65
I was starting to suspect that maybe more than three guys noticed the submarine lodged in their third basement. Specifically, it appeared that Hookwolf had noticed. We had been on the ground floor for all of five minutes when he walked in the front door, spotted us, and transformed mid-charge. I pulled on instinct while drawing my batons and swinging at him. POP
Spoiler: 19
Sybra nubila - Wikipedia Too small, scaled up to be a swarm.
"Attack that guy, fly into his unprotected eyes and ears!" I commanded the cloud of black beetles. Meanwhile Septimius and Corrigan both narrowly dodged away from the armored nazi and took shots at the links in his armor. Funny thing, Hookwolf wasn't doing his usual wolf-shaped sword collector routine. I guess he's still weakened by Puff and Blow? Instead he was armored in weirdly flexible spiky platemail, with the skin visible between each set of plates. He still had claws though, and his metal still defied physics enough to snap my batons with ease. The bugs were mostly mashed by this point and dripping off his hands and face in goopy globs of bugjuice, so I pulled again while dodging another swipe from Hookwolf to hopefullly replace them with another distraction. POP
Spoiler: 4
Dortmund Giants - Wikipedia All host species gigantified within a hallway in Empire "Old facility" on Captain's Hill.
All four of us rapidly grew in size, we even smashed through the ceiling and kept going untril it only came up to my shins. The experience was very disorienting even with my super balance power, and I could only imagine how nauseous the other three combatants were. Apparently we were somewhere near the middle of Captain's Hill? The crescent-shaped foothill looked awfully close I but I didn't get much of an idea beyond that before POP we started shrinking again. Just in time as there are cracks all across the floor where it started to buckle under our combined weight. Or maybe that was from the submarine. Or the fruitcake thing. Or all three, I really did a number to this place while I was busy escaping. Naturally this is the cue for more Empire gangsters to come investigate the racket from around the corner. I pulled again hoping for something that will keep them from shooting us to pieces. POP
Spoiler: 7
Mydriase - Wikipedia All host species experience varying levels of bliss and enlightenment in Empire "Old facility" on Captain's Hill. Enlightenment counts as {Information} that can support a functioning {Philosophy}, for those of you that have read the spirit rules.
Instantly the Nazis seemed to forget why they were here for. Instead they were staring into space shouting the praises of something only they could see.
"Oh my god it's beautiful!"
"Take me away Jesus!"
"Why haven't I ever thought of it before?!" And so on, I got the impression this was a sensory power, as I was able to resist it roughly as easily as I had the Orange over a month ago. I felt it work on me a bit, but the impulse was just a mild happy sensation and feeling good about how effective my power has been so far. Everyone else, including Hookwolf, were just standing around staring into space while talking about how great something was. I briefly considered attempting to arrest them all, but I didn't have my zipties or any of my other hero equipment, so I decided to just go home for now and come back later with Amalgam. So I walked up to my summons, took each of them by the hand and gently lead them out in the direction that I saw a parking lot while they were muttering something about detectives and modern marvels. I'd deal with this place later, after I actually have more back up than two unpowered summons and their now unloaded pistols.
All in all, my plan worked out rather nicely. Maybe I should get captured more often.
--
03/07/11
INCIDENT REPORT #964678638USENE
At 17:35 two (2) days ago a loud thump characteristic of illegal demolitions in progress echoed throughout the Commercial District. BBPD en route to investigate the sound soon called in the PRT instead, citing the appearance of several "CHANGER/BRUTE"-type parahumans of unknown disposition standing over the wreckage of a Cold War-era nuclear evacuation bunker under central Captain's Hill falsely registered as condemned and in disrepair before the events of "INCIDENT REPORT #964678638USENE". The site had been been mostly cleared out when PRT personnel arrived on the scene but investigators noted the usual presence of a confirmed E88 gang member trapped up to his knees in powdered concrete on the second basement level and a submarine in the third basement level of the complex formerly rated to withstand a 0.3 kt blast. Independent hero "HAPHAZARD"'s involvement is suspected but she could not be reached for comment.
The submarine in question has since been determined to be non-anomalously diesel-powered and as the site is now as actually structurally unsound as it is on paper no further action is required.So apparently using myself as bait and then getting kidnapped as a direct result is against some rule I wasn't informed of, and I'm grounded now. For two weeks this time, one for doing it and the other because Dad only heard about our escapade from Amalgam gushing about my strategic genius instead of straight from me. I guess this is what it's like to have a responsive father? It would have been nicer if he decided to magically get better before I triggered and found myself swamped in cape stuff, but I could appreciate that he was doing his best right now. Even if it was still totally unfair that I was being punished for breaking a rule that he blatantly made up on the spot.
