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.
You have only a split second to act. The crowd of capes is about to fall directly into Echidna's clutches. What's the plan?
[ ] Write In
A/N: You Know the drill by this point with this. Give your plan with as much detail as you can muster. If you need clarification on the situation, ask. Indicate your preferred energy output. This one will likely have more than one stage, so you can choose to change strategies later.
In other news, I've been sort of wracking my mind for a way forward with Panacea, and I just can't see her flipping to 'Dere' from 'Tsun' that quickly, so here you go. A reminder, I don't actually plan or set up romance beyond the most generically cursory stuff. You guys pick if Taylor gets with someone or not. I ain't doin it.
Also keep in mind, even if I don't include it in the obvious voting, you can basically *always* vote to complete with energy at any point. You guys mostly just don't so I don't often bother point it out.
Anyway, here, have fun with it.
Last edited: Nov 15, 2020
716
Bowler Hat Guy
Oct 19, 2020
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
Oct 25, 2020
#24,350
Spoiler: Choices:
Current Energy: 16
Current Training: Dragon Kind Modification EX (9/10) - 1 Point to Complete
Monday, February 14th, 2011
PRT Headquarters, Brockton Bay
Absolute chaos.
Too many enemies. Too many variables. Too much going on. And the local capes are... disorganized. They aren't fighters, not really. Not the way that a soldier is a fighter. Not the way you are a fighter. It's the difference between a bar fight and a trench.
Your Taylor is better than that. Your Taylor doesn't need to be directed to respond. Doesn't need the seeming ages the rest of these people apparently do to respond to an ambush. She just... moves. In perfect sync with you.
The second those monsters appeared in the crowd, you started calculating. Before the first crack could fully form in the ground beneath you, you were finished, and your Master had swung a hand out, expanding a vast barrier of light blue energy at her feet that was rapidly expanding to take up the entire parking garage floor.
You and she make just the briefest moment of eye contact before you return to what you were doing, worried about the strained expression on her face as the barrier continues to expand, but proud. Without further thought, you draw your throwing daggers.
These weapons are not Noble Phantasms. But they come very close. In your - no, your Emulations youth, he had obtained the broken remnants of the weapon that had once been Gram. Gram, the weapon that should have been unstoppable. Gram, the greatest weapon known to your people. Gram, the weapon with the force of a sun bound into its blade.
Broken.
You had reforged it. Borne it's curse. Made the blade whole once more, and even customized it to your own use. These daggers... they were the dross. The leftover. The bits of the blade that were no longer needed. But even still, they were once a part of a weapon that could kill Gods.
And so long as they are in your hands, they will do so again.
With speed that would be blinding to any but the most perceptive of legends, you toss the entire bundle of daggers, all four of them, in front of yourself. Your Dragon Core begins to churn at your will, and your body quickly strengthens as more than mere blood pumps through your veins. Your fists dart out. Once, twice, thrice, and then one final time, slamming into the hilt of each weapon with precision and force. Enough force to cause a small sonic boom, shattering the windows of every car in the garage.
Then you take off after them, blowing forward to catch one just as it explodes through the side of one of the monsters heads.
"Floor!" You yell at Clockblocker, who the Monster was just about to grab, before tossing your dagger and punching it again, chasing after it to your next target. You don't bother to look to see if he caught your meaning. You understand that he's young, and probably not adequately prepared for this moment in time - but you have to secure the garage before you can put any effort into individual people.
You move with a fluid grace, moving from the floor to the ceiling, where your momentum leaves you sliding across it as though you were on solid ground. Then down again, using your body to bulldoze through another monster in a shower of gore on your path to lift another dagger from the wall it's lodged in, which you like wise toss to the side in the same motion that propels you in the opposite direction, in a straight line through two more of the creatures where you come to an abrupt halt, catching another of your wayward weapons just as it passes through the last of the monsters in the garage - and nearly plows into that woman, Alexandria.
"Apologies. I had assumed you would need assistance." You state idly, waving a hand and drawing the rest of your weapons back to yourself using the magic inherent to them. Only now have the remains of many of your kills started to touch the ground, and you begin to survey your surroundings properly now that the temporary threat has been mitigated.
Most of the nearby Capes are only now realizing that they are safe, many of them still cringing away from what amount to corpses that haven't finished falling over yet. Clockblocker has hastily bent forward to lay a hand on the ground and is maintaining that position with a look of focus on his face. As far as you can tell none of the capes that were in the garage with you have been taken.
In the center of the garage - where you saw that baleful eye, your Master is hovering, her hand pointed downward as she struggles against whatever is beneath it, rapidly repairing the construct she is covering the floor with as something slams against it from below.
"This is all your fault Taylor!" A loud feminine voice yells from beneath the barrier in a mocking tone.
"You were the Miracle Girl! You were going to solve it all!" The voice continues to roar, the sound of something large battering against the barrier below. The other capes are starting to look at your Master with some suspicion now, causing you to purse your lips. You are just about to phase through the floor to take the fight to the enemy when the woman you've been standing in front of ignoring this entire time starts yelling.
"Social Thinker! Everyone who can move get to safety, flyers on me! Don't let it talk!" Alexandria roars, quickly zipping around you, but taking a moment to shoot a knowing look over her shoulder at you as she does so. You quirk an eyebrow but don't otherwise comment Alexandria quickly begins directing everyone with a Mover power to help evacuate.
"How long do you think that will hold?" Legend asks, floating to a stop a bit away from your Master.
"...A bit." She grunts through grit teeth.
And then the sound of violence below you stops, and the strain appreciably lessens. But the voice doesn't stop speaking.
"It's all your fault. So you're going to fix it. One way or another." It hisses, and despite being much quieter it's also somehow much more menacing.
You don't bother to keep thinking at that. Instead, you drop through the floor, intangible.
'Don't!' Your Master commands you instantly, causing you to grimace as you land invisibly in a giant, dank tunnel. a small stream of fetid water flows between your feet, and the smell in the air is a sickly sweet, like a cross between rot and sugar.
In the center of the tunnel - staring angrily straight up at the small hole above it - is... you can't actually describe it properly. In terms of mythology, the closest thing you could think of to describe it is the Scylla. The upper body of a beautiful woman, attached to a monster below the waist. Only, instead of a beautiful woman, there is a sickly thin woman with pale white skin and straggly brown hair that extends down to her waist, wearing a bloody t-shirt. And instead of the traditional octopus lower half, there is... honestly it looks like someone took a number of animals and pasted them together into one roiling mass of teeth, maws and eyes. An elephants sturdy limb extends in one place, in another, a massive pseudopod that is extended overhead, presumably the limb that was hammering against your Master's barrier. A billion mouths and eyes stare back at you, each one blinking, twitching, and snapping at the air out of sync with each other. All in one dump truck sized mass off putrid red flesh.
'Master. Look.' You instruct, ignoring her as you continue to reconnoiter. There are a number of naked women smugly floating about the area. Further up the tunnel you can see several more humanoid figures scampering away as though fleeing. Even as you continue to watch one of the mouths begins to disgorge what looks like a... naked Greg. It stands up within moments of being deposited on the floor, seemingly without conscious input from the Echidna, then looks up at all the floating women and grins, before flickering to match them.
'Oh, god. Greg is... he's in that thing.' She hisses to you mentally.
'I could try and carve him out?' You offer, eyeing the competition. It takes a moment for recognition to dawn on you. Without the black helmet or armor, you wouldn't immediately be able to tell, but they look distinctly like Alexandria. Naked Alexandria.
'Do you... think you could?' Taylor asks hesitantly, obviously not having picked up on that last detail right away.
'...I'm unsure. I could possibly tear my way through her once, with the element of surprise to line up my strike and escape, but I doubt it would work while she is wary of the tactic.' You respond after some thought, watching as a naked woman with long distended arms and a potbelly slips free of another orifice, blinks once, then grins and begins to flee further up the tunnel. Only the Greg clones appear to remain behind, and that... worries you.
'We... were almost ready to remove the barrier up here.' Taylor states, taking the mental equivalent of a moment to pause and swallow her saliva.
'When we do, the Blasters will... they're going to try and hold her back by making the hole too small for her to get through.' She informs you.
You might be able to blitz her fast enough to pull someone free but with all the Greg clones...
[ ] Try it. It might be suicide but if you can get even one person away from this thing... (1 Synchronization)
[ ] It's too risky. If your put down who will look after your Master during the fight? You should fall back to her position and get ready.
[ ] You don't know what the clones fleeing up the tunnel are doing but it can't be good. Your Master should be able to hold the fort for a moment. Better that you aren't surprised by a flanking maneuver.
[ ] Write-In
The fact that theres an army of Alexandria rip offs down here is... bad. You know it's bad. But you've got a bad feeling about warning those above. You can't quite put your finger on it but you feel like this might be one of those 'and damn the hostages' situations your Master doesn't want to go through.
[ ] Warn Them. They need to know, or they'll get slaughtered up there.
[ ] Don't Warn Them. You'll find a way to deal with it. Your Master wouldn't want this.
[ ] Warn just your Master. If she pushes herself, you know she can be better than the supposed greatest heroes on earth.
A/N: This update could have been longer, but I felt like the situation changing so drastically was worth giving you more leeway to make decisions, instead of just plowing through and letting you deal with it. I'll try to update again tommorow. Have fun with it.
Oh and have you seen this? I just saw this. I love this. You should look at this. Because I asked.
Last edited: Nov 15, 2020
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Bowler Hat Guy
Oct 25, 2020
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
Nov 8, 2020
#24,806
Spoiler: Choices:
Current Energy: 13
Current Training: Dragon Kind Modification EX (9/10) - Complete!
Monday, February 14th, 2011
Beneath The PRT Headquarters, Brockton Bay
You pause in consideration for a moment. You aren't certain how strong Alexandria is - but just based on your Master's frequent asides to gush about the older heroine, you've gathered that she is reputed to be to other Brutes what a Servant would otherwise be to a normal human.
This means that the only reason that these fakes haven't penetrated the barrier above you yet, is either because they can't - or simply don't want to yet. If it's the former, then that's one thing, but the latter... that could be bad. Really bad.
'Master. Can you ask Alexandria something?' You send mentally, even as your hand stretches out to hold Gram to one side.
'What?' She replies in a strained tone that causes you to grimace.
'How fast could she kill everyone in the room with her?' You ask quite seriously. You could make a fair estimate of it yourself, but-
'Why do you need to-' Taylor spits back at you almost immediately, no doubt having not actually asked the question. You can feel her briefly tap back into your senses for a moment, no doubt in an attempt to ascertain why exactly you would ask such a question.
You make sure to pan your gaze back over the assorted clones in front of you. You know she missed it the first time, but surely with this context...
'Are those... all Alexandria?' She asks you in a brief lull between battering attacks on the barrier above you.
'Greg, actually. He appears to be remotely copying her from here.' You correct slowly, pacing to the left slightly in order to provide yourself with an unimpeded path to Echidna.
'In all likelihood, she is stalling while her other clones liberate the prisoners interred here for her use.' You add when your Master doesn't immediately reply to that.
'Tattletale... mentioned that.' Taylor states slowly, her tone dripping with bitterness and nascent panic. You suppose that seeing an army of Alexandria's arrayed against her - twelve, to be specific - would be not unlike you yourself encountering half a dozen pure dragons at once. Daunting in the extreme. On it's face, possibly even a functionally impossible to surmount challenge.
'I- I'm going to tell everyone we have to get away. We can't- they can't-' Taylor starts to stammer at you, fear lacing her voice as she no doubts consider the horrific speed with which even a single facsimile of her hero could tear through her friends and allies. You know your Master. And so, as much as you know she wishes to be a hero, wishes to save the innoccent, wishes to defeat evil, you also know that she would forgo all of that in a heartbeat if it meant protecting her friends and family. You know as well as she does that while her odds of defeating the enemies arrayed before her might not be high - she would not be instantly defeated either.
This is decidedly not true for anyone else above you right now.
'Master.' You cut her off sharply, some of the old soldier in your Emulation coming to the forefront.
You realize that as far as your stated goals and reason for existing go, there is no reason for this. You have the means to ensure your Master's safety, and in a pinch, the safety of her friends and family. Everyone else, as far as you are concerned, can fend for themselves. The man you are emulating wouldn't feel that way, and indeed, the mere thought of abandoning your allies sickens you. But you feel that if you had to choose between your allies and your Master, there really isn't a choice at all.
So to repeat. You have no reason for this. Objectively you don't- shouldn't, care.
And yet.
And yet!
'What!?' She snaps back at you, as you crouch into the beginning position for a sprint.
Counter to the adrenaline fueled antics of your past emulations, there is a decided lack of feeling in your current actions. You don't lack resolve or will. But it is clinical. Detached. What is before you simply must be done. So you will do it. Fear, Anger, Excitement - none of those things are necessary, so you don't feel them. There is only the goal. An end to be met. A mission to be accomplished.
Synergy: 1
'Do you trust me?' You ask with perhaps more need in your tone than is proper.
'Of course I do! That doesn't change the fact that we have to go before those things destroy the building! Just because Greg is an idiot doesn't mean his clones are going to sit down their fondling themselves forever!' Your Master fires back immediately.
'I have a way to protect them all. I can prevent them from attacking your allies. So, do you trust me?' You repeat.
'Yes.' Taylor answers immediately and without question.
'Will you fight with me?' You continue, pointedly choosing not to chew at your bottom lip in thought as you ponder the likely results of what you are about to do.
