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

[witchwatcher]

She taps Triumph. "Invulned, probably for about five minutes. Huh. Bug girl... Let's see if I can mess with your early warning insects... No, I can't copy her control from this far away."

She switches to a whisper spell. "I think she might be able to hear through them. She put thin webs all over the place, and there's mosquitoes or similar on most of us, tracking our position... No clue how she can keep it all straight in her head."

[whole_new_can]

"We've been assuming they'll know as soon as we try anything," Miss Militia says. "Good to have confirmation. We didn't want to go in in force until everyone is out, especially Lung, in case they were serious about bringing down the building."

[witchwatcher]

"Agreed. I don't think any of us wants to fight Lung again. I can identify where her bugs are. Might be able to fool her by using telekinesis on some of them. Does anyone have a guess on whether my stunbolts will work on the dogs? I don't want to nail them with starbursts or lightning or something unless I have to. Don't have as much practice aiming big destructive stuff."

[wormcan]

"They didn't have any dogs when they came in," Browbeat says. He was the only Ward at the base at the time. "And I didn't see Hellhound."

"I'll take care of the bugs," Armsmaster promises. "Not all of them, but enough that I and a few other people can't be tracked very precisely."

[witchwatcher]

"Good stuff. I can probably start messing with the bugs if we get a little closer."

She opens up Telescope's power. "...Looks like they're on the fourth floor. At least, there's more of Grue's darkness all over that area. Seeing through walls is handy. Can you activate the foam sprayers remotely, Armsmaster?"

[wormcan]

"No. The Undersiders are often surprisingly well informed, they might not be there if I could.

The building will be empty after just a few more people. When that happens, Miss Militia, Battery, Triumph and I will go in the front door. We'll disguise our position as much as possible. We're the diversion. Citrine Mage, Aegis, Vista, get the other Wards to the fourth floor from outside. Break the window and stall them until we get up there.

Miss Militia, Citrine Mage, send Skitter false alarms every sixty seconds for," he checks a random-number generator in case Tattletale has a relevant power, "four minutes after the last person is out. We'll move on the fourth."

[witchwatcher]

She follows the plan, frying the bugs on the local heroes or letting Armsmaster do the same and using wind and little telekinetic plucks to give Skitter's webguards false alarms.

She finds something stable enough to fly a short distance with two people. Hovering a little closer to Skitter lets her get just enough of a hold on that power to scatter the bugs. She can't micromanage, but on the fourth minute when they go through the window, all the bugs start flying in random directions.

Skitter will probably win in terms of who controls the bugs, but she can at least interfere. The first dozen stunbolts go for the thick person-shaped mass of bugs which is probably controlling them. They're unexpectedly dulled by the thick darkness, so she starts trying to dispel the stuff with Grue's power.

[wormcan]

"Stand down!" the Director barks the order. She's tied to a chair, and isn't moving except to speak in a voice that doesn't sound like hers.

"Wards? I was expecting you earlier," Tattletale talks.

[witchwatcher]

...So she stops with the stunbolts, grabs Tattletale's power.

"What are you even trying to accomplish here? This place doesn't have nearly as much expensive stuff to steal as you'd expect, and much better security."

Tattletale's power, is the director alright? And are there actually bombs somewhere? (Those bugs trying to wrap her teammates up in silk start flying in random directions instead. She'll probably not have enough concentration for it sooner or later, but not yet.)

Oh, and she keeps working on dispelling the dark, even if it doesn't seem to be working all that well. She can see through it, now, at least.

[whole_new_can]

The Director is uninjured, restrained, resisting, no obvious thing to resist, something nonobvious, invisible power, Regent, body control.

Tattletale's looking smug (that grin can't not be described as vulpine), knows Citrine Mage is copying her power, knows she knows Tattletale knows that, and knows she knows she knows she knows she knows.... This powers is still tricky to control.

They are planning to damage the building, most of them prefer to do it with no casualties and minimal outside property damage for various reasons, but they aren't concerned with protecting any particular device that might cause the damage.

"So you know that wasn't actually her order. But you're just here to stall us, so want to hear what I've got to say?"

[witchwatcher]

"Damn mind games." A series of miniature, well-controlled lightning bolts zap many of the insects in the room. The stunbolts would be more effective at close range... And she has enough of Glory Girl's powers memorized to throw off their reaction.

"Alright, fine." She watches the Undersiders, using Tattletale's power to look for the best moment to teleport directly behind them and stun them all at point-blank range.

[whole_new_can]

It tells her that the real Tattletale knows she's looking for a space, and is directing her team to cover wherever she looks.

"It's very important. The truth is...I'm stalling too. When we do our thing, stay no higher than the floor above this. No need for anyone to get hurt.

The Protectorate bursts through the door. "Just in time! Done stalling. Now."

[witchwatcher]

Everything on that side of the room, including all of the bugs, will find it difficult to move while Citrine Mage teleports behind Grue and slaps him on the back of the head. He is definitely stunned.

And then she starts feeling woozy. She opens up Angel's regeneration, but not nearly fast enough apparently. She faints.

