AN: This chapter kicked my ass so hard. It was a slog to write because I wasn't sure how I wanted to do things. The second half of it turned out better than the first. I'm behind in my writing now, I haven't even started on the next chapter since I spent the whole week trying to finish this one. It should still be on time though, so don't worry about that.
Downtown Brockton Bay was actually pretty nice in the middle of the day. It's the only time where you didn't have to deal with the super powered Neo-Nazi's. The regular ones were still out and about, but they were less likely to try something blatant when they knew they wouldn't have cape backup. Aside from the mall being in Downtown, there were also a lot of nice shops. It was a crap shoot on which ones had Empire connections and which didn't, but most non-white people tended to avoid being in the area for too long to avoid any kind of trouble. It was a shame there were so many people who couldn't enjoy their city just because it was over run with violent racists and the heroes were stuck in stasis. Either they risked a war that would get a lot of people killed, or they maintained the status quo. You'd have to be blind to not see which was easier.
Luckily the Empire's hold on Downtown was strenuous at best. With Coil constantly fighting them for territory they didn't have as much control as they did when Allfather was still around, or even as much as they did just five years ago. The edges of their territory, especially near Arcadia were basically not in their control. At least not in any meaningful way.
Which was why I was able to enjoy a nice cup of tea at a cafe within view, rather my view, of Brockton Central. I didn't know if it was Sophia and Emma or if I just looked Jewish, but some people really thought I was. It was more confusing than anything.
The tea the shop served was decent. Not anything special, but good enough. It was definitely my mothers fault I liked tea over coffee. It was what she drank and I took after her in that regard. Dad preferred coffee, and I wasn't going to fault him for it because personal taste and all, but tea had a more varied taste to it. There were different types of coffee, sure, but most people wouldn't be able to pick up on the difference. With tea, every flavor was distinct. It didn't have the same variety as apples, but it might as well have.
It was actually pretty calming to just sit in my window seat and watch Downtown pass me by while I enjoyed my drink and the chilled out fusion jazz playing over the speakers. It was the most relaxed I'd felt in a while. I was so relaxed I almost didn't notice Theo sit across from me.
"Hey." Theo said, sitting down.
"Hello." I took a sip of tea. "So, how are you feeling about this?" I asked. I'd caught him up on everything the day before and he was surprisingly okay with it.
"I'm still iffy, but at least it builds us some reputation in the right places. Don't want to piss off the wrong people too soon." He sighed.
"Tomorrow night isn't too soon?" I joked.
"Nah. Besides, I got some info from some of them yesterday. I have a few places we can go."
"Nice. Just the ones you know or the other guys too?"
"Everyone." He smirked. "We might even be able to sell some to the others."
"Very nice. How many do you think we can do in one night?"
"Depends on who's there and when we go. If we start small first we might be able to get through seven or eight." He said casually.
"Sounds like a lot, actually."
"Maybe for the normal guys." He smirked.
"Heh. Good point. What time should we meet up?"
"Right after school should be good Around four?" He suggested.
"Sounds good to me." I took a sip of tea. "Ah, they're here." I nodded toward the bank where the Undersiders and Circus were just entering.
"When do we go?"
"A little after the Wards show up. We've got maybe ten minutes."
It was quiet for a few minutes as I enjoyed my drink and the music. Theo was looking at me, but I could tell his thoughts were serious.
"I don't like how casual you are about this." He looked at me seriously.
"I've become numb to most things. It's actually rather unfortunate. But," I shrugged, "It lets me do a lot of things I wouldn't normally do. Like stand up for myself. Living with a lack of fear of most things is actually quite liberating. There are problems with being the way I am, but those aren't going to be worked out any time soon." My tone was bland, but I thought it helped get my point across.
"Huh… As long as it doesn't get us into trouble in the long run." He sighed.
"It probably won't."
"I wish you were more certain about that."
"I wish a lot of things, but we don't always get what we want." I said, finishing off my tea and standing up. "They're a bit early. Let's go."
