Aisha stabbed down with her thanergy, and the cat died instantly, not even getting a chance to feel it. A quick thought to Harrow had her walking over, and, taking up the limp corpse, turned the flesh to dust. The skeleton, however, began to grow in the bone witch's hands, larger and larger, flowing into new forms which settled onto Aisha as they completed.
The spine and tail became a staff, five feet long and smoothed out just enough to be comfortable to hold without hiding its origin. The claws hollowed out, either large enough to slip over a person's fingertips or melded into a single piece to secure to the tip of a boot, while still retaining their sharpness. The limbs lengthened into a full set of jack of chains, shielding the outsides of her arms and legs, and the ribs shattered into a collection of buckles and spikes to accentuate the belts she'd picked up earlier that day.
Finally the skull grew the most of any of the bones, a cavity within it opening up many times larger than the original brainpan quickly becoming padded with fat and a chinstrap of tendon. Once it was done, Aisha snatched it and the staff out of Harrow's hands and stood, breaking Tattletale's grip as she spun and backed up to face both of them. She slipped the new helmet over her head, covering the slapdash death's head paint job and one of Lisa's spare masks, and fastened it with a touch of thanergy, glaring out at her projection and teammate through the holes in the back of the eye sockets.
She cracked the staff against the ground, testing its heft and pulled the hood up over the skull, catching it on the protrusions next to the ear holes. "Come on," Said Omen, resplendent in her fully finished costume yet drowning in Death, the jaws of her new helmet moving with her mouth, "Time's running short, and we've got a dragon to dethrone."
[X] Cape Name: Omen
Asset Gained: Omen Costume. See Assets Informational Tab.
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[X] Plan Mousetrap
April 10th, 2011, 11:12 p.m.
"Guuuuh," Omen groaned, sitting upside down on the couch while kicking her legs in the air, too bored to stay still and too nervous to settle in for a good distraction, "How long is this going to take!?"
Aisha and Harrow had spent the rest of the daylight hours hunting, and while they hadn't ended up with as much Thanergy as they'd wanted, for this, it'd be enough. Afterwards, they'd retreated to the loft, which, after a quick costume change to ditch the borrowed mask, fix her paint to black out the skull's eye holes, and tweaking the claws to fold back since she couldn't do anything but fight with them in place, left Aisha in what had to be the truest form of hell to ever blight this forsaken world: Hurry Up and Wait. Grue had explained the term to her, and she hated every second of it. Lung, it turned out, was taking his sweet time, and Omen felt like she was going to explode into a pile of giblets and marrow if he didn't show his face.
"No clue," Regent quipped, swiping another dumpling (an odd choice, considering their opponent, but Brian had insisted they made good pre-mission food) and slipping his mask up to pop it in his mouth before settling in to join her. His attempt to swallow while upside down, however, backfired horribly, leaving him coughing on the floor and Omen cackling at his misfortune while Tattletale and Harrow rolled their eyes.
Bri-no, Grue now, leaned over and smacked him on the back a few times until Regent held a hand up, swallowed properly, and promptly went right back to the inverted sprawl. Bitch was also present, but she'd completely tuned out, instead spacing out in the corner with a pile of her own dumplings and some of the cooked but unmixed ground pork to share with her pets.
Harrow seemed about ready to kick Omen and Regent both across the room, but before she got the chance Tattletale's phone rang. Ms. Resident Thinker picked it up and listened, nodding slightly even as her mood turned serious and Omen and Regent reoriented themselves.
"Got it boss, thanks," Tattletale said, and hung up, "He's on the move. We're looking at two groups, one for each cape, about 6 blocks west of here. Everyone got the plan?"
"You split off on a dog with Regent and the Key to be the Base Team," Omen rattle off, practically vibrating from the chance to act while Bitch ushered her dogs downstairs, their hides already splitting as they grew, "You're trying to bait Oni Lung into the field, which needs Thinker precision and maybe a small push to pull off without getting caught in it yourself. Meanwhile Bitch, Harrow, Grue, and I are the Assault Team. We're going to confront Lung directly. Harrow and Bitch are taking point with Grue providing support, and I'm to stay on Angelica and in the Darkness field and only cast if I see a good opportunity. I don't know any direct combat spells yet, but I have to be close enough to let Harrow do her thing."
