I leapt across rooftops with grace that probably had never been seen before in Brockton's entire history. Maybe even the history of the East Coast. I did a triple frontflip that moved me from one building to another. I technically had only a single Mover power, and one that wasn't even that focused on actual movement, and I could achieve this. It made me even more frustrated that I wasn't getting free Tier 0 powers. I most likely wouldn't have bought many of the powers that eventually led to my domination of my physical body.
All my lesser powers, whether they were tier 0, synergies, or purchased upgrades came together in such insane ways. I smiled as I took another leap. Taking my flesh and blood body out for an afternoon was just what I had needed. I checked in on both my clones and was happy with what I saw. Cameron had snuck into a movie theater and was watching the latest blockbuster while I had gone back to school. I was currently talking with Madison, telling her I wanted to go to her place after school and that we needed to contact our friend from Arcadia.
I spoke in hushed tones so as to avoid the wrong person eavesdropping and getting the wrong(read right) idea about what we were doing. Something I would be able to be less worried about once I taught Madison a code I made on the fly where our cape lives would simply be heard as us talking about fashion.
Encryption was going to be a surprisingly useful power, especially with its synergy.
That was for later in the afternoon, after school was done and I returned my main body to its rightful place. For now I was 'patrolling'. In all honesty I knew I wasn't going to come across any crime. The part of the docks I was running through was low income enough that any laws being broken were simply a result of the depression the city was going through. I finished a leap and stood in the center of a rooftop just taking in the city.
I opened up my senses, boosted to the max with all my cellular advancements and ability to integrate animal features into my body. I could feel the city in a way that nobody in the world could. That was when I began to hear something suspicious. Dogs barking, way too many dogs barking.
What could that mean? The last time I had found such a large concentration of it was in Empire territory, where Hookwolf set up his fighting ring. It didn't make sense that it would be here in mostly neutral territory. I set off immediately, it looked like my casual afternoon off might actually turn into some action.
The building the dogs were in was plain, but well taken care of. No markings on the outside to signify what it might be, several of the windows were blacked out to prevent people, especially those looking at it from the street, from seeing inside. I immediately saw over a dozen weak points in the building, and the most simple was the skylight that didn't even have a lock on it. People really underestimated rooftop access to places.
Sliding into the building I realized quickly that there was no way this was part of Hookwolf's operations. The skylight led into a large open area with fake turf that was littered with dog toys. This was a space for animals to run and play freely. I kept myself low and silent as I moved towards the sounds of the dogs.
Once there I was happy with what I saw. The half a dozen dogs there weren't kept packed in too tight cages and starved to increase aggression for the benefit of a crowd, instead they all got large cages with enough room to stretch their legs, bowls of food and water all filled.
This was a dog shelter. A genuine dog shelter. Off the books but a real one. I started to put together all the pieces.
"The fuck you doing here?" I heard behind me, as well as three growling dogs.
I turned and saw Bitch standing there with her three dogs, my Third Eye showing me that she was getting ready to push her powers into them. I held my hands up, turned myself to the side, and avoided eye contact with her. "Not here to fight. I heard the dogs and worried it might be Hookwolf." From the corner of my eye I saw her body language relax and she commanded her dogs to stand down.
"Well he's not here. So leave."
"I thought you said you took the dogs to a no kill shelter?" I recognized two of the dogs in the cage from the dog fighting ring we worked together to take down.
"Most I do. Some need special care, can't be socialized. Leave."
"Do you take care of them all by yourself?" I asked, ignoring the request for me to leave. "Seems like a lot of work." The three dogs by her started approaching me cautiously.
"I have people that show up sometimes, take care of things when I can't." She then switched her attention to her dogs. "Leave her alone!"
"Don't worry, it's fine." I held my hand out for the dogs to sniff. "I'm happy to see Angelica is doing well." The dog I had helped liberate was looking much healthier, her wounds all gone and she accepted my hand and the follow up pets happily.
"Yeah. She had what it took to be out in the field and she had too much aggression to not let it out somewhere." Rachel sat down and joined me in giving affection to the dogs. "The rottweiler is Brutus and Judas is the one that asks for too many treats."
"They're good dogs. Healthy."
"Of course, do you think I wouldn't look after them?" There was an angry tilt to her voice.
"No, I see how much you care for them." I assured her as I let Angelica rest her head on my lap. Animals was putting in work, letting me know how to gain the dog's trust. "I just mean that you put in a few rounds with Lung when you saved my ass last night." I looked over Bitch. Her nose was swelling from where Grue had slammed her into their table. Our hands brushed as we were petting Brutus and Diagnostic gave me a full view of her physical state. The nose was definitely broken. "You on the other hand look like you got your shit rocked. Was it Oni Lee that did that?" I couldn't let her know I knew who had actually hurt her.
"No. Grue." And she straight out said it. She didn't have any shame.
"He shouldn't have done that." She just shrugged at my sympathy.
"It is what it is. He got pissed and I was wrong." She wasn't though. Objectively she was right about Cameron not joining the group. Of course I was happy she was 'outvoted' so to speak but that didn't mean she was worthy of assault.
"I disagree but we're probably not close enough for me to have an opinion." Bitch just scoffed at that. "Your nose though. I'm pretty sure it's broken."
"Yeah. Set it though. It'll heal." Heal incorrectly more like it. It wouldn't be life changing but her ability to breath through her nose would be impacted.
"I can help, if you want?" I pulled out one of the potions I kept on my belt and held it up. "Healing potion, basically. It'll help you with your nose."
She looked at me with distrust.
"I have a few different powers. This one lets me make tonics to heal people."
"Drink it first." She demanded and I took a few sips of my potion. The half remaining in the bottle would be more than enough for Bitch.
She wordlessly took the bottle from me and then downed it. Almost instantly I could see her nose begin to shift as the cartilage and bone in it reknit itself.
"That hurts like a bitch." I stifled a laugh at the unintentional wordplay. "But also good?"
"Healing hurts like a bitch so I also added some stuff to deaden pain."
"What does it heal? Only broken bones?" Bitch asked.
