M. H. Fuzzball
Aperture Science-certified Horrible Person
- Location
- Sector 2814
She's the one who moved the tanker so it wasn't blocking the entrance to the Bay, actually, as mentioned when Taylor, Emma and Madison were training on it.
There's a real tradeoff there between looking like a dork and risking your identity.
All civvies: have to change your costume at the location
Suit with no mask: anyone who looks too closely in your windshield outs you, plus you still look like a bit of a dork
Probably the balance point is "suit without mask, under normal clothes [or at least a jacket and pants] - which he can strip off at the location, plus a domino mask". Still outs his race though. He'd be better off in that regard with full costume + jacket and pants.
Alternately he could drive in full civvies and put on *just* the mask [and gloves if he wants to keep his race hidden] at the location.
(Of course, acknowledging that full costume is a dorky look means he can't escape it. It sounds like his opinion is that just *driving* in costume is dorky?)
Last edited:
- Location
- Australia
That is indeed his opinion, yes. Doing supervillain stuff while visibly wearing the costume is one thing, but driving a car sedately down the road (or doing any other mundane thing) while wearing it ... it detracts from the whole supervillain mystique thing.
- Location
- California
Now I need a Petty Coil who does everything mundane in costume, always choosing the buzzkill option anytime someone starts something around him while he's taking care of day to day tasks
Crayz9000
Deranged Bounty Hunter
- Location
- Improbably superpositioned
You can still have a full body costume that doesn't have an integrated mask. It would just need to have a balaclava style hood that can be tucked away behind the collar and pulled up over the head when needed before masking up.
- Location
- Australia
That's basically what this version of Coil had.
TheatrclBarristr
Not a barrister
- Pronouns
- He/Him
- Location
- Australia
Okay, I get it that Luthor's teleporter may not be perfectly aligned on occasion, by why tf is Superman carpooling?
Part Thirty-Two: Taking Advantage
- Location
- Australia
Earning Her Stripes
Part Thirty-Two: Taking Advantage
[A/N 1: This chapter commissioned by @Fizzfaldt and beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]
[A/N 2: The first few paragraphs have been lifted out of another fic of mine, because why the hell not.]
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Outside an Empire Stash House
Frankie "Hard" Knox had just one job, and he was good at it.
He'd played college ball once upon a time (before he was kicked out of college) and he was still a big husky guy. With his shaved head and tattoos (neither of which he'd had in college) he could scare the absolute fuck out of anyone who came too close to the stash house when he was on watch. For those who were too stoned to scare, he had a stun-gun. Unlike a lot of his buddies, he didn't get bored easily, so he could relax all day without falling asleep on watch.
His buddy Brett'd been in the habit of having a toke or two when it was quiet, and sneaking off for a little shut-eye. He'd warned Brett that one day someone was gonna catch him at it, and then there'd be hell to pay. That 'someone' turned out to be Hookwolf. Brett was still around, but he had a few new scars and he didn't do guard duty anymore.
So Frankie took his job real serious. He never stayed in the same position for more than fifteen minutes, and he took a little stroll every hour or two. Never out of sight of the steps he was guarding, but far enough to get the blood flowing again.
Mitch, his usual partner on this shift, was less full-on about the whole thing. But then, Frankie didn't like him. To be fair, Mitch was a bit of an asshole. He was also fifty pounds heavier than Frankie and a fuck-ton dumber, and Frankie was almost sure he'd once seen Mitch coming out of one of the brothels the ABB used to operate. In any case, Mitch hadn't been there to see Hookwolf drag Brett into the alleyway behind the stash house and beat him bloody. Frankie could still remember the look in his buddy's eyes when he realised just how fucked he was.
Which was why, when the Undersiders came riding along the street, Frankie was the first one on his feet. They might have been lost or going someplace else, but it was a hell of a coincidence for them to come straight to the wrong innocent-looking house that had two shaven-headed guys sitting out front. He'd heard Tattletale was a psychic, or the next best thing to one, and the smug aura she was emanating as the dinosaur-rhino dogs clumped closer didn't make him any happier about the whole situation.
Bitch's monsters came to a halt in front of the stash house, confirming his worst fears. On the upside, the creatures were merely eyeing him off like a tasty meat snack, not actually going for him, but he had no faith in that lasting for long. While he'd only attended a few of Hookwolf's dogfights—he honestly had better things to do with his time—he was fully aware that Bitch didn't like them, and probably considered (with some justification) every member of the Empire responsible for them.
Still, he was there and if he didn't say something then he'd be branded as a chickenshit or worse. So he cleared his throat and said the first thing that came to mind. "Uh, you folks want to be riding along now, before shit gets serious."
While he was still berating himself over how much it sounded like a line out of a Western, Tattletale smirked. "Oh, honey," she said. "Haven't you heard? It's already serious. Your bosses are in lockup. Every last one of them."
Mitch finally roused himself, staring at the assembled Undersiders. "The fuck you talkin' about, bitch?"
Tattletale's smirk intensified to razor sharpness. "No, I'm Tattletale. That's Bitch over there. I'm saying that Kaiser, Krieg, Victor, Othala, Alabaster and Rune all got themselves captured last night, by the Real Thing." She gestured at the stash house. "Now, I know you're here to guard this place. But ask yourselves this. Without capes to back you up, how much of a chance do you think you'll stand against us?"
