"There was no long-term, and trying to cling to one would only spoil it all."
This article contains spoilers regarding the ending of Worm and plot of the sequel.
| “ | Vista had talked about how the little things went underappreciated. That the public would never know about the monsters being slain, the nascent S-class threats that never grew beyond a certain point or figured out how to use their full potential, because the PRT or the Wardens had stepped in. | ” |
S-Class threats are those classified by the PRT as among the most dangerous threats in the world.[1]
Requirements[]
There are multiple ways for an individual or group[2] to be labeled an S-class threat.[3] High-level duplicators and villains who operate to any exponential degree are automatically considered S-class if their powers generate more instances of power generation or recurring effect in an epidemic pattern.[4] A Tinker that has created self-replicating lifeforms would enter S-class territory.[5][6][1] According to Lookout, the same would also apply for creating true AI.[7]
Three PRT Thinkers must all rate a situation sufficiently highly before it can be considered an S-class situation.[8]
Response[]
Being labelled a class-S threat is equivalent to receiving a kill order, in addition to which the PRT calls everyone they can to destroy the threat.[1] According to Miss Militia, the difference in response to a class A crisis and a class S one is minor. Some tertiary protocols change, the Triumvirate are guaranteed to assist, and there are penalties for anyone who subscribed to the critical situation roster if they sit it out.[9]
There were epidemic protocols for dealing with a Class S situation.[10]
One of Dragon's responsibilities was monitoring the known S-class threats for changes or other incidents.[11] She developed a program to predict the patterns of their attacks, which she sent to Armsmaster; using this program, the two were able to predict Leviathan's attack on Brockton Bay and give forces some time to gather beforehand.[12]
Historic Examples[]
At the beginning of the story, there were six recognized class S threats:[13]
- Behemoth[13]
- Leviathan[13]
- The Simurgh[13]
- The Slaughterhouse Nine (collectively)[13]
- Nilbog[14]
- Sleeper[14]
Other class S threats emerged over the course of the story, including:
- Echidna[15][16]
- Khonsu[17]
- The Twins (Tohu and Bohu)[17]
- Scion[18]
- Khepri[19][20][21] (In combination with Doormaker and Clairvoyant)
Furthermore, Ash Beast had the potential of being an S-class threat but moved slowly enough to be avoidable.[22] Blasto had a "high risk" of becoming S-class.[6] Mama Mathers was also a possible S-class threat.[23] The Number Man referenced the non-human[24] Three Blasphemies as a force on par with Sleeper, the Slaughterhouse Nine, and the Ash Beast, but they were not among the established S-class threats listed in discussion prior to the Echidna incident.[25]
Most threats outside of North America were believed to be destroyed in Gold Morning.[26]
There were threats of a similar level that were not widely known and were dealt with by organizations such as the Thanda.[27] Or contained in PRT Quarantine Sites.
Other class S threats that would appear over the course of Ward include:
- Goddess[19]
- The Tower[28][29]
- Machine Army[17]
- Mayor of Killington's Broken Trigger (Called a problem rather than threat)[30][31]
- The Titans[32]
Trivia[]
- Wildbow described what S-Class Trickster would look like.[33]
- The S stands for "Superlative" used to denote something that stands outside a typical rating system that runs from D through to A.
- While used in real life ranking systems it is most familiar to western readers through Japanese manga and similar.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 To be clear, the self-reproducing creations thing is what gets you labeled as a Class-S threat. That's basically a kill order, but more in the line of "We're going to call in everyone we can to put you down." - Wildbow on MythWeavers
- ↑ Keep in mind that S-class threats can include groups, as it does with the S9. - Comment by Wildbow on Reddit
- ↑ The self-recursive thing is a definition of an S-class threat, but not the definition. - Wildbow on Reddit
- ↑ “We’re talking class-S, even if you ignore pre-situation verification. Section nine-seven-five, article fifty-seven. Classifying high level duplicators and villains who operate to any exponential degree. Nilbog and Simurgh both count, and Noelle does too. If the powers generate more instances of power generation or recurring effect in an epidemic pattern…” - Exerpt from Queen 18.4
- ↑ The PRT doesn't have a specific 'no wet tinkering rule, but there are barriers and warnings about things like treading into class-S territory ("Ugh, I have to wait two more weeks to get approval so they can be sure this life doesn't self-replicate?"), and the general sideways looks you'll get if you order a ton of low quality meat to feed into your vats, that this creates a kind of passive rule/discouragement. - Comment by Wildbow on Reddit
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Note: High risk of Class-S classification. Should creations self-propagate, kill orders are pre-authorized.
[...]
No big surprises on the possible kill order. He’d been made aware of it some time ago, and had grumbled, groaned and grudgingly avoided making any lifeforms that could breed in the years since. - Excerpt from Interlude 19.x - ↑ Shower: You’re sure they’re not AI?
Heart_Shaped_Pupil: If they were A.I. I could be a potential S-class threat.
