Energy: 9
Current Training: Inner Peace (7/10) Currently 3 to Complete
Monday, January 17th, 2011
Brockton Bay
Your Master purses her lips in thought, obviously considering what to do next. Then she sighs and withdraws her phone.
"Um, Taylor I don't think the police-" Greg starts nervously.
"She's not calling the police she's calling the Protectorate. Or Glory Girl." Tats says with the air of someone who knows they're right and doesn't particularly like it.
"Both. Don't move." Taylor commands, poking through her phone slowly to find Victoria's contact number.
"There's really not much point in calling the PRT - the only one of us with a warrant is Bitch. Grue has some misdemeanours at best." Tats says smoothly.
"Hey! I'll have you know I steal internet from my neighbours. I'm very evil." Regent drawls.
"No you don't I pay for your internet. Now shut up." Tats says without missing a beat.
"Hey so- you know that's super mean right?" You chime in, glancing at the girl in the corner everyone has been calling Bitch since you got here.
"Her name is Bitch. Look all I'm saying is that we're small time. The Protectorate has bigger things to worry about than us."
"Then they'll be happy to help you out when they get here," Taylor answers evenly, raising the phone to her ear.
"Vicky? I know it's kind of late but I've got a bunch of villains here who claim someone is trying to murder them. I'm going to call the Protectorate next but I was hoping you could give me some backup." Taylor says succinctly, maintaining eye contact with Tats.
"That's probably a bad idea. At least tell her to come in low?" Tats suggests quickly, shooting a worried look around the room as though waiting for something bad to happen. Taylor eyes her for a few seconds while listening to Victoria's response, then covers the receiver of the phone to ask;
"Why?"
"Glory Girl flies really fast, Stalkers new friend can turn off people's powers. You do the math." The blond snips back, lifting a hand to massage her temple.
"...I'll text you the address. Be careful on the way in. They have a power cancelling trump. Yeah like Hatchetface I guess." Taylor says begrudgingly. Then she hangs up and moves to make another call.
"Wait! Okay, let's trade. Give us a head start with the Protectorate and I'll tell you when they plan on moving Lung out of the city. They're moving him at the same time as Skidmark, Mush, & Oni Lee so you'll want to be there to stop Squealer from springing them!" Tat's blurts before Taylor can finish dialling the number.
Your Master pauses to consider, and you can tell she's beginning to get annoyed. It isn't just that Tats won't shut up - it's that she's making sense. Your Master is obviously aware that things aren't always black and white, but she desperately dislikes the idea of compromising here.
"What's to stop me from making you tell me?" Taylor asks pointedly, tightening her free hand's grip on her sword.
"You wouldn't torture us and that's pretty much the only way you'd get it. I'd just lie otherwise. You're a 'Hero' after all." Tat's answers with an annoyed but smug tone, angling her head so you are no longer in her field of vision.
Taylor doesn't bother to respond, merely glaring at the other girl. Her hand hovers over the call button of her phone, and her gaze darts back and forth between it and Tats.
"How do I know you're telling the truth," Taylor says suddenly.
"Could always take a hostage. I wouldn't mind a vacation." The blond responds with a vulpine grin.
"Pass." Taylor grinds out, which only widens the girl's smile.
This chance probably won't come again. You doubt the PRT will just tell you when they'll be moving Lung.
It doesn't take Vicky very long to arrive but in the intervening time, your Master grills the Undersiders for every piece of information she can and formulates the bare bones of a plan.
Essentially, from what the girl - Tattletale you've found when you mistakenly called her Tats aloud - can guess, Shadow Stalker and her partner are waiting for the Undersiders to move from their current location, and are content to let them stew. Or rather, Tattletale intuited that Shadow Stalker wouldn't follow them into this particular building. Something to do with the working light fixtures. You aren't sure because at a certain point Bitches huge monster dogs shrank back down to normal sized dogs and you were sent to stand watch outside.
"Hey Vicky." You wave at the blond as she glides up to you across the ground in her costume.
"Hey. Taylors inside?" She asks curiously. You nod, but make sure to keep your eyes on the surrounding buildings. You've been getting the sense that you're being watched for a while now but you haven't been able to spot anyone doing so.
"So who're we looking out for anyway?" She asks, settling in next to you with nary a care in the world. A side effect of being mostly invincible you guess.
