[] Coil – Now that you know where the snake is hiding, you can hurry up and go after him. Maybe you'll even be really, really lucky and keep the element of surprise.
-[] You have Myrddin's digits, probably a good idea to use them; give him an update on the Bakuda situation and find out if Calvert's at the PRT meeting or not. If he's there, Myrddin can do what he can to keep Calvert busy while you wreck all his toys.
-[] Drop the base into Recursion Field and begin a Wide Area Search.
-[] Breach the base with Solar Wrath near the biggest concentration of hostile capes and enter with Chevalier and Samanta on front, and Taylor and Vista on support.
-[] Once all hostile capes are apprehended find the control center/Coil office and drop the field. Hack the computers and put the base on lockdown. After that you can deal with Coil's minions at your leisure pace.
Heatstroke 10.6
You take in the damaged remains of Bakuda's workshop once everyone is out, and ideas roll around in your head. "Hey, Chevalier?" you ask. "What do you think the actual chances are that all that went unnoticed?"
He turns to you with an incredulous expression. "…Slim to none."
"That's what I figured. Do you think you can call up Myrddin again? We didn't want to tip off Coil that we knew his identity, but if Myrddin already has people in place like he said he could, they can hold him at the PRT building if he's there. We're already close to his base, which gives his men less time to prepare for us."
"But if he isn't at his base, how would anyone there even know we're coming after them? Or are we going there just in case he isn't at the PRT?" asks Vista.
"Some of it is a precautionary measure," Dragon agrees, "but a mercenary force like he has? They would be expected to be able to act independently when needed. They may even have contingency plans should his identity be revealed. They're a complication that we don't want making this a bigger mess than it will be already."
Chevalier needs only a couple of minutes to make the call and explain the change in plan, and he does that as the four of you take a trip into a nicer part of the city. It starts to become less of a surprise that he would pick this particular location as the heart of his territory, and Samantha appears to agree with you. "Is it just me, or would this be a bad part of town for a massive villain fight to break out?"
"It's not just you. Hyde Park is home to the University of Chicago as well as a major hub economically. The sort of area that if attacked would lead to the city government pushing the PRT to stamp out whomever caused the trouble in the first place. So long as his forces were not the ones at fault, or did not appear to be at fault anyway, they would reap yet more benefits from law enforcement."
"Especially considering that Coil could use his position to shift the blame to whomever his men were fighting anyway," Samantha adds with a nod. "Clever snake, I'll give him that much."
A squat, round building can soon be seen nestled in between large overpass bridges, and your party slows to a stop. "Coil's a paranoid son of a bitch," you think out loud. "Hey, Storm, Dragon, do you guys think you could look in and see if there's a security system or something you could take control of? Maybe we can check that he's actually there or even lock the doors on everybody inside."
«Attempting.»
Dragon also gives you a nod, but after a minute or two her avatar frowns. "It doesn't look like it. If I had to take a guess, I would say that he probably has his security on a closed system. There is one connection I can find that looks to go into the building, but it's hitting a firewall that I don't know if I could break without making some noise."
«Agreed. Control plausible if connected to physical node.»
"Looks like we're headed inside, then. Anyone want to vote against an encore of our Recursion Field exploration?"
With no voices of dissension, you throw out the dimensional barrier to cover the Endbringer shelter turned villain hangout. A sigil appears beneath Samantha as soon as the barrier stabilizes, and then she throws out the red sparks of Wide Area Search.
"What is that?" asks Chevalier.
"Search spell. Everything went smoothly enough against Bakuda that I'm worried Coil might have a couple of capes under his thumb as well. I'd rather know ahead of time if we will have to put them down." A screen appears at her elbow. "But it looks like we're once again in luck. No capes around, or at least none with powers that get them sucked up."
If you don't need to clear a bunch of villains out of Recursion Field first, that makes the upcoming task that much easier. A tightly focused Solar Wrath rips a hole in yet another empty lair, and your team makes their way inside without difficulty. As though to smooth matters out more, this base has no obvious bombs lurking in the corners to jump out at you. Instead you get a good look at the wide-open spaces and the crisscrossing catwalks while you slowly drift along. Everyone peeks inside various doors and hallways, but nothing obvious catches your attention until Chevalier finds an otherwise unremarkable office room near the center of the base.
"Five bucks says this is where Coil does most of his work," Samantha announces without preamble.
A shake of Chevalier's head, and he says, "No one is going to take you up on a bet that obvious. What I'm more interested in is whether he's here."
"Only one way to find out, isn't there?" You wave Vista to fully enter the room. The door was closed in Recursion Field, which should mean that it is closed in the real world. So long as nobody outside has any clue that things are going south…
Chevalier gives you a nod, and you drop the barrier.
