- Location
- RS,brasil
Wonder what happened to the 3 blasphemies. They were kind of really important to Europe and the only politically focused S-class treat
A Champion in Earth Bet [Worm/Original Setting]
- Thread starter sun tzu
- Start date
Spy Games
SPY GAMES
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weqK155M_4o
[X] Information Warfare: Crawler and the clones likely know a lot more about the Nine's plans and resources than you currently do. They might even know where they're currently holed up. This intel can turn the tide of the battle, so you should spend some proper time telepathically extracting it from their minds.
"Assuming the information I got is correct, the Slaughterhouse's ranks would currently include - not counting prisoners - three Crawler clones, two Cherish clones plus the original, an Unexpected clone plus the original, a Trickster clone plus the original, and six Siberian clones plus the original. The prisoners caught so far should have significant knowledge of the Nine's resources and plans, but presumably the value of this intel will decrease with every passing minute. I think right now, the best use of my abilities is to perform a rapid set of telepathic interrogations," you telepathically inform Narwhal and Director Piggot.
"Go for it. We've got some reinforcement coming from out of town," Narwhal replies.
And with that, you head toward the captured clones, and shift your power pool - most of it goes into telepathy, while the rest goes into mental superspeed.
The fact that the clones of Unexpected, Trickster, and the Siberian are currently pumped full of tranquilizers means that you encounter significantly reduced mental resistance as you make your way through their memories.
There's a lot here that's very informative, very disturbing… but time is of the essence. You're not looking for their entire life stories. You need to focus on recent weeks, days, hours.
Memories of the heist at the Rig. Cherish securing the Travelers' cooperation long enough to spiderjack everyone but Noelle. The cloning of multiple Slaughterhouse assets.
Cherish joining the Nine a few weeks ago - willingly, not spiderjacked yet. Introducing herself by driving Hatchet Face to suicide-
Hatchet Face is dead?
Bonesaw combining Hatchet Face's remains with a specially-made Nilbog creature, calling the resulting living weapon Hack Job.
Cherish introducing herself as one of Heartbreaker's children (you can see the resemblance). Very long-range emotional control and detection. Plotting to discreetly condition the Nine emotionally, but getting discovered by Jack Slash early on; Jack had Bonesaw perform brain surgery on the Nine so Cherish's manipulations would fail without her even realizing. However, whatever long-term plans Jack Slash had for Cherish apparently changed when he decided to have the Nine go out with a bang - Cherish had no intention of going down with a sinking ship no matter how grand the show, and had to be spiderjacked.
You transmit the most pertinent of your findings so far to your allies, and resume sifting through memories.
A series of suspicious coincidences putting the Nine on the trail of the Teeth, just in time for Bonesaw to outfit Jack Slash's brain with anti-Butcher reinforcement, and for him to kill Coil less than a minute after the latter just barely managed to kill the previous Butcher after a deadly game of cat and mouse.
Jack Slash is the new Butcher and his current Butcher set includes Coil. This is vital information. You transmit it.
"So Jack's the new Butcher. Means we can kill every other of the Nine without worrying about that poison pill, at least," Narwhal replies. While you've been running this telepathic interrogation, the battle on the coastline has been intensifying (out-of-town reinforcement notwithstanding), the Fallen have retreated, and most of the Guild is busy taking out monster cells in the sewers as fast as it can locate them.
Back to memory-diving.
More improbable coincidences allowing the Nine to contact Nilbog and get him out of Ellisburg with the PRT none the wiser - Jack Slash openly speculating about it being a post-mortem Simurgh backup plan to get rid of you.
Nilbog and Bonesaw collaborating, making each other's work more potent.
Running from the Guild's hunt. Capturing Unexpected. Trying and failing to capture others.
The cargo ship. Using the meat cargo to create Nilbog's army.
Reaching Brockton Bay. Teleporting in following Jack Slash's indication, in a way that suggests he used Coil's power to find safe locations via trial-and-error.
Teleporting inside the Undersiders' lair!
Earlier:
"Long time no see, big sis," Regent commented, not getting up from his couch as the rest of the Undersiders (and Uber, and Leet, and Bitch's dogs) twitched on the floor, overcome by crippling apathy and depression. "So, how did you end up working for these guys? Bad luck, or bad taste?"
"Bad judgment, I would say," Jack Slash said. "Poor Cherish believed she could wrap the Nine around her finger with time. Sadly, she was not committed enough for a full-part role."
"That's Chérie for you," Regent shrugged.
"Now, much as I would love to chat, I'm afraid we're really on a schedule," Jack Slash went on. "Bonesaw, do put your strings on this new bevy of puppets. Except for the Thinker. Cherish, be a dear and update Tattletale's emotional state. Completely suppress any emotional reaction to our little troupe, but inflate her desire to get one over the white hats into an overriding obsession."
Now:
The Nine have spiderjacked Grue, Bitch, Regent, Uber and Leet. They've also been holding control over Tattletale since this whole battle started. This means that when she contacted you and told you about the Nine's plan to grab Panacea at the hospital, she was acting on the Nine's behest - keeping you busy while they were abducting the Travelers.
You telepathically transmit this critical information to Director Piggot.
"Fuck. The Undersiders are a pain to fight. And if Tattletale is just guessing all our moves…"
"She may be, Director, but it's best not to tell anyone yet."
"What? Explain."