Theo stood and followed me out of the cafe. We turned a corner into an alley and I slipped us into the Isolation world. We switched into our costumes quickly and I stopped.
"Did I ever tell you we get weapons?" I asked.
"We get weapons?!" His head snapped towards me. "Why didn't you say anything sooner?"
"It slipped my mind." I shrugged. "You can summon them the same as your mask. Just think weapon and poof." I held up my guns. Bone white with intricate carvings in the sides. "I don't actually need mine since I can use all my powers effectively without them, but they help me focus on certain things."
Theo looked at me blankly before shaking his head. He summoned his own weapons, a set of claws that looked like black gloves with long sharp nails, and looked them over.
"Yeah, I can work with this."
"Good. Let's go."
We get back to reality and I nod to him. We appear near the wards with a Sonido and I several of them jump. It's Clockblocker, Vista, Gallant, Aegis, Kid Win, and a new Ward I hadn't seen before.
"What's the situation?" I asked.
"Sacrosanct, Samael." Clockblocker said. "The Undersiders are robbing the bank and have taken everyone inside hostage."
"We're waiting for them to come out." Gallant started. "We can't engage them yet. Not with hostages inside."
I notice Vista tense at that, but she doesn't say anything.
"Alright. Well, we're here to help out." Samael said.
"Thanks. All the help we can get is appreciated." Clockblocker said.
Glory Girl showed up a minute later and I sigh. It was never that easy, though some of them probably took it as a sigh of relief for extra back up.
We don't have to wait long for the action to start. Several hostages start running from the building, splitting up, followed a few seconds later by Grue's darkness.
Then all the Wards except Clockblocker collapsed. Kid Win fell from the sky and I managed to catch him before he slammed into the ground, though his hover board wasn't saved. I had no idea why they dropped. Lisa didn't actually tell me what the tinkertech Coil gave them did, but I took that as the cue to start.
I fired a few Bala into the darkness, more hoping I'd hit something while Clockblocker flew up above the black cloud. I raised an eyebrow at that. Clockblocker couldn't fly. I realized a second later Aegis must have switched with Clockblocker to confuse them. It worked on me.
Bitch and her Dogs broke through the smoke just as the Wards started to get up. One of them went for Aegis and the others for the ones getting up. I dashed down and punched one of the monster dogs so it didn't trample over Gallant and it slammed into a wall. I heard an explosion go off and saw Samael had flipped one of them into the air with an explosion.
"You okay?" I asked Clockblocker as he slowly made his way to his feet.
"I feel like I just downed a bottle of muscle relaxers for a few seconds." He sighed.
"Whatever that was, I don't want to be hit by it again." Gallant said.
"I think I'm gonna puke." Vista groaned.
"Incoming!" The new Ward shouted, rushing in front of us and taking on the giant monster dog.
I turned in time to see another coming right at me. Before I could dodge I felt all my muscles tense then I got bowled over, rolling down the street and into a building from the force of the dog. I wasn't out for nearly as long as the wards, but it was still weird to feel my body lock up the way it did. I heard several more explosions go off before I could make it back to the fight.
Kid Win had gotten back on his board but had no control over it. He was flying like a drunken surfer and barely had control of himself. His guns were worse, firing every which way at varying intensities and sparking every time they did.
"I can't feel my arms!" Vista screamed.
Gallant was firing at Bitch and her dog while the New guy was still trying to take one down on his own. I couldn't see Clockblocker, but Aegis had been sent flying into a wall. New Guy suddenly went down, getting stomped into the ground after the second dog swiped at him after sending Aegis flying. I dashed forward, shoulder checking one of the dogs to keep it from stomping on him again. I fired a few Bala's at the other before Samael sent it flying with an explosion.
"Bitch! We're leaving!" Grue shouted. Bitch whistled and her dogs regrouped, speeding towards the her.
Grue's darkness shrank enough that they could safely ride past the front of the bank to grab Tattletale and Circus without stopping or screwing up.
