Blackhoof

disintegration dɪsˌɪntɪˈɡreɪʃ(ə)n/ noun noun: disintegration 1. the process of losing cohesion or strength. "the twin problems of economic failure and social disintegration" 2. the process of coming to pieces. "the disintegration of infected cells" so.... smaller water pieces? that come back together anyway? I feel like that word only applies to solids....

hmm would it work like that? his field would constantly disintegrate everything near him into smaller components, and i assume get rid of some of its mass, like the tensors. so water would come near him, and be broken down into... hmmm a smaller mount of water? water vapor? hydrogen and oxygen atoms? I'm not sure what disintegrated water would be like, come to think of it.

@Comatose: hey coma, may I ask for some clarification as to where Rainmaker and the Queens are in relation to the crowd? on a stage or something? and also, where is the crowd actually gathered? in a field? in a town square? just need help visualising and such. true, but he could vaporize anything winterspell creates, unless i've misunderstood his power as working on anything nonliving. well Iconoclast is an Uno Hellfire is also sort of an Uno, but temporarily makes a... Hexon? Hexagon? with the Destructors in Astoria.

The sky darkened rapidly as Iconoclast ran through the streets, small groups of vanillas and Epics converging on the location of the meeting. Apparently Rainmaker wanted to quell the rioters or somesuch nonsense... well.... that would not do at all. In his peripheral vision he caught sight of a storm drain and suddenly he remembered. His safeguard! Couldn't go into a dangerous situation without a safeguard, now could he? He came to a sudden stop, digging his heals in and bracing himself as his momentum caused him to skid along the ground for several metres before coming to a stop. With a twist and a rough jerk, he ripped off his left hand with his right, and tossed it into the drain. After years of regenerating constant injuries, he had lost all sense of pain, merely feeling a mild discomfort, followed by a tingling as his hand grew back. If his body was every fully vaporised- as had occurred a few times, fighting Epics, he would regrow from the next largest piece of him left. So he always left a few pieces scattered around, wherever he went, as a back-up. Too bad they started rotting once separated from him, and were prone to being eaten by scavengers. His gruesome delay complete, Iconoclast took up a more sedate pace as he followed the masses to the gathering. Wouldn't want to draw suspicion to himself by being conspicuous, now would he? No... better keep them guessing. Ten minutes later, he was at the gathering, and he noticed a smaller, second group separate from the main congregation, surrounded by riot-gear-equipped police officers. Police. Corrupt, amoral, traitorous police. Iconoclast felt his teeth being bared, and extending to cruel points, his vision growing hazy. "No, not yet! Wait!" He growled under his breath to himself. He needed to bide his time. Observe. Soon. The weather, a light drizzle, went unnoticed by him. He suddenly saw Rainmaker- or the Epic he was certain was her- flanked by what must be the Queens of Corvallis, at the head of the crowd, observing them all with imperious eyes. Iconoclast looked at each one individually, trying to figure out which was which. Firefly had been too stupid and inattentive to give him much about their appearances, but he had told him that Bubbles was fond of blue hoodies.... one of which she must have been wearing now. He smiled, like a crocodile observing its meal. She needed to die, certainly. Without her, Rainmaker would lose control of traffic in and out of her city, and without secure borders her "paradise" would lose its security, and quickly fall into anarchy. "Well," he thought, looking at the rioters, "the process would be hastened, certainly. Lets see how these Queens react to a few more rioters joining the picture..." Moving to the edge of the crowd, Iconoclast found himself mere metres from the edge of the police line. Only a line of vanillas and a few metres separated him from warm, fresh traitor blood- no! He couldn't move yet. Iconoclast smiled, and grabbed two vanillas on the shoulder. But his Ghouls could. Channelling his power into them, he turned them, and as their faces became twisted, bestial masks of rage, he directed their minds towards Rainmaker's policemen. He let them go, and they pushed through the few humans in their way, ignoring them utterly. The two Ghouls snarled and growled as they leapt towards the officers, tackling them and clawing at their face guards. Iconoclast didn't care what happened next- he was already moving, turning two more humans and sending them screaming at the traitors. He repeated this, and soon some people were following of their own accord, attacking the officers in a futile attempt to break the ring of police surrounding the rioters. The rioters pushed back as well, and soon the orderly division was breaking down into a swirling melee of Epics, police and angry vanillas. It wouldn't last long once the Epics began using their powers in earnest, though. Iconoclast smiled and watched his handiwork. How he loved it when he made people fight. He turned his gaze onto Rainmaker and her Queens, curious as to how they would react, and began moving towards them through the crowd. Most High Epics were reckless and would lash out if their plans were interrupted, make mistakes.... if they did, they might present an opening. One gap, one chance... and Bubbles was as good as dead.

