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

[whole_new_can]

"Some of it was her. She's only willing to sell so many questions, so it's mostly our own thinkers. It can be done though; that much we do know."

[witchwatcher]

"Then I'll help. The Nine are offensive and obscene. It sounds like we have a lot of strategy sessions ahead of us. Who all will be along?"

[whole_new_can]

"Protectorate capes from all over, and a few others like the teleporter and you. Armsmaster and I are probably the only ones you know, unless you've met more of our teams while heroing."

[witchwatcher]

"I've met a couple. Had a chat with Myddrin once, which was... Interesting. I'll be happy to spend a few hours discussing strategy and preparing, and I can 'port in from anywhere when it's time to move. Let me know when to come in, preferably at least a couple hours from now. I'm busy cleaning up after a tornado."

[whole_new_can]

He sends her a time for the strategizing, along with a list of cape names. Myrddin is included.

[witchwatcher]

And she shows up exactly on time, via teleport into the building's lobby.

[whole_new_can]

There are a lot of capes, even for a Protectorate headquarters. They've got members here from most of the important branches. Myrddin, Exalt, Rime. The list goes on. Alexandria is not present, for one reason or another.

The most important information is who they're up against. Everyone knows in a general sense who the Slaughterhouse Nine are, but the specific roster varies.

In descending order of threat: the Siberian, who everyone in this room needs to know is a projection. Crawler, the most monstrous member in a literal sense, who regenerates from anything that harms him in seconds and is thereafter immune to it. Shatterbird, large-scale and fine-grained control over glass. She won't be surrounded by a city's worth of shards, unlike when the Nine attack a city, but should be assumed to have an arsenal on hand. Burnscar. Bonesaw. Jack Slash. Mannequin.
Hatchet Face, their power nullifier, was recently killed and replaced by this person, whose powers are unknown.

The general outline of the plan is of course to teleport to the Siberian—the real her, not the projection—and kill her before joining the battle. Strider can't teleport to people and Copycat doesn't have enough information on the person, but the Protectorate has a tank of thinkers who can narrow the location down and the Siberian's other body is likely alone.
Some of the others have complications, but with the Siberian dead they could win by force if nothing else. And of course they do have the advantage of striking first, which they can use like this or that....

[witchwatcher]

Copycat hasn't actually been battling other capes for most of her capey career. Her tactical sense is still tuned for Neuroi, so some of her suggestions may seem odd. She isn't the least bit upset with being told that her ideas won't work, at least.

Are there any clues to the last person's power? Unknowns are annoying. Perhaps she should be second priority after the Siberian - for all they know she could wipe the floor with the Alexandria and Legend if they let her alone long enough. Kinda like Lung.

[wormcan]

Accurate information is hard to come by; few people get a good look at the Nine in action. Speculation is that she's a master, but that's a guess and isn't very specific in any case.
The experienced capes all know how much of a threat unknown opponents can be. They certainly aren't assuming this one is less immediately dangerous than the guy with the knives.

The other half of the fight is, of course, theirs. They have capes from all over and have plenty of time to plan useful power interactions. (They could theoretically pulverize anything short of Crawler by using a combination of Myrddin, Dispatch, Exalt, and a card table. The downside is that it's kind of stupid. Dispatch is still useful for giving a short break to capes with recharge time. Like Copycat.) And there are plenty of powers to copy.

[witchwatcher]

Copycat really likes the idea of working with Dispatch. She can only copy him well enough to do small areas for a few moments. Myddrin's power continues to be a little odd. Exalt's aerokinesis blends in with the other kinds she has. She copies the other powers, but nothing present gives her a major advantage she didn't already have.

Copycat's copy of the Siberian can protect and move people likely to be able to hit the Nine hard enough. She is now powerful enough to both outright cancel gravity and make it hard to move around in an area the size of a house for a few minutes. Not likely to stop shatterbird or burnscar, but it'd give other heroes time to attack.

[wormcan]

This leaves Usher feeling a bit redundant. Suddenly Copycat can make people immune to both powers and stab wounds. Not that there's enough power immunity to go around, of course.

The canceling gravity requires testing with a cape with gravity powers; if he tries pulling people toward a potentially-fatal trap and there's no other gravity, that's much simpler than if they just render each other useless and have to time it.

