- Location
- USA
3.5e has plenty of save or die spells, but a lot of the intentionally overpowered ones from earlier editions had at least a token attempt at toning them down. Most of 3.5e's overpoweredness is accidental in nature!
I want a refund! (Tinker of Fiction Semi-SI)
- Thread starter Unders
- Start date
3.5e has plenty of save or die spells, but a lot of the intentionally overpowered ones from earlier editions had at least a token attempt at toning them down. Most of 3.5e's overpoweredness is accidental in nature!
As far as I'm aware (and I've got a bookshelf full, so it goes pretty far) every insta kill effect in 3.5 allows for a save.
The best ways to kill things without caring about their resistances is a Mailman, which is good for something like 1400 damage, no save no SR at peak, or action economy cheese level draining. Level draining is fun for the antagonists who have delusions of being reoccurring. The Explosive Rune 'boombox' is also really funny and easy, though has the downside of you likely being at ground zero with it.
There's other weird stuff, like a deliberately small ranged weapon that does 1d2 damage, and luck powers to reroll a 1, and rerolling your damage dice if its max value, so potentially infinite damage (well, you run out of ammo) but that's vulnerable to DR, AC, miss chance, ect.
In terms of just physical beatdowns though, I've had really good luck with Were tiger using Shock Trooper and Power Attack. Power attack lets you trade accuracy for damage at a 1 for 1, Shock Trooper lets you turn the accuracy penalty into an Armor Class penalty instead, letting you keep your high accuracy but still having piles of bonus damage. Were tigers make extremly effective melee combatants to start with, get Pounce as a cat (which allows for all 5 attacks after moving, which all get the bonus damage), and the uncommon /Silver Damage Reduction offsets literally everything being able to hit you back (Seriously, single digit AC). Add Leap attack to double the bonus damage from Power Attack/Shock Trooper.
Combine with Scout levels to get bonus damage on attacks after moving. Which is usually limited to one attack, but you can take all 5 because Pounce, so you effectively quintuple the power bonus from Scout.
It's disgustingly effective, especially considering its got far fewer moving parts than most high cheese builds end up with. If the solution to your problem is hitting things, you're set. In 18 levels of play I never had a problem with that. Though more imaginative obstacles will give you trouble.
Not that that would work on an Endbringer. They seem to be basically immune to physical damage. If they weren't I suspect the Air Force would have gotten the job done at some point.
It seems like exotic effects are the way to go for Endbringer combat, ability damage, level drain, crowd control. There's a few save and suck spells, which do bad things to you even when you make the save, so those are nice. Grease is amazing for that, since even if you make the save there's still some obstructed terrain that slows movement through it, and the target is stuck balancing, which is a powerful debuff on their defensive abilities. A Sorcerer willing to spam Grease and a Rogue with a bow is a shockingly effective combination. There's a weapon enchantment that makes a bow shoot force projections instead of physical ammo, so bypass that DR!
Baleful Polymorph (if you can get it to stick) is a solid option, you chain it with other options since the target's saving throws will then tank, basically if the polymorph hits, then you pull out the higher level 'save or die' options that its now far more likely to fail.
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I propose an elegant solution to Leviathan.
Step One: Create/Summon Tarrasque.
Step Two: Introduce Tarrasque to Leviathan.
Step Five: Enjoy sight of Tarrasque treating Leviathan like a very squirmy jawbreaker.
Step Nine: Ride into the sunset on the back of the Tarrasque with Sam Elliot narrating.
Step Seventeen: Question the merits of suddenly going Pun-Pun in the Worm setting.
Step One: Create/Summon Tarrasque.
Step Two: Introduce Tarrasque to Leviathan.
Step Five: Enjoy sight of Tarrasque treating Leviathan like a very squirmy jawbreaker.
Step Nine: Ride into the sunset on the back of the Tarrasque with Sam Elliot narrating.
Step Seventeen: Question the merits of suddenly going Pun-Pun in the Worm setting.
- Location
- Auckland
BAD PUN ALERT! BAD PUN ALERT!
But I have to agree with this. Addy must not see this form. It would give her IDEAS.....
But I have to agree with this. Addy must not see this form. It would give her IDEAS.....
Unders liked it! Addy knows!!!
Unders
Suffers from delusions of competence
Probably not. The tattlesnakes are the better option at the moment, since the quest won't really take place in the Bay but during their upcoming roadtrip to bring Lisa's brother back to life
Ghost in the Shell would be really handy, but sadly she hasn't rolled it yet :'(
Sadly Addy doesn't have that knife, though it's on the list of stuff I'd like her to grab when/if i have her retake that specialty.
Fel draining is great. Especially when the mooks your players killed with it come back 24 hours later as wight's and begin a wightpocalpyse they suddenly have to deal with
I'm pulling from Eberron, not Forgotten Realms, so no Ao.
SO many times I have to stop and rewrite chapters because Addy does something completely absurd. Like the upcoming leviathan fight. I had things planned out and then Addy decided to Addy all over my plans.
Nope. She can't fix dead stuff though anybody on the brink of death can be fixed up.
They can actually restore it without needing to stone it first, since to the potions he'd already count as petrified (despite beign glass instead of stone)
He's about and off the house arrest due to Regent (who allegedly mastered him) being out of state. He's been laying low with his Coil persona and focusing more on his civilian identity. So far he's been working on propping up Piggot in the background, since he needs to keep her in power while he rebuilds and restructures things in his villain identity. And gets Regent taken care of (ideally dead and in public), so that he can show he isn't at risk of being 'mastered' again.
Ok that's pretty cool. Not likely to happen too soon, since I already know what the upcoming genetic horrors that'll give piggot nightmares are gonna be. But still, really cool.
Makes sense. Technically glass is stone. Since it is made out if sand.
Just remember, Addy has two bodies that need to be made into greater abominations. There is her body that interacts with the PRT, and then there is the Splyce body. Even if she doesn't do that to herself, that might be a good look for Splyce.
You know, its amazing how many people forget that part
Fel drainings negative levels only last hours a caster level though, so until you're at least 24th level, no accidental wightpocalpyse, since they expire before the 'rise as wight' part can happen.
- Location
- Somewhere
You know, its amazing how many people forget that part
I really do wonder how much time the Gods of D&D land have to spend fixing various apocalypses. And how many of those apocalypsii are because of somebody fucking around with the undead.
My head cannon is that, that's why nobody ever does any of those things, or other infinite power/bootstrapping tricks. As soon as you start a Deity comes down and slaps you with a rolled up newspaper.
"No, no! Bad Mortal! No breaking reality! You can have your Lawful Evil Candle of Invocation back when you've proved you can use it responsibly!"
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
There are enough thinker of fiction stories at this point that it would make a useful tag.
Unders
Suffers from delusions of competence
I like the slenderman x cthullu lovechild look for the Splyce body too much to change it to be more feline.
Fluffles the Fourth however....
Could be neat, though there's not really that many. There's only 8 ToF characters that I know of.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
That is more than enough considering I don't know how to find them.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Go to this website
Boy, the egg on her face when she finds out.
Boy, the egg on her face when she finds out.
I can honestly say, that had not occurred to me.
Accidentally signing up the biotinker they were hunting for is going to be all kinds of interesting paperwork.
Chapter 28. Well That Happened
Unders
Suffers from delusions of competence
*Slams head against keyboard and submits result*
Chapter 28:
(13th May 2011)
The enormous tidal wave rushed forwards, the roar of the water almost deafening. Inhaling deeply I focused on the magic my Black Mage outfit allowed me before releasing a spell I'd been wanting to try out for ages with a wave of my staff, my Aeon launching her own ice attack alongside me.
"Blizzaga!!"
A massive swathe of the incoming tidal wave turned to ice as the spells hit it straight on.
Unfortunately I miscalculated.
"Ah crap." I briefly had time to sigh before the giant mass of ice that hadn't lost any momentum whatsoever ploughed forward and smeared my soft and delicate flesh all over the street. And probably through a couple buildings too.
It was a quite lot of ice after all. [Agreement]
Kinda fitting the the day really. Things haven't been going to plan. It's kinda annoying really.
I should probably back up a bit so everyone can understand.
After Simmy confirmed that Leviathan truly was an asshole by attacking early I'd dragged my friends into a nearby alleyway so I could explain to them Leviathan was on the way and that they should either get out of the city asap with their families. Or get to the shelters if escape was out the question. While they were calling their own parents, and in Missy's case the PRT as well for a pickup, I called up Piggot and let her know Leviathan was ahead of schedule.
By the amount of cursing I heard from her before I hung up I figured she was as happy about this development as I was. Once she was informed I double checked to make sure the coast was clear in this alleyway before activating my dressphere to swap to my Black Mage outfit. I also mourned thepretty badass light blue sundress I'd been wearing, which was now consigned to only exist as subatomic confetti.
The sacrifices Endbringers force us to make are truly awful.
[Comfort]
But I needed to get in costume immediately, since Magpie being seen travelling across the city as a flock of crows is a lot more acceptable than Adeline Mathews being spotted doing the same.
Also I totally wasn't grinning in amusement when Louise let off a little 'whoa' afterward the light show had finished.
"Right, I gotta rush off to grab some tech. Get to shelters or out of the city." I reiterated to my friends, then struck a magnificent pose to boost their morale because they were looking frightened. Especially because the Endbringer sirens were now going off. "And don't worry. I'm taking Leviathan down today!"
Then I crowported up onto a nearby roof before spamming out my crowportation to roof hop away as quickly as I could.
My plan was fairly simple. I'll swing by home and grab a Bag of Holding to shove all the scrolls my homunculus has already scribed into. Sadly I don't have time to implement the special arrow that'd include Bag of Holding Portable Hole combo, but I guess I can save that for Jack Slash or Crawler instead.
After I grab the stuff from home we swing by the Lair and grab the control device for the Sphere of Annihilation, and maybe clone myself justy a tiny little bit. Then after that I can head to the muster point at the PRT with Taylor, where I can retrieve the dresspheres and rings that particular homunculus had been making.
Having three separate tinkering locations was cool, right up until I started to need to grab stuff from all three places.
Note to self: Tinker up some long rang teleportation of some sort to cut out on travel time.
[Consideration]
Anyway, while on route home via rooftop also I called Aunt Rose to let her know what was happening and I'd be home soon. I also sent off a text to both Lisa and Taylor to let them know what was happening. Then I rang up Uncle Danny and began to explain, yet again, what was happening.
I was pleasantly surprised to learn that he and Kurt were already on their way to the Lair with a van to load up the backup vita-chamber, since with the Endbringer sirens going off along with the rain beginning to pick up he correctly deduced that Leviathan was perhaps a little bit ahead of schedule.
I paused my travels briefly on the roof of a house at the end of our street, checking about to find a safe spot totransform swap back to my civilian clothing. Fortunately people were taking the Endbringer alarms seriously and the neighbourhood had mostly cleared out by now, allowing me to pop down near the side of the front porch of the house I was currently on and swap over to the civilian outfit stored on my garment grid. The simple jeans and hoodie combo. Rest in piece nice sundress. You will be missed.
Then I jogged off to my house, where Aunt Rose was already waiting for me.
"Get your things together. I'm going to get us some transportation." She told me before hustling off to do just that, Uncle Danny's crowbar in hand, leaving me alone to rush inside and grab my stuff.
Namely a whole pile ofA4 pages scrolls that I shoved into a small satchel that was really a Bag of Holding, along with a binder with loads of plastic sleeves that I planned to sort everything into later when I was less rushed. I left the other Bag and Portable Hole behind, since I didn't see the need to bring them along without the customised bolt to house them in.
Maybe if my Dragonmark was finished, but it's only grown to Lesser size a the moment, so sadly creating parts to make the bolt with out of thin air is out of reach at the moment. Let alone a big ass crossbow to shoot it with.
With the supplies I was after now acquired I headed back outside followed by my homunculus, which I sent a mental command to lock the door behind me. No reason to risk having the house burgled during the emergency. Opportunistic looting is a thing during any crisis and I have no doubts there'll be some assholes somewhere in the city doing just that. As for the homunculus I wasn't too worried about having it spotted. The street was already clear of any possible bystanders by now.
I found Aunt Rose waiting for me in the driveway sitting in the neighbour's car.
Huh. I wasn't expecting that.
"Taylor's not gonna approve." I said, tugging on my seatbelt. I very much doubted my sister would approve of this, since she's still on the more idealistic end of the spectrum due to not needing to go full Skitter. Well mostly anyways. She can be pretty pragmatic but gets hung up on silly things like legality or collateral damage.
My aunt huffed in amusement. "Probably not."
"So does this mean I'm allowed to steal cars in an emergency."
"No."
"Aww."
[Comfort]
We arrived to find the vita-chamber being loaded up into a van by Uncle Danny and Kurt. Knowing that that particular issue was under control I focused on more important things.
"No time to talk! Stuff to do!" I yelled, carrying my homunculus and rushing past Taylor and the adults so I could get started immediately on the third eye I needed. I had been intending to work on this tomorrow, but now is as good a time as any.
Once inside the Lair I dropped the homunculus and rushed over to TKO, the kickass stonetouch blitzball, before snatching it up and then bouncing it off the nearby wall and into my head.
Then I stepped out the vita-chamber rubbing my head and made my way over to Lisa's cabinet full of alchemical goodies, grabbed a Remedy potion and walked back over to my statue. Moments later there was another me, and we both linked minds so we could get on with the important stuff.
[Excitement! Data!]
Like having one of my bodies busy tinkering alongside my homunculus on the Third Eye of Conceal
More specifically one of bodies immediately began tinkering, alongside my homunculus, on getting a Third Eye of Conceal made up as quickly as possible. It was the best anti-Thinker thing I could make and I needed it right the fuck now, because while I could probably hide from Leviathan's water sensing via the NullTide ring easily enough, I was shit outa luck once he decided to get serious about things and just ask Simmy for targetting data. Because while Simmy is normally pretty cool and non-murderous towards me she would have to help him out if he asked, because this is an Eidolon enforced attack.
And he's apparently an asshole so he probably will.
Which means I need a way to hide from her if we want to limit the risks. Having myself targetted while still respawning at the Lair was not something I wanted to deal with at all.
Even more annoying, I won't be able to rely on the vita-chamber until the third eye is finished, since if the body I have out there fighting dies the vita-chamber won't make a new one since the one at the Lair will still be alive.
