As soon as the Bug opens up, Connie flings herself out the hatch, cushioning her fall with a well-practiced ward. Okay, big guns are out so the best bang for my buck is keeping things from falling over.Taking out a specially treated paint pen, she hurried to the closest damaged building, found a commemorative plaque, and began to write. Okay, okay, same basic concept as the golem, or your leather pants. You don't have to protect the whole thing, you just need the building to think of itself as one big whole. Any damage gets evenly divided, all the pieces stay together.
Caio can't do much now that he is a normal person, but directing people to the safest route is something anyone could do. "Come on guys! This way... hurry, hurry!"
Seeing a stray missile coming towards his direction, Caio grabs an old woman an pulls her close to him as he ducks behind a fallen wall. He closes his eyes and tries to protect both of them from the blast... as dust and tiny pieces of debris shower his shoulder, he asks the woman. "Mrs, are you ok?"
Femtite unleashes her Goddesslike Beauty to attract people to the Bug! Buuuut, she realizes her craft had to shrink to enter the broken structure. She can’t size-shift her craft with humans inside.
She unleashes her Divine Armor around her craft to ram through! “Brace yourselves for impact, humans!” She enters the code for her Embison maneuver, corkscrewing through the jagged hole in the wall—but a bent girder carves a nasty scratch that spirals across the hood and again across the magenta dome! “Awwww! Mom’s gonna be displeased! And this is the first time I can’t blame the wolf!”
“It was given to me by a fairy named Tyg. I attended a Hallow’s Eve Ball as her guest, and my Mother was there as a guest of Fairy Queen Ninavae.”
Femtite covers her mouth, and looks a little guilty.
”Oh, Chastity… I’m doing it again. I honestly meant to let you ask me questions, and then I would answer them directly. I’m trying to let you know the real me—Femtite, not just Maeve—but in a way that won’t overwhelm you.”
She tries to relax herself, knowing that Chastity is trying to open her mind. But not just that. She’s truly a wonderful person.
“Can we try again? You ask a question about something foreign to you. Maybe there’s something I haven’t told you about the pixie dust, or you’re interested in asking me superhero stuff, pixite stuff. And I give a simple answer and ask you something.
“But my question to you for now is, do you like this idea?”
Femtite’s tone is gentle. She hopes Chastity understands this Q&A session is optional, and meant to be a way to pace the getting-to-know-you stuff. (And that Femtite is trying to curb her information-overload habit!)
Max immediately leaps into the fray against Alcott, eager to redeem herself after her last poor showing against him. She uses her pheromones to distract him and get in close enough to deliver a powerful uppercut!
|
Even down on their luck as he is, with the reassuring presence of Captain Stalwart, Percy can't help but to feel a little better about what happened here today.
Conflux receives a text from Percy towards the end of the week.
'We need to talk about what happened, meet me at the base.'
'Try not to mind the weird scale piles I've been shedding or molting it's weird.'
Conflux —
:thumbs_up:
Connie arrives just a little early for the meetup, clearly loaded up with implements and options to tinker with some of her at-base-experiments
"Y'know, it's not that bad to shed weird scales as long as you've got skin underneath and I can see about an unguent if you need one..."
Percy Dorn —
Shedding may have been an understatement as Connie approaches Percy's assigned room. Only to find him vigorously rubbing his back against one of the support pillars. There's even a bit of blood on one of the other pillars.
"Yeah, scales still weird itches like you wouldn't believe. I don't actually know if there's skin though just feels like i'm covered in... ants."
He manages to tear himself away from the support for a bit, but he keeps his hands busy scratching at his arms
"The claws help though. Weirdly sensitive and desensitized."
Conflux —
"Yyyeah. Uh... Not to pry, but how much of this happened in the last week?!"
Percy Dorn—
"I don't know I just... i've just been doing it. My mind is on fire about everything that happened with your dad yesterday."
It's been quite a bit more than a day since the whole incident
"I can barely sleep, i don't actually remember when I last ate, it's just been non-stop.."
