Amelia (TanaNari) (Fanfic)

Amelia is a completed Worm fanfic written by TanaNari.

The tale diverges from Worm on the day the Slaughterhouse Nine retreated from Brockton Bay. They've pushed Amy Dallon to the edge of madness, but instead of cracking under pressure the way she did in Worm, she transcends her self-imposed restrictions and starts using her power to its full potential. After curb-stomping the Nine with an assist from the Undersiders, she recruits Taylor, Lisa, and Riley to form a new superhero team, Pantheon. Leveraging Amy's ability to create living weapons with arthropod-like nervous systems that Taylor can control, and Riley's cybernetic Tinker skills to create powered armor that enhances parahuman abilities, Pantheon sets out to change the world for the better... whether the world wants to change or not.

The fic can be found here on Questionable Questing, here on Sufficient Velocity.com, here on SpaceBattles.com, and here on Archive of Our Own.

This work contains examples of:

Adaptational Badass: Khonsu, Tohu and Bohu put up a much more respectable showing here than in canon.
Adaptive Ability: The Endbringers. It's a known fact that they've been sandbagging, and once sufficiently pushed will quickly stop powers and tactics from working against them. Especially so for the non-canon new ones, who come into battle specifically designed to nullify whatever has worked against them before; Barghest's teleporting and Tele-Frag makes him far too mobile for Lily's, Sabah's and Missy's Power Combo that supposedly killed The Simurgh to be effective. Wendigo's core is completely decentralised, so she lacks any exploitable Achilles' Heel, and starts the battle intangible making her hard to hit. Beelzebub copies Taylor's tactic of hiding in another dimension where it can't be accessed (and by extension hurt) and fighting through minions. Among the canon ones, Khonsu has ablative skin so Sting won't penetrate very far and it's time abilities mean it can heal faster than Lily can hurt it, and Tohu's trump abilities mean she can copy Taylor's power and hijack Pantheon's primary Meat Shields.
Affectionate Nickname: Once everyone's more comfortable around her, the gang refer to Riley as Mushroom.
All Your Powers Combined: Chernobog. He's Grue after he goes off the deep end after Aisha's death and presumably has his canon Second Trigger allowing him to copy other cape's powers. One of his victims is the now near brain dead Victor, so he now gets to keep reduced versions of the powers that he copies, and can drain the original if her ever needs the real deal. He has at least Victor, Fenja/Menja, Othala, Uber, Leet and Crawler in his powerset.
And I Must Scream: Valefor. After having his face mutilated by Riley he gets thrown in The Birdcage. Having already earned Marquis' wrath for trying to kill his daughter, and none of the other leaders wanting him, Marquis and Teacher collude to have the man publicly castrate himself (they thought Lustrum would enjoy that), then subjected to surgery and had his power modified so that everyone Valefor touches sees him as their ideal woman, and lives out the rest of his days as a sex slave for hire, aware of what's been done to him but unable to do anything about it.
And Then What?: After dealing with Piggot, who's unrepentant about her part in it and thus makes it easy, Bryan asks this question of himself regarding capes who were involved in Aisha's death but feel genuine remorse for it, like Legend, who could have stepped in to stop the Slaughterhouse 9 bombings, but didn't because it was against protocol.
Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Everyone in Pantheon and their associates, really. Taylor and Amelia merge with Eden's body and use it to defeat Scion and subsequently Abadon. Dragon got a new Entity body and later took Defiant with her. Many pairs subsequently take the plunge; Chevalier and Victoria. Sabah and Lily. Alexandria and Tattletale. Emma and Zach. Sveta and Weld.
Asshole Victim: the members of Fenrir's Chosen captured by Chernobog.
The Atoner: Many members of Pantheon have this as a major element of their motivation.
- Amy, for the accidental Mind Rape of her sister, and for all the lives she could have saved if she'd started using her power to its full potential sooner, including those of her uncle and cousin.
- Taylor, for her crimes as a member of the Undersiders.
- Riley, for her crimes as a member of the Slaughterhouse Nine.
