View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2WTQQi-oZo
[X] 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.
In a battle like this, every second counts. All the more so, when the Front, following Martel's directions, is able to tear the Guild, Irréductibles, and other heroes apart at such a rapid pace. All the
more so, when "keeping you busy regenerating other people's injuries via Voodoo" is, in fact, a perfectly sensible way of deliberately keeping you out of the fighting.
The only way to win this is to remove Martel from the board as soon as possible.
You briefly switch to telepathic communication, in case the Front is listening in on your radio comms:
"Go-Go, get Iron Snake to the field hospital. Iron Snake, I'm sorry, but I need you to put all your power into regeneration. Eidolon, I'm getting the impression Martel cannot account for your Stranger powers, so try to be disruptive to his plans.
"I'm going to focus on trying to locate Martel ASAP."
There are several ways you could try to locate Martel.
You could switch to a mix of super-speed and expanded senses aimed at detecting the inter-planar energy transfer characteristic of parahuman abilities, and then patrol Paris at super-speed to look for him (and hope he's in the city, and not, say, in some bunker in Amsterdam).
You could focus instead on the detection of radio waves, and try to triangulate Martel based on communications the Front's capes are receiving.
Or, since you're in a hurry, you could just be
efficient.
So, you switch your power pool appropriately, fly out of the field hospital and back into the battlefield-
"Avatar," Wing Warrior contacts you on your comm's personal frequency,
"there's no way Martel's hidey-hole isn't a trap designed to take you out. Be cautious."
He's probably right.
Regardless, you chuck a blast at a Front cape - mostly to hide what you're actually doing:
Having switched to a form of line-of-sight mind-reading, you dive inside Croisé's head, looking for Martel's position.
You bulldoze past his shock and his unimpressive attempts at blocking your mental probe. Searching, searching…
There.
You have the location. Now you just-
The teleporting cape who shot Narwhal appears on a rooftop within 20 yards of you and opens fire.
Your combat reflexes have been honed over nearly a century of superhero work. You manage to dodge most of his automatic burst. A couple of bullets still hit - and, impressively, actually break your skin.
These aren't serious injuries, all things considered. The bullets penetrate your body by half an inch. But it's still concerning that his gun can actually do that.
He's already teleporting to a different vantage point. Perhaps you should switch to super-speed and take him out-
No.
That's a distraction. Martel is the higher priority.
You do still switch to super-speed, though - physical and mental acceleration by a factor of fifty, with a portion dedicated to enhanced senses.
A fraction of a second later, you are within sight of a fortified villa a couple dozen miles outside of Paris limits.
Another half-second later, having observed the villa from every angle, you know that one parahuman - not in costume, but fitting Martel's description - is working at a console with multiple screens showing the battle in Paris from multiple angles, and using a complex communication rig. Another parahuman is also in the room, and every time you gaze at him, some dimensional effect tries to do something to your mind. Last but quite possibly not least, there are four non-powered men guarding them with assault rifles. Empowered by Croisé? A possibility. Except for one of those rifles - that one is clearly tinkertech.
Well, no reason for you to take unnecessary risks.
You lob an energy blast through a wall, calculated to have enough power to knock out and mildly injure the people inside without killing them.
You spend the next few seconds cleaning up the scene. Destroying the guns, making sure there are no further hidden surprises, making sure all hostiles are knocked out and zip-tied, telepathically confirming their identities (the unmasked cape is Martel, the other one is a Front Stranger who can at will emit an aura that causes temporary debilitating apathy in anyone who sees him without his permission), and then teleporting them all to the Irréductibles' holding facility.
"Martel is down and out," you speak into your comm. "What's the injured situation?"
"Being handled," Voodoo replies,
"but I'd rather add as few new injured as possible."
"On it."
Super-speed on, and you're back into the fray.
The teleporter with the empowered gun goes down to your first blast.
Mere seconds later, Le Duc Glorieux goes down to your second.
Your third blast sends Croisé flying, right after he cut off the leg of an Irréductibles Brute. He lands a dozen yards back, his sword broken, his armor smoking… but he does get up.
