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Taylor is DOOMed

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RecklessPrudence said:
Just a correction on the DOOM side of things: 2016 Doom Slayer absolutely can regain armour from Glory Kills, it's just you need the right Rune equipped to make it possible. With the amount of Argent Energy Taylor's absorbed (and possibly some metaphysical mumbo-jumbo from now being the Queen of Hell) she can kill things by swearing, so I'm pretty sure that even if she didn't run across said Runes in her rampage through her UAC, Hell, alternate UACs that went full demon cult, and so on, she could replicate the effects.

The other thing is, at least one instance of Doom Guy respawning before he became Doom Slayer is definite canon - at the end of Episode I of the original DOOM, Doom Guy dies. Straight up, 100% d-e-d dead. He then fights his way out of hell and back to the living realm over the course of the next Episode, whereupon he continues to wreck Hell's shit on Mars. That's why there's a Zombie skin for Doom Slayer in Eternal - while Doom Guy managed to come back to life fully, being literally too angry to die to the point he murdered hundreds of demons on his way back to life (possibly unknowingly using them in a ritual to restore himself to life), there's always been the question of what if he only thinks he looks normal from his self-image, and has actually been the undead terror of all demonkind ever since they ambushed and killed him early in his rampage. Especially since he specifically did not reinhabit his body. Said body was utterly destroyed in the ambush that killed him, and after killing his way out of hell he arrived in a completely different part of Mars to the one he died in.
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And this is why they think of him as an unkillable grim reaper, the promised end for all of demonkind.
 
Now I want to see an episode a year after the Doom Queen's visit. The Scoobies are just doing the regular high school thing now due to a lack of problems in Sunnydale and along comes Apocalypse Cult #73 with plans to open the Hellmouth. Instead of desperately fighting like normal, the gang just step to the side and let the cult do their thing, only for the Hellmouth to not respond (because Taylor fixed the poorly sealed dimensional tear) or to open with no fanfare and be absolutely empty. While the cult looks around in confusion at the lack of apocalypse, Buffy steps up and says "Yeah, it doesn't really do that anymore, didn't you get the memo?" and then proceeds to trounce the confused and distracted cultists
 
ndh said:
They most likely would find her attempts to capture one very amusing. If she did capture one the Initiative would be fucked.
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I can totally see a Summoner deliberately letting itself get captured just so it can make sure that all the idiots are in one location when it introduces them to Lazarus Waves.
 
On the subject of whether Taylor better resembles the Doom Guy or the Doom Slayer, allow me to point out a fun little detail.

Taylor's respawn ability seems to be a partial temporal reset, where her mind and some of her physical improvements are projected back to a point preceding her death. This means she gets slightly stronger with each reset, and seems to lack the usual problem with diminishing returns from working out. As such, while merely up to the level of Doom Guy by the time she left Mars, by her last run through Hell she was likely at least as capable as the Doom Slayer, and has only gotten stronger since.

Similarly, she has been shown studying how to maintain and upgrade her equipment, which means her armor is also likely to be at least on the level of the Doom Slayer's, if for no other reason then because she has had plenty of time to improve and refine her armor as she made her way through Hell.

In other words, Taylor is not the Doom Guy, nor is she The Doom Slayer. She is THE DOOM QUEEN, and has done what the Doom Slayer could not and made Hell hers to rule. If anything, She will be mightier then The Doom Slayer ever was.

As to her running low on nanite based healing solutions, allow me to point out that one of the often stated abilities of nanites is their ability to self-replicate. As such, I expect She will never have to worry about running low....
 
Jacen1 said:
As to her running low on nanite based healing solutions, allow me to point out that one of the often stated abilities of nanites is their ability to self-replicate. As such, I expect She will never have to worry about running low....
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If nothing else, when she gets low she'll glare at them, and the universe will suddenly discover that there were quite a few more it had temporarily misplaced.
 
Jacen1 said:
As to her running low on nanite based healing solutions, allow me to point out that one of the often stated abilities of nanites is their ability to self-replicate. As such, I expect She will never have to worry about running low....
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Considering that for a while there she was practically mainlining those nanite injectors in combat, her blood's likely at least 50% nanite at this point. She can probably just stick an empty injector against her arm and it refills itself automatically.
 
