A Champion in Earth Bet [Worm/Original Setting]
- Thread starter sun tzu
- Start date
Sheaman3773
(Unverified Writer)
- Location
- Within ~1 AU of Sol
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
[X] Spend most of the day helping Noelle. It's slow, gruelling work, but you might help her maintain her humanity… physically, at least.
HymnOfRagnarok
Let's Rock
[X] Try to have a chat with Scion. He's both incredibly powerful and, from the looks of it, purely heroic - there might be something there.
People are worried about what happens when we meet Scion. And frankly, that's a fair concern.
Wanting us to know about the Cycle though....I'm less enthused, because it tilts Avatar more towards a violent encounter with Scion. And we are going to lose a violent encounter, right now.
I honestly think now is our best chance for a good first impression with Scion. We currently have an entirely positive opinion of him, we're genuinely trying to reach out to him without any underhanded scheming. That ignorance could quite easily mean that Scion won't attack us, because he has no reason to attack us. We're interesting and OCP, and quite possibly may be able to help him with some of his problems.
Like if we generate energy ex nihilo, and can give him some. Even if we can just push back the day of Scion's death, that's still a good start for him and lays the groundwork for actually redeeming Scion so that he and Avatar can go off and do superheroics together.
Either way, this is the story I'd really like to see, or something along those lines. If we're heroism personified, I'd like our victory to come from something besides hitting it.
Let's see if we can actually fix the Worm verse without having to kill the majestic spaceduck whale.
People are worried about what happens when we meet Scion. And frankly, that's a fair concern.
Wanting us to know about the Cycle though....I'm less enthused, because it tilts Avatar more towards a violent encounter with Scion. And we are going to lose a violent encounter, right now.
I honestly think now is our best chance for a good first impression with Scion. We currently have an entirely positive opinion of him, we're genuinely trying to reach out to him without any underhanded scheming. That ignorance could quite easily mean that Scion won't attack us, because he has no reason to attack us. We're interesting and OCP, and quite possibly may be able to help him with some of his problems.
Like if we generate energy ex nihilo, and can give him some. Even if we can just push back the day of Scion's death, that's still a good start for him and lays the groundwork for actually redeeming Scion so that he and Avatar can go off and do superheroics together.
Either way, this is the story I'd really like to see, or something along those lines. If we're heroism personified, I'd like our victory to come from something besides hitting it.
Let's see if we can actually fix the Worm verse without having to kill the majestic space
AZATHOTHoth
༼ つ ☀️_☀️ ༽つ
[X] Try to have a chat with Scion. He's both incredibly powerful and, from the looks of it, purely heroic - there might be something there.
FunkyEntropy
Occasionally insightful, possibly grumpy
- Location
- Los Angeles
That's...hmm. Yeah. That's rather persuasive. I mean, it could still go badly because Scion could always react poorly (and violently) to the OCP but right now he's fucking depressed so the more likely reaction is XTREME Not Giving a Fuck.
And saving the Majestic Space Whales seems like a properly heroic thing to do provided we can figure out how to alter their life cycle so it doesn't involve blowing up every single dimensional instance of a planet.
[X] Try to have a chat with Scion. He's both incredibly powerful and, from the looks of it, purely heroic - there might be something there.
HymnOfRagnarok
Let's Rock
Exactly. Right now he's just morose about Eden being dead, cycle is broken, he's going to die and he knows it. If we're not trying to kill him, and we're not going to attack what he values, why would he try to kill us? He's just doing what Kevin Norton told him to do.
Yeah, I dunno if we'll figure that out any time soon, but we're a Superman analogue. Superman's powers have never been the most interesting thing about him though; it's his personality and what he stands for.
FunkyEntropy
Occasionally insightful, possibly grumpy
- Location
- Los Angeles
Oh, I doubt that'll be anything but an end-game thing. And even then we might not succeed because that's going to be a significant trial worthy of the Avatar's efforts.
But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try. Hmm. Actually, I wonder if that's the Secret Challenge. Saving Earth-Bet is easy, comparatively, for someone like the Avatar. Making the universe safe for parasitic magic space whale and others is going to take a bit more work than just kicking Scion's ass.
HymnOfRagnarok
Let's Rock
Exactly.
Could be. Could definitely be. If it turns out to be possible, it's a good goal to set our eyes on.
[X] Try to have a chat with Scion. He's both incredibly powerful and, from the looks of it, purely heroic - there might be something there.
Body Issues
BODY ISSUES
With the Skitter matter handled (you hope), it's time to meet the infamous Glenn Chambers. You could have come directly to his New York office, but he prefered to come personally to Brockton Bay - from what you've heard, he's taking a personal interest in Tsunami.
The man himself has an interesting look. The sort of look that screams "I have so much control over the situation, I can deliberately sabotage my looks just to show off". A bit like people deliberately making holes in their blue jeans.
"Ah, Avatar," he says, shaking your hand. "Or should that be 'the Avatar'?"
"I'm not particularly invested in what others call me," you shrug. "As long as it remains clear."
"A shame, then, that it's too late to rebrand your name," he says. "After your victory over Leviathan and the ensuing speech, you have already ascended to the ranks of a memetic legend. I would have loved to give you a name that worked better at symbolizing hope - frankly, I'd like to know what you intend to say when people inevitably ask what you're supposed to be an avatar of."
"Same thing I've always said," you reply. "That it's a personal matter and that I'd rather leave it at that."
