PHO: The Protagonists Awaken
Topic: Winslow Cape News
In: Boards Capes Brockton Bay General
GirlPower (Verified Winslow Student)
Posted on February 1, 2011:
Hey all. I know a lot of people here have been on the Arcadia school PHO page, and have loved the daily local cape updates as much as I have. Sadly, Winslow never had their own set of unmasked capes to brag about... until now.
So without further ado, I hereby create the Winslow Cape News thread.
...even if we actually only have one cape to our name.
(Showing Page 12 of 22)
GloriousGhost
Posted on February 21, 2011:
But that doesn't explain why they called themselves the Panda gang! Even with the whole 'saved by panda dude' backstory!
Like, the name just makes me think the school is controlled by a bunch of hyperactive twelve-year-olds, not that they are following the orders of one of the strongest capes in the city.
The Lightning Mind
Posted on February 21, 2011:
Idk what to tell you dude. Other than just don't laugh in their faces, because I'm pretty sure that despite the cute and cuddly name, they can still beat the shit out of you any day of the week, even without Nexus just slapping you down.
TheOneYouWater
Posted on February 21, 2011:
omfg, did she just get super-attractiveness as a power?!
Pazrival95
Posted on February 21, 2011:
Wtf, why is that even a power?!
Seriously, look at this bullshit!
FreezerOne
Posted on February 21, 2011:
Huh, so yeah, she looks pretty and all that, but nothing you can't do without a makeover. Are we really sure she didn't just learn to do her makeup at like Hollywood levels or something?
outthere001
Posted on February 21, 2011:
If she did, she would have to have worked on how photogenic she is as well. Was looking through my friend's pics and showing off my own, and we noticed that her hair is always perfectly placed, that the light happens to hit juuuuust right when you take a picture or even just look at her, and that anytime she is drinking or eating something, she somehow manages to look good doing it.
Considering I have never seen someone who can eat Winslow's sloppy joe's and look good doing so until today, I call bullshit on all this.
PrinceofHope
Posted on February 21, 2011:
Whelp, that it's everyone. Let's pack it up and head on home, Nexus won everything forever.
'Super PR' powerset is just unfair to the rest of the world.
SunWu
Posted on February 21, 2011:
ok
but why tho?
NathanLow
Posted on February 21, 2011:
Because we live on earth bet, and earth bet exists to please some group of distant deities who enjoy watching this world muddle along.
It's about the only way you can really explain everything tbh.
Goopy
Posted on February 21, 2011:
...Oh no.
Nexus made a statement of availability.
RIP thread
1, 2, 3, ... 11, 12, 12, ... 20, 21, 22.
(Showing Page 13 of 22)
DeathCatz
Posted on February 21, 2011:
What do you–
Sees video*
Oh dear god we are all DOOMED.
Riverain
Posted on February 21, 2011:
And Lo, the cries of a multitude of teenage souls cried out, as the incarnation of young adult fantasies descended from the heavens, and decreed:
"You must be this tall to ride!"
And so did the hopes of young men (and women, I don't judge) everywhere bloom.
rEdWeREWolF52
Posted on February 21, 2011:
Fuck, school is just going to be a constant bloodbath from now on. I have several male friends who are already planning to do a group planning session in regards to how to take her in a fight. One of them is apparently planning on researching how to get superpowers.
Ann-tar
Posted on February 21, 2011:
Shit girl, how we supposed to compete with this? Not just an all-around upgrade in the looks department, but literally making herself into the heroine of a shitty young adult novel?
She doesn't get to spend time slapping down enemy capes with the Triumvirate or running her own team from her personal castle/mall/whatever-hell-she-feels-like-it-being-today, noooo, she now gets all the good looking guys going for her too.
Some girls get all the luck.
PosionGold
Posted on February 21, 2011:
Nah, don't worry about it. They'll all fail to win and come crawling back to us. At which point, we get our pick of the depressed boys who need a bit of tender love and care.
Seems like a win-win to me in the long run honestly.
Creative Light
Posted on February 21, 2011:
Wait, doesn't Nexus get stronger over time or whatever? What happens if she gets too strong?
...Nexus just fucked herself over, didn't she?
DrakeTome
Posted on February 21, 2011:
40-year-old single, slightly desperate Nexus, ho?
Soccer
Posted on February 21, 2011:
Oh god, don't joke. We really don't need the strongest cape in the city going crazy because she set the bar too high for all the datable guys.
Eon Arcane Tempus
Posted on February 21, 2011:
...There's always Scion and the Endbringers technically?
FirstFallPetal
Posted on February 21, 2011:
1. Ew, Scion is like forty years old or whatever.
2. Nexus getting desperate enough to date Leviathan sounds like a very, very bad thing.
1, 2, 3, ... 12, 13, 14, ... 20, 21, 22.
Topic: Winslow Cape News
In: Boards Brockton Bay General
BB Chamber of Commerce (Offical Account)
Posted on February 19, 2011:
Good Afternoon,
It is with great joy that I announce a joint venture between the Oathbound and the Brockton Bay Chamber of Commerce!
Nexus, a valued member of the Brockton Bay community, has recently come into possession of a large amount of land. Having little need of much of the area for herself or her team, she has generously agreed to aid the local economy by opening much of that room for use by commercial interests. The Chamber of Commerce has already secured multiple interested parties in conjunction with the Mayor's office, and we have already gained the PRT's approval for the project.
Multiple vendors have already begun moving into place, and a store run by the local cape and member of the Oathbound, Parian, will be among the first open! Parian's Apparel will feature a wide variety of fashionable clothes and other cloth goods.
But it's not just clothes that you will find here! Everything from dining to gaming will be represented!
And of course, you will be able to tour the inside of the Oathbound's base of operations, and may even have a chance to see a member of the Oathbound or the PRT as they patrol!
We hope that everyone is looking forward to this as much as we are!
If there are any questions in regards to this topic, we will be happy to answer them either here or through a PM. Should a vendor have any interest in securing a place in the new mall, please contact us a , or visit our website for more information.
(Showing Page 5 of 6)
Espirit
Posted on February 22, 2011:
Ohhhh, apparently we're getting a Cheesecake Factory in the mall! Oh man, now I have to go! Parian's alone was a pretty big draw, but c'mon, how can I pass up a freaking Cheesecake Factory?
OneYoungMan
Posted on February 22, 2011:
So that's the third restaurant that's planning on moving in. I'm not going to lie, I'm a bit surprised at the interest being shown in this. I know Parahumans are a pretty big draw tourism wise, but still, setting up shop in a hero's base seems a tad risky, since you could always get a crazy villain showing up out of the blue.
BlueCattle
Posted on February 22, 2011:
Funny how you can pretty easily tell who is an out of towner by comments like that.
Yeah, funny thing about that, Nexus has some sort of 'notice me not' field around her place. Doesn't work on anyone who doesn't plan to be a shitlord or anything, but if you are, you apparently can't find it. Lot of people nowadays just run towards the castle whenever they're in trouble, because it basically screws over whoever is chasing you. It's why a lot of the wannabe gangbangers have been having so much trouble setting up in her neighborhood, even with Nexus sitting back and chilling most of the time. Can't fuck with people who are too close to the castle reliably, which makes it really hard to scare anyone in the area.
Kenhalv
Posted on February 22, 2011:
Well, that and the scary kung-fu girls that roam the area.
OneYoungMan
Posted on February 22, 2011:
Ok, now I know you all are just fucking with me.
AwokenMoon
Posted on February 22, 2011:
We wish we were, but nope. That just like AN.
(AN means After Nexus for you lame outsiders btw)
MangyLD
Posted on February 23, 2011:
Annnnnnd Nexus just Nexus'd again.
Congrats BB, we've got a new skyscrapper.
...Huh, I can't tell, is it shorter or taller than the Empire State Building?
ExhaustedTraveler
Posted on February 23, 2011:
Ok, seriously, where does she get the materials to build these sorts of things??? Like, she can't be just pulling it out of thin air, right?
Trainwreck (Verified Trainwreck) (Oathbound)
Posted on February 23, 2011:
Me: Asks that exact question
Nexus: It's magic. I don't got to explain nothing
Just don't even fucking bother. It's not worth the headache
LiveShark
Posted on February 23, 2011:
Ah. I sense that we have a man that feels our suffering even more keenly than most. Good luck friend.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
Last edited: Jan 3, 2021
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Citino
Jan 3, 2021
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Threadmarks Dynasty 11.10
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
Jan 8, 2021
#28,771
Spoiler: Choices:
Current Energy: 2
Current Training:
Crystallized Wisdom (9/10) - Complete
Magic Resistance (7/10), This Omake bonus in thanks to DragonGrimoire
Thursday, February 24th, 2011
Hebert Household, Brockton Bay
That morning, you and your Master are sitting in the kitchen while she fiddles with her copy of the Wisdom - a set of wire frame glasses almost identical to her own.
"Why didn't you tell me I could ignore them when they were making my nose bleed every morning?" She asks you with only mild annoyance, testing them by running a thumb along the outside of one lens and flicking them lightly, causing the entire apparatus to change into a single stylized monocle that she frowns at in consideration.
"Why would I? You have to use them to train with them - so teaching you how not to use them would rather defeat the point." You explain yourself, sipping at the cup of coffee before you.
You don't actually need the stimulant - not for assistance waking up, nor for base sustenance - but as with your continued habit of sleeping normally, you find yourself simply accustomed to eating like a normal person. You'd like to blame the Panda for that, obsessed with food as he was, but in truth it was only when you were Oscar that this really became the norm for you. Out of all your Emulations, Oscar was most certainly the closest in nature to a normal boy. He was uncomfortable around girls, enjoyed his free time liberally, and just generally experienced the world through a lens that a legendary figure such as Sigurd simply never could.
"Still would have been nice. I thought I was going to have to walk around with these things in my pocket all the time." Taylor complains, flicking her wrist and producing a pair of coke bottle lenses. Then goggles. Then sunglasses.
"Those can be any kind of facial covering that you have to look through. They don't have to be glasses." You note as she continues the arduous task of trying to find a pair of glasses she likes.
You doubt she is altogether bothered by their appearance. In truth, she is probably much more concerned with the hell Victoria will rain down on her when she discovers the transformative properties of the accessory.
"I'm an outed cape. A mask at this point would just be weird." She counters instantly, sighing and reverting the Wisdom to a form mimicking her normal prescription glasses, and then putting them on. You shrug.
"There are other reasons to wear a mask. I used mine as a gas mask for a time." You defend. Taylor lifts an eyebrow in your direction, then shrugs the comment off, turning to the other people at the table.
"So, any complications I have to deal with?" She asks Mun curiously, the raven haired - and yes, the pun was intentional - girl rabidly scarfing down her meal. While the stack of pancakes in front of her is actually portioned for a girl her size, and she lacks the insatiable hunger of your Master, it is clear that the girl who was once a bird has been missing real food dearly.
The girl in question pauses in her onslaught briefly to look up at the rest of the table, blink once as though having forgot anyone else was present, and then speaks a single word.
"Nope." She says, making a popping noise to accentuate the 'p', and then returning to her meal.
"You're being rude." Mem complains - in so much as a monotone can convey complaint - from the opposite end of the table. Her own breakfast is something of an outlier compared to the houses usual residents, being only a cup of tea and a hashbrown that she is slowly nibbling at.
"Oh- I'm sorry, let me try again." Mun says sarcastically.
"Hey, so actually, I do have some problems. See you made me look like me, but if you could just make me into a super stacked amazon with super strength and also a magical tiara, that'd be greaaaat." Mun states sarcastically.
"...Wow you are literally just Dinah if she was a bitch aren't you?" Taylor asks aloud, heedless of how rude her statement is.
"I prefer blunt. Practical even. If it were me, I would have just walked up to you and asked you to kill Coil for me or something. The cloak and dagger stuff was dumb." Mun grouses.
"Removal of existential threats is the best way to proceed in most cases." Mem adds, though her slight pout in Mun's direction over the perceived rudeness to your Master is adorable. Also concerning, since when you were that young your thought process would have probably included at least some consideration towards murdering the offending person.
You make a note to check in with the Shikigami on the topic later.
"Why did she do that? Not that I would just assassinate a guy because a random twelve year old asked me to." Taylor asks, before hurrying to add.
"I dunno. I - she's dumb. Asks binary questions like chances something will go well, and then just takes them at face value instead of expanding on it or going deeper. If I still had that power-" Mun starts then stops, growling in annoyance. You suppose that it might be difficult to possess memories that encompass what must seem like your entire life, only to be told that those memories aren't your own.
Your Master peers at the younger girl for a second, her expression softening in understanding.
"I'll probably have to get you an identity and everything soon. Same as Mem. So you can go to school and stuff." Taylor interjects, changing the subject.
"I must decline." "Hard pass." Mem and Mun say at once, much to your amusement.
"Your little girls. You're going to school. You're going to make friends. You're going to get lunch bags and trade the snacks you don't like with the other kids, and you're going to like it." Taylor says with a beatific smile on her face that does absolutely nothing to reduce the brutal, ironclad tone in her voice.
