behemoth, meet the opposition

[mrglam]

Sadde doesn't seem quite able to focus on homework at the moment. He's fidgeting, and sometimes stares off into space for long periods of time before James has to snap him out of it.

Comments

[thinkering]

"Um?"

[msglam]

"'Um' is 'I do not have the impression that the people in charge are the very best at agreeing with you.'"

[thinkering]

"Well, what kind of resistance do you think I'll encounter?"

[msglam]

"No clue. For all I know I'm being paranoid. I mean, Piggot could say 'no that's not the best way to use her' and that would be that."

[thinkering]

"True. But the downside potential of suggesting it is pretty low."

[msglam]

"Yeah, for sure."

[thinkering]

"And if I want to be really sneaky I make a call to the paramedic department first to ask if they'd be interested in the guise of not wanting to waste Piggot's time..."

[msglam]

"Would she even buy that?"

[thinkering]

"If I don't commit to anything with the paramedics? She might well pretend to."

[msglam]

"Heh. Yeah, sounds like a good idea."

[thinkering]

"I thought so. I'll ask Rewind, first, though."

Rewind gets an email: Are you interested in me trying to arrange a pilot program for an alternative patrol arrangement where you'd work with paramedics in your healing capacity?

[peterxy]

Yeah, comes the reply almost immediately.

[thinkering]

Cool, I'll keep you posted. "Rewind's on board."

[msglam]

"I wonder why she even started out villain. I mean, she's taken to this heroing thing pretty quickly."

[thinkering]

"I'm not sure. You could ask her if you like."

[msglam]

"Yeah, probably will."

[peterxy]

It's a few days later. Glam is manning the console, Lorica's in her workshop, the other Wards and the heroes are out patrolling - they're quite understaffed.

So of course it should come as a surprise to no one when five ghostly images of Crusader surreptitiously float through the forcefield, then find and disable the forcefield generator.

[thinkering]

Alarms go off, of course, and alerts to all the patrolling heroes and Wards go out, and the PRT squads on call erupt from the building. Glam's newly replaced shoulderbot relays more detailed information as it comes in.

[mxglam]

Information is bad news, but at least it makes it obvious what the whole thing's about: Kaiser, Hookwolf, and Crusader are walking into the complex, calm as can be.

Glam generates a copy and tells their shoulder not: "Sending a copy upstairs, I'll be at the console and watch it through the camera." They transfer the shoulderbot to the copy, and it flies towards the elevator.

[thinkering]

"You might want more than one, with Crusader!"

[mxglam]

More copies are generated, and the elevator arrives.

Crusader's ghostly images are mostly occupied with the PRT uniforms, one or two clones per officer. Foam goes right through them, but their hits are quite effective. Whenever an officer is taken down for long enough, Kaiser creates a sharp iron cage for them.

[thinkering]

A couple of Lorica's robots are of all-plastic casing designs for almost exactly this reason; one sneaks up on Kaiser while another makes a more obvious assault as a distraction. Other bots grab foam sprayers and try to encase Hookwolf. Encasing Crusader will barely slow him down; she concentrates her forces for now.

[mxglam]

The receptionist isn't an "acceptable target" so all that they suffer is being terrified while in an iron cage.

The various copies of Glam that emerge from the elevator? Definitely an acceptable target. Crusader splits off more clones to deal with them, his stride only very slightly broken by the surprise. Kaiser uses long, thin, sharp, fast-emerging blades to stab at the obvious Lorica bots, and a Crusader clone appears to use its ethereal spear to attack the surreptitious one.

"Try to tranq the original Crusader, I don't think the clones can stay around without him!" real Glam says through the console.

[thinkering]

Robots fire at the original Crusader from various angles.

Hookwolf, meanwhile, has finally separated a target from the PRT herd and bit their arm off.

[mxglam]

...what the heck.

Crusader has a few clones surrounding himself and swatting various bots away, helped by Kaiser's blades appearing to surround his teammate.

Glam's copies materialize (with original Glam's help via cameras) various different guns. Two of them use a gun that electrifies and heats up metal against Kaiser and Hookwolf, while the remaining shoot clone-destroying blasts at the Crusaders. Kaiser causes blades to sprout from the floor and ceiling and other blades pointing at the copies, who have to fly very quickly to dodge.

Then Crusader calls out to Hookwolf, "The little faggot's real body's downstairs!" causing real Glam to turn around and throw themself to the ground just in time to avoid a Crusader clone's attack.

Armsmaster and Miss Militia choose this moment to appear at the door.