Energy: 9
Current Training: None
Tuesday, January 18th, 2011
The Boardwalk, Brockton Bay
"Call Vicky," you suggest to your Master, then rush to continue because the situation isn't exactly ripe for a long and involved conversation.
"Her families been doing this for a while right? Let's get with them and form a plan." You explain, then dart back into the building behind you to finish treating that poor girl inside.
Taylor nods at you, then begins handing out orders.
"Dad get inside, Trainwreck, cover the building, Aspirant, start funnelling bystanders this way if you can." You hear her commanding from behind you as you move away.
When you get back inside the girl is exactly where you left her, if possibly slightly more pale. You gently kneel at her side and begin to I fuse your chi into her, bringing her skin back to a rosey color and allowing the flesh of her wound to knit itself shut with the audible pop of stitches as they are ejected from now health skin.
Energy: -1
"Kurt, get everyone to the dockyard and bunker down. Use the emergency stuff we keel in the warehouse and convert some containers for sleeping. I don't have time to explain, just do it." You can hear Danny say as he jogs past you and to the phone behind the counter, face pinched in concern.
People you don't recognize begin filing hurriedly into the building behind you, at first merely milling about, but quickly becoming organized as Danny takes note of them. With barely a hint of the despair he was exhibiting a moment ago, the elder Hebert begins to bark at the newcomers, having them push aside racks of clothing and set up bedding areas for anyone wounded outside. You set the clerk down on the first one made, just in time for her to jerk and awaken, frantically slapping at her chest area in a panicked rush to hold tight to a wound that no longer exists.
"Where... Parian!" She jumps up, eyes searching the room frantically.
"Hey relax, relax, you're okay. We're in the store. Do you know what happened to you?" You ask gently.
"The Empire came to get her and she fought them for a while until the one with a cage on her head saw me hiding behind the counter. Parian tried to protect me for a little but..." she murmurs before trailing off, fingers tracing the wound that no longer existed.
"I understand. Stay here okay?" You say through gritted teeth as you rise to your feet. The clerk nods, tears welling up in her eyes as the reality of the situation catches up with her. She cant be more than eighteen or nineteen years old. Probably just working part time.
With great determination, you wander back out to the front of the building, where an island of calm has manifested to separate it from the chaos nearby.
'Vicky says her family is going to meet the what's left of the Protectorate and Wards at the PRT building downtown. Most of them can fly so it's not a problem but well have to fight our way there. The whole city is tearing itself apart.' Taylor tells you mentally, as you make your way past Trainwreck and into the fray around you.
'The clerk woke up. I think Cricket has Parian.' You report, twirling around a group of harried looking teens and throat punching an overweight looking man who seems entirely too focused on them as he sprints forward. You barely consider him as you march onward, kicking him firmly in the temple as he falls before you. With as much efficiency as you can manage you form up with your Master and Aspirant, forming a loose arc that stretches across the Boardwalk area like a shield wall, leaving behind it battered but safe civilians in the suddenly calm rearguard.
To your right, Aspirant slings himself about with the alacrity of a monkey, his elongated arms darting out from where he hangs with brutal efficiency, leveraging his size and vantage point to rapidly bludgeon E88 thugs into unconsciousness and wave fleeing civilians who have noticed your action onward.
To your left, your Master has unleashed her aura at a much reduced scale, and is clearly using every scrap of her concentration to make sure it only affects the criminals in the small area around her she is allowing it to affect. She doesn't so much fight as she steps slowly forward, and unrelenting juggernaut who's mere presence drives her enemies to their knees while the spectre of a monstrous spider looms over her.
Honestly, you feel kind of outdone here. You're just walking forward and punching people.
The pace is slow. Made even slower by the maddening number of innocents who are stupid enough to attempt to record you rescuing them, but eventually, you make it to the end of the Boardwalk, which seems to have been the focus of the rioting in the area.
"I think that's all of them!" Aspirant calls out, leaping to a rooftop and glancing across the area at the relatively small number of unconscious men you collectively left in the street behind you. There would have been more. Probably much more of them, but many of them had wisely chosen to simply leave when it became obvious what was happening.