That was, Frankie decided, a fucking good question. The capture of Hookwolf, Crusader, and the Viking twins had already sent shockwaves through the rank and file of the Empire Eighty-Eight, but there had always been the underlying expectation that Kaiser was working on a plan to bust them loose. While she could've been lying about the capture of Kaiser and the others, he couldn't exactly rule it out either.
Not a hell of a lot, he privately admitted.
"Fuck off!" scoffed Mitch. "We'll fuckin' wreck your shit, you stupid little—"
Frankie wasn't exactly a gentleman, and the concept of chivalry had never really resonated with him. The main reason he pulled out his stun-gun and jammed it into Mitch's ribs was pure self-preservation; there was no way in fuck he wanted to be in the way of the retribution for whatever ill-advised insult the moron had been about to hurl Tattletale's way. He kept it going for as long as he could, mainly because the longer Mitch was down and unable to talk, the better.
When Mitch finally fell over, Frankie could almost swear he smelled smoke, but that wasn't his problem. His biggest problem was right in front of him, but he hoped like hell he'd gone some way toward making it not a problem. "Ignore him. Moron can't tell his ass from his elbow. Not that I can stop you from comin' in anyway, but you got any proof of what you're sayin'?"
Tattletale, whose eyes had narrowed behind her mask at the opening words of Mitch's tirade, smiled sunnily at him. "Totes," she assured him. "PRT scooped them up last night, after the Real Thing took them down. Safe house in Brentwood."
That sealed the deal for Frankie. The Empire indeed maintained a safe house in the upscale residential suburb of Brentwood, but the only people who knew about it were the capes and the ones who were trusted to guard stash houses. He'd never even been there himself, but he knew it existed. The fact that Tattletale tossed out its location so casually told him that it wasn't even an important bit of information for her.
"Well, shit," he said, the words more a sigh of resignation than anything else. "How are we gonna do this?"
Tattletale's smile widened.
Grue
"We could've taken it all," whined Alec as they rode away, the saddlebags bulging noticeably with the take from the stash house. "Why'd you leave any for those bottom-feeders?"
Brian figured he knew. "As soon as they agreed to take some, they were complicit. And we left all the drugs for them to divide up between themselves. If we'd taken the lot and left them nothing, some of them might've done something stupid, and maybe gotten lucky. But as soon as Tattletale said they'd be getting a share, you could see the cogs turning in their heads. They went from fight-or-flight mode to 'how much is my share?' in about two seconds flat."
"Got it in one," Lisa confirmed. "With the added incentive that if a higher-up does come by, all they have to say is that we took it all."
"So, uh, how sure are you that the Empire capes won't be escaping?" Alec suddenly sounded a little unsure about the situation. Brian could understand why: the spectre of Kaiser and Hookwolf coming after them for all the vanished money and drugs would be a daunting one.
"Very." Lisa sounded certain of herself, but that was her ground state. He'd seen her be confidently wrong before; fortunately, it hadn't been all that often. "From the cross-chatter I was able to dig up, the Director's not taking any chances with the Empire Eighty-Eight or the ABB capes. Hookwolf and Lung are Birdcage bound as soon as she can expedite it. Kaiser and the others are off to whatever supermax she can stuff them into."
"That's not exactly a guarantee, you know," Alec said. "Hookwolf's been busted out before."
"That was with Empire capes on the loose, and Coil giving out shot-calls to make it happen," Lisa riposted. "Without access to cape powers or the big Empire stashes, they've got no easy way to bust their bosses out. Piggot's in the best possible position she could be in right now, and she knows it. She's going to wring every last shred of advantage she can out of it."
"Which is why we're hitting gang stashes instead of jewellery stores, right?" Brian meant it as a rhetorical question. "The longer we can stay off her radar, the better."
"Oh, we're totally on her radar." Lisa sent him a flashing grin. "We're just making sure we're not a priority for her."
"Ah." It would've been nice, Brian reflected, if Lisa had explained that a little more clearly earlier.
Still, the nest egg he was gathering was going to take care of his money problems for a long time to come.
Director Emily Piggot, PRT ENE
"I'm not entirely sure I see the problem, Emily." On the screen, Hearthrow leaned back in his chair, flicking a pen between his fingers. "You currently have fewer active villains in your city than at any time in the last twenty years. The only gangs left are small fry. Why do you think you need more PRT personnel or capes now?"
"Because this is very much the calm before the storm," she gritted. "Talk to Armstrong if you don't believe me. This is a perfect setup for a repeat of the Boston Games, one that I was working hard to avoid. As soon as word gets out that the local underworld is open for the taking, they will be coming here. I don't feel like hosting a free-for-all just when I'd got this city working properly again."
He frowned. "I feel that you might be overstating your case a little. Sure, one or two displaced villains might decide to relocate, but the era of events like the Boston Games is over and done. It couldn't happen again."
"Why?" she asked bluntly. "Just because it hasn't happened recently doesn't mean it can't or won't. We haven't had a big city like this cleared of major villains in years, so there's no telling how it'll turn out."
"Exactly my point." He sounded pleased with himself. "There's no reason at all to think your doom-and-gloom prediction is at all accurate. Personally, I think you're jumping at shadows. Besides, you're already well-staffed as it is. If anything, now that the ABB and the Empire Eighty-Eight are no longer a going concern, we should be looking at drawing down some of your personnel and sending them to where they're really needed." He didn't quite say 'like here', but Emily heard the words loud and clear all the same.