He raises his hand and peels off a layer of dull gray scales to reveal shinier silvery ones underneath, before discarding the shed molt to the side to finish the point
"This." he whines
Conflux —
"Oookay bud. It sounds like you've been losing some time, and that the whole mindfire thing might not be wholly metaphorical. I want to give you an exam, and maybe sedate you a bit so you can get some rest. That all sound okay?"
Percy Dorn—
"Of course i'm not okay Connie! I'm growing scales and saw a literal dragon fly out of my spell book. And your dad-he...he."
He shouts and then recoils realizing what he'd done
"Sorry I..." He breaths out slowly and forces himself to set his arms down flat on the table
"It's been alot, for everyone. So, yeah let's do your thing. Got any like i dunno ointment to make the itching stop?"
Conflux —
"Yeah, nowhere in there did I bother asking you if you were okay."
She fishes out a jar and pops the cork. "So normally this gets absorbed by the skin... Hopefully it'll still help some."
As she stepped behind him to reach some of the harder to goop spots on his back, Connie slipped a jeweler's loupe over her eye and took advantage of her proximity to get a closer look.
(Unleash to extend senses with a 12. I assume you can give a rundown of what she learns?)
Percy Dorn-
She learns that there isn't skin underneath the scales anymore. It's scale matrix all the way down, likely a permanent or at the very least semi-permanent situation. Likely to do with what Femtite said about him having dragon-blood somewhere in his lineage. The sudden spontaneity of the transformations are reminiscent of a sudden change in hormones, like a magically induced puberty, so she can surmise that this isn't the end of the changes. Given that the majority of his body is covered in scales except his head which has yet to change in any meaningful degree. That's likely the next thing to change and it might be a tad painful. Connie can posit that while his current 'juvenile' scales are still quite malleable and soft they'll quickly harden and might even make great reagents or foci for spells in the future.
Percy squirms a bit mostly from the sensation of the stuff
"Eeeasy, shoulders are especially bad right now."
He waits while she does her look over. "How are the others doing? Might have gotten a bit rough with Caio. I didn't really get eyes on Max afterwards or Shin and Fems.. he recovering well or still trying to break himself?"
Conflux —
"Caio's Wolf is gone along with his talent. Hopefully gone-gone and not just somewhere or someone else. Shin is recovering okay... Max is physically fine...
She purses her lips for a moment.
"So lemme ask, uh on a scale sorry from 1-10 how crazy would you want to get in undoing all this? Cause this looks at least D&D style permanent"
Percy Dorn—
"That's... yeah the wolf is uh.. somewhere. What you mean like we're gonna have to find a genie and wish it back to normal? Yeah like those exist."
He runs a hand through his hair catching and pulling a few hairs out with the scales
"Ah... damn. I don't know i've always been weird maybe there's an illusion I can throw over myself long term. For now? Or maybe recapturing all the magic things that escaped will get everything back to normal. I've uh actually went through a few ideas in my head. I should probably sleep on it though."
When she's done applying the ointment he turns to look at her
"How are you holding up? I mean that was all pretty awesome, you're set up i mean. But i'm a little weirded out you just handed the whole ritual over to me though."
Conflux —
"Oookay. So that sounded like a... 2? Maybe a 3? Which is fine! Live your truth. But I'll definitely focus on comfort over reversion for now then."
Not thinking of any easy ways to stall, she continues, "I guess I thought it was the simplest thing to do. What weirds you out about me handing the ritual over? Why do you think I did it?"
Percy Dorn -
"Oh right sorry you asked for a number uh.. yeah 4 i think."
He shrugs
"Just... your dad said stuff. And you showing up alone just... be honest with me did you know about this whole thing? About him trying to steal the book, me, and unleashing magic into the world again?Did you plan for me to bind myself to the new lock"
Conflux-
A ripple of pure frustration passes across Connie's face, but she smooths it away before replying, "The whole thing? Of course not. When's even the last time I spoke with Dear Old Dad? I did warn Shin who asked by the way that Dear Old Dad's interest in the book was out of proportion to what he was trying to offer you all for it. And I- Hmm."