Heart_Shaped_Pupil: I’m just really lame
Heart_Shaped_Pupil: it’s hobby programming. Not my focus or specialty. - Excerpt from Glow-worm P.7 - ↑ “Bullshit,” Tattletale said. “S-class. I know Appraiser offered a purple-velvet diagnosis for his previous ratings on Endbringer attacks, so that’s not the reason it’s so low. Eleven’s score of eight has to be above the seventy-five percent mark, and an answer as vague as Hunch’s is going to be a seventy-five percent exact, as per section nine-seven-six, article seventy-one. That’s three values that have to be above the threshold for declaring a threat level S situation.” - Exerpt from Queen 18.4
- ↑ “I don’t know why we’re even discussing this, when you seem to have our operations manual memorized and you’re capable of realizing it for yourself,” Miss Militia said, “but it doesn’t bear dwelling on. The difference in our response to a class A crisis and a class S one is minor at best. Some tertiary protocols change, we won’t necessarily have Alexandria, Legend or Eidolon assisting, and there’s no penalties for anyone who subscribed to the critical situation roster if they sit this one out.” - Excerpt from Queen 18.4
- ↑ “If the heroes aren’t showing in full force, others won’t either.” Tattletale said, “And there’s no epidemic protocols with a class-A.” - Excerpt from Queen 18.4
- ↑ She might have devoted more attention to the subject, but she was already falling behind. She moved on to her other responsibilities. The Class S threats. - Excerpt from Interlude 10.5
- ↑ “Dragon. That program you gave me, predicting the patterns of class S threats, remember it? I made a few modifications, to see if I couldn’t catch any highlights, I’m running a dozen of them concurrently. One, I called HS203. I want you to look directly at this. I’ve put it behind some pretty heavy security, but if you wait a second, I’ll-”
“I’m already looking over it,” Dragon interrupted. “I see what you did. Linking my data to atmospheric shifts. I think I see it.” - Excerpt from Interlude 7 - ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 There’s six class S threats active in the world at large. The Endbringers make up three of them. The Slaughterhouse Nine as a group are a fourth. - Exerpt from Queen 18.3
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Week I had clearance, I watched all the video we have of the class S threats. Leviathan, Simurgh, Behemoth, Slaughterhouse Nine, Nilbog, Sleeper. - Exerpt from Queen 18.4
- ↑ “This is a critical situation,” Myrddin said. “We’re on the brink of another potential conflict with an S-class threat. If the Undersiders have information we can use, information that could be sensitive, we need you to clear out.” - Scourge 19.4
- ↑ “There are rules, Dragon,” I said. “Expectations. I fought Leviathan, I fought the Nine. I was there for the fight against the Class-S threat downtown. I don’t want to sound arrogant, but I think maybe I deserve to, a little. I’ve done my share. You don’t turn around and reveal my identity in front of a crowd.” - Chrysalis 20.5
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 There were other things. News. Status of Class-S threats…
- Sleeper; active
- Machine Army; 4.83% growth since last check, active
- Endbringers; one dormant, one active, others dead or unknown locations.
- ↑ He’d asked about ‘him’. Scion.
“We thought it was industrial contaminants, but it may be deeper than that. Some of it might be how Scion decided to use his power. More of it is the sheer damage he did to the planet itself. There’s a degree of it that’s impossible to know for certain, that has to do with the Class-S phenomena. Portals to other worlds, tinker tech left to molder. It’s not only the radiation either. Methane levels are rising, food stockpiles on that side are dwindling fast, and the people there are getting sick for a variety of reasons. We’re facing some immediate sacrifices if we want to keep the remaining people in Bet alive,” Jeanne said. - Interlude 5.x II - ↑ 19.0 19.1 “There’s a cape by the name of Goddess. Also the Blue Empress, Blue Lady, the Woman in Blue. Once situated on Earth Shin, she was brought here for the fight against Scion by a strange, unnamed player who has since been classified as a threat on par with any Endbringer. Or with Goddess, as it happens. Unfortunately, this anonymous figure didn’t put her back.”
“A strange, unnamed player?” I asked. - Pitch 6.8 - ↑ “She can do this,” my voice didn’t sound like me. “Change powers by changing the host’s physiology. She made the Class-S threat that took control of everyone, bringing them to the battlefield. That’s who’s going to be at the meeting today.” - Gleaming 9.1
- ↑ Confirming what had been a lingering suspicion. A link they didn’t want us to know about.
