Editing Flechette (section)

==Abilities and Powers==
{{main|The Subway Cluster}}

===Primary Ability===
Lily has the ability to temporarily imbue nonliving material<ref name="12.6c1">Thirty might be too generous. Look at Brockton Bay's Protectorate/Wards, living or dead. Who is explicitly affected by the (conventional interpretation of the) Manton effect?<br>[...]<br>Flechette? Yes. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/07/14/plague-12-6/#comment-2973 Comment by Wildbow] in [[Plague 12.6]]</ref> with the power to ignore select laws of physics. Most notably, they could punch through virtually anything.<ref name="Cast Page (In Depth)"/><ref>Her power wasn't Shadow Stalker's, from back in Brockton Bay. It went through everything, yes. Shadow Stalker could do something similar. But it left a hole, where Shadow Stalker's hadn't. One shot, then two- it created an aperture with the same diameter as the bullet. - [https://www.parahumans.net/2019/03/19/heavens-12-8/ Excerpt] from [[Heavens 12.8]]</ref> It is able to go through any defence and materialise inside of a target, fusing to it, and can ignore various forms of conventional superhuman durability as if the opposition was like "warm-butter".<ref name="RedSting">Sting unerringly reaches every dimension, including the one you're in. So against Superman, The Hulk, Thor, etc, it goes right through any defenses. When it rematerializes, it can rematerialize inside them, and functionally it does very much the same thing it would if you shot them and they had the durability of warm butter- pushes everything out of the way, and settles in place. Fuses to bone, etc, so bleeding is limited, but can still do a horrendous amount of damage. - [https://www.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/x0ds0x/comment/im7mz89/ Comment] by Wildbow on Reddit</ref> She is not restricted to her hand when she uses this power. When imbuing an object with her power, Lily could tune the effect; for example, she could alter the time limit so that her charged ammunition would glue itself to a place (at the molecular level) if she timed the effect to wear off at the right time.<ref name="9.2 e1">Flechette wasn't a breaker, though her power came close. Technically, she was a striker, a cape with the ability to apply some effect by touch or at point-blank range. The striker classification could include certain breaker effects as they were applied to things other than the cape themselves, but not always. Other strikers included those who used energy weapons, those who had certain kinds of superstrength that weren't accompanied by durability and those with pyrokinesis or such that didn't extend more than a foot around them. The way she used her ability, coupled with the intuitive understanding of angles, trajectories and timing she got from her secondary powers, gave her a low rating as a 'blaster'. A cape with a ranged attack.<br><br>She infused the three-foot length of sharpened metal that was mounted in her arbalest with her power. The more power there was in it, the less it was affected by the natural laws of the universe. Focusing more power into an object meant gravity, air resistance and general physics held less and less sway over it. She could tune it, make the effect longer lived, shorter lived or bias the effects to allow for more of one element or less of another.<br><br>She could do other things, but the primary benefit, the easiest thing to do, was making her ammunition punch through anything. It would glue itself in place on impact, if she had the effect wear off at the right time, and she was very good at timing things.<br>[...]<br>She fired the needle through the corner of the roof just in front of her, and it passed through without resistance. It continued on to strike the rooftop below and in front of her, nestling in deep as the effect wore off, bonding on a molecular level to the material around it. The chain stretched down at a fifty degree angle, taut. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/04/07/sentinel-9-2/ Excerpt] from [[Sentinel 9.2]]</ref> She could use her ability on her costume to reduce the effects of friction or make her shoes bite into surfaces.<ref name="26.b e1>The defending capes moved in. Foil slid down, her cleats digging into the surface of the building to afford her some drag, then leaped off to stab a Crimson through the skull. - [[Interlude 26b]]</ref> Another trick she could do was to make her costume frictionless and allow her to slide around.<ref name="9.2 e2">She could charge the metal of her cleats so they bit into any surface, and though it was too slow to be used defensively unless her foe telegraphed their attacks, she could make her costume frictionless.<br>[...]<br>Flechette stepped forward, onto the chain. The space between the spikes of her cleats made for a groove the chain could run through. She slid down, one foot behind the other, arbalest held behind her with the chain reeling out, a safety measure in the event she slipped or was pushed off, with the added advantage that it allowed her to control the speed of her descent.<br><br>When she was close to the rooftop below, she cut the chain, let herself drop down. She was running the second her feet met the surface, using the momentum from her slide. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/04/07/sentinel-9-2/ Excerpt] from [[Sentinel 9.2]]</ref>

