The Heartbroken

The Heartbroken are the supervillian family headed by Nikos Vasil, and later a team led by Aisha Laborn.

Modus operandi

All the heartbroken are focused on protecting Heartbreaker and ensuring his legacy. To give his children the needed experience Nikos made sure they could practice on needed the subjects including each other.<ref name="I11g e6">Her arm jerked involuntarily.

“Remember me practicing my power on you when it was new?”

“I remember, little brother,” she frowned, looking at her arm. “Daddy had us all practice on each other.” - Excerpt from Interlude 11g</ref> Heartbreaker tries to keep his family together and will send his children to collect any strays.<ref name="I11g e5">“So you’re on your own. And he didn’t send the others after you?” Alec moved one of his subject’s legs so she would fall to the ground rather than point her gun at the man standing next to her.

“He did. Guillaume and Nicholas. Guillaume just has to touch someone and he can sense everything they do for a good while. Nicholas just wallops you with pants-shitting waves of terror. Literally thousands of eyes and ears looking for me, can’t fight when they do get close to me.”

“Right,” he said.

“Anyways, it got old real fast, them constantly finding me, constantly making me pack up and run somewhere else. Besides, the freedom to do what I wanted and go where I wished kind of lost its appeal when the boredom set in. I would’ve done it even if my big brothers weren’t coming for me, but I joined the Nine.” - Excerpt from Interlude 11g</ref>

When Imp removed Heartbreaker she redirected them to safeguard a different legacy.

Structure

The Heartbroken are the worst mix of an extended family and a cult, like the Fallen or the Clans, though far smaller. Instead of praying on the destitute or mentally unhealthy they can go out and abduct those people directly.<ref name="7.1">Buzz 7.1</ref> Tasks are delegated to members of the family so that Heartbreaker can focus on other concerns.<ref name="21.3">“If it was easy to take over a city, more people would have managed it,” I said. “This is work. There’s always more to be done, whether you’re dealing with your enemies, dealing with your subordinates or coordinating with your allies. If you find you have free time, you’re probably fucking up.”

“Or!” he said, raising a finger, “I could delegate.”

“That’s a recipe for failure,” I told him.

“My dad managed it.”

Heartbreaker, I thought. - Excerpt from Imago 21.3</ref>

The children needs are also met, to the excess.<ref name="R2">Look at it this way - at the age that many boys are raising an eyebrow at boobs, family members were saying 'hey, here are all the boobs you could want, in various shapes, sizes, and colors'.
Interested in dick? Big ones, little ones, crooked ones. Dad's not that into it but a sister can hook you up.
At an age when many are just figuring out enough of the world to ask 'what's heroin?' or 'what's weed?' he was given heroin and weed and everything else that was theoretically obtainable and told to only indulge if it was someone else's body.
At an age when many are saying 'sex must be awesome' he was given free reign. Where other 12-13 year old boys might search the internet for weird and disturbing porn and kinky stuff just to see what's out there, he could experience it.
He was given all of this in a context where people either didn't care or they didn't/couldn't judge (or, considering obligatory big brothers and their teasing, judgment didn't count for a hell of a lot compared to novelty.) - Alec's past prior to joining the Undersiders (Wildbow, Reddit.com, 2017-05-03)</ref>

With the shift in leadership members in the field generally wore black.<ref name="e.2 e1">The door opened. Three youths entered. A young teenaged boy with wild blond curls, a ten year old with straight black hair, and another girl, one or two years younger with a manic grin and her dark hair cut in a pixie style. All wore black. - Excerpt from Teneral e.2</ref><ref>Interlude: End</ref>

PRT Response

Heartbreaker is rarely easy to pin down being constantly on the move. Taking over well off or well placed women to create safe houses and get information on what the PRT is doing about Heartbreaker.<ref name="R1.1">"Heartbreaker is slippery. His location is rarely easy to pin down, he doesn't go out much, he'll use his women and kids to find good looking women or women he can use and add them to his circle. They run the errands.
Woman A has a fight with her boyfriend, drives the man away, and becomes more isolated, she heads to her job, orders in, and generally mopes and acts normal for a recent divorcee single mother. Enter Heartbreaker.
Haha, no. Heartbreaker was there from the beginning. He targeted her and her daughter, had her drive her spouse away and disconnect from extended family, and moved his flock into the nice house... a surprising number of people can be fit into a house if they're willing/forced to sleep five or six people to a room.
Maybe target the neighbors too, if there isn't enough room around. Woman A continues to work, embezzles from the company, and disappears from the grid. Authorities only learn that Heartbreaker was there after the fact, when they connect the dots.
The group moves on to Woman B, who happens to work in a police station or PRT office. She's not that attractive, but she's useful. Like Woman A, she continues to work, but she keeps an ear to the ground regarding all things Heartbreaker related. - Heartbreaker question (Wildbow, Reddit.com, 2015-07-10)</ref>