"Avatar, you self-righteous
bleeding heart idiot!" he screams at you. "Go back to fighting Endbringers! We just want our country back!"
"I've heard that line a million times from an endless parade of murderers and villains, powered and unpowered alike," you reply, glancing at the injured hero next you - with his leg cut off like that, he'll bleed to death in a minute, two tops, unless something is done. "Stand down and face justice, Croisé."
"Stand down?
Stand down?! You can't defeat me, you-"
And then Go-Go teleports in.
You can see her, thanks to your cosmic senses. Croisé cannot, because of the invisibility belt.
He can, however, see Voodoo, whom Go-Go brought with her.
Voodoo puts her hand on the injured hero.
The next second, the hero's leg is attached again. Croisé, on the other hand, is screaming in pain on the ground, his leg no longer attached, only held in place by his armor.
At this point (and after making sure Croisé doesn't actually die from his injury), things start going very poorly for the Front and Restoration.
The Quatre As proceed to take out nineteen different villains in less than two minutes.
Verne, flying quickly in power armor and supported by multiple drones (just as steam-powered as her armor), proceeds to take down five Restoration villains, including Le Chevalier Gallant. One cape tries to run away from her, only to get easily taken down by Du Lac.
Charge, of the Peur-De-Rien, fights a couple dozens of armed Front thugs all at once and takes most of them down on her own before getting help from her team.
You remove the containment foam around Chevalier.
The Portent-Espoir take down three Restoration capes, including Baron Blanc (a highly charismatic speedster in a white musketeer costume).
Wing Warrior shoots through the knee a seemingly-invulnerable Front Brute.
Météore, back in action, takes down a Front cape armed with tinkertech.
Over a dozen enemy capes collapse without even seeing Eidolon - in addition to his array of Stranger abilities, he's using a Blaster power that lowers the amount of oxygen in their blood.
And you quickly fly around the battlefield, taking down enemy after enemy.
Without Martel, with their leaders down, and with their heaviest hitters out of action, the villains simply cannot win this fight. Once they realize it… you use super-speed, this time with the goal of catching villains as they try to flee the battlefield.
You are back in regeneration mode - there are, after all, a lot of injured people to heal. Heroes. Gendarmes. Civilians caught in the crossfire. Some of the enemies, too.
No fatalities.
A great haul, all things considered:
You have captured every single Restoration cape (with the exception of Henri d'Orléans, the official leader whom the Restoration is trying to crown as King, who is far too old to participate in cape battles). Many of them will get out, and putting Duc Glorieux in the Birdcage would go poorly from a political perspective… but between the ones that
will go to the Birdcage, all the ones who will be spending years in Lockboxes, and the overall loss of face, the Restoration will be a shadow of its former self after this. You suspect many of its wealthy backers will be washing their hands off of it.
The cape heists… one succeeded. One saw the villains escape, but without the loot. Three saw all villains caught - totaling eleven arrested parahumans, a nice feather in the cap of the European Brigade (though you don't doubt the more euroskeptical elements of the media will focus on the one heist that succeeded). The riots are currently being put down, though you should probably head there ASAP.
As for the Front - that is where the primary victory lies. Sixty-eight arrested villains (eight of whom have been identified as visitors from other parts of France), including Croisé, Martel, Vercingétorix, and two Tinkers. A big chunk of Paris's total villain population - many of whom are going to the Birdcage, and even those that aren't are unlikely to get out of the Lockboxes any time soon. Not to mention close to two hundred non-powered armed thugs.
This isn't the end of the Front Pour La Patrie, but it
is the end of the Front as one of the most powerful gangs in France.
Ah, looks like it's Croisé's turn to get some healing. Without his sword and armor, hobbling on one leg, he glares at you.
"You think this is some great thing you're doing. I've wasted years of my life working for the Irréductibles. This rotten government isn't worth our
lives, Avatar, and Victoire is more interested in being everyone's favorite lefty than doing what it takes to save the nation."
You do not engage him. What would be the point? "Whenever you're ready, Voodoo."
