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]

"Thank you, pet." He rewards her with another dose. With luck, she'll be able to increase the number of questions he can ask at a time, but this is a good start.

[witchwatcher]

Fuck you lazy memory remember how to teleport!

Nope.

The next time he asks her to answer something, she just swears at him. But the time after that, the dependence is too painful and she gives in.

This continues for about a week.

[witchwatcher]

...And then at a time when nobody extra is in the cell, suddenly there are eleven more people flying machines very like Grendyne's, half inside the cell and half in the cell next over, all holding antique-looking revolvers.

A powerfully muscled dark-haired woman whispers, "Telescope, map the area! We're separated but only by a wall. Copycat's here. She's on some kind of drugs. Angel, work her over. Dragon, work on the wall between us. Who's the extra contact?"

Over the sound of falling chunks of concrete, "Little girl, not a Witch, also drugged."

"We'll get her out of here too, then. Knight, open the door."

"Got it, boss." Her crystal spear starts poking holes effortlessly through the steel of the door, trying to find a locking mechanism.

"There's more people nearby. Maybe guards. Stay alert, 42nd."

[wormcan]

There are a lot of people nearby. And cameras, to warn them that people arrived and what they look like.

While Knight's spear is extended through the door, it suddenly opens. Whether this will wrench the weapon aside and leave its wielder vulnerable or just leave more of a gouge in the steel, Coil's soldiers have no idea. But that door was a loss in either case.

The soldiers are going helmetless and maskless, in a deliberate attempt to make it harder for Strike Witches to fight them. The first weapon to enter the room is a flashbang grenade, useful against an enemy unlikely to recognize it
Some of the weapons are loaded with tranquilizers and, to the limited extent possible when using bullets, the rest are aimed to injure.

[witchwatcher]

The boss clearly knows the soldiers are coming. Knight's spear disappears when wrenched, but it rematerializes in her hands after a moment of surprise. She does take a bullet and three tranq darts, being a little too slow to shield. She drops to the ground, and someone else picks her up.

Most of the Witches catch the flashbang in the face but meet further projectiles with shimmering shields. Once they mostly recover, a blast of wind knocks a good portion of Coil's soldiers over, and the upright witches charge for one end of the hallway with their three passengers.

At least one of them has no problem shooting back. The others start blasting at one of the reinforced elevator shaft doors or keeping shields up in all likely directions of attack.

[wormcan]

They make progress easily. The soldiers are used to giving ground against capes, and are reluctant to use heavier firepower while inside the base. The door goes down, pieces of it clanging down the elevator shaft.

[witchwatcher]

They make their way up the shaft, blasting into another hallway where it's blocked by the elevator car.

The one they call Telescope is directing their escape path, if Coil's soldiers want someone specific to target.

[wormcan]

They've been targeting the ones carrying passengers, both because they're farther behind and because they're in less of a position to defend. But once they catch on to Telescope's importance they'll switch.

When the Witches enter the elevator shaft, the empty car above them drops. It wouldn't be a proper villain lair if at least some safety precautions didn't have deactivation switches with no good reason to exist. Any Witch who does not exit fast enough is likely to get trapped at the bottom of the shaft below the door to the lowest level.

[witchwatcher]

Actually, the one called Dragon catches the elevator and the others blast through it in short order. It does slow them down, though, and several Witches appear to be tiring.

[wormcan]

Knowing how the limits on magic use work from Gren, they continue focusing their fire. With luck, Telescope or one of the Witches in the back will run low on mana and have to be carried along with the rest. But once the Witches disappear up the elevator shaft, there's little they can do to stop them except warn their teammates on higher floors.

[witchwatcher]

The witches keep going up as quickly as possible, blasting through things as necessary. One more falls to a tranq dart. Her and her passenger are picked up by the others.

They'll probably reach the surface before running out of mana at this rate.

Also, the Knight is waking up. Angel is apparently a healer.

[wormcan]

Several of the doors ahead of them seal, but it's nothing they haven't already demonstrated they can deal with. And if passengers are waking up, the defenders aren't even making progress. The rate of fire lets up slightly as the soldiers receive orders to let them go instead of escalating. The remaining fire is mostly meant to obscure the change in orders.

Coil, meanwhile, is aware that it could be worse. Lost two major assets and the secrecy of the location, but at least Ballistic isn't seriously wounded and Genesis' real power didn't get revealed. Nor does anyone know the Travelers are working for him. And bringing down the upper levels of the base would have, as in most cases where the option came up, not been worth it. So he lets them go and accepts it as the worst setback of his career.

[witchwatcher]

When they break through to the surface, their first action is to ascend about half a mile.

Their second action is to wonder where the hell they are.

[wormcan]

Brockton Bay. A city of some kind, far larger in every dimension than anything their civilization could build. Looking down, they see contraptions of some kind traveling along wide roads. Most of the buildings directly beneath them are tall, wide, and ugly. Most of the ships in the harbor are dead and rusted out hulks. A single building is in the water, surrounded by a glowing sphere.

[witchwatcher]

The commander makes the executive decision to go land in one of the abandoned boats and wait until Gren finally wakes up, in the hope that she can explain this place. They're not exactly hiding, if someone comes looking for them.

[wormcan]

They do get seen, and the appropriate authorities notified, but the heroes are more busy with the fact that some capes just broke through an underground complex in the middle of downtown. Once they've found it empty and moved on to investigating it for whatever they can find on the previous occupants, they send someone to talk to the group of what is probably the same capes.

He arrives at their ship and boards it using a grappling hook. "I'm Armsmaster. Are you the ones who fought your way through Coil's base downtown?"

[witchwatcher]

"Captain Morgana McAllister, 42nd Witch Wing, United Defense Force. Highlander if you must use a nickname. If that place was Coil's base, then yes. We are just here to rescue Copycat. Scatter got us in, almost completely blind, Dragon and Telescope did the heavy lifting to get us out. We're going home as soon as we can. Are you in charge around here?"

[wormcan]

"I'm the leader of the Brockton Bay Protectorate. If there's a hero team with you and forty-one other Witch Wings, I ought to have heard of you. Where do you operate?"

Can't be close. Dragon is a big name all across the continent; using that name would be like someone naming themself Eidolon.

[witchwatcher]

"42nd wing is based out of south Suomus. But I don't think we are from the same damn planet . Never seen anything like this city. Or your armor. Or even this boat, rusted out as it is."

[wormcan]

"And I've never heard of Suomus. Does your planet look like this?" A figure of Earth projects from a point on his helmet, blue light shining out and seeming to stop at the correct points to make a slowly rotating globe. This definitely wasn't copied from any old movies.

[witchwatcher]

"...You got the shape of Liberion wrong. And this whole place," She points at China, "Is supposed to be an ocean."

[wormcan]

It shuts down, and Armsmaster nods. "Different world, then. This world knew they exist, but I hadn't heard of anyone traveling between them before. Would you like to come to HQ to discuss it further? We can get medical help for your injured members."

[witchwatcher]

"Copycat and some little girl were being kept drugged with stuff so strong half an hour of Angel flaring regen hasn't woken them up yet. I don't trust anyone from this world right now. Only reason we're still here is because this place could be useful."

The last part of this statement is a lie.

[wormcan]

It is, but no reason to let them know he knows that.

He looks down, gets a better look at Copycat and the little girl.
"That's Dinah Alcott. And Grendyne?"

[witchwatcher]

"You know Gren?" The commander stares accusitorily.

"Stop it already, boss," someone else pipes up, "Going with him is better than sitting around here."

"Humph. If Seer says so, we'll follow you. But don't try to split us up, you hear?"