The Heartbroken

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   <default>The Heartbroken</default>
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<image source="Image"></image> <image source="image"></image> <header>Information</header> <label>Alignment</label> <label>Leader(s)</label> <label>Leader(s)</label> <label>Allies</label> <label>Allies</label> <label>Status</label> <label>Location</label> <label>First Appearance</label> <header>First Appearance</header> <label>Worm Debut</label> <label>Ward Debut</label> </infobox> 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. 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> This gave the family several empowered children who could gather information for him and even fight if they have to.<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>

Seems to be based in Montreal<ref name="I11g e3"/> but have been known to move around primarily to areas where authorities already have problems. <ref name="call">“We’ll see who we can tap. Washington capes aren’t siegebreakers. Vancouver is, well, it’s not the largest team, and they have their problems. Seattle… hm. They’ve got this hive tinker they’ve been dealing with for a few years now, drones, implanted henchmen… they have experience with this sort of thing. Let me call Seattle. I’ll call you back in a minute.”

He hangs up without waiting for a response. - Department Sixty Four, PRT Quest threat ii p47</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 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> To give his children the needed experience Nikos made sure they could practice on any available 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>

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 teenage 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>

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>

They did respond when Nikos broke his patterns and kidnapped someone famous. Launching a full scale raid to try and free the actress. While it is unknown if it was successful it severely damaged the cult's resources.<ref name="I11g e3">“But it didn’t happen. Time passed, he never made a push for it. Guillaume got his power, you know. Ten or so of us kids, and three of us could control people one way or another. Four if we count you. We had what we needed to pull off something huge, and Daddy decided he wanted a celebrity among his girls. Took us on a road trip to a film set in Vancouver, kidnapped this star, took her back to Montreal. So petty.”

“Somehow I’m not surprised.”

“Heroes came after us, from both Vancouver and Montreal. Half of what we had built and earned as the Vasil family just kind of got trampled in the fighting that spilled out from that. All because Daddy wanted to bone someone famous. I got fed up, left.” - Excerpt from Interlude 11g</ref>

History

Background

Formed with the help of Heartbreakers powers.

Post-Echidna

The Heartbroken began investigating Brockton Bay looking for any wayward siblings. <ref name="23.3 e1">Tt here.

[...]

Heartbreaker making initial forays, decided to pay a visit. Can’t tell if he’s invading or after Regent. Red Hands are a little more aggressive but not too bad. Meeting for negotiations tonight. Lost Garden approacheth, sending members after us and trying to clear way for Barrow to advance. Annoying but no problem until they enter city limits.

[...]

Worst days since right after Bsaw. He won’t say in his letter but you would want to know. Got better when Red Hand and Heartbreaker came. - Excerpt from Drone 23.3</ref> After Jean-Paul sacrificed his life for her, Aisha made the resolution to remove Nikos in Jean-Paul's memory.<ref name="24.5">“So maybe we respect him by respecting that.”

There was no response to that for a few seconds.

“Yeah,” Imp said, her voice small. “I’m going to fucking kill his dad for him.”

“That’s not what I meant,” I said. “I meant we should remember the best part of him.”

“That part of him would’ve killed his dad too,” Imp said.

I sighed. I wouldn’t win here. - Excerpt from Crushed 24.5</ref>

Post-Timeskip

Nikos was killed by Aisha with the help of Citrine.<ref name="WoG">Wildbow: The Citrine/Imp vs. Heartbreaker interlude I ended up canceling would've touched far more on that - Source</ref> 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

Presumably survived with little to no casualties even with the opening strike on the East Coast. Kept close to Imp during lulls in the action.<ref name="28.6">Aisha, sitting next to Rachel, with the dogs under their seats where they’d be out of the way. The Heartbroken were filling the seats immediately around them. Eerie distortions of Alec, with different frames, hair colors, genders and fashion styles, but close enough for me to notice.

The movie showed a dog on screen, being chased by a group of kids. I could see Imp’s face in the dark, looking as pleased as Rachel]] appeared annoyed.

“It’s not the same dog,” Rachel hissed the words. “Why isn’t anyone seeing that? Same breed, but totally different dogs.”

“Pretend,” Aisha said, her smile not faltering in the slightest.

