simurgh, meet your nemesis

[mxglam]

So Glam tests their power some more, and then has a meeting with Piggot where they explain the Siberian. She listens carefully, then asks them not to demonstrate, and says she will communicate that to the appropriate people. That takes a while, and then Lorica is asked to confirm this, and then Glam is asked to demonstrate to very few people with very high clearance.

This should not get out, it would be a PR nightmare, but if the Sibarian copy does what it looks like it does, its help will be invaluable in the upcoming Endbringer fights. When Glam decides to use that power, the story will be that a power copier has grabbed the Siberian's and is using it against the Endbringer, that people should not panic, and that she is an ally. Glam mentions, since they're all being so cooperative about telling everyone on the comms, that the Siberian copy doesn't have to look like the original, so people can know whether to panic or not based on her shape.

That leaves, of course, Glam's own willingness to face the Slaughterhouse Nine. Even if they don't know that Siberian is them, they will likely cause problems, and this will need to be carefully planned.

Careful plans tend not to survive contact with reality, and that is doubly true when the next Endbringer attack happens only two months and nine days after the previous one.

Not that it would matter much: Glam is definitely not going to a Simurgh fight, not yet.

Comments

[peterxy]

There is another roar, though this one sounds less monstrous than the previous one. "I got him, he's smaller," Rewind says in the comm.

[alicornucopia]

"She backed Lung up ten minutes to shrink him," says Windflower. "Rewind, you have to get out!"

[peterxy]

The fighting noises continue for a few seconds before she replies: "Don't wanna lead him to you."

[alicornucopia]

"I'll - I'll go hide, you just teleport out and the comm'll fill you in -" Windflower turns tail and runs.

[mxglam]

Then she rewinds herself ten minutes. "Uh, what happened? Did we get there? Where's Windflower?"

"You two ran into Lung fighting Stormtiger and Crusader, you decided to go send Lung ten minutes back."

"Oh. Yay me! I'll just-" Another roar, and Lung appears, bounding from the direction they came from. "Oh shit he's fast," she says.

"We'll be there in thirty seconds!" says Glam.

[alicornucopia]

And in thirty seconds, the place is swarmed with robots, a fraction of which are real, there to protect Rewind and hassle the villains. One of the fake bots has a foam sprayer and guns for Lung.

[peterxy]

The bots arrive just in time to witness Lung "distracted" by a Crusader clone that followed him. Rewind tries to boop him again, and before she can do that he swats her aside with almost casual ease, throwing her onto a wall with a loud crack. She slumps onto the ground.

The Crusader clone chooses this moment to stick his lance into Lung's stomach. Lung apparently ignores this and generates an explosion around himself, possibly disabling a number of the 'bots. He looks at Rewind's unconscious form, prepares a fireball, throws it-

[mrdauntless]

-and Dauntless arrives with his forcefield in time to weather the blast and protect his teammate.

[mxglam]

The three Glam copies are not far behind: one tall muscled copy, one with a grey suit, and the third holding a tinker-looking rifle.

[alicornucopia]

A bot lands on Rewind and hunts for the Miracle Max wake-up call she's started carrying for situations just like this, but its vial's smashed and the liquid's seeping into the leg of her costume. The bot cuts away the soaked patch to try putting it on her tongue anyway.

The explosion takes out the bot with the foam sprayer. Another contingent is chasing Stormtiger and company; the enemy of their enemy is not their friend.

Miss Militia, ferried by a Glam-copy of Lorica herself, has taken up a roof position and is firing on Lung. When he takes the lance to the belly and shrugs it off she switches to lethal ammunition.

[mxglam]

The damp cloth is apparently not enough to wake Rewind up, either because there's too little or because she's been hurt just that badly.

The Glam with the rifle reforms it into their more familiar-looking gun and goes after Stormtiger & co. with the bots. The muscled copy starts wrestling with Lung, who roars and explodes again, throwing himself bodily onto it. The other copy hugs Lung and becomes a statue, much like the one they'd used so long ago when training with Boots.

[mrdauntless]

Dauntless tries using his Arclance on Lung, electrocuting him, and Lung groans, slumping against the statue copy for barely a second before starting to struggle again.

And he's getting larger.

[alicornucopia]

The Lorica copy makes for Rewind to scoop her up and get her clear so Transit won't have to try to land in a firefight.

[mxglam]

Lung chooses this moment to have become large, armored, and strong enough to break out of statue copy's grip and throw fire at the Lorica copy. The flames are much hotter than the ones that disabled the foam bot just a few moments before. "Does this guy ever stop growing?" Glam moans through the comm.

The fleeing Crusader and Stormtiger managed to lose their pursuing bots and Glam-copy by using two more clones (Crusader looks exhausted) and releasing a blade of compressed air to create a gust strong enough to knock their pursuers wildly off-course.

[mrdauntless]

Dauntless' forcefield brightens when hit by some of Lung's fire aimed at Lorica, but it holds.

[alicornucopia]

The Lorica copy shields Rewind; bots prompt Glam for a replacement. "Transit's on his way but we need to get Rewind clear!" bots say into the comms.

[mxglam]

A replacement is provided. "Gonna turret him," real Glam says into the comms, watching the fight from HQ, and a turret similar to (but visually less powerful than) the one that blasted Purity is conjured pointing at Lung. He notices it and jumps toward it before it can fire, tearing it to pieces. The two Glam copies on the battlefield hold onto Lung, and the returning blaster copy shoots at him with its gun several times as a second turret is formed. Lung explodes, but too late: the second turret blasts him away from Rewind toward the open street, and he rolls a few times before stopping.

[alicornucopia]

The Lorica copy takes the opening to pick up Rewind and run her to Transit, who's a block away; they meet and as soon as Transit's in range to passenger Rewind he's gone.

[mxglam]

Lung gets up and looks at the battlefield, then roars again, spitting fire then jumping toward the flying Glam copy with a gun. They dodge easily, but Lung explodes in fire again, burning the copy. Lung lands, and throws enough fire at Dauntless' forcefield to shatter it, then runs towards the hero-

[mrdauntless]

-who uses his enhanced boots to run out of the way perpendicular to Lung's momentum.

[alicornucopia]

Lorica bots spray foam straight at Lung's face.

[mxglam]

Lung's face isn't the most human of faces at the moment. He spits fire at the foam before it hits him, not letting it stick, but the fire is slightly less hot than it was just before. The Glam copies start harassing him again, restraining him and shooting at him. He breaks free once more with some difficulty, exploding yet again.

[alicornucopia]

The bots don't restrain their foam spray to avoid Glam copies, which can after all just vanish; they continue relentlessly as fast as Glam can supply sprayers.

[mxglam]

Glam has to divide their attention many places, but they do manage to supply sprayers and get their copies to continue giving Lung grief. His fire is colder still, though, so he decides to cut his losses and throws the muscled copy at the bots. Another explosion sees him bounding away from the scene.

[alicornucopia]

Bots give chase, firing tranquilizers and foam, until he's picked them off sufficiently that Glam can't replace the lost without losing ground.