19.3

Worm, Chapter 19.3 Summary:

Tattletale’s outburst had put the group in a precarious position, surrounded by heroes who didn’t trust them. Skitter, mindful of the listening Wards and Scapegoat, subtly chastised Tattletale for her ill-timed provocation of the Triumvirate, emphasizing the need to avoid making enemies and risking a kill order. Tattletale, though somewhat dismissive, agreed to avoid seeming dangerous.

They discussed strategy with the Chicago Wards. Wanton explained that Myrddin had collected the radioactive material, but his other form felt weak. Raymancer had suffered severe radiation poisoning. Skitter, recalling Grue’s distress, advised Tecton to focus on the present situation and help Raymancer after they survived. Tecton, surprisingly, expressed faith in Myrddin’s ability to handle Raymancer’s care.

Skitter suggested blaming her for the armband incident, but Regent offered to take the blame. Tecton refused, not wanting to be responsible for their deaths. They discussed their next steps: Skitter wanted to resupply and retrieve Atlas, while Tattletale wanted to meet with the remaining Travelers and Faultline’s Crew.

They found the Travelers in custody, with Trickster absent. Genesis, Sundancer, and Ballistic were immobilized by containment foam, while Scrub was buried in the road. Gully, a member of Wards West, greeted them and explained that she was temporarily in charge. Tecton and Gully shared a moment of camaraderie, revealing their history and mutual respect.

Tattletale approached Scrub, revealing her theory about his power. She believed he was transplanting matter to another Earth, not simply annihilating it. To demonstrate, she had Gully extract a section of road hit by one of Scrub’s blasts, revealing a subtle change in the road’s texture.

Tattletale explained her theory about powers and their limitations. She posited that passengers connect capes to parallel Earths, allowing them to draw power and avoid self-harm. Scrub, for example, shunted matter to another Earth while simultaneously pulling in more permanent elements, preventing him from destroying the ground beneath him. Similarly, Shadow Stalker displaced her mass between Earths, and Sundancer shunted heat to another world.

Skitter questioned her own power’s source, and Tattletale suggested she might be leeching energy from other Earths. The implications of potentially harming other worlds disturbed Skitter. Tattletale further theorized that passengers might be massive entities residing on other Earths, connected to capes through a thread to their brains, processing their abilities and channeling necessary energies.

Tattletale proposed that Echidna might have a broken or demented passenger, or that her passenger was trying to enter their world. She believed understanding passengers was crucial to stopping or fixing Echidna. However, she acknowledged that powerful individuals might oppose their investigation into Cauldron.

Tattletale then proposed a radical plan: tearing a hole between dimensions.