"Clench your teeth," Voodoo says as she puts a hand on your shoulder. The next moment, your leg falls off, while Croisé's is once again attached. Yours, of course, is already starting to regenerate.
Croisé smirks. "Better luck next time."
And then he disappears.
As do eleven other Front capes.
Twelve captured villains, suddenly teleported out. Including Croisé, Martel, Vercingétorix, both Tinkers, a heavy hitter from Marseille… If you were to take a guess, all people the Front considers more valuable than their average cape.
Some arrangement with a teleporter made ahead of time, but that could only work for a limited number of people? You don't recall any cape from the Guild's files on Gesellschaft with a power like this.
But this
does help explain the
other thing Brainbox said…
Back during the planning phase:
"Those three invisibility belts? Give one to Go-Go, and one to Centro," Brainbox says nonchalantly. "During the fight, every time you take down someone you really want to capture, have Go-Go bring Centro close enough to tag them."
Dragon hums. "Sounds like they might have some way of escaping otherwise."
"That'd be my guess," Brainbox shrugs, "but only the power really knows."
Centro frowns. "I don't have a lot of free spots on my list. I can't afford to remove a lot of people." She pauses. "Three, tops."
"Centro," Narwhal says, "can you see them?"
"Positive," Centro replies. "They're all in a house. There are two more people in there, both wearing ski masks. I think one of the people in ski masks is healing their injuries." She pauses. "One of them just glanced out the window. The signs outside are in French, but people are dressed more warmly. It's sunny outside."
"On it." Dragon is back on the comms, having gone silent after the destruction of her suit. "
There are several places that fit this description, mostly in the French south-east."
Strider takes Borrower back to see Tattletale and get a use of her power, since Tattletale's suffering from debilitating headaches. Centro keeps spouting off everything she sees through Croisé, Martel, and Vercingétorix's eyes.
"It's Marseille, not too far from the docks," Borrower concludes.
"On it. Centro… tells me when it gets cloudy."
And so, dropping regeneration with your leg half-regrown, you switch to long-range teleportation, crossing France to arrive above Marseille. Then you switch from teleportation to weather control.
One tenth of the city is suddenly darkened by a very thick cloud cover.
You dispel it, then cover another tenth of the city.
By the third, Centro tells you she saw luminosity go down in the house.
So, you remove one tenth of the cloud cover. Then the next tenth. Then the next. By the sixth, Centro tells you luminosity is back up.
This narrows things down to one hundredth of Marseille.
Mental super-speed. Wall-passing senses.
In less than a minute of patrol (during which Centro informs you that the two folks in ski masks have teleported away), you find the house.
"…shame he'll end up in the Birdcage," Croisé says inside, "but we'll bounce back. This was the white hats' best shot at us, and-"
You open the door (it was locked, but you have telekinesis, so you don't need to burst through a window) and hover inside.
The Front capes inside stare at you, jaws dropping.
"There will be no escaping from justice today," you reply, "and I can find you no matter where you hide. Stand down."
Vercingétorix
laughs. "Oh, this is perfect. I would have raged forever if I'd missed this opportunity!" He then flies at you and launches his fist with enough strength to tear through a tank.
You put your finger in the path of his fist.
(And apply telekinesis to your own finger to keep it in place, since you don't have superhuman inertia.)
His fist is blocked by your finger. The shockwave from their collision causes some of the villains to lose their balance and shatters a few windows.
"I am not interested in pretending that you are a credible threat," you lock eyes with him. "You have five seconds to surrender. Last chance."
They are not overconfident enough to try anything after that.
With the villains back in custody, you make another stop by both the ongoing riots. A sufficiently flashy entrance gets everyone's attention, and proper use of your communication powers is enough to get everyone to go home (these folks have no desire to be stooges for the Front Pour La Patrie, after all).
…You do have to take a few people to the hospital, as well as note down the names and actions of a couple of cops who were unjustifiably violent in their conduct toward the rioters. You send the information to Victoire, though you're not too optimistic about something being done about it.