"At least you paid attention," Grue grumbled, then clapped his hands, "I still don't want you anywhere near Lung, but if Harrow's going to fight him we don't have much of a choice. Right, everyone, let's go."
They went, Regent and Tattletale stopping off at the wards to double check how to activate them, then they all mounted on the backs of the still growing warhounds, Harrow with Bitch, Grue with Omen, and Tattletale with Regent. The teens were unusually silent, almost somber, so with a few quick nods and nothing further they were speeding across the rooftops of the city.
Spoiler: Oni Lee, Be a Bush
It was only by the thinnest of margins that the plan didn't fall apart at the first hurdle. While they were looking for the ABB, the ABB was looking for them. One moment everything was quiet, the next a horned figure was stabbing at the back of Regent's shirt. Only his inbuilt armor and nerve senses kept him from dying on the spot, but he still shrieked like a startled seagull and hunched forward, knocking both himself and Tattletale off balance.
"Split!" Grue bellowed, and the Base Team peeled off as he spewed out a flood of inky blackness. Omen had seen her brother's power before, but this was the first time being immersed in it. Quite frankly, the news had not done it justice. She could see nothing and heard only a tiny bit more, but what no one had mentioned was the vertigo. The only reason she didn't instantly lose track of up and down was the steady pull of gravity. Well, that and her thanergy senses. The faint white outlines of mist still laid out a rough map of her surroundings, though the utter lack of it in the environs mostly meant highlighting Harrow and her own body like blazing lighthouses in the gloom.
Through the haze, she could barely make out Tattletale and Regent heading back the way they came, a shifting form leaving little puffs of ash in hot pursuit.
Grue kept the cloud active, spreading it wider and faster as they moved, acting as a giant beacon. One that was evidently working, as he guided the Assault Team to a halt on a set of roofs overhanging the street. The fog lifted partially, enough to restore Omen's sight and hearing with lurching pops, and below them was Lung.
Though no doubt a giant of a man given how he towered over most of his gang's members, from here he looked positively puny. Being a couple of stories over someone's head would do that to a person, no matter how large they were face to face. Omen could only make out the faintest traces of the tattoos on his bare chest and the muzzle of the mask he was wearing. His men were equally indistinct, though that was as much a factor of uniform as night and distance. He was in the middle of a speech, but it seemed they'd interrupted him with how fast he'd spun on his heel to face them.
Omen thought they might posture for a bit, maybe exchange a few one liners like in the cartoons, but Grue had shouted, "Now!" At the same time Lung pointed their way and bellowed, "Fire!"
However fast the ABB may have been on the draw, Harrow was faster. With a flick of her wrist the bones they'd collected over the course of the evening blossomed into a wall of goopy ash, tall and wide enough to shield them totally from view, and blasted her mentally with, Remember your part! Which startled Omen into action.
Spoiler: Dragonslayer, Awaken!
Omen breathed in, then out, centering herself in the chaos even as the cracks of gunfire chipped away at their prison. It took longer than she'd have liked to calm her racing heart enough to focus, I'm being shot at, shit shit shit! Especially given Bitch had ordered the dogs into melee and she'd had to jump off to avoid getting taken with them, but she eventually got her head on straight and took aim through a small hole at the base of the barrier.
Lung had started to grow, engulfed in flames as he grappled with Brutus, Judas snapping at his flank only to lurch back to avoid flaming kicks to the snout. Grue was dealing with the gangers, having covered them in his void to nullify their support fire, while Harrow split her focus. With one hand she was flinging great globs of regenerating ash at Lung, blocking the flames on his back and gluing one of his legs to the ground so he couldn't shift position as easily, while the other had summoned a troop of skeletons to wade into the black after Grue. Omen couldn't see what was going on in there, but a lack of stray bullets was generally a good sign.
Her task was simple. Her target, equally so. Omen stirred her power awake, whispered, "Your End has come," pulled on Lung as hard as she could, and Siphoned.
Lung screamed. Not bellowed, not roared, not shouted, screamed like a wild animal caught in a forest fire. For a moment, he fell, pinned by Brutus and Judas and suctioned by Harrow's bone, even as a rush of power unlike anything Omen had ever experienced flowed into her veins like chemical lightning. Then, he exploded.
Harrow's ash vaporized and fell back, damaged but not destroyed, and the dogs went flying, slamming into and through the walls of the buildings across the street. Lung had kept growing, faster than Omen expected, faster than any of them had thought was possible, surging through 8 feet tall, then 9, then 10, even as the power she was feeding on grew, and grew, and grew.