"Seriously?" She shook her head, irritated that he was even trying to pull that shit. "Are you forgetting that I still have a city full of very recently ex-gang members, who are likely to either try to bust their bosses loose or jump on the bandwagon with the next villain who happens to wander into town and set up shop? This city might not be a powder keg anymore, but it's only one step down from being one."
"Well, why aren't you doing something about it? If your own people aren't up to the task of dealing with new villains in town, why don't you sic this Real Thing team I've been hearing so much about on the bad guys? In fact, why don't you set them to finding out who destroyed that school?"
It was clear by now that Hearthrow was determined not to even admit that Emily needed any assistance, but she forged on anyway. "That only works if you can locate the villains and get the heroes to them in good time. The Real Thing aren't under my command, so even if I knew where any potential new villains were, I couldn't order them to take care of the matter." She refused to rise to his bait regarding Winslow. There were still far too many questions and not enough answers surrounding that particular incident.
"I'm honestly sorry to hear that, Emily." He could even have been serious, though she sincerely doubted it. "Keep me updated on the Real Thing. They sound like an interesting team."
"Will do." She ended the call, then sat back in her chair and muttered a few choice epithets, aimed in Hearthrow's general direction.
It was true that the Brockton Bay branch of the PRT enjoyed a relatively generous budget for manpower and equipment, mainly due to the higher-than-normal incidence of criminal capes that seemed intent on infesting the ENE area. However, there was a distinct difference between keeping said villains in check with the intent of gradually forcing them out of the region, and discouraging an enterprising new influx of villains from taking up where the previous crop had left off.
The trouble was, all she had to back up her personal belief regarding the incoming problem was the single data point of the Boston Games, and the nagging feeling that it could happen again. She suspected that the Chief Director would need more than that before approving a budget increase for the ENE department, especially since (as Hearthrow had pointed out) the majority of the gang activity in the city had just been given a good swift boot in the head. If Costa-Brown couldn't see what she could, then all the arguing in the world would do not a damn bit of good. Which was why she was asking her fellow Directors to spare her personnel rather than going hat in hand to Washington.
The downside of this approach was that they could just as easily say no, as Hearthrow had just done. Still, he was just one person. There were more Directors she could talk to; hopefully, at least one of them would be willing to listen.
Later
New York PRT Building
Hero
"I really think she's got a point about a potential repeat of the Boston Games," Director Wilkins said thoughtfully. "The city would be wide open for it. I'm going to send a couple of strike teams up on detached duty until it's settled, one way or the other. Do you have any ideas for capes to back them up?"
Graham considered his response. New York had no serious threats in the offing at the moment. It wouldn't cost the city much to support Brockton Bay, and keeping the region stable did everyone a favour. "Absolutely. Prism could do with stretching her legs out from under my umbrella, and Cache will be a good backup for her. Also, one of our Wards, Flechette. You may have seen my report about how she's being targeted by a particularly irritating villain called March. Until we can pin March down, sending Flechette out of town will probably do her the world of good too."
Wilkins nodded slowly. "I concur. Good calls on all three. I'll have the paperwork expedited to your office so you can sign off on it."
He gave her his trademark grin and tapped the side of his goggles in a mock salute. "Copy that, Director."
A Little Later Again
Taylor
I had to admit, Hero had a gift for being charismatic, even when standing back while Director Wilkins of New York opened the press conference. It wasn't just his prestige for being what some called the world's greatest Tinker (which he totally was) but something more than that. Back when Legend first quit the Protectorate, some had wondered about Hero's ability to fill his predecessor's shoes as head of the team. He'd blown the doubters clear out of the water (so to speak) and gone on to lead the team from strength to strength.
Not only was he good looking (from what the public could see under his goggles) but he was also just plain nice. Capes tended to clash, especially when they were jockeying for good ratings, but Hero never bothered with stuff like that. He always gave his fellow heroes the credit they were due, and never tried to hog the limelight.
Not that there was much chance of doing that during a press conference, but he handled those with style and aplomb as well. Emma, Madison and I were watching this latest one, mainly because there'd been a mention in the news that there was going to be something about Brockton Bay in it.
Before we got powers, we might've watched it because cape stuff was occasionally interesting. Now, we were watching it because any cape events that involved Brockton Bay were by definition very interesting.
"I have to admit," Emma said in an offhand manner, "for a Tinker, he's very fit."
I'd made that observation myself but I hadn't voiced it out loud, mainly because I didn't want the others thinking that I was ogling Hero's manly muscles. Which I had been doing, just a little, but I was still paying attention to what the Director was saying.
"I'm pretty damn fit, and I'm a Tinker," Madison reminded her. "Maybe you might want to leave off trying to pigeonhole us all as losers who spend all their time hunched over a bench in the basement."
"Yeah, but you're different," I said. "You Tinker with heavy stuff. If you hadn't gotten fit, you'd be flat on your back, gasping for breath after five minutes."
Emma nodded. "It's true. Before we got powers, you weren't exactly the most athletic person in Winslow. Now, you're ripped."
"Yeah, well, you weren't either," Madison pointed out accurately. "It took your power to make you into Jackie Chan on steroids."