"No. It can heal almost anything. Brain damage and regrowing limbs is beyond me but over time it can do almost anything." Underplaying stuff a bit but that was par for the course for me.
"It work on dogs?"
I could see where this was going. "A little, but it's optimized for humans. I'd have to produce a new formula for canines."
"10k in cash if you bring me enough of your healing juice for the dogs here." She glanced at the cages noting that as well as the dogs had been treated there were still several injuries that might never heal right naturally. At least not with a big help from me.
"It'll take a while to produce enough. Friday evening maybe, I can at least bring a smaller batch to get the process started." I could do it in my Scrapyard dimension right now but for something like this that I'm giving to somebody I'd want to do it in reality. I wouldn't want to risk having to unsummon it from the Scrapyard and ruin their day. "And no cost. The dogs need help so I'll do it for free."
Bitch was silent for a second before mumbling a "Thanks." She then recovered her nerve and spoke at full volume. "Friday, eight o'clock. Meet me here."
I nodded but in my head I was already thinking about the differences in biology between humans and canines and how to adjust my tonic.
"I need to exercise some of the dogs. Help me get them to the main room." Bitch stood up and moved to the cages and I followed instinctively.
Let's Play
The afternoon was spent helping Bitch out with her dogs while Cameron went back to the Undersider's base and my clone body made her way through the school day.
"You going to be able to have the house to yourself tomorrow?" I asked Madison as our last class ended. "Because some shit went down last night and I need to fill you and G in."
"My dad's out of town for the week," Madison said. "And mom goes out after like 6:00 whenever he is." That was lucky, "How are we going to get G on the line though?"
"Don't worry I'm on it."
On Mondays Glory Girl had afternoons off from Arcadia and went to Brockton U for college level courses. I walked onto campus with red hair and in a male presenting body with a tan, so that nobody would ever put together that the guy showing up on campus was Taylor Hebert. I ambiguously waved at larger groups of people so that in the incredibly unlikely chance somebody asked about me they would assume I was supposed to be here and knew people.
I waited outside the building where Parahumans 101 was being taught and when a large number of students started filtering out I tried to find Glory Girl but she wasn't there. A minute later though she exited the building putting some magazines into her backpack.
"G." I said as I approached my fellow hero.
It took her a second but realization appeared on her face. "S. What're you doing here?" She started walking and I followed. "Does this have something to do with last night?"
"You heard?"
Glory Girl nodded. "Oh everybody in the community heard. My mom is dragging us all to a meeting in a few hours with the Protectorate to discuss next steps. You want to share your side of the story?"
"I will, tomorrow night. Same place as always?"
Glory Girl let out a groan. "I was supposed to go on a date with Dean, but I guess we can reschedule. I need to know what C's next steps are going to be."
I winced. "Sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt your social life."
"It's whatever. We cancel dates all the time. Occupational hazard."
I guess that just made me lucky that what few people I was close to either knew I was a superhero or were a hero themselves. "Okay. See you tomorrow." She flew off and I began to make my way to the Protectorate headquarters to lie to Armsmaster about exactly what happened last night.
Let's Play
Cameron yawned as she exited her room. "What's up?" She had heard talk which woke her up from the sleep she had decided to experience today. It was Tuesday now and she wanted to get a vibe for what doing different things in her new home would be like.
"How the hell can you yawn? You don't need to sleep and I am pretty sure you don't even have lungs." Alec asked.
"Hell if I know." Cameron just shrugged. She joined Alec on the couch ignoring Bitch's dogs that growled at her as she passed them. They had picked up on their owner's dislike of the metal girl. "So I heard arguing. What's that about?"
"Who knows." Alec was focused on his video game. "The boss gave Lisa a call and now she and Brian have been arguing in the other room. I hate it when mom and dad fight." Alec fanned himself in an overdramatic fashion.
Cameron joined him in his video games and enjoyed herself for a while before the backroom's door opened revealing a smug Lisa and a frustrated Brian.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we are robbing a bank!" Lisa said with the grandiose voice of a radio announcer.
"We're thinking about robbing a bank." Brian said exhaustion in his tone.
"We're robbing a bank!" Cameron's eyes lit up. On one of the many made-for-tv movies she had seen in her motel room her favorite had been about a group of bank robbers who outwitted both the cops and the mob that had been using the bank as a money laundering business.
"Yes!" "Maybe." The two looked at one another and sighed.
Brian spoke first. "Alright, first let me outline the risks. We do this and we're not walking away with millions. It's going to be maybe twenty thousand at best, less considering the recession here means banks won't be holding anywhere close to their maximum load. We also risk drawing the attention of one of the many superheroes that live in Brockton. We go in there we're stuck, trapped in the building and can't use our usual tricks to get away. Banks also have way heavier security measures than we're used to. Even with Lise with us there's no guarantee we can get the vault open before things go wrong."
"Now it's my turn!" Lisa said, stepping up with a smile. "The boss told me he needed us to do a job on Thursday at around noon, something big and loud. He didn't suggest the bank robbery but when I brought it up he liked it. Liked it enough to agree to some of my extra demands. The boss is willing to pay us for our take two to one. So that means if we take twenty thousand we walk away with sixty."
"It's not going to be twenty though." Brian complained.
"Hush, I didn't interrupt you when you gave your little speech. Anyways he's willing to either match us two to one or top up our haul to twenty five thousand, whichever is bigger." That sounded like a lot of money to Cameron's untrained ears. "As for the heroes showing up, his intel says that all of the Protectorate are going to be out of town on Thursday, some sort of big event. We do that and hit Bay Central then we can specifically grab the attention of the Wards since Arcadia isn't that far away."
Cameron raised her hand. "Sorry, person with memories that only go back a month at best here. What does that mean?"
"Arcadia is the high school where most of the Wards go to school, and everybody knows it. Which means that they can't send everybody to deal with us or else the whole game is over. Not only that but the little league responding means New Wave won't do anything so they don't step on anybody's toes."
"So we deal with a bunch of rookies and boost our rep at the same time?" Cameron asked.
