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]

And after Copycat pays the rest of the money, it'll be a successful dubiously legal business deal.

[witchwatcher]

After she takes care of some outstanding jobs, it's time to pay an invisible visit to Brockton Bay to see if the Undersiders are being evil, and to try to find Coil again.

[wormcan]

The Undersiders have effectively taken over the city. All other gangs have been driven out, and confrontations with the heroes usually end with the villains escaping without serious injury on either side. (Assuming serious injury is defined not to include pain. Skitter can be merciless when she's fighting to end a fight.) The Merchants went down easily, the mercenary groups have largely moved on, and the solo villains aren't much of a threat.

As far as anyone knows, the Undersiders are mostly not extorting protection money or selling drugs or taking advantage of being the only major villains at all. How exactly this is profitable for them is an open question, but at least controlling a city is good for their reputation.


If Coil is still in the city, there's no sign of him. His soldiers put up some resistance, but seem to have either fled or defected to Tattletale.

[witchwatcher]

Hm. Well, she's never been good at tracking. If Coil has melted into the shadows he can stay there.

Copycat would like to know whether Dinah Alcott is still alright, though, and maybe visit her.

[significantfigures]

Dinah is all right, or at least as close as one can get when one is like twelve and coming out of that kind of drug withdrawal. She has been selling predictions to the Protectorate and being cossetted by her parents and is perfectly happy to receive a visit from Gren, for a rather solemn value of perfectly happy.

[witchwatcher]

It's been a while and Gren is mostly just resentful of Coil and not having much in the way of ongoing symptoms. But Dinah was under him for quite a lot longer.

Copycat can give her a jolt of well-being from one of her healing powers when she visits, because why not? She names a time and lets Dinah pick the place.

[significantfigures]

They could go get ice cream. Ice cream is nice.

[witchwatcher]

Yeah, ice cream is nice.

One of the many sensory powers she likes to keep half-active whenever she's out and about is Skitter's bug-sense. They're not in her territory, but if the terrifying swarm queen comes by Copycat will probably notice.

Gren shows up in street clothes, though her mask is in the messenger bag at her side just in case. She finds Dinah easily. "Hullo, Dinah. How's freedom treating you?"

[significantfigures]

"It's - better," Dinah says. "My parents are still... strongly reacting... to everything but I'm glad to be out. How've you been?"

[witchwatcher]

"I'm doing well, on average. There's lots of stuff to see on this Earth, so I've been wandering a lot. My mom's still on Earth Gimel so I haven't seen her much recently, but that's kinda traditional for Witches. The wandering, not the entirely new world."

[significantfigures]

"Pick up any interesting powers?"

[witchwatcher]

"I made a really elegant sort of melded hard-light attack between New Wave, Legend, and Knight, one of my old squadmates. Still can't copy tinkers, which is annoying, but I met Strider and his teleportation is so much more efficient. I'm gonna try and have another go at permanently rather than temporarily copying you, unless you mind. Mental powers don't agree with me most of the time, unfortunately. There's a lot of flavors of shaker and striker powers... Flechette is neat - she makes things ignore physics for a while. It could probably cut through endbringers, it's a very stubborn sort of effect. I got a new kind of healing, eight new kinds of telekinesis, about a dozen new senses... Oh, and the Siberian's projection. Can't channel touch effects through that, though."

[significantfigures]

"Go ahead," Dinah says. "You should probably collect all the powers you can. Make Eidolon jealous."

[witchwatcher]

"Much obliged. There's still a limit on how much I can use at once. My amulet is just about charged to its limit, I'm gonna start on a new one soon. People looking at us or listening to us will find us uninteresting right now, by the way. Not foolproof but the least invasive hidey power I have." She looks at Dinah in a different way. "Yup, precognition is still as confusing heck..." They're at the front of the line. Gren orders a double scoop of cookie dough flavor.

[significantfigures]

Dinah wants mint chocolate chip.

[witchwatcher]

And Gren pays.

"Huh, this is one of those shops with chess sets on the tables. Want to have a match and cheat outrageously against each other?"

[significantfigures]

"I don't want to get another headache on top of my ice cream one," Dinah says. "We can play, but no cheating."

[witchwatcher]

"Didn't think about that. Sure. I'll be black."

Meanwhile, nom. Ice cream is delicious.

[significantfigures]

It is!

Dinah plays white and advances a pawn.

"Who else are you going to visit?"

[witchwatcher]

Gren advances a knight.

"I'd visit Lung if he wasn't in the Birdcage. Might try to arrange a meeting with Faultline's crew. Or Accord. I've already visited like a third of the heroes and rogues on the east coast. I kinda want to visit Panacea, but for some reason she doesn't want me copying her power. Unless there's a good reason I'm not gonna stomp all over that."

[significantfigures]

"Accord's power for someone who wasn't Accord might be neat. I wonder why Panacea doesn't want it. Did you ask her sister?"

[witchwatcher]

"I did not ask. I may as well, now that you mention it. I can already heal most things, but a new kind never hurts. I did copy her for about an hour way back when - but that was before I got really really good at copying."

[significantfigures]

"I wonder why you can't copy Tinkers."

Dinah's bishop takes Gren's knight.

[witchwatcher]

"Bet's powers are something else entirely. I copy, I don't steal, my version of Legend is subtly different from the actual Legend. My theory is that whatever it is that makes tinkers tinker is just... Untranslatable."

She sighs and looks at the knight contemplatively. "Behemoth got my friend Knight. I want to end it. If I can't copy you well enough to ask myself, can I get some predictions about some plans in about two months?"

[significantfigures]

"The Protectorate questions me to capacity most days," Dinah says. "But I can probably spare you a few."