She sticks her tongue to her front teeth and stares up that the ceiling for a moment. "I tried to warn you not to trust that deal. Did you notice that the diary was all smudged and weird in spots? Like it was a bad copy? Or had maybe been altered in some way? Like it might have been if it was coming from a Profoundly Untrustworthy Source?!"
"As for stealing you and more importantly, your power? I couldn't make it any clearer that only an absolute saint wouldn't at least think about it."
"As for his ritual... Coming from my family, I've learned to have a lot of potential contingencies. I've learned to try to plan for all kinds of things that might not ever happen. I didn't make any plans with the goal that you would bind yourself to the lock. But I did know it would work. Within reasonable tolerances of knowledge."
Percy Dorn —
Percy searches Connie's face silently for a time
"You did make it clear. I don't mean to accuse you either, he just got into my head, and with everything seeming so hopeless at the moment you were the only link I could go too without blaming myself more."
Drooping at the shoulders Percy gently rubs at his eyes with his palms
"I should have been better, less focused, less greedy. Set up dozens of wards like you do, something. And well you got a taste of it, the power. I won't have to worry about you trying to tear me open to get another taste right?" He smiles weakly, he didn't actually worry about her doing such a thing.
Conflux —
Connie clenches her jaw shut tight. She picks up the pot of unguent and throws it at Percy's chest, hard enough that it's leaking by the time it hits the floor.
"Okay," she breathes, fists clenched at her sides. "If you're trying to be careful and attentive now, try again."
Percy Dorn —
Reflexively he covers his face looking down to the pot on the floor. He contemplates just shutting up for now.
"I want to be better Connie." he lowers his hands. "DoD got me all paranoid, and that's... unfair to you."
Leaning down to pick up the unguent, he continues. "I've never felt so damn useless it was terrifying." He knew that wasn't exactly true, there was one other time.
"Thank you for saving me. Halcyon, heck the world."
Conflux —
Her eyes closed, Connie pinches the bridge of her nose hard. "Thank you Percy. I know you're trying. I'll try to keep keeping you safe. Like I did when I altered that diary that appeared inside your warded room?"
Percy Dorn —
Percy raised an eyebrow at that. "Altered the diary? What do you mean? I thought he'd sent both of those to me."
Conflux —
"Yep! Because when a diary appeared inside your room without you knowing quite how it got there, you didn't worry about what it might mean that that could happen! It didn't work, but I was trying!"
Percy Dorn —
"I... well.. why didn't you just tell me openly?"
Conflux —
"Which part, Perce? Tell you what?"
Percy Dorn —
"Why didn't you tell me you were testing my defenses, that he was? I mean it's late now but if I'd known that's what the second journal was about. Then I'd have been prepared, none of 'this' would have happened."
He shook his head, "I was so focused on them thinking maybe they held some secret to freeing Caio and Max. Then your ritual does one anyway. You could have said, 'Hey i've got an idea that might work but i need some extra juice.' Or something. "
Conflux —
Connie gnaws on her lip, blinking quickly. Finally she carefully says. "Damn. That would have been simpler."
Percy Dorn —
"Yeah, but none of us do simple, do we?"
He offered the jar back to Connie, "Could you get my lower back? Maybe we talk about Max's situation? Or if you're up for it the escaped magical beasts? Or... the nanometeor thing, it's okay if not I don't want to pry but after you got out I missed everything else that day."
Conflux —
Connie sighs as she dabs up some unguent from the leaking jar. "Fine... We can solve those problems at least. I was kinda focused on the less corporeal strands of everything once I got the ritual going, so go ahead and tell me what you think is on the loose..."
Percy Dorn —
Percy relaxes at the ointment's placement, who knew growing body armor would have downsides.
"Well not so much from your ritual, but I saw several creatures escape when the book came unbound. For now though the Wolf is wrapped up as the secondary guardian of the new weave. They get through me they've gotta deal with it."
He goes on to describe all the beasties that he saw fly out of the arcane conjunction.
"Caio!"