'Yes!' Taylor replies again, stronger this time. At this point, you barely register the occasional booming impact of the monster before you testing the barrier above. In a few moments, it won't matter anymore. Not really.
You materialize, becoming physical for only a fraction of second, just long enough for your foot to gain traction on the ground beneath you. Then, with as much strength and speed as you can muster, before the beast or it's minions have fully registered your presence, you take off - exploding forward with such speed the the pressure wave created by your passing would likely cause severe harm to any mere mortal he happened to be trapped in the confines of this tunnel with you.
Ahead of you, far past the Echidna, a gap begins to slowly unfurl as your Master no doubt scrambles to respond to your intent. You barely register it, having stopped perfectly adjacent to the monster with Gram fully drawn, whipping the blade forward with perfect accuracy just through the uppermost layer of the hideous combination of beasts and flesh that makes up the lower half of your enemy. If you were a poorer swordsman. If you were not a Saber, or perhaps, if you were not blessed with the strength of mind to master the sword, you might have hurt one of the hostages stuck within.
As it is, you manage to perfectly direct your blade, sheering enough flesh from Echidna that you are just barely able to make out the outstretched arm of one of her victims. Above you, Echidna, and all of the various clones nearby have taken notice of you. You have no idea who the person you can see right now is, but that doesn't matter much at all - so long as you can separate them from Echidna, who's human upper half is glaring down at you with her teeth bared like a crazed animal. Reaching out, you give a sharp tug on the arm, ignoring the slightly tinge of weakness you feel wherever you brush against Echidna's bulk.
You don't bother to actually look at the hostage, though you do vaguely register that you are holding what appears to be an adult woman that you otherwise don't recognize, because in that moment you find yourself rushing to dodge out of the way of one of the fake Alexandria's as it rockets towards you. You just barely manage to duck out of the way of a strike that would otherwise have probably killed you, and quickly hurl yourself at the fully opened gap in the distance, all but throwing the woman in your arms through it just in time for your Master to step out past her and raise her arms.
Turning around, you find that not only have all the various versions of Greg turned to face you, two of them have bounced bodily off of a quickly fading barrier of blue light that your Master has thrown up behind you. A barrier that has already shattered under the force of the blow.
Echidna stares after you for a second, before her gaze flicks to your Master, a beatific smile spreading across her face as she fully takes in Taylor's presence.
"...Hello." She croons menacingly towards you as her tremendous bulk begins to pull her towards the now open hole above her.
Idly, you note that at some point your Master must have released her sword, because it's distinctly Khopesh like shape swings up to point towards the monster, even as another Barrier springs into place between the two of you and the rest of the tunnel. And then another. And another. While the individual barriers fail to do much more the stop the clones for a few seconds at a time, their successive nature is enough to buy you a few moments reprieve.
'Now what?' Your Master sends to you, the phantom limbs of her spidery aura sweeping out to stab at anything that gets to close to the barriers. Barriers that are growing closer and closer to you with each moment that passes.
You don't answer immediately, instead, whipping your free hand up to scrawl a rune across the air in front of you. Raidho - inscribed as a highly angular R. The Chariot. It's simple battle magic, quick and dirty, which is all you need it for. As you complete the rune, it disperses over you in a burst of magical potential, increasing your speed and allowing you the time to immediately cast the spell again over your Master.
Energy: -2
Meanwhile, the Greg clones miming Alexandria, have not been silent. In fact, they have been quite vocal the entire time, if only in such a way as you were more or less ignoring them this entire time. Even what snippets you catch are largely unintelligible, crass insults and jeers that wouldn't shake the greenest of soldiers.
"Figures you'd summon a boyfriend! You'd have to wouldn't you!?"
"All alone with myself!~"
"Man, do you even recognize this bitch? This is hilarious!"
"Now-" You state firmly, inscribing now a different set of runes in the air and turning your focus on Echidna - the true enemy here. "-we fight." You finish simply, scrawling 'Ath nGabla' across the air and then dismissing the magic into the air while thinking strongly of Noelle, the girl within the Monster.
The Ath nGabla is a much more complex application of rune magic than you could otherwise easily invoke in the middle of a fight. As a Saber, your ability to innovate or use complex magics to achieve your goals is heavily truncated, if not removed. But this spell is not one that a Caster would ever willingly apply. No, this is a curse more than a mere application of pure firepower. A Geas.
A promise.
With it, you swear that from this point forward, only one of either yourself or Echidna will leave this battlefield alive. With it, you imprint upon the world that simplest of truths.
You tell it that one of you, has to die.
Now, being a projection - a mere extension of your Master's will - this has some obvious results. For one, the spell automatically includes your Master in its parameters. Similarly though - you suspect that it has also affected Echidna's minions because as the spell takes hold they all temporarily freeze as if slapped. In the distance, echoing up the tunnel, you can hear the resounding scream of dozens of cloned capes thwarted in their task as they are forced to attack you and your Master.
Echidna, for her part, drops to the ground as if struck, her bulk rippling as it rapidly spits out over a dozen humanoid forms in a tide of bile that you can smell from where you are standing.
As the last of the barriers between you and the enemy shatters, two things happen at once.
One, you move, blindsiding the nearest Alexandria clone and dragging Gram across it's torso from shoulder to hip in a move that could easily have eviscerated a troll. The blade doesn't fully penetrate unfortunately, meaning that instead of bisecting your target you have merely wounded her. A wound that flickers and vanishes almost as soon as it is made.
And two, you forcibly complete the process of converting your Master's heart to that of the mighty Dragon's.
Energy: -1
As fast and strong as Alexandria herself is, it's clear that Greg is not nearly so comfortable or capable utilizing her raw physical ability, because while the clone before you is stronger than you, it is clearly not much more skilled than your average teenager, allowing you to parry the fists that begin to fly towards you despite the terrible force present in them.
Behind you, the ever-present force of your Master's soul - typically restrained by her own good nature and focus, balloons in strength, illuminating the dank tunnel around you as she undergoes the brief transformation from something merely human, to a being who's very heart pumps with the raw force of the planet itself.
Stopping in your brief skirmish, you disengage from the enemy in front of you to twist and leap to your Master's side, ignoring the sickening crunch that rings out as you stop two separate clones from caving her skull in during that brief window of vulnerability. While you were able to easily ward one off with Gram, the other forced you to defend with your other hand, swinging a fist out that - while successful in deflecting the naked woman bearing down on your Master - came at the cost of most of the bones in that hand.
There is a single stunned moment where your Master - facing directly towards you - jolts at the sound of your hand breaking, her eyes - presently golden slits not dissimilar to a snake's - staring into your own in both strain and anger.
And then the two of you whirl towards the nearly successful attacker as one, eight arachnid limbs, two magical swords, and one pissed off Cape lashing out to cleave through the creature's neck from opposite directions, your weapons passing within inches of each other, like the worlds most mythical set of scissors.
'For the record Emmy - this was a terrible plan.' Taylor says with the sort of subdued cheer you might expect to hear in the voice of a woman who is about to do something truly unpleasant to some poor unsuspecting moron.
You would know. It reminds you entirely too much of your Emulations Wife.
Not that you have much time to consider that, as your Master pulses with light to heal your broken hand, and the shouts of those above begin to filter down into the tunnel, accompanied by the infuriated screams of Echidna as she barrels towards you, having no doubt just finished processing the situation.
Leaving you and your Master to face off against twelve - eleven now you suppose - copies of the worlds most powerful woman, possibly hundreds of lesser capes, and an S-class threat.
Exactly as it was always meant to be.
A/N: Okay! Work and life have been kicking my ass for most of October so I've noticeably slowed down here. And, to be honest, I hate that. For a number of reasons, I have the next several weeks off however, and intend to get back to my usual semi-regular posting rating. If anyone's curious, I had to roll to see which random cape you pulled out of Echidna, although the death match spell really just means that I was rolling to see which cape you managed to get to relative safety before the fighting started since she had to vomit them all up. Anyway. Usual disclaimers apply. Sleep deprivation. grammar. Blah blah.
Have fun with it.
Last edited: Nov 15, 2020
815
Bowler Hat Guy
Nov 8, 2020
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Threadmarks Throne War 10.6 (Nexus)
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
Nov 9, 2020
#24,895
Current Energy: 13
Current Training: None
Monday, February 14th, 2011
Beneath The PRT Headquarters, Brockton Bay
Power, wasn't a feeling. Not a physical one. You couldn't sense it pulsing through your veins, couldn't really tell how much of it you had except in comparisons to its results.
Taylor Hebert - Nexus - had power. Of that there was no doubt. But she didn't feel power. She felt strain. She felt tension. She walked around all day doing her utmost to keep herself contained. Her mere presence, if unrestrained, held the very real possibility of causing lasting harm to the people around her. It was the spiritual equivalent of clenching ones teeth, only if she stopped doing it, everyone around her would start to suffocate or die.
She'd done a lot of reading on the subject. She couldn't say that she found managing her power to be 'difficult' so much as it was tiring. As a teenager with access to the internet she had found no problems finding comparisons. Those comparisons weren't especially flattering. They were - in fact - down right terrifying to contemplate, which is why she often didn't. Her nearest equivalent, at least with regards to her own self control problems, was Ash Beast.
Ash Beast, who permanently stood at the center of an ongoing and seemingly endless nuclear detonation.
Ash Beast, who was widely credited as being better than an Endbringer, only in that he tended to wander aimlessly and obviously, instead of making premeditated attacks.
Ash Beast, who was one of the few Capes on the planet who was so much of a natural disaster that no government on the planet would fault you if you found a way to kill him.
That was what her nearest equivalent was. For one of her powers. She had to have nearly a dozen at this point. Some more dangerous than others. Gaps? She tried not to think about it but 'venting the earths atmosphere into space' was a real fear for her. Magic? If she wanted to she could be worse than Bonesaw, because at least she had to follow the basic laws of physics when tinkering with people.
Worse still, one of her many, many, powers served the sole purpose of telling her how she could use all of her other powers to hurt the people around her as quickly and brutally as possible.
So when her most recent power clicked in to place, when her heart felt as though it was about to literally explode, when her blood felt like it was going to burn its way out of her veins to splatter the ground around her, and her bones began to creak under the sudden reinforcement of her muscles, she did what she always did - she tried to hold back.
It couldn't have been more than a handful of seconds that she had frozen, scrambling to reassess her own strength. Her newest power made that... difficult. It threw everything else out of balance. It made everything better. Her Aura, that semi solid field of energy that surrounded and empowered her, ballooned in strength as her soul was reinforced. Her Spiritual Power too, experienced the same phenomenon, and was contained only by the grace of Nemesis taking the reins and redirecting the sheer unrelenting tide of force she was exuding into itself. She was stronger, which meant she had to adjust how much strength she applied to things like walking. She was faster, which meant she had to determine whether or not she was doing things at a speed her friends could actually perceive.
And she was better, which meant she had to contend with a new wave of suggestions on how to murder everything in a two hundred foot radius.
This is all to say, that when Emmy, her friend and confidant, appeared next to her just in time to pull her out of her panicked introspection, she was painfully aware of the crunching noise his arm made as he batted one of her foes aside.
Which is, of course, when her minded snapped back to the situation at hand. She was in a tunnel full of monsters. They looked like people, but they were not. And they were here to do everything in their power to take from her. She wasn't stupid. She could intuit that Noelle, Echidna really, felt she had taken something from her. She could even admit that technically, that was true. Oliver had been her teammate after all, at least for certain values of the word teammate. His explanation of his various escapades - most of them being 'babysit the psychopathic monster' hadn't exactly scanned as a friendship to her. To her mind, Oliver's old team seemed to tolerate him more than love him, which was just sad.
So in a certain sense, yes, she had taken something from Noelle. Something she was going to cherish and take care of much better than she ever had.
Because deep at heart, Taylor Hebert was a simple woman. She wanted happiness. She wanted to have people to share that happiness with. And she wanted the power to make sure that no one could ever take that happiness away from her.
Put in that context, with the sure knowledge that the beings in front of her were barely even human?
Well, the fact that she had just functionally decapitated an effigy of her idol seemed down right foolish to worry about. The fact that she was worried about controlling herself at all seemed down right foolish.
'Stay close.' She commanded Emmy when it looked like he might be about to do something foolish like bolt into the melee without her. Whatever spell he had cast upon her, it was taking this chaotic melee and helping her think fast enough to really consider what she wanted to do next. Just because she had healed his hand without thinking about it, didn't mean she would forgive him for running off and getting murdered. Even if he could get better from it.
'If you would, miss Hebert' Ozma asked her politely, even as she and Emmy pivoted, Emmy to the left, and she in the opposite direction to swing Nemesis out, cleaving a gap open behind her and ducking just in time for her partner to be sent flying backwards through the portal, re-emerging behind his attacker already positioned to make an overhand chop that would cleave anyone else in two.
In the back of her head she could feel Ozma take over control of both ends of the portal, widening them and rotating the pair so that they blocked Echidna's headlong rush towards her. She ignored the odd sensation of a part of herself moving independent of her will, instead lashing out with her sword and targeting the fake Alexandria in front of her with a quick murderous swipe of her blade that carved a sizable but unfortunately not lethal gash across her neck.
Then Emmy slammed into the duplicate like a freight train driving the hovering heroine into the ground. She didn't bother to maintain focus on that one, as she quickly dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding another attacker. And then another. And another. Each attack took her further from Emmy, who was weathering his own barrage of Alexandria's, only his situation was far more untenable, as he was nearer to Echidna, who - lacking the ability to go around the quickly widening Gap that Ozma was controlling in the center of the tunnel, and being smart enough not to try and go through it, had summarily plowed through the wall to her right and begun walking through the multiple tons of steel and concrete like so much bubble wrap.