One of the younger Heartbroken shushed them. - Excerpt from Cockroaches 28.6</ref>

Post-Gold Morning

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

Early-Ward

The Heartbroken, with the rest of the Undersiders, were called in by Tattletale to Hollow Point in preparation for the attack on the Fallen compound.<ref>I recognized Tattletale, from the lead car. She had a kid with a bird on his shoulder with her. She smiled.

I saw Snuff, and I saw other assorted henchmen. Soldiers, like Coil had once used.

In one of the cars further back, Imp climbed out. Eerie to see her older, now. There was a crew of kids with her, all wearing masks. - Excerpt from Shadow 5.5</ref> It is unknown whether they actually participated in the attack.

Post-Goddess' Takeover

When March went after the Undersiders, Imp and the Heartbroken accompanied Tattletale in their escape.<ref>The camera panned. Chicken Little wasn’t the only kid there. There were others. Younger girls and boys, most with dark, curly hair. All with masks and costumes.

Bags.

And finally, her back partially turned, Tattletale talking to another woman, who might have been Bitch or might have been Foil- only a sliver of the woman was visible.

“She brought troops,” Tristan said.

“Heartbroken,” I said. “And luggage. They’ve left the New Brockton area.” - Excerpt from Polarize 10.3</ref> They were present at the villain meeting at Sherwood Span.<ref>Villains had assembled in Sherwood Span. The area was sparse, spread out. Some buildings were in construction, but it looked like that had stopped. Mostly it was scattered houses.

[...]

“Our individual cells, sub-groups. Heartbroken in one group, our guys in another. Our mercs can hang out as their own group. Send Foil and Parian off on their own. Faultline should be close but not with us. We’re too big a mob and everyone’s staring.” - Excerpt from Interlude 10.x II</ref>

Roman, Darlene, Candy, and Amias accompanied Chicken Little when he visited Lookout in the hospital.<ref>Interlude 10.z II</ref> When Breakthrough agreed to work with the Undersiders to address March, Love Lost, and Cradle, three members of the Heartbroken were assigned to each squad.<ref>The Heartbroken were more volatile as more of them were gathered into a single unit. Heartbroken were thus split into three groups, and family dynamics seemed to factor in there. Siblings were separated and kept together, depending. - Excerpt from Blinding 11.5</ref>