So in short, I can't treat my bodies as expendable until after the tinkering is done.
And while that body was busy tinkering at full speed, I had to use my other body to sort through my 'scrolls', putting them in protective sleeves to protect them from what was no doubt going to be heavy rain, as well as organising the binder they would be going in for ease of access.
That and convincing Aunt Rose that her joining in on the Endbringer fight is a terrible idea because I'm really not sure if my future sibling would still be inside my aunt if she got rezzed via vita-chamber. Plus I also wanted her out the city since I was going to be leaving her with a resurrection scroll, for just in case we can't get the backup vita-chamber out the city in time.
I've made a couple scrolls of raise dead, mostly for just in case I need to bring somebody back without the using vita-chamber. Such as Gallant, since he's a selfless ass and if he gets himself killed again this time round I don't want to have to deal with Missy being all sulky and angsty.
I'll also need to replace the diamonds Istole borrowed from some of Aunt Rose's fancy jewellery to use as part of the material components before she finds out, but I figure I can send some minions on a fetch quest to a local jeweller to pick up replacement diamonds. Then I can just use my Dragonmark to fix the necklace with the replacement diamonds and everything will be good. I can make it up to the jeweller later, once my Dragonmark has grown to full size and I have access to true creation. A diamond the size of my head should be a good enough apology for whoever I end up borrowing diamonds from.
I'm just happy the material components, in this case the diamonds, are used up when the scroll is made, rather than needing to be carried around, since it'd be awkward as hell to explain why I have to have a bunch of diamonds in my pockets.
Aunt Rose also has my only resurrection scroll (along with some of my blood), since that one doesn't actually need the body for it to revive people. That way if the vita-chamber gets smashed and if the backup doesn't work for whatever reason then she can bring me back and I can make a new vita-chamber to bring back everyone else.
Backup plans are important.
Eventually our arguments and Aunt Rose's maternal instincts won out over her desire to accompany us to the upcoming Kaiju fight and she left with Uncle Danny and Kurt in the van, leaving me and Taylor to figure out our own way to get over the the muster point.
"So where's Lisa and the snakes?" I asked once I realised the smug blonde and her minions weren't here.
"They left to go on ahead. We shouldn't show up at the same time." Taylor rolled her eyes at me.
"Fair enough." I shrugged, moving over to the car my aunt had borrowed to get us here while Taylor went about locking up.
"Addy. No." My spoilsport of a sister said when she saw me waiting eagerly by the car, ready to drive us to victory.
"Aww, but I can totally drive." I totally didn't whine.
"No."
"Aww come on. It'll be perfectly safe. I'll just need to stick some blocks on the pedals, or maybe clone myself again since I'm short, but other than that I can drive us no problem." I suggested helpfully.
"Lisa's been giving me pointers. I'm driving." Taylor said, taking control like the fun-hating control freak she is.
I clung onto my seatbelt for dear life as Taylor careened down the rain-slick streets on route to the PRT HQ. To say that her driving ability left much to be desired would be putting it mildly. I was actually rather pleased after she crashed into a wall a block away from where we were going, once I prised myself out of the airbag anyway.
I'm so glad all this ADAM in my system means that I can heal up from this shit easy enough. The only permanent injuries from this driving misadventure are to Taylor's pride.
Because I am never letting her live this down.
We continued on foot to our destination. I could've gone on ahead since with my crowportation I have better movement options than my sister, but it'd be kinda rude to rush off ahead. Also it gave Taylor a chance to ask a very important question.
"How the hell are you dry right now?"
"Tinkertech ring that nullifies water attacks." I grinned at her. "I've got one for you too up in my workshop." The rain was still picking up in intensity and having to walk from the scene of the crashed car because Taylor sucks at driving wasn't helping her dryness situation. By the time we arrived at the PRT HQ, which was the rally point for today's entertainment, she was soaked to the bone and the fur on her costume was looking particularly bedraggled.
"Thank God for that. This rain is awful." Taylor replied and I nodded in agreement, rainwater slipping smoothly over the brim of my large hat. This fight was probably gonna suck for all the people who wouldn't be getting one of my NulTide rings.
We continued along in silence. Well mostly silence. I counted Taylor grumbling under her breath about water and 'stupid cars being stupid' as being more like ambience than conversation.
Soon enough we were at the PRT building, which was buzzing with activity. Similar to an anthill that'd just been kicked over actually.
Out of town capes were being teleported in, then being quickly guided to the gathering point, which was the vehicle garage as that was the only area big enough to house everyone, and was where we were being directed to go. I waved off the few remaining PRT personnel giving directions before splitting off from Taylor and heading up to my workshop to grab the stuff the homunculus stationed there had been finishing for me. Unfortunately showing off my fancy PR approved workshop would have to wait for some other time, since I'd first have to get all sorts of forms signed first because Taylor wasn't a Ward.
I did let Taylor stick a couple couple bees on my hat so she could keep track of me. I could tell she was worried about the upcoming fight despite the fact she's so good at hiding that sort of stuff.
Anyway I tucked the tinkertech I was after into mysatchel Bag of Holding, where I was already keeping the rest of my stuff for the upcoming fight, before quickly leaving the lab and heading back downstairs to find my sister.
The bees she'd put on my hat acted as a handy guide for that, taking off once I was heading back down and forming up an arrow to guide me straight to her once I stepped back into the meeting area.
I didn't recognise most of the out of town capes, but then again I never really bothered to pay much attention to that sort of thing in the first place. A couple of the more well known ones I knew of, such a Myrrdin and Chevalier who were busy talking to Arsemaster about something. And the Triumvirate of course I could recognise, but other than that I didn't really know anyone.
As for the local capes, those that were bothering to attend were here already. Faultline's crew, who were clustered near each other. There were the two different Nazi factions the Empire had splintered into, both of which were were giving the other angry looks from across the room when they weren't glaring at me. The ABB was present too, which kinda made sense. Bakuda's ego was and sense of self importance was huge. Of course she'd want to show off against an Endbringer.
The Travellers being here was something I wasn't happy about, because it meant Noelle was somewhere in the city, probably in some secret hidden lair belonging to Mr Pedosnake, which means the whole Echidna mess is probably going to wind up being my problem eventually. Why can't they be in Boston? I don't give a shit if Boston gets swamped in Echinda clones.
Lisa and the snake girls, representing what people were apparently calling The Spliced, were positioned off to another side and were drawing a lot of attention. Lisa herself was wearing a smug grin, more specifically Smug Grin #8 Can't Touch Me Neener Neener, at the fact that she obviously worked for Splyce and nobody here could do anything about it due to the truce. The Tattlesnakes were mostly looking around with curious looks and/or smug grins of their own.
The bounty hunter capes that had been infesting the city sincemy Splyce's Kill Order was announced were watching them like hungry dogs watching somebody eat steak. Wanting but not allowed to touch.
Oh, and Mizzy and Lizzy were busy talking to Uber and Leet of all people. Ugh, they better not be trying to convince my Vipers to join in on their antics.
[Agreement. Standards]
Anyway now it was time to hand out the extra NulTide rings I'd made. Iskipped walked over to where Taylor was busy socialising with the local and out of town Wards. I also gave Hookwolf's group, which included Mjolnir and Ballgown Nazi, a cheeky wave as I walked past. It would've been a smug as fuck grin, which I was also doing, but with the scarf covering my lower face I had to settle for a wave to wind them up instead.
I contemplated doing similar to Purity and her group, but I honestly didn't really care about them that much. They weren't there when I got kidnapped after all so it's not like I have much of a grudge against them.
Aside from her being all wishy-washy on the hero thing of course. She kinda made a shit hero, considering she only targetted minorities and was so quick to backslide into villainy when her 'heroics' didn't work out.
Eh fuck it. I gave her band of Nazis a cheeky wave too.
"Magpie please don't rile up the Nazis. More specifically, the Nazis who know where we live." Taylor chided me as I settled into place next to her.
"Yes moooooooooom." I sighed back at my overly serious big sister. It's not like they can go after us at home. Not without the PRT coming down on them like a fat kid at an all you can eat ice cream buffet. "Anyway I brought some presents." I dug about in my bag of holding before pulling out the NulTide rings.
Taylor of course got one, along with the rest of the local Wards since leaving them to be soaking wet while I got to be bone dry was a bit of a dick move. I also totally wasn't blushing when I handed Kid Win his ring. Not all all shut up Taylor. I was just admiring his cooler new armour which looked way more modular and badass than before. I likewise ignored Missy's shit eating grin when she caught me not-blushing. She's lucky I'm such a great friend or she'd be getting waterlogged this fight.
The out of town Wards were shit outa luck unfortunately, since I only had so many rings. Lisa also didn't get one, but that's because she's here representing Splyce and I can't really get away with giving her stuff without it raising flags. Plus Lisa would be wherever the they shoved the thinkers, so she shouldn't really be getting wet unless things go really wrong.
I spotted Parian standing on her own and had a great idea.
"Hey Flechette."
"Yes?" She turned away from her conversation to look at me.
"See that cape there?" I said, pointing at Parian.
"Yes?" She replied, confused.
"She's local, single, lesbian and likes the same kinky stuff you do. Go say hi." I said, pushing her towards the cloth-based cape. This was one of the only good ships in Worm and I was damn well gonna make it happen even if I have to throw the two of them in a room together and lock the door.
"Magpie what are you doing." Lily demanded, struggling a bit but I had the power of kickass telekinesis aiding my noodly strength to keep moving her in the right direction.
"Getting you a girlfriend." I said, pushing her at Parian. "You two will make a diabetes-inducing couple. Trust me. I'm a super strong precog." I said, then left to two confused future lovebirds to talk.
Well that's my good deed for the day.
"What was that about?" Taylor asked me.
"Getting Flechette a girlfriend." I chirped. Then I remembered I had to hand off the extra dresspheres. "Hang on a moment. Back in a sec." Then I burst apart into crows and reformed in front of Arsemaster who was now busy talking to Dragon, the other Protectorate leaders having gone off talking to their own subordinates I think.
He was in his armour, not that he was going to be actually fighting. He didn't have enough practice with that fancy new prosthetic arm of his, so I think he was going to be stuck with the thinkers doing helping them somehow. Possibly using his prediction software to help track Levi or something maybe? Eh whatever. I don't really care either way.
"Hi Armsmaster. Hi Dragon. I've got the healing Dresspheres I promised. Who do I give it to?" I greeted the two heroes, pulling three basic Unerring Path garment grids from my bag that all had a single White Mage dressphere installed.
"I can take them. They'll be issued to the appropriate medical personnel." Armsmaster replied.
"Okay." I nodded, handing the three garment grids over. "Just make sure they've got plenty energy drinks. I didn't have time to make the same gear I did for Mothri."
With that taken care of I went back to where Taylor and the rest of the Wards were waiting, waving again at the Nazis who were trying to spontaneously grow laser vision with how hard they were glaring at me.
"So what was that about?" My sister asked me once I got back.
"Handing over those dresspheres I promised I'd make for them. We'll be at five healers now, including you and Panacea, and possibly even more depending on if there's any out of town healers coming in."
After that it was a bit more waiting as more capes showed up and things were being prepared. Then, about maybe thirty minutes before Leviathan was set to show up Legend began his speech. It was actually really good and morale boosting, even with the consideration that most of the cannon fodder assembled here were probably going to die.
While morale boosting it wasn't quite enough to keep my sister from being nervous. Luckily I'm here to boost morale too!
"Don't worry Mothri. I've got a plan." I declared, setting my staff heroically and placing my other hand on my hip.
"That's what I'm afraid of..." She mumbled.
I huffed in annoyance. Silly Taylor doubting me. I've got a plan to deal with Leviathan. I got plans for days.
Plan A was exploiting the fact that Leviathan's defences were multidimensional in nature by with a dimensional anchor spell. His durability comes from being multidimensional. It's why he hasn't imploded into a black hole or whatever despite the reality-warping density of his inner layers. Locking out his ability to shift mass along the dimensional axis means he'll be limited to whatever of him is in this reality, which will be a whole lot less durable.
It won't stop him from being able to use his hydrokinesis or speed, but at least we'll be able to hurt him. In fact if we can hurt him hard enough before he realises we might even get the core before he knows what hit him.
And with forty-three scrolls of dimensional anchor I should have plenty of shots.
Plan B was going to be the Bag of Holding inside Portable Hole trick, but thanks to him coming early I won't have time to properly implement it. At least not without the risk of being sucked through a rift into the astral plane myself, since I didn't have time to make some special ballista bolts as a delivery method.
Plan C is Demi, which should prove interesting. Final Fantasy's gravity magic was weird in the sense that it took off half (or a quarter since I'm using the FFX/X-2 version) of the target's current hit points, usually without being able to kill the target. The version I had access to also couldn't actually kill anything, which was the reason why I'd made the ring that let's me cast the spell in the first place. However I was pretty sure that despite not being lethal it would be a serious surprise to Leviathan when I started chunking off a quarter of his health each time.
Or however having chunks of your hp translated into real life circumstances anyway.
Plan D is my Sphere of Annihilation, and it's only Plan D because I'd have to find a way to lure Levi into a trap or something first because he can move way faster than I can move the sphere. It's a pity I self defenced Othalla to death. Her putting invulnerability on Clockblocker would've given us plenty time to get the sphere into position. I do have a wand of wall of force that might work for hemming him in once I lure him close enough to the sphere.
Plan E is getting Lily to just shoot Levi in his weak spot. Kinda boring, but it'll get the job done.
Those were the primary plans at least, the ones I thought had a good chance of either outright killing him or hampering him enough that somebody could get the killing blow. Except Plan B, which would've focused on dumping him into the astral plane (or whatever the metaphysical equivalent for Earth Bet is) because I thought it'd be funny.
There were other things I wanted to test out. Hold monster, baleful polymorph, antimagic field, banishment, limited wish, and binding were all things I wanted to test out to see if they'd have some sort of impact. Especially the banishment and binding spells, which could possibly end the fight instantly if they actually ended up working.
Then there were some buffing or utility spells that I was going to use. Time stop, fly, water breathing, water walk, locate creature, raise dead, glibness, haste and shapechange. Some I had multiple scrolls of, such as the water breathing and water walk spells. Others I'd only made the one spell since it'd be just for myself, had a long enough duration that I didn't expect it to run out, or was only going to be needed in very specific circumstances (such as glibness in case I wound up being interrogated by the Triumvirate after showing them up).
