CYOT 3: Dungeons of Brockton Bay
The music played.
Battle music. (Final Fantasy II battle.) Her power was strange.
"Observe," said Rydia/Taylor Hebert.
[Generic Oni]
[In terms you are familiar with, these are Brute-3]
[and their tetsubo clubs are pretty basic.]
Rydia flipped open her book. "Carbuncle!" Carbuncle was a basic summons, could do a defensive effect, and had a single attack. On the other hand, he was PR-friendly and very low on maintenance costs to keep him manifested. She could literally keep Carbuncle active for most of the day with only minor fatigue.
The glowing blue squirrel/fox appeared in a sparkle and chiming sound.
Kenta readied his own tetsubo, which looked to be slightly higher quality than the ones the generic oni had.
Dragon made a couple of click-clack noises as she extended a sword on a pole.
"A guandao? How appropriate," grumbled Kenta though he sounded more amused than anything else.
"I thought so," responded Dragon.
"How do we start this?" asked Danny Hebert.
The oni charged across the floor of the entry hall.
"Pathetic," said Kenta. "They leave their post to attack the intruders?"
"Ruin!" cast Rydia on the left oni. As soon as she finished she started casting it again.
Dragon swung her sword-spear and a little rocket motor on the blunt side fired a quick burst.
"Rocket spear?" asked Kenta as he blocked one strike with his own weapon.
"It's a theme," said Dragon as she swung again.
"So it is," agreed Kenta, his own swing missing an oni's knee when it stepped back. He used the weight of the club and momentum to spin a little further and smash into the arm of the second oni.
"GRAHHHH! Small meats hit hard!" declared Generic Oni A.
[Glory Girl requests joining the Party!]
"We're already in battle!" pointed out Taylor aloud. "Fine!"
[Glory Girl, Paladin 3, joins battle.]
Glory Girl stumbled as she entered. "Damn, can't fly? That sucks."
"Get tanking already," grumbled Kenta as he took another oni's club on his own tetsubo.
[Glory Girl, Human]
[Paladin Level 3, hp: 17]
[Strength: 13, Dexterity: 9, Constitution: 11, Intelligence: 13, Wisdom: 12, Charisma: 16]
[Abilities: Divine Sense (good/evil/undead), Lay On Hands (15pt pool), Fighting Style: ]
[Protection, 3 1st level spell slots, Divine Smite. Immune to Disease.]
[Oath of Glory: Oath Spells (Guiding Bolt, Heroism), Peerless Athlete, Inspiring Smite.]
[Spells: Cure Wounds, Bless, Spare The Dying]
[Equipment: Nice Leather Jacket, Gladius, Wooden Shield]
"Did you honestly just pop your status when we're already in combat?" asked Taylor before casting "Ruin" again.
"Hey, I need refamiliarize myself with this stuff! I had tests today!" huffed Glory Girl.
Kenta leapt out of an orange circle that had just appeared under him. "Talk talk talk. There's fighting to be done!"
"I'm on it," said Glory Girl. "Glory SMASH!"
"That's more a stab," critiqued Kenta. "And you missed."
Glory Girl growled in response.
"Eldritch... BLAST!" cast Danny Hebert. A bolt of purple fire shot across the room and smashed into one Oni.
Oni A went down to one knee.
Oni B joined him after Kenta got two more hits in.
[Lair decision. Generic Oni: Kill, Spare, Recruit?]
Taylor stared at the text for a moment. "Recruit?"
"If you spare us, Great Summoner, we will pledge ourselves to your cause," said Oni A.
"We shall guard this Gate against any who seek to trespass," said Oni B.
"Recruit and name them," suggested Kenta.
Both Oni looked up, startled. "Thou wouldst give us NAMES?"
"Uhm, sure?" asked Taylor. "You're blue, so you can be Azure Oni. And you're red, so you can be Ruby Oni."
One of the oni abruptly turned female.
[Oni A evolved! Oni A is now Azure Oni! Class D- to Class C!]