Mem and Mun both immediately pale, flinching slightly away from your Master. Then Mem slowly lifts a hand, like a student requesting permission to speak.
"You don't need to do that, I'm not mad." Taylor says, her expression cracking as it returns to a normal, non-demonic smile.
"I will have less time to spend on research?" She asks tentatively.
"That's fine Mem. You don't need to be constantly working." Taylor says fondly.
"But-" Mem begins to resist only to be cut off by Taylor.
"Oz ran a school. You can understand the importance of socializing in your age group, right?" She slyly points out. This, of course, gets Mem to immediately stop arguing - the younger girl being completely incapable of doing anything she envisions Ozma would want. Which... isn't healthy, but also, isn't likely to come up frequently. And in this case, it's an incentive your Master is using to get the girl to behave in a more healthy fashion, instead of working herself to death - so you feel it's appropriate.
"Great job boss. Way to argue for those benefits." Mun says dryly before rolling her neck as though about to go into a prize fight.
"Okay so-" She starts.
"Dinah will be there." Taylor points out flatly.
"...Yeah, okay you win." Mun states, instantly changing her tune.
"Why are you so obsessed with meeting Dinah? Is this an evil clone thing?" Taylor asks suspiciously. Mun just snorts.
"I'm pretty much her sister right? She got to keep our parents and name, so I think I should be allowed to mess with her a little." She grouses.
"Define 'mess with'." You state curiously. The younger girl turns to you as you speak - you aren't very talkative to people besides Aisha and your Master, so she's been largely ignoring you - then blushes furiously and turns away.
"I dunno." She mutters sullenly.
"Sorry? I didn't-"
"I don't know okay!" She snaps at you before returning to eating her breakfast at a much more sedate pace.
The table falls silent at that declaration for a moment, before.you decide to move on to the next order of business. Clearing your throat, you make sure you have everyones attention before proceeding.
"Well. I believe some training is in order. I'll need Mem's help this time." You say with a charming smile. Taylor and Mem both instantly perk up.
"I will do anything I can." Mem agrees instantly. Taylor just watches you intently. Which is good. You doubt she'll be as happy with this particular training after she starts it.
"Great! Taylor, you can feel the energy of your Dragon Core, correct?" You ask, just to be sure everyone is on the same page.
"Hard not to. Feels like my heart is beating twice as loud all the time." She confirms with a nod.
"Well. What I'd like to teach you is an ability called Magic Resistance. It makes it harder for outside forces to affect you. Take your prana - the energy from your core - and circulating it through your body, like blood. When it is moving fast enough, you will find others have a much harder time doing things like... well." You pause, watching as your Master's expression screws up in concentration. Then you turn to Mem.
"You should be passingly familiar with hypnosis. It's a fairly simple application of Magecraft." You ask her, noticing that Taylor is barely paying any attention to you as she struggles to achieve that task you have set.
"Yes." Mem replies diligently, have shifted her posture to that of an eager student.
"While she is doing that, attempt to hypnotize her into doing something foolish." You say mischievously gesturing towards Taylor.
"This isn't that hard. I doubt-" she starts, then stops when Mem quickly turns to make eye contact with her. There is a snap of energy in the air, and then Taylor goes dull eyed and still.
"Pat my head." She commands cutely, before releasing her hold on your Masters mind.
"-she's going to be able to..." Taylor trails off, realizing her body has moved on it's own to begin gently stroking Mem's head before she could even finish speaking.
Taylor frowns. Mem puffs her chest out, pleased at the attention.
Mun, simply laughs.
Thursday, February 24th, 2011
Winslow High School, Brockton Bay
School that day goes about the same way as you've grown accustomed to. You largely spend your time making sure nothing untoward is happening, although admittedly, you find yourself having to do very little as time goes on.
One can only be stopped from physically bullying someone so many times by an invisible man before one realizes it might be unwise. As such, you find yourself with significantly more time to follow your Master around. She jokingly describes your tendency to drift quietly behind her as 'puppy like' which you ignore.
The relaxed and generally dull air in the school is abruptly cut short when your Master takes a single step into one of her afternoon classes - and freezes.
The desks in this classroom are arranged in groups of two. This is not uncommon for the school. What is uncommon, is for any student to have the courage to attempt to sit adjacent to your Master. Even with the Panda Gang existing, an overwhelming majority of the students here are painfully aware of the torment they helped levy on Taylor Hebert before she had the ability to smear them across the nearest hard surface like so much paste.
There was only ever one soul in the building with such a complete lack of a self preservation instinct. And truthfully, he is the last person you would think should test your Master's patience.
Unfortunately, as has become something of a theme with Greg, the blonde boy has managed to comppetely subvert all expectations just by existing.
You wouldn't quite say the air in the room grows heavier with each step your Master takes towards the boy. But you also wouldn't dare insinuate it was a pleasant feeling surrounding her when she finally took a seat next to him, turning her head woodenly with a mix of expressions on her face. Eventually, the tug of war between relief and anger settled into a muted scowl as Greg watched your Master sheepishly.
"You know I can literally hunt you to the ends of the earth if I want to right?" She hisses at him.
"Hot." Greg replies instantly, seemingly by reflex, before blanching and lifting both hands as if to ward off attack.
"I mean uh. Can we talk later maybe? Uh you know. Cus..." He waves his hand at his face, obviously indicating his lack of a mask.
Taylor narrows her eyes at him annoyance, then - with great concentration and focus - traces a rune in the air beneath her desk. When the symbol is completed, the entire classroom goes deathly silent. Except... not. You can still see students moving there mouths and responding to each other. You just can't hear anything. Experimentally, you step slightly away from your Master's desk, and are met with a wall of sound as the effects of her spell fade. Nodding in satisfaction at the effect, you quickly step back in.
"There. They can't hear us." Taylor states flatly, still staring at Greg like she might a live grenade.
"Oh. Uh. Okay so-" Greg starts, rubbing the back of his head and then flinching when Taylor cuts him off with a shrill yell.
"WHAT THE FUCK GREG!" She hollers at him, grabbing him by an ear and tugging sharply on it - something so blatantly out of character for her that despite not being able to hear her, the entire class pauses to stare at.
"Ow! Taylor stop I- Listen I didn't have a choice okay!" Greg complains weakly, swatting at the hand pulling at his ear. For the first time, you notice that his physique is distinctly more refined than it should be. Not obscenely so - Greg isn't walking around as a body builder - but you doubt he's using his own body presently.
"Didn't have a - Greg you know where I live! I own a castle! I have a phone. You literally stopped coming to school and then the next thing I new you were a fucking supervillain! Give me one good reason not to bring you in right now." Taylor growls angrily.
"I just told you! Coil was blackmailing all the Undersiders! None of them want to be villains!" Greg squawks, hands dropping and face turning red as he resigns himself to just weathering the pain.
This statement finally gives your Master pause, and so she slowly releases her grip on Greg, frowning. Carefully, she lifts one hand to adjust her glasses - no, to adjust the Crystallized Wisdom - causing a flash of light to glint across their surface, obscuring her eyes for a moment. Then her frown deepens.
'Well he at least believes that.' She grouses silently to you.
'Is that bad?' You respond in confusion.
'No, but the PRT already has Coil. I don't have anyone to take this anger out on.' She continues to complain grumpily.
"...So you aren't a supervillain?" Taylor asks suspiciously.
"No! I mean, kinda but - we're going straight! Private Contractors! I swear!" He starts, then rushes to clarify at the dour look Taylor sends him. Taylor opens her mouth to respond to that - probably with something acerbic and biting given her mood - but then pauses as she suddenly observes something strange happening outside of her bubble of silence.
Every student in the classroom has abruptly gone still, followed a few seconds later by quickly filing out of the room. Confused, your Master dismisses her silencing spell, only for both her and Greg to freeze in place at the wailing sound of a siren blaring throughout the school, no the entire city.
You honestly have no idea what this means, and are about to say so, when a pale Greg answers your question for you.
"Endbringer." He whispers.
Choose One (1) Interlude
[ ] Bitch
[ ] Jess
[ ] Long Memory
[ ] Parian
NathanMedium wants to activate Age of Heroes I for 5 Points.
[ ] NathanMedium/Yes
[ ] NathanMedium/No
Current Omake Points: 38
A/N: So for those that don't know, this quest has spawned a number of spin offs which I'm really excited to see progress and grow!
First is DragonGrimoire's Inheritance Of Heroes, A My Hero Academia Quest where Deku has our eponymous Multiversal Emulator power. The first emulation is apparently Rorona Zoro so, if that's your speed, check that out.
Next up we have Tyrant_Of_The_Void's quest over on QuestionableQuesting named simply DxD Projection Quest. I can't link directly to it since QQ is NSFW but that warning in mind, feel free to also check that one out.
Finally, trondason took one of the powers you could have gotten in Projection Quest and ran with it, in You're Mr Meseeks, look at you! Which is an absolute riot.
I just want to say, that I am so pleased that anything I do can inspire other people to do it (probably) better, and I hope you'll support these fine folks going forward.
Last edited: Jan 8, 2021
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Bowler Hat Guy
Jan 8, 2021
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Threadmarks Interlude: Long Memory
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
Jan 12, 2021
#28,998
Her existence to date could best be described as short bursts of anxious waiting interspersed by long stretches of scheming, plotting, and violence.
As a weapon, she been on so many battlefields, slain so many monsters, that she was fairly certain she was one of the most storied pieces of equipment ever to grace the face of her home planet. She had never failed her Master. In combat, she moved with the grace and speed of duelling foil but struck with the force and ferocity of a claymore. She never tired, never broke. In the hundreds of years since her creation, the only time she had rested were those brief periods between her Master's deaths. The anxiety she felt at those times, waiting silently, in the dark, in the middle of deserted battlefields, in storage lockers and even in the possession of her enemies, was nearly crushing. She held an ever-present fear that one day, her Ozma would fail to come for her. That he would one day simply not need her anymore. Surely he could find a better weapon, one that wouldn't allow him to die in the first place? But no, that was never the case. So with each repetition of the cycle, with each of her Master's reincarnations, she strove to be better. Not just a weapon, but a tool that he could one day use to kill the unkillable.
Her name was Long Memory.
But most of the people she knew now just called her Mem.
"If you don't hold still this is just going to take longer and hurt more." The blond woman - Jess - chided from behind her, sitting on a stool in her lab and brushing her hair. Mem didn't really take care of it particularly well. She simply didn't know how to. More to the point though - her appearance and comportment were only relevant in so far as they would reflect on her Master, and affect her ability to do what needed to be done.
In other words, given the hermit-like nature of the current Ozma, it was completely unimportant to her.
"...I require my second spellbook," Mem stated eventually, having just attempting to walk across the room to get it herself, only to be stopped when the comb Jess was running through her hair got tangled in it, causing her a sharp pain across her scalp and halting her.
"It's a school notebook with scribbles in it. It's not a spellbook." Her familiar pointed out petulantly, even as she rose from her own seat to scurry over and open the cabinet containing her notes, quickly snatching the book in question up and bringing it back to her.
"I use it to store information related to the creation and finalization of spells that I will later to use - therefore, it is a spellbook." She corrected Mun idly, ignoring the sharp tugging pain of her continued grooming to flip through several pages until she found what she was looking for. Mun thought the name she had chosen was foolish, but truthfully, she thought it was quite fitting. She was Long Memory, but her actual ability to remember things was... actually fairly poor. At least mundane things. Without Munnin, she thought it likely that she would regularly fail to perform basic maintenance tasks on her body, like shower or brush her teeth. Or change her clothes. Really, if she could have gotten away with it, she would have called the ex-clone 'Short Memory', but even she had enough tact to know not to do that.
Presently, her total ability to work magic was fairly limited. She had a working understanding of all the Runes left to her by her Master, but could only really combine or utilize them in rudimentary ways. The bounded field she had used to protect the central area of the castle earlier in the month had been something of a magnum opus for her, and even that required a significant amount of setup and power expenditure in order to make up for her relative inexperience. She should be able to produce a field like that with only a string of runes and the right amount of focus. Instead, she was forced to create dozens of magical tools to help her propagate and maintain the effect - one she couldn't produce even on a small scale by herself. It was infuriating.
"It could be both you know." Jess chimed in, finally removing the accursed comb from her hair and running her hands through it to check for any more knots or tangles. Mem chose not to pout in response to that. Jess, and to a lesser extent, Danny - her Master's Father - had been looking after her whenever she was in the heap. They weren't omnipresent, having their own tasks to do and lives to live, but one or both of them were usually present in her lab for a sizeable portion of the day. She wasn't sure how she felt about that, given the implication that she needed babysitting, but she was tacitly forced to admit that she didn't hate it.
Most of the time. She would still prefer it if they didn't insist on 'breaks' and 'meals'.
Snorting in response to Jess's attempt to mediate between them, Mun returned to her own seat, her black hair long and trailing behind her. Since she lacked any clothing of her own, she had been bundled up into the first thing Master could find that would fit her, and shuffled off to Parian's where she had been fitted for some. To say the cloth manipulating heroine was amused by the prospect was perhaps a mild understatement. Mun had come away from the entire engagement with an entire Wardrobe.