Incase they are ever compromised the heartbroken has several empowered children.<ref name="R1.2">Maybe it's one of the once-a-year times when something slips. A kid gets recognized. Forces mobilize, the mole alerts Heartbreaker. Forces teleport in or mobilize via. flying vehicles, and Heartbreaker is already gone and running. He's got kids like Guillaume and the like, who already have dozens of unwitting spies watching (Guillame{sic} touches everyone in a crowd, and senses through their eyes, like Taylor's swarm sense, minus the control aspect, and can temporarily blind them or fuzz their senses), allowing the escape route to be plotted, and the group gets a few seconds of warning time before the flying suit passes over the area. - Heartbreaker question (Wildbow, Reddit.com, 2015-07-10)</ref>

The controlled individuals would allow the creation of instant suicidal soldiers that would try and protect where they think that Heartbreaker is located.<ref name="R1.3">Capes are forced to move in groups, because moving out alone means running the risk that Cherish might sense them, and the small group of Heartbreaker's kids, a handful of captured capes, and his elite zealot-soldiers could flank them and give Heartbreaker the moment he needs to wololo the solo cape.
Meanwhile, the women he's tired of are armed and ready to fight like the worst kind of zealot, convinced he's in the bedroom. The heroes approach, forming a perimeter, and neighbors of the initial victim make a move, flanking, opening fire with hunting rifles or improvised weapons. Chaos, fires are set.
It's hell - fighting guerilla forces made up of people you really don't want to hurt, blameless. Heartbreaker moves out to the periphery of the city to live in a rural location, or just disappears into another densely populated neighborhood. - Heartbreaker question (Wildbow, Reddit.com, 2015-07-10)</ref>

Instead the PRT keeps alerts out so that they can be netted. All in all it is a dangerous situation with multiple innocents enmeshed into the group.<ref name="R1.4">Authorities maintain warnings and circulate pictures, they keep an eye on things, root out moles, and everyone knows but few say that the open confrontations are too costly, and the subtle stuff is matched by the power of this one cape and his nine or so cape children. It's bad enough with controlled assaults, but bringing a Kill Order into it? Crazies coming out of the woodwork, making mistakes? Nightmare." - Heartbreaker question (Wildbow, Reddit.com, 2015-07-10)</ref>

History

Background

Formed with the help of Heartbreakers powers.

Post-Timeskip

Nikos was killed by Aiesha with the help of Citrine. She moved most of the family to Brockton Bay and formed them into a team.<ref name="25.6 e1">“I told the others. They’re on their way.”

“Okay,” I answered. Fast response.

No. Too fast. I reached out with bugs, and I sensed the crowd, the way they were standing.

Here and there, there were people who shouldn’t have been paying attention to the scene. A young girl inside one of the buildings with the graffiti-mural on the exterior, holding a baby. A boy was standing a little too far away to see, but he didn’t approach to get a better view.

There were a small handful of others.

I looked at the rings on the memorial. “Heartbreaker’s.”

“He collected them. I uncollected them.”

“I’d heard he died.”

Imp nodded slowly. “Said I would. I told you I’d kill his dad for him.” - Excerpt from Scarab 25.6</ref>

Gold Morning

Imp formed his children into a effective policing force.<ref name="e.2 e1"> - Excerpt from Teneral e.2</ref><ref>Interlude: End</ref>

Members

Name	Description
Leadership
Nikos Vasil	Could affect peoples emotions long term. Got on the bad side of Imp.
Aisha Laborn	Gained her current position by killing Heartbreaker, with the assistance of Citrine.
Family Members
Jean-Paul Vasil	AKA Hijack was known for several reasons, Left over his fathers controlling nature.
Cherie Vasil	AKA Cherish left and joined the Slaughterhouse Nine. Left over her fathers lack of vision
Guillaume Vasil	Can see through the eyes of anyone they touch can temporarily blind or hamper their senses as well.<ref name="R1.2" />After Cherie left, Guillaume and Nicholas were sent by their father to retrieve her. They found her a few times and forced her to pack up and run somewhere else to avoid them. Eventually, she joined the Slaughterhouse Nine to scare them away.
Nicholas Vasil	Nicholas has the ability to induce high levels of fear in other people. After Cherie left, Guillaume and Nicholas were sent by their father to retrieve her. They found her a few times and forced her to pack up and run somewhere else to avoid them. Eventually, she joined the Slaughterhouse Nine to scare them away.
Samuel Vasil	Young teenager with blond curls. Has the ability to sense humans. The extent of his abilities are unknown. When allied with Imp, he is seen acting as the voice of reason among himself, Florence, and Juliette.
Juliette Vasil	AKA Cherish left and joined the Slaughterhouse Nine. Left over her fathers lack of vision
Florence Vasil	Florence has the ability to implant devastating, permanent post-hypnotic compulsions on people she has physical contact with. She picked on her siblings as such they tended to avoid her wheer possible.
Nathan Vasil	An un powered member of the family, a victim of Florences displeasure

References

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