"Because shard magic" isn't the most satisfying answer 
A Champion in Earth Bet [Worm/Original Setting]
- Thread starter sun tzu
- Start date
Hestia&theCourt
Turns out we're plural too.
- Location
- In transition
- Pronouns
- She/Her
"Because shard magic" isn't the most satisfying answer
I mean, I'm satisfied with it. The more time Sun spends defending the physics of the powers of a now-defeated antagonist, the less time he has to write the next update.
- Location
- Leeds
I guess you didn't like Worm then."Because shard magic" isn't the most satisfying answer
Lustucru Doit Mourir
LUSTUCRU DOIT MOURIR
[X] Liberating Gray Boy victims, as per his established routine.
[X] Pushing through the integration of some choice new recruits into the Guild, so as to be able to deploy them against Madame Lustucru.
The next three days are extremely busy. As should be.
"Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't have enough work as is," Chevalier explains. "Even putting administrative work aside, keeping Philadelphia in one piece is a never-ending battle. But… I believe in what you and the Guild are doing. In less than two weeks, you've drastically improved the stability of the entire Caribbean region and East Asia. You've improved the lives of millions of people. You've given millions of others hope, and you're actually encouraging national governments to work with each other." He pauses. "I've given it careful consideration. I believe that a week where I spend six days leading the Philadelphia Protectorate and one day assisting the Guild will be more productive than a week entirely devoted to my city."
"Chicago's situation is much the same," Myrddin explains. Despite his wizard costume, you're still not sensing any trace of magic from him - just the usual interplanar movements characteristic of parahuman abilities. "And much like my colleague, I desire to be a part of this grand venture. The Guild was always a company of grand heroes, but now, it is turning into the spearhead of hope, a modern Round Table. I believe our place, our destiny, is fighting by your side, striking down the hope-eaters of the world!"
Narwhal nods. "You know you're both on the fastrack for Guild membership." There is a reason for that - both of these Protectorate leaders have prior history of working with the Guild when it fought class S and class A threats in their respective cities, and both of them, besides being powerful, are veterans who have proven both their competence and their ability to work in teams. "To be honest, lot of us - me included - wanted to hold off on recruiting new members for at least two more weeks. Our membership went up by nearly a half after the last recruitment drive, and I'd have preferred to give us more time to develop unit cohesion. But," she nods again, "the newbies performed admirably in not one, but two major operations. Furthermore, we're going to be running a lot of such major operations over the coming weeks, and we're going to need numbers." She glances at you. You were among those who supported accelerating the recruitment procedures. If you add more members now, you'll have a couple days to run some training courses together, before the next operation goes live. And you suspect you'll need everything you can get to avoid a bloodbath.
All in all, there are nine heroes currently being groomed to join the Guild. Four of them, given their record, are intended to participate in the next operation. Among those are Chevalier, Myrddin… and two other capes, whom you will be addressing next.
"Like I've told Narwhal, I'm willing to consider the idea of joining the Guild. However, I wanted to wait and see how things went before committing myself to working with a foreign organization that would require me to fight battles across the globe."
You consider the heroine before you. Aura, a case-53 whose body is entirely made of bluish translucent force-fields, which can take a number of shapes and size. Strong, and getting stronger the bigger she makes herself. Tough, although her force-fields' resilience slowly diminishes as she grows. Able to fly. Notably immune to the Simurgh's mental manipulations (having no physical brain), which was why she was a common presence during battles against the winged Endbringer.
Like Harmonic and Multi-Hit, Aura is one India's "Garama" capes. Unlike them, she doesn't hold a government job - instead, she leads Bombay's most successful independent hero team.
In short: She's powerful. She's good with people and teamwork. She's got a prior history of fighting S-class threats and working with Guild members. And her specific nature makes her apt at facing the threat you'll be dealing with next.
"You've seen what the reinforced Guild can do. Liberating a city, taking down dangerous extremists…"
"I certainly won't be shedding tears over the arrest of Skylance and Fuji-Sama," she replies. "Their kind is a disease that's festering the world over. Everything that happened to South Africa. The Gesellschaft in Europe. The National Front in New Zealand. Or Shiva's Army right here," she sighs. Well, she makes a sound like sighing; it's not like she needs to breath any more than you do. "I fear that the occupation of Kashmir is bringing out the worst in my country. I hope, on some level, that seeing other ultranationalists crushed will take some wind out of their sails." She pauses. "With that in mind, I would have you tell me who this new and improved Guild intends to take on next."
"Madame Lustucru."
She pauses.
"...Damn." She does the levitating equivalent of pacing. "The worst of the worst of the African continent. And her power… she has hydrokinesis that bypasses the Manton limit, doesn't it? She can control the water in the human body."
"Exactly."
"And there's not a single drop of water in my body."
"Very true."
She faces you. "...My presence could save thousands of lives."
"Yes. Though we would want you on board even with a different opponent."
She nods. "Maybe. But for this one… I won't be staying on the sidelines."
"Of course I want to help out. Heck, I've tried to join the Guild before. The main issue is my superiors. I mean, they'll let me help out during Endbringer fights - it's not like their heads are that far up their asses - but actually joining a foreign organization, especially one that's seen as an extension of the Protectorate? Bit too much for them."
Like Aura, Chevalier and Myrddin, the fourth prospective Guild recruit of the day is a veteran of Endbringer fights. With the codename Entropisch, she is a powerful Shaker, able to create zones where everything is either much easier or much harder to damage, people included.
She is also a longstanding member of Die Deutscheritters, the national hero organization of Germany. Some possessiveness toward members is to be expected, especially in a world where heroes are in short supply.
"Far from me to deny that the Guild benefits from a close working relationship with the Protectorate," you chuckle, "but we would love to extend that same working relationship to the Detuscheritters. For that matter, I would like to think the past couple of weeks have gone some way toward establishing that the Guild is its own agency."
"It's not me you need to convince."
"No, but I'm meeting the people I need to convince in an hour, and I figured I'd run my argumentation by you first."
You do, after all, have a lot of experience at being convincing.
Today's list of Grey Boy victims takes you back to Chicago, along with Leonardo and his escort. The enthusiastic Italian hero is wearing a visored helmet this time around.
"You like it? I'm still working out the kinks in it, but it's functional," he says cheerfully. "Since I'm keeping the chronotech specialization for now, I figured I'd build more stuff with it. So, this helmet is basically designed to give me combat precog? See what the enemy does before they do it, warn me in advance and tell me how to react. The tricky part is figuring out how to feed me the data in a way I will react to efficiently and in time, but so far, it's worked preeeetty well in tests. Like, with the helmet, I was able to hold my own in CQC against people who can usually hand me my ass.
"And that's not all! I mean, I still need to finish fine-tuning this baby, but I also have this really cool idea for an 'oracle machine'. Some kind of precog computer that could warn us about bad stuff ahead of time. No idea how effective it'll be compared to actual parahuman precogs, but I've already filed for authorization to build it. And, and, the brass agreed to let me work with Dragon on replicating my timeloop-buster, and wow there's a reason she's considered the world's greatest Tinker."
"So I see," you smile at him. "Let me thank you again for your assistance with this."
With Leonardo's assistance, the last multi-victim timeloops are cleared. Of the 78 remaining Grey Boy timeloops, every one contains one single victim.
Furthermore, you manage to squeeze in a meeting with the leadership of the Legione Difesa. While you need to stay carefully diplomatic, you manage to make them see that collaborating with Dragon is helping the new Tinker master his abilities at an accelerated pace.
The time you spend in Brockton Bay, compared to your time working internationally, is relatively quiet. A few patrols that catch a few dealers (and catch, in the nick of time, an elderly woman having a stroke while alone in her home). Some sparring with the Wards and Protectorate members; if nothing else, Dauntless seems to have embraced training with renewed enthusiasm.
Oni Lee, apparently the only remaining villain of the now-defunct ABB gang, gets captured by Velocity (with assist from Armsmaster and Battery) while you're out of town.
You spend some time re-fixing Noelle. The Travelers are cautiously excited about the ongoing negotiations being held for sending them back home. You also have the pleasure of informing her that the Travelers' information about their former employers is already panning out, and has already contributed to the arrest of Imperator in Detroit.
"Of the 605 members of Japan's National Diet, 94 belong to the ultranationalist Yamato Party," director Wayland explains. Present and accounted for are all Guild members, including the four newest recruits, and five prospective ones. And a few more people in an advisory capacity. "The next elections will be held 188 days from now, and Thinkers consider it almost impossible for the Yamato Party to get more than 60 seats when they come."
"Still best to beat that iron while it's hot," says Surdoué. "Bringing additional Japanese capes into the Guild will give a nice demonstration of what internationalism can accomplish."
"Well, it's not all gonna be on Japan," says Wayland. "South Korea and Singapore both have rather tense relationships with Tokyo, but the governments of both feel even more threatened by the CUI. With the fall of Skylance and Fuji-Sama, Japan will appear like a 'safer' option, and there are already moves in their governments and corporations aiming for the strengthening of trade relations, and maybe more.
"Of course, that's not the only place where internationalism is getting a focus. The final details of Mexico's entrance into the Protectorate are being hammered. Looks like Exalt will be taking over the Houston branch, while Eidolon goes on loan to Mexico City for four months, serving as liaison under Excelente. A couple dozen Protectorate heroes will be moving to Mexico and vice-versa.
"And then," he moves to the next slide, "there's Africa. I've gone over this before, but I'll repeat for our newcomers: If you want the internationalist agenda to gain any sort of traction on the continent, the two countries you absolutely need are Nigeria, and Kenya." He pauses. "Nigeria is, by far, the most populous African nation, and its true economic powerhouse. It used to maintain peace in West Africa… before Behemoth devastated Lagos. Nowadays, with the capital in ruins and several major cities taken over by gangs and warlords, Nigerian heroes are too busy desperately trying to keep the country from total collapse to run any sort of peacekeeping efforts beyond their borders. As for Kenya, it is an island of relative stability in East Africa, largely thanks to the Pentagon - a team of five national heroes, A-listers with strong synergy. They've managed to smack down any villains who get too big for their britches… but even with that, Kenya's situation is volatile, with practically a tenth of the current population being comprised of refugees from neighboring nations."
"Thank you, director," says Narwhal as she takes center stage. "Now, there are two more matters. First, everyone, meet Artisan, member and spokesman of Toybox."
The rogue, dressed in an elegant mix of fashionable clothing and tinkertech, steps forward. From what you've read about Artisan, he's a Tinker with an added Thinker power that makes him a world-class expert in any type of craftsmanship. His Tinker specialization apparently builds on it - there isn't any one category of tinkertech he's specialized in, but anything he builds is powerful and effective, not that far from what a Tinker specialized in that field would be capable of.
It is thus no wonder that he has some status in Toybox, a North-American association of rogue Tinkers who collaborate on various projects, share resources, and sell their services and tinkertech creations to the highest bidder. Buyers have included wealthy private citizens, corporations… as well as the PRT and villains, though the latter operate with plausible deniability.
"Thank you for having me here," says Artisan. "It is an honor, and I don't mean just because Dragon is in the room." A few chuckles at that. "Since we're all very busy people, allow me to cut straight to the point: Toybox, after much deliberation, has concluded that we wish to support the current efforts of the Guild. As such, we have agreed to offer a number of tinkertech devices for the use of your organization, free of charge. All of those devices will have been tuned up by Prochnost, minimizing the need for maintenance."