Much to the girl's ire, much of that wardrobe was designed to match Mem's own taste in clothing, which was why she was currently wearing what could best be described as a three-piece suit.
"Everything alright in there?" Danny called out to them from the other room - Master's workshop - briefly poking his head through the doorway to see check on them, sweat pouring down his face. Danny wasn't the most attentive of watchers. When he was present, he was typically much more lax in his surveillance than Jess. More often than not, he simply took for granted that she knew what she was doing, apparently having been conditioned not to question things he didn't understand by his daughter. He did have a passing interest in some of the effects her work could produce, which was why he was in the next room swinging around a wooden stick she had enchanted to be unusually durable.
Master often referred to her Father as an unhealthy workaholic, but Mem didn't really see it. Every time she saw him he seemed to be itching to do something physical, like excercise. For a man his age, he was almost disturbingly active. Although, she supposed that might be a learned behaviour. It would probably be exceedingly difficult to be the father of Taylor Hebert and not work towards self-improvement.
"Yes De-Danny. The girls are just sniping at each other again." Jess responded instantly, her gaze snapping warmly to the Man. Across the table from her, Mun silently mimed vomiting. Mem just blinked at her.
"Oh. Be nice to each other okay? I know you don't really get it right now, but family will never fail you." He said, striding into the room to ruffle Mun's hair, earning a squawk of indignation from her as she attempted to swat his hand away.
"None of us are-" Mem moved to point out, only to have her mouth suddenly covered by Jess from behind.
"Ahem. So, how are you liking it?" Jess asked Danny, curiously eyeing the stick Mem had made for him.
"It's not terrible. Wish I'd had it during our little road trip. Would have made some things a bit easier." Danny stated appreciatively. At this, Mem perked up. Hearing how her creations held up to use was very much to her interests.
"Do you have an actual weapon I could enchant? If you found the stick acceptable, I mean." She said quickly, pulling Jess' hand away from her mouth.
"I'm not a Cape Mem. I don't need a weapon." Danny said kindly.
"Danny, you have super strength and half the weapons in the Garage are from you and Trainwreck 'hanging out'. You're a Cape." Jess interjected irately.
"I don't fight crime or use my powers though." Danny argued back weakly, although she noticed he didn't quite manage to look her in the eye as he spoke, or directly refute her statement.
"Uhuh. Come on kids, I know where he keeps his Hammer." Jess said dryly, standing up from where she had finished neatly replacing Mem's hair in its customary bun.
"Ew. Gross." Mun immediately added, causing both Danny and Jess to jerk back slightly.
"Not like- who taught you that?" Jess asked, immediately whirling around on the dark haired girl.
Mem, for her part, didn't actually understand what had just happened.
She just wanted to see the Hammer.
"I'm fu- I swear I didn't teach em shit!" Trainwreck was hurriedly defending himself while shooting dirty looks at Mun, who was sitting casually on a crate nearby while putting on the most innocent expression possible.
"Wreck man, you gotta throw me a bone here. If Taylor finds out you've been teaching her girls this stuff she's gonna murder you." Danny continues to try to convince the man to admit his wrongs.
"I'm telling you Danny, I didn't do anything! I don't even talk to the munchkin brigade! I got too much shit to do!" Trainwreck countered immediately. Ofcourse, this was the exact moment when Mun decided to comment.
"Well shit." She said placidly, somehow managing to make it seem like she was testing the word when Mem had heard her use it dozens of times to date.
"Trainwreck!" Jess roared at the man from next to Danny, crossing her arms in front of her chest and tapping her foot aggressively.
"I- you little-" Trainwreck spluttered.
Mem, of course, wasn't paying any attention to the argument, having laid out the Hammer across the ground to examine. It was no mechashift weapon. More of a knockoff of the concept really. It lacked the space warping capabilities that allowed those weapons to fold in upon themselves, but it did possess some interesting mechanisms courtesy of Trainwreck. The design was fairly simple. It was a cinderblock on the end of a handful of rebar that had been twisted together to form a three-foot-long handle. The cinderblock hammerhead was covered in more of the bronze plating that covered the castle, and the hollow portions appeared to have a device in them that did... something... tinker-y whenever the hammerhead hit something. If she had to hazard a guess, she would say that device was probably what prevented the hammer from shattering when swung with the prodigious strength of an Aura capable Huntsman.
That was nice, but also, not nearly the quality of weapon she felt what she could loosely refer to as her Grandfather should be wielding. Hence, she was stolidly at work using a focused application of a fire rune to weld a series of runes into the metal plating of the hammer head. It wasn't a complex spell or anything, and the effect would need to recharge whenever it was expended, but she felt like she couldn't possibly go wrong in making a hammer hit harder. It was sort of all they did.
As she finished applying the last of her modifications however, she became suddenly aware of a loud blaring siren filling the room. Looking up she found herself staring blankly at a mix of reactions from the room.
Danny, Jess, and Mun were both obviously stricken with panic. Trainwreck was trading confused looks with her, and before she could really ask what was going on, Oliver wandered placidly into the room at the same time as Parian, both calling out at the same time.
"We better hide-" Oliver started easily.
"We have to get to the PRT Building!" Parian shouted urgently.
Trainwreck, bless the man's soul, managed to ask the question she had been thinking of the entire time.
Lifting his hand into the air like a child in class, he said; "The fuck is going on?"
Well. She wouldn't have put it exactly like that...
Last edited: Jan 12, 2021
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Bowler Hat Guy
Jan 12, 2021
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
Jan 13, 2021
#29,060
Current Energy: 2
Current Training:
Magic Resistance (7/10)
[X] NathanMedium/Yes
Age of Heroes I - Activated! (Information on this upgrade can be found in Informational, Under Omake Shop)
[Taylor Anne Hebert / Nexus]
Thursday, February 24th, 2011
Winslow High School, Brockton Bay
She wanted to go. She wanted to grab stupid Greg, and leave. Unfortunately, she hadn't heard the entire warning system.
Endbringer sirens went off for every attack - but they held two distinct patterns. A continuous series of siren wails was the signal for an Endbringer attack, but a siren followed by a pause, then another siren was the signal for an attack somewhere else. The logic, as she had been taught in middle school, was that if an Endbringer was attacking the city you were in, you wanted to be able to hear other people giving you orders and directions. What went unspoken was the fact that the siren could be continuous in the case of a local attack because, honestly, you were probably screwed anyway.
Taylor couldn't tell if the students around her were acting panicked because the siren signalled a local attack - or because she was very clearly angry and doing something supernatural nearby.
So she waited for the long siren wail to proceed. She waited for the pause.
Around her, other students were hurrying to follow their teacher's directions to move towards the shelters - something they had to do for every attack, regardless of where it was happening. If she had a secret identity of any sort, she would be thankful for that. It wasn't exactly hard to get lost in the press of bodies exiting the building. She pointedly ignored Greg moving to ask her a question - she was too keyed up to pay him much attention - and finally released a sigh of relief when the siren stopped, and there was temporary silence.
"So do we - christ!" Greg started, then yelped in surprise when her sword appeared in her hand, cleaving a Gap open in the narrow aisle between the desks. She spared a glance for the boy in consideration, still trying to pick apart her anger at him, then caved to practicality and spoke.
"Where do you need to go?" She asked tersely. The Endbringer truce was one of those things she felt was terribly stupid, but that Vicky had explained to her in no uncertain terms was to be respected - no matter what. She might have taken greater issue with that if any of the local gangs even still had Parahumans. Fighting alongside literal Nazis - even in defence against an Endbringer - would probably make her sick to her stomach.
Greg stared blankly at her for a second, before then seemingly recalling she had a Mover power and brightening.
"Do you know where Barker street is? A few blocks from the Docks?" He asked quickly, glancing towards the other students who were watching Taylor curiously as they exited. It should be obvious that she wouldn't be joining them in hiding, but that might not necessarily be true for Greg. Not that she cared what the school thought of Greg. Irked she shot a glare their way, encouraging them to keep moving. She couldn't tell if she was more annoyed that she had to cover for Greg, or annoyed that she felt the need to do it in the first place.
Regardless, she did know where Barker street was, and more importantly, knew that if she wanted to go looking for the Undersiders - maybe while going on an enthusiastic walk or something - that was where she could start.
Without voicing any of this, she cleaved a second hole in the aisle opposite her own Gap to the PRT building, tilting her head towards it.
"Here. You going?" She asked bluntly. In general, she knew Greg was happy to involve himself in the Cape lifestyle. But she had always gotten the impression it was more of a game to the blonde boy than anything else. Endbringers weren't a game though, and so she had her doubts that he would actually go to the fight. Not that she blamed him. If she wasn't as powerful as she was, she probably wouldn't go either. After all, what could she do to an Endbringer with some other power, like bug control? Die, probably.
"Obviously." Greg shot back slightly affronted, then leapt through the Gap. Through the spectral eyes that resided in that hole in reality, she took a moment to watch the direction he ran in once he had oriented himself, then satisfied, she closed that Gap - and entered her own, Emmy following quickly behind her.
[Multiversal Emulator / Emmy]
Thursday, February 24th, 2011
PRT Headquarters, Brockton Bay
The PRT building, which you would assume should be in complete chaos presently, was oddly orderly given the blaring sirens and panicking people outside.
You are passingly familiar with the things called Endbringers. Your shard was never directly involved in making or controlling them, so at most you are familiar with their overall reason for existing - that being, mostly to shake things up in an area that was getting stagnant, and occasionally, to prevent the local species from doing something apocalyptically stupid. You don't know if that is still the case now or not, but given the bizarre occurrences and terrible balancing of some of the powers you've come across, you doubt it.
Regardless, the moment your Master steps through her portal into the street just outside the PRT building, she is met by an officer directing her to head inside. She isn't dressed in her costume - she obviously felt she didn't have time to make that change - but by now her appearance and in particular, her sword are somewhat emblematic of her cape identity. There can be no doubt as to why she is here and in what capacity.
'I wish I knew which one it was.' She sends to you idly as she marches forward, eventually being led to a room containing a number of PRT technicians setting up a table and a few other contrivances.
'Which... one?' You ask curiously. Again, you aren't overly familiar with the Terror Engines.
'If I knew which one it was, I could prepare ahead of time. I doubt we have hours to get ready though.' She says in frustration.
You consider that statement for a moment. You think about all the time your Master spends preparing. Training, practicing, innovating. Then you smile thinly at her because in your limited understanding of the Terror Engines, you distinctly don't recall any of them being powerful enough to simply shrug off your Master.
'I think you've prepared enough.' You say with utmost honesty. Your Master glances back at you for a moment - you are still forbidden from being invisible within the building after all - then smiles shyly at you.
'Thanks.' She says simply, before finding somewhere to wait for further instructions.
The first other Capes to arrive are obviously the Protectorate heroes. It's likely that the only reason they hadn't already been waiting here was that they had no need to. They worked in the building, after all. You can only assume that the optics of someone arriving before them must be less than pleasing because the majority of them hurry into the room in a barely coherent group that quickly splits up when they realize the technicians aren't ready yet. Armsmaster and Dauntless immediately move to help the beleaguered techs, while Velocity, Assault, and Battery mill about aimlessly but anxiously.
Miss Militia, however, briskly walks to your Master's side. She pauses to glance at you for a moment before shaking her head and speaking to Taylor.
"Nexus. We should have time before Strider arrives. You can change into your costume if you want." She says, posture falling into an easy parade rest seemingly without realizing it. Taylor gives an awkward laugh to the suggestion, however.
"I think I'll stick with these. I'm afraid if I go back to the Heap my team will want to come." She says awkwardly.
"You don't want them too?" Miss Militia asks, although there is no judgement in the question - just sympathy.
"...No not really," Taylor admits with a frown.
"Taylor... are you sure you should be here?" Miss Militia asks pointedly, turning to look down at your Master with an expression you want to call 'motherly' but not quite.
"Lung fought Leviathan to a standstill and I beat him when I was still green. Any cape that can survive an Endbringer should be fighting them." Taylor says, her tone going steely as her grip on the hilt of her sword tightens. As though to punctuate her point, most of New Wave chooses that moment to arrive. Brandish, Flashbang, Manpower and Lady Photon stride into the room in formation. They are notably lacking the younger generation, however. Brandish gives your Master a single nod of acknowledgement but otherwise, the team moves to a corner to wait together.
"Taylor - you're fifteen. This isn't your responsibility." Miss Militia tries again, ignoring your Master's previous point. It is only at this moment that it occurs to you that not a single Ward is present.
"That-" Taylor opens her mouth to counter only to freeze when the doors to the room blast open under the force of a too strong shove and Trainwreck stomps into the room.
"We're here to kill your monster assholes. Again." He says boisterously. He isn't wearing his usual Armor. Instead, he is wearing the oversized monstrosity he has been working on with your Master's infrequent help, the entire suit covered in polished smooth metal, it's workings and mechanisms perfectly covered by the thick plating. A matching helmet sits under one of his arms, and he pounds his fist against his chest as he speaks.