"Not a bad answer," he caresses his chin, "but it might not be enough to calm down the people who will conclude you're a divinity of some sort. There are Scion-worshipers spread out over the world, and he doesn't have your charisma…"
"I have some experience dismantling cults to myself," you say with a slight smile. "I generally drop by, have a polite conversation, and gently let them know that I care about what people do, not who or what they worship." You grin at him. "Remember, I've been doing this for longer than Earth-Bet has had parahumans. Your advice is appreciated, because you know the local situation better than I do, but I have some understanding of public relations."
"That should make things easier," he says. "Religious worship of capes - even the best ones - involves too many potential headaches. Speaking of which, one of the things to which you are being given credit is healing Panacea during the fight, yes?"
"Correct. She was injured by Leviathan's hydrokinesis. She may or may not have survived without my intervention, I'm not truly certain."
"Regardless, the point is that you can heal people. Could you, in theory, tour hospitals curing the sick and crippled?"
You wince. "I'm afraid I'm nowhere near as good at this as Panacea herself. I can heal others, but it quickly winds me out. I could help a handful of people each hour, but I'd be exhausted. I hate leaving people to suffer, but rationally, I can simply do more good by patrolling for crime with enhanced senses, or just remaining on standby waiting for a major crisis."
"Makes sense. In which case, you going out and healing people outside of cape battles would probably do more harm than good."
"This is not to say, however, that I can't help civilians in ways that don't involve violence." You have his full attention now. "I can create several hundred kilotons of matter in a minute. This includes pure water. I can also control the weather over a city-sized area. In the past, I've used these abilities to counter droughts, or at least mitigate the worst of their effects - and just in case you are concerned, that's not enough to raise the world's water levels by an appreciable margin." You give him a few seconds to digest this. "I understand that droughts are an issue in this world. I would love to take some time here and there to lend assistance, at least until society gets back on its feet.
"There are other things," you go on. "Given a few hours' worth of warning and the assistance of meteorologists with satellite view, I can nullify a hurricane. I can help limit the damage of a volcanic eruption. I can stop large fires. I have also spent some time in my world working on the magma chamber beneath the yellowstone, redirecting its flow so that it is guaranteed not to turn into a supervolcano over the next century at least - but admittedly, that last one took over a thousand hours of work."
Glenn Chambers maintains a perfect poker face, but you can tell it's a lot to take in from how his fingers have gotten more fidgety. "That… is opening some interesting options, especially if we bring some of the Protectorate precogs on board."
"I have only given the subject a cursory look," you point out, "but my impression is that the worst droughts currently affecting Earth-Bet are in Africa. While I'm currently operating as a member of the Protectorate, I believe it's important to establish that I'm not affiliated with national powers. Lending assistance in foreign countries should help clarify that from the get-go. However, I also wish to avoid creating international incidents… where possible. I try to respect established governments unless they truly go beyond the pale. I'll keep studying to form my own ideas, but for now, I would appreciate your advice."
That gives him pause. "...All interesting possibilities. We can use this. We can take advantage of the momentum you've created to improve goodwill between nations. As a matter of fact…" his eyes light up, "the Protectorate is trying to expand into Mexico. Most of their population wants us, but the cartels have a lot of influence over the government there. And I know for a fact that they have been facing water problems." He checks his tablet. "If you give me a day or two to run this by the chief director and PRT Thinkers, I'm fairly confident I can arrange official blessings for you to handle that. Probably best to start with something on another continent, though, to avoid giving the impression that you're a PRT puppet. I'll see what I can do about other countries, and check what foreign villains and warlords you can put down without starting a bigger mess than you'd be stopping."
"Thank you, that would be a great help."
He takes another moment to examine his files. "Truth be told, you are different from most cases I take," he admits. "Usually, I have to teach new recruits how to be properly inspiring - our work isn't just stopping supervillains, it's keeping society going. In your case, you seem to have the inspirational aspect down pat. It's the more advanced subjects that are in question." He maintains eye contact. "I got the distinct impression from your speech that you wanted villains to turn away from the dark side, hm?"
"There needs to be justice for misdeeds," you say, "but protecting the innocents takes priority over punishing the guilty in most cases. From the looks of it, Earth-Bet desperately needs more heroes." You pause. "Of course, one has to be reasonable about it. A mass murdering monster shouldn't be able to escape justice just by offering to switch sides."
"I'm glad you understand. Thankfully, neither Tsunami nor Skitter seem to have gone too far yet," he notes. "With that said… when you killed Leviathan, virtually everyone cheered. From the looks of it, though, you will soon be going up against villains who are less universally loathed. You'd be surprised the Stockholm syndrome some of society has toward its supervillains. Just looking at it locally, you have to realize that hundreds of people, possibly more, have moved to Brockton Bay because it is the home base of Empire 88, and they believe in its ideals."
"Then I would like to discuss with you plans for relegating those ideals to the dustbin of History where they belong," you say.
You make sure to drop by the director's office to make sure there is no problem with your further attempts to fix Noelle's body. The director seems warier toward you than most, but she had no objection to your initial efforts, and she has no objections to continuing - after all, a smaller Noelle is less of a headache to contain.
"Hello." If Noelle is surprised to see you, then she keeps it out of her voice… but her relief seeps through. "How was your day?"
"Decent. Arrested a couple of drug dealers, produced multiple kilotons of a super-strong alloy that will hopefully be put to good use, and hopefully got the Protectorate another recruit."
She chuckles. "Drug dealers? A bit of a step down from fighting Endbringers."
"Perhaps, but I don't like seeing cocaine on the streets. This was more about learning the ropes of the Protectorate." You look at her deformed body. "Do you mind if I continue with my earlier biokinetic work?"
She gives you an "are you kidding look?" look. "You're pretty much the only person who's been able to help me so far. Go ahead." She pauses. "By the way, have you heard anything from… never mind." She's clearly bothered about what she wanted to ask, but she avoids the subject from that point on.