Between Chicken Little and Skitter, who had become Khepri, who had become public enemy number one and a legitimate class-S threat when she had taken over the minds of thousands of parahumans in the final confrontation against Scion. - From Within 16.7 - ↑ I reached out to Ash Beast, a living force of nature. It had originally triggered in Matruh, Egypt, and had been roaming since, making its way across Africa. All of the destructive power of any class S threat, tempered by the fact that it usually traveled on foot, and people could see it coming from miles away. When it reached a settlement, that settlement was usually evacuated. - Excerpt from Speck 30.5
- ↑ Leadership figures with exceptional powers and following. Include Fallen A-listers and one possible S-class threat (Christine Mathers) - WD Organization: Fallen
- ↑ Take stock. Who didn’t I have? I didn’t have Contessa, who I couldn’t see. I didn’t have the Blasphemies, who hadn’t even registered to me because they weren’t human, even if they had powers, I didn’t have Sleeper and… - Excerpt from Speck 30.5
- ↑ “No,” the Number Man said, and he managed to sound only a little condescending. “I’m saying that parahumans as a whole are chain reactions waiting to happen, and we were already approaching a critical point. Every year, the percentage of parahumans in the population increases. At that same time, the odds of a cataclysmic event happening somewhere are increasing steadily. Imagine a situation like the Echidna event that turned out more unfavorably, or a Nilbog who wasn’t content to stay in one place. We have the blasphemies, Sleeper, and the Ash Beast, even the Slaughterhouse Nine, all as living examples of this concept at work. The world already stood on a precipice, and I’m not even mentioning the Endbringers in all of this.” - Excerpt from Extinction 27.2
- ↑ “That’s about it, for North American quarantines. A lot of the unquarantined Class-S threats died in the fight against Scion. Uh.”
I could have elaborated on motivations, but I felt like that might have spoiled our little hero-villain truce here.
“Yeah,” Tattletale said. “Intentional, I think. As much as anything was, then.”
I had so many frigging questions on that subject, but… no. Again, it would have spoiled things.
Khepri had let them die while fighting Scion. Tattletale agreed with the hypothesis. - Excerpt from Sundown 17.9 - ↑ [The Thanda fight] the class-S threats that aren't so obvious as Sleeper, Nilbog or the Blasphemies, and the villains who don't take the spotlight.
[...]
Perhaps it would be better to say Class-S level? Not necessarily known & classified, but arguably as dangerous in their own right? - Wildbow on Spacebattles - ↑ “My phone,” she said.
“The Wardens,” Dialback said. “They said their thinkers read the situation here as critical, and want to know if there is any news.”
“What they want is good news. Let them know I’m busy, and that we’ll contact them shortly with that good news.” - Interlude 9 II - ↑ “Staying sane and on the level is part of that mission, so we don’t betray what we stand for. That means acknowledging the shittiness of it. You hear me?”
“I hear and understand,” she said.
“It also means taking a break. Return to the city. Rest, unwind. You’ve fought an army of ghosts, staved off a potential world-ender with the atmosphere gun, hunted down and dealt with an exponential class-S threat that had gone exponential, you had a week off where you were supposed to be resting, but you decided to hunt down the breaker assassin instead, and you went straight from that to this, a dog with powers.” - Interlude 9 II - ↑ I beat her to the punch. “March got to one of the time effects. It was the Killington Mayor, in an area that was folded into Brockton Bay.”
“What happened?” Brandish asked.
“Broken trigger,” I said, my voice soft. I could remember the last one I’d been present for. The construction worker’s rally. It had been bad. This was apparently worse by orders of magnitude. “It incapacitated everyone in the ruins of Brockton Bay and left them defenseless while the initial effects took place. They’re calling it a Class-S problem. Not a threat, because that implies a consciousness, but…”
“Everyone on duty offworld and internationally has been pulled to assist,” Harbinger One said. - Heavens 12.2 - ↑ “What’s happening?” Colt asked.
“March released something bad,” the Fallen boy said. “They’re calling it Class S. She’s going to release more.” - Interlude 12.e II - ↑ “Yup. Roman now. Little bastard did something very familiar, recently. Put his life on the line to save someone’s life, in the middle of a class-S threat.”
“Like his brother.” - Infrared 19.f - ↑ Trickster - Line of sight, swaps everyone and everything, comingles swapped matter - person + mailbox = two mashed together abominations of flesh and mailbox, slowly dying as organs fail. PRT van + PRT van = two mashed together heaps of metal with people crushed inside, very possibly setting fire or exploding given friction of metal on metal and leaking gasoline. Size/mass/density sense that normally allows Trickster to gauge how swappable things are is extended to give knowledge of everyone and everything within a one-mile radius. Reflexes amped up. Effectively navigates a battlefield by swapping himself instantly and repeatedly, mapping out routes in advance, leaving mangled destruction in his wake, flanking and hiding. - Wildbow on Reddit
[]
| Endbringers | Behemoth † • Leviathan † • The Simurgh • Khonsu * • Tohu * • Bohu * |
|---|---|
| Titans | The Kronos Titan † • Titan Eve † • Titan Fortuna † • The Nemean Titan † • Titan Arachne † • Titan Oberon † • The Ashen Titan † • Titan Skadi † • The Ophion Titan † • The Strange Titan † • Auger † • Titaness Amenonuhoko † • The Flowing Titan † • Drillbit † • The Liminal Titan † • Pouffe † • Valkyrie † • Morgana † • Yakshini † • Ashoka † • Ghast † |
| Groups | The Slaughterhouse Nine ‡ • Three Blasphemies • The Machine Army |
| Parahumans | Ash Beast † • Echidna † • Khepri ‡ • Nilbog • Pastor † • Scion † • Sleeper • The Tower † |