overrunning the place, and then tries to provoke her by making her think he's indirectly responsible for the death of one of her friends.
  • Unwitting Pawn: He was exposed to the Simurgh before her mental powers were known. As a result of his actions, Alexandria is rendered brain-dead.
  • Wrong Genre Savvy: He seems to be under the mistaken impression that Status Quo Is God in the Wormverse.

New Wave

A group of heroes consisting of two related nuclear families formally known as the Brockton Bay Brigade, who changed their name after deciding to reveal their identities to the world. They believe in superheroes without secrets and full accountability, though the movement stalled upon the murder of one of their members in her civilian identity.

    Tropes for the group as a whole 
  • Big, Screwed-Up Family: At least Brandish's branch of it is pretty screwed up.
  • Combat Pragmatist: They went after Marquis in his home, when he was out of mask and relaxing, violating the Unwritten Rules that most heroes and villains subscribe to, probably due to the fact that they believe in the Secret Public Identity theme.
  • Despair Event Horizon: Fleur's death led to Carol & Sarah's brother Mike (Lightstar) leaving the team and going into Witness Protection.
  • Dwindling Party: The team progressively loses more and more members as the story proceeds. Manpower and Shielder are killed fighting Leviathan, and by the conclusion of the Slaughterhouse Nine arc Glory Girl is too injured to stay with the team and Panacea leaves. Much later on, Lady Photon gets killed fighting Scion. By the end of the series only Laserdream, Brandish, and Flashbang are still alive and standing, though the situation has improved somewhat by Ward.
  • Light Is Good: Aside from a good portion of their members having light based powers, they also all dress in white with highlights in their individual colors.
  • Secret Public Identity: The members of New Wave believe that capes should have full accountability for their actions, and as such revealed their secret identities to the world. It ends up getting deconstructed in the form of one of their number getting murdered in her civilian identity before the story begins, which ended up discrediting the movement in the eyes of other heroes; Mike's girlfriend Jess (Fleur) was killed by someone trying to get into Empire Eighty Eight, and while there's no indication Marquis was involved in her murder at this time, New Wave going after someone out-of-costume in turn could have been a reaction to that.

    Lady Photon / Photon Mom 

Sarah Pelham

Debatably the leader of New Wave. Her sister is Brandish, her husband Manpower, and her children Laserdream and Shielder. Her powers include flight, Hard Light beams, and force fields. She is attractive, with a heart-shaped face, full lips, and straight blonde hair; her costume includes a tiara and an indigo starburst on her chest with several lines (fading from indigo to purple) extending outwards from the center.

Classification: Blaster 4; Mover 3; Shaker 3

    Manpower 

Neil Pelham

A seven-foot-tall powerfully-built man in a white and yellow costume. His power is reported to be electromagnetic augmentation that gives him enhanced strength and durability.

Classification: Breaker, Brute

    Laserdream 

Crystal Pelham

Lady Photon's daughter. She has similar powers (and features) to her mother, but with stronger beams and weaker shields. Her costume has a stylized arrow pointing down and to the right with a dozen lines tracing behind it over her left shoulder; the design fades from ruby red to magenta. She also wears a red hairband.

Classification: Blaster; Mover; Shaker

    Shielder 

Eric Pelham

Lady Photon's son, and Laserdream's younger brother. The child with stronger shields and weaker beams.

Classification: Blaster; Mover; Shaker

  • Hard Light: He can create blasts, but not as powerful as his mother's or sister's.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Dies from getting raked against the jagged edge of a building during the Leviathan fight.

    Flashbang 

Mark Dallon

Brandish's husband. His power creates bouncing orbs of light that can detonate concussively or explosively. He suffered long-term brain damage fighting Leviathan, but was cured by Panacea under Bonesaw's coercion. He wears a white costume with padding and helmet — the costume is marked with a green-yellow grenade icon.

Classification: Blaster

  • He's Back!: Fighting Leviathan leaves him brain-damaged and practically comatose. When Amy, under duress from Bonesaw, finally heals the injury, he jumps up from bed, blows away the latter's Mooks and has her running for the door in the time it takes for everyone else to blink.
  • Light 'em Up: His light powers involve throwing orbs that detonate either concussively or explosively, making them almost literal examples of Holy Hand Grenades.
  • Parental Neglect: Tried to be a good parent, but his clinical depression got in the way.
  • Weak, but Skilled: His power isn't the strongest or even the most versatile but he is very competent with it regardless.

    Brandish 

Carol Dallon

Flashbang's wife, she works as a civilian lawyer who triggered after being attacked by a gunman whom she trusted. She can create weapons and martial shields out of hard light, and can condense herself into a bouncing sphere of hard light, becoming effectively invincible and untouchable at the cost of all mobility. She wears a costume of white and orange with a crossed-blade symbol.