Fortunately, I didn't even have to tell Amalgam to set up surveillance on that Empire compound, which is good because I plain forgot to ask him about that for three days. Officer Corrigan said that we're clearly on the same page while reading entirely different books. I'm not sure what exactly he meant by that that last part but I had to admit Amalgam just really got what I was going for most of the time. Speaking of my newer summons, only Septimius decided to stick around and do the whole vigilante thing. Officer Corrigan meanwhile was studying for this special placement exam that was actually designed with low-level Thinkers in mind, because I guess law-enforcement and the military are exceptions in NEPEA-5 for some reason. If he passes he'll be an official BBPD officer until whenever it is that he pops away.
For the Roman's part, Septimius wasn't really considering staying until Amalgam confirmed he'd be allowed to loot stuff from supervillains and do whatever with it as long as Septimius was a full-time vigilante like him. I guess that's okay? Kind of a roguish attitude, but at least none of my summons are blatantly villainous. I don't know what I'd do if one of my summons were secretly plotting to conquer the world or something. Maybe I should get Amalgam to keep an eye on that stuff while I'm off-duty? He's a responsible guy.
Sophia still hadn't been coming to class, considering it's been almost a month by this point it must be more serious than a cold. Broken ankle maybe? She's on the track team, that seems like it could be plausible. At least broken ankles aren't contagious, I don't want to miss any more heroing than I already have.
Apparently Medhall owns the lot the Empire were building under, I knew they were Nazis but learning that they've been stealing from a medical research company really makes me want to give them a piece of my mind, more than usually. Plus I kind of want to salvage my submarine if it's still intact by the time I'm not grounded, the PRT called me about it the other day mostly just to ask if it was mine and I had to come in and sign paperwork that while it was mine that I wouldn't object to the government checking the foreign warship over for potential proliferation hazards. I just wanted the rations, really, I might hire some of the Dockworkers later to go about disassembling the thing later but for right now I'm not really hurting for cash since we worked out that deal with the local scrapyard for the rose gold ship sections. But having emergency food on hand can't be a bad idea so the rations are definitely getting moved back to my base. If there's one thing I'm known for, it's probably property damage. But if there's two things I'm known for, the other would be good ideas.I was finally free from Dad's tyrannical grounding, and ready to help my only two sidekick summons with tracking down the Empire. Both of them already had some prior experience with tracking criminals down- Septimius being a mercenary and Amalgam being a general-purpose grunt- but I guess I spooked the Empire with the whole submarine landscaping thing, or possibly with the whole drugging Hookwolf thing. Probably both. Anyway, according to Amalgam they had been moving stuff out of the complex and into trucks for over a week. He didn't know where though because they always drive too fast for him to keep up. So it was time to get powers, to attack and lay claim to my submarine, if nothing else. POP
Spoiler: 7
Mountain Feist - Wikipedia A doggo.
My latest summon barked happily and bounded off to run around the beach. He was cute, but not really what I thought of for a combat dog. I guess if it stuck around I'd ask around on PHO if somebody wanted him. I'd already gotten a few offers for any permanent dinosaurs from a weirdly high number of dinosaur-themed Tinkers. POP
Spoiler: 13
MasterChef New Zealand - Wikipedia Thinker power, can taste anything in range of sight.
Huh, that's a weird one. Fortunately it seems I can turn it off, I don't think I'd enjoy tasting shampoo every time I caught sight of someone's hair. Gives a whole new definition to 'eye candy' though. And without all the gagging that tasting seawater usually gives me. Unless that was just my balance sense overriding my nausea, I still hadn't quite figured out the limits of it. POP
Spoiler: 4
Road surface marking - Wikipedia 5 boats in Boat Graveyard transmuted into road paint.
This time I've turned five of the boats matte yellow. I don't get a chance to see why until they pop back to normal. POP
Spoiler: 17
Vehicle location data - Wikipedia Thinker power, postcognition of most frequent routes used by any vehicle within 5ish feet. Actual range dependent on how quickly Host can move on foot so super speed or longer legs increases it.
Oh wow, I had no idea we used to trade with Portugal so much, a lot of the boats in the Graveyard used to go straight to Lisbon and back. I wonder what we bought from them. POP
Spoiler: 16
Lake Trahlyta Spillway - Wikipedia Freshwater portal opens up about 9 feet above the Boat Graveyard, it also constantly produces a non-anomalous rainbow as a result.