I was a bit more limited on the defensive options since while this specialty did have some good, stuff like blur and mirror image, it wasn't quite as useful against Leviathan as it would've been against normal people. All because Simmy's asshole brother is a cheating cheater who cheats and doesn't actually use his eyes to see. In fact basically all of the illusion stuff was essentially useless against him. Reverse gravity had been an idea, but I wouldn't be able to affect a large enough area to really be more than a slight annoyance. Assuming Levi didn't just wash himself out of the affected area with a tidal wave.
I could've made some of the the more damage-focused spells too, but it seemed a waste as since I'm a tinker and not actually a wizard or whatever, so I'm limited to magic items like scrolls, wands, etcetera. Plus I've got my dresspheres for actual offensive powers.
As for reality warping options I only had a single scroll of limited wish. Not because I couldn't make scrolls of wish or miracle, but because after I'd finished making this particular scroll I'd experienced a massive feeling of fatigue, which I figure is the 'xp' cost of the spell. With Leviathan coming and the massive xp cost of the full version I was worried I'd end up unconscious for days or something like with the psionic modifications to the vita-chamber and thus end up missing the fight.
After I've taken care of Leviathan will be when I can finally get to have some real fun with this specialty.
[Agreement. Anticipation. Data!]
I was snapped from my musings and back onto Legends speech when I realised I wasn't being mentioned at all! According to him it was the the Think Tank that figured out that Leviathan was coming and they were supposedly the ones that gave the advance warning for today. Bastards stealing all my credit! I'm gonna have to fix that after I take down Leviathan!
Aside from that blatant lie the speech also contained some important information. The command centre was being set up over by Captain's Hill, presumably because it's far enough from shore and elevated enough that errant tidal waves won't wipe it out. Likewise the triage centre would be nearby, but not close enough to make it a juicy target for Leviathan to attack.
After the speech groups were being formed up, Blasters with Legend, Brutes with Alexandria, etcetera. Taylor made to start dragging me over to one of the vans that'd be heading to the medical area but I shrugged it off.
"One moment. Got something to do first." I explained to her, before splitting off and making my way to where Alexandria was, passing by New Wave as I did so.
The main local independent hero group was missing Glory Girl, which I assume was because Glory Girl still had no control over her aura and they all knew I'd be here so they decided to leave her someplace else to avoid her hurting herself on me again. They were split with the forcefield capable members heading towards the barrier teams, Panacea heading to the transport with going over to the triage site and lastly the rest moving off to join the S&R teams.
They all seemed to be frowning and/or glaring at me a lot. Especially Panacea and Brandish. It was kinda funny actually how hypocritical that was. They were all about cape accountability until their own little darling Vicky got herself hurt by being her usual reckless self and now it was apparently my fault.
I gave Brandish a totally not cheeky wave as I walked past her to where Alexandria and the Brute teams were gathering. Alexandria immediately focused on me. I think.
It's a little hard to tell with that silly looking helmet of hers.
"Magpie you're not supposed to be in this group." She said rather rudely.
"I know. I'm here for something else. I can apply an temporary effect that'll let people breathe underwater." I volunteered to the brutes that were gathering around.
"How long does it last?" Alexandria asked, slightly more politely this time. I assume she's giving me an evaluating look, but once again the helmet was messing up my ability to tell.
"Thirty-four hours." I shrugged, opening my bag and pulling out the binder with all the A4 'scrolls'. "I've only got seven for you guys unfortunately, so you guys are gonna have to decide who gets it. I've also got five scrolls that let people walk on water for two hours fifty minutes." I actually had eight water breathing scrolls, but Taylor's gonna be getting one because drowning sucks and I don't want her to go through that if I can help it.
They conferred with each other for a bit before I was told who to buff. Then I went back to Taylor who was waiting for me next to the rapidly filling van. And a Panacea who was still glaring daggers at me, clearly jealous that I can mass produce better healers than her.
Seriously just what is her problem? I'm lowering her workload so she can spend time doing whatever it is she does when she's not overworking herself. So more time for smoking and angsty self-hate I guess?
Girl needs a hobby.
I eyed the van and decided I didn't particularly want to go with, and luckily for me I have another way to travel.
Because I am a genius. [Agreement]
"Hey Mothri. Wanna travel in style?" I asked. Then I cast a spell off a scroll I'd just pulled from the satchel, which was then followed by a mental twist of my will and I was suddenly a dragon! There were gasps of awe and surprise from all around me.
I took in my reflection on the van's windows.
Forward-facing horns set on an almost skull-like reptilian face, my underside covered in dull grey scales whereas the rest was a dark ebony. I looked away from my reflection and swivelled my long neck to get a better look at myself.
Black dragons are so cool! Even if I'm stuck at the young adult age category for them due to hit dice limitations of the shapechange spell. It would've been cooler if I was bigger, but the size of a large horse is still pretty good. And even better, black dragons can breathe underwater so I don't need to waste a scroll casting that on myself.
"A-Magpie what the hell?!"
"Always be yourself. Unless you can be a dragon. Then be a dragon." I nodded imperiously to her even as I sat back on my haunches like a cat. My voice sounding much cooler and deeper but still recognisably me. This is so cool. "I can carry you on my back."
"Your powers are bullshit! Absolute bullshit!" Clockblocker cried from across the room, obviously jealous of my new draconic majesty.
"I am a dragon. Your opinion is irrelevant." I announced imperiously. My big sister just facepalmed.
"Lets... let's just go." Taylor said after a moment. I nodded and crouched down so she could climb on my back.
Flying was awesome, even if the rain was ruining it slightly. I'm so glad I made those NulTide rings because the trip would've been absolutely horrible without them.
We also totally beat the vans that would've been taking us here instead. Now I just had to escape from Taylor so I could go out, kill Leviathan and save the day.
Which, unfortunately, was easier said than done.
"Where do you think you're going?" Taylor demanded, blocking my escape from one of the medical tents.
"I'm gonna head out on search and rescue."
"No you're not."
"Aww come on Mothri. I can help out way more without being stuck on healing duty. Hell I can't even heal!" I totally didn't whine at my moth-themed big sister.
"Magpie." She sighed. "I promised mom I'd make sure to keep you out of trouble."
"It's an Endbringer fight. We're in trouble by default. Plus I can help way more by ferrying the wounded back here." I explained. Conveniently leaving out the fact that Leviathan is going to be gunning for me anyway and if I'm here it puts people at even more risk. "And it's not like I can die."
Taylor eyed me suspiciously for a moment, or at least I think she did. It's kinda hard to tell her expressions with those goggles and full face mask. "Fine." She grumped after having thought about it for a while.
"Thanks." I cheered, giving her a hug and then slipping back outside into the rain and shifting back to my kickass dragon form.
I am so making that psionic skin thing that'll let me transform at will. Being a dragon is just too cool.
I'd flown off to go get my Sphere of Annihilation from the Rig, but encountered a couple technical difficulties with that.
The stupid force field was still up, I didn't actually have access permission to override and everyone who did was either too far away or too busy to do it for me.
Stupid forcefields ruining my moment of awesome. Even if it is surprisingly comfy to curl up on top of in dragon form, the forcefield beneath me glowing wherever my body was in contact with it.
For now I'll just have to wait for tidal waves to smash the Rig inland before I can get it from the wreckage and then kill Leviathan.
It was actually pretty peaceful up here, and I took the free time available to focus more on my link with my other clone (which sadly wasn't a dragon) to try get a feel for how the tinkering was going. Unfortunately I couldn't actually tell what was going on aside from the fact my other body was still in the middle of it's tinker fugue.
Kind of annoying. I'll have to avoid taking any fatal damage till after the tinkering is done, and then I can swoop in with my human body riding my dragon body and save the day.
My futuredolls action figures are gonna sell like candy.
I daydreamed about how awesome I was gonna be for a while, until Simmy decided to give me a heads up on Levi's progress.
{Warning}
Thankies. I replied, swapping back to human form and putting my fingers on the appropriate buttons of the fancy tinkertech armband I was wearing. "Wave incoming, two minutes."
No need to do a hard override, as I'm sure Dragon will quickly spread that information around so people in the splash zone can get to higher ground.
As for myself I stayed put where I was on top of the Rig's forcefield and waited, the water in the Bay beginning to pull back out to sea like in all those terrible disaster movies I loved watching.
Water rushed out.
Then water rushed back in.
Like a lot of water.
Not enough to engulf the Rig, not yet anyway, but still it was very sizeable wave that rolled in. The forcefield flickered as the wave hit it, the momentum enough to cause some water to flowing and splash harmlessly against me as I stood waiting at the top. Behind me on the shoreline forcefield, barriers and all sorts of other defences sprang up to hold back the oncoming tsunami.
"Leviathan sighted. I-6." Dragon's voice piped up from my armband.
"Time to prove I'm the best." I grinned to myself, double checking the location on the armband before swapping back to dragon form and taking off into the downpour. Search and Rescue to start with, then once my other body has the third eye finished I can use both bodies to go kill Leviathan.
[Anticipation]
The only downside with shapeshifting into a kickassand adorable dragon form was that all my gear merged into me too. Including the fancy tinkertech armband. I had to stop every now and then on a nearby rooftop, swap back and replay messages to figure out what was going on. I also had to explain to a confused Dragon that she should ignore any Magpie Deceased messages that end up being sent as a result of the armband suddenly disappearing.
Despite the issues I was doing alright to start with. I'd managed to rescue twoidiots capes who'd gotten a bit too close to Leviathan and paid the price for it, carrying the one on my back and the majority of the other in my talons as I winged my way back to the triage centre.
Said triage centre was already abuzz with activity, assorted movers delivering wounded to be fixed up. I left the cape who was missing most of his lower half under the care of some nurses who rushed him over to Panacea while the one clinging to my back despite a rather nasty gut wound got herself pulled off and tended to by some PRT doctor wearing one of my White Mage dresspheres.
More specifically the Paine version. Weird jacket-skirt thing and silly looking crop top and all. I had to keep myself from snickering because it looked absolutely hilarious on his six-foot, muscular African-American frame.
Must not laugh at causing muscular PRT personnel to cross-dress as magical girls.
I continued slowly tracking down and rescuing the wounded for a bit. I even tanked one tidal wave in the process which was weird as hell. Thanks to my ring and the fact I was a water breathing dragon the water did absolutely nothing.
The debris being pushed by the water on the other hand hurt quite a bit. Thankfully dragons are fairly tanky.
The fight continued, with casualties being called out fairly frequently and the city gradually growing more and more waterlogged. I was making another pass over an area recently visited by Leviathan to look for wounded people to help, everyone else on alert because he'd given the defenders the slip again.
"Don't worry. I gotcha." I said, landing next to a guy in power armour that was currently pinned up against a wall by a car.
"Thanks. Couldn't get the leverage." He thanked me as I moved it aside, allowing him to move again.
"No probs. You need a lift to medical or still good to fight?" I asked.
"I'll be-" He suddenly slammed his fingers down on his armband and began to yell. "Hard override! Leviathan D-16!"
I swivelled my neck around and looked behind us, finally gaining my first glimpse of Leviathan. The first thing I noticed was the eyes. Three on one side, one on the other and all of them staring intently at me.
Simmy did you tell Levi where I was? I mentally sighed.
{Affirmation. Apology} The space pigeon in orbit replied a bit sheepishly.
[Annoyance]
Then Leviathan moved. I barely managed to duck under his lunge before swapping back to human form to avoid the follow up tail swipe that would've gutted me had I still been a dragon. Then his much feared water shadow hit me.
And did absolutely nothing.
To me at least. The cape I was busy rescuing was pulped as tons of water hit him like concrete.
Four red eyes narrowed at me.
"Ultima!" I screamed, lashing out with my strongest attack, the shockwave of the blast blowing me back and through the window of some cheap diner. "Owwwww." I whined a bit in pain as I stood up, scratched up by glass and who knows what else with my hat and staff missing. I am totally making that magic item that converts pain to pleasure when I get the chance. Pain sucks.
I was glad I had regeneration or this would suck a lot more. Already the cuts were beginning to heal and the pain of a probably broken rib was already fading. I picked up my staff and was about to sneak out the back of the diner when Leviathan decided to express his opinion on the attack against him personally.
By scything his tail through the building. If it wasn't for Simmy I'd have been sliced in half.
Well, okay I was sliced in half, but a quick application of shapechange made that and the fact the building then collapsed down on top of my two halves rather irrelevant.
Black Pudding, the D&D ooze not the food, was pretty bullshit. Even better I've got another body in my burgeoning little hivemind. Of course both those slime bodies are buried in rubble, though they're both already oozing their way out of this mess.
Ooze senses are weird. I was using a mix of their sense of smell and touch, along with my own psionics to get a feel of the surrounding area and the beings within in. So far I couldn't really tell much aside from the fact that there was something big, probably Leviathan, being attacked by something smaller and capable of flying, possibly Alexandria, while other things out of my sensory range attacked Leviathan with ranged abilities.
My ooze bodies oozed out from beneath the rubble and back into the street before resuming human form. One of my bodies then swapped over to the Dark Knight dressphere and charged headlong into the fight, moving swiftly through the waist-high water thanks to my OP as fuck ring, while my other body began summoning up my Aeon, staff swinging about in wavy motions.
"Magpie get out of- what?" Alexandria (Ha! Called it!) began shouting orders to me before realising there was now two of me, the distraction allowing Leviathan to smash her down into the partially flooded street before grinding her under heel as he gazed murderously at my knight body.
My knight body gathered energy and unleashed an arcana, specifically Death, on Leviathan even as the tree from my Aeon was busy forming up next to my mage body. Unfortunately Leviathan shrugged off the insta-kill ability before swinging at my knight body which just barely managed to duck under the oncoming claws.
The water shadow did nothing, like before. And like before Leviathan's eyes narrowed as I completely no sold his splash attacks.
Then he lashed out with his tail, skewering my knight body right through the chest and causing my mage body to flinch with feedback through the mind link. Like seriously the fuck is it with enemies and stabbing me through the lungs?!
The shift in his weight allowed Alexandria to escape from beneath his foot and take to the air, spluttering as she gained fresh air again even as Leviathan reached out to my knight body.
My knight body coughed out a bunch of blood even as it focused on another arcana ability. Demi, which smacked the attack staggering Leviathan.
