Bakuda (pronounced “bah-ku-duh”)[2] is a member of the Azn Bad Boys.
Personality
Driven to perfection to prove her superiority over others, when an academic failure seemingly disproved this she developed an explosive temper.
Appearance
Bakuda is a young woman of half Caucasian and half Asian descent[3] with pale blue eyes and straight black hair.[4] While in costume, she wears large opaque goggles and a metal mask with a gas-mask filter and a braided cord of black, yellow, and green wires over her shoulders.[5]
Abilities and Powers
Bakuda is a Tinker that specializes in bombs. She was able to create bombs with an incredibly wide variety of effects, not all of them lethal. She created a bomb as powerful as a nuclear weapon,[1] an estimated nine thousand kilotons,[6] and capable of creating an electromagnetic pulse that would cover a fifth of the United States from Brockton Bay[1] using household materials.[7] She was able to take apart a tinker-designed collar without triggering its defence mechanisms, and rebuilding it into a bomb, using her mouth.[1]
History
Background
Bakuda triggered due to heavy stress after taking a large blow to her immense ego. It is suggested she had received a less than perfect grade whilst studying at Cornell University. She then subsequently held the university ransom with her newly acquired Tinker abilities in an act of revenge. Her tantrum was thwarted by the New York Protectorate, [8] later she was later recruited by Lung and joined the Azn Bad Boys.[9]
Story Start
Bakuda hired Über and Leet to help her deal with the Undersiders. She watched the battle between the two groups before telling Skitter she was close after Skitter theorized that Uber and Leet's henchmen were watching over Bitch and their money. She stood and bowed before dropping onto her knees and gripped the edge of the roof to avoid falling off.
Bakuda told Regent that she was smart enough to learn from the mistake of others before giving the signal for her henchmen to come out. She then said that she had hired Uber and Leet before telling them she was in charge of the Azn Bad Boys. After that, she ordered her underlings to attack.[10]
Grue blanketed the area with darkness before the Undersiders retreated. When the Undersiders found one of her traps, Bakuda moved to the explosion and overheard Grue telling Tattletale to watch out for her. She interrupted him and said that she had already found them before saying that they weren't hard to find. Grue interrupted her with a blast of darkness before he enveloped Bakuda and her group with it. Bakuda used something that Skitter assumed was a miniature black hole to suck in the darkness and then shot a bomb into the middle of their group.
When the Undersiders escaped the effect of her time-stop bomb, Bakuda launched three canisters at them. Grue enveloped them with darkness in an attempt to damper the effects before the Undersiders retreated. Bakuda got in a jeep and gave chase, levelling a storage locker, before bombarding the area Grue blanketed with a series of explosives. She caught up with the Undersiders after they found themselves confronted by her underlings where she told them that it was checkmate. [11]
Tattletale accused her of toying with them and Bakuda told her she was right. She then told her to be quiet and gave orders to her men to open fire on the Undersiders if Tattletale opened her mouth again. She then told them that Lung had taught her a lot about fear and how, in their career, people would only be loyal to them if they were terrified of them. She then told them that, while she had inherited the Azn Bad Boys, she had also inherited its enemies before asking Park Jihoo if he had ever held a gun or beat someone up before.
After hearing Park Jihoo's answer, she told him that he was perfect for her demonstration and told him to shoot one of the Undersiders. She said that he didn't have to kill them; giving him the option to shoot one of their kneecaps, elbows, or shoulders. Stepping away, she then told another of her underlings to get out the camera and start rolling. Park Jihoo refused to shoot and then dropped the gun. She said it was a shame and that he was no use to her as a solider before kicking him in the stomach. He begged her not to kill him and she stepped away moments before her bomb liquefied him. Then, she laughed.
Regent said that it was pretty cool and Bakuda said that she had modeled the bomb off of Tesla's work in vibrations. He interrupted her, telling her that he didn't care how it worked, before saying that seeing what a dissolved person looked like was cool. He asked her how she had done it, asking if she had put bombs in all of her underlings, and she confirmed it. When Regent asked to get a better look, she told him no before saying that she knew what he was trying to do and that she could think twelve moves ahead of him.
Bakuda then said that Regent had lost any goodwill he had for appreciating her art before asking an underling if they were still filming. After her confirmed this, she said that they would edit the talking bits out later and then put the video on the web and send copies to local news stations. She then singled out another of her underlings if she would shoot someone. The girl said that she could and Bakuda said that it concluded her demonstration before telling them about fear. She said that true fear is a blend of certainty and the unpredictable and how her people knew that she could kill them with a thought and that, if she died, everyone of her bombs would go off. For "unpredictability, Bakuda revealed that she mixed up her arsenal before making a bomb go off in her own group.[12]
Later, she went after the Undersiders again on her Jeep. She fired a rocket at a tower of ice a previous bomb to create a path through before running over Grue. Afterwards, she stood up and looked around for the other Undersiders only for darkness to blanket the Jeep. As the Jeep drove out of it, she aimed her rocket launcher at it only for Regent to mess with the driver. The Jeep skidded and then spun out before Bakuda was flung from it. Getting up, she then fired another bomb at the Undersiders.[13]
Bakuda told the Undersiders that they should be afraid of getting the upper hand on her before telling them that they had deserved to be shot after leaving her with her weapons. She noticed Skitter was awake and then told Grue that she would get to him in a moment before asking Skitter if she had had a bad day. She then revealed that she had spies in the Protectorate Headquarters who had told her about what Skitter had done to Lung and told her that she would get special treatment.