Oh. Oh no. It's not as much water as the hospital, but if this keeps happening people are going to start wondering if Triton actually killed himself in 'his' second attack. Though at least this summoned spring is freshwater, fresher than the rest of the bay, anyway. Who knew telescopic taste could be so useful?
That was probably enough powerups. Especially if I was going to start getting inconvenient stuff like that. I've had this power long enough to know when to take a hint from it.
--
Topic: Haberdasher vs. Velocifaster
In: Boards->Capes->General->Versus
XLRM8 (Original Poster) (Verified Cape) (Diggers)
Posted on March 5th, 2011
Lotta dead friends all of a sudden, need a stupid distraction.
IDK who either of these people are, I just hit random on the cape wiki a few times.
(Showing page 2 of 37)
->Prewery
Replied on March 5th, 2011
Okay so for the peeps who don't want to sacrifice themselves on the wiki's frankly terrible search function altar:
Haberdasher is a hat tinker. He makes tinkertech that has to be able to be worn on his head, but otherwise doesn't seem to have any restriction on the kinds of devices he can do. His signiture gadet is a fedora that he throws like a frisbee and then teleports underneath it.
Velocifaster on the other hand is a tinker who makes what some people have described as racing game powerups. He can't move the powerups around at will but once they're down anybody can walk over and get faster/slower/lighter/heavier/etc
->Wallopy (Verified Cape) (Diggers)
Replied on March 5th, 2011
We'll get through this M8. By the way, turn on your phone, I've texted you the address of a nearby pub where the rest of us are going to hold a little private drinking contest in Shot Fox's honor. It's what he would have wanted.
As for the topic itself, I think it really depends on location. Haberdasher is more versatile, but if the fight occurs anywhere near where Velocifaster already has a platform or 2 set up, that's like taking him on in his workshop, isn't it?
->Dambl
Replied on March 5th, 2011
Velocifaster, obviously. Haberdasher is a job description, not a pun, so he's clearly lacking in the creativity department in comparison to the very punny Velocifaster and won't be able to use his supposedly greater versatility to proper effect.
->Ghibli
Replied on March 5th, 2011
Holy shit, a halfway-reasonable piece of vs debate rhetoric from Dambl?!
->Dambl
Replied on March 5th, 2011
I'll have you know all my rhetoric is a full 150% reasonable.
->Ghibli
Replied on March 5th, 2011
That's not
Nevermind.
->2_5900913_5_33
Replied on March 5th, 2011
Yeah Velocifaster isn't exactly cut out of a straight-up fight, he's like Pacifica or that Protectorate crystal computer chip Tinker, he makes one thing really good and that's it. And his one thing isn't even particularly portable.
->Velocifaster (Verified Cape)
Replied on March 5th, 2011
Just so you guys know, I can in fact stack effects within a platform, I just usually don't because it gets dangerous to play with when your tech doesn't have a manton limit and that's bad for business.
Also I can edit any basic physical property, not just mass. Human bodies are very delicate, so you can imagine the sort of havoc that I could do if I designed a platform that fucked with how capillary action works or something.
->{BLANK}
Replied on March 5th, 2011
->Ronaldo_MacD
Replied on March 5th, 2011
That does change things, yes.
->Suplex
Replied on March 5th, 2011
Still probably Haberdasher tho
At some point I need to summon a scooter or something. I was doing my best to keep up with Amalgam and Septimius, but it was abundantly clear that being grounded so long between heroics had taken its toll on my stamina. Normally I would chalk that up to Amalgam being a noctis cape who didn't even need to stop and catch his breath. But Septimius didn't have any powers at all, plus he had more armor weighing him down than I did.
Septimius was also carrying some kind of machine gun strapped to his back. Apparently he took a liking to firearms in general after the six shots he took at Hookwolf. I was going to have to look into what exactly the gun laws were like for capes in New Hampshire, I knew they were kind of strict compared to how they'd been when I was a little kid but the specifics were lost on me since I figured I'd never need one. It was entirely possible the only reason Amalgam got away with his rifle was because it was technically part of his body. He'd just separate some mass off to make a new one if he ever lost it, and in anybody else's hands his rifle was just a club. Apparetly it would also disintegrate into rust a while laterunless he handed it off to another 'authorized' soldier, but Amalgam didn't know how to go about authorizing my other summons or even me so it didn't matter.