"I can't see anything!" Vista shouted before going down like a sack of potatoes. I saw Regent Sonido from behind her to the rest of the Undersiders. Once Tattletale and Circus were picked up the darkness spread out and I felt my muscles tighten up again. I let myself fall into the darkness before catching myself and getting to the alley behind the bank where were supposed to meet.
"Ready?" I asked.
"Let's go." Grue nodded.
I tapped everyone and the dogs, sending Grue last. I got back to the bank a few seconds later to see everyone still making their way to their feet.
"They're gone. Couldn't find them." I sighed.
"It's fine." Aegis, still dressed as Clockblocker said. "They're slippery bunch."
"Wish we could have done more to help. I have no idea what was causing us to freeze up like that." Samael said.
"Probably tinkertech. I didn't know the Undersiders had one." Gallant sighed.
"What happened to Clockblocker?" I asked.
"He froze his suit." Aegis pointed to the red statue. "Probably when they fried us. He was stuck like that the whole time."
"Unfortunate."
"Extremely." Gallant sighed as Clockblocker unfroze.
"Well, that sucked." He sighed.
"Very much so." The new Ward said. "I'm Browbeat, by the way. New to the team."
"Hello. We're the Espada, I'm Sacrosanct. That's Samael." I nod.
"Speaking of, aren't there supposed to be three of you?" Aegis asked.
"Nihilus was busy and couldn't make it." Samael answered.
"I wanted to see what her bubbles did." Clockblocker sighed. "Well, while I have you here, I have a bet going with Velocity and Assault. Are you guys religious? And if you are, is it the Church of Bacon?"
"You know that's a real thing?" I stated more than asked.
"Wait, really?"
"Yeah. Started up last year. They're based in Vegas. They mostly send money to charity though. They're a parody religion." I explained.
"Huh…"
"We also aren't religious." Samael added.
"Well, I guess I lost that bet." Clockblocker sighed.
"Clock." Aegis said sternly. "Anyway, would you be willing to come to the PRT building to give a statement?"
The last thing I wanted was to be in the PRT building. Getting out would be a breeze, but I didn't want to put myself in that situation in the first place.
"You can't take one now?" Samael asked.
"We're not really in a situation to do so." Gallant sighed.
"Then maybe later. We're gonna take off now. Hope Vista's okay." I said before taking off.
We left and changed back into civilian clothes, splitting up after. I texted Madison our meet up time, but didn't hear back from her. I met up with the Undersiders right after. They had made their way to their base while I was finishing up with the Wards and all I had to do was let them out.
"Thanks a lot for that." Grue said when I finally caught up with them.
"We made a deal." I shrugged.
"It was still a big help. We've never gotten out of something so fast."
"Can we hurry this up?" Bitch said.
"Yep." I sent her and her dogs first.
"Me next. I want to get back to my games." Alec said. I rolled my eyes and sent him back. Then I tapped Grue, leaving me with just Circus and Lisa.
"Circus." I said, sharpening my voice a bit. "If you tell anyone about my involvement in this… We're going to have problems. Got it?"
Circus nodded quickly and I sent them back.
"You really did help." Lisa started. "Glory Girl probably would've chased us if you didn't help."
"I didn't see her after the fighting started. What happened?" I asked.
Lisa sighed. "She burst through the window ready to take Circus' head off and I come back in time to see her get smashed into the ground with a sledgehammer."
"That happened at the mall last Saturday too. Must've been itching for a rematch."
"Oh she was super pissed. I only managed to talk her down by poking holes in what she thought was a perfect little family life. I doubt she'll make anything of it for now, but she's gonna start seeing things she didn't notice before. I give it a few weeks at best before she gets into an argument with Brandish about Panacea."
"Huh. Alright. Theo and I are meeting up with Madison around four to regroup with her. You're welcome to come if you want since she was on the look out for Coils thing."
"I probably won't have the time. Catch me up on it later?" She asked.
