I recently got the first six books of the series the Infected by Dan S. Powers on the kindle dirt cheap, and since these days I can't seem to read anything without feeling the need to gush about it on the internet, those of you who hang around may get an earful. I won't include spoilers in a first post, but after this I will only be tagging the most important events. Consider yourself warned.
There many things I enjoy in the characterization and aspects of the world-building of this series, but sweet Valen this guy needs a better editor. The first book drags in a few points and there are an awful lot of really distracting spelling and grammatical errors.
Okay, the series is something sort of superhero genre, in that it is a world where people are "infected" with superpowers even if there are no straight superheroes. The Infected name for superhumans is a remnant of a time when they were studied through a pathological lens, because sometimes it seemed to be inherited, sometimes passed on through contact, but often not. Still, the name does lead people to treat as though it could be caught somehow. The first Infected appeared around the late sixties/early seventies a person can "pop" infected at any age, some have freakish mutant appearances, many do not.
As it's explained in the first book, if it was just superpowers people would probably be fine with it. The problem is that each Infected has a 'first mode' a single emotion, mood, or aspect of their character that is enhanced beyond all reason, sometimes to being their sole defining character trait. It turns out there are very few aspects of human behavior that work well when dialed to eleven, even if you get a first mode like humility, compassion or love, that just makes you a doormat. And there are large numbers of people running around with unrelenting anger, self-loathing, depression, guilt, impulse-control issues, paranoia or the whole range of mental problems. Which makes any Infected with an unknown first mode dangerously unpredictable, as they can enter a feedback loop and become violent if triggered. Super-people are okay, super-crazy people who go on occasional rampages are not.
We haven't heard a ton so far about the earliest days of the Infection, or the international community and it's reactions. We know China's policy towards the Infected is extermination and it's been mentioned many times that the Infected in France overthrew the government and turned it into a shelter for the Infected around the world. Apparently the government they set up is insanely corrupt though, and the common man is at the mercy of Infected warlords. Sanctions were discussed, then quickly dropped when someone pointed out that closing France out of trade would only make them turn expansionist to fill their basic needs.
In the US things are rather more ambivalent. They early on set up an agency to police the Infected, the Infected Protection Bureau or IPB, using both normal agents and Infected operatives. Infected cannot hold any position of public trust, but it recently became illegal to discriminate based on Infection, a triumph on the part of president Lawrence. And yet discrimination is still common, and a vocal block that may soon become a majority are calling for deportation or internment/concentration camps as a permanent solution to the problem, which a lot of the plot revolves around. The IPB gets caught in the middle a lot, the man on the street thinks they're obviously pro-Infected because they use Infected operatives and don't kill the Infected whenever they can only if they're violent and uncontrollable. The average Infected sees the IPB as the black helicopter people. Not helped by that the DoJ regularly issues, and the IPB serves, Death Warrants for dangerous Infected who cannot be contained. Naturally the IPB are going to be our beleaguered heroes for this ride.
Each novel changes viewpoint characters, but the first book was longest and both it and the fourth were told by Brian Yi/Proxy, a chubby Chinese-American with the power to physically switch places with people who are about to die and maybe save them. No other powers. This is treated by him and IPB as a virtual death sentence, sure his powers never seem to drop him into a scenario with literally no winning moves but sooner or later he'll zig when he should have zagged and end up a red smear right? Not so far, though he's gotten hurt. A lot. They figure early on that his powers don't work when he's asleep or injured, and spent six months training him into the ground so he'd never be comfortable enough to port out. Brian's first mode is called self-sacrifice, it's more like he's overprotective of everyone and perfectly willing to give his own life for theirs. We'll get back to Proxy.
The Infected are rated by power on an eight-point scale, defined entirely by their worth in combat.
Level One means no powers useful in a fight, or "squishy civilian"
Level Two has a power that might garner a combat advantage if used cleverly. Proxy is a Level Two because of the surprise factor when the 90 lbs. girl you were about to knife turns into a big guy who starts waling on you.
Level Three means definite combat-utility, but a bullet or hand-to-hand expert can still ruin your day. Level Three is usually the minimum for IPB operatives, for that matter every trained combat vet is treated as a Level Three on this scale.
Level Four, the Infected can be expected to overwhelm an entire squad of soldiers.
Level Five they can take an infantry company and/or a tank. If they can trash one but not the other (say, a power that depends on line of sight) they still get in.
Level Six, we don't know the precise threshold for. Only that after Five it's generally accepted that your military options have dwindled down to "send in out own Infected of similar level" and "airstrike" with the FAE/nuclear option held in reserve.
Level Seven, we know little about.
Level Eight, this Infected alone is a viable threat to a large, modern and industrialized nation (G8). Officially there is exactly one Level Eight in the world, Tesseract. Off the record, the IPB has an interest in controlling public panic and routinely bumps people down a level or two on the official paperwork, so there's roughly a dozen Eights or potential Eights that have appeared in the series thus far.
The Infected Talkback
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Ahriman238
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The Infected Talkback
"Any plan which requires the direct intervention of any deity to work can be assumed to be a very poor one."- Newbiespud
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Ahriman238
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Re: The Infected Talkback
A rare sort of Infected is a 'specific infector' who can either spread Infection or activate latent Infected, hence the pathology confusion.
So, the IPB, fighting a losing battle against public opinion, moronic politicians and struggling to keep the wheels from flying off while some very powerful and intelligent people are pushing things to happen ever faster. The IPB, as mentioned, distinguishes between mundane Agents and superhuman Operatives. As a general rule they don't accept anyone below a Class Three. The Operatives are divided into three teams by role, though ad hoc mixed teams are created all the time to respond to particular situations. Let's start at the top.