As your senses show, her power has been undoing your work. The good news are, it's slower than you. Still, it means that your help is only a stopgap solution, and that's without accounting for the issues with her mind.
So, you let the hours go by as you strive to help her. You find what topic of conversations you can - mostly about your world, though not exclusively. You do learn that she was apparently playing video games professionally before she got her powers, and that she has a general interest in tactics. Still, she is very guarded about her past - like she is afraid of what will happen if you learn more. What secrets could she have that are (to the very least in her mind) so devastating?
She also seems very interested in inter-dimensional exploration. "Wait, so you have an actual Apollo-style program of exploring other worlds?"
"It's run by Venture Industries," you explain, "the technology is still very poorly understood, and only they have managed to reverse-engineer enough of it for even semi-reliable prototypes. But, yes, there is an active exploration program going on, and several worlds have been reached. One day, perhaps, it will be reliable enough to establish diplomatic relations, possibly even trade." You chuckle. "Of course, such contact will be accompanied by a host of new challenges. But so is every major social change."
"So, the only people with dimensional travel are this mega-corporation with its own city in space… and a mad scientist who effectively acts as a cosmic trickster."
"That's the short of it."
It's slow work, and you've already spent most of the afternoon and a good chunk of the evening on it, but there's definite progress. You estimate that you've removed about a third of Noelle's body mass.
Perhaps no less importantly, you've gone some way toward building a rapport with the girl.
"...at which point Mimic started whistling faux-innocently, and that is when Nollius finally realized what power he was using."
She laughs out loud at that, and you get the impression she doesn't laugh often. "Oh God. That's awesome. Is it always like that in your world?"
"No, mercifully most days are quieter. I don't think we could survive having to deal with a Nollius-level villain every day."
"I'm still trying to wrap my head around the concept of a magical flying city of green-skinned elves ruled by an evil archmage who sold his soul to the king of demons." She pauses. "Specifically, the whole part about magic existing. Or aliens."
"Well, I-"
You are interrupted by the sound of your PRT-provided communicator. As you answer it, the voice of director Piggot speaks:
"Avatar! We have a situation in Los Angeles. A villain got cornered by Protectorate forces and, rather than face arrest, decided to go out with a suicide attack. He's detonated a firebomb in his base. Problem is, he apparently had dozens of those bombs spread over multiple city blocks. The fire department can't handle this many hotspots at once. Can you handle this sort of thing?"
"I'm on it, director. I'll just need 10-15 minutes to get there."
And so, you excuse yourself to Noelle, and rush outside. Moments later, you are flying through the stratosphere twice as fast as an X-15.
You are somewhere in the Arizona sky when your communicator rings again. "Everyone, this is a red alert! The PRT base is under by the Travelers. We need all hands on deck!"
The Travelers. You've read what information was available, due to their presence in the city. They are a relatively powerful, nomadic team of four villains. Trickster, who can swap the positions of any two objects (people included) in his line of sight as long as their masses are reasonably close. Genesis, a powerful Changer who seems to always show with a different form and powers. Sundancer, who can throw balls of (possibly thermonuclear) fire. Ballistic, who can instantly accelerate objects he touches to the speed of a bullet.
The Travelers have been moving from city to city for a while, taking various mercenary jobs (often for local villains). There's been speculation about why they had recently come to Brockton Bay; Skitter said that they, like the Undersiders, were in Coil's employ. Are they trying to break him out?
"Roger. This is the Avatar. Do you want me to head back to the base or keep heading toward Los Angeles?" You don't know how well the heroes of LA can handle the situation, and any number of people might get hurt in the raid on the base; you can't definitely declare which situation is more urgent, which is why you-
"Los Angeles?!" Piggot is sounding both bewildered and furious. "Why the hell are you heading to Los Angeles?"
"Because you…" You pause. Then, you activate your communication power.
Piggot barely even flinches when your hologram appears before her. "Director Piggot, about ten minutes ago I received a message from you on my PRT-issue communicator sending me to deal with a crisis in Los Angeles. Right now, I have just received a message from you on the same communicator, demanding that I handle an attack by the Travelers on your base. In the second call, you were surprised that I was heading toward LA. As such, in case my communicator has been subverted, I am asking which, if any, of these calls actually originated from you."
She raises an eyebrow. "The second was from me. I haven't heard about anything going on in LA, but the Travelers are attacking us now!"
"Understood. I am heading your way. I will leave my communication powers on for the rest of my journey. It will take me at least ten minutes to reach Brockton Bay, though."
She curses at that.
Cursing intensifies when she gets further calls from the members of the Protectorate and Wards, who all apparently got a call earlier directing them away from HQ.
And so, even as you fly, you find yourself operating as a communication hub for the team.
By the time you arrive in Brockton Bay, things have gone badly.
With little in the way of parahuman resistance, the Travelers were able to storm the building easily - in fact, the disarray of the PRT forces suggests that they, too, were the victims of forged communications.
Velocity ran all the way to HQ. It did little to help - he was exhausted by the time he arrived, and Trickster, seeing him from a window, teleported him into the path of an attack while he was catching his breath.
Dauntless got there next, and was soon joined by Tsunami. They, too, proved unlucky and were quickly knocked out.
By the time the rest of the team got there, the Travelers had already left… with both Coil and Noelle in tow.
So, when you arrive, you first check if your fallen have suffered any serious injuries. Thankfully, nothing that can't wait for Panacea…
...Meaning that it's time for you to go out and look for your quarries.