Shin walks up to him from behind. He's looking better, for someone who fell off a skyscraper and avoided another brush with death.
"Haven't seen you since the fight. Connie told me a bit about what you did..." He says to him. "Got a second to talk?"
Caio Costa —
"Hey Shin, sure, how are you doing?" He asks, looking for a place for them to talk and upon finding an empty bench on their way towards the dorms, he points out to it.
Horizon —
"Oh, I'm pretty good. I think my powers have some secondary benefits for recovery so I'm not going to be laid out for weeks," He tells Caio as they take a seat. "What about you? How are you doing after everything?"
Caio Costa —
Caio shrugs. "Fine I guess. I did what I had to do and I do not regret it, but this means I'm just a normal guy now." He says, showing a bit of sadness in his voice. "I'm still processing all that will come with this new reality... like, I do have a future now."
Horizon —
"Doesn't mean you don't still have a place on the team," Shin points out. "I can hook you up with some armor, Connie can ward it to make you a tank. If that's what you want, anyways. I totally understand if you want to break away clean. Get away from us that don't have much of a future," He half-jokes.
Caio Costa —
"Connie said the same thing... but I believe I should at least see how it is to be a normal person." He says. "Know what I'd be giving up."
"I'm not officially leaving the team yet, since the Corps asked me to help them... they fear that those who set up those symbols on Halloween might be up to something more, so they wanted someone to keep an eye around here." He shrugs again. "Might be nothing in the end."
Horizon —
"Okay. I hope you'll come to our classes for the time being." Shin tells him. "Just let me know if there's something that I can do to help. Even if its getting you a decent tool to protect yourself on your investigations. I've been tinkering with some collapsible rings I thought could make good capture devices. Though they're collecting dust in the base right now..."
Caio Costa —
"Well, even if I do end up leaving the team, if possible I'd like to still be around... I've come to consider you guys my friends after all, you know?" He says, half smiling.
"I'll ask Connie to work on a ward to protect me from evil runes for sure, and if you think there is anything in the base to help me go through it, I'd be a fool not to accept." He says. "I'm also considering if I should make some sort of announcement that I'm retired as the Wolf... what do you think?"
Horizon —
"You do you, Caio. Just be sure that you're caring for yourself. And should you manage to get bitten by some wereshark or something and develop powers again, we'll be here to help you out again." Shin tells him. "All right, good talk. I got to go check on Percy. He wasn't in class today."
Caio Costa —
"This announcement would be in line with caring for myself and those around me. Not sure if it would help or not against those that have something against me, if they'll see me as a weak target to revenge against or just someone that isn't a threat to them anymore."
Caio then opens his backpack and picks up four old books from inside it. "Since you are going to check Percy, could you bring these books to him? They are spellbooks, mostly on defensive magic, but since he lost his and I don't have an use for these anymore..."
Horizon —
"Sure thing." Shin takes the books from Caio. "Call me if you need anything. Otherwise I'll see you in class." he nods to his friend before heading to the dorms.
-------
After remembering that Percy was staying at the base, Shin suits up as Horizon and flies into the station while balancing the load of books he got from Caio in his other arm. "Hey, you in? It's Shin." He calls out. "Percy?"
Percy Dorn —
The base is not too different from the last time Horizon had come by before the various villains and whacky adventures into nanometeor
"Yeah, I'm in." Comes Percy's voice from elsewhere "Wait there for a bit i've got some wards i'm setting up but I hadn't tuned them to you yet... probably should have told the group in a text." A shirtless Percy comes into view showing Shin that the majority of his body is now covered in gray-silvered scales except for his face. His hands less resemble fingers and more clawed digits, but the intricate motions of him weaving some kind of spell show that they are no less dexterous than ever
"Oh.. hey Shh-orizon. Sorry I never visited while you were in the hospital, been um.. well dealing with this."
Horizon —
"Uh. Yeah I can see why that might be a big deal..." Horizon says as he places the books down on the table. "Soooo...what's going on with you? Because it looks like you've got some interesting skin condition..."