- Zach, for never telling his childhood friend Erica that he loved her (it might have kept her from dating some of the creepy older guys who took advantage of her, and if she'd been with him during Leviathan's attack she probably would have survived).
- Emma, for her betrayal and bullying of Taylor.
- Theo, for his father's crimes as the leader of Empire 88, and his own failure to oppose his father while the latter was alive.
- Sveta, for the people her power killed when she was Garotte.
Armor-Piercing Question: Lisa, of all people, is hit with one of these, when an emotions Tinker (Rapture) asks her "When was the last time you used your powers on yourself?"
Awesome, but Impractical: Pantheon's armours are absolute marvels, enabling any who wear them to punch well above their weight, but the personalised ones are a nightmare to repair if they ever get damaged.
Badass Boast:
- Khepri has one that convinces the remnants of the Empire 88 that it's time to leave town. From four miles away.
"DoyOu know hOW manY bEEs arein sIx MILesof fARm? IdO."
- Emma has one for Sophia when the latter acts up during a prison visit:
"I am stronger than you, faster than you, tougher than you. I have five ways to see you, three ways to kill you, and twelve other ways to hunt you down even without the part where I'm in command of the most powerful Tinker organization ever to exist. Think about all of that before you come near me or anyone I care about ever again. Goodbye, Sophia."
Batman Can Breathe in Space: Flechette's armor can survive in orbit, and get her to The Moon if she so desired.
Bittersweet Ending: Lots of love and W.A.F.F. in the epilogues, but some people had to grow up without their parents.
Blessed with Suck: Akaihana. She can copy and wield all the powers of up to four other parahumans at once, but she needs physical contact to acquire them, and the more intimate and longer-lasting the contact is, the longer she can keep the power. When she's around someone with an especially strong power, her own power takes control of her behavior in order to seek that contact, while her actual personality curls up in a corner of her mind crying in embarrassment.
Blood Knight: Victoria had tendencies in this direction when she was Glory Girl, and it intensifies after her resurrection and re-triggering (which might have something to do with the fact that her shard was an offshoot of Bonesaw's).
Blue-and-Orange Morality: Emma's thought processes are consumed with trying to get back in Taylor's good books. She goes through getting Powers through a Cauldron vial and does a lot of crazy stuff thinking that if she does enough good deeds, Taylor will have to like her again. You know it's messed up when Bonesaw says to her face that she's deluded.
Body Backup Drive: They have this. Also, Neural Implanting.
Body Horror: The story drips with this.
- The threat of this is what gets Coil to begin working with Pantheon after Riley cracks his power and threatens parasitic worms bursting out of his flesh if he doesn't comply. Because of how his power works, he feels it anyway.
- On one occasion Taylor gets decapitated as the only way to save her life and is still mobile via spider legs attached to her severed head. This may also count a s Brain in a Jar. Yes, Riley, we saw what you did there.
Break the Haughty: Lisa deals Emma a psychological Shatterpoint Tap; after that, she self-inflicts her own Trauma Conga Line with a little help from Riley (who was sincerely trying to help, but still learning how think like a normal person instead of Bonesaw) and Cauldron. Thanks to one of her Breaker states, she becomes a literal Defrosting Ice Queen after getting her powers.
Breaking the Fellowship: After Lisa quits, none of the original founders of Pantheon are all together as part of the group anymore.
Broken Bird: Vista. She's seen what happens to anyone who tries to make a difference to the world, and firmly believes Pantheon will be no different.
- Lisa. Part of the reason she is a complete bitch is because she has watched her Only Friend die due to something that was partly her fault (even if she only nominally admits as much), and has seen her replaced (twice) with no one batting an eyelid in spite of her own opinions on whether the clones are different people or not, so she feels like she's the only one who thinks she's gone and mourn her which she finds quite insulting. She knows no one likes her, and that no one will miss her when she eventually decides to leave (if fact pretty much everyone is glad to finally be rid of her). At heart she is extremely traumatised and is lashing out at everyone.
Came Back Wrong: According to Lisa, all of the backups loaded via Body Backup Drive are this.
