View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Nat0rOEMCA
Top Priority:
[X][Guild] Gesellschaft is an international crime syndicate with a terrifying amount of political pull, and the Guild has just bloodied their nose. Now's the time to keep up the pressure, and pick a new venue to attack them in!
-[X] France's Front Pour La Patrie is believed to have more parahumans than any other part of Gesellschaft. Try to cull the herd.
Secondary priority:
[X][Guild] Indonesia has a massive villain problem, and right now the biggest fish among them is Op Center, a villain who has been successfully running the largest gang in the country. Taking him and as much of his syndicate down is an important step toward stabilizing south-east Asia.
[X][Avatar] Lockboxes: These special prisons - not as final and inhumane as the Birdcage, but not escapable for parahumans - have been providing a truly precious third option since the Avatar and Dragon started making them. However, you're quickly running out of Lockboxes, and further Guild operations will require many more. Spend more time working with Dragon on building them.
[X][Avatar] Balkans: Have the Avatar show up, stop the massacres, and take down the warlords responsible. It should provide a useful stop-gap.
[X][Avatar] Namibia: It's a low-population country, but it was entirely under Moord Nag's thumb before the Avatar arrested her. Time to check up on the emerging warlords and make sure they're not acting beyond the pale.
You consider the situation carefully. "The ongoing genocide needs to be addressed without delay," you say, "but my presence alone would be enough to stop the immediate massacres. We can organize something more thorough when the Guild has more time - or more personnel."
"I'm inclined to agree." Director Wayland is once again taking some time to attend this Guild meeting as an unofficial adviser on international affairs. "The mess left by the collapse of Yugoslavia and the Balkan Wars is an enduring one, and the best you can do short of committing to a long-term presence is to stamp down on war crimes and the worst of the worst."
You nod. "Gesellschaft, on the other hand, is an active threat that we can expect to be acting against our objectives both overtly and behind the scenes. We've fired an early shot, it would be a mistake not to keep up the pressure now."
"Gesellschaft delenda est?" Myrdin says in an amused tone.
"Essentially," you reply with a slight grin. Not that you feel Rome had much of a moral high ground to stand on in the Punic Wars, but you get his meaning.
"I'm inclined to agree," says Narwhal, "but that does leave the question of
where we attack them. They may well be the most
international criminal organization on Earth!"
"Then I suggest we take the battle to France," you reply. "My understanding is that while they have some sympathizers in the government and general population, Victoire herself has gone to great lengths, and exposed herself to a lot of criticism, to purge the Irréductibles of the neo-Nazi stench and combat the Front Pour La Patrie across France. Furthermore, she has been
generous in her support of the European Brigade. If anything, I think we can count on her cooperation and work together with the Irréductibles on this."
"Maybe so, but the Guild will still require the actual authorization of the French government to run this operation on its soil," Wayland cautions. "The Front has elected politicians and the open support of 15% of the electorate; I wouldn't be surprised if half the country felt ambivalent at best if a mostly-foreign force suddenly showed up and took down the local far-right, and furthermore, you would not have the advantage of surprise."
"Gesellschaft already knows we're coming for them," Surdoué says, "they just don't know where. And we can
keep them guessing by asking
every country with Gesellschaft presence for the right to operate on their soil."
"Good thinking," you nod, "and I would also point out that the ability of fascists to shape the discourse tends to be
severely reduced when they lose control of the streets and are made to look weak. Crippling the parahuman strength of the Front Pour La Patrie will also cripple them politically for years to come."
"One can hope so," says Chubster. "You heard the latest from Dunst?"
"I can't say I've had the time, no."
Chevalier pipes in. "He's been taking your work in Jacksonville, and saying, if you could do
that in two days, then it's proof that you
could restore law and order to the USA in a single year if you didn't 'waste time' in 'foreign adventures'."
"Talk about greedy," Laser Fist rolls her eyes. "We take out
two S-Class threats in his country, and he demands more."
"That
is the reason," Narwhal points out. "The fact that his country is now indebted to the Guild throws a wrench in his discourse. He has to double-down to convince the American people they're being underserved." She turns her gaze to you. "I'm inclined to agree with your reasoning about gesellschaft. I'll arrange talks with Victoire. What do we do about the rest of our targets?"
"I don't want to be
pushy," says Multi-Hit, "but my superiors have expressed
displeasure about the Guild having several Indian members yet not showing up in India or any bordering country. And… you've all seen how
useful Borrower can be to the team."
"Borrower's awesome and we should recruit her full-time ASAP," says Harmonic, "but she's also a Muslim and
not happy about how the Prime Minister is treating Muslims."
"What concerns
me," says Director Wayland, "is that it's the
Thanda heroes who are requesting Guild support, and have been requesting it practically since the Avatar joined the Guild. The Thanda operate in the shadows and value their secrets; if they want outside intervention, it suggests that they're genuinely terrified."
