Panacea Quest

[mc2rpg]

[X] You're going to prepare here. You will work on weapons, a fortress, something to fight Scion independently, if other areas fail. Write in: What do you work on?
-[X] This is probably going to be where wounded end up teleported - make a biological hospital, prioritising a shelter for triage first and then adding more detailed and complicated sections that can do your work for you if no wounded capes have arrived.

 

[Xicree]

[X] You're going to prepare here. You will work on weapons, a fortress, something to fight Scion independently, if other areas fail. Write in: What do you work on?
-[X] This is probably going to be where wounded end up teleported - make a biological hospital, prioritizing a shelter for triage first and then adding more detailed and complicated sections that can do your work for you if no wounded capes have arrived.

 

[serra2]

[X] You're going to prepare here. You will work on weapons, a fortress, something to fight Scion independently, if other areas fail. Write in: What do you work on?
-[X] This is probably going to be where wounded end up teleported - make a biological hospital, prioritising a shelter for triage first and then adding more detailed and complicated sections that can do your work for you if no wounded capes have arrived.

 

[WyldCard4]

Voting closed.

I've slept very strangely the last few days.

 

[WyldCard4]

Bonus Interlude: Eidolon
_______________________________________________________________________________________

"Yàngbǎn qiáng!" Glory Girl shouts, taking up the war cry of her allies. You float next to her, or one fraction of you floats next to her. One very small fraction, a wisp that could casually die. Scion has been happily slaughtering them.

Thank God for the Yangban. The 42 warriors of their experimental army fly together, boosted by your power enhancing aura.

You benefit far more than they do. You are at ten times your normal strength, so much more than before. Your powers lack greater peaks, but they arrive faster, and you get more of them.

You have never been this strong.

Scion arrives, a light in the distance. He had gotten bored with the royal guard, and is coming towards this portion of the fight. A beam of light flashes out, hits the fraction of you nearest Glory Girl, crashing through all eight defenses. The perfect shield is canceled by a perfect attack, the time refresh is cut by a dimensional aspect of the attack, the crystal shield is broken through, he blocks the reactive teleportation, the damage sharing with Crawler is overwhelmed and the enhanced reflexes and flight combined prove insufficient. You feel your defenses shifting and changing, only the duplication saved you, keeping most of your body elsewhere.

Two of your shadows unleash offensive attacks. One hits Scion to no effect, the other he dodges. The Yangban and the forces attached to this army unleash a storm of offensive attacks, and Scion intercepts with a massive ball of golden light. Nothing makes its way through to hit him.

A shield of blue light blocks Scion's golden light before it reaches the heroes. Shielder, another of the New Wave group, holds steady. The blue haired boy floats on one of Amy's bio-tech constructs next to several of the Shepherds and members of New Wave. The perfect shield lasts for a moment before Scion matches it with a cancellation. The golden light advances, and then the blue shield comes back. The Yanban keep resetting Shielder whenever his force field is broken, bringing him back to full strength using 36's power. Each time Scion destroys the shield faster. Your allies retreat across the landscape, and you follow them. You need to stay near the Yangban. You shift more and more of yourself to this battlefield. Matter erasing, time manipulation space manipulation, mind control, illusions, they each manage to fail almost as soon as you try them.

Scion suddenly stops the golden blast, vanishes, and appears inside your battle lines. He didn't actually teleport, he stepped into another dimension and crossed the intervening space there before returning.

Glory Girl smashes straight into Scion at sonic speeds, forcing him away from the group, her shield holding thanks to the Yangban boost. You teleport her back the moment the shield fails, with one of the Yangban resetting the charred corpse back into the Glory Girl.

Victoria's move had bought everyone a second to prepare. When Scion is back, this time flickering between dimensions to get around Shielder, they are as ready as they can be.

Scion systematically fires his blasts at the Yangban, vaporizing them and weakening the entire group, giving them less room where their powers are enhanced, fewer powers. Very few of them are recovered by 36. Glory Girl manages to soak the blast meant for the time looper, giving you enough time for a massive gravity blast that knocks him into space.

"Stop making him notice you." One of your duplicates hisses at Glory Girl.

"Fuck that, sir." She answers.

"The last thing we need is another apocalypse because you died." You remind her as Scion appears fighting the Yangban stealth infiltration army. You relay the moment to prepare to this group and start teleporting fractions of yourself to fight there.

This is a Yangban army everyone knew would not be able to stand against Scion. Their primary use is making everyone else stronger. The full teams that might stand a chance against him were placed here, such as the Suits, the national Protectorate team, and several others.

The Queen of Diamonds attacks Scion. She is strong enough to move a 747 with her aerokinesis and make constructs out of air, hardening it into steady shapes. As a breaker she is made of air, invincible to most attack that doesn't vaporize the air.

There are also 100 of her. A mass duplicator, thanks to her second trigger event in an Endbringer attack. She went from a heavy hitter to someone just shy of the Triumvirate. Less strength and durability, but with such numbers she was one of the only things keeping the Suits going lately.

Now, a thousand of her, each one capable of exerting 1000 tons of pressure. Thank God for the Yangban finally helping.

Scion vaporizes the Queen of Diamonds like a machine gun, not even noticing her attacks. It is one of her Noelle clones that makes him pause, a strange, shadowy creature that wraps around Scion, seeming to pull energy from inside him. Scion tries several attacks, none of which work. He flits into another dimension and returns, still covered, looking worried, and bursts upward, into space.

Peace, for a moment. Nowhere in the world that Scion is destroying. You switch powers, healing powers for the fast reaction army, which had several dozen injured, teleportation to move capes from one group to another, thinker powers for superior planning.

Scion is winning. Each attack kills capes that can fight him. Unless the Queen of Diamond's Noelle clone somehow wins the fight, he will come back and keep moving from group to group. Killing, destabilizing, weakening.

The long game teams, the planners, the ones trying for something that might actually work, are important. Best Girl and Lady Bug are working to refine as much power formula as possible, String Theory is working on something she calls the H-Sphere, Blasto is trying to clone a usable Endbringer, the Toybox is working on another plan. Each Dispatch is giving them time to work, entire resource teams are supporting them, and they are all being supported by temporary clones of the Yangban power enhancer.

Scion crashes back into the Yangban fast reaction team. They are teamed up with individuals of great power that do not work in teams, or in very small teams. Kazikli Bey raises his arms and pushes two waves of air to keep Scion still for a moment, while a hundred attacks lash out at him. You contribute a power which keeps him from moving to another dimension.

Scion starts to flicker. He will exist for one moment, but not another. You focus sensory powers, and they fail to uncover what is going on. The attacks continue for a while, and then Scion completely vanishes for a moment. The attacks stop, and Scion appears once again.

This is worrying. Scion unleashes another expanding sphere of light, combined with his "stop" effect, tinged with a cancellation trump effect. Scion is working for it, holding back far less than you have ever seen, and he slowly, painstakingly, wins the war of energy. Scion lashes out at you, and you lose all of your remaining doubles in this battlefield.

You use clairvoyance to watch that battle, as Scion blocks teleportation. Florida Man rides Tallahassee's spirit dragon directly into Scion and punches him in the nose to no obvious effect. The two make eye contact and stare at each other for a full minute before Scion runs.