Bitch let out a barking laugh. "Rookies? Pretty sure they've all been Wards longer than you've been alive."
"Shut the hell up you-"
"Stop! Both of you. We're talking business." Brian shouted and both Bitch and Cameron backed down. "Continue Lisa."
"Right. Well we'll only have to deal with the Wards, and not even all of them at that, we have a guaranteed payday, and most of all we get a major boost to our reps. Following up taking Lung out of commission with a bank robbery? We'd be legends."
"Hell yeah. I'm in for robbing a bank." Alec said, seeming actually excited at the prospect.
"Rachel?" Brian turned to the other older member of the team.
"We've kicked the asses of everybody that's gone against us. We'll kick the Ward's ass too."
Lastly Brian turned to their newest member. "Cameron?"
"Miss out on getting to rob a bank? Are you kidding? How are we pulling this off?" And with that Lisa began to talk about layouts and sight lines while Brian was suggesting methods of escaping the bank. Soon all the members of the team, sens Alec who started making lunch, were trying to figure out the best way to rob a bank.
Let's Play
"Wait, a bank? That's like, so cliched." Madison said through the communication device.
"And stupid, why the hell would they risk it?" Glory Girl asked next to me at the abandoned ferry station.
I filled them in on the rest of the Undersider's plans.
"Okay," Glory Girl said slowly. "I'm not the only one who thinks that this is mad suspicious, right? I mean a big job on a specific day that the Protectorate aren't around? That smells like trouble."
"So it's a smokescreen yeah?" Madison added. "Do a loud thing so nobody notices the quiet thing? Have you figured out what Coil's actually after?"
Taylor shook her head. "I have a few ideas, but nothing I'm for sure confident about. Although…" I turned to look directly at Glory Girl. "New Wave, they won't step on the toes of whoever deals with the bank, but what would they do? Stay at their jobs and home or get ready on standby?"
"Standby probably, although that doesn't mean much. My mom would probably take an early day and drive back to my dad at the house and uncle Niel and aunt Sarah would maybe do the same?"
"What about the Wards?" I asked, confidence in my guess increasing. "If New Wave was handling things would the Wards be getting ready?"
Glory Girl took a second to think about it. "I think so? I mean I'm not super familiar with their operation procedures but I'm solidly sure."
My enhanced brain was working overtime. "It's about the Wards." It hit me. "The Protectorate is gone so the Wards would respond to any crisis they have to deal with. They want the Wards busy. If the big job was in a place New Wave responds to the Wards still get distracted getting ready for the worst case, it pulls them away from something."
"Wait wait wait." Glory Girl put her hands up. "How do we know it's not about New Wave? The Wards are in a high school, not much there that's of interest to Coil. Wouldn't my mom's law office or uncle Neil's job be a more likely target?"
"Because Coil gave into Tattletale's demands about extra pay. If he was more interested in getting New Wave busy he wouldn't have been so happy with her choice.
"So something at or near Arcadia High is the target." Madison recapped. "Glory Girl you know what's around there?"
"Well there's the middle school just around the corner that feeds into Arcadia, some office buildings, way too many strip malls, and an actual mall." She hesitated. "And also a stash for the Wards, if there's an emergency they can quickly get their gear. There's about half a dozen scattered all throughout the city."
"What if that's it? He wants access to that?" Madison asked. "Info on the Wards, maybe even identity stuff?"
That sounded plausible but I wasn't sure. "That's still just one option, the best I can come up with but there's still a bunch more that I can think of." An idea came into my head.
"Okay. Glory Girl you might not like this."
"Like what?"
"I think we're going to need to let the bank robbery happen."
"Hold up, no. Absolutely not."
"Hear me out. If we stop the bank robbery before it happens then Coil not only just doesn't do his plan, but now knows we're onto him. We don't get any new information and Coil adapts, maybe even figures out Cameron. If we let the robbery happen though, we can keep an eye out for Coil's men, whatever he's doing has to at least be slightly visible or he wouldn't have to worry about a distraction, and catch them in the act. Cameron's cover is safe and we stop Coil's plan."
A frustrated look appeared on Glory Girl's face. "Okay so we do that, then how do we keep an eye out over the entire city? There's only three of us, and even with Flemming you only bring the number up to twelve."
"Flemming isn't the only way I have to search for things." I turned to the blue hologram of Madison, "M, I know you said you don't want to be in the field, but what if I gave you access to Mascot and Scarecrow. That's an extra twenty one pairs of eyes." I could have been the one using those powers, but I could tell Madison was starting to get jealous about being left out. Best to nip that in the bud and make her feel useful.
"I have study hall before lunch and go to Brockton U after it. I can say I have a paper to work on and leave in time to avoid getting pulled into the response team for the robbery by the Wards."
I smiled. I knew she would see things my way. "Alright. Let's get working on who will be observing what parts of Brockton."
Name: Taylor Anne HebertPerfect Body LVL 15SP Cap11Loose SP3Tier 1 Powers(26)Mover(1)Shaker(3)Brute(4)Breaker(2)Master(3)Tinker(3)Blaster(1)Thinker(1)Striker(1)Changer(3)Trump(3)Stranger(1)Tier 0 Powers(79)Synergy Powers(28)Power Upgrades(6)
April 12th
A.N.
An update later in the day for y'all. This is literally the second half of the set up chapter from last Sunday. Next week is the Battle at the Bank with a twist and plots occurring around the battle itself.
I'll also spoil that we're going to get an interlude chapter after the next, and so I want to hear from you, who's POV do you want to hear from. Even if it isn't even somebody in the main cast. I already know two of the POVs but would love to hear from y'all.
As for the content of the chapter I am enjoying fleshing out the relationships between the Undersiders and Taylor and Cameron. Rachel was always the one that least wanted Taylor there, and Cameron is more aggressive about her self worth and more willing to cast on personal judgements so her and Rachel are not getting along great right now. Meanwhile Shard and Rachel technically already have a small connection from helping take down one of the dog fighting rings together. Also Angelica was referenced as having never learned to like anybody except for Rachel, but Taylor having been the one to rescue her and having the power Animals gives her a leg up from most people.