She hated it. The feeling that they were being separated again, but contained that feeling for the moment. Combat at this level, where even a single hit could mean life or death, wasn't about how often you could attack. It was about finding the opportunity to land an attack that would matter. Death by a thousand cuts was, in her powers opinion, a pathetic and foolish waste of time.
So she continued to back away, bobbing, weaving, and where possible, deflecting blows. Even with her enhancements, her aura, her spiritual power, her newfound physical prowess - the glancing blows were debilitating, draining large chunks of her protective aura that she was forced to re-purpose the fuel pumping from her heart towards replenishing. Finally, in a span of time that was probably only a few seconds, but had felt like hours, she found her back almost touching the second gap she had made - which she promptly jumped through.
When she emerged, it wasn't through the opposite Gap nearest to Echidna - which was obviously what the Greg clones had assumed would happen. It was a fair assumption. Basic game logic implies that what goes into one portal, comes out another.
But she didn't make portals.
So instead, she took a second to orient herself from within the nulspace that her Gaps lead to, checked Emmy's vision for a moment to orient herself, and then cleaved a new whole into reality behind him, leaping out and tethering the spidery limbs of her Shikai - the technical sounding name for Nemesis' 'First Release' - to one of the clones just as Emmy jammed his sword into her gut and up into her diaphragm.
The fact that their combined powers were enough to hurt the supposed indestructible heroine barely registered to her. Instead, there was only the steadily growing resolve that she was going to make her way through this hellscape scenario.
'Two down.' Emmy sent to her absently, his focused expression slowly peeling into a smile that looked like it belonged on a magazine cover somewhere.
'The Echidna will reach you shortly. Might I suggest moving?' Ozma stated blandly, causing her to nearly roll her eyes. 'The' Echidna. Ozma, as useful as he was as a sort of personal assistant, especially while doing magic, wasn't accustomed to the idea that the only monsters her world had to contend with were other people. He had latched onto the idea that Echidna was a nascent Endbringer with a sort of desperate fervor, not wanting to believe that people could be quite this terrible in the absence of an outside force to push them towards it.
Still, he had a point - which was why she immediately grabbed Emmy and dove back through the Gap with him - just in time to avoid a flailing limb of putrescent green flesh as it impacted where she had been standing. She tried not to smirk at the scream of incandescent rage that rang out behind her as she emerged from the Gap she had originally jumped into to reach Emmy. As it turned out, she did have it in her to be a bully and a bitch.
You just had to threaten to kill everyone and everything she had ever loved first.
Fancy that.
Emerging from the Gap, she could make out the Blaster contingent from upstairs descending behind Echidna and laying down covering fire while the fliers from the group began to evacuate the hostages. Alexandria, she noticed, was not among them - which was for the best. Greg was hard enough to put down without a ready source of brute powers to heal himself with. She made brief eye contact with Eidolon as he started to do... something with his hands that caused Noelle to slow down, and then turned her attention back to the matter at hand.
Which turned out to be a literal hand, as one of the Rat Pack clones appeared from nowhere to attempt to grab her. It was a failed attempt, since, without a conscious effort to hold back, her power had had her reflexively decapitating the thing, but it was what it heralded that honestly proved to be the greater problem. Because from the far end of the tunnel, and veritable wave of bodies had begun to run screaming towards her. People she recognized. People she didn't. People who could fly, jump, shoot, and teleport. An army of capes potentially hundreds strong. It was such a shame that Echidna was insane. This kind of army... it could make a real difference against the Endbringers.
'I can-' Emmy began to state, his blade, Gram (she didn't squeal when she thought about the legendary weapon, she didn't) beginning to glow with an otherworldly light.
'No. Keep the Greglings off my back. I'll do it.' She cut him off grimly, already knowing how such an expenditure of power would draw him closer to his own end. She was tired of never learning her lesson. Of needing Emmy to come up with the solutions.
She was also, really, really angry.
Ignoring the ongoing battle behind her, along with the feeling of several gaps moving about to provide cover for her, she began to concentrate.
Magic was one of those things that she only sort of understood. It had a lot of applications, most of them convoluted, many of them difficult to manage and requiring a significant amount of skill to bring to bare in any reasonable fashion.
The flip side of that, was that it had a few applications that were none of those things. Onmyoudo in particular had one thing, at least in the style she had been taught, that it considered ludicrously easy.
In her hands, a ball of energy began to condense, bright blue in coloration. It was more than just 'energy' though. It was the strength of all the local spirits, which she had asked in mystical terms - very politely - to kill everything in that direction.
It was simple, but it worked.
She barely registered the smile that began to spread across her face as she charged the blast, eight phantom spider limbs reaching out to pull the energy from her hands, and then throw it outward, splattering it against the walls like so much paint, only for each mote of energy to reform into a dog sized arachnid of pure blue energy. Dozens of the fake monsters for each cape facing her down.
Then she pointed Nemesis forward, and the swarm screamed, launching hundreds, possibly thousands of incandescent blue bolts of energy howling up the tunnel.
She didn't bother to see if she got all of them before turning back around to level a glare on Echidna. She didn't need to.
'You are a terrifying young woman.' Ozma stated flatly.
"And don't you forget it." She stated primly, still smiling.
Last edited: Nov 15, 2020
878
Bowler Hat Guy
Nov 9, 2020
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Threadmarks Throne War 10.7
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
Nov 11, 2020
#25,067
Current Energy: 13
Current Training: None
Monday, February 14th, 2011
Beneath The PRT Headquarters, Brockton Bay
Your Master is smiling.
There's nothing wrong with that. Being able to find happiness in the joy of combat is only to be expected from a warrior such as she. Most people smile when they're doing things they happen to be good at.
It's only that, what you're Master is 'good at' appears to be the swift application of overwhelming violence. And her smile somewhat threatening to behold.
You are broken from your thoughts by the whipcrack sound of another clones fist nearly taking your head off.
While your Master was busy handling the less durable members of the opposition, her various portals had converged on her location, connecting into a seamless wall of malevolent staring eyes peering out of the dark towards you and everyone else. There were gaps here and there in the coverage, but none nearly wide enough for one of clones to fit through. This, combined with your easily accessible presence on the other side of the barrier, has left you in something of an unfortunate position.
That being, getting rapidly assaulted by the ten remaining superhumans.
Skilled a swordsman as you are, you are only really capable of withstanding the onslaught for two reasons.
One, these clones clearly lack any kind of training as a group. They bump into eachother almost as often as they attack you, and they make very poor use of the advantage their flight provides them. They are fast and strong enough that without committing to being hit yourself, you find it difficult to land a counterattack, and your need to ensure they do not attack your Master somehow precludes youe ability to make some distance and recover. So in that respect you are stalemated. Already you can feel the dull ache of a half dozen glancing lows and hard deflections diffusing your body, a pain you fight through in order to continue your appointed task.
Two, Echidna is quite occupied at the moment. Not dead by any measure, but certainly occupied. She is screaming incoherently at you, while all of her various limbs lash out to gain her leverage, as behind her a tremendous orb of pitch black nothingness pulls at her, drawing her towards itself. You'd be surprised that you feel nothing of these effects yourself, but you suppose Eidolon, who appears to be maintaining the effect, is the greatest hero on the planet for a reason.
For now, anyway.
"How the fuck are you doing this? I'm mother fucking Alexandria! I'm literally the best!" One of the Greg clones yells at you in frustration as it breaks off it's attack. The others quickly following, pulling back to circle around you.
"I have honed my skill across a hundred battlefields! I-" You begin, lifting your head and shakily adjusting your glasses with your free hand, the mild glint of light from the continued blaster fire behind you sparkling across them and temporarily obscuring your eyes.
And then your Master forces you to stop your epic and uplifting speech on the topic of heroism by summarily leaping into your field of view with her sword drawn forward in a piercing stab that goes into the eye of the clone that spoke and straight into it's brain pan with the kind of crisp finality typically reserved from animals on a butchers block.
"Don't talk unless your fighting at the same time!" She calls to you, swiftly withdrawing her weapon from the falling clones corpse and whipping her free hand around to create a barrier of blue light that the nearest surviving clone quickly bounces off of, shattering it in the process.
You suddenly have flash backs to every time you've ever woken your Master up against her will, or surprised her, and found yourself with a sharp blade an inch from your eye.
"Jesus fucking christ, we wanted to sleep with her?" One of the clones hisses behind you before you can respond to that, drawing your attention towards it.
It might be crass of you, but you promptly plant Gram in the ground, pivot around it, and drop kick that clone into a wall. It doesn't kill the thing. You doubt it even hurt it. But it made you feel better.
"Really?" Your Master asks you, alighting next to you.
"Talk and fight at the same time." You answer instead of directly responding to the question. You put the order into action immediately, leaving Gramm sheathed in the floor and lifting your daggers upward, firing all four of them at a blistering speed even as the clones around you begin to break out in evasive maneuvers.
Two of your thrown (punched, it's more effective) weapons miss entirely, slamming into the walls of the tunnel with a loud thunk that rings out over the general din of the melee. One appears to be about to ram home into the eye of one of the dodging clones, but it raises it's arm to bat away the projectile before it can be hit - a behaviour the clones haven't displayed much of till now. The final weapon appears to be about to miss - until your Master whips her hand out in a clawing gesture, creating a glowing blue claw that yanks your target forward, allowing the weapon to ram home.
Directly into the things eye.
'Eight left.' You note even as you turn to regard your Master meaningfully.
'Remind me to ask if Alexandria's eye needs healing or something after this.' She responds.
Then the battle is rejoined. Your still outclasses physically by the clones, but with your Master to heal and support you, it quickly becomes apparent that the enemy can't win. They quickly become aware of this, and change tact, attempting to heard you and your Master towards Echidna, who is just barely managing to hold to the edge of the tunnel now.
It is only when your enemies are down to a scant three, and your back is directly to Noelle as they pressure you that your Master speaks aloud again.
"So, you idiots know I can teleport right?" She asks casually, lifting her arm to create another Gap behind her. The three clones in front of you barely register the words before they bolt forward, rushing towards your Master with clear into to spear tackle her backwards and into the Monster who's waning cries you have largely been ignoring this entire time.
Your Master releases a feral grin at this, and, instead of dodging completely out of the way, unleashes a blinding barrage of energy blast from her free hand. You at first have no idea what she is doing - the clones can almost certain ignore such blasts with ease. That is, until it becomes obvious that they can't see through it with ease. Something you only realize when your Master removes her hand from it's firing position and steps towards you - leaving a pulsing orb of energy to continue firing behind her.
'Three, two-' She counts off cheerily, letting out an unrefined snort when two out of the three remaining clones fly straight through her previous position to slam into Echidna - dragging all three of them into the black hole she had been barely avoiding all this time.
As one, you, your Master, and the combined forces of every cape present stare at the single remaining clone, its hair a mess from constant movement.
The clone looks to your Master, then to you, and then sneers, flickering slightly and then...
Falling to the ground like a puppet with it's strings cut?
A chill runs down your spine as your Master blinks at the fallen monster, then turns towards you.
"I guess it needed Echidna to live?" She offers carefully, waiting for a few seconds more before allowing her sword to return to it's katana like configuration, an act that is accompanied by a sudden brief pulse of pressure as she wrestles her spiritual power back under control.
"...Possibly." You muse, still uncomfortable with the entire situation and not sure why.
"Nexus. Is it safe for Alexandria to return?" Legend calls out as the group of capes you had originally arrived with, in particular all of your own team, begin to approach your position.
"Should be. I'm pretty sure we got all of them." She says seriously.
'Oh my god I'm takling to Legend. Is my costume okay? It's not too ripped or anything right?' She quickly asks, causing you to tilt your head and spend a moment examining her before shaking your head in the negative.
"That's good. She'll want to see... this." The older man says, and you can hear the wince in his tone as you continue to carefully approach the last clone. As you do so, notice that far from being dead, the thing is trembling, blood rushing from it's every orifice as it twitches upon the ground. True it could just be falling apart without a guiding intelligence to direct it but...
"Um. Yeah. Sorry. About you know, murdering a bunch of her. Sort of." Taylor blurts out behind you, all trace of confidence gone as she stands in front of one of the worlds greatest heroes, finally bereft of the lingering stress of the last few days.
With slow patient steps you approach shivering figure, calling Gram once more to your hand and lifting it high overhead.
"I'm sure she'll forgive you for it. The circumstances were certainly beyond the norm. Although. Have you given any thought to joining the Protectorate? I know you've stated a preference for independence, but exceptions could be made. We could grandfather your current team into the system and start a new branch. Somewhere less... volatile." Legend comments behind you, setting your Master to spluttering.
'Emmy, I need you to come be distractingly hot at legend. I really, really, don't want to say no to him directly.' Your Master commands you, entirely serious. You pause.
'I was given to understand that he was married.' You reply in confusion. You get the mental impression from your Master of deep and abiding exasperation along with that hand gesture you still don't understand.
Snorting at your Masters antics, you quickly dart forward and finish off the last of the clones. Then return to help distract the living Legend standing next to her.
You pointedly ignore Oliver's staring as you pass him, along with the aborted attempt at the weird gesture.
There is still a lot of cleanup to be done now that the crisis is over, but the crisis is over. For now. Your Master will likely take the next day off of school to recuperate. Choose (2) Two, activities to perform tomorrow. Only one can be Training.
[ ] Begin Training (Choose a Skill or Ability)
[ ] Alexandria just got outed. You realize there's probably going to be hell to pay on that front, but you could at least see if her eye needs healing or something.