Director Kevin Moore/Less- The director is a kind, grandfatherly old man with just a hint of Asian ancestry obvious in his face. He and Brian butt heads all the time because Brian sees him as too focused on the IPB and Infected as a while, too willing to treat individuals as numbers and make sacrifices for politics and good PR. From where I sit, Moore seems pretty reasonable, we'll see where it goes. Moore is a survivor of the original IPB of the 1970s and Team Alpha, which largely defected to become the series' main villains and are lead by his estranged wife. He stayed to rebuild, and is thus the head honcho. Recent events have inspired him to try and get back into shape and list himself as a reserve member of Team Three. The Director's first mode is nostalgia, not 100% how that works, but seeing how his past is directly relevant to everything, it doesn't seem much of a handicap so far.
Less (hey, Moore is Less, I just caught that) is mentioned in old classified memos as the most dangerous man in the world. He has the power to make things disappear, he can't say where they go and can never return them. He is, however, blindingly fast, able to vanish a pistol from a man's heand before it clears the holster. It's implied that he has a line-of-sight limitation, but that could be me reading too much into things or an affectation of his to set others at ease. The folks who tested his powers back in the seventies believes Less could delete the entire Earth if he wanted, though he hastened to tell everyone that he's quite fond of the world.
Spoiler
Deputy Director Martin Joabs - an elderly black guy who hardly get mentioned, except when they need him. Joabs can tell when people are lying. First mode unknown. Codename, if any, unknown. Set to retire soon. It's unclear how his status as Deputy Director effects Turner's.
Deputy Director Marcia Turner/Cast Iron/Beatdown/Quartz- A former CIA attaché to a team of Green Berets who did many and illegal things, Marcia Turner lost her job wen she popped Infected and has been living and working with the IPB ever since. She tries not to advertise her lofty place in administration, dreads the day publicity will force her out of the field. She was on Team Three in the beginning of the series, after a brief stint on Team One but has since been reinstated to Team One. Marcy's first mode is suspicion, distinct from paranoia in that she doesn't automatically distrust everyone and everything, but if given a reason to distrust you she almost never will extend you the least trust again. Her viewpoint book does make it sound a lot more like paranoia though, then again, she is a former spook in the most hated federal agency in the world, she's got plenty to be paranoid about.
Powers-wise, she's a brick. Not the fastest, a car can outrun her if it gets up to speed. Not the strongest, in that car chase scene she kicks a tire hard enough to deform the wheel well through it, but couldn't smash the engine block or flip the car over. But she's pretty much the most invulnerable character in the series thus far, the only things we know will kill her are drowning, suffocation and thirst/starvation. Maybe some of the stronger poisons. Even most invulnerable people in the series can be hurt if you hit the soft tissues or the insides, but not Turner. However, she has no sense of taste and frequently forgets or has to force herself to eat.
So, the IPB, fighting a losing battle against public opinion, moronic politicians and struggling to keep the wheels from flying off while some very powerful and intelligent people are pushing things to happen ever faster. The IPB, as mentioned, distinguishes between mundane Agents and superhuman Operatives. As a general rule they don't accept anyone below a Class Three. The Operatives are divided into three teams by role, though ad hoc mixed teams are created all the time to respond to particular situations. Let's start at the top.
Director Kevin Moore/Less- The director is a kind, grandfatherly old man with just a hint of Asian ancestry obvious in his face. He and Brian butt heads all the time because Brian sees him as too focused on the IPB and Infected as a while, too willing to treat individuals as numbers and make sacrifices for politics and good PR. From where I sit, Moore seems pretty reasonable, we'll see where it goes. Moore is a survivor of the original IPB of the 1970s and Team Alpha, which largely defected to become the series' main villains and are lead by his estranged wife. He stayed to rebuild, and is thus the head honcho. Recent events have inspired him to try and get back into shape and list himself as a reserve member of Team Three. The Director's first mode is nostalgia, not 100% how that works, but seeing how his past is directly relevant to everything, it doesn't seem much of a handicap so far.
Less (hey, Moore is Less, I just caught that) is mentioned in old classified memos as the most dangerous man in the world. He has the power to make things disappear, he can't say where they go and can never return them. He is, however, blindingly fast, able to vanish a pistol from a man's heand before it clears the holster. It's implied that he has a line-of-sight limitation, but that could be me reading too much into things or an affectation of his to set others at ease. The folks who tested his powers back in the seventies believes Less could delete the entire Earth if he wanted, though he hastened to tell everyone that he's quite fond of the world.
Spoiler
Deputy Director Martin Joabs - an elderly black guy who hardly get mentioned, except when they need him. Joabs can tell when people are lying. First mode unknown. Codename, if any, unknown. Set to retire soon. It's unclear how his status as Deputy Director effects Turner's.
Deputy Director Marcia Turner/Cast Iron/Beatdown/Quartz- A former CIA attaché to a team of Green Berets who did many and illegal things, Marcia Turner lost her job wen she popped Infected and has been living and working with the IPB ever since. She tries not to advertise her lofty place in administration, dreads the day publicity will force her out of the field. She was on Team Three in the beginning of the series, after a brief stint on Team One but has since been reinstated to Team One. Marcy's first mode is suspicion, distinct from paranoia in that she doesn't automatically distrust everyone and everything, but if given a reason to distrust you she almost never will extend you the least trust again. Her viewpoint book does make it sound a lot more like paranoia though, then again, she is a former spook in the most hated federal agency in the world, she's got plenty to be paranoid about.
Powers-wise, she's a brick. Not the fastest, a car can outrun her if it gets up to speed. Not the strongest, in that car chase scene she kicks a tire hard enough to deform the wheel well through it, but couldn't smash the engine block or flip the car over. But she's pretty much the most invulnerable character in the series thus far, the only things we know will kill her are drowning, suffocation and thirst/starvation. Maybe some of the stronger poisons. Even most invulnerable people in the series can be hurt if you hit the soft tissues or the insides, but not Turner. However, she has no sense of taste and frequently forgets or has to force herself to eat.