"The Guild's investigation strongly suggests that Jack Slash has a Thinker power that allows him greater awareness of the actions and intentions of parahumans within a large area. Neither you nor I are parahumans. My mind-reading has shown me every location the Nine were able to secure early in their invasion of Brockton Bay, so this may be a short-lived window of opportunity."
"Understood."
You suppose you ought to cut short your interrogations here, and not bother mind-reading Crawler, who's still exiled to a largely-empty dimension. The memories of the Unexpected, Trickster and Siberian clones have shown you multiple bases the Nine have established in the very short time they've had.
Two different warehouses in the docks, including the one you rescued Noelle from. The Undersiders' lair. Coil's old lair.
This time, no need to search the city. You shift your power pool to wall-passing, telescopic vision and observe the locations.
The warehouse is empty, save for the bleeding remains of a dockworker. The Undersiders' lair looks like it was hastily abandoned, and judging from the workshop in one room you guess Leet has been working there.
Coil's old lair is full of monsters. Also present are a well-hidden Mannequin, and two Siberian projections, each one hiding in a supply closet; further search locates the two Siberian clones in cars a couple blocks away. Also present are the spiderjacked Travelers.
It's obviously a trap. It dangles before you the opportunity to rescue the Travelers (and incidentally deny the Slaughterhouse use of their powers), but puts you and any other heroes who enter the premise with the risk of a deadly ambush… including the risk of Unexpected or his remaining Clone bringing in reinforcement from wherever else the Nine are hiding.
So you need to think a step ahead of them.
You think back to some past battles against Global Might, against the Cryosphere's Blizzard Brigade, against Avalon, Shadow, Garzor. About how your teammates were able to outmaneuver them, or were outmaneuvered yourselves.
Then you send out another telepathic message.
"Noelle, this is the Avatar, do you receive me?"
"Avatar! Listen, thank you for getting me out of there, but you've got to rescue the others-"
"I'm on it. But listen. The effects of the emotion Master's power, they fade quickly?"
"Uh… After a few minutes, I guess."
"Thank you, that helps a lot. Rest for now, I'm working on rescuing your friends."
Time for another telepathic message, this time aimed at multiple people.
"Travelers. Travelers, this is the Avatar, on telepathic communication. Can you hear me?"
"Avatar! Listen-"
"Thank God-"
"We're at-"
Trickster, Genesis, Ballistic, Sundancer and Oliver all respond. Their bodies and senses may be spiderjacked, but their thoughts are their own and cooperating with you. After you assure them Noelle is fine, they hurriedly tell you where they are (which you already knew), but also that Bonesaw has sewn some kind of nerve gas bomb inside Oliver's stomach, that Jack Slash has Leet working on something that he considers important, and that Tattletale and a Cherish clone assigned as her minder were told to hide somewhere the PRT wouldn't look and maintain radio contact with Jack Slash; apparently Tattletale expressed confidence that she knew E88's former safehouses far better than the PRT did.
You thank them for their cooperation. "I will come for you very soon. First, though, I have to remove the Nine's Thinker resources. Thankfully, Tattletale has provided me with a very, very exhaustive list of potential Brockton Bay hiding spots in the past. I can remotely search them one by - ah, there she is. Excuse me, I'll be back as soon as we extract her."
That's a lie, of course. Tattletale has never given you such a list. Why would she have?
But right now, there are five parahumans in the city who believe you have such a list, and that you and the Guild are about to assault Tattletale's location to retrieve her.
Jack Slash's Thinker power, according to Tattletale, gives him an intuition of what other parahumans in a wide range are thinking, doing and planning.
It's kind of a long shot, but it costs you nothing but a few seconds as you switch back to wall-passing telescopic vision, and-
Unexpected's remaining clone, along with Tattletale and a Cherish clone, has just teleported into the warehouse. Not the one with the dead dockworker, the one you rescued Noelle from.
Looks like your plan worked - Jack Slash "sensed" that you were about to launch a raid to free Tattletale, so he moved her somewhere else. To a location you've already emptied of Slaughterhouse presence and were unlikely to return to.
Spoofing his intuition, so to speak.
Of course, this plan ran into the simple issue of Coil's power: What if Jack Slash only evacuated Tattletale in one timeline? You'd get a quick victory of rescuing her, only for him to undo it retroactively.
That's why your plan, if you didn't see Tattletale appearing at any of the locations you thought to observe, was to telepathically tell the Travelers that you were belaying all rescue plans because you had just found Jack Slash himself.
Truth be told, you don't like this plan. Too many moving parts, too many ways it could go wrong. But luck is always going to be a factor on the battlefield, and perhaps this time, it has favored you.
You switch your power pool to a combination of invisibility and insubstantiality, allowing you to briefly dip above Mach 3 without causing a sonic boom. You slow down as you penetrate the warehouse again.
"-why did you have me moved-" Tattletale asks on her radio.
Invisible, you take aim at the Unexpected clone.
You only stop being invisible and insubstantial in order to be very, very fast instead.
The first blast destroys his spiderjack and knocks him out. The second does the same to the Cherish clone. Next, you grab the radio from Tattletale's hands.
Super-speed drops, replaced by sensory powers allowing you to rapidly scan all three individuals (and even the radio) for any hidden nastiness.
You ignore Tattletale's sneer - it'll take a few minutes for Cherish's power to fade from her mind - as you quickly coordinate with Director Piggot and Panacea, bringing the two unconscious clones and Tattletale to the Rig's facilities, where Entropisch's Shaker power keeps the spiderjack venom from killing the two clones before Panacea can heal them. The radio you drop with Director Piggot - it's unlikely that Jack Slash will let something useful slip through it, but it's worth a shot.