[Oni B evolved! Oni B is now Ruby Oni! Class D- to Class C!]
"I feel the strength flowing through me brother!" declared Ruby Oni, as she clenched a fist and raised it skyward.
"Even my weapon upgraded from Cheap Tetsubo to Iron Spiked Club!" said Azure Oni.
"Did I just genderbend one of you?" asked a slightly horrified Taylor.
"Nay Mistress, as Generic Oni we had no gender but were generic monsters, by naming us you spent mana to upgrade us to Named Monsters - who actually come in male and female," said Ruby Oni, checking the tiger fur bikini top. "I think my sprite count went up."
Kenta thumped his club on the floor. "Still weak, but better."
[XP + 200! $20 dropped.]
[Loot roll: Rydia fails! Danny fails! Kenta gets Tactical Gloves! Dragon gets 2 Health Potions! Glory Girl fails!]
"Physic," cast Taylor on Kenta who nodded in acknowledgement as his wounds healed.
"I still have that song stuck in my head," grumpled Danny.
"You're the one who chose an archfey as your patron and went with Mary Poppins," noted Taylor.
"I'd wondered why you had an umbrella," noted Kenta.
"Wait, did you say..." Glory Girl looked from one to the other rapidly. "You met 'Mary Poppins' like in the movie?"
"Not quite like the movie, but yes. Also - don't anyone say her name for a good five minutes or she might show up. It's a fey thing," said Danny Hebert. "Say their name three times rapidly and you can get their attention. You don't want anyone higher up in the fey to pay attention to you."
"Similar to some of the stories of my homeland then," said Kenta as he started stretching out. "Next room?"
"Battle junkie," chided Danny.
"Your point?" asked Kenta as he opened the far door.
"Three way corridor. Left or right?" asked Taylor.
"Left," said Kenta, taking point.
"Pipes on the wall, valves, a few gauges," said Danny as he checked the corridor. "It looks vaguely familiar somehow."
"Looks like an apothecary or newsstand over on this side," began Kenta. "Oh."
"Greetings and salutations, parahumans, humans, and other gentlebeings," said the little man who'd popped up behind the counter. "Alas, we are not yet open for business so I can but greet you at this point."
"I take it that you're some kind of shop then," said Kenta. "You won't be 'open for business' until we've cleared the dungeon and she's claimed her headquarters?"
"Indeed, the warlord from Kyushu has summed up the difficulty quite well," agreed the little man.
"You're a halfling. In a vest/fez sort-of Aladdin-ish outfit," observed Taylor. "So, my headquarters has an item shop?"
"Of sorts, it is true," agreed the halfling. "I am Yusef, humble Yusef, a trader and alchemist and one of several unlockable employees. This is merely a branch office of Gilmore's Glorious Goods, so our merchandise is a bit eclectic when it becomes available. Yet still, should you succeed in claiming this territory there will be a number of level-dependent equippage and consumables for your perusal and purchase."
"Healing potions," stated Kenta.
"That will, indeed, be on the list of available merchandise," agreed Yusef.
"'Healing potions'?" asked Dragon.
"What did he mean 'humans, parahumans, and other'?" mumbled Glory Girl though she was ignored by everyone else at the moment.
"A vial of liquid that immediately causes the body to repair itself," said Kenta. "Pretty much a staple in most RPGs. You got two in the loot drop."
"That sounds incredibly handy," observed Dragon.
"And humble Yusef, who is merely a pawn in the multiversal tapestry, shall be happy to sell such for the price of $50 each should you be victorious in claiming the area," admitted the halfling. "Good luck, and may Fate itself lend wings to your endeavor." The halfling opened a hatchway and disappeared into the floor behind the counter.
"Did you guys get all that?" asked Kenta.
"Your power is such bullshit," said Glory Girl to Rydia. "Just saying."
"We've noticed," said Rydia/Taylor, Danny, and Dragon.
Kenta led the way towards a hatchway at the end of the corridor.
"We're on a ship of some kind," said Danny. "Sign above the door says 'Engine Room' - so try not to destroy any machines."