Scion attacks the experimental army next. This was the team designed to try against Endbringers, see what was effective among the Yangban abilities and what was not, before a full fledged army was created to counter them. Biased towards group defense, more groups of defensive capes and their allies had been added, including the New Wave perfect shields. At the center of this group is one of your clones created by Noelle.

Any three capes, chosen over a period of hours. Now, any 30 capes, a new one roughly every ten minutes. She had started with yourself, Glaistig Uaine, and Myrrdin. She had biased herself towards persistent defenses, now. Gavel and Alexandria were her first two choices, and now she had just finished her next offense, Black Kaze.

You reached out and touched your clone. You examined her. Inferior, intellectually, to you, as most of Noelle's most recent batch had been. Phantasos wasn't like that, and neither was Pandemic. Orthus and Nostrum came out crazy, but not stupid. You wonder if Panacea made a mistake, or if Noelle did. You make a temporary duplicate while Scion eats his way through a gigantic shield of bone.

Glory Girl and Phantasos do something incredibly stupid as you hit Scion with two dimensional travel blocking effects, one that shuts down movement, and another that makes portals far more effective, larger, in case of anything persistent. Glory Girl hits Scion, moving him a thousand feet to the west, and holds him steady. She moved him into an area of air Phantasos had expanded his powers into. Phantasos then moves his powers into Scion.

The wave of dead, golden flesh that expands from that point pushes back the allied capes until Scion breaks free. You bring back the severed chunks of Glory Girl for a Yangban member to turn back into a living girl, and feel a sense of relief as you see the blonde. Seriously, the idiot.

It was fairly effective, though. Admittedly, it led to Scion charging, with murderous intent, your all time favorite Ward and the sister of one of the most important people in the world.

Your clone suddenly teleports behind Scion, and he screams, staggering, as the force of countless attacks with your own powers tears through him. He turns and begins fighting what might be the strongest cape in the field, prioritizing her over the other two.

You keep the earlier dimensional travel blockers focused on Scion as more and more flesh tumbles off of him. Perhaps this is less effective than it appears, but it certainly looks useful.

Fuck free will and heroism, part of your mind created by a multitasking thinker power decides. Glory Girl dying is too dangerous. You hear an unearthly scream echoing from the future as you teleport Glory Girl to the same dimension you had sent her sister.

[X] You're going to prepare here. You will work on weapons, a fortress, something to fight Scion independently, if other areas fail. Write in: What do you work on?
-[X] This is probably going to be where wounded end up teleported - make a biological hospital, prioritising a shelter for triage first and then adding more detailed and complicated sections that can do your work for you if no wounded capes have arrived.

Click to shrink...

Victoria hits the ground screaming incoherent and vaguely Chinese. She is the person you would most want to see, but you'd hoped she'd arrive happy from victory.

"Who that I know is dead?" You ask carefully.

"No one I saw. Crystal ran even though her shield was stopping Scion, the cunt, and a few were shipped off to other groups. Sophie was teleported away once it was clear she couldn't do anything even if she phased something really cool. I hurt him. Amy, I got him, and then I just showed up here!" Victoria starts ranting and cursing in the middle of the empty bio-tech field hospital you had made in the course of the last several hours.

You're honestly extremely proud of the hospital. You're pretty sure that it could keep a head decapitated ten minutes ago stable for an indefinite period of time, though treating the brain damage would be a gamble. You've managed to make several dozen such machines, and a lot more general healing supplies. Victoria barely notices for quite a while, so you calmly continue your work with the local plants and animals. You haven't received any of the wounded yet, but you could easily get a whole army of them all at once. Victoria tells you everything she knows about the tactical situation.

Scion is killing people. He is destroying cities, causing natural disasters, and murdering individuals. Estimates put the number of people he killed in the world at roughly 30% on the last estimate. He would switch, periodically, between attacking the gathered capes and mass murder.

The casualties of the allied capes were resting at 20% last time Victoria got an update. This estimate was heavily biased towards the new capes Noelle had made, as Scion focused on the ones who could actually damage or fight him and they had been viewed as relatively expendable. According to one of the estimates Victoria had heard from Annie, without the new heavy hitters the casualties would be nearly 60%.

Finally Victoria stops ranting.

"You were very brave. I love you. The world is ending." You stare at her. Victoria reaches out and touches your hand.

"I don't deserve you." She whispers. You are taken aback.

"Victoria, I don't deserve you. Every day with you is a gift." She shakes her head sadly.

"Your body is my temple, Amy." She traces her hand along your stomach. "You're giving me a child, you're giving me the world. You're giving me things I could never have imagined." Suddenly she swallows, and the words that come out of her mouth mean something very different from all the other times she said them. "I love you." There's a tint of need, desperation, longing in those words. She's afraid in a way you'd never thought she'd be.

"Romantically?" You whisper.

"Yes." There's a weight to it. "Just, when you were healing, I felt so protective, so happy, and I thought back to when we were little. It's not like that anymore. It was new, and different. You're sexy, you're cute, you're brave, you help people. I fear you, but I admire you. I'm afraid because I think you're too strong for me to handle." You think for a moment. She's Carol's daughter.

"Your aura." You suddenly whisper. "Fear. People love you and they fear you, it's so close, fear and admiration. You needed it. You needed to fear me."

"You feared me, too." Victoria says. "You feared I'd reject you. I'd hate you. I think we learned to fear people we loved from our mother." You think.

"I'm still afraid of Carol. We need to get back with her."

"Amy." Victoria shudders. "You know I'm fucked up, right? More fucked up than you. I've broke your hip, I've bullied people, I've hurt people and killed people. I'm a raging cunt and I don't have a ring and I haven't asked either dad..." You feel a sudden, sick feeling. "Also, the world's kind of ending right now in one or two ways, but, um, will you marry me?"

[X] "Yes."

[X] "No."

[X] Write in.

 

[DeAnno]

[X] "Yes."

It's the End of the World as we know it, and I feel fine.

 

[hyzmarca]

[X] "Yes."

 

[serra2]

[X] "Yes."

 

[Lement]

Wait, did they tell Scion to kill people just so they could convince more people to fight against him?

That's..Well-meaning, of sorts. But Amy already proved that she can go on when Victoria might be dead, there is Brain Box and Cranial, so Eidolon, poor move teleporting Victoria away.

[X] "Yes."

I don't really see any other sort of option here. There are other words to add, but they are superfluous. And though "No" would be amusing just for the look on Victoria's face, it doesn't tie into a greater agenda.

Though one might argue that Victoria and Amy are both under duress and shouldn't make such decisions.

 

[mc2rpg]

[X] "Yes."

 

[Xicree]

[X] "Yes."

 

[Acaila]

[X] "Yes."

Kind of a no-brainer with how we've voted in this quest so far.

The only thing I want to know is why Scion started killing people. Did someone (Cauldron) purposely instigate his rampage early because they knew it would happen eventually and this way there would be less casualties?

I'm just confused because the last thing anyone said to Scion (AFAIK) was to start healing people, not kill everyone. We also have no idea what went on with Pandemic, besides random Eidolon thoughts. Was that in an interlude we didn't vote for?