"Any plan which requires the direct intervention of any deity to work can be assumed to be a very poor one."- Newbiespud
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Ahriman238
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Re: The Infected Talkback
Ellen Doer- Miss Doer has the Infected ability to detect "tampering." With a single touch she can tell if, when and how a person has ever been injured, received surgery, been under the influence of mind-altering drugs or powers (including mind-control and memory erasure) or otherwise artificially altered from their natural state. This extends to detecting Infection, though she can't necessarily tell what powers are granted, my feeling is she's pretty good with first modes. Her own first mode is an obsession with Miss Marple. Not in the sense that she's read all the books and short stories, though she has, but in that she models herself after the character, dressing and speaking to appear far older, and obsessively plays detective. It would be extremely annoying in another person but she' actually quite good in an agency that that tends to have a lot of firepower and not a lot of qualified investigators.
Carl- The Hell-God of Level 15, his personal gym and sort-of Danger Room. Carl has the Infected power to recognize someone's true potential and limits, and understand what he needs to do to bring out the former and exceed the latter. It takes several hours or intimate knowledge of the subject, and so isn't really useful in a fight, but makes him a damn effective trainer. His first mode is a limitation on his empathy, he is literally incapable of caring about any pain or mental trauma caused by his insane training methods.
Carl- The Hell-God of Level 15, his personal gym and sort-of Danger Room. Carl has the Infected power to recognize someone's true potential and limits, and understand what he needs to do to bring out the former and exceed the latter. It takes several hours or intimate knowledge of the subject, and so isn't really useful in a fight, but makes him a damn effective trainer. His first mode is a limitation on his empathy, he is literally incapable of caring about any pain or mental trauma caused by his insane training methods.
"Any plan which requires the direct intervention of any deity to work can be assumed to be a very poor one."- Newbiespud
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Ahriman238
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Re: The Infected Talkback
Team One is the closest thing the world has to real superheroes since Congress made it a major offense to wear a mask in public. Officially they are the best, the most powerful and stable Infected around, working around the clock to keep you safe. Off the record, they're the fluff team. The ones whose powers or first modes make them ill-suited for combat but they look flashy and they can smile in front of the cameras, and so are desperately needed to bolster the IPB's flagging PR and put a friendly face on the Infected Menace. Sprinkled with a couple serious powerhouses that kids can run around in homemade capes pretending to be.
Each member of Team One gets a personalized uniform, masks remain banned and all identities are a matter of public record anyway. Team One lives on Level One of the building, the ground floor with all the briefing rooms, luxurious personal quarters and an in-house five-star restaurant. Because visiting dignitaries and reporters are always passing through or touring this part of the base, Team One are required to wear makeup at all times outside their rooms, even to breakfast.
Team Leader: Robert/Torque- We know very, very little about this guy, Despite being in charge he's considered second-tier for Team One and fades into the background relatively easily. We don't even know his first mode at this point, just that he's rated Class Three because he has a gravity manipulating power that lets him instantly kill or restrain anyone, however strong, but can only use his power on one person at a time. Oh, and that he had a drunken one-night stand with Karen once.
Scott Chambers/Prime- A golden-skinned man with purple eyes and a classically perfect figure, Prime is THE superhero to the public, the face of the IPB the poster on every fourteen-year-old girl's wall. His first mode is narcissism, which can make him hard to deal with because he always needs to be center stage and his ego is easily wounded. Scott developed a weird friendship with Brian after they both nearly killed each other when Scott had a first mode flip-out. Then Brian figures out how to manipulate Scott (not hard) and actually inspires him to work to control his first mode. Which can be done, it just takes years of effort and serious discipline. Towards the end of the first book, the villains fake video footage of Scott raping his daughter, with his wife egging him on. Most of the IPB were mind-controlled, not to do anything in particular, just not to question the evidence when presented with it with the result that half the operatives formed a lynch mob before Brian got involved, and even after the tampering was uncovered there's a seriously damaged bond of trust there.
Spoiler
Jason/Argos- the fastest speedster on record. Incredibly good-looking, but his first mode is humility. He simply accepts on a basic level that other people are better and worthier than him which is why he made Team One. If it ever comes down to "me or him" and the other guy isn't a baby-eating monster, Argos will choose him. Not sure how fast he is exactly, but at one point he's able to jump from a plane and "swim" through the air. Still broke his leg on landing and had to inhale enough food for five people. Argos is also a member of the ad-hoc riot squad formed and commanded by Quartz, in response to a congressional decree that the IPB field a visible (with two visibly mutated members) riot squad to handle a rash of anti-Infected demonstrations, pretty much precisely because the squad would make things worse.
Karen Page/Lady Glory- Karen Page was an Olympic gymnast who took home the silver medal before popping. Apparently everyone who saw her agreed she got cheated by the Russian judge, and the winner offered up her medal, but Karen told her to keep it. Her first mode is compassion, and her ability to emphasize with everyone is both a huge asset and a downside. Karen carries a lot of guilt over her sister Becky, another Infected with a depressive first mode, who committed suicide despite Karen's attempt to stop her. Karen is also a member of the riot squad.
Lady Glory can glow blue, turning into a feminine Dr. Manhattan or even becoming totally blinding, shining her light in beams where she pleases. Whoever is touched by her light becomes overwhelmed with love, compassion and the milk of human kindness. Well, her power doesn't seem to work on people who are sufficiently mentally disturbed. In fact, there's this weird feedback loop she has with Proxy in the first book. Her power to make Brian compassionate makes him protective, so when she first tries to quell a violent incident he just gets more violent. This leads Karen to conclude that Brian is a psychopath and in every ensuing fight she devotes herself almost solely to stopping Brian from flipping out and causing a bloodbath, not that we hear her reasoning for a good long time, and this goes on for weeks until something in his brain breaks and her power makes him actively suicidal. He gets better, but got a weird ghost/psychic copy of her dead sister in his head. Following this, they dated for several months.
Bridget Chambers/Rat-girl/Impulse- The daughter of Prime, and on her way to being even more powerful than him. Bridget is a cute (if slightly rat-faced, hence her original self-deprecating codename) fourteen-fifteen year-old-girl. Her first mode is impulse control issues, which is a problem because she's incredibly strong, has zero filters on what she says and from her first sexual feelings has been actively seducing guys around the base, even to the point of climbing into their beds at night. Bridget grew up around the base, and Moore regards her as an honorary granddaughter, certainly no one knows the base and it's various hiding spots better. She's actually gotten a lot better from book three on. She started in Team Two as Rat-girl, and was renamed Impulse and moved to Team One after the whole fake tape scandal at Brian's suggestion.
