- Time loop #135 -

WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT? YOU SERIOUSLY THOUGHT YOU COULD OUT-PLAN AN ARMY OF EVIL ACCORD CLONES? I'M SPEECHLESS. I'M THE GREATEST TINKER IN THE WORLD AND EVEN I CAN'T THINK OF A PHRASE TO DESCRIBE YOUR INCREDIBLE STUPIDITY. ... ... ...OH WAIT, THAT'S A GOOD ONE. INCREDIBLE STUPIDITY. TRY HARDER NEXT TIME.

Bakuda crumpled the tickertape message in her hand. Her future self could shut the hell up.

She swore that one day she'd make her future self pay. Ohhh yes she'd make her pay. She'd build her own Device, and break the time loop, and teleport into that arrogant bitch's reality, and shove an Infinite Agony Cocktail Bomb into her nasal cavity, and set it off with a smile on her face, and see the beautiful look of understanding dawn in her eyes as the effect took hold...

Bakuda licked her lips. Her vengeance would be sweet, but that would all come in good time. Couldn't let herself get distracted. Had to focus on the plan.

Setting off Echidna in Boston had been one of her better ideas. Echidna distracted the heroes long enough that she could take over Brockton Bay without a fight and set up a nice base of operations to do her tinkering. As a nice bonus, she didn't have to deal with pesky Eidolon clones throwing a wrench in her plans.

The problem was dealing with Echidna's leftover army of Accord and Citrine clones. Nasty motherfuckers. They were a bitch to take down, especially the ones with the Breaker/Stranger version of Accord's power.

But she wasn't worried. The clone army had superpowered plans, but she was a motherfucking genius, and her time loops gave her infinite tries. She'd kill the fuckers dead this time, for sure.

...

- Time loop #136 -

AGAIN? DO YOU LIKE BEING KILLED BY A HUNDRED ELEGANTLY ARRANGED SPRING-LOADED GUILLOTINE BLADES? OR ARE YOU JUST THAT STUPID?

Bakuda crumpled the tickertape in her hand. She wasn't going to give up now. She'd show that bitch who was boss.

...

- Time loop #137 -

HA HA HA HA HA. THE LOOK ON YOUR FACE AS YOU WERE ARTISTICALLY SLICED INTO SIXTY FOUR EQUAL PIECES WAS FUCKING PRICELESS. TRY AGAIN.

Bakuda crumpled the tickertape in her hand.

...

- Time loop #138 -

AGAIN? ... ...WAIT, SHIT. ARE YOU ONE OF THOSE FREAKY MASOCHISTS WHO GETS OFF ON BEING KILLED IN NEW AND INTERESTING WAYS? OH MY GOD. IT EXPLAINS SO MUCH. YOU SICKEN ME.

Bakuda crumpled the tickertape in her hand. She was going to strangle that bitch if it was the last thing she did.

Fine. She'd take a mental health break from her risky experiments and spend a loop taking a safer path. She had a new strategy she wanted to try. A genius plan to take down Coil and nip the Echidna mess in the bud in one fell swoop.

...

The Secret Diary of Taylor Hebert! - March 25

I have big news today! I think I made a friend. Her name is Grace. She's a cape like me, and she's kind of amazing.

I left school early today. Sophia is still in intensive care after her unfortunate toaster accident (ouch!), but Emma and Madison tried to steal my backpack and almost got away with it. I was too upset to stay in school after that, so I decided to go to the park and practice my bug control.

And get this: after a few minutes, a woman came up to me out of the blue and said, "So Taylor, can you hear through your bugs yet?"

I should have denied everything, but I was so surprised I couldn't help myself. I stuttered out "H-how did you know I'm a cape?" She said she deduced that I was a cape because the bugs were acting strangely and I was at the center of the disturbances. Amazing. She's a genius.

(She said that straight away. "I'm Grace Phillips, aka Bakuda, aka the smartest motherfucking genius you'll ever see. Don't forget that and we'll get along fine." Between you and me, I wonder if she might be a little insane.)

I was embarrassed because she'd spotted me so easily. She picked up on it and pointed out that I was blushing like mad. I thought she was going to mock me like the bullies, but she just grinned and said that I was adorable when I wasn't cutting off people's body parts.

(Yeah, I know, creepy. I think that was her way of giving me a compliment? Like I said, she might be a little insane.)

The amazing thing is that we've only known each other for a day and Grace wants to make a team with me! She's asian but she's not in the ABB, she's vigilante who wants to take down all the villain gangs in the city (in her words, "all the brainless brutes who think they're hot stuff"). She's already figured out roughly where there bases are, and she wants my help to do the surveillance to help her plant her bombs.

Oh, that's right. I didn't mention it yet, but she's a tinker whose specialty is making super tech bombs. At first I was afraid of working with a cape whose main way of fighting is, well, blowing people up.

Turns out that won't be an issue - Grace is a pacifist! She said she's morally opposed to hurting people in any way, and her bombs are harmless, non-lethal munitions that knock people out. What a cool power! I wish my bugs were that convenient!

Grace also promised that her bombs definitely don't have any hidden debilitating side effects that would reveal themselves months later to the horror of everyone involved. Come to think of it, she was oddly specific about that point. She must be really conscientious about her pacifism, to test her bombs for long-term effects. I never did any tests like that with my insect stings!

This evening we went on our first mission as a team. We spied on an ABB base. Lung was there - my first time seeing a supervillain! We didn't attack him, though. Grace said we should wait until Oni Lee was there, too, and take them both out in one fell swoop. That way we don't leave an angry assassin on the loose gunning for revenge. Good thinking. If I was on my own, I probably would have tried to beat Lung by myself and gotten in big trouble!

Grace is really smart, and we make a good team. I can't believe I made a friend today and I got to be the co-founder of a superhero team! I can't wait to take down our first villain. Then I'll be a real hero!