Current Energy: 16
Current Training: Dragon Kind Modification EX (7/10) - (9/10)
Monday, February 14th, 2011
The Heap, Brockton Bay
As a fighter, a soldier, you are painfully familiar with this stage of any given battle. In ancient times, it would have been called the calm before the storm. Perhaps, sitting on pins and needles. Modern military had a different phrase to describe it.
'Hurry up and wait.'
You've never taken great issue with such things. It is, after all, simply the natural course of things. As a Shard, vast stretches of your time are taken up basically being an inert object, nothing more than a single organ in the greater organism that made up an Entity. As your current Emulation well... Sigurd was never really what one could reasonably describe as 'normal' even before he... killed a dragon and ate his heart.
Hm. Some... dissonance... there. Like the part of you that's Sigurd is saying 'it was only natural' and the part of you that isn't is screaming in confusion and dismay.
Regardless. Sigurd never had problems with these moments. He usually just used them to plan for the fight. Or conserve energy.
Your Master however, does not appreciate such trifling things as 'time' and 'preparation' standing between herself and the peace she would prefer prevail in the city. As such, she gets very little sleep that night. In fact, she spends most of it corresponding with Vicky about a number of things that have nothing at all to do with being a cape. This isn't abnormal for your Master. She and Vicky, despite not frequently seeing each other physically, talk fairly regularly using PHO or just their cellphones. Less so, recently, with the resurrection of Jess though. Granted, she was multi tasking - preparing Oliver to join you for the days hunt mostly, making sure the rest of her team is prepared and informed, things of that nature. But still, once all of the busy work was done, your Master was left with a steadily growing sense of anxiety.
And hence, a steadily dwindling period of time in which to sleep. Which is why you are currently holding two mugs in your hands as you step towards her bedside to wake her. She isn't going to school today - this much was obvious - but she would want to be awake at the proper time regardless.
"Master. I made breakfast." You declare plainly, lifting a foot to nudge her with it, and ignoring Nemesis as she... prowls? Behind you. The sword spirit, in an almost cartoonishly obvious fashion, has been darting around behind you since you entered the room. Like a particularly ineffectual jungle cat.
"mngg." Taylor groans as she sits up, squinting at you without her glasses to clear her vision.
"Coffee." You state, proffering the steaming cup in your left hand. Your Master looks at it for a second, and then scowls at you, swiping the mug in your other hand - full of your blood - and downing it in one huge swallow, before promptly dropping it and swiping the coffee to do the same. You catch both mugs as they fall of course.
"You know that's really creepy right?" She asks you tiredly, rubbing her eyes and then blinking at you.
"C'mere for a second?" She asks, seemingly innocently, looking up at you and causing you to lean forward over the bed.
"Ambush Predator!" Nemesis yells as you do so leaping up and onto your back in a way that disturbs your center of gravity and sends you sprawling forward onto the bed. Your Master dodges you, easily slipping out of the covers and taking the empty mugs from your hands as you fall, leaving you to turn your head so you can see her without pulling your face out of the mattress.
"Was that necessary?" You ask with a wry chuckle.
"It's the circle of Emmy." Taylor answers, putting the mugs down atop her dresser and withdrawing her costume.
"You mean life?" You counter, not bothering to get up and therefore, oust Nemesis from where she is splayed out atop your back.
"Nope." Taylor answers, the making a popping noise on the 'p' sound.
"You'll be cute and easy to tease again eventually. And so the cycle continues." She continues dryly.
Nemesis' face enters your field of vision, and she squints at you in a way eerily reminiscent of your Master when she is vexed.
"But not anytime soon." She hisses at you before returning to her lounging.
"Master?" You ask casually, still not bothering to get up.
"Yes?" She answers, pausing mid step to head into the bathroom to change.
"Your sword is weird." You state, voice full of conviction.
"My power is weird." She counters with a snort, walking away.
"Point." You acknowledge.
Monday, February 14th, 2011
PRT Headquarters, Brockton Bay
"...Hey." Taylor states while also casually taking a seat next to Amy who nearly chokes on the gum she is chewing.
Mostly because your Master decided to arrive at the PRT via portal, something she was allowed just this once on the off chance that her movements are being watched.
"Why!?" Amy shouts at your Master, spinning on the bench she is sitting on the face her.
"You looked bored?" Taylor answers Amy's question with a question. Her face is innocent, but the emotions you can feel flowing away from her are mostly of vindictive amusement. If you had to hazard a guess, you suspect your Master has just decided that she likes to annoy Panacea. It's not something she would have done early in her career. The idea of 'bullying' anyone sent your Master into fits. But Panacea in particular was... well she was kind of a bitch a lot of the time.
So really, your Master was just trying to speak the right language you guess.
"I- what do you want Taylor?" Amy asks after a moment to school her features into her usual fish eyed glare. Your Master - along with pretty much everyone else, including her father, Jess, and Parian - are currently in the PRT headquarters, awaiting the arrival of the backup the Director called for, and to a (much) lesser extent, the approval of the kill order.