More things are going on across the city, of course. Vista's using her power to slow down Nilbog's army on the coastline, where a growing number of parahumans are joining the fray (including New Wave sans Panacea). Burnscar and some monsters are attacking a fire department. There's another attack on an Endbringer shelter. And the recent captures likely hold useful information in their heads.
You can't be everywhere at once. But you have a target of opportunity, and a small window of opportunity before it gets taken away.
Becoming once more invisible and insubstantial, you enter Coil's old lair, navigating it until you can find Oliver. Your senses perceive the gas bomb inside him - full of enough nerve agent to depopulate at least a city block.
You position yourself against the ceiling, at an angle where you won't be seen - by the Travelers, the Nine, or Nilbog's monsters.
You lock your senses firmly on the bomb.
Then you abandon invisibility and insubstantiality, switching instead to disintegration. Aiming carefully, you utterly unmake the bomb inside Oliver's body.
At this point, there's no further use hiding your moves from Jack's intuition - you need backup, and so you telepathically signal a number of allies, giving them the clearest instructions you can manage as you begin teleporting from room to room, carefully aiming to appear behind each Traveler to blow up their spiderjacks.
Each liberated Traveler is picked up by Go-Go, who teleports them to a nearby rooftop, where Strider picks them up for Panacea in time to neutralize the spiderjacks' venom (theoretically Strider could do this alone, but Go-Go is better at quick, short-ranged teleports in dangerous places). Nilbog's monsters keep chasing you, but you keep teleporting to a different room before they can even test if their attacks can harm you. The two Siberian projections and Mannequin haven't joined the fray yet, the former presumably hoping you'll get within range of their ambush while the latter may or may not be trying to sneak out in the confusion…
…but once all the Travelers have been extracted, there's no longer cause to hold back.
Strider teleports Globe inside and then heads out.
Globe, who was the only Case-53 in the Guild before Aura joined, activates his power. Everything in a range of slightly over 30 feet of him, in every direction, is instantly brought to a temperature of 780°C.
It's not quite enough to melt the walls, but just about anything in range that can burn does. Including Nilbog creatures.
Doesn't hurt you even a little, though. And so, you hover right next to Globe while switching to omnidirectional senses as you seek to pinpoint the remaining enemies.
Mannequin looks like he's just reached the sewers and is trying to make his getaway. He won't get far.
As heat from Globe's power begins spreading through Coil's lair, both Siberian projections start running through walls in an attempt to find you. They don't get very far as outside, both clones are killed (by Multi-Hit and Optima, respectively), causing the projections to fizzle out.
Go-Go, following your very precise instructions, appears close enough to Mannequin to teleport him aboveground. A couple dozen feet above the ground, in fact. Most of his tech is then ripped apart by Captain Argentina's telekinesis before he is encased in containment foam.
With Globe's help, you quickly destroy the last Nilbog creatures in the lair.
"Good job, everyone. Regroup at the Rig."
"Gladly. Things are happening way too fast for comfort," says Captain Argentina.
You're applying telepathic interrogation as fast as you can to Mannequin and the clones of Unexpected and Cherish who were with Tattletale, when Tattletale herself (escorted by multiple PRT agents) comes to you. She's not looking good.
"Tattletale. Are you all right?" you ask, even as you dip deeper into recent memories for any tactically useful tidbit.
"Fuck no I'm not all right," she says, clutching her head and looking like she has a horribl headache, "but I'll manage. Listen. Jack Slash wants to go down as the guy who killed hope, so he wants to kill you, the Guild, and Brockton Bay, in that order, and if he can only have one or two of these he'll take what he can get. He's got this small device on him that…" she winces in obvious pain, "...that I'm pretty sure is some kind of tinkertech weapon, and it's important to his plan."
"Thank you. This is important information," you tell her.
She's clearly suffering from the headaches most parahumans get from overusing their powers. Which is odd, she was fine a few minutes ago when you rescued her-
Ah.
A few minutes ago, when you recovered her from the Nine's grip, she was still operating under Cherish-given emotions, such as an overwhelming desire to get one over the heroes. So, once she was in the PRT's hands, she probably proceeded to deliberately overuse her power to gain non-useful information, in order to spitefully deny your side the use of her powers once Cherish's influence faded.
Inconvenient - both for you and for her - but that's how the dice fall.
Now, between the information you've collected and the developing situation, you need to immediately decide on your next course of action.
On the coastline, even with Vista providing some breathing room, even with more and more heroes joining in - Brazilian heroes, out-of-town Protectorate heroes, New Wave, additional Guild members - the situation is extremely tense, with small groups of monsters getting past the defenders and filtering into the city proper. You could show up and spend a few minutes decimating Nilbog's horde, taking off some of the pressure.
Burnscar's attack is going to destroy the city's biggest fire department if she and the monsters with her are not stopped ASAP. And no-one's moving in to stop her…
…because the heroes who aren't busy fighting on the coastline or hunting down the Nine have their hands full with multiple monster swarms emerging from the sewers and trying to breach Endbringer shelters. This is happening in at least three different locations that you know of.
Lastly, Mannequin's memories showed one more hiding spot the Slaughterhouse had been planning on using - a store that permanently closed last week, whose existence the Nine had discovered online while preparing for their visit to Brockton Bay. Telescopic vision shows it's empty right now, but a discreet visit might yield further clues…
The time pressure being what it is, you'll only have time to do a small number of these things. You'll need to think carefully.