The scales that had started to layer over his body were moving in a wave, spreading to cover him from head to toe. His mask had fallen away to reveal a four part muzzle of similar shape, and nubs of bone were breaking out of his back, proving the rumors true in the worst way possible. All this time he kept screaming and thrashing, and Omen hastily shoved the power overload into Harrow, if only to avoid detonating like a dying star.
Bitch, having run over to check on her dogs after the blast, whistled them back into combat, but they were becoming less and less useful in the face of Lung's growth. Harrow ran forward, bones in hand, and at her command they morphed into a monstrosity large enough to block the street, a screeching, cacophonic tsunami of bone and tendon almost but not quite a centipede the size of an intercity bus. It flowed onto Lung, tackling him and stabbing over and over, but as he kept growing its attacks healed almost as quickly as they were amde.
I can't shut him down, Harrow told her over their link, her cool tone at odds with the bloodsweat running down her face, The harder I try to kill him the more thalergy he produces. It's like he's bottomless.
That was when the swarm hit. The buzzing of millions of wings and billions of miniscule feet, hidden by the sounds of battle, reached a crescendo, and insects filled the field. They descended on Lung, descended on Harrow, descended on everyone, adding another heaping scoop of chaos to the mayhem Sundae. Only Omen was spared by lieu of being on the rooftop, and that wouldn't necessarily be true for long, even if according to Harrow she wasn't being bitten, only buried. Omen needed to act.
[] Distract and Ditch: This is clearly not working out, so it's time to bail. Leave the megaconstruct as a distraction and hightail it back to base to see how Tattletale and Regent are doing.Chapter 7: Cascade
Spoiler: Daily Stats
[X] Find the Bug Controller: Tattletale's rundown of capes in the city didn't include anyone even vaguely capable of this kind of attack, so you're dealing with a newcomer. Finding them and either subduing or allying with them might be the key to turning the tide.
Bonus! [X] Buff Your Allies: The Second House steals thalergy from their enemies to empower their allies. You've boosted yourself and your projection, but haven't shared anything with the rest of the team yet. Maybe pouring the juice into them will get you the edge you need.
Omen tapped her fingers on her staff, the clicking of keratin on bone inaudible over the din of battle. From her crouched position, things had gone pretty heavily sideways, though not all the way into a full on clusterfuck. The moon was being obscured from the sheer volume of bugs, but her Thanergy senses and the scant light it still provided were enough to see by.
Lung was pinned to the ground, face down on all fours and unable to rise despite his best efforts. His screams had turned into screeches so loud and piercing they were rattling windows up and down the street, and his thrashing was that of a beast in mortal torment. All the while, he kept getting larger. With his transformation so far along, its true nature as a dragon was clear, and it was only a matter of time before he broke loose and burned them all alive.
Grue was done with the gangers, having left most of them bound in the repurposed skeletons, but a few had seemingly resisted so hard he'd had no choice but to kill them. Omen had noticed the bloom in Thanergy, but did her best to ignore it. If she got into thinking about that now she was likely to do something stupid.
Grue, oblivious to her judgemental gaze, had moved to cover Lung in his darkness, though it kept getting burned away as the ABB leader's flames became larger and hotter and he was busily swatting at himself in a futile attempt to clear the bugs. Harrow's construct had impaled Lung in multiple places and was now growing around and into him, keeping him from shaking it loose, though he kept damaging it with his thrashing, and any bugs that touched her were dying instantly. This kept them light, but her bloodsweat was starting to give way to real blood, which meant she was reaching her limit. Meanwhile, Bitch's dogs were completely unaffected, had latched onto his wings as they grew in, and were now the main things keeping him from getting airborne, but Bitch herself had dropped to the ground and was frantically rolling to crush as many insects as possible.
Spoiler: Keep Your Cool (Knowledge, Self Control)
As much as her body screamed at her to move, she stayed put. Barely. She needed to know what to do before she could do it, otherwise she'd be making things worse. Fingers tapping with increasing speed and strength, Omen took in a deep breath, the scents of ash, blood, and tar lingering on her tongue, and tried to focus.
