Penetration

The mist was light, but plumed out rapidly and enveloped most of the battlefield. Things immediately became more brutal as the PRT gave up any semblance of restraint. The spray of rubber bullets from resident hero Miss Militia was replaced with one far less concerned about racking up a body count. Men partially contained by standard issue containment foam were summarily executed by overworked and underappreciated soldiers even as those same soldiers comrades were scythed through by the giantess's sweeping spear. They didn't become stupid, they just became far more interested in destroying their enemies than any other objectives.

Assault and Stormtiger both abandoned defense, attempting to simply kill their opponent. Their duel was over in moments, with Assault managing to get in a lucky strike that shattered Stormtiger's ribs.

The red armored man had enough discipline to leave the supervillain alive for questioning, but one of the PRT soldiers finished him off with a bullet to the head. A girl he knew had lost a friend to a Chosen raid, and he heard her crying in his ears as he looked at the tiger-faced man.

Shadowstalker hardly needed a nudge to start loading lethal ammunition into her crossbow. Once she saw the direction the battle was going, she started picking off stragglers. In her shadow form, she rushed around the battlefield, striking at people who could barely see her with bolts that punched through vital organs quite neatly.

She saw an enemy she recognized. Not a member of the Chosen. An opportunist, making off with a duffel bag full of supplies meant for relief efforts. Skitter was an irritating little puke of a girl, who had even seen Shadowstalker's face. It was time to eliminate her, and given how this fight was going? Shadowstalker didn't give a rat's ass if someone found out she'd done it. If she'd been thinking rationally, she would have thought about how she could plead insanity. Instead, she just rushed after Skitter, not really wondering why the bug girl didn't seem to be affected. She could control bugs; shouldn't there be swarms attacking both sides?

In the back of her mind, Rose watched the horrid young woman go hunting the most dangerous game.

••••••••••

Gil sat quietly in the dumpster for a while. It smelled foul, but this whole city smelled bad enough for Gil to go largely nose-blind. He hoped very much that he hadn't been seen hurling the mist sphere, but worst case scenario he might need to abandon this world. Oh well. He had infinite others.

He had 12 hours left on the clock, and was thrilled to see that he'd successfully engineered the defeat of at least one supernazi. He didn't know the guy's name, and frankly didn't care much. Gil made out like a bandit with this one.

Conclusively win a physical conflict with any member of the gang Empire 88, bonus if they are a parahuman member.

Reward: 1 credit, Bikini Armor (skintight latex supersuit), Unlock Armory Extension

Bonus: 5 Credits, Waifusion

6 credits, armor, a new extension added to the shop, and a fairly potent item. Gil wasn't entirely certain what he'd use Waifusion on, but Rose was certainly on the list of possibilities. If nothing else, it would keep her happy. He also had a solid 11 credits with more on the way from Flechette, which suited him quite nicely. Gil sat tight for a while, waiting for the gunfire to die down. While he did, he reviewed the various tabs.

Flechette (Lily)- Tier 5, female, social, stealth, superhero, villain, lesser name

The villain tag was something of a surprise. Gil didn't know anything about her, but she seemed pretty strait laced from his brief interaction. You just never know who you can trust, especially in superhero settings. Tier 5 on a combatant was pretty impressive, as well. That's a heavy hitter in most worlds, barring a few of the more absurd ones.

Gil restrained himself from making too many plans. Just because she was captured didn't mean she was an asset yet, and he didn't actually know what her powers were. He wasn't even sure if time would continue to pass when he left this world. He might not even be able to sell her without coming back here, let alone take her on world-hopping adventures. Gil moved along and saw that a new mission had already been provided to replace the nazi-punching mission.

Legitimately acquire an Archer Bridge Merchants ribbon.

Reward: 2 credits, Character Card: Levi (Termina)

Joining a gang full of idiots like the ones he'd run into less than an hour ago didn't appeal very much, and if those ribbons were something that needed to be "legitimately" acquired he assumed that was some kind of symbol of initiation. He'd have much preferred to beat the shit out of another stoned person and steal a few. With that said, Rose could probably let him interrogate someone easily if she had any energy. The real question was whether he should pursue the fuck/marry/kill mission or break it off in favor of this new one.

Unfortunately, he had no way of contacting Rose. He rested his eyes, focusing on listening. His ears would tell him of anyone approaching long before his eyes. When Rose came back, he'd assess the situation then. He wasn't entirely sure what to do with a possessed Shadowstalker, of course. His first thought was to put the necklace on her and make some kind of deal.

Aha. He could offer her something that anyone living in this town would kill for: a weapon that could destroy Leviathan. Supposedly it had just been driven off, not killed. He didn't know much about this creature, but he knew The Company. It was general policy that nothing was immune to capture, barring specific quirks found in the bindings. The animals only policy on Beastmaster Spheres, for example, or the fact that something needs a physical form to be stamped.

Sometimes there would be specific limits due to a mission or the test in general having special conditions. Only being able to capture one person per binding per world, for example. Gil had already used his stamp on Flechette, but buying an extra stamp in the shop would work just as well. If Gil could convince someone to use the stamp on this Leviathan, then three days later it would be gone and Gil would be rolling in credits. Gil salivated at the thought of a bounty for a monster big enough to devastate a large city full of superheroes.

If he could slap that necklace around her neck, Gil bet that just about any woman in this city would eagerly offer up their anal virginity for a chance at killing the creature responsible. Hell, some might be up for it without the necklace. The biggest problem would, of course, be convincing them he was legit. As far as most tests in most worlds were concerned, bindings were a black box.

Gil knew this test was being run on the cheap, but he doubted they'd allow those protections to slip. Heads rolled the last time an internal NPC was able to reverse engineer a binding; it became a whole mess and at the end of the process most of the people on that dev team were demoted from their positions as GMs. As far as Gil knew, one of them was still restricted to serving as a beta tester or support npc in josei and children's media based worlds.

Regardless, he didn't have much in the way of credibility. It wasn't as if there was any kind of mental censor, but under any form of analysis Gil's stamp was just a stamp. They could verify that he was being honest, but that didn't rule out him just being insane unless he used the thing directly in front of them. He sighed. It was such a good plan, too. He'd need to workshop it. Gil would be very happy to sell the people of this world the opportunity to hand him a giant pile of money.