haha Des is just facing the worst opponent he could face well Hawk would just keep reincarnating, but I'm sure you would find a way to deal with him more permanently while squashing him over and over again it is hilariously op hahaha Yeah, given Steelheart's power levels, I doubt he would be able to starve either. And if he is trapped he could probably sleep eventually, depends where he is. Issue is trapping him somewhere.

Ah fair enough- I had blood in my memory for some reason. in that case acid would certainly count haha.

wasn't it drawing blood though? Maybe I just remember it wrong, but I remember blood being involved. Acid wouldn't really "draw blood", would it? More like dissolve skin, dissolve blood, etc. I guess it could count though.

thanks! I was worried it was too abstract, but the human mind and fear are abstract things sometimes. It follows the contradictory behavior of epics- they are both fearful, but exceedingly arrogant. If Iconoclast hates and has no faith in god, why fear punishment? If he is immortal and invincible, why hide? Why change his face? If he doesn't regret what he has become, why not return to his old face? But he couldn't if he wanted to. I feel bad for the guy. Well, until I remember what he did to Firefly, and the people he turned into Ghouls

I'm just gonna repost this in case you missed it, it was at the bottom. And darn, I'm proud of my back story! Haha "And i changed his weakness a while ago to be just christian crosses. That is his weakness because he fears being wrong about God, subconsciously. He lost his faith and renounced his pastorship after his wife was raped and killed in front of him years ago. The guys who did it got off, so he lost his faith in law and order as well, and his already libertarian views became a more extreme anarchist, anti-statist philosophy. He had a psychotic break, and hunted down and killed the perpetrators, and then killed the judge and every jury member that had acquitted them. He was arrested and sentenced to death, but then Calamity rose, and a year later, he manifested powers on the eve of his execution. He chose to have the warden and prison guards as his "last meal", and he has eaten nothing but human since. He ghoulified the prisoners and led a prison break, destroying much of the small town he had been held in. But subconsciously, he is scared of retribution. If god existed, he would be punished for what he has done, and crosses remind him of this. His MO plays into this- he often avoids being identified for long, shifting into a different face all the time, playing hide and seek in every new location. If no-one cam find him, even god, he can't be punished, he can't face judgment, in a way. This is also subconscious."

And i changed his weakness a while ago to be just christian crosses. That is his weakness because he fears being wrong about God, subconsciously. He lost his faith and renounced his pastorship after his wife was raped and killed in front of him years ago. The guys who did it got off, so he lost his faith in law and order as well, and his already libertarian views became a more extreme anarchist, anti-statist philosophy. He had a psychotic break, and hunted down and killed the perpetrators, and then killed the judge and every jury member that had acquitted them. He was arrested and sentenced to death, but then Calamity rose, and a year later, he manifested powers on the eve of his execution. He chose to have the warden and prison guards as his "last meal", and he has eaten nothing but human since. He ghoulified the prisoners and led a prison break, destroying much of the small town he had been held in. But subconsciously, he is scared of retribution. If god existed, he would be punished for what he has done, and crosses remind him of this. His MO plays into this- he often avoids being identified for long, shifting into a different face all the time, playing hide and seek in every new location. If no-one cam find him, even god, he can't be punished, he can't face judgment, in a way. This is also subconscious.

to be fair, i am not sure if i subscribe to that theory ahaha how does sourcefield's electricity ward off kool-aid? If its as conductive as water that is the opposite power you'd want, i think. oh yes haha, the poor guy was falling off the deep end long before Calamity. he has had a rough time in life so his natural coping mechanism is cannibalism and sadism