"Then we should begin gathering extra Thinker support in preparation for helping them," you say, "but as vital as India may be to the future of Earth-Bet," and it is, with its colossal parahuman population being only one reason, "it is, for now,
relatively stable. I'm more concerned about Indonesia."
And not without cause. Jakarta was one of Behemoth's early targets - the fourth, to be precise - forcing the evacuation of the city, killing millions, wiping out the government, and taking out many of the country's heroes.
The destruction of the government, for all the chaos it caused, wasn't without an upside - with the dictatorial Suharto regime gone, and in no small part thanks to Red White (which, at the time, was the country's primary independent hero team), Indonesia became a democracy. Red White evolved to become the new government's official parahuman law enforcement agency, but the combined pressure of Jakarta's aftereffects, preexisting political tensions, and the rising tide of supervillains, have led to the current situation - a government that's struggling under the mounting pressure of villains who possess both the means and audacity to fight it head-on, even as their immense criminal empires grow stronger and wealthier every year.
Skull King was probably one of the top 20 most powerful villains in the country. Op Center, meanwhile, is in the running for first place.
Op Center is a Tinker, rated 7 (though some argue 8). There's some disagreement on whether his Tinker specialization is sensors or data-gathering tools (a subtle distinction, you're told), but he is most well-known for the "Golden Eyes" he creates - cybernetic eyes that he has implanted in some of his minions (and which, once implanted, can pass for the real thing barring special scanning tools). A minion with a Golden Eye is constantly fed additional information about the world around him - Red White's intel indicates the tinkertech implants provide so much data about the people around them and their surroundings (not to mention significant combat prediction data) that they effectively qualify as a mid-range Thinker power all on their own. This is besides some other features… one of which being, they effectively ensure that everything the implanted minions see and hear, Op Center knows as well.
In practice, this means that Op Center can significantly empower a number of minions (most of whom are already parahumans to begin with), have confidence that they can't hide secrets from him, and gather frightening amounts of intelligence on whoever his organization deals with. These advantages, combined with some significant competence and several extremely powerful parahumans under his command, have allowed Op Center to build a massive organization estimated to employ between 500 and 600 parahumans across Indonesia - in the ballpark of 3% of the country's
total supervillain population. This organization, the Pusat Kekuasaan, grabs a share of the pie of underworld activities in every major Indonesian city - drug dealing, racketeering, human trafficking, sex trafficking, organ trafficking, arms smuggling, but also white collar crime and blackmail. In addition to having a turnover measured in billions of dollar-equivalents, the Pusat Kekuasaan also has significant control over Indonesia's corporate world, and it's an open secret that it has many local and a number of national politicians in its pocket, be it through bribery or extortion. This affords the organization
significant protection from law enforcement, limiting Red White's options even further.
"As I understand it," you say, "while Red White has done an admirable job so far, especially considering the terror strikes of the unlamented Plague and the General," you nod at Iron Snake, "they're one major defeat away from one of the more powerful villains successfully becoming a warlord and taking over a city - and we know where
that leads." It's the same pattern that so many Earth-Bet countries have followed - at one point, supervillains in one city manage to overwhelm local law enforcement; with other villains emboldened, another city follows, and another, and it's often only a matter of years before the country collapses into parahuman feudalism. It's a process the Guild has
interrupted in Cuba and Nigeria, and is working to
reverse in Brazil. "We need to arrest Op Center - a man known to be the most powerful, successful, untouchable villain in the country - and rip his organization to shreds, to send a message to would-be warlords that none of them are untouchable."
"Arresting Op Center isn't enough," says Iron Snake. "He's got enough connections - or at least enough
blackmail - to walk out of prison within hours." His expression hardens. "Maybe we can't kill him, but we need to throw him in the Birdcage,
before any of the people under his thumb can protest."
"He's probably got all sorts of deadman switches," says Tattletale. "You throw him in the Birdcage, you can expect a lot of blackmail material to actually get released."
Iron Snake pauses to consider, then his expression hardens. "
Acceptable. It might do more harm than good, it might do more good than harm, but we don't stand a chance if we let that bastard corrupt our government."
"I don't think the government needed much help," Tattletale smirks.
Iron Snake gives her a nonplussed stare. "I grew up under an
actual dictatorship, girl. Don't get smart with me."
"Have you
met me?"
"Ahem," you say. "My point is, we need to neutralize Op Center and destroy the Pusat Kekuasaan, but this will require actual preparation, which I suggest we get started on - ideally, we can handle them shortly after delivering a crippling blow to the Front Pour La Patrie."
"While also gathering Thinker support for a future operation with the Thanda," Narwhal says, pinching the bridge of her nose. "It never ends, but we all knew that."
Much like back home, in Earth-Bet Yugoslavia was founded by the Versailles Treaty in 1918, with the King of Serbia being granted control of much of the Balkans. Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia - most of them former territories of the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires - now ruled by the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (though that particular designation only came to be in 1929).
