Log entry 14 12.13.10 ----------------------------------------------
Follow the bouncing ball.
There is a bit of misunderstanding about Brandish's power set floating around out there. It is correct to say she cannot 'fly' per se. But that does not mean she cannot direct her movement. Each time Brandish forms a ball, layer or other shape, she can apply momentum in a direction.
That means, if one follows the flow of Hookwolf trying to dodge her, she reoriented toward him three times on the way down. Three times she moved faster, got bigger, almost too fast for the human eye to see.
The hit flattened the upper part of Hookwolf's blender form.
Of course it didn't put him down permanently.
Brandish reformed with empty hands, preparing to manifest something in her hand to pull her body along towards the bladeform.
His voice made her pause. "That's it. Just like Fleur. All that fight despite the mom bod. She was sooo sweet."
Carol Dallon blinked. Confusion warred with anger. "WHAT?"
"Oh! You never did figure it out. That she was raped that night." He held up a paw and manifested blades that grew out straight, unlike so much of his other form. "Not every blade I make is curved."
"You son of a BITCH!" A hammer bigger than her body appeared, yanking her forward. She changed to a ball again, but this time he was ready.
Whether you call it jaws or think of the front legs of the wolf form swinging in to grab, what mattered was that the mass of metal caught the ball's momentum and bled it off.
A new wolf head formed, turning to look at me. "Stay right there Keptain. You are next."
The sound of metal grinding, bending as it compressed the ball down.
I felt the first layer pop in my bones.
"Freyja!"
"On it, Keptain." Her voice came calmly. "It occurs to me, my Keptain, that the cape produces a valuable commodity we can harvest."
"Do it."
Freyja played it up for any onlookers. I saw Brandish beam onboard on the bridge medical station –the table really– already propped up to watch. She was witness as the 'ball' shape being squeezed by Hookwolf grew brighter and bigger. The metal of the wolf grinding up against it began to disappear at the touch of the spinning ball.
*******************
On the bridge.
"What is going on here?" She caught me standing to the side. "Keptain?"
The view in front us displayed the street, the fight and apparently, her.
"Settle in and watch. Fog and Night are over there, by the by." I wave a hand to the right. Two transparent tubes were off to the side, connected to the wall. One held a mass of green roiling fog. The other had a woman wound in white bandages from neck to ankles, suspended from the shoulders to the tube.
"Where are we?" Lawyer gotta lawyer.
I smile. "Onboard my ship."
"Your wha…?" She broke off as Freyja's puppet arms put in an appearance.
"I am recording this, but you might want to see it in real time."
Onscreen, Hookwolf was howling. Not in victory or anger, but in pain.
He was trying to disengage now, pulling back from the bright ball, yet stuck to it like he was glued. More of his hooked mass was pulled in. He was generating more.
And Freyja was taking MORE.
That was the reality of it. For the onlookers, Freyja was projecting piles of his metals falling off in a circle around the ball, as if they were being snipped off by the force of the spin.
A mere handful of seconds later the wolf shape stopped regenerating the metal. What was left was a dog sized ball of metal that unfolded into a much thinner man than what I'd seen before. This man looked like he'd spent his summer at camp –Auschwitz in WWII if you will.
The six foot frame held skin and bones, his blonde hair stringy and grayed. White power became white washed.
"Ready to go back to the fight?"
Brandish mutely nodded.
***************************
Back at the fight.
As the man who was Hookwolf fell flat and failed to rise, the ball of energy shrank down to show Brandish as she hopped down almost on top of him. She didn't strike, but she did manifest another weapon –of sorts.
The thing she put him in was an energy version of a Pillory, the thing you see in reenactor villages around New England with three holes for head and hands. It was linked to a solid bar of glowing energy to shackles around his ankles.
I was still standing there in the street when Shadow Stalker landed next to me.
"Brandish don't play!" She whooped it up for the audience, clapping and waving to the camera toting crazies that had come out of the woodwork. "Let's hear it for New Wave's Brandish!"
Looking back at us in surprised gratitude, Carol Dallon took a bow and saluted us in turn.
"Did you call the PRT?"
"Yes, Keptain. ETA in three minutes." Freyja noted.
"Three minutes?" I asked.
Brandish laughed. "Unless they send out… Oops, there he is!"
An orange-red blur zipped around us, then around Brandish and her emaciated prisoner, staying outside the four feet deep projected mass of metal.
"Velocity." Brandish nodded.
He stopped dead, so still he could be a statue. "Is that who I think it is?"
"Hookwolf. Albeit missing a good bit of his mass." She glanced my way.
I stepped forward. "Power interaction. Brandish ground off his everything." As I gesture, the piles of parts steam away like evaporating ice.
"I wouldn't breathe in those fumes if I were you." I state.
Velocity was looking around. "Our preliminary reports said Fog and Night were here."
Smiling, I held up the two figurines. "They are well in hand. I can revert them into cells for you. No sense giving them a chance to hurt Troopers in transit. I suppose we could give a statement at that point."
Sophia, always the one aware of a scent of money. "Is there a reward for the capture of Night and Fog?" She waved to brandish. "Not as big as Hooky boy, but no sense turning down a free lunch."
Brandish took that line and grabbed it like a fish taking the worm. "Yes. is there a reward for this capture?"
Wow. Brandish and Shadow Stalker bonding.
Clap, clap, clap, CLAP.
Ah the Valkyrie sisters were here. Just down the street really. And at the other end of the block was a wall of metal, swords and literal trees of blades growing there.
I handed the dolls to Velocity. "Be a dear and take these two to PRT HQ. Chop chop."
