The Trio

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<infobox>

 <title source="name">
   <default>The Trio</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 Trio was Taylor Hebert's name for the three girls who regularly tormented her at Winslow High.^{[citation needed]}

Members

• Sophia Hess
• Emma Barnes
• Madison Clements

History

Background

The trio first formed while Taylor Hebert was away at summer camp. When Emma Barnes was attacked by members of the ABB, Sophia Hess, as Shadow Stalker, rescued her and indoctrinated her into her worldview of survivors and victims.<ref>The other girl’s eyes studied her, and she seemed to come to a decision. “It’s a philosophy, a way of looking at it all. You can look at the world as a… what’s the word? One thing and another?”

“A binary?”

“A binary thing. But not black and white. It’s about the divide of winners and losers. Strong and weak, predators and prey. I kind of like that last one, but I’m a hunter.”

Emma thought back to how readily the girl had taken the thugs apart. “I can believe that.”

The girl smiled. “And what you have to keep in mind, is the biggest question of all is one you’re answering for yourself, right now. Survivor or victim?”

“What’s the difference?”

“On this violent, brutish little planet of ours, it’s the survivors who wind up the strongest ones of all.” - Excerpt from Interlude 19.z</ref> It is unclear how Madison Clements joined the group.

After becoming friends with Sophia, Emma cut ties with Taylor, and in high school, the trio began an incessant bullying campaign against Taylor. Emma made sure that no other students would befriend or help Taylor, isolating her from the school.<ref name=":22">I believe it comes up again towards the end of the arc. Emma pressured others to avoid the situation, not interfere or help or befriend Taylor. What Taylor took to be apathy on the part of the larger student body was actually more orchestrated behind the scenes. - Wildbow on Reddit</ref> The three would each bully Taylor in their own individual ways, trying to outdo each other in how creative and cruel they could get.<ref name=":0">“There’s three girls at school that had… have been making my life pretty goddamn miserable.  Doing pretty much everything they could think of to make school suck, humiliate me, hurt me.  Each of the three had their individual approach, and for a good while, it was like they were trying to outdo each other in how creative or mean they could get.”
[...]
“It went on for almost a year and a half before things quieted down.  Last year, around November, they… I dunno.  It was like they got bored.  The pranks got tamer, then stopped altogether.  The taunts stopped, and so did most of the hate mail.  They ignored me, left me alone.
“I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop.  But I made a friend, one of the girls who had sometimes joined in on the taunting came to me and apologized.  Not one of the major bullies, more like a friend of a friend of the bullies, I guess.  She asked me if I wanted to hang out.  I was too gun-shy, told her no, but it got so we were talking before and after classes and eating lunch together.  Her approaching me and befriending me was one of the big reasons I could think the harassment was ending.  I never really let my guard down around her, but she was pretty cool about it.
“And for most of November and the two weeks of classes before Christmas break, nothing.  They were leaving me alone.  I was able to relax.” - Excerpt from Shell 4.3</ref> This peaked in the January of 2011, when they trapped Taylor in a locker filled with sanitary pads and tampons gathered from the girls' bathroom. Taylor had a trigger event and was subsequently hospitalized in a psychiatric ward due to the mental trauma of triggering.<ref name=":5">“Yes. You’re the locker girl. I almost didn’t recognize you without the glasses, but everyone at school knows who you are. You’re with the Merchants now?”
“You’re thinking of the wrong person,” I said, with a note of irritation in my voice.
“No, I’m almost positive. You were that girl that got shoved in that rank locker with all that stuff they carted away in biohazard bags. The girl who went so mental they had to have a group of cops and paramedics haul you away for the first month of the semester.” - Excerpt from Infestation 11.5</ref>

In the aftermath of the locker incident, the trio got off scot-free, as witnesses at the scene as well as Taylor herself refused to name them.<ref name=":7">The second possibility wasn’t much better.  He knew Taylor was being bullied.  Danny had found that out in January, when his little girl had been pulled out of school and taken to the hospital.  Not the emergency room, but the psychiatric ward.  She wouldn’t say by whom, but under the influence of the drugs they had given her to calm down, she had admitted she was being victimized by bullies, using the plural to give him a clue that it was a they and not a he or a she. - Excerpt from Interlude 1.x</ref>

Story Start

After the locker, the trio continued to bully Taylor, tormenting her with petty pranks and insults and getting other students to join in as well. As time passed, Taylor missed increasing amounts of school in favor of her career with the Undersiders. She finally broke and identified them as her bullies after punching Emma while mildly concussed.<ref>Hive 5.3</ref> However, they were only suspended for two weeks.

Post-Leviathan

Two of the trio left Brockton Bay after Leviathan attacked the city.

Post-Slaughterhouse Nine

Sophia was sent to juvenile detention after violating her probation. By the time the other two returned to school, Taylor was no longer attending or afraid of them.

Post-Echidna

Two members were seen in Arcadia High when Skitter's secret identity was revealed.

Gold Morning

Emma was killed early into Gold Morning after refusing to evacuate.<ref name="27.3">Back to the beginning.

“Emma’s dead,” I said.

Sophia nodded. “Her dad told me.” - Excerpt from Extinction 27.3</ref><ref name="27.1">Excerpt from Extinction 27.1</ref><ref name="R1">End of the world happened, evacuation order was given, everyone was boarding the train, and Emma refused to leave her room (see her interlude). Suicide in a roundabout way, perhaps, but not as many imagine it. - Comment by Wildbow on Reddit</ref> Sophia was briefly recruited by Weaver.

Glow-worm

Madison survived Gold Morning and contacted Victoria Dallon for information about Taylor, revealing that she had ultimately come to regret her role in Taylor's descent into villainy. She had plans to become a teacher.<ref>Glow-worm P.9</ref>

Trivia

• According to Madison, Julia was another one of the main people who bullied Taylor. However, Taylor did not consider Julia to be part of the trio.<ref>Point_Me_@_The_Sky: You’re the bullies that pushed her over the edge
  
  FlippinMad: Me and Emma and our friend Sophia and Julia and a few others. But we were the main three or four - Excerpt from Glow-worm P.9</ref>

References

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