Said Kingdom faced numerous tensions in the years that followed (including the rise of homegrown fascists), and was conquered by the Axis in 1941. Following the fall of the Axis, the primary resistance group, led by Tito, established a communist regime in the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia.
Unlike other communist regimes of eastern Europe, Yugoslavia managed to stay out of the USSR's sphere of influence, and remained largely unaligned during the Cold War (which was doubtlessly preferable to having policy set by Stalin, or even his successors). It couldn't quite quell inter-ethnic strife, however - Croatians protested Serbian hegemony, and the events of the "oil price shock" in the 1970s only worsened tensions. In the 1980s, people like Slobodan Milosevic tried to restore Serbian hegemony and roll back concessions made to other ethnicities under Tito, leading to increased tensions, armed conflict, and the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 90s; from your understanding, both Serbian hegemonists and Croatian independentists were overconfident in the ability of parahumans on their side to give them a clear military advantage.
In 1997, with UN mediation, a peace treaty was signed, and the ex-Yugoslavian nations recognized each other's borders. The situation was tense, but war, it seemed, was over…
…And then, in 2002, the Simurgh appeared in Lausanne, destroyed Switzerland, created a worldwide banking crisis, and unleashed multiple "Simurgh bombs" upon the world - one of which was one of the most emblematic Croatian heroes murdering Serbia's Prime Minister, a moderate who had wanted to normalize relations with fellow Balkan nations; much of his cabinet also perished in the attack. His successor was an extremist who escalated the resulting conflict into outright war, which in a bloody domino effect came to rage across all ex-Yugoslavian nations. This wasn't the 90s anymore - by this point, the combined pressure of Endbringers, worldwide economic depression, and rising supervillainy, meant the rest of the world could not be bothered to meaningfully intervene.
Close to a decade later, this war has technically never ended… but all the governments waging it have either collapsed, or become effectively irrelevant as parahuman crime bosses, warlords, and militant extremists have taken over all the large cities in the region. Armed conflict is still commonplace, but it's now waged between feudal warlords rather than nation-States (which is not to say it is not frequently motivated by ethnic and/or religious hatreds, which the parahumans now in control have often inherited from previous regimes).
You're in no position to bring peace to the region - not without dedicating the bulk of your time to it at the expense of your work with the Protectorate and Guild.
You can, however, make a quick stop by Pristina, which was recently taken over by Lazar's March, one of the nastiest militant groups in the region - which has been killing the city's (overwhelmingly Albanian Muslim) people by the thousands.
Even before the massacre started, Pristina's population numbered less than 100,000 people. It's not a big city, smaller than even Brockton Bay. It doesn't take long to find the handful of parahumans leading Lazar's March.
Neither they, nor the militants fighting under their orders, survive your visit. It's your long-standing policy when dealing with armies attempting outright genocide. Sometimes there's political value in taking the worst monsters alive - arresting rather than killing the Purifier and Madame Lustucru, for instance, sent a message of restoring justice and rule of law to the world; here, the unpowered militants needed to die in order for the people here to ever be safe again, and killing them while arresting their parahuman leaders would only have meant preferential treatment for superpowered people.
With the militants disposed of, and the injured transported to hospitals, you address the entire city at once, informing them that their would-be killers are gone, and condemning the intolerance and hatred that drove their crimes. With that done, you repair a bridge, provide some supplies, and then inform several other armed groups in the region of what you've done to Lazar's March - and strongly advise them not to give you cause for a repeat performance.
One more stop along the way: You take the time to speak to one Adam Kralj.
"A… Avatar," the middle-aged Serbian, who had been a middle-manager in the city's administration before Lazar's March took it and subsequently became a civilian administrator of sorts for the March, gazes at you in mounting dread. "I, I swear, I wasn't an accomplice to-"
"I know," you stop him. "You hid Albanian children in your attic, you leaked patrol schedules to people trying to escape the city, and you've been deliberately misplacing ammo shipments to slow down the mass-executions."
He blinks. "How… How do you know all that?"
You smile. "I have some friends who are very good detectives." Tattletale wasn't available for this - too busy with the work the Guild has hired her for - but Mister Clue has been following your bodycam all day, and Borrower, with permission, has been using short bursts of Mister Clue's power
combined with Tattletale's. "I've made sure that the rest of the city knows it too."
"OK," he says, allowing himself to breathe. "Good. That's good. But, why are you here…?"
"First, to thank you for your heroism," you reply. "There are hundreds, possibly thousands alive today who'd have died without your courage.
"But also, to ask you to do more," you add solemnly. "I'm sorry to do that when you've already risked life and limb. However, as things stand, this land is being torn apart by hatred, strife, and of course the usual greed and lust for power. There's a whole generation currently growing up in the Balkans for whom
this is the new normal - neighbor against neighbor, without humanity or hope that tomorrow will be better than today.