Basically the recent chapters have felt like they skipped some things important to the plot and I'm wondering why things are happening the way they are.

 

[WyldCard4]

[X] "Yes."

Click to shrink...

"Good." Victoria nods. "Very good."

Both of you are quiet for a moment.

"We're going to have an incestuous, lesbian marriage." You admit. "We're actually doing this." Victoria nods.

"How do you feel?" She asks.

"Honestly, kind of sick. Not that I haven't wanted this for, um, a while, but it's..." You struggle for the right word.

"Not like we're suddenly going to start having sex, or have children, or anything. We kind of did this backwards." Victoria giggles very nervously.

"So, um, do we kiss, fuck, dance, hold some private ceremony thing, mix our blood, call someone..." You try to think of appropriate things.

"Um, I don't really want to. Do you? We can't really call anyone anyway. Like, if I had a phone, I'd call Mom, Dad, Sophie, Dean, Neil and Sarah, stuff like that, but that's more duty than celebration." Victoria looks very tense.

"Um, I'm not really feeling frisky, or romantic. Just, um, thanks?" Victoria looks at you sadly.

"I didn't exactly make you the happiest girl in the world, did I?"

"Well, apocalypse." You sigh. "Not exactly in a girly mood."

"I did this all wrong." Victoria sighs. "It felt like the script. Propose to your girlfriend when the world is ending. I still want to, but just..."

"I'd rather be your wife, fiance, whatever. I like that, though sister's always best." Then you smile. "Yes! Okay, things suck, but I am happy. I am going to marry you. Not the time for big gestures, but this is good." Victoria looks relieved.

"I want this too. And, it's not just about keeping you busy. Sure, keeping you busy is fun, but I want to say this, since we've been together I've been happier. You're a better girlfriend than Dean was a boyfriend. You try to make me happy. I like taking care of you and protecting you. Maybe this is shallow, but you really have given me a lot of really cool stuff. I like being a billionaire superhero with a team of capes who gets to live in a bio-tech paradise. It's not, like, wanting you for your money, but, um, you made the choice to increase my quality of life. You didn't have to give me control over it. It was a nice thing to do for me. You give me a lot of stuff I want, like biting, tattooing, the hip dislocation, all of that stuff hurts, but you let me do it anyway, just to make me happy." Victoria is starting to blush. She looks rather confused.

"Thank you, Victoria. You've made my life. You gave me years and years of your life. I got a childhood because of you. You get the best adulthood I can possibly give you. Harem, vast wealth and power, a mission in life, bio-tech. All of my resources are at your command." Victoria smiles.

"I really kind of kicked Scion's ass before I got sent here."

"I think they were just worried you'd die." You answer. "And yeah, I'm not saying I wouldn't become much harder to work with if you were dead." Victoria pauses.

"This is fucked up, but honestly I'd be kind of hurt if I died and came back unexpectedly and found out you hadn't covered the world in images of my face or something. That doesn't make me evil, does it?" You laugh.

"I'd make everyone pregnant with your DNA if you wanted me to. I'd turn every animal and plant reflections of your beauty. Humanity would exist in your honor, endless variations and reflections of your glory." Victoria smirks.

"There's something kind of appealing in impregnating every woman in the world. Don't do that, but you're creative." You smirk back.

"Men too. It would take a few years of warped puberty, but I could make men capable of carrying a baby using the right carrier. There would be health problems and it might be safer and easier to make the reproductive system in a really different location due to how the hips work, but you'd get plenty more images of yourself." Victoria shivers.

"Okay, do not do this, but if you do happen to go crazy, along with the vaginal flowers and massive tracts of land shaped like my hands, men should definitely be carrying my daughters." She frowns. "Or would they get sons?"

"Depends on how I did it. If I wanted to they could grow ova with Y chromosomes. Technically that would be a ZW chromosome system, which a lot of animals have. I'd probably make the next generation hermaphrodites of some kind, with the results being close to human biological females but producing sperm cells through one of several methods. A lot would depend on if I was expecting to survive or if I was doing some kind of suicide by cop move. If I had a city to play with and time I'd probably work out a cloning system of you with biological incentives to keep close to your DNA structure, but if I was just hacking it I would just release a handful of organisms to commemorate you." Victoria sighs and twirls you around.

"You put a lot of thought into this, don't you?" Victoria seems pleased by this.

"Um, I spent a lot of time having to read biology textbooks so I could tell people what I was doing. My mind wandered. It wandered into some really interesting places." You give Victoria a grin. "Want to turn an uninhabited Earth into a flesh garden of you? Cauldron can travel between worlds fairly easily, and they do owe us. Want to play with Victoria-forming?" Victoria pauses and looks serious.

"You know, I actually think that would be productive. Not that I'm actually obsessed with a world that looks just like me, but it would be a really nice burst of crazy. Real thinkers would get we're just bluffing, but it would be nice for negotiating with people, remind them just how much we're holding back if we get annoyed. So yes, I want that for a wedding present." She smiles. "I bet that just by saying we're doing that and offering tours of that world we'll get a ton of neat stuff. 'Please don't destroy the world, here's a free island.' Stuff like that." You smile.

"Just finally making a world like that, doing it, that's the best wedding present I could ask for." You pause. "That's mostly because you've given me all of my other burning desires."

"I'm glad I've fulfilled all of your dreams. I want you to have my kids, a great life, all the family you want, to feel good about yourself. And look around, you did this all by yourself without anyone asking. Throw you somewhere, and you build a hospital to help with the fighting. You impress me. I admire the good you've done, and I want you to keep doing good forever." You feel a very strong desire to start working sixteen hours a day.

"You're the best thing I could imagine." You say it truthfully.

Then a portal opens in the sky. Several dozen capes start moving through.

"Something's wrong." Victoria says. "I don't feel any stronger." A man lands in front of you with long hair, covered in bone.

"I've been waiting." The man says. Stretched above and behind him are wings of bone, ivory. He was flying by his own power.

Suddenly, Victoria punches him back. She punches him some of the hardest you've ever seen her use, kicking him back, up into the sky. What the fuck...

"Oh." You whisper. He reconfigures in the air, changing his momentum, catching himself. Victoria hasn't meant to kill, she had better weapons for that.

"You don't mind, do you?" Victoria suddenly sounds a lot younger. "And, um, you wouldn't want me to ask him for permission, would you?"

Melissa and Eric land next to you, riding her specially named shield thing you'd built for her. A group of severely injured people are on the object, and several fragments of bone the size of firetrucks that she was carrying land next to them, carrying more injured capes.

"No." You answer, as you begin your work. "Sort them. Nearly dead go to the machines, the rest, get them ready." You see Sarah and Carol, but not Mark, moving people, listening to Victoria's instructions, Eric joins the effort rapidly. The field hospital isn't overwhelmed, to your surprise. That's probably a bad thing, given the numbers involved.

Your suit provides an estimate. Twelve members of the Yangban, 24 miscellaneous, healthy capes, 72 severely injured capes.

Victoria comes back to you, looking angry and worried, once the sort is completed.