Classification: Striker 5; Shifter 1

  • Absurdly Sharp Blade: The weapons formed by her powers can cut cleanly through just about any mundane material. Her Interlude demonstrates this in gruesome detail when she triggers and fights back against her kidnappers.
  • Abusive Parents: She's of the emotionally abusive variety to Amy, having never been able to truly believe that Amy could be anything other than Marquis' daughter and treating her poorly as a result. It's implied in the story and expanded on in Ward that her relationship with Victoria wasn't exactly warm either.
  • Action Mom: Victoria and Amy's mother (albeit via adoption for the latter) and a superhero in her own right.
  • Be the Ball: She can turn herself into a nearly indestructible ball, but becomes unable to move as a result.
  • Black-and-White Morality: Sees the world in terms of purely good and evil, which is probably where Glory Girl and Panacea get it from. Worse, she couldn't stop seeing Amy as a potential villain because of who her father was, so treated her as a bomb waiting to go off rather than a young, broken girl needing care until way too late. By contrast, couldn't see the issues Victoria was saddled with, either, because "hero".
  • Freudian Excuse: When kidnapped she developed Stockholme Syndrome towards the man who cared for them. When that guy planned to execute her she felt betrayed, triggering in the process. It's very heavily implied that she wants all criminals to be evil because she's still emotionally wounded by the betrayal.
  • Good Is Not Soft: She's on the side of the heroes, but was just looking for an excuse to kill Marquis after they broke into his home and would have killed Amy with the attack that ultimately ended the fight had he not thrown himself in front of it. She didn't know what it was he was protecting at the time, but she still considered it an acceptable gambit.
  • Hard Light: She can form light into weaponry, or into an orb she uses to bounce around.
  • One Degree of Separation: Is friends or at least friendly with Emma's father.
  • Parental Favoritism: According to Victoria, she only has enough compassion in her heart for one daughter due to her own trauma, so she only displays favoritism to Victoria during Worm and neglects Amy, right up until she loses them both.
    • Post-Golden Morning, during Ward, she shows more favoritism to Amy than Victoria.
  • Parental Neglect: She made no secret of the fact that she never wanted to adopt Amy and she admits that her poor parenting was a big factor in the final fate of her two daughters. Ironically, she admits that she only feels like Amy's mother after she drops her off to spend the rest of her life in the Birdcage... having disliked Amy from the beginning because of her resemblance to Marquis.
    • And in the sequel, Ward, this comes into play again for Victoria this time.
  • Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Her unwillingness to see Amy as anything other than a villain in the making all her life was a major contributing factor in the latter becoming a villain by the time of Ward; ironically she gets on better with her adopted daughter after her Face–Heel Turn.
  • That Thing Is Not My Child!: She didn't consider Victoria her child after being warped by Amy, sending her off to the Asylum and having her declared (at least publicly) dead. Even after she's turned back to normal, they never really get as close as before.

    Glory Girl 

Victoria Dallon

''Spotting her target, she whooped and plunged for the ground, gaining speed where anyone else would be slowing down. She hit the asphalt hard enough to crack it and send fragments of it into the air, touching ground with her knee and foot, one arm extended. She stayed in that kneeling position for just heartbeats, letting her platinum curls and the cape that was draped over one of her shoulders flutter in the wake of air that had followed her descent. She met the eyes of her quarry with a steely glare.

She’d practiced that landing for weeks to get it right.''

A tall blonde bombshell, dressed in a white dress (with Modesty Shorts), cape, high boots, and a golden tiara. A Flying Brick who radiates energy that emboldens her allies and frightens her enemies. Crippled during the Slaughterhouse Nine arc and subsequently resides in a parahuman psychiatric hospital.

She later recovers and is the main protagonist of Ward. For tropes related to her appearance there, see here.