"I don't think you actually understand what an Endbringer is man." Oliver sighs, releasing his grip on the handles attached to Trainwreck's back and dropping to the floor. Oliver's Huntsman outfit isn't flashy. In fact, you would go so far as to say it is almost entirely nondescript - as far as Cape outfits go. His skintight grey suit is covered with a number of magically enchanted plates your Master provided for him, and the entire ensemble is covered by a gunmetal grey cloak that only just barely obscures the obscenely huge firearm he has sheathed at the small of his back. His face is obscured by a pair of goggles matching Trainwreck's and he looks so nervous he might actually vomit.
"It is unlikely we will be fighting directly regardless. I suggest we primarily assist in search and rescue or barring that, defend Nexus as she heals the injured." Aspirant says calmly, his bulk nearly matching Trainwrecks in his thicker combat form, swatting the Tinker across the back of the head as he passes him into the room.
"I don't think we should go at all. It's not even attacking us." Parian points out in mild annoyance, although you note that she not only has chosen to come anyway but that she has brought assistance in a form you honestly couldn't have expected. You are unsure of how the group arrived here, but if you had to guess it was by sprinting through the streets. Oliver obviously rode on Trainwrecks back. Aspirant could keep up on his own. And Parian... appears to have been carried here by a life-size stuffed doll version of one of your previous Emulations. Po, in specific, that dopey expression of carefree wonder having been so perfectly captured in the doll's countenance that it is almost uncanny to look at. Po is not the only facsimile of yourself present, however. Faux fabric versions of all your Emulations are present, shifting about to tidy Parian's clothes for her as she dismounts from the Po doll.
"Hey, I don't give a shit about the thing in the first place, but she obviously wasn't going to let it go, so what the fuck right?" Trainwreck answers the cloth manipulating cape with a snort, pausing to pull a package from his back that he throws at your Master, who is staring at them in a mixture of shock and surprise.
"What the fuck are you guys doing here? Go home." Taylor finally manages to yell at them, drawing the attention of everyone in the room from Trainwreck to herself.
"Hey, Boss. You mind opening a Gap to the Castle? The Munchkin Brigade couldn't keep up so we had to leave 'em behind." Trainwreck says blithely.
"No! None of you should be here!" Taylor replies immediately.
"-the hell do they feed you guys? I can teleport and I can't move that fast." Mouse Protector complains as she appears sitting on Trainwrecks shoulder. Trainwreck shoots her an annoyed look, but otherwise ignores her as he continues his conversation with your Master.
"The fuck not? I got my big boy pants on and everything!" Trainwreck answers jokingly, smirking down at her.
"Endbringers are dangerous you giant moron! You could die!" Taylor hisses at him.
"What about you? Ya got some kind of magic immortality power? Genuine question." Trainwreck asks placidly.
"No, but-" Taylor recoils slightly, obviously trying to find a way to phrase 'but I'm stronger than all of you combined' without sounding condescending. Trainwreck cuts her off by reaching his free hand down to flick her in the forehead, which, given his relative size and strength - is not dissimilar to just punching her in the face really. Jerking her head back at the strike, Taylor scowls up at him.
"Taylor, what Trainwreck is trying to say is - we're a team. We can't let you go without us." Parian moves to add.
"Besides um... you can do the uh... the thing if something happens to one of us." Oliver - Huntsman you suppose in costume - points out, glancing around the room as he alludes to your Master's ressurective abilities.
"And no one else is going to look out for you like we will." Aspirant points out, quietly fist-bumping Trainwreck.
Your Master goes through a string of extreme emotions at this point that spike through her Inner Peace to land squarely on her face. A mixture of anxiety and contentedness fills her, and she begins to tear up.
"You guys suck." She mutters as she struggles to master herself.
"Speaking of suckers. You gonna grab Dickhead, Invisibitch and the Munchkin Brigade or what?" Trainwreck chimes in again.
Well? They won't come if you don't bring them - but the rest of your team is quite adamant on the point.
[ ] Danny
[ ] Jess
[ ] Mem & Mun
[ ] None
For arguments sake, and because I have been asked to try to do so - there is a ONE HOUR MORATORIUM on this vote. Please wait at least that long before voting, but feel free to discuss options in that time. I will be attempting to provide this minimum wait time for all votes going forward, or at least until I determine whether or not it's actually helpful. Thank you.
Last edited: Jan 13, 2021
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Jan 13, 2021
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
Jan 16, 2021
#29,254
Spoiler: Choices:
Current Energy: 2
Current Training:
Magic Resistance (7/10)
Thursday, February 24th, 2011
PRT Headquarters, Brockton Bay
"No. We... need someone to look after the castle while we're gone?" Taylor offers, far too quickly, and with a questioning tone to her voice that elicits a snort from Trainwreck.
"Thought so. H-Hey you think Endbringer fights are a good place to meet women? Asking for a friend." Trainwreck mutters, then awkwardly changes the subject when your Master tears up again.
"Thanks for coming." She says instead of berating him for his behaviour, reaching forward to lightly hug his bulk.
"Wasn't gonna miss out on fighting a giant monster. That's classic superhero shit." Trainwreck answers feebly, obviously not sure what to do with his huge hands while Taylor is hugging him.
"'Wreck?" Taylor asks weepily.
"You know it." He answers immediately, wincing when it becomes obvious that no one else in the room is impressed with his deflections.
"Just shut up and hug me back." Taylor huffs.
"Will do." He mutters, patting her back unsurely, as though not quite certain what to do otherwise.
The moment is quite picturesque in your opinion, with the rest of your team watching the interaction with looks of warmth and familial love.
Of course, because you live in a cold and uncaring universe, this is the exact moment when the familiar voice of Tattletale cuts in.
"Aw, that's so precious. She really does care. Hey, while you're at it, why don't you tell him how many ways you could probably kill him right now." She says smugly, causing a majority of the room's residents to tense up and turn. Not towards Tattletale though. No, they turn to your Master, as if more concerned by her possible response than anything else.
"Ignore her. She actually does think it's cute, but you're blocking the door and she doesn't know a better way to make an entrance." Another voice calls out, and you lean around Trainwreck - who is indeed blocking the door - to get a better look at the speaker, who turns out to be the one you assume is Greg. You say assume, because all of the other Undersiders are present except Bitch, and the only one who joined recently - G-Man - was the speaker. However the voice was most certainly not Gregs, and the body of the person speaking, wearing a poorly tailored suit and a featureless white mask over his entire head, was most certainly not Gregs. The exact nature of the transformation nags at you somewhat, but you quickly put it out of your mind as the cape you presume is Greg swats Tattletale lightly across the back of the head. The obvious look of surprise and mild distress on the Thinkers face is almost - almost - enough to let you ignore her jab.
"Undersiders. I hear you've gone straight." Taylor says, leaning around Trainwreck herself, neither letting go of the man or allowing him to move out of their way, which he obviously tries to, only for both his feet to lift slightly off the ground but never land. He struggles comically for a moment before just shrugging and tilting his head backward to observe.
Tattletale obviously has to stop herself from turning to glare at Greg at this, but visibly masters herself.
"You'd be surprised what's legal as long as someone is paying you to do it. Or maybe not. Half your team is-" She starts confidantly.
"Aaaaaaand that's where I'm going to jump in. Tats. Please." G-Man pleads, putting his hands on her shoulders and steering her through the group, the rest of the Capes present watching. Grue and Regent follow quickly after them - Grue not daring to look at your Master at all while Regent makes an obvious show of looking her up and down on his way past. Taylor's head turns slowly to follow Tattletale's figure as she passes, ignoring the rest of the team until she can turn her head no further.
"Uh. Boss." Trainwreck coughs, waving his hand lazily through the air to draw her attention to the fact that she is still holding him off the ground.
"Oh. Sorry." She quickly apologizes, dropping him the few inches to the ground and causing the whole room to shake slightly. As a group, the entire Oathbound contingent moves to the side, taking up a position near the door while the Undersiders do the same... on the opposite side of the room. You watch curiously as the group breaks into an immediate argument the second they are out of earshot, with Tattletale and G-Man heatedly whispering to eachother while Grue watches the rest of the rooms occupants warily. If you had to hazard a guess, you would say he doesn't really look like he wants to be here.
But you suppose that's true of everyone present to one degree or another.
Another few minutes pass while you all wait for something to happen, during which a few independents trickle in, but no more teams do, which you suppose makes sense. There aren't really all that many teams left in the city. It's really just the Hero's and the Undersiders. What few villainous teams remain in the city certainly aren't the type to show up at an Endbringer fight. Your Master spends some of this time changing into her costume... for certain levels of the word 'change'. You aren't sure when she had the time to craft a spell that swaps her current clothing with her costume, but the magic definitely doesn't look like runecraft, so you suppose it must be an onmyoudo spell - which she has had much longer to get accustomed to. Tattletale looks like she's going to have an aneurysm restraining her commentary on the topic when she does it.
Eventually, Armsmaster draws the attention of everyone in the room by stomping and well... just sort of talking, given the tense silence.
"The Simurgh began descending on Canberra, Australia ten minutes ago." He states bluntly, which immediately draws the every eye in the room to focus on him. Your Masters hands ball up into fists as he speaks.
"For those of you unaware, only certified and screened individuals are brought to participate directly in the fighting. New Wave will be leaving with the Protectorate in approximately three minutes with Strider. Those of you who have been to a Simurgh fight before but have not been screened can join us for the trip, where you will be on perimeter guard. Those of you who have not will be watching this short video explaining what will be required of you." He rattles off
"Wait so, we aren't even fighting?" Regent blurts out as New Wave moves up to stand alongside the Protectorate - now much more organized.
"No. Watch the video." Is Armsmaster's swift response. Putting action to his words, he nods to one of the techs nearby, who starts a video on the large screen setup in the back of the room. Despite his seeming irreverence towards the subject, Regent, along with everyone else in the room redirects his focus towards the screen, which flickers to life with a picture of Legend on it.
"Hello. If you're watching this, you are about to participate in an Endbringer battle..."
The video is... dry. But succinct and to the point. And absolutely no one is happy with that point.
The image of Legend basically had this to say of Simurgh fights - they are soul crushing. Even outside the range of her scream, and even with the relative lack of collateral damage she causes compared to her siblings, the Simurgh is the most psychologically punishing of the Endbringers. Fighters at Endbringer battles typically have communication devices assigned to them - for tracking and coordination purposes. The Simurgh neccessitates an additional function for these devices.
A Bomb. Every Simurgh fighter straps a bomb to themselves. The Endbringers psychic scream is such a danger, the subversion of a hero such a threat, that should anyone be exposed to her for too long, their device will detonate - killing them. You can feel a quiet horror radiating from your Master and the rest of your team at this revelation, even if no one present will be participating in the actual fight. Unfortunately, there is yet more.
Because of the Simurhg's tendency to predict and assault her surroundings with carefully placed traps, even those Capes not directly engaging her have to deal with a certain degree of trauma. Civillians at Simurgh fights are to be treated as enemy combatants. Without exception, they are to be subdued and held at a location within the city. Even as you watch, the video explains that there will already be a perimeter being set around the city who's sole purpose is to gun down anyone trying to escape. Because the Simurgh doesn't just traumatize people - she sets up complicated plans using her precognition that can have consequences far in excess of the domino that started the chain of events.
Your Team hasn't signed up to fight a monster. They've signed up to rescue people from collapsed buildings that have every possibility of having been left there explicitly to hurt them.
Sometime during this rather unpleasant presentation, a man in a stylized conductors outfit appears in the room, gives a few instructions, and then vanishes again with the Protectorate and New Wave. Almost exactly as the video you are watching ends, he returns.
"Alright, get in close, make sure you're holding onto someone else, or me. I'm not coming back if you get left out." The cape Armsmaster referred to as Strider says in a business like tone. Surprisingly, in the oppressive aura that has taken over the room, it is Greg that responds first, striding forward to place a disproportionately sized hand on Strider's shoulder.
The rest of you, quickly follow suit, and then - you are somewhere else. There is no real sensation of transition or movement. You merely go from where you were to where you are in the single blink of an eye. And where you are is... some kind of military staging ground. There are soldiers everywhere, tents set up hastily throughout the hilly landscape, and a large congregation of Capes quickly passing by a large table with a number of black armbands on it.
All of that is secondary to the fact that in the distance, over the rooftops of the city scape that you are just outside of, you can see her.
The Simurgh. At a glance she is a statuesque woman of immaculate proportions, drifting lazily in the sky as though posing for an old painting. Dozens of differently sized wings radiate out from her, but none of them are flapping or being used to keep her afloat. Instead, they are bent at odd angles, overlapping eachother in ways that seem to defy casual description or physics. Despite the way she rotates in place as the battle rages around her, you can't quite seem to determine where the wings start or end. It's as if they aren't actually attached to anything at all. Swirling around the building sized vision in a hurricane like swirl that belies the peacefulness of her marble visage, are hunks of stone and metal torn from her surroundings, some of them spinning into place just in time to swat away a nearby cape, or to deflect a blast. The creature is, for all intents and purposes, at the eye of the storm, almost completely unaffected by her surroundings.