"We lost Two." She explained. "The Yangban member. She died. The whole defense fell apart. We were finally hurting the bastard, had him cornered, and it all collapsed. We think someone betrayed us, but who the fuck would do that?"

"Glaistig Uaine." A voice announces. It's Goddess, the woman in blue you met earlier today. "She and her clones were holding ground until we started winning. Once she realized what was going on she struck at our weak point."

"It's why we got as far as we did." Eidolon walks into existence. "Scion was holding onto a path to victory. He was, faking it is the wrong word. He let us hurt him, visibly, badly, so she'd turn." You feel sick.

"How bad is it?" You ask.

"Most of the injured or recoverable dead are in Glace's contributions." David sighs and sits down next to you.

"What are you doing here?" You ask.

"Guarding this weak point. This is one of our fallback bases. Once the Yangban network is restored with a Two clone, Cranial and the Brain Box's current project, we'll restart the fight, but we lost a lot."

"We hurt him, though? How?" You ask.

"I found a power that was making it easier, and we found a few that were more efficient." Eidolon answers. A portal appears in the air and bugs start bringing in more of the wounded. More healing, more people to help. "Your brother was one of the best for it." You shudder.

"Was? Is he dead?"

"I don't know." David admits. "I lost track of Charles when Two shut down. I lost most of the powers I was using. I need the combat ones up, so I can't search."

"I'm sorry."

"Thank you." David stands at attention near you. "If he shows up, run. Promise me that. You can make a civilization by yourself, one worth living in, if you're alive. Scion won't kill all of us. If you survive, that is gigantic. If you're sane that's gigantic. Take Victoria, Sophie, anyone else you love, and go. Convince them to run with you."

"Sophie's not here." You say.

"Lady Bug? Please find your sister." Eidolon instructs the swarm that is assisting with organizing the remaining wounded. A few hundred of them, maybe.

Sophie shows up later, after most of the healing is done. She sits by you, no longer at combat attention. Not much need, not much use.

"Victoria asked me to marry her." You say.

"Cool." Sophie says. She doesn't sound too happy about it.

"Are you okay with that?" You ask.

"Do I have a choice?" Sophie points out.

"No." You sigh. "Probably not."

"I love you, Amy." Sophie says. "I don't love Victoria."

"I'm sorry." You tell her.

"I'm too young for this shit." Sophie grunts. "I'll be back later." She goes into her shadow state and moves away. A minute later she returns, looking angry.

"Eidolon send you back?" You ask.

"He's right." Sophie grumbles. "If Scion shows up, we're bolting through a portal fast." Victoria lands next to Sophie.

"I'm not allowed to go into the next fight." Victoria says.

"Why?" Sophie asks.

"Because Amy needs me." Victoria sounds bitter about it.

"You can..." Victoria kisses you out of nowhere. Sophie looks sad.

"I don't want you to live in a world without me." Victoria says.

"Neither do I." You admit after a moment of thought. "You can't ask me to marry you and then go into a fight like that." An insect swarm moves near you, one of Lady Bug's.

"Tell me, who do you need?" She asks. She sounds a lot like Taylor, now. "We're sending you to make another field hospital, when the fight starts up again. Who do you want, in the world, to go with you, to leave the fight?"

[X] Write in: Who does Amy ask to come with her?

 

[DeAnno]

I don't like pulling people out of the fight against their will. It looks like that is happening to Victoria anyway though.

If Sophie and Madison want to come, they can. Annie can't be cut off, and I assume Cranial is both busy and safe elsewhere, though either of them would be welcome to if not for those reasons.


EDIT:
[X] Xicree

 

[Xicree]

[X] I don't want to go... I should be with the thinkers and tinkers. I've languished enough just hanging back and healing... We need a solution that goes beyond throwing capes at him... And I'm pretty sure that if he decides to kill everyone... he'll have all the right powers to hunt me down no matter where I retreat to.
- [X] Give me Victoria and Sophia... They make the best tag team of body guards I could hope for... and I love them too much to see them go out and get hurt.

 

[Biigoh]

[X] Plan Xiii

 

[serra2]

[X] Plan Xiii

 

[WyldCard4]

[X] I don't want to go... I should be with the thinkers and tinkers. I've languished enough just hanging back and healing... We need a solution that goes beyond throwing capes at him... And I'm pretty sure that if he decides to kill everyone... he'll have all the right powers to hunt me down no matter where I retreat to.

Click to shrink...

"Give me Victoria and Sophia They make the best tag team of body guards I could hope for and I love them too much to see them go out and get hurt."

"I love them too." Annie says softly. "You made me love them, and you. If none of you are going to be safe..."

"She wanted to be a hero. So do you." Sophie says. "She never once went after me, you know. Never took me as fair game, an open target, never went Carrie. Whatever she was, and she was a lot, she'd want us all to fight." Shadow Stalker and Lady Bug are quiet for a moment, your Sophie looking at where the eyes should be in the swarm.

"Thank you." Annie says to Sophie. "I'll arrange for him to bring you through ASAP. Put you in that part of the group."
_______________________________________________________________________________________

"Wait." Sophie stares at Kitsune. "Cauldron told Scion to start killing people so we would all have to work together?"

"He was going to do it anyway." Kitsune says. "I am positive about that. If the plagues had finished us off, well, the end of the world. Nothing left to stop him from ripping apart every dimension. He was never going to kill everyone, but he was going to kill, oh, 19 out of 20 people in a whole lot of dimensions we've never met. It's heroic, if treasonous, to arrange for this." Lisa, Sarah, Tattletale, Kitsune, sighs.

"You two, please be quiet for a moment." You say. You focus on Blasto's matrix. Simurgh's crystals are immune to your power, normally.

Teacher, more power for less control. You have less control, but more power, now. Power over edge cases. You have no idea how you'd make a biology out of this, normally, but with Blasto's tech you can help to bridge the gap.

The Morrígan. Half-Endbringer, half Myrddin. Kitsune gives occasional instructions to Blasto, and Teacher keeps granting new abilities to Blasto, Kitsune, or yourself every few minutes.

"Are you sure the base is sufficient?" Teacher asks. "Wouldn't a Changer of some kind be more able to adapt to the unusual biology?"

"Not with Panacea." Kitsune snaps. "Anything as good at self modification as she is at modifying it would be too hard to control."

You feel dirty now. Your power stretches over the silicon and crystal of the Endbringer, at least marginally. Everything is so much less clear.

"Teacher, give the cat girl something to give Panacea more control." Kitsune says suddenly. "She's about to need it." Sophie moves forward and Teacher places a hand on her head.

"It would be so much more efficient if we still had Two." Teacher mutters.

"No disagreement here." You shrug. A moment later, Sophie has a power completely unrelated to her normal ones, and kisses your neck. Your control sharpens and clarifies, letting you catch some changes before they decay.

"Anything I can do?" Victoria asks. You feel hesitation in her voice.

"I can't believe I missed that." Kitsune laughs. "Ooh, I should have made you do it. Not yet, pet. Maybe in a few minutes when we need someone to examine the tech.

"The Morrígan is fine." You tell the thing who wants to hurt your sister.

"Darn it, you're right." Kitsune kicks back in her chair. "Seems we're nearly done."