"What kind of..." Rydia asked. "Oh, yeah, Dad. Have you decided on a cape name?"
"No. I am not a cape." Danny shifted his umbrella from hand to hand briefly and then adjusted his bowler hat.
"I was wondering about the costume," noted Kenta.
"My patron as a warlock likes 'proper British' as a motif," said Danny. "I didn't expect Mary Poppins to be an 'archfey' - someone nearly at the level of the Queens of the Fae in power. Makes a bit of sense I suppose."
"Making a deal with the Fae though, in all the stories I've read - that's usually not a good idea," pointed out Danny's daughter.
"Least bad of a series of bad choices," said Danny. "When he opens the door, I'll lead with Eldritch Blast to give 'Kenta' a chance to close with the enemy?"
"Let's do it," agreed Kenta, opening the door.
"No immediate playing of music," noted Rydia as they entered and took in the decor.
More pipes, larger, a huge machine with some pipes glowing in yellow, tablet-shaped control interfaces all glowing an angry red, and a single creature there sitting in the center of the room.
"Sssssoooo, little maggots come crawling into my lair," said the creature as it came to its four lower limbs as the four upper limbs extended. Fangs extended, dribbling some thick green liquid.
"Are you a recruitable NPC?" asked Rydia/Taylor. "Observe."
"I shall break your bonesss and feassst upon the marrow," stated the creature.
[Engine Room Boss: Scrap Spider]
[hp:2,250 Level:30, immune to acid]
[A thing of blades and broken machines, it seeks]
[to eliminate organic life.]
"I think that's a 'no'," said Danny. "Sounds like a script."
"It hassss been ssso long between mealssss," said the spider with the human-pig face.
"ELDRITCH BLAST!" declared Danny, starting the fight.
Kenta started running forward to engage.
"Energy Blast!" cast Rydia as her own opening move.
Music started playing, signaling that the battle was indeed - on.
* New Hampshire border, altitude 500 feet *
"Approaching where signal was lost," announced Saint in his Victory power armor. "Putting flight path on HUD. Jammers active."
"I don't know about this," came the thick Russian accent of his colleague Mischa whose codename was Dobrynja and piloted the Isaiah power armor. "Just feeling in bones."
"You get that a lot," said Mags in her Michael III power armor. "We'll find out what's up with it and just press the kill button if there's trouble. In the meantime, this weird tech is worth grabbing if nothing else."
"Mercenaries left earlier, should be in position in fifteen minutes, we'll be passing their location in twelve," stated Saint. "Dobrynja, cut your active ping."
"Did not want to get hit by low-level planes," said Dobrynja. "Is not good to get sucked into jet engine. Not good for me, not good for plane."
"All outgoing blocked. Direct laser transmission active," said Saint. "Now we just wait for it to reappear with its minions."
* Taylor *
"Need a better healer," said Kenta, leaning back against the wall as Rydia sent repeated healing spells into him.
"I'm tapped out," said Glory Girl.
"That was a tough battle," said Dragon. "I'm down to 20% on ammunition and there's shrapnel in the servos in my right leg."
[Level up!]
[Glory Girl - Paladin 3 Oath of Glory - Paladin 4]
[Kenta - Barbarian 3 Ancestral Guardian - Barbarian 4]
[Dragon - Techknight 6 - Techknight 6/Magical Girl 1]
[Rydia - Arcanist (Summoner) 11 - Arcanist 12]
[Danny - Warlock 1 - Warlock 3]
"I got a level up, anyone else?" asked Rydia.
"I think everyone did," said Kenta. "Some classes level slower than others though. How much did you go up?"
"I'm level 12 now," said Rydia. "Just got a Resurrect spell, the Chocobo summon, and can select secondary professions," answered Taylor.
"Wait, Dragon? You dual-classed?" asked Glory Girl. "You can do that?"
"I just selected that to see what would happen," admitted Dragon. Her power armor unfolded and she stepped out. "This is... not quite what I expected."
"Wouldn't have expected that many ribbons at least," admitted Glory Girl.