When she finishes puberty, Bridget will be the strongest brick in the world, bar none. Class Six, maybe Seven. The adults have been actively concealing how strong they expect her to become and let her be an average brick with some enhanced senses. But she will continue to get faster and stronger and will be able to fly and throw energy blasts like her father, gifts she suddenly manifests in book three.
Georgia/Pixie- a lovely young woman with dyed bright red hair. Georgia's power is to make people within a wide radius incredibly horny, she's had hardcore religious fundamentalists cheerfully and vigorously making love to their male companions. Her first mode is nymphomania, so you can imagine where this is all going. On at least one occasion a party got out of hand and turned into a floor-wide orgy. IPB rules regarding possibly objectionable or mind-altering powers require her to warn people before opening up, if they keep coming what happens is on them. Funny that this rule doesn't seem to apply to Lady Glory.
Charlot Chambers- The IPB's press agent and PR spin-doctor, also Prime's wife and Impulse's mother. Was a member of Team One at some point before retiring to have Bridget, and her skills were too needed for her to return to active duty. Charlot's abrasive personality is frequently speculated to be from her first mode, we do know apologizing for her attitude is something she can't do because of it. She can fire some sort of white energy blast, but mostly we just see her fists glow as she struggles not to vaporize some idiot who desperately deserves it, according to Charlot. Naturally works quite closely with Team One, and with Proxy who she actually likes and respects.
As of book four, the IPB and Team One in particular have recruited some new talent. Two new operatives, neither have been issued codenames so far. Brian's old roommate Doug Tibs has gravity-manipulating powers that make Torque look sad, he can make anything lighter or heavier by line of sight, as well as himself, though inertia remains an issue. He can lift his car easily enough, and pinned down every person within a thirty meter square. Doug is a pretty easy-going guy, and his first mode makes it impossible for him to get angry or annoyed. The other is Janice, a woman from Miami hiding behind a hate-group logo. Janice can create forcefields in all the colors of the rainbow, but only one color at a time and each only stops one specific thing. So far it looks like green to stop bullets, yellow for blunt force, white for crushing. Janice's first mode makes her extremely avoidant of confrontation. She's tapped to replace Scott as the face of the IPB, as she is untainted by the fake tape scandal.
Each member of Team One gets a personalized uniform, masks remain banned and all identities are a matter of public record anyway. Team One lives on Level One of the building, the ground floor with all the briefing rooms, luxurious personal quarters and an in-house five-star restaurant. Because visiting dignitaries and reporters are always passing through or touring this part of the base, Team One are required to wear makeup at all times outside their rooms, even to breakfast.
Team Leader: Robert/Torque- We know very, very little about this guy, Despite being in charge he's considered second-tier for Team One and fades into the background relatively easily. We don't even know his first mode at this point, just that he's rated Class Three because he has a gravity manipulating power that lets him instantly kill or restrain anyone, however strong, but can only use his power on one person at a time. Oh, and that he had a drunken one-night stand with Karen once.
Scott Chambers/Prime- A golden-skinned man with purple eyes and a classically perfect figure, Prime is THE superhero to the public, the face of the IPB the poster on every fourteen-year-old girl's wall. His first mode is narcissism, which can make him hard to deal with because he always needs to be center stage and his ego is easily wounded. Scott developed a weird friendship with Brian after they both nearly killed each other when Scott had a first mode flip-out. Then Brian figures out how to manipulate Scott (not hard) and actually inspires him to work to control his first mode. Which can be done, it just takes years of effort and serious discipline. Towards the end of the first book, the villains fake video footage of Scott raping his daughter, with his wife egging him on. Most of the IPB were mind-controlled, not to do anything in particular, just not to question the evidence when presented with it with the result that half the operatives formed a lynch mob before Brian got involved, and even after the tampering was uncovered there's a seriously damaged bond of trust there.
Spoiler
Prime is a Class Five brick with flight and energy blasts that look like green lightning. Unfortunately (and I do hate to involve TVtropes) he suffers from the Worf Effect. The minimum threshold for being a major badass in this world seems to be "able to take Prime." So he eats some serious crow over the course of the series.
Jason/Argos- the fastest speedster on record. Incredibly good-looking, but his first mode is humility. He simply accepts on a basic level that other people are better and worthier than him which is why he made Team One. If it ever comes down to "me or him" and the other guy isn't a baby-eating monster, Argos will choose him. Not sure how fast he is exactly, but at one point he's able to jump from a plane and "swim" through the air. Still broke his leg on landing and had to inhale enough food for five people. Argos is also a member of the ad-hoc riot squad formed and commanded by Quartz, in response to a congressional decree that the IPB field a visible (with two visibly mutated members) riot squad to handle a rash of anti-Infected demonstrations, pretty much precisely because the squad would make things worse.
Karen Page/Lady Glory- Karen Page was an Olympic gymnast who took home the silver medal before popping. Apparently everyone who saw her agreed she got cheated by the Russian judge, and the winner offered up her medal, but Karen told her to keep it. Her first mode is compassion, and her ability to emphasize with everyone is both a huge asset and a downside. Karen carries a lot of guilt over her sister Becky, another Infected with a depressive first mode, who committed suicide despite Karen's attempt to stop her. Karen is also a member of the riot squad.
Lady Glory can glow blue, turning into a feminine Dr. Manhattan or even becoming totally blinding, shining her light in beams where she pleases. Whoever is touched by her light becomes overwhelmed with love, compassion and the milk of human kindness. Well, her power doesn't seem to work on people who are sufficiently mentally disturbed. In fact, there's this weird feedback loop she has with Proxy in the first book. Her power to make Brian compassionate makes him protective, so when she first tries to quell a violent incident he just gets more violent. This leads Karen to conclude that Brian is a psychopath and in every ensuing fight she devotes herself almost solely to stopping Brian from flipping out and causing a bloodbath, not that we hear her reasoning for a good long time, and this goes on for weeks until something in his brain breaks and her power makes him actively suicidal. He gets better, but got a weird ghost/psychic copy of her dead sister in his head. Following this, they dated for several months.