How do you prioritize targets?
[ ] Provide air support on the coastline for a few minutes. As the most powerful Blaster available, you can take some pressure off the defenders and give them room to breath.
-[ ] Spend enough time on the coastline to significantly reduce the threat. This should free some of the defenders - hopefully Eidolon - to help in the city.
[ ] End Burnscar's attack on the fire department. It should be quick enough - go in, take her and the monsters down, go out.
[ ] Help protect the shelters; unless they're stopped, Nilbog's creatures could kill hundreds, maybe thousands.
-[ ] Fully clear the enemies around the shelters, and hunt down any more enemies progressing through the sewers.
[ ] Try to gather information at the store, or at least bug the place.
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View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weqK155M_4o
[X] Information Warfare: Crawler and the clones likely know a lot more about the Nine's plans and resources than you currently do. They might even know where they're currently holed up. This intel can turn the tide of the battle, so you should spend some proper time telepathically extracting it from their minds.
"Assuming the information I got is correct, the Slaughterhouse's ranks would currently include - not counting prisoners - three Crawler clones, two Cherish clones plus the original, an Unexpected clone plus the original, a Trickster clone plus the original, and six Siberian clones plus the original. The prisoners caught so far should have significant knowledge of the Nine's resources and plans, but presumably the value of this intel will decrease with every passing minute. I think right now, the best use of my abilities is to perform a rapid set of telepathic interrogations," you telepathically inform Narwhal and Director Piggot.
"Go for it. We've got some reinforcement coming from out of town," Narwhal replies.
And with that, you head toward the captured clones, and shift your power pool - most of it goes into telepathy, while the rest goes into mental superspeed.
The fact that the clones of Unexpected, Trickster, and the Siberian are currently pumped full of tranquilizers means that you encounter significantly reduced mental resistance as you make your way through their memories.
There's a lot here that's very informative, very disturbing… but time is of the essence. You're not looking for their entire life stories. You need to focus on recent weeks, days, hours.
Memories of the heist at the Rig. Cherish securing the Travelers' cooperation long enough to spiderjack everyone but Noelle. The cloning of multiple Slaughterhouse assets.
Cherish joining the Nine a few weeks ago - willingly, not spiderjacked yet. Introducing herself by driving Hatchet Face to suicide-
Hatchet Face is dead?
Bonesaw combining Hatchet Face's remains with a specially-made Nilbog creature, calling the resulting living weapon Hack Job.
Cherish introducing herself as one of Heartbreaker's children (you can see the resemblance). Very long-range emotional control and detection. Plotting to discreetly condition the Nine emotionally, but getting discovered by Jack Slash early on; Jack had Bonesaw perform brain surgery on the Nine so Cherish's manipulations would fail without her even realizing. However, whatever long-term plans Jack Slash had for Cherish apparently changed when he decided to have the Nine go out with a bang - Cherish had no intention of going down with a sinking ship no matter how grand the show, and had to be spiderjacked.
You transmit the most pertinent of your findings so far to your allies, and resume sifting through memories.
A series of suspicious coincidences putting the Nine on the trail of the Teeth, just in time for Bonesaw to outfit Jack Slash's brain with anti-Butcher reinforcement, and for him to kill Coil less than a minute after the latter just barely managed to kill the previous Butcher after a deadly game of cat and mouse.
Jack Slash is the new Butcher and his current Butcher set includes Coil. This is vital information. You transmit it.
"So Jack's the new Butcher. Means we can kill every other of the Nine without worrying about that poison pill, at least," Narwhal replies. While you've been running this telepathic interrogation, the battle on the coastline has been intensifying (out-of-town reinforcement notwithstanding), the Fallen have retreated, and most of the Guild is busy taking out monster cells in the sewers as fast as it can locate them.
Back to memory-diving.
More improbable coincidences allowing the Nine to contact Nilbog and get him out of Ellisburg with the PRT none the wiser - Jack Slash openly speculating about it being a post-mortem Simurgh backup plan to get rid of you.
Nilbog and Bonesaw collaborating, making each other's work more potent.
Running from the Guild's hunt. Capturing Unexpected. Trying and failing to capture others.
The cargo ship. Using the meat cargo to create Nilbog's army.
Reaching Brockton Bay. Teleporting in following Jack Slash's indication, in a way that suggests he used Coil's power to find safe locations via trial-and-error.
Teleporting inside the Undersiders' lair!
Earlier:
"Long time no see, big sis," Regent commented, not getting up from his couch as the rest of the Undersiders (and Uber, and Leet, and Bitch's dogs) twitched on the floor, overcome by crippling apathy and depression. "So, how did you end up working for these guys? Bad luck, or bad taste?"
"Bad judgment, I would say," Jack Slash said. "Poor Cherish believed she could wrap the Nine around her finger with time. Sadly, she was not committed enough for a full-part role."
"That's Chérie for you," Regent shrugged.
"Now, much as I would love to chat, I'm afraid we're really on a schedule," Jack Slash went on. "Bonesaw, do put your strings on this new bevy of puppets. Except for the Thinker. Cherish, be a dear and update Tattletale's emotional state. Completely suppress any emotional reaction to our little troupe, but inflate her desire to get one over the white hats into an overriding obsession."