Classification: Mover; Brute; Shaker

  • Achilles' Heel: After giving or receiving a big hit, her forcefield shorts out for a brief moment. Crawler manages to shoot her in the face with acid while she's weakened.
  • Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Glory Girl's invulnerability and strength has made her very cocky and arrogant. Tattletale, Skitter, and the Nine prove her attitude is very wrong.
  • A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: If she held in her fury long enough for Panacea to undo her accidental brain rewiring, both she and her sister would be in a much better place mentally and physically at the end of the story. Two years later, as of the start of Ward she has become more conscious of how her temper is one of her problems, and is more dedicated to thinking things out.
  • Ascended Extra: Is the main protagonist of Ward.
  • Black-and-White Morality:
    • Sees the world this in terms of distinct "good" and "evil", hence why she's very violent with criminals.
    • When she interacts with Madison via PM during Glow-worm she seems to have grown out of it, acknowledging that Taylor was a very complicated individual and has mixed feelings overall about her, at one point telling Madison that she's a worse person than Taylor was. That said she still refuses to talk about Golden Morning and what Taylor did.
  • Boisterous Bruiser: She loves to fight and is very vocal while doing it.
  • Brains and Brawn: Subverted. Although Panacea's power-based intuitive knowledge of biology makes her seem to have this dynamic with Glory Girl, Panacea doesn't show higher than average intelligence.
  • David Versus Goliath: The Goliath to Tattletale's David during the Bank Robbery, being the much more physically powerful cape.
  • Emotion Bomb: She can create an aura which causes nearby people to feel awe — which, for her opponents, is basically pure intimidation.
  • Everyone Has Standards: She might not be the most empathetic person, but she can't stand straight up bullies, and told off Emma and her crew for making fun of a disabled girl. She later gives Madison a huge ass-chewing for what she did to Taylor in Glow-worm.
  • Fatal Flaw: Pride. While not quite fatal, her arrogance plays a major role in her ultimate fate in Worm.
  • Fate Worse than Death: Her sister, Panacea, turns her into a horrifying, utterly-paralyzed mockery of herself that can only communicate by blinking. Fortunately she got better in Ward.
  • Flying Brick: Her power includes a unique forcefield that makes her very tough and strong. But after she gives or takes a big hit her forcefield shorts out for a moment, making her vulnerable. Word of God is that she could even survive a direct hit from a Scion laser with her forcefield, but would likely die to the second blow.
  • Genius Bruiser: Is already taking college classes, with her not skipping a grade only so that she can spend more time with her friends.
  • Hero Antagonist: To the Undersiders, being a hero who by nature is in conflict with them.
  • Intimidation Demonstration: She likes to start encounters with bad guys by doing a massive show of force, with one of her signatures being a Ground-Shattering Landing:
    Spotting her target, she whooped and plunged for the ground, gaining speed where anyone else would be slowing down. She hit the asphalt hard enough to crack it and send fragments of it into the air, touching ground with her knee and foot, one arm extended. She stayed in that kneeling position for just heartbeats, letting her platinum curls and the cape that was draped over one of her shoulders flutter in the wake of air that had followed her descent. She met the eyes of her quarry with a steely glare.

    She'd practiced that landing for weeks to get it right.
  • Jerkass: Glory Girl is, as Tattletale put it, a privileged bitch. Although she's not quite as bad as Shadow Stalker, her behavior plays a pretty significant role in convincing Taylor she's better off as a villain.
  • There Was a Door: During the bank robbery, she smashes through the building’s reinforced concrete wall. This gives Tattletale a vital clue to her force field’s weakness.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Panacea calls her out in Interlude 2 for the way she tends to use excessive force (e.g. knocking down a fleeing thug by sending an entire dumpster flying into him).

    Panacea 

Amy Dallon/Amelia Claire Lavere

“Do you understand what it means, to cure some of these people? I feel like every second I take to myself is a second I’ve failed somehow. For two years, it’s been this… pressure. I lie in bed, awake at night, and I can’t sleep. So I get up and I go to the hospital in the middle of the night. Go to pediatrics, cure some kids. Go to the ICU, spare some lives… and it’s all just blending together. I can’t even remember the last few people I saved.”

Panacea is the biological daughter of the supervillain Marquis and the adopted daughter of the capes Flashbang and Brandish. Her power is commonly understood as healing others, but it is actually the ability to control the biology of any creature she touches. She triggered upon a gang managing to harm Glory Girl. She wears a white hooded robe with a red cross on the front and rear, and a scarf covering the lower half of her face. Underneath, she is mousy, with brown frizzy hair and freckles.