"Guys! Guys!" I hissed. "The Director's finished talking!"
They turned their attention back to the screen, just as Hero stepped up to the microphones. "Thank you, Director Wilkins," he said smoothly. "Good evening to you all. Thank you for attending this conference. Some of you may be wondering why we're making a big deal about the temporary transfer of some of our heroes to Brockton Bay, but honestly, we're not."
One of the news guys raised his hand. "Ben Portland, New York Post. If you're not making a big deal of it, why are we even having this press conference about it?"
Hero paused to chuckle briefly. "You make a good point. The truth of the matter is, it's a perfectly routine training exercise between us and Brockton Bay that's been blown out of all proportion. Prism, as my second in command, will be benefiting from exercising her own judgement in an unfamiliar environment, and Cache and Flechette will be accompanying her. However, a rumour seems to be getting around that our heroes are going up there to assist the East-North-East Protectorate in apprehending the new cape team The Real Thing. While they've been making quite the waves in the region, I can assure you that nothing could be further from the truth. The Protectorate will continue to integrate and work with local heroes, as it always has."
"That's us he's talking about," I said as another reporter asked an equally inane question. "We're the 'local heroes'."
"Yup." Emma looked quietly pleased. "But the Director didn't say anything about bringing in capes to integrate and work with us. Why are they really coming here?" None of us actually believed the line about the 'perfectly routine training exercise'.
"It must be the other thing," Madison decided. "The part she mentioned about moving too fast, and not giving other villains the message that it's unsafe to come here. She's bringing in reinforcements to help stop any of these villains in their tracks before they can get settled, the way Kaiser and Lung were."
Emma and I looked at her, then at each other. "That's got to be it." It made total sense to me. "Since when have you been a cape analyst, Mads?"
Madison rolled her eyes. "Did it never occur to either of you that the cute ditzy act was just that, an act? Sure, I put most of my mental effort before into looking and acting so adorable that the teachers would never suspect me of anything, but these days I've got different priorities. So, I've started paying attention to shit like that."
"Good point." Emma nodded approvingly. "Though you were smart not to do that while we were hanging with Sophia. She never trusted anyone with more brains than her." She gave me a sly glance. "Probably why she hated Taylor so much."
I wrinkled my nose at her. "I notice she never hated on you for your intellect."
The scuffle that started then involved a lot of tickling, but no powers whatsoever. By the time it was done, we were all helpless with laughter and ready to move on with the rest of the evening.
New York
March
May leaned back in her chair as the press conference ended and a commercial came on. "So, she thinks she can escape me by going on a training exercise, hmm?" A cruel smile spread across her face. "I think it's time to show her the error of her ways. And if any of these so-called heroes get in my way, they'll get the same treatment."
She didn't often laugh out loud as part of her monologue, but this time it seemed appropriate.
March was going to Brockton Bay, and nobody—and nothing—was going to stop her from getting what she wanted.
End of Part Thirty-Two
Part Thirty-Two: Taking Advantage
[A/N 1: This chapter commissioned by @Fizzfaldt and beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]
[A/N 2: The first few paragraphs have been lifted out of another fic of mine, because why the hell not.]
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Outside an Empire Stash House
Frankie "Hard" Knox had just one job, and he was good at it.
He'd played college ball once upon a time (before he was kicked out of college) and he was still a big husky guy. With his shaved head and tattoos (neither of which he'd had in college) he could scare the absolute fuck out of anyone who came too close to the stash house when he was on watch. For those who were too stoned to scare, he had a stun-gun. Unlike a lot of his buddies, he didn't get bored easily, so he could relax all day without falling asleep on watch.
His buddy Brett'd been in the habit of having a toke or two when it was quiet, and sneaking off for a little shut-eye. He'd warned Brett that one day someone was gonna catch him at it, and then there'd be hell to pay. That 'someone' turned out to be Hookwolf. Brett was still around, but he had a few new scars and he didn't do guard duty anymore.
So Frankie took his job real serious. He never stayed in the same position for more than fifteen minutes, and he took a little stroll every hour or two. Never out of sight of the steps he was guarding, but far enough to get the blood flowing again.
Mitch, his usual partner on this shift, was less full-on about the whole thing. But then, Frankie didn't like him. To be fair, Mitch was a bit of an asshole. He was also fifty pounds heavier than Frankie and a fuck-ton dumber, and Frankie was almost sure he'd once seen Mitch coming out of one of the brothels the ABB used to operate. In any case, Mitch hadn't been there to see Hookwolf drag Brett into the alleyway behind the stash house and beat him bloody. Frankie could still remember the look in his buddy's eyes when he realised just how fucked he was.
Which was why, when the Undersiders came riding along the street, Frankie was the first one on his feet. They might have been lost or going someplace else, but it was a hell of a coincidence for them to come straight to the wrong innocent-looking house that had two shaven-headed guys sitting out front. He'd heard Tattletale was a psychic, or the next best thing to one, and the smug aura she was emanating as the dinosaur-rhino dogs clumped closer didn't make him any happier about the whole situation.
Bitch's monsters came to a halt in front of the stash house, confirming his worst fears. On the upside, the creatures were merely eyeing him off like a tasty meat snack, not actually going for him, but he had no faith in that lasting for long. While he'd only attended a few of Hookwolf's dogfights—he honestly had better things to do with his time—he was fully aware that Bitch didn't like them, and probably considered (with some justification) every member of the Empire responsible for them.