Now:
The Nine have spiderjacked Grue, Bitch, Regent, Uber and Leet. They've also been holding control over Tattletale since this whole battle started. This means that when she contacted you and told you about the Nine's plan to grab Panacea at the hospital, she was acting on the Nine's behest - keeping you busy while they were abducting the Travelers.
You telepathically transmit this critical information to Director Piggot.
"Fuck. The Undersiders are a pain to fight. And if Tattletale is just guessing all our moves…"
"She may be, Director, but it's best not to tell anyone yet."
"What? Explain."
"The Guild's investigation strongly suggests that Jack Slash has a Thinker power that allows him greater awareness of the actions and intentions of parahumans within a large area. Neither you nor I are parahumans. My mind-reading has shown me every location the Nine were able to secure early in their invasion of Brockton Bay, so this may be a short-lived window of opportunity."
"Understood."
You suppose you ought to cut short your interrogations here, and not bother mind-reading Crawler, who's still exiled to a largely-empty dimension. The memories of the Unexpected, Trickster and Siberian clones have shown you multiple bases the Nine have established in the very short time they've had.
Two different warehouses in the docks, including the one you rescued Noelle from. The Undersiders' lair. Coil's old lair.
This time, no need to search the city. You shift your power pool to wall-passing, telescopic vision and observe the locations.
The warehouse is empty, save for the bleeding remains of a dockworker. The Undersiders' lair looks like it was hastily abandoned, and judging from the workshop in one room you guess Leet has been working there.
Coil's old lair is full of monsters. Also present are a well-hidden Mannequin, and two Siberian projections, each one hiding in a supply closet; further search locates the two Siberian clones in cars a couple blocks away. Also present are the spiderjacked Travelers.
It's obviously a trap. It dangles before you the opportunity to rescue the Travelers (and incidentally deny the Slaughterhouse use of their powers), but puts you and any other heroes who enter the premise with the risk of a deadly ambush… including the risk of Unexpected or his remaining Clone bringing in reinforcement from wherever else the Nine are hiding.
So you need to think a step ahead of them.
You think back to some past battles against Global Might, against the Cryosphere's Blizzard Brigade, against Avalon, Shadow, Garzor. About how your teammates were able to outmaneuver them, or were outmaneuvered yourselves.
Then you send out another telepathic message.
"Noelle, this is the Avatar, do you receive me?"
"Avatar! Listen, thank you for getting me out of there, but you've got to rescue the others-"
"I'm on it. But listen. The effects of the emotion Master's power, they fade quickly?"
"Uh… After a few minutes, I guess."
"Thank you, that helps a lot. Rest for now, I'm working on rescuing your friends."
Time for another telepathic message, this time aimed at multiple people.
"Travelers. Travelers, this is the Avatar, on telepathic communication. Can you hear me?"
"Avatar! Listen-"
"Thank God-"
"We're at-"
Trickster, Genesis, Ballistic, Sundancer and Oliver all respond. Their bodies and senses may be spiderjacked, but their thoughts are their own and cooperating with you. After you assure them Noelle is fine, they hurriedly tell you where they are (which you already knew), but also that Bonesaw has sewn some kind of nerve gas bomb inside Oliver's stomach, that Jack Slash has Leet working on something that he considers important, and that Tattletale and a Cherish clone assigned as her minder were told to hide somewhere the PRT wouldn't look and maintain radio contact with Jack Slash; apparently Tattletale expressed confidence that she knew E88's former safehouses far better than the PRT did.
You thank them for their cooperation. "I will come for you very soon. First, though, I have to remove the Nine's Thinker resources. Thankfully, Tattletale has provided me with a very, very exhaustive list of potential Brockton Bay hiding spots in the past. I can remotely search them one by - ah, there she is. Excuse me, I'll be back as soon as we extract her."
That's a lie, of course. Tattletale has never given you such a list. Why would she have?
But right now, there are five parahumans in the city who believe you have such a list, and that you and the Guild are about to assault Tattletale's location to retrieve her.
Jack Slash's Thinker power, according to Tattletale, gives him an intuition of what other parahumans in a wide range are thinking, doing and planning.
It's kind of a long shot, but it costs you nothing but a few seconds as you switch back to wall-passing telescopic vision, and-
Unexpected's remaining clone, along with Tattletale and a Cherish clone, has just teleported into the warehouse. Not the one with the dead dockworker, the one you rescued Noelle from.
Looks like your plan worked - Jack Slash "sensed" that you were about to launch a raid to free Tattletale, so he moved her somewhere else. To a location you've already emptied of Slaughterhouse presence and were unlikely to return to.
Spoofing his intuition, so to speak.
Of course, this plan ran into the simple issue of Coil's power: What if Jack Slash only evacuated Tattletale in one timeline? You'd get a quick victory of rescuing her, only for him to undo it retroactively.
That's why your plan, if you didn't see Tattletale appearing at any of the locations you thought to observe, was to telepathically tell the Travelers that you were belaying all rescue plans because you had just found Jack Slash himself.
Truth be told, you don't like this plan. Too many moving parts, too many ways it could go wrong. But luck is always going to be a factor on the battlefield, and perhaps this time, it has favored you.
You switch your power pool to a combination of invisibility and insubstantiality, allowing you to briefly dip above Mach 3 without causing a sonic boom. You slow down as you penetrate the warehouse again.
"-why did you have me moved-" Tattletale asks on her radio.
Invisible, you take aim at the Unexpected clone.
You only stop being invisible and insubstantial in order to be very, very fast instead.