"Yeah. Later." I tap her before heading home.
—
I decided to pick up a box of donuts before meeting with the others. Abby didn't close her shop until almost five in the afternoon, so I was more than safe in getting them without bothering her. I'd seen her just kick people out if they weren't done by the time she closed shop.
"Alright people, let's talk." I said, walking into Las Noches and putting the donuts and milk on the table. Madison was on her phone while Theo was just looking up at the stars. They didn't bother to move as the room shifted.
"Oh, donuts!" Madison lit up, reaching for he box.
"I guess I'll start first." I rolled my eyes and sat down. "Everything went pretty well. There were more Wards than we were expecting, and Glory Girl showed up, but whatever that tinkertech was helped them out big time." I explained. "I got them out and to their base with no problems. The Wards don't seem to be too wary of us, which is nice. Probably have orders to work with us if they get the chance. I wouldn't be surprised if that was how they try to soft sell people on the Wards."
"Do you know what that tinkertech was, by the way? It was like a taser without the pain. Just everything locking up and dropping you." Theo said.
"No idea. Lisa never said." I shrug. "Madison, how'd your thing go?"
"Huh?" She looked up from her second donut. "Oh, uh… I didn't really find anything. I saw these guys with guns load into an SUV and followed them, even stopped them when they were in an empty area, but they didn't have anything but some guns."
I hummed and started thinking. "We probably missed whatever he was after then. Coil wouldn't stage a bank robbery just to grab some guns. He wouldn't need something so big for such a small take, not to mention he'd consider the risk far too high from what I've heard of him."
"So I messed up?" Her face dropped. It almost bothered me sometimes how expressive Madison could be considering what I knew about her. She could go from emotionally dead to excitable puppy at the drop of a hat. Now, thinking she'd done something wrong, she looked like a kicked puppy left out in the rain.
"No, you're fine. I wasn't expecting you to actually find out what he was up to. It was a long shot at best and the fact you ran into his men at all is impressive." I said. She nodded, her face going back to normal. "And that brings us to our plans for tomorrow. You have the map, Theo?"
"Yup." He nodded, pulling out a map of the city. "I got some info out of Cricket about some of the safe houses she knows about. The Merchants are all over the place. They don't have territory so they slip between the cracks of other peoples turf. They mostly like to hang around the Docks, and they have a few drug houses there." He marked a few areas in the Docks. "Next, she knew about a few ABB spots in the Docks and South Docks." He marked a few more areas. "I'm thinking these will be the easiest to hit because the Merchants and ABB are low on capes. We could steamroll Skidmark and Squealer pretty easy. Oni Lee is dangerous, but from what I've heard all he's good for is fighting."
"That's pretty good. You think we can hit all of them at once?" Madison asked.
"Yeah. Even better, we can hit some Empire spots. Kaiser knows better than to consolidate all his resources in one are where they'll be too easy to chain hit, so he has some in the Commerce District, The Coast, and even a few on the edges of the South Docks." He marked the areas of the map. "I think tomorrow we can at least one of each, maybe more. If we're all together it shouldn't take more than a few hours."
"Sounds like a plan. So we have our targets. Lisa said they usually take the cash and anything important and leave the weapons. I kinda want to take them all and destroy them, make it harder for them to recover from the losses, but if we call the PRT or cops, they're going to need the guns or drugs or whatever we find to make a case. We also could get in trouble for destroying evidence, which I don't want to deal with." I explained.
"I agree destroying their stuff would be harder to recover from, but you're right about the evidence." Theo sighed.
"What if we just get rid of a lot of it. Not all the guns, but enough." Madison suggested.
"I think that still counts as destroying evidence." I pointed out. "It would probably be best to leave it and let the cops handle it. Not like the Empire will waste resources on unpowered members and the ABB is in no position to do so with Lung out of the picture."
"Okay, so we leave the guns." Theo said. "Should we have someone stay to meet the PRT?"
