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

[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.

[mxglam]

Purity has located Glam but has also noticed the swarm of robots going after her and starts blasting them. Glam replenishes the supply every now and then. They also make a length of wire appear in Velocity's hand and then conjure a 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.

Armsmaster and Chevalier both arrive on the former's motorcycle, and take the scene in. Fireball dude charges towards Hookwolf, now eight feet tall and with scales covering much (but not all) of his skin.

[thinkering]

Hookwolf is going to do his level best to rip up the least protected parts of his opponent. Rawr.

Purity gets a couple of real robots, but misses some, and one of them manages to get close enough to tranquilize her in the thigh.

The remaining robots break off from the herd and project a path onto the ground of where the striker's been recently. "Velocity, she might teleport to any of the lit places -"

"Got it," says Velocity, and he starts snarling up the striker in wire, only as substantial as he has to be to hold the loop.

[mxglam]

Hookwolf's opponent-

is pretty strong. Like, grab-Hookwolf-with-his-bare-hands-and-hold-him-above-his-head-then-throw-him-at-Armsmaster-and-Chevalier strong.

The striker continues running here and there, zig-zagging and trying to not be caught by the wire. One time she gets close to it, but she rolls and boops the wire into the past - farther back than its existence, so it just vanishes. Glam provides Velocity with more.

The door to the warehouse Purity & Hookwolf were trying to blast open starts opening on its own.

[thinkering]

Velocity tries to lasso the striker.

Hookwolf, having been thus flung, recovers quickly, notices that his backup is down, and concludes the other brute out-brutes him. He runs off.

Velocity finally manages to lasso the striker when she backs up into one of the patches of projected light. He solidifies and yanks to pull the wire tight.

Chevalier, groaning, un-heaps himself from Armsmaster and motorcycle, and produces his weapon to level at the fireball guy.

[mxglam]

The other brute roars again, except this time the sound is somewhat less human. His whole body is now covered in scales and his eyes are two pools of molten metal. He decides Hookwolf isn't a worthy target and starts throwing (really, really big) fireballs at the two veteran heroes.

Armsmaster reacts quickly, pressing a button on his halberd to make an energy shield appear and absorb the fire blasts. It's probably not going to hold on for very long.

The striker thus lasso'd first instinctively rewinds a minute back, but the wire is still tying her up, so she reaches down to boop it. However, Glam's waiting for her nearby (having been keeping track of the lights Lorica put on the way) and says, "Boom, witch!" before stunning her.

[thinkering]

"Robots are going to try to fuck with fireguy's vision in three, two, one," says Lorica, and the remaining robot flock, no longer needing to paint a path of where the striker might land, flash bright as they can right in the molten eyes of the blaster.

[peterxy]

The blaster explodes in a blast of fire, and uses his (now clawed) hands to swat robots away. He looks over his shoulder to see the striker unconscious, then decides to charge at Chevalier, breaking Armsmaster's shield on contact.

After the doors of the warehouse are fully open, four vans are visible and start leaving. At the same time, though, a PRT van pulls up and five PRT soldiers exit the van, each carrying a containment foam gun.

[thinkering]

Robots are suffering some serious attrition now. "I'm down to one and a half bots!"

Chevalier levels his blade against the charge, squinting against the fire. His sword is suddenly much longer.

[mxglam]

Fireball guy is hit by the sword but apparently his scales are just that tough. He's not cut, and in three powerful strides he's on Chevalier and then Chevalier's on Armsmaster with so much force both of them hit a building's wall and crack it. Without waiting to see if he was successful, he runs at the downed striker, grabs her, and starts bolting away.

Glam switches gun and shoots at him, to very little effect. The PRT officers divide in two groups, one to contain the four vans trying to escape and the other to foam the guy. He blasts the air around himself before the foam can get him and continues running.

[thinkering]

The one last fully functional robot follows him in the air to get an idea of where he's going -

[peterxy]

- and he jumps to the top of a building with a single leap, bounding from building to building. When he looks over his shoulder and notices the robot, he lunges after it and tries hitting it with a massive (though not as massive as his previous) fireball.

[thinkering]

It melts. Lorica has half a robot.

"And he's gone. Went north a block and then killed the bot."

[mxglam]

"Goddamnit," curses Armsmaster.

Purity is contained in foam (even if she is unconscious) and the other gang members have been apprehended, having mostly surrendered after noticing the presence of five different heroes and a PRT team.

The four vans were packed with contraband weapons and ammo, so that's what the E88 were after, probably.

"Well it could've been worse," says Glam.