Still, he was there and if he didn't say something then he'd be branded as a chickenshit or worse. So he cleared his throat and said the first thing that came to mind. "Uh, you folks want to be riding along now, before shit gets serious."
While he was still berating himself over how much it sounded like a line out of a Western, Tattletale smirked. "Oh, honey," she said. "Haven't you heard? It's already serious. Your bosses are in lockup. Every last one of them."
Mitch finally roused himself, staring at the assembled Undersiders. "The fuck you talkin' about, bitch?"
Tattletale's smirk intensified to razor sharpness. "No, I'm Tattletale. That's Bitch over there. I'm saying that Kaiser, Krieg, Victor, Othala, Alabaster and Rune all got themselves captured last night, by the Real Thing." She gestured at the stash house. "Now, I know you're here to guard this place. But ask yourselves this. Without capes to back you up, how much of a chance do you think you'll stand against us?"
That was, Frankie decided, a fucking good question. The capture of Hookwolf, Crusader, and the Viking twins had already sent shockwaves through the rank and file of the Empire Eighty-Eight, but there had always been the underlying expectation that Kaiser was working on a plan to bust them loose. While she could've been lying about the capture of Kaiser and the others, he couldn't exactly rule it out either.
Not a hell of a lot, he privately admitted.
"Fuck off!" scoffed Mitch. "We'll fuckin' wreck your shit, you stupid little—"
Frankie wasn't exactly a gentleman, and the concept of chivalry had never really resonated with him. The main reason he pulled out his stun-gun and jammed it into Mitch's ribs was pure self-preservation; there was no way in fuck he wanted to be in the way of the retribution for whatever ill-advised insult the moron had been about to hurl Tattletale's way. He kept it going for as long as he could, mainly because the longer Mitch was down and unable to talk, the better.
When Mitch finally fell over, Frankie could almost swear he smelled smoke, but that wasn't his problem. His biggest problem was right in front of him, but he hoped like hell he'd gone some way toward making it not a problem. "Ignore him. Moron can't tell his ass from his elbow. Not that I can stop you from comin' in anyway, but you got any proof of what you're sayin'?"
Tattletale, whose eyes had narrowed behind her mask at the opening words of Mitch's tirade, smiled sunnily at him. "Totes," she assured him. "PRT scooped them up last night, after the Real Thing took them down. Safe house in Brentwood."
That sealed the deal for Frankie. The Empire indeed maintained a safe house in the upscale residential suburb of Brentwood, but the only people who knew about it were the capes and the ones who were trusted to guard stash houses. He'd never even been there himself, but he knew it existed. The fact that Tattletale tossed out its location so casually told him that it wasn't even an important bit of information for her.
"Well, shit," he said, the words more a sigh of resignation than anything else. "How are we gonna do this?"
Tattletale's smile widened.
<><>
Grue
"We could've taken it all," whined Alec as they rode away, the saddlebags bulging noticeably with the take from the stash house. "Why'd you leave any for those bottom-feeders?"
Brian figured he knew. "As soon as they agreed to take some, they were complicit. And we left all the drugs for them to divide up between themselves. If we'd taken the lot and left them nothing, some of them might've done something stupid, and maybe gotten lucky. But as soon as Tattletale said they'd be getting a share, you could see the cogs turning in their heads. They went from fight-or-flight mode to 'how much is my share?' in about two seconds flat."
"Got it in one," Lisa confirmed. "With the added incentive that if a higher-up does come by, all they have to say is that we took it all."
"So, uh, how sure are you that the Empire capes won't be escaping?" Alec suddenly sounded a little unsure about the situation. Brian could understand why: the spectre of Kaiser and Hookwolf coming after them for all the vanished money and drugs would be a daunting one.
"Very." Lisa sounded certain of herself, but that was her ground state. He'd seen her be confidently wrong before; fortunately, it hadn't been all that often. "From the cross-chatter I was able to dig up, the Director's not taking any chances with the Empire Eighty-Eight or the ABB capes. Hookwolf and Lung are Birdcage bound as soon as she can expedite it. Kaiser and the others are off to whatever supermax she can stuff them into."
"That's not exactly a guarantee, you know," Alec said. "Hookwolf's been busted out before."
"That was with Empire capes on the loose, and Coil giving out shot-calls to make it happen," Lisa riposted. "Without access to cape powers or the big Empire stashes, they've got no easy way to bust their bosses out. Piggot's in the best possible position she could be in right now, and she knows it. She's going to wring every last shred of advantage she can out of it."
"Which is why we're hitting gang stashes instead of jewellery stores, right?" Brian meant it as a rhetorical question. "The longer we can stay off her radar, the better."
"Oh, we're totally on her radar." Lisa sent him a flashing grin. "We're just making sure we're not a priority for her."
"Ah." It would've been nice, Brian reflected, if Lisa had explained that a little more clearly earlier.
Still, the nest egg he was gathering was going to take care of his money problems for a long time to come.
<><>
Director Emily Piggot, PRT ENE
"I'm not entirely sure I see the problem, Emily." On the screen, Hearthrow leaned back in his chair, flicking a pen between his fingers. "You currently have fewer active villains in your city than at any time in the last twenty years. The only gangs left are small fry. Why do you think you need more PRT personnel or capes now?"