"Oh he did not like that." My mage body commented to my Aeon who was already darting forward, sword drawn, while my knight body was ripped apart by a furious Endbringer. And now I was down to just two bodies, one of which was still at the Lair working on keeping Simmy from being able to let Leviathan track me.
"Wave." Chirped the armband on my wrist.
I used crows to reposition to a rooftop and began flipping through the binder for one of the dimensional anchor scrolls. This was my best chance to hit the bastard with it while he was distracted by Alexandria, some other brutes just joining the fight and lastly my Aeon who still needs a name.
Hmm, Yuki works I guess and if she doesn't like it tough shit. It's her fault for trolling me by being a wannabe ice samurai.
{Warning} Simmy announced, giving me enough time to shove the binder back in the satchel and swap back to dragon form and take to the air before Leviathan leapt up and through the building I was standing on. I dodged that, but not the cape he threw at me.
"Oh hey Aegis." I grumbled painfully to my dazed fellow Ward, clutching him close to my body as I plummeted back down to street level. My wings were out of commission for the moment, the relatively more fragile bones having snapped when Aegis smashed into them.
A ramp of ice formed beneath me, provided by Yuki, that took the impact and allowed me to slide down without too much further damage to my wings, my body still curled protectively around my fellow Ward. Once back on ground level I swapped back to human form, shoved him off me and glanced about for Leviathan. Aegis took the air after a muttered apology.
I couldn't see Leviathan, but I did see a rather massive tidal wave coming in. At least twice the size of any of the previous waves he's levelled against the city.
I guess he really didn't like getting hit by a Demi. On the bright side I should be able to salvage my Sphere of Annihilation from the Rig that's bound to have been smashed inland by the wave. On the not bright side however I have no way of dodging the oncoming wall of water, and while the water itself can't really hurt me the debris being carried by it was another story entirely.
Unless...
I glanced at Yuki. "Blizzaga?"
She nodded back at me, sheathing her ice blade and getting into a stance for quickly drawing it. I likewise began gathering energy, glad to be using my Ragnarok ring because otherwise this would leave me a little tired out for a while.
"Blizzaga!!" I yelled, unleashing the spell alongside Yuki quick-drawing her sword and unleashing a wave of ice on the swing.
We were crushed moments later underneath a mountain of ice, because apparently momentum is still a thing.
The sudden shock of dying jolted my last body out of the tinker fugue and I shuddered at the memory of being crushed under a pile of ice.
"Well that sucked." I commented to one of the Sectoids busy rushing about with a bucket. There was about a foot of water flooded on the ground floor already, though the wands of wall of force seemed to be doing a good job of keeping the place from being flooded and/or taken out by the tidal waves so far.
The Sectoid made no comment as it carried on trying to unflood the Lair one bucket at a time. I'm glad I made the decision to keep them from the battle and instead equip them with the wands to keep the Lair safe.
I briefly considered cloning myself again but decided against it. The third eye was nearly done and once it's finished I don't want to have one body running around without it. I'll just have to hope Leviathan assumes I'm dead and goes after some other target for the moment. Or barring that I'm pretty sure the walls of force should be able to keep me alive long enough to finish it and get out of here.
With a sigh I slipped back into my tinker fugue and got back to work.
I came out the fugue pleasantly surprised to find that Leviathan hadn't paid a visit yet. Even better the thin piece of eye-shaped white crystal was finally finished and ready to be used to keep Simmy from pulling a Lisa and tattling my location.
Not sure why it was suddenly white. I'd paid loads of attention to the crystal I'd had the Sectoids working on and the original crystal was a reddish colour. Ah well whatever, so long as it works I don't care.
I pressed it against my forehead right where a third eye would be and it stuck on firmly, melding partially into my skin. I'd probably be concerned about that if it wasn't for the fact I could take it off without any issues whenever I wanted.
{Concern! Blindess!}
[Smugness. Amusement]
That's the point Simmy. Now I can't be precogged at all.
{Dislike}
[Smugness]
Tough. I need it to mess with your asshole brother and then kill fedora lady. I replied smugly, ignoring the mental grumblings from Simmy. It's not the end of the world if you can't precog me.
{Disagreement}
Drama queen.
[Agreement]
I was back out in the rain now, having crowed out of the Lair through the same small gap in the walls of force the Sectoids were dumping water out of. I also had one of the wands tucked into mysatchel Bag of Holding, along with some of Lisa's stash of potions so I could have some way of healing the wounded.
I actually had a really pleasant surprise with the Bag of Holding, or more specifically the fact it has some weird interactions when cloned via the vita-chamber. In short they all access the same storage space, meaning the one I'm currently using has the same stuff in it as the one my other body had died with. Though considering how my other body died I'm not entirely certain the other bag actually still exists so I'll probably need to run some tests at some point. Also I have no idea how the vita-chamber actually manages to duplicate shit in the first place, but I'm certainly not complaining.
Not when the alternative would be tracking down my previous corpse and looting it anyway.
Another bit of good news is my shiny new Third Eye of Conceal was hidden by my Hat of Disguise, which wasn't actually a hat at the moment but disguised as a hair clip. Honestly the hat was one of my favourite items. It let me use my natural hair and eye colour for cape business while letting me disguise them as their original colours when going as a civilian. No more stupid uncomfortable contact lenses for me. Also I don't have to explain the eye-shaped bit of crystal on my head and put it through tinkertech testing.
Since I'm pretty sure they'd find some way to ban something that'd make me immune to Path to Victory. Can't have their shitty, flawed method of keeping shit under control blindsided.
On the negative side of things though, my stupid shapechange spell isn't working. I tried to change back into a dragon so I could quickly get back into the action, but it didn't work. Because apparently it only affected one of my bodies, since separate bodies apparently count as separate people or something which is just stupid and plain wrong. All my clones are totally me, not different people.
Stupid magic not working how it should.
Which means I'm 'on foot' looking for a corpse I can grab an armband from so I can get back into the action, because the body I left at the Lair didn't actually get an armband. Meaning I have no clue what's going on, who's still alive or anything important like that.
At least I know vaguely where Leviathan is, thanks to a casting of locate creature. Which in hindsight I probably should've cast earlier so I wouldn't have been blindsided by Lizardy McBastard in the first place.
I crowported over to the top of another pile of rubble that used to be some buildings. The water was pretty deep now and the sewers seem to be damaged too. Totally gonna make something that makes me immune to disease after this. This is just plain gross.
Also the city really needs to work on their pest control game. I'm pretty sure German Shepherd sized rats aren't supposed to be a thing. There better not be another biotinker in the city making monsters because I just know that Piggot will blame Splyce, and thus me, for this mess.
Luckily I had plenty of firepower, and blasting rodents of unusual size with Fire spells was very cathartic.
I clambered over the rubble and paused. Oh goodie. More oversized rats, except these ones are gnawing on a dead cape. That's probably not a good thing. It's usually bad when animals get a taste for human flesh. Luckily I'm here to save the day. Sadly I can't burn them all to death without accidentally frying the armband I'm after, but on the other hand I do kinda feel like hitting something.
I swapped over the my Dark Knight dressphere and proceeded to indulge in the time honoured tradition of adventurers everywhere. Beating giant rats with a sword.
Once they were taken care of I looted the fallen cape of it's armband and began the reboot sequence, supplied by a grumpy Simmy, to get myself re-registered as Magpie instead of 'Falconbane', whoever that was. He did have a pretty sweet bird themed helmet though.
"Magpie back in the fight. Where's Leviathan?" I asked through the non-emergency communications channel.
"F-4. He appears to be-" "Wave." "-wntown."
Well that's not good. Even buffed with haste it's gonna take some time to get over there. Especially with me needing to figure out where the smashed up Rig is. And I have to deal with the incoming waves too. Stupid magic counting my clones as individuals. I wanna be a dragon.
I popped over to a slightly more intact pile of rubble masquerading as a building and made my way further south so I could get to the Rig. The water surging away heralded another incoming tidal wave. I crowported down into the street and slammed my sword into the ground to brace for the incoming wave and held my breath.
Said wave passed smoothly over me, barely felt thanks to the NulTide ring. The assorted bits of debris on the other hand were very felt and I was glad I was wearing adamantine armour. As the hits against my armour died down I swapped back to my Black Mage dressphere so I could swim up to the surface and get some air.
I had to deal with two more waves and a conversation with a sulking Simurgh before I managed to get to where the Rig, previous bastion of the Protectorate, was embedded halfway through the Boardwalk. I began making my way inside, glad that I had crows to aid with movement and Null Lances to aid with gaining access through locked doors.
I eventually found the lab I'd had my tinker testing, along with a very suspicious Sphere of Annihilation sized hole in one of the walls, which upon further inspection had similar sized holes leading straight through the rest of the Rig and leading right outside.
I sighed.
Then I began to swear.
I should've thought about this earlier. Just because the Rig moved didn't meant the stupid sphere wound up moving. I had the sinking suspicion it was happily floating in mid air, right in the middle of the bay, and more importantly out of reach for the moment.
I blame Arsemaster for this.
[Comfort]
After my disastrous attempt at grabbing Plan D I began heading towards Leviathan. Today has just been a major disappointment and killing him is bound to make me feel better. It took time to re-engage with the asshole since he'd gradually moved westwards into the commercial district over the course of the fight.
Travelling all this way with only crows was irritating, but all the other movers capable of giving me a lift were busy with moving wounded to safety.
I eventually caught up. Legend and Eidolon were blasting him with lasers and bullshit exotic effects respectively while Alexandria and some other brutes, including Hookwolf of all people, were trying to keep him generally pinned in place. Other blasters were lining up whatever shots they could.
Time to help out!
I crowported up to the window of some office building that would provide a good vantage point to shoot spells from. I wanted to be indoors since I think Leviathan can sense all the rainwater sliding off me while I'm outside.
I reformed on the window ledge and smashed a hole in with my staff, accidentally slipped and then fell off in the process. Luckily nobody saw that blunder and I was able to crowport back up and inside the office without any more issues.
Then I fished my binder full ofA4 pages scrolls out with an evil grin on my face.
[Data!]
Hold monster didn't work. I didn't really expect it to, since it's supposed to affect a living creature and I don't think Leviathan really counts, but on the other hand if it does work it'll make it easier to hit him with other shit. Either way it was worth a try.
Banishment on the other hand just made Leviathan stagger, and while it provided a chance for the assorted blasters to focus their fire on the suddenly disoriented Kaiju it didn't have the effect I wanted. Namely banishing the fucker off the face of the planet. I guess he's either too big or strong or however the hell Hit Dice equate to real world scenarios.
It also made Leviathan wary, and I had the feeling he was looking for me.
My first attempt at dimensional anchor actually missed and I had to pull back away from the window and hide for a bit because the ray caught Leviathan's attention. At least my theory that he can't see me if I'm dry and wearing my ring seems to be working.
Well time to try another spell that should theoretically end the fight right away. Baleful polymorph.
The spell worked perfectly, for a given and very loose definition of perfectly. On the one hand it turned a thirty foot lizard monster into an itty bitty cute little bunnywith adorable fluffy ears. On the other hand though, probably because powers and shards and stuff are absolute bullshit, it still had the water shadow and all the other fucking powers.
I'm guessing it's because it's body is just a projection or whatever so the other effects are coming from the rest of it.
Regardless of why the bunny still had it's powers the effect was pretty definitive. Things turned into a bloodbath. It was like a small, waterlogged version of that Monty Python rabbit of Caerbannog scene. Armbands sang with the sounds of capes crying out in confusion and/or pain, along with the more detached tones indicating who was down and/or dead.
"Shit shit shit." I swore, flipping quickly to the dispel magic scrolls I'd made even as the Fluffbringer proceeded to try gnaw Alexandria's throat out with it's adorable little bunny teeth.
"Okay got it." I ripped the scroll out and began fixing this mess. I looked down over the battlefield and saw the rabbit looking up at me with it's actual functional eyes. Ah crap.
I managed to dispel the polymorph effect moments before it hit me, meaning instead of being ripped apart by an extremely dangerous bunny I was instead crushed under the weight of an angry Endbringer.
I stepped out of the vita-chamber moments later, making a mental note to never use that spell on an Endbringer again.
[Comfort]
Once again I made my way back to Leviathan, who'd been heading gradually north over the course of the fight.
"Leviathan's focusing on medical." A panicked voice spoke over the armband.
Well that's not good.
"Holy shit! Is that moth girl?!"
"Cut the chatter!" Alexandria's voice broke through the coms, shutting everyone up. I hurried on as fast as I could. Taylor was in danger, and no doubt doing something crazy to stall Leviathan.
Sure, she'll just get rezzed back at the lair once she dies, but still. Taylor is in danger!
I reformed after my latest crowportation, finally having caught up to the fight again.
Huh, never mind then. Taylor is perfectly fine and kicking Leviathan's ass. Currently decked out in the Floral Fallal in all it's flowery glory and completely no-selling Leviathan's latest attempt to eviscerate her with his claws and simultaneously throwing down heals on nearby capes via one of the pistil things floating beside her.
Oh yeah. That dressphere has access to Barrier and Shield, for immunity to physical or magical attacks. Why didn't I think of that?
Taylor was doing really well too, smashing him head on with the full might of the assorted elemental attacks available to her through that dressphere, sticking primarily to fire effects since Leviathan seemed to throw any water or ice attacks back and lightning attacks with this much water around was just asking for trouble.
And while Leviathan was distracted by banging impotently on the unyielding wall that is my sister I finally managed to connect one of the dimensional anchor spells on him.
The result was immediate.
He still had his water shadow and other powers. Probably because they came from the core as well as from wherever the rest of his multidimensional body was, but as for his durability? Well that was fucked.
Sure, he was still durable, but he wasn't able to use multidimensional shenanigans to shift damaged bits out and fresh bits in to mitigate damage. Something attested to by the fact he was actually beginning to take visible damage. Purity's lasers for example were scouring deep gashes into his 'impervious' flesh.
I am a genius! [Agreement]
"Mothri!" I called out, moving closer after having just swapped over to my Dark Knight dressphere again. He didn't like it when I smacked him with Demi the first time and I wanted to do it some more. "Try stopping him!"
"I am!" She yelled back after blasting him with more fire that now began to scorch his flesh, clearly misinterpreting my suggestion.