The first blast destroys his spiderjack and knocks him out. The second does the same to the Cherish clone. Next, you grab the radio from Tattletale's hands.
Super-speed drops, replaced by sensory powers allowing you to rapidly scan all three individuals (and even the radio) for any hidden nastiness.
You ignore Tattletale's sneer - it'll take a few minutes for Cherish's power to fade from her mind - as you quickly coordinate with Director Piggot and Panacea, bringing the two unconscious clones and Tattletale to the Rig's facilities, where Entropisch's Shaker power keeps the spiderjack venom from killing the two clones before Panacea can heal them. The radio you drop with Director Piggot - it's unlikely that Jack Slash will let something useful slip through it, but it's worth a shot.
More things are going on across the city, of course. Vista's using her power to slow down Nilbog's army on the coastline, where a growing number of parahumans are joining the fray (including New Wave sans Panacea). Burnscar and some monsters are attacking a fire department. There's another attack on an Endbringer shelter. And the recent captures likely hold useful information in their heads.
You can't be everywhere at once. But you have a target of opportunity, and a small window of opportunity before it gets taken away.
Becoming once more invisible and insubstantial, you enter Coil's old lair, navigating it until you can find Oliver. Your senses perceive the gas bomb inside him - full of enough nerve agent to depopulate at least a city block.
You position yourself against the ceiling, at an angle where you won't be seen - by the Travelers, the Nine, or Nilbog's monsters.
You lock your senses firmly on the bomb.
Then you abandon invisibility and insubstantiality, switching instead to disintegration. Aiming carefully, you utterly unmake the bomb inside Oliver's body.
At this point, there's no further use hiding your moves from Jack's intuition - you need backup, and so you telepathically signal a number of allies, giving them the clearest instructions you can manage as you begin teleporting from room to room, carefully aiming to appear behind each Traveler to blow up their spiderjacks.
Each liberated Traveler is picked up by Go-Go, who teleports them to a nearby rooftop, where Strider picks them up for Panacea in time to neutralize the spiderjacks' venom (theoretically Strider could do this alone, but Go-Go is better at quick, short-ranged teleports in dangerous places). Nilbog's monsters keep chasing you, but you keep teleporting to a different room before they can even test if their attacks can harm you. The two Siberian projections and Mannequin haven't joined the fray yet, the former presumably hoping you'll get within range of their ambush while the latter may or may not be trying to sneak out in the confusion…
…but once all the Travelers have been extracted, there's no longer cause to hold back.
Strider teleports Globe inside and then heads out.
Globe, who was the only Case-53 in the Guild before Aura joined, activates his power. Everything in a range of slightly over 30 feet of him, in every direction, is instantly brought to a temperature of 780°C.
It's not quite enough to melt the walls, but just about anything in range that can burn does. Including Nilbog creatures.
Doesn't hurt you even a little, though. And so, you hover right next to Globe while switching to omnidirectional senses as you seek to pinpoint the remaining enemies.
Mannequin looks like he's just reached the sewers and is trying to make his getaway. He won't get far.
As heat from Globe's power begins spreading through Coil's lair, both Siberian projections start running through walls in an attempt to find you. They don't get very far as outside, both clones are killed (by Multi-Hit and Optima, respectively), causing the projections to fizzle out.
Go-Go, following your very precise instructions, appears close enough to Mannequin to teleport him aboveground. A couple dozen feet above the ground, in fact. Most of his tech is then ripped apart by Captain Argentina's telekinesis before he is encased in containment foam.
With Globe's help, you quickly destroy the last Nilbog creatures in the lair.
"Good job, everyone. Regroup at the Rig."
"Gladly. Things are happening way too fast for comfort," says Captain Argentina.
You're applying telepathic interrogation as fast as you can to Mannequin and the clones of Unexpected and Cherish who were with Tattletale, when Tattletale herself (escorted by multiple PRT agents) comes to you. She's not looking good.
"Tattletale. Are you all right?" you ask, even as you dip deeper into recent memories for any tactically useful tidbit.
"Fuck no I'm not all right," she says, clutching her head and looking like she has a horribl headache, "but I'll manage. Listen. Jack Slash wants to go down as the guy who killed hope, so he wants to kill you, the Guild, and Brockton Bay, in that order, and if he can only have one or two of these he'll take what he can get. He's got this small device on him that…" she winces in obvious pain, "...that I'm pretty sure is some kind of tinkertech weapon, and it's important to his plan."
"Thank you. This is important information," you tell her.
She's clearly suffering from the headaches most parahumans get from overusing their powers. Which is odd, she was fine a few minutes ago when you rescued her-
Ah.
A few minutes ago, when you recovered her from the Nine's grip, she was still operating under Cherish-given emotions, such as an overwhelming desire to get one over the heroes. So, once she was in the PRT's hands, she probably proceeded to deliberately overuse her power to gain non-useful information, in order to spitefully deny your side the use of her powers once Cherish's influence faded.
Inconvenient - both for you and for her - but that's how the dice fall.
Now, between the information you've collected and the developing situation, you need to immediately decide on your next course of action.
On the coastline, even with Vista providing some breathing room, even with more and more heroes joining in - Brazilian heroes, out-of-town Protectorate heroes, New Wave, additional Guild members - the situation is extremely tense, with small groups of monsters getting past the defenders and filtering into the city proper. You could show up and spend a few minutes decimating Nilbog's horde, taking off some of the pressure.