In Firefight they refer to Puños de Fuego as that- it means "fists of fire" in spanish. So that sets a precedent for Epic names remaining untranslated in different languages (although obviously you would need to transliterate them where a language doesn't use latin characters) like normal names. might have to change his weakness then I'm actually looking forward to when he dies. Nothing satisfies me more than building up a terrifying villain for him to finally get his comeuppance.

being the only supplier of advanced weaponry is its own type of control, though. He/she wouldn't "rule" in the traditional sense, but they do have a tonne of power. You get blacklisted by Knighthawk, you lose your mobiles, your best weapons, any tanks/copters/mechs you might have. Knighthawk has more power over the Fractured States than any single other Epic, I'd say.

it would depend I think, but most epics seem to have a driv to dominate others, or at least kill them for fun. I don't think the jungles and wild places of earth would have much for epics. indeed- if imports are happening, from other continents (albeit land-connected ones) then epic rulers must have the ability to guarantee supply chains to some degree (probably with epic guards and the threat of retaliation. We know Steelheart brought out futuristic battle-tanks to fight Dialas when he cut off Newcago from some food supplies. and if imports and some supply chains are happening, then logically large-scale agriculture can occur, if almost exclusively at the behest of powerful Epics.

there is precedent for this sort of thing with Megan- she is more corrupt and more powerful after coming back to life.

Oh, no reason I guess. Just curious.

hmmm I don't know, a whole lot of people would have died in those years before Rainmaker came in, just like everywhere else. Heck, even Babilar, a very nice place, couldn't have more than a few thousand people living there, down from a population of millions.

my bad haha, didn't know there was more than one I agree that their powers wouldn't be hereditary, but epics would probably try anyway. how will the summoning occur? He's running to the riot anyway, he'll just follow the crowd. also, how many people and epics live in Corvallis and the surrounding bisected towns? pre-calamity would be about 60'000 or so, but that must be much lower now.

Salem should be run by a witch-themed Epic. Maybe Salem is where the coven started, before moving to the south? probably plenty. I'd be curious how many teenage epics are around- I doubt little kids would have been chosen, but Megan was 19 in firefight and must have been for a few years at least. She might have been 15/16 when calamity turned her. I do wonder if they have kids, or if they have powers. Not enough time has passed for them to have manifested powers I'd think, even if they were hereditary. And epics don't seem the caring, parental type....

That all seems pretty accurate. Epics would help to some degree- they eat food as well, after all, so every despot would have farms or import stuff. Likely there are Epics with powers that can create food out of nothing, or help it grow, and these Epics export their surplus to others. Remember in Steelheart- Megan questions how David knows about bananas and says that Steelheart doesn't import from Latin America.... Implying that others do, or else she wouldn't have said it like that. But in general you are right, and the series doesn't pretend this isn't true. Most of humanity has been wiped out. New York, a city of millions, was reduced to at most a few thousand hippies on rooftops, and that is after the whole rest of the cities population has moved to Manhattan. The rest of the world wouldn't have fared any better, although I imagine wildlife is flourishing pretty well. Humanity devastated, most of the destruction focused on cities.... The animals and trees should be fine, mostly. Probably lots if humans foraging for a living, hiding in the woods worldwide.

Albany? The bubble reaches that far? Cool, had imagined it being a lot smaller.

oh, I used the one linked to me. maybe i copied it wrong.

ohhh i see, thanks behoooold!

Also, Iconoclast pony! Tremble in fearrrrr! oooh! *tries to figure out how to get pony image uploaded* *fails* 2S2S001004913A0000000013A10FE0000UN183720H040003011C0D0DF700002S107F3FCC004CB2 ...Can someone please help me figue out how to get my pony image posted? I can't figure out how

haha nah, then I'd have to retcon the earlier post, and its just easier this way. besides, now Iconoclast made Firefly give him his whole arm without it growing back. That is much eviller. Although, Firefly now gets a quick death instead of hours of healing and being eaten at the same time. Thanks for the spot, I got carried away haha.