Prochnost, your quick research shows, is a Russian member of Toybox. His specialization is robustness: While all tinkertech requires frequent maintenance by Tinkers to keep working, his own needs significantly less - almost by an order of magnitude. Supposedly, other members of Toybox tend to pay him to improve their own work.
"It's a generous offer, and we appreciate any help we can get," says Narwhal. "What devices did you have in mind?"
"Well, we have a few that I've brought with me. Beyond that, we're taking requests…"
After some discussions with the Toybox spokesman, things go back to the matter of Kolwezi and Madame Lustucru.
"It's no good," Forecast comments sadly. "If you send in Centro, things go bad."
"That would suggest they have a way of detecting Centro," Wing Warrior says. Though the Japanese Tinker is not yet a member of the Guild, and won't be talking part in the Kolwezi operation, ongoing negotiations with his superiors are very promising - the Japanese authorities would much rather appear as equal partners in the Guild than as having needed it to swoop in to their rescue and then leave, and Wing Warrior has proven his worth and usefulness. "I assume they have their own Thinkers?"
"Definitely," says Tattletale, another cape here in an advisory capacity. "Look at these reports. Lustucru has more than one Thinker working with her, but the biggie is this one. L'Araignée. Senses hostility… no, wide-area precognitive danger sense. He can warn Lustucru about threats before they arise. It's why planning around her is so frustrating. Also, why Forecast is having trouble seeing what will happen. Precog interference."
"Unfortunate. Any way we can take him out a few days before the attack, then go in at full force?"
"Sure, if you want half of Kolwezi dead or wishing for death during the intervening period."
"...She would, wouldn't she." His helmet covers his entire head, but you can hear the edge of fury in Wing Warrior's voice. "Does Lustucru value the death and suffering of others over her own survival?!"
"She doesn't actually believe she has a way of surviving this month," Tattletale replies, "but to answer your question? Yeah, she does. She deliberately keeps all the death and torture completely unpredictable, so people can't even pretend to themselves that they'll be safe so long as they act in a certain way. Two years ago, there was this big resistance plot that seemingly managed to kill her and drive her minions out of the city. The town had a major celebration. Then, in the middle of their big party, Lustucru and her minions walk in, the leaders of the resistance start laughing, and it turns out it was all one giant fakeout to give everyone false hope." Tattletale's expression is unusually somber. "Lustucru lives for this shit. She just wants to keep pushing, see how much despair she can inflict on people. Right now, she knows you guys are coming after her; she'll be planning to take the whole city down with her."
"Then we will have to out-plan her," you state, "and I have faith in this team's ability to accomplish just that."
Much as with Slaughterhouse Nine, there are many, many things about Madame Lustucru's operation that are utterly revolting. Just one of them is the fact that one of her minions, Monsieur Météo, is a weather controller, with a range measured in miles. He could be out there saving millions of people and whole economies by combating droughts; instead, he causes lightning to randomly strike people in Kolwezi.
When you and Dragon reach the city, it's unnaturally cloudy for this weather. It has been for a while now - Monsieur Météo has been maintaining a cloud cover since the day you arrested the Purifier (also the day you killed the Simurgh, but you suspect it's more because of you arresting the Purifier). As such, you could not get satellite imagery from Dragon.
Since l'Araignée could almost definitely warn Lustucru ahead of time, you and Dragon were sent ahead, before Strider teleported anyone else in. Just in case of an ambush. You stretch your senses, which shows you thousands of civilians trying to get away from the area or hunker down in their homes. Their expressions are those of people who were hollowed out, not even capable of hope anymore; you've seen those expressions in the Nazi death camps.
Your senses also detect a number of bombs, and multiple snipers (as well as one man with a bazooka). Those are simple enough to take out; as none of these are powerful enough to harm you or Dragon's latest omni-metal suit, the main concern here is civilians and securing a "landing pad" for the Guild.
The first person Strider brings to the "landing pad" is Entropisch, who instantly covers the area with her anti-damage effect. Next come Narwhal and Myrddin, setting up the defensive perimeter with their powers. Then more and more of the Guildsmen, while you use weather-control powers to dispel the cloud cover, giving Dragon eyes in the sky faster than Monsieur Météo could bring the clouds back.
"Not much of a welcoming committee," Tattletale's voice comes over the commlink. "Lustucru's decided against one big brawl. She's got her minions hiding all over the city, ready to ambush you guys and get a lot of civilians killed in the process. She herself won't be alone, though. She'll be with l'Araignée and Cache-Cache."
Cache-Cache is a villain with the ability to banish anything (or anyone) he touches (possibly to a pocket dimension), and return it at will. The banished objects experience no passage of time, and are returned to the exact location they were originally banished at. Tattletale had been quick to conclude that he would play a central role in Lustucru's final plan, hiding destruction across the city in order to kill everyone just as you freed the city - her final gift of doom and hopelessness to Kolwezi. Meaning that locating Cache-Cache is vital.
"All right people, you have your orders!" Narwhal calls out. And the Guildsmen move.
Carefully, of course. You and Celo scout ahead, aided by Dragon's satellite imagery, Tattletale's insight, and a Toybox visor that lets Celo observe every human being and all explosives in a wide range regardless of cover. Entropisch dismisses previous anti-damage zones and creates new ones, the rest of the Guild quickly moving inside them with Strider's help.
The fighting starts. Not a big melee like with Skylance, but individual villains, unmasked, out of costume, hidden among the cowering civilians, suddenly lashing out whenever the Guild gets in range, often deliberately inflicting as much collateral damage as they can and trying to detonate hidden bombs.
One after another, they get taken down fast. Between Multi-Hit, Iron Snake and yourself, the Guild has enough speedsters to take them down quickly, and Entropisch's field ensures that what few attacks get past Narwhal and Myrddin's defenses don't cause the Guild serious harm (and a handful of Toybox-issued personal force-field generators protect the more fragile Guildsmen). The bombs do not explode - Doctor Volt has rigged together a device that effectively neutralizes standard detonators. Many injured civilians are rescued by a combination of Voodoo transferring their injuries to your regenerating body, and a Toybox-provided combo of an aerosol that seals wounds and hypodermic needles full of a liquid that acts as blood substitute.
Which is not to say civilians don't die. Many do. But for now, casualties remain in the lower double digits, instead of in the thousands upon thousands that would have occurred by now with less preparation.
Once the first few villains are captured, you quickly switch to mind-reading, delving inside their memories to find out more about Lustucru's plans. You replicate holographically the faces of their fellow villains from their memories, and relay everything you learn to the rest of the team. Lustucru kept a lot of the useful information compartmentalized, but there are useful nuggets here. Dragon is able to identify three more villains via satellite thanks to your information.
"Ugh, headaches starting," says Tattletale, "but I'm at least 95% sure Lustucru is waiting for you in city hall. Careful, she'll have lots of hostages, and that Tinker with her. The one with the speed specialization."
An Alexandria package villainess takes to the air, holding above her head a gas tanker truck that she presumably intends to throw down upon the Guild. A blast from Météore hits the tanker, causing a massive mid-air explosion that slams the villainess to the ground. There, she is quickly beset by Chevalier. She strikes him with a punch that could shatter an Abrams tank, but doesn't even dent the Protectorate hero's armor. He knocks her down with his sword, and Doctor Metal makes sure she stays down.
With Narwhal's confirmation, you, Dragon, and Aura make a beeline for city hall.
Even before you enter the building, your senses give you a grim picture of what's inside. Lustucru, l'Araignée, Cache-Cache, an unidentified villain and the speed-specialized Tinker wearing power armor are in the biggest room - unlike the rest of the villains in the city, they're wearing their costumes. Also in the room are over forty terrified children, many of them crying, and several cooking gas tanks, open and hissing. On the ground are several glasses of water, each one near a small pile of powder.
Magnesium powder. A substance that quickly ignites when it touches water. And with all the gas in the room… Lustucru, being hydrokinetic, can basically blow herself, her minions, and the children to kingdom come in a fraction of a second.
You relay your concerns to your teammates, quickly discuss a plan, then fly in.
You are greeted by Madame Lustucru, slowly clapping. She looks… like a pretty normal person. Not like a mass-murdering sadistic monster who's turned the lives of nearly half a million people into a living hell for the better part of a decade. But you've been around long enough to know that monsters can be depressingly normal. "Bra-vo! My felicitations! Raise your heads, everyone - the Endbringer ender walks among us!"
You maintain a neutral expression. "Madame Lustucru. I do not believe introductions are necessary, so allow me to skip forward to the more, shall we say, relevant bit. I wish to ask you to surrender and come quietly."
Her minions start laughing at that. She grins from ear to ear. "Are you preparing for a career in comedy? I suppose being a hero is good training for it."
"Your army is falling. You have nothing to gain from hurting any of these people," you counter.
"You think I had something to gain from hurting them before?" She quirks her eyebrow. "Why do you think I'm doing this, sweetie?"
"I had assumed a lack of parental warmth growing up."
She actually laughs this time. "Let's make something perfectly clear, oh mighty bearer of hope. I don't get paid to do the shit I do. I don't do it as some kind of revenge on the world. I don't get sexual thrills from it. And I'm not trying to score ideological points.
"I do it for the hell of it. I do it just because. I do it because why not?" She grins like a shark. "I took an entire city, and made it experience despair like none other in History. You think I'm gonna-"
"I think there are better reasons to do things in life than 'just because'," you interrupt her. "I think purpose can be found in striving for things, be they great or small. From the idealist who wishes to change the world to the person just trying to take care of their family and friends. Forgive the honesty, but this… all of this… strikes me as puerile."
"Then let me be puerile!" she declares dramatically. "Really, Avatar. Did you really think you could talk me down with a speech?"
"I suppose not," you admit, "but it had to be tried. I am very good at violence, but I don't use it as a first resort."
"Oh, agreed. Fear of violence can be just as effective!" she declares cheerfully. "And I - did you just do something to my head?"
Nuts. You'd had hoped that you could read her mind without her noticing, but it's not that subtle an ability.
Twenty glass bottles tip over as the water inside rushes into the magnesium, which combusts, eliciting cries of terror from the children.
Moving at super-speed, you blast Madame Lustucru, slamming her against the wall; you can't afford to be gentle when she can kill any hostage with a thought.
Less than a twentieth of a second after your attack, while the speed Tinker is starting to move, he gets nailed by an electric blast from Dragon - a device designed by Doctor Volt for this situation specifically.
Aura slams the unidentified villain against the wall. This results in the wall collapsing as the villains begins emitting heat that could melt basalt, but Aura can handle him, and Dragon can easily handle the last two remaining villains in the room.
Of course you didn't expect your speech to sway Madame Lustucru. The odds of that happening were negligible.
But the time she and you talked was time you could spend turning all the propane inside the hissing gas tanks into harmless nitrogen, then do the same to the propane already in the room. Really, the part you had to be careful with was maintaining roughly the same amount of Ethanethiol in the air - Lustucru might have noticed the change in smell otherwise. That's why the room isn't exploding.
For that matter, the cloud cover maintained by Monsieur Météo might have been a problem, but not an unsolvable one. Over the past week, even as plans were being laid against Skylance, you've spent nearly 20 hours flying above Kolwezi's cloud cover, using enhanced senses to map the city below and observe the villains' preparations. You saw enough for Dragon, Surdoué, Tattletale and others to figure out that Madame Lustucru's grand finale involved sarin gas. Over a hundred sarin gas containers, taken all over the city and "banished" by Cache-Cache, meant to be released in your moment of seeming victory: Even as Kolwezi was freed from Madame Lustucru, its people would die, falling to the poison gas.