Bridget Chambers/Rat-girl/Impulse- The daughter of Prime, and on her way to being even more powerful than him. Bridget is a cute (if slightly rat-faced, hence her original self-deprecating codename) fourteen-fifteen year-old-girl. Her first mode is impulse control issues, which is a problem because she's incredibly strong, has zero filters on what she says and from her first sexual feelings has been actively seducing guys around the base, even to the point of climbing into their beds at night. Bridget grew up around the base, and Moore regards her as an honorary granddaughter, certainly no one knows the base and it's various hiding spots better. She's actually gotten a lot better from book three on. She started in Team Two as Rat-girl, and was renamed Impulse and moved to Team One after the whole fake tape scandal at Brian's suggestion.
When she finishes puberty, Bridget will be the strongest brick in the world, bar none. Class Six, maybe Seven. The adults have been actively concealing how strong they expect her to become and let her be an average brick with some enhanced senses. But she will continue to get faster and stronger and will be able to fly and throw energy blasts like her father, gifts she suddenly manifests in book three.
Georgia/Pixie- a lovely young woman with dyed bright red hair. Georgia's power is to make people within a wide radius incredibly horny, she's had hardcore religious fundamentalists cheerfully and vigorously making love to their male companions. Her first mode is nymphomania, so you can imagine where this is all going. On at least one occasion a party got out of hand and turned into a floor-wide orgy. IPB rules regarding possibly objectionable or mind-altering powers require her to warn people before opening up, if they keep coming what happens is on them. Funny that this rule doesn't seem to apply to Lady Glory.
Charlot Chambers- The IPB's press agent and PR spin-doctor, also Prime's wife and Impulse's mother. Was a member of Team One at some point before retiring to have Bridget, and her skills were too needed for her to return to active duty. Charlot's abrasive personality is frequently speculated to be from her first mode, we do know apologizing for her attitude is something she can't do because of it. She can fire some sort of white energy blast, but mostly we just see her fists glow as she struggles not to vaporize some idiot who desperately deserves it, according to Charlot. Naturally works quite closely with Team One, and with Proxy who she actually likes and respects.
As of book four, the IPB and Team One in particular have recruited some new talent. Two new operatives, neither have been issued codenames so far. Brian's old roommate Doug Tibs has gravity-manipulating powers that make Torque look sad, he can make anything lighter or heavier by line of sight, as well as himself, though inertia remains an issue. He can lift his car easily enough, and pinned down every person within a thirty meter square. Doug is a pretty easy-going guy, and his first mode makes it impossible for him to get angry or annoyed. The other is Janice, a woman from Miami hiding behind a hate-group logo. Janice can create forcefields in all the colors of the rainbow, but only one color at a time and each only stops one specific thing. So far it looks like green to stop bullets, yellow for blunt force, white for crushing. Janice's first mode makes her extremely avoidant of confrontation. She's tapped to replace Scott as the face of the IPB, as she is untainted by the fake tape scandal.
"Any plan which requires the direct intervention of any deity to work can be assumed to be a very poor one."- Newbiespud
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Ahriman238
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Re: The Infected Talkback
Team Two is the largest, the workhorse team. Those who are trained for combat, with obvious mutations or personalities that make them ill-suited to playing super-hero in front of the cameras. There are over fifty operatives on Team Two so we haven't even met more than a handful yet. They do the lion's share of the work, Team One gets the photo-shoots and often enough the credit. Team One gets palatial apartments and a dedicated restaurant, Team Two gets tiny rooms with cheap furniture and a military cantina. There ain't no justice.
Unlike Teams One and Three, Team Two has a uniform, a powder-blue jumpsuit. This or some variation of it is worn by every member except Level, who sticks an IPB car decal on her torso when on duty.
Team Leader: Jonathon/Sparks- A former cop with a serious attitude problem. Could be a first mode thing, could be he resents getting Infected and losing his old job. Is very protective of Bridget and led the charge against Prime during the tape scandal. Can throw around electric blasts, so far nothing remotely quantifiable.
Lauren/Level- A nice girl and Prime-level brick, probably a bit stronger and tougher. Trapped inside an exoskeletal armor somewhere halfway between a knight and a beetle. Lauren's first mode is loneliness. She was best friends with Bridget until taking part in the tape scandal dog-piling of Prime, and so far the two still aren't talking. Has become close to Denis, who can give her some relief from her first mode.
Tobin/Goblin- Tobin is four-foot-two (1.27 meters) and green or brown with long pointy ears. He changes color with his mood, when he's nervous trying to shift chameleon-like into the background, while turning fluorescent green when angry, but so far he can only do varying shades of green and brown. His first mode is shyness. Tobin is fifteen times stronger than an ordinary man, far too tame to be called a proper brick. His singing can cause disorientation, tranquilization and has some ability to alter moods and he is very, very good at singing. People tend to crash hard if he's interrupted instead of finishing. To try and boost the Infected image, Charlot Chambers got him a record deal and turned him into a pop star, and the little guy is still having a lot of trouble adjusting. Goblin is a member of the riot squad, like Lady Glory, to fill the token 'visibly Infected' requirement and because he has some gifts to actually quell a riot.
Peggy- A woman with a mannish figure whose face turns into a two foot crocodile-like snout. Powers generally unspecified, assume some enhanced strength. Killed a man on national television after she almost died multiple times to save him and he decided to give her a hard time over her appearance. Is still in the process of being rehabilitated, for now is on probation after her release from IPB lockdown.
Hobbs- So a crazy red-haired hobo walks up to the gates and demands a job interview, then lays low the guards who try and remove him. Then the reinforcements. Then Beatdown (Marcia Turner). Needless to say, he got the job. His actual power is to accelerate plant growth, to eight times it's normal speed. But he's such a terror with a staff or unarmed no one much bothers him about the useless power.