The cleanup takes a while - taking care of the injured, making sure the right people get sent to the Birdcage and Lockboxes, putting out some literal fires and getting a headstart on cleaning up the material damages - but soon enough, you find yourself in a familiar position: In front of the press, taking to video cameras. You're speaking for the Guild here, and Victoire figured it would be best to put you before the cameras first, before she went herself.
You explain: The Irréductibles, the Guild, and independent Parisian heroes working together to take down one of the largest supervillain gangs in Europe. The European Brigade choosing to help by watching over the rest of Paris for the duration, which proved necessary due to the violent crimes and riots that were clearly planned in advance and made to happen at the same time, presumably to force the Guild and Irréductibles to either disengage from the battle with the Front or lose face in the aftermath. Evidence suggesting the Front Pour La Patrie having received support from Gesellschaft in general and Bemyndiga in particular. The Restoration having chosen to throw its lot with the neo-Nazi gang - and having clearly been suckers to do so, seeing how Martel didn't bother coordinating with them and used them as ablative armor for the Front. The great work everyone did arresting so many villains.
Then you take questions.
Is the Guild planning further operations in France? Not at the moment, but two weeks ago there were no plans for
this, so who knows.
Was the Guild here at the Irréductibles' request? No, merely with their permission. Gesellschaft and all its subordinate gangs have been on the Guild's list of high-priority targets for a long time now.
Given Vercingétorix's participation in Endbringer battles, wasn't throwing him in the Birdcage unduly harsh? No, the man is a bloodthirsty murderer. No-one in Paris was safe with him around.
Could this intervention be considered foreign meddling in French politics? The Guild is not a national organization, and the Front is not a political party - it's a gang of murderers, rapists and thieves who have stolen untold amounts of money from French communities and spilled rivers of blood.
Is it true that you have killed thousands of people in Pristina? One thousand three hundred and forty-seven, all of whom were armed men engaging in genocide, but you're here to answer questions about the fight with the Front.
And so on.
"Between this and the arrest of Les Damnés, I expect superhero work in Paris is going to be somewhat easier for the next few months," Victoire says at the wrap-up. "I intend to take advantage of the lull to put some hurt on Les Vingt Parrains. Naturally, we already have far-right figures railing against us… but less rioting neo-Nazis than we
usually get whenever these bastards don't get their way. You actually have them running scared," she grins.
"
Good," says Napoleon, here as field commander of the European Brigade forces. "Those cowards get a lot less dangerous when they don't think they can actually get away with violence."
"You can say
that again," Photonique chuckles. 'La Vieille Dame Irréductible' was able to show that her advancing age did not weaken her photokinetic Shaker powers in the least, neutralizing several villains during the battle.
"I suppose I should get back to the 24-hour paperwork marathon awaiting me," says Victoire, "but I will not forget the debt we owe you."
"I can't speak for the entire Guild," you say, "but as far as I'm concerned, your support for the European Brigade is payment enough. The Guild can't be everywhere at once."
"Really, this was the best Rhetor could do? We inform him in advance of the coming attack, we provide support… the least he could have done was humiliate the Guild a little," the Queen Of Black And White noted.
"Now, my dear Koroleva," said Lord Cognito, "we've done very little. Furthermore, we've lost absolutely nothing save a tiny bit of our time."
"You insisted we do no more, Cognito. Had we pushed slightly further, Gesellschaft could have snatched victory from the Guild's hands."
"Had we pushed slightly further, we would have risked detection before we were ready," the armored villain replied. "And putting aside how distasteful Gesellschaft is… we are, in fact, coming out on top. Gesellschaft is going to be determined to destroy the Guild - both in the court of public opinion and on the field of battle. Its political enemies have, if not as much ammunition as we hoped, still more ammunition than yesterday. Our shadow partner in Paris has made great progress. And, of course, Tattletale is effectively debilitated by overuse of her power - a nice window of opportunity for some of our work.
"Furthermore… I believe there are a number of parahumans who, if approached correctly, might be open to abandoning a sinking ship and hopping on a superior boat."
"That I can't disagree with," she smirked.
