Wow, I'm also a bit bummed at the fate of the Undersiders in this one, but it seems kind of fitting, in a way, so I can't complain too hard. The emotion shown in this story, especially concerning Taylor's reaction to learning the extent of what happened during the events of the Swarm, were pretty gut-wrenching, and I applaud how you were able to convey that. I also enjoy the way they worked out to bring her into the public eye. Clever stuff. Thanks for sharing! Now, on to the next ack fic...

Hold the fuck up
You killed off Lisa?
Aight I'm out

Very cool. Interesting how the bugs are used for guides for the suit-Taylor's power matches up well with that. Seeing the Tinkers bounce ideas off of each other with Dragon joining in was great. Great battle at the end. Does Dragon have access to other sets of Tinker mech-armor?

Aw the Undersiders are gone...

She never trusted you anyway Amy... she's a hypocrite.

Ah, I've read it before.
Ugh, this one's a bit too Wormy for a standard Ack fic, yeah.
Though it's slightly predictable that Side Characters have much less Plot Armor - and these guys WERE Side Characters in THIS fic, lol.
Still somewhat sad, but whatever.
Oh, and it was only in this chapter that I realized that Ack had created a literal Mecha-Khepri, loool.

Carrol Dallon is a hypothetical

And Ack is being Ack, as always.
Which is GREAT.
Reminds me of how the Groundhog Exams Naruto made outfit for his friends that ALSO were built to MISDIRECT like hell.
As in, heavy "close combat Brute" armor for *Ino*, of all people.
LOL!
Yup, just Ack being Ack.
COOL.

for christs sake they're grown adults just say rape

A decent story but I have some criticisms. One, I don’t think Sophia has ever shot a pistol before that moment with the Undersiders. I get that she was up close and personal but still between recoil and lack of experience I’d think she wouldn’t have done as well. Also, Regent was way too slow on his reaction time for making her hand cramp. In canon, he was able to make people drop their guns and miss. Sophia did neither. Also, Bitch’s dogs would have probably attacked instead of trying to help their master when she got shot. Other than that, Calvert using a work phone and then relying on erased records rather than just using a burner seems stupid for the criminal mastermind that he is. The only time he would actually need to use his work phone was when he was verifying to Sophia that he was actually PRT.

This story was great and I really enjoyed it so please take my criticism in that light:

I absolutely hate the epilogue. I recommend simply deleting it. The entire build up of the story leads to Taylor's dramatic heroic climax only to have it subverted and erased by the couple of sentences at the very end. It takes a great ending and changes it to, all of our protagonist's struggles to be a hero lead to her losing and someone else secretly saving the day for her. This is deeply unsatisfying and actually confuses the plot rather than clarifying it.

If you deleted the epilogue the plot actually makes more sense and the narrative is more satisfying.

Decent story, definitely worth a review.

so frustrating

Good Fic, sad you killed off Lisa though.

Very interesting story, I think it's one of the best written of all the ones I have read by this author. The dialog feels pretty natural, events mostly proceed in a believable fashion and so on. I also really love this take on how Taylor uses her powers in the end. Also a great turn around for Amy.

If I had complaints though I would say the pace seemed to pick up drastically about half way through. A lot of smaller plots seemed to get swept under the rug and rushed or forgotten. I really though the Amy and her Mom arc would of gone a bit further but then the Shadowstalker/Coil bit took up most the last 7 or 8 chapters.

Also kind of funny to see a story where Shadow Stalker is the freaking "end boss". Coil in comparison was taken down like a chump. SS got away with one crime and murder after another for a long long time. Even taking down the entire Undersiders with ease.