"Because this is very much the calm before the storm," she gritted. "Talk to Armstrong if you don't believe me. This is a perfect setup for a repeat of the Boston Games, one that I was working hard to avoid. As soon as word gets out that the local underworld is open for the taking, they will be coming here. I don't feel like hosting a free-for-all just when I'd got this city working properly again."
He frowned. "I feel that you might be overstating your case a little. Sure, one or two displaced villains might decide to relocate, but the era of events like the Boston Games is over and done. It couldn't happen again."
"Why?" she asked bluntly. "Just because it hasn't happened recently doesn't mean it can't or won't. We haven't had a big city like this cleared of major villains in years, so there's no telling how it'll turn out."
"Exactly my point." He sounded pleased with himself. "There's no reason at all to think your doom-and-gloom prediction is at all accurate. Personally, I think you're jumping at shadows. Besides, you're already well-staffed as it is. If anything, now that the ABB and the Empire Eighty-Eight are no longer a going concern, we should be looking at drawing down some of your personnel and sending them to where they're really needed." He didn't quite say 'like here', but Emily heard the words loud and clear all the same.
"Seriously?" She shook her head, irritated that he was even trying to pull that shit. "Are you forgetting that I still have a city full of very recently ex-gang members, who are likely to either try to bust their bosses loose or jump on the bandwagon with the next villain who happens to wander into town and set up shop? This city might not be a powder keg anymore, but it's only one step down from being one."
"Well, why aren't you doing something about it? If your own people aren't up to the task of dealing with new villains in town, why don't you sic this Real Thing team I've been hearing so much about on the bad guys? In fact, why don't you set them to finding out who destroyed that school?"
It was clear by now that Hearthrow was determined not to even admit that Emily needed any assistance, but she forged on anyway. "That only works if you can locate the villains and get the heroes to them in good time. The Real Thing aren't under my command, so even if I knew where any potential new villains were, I couldn't order them to take care of the matter." She refused to rise to his bait regarding Winslow. There were still far too many questions and not enough answers surrounding that particular incident.
"I'm honestly sorry to hear that, Emily." He could even have been serious, though she sincerely doubted it. "Keep me updated on the Real Thing. They sound like an interesting team."
"Will do." She ended the call, then sat back in her chair and muttered a few choice epithets, aimed in Hearthrow's general direction.
It was true that the Brockton Bay branch of the PRT enjoyed a relatively generous budget for manpower and equipment, mainly due to the higher-than-normal incidence of criminal capes that seemed intent on infesting the ENE area. However, there was a distinct difference between keeping said villains in check with the intent of gradually forcing them out of the region, and discouraging an enterprising new influx of villains from taking up where the previous crop had left off.
The trouble was, all she had to back up her personal belief regarding the incoming problem was the single data point of the Boston Games, and the nagging feeling that it could happen again. She suspected that the Chief Director would need more than that before approving a budget increase for the ENE department, especially since (as Hearthrow had pointed out) the majority of the gang activity in the city had just been given a good swift boot in the head. If Costa-Brown couldn't see what she could, then all the arguing in the world would do not a damn bit of good. Which was why she was asking her fellow Directors to spare her personnel rather than going hat in hand to Washington.
The downside of this approach was that they could just as easily say no, as Hearthrow had just done. Still, he was just one person. There were more Directors she could talk to; hopefully, at least one of them would be willing to listen.
<><>
Later
New York PRT Building
Hero
"I really think she's got a point about a potential repeat of the Boston Games," Director Wilkins said thoughtfully. "The city would be wide open for it. I'm going to send a couple of strike teams up on detached duty until it's settled, one way or the other. Do you have any ideas for capes to back them up?"
Graham considered his response. New York had no serious threats in the offing at the moment. It wouldn't cost the city much to support Brockton Bay, and keeping the region stable did everyone a favour. "Absolutely. Prism could do with stretching her legs out from under my umbrella, and Cache will be a good backup for her. Also, one of our Wards, Flechette. You may have seen my report about how she's being targeted by a particularly irritating villain called March. Until we can pin March down, sending Flechette out of town will probably do her the world of good too."
Wilkins nodded slowly. "I concur. Good calls on all three. I'll have the paperwork expedited to your office so you can sign off on it."
He gave her his trademark grin and tapped the side of his goggles in a mock salute. "Copy that, Director."
<><>
A Little Later Again
Taylor
I had to admit, Hero had a gift for being charismatic, even when standing back while Director Wilkins of New York opened the press conference. It wasn't just his prestige for being what some called the world's greatest Tinker (which he totally was) but something more than that. Back when Legend first quit the Protectorate, some had wondered about Hero's ability to fill his predecessor's shoes as head of the team. He'd blown the doubters clear out of the water (so to speak) and gone on to lead the team from strength to strength.
Not only was he good looking (from what the public could see under his goggles) but he was also just plain nice. Capes tended to clash, especially when they were jockeying for good ratings, but Hero never bothered with stuff like that. He always gave his fellow heroes the credit they were due, and never tried to hog the limelight.
Not that there was much chance of doing that during a press conference, but he handled those with style and aplomb as well. Emma, Madison and I were watching this latest one, mainly because there'd been a mention in the news that there was going to be something about Brockton Bay in it.