"What do we do with them though?" Taylor asks worriedly. You aren't exactly equipped for the mass containment of people after all. This was supposed to be a shopping trip, not a riot suppression.
"I got it!" Trainwreck yells, having jogged up the Boardwalk to you as the area began to clear of trouble.
"I thought I asked you to watch the-" Taylor begins irately.
"Yeah, yeah, buildings safe. Left my gat with 'em." He answers nonchalantly, gesturing to his shoulder where his shoulder-mounted gun is no longer visible.
"That still doesn't-" Taylor tries again, obviously trying to well, lead.
"Look just let up for a sec. Check this out." Trainwreck says dismissively, obviously not noticing or caring about how his mild insubordination is bothering your Master. Instead, he steps across the way to firmly grasp a sign sticking out of the ground on a piece of metal, yanking it out of its place and discarding the sign over one shoulder.
"Trainwreck! We can't just use public property like that! What are you even doing?" Taylor chides the man.
"Restraining some Nazi's." He counters blithely, walking to the nearest unconscious gangster and picking him up by encircling both of his wrists in one massive hand.
Then he pins those hands to the wall of the nearest building, lays the metal rod against the brickwork, and flexes one of his hands. The results are immediate, as some kind of riveting device Trainwreck keeps in his armour plows through the metal and into the wall on one side of his captive's hands.
He then repeats the process on the other side, effectively chaining the man to the wall until someone comes along to release him. His prize secure, Trainwreck releases both his grip on the man and metal rod, which sticks out awkwardly from the wall where it hasn't been riveted down.
Then Trainwreck grabs another thug and repeats the process. It looks entirely unsafe. The edges of the metal rod are obviously digging into the men's wrists in a way that can't be comfortable, but whether it is because you have no other options, or because your Master is far from happy with these idiots at the moment, she allows the obvious poor treatment to pass without comment. Even Aspirant seems somewhat ambivalent towards the entire endeavour.
In fairly short order, Trainwreck has a line of men stitched to the walls of the nearest few buildings, and the streets are free of filth. Mostly.
"See?" Trainwreck says when he is finished, with a huge malicious grin on his face. You don't know why but you are vaguely uncomfortable with all of this. Still, if it works...
"Go get Dad. Let's head Downtown." Taylor eventually says, turning away from the restrained men.
Tuesday, January 18th, 2011
PRT Headquarters, Brockton Bay
It takes hours for you to reach the PRT Headquarters. A trip that should have taken nearly no time at all given the building's proximity to the Boardwalk. Mostly because you were forced to either avoid or subdue dozens of small groups of gangsters en-route. You could have made a straight shot to the PRT building if you were willing to be more aggressive, but with Danny present, groups with too many firearms were a non-starter.
Still, eventually, you do make it, and are ushered into the building through the rear garage past a wall of heavily armed soldiers on a hair-trigger. Trainwreck, not being particularly interested in the PRT and more importantly, unable to fit through the smaller doors in the interior of the building, chooses to stay in the garage as you pass through it, allowing Danny to disembark and follow you in.
"This is insane! Why aren't the Triumvirate here or something?!" You can hear Vicky yelling as you enter the heavily populated conference room.
"Small conflagrations like are flaring up all over the eastern seaboard. There's no proof of direct involvement, but Thinker support suggests that the Gesselschaft are burning a lot of resources to field a distraction." Armsmaster's calm voice replies.
You don't know why but you had the faint and damning thought that he had to be one of the survivors.
"Enough! Nexus and her... team... are here. That should be everyone. Let's start the briefing." A familiar irate voice says as you come fully into view to find Emily Piggot at the head of a large conference table. To her right is Armsmaster, and to her left is a disgruntled looking Battery. Lining the rest of the table are a group of capes wearing nearly identical costumes, with only slight differences in colour to showcase their individual identities.
You don't recognize most of them - mostly because you don't overly concern yourself with people you aren't likely to have to fight - but Vicky is among them, wearing her costume and scowling at the Director from behind a woman who looks like an older, more severe version of herself.
"Victoria." The woman says brusquely, immediately silencing the younger girl, though she makes no effort to hide her judgemental stare from the Director as her gaze flicks from the rotund woman to your Master and back.
