Technically it’s Sidestep who landed Ace in the hospital. First by going to HG as Ace and then crashing the car.
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Technicalities.
Doesn’t negate the fact that Hollow Ground is a dangerous enemy.
Killing them sounds better than hurting/threating them and opening a Vendetta with a foe who has superior resources.
You can always (pretend or not) to work with them and use the sibling card, but it is a huge gamble especially if you don’t have the regenerator.
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Secret government research center, I suppose. They create ReGenes there.
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Even for a thief/hero hunter Sidestep, killing HG might have unforeseen consequences. It’s known that they create a form of stability, their death would create a power vacuum that might or might not interfere with Sidestep’s business. Let’s say we kill them and Lord Ember becomes the new kingpin. Who is to say he won’t be even more of an obstacle to Sidestep’s plans as someone who prefers a more hands on approach unlike HG who prefers staying behind the scenes? I don’t argue that HG is a very dangerous enemy to have but killing them without first making sure their death won’t create more problems than it would solve is very reckless in my opinion.Even a Sidestep that killed everyone they could up to that point didn’t kill anyone of HG’s importance. Making a deal with Ember beforehand or ensuring you would be the one to take HG’s place after gathering enough allies/resources are possible actions that seem logical to me before doing something that risky.
That’s a good point, I still wouldn’t do that without making sure it won’t make everything worse but the choice could be there if it weren’t for the huge difference it would make for the story and the headache it would cause for the author lmao. You are also right that HG is a way more dangerous enemy than Lord Ember could ever be but I think they also have the potential to be a better and stronger ally, especially if we get to create a familial emotional bond with them. (Not to mention it would do my suicidal Sidestep good to have a big sibling looking out for them lol.)
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From what I understand it’s both the name of the part of Special Directive that handles the re-gens side of things and the name of a base in Texas (Ah my mistake it was in Nevada) where Step was at for most of his time in SD both before his escape and where they were most of time after being caught
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From now on, I will refer to an omnicidal Sidestep as Kirastep.
I am not saying that Sidestep killing HG is the best option. We won’t know that until we get some hindsight. I am trying to argue that it is consistent with some Sidesteps.
Obviously it can backfire on an epic scale, but it doesn’t refute my point. Some Sidesteps have lost their eye, others the regenerator and so on because of poor choices backfiring on them.
Kirastep hasn’t killed anyone with HG’s importance, because they didn’t get the chance, yet. They have killed the Leader of the Guardians and the Mayor’s Aide.
As for Lord Ember entering Los Diablos. With our current knowledge I would prefer him as an enemy instead if I was honest. He can’t thread people, the rangers acknowledge his existence, we might use the fact that Shroud is a Regene one way, or the other.
Obviously, my points mean jackshit if Malin doesn’t want to add this choice no matter what. It is their story, not ours. Their wishes and wellbeing take priority
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Who’s Lord Ember? They’re name came up at the end of book 2, but I never really got to know them or who they were.
Tl;Dr He is Hollow Ground but for San Francisco.
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Also Step fought him a few times during the earlier part of their career. One of the patreon stories goes into a bit more about it
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Do you remember the title? I would like to reread it
It was the last part of the Void series if I remember right
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It was somewhere in Nevada 
Like Area 51 xd
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The thing with all that screaming and calling for help is that hollow ground apparently lacks any competent fighting ability from what i have read. A strength-defense sidestep can just kill him by a single grapple. However quick may hollow ground be, it only takes a single grip to kill him. There is simply no way for hollow ground to survive unless sidestep wants them to live in that particular scenario.
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See I am the biggest don’t kill anyone supporter but with a name like Kirastep, you may as well carry on with the kill.
Never expected a name fusion to sound actually good.
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Again, this is kind of missing the point; we’re talking about providing some excuse for the character to survive until later. Not devising an all-srs combat scenario, and especially not one where we are biased in favor of the MC and denying their opponent any and all advantages they might have.
We actually know very little about HG’s abilities, and i don’t think it’s reasonable to just brush off the fact they’re a powerful telepath as if Sidestep was the only person in the world for whom this ability is an advantage.
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Oh but that’s my point, till now as per how it is written, HG stands no chance during the confrontation. The only way to save him there would be as the other guys pointed out “divine intervention” i.e. pure luck.
As of HG’s abilities, they have been till now written as very weak in a direct confrontation. The best thing he has going for him is his intelligence and perhaps a little complex control power dependent on touch. Keep in mind what sidestep could do to Argent with the mental attack, how they can control people’s thoughts and emotions at various points and specifically their ability to play villains by their emotions.
When i learnt HG was a telepath, i expected him to be able to do even more than this… But as per the story till now, he simply cant. HG doesn’t know Sidestep is a telepath yet still he fails to try any thing with his powers even in such a weak position. If he doesn’t use his mental abilities in such a weak position, i assume he simply doesn’t possess step’s level of abilities. In which case, as i said, he is screwed without pure luck or plot armor.
Even if step goes to directly meet him and HG doesn’t know about his telepathic powers, he fails to do anything in the ensuing fight. If he could just use his telepathy to hold step in place for 2-3 seconds there, jake and Nocturne would have kicked their ass but instead he gets blinded while possessing telepathy and ends up taking a kick to his face.
This is why i believe he stands no chance without pure luck here.
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I don’t know how Malin do it, actually making me care about Hollow Ground of all people… yes hurting them is good and all, but you can actually hurt them while making them think you’re they lost sibling is just too good.
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Mc is. In some sense.
They probably took some material from the younger sibling to create ReGenes.
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HG is quite a strong telepath, but they need skin to skin touch for their powers to work. With Step in armor, they just can’t use his powers on you. I think it should also be noted that Malin hasn’t written any of the failure paths yet, there’s a note in the code that implies if you haven’t cut his connection to Jake, HG could wake him up and bring him in to fight you.
Step wins here by literally blinding them and getting the jump through Nocturne. If Step is a known telepath HG uses their telepathy to shore up Nocturne and close that avenue, leaving Step outmatched. You literally can’t win at that point, only escape.
Even within the good paths for Step we have written in 4.2, we can see HG using their powers on themselves to keep calm and resist you, presumably holding out for a lucky break. Just because we’ve caught them almost quite literally with their pants down, I don’t think it’s fair to say they’re a complete pushover.
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Oh I never meant to say they’re pushover as a whole but more so that in this particular scenario the circumstances have made them one. As you said, they needs skin to skin contact to be actually effective which they can’t receive. They haven’t tried any mental attack which leads me to believe that they simply can’t. In simple terms, as you put it we have caught them with their pants down, at this particular point ( i.e. if step and HG are sitting together and as you said, no particular fail happens when checks are involved) , HG is completely screwed. Only thing that can save them is whims of sidestep, unless off course they are buffed up with more powers or abilities or something.
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