Before we got powers, we might've watched it because cape stuff was occasionally interesting. Now, we were watching it because any cape events that involved Brockton Bay were by definition very interesting.
"I have to admit," Emma said in an offhand manner, "for a Tinker, he's very fit."
I'd made that observation myself but I hadn't voiced it out loud, mainly because I didn't want the others thinking that I was ogling Hero's manly muscles. Which I had been doing, just a little, but I was still paying attention to what the Director was saying.
"I'm pretty damn fit, and I'm a Tinker," Madison reminded her. "Maybe you might want to leave off trying to pigeonhole us all as losers who spend all their time hunched over a bench in the basement."
"Yeah, but you're different," I said. "You Tinker with heavy stuff. If you hadn't gotten fit, you'd be flat on your back, gasping for breath after five minutes."
Emma nodded. "It's true. Before we got powers, you weren't exactly the most athletic person in Winslow. Now, you're ripped."
"Yeah, well, you weren't either," Madison pointed out accurately. "It took your power to make you into Jackie Chan on steroids."
"Guys! Guys!" I hissed. "The Director's finished talking!"
They turned their attention back to the screen, just as Hero stepped up to the microphones. "Thank you, Director Wilkins," he said smoothly. "Good evening to you all. Thank you for attending this conference. Some of you may be wondering why we're making a big deal about the temporary transfer of some of our heroes to Brockton Bay, but honestly, we're not."
One of the news guys raised his hand. "Ben Portland, New York Post. If you're not making a big deal of it, why are we even having this press conference about it?"
Hero paused to chuckle briefly. "You make a good point. The truth of the matter is, it's a perfectly routine training exercise between us and Brockton Bay that's been blown out of all proportion. Prism, as my second in command, will be benefiting from exercising her own judgement in an unfamiliar environment, and Cache and Flechette will be accompanying her. However, a rumour seems to be getting around that our heroes are going up there to assist the East-North-East Protectorate in apprehending the new cape team The Real Thing. While they've been making quite the waves in the region, I can assure you that nothing could be further from the truth. The Protectorate will continue to integrate and work with local heroes, as it always has."
"That's us he's talking about," I said as another reporter asked an equally inane question. "We're the 'local heroes'."
"Yup." Emma looked quietly pleased. "But the Director didn't say anything about bringing in capes to integrate and work with us. Why are they really coming here?" None of us actually believed the line about the 'perfectly routine training exercise'.
"It must be the other thing," Madison decided. "The part she mentioned about moving too fast, and not giving other villains the message that it's unsafe to come here. She's bringing in reinforcements to help stop any of these villains in their tracks before they can get settled, the way Kaiser and Lung were."
Emma and I looked at her, then at each other. "That's got to be it." It made total sense to me. "Since when have you been a cape analyst, Mads?"
Madison rolled her eyes. "Did it never occur to either of you that the cute ditzy act was just that, an act? Sure, I put most of my mental effort before into looking and acting so adorable that the teachers would never suspect me of anything, but these days I've got different priorities. So, I've started paying attention to shit like that."
"Good point." Emma nodded approvingly. "Though you were smart not to do that while we were hanging with Sophia. She never trusted anyone with more brains than her." She gave me a sly glance. "Probably why she hated Taylor so much."
I wrinkled my nose at her. "I notice she never hated on you for your intellect."
The scuffle that started then involved a lot of tickling, but no powers whatsoever. By the time it was done, we were all helpless with laughter and ready to move on with the rest of the evening.
<><>
New York
March
May leaned back in her chair as the press conference ended and a commercial came on. "So, she thinks she can escape me by going on a training exercise, hmm?" A cruel smile spread across her face. "I think it's time to show her the error of her ways. And if any of these so-called heroes get in my way, they'll get the same treatment."
She didn't often laugh out loud as part of her monologue, but this time it seemed appropriate.
March was going to Brockton Bay, and nobody—and nothing—was going to stop her from getting what she wanted.
End of Part Thirty-Two
GreydonCreed
Man of Culture
- Location
- United States
Gods above and below, I know that the Conflict Drive is A Thing, and the Kiss/Kill Impluse among clustermates as well, but March really is coming down with a case of The Stupids here.
Even if it is not widely known that The Real Thing is responsible for taking down the ABB and the E88, leaving your home turf to play f**k f**k with your "Mortal Enemy" is majorly Dumb here.
Granted, if her plan is to break out the ABB/E88 capes to create chaos to attack Fletchette, that may very well bring down the Triumvirate - or at least Hero - down on her.
A separate question - is Eidolon's death and Hero's survival the butterfly that kept Earth Bet from going all grimdark like in canon? And did Legend leave the Protectorate because he found out about Cauldron's shenanigans?
Look forward to moar. 😎👍
Even if it is not widely known that The Real Thing is responsible for taking down the ABB and the E88, leaving your home turf to play f**k f**k with your "Mortal Enemy" is majorly Dumb here.
Granted, if her plan is to break out the ABB/E88 capes to create chaos to attack Fletchette, that may very well bring down the Triumvirate - or at least Hero - down on her.
A separate question - is Eidolon's death and Hero's survival the butterfly that kept Earth Bet from going all grimdark like in canon? And did Legend leave the Protectorate because he found out about Cauldron's shenanigans?
