Ward is the fourth web serial by John C. Macrae and the sequel to Worm. Worm was thematically about trauma if it was about anything. Its protagonists, antagonists, and most of the supporting cast were in many ways consumed by their worst days. Not surprising for a setting where you get powers on the worst day of your life but it was hardly limited to the capes. Victoria Dallon aka Glory Girl was a tertiary character in Worm. She was nearly dissolved by acid, reassembled incorrectly by her biokinetic adopted sister Amy, spent two years in a care facility for people too screwed by powers to live in society, and restored to her right body at the end of Worm.
It's two years later, society is slowly rebuilding after the events at the end of Worm, and Victoria is trying to get back to living her life. It's not going well. At the beginning of the story she's part of the patrol block which is a paramilitary after school program when an emergency forces her to out herself as a parahuman. This ends her time on the patrol and forces her to seek other employment. This sucks for her but at least she has a family barbecue to look forward to. This is of course ruined when she discovers that Amy is present.
Feeling betrayed by her family and in search of a new job Victoria runs across her old therapist, Jessica Yamada. Over coffee they discuss their personal travails and Jessica asks for a favor. She's leading a therapy group and has some serious concerns about one of its members. Wanting to avoid prejudicing Victoria's judgement, Jessica asks Vicky to meet the group without telling her who she's concerned about. Meet the group:
Tristan and Byron: Identical twins stuck sharing a body. When one is present the other one is trapped behind his brother's eyes; aware of everything and able to affect nothing. They have to split their waking hours; each getting half a life. Tristan is technically the only one in the group but of course Byron is always in attendance.
Kenzie: An eleven year old girl with a tinker power specialized in surveillance and counter-surveillance. Cameras that can see through walls, into the past, or miles away and holograms, blinding flash guns, and the like are her stock and trade. Kenzie has serious boundary issues. When she like someone it's obsessive, intense, a car hurtling downhill with no breaks.
Chris: The archetypal moody teenager, wearing headphones and headgear, sullen and sarcastic. Of everyone in the group he's the least interested in being there and sharing. He's also a shape shifter with a variety of alternate forms based on his emotional states all of which are freaky and none of which see him returning to being the exact same human he was.
Ashley: A clone of a notorious super villain with a matter annihilating power that goes off accidentally if she moves her hand the wrong way. She's a walking weapon with a physical hair trigger and an emotional hair trigger. Disposed to megalomania and pomposity when insufficiently medicated, Ashley has expressed the desire to get back into villainy.
Rain: An ex-member of a terrorist, end of days cult with a complicated living arrangement. He's penitent but that doesn't change that he has multiple people out to kill him over his past crimes. And those crimes kind of warrant it.
Sveta: A sweet girl with a body that's a head and a mass of lethally strong, mostly autonomous tentacles. She and Victoria were friends in the care home with unruly bodies. Her prosthetic body is keeping the murder tendrils in and giving her a somewhat normal life.
So can you tell who's the concerning one? Well neither can Victoria and as the story progresses she ends up more and more enmeshed in their lives and problems amidst increasingly fraught personal and social context.Her sister remains a looming specter, many super villains are gearing up for big plays, anti-cape sentiment is growing, and multiversal politics threaten the fragile peace that the world is rebuilding in. Can Victoria save the group? The world? Can she even protect herself amid it all?
Ward is a story about trying to get better. Victoria swings wildly from good to just barely functioning and back over the course of the story. The plot doesn't pause to let her deal with her PTSD, trust issues, or grief. Traumatic events interrupt attempts to move on. Life and all of its pain don't stop just because your supposed to be in recovery. If you make progress it's going to be despite circumstance and not because of it. In this way Ward is very dreary and very hopeful. If seeing characters go through the wringer is something you like then this story is for you.
Ward is a gargantuan 1.9 million words making it a bit larger than its predecessor. It's overflowing with plot threads, drama, intrigue, and super hero fights. It can be read here, fan created audio production here.
IRON NODER XIV: THE RETURN OF THE IRON NODER