witch's cape, not hat

[characterquarry]

Grendyne groans and starts pulling on her boots when the alarm goes off. Again. She quick-marches to the broom hangar, sits on her machine and is handed a plethora of loaded weapons by attentive corporals.

"Two flyers in one day? They're getting way too common."

"It's worse," the commander informs them, "South Karlsland got hit with three at once. We're taking Lytee's express and sleeping there. You can sit out if you absolutely need to, but Freya's still recovering so we could use you as a comms relay."

"No, I'll come. I just reserve the right to complain about it."

The 42nd United Forces Witch Wing takes off and assembles into a perfect synchronized formation as Lytee charges her teleport power.



...This is not South Karlsland wilderness.

[note: halfway through this thread I created a unique account for Grendyne. Do not be alarmed by the change in account. -Rockeye]

Comments

[wormcan]

The most obvious thing about the boss, once she's in a room with him, is the costume. Black, with a snake wrapped around it. But it's the presence of the costume that means more than the characteristics, because of his complete lack of smell.

"Grendyne," he says when she enters. "I am Coil. Welcome to my organization. To start with the first things, the agreed amount for your first month and some items for mana storage." The table contains stacks of cash, as well as a small box containing silver, gold, and gems.
"Combat bonus not included because of short notice, but you can expect it to be substantial. No one should face an opponent of Lung's caliber at the beginning of their cape career, and my subordinates tell me you performed quite well."

[witchwatcher]

"I've fought unpredictable regenerating monsters for two years. But we probably all would have died if that Trickster fellow and his group hadn't decided to engage Lung."

She counts the money. She looks at the gems and gold. "I might have to turn these down. I thought I could fight murderers and gang-lords without hesitating. I was wrong. And it really sucks being so immobile in a fight."

[wormcan]

"Rest assured, there's no need to turn it down. Unwillingness to fight humans is a detriment, yes, but not a debilitating one. The mobility issue...will vary. Your method of flight is distinctive, and being recognized may interfere with some missions. I can promise, at least, never to ask you to remain earthbound without a reason.

I do have some subsequent jobs in mind for when you're ready, both of them involving less direct combat than what you faced today."

[witchwatcher]

She picks up one of the silver things, a bracelet. It glows softly. "What's the met for the next job? Ach, I always go into jargon. Mission, enemy, time. The three critical components of a briefing."

[wormcan]

"The initial plan, which you may wish to decline in light of your reaction to Oni Lee's injury, was to attack one of the gangs while making it appear to be the fault of another. Lung's power would be a prime candidate for framing, as would that of the leader of the Undersiders if we knew their location. Lung's gang might plausibly want to attack an Empire Eighty-Eight storehouse and destroy some of their stockpile of drugs. Our real target, alongside that as a cover, would be a particular Empire parahuman. I'm told you expect to become useless over the next few years? If we capture Victor and you emulate his power, it could make you a world-class expert at any mundane skill you care to name. Permanently.

Using Lung's power intensively enough to transform would likely be a significant drain on your reserves. This would therefore take place, if you accept it, when you have had sufficient time to recover and store up. There are no conventional time constraints except that it requires Victor in an appropriate location accompanied by as few other parahumans as possible. It is likely to be short notice, as our information on their movements is limited, but there will be no shortage of opportunities to choose from."

[witchwatcher]

"I'd need full mana stores to keep something like that up long enough to transform, and I'd to be close to him again to copy the power enough to use it that way. Two blocks, maybe. I have no problem pretending to be an unstoppable monster, nor with setting two very unpleasant sounding groups on each other, but I don't really want to harm anybody without advance intel on how exactly they are extremely evil and capture is not feasible. Are drug addictions a serious problem here?"

[wormcan]

Coil nods. "Enough so that there are three competing criminal gangs subsisting primarily on what they can make from their addicted customers. Empire Eighty-Eight in particular is dedicated to the proposition that all nonwhite races are inferior and must be removed, though I believe they are split on such questions as whether any members of minority groups can ever surpass the lowest whites along a particular measure. Most of their recorded violent crime is against minorities, as you can imagine.

I can provide lists of known crimes for the capes, but not their non-powered members. Some of them might have joined that organization without themselves being, as you put it, extremely evil. But you need not fight to kill, even if the real Lung would. For Victor in particular, capture is not only feasible but the goal."

[witchwatcher]

"And what do you do with him once he's captured? Besides let me copy him a few times." It's probably not 'interrogate briefly then turn him in to the proper authorities anonymously,' is it?

[wormcan]

"His power is very gradual. Copying him is unlikely to stop being useful in the immediate future. I would be willing to hold him indefinitely, but if you object to that you may feel free to suggest an alternative. The upgrades foregone would be your own, after all. I ask only that you not set him free entirely, as he would simply rejoin the Empire."

[witchwatcher]

"So your objective is 'disrupt Empire 88' not 'hold Victor'. I think turning him over to the proper authorities to answer for his crimes is on the list. In some way that guarantees he won't get let free and can't be traced back here, if possible."

