Wretched Joy 39 (Patreon)

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Wretched Joy

Chapter 39

-VB-

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▪ Topic: Nightmare Circle over Ellisburg

In: Boards ▶ North America ▶ East Coast

▶Bagrat (Veteran Member)(Guy in the Know)
Posted on February 15, 2011: 

Nilbog … is probably dead. 

For those of who you have been living under a rock, Ellisburg is where Nilbog showed up and turned it into his fucked up little kingdom. An S-class threat on par with the Slaughterhouse and the Machine Army, he is the reason that Ellisburg got turned into a Quarantine Site after he killed eveyone inside of it and everyone who went to rescue the survivors into his shit goblins. 

Ellisburg doesn’t exist anymore. 

There is now a giant hole in the ground where Ellisburg used to be. Like it is so deep that even though the entire hole in question is almost half a mile wide, you can’t see the bottom. Just an empty darkness. By the loosest calculation, this means that the hole has to be at least half a mile deep as well. 

As for who did it? It’s in the title, and why I have to go on a tangent to tell you exactly what is happening.

Again, for those of you who don’t know, Nightmare Circle is a new phenomenon that’s been sweeping across Brockton Bay, the cape capital of the East Coast. It is a “criminal free zone” that works by inducing nightmares in criminals; criminals in question aren’t those labeled as such by law or community but those who the circle judges as criminals based on a semi-strict definition of crime. These circles are made by Everyday Joe, the guy who showed up on TV for barging into a Boston court session, murdered Max Anders aka Kaiser of the now defunct Empire Eighty-Eighty, and had a small philosophical spat with the presiding judge. 

And for those of you who might not be me, this here is a report from within PRT’s own archive about how Everyday Joe thrashed Alexandria. It’s why she showed up in Brockton Bay for a week or two and then disappeared, never to return. Yes, you read that report right. Everyday Joe beat up Alexandria so hard and so thoroughly that 

This is not me bashing on Alexandria.

This is me trying my goddamn best to communicate to you just how overpowered Everyday Joe is. 

Because this is PRT’s file on Everyday Joe. 

And you also read that correctly. 

He is a Trump 10. Now, Trump classifications are a little different. Cape groupies know but most of you don’t. Trumps are assigned numbers based on how their power functions, not how dangerous they are. In this case, 10 refers not to “super dangerous” but “power enhancing, boosting, or granting with secondary effect.” This is why Dauntless, another Brockton Bay cape and a hero of the Protectorate, also has Trump 10 designation.

But this is where it gets interesting. Joe’s had eight threat rating updates. Eight. Most capes don’t get half that many updates to their threat rating! His initial profile listed his cumulative threat rating (CR) (a shitty way to compare cape threat rating but one that works somewhat) as 5: Brute 3, Shaker 2. In the first ever update, his cumulative rating jumped to 9. Then 14. Then 17. Then 21. Then he made the first Nightmare Circle and the PRT gave him a CR of 30: Brute 6, Shaker 6, Striker 4, Stranger 2, Master 4, Mover 4, Thinker 4 . This was more than half a year ago. Then he beat Alexandria, getting himself a CR of 35. And just a week before I made this post, they did another update: CR 39 - Brute 9, Shaker 8, Striker 6, Master 6, Stranger 4, Mover 6. This is the sub-ratings for his Trump 10. 

Everyday Joe, as far as the PRT is concerned, is a roaming and growing S-class threat. The longer he spends with whatever his power does, the stronger he grows. Worse for those fighting him, his tools and strengths are diverse. The Nightmare Circles? Those are suspected to be the secondary effect of his twin chained sickles. He can teleport. He can find out who the bad guys are; this is what led to The List. 

And then, just three days ago, he destroyed Ellisburg with Nilbog inside of it. And how do we know this? Because there is currently a Nightmare Circle some two miles wide centered on where Ellisburg used to be. 

How bad is this for you and me? It’s not bad. An S-class threat took out an S-class threat. That’s one less S-class threat. 

How bad is this for the PRT? Very bad. Joe’s known more for his vigilantism than any true villainy. What separates him from other vigilantes, though, is that he has legitimacy backing him: he does not go out of his way to hurt or kill people who he suspects are criminals but only those who he knows are criminals (because his Thinker power told him). Is this good enough of a reason? Of course not! But when he goes after people who everyone knew were guilty but got away because they had connection, money, and power? Not an insignificant number of people cheered for him when he dragged the corrupt out into the street and nailed them to the wall. And they have to fight him because he is a “hyperviolent parahuman criminal” - Director Emily Piggot, PRT ENE. 

Make no mistake: Everyday Joe is a villain who ignores the law and takes revenge into his own hands. He is not, however, a danger to the regular people as long as they remain regular people. 

So what do you guys think about him taking out Nilbog? 

Edit: tl;dr - Everyday Joe probably killed Nilbog and left his mark. 

▶Realfat69
Replied on February 15, 2011: 

Bruh. Nilbog is gone? 

Also, Bagrat, you need tl;dr. 

▶Brocktonite03 (Veteran Member)
Replied on February 15, 2011:

Can confirm. Joe doesn’t even look at you if you haven’t done anything. Like jaywalking, sneaking a candy bar, or even excessive drinking won’t get you in his radar. But if you got someone killed because of drunk driving? You will be beaten up like a red-headed stepchild, if not killed if you have a history of previous crashes. 

But even then, he won’t go after you if you turn yourself in. We saw that during The List.

▶Robby
Replied on February 15, 2011:

So EJ didn’t stop at E88! Not that I’m unhappy with this outcome. 

▶AllSeeingEye
Replied on February 15, 2011:

Ooohh… EJ might be very pissed with the PRT. He never went after any PRT operation; usually, it’s the other way around. But he went to them this time and made them look bad intentionally. What did they do? 

▶GoodNinja
Replied on February 15, 2011:

Yo, can we get confirmation from the PRT or something? 

▶XxVod_CowboyxX
Replied on February 15, 2011:

The PRT is secretly working with Everyday Joe. Why would he go after Nilbog who’s so far away when he had all sorts of villains close by in Boston? 

▶KoKoNuts
Replied on February 15, 2011:

@XxVoid_CowboyxX, don’t you dare send Joe into our city. We have enough problems as it is. Keep your nutjobs in your cities, not ours! 

▶MatsuDeHeisenburg
Replied on February 15, 2011:

I’d like a PRT confirmation that Nilbog is gone, too. Thinkers, too, if you want to confirm it as a public service. 

▶EyeOKokabiel (Unverified Cape)
Replied on February 15, 2011:

Depends on whether you believe me or not, but I can confirm that I can’t find Nilbog with my power. 

▶Reave (Verified PRT Agent)
Replied on February 15, 2011:

I have been given the go ahead. 

Yes, Nilbog is dead as far as we can confirm. 

▶Matara_chit
Replied on February 15, 2011:

That’s a relief. I live in Connecticut so Nilbog being gone, even if Legend is nearby, is always a relief. 

▶Acree
Replied on February 15, 2011:

So PRT is definitely going to pay out the bounty on Nilbog, right?

▶Brocktonite03

Replied on February 15, 2011:

Nilbog didn’t have a bounty, though?

▶RegularJoeBB (Verified Cape)

Replied on February 15, 2011:

Exactly. It was a public service like with anything else I do. 

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