Percy Dorn —
Percy shrugs "Not exactly sure, got a few theories running though. Huge exposure to aether caused me to go through a sort of metamorphosis. Lots of creatures were released when my spellbook was destroyed. Maybe I was always gonna be like this? I don't know, tell you what though I'm glad Connie came by with that ointment stuff first few days were hell with all the molting."
He shakes his head and scratches at his chest instinctively
"If that's what normal lizards go through let me tell you I suddenly have a lot more respect cause that sucked. You're all sensitive, itchy, wired, and exhausted all at the same time."
Horizon —
"I understand why you wouldn't want to attend class when you were, uh, molting." Shin tells him, taking a seat. "I have to ask though, can you whip up some magic to look like you normally did, or do you plan to attend classes like this now?" Shin asks.
Percy Dorn —
"Well... it's complicated, You know most of my spell knowledge was because of the book yeah? I never really used illusion magic anyway because well what was the point most of the time."
He rolls a hand and looks at the books Shin had brought with a definite sour look "Well... I don't know any good transmutation or illusion spells. Even if I did claws aren't exactly the friend of paper or writing implements."
Percy clacks them as if to demonstrate they are much harder than human nails
Horizon —
"I like handwriting as much as the next guy, but even I see how handy tech can be for taking notes on a phone or doing dictation," Shin points out. "You've got the luck to be living in a time where you can get all the accommodations you need to keep up with school. But if your issues are more about how others might look at you now...might I suggest you talk to Max?"
Percy Dorn —
Percy manages to keep himself from rolling his eyes
"Yeah, Max is a great one to go to for advice on being okay with how I look. But i'm... oddly at peace with this, it's just weird shit from magic like usual. Come on don't wanna stand awkwardly in the main room the entire time while we talk just feels gamey."
He starts to walk to the lounge confident he'll pick up the books later
"Anyway it's one thing for Max cause she's openly Devil Diva. You're openly Horizon, Caio's openly the Wolf... er well was." He scratches his neck gingerly "But I'm Percy and Indarius. People aren't gonna be like, oh hey why is he a silver lizard, dragon guy, and you're a silver lizard dragon guy. Weird coincidence that you both came down with that whole thing at the same time."
Horizon —
"I get that. I'm still wondering when my friends are going to start on the whole asking about having superpowers thing since I came out," Shin says. "At least it's in good faith. Not like...well, the past," Shin tells Percy. "But I suppose that it's more likely you'll have random people walking up asking questions."
Percy Dorn —
"Yeah probably wont get nearly as far before the scalie questions start pouring in. Along with the why are you like that, is your dad a lizard, and all that. Plus, I can only suspect that my scales are going to make great reagents for any up and coming wizard you know the ones. So I'd rather not put those into anymore hands then necessary."
Horizon —
"Okay. Do you need any help coming up with solutions to this?" Shin asks him. "If you already have plans I'm not going to try and complicate things. But I'm here for you if there's anything that you need."
Percy Dorn —
Percy shrugs, "We've got Caio sorted out, so next on the list of fix'em ups was Max. Connie's on that though as far as I know. As for me." He let out a resolute sigh, "I dunno, catching and returning all the critters that escaped from the book is the best thing i've got as a start. Not like I can just look up a spell that'll make everything 'normal' again. I just wanna make sure everyone is safe from the consequences of my failings as guardian."
Horizon —
"I'm not talking about making you normal. You're already normal, just for yourself," Shin says encouragingly. "But solving the issues of you attending classes while disguising your changes, what's your plan? There's options out there."
Percy Dorn —
"I was going to simply apply to take classes digitally under the guise of having been affected by the latest super scramble. Technically not a lie. "
Horizon —
"But if you're using that as your cover story, then there's no reason to hide away in classes, right?" Shin points out. "Half the schools have had some animal transformations in their student body. Students were accommodated for that. As for working as part of the team - that's the point of costumes, right?"
Percy Dorn —
"You don't think folks are gonna question why Indarius is also a silver lizard?"
He weighs the idea for a while, "I mean there... have been stranger coincidences."