Your surveillance of the city also allowed you to identify dozens of discreet spots. Spots to which, over the course of this battle, Strider had been teleporting a different set of containers - ones filled with a chemical counteragent to sarin, hastily created in a collaboration between Dragon and a Protectorate Tinker with a relevant specialization. Said counteragent is now flooding the air to neutralize the sarin gas.
And all that might not be enough. That brief moment you were in Madame Lustucru's mind, you were able to see that Cache-Cache banished more than just sarin gas. There were two more things. One you weren't even able to identify, but the other… is children. Two hundred of them. And each one was banished over a hundred feet above ground, all over town.
Your pour your entire power pool into super-speed.
That's not going to be fast fast enough. Not with two hundred children, scattered over a city the size of Kolwezi, all plummeting to their death.
So you seize control of destiny, and push your power beyond its limits. You go even faster. You zig-zag across town at hypersonic speeds, using your telekinesis to grab the children, move them near the ground, then slow them to a halt. Rinse. Repeat. Rinse. Repeat. Again and again and again.
Ten children rescued.
Twenty.
Fifty.
Ninety. You feel your power boost waning. That won't do. You push yourself harder; there are more lives to be saved.
One hundred and twenty. It's been over a second of real time; the children's fall is picking up speed.
One hundred and fifty. They've fallen half the way down, but at their current velocity, they'll hit the ground so very, very soon.
One hundred and eighty. It's hard to maintain this kind of super-speed, and you're tired, but you're not stopping. You push yourself even harder.
Two hundred. You catch the last children less than ten feet above the ground.
You are exhausted. But there's one more trap.
"This is Avatar. Lustucru had more big finale traps laid. Took one down, but I know there's another."
"I can see it," says Dragon. "Satellite imagery showed an object appearing in the upper stratosphere, currently in free fall toward the center of Kolwezi. Zooming in. Looks like a bomb… No, I think it's a purely kinetic projectile. Air resistance is barely slowing it down; tinkertech-made material, designed to be hyper-dense." She pauses for a moment. "With this density, from this height… when the projectile hits the ground, it'll have enough kinetic energy to raze the city center."
"Well then, can't have that, now can we?" comes Myrddin's voice, sounding amused. "How long until impact?"
"Eyeballing it, 40 seconds."
"On it, then."
Despite your exhaustion, you fly along Chicago's self-styled wizard.
"I can't say I mind the company, but I do believe I can deal with it."
"Probably," you reply, "but professionals have backup plans."
"Too true," he chuckles, then stops, looking up. You see the massive projectile bearing down on you.
Hovering next to you, Myrddin raises his staff, and then shouts. "YOU! SHALL! NOT! PASS!"
A "bubble" of warped physics shoots from the Protectorate leader, colliding with the kinetic missile. Then the missile is gone.
"I'll have to release it in less than an hour," Myrddin says, "but with good Strider's assistance, it can be sent safely into the sea."
For all your exhaustion, you can't help but laugh. Mostly at the Gandalf quote.
With Lustucru out, you can read her mind at your leisure; that makes taking the rest of her men down far, far easier.
Without the counteragent, the sarin gas could easily have killed a six-digit number of people. With the counteragent, you still have several thousands of lightly poisoned (and dozens of not-so-lightly poisoned) civilians on your hands. Thankfully, with the violence dying down, the next phase of the plan involves Strider teleporting in three Protectorate healers (and one from Japan).
There were still casualties. Dozens of civilians died in the fighting; Madame Lustucru specifically designed her battle plan for high collateral damage. But if the Guild and its allies hadn't played their cards right, there would have been hundreds of thousands of casualties. Ultimately, this is a win, and a big one.
Time to make it official. Having partially recovered from your exhaustion, you activate city-wide communication powers.
"People of Kolwezi, this is the Avatar speaking. Over the past few hours, the Guild, an international organization of heroes dedicated to fighting the worst monsters in the world, has been taking down Madame Lustucru and her organization. The Guild is an international force, with members coming from the United States of America, Canada, the Ivory Coast, India, Argentina, France, Indonesia, and many more.
"Lustucru's actions were all designed to kill one of the things human beings need most: Hope. But hope can never be completely extinguished. For all her power, for all her ruthlessness, Lustucru lost, and you are free of her. There will be difficult days ahead as you adjust to life outside of her sadistic little hell, but life will go on. You have a future. You have a right to life, to hopes and dreams, no matter how hard a petty tyrant may struggle to crush them.
"I cannot undo the suffering you have undergone. But I can promise you that there is life - not just survival, but life - beyond it."
Considering what Madame Lustucru has inflicted on these people, you imagine a lot of them will need time before they even accept this liberation as real. You can only hope that this will help a little.
"You are acting in clear violation of the Congo's national sovereignty."
"With all due respect, we do not recognize you as the Congo's legitimate government."
Not far outside of town, Narwhal and yourself are addressing the Triple Alliance. Three warlords with strong power synergy who joined forces and have effectively taken over nearly all of the country formerly known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and some of the neighboring territories. They are arguably the most powerful and successful warlords on the continent, with the possible exception of Swarm in the Ivory Coast (and, formerly, Moord Naag, even if she ruled over a far smaller population). Just now, they showed up with over three hundred capes and ten times as many soldiers.
They could have taken down Lustucru years ago. They allowed her to continue operating because she was a useful bogeyman, scaring anyone who considered rebelling against them - they were the lesser evil in comparison.
And now, with her down, they want to step in and consolidate Kolwezi as part of their empire. It used to be the nation's tenth-largest city before Lustucru started depopulating it, after all.
Météore has been a spearhead of the resistance movement fighting these tyrants for years. She's made her opinion of them exceedingly clear… and to a large extent, looking over the record, you agree. These three care only for their own greed and lust for power.
Which was why you negotiated extensively with the governments of Kenya and Nigeria before launching this operation.
Which is why, with Strider's assistance, Kenya and Nigeria have sent nearly a thousand of soldiers and policemen to help maintain order in Kolwezi during its transition period (as well as nearly a hundred translators).
"The governments of Nigeria and Kenya have agreed to declare Kolwezi a humanitarian crisis zone, and are placing the city under their joint protection," Narwhal goes on with a carefully neutral expression. "While you are more than welcome to send relief, soldiers and parahumans entering the city will be seen as an act of military aggression."
"You think you can just steal a city from us? Our army has thousands of parahumans."
"We have the Avatar," Narwhal shrugs.
It's not a perfect solution. But it's something. The Triple Alliance will be hesitant to risk their position by picking a fight with you. And on some level, warlords the world over are realizing that, the nastier they get, the bigger a target gets painted on their back. Lustucru was a monster on par with the Slaughterhouse Nine; she was taken down with extreme prejudice. The Triple Alliance are standard tyrants; you haven't taken them down, but you haven't allowed them to take over another city, either.
"It was obvious Cache-Cache would have more than one trap laid. I should have seen it coming. And fuck, bombarding the city with children? That's exactly what those sick fucks would do."
Despite this victory, Tattletale seems more frustrated than anything.
"Tattletale, you're very good at gathering information, not omniscient," you counter. "And quite frankly, your intel on this op was extremely valuable. How many thousands of men, women and children would have died if you hadn't helped us?"
"You'd have taken a longer time planning the op," she replies. "...And still lost thousands," she adds with a grin. "Don't say I never did anything nice for you."
"I would not lie like that," you reply.
She frowns. "I still have a headache, but I don't need to use my power to tell you're still trying to manipulate me. You're hoping I'll enjoy the gooey sugary pride of rescuing orphaned puppies and end up a hero."
"Calling it 'manipulation' won't change what it is," you reply. "People want to help each other. It's a large part of what makes the human condition bearable. You've helped a lot of people this past week. Are you going to deliberately refuse to take joy in the good you do because you take pride in being 'bad'?" You use air quotes for that part. "I don't think that's who you are, Tattletale. You don't commit evil for evil's sake."
"Fuck no," she says, the memory of Lustucru's horrors all too fresh in her mind. "But I'm comfortable with just helping my friends."
"There are billions of people on this planet whom you'd be friends with if you spent some time getting to know them," you shrug. "And Taylor wasn't your friend when you decided to help her. She was just someone who needed help."
"That was different."
"No two situations are ever exactly identical. But Kolwezi has hundreds of thousands of people who have a chance at life, at hope again, and you're one of the people who made that possible."
She remains silent after that.
The next 24 hours involve some more rescuing of Gray Boy's victims - between Leonardo and yourself, there are only 68 locations left, each one with a single victim. They involve some extensive patrolling through Kolwezi, providing for the city's needs and shoring up fragile hopes. And, of course, they involve the Guild and you capitalizing on this latest victory.
Now that Madame Lustucru is in the Birdcage, relief efforts for Kolwezi are getting organized. Donations from private citizens are helping, but it's going to take a governmental effort to fix things globally. You give a heartfelt speech at the UN, highlighting the need for an international effort to relieve the worst-hit regions in the world, and experts seem inclined to believe that such an effort will get put together and funded.
Some of the Namibian warlords left in Moord Nag's wake, who seemed to be escalating their conflict with each other, suddenly reach a truce. You suspect Lustucru's arrest reminded them of your words to them not so long ago.
Between the Four Ghosts of Santiago, Skylance, and Madame Lustucru, the Guild is now fully established as a major force for change in Earth-Bet. Five additional members are slated to join - Dauntless from the Protectorate, Ninja Roja and Centuria from Cuba, and Wing Warrior and Go-Go from Japan. Even if you were to disappear tomorrow, this new and improved Guild could keep fighting the monsters of this world.
"Just show me the device," Prochnost said.
Wing Warrior placed the visor on the table. "I've tested the inference engine. Results have been encouraging." Lots of Tinkers could get inspiration from watching other capes's powers, but in his case, his actual specialization was replicating the powers of capes he saw in action. He had limits, of course - all tinkertech did - but he was confident this device could replicate at least most, and possibly all of the abilities of the Tattletale girl.
"Good! Then I'll make my own improvements, so the damn thing doesn't break down every week without maintenance," the Russian member of Toybox chuckled. "Now I just need two more."
Wing Warrior frowned under his helmet. One copy for himself, one copy for Prochnost, and one for the PRT who'd arranged the whole thing. He glanced at the third person in the room - the Mediterranean-looking PRT woman. Same arrangement as when the PRT had requested that he replicate the power of that Ward, Flechette. "You'll have it within the week," he grumbled.
"Problem? For a guy working with tinkertech this sweet, you're not sounding too happy."
"Tattletale never agreed to this, and she has never made an enemy of Japan. Even if this isn't actively harming her, it still feels like an abuse of trust."
"Eh," said Prochnost, "she's a villain."
"I wouldn't have agreed in the first place if she'd been a hero!" he said angrily. "But the only reason I was in a position to copy her in the first place was because she agreed to help the Guild!"
"Don't sweat it. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do. No-one becomes successful without stepping on a few toes."