[ ] Have Taylor take some time out to fortify the Heap with Onmyoudo.
[ ] Clockblocker wanted to talk to you right? Wonder what's up with that.
[ ] Just relax. (Pick an Additional Social)
[ ] You're pretty sure the Undersiders will still be hanging around waiting for Greg to get medical attention, and you do have a bone to pick with the idiot.
[ ] Write-In
Master could probably use some time to decompress. Pick (1) One, person to hang out with during this time.
[ ] Victoria (1)
[ ] Amy (2)
[ ] Aspirant (1)
[ ] Trainwreck (1)
[ ] Parian (1)
[ ] Danny (2)
[ ] Oliver (1)
[ ] Jess (1)
[ ] Triumph (0)
[ ] Gallant (0)
A/N: I'll probably start weaving Taylor's perspective into things more often as we go forward. Only so much ultimate power to be wielded by one girl before you wanna start seeing what she thinks on the topic.
In other news, since I've got all this extra free time - check out my other Worm quest, the link which you can find in my signature. I'd really appreciate it.
Have fun with it.
Last edited: Nov 15, 2020
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Bowler Hat Guy
Nov 11, 2020
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
Nov 13, 2020
#25,451
Spoiler: Choices:
Current Energy: 12
Current Training: Primordial Rune (Warrior) B (6/10) This Omake Bonus In Thanks To - NathanMedium
Monday, February 14th, 2011
PRT Headquarters, Brockton Bay
"Is that necessary?" You ask pointedly as you approach Legend, gesturing over his shoulder to where Eidolon is pointedly stopping anyone else in this massive tunnel from moving forward. For the vast majority of the local capes, this is a minor problem at best. For New Wave, this is not true. Vicky, for one, is peering worriedly over Eidolons green cloaked shoulder at your Master with a worried, pale expression, which you suppose makes sense. She wouldn't have been able to participate much in the actual fight beyond helping evacuate people, but she would have caught at least a few glimpses of the fight while doing so. Lady Photon is... less sanguine about the experience, and is heatedly says something to the Triumvirate member blocking her way that causes him to slowly turn towards her with a sepulchral slowness that earns a wince from the older woman, and causes Vicky's head to whip around to stare back at the two. You are distracted from your continued observation of the situation by Legend answering, though you notice Taylor's head is still pointed in that direction even as you look away.
"We're fortunate in that all of these versions of Alexandria are far enough away that identifying her would be difficult. More so that we aren't in public." He responds, his jaw tightening just enough to give the lie to his relaxed demeanor. "This also... isn't something I think everyone should get a closer look at." He adds quietly, causing your Master to stiffen but not turn as he looks behind you. Curiously, you turn back the way you came from and glance further up the tunnel. You had been largely focused on your small portion of the fight, and so hadn't attempted to see past the curtain of Gap's your Master had utilized to defend herself briefly.
You regret that,briefly, because now you understand - if only slightly - why Victoria had looked so worried.
The tunnel is an ocean of corpses. There is no nascent stench of blood in the air, likely due to the nature of your Master's attack, but the fact remains that there are more than enough bodies behind you to fill a more classic medieval battlefield.
Suddenly, you can understand why your Master hasn't fully turned around at any point since the fighting has finished, nor bothered to gaze through your eyes as she continues to watch Eidolon and Lady Photon argue.
"Ah. I see. Will you require aid disposing of the remains?" You ask, turning back towards the man and positioning yourself directly behind your Master to block her view of the scene.
"No. You've done more than enough. It's the PRT's job to handle the aftermath. However, if you could give a verbal report to an officer before leaving, that would be appreciated. I'm also going to have to ask you... both? To sign an NDA before leaving." He states with a grimace and an apologetic tilt of his head towards the fallen Greg clone nearest to you. Ironically, Greg is the only cape here who isn't in danger of being outed by a clone.
"Of course. Master, why don't we-" You pause, stepping slightly to the left so that your Master's sudden attempt to look behind you is halted, the gently place a hand on her shoulder and turn her around, ignoring Legend's look of shock when you both agree and move on from the topic so easily.
"Why don't we take Victoria and do what we must. I'm certain she must know where we need to go at this point." You repeat gently, glancing towards your Master's blond friend. Lady Photon appears to have escalated to furiously gesturing and yelling at this point, her two children positioned behind her with tension writ large on their faces.
Not that you can hear them, which is, now that you think about it, something of a feat given their relative distance to you. Your Master closes her eyes for a second, then exhales slowly before opening them again.
"Yeah let's go rescue her from... whatever that is." She says in a resigned tone with a gesture towards that ongoing argument.
Legend watches you as you go with the most perplexed expression on his face, and for the life of you, you can't figure out why.
Regardless, you vanish from sight as you shadow your Master forward, and are hit by a sudden deluge of sound as you get within ten feet of Eidolon who apparently was using a power to mute his conversation.
"-dare you!? This is a violation of everything New Wave stands for! You can't just-" Lady Photon's voice reaches your ears, furious and loud.
"Nexus." Eidolon greets your Master as she enters his orbit, not actually turning to look at her as he speaks, or even Lady Photon for that matter, as he continues to watch the crowd of gathered Capes slowly make their way out of the tunnel - either assisted by a flyer or by climbing a rope ladder that someone above had dropped down, depending on their disposition. You notice that almost all of the gathered villains are being forced to climb out.
"Hi. I just came to see if Vicky knew where to go for an Independent to give a report?" She asks cautiously, obviously not sure what the argument is about but not willing to jump in on someone's side either way.
"Y-yeah. I'll meet you upstairs in a a sec 'kay? I think everyone has to get checked over by Ames before leaving anyway..." The blond in question responds immediately, obviously caught between agreeing with her aunt and disagreeing with the widely acknowledged 'greatest hero on earth'.
"Taylor! Surely you can see that this is wrong? If you work with us we can-" Lady Photon says, ignoring her nieces comment and turning towards your Master the second she notices her.
"Sign an NDA or be charged." Eidolon cuts her off with an iron tone, reaching out to try and grab your Master's shoulder on her way past in order to prevent her from leaving with Vicky or, possibly, taking up a position with Lady Photon.
Not that you allow him to compete the maneuver, appearing immediately to his right and lightly slapping his hand away with an arch look.
"We have spoken to Legend on the topic, yes." You tell him when he whirls towards you, hands suddenly aglow. You can't tell what expression he's making under his mask, shadowed by his hood as it is, but if you had to hazard a guess it would be 'wary'.
Which is unfortunate for him, because you don't really care. Your Master just kill several hundred people or at least, people adjacent creatures, and obviously isn't feeling great about it now that the heat of battle has worn off. You drastically prefer for her to leave with Vicky over staying here to deal with whatever this is.
Which is why you vanish from sight the second you see Eidolon open his mouth.
'We should go.' You send to your Master in lieu of paying attention to anything he has to say, gently ushering your Master forward.
Several minutes later, and one floating platform of energy for the Oathbound later, the pair of you find yourselves in the lobby once more though, neither your Master nor Vicky are speaking, which you find... worrying.
"Sooo... Alexandria huh?" The blond eventually queries tentatively. Taylor makes a so-so gesture in the air with one hand in response.
"G- The new Undersider can sort of copy people. It wasn't really Alexandria." Taylor explains neutrally.
"...But it had all of Alexandria's powers." Vicky notes pointedly.
"Yeah but they had no idea what they were doing. You can't just fly at something and expect super strength to be good enough. That only works if your way, way stronger than whoever you're trying to attack. If Alexandria fought the Endbringer's that way we'd be in trouble." Taylor counters.
Vicky winces.
"I mean, yeah, but you are weaker than Alexandria right? I mean you just cheated with your super sword or whatever right?" Vicky asks quickly, possibly a touch too eagerly.
"Yeah but unless you can force people to fist fight you, treating every opponent like they can kill you is just common sense." Taylor responds, warming to the conversation. You can see the clear and obvious part of her personality that obsesses over training and practice coming to the fore as the worry she's been feeling towards Vicky for the last little while fades away. It went unspoken that she was concerned about how her actions in the tunnel had reflected on her to her friends.
Evidently Vicky didn't think much of it at all, at least, not beyond her initial gut reaction to the aftermath, which frankly, you'd be concerned if she didn't show.
"Yeah but come on, how many brutes are you going to find just hiding out in groups like that?" Vicky tries to argue weakly.
"Only takes one." Taylor answers with a snort and a sly waggle of her eyebrows.
"Oh come on! It was one time! And you were totally new then!" Vicky complains, throwing her hands into the air in protest.
The seemingly invisible tension between the two breaks after that, and your Master manages to make her report, and sign the required NDA. The process of signing an NDA was novel, if only because you too had to sign one, something that brought great satisfaction to your Master, and you all took a Gap home with assurances from the PRT that you could come see Echidna's victims after a short quarantine to ensure there were no lasting biological agents on them.
You all exit as a group into the garage of the Heap, where everyone promptly breaks out to head to their bedrooms, except for Danny, who Jess promptly grabs and drags away with a look of utter panic on her face the moment she returns to her body.
There are potentially several reasons behind that. None of which you feel the need to involve yourself in.
Thankfully Taylor fails to notice this tidbit herself, and throws herself into her bed with the same tired urgency that everyone else is showing, thanks to having not gotten much sleep the night before.
Tuesday, February 15th, 2011
The Heap, Brockton Bay
Having learned your lesson previously, you pointedly do not sleep in the bed with your Master, instead opting to sleep upright in the corner with a pillow pinned to the wall by your head. Your sure you Master would have objected to this had she been conscious for more than a few seconds after reaching her bed, but since she was not, you opted to sleep the way a soldier on campaign might. That being, leaned against a wall. In life, you might have done this while wearing your armor, with your sword close at hand should something occur in the dead of night - but given that you can summon your armaments to you at will, that isn't much of an issue.
To the surprise of no one in the room with you, your Master wakes up first, her internal clock alerting her that it is 'training o-clock' at exact four am.
Somewhat more to your surprise, you are awoken by the sound of a camera shutter click.
Eyes snapping open you quickly search for the source of the noise, only to find your Master standing several feet away, with cellphone in hand and pointed at you.
"...Apologies, however - what?" You ask curiously, then blink again when when something warm begins to move about in your lap. You spare your Master another confused look, ignoring the way cooing noises she appears to be making, before glancing down. Nemesis is - as has become a habit for this emulation - currently plastered to your front, her little arms wrapping around your right leg, using your thigh as a pillow. Over all, the image is very reminiscent of a young girl who refuses to leave her fathers side at night.
Which would be much cuter if she didn't start hissing and squeezing the moment you attempted to pry her off of you.
You look to your Master for assistance, but instead just hear another shutter click as Nemesis shifts further up to clutch at you midsection with one arm while the other lazily slaps at your face until you go back to reclining so she can lie down on your chest. Then she frowns, reaches around to tug one of your arms around so that she can use it as a backrest, and promptly goes back to sleep.
"...Do you not wish to train this morning, Master?" You ask in a put upon tone. It is an unfortunate fact of your Emulations life that he seemingly allowed the women in his life to get away with just about anything they wanted, because he loved them.
And also they scared him half to death whenever he disagreed with them. Old habits and all.
"I mean, I could but-" She takes another picture, and makes that hand gesture at you again.
"What is-" You mime the gesture in annoyance then freeze when you catch Nemesis glaring at you for daring to move.
"Nothing. Don't worry about it. I don't suppose you have anything you can teach me without getting up?" Taylor answers coyly.
You give your Master a nonplussed look as she takes a seat on the floor across from you, legs crossed, then sigh and begin to speak - gently so as not to awaken Nemesis' ire any more than absolutely necessary.
"...Ancient Scandinavia had a magical practice referred to commonly as Rune Craft." You begin, then suppress a snort of amusement as Taylor leans forward, her eyes full of renewed interest the minute you say the world 'magic'.
"Rune Craft, at it's core, is the use of combinations of runes in order to create an effect. Each of the original eighteen runes, passed down by Odin to mankind, represented something. A concept, an idea. Together, there was no facet of the world that could not be described by them, and it is in combining them into more complicated script that the greatest works of m- this Emulations people were made." You explain.
"Sounds like programming code." Taylor chimes in whimsically, and you shrug one shoulder at the description. There were some who might take issue with such a dumbing down of the original meaning of Rune Craft. Especially as they were considered a gift from God at the time, spread by devotees of Odin to his people.
You are not one of those people. Which is ironic, because Odin's blood flows freely through your veins.
"That... is accurate." You concede before continuing.
"Using Rune Craft, a Master can achieve almost anything, provided they have enough power to fuel the effect. However, in order to reach the more complex applications of the craft, one most first master each rune in kind, separately and perfectly. More so, the Primordial Runes I have Mastered are not truly intended for easy use by Mortals - they require a measure of Divinity to fully realize and-" You continue to explain.
"Nope. We're not talking about that. I draw the line at literal godhood." Taylor cuts you off immediately, looking mildly freaked out by the sudden turn of the discussion. You frown.
"Divinity and Godhood are not one and the same. You can possess one without-" You try again.
"Noooope. Runes. Stick to runes. Please." Taylor asks plaintively. You eye her crossly for a second before returning to the original topic.
"This," You state dryly, marking out an angular S shape in the air in front of you without actually using any magic, "is Sowilo. It represents the sun itself, and all it entails. The dawn after a battle, the soothing sight of the sun as it rises in the sky. It is more than merely 'fire' and 'light'."
