lung, meet rewind

[msrewind]

She gets the note just before lunch. She's in the PHQ in less than twenty minutes, then she knocks on Piggot's door politely.

Comments

[mxglam]

"Siberian-grade restraints."

[acanofworms]

"You can do that? Why am I only being told this now?"

[thinkering]

"PR problems," says Lorica. "Siberian-themed stuff is, uh, stripey."

"What?" asks Miss Militia, able to hear when there's in a break in gunfire.

[mxglam]

"Besides, it's hard to conjure and I've needed practice."

[acanofworms]

"Do it!" Armsmaster growls.

[mxglam]

So Glam does, a striped restraint around Lung's body that starts squeezing.

And Oni Lee chooses this moment to make an appearance - or rather, several consecutive ones, culminating in teleporting his boss elsewhere.

[thinkering]

"Grenades! Cover! Glam, I want little tracker bots piggbacking on the regular ones - Windflower, fall back now -"

[mrdauntless]

Dauntless quickly switches from his arclance to his shield's force screen to try to contain the damage of the short-range grenades Oni Lee is dropping around the physical combatants and golems, giving Lung time to go after the ranged combatants.

[mxglam]

Little tracker bots are conjured. "Where are the PRT trucks?"

[acanofworms]

"Lorica, keep track of Oni Lee, try to give us early warning!"

[thinkering]

"I'm working on it!" Bots attempt to stick the right Oni Lee with a tracker. "PRT's en route, just had to turn the sirens on to get through traffic, ETA fourteen minutes."

[mxglam]

Oni Lee disrupts their efforts to subdue Lung even more, and the Siberian-strong restraints last only as long as it takes him to notice them and rescue Lung from them. It does buy Miss Militia and Windflower time to get away from the barrelling dragon, but it's not a very good alternative to the teleporter himself, who appears in front of them holding a knife and whose original is elsewhere before they can react.

[acanofworms]

"Windflower get out," Armsmaster says after having tripped Lung, "you're a liability!"

[thinkering]

"She's trying," Lorica says. "Miss Militia, give Windflower smoke bomb cover, I think Oni Lee has to see where he's going."

Miss Militia obliges and ushers Windflower out of the building. The smoke clears.

"Gonna try a flash, see if I can blind all of Oni Lee in one go and slow him down. Three. Two. One -"

The bots light the fuck up.

[msrewind]

His mask might be more expensive than one would expect, because that doesn't slow him down.

Rewind's timely arrival and immediate Lung-boopery does, though. Lung is much smaller - the past ten minutes have been intense - enough that he isn't covered in scales anymore. She doesn't retract the chain, just boops her own armor so it returns to her.

[acanofworms]

"Windflower, change of plans, come back here and try to poison him again!"

He, Glimmer, golems, and Glam-copies are all over Lung once more.

[thinkering]

Windflower comes back. She sticks close to Miss Militia and loads darts into a gun Miss Militia makes; the latter's a better shot.

[msrewind]

And whenever Lung moves, Rewind remote-boops him and then boops her own armor again, which makes her a priority target for Oni Lee. She never stops moving, zigzagging this way and that and rewinding herself a few seconds to try to escape him, while he tries to plant bombs on her but has to land every now and then.

And Lung, himself, notices Rewind "for the first time" whenever she boops him, and roars in anger in a comical loop, which allows the heroes much more resources to actually keep him contained while Oni Lee's attention is forced to be divided a hundred ways.

[thinkering]

The bots are super recording this. Later they can eat popcorn to Repetitively Furious Lung.

"If you keep booping him he's not going to wind up poisoned or tranqed," says Lorica. "Ugh, we have to get Oni Lee - Any objections if I cut the lights and land a bot on him then?"

[msrewind]

"I'm trying to contain him!" Rewind says, between frantically dodging Oni Lee's short-range grenades and trying to keep Lung from hurting everyone else.

[acanofworms]

"No objections, do it."

[thinkering]

Bots find lightswitches.

"Three, two, one -" Flick.

Bots descend upon Oni Lee's last known position and their intentions are not friendly.

[mxglam]

Glam helps by boarding the windows and doors and covering what meager light was coming through them.

Oni Lee is descended upon, quite unable to teleport. Until, that is, Lung explodes in fire, making Lorica notice just how many copies Oni Lee can create in the span of half a second.

(It's twelve. That's how many it is.)

[thinkering]

Did she at least get a tracker on him -

[peterxy]

Yup!