"Oh, I can do it!" Madison put her hand up.
"We'll switch out." I said. "I shouldn't take more than two of us to take down a safe house. If one person meets the PRT every time they'd never get to actually practice their powers in live combat."
"Fair enough." She sighed.
"Alright, so what time should we meet up?"
"Ten? That sounds good right?" Theo asked.
"Yeah. My dads usually asleep by then."
"I can do eleven." Madison nodded." My parents don't really check my room after I go to bed, so I should be fine."
"My step mom will be out a bit later than usual today. I should be able to come out once my sister is sleep." Theo said.
"How old is she?"
"She's two."
"Aw! I wanna meet her!" Madison gushed.
"You sure you can leave a two year old alone for a few hours?" I asked.
"She'll be sleep. If we're back before one I should be okay." He nodded.
"Alright. I guess we have everything set up for tomorrow. I'm gonna take off for now. See you guys."
"You're still coming tonight, right?" Madison asked.
"Yes, I'll be over in two hours." I rolled my eyes.
"Alright. See you then."
—
I wasn't surprised to see how close Madison lived to downtown. Her family didn't have Money but they had money. Enough that their house looked very, very nice for what it was. I had gotten the urge to smoke on the way there, but didn't. I'd rather her mom not ask me questions about why I smelled like cigarettes.
I didn't put on anything fancy. I was expecting a very casual affair. As such I'd thrown on a pink bleached hoodie, black jeans, and a black shirt. I was more than a little surprised to see an older version of Madison wearing a nice evening dress.
"Hello. You must be Taylor." She smiled.
"Uh, yeah. Nice to meet you miss." I hoped that didn't come out awkward. That was the last thing I needed right now.
"Is your father not here?" She asked.
"Ah… He… Couldn't get off work." I looked down, forcing those particular emotions away.
She nodded. "My husband is the same. Always working. Ah, please, come in. Madison is setting the table." She turned and led me inside.
The inside of their house probably wasn't very much by most people's standards, but it looked down right extravagant to me. Lots of carved wooden tables, black leather couches, large flat screen, and paintings with intricate frames. The things were probably just designed to look expensive, but compared to my house it might as well have been the inside of a mansion.
"Kitchen is right this way dear, but I'd like to speak with you first." She stopped, suddenly serious as she faced me. "I invited you over to apologize for my daughters action. I thought we'd raised her better than that. Whatever she's done, I'm sincerely sorry for. We're doing our best to punish her and make sure she doesn't do anything like that in the future. I'm not asking you to forgive her, just… Know that she is trying."
I really wanted to leave. I wasn't sure what to say to her. 'Oh, don't worry about it, she's making it up by being my punching bag during lunch'? That wasn't going to fly at all.
"Uh… Well, I haven't forgiven her, but she's trying to make it up to me. It's been a rocky start, but she's only been trying to be better for about a week, and it's going to take more time than that before I can really trust her. Barring extenuating circumstances." I said. "Honestly, most people would probably call me too forgiving for even associating with her after all that, but I can tell she's genuinely trying. The only reason I'm really even giving her a chance is because I know she regrets it and has for a long time. Under most other circumstances, I wouldn't have even let her get close enough to start apologizing."
"Well, I'm just glad you're willing to give her the chance to be better. Hopefully she'll learn something from you in that regard."
I managed not to snort at the irony of that statement.
Dinner was a bit more lively than at home. We talked about mundane things for the most part, but actually having someone to interact with over dinner instead of silently existing in the same room was a nice change of pace. When we were done I ended up going to Madison's room to talk.
"Sorry about my mom. She can be kinda… intense sometimes." She sighed.
"It's fine. I haven't a dinner that lively in a while. It was nice." I said, sitting in her desk chair. Her room was painted a dull pink with white accents. Most of her furniture was either pink or white. Her bed had stuffed animals on it and she had even more on her shelf.
"Well, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I think mom likes you too." Madison flopped onto her bed.
"That's good." I said.