Finally after what seemed like hours of nonstop jogging, we reached the semi-secluded "Old Facility" in Captain's Hill. The PRT had apparently finished up their inspection of the submarine on the second day after my escape so I didn't expect to see anybody but nazis, if I saw anybody at all. There weren't any obvious signs of truck loading going on, but that didn't mean there wasn't a dozen thugs inside taking apart my submarine. We cautiously sneaked inside the building to investigate. Well, I was cautious, Septimius was appraising everything not nailed down and Amalgam's heavy echoing footsteps made it impossible for him to be sneaky. In fact it made it improbable for anyone near him to be sneaky. Why was I trying to be sneaky? I awkwardly got up from my crouch and tried to play it off, but I don't think it worked because I heard something like a snort from Septimius' direction. Damn it.
We had just gotten to the staircase when a spear-wielding knight rounded the corner. Huh, that's odd. I don't remember summoning any knights today, he stood in shock for a bit before several ghostly versions of himself shimmered into existence around him. Oh right, Crusader. After getting into so many fights with Hookwolf I almost forgot the Empire had more capes than him. Well this should be easy then, what could illusions possibly do to me that Hookwolf couldn't? I just had to keep my eyes on the actual villain instead of let myself get distracted.(-37.808,144.860) Montage downed, Seeker deceased
Dragon's tired voice calmly listing off my whole world being destroyed was the last thing I heard before I blacked out, whether from the pain of losing my legs or the bloodloss I couldn't be sure. Next thing I knew some kid in a robe was moving on from my cot in the medical camp to work on some poor bastard who lost his skin. I looked down at where my legs should have been but nope, still gone. It's a good thing my Breaker state disables petty things like grief or I'd probably be a complete mess right now, between the horrible injury and Karl's death immediately afterwards. The pain's gonna hit me like a freight train when it does turn off, but if my regeneration kicks in fast enough then maybe I can get a bit of catharsis in ahead of time before my shift is up.
(-37.827,144.884) Humantis downed, Prism downed, Fu Xi downed
Oh good, the kill counter still worked. I flicked through my postcognition a bit to see all the names I missed, neither my power nor the bracelets have anything resembling a clock so estimating based on names called out is all I can really do while waiting for my body to skip far enough ahead to head back into battle. The robed kid got up again to work on whoever was on the other side of the no longer skinless bastard, meanwhile my legs mostly existed now and I was ungodly hungry. I looked around but besides the kid there wasn't anybody resembling a nurse in this tent, and obviously bothering the healer was out of the question.
Whatever. I hopped down onto the ground and hobbled out of the tent on my stumps, from my body's perspective I'd spent the last few months recovering and I really needed food to offset all the weight I was probably losing. Karl used to say I looked simultaneously adorable and horrifying when I shrugged off these types of injuries. I'd been in the medical camps for this shitshow enough to have a basic idea of where the grub was gonna be, but it was always some degree of a struggle because the guys in charge kept rearranging all the tents. "Uh, sir, you forgot your mask." I looked back at the mummy holding the aforementioned article towards me, he was covering his eyes in embarrassment. There's a nearly audible beat of awkwardness before Dragon breaks it with her announcement.
(-37.828,144.885) Forgemaster downed, Gilgamesh deceased, Enkidu deceased, Lord Edge downed
"Oh thanks, man. Yeah seriously I've been getting way too comfortable in this whole thing. Imagine if somebody had recognized me, unlikely but devastating." The mummy looked taken aback by my reply for some reason. I was about to slip the mask on again when he parroted my reply back at me.
"What do you mean 'if'? Isn't the fact that you can be immediately outed and then blackmailed or something the whole point of masks in the first place?" Wow, this kid can't be older than fourteen, his voice cracks so much. Plus, he's apparently fallen hook, line, and sinker for the Protectorate rhetoric they use to rope in new independents who can't afford fancy costumes.
"Well, no. Not really." It's hard to tell through the bandages, but he looked pretty flabbergasted. "I mean look at me, really look. Do you know who I am? Do you even know my cape name?" He starts to shake his head but I keep going, may as well teach him a lesson that sticks. "No, of course not. I'm just some bearded guy in orange spandex, I'm one of maybe three capes in my hometown, now one of two. As long as I'm not home it's super unlikely that I'll meet anyone that's even been to my favorite restaurant, let alone someone who knows my address and cares enough to hide under my bed or whatever." I finished putting my mask back on and I'm about to start hobbling over to where I think the cafeteria tent is when the sky abruptly got dark for a moment, which in my experience is rarely a good thing. Then Dragon cut in again with something I never thought I'd hear, the shock was enough to knock me out of my Breaker state and into the inevitable grief spiral.