"The people need a reminder that working for a better tomorrow is
possible.
"The people need to know that some people will help even those whom they are expected to hate.
"The people need to be reminded of what heroism
is." You pause. "Mr. Kralj. I want you, and others like you whom I hope to find in time, to speak up. To be examples I can hold up for everyone in this land to see, and remind them that a better way
exists."
He's looking even
more overwhelmed than when he thought you were there to execute him as a collaborator. "Sir, I… I'm nothing special. There are plenty others!"
"You're not wrong!" you say with a smile. "I'm sure if I looked closely, I could find dozens, maybe hundreds in this city who, like you, are brave and true in the face of evil and danger. But
you were at the right place and the right time to make a big difference, Mr. Kralj. Of course," you grin, "if you can find
more heroes for this, I'll be glad for the additional help!"
The three days following the Guild meeting, naturally enough, keep you busy - and not just because of the Balkans.
In Mexico City, you put out a fire, end a shootout, arrest two cops in the middle of a transphobic hate crime, perform visible patrols in the most at-risk neighborhoods… But most importantly, Excellente organizes a raid on the secret vault of the Angel Sangrante cartel. Parahuman villains the world over have different ways of handling clandestine money (The elusive Number Man, the infamous Deutsche Bank… Not the Swiss banks anymore, for obvious reasons), and apparently, Angel Sangrante was maintaining its own mini-Fort Knox beneath what was officially "just" the lavish mansion of one of the cartel's top men. It was a well-kept secret, but one that Eidolon was able to pierce with the appropriate set of Thinker powers; you both participate in the ensuing raid, which captures cash (in multiple currencies) and gold with a total value exceeding 1.5 billion dollars (not to mention a significant amount of narcotics).
While you were doing that, the European Brigade was launching a new operation - this time taking down the Principi, Milan's most powerful villain gang. While only 11 villains were arrested, those arrests included Arpione (who is generally considered an A-lister) and Maestra (who is rated as an A-Class threat). From your understanding, both the presence of the Quatre As and an unexpected tinkertech arsenal in the Brigade's hands played key roles in this victory. Even more encouragingly, there are reports of dozens of independent heroes from across Europe trying to join the Brigade - its string of victories over the past weeks are winning people over.
That aside, you also dedicate an hour to touching base with Bastion (the almost-certainly members of the Freedom Congress are still trying to be subtle about recruiting him, and you have to keep him in the right mindset), you check up on Leet (he's still working on your secret project)... and, more time-consumingly, you spend over eighteen hours working with Dragon to create new Lockboxes lest you run out of humane prison space, right before you make a second visit to Namibia.
Being somewhat desertic, Namibia is one of the most sparsely-populated countries in the world. This is true on both Earth-Gimmel and Earth-Bet.
The country spent a chunk of its history under German control, then, after 1918, under the control of South Africa - and the latter chose to apply the same principle of Apartheid in Namibia as in its own territory. Given how Apartheid lasted several times longer here than on Earth-Gimmel, and how South Africa was still effectively ruling the country when parahumans began appearing, it is no surprise things went to Hell in a handbasket. To make things worse, the collapse of South Africa led to a massive number of starving refugees crossing the border to Namibia - and with the country only having a population of two million previously, the sudden shift to almost
three led to a famine, which in turn led to mass death and parahuman warlordism. Moord Nag emerged as the most powerful of the warlords, effectively conquering the country over a mountain of dead bodies, and the nature of her powers meant she needed to
keep killing people by the hundreds and thousands to
stay in control - until you sent her to the Birdcage, right before the Simurgh ambushed you.
Well, it's been several weeks. It's high time you check up on the state of the country.
Naturally, the PRT as well the Nigerian and Kenyan governments have put at least
some effort into keeping track of things (a task made harder given the absence of a centralized government or nation-spanning news agencies). That plus a few hours of your own intelligence-gathering gives you a general picture.
First stop, the city of Windhoek - easily the largest in the country, with over three hundred thousand people. Silver Bullet doesn't even get a word in before you take her down right in front of several of her minions, and inform them - right before taking her to the Birdcage - that if the crimes against humanity don't stop
immediately, you'll be back and angrier.
Second stop, Otjiwarongo. With a population of less than forty thousand, it was easy for Big Man and his militia to take over, and the less said of how they treat the city's women the better. You arrest all five parahumans involved. Where the hundreds of militiamen are concerned, you don't have anywhere to imprison them… but you
can confiscate all their weapons and ammunition, without which they are quick to run out of town, trying to escape bloody vengeance.
Third stop, the twin cities of Walvis Bay and Swakopmund, which have over a hundred thousand people between them. You inform Lunar that there are certain tendencies you find
concerning, but, as long as they are corrected, you are willing to stay out of her way; you even provide some supplies.