Canon Marches On: Inevitable due to the release of Ward. For example:
- Brian going on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge to avenge Aisha's death. With the way Aisha's power works, there's a good chance he wouldn't even remember she existed.
- This story was written before Ward delved into some of the weirdness around cloning dead parahumans, which would probably come up in Pantheon's experiments.
Can't Kill You, Still Need You: The ultimate reason as to why Riley was allowed into Pantheon. Later the only reason they don't kick Lisa out. Until she eventually quits of her own volition.
Clingy Jealous Girl: Amelia seems to have come to this realisation about herself and has moved past that. It's Lily who has the problem the most. Ultimately it's why she and Parian break up. Vicky also has issues post resurrection
Combo Platter Powers: those who take Cauldron formulas after receiving Riley's pre-treatment (such as Emma) tend to get these, as do the people who re-trigger after being killed by Bakuda's crystallization bomb and restored with Pantheon's cloning and Neural Implanting tech (such as Vicky and Prism).
Conservation of Ninjutsu: Victoria's analysis of The Yangban's power sharing arrangements. The originator of the Power going at her with the full powered version may have been able to stop her. Lots of people with badly watered down versions are barely an inconvenience.
Cosmic Horror Story: This is the eventual culmination of the characters' efforts to save the world. Though nobody complains. Much.
Cruel Mercy: After breaking into prison to murder her for her part in Aisha's death, Bryan sees what state Piggot is in and decides that it's more torturous than anything he could do to her, so he let's her live after stealing her memories of PRT secrets so he can continue his Roaring Rampage of Revenge. Seems to be the right call; she's degenerated into a raving lunatic when Pantheon's and The PRT's utterly staged attack on Ellisburg and Nilbog makes the news.
Deus Exit Machina: Justified trope. Some characters get into the too powerful to live range. So they retire to political careers and leave the superheroics part to the more PR friendly members. At least until it's time to punch out Cthulhu and possibly break your arm doing it.
- Others (Crystal, for instance) quit because they're no longer powerful enough to be on the team.
Distant Finale: 300 years later.
- Esoteric Happy Ending: Taylia passes over rulership of Avalon to her 3 x Great Grandson Daniel and alongside her husband Reginald joins with an Entity and takes to the Stars to rejoin her family who did the same so long ago.
Doomed Hometown: Thanks to Wendigo's ever expanding explosions every time she evolved, Brockton Bay, eventually.
Doorstopper: This is a particularly long fic, clocking in at around 670,000 words in total on Sufficient Velocity and over 750,000 words on Archive of Our Own.
Double Entendre: Most of chapter 189 consists of Theo overhearing a conversation between Pantheon's three Noctis capes, Zach, Vicky, and Emma, about the night they've just spent sparring; every single line makes it sound as though they were engaged in an extremely energetic threesome. While the sexual interpretation of their conversation is false, the sparring session was a plot on Vicky's part to get Zach and Emma together.
Earn Your Happy Ending: This story bears the title of "the darkest fixfic". TanaNari bears the title of "Verified Dick". Doubles as Truth in Advertising.
Ensemble Cast: Although the story is technically based around Amelia, quite a few chapters showcase other characters.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: A variation of this leads to the death of Scion.
Eye Scream: Riley putting her fingers through Valefor's eyes and ripping his face off at the same time.
Facial Dialogue: How Minerva and Alexandria often communicate.
Framing the Guilty Party: Post downfall of The Fallen, a seeming Copycat Killer takes out some of their remaining members in Indianapolis, leading to Pantheon visiting the place. Turns out the local Mafia was responsible, and one of their own dumped literally dumped the bodies in one of the PRT's conference rooms to force them to do something about it. Said PRT director did the frame up to get Pantheon involved in order to save his own career. This all results in Arriana Capello joining Pantheon as Janus.
Fridge Horror: Constantly. Including Ascended Fridge Horror. Plus a healthy dose of standard Fridge Logic and good ol' fashioned Nightmare Fuel.
Gambit Pileup: The finale. Pantheon has been plotting for years, Cauldron for decades, Lisa has been plotting how to make Pantheon's plans unnecessary, and then you have Scion's Path.
