pretoria, meet behemoth

[mxglam]

Glam talks to Armsmaster about the possibility of maybe being given access to confidential files on the Slaughterhouse Nine and is, somewhat predictably, completely shut down, on grounds that the rules are there for a reason. They try sharing their strategies, Armsmaster thanks them for it and assures them he'll look into the raised matter, but they still need to wait until they're a full member of the Protectorate to take advantage of these resources.

And is that supposed to make them more likely to want to stick around? Ugh.

The three following weeks are fairly quiet and peaceful for a change. No major engagements, the Empire Eighty-Eight has been keeping quiet, the various Asian gangs reduced once more to fighting each other, the Teeth haven't yet rebuilt. Blasto, Lung, and Oni Lee are still awaiting trial, though it's likely the tinker will be given a lighter sentence in some parahuman containment center while the other two will be sent to the Birdcage.

And then, somewhat earlier than would normally be expected, telltale seismic activity is registered in Pretoria, South Africa. The capes wishing to help must make their way to New York, to depart in an hour - small aircraft is waiting at the PHQ for the trip there.

Comments

[mxglam]

"Yeah. But. Probably not start now unless you can do it before we reach New York. And New York's right over there. A hop and a jump away. Barely any time. Probably best to wait."

[thinkering]

Lorica hugs them. "Fair enough. But only till then."

[mxglam]

"Right. Okay. Yes. Fine." They lean into the hug, and wait.

The tinker plane gets ready for takeoff fifteen minutes later.

[thinkering]

And when they're on their way from New York:

"Ready?"

[mxglam]

"I don't know. Am I ready? I think I'm ready. I'm not ready. I need to calm down. Caaaaaalm down. Calm."

[thinkering]

...The bot starts murmuring calmingly in their ear. To help. And then a bit more than help.

[mxglam]

This is going to be a hypersonic flight, but since it's a tinker-made plane the passengers don't need to wear helmets and masks. Capes who can fly faster than that are already on site, and capes who can teleport there are thin enough on the ground that most others are coming by plan.

Glam starts to go under. Slooooowly at first, they're very not-calm, but it'll take about three hours for the plane to arrive at their destination, so there's time.

[thinkering]

The bot is careful not to let them manifest any suspicious items in the plane.

[mxglam]

And so they don't, but their mask starts reflecting the abstracted, relaxed look that must be on their face.

[thinkering]

...well, is anybody watching?

[peterxy]

People do sure glance their way every now and then, but well, people glance every way every now and then. No one seems to actually be paying attention to them, though.

[thinkering]

...Bot nudges Glam into having a serious emoji on their mask.

[mxglam]

Glam, naturally, does as instructed.

[thinkering]

And when they're approaching they can construct a standard Glam-at-Endbringer-fight raygun together made of bullshit and trickery. Plausible deniability.

[mxglam]

The bullshit raygun is assembled, the most recent version as shown in their webseries. Unfortunately the majority of people who watch their show are non-capes, who don't have real-time access to the fight and therefore whose expectations can do zilch on this fight. That does mean some capes are curious about it in the plane itself, and three hours plus of flight while being transported to an apocalypse zone are nerve-wracking enough that some of them actually ask, probably to take their minds off their destination.

Glam may not be in the best headspace to immediately answer. Or notice that a question has been asked.

[thinkering]

The shoulderbot can call up the webisode to cover for this.

[peterxy]

The other capes have various different reactions - boredom, interest, curiosity, confusion, contempt - but none seem to completely ignore the webisode, which fills most of the remaining time until landing.

And then they start decelerating a few miles away from the city proper, getting ready to land.

[thinkering]

And Lorica flies with Glam to a safe hang-back space while her bots swarm out to provide eyes and ears. Some of them carry the gun. (Everyone expects that if three bots cooperate on lifting a thing their builder just helped assemble it will turn out to be light enough for them.)

[mxglam]

By the time they've arrive, Behemoth has already caused a lot of damage. The whole city is visible by the a black cloud above it in the distance from where real-Glam and real-Lorica are watching it. Well, real-Lorica's watching it and real-Glam's being feed the information via their eyes, with very little conscious processing of what they're seeing.

An Alexandria package cape who was in the plane offers to help carry the gun.

[thinkering]

The bots accept on Glam's behalf. The bots would like it to be over there.

The bots that are hanging back with Lorica and Glam get a good view of Behemoth.

And Lorica waits for the go-ahead from the higher-ups that Glam's supposed to drop a Siberian on him.

[acanofworms]

The Triumvirate is, as usual, going at it. Eidolon creates a forcefield around the Endbringer that apparently lets energy through, so various ranged attack capes (including Legend) can dish the hurt. The forcefield either has a time limit or isn't very weak, though, because Behemoth manages to break through it after only a few seconds and use a directed lightning bolt to melt two ranged capes who went too close.

Alexandria, however, seems to have taken this momentary pause in the need for an Alexandria package to fly over to where they're standing. "...are they alright?" she asks Lorica.

[thinkering]

"Please don't distract Glam, they need to pay attention to the field and the constructs," says a bot, "and Lorica is directing my other hardware in the field. Just say when, we have a system worked out."

[acanofworms]

"Very well. Where will the Siberian be appearing, and how will she be acting?"

[thinkering]

"That's customizable, if there are advantages to particular strategies," says the bot. "Starting inside an evacuated building, running outside, jumping Behemoth, and energetically shredding him is probably the default, but she can appear somewhere else and do something else."

[acanofworms]

"It seems safest for us to know an exact place where she'll be appearing in advance so we can warn capes, and it seems crucial for your bots to have distributed that handy communication system to everyone who doesn't already have one. Will she look like the Siberian herself, or some version of Glam?"

(Behemoth claps in the distance, liquefying half a dozen capes.)