"She does look terrifying and beautiful, doesn't she?" Blasto says happily. "A goddess of strife."

"She just looks like Victoria if she was a bit gray." Kitsune says, sounding annoyed. "Did you expect anything else?"

"Nope." Victoria says happily, patting you on your back. "Amy's a good girl." Kitsune makes a horrible retching sound.

"I think the Morrígan can look terrifying and beautiful while carrying similarities with Victoria." Blasto sounds a bit hurt. "Note the facial features. Victoria Dallon's are softer, approachable, human. The Morrígan's are a shade harsher. Sharper cheek bones, longer face. It can be difficult to tell with the aura, but looking at two photographs and there are clear differences."

"Oh, shut up. It's just another Victoria, and Amy's not actually good at faces." Kitsune sounds exasperated.

"She is good at organs." Blasto explains, showing Kitsune some of the images. "Organs, bones, the internal structure is a work of art. The best aspects of the Endbringer have been carried over, as much as physically possible, and the more human and vulnerable parts are as well defended as they could be." Kitsune frowns.

"I didn't say she was bad at cloning. I said she was obsessed with her sister."

"Fiance." Victoria corrects, flashing a grin.

"Don't remind me." Kitsune groans.

"Wait, really?" Blasto sounds impressed. "Congratulations! Is Shadow Stalker included?"

"I'm fifteen." Sophie mutters, distorted by keeping her lips in contact with your neck to keep the enhanced control.

"And they're sisters, bitch. I really don't think anyone involved gives a flying fuck about sex laws." Kitsune giggles and it is an ugly sound.

"She has said she doesn't want to get married, and we're not even having sex." You point out.

"Technically not having sex." Kitsune says. "I think an orgasm touch counts, kids."

"I'm older than you." Victoria snaps. "Please stop insulting the people saving the world."

"There's like a 2% chance the Morrígan saves the world. Not that Dinah can tell that much with the big golden idiot, but he killed the big sister. Why would little sister be better?" Kitsune looks skyward. "Oh, right, the incredible intelligence of Simurgh combined with a desire to ensure human survival will allow for optimal deployment of all resources against Scion." Kitsune speaks in a deadpan.

"It was your idea!" Teacher reminds her.

"Barely." She mutters. "And I don't have a better one."
_______________________________________________________________________________________

Cranial and Teacher work on the thing's mind. You keep a hand on it, and Sophie holds your other hand to keep your power going at peak efficiency.

"Okay." Kitsune says suddenly. "Whatever you did, you've done as well as could be done. This is the best." Cranial and Teacher stop.

"A baby Endbringer." Blasto says in wonder.

"Won't stand up to Scion." Tattletale declares. "None of the tricky biology for that. Not that big sis could last that long. Precog, telekinesis, postcog, and being way too smart for anyone's good are all there, though I can't tell how there. Myrddin's powers are also active, for what good they'll do. He is good at catching Scion attacks. I think the Endbringer powers will even work with Two, once we've got it ready."

"Good." Blasto whispers, sounding like the happiest man in the world. "So very, very good."
_______________________________________________________________________________________

The Dispatch bubble is far too small for any privacy. You occasionally touch him to refresh him without the need for sleep.

You lie next to Victoria and Sophie. You lean into Victoria. Sophie curls away, looking a bit sad.

"We're getting married." You whisper to your sister and lover and best friend. You feel like swooning, though it might just be 36 hours without sleep.

"I love you, Amy Dallon." Victoria says. "The world is ending, but I love you more than the world."
_______________________________________________________________________________________

"Claire's the size of a large raspberry, now." Victoria whispers. You're feeling tight around your stomach, and stopped wearing a bra for lack of a tailor in the small bubble.

The three Endbringer composites rest in the tanks that take up most of the area. The Two clone sits next to Blasto and Teacher, the three playing a complicated game of poker only they know the rules to. Kitsune rests in Cranial's chair, the two finally getting around to working on her sanity.

You've been in this bubble for weeks and weeks, eating recycled paste, working on bio-tech. Cranial's machine has completed the first major round of cloning, 86 people. The very small bubble, a single room, has the space to just barely hold everyone. The next few days are going to be hell as you make the next army. Fodder will come first, to refresh the bio-mass supplies that have dwindled, and then the rest will come. The life support machines are mostly running on your improvements, with Victoria providing electricity by spinning the generator.

"You know, these are some of the best weeks of my life." You tell Victoria.

"Mine too." She admits, and looks sad. You follow her gaze to Sophie, sitting alone on the floor.

"Should you talk to her, or should I?" You ask Victoria.

"Your turn." Victoria sounds so very tired, even though you'd been keeping her physically very fit. Your body is the worst of the lot, and you've been eating amazingly refined nutrition and had two biology Tinker doctors making sure you're healthy, along with everything Teacher can offer. You walk over to your girlfriend.

"I didn't think the gap would matter so much." Sophie whispers.

"You're wonderful." You tell her. "Please, let me help you."

"I'm not ready for this. You two move so fast. I thought it would be, like, you'd start a family and I'd be your girlfriend. I knew you two were in love, but I thought she was like, doing it for you. I didn't think, it's not like I was tricked, but the way she acted. Crap I'm not the kind of person with words for this." Sophie is crying.

"Anything you want, I can help." You whisper.

"You aren't going to, and shouldn't, scrape Claire out of you, or break up with Victoria, and what else is there? You two are great, now. Maybe not before she got her creepy S&M stuff, but now? It freaks me out." Sophie shudders.

"That was always part of it, babe." You pull back Sophie's hair and she moves away from you.

"I miss Emma." Sophie says, and you start to cry. "I want her back. I want to bully Taylor and be on track and beat up bad guys. I miss my old life. I got to be a kid. Now I'm, what? Your lesbian mistress?"

"You're Sophie." You whisper into your Shadow Stalker's ear. "You can be whatever you want to be."
_______________________________________________________________________________________

Myrddin, Narwhal, Glyph, Rime, Strider, Bastion, Exalt, Dispatch, Mouse Protector, Fodder, Strider, Shadow Stalker, Harrier, Shielder, Rune, Blur, Assault, Battery, Skitter, Jouster, the list goes on. Nearly 90 capes in all.

All the capes you could make, the volunteers.

And the three who aren't truly capes. Chevalier and Behemoth, Shadow Stalker and Leviathan, Myrddin and Simurgh.

Teacher and Cranial, working with Kitsune's advice, worked on the fake Endbringers to make them as loyal as possible. They're robotic, automatons, no free will in and of themselves.

They're still scary.

"Strider will take all of you who can fight Scion directly to the command structure." Victoria tells the troops, speaking very loudly. "The rest of you will be disseminated for search and rescue and law enforcement. You have all organized into your groups. Your mission is to protect Two until the Yangban is back and active. Then you are to follow the orders relayed by Lady Bug." Victoria's speech goes on. The older capes stand together against the army they created.

"Dispatch, it's time." Cranial says softly.

The bubble collapses. Strider teleports the team away.

"Now we wait." Teacher says.

The waiting is agony.