[Cleared Engine Room]
All the red panels switched to glowing blue or green. A slow build-up of some pulsing sound began.
[Power restored. Auto-save.]
[You can now buy items from the Item Shop.]
[Rydia's Submarine 1/3 Cleared. Next section available at Level 15.]
"My base is a submarine?" asked Taylor.
[Treasure Rolls: Kenta - fail. Glory Girl - Falcon Shield. Dragon - BlasTech DL-44 Blaster. Danny - fail. Taylor - special. Mount system unlocked.]
[Glory Girl - Chocobo]
[Rydia - Aquamarine Carbuncle]
[Kenta - Flying Carpet]
[Danny - Chocobo]
[Dragon - SDS Fenrir]
"Anyone else want to go out and see what we've got?" asked Dragon, putting her hand up. The power armor also put its hand up.
It was unanimous.
* Brockton Bay Starshine Car Wash *
"We've got signal!" declared Saint, sitting near the mercenaries' panel truck with the laptop open.
"Why is the screen so messed up?" asked Mags. "Wait. Bpm? Blood pressure? What is..."
There was silence among the three Dragonslayers, broken only when Dobrynja slurped the last of his Icee (Blue Raspberry) through his straw.
"What the hell..." asked Saint as he looked over the new section.
"It has pulled a Pinocchio?" asked Dobrynja before he threw the cup into a trash can. "Dragon AI has found way to be a real girl?"
"That's insane. Can't be. Not possible," protested Saint.
"What if is?" Dobrynja sounded speculative. "Do we kill AI and leave human alone? Do we kill both? Has just become philosophy question."
"No, no, it is NOT, and I will prove it!" declared Saint, flicking the plastic cover up and pressing the button.
The screen flickered and went black, the code breaking, everything seeming to shut down.
Then the screen began rebooting.
"That isn't supposed to happen," said Geoff, the Saint of the Dragonslayers sounding quite nervous.
"I think I need to suit up," said Dobrynja with a nod, turning and sprinting back to where his suit was.
"Yeah, I think that's a good idea," said Mags, backing away from the laptop as it continued to boot up and then showed several people gathered around the POV display.
"No, it WILL die," said Geoff, thumbing the kill switch again.
[I am sorry, Dave, but I cannot let you do that.]
Saint, of the Dragonslayers, stared at the little textbox on the screen as the various individuals on the screen all went from looking very concerned (though one of them looked just plain grumpy) to very angry (with the grumpy one now looking like he was looking forward to tearing something or someone apart) with a large yellow-feathered bird briefly being seen.
* Taylor *
Someone had just tried to remotely kill Dragon with some sort of kill-switch in her cybernetics. It HAD killed her Dragon-suit until a Resurrect had been thrown at it.
[Raid forming! Party under minimum number for win conditions!]
[Put out call for reinforcements! Y/N]
"Insufficient numbers?" asked Taylor.
[Dragonslayers: 3]
[Mercenaries: 12]
[?][?][?][?]
"Excuse me, I believe my boss will like to get in on this," said Kenta, guiding his flying carpet around and boosting off in a different direction.
[Kenta has left the Party.]
[Dragonslayers approaching.]
"Call for reinforcements, 'Rydia'," said Danny, he looked around for a spot to be a sniper from.
[Y] pressed Taylor.
[Contact list utilized.]
[Armsmaster: I'm en route.]
[Uber: Gondor calls for aid! Rohan will answer!]
[L33t: A raid?! Damnit, I need better weapons!]
[Panacea: What? Why am I getting this call?]
[Uber: Truce to deal with the real menace?]
[Armsmaster: With all these question marks? Provisionally, I'd agree.]
There was the sound of a car crash fairly close.
[Update: Mercenaries:11]
[Armsmaster has chosen class: Dragoon]
[Uber: Great Gygax' Ghost. We get to choose classes?!]
[Panacea: I am NOT choosing healer.]