Godzilla Threshold: Advances even faster than in canon (which is saying something).
Go Mad from the Isolation: Lily suffers from a great deal of psychological burn out from fighting Khonsu, diving into a Time Dilation Field and spending from her perspective 7 and a half months doing nothing but firing on it (and it proved to be All for Nothing anyway), spending significant time benched recovering and making her even more clingy to Sabah. It may have contributed to Lily and Sabah eventually breaking up and the former's decline in actually thinking about what she's doing in the field that got Missy killed.
Go Out with a Smile: See Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence. Defiant in particular is noted as smiling for the first time since Dragon's death; when she returns a new Entity, despite knowing he'll be giving up his individuality, he bonds with her happily. Many others make the same choice.
Green Thumb: Amy quickly begins to make extensive use of plant based material for her biotinkering.
The Heart: Crystal fulfills this role the most, being the one who everyone gets on with. Weirdly, Zach fills this role as The Class Clown; he makes himself look stupid just to get everyone else to laugh, knowing that he can take jokes at his own expense, to help keep morale up.
Heel–Face Brainwashing: Coil, done on screen. Moord Nag, done partially off screen. "Half of China's leadership", done off screen.
Heel–Face Turn: Pantheon includes a lot of former villains, including three of the four founding members. After recruiting Bonesaw, it's pretty hard for Amelia to justify refusing anyone else a second chance to do the right thing.
Heterosexual Life-Partners: Taylor and Amelia until their wedding. Then it becomes If It's You, It's Okay. Also, exaggerated due to shard-based pair bonding.
Humans Are Bastards: The only reason humanity won in the end.
If It's You, It's Okay:
- Taylor tries a forced version of this before the wedding, and it ends very badly.
- Missy and Clarice end up with this, which is part of the reason their relationship with Theo works.
If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: Taylor's parting ultimatum to Lisa after she resigns and makes it clears she's in for only herself now; do anything to Taylor's loved ones, Lisa gets given to Bonesaw. And no one will ever know...
Inferiority Superiority Complex: Ruth comes to the conclusion that this is why Lisa acts the way she does. Part is also out of spite, because she wants everyone else to be as miserable as she is deep down.
Jerkass Ball: Lisa goes juggling with it.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Zach. Behind the obnoxious horny geek/frat boy act and offensive humor, he's a decent guy who cares for his teammates and wants to do good in the world.
Kill Sat: Bolla, Dragon's Orbital Cannon. Endbringer remains went into the construction.
- Flechette's armor allows her to do it too.
Klingon Promotion: Amelia challenges Jack Slash for leadership of the Slaughterhouse Nine and wins. And effectively immediately disbands it; she and Riley are the only ones left.
Like Brother and Sister: Chevalier and Rime. They are Adopted Siblings.
Literal Metaphor: Being so embarrassed that you'd wish the ground would swallow you up. It actually happens thanks to Lisa's prodding, and Amy nearly gets Buried Alive. Amy returns the favour when she recovers, after Crystal has already broken some of Lisa's ribs
Loophole Abuse: After The Fallen attack on Pantheon and Valefor's subsequent maiming and incarceration, Taylor makes sure to make him "suffer permanently". Amy immediately suspects Riley, but Taylor knows Riley would never agree to that. So she asked Blasto to do it instead.
Mafia Princess: Arriana Capello aka Janus
- Gender Bender: Partly for Witness Protection for selling out her own Mafia family, partly for Gender Indentity issues, she has Pantheon give her a sex change, and goes now by Eric. The original remains on file however if Eric ever decides to change his mind.
Meaningful Name: Taylia, Taylor's and Amelia's daughter and parting gift to the world, an embodiment of the bond they once shared.
Meaningful Rename
- It's right there in the title: Amy reverts to her pre-adoption name (possibly not her birth name, as Marquis may have renamed her when her mother died and left him to raise her) of Amelia Claire Lavere to underline her break with New Wave and her rejection of the restrictions Carol Dallon pressured her into accepting.