Tin Girl's leg bounced up and down anxiously as she rode in the back of Grue's van. The team had split up into two different cars, Tattletale said it was to keep the group inconspicuous but Tin Girl read between the lines and knew that it was because she didn't trust her and Bitch to not start fighting if they were in such an enclosed space together.
"You nervous back there?" Grue asked.
"A little." The metal girl replied. "I've done jobs before but never in broad daylight. I mostly did smash and grabs, unlocking doors from the inside. Stuff like that. Was hired muscle against capes once." And that job with Trainwreck was in itself a trainwreck.
"I used to do a lot of that myself." Grue admitted. "My power is pretty much made for petty robbery. Actually, once I did this job at a jewelry store, the stupidest thing I'd ever done; it was me and these two career thieves that just got out of prison." Tin Girl began to hang on every word Grue was saying. "They entered the store as just regular customers and then I burst in, full costume and everything and just activated my power, store's small enough that I fill it up in seconds, and then I dissipate around where the thieves were standing. Unfortunately there was a reason they were in prison, they absolutely sucked as thieves. Couldn't break the glass holding the jewelry."
"No!"
"Yes!" Grue let out a small chuckle. "They thought it would break like normal glass, instead one ended up breaking their hand when they tried to smash it open. The moment I saw that I just turned around and left."
"You didn't!" Tin Girl put her hands up to her mouth in shock.
"After that job I started vetting my clients more cautiously. Next week I did the same job, except I had somebody actually competent and we got away with a small fortune in jewelry."
"So the moral of the story is that a good team can help overcome or something like that?" The case 53 asked.
"Moral?" Grue laughed. "No, I just thought the story would calm your nerves. Did it?"
"A little. Nervous but at least I know I could never do something as stupid as that first job."
Grue continued to tell stories about his time as a cape for hire until they pulled up to the back of the bank. The other van was already there.
"Took you long enough." Tattletale joked as she was examining the back fire door to the bank.
"Hey, not our fault we hit every red light on our way here." Grue responded. He started to activate his power lightly, darkness beginning to flow off of him in an intimidating manner.
Bitch stood off to the side prepping her dogs for what was to come.
"Let's just get this over with." Regent said. "I want to get to the part where I have a bunch of ill-gotten money already."
"Then allow me." Tattletale said with a smirk as she typed a code into the keypad. "Employees have a code to get in through here, but they never use it since it triggers an alarm. Unknown to them though is that there's a special code given to SWAT and capes to respond to emergencies. She held two buttons at the same time and the keypad beeped. "Perfect."
She swung the door open and Grue instinctively flinched but no alarms started. "What did I tell you? Please remember to not underestimate me in the future, okay Grue?"
The moment the Undersiders moved into the bank all the banter stopped. Like a thief in the night they moved across the bank passing each office on the way and grabbing everybody. Nobody in the bank was going to be anywhere except where they wanted them to be.
All the while Bitch was in the rear, her dogs growing slowly but surely into their monstrous forms.
Within five minutes they had a sizable group of hostages and strode into the main lobby of the bank.
"Go!" Bitch yelled at her dogs and the speed of the transformation increased suddenly, causing them to grow into their large asymmetrical monstrous forms and they started barking aggressively at the terrified bank goers who had no reason to suspect that this day like any other would result in what was probably the most dangerous moments of their lives.. At the same time Grue strode forward and sent his power forward to cover the entirety of the windowed front of the bank, hiding the entire scene from the outside world.
"Everybody calm the hell down!" Grue shouted over the cowed civilians and barking dogs. "Stay calm and nobody has to get hurt. Nobody be a hero and everybody gets to go home at the end of the day!" One security guard didn't get the memo and tried to pull a gun, but Regent made him trip over nothing and then jabbed him with his scepter/taser. "See! That's what happens when you try to play hero. Now everybody get their backs against that wall, hands on your heads looking down." When nobody moved, Grue started shouting again. "Now!"
At that the forty or so hostages started moving towards the back, although Tattletale grabbed one, a pretty young woman with a nametag that marked her as an employee at the bank, "Bank manager, she'll have some interesting knowhow to pick at."
Tin Girl was silent and motionless during this, holding her hands out as she molded her special time energy. The moment she saw that all of the hostages were against the wall she released her hold on it and froze them completely in place. They would be released once the Undersiders escaped, only experiencing the bank robbery as a blink of an eye.
"Alright, the hostages are secure." Tin Girl said.
"Okay gang, phase one complete." Tattletale gave a smile. "Now come with me Ms. Bank Manager, we have a vault to open."
"I-i-i can't give you the code to the vault." The woman stuttered, fear obviously gripping her.
"Hey hey hey." Tattletale said in a soothing voice that was all the more threatening in its calmness. She moved the two of them to the massive vault on the far end of the lobby, honestly putting that there was basically asking to be robbed.
Tattletale put a hand on the giant dial keeping the vault locked and began to spin it all while looking the woman in the eyes, "You don't have to tell me anything, I already know." She then spun once, twice, three four five times and the sound of giant mechanisms inside the door began to ring out and with a heavy thud the door opened a crack.
"You can freeze her now, I got all I needed from her."
"What are yo-" The manager was cut off as Regent pushed her into the designated freezing area and the metallic thief released her hold on another smaller blob of energy to pause her in time. Tin Girl winced as she saw that she was going to have a nasty fall when time unfroze. Hopefully she didn't twist an ankle or anything.
"Tin Girl!" Grue shook her from her thoughts. "Help me get this door open."
The two of them easily popped the door open and they were greeted by an obscene amount of money stacked into easy to count stacks based on bill size, and lining the walls were filling cabinets with documents that apparently Coil was willing to pay top dollar for. Insurance information, mortgages, loans. Stuff Tin Girl assumed was important "I'll fill my bags with the cash, you break open those cabinets and just stuff whatever you can into yours."
Grue tossed a few of the canvas bags they brought with them to Tin Girl and they both got to work.