And once that is done? You take the time to locate Witch, Azure, Sword Princess, and the Sunrise Squad, all whom you gather together. All of them, despite all the hardships they face, have been using their powers to
protect people. So, you introduce them to each other. You encourage them to work together. You provide them with means of contacting each other (or, for that matter, contacting the Guild if it comes down to it), as well as means of transportation (since except for the Squad, they all live in different cities). And, since some of them are in dire material straits, you give them some money to solve their short-term problems (cash confiscated from Silver Bullet's stash).
Officially, Brainbox is a Las Vegas-based Rogue. His Thinker power allows him, whenever he considers a plan, to come up with useful suggestions to improve the plan's odds of working - even if he has no idea why those suggestions would help, nor the information he would need to come up with them. He sells his services to individuals, corporations, and government agencies - to the limited extent that the law in Earth-Bet's USA will allow it.
Less officially, Brainbox is too rich for his legitimate work to be his primary source of revenue. It's an open secret that he does some consulting work for corporations (and possibly politicians) that
is in breach of regulations on the commercialization of parahuman abilities… and, in all likelihood, he probably does the occasional bit of work for villains.
Still not officially, the Las Vegas PRT doesn't bother putting the screws on him because, every now and then, he'll throw them a bone and do some free work for them behind the scenes, when they're trying to outmaneuver a villain and want to improve their odds as much as possible.
In short, Brainbox is a mercenary. And thanks to the bounty on the Slaughterhouse Nine, the Guild can easily afford his fee.
"I'm actually giving you a 20% discount," he says smugly. "What can I say? You people took down Jack Slash and Nilbog. It's
inspiring." His smirk turns into a frown as he checks his seat. "Seriously, you can afford my fees, but you can't afford comfortable chairs?"
"I'm actually annoyed you get paid more than me," says Tattletale, "even though I'm several times more useful. I think I should be renegotiating my contract."
"Wait, he gets paid more?" you say in faux surprise. "I thought we were only paying him
money! Are you saying he's
also being paid in his best friend actually being proud of him?"
"You think you're funny," Tattletale rolls her eyes in an attempt at maintaining a facade of emotional distance.
And then Narwhal speaks up. "Everyone, if I may have your attention…
"Most of the countries whose permission we've requested to attack Gesellschaft and Gesellschaft-aligned villains on their territory have given us a positive reply, including France, Germany, and Sweden. We've received refusals from the United Kingdom, Russia, and the Netherlands, though we think we can change that last one in time.
"With that in mind, our immediate target is the Front Pour La Patrie - the French affiliate of Gesellschaft, and the one with the largest number of parahumans. Our priority targets are as follows," she displays them one-by-one on the projector.
"Croisé. Leader of the Front Pour La Patrie, and the biggest traitor in the history of the Irréductibles. He used to lead their Lyons branch, then defected during the Blood Night." The highly-mediated event in 1996 involving three respected heroes (from the UK, France, and Germany) officially defecting to Camelot, the Front Pour La Patrie, and Gesellschaft respectively, while the latter executed villains (and vigilantes) belonging to minorities. "He can empower objects while he's touching them. His standard approach is to make his armor quasi-unbreakable, while empowering his sword so it can cut through steel like warm butter. Throwing him in the Birdcage would get us in political hot waters, but that's what we have the Lockboxes for.
"Apperçu. We don't know as much about her as we'd like, but we do know she's a powerful precog - powerful enough that Rhetor usually keeps her in Germany as his adviser. Highly unlikely we'll run into her, but
if we do, removing her from the chessboard would be a priority.
"Martel. One of the leaders of the Front, he is a
tactics Thinker - his power lets him understand enemy tactics and how to counter them. Obviously, we need him to
not do that.
"Vercingétorix. Joined two years ago, and has already made a name for himself as a high-level Alexandria Package who's participated in Endbringer battles. He's also bloodthirsty even by the Front's standards, with numerous murder charges, including several civilians and one member of the Irréductibles last month. We take
him down, we can throw him in the Birdcage just fine and deprive the neo-Nazis of some of their best muscle.
"To the best of our knowledge," a few more pictures appear, "the Front's Tinkers trend mid-level. With that said, the truism that a decent Tinker in a parahuman team acts as a power multiplier holds, and any we can remove from the board is a long-term blow to Gesellschaft's strategic power."
Dragon steps in. "Political perception
matters in this fight - if too much of the local public perceives it as the rest of the world beating up French capes to force their politics on France, it could actually lead to a surge in the Front's popularity. As such, we will be working with a large team of Irréductibles capes, whom Victoire has been carefully vetting for this, as well as several teams of independent local heroes. The European Brigade will be sitting this one out, except insofar as it will ensure its French members and associate members are available and can show up to offer support - including Les Quatre As. Eidolon, meanwhile, has a public image more closely associated with the Protectorate than any of us; it may be counterproductive for him to be seen fighting the Front."