Which includes all the Travellers and anyone working with them.
Which, very technically, includes Oliver. Coincidentally, Oliver is current wearing a mask. A very concealing mask. Not for the PRT - they didn't know he existed in the first place - but because if any of the Travelers decide to call out to him during the fighting, it could become problematic later. The room your Master is currently situated in is one of a handful of areas the various capes in the building are free to roam about as they wait.
"Honestly? I just want to see if you're doing okay. I know um..." Taylor states, faltering slightly.
"Eh. I'll live. Thanks though." Amy says, turning slightly away from your Master. Taylor tilts her head slightly at the response, obviously confused by the lack of a more vicious response.
"What?" Amy snaps at her when she doesn't immediately speak.
"I just... kind of thought you would be more mad at me? Your family-" Taylor explains carefully.
"Suck. My family sucks. You know how many people yell at me on a daily basis because I can't heal dead?" Amy hisses at your Master, causing her to jerk backward slightly and nearly reflexively stab the other girl - who doesn't seem to notice as she grows more heated.
"I do my best! I'm there every day healing everyone I can! I don't have super speed! I can't be in more than one place at once! I can't save literally everyone! And they have the gall to blame me, when really they wouldn't need me if they would just eat a god damn salad now and then Jim!" Amy barks, her voice growing louder and louder until eventually she is yelling loud enough to draw attention from the whole room. The sudden cessation of conversation from literally everyone else in the room with you finally seems to draw her attention and she blushes slightly, sitting back down and huddling in on herself.
"I'm not mad. You brought our aunt back to life. Carol was a bitch about it. Fuck her." Amy hisses. You... get the impression there's more to it than that, but decide not to point it out. You're currently invisible anyway, keeping a look out for any trap that might spring upon your Master.
"O...k. You know you can always just call me, if um. You need help? Or just want to crash somewhere-" Taylor pauses to make sure no one else can hear her, "-away from... Carol?" she tries awkwardly.
There is an awkward silence for a moment, as Taylor waits for Amy to respond. The other girl obviously isn't focused on the here and now, and is mostly just simmering in mild annoyance, but eventually relents with a roll of her eyes.
"Fuck it. It's a castle. Sure." She bites out, still not facing your Master.
You stare at the girl. Not once in any of Panacea's interactions with your Master has she ever come across as particularly nice or friendly. She is, to be polite about it, somewhat prickly at best to basically everyone save Victoria. At the same time, the evasive behavior reminds you of other people you're pretty sure your Emulation has encountered in the past, but you can't quite grasp at the memories properly. As though you aren't supposed to have them in the first place - which is... infuriating.
Regardless, you put it out of your mind, and your Master largely leaves Panacea to stew, though she remains sitting nearby in a sort of... not quite comfortable but companionable silence.
And then Clockblocker shows up to ruin it.
"Ladies." He croons (badly) as he walks around a corner, pans his gaze around the room, locks onto your Master and Panacea, and then does what you can only describe as a strut over to reach her. Depsite their mutual agreement to be sort of frenemies, Amy and Taylor both lift a single eyebrow in greeting, almost in tandem. The act is so synchronous that it actually causes the white clad Ward's step to falter as he stops in front of them, his featureless mask nervously looking back and forth between the two girls.
"Sorry. Nervous. Times ticking away and-" He tries, the pun causing both girls to tilt there heads to the side, unimpressed.
"D-don't you guys like, not get along? Could you stop? Please?" Clock breaks down, begging, his body language exaggerated, likely to compensate for the fact that you can't see his face. This finally causes your Master to break down and giggle at him, which earns her an upturned eyebrow of her own from Amy.
"Sorry but- he's kind of right you know." Taylor continues to chortle, much to the other healers annoyance.
"What do you want Clock?" Amy asks in a huff, turning away from Taylor to look back at the boy, who shuffles awkwardly for a second before speaking up.
"Look um, Taylor? I need to ask you something really important but um..." He pauses to turn towards Amy and then back to your Master.
"Maybe after this whole situation blows over? In private?" He asks finally, his voice strained. Conversation in the room stops again, and Oliver - on the far side of the room talking to Trainwreck - turns towards you with an eerie jerkiness at almost the same time as Taylor's father does.
"Sure. I'll get you my phone number." Taylor answers idly, fumbling out one of the pieces of paper she makes tags on and then using a finger to burn a number into its surface.
"Here." She states, handing Clockblocker the paper, who releases a sigh of relief before clutching it to his chest and nodding in thanks.
"Thanks. I'll um. I think the Triumvirate will be here soon so... I'll see you in the meeting." He states awkwardly, before running off.
"Huh. Wonder what that was about." Taylor mumbles curiously before shrugging and turning back to Panacea, who splutters slightly at the comment.
"A-are you serious? Or just stupid?" She snarks, squinting at your Master as though examining her entirely anew.
"...So close Amy. We were so close." Taylor says with a sigh, ignoring Amy's eye roll.