Outside the vault Bitch and Regent were tying harnesses to Bitch's dogs in order to carry all this out of here. Tattletale meanwhile had already logged into the manager's computer and taken control of the camera feeds, including those of the camera pointed outside the bank.
"Cops arrived, they're setting up a perimeter but won't move into the bank, not with the hostages and your darkness obscuring line of sight!" She shouted down to the duo in the vault.
"Got it! Let me know the second the Wards show up." At this point they had filled two bags with valuables and Cameron brought them both to the vault's entrance to latch onto the newly harnessed dog. The fact it was the smallest of the three and was missing an eye allowed Cameron's brain to fill in the name Angelica. "Okay come help us with the rest of the bags."
Bitch growled but moved to fulfill her part of the plan while Regent moved to support Tattletale in case there was a straggler none of them had noticed.
The trio worked in absolute silence, getting into a rhythm of filling bags and clipping them onto the dogs, first Angelica and then Brutus. Once they got all six bags onto the second dog though Tattletale called out. "Time to wrap this up, the white hats are here."
Instantly Grue abandoned filling up the next bag and moved over to where Tattletale was, followed right behind by Bitch and Tin Girl. "Which Wards did they bring?"
"Can't completely tell. I know that this van," Tattletale pointed to a van shaped blob on the shitty camera that Tin Girl only thought was van shaped because of Tattletale pointing it out, "carried the Wards here but they're smart enough to avoid the camera's eyeline. You mind taking a look?"
Grue nodded, the only one able to see through the thick smoke that covered the front wall and windows of the bank. He stared through it and began to frown.
"Tattletale you're an absolute dumbass, you know that right?"
"No." Tattletale gasped, a small frown on her face.
"Yes!"
"Somebody want to fill me in?" Regent asked.
"It seems our esteemed Thinker here made a mistake. We got all the Wards here except for Shadow Stalker, which might not even be true since that bitch loves to hide in the shadows and shoot people with crossbows." Tin Girl sensed a story there but now wasn't the time. "And they even brought a friend. Some giant muscly dude that looks like he weighs more than all of us combined."
Big muscly dude? "Was he wearing blue?"
Grue nodded. "Yeah with diamonds on the costume. You know him?"
"Browbeat, he's a Brute, heavy duty stuff. Could barely pierce the skin when I took him on. Didn't know he was with the Wards." Tin Girl replied.
"He joined a little after his run in with you, my best guess is that you scared him enough that he wants a team at his back." Tattletale said.
"Oh just great. We're not only against the Wards, but now they've been beefed up by Mr. Beef." Tin Girl forced herself not to laugh at Regent's phrasing. Grue made a move like he wanted to pinch his nose but stopped before he futilely banged his hand against his motorcycle helmet.
"Okay this doesn't change anything. One hero or six we can still execute our escape plan. No muss no fuss."
Tattletale shook her head. "Not going to work. They outnumber us, they'd be able to take at least one of us before we can escape."
"My power should let us,"
"Not going to work, Vista is there and if we don't take her out any direction we pick is going to be both further than we think it is."
"Well we can't just wait them out. Every second we're in here is a second that New Wave decides to pitch in or the Protectorate run back to town. And if we get into a fight being in here is a disadvantage."
"We have hostages." Bitch growled. "We should use them."
"I still don't see why we can't just run." Regent added unhelpfully.
The four Undersiders started arguing in circles.
"Guys."
And they continued to argue.
"Guys!" And finally they turned to their newest member. "I have an idea."
Let's Play
As the Undersiders robbed the bank I was hiding on the roofs of the tallest buildings in Brockton over seeing the city with my enhanced senses.
Glory Girl had the area around the University, Madison around Winslow, and the ten of me I could make everywhere else.
My main consciousness was in the body overseeing the Arcadia high area, although for a change it wasn't my original body. In order to safely have all ten clones available for this operation I needed to have my main body acting as Cameron and split off my clones early this morning before any of the Undersiders woke up.
I wanted my main consciousness here though because I was nearly positive that whatever was happening was going to happen in this area. I also decided that I had put things off long enough and was going to debut my Tinker persona. I had also figured that if something did happen my Tinker self would be much more difficult to connect to Tin Girl than Shard.
My entire body was covered in metallic armor and sensors were scanning the nearby area for anything of note. I'd say the sensors were about on par with my regular senses but when I was on theme I wanted to be on theme.
I was pulled out of my internal monologue because my basic interface alerted me of something. A van was speeding away from the area of the middle school. Not at a hundred miles per hour or anything, but noticeably above the speed limit for a consistent amount of time.
I switched to thermal imaging and I knew I was correct. There were four heat signatures in the back of the van, three the size of normal human adults, and one the size of a child. A kidnapping. Coil's plan was a kidnapping.
I leapt into the air and my suit expanded around me. On the rooftop I was just sitting in my suits 'safe mode', just a basic metal armor with only the sensors at full force, however now for the first time in the real world I was in my full Tinker gear. And I had to keep myself from blushing out of embarrassment.
I had given Madison full control over my aesthetic and I was almost regretting it. My armor's base color was pink, thankfully a darker pink and not full flamingo, my armor also flared at the bottom in a manner reminiscent of an old victorian era ballroom gown, my arms had rose patterns running up and down them, and on my head was a tiara that I at least made practical by stuffing some extra scanning equipment into.
Now, as designed by Madison, Princess Powerful was taking flight. I stayed in the air behind the van and waited for the perfect moment, and soon enough I had found it.
The street was mostly empty and the van stopped at a red light. With the van out of motion I summoned one of my rifles from my scrapyard dimension. Well I was calling them rifles and guns, but once again Madison's design choices came into play. It was a wand, like all of my weapons as Princess Powerful were going to be. As a rifle class this one was the size of a walking stick, colored blue and had a comically cartoonish lightning bolt at the tip of it.
I aimed at the van, which with V.A.T.S. was easy even without any sort of sight on the wand, and fired an electromagnetic pulse to fry the electronics in the car. The light turned green but the car wasn't going to move. Inside I could tell that Coil's men were getting antsy so I acted fast. I dropped down directly behind the van and called up a purple wand of the rifle size category with a cute magnet on the top and used it to tear the doors off of the van.
