shaker, meet stranger

[mrglam]

Sadde is home; it's a Friday evening, his shift is over, and there's no school. He's reading a book, lying on his bed in his small-but-tidy apartment.

He is also quite naked, because it's his place and why not?

Comments

[apprivoise_moi]

Lance's armour cracks on impact with the ground. She dismisses and refreshes it, spending a mere fraction of a second unprotected before she flares with golden light and a new suit of plate mail forms around her.

[peterxy]

That fraction of a second is quite enough for Hookwolf and Cricket to see that Lance happens to be an Acceptable Target.

In other news, Purity doesn't actually have very strong defenses that could help her deal with a force staff blast. She tries to dodge, but the nigh-invisible sphere of physics-defying whatever-the-hell-it-is hits her with enough force that she-

falls.

(And Fog continues advancing.)

[apprivoise_moi]

Well, Lance is now in a bad position to try to pick up and carry off Stormtiger or Cricket...

...but Purity is a different matter. She launches herself off the ground and heads for the falling villain at maximum speed, catching her well before she nears the rooftops.

[peterxy]

And given that Purity's "mask" is merely her own power shining enough to cover her features, now that she's unconscious (and pretty badly hurt) her secret identity's busted. Oops. No one needs to know.

Fog finally encircles Stormtiger, Hookwolf, and Cricket, not actually covering them but just surrounding them. Miss Militia calls this in, and Chevalier tells the heroes not to engage unless the Empire becomes hostile.

...which they might, given that Purity is now unconscious in Lance's arms.

[first_and_final]

Purity is unconscious in Lance's arms high above the ground, with no other fliers present. This seems tactically relevant.

"Personally I think we should all just leave," says Sokoreth. "Or at any rate Lance should just leave." Of course, he says this as one of the ones who's going to have the most trouble leaving, being a non-flier stranded on a rooftop with no damn grappling hook and Fog almost directly beneath him.

[msecho]

And Echo did not manage to reach a good enough rooftop in time to actually tranquilize anyone and she's very frustrated and this is the story of her life.

"We can't leave while the Empire is still around, but Lance definitely can," Miss Militia says over the comm as Fog starts retreating.

[apprivoise_moi]

Lance carries Purity high into the sky and away.

[msecho]

And Fog continues retreating, and Echo continues feeling frustrated.

[first_and_final]

But hey, at least no one died, which Sokoreth was worried about for a bit there. Both immediately before and immediately after he threw that force blast at Purity. Why was he so alarmed? Maybe just having his teammate suddenly swatted out of the air by an energy blast... that would alarm anyone, surely.

[peterxy]

And eventually Fog has completely retreated, and there are no other Empire members, no hostilities have started, etc etc etc.

[first_and_final]

This has been a really frustrating interlude and Sokoreth is glad it's over. Also, he feels bad about the way he took down Purity.

[peterxy]

He should feel bad! In fact, Piggot would like a word with him about that.

[first_and_final]

...well, then, he'll go have a word with Piggot.

[peterxy]

"Hello, Ashras," she greets him when he comes in.

[first_and_final]

"Hello. You wanted to speak to me?"

[peterxy]

"Yes. Please, sit." And, when he does: "You were invaluable in capturing Purity. However, your methods were... less than stellar. To put it bluntly, you could have killed her."

[first_and_final]

"I'm dissatisfied with my decisionmaking in the moment," he admits. "My first thought was 'get her out of the air', and I did what was most effective toward that goal without giving enough weight to other important considerations."

[peterxy]

"Yes, such as what would happen if you succeeded."

[first_and_final]

"What happened when I succeeded was that Lance caught her," he says. "Which I think was reasonable to expect, knowing Lance."

[peterxy]

"Purity had just hit her, and you couldn't have known she would have had the time or the idea to do it."

[first_and_final]

"I couldn't have been sure. But I did expect it before it happened."

[peterxy]

"And that's not the kind of risk you can take, not when there's so little at stake!"

[first_and_final]

"Don't get me wrong, I'm not happy with myself and I am going to make sure this doesn't happen again. But if I don't acknowledge the things I did right as well as the things I did wrong, I find I have a much harder time improving. If Lance hadn't been able to get off the ground in time to catch Purity, she was grounded not thirty feet away from Hookwolf - and under threat from Fog for that matter - and I'm not sure if you heard this, but her armour cut out for a second. Purity correctly guessed she could take the hit in the first place, but even so, the risk Purity took with Lance's life was not all that much smaller than the risk I took with Purity's."

He pauses, then adds, "Nevertheless, I'd like the chance to apologize to her personally."

[peterxy]

"If your argument ends with comparing the risk you took with the risk the lieutenant of a Nazi supervillain organization took, I'm not sure on what grounds you think you're standing. And did you expect Hookwolf to be less likely to attack Lance had you killed Purity? But that's beyond the point. That was less of a disaster than it could have been, and you've been exemplary otherwise, so I want you to discuss with your Captain what you intend to do to to prevent such incidents from reoccurring, then submit a report on that. You won't patrol while that's not done and, should we deem your report insufficient, we will review what weapons you're allowed to carry to the field. As for apologizing personally to Purity, she is not to have contact with anyone else, so I'm afraid that won't be possible."

[first_and_final]

...No, it's not worth trying to save that assessment if that's where she went with it. Enough.

"Very well. Is that all?"