[Uber has chosen class: Machinist]
[L33t has chosen class: Builder]
[L33t has chosen Builder subclass: Robots (synthoids)]
[Panacea has chosen class: Archer]
[Glory Girl: Awww. We need a healer class.]
[Panacea: Tough. I'm going to be a sniper.]
[Miss Militia: Heading to the helipad as soon as I get Vista to a safe spot.]
[Vista has joined the Raid.]
[Miss Militia: Oh dear. I didn't mean to do that.]
[Vista: Hell yeah! Hell yeah!]
[Vista has chosen class: White Mage]
[Vista: Hey, it gets me out of constantly doing console duty.]
[Mount System active, basic mounts only, single draw]
[Panacea: What?]
[L33t: What?]
[Armsmaster: (language filter applied)]
[Rolls for connected Party members. Armsmaster and Miss Militia already have mounts - bypassed.]
[Miss Militia: I just appeared on the street on my motorcycle.]
[Armsmaster: Did Rydia's power just add a mechanism to my motorcycle?]
[Armsmaster: Rydia. Did anyone ever tell you your power is (language filter applied)?]
Rydia sighed. "All the time, Armsmaster. All the time."
[Mount rolls for Raid members.][Panacea - Chocobo][L33t - Magitek Armor][Uber - Chocobo][Vista - Unicorn.]
[Vista: Did I say 'Hell yeah' enough? Cause - Hell yeah.]
[Vista: Ride like the wind, my magnificent steed!]
[Miss Militia: Okay. She just rode past me. PR is going to love this.]
Hearing the squealing of tires and rising roar of jet engines, Rydia spoke and hoped it went over the Raid chat. "You don't need to say it. We're all thinking it."
Then everything rounded a corner and headed towards them at high speed. Three power-armors and a panel van for Richard's Plumbing.
* Miss Militia *
Vista was riding a flying unicorn. And using her ability to crunch distances to reach something like Ludicrous Speeds.
"Why mounts?" asked Miss Militia.
[Mount availability at Level 20. Exception encountered: Mount availability needed for Raids. Raid (minor) in progress. Raid (major) to occur on 2/24/2011.]
[Mount availability level limit bypassed.]
"Oh," said Miss Militia, slowing her motorcycle. "That's ominous. Details?"
[Details not available at level of access for [MISS MILITIA] at this time due to butterfly effect.]
"Doubly ominous," said Miss Militia, picking up speed again.
* Armsmaster *
He spotted the panel van, the roof of which had a large caliber weapon extending from it, and the power armors ahead of it.
"Target tires. Launch penetrators. Fire."
Six spikes shot out, two hitting the back of the van and the other four all hitting the right rear tire which abruptly became shredded rubber debris.
He'd have to work on the aiming mechanism, or perhaps the firing mechanism had some difficulties. Always something to work on.
"Load containment foam grenades. Target rear left tire. Single Fire."
A single grenade went off and locked the tire in place momentarily until the sheer weight and momentum tore it free. By that time the van was moving in a quick and uncontrolled circle.
The mercenary on the roof, apparently not sufficiently anchored for this sort of movement, went flying off the roof.
[Mercenaries: 10]
"Handy," said Armsmaster as he set the autopilot and prepared to launch himself. "Release halberd."
A click, a clack, and Armsmaster leapt off his motorcycle with his chosen weapon held ready.
* Taylor/Rydia *
"Energy Blast!" fired off Rydia, just as her father sent off one of those Eldritch Blast things into the same target.
Then a unicorn flew past them and came around with a whooping young girl on its back.
Dragon stepped back behind her still rebooting armor, pulled out her pistol, and started shooting plasma bolts into the very same target.
That power armor sent a missile into Dragon's power armor that blew it partially apart.
[Dragon - Stunned, Bleeding]
"She's... bleeding?! That's impossible!" yelled the power armor that had just shot the missile.
Thunk! went an arrow directly into one of his thruster assemblies.
"Physick!" cast Rydia at Dragon, having to move a bit in order to get a direct line of sight.
At which point a volley of missiles shot out at various targets.
Only to impact something entirely different.