Inside I saw three men, obviously trained by the fact that they were already starting to raise up their weapons, M4s which was heavy enough tech that just that would tell me Coil was behind this, and I even recognized one as a mercenary Tin Girl had met once. I also saw a young girl, maybe twelve years old, tied up with a gag over her mouth.
"Princess Powerful demands that you let the girl go!" I said. My voice modulated to sound like an older woman trying to sound much much younger.
The first objective was to secure the hostage. I summoned a heart shape and sized device and threw it directly to land and attach onto the young girl. With a press of a button in the scrapyard dimension the heart activated and the body it was attached to was surrounded by a red forcefield. She wouldn't be able to move but she would be safe. Unfortunately focusing on that gave the men time to get their guns ready and start to fire. I lifted a hand up to cover my face, a forced instinct because even if my armor and shielding failed I would still be okay but I didn't want everybody else to know that, and then summoned a new wand.
This one was a pistol tier wand, only the size of a baton, and was red with a heart on the end of it. It was my basic damage dealing wand, able to send a projection of force that was approximately the strength of being hit in the chest with a brick. Within seconds each of the thugs in the back of the car were knocked out.
In the front seat the driver was still trying to get the car moving. The electronics were fried for the foreseeable future but that didn't mean I was going to leave the driver alone. I adjusted the setting on the wand to lower output but more spin and curved the energy projection around the side of the van to hit the driver in the side of the head.
I stood for a second shocked at how easily I made that shot. V.A.T.S. and Deadeye gave a much larger bonus than I had thought. I rarely used projectiles except for my blood so this was an awakening. Madison was a genius for getting me to make Princess Powerful a ranged fighter.
Hostage was secured. Enemy combatants were taken care of. Now it was time for cleanup. I moved over to the girl, who was whimpering in fear, hands up trying to speak in a calming voice.
"Hey it's okay. I had to put you in the shield to keep you safe but I'll take it down now." A pressed button on my suit shut down the protective shield and the little girl rushed at me for a hug. I honestly didn't expect that and so was almost a second late putting up my temperature barrier. The metal of my suit was scalding from the kinetic energy absorbed from the bullets and so would have given the girl slight burns. That was the issue with my special heat to power alloy. Thankfully this was anticipated and the temperature barrier would run off of the heat energy to keep the little girl safe, ironically lasting until the heat had dissipated.
"Don't worry I'm here. Do you have a name?"
"D-Dinah. I'm Dinah." She was sniffing, tears in her eyes as she spoke. I would need to do a proper investigation later, but for now I had to go into comfort mode.
"Well Dinah, you were very brave. It's all over now because Princess Powerful will be keeping you safe. As long as I'm around nobody will hurt you."
"Chance nothing bad happens to me if Princess Powerful protects me?" Dinah asked out loud. Before I could question it though she then answered herself. "Ninety-five point seven eight zero five three percent."
Dinah was a Thinker. I was trying to figure out why she would be kidnapped, my theories were ranging from the perverse to the extraordinary but this made sense. Coil kidnapped her because he wanted her abilities. But doing that now, not just because of opportunity because kidnapping is a risk no matter what, meant there was a bigger reason.
Everything started opening up to me. The Undersiders, Trainwreck, his oddly passive way of holding onto his section of downtown. I knew exactly what Coil was up to.
Let's Play
Tin Girl kept herself out of the line of sight of the doorway and called upon her powers. She started setting up a large space and slowly pushed it forward towards the door, stopping at where Grue's darkness was covering up line of sight. Testing the previous night showed that putting the energy in his darkness had unpredictable results, it might fire too early, or not at all, and most importantly no matter what Cameron lost track of where it was.
In front of the door Grue was lying on the floor, clutching his shoulder where an unlucky employee's ketchup packets were put to good use making a sort of convincing blood stain. Tattletale was next to him, schooling her face to keep the smugness out of it and replacing it with false concern. Bitch was on the opposite side of the darkness, with her dogs patiently waiting in the darkness for a pull of the leash to direct them on where to go. No matter what Tin Girl had to say about Bitch she knew how to train a demon dog.
Lastly Regent was next to Tin Girl, holding his scepter in one hand and the dropped gun of the brave security guard in the other. Finally energy had reached enough volume for the plan to work and the metal cape nodded.
Recognizing his cue, Regent pointed the gun upwards and fired it with a bang. Tin Girl couldn't see outside, but presumably they were able to hear the gunshot through the small holes Grue made in his wall of darkness near the top. A second after the gunshot Grue mentally dismissed some of the darkness around the entrance, showing him to the Wards outside with what seemed like a gunshot wound.
The Wards would never be able to stay outside if they heard shots fired, that was an immediate take action moment. And if the only way through without breaking through darkness which could hold who knows what they would have to leap through the front entrance where her growing energy field would trap them all.
This was the perfect plan, Tin Girl had no idea why she even came up with plan B.
All of a sudden the energy field was shrunken to a volume less than a soccer ball. What. Cameron's mind raced and she let go of the energy so her focus could be spent on something more productive.
"My field failed! Plan B!" To Grue's credit he didn't hesitate and darkness billowed out of him towards the now cleared entrance. Credit to who she could only assume was Gallant, a blast of energy fired back just as quickly. Thankfully for the darkness generating cape it missed him, but unluckily for the Thinker next to him she was struck straight on the chest and not only did she get sent onto her ass she also started to weep uncontrollably.
"Gallant, Aegis, and Browbeat are in the cloud! Kid Win in the air, Clockblocker bringing up the rear, and Vista on the backline. Find your target and go!" Grue began the process of removing the darkness from the front facing walls and windows and we all sprung into action.
This was plan B. On the apparently very high chance Tin Girl's energy field could be disrupted by one of their powers, or if the Wards were clever enough to not fall for the trap they needed to take out enough Wards that the rest of them wouldn't feel safe chasing them as they got away. Tin Girl had called dibs on Clockblocker. Regent said he could take on Browbeat as long as they both remained in one of Grue's clouds and nobody else seemed to think he was talking shit so Cameron believed him.