What if I stopped Siphoning him? Omen thought, chewing her lips all but bloody, He'd stop growing right? Nope, can't, the pain from that is so distracting he's unable to plan, and while he might stop powering up he's still plenty strong enough to kill us if he gets his sanity back. I could make a ward, but I don't know any that'd make a difference here. Well, the Entropy Ward might, but that'd take ages. Come on, Aisha, think!
Yes, Aisha, think, Harrow snarled over their mental link, It's not like I need my brain empty to focus or anything! And why do I even bother teaching you anything if you're going to forget it!?
Now is not the time, Harrow, Omen snapped, What are you talking about?
What do the 2nd use Siphoning for? Harrow snarled, lips peeled back and blood leaking from her ears, eyes, and scalp. It's literally the first thing I told you about it.
To buff their allies? Omen asked, flinching as a particularly violent buck from Lung, now 15 feet long and rapidly growing a tail, almost dislodged everything piled on top of him. But I'm buffing you!
And everyone else? Harrow spat.
...Wow, I feel dumb, Omen muttered, then opened the tap to flow into Grue, Bitch, Brutus, and Judas.
The effects were instant and overwhelming. Grue roared, the swarm suddenly unable to touch him, and bounded forward, each step more of a leap with the raw power being pushed through it, ending in punching Lung in the face, snapping his head back and leaving him dazed. Bitch, for her part, howled and launched herself into the flames, flying a good 15 feet in a single bound and landing on Lung's shoulder, where she proceeded to wail on him over and over while his claws were only able to deal glancing blows. Omen hadn't expected moonwalking levels of strength, but she'd take it.
Brutus and Judas, on the other hand, started growing themselves, surging well past their usual limits, going from barely keeping Lung on the ground to easily pinning the tips of his wings and working their way inward. Upon reaching the bases in unison, at another whistle they bit down, spewing flaming blood into uncaring maws, and pulled. The wings didn't come off, but they broke and dislocated, tearing almost as fast as they healed. Lung shrieked in agony, buffeting them with what parts he could move, but neither was deterred.
As a final touch, the extra thanergy was leaking out into the environment at an alarming pace, flooding the battlefield with foggy lights. With those lights, Omen spotted it. A small figure, curled up on a roof across the street, about the same height as herself. When they peaked over the edge and the swarm adjusted to avoid another torrential geyser of flame, Omen knew they had to be the controller. If she could just talk to them...
Harrow! Omen shouted, getting up with a whisper of clicks and taking several steps back. Give me a boost!
...You're insane, Harrow told her as she relayed the plan, If you die I'm not going to be able to resurrect you.
Doesn't matter, Omen said dismissively, The bug controller is up there and I need to talk to her. She might be the key to ending this.
Fine, Harrow sighed, directing the bone ash on the roof into a series of struts leading out over the street, I will mock you after this goes badly.
If it goes badly, Omen clarified, then ran. She poured everything into it, galloping at a full sprint, heavy boots clunking across the gravely surface, lungs heaving and heart pounding, staff clutched firmly in both hands, the burn of exertion washed away by the rush of adrenaline, and she hit the edge of the roof and jumped!
Spoiler: Ride the Bone! (Combat, Athletics)
She landed on the spine of bone ash Harrow had erected and wobbled, sliding into a skateboarding stance as it slid under her heels. Through the thick rubber of her soles, she felt the bone shift and latch onto her, and then almost overbalanced and fell off entirely as it yanked her forward, taking her in a dive as she built up speed.
Omen yelped and crouched low, ironically fixing her balance by total accident. She spread her hands, letting go of one on her staff and swinging it behind her. She caught hints of wind and smoke as she accelerated, flying across the chasm like a skater grinding a rail. The insect horde rose up to meet her, their controller twitching in surprise at her appearance before directing their minions to cover her as well, only to face the same issue they did with Harrow. Bugs pelted her from head to toe, getting into her eyes and sticking in the cracks in her mask's teeth, but they were unable to find purchase before she Siphoned them dry and the husks fell away. Her path retracted behind her, conserving ash, and in front the broad, intricate back of the megaconstruct loomed.
While calling it a massive centipede was vaguely correct, in truth the construct was far more horrific than that. Composed of hundreds of limbs, many sharpened into spears at the tips, with a spine the size of an ancient pinetree and a skull made out of a mishmash of canine and feline features, this, thing, defied easy classification. It was simply The Megaconstruct, and it lived up to the name. As Omen approached, it warped its neck to lean down and bite into the back of Lung's, just below the base of the head, the spraying waterfall of boiling blood accompanied by a renewed bellow of pain.