Powers and tactics take up time; there's no shortage of permutations of both.

[witchwatcher]

Copycat tolerates a few hours of testing and strategizing, but soon disappears. Her gravity-cancel doesn't interfere with anyone else's gravity powers.

[wormcan]

Once they've hashed out a plan, they start working on steadily less important details of strategy and powers. By the time she leaves they'll have planned enough, but they'll all have plenty of advance warning to prepare before the attack.

[witchwatcher]

Copycat takes a bit of a break from heroing, cutting the hours she does cape things down to five or six a day from more than ten. Sleep and relaxation are pretty important too, and the world has a truly staggering variety of food.

(She also asks Toy Soldier for a quote on a spacesuit. She wants to teleport to the Moon.)

But she's in the room moments after the call that they're ready to move on the Nine goes out.

[wormcan]

They've been keeping close track on where the Nine are, and their thinkers have narrowed the Siberian's probable location down to a specific house nearby. They can go in, find anyone who looks like the Siberian, and kill her. If she gets a chance to re-create the projection near her they they're pretty much immediately outgunned even if she can't directly protect herself.

The rest of them will be starting a bombardment on the rest of the Nine as soon as the Siberian disappears.

[witchwatcher]

Copycat's misuse of her teleport power as a scry sees only an old man in that house. This guy might still be the Siberian, the appearance of the projection is hardcoded in the power but not not hardcoded to be exactly like Copycat herself. She's... Developed since she copied it, and the projection hasn't.

She can't see him well enough to make out his face from this distance.

[whole_new_can]

It might be worth it to wait long enough for Copycat to check the man's power. It'll give a valuable fraction of a second of warning, but Legend isn't happy about the idea of writing off as acceptable losses someone who's only probably guilty. Not if there's another option.

[witchwatcher]

If Copycat detects that he's the Siberian when Strider moves everyone in, she'll attack as soon as she's sure of it and everyone else should join in. Otherwise, she won't.

[whole_new_can]

Once everyone's ready to go, Strider takes the first group into position to attack once the Siberian's gone. Then he comes back for the second, including Copycat.
They appear in the target house, with a sound as the slight difference in air pressure equalizes. One of the capes points to where the suspect is.

[witchwatcher]

She breathes in for a moment, making sure, and yep that's the Siberian. The place where the Siberian is, is now very much on fire, and filled with lasers for good measure.

[wormcan]

Everyone else takes their cue from her.

The man they're firing on was lying in a bed in a bare room. It being the middle of the night here that makes some sense, but he has probably barely moved in days. There's no sign of the house's actual owners, which probably doesn't bode well for them.

As soon as the fire starts, the black and white striped projection appears. It grabs on to a blanket and renders it invulnerable, quickly smothering the flames nearest the human. The lasers from Legend curve around to strike from underneath, but the Siberian is already awkwardly bundling her creator in the impenetrable defense.

Someone annihilates everything beneath the targets; the Siberian probably can't charge them while falling. Attacks surround the targets, but they don't have time to wait for him to suffocate.

[witchwatcher]

Copycat teleports directly to the master's still-exposed foot and touches it. Using deathtouch feels nasty and icky, but he should die instantly. She's not sure exactly what the deathtouch actually does, but it's worked on everything she's ever tried it on. Including Neuroi cores.

[whole_new_can]

The Siberian is distracted enough that she makes it to the foot. The projection disappears, and the body goes up in flames. And lasers. And annihilation. Can't be too sure, after all.

Legend calls in Strider to take them to the scene of the main battle. When they appear, there's no trace of what this place used to be. It's scarred and cratered and also currently a battlefield. The most visible feature is Crawler, who is being held in the air by Myrddin and anyone who can assist. He spits acid repeatedly, and the heroes keep their distance.

[witchwatcher]

Copycat tries the deathtouch on Crawler, putting as much effort as she can into it.

[wormcan]

She'll have to land a touch on him first. The acid spit can be avoided easily enough by coming from behind, but his too-many legs are swiping at any fliers that get near touch range.

And a voice calls out, carrying surprisingly well over the noise. "Copycat! I've got something here you'll want to see!"
Bonesaw is flanked by some of her creations and surrounded by what is unmistakably a Witch shield.