Bitch had to take care of Aegis and Gallant, the Brute's inability to die and the Tinker's armor making them both 'safe' targets for her dog's wrath. Grue said he had plans to fight Kid Win, not enough to beat him but long enough for one of the others to hopefully finish with their fight. Tattletale was supposed to be the one to distract Vista enough to buy time for either Tin Girl, Regent, or Gallant to get closer, but with her out of the fight the battlefield now had a huge advantage on the side of the Wards.
As the darkness on the windows cleared Tin Girl reached down and grabbed the two broken chair legs she had at her feet. Both of them had been thrown through one of her planes of time energy to freeze them chronally. If she was right about them, and she prayed she was considering she was wrong about none of the wards being able to affect her energy fields, they were the reason she was fighting Clockblocker.
The metal girl took a running start and leapt through the window, aiming to swing her weapons down right on Clockblocker's head, who had barely managed to stay outside of darkness. However when she landed the chrome fighter hit nothing but concrete and Clockblocker was several feet away. She spared a glance to Vista, the bitch who had stretched space between her and the other time based cape and probably was the one who shrunk her energy field, and growled. When Clockerblocker was out it was Vista's time.
Tin girl resumed her assault charging forward and swinging her sticks, weapons were a mostly foreign concept to her but it was all part of glorious combat and they just felt so right in her hands. She swung her assault, and Vista must have found reason to mess with somebody else's fight or maybe she was just limited in what she could do because the metal girl reached the boy and swung wildly at his center of mass, a small hello.
Clockblocker managed to block the blow and Tin Girl allowed her movements to slow enough for him to grab one of the sticks. He'd probably faced people who thought the best counter to him, aside from projectiles, was just melee weapons, and so he seemed trained to quickly place his hand on the offending weapon.
"Got ya!"
His grip wasn't too tight so Tin Girl just wrenched the stick upwards and hit him across the cheek. Then the second came around and got him smack dab on the temple.
"Looks like my power beats yours!"
Ordinarily that would be enough to take anybody down but it seemed the PRT didn't skimp on body armor for their junior heroes because Clockblocker seemed more dazed than out for the count. Tin Girl could easily rectify this. She swung again but something came up and tripped her, the floor had been moved again by Vista. Clockblocker was also moved farther away and started to recover his senses.
The metal cape looked to see how the rest of the fights were going. Grue was outside of the main cloud, his form obscured with several cloudy duplicates keeping his main body relatively safe from the laser fire Kid Win was shooting at him while blasting shadows into the sky to force Kid Win to come closer to the ground or lose line of sight of the fight.
At least two of Bitch's dogs were outside of the cloud, at least on the side she could see, and they had Aegis in its mouth and were bouncing him around like he was a fleshy chew toy. Not something she could ever unsee. Regent was still in the cloud doing god knows what to Browbeat, and now Tin Girl could see the dog empowering cape. She was riding one of her dogs, charging at Vista. She was looking extra feral and Gallant was nowhere to be seen so either he was taken out or had done something to change the target of her rage with his weird emotion tinkertech.
That made Vista busy, but also Gallant was most likely on the table again. She had to work fast.
She closed the distance and with the first chair leg in her right hand she swung at the Ward's head, he caught the stick again, but this time pulled it towards him with his other hand outstretched, obviously trying to get at Tin Girl's main body. With her superior strength the Case53 twisted her stick and pulled him off balance while striking with the second chair leg in her left hand. She rained body blows, hoping to overwhelm him but he was persistent and lashed out with his leg trying to wrap it around the girl's own.
At that she had to discard her first chair leg in order to escape the grapple and not get caught by Clockblocker.
"Got one." Clockblocker smirked, tossing the stick aside. Tin Girl switched her second stick to her right hand and grinned.
"Yeah but I got you." That was true. The cost of taking one of her sticks was repeated blows from a stick that would sooner break the universe than let anything damage it. Tin Girl didn't know the physics behind it all but she did know that meant it hurt.
The girl charged again, with just one stick in hand. Unfortunately her combat effectiveness wasn't just cut in half with the loss of chair leg number one, now that Clockblocker only had to focus on one weapon that could stay in contact with him for longer than a fraction of a second and so his defenses were reduced to a much more manageable field of view.
Perfect.
Tin Girl continued to strack, block, and parry with chair leg number two and found herself on the backfoot. Clockblocker was gaining ground, pushing her back and the moment she ran out of room to maneuver she was out for the count.
Which is why it shouldn't have come as a surprise when all of a sudden the several yards between her and the Bank's front wall was shortened to inches courtesy of Vista who seemed to have gotten Bitch off her ass and focused once again on keeping Clockblocker safe.
The time freezing cape lunched forwards, hand outstretched and Tin Girl performed her only option, she threw the second chair leg right at his head. Clockblocker of course just smacked it away, there wasn't enough time to throw it with any force, and now his victory was assured. His enemy didn't have any weapons to strike him with without him freezing both them and her in their path, so in his confidence he unintentionally allowed the thrown stick to make him take his eyes off of his enemy's empty left hand.
Which was when Tin Girl struck with the third chair leg she had kept hidden in her forearm. It whacked him right across the head stunning him. With her right arm she repeated what she had just done, pushing the fourth chair leg she had kept hidden upwards to be gripped in her hand and performed a devastating uppercut with it catching right on the bottom of the chin.
No matter how armored the suit was, that rattled his brains, removing him from the fight long enough for Tin Girl to unleash a flurry of blows so devastating that the Ward was out of the fight for more than the foreseeable future, Vista unable to pull Clockblocker away due to Tin girl shortening the distance between them enough that the space manipulator didn't have enough room to pull from.
Speaking of. The metal cape looked at the Ward that had been causing her and her team so much trouble and was glad to see panic on her face. Aegis was down, Clockblocker was down, and Browbeat was still with Regent in the main cloud.
