Cricket

<infobox> <title source="name"><default>Cricket</default></title>

<image source="Image"></image> <image source="image"></image> <group><header>Basic Information</header> <label>Civilian Name</label> <label>Aliases</label> <label>Gender</label><default>Unknown</default> <label>Death</label> <label>Age</label><default>Unknown</default> <label>Post-timeskip</label> <label>Ward start</label> <label>Relations</label> <label>Family</label></group> <group><header>Professional Status</header> <label>Occupation</label> <label>Classification</label> <label>Unique Features</label> <label>Alignment</label>

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<label>Location</label> <label>Teams</label> <label>Previous Team(s)</label> <label>Base of Operations</label></group> <group><header>First Appearance</header> <label>Worm Debut</label> <label>Ward Debut</label></group> </infobox>Melody Jurist, known publicly as Cricket, is a member of Empire Eighty-Eight.

Personality

Cricket has made it a point to not have any of her injuries - even the permanent ones - healed by Othala.<ref name="I11e"/>

Her first few attacks in a fight tended to consist of superficial, showy injuries. Grue speculated that she had picked up this habit trying to impress a crowd.<ref>“Looks worse than it is. I’ve fought people like her before, in sparring and fighting classes. She was showing off with the first few cuts. Shallow, inflicting pain, not really meant to disable or deal real harm.”
“That’s stupid,” I muttered. “I’m glad, but it’s stupid.”
“She probably didn’t think about it. I’d bet it’s something she learned and incorporated into her style while fighting for a crowd.” - Buzz 7.8</ref>

Appearance

Cricket is described as a twenty-something girl with a gymnast's build, a blonde buzz-cut, and a metal cage as a mask.<ref name="7.8e1">“Handle her, Cricket,” Hookwolf spoke, pressing a hand against his collarbone where a bullet had struck him. The scarred girl with the buzz cut dashed forward, reaching behind her back to draw two scythe-like weapons, each only about as long as her forearm.

Coil’s soldier turned to fire at the incoming villainess, but Cricket ducked to the right, then evaded left, in time with the noise of the gunfire. The distance between them closed rapidly. I didn’t see what happened next, as Coil’s soldier disappeared into the darkness and Cricket followed her in.

[...]

My bugs reacted to a funny noise from the direction of Cricket and Coil’s woman, but I couldn’t hear it myself. Grue’s power did strange things to sound. I had more immediate concerns.
[...]
I looked for Cricket, and found her in the blackness, dragging Coil’s soldier back toward us. I saw her emerge from the darkness, one of the miniature scythes buried in the woman’s upper arm, the other buried in her thigh. With a full-body effort, Cricket swung the woman forward and pulled the scythes free. Coil’s soldier rolled onto the ground before Cricket. If her powers didn’t give her an edge in fitness, she was pretty damn fit for her frame. - Excerpt from Buzz 7.8</ref> She has a scar from were she had her throat slashed.<ref name="Cast2">Cricket – Like Stormtiger, she was a onetime combatant in the underground fighting tournaments. Cricket is a young woman with vastly accelerated reflexes and the ability to generate and hear subsonic noises. She can use these noises to disorient and induce vertigo in her foes or use staccato blasts as a form of radar. She favors kama as a weapon – short scythes that can each be held in one hand. Covered in small scars, she wears a metal cage over her face and keeps her hair short. - Cast (in depth)</ref>

Equipment

Utilizes twin kamas – miniature scythes found in some martial arts styles.<ref name="Cast1">Cricket – A member of Empire Eighty-Eight in her first appearance, Cricket sports a shaved head, a cage-mask over her face and twin kamas – miniature scythes. She can manipulate sounds beyond an audible range, disorienting her foes or serving her as a radar, and has enhanced reflexes. - Cast (spoiler free)</ref> Due to her throat being slashed, she makes use of an artificial larynx to talk,<ref name="I11e">Interlude 11e</ref> although she was sometimes capable of speaking in a strangled voice without it.<ref>“Hey!” Cricket’s voice was strangled, strained. I wondered if one of the injuries that had given her one of those scars had done something to her vocal chords. She lowered one of the scythes toward Coil’s soldier. “I got a-” - Buzz 7.8</ref>