You warn Piggot that you are turning your communication powers off for a short while, while she mentions that Master-Stranger protocols will need to be instituted. Then, you recalibrate your secondary power pool.
One half goes into your sense of vision. It begins to penetrate walls. It becomes omni-directional, instead of focusing on any one spot. Its range increases by four orders of magnitude.
The other half goes into your mind. Accelerating its speed. Allowing you to think a thousand times faster.
You are observing, if not the entire city, then at least half of it. As the world around you all but stills, you began looking through it meticulously, starting from headquarters and going from there.
Over the subjective hours that follow - not even close to a minute subjectively - this little game of "Where's Waldo" has located one probable meth lab, one weapons cache, and Noelle, hiding in one of the city's many abandoned buildings with the Travelers (not all that far from headquarters, you note). You've actually spent another subjective hour after that looking for Coil, but… well, no such luck. You also saw a man in his home beating his presumed wife, and a woman looking at pictures on her computer that were not legal, to put it more politely than it deserves.
Well. Priorities.
You drop by the scene of the domestic abuse, where your presence causes the man to freeze. The woman's sobs stop as she looks up, and she freezes too when she sees you, albeit with different emotions. "Apologies if I'm a bit brusque, but I'm in the middle of a different crisis," you say, even as your secondary power shifts into teleportation. An instant later, the man is still in his home, while you and the woman have teleported right in front of a women's shelter. "Ma'am, I will check up on you later, but right now I have to run. I'm just asking you, for your own sake, please talk to the people here."
You don't leave it at that, of course - you take another 62.5 seconds to make sure that she will do just that, rather than just call him. You've seen enough domestic abuse victims to be familiar with the human tendency to excuse one's abuser, and you've seen enough of the damage on her body to know how badly she has it. So you cram as much persuasion as you can into those 62.5 seconds. Hopefully, that'll be enough for now.
The meth lab, weapon cache and illegal website fan can be brought to the police's attention later - there are procedures for Protectorate Thinkers discovering these sorts of things, after all. But right now, you fly to where the Travelers are hiding.
Well. The Travelers, Noelle, and a sixth fellow. Handsome young man, but you don't recognize him from anywhere. He isn't Coil, but he does have an active Corona Gemma.
All six of them jump a bit as you enter, phasing through the wall before materializing inside the building. "Hello, everyone. I would like to have a quick talk."
Trickster's already moving, then he stops. If you were to hazard a guess, he was hoping to teleport you in the path of one his teammates' attacks, but, well… they're not attacking. The look Ballistic gives him is enough to make him switch gears.
"Ahem. Well! The Avatar in person. I didn't know we warranted such a distinguished visitor."
"You freed an exceptionally dangerous criminal and absconded with someone who needed my help," you gesture in Noelle's direction. "What exactly were you hoping to achieve?"
Trickster prepares to reply, but Noelle stops him and addresses you instead. "It's me. I am a less-known member of the Travelers. My powers can't really be used in a fight - at least, not without a lot of collateral damage - which is why you wouldn't have heard of me. They came for me."
"And what of your sixth companion?"
He shrugs, and Noelle answers for him: "One of us, but like me he stays in the shadows - no actual powers."
Huh. She didn't feel at all like she was lying. And yet, the boy clearly is parahuman. You didn't sense an increased heartbeat or any other sign of nervousness on his part when she said it, despite most of your secondary power pool going into various senses at the moment.
One thing you do sense, incidentally, is that the strange form currently used by Genesis appears to be some sort of energy construct, constantly getting power interdimensionally. Well, good to know.
Noelle goes on: "I told you I needed Coil to fix my powers. That's the reason the whole team was working for him. To fix… me." OK, now she's being less than entirely honest. Oh, you think she's telling the truth, but not the entire truth. So, probably only part of the reason.
"I can respect wanting to help out a friend," you say. "I cannot condone helping a monster like Coil. He abducted, drugged, and enslaved a child. He has committed hideous acts, and he will commit more, unless he is arrested."
At this, the group actually looks uncomfortable. It's with some embarrassment that Noelle tells you: "We, ah, don't actually know where he is."
"You split after leaving headquarters?"
"Possibly?" She looks uncertain. "He was with us when we left your building. Then we heard a loud sound, we looked in its direction… and when we turned around, Coil was gone."
That is suboptimal. How is he evading your search anyway? "Did he actually organize this?"
Noelle looks at Trickster, prompting him to begrudgingly answer. "That's actually a good question. We received an electronic communication from him shortly after his arrest, giving us a time and general guidelines for freeing him and Noelle. It was signed by him, and definitely sounded like him. But when we got there… he acted surprised, like he had no plan and hadn't known about the whole thing."
"I see. And the hacking of PRT communications?"
"The what now?"
They either hadn't expected that, or are all expert liars. It doesn't look like they have any more useful information for tracking Coil down.
"Well. I'm not happy about this, but I'll strive to catch Coil what way I can. Now, are you all going to follow me to headquarters peacefully, or does this need to be a fight?"
Trickster grins. "You think we can't defend ourselves?"
"I think I can find you in a matter seconds anywhere in the city just by staring hard enough, outspeed you by multiple orders of magnitudes, and win a fight against an Endbringer. I think cooperating is your best bet right now."
"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure," says Trickster. "You'd be surprised at how well we've performed against unfavorable odds in the past."
His confidence doesn't appear shared by the others, though Ballistic and Genesis seem to be taking a combat stance regardless.
Then Noelle speaks up. "Wait! Trickster, just… don't. Avatar? I know my team has broken the law, but they were trying to help me. They've never killed anybody. So I'd like to offer a trade: I will come with you. I will tell the PRT everything I know about Coil and every other villain we've ever worked for. Just… let my friends go."