Down Omen went, onto its bucking and shaking back, flailing to keep her balance as the next leg of the journey, the way back up, twisted into being before her. Off to her right, in the corner of her eye, Grue paused mid swing at Lung's head to stare at her and almost got battered into the ground for his trouble. Mere inches below, Lung roared, another torrent of flame deflected out and away by a reactive widening of the central column so it wouldn't vaporize her on the spot, and she yelped in surprise. Despite her best efforts, she ended up stumbling forward and grabbing onto the new extension with one hand while slamming her staff into the bones under her feet with the other, riding it on all fours as it took her back up, away from the conflict and towards the (relative) safety of the opposing roof.
Upon reaching the apex, the tendril gave one last, dainty fling, tossing Omen up and over the edge of the building with a panted, "Shit shit shit shit shit!" She pulled her legs inward to disconnect from the boney balcony, brought them down again to make her landing, and promptly face-planted.
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I froze up in confusion, staring at the villain that had flopped onto the roof in front of me. She (because those curves could not be denied) was wearing one of the most evil costumes I had ever had the misfortune of seeing, all bones and spikes and black robes, but she was failing to act the part. I even had my pepper spray out and everything, but the mist had ended up missing her entirely with how badly she stuck the landing.
To be honest, this entire night had been an endless parade of surprises. First I found Lung instead of wandering around and maybe stopping a robbery, then I heard he was going to kill kids, then said kids showed up and started kicking his ass, then he started screeching and growing like crazy, then the kids pulled out powers way stronger than anything I'd heard of active in the bay (that bone monster was like a team in itself, what the fuck) to try to counter him, and by that point I'd given up on trying to understand the situation.
I knew Lung was the instigator, so I sent most of my bugs to attack him, but I still buried everyone else. There was no way the heroes hadn't heard the ruckus, so I thought I could keep them distracted long enough for the Protectorate to arrive and break it up, but then I got tossed this curveball. Curvyball? No, bad Taylor, puns are for stories, not cape battles.
A groan from the villain called my attention back to her as she levered herself upright with… was that a spinal column!? It was, although with far too many bones to be a human spine. A snake, maybe? She looked up, and our eyes met through our masks, my yellow lenses to her uncovered and red stained orbital sockets.
"Oh, hey," She said nonchalantly, as if she hadn't just been flying through the air on a vaulting pole of bone scarce thicker than her staff, and I noticed the jaws on her cat skull were moving as she did, "Nice duds."
I tensed further, unwilling to give her the advantage. No matter what she wanted, I wasn't going down without a fight! I was already calling my swarm up, but given how my bugs died on contact I doubt they'd be good for more than obscuring her vision. I palmed my baton, getting ready to extend it to full length and charge in with a swing, only for her to hold her left hand, the one not holding the staff, up placatingly.
"Easy, tiger," She drawled, keeping her stance relaxed and refusing to give me any tells, "I'm not here to fight you. These are your bugs, right?"
I glared through my mask, but when she just stood there, waiting for an answer, I nodded.
"Sweet," she said brightly, and I tightened up again, remembering all the other times a bright tone had heralded disaster, "Want to help us get Lung?"
Spoiler: Convince the Bug (Social)
I dropped my stance in pure puzzlement. She. What? She wants my help? "Why?"
I only noticed I'd said that last part aloud when she responded, saying, "Because we're not taking him down on our own. Look, I know this looks all cool and flashy, but he's healing faster than we can kill him and we need something to stop that. I'm sucking him dry right now and it still isn't enough. Do you think you can help?"
"Not what I meant," I ground out, slowly moving back into position, "Why should I help villains?"
At that her hand dropped, leaving her staring at me in flat disappointment. "You're a hero?" she asked, her tone so scathing I had to admit it made my blood boil, "You don't get how that's a waste?"
"Why would it be a waste to want to help people?" I snarled, my swarm growing more agitated as it climbed onto the roof and began to pile up in mounds of raw chitin.
"Because you won't. Duh," She rolled her bleeding eyes, and it took everything I had to not lunge across the roof at her, "Heroes don't make things better, they keep things from getting worse. Especially indy heroes. You'll run around for a bit, maybe stop a few small crimes, then disappear like all the rest. You won't make a difference, not when the PRT can't. Heroes can't drive the Nazis out of the bay, they can't keep the economy from tanking, and they can't do shit about him."