And the most distressing part about it, is that much like the eyes of a painting that always seem to follow you through a room, she feels as though she is looking at you, regardless of which direction she is facing.
Your attention is drawn back down from the uncanny sight by your Master, as she snatches up an armband to slip on, presses a button on its side and states her Cape name.
"Nexus." She calls to it, and the blinking yellow light on its surface immediately turns green.
Next to her, Trainwreck is curiously examining his own armband - to small for his gargantuan power arms bicep - before slipping it on one of his suits fingers, like a ring.
"Hey, you think Dragon is single?" He asks absently - completely ruining the solemn mood of your group as they are directed towards the western quadrant of the city.
The area furthest, you notice, from any of the actual fighting.
Last edited: Jan 16, 2021
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Jan 16, 2021
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Threadmarks Deicide 12.3 (Nexus)
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
Jan 23, 2021
#29,400
Current Energy: 2
Current Training:
Magic Resistance (7/10)
Thursday, February 24th, 2011
City Limits, Canberra
[Taylor Hebert/Nexus]
Deathadder down, CD-5. Unicorn III down, CD-5. Electrocutioner down, CD-5. Jumpshot deceased, CD-5.
She bit her lip hard as the sudden influx of downed capes arrived, causing her to pause for half a second in a combination of annoyance and shame. Beneath her, the man she had been lifting a hunk of broken building off of shifted, taking that exact moment to switch from begging her to free him to trying to stab her in the leg with a needle of some kind. She wasn't particularly concerned by the needle - between her various enhancements, she highly doubted it would even be able to break her skin - but she wasn't stupid enough to let the thing just hit her either. Especially not when this was actually the third such time a random victim had attempted it.
With an almost automatic gesture that she had to work down from being murderous to merely incapacitating, she used her free hand to slap the mans wrist away from herself, breaking it instantly and causing the needle to fall to the ground. She frowned at the stupefied that flashed across his face, followed immediately by him blacking out.
"Again?" Emmy asked her, having been standing guard behind her, mostly keeping the Simurgh in his line of sight at all times.
"Yeah." She responded glumly, doing her utmost not to turn to look at the Simurgh fighting in the distance.
It had been over an hour since she had started clearing the outskirts of the city. There wasn't honestly much damage here. The first twenty minutes had largely consisted of her team checking the insides of buildings to see if anyone needed help evacuating. It had been so mundane that they had let their guard drop, somewhat. They were all still tense, but by the time they had travelled through a good portion of the city limits the feeling of 'we don't need to be here' was prevalent among the Oathbound. It wasn't that they didn't want to help. It was just that no help was necessary. The Simurgh wasn't like Behemoth, or Leviathan. She didn't do nearly as much widespread damage to the city she attacked as the other two. Most of the destruction she wrought on that front was a direct result of the fighting near her - which meant that so far away from her, there was basically nothing to do.
So they had split up, staying close enough that they qualified as being in the same area, but spread enough that they could clear a zone faster than if they had been together in a mob.
And that was when things had gotten weird. Because only shortly after they had split up, she had found someone who looked like the victim of a car crash. Then someone nearby fell from a building. On and on it went. She hadn't paused in her suddenly very necessary rescue efforts since. And with every person she rescued, every moment she spent not fighting the Simurgh -
Deathadder deceased, CD-5. Bearitone deceased, CD-5.
She was forced to listen to more and more people die.
Glaring down at the unconscious man in front of her, she pushed down her irritation. The Endbringers had been around almost as long as Capes had really existed. People took them into account the same way they did hurricanes and tropical storms. They simply were. She had to believe that her addition to the fight - while helpful - probably wouldn't be the difference between winning or not. She had to.
So she clapped her hands in front of herself, suffusing the Simurgh's latest victim with healing chi - and then cleaved a Gap open to throw him through - one that inevitably led back to one of the holding areas for such people.
Free of anybody obviously in need of her help for a moment, she was able to really look at the city she was in for the first time. With exception for the damaged balcony that she had been lifting, the residential area she was in was almost picturesque. The roads looked well maintained, none of the street signs were faded, damaged, or covered in graffiti. Homes looked loved and full of life. The entire area felt... nice, for lack of a better word. Nicer than any area of Brockton Bay she could easily think of at least. Which was saying something since Canberra was now actively undergoing an Endbringer attack. It was almost kind of ludicrous to have how bad Brockton was shoved in her face like this.
Sighing, she crouched low before jumping straight up as high as she could. To the north was the Simurgh - the storm of debris and inevitable barrage of blasts from the nearby capes continuing to grow as the battle raged on. An obvious and direct path of destruction was made through the city as the winged monster moved about, like the Endbringer was trying to recreate the Nazca Lines using destroyed urban development. Much to Taylor's secret annoyance, that path was very obviously moving away and to the left of her, depriving her of even that paltry excuse to get involved in the fighting.
Continuing on with her original purpose for this leap, she quickly glancing around the area near her, searching out her team. To her surprise, while she found them, she noticed that they were actually quite a bit further away from her than she had expected. The tiny speck she took to be Trainwreck was an entire quadrant and a half away from her by the system the communication system used to direct people.
'Emmy, when did we get so far away from everyone else?' She asked curiously as gravity took hold and she began to return to the ground.
'I was unaware we had grown very far apart. Perhaps the others simply grew distracted by their work.' Emmy replied, largely unconcerned. He wasn't apathetic towards what they were doing - he seemed very enthusiastic about it really - rather, he just wasn't threatened by it. As such, he kept most of his attention on the Simurgh while she rescued people, in order to ensure nothing unexpected happened.
She doubted it. She highly doubted it. There was a reason that 'everything is a Ziz plot' was so commonly bandied about by people. The Endbringer had cultivated a reputation for these kinds of mind games, using misdirection to get at people while they least expected it. She didn't believe in chance when it was much easier to blame the Ziz.
"Come on, let's catch up with everyone else." She decided aloud, turning towards where she had last seen Trainwreck and breaking out into a light jog. She wasn't going to ignore anyone she came across, but she wasn't going to delay either. Dutifully, Emmy quickly caught up to her, and they made their way partway through the small neighbourhood until Emmy paused, drawing his weapon to ward off an attack that never came.
Instead, a large hunk of burning building flew past overhead, slamming into the wall of a nearby building and quickly setting the entire thing ablaze.
Jackalope deceased, CD-5. Voodoo Daddy down, CD-5.
"She threw it this way on purpose." Emmy noted sharply, having already turned away from the adhoc meteorite.
Taylor didn't like the implication of that, but she couldn't refute it either. Quickly changing direction, she ran towards the building - it was, she noticed absently, a school - and quickly pushed the debris out of the way to find about what she expected.
The corpse of a cape. Presumably, Jackalope. Already, she could see the mans ghost rising from his body in a dazed state, glancing around as though unsure of itself. Her heart went out to him. Judging by his costume, he must have been relatively new to. Only having joined the fight because it was in his city. Without much thought, she withdrew her sword and tapped the bottom of its hilt against the ghost's chest, an action that caused the spectral entity to disintegrate in a burst of light.
She really hoped people she did that to actually went somewhere instead of just double dying or something. Nemesis was painfully evasive on the topic. Mostly because she thought it was a waste of time.
Stepping away from the corpse - and suppressing her urge to wretch over it - she glanced at the school building, which even now was already catching fire. She doubted there was anyone left inside of it - even Brockton had protocols for evacuating places like this when an Endbringer battle happened - but the possibility that someone had gotten left behind still existed. Dimly, in the back of her head, a long forgotten part of her even thought it was quite likely, dredging up unpleasant feelings of claustrophobia and fear that temporarily made the cloying smoke from the nearby flames feel like it was pressing in on her.
She quickly shook the thought off.
The building is burning down...
[ ] Check the school for stragglers.
[ ] Ignore it. It's empty - you need to catch up with your team.
A/N: Because of the nature of the Simurgh, alot of these updates will probably be shorter than usual in order to present choices and results at faster intervals. I've had to spend an obscene amount of time working out what the actual PLAN is for the Simurgh in light of her stated goals and interests according to Ward. Here you go, have fun with it.
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
Feb 7, 2021
#29,545
[X] Have Sigurd examine the school, while you find your teammates.
-[X] Don't have him tell you any specifics.
-[X] Buff him with runes.
Current Energy: 2
Current Training:
Magic Resistance (7/10)
[Multiversal Emulator / Emmy]
Thursday, February 24th, 2011
City Limits, Canberra
Your Master considers the school pensively for a moment, wincing as her armband reports more losses in the ongoing fight. You can tell what she is thinking because you are thinking almost the exact same thing. With all the warnings you were given, with all of the things you've been told about the Simurgh, it becomes insultingly easy to puzzle out the intent of the current situation.
If your Master goes into the building, the chances that she will come across some scenario specifically designed to torture her psychologically are extremely high. It's simply how this Terror Engine operates. However, knowing that some innocent person might be included in that situation, can your Master really ignore it?
Obviously, the answer is no. Truthfully, that may be the most clever part of the entire scenario. If it were subtle, your Master might not notice, and could choose to ignore or let it pass. When it's as obvious as this? There isn't any way someone like Taylor Hebert can simply ignore it. It simply wouldn't be right.
Which is perfectly fine you suppose. This is what you're for.
"I'll check the school. Catch up with the others." You say resolutely, glancing back at the school. An immediate wave of relief rolls off your Master that she quickly stifles with new worries and concerns.
"Hang on." She says, her acceptance of your offer already self-evident through your bond. Expression firming, she turns towards the building with a look of intense concentration on her face, and begins to loosely gesture with her free hand. A few seconds later, the fire blanketing the school begins to sort of peel away, as though pinched gently by a giant and yanked backward. Thin streamers of flame begin to gather in your Master's open palm, until eventually, the school is no longer ablaze, and your Master is holding a white-hot orb of pure heat in her hands.
An orb that she hurriedly tosses into a quickly opened Gap.
"Now..." She mutters, flitting towards you in order to trace two runic characters across your chest plate. You easily recognize them as the runes for Hardening and Speed - fairly trivial enchantments to apply in a combat situation, taken to an absurd extreme by your Master's ludicrous energy stores. You don't really think this is necessary. For something as simple as search and rescue, you sincerely doubt your base capabilities will prove insufficient.
Still, you don't comment on the temporary enchantment. Ultimately, your Master can't conceive of you as the disposable combatant that you are. It brings a strange warmth to your heart to think about, even as your lingering annoyance over being treated as more precious than you actually are flares up.
"Catch up quick okay?" She says when she finishes enchanting you, taking a quick step back and pointedly not looking towards the scorched corpse nearby. You snort, then pound a fist on your breastplate.
"I can hardly imagine this will take that long." You snort.
Then confidently, you turn around, headed into the school.
[Taylor Hebert / Nexus]
She watched Emmy head into the school with an expression best described as 'complicated'.
She had acquired so many powers at this point that she liked to think she had sort of a knack for working out the intended use of any given one of them. In a general sense, she supposed that was starting to acquire a sense for powers not dissimilar to Eidolons. She didn't really have any control over what she would get, but she could analyze it. And through that, she could tell that the best possible way to utilize her main power, to utilize Emmy, was to let him take risks for her. She probably knew that better than anyone else.
But in her heart, she rejected it.
It wasn't just that she saw Emmy as a friend and a person. She was aware that a lot of people outside her team considered her to be either insane, or perpetrating a very elaborate ruse when it came to the supposed independence of her projection. It was more than that. Despite Emmy claiming an inability to die, despite his insistence that this was what he was meant for, she simply couldn't accept it. Because she had realized that just like he was more 'human' than many other projections, he was also more vulnerable than other projections. He had feelings, goals, and interests. If he was hurt, he felt pain. And so, to her, whether or not he could die was irrelevant. Because he could hurt. And dying was almost never painless.
That was why she had enchanted him before they split up, even though every moment counted during an Endbringer fight. It was as insurance against anything that might happen while they were apart. It was simply the sincere wish for him to remain unharmed.
She spared a moment more to watch Emmy walk away - then turned to her own task. She would be lying if she said that she was handling the ongoing litany of deaths and injuries her armband transmitted to her well. Every death reported made her ever more conscious of her tight grip on Nemesis, and she tensed with worry whenever one of the names sounded too close to one she recognized.
As she dashed through the streets, once more headed towards her team, she mused that it might be selfish of her to prefer the well being of her friends and loved ones in this situation. Really, she knew that many would consider the worry she was feeling to be misplaced or hypocritical. After all, everyone present on the battlefield was a Parahuman. She could easily bring back anyone from Brockton who was struck down.
So much of her focus was directed towards controlling her own actions and resisting her urge to attack the Simurgh that she belatedly realized that she had stopped searching for survivors and stragglers who hadn't managed to make it to a shelter. Instead, she had pointed herself at the last place she recalled seeing her teammates and ran towards it at full speed.
So it was that she came to find Oliver. And only Oliver. At least as far as her team was concerned. He was standing in the middle of the street with a handful of teenagers standing tensely behind him. During her initial approach, this made perfect sense to her. They were here to rescue people. Those were clearly people Oliver had rescued.