Abilities and Powers

Cricket's powers have two major aspects. The first is greatly enhanced reflexes that give her amazing reaction time, enough to dodge bullets, and to quickly move to her target.<ref name="list">Cricket Vastly increased reflexes, personal sonar that could be keyed to disrupt others' senses E88 - Parahuman List, Bolded edit by Wildbow</ref>

The second is a form of Acoustokinesis that allows her multiple sound-based abilities. She uses a form of echolocation to orient herself in combat, making her one of the few people relatively unaffected by Grue's powers.<ref name="7.8e2">Then every bug in the area reacted to that sound I couldn’t make out, the one I’d heard when Cricket went after Coil’s soldier. It was loud enough for them to hear through the darkness, but… entirely out of my range of hearing.

I couldn’t say for sure, but I got the impression the ones closer to Cricket had heard it a fraction of a second sooner.

“Grue!” I screamed into the oppressive shadow. “Move!”

Cricket turned toward him and lunged in one motion, bringing both scythes down in an overhead swing. Grue moved out of the way just in time.

“She has radar!” I shouted, my voice barely audible to myself. Didn’t matter. Grue could hear me. - Excerpt from Buzz 7.8</ref><ref name="7.8e1"/> While it was constantly projected Cricket could alter it to induce different effects to use in combat, they could only be used one at a time however. These included the useful side-effect of inducing nausea in humans, confusing Skitter's bugs<ref name="7.8e3">Again, that pulse emanated from her. She maintained it this time, and my bugs began to suffer for it. Their coordination suffered, they began to move slower, and their senses – such as they were in the darkness – began to go haywire.

After a second or two, I thought maybe I was starting to feel it too. A bit off-balance, nauseous. Grue was hunched over, his hands on his knees, but I wasn’t sure if that was Cricket’s power or the injuries she’d inflicted. From the way Cricket was moving, I gathered that she couldn’t see us. Was it echolocation? Did it not work if she simply blasted the noise continually rather than use it in bursts? - Excerpt from Buzz 7.8</ref> and even temporarily blocking Shatterbird's powers from working.<ref name="I11e"/>

Could also sense higher pitched sounds than normally possible for humans, such as the frequency that indicated Shatterbird was using her abilities.<ref name="I11Ee1">“You said something was wrong. What did you notice?”

“Sound. The glass was singing. Still is.” She pointed at one wall. Hookwolf followed the line to a building across the street and a little ways to one side.

His ears were ringing, but he doubted that was it. It would be something subsonic that Cricket noticed with her power, then. - Excerpt from Interlude 11e</ref> It is possible she would be able to hear things like dog whistles as well.

History

Background

Knew Hookwolf back when they were both un-powered pit fighters.<ref name="Cast2"/><ref name="7.7"/>

Story Start

Staged ambush on the police barricade during the rampage caused by the E88's identities being revealed.<ref name="7.7">Walking on either side of it were two people. There was a pale, tall man with the sort of muscle-heavy build you only saw on cons and bodybuilders. He wore black slacks that were in tatters around his feet, had chains wrapped around his forearms, hands and calves, and a blue-white tiger mask. On the opposite side of the metal beast was a twenty-something girl with a gymnast’s build and scars criss-crossing her exposed skin. Her hair was shorn to a bleached blond buzz cut, and her face was covered by a metal cage.

[...]

Stormtiger, the man with the chains and tiger mask, and Cricket, the girl, apparently tied back to the same circles of parahuman prize fighters that Hookwolf had once been part of. I couldn’t begin to guess their motivations for following him, but I suppose it hardly mattered. Hookwolf was dangerous enough on his own. With friends? - Excerpt from Buzz 7.7</ref> She was with her former comrades Stormtiger and Hookwolf.