[wormcan]

"It may be complicated, but I'm sure I can arrange it. The objective in holding Victor is to increase your abilities; at whatever point you feel it is no longer worth it I have no further use for him as a captive.

My other proposition is simpler, in execution if not in concept. I have access to a parahuman I'd like you to copy."

[witchwatcher]

"Who, what power, what for?"

[wormcan]

"She is an unusually powerful parahuman. I'm holding her captive, in fact. Not in any way evil, but she is not in full control of herself or her power. The last time she was free, there were several injuries in the course of capturing her."

Coil shows her a picture. It looks like an ordinary young woman from the waist up. Everything else, the vast majority of her body, is an enormous mass of flesh. Three giant animal heads, prehensile slobbering tongues, too many legs to count which species they're all imitating, and a handful of tentacles.

"This is Noelle. Something went wrong when she got her power, and it turned her into this. Not the only case of unwanted physical changes coming along with a parahuman power, but by far the worst I know of. Between that and the fact that she is not reliably in control of herself, you see why it would be unsafe to copy her power except from the opposite side of an extremely solid wall.

The power I want you to copy makes up for it. Precognition.

[witchwatcher]

"That is extremely nasty. Imprisoning people is an iffy prospect, but if she literally can't control herself... Eegh. Fighting Neuroi doesn't usually come with ethical quandaries except 'do I make myself miserably tired and maybe save one more person'."

"Still. Pre-fucking-cognition. That sounds extremely mana intense, I can't copy Yvette for more than a couple of minutes. And not unless she's right in front of me. I'm provisionally willing to try it once I have enough rest and mana to get anything useful out of it, though. I might refuse to answer a question if it's sufficiently morally ambiguous. I'm not confident in my ability to make judgments like that. Someone mentioned monsters called Endbringers? I'd be very glad to predict when and where they'll attack, though."

[wormcan]

"Unfortunately, most powers cannot predict Endbringers. But if you can copy successfully enough for any questions at all, there is no shortage of subject matter. How best to open communications with your world, dealing with lesser enemies, even predicting mundane natural disasters. Rest as much as you need, and if you need more equipment for mana storage don't hesitate to ask."

[witchwatcher]

"These should be enough for now. Day and a half to charge them all up." She sets the bracelet down - it's still glowing vary faintly, though not as brightly as when she was actively charging it, and picks up a jeweled locket. "I know OpSec. There's no reason to think the Neuroi aren't spying on us, so I'll avoid mentioning any of this to all and sundry. Anything else I should keep in mind?"

[wormcan]

"Nothing urgent.
I imagine you'll need to acclimate to this world before anything else, would you prefer to do that with a guide or enough starting information to move around on your own?"

[witchwatcher]

"I'll just visit a library for now. You probably have something better than telegraphs if I have questions?"

[wormcan]

"Cell phones." He hands her a device small enough to be held in a hand or kept in a pocket. Coil explains how to use one, the pre-set contacts, and some of its other functions aside from communication.

[witchwatcher]

"A portable telegraph switching station, and calculator, and so much else in the palm of my hand. Now I've seen it all. I'll call you in a couple of days when I feel charged enough to copy a precog." In the meantime, she walks downtown and has a nice big hot meal with some of her stack of cash along the way. Combat makes you hungry.

[wormcan]

The food here is strange. The sandwich is recognizably a sandwich, even if the term is unfamiliar, and most of the contents are normal. But in this world it's routine to make food out of ingredients from farther afield than most people have ever been, so the end result is not quite like anything back home.. Which doesn't mean it's not delicious.

[witchwatcher]

In particular she thinks that "mustard" is a very excellent ingredient and she puts it all over her food.

Then she finds a library, using the map thing on the phone with only moderate difficulty.

[wormcan]

The library is full of primarily books. They're organized by a bizarre number system, but explanations of what number corresponds to what subject matter are posted on the shelves. There are a few people browsing the books, and more using devices that look like scaled-up versions of the screen on her phone.

[witchwatcher]

She sticks to books for now. The number system is actually pretty familiar, though the exact mappings are different.

Recent history, just to get an idea of the sorts of things that happen in this bizarre world. And some popular science books, in the hope that some of them will explain how all the lights and cars and so on work.

[wormcan]

The world has been strange in a lot of the same ways as it is now for a while. The strangest things aren't new: secondary financial markets, federalism, Coke. About thirty years ago, Scion appeared. Golden man, incredibly powerful, talks never and smiles less, has been heroing non-stop. After him other, lesser superheroes, then some villains, then the Endbringers. Most of the non-cape-related world has stagnated in the last twenty years since a major city started being attacked by an indestructible monster every three months.

Most of the popular science descriptions are written with the goal of encouraging the reader to have the feeling of an epiphany that they finally understand these everyday things, instead of the goal of actually explaining them. But she can get a decent idea eventually.