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

[msrewind]

"I'm gonna go kick Lung's ass is what I'll do," she growls. "My parents are safe, he won't be. I'll fly there."

[sundayfish]

...Transit doesn't argue; he just gets her parents out the way he came, hop hop hop.

[thinkering]

"Rewind, it's you he wants in the first place, don't walk into his lair -"

[msrewind]

"I got my armor, I can use it on him from afar, and besides, if he suddenly becomes singleminded at me that's not likely to make him tacticaly smarter." She flies in the direction of Lung's lair, but that'll still take a while. Flying's faster than running, but it's not very close.

[mxglam]

And meanwhile, the fight continues to happen. Lung is large and scaley enough that Windflower's darts aren't very useful anymore. And although he's only one, he's still giving the heroes a run for their money. Until Glam gets sick of it and says, "I'm gonna try an experimental measure."

[thinkering]

"Armsmaster, if you want me to ground her now's the time to say so, but it'll fuck with morale if I fuck with her suit - Experimental measure?"

[acanofworms]

Armsmaster is swatted aside and uses his halberd to help him roll to his feet. "Don't, we can use all help we can get. Miss Militia!" While no heroes are on the way to Lung she can use her heavier-duty weapons on him. "And I want to know what measure."

[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.