Classification: Striker 9

  • Batman Grabs a Gun: Has a strict rule about not using her power on people's brains. She ends up forced to do it by Bonesaw, and subsequently does it impulsively herself on Glory Girl.
  • Because You Were Nice to Me: She eventually comes to kinda trust Taylor since she was the only person who ever tried to honestly help her.
  • Biomanipulation: Her real power is the ability to manipulate the biology of whatever she touches. She pretends to be just a healer but it becomes clear that, excluding her own body and conservation of mass, she can do anything to organic matter with just a touch and a few seconds of thought.
  • Black-and-White Insanity: In most of her interactions with Taylor and the Undersiders prior to the final arc Panacea aggressively categorizes capes as "hero" or "villain" with no grey areas. Following the Leviathan arc, she still views Skitter as some kind of irredeemable villain despite the fact that Skitter had just gone toe to toe with Leviathan for the sole purpose of saving a shelter full of civvies, suffering a broken spinal column in the process. In the Slaughterhouse Nine arc she never stops trying to sabotage the Undersiders despite the fact that they are the primary force opposing the SH9 and saved her life multiple times, all because she still classifies them as 'villains'.
  • Body Horror: What she ends up doing to Glory Girl by turning them into a giant flesh monster.
  • Brains and Brawn: Subverted. Although Panacea's power-based intuitive knowledge of biology makes her seem to have this dynamic with Glory Girl, Panacea doesn't show higher than average intelligence.
  • Deadly Doctor: Her power isn't healing, that's just one thing she can do with it, it's actually complete control of a person's biology.
  • Department of Child Disservices: The start of her problems. New Wave didn't think it would be safe to put the daughter of a supervillain in the system, so they arbitrarily dumped her on the most suitable couple they could find on five minute's notice, not caring that the surrogate parents they forced her onto weren't ready to start raising another child and emphatically didn't want to raise this specific child in particular. On the other hand, Photon & Manpower already had two children and, as they were actually pretty poor at the time financially, genuinely couldn't afford to raise Amy themselves.
  • Despair Event Horizon: After the Body Horror, she ends up just giving up and volunteering to be put in the Birdcage for the sake of everyone else, later becoming a true villain.
  • Failure-to-Save Murder: She's very aware that every moment she's away from a hospital is another moment someone is suffering or dying of something only she can cure. It doesn't help her already fragile mental state.
  • The Fettered: Panacea has strict rules about how she'll use her powers, for what turn out to be very good reasons.
  • Fingore: Ends up losing a few fingers over the course of the Slaughterhouse Nine arc.
  • Fountain of Youth: Panacea is mentioned to have the ability to de-age someone twenty years with her healing abilities.
  • Freudian Excuse: Raised by a clinically depressed father and a mother who didn't love her after being taken from her loving, but evil, supervillain father as a child.
  • Generation Xerox: Much like Marquis, she also has an inflexible code of rules.
  • Healing Hands: Panacea can heal with a touch and has all the Required Secondary Powers that go with it.
  • Incest-ant Admirer: Much to Panacea's chagrin, the fact that she's adopted really does nothing to negate Glory Girl's disgust at her sister being in love with her.
  • Love Makes You Crazy: Her love for her adopted sister, Glory Girl, causes her to end up in a very bad place mentally via modifying her sexuality.
  • The Medic: The common understanding of Panacea's power, though unfortunately she lacks a personal Healing Factor due to her powers only working on other people.
  • Mind over Manners: Says she will never use her powers on the brain. She doesn't stick to this forever...
  • Mind Rape: Regent describes her modifying Glory Girl's mind to love her as she does as this.
  • Mundane Utility: Her entire use of her power is this. All of the powers are designed to be weapons, her control of biology was presumably intended to be used to create biological weapons.
  • Not Blood Siblings: Has a crush on Glory Girl, her adopted stepsister.
  • Plaguemaster: Can turn any microbe that touches her skin into a deadly plague.
  • Power Incontinence: She experiences a loss of control that causes her to brainwash Glory Girl immediately after she was targeted by Bonesaw.
  • Raised by Rival: She's Marquis' daughter, raised by the superheroes who defeated him.
  • Required Secondary Powers: Panacea mentions that she's unable to get sick, though she can't control her own biology like she can with others.
  • Samaritan Syndrome: Spends hours every day going to hospitals and curing people, because she couldn't live with herself if she didn't. She's already suffering unacknowledged and untreated emotional burn-out from the beginning of the story, as a result.
  • Sanity Slippage: Gradually begins suffering from this when Bonesaw first visits her. It eventually culminates in her attempting to "heal" Glory Girl and the resulting Body Horror, and Amy finally requesting that she be sent to the Birdcage for everyone's safety.
  • Sex Is Evil, and I Am Horny: Or "using your powers on the brain is evil". Despite this being one of the moral lines she obsesses over not crossing, she winds up using her power to make Victoria love her.
  • Shadow Archetype: To Taylor. Where Taylor is an ethical utilitarian who believes that ends justify the means, Panacea's idea of morality is based entirely on arbitrary rules and black and white categorization. Where Taylor has a fairly limited power that she uses in creative ways to get maximum versatility, Panacea has a power with almost unlimited versatility and utility, but arbitrarily limits herself to using it in only a handful of ways.
  • Psycho Lesbian: Mind rapes her straight sister into loving her, and then regular-rapes her several times.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Tattletale, Glory Girl, and Panacea herself are horrified by her accidentally rewiring Victoria's mind so that she's attracted to girls, more specifically Panacea..

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