"Wait, are you saying we're going into this fight
without Eidolon?" says Météore.
"Not exactly. Eidolon can contribute, just not be
seen contributing. Which means either acting as remote Thinker support… or as a Stranger."
"...Hell, Eidolon going all out on Stranger abilities sounds
terrifying," says Iron Snake. "With that said, what actually
is the plan? These guys hold territory the way gangs do, not the way warlords do. So how do we force them to come out and fight us?"
"The Irréductibles will actually initiate the hostilities," Narwhal explains. "Victoire is planning to launch a day-long blitz in Front territory, with raids, arrests, and highly visible incidents that the Front will have to either answer with violence, or lose money and face to a degree it cannot ignore." She grins. "Thinker support from several different sources was involved."
"Damn straight," Tattletale smirks.
The next eleven hours involve more patrols in Mexico City (you don't run into much crime, but your visible presence helps discourage villains… and you
do get two homeless people who badly need it to the hospital), a second visit to Kosovo to follow up on the first one (Mister Kralj has not been idle), and some more talks with Bastion (you confirm to him that the racist statistics the people approaching him have been spouting are, in fact, completely made up).
And then the Guild calls you. Things are starting to heat up in Paris. Irréductibles raids in Front-controlled neighborhoods (with assistance from some trusted members of the Gendarmerie) have closed down a casino the Front owns and uses for money laundering, arrested a highly successful Internet celebrity who's been flaunting the country's hate-speech laws more and more brazenly, also arrested a wealthy stockbroker who's been investing the Front's money for them… not to mention arresting dozens of men from the Front's unpowered muscle; even if there's not enough evidence to convict them, that can still easily mean a year in jail before they get a trial in the underfunded and overwhelmed justice system (or at least a few months, if there's political pressure to get them out fast).
…It is a dirty tactic that frequently leads to the police ruining innocent lives. You know for a fact that Front-aligned cops very often use it to harass innocent minority members. You're not happy to use it against them, but then, it is not as if you are happy to use violence, either.
Regardless, this is not something the Front can afford to ignore.
Oh, sure. They could hunker down, try to fight this with their pull in the justice system, politics, and the media… but Victoire and her people can keep this pressure going all week. And then the week after that. And the Front would lose not only money and face, but also control of the streets, which rival gangs - especially the Vingt Parrains, the semi-formal alliance of villains who control about half of organized crime in the country between them - would be quick to seize from them.
And so, the Front reacts.
By sending out Vercingétorix to attack the Irréductibles capes in its territory.
"Bait," says Tattletale. "He's one of their heaviest hitters, and they know we want to lock him up and throw away the key. They know what we're doing, so they're putting him out there, waiting to see what kind of resources we commit, and they're ready to escalate right back." She frowns. "They've got more resources than they think we know about."
"Reinforcement from outside Paris?" Dragon suggests. "Maybe from other parts of Gesellschaft?"
"It'd be a huge opportunity for us if true," Narwhal says, "assuming we win, that is."
"We want them to commit to this, but we also want them to lose," Sunblade thinks rapidly. "Our best move right now is to knock Vercingétorix out in a way that forces them to send more forces to retrieve their asset."
"Oh, I think we can do
that," Surdoué grins.
One advantage of the Guild's expanded budget is the ability to hire consultants like Brainbox.
Another one is the ability to buy more tinkertech from independents Tinkers. Sure, Toybox has generously been doing a lot of pro bono work for the Guild these past weeks, but you don't want to rely exclusively on their goodwill (though of course, the Guild's use of Toybox's gifts
has been a boon for them in terms of free advertisement).
Among the things you have acquired from them? Is a small set of invisibility belts. With one such belt, you fly from the hidden room the Guild's been waiting at, going at barely-subsonic speeds while using your cosmic power pool to suppress the sound. Within seconds, you are in range.
Vercingétorix, wearing his wolf pelt barbarian cosplay costume, a grin on his face and murder in his eyes, is flying toward a pair of Irréductible capes who keep dodging him while using their powers to (barely) slow him down.
"Where are you going," he mocks, followed by a string of slurs based on ethnicity and sexual orientation, "I thought you
wanted to fight! Well, I'm happy to-"
You switch your cosmic power pool from sound-suppression to psionic blasts.
Seconds later, the neo-Nazi supervillain screams in pain, clutches his head, and plummets to the ground. You briefly switch to telekinesis to nudge his path a few feet to the side, ensuring he hits the pavement instead of a parked car.
…Given his powers, hitting the pavement isn't dangerous for him. No reason to wreck an innocent person's car, though.
Once Vercingétorix is down, more and more members of the Front Pour La Patrie start showing up. Dozens and dozens of villains, getting closer and closer to a hundred - including some notorious heavy-hitters. You recognize Croisé in there, though Martel is out of sight.
