Canonically because of her decision to not step that line "this day - brain injure healing, next day - Mastering". However, in this AU not just her abilities are revealed but she already publicly accused of unconsciously Mastering her every patient - she has nothing to lose anymore.
Yes it is, easily; she just won't do it because she'd be changing them.
In fact in canon Amy does do some brain work to change someone (Vicky), and does it easily and with no effort. And could have undone it with no effort, if Vicky had let her.
Yes it is, easily; she just won't do it because she'd be changing them.
In fact in canon Amy does do some brain work to change someone (Vicky), and does it easily and with no effort. And could have undone it with no effort, if Vicky had let her.
To be fair, once she finally broke down and fixed a brain injury, I think she barely made it an hour before Mastering Vicky.
That was later. First Bonesaw forced Panacea to fix Mark's brain damage from Leviathan, then when Glory Girl was going off at Panacea for not doing it sooner if she could Panacea alters Glory Girl's brain to make her gay (and maybe love Panacea I can't recall) in seconds. After all that Panacea runs away for a couple days. Then there is the big confrontation against the S9 where Glory Girl gets covered in acid from Crawler. At which point Panacea drags Glory Girl away, everyone else is still busy with the S9, and tries to rebuild her.
That was later. First Bonesaw forced Panacea to fix Mark's brain damage from Leviathan, then when Glory Girl was going off at Panacea for not doing it sooner if she could Panacea alters Glory Girl's brain to make her gay (and maybe love Panacea I can't recall) in seconds. After all that Panacea runs away for a couple days. Then there is the big confrontation against the S9 where Glory Girl gets covered in acid from Crawler. At which point Panacea drags Glory Girl away, everyone else is still busy with the S9, and tries to rebuild her.
IIRC, Amy didn't make Vicky gay, she made Vicky Amysexual.
And then begged Vicky to let her fix it, which Vicky adamantly refused, despite the fact that it only happened because she insisted on hugging Amy, despite Amy begging her and warning her not to.
Really, almost the entirety of that confrontation and the fallout afterwards was directly Glory Girl's fault for not listening to the emotionally unstable biokinetic when they're warning you they're not in full control of their powers.
Then later, after Vicky gets mauled by Crawler, Amy did many things to try and keep her alive, but in the end couldn't remember how to put everything back together again properly by the time things settled down somewhat (something like 3 weeks later).
Specifically because our teleport requires an unresisting target that is stationary for something like ten seconds. Any enemy who meets all those criteria is almost certainly unconscious and so teleporting them away is of limited use.
Multishot (0/1 Adept) – Form a ring of Flare Shots and repeatedly fire them in sequence, achieving faster fire than is otherwise possible. This consumes mana at a disproportionately higher rate. Can be used with Homing Bullet but not other Shooter variants.
And now you know why I got frustrated with people asking "Can we have (insert Shift variant here)?". I'm like "It's right there! Just buy the next visible Shooter upgrade like a logical person and you'll see it!".
And now you know why I got frustrated with people asking "Can we have (insert Shift variant here)?". I'm like "It's right there! Just buy the next visible Shooter upgrade like a logical person and you'll see it!".
And now you know why I got frustrated with people asking "Can we have (insert Shift variant here)?". I'm like "It's right there! Just buy the next visible Shooter upgrade like a logical person and you'll see it!".
I feel for you, really I do. It's just that when one can't see even just two steps ahead, it's hard to choose the right options without backtracking and false starts.
And now you know why I got frustrated with people asking "Can we have (insert Shift variant here)?". I'm like "It's right there! Just buy the next visible Shooter upgrade like a logical person and you'll see it!".
@Silently Watches Maybe consider including a note on spells we haven't learned yet telling us if something's locked behind it or not. If you're feeling really generous, list how many skills are locked behind an unlearned spell. I'm pretty sure most of us thought that Burst would finish off both shooter trees.
*edit- I'm not meaning you list what is hidden behind a spell, just that something is locked behind it.