(-37.829,144.884) Tomatonator deceased, Kaiser deceased, Golgowold deceased, Eidolon downed, Armsmaster downed, Sparkledog deceased, Fireaxe deceased, Ghast downed, Major Oversight deceased, Bakuda downed, Rapidfire deceased, Behemoth deceased
Click to expand...
Oh god, Karl I'm sorry I couldn't-
--
Topic: Behemoth Tentatively Confirmed Dead [LOCKED]
In: Boards->World Events->S-Class Threats
Dragon (Original Poster) (Verified Cape) (Guild)
Posted on March 20th, 2011
As of 23:45:30 UTC+10 last night, just before midnight in Melbourne, Australia, all anomalous readings from the vicinity of what's left of Behemoth's body have ceased and the 'corpse' has likewise ceased to defend itself or attempt to flee. The 'final blow' was dealt courtesy of a joint effort between Bakuda of the United States and Trebuchet of Belgium, who constructed and delivered the Inverted Singularity weapon respectively. This almost miraculous outcome has come at a cost of thousands of lives, but in the process we have likely saved millions if not billions.
A final tally of all those lost and permanently injured over the course of both this last running battle and every fight with Behemoth previously will be posted next week.
Plans to evacuate Australia remain unchanged.
(Showing page 23 of 147)
->Wallopy (Verified Cape) (Diggers)
Replied on March 20th, 2011
@ Doofus7: Yeah nah, I'm staying put. For at least as long as it takes to get everybody else situated. I'd hate to rain on the parade here but the situation's pretty grim even with the bulk of the Diggers staying behind to keep order.
->Gravitas (Verified Cape) (Elite)
Replied on March 20th, 2011
@ Ghot1: No no no, I'm not trying to steal Bakuda's credit, I'm just saying it was a team effort. Bakuda collab'd with pretty much everybody but Fu Xi, and the singularity weapon in particular was something that I helped her out with. I mean, I've made black holes and white holes before, @ Bakuda, back me up on this!
->Habberdashery
Replied on March 20th, 2011
Welp. here come the trebuchet memes.
->Trebuchet (Verified Cape)
Replied on March 20th, 2011
@ Habberdashery: Excuse the bad english, but I don't think I have memes yet. I only started cowl fighting last month.
->Bastard_Son (Verified Cape) (Elite)
Replied on March 20th, 2011
Try harder Gravy Boat. I still remember the trash you tried to pass off as a blackhole ray gun back when you were on my cell. Damn thing didn't even tickle the PRT, let alone any of their lapdogs. Now you're trying to claim you can off the Hero Killer? This is why nobody respects you.
->Bonzer_Boomer (Verified Cape)
Replied on March 20th, 2011
@ Serpppet98: listrn hrrt yuiv lightlie shht. iveben tinkktereing fohrrr yeeers annn yres. I fcukin kno myysht ok? iii Justtt dont doh nythinnng bt armrs. Not my falt, itsdc a specalty. fcuk u!
->Marceau (Verified Cape)
Replied on March 20th, 2011
@ Trebuchet: Hé mec, tu as besoin de n'importe quoi, de la nourriture, de l'équipe, du refuge, peu importe. Faites-le moi savoir. Behemoth a tué mon oncle il y a 3 ans, alors je suppose que je vous en dois un. Honneur de mercenaire.
->Ian_Sim (Unverified Cape)
Replied on March 20th, 2011
@ Gravitas: Bakuda told us she's taking a vacation and not to bother her with cape stuff for a few days. So I don't think she'll even see your @
->Trebuchet (Verified Cape)
Replied on March 20th, 2011
@ Marceau: Je ne savais pas que les mercenaires étaient honorables. Mais d'accord, merci pour votre aimable offre.
->Serpent89
Replied on March 20th, 2011
@ Bonzer_Boomer: I'm just saying, maybe if you'd spent those "years and years" making a super bomb instead of covering yourself in airconditioned tin cans, maybe there'd still be an Australia left for you to terrorize every time the Spring Pirates do less than stellar. By the way, everybody knows that's why you do that. The Diggers probably haven't ambushed you yet because they pity you, not because your power armor is actually any good.