Trufla said:
Considering that for a while there she was practically mainlining those nanite injectors in combat, her blood's likely at least 50% nanite at this point. She can probably just stick an empty injector against her arm and it refills itself automatically.
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Taking everything into account, I wouldn't be surprised if Taylor's biomass is primarily comprised of 50% nanites, 50% demon magic and 110% RAGE!
 
The fact that the Turok Han in Season 7 managed to remain alive despite millenia sealed in the Hellmouth points to the Hellmouth dimension running slower or being timelocked until opened.


If you want a specific Season 3 baddy to try and open the Hellmouth, there's the Sisterhood of Jhe: the group that tried to open the hellmouth during The Zeppo where Xander ran one over, had a quickie with Faith, and stopped a zombie from blowing up the school.
 
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10. Omake - DOOM R&R: Encounters
  • Sidestory
    • A little more of this for your reading pleasure. I think there's probably one more part before the vacation is over and Taylor gets back to serious business ;)​

    Only the sound of the ticking clock and the rustling of pages turning broke the silence in the room, as the small group read the latest report from Watcher Zabuto. He and his Slayer had been in Sunnydale for just over a week now, filing daily updates, and the upper members of the Council hierarchy had been reading them assiduously and with growing disbelief and concern.

    Finally, Charles Gifford very deliberately closed the neatly bound printout he was holding, put it on the floor next to his chair, got up, and spent several minutes carefully raiding Travers' liquor cabinet. Travers merely watched him as he poured out a finger of extremely expensive spirits, looked at the glass, shook his head, and doubled the amount, before drinking it in one shot.

    "May the good lord preserve us," the lore master finally said, putting the glass down and walking back to his seat. "She actually saw a Chaos Wyvern and survived?"

    "If that is what a very, very large draconic demon is called, apparently she did," Travers replied. "Several times." He was feeling somewhat less sure of his initial conclusions after the various new data had come in, but still thought it was most likely this was all a ploy by some demonic party who was deliberately attempting to scare off any competition while it used the resources represented by the Hell Mouth.

    He had to admit that if this was the case it was a fairly effective ploy. And, in the process, it appeared to be removing said competition with alacrity. Demon attacks across the state of California had essentially fallen to zero, as had the number of vampires, and there were a growing number of reports from all over the entire world that something was causing a very sharp increase in the number of unexplained incidents involving what most people would consider the forces of evil. Said forces appeared to be having a bad time of it right now, which he was fine with all in all, except that he didn't know why and very much wanted to.

    After all, it could be something the Council could use, and they were the logical ones to supervise whatever weapon or group was moving around the place upsetting the balance of power. He found it somewhat irritating that his own group didn't know what was going on and had had no warning before whatever it was started up. That was unacceptable.

    "It is the nearest thing I can think of from the literature that matches the description," Gifford said with a shake of his head, his eyes wide. "Although I suspect the girl has overestimated the size of the creature, as a Chaos Wyvern is reputed to have a wingspan of no more than approximately one hundred feet or thereabouts. Her report would put it at greater than three times that size, which seems unlikely. At least, I desperately hope it's unlikely." He looked at the liquor cabinet for a moment and visibly decided against it. "Mind you, no human has seen one for some three thousand six hundred years, so I can't be completely certain of the true size of such a creature."

    He looked hard at Travers. "Do you know what happened at that time?"

    Quentin shook his head, ancient history wasn't his forte.

    "The last time a Chaos Wyvern was seen on Earth, it was coming out of the volcano in the center of the island of Thera. Which is known in modern times as Santorini."

    One of the other senior Watchers said, "Isn't that the island that..."