Lots and lots of bullets fired from a large metal two-legged machine.
"This is Uber, coming to you from just outside the Docks area!"
"AND L33T! Aboard my trusty machine steed. Oh heck I ran through all my ammo."
"We're showing our support for new hero Rydia as she comes under attack by the Dragonslayers!" declared Uber as he slung around a large gun and started shooting globs of some sticky material at the power armors.
"Our viewers may remember that the Dragonslayers recently were linked to an attack on the DragonTech transport that had parts destined for maintenance of the Birdcage." L33t clicked a couple more switches on his mount. "I didn't have time to put too many weapons on this, but..."
A large metal ball shot out from the undercarriage, arcing towards the Dragonslayers. One of whom shot it out of the air.
"Well, crap, that could have gone better," commented L33t.
"I am going to enjoy killing all of you traitors to humanity," said Saint.
"What?" asked the other guy in the power-armor. "No. Nyet. We are not going to -"
"DIE DRAGON!" yelled Saint.
He was abruptly interrupted as Armsmaster landed halberd-first on top of him.
"That's 'dragoon'," said Armsmaster as he pulled the halberd out of the now-sparking armored suit.
"You can't stop us, we're on a mission to save humanity from extinction!" declared Geoff as he hit emergency lift and tried to escape.
"Team Rocket is blasting off again," said the other male in a power-armor.
"I'm getting some alarm on my suit... that's-" The woman's voice ended in a short scream as her armor was suddenly swarmed.
[Raid Update]
[Dragonslayers: 3 - Defeated: 3]
[Mercenaries: 12 - Defeated: 11]
[?][?][?][?] - [Swarm][?][?][?]
[Five minutes to reinforcements]
"Switch to area effect weaponry," called out Armsmaster.
"Gotcha," replied L33t. "Flamethrower - on!"
"Grenade Party!" said Uber as he began tossing goo-grenades out.
"Sleep!" cast Rydia at a cluster of cockroaches.
"ICK!" exclaimed Vista as her position was suddenly under assault from mosquitos. "How are they even out in December?!"
[Mercenaries: 12 - Defeated: 12]
There was a neighing sound as Vista summoned her unicorn and took to the skies again.
[Swarm - 75%]
"Out of fuel for the flamethrower," said L33t. "I didn't really have a lot of prep time, you know."
"Miiiiiiineeeeeeee," said the Swarm, gathering at a central point.
[Vista: Did the swarm of bugs just talk?!]
Rydia glanced up at the distant dot that was Vista. "What are you doing up there?"
[Vista: Trying to get where I can see the bay and the swarm, then link the water to a spot above the swarm so I can drown them.]
Rydia blinked. "That's genius if it works."
[Vista: It's difficult. Something keeps interfering. I think it's the number of bugs swarming the area.]
[Swarm - 50%]
[Raid Update]
[Swarm mutating to Swarm Boss]
[three minutes to reinforcements]
Water began a downpour right over the main body of the swarm.
[Vista: Got it. All the area bugs are gathering into one mass!]
The Swarm, now taking a gigantic human shape, looked upward and began reaching towards the dot in the sky.
[Vista: Uh oh.]
Rydia twisted to avoid the OTHER arm which was reaching for her. "Vista. Your power works with line-of-sight, right?"
[Vista: Yes? Busy dodging now.]
"Can you link the upper atmosphere to somewhere near the swarm?" asked Rydia.
[Vista: Good idea but I've tried that before and it doesn't work. I can't vacuum cleaner anything.]
"You can do water but not air?" asked Rydia. "Never mind. Got to run!"
Armsmaster and Miss Militia continued to lob explosives into the body of the Swarm Boss as it ignored them in favor of trying to grab Rydia.
"Damn it," said Danny from where he'd been sniping with Eldritch Blast. "Eldritch Spear!"
Rydia continued to try ducking and dodging and running around as the hand (seemingly entirely composed of wasps) tried to grab her. "Why are you after ME?!"
"Youuu belong to meeee," buzzed the swarm.