"Successful? Do you think I'm doing this for self-aggrandizement?!" He gesticulated angrily. "I've spent the past fifteen years fighting a losing war to keep my country from collapsing. I spend so many goddamn hours every week trying to optimize my equipment. You get a specialization that lets you get away with minimal maintenance, but for the rest of us Tinkers it doesn't work like that! How much time we have for maintaining our tech places an upper limit on our power! Every time I want to add another power to this armor, I have to decide which power to lose, because I don't have the time to maintain one more module! Do I give up the gravity-modulators in the wings? Do I give up the variable-power taser in the fists? Do I give up the injury-sealing foam? Then I choose, and I abandon one module to add the new one. And every time I lose a fight or fail to save someone because I gave up the power I needed just then, I have to live with that knowledge!
"Now, two modules with vastly-reduced maintenance needs? One of which can give me better data than my entire sensor suite, and one of which can hurt an Endbringer? I don't want that to help my fucking career, I want that because I can save thousands of lives with it! And not just in Japan! I'm joining the Guild, and they're taking on evil bastards from all over the world. So, yes, I'm willing to do a few morally gray things if that's what it takes. Doesn't mean I'm happy with it."
"Feel free to not feel happy," Prochnost shrugged.
In St-Petersburg, the Queen of Black and White grinned.
Prochnost was earning a huge bonus as far as she was concerned.
As part of the next operational phase...
Pick two major Guild undertakings:
[ ] The Avatar and the Guild focus their efforts on hunting down the Slaughterhouse Nine. While the group has gone to ground, there have to be some clues nevertheless.
[ ] The Avatar and the Guild focus their efforts on hunting down the Three Blasphemies. They're the most infamous A-class threat in Europe, and it's more than time someone put a halt to them.
[ ] The Avatar and the Guild focus their efforts on laying the groundwork to combat the Gesellschaft. The neo-Nazi organization is one of the biggest, vilest gangs on the European continent, and are pushing an agenda all too similar to Skylance's.
[ ] The Avatar and the Guild try to liberate Lagos: The former capital of Nigeria has fallen under the control of warlords and gangs after Behemoth devastated it, and some of the worst villains in the country now rule over what's left. Liberating the city will go a long way toward encouraging Nigeria to act as Africa's peacekeeper.
[ ] The Avatar and the Guild try to arrest some of the biggest villains of Belo Horizonte in Brazil, restoring the authority of the elected government. The cartels effectively rule South America, and this could be an important first step toward changing that.
[ ] The Avatar and the Guild get in touch with the Thanda side of India's heroes, trying to coordinate a manhunt for Asura: One of India's most dangerous class A threats, Asura is a Tinker with a nanotech specialization, known for abducting and brainwashing other capes.
Pick two secondary goals:
[ ] The Avatar works with Dragon and others to create alternatives to the Birdcage. Prisons in other planes, in orbit, deep underground, underwater… If there are prisons that can hold supervillains indefinitely without automatically meaning life without parole, it could go some way toward making the parahuman justice system less messed-up.
[ ] The Avatar spends time in Vietnam. Two of the biggest local warlords, Black Sun and Phosphor, have recently reached a truce; it may be possible to work with that to pacify the region, especially if the Guild takes down one or two of the nastiest warlords.
[ ] The Avatar helps multiple space agencies jump-start a new space program. While Earth-Bet is not technologically ready for an orbital elevator, the Avatar can personally construct massive international space stations, or provide carbosteel hulls for a new generation of space shuttles.
[ ] The Avatar, both in public speeches and private discussions, tries to convince various European powers to provide proper manpower to the European Brigade, in the hope of turning it into a legitimate international parahuman law enforcement agency.
[ ] The Avatar, with some assistance from other Guild capes, turns his powers toward stealth and intel-gathering, helping Centro touch a few key players in cartel-ruled Argentina and add them to her surveillance list.
[ ] Write-In.
Meanwhile, as a member of the Protectorate:
[ ] The Avatar remains in Brockton Bay for the time being. Even if a transfer is coming, there are more urgent things to take care of.
[ ] The Avatar moves to New York. It has the largest concentration of capes on the continent, as well as the headquarters of both the Protectorate and the United Nations.
[ ] Like Eidolon, the Avatar temporarily moves to Mexico City. Integrating Mexico into the Protectorate is a delicate process, and the Avatar's help could make a big difference.
[X] Liberating Gray Boy victims, as per his established routine.
[X] Pushing through the integration of some choice new recruits into the Guild, so as to be able to deploy them against Madame Lustucru.
The next three days are extremely busy. As should be.
"Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't have enough work as is," Chevalier explains. "Even putting administrative work aside, keeping Philadelphia in one piece is a never-ending battle. But… I believe in what you and the Guild are doing. In less than two weeks, you've drastically improved the stability of the entire Caribbean region and East Asia. You've improved the lives of millions of people. You've given millions of others hope, and you're actually encouraging national governments to work with each other." He pauses. "I've given it careful consideration. I believe that a week where I spend six days leading the Philadelphia Protectorate and one day assisting the Guild will be more productive than a week entirely devoted to my city."
"Chicago's situation is much the same," Myrddin explains. Despite his wizard costume, you're still not sensing any trace of magic from him - just the usual interplanar movements characteristic of parahuman abilities. "And much like my colleague, I desire to be a part of this grand venture. The Guild was always a company of grand heroes, but now, it is turning into the spearhead of hope, a modern Round Table. I believe our place, our destiny, is fighting by your side, striking down the hope-eaters of the world!"
Narwhal nods. "You know you're both on the fastrack for Guild membership." There is a reason for that - both of these Protectorate leaders have prior history of working with the Guild when it fought class S and class A threats in their respective cities, and both of them, besides being powerful, are veterans who have proven both their competence and their ability to work in teams. "To be honest, lot of us - me included - wanted to hold off on recruiting new members for at least two more weeks. Our membership went up by nearly a half after the last recruitment drive, and I'd have preferred to give us more time to develop unit cohesion. But," she nods again, "the newbies performed admirably in not one, but two major operations. Furthermore, we're going to be running a lot of such major operations over the coming weeks, and we're going to need numbers." She glances at you. You were among those who supported accelerating the recruitment procedures. If you add more members now, you'll have a couple days to run some training courses together, before the next operation goes live. And you suspect you'll need everything you can get to avoid a bloodbath.
All in all, there are nine heroes currently being groomed to join the Guild. Four of them, given their record, are intended to participate in the next operation. Among those are Chevalier, Myrddin… and two other capes, whom you will be addressing next.
"Like I've told Narwhal, I'm willing to consider the idea of joining the Guild. However, I wanted to wait and see how things went before committing myself to working with a foreign organization that would require me to fight battles across the globe."
You consider the heroine before you. Aura, a case-53 whose body is entirely made of bluish translucent force-fields, which can take a number of shapes and size. Strong, and getting stronger the bigger she makes herself. Tough, although her force-fields' resilience slowly diminishes as she grows. Able to fly. Notably immune to the Simurgh's mental manipulations (having no physical brain), which was why she was a common presence during battles against the winged Endbringer.
Like Harmonic and Multi-Hit, Aura is one India's "Garama" capes. Unlike them, she doesn't hold a government job - instead, she leads Bombay's most successful independent hero team.
In short: She's powerful. She's good with people and teamwork. She's got a prior history of fighting S-class threats and working with Guild members. And her specific nature makes her apt at facing the threat you'll be dealing with next.
"You've seen what the reinforced Guild can do. Liberating a city, taking down dangerous extremists…"
"I certainly won't be shedding tears over the arrest of Skylance and Fuji-Sama," she replies. "Their kind is a disease that's festering the world over. Everything that happened to South Africa. The Gesellschaft in Europe. The National Front in New Zealand. Or Shiva's Army right here," she sighs. Well, she makes a sound like sighing; it's not like she needs to breath any more than you do. "I fear that the occupation of Kashmir is bringing out the worst in my country. I hope, on some level, that seeing other ultranationalists crushed will take some wind out of their sails." She pauses. "With that in mind, I would have you tell me who this new and improved Guild intends to take on next."
"Madame Lustucru."
She pauses.
"...Damn." She does the levitating equivalent of pacing. "The worst of the worst of the African continent. And her power… she has hydrokinesis that bypasses the Manton limit, doesn't it? She can control the water in the human body."
"Exactly."
"And there's not a single drop of water in my body."
"Very true."
She faces you. "...My presence could save thousands of lives."
"Yes. Though we would want you on board even with a different opponent."
She nods. "Maybe. But for this one… I won't be staying on the sidelines."
"Of course I want to help out. Heck, I've tried to join the Guild before. The main issue is my superiors. I mean, they'll let me help out during Endbringer fights - it's not like their heads are that far up their asses - but actually joining a foreign organization, especially one that's seen as an extension of the Protectorate? Bit too much for them."
Like Aura, Chevalier and Myrddin, the fourth prospective Guild recruit of the day is a veteran of Endbringer fights. With the codename Entropisch, she is a powerful Shaker, able to create zones where everything is either much easier or much harder to damage, people included.
She is also a longstanding member of Die Deutscheritters, the national hero organization of Germany. Some possessiveness toward members is to be expected, especially in a world where heroes are in short supply.
"Far from me to deny that the Guild benefits from a close working relationship with the Protectorate," you chuckle, "but we would love to extend that same working relationship to the Detuscheritters. For that matter, I would like to think the past couple of weeks have gone some way toward establishing that the Guild is its own agency."
"It's not me you need to convince."
"No, but I'm meeting the people I need to convince in an hour, and I figured I'd run my argumentation by you first."
You do, after all, have a lot of experience at being convincing.
Today's list of Grey Boy victims takes you back to Chicago, along with Leonardo and his escort. The enthusiastic Italian hero is wearing a visored helmet this time around.
"You like it? I'm still working out the kinks in it, but it's functional," he says cheerfully. "Since I'm keeping the chronotech specialization for now, I figured I'd build more stuff with it. So, this helmet is basically designed to give me combat precog? See what the enemy does before they do it, warn me in advance and tell me how to react. The tricky part is figuring out how to feed me the data in a way I will react to efficiently and in time, but so far, it's worked preeeetty well in tests. Like, with the helmet, I was able to hold my own in CQC against people who can usually hand me my ass.
"And that's not all! I mean, I still need to finish fine-tuning this baby, but I also have this really cool idea for an 'oracle machine'. Some kind of precog computer that could warn us about bad stuff ahead of time. No idea how effective it'll be compared to actual parahuman precogs, but I've already filed for authorization to build it. And, and, the brass agreed to let me work with Dragon on replicating my timeloop-buster, and wow there's a reason she's considered the world's greatest Tinker."
"So I see," you smile at him. "Let me thank you again for your assistance with this."
With Leonardo's assistance, the last multi-victim timeloops are cleared. Of the 78 remaining Grey Boy timeloops, every one contains one single victim.
Furthermore, you manage to squeeze in a meeting with the leadership of the Legione Difesa. While you need to stay carefully diplomatic, you manage to make them see that collaborating with Dragon is helping the new Tinker master his abilities at an accelerated pace.
The time you spend in Brockton Bay, compared to your time working internationally, is relatively quiet. A few patrols that catch a few dealers (and catch, in the nick of time, an elderly woman having a stroke while alone in her home). Some sparring with the Wards and Protectorate members; if nothing else, Dauntless seems to have embraced training with renewed enthusiasm.
Oni Lee, apparently the only remaining villain of the now-defunct ABB gang, gets captured by Velocity (with assist from Armsmaster and Battery) while you're out of town.