In this manner, you spend a few hours explaining the basics of Rune Craft, at least conceptually, to your Master - pausing occasionally as Nemesis shifts about or swats at you for having the audacity to be too loud or move too much. It is a pleasantly relaxing experience, that is only interrupted by the sound of a shy knocking at your Master's bedroom door.
Curious, your Master quickly stands and stretches before answering it, only to find Oliver in his casual clothes awkwardly shifting from foot to foot just outside.
"...Hey. Can we talk?" He asks, peering into the room.
You and Nemesis are both long vanished by the time his gaze pans to your corner.
A/N: Okay, I'm a bit sick but wanted to push this through anyway. The interaction with Oliver and Alexandria will be from Taylors POV and will be the next update, probably sometime later tommorow night. That will mark the end of the arc and voting for the next set of Interludes. Until then, here you go. Have fun with it.
Last edited: Nov 15, 2020
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Bowler Hat Guy
Nov 13, 2020
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
Nov 16, 2020
#25,594
Current Energy: 12
Current Training: Primordial Rune (Warrior) B (6/10)
Tuesday, February 15th, 2011
The Heap, Brockton Bay
'Suddenly I understand what all of those soap opera's were getting at.' She mused as she considered her teammate and - ostensibly - employee. Not that she really thought in those terms most of the time. She preferred 'extended family' really.
There was just something distinctly uncomfortable about the words 'can we talk' when presented in that subdued fashion. She assumed that if her high school experience had been even slightly different, she might have more experience with them. After all, without Emma tearing apart her social life, surely she would have had a boyfriend or something by now right?
Unfortunately, instead, she had been simultaneously blessed, and cursed, with a great lack of any kind of meaningful relationship that might cause this kind of conversation to come up. It wasn't just about romance. Friends could disagree, and make up, but she had never managed to make any of those. Parents could confess to making mistakes as one got older, but her relationship with her Father had gone from 'distant' to 'angry' to 'good' in very little time at all. They had sort of just mutually agreed to set aside the past and do better now.
In the intervening time since getting her powers, she hadn't really been forced to deal with this kind of thing. She had disagreements with people, but, in general, any disagreement great enough to cause her genuine anxiety was one she was planning to resolve using violence anyway.
"Sure. Do you want to talk here or go somewhere else?" She heard herself say with an outward ease that she wasn't really feeling.
"Um..." Oliver muttered, glancing at her - admittedly sparse - bedroom in a way that made her realize how awkward it would be to sit on someones bed and talk business. She felt her cheeks heat at the mistake but instead of panicking allowed her face to fall into a blank smile.
"Right, sorry. It's early. I'll meet you in the kitchen?" She tried again, tilting her head slightly in query. It was body language she had picked up from Emmy, way back when 'he' was a 'she'. She realized that she would probably never be able to project the kind of elegant confidence Emmy had at the time, but she could at least take notes.
Also, if she was being honest, she was starting to notice that people were flinching when she smiled at them like this, which was always good motivation to get better.
"Ah- sure. Are you- I mean are you okay? I couldn't really see much from where I was except you know the..." Oliver stutters, then brings his hands together and pulls them apart while making a whooshing noise.
Her first reaction was to dismiss the concern out of hand. Of course she was fine. Everyone she cared about came out the other end of the ordeal fine hadn't they?
Then she remembered how she had felt when she first saw 'Dinah's' corpse. The feeling of resistance when she had taken out that first Greg clone. If she thought about it too hard, she could almost see the moment the army in the tunnel realized it was doomed. There expressions, while far from sane, were all too human. She just hadn't dwelled on it because it had to be done. It was the first thing Emmy had ever taught her. She didn't want to be in a situation where only one person could succeed and survive. But she hadn't been the one to make that decision. And when put in that position herself, it was the simplest thing in the world to choose what she cared about over what she didn't.
Which, again, didn't feel good. Just necessary.
"I'm fine. Thanks." She replied eventually, her smile growing strained. Oliver flinched, then nodded quickly and set off for the kitchen, leaving her to get properly dressed. She watched him go for a minute before closing the door after him.
'Not going to comment on that?' She queried her passenger while she moved over to her dresser to start pulling clothes out. She briefly debated putting her costume on. She found she was wearing it more often than anything else, and was, if nothing else, comfortable in it - even if the somewhat skin tight nature of the under suit still caused her considerable embarrassment on occasion. Parian nothing if not exceptional at what she did.
Then it occurred to her that she was supposed to be 'relaxing' today, and that wearing her 'business' suit might be sort of counter to that. Of course, this thought made her debate the usefulness of commissioning Sabah to make her an actual business suit version of her costume.
Then she remembered the way Vicky had looked at her when she had realized that she could ask Parian for clothing at will, and shivered. That was a Pandora's box she wasn't ready to open yet.
So instead of her normal costume she carefully sorted through the dozens of pairs of pants she had been left with until she found one of her older pairs and slid into them, along with a dour grey sweatshirt.
Vicky swore by the rest of her wardrobe, but even if she wasn't convinced she was hideous anymore, she would never, never understand why the girl insisted on only wearing pants that required fifteen minutes and a stick of butter to get into or out of. That just seemed excessive.
[I believe your exact words at the time were 'stay the hell out of your bedroom'.] Ozma responded the moment she finished adjusting her sunhat and stepped out of the room. She grunted in acknowledgement of that then started on her way. Technically, she could just open a gap to the kitchen, but the Heap was her castle, and so she felt the distinct urge to prowl it from time to time.
In a... not creepy... not dark lord of the bay kind of way. Really.
Regardless, she found herself glancing into a number of the empty rooms and areas in the 'Oathbound' second of the castle - the one partitioned off from what was to become the mall - and frowning.
She might need to see if the PRT had any work for her soon, at least if she wanted to keep employing so many people and furnishing the place.
[Several of these would make excellent classrooms.] Ozma noted suddenly, pulling her from her thoughts.
"I'm not opening a super school just because I have a castle." She replied dryly.
'You do have the means.' Emmy chimed in.
"To do it? Sure. To protect it? Questionable." She drawled. Typically she wouldn't answer Emmy out loud, but she had quickly found that it was easier to do so where possible. It made it easier to hold a conversation with both Ozma and Emmy at the same time, without being forced to partition them and risk getting confused or mixing one of them up. It hadn't happened yet but she was sure it would. She wasn't exactly the best at multitasking.
[But think of how much easier it would be to protect with assistance!] Ozma... not quite exclaimed. He didn't really yell. Just speak with more or less emphasis.
"I don't even have a viable group of people to start with!" She countered immediately. Sure she had more or less worked the kinks out of her Oath spell, which is the only reason Oliver hadn't lost his powers and/or died the first time he jaywalked (blanket inability to break the law sucked), but that didn't mean she was one hundred percent certain that training a small army of not-quite-parahumans was a good idea. Heck, the stress of explaining that to the PRT alone would probably make all her hair fall out.
Even if it was occasionally tempting. Just to see the look on Piggot's face.
'Aspirant has a horde of women looking for something to do with their lives.' Emmy noted easily.
[The local police, I'm certain, would not turn away such an opportunity.] Ozma added right afterward.
'The Panda Gang are also actually the right age for school.' Emmy continued on in a musing tone.
[Those gentlemen - the Dockworkers? They seem loyal enough.] Ozma finished.
"Are... can you guys hear each other now?" She blurted out in utter confusion.
' [ No? ] ' They chimed in chorus.
Taylor blinked, and then chose to ignore the entire conversation, quickly arriving at her destination.
When she stepped into the kitchen Oliver was already present, and all possible anxiety she had been feeling on the topic of this conversation drained away when she laid eyes on him.
"Did you... buy that? Or did we just have it laying around?" She asked, amid a sudden snorting chuckling fit.
"...What's wrong with it?" Oliver countered defensively, sticking a thumb under his offensively bright neon green cooking apron and lifting it to inspect.
"It's... I mean... Olly, come on." She asked in amusement, stepping into the kitchen and taking a seat, then propping her head up on one hand, allowing her untied hair to fall to one side.
"It's distinctive!" He replied with a blush, turning back to check on whatever he had cooking in the pan atop the stove.
"Olly come on - I'm almost literally allergic to fashion and even I can tell that its ugly." She pointed out, thoroughly enjoying the banter for what it was.
"Y-yeah well, like I said, distinctive! I mean-" Oliver started, pausing briefly to plate whatever he had been cooking and then placing it on the table in front of her. "- I bet you'll always remember the first time a boy cooked you breakfast right?" He finished with a smirk that he only managed to hold in place for about a half second before what he said caught up with him and he whirled back around in embarrassment.
"A-anyway. French toast! I'll grab the maple syrup!" He blurted out, scrambling towards the fridge.
Taylor, for her part just stared after him with her mouth half open in a reply she never got the chance to make.
'I don't believe I, or your father, count.' Emmy added in, just to really rub it in.
When Oliver came back she was decidedly not blushing, because that would mean she was admitting defeat.
"Emmy counts!" She blurted out as Oliver came back with the maple syrup, pausing when she yelled out and then sending her a a worried look, sat down opposite her.
"So... you and Him...?" Oliver asked tentatively.
'I'm married.' The projection in question answered immediately.
'You're what!?' She screeched mentally, suddenly forgetting everything else that was going on.
'...Well, this version of me is.' He hastily corrected himself, causing Taylor to release a sudden sigh.
"Is everything-" Oliver started to ask again but she cut him short.
"I'm good. Sorry. Uh... Emmy doesn't count, I guess." She gave in with another mild blush.
"Oh. Cool." Oliver answered with a boyish smile that quickly faded from his face as they both set to eating. When the meal was finished, he looked at her pensively.
"So... I just wanted to make sure you knew but- I didn't see any of the other Travelers down there Taylor. Not during the fight, not with the victims. I'm... honestly kind of worried. Krouse didn't really do 'run away'." He stated seriously.
"Without Echidna-" She paused when Oliver winced at the name, then corrected herself.
"Without Noelle, how much damage can he actually do?" She asked immediately, already going over in her mind the ways she could deal with a teleporter. It shouldn't be too difficult. It was mostly that one girl she had to worry about, Sundancer? She was tough, but not, 'stand in the middle of a sun' tough.
"Not a lot." Oliver admitted easily before continuing, "but he's smart. And he knows you can bring people back. That means you're his only chance at getting Noelle back."
"I'll have to keep an eye out. At least if he's smart he'll realize that surprise teleporting me into a miniature sun won't actually help him. If he needs me he can't risk putting me in a no-win situation, because I can still guarantee that everyone loses." She said, still rolling the problem over in her head. She would have to tell the PRT when she went in later today at the very least.
The rest of the conversation was on much more relaxed topics. Mostly, Taylor just let Oliver talk, most of which was about video games, which she found amusing. If she squinted, she could almost see how Oliver might have gotten along with Uber and Leet. Almost.
Regardless, they finished eating and Taylor was treated to the novel experience of someone else doing the dishes, which Oliver offered to do with gusto, before setting out to the PRT headquarters for the day.
Or that was the plan anyway.
She got side tracked somewhere between leaving the kitchen and actually exiting the building when Jess marched up to her out of nowhere, eyes bloodshot from lack of sleep.
"I need your help." She declared desperately, grabbing Taylor's hand and pulling her towards her fathers office.
"...Right now? Look I know I've been sort of ignoring you and my Dad-" She started gently pulling her hand away so she didn't accidentally pull the woman's arm out of it's socket. She tried to hide her exasperation. She grasped, in a general sense, that her Dad was free to date or be around whoever he wanted. She accepted that she didn't have to like or agree to it any more than she felt like he should be able to tell her who to be around.
So she tried to just not notice it because it made her supremely uncomfortable. Which isn't to say she didn't notice. Just that she tried not to.
"This isn't about your Dad! Just- can you take us to Carol's house?" Jess countered immediately, reaching back up to snatch Taylor's hand.
"Why? Is Vicky okay?" Taylor asked immediately, pivoting with the topic change and immediately raising a hand into the air that suddenly held Nemesis in it.
"She's fine. Stupid. But fine. Let's just go, I'll explain when we get there." Jess urges.
There was a lot she could say to that, but lacking a reason to do so, she just pursed her lips and opened a gap.
Seriously, she just wanted one day where nothing ridiculous happened. Was that too much to ask?
Tuesday, February 15th, 2011
Dallon Household, Brockton Bay
The Dallon household was a mess. Or possibly, a warzone, if she was being entirely objective about things. Papers and legal texts were scattered about the house, with the bulk of them positioned atop the kitchen table, around which sat all of New Wave's adults, while the children watched on from slightly further away using whatever seating they could appropriate.
The Pelham kids, Shielder and Laserdream were watching their parents anxiously, and Vicky was hovering back and forth between both groups as though unsure where to position herself. Amy was sitting slightly further away, with the blank expression of a child who knows their input is unwanted and unneeded.
Brandish was the first person to notice her, sitting at the head of the table like a queen surveying her court.
"Taylor! Perfect. We'll need to stick together on this and you got a better look than us." She declared primly, waving her over.
"Better look at what?" She muttered in confusion, but slowly shifted forward to join the rest of the group regardless.
"Carol thinks it's a good idea to go after Alexandria." Jess explained in a dry, annoyed tone that may have had less to do with the subject matter, and more to do with who she was speaking to.
"Jess, she lied to us. This is everything New Wave stands for!" Carol fired back immediately, her face a mask of stern determination and self righteous ire.
"Oh, so 'we' stand for something when I happen to have better evidence than you?" Jess hissed back.
"This and that are separate. Surely as allies we need to stand together on this!" Carol returned setting her shoulders as though preparing for a fight.
