brockton bay, meet glam

[mxglam]

It's the anniversary. Glam would very much not like to celebrate.

It’s their last day on Winslow High - they’re being transferred to Arcadia on Monday - and also their last day without a patrol schedule assigned.

And the PRT released a small announcement on its website about Glam joining the Wards. Now their wiki page doesn’t get erased, of course - they’re no longer speculative. They wonder what it’s got on them.

Comments

[thinkering]

"Can't tell. She's chasing my robots right now."

The others: get a report.

"You can appear a new mirror wherever she's aiming, it doesn't have to be the one you're holding."

[mxglam]

Purity hasn't actually been shooting, but that is a good idea. Glam "lets their guard down" enough that Purity gets a clear shot of their back, and a mirror appears there before the blast connects, tilted towards Hookwolf.

New-cape apparently gives up on chasing more robots and- disappears.

[thinkering]

"New cape might be able to adjust her own position with her power too, don't know if she has the memory thing, I'm sending most of the swarm to keep an eye out."

[mxglam]

Glam curses under their breath, but not even extensive exposure to Boots has turned that into anything less family friendly than "Ducking darnit!"

They also miss Hookwolf with the reflected blast Purity shot their way, and once she realizes they can make new mirrors appear anywhere on their person she flies away from them, and they promptly give chase.

[thinkering]

"Don't follow her to the ends of the earth if she's trying to escape, we're breaking it up, not taking them all in," says the robot on Glam. "It's us versus three capes and a bunch of unpowered and our backup is not here yet."

[mxglam]

"I know," Glam says, but they needn't have bothered - Purity doesn't try to escape the fight, just Glam themself, and the way she's doing it is by flying towards Hookwolf, sending a few blasts off at random gang members, who shoot at her and miss.

[thinkering]

"I need to figure out a way to get a foam sprayer under my weight limit," mutters Lorica. Robots, no longer chased by striker cape, start stealing gang members' guns. One gets shot badly enough that it can't fly; it starts creeping about on the ground instead.

[peterxy]

The striker cape reappears! And she's pretty fast, too! She runs in a more-or-less zigzag pattern, in a way that seems almost planned to intercept Purity. The supremacist shoots at the new cape, who dodges by moving herself a second into the past before continuing to run towards Hookwolf.

Purity veers up rather than get herself in the way of the new cape, so the new cape tries to boop the snarly mass of metal shaped like a wolf a whole ten minutes into the past.

[thinkering]

Lorica reports that the striker is fighting the E88s.

Hookwolf dodges; his paw catches Lorica's disabled robot, which hits the striker in the face.

[mxglam]

Armsmaster acknowledges and says they will be there in five minutes, and that Velocity is coming to help deal with the striker as well.

The robot hits the striker full on, but she rewinds herself about two and a half seconds to an injury-less state and goes after Hookwolf again.

Meanwhile, Glam keeps Purity occupied, both capes with white costumes zigging and zagging this way and that in the sky. Glam stops the whole 'using hands to hold things' schtick they had going on with the shield and makes it float in place while they conjure their stun gun. "This is a stun gun, not an actual gun, by the way!" they call out, making a neon sign temporarily appear above their head with the words 'STUN GUN' written and an arrow pointing at the gun.

[thinkering]

"We are going to talk about that later," mutters Shoulderbot.

Another bot carries the bot that can't fly to Glam's shoulder so that it can play to its current strengths. Robots try to sneak up on and tranquilize Purity. Others start tracking the path-over-time of the striker so they can be ready to stab her if she backs up.

[mxglam]

"This is mostly a one-time thing, so the villain community as a whole will know I don't shoot to kill," they respond, shooting at Purity. Even though the gun's shots curve and bend to follow their target, Purity is still really fast and can maneuver well even at high speeds. Besides, apparently if she sends a short blast at them hers trumps and absorbs them.

The striker, for now, does a lot of unpredictable zigzagging punctuated by short bursts of rewinding. She apparently either has some practice reacting to changes on the battlefield on the fly or the memory part doesn't affect her. Whichever it is, she uses as much of that as she can to dodge Hookwolf and bots, to try to boop a bot into the past, or (her current main goal) boop Hookwolf into the past.