Which means it's time to pull out your own heavy hitters. This includes a lot of Irréductibles forces - the hydokinesist second-in-command of the organization Du Lac, in his knightly ice armor; Verne, the leader of the Grenoble branch, with her impressively versatile steam-powered tinkertech; Photonique, "la vieille dame irréductible", a photokinetic Shaker and one of the oldest surviving cape in the business; Les Quatre As, France's super-elite hero team, equipped with tinkertech designed by Professeur Plus.
This includes a number of independent heroes (many of whom are currently affiliated with the European Brigade). Les Peur-De-Rien. Les Chevaliers De La Nuit. Les Portent-Espoir.
And, of course.
It includes the Guild.
You figure that blasting Croisé and then turning off the invisibility belt would be a fine way to introduce yourself to this battlefield-
…But as you prepare to do just that, you are struck by lightning.
You're not really hurt, but your tinkertech belt has been completely fried. Where did that come from-
Oh.
It looks like another faction has entered the fray.
Standing tall on rooftops in their gleaming costumes, two dozen capes now gaze upon you in defiance.
They're not part of the Front, but they are its occasional allies. This? This is the Restoration.
The Restoration officially formed as a hero group in 2002, defending some of the wealthier Parisian neighborhoods. Officially led by Henri d'Orléans and de facto led by Le Duc Glorieux, supported by some very rich and connected backers, the Restoration rejects the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, and democracy - viewing the latter as flawed system that was never workable in the real world, and has even less place in a world of parahuman abilities where people are by definition unequal. They seek a return to monarchy and to "traditional values" (or rather, their particular vision of what that means).
Though they were officially a hero group at the start, they were immediately at odds with Les Irréductibles, presenting themselves as the superior option. By late 2003, the Irréductibles had compiled evidence of financial malfeasance that led to the arrest of several wealthy aristocrats who were clearly the secret identities of several member capes. After breaking out of prison, the Restoration became a more typical villain group, while still advocating for parahuman feudalism.
Despite the backing of some wealthy patrons and the controversial Archbishop of Paris, the Restoration doesn't have nearly the political pull of the Front Pour La Patrie. Monarchism simply isn't a popular cause.
But they still have two dozen capes. And from the looks of it, the Front was able to talk them into participating in this fight.
Le Duc Glorieux, de facto leader of the Restoration, stands up and speaks, loudspeaker in hand (and, you suspect, cameras rolling).
"Agents of the Guild! This is Duc Glorieux of the Restoration speaking. We respect your work in hunting down the scum of the Earth - rabid animals like Madame Lustucru or the Siberian.
"But you have
no place here.
"France is a sovereign nation. Outside interference in our affairs will not be tolerated. It is not for some America-based international consortium to dictate the destiny of the French people!
"Out of consideration for your past work, we respectfully demand that you vacate our national borders, lest we be forced to-"
Switching to communication powers, you manifest a hologram of yourself right next to him, even while you blast one of the Front's villains. This guy doesn't deserve to get through his speech without interruption. "That's a truly shameless argument coming from the villain whose entire ideology is that the French people
shouldn't have a say in their destiny, but instead be ruled with an iron fist by an unelected elite that never has to answer to the people it rules," you speak through the hologram. "But then, you are a thief, a bully, a violent brute, and," you glance at Le Chevalier Gallant, the Restoration's aerokinesist, "infamous for protecting rapists as long as they're willing to fight for your profit, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that you're also a hypocrite."
If, as you assume, he's got cameras filming him right now, then you've ruined his entrance and your hologram is right next to him in the videos. That rather limits the propaganda value the Restoration can get out of them.
With that, the Restoration joins the battle.
"They knew we were coming, and they were coordinating with the Front," comes Tattletale's voice.
"The Front brought them in, but… that's not all it is. If they were going that far in preparing, they definitely have more up their sleeve."
That's concerning. You only hope that-
An unpowered Front thug shoots some kind of tinkertech gun at Dragon's suit. It begins smoking and collapsing.
A Front cape in a gas mask with swastikas on his uniform teleports right behind Narwhal and shoots her in the back with a machine gun, bypassing her force-fields.
A salvo of grenades knocks down Sunblade.
You immediately switch to a mix of super-speed and teleportation, grabbing Narwhal and Sunblade and getting them to the field hospital set up for this op, then switching to full-power regeneration. "Hurry," you tell Voodoo.
Voodoo, cursing, transfers the bulk of Narwhal and Sunblade's injuries to you. It hurts like hell, but it won't take too long to heal. However…
"They're doing too well," says Tattletale.
"They're suddenly kicking your ass. Near-perfect tactics. Martel's good, but this is way beyond his usual. He's got a boost from Bemyndiga."
Bemyndiga is a Trump from Sweden and a member of Asgard, the pan-Scandinavian branch of Gesellschaft. He can provide boosts to parahuman abilities that last for hours - the nature of the boost is always specific to the cape he's empowering.
