Energy: 9
Current Training: None
Tuesday, January 18th, 2011
PRT Headquarters, Brockton Bay
Your Master spends a few precious moments staring at the map of the city that is being projected on the far wall. It's obvious she wants to help. Obvious that she wants to be a Hero, to ride out into the streets and defend people. But the truth is-
'I don't know what to do.' She says plainly, a hint of self-recrimination evident in her tone.
It's true. Your Master, as much as she is a truly terrifying foe in single combat, has nearly no experience in a wider battlefield situation. Where she should go. Who she should fight. If she should even fight at all. Nothing you've taught her, nothing she's experienced has prepared her for any of that. When faced with this number of enemies, with uncertain allies, and no good ways to win a decisive battle, there's nothing she can really do. You're no different. Your current emulation may have the capability to stand toe to toe with an army, but that's only provided the army is standing in front of him. So instead of advising her on that front, you tell her, from the bottom of your fake heart, what you think your current emulation would do.
'You have someone you need to save right? We did tell her.' You explain serenely, even as all around you the argument rages on. Who should do what. Who should be included. Who has command. None of these things really matter to you, but even Danny has gotten involved, surprisingly on the side of the PRT of all people. Even Piggot seems surprised.
'We did offer to come help if she called didn't we?' Taylor answers you, clearly feeling complicated about the entire thing. She was rejected back then after all.
'I think it's okay to leave this tactical stuff to everyone else. Right now, we're only good for one thing.' You say.
'I'd like to change that in the future. But for now...' Taylor answers, standing up suddenly and motioning for Aspirant to follow her as she moves to leave the room. You're proud of her. You're pretty sure that if this were Taylor before she had acquired Inner Peace from you, she would have been panicking right now. And to a certain degree, she is. You can feel it. An undertone to everything else that might as well be one ongoing scream for help, hidden behind everything else your Master is currently feeling. But the fact that you can have this kind of conversation with her at a time that must seem like the world is ending is definitely a result of that power. Even if it doesn't dampen emotions, it does give a certain degree of control over how much you let them affect you.
"Taylor, where are you going?" Danny asks hesitantly, apparently confused by his daughter's sudden choice to leave. He doesn't seem very worried though. Probably because his assumption is that his daughter is merely going elsewhere in the building to avoid all the yelling. But well...
"To do something." She answers bluntly, frowning slightly at all the arguing adults currently taking up the room.
"Without a plan of action, it is highly inadvisable-" Armsmaster begins to say but you speak over him, appearing suddenly at your Master's back with your arms crossed.
"Then let the Undersiders deal with Victor. Tattletale knows better than to abuse our trust right?" You say, letting, perhaps, just a bit more of Zaraki Kenpachi shine through in your statement than you had probably intended. You would be lying if you said you didn't have ulterior motives for the allocation though. At the end of the day, the Undersiders were the group your Master had the least investment in. It might be cold to say, but if a group of people you mostly don't care about could handle a very real threat to your Master, you'd be happy. The only exception to that statement is Greg but well... you aren't sure there's anything you can do about that at this point.
"Scary, scary, a Panda is still a Bear huh?" Tattletale answers you sardonically through the speaker system.
"Sure, go with that." You say easily, shrugging and vanishing again. Taylor quickly takes the opportunity in the silence your disappearance causes, to leave.
'Thanks.' She says as she begins to tread up the now familiar path to the exit of the building, Aspirant in tow.
'Gotta show my chops now and then right?' You brag, pounding your hand against your chest for emphasis. The sense of comfort you get from your Master at that is probably one of the more gratifying sensations you could have experienced.
"Hey! Taylor, wait up!" someone calls from behind the three of you, as Vicky quickly floats through you and up to your Master. Taylor does her best not to respond to the perceived disrespect, but she does twitch slightly as it happens, even if Victoria couldn't possibly have known where you were standing.
"Hey, Vicky. Shouldn't you have stayed back there?" Taylor asks cautiously.
"Eh, you were right, they probably weren't going to get anything done right away. I hear most of the Protectorate is pinned down on the Rig. The Empire timed their attack just right to get most of them stuck there. Dauntless could fly back but he'd be a sitting duck for Purity." Vicky answers.
"What about Vista? Couldn't she simply fold space and get everyone into an alley nearby?" Aspirant chimes in, curiously. Vicky sends him an odd look, as though only just now really taking in his outlandish appearance, then blinks once before answering.
"Vista needs to be able to see where she's going, and at that distance, it wouldn't be instant. There's a chance it could work, but there's also a chance someone would spot the distortions her power causes and Purity would nuke the landing zone." Vicky answers in a somewhat strained tone as the topic of the Wards comes up.
"I see." Aspirant answers, heedless of the change in the blond girls tone. "So, where are we going?" He asks instead, tilting his head towards Taylor.
"Hookwolf probably has Parian. I'm worried about her." Taylor answers immediately. It isn't the most tactically safe decision but, you don't think your Master would qualify as a 'Hero' if she were the type of person to be able to accept leaving anyone behind.
"Not... Purity?" Vicky asks hesitantly, obviously wanting to say more but not finding the will to ask. A surge of her mood altering aura flows out of her as she pauses but is quickly reined in.
"I have to save Parian first. If after that I can do something about her I will but..." Taylor trails off. Left unsaid is the fact that, without being able to reach the powerful Blaster, there isn't much point in trying to oppose her. If just that was enough it would be fine but, Purity's blast are indiscriminate in nature. Approaching her from the air would make you an easy target, but approaching from the ground, even if you can survive the blasts, doesn't mean that all the things standing behind you can. Until that problem is solved, you're reasonably certain that you're Master's decision is correct. Not just for her, but for her teammates who she is being considerate of, who most certainly could not survive a direct hit from Purity.