"You can't be serious," says Trickster.
"K… Trickster, look at me! So far, his powers are the only thing we've found that helps! At least in PRT custody, I won't be a ticking time bomb… well, less of a ticking bomb. Right now, it's the best temporary solution we have!"
Ultimately, regardless of what Trickster wants, you're the one with the power here. But what do you do?
[ ] It's not ideal, but Noelle's cooperation is worth more than arresting the rest of her team. Like she said, they're not murderers. You can let them go… with a clear warning that if they don't keep their nose clean, you can easily come down on them like a ton of bricks.
[ ] It's not ideal, but, murderers or not, these guys assaulted PRT personnel and hurt a lot of people - and that was just their most recent offense. There has to be justice. You arrest the whole lot, and get back to healing Noelle.
[ ] Write-in.
With the Skitter matter handled (you hope), it's time to meet the infamous Glenn Chambers. You could have come directly to his New York office, but he prefered to come personally to Brockton Bay - from what you've heard, he's taking a personal interest in Tsunami.
The man himself has an interesting look. The sort of look that screams "I have so much control over the situation, I can deliberately sabotage my looks just to show off". A bit like people deliberately making holes in their blue jeans.
"Ah, Avatar," he says, shaking your hand. "Or should that be 'the Avatar'?"
"I'm not particularly invested in what others call me," you shrug. "As long as it remains clear."
"A shame, then, that it's too late to rebrand your name," he says. "After your victory over Leviathan and the ensuing speech, you have already ascended to the ranks of a memetic legend. I would have loved to give you a name that worked better at symbolizing hope - frankly, I'd like to know what you intend to say when people inevitably ask what you're supposed to be an avatar of."
"Same thing I've always said," you reply. "That it's a personal matter and that I'd rather leave it at that."
"Not a bad answer," he caresses his chin, "but it might not be enough to calm down the people who will conclude you're a divinity of some sort. There are Scion-worshipers spread out over the world, and he doesn't have your charisma…"
"I have some experience dismantling cults to myself," you say with a slight smile. "I generally drop by, have a polite conversation, and gently let them know that I care about what people do, not who or what they worship." You grin at him. "Remember, I've been doing this for longer than Earth-Bet has had parahumans. Your advice is appreciated, because you know the local situation better than I do, but I have some understanding of public relations."
"That should make things easier," he says. "Religious worship of capes - even the best ones - involves too many potential headaches. Speaking of which, one of the things to which you are being given credit is healing Panacea during the fight, yes?"
"Correct. She was injured by Leviathan's hydrokinesis. She may or may not have survived without my intervention, I'm not truly certain."
"Regardless, the point is that you can heal people. Could you, in theory, tour hospitals curing the sick and crippled?"
You wince. "I'm afraid I'm nowhere near as good at this as Panacea herself. I can heal others, but it quickly winds me out. I could help a handful of people each hour, but I'd be exhausted. I hate leaving people to suffer, but rationally, I can simply do more good by patrolling for crime with enhanced senses, or just remaining on standby waiting for a major crisis."
"Makes sense. In which case, you going out and healing people outside of cape battles would probably do more harm than good."
"This is not to say, however, that I can't help civilians in ways that don't involve violence." You have his full attention now. "I can create several hundred kilotons of matter in a minute. This includes pure water. I can also control the weather over a city-sized area. In the past, I've used these abilities to counter droughts, or at least mitigate the worst of their effects - and just in case you are concerned, that's not enough to raise the world's water levels by an appreciable margin." You give him a few seconds to digest this. "I understand that droughts are an issue in this world. I would love to take some time here and there to lend assistance, at least until society gets back on its feet.
"There are other things," you go on. "Given a few hours' worth of warning and the assistance of meteorologists with satellite view, I can nullify a hurricane. I can help limit the damage of a volcanic eruption. I can stop large fires. I have also spent some time in my world working on the magma chamber beneath the yellowstone, redirecting its flow so that it is guaranteed not to turn into a supervolcano over the next century at least - but admittedly, that last one took over a thousand hours of work."
Glenn Chambers maintains a perfect poker face, but you can tell it's a lot to take in from how his fingers have gotten more fidgety. "That… is opening some interesting options, especially if we bring some of the Protectorate precogs on board."
"I have only given the subject a cursory look," you point out, "but my impression is that the worst droughts currently affecting Earth-Bet are in Africa. While I'm currently operating as a member of the Protectorate, I believe it's important to establish that I'm not affiliated with national powers. Lending assistance in foreign countries should help clarify that from the get-go. However, I also wish to avoid creating international incidents… where possible. I try to respect established governments unless they truly go beyond the pale. I'll keep studying to form my own ideas, but for now, I would appreciate your advice."
That gives him pause. "...All interesting possibilities. We can use this. We can take advantage of the momentum you've created to improve goodwill between nations. As a matter of fact…" his eyes light up, "the Protectorate is trying to expand into Mexico. Most of their population wants us, but the cartels have a lot of influence over the government there. And I know for a fact that they have been facing water problems." He checks his tablet. "If you give me a day or two to run this by the chief director and PRT Thinkers, I'm fairly confident I can arrange official blessings for you to handle that. Probably best to start with something on another continent, though, to avoid giving the impression that you're a PRT puppet. I'll see what I can do about other countries, and check what foreign villains and warlords you can put down without starting a bigger mess than you'd be stopping."
"Thank you, that would be a great help."