[wormcan]

By the time she wakes up, the Undersiders have escaped. Somehow. This was a disaster.

There was no explosion. Instead, they had cleanly destroyed much of the inside of the building on the upper levels, including the Wards headquarters. There is surprisingly little debris, more melted metal than strictly necessary, and no sign of a bomb or relevant tinker device. No one has any clear idea what, if anything, the villains were after. The Director's current guess is reputation; if this stunt did nothing else it put the Undersiders thoroughly on the map. Regent had claimed it was at least partly out of a grudge against her personally, but none of the Undersiders is known to have such a reason. Especially not him.

[witchwatcher]

It was some kind of weird drug. She got that much as feedback from her healing power before she went down.

She wants to hunt these guys down. Fly above various parts of the city for a while until she smells one of their powers. How much of a terrible idea is this?

[wormcan]

Not at all, if she can recognize powers from enough range that the Undersiders can't do anything about it. She can do it on the next time she patrols with Aegis. With Purity gone the heroes have near-undisputed control of the skies. Capturing them is going to be the harder part; they'll be at least as prepared as they were when attacking the PRT.

In the meantime, the Wards headquarters has been relocated to the Protectorate building. Director Piggot is going to be transferred to another city as soon as a replacement is decided upon, since a Director partially under the physical control of an active villain is a liability. She's not happy about the demotion.

[witchwatcher]

Citrine Mage's detection range is fairly large, but not compared to a city. She doesn't find them. (She does pick a few capes out of crowds, just not the ones she was looking for.)

She lurks on the Parahumans Online forum at the end of the third day of patrols, working out her frustration by discussing anti-Behemoth tactics on the Endbringers thread.

[wormcan]

Specific details of Endbringer fights aren't usually publicized. Even aside from the fact that important capes become higher-profile targets, which no one wants, there's also the simple fact that the same tactic doesn't necessarily work twice. There's no enforced prohibition against getting the public's hopes up with specific powers or combinations of powers, but it's mostly just not done. Most people who weren't there don't know, for instance, how effective Parian was under Tattletale's and Yvette's direction.

That doesn't mean they can't speculate on what might work. (Parian and Clockblocker was a combination that had come up before, from some of the forumites who were the most familiar with Brockton Bay.) One suggestion is pairing Citrine Mage with some other Trump for a recursive loop, though nobody can suggest an appropriate cape.

(Any thread a Brockton Bay Ward appears in suddenly gets distracted asking about recent events. She can ignore this if she wants.)

[witchwatcher]

She says the recursive loop idea wouldn't work, but declines to give details on why. She'll talk about recent events in a vague sort of way, but eventually gets tired of that too.

A thread about vigilantes vs villains is interesting. Gren talks about how she could maybe possibly see the vigilantes' point of view, as long as they try to be restrained about it. The police and heroes can't be everywhere, and it would be an entirely different set of issues if they could.

[wormcan]

Other heroes disagree with that one. Many people, a few of them with [Verified Cape] tags, say the standard line about how vigilantes have nothing reining them in and tend to use excessive force or enforce laws more against people they dislike, even if they start out with the best of intentions. Vigilante to villain is a much more common trajectory than vigilante to hero. Plenty of others agree with Gren, of course.

One commenter, having heard that Purity claimed to want to stop the Empire's crimes, asked if this means Citrine Mage let her go. Others want to know whether she thinks the current real world is a situation where vigilantes are a net good, and if not what would have to change.

[witchwatcher]

Vigilantes do need some kind of accountability. Where she's from, it's that the heroes would step in if they went too far, but otherwise let the vigilantes be. No, she's not going to say where she's from. She did let Purity go, but more out of concern that the other Empire capes would escape than because she agreed with her politics. She is not a Nazi.

[wormcan]

That argument isn't going to end any time soon. The discourse rages on.

Gren finds herself with a private message from a newly cerated account claiming to be Skitter. She, assuming it's her, wants to arrange a truce to talk to Citrine Mage about vigilantes.

[witchwatcher]

If you're Skitter, how many false-alarms did I give your bugs in the fight earlier today? And how many times did I attempt to control your bugs. We can discuss a truce after your identity is relatively verified.

After receiving the correct responses, I'll agree to a truce for the duration of a meeting. I promise not to attempt to capture you unless you or your gang tries to hurt someone. I'd prefer to meet alone but won't mandate that. If the meeting place smells like an ambush I'll teleport away and bring the heroes down on the area.

[whole_new_can]

Skitter is perfectly willing to meet alone. They agree on a place that can be expected to be empty, Skitter knowing she can check for people and Citrine Mage that she can check for capes.

When they meet, Skitter is a tall teenager surrounded by insects. They buzz whenever she speaks, disguising her voice. Even her shape is hard to discern in the mass of bugs. (If Citrine Mage copies her power, that will stop applying.)

[witchwatcher]

Citrine Mage is wearing her amulet and streetclothes, and maintaining a strong dose of a Stranger power that leaves her features obscured enough to be unidentifiable.

"Well, you wanted to talk, so talk."