Horizon —
"I'm saying that with the right costume, no one's going to even see a silver lizard, fella," Shin points out. "Plenty of heroes go full body for lots of reasons. You can hide your scales in Indarius' new costume. News will probably think it's got something to do with the last big fight, which is true enough."
"Also, as far as I've seen, so long as you can maintain some plausible deniability, people will tend to not call you out on your secret identity unless you've been a real bastard to them. I'm fairly certain half of the people I know figured out I was Horizon even before I was open with my powers in public."
Percy Dorn — "I'll... have to think on it Shin. After what happened at the Dorm it sort of opened my eyes on how reckless i've been. I mean the world was almost irrevocably changed because I just charged blindly ahead and failed the one thing I guess I was actually entrusted in doing."
After a week of contemplation and itchy nuscances Percy feels that despite his best efforts to actually save people his lack of effort into protecting himself caused more danger for people than he'd protected.
|
|
Indarius warps onto the scene covered in his usual attire, but unable to fully conceal all the changes. He watches the situation unfolding above before moving to help those trapped within the buildings. He focuses and is about to cast a spell to detect nearby people, but instead he catches a wiff of something delectable. Though it's a smell he can't place he is practically drawn to it. He finds a group of civilians hiding in a jewelry store, likely just a nearby roof to try and wait out the chaos. With no delay while the air is clear for the moment he starts ordering people down the street. Some debris from the structure that Conflux is trying to keep up starts to come down upon the group and Indarius quickly throws up an arcane barrier.
"Go on, keep going i've got this. Get to the rail station just down the alleyway, stick together!"
Chastity's mouth drops open in disbelief when she's told she guessed right. "No. Really? I know weird things happen to superheroes, but fairy dust? You're not just playing me because I like Peter Pan, right?"
Femtite is eventually able to convince her that she's serious, and then comes close again to overwhelming her. Chastity thinks hard about her offer to ask a challenging question. "You... seem like you have lots of thoughts. And I'll admit, I'm just a normal person. And all this is a lot. Not just regular superhero craziness, but other-world princess stuff too! I'm sorry I'm not moving as fast as you'd like. Maybe... instead of me asking you a question, you tell me the thing you most want me to know. How's that?"
The team gets to work, moving civilians out of danger zones while shoring up buildings that have taken heavy hits. Devil Diva, however, bounds into the actual fighting and manages to land a strike against Alcott.
The mayhem continues as the alien bounty hunter continues his pursuit of Praetoria while she resists and the Alliance tries to defend her. The banter comes through the team-wide channel.
"Give up! We're not letting you take her! You have no jurisdiction!" Captain Stalwart shouts through gritted teeth as he trades blows.
The baby-faced alien catches the hero's fist and uses the momentum to send him into the side of a skyscraper. "I've got a bounty; I'm taking her in. After my first attempt showed me I'd encounter more resistance, I've prepared counter-measures against everyone likely to try to stop me. You give this up," the alien's matter-of-fact voice is broadcasted through his translators.
"Sorry, we're stubborn that way," Praetoria shouts as she renews her attack. She flies in close but it's a feint, and as she whips around towards his back she again unleashes her eye beams. But Alcott's ablative plating again reflects the powerful rays in random directions.
Whippoorwill is forced to dodge out of the way of an errant optic blast, a couple of her pinfeathers singed. She glares at the young hero. "Watch it!" She flies in an erratic pattern and flings a barrage of weaponized quills, alternating acid, freezing, and explosive attacks in an attempt to cut through Alcott's armor. "All right, you're saying you're not leaving until you take her away. But this crime she's supposedly committed, is there some way of working this out? Can she plea to probation or something?"
"She's been tried and convicted in her absence. She's going to serve her sentence. The longer she remains at large, the greater the penalty for retrieval and resistance will be," Alcott responds while sending a disruptive pulse against Ordnance who had tried to reconfigure himself into a more powerful weapons platform.
"Guess we'll have to agree to disagree," Praetoria says as she tries to pit her strength against the alien, flying in close to grapple him. For a moment, she seems to be overpowering him, giving Captain Stalwart a chance to fly in and add his own strength. But Alcott's armor issues a repulsor pulse that sends them both caroming away and crashing into nearby buildings.
