4.2
The first thing cape-girl does is reach her hand into the blonde's head -yes
into- as said hand flickers and turns black. The blonde's eyes roll up into the back of her head and she convulses, and once the hand is removed she pulls herself to her feet, less the creepy grin.
She flickers, a white streak zipping from the top of her head down to the bottom of her feet while the rest of her body turns black, locks eyes with me, and then starts
running at me.
I've been backing away the whole time, not taking my eyes off of them. I
really don't want to waste any of my other bombs on this situation, and anyway they're a bit risky to me at this distance. I don't know what the blonde girl is doing or why she's running at me, but I'm inclined to assume it's to do something horrible to me. So when the blonde girl breaks into a run, I pivot and break into my own run, to the left. Directly away would be better for escaping, but worse for getting me closer to the Simurgh.
The blonde girl twitches at the neck, and then she adjusts to pursue. Hmm. A delay. I glance back at the other girl, but she's wandering off in a different direction entirely, not seeming to pay attention at all. If she's controlling the blonde girl, line of sight isn't a requirement.
To my dismay, the blonde girl is catching up, not because she's faster than me (She isn't, surprisingly) but because anytime I go around or over an obstacle she runs
through it, flickering black and white incessantly as long as she intersects it. I try zig-zagging, hoping it'll confuse her or something, but she just keeps running in a straight line, so I abandon that. After a couple minutes I'm starting to get a stitch in my side, while she shows no sign of slowing down.
So at the next corner, I take the turn and duck into an open door to an apartment (I think?) as quietly as I can, trying to not gasp from the tiredness and the pain of the stitch. A bearded man promptly comes at me with a baseball bat, screaming incoherently (angrily), but I duck under his blatantly telegraphed swing and keep running, trying to find a plausible hiding place.
I haven't found anything when the man's indignant screeching abruptly cuts off. I turn back, stepping quietly, to see what's happening.
The blonde's hand is in the man's head, and they're both flickering black and white, him laying on the ground, baseball bat dropped from nerveless fingers.
Ooooh shit. No no, fuck you, not a goddamn
plague,
why are you doing this.
I'm a
tinker, I need
time and
resources I'm not canon Taylor come the fuck on!
I grab a flower vase on a nearby table and chuck it at them, out of sheer frustration. To my surprise, the vase clonks the blonde on the head. I was expecting it to pass right through. Uncertain exactly
why this is the case, I decide to take the opportunity to use my shitty mortar as a crude club and swing it right into the blonde's face.
With a satisfying
crunch, she's knocked away from the beardy man, clutching at her broken nose. Weirdly, she makes no noises of distress, simply rocking in place on the ground. I glance at the beardy man, and then decide
fuck it and smack him in the fac-
-the mortar bounces off the ground underneath him as he flickers black-on-white, and he punches me in the forehead
through my mask. Ow, fuck, ow. I kick him, and I notice somewhat absently that I feel my
actual foot hitting him, not my foot through the boot. That's annoying. Then he flickers white-on-black and awkwardly throws himself at my legs, and now he's
not hitting my flesh, he's pressing my pants against my legs.
Regardless, I fall onto him from the unexpected shove (Cheating,
so fucking cheating, I want sane physics back), dropping the mortar, which clatters out of my immediate reach. I grab his dropped baseball bat and swing it at him awkwardly, but he flickers black-on-white again and it passes through him as if through empty air. Fucking
hell. He takes the opportunity to knee me in the gut, which fucking hurts. I scramble to get some distance and he tries to grapple me, and it's really fucking distracting how this feels like I'm goddamn naked
goddammit but I manage to get angled so he's got a good grip on one leg but not the other.
That's when I take advice from Grandpa and start kicking with the leg he doesn't have a good grip on and
don't stop. (Well, he was talking about kicking an aggressive dog, but same thing)
His grip slackens after maybe a minute of this. I keep kicking for a while after that.