Burnscar's attack is going to destroy the city's biggest fire department if she and the monsters with her are not stopped ASAP. And no-one's moving in to stop her…
…because the heroes who aren't busy fighting on the coastline or hunting down the Nine have their hands full with multiple monster swarms emerging from the sewers and trying to breach Endbringer shelters. This is happening in at least three different locations that you know of.
Lastly, Mannequin's memories showed one more hiding spot the Slaughterhouse had been planning on using - a store that permanently closed last week, whose existence the Nine had discovered online while preparing for their visit to Brockton Bay. Telescopic vision shows it's empty right now, but a discreet visit might yield further clues…
The time pressure being what it is, you'll only have time to do a small number of these things. You'll need to think carefully.
How do you prioritize targets?
[ ] Provide air support on the coastline for a few minutes. As the most powerful Blaster available, you can take some pressure off the defenders and give them room to breath.
-[ ] Spend enough time on the coastline to significantly reduce the threat. This should free some of the defenders - hopefully Eidolon - to help in the city.
[ ] End Burnscar's attack on the fire department. It should be quick enough - go in, take her and the monsters down, go out.
[ ] Help protect the shelters; unless they're stopped, Nilbog's creatures could kill hundreds, maybe thousands.
-[ ] Fully clear the enemies around the shelters, and hunt down any more enemies progressing through the sewers.
[ ] Try to gather information at the store, or at least bug the place.
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Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
... at the risk of sounding callous, I don't think property damage is that big a priority. Beyond protecting people in shelters and rescuing hostages, we can just rebuild Brockton Bay with enough time and our phenomenal cosmic power. Be the ultimate fuck-you to a dead Jack by just undoing what little he did with a metaphorical finger snap.
Thankfully we seem to have found a way to bootstrap a way around a high-fidelity simulation Thinker Power and a demented Shard that's just as on board with a grand finale of terror as its Host. So we might have an opportunity to go for whatever Maguffin Jack's putting together. Which I have to assume is just as potent whether it's a final ace up his sleeve or something to whip out if the Avatar unexpectedly appears.
Thankfully we seem to have found a way to bootstrap a way around a high-fidelity simulation Thinker Power and a demented Shard that's just as on board with a grand finale of terror as its Host. So we might have an opportunity to go for whatever Maguffin Jack's putting together. Which I have to assume is just as potent whether it's a final ace up his sleeve or something to whip out if the Avatar unexpectedly appears.
- Location
- Leeds
Jacks first lesson at Avatar's school of 'I know you know I know.'
- Location
- Malaysia
Well, that's three Slaughterhouse members down, six to go - and a shitload of monsters and cultists to boot.
All I'll say to start is that I'm really glad the Avatar is the player character for this Quest. Because considering what had to be done in such a short amount of time, glean information from the clones, act on it, rescue the Travelers and Tattletale without the enemy going scorched earth...
Odds are high that we'd be looking at a vote right now on who to save and who to sacrifice.
All I'll say to start is that I'm really glad the Avatar is the player character for this Quest. Because considering what had to be done in such a short amount of time, glean information from the clones, act on it, rescue the Travelers and Tattletale without the enemy going scorched earth...
Odds are high that we'd be looking at a vote right now on who to save and who to sacrifice.
- Location
- Canada
- Pronouns
- He/Him
This upgraded Guild is getting absolutely terrifying.
Dmol8
The Undead Unhinged Lunatic of the Web
- Location
- Belgrade,Serbia
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Should we check whose remains those are? Because that might be Daniel Herbert. Or someone close to him we don't know who was killed as Danny was kidnapped.
"I may not be a genius like some of the people I've worked with, but I've been at this long enough that anything you come up with, someone smarter than you has already pulled on me."
Current enemy members and assets: Jack Slash, Bonesaw, Nilbog and most of his army, Burnscar, Hack Job, Unexpected, the Undersiders minus Tattletale (but including Uber and Leet), three Crawler clones, Cherish and one clone, one Trickster clone, the Siberian and four clones. Also the Fallen, who don't answer to the Nine but are causing trouble at the same time.
Removed enemy assets: Shatterbird, a significant number of Nilbog monsters, Murder Rat, Pagoda, Crawler and two of his clones, one of the Cherish clones, Mannequin, both Unexpected clones, both Trickster clones, four Siberian clones, the Travelers, Tattletale (and their eyes and ears within the Rig).
"Thank you. We've worked hard to become so."
The Avatar would have recognized him if it was. Danny and Taylor have both been in Boston for weeks now (which the Nine admittedly stopped by on their way here, but they didn't have time to mess with the locals - too much of a hurry).
Woo! Talk about a morning wake up. Best start to my day.
KnownParadox
Not a sphere
- Location
- Canada
Odds are we would've gotten a different plot if we chose a different character, more suited to each option. Probably all just as difficult, but in different ways.
Probably. Of course, if we were Blue-Blanc-Rouge or Titan I doubt things would have escalated anywhere near this far in the first place. Of course, Jack would do his best to force us into making unpleasant decisions regardless (that's what he does), but I don't think he would have felt the need to become Coil-Butcher and bring Nilbog along.
Agreed. If we got Tracer Pulse or Mimic, this would've been a much different story.
On a side note, I never read up to the Slaughterhouse 9000-Worm's length just didn't work for me-and now I gotta ask, was it anywhere near this level of complex and layered? Because the S9 are attacking on multiple fronts with multiple back up plans in place. Was it this impressive in the original or is Sun Tzu just styling on us?