"Is there something wrong with your head? He was clearly-" Amy begins to explain tiredly and with great annoyance, only for the rest of the Oathbound to arrive, and for Oliver to clamp a hand around her mouth.
"We should get going. I think the meeting is starting." He states coolly, then blinks at the muffled sentence from Panacea.
"Sorry?" He asks after removing his hand from her mouth.
"I said 'touch me again and I will give you hyper cansyphilaids.'" She grumbles, causing everyone besides your Master to step slightly away from her. Still, Amy shoots another suspicious look at your Master before sighing, and standing up.
You suppose it's time to meet the Triumvirate.
'Ohmygodohmygod'
'Master... please... she's just one woman.' You gently rib your Master trying to get her to focus on the presentation.
'But that's- I mean that's actually Alexandria!' She counters immediately, her head twitching slightly to silently indicate the woman who is standing in front of the entire group of capes. Nearly every cape in the city still is here. New Wave. The Oathbound. The Undersiders. Accord and his Ambassadors. The Protectorate. A small army of independents. She has a very... warrior like appearance. If you were being honest, you would almost say that she modified a true warriors garb to fake the appearance of superhero. A black helmet that made it impossible to see her eyes. A black bodysuit, adorned with a few pieces of stylized gunmetal grey armor here or there. And a cape.
It's the cape, you realize, that you find off putting. Most accomplished warriors don't wear them. They're cumbersome. They get in the way. They trip you up. There are two kinds of people who wear capes. People who are fated for a quick death, and people who are so obscenely powerful that the difficulties inherent in wearing one are irrelevant.
You assume Alexandria is the latter.
Naturally, the only place large enough to actually host all of these people is the parking garage beneath the building. You don't think anyone cares really. This isn't exactly a ceremony or announcement that requires a great deal of pomp and circumstance.
'Master, please.' You beg her again, getting the mental equivalent of a huff back in return before you mutually turn your attention back to Alexandria, who is standing with the rest of the Triumvirate.
"Currently, the plan is thus - intelligence suggests that the Cape in question is a touch based Striker/Master combo, who duplicates anyone she can lay hands on. As such, all Brutes. Anyone we have that has to fight in melee, you will be tasked with fighting any clones she has already brought to bare. A separate operation will be held later to ensure we clean up any such clones that might escape, but for now, we need to focus on the Master." Alexandria is stating, gesturing to one side where a number of the participants in the crowd begin to shuffle about to form a group.
"Anyone with blaster capabilities or any kind of ranged attack needs to focus their fire on the threat - we're designating her Echidna. A defensive line will be formed of those few of us that remain, ensuring the safety of the barrage. The first stage of the fight we will be fighting sparingly, as current intelligence indicates that any hostages are likely to be contained inside the body of Echidna. However, if collateral becomes too high, or it looks like Echidna is going to capture someone with the potential be an S class threat-" There is a pause as most of the room glances at your Master - "We will move to eliminate her, even with the Hostages." Alexandria states grimly.
You can feel your Master grit her teeth at this. She'd been informed about it ahead of time. She knew what was on the line. But that doesn't mean she likes the idea of someone she knows being killed for the convenience of others.
Or... at all, really.
"You all know the stakes here." Legend says as he moves to the forefront of the group, ahead of Alexandria. Unlike Alexandria, Legend looks every inch a Superhero. His brightly coloured bodysuit and high levels of charisma were enough to shine through even when giving a speech as unpleasant as this one.
"No one wants another Ellisburg. No one wants another Nilbog. And today, we have the opportunity to stop a problem like that in its infancy. We have a plan, and we have the manpower. We can win. Let's go." He states firmly, somehow instilling in the room a sense of hope and levity that had not otherwise been present until that moment. Most of the people here were, quite frankly, scared. Noelle - Echidna you guess - has already made her mark on the city.
As the rest of the group begins to break out into their assigned teams, Legend turns to your Master and nods once. This is your part of the operation, and Taylor quickly attaches a Gap to your back that will allow you to travel away from her. The idea is simple. You will use your tracking spell to locate Noelle, and - if all goes well - your Master will be able to use your vision to gap everyone in to ambush your target.
So carefully, you draw Berkano in the air, while concentrating on Noelle, or at least, as much about her as you currently know.
Energy: -1
This is actually an unfortunate potential sticking part of this tactic. You've never met Noelle. You only vaguely know what she looks like. And in truth, you are piggybacking a lot more on her connection to Oliver than you would like. This means that the chances of this failing are... not tremendous, but neither are the odds of success tremendous either.
Just like before, the group watches on as the letter you have drawn in the air turns into a little blue whisp of energy - and then promptly shoots straight down through the floor. The eyes of everyone in the room track it, and only some of them immediately grasp the implications. Tattletale begins moving immediately, turning to sprint away while yelling at the rest of you.
"She's in the sewers!" Which is essentially enough to get everyone else moving - but not before the building begins to rumble, and cracks begin to form in the ground beneath you.
Suddenly, time feels like it's slowing down as several ratlike creatures appear amidst the crowd, and a single, monstrous eyes glares balefully up at you from between the cracks below you.