Only, the situation turned out to be somewhat more complicated than that the closer she got. It wasn't only a group of civilians near Oliver. There were also a handful of Capes that had fanned out around him.
Perhaps it was merely her own arrogance showing through, but the surrounding Capes didn't really bother or threaten her. Instead, the thing she focused on was the cape who Oliver presently had one of his boots on top of. He was collapsed on the ground and clearly terrified for his life, primarily because of Oliver's weapon, which was pointed firmly at his head.
"Bring them back!" Oliver was yelling as she arrived, using her ability to gain traction on air to bleed off momentum and come to a gentle stop instead of slamming into the ground like a jackhammer.
"I can't!" One of the nearby capes replied angrily, gesturing around himself. "Look, my range isn't that great alright? They'll be somewhere in the city. So just-" he started, shifting slightly towards Oliver, who responded by shifting his weapon and pulling the trigger faster than anyone could react.
Oliver had once asked for a weapon he described as a Pile Bunker. The very concept of that type of thing was hilariously impractical for real combat, and Taylor had been very sure to make that clear to him when she was helping make the thing. Hence, while she had somewhat managed to work with Trainwreck to replicate some of the shapeshifting tech from Ozma's homeworld, she hadn't made him a Pile Bunker.
She had made him a War Pick. That turned into a rifle. That shot rail spikes.
Oliver had just named the thing Pile Bunker.
Hence, instead of a high calibre weapon, which would have fired a bullet that would deform and expand on contact with a target, he had fired a rail spike at the person he was standing. He had fired a rail spike straight through his forearm and into the concrete beneath it. The sound it made was nothing next to the screams of the man he had hit.
"Huntsman!" Taylor shouted immediately, finally drawing attention to herself as she cried out. The other capes presented watched her with a mix of wariness and hope, no doubt expecting she could help them break this stalemate. Oliver's head jerked around to look at her as she approached, obviously tense and on a hair-trigger. The strain was obvious on his face as he attempted to keep everyone present in his field of view at once. He opened his mouth to speak but was quickly cut off by the cape who had previously been arguing with him.
"Is he with you? He's breaking the fucking truce." He snapped at her instantly. She took the time he spent speaking to look at him, and noted immediately that unlike many Capes - he was clearly carrying a firearm, although it was holstered at his waist. His costume was fairly standard besides that single point. Black spandex and a bulletproof vest for the most part. There was a hastily painted yellow symbol on the vest, but it was so sloppily done she couldn't easily determine what it was supposed to be.
"I broke the truce? You used your power on my team!" Oliver countered immediately.
His counterpart glared at him in frustration. "It was a mistake!" he yelled, and looked like he was liable to say more - but stopped. Not because he didn't want to continue. Simply that he couldn't. Because from the moment that Taylor had connected the dots, having recognized that the rest of her team were absent, her spiritual power had flared, driving everyone present to their knees.
With careful, measured steps, she walked past all those present to stand in front of the unknown cape. She had to be careful when she was this irked. If she wasn't, she risked destroying the ground beneath her feet whenever she took a step.
"Explain." She barked once she was standing in front of him. She relaxed her pressure just enough for him to comply - but no more than that. She was aware that the Endbringer truce was sacred - that you simply didn't do this type of thing when an Endbringer fight was ongoing.
But it was her team.
"I - " The man started, then coughed, spluttered, and vomited at her feet. She frowned, but waited for him to continue.
"My power - I teleport stuff out of my way!" He yelped eventually, fear clear in his eyes.
"And you used your power on my team?" She asked carefully.
"By mistake!" He yelled desperately. She turned her attention to Oliver for confirmation.
"They were going to kill these guys. We got in the way." Oliver replied with a cold fury in his voice.
"They're fucking Simurgh bombs! This whole city is fucked anyway! What do you think is gonna happen when they try and leave? They'll be given some candy and sent on their way?" The cape whinged, and Taylor took another moment to examine the group of six teenagers awkwardly clinging to each other in mortal terror nearby.
"You don't get to decide-" Oliver growled.
"Where are my people?" Taylor interrupted. She might have had more to say on the subject if she had the leeway to be leisurely about things, but she didn't. She could still see the expanding storm of debris in the distance that marked the Simurgh's location.
"Around! I don't choose where stuff I teleport goes, it just goes somewhere else! They could be anywhere in this hellhole!" The cape complained.
A long time ago now, it felt like this was the type of situation that might have made her catastrophically angry with someone. After all, this guy had basically just admitted to throwing her friends to random sections of an Endbringer battlefield. She rightfully felt that there was very little that could make her angrier than that.
Thankfully she had matured over the last few months. She considered herself to be a good person and a hero. Which is why she didn't hurt anyone present. She just contained her spiritual pressure and opened a Gap to one of the drop points for refugees.
"Get in. It'll take you to camp." She ordered the group of teens, who were eyeing the gap suspiciously. She had to admit, the things weren't exactly aesthetically pleasing. While she was speaking, she swept Oliver up into her arms. Enhanced by Aura as he was, he could keep up with her by roof hopping if she kept a leisurely pace.
She wasn't feeling particularly leisurely right now.
"This isn't emasculating at all..." Oliver grumbled as she switched hands so she could trace a rune in the air.
It was unfortunate that she could only track one person at a time. The first person she had to find was...
[ ] Trainwreck
[ ] Aspirant
[ ] Parian
[Multiversal Emulator / Emmy]
As you expected, with your enhanced speed boosted even further by your Master's runecraft, it took very little time to search the school. If you had to make a particular note of something, it would be that the school is too clean. The only other school you can think of to compare it to is Winslow, but this school makes Winslow look like a penitentiary.
The walls were devoid of graffiti, the floors were clean and polished, and all the classrooms you checked seemed to be uncramped and well cared for. It was almost surreal to look at.
Of course, given forewarning about the exact nature of the Simurgh, you always knew the chances of you finding someone in a classroom was dwindling. Instead, almost as though waiting for the exact moment you chose to leave muted whimpering entered your ears, emanating from a nearby locker. You can't help but grimace at the development.
Your breath quickens slightly as you approach the locker slowly, wary of trickery.
And deep in your chest, you can't help but feel a lingering sensation of fear. After all, your core personality was crafted by your Master's experience of something similar. In many ways, this was your trigger event as much as your Masters. You can't smell anything foul in the locker as you approach it, but the whimpering grows louder, until it becomes sobs, and finally, cuts out.
Worried about what you will find when you open the door, you throw your caution to the wind as you realize that the person in that locker might have just stopped breathing. With barely any effort, you tear the door off the metal coffin before you, then shift forward to carefully catch the skinny girl that falls out of it. She doesn't look exactly like your Taylor did, all those months ago, but she looks close. Close enough that your mild disinterest in the Simurgh rapidly becomes anger that you are forced to suppress as the girl's eyes flutter open.
"Hello. Do you require medical attention?" You ask curtly, working hard to control your emotions. Instead of answering you directly, she merely stares at you, her eyes as wide as saucers.
"Do you know where the nearest shelter is? Can you stand?" You continue, aware that the girl must be in shock, but equally aware of your Master's sudden change in disposition from 'worried' to 'apocalyptically mad'.
"Y-yes?" She offers you after a second.
"Good. Rush there as soon as you can." You tell her, carefully moving to put her down.
"Wait! T-take me with you!" She blurts out, wrapping her arms around you and squeezing desperately to prevent you from releasing her to gravities tender mercy.
You want to refuse - you can't cart around an innocent on an active battlefield. But then you feel a sudden heat at your back, where her hands rest, and you can't help but think;
She's so small and frail. Maybe it's best that you take her to your Master, so she can be healed.
Decision made, you nod at her, straighten your posture, and step out of the school, ignoring the frown that has suddenly spread across her face, and the rivulet of blood running from her nose. It merely proves that she requires healing, after all.
A/N: Real life has been coming for me recently, so I'm sorry that this update is so delayed. I'm trying to get back on the horse, so to speak. PM me if I missed any omake or something. Usual disclaimers apply. I'm full of energy drinks and spite, which is the only way I could push myself to get back on it. Have fun with it.
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
Feb 21, 2021
#29,695
[x] Parian
Current Energy: 2
Current Training:
Magic Resistance (7/10)
Thursday, February 24th, 2011
City Limits, Canberra
"Master, I have someone injured here." You report, glancing down to check on the girl currently clutched in your arms. She has since wiped the blood from her nose but appears to be suffering from an extreme headache given she is holding her head in her hands and quivering slightly.
She looks so much like your Master that it is painful to see her in such a pitiful state, and you silently tighten your grip and pick up speed, although you are sadly limited to speeds that the girl in your arms can actually survive moving at.
"The guys got split up by a teleporter. I'm going after Parian, catch up with me and I'll heal them. Is it critical?" Taylor rattles off at you, her barely restrained fury self-evident a ross your mental link.
"No, but she seems to be in pain." You answer, considering the problem.
You pause to consider for a second. Those armbands everyone was given had a tracking function, did they not? If so, you should be able to have your Master locate your other teammates for you without wasting any more energy...
Still, you aren't sure you should delay your current charges healing. Of course, this thought brings to mind the fact that Taylor isn't the only healer on the battlefield. In fact, she had something if a stockpile of paper tags with healing energy in them that she had passed off to the PRT on arrival. You aren't even sure why you forgot that fact in the first place.
"Master, can you ask the armband where the others are?" You query, the decision set in your mind.
"...I forgot they could do that." She mentally mutters to you. There is a pause, and then -
"Aspirant and Trainwreck are both stuck in the Simurgh's range. I'll get Parian and go for Trainwreck. Can you get Jamie out?" She sends to you with a hint of borderline panic in her voice now.
And for good reason. Anyone inside the Simurghs range for too long will set off the bomb inside their armband. Even if they survive it - which they may or may not, depending on how prepared they are for Brutes of their calibre - the PRT would almost certainly lock them away after the battle if they suspected they had been influenced by the flying Endbringer.
Without a moment to waste, you immediately change tact.
"Can you open a Gap to the fallback position? I will leave the injured to the PRT." You request and are immediately responded to in the form of the Gap that is ever present beneath your clothing sliding out and widening until you can comfortably walk through it.
You are just about to do so when the girl in your arms begins to struggle, and you realize you cannot take her through it.
Blinking, you stare down at her. Her nose is bleeding again, and her skin has taken on a sickly sheen of sweat as she cradles her head in her arms.
"Miss?" You query, gently landing on a rooftop and letting her down, while fighting to stop the urgency you now feel from showing on your face in the form of annoyance.
"I- I don't want to." She whimpers at you.
"I assure you, it is safe. The portal merely leads to the staging area on the outskirts of the city. The PRT are there. They can heal and protect you." You explain, smiling gently at the terrified teen.
"No- but- y-you're strong right? Can't I stay with you?" She asks in a panic.
"Some of my teammates were thrown into the battlezone. I do not want to take you towards the Simurgh." You explain plainly, glancing at the Gap hovering nearby.
"I don't understand. You came to fight it right? Why weren't they already in the battlezone!" She snaps, fear turning to anger in a heartbeat as her city is torn down around her.
"Only some of us are allowed to fight the Simurgh. The majority of those present are here for search and rescue. To find people like you and save them. Please. I have to go to my friends." You both explain and plead, unwilling to just throw the girl through the portal for some reason.
She glares at you as though you had just stated the stupidest thing in the world.
"So all of you are here but... but none of you are fighting..?" She asks, her voice trailing off angrily.
"We..." you pause to try and find the right words to explain yourself. It is difficult because if you are being honest, you thought much the same thing when this was first explained to you.
"We have no choice. We have to do as the PRT says." You finally grit out.
The girl turns to look into the distance at the Simurgh, her expression turning briefly apoplectic, before smoothing out into a dull sunken eyed stare. Tears well up in her eyes but she doesn't sob or cry.
She merely turns back to you.
"Fine." She hisses at you, ignoring the hand you carefully hold out to her and merely walking into the Gap.
Once she is safely through, the portal rapidly shrinks, and an orb of blue light escapes it as it slides beneath your clothing once more.
You, of course, instantly recognize the tracking spell for what it is, and without prompting, chase after it.
It doesn't take long for you to catch up with Aspirant. While the exact ability of the armbands to provide a location is apparently limited to a general area, the tracking spell holds no such limitation. Unfortunately, rather than finding Aspirant at the edge of the battlefield like you would have hoped, you find yourself following the tracking spell closer and closer to the Simurgh.
The Simurgh's scream as you approach her is... unpleasant. And describing it as a scream is nothing if not misleading. While the keening noise in the back of your school could be loosely described as a scream, you would liken it more to a ringing. A high pitched, keening ringing, that seems to randomly change in pitch and tone over time - often just as you are getting accustomed to ignoring the previous tone.
As you sprint forward, still enhanced by your Master's runework, you casually dodge beneath a hunk of debris thrown at you from the center of the fighting - which you are still far enough away from not to have drawn notice from many of the fighters.