    "The island that exploded when the very same volcano went up in a blast that ended the Minoan civilization and probably caused the legend of Atlantis, yes," Gifford said flatly as he turned his head to look at the man, who paled. "A few minutes after the Chaos Wyvern emerged from within. To this day we don't know precisely what happened, but certain literature that's survived, along with tales passed down in various demonic clans, speaks of a ritual to tap what could well have been some form of what we now term a Hell Mouth. There is some debate as to whether it actually was the same as the ones we're all too familiar with, or something rather different, but there is sufficient evidence to strongly suggest that the disaster wasn't entirely natural. And of course everyone involved failed to leave any notes on their activities, mostly because they and most of their entire island went away in one of the largest volcanic eruptions known to man."

    Everyone else was now somewhat paler than usual. Even Travers was feeling more than a little worried.

    "But Sunnydale is still there, and there's no sign of a volcano or any other such disaster," he pointed out. "Although there do seem to have been a considerably number of unusual earthquakes..."

    Gifford shrugged. "I can't explain it, all I can do is tell you what I know, which is all too little. And far more than I really am comfortable with even so, all things considered." He reached down and picked up the folder, opening it to one page which had a sketch of something horrible on it, then held it up. "For example, I have no idea what this creature truly is, but there are some disturbing similarities to a legend from a vastly ancient demonic civilization which is only known through fourth hand writings from a completely unrelated source. That legend tells of 'floating spheres of malice and hatred that destroyed all before them with hellfire which scorched the very soul to ash.' It also claimed 'Their single great eye radiated death and they gorged themselves on the flesh of all whom they encountered with delight and dark joy.'

    He looked at the sketch, which Quentin had to admit fitted those sentences more closely than he was entirely happy about. "Allegedly one of the things emptied an entire city of all life when a portal to its domain was unwisely opened somehow. Watcher Zabuto reports that his Slayer has seen up to three of them at one time in Sunnydale. And that they are simply moving about the streets late at night chasing vampires unwise enough to show themselves, while utterly ignoring the human inhabitants. Worse, she claims that she witnessed one of them actually being polite to a teenaged cheerleader!" He stared at Quentin with his eyebrows lost in his hair. "I have not the faintest idea what is going on, but I very much do not like it. Frankly, it terrifies me."

    Travers could see the truth of this in his eyes.

    Gifford flipped through several more pages of sketches. Slayer Young was apparently rather good at them, the result being unpleasantly realistic. "And that is the only one I recognize in any way at all. Assuming it's the same thing as described in the legend I mentioned, which I certainly can't guarantee. None of these other ones match anything we have records of, except very loosely in a couple of cases. Yet apparently they are all wandering about the place in that benighted town and simply amusing themselves by eliminating everything else that might pose a threat, while waiting for their Queen to reemerge from the Hell Mouth. Which, based on Slayer Young's report, they are sure will happen when she has 'purged the lower realms of those unworthy to worship her Glory and Rage,' a comment I can't help but find worrying. Deeply so."

    "There are reports that similar creatures have been seen in a number of other locations around the world," another of those present remarked, glancing at his compatriots, his face showing how disturbed he was by all this. "Most of these locations have also shown a precipitous drop in demonic activity in a short period of time. Yet there are no usable photographs of any of these things."

    "Our magic users report odd fluctuations in mana flow worldwide, too," someone else put in. "None of them have experienced anything quite like it before and are baffled by the phenomenon."

    "It's all connected," Gifford said. "Somehow. And it is all ultimately related to Sunnydale and whoever or whatever it is that went through the Hell Mouth."

    The room was silent for a while, the ticking of the clock breaking the moments into seconds.

    "The thing that really gives me sleepless nights," he finally said, very quietly, "Is what will happen when it comes back."

    The Council leadership looked at each other, none of them, not even Travers, able to come up with an answer.

    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

    As he walked out of the small shop, Xander concentrated on opening the recalcitrant bag of treats, which fought back manfully but eventually succumbed to the forces of good and hunger. "Got you," he crowed, peeling open the plastic and sticking his hand inside. Not watching where he was going he promptly walked into someone who was apparently also not looking in the right direction and bounced off, stumbled, and nearly dropped the bag as he tripped over the curb. His reflexes were up to the job though and he rolled as he fell, saving his precious cargo while landing hard on his back.

    "Ow," he mumbled, staring up at the darkening sky of early evening, then focusing on something closer. Something that was looking at him with a poorly concealed smirk along with a slightly embarrassed expression. "Kendra?" he mumbled. "What… Where did you come from?"