You spend some time re-fixing Noelle. The Travelers are cautiously excited about the ongoing negotiations being held for sending them back home. You also have the pleasure of informing her that the Travelers' information about their former employers is already panning out, and has already contributed to the arrest of Imperator in Detroit.
"Of the 605 members of Japan's National Diet, 94 belong to the ultranationalist Yamato Party," director Wayland explains. Present and accounted for are all Guild members, including the four newest recruits, and five prospective ones. And a few more people in an advisory capacity. "The next elections will be held 188 days from now, and Thinkers consider it almost impossible for the Yamato Party to get more than 60 seats when they come."
"Still best to beat that iron while it's hot," says Surdoué. "Bringing additional Japanese capes into the Guild will give a nice demonstration of what internationalism can accomplish."
"Well, it's not all gonna be on Japan," says Wayland. "South Korea and Singapore both have rather tense relationships with Tokyo, but the governments of both feel even more threatened by the CUI. With the fall of Skylance and Fuji-Sama, Japan will appear like a 'safer' option, and there are already moves in their governments and corporations aiming for the strengthening of trade relations, and maybe more.
"Of course, that's not the only place where internationalism is getting a focus. The final details of Mexico's entrance into the Protectorate are being hammered. Looks like Exalt will be taking over the Houston branch, while Eidolon goes on loan to Mexico City for four months, serving as liaison under Excelente. A couple dozen Protectorate heroes will be moving to Mexico and vice-versa.
"And then," he moves to the next slide, "there's Africa. I've gone over this before, but I'll repeat for our newcomers: If you want the internationalist agenda to gain any sort of traction on the continent, the two countries you absolutely need are Nigeria, and Kenya." He pauses. "Nigeria is, by far, the most populous African nation, and its true economic powerhouse. It used to maintain peace in West Africa… before Behemoth devastated Lagos. Nowadays, with the capital in ruins and several major cities taken over by gangs and warlords, Nigerian heroes are too busy desperately trying to keep the country from total collapse to run any sort of peacekeeping efforts beyond their borders. As for Kenya, it is an island of relative stability in East Africa, largely thanks to the Pentagon - a team of five national heroes, A-listers with strong synergy. They've managed to smack down any villains who get too big for their britches… but even with that, Kenya's situation is volatile, with practically a tenth of the current population being comprised of refugees from neighboring nations."
"Thank you, director," says Narwhal as she takes center stage. "Now, there are two more matters. First, everyone, meet Artisan, member and spokesman of Toybox."
The rogue, dressed in an elegant mix of fashionable clothing and tinkertech, steps forward. From what you've read about Artisan, he's a Tinker with an added Thinker power that makes him a world-class expert in any type of craftsmanship. His Tinker specialization apparently builds on it - there isn't any one category of tinkertech he's specialized in, but anything he builds is powerful and effective, not that far from what a Tinker specialized in that field would be capable of.
It is thus no wonder that he has some status in Toybox, a North-American association of rogue Tinkers who collaborate on various projects, share resources, and sell their services and tinkertech creations to the highest bidder. Buyers have included wealthy private citizens, corporations… as well as the PRT and villains, though the latter operate with plausible deniability.
"Thank you for having me here," says Artisan. "It is an honor, and I don't mean just because Dragon is in the room." A few chuckles at that. "Since we're all very busy people, allow me to cut straight to the point: Toybox, after much deliberation, has concluded that we wish to support the current efforts of the Guild. As such, we have agreed to offer a number of tinkertech devices for the use of your organization, free of charge. All of those devices will have been tuned up by Prochnost, minimizing the need for maintenance."
Prochnost, your quick research shows, is a Russian member of Toybox. His specialization is robustness: While all tinkertech requires frequent maintenance by Tinkers to keep working, his own needs significantly less - almost by an order of magnitude. Supposedly, other members of Toybox tend to pay him to improve their own work.
"It's a generous offer, and we appreciate any help we can get," says Narwhal. "What devices did you have in mind?"
"Well, we have a few that I've brought with me. Beyond that, we're taking requests…"
After some discussions with the Toybox spokesman, things go back to the matter of Kolwezi and Madame Lustucru.
"It's no good," Forecast comments sadly. "If you send in Centro, things go bad."
"That would suggest they have a way of detecting Centro," Wing Warrior says. Though the Japanese Tinker is not yet a member of the Guild, and won't be talking part in the Kolwezi operation, ongoing negotiations with his superiors are very promising - the Japanese authorities would much rather appear as equal partners in the Guild than as having needed it to swoop in to their rescue and then leave, and Wing Warrior has proven his worth and usefulness. "I assume they have their own Thinkers?"
"Definitely," says Tattletale, another cape here in an advisory capacity. "Look at these reports. Lustucru has more than one Thinker working with her, but the biggie is this one. L'Araignée. Senses hostility… no, wide-area precognitive danger sense. He can warn Lustucru about threats before they arise. It's why planning around her is so frustrating. Also, why Forecast is having trouble seeing what will happen. Precog interference."
"Unfortunate. Any way we can take him out a few days before the attack, then go in at full force?"
"Sure, if you want half of Kolwezi dead or wishing for death during the intervening period."
"...She would, wouldn't she." His helmet covers his entire head, but you can hear the edge of fury in Wing Warrior's voice. "Does Lustucru value the death and suffering of others over her own survival?!"
"She doesn't actually believe she has a way of surviving this month," Tattletale replies, "but to answer your question? Yeah, she does. She deliberately keeps all the death and torture completely unpredictable, so people can't even pretend to themselves that they'll be safe so long as they act in a certain way. Two years ago, there was this big resistance plot that seemingly managed to kill her and drive her minions out of the city. The town had a major celebration. Then, in the middle of their big party, Lustucru and her minions walk in, the leaders of the resistance start laughing, and it turns out it was all one giant fakeout to give everyone false hope." Tattletale's expression is unusually somber. "Lustucru lives for this shit. She just wants to keep pushing, see how much despair she can inflict on people. Right now, she knows you guys are coming after her; she'll be planning to take the whole city down with her."
"Then we will have to out-plan her," you state, "and I have faith in this team's ability to accomplish just that."
Much as with Slaughterhouse Nine, there are many, many things about Madame Lustucru's operation that are utterly revolting. Just one of them is the fact that one of her minions, Monsieur Météo, is a weather controller, with a range measured in miles. He could be out there saving millions of people and whole economies by combating droughts; instead, he causes lightning to randomly strike people in Kolwezi.
When you and Dragon reach the city, it's unnaturally cloudy for this weather. It has been for a while now - Monsieur Météo has been maintaining a cloud cover since the day you arrested the Purifier (also the day you killed the Simurgh, but you suspect it's more because of you arresting the Purifier). As such, you could not get satellite imagery from Dragon.
Since l'Araignée could almost definitely warn Lustucru ahead of time, you and Dragon were sent ahead, before Strider teleported anyone else in. Just in case of an ambush. You stretch your senses, which shows you thousands of civilians trying to get away from the area or hunker down in their homes. Their expressions are those of people who were hollowed out, not even capable of hope anymore; you've seen those expressions in the Nazi death camps.
Your senses also detect a number of bombs, and multiple snipers (as well as one man with a bazooka). Those are simple enough to take out; as none of these are powerful enough to harm you or Dragon's latest omni-metal suit, the main concern here is civilians and securing a "landing pad" for the Guild.
The first person Strider brings to the "landing pad" is Entropisch, who instantly covers the area with her anti-damage effect. Next come Narwhal and Myrddin, setting up the defensive perimeter with their powers. Then more and more of the Guildsmen, while you use weather-control powers to dispel the cloud cover, giving Dragon eyes in the sky faster than Monsieur Météo could bring the clouds back.
"Not much of a welcoming committee," Tattletale's voice comes over the commlink. "Lustucru's decided against one big brawl. She's got her minions hiding all over the city, ready to ambush you guys and get a lot of civilians killed in the process. She herself won't be alone, though. She'll be with l'Araignée and Cache-Cache."
Cache-Cache is a villain with the ability to banish anything (or anyone) he touches (possibly to a pocket dimension), and return it at will. The banished objects experience no passage of time, and are returned to the exact location they were originally banished at. Tattletale had been quick to conclude that he would play a central role in Lustucru's final plan, hiding destruction across the city in order to kill everyone just as you freed the city - her final gift of doom and hopelessness to Kolwezi. Meaning that locating Cache-Cache is vital.
"All right people, you have your orders!" Narwhal calls out. And the Guildsmen move.
Carefully, of course. You and Celo scout ahead, aided by Dragon's satellite imagery, Tattletale's insight, and a Toybox visor that lets Celo observe every human being and all explosives in a wide range regardless of cover. Entropisch dismisses previous anti-damage zones and creates new ones, the rest of the Guild quickly moving inside them with Strider's help.
The fighting starts. Not a big melee like with Skylance, but individual villains, unmasked, out of costume, hidden among the cowering civilians, suddenly lashing out whenever the Guild gets in range, often deliberately inflicting as much collateral damage as they can and trying to detonate hidden bombs.
One after another, they get taken down fast. Between Multi-Hit, Iron Snake and yourself, the Guild has enough speedsters to take them down quickly, and Entropisch's field ensures that what few attacks get past Narwhal and Myrddin's defenses don't cause the Guild serious harm (and a handful of Toybox-issued personal force-field generators protect the more fragile Guildsmen). The bombs do not explode - Doctor Volt has rigged together a device that effectively neutralizes standard detonators. Many injured civilians are rescued by a combination of Voodoo transferring their injuries to your regenerating body, and a Toybox-provided combo of an aerosol that seals wounds and hypodermic needles full of a liquid that acts as blood substitute.
Which is not to say civilians don't die. Many do. But for now, casualties remain in the lower double digits, instead of in the thousands upon thousands that would have occurred by now with less preparation.
Once the first few villains are captured, you quickly switch to mind-reading, delving inside their memories to find out more about Lustucru's plans. You replicate holographically the faces of their fellow villains from their memories, and relay everything you learn to the rest of the team. Lustucru kept a lot of the useful information compartmentalized, but there are useful nuggets here. Dragon is able to identify three more villains via satellite thanks to your information.
"Ugh, headaches starting," says Tattletale, "but I'm at least 95% sure Lustucru is waiting for you in city hall. Careful, she'll have lots of hostages, and that Tinker with her. The one with the speed specialization."
An Alexandria package villainess takes to the air, holding above her head a gas tanker truck that she presumably intends to throw down upon the Guild. A blast from Météore hits the tanker, causing a massive mid-air explosion that slams the villainess to the ground. There, she is quickly beset by Chevalier. She strikes him with a punch that could shatter an Abrams tank, but doesn't even dent the Protectorate hero's armor. He knocks her down with his sword, and Doctor Metal makes sure she stays down.
With Narwhal's confirmation, you, Dragon, and Aura make a beeline for city hall.
Even before you enter the building, your senses give you a grim picture of what's inside. Lustucru, l'Araignée, Cache-Cache, an unidentified villain and the speed-specialized Tinker wearing power armor are in the biggest room - unlike the rest of the villains in the city, they're wearing their costumes. Also in the room are over forty terrified children, many of them crying, and several cooking gas tanks, open and hissing. On the ground are several glasses of water, each one near a small pile of powder.