"Al- Who's your ally? I'm couch surfing right now Carol! I don't have a home!" Jess barked with a scowl.
"Naturally as outed capes, we have to stick together! Taylor, you and Vicky are friends aren't you?" Carol stated as though explaining a simple fact, pivoting to her for confirmation and summarily ignoring Jess' annoyed response.
"Mom!' Vicky protested weakly, but Taylor just stared at the group, before raising one hand in the air for attention and silence.
"...Sorry, what exactly are we talking about right now?" She asked, not directly addressing anything else that had been said right away. Incredulous looks were shared around the table before turning back towards her.
"You saw those Alexandria copies right? She's Rebecca Costa-Brown. Leader of the PRT." Sara Pelham chimed in, an uneasy look her face as she looked between her sister and the woman who could have been family.
Taylor's face went slack as she processed that. She didn't really watch TV, or keep up with the news in any capacity that didn't directly affect her, so she felt she could be forgiven for not recognizing the woman on sight. But she did recognize that name. The PRT and the Protectorate were distinct organizations for a reason. The PRT was intended to act as oversight to it's Parahuman arm, and emphatically was not intended to be run by one. The fact that the leader of both groups was essentially the same person all but screamed 'conflict of interests'.
She quickly ran down everything she knew about the situation. It was obvious, in retrospect, that Legend had been anxious about talking to her because he'd assumed she'd realized this much earlier than she actually had. Eidolon's antagonistic response - which she had ignored, because the man was famously antisocial - also made sense in this new light.
But what were the long term results? First, too many people had seen something to just sweep this up. Even without New Wave going on the warpath, the information would get out somehow. The PRT was stretched too thin just dealing with the bad guys to wage an info war against its allies. Not to mention the villains that had been present yesterday. So some action would have to be taken. There was no avoiding that. The only question was what. Alexandria's name could be dragged through the mud in every form of media available, she could be fired from her position as Director of the PRT, she could even be criminally charged if that suited the powers that be.
But.
What purpose did that serve? Alexandria was one of the most prolific capes on the planet. Trust in parahuman law enforcement was based on trust in her, in some respects. More so, Wards teams all over the planet enjoyed a degree of safety because of the overriding fear that killing one would draw her ire. And it would. Alexandria had made very clear examples of what happened if you interfered with the Wards program over the years. She played a key and pivotal roll in basically every Endbringer fight - being one of the only capes who could easily go toe to toe with the monsters.
So even with all aforementioned legal action and mud slinging in play, it was unlikely she would be punished beyond simply being forced to step down from her position in one or both identities. She was too useful otherwise.
Like Emma, which rankled more than she was willing to admit.
"Tay? You're doing the thing again." Vicky whispered to her, pulling her from her reverie and drawing her attention to her blankly smiling face by waving at her how face haphazardly.
"Sorry. So, to be clear." She stated, turned back to Carol who was shooting Jess a look that scanned to her as somewhere between 'smug' and 'triumphant'.
"You want to take legal action against Alexandria? And because I - and presumably Jess - saw her face clearly you need our help?" She asked neutrally, not actually changing her expression just yet.
"Yes! We can't just let them get away with this! It flies in the face of-" Carol began to declare with fervor. Taylor... didn't really care? She had looked up to the woman when she had first been starting out, but her continued experiences with how she treated Jess, and apparently Amy, did not paint a flattering picture. Now she just found herself wondering how New Wave had survived this long being led by someone so... stupid.
"Mom! I- I'm sure she had a good reason! Alexandria is a good guy!" Vicky tried weakly to defend the original wielder of her power sets namesake. Alexandria wasn't just a flying brute. She was the flying brute after which all others - like Vicky - were patterned. Her heart briefly went to her friend. She herself would probably be feeling a far greater sense of disbelief and dismay if she hadn't just come fresh off the heels of dealing with Emma, which was a similar if lower profile situation. She resented, deeply, the fact that her planning power kept telling her that she had already achieved the best possible outcome, with Emma an asset for the forces of good and all possible consequences against her leveraged.
But that didn't mean that she didn't accept it for what it was.
"I can't recommend going forward with this." She responded to the impassioned woman in front of her. This time it was Carol's turn to look stricken while Jess sent her smug looks.
"But-" She tried to speak, rallying.
"They can't get rid of Alexandria. I doubt they could contain her if they tried. So she's not going to jail. She goes to every Endbringer fight, so they aren't going to force her to stop being Alexandria. Bringing this to the public eye just lowers trust in the Protectorate, which means more villains, which means more crime. Going after her won't achieve anything that politely demanding she resign won't already achieve, with the added benefit that you won't be making an enemy of the PRT. You're a lawyer. Shouldn't you know better than to contend with the US government?" She rattled off, quickly condensing all of her observations together.
Most of New Wave was looking at her now, many of them with dawning looks of understanding and horror as it occurred to them how badly the government could hurt them if it really wanted to. Sarah sent a worried look Panacea's way for some reason during all of this. It didn't matter that Alexandria was in the wrong. All that mattered was that she represented them and that meant attacks against her were attacks against the government itself.
Again, the logic was ridiculous and stupid, but it was the truth so it was what she would work with.
Unfortunately, Carol Dallon, as she had previously noted, was somewhat of an idiot.
"...If you aren't going to help then get out." She bit out past a contorted snarl, turning away from her and Jess like they weren't physically present. Taylor shot a glance at Vicky, who was looking between her mother and her in obvious distress, and sent her an apologetic look of her own before starting out of the building.
She paused at the front door to shoot a questioning look at Amy, who shook her head slightly in response.
Shrugging, she opened a gap back to the Heap and stepped through it.
Tuesday, February 15th, 2011
PRT Headquarters, Brockton Bay
The PRT headquarters was practically buzzing with activity when she arrived there. As much as she had wanted to stay casual in her greeting and offer - Alexandria was her favourite hero after all - she now felt compelled to make this visit less about being friendly, and more about doing business. Which was why she had shimmied into her costume, which, while comfortable once it was on, was entirely too much work to get on.
The crisis being over as it was, she was forced to step through a gap into the parking garage, rather than the building proper as she arrived. The exception that was made for her during the crisis was technically past, and while she could push her luck, she felt like now wasn't really the time for such things. As she set foot in the garage, she felt Emmy appear behind her, and she stopped to take a deep breath. The hideous crack in the concrete was still present, having been widened just enough for a group of people to pass through it by some brute or blaster no doubt.
She wished she could say that the screams of a hundred dead coming from that hole in the ground were all in her head, because at least then she could just go see a psychiatrist or something. Unfortunately, what she was hearing was very... literal.
The ghosts of every clone she had slain were down in that tunnel. Along with-
"I can feel you up there. Come and talk. I don't bite." Noelle's voice drifted up from below.
She pointedly ignored it, at least for the moment. In her experience, it took a while for ghosts to get powerful enough to be dangerous in the first place, so she could come back and deal with... that later.
[Are you alright?] Ozma asked gently. She considered it for a moment and decided that - yes, she would probably be okay. Eventually. So she just shrugged.
As was the norm for her - she honestly doubted any other independent visited the PRT nearly as frequently as she apparently had to - she moved up to the large metal door that served as the parking entrance to the building and waited for someone watching the camera feed attached to it to come get her. She could just kick the door down. She could kick the building down if she was being honest at this point, but there was no point to that, so she didn't.
She did consider it when it occurred to her that Emma was probably in here somewhere, but in the end, just decided to avoid the Wards common room if at all possible.
Eventually a PRT agent came to get her - all stiff backed and rigid with these guys, seriously, it's not like she was going to eat one of them or something - and she was led into the building. Unlike her usual circuitous route to the Director's office, she was quickly led off to another meeting room, where Legend was apparently already waiting.
"Nexus. I was wondering if you would be back so soon. Yesterday couldn't have been easy for you." The charismatic man offered with an apologetic smile. She felt her eye twitch slightly at that. It was hard to reconcile the fact that she was talking with one of the greatest heroes in the world, the Blaster to all accounts, against the fact that he was apparently complicit in Alexandria's little conspiracy.
Still, the man was nothing if not friendly, which was more than she could say for a majority of the Capes she had met recently, so she let the momentary spike of conflicting irritation and worship pass into a form of neutral acceptance.
"I honestly would have preferred to take the time off, but I wasn't sure I would get the chance to see you again before you left town. How long are you staying?" She asked politely, taking a seat and barely noticing the protective way Emmy positioned himself behind her.
Or menacing. He could just be being menacing. He did that, sometimes.
"Just until tonight. We have to get back home to make sure no one gets any ideas, but this situation is deserves our full attention." Legend answered with a shrug, tapping his fingers on the table in front of him idly.
"The Alexandria thing right? When's she going to resign?" She asked pointedly. It was amazing what you could achieve using creative interpretations of politeness. Honestly, she didn't know how she would handle this conversation if she hadn't absorbed a certain degree of passive aggressive sniping from Emmy. She had to actively fight to keep the mask like smile from falling across her face as Legend stiffened slightly then sighed dejectedly.
"I guess this was unavoidable huh? We... talked about it. She'll be stepping down in the coming months, as soon as she can train someone else to replace her. I know it's a lot to ask but, please, if you could avoid spreading this around. Trust in the PRT is all that-" Legend began to beseech her only for her to cut him off.
"Yeah, I know, public trust, Endbringers, blah blah." She cut him off, slightly annoyed to have all her own conclusions thrown back at her even if they were correct. She could hear Emmy stifle a snort of laughter behind her and turned around to shoot him a look that promised retribution before turning back to Legend and shrugging at his taken aback look.
"Thinker power." She explained without preamble, cocking her head to one side as she decided how to frame her next question.
"Does she need healing, by the way? Her eye, I mean." She eventually asked, giving up on tact.
"I doubt you could heal her. The same effect that makes her indestructible makes her impossible to heal more or less." Legend offered cautiously, obviously having resigned himself to being caught off guard.
"I could still try. Unless she just prefers to have one eye or something." She stated dryly. Legend looked like he wanted to say something to that but stopped short when the door to the room slid open and Alexandria herself walked in.
"You are remarkably relaxed for someone who should be furious with me." She noted easily.
"Killed a bunch of you already. Also, I have a power that keeps me calm, so there's that." She answered immediately. Which was... partially true. Yes, Inner Peace was a contributing factor to her ability to be objective about all of this. However, more so than that, her sense of what constituted 'strange' and 'bizarre' had recently started to warp slightly. There just... wasn't much the world could throw at her that would surprise her anymore. She was already living the worlds weirdest Cape life. Compared to ostensibly being part dragon, owning a castle, and doing literal magic, this situation just didn't really hit her internal richter scale the way it might once have.
Actually, she was a dragon and owned a castle. She had never thought the words in that sequence before but now that she was-
'Should I be looking into getting all my money changed to golden coins so I can sleep on a pile of them? Am I going to start kidnapping princesses?' She asked Emmy silently.
'...No, and not unless you really want to and have good compatibility.' He responded somewhat sarcastically.
"Nexus?" Legend asked when she abruptly stopped talking.
"Sorry. Had a thought. Don't worry about it. Anyway. Do you want me to heal you or not?" She asked, turning towards the worlds most powerful woman who was shooting her an unreadable look behind her visor.
"I'd like to know why you're offering, first. I won't be bribed or blackmailed." She replied succinctly, sitting down halfway between her and Legend and tenting her hands atop the table.
Taylor blinked. Then blinked again.
"Are you going to keep fighting the Endbringers?" She asked wryly.
"Yes." Alexandria responded promptly.
"Well I figure depth perception would probably help with that." She continued bluntly.
"Look this isn't complicated. I can heal you. You can punch Behemoth. Endbringers are bad. Punching them is good. What do you want me to say? You aren't one of those weirdos like Piggot who's uncomfortable when someone doesn't have an ulterior motive are you?" She asked, narrowing her eyes in question. Honestly, she would never understand some of these people. She just wasn't cut out for scheming.
...The power that let her scheme aside.
The tense stare down between the two of them was cut off by Legend suddenly breaking out in laughter. Alexandria turned to stare at him with all the elegance and grace of an extremely annoyed woman.
"Look, you have to admit, she's refreshingly straight forward." He explained, gesturing flippantly in her direction. She ignored the part of her that registered that as a preemptive attack and suggested she cut the hand off before a laser could come out of it.
"...I'll need to consult with some people before making a decision. The Simurgh is coming, and I'd prefer to avoid any unwanted side effects until I'm sure we can manage them." Alexandria eventually said, turning back towards her.
"However, thank you. Depth perception would be helpful." She added in a tone that could... almost... be joking if it wasn't so staunch sounding.
"Cool. You know where to find me." She replied, having finally gotten through her to do list for the day and desperately wanting to just go home and read a book or something. She got up to do just that - heedless of whether or not she had actually been dismissed - then paused as she made it to the doorway.
"Also, you've got an army of ghosts in the basement. I'll have to come by and look at them later." She stated, earning another taken aback look from Legend and a flat stare from Alexandria.
'Smooth Master. Very smooth.'
'I prefer refreshingly straightforward~'
Choose (2) Two Interludes:
[ ] Noelle
[ ] Genesis
[ ] Blasto
[ ] Mouse Protector
[ ] Accord
[ ] Jess
A/N: Thus ends the Throne War arc. Have some interludes while I sort out what happens next. Something about Taylor just blithely bulldozing through all conversation highly amuses me, so here you go.