    The junior Slayer smiled a little, giving him a hand and pulling him to his feet with effortless strength when he accepted it. "You should watch where you're going, Xander," she said in her accented voice, sounding amused. "I might have been a demon."

    "Hey, you're the one who wasn't watching where she was going," he retorted, while checking that his purchase wasn't squashed and relaxing when he found it intact. "I was just walking along minding my own business."

    "You were half inside that bag of..." Kendra tilted her head as he held it up. "Twinkies. Of course."

    "Want one?" he offered, holding it out. She sighed but took one of the little snacks, then removed the outer packaging of it as he did the same. Both of them bit into the sponge.

    "Ahh. That's the good stuff," he sighed in delight.

    "You are truly a strange boy," she commented although he noticed hers also disappeared fairly quickly.

    "Guilty as charged," he replied cheerfully, unwrapping a second one. "So why are you here? I didn't know you were in Sunnydale again."

    She looked both ways, then up at the roof line, as he followed her gaze. "I can't tell you," she said in a low voice. "I'm not supposed to contact any of you people."

    He squinted at her, curious. That sounded ominous in his opinion. She met his eyes but didn't expand on the comment. Deciding that he wasn't going to get anything by asking straight out, he shrugged. "OK. I guess it's secret Council business or something?"

    "Something," she muttered under her breath, while looking off to the side. He followed her gaze but didn't see anything, although he took note of her overall demeanor, which was that of a girl who was apprehensive and worried, although friendly. He rather liked Kendra, she was an interesting person, almost as direct as Cordelia and nearly as dangerous as Buffy, but oddly innocent compared to either. Presumably due to her upbringing which had as he understood it been odd even for a Slayer.

    "You in town for long?" he queried.

    She looked back at him, then smiled slightly. "I can't say," she said.

    "Again with the mystery," he grinned. "Twinkie?" He held out the bag.

    "You can't bribe me to tell you," she replied as she took one.

    "Would I do that?" he asked, also taking another one.

    She inspected him. "You are not nearly as silly as you pretend you are," she told him, before eating the snack.

    Xander smiled at her, mildly amused and wondering why she really was here. He had a pretty strong suspicion it was probably due to all the weirdness recently which was extreme even for Sunnydale, and wondered whether the Watcher's Council was trying to bypass Giles. From what he'd picked up about the shadowy group, he wouldn't put it past them.

    "Oh, I'm at least as silly as I pretend I am," he protested lightly. "Possibly sillier. Or pretendier, or something like that."

    The girl shook her head with a laugh. "I have to go," she told him, her eyes sliding to the side once more. He glanced that way as unobtrusively as he could but still couldn't see anything untoward. "Thank you for the twinkies."

    He made an elaborate bow as he replied, "Anything for the lady," meeting her amused eyes as he straightened up. "Until we meet again." Reaching into the bag he flipped her one last snack, which she grabbed out of the air almost too fast for him to see the motion, nodded to her, and resumed walking in the direction he'd originally intended. He heard over the sound of a couple of passing cars her very light footsteps vanish in the other direction, risking a look over his shoulder as he turned the corner. He was just in time to see her leg disappear down an alley a hundred yards away.

    "Interesting," he mumbled to himself. "Very interesting."

    He decided that Giles probably needed to know, and headed for the school, the twinkies not surviving the trip.

    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

    "That was careless, child," Sam chided.

    "I was distracted," Kendra said, embarrassed. "Something was lurking on the roof of the building on the other side of the road and I was trying to work out what it was. Xander came out at the wrong moment."

    Her Watcher looked hard at her. "Something?"

    "Or someone. I could hear movement but whoever or whatever it was, was very careful not to be seen."

    "A demon? One of these new ones?"

    She bit her lip. "Perhaps," she allowed. "But I don't think so. They're very sneaky, you hardly know they're there unless they want you to know they're there. Even the big ones. I think it was either a human, or something else that's not one of… whatever they really are."

