rogue, meet hero

[peterxy]

Most of the time, patrolling is a dull, uneventful affair, somewhat akin to the Ankh-Morpork City Guard ringing their bells and calling "All's well!" at night.

Sometimes, it's not.

Dauntless was not expecting to run into two unpowered Asian gangs (Japanese and Korean? that's what it looks like at a distance) duking it out in the middle of the street. Granted, it's the evening, and it's not quite the most well-frequented of streets, but still.

He decides to call for backup, not because he wouldn't be able to take them on, but because he's supposed to do that whenever confronting another parahuman or a large number of non-capes, at least until he graduates. He turns the comm on and describes the situation - a bit over a dozen people on each side, arguing and brandishing blunt weapons and in some cases guns - then waits and watches.

Comments

[thinkering]

Lorica snatches the knife out of the stabbing one's hand before it scratches her faceplate; she doesn't like hand-to-hand but she can manage, now, if she has to. The panel the exploding one attaches the bomb to judges itself dangerous, ejects, and summons surrounding panels to squinch in around her so she's not left unprotected.

Robots converge on the rooftop copy, firing tranqs.

[mxglam]

He's fast! The copy that's on the rooftop has been tranquilized but there's another one down on the floor level spending a second to localize himself and oop he's behind the rogue again, who is currently paranoid enough to notice this and attempt a kick before being stabbed.

Gangbangers have all been dealt with by now, so Dauntless mostly tries to predict where the Mover will appear to stab him with the glowing spear.

[thinkering]

"He keeps scoping out the battlefield - Velocity, here, have a tranq dart, you're faster -" A robot offers Velocity a dart from its supply. "I'm going to take out some streetlights."

Robots go and short out streetlights.

[mxglam]

The rogue gets the idea and flies close to Dauntless. "Your stuff's too bright, stop moving," they say, an androgynous voice making assumed pronouns unclear.

Dauntless blinks and stops moving for long enough for the rogue to make a small spheric device that produces thick but quickly dissipating smoke around them, covering their body from about shoulder down. Dauntless gets the hint and lowers his spear so it's also hidden by the smoke, while keeping his shield (which doesn't emit light yet) up to protect against potential stabbing.

Streetlights start going out one by one,

The Mover attempts to stab them once, forcing Dauntless to swat him away with his spear, but then he's ashes again.

[thinkering]

Lorica and her robots can see in the dark. Where is he?

[peterxy]

He-

-seems to be gone.

The darkness makes Dauntless uncomfortable, but he doesn't move. No new copies of the Mover appear.

[thinkering]

"That seems to have done it, at least for now," Lorica says over the private comms. A robot lands on the rogue's shoulder to whisper in their ear too. "Anybody have something good to trap him with if he comes back when a light goes on again? Foam? Velocity?"

"Sprayers fall apart when I run them," Velocity says ruefully. "We can call in the PRT; they'll take a few minutes, though."

"Rogue?"

[mxglam]

"I can make a foam sprayer appear, or pretty much anything. It's getting him to be in a single body for long enough to count that's the problem."

[thinkering]

"Don't have to illuminate much space. He may've already run off, though."

[mxglam]

"If we illuminate anything again he might just think - correctly - it's a trap, though, and not come back anyway."

[thinkering]

"Yeah. Might be a lost cause. Worth a try?"

[mxglam]

"I don't have a finite supply of whatever, I could try setting an automatic trap around any illuminated areas that automatically foams them."

[thinkering]

"...Sounds good. You want to handle the light on your own too or should I fix a streetlight?"

[mxglam]

They don't heave a sigh of relief that she believed them because that'd be telling. "I think it's better if you fix it. Hero, can you hold the smoke thingy?" they ask that of Dauntless.

"Uh, sure."

"Great, don't squeeze it too hard, though." They leave the smoke thingy with the Ward and start setting up a strange device out of pieces that appear out of thin air - or were they there all the time? The effect's confusing.

[thinkering]

Sort of Miss-Militia-and-then-some. Lorica watches the proceedings with interest. A robot is poised to repair a light. "Say when."

[mxglam]

Assembling, assembling, looking very convincing and believable, "When."

[thinkering]

Bzzt, goes the robot. The light flickers on.

[peterxy]

No teleporter.

[thinkering]

"Damn. Worth a shot. I'm going to fix the other lights unless that seems like a bad idea."

[mxglam]

"Well, he could be waiting for you to do that to appear and go all stabby-stabby again, if he expected this was in fact a trap."

[thinkering]

"Can you set up sprayers under all the lights?"

[mxglam]

"Yeah."

They start doing that.

Dauntless fidgets.

[alicornucopia]

"When I'm reporting in," Velocity says, "what should we call you, new cape?"

[mxglam]

"Glam."

There, all done.

[thinkering]

Lights: up.