Interlude:

[X] Cranial

[X] Hero

[X] Kazikli Bey

 

[Xicree]

[X] Kazikli Bey

 

[serra2]

"I didn't think the gap would matter so much." Sophie whispers.

"You're wonderful." You tell her. "Please, let me help you."

"I'm not ready for this. You two move so fast. I thought it would be, like, you'd start a family and I'd be your girlfriend. I knew you two were in love, but I thought she was like, doing it for you. I didn't think, it's not like I was tricked, but the way she acted. Crap I'm not the kind of person with words for this." Sophie is crying.

"Anything you want, I can help." You whisper.

"You aren't going to, and shouldn't, scrape Claire out of you, or break up with Victoria, and what else is there? You two are great, now. Maybe not before she got her creepy S&M stuff, but now? It freaks me out." Sophie shudders.

"That was always part of it, babe." You pull back Sophie's hair and she moves away from you.

"I miss Emma." Sophie says, and you start to cry. "I want her back. I want to bully Taylor and be on track and beat up bad guys. I miss my old life. I got to be a kid. Now I'm, what? Your lesbian mistress?"

"You're Sophie." You whisper into your Shadow Stalker's ear. "You can be whatever you want to be."

Click to shrink...

Wow, I am feeling kind of bad for Sophie right now. I mean, what else does she have right now, besides us? HEr best friend moved away, her life got turned upside down. She ended up clinging to us as a sort of life preserver, only to find that even that will be going away, leaving her with what?

And the three who aren't truly capes. Chevalier and Behemoth, Shadow Stalker and Leviathan, Myrddin and Simurgh.

Click to shrink...

Well, there is some Grade-A Nightmare fuel, a hyper-sonic, hydro-kinetic, intangible death machine.

[X] Cranial

 

[Biigoh]

[X] Kazikli Bey

 

[Garlak]

Doctor Mother, The Number Man, and a strange, blank faced man stand together, the official membership of Cauldron. To your surprise the man you saw in Chicago, the creator of Siberian, stands with them, as do two extraordinarily beautiful blonde girls. One of them looks nervous, the other, younger one is beaming, which disturbs you in more ways than you can count. The last member of the little family is typing notes, and is by far the most recognizable, given you made the face. Best Girl.

You could have stood with them, in another life. Did they truly replace you with Bonesaw, even Cranial's interpretation?

Click to shrink...

Hey, this was something I wanted to ask...

Who are the two "extraordinarily beautiful blonde girls" standing there? Are those more Bonesaws?

And who is the "strange, blank-faced man"?

This has been bugging me for a bit.

"Will the Yangban increase Scion's power?" The Emperor asks suddenly. Everyone turns his head to him. "If he gets in the range of our soldiers, will he gain further power from it?" Everyone is quiet for a moment.

Click to shrink...

AHAHAHAHAHA! PANTS-SHITTING MOMENT RIGHT THERE!

Heh... That actually was a good thing to get out of the way, to confirm or deny, but *man* how much it must have sucked to be asking that question.

"Our souls." Dragon announces, suddenly. "We could push ourselves too far, and do something worse than the end of the world."

"I agree with Dragon." Saint says. He gives an odd smile to her, which creeps you out. "There are lines we shouldn't cross, things we shouldn't consider."

Click to shrink...

Uh... I really have to wonder what happened in the background here. Did Dragon end up convincing Saint she was innately good or something?

"You're not the only one with something I can hurt. In fact, there's exactly two people here I wouldn't threaten under any circumstances."

"Would it be distracting to ask who?" A very weary Cranial says.

"Gavel and Glaistig Uaine, the really crazy ones." The former Tattletale says. There's general nods. That sounds fair.

Click to shrink...

Actually Pretty Funny.

"Why us, though?" Myrddin asks suddenly. "Why are we so strong, compared to the rest of our allies? On average, perhaps, we are crazier, but there are far more insane capes who do not compare to us."

"I believe, first of all, you have all had second trigger events." The Doctor explains. "Some of you, such as Myrddin and Crawler had two extremely close together. Also, you all had second trigger events against nearly impossible odds. That is excepting our own work. Each of you dealt with a force so dangerous that in order to overcome it you needed power far outside the normal bounds of parahumans. Someone like Panacea's adopted mother had an absolutely terrible experience, yet her agent only identified a set of kidnappers as threats, and adjusted appropriately. Gavel, who had a team of supervillains attack him, slaughter everyone near him, and resisted heavy weaponry, needed far more strength to win."

Click to shrink...

That is an interesting point to make... Powerful capes (or rather, capes with less limitations on their Agents/Shards/Powers) come about not just from the stress of the situation but also the amount of conflict around and threat to them.

"What about Panacea?" Gavel asks with a shrug. "What was so special about her trigger?"

"She dealt with sorrows unimagined and listened to the Liar. She dealt with far greater pain and fear than you, Lamia." Gavel scowls at her.

"What is this Liar bullshit, anyway?" Gavel asks.

"A lesser priest, and a villain of our story. As the High Priest is the greatest advocate of the power and truth of the Fae, the Liar tells falsehoods so that our lessers may tremble. She knows us better than we know ourselves, though she does not join in the noble work or claim a greater role in the cycle." You blink.

"You're talking about Victoria?" You ask. "She's not a liar."

"She lies with her soul." The Fairy Queen explains. "She tells stories of heroism that never happened so people may become heroes, she tells stories of invincibility so none may dare attack, claims an impossible love so we may grow beyond ourselves to win it. She is a storyteller and a rogue, lying to herself most of all."

"I must wonder why that tabloid freak show seems to be all anyone can talk about, anywhere." Noelle growls. "Isn't every other single thing she does matter more than her creepy sex life?"

"According to our magnificent ally, it is the romance that enables all else she does." Myrddin says thoughtfully. "I imagine very few people can truly be filled with existential despair over the state of the world to the point of a tinker trigger event against such insurmountable odds. Trigger events must be put into emotional, human terms. An impossible love, the need to literally offer someone the world, seems like it would inspire the power to truly change the world as the Panacea can."

Click to shrink...

Also a neat explanation. The greatest Tinker-like ability coming about from the desire to give somebody the whole world.

One of the capes in robes you didn't recognize laughs out loud. Everyone stares at him.

"The Panacea is good." He explains. "Perhaps not right word. She put in twelve hours to try and help everyone. She Make world much better place. She say 'sunlight disinfect.' Of all capes here, she most good."

"I believe Phir Se is saying that of all the people here, Panacea has perhaps the best track record for being open, honest, and ethical." Alexandria says.

Click to shrink...

yaaay Phir Se! Heh, he's alive. Kinda neat.

--------------------------

"I must wonder why that tabloid freak show seems to be all anyone can talk about, anywhere." Noelle growls. "Isn't every other single thing she does matter more than her creepy sex life?"

Click to shrink...

...

Noelle.

You of all people, do not really have much ground to stand on, when it comes to sniping at Panacea and her friends/family/loved ones.

Like, what the fuck? Really?

"Why isn't it working anymore?" Alexandria asks, observing the latest of Moord Nag's struggling to manifest a power. Noelle looks scared.

"Her well has run dry." Eidolon whispers. "That is how she works. Each new agent must take some from her well, she we take a lot. So much, so fast..."