No first mode because Hobbs isn't actually Infected. He's from an alternate Earth ruled by six superhuman dynasties, and his full name is Advocate Hobbs, Order of the Circle. He's sort of a paladin in a world where trial by combat and ordeal are very real things, advocates serve as champions to good people unable to fight or endure challenges on their own. He respects the hell out of Proxy, who he sees as a super-advocate taking on the trials of everyone he saves. Recently has begun training Brian, Denis and others in meditation and combat.
Spoiler
Clark- A telekinetic, good looking and all-around nice guy. Who repeatedly had sex with the underage Bridget. He's still in lockdown, but has been attached to the riot squad so gets to leave every so often with them. Exactly no one on the base but Bridget likes or trusts him.
Kerry- Another telekinetic, a girl this time, who works in the Team One restaurant as assistant chef. Spoiler
Becky Page/Dharma- Sister to Lady Glory, Dharma was a gothic girl with depression as her first mode. Committed suicide when Karen hit her with the ol' compassionate high-beams and finally, fully, convinced Becky everyone else was better off without her. I believe the technical term is 'oops.' Don't know what her power was. The thing is, ever since Karen nearly drove Brian insane with her powers, he's had some kind of ghost or neural clone or insanely sophisticated delusion with information he couldn't know of Becky in his head. She seems to have access to a lot of subconscious information about his power, can usually give him a heads up before he shifts out and sometimes describes the situation he'll be dropped into minutes in advance. The rest of the base knows about Becky, and the IPB telepath has confirmed that Brian is no crazier than he always was.
Unlike Teams One and Three, Team Two has a uniform, a powder-blue jumpsuit. This or some variation of it is worn by every member except Level, who sticks an IPB car decal on her torso when on duty.
Team Leader: Jonathon/Sparks- A former cop with a serious attitude problem. Could be a first mode thing, could be he resents getting Infected and losing his old job. Is very protective of Bridget and led the charge against Prime during the tape scandal. Can throw around electric blasts, so far nothing remotely quantifiable.
Lauren/Level- A nice girl and Prime-level brick, probably a bit stronger and tougher. Trapped inside an exoskeletal armor somewhere halfway between a knight and a beetle. Lauren's first mode is loneliness. She was best friends with Bridget until taking part in the tape scandal dog-piling of Prime, and so far the two still aren't talking. Has become close to Denis, who can give her some relief from her first mode.
Tobin/Goblin- Tobin is four-foot-two (1.27 meters) and green or brown with long pointy ears. He changes color with his mood, when he's nervous trying to shift chameleon-like into the background, while turning fluorescent green when angry, but so far he can only do varying shades of green and brown. His first mode is shyness. Tobin is fifteen times stronger than an ordinary man, far too tame to be called a proper brick. His singing can cause disorientation, tranquilization and has some ability to alter moods and he is very, very good at singing. People tend to crash hard if he's interrupted instead of finishing. To try and boost the Infected image, Charlot Chambers got him a record deal and turned him into a pop star, and the little guy is still having a lot of trouble adjusting. Goblin is a member of the riot squad, like Lady Glory, to fill the token 'visibly Infected' requirement and because he has some gifts to actually quell a riot.
Peggy- A woman with a mannish figure whose face turns into a two foot crocodile-like snout. Powers generally unspecified, assume some enhanced strength. Killed a man on national television after she almost died multiple times to save him and he decided to give her a hard time over her appearance. Is still in the process of being rehabilitated, for now is on probation after her release from IPB lockdown.
Hobbs- So a crazy red-haired hobo walks up to the gates and demands a job interview, then lays low the guards who try and remove him. Then the reinforcements. Then Beatdown (Marcia Turner). Needless to say, he got the job. His actual power is to accelerate plant growth, to eight times it's normal speed. But he's such a terror with a staff or unarmed no one much bothers him about the useless power.
No first mode because Hobbs isn't actually Infected. He's from an alternate Earth ruled by six superhuman dynasties, and his full name is Advocate Hobbs, Order of the Circle. He's sort of a paladin in a world where trial by combat and ordeal are very real things, advocates serve as champions to good people unable to fight or endure challenges on their own. He respects the hell out of Proxy, who he sees as a super-advocate taking on the trials of everyone he saves. Recently has begun training Brian, Denis and others in meditation and combat.
Spoiler
Clark- A telekinetic, good looking and all-around nice guy. Who repeatedly had sex with the underage Bridget. He's still in lockdown, but has been attached to the riot squad so gets to leave every so often with them. Exactly no one on the base but Bridget likes or trusts him.
Kerry- Another telekinetic, a girl this time, who works in the Team One restaurant as assistant chef. Spoiler
Becky Page/Dharma- Sister to Lady Glory, Dharma was a gothic girl with depression as her first mode. Committed suicide when Karen hit her with the ol' compassionate high-beams and finally, fully, convinced Becky everyone else was better off without her. I believe the technical term is 'oops.' Don't know what her power was. The thing is, ever since Karen nearly drove Brian insane with her powers, he's had some kind of ghost or neural clone or insanely sophisticated delusion with information he couldn't know of Becky in his head. She seems to have access to a lot of subconscious information about his power, can usually give him a heads up before he shifts out and sometimes describes the situation he'll be dropped into minutes in advance. The rest of the base knows about Becky, and the IPB telepath has confirmed that Brian is no crazier than he always was.
"Any plan which requires the direct intervention of any deity to work can be assumed to be a very poor one."- Newbiespud
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Ahriman238
- Sith Marauder
- Posts: 4854
- Joined: 2011-04-22 11:04pm
- Location: Ocularis Terribus.
Re: The Infected Talkback
Team Three is officially the dumping ground for the square pegs that won't fit neatly into one of the first two teams. Like Brian, who always needs to fight alone. It's that too, but as each team is formulated not so much for combat effectiveness as PR, Team Three contains the people who can never talk to the press because they are so scary powerful that if their existence and capabilities became general knowledge it would lead to mass panic and rioting.