[[Scion]] described her power as "charging objects with energy [...] the small pieces of alloyed metal unfolded, taking shape in not just this world, but all realities, at the same space and time, bristling with an effect that would sever their attachment to most physical laws."<ref name="26.x e1">A female, standing just outside another time distortion, walked around the effect, charging objects with energy. The entity could see as the small pieces of alloyed metal unfolded, taking shape in not just this world, but ''all'' realities, at the same space and time, bristling with an effect that would sever their attachment to most physical laws. - [[Interlude 26]]</ref> Said power can unerringly reach into every dimension, including the one the target is in.<ref name="RedSting"/> Although this is widely interpreted to mean that they extend into every [[Alternate Earth]] and hit things that are present in one Earth but not in another, this may not be the case.<ref>'''Is Foil accidentally killing people on other earths when she uses her power?'''<br><br>'''Wildbow:''' Nope - [https://www.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/4ny7ko/is_foil_accidentally_killing_people_on_other/ Discussion on Reddit featuring Wildbow]</ref>

Using her power on [[Chevalier]]'s sword would have broken it.<ref name="R1">'''natsugo:''' Hell, she [Foil] could have used her power on the blade of Chevaliers sword, then he could go 1v1 against an Endbringer.<br><br>'''Wildbow:''' Using her power on Chevalier's sword would have broken it, like the space warping around the Endbringer core did.<br><br>The issue was that after they discovered the full ramifications of her powers, the Endbringers changed their methodology. Leviathan made hit and run attacks that meant he was gone and attacking another city before Scion/Foil/anyone else reached a location, Simurgh attacked abstract targets, Khonsu teleported, and Tohu/Bohu were difficult to pin down or find easy answers to. - [https://www.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/3bwjv7/why_didnt_they_use_foil_to_the_fullest_extent/ Comment by Wildbow on Reddit]</ref> 

Lily's charged shots can pierce right through an [[Endbringer]],<ref name="Cast Page (In Depth)"/> as demonstrated against [[Leviathan]]<ref name="8.5 eFar">One of crossbow-girl's shots, like a needle several feet in length, speared under the side of Leviathan's neck, out the top. Shadow Stalker's shots, at the same time, failed to penetrate Leviathan's hard exterior.<br><br>"Flechette! I'm getting closer!" Shadow Stalker called out, looking back at her new partner.<br><br>"Careful!" the crossbow-girl – Flechette, I took it – replied, loading another shot. - [[Extermination 8.5]]</ref><ref>Flechette fired a needle through Leviathan's knee, and the Endbringer's leg buckled. He collapsed into a kneeling position, the knee striking the ground. - [[Extermination 8.5]]</ref> and [[Behemoth]].<ref>He clapped, and a shockwave tore through the area. Rachel was already directing the dogs; they moved so there was cover, buildings between them and Behemoth. The chain, imbued by Foil's ability to shear through anything, cut through the buildings as though there was nothing there.<br><br>And just like that, they made it. The dogs passed Behemoth, a hundred and twenty feet of chain maintained between them, and the chain cut through him as easily as Foil's arbalest bolts had. - [[Crushed 24.4]]</ref><ref name="24.x eFoil">Something flew past him, shearing straight through Behemoth's chest. A wheel of metal, thin, with two bars sticking out of the center. It cut through the Endbringer like he wasn't even there. - [[Interlude 24.x]]</ref> She can kill one with a direct hit to their core.<ref name="Reb e1">'''Nekron-akaMrSkeletal:''' I guess that works. I was actually wondering about sting. If Foil had been at the behemoth fight could she have finished [[behemoth]] when his core was exposed?<br><br>'''Wildbow:''' Yep. - [https://www.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/3ofej1/endbringer_versus_endbringer/cvwxx13 Reply by Wildbow on Reddit]</ref> After discovering the full ramifications of her power during the [[Battle against Behemoth]], the Endbringers changed their methodology to better avoid situations where Lily could set up a killing blow.<ref name="R1"/>