You help where you can. Your speed is practically unheard of compared to most Capes, but you find your ability to leverage that speed swiftly curtailed by a never ending torrent of debris that always seems to be positioned perfectly to cut you off and stop you from assisting the people in your path - mostly Blasters trying to avoid the most dangerous parts of the fight while providing covering fire, or trying to launch attacks against the swiftly assembling device in the Simurgh's orbit when possible.
Not that this stops you. You aren't just fast. As such, you quickly change tactics, and simply begin to batter away incoming debris before it can reach it's targets, all the while trailing behind the spell leading to your teammate. To those watching, you must look like a blur as you move, a grey streak passing through only barely noticeable to the defenders, but appreciated regardless.
Finally, you reach your destination, a balcony in the middle of a high rise providing an overhead view of the fighting to the handful of Capes present.
You wonder briefly what Aspirant is doing here, instead of fleeing back to your Master, when the answer to the question becomes self evident. A barrage of debris flies towards the building - which in hindsight is a terrible place to be standing during this fight - and Aspirant, who until that point had been standing patiently on the balcony while the Blasters did their work, moves. He is not quite as fast as you - that would be physically impossible - but even still, the sheer economy of motion he displays as he shifts forward and unfurls into a meters long bundle of tooth and claw is astounding. You barely feel the need to even help, only deflecting a single hunk of stone away from the building's facade before landing, Aspirants whiplike tendrils lashing out at the rest with measured and even strikes in several directions at once.
When the barrage ceases - or pauses you suppose - you land on the balcony.
And are immediately met with every fighter pleasant point their hands at you.
"...Aspirant." You carefully query as your teammate retracts his various body parts, reforming into his Gorilla-Esque armored form.
"Emmy! Thank god. Can you assist me in evacuating this group? The stairwell is blocked and every time I attempt to climb out with one of them we are attacked." He explains quickly. His familiarity with you seems to calm a number of those present, but one outlier is quick to point something out.
"Where's his armband?" He shouts abruptly.
"I do not have one. I am not a Cape." You explain.
"What he means is, that he is a product of someone else's power. My team leader, who is not actually here. Emmy is a... projection." Aspirant rushes to explain when it becomes obvious your own explanation was not sufficient. There is a distinctly sour note in his voice at that last part, likely because all those who join your Master's team know better than to describe you as less than a person.
Someone - the same person who originally brought up the issue - begins to argue the point, but is swiftly ignored by both you and Aspirant as you notice another attack headed this way. You instantly move to obliterate the incoming attacks with your daggers, when the reality of what is being thrown at you sinks in.
All across the battlefield below, the people most active on the frontline, that being, the Brutes are being launched at you. Your mind temporarily locks up as you process this. Yes, you could still bludgeon them all out of the way - but there is no telling if the people involved will survive the endeavor. For the Simurgh's purposes, this is actually quite ingenious. The beast may be unable to grasp people directly with her Telekinesis, but she can certainly grab their clothing. Therefore, this move serves not only to pin you down but to remove many of her current combatants from the battlefield. You just don't understand why. It isn't as though you are actively fighting her, and this certainly won't serve to stop you. Suspicion begins to form in the back of your head but quickly disperses under the ongoing keening of the scream. You can address the thought later. Right now you need to solve this problem.
Aspirant, obviously having come to the same conclusion, twitches slightly in frustration. The two of you will be fine. Both of you are strong and durable enough to survive even the collapse of the entire building atop you. And while Aspirant likely couldn't escape, he would be fine as long as you got to him in time. The others, however...
With only a few moments to respond, you have to act. But what do you do?
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
Mar 9, 2021
#29,811
Spoiler: Choices:
Current Energy: 2
Current Training:
Magic Resistance (7/10)
Thursday, February 24th, 2011
City Limits, Canberra
You have very little time to consider your options here.
You're fast, probably faster than even most Parahumans, but the airborne nature of the incoming projectiles makes the prospect of simply dashing out to catch them one at a time questionable at best.
Sure, you could fling yourself out to one of them, grab them, and land safely - that's no problem for you. But you can't walk on air like your Master can. Once you had made it into the sky, you would have no leverage to change directions, and would be forced to wait until simple gravity had done its work and dragged you to the ground.
You could try and angle yourself downward by climbing the build and launching yourself at an angle, allowing you to catch someone and immediately hit the ground, but that carries its own difficulties. For one, your speed and strength do not ignore traditional physics. If you launch yourself from the surface of the building and back again fast enough to catch even a single person, you will likely cause a sonic boom. Or... just obliterate the upper portion of the building with the force of your leap.
Modern construction, it should be noted, is not typically well equipped to behave as a launch pad for your average Servant.
All that being the case, you decide that your best bet is to just... do literally everything you can think of at once.
"Aspirant!" You yell as you shift forward, practically materializing next to him.
"Ye-" he starts to respond, body tense as he too, continues to attempt to figure out what to do next.
"Slow them." You bark at him at the same time as you send a mental message to your Master.
"Master, I shall need a very large gap shortly," you request, whe simultaneously picking up Aspirant, who yelps in surprise.
"Slow them!" You repeat again. You would explain more but the length of time you have to figure out a solution to the problem before it ceases to be a problem, and instead proceeds to become aftermath is best measured in seconds.
It is at this moment that the informal structure of the Oathbound apparently shows its worth.
Under normal circumstances, a team of Parahumans on this world would require days or months of dedicated training to be able to coordinate in any capacity. This is, however, predicated on a team of Parahumans whose powers are static, and unchanging. They might practice the same formations, techniques, and strategies, under set leaders, drilling and repeating them until they are rote.
The Oathbound have no such experience, largely because the entire organization is made up of people whom primarily dedicate themselves to adapting to whatever power or situation your Master is liable to stumble into from day to day. Many people might loosely describe the structure and practices of your team as 'literally insane' but...
What you are trying to say is, your team is exceptional at adapting to insane situations.
Which is why it takes Aspirant hardly a microsecod to put a hand on your shoulder, reposition himself so that his feet are planted in your upraised palm, and then narrows his body - literally - into an almost arrowlike shape.
Then you throw him. Very, very, hard.
"How big?" Your Master demands, as Aspirant unfurls into a multi limbed nightmare creature that begins to rapidly plucked flying men from the sky in such a way that his forward momentum is quickly arrested, leaving both he and several confused men in that brief moment of freefall before gravity takes hold and forces one to the ground.
You rapidly eyeball the spacing of the brutes grasped in Aspirants limbs, then take a sprinters starting pose as you reply.
"As big as possible," you reply, taking off at the greatest speed you can manage without causing the room full of capes behind you to detonate.
It occurs to you that through the majority of this experience, several of them have been alternatively speaking to, and/or threatening you for whatever reason, but you hardly noticed in your rush. You suppose bodily flinging their perceived protector from the building might seem a tad suspicious to them though.
Regardless, the Gap connecting you to your Master practically explodes in size as you fling yourself into the air roughly where you expect the falling Aspirant to land with his payload. It is not fast at first. You doubt your Master could expand one fast enough to adequately trap someone that could see it coming.
But it is fast enough, as your momentum gutters out, and you fall away from the Gap overhead just in time for Aspirants monstrous form fall into it like a fish returning to water, dragging behind him a dozen men and women who scream in terror and desperately attack him in attempts to escape the perceived threat.
Then you hit the ground back first, though it barely registers as an impact to you compared to the blows your past foes have levied against you.
"I've got him. Where am I dropping these other guys?" Taylor asks you, obviously not fully aware of the situation on your end of things.
You pause to consider that for a moment.
On the one hand, those were all people cleared to participate in the Simurgh fight proper. On the other, you aren't sure what the time limit for their bomb collars was at when the Simurgh threw them.
All that in mind, you point out the obvious.
"Ask Dragon?" You reply lamely.
"...right. I forgot I could do that. I've got Parian, Aspirant and Huntsman here with me. Trainwreck somehow got to the fall back position on his own, so were going to reconvene and get back out there. No splitting up this time though," your Master explains, and you obliging stand and leap upward to enter the quickly closing Gap above you.
When you re-emerge, it is to find most of your team present, though Parian's dress has suffered some fairly significant damage where it appears as though it has unwoven itself in places, likely at the cloth manipulating capes behest. The four dolls of you she has been puppeting stand defensively about her, and though you're certain they don't actually see with their eyes, the duplicate of your current form eyes you suspiciously as you make your entrance before returning to scanning its surroundings warily.
"So like, that was totally temporary and under your control right?" Oliver pesters Aspirant, who is clearly reconstituting himself very slowly into a form better recognizable as humanoid.
"Yes, Huntsman. I am, in fact, not an insane creature of meat and malice," The biokinetic drawls at his teammate. There is no malice or venom in the statement. Your entire team is familiar with Oliver's background and circumstances at this point. It would be somewhat crass of any of you to begrudge his suspicions of one of his teammates becoming a monster after encountering the Simurgh.
"That sounds like an excellent name for ones genitals." Parian muses aloud in a bad approximation of Trainwrecks voice.
The entire group turns to look at her, Taylor lifting an eyebrow in question as the sole person not wearing a mask.
"It... seemed like something he would say. If he were here." Parian says, suddenly sounding very embarrassed.
"Let's go get him then, shall we?" Taylor chimes in after a snort of amusement, ripping open a new Gap even as the one you came through shrinks down to slide under your armor.
As a whole, the group steps through - and you are promptly met with what was once a bustling camp, managing logistics, housing thinkers safely at the edge of combat, and providing medical attention for wounded capes.
It is now noticeably empty, save for the few dazed and confused capes your Master has just sent here, all of them clearly confused as to what has happened, enough so that they barely register your teams sudden appearance.
"...Dragon. Why is the base camp empty?" Taylor asks hesitantly, pressing a finger into her armband. Curiously, you lean in to hear the answer, and your Master obligingly lifts her arm to you to assist.
There is, instead of a response, a burst of static, then slowly fades to provide a repeating message.
"-aware that our comms have been compromised by an unknown Master. Repeat, all personnel in the staging area, retreat to B4, please be aware-"
Taylor stares at her armband for a second, before crouching down and rocketing into the air, clearly attempting to geta better look at the city.
When she lands, it is with a grimace.
"They're all running at the Simurgh," she explains, tracing a rune in the air and watching it zip in the direction she just looked in.
"...and dumbass is with them," She adds in annoyance that barely masks her mounting dread.
Well. That's... bad. Still, if the Simurgh can be driven off before anyone gets hurt-
"Eidolon down, CD-4. Legend down, CD-4."
"How?!" She yelps in frustrated confusion.
"It's just what the feathered bitch does." Oliver says with a resigned look of defeat on his face.
There is a moment of pure silence, broken only by the sound of debris being launched in the distance, that is interrupted when a set of runes bursts to life above your team, as large as a minibus and inscribed in the air with raw magic. Your own enchantment becomes immediately refreshed an reinvigorated, and your teammates jolt slightly at the sudden change in the perceptions and strength.
"Come on." Taylor says with a steely edge in her voice that sounds disturbingly close to bordering on mania.
"Come on what? Taylor we can't stop literally everyone here at once we-" Oliver begins to explain, waving his hands aimlessly around you to demonstrate the scale of the problem.
"Olly," Taylor says not bothering to look at the boy, but managing to cut an impressive figure as she starts to stride forward regardless.
"Trust me." She says, not turning to see if he heard or acknowledged her.
Neither do you, for that matter, though you quickly sense the rest of your team march into place at your sides.
After all, the Oathbound are Taylor's.
And it's been a very long time since anyone was succesful in taking something from her.
A/N: So, this might feel slightly rushed, but I'm going to be honest here. I hate the Simurgh. I regret with every fiber of my being sticking to canon with regards to this fight. Having to even think of the winged bitch has been slowly draining my will to write this quest, and its no ones fault but my own.
So lets jump ahead slightly, skip the misery porn, and engage in some good old fashioned ultra violence, then return to your regularly scheduled program shall we?
Usual disclaimers apply. Grammar hard, phone writing painful. Join the discord so you can pester me, and hence remind me why I love this community so much.
713
Bowler Hat Guy
Mar 9, 2021
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Threadmarks Deicide 12.7
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Bowler Hat Guy
Bowler Hat Guy
A Hat & Its Man
Mar 10, 2021
#29,873
Current Energy: 2
Current Training:
Magic Resistance (7/10)
Thursday, February 24th, 2011
City Limits, Canberra
Your team makes quick time as it travels. Between their auras, their native powers, and the boost in speed provided by your Master's runecraft, it hardly takes any time at all for you to arrive at the rear of the mass of humans currently running towards the Simurgh as though their lives depend on it.
As you approach them, you also find yourself growing ever closer to the Simurgh herself, and you begin to hear the faintest traces of her scream scratch at the rear of your mind.
Mechanically speaking, you are aware that the Simurgh's psychic scream exists largely on the same wavelength your kind use for most forms of communication. Realistically, there is no reason for the scream to exist at all. So it stands to reason that the Terror Engine makes itself audible in this way, in order to, well... cause terror.
You are largely unbothered by this, but your Master and her teammates grow visibly discomfited as you proceed and the scream grows louder.