Team Leader: Christian Poures/Mind-Reader- Billionaire heiress and a telepath who puts Charles Xavier to shame. She can read minds from across the planet without any sort of booster or help, even if she can't control minds or do anything but get information from them or communicate instantly and securely. She also can't really filter out people's thoughts as long as they're in the same room as her, which coupled with an antisocial first mode make her a bit of a shut-in case. Sometimes she's worried this makes her a terrible team leader, but who could they possibly replace her with? Best friends with Marcia Turner.
Mark Steinberg/Stasis- A baker who had just gotten his cooking show, Cake Kings, approved when he popped and time froze. He wandered a frozen world for a decade, unsure if he was dead, before teaching himself meditation. When he's calm, which didn't happen before due to anxiety as a first mode, time resumes. When he loses his cool, falls asleep or gets distracted enough, everything stops. He doesn't need to eat or drink in stasis time. He can't bring other people with him, but he can move them. He can't use a car or a cell-phone, etc. but a bicycle is fine. He's spent subjective centuries in stasis and hasn't aged a day. Mark is a hardcore pacifist, but not above stripping you to your skivvies. To help court the public, Charlot arranged for him to get a cooking show, Steinberg and Friends.
Penny/Cellophane- a girl who is totally invisible, inaudible, not impossible to touch but impossible to realize you've touched her. It's largely a psychic effect, but she doesn't show up on film. Recordings of her voice work after she leaves , but she can't use a phone in real-time. Also, people tend to forget about her, even knowing she's there. She'd be an unstoppable spy, except her extraction keeps forgetting what they're doing in a random spot and leaving her behind/ She's made it clear she won't do these sorts of missions anymore. The effect spreads to people and objects she touches for a period of time, fading an hour or so after release. For unknown reasons, Brian can see and hear her just fine. She'll be the viewpoint character of the fifth book, so I expect to learn more about her.
Denis/Itch/Gabriel- An unmitigated ass in the first book who nearly kills Brian three times, redeemed in the second where he's the viewpoint character and actively working to get himself and his life under control. Denis has the power to make people feel things, emotions and physical sensations. Anyone within his line of sight can be paralyzed, made to fall asleep or have their mood altered in a variety of ways. Denis' first mode is greed, which is a pain as he himself admits that having money and things can never satisfy him, he always feels the need for more. A member of the riot squad, their preferred member because he can make people chill out or get bored and wander off without making it obvious.
Spoiler
Rachel Chambers/Foggy- the other Team Alpha loyalist and adoptive mother of Prime. Rachel has a high libido first mode. She's also one of the dozen strongest bricks on the planet, somewhere between her son and granddaughter, and can apparently sprint across multiple states in an hour or two.
Team Leader: Christian Poures/Mind-Reader- Billionaire heiress and a telepath who puts Charles Xavier to shame. She can read minds from across the planet without any sort of booster or help, even if she can't control minds or do anything but get information from them or communicate instantly and securely. She also can't really filter out people's thoughts as long as they're in the same room as her, which coupled with an antisocial first mode make her a bit of a shut-in case. Sometimes she's worried this makes her a terrible team leader, but who could they possibly replace her with? Best friends with Marcia Turner.
Mark Steinberg/Stasis- A baker who had just gotten his cooking show, Cake Kings, approved when he popped and time froze. He wandered a frozen world for a decade, unsure if he was dead, before teaching himself meditation. When he's calm, which didn't happen before due to anxiety as a first mode, time resumes. When he loses his cool, falls asleep or gets distracted enough, everything stops. He doesn't need to eat or drink in stasis time. He can't bring other people with him, but he can move them. He can't use a car or a cell-phone, etc. but a bicycle is fine. He's spent subjective centuries in stasis and hasn't aged a day. Mark is a hardcore pacifist, but not above stripping you to your skivvies. To help court the public, Charlot arranged for him to get a cooking show, Steinberg and Friends.
Penny/Cellophane- a girl who is totally invisible, inaudible, not impossible to touch but impossible to realize you've touched her. It's largely a psychic effect, but she doesn't show up on film. Recordings of her voice work after she leaves , but she can't use a phone in real-time. Also, people tend to forget about her, even knowing she's there. She'd be an unstoppable spy, except her extraction keeps forgetting what they're doing in a random spot and leaving her behind/ She's made it clear she won't do these sorts of missions anymore. The effect spreads to people and objects she touches for a period of time, fading an hour or so after release. For unknown reasons, Brian can see and hear her just fine. She'll be the viewpoint character of the fifth book, so I expect to learn more about her.
Denis/Itch/Gabriel- An unmitigated ass in the first book who nearly kills Brian three times, redeemed in the second where he's the viewpoint character and actively working to get himself and his life under control. Denis has the power to make people feel things, emotions and physical sensations. Anyone within his line of sight can be paralyzed, made to fall asleep or have their mood altered in a variety of ways. Denis' first mode is greed, which is a pain as he himself admits that having money and things can never satisfy him, he always feels the need for more. A member of the riot squad, their preferred member because he can make people chill out or get bored and wander off without making it obvious.
Spoiler
Rachel Chambers/Foggy- the other Team Alpha loyalist and adoptive mother of Prime. Rachel has a high libido first mode. She's also one of the dozen strongest bricks on the planet, somewhere between her son and granddaughter, and can apparently sprint across multiple states in an hour or two.
"Any plan which requires the direct intervention of any deity to work can be assumed to be a very poor one."- Newbiespud
-
Ahriman238
- Sith Marauder
- Posts: 4854
- Joined: 2011-04-22 11:04pm
- Location: Ocularis Terribus.
Re: The Infected Talkback
Now how about the villains.
Senator Hooper- leads the charge on the Republican concentration camps platform. A lot of the acts of the IPB center on trying to discredit him, since even the craziest Infected generally recognize that making martyr of Hooper would not improve things.
Spoiler
And Team Alpha.