===Other Abilities===
Lily has an intuitive understanding of angles, trajectories and an enhanced sense of timing that she uses for aiming and applying her power.<ref name="9.2 e1"/> It also gave her a defensive advantage being able to dodge blows easily and even catch arrows out of the air.<ref name="I21c1">She has a minor defensive ability in her enhanced sense of timing. Dodging blows, to a minor extent. She caught Shadow Stalker's crossbow bolt, for example. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/04/30/interlude-21/#comment-20586 Comment by Wildbow] on [[Interlude 21.y]]</ref>

===Vulnerabilities===
Although her [[All-or-Nothing]] attacks can pierce through any non-perfect defense,<ref name="SBabsolute e2">Siberian, Damsel, Scrub, Flechette, and Grey Boy are Worm capes at the 'if anything can penetrate that defense, these guys penetrate that defense' level of attack. - Wildbow on Reddit, archived on Spacebattles</ref><!--https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/31038388--><ref name="SBabsolute e1">Can't cite anything, but there's a line that sorta appears in the story, where you run into the perfects (perfect defense, perfect offense) and stuff gets fucky - and the rule of thumb is that 'unless your ability beats -everything-, it doesn't beat this'. For processing power Contessa's ability would be on this level (as with Flechette's Sting, Clockblocker's inviolability, Siberian's invulnerability). - Wildbow on Reddit, archived on Spacebattles</ref><!--https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/29824546--> objects charged by her power are not inviolable. On separate occasions, both [[Tecton]]<ref name="24.x eFoil"/><ref>'''RazorSmile:''' Skitter's idea, Annex to merge the metal bits together, Foil to grant it penetrative powers and Alexandria to throw?<br><br>'''wildbow:''' Tecton piledrivers set into the bars at the side, to launch. - Conversation with Wildbow on [[Interlude 24.x]]</ref><!--https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/06/22/interlude-24/#comment-29387--> and [[Ballistic]]<ref>I took control of her, had her bend down to grip a rock. I channeled it with her power.<br><br>A moment later, I brought Ballistic through.<br><br>He used his power on the rock. - [[Speck 30.5]]</ref><ref name="30.6 eOpen"/> launched objects charged by Lily. [[Scion]] touched the flat side of a razor blade charged by her with a tuned Stilling attack to disintegrate it.<ref>They stepped out of portals, one to my left, one to my right.<br><br>Cuff to shape a sheet of metal into a giant razor blade, Foil to rig it with her power, setting it in Scion's way.<br>[...]<br>I banished Foil as well, sending Cuff and Canary after her. They'd keep Tattletale and the others company. I disconnected them from my control network, giving them free will once again.<br>[...]<br>It didn't matter. His hand glowed as he struck the flat side of the razor, and it dissolved into a ruin of glowing fragments. - [[Speck 30.5]]</ref> Powers such as those from [[Trickster]]<ref>Flechette moved to shoot, then reconsidered, threw a handful of darts at Trickster instead. The darts disappeared in midair, and splinters of wood and small stones dropped straight out of the air where they had been. - [[Sentinel 9.3]]</ref> and [[Gray Boy]]<ref name="26.b e2>Foil threw darts. Gray Boy froze them in mid-air. - [[Interlude 26b]]</ref> can obliquely act on objects charged by Lily and redirect them before they make contact. [[Vista]]'s power can also obliquely warp objects charged by Lily's primary [[shard]].<ref>March doesn't stop as the rapier points at the heart, continuing forward and using both hands to overcome the resistance of the hard breastplate. She presses forward until the hilt sits flush against Vista's armor plate.<br><br>The face that focuses on the explosive fuse was what allowed the sword to slide into and through the material. Now it charges it, let the charge grow with every passing half second. - [[Heavens 12.all]]</ref><ref>"The batshit bunny stabbed me, right? I telescope her sword, so it barely punches past my breastplate, she doesn't realize. But it does punch through. I concentrate the point that's supposed to explode into a smaller area and pull it away from me- screws up my breastplate. But that part that did stab me... can't do anything about that." - [[Black 13.1]]</ref>