Magnesium powder. A substance that quickly ignites when it touches water. And with all the gas in the room… Lustucru, being hydrokinetic, can basically blow herself, her minions, and the children to kingdom come in a fraction of a second.
You relay your concerns to your teammates, quickly discuss a plan, then fly in.
You are greeted by Madame Lustucru, slowly clapping. She looks… like a pretty normal person. Not like a mass-murdering sadistic monster who's turned the lives of nearly half a million people into a living hell for the better part of a decade. But you've been around long enough to know that monsters can be depressingly normal. "Bra-vo! My felicitations! Raise your heads, everyone - the Endbringer ender walks among us!"
You maintain a neutral expression. "Madame Lustucru. I do not believe introductions are necessary, so allow me to skip forward to the more, shall we say, relevant bit. I wish to ask you to surrender and come quietly."
Her minions start laughing at that. She grins from ear to ear. "Are you preparing for a career in comedy? I suppose being a hero is good training for it."
"Your army is falling. You have nothing to gain from hurting any of these people," you counter.
"You think I had something to gain from hurting them before?" She quirks her eyebrow. "Why do you think I'm doing this, sweetie?"
"I had assumed a lack of parental warmth growing up."
She actually laughs this time. "Let's make something perfectly clear, oh mighty bearer of hope. I don't get paid to do the shit I do. I don't do it as some kind of revenge on the world. I don't get sexual thrills from it. And I'm not trying to score ideological points.
"I do it for the hell of it. I do it just because. I do it because why not?" She grins like a shark. "I took an entire city, and made it experience despair like none other in History. You think I'm gonna-"
"I think there are better reasons to do things in life than 'just because'," you interrupt her. "I think purpose can be found in striving for things, be they great or small. From the idealist who wishes to change the world to the person just trying to take care of their family and friends. Forgive the honesty, but this… all of this… strikes me as puerile."
"Then let me be puerile!" she declares dramatically. "Really, Avatar. Did you really think you could talk me down with a speech?"
"I suppose not," you admit, "but it had to be tried. I am very good at violence, but I don't use it as a first resort."
"Oh, agreed. Fear of violence can be just as effective!" she declares cheerfully. "And I - did you just do something to my head?"
Nuts. You'd had hoped that you could read her mind without her noticing, but it's not that subtle an ability.
Twenty glass bottles tip over as the water inside rushes into the magnesium, which combusts, eliciting cries of terror from the children.
Moving at super-speed, you blast Madame Lustucru, slamming her against the wall; you can't afford to be gentle when she can kill any hostage with a thought.
Less than a twentieth of a second after your attack, while the speed Tinker is starting to move, he gets nailed by an electric blast from Dragon - a device designed by Doctor Volt for this situation specifically.
Aura slams the unidentified villain against the wall. This results in the wall collapsing as the villains begins emitting heat that could melt basalt, but Aura can handle him, and Dragon can easily handle the last two remaining villains in the room.
Of course you didn't expect your speech to sway Madame Lustucru. The odds of that happening were negligible.
But the time she and you talked was time you could spend turning all the propane inside the hissing gas tanks into harmless nitrogen, then do the same to the propane already in the room. Really, the part you had to be careful with was maintaining roughly the same amount of Ethanethiol in the air - Lustucru might have noticed the change in smell otherwise. That's why the room isn't exploding.
For that matter, the cloud cover maintained by Monsieur Météo might have been a problem, but not an unsolvable one. Over the past week, even as plans were being laid against Skylance, you've spent nearly 20 hours flying above Kolwezi's cloud cover, using enhanced senses to map the city below and observe the villains' preparations. You saw enough for Dragon, Surdoué, Tattletale and others to figure out that Madame Lustucru's grand finale involved sarin gas. Over a hundred sarin gas containers, taken all over the city and "banished" by Cache-Cache, meant to be released in your moment of seeming victory: Even as Kolwezi was freed from Madame Lustucru, its people would die, falling to the poison gas.
Your surveillance of the city also allowed you to identify dozens of discreet spots. Spots to which, over the course of this battle, Strider had been teleporting a different set of containers - ones filled with a chemical counteragent to sarin, hastily created in a collaboration between Dragon and a Protectorate Tinker with a relevant specialization. Said counteragent is now flooding the air to neutralize the sarin gas.
And all that might not be enough. That brief moment you were in Madame Lustucru's mind, you were able to see that Cache-Cache banished more than just sarin gas. There were two more things. One you weren't even able to identify, but the other… is children. Two hundred of them. And each one was banished over a hundred feet above ground, all over town.
Your pour your entire power pool into super-speed.
That's not going to be fast fast enough. Not with two hundred children, scattered over a city the size of Kolwezi, all plummeting to their death.
So you seize control of destiny, and push your power beyond its limits. You go even faster. You zig-zag across town at hypersonic speeds, using your telekinesis to grab the children, move them near the ground, then slow them to a halt. Rinse. Repeat. Rinse. Repeat. Again and again and again.
Ten children rescued.
Twenty.
Fifty.
Ninety. You feel your power boost waning. That won't do. You push yourself harder; there are more lives to be saved.
One hundred and twenty. It's been over a second of real time; the children's fall is picking up speed.
One hundred and fifty. They've fallen half the way down, but at their current velocity, they'll hit the ground so very, very soon.
One hundred and eighty. It's hard to maintain this kind of super-speed, and you're tired, but you're not stopping. You push yourself even harder.
Two hundred. You catch the last children less than ten feet above the ground.
You are exhausted. But there's one more trap.
"This is Avatar. Lustucru had more big finale traps laid. Took one down, but I know there's another."
"I can see it," says Dragon. "Satellite imagery showed an object appearing in the upper stratosphere, currently in free fall toward the center of Kolwezi. Zooming in. Looks like a bomb… No, I think it's a purely kinetic projectile. Air resistance is barely slowing it down; tinkertech-made material, designed to be hyper-dense." She pauses for a moment. "With this density, from this height… when the projectile hits the ground, it'll have enough kinetic energy to raze the city center."
"Well then, can't have that, now can we?" comes Myrddin's voice, sounding amused. "How long until impact?"
"Eyeballing it, 40 seconds."
"On it, then."
Despite your exhaustion, you fly along Chicago's self-styled wizard.
"I can't say I mind the company, but I do believe I can deal with it."
"Probably," you reply, "but professionals have backup plans."
"Too true," he chuckles, then stops, looking up. You see the massive projectile bearing down on you.
Hovering next to you, Myrddin raises his staff, and then shouts. "YOU! SHALL! NOT! PASS!"
A "bubble" of warped physics shoots from the Protectorate leader, colliding with the kinetic missile. Then the missile is gone.
"I'll have to release it in less than an hour," Myrddin says, "but with good Strider's assistance, it can be sent safely into the sea."
For all your exhaustion, you can't help but laugh. Mostly at the Gandalf quote.
With Lustucru out, you can read her mind at your leisure; that makes taking the rest of her men down far, far easier.
Without the counteragent, the sarin gas could easily have killed a six-digit number of people. With the counteragent, you still have several thousands of lightly poisoned (and dozens of not-so-lightly poisoned) civilians on your hands. Thankfully, with the violence dying down, the next phase of the plan involves Strider teleporting in three Protectorate healers (and one from Japan).
There were still casualties. Dozens of civilians died in the fighting; Madame Lustucru specifically designed her battle plan for high collateral damage. But if the Guild and its allies hadn't played their cards right, there would have been hundreds of thousands of casualties. Ultimately, this is a win, and a big one.
Time to make it official. Having partially recovered from your exhaustion, you activate city-wide communication powers.
"People of Kolwezi, this is the Avatar speaking. Over the past few hours, the Guild, an international organization of heroes dedicated to fighting the worst monsters in the world, has been taking down Madame Lustucru and her organization. The Guild is an international force, with members coming from the United States of America, Canada, the Ivory Coast, India, Argentina, France, Indonesia, and many more.
"Lustucru's actions were all designed to kill one of the things human beings need most: Hope. But hope can never be completely extinguished. For all her power, for all her ruthlessness, Lustucru lost, and you are free of her. There will be difficult days ahead as you adjust to life outside of her sadistic little hell, but life will go on. You have a future. You have a right to life, to hopes and dreams, no matter how hard a petty tyrant may struggle to crush them.
"I cannot undo the suffering you have undergone. But I can promise you that there is life - not just survival, but life - beyond it."
Considering what Madame Lustucru has inflicted on these people, you imagine a lot of them will need time before they even accept this liberation as real. You can only hope that this will help a little.
"You are acting in clear violation of the Congo's national sovereignty."
"With all due respect, we do not recognize you as the Congo's legitimate government."
Not far outside of town, Narwhal and yourself are addressing the Triple Alliance. Three warlords with strong power synergy who joined forces and have effectively taken over nearly all of the country formerly known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and some of the neighboring territories. They are arguably the most powerful and successful warlords on the continent, with the possible exception of Swarm in the Ivory Coast (and, formerly, Moord Naag, even if she ruled over a far smaller population). Just now, they showed up with over three hundred capes and ten times as many soldiers.
They could have taken down Lustucru years ago. They allowed her to continue operating because she was a useful bogeyman, scaring anyone who considered rebelling against them - they were the lesser evil in comparison.
And now, with her down, they want to step in and consolidate Kolwezi as part of their empire. It used to be the nation's tenth-largest city before Lustucru started depopulating it, after all.
Météore has been a spearhead of the resistance movement fighting these tyrants for years. She's made her opinion of them exceedingly clear… and to a large extent, looking over the record, you agree. These three care only for their own greed and lust for power.
Which was why you negotiated extensively with the governments of Kenya and Nigeria before launching this operation.
Which is why, with Strider's assistance, Kenya and Nigeria have sent nearly a thousand of soldiers and policemen to help maintain order in Kolwezi during its transition period (as well as nearly a hundred translators).
"The governments of Nigeria and Kenya have agreed to declare Kolwezi a humanitarian crisis zone, and are placing the city under their joint protection," Narwhal goes on with a carefully neutral expression. "While you are more than welcome to send relief, soldiers and parahumans entering the city will be seen as an act of military aggression."
"You think you can just steal a city from us? Our army has thousands of parahumans."
"We have the Avatar," Narwhal shrugs.
It's not a perfect solution. But it's something. The Triple Alliance will be hesitant to risk their position by picking a fight with you. And on some level, warlords the world over are realizing that, the nastier they get, the bigger a target gets painted on their back. Lustucru was a monster on par with the Slaughterhouse Nine; she was taken down with extreme prejudice. The Triple Alliance are standard tyrants; you haven't taken them down, but you haven't allowed them to take over another city, either.
"It was obvious Cache-Cache would have more than one trap laid. I should have seen it coming. And fuck, bombarding the city with children? That's exactly what those sick fucks would do."
Despite this victory, Tattletale seems more frustrated than anything.
"Tattletale, you're very good at gathering information, not omniscient," you counter. "And quite frankly, your intel on this op was extremely valuable. How many thousands of men, women and children would have died if you hadn't helped us?"
"You'd have taken a longer time planning the op," she replies. "...And still lost thousands," she adds with a grin. "Don't say I never did anything nice for you."
"I would not lie like that," you reply.
She frowns. "I still have a headache, but I don't need to use my power to tell you're still trying to manipulate me. You're hoping I'll enjoy the gooey sugary pride of rescuing orphaned puppies and end up a hero."
