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]

"Places. What do you know about the monster, who has it cloned and how dangerous are they?"

Capes are arriving, but need to know what they're up against. One of them is Legend.

[witchwatcher]

"It had Genesis, probably a couple of Witches, maybe some more Travelers by now. But one of the Genesis clones became a Siberan instead of another Genesis."

Copycat swears.

[whole_new_can]

"Wards, out. Protectorate only."

Legend interjects after the Director, "Flechette, if Places is right this could be a less dangerous chance to test your power against the Siberian than against the real one." (She volunteers, of course.) "Copycat, as soon as it works or fails, or if Flechette is threatened, teleport out. Eidolon is in Houston, and if there's a risk of multiple Siberians we might need him."

With most of the Wards gone it's a smaller group, but they're ready to go.

[witchwatcher]

"Places, got a map? And what intersection?"

A map is produced. "Eleventh and Blue, maybe."

"Alright. Hold on everyone." She looks at the map. She raises her arms. There is a slight tingling sensation for a few seconds.

And they're outside in sunny not-California. The monster is fairly obviously thataway, what with the destruction and sounds of ongoing battle. Copycat staggers.

[wormcan]

Most of the people are running. Trickster is keeping people out of the its reach, giving preference to his team of course, but there are ever-increasing numbers of unpowered Witches. Not to mention the Genesis clones. And the Siberian one moves fast. She's standing over Oliver, who is currently missing an arm, when the newcomers arrive. She recognizes Legend.

"Heroes! I've got some things you might want to hear about my teammates..."

Trickster swaps Oliver with one of the bodies. Whether it was a clone or a casualty, who even knows. "Don't kill the monster! The real Genesis is still in there!"

Flechette fires her crossbow at the striped clone. Her target vanishes, as if she had popped a bubble. And then it reappears and comes straight for her.

[witchwatcher]

The unpowered Witches are at least serving as cannon fodder for the monster. And in a couple of minutes they're going to be able to fly on appropriately stick-like things, and increase their strength.

Places grabs Flechette and disappears.

Copycat starts tossing out lightning bolts and environmental effects, mostly at the Genesis-creations and the not-Siberian. "I can't detect the Siberian's power. It's like she's not even there."

[wormcan]

"Of course. She's immune to everything else, why should the best trump since Eidolon have any chance." Ballistic is launching increasingly larger objects, none of which serve as more than distractions.

The clone ignores the bombardment and the commentary. "They're from Aleph. Came through in Madison two years ago, during the Simurgh attack. You know, her song, where you kill your friends for their own good if they're there too long? They got that for hours. Everything they've done since was all her."

Heroes are turning to look at the Travelers, but being an evil clone who is also a Siberian doesn't make for much credibility. No one attacks them.

"And all this, that's her power." the clone points a crooked finger at Noelle. "This isn't even the first time this happened, and it won't be the last."

There are now three sides to this. The heroes might have common goals with the Travelers, but the Protectorate members are all assuming that they'll have to do as much as possible afterward to arrest them. At least.

[witchwatcher]

"Deal with it later, monster killing things now!" Copycat tries to give the Siberian her death-touch. It doesn't work.

She pulls up her version of Legend for use on the Genesis-creations and starts investigating the monster with her enhanced vision on the side. Does it have a core, like Neuroi do?

[wormcan]

There's a core. It's in deep, surrounded by an elephant's worth of flesh. More; it's been growing during the fight.

"Don't you get it? The Travelers are as much your enemies as that is.
But I was also playing for time, while one of my friends could manage this."

Legend's invulnerability activates whenever he gets struck, turning his body into an energy state to absorb the blow. Jess has always been a bit of a cape geek, even on Aleph. Her clones know as well as she does that in his normal state, Legend still breathes. And most of the Genesis clones can produce all kinds of interesting things to breathe.
He falls, and the Siberian one feeds him to the monster.

[witchwatcher]

Copycat... Teleports to Flechette.

Huh, so that's how it works. Convenient that the now-dead Knight's crystal spear dovetails so nicely with that... Absoluteness.

She teleports again, appearing above the monster and ignoring the fight raging around her, and pins it to the rubble with a forty-foot gold-glowing three-way combination of Knight, Brandish, and Flechette. Goodbye, core.

[wormcan]

The core gets punctured and nailed down, and tries to regenerate. It takes more damage as fast as it does, until the power wears off the forty-foot pin. Its extremities start to rot away, freeing some of the less central hostages.

The Siberian clone leaps to try to make her biggest tactical advantage invulnerable, while every other clone or monster swarms at Gren. The Travelers and heroes provide heavy covering fire. The heroes don't focus on killing anything that leaves a body, but by now there are more than enough Genesises to go around.

[witchwatcher]

She's good at dodging.