You had hoped to catch Coil off-guard, but it appears that will not be the case. The room is empty.
"Where the hell is he?"
"It is still possible that he is somewhere else within the base," says Chevalier, "but more likely he is at the PRT base. Hopefully Myrddin has managed to hold him there."
"That's all well and good, but we still have a bunch of mercenaries to deal with," Samantha points out. "They're going to make things complicated."
"Not as much as you might believe." You turn to Dragon's screen with a raised eyebrow. "One of these computers is bound to be connected to the overall security system. If Perfect Storm can hack one of them…"
«Suggestion likely.» Without a command on your end, dark purplish casting triangles spin into place and spit out long pronged cords. Those cords physically tear into the computer itself and plug into different spots in the circuit boards. A flurry of screens appear and vanish until there are only a few floating in the air. "Security system accessed. Mistress desires what?"
That is a very good question, and not one you have an immediate answer for. "Do you know where all the mercenaries are?"
"Affirmative. Can track enemy movements."
"Hit them all in small groups and beat the hell out of them?" Samantha gives you a nod. "I like that plan."
"The only issue is that Perfect Storm will need to stay connected to the system to maintain that level of control. Which means you would need to stay here as well," Dragon reminds you.
"It's alright, Calamity. We got this."
Chevalier does not argue against Vista's statement, and with a sigh you turn back to the screens. Another screen pops up without your command, showing a blueprint of the Endbringer shelter with a red line moving through it. "If I might make a recommendation," Dragon says, "this is the most direct path through the base. So long as the mercenaries are trapped in small groups, you should be able to neutralize them with little risk."
At this point you have little argument to raise other than not wanting to be stuck doing this part of the job, so you let out yet another sigh. "Okay. Storm, box them up."
Heavy metal doors slide shut throughout the building, and thanks to the screens you can see the mercenaries start grabbing weapons and slamming their hands on keypads. Those keypads won't help, though, not with Perfect Storm in complete control. Flicking a copy of the map screen to Samantha, you watch the trio leave Coil's office and head towards the first set of henchmen.
"I hate this part." You glance over to see the feed of Dragon's avatar has been replaced once more by her face. "Waiting, knowing that there is nothing you can do but watch as other people take risks you would gladly shoulder yourself."
"But you can now, can't you? I would have thought that to be one of the benefits of having a physical body."
"Not as much as you would think. Yes, I have a body, but this body can't exactly do much if I go out and punch people. I get to be closer to the fight, but I am still dependent on building machines to go out and fight for me." She gives you a tight smile and a shrug. "Which, to be honest, is far from the worst restriction I could possibly face. I just wanted you to know that I understand your current frustration."
A door opens in front of the trio at Samantha's command, and they rush in to beat the mercenaries unconscious before anyone has a chance to respond to their sudden presence. Helped in large measure by Vista widening the gap as the door opens so that the mercenaries have quite literally no warning between door being closed and then three people jumping inside with them. "Yeah," you agree when you see a couple of mercenaries picking up grenade launchers, "frustrating is one word for it. Guys, keep an eye out. It looks like these guys are carrying Bakuda's ammo. Marking which rooms they're in on your map now."
Between Samantha's speed and Inherent Forcefield, Chevalier's armor and cannonblade, and Vista's powers and prosthetic, they need little time to clear out the main rooms in the base. "Anyone else?" Vista asks via Samantha's map screen.
"Not that I can see, but I don't know for sure that Coil has cameras everywhere in the building. There may be a few blind spots."
"We don't have time to check them all," Chevalier interrupts. You look at the relevant camera feed to find him checking his phone. "Myrddin just sent me a message. Sounds like he finally lost his patience and barged into the meeting, except they had already sent Calvert out with a couple of the PRT teams to lock down Bakuda's workshop."
"What?! I thought Myrddin posted people around the building so that this kind of thing wouldn't happen!"
"He did, but it sounds like a couple of them were drafted by the PRT teams heading out. New members who may have thought this was all part of the plan. He tried to contact the team in Calvert's vehicle, but they're all in the wind. If I had to guess, I would say he grabbed a squad filled with people loyal to him in particular and rabbited."
Miscommunication and underestimation. That was all it took for Coil to try escaping from your grip. "I am not going to let him get away from me so he can try this all again and again. Storm, Dragon, find him!"
I know this chapter is subpar, but between RL being a bitch and my muse being uncooperative, I just wanted to get this chapter over and done with. I want this whole arc done with, honestly.
Anyway, this should technically be a voting block, but next chapter kind of writes itself, so… see you then.