Toyed with Skitter and Grue before being shot and needing to retreat.<ref name="7.8">Buzz 7.8</ref>

Post-Leviathan

Was part of a raid on supply trucks by the Chosen. Shadow Stalker sniped her while Cricket was facing off against heroes.<ref name="9.6 e1">Miss Militia was climbing up out of the lead truck’s passenger door in an instant, hefting a grenade launcher to blast Menja three times in quick succession. The giantess stumbled back, raised her shield – her sister’s shield – to block a fourth shot. Hookwolf, Stormtiger, and Cricket all joined the fray, followed by their foot soldiers. On the PRT’s side, the trucks emptied of PRT troops and one more cape, Assault. They mobilized to defend, and the noise of gunfire rang through the night air.

Shadow Stalker crouched at the corner of the roof, loaded her crossbow and fired a shot at Cricket. It passed a half-foot behind the woman. Her second shot was on target, and Cricket dropped a few seconds later, tranquilized. Good – The woman’s radar might find Shadow Stalker if she wasn’t in her shadow state, and Shadow Stalker could be far more effective if the enemy didn’t see where she was attacking from. - Excerpt from Sentinel 9.6</ref>

Was able to interfere with Shatterbird's powers using her sonar abilities, when Shatterbird came to tell Hookwolf that he had been nominated to join the Slaughterhouse Nine.<ref name="I11Ee3">Shatterbird raised one hand, then frowned, her lips pursing together. “Hm.”

Cricket climbed to her feet. She was bleeding badly where she had exposed skin, and chunks of glass were partially buried in her arms and legs. There was the quiet rasp of her laughter.

“Pride goeth before the fall,” Hookwolf said, striding towards his enemy. “Seems as though Cricket can use her subsonics to cancel you out.”

“Seems so,” Shatterbird answered, rapidly backing up to maintain some distance from Hookwolf.

“And here I was thinking you’d won the lottery with powers. Incredible range, fine control, devastating force, versatility… and all it takes is the right noise and it all falls apart?”

“Guess the men who bought my power should ask for a refund.”

“No. Not interested in being conned into a game of twenty questions to figure out what you’re talking about. Not giving you a chance to figure a way out.” He punched one of his massive spears at her, and she threw herself to the ground, rolling beneath the impaling weapon. As she stood, she drew a gun from the folds of her glittering dress. She fired between Hookwolf’s legs at Cricket, the noise of the shots ringing through the air.

Hookwolf didn’t even need to look. He laughed, “No. Afraid my lieutenant is a little too fast for you.”

“Look out,” Cricket’s said from behind him, the artificial sound of her voice detracting from the inflection and urgency.

A tide of glass slammed into him. Standing on only two limbs, his balance suffered, and he wasn’t able to keep from being pushed onto his side.

“Wasn’t aiming at her,” Shatterbird said. She fired several more shots, simultaneously releasing a shard of glass from her free hand. Hookwolf turned, saw Cricket clutching her throat. She’d dodged the bullets, but Shatterbird had controlled the flight of the glass shard she shot at Cricket much in the same way she’d controlled the descent of the massive spike of glass. It had struck its target. “Just needed to break her concentration.”

Cricket collapsed, large quantities of blood spilling through her fingers and around her hands, where they clutched her throat. - Excerpt from Interlude 11e</ref>

Cricket was present at the Meeting at Crater Lake.<ref name="12.2">Hookwolf and his Chosen had situated themselves at the corner of the roof that stood highest from the surrounding water. Hookwolf stood with his arms folded, densely covered in bristling spikes, barbs, blades and hooks, only his face untouched by the treatment, covered by his metal wolf mask instead. Othala, Victor and Cricket were sitting on the raised edge of the roof behind him. - [1] from Plague 12.2</ref>

Post-Slaughterhouse Nine

Would later interfere with Accord as part of Menja's Chosen.

Trivia

• During World War II the Nazis fielded a light tank series called a Grille. Grille is the German word for Cricket.

Fanart Gallery

• Error creating thumbnail: File missing
  Illustration by soap-committee on deviantart

References

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