If a charged object contacts an [[All-or-Nothing]] effect, they will nullify each other, causing the object to lose its charge:
*Lily's power versus [[the Siberian]] is the classic scenario where an unstoppable force strikes an immovable object.<ref>'''Belial666:''' Harm is harm. Since there doesn't seem to be a limit to what powers can actually do, think of an effect that could trump other effects. For example, a sword that cuts ANYthing is something that has occasionally appears in fantasy. Not the "absurdly sharp edge" version but the "name the object of objection and it's cut" version.<br>Swing it at someone and you could cut off a limb. Or, you could cut off their will to fight. Or their strength. Or their ability to interact with the world. Or anything else of them you could name at all.<br><br>'''Wildbow:''' But if you're talking in that respect, you might as well be asking what happens when the unstoppable force strikes the immovable object. You might be talking about exactly this if you're referring to flechette's arrows vs. Siberian. - Comment by Wildbow on [[Prey 14.2]]</ref><!--https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2012/09/08/prey-14-2/#comment-4085--> As this scenario results in a mutual nullification,<ref name="26.5 eConflict">Clockblocker fired his threads from his gauntlet. They surrounded the cube-carrier, and he froze them.<br><br>''Unstoppable force against an immovable object.''<br><br>Which won?<br><br>The Siberian made contact with the thread and flickered out of existence, and the thread went limp. The cube fell with a crash. - [[Sting 26.5]]</ref> her charged objects can thus pop the Siberian.<ref name="26.b e3>Up until the moment Foil, still screaming, using her augmented sense of timing to measure the length of each scream, stepped around the monochrome field he'd cast just in front of her. She threw a handful of darts through the Siberian and Gray Boy's head as his back was turned.<br><br>The Siberian flickered out of existence as Gray Boy collapsed.<br><br>Neither reappeared, healthy or otherwise. - [[Interlude 26b]]</ref><ref>They were thrown, and they disrupted connections to two shards at once. The projection disappeared, only to reappear a distance away. The boy who had created the time distortions fell as well. - [[Interlude 26]]</ref>
*In her final fight against [[March]], Lily's charged weapon conflicted with March's version, where each nullified the other's charge.<ref name="II12.x">March was the first to move. A dash forward, weapon thrusting. Foil's weapon shimmered before it met March's. A small, localized explosion marked the conflict between the two powers, each nullifying the other. - [[Heavens 12.x]]</ref>
*Lily's charged bolt lost its charge when it contacted the All-or-Nothing crystal of an underling of [[Lord of Loss]]; the crystal lost its special properties as well causing both the bolt and crystal to shatter.<ref name="II11.7">Foil, quiet up until this point, started shooting the crossbow, launching her augmented bolts. I'd known her as Flechette, back in the days when I'd thought my boyfriend, Eric, and Uncle Neil dying at the hands of an unstoppable giant lizard was the worst life was going to get. Back then, she'd had something elegant. Now she had something ''big''.<br><br>The skewers were about as long my arm was from elbow to fingertip, tapered at both sides. They punched through Lord of Loss' digits, where a hand or clawed foot had just touched ground to give him leverage.<br>[...]<br>Foil turned the spider-mounted crossbow around to fire, and the blaster threw something to their feet- crystal encased them, freezing them immobile within for less than a second. It was less than a second because Foil's shot hit the crystal and both the bolt and the crystal shattered. The cape was free to fire off some more artillery-like lobs. - [[Blinding 11.7]]</ref>

She is unable to escape a [[Gray Boy]] time loop.<ref>She had close calls, though. Can you imagine if the grey boy encounter had gone differently? 'Fight endbringer, stick around, meet cute girl, switch sides to hook up with cute girl, get grey boyed, watch as girlfriend flips out and uses her true power, watch girlfriend die anyway, spend 10k years in torment' - Wildbow on Reddit, archived on Spacebattles</ref><!--https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/50295463--> However, as [[March]] broke an entire time loop from the outside at Killington,<ref>I'd already seen, in a sense. I'd figured out what was behind the tarp back in Killington. Gray Boy's victim. The only one, as far as I was aware, who was still alive. - [[Sting 26.6]]</ref><ref>I beat her to the punch. "March got to one of the time effects. It was the Killington Mayor, in an area that was folded into Brockton Bay." - [[Heavens 12.2]]</ref> Lily can presumably do the same with the help of specialized tinkertech.<ref>March reaches into a pocket. The second of her devices. Courtesy of Cradle and Cradle's back and forth with the Khonsu Fallen, who are led by time manipulators.<br><br>"Stand back."<br><br>The device makes the bubble fragile, and March's blade cuts into the skin of it. It distorts, and it breaks. - [[Heavens 12.all]]</ref>