That leaves Devil Diva and Whippoorwill squaring off against the bounty hunter! The winged heroine engages in an aerial dance, deploying her energized monofilament whip but still unable to penetrate the alien's armor!
The drones previously deployed by Alcott converge on Praetoria, blasting her with some sort of stasis beam and freezing her in mid-air!
Nearby, Foray joins the others helping evacuate bystanders from the vicinity. "This foe seems to require all of us," he says to Indarius as the last of the civilians retreat to the alleyway. "Can you get me up there?"
Horizon was ready to keep the field safe, but from what he saw most of the civilians were already out of the danger zone. So seeing Praetoria getting stuck in a stasis field...well, hopefully Alcott wasn't prepared for Horizon coming to the rescue!
He gathers up energy and lances it out to strike the drones down, giving Praetoria the assistance she needs to resist the rest of them! But he's keenly aware that he's drawn Alcott's attention...
“What I want you to know the most is that I don’t think you’re ordinary. I want to know about the photo I saw in your room, where you and many peers were fixing a house.
“Learning more about you is more interesting than talking about pixie dust and super-princess stuff.”
• • • • •
Femtite hears the call to arms, and as soon as the humans disembark her Bug, she pulls a sharp aerial U-turn and speeds toward the enemy! “This is for space princesses everywhere!”
She mashes the kick buttons, triggering the Electric Bugaloo to lightning-kick Alcott—and hopefully fry the circuits within his power suit!
|
|
Indarius works his hand in a downward curling motion folding the arcane barrier so that the debris slides off harmlessly into the roadway. Glancing over to Foray he nods, "Give me a moment and I'll cast a flight spell on you. Simply think where you want to go, might be a little jarring at first."
The next series of Praetoria eyeblasts arcs overhead drawing his attention for a moment. "She really needs to learn that eyebeam thing doesn't work and STOP DOING IT!"
He huffs in frustration before motioning to Foray, "Stay still a moment. Bo wah dii Grah-zeymahzin" With that Foray felt detached from the shackles of gravity.
"I'll support you all from the ground, good luck."
With that dealt with, he tries to pick out the rest of his ground-based team and join up with them. Scanning the air to gauge the fight he curses at the lack of time to prepare himself, though after the recent events perhaps tapping into the strained ley-lines while they are still rather tumultuous isn't the best call.
He attempts to draw just a little bit to try and protect Ordanance from the pulse.
Of course. Immediately running into danger. Not a care in the world for what goes into a ward or what goes unprotected because I'm busy.
F!&~ it.
"Okay everyone, don't forget, goal #1: Stop this guy from destroying the city. If that means we have to fight him another day again, that's better than making a mess where eight million people and change eat. He's way too strong to risk letting ego take the lead."
First step of superhero triage: Assess urgency.
Second step: Assess opportunity.[/i]
Seeing Whippoorwill struggle to get past Alcott's armor, Devil Diva digs her claws into the metal plates, attempting to pry them apart just enough for the whip to get through! If the armor proves too strong, she will instead deliver a flurry of powerful punches to the alien bounty hunter's midsection!
Very aware of how deadly the whole place was, Caio knew that he'd only make things worse if he tried to help in the fight. Instead, he keeps helping people move around and flee, though with most of them gone he has some time to watch the fight more closely.
Chastity shrugs. "Oh, that was just a mission trip. I do them pretty regularly. Every summer, my youth group goes to an underprivileged area and do repairs. Replace roofs, build wheelchair ramps, fix floors, that sort of thing. It's a lot of work -- especially in the summer where it's so hot. But fun. And rewarding."
Conflux and Caio both spend a moment to observe and prepare. While Caio centers himself in the event he's called into the fight, Conflux looks around and sees that this district of the city -- and possibly more -- is most in danger of the collateral damage if this fight continues. Ending it quickly is imperative -- but she's not sure that overwhelming Alcott with brute strength is