In other news, two peeps who've been really good and helpful to me both here and on the discord happen to have their own quests so might I suggest jumping over to check out Avatar Taylor and Kote, Vode An? They're both long, well written quests by people ostensibly smarter than me, so if you enjoy my quest, you'll probably like theirs too.
Anyway. I'm off. Have fun with it.
Last edited: Nov 16, 2020
787
Bowler Hat Guy
Nov 16, 2020
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Threadmarks Bonus Interlude: Greg
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Citino
Citino
Nov 17, 2020
#25,830
Greg Cries At Missed Opportunity
Greg awoke to what he could charitably describe as a migraine, though that perhaps undersold it by a few orders of a magnitude. Forcing his eyes open, he blinked a few times, in an attempt to bring his surroundings into focus, and a dull, white ceiling is the first thing he can make out, reminiscent of a hospital out of a TV show.
Shifting around, he manages to leverage himself up, something that was more of a struggle than it should have been. Greg honestly couldn't tell whether it was the lethargy infusing every inch of his body or his sluggish mind that barely seemed able to hold onto a single thought that was causing him more issues right now. Looking around, you notice that you are what seems to be an infirmary of some sort. Bland, white walls and the scent of sterilized air brought that point home, and you had to cast your mind back to try and figure out what had happened–
Something, some sort of self-preservation instinct, forces your mind away from your last coherent thoughts, and you force yourself to stop trembling at the faded memories of the gaping maw, and countless hours of unending horror that had followed.
Taking a deep breath, you focus on the here and now. You had to figure out where, exactly, you were, and what had happened to the others. How could you meet up with–
...
"Hey, Alec." You sigh, as your eyes catch the young man leaning back in the chair, intent on watching the TV in the corner of the room.
"Hey." He greets you back with a casual wave of the hand, seemingly unconcerned with your awakening. "You know, this Walking Dead show is actually pretty funny." You give Alec the most deadpan stare you can muster, as your brain finally, finally processes the background noise you'd been hearing and ignoring since you first woke up as that of Zombies.
Only Alec. Only Alec would do this to you.
A small smile plays at your lips as you finally give in, shaking your head, before you grow more serious.
"Alec, what happened? I'm having a bit of trouble remembering what happened," Roiling flesh as your eyes snap open, your screams muffled by the ever-shifting mountains of flesh before you are lost again "Other than whatever it was not being good. Where are we? What's going on?"
Alec mutes the screen and turns to face you, "Well," He drawls, "You may have managed to piss off the Triumvirate, Nexus, and New Wave, all at the same time."
Oh god, what?!
"That's what Tatts said at least." He shrugs, "I don't think outting Alexandria is really that big of a deal though." WHAT?!
"WHAT?!" You nearly scream, as you try to figure out what the fuck is actually happening.
Alec nods sanguinely, "Yeah, so, turns out you got kidnapped by a cape that can clone evil versions of you, and a dozen evil yous then all decided to copy Alexandria to get her powers."
Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck.
"Did I mention they were all naked?" Alec said far too innocently for his own good.
The door opens, an exasperated Lisa chiming in, "Alec, shut up. Greg, it's not that bad. Nobody is blaming you for this, and all the big boys are too busy playing clean up to care about us right now." A noticeably tired Lisa enters, carrying a pair of food trays, Brian following up with another pair behind her, nodding at you in greeting.
"Still!" Your voice is shrill, but you don't care now, "If there were a dozen Alexandrias running around, a lot of people would have been hurt! And you can't hurt Alexandria, so how did–?"
Lisa puts one tray in front of you, her voice soothing as she says, "Calm down, it's all handled. It wasn't a dozen Alexandrias, it was a dozen yous with Alexandria's power, and no experience."
Lisa was right, you realize, you were panicking, and not thinking this through. If Alexandria was here, Eidolon was probably here also, and he was the one cape who might be able to take her down.
...Though you wanted to object to the idea that you would be bad at using Alexandria's powers. You'd thought long and hard on how to best use it, and had done a lot of research on her. You might not have been as good as she was, but still, you were pretty confident you could do pretty well!
"And no, you couldn't handle her powers pretty well." Lisa says dryly. Stupid thinker powers...
"Still," You fret, "That's a lot of firepower there."
"More than that." Brian's notes quietly, "Echidna, the cape who captured you, had been building an army with other captured capes as well. She'd made an army large enough to take on an Endbringer by the time we found her."
"It's just that Nexus is apparently a 'You must be this strong to matter' type cape." Alec chipped in, "She just murdered the army, and let Eidolon handle Echidna." He pauses, before adding, "Also she murdered you a dozen times, so there's that. Scary enough that the last one dropped dead just looking at her too, apparently."
You blinked at that. You didn't think Taylor had the powers to hurt Alexandria, of all people, but apparently, she did. One part of you wanted to sprint over the PHO and start a versus debate on the subject to try and figure out how, while the other, probably wiser part, kept your mind focused on the important points.
Namely that you had just missed a battle against an army of capes against Taylor and the Triumvirate!
...Going by Lisa's flat look, you suspect you may be on the wrong track there too.
"Ignoring that," Brian thankfully intervenes, "We need to start preparing for our next step. Where do we go from here?"
"About that." Lisa says, a small smile on her face, "I do have a little tidbit to share with everyone..."
Last edited: Nov 17, 2020
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Citino
Nov 17, 2020
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Threadmarks Interlude: Accord
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
Nov 18, 2020
#25,871
Crime is a definition.
It is not, in and of itself, an action. You can commit a crime, but you cannot 'do crime' in the literal sense.
An excellent example. Drugs. Partaking of them, is illegal. Obtaining them, is illegal. Selling them, is illegal. All crimes.
Crime however, is also relative.
When the average person thinks of crime, drug trafficking, for instance, the mental image produced is of a suspicious looking fellow, often in tattered clothing, standing on a street corner in the dead of night. That person, is a criminal. But there were others. Men and women in boardrooms and expensive hotels, wearing suits and ties. People that show up to work every day to diligently manipulate the money of millions, that return home for a little 'pick me up'. These people, are not known as criminals.
They are merely rich.
Accord worked hard to ensure that he appeared to be the latter, instead of the former in the eyes of the 'heroes'. He didn't have 'dealers', he just took orders. He didn't require a street presence - that was a foolish and easily tracked point of failure. He had a delivery system. People placed orders. Prostitution? There was no need to do anything untoward to obtain workers. Where people exist, they will want sex. And where people want something, someone will be willing to sell it. In a city like Brockton Bay, where the average person was much more likely to be below the poverty line than not, that percentage of people was such that he actually had to screen potential employees. He ran a clean business after all. No need to send his clients home with some disease or other that would prevent them from coming back.
In Boston, this had worked to his advantage. The city was so rife with middling quality villains that the relative calm and safety of his territory in comparison was seen as the best possible result of the system. Or in other words - the Hero's considered the resources required to oust him when he was largely 'harmless' a waste. It wasn't as if he partook in less crime than the rest. As a point of fact, he did much more business than the next most successful gang in the city.
But he dressed it up properly, kept it out of view of everyone who would care, and made absolutely certain that no one would dare ruin that image by doing something... unnecessary.
Carefully, he leaned back in his chair - specially designed not to make any kind of noise when leaned in like the cheap office furniture of so many other boardrooms - and contemplated things.
On the desk in front of him - again, specially made so that it could be symmetrical and ergonomic without sacrificing it's professional look - was a suitcase. Within which were several vials. They had not been cheap to acquire, requiring a significant amount of his funds in order to be given to him without being forced to accede to some kind of lingering attachment or 'favor' based bargaining system. But they were worth it. An unfortunate side effect of being a Parahuman - most of them were unruly in the extreme. They were neurotic. They suffered tics, they had issues, in short - they were unprofessional, which was simply unacceptable to him.
So the ability to vet his employees before providing them with phenomenal power was really the only way forward.
He didn't sigh as he leaned forward, placing his elbows on the desk before him and clasping his hands together. It was a wasted gesture. Instead he spoke, calmly and succinctly.
"Citrine. Send him in." He uttered, turning his attention to the door to his office. It, much like the rest of the room he was in, was plain. He appreciated the elaborate, the complicated, and the interconnected, but if forced to choose between those things done poorly, and the sheer comfort of 'nothing', he would gladly take the latter every time.
Temporarily, at least. He might hold his employees to a strict timeline when ensuring the creation of a new base of operations, but he wasn't foolish enough to demand they rush. The proper time, in the proper order, for every task. That was the correct way to proceed.
Contemplating that almost allowed him to relax, as he sat, patiently counting the seconds it should take an average sized man with a workmans gait to travel from one end of the waiting room to the door.
Naturally, the slightly put upon looking man that entered the room while his aid, Citrine held the door open for him was two seconds slow, likely because of the clear nervousness he was feeling. He flicked his gaze past the man to Citrine and back again, a short but clear warning to the woman that he was not best pleased, and otherwise maintained his position as the overweight laggard shuffled forward to stand in front of his desk.
Accord took a few moments to examine him more closely. He was wearing a suit, as opposed to the last time they had met, which was good. That was about the only thing in his favour. Despite the tidy sum Accord had provided for the mans services, he had opted to buy a cheap uncut suit that did not at all fit or suit him, and a tie that was just slightly off colour from the rest of the suit. The Caucasian man's eyes were sunken, likely the result of a sleepless night, and his face was recently shaved - badly - leaving behind nicks and cuts that someone more competent would not have left behind. His only saving grace in this respect was that he was bald, meaning that he had to put nearly no effort into maintaining his hair.
In short, the mans mere presence was an eyesore to Accord, and he resolved to have him disposed of the second he was finished here. He did not do this lightly. An employer known for randomly murdering his employees was an employer who often lacked said employees. However, that was only if such information was actually made available to the public. The PRT might be aware that he had particular tendencies, but he made very sure that when he indulged them that his tracks were covered.
No one would miss this man. He was just one of the hundreds of out of work nobodies in this city, chosen specifically for his lack of meaningful connection with anyone that might miss him. Accord hadn't planned to kill the man, but he had known ahead of time that his standards were somewhat difficult to maintain.
"Sit." He commanded, his voice smooth and clear despite the strain he was experiencing just resisting the urge to have the man taken out of his presence immediately.
"Yessir." The man responded shortly and nervously, glancing back at Citrine who was still standing by the door before pulling the chair on the opposite side of Accord askew and sitting haphazardly down in it.
Citrine didn't quite grimace behind the man, because she was too perfect for that, but her body language shifted slightly to indicate that she did know what she would be tasked with after this. Accord appreciated that in the woman. She never acted out of turn, but she was always able to account for his needs when required, typically without being verbally told to do so. The acquisition of only one such aide was more than enough of a boon to justify the cost of creating her.
"Report." He ordered again, his eyes snapping back to the man in front of him with unerring accuracy. Eye contact was the basics of the basics with regards to interpersonal communication.
"Uh-" The man began, clearing his throat and looking anywhere but in his eyes. He could feel the segmented portions of his mask pull down into a frown in response to his own unbidden change in expression, and the sudden alertness of his visitor spoke volumes about how menacing that was.
"The Castle has a sort of space warping effect. I talked to a half dozen guys that showed up there, and they all claimed to be blocks away in different directions when they got there. No clue how it works, but all of them said they were being mugged or chased or some such at the time." The informant explained carefully, a bead of sweat trickling down from the crown of his head and down his neck.
"And the recordings?" He queried. The man gulped, then slowly reached into his suit jacket to withdraw a cellphone, placing it carefully on desk, directly infront of the suitcase that Accord had never actually removed from it's position at it's center. Originally, the intention would have been for this man to spread the knowledge of the suit cases existence, in order to attract hopefuls. Obviously that plan would have to be changed now.
"Got about an hour on there. Just- just take the sim card out I guess." He said, licking his lips expectantly.
"That won't be necessary. You will be compensated as you leave. Citrine." He stated, dismissing the man without a second thought. Much to his ire, the fool glanced between him and the phone for a moment before giving up, rising and following Citrine out of the room, her eponymously coloured dress sweeping exactly two and a half inches from the ground as she trailed behind him, closing the door. She didn't look back at him for confirmation. Didn't speak a word.
While his aide went about her assigned task, Accord busied himself removing the the suitcase from his desk, then withdrawing a laptop from within the piece of furniture. In the time between when he had finished preparing the device to his liking, and Citrine's return, there was a single gunshot, and then nothing.
Again, he lamented the state of the building. The sound proofing of his actual office would have made that nearly inaudible.
Once everything was in place - the sim card placed in the laptop, Citrine standing dutifully behind him at the a respectful distance - he navigated to the video program of the device, and then began to play through the video he had paid for in blood.
The recording wasn't of something particular complicated or secret. He had wanted it for confirmation more than anything else. There was shockingly little footage of Nexus and her team at work. He couldn't determine if that was intentional or not, but he had to admit it didn't much matter. Unintentional success was still success.
Not that this was footage taken directly of the girl. She was powerful, possibly one of the most powerful capes in the country presently, but he had no use for her. Too chaotic. Impossible to control. Impossible to predict. He had toyed with a plan that would lead to her finding her way to him as an Ambassador, but the investment involved, both in time and money, wasn't worth it. Her power was chaos itself. He could never abide such a thing.
No, what he wanted was of a lower order than the secrets of Nexus seat of power. He didn't intend to stay in this city. He had blocked exactly three months of time to be here. The fact that he was taking territory and setting up an office to work from was simply a matter of comfort. Had Coil been successful in his take over it would have served as something of an embassy to his fellow schemer. Now it would serve another purpose.