[Vista: Isn't that a Taylor Swift song?]
[Armsmaster: I could use a heal over here. Just saying.]
[Dragon: Okay. I'm awake. I'm upset. This has gone on long enough.]
[L33t: And I just raided Bug-B-Gone Exterminators for some barrels of insecticide. Where do you want them?]
[Armsmaster: Did you steal them?]
[L33t: I left a note that I'll pay them back later.]
[L33t: Also, seriously? You're worried about that with a thirty-foot tall giant made of bugs attacking the city?!]
[Armsmaster: Point taken. I have eyes on the giant. Lob them towards the center of mass, one at a time please.]
Aluminum canisters flew into the air. Armsmaster's halberd made a number of clicking noises and then began firing spikes.
[Swarm][Swarm Boss][Queen Administrator][Mosquito Queen]
The remaining swarm came together, flesh melting into a solid humanoid form.
[Vista: Ewwwww.]
[Lung has entered the Raid]
Fifteen feet tall already and surrounded by flame, Lung charged in.
"What the hell is that guy?" asked the Mosquito Queen. "Whatever, I'll just fly up where he can't reach me."
"Mufffarar ruuuk," grumbled Lung with his mouth transformed partially.
[Lung: Mosquitos suck.]
"Oh hohohohohoho!" laughed Mosquito Queen.
"Ooh, she's even got the ojou-sama laugh," said L33t. "Also has very mammalian attributes despite being a mosquito-monster. How very anime."
"I will regenerate my swarm, drain this city of blood, and then my dear - I will claim you as my own!" said Mosquito Queen, pointing at Rydia.
"Uh huh," said Rydia between gulps of air as she HAD been running broken-field for a lot longer than she was really able to.
Missiles arced up and began exploding around Mosquito Queen.
Dragon's power armor limped up. "I'm out of missiles, grenades, and I'm down both gun modules."
"Hahahaha," laughed Mosquito Queen, zipping around at altitude. (Vwoop!) And right through one of Vista's spatial distortions.
Lung was so happy to see her at his level he gave her a hug.
Flames began to burn the monster-girl, who screamed and fought. Lung, as was his nature, escalated - he grew larger and his flames grew hotter.
"You have sent your swarms through MY territory," said Lung. "You have attacked MY people. I see no reason to tolerate this. Burn little bug."
[Lung tries Intimidate! It fails!]
The girl dissolved into a swarm to escape, then reformed but with patches of her body missing. She made a bee-line directly for Rydia.
"Eldritch Blast!" "Ruin!" "Steady Shot!" "SMITE!"
Sections of Mosquito Queen started turning black and flaking off. "No! She belongs to me! She should have been MINE!"
The various heroes, villains, and late-arriving PRT troopers watched as Mosquito Queen's legs collapsed and she began crawling towards Rydia. Except Lung who threw an additional blast of flame at the bug-woman. Because Lung.
"You would have been mine!" declared Mosquito Queen. "You would have commanded legions of insects, been a plague upon this world! You would have become bitter and hateful and friendless. We could have killed so many, brought such death and misery!"
Rydia took a few steps back as Mosquito Queen's lower torso disintegrated and she continued trying to reach her. "I don't know you. Who are you?"
"I am the power you should have had. I am the destiny that should have been yours. Together we could have brought such pain and terror and death to this world. It would have been glorious," said Mosquito Queen before she finally collapsed.
Rydia watched as the creature flaked away into ash. "You know. My powers are weird, but it could have been a lot worse."
"Agreed," agreed Glory Girl.
"No argument there," called out Panacea.
"True," rumbled Lung.
"I can see your point," said Dragon, who then turned to start inspecting her suit to find out what could be salvaged.
The PRT Troopers loading some severely damaged Dragonslayers into their transport (without their worse-for-wear armor) all looked at each other and nodded.
Danny sighed and didn't particularly agree or disagree with the sentiment.
L33t and Uber said a few things to their Snitch and prepared to end their broadcast, pretty sure that this was going to get a LOT of hits. And comments.