Lily believed that trying to use her power to intuitively understand angles on [[Vista]]'s space warping might give her a seizure.<ref>Vista stepped out into the middle of the road at the edge of the fissure, then concentrated. She felt her power extend to every solid object in front of her, formed a map in her head. There was nobody out there, which made it easier. Slowly, carefully, she began adjusting. She truncated the length of Lord street, then did it again, repeating the process to make the four lane road shorter and shorter. The fissure down the center of the road squeezed against itself like a compressed spring.<br><br>"This is disorienting," Flechette spoke, as she gazed at the scene. "My power gives me a grasp of angles... and I'm worried I might have a seizure if I try to use it to get a sense of what's happening here." - [[Sentinel 9.5]]</ref> [[The Number Man]] can counter her enhanced accuracy via his [[Thinker]] power to dodge her shots.<ref>Foil opened fire with her crossbow, aiming so it was on a path to hit two of the enemies, and the Harbingers dodged the shot.<br><br>''She's not supposed to miss.'' - [[Interlude 26a]]</ref>

===Shards===
The three [[shard]]s in her [[Subway Cluster|cluster]] call themselves the three faces.<ref>But their Foil, who belongs to the three faces just as much as March does, is quiet, watching, stalking. She watches, because her eyes are good. Because the three faces needed her eyes to be good. - [[Heavens 12.all]]</ref> The [[Entities]] refer to Lily's primary shard as "Sting". It was originally used for fighting other Entities.<ref name="26.x e2">''Sting'', the entity thought. Once it had been a weapon for his kind, against his kind, back in the beginning, when they had dwelt in oceans of gray sludge. - [[Interlude 26]]</ref> 

Sting does not have much need to evolve: the [[Entities]] have not discovered a way to really improve or vary it. However, handing this power out to hosts can give the Entities the opportunity to figure things out at the end of the [[cycle]] by seeing how other powers interact with it.<ref name="SB16">Sting, for the record, is akin to the shark. Sharks haven't evolved for aeons, because you can't get much better than a motherfucking shark. What you can do is put the shark in a tank with other fish/animals and see the way things might play out. - [https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/15026750 Wildbow on Spacebattles]</ref><ref>
:And sending out the shard to improve it is desirable, in case they ever run into anything like themselves that turns out to be hostile and need to be able to kill it.
There is no real improvement of Sting, exactly. It's a 'shark' of shards. There's not much need for it to evolve. But having it out there and giving it to new species to play with gives them the opportunity to figure stuff out. And that figuring ends up in the download before the cycle moves on (detonation of the Earth multiverse, offshoot entities are distributed). - Wildbow on Reddit</ref><!--https://redd.it/t1azj8--><ref>S/he [March] did get Sting lite. Remember, Sting is a 'shark' of a shard. Can't really do much to improve or vary it. - Wildbow on Spacebattles</ref><!--https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/15081572--> Giving away this power is standard procedure for [[Scion]] and [[Eden]] as they have contingencies in place to automatically dodge charged projectiles.<ref>
:I doubt it's standard procedure
It is standard procedure, at least for Scion/Eden's line of entities. We see them as avatars in the theoretical universe.
:So typically, it's not a problem because whoever would be attached to that shard wouldn't have any way of getting to them to attack in the first place.
This basically answers OP's question. And it doesn't quite kill him. It just leaves him more vulnerable to more devastating follow-up. - Wildbow on Reddit</ref><!--https://redd.it/t1azj8--><ref>I was already moving the group to safety when Scion evaded the incoming projectile.<br><br>His future sight power wasn't like Contessa's. Narrower, lacking imagination, but he'd set up ''contingencies''. If X happened, then the power would automatically kick in.<br><br>Apparently the cost of being hit by Foil's power was worse than whatever it cost him to use that power.<br><br>Not a magic bullet, but it was a good fucking thing to know. Could I break it? Abuse it? - [[Speck 30.5]]</ref><ref>Why had ''this'' barrage worked when the others didn't?<br><br>Had to buy time, make space. I opened doorways, siccing capes on Scion, driving him out of the building.<br><br>What was different? I hadn't added anything to the group.<br><br>I ''had'' taken something away.<br><br>I looked at Foil. - [[Speck 30.5]]</ref>