On the screen in front of him, he watched dozens of women move through a variety of martial arts forms. In a real Dojo, one that worked for profit of any kind, they would all be making identical movements. Many of those on the screen were, in fact. But there were subtle differences to them. An economy of motion in each of them that became subtly greater the longer they worked. Nexus rarely visited this place, but whatever properties allowed her to teach people to fight appeared to be transitive, because Aspirant - another possible candidate for recruitment that he had opted against - moved through the group, subtly changing postures with prodding hands and gentle shoves. Wherever he passed, behind he left perfection.
It wasn't just skill with the martial arts that was left in his wake. It was skill with martial arts tailored perfectly to the recipient of the advice. A hundred variations on the same move, all modified to be perfectly effective for a hundred different people, all with different body types, fitness levels, and skills.
And Nexus was just letting him give that away.
If it didn't suit him so well it would infuriate him. As it was, he was stretching himself dangerously thin attempting to make use of it. One of the first things he had been forced to determine was if Aspirant only taught women. That didn't seem to be the case, but it certainly seemed like men had a hard time staying with the program. A room full of unwilling ex-prostitutes who may or may not have strong feelings on the topic of the opposite sex was likely to have that kind of result.
Not that it mattered. Anyone who wanted to work for him would receive that training. He didn't deal in the mediocre. He dealt in perfection. He didn't hire and then waste millions of dollars on 'competence'.
Now was the time to act. While the city was in this lull from that Monster's defeat. Nexus was predictable, at least in this. If he exercised his ability to keep things quiet for a while, he could almost guarantee the woman would pass through that Dojo at some point.
There would be a lot of quiet, unreported deaths in the coming weeks. It wouldn't do to draw attention to them when the entire goal was to put Nexus at ease.
But that was fine. He did his best not to look it, but at the end of the day;
He was a criminal.
789
Bowler Hat Guy
Nov 18, 2020
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Threadmarks Interlude: Genesis
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
Nov 23, 2020
#26,178
"Hey. We're nearly there." Mar's voice was quiet but insistent, indicating she had been trying to wake Jesse up for more than a little while.
"Mmm." She mewled, cracking one eye open to stare up at the inside of the car. She had to spend a few moments acclimating herself to her actual body before responding. Some people might assume that because her power was based on sleeping, that she might have developed something of an aptitude for waking up quickly - but it really didn't. In fact, it was quite the opposite. The longer she stayed awake, the more of a 'charge' she developed for her power, allowing her to create bigger, more complicated, more powerful projections. Naturally this meant that she tended to have odd sleeping hours. Stay up too long to charge up. Sleep too long to work. And at the end of the day, neither experience was particularly restful.
It was definitely fun at least.
"What day is it?" She asked, using her arms to pull herself up into a sitting position in the back seat where she had been laying down.
"Wednesday. Do you want me to stop and-" Marissa asked her, and she had to resist the urge to roll her eyes. Without Luke to look out for all of them, Mars had become aggravatingly 'helpful'. The fact that half of her reasons for doing so amounted to 'avoiding Krouse' was probably the only reason she tolerated it. She couldn't begrudge her friend the opportunity to avoid the idiot.
"No, it's fine. Just drive, I know you suck at it." She teased, covering up the irritation she was feeling. She and Mars were the only Travelers left as far as she was concerned. They could only rely on each other. She wasn't sure if they had a kill order on them yet, but she was sure she would eventually.
Which made it vital that they get the hell out of that city and find somewhere to hide until things calmed down.
"I- I'm really not comfortable with this." Noelle whined, her human upper half just high enough up that she was able to speak with them where they were standing on the catwalk above.
"I assure you Miss Meinhardt, this is a neccessary step on the path to curing you. You may perhaps have heard of a local Cape called Nexus?" Coild answered, hands clasped behind his back as two of his mercenaries wheeled a hospital bed into the empty concrete room Noelle was living in. On it was a young girl.
Jesse - Genesis, when she was working - watched curiously as they did so. Presently, she was inhabiting the body of a female warrior, tall and covered in armored plates. It wasn't her best work, but it felt sufficiently heroic, and it let her walk around the base without too much trouble.
"A bit." Noelle hedged in response to the question. She was suspicious, which was fair. She tried not to question the wisdom of their leaders plans - Krouse was an idiot but he was usually a competent idiot - but even she could see the dubious benefit in trusting a man who's entire theme was snakes
"Well you see, her power periodically changes into something it thinks she needs. In order to cure you, I will have to create enough leverage to make her 'need' to heal you." He explains.
Something about that explanation felt distinctly off to her, but she dared not speak up. They were hiding the loss of Luke and Oliver well enough, but they really needed a win soon or things were going to go poorly.
"But... she's a kid." Noelle tried again weakly.
Noelle was many things, but proud of her power, she was not. The tumorous collection of limbs and teeth that made up her lower half was something she studiously tried to pretend didn't exist, when she was even lucid enough to do so.
"And in order to leverage her without hurting her, I need this from you. I am doing my utmost to meet my end if our agreement." Coil explained soothing. His voice was, for a supervillain, surprisingly reassuring, provide a you werent looking at him while he spoke.
Noelle look from Coil, to Krouse, and then to Dinah, before hesitantly, looking down at herself with an expression of sorrow and shame.
"Okay." She finally offered in a small defeated voice.
"I'm not that bad at it." Marissa returned in a good natured huff. She had honestly been in higher spirits this last week than she had been in the year before. Not being attached to the eternal quest to fix Noelle, constantly living at the edge of society while Krouse planned their next caper had worn on the girl. She wasn't by nature violent or hateful, which made the fact that she had the most dangerous and offensive power among them particularly poignant.
"You are. I can't believe noone's pulled us over yet." Jesse continued, carefully using her upper body to rotate herself so her feet were in the ground, and then - steadying herself with one arm - grabbed for and snapped in her seatbelt. They drove on in companionable silence for a time until Marissa interjected.
"...what are we going to do when we get there?" She suddenly asked, her tone somewhat lost.
"I dunno. There are what - two capes in the place? Who names a town Gosnold anyway?" She answered.
"Jesse. I don't want to be a cape. Why can't we just, get a job like normal people?" Mars countered.
"We aren't citizens. We aren't even legally people here Mars." She chided the girl gently. She tried not to be smug about it. She didn't like Krouse much anymore, but she loved her powers. They were the best thing in her life. She could be anyone, do anything. All her dreams could be reality.
"Still..." She hesitated.
"We have to take care of stupid too." She pointed out, causing Mars to flinch.
The process was quick and - mostly - harmless. The girl was wheeled down to the ground, where she was carefully abutted up against Noelle for the split second it would take for her power to get a 'sample' of her. Then they all waited roughly five minutes while Noelle uncomfortably fidgeted, doing her utmost to not look down. Instead she spoke quietly with Krouse and Coil, who were standing on the catwalk above. The dubious task of capturing the resultant clone fell to her, because, among other things, she was in no actual danger from her much larger, more dangerous friend.
This wasn't her real body after all.
Eventually, with a horrendous squelching sound, a perfect duplicate of the girl was disgorged from one of Noelle's many, many orifices, and she darted forward, snatching her by an ankle and yanking her away as quickly as possible, causing the duplicate to squawk in displeasure.
"None of this is real you know! You'll never know if you wen't to sleep one night and never woke up!" The little girl howled at her the second they made eye contact. She twitched slightly at the accusation, but pressed onward, grabbing both of her arms and holding them behind her so that the mercenaries could administer the sedative. That had hit unexpectedly close to home, and it set alarm bells to ringing in her head that she couldn't quite think to act on. In order for this to work, their employer had told them, the duplicate would have to be... disposed of... in a particular way. To make the death believable.
"They only keep you so you'll kill for them! She'll be disgusted with you if you ever fix her!"
Of course, this meant that the unstable clone was free scream while she held it still. Which was unfortunate, because once she laid eyes on Noelle, she suddenly stopped moving.
"They're lying to you! They're all dead! Dead!"
At this, Noelle stopped talking and paused, her entire torso tilting downward.
"Noelle don't listen - you know how these things are." Krouse rushed to reassure her, leaning over the railing to get her attention. Coil was already stepping back, attempting to leave the room. Unfortunately, it was too late. A single flesh tendril slapped upward to catch the skinny villain, creating an audible crunch as it squeezed tight around him and causing him to gasp out in pain and panic before going limp. Like the head of a snake, Noelle's torso bent forward, putting it close enough to look down into the clones eyes, and the mercenaries to either side of her gulped, raising there weapons and being summarily dismembered by the grasping claws and teeth that made up Noelles lower half.
If she could sweat right now, she absolutely would. Noelle wasn't just dangerous, she was the most dangerous being she could easily think of besides an actual Endbringer. They had managed to corral in the past, to keep her somewhat contained until she could calm down - but that was when all of them were together. They hadn't even had to try since they lost Cody. Now... now the best options was going to be to run.
"Explain." Noelle hissed, in the sibilant tone that told Jesse that the actual Noelle had basically completely checked out.
Maybe she could salvage the situation? If she just snapped the things neck then -
She froze, finding all of the eyes on Noelle's lower body staring directly at her. Noelle swore she had no control over it most of the time. But sometimes...
She decided that now probably wasn't the moment to draw attention to herself. So instead of actually following through on her idle thought - she turned her power off-
-and woke up in a cold sweat in her wheelchair.
"Mars. Mars we have to go." She blurted out to the other girl sharing a room with her, reading a book under the only light in the room.
"Wha-" The redhead began to ask, only to be cut off by the sound of a hundred bestial mouths screaming in protest.
"She found out." Was all Jesse could say by way of explanation.
"Y-yeah. We should... get him some water, before we hit town." She offered weakly.
Jesse rolled her eyes at the concern being shown for their least liked teammate, but patiently allowed Mars to pull over to the side of the road, open up her wheelchair and help her slide into it. After which, they both moved to the trunk of the beat up hatchback they'd been driving, and with great trepidation on Marissa's part - popped it open.
Krouse - or Trickster in costume - was in the rear, his arms and legs ducktaped together. He was in his casual clothes, which they had managed to get him into while he was unconscious after being attacked by Noelle, and had a blindfold on. That was one upside to knowing everything about each others powers.
They knew how to stop eachother. And Trickster typically needed to be able to see to use his own.
"We have to go back! Noelle - Noelle's probably being hunted down right now!" The moron begged them, struggling desperately against his bindings.
"Krouse. They're going to kill us. I loved Noelle like a sister but what left that building wasn't her." Marissa begged in return. Jesse couldn't understand why. They both hated him. But she supposed Mars was just more compassionate than her. Too attached.
"Then just let me go! I don't need you!" Trickster yelled back, struggling even harder.
"Because you'd do something stupid and get yourself killed, or get Ollie killed." Jesse answered matter of factly. She didn't bother to explain which of those mattered more to her. It seemed fairly obvious to her.
"Fuck Oliver! That little fucking shit could have avoided all of this if he just came back when I fucking told him to! This is all his fault!" Trickster - definitely not Krouse, because the man in front of her had been consumed by his powers every bit as much as Noelle had been - raged. Jesse was honestly torn on the topic herself. On the one hand - yes, Oliver had absolutely sold them up the river. On the other, if she'd known she could get away from Krouse and Noelle, she'd probably have taken it. Hell, Nexus apparently could heal anything. She might be able to walk.
Opportunities lost she supposed. Maybe she would try and get in contact with Oliver later. When the heat had died down and killing her wasn't just legal, but a moral imperative to the rest of the caped community.
"Krouse- if we let you go, will you leave us out of it?" She asked before Mars could get into an argument with dumb dumb. The idiot stilled at her statement.
"Jesse, come on. I know thinks look bad but-" He tried. He always did that. He held them together with obligation. Until Oliver had left them, she'd have bought it to. But not anymore. Unexpectedly however, she wasn't the one that had to cut him off.
"No. Krouse, I'm out. I don't want this anymore. I just want a normal life. A house. A job. Some flowers. We aren't going home, and Noelle isn't getting cured. You can stay or you can go, just choose one and do it." She declared with more heat than Jesse could easily remember the timid girl ever actually demonstrating in public.
Krouse, for his part scowled at her, which was all the answer either of them needed really.
She hoped for his sake that he was smarter than usual by the time he made it back to the bay.
Or not.
Good riddance.
Hm. You haven't actually been to School in this Emulation before. Choose One (1) Action. Taylor automatically spends free time furthering her current training.
[ ]Patrol The City (Choose a target area: The Docks, Downtown, Uptown) (Choose two people to come with you: Victoria, Gallant, Triumph, Aspirant, Trainwreck, Jess, Danny)
[ ] Have Taylor take some time out to fortify the Heap with Onmyoudo.
[ ] Some of the Teeth got away. Spree, Hemorrhagia, Reaver. Aspirant seems pretty worked up about it.
[ ] You missed the Undersiders at the PRT building, so you'll have to track them down if you want to scream at them.
[ ] Maybe you should look in on New Wave, Brandish seemed... unhappy... last time you spoke.
[ ] You owe Aspirant a fight to the Death.
[ ] ...Could you start a parahuman training school? You could at least look into some candidates... (Choose one: Dojo Students, Dockworkers, Panda Gang, Police)
[ ] Is Dinah okay? Is Mouse Protector? Are they still with the PRT? They should be clear by now right? Would Amy know?
[ ] Take Time Off (Pick a Social)
[ ] Write-In
EDIT: Nearly forgot! Check out this quest by the ever friendly, DragonGrimoire - she's been very active on the discord and deserves some love!
Last edited: Nov 23, 2020
691
Bowler Hat Guy
Nov 23, 2020
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