She didn't speak again and I was happy to look out the window in silence for a while.
"Taylor?" She asked.
"Yeah?"
"What kind of music do you listen to?"
"Huh?" I looked over at her. The question felt odd and out of place.
"What kind of music do you like?" She didn't get up but I could tell she was looking at me.
"Why?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I've been wondering since you had that argument with Greg."
"Ah." That made sense. "I mostly listen to instrumental music. I don't have a preference on slow or fast, I think. Though I guess I listen to more chaotic music than not."
"You don't have a favorite genre?"
"Not particularly. I end up listening to a lot of jazz, but other genres have instrumentals too. I either listen to instrumentals or songs that tell stories. I don't like things with nonsense lyrics. I bought a metal album just because it was a concept album focused on the book Moby Dick. All the songs told parts of the story in some way. I like the Misfits for the same reason. A lot of their songs tell interesting stories. Horror stories, sure, but interesting stories."
"Huh… I mostly just listen to boy bands and pop music."
"Most of that isn't really to my taste." I shook my head.
"Well, I won't try to force it on you. Do you think you can bring a CD next time you come over?"
"Next time?"
"Do you not want to come over again?"
I shrugged. "Maybe."
"Good enough." She sighed. "Hey!" She shot up. "Did you know people are talking about us?"
"What?"
"Online." She said, opening her laptop. "I forgot to mention it before. Someone posted about the robbery on PHO and people are talking about us." She handed me her laptop to look over the thread.
—
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Topic: Brockton Central Bank Robbery
In: Boards ► News ► Events ► America
Dead-Letter (Original Poster)
Posted April 14, 2011:
So the Undersiders took a break from their usual M.O and robbed Brockton Central today. They even recruited Circus to help them out. They took everyone inside hostage before the Wards showed. Even better, the new guys in town, The Espada showed up to help out. Glory Girl burst through the window at some point to fight Circus because Panacea was in the bank. Plus, the Undersiders seem to have gotten a Tinker. They had these weird weapons that put people down real fast without doing any real damage to them. Just pull the trigger and the person drops like they got tazed.
I didn't get to see much of the fighting, but I know the Undersiders managed to slip away. If they really do have a Tinker on their side, I can see how they'd be willing to rob a bank, because that tech was insane. If anything I'm just surprised they managed to give both the Wards and Espada the slip.
Pharaoh Luna Lou (Cape Groupie)
Replied on April, 14, 2011
Oh, did anyone see the Espada use their powers? Were all of them there? I know Nihilus has those bubbles, but I really want to know what they can do. Did you manage to see what Samael could do? This is the first time anyone has seen them out since they took out Lung the other day.
Dead-Letter (Original Poster)
Replied on April 14, 2011
I didn't see much, but I saw a bunch of explosions going off, so I'm guessing at least one of them can just cause explosions. Sacrosanct was throwing out blasts from her fists. As far as I know Nihilus wasn't there.
The Speedster
Replied on April 14 2011
Wow, I'm glad I wasn't in downtown then. I did need to hit the bank today too. Never thought I'd say this, but thank god for traffic.
Glubglub4k
Replied on April 14, 2011
Oh man, I'm so glad they're not villains if they have a guy that can just throw around explosions that can toss Hellhound's monsters around like that.
Pharaoh Luna Lou (Cape Groupie)
Replied on April 14, 2011
|Toss Hellhound's monsters around
Wait, what? There's video? Where, where, where, I need it!
Robo-Low24
Replied on April 14, 2011
I got you. Link.
Pharaoh Luna Lou (Cape Groupie)
Replied on April 14, 2011
Yes! You're the best!
ToxicSnake
Replied on April 14, 2011
From the looks of things they're both flying blasters. Nothing really out of the ordinary. I'd almost ask if Samael is related to New Wave since he's blond, but he' doesn't have their signature light blasts.
Glory Girl (Verified Cape)
Replied on April 14, 2011
Unless mom or aunt Sarah has a secret son or cousin we don't know about, he's not related to us.