You look up at Lacey's call, your eyes flicking over to the clock. Not even five-thirty yet. After the distraction and artillery strike on the PRT headquarters last night, you don't know whether MS-13 plans to attack again tonight or take the time to plan, but it is unfortunately still too early to say for sure. There is still plenty of time for them to cause trouble. That's partly why you want to get your homework over and done with already, so you don't have to worry about coming back home after a fight and have to stay up until the wee hours of the morning to finish off an essay.
Truly the worst part about being a teenaged superhero: you still need to go to school.
Lacey and Kurt are waiting for you in the living room, along with Tim and surprisingly Ramirez, one of the former Dockworkers you don't know as well as some others. He does not look pleased to be here, but try as he might he cannot run off thanks to the iron grip Tim has on his elbow. The Gadgeteer looks none too happy, and once you join Samantha on the couch he give Ramirez a little shake. "Okay, Ramirez. Tell them what you told me earlier."
"Do I have to?" he whines.
"Either you tell them or I will, and I won't try to cover for your screw-up."
Now you and your Guardian Beast share worried glances with Lacey and Kurt. What in the world are they talking about?
"Fine, fine. I get it." Ramirez takes a deep breath before he tells you, "Okay, you know this whole thing with MS-13? We… mighta helped kick off the whole shebang."
"What," growls Kurt. You, on the other hand, stare at him. All this loss of life, the bombing of the PRT, all of it is the Privateers' fault? Or part of it, anyway?
Ramirez glances over at Tim, but the mage's face might as well have been carved from stone for all the encouragement it offered. "Yeah, I know. It sounds really, really bad. We weren't expecting it to go down like this. The whole city wasn't supposed to go to hell.
"Me and some of the boys got the idea back when Danny ran off to Russia or wherever to deal with Behemoth. We knew a bunch of Winter Hill's capes were going there, too, and from what Danny said way back when, all cape crime stops on Endbringer days, right? It got me thinking, hey, if Winter Hill thinks nothing's gonna happen, nobody's gonna be guarding their stuff. So I grabbed a couple of guys and we went after one of their drug houses. Only two guys on guard, and they were easy to knock out before we went inside. 'Course, we didn't just hit them," he says with a proud smile. "See, we had already thought about what the best way to cover our tracks was, so before they went nighty night I yelled some Spanish at the guys, and we were dressed up kinda like the Maras do, ski masks and all. 'Swhy the news reported the Maras did it, because the guards thought that's who did. Took the money like normal, but we took the drugs with us so we could get rid of them somewhere else. Real Maras wouldn't have burned up all the product; they would have taken it with them to sell for themselves. After that, it was just a matter of letting the guards wake up and tell the story, and then Winter Hill's going hard and heavy after MS-13 for breaking the whole Truce thing."
"You tried to frame MS-13 as Truce-breakers?" Samantha asks in a stunned flat voice.
Ramirez nods. "Yep. We can't go after Winter Hill right now, right? Even before the Protectorate called the whole Truce thing a couple of weeks back, they had too many men and too many capes. Can't go after MS-13 because they have us outmanned, too, and even though they only had two capes before one of them got captured, they still have Cadejo. We're having enough trouble with Fairyland. Instead of fighting either one of them, we set things up so they're going after each other. Winter Hill wants revenge for hitting them during an Endbringer fight, the Maras don't know why Winter Hill is after them but hit back just as hard. Doesn't matter who comes out on top, the winner's still been bled out and makes for easy pickings. Easier, anyway. And it isn't like nobody'd believe the Maras would do just that. It was after the whole Truce went out that Cero got himself captured, and the Maras went nuts trying to get him back." He points at you. "Not to mention, shooting rockets at the boss's daughter? No way we're gonna let that one slide."
"No, instead you just kicked off a city-wide gang war."
"That wasn't part of the plan, Lacey, and you know it. It was just supposed to be Winter Hill and the Maras, and the Maras weren't supposed to know this was coming until it was too late to get ready. We had nothing to do with them killing the Warlocks. They were already going to start this mess, so we didn't do anything wrong in the big picture, now did we?"