Time to start rounding up the Genesises' original bodies while she builds up the strength to do that again.

...The hell? That's a Genesis, or something like one, but shaped differently.

Oh. Ohhhhhh. That's how you get a Siberian from a Genesis. She grabs the clone, stuns it if she can, and ascends sharply, only refraining from immediately killing her so she can study the power.

[whole_new_can]

This clone has no special defenses, but every remaining Genesis is perfectly willing to throw their current projections in front of a stunbolt. Gren being faster than they are, this can't slow her down for long. The Siberian winks out after a bolt hits the clone.

And then the three bear-shaped force fields attacking projections abruptly shatter. A blue flash streaks into the wall behind them and keeps going. "Everyone stand down" comes almost-Legend's voice. "The next one hits Ursa herself."

Ursa Aurora disappears, replaced with a cloned Witch body that could have come from anywhere. The Legend clone fires on Trickster instead, the bolt curving to cut him in two even though he swaps himself around the battlefield repeatedly.

[witchwatcher]

That's bad.

Copycat tries to block not-Legend from doing much of anything with an array of shields winking in and out of existence. Plus some of Grue's darkness and a couple other obfuscating powers she's picked up.

They're more to confuse him than actually block his attacks- most of her concentration is going toward mapping out the edges of the Siberian's power. It seems much less mana-hungry than her trick with the big flashy golden spear, but it'll take a little while.

[wormcan]

Other capes are trying the same strategy. Ursa Aurora can surround the Legend with bears from wherever she is, and Adamant can distract him from more vulnerable teammates. Their opponent isn't targeting Copycat; he's aiming first at people the real Legend knows. Prism goes down, then Prism, then Prism... at least one of her is probably fine. Hopefully.

The monster itself is regenerated enough to attack, if weaker than before. It's much less strategic than any of its clones so far, rushing straight in toward the Travelers. This leaves several Genesises uncovered; their real bodies had been hiding behind it. They don't last long.

[witchwatcher]

More people die. More people die. Every second Gren fails to get this power more people die... Something clicks.

A Siberian appears behind not-Legend and turns his head into paste. "I'm Copycat, not Siberian!" And it starts flickering around the area, rapidly carving the original not-clones people out of the monster.

[wormcan]

It would hardly matter if they did think she was the Siberian. But not wasting their firepower on her means it can be concentrated on the real target, holding it down and tearing at it while she cuts it up. Some clones get revealed, not yet complete enough to be vomited up, and a Protectorate cape mercilessly drains the water from their bodies. When the last hostage is clear, Sundancer incinerates what's left of the monster.

[witchwatcher]

The not-Siberian disappears. Copycat descends and radiates as many different powers' worth of healing as she can, looking glassy-eyed.

"Carnage and death. Just like old times..."

[whole_new_can]

"This is what we fight against," the recently rescued Legend says. "If you hadn't come, that thing would be invincible and spitting out clones until it got another Siberian. Today wasn't anything better than terrible. But everything here, there's more of it not happening."

[witchwatcher]

"I know. I volunteered for the defense, right, but on some level, I thought I'd put in my time and be done. That I wouldn't have to worry about this shit anymore. I know I'm helping, but..." Shrug.

[whole_new_can]

"You're right. There's always an emergency. And when things seem to be going well, someone appears from another earth and tells you your problems are spilling over to them."

He gestures toward the Travelers, who are being thoroughly arrested by the surviving Protectorate members. They're not resisting.

"But you can stop. If you don't want to fight, you can leave it to us; it's why we're here. If you do want to fight, well, we both know how much difference you can make."

[witchwatcher]

"I could stand to help end some of the nastier threats, yes. I'll probably come and go if I join up, though. At least the Neuroi have been much less of a threat lately, thanks to Bet's tech. Did you catch the Travelers?"

(Places has deposited Flechette halfway across the city, still on Earth Gimel, and subsequently disappeared.)

[whole_new_can]

"They're not going anywhere. Do you think you're up to getting us back to New York?"

The surviving Travelers are sufficiently caught, with the exception of Oliver, who as far as anyone knows is just an unusually good-looking civilian. He even has his arm back, thanks to all the healing.

[witchwatcher]

"Mm. In a few minutes, maybe. Using too much power in too few minutes hurts Witches, even me. There's other teleporters, though. I wonder where Lytee got to? She can 'port a full squad when she's rested."

[whole_new_can]

"She said getting us here was about all she could manage at the time. But we can wait."

The Protectorate people set about getting the full story, as much as the innocent bystanders can tell them and then from the Travelers. Civilians and Oliver get dispersed; he gets to worry about how to convince Places to help with a rescue.

And Gren finds out that when Coil described Dinah, he wasn't making everything up.