Unfortunately it wasn't all good news for the Undersiders. Gallant was nowhere to be found from Tin Girl's perspective and Kid Win had done…something. He seemed to have teleported in some sort of unholy giant cannon bigger than he was that was not only blasting holes right in Grue's clouds of darkness giving us cover from above, but also seemed more than capable of sending Bitch's dogs flying, with force. He alternated between shooting those large blasts to knock the dogs, and anybody unfortunate enough to be within ten feet of them, off their feet and then switching to a flamethrower mode to burn away Grue's darkness. Something Tin Girl didn't even know was possible.
That seemed like enough of an escalation that they needed to get out of there quickly. Clockblocker was out which meant they didn't have to worry about leaving people behind, now they just needed to get rid of Vista and avoid the cannon long enough to not be turned into a stain on the concrete.
Tin Girl decided to trust her teammates and take advantage of the fact that Vista was also distracted by the giant fucking cannon and she melted into her liquid metal form.
Slowly she oozed across the ground, spread as thin as she possibly could to avoid being noticed, towards the Ward in green she had designated as her mortal enemy until she found somebody else that pissed her off.
Vista didn't even know that Tin Girl was there until she reformed behind the young kid and wrapped her arms around her neck in a sleeperhold. According to Grue all she had to do was apply pressure for around twenty seconds or so and she would be out of the fight. Way more simple than punching her in the kidney until she fell unconscious. Of course the girl struggled but between a teenage girl and Tin Girl's enhanced strength there was no contest and thirty seconds later she was out like a light.
Tin Girl was also correct to trust in her teammates. Kid Win had fallen off of his hoverboard, his hold on it twisted by Regent's abilities who himself seemed to be done with whatever he was doing to Browbeat, and the Tinker's own cannon had fallen on his leg immobilizing him enough for Grue and Regent to just start kicking him into unconsciousness.
At the same time the clouds Grue had formed had begun to all fade away, and that revealed that Gallant was on the other side of the main one taken out by somebody that Tin Girl hadn't seen. Tattletale also stepped out of the bank, having recovered who knows how long ago and leaving the fighting to the rest of them.
It worked. Plan B actually worked.
"Holy shit it worked!" Tin Girl was riding the high of actually winning the fight against the Wards but the rest of the Undersiders were already moving, leaping onto Bitch's dogs as Grue started laying down more cover. Suddenly Tin Girl remembered that the Wards weren't the only people there. The police had formed a cordon around the bank and even though there was a ninety percent chance they wouldn't do anything after they wiped the floor with the Wards there was no reason to actually risk it.
"Get on!" The rest of the Undersiders passed by Tin Girl and she grabbed Grue's extended arm which lifted her onto the giant mount.
"Hahaha!" The girl couldn't help but laugh as they bounded off into the darkness, they had seriously won.
Let's Play
Defeated The WardsCalculating Rewards Based on ContributionGained:
5000 EXP
+3 Loose SP
2 Cape Power RollLevel Up!
Level 16
+1 Loose SP
I let out a sigh of relief as Bitch led the Undersiders away from the bank. Things were getting so intense I was genuinely worried I might have to step in to protect the Wards. Thankfully most of the damage was taken by the Brutes that could handle it or was done by Tin Girl who I had commanded to not do any permanent damage.
I also got two Cape Power Rolls, Striker and Shaker, so the day wasn't an entire bust. However the plan to figure out Coil's plan was. I had spent the entire afternoon perched on this rooftop not seeing a single thing of note. It was starting to get past the time the bank would be a worthwhile distraction so I stood up and stretched. I had told Madison I would debut my Tinker persona so even if I wasn't foiling Coil's nefarious plot I could still fight crime.
I leapt into the air and my suit expanded around me. On the rooftop I was just sitting in my suits 'safe mode', just a basic metal armor with only the sensors at full force, however now for the first time in the real world I was in my full Tinker gear. And I had to keep myself from blushing out of embarrassment.
I had given Madison full control over my aesthetic and I was almost regretting it. My armor's base color was pink, thankfully a darker pink and not full flamingo, my armor also flared at the bottom in a manner reminiscent of an old victorian era ballroom gown, my arms had rose patterns running up and down them, and on my head was a tiara that I at least made practical by stuffing some extra scanning equipment into.
Now, as designed by Madison, Princess Powerful was taking flight. Hopefully I would find something to do as her today.
Name: Taylor Anne HebertPerfect Body LVL 16SP Cap11Loose SP7Tier 1 Powers(26)Mover(1)Shaker(3)Brute(4)Breaker(2)Master(3)Tinker(3)Blaster(1)Thinker(1)Striker(1)Changer(3)Trump(3)Stranger(1)Tier 0 Powers(79)Synergy Powers(28)Power Upgrades(6)
April 14th
A.N.
I cannot tell you how busy and frustrating the past week and change has been. Had to force the back half of this chapter. Even as I'm posting this I'm feeling ill and having a hard time bouncing back from my blood donation today.
So one of the biggest things that changed in development is the way the Clockblocker fight went. At one point the way Cameron would win was by stabbing Clockblocker in the liver with a razor thin needle and saying that if he froze her the blade would tear through him by his own natural movements and that she would keep the blade in place until he got medical attention as long as he stayed out of the fight but that seemed too villainous.
Regent doing something to Browbeat in the darkness is a joke for me and me alone because somehow Regent took out Browbeat in Worm, and I just don't know how the hell that happened and so neither will Cameron.
The alternator cannon is about fourteen feet long and we as a society don't talk about that enough.
Taylor thinks that she didn't really accomplish anything, but in the alternate timeline she messed up Coil's plans forcing him to give up on Dinah at this moment. He isn't beaten but this is a setback.
Lastly Princess Powerful has debuted. Her appearance partially from the running joke by Kingcrimson1081 early on in the story about how with her balance and clothing powers Taylor could just kick ass in a giant dress and heels. And yes Princess Powerful has heels. There are extra rocket boosters in them. Her wands are varied and are split into pistol, rifle, and artillery classes each representing not only energy output but energy drain. I'll go into more detail about the different types as we get along in the story.