[thinkering]

Hookwolf's a close combatant. He's got the idea that she's a Striker, but he doesn't have that many other options besides throwing things at her, and he can't wield a gun without sacrificing most of his advantages. He dodges and otherwise leaves her to Purity.

Robots diligently track how far into the past they are sent each time.

[peterxy]

They're sent pretty arbitrary intervals into the past, but very clearly not random intervals. The best hypothesis for the intervals is that she can control exactly how long she sends them back, since she's apparently doing a pretty good job of keeping them separate from each other. Whether the maximum ten-minute limit is built into the power or some self-handicap is up in the air. She gives up on going after Hookwolf and gingerly skips to the door he'd been battering, probably to restore it to undamaged condition.

Purity shoots more blasts at her, but the ease with which she dodges the blasts - and, when she doesn't dodge, restores herself to a previous condition - is uncanny.

[thinkering]

"Suspect ten-minute limit on the striker," Lorica says to Glam and the adult heroes on the way.

[mxglam]

Purity decides to change tacks, and starts flying really, really fast around Glam, in an unpredictable pattern.

And at some point, a new person appeared from amongst the gangbangers. A tall man, muscled, shirtless, his torso covered in tattoos, wearing jeans and a dragon mask. When the striker notices him, she starts putting distance between herself and Hookwolf.

[thinkering]

"Tangle her up in wires!" suggests Lorica to Glam, and then she reports in about the new arrival.

[mxglam]

"I'm gonna cut her in half if I make anything strong enough, and anything not strong she'll just destroy!"

The new arrival starts running towards Hookwolf and roars before throwing a fireball at him.

Armsmaster says he and Chevalier will be there in two minutes, and Velocity might show up any second.

[thinkering]

Lorica's report updates likewise.

Velocity shows up. He joins Lorica in trying to knock the gang members out too quickly for the striker to get them back up again. Meanwhile, Hookwolf roars right back at Fireball Dude; he dodges the projectile and closes the distance to try to sink his teeth into the blaster.

[mxglam]

The striker keeps trying to get them back up, and while she's not as fast as Velocity she's not very predictable, and she keeps trying to put herself in his way so she'll be able to boop him.

The blaster... is taller? He definitely looks a bit taller. And he throws another fireball at Hookwolf from a closer range. This fireball's definitely larger than the previous one.

Purity continues zapping this way and that, and Glam keeps making mirrors appear here and there, but she doesn't blast them, and they futilely try to keep up with her movements.

[thinkering]

Lorica's armor might hold up against a Purity blast or a Hookwolf bite or one of those fireballs but she doesn't want to try it unless something her bots can't lift - like, say, an unconscious teammate - needs to be hauled out. Bots continue tracking the striker's position over time, but the fight's moving pretty fast and a full ten minutes' history will take a full ten minutes to get -

[mxglam]

The blaster roars again, and the sound is very human. He keeps throwing a series of fireballs at Hookwolf - he is definitely taller, and are there scales sprouting from his skin?

Purity finally catches an opening and blasts Glam to the ground-

-(a second's thought has Glam conclude that the fact that they used a shield made everyone watching expect them to be vulnerable to the blasts without one, so the suit-absorbs-blast thing didn't quite work)-

-and then the striker cape is there, and she touches the top of Glam's head-

"-another cape's not gonna be fun. Any idea on whose side they are?"

[thinkering]

"You're missing -" HUD provides. "Seven minutes. Black-and-white's a time manipulation striker. Can - can you get me a swarm of decoy bots?"

[mxglam]

Glam blinks and looks around at the battlefield. Who the heck is that scaly dude throwing fireballs at Hookwolf? Where is Purity? (Look, she's there, looking for them.) And is that Velocity?

"Duck. Alright, here."

Swarm of decoy robots is a go!

The loud sound of Armsmaster's motorcycle can be heard in the distance, and Glam is now personally annoyed at the striker cape. "Velocity, if I give you some wire can you try to tie it around the striker?"

[thinkering]

"Get the decoys to follow the real ones."

Real robots dive into the swarm of decoys and spread out and form a dispersed cloud approaching Purity.

"Worth a shot," says Velocity.