Here she pointed down at the dragon in the street, who was bracing a smaller but still growing second pair of arms under himself to get some traction, "I, we, can. So you can stay on your high horse and be a hero, or you can help us. Your choice."
I kept my gaze on her, weighing my options. She was spouting obvious bullshit, of course the heroes made a difference, but I had to admit she had a point about Lung. The Protectorate had avoided him since his arrival in the city, but tonight he was being pushed far harder than that fight ever had. If I helped, and he went down, and I'd have made a difference. A real difference. That was worth teaming up with villains every now and again, right?
I recalled the research I'd done beforehand, and sent out a questing feeler. "I've got venom," I said carefully, "My bugs do, I mean. But they can't get past his scales and most of them keep dying in the heat before they get close enough to try."
"I can handle those parts," the villain waved off with a reassuring hand, "Are you in?"
I breathed in and out. This was it. "I'm in."
"Awesome," she chirped, already marching over to the edge of the roof to watch the fight, "Name's Omen. Brace yourself."
"Wha-" And my brain fried. No, not fried, supercharged, like the time I'd gotten into mom's tea cabinet as a four year old and eaten an entire container of imported Oolong raw, only somehow more. My awareness expanded with my range, ballooning out an entire extra block, and I started twitching to have some way, any way, to burn off the sensation I was experiencing.
"Helluva rush, huh?" The villain asked, "I'm boosting your bugs too, so you should be able to get them in now."
I checked, and she was right. The powerup had spread across my entire swarm, with some of the already injured bugs exploding into pinprick fireballs from the overload. With a thought, I pulled away from the other capes and dove, wasps hauling spiders, cockroaches carrying ants, into the maelstrom, and this time, I didn't die. The flames were still there, still burning me, but I shrugged it off as easily as a summer squall and hit the target below like a meteor shower.
While the scales were still a bit of a hindrance, finding the gaps left by the bone monster was easy, and there I sank my thousands of fangs and stingers into unguarded, juicy flesh. I primed myselves to move away after expending my payloads, only for the sacks to refill almost as quickly as they depleted, and instead moved my reinforcements to attack other holes, marching from his shoulders, down his back, across his belly and crotch (that got some extra stings for good measure), and around his wings and tail.
With this, Lung finally started to falter, his attacks wavering in their strength and his growth slowed to a crawl. With a shock, the power surging through me began to ease off, and he stopped entirely before rapidly beginning to shrink. As he did, the rush left me, and a sudden hush fell over the city, broken only by the sirens in the distance. I'd won.
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Holy shit, Omen thought as she sped down the stairwell the new cape had pointed out. She'd taken down Lung on her first night. To be fair, that had been the plan from the start, and it had been a team effort, but wishful thinking was a far cry from the reality of it. Lung was encased in regenerating ash, the final form of Harrow's construct most closely resembling a pile of PRT containment foam, and the Undersiders were surrounding him.
"Sweet," Omen said, walking up and offering Grue a high five while Bug Girl stayed a cautious distance behind her, "So, now what?"
"Now, we get out of here," Grue dropped like an anvil of sour grapes, ignoring her well deserved high five entirely, "And then, once my head isn't trying to pound its way out of my skull, we're going to be having a long discussion about sticking to the plan!"
He looked like he wanted to continue, but then he spotted Bug Girl and shifted over to what Omen called his PR Mode. "As leader of the Undersiders, I must thank you for your assistance," He said graciously, "Might I please know your name?"
When Bug Girl didn't reply, Grue said, "It's ok if you don't want to share it, but we can't stay and chat. Those sirens are getting pretty close and we need to get out of here."
Omen elbowed him and he sighed and added, "And would you like a ride?" We can drop you off where the heroes won't spot you."
Taylor, go with them?
[][Taylor] "Sure."
[][Taylor] "No thanks."
"This is fascinating," Harrow said, drawing the attention of the group, "I never realized siphoning could have such an effect on parahuman powers. If we could do this on demand, why, I'd never be short of thanergy ever again. To imagine the benefits of Lyctorhood without the cost… Master!"
Omen jumped at Harrow's raised voice, "We must take him with us."
Kidnap Lung?
[][Lung] Fuck Yes!
[][Lung] Fuck No!