- All the characters who had cape names before joining Pantheon change them to the names of gods and goddesses with some relevance to their powers: Amelia becomes Gaia, Taylor is Khepri, Lisa is Minerva, Riley is Aceso (the lesser-known younger sister of Panacea in Greek mythology), etc.
- Clarice was originally an alias for Riley's changeling, but as she grows away from her past life as Bonesaw and forms a relationship with Missy and Theo, who knew her as Clarice before they learned about her past, she drops her original name and starts using the alias as her true identity; she also gradually modifies her appearance until she looks like the changeling, and not at all like her original self.
Mythology Gag: Amelia mentions to Lisa that altering or even removing powers is surprisingly easy, stating that someone could perform the necessary “surgery” with a couple of bullets, “if [their] aim was good enough.” Which is precisely how Contessa depowers Taylor, in canon.
- PHO speculating on the method how Skitter killed The Siberian is exactly what she did in canon to kill Alexandria; bug asphyxiation.
Killed Offscreen: Happens to a few characters; most notably, Genius Loci.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Dream Girl's attempt to manipulate Riley by intensifying her feelings for Theo plays a key role in furthering Riley's redemption arc and propels her toward her ultimate happy ending.
No Guy Wants to Be Chased: Vicky finds this out with Chevalier. She gets him eventually, though.
Nothing Is the Same Anymore: Victoria after she's been brought Back from the Dead, and discovers how much the world has moved on without her. Her Hero team has disintegrated, her adopted sister has disowned her family and is now dating a Supervillain, her Aunt has moved on and is now dating said Supervillain's dad, her parents have separated, and she's lost her powers. Some of her more idiotic moments at this time can be handwoven that she's having a major Heroic BSoD phase.
Not Quite Dead: The Simurgh. The capes believe Phir Se's time bomb obliterated her, but she used some dimension hopping tinkertech to escape to an uninhabited dimension where she'll never be found, intending to sit out the rest of The Cycle.
"Not So Different" Remark: Due to using Tinkertech drugs that results in a Heroic RRoD and being benched, Missy is beating up a punching bag to blow off stress while the rest of Pantheon is fighting Beelzebub. She wonders when she and Sophia became so alike as to curse her own helplessness and weakness while attacking something that can't fight back.
N-Word Privileges: Author Invoked with the final operation to take out the Yangban being given the name Operation: Chink In The Armor. Tana Nari is part Chinese. And the targets thoroughly deserve it.
Offscreen Moment of Awesome: For The Endbringers. Tohu and Bohu make their debut and Pantheon gets absolutely annihilated, nearly suffering a Total Party Kill; only Pantheon's cloning tech is able to salvage something of the situation. Partly because of their reliance on Taylor's bugs to fight Endbriners. So Tohu simply copies Taylor's powers and hijacks them from under her nose. The two subsequently the only Endbringers Pantheon are genuinely afraid of.
Our Zombies Are Different: A relatively minor but vital role.
Out of Focus: Grue, until it was revealed that he had been Put on a Bus. (Literally, to Mexico).
Plot Armor: Eidolon's real power. He literally cannot lose; the other Shards and the Endbringers won't let him. And when he deliberately tries to lose, he crashes the Endbringers. Zach promptly declares him a Mary Sue. Unfortunately Scion can do the exact same thing to High Priest.
Polyamory: Missy, Riley, and Theo end up in a blissfully happy relationship. It helps that the girls were best friends before either of them got close with the guy, and that Riley's personality is a deliberate creation rather than the product of natural genetic and environmental shaping; she didn't see any need to include jealousy as a component when reconstructing herself.
Power at a Price: Echo Chamber. She gives everyone around her Thinker abilities, at the cost of Thinker Headaches for all involved afterwards. Miss Militia knows she isn't called on often for that reason.
Powered Armor: Combined with Named Weapon. A lot of Pantheon's success is down to the tinker-armor that is gifted to the team on joining and proving their worth, each tailored to each member's particular strengths and raising them several tiers in the rankings, with some speculated to now be Triumvirate tier. They eventually start offering this service, incompatibility notwithstanding, to affiliates.