When Skitter tried to say something, Bakuda hauled her up into a sitting position. Skitter then taunted her about how she had failed at school and she backed up. Grue laughed at and Bakuda kicked Skitter in the face before telling them they would see how smart they were after she implanted a bomb in Grue. She threatened to shove the bomb down Skitter's throat if he tried using his powers and then slid it into his nasal cavity as she explained what the bomb did. Once she was finished, she asked Skitter what she was doing before telling her that she wouldn't want to miss the show. Skitter then brought her knife down on the edge of Bakuda's boot and cut off two of her toes. Bakuda screamed before falling over where she kicked out with her leg, splattering Skitter's mask with blood.[14] She fled and the Undersiders regrouped.
The bombing campaign that she started was more then enough of a distraction to allow Oni Lee to free Lung. While her forced recruitment tactics rapidly expanded the ABB's ranks. Her manic phase eventually petered out and with Lung free she gave up her position as leader of the gang. She was eventually captured by the Heroes of Brockton Bay with her giant city destroying EMP bomb neutralized by Clockblocker and Vista.[15]
Birdcage
Bakuda was sentenced to the Birdcage for her crimes. She was placed in a transport vehicle alongside Lung and Paige Mcabee and had everything aside from her head and her shoulders covered in containment foam. After Paige woke up, Bakuda got her attention before telling her to lean as far right as she could before shoving herself left on her signal. Noticing Paige's hesitance, she told her to do it unless she wanted to risk Bakuda finding her in the prison. When Paige reluctantly followed her instructions, Bakuda grabbed the strap of Paige's mask with her teeth before losing her grip. Bakuda swore before telling Paige to do it again. After another two attempts, she managed to pull the strap free of the buckle and then remove the pacifier-cage from Paige's mouth.
Bakuda asked about Paige's power and the collar around her neck. She then told Paige to take the mask before turning to Lung and told him that she needed his power. She had Paige show Lung her mask before saying that she needed him to heat the metal and, after being told that he couldn't, she goaded him until he got angry enough. Then, she told him to use that anger to heat the metal strips on the mask, repeated the same move with Paige, and managed to remove one of the metal strips with her teeth. She then told Paige about what she and Lung had done to get sentenced to the Birdcage before asking the same question. She continued to work on and shape the metal strips she managed to free from the mask as Paige told her what she had done and then asked Lung if there was a chance that Oni Lee would try to help them escape. Lung told her he would be surprised if he did before Bakuda went back to work.
Later, Paige asked if what Bakuda was doing hurt and she told her that it did only to then say that tooth enamel was stronger than people thought. She then directed her makeshift screwdriver to the collar around Paige's neck. After ten minutes, she took a break where Paige said that she would set it off only for Bakuda to chastise her and say that she was the bomb expert. During her next rest, she said that the collar was beautiful work and that she hated to butcher it. Paige fell asleep and, when she woke up, she found that Bakuda had finished removing the collar and had built a bomb out of its remains.
Lung told them that they would use Bakuda's bomb to buy them some time and that Paige would use her power to order the men to free them. Bakuda swung her bomb and, when the doors of the van opened, hurled it where it detonated outside. The detonation rocked the van, but the plan failed as there wasn't anyone around to hear Paige. A giant metal claw reached in and started pulling them out one-by-one. She screamed and swore as she was taken away, saying that she had had a plan.
Bakuda was set down alongside Paige and Lung next to a monitor where a CGI rendering of Dragon's face appeared and addressed them. Dragon said that the proper procedures for Bakuda's transport hadn't been carried out, that she had a .000126% chance of escaping from the Birdcage, and then sent her off to be placed in Cell Block C.
Later, Bakuda was met by Lung in her cell. She told him that the Birdcage was amazing, compared it to the Mona Lisa, and said she could spend the next ten years trying to figure out how Dragon had created it. When Lung said that he didn't care, she stopped herself and asked how he was doing. Lung told her how he had been doing and she told him how she had been doing. Bakuda then asked about why Lung had visited and he told her the four ways a person survived in prison. She asked him which option he would take and he told her that he would take the third and fourth option.
Realizing that Lung intended to kill her, Bakuda backed away before asking him why. He told her that she had failed him and insulted him. She flicked her arm and grabbed an assortment of bedsprings and scrap metal, telling him that she would punch a hole in the wall and how they would die of suffocation if he came any closer. He told her that she wasn't fast enough and she asked him if he wanted to bet. He did.[1]
Bakuda was later claimed by Glaistig Uaine. [16]
Trivia
- Bakuda's codename is a bastardization of the japanese 爆弾, or 'bakudan', which means 'bomb'.[3]
- Bakuda is half Caucasian and half Asian, as evidenced by her blue eyes.[1] Her mixed race origin is something she shares in common with Lung.[3]
Fanart Gallery
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Interlude 6
- ↑ Worm Audiobook pronounciation guide (confirmed by Wildbow)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Edit by Wildbow
- ↑ Interlude 6
- ↑ Insinuation 2.2
- ↑ "While experts on the scene refused to offer hard numbers, a local cape was quoted as stating the superbomb could have had a yield of nine thousand kilotons of energy." quote from Tangle 6.4
- ↑ Tangle 6.4
- ↑ Gestation 1.6
- ↑ Cell 22.y (Donation Interlude; Lung)
- ↑ Shell 4.6
- ↑ Shell 4.7
- ↑ Shell 4.8
- ↑ Shell 4.9
- ↑ Shell 4.10
- ↑ IRC comment by Wildbow, archived on SpaceBattles
- ↑ Interlude 10.5 (Bonus)
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