He takes another moment to examine his files. "Truth be told, you are different from most cases I take," he admits. "Usually, I have to teach new recruits how to be properly inspiring - our work isn't just stopping supervillains, it's keeping society going. In your case, you seem to have the inspirational aspect down pat. It's the more advanced subjects that are in question." He maintains eye contact. "I got the distinct impression from your speech that you wanted villains to turn away from the dark side, hm?"
"There needs to be justice for misdeeds," you say, "but protecting the innocents takes priority over punishing the guilty in most cases. From the looks of it, Earth-Bet desperately needs more heroes." You pause. "Of course, one has to be reasonable about it. A mass murdering monster shouldn't be able to escape justice just by offering to switch sides."
"I'm glad you understand. Thankfully, neither Tsunami nor Skitter seem to have gone too far yet," he notes. "With that said… when you killed Leviathan, virtually everyone cheered. From the looks of it, though, you will soon be going up against villains who are less universally loathed. You'd be surprised the Stockholm syndrome some of society has toward its supervillains. Just looking at it locally, you have to realize that hundreds of people, possibly more, have moved to Brockton Bay because it is the home base of Empire 88, and they believe in its ideals."
"Then I would like to discuss with you plans for relegating those ideals to the dustbin of History where they belong," you say.
You make sure to drop by the director's office to make sure there is no problem with your further attempts to fix Noelle's body. The director seems warier toward you than most, but she had no objection to your initial efforts, and she has no objections to continuing - after all, a smaller Noelle is less of a headache to contain.
"Hello." If Noelle is surprised to see you, then she keeps it out of her voice… but her relief seeps through. "How was your day?"
"Decent. Arrested a couple of drug dealers, produced multiple kilotons of a super-strong alloy that will hopefully be put to good use, and hopefully got the Protectorate another recruit."
She chuckles. "Drug dealers? A bit of a step down from fighting Endbringers."
"Perhaps, but I don't like seeing cocaine on the streets. This was more about learning the ropes of the Protectorate." You look at her deformed body. "Do you mind if I continue with my earlier biokinetic work?"
She gives you an "are you kidding look?" look. "You're pretty much the only person who's been able to help me so far. Go ahead." She pauses. "By the way, have you heard anything from… never mind." She's clearly bothered about what she wanted to ask, but she avoids the subject from that point on.
As your senses show, her power has been undoing your work. The good news are, it's slower than you. Still, it means that your help is only a stopgap solution, and that's without accounting for the issues with her mind.
So, you let the hours go by as you strive to help her. You find what topic of conversations you can - mostly about your world, though not exclusively. You do learn that she was apparently playing video games professionally before she got her powers, and that she has a general interest in tactics. Still, she is very guarded about her past - like she is afraid of what will happen if you learn more. What secrets could she have that are (to the very least in her mind) so devastating?
She also seems very interested in inter-dimensional exploration. "Wait, so you have an actual Apollo-style program of exploring other worlds?"
"It's run by Venture Industries," you explain, "the technology is still very poorly understood, and only they have managed to reverse-engineer enough of it for even semi-reliable prototypes. But, yes, there is an active exploration program going on, and several worlds have been reached. One day, perhaps, it will be reliable enough to establish diplomatic relations, possibly even trade." You chuckle. "Of course, such contact will be accompanied by a host of new challenges. But so is every major social change."
"So, the only people with dimensional travel are this mega-corporation with its own city in space… and a mad scientist who effectively acts as a cosmic trickster."
"That's the short of it."
It's slow work, and you've already spent most of the afternoon and a good chunk of the evening on it, but there's definite progress. You estimate that you've removed about a third of Noelle's body mass.
Perhaps no less importantly, you've gone some way toward building a rapport with the girl.
"...at which point Mimic started whistling faux-innocently, and that is when Nollius finally realized what power he was using."
She laughs out loud at that, and you get the impression she doesn't laugh often. "Oh God. That's awesome. Is it always like that in your world?"
"No, mercifully most days are quieter. I don't think we could survive having to deal with a Nollius-level villain every day."
"I'm still trying to wrap my head around the concept of a magical flying city of green-skinned elves ruled by an evil archmage who sold his soul to the king of demons." She pauses. "Specifically, the whole part about magic existing. Or aliens."
"Well, I-"
You are interrupted by the sound of your PRT-provided communicator. As you answer it, the voice of director Piggot speaks:
"Avatar! We have a situation in Los Angeles. A villain got cornered by Protectorate forces and, rather than face arrest, decided to go out with a suicide attack. He's detonated a firebomb in his base. Problem is, he apparently had dozens of those bombs spread over multiple city blocks. The fire department can't handle this many hotspots at once. Can you handle this sort of thing?"
"I'm on it, director. I'll just need 10-15 minutes to get there."
And so, you excuse yourself to Noelle, and rush outside. Moments later, you are flying through the stratosphere twice as fast as an X-15.
You are somewhere in the Arizona sky when your communicator rings again. "Everyone, this is a red alert! The PRT base is under by the Travelers. We need all hands on deck!"
The Travelers. You've read what information was available, due to their presence in the city. They are a relatively powerful, nomadic team of four villains. Trickster, who can swap the positions of any two objects (people included) in his line of sight as long as their masses are reasonably close. Genesis, a powerful Changer who seems to always show with a different form and powers. Sundancer, who can throw balls of (possibly thermonuclear) fire. Ballistic, who can instantly accelerate objects he touches to the speed of a bullet.
The Travelers have been moving from city to city for a while, taking various mercenary jobs (often for local villains). There's been speculation about why they had recently come to Brockton Bay; Skitter said that they, like the Undersiders, were in Coil's employ. Are they trying to break him out?