Running Gag: there are many of these.
- The kitty shower (also, a Noodle Incident of sorts, as we never actually see it).
- Zach's grasshoppers (for no less than three definitions of the word "gag").
- Lisa and Alexandria flirting with each other via Facial Dialogue.
- Flat "What": Used as a running gag a lot, usually with internal monologue "what" preceding the spoken "what." ((What. "What?")) Subverted sometimes, with use of variants on the word 'what' like 'pardon' and 'huh'.
- References to Taylor's first, not-so-friendly encounter with Amelia during the bank robbery in Arc 3 of Worm as their "first date."
  - A meme on Parahumans Online:
    "Normal romance: start a conversation while waiting in a bank. Pantheon romance: start a conversation while robbing a bank."
  - After Amelia is forced to anesthetize Taylor with her power in order to protect her from a form of psychic attack:
    I set the healing pod down and awakened Taylor.
    "Wha-" she asked ever so eloquently as she sat up. "My head hurts."
    "It's going to for a little while," I apologized. "I had to knock you out. Sorry."
    "Did you use another fire extinguisher?" she asked.
- The author's use of the word 'Foreshadowing' after most chapters finish.
Scry vs. Scry: Very much present, with the equivalent of ECM making an appearance. As a matter of fact, different brands of SCM (Scry Counter Measures) through different causes make an appearance. One of them allows the defeat of an otherwise Story-Breaker Power character and facilitates the events of the epilogue.
Schmuck Bait: The end of chapter 13 suggests you not look up Guinea Worms. As to whether you listen or not...
Shout-Out: Quite a few.
- A subverted one in Chapter 19: Cherish assumes that Bonesaw calling herself "Clarice" is a reference to The Silence of the Lambs, but Bonesaw's never seen it — she's not allowed to watch scary movies. The name is actually a tribute to her "Big Sister," Amelia Claire Lavere.
- To Wildbow's own Choose-Your-Own-Adventure-style forum game, "PRT Quest: Anchorage" in Chapter 140. Lisa and Crystal are getting on Taylor's nerves:
Taylor (narrating): I just sighed and resolved that the next city that Pantheon claimed permanently would be in Alaska. I would assign both Lisa and Crystal to manage that site. Forever. Surely there was a PRT Director up there that would appreciate the help.
- To Dragonball Z Abridged in chapter 156. Zach repeats Krillin's "bitch" rant to Butcher's face while she's trying to kill him.
- To Dwarf Fortress in chapter 216. When Lisa implies that Endbringer battles are supposed to be "fun", Zach jokingly suspects Tarn Adams of creating the Endbringers.
- To Pandemic in chapter 227. Nilbog is exiled to the Madagascar of Earth Avalon.
- Possible one to Dungeons & Dragons in chapter 246, regarding the relative rarity of resistance to sonic attacks, compared to fire, cold, lightning, and acid:
For whatever reason very few parahumans were resistant to sonic attacks, and a great many were especially vulnerable to them.
- Two of the alternate Earths Pantheon claims are termed Avalon and Mashu.
Considering FGO was released in Japan in July 2015, two months after Amelia's final epilogue chapter in May 2015, that seems unlikely.
Someone Has to Die: Taylor deciding this is the only way she can take out Butcher.
- Riley thinks that this is the only way out when she, Taylor, Theo, Zach, and Missy are trapped under the ocean after their fight with the Yangban goes badly, and that she's the obvious candidate to be sacrificed, having the least mission-critical power. Taylor comes up with a better idea (see Body Horror above).
Spanner in the Works: Beelzebub the Endbringer. Taylor and Amy were dead as doornails after Scion was finished with them. Bub's pre-established ability to infect organisms to fight as it's proxies works on corpses, allowing T & A to get back up, make it to Cauldron and merge with Eden to get the power needed to kill Scion. No Beelzebub? Scion would have won. Perhaps that's why they chose the 'Let it live' timeline when it attacked Paris.