"No I mean use the stop ability or whatever the fuck it is your pistil things can do! It should freeze him!" I yelled, crowporting out the way of an incoming tail attack. Not that I needed to bother, since Alexandria had rapidly interposed herself between me and tail to block the attack.
The water shadow knocked her backwards through where I would've been, so I guess it was a good thing after all that I'd dodged.
"Demi asshole!" I cackled, unleashing the arcana and causing Leviathan to stumble. It was as he was recovering that Taylor figured out what I was talking about. A wave of white-ish energy practically glomping the Endbringer and freezing him in place.
Floral Fallal is fucking bullshit. Immunity to attacks, healing powers, blaster powers, status effects. It makes me regret not making that special dressphere for Lisa.
Even better, unlike Clockblocker's power Leviathan wasn't immune to being damaged while frozen. Something the assembled capes began to take advantage of. I'd feel bad for Leviathan stuck there like a fish in a barrel but he's an asshole so fuck him.
Wait a sec. Don't Endbringers explode catastrophically when they die? Shit was that fanon or canon?
Okay, now I have to figure out a way to keep everyone from killing us all, because I'm really not sure if Boston is outside the blast radius. Fuck.
At least they're mostly aiming for the head instead of wherever the core is.
I took a quick mental inventory of what I've got on hand before a plan bloomed in my mind. First I need to stop anyone accidentally killing Leviathan before I can fix this. I stabbed my sword into the ground and fished out my binder of scrolls.
One scroll of limited wish later, turning Leviathan ethereal for forty-five seconds did the trick. Much to the confusion of everyone in the area. Luckily nobody realised it was me so I didn't have to deal with people being angry at me for 'helping' the enemy.
Now that he wasn't gonna explode for the moment I fished out one of Lisa's potions. I hadn't had a chance to use them to help people but oh well. It's gonna help now. I downed the liquid inside, a surprisingly delicious cherry flavour, and then grabbed the next scroll and prayed this would work.
Fucking one minute cast time sucks balls.
The hazy, immaterial form of a frozen Leviathan shifted back fully into the material plane before I finished casting and people began laying on the fire again. Black bones began to show as damage accrued, his head nothing more than a glowering skull. Then a very familiar voice rang over all the armbands in the area through the hard override.
"Base of the tail! That's the weak point." Goddamnit Lisa! Don't tell everyone where to shoot while I'm trying to keep everyone alive! Fire began to shift to and flesh soon melted away. Thankfully I finished my spell before more could happen than the dark orb cracking slightly.
I fell backward onto my ass with a laugh, my hand clutching what was once an empty potion bottle but now contained a very badly injured and very angry looking inch tall Endbringer.
Binding is such a bullshit spell.
Leviathan scratched futilely against the his new glass prison.
"Greatest! Tinker! Alive! Bitches!" I cackled, waving the bottled Citykiller around triumphantly in my gauntleted fist. Said cackling only intensified once Simmy was able to use her postcognition to see what had happened and then began to bombard with mental feelings of what could only translated as sheer {WTF}
[Smugness]
A/N
Writing Endbringer fights suck. I already suck at doing fight scenes, and Endbringer fights are probably the hardest to do well. Hopefully I did good enough.
And yes, Levi is now 1-inch tall and trapped in a bottle.
Chapter 28:
(13th May 2011)
The enormous tidal wave rushed forwards, the roar of the water almost deafening. Inhaling deeply I focused on the magic my Black Mage outfit allowed me before releasing a spell I'd been wanting to try out for ages with a wave of my staff, my Aeon launching her own ice attack alongside me.
"Blizzaga!!"
A massive swathe of the incoming tidal wave turned to ice as the spells hit it straight on.
Unfortunately I miscalculated.
"Ah crap." I briefly had time to sigh before the giant mass of ice that hadn't lost any momentum whatsoever ploughed forward and smeared my soft and delicate flesh all over the street. And probably through a couple buildings too.
It was a quite lot of ice after all. [Agreement]
Kinda fitting the the day really. Things haven't been going to plan. It's kinda annoying really.
I should probably back up a bit so everyone can understand.
After Simmy confirmed that Leviathan truly was an asshole by attacking early I'd dragged my friends into a nearby alleyway so I could explain to them Leviathan was on the way and that they should either get out of the city asap with their families. Or get to the shelters if escape was out the question. While they were calling their own parents, and in Missy's case the PRT as well for a pickup, I called up Piggot and let her know Leviathan was ahead of schedule.
By the amount of cursing I heard from her before I hung up I figured she was as happy about this development as I was. Once she was informed I double checked to make sure the coast was clear in this alleyway before activating my dressphere to swap to my Black Mage outfit. I also mourned the
The sacrifices Endbringers force us to make are truly awful.
[Comfort]
But I needed to get in costume immediately, since Magpie being seen travelling across the city as a flock of crows is a lot more acceptable than Adeline Mathews being spotted doing the same.
Also I totally wasn't grinning in amusement when Louise let off a little 'whoa' afterward the light show had finished.
"Right, I gotta rush off to grab some tech. Get to shelters or out of the city." I reiterated to my friends, then struck a magnificent pose to boost their morale because they were looking frightened. Especially because the Endbringer sirens were now going off. "And don't worry. I'm taking Leviathan down today!"
Then I crowported up onto a nearby roof before spamming out my crowportation to roof hop away as quickly as I could.
My plan was fairly simple. I'll swing by home and grab a Bag of Holding to shove all the scrolls my homunculus has already scribed into. Sadly I don't have time to implement the special arrow that'd include Bag of Holding Portable Hole combo, but I guess I can save that for Jack Slash or Crawler instead.
After I grab the stuff from home we swing by the Lair and grab the control device for the Sphere of Annihilation, and maybe clone myself justy a tiny little bit. Then after that I can head to the muster point at the PRT with Taylor, where I can retrieve the dresspheres and rings that particular homunculus had been making.
Having three separate tinkering locations was cool, right up until I started to need to grab stuff from all three places.
Note to self: Tinker up some long rang teleportation of some sort to cut out on travel time.
[Consideration]
Anyway, while on route home via rooftop also I called Aunt Rose to let her know what was happening and I'd be home soon. I also sent off a text to both Lisa and Taylor to let them know what was happening. Then I rang up Uncle Danny and began to explain, yet again, what was happening.
I was pleasantly surprised to learn that he and Kurt were already on their way to the Lair with a van to load up the backup vita-chamber, since with the Endbringer sirens going off along with the rain beginning to pick up he correctly deduced that Leviathan was perhaps a little bit ahead of schedule.
I paused my travels briefly on the roof of a house at the end of our street, checking about to find a safe spot to
Then I jogged off to my house, where Aunt Rose was already waiting for me.
"Get your things together. I'm going to get us some transportation." She told me before hustling off to do just that, Uncle Danny's crowbar in hand, leaving me alone to rush inside and grab my stuff.
Namely a whole pile of
Maybe if my Dragonmark was finished, but it's only grown to Lesser size a the moment, so sadly creating parts to make the bolt with out of thin air is out of reach at the moment. Let alone a big ass crossbow to shoot it with.
With the supplies I was after now acquired I headed back outside followed by my homunculus, which I sent a mental command to lock the door behind me. No reason to risk having the house burgled during the emergency. Opportunistic looting is a thing during any crisis and I have no doubts there'll be some assholes somewhere in the city doing just that. As for the homunculus I wasn't too worried about having it spotted. The street was already clear of any possible bystanders by now.
I found Aunt Rose waiting for me in the driveway sitting in the neighbour's car.
Huh. I wasn't expecting that.
"Taylor's not gonna approve." I said, tugging on my seatbelt. I very much doubted my sister would approve of this, since she's still on the more idealistic end of the spectrum due to not needing to go full Skitter. Well mostly anyways. She can be pretty pragmatic but gets hung up on silly things like legality or collateral damage.
My aunt huffed in amusement. "Probably not."
"So does this mean I'm allowed to steal cars in an emergency."
"No."
"Aww."
[Comfort]
We arrived to find the vita-chamber being loaded up into a van by Uncle Danny and Kurt. Knowing that that particular issue was under control I focused on more important things.
"No time to talk! Stuff to do!" I yelled, carrying my homunculus and rushing past Taylor and the adults so I could get started immediately on the third eye I needed. I had been intending to work on this tomorrow, but now is as good a time as any.
Once inside the Lair I dropped the homunculus and rushed over to TKO, the kickass stonetouch blitzball, before snatching it up and then bouncing it off the nearby wall and into my head.
Then I stepped out the vita-chamber rubbing my head and made my way over to Lisa's cabinet full of alchemical goodies, grabbed a Remedy potion and walked back over to my statue. Moments later there was another me, and we both linked minds so we could get on with the important stuff.
[Excitement! Data!]
Like having one of my bodies busy tinkering alongside my homunculus on the Third Eye of Conceal
More specifically one of bodies immediately began tinkering, alongside my homunculus, on getting a Third Eye of Conceal made up as quickly as possible. It was the best anti-Thinker thing I could make and I needed it right the fuck now, because while I could probably hide from Leviathan's water sensing via the NullTide ring easily enough, I was shit outa luck once he decided to get serious about things and just ask Simmy for targetting data. Because while Simmy is normally pretty cool and non-murderous towards me she would have to help him out if he asked, because this is an Eidolon enforced attack.
And he's apparently an asshole so he probably will.
Which means I need a way to hide from her if we want to limit the risks. Having myself targetted while still respawning at the Lair was not something I wanted to deal with at all.
Even more annoying, I won't be able to rely on the vita-chamber until the third eye is finished, since if the body I have out there fighting dies the vita-chamber won't make a new one since the one at the Lair will still be alive.
So in short, I can't treat my bodies as expendable until after the tinkering is done.
And while that body was busy tinkering at full speed, I had to use my other body to sort through my 'scrolls', putting them in protective sleeves to protect them from what was no doubt going to be heavy rain, as well as organising the binder they would be going in for ease of access.
That and convincing Aunt Rose that her joining in on the Endbringer fight is a terrible idea because I'm really not sure if my future sibling would still be inside my aunt if she got rezzed via vita-chamber. Plus I also wanted her out the city since I was going to be leaving her with a resurrection scroll, for just in case we can't get the backup vita-chamber out the city in time.
I've made a couple scrolls of raise dead, mostly for just in case I need to bring somebody back without the using vita-chamber. Such as Gallant, since he's a selfless ass and if he gets himself killed again this time round I don't want to have to deal with Missy being all sulky and angsty.
I'll also need to replace the diamonds I
I'm just happy the material components, in this case the diamonds, are used up when the scroll is made, rather than needing to be carried around, since it'd be awkward as hell to explain why I have to have a bunch of diamonds in my pockets.
Aunt Rose also has my only resurrection scroll (along with some of my blood), since that one doesn't actually need the body for it to revive people. That way if the vita-chamber gets smashed and if the backup doesn't work for whatever reason then she can bring me back and I can make a new vita-chamber to bring back everyone else.
Backup plans are important.
Eventually our arguments and Aunt Rose's maternal instincts won out over her desire to accompany us to the upcoming Kaiju fight and she left with Uncle Danny and Kurt in the van, leaving me and Taylor to figure out our own way to get over the the muster point.
"So where's Lisa and the snakes?" I asked once I realised the smug blonde and her minions weren't here.
"They left to go on ahead. We shouldn't show up at the same time." Taylor rolled her eyes at me.
"Fair enough." I shrugged, moving over to the car my aunt had borrowed to get us here while Taylor went about locking up.
"Addy. No." My spoilsport of a sister said when she saw me waiting eagerly by the car, ready to drive us to victory.
"Aww, but I can totally drive." I totally didn't whine.
"No."
"Aww come on. It'll be perfectly safe. I'll just need to stick some blocks on the pedals, or maybe clone myself again since I'm short, but other than that I can drive us no problem." I suggested helpfully.
"Lisa's been giving me pointers. I'm driving." Taylor said, taking control like the fun-hating control freak she is.
I clung onto my seatbelt for dear life as Taylor careened down the rain-slick streets on route to the PRT HQ. To say that her driving ability left much to be desired would be putting it mildly. I was actually rather pleased after she crashed into a wall a block away from where we were going, once I prised myself out of the airbag anyway.
I'm so glad all this ADAM in my system means that I can heal up from this shit easy enough. The only permanent injuries from this driving misadventure are to Taylor's pride.
Because I am never letting her live this down.
We continued on foot to our destination. I could've gone on ahead since with my crowportation I have better movement options than my sister, but it'd be kinda rude to rush off ahead. Also it gave Taylor a chance to ask a very important question.
"How the hell are you dry right now?"
"Tinkertech ring that nullifies water attacks." I grinned at her. "I've got one for you too up in my workshop." The rain was still picking up in intensity and having to walk from the scene of the crashed car because Taylor sucks at driving wasn't helping her dryness situation. By the time we arrived at the PRT HQ, which was the rally point for today's entertainment, she was soaked to the bone and the fur on her costume was looking particularly bedraggled.
"Thank God for that. This rain is awful." Taylor replied and I nodded in agreement, rainwater slipping smoothly over the brim of my large hat. This fight was probably gonna suck for all the people who wouldn't be getting one of my NulTide rings.
We continued along in silence. Well mostly silence. I counted Taylor grumbling under her breath about water and 'stupid cars being stupid' as being more like ambience than conversation.
Soon enough we were at the PRT building, which was buzzing with activity. Similar to an anthill that'd just been kicked over actually.
Out of town capes were being teleported in, then being quickly guided to the gathering point, which was the vehicle garage as that was the only area big enough to house everyone, and was where we were being directed to go. I waved off the few remaining PRT personnel giving directions before splitting off from Taylor and heading up to my workshop to grab the stuff the homunculus stationed there had been finishing for me. Unfortunately showing off my fancy PR approved workshop would have to wait for some other time, since I'd first have to get all sorts of forms signed first because Taylor wasn't a Ward.
I did let Taylor stick a couple couple bees on my hat so she could keep track of me. I could tell she was worried about the upcoming fight despite the fact she's so good at hiding that sort of stuff.
Anyway I tucked the tinkertech I was after into my
The bees she'd put on my hat acted as a handy guide for that, taking off once I was heading back down and forming up an arrow to guide me straight to her once I stepped back into the meeting area.