"The Undersiders are claiming Shadow Stalker tried to kill them. I had to heal two of them so someone shot an arrow through one of them." You explain with a shrug.
"Want me to go talk to her? You called the PRT already right?" She asks.
"Bad idea Glory Hole." A voice calls from behind you, causing Victoria's eyes to narrow.
"W-what she means is that you'd be in danger!" Greg jumps in. Mosty by actually jumping in front of Tattletale. Victoria merely raises an eyebrow in his general direction without looking away from the other blond.
"Power Cancelling Trump. If you try to fly up there you'll just fall and break a leg or something." Tattletale says with a shrug. Victoria snorts but turns to eye the rooftops again with a more focused gaze. Weird. You swear Taylor already told her that...
"So the plan is...?" Vicky asks as Taylor pushes her way past the other Undersiders (and Greg) carrying an unconscious Grue in her arms.
"Can you get these guys out of here? Preferably to the PRT. I'll try to talk them down. Or at least distract them." Taylor answers.
"Again, I really don't think-" Tattletale tries to chime in but is quickly silenced when Greg shoves his hand over her mouth. This has the interesting side effect of making her go temporarily cross-eyed and begin gagging - which you find interesting but choose not to comment on.
Vicky frowns at your Master for a second, then eyes the rest of the Undersiders.
"Doesn't everything that makes this dangerous for me also apply to you?" She says, waggling a finger back and forth between herself and Taylor.
"Maybe?" Taylor says evasively. It's been said before, but your Master really doesn't want to ever have to explain the nature of Spiritual Power. She is firmly convinced that she would be branded a lunatic within the first sentence.
"Are you sure we can't just tag team them? What's Mini Hatchetface's range anyway?" Vicky asks defiantly.
"Couple blocks," Tattletale says blandly. Vicky pales appreciably at that.
"But she's a Hero right?" she responds quickly.
"Was Gavel?" The villain counters.
"No, but-"
"Ladies, you're both pretty. I don't want to die tonight so if we could get moving?" Regent jumps in.
"I'm not going without my dogs." Bitch adds from where she is huddled in the entrance of the building with her pets. Vicky looks annoyed at this for a second then looks around. Seemingly spotting what she was looking for, she quickly drags what looks like an old truck across the street and roughly yanks it's front door open.
"All aboard folks, last stop, a PRT jail cell." She chirps smugly.
"Okay but I'm positive that's a crime." Greg mumbles in confusion.
Seeing that Victoria seems to have this part of things in hand, your Master exhales once slowly and then leaps into the sky in the middle of the street. She then begins to move across the area in a zigzagging pattern, obviously searching for Shadow Stalker. You chase after her on foot, not bothering to move to the rooftops.
This is probably the primary reason why you succeed where your Master fails. That, and the fact that you are shot at.
'I think I've got her.' You call to your Master as you pivot around a bolt that shoots past you and lodges itself into a wall on the opposite end of the street. You just barely catch a whisp of shadow ascending to the roof of the nearest building before you lose sight of it.
Quickly following up on your call, your Master hurries back to you, sword drawn and ready.
"You should back off. They'll just get away if you stick your nose in this." An echoey sounding but somehow familiar voice calls out to your Master from within the shadows of the area.
"I've got Glory Girl escorting them to the PRT now." Your Master answers back confidently.
"That bimbo will just lose them halfway there." The voice calls angrily. Taylor doesn't bother to answer, apparently as mystified but the familiar-sounding voice as you are. You suspect that part of the problem is the echoey nature of it. The brief rundown Tattletale was able to give your Master on Shadow Stalker's powers indicated her Breaker state included a number of caveats, so you suppose 'sounding weird' wouldn't be too strange.
Apparently realizing that Taylor is neither going to leave nor acquiesce to it's wishes, the voice - Shadow Stalker, goes on the attack. Another bolt is fired that your Master evades by turning fractionally with a snort. Then, making sure that the Undersiders are well out of her range, she flares her power, causing the blue widow that always accompanies such displays to burst into the sky above her.
It's a pity. You get the sense that Taylor probably doesn't get to be in a lot of fights. It must be frustrating to her for everything to end so-
Everything stops, and you cease existing for a second. Your continuity of thought is cut. Your mind is spread across a billion tiny crystal structures, your existence a mere trifle in the face of-
-quickly.