"I'm sorry." You tell Noelle.

"Fuck you." She snarls.

"You helped save the world." You point out.

"No one told me this could happen. Did you know?" She asks.

"It was a possibility." The Doctor admits. "Eidolon's own powers were declining until today. It is the reason we refused to clone him normally, concerns we would accelerate the process."

Click to shrink...

Wait wiat.

Noelle's upset she lost her powers?

She's *really* upset at that.

Again -- what the fuck?

Your powers made you fucking miserable, and they were also of a nature that they forever reminded you of your weight problem whatever it was, bulimia or anorexia or whatever the hell... Your powers made you murder people. LOTS of people.

Without them, you would be normal.

And you lost them while *trying to save the world*. What the FUCK Noelle?

You know what? Just fuck you.

You look out over the Eidolon clones. All of them are fully dressed, fully equipped, fully modified. One, the strongest, stands near you. She could take on the powers of any three capes. It took hours for each addition. She had gone with Eidolon, Myrrdin, and Glaistig Uaine.

Click to shrink...

I hope one of the Capes she picks, eventually ends up being Two. Because that would just boost her *own* powers.

Also, I think this Eidolon clone was one of the ones that was... mentally under-developed?

In that case, why didn't Panacea offer to heal her mind? Make her better, smarter. Or at least fix some deficiencies.

You have the original Eidolon right at hand after all.

----------------------------------------------


Who the heck even *is* Kazikli Bey? (Aerokinetic, apparently, but still.) Like, I remember his name being mentioned in canon -- he was one of the 3 capes chosen by the super-Trump Endbringer Tohu -- but I know pretty much nothing else.

Also -- the Eidolon clone that could select *Cape* powersets rather than just powers. Please tell me that clone decided to pick Two as one of the capes to emulate?

Also also... You know what I actually wondered about Blasto? I wondered what a Chevalier and Myrrdin mix would look like. The ability to fuck around with alternate dimensions... and the ability to, er... fuse (?) things together.

On that note, I wonder what a Chevalier-Eidolon mix by Blasto would look like. Hopefully you'd end up with a cape that could "layer" or "stack" powers together.

 

[WyldCard4]

Hey, this was something I wanted to ask...

Who are the two "extraordinarily beautiful blonde girls" standing there? Are those more Bonesaws?

Click to shrink...

Actually, they're Trick and Truth, two OCs. Trick has the power to make you remember her in the context of her choice. With Siberian/Manton she went with daughter. This was after Bonesaw died in PQ.

And who is the "strange, blank-faced man"?

Click to shrink...

Doormaker. Clairvoyant had died in PQ.

AHAHAHAHAHA! PANTS-SHITTING MOMENT RIGHT THERE!

Heh... That actually was a good thing to get out of the way, to confirm or deny, but *man* how much it must have sucked to be asking that question.

Click to shrink...

That would have been worrying indeed.

Uh... I really have to wonder what happened in the background here. Did Dragon end up convincing Saint she was innately good or something?

Click to shrink...

The point of that was that they weren't really so different.

That is an interesting point to make... Powerful capes (or rather, capes with less limitations on their Agents/Shards/Powers) come about not just from the stress of the situation but also the amount of conflict around and threat to them.

Click to shrink...

I thought it made sense.

Someone like Lady Photon needed to fly home, defeat her enemies, and defend her sister, so she got the power to do that. None of those needs involved something incredibly powerful. She needed to stop a bullet with her force field, a blaster power, and flight. Most capes are probably like that, their triggers only really needing a relatively small amount of power to answer.

Also a neat explanation. The greatest Tinker-like ability coming about from the desire to give somebody the whole world.

Click to shrink...

Thanks.

yaaay Phir Se! Heh, he's alive. Kinda neat.

--------------------------

Click to shrink...

No Behemoth fight.

...

Noelle.

You of all people, do not really have much ground to stand on, when it comes to sniping at Panacea and her friends/family/loved ones.

Like, what the fuck? Really?

Click to shrink...

While very true, this is two celebrities causing a second industrial revolution and embarking on an incestuous lesbian relationship.

Also, yes, fuck Noelle.

Wait wiat.

Noelle's upset she lost her powers?

She's *really* upset at that.

Again -- what the fuck?

Your powers made you fucking miserable, and they were also of a nature that they forever reminded you of your weight problem whatever it was, bulimia or anorexia or whatever the hell... Your powers made you murder people. LOTS of people.

Without them, you would be normal.

And you lost them while *trying to save the world*. What the FUCK Noelle?

You know what? Just fuck you.

Click to shrink...

Another PQ setting change. Amy largely fixed Noelle's powers, granting her a non-monstrous form and vastly greater control. She was Noelle, not Echnidna, and had vast Brute and Changer powers and control over creating clones, and fairly non-homicidal ones. This was a completely different situation.

I hope one of the Capes she picks, eventually ends up being Two. Because that would just boost her *own* powers.

Click to shrink...

Actually, PQ has a very consistent statement that Manton limits usually stretch across clones. Two can't boost her powers, and giving Two more powers doesn't boost them. The Yangban boost each others powers. Similarly, two Imp/Harrier clones would remember each other, two Panacea clones can't alter each other, and similar.

Also, I think this Eidolon clone was one of the ones that was... mentally under-developed?

Click to shrink...

Yes.

In that case, why didn't Panacea offer to heal her mind? Make her better, smarter. Or at least fix some deficiencies.

Click to shrink...

She was good enough for the fight, with proper direction. The clones mental deficiencies are also a mixed blessing, and considered better than the general hate that the clones showed to their originals beforehand. Phantasos, the best clone, was non-homicidal and wanted to prove his superiority.

You have the original Eidolon right at hand after all.

Click to shrink...

Eidolon wanting someone to be stronger than him is problematic.

----------------------------------------------


Who the heck even *is* Kazikli Bey? (Aerokinetic, apparently, but still.) Like, I remember his name being mentioned in canon -- he was one of the 3 capes chosen by the super-Trump Endbringer Tohu -- but I know pretty much nothing else.

Click to shrink...

It is a term for Vlad the Impaler. On IRC I mentioned that I thought he was rather young and pretensions to go with a name like that. Definitely a European cape.

Also -- the Eidolon clone that could select *Cape* powersets rather than just powers. Please tell me that clone decided to pick Two as one of the capes to emulate?

Click to shrink...

Eidolon has a similar power aura himself PQ. He was using it actively during the fight. It's easier to swap out Eidolon powers than her cape power sets. It was more efficient to avoid that at the time.

Also also... You know what I actually wondered about Blasto? I wondered what a Chevalier and Myrrdin mix would look like. The ability to fuck around with alternate dimensions... and the ability to, er... fuse (?) things together.

On that note, I wonder what a Chevalier-Eidolon mix by Blasto would look like. Hopefully you'd end up with a cape that could "layer" or "stack" powers together.

Click to shrink...

Really interesting ideas.

 

[Garlak]

Another PQ setting change. Amy largely fixed Noelle's powers, granting her a non-monstrous form and vastly greater control. She was Noelle, not Echnidna, and had vast Brute and Changer powers and control over creating clones, and fairly non-homicidal ones. This was a completely different situation.