Then I scramble to my feet and look at the guy. His face is a mess of blood, with some bone exposed, and one eye looking...
really gross. I think I have a cut on one foot, I'm not sure. Foot's sore, anyway. I double-check on the blonde, but she's still rocking in place, clutching at her face. Not as fearless as I would've expected for what seems to be a zombie mindslave of some kind. I notice she's flickering, which seems odd, given she's not trying to pass through anything. I'd love to know why, but I just don't have the
time. At some point the Simurgh is going to be driven away, and there goes my opportunity to try to kill her.
So I gather up the mortar and fast-walk out of there, not up for anything faster than that in my condition. A glance around as I leave exit through the apartment door reveals no other obviously flickering zombies, just people looking fearfully from their windows, plus a trio of thugs on bicycles that seem to be carrying a pile of loot as best as they can off in the distance. Also the Simurgh
oh fuck yes she's coming this way!
I glance around, trying to spot a usable fire exit staircase/ladder/whatever to use to get to a roof. I need to get in position before she gets here.
That's when the building behind me explodes.
Twice.
Into bizarre black and white ribbons accompanied by a pair of shockwaves carrying enough force to send me rolling, clutching at the mortar.
So glad I don't make my bombs shock-sensitive.
When I climb to my feet and look behind me, there's a bizarre space where black and white lines of stuff drifts like... kelp? Underwater plant stuff. Whatever it's called. Weird noises accompany it. I stare blankly at it for a minute, before it happens to drift into a formation
vaguely resembling the building that was once standing there. Oh. I see. What is even the
point of this?
… then I notice there's human faces and other body parts outlined, seemingly melded with the building, and I realize the "weird noises" are heavily distorted moans and screams.
Lovely.
Goddammit Wormverse, that's like, horrifying, I guess, but you're getting
predictable. And seriously, what's the fucking point?
Why? These Entities don't even seem to understand psychological warfare! I mean, they obviously
kind of understand it... oh fuckit, never mind. This is dumb. I'm beyond caring.
I put the horrible, pointlessly abominable monstrosity out of my mind beyond noting that the flickerphasezombies are... suicide bombers? On a timer, maybe? I guess? Even more dangerous than I'd originally thought. Point is I turn away and go back to looking for a way up to a rooftop. I try to ignore the horrified screams of other people apparently figuring out what they're looking at. I ignore it slightly less when I start catching people yelling things like "Look at what Oni Lady did!"
God
dammit.
I look directly at one of them until he cringes out of sight. I'd stare them all down like this,
but I'm on a timer. A bit of wandering finds me a building on the right track -a glance at the Simurgh confirms she's still heading this way, actually, is that Alexandria I see?- with its fire escape usable to climb up. Probably dropped open by someone when the sirens sounded. Which are still screaming for some fucking reason, but I've been trying to ignore the torturous racket semi-successfully.
Some walking and climbing later, I'm on the rooftop. Nobody ambushes me, which honestly at this point is a genuinely pleasant surprise, and I start getting set up.
Get the mortar stabilized, roughly. Load the "noise" bomb -if it works, it'll work at the greatest distance. Angle it. Wait another minute, watching for threats. I keep half-expecting someone in the sky to notice me and decide I need to die, but it keeps not happening. Finally I judge the Simurgh is close enough, remotely arm the noise bomb, and activate the mortar.
It flies...
… keeps flying...
… bursts into a flare of black light.
I watch the Simurgh carefully while I load the mass portal blocking bomb in, sight-unseen. No reaction that I can tell. Doesn't mean it didn't do anything, but certainly nothing
dramatic. Some of the flying capes react, stopping for a moment, and two of them buzz me, but none of them seem to have been affected either. Just curiosity.
So that was completely useless.
Now the Simurgh is close enough the highest parts of her shadow are inching onto my rooftop. I can also see the damage to her a bit more clearly -she looks
weird, like her wounds are the equivalent of pulling out chunks from a Jenga tower made of jagged white feathers. I don't remember that from canon. Don't remember the Traveler's arc very well. Hm.
I trigger the mortar again and start loading the resonance bomb, again sight-unseen.
It goes up...
… and up...
… starts arcing...
… and smacks into one of the Simurgh's telekinetically held shield-objects and detonates with a small flash of white light within spitting distance of her.
I-
------------------------------
Nothing to pay attention to.
Move along.
-------------------------------
-Iiii?