Dmol8
The Undead Unhinged Lunatic of the Web
- Location
- Belgrade,Serbia
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Huh so I guess this one gets mentioned more in Brave Little Spider if you ever write it this far at some point?
Crake
I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROACHING
- Location
- USA
The Clone Army Bonesaw made was a bit of a dud. Not in the sense thatbit failed its intended goal, distract the Heroes, but in the sense that it was originally to be used as a Doomsday scenario and the Clones had such shallow connections to their Shards that every single group without exception jobbed hardcore.
Yes, some of the clones survived and went on to make something of themselves, but freshly birthed they were nothing impressive. While it's cool to say that Golem is just that badass that he can take down a full group of serial killer clones with superpowers, Theo exploited the fact that every weakness the Nine and former members possessed was known, and most of the ones that died did so because those weaknesses were already exploited before.
Jack's plan here is far more elaborate. But that's just because Fanon has flanderized his actual level of competence. He's a cockroach. He survives his comeuppance to improbable degrees due to being dripfed information constantly about his opponents and being piloted by his power to make the right calls to survive.
But the power stretches 'certain death' into 'avoidable circumstance', it doesn't make him a comic book genius. Most of his plans fail to materialize any real success. And he caused the end of the world through luck.
Yes, some of the clones survived and went on to make something of themselves, but freshly birthed they were nothing impressive. While it's cool to say that Golem is just that badass that he can take down a full group of serial killer clones with superpowers, Theo exploited the fact that every weakness the Nine and former members possessed was known, and most of the ones that died did so because those weaknesses were already exploited before.
Jack's plan here is far more elaborate. But that's just because Fanon has flanderized his actual level of competence. He's a cockroach. He survives his comeuppance to improbable degrees due to being dripfed information constantly about his opponents and being piloted by his power to make the right calls to survive.
But the power stretches 'certain death' into 'avoidable circumstance', it doesn't make him a comic book genius. Most of his plans fail to materialize any real success. And he caused the end of the world through luck.
Arcane Howitzer
Serial Arcanist
- Location
- United States
Thinking it's time to thin Nilbog's herd a little, do a quick fly-by bombing run of the beachhead, then check if any of the shelters are being actively overrun (not just "we have our hands full," everyone has their hands full right now) and respond accordingly. If it looks like they can hold for now and nothing starts going catastrophically wrong somewhere else, we can take a minute or two to snoop around the abandoned store... and maybe take a moment to set up a little surprise of some sort in case Jack does drop by.
I also really wanna take out Burnscar. Or however the heck we're gonna handle her. What are the odds we dive into her mind and then spare her?
Hestia&theCourt
Turns out we're plural too.
- Location
- In transition
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Nice thing about Burnscar is that if you have the ability to shut off flames in a multi-block radius, it's actually not all that difficult to contain her and to reason with her. Given that we're the Avatar, it'd probably be both trivial and in-character for us to spare her unless circumstances conspire to make her contextually more dangerous.
Do we know this yet? Or do we just know powerful Pyrokinetic?
RazorSmile
ROB Used To Be A Knife Missile
I concur. It's time to do some serious culling of the Nilbog monster herd.
Also, I would telepathically interrogate any other targets of opportunity and place a very high priority on capturing or killing Unexpected.
Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
Crake's analysis is partially accurate. The missing details undercut it a bit: The reason the Slaughterhouse 9 Clones even had powers to begin with was Bonesaw both cracking a major problem in Worm and taking the opportunity of being unsupervised to rebel. If Bonesaw didn't have access to Cranial's memory alteration technology, she wouldn't have been able to make the clones at all. The aforementioned shallow connections had to be forged for every single individual by recreating enough memories to artificially recreate the Trigger Event and make the Shard recognize a Host. That's why Jack is so keen on getting Nilbog, and earlier Noelle: Bonesaw worked outside her speciality like that, and it took far longer to make about three hundred inferior products. The two to Simurgh-chosen dedicated creation-based Parahumans can churn out far more powerful and fanatical combatants in a shorter period of time.
Every S9000 battle since their first appearance, where the full hundreds-strong army attacks Killington, was only about a dozen capes at best in any given place. Usually less than ten. Jack's army here is far more potent and numerous. Which he needed to even compete, because the Nilbog and clone mooks are getting absolutely mulched.
Especially with the advent and conclusion of Ward, it's an equally Flandarized, or whatever the opposite of that is, conclusion to make Jack out into someone incapable of doing anything on his own. He's not piloted like Damsel, Grey Boy, Butcher, or Sophia were. It's more accurate to describe Jack and Broadcast as two best friends with IT and salesmanship skills working together. And, no, Jack didn't cause Golden Morning through "luck", his Shard is a modified version of Enitity-to-Entity communication.
While out-thinking Broadcast and Jack is possible due to Avatar's lack of a Shard to ping off of, there's going to come a point where we have to start working out how to counter someone as intelligent, all-knowing, and quick-thinking as Avatar, but who is just as sadistic and showy as, well, Jack. After all, Contessa successfully worked around Scion, The Endbringers, and Trigger Events for decades by just simulating data or examining what information was known around the holes in Path To Victory. If you can't study the thing, study the outline it makes and the ripples it leaves on the environment. Jack and Broadcast are eventually going to figure out the same trick, if they haven't already.
Were there any significant failures? Because if not then she just lucky far longer than she should have.