"Calling it 'manipulation' won't change what it is," you reply. "People want to help each other. It's a large part of what makes the human condition bearable. You've helped a lot of people this past week. Are you going to deliberately refuse to take joy in the good you do because you take pride in being 'bad'?" You use air quotes for that part. "I don't think that's who you are, Tattletale. You don't commit evil for evil's sake."
"Fuck no," she says, the memory of Lustucru's horrors all too fresh in her mind. "But I'm comfortable with just helping my friends."
"There are billions of people on this planet whom you'd be friends with if you spent some time getting to know them," you shrug. "And Taylor wasn't your friend when you decided to help her. She was just someone who needed help."
"That was different."
"No two situations are ever exactly identical. But Kolwezi has hundreds of thousands of people who have a chance at life, at hope again, and you're one of the people who made that possible."
She remains silent after that.
The next 24 hours involve some more rescuing of Gray Boy's victims - between Leonardo and yourself, there are only 68 locations left, each one with a single victim. They involve some extensive patrolling through Kolwezi, providing for the city's needs and shoring up fragile hopes. And, of course, they involve the Guild and you capitalizing on this latest victory.
Now that Madame Lustucru is in the Birdcage, relief efforts for Kolwezi are getting organized. Donations from private citizens are helping, but it's going to take a governmental effort to fix things globally. You give a heartfelt speech at the UN, highlighting the need for an international effort to relieve the worst-hit regions in the world, and experts seem inclined to believe that such an effort will get put together and funded.
Some of the Namibian warlords left in Moord Nag's wake, who seemed to be escalating their conflict with each other, suddenly reach a truce. You suspect Lustucru's arrest reminded them of your words to them not so long ago.
Between the Four Ghosts of Santiago, Skylance, and Madame Lustucru, the Guild is now fully established as a major force for change in Earth-Bet. Five additional members are slated to join - Dauntless from the Protectorate, Ninja Roja and Centuria from Cuba, and Wing Warrior and Go-Go from Japan. Even if you were to disappear tomorrow, this new and improved Guild could keep fighting the monsters of this world.
"Just show me the device," Prochnost said.
Wing Warrior placed the visor on the table. "I've tested the inference engine. Results have been encouraging." Lots of Tinkers could get inspiration from watching other capes's powers, but in his case, his actual specialization was replicating the powers of capes he saw in action. He had limits, of course - all tinkertech did - but he was confident this device could replicate at least most, and possibly all of the abilities of the Tattletale girl.
"Good! Then I'll make my own improvements, so the damn thing doesn't break down every week without maintenance," the Russian member of Toybox chuckled. "Now I just need two more."
Wing Warrior frowned under his helmet. One copy for himself, one copy for Prochnost, and one for the PRT who'd arranged the whole thing. He glanced at the third person in the room - the Mediterranean-looking PRT woman. Same arrangement as when the PRT had requested that he replicate the power of that Ward, Flechette. "You'll have it within the week," he grumbled.
"Problem? For a guy working with tinkertech this sweet, you're not sounding too happy."
"Tattletale never agreed to this, and she has never made an enemy of Japan. Even if this isn't actively harming her, it still feels like an abuse of trust."
"Eh," said Prochnost, "she's a villain."
"I wouldn't have agreed in the first place if she'd been a hero!" he said angrily. "But the only reason I was in a position to copy her in the first place was because she agreed to help the Guild!"
"Don't sweat it. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do. No-one becomes successful without stepping on a few toes."
"Successful? Do you think I'm doing this for self-aggrandizement?!" He gesticulated angrily. "I've spent the past fifteen years fighting a losing war to keep my country from collapsing. I spend so many goddamn hours every week trying to optimize my equipment. You get a specialization that lets you get away with minimal maintenance, but for the rest of us Tinkers it doesn't work like that! How much time we have for maintaining our tech places an upper limit on our power! Every time I want to add another power to this armor, I have to decide which power to lose, because I don't have the time to maintain one more module! Do I give up the gravity-modulators in the wings? Do I give up the variable-power taser in the fists? Do I give up the injury-sealing foam? Then I choose, and I abandon one module to add the new one. And every time I lose a fight or fail to save someone because I gave up the power I needed just then, I have to live with that knowledge!
"Now, two modules with vastly-reduced maintenance needs? One of which can give me better data than my entire sensor suite, and one of which can hurt an Endbringer? I don't want that to help my fucking career, I want that because I can save thousands of lives with it! And not just in Japan! I'm joining the Guild, and they're taking on evil bastards from all over the world. So, yes, I'm willing to do a few morally gray things if that's what it takes. Doesn't mean I'm happy with it."
"Feel free to not feel happy," Prochnost shrugged.
In St-Petersburg, the Queen of Black and White grinned.
Prochnost was earning a huge bonus as far as she was concerned.
As part of the next operational phase...
Pick two major Guild undertakings:
[ ] The Avatar and the Guild focus their efforts on hunting down the Slaughterhouse Nine. While the group has gone to ground, there have to be some clues nevertheless.
[ ] The Avatar and the Guild focus their efforts on hunting down the Three Blasphemies. They're the most infamous A-class threat in Europe, and it's more than time someone put a halt to them.
[ ] The Avatar and the Guild focus their efforts on laying the groundwork to combat the Gesellschaft. The neo-Nazi organization is one of the biggest, vilest gangs on the European continent, and are pushing an agenda all too similar to Skylance's.
[ ] The Avatar and the Guild try to liberate Lagos: The former capital of Nigeria has fallen under the control of warlords and gangs after Behemoth devastated it, and some of the worst villains in the country now rule over what's left. Liberating the city will go a long way toward encouraging Nigeria to act as Africa's peacekeeper.
[ ] The Avatar and the Guild try to arrest some of the biggest villains of Belo Horizonte in Brazil, restoring the authority of the elected government. The cartels effectively rule South America, and this could be an important first step toward changing that.
[ ] The Avatar and the Guild get in touch with the Thanda side of India's heroes, trying to coordinate a manhunt for Asura: One of India's most dangerous class A threats, Asura is a Tinker with a nanotech specialization, known for abducting and brainwashing other capes.
Pick two secondary goals:
[ ] The Avatar works with Dragon and others to create alternatives to the Birdcage. Prisons in other planes, in orbit, deep underground, underwater… If there are prisons that can hold supervillains indefinitely without automatically meaning life without parole, it could go some way toward making the parahuman justice system less messed-up.
[ ] The Avatar spends time in Vietnam. Two of the biggest local warlords, Black Sun and Phosphor, have recently reached a truce; it may be possible to work with that to pacify the region, especially if the Guild takes down one or two of the nastiest warlords.
[ ] The Avatar helps multiple space agencies jump-start a new space program. While Earth-Bet is not technologically ready for an orbital elevator, the Avatar can personally construct massive international space stations, or provide carbosteel hulls for a new generation of space shuttles.
[ ] The Avatar, both in public speeches and private discussions, tries to convince various European powers to provide proper manpower to the European Brigade, in the hope of turning it into a legitimate international parahuman law enforcement agency.
[ ] The Avatar, with some assistance from other Guild capes, turns his powers toward stealth and intel-gathering, helping Centro touch a few key players in cartel-ruled Argentina and add them to her surveillance list.
[ ] Write-In.
Meanwhile, as a member of the Protectorate:
[ ] The Avatar remains in Brockton Bay for the time being. Even if a transfer is coming, there are more urgent things to take care of.
[ ] The Avatar moves to New York. It has the largest concentration of capes on the continent, as well as the headquarters of both the Protectorate and the United Nations.
[ ] Like Eidolon, the Avatar temporarily moves to Mexico City. Integrating Mexico into the Protectorate is a delicate process, and the Avatar's help could make a big difference.
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The Brave Little Spider, Patreon
Man, sorry this one took so long. Got busy with a number of things.
Two things worth noting: First, this is the first time I include a preview of a chapter in my Patreon.
Second, I've mentioned this before, but just to be on the safe side: I've started writing The Brave Little Spider as a spinoff of this story.
Voting options will come later, because I like when people discuss the actual chapter before they start discussing the voting options.
Two things worth noting: First, this is the first time I include a preview of a chapter in my Patreon.
Second, I've mentioned this before, but just to be on the safe side: I've started writing The Brave Little Spider as a spinoff of this story.
Voting options will come later, because I like when people discuss the actual chapter before they start discussing the voting options.
Hestia&theCourt
Turns out we're plural too.
- Location
- In transition
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Ohhhh dear. I sense a public relations attack from Russia in the near future.
That being said, great update, sun! The stakes were serious, but not grimdark; the Gandalf quote was a nice way to bring some levity to an otherwise grim fight; and don't think I didn't notice that stealth Big Hero Six reference, because I totally did. Plus, the character development with Tattletale is quite intriguing, since I don't think I've ever seen her moving in this direction before.
In short, I'm very glad you're back, sun.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Wowzers, that was something.
I love it when a plan comes together, especially when that plan comes from actively doubling down on it.
I love it when a plan comes together, especially when that plan comes from actively doubling down on it.
Talking Is Not A Free Action, I see. Still, quite the clever maneuver.
Hm, a double agent? Disappointing, but not unexpected.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
At least it's one in Toybox rather than the Guild itself.
- Location
- Mandaluyong City
You know when Lucustru said "despair" I was thinking of Junko Enoshima from Danganronpa, though I doubt she's a despair-based-masochist like Junko herself.
How're Fuji-sama and Skyline feeling about the actions that lead them to the new world they're in? Karma? Or just whining like overgrown psychopathic children failing to be Ubermensch's
How're Fuji-sama and Skyline feeling about the actions that lead them to the new world they're in? Karma? Or just whining like overgrown psychopathic children failing to be Ubermensch's
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Interesting.
Your OCs have a halfway subtle plan.
Your OCs have a halfway subtle plan.
Huh. Well, someone's putting together an anti-avatar weapon and simultaneously sowing distrust in the ranks of the guild? That's... actually a pretty good plan.
TheLurker
Random Omnipotent Lazy-As-Fuck Being
- Location
- The space beyond the stars
If only the avatar didn't resurrect. It might actually work worth a damn.
Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
*thinks to to Magical Girl Escalation Taylor*
If it's even half as bad as that Philly, you're understating things.
One day? Sounds a bit wierd to me, but OK.
Oh let the man have his fun.
Because the guy clearly loves hamming the fantasy angle up. He's the Mouse Protector of Chicago.
More OCs, yay!
Not many fics where one'd hear that comment.
So a Narwhal that can temporarily get stronger by upping her size. Cauldron must have really struck a gold-mine with that vial. The kind of result you break out the champaign over.
I can't help but feel that Aura's distaste of ultranationalism is getting more than a little authorial backing. Maybe I'm wrong though.
And there's the connection.
If Aura was a traditional cape, I get the feeling her shard would be hitting the 'yes' button like an Inquisitor does their Extermanatus button.
1. Entropy, makes sense.
2. 'The German Knights'? Oh come on, now you're just taunting me over not including Reinhard!
If you can listen closely, you can hear Armsmaster grumbling about being overshadowed again.
If you can listen closely, you can hear the Simurgh screaming in impotent rage from beyond the grave.
Sounds like, what, one or two more actions?
Woo-woo! A sane Noelle is a happy Noelle.
Eidolon. Makes sense for how the Cartels are going to hit them.
*takes notes*
That is so bullshit, he has to be a Cauldron cape.
YES! Toybox is a herogroup now, sort of.