    He studied her, then after a few seconds looked carefully around, and up at the tops of the buildings. "I see," he replied after a moment's thought. "Come, we should get back to the motel and work out tonight's operation." She followed as he went down the alley and out the other end on the next block over, where his rented car was parked.

    "Sam? Why can't we talk to Buffy and her group? They might know more about..." She waved a hand indicating the town, and the complete lack of vampires or anything normal. "What's happening." She slid into the passenger seat and closed the door.

    "Council orders, you know that," he replied as he started the vehicle. She sighed a little but nodded.

    "You realize that Xander will tell Giles he saw me, though?" she said as he pulled away. Her Watcher glanced at her for a moment, his expression neutral, but she thought she saw a slight glint in his eye.

    Returning his attention to the road, he replied, "Do you think so?" He appeared to think it over. "How annoying." His voice was remarkably calm.

    She studied the side of his head for a moment or two, then looked out the windscreen, not quite smiling. "Why did you send me down that street in the first place?" she asked quietly.

    "Just a hunch," he told her. "Unfortunately it didn't produce any useful result."

    She almost believed him.

    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

    "Slayer Young returned to Watcher Zabuto without incident and they left the scene in the direction of their accommodation. As far as I could determine she didn't make me, although she looked in my direction once or twice. I don't think she told Xander Harris anything either, they only spoke for approximately thirty seconds before he left in the other direction. He offered her some junk food which she accepted but it was from a sealed bag he apparently purchased in the shop he came out of. It looks like an entirely accidental encounter."

    "Affirmative, Overwatch Two. Awkward, but there was always the possibility of Watcher Giles' group becoming aware of Watcher Zabuto or Slayer Young. We will watch and see if anything else happens, but until that point our orders are to stay well out of the way."

    The man lurking on the roof of one of the taller commercial buildings in the center of Sunnydale nodded to the voice in his earpiece as he watched through binoculars the distant figure of Xander Harris, who was walking along a street nearly a quarter of a mile away now. The boy crumpled the empty bag of horrible little synthetic cakes into a ball and dropped it into a garbage can without pausing, then ultimately passed behind a building in the distance and vanished.

    "The boy is heading roughly in the direction of Sunnydale High School, Team Leader. I estimate his ETA as ten minutes worst case."

    "Proceed to observation post Delta and relieve Overwatch Three, then maintain surveillance until you are relieved, Overwatch Two."

    "Affirmative, Team Leader. Overwatch Two out."

    He tapped his throat mic, knelt on the roof and put his binoculars into his tactical backpack, shrugged it on, and quickly descended the fire escape at the rear of the building with the expertise and lack of noise of someone highly trained and very practiced at stealth. Soon there was no trace he'd been there.

    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

    Fifty feet behind where Observer Two had been situated, a much larger than human scale creature chuckled to himself.

    He hadn't had so much entertainment for longer than many civilizations had existed. Being one of HER loyal subjects was vastly preferable to any alternative that he could possibly imagine, and serving HER will was endlessly amusing.

    Silently following the little human despite his hooves and bulk, he wondered what SHE was doing, aside from purging those who did not live up to HER standards.

    Which was admittedly almost everyone, but that was simply how things worked.

    Soon SHE would return triumphant and he was curious to see what happened next. In the mean time, he and the rest of HER followers would continue dealing with all the things that were below HER personal notice.

    SHE would approve, he felt. Perhaps one day he could summon up the courage to ask. HER Rage was infinite, but SHE was also a merciful deity, and would probably not end him for merely asking a question.

    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

    Winifred Burkle looked through the sights of the weapon, then very carefully pulled the trigger.

    The discharge of the plasma was quite loud, but not excessively so. Watching as the demon some four hundred yards away exploded into bloody chunks, she smiled to herself.

    "Excellent," the terrifying woman who had found her cave a while ago said approvingly. "Good shot."

    Fred looked up at the much taller woman, her power armor disguising her figure, and replied, "Thanks."

    "I think we can move on to the rocket launcher now," Taylor said, taking back the heavy energy weapon and doing whatever it was that she did to make it go away. Fred watched with great interest, yet again running calculations in her head, trying to understand what seemed to be some sort of subspace pocket as far as she could determine. A larger weapon appeared in Taylor's hands, distracting her from her musings.