Devorah Timberland/Braid- Leader of Team Alpha. Isn't actually Infected, but is from Hobb's World, also here because of her former friend Mary Wyrdmake. The Timberlands have "a strange sort of precognition" no one understands how it works, nor could Devorah adequately explain how she sees/knows/understands these things but she always knows just what to tiny change to make to get a desired outcome. Like bumping into someone to delay them half a second, so they miss out on a parking spot they would have gotten, go for another, slip on a patch of ice and die. And she can set these up years in advance. She has said she sees a great many possible futures, but also implied this is misleadingly simplistic. No first mode, but Timberlands in general become terrible control freaks and develop a Dune Messiah complex, focusing on one particular future as ideal regardless of it's actual merits and doing everything possible to eliminate other possibilities. This is purely a coping mechanism for the tons of information their powers dump on them.
Braid is convinced that war between the normal person and the Infected in the US is inevitable, and the sooner it happens the better. Sooner means less powerful Infected in general, less casualties, less resentment, more chance of building an idealized integrated society afterwards. She moved to this world because there aren't hundreds of Timberlands all knowing and trying to control the future, allowing her more clarity and control. She does have at least two blind spots though, Brian and Penny. She cannot see or hear anything those two are going to do, though she can, for instance, track what everyone else in a room with them will say.
Stillness- the world's greatest mind-controller seen thus far. Stillness can give hundreds of people a reason for going outside in their skivvies, and it will all seem perfectly rational to them. His only limitation seems to be a range of a mile or two, and that a few very strong-willed people can fight through his control, as long as they know it's him doing it. Which used to happen more often, his first mode is being a showman and show-off. He's gotten it mostly under control, and his subtler uses of his power are scary, but he still can't resist waving at the cameras, knowing someone will look over the security footage later.
Tesseract- self-proclaimed 'Master of Time and Space.' Tess can perceive and move in four dimensions and warp space without apparent limit. Mostly he teleports himself and his friends around, but he can throttle you from the far side of the world without getting out of his recliner. His powers tend to generate a purple light, and he appears to his victims (when doing the space-warp kill) as a distorted monster made of purple light. The only official Class Eight, Brian is the only one to even injure him, by stabbing himself because Tess' power had linked them and temporarily turned Brian also into a fourth-dimensional being. At least, I think that's how it happened.
Earthling- imagine Toph with a mad-on. Major-scale terrakinetic, can levitate boulders, flay your skin off with sand, has several times destroyed entire towns by collapsing them into sinkholes and filling them in. Also widely known as "Earth-bitch" due to her aggressive first mode. She'd as soon kill you as shake your hand, and as soon kill everyone as you.
Spoiler
Spoiler
Senator Hooper- leads the charge on the Republican concentration camps platform. A lot of the acts of the IPB center on trying to discredit him, since even the craziest Infected generally recognize that making martyr of Hooper would not improve things.
Spoiler
And Team Alpha.
Devorah Timberland/Braid- Leader of Team Alpha. Isn't actually Infected, but is from Hobb's World, also here because of her former friend Mary Wyrdmake. The Timberlands have "a strange sort of precognition" no one understands how it works, nor could Devorah adequately explain how she sees/knows/understands these things but she always knows just what to tiny change to make to get a desired outcome. Like bumping into someone to delay them half a second, so they miss out on a parking spot they would have gotten, go for another, slip on a patch of ice and die. And she can set these up years in advance. She has said she sees a great many possible futures, but also implied this is misleadingly simplistic. No first mode, but Timberlands in general become terrible control freaks and develop a Dune Messiah complex, focusing on one particular future as ideal regardless of it's actual merits and doing everything possible to eliminate other possibilities. This is purely a coping mechanism for the tons of information their powers dump on them.
Braid is convinced that war between the normal person and the Infected in the US is inevitable, and the sooner it happens the better. Sooner means less powerful Infected in general, less casualties, less resentment, more chance of building an idealized integrated society afterwards. She moved to this world because there aren't hundreds of Timberlands all knowing and trying to control the future, allowing her more clarity and control. She does have at least two blind spots though, Brian and Penny. She cannot see or hear anything those two are going to do, though she can, for instance, track what everyone else in a room with them will say.
Stillness- the world's greatest mind-controller seen thus far. Stillness can give hundreds of people a reason for going outside in their skivvies, and it will all seem perfectly rational to them. His only limitation seems to be a range of a mile or two, and that a few very strong-willed people can fight through his control, as long as they know it's him doing it. Which used to happen more often, his first mode is being a showman and show-off. He's gotten it mostly under control, and his subtler uses of his power are scary, but he still can't resist waving at the cameras, knowing someone will look over the security footage later.
Tesseract- self-proclaimed 'Master of Time and Space.' Tess can perceive and move in four dimensions and warp space without apparent limit. Mostly he teleports himself and his friends around, but he can throttle you from the far side of the world without getting out of his recliner. His powers tend to generate a purple light, and he appears to his victims (when doing the space-warp kill) as a distorted monster made of purple light. The only official Class Eight, Brian is the only one to even injure him, by stabbing himself because Tess' power had linked them and temporarily turned Brian also into a fourth-dimensional being. At least, I think that's how it happened.
Earthling- imagine Toph with a mad-on. Major-scale terrakinetic, can levitate boulders, flay your skin off with sand, has several times destroyed entire towns by collapsing them into sinkholes and filling them in. Also widely known as "Earth-bitch" due to her aggressive first mode. She'd as soon kill you as shake your hand, and as soon kill everyone as you.
Spoiler
Kate/Know-it-All/Trivia- The woman who knows everything. Literally. If something is known to a single other human being it is known to her, and she can easily distinguish truth from lies from imagination and wishful thinking. It's not telepathy or anything that can be blocked, it is simply fact. She. Knows. Everything. Everyone's passwords, every plan, what companies are good to invest in, every language. She stands among the best experts in acting, politics, business, manipulation of others, aided by knowing what every specified person wants and is afraid of, every field of medicine, piloting every craft, martial-arts, small group tactics, marksmanship and cooking, just because she knows every little trick you can pick up through training or experience. And if occasionally she lacks the physical experience to do something automatically, she knows the best way to train, and was part of a covert team for many years.
Spoiler
"Any plan which requires the direct intervention of any deity to work can be assumed to be a very poor one."- Newbiespud