Shadow Stalker was unslinging her weapon, holding it at the ready. Brandish manifested an axe bigger than she was.
Freyja was in communication with the PRT, apparently with Director Piggot herself, as I heard Velocity exclaim in disgust.
"Retreat?" He yelled. "Just leave them to the…" His face went blank. "Aye, aye." He growled out, turning to blur away down the alley they hadn't blocked.
As his blur settled, Kaiser and the two Giantesses moved closer, blades rising to block the alleys as well.
*********************
Onboard Freyja, Shadows Stalker, Brandish, Hookwolf and I watched as the Empire closed in on our apparent position.
But we weren't there on scene.
We were in the dolls I handed Velocity.
A single projection device, not more than the head of one of Shadow Stalker's bolts, was left behind as the imagery faded.
Brandish and Hookwolf, one. Shadow Stalker and Keptain, fading away with a mocking wave of hands. And all the metal he'd created around them, gone.
"I took the liberty of cleaning the street of the metal Kaiser creates as well." Freyja noted smugly.
'Brandish, Freyja. Freyja, Brandish." I point at the puppet hands, then at the ship around us. "And the ship itself." I take the nudge from Shadow Stalker. "And this is my head of Security, Shadow Stalker."
"Sup." Sophia's smirk was palpable. She liked strong women, her opinion on lawyers notwithstanding.
************************
Sliding into the garage entrance to the PRT HQ, Velocity waved his id in front of a –ha– high speed reader, visibly fidgeting as it decided to open the doors to let him into the airlock style entry.
"Ma'am! What the hell. I had to leave them high and dry because…"
As the inner doors opened, Miss Militia was standing there with Director Piggot next to her. "Per my orders." She growled.
Even at speed, he gulped visibly to have his CO right there, angry looking.
"Let's see these doll things."
Velocity put the two figures on the metal tray proffered by the tech. He set them at a table, with video cameras watching the location.
"You can come out now." Emily Piggot hated to deal with some kinds of capes. Sneaky ones for instance.
Myself, Shadow Stalker and Brandish appeared in the open area. Nozzles trained on us from various points in the ceiling. Troopers squared off with aplomb, but Velocity let loose with a YIP as he reappeared out of the blur on the other side of Miss Militia.
"The hell?!" His voice cracked. How old was he, anyway?
"And your prisoners?" Director Piggot gestured to the tray, now empty.
"You have cells ready to hold them, to treat Hookwolf?"
Her nod was as good as a bark. "With me." She turned to go down the hall.
Brandish took pride of place, with me and Shadow Stalker falling in behind. Miss Militia and Velocity got the rear, although the V-man was staying far away and only zipping forward in spurts. We must have rattled him a bit.
We took the stairs, her stomping down them like a punishment, but to whom.
Down at least two flights under the below ground level garage entrance, we found ourselves in cell blocks with heavy doors and partitions that can be reconfigured at the tap of a button.
"Here. This one for Fog, that one for Night." She growled.
I had Freyja beam out Fog and Night, still in the tubes, in the designated cells. "He is stuck in his breaker state while in that, it's nothing but glass but a couple inches thick." I point to the other cell. "Night cannot change while anyone is watching her. Lo and behold the camera bolts in the tube are monitored by Freyja, who does not sleep."
I noted Militia perked up at that, but she didn't comment.
"And Hookwolf?"
"You might want medical treatment for him. We, ah, overstressed his power. And administered a sedative to keep him quiet after the fight."
Some Troopers bring in a gurney with manacles. Freyja beamed him onto it, then beamed the manacles into position around his arms.
He was snoring as soon as he was in place.
The examination was conducted as they moved him out of the room into a cell.
We were ah Directed into a conference room. Really? On the detention level?
It must have shown on my face. "We have rooms like this on every floor. Get a coffee or some water in you. We need to talk. You just showed us capabilities far in excess of what you told us before."
I caught the bottle of cold water Sophia tossed my way, then the banana she took from the cart and tossed after. I didn't look at either. "We didn't say that was ALL we could do. We shared what seemed pertinent."
Piggot turned to take in Shadow Stalker biting an apple near in half.
"You barely scraped the surface. Night and Fog are impressive. But if you think the dog and pony show escaped the Thinkers."
Sophia swallowed noisily. "Naw. They will gibber in horror at the 404 page not found. And you will play it down as Smaal was there, playing a small part."
I held up a pinched finger and thumb. "Smaal part."
The Director rolled her eyes. "God save me from alien punsters."
"Did I SAY we were aliens?"
Sophia snickered. "No. But you didn't exactly deny Freyja's origins."
***********************
"Vas tun?" Kaiser didn't often slip into German without thinking. But this was worth the occasion. Purity was not going to like this. Or that she missed it because she was doing her tanning session.
***********************
Emma walked the catwalk at her fashion show. She missed a beat and had to turn a stumble into a twirl at the end. With a flounce, she easily dodged the elbow Trista tried to give her for being extra on the walk –something Trista tried at least once on every girl.
Thinking to herself. 'I know they are out there having a blast without me, dammit."
The theme of the show was some kind of futuristic setting. There were oddly metallic costumes and every one of the people moving around the floor had some kind of green diamond thing on their head.
Wait.
No way.
"Ladies and Gentle–Sims. Please put your attention to the Master of ceremonies…"
Uber and Leet.
Sims.
Bygul updated her on the fight that just ended.
Taylor and Sophia got to fight the Empire –AGAIN!
And here she was, about to play damsel in distress to the video game nerds.
There was clearly no god to speak of.