    "Right. You read the manual?"

    "Of course." Fred nodded. It was only sensible. You always read the manual. And after not having anything to read for nearly three years, it was also something that she'd have done even if it hadn't been a document that described technology centuries ahead of anything she knew. The mere opportunity to learn some of the things she'd seen in the last few days was almost worth her exile to this horrible place.

    Almost.

    But she was still taking probably more joy in blowing up demons than she should have done, never having thought of herself as a violent person.

    Taylor was… catching.

    She smiled darkly, armed the weapon that Taylor handed to her with one hand, nearly fell over under the weight, managed to recover before something ghastly happened, and took aim on the next demon running in their direction screaming threats.

    "Bye bye," she said under her breath, dropping the targeting icon over it and waiting for it to lock, then pulling the trigger.

    Taylor patted her on the back as the rocket splashed the demon across the scenery. "Nice job," she laughed. "We'll soon have you up to a decent standard."

    Fred fired again, and again, feeling a cathartic sense of achievement.

    Apparently Taylor was very catching.

    And she'd promised that when they finished wiping out all these demons, she'd show Fred some really interesting math some friends of hers had come up with.

    The young woman smiled again.

    Almost worth it.

    She was still going to kick her former professor's ass when she got home, though.

    A lot. Over and over and over.

    Then she was going to do something horrible to him.

    Taylor was extremely catching, and had made some good suggestions. She had quite the imagination where it came to justified revenge...
     
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  • Sidestory
    • Fred was a physics student who ended up in one of the many hell dimensions due to the malfeasance of her physics professor. Things happened... ;)

    At this point she's been there for somewhat less time than in Angel and is less slightly-driven-crazy-by-isolation than in canon. On the other hand, she's been there more than long enough not to want to be there any more, and to want a certain level of revenge on various things. And people.

    Since Taylor is amusing herself by punching holes from one hell dimension to the next while causing problems for everyone in sight (she is on holiday, after all) she happened to run into Fred in the process and one thing led to another...

    :D
     
    Does Taylor like Tacos? (get your mind out of the gutter) I bet that Fred will share that food choice with her like Xander shares his love of Twinkies.

    Great chapter! Nice to see where Taylor is having fun at.

    EDIT: I wonder if Lorne is getting shivers? You know, I bet his clientele is suffering from the depredations of Taylor's minions.
     
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    Anfan said:
    EDIT: I wonder if Lorne is getting shivers? You know, I bet his clientele is suffering from the depredations of Taylor's minions.
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    Well, most of Lorne's clientele are the demon types that Taylor's minions seem to be giving a provisional rain check on the smiting on the first pass. (As in, these types may meet Her approval for survival.) Of course, his home town is in the process of Doomlor-enforced urban renewal along with her new tag along, but then he left for reasons, anyway.
     
    I will admit, I kinda didn't read the others, but I've read enough on tth to understand completely what's here and found it hilarious!

    Thanks for the chapter!

    Also, the most recent chapter of Hive had Taylor pulling a Saurial and it is amazing! The discussion has been pretty good too, and I think I might've gotten you a new reader for Taylor Varga :)
     
    Huh... poor Xander has always been somewhat portrayed as a demon magnet. There's every chance that when Taylor pops back out of the hell mouth, Xander will be there with a surprised look on his face and an offer of a twinkie in his hand, and a bad joke about dinner and a movie.
    And then quite suddenly the demons around Taylor will be given the Xan-Man a new nickname, 'HER consort'. Pity the poor boy when he has to meet Danny Nukem.
     
    Taylor "DOOM" Hebert and Xander "The One who Sees" Harris, he who has been known as a Prophecy breaker. Now that's a ship I never expected to watch set sail. Headcanon Accepted.
     
    I have to wonder if Glory will be so kind as to make herself be noticed when Taylor gets back; she's perhaps the only Big Bad on Earth that HER Followers would consider to be worth the attention of The DOOM QUEEN, so it's entirely possible that they will save Glory for HER to deal with......
     
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