I didn't recognise most of the out of town capes, but then again I never really bothered to pay much attention to that sort of thing in the first place. A couple of the more well known ones I knew of, such a Myrrdin and Chevalier who were busy talking to Arsemaster about something. And the Triumvirate of course I could recognise, but other than that I didn't really know anyone.
As for the local capes, those that were bothering to attend were here already. Faultline's crew, who were clustered near each other. There were the two different Nazi factions the Empire had splintered into, both of which were were giving the other angry looks from across the room when they weren't glaring at me. The ABB was present too, which kinda made sense. Bakuda's ego was and sense of self importance was huge. Of course she'd want to show off against an Endbringer.
The Travellers being here was something I wasn't happy about, because it meant Noelle was somewhere in the city, probably in some secret hidden lair belonging to Mr Pedosnake, which means the whole Echidna mess is probably going to wind up being my problem eventually. Why can't they be in Boston? I don't give a shit if Boston gets swamped in Echinda clones.
Lisa and the snake girls, representing what people were apparently calling The Spliced, were positioned off to another side and were drawing a lot of attention. Lisa herself was wearing a smug grin, more specifically Smug Grin #8 Can't Touch Me Neener Neener, at the fact that she obviously worked for Splyce and nobody here could do anything about it due to the truce. The Tattlesnakes were mostly looking around with curious looks and/or smug grins of their own.
The bounty hunter capes that had been infesting the city since
Oh, and Mizzy and Lizzy were busy talking to Uber and Leet of all people. Ugh, they better not be trying to convince my Vipers to join in on their antics.
[Agreement. Standards]
Anyway now it was time to hand out the extra NulTide rings I'd made. I
I contemplated doing similar to Purity and her group, but I honestly didn't really care about them that much. They weren't there when I got kidnapped after all so it's not like I have much of a grudge against them.
Aside from her being all wishy-washy on the hero thing of course. She kinda made a shit hero, considering she only targetted minorities and was so quick to backslide into villainy when her 'heroics' didn't work out.
Eh fuck it. I gave her band of Nazis a cheeky wave too.
"Magpie please don't rile up the Nazis. More specifically, the Nazis who know where we live." Taylor chided me as I settled into place next to her.
"Yes moooooooooom." I sighed back at my overly serious big sister. It's not like they can go after us at home. Not without the PRT coming down on them like a fat kid at an all you can eat ice cream buffet. "Anyway I brought some presents." I dug about in my bag of holding before pulling out the NulTide rings.
Taylor of course got one, along with the rest of the local Wards since leaving them to be soaking wet while I got to be bone dry was a bit of a dick move. I also totally wasn't blushing when I handed Kid Win his ring. Not all all shut up Taylor. I was just admiring his cooler new armour which looked way more modular and badass than before. I likewise ignored Missy's shit eating grin when she caught me not-blushing. She's lucky I'm such a great friend or she'd be getting waterlogged this fight.
The out of town Wards were shit outa luck unfortunately, since I only had so many rings. Lisa also didn't get one, but that's because she's here representing Splyce and I can't really get away with giving her stuff without it raising flags. Plus Lisa would be wherever the they shoved the thinkers, so she shouldn't really be getting wet unless things go really wrong.
I spotted Parian standing on her own and had a great idea.
"Hey Flechette."
"Yes?" She turned away from her conversation to look at me.
"See that cape there?" I said, pointing at Parian.
"Yes?" She replied, confused.
"She's local, single, lesbian and likes the same kinky stuff you do. Go say hi." I said, pushing her towards the cloth-based cape. This was one of the only good ships in Worm and I was damn well gonna make it happen even if I have to throw the two of them in a room together and lock the door.
"Magpie what are you doing." Lily demanded, struggling a bit but I had the power of kickass telekinesis aiding my noodly strength to keep moving her in the right direction.
"Getting you a girlfriend." I said, pushing her at Parian. "You two will make a diabetes-inducing couple. Trust me. I'm a super strong precog." I said, then left to two confused future lovebirds to talk.
Well that's my good deed for the day.
"What was that about?" Taylor asked me.
"Getting Flechette a girlfriend." I chirped. Then I remembered I had to hand off the extra dresspheres. "Hang on a moment. Back in a sec." Then I burst apart into crows and reformed in front of Arsemaster who was now busy talking to Dragon, the other Protectorate leaders having gone off talking to their own subordinates I think.
He was in his armour, not that he was going to be actually fighting. He didn't have enough practice with that fancy new prosthetic arm of his, so I think he was going to be stuck with the thinkers doing helping them somehow. Possibly using his prediction software to help track Levi or something maybe? Eh whatever. I don't really care either way.
"Hi Armsmaster. Hi Dragon. I've got the healing Dresspheres I promised. Who do I give it to?" I greeted the two heroes, pulling three basic Unerring Path garment grids from my bag that all had a single White Mage dressphere installed.
"I can take them. They'll be issued to the appropriate medical personnel." Armsmaster replied.
"Okay." I nodded, handing the three garment grids over. "Just make sure they've got plenty energy drinks. I didn't have time to make the same gear I did for Mothri."
With that taken care of I went back to where Taylor and the rest of the Wards were waiting, waving again at the Nazis who were trying to spontaneously grow laser vision with how hard they were glaring at me.
"So what was that about?" My sister asked me once I got back.
"Handing over those dresspheres I promised I'd make for them. We'll be at five healers now, including you and Panacea, and possibly even more depending on if there's any out of town healers coming in."
After that it was a bit more waiting as more capes showed up and things were being prepared. Then, about maybe thirty minutes before Leviathan was set to show up Legend began his speech. It was actually really good and morale boosting, even with the consideration that most of the cannon fodder assembled here were probably going to die.
While morale boosting it wasn't quite enough to keep my sister from being nervous. Luckily I'm here to boost morale too!
"Don't worry Mothri. I've got a plan." I declared, setting my staff heroically and placing my other hand on my hip.
"That's what I'm afraid of..." She mumbled.
I huffed in annoyance. Silly Taylor doubting me. I've got a plan to deal with Leviathan. I got plans for days.
Plan A was exploiting the fact that Leviathan's defences were multidimensional in nature by with a dimensional anchor spell. His durability comes from being multidimensional. It's why he hasn't imploded into a black hole or whatever despite the reality-warping density of his inner layers. Locking out his ability to shift mass along the dimensional axis means he'll be limited to whatever of him is in this reality, which will be a whole lot less durable.
It won't stop him from being able to use his hydrokinesis or speed, but at least we'll be able to hurt him. In fact if we can hurt him hard enough before he realises we might even get the core before he knows what hit him.
And with forty-three scrolls of dimensional anchor I should have plenty of shots.
Plan B was going to be the Bag of Holding inside Portable Hole trick, but thanks to him coming early I won't have time to properly implement it. At least not without the risk of being sucked through a rift into the astral plane myself, since I didn't have time to make some special ballista bolts as a delivery method.
Plan C is Demi, which should prove interesting. Final Fantasy's gravity magic was weird in the sense that it took off half (or a quarter since I'm using the FFX/X-2 version) of the target's current hit points, usually without being able to kill the target. The version I had access to also couldn't actually kill anything, which was the reason why I'd made the ring that let's me cast the spell in the first place. However I was pretty sure that despite not being lethal it would be a serious surprise to Leviathan when I started chunking off a quarter of his health each time.
Or however having chunks of your hp translated into real life circumstances anyway.
Plan D is my Sphere of Annihilation, and it's only Plan D because I'd have to find a way to lure Levi into a trap or something first because he can move way faster than I can move the sphere. It's a pity I self defenced Othalla to death. Her putting invulnerability on Clockblocker would've given us plenty time to get the sphere into position. I do have a wand of wall of force that might work for hemming him in once I lure him close enough to the sphere.
Plan E is getting Lily to just shoot Levi in his weak spot. Kinda boring, but it'll get the job done.
Those were the primary plans at least, the ones I thought had a good chance of either outright killing him or hampering him enough that somebody could get the killing blow. Except Plan B, which would've focused on dumping him into the astral plane (or whatever the metaphysical equivalent for Earth Bet is) because I thought it'd be funny.
There were other things I wanted to test out. Hold monster, baleful polymorph, antimagic field, banishment, limited wish, and binding were all things I wanted to test out to see if they'd have some sort of impact. Especially the banishment and binding spells, which could possibly end the fight instantly if they actually ended up working.
Then there were some buffing or utility spells that I was going to use. Time stop, fly, water breathing, water walk, locate creature, raise dead, glibness, haste and shapechange. Some I had multiple scrolls of, such as the water breathing and water walk spells. Others I'd only made the one spell since it'd be just for myself, had a long enough duration that I didn't expect it to run out, or was only going to be needed in very specific circumstances (such as glibness in case I wound up being interrogated by the Triumvirate after showing them up).
I was a bit more limited on the defensive options since while this specialty did have some good, stuff like blur and mirror image, it wasn't quite as useful against Leviathan as it would've been against normal people. All because Simmy's asshole brother is a cheating cheater who cheats and doesn't actually use his eyes to see. In fact basically all of the illusion stuff was essentially useless against him. Reverse gravity had been an idea, but I wouldn't be able to affect a large enough area to really be more than a slight annoyance. Assuming Levi didn't just wash himself out of the affected area with a tidal wave.
I could've made some of the the more damage-focused spells too, but it seemed a waste as since I'm a tinker and not actually a wizard or whatever, so I'm limited to magic items like scrolls, wands, etcetera. Plus I've got my dresspheres for actual offensive powers.
As for reality warping options I only had a single scroll of limited wish. Not because I couldn't make scrolls of wish or miracle, but because after I'd finished making this particular scroll I'd experienced a massive feeling of fatigue, which I figure is the 'xp' cost of the spell. With Leviathan coming and the massive xp cost of the full version I was worried I'd end up unconscious for days or something like with the psionic modifications to the vita-chamber and thus end up missing the fight.
After I've taken care of Leviathan will be when I can finally get to have some real fun with this specialty.
[Agreement. Anticipation. Data!]
I was snapped from my musings and back onto Legends speech when I realised I wasn't being mentioned at all! According to him it was the the Think Tank that figured out that Leviathan was coming and they were supposedly the ones that gave the advance warning for today. Bastards stealing all my credit! I'm gonna have to fix that after I take down Leviathan!
Aside from that blatant lie the speech also contained some important information. The command centre was being set up over by Captain's Hill, presumably because it's far enough from shore and elevated enough that errant tidal waves won't wipe it out. Likewise the triage centre would be nearby, but not close enough to make it a juicy target for Leviathan to attack.
After the speech groups were being formed up, Blasters with Legend, Brutes with Alexandria, etcetera. Taylor made to start dragging me over to one of the vans that'd be heading to the medical area but I shrugged it off.
"One moment. Got something to do first." I explained to her, before splitting off and making my way to where Alexandria was, passing by New Wave as I did so.
The main local independent hero group was missing Glory Girl, which I assume was because Glory Girl still had no control over her aura and they all knew I'd be here so they decided to leave her someplace else to avoid her hurting herself on me again. They were split with the forcefield capable members heading towards the barrier teams, Panacea heading to the transport with going over to the triage site and lastly the rest moving off to join the S&R teams.
They all seemed to be frowning and/or glaring at me a lot. Especially Panacea and Brandish. It was kinda funny actually how hypocritical that was. They were all about cape accountability until their own little darling Vicky got herself hurt by being her usual reckless self and now it was apparently my fault.
I gave Brandish a totally not cheeky wave as I walked past her to where Alexandria and the Brute teams were gathering. Alexandria immediately focused on me. I think.
It's a little hard to tell with that silly looking helmet of hers.
"Magpie you're not supposed to be in this group." She said rather rudely.
"I know. I'm here for something else. I can apply an temporary effect that'll let people breathe underwater." I volunteered to the brutes that were gathering around.
"How long does it last?" Alexandria asked, slightly more politely this time. I assume she's giving me an evaluating look, but once again the helmet was messing up my ability to tell.
"Thirty-four hours." I shrugged, opening my bag and pulling out the binder with all the A4 'scrolls'. "I've only got seven for you guys unfortunately, so you guys are gonna have to decide who gets it. I've also got five scrolls that let people walk on water for two hours fifty minutes." I actually had eight water breathing scrolls, but Taylor's gonna be getting one because drowning sucks and I don't want her to go through that if I can help it.
They conferred with each other for a bit before I was told who to buff. Then I went back to Taylor who was waiting for me next to the rapidly filling van. And a Panacea who was still glaring daggers at me, clearly jealous that I can mass produce better healers than her.
Seriously just what is her problem? I'm lowering her workload so she can spend time doing whatever it is she does when she's not overworking herself. So more time for smoking and angsty self-hate I guess?
Girl needs a hobby.
I eyed the van and decided I didn't particularly want to go with, and luckily for me I have another way to travel.
Because I am a genius. [Agreement]
"Hey Mothri. Wanna travel in style?" I asked. Then I cast a spell off a scroll I'd just pulled from the satchel, which was then followed by a mental twist of my will and I was suddenly a dragon! There were gasps of awe and surprise from all around me.
I took in my reflection on the van's windows.
Forward-facing horns set on an almost skull-like reptilian face, my underside covered in dull grey scales whereas the rest was a dark ebony. I looked away from my reflection and swivelled my long neck to get a better look at myself.
Black dragons are so cool! Even if I'm stuck at the young adult age category for them due to hit dice limitations of the shapechange spell. It would've been cooler if I was bigger, but the size of a large horse is still pretty good. And even better, black dragons can breathe underwater so I don't need to waste a scroll casting that on myself.
"A-Magpie what the hell?!"
"Always be yourself. Unless you can be a dragon. Then be a dragon." I nodded imperiously to her even as I sat back on my haunches like a cat. My voice sounding much cooler and deeper but still recognisably me. This is so cool. "I can carry you on my back."
"Your powers are bullshit! Absolute bullshit!" Clockblocker cried from across the room, obviously jealous of my new draconic majesty.
"I am a dragon. Your opinion is irrelevant." I announced imperiously. My big sister just facepalmed.
"Lets... let's just go." Taylor said after a moment. I nodded and crouched down so she could climb on my back.
Flying was awesome, even if the rain was ruining it slightly. I'm so glad I made those NulTide rings because the trip would've been absolutely horrible without them.
We also totally beat the vans that would've been taking us here instead. Now I just had to escape from Taylor so I could go out, kill Leviathan and save the day.
Which, unfortunately, was easier said than done.
"Where do you think you're going?" Taylor demanded, blocking my escape from one of the medical tents.
"I'm gonna head out on search and rescue."
"No you're not."
"Aww come on Mothri. I can help out way more without being stuck on healing duty. Hell I can't even heal!" I totally didn't whine at my moth-themed big sister.
"Magpie." She sighed. "I promised mom I'd make sure to keep you out of trouble."
"It's an Endbringer fight. We're in trouble by default. Plus I can help way more by ferrying the wounded back here." I explained. Conveniently leaving out the fact that Leviathan is going to be gunning for me anyway and if I'm here it puts people at even more risk. "And it's not like I can die."
Taylor eyed me suspiciously for a moment, or at least I think she did. It's kinda hard to tell her expressions with those goggles and full face mask. "Fine." She grumped after having thought about it for a while.
"Thanks." I cheered, giving her a hug and then slipping back outside into the rain and shifting back to my kickass dragon form.
I am so making that psionic skin thing that'll let me transform at will. Being a dragon is just too cool.
I'd flown off to go get my Sphere of Annihilation from the Rig, but encountered a couple technical difficulties with that.
The stupid force field was still up, I didn't actually have access permission to override and everyone who did was either too far away or too busy to do it for me.
Stupid forcefields ruining my moment of awesome. Even if it is surprisingly comfy to curl up on top of in dragon form, the forcefield beneath me glowing wherever my body was in contact with it.
For now I'll just have to wait for tidal waves to smash the Rig inland before I can get it from the wreckage and then kill Leviathan.
It was actually pretty peaceful up here, and I took the free time available to focus more on my link with my other clone (which sadly wasn't a dragon) to try get a feel for how the tinkering was going. Unfortunately I couldn't actually tell what was going on aside from the fact my other body was still in the middle of it's tinker fugue.
Kind of annoying. I'll have to avoid taking any fatal damage till after the tinkering is done, and then I can swoop in with my human body riding my dragon body and save the day.
My future
I daydreamed about how awesome I was gonna be for a while, until Simmy decided to give me a heads up on Levi's progress.
{Warning}
Thankies. I replied, swapping back to human form and putting my fingers on the appropriate buttons of the fancy tinkertech armband I was wearing. "Wave incoming, two minutes."
No need to do a hard override, as I'm sure Dragon will quickly spread that information around so people in the splash zone can get to higher ground.
As for myself I stayed put where I was on top of the Rig's forcefield and waited, the water in the Bay beginning to pull back out to sea like in all those terrible disaster movies I loved watching.
Water rushed out.
Then water rushed back in.
Like a lot of water.
Not enough to engulf the Rig, not yet anyway, but still it was very sizeable wave that rolled in. The forcefield flickered as the wave hit it, the momentum enough to cause some water to flowing and splash harmlessly against me as I stood waiting at the top. Behind me on the shoreline forcefield, barriers and all sorts of other defences sprang up to hold back the oncoming tsunami.
"Leviathan sighted. I-6." Dragon's voice piped up from my armband.
"Time to prove I'm the best." I grinned to myself, double checking the location on the armband before swapping back to dragon form and taking off into the downpour. Search and Rescue to start with, then once my other body has the third eye finished I can use both bodies to go kill Leviathan.
[Anticipation]
The only downside with shapeshifting into a kickass
Despite the issues I was doing alright to start with. I'd managed to rescue two
Said triage centre was already abuzz with activity, assorted movers delivering wounded to be fixed up. I left the cape who was missing most of his lower half under the care of some nurses who rushed him over to Panacea while the one clinging to my back despite a rather nasty gut wound got herself pulled off and tended to by some PRT doctor wearing one of my White Mage dresspheres.
More specifically the Paine version. Weird jacket-skirt thing and silly looking crop top and all. I had to keep myself from snickering because it looked absolutely hilarious on his six-foot, muscular African-American frame.
Must not laugh at causing muscular PRT personnel to cross-dress as magical girls.
I continued slowly tracking down and rescuing the wounded for a bit. I even tanked one tidal wave in the process which was weird as hell. Thanks to my ring and the fact I was a water breathing dragon the water did absolutely nothing.
The debris being pushed by the water on the other hand hurt quite a bit. Thankfully dragons are fairly tanky.
The fight continued, with casualties being called out fairly frequently and the city gradually growing more and more waterlogged. I was making another pass over an area recently visited by Leviathan to look for wounded people to help, everyone else on alert because he'd given the defenders the slip again.
"Don't worry. I gotcha." I said, landing next to a guy in power armour that was currently pinned up against a wall by a car.
"Thanks. Couldn't get the leverage." He thanked me as I moved it aside, allowing him to move again.
"No probs. You need a lift to medical or still good to fight?" I asked.
"I'll be-" He suddenly slammed his fingers down on his armband and began to yell. "Hard override! Leviathan D-16!"
I swivelled my neck around and looked behind us, finally gaining my first glimpse of Leviathan. The first thing I noticed was the eyes. Three on one side, one on the other and all of them staring intently at me.
Simmy did you tell Levi where I was? I mentally sighed.
{Affirmation. Apology} The space pigeon in orbit replied a bit sheepishly.
[Annoyance]
Then Leviathan moved. I barely managed to duck under his lunge before swapping back to human form to avoid the follow up tail swipe that would've gutted me had I still been a dragon. Then his much feared water shadow hit me.
And did absolutely nothing.
To me at least. The cape I was busy rescuing was pulped as tons of water hit him like concrete.
Four red eyes narrowed at me.
"Ultima!" I screamed, lashing out with my strongest attack, the shockwave of the blast blowing me back and through the window of some cheap diner. "Owwwww." I whined a bit in pain as I stood up, scratched up by glass and who knows what else with my hat and staff missing. I am totally making that magic item that converts pain to pleasure when I get the chance. Pain sucks.
I was glad I had regeneration or this would suck a lot more. Already the cuts were beginning to heal and the pain of a probably broken rib was already fading. I picked up my staff and was about to sneak out the back of the diner when Leviathan decided to express his opinion on the attack against him personally.
By scything his tail through the building. If it wasn't for Simmy I'd have been sliced in half.
Well, okay I was sliced in half, but a quick application of shapechange made that and the fact the building then collapsed down on top of my two halves rather irrelevant.
Black Pudding, the D&D ooze not the food, was pretty bullshit. Even better I've got another body in my burgeoning little hivemind. Of course both those slime bodies are buried in rubble, though they're both already oozing their way out of this mess.
Ooze senses are weird. I was using a mix of their sense of smell and touch, along with my own psionics to get a feel of the surrounding area and the beings within in. So far I couldn't really tell much aside from the fact that there was something big, probably Leviathan, being attacked by something smaller and capable of flying, possibly Alexandria, while other things out of my sensory range attacked Leviathan with ranged abilities.
My ooze bodies oozed out from beneath the rubble and back into the street before resuming human form. One of my bodies then swapped over to the Dark Knight dressphere and charged headlong into the fight, moving swiftly through the waist-high water thanks to my OP as fuck ring, while my other body began summoning up my Aeon, staff swinging about in wavy motions.
"Magpie get out of- what?" Alexandria (Ha! Called it!) began shouting orders to me before realising there was now two of me, the distraction allowing Leviathan to smash her down into the partially flooded street before grinding her under heel as he gazed murderously at my knight body.
My knight body gathered energy and unleashed an arcana, specifically Death, on Leviathan even as the tree from my Aeon was busy forming up next to my mage body. Unfortunately Leviathan shrugged off the insta-kill ability before swinging at my knight body which just barely managed to duck under the oncoming claws.
The water shadow did nothing, like before. And like before Leviathan's eyes narrowed as I completely no sold his splash attacks.
Then he lashed out with his tail, skewering my knight body right through the chest and causing my mage body to flinch with feedback through the mind link. Like seriously the fuck is it with enemies and stabbing me through the lungs?!
The shift in his weight allowed Alexandria to escape from beneath his foot and take to the air, spluttering as she gained fresh air again even as Leviathan reached out to my knight body.
My knight body coughed out a bunch of blood even as it focused on another arcana ability. Demi, which smacked the attack staggering Leviathan.
"Oh he did not like that." My mage body commented to my Aeon who was already darting forward, sword drawn, while my knight body was ripped apart by a furious Endbringer. And now I was down to just two bodies, one of which was still at the Lair working on keeping Simmy from being able to let Leviathan track me.
"Wave." Chirped the armband on my wrist.
I used crows to reposition to a rooftop and began flipping through the binder for one of the dimensional anchor scrolls. This was my best chance to hit the bastard with it while he was distracted by Alexandria, some other brutes just joining the fight and lastly my Aeon who still needs a name.
Hmm, Yuki works I guess and if she doesn't like it tough shit. It's her fault for trolling me by being a wannabe ice samurai.
{Warning} Simmy announced, giving me enough time to shove the binder back in the satchel and swap back to dragon form and take to the air before Leviathan leapt up and through the building I was standing on. I dodged that, but not the cape he threw at me.
"Oh hey Aegis." I grumbled painfully to my dazed fellow Ward, clutching him close to my body as I plummeted back down to street level. My wings were out of commission for the moment, the relatively more fragile bones having snapped when Aegis smashed into them.
A ramp of ice formed beneath me, provided by Yuki, that took the impact and allowed me to slide down without too much further damage to my wings, my body still curled protectively around my fellow Ward. Once back on ground level I swapped back to human form, shoved him off me and glanced about for Leviathan. Aegis took the air after a muttered apology.
I couldn't see Leviathan, but I did see a rather massive tidal wave coming in. At least twice the size of any of the previous waves he's levelled against the city.
I guess he really didn't like getting hit by a Demi. On the bright side I should be able to salvage my Sphere of Annihilation from the Rig that's bound to have been smashed inland by the wave. On the not bright side however I have no way of dodging the oncoming wall of water, and while the water itself can't really hurt me the debris being carried by it was another story entirely.
Unless...
I glanced at Yuki. "Blizzaga?"
She nodded back at me, sheathing her ice blade and getting into a stance for quickly drawing it. I likewise began gathering energy, glad to be using my Ragnarok ring because otherwise this would leave me a little tired out for a while.
"Blizzaga!!" I yelled, unleashing the spell alongside Yuki quick-drawing her sword and unleashing a wave of ice on the swing.
We were crushed moments later underneath a mountain of ice, because apparently momentum is still a thing.
The sudden shock of dying jolted my last body out of the tinker fugue and I shuddered at the memory of being crushed under a pile of ice.
"Well that sucked." I commented to one of the Sectoids busy rushing about with a bucket. There was about a foot of water flooded on the ground floor already, though the wands of wall of force seemed to be doing a good job of keeping the place from being flooded and/or taken out by the tidal waves so far.
The Sectoid made no comment as it carried on trying to unflood the Lair one bucket at a time. I'm glad I made the decision to keep them from the battle and instead equip them with the wands to keep the Lair safe.
I briefly considered cloning myself again but decided against it. The third eye was nearly done and once it's finished I don't want to have one body running around without it. I'll just have to hope Leviathan assumes I'm dead and goes after some other target for the moment. Or barring that I'm pretty sure the walls of force should be able to keep me alive long enough to finish it and get out of here.
With a sigh I slipped back into my tinker fugue and got back to work.
I came out the fugue pleasantly surprised to find that Leviathan hadn't paid a visit yet. Even better the thin piece of eye-shaped white crystal was finally finished and ready to be used to keep Simmy from pulling a Lisa and tattling my location.
Not sure why it was suddenly white. I'd paid loads of attention to the crystal I'd had the Sectoids working on and the original crystal was a reddish colour. Ah well whatever, so long as it works I don't care.
I pressed it against my forehead right where a third eye would be and it stuck on firmly, melding partially into my skin. I'd probably be concerned about that if it wasn't for the fact I could take it off without any issues whenever I wanted.
{Concern! Blindess!}
[Smugness. Amusement]
That's the point Simmy. Now I can't be precogged at all.
{Dislike}
[Smugness]
Tough. I need it to mess with your asshole brother and then kill fedora lady. I replied smugly, ignoring the mental grumblings from Simmy. It's not the end of the world if you can't precog me.
{Disagreement}
Drama queen.
[Agreement]
I was back out in the rain now, having crowed out of the Lair through the same small gap in the walls of force the Sectoids were dumping water out of. I also had one of the wands tucked into my
I actually had a really pleasant surprise with the Bag of Holding, or more specifically the fact it has some weird interactions when cloned via the vita-chamber. In short they all access the same storage space, meaning the one I'm currently using has the same stuff in it as the one my other body had died with. Though considering how my other body died I'm not entirely certain the other bag actually still exists so I'll probably need to run some tests at some point. Also I have no idea how the vita-chamber actually manages to duplicate shit in the first place, but I'm certainly not complaining.
Not when the alternative would be tracking down my previous corpse and looting it anyway.
Another bit of good news is my shiny new Third Eye of Conceal was hidden by my Hat of Disguise, which wasn't actually a hat at the moment but disguised as a hair clip. Honestly the hat was one of my favourite items. It let me use my natural hair and eye colour for cape business while letting me disguise them as their original colours when going as a civilian. No more stupid uncomfortable contact lenses for me. Also I don't have to explain the eye-shaped bit of crystal on my head and put it through tinkertech testing.
Since I'm pretty sure they'd find some way to ban something that'd make me immune to Path to Victory. Can't have their shitty, flawed method of keeping shit under control blindsided.
On the negative side of things though, my stupid shapechange spell isn't working. I tried to change back into a dragon so I could quickly get back into the action, but it didn't work. Because apparently it only affected one of my bodies, since separate bodies apparently count as separate people or something which is just stupid and plain wrong. All my clones are totally me, not different people.
Stupid magic not working how it should.
Which means I'm 'on foot' looking for a corpse I can grab an armband from so I can get back into the action, because the body I left at the Lair didn't actually get an armband. Meaning I have no clue what's going on, who's still alive or anything important like that.
At least I know vaguely where Leviathan is, thanks to a casting of locate creature. Which in hindsight I probably should've cast earlier so I wouldn't have been blindsided by Lizardy McBastard in the first place.
I crowported over to the top of another pile of rubble that used to be some buildings. The water was pretty deep now and the sewers seem to be damaged too. Totally gonna make something that makes me immune to disease after this. This is just plain gross.
Also the city really needs to work on their pest control game. I'm pretty sure German Shepherd sized rats aren't supposed to be a thing. There better not be another biotinker in the city making monsters because I just know that Piggot will blame Splyce, and thus me, for this mess.
Luckily I had plenty of firepower, and blasting rodents of unusual size with Fire spells was very cathartic.
I clambered over the rubble and paused. Oh goodie. More oversized rats, except these ones are gnawing on a dead cape. That's probably not a good thing. It's usually bad when animals get a taste for human flesh. Luckily I'm here to save the day. Sadly I can't burn them all to death without accidentally frying the armband I'm after, but on the other hand I do kinda feel like hitting something.
I swapped over the my Dark Knight dressphere and proceeded to indulge in the time honoured tradition of adventurers everywhere. Beating giant rats with a sword.
Once they were taken care of I looted the fallen cape of it's armband and began the reboot sequence, supplied by a grumpy Simmy, to get myself re-registered as Magpie instead of 'Falconbane', whoever that was. He did have a pretty sweet bird themed helmet though.
"Magpie back in the fight. Where's Leviathan?" I asked through the non-emergency communications channel.
"F-4. He appears to be-" "Wave." "-wntown."
Well that's not good. Even buffed with haste it's gonna take some time to get over there. Especially with me needing to figure out where the smashed up Rig is. And I have to deal with the incoming waves too. Stupid magic counting my clones as individuals. I wanna be a dragon.
I popped over to a slightly more intact pile of rubble masquerading as a building and made my way further south so I could get to the Rig. The water surging away heralded another incoming tidal wave. I crowported down into the street and slammed my sword into the ground to brace for the incoming wave and held my breath.
Said wave passed smoothly over me, barely felt thanks to the NulTide ring. The assorted bits of debris on the other hand were very felt and I was glad I was wearing adamantine armour. As the hits against my armour died down I swapped back to my Black Mage dressphere so I could swim up to the surface and get some air.
I had to deal with two more waves and a conversation with a sulking Simurgh before I managed to get to where the Rig, previous bastion of the Protectorate, was embedded halfway through the Boardwalk. I began making my way inside, glad that I had crows to aid with movement and Null Lances to aid with gaining access through locked doors.
I eventually found the lab I'd had my tinker testing, along with a very suspicious Sphere of Annihilation sized hole in one of the walls, which upon further inspection had similar sized holes leading straight through the rest of the Rig and leading right outside.
I sighed.
Then I began to swear.
I should've thought about this earlier. Just because the Rig moved didn't meant the stupid sphere wound up moving. I had the sinking suspicion it was happily floating in mid air, right in the middle of the bay, and more importantly out of reach for the moment.
I blame Arsemaster for this.
[Comfort]
After my disastrous attempt at grabbing Plan D I began heading towards Leviathan. Today has just been a major disappointment and killing him is bound to make me feel better. It took time to re-engage with the asshole since he'd gradually moved westwards into the commercial district over the course of the fight.
Travelling all this way with only crows was irritating, but all the other movers capable of giving me a lift were busy with moving wounded to safety.
I eventually caught up. Legend and Eidolon were blasting him with lasers and bullshit exotic effects respectively while Alexandria and some other brutes, including Hookwolf of all people, were trying to keep him generally pinned in place. Other blasters were lining up whatever shots they could.
Time to help out!
I crowported up to the window of some office building that would provide a good vantage point to shoot spells from. I wanted to be indoors since I think Leviathan can sense all the rainwater sliding off me while I'm outside.
I reformed on the window ledge and smashed a hole in with my staff, accidentally slipped and then fell off in the process. Luckily nobody saw that blunder and I was able to crowport back up and inside the office without any more issues.
Then I fished my binder full of
[Data!]
Hold monster didn't work. I didn't really expect it to, since it's supposed to affect a living creature and I don't think Leviathan really counts, but on the other hand if it does work it'll make it easier to hit him with other shit. Either way it was worth a try.
Banishment on the other hand just made Leviathan stagger, and while it provided a chance for the assorted blasters to focus their fire on the suddenly disoriented Kaiju it didn't have the effect I wanted. Namely banishing the fucker off the face of the planet. I guess he's either too big or strong or however the hell Hit Dice equate to real world scenarios.
It also made Leviathan wary, and I had the feeling he was looking for me.
My first attempt at dimensional anchor actually missed and I had to pull back away from the window and hide for a bit because the ray caught Leviathan's attention. At least my theory that he can't see me if I'm dry and wearing my ring seems to be working.
Well time to try another spell that should theoretically end the fight right away. Baleful polymorph.
The spell worked perfectly, for a given and very loose definition of perfectly. On the one hand it turned a thirty foot lizard monster into an itty bitty cute little bunny
I'm guessing it's because it's body is just a projection or whatever so the other effects are coming from the rest of it.
Regardless of why the bunny still had it's powers the effect was pretty definitive. Things turned into a bloodbath. It was like a small, waterlogged version of that Monty Python rabbit of Caerbannog scene. Armbands sang with the sounds of capes crying out in confusion and/or pain, along with the more detached tones indicating who was down and/or dead.
"Shit shit shit." I swore, flipping quickly to the dispel magic scrolls I'd made even as the Fluffbringer proceeded to try gnaw Alexandria's throat out with it's adorable little bunny teeth.
"Okay got it." I ripped the scroll out and began fixing this mess. I looked down over the battlefield and saw the rabbit looking up at me with it's actual functional eyes. Ah crap.
I managed to dispel the polymorph effect moments before it hit me, meaning instead of being ripped apart by an extremely dangerous bunny I was instead crushed under the weight of an angry Endbringer.
I stepped out of the vita-chamber moments later, making a mental note to never use that spell on an Endbringer again.
[Comfort]
Once again I made my way back to Leviathan, who'd been heading gradually north over the course of the fight.
"Leviathan's focusing on medical." A panicked voice spoke over the armband.
Well that's not good.
"Holy shit! Is that moth girl?!"
"Cut the chatter!" Alexandria's voice broke through the coms, shutting everyone up. I hurried on as fast as I could. Taylor was in danger, and no doubt doing something crazy to stall Leviathan.
Sure, she'll just get rezzed back at the lair once she dies, but still. Taylor is in danger!
I reformed after my latest crowportation, finally having caught up to the fight again.
Huh, never mind then. Taylor is perfectly fine and kicking Leviathan's ass. Currently decked out in the Floral Fallal in all it's flowery glory and completely no-selling Leviathan's latest attempt to eviscerate her with his claws and simultaneously throwing down heals on nearby capes via one of the pistil things floating beside her.
Oh yeah. That dressphere has access to Barrier and Shield, for immunity to physical or magical attacks. Why didn't I think of that?
Taylor was doing really well too, smashing him head on with the full might of the assorted elemental attacks available to her through that dressphere, sticking primarily to fire effects since Leviathan seemed to throw any water or ice attacks back and lightning attacks with this much water around was just asking for trouble.
And while Leviathan was distracted by banging impotently on the unyielding wall that is my sister I finally managed to connect one of the dimensional anchor spells on him.
The result was immediate.
He still had his water shadow and other powers. Probably because they came from the core as well as from wherever the rest of his multidimensional body was, but as for his durability? Well that was fucked.
Sure, he was still durable, but he wasn't able to use multidimensional shenanigans to shift damaged bits out and fresh bits in to mitigate damage. Something attested to by the fact he was actually beginning to take visible damage. Purity's lasers for example were scouring deep gashes into his 'impervious' flesh.
I am a genius! [Agreement]
"Mothri!" I called out, moving closer after having just swapped over to my Dark Knight dressphere again. He didn't like it when I smacked him with Demi the first time and I wanted to do it some more. "Try stopping him!"
"I am!" She yelled back after blasting him with more fire that now began to scorch his flesh, clearly misinterpreting my suggestion.
"No I mean use the stop ability or whatever the fuck it is your pistil things can do! It should freeze him!" I yelled, crowporting out the way of an incoming tail attack. Not that I needed to bother, since Alexandria had rapidly interposed herself between me and tail to block the attack.
The water shadow knocked her backwards through where I would've been, so I guess it was a good thing after all that I'd dodged.
"Demi asshole!" I cackled, unleashing the arcana and causing Leviathan to stumble. It was as he was recovering that Taylor figured out what I was talking about. A wave of white-ish energy practically glomping the Endbringer and freezing him in place.
Floral Fallal is fucking bullshit. Immunity to attacks, healing powers, blaster powers, status effects. It makes me regret not making that special dressphere for Lisa.
Even better, unlike Clockblocker's power Leviathan wasn't immune to being damaged while frozen. Something the assembled capes began to take advantage of. I'd feel bad for Leviathan stuck there like a fish in a barrel but he's an asshole so fuck him.
Wait a sec. Don't Endbringers explode catastrophically when they die? Shit was that fanon or canon?
Okay, now I have to figure out a way to keep everyone from killing us all, because I'm really not sure if Boston is outside the blast radius. Fuck.
At least they're mostly aiming for the head instead of wherever the core is.
I took a quick mental inventory of what I've got on hand before a plan bloomed in my mind. First I need to stop anyone accidentally killing Leviathan before I can fix this. I stabbed my sword into the ground and fished out my binder of scrolls.
One scroll of limited wish later, turning Leviathan ethereal for forty-five seconds did the trick. Much to the confusion of everyone in the area. Luckily nobody realised it was me so I didn't have to deal with people being angry at me for 'helping' the enemy.
Now that he wasn't gonna explode for the moment I fished out one of Lisa's potions. I hadn't had a chance to use them to help people but oh well. It's gonna help now. I downed the liquid inside, a surprisingly delicious cherry flavour, and then grabbed the next scroll and prayed this would work.
Fucking one minute cast time sucks balls.
The hazy, immaterial form of a frozen Leviathan shifted back fully into the material plane before I finished casting and people began laying on the fire again. Black bones began to show as damage accrued, his head nothing more than a glowering skull. Then a very familiar voice rang over all the armbands in the area through the hard override.
"Base of the tail! That's the weak point." Goddamnit Lisa! Don't tell everyone where to shoot while I'm trying to keep everyone alive! Fire began to shift to and flesh soon melted away. Thankfully I finished my spell before more could happen than the dark orb cracking slightly.
I fell backward onto my ass with a laugh, my hand clutching what was once an empty potion bottle but now contained a very badly injured and very angry looking inch tall Endbringer.
Binding is such a bullshit spell.
Leviathan scratched futilely against the his new glass prison.
"Greatest! Tinker! Alive! Bitches!" I cackled, waving the bottled Citykiller around triumphantly in my gauntleted fist. Said cackling only intensified once Simmy was able to use her postcognition to see what had happened and then began to bombard with mental feelings of what could only translated as sheer {WTF}
[Smugness]
A/N
Writing Endbringer fights suck. I already suck at doing fight scenes, and Endbringer fights are probably the hardest to do well. Hopefully I did good enough.
And yes, Levi is now 1-inch tall and trapped in a bottle.
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NewbieSV
<Certified Newbie>
- Location
- Below the Foot of Gatotkaca
- Pronouns
- He
Levi in a Bottle, eh?
will he grants you a regen if you use him, I wonder? XD
Raiseth
I Find Your Lack of Memes Disturbing
- Location
- Russia
This is the image I didnt know I need in my life but I do.
Awww. Magical Girl Justice Levi-tan… so close, yet so far.
- Location
- The State of Denial
Do you want Slaanesh cultists in Worm? Because that's how you get Slaanesh cultists in Worm.
...or maybe Cenobites.
- Pronouns
- Masculine
Oh god. Bunny Leviathan!
Oh yeah, this was fucking glorious!
And what to do you know, two Tinker of Fiction updates in one day! *glances at the just updated In Nuclear Fire*
But fucking YES! Well done Addy! And heh.
Time to throw Mini Leviathan into the Sphere of Annihilation! Which, of course, tore through the rig when it got washed in... weeeee!
...thankfully the sphere is just waiting there to be used. And Addy DID remember to make the control amulet! Good! ...and yes, Contessa should definitely get defenstrated right into it.
Wonderfully handled, Unders! That was both Addy insanity and pure awesomeness! Floral Fallal tanking Levi was AWESOME and every bit a great moment for Taylor! She is definitely going to get the recognition she deserves. And heh. Addy dying and coming back multiple times and splitting apart is going to cause issues but hey... Glibness!
Yeah. Now comes the most fun part of all of this... the aftermath and the ramifications!
Its bad, yeah. But the fact that the object was either from the Book of Ultimate Evil or the Book of Erotic Fantasy makes me worried...
...yeah, scary things in those.
Oh yeah, this was fucking glorious!
And what to do you know, two Tinker of Fiction updates in one day! *glances at the just updated In Nuclear Fire*
But fucking YES! Well done Addy! And heh.
Time to throw Mini Leviathan into the Sphere of Annihilation! Which, of course, tore through the rig when it got washed in... weeeee!
...thankfully the sphere is just waiting there to be used. And Addy DID remember to make the control amulet! Good! ...and yes, Contessa should definitely get defenstrated right into it.
Wonderfully handled, Unders! That was both Addy insanity and pure awesomeness! Floral Fallal tanking Levi was AWESOME and every bit a great moment for Taylor! She is definitely going to get the recognition she deserves. And heh. Addy dying and coming back multiple times and splitting apart is going to cause issues but hey... Glibness!
Yeah. Now comes the most fun part of all of this... the aftermath and the ramifications!
Its bad, yeah. But the fact that the object was either from the Book of Ultimate Evil or the Book of Erotic Fantasy makes me worried...
...yeah, scary things in those.
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Unders
Suffers from delusions of competence
Don't worry. My muse has has amusing ideas for Levi in the future.
Which is why Addy is only going to make one for herself. And maybe one for Annette to use on Danny when the kids are out the house.
Yeah the ramifications are !FUN!, espeically with the triumvirate right there and willing to but their noses into things.
Also Floral Fallal Taylor tanking Levi was something I wanted to do the moment I made that dressphere for Taylor.
It's from Book of Vile Darkness. The 'evil' sourcebook.
It's actually pretty useful as part of a crafting loop, since you stick it on people and then torture (but without all the pain ofc) to get liquid agony for an easily farmable source of crafting xp that also nets you loads of people lining up to get you to farm them. Due to the whole pain into pleasure plus painful torture thing.