Your Master - not really being in the mood for bullshit at this particular moment - doesn't actually bother to try and communicate with or interact with the people mindless running forward. She just opens a very large gap in the sky overhead, and then begins physically hurling anyone she can get her hands on into it. It would be highly amusing to take a picture of if the situation wasn't so obviously dire.
"Boss I dunno if that's... uh... safe?" Oliver offers after the tenth such toss. Your Master isn't really going out of her way to save everyone present. In fact, her headlong forward march hasn't actually stopped at any point during these events. She is just so fast that - regardless of the distance between herself and the Gap quickly falling behind you - she can pluck people from nearby and hurl them away.
"And that is?" She asks rhetorically, gesturing ahead where you can see the Simurgh gliding past a few blocks away. Again, you are struck by the strange way in which she always appears to be looking at you, regardless of the direction her head is facing. You would call the feeling uncomfortable but it really isn't. It's mostly just weird.
"...Do you have to throw them?" He complains in response. Taylor gives him a look you've come to associate with any Hebert currently questioning someone's intelligence, then picks up another person nearby - a cape who has visibly pulled their communicator off just in time to hurl it away, hence avoiding the explosion it proceeds to cause.
"Hey. I'm rescuing you. Questions?" She asks him in an irritable tone as a large blue hand stretches from her to pick him up and hold in nearby.
"Let me go! If I fall behind my best friend will be unhappy with me!" He squeals in a hoarse voice, likely from the desperate sprinting he was undergoing shortly before this.
"Uhuh. I see. And your 'best friend', where would that be." She asks, and though you doubt it's intentional, the glowing hand holding the man up begins to squeeze slightly.
"You're just going to hurt her! Why would I-" He begins but doesn't get to finish as the giant hand rises up and flings the man several blocks into the Gap behind you.
"...Okay but what if you miss?" Oliver tries again.
"I won't," Taylor says obstinately, although you do note that the Gap she has been using begins to slowly drift forward to narrow the distance between you and it.
In this way, your group rapidly creates a gap in the ranks of those Mastered, cleaving a path to the head of the group where - predictably - Trainwreck is present.
Less predictably, the front of the human wave has stopped because the Simurgh...
"The Simurgh has broken line of sight. Last seen at C4," everyone's communicators blurt out at once.
"Fuck!" Trainwreck yells, punching a building in the side and collapsing its nearest wall.
"No shit! What the fuck are you doing?" Taylor hisses at him as she approaches.
"Hey, it's the whole gang! Do you think you can do that find any motherfucker thing you do Boss? My best friend asked us to get the kaiju outta here so-" Trainwreck exclaims as he sees you all. He doesn't... seem Mastered. Except for the best friend bit, anyway.
"Hey buddy, you uh, you're kinda Mastered, I think," Oliver says carefully shifting forward but not moving anywhere Trainwreck could easily reach. All around you, confused civilians and capes alike dazedly look beneath rocks and around corners for the Simurgh.
"Nah. I read about that Heartbreaker guy up in Canada, and I definitely don't wanna fuck anybody I didn't wanna fuck yesterday." Trainwreck explains with a shrug, glancing past the group as though hoping the Simurgh will magically be there.
"Purely hypothetically, who-" Oliver asks suspiciously, only for Parian to swat the back of his head via one of her puppets.
"Boys. Please. Trainwreck, could you tell us about your 'best friend'?" She asks carefully.
"Oh yeah, real sweetheart that girl. Can you believe she'd be friends with a guy like me?" Trainwreck says fondly.
Taylor cringes at this, and you yourself frown slightly.
"Master, if I may?" You ask carefully, keeping an eye on your surroundings just in case something happens. Taylor glances at you and waits for you to speak.
"I lack the power to complete Magic Resistance presently, but there is a Rune that replicates it. Predictably, it is somewhat power-intensive but you should be able to-" You begin only for Taylor to brighten at your suggestion and finish your sentence for you.
"-break the Mastering!" She exclaims, drawing an uncomfortable amount of sudden attention from all those present.
"Uh... I don't think they liked that." Oliver notes, pivoting to close ranks with the group.
"Hey, hey, no biggy all right? Hey, it's cool guys, she's with me!" Trainwreck yells quickly, gesturing wildly around himself to get everyone's attention. Oliver blinks at this.
"Isn't he mastered?" He whispers to you, as Taylor warily begins to trace a rune in the area between herself and Trainwreck.
"It doesn't appear to completely change their personality. Just makes the victim think of someone as their... best friend?" You offer carefully as the rune completes and Trainwreck is suffused with a soft glow that quickly fades away.
He blinks once. Then twice. Then looks around himself in obvious confusion for a moment before turning back to your Master.
"Can I get that shit in a can for next time or what?" He says lazily.
"You-!" Taylor opens her mouth to begin berating him before visibly mastering herself.
"What happened?" She finally asks.
"Dunno. Some dick tossed me over there somewhere, I got back to Camp by following one of my tags back to the tech who gave me this thing," he explains, wiggling the finger his comm unit is on, "then next thing I know this little girl that looked kinda like you before the hotness powers is tapping me on the shoulder and asking me to make her a chicken dinner," he finishes, gesturing to where the Simurgh was with a thumb.
Taylor looks less than pleased by the brief explanation, but much of the tension she was obviously feeling prior to this has obviously drained away now that all the people she actually cares about are within arms reach.
Still, leave it to Trainwreck summarize an entire Endbringer fight in a few sentences and jokes.
"So what now? Looks like the wicked bitch of the west is outta here for now so-" Trainwreck begins only to be cut off by a new voice.
"What the hell is going on?" Alexandria angrily barks as she drops out of the sky to come to a stop a few inches off the ground nearby.
"You didn't get the comm message? A Master took over the fallback position and sent all these people at the Simurgh." Taylor explains quickly, obviously still somewhat in awe at the elder heroine, although it is clearly tempered by recent events, down to mere respect.
"What comm- no nevermind. Use your Mover power to get them out of combat. I'll deal with them later. Where's the Master?" Alexandria commands, obviously expecting to be listened to on this.
"Dunno. Haven't seen her since she got me back at base." Trainwreck shrugs.
As one might expect from someone openly admitting to being Mastered in the middle of a Simurgh fight, Alexandria responds in the only way that makes sense.
She darts forward to try and punch out Trainwreck. Realistically, given your current location, she was probably going less for 'knock out' and more for 'decapitate'.
Funnily enough, it doesn't work.
"Yeah, you like that baby? What passes for my spine and all my bones in this motherfucker are partially submerged in the tectonic plate under the fucking city. I could fuck a continent to death in this thing!" He croons from around the fist he is currently holding steadily in place on his forearm.
There is a tense silence as Alexandria darts backward, and then Trainwreck adds-
"Also, the Boss broke the Mastering with her magic bullshit powers. You know how it goes."
Alexandria spins around to stare at Taylor as though she has just encountered something particularly alien to her.
"...can you do it again? How much preparation do you need? Does it work on the Simurgh?" She rattles off quickly.
"Yes, depends on how many people you want me to get at once, I don't know?" Taylor answers, obviously supremely unimpressed not just by the failed attack, but by Alexandria's complete dismissal of it even happening.
"How many people can you affect at once? Legend and Eidolon are still down. If you can reset their timers then we have a shot." She continues, ignoring the look Taylor sends her that silently says 'apologize to Trainwreck'.
Under other circumstances, your Master might just press the issue. Unfortunately, now is not the time for it.
"Fine. I can only power this for a little bit. Cover for me I guess." She grouses.
"You didn't say how many-" Alexandria reiterates irritably.
"No, I didn't," Taylor says through grit teeth as she draws her sword and waves fiercely overhead. The blue energy of your Master's version of Lesser Magic traces the path of her sword, firing itself skyward and leaving a glowing blue line in the sky big enough to be visible the entire city over.
Nearly everyone present stares upward in either awe, confusion, or both. You say 'nearly' because, as previously noted, your team's entire composition is predicated on dealing with... well with this mostly.
If they weren't accustomed to the absurd and bizarre by now, they never would be after all.
"Hey just putting this out there, but if we kill an Endbringer can I get a date? Don't gotta be you. Actually, wait, you totally just tried to kill me. Never mind, it's gotta be you." Trainwreck says, stepping forward to hunch protectively near your team.
"Trainwreck!" Parian exclaims in place of your Master who is obviously busy concentrating, who pauses for a second to focus before cleaving another line in the sky.
"What?! The Simurgh is like, Satan or some shit right? If I kill Satan I wanna get laid." Trainwreck complains loudly.
"I mean when you put it like that-" Oliver starts only for your hand to come down gently on his shoulder.
"-totally inappropriate bro." he finishes, changing what he was going to say.
"And it's sexual harassment!" Parian adds.
"What is she doing?" Alexandria demands angrily, after a few failed attempts to draw your Master's attention.
"What you asked." You reply flatly.
"How does that," She gestures at the sky, "have anything to do with what I asked."
"""It's magic.""" Your entire team responds at once.
You can tell Alexandria is becoming apocalyptically mad at your teams seeming lackadaisical demeanor but well, this isn't anything new for you. Very few Heroes' managed to remain stoic over the course of their entire careers, at least the Heroes you are aware of as a Servant of the Throne. There simply comes a point in time when 'Doomsday' becomes 'Tuesday'.
Honestly, you're more surprised Alexandria hasn't reached that point yet.
"Hey, so I didn't actually get an answer to my question?" Trainwreck tries again and is summarily ignored by Alexandria.
"Simurgh spotted at D8," All the nearby armbands sound off, just as the Simurgh floats into view on the horizon. Whatever device she's working on looks like it's nearly complete which - you assume - is bad.
More so than that, your sense of perspective is temporarily skewed by the fact that - as far as you can tell - a majority of one side of the city side is in the air with her, and most of it is pointed at you.
"Did she fucking do that on purpose?" Trainwreck asks in distress, glancing at your Master who is still painstakingly carving a spell on the skyline.
"Probably. Shall we?" Aspirant replies, limbering his shoulders up and stepping forward to stand astride Trainwreck and Huntsman.
"Cockblocked by Angel-Satan. I hate this planet." Trainwreck complains, pounding one fist into an open palm.
"In truth Trainwreck, I think you do it to yourself," Parian says, and although the cloth controlling cape is clearly more stressed by what is going on around you than the others, she shifts to allow one of her Dolls to pick her up.
"This is such bullshit. I want it known that I asked for a pile bunker." Huntsman complains, jumping onto the position on Trainwrecks back and drawing the folded-up canon Trainwreck built for him, then leveling it over one of the Tinker's tremendous shoulders.
"What are you doing? We have to move." Alexandria hisses, shifting towards your Master, obviously to pick her up.
You step into place between the two, and - possibly remembering the numerous duplicates of her you murdered - she pauses.
"Nah, we got this. Hey, do we have like, a team battle cry thing?" Trainwreck asks lazily.
"Avengers assemble?" Huntsman offers hopefully.
"We're already assembled dumbass. We live in the same castle." Is the last thing you hear Trainwreck say before the wall of buildings and other such vast, heavy, objects begin to fly towards you.
Ahead of you, the Oathbound begin to charge. The loud bark of Oliver's rifle rings out and a quick measured pace, even as Trainwreck's prodigious strength pushes them forward, the massive tinker swatting large objects out of the sky even as the nominal railgun hanging over one of his shoulders obliterates objects further afield.
To his left, Aspirant has once more unfurled into a multi-limbed night terror, dozens of nearly human arms all of them inhumanly long, dragging him forward. They whip up and around at multiple angles, each motion practiced to perfection, each attack an example of martial arts from another dimension entirely. Each blow, shattering vehicles and portions of buildings before they can pass the group to slam into your Master.
Parian remains at the rear of the group, her four puppets bouncing around them, ranging further afield than any of them can easily reach along their path to the Endbringer, deflecting what debris they can, and redirecting that which she can't towards the front of the group to be crushed beneath Trainrweck's heel.
Not all the debris is so easily dealt with of course. Some of it does reach your Master. Or rather, it reaches you, and you are nothing, if not dedicated to her defense. With lightning-quick reflexes, you fling your throwing knives outward, dashing around the five-meter radius surrounding your Master with a speed that only a Servant could match.
It only takes Alexandria a few moments to get with the program and start helping. You notice she doesn't make any attempt to help those unfortunates nearby who are obviously still Mastered. You do your best to shield them where possible, obviously, but you have obvious priorities, and so too does Alexandria obviously.
"I don't understand. The Simurgh has never focused so much on one Cape before." Alexandria growls.
Now, you don't dislike Alexandria. Neither Sigurd, nor your Shard self sees a problem with most of her actions, nor with having power and holding a political position.
So it is with absolutely no malice that you reply;
"None of you mattered before."
Still, you would be lying if you said the look of pure astonishment on her face wasn't gratifying.
You're sure she would respond if she could, but your Master chooses just that moment to complete her rune in the sky. There is a brief flash of light, and then it's done. And every living being in the city becomes abruptly, and temporarily, extremely resistant to Mastering.
"Now, you do." You explain, grabbing your Master before she can fall over from the exertion.
Last edited: Mar 10, 2021
790
Bowler Hat Guy
Mar 10, 2021
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