Members

Name	Description
Leadership
Nikos Vasil	Could affect people's 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 "Alec" Vasil	Also known as Hijack and Regent. He was known for several reasons, and left over his father's controlling nature.
Cherie Vasil	AKA Cherish. She left over her fathers lack of vision and joined the Slaughterhouse Nine.
Guillaume Vasil	Can see through the eyes of anyone they touch, and 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.<ref name="I11g e5"/>
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.<ref name="I11g e5"/> He was still with his family four years later.<ref name=badnic>“You guys were busy helping Nathan after Nicholas got mad and terror-waved him.” - Excerpt from Interlude 10.z II</ref>
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.<ref>She trudged the distance to the car, parking a distance away. Samuel was leaning against the passenger door. She jerked her thumb, ordering him to move. “What?” he asked. “You’re driving.” “I don’t know how.” “Learn fast,” Imp said. “It’s ice and snow everywhere.” “Four wheel drive. Don’t care if it takes a while to get there. Besides, you can sense people, worst thing you can hit is a wall.” - Excerpt from Teneral e.2</ref>
Juliette Vasil	Usually speaks without inflection. May have been over-exposed to her father's powers.<ref name="10.x 1" />
Florence Vasil	Florence has the ability to implant permanent post-hypnotic compulsions on people she has physical contact with. She picked on her siblings, and as such they tended to avoid her whenever possible.<ref name=badflor>“You’re the only person that isn’t family that has ever had the guts to touch Florence,” Samuel commented. “She’s not that bad.” “Not at all,” Samuel said. “Except, you know, the time she compelled a complete stranger to slap his forehead any time he wanted to talk. There was the one cop that had to bite himself hard enough to draw blood every time he made eye contact with someone. Or the time Nathan, one of our unpowered brothers, yelled at her, and she made it so he had to turn around ten times before he entered a room, and had to count backwards from a hundred before he could put food in his mouth.” “He got thin,” Juliette said. “Nathan was almost dead, last time we saw him.” - Excerpt from Teneral e.2</ref>
Nathan Vasil	An unpowered member of the family, perpetual victim of Florence's<ref name=badflor/> and Nicholas's torments.<ref name=badnic/>
Darlene Vasil	Can create links between people, allowing them to sense each others' emotions and transmit their sense of touch among the network.<ref>Interlude 10.z II</ref> Darlene has a childhood crush on Aiden, wearing adult things like lipstick to catch his attention.<ref name=lurve>All at once, Flor, Candy and Darlene broke into runs. Coordinating with Darlene’s power, no doubt. The soldier Samuel had told to be ready to shoot had his weapon drawn but not pointed, and with no signal given, Chicken Little ran for it, and the scene was eerie to see, with people who were just now spotting the kids at play reacting with amusement. [...] The birds were on their way, swooping in low. They didn’t reach Chicken Little before Candy and Darlene did. They bowled him over and began kissing his mask. The birds that had been flying in now scattered. [...] “Jerks,” Chicken Little said, huffing and brushing himself off. “Making me look bad.” “I think you look nice,” Candy said, sounding sweet as anything. It was Darlene who looked crestfallen by how upset Chicken Little was. The girl wore bold lipstick despite being Aiden’s age, and it was that lipstick that marked his mask over and over places, even as he tried to look noble and normal. Seventeen kisses to Candy’s nine. I really don’t care. “Can I make it up to you?” Darlene asked. Chicken Little shrugged. Sullen. Darlene’s shoulders fell a fraction. She likes him. Childhood crush. - Excerpt from Interlude 10.x II</ref>
Roman Vasil	Formerly known as Romeo. He has a hot-blooded personality, and is two years older than Darlene.<ref name="10.x 1" />
Aroa Vasil	Noted to be sadistic.<ref name="10.x 1">The kids. Samuel and Chastity were herding the monsters. Samuel had a muscular arm draped around his shoulders, which he didn’t seem to mind at all, focusing more on the intellectual, emotional challenge of keeping the twelve to fifteen crowd from being at each other’s throats. Juliette, the recently renamed Roman, and Aroa. Coldblooded, hot blooded, and sadistic, respectively. - Excerpt from Interlude 10.x II</ref> Needs to engage to use her powers.<ref name="11.5 1" />
Chastity Vasil	Full sister to Candy. Possesses powers that allow her to sense bodies in short distances<ref name="b11.6"/>, and uses a bullwhip.<ref name="11.5 1">“Do any of the Heartbroken here have the ability to sense emotions?” “No. Chastity senses bodies, but not at a distance that helps us. Aroa has to engage. Candy doesn’t get anything.” - Excerpt from Blinding 11.5</ref><ref>Flor looked ready to just jump on top of the heap of three kids. Chastity, barely looking, flicked out her bullwhip, catching Flor by the neck. Nothing to do with Chastity’s powers. She really liked whips, was all. She set to reeling Flor in, pulling the whip’s length in by handfuls. Flor tried to free her neck, helped by the fact that it had encircled part of her jacket collar, and shed herself of the length of leather, stumbling as she came free. - Excerpt from Interlude 10.x II</ref> Around 17 years old.<ref>“If you’re talking about my cousins, they’re never ‘okay’,” Chastity said. She was seventeen or so, with wavy black hair and makeup fully on point. I’d noticed Precipice noticing her cleavage. It seemed wholly intentional with her wardrobe choices, a low-cut top worn with a scarf and coat, unzipped enough that a strategic triangle was visible. - Excerpt from Blinding 11.5</ref>
Candy Vasil	Full sister to Chastity.<ref>Candy was Chastity’s full-sister, and both of the two really liked to tease. He wasn’t sure if he was supposed to take her seriously, so he looked over at Darlene. “Do you want me to? I don’t know if she’s playing a game.” - Excerpt from Interlude 10.z II</ref> Around 11 years old.<ref>The Kenzie-aged Candy’s response was sharp, and sounded weirdly religious- I wasn’t sure if my mind was seeing faces in clouds, putting meanings to foreign words that weren’t there. - Excerpt from Blinding 11.5</ref> She is able to induce intense and sensory-complete hallucinations of pleasurable experiences, which usually leaves deep aversion to them.<ref name="b11.6">Blinding 11.6</ref>
Amias Vasil	Has an unknown power that allows him to concentrate a bubbling sensation in his hands.<ref>He was aware of fizzing. Amias was with Candy, who was wearing the silk, and Amias was bubbling, concentrating some kind of sensation at his hands. Please don’t hurt anyone, Aiden thought. - Excerpt from Interlude 10.z II</ref>

References

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