View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post
Most of the time, patrolling is a dull, uneventful affair, somewhat akin to the Ankh-Morpork City Guard ringing their bells and calling "All's well!" at night.
Sometimes, it's not.
Dauntless was not expecting to run into two unpowered Asian gangs (Japanese and Korean? that's what it looks like at a distance) duking it out in the middle of the street. Granted, it's the evening, and it's not quite the most well-frequented of streets, but still.
He decides to call for backup, not because he wouldn't be able to take them on, but because he's supposed to do that whenever confronting another parahuman or a large number of non-capes, at least until he graduates. He turns the comm on and describes the situation—a bit over a dozen people on each side, arguing and brandishing blunt weapons and in some cases guns—then waits and watches.
"Aren't you going to try to convince me to become one, fight the good fight, get all those nice toys and stuff?"
"They don't pay me to recruit. I'd probably walk you through a pros and cons list if you were a tinker and therefore perpetually budget-constrained, but you're not."
Pen and a notebook appear in Glam's hands, and they speak out loud as they write: "Pros: if you're a tinker and perpetually budget-constrained, you get help with that. Cons: it's awful enough that even a tinker doesn't want to convince anyone else to join and be miserable together."
"I don't like the theory that misery loves company. And I'm not miserable anyway."
"Well, I think it's not unreasonable to want company when you're gloomy and the world's weighing down on your shoulders, the responsibilities crushing your sooouuulll..."
The pen and notebook disappear.
Lorica doesn't answer that. She just keeps hopping roof to roof.
They continue floating alongside her. "...hey, sorry, maybe that wasn't a very appropriate thing to say."
"And you guys hadn't met him before." That wasn't a question. "That's a dangerous element to have around, leaving a body behind to do nefarious things while he's already ducking other people up is scary."
"Yeah. The explosives weren't good but they still exploded. Strategy pending."
"It is, but I haven't had a reason to look them up before trying to consider how to create a strategy against a teleporter-copier using them."
"Wards are me, Echo, Dauntless, Boots, Windflower, and Althaea. Protectorate is Transit, Armsmaster, Miracle Max, Beneficence, Miss Militia, Velocity, Antares, Chevalier, and Drupe. That jog your memory?"
"...I've heard about Echo, met Dauntless the other day with you, know about Althaea, Armsmaster, Beneficence, Miss Militia, Velocity, Chevalier, and Drupe."
"Transit's a long-distance low-precision teleporter. Boots kicks people. Windflower's airborne poisons, assorted. Miracle Max is a chem tinker, Antares is a fire breaker."
"Well, if we engage teleporter guy while immune to her poisons and then poison the area around us, he might inhale some of that and since stuff on him gets copied with him eventually the poisons should affect him."
"Windflower can't actually immunize people but I can air filter and so can Armsmaster, Antares burns it off before it gets near him, and Miracle Max can make it tolerable for another couple people if he gets taken off his usual work for a while. Don't know if Beneficence can boost people against it but she might be able to."
"Well, for one thing, a rogue came up with it and it will therefore meet political obstacles, and for another we'd have to choose our ground to not poison random passersby."
"A rogue came up with it? Nonsense, it came to you in a flash of inspiration while you were patrolling."