Bemyndiga is one of the biggest assets Asgard and Gesellschaft have. Odds are, he boosted Martel and other key members of the Front while the hostilities were escalating and was then evacuated - out of Paris, possibly out of France if they have the Mover powers for that.
While you are recovering from Narwhal and Sunblade's injuries, the situation out there is not improving.
"Strider down!"
"They're not finishing him off, but they're keeping him in a killbox," Tattletale's voice has the tell-tale signs of a starting headache born of power overuse.
"They want Avatar to go rescue him before he's finished regenerating."
And if you
don't, then not only is Strider in danger, the Guild is fighting without its best teleporter.
Narwhal narrows her eyes and speaks into her comm. "Entropisch, create a low-damage zone covering Strider's location. Eidolon, can you take care of the killbox?"
"On it."
Considering that thirty seconds ago she was dying from several bullets in her back, it's impressive how quickly she's bouncing back and leading.
While that's happening, and while your wounds are still stitching themselves together, you hear about Chevalier getting hit with containment foam, Météore getting knocked out mid-air and only surviving the ensuing fall thanks to a last-second save by Borrower…
"The Front capes are using genius tactics; the Restoration capes are not," pain drips from Tattletale's voice;
"Guess Martel isn't - ow! - giving them tips."
And then -
"Riots are breaking out," Victoire's voice comes in.
"Rioters in the 10th and 13th Arrondissement, as well as Seine-Saint-Denis. Three ongoing armed robberies with parahuman powers in the 1st Arrondissement and two in the 7th."
The 10th and 13th districts of Paris are both homes to significant minorities (Turkish and Vietnamese, respectively). The 13th saw a massive flare-up of parahuman violence in the weeks preceding your arrival (like Brockton Bay, but worse) when a cape from a Vietnamese ethnic gang killed a young girl who was a member of the Irréductibles; the Front got involved as well in the violence that ensued.
Seine-Saint-Denis is part of Paris's suburbs, and noteworthy for its high crime rates.
The 1st and 7th districts are among the more posh parts of Paris, and parahuman crime there tends to be organized by some of the Vingt Parrains.
All this violence happening all at once is obviously no coincidence, and it's happening too quickly to be a direct consequence of the fighting against the Front. The most likely conclusion, then, is that the Front, knowing your attack was coming, prepared for it - by getting agents provocateurs in place, by telling the Vingt Parrains they'd have their opportunities for major crimes ready for them while the Irréductibles were busy with the Front, and so on.
From the Front's perspective, it's win-win: Either the heroes divert forces away from fighting the neo-Nazis to deal with other problems… or they don't, and the Front's propagandists can point the finger at the Irréductibles "teaming up with foreign capes to attack defenders of the French people, while ignoring the real criminals setting the city on fire". Or something like that.
Which… in hindsight… explains what Brainbox said.
Back during the planning phase:
"Hm. One thing you'll want to do," Brainbox says. "Getting the French members of the European Brigade to help you against the Front is fine, but you want the rest of the Brigade to be at full readiness to intervene in other parts of Paris."
Director Wayland looks dubious. "The European Brigade got some credit with the people of Paris for taking down Les Damnés, but even so, having them fight the Front is a double-edged sword."
"Hey, my friend, I don't know why it's a good idea," Brainbox shrugs. "Power says it's a good idea, I'm just the messenger."
"We'll inform the Brigade," Narwhal nods.
In some good news, Eidolon - completely undetectable - was able to take out several Front capes and unpowered gunmen, allowing Go-Go (who is equipped with another of the invisibility belts you got from Toybox) to teleport Strider to the field hospital. Borrower brings in Météore and one of the Irréductibles.
In less good news, one of the Front's capes - a mid-range speedster - just used a sword to slice through the ankle of Goldorak's mech, causing the giant robot to fall to the ground. Tattletale curses in pain.
"That sword is empowered by Croisé. Normally he can fuck ow fuck only empower objects for as long as he's touching them, this is shit it's Bemyndiga boosting the motherfucker! I'm 80% sure he's also empowering the gun that shot Narwhal!"
The injuries you took from Narwhal and Sunblade are mostly gone, and you need to decide quickly on what to do next…
[ ] Stick to regeneration, have Voodoo transfer Strider and Météore's injuries to you. They're not life-threatening, but having your best teleporter and a flying artillery back into the fray will help and you'll be back to full functionality in 30 seconds, 40 top.
[ ] Get back into the fight immediately. With the possible exception of Eidolon, you're the heaviest hitter the heroes have.
[ ] Help the European Brigade deal with the riots and armed heists. They have eight different hotspots to deal with.
[ ] Prioritize finding and neutralizing Martel. You've worked with Bleu-Blanc-Rouge long enough to understand how a tactical genius can spell the doom of a seemingly superior force.
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