By the time they got back to the Loft, the moon was setting. The place was quiet and seemed intact, so, with gentle tread, the Undersiders crept inside, on high alert for teleporting ninja.
Spoiler: Dead Oni (Two mid level capes teaming up)
They needn't have worried. Aside from a fresh set of bandages on Lisa's arm where she'd gotten clipped by a bullet and a chewing out for waking her up, everything was fine. Alec was already in bed when they walked in and refused to budge, so it was up to Lisa to explain what they'd missed.
"Dumbass thought our roof would be a safe place to plan his attack from," Lisa smugged sleepily as she headed for her room, failing to stifle a yawn, "Melted into dust before he knew what happened."
Brian nodded, helmet under his arm, yawned as well, and said, "Get some sleep, everyone. We'll go over the fight tomorrow."
Aisha didn't need a second opinion. She went straight for her sleeping bag, grabbed the new pillow she'd bought earlier that day, and was already losing consciousness before she'd finished tucking herself in.
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It is now Monday, April 11th. Please pick one training action, one bond partner, and two activities. One activity is already selected.
Training Action:
[][Training] Raise Dead: The heart of any Necromancer's kit, Harrowhark can turn the corpses of the deceased into semi autonomous skeletons. They can be set to perform basic tasks without direct supervision, but will require maintenance to prevent the wear and tear of movement from grinding them back into dust. (Combat, Casting)
[][Training] Summon Ghost: With the proper rites and the proper bait, it's possible to call back and speak with the spirits of the dead. How willing they are to talk, however, can vary wildly. (Casting, Knowledge, Social)
[][Training] -One Flesh, One End: In an ultimate act of love and sacrifice, a necromancer can consume the soul of another person, usually a loved one, and gain an unlimited supply of necromantic power and something very close to immortality. Adds a die to all rolls. Harrow does think you're ready for this, not the megatheorem that is the culmination of multiple fields of necromantic study, and not without having mastered those fields. Please learn the rest of the basics before tackling the final exam.
Bond Partners (Reward locked, requires 003):
[][Bond] Brian
[][Bond] Lisa
[][Bond] Alec
[][Bond] Bitch
Activities:
[X][Activity] Assessment With Everyone: Grue wants to go over the fight while it's still fresh in everyone's minds. Supposedly this would cover what went well, what didn't, and how to improve, but you suspect he mostly wants an excuse to yell at you for getting way too close to Lung and yell at Bitch for putting you in that position.
[][Activity] Sleep in: You're a growing girl who needs her beauty rest, and she didn't get it last night. Catch up on some much needed Z's. Will prevent fatigue penalties during other actions taken this turn.
[][Activity] Chasing the Beetle: That Bug Girl really saved your asses and then vanished into the night. Maybe Lisa can help with getting in touch with her? Her costume is wasted on heroing.
[][Activity] Browsing the news: Your battle last night has to have made a splash, right? See what the wider world thinks of your activities.
[][Activity] Grappling With Grue: If you're going to keep going into the field, you big bro insists you know how to fight. Learn the basics of blocking and falling. Interact with Brian. Adds +1 to combat rolls.
[][Activity] Stockpiling Thanergy: Even with the boost provided by training, and the massive pile stolen from Lung your thanergy pools, and therefore spellcasting power, are still limited. Taking some time to go kill things so you have more to work might be just the key to survival.
[][Activity] Warding the Anti-Wards: Using your newfound ritualistic talent, place defenses around Redmond Welding. Will trigger a minivote concerning what you wish to make.
[][Activity] Leadership with Lisa: If you go crazy when you're not the leader, then you need to know how to lead. Learn more about team dynamics and how the Undersiders fit together. +1 to Leadership rolls.
[][Activity] Attack on Mother: You REALLY REALLY want your stuff back to stock your currently empty room with (and to wear literally anything else, and have all your personal hygiene supplies), and that means going back to Mom's. Either by argument or stealth, you're getting your prized possessions, but you know it's not going to be easy. Begin Aisha's House Heist.
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IMPORTANT INFORMATION: NO MORATORIUM. Voting is open now. Please make sure to include the two yes/no votes earlier in the chapter with your plans.
Since most of the voters went with both buffing allies and finding the Bug Girl, with the tiebreaker only coming much later, I started thinking about implementing both at once, realized it worked way better that way, and left it in even when the vote was called. I hope you're happy with the result.