"Roger. This is the Avatar. Do you want me to head back to the base or keep heading toward Los Angeles?" You don't know how well the heroes of LA can handle the situation, and any number of people might get hurt in the raid on the base; you can't definitely declare which situation is more urgent, which is why you-
"Los Angeles?!" Piggot is sounding both bewildered and furious. "Why the hell are you heading to Los Angeles?"
"Because you…" You pause. Then, you activate your communication power.
Piggot barely even flinches when your hologram appears before her. "Director Piggot, about ten minutes ago I received a message from you on my PRT-issue communicator sending me to deal with a crisis in Los Angeles. Right now, I have just received a message from you on the same communicator, demanding that I handle an attack by the Travelers on your base. In the second call, you were surprised that I was heading toward LA. As such, in case my communicator has been subverted, I am asking which, if any, of these calls actually originated from you."
She raises an eyebrow. "The second was from me. I haven't heard about anything going on in LA, but the Travelers are attacking us now!"
"Understood. I am heading your way. I will leave my communication powers on for the rest of my journey. It will take me at least ten minutes to reach Brockton Bay, though."
She curses at that.
Cursing intensifies when she gets further calls from the members of the Protectorate and Wards, who all apparently got a call earlier directing them away from HQ.
And so, even as you fly, you find yourself operating as a communication hub for the team.
By the time you arrive in Brockton Bay, things have gone badly.
With little in the way of parahuman resistance, the Travelers were able to storm the building easily - in fact, the disarray of the PRT forces suggests that they, too, were the victims of forged communications.
Velocity ran all the way to HQ. It did little to help - he was exhausted by the time he arrived, and Trickster, seeing him from a window, teleported him into the path of an attack while he was catching his breath.
Dauntless got there next, and was soon joined by Tsunami. They, too, proved unlucky and were quickly knocked out.
By the time the rest of the team got there, the Travelers had already left… with both Coil and Noelle in tow.
So, when you arrive, you first check if your fallen have suffered any serious injuries. Thankfully, nothing that can't wait for Panacea…
...Meaning that it's time for you to go out and look for your quarries.
You warn Piggot that you are turning your communication powers off for a short while, while she mentions that Master-Stranger protocols will need to be instituted. Then, you recalibrate your secondary power pool.
One half goes into your sense of vision. It begins to penetrate walls. It becomes omni-directional, instead of focusing on any one spot. Its range increases by four orders of magnitude.
The other half goes into your mind. Accelerating its speed. Allowing you to think a thousand times faster.
You are observing, if not the entire city, then at least half of it. As the world around you all but stills, you began looking through it meticulously, starting from headquarters and going from there.
Over the subjective hours that follow - not even close to a minute subjectively - this little game of "Where's Waldo" has located one probable meth lab, one weapons cache, and Noelle, hiding in one of the city's many abandoned buildings with the Travelers (not all that far from headquarters, you note). You've actually spent another subjective hour after that looking for Coil, but… well, no such luck. You also saw a man in his home beating his presumed wife, and a woman looking at pictures on her computer that were not legal, to put it more politely than it deserves.
Well. Priorities.
You drop by the scene of the domestic abuse, where your presence causes the man to freeze. The woman's sobs stop as she looks up, and she freezes too when she sees you, albeit with different emotions. "Apologies if I'm a bit brusque, but I'm in the middle of a different crisis," you say, even as your secondary power shifts into teleportation. An instant later, the man is still in his home, while you and the woman have teleported right in front of a women's shelter. "Ma'am, I will check up on you later, but right now I have to run. I'm just asking you, for your own sake, please talk to the people here."
You don't leave it at that, of course - you take another 62.5 seconds to make sure that she will do just that, rather than just call him. You've seen enough domestic abuse victims to be familiar with the human tendency to excuse one's abuser, and you've seen enough of the damage on her body to know how badly she has it. So you cram as much persuasion as you can into those 62.5 seconds. Hopefully, that'll be enough for now.
The meth lab, weapon cache and illegal website fan can be brought to the police's attention later - there are procedures for Protectorate Thinkers discovering these sorts of things, after all. But right now, you fly to where the Travelers are hiding.
Well. The Travelers, Noelle, and a sixth fellow. Handsome young man, but you don't recognize him from anywhere. He isn't Coil, but he does have an active Corona Gemma.
All six of them jump a bit as you enter, phasing through the wall before materializing inside the building. "Hello, everyone. I would like to have a quick talk."
Trickster's already moving, then he stops. If you were to hazard a guess, he was hoping to teleport you in the path of one his teammates' attacks, but, well… they're not attacking. The look Ballistic gives him is enough to make him switch gears.
"Ahem. Well! The Avatar in person. I didn't know we warranted such a distinguished visitor."
"You freed an exceptionally dangerous criminal and absconded with someone who needed my help," you gesture in Noelle's direction. "What exactly were you hoping to achieve?"
Trickster prepares to reply, but Noelle stops him and addresses you instead. "It's me. I am a less-known member of the Travelers. My powers can't really be used in a fight - at least, not without a lot of collateral damage - which is why you wouldn't have heard of me. They came for me."
"And what of your sixth companion?"
He shrugs, and Noelle answers for him: "One of us, but like me he stays in the shadows - no actual powers."
Huh. She didn't feel at all like she was lying. And yet, the boy clearly is parahuman. You didn't sense an increased heartbeat or any other sign of nervousness on his part when she said it, despite most of your secondary power pool going into various senses at the moment.
One thing you do sense, incidentally, is that the strange form currently used by Genesis appears to be some sort of energy construct, constantly getting power interdimensionally. Well, good to know.