Look forward to moar. 😎👍
Rajvik_wolfboy
Wolf amongst the stars.
- Location
- Florida
ooh Marche honey, you really don't want to go there, you will of course because your stupid like that, but you really don't want to
- Location
- Australia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Marche is going to get Goomba stomped by a giant suit of power armour.
GreydonCreed
Man of Culture
- Location
- United States
Actually, all three of the Real Thing girls have a hard counter against March. Taylor - Invulnerable/Speed, Emma - High Level Martial Arts, Madison - Power Armor.
A fight against The Real Thing is going to result in March looking like a bug smashed against a windshield. 😅
A fight against The Real Thing is going to result in March looking like a bug smashed against a windshield. 😅
ThrawnCA
Carbon-based biped
- Location
- Australia
I was under the impression that the major divergence is, When William Manton gave a vial to his daughter, it worked fine. So he never went crazy, the Siberian didn't happen, therefore Hero survived (and Jack Slash didn't).
And then the Siberian vial ended up in the possession of the Trio.
AFAIK Eidolon is still alive and well.
More specifically, peak martial arts, the limit of what's physically possible. Against March's superpowered timing, it would be an interesting match-up. But I feel like Emma's power is broader and would give her an edge, eg timing alone wouldn't be enough for March to make the throwing discs rebound to her.
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MaimakteriAnn
(Verified Sleepy)
- Location
- Enormous And Round Terran Homeworld
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Dr
Except the whole point of having her appear as a character is that she has sting. so she can threaten Monochrome with thinker timing and a more powerful annihilator that Taylor's defense. She can match Firebird's extreme skill and mobility with careful timing. She can break good steel.
That's basically what she is for, a threat that counts when the protagonists get unassailable.
EnygmaSoul
Company of Negotiable Virtue
- Location
- In your eyes and in your arms and in your head.
I agree. That said, despite being an antagonist with edges that might make her a rough matchup for Taylor & Co, I still think from a characterization viewpoint March is being a short-sighted idiot.
In her place, instead of chasing my "prey" I'd be using the fact that it was only gone temporarily and will eventually return to the nest in order to scheme, gather and stack advantages, and set up a plan to utterly annihilate her once she roams back in range.
March has an opening where her "nemesis" will not be able to have any actionable intel on her movements and activities, and windows like that should be taken advantage of.
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M. H. Fuzzball
Aperture Science-certified Horrible Person
- Location
- Sector 2814
After reading A Darker Path, I almost want to call this Director Wilkins 'Wilkins In Name Only'. I'll leave the acronym unsaid; giggle if you must.
It's likely that May will end up envying ADP!March.
- Location
- Australia
All of this is correct, yes.
Legend left the Protectorate because of irreconcilable differences.
It's very much going to be a case of Combat Thinker vs Combat Thinker.
Mwahahaha.
Yes, she has Sting. However, Monochrome's defense is also All or Nothing. Firebird is also a combat Thinker whose whole schtick is adapting to her opponent. And Good Steel very specifically tells interdimensional (and extradimensional) effects to fuck off and keep fucking off.
Taylor can break a thin good steel blade with a whole lot of effort. We have yet to see what Sting does to it.
March has also never ended up facing a foe who could match her in any significant degree.
She has Victory Disease in spades.
GreydonCreed
Man of Culture
- Location
- United States
Will you ever go into detail as to why Legend left? Enquiring minds want to know. 😁
And I could have sworn I read that Eidolon died fighting Behemoth when he first showed up, and as a result the other Endbringers did not appear. It would have been one of the reasons why this Earth Bet is not so grimdark, to the point that Alexandria dropped by one weekend and unblocked Brockton Bay's harbor, leaving BB in better economic shape.
ThrawnCA
Carbon-based biped
- Location
- Australia
I did a search for his name in Reader Mode and didn't find anything like that. It sounds like you're describing Recoil.
Maybe I was confused but I had gotten the impression that Taylor was a modified Siberian, which is also sting. Is the resemblance just circumstantial and Taylor isn't running one of the stings?
Edit: Decided the question was phrased badly. Do we know if Taylor has QA who's basically pretending to be Siberian/Sting, or is it one of the Stings.
Edit: Decided the question was phrased badly. Do we know if Taylor has QA who's basically pretending to be Siberian/Sting, or is it one of the Stings.
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ThrawnCA
Carbon-based biped
- Location
- Australia
The Siberian is not Sting. Totally different shard. She's an unstoppable and immovable object, not a multidimensional attack.
And it's not QA (from Scion), because Taylor was fed a vial (from Eden).
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- Location
- Australia
Nah, the lack of grimdark is butterflies from when Manton grabbed a different vial for his kid, one that actually gave her workable powers (she's a well-respected hero in the Midwest now). No Sibby, no Hero death, Jack Slash died due to lack of invulnerability during a shotgun-to-the-face incident at the Davis house. Legend blew up at Cauldron due to sketchy practices, then left. They've pulled up their socks a lot since then (mainly in the hope that he would come back, and wouldn't out their BS to the world).
She has the Sibby vial.
Technically the Siberian is a projection, so the vial that Dr Manton took to produce the Siberian would have made Taylor a master with a projection. Now, it might be a different power expression of the same vial. That I can see, but it's not the exact same power. Unless you class the 'skin' that surrounds her as a projection.
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