Skinner of Demons
Replied on April 14, 2011
How insightful, Glory Girl.
Seriously, though, I don't think they're normal capes. Didn't the thread from Monday say Sacrosanct has some sort of phasing ability on top of her blasts? And their flying doesn't look like normal flying. It looks like they're just standing on air. Here's Nihilus somewhere else in downtown while her teammates were at the bank. She chased down some car that a bunch of guys with guns were in.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, … 10
White Shadow
Replied on April 14, 2011
She probably saw something suspicious and wanted to check it out, making her miss the robbery. Not that it really mattered in the end.
Celestial (Unverified Goddess)
Replied on April 14, 2011
Honestly, that sounds like something that could happen. Not to mention the PRT gave her a shaker rating of 5, so she's more than capable by herself.
Nixavada
Replied on April 14, 2011
I wonder what hit the Wards and why the Espada weren't affected by it at first.
Clockblocker (Wards ENE) (Verified Cape)
Replied on April 14, 2011
I'm not sure how much I can say, but it was some kind of tinkertech that makes people's nerves short circuit or something. It felt like getting hit by a tazer without the pain. I think Sacrosanct and Samael were just out of the range of whatever hit us the first time.
Xenodestroyer
Replied on April 14, 2011
Where were you for the fight?
Clockblocker (Wards ENE) (Verified Cape)
Replied on April 14, 2011
Listen, this isn't about me buddy.
Skinner of Demons
Replied on April 14, 2011
Lol, I bet you froze your costume.
Glubglub4k
Replied on April 14, 2011
The Wards beat down aside, The Espada are being super mysterious. They just kinda show up every so often, do their work, and disappear without a trace. You hardly ever see capes do that kind of thing. Even some of the villains try to get their image out there.
The Speedster
Replied on April 14 2011
That's actually a nice change of pace. Having them come and go the way they do is preferable to them lingering around anywhere. They seem strong and that tends to draw challengers.
ToxicSnake
Replied on April 14, 2011
Challengers like who? Lung is out of the picture for now, and if Sacrosanct really sliced his legs off he's basically gone forever. It's not like the Empire actively goes looking for fights. Skidmark might be crazy enough to do it, but their preliminary PRT ratings say that's a curbstomp battle just waiting to happen.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, …. 10
—
"Huh…" I said, looking at the thread. "Is there another one?"
"Yeah, from Monday. They were talking about the fight with Lung, but that devolved into power scaling until the mods locked the thread." She explained.
"Power scaling?" I asked confused.
"People try to figure out which capes could beat other capes based on their power and their feats. There were a lot of people arguing over whether or not we could be the Triumvirate based on us taking out Lung so easily and our PRT ratings."
"Uh-huh… How much time did you spend in that thread arguing we could beat them?"
"Oh, I don't do power scaling. No, I'd rather stick to my Capefic. I don't have to do math with Capefic."
"Of course." I smiled a bit. "I'm gonna head. Make sure my dad got back alright."
"Okay, I'll walk you out."
Getting her mother to actually let me leave was close to pulling teeth, but eventually she let me go with a bag of cookies. I wasn't surprised to find dad sleep on the couch when I got back. I was just glad he hadn't tried to cook after drinking again. After getting him to his bed and cleaning up the cans he left I collapsed into the couch with a sigh and opened the cookies I'd gotten from Mrs. Clements.
"These are actually quite good." I said to myself after taking a bite. I'd definitely be going back if I got cookies every time.
And so we get to see the stolen tinkertech in action for a bit. I was trying to decide what I wanted it to do and ended up going with frequency disruption. The weapons they had were basically localized jammers that act as EMPs on the nervous system. So they roll out a grenade, it pulses, anything within that area sort of goes haywire for a few seconds. For humans this just makes it so they get crossed wires and can't move for a little while. For most electronics it's like a flicker. Other tinkertech, however, needs repairs to recover from it.