Click to shrink...

No, I meant that Noelle had been the cause of dozens of deaths even before Brockton Bay.

One of the incidents was bad enough to get something like 40-50 dead.

I'm talking about the fact that Noelle always had problem with her powers, because it made evil clones, because it made skin-to-skin contact impossible for her, because it ended up causing lots of trouble, and because it reminded her of her anorexia/bulimia/whatever mental issues she had in a very, very bad way.

And Panacea FIXED all that.

And then Noelle bitched about losing her powers -- which for most of the time in which she had it only just made her miserable...

Hell, did Noelle even say "thanks" to Amy for fixing her?

Hell no. (And in fact the next time Amy saw Noelle, it was because the Travellers had been hired by the Coil/Uber/Leet conspiracy mashup thing and Trickster and Noelle were working *against* Amy.)


This is just unbelievable...

She gets her powers fixed, she gets her *life* back. And she bitches about Glory Girl being in the news. Ugh.

EDIT: Merging posts.

Wait a minute...

Is that cape-copying Eidolon limited to copying LIVING capes?

If not, then why doesn't she pick up Contessa as one of the copies then?

(Also, do the Endbringer-Cape hybrids count enough as being "capes"? If they would probably be affected by Two's ability... Would that mean that that Eidolon clone would be able to pick Morrigan as one of the Capes she emulates?)

 

[Garlak]

Craaaap... Is there a way to *delete* posts? Bah, oh well...


Anyway. When Panacea was working on the Morrigan, and working together with Blasto... is it possible that she made use of her knowledge of the Corona's of Capes like Noelle and Bonesaw and herself too?

For that matter, I wonder if Tinkers could benefit from having their Corona Pollentia's/Gemma's messed with. Noelle, Panacea, Bonesaw, Blasto... there's probably enough information in those powers to give you something to work with when adjusting powers.

 

[WyldCard4]

No, I meant that Noelle had been the cause of dozens of deaths even before Brockton Bay.

One of the incidents was bad enough to get something like 40-50 dead.

I'm talking about the fact that Noelle always had problem with her powers, because it made evil clones, because it made skin-to-skin contact impossible for her, because it ended up causing lots of trouble, and because it reminded her of her anorexia/bulimia/whatever mental issues she had in a very, very bad way.

And Panacea FIXED all that.

And then Noelle bitched about losing her powers -- which for most of the time in which she had it only just made her miserable...

Click to shrink...

Her fixed powers were kind of cool, though.

Hell, did Noelle even say "thanks" to Amy for fixing her?

Hell no. (And in fact the next time Amy saw Noelle, it was because the Travellers had been hired by the Coil/Uber/Leet conspiracy mashup thing and Trickster and Noelle were working *against* Amy.)


This is just unbelievable...

Click to shrink...

In canon she's pretty bitchy, fucked up, and mean. She did kill quite a few people.

She gets her powers fixed, she gets her *life* back. And she bitches about Glory Girl being in the news. Ugh.

Click to shrink...

Well, more bitching about how instead of talking about bio-tech, the tactical situation, or anything else notable, most people talk about their incestuous sex life.

EDIT: Merging posts.

Wait a minute...

Is that cape-copying Eidolon limited to copying LIVING capes?

If not, then why doesn't she pick up Contessa as one of the copies then?

Click to shrink...

She's copied Eidolon, Glaistig Uaine, Myrddin, Alexandria, Gavel, and Black Kaze. All of those are living capes.

(Also, do the Endbringer-Cape hybrids count enough as being "capes"? If they would probably be affected by Two's ability... Would that mean that that Eidolon clone would be able to pick Morrigan as one of the Capes she emulates?)

Click to shrink...

It is unknown. She might.

Craaaap... Is there a way to *delete* posts? Bah, oh well...


Anyway. When Panacea was working on the Morrigan, and working together with Blasto... is it possible that she made use of her knowledge of the Corona's of Capes like Noelle and Bonesaw and herself too?

Click to shrink...

She usually does. The Corona itself is limited, and she usually uses it to shape existent powers or interface with human brains. If she shaped Myrddin's to look like her own, it would probably change his own expression of his shard, not give him Amy's powers. As powers usually match a person fairly well, it usually is better for Cauldron capes than trigger capes.

She probably did experiment a fair deal.

For that matter, I wonder if Tinkers could benefit from having their Corona Pollentia's/Gemma's messed with. Noelle, Panacea, Bonesaw, Blasto... there's probably enough information in those powers to give you something to work with when adjusting powers.

Click to shrink...

To an extent, they can. It was probably used in making it possible to use the Endbringer powers in a more human form.

 

[DeAnno]

[X] Cranial

I still want my Cranial interlude we didn't get last time.

Blasto is a cool guy. We should recruit him to the Shepherds when this is all over, he can be the crazy mad scientist who never grew up and hangs out with people 10 years younger than him.

Teacher is Teaching everybody. I guess he is pretty set in the new world order as long as everyone isn't wiped out. After all that Teaching he could probably join the Shepherds too if he wanted (why not, it's the happening place to be!)

Poor Shadow Stalker. It seems like she had a normal clone in addition to the Leviathan one, maybe she'll find solace there.

Why the 'extra' Skitter? Do they want to be able to cut off Lady Bug from dimensions on "the front" as it were? Or did Teacher change her to not be redundant?

Jouster is cool. Maybe he even has an energy type that hurts Scion, he seems to have lots of them. If he doesn't, maybe Teacher can Teach him one?

I forget who Glyph is, is he canon?

The Leviastalker is pretty terrifying. Chevemoth probably has a much higher ceiling but the Leviastalker is just so efficient.

In general I found this one of the most enjoyable posts in a while. It sort of recaptured the wonder of the earlier parts of the story in some hard to define way. Blasto, Kitsune, and Cranial's personalities, all the interesting Tinkering, the strangeness of Teacher just Teaching away and nobody giving a shit, the humor of Dispatch just sitting there for weeks on end without sleep, even Sophie's lamentable situation all kind of blended together into something really good. And of course Victoria and Amy are finally legitimately happy for the first time ever.

 

[mc2rpg]

[X] Hero

 

[Lement]

Not dark horse for once. Kazikli Bay is probably a heavy-hitter/frontliner, and we'd get to see Scion PoVing and the aftermatch.

Cranial though, lives in the time bubble atm, no? She has interesting, some might even say moral, perspectives, and has kids and husband to worry about too.

However, that is less interesting than being brought back from the dead after being ripped in half by your now-comrade. And perhaps being ripped in half again due Scion.

[X] Hero

And these updates....Dear me, they sure give the impression of apocalypse being at hand !

Though Myrrdin/Shadow Stalker should have been swapped, given dodging and dimensional trick synergy.

On that note, is there actually now another Skitter or Lady Bug running around? Kinda weird to have that as footnote, especially given that she isn't particularly useful outside directions.

 

[WyldCard4]

[X] Kazikli Bey. Xicree, Biigoh,

[X] Cranial. serra2, DeAnno

[X] Hero mc2rpg, Lement.

Unless I am misreading we have a three way tie.