"Mom, she wasn't even going to call Nexus!" Vicky counters irately.
"Vicky please be quiet for a moment." Another woman who bears a shocking resemblance to Victoria's mother says, her tone much more placid than Victoria's.
"I didn't call them because I had assumed she wouldn't be willing to endanger Mister Hebert there by retaliating. Now if we are all quite finished?" Piggot states, then turns to gesture at Armsmaster when no one responds. Daniel quietly takes a seat at the table alongside Taylor, who shoots a wan smile at Victoria that the other girl returns before turning to watch whatever it is Armsmaster is doing.
"This," He says, activating a projector in the table that shines what looks like a map of the Bay along the wall behind the Director. "Is our current understanding of the Empire's deployment. A number of their capes have split up to take over strategic locations throughout the city. Purity appears to have taken up a position near the tip of the Boardwalk, ostensibly to block traffic too or from the Rig, which we have lost communication with. Several of the main highways out of the city have been blockaded, and Victor seems to have taken up atop the Medhall building to provide fire support to the area immediately surrounding it. After their big display earlier, we are expecting Kaiser to make an appearance to address things, but we have yet to spot him, Fenja or Menja." Armsmaster states in a flat tone.
"I don't understand, what do they get from this?" Danny asks suddenly, drawing every eye in the room. Armsmaster and Piggot exchange a grim look before Armsmaster decides to answer.
"The United States has a long-standing policy of isolating zones that are too heavily controlled by hostile Parahumans. It's likely that if the situation here remains untenable for an extended period of time, the city will be condemned and blockaded." Armsmaster explains, causing Danny to at first pale, and then redden as his temper begins to get the better of him.
"You're talking about Nilbog. They're going to abandon us like they did Ellisburg!" Danny shouts, rising to his feet and slamming his hands against the table.
The lack of a response is quite telling.
"Wow, you would make a great radio host Mister Hebert." A voice crackles over a sound system set into the ceiling. Armsmaster immediately begins to fiddle with a device in his gauntlet with a frown.
"Don't bother, I already know you'll have plugged this hole by the end of the conversation. You guys looked like you could use some help so I thought I would chime in." The voice continues snidely.
"Tattletale," Victoria growls in annoyance.
"Is this normal?" Aspirant whispers to your Master, who shrugs helplessly at the question.
"I don't see what you could possibly add to things," Piggot responds, with a barely restrained fury in her voice.
"Oh, you know. Little of this, little of that. You don't seem like you have much of a plan. Oh, most of your guys are still alive over on the Rig by the way. Thought you'd like to know." She continues. Piggot neglects to respond immediately, instead, pursing her lips in thought and waiting for the villain to continue. The 'most of' part of that statement is worrying you though. Vicky too if the strained expression on her face is anything to go by.
"So I was thinking, you guys need bodies, and well, you just so happen to have a bunch of my friends downstairs..." She says, trailing off suggestively.
"Oh come on! Just turn the thing off so we can get on with it! We don't need - " Vicky yells, her aura washing over the room until her mother snaps at her.
"Vicky, Aura. My daughter is right though. We don't need anything from you villain." The older woman responds, sneering at the last word.
"Oh yeah? So you have a way around Night, Fog, and Purity all together? My team recently picked up a pretty good counter to Night after all." Tattletale all but sings. You get the impression she's enjoying this somehow.
'Do you see Cricket anywhere on that map?' Taylor asks you mentally as she withdraws from the greater conversation.
'No, but - didn't Greg say she's usually with Hookwolf? He's up there.' You point out, wincing slightly as you say Greg's name and are gratified to find a lack of response from your Master on the subject.
"What's Hookwolf guarding?" Your Master jumps in, pointing at the map and causing the rest of the argument to fizzle out for a moment.
"Southern exit to the city. Low priority." Armsmaster rattles off quickly.
"The prodigal daughter returns! Hey, you're awfully quiet over there Nexus, I thought you were friends with our new guy!" Tattletale prods, causing your Master to grit her teeth and squint at the map. When your Master fails to respond, the argument continues on. With the majority of the room taking to arguing for or against releasing the Undersiders to help with the situation.