God
dammit, why do I keep
losing time when I use a portal blocking bomb? The Simurgh is directly overhead, I didn't see what the bomb
did, fuck!
I notice fliers are rejoining the fight, including Alexandria. I don't see Eidolon, and Legend has been contributing the whole time as far as I can tell. I think he's actually firing from beyond city limits. Probably capes lost their flight powers for the duration, the ones that survived got them back.
I guess the Simurgh was unaffected, because Fuck You I'm An Endbringer.
I adjust my angle and trigger the mortar to fire the resonance bomb. It goes up...
… and smacks into an object I didn't notice at all, drifting through the air maybe twenty feet above me.
Hell-
o there.
That was wasted, but
suggestive. Could be the Simurgh trying to fuck with me, but I'll assume for the moment the resonance bomb would've had a nasty effect on her and she moved to prevent it "coincidentally". Could be an actual coincidence... but probably not.
I start loading the black hole bomb, hesitate. Change my mind and load the neutronifying bomb. She's now passed overhead and is drifting out in the direction of the ocean. Only got one, maybe two chances left.
I trigger the mortar, aimed as best as I can at the Simurgh. This time nothing happens to block the bomb -goddammit, really?- and it impacts directly on her largest wing. A cape flying too close is suddenly a falling pair of legs and... the Simurgh seems
slightly smaller overall? Am I imagining that?
Hmm. Neutronifying bomb removes a
layer of skin? Is that it? Why?? Does this have to do with the compression effect being spatial warping?... Hmm. Food for thought on whatever future attempts I might have.
Alexandria is suddenly standing next to me snapping out "What the
hell are you doing, Oni Lady."
I don't even bother to try to suppress the twitch. This is Alexandria, she probably
already knows I call myself Bakuda
and knows "Oni Lady" pisses me off
and is trying to get me psychologically off-balance by exploiting all that. Or something even more cunning and insightful. Whatever. No point in pretending around her.
Instead I stare at the black hole bomb with a frown, half-ignoring her.
Could this work on the Simurgh?... I'm starting to doubt it. Maybe better to keep it to defend myself. In actual response to her I say "Trying to kill the Simurgh." with as little inflection as possible.
She frowns (
What is she trying to accomplish by frowning?) and says "Better capes than you have tried many times over the years." Oddly, there's no insult in her tone. She actually sounds vaguely like she's lost in memories... and now I'm wondering if she's
actually getting misty-eyed over Hero or if making me think that is somehow a ploy.
Uuurggh. Almost as bad as a precog.
I shrug and say "Doesn't mean I shouldn't try. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, ya know?"
Her frown turns severe and she says "Stop killing perfectly good capes over a
maybe."
The sheer
irony in having one of Cauldron's insiders saying that to me gets me giggling. Also the concussion, period, etc. But mostly... seriously? Wow. Stop killing people over a maybe?
Really?
Once my giggling fit settles down, Alexandria says in a very even tone "You're walking dangerous ground..." her eyes narrow behind that visor she wears. "...
sir."
I snort vaguely. "Oh yeah, my body language is too masculine or something, you're scary-smart, I'm intimidated now.
Not."
She gives a thin smile and says "A guess you confirmed, if you must know." I roll my eyes. Like I
care if she knows. Her face closes down. "I can see this won't go anywhere."
She whooshes to directly in front of me and grabs me by the neck and holds me up off the ground and says "If you
try to leave the interdicted zone after this is over, I will personally insure you don't survive the attempt.
Don't try." in this very calm and even tone that I'm sure is meant to intimidate me but, I dunno, I already knew I was fucked.
I depress the trigger of the black hole bomb in my palm. Her eyes slide toward it. I give my best smile, fairly confident she'll see the muscular motion behind my mask or whatever-the-fuck and know it's happening, and say "Fuck you and your hypocritical bullshit."
Not
really wanting to die, if I'm entirely honest.
Alexandria stares impassively at me. After a moment she says "You won't actually follow through."
I let go of the trigger (ie start the countdown to activation) and the next thing I know I've been gutpunched
way too hard -why do people keep hitting me in the gut anyway- and then
and
then
the Simurgh chimes in.