A day has passed since your fight with the Front. Unsurprisingly, there have been critics from many sources, expressing concern about the Guild meddling with a sovereign nation's affairs - critics who had been entirely silent when the Guild liberated Santiago De Cuba, Lagos, or Belo Horizonte. Still, your post-battle Q&A with the press seems to be getting more traction and attention than those critics.
Cardinal Verdier, the highly reactionary Archbishop of Paris and open supporter of the Restoration, was among those who have spoken in anger against the Guild, the European Brigade, and you in particular after the battle. This has earned him his first open rebuke from the Pope, after years of silent tensions between them.
Dragon's busy fixing her armor. Post-wreck analysis suggests the tinkertech gun that took it down was a creation of Alkahest, a young Tinker specialized in acid recently recruited by Gesellschaft.
You, well… you've been dedicating most of your day to Protectorate work in Mexico. This has involved emergency-teleporting to Mérida to intervene in a major cape fight; five villains have been arrested as a result, one of them being Dama Destrucción, considered Mérida's most powerful cape.
(You've also briefly checked in on Tattletale. She threw a pillow at you. It's a good sign.)
There are also discussions of the Guild's next recruits. Borrower has already signed on as an associate member, and several Mexican capes are being discussed, including one long-range teleporter.
That aside, however… The Guild needs to carefully consider what comes next.
You've already collectively decided that the next operation will be against Op Center. The Guild has been, as discreetly as possible, gathering resources for that operation - a mission to save Indonesia from collapsing under the weight of its supervillains.
But, no less importantly… what comes after Op Center? At its current stage, the Guild needs significantly longer to plan and prepare an operation. That's both the price of its growing size and of its enemies being more prepared for it.
And goodness knows, Earth-Bet is not lacking in places where the Guild is needed.
[ ][Guild] Asura has India's Thanda capes sufficiently freaked out that they want outside help, despite their usual emphasis on secrecy. India collapsing would be cataclysmic for Earth-Bet, and you've delayed too long already.
[ ][Guild] You have dealt a major blow to Gesellschaft. Best to hit them again before they can strike back.
[ ][Guild] Brazil's situation remains extremely precarious. Carefully-targeted operations can keep the cartels at each other's throats for a while longer.
[ ][Guild] Nigeria is still far from stable. Helping them liberate Port Harcourt will go a long way toward your long-term plans to stabilize central Africa.
[ ][Guild] Kamikoe remains the single most dangerous villain in Japan. Taking her down will earn you immense gratitude.
[ ][Guild] The Three Blasphemies remain the most feared A-Class threat of the European continent, and the sort of threat the Guild was originally intended to fight.
And then, of course, there's your own priorities to consider…
[ ][Avatar] Lockboxes: The super-prisons you recently constructed with Dragon have been very handy already, by providing a place to put Front and Restoration villains who weren't sent to the Birdcage. If you're going up against Op Center, however, you're going to need more Lockboxes than you currently have - the man has something in the range of half a thousand villains working for him.
[ ][Avatar] Mexico City: The integration of the United States Of Mexico into the Protectorate is a complex process that cannot be expected to proceed painlessly. Every day the Avatar focuses on his Protectorate duties in Mexico City is a big help.
[ ][Avatar] Indonesia: The Avatar alone cannot do anywhere near as much good for the country as the entire Guild put together can. Nonetheless, he can provide invaluable help in his free time.
[ ][Avatar] South Korea: The arrest of Skylance and Fuji-Sama means a Japanese-Korean war is unlikely, but that hardly means the Korean peninsula is safe - and Laser Fist would be all too happy to point the Avatar at some of the worst villains it has.
[ ][Avatar] Space Program: The Avatar can provide invaluable assistance to multiple national space agencies - it's not fighting villains, but it's an important symbol of hope in the future.
[ ][Avatar] Guild: Whichever mission the Guild chooses to focus on, the Avatar dedicates as much time as he can to supporting and preparing it.
[ ][Avatar] Relief: The Avatar spends some time on providing relief efforts to particularly-devastated regions of Earth-Bet.
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