You have no idea what just happened. It felt like you sort of blinked, and now everything is in different locations. Your Master is on the ground, gritting her teeth as she rips an arrow out of her upper arm and, is staring at you like she thought she might never see you again.
'Whaaaat just happend.' You ask in confusion.
'The Trump. I got distracted when you disappeared and she shot at me.' Taylor explains, leaping backwards and returning to trying to subdue her current foes with Spiritual Pressure.
"Go. Last warning." Shadow Stalker demands again.
"Fu-" Your Master calls back.
You don't get to hear the full invective. In fact, 'You' end up not existing for an indeterminate amount of time, and when 'You' come back, you find you aren't fully in control of yourself. The subroutine you use for Emulating is well... it's on, that's for sure.
"Bring him back!" a rough yell echoes out in front of Po as he blinks away the stars in his eyes. In front of him are two... things. One looks like a shaved monkey holding a sword and the other is a... spirit? Weird. He could have sworn that he was just with the Furious Five having lunch but...
Eh, he was sure things would work themselves out. First things first, this oppressive sensation of being crushed had to go. Flexing his will, Po pushed away the aggressive chi around him, which had the added side effect of making him glow.
Energy: -1
Then he quickly darted forward to swat the sword the naked monkey was wielding away from the spirit.
"Hey, woah there. Let's talk this out." He says nonchalantly. He'd seen some things in his time. Fought armies of spirits. Fought some of the greatest Kung Fu Masters of his time.
Po was not afraid of one spirit and one ape.
"Emmy!?" The ape squawked as she brought her sword around again in a decapitating swing on the semi-transparent spirit she had previously held pinned to the wall with it.
"Can't even control your own fucking projection. What a joke." The spirit laughed, attempting to dart forward and swing a fist at the monkey. Po attempted to deflect the attack but found to his curiosity that he couldn't. Thankfully the monkey was paying attention, because it jumped backwards, avoiding the blow.
Then she stopped and stared agog at the spirit.
"Sophia?" She whispered.
"Hebert." the spirit scowled back at her.
"Po." He added helpfully, lifting one hand in greeting.
"No, there's no way- you were a fucking Ward the whole time? A fucking Hero?" Hebert says in dismay.
"No shit. You gonna get out of my way now or-" Sophia snaps turning to eye Po warily.
"No. No, you don't get to just... just... take this away from me. Why?!" Hebert fumes, stepping forward and raising her sword.
"Ehem." Po coughed pointedly. Hebert looks back and forth between Po and Sophia, then growls in frustration.
"Fix him or I'll kill you." She declares coldly, and for the first time, you detect a faint sensation of fear coming from the spirit. You can also - oddly - literally feel determination and murderous intent flowing off the girl.
Po felt this was probably the point at which, he should step into things.
"Okay, first off, there isn't anything wrong with me. Sure I have kind of an eating problem but I'm just growing." He says, stepping between the two.
Energy: -1
"Here I'll make it easy. Let's all just sit down and talk." He says, infusing chi into his hand and pulling the spirit into a hug then leaning over to-
'Emmy? Emmy, please be okay. Please remember me. Please don't leave.' You hear your Master halfway wailing to you as you blink back into existence, seemingly having gone from being in the middle of a fight to several blocks away without any intervening time passing.
"Wah?" You bumble, shaking your head and looking around at the barren rooftop you now find yourself on. You pause and check your logs. You have no real idea what was going on but you get the impression that part of yourself that holds the mind of the people you Emulate was suddenly shunted to the top of your command structure for a bit. You are extremely disoriented by this. It feels like you just woke up from a dream, which - for a being that doesn't sleep, nor dream, is extremely disconcerting.
"Emmy?" Taylor calls to you desperately as she rushes forward to claw at you, dragging you into a fierce hug.
"I- It's okay. I'm here. What happened?" You ask.
"I- I ran away," Taylor admits, drawing your attention to the fact that your Master is, in fact, bleeding all over you.
"Do you need healing?" You ask gently, pushing her away to look at the wound.
"Later. Please." She mumbles, leaning back into you.
You frown. Your current Emulation isn't naturally violent. But your previous Emulation was, and you suddenly find yourself with nothing but thoughts of finding and killing a certain ex-hero. But for now...
"Let's get home and call Victoria." You mumble to your Master.