Statuesque Stunner: Amy is a bit jealous because her power let's her understand that Taylor's body when its finished growing would be considered a "statuesque supermodel".
Stopped Caring: Shaman, while talking to Rosary (who's a member of ardently Christian Haven) about the existence of God, takes this viewpoint of religion. A lot of it is so that he doesn't ever have to waste his time arguing with a Know-Nothing Know-It-All.
Strong, but Unskilled: The Siberian.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Pantheon's internal relationships aren't the best. Taylor has considerable reservations about Riley being on the team, even if she understands that Amy needs her help if they are to fulfill their goals. In fact Riley's presence is a ongoing issue for many members and a PR problem in the making if it ever got out. Conversely, Amy and Lisa regularly butt heads, with Amy not forgiving Lisa for what happened at The Bank, and Lisa being unrepentant about it, an attitude the latter carries into her dealings with everyone else. But again because she's useful and Taylor's friend she tolerates it. Lily is not particularly well liked either after her short tint as a team leader and her ineptitude as such leads her accidentally killing Missy (luckily they get her to Riley in time) and now Riley and Theo won't work with her. Post revival Victoria is pretty open with her dislike of Taylor and Lisa. Riley is the only one who actually likes having Emma around. Just about the only one everyone gets on with is Crystal. The only one above all this is Blasto; as he's quite a bit older than the rest he refuses to take part in all the shenanigans and just does his job.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Lisa is well aware that excepting Taylor everyone else in Pantheon is at best indifferent to her and in most cases actively despises her (and Lily quite possibly wants to kill her). Which helps inform her decision when she eventually decides to quit and join Alexandria in Cauldron; nobody want her there and quite frankly she doesn't want to be there anymore.
Throw the Dog a Bone: As a parting gift, Taylor and Amelia give Lisa the ability to turn her powers off.
Took a Level in Badass: Sveta. Once she given the Victoria/Chevalier treatment to partially cure her of her Case 53 status and gets control of her powers, she's Alexandria tier.
- Chevalier. After having his powers and equipment analysed by Pantheon, they incorporate Endbringer tissue into his kit making it hit that much harder, and discover a way for him to temporarily give Parahumans another's powers, or transfer injuries to one with a Healing Factor, boosting his Trump rating.
Took a Level in Jerkass: Bryan, after he rebrands as Chernobog. He has stolen Victor's powers to the point of rendering him a vegetable, is in a partnership with (while actively leeching off) Uber and Leet, has Othala and Fenja locked up in his basement to leech off of them, and basically acts like he's a walking Abusive Realtionship.
Wham Line: So many.
- Last lines of Chapter 7, Amelia strikes her bargain with Taylor:
"What I'm planning will get us a lot of enemies. Not the least of which: the Protectorate. But, if you're willing to be my general, I will give you an army."
- Near the end of Chapter 8, Jack begs Bonesaw to save him after he's been mortally wounded, and she hoists him by his own petard:
"Sorry, Jack. I'm a good girl, and good girls don't break the rules."
- Chapter 114, Alexandria discovers that Bonesaw is alive and working with Pantheon, at the same time Pantheon learns her secret identity:
"Endbringer truce," Taylor interrupted. Oh god thank you. "We don't attack each other during the truce. We don't reveal identities learned during the truce, either. You never saw her. Did you, Chief Director?"
- Dream Girl tries to manipulate Riley by tapping into her memories of her mother, but her mother's last words don't mean they did when she was Bonesaw:
The mental association changed, replacing her with a face I thought I'd forgotten. Or maybe I had forgotten, and her power, or perhaps simple retroactive interference, filled in the blanks. "No!" she exclaimed. "Riley, you can't! You're a good girl!"
"No I'm not."
Yaoi Fangirl: Aceso, Lachesis & Hecate when they set Osiris and Horus (who fyi aren't gay) up for a kiss on prodding from Tir (who is) over how the latter saved the former's life.
Zerg Rush: Averted. Yes, they were called Zerg. They failed, repeatedly, to take down even one Endbringer, or Scion himself.
- Not that this was ever really the point. They were there mostly so that fewer capes had to take hits.