Still, Victoria definitely looks like she might do something desperate and stupid if she isn't distracted, so...
"Help us with this and we'll do something about it." You declare, appearing once more at your Master's side.
'I don't think we can though...' Your Master chides you, probably assuming you're lying to her friend.
'You know Master, I don't have a lot of time left as this guy. If it's the 'Me' that comes after, I feel like maybe he can handle it.' You answer confidently.
After all, if a solution exists, Multiverse Theory suggests that you'll eventually have to find it. You're kind of amazing that way.
"I hate when you call me that." Taylor mutters.
"Huh?" Victoria questions at that.
"Nothing. So? You coming?" Taylor says quickly, then asks tiredly, suddenly looking as though she hasn't slept in days.
"...Sure." Victoria eventually agrees, shooting nervous glances over her shoulder and towards the room full of probably still arguing adults.
Hopefully, this doesn't bite you in the ass.
Tuesday, January 18th, 2011
South East Brockton Bay
It is disturbingly easy to find Hookwolf. You thought it would be harder because, to all accounts, the man has historically been able to hide several fighting pits throughout the city that the PRT failed to deal with, but you suppose that 'conquering a city' might have him thinking subtlety is a thing of the past.
He's literally taken over an empty warehouse and had a giant Nazi symbol spray-painted on the side of it after all. Which, in and of itself, isn't uncommon in the bay but... the dozens of guys bearing similar paraphernalia and streaming into it while excitedly talking to each other kind of aren't.
The inside of the building isn't any better. It's pretty much just a wide-open space with a cage in the middle that appears to have been recently bolted to the concrete floor. A majority of the space around the cage is taken up by people. People who are drinking, yelling, and generally appear to be having a good time, while two dogs tear each other apart in the center ring. A corner of the single large warehouse floor is taken up mostly by smaller cages, most of them of poor make, and more importantly, most of them full of angry, scared, yowling dogs.
All except one, which appears to contain an unconscious, visibly wounded woman with dusky brown skin. You have to force yourself not to immediately appear and begin punching people when you make that find. It's difficult. Your current Emulation's inherent empathy for basically everyone, couple with your previous emulations lingering lack of respect for human life are leaving you with a number of unpleasant feelings that you would prefer not to have to experience. You wouldn't have thought you would feel guilty about anything your species facilitates but right now, you very much do. Mostly because standing to one side and MCing the event is what is very obviously a parahuman. It's not a deduction you make because of any innate ability to detect other Parahumans - that was never a specialty of yours in the first place. No, it's a deduction predicated simply on the fact that the fool is wearing no shirt and has a huge metal wolf mask on his face. You spot a few other possible problems mixed into the crowd while you're at it. Cricket is obviously present, mostly just looming in the shadows at the edge of things. Stormtiger - who you only know about because of Greg - is sitting up in the rafters doing god knows what.
"Seriously?" Victoria asks as you return to your Master's side and give a verbal report. The group had mostly travelled through side streets, using you as an advanced guard to invisibly avoid any obvious E88 sympathizers. You aren't sure how far Victor's reach stretches, but until you hear about him being dealt with, you don't want to risk your Master by letting her spend too much time in the air. Vicky didn't like the plan, of course, contending that Victor couldn't hurt her anyway, but the fact that half the team couldn't fly in the first place won her over eventually, even if only begrudgingly.
"What did you expect? They're fucking Nazi's." Trainwreck points out.
"But this-" Victoria - you refuse to call her Glory Girl - says, before stopping. "I'm going." She says instead, floating up and orienting herself in the direction of the impromptu fight pit. Which, because your Master had chosen to hole up in a building that would put your destinate just on the edge of her range for you to scout, was a wall, followed by several more walls. You don't know if you're more worried about Victoria braving possible fire from Victor, or the very real possibility that she's just going to kill every wall between her and her destination. What did Greg call her again? Collateral Damage Barbie?
"Vicky stop! We don't even know where Parian is yet!" Taylor hisses at the other girl, rubbing her temples in frustration.
"So?! The only one of them I can't just punch in the head till they stop moving is Hookwolf!" Vicky retorts.
"Vicky we need a plan." Taylor counters, gesturing towards Aspirant and Trainwreck who are mostly watching the argument play out. If you had to describe it, Trainwreck seems like he mostly finds it entertaining, and Aspirant just doesn't want to get involved in anything too troublesome. They'd take Taylor's side if asked, but in terms of team cohesion, they're sorely lacking.
"Isn't that why you came out here in the first place?! I don't have time to waste talking while Dean's still out there! There's five of us and three of them!" She shouts at your Master. Your Master - who is probably about as confused as you feel - opens her mouth to ask where that particular non-sequitur came from, but Victory doesn't give her the chance, instead deciding to blast through the nearest wall and then up over the rooftops, vanishing from sight.
"Kinda fucking dumb ain't she?" Trainwreck finally decides to add. Taylor shoots him a withering stare, then steps through the hole in the wall Vicky just made and drops out of sight.
"Do you ever consider anything you say or is your mind as simple as your Tinkering?" Aspirant asks conversationally as he moves to follow her.
"Eh." Trainwreck says with a shrug, dropping down to the street below and charging up the street, his suit beginning to pour steam and his steps cracking the concrete beneath him.