Noelle goes on: "I told you I needed Coil to fix my powers. That's the reason the whole team was working for him. To fix… me." OK, now she's being less than entirely honest. Oh, you think she's telling the truth, but not the entire truth. So, probably only part of the reason.
"I can respect wanting to help out a friend," you say. "I cannot condone helping a monster like Coil. He abducted, drugged, and enslaved a child. He has committed hideous acts, and he will commit more, unless he is arrested."
At this, the group actually looks uncomfortable. It's with some embarrassment that Noelle tells you: "We, ah, don't actually know where he is."
"You split after leaving headquarters?"
"Possibly?" She looks uncertain. "He was with us when we left your building. Then we heard a loud sound, we looked in its direction… and when we turned around, Coil was gone."
That is suboptimal. How is he evading your search anyway? "Did he actually organize this?"
Noelle looks at Trickster, prompting him to begrudgingly answer. "That's actually a good question. We received an electronic communication from him shortly after his arrest, giving us a time and general guidelines for freeing him and Noelle. It was signed by him, and definitely sounded like him. But when we got there… he acted surprised, like he had no plan and hadn't known about the whole thing."
"I see. And the hacking of PRT communications?"
"The what now?"
They either hadn't expected that, or are all expert liars. It doesn't look like they have any more useful information for tracking Coil down.
"Well. I'm not happy about this, but I'll strive to catch Coil what way I can. Now, are you all going to follow me to headquarters peacefully, or does this need to be a fight?"
Trickster grins. "You think we can't defend ourselves?"
"I think I can find you in a matter seconds anywhere in the city just by staring hard enough, outspeed you by multiple orders of magnitudes, and win a fight against an Endbringer. I think cooperating is your best bet right now."
"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure," says Trickster. "You'd be surprised at how well we've performed against unfavorable odds in the past."
His confidence doesn't appear shared by the others, though Ballistic and Genesis seem to be taking a combat stance regardless.
Then Noelle speaks up. "Wait! Trickster, just… don't. Avatar? I know my team has broken the law, but they were trying to help me. They've never killed anybody. So I'd like to offer a trade: I will come with you. I will tell the PRT everything I know about Coil and every other villain we've ever worked for. Just… let my friends go."
"You can't be serious," says Trickster.
"K… Trickster, look at me! So far, his powers are the only thing we've found that helps! At least in PRT custody, I won't be a ticking time bomb… well, less of a ticking bomb. Right now, it's the best temporary solution we have!"
Ultimately, regardless of what Trickster wants, you're the one with the power here. But what do you do?
[ ] It's not ideal, but Noelle's cooperation is worth more than arresting the rest of her team. Like she said, they're not murderers. You can let them go… with a clear warning that if they don't keep their nose clean, you can easily come down on them like a ton of bricks.
[ ] It's not ideal, but, murderers or not, these guys assaulted PRT personnel and hurt a lot of people - and that was just their most recent offense. There has to be justice. You arrest the whole lot, and get back to healing Noelle.
[ ] Write-in.
HymnOfRagnarok
Let's Rock
...Fucking Coil.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Or it's Coil himself.
Maybe. Fucking snake.
Honestly, I find it hard to believe Trickster at least has never killed anyone. It's not like Noelle has been with him every second, and he's perfectly willing to lie to his friends.
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FunkyEntropy
Occasionally insightful, possibly grumpy
- Location
- Los Angeles
Well it's a good thing we established that rapport with Noelle. I'm leaning towards doubling down on that and letting them go for now (we can pretty easily track them down if the situation changes) since getting her to really trust us is going to pretty critical to the actual goal of fixing her. And the more she trusts us the more likely she is to let us do the mental scan and tell us about being Zizzed and all that.
Also, Coil just got Cauldroned. Yay?
Also, Coil just got Cauldroned. Yay?
but why? for his powers? They could've been done that if they wanted him that badly.
Though I agree I'm willing to let the travelers go if it means Noelle trusts us more which will make her more likely to accept getting mind read by us. And she is our ticket to finding out about the shards.
It's of an indirect nature, but imo Krouse is somewhat responsible for a few deaths when he switched with civilians while dispatching that Cody clone in Boston.
Anyway, Cauldron being Cauldron. *sighs* Likely going to be using him to test out plans/methods of "dealing" with us should we turn out to be a threat.
FunkyEntropy
Occasionally insightful, possibly grumpy
- Location
- Los Angeles
The thing is, he's more useful to them directly under their thumb than he is in jail working for the PRT on probation. He owes them and he knows it. And he's going to be worried about double-crossing them since they have the ability to basically effortlessly spring him from custody.
OTOH, now that he's no longer a free man they may just mind wipe him and put him to work. Either way, we won't see much of Coil since Cauldron isn't dumb. They're not going to set him loose now that they've really got their hooks in him.
Evaunit02mark1
S-s-smell the Prey, S-s-start the Hunt.
That's it, we kill the bastard this time.
Fool me once shame on me, try to fool me twice and I'll split you in half length wise like a goddamn phone book.
Fool me once shame on me, try to fool me twice and I'll split you in half length wise like a goddamn phone book.
At least that would be good for us. Still don't understand why they're doing this now. They could've easily snatched up Coil back when he was first given his powers. I'm guessing doing it now has to do with us.
I'm hoping to god caludron isn't that stupid. Contessa already saw a path to killing us and no path to us going evil. Of course they were suspicious of how precog treats us and they are paranoid.
We have enough problems to deal without Caludron going retard on us.
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I hope so too.
CV12Hornet
Riter.
- Location
- Tacoma, Washington
I agree with this, with the added point that if we keep building rapport there's a chance Noelle will simply refuse to be taken next time they try this shit.