We can really start integrating unpowered members now! PRT 2.0! Now with more Tinkertech and less fascism!
Memetic AK durability to anything.
Oh yeah, he's a real money-maker.
Probably.
'The Spider'? Geez, really dialing up the arachnid/Taylor-style villains here sun tzu?
... wut.
Jack: "You know, if I wasn't busy setting up my own little goodbye present, I'd probably stop by, pay her a visit. With people like her, I'm almost regretting not taking my show on the road."
1. 'Mr. Weather'? Kinda Flash-level naming there.
2. Eh, the really powerful natural triggers do go for the guys who'll sit on their asses and not rock the boat.
Ok, who's that last asshole?
A victory parade spoiled by raining corpses. That's some cunning brutality.
... why am I making 40k references tonight?
So far, so good.
Looks like bringing more people in really paid off.
We see youuuuuu~
... did Lustucru just sabotage her own mook?
Of course she set up a massive suicide bomb.
Wait...
Hold on...
No, no way, I was just making a joke, don't tell m-
WHY DID YOU MAKE LUSTUCRU INTO A FEMALE JACK SLASH? WHY?
Jack: "... hey Bonesaw, what would you think about you getting a new aunt? No, as in me getting married."
Huh. I'd ask how she noticed, but it's apparently something that obvious.
ShitshitShitshitShitshitShitshitShitshitShitshitShitsh-
Whew.
1. Where the hell did she get all that sarin gas? That stuff tends to degrade and become useless anywhere between weeks and months, so she had to have made all that in pretty short order. If she bought it, that money and movement of goods would've been picked up. Does she have a gas Tinker or something?
2. Someone's been watching the news.
... first it was Lustucru being a Jack Slash, and now the raining corpses detail.
ARE YOU THE SIMURGH, SUN TZU? GET OUT OF MY HEAD! STOP STEALING MY THOUGHTS BEFORE I THINK THEM!
Oh hell.
A KKV. How the hell did Lustucru get someone up there without being spotted?
1. Like I said, Myrrdin hams it up.
2. Fun with portals.
Shame, would have been fun to fire it at an Endbringer.
Pft. That kind of pwer-play only shows they're desperate and don't think they'll live long either.
TT's still upset she got out-witted, but there's a hint of more... general empathy there.
And your friends are amoral teenagers. Oxymoron I know, but...
1. 'Red Ninja' and a Roman Empire unit of a hundred men. Are their names that descriptive of their powers?
2. And these are Cuban heroes? Surprisingly international names.
I don't know which is a worse thought: That Cauldron can make a bunch of PTV machines, or that they know there can be a bunch of people with PTV and they're deliberately keeping Contessa away from him.
*screams externally*
WHAT DID I JUST SAY?
Welcome to a Cauldron plot.
... of fucking course Queen's got the Russian expat wrapped around her finger.
Well worth the wait, I say.
Sorry, gotta put my hand up and say I missed it.
So one thing that confuses me is how Lustucru managed to have so many Capes working for her. Her batshit insane "I cause suffering for the lulz" philosophy might work for her, but why on earth does anyone else buy into it? I mean, sure Jack Slash is able to recruit, but he has shard bullshit to talk people into being murder-hobos. If we're talking alternatives, obviously the Triple Alliance and their "thousands of parahumans" are ready and willing to recruit.
Maybe Lustucru's minions were all parahumans who had angered the Triple Alliance so much that taking refuge in the city of "kills for lulz" seemed like a reasonable alternative?
I half expected the Avatar to get attacked right then and there by the Endbringers or Slaughterhouse Nine or the Kings of Pride or one of the other groups gunning for him. Picking a moment (or engineering a moment) where he has exhausted himself and his probability manipulation ability seems like a pretty critical requirement for any hope of victory in taking him down.
Maybe Lustucru's minions were all parahumans who had angered the Triple Alliance so much that taking refuge in the city of "kills for lulz" seemed like a reasonable alternative?
I half expected the Avatar to get attacked right then and there by the Endbringers or Slaughterhouse Nine or the Kings of Pride or one of the other groups gunning for him. Picking a moment (or engineering a moment) where he has exhausted himself and his probability manipulation ability seems like a pretty critical requirement for any hope of victory in taking him down.
Do you mean Swarm's power, or...?
I still maintain that there's an aggravating dearth of fics where the Undersiders go to jail - seriously, those guys have some hella protected status in fanon.
But Avatar of Heroism gotta Avatar of Heroism, y'know?
Better a mole in STAR Labs than a mole in the Justice League?
They're not happy campers.
They're not exactly blaming themselves, of course.
You're assuming the plan is to kill him.
He's not literally setting a schedule here, just talking in general terms of "I can lend you guys a hand".
I mean, no-one in the Guild is doing it as a full-time thing. Everyone's a member of the Protectorate, or some equivalent organization in their home country, or some independent hero team back home.
Yeah, I'll take that as high praise. XD
Not really Narwhal - Aura can't place her fields around to protect people, or slice through enemies by ignoring the Manton effect.
One of the main themes of Worm is "things turn to shit because people don't work together". And one of the villain groups is E88.
I think it's perfectly in-theme and logical to have some of the big problems in Earth-Bet be violent radicals going "fuck every country but ours".
Now, now. I've mentioned those guys before.1. Entropy, makes sense.
2. 'The German Knights'? Oh come on, now you're just taunting me over not including Reinhard!
At the current rate, the Avatar can free six a day, and Leonardo four, sooo... give it a week.
Yeah, the Protectorate's not taking chances with this whole thing.
He's actually considered mid-range, as far as Tinkers go, seeing as he can't craft the super-bullshit that many other Tinkers can make when working within the bounds of their own specialization.
The PRT's got its flaws, but I wouldn't call them "fascists".
Wasn't thinking of Taylor.
Yeah, I've mentioned that before in this thread, though not in an actual chapter.
Lustucru figured false hope would be a great way of killing hope in general.
"Monsieur Meteo" is the French term for "weatherman".
And that's French for "hide-and-seek".
No? Meteore is part of the Guild.
Come on, I've mentioned that Madame Lustucru and her minions were "basically a sedentary version of Slaughterhouse Nine" practically since their first mention.
Mind you, there are differences. Jack Slash is the nihilist who thinks he's some kind of Buddha of Murder and is trying to prove that nothing matters, and therefore, he matters. Madame Lustucru is mostly a bully curious to see just how far she can push things.
She had a Tinker, and the resources of an entire city.
Now, now. It's not raining corpses. They only become corpses when they hit the ground, remember?... first it was Lustucru being a Jack Slash, and now the raining corpses detail.
ARE YOU THE SIMURGH, SUN TZU? GET OUT OF MY HEAD! STOP STEALING MY THOUGHTS BEFORE I THINK THEM!
Madame Lustucru: "OK, let;s wait until the middle of the night. Then, you, Alexandria package, will carry us and the missile thirty miles up. I'll maintain a sphere of water around us to keep the air in."
Mentioned them in the thread before. Ninja Roja has a Stranger power that causes people to perceive her as whoever they most expect to find there. Centuria generates a massive number of projections, all of them human-equivalent in ability.
Now, now. Cauldron are fairly confident that Wing Warrior can't actually duplicate Contessa's powers.
First, he needs to actually know what another cape's powers are to duplicate them.
Second, it's not like his tinkertech can imitate any power. If it could, the Japanese government would have shown him the five-seven strongest capes they had access to, and BAM! He'd have been Eidolon-grade.
Welcome to a Cauldron plot intersecting a Kings of Pride plot without either side realizing it.
Contessa: "Power power on the wall, tell me how to get Cauldron copies of the powers of the girl who can cut through Leviathan's corpse and the girl we're regularly hiring and then mindwiping for her Thinker insight."
Koroleva: "Power power on the wall, tell me how to get the Kings of Pride (but mostly me) copies of a power than can hurt even an Endbringer and a power that can suss out the Avatar's secrets."
Powers: *begin search algorithm through future paths simultaneously, easiest solution is the path where they help each other achieve their objective together*
Yay!
Really, "people running away from the Triple Alliance" made for a fairly substantial fraction of her minions.
And most capes working for her, even if they're horrified at first, get desensitized fairly quickly, and then, it's just a job. And you participate in the whole thing to fit in with the social group. And you learn to enjoy it.
- Location
- Mandaluyong City
Gotta ask this in-regards to both, unlike say the Joker. Can or will either of them break down a bit when they lose and are properly "Shut Up, Hannibal you're just an asshole shut the fuck up you murdered those people, no argument or debate. You're down."
Because I keep thinking Joker-esque villains and serial killers actually style themselves as being Ubermensch's and while I may not know so much about Nietzsche. Part of being one is having a VERY strong will and NOT bowing down to other peoples' views or being sorry(even if it's only regretting losing)for their actions or begging for mercy
- Location
- Leeds
Puny warlords.
Cache-Cache keeps things from degrading because they don't experience time and it was in the interests of the warlords to keep her scary and powerful so they probably supplied her.
All in all this could be a stockpile thats been built up for years.
Unseelie
(Verified True Fae)
- Location
- Tír fo Thuinn
I can only imagine "Die Deutscheritter" stand strong against the grammar nazis.
But seriously, I'm not quite sure what you wanted to call them. If you tell me, I can translate.
There is a knight order called "Deutschritter" ("German-knights") who are apparently based in Vienna, but also active in other countries.
(Also "Entropisch" ("entropic"), being an adjective/adverb, sounds rather strange as name. Did you mean "Entropie" ("entropy")?)
But seriously, I'm not quite sure what you wanted to call them. If you tell me, I can translate.
There is a knight order called "Deutschritter" ("German-knights") who are apparently based in Vienna, but also active in other countries.
(Also "Entropisch" ("entropic"), being an adjective/adverb, sounds rather strange as name. Did you mean "Entropie" ("entropy")?)
- Location
- Poland
The Buddha of Murder? That's got to be the most epic way of Describing Jack I've ever heard. I actually laughed when I read that epithet. From now on I'll always ascribe 'Buddha of Murder' to Jack.
RyubosJ
Person that hates Mega Evolutions.
- Location
- UK
The more chapters posted with not even a mention of panacea the more paranoid I'm getting, especially with how the Travelers get a mention all the time.
Anyway fun chapter, nice to see the Avatar getting pushed like that with the children
Anyway fun chapter, nice to see the Avatar getting pushed like that with the children
Eh, he doesn't really deserve such a grandiose title imo.
Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
Makes sense.
Yey.
I suppose that works.
Sorry, that's more me remembering a recent spat in a couple of threads over the Simurgh Quarantine Zones and the Switzerland Death Squads.
She's not wrong.
"Monsieur Meteo" is the French term for "weatherman".
Duly noted.
I'm pulling the American Card. "Meteore" and "Meteo" sound alot alike, OK?
Still a match made in hell.
So she did have a poison-gas Tinker. Yikes. And that is a good point about Cache-Cashe.
... right.Now, now. It's not raining corpses. They only become corpses when they hit the ground, remember?
OK, that works. Kinda.
Hm.
Darn. More Shard restrictions.
... it's times like this that give credence to the theory that PTV is actively fucking with things.
Oh great, now I'm thinking of Jack giving Bonesaw a lecture on 'letting go of all attatchments'.
Because that's what he did when he recruited her.
- Location
- Library
It's only me, but I am thinking that the fic with Jack as Infernal Scourge would be awesome.