Kurt sighs and runs his hand through his hair. "What you did wrong was you didn't tell anybody you were going to do this. Even if everything went according to plan, it was going to end in a mess. Good tactical plan, bad strategy. If you had asked Alexander or Danny or me, we would have told you that."
"Asked Danny, or Captain?" asks Ramirez in a dark tone. "You've seen it too, haven't you? The longer we went, the more the boss started treating this like a cape would. Holding back, keeping things stable, not rocking the boat too much. Fairyland has been going easier on us, and you know it. It's because we aren't doing the same thing we did in Brockton Bay, hammering the Merchants as hard as we could. We're playing games now. Just like the gangs do, just like the PRT does. And while we're running around not getting anything done, people are suffering. If we're just gonna be another bunch of flashy heroes instead of actually making a difference, what's the point?"
"The point is to stop the gangs without making them crush everyone around them in their death throes," you say.
"Not gonna happen that way, darling. Push them hard enough that they feel it, and they're gonna fight back. Now, ten years, don't matter. It's all gonna be the same in the end, so the longer you spend not pushing them, the more people they hurt before they're put down for good."
"When Danny wakes up, we can discuss how we're going to handle things in the future. All of us."
Ramirez scoffs at Kurt's statement and yanks his arm out of Tim's grip. "When he wakes up? Come on, Kurt, you know that's never gonna happen. Danny's good as dead."
Good as dead. The words pound in your ears, and something dark and thick burns through your veins. "Get out," someone says, her voice soft and hateful. It's only when everyone looks your way that you realize it was you.
Mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water, Ramirez finally gets out, "Look, Taylor, I didn't mean it like that, but ghrrk."
You aren't sure when Samantha moved. One second she is sitting next to you, and the next she has one hand bunched up in Ramirez's shirt just below his chin and is holding him off the ground. "Didn't you hear?" she asks sweetly. "She said get out." A sharp motion sends Ramirez flying out of sight, a thud marking his collision with a wall. A few moments later the door slams shut.
Samantha comes back and wraps you in her arms, and you force yourself not to break down. He's wrong. He has to be. You have to get your dad back.
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Friday, May 20
You drift through the night sky alongside Samantha, eyes staring unfocused at the sea of lights below you. Nothing happened last night, thankfully; after Ramirez's comments, you were in no state of mind to fight, and if you had tried, you don't know what would have happened. For the Maras to hold back two nights in a row is too much to ask for. Something is going to happen.
Sure enough, Perfect Storm throws up an audio screen. "Calamity Witch, this is Protectorate Console," says an unknown man's voice. You've heard Chevalier's voice before, so you assume this can only be Sere.
"Console, this is Calamity. I hear you. What's up?"
"Trouble. MS-13 has deployed a new cape, one we haven't seen before. Fairyland has engaged, but they are requesting assistance. They're on the south edge of Passyunk Square."
"Copy that. Calamity Witch and Samantha on our way." You cut the connection and turn towards the specified shopping district. "Hey, Sam? All Sere said was that there was a new cape. He didn't mention anything about anyone else with him."
"And yet Fairyland is calling for help," she finishes with a nod. "I noticed that, too. Either he thought we would assume gang members with guns, or this cape is a tough enough fight on his own that he can take on three villains who held off the Maras and Winter Hill on their own."
Another screen appears. "Calamity Witch, we just got word of trouble," Alexander tells you. "Passyunk Square. Some new cape."
You knew Tim spent a few minutes fiddling with a pair of radios this week so they could tune into the police scanners' frequencies, but that was still faster than you expected for the Privateers to catch word of this fight. "We know. The Protectorate just called us. Samantha and I are en route."
"Hold up for a few minutes. Carl and I are suiting up in the power armor as we speak."
"The fight is going on now."
"I realize that, but we're moving as fast as we can. Things will be more difficult if we attack at different times without a plan. Just a couple of minutes, Taylor, that's all we're asking for."
Too bad for them, you have already arrived at the fight, and it's the worse of the two scenarios Samantha described. A man in camouflage pants and jacket is fighting off stone dwarves, the only indications that he is a cape at all his color luchador mask and the fact that he can grab the aforementioned dwarves' heads and crush them without difficulty. On the other side of the alley in which they fight are three women in differently colored ball gowns and domino masks and behind them a row of tiara-ed gang members with pistols who are shooting relentlessly at the Mexican Brute. The storm of bullets are doing exactly what you would expect.
The villainess in blue throws something small and glittery, and the glass ball shatters as soon as it hits the Brute. That would be Cinderella, then. The shards produced by the explosion instantly grow again, this time into spikes four feet long if they're an inch, but the tips of these glass lances snap off instead of poking through his skin.
Snow White in her yellow dress stomps one foot on the ground to call up more dwarves to replace those destroyed in Cinderella's attack, and that makes the pink-gowned woman Sleeping Beauty. Why she isn't singing this Brute to sleep you don't know for sure, but you suspect she has already tried and failed. That's all three of Fairylands' capes' powers nullified. No wonder they called for help.
"Alexander, what's your ETA again?" you ask through the still-open channel.
"Ninety seconds. Two minutes tops."
The mystery Brute grabs two dwarves and throws them at the horde of new dwarves coming at him. A kick destroys another. He picks one up and uses it like a short wiggling club.
And all the while, he keeps moving closer to the other gang.
"I don't know that we have two minutes."
Burst learned.
Fairyland's in trouble, and it's the Privateers coming to help. That's irony for you. Two main ways this fight can go…
[ ] Jump in – The Maras are attacking now. Help Fairyland now without waiting for backup.
[ ] Hold back – Wait for Alexander and Carl to show up, then the three of you attack as a group.
…and a quick write-up of your opponent (PS will feed this info to Taylor early next chapter).
A fan of professional lucha libre, this MS-13 parahuman styled his look after the luchadores of the same name. Mysterio cannot fly or heal, but he grows stronger and more resilient the more impacts he takes. Previous encounters prove that this strengthening process is temporary, though the time to baseline is unknown.
Battle plans are encouraged for the first, not as important for the second.
Next chapter may be delayed. Have some academic/bureaucratic stuff to deal with next week.
"Fine, fine. I get it." Ramirez takes a deep breath before he tells you, "Okay, you know this whole thing with MS-13? We… mighta helped kick off the whole shebang."
Course, we didn't just hit them," he says with a proud smile. "See, we had already thought about what the best way to cover our tracks was, so before they went nighty night I yelled some Spanish at the guys, and we were dressed up kinda like the Maras do, ski masks and all. 'Swhy the news reported the Maras did it, because the guards thought that's who did. Took the money like normal, but we took the drugs with us so we could get rid of them somewhere else. Real Maras wouldn't have burned up all the product; they would have taken it with them to sell for themselves. After that, it was just a matter of letting the guards wake up and tell the story, and then Winter Hill's going hard and heavy after MS-13 for breaking the whole Truce thing."
The villainess in blue throws something small and glittery, and the glass ball shatters as soon as it hits the Brute. That would be Cinderella, then. The shards produced by the explosion instantly grow again, this time into spikes four feet long if they're an inch, but the tips of these glass lances snap off instead of poking through his skin.
A fan of professional lucha libre, this MS-13 parahuman styled his look after the luchadores of the same name. Mysterio cannot fly or heal, but he grows stronger and more resilient the more impacts he takes. Previous encounters prove that this strengthening process is temporary, though the time to baseline is unknown.
Hm. Pretty much then, seems likes slow/steady escalation only works in this guy's favor. Since Fairyland's been fighting this guy for some time now, I don't imagine our lower tier Shooter spells will be useful. At best they do nothing, at worst (and more likely) they strengthen his durability even more. Suggested tactics are either hit him with Frost Beam or Temporal Sludge to immobilize him or slow him down respectively, or blast him with a Solar Wrath.
A fan of professional lucha libre, this MS-13 parahuman styled his look after the luchadores of the same name. Mysterio cannot fly or heal, but he grows stronger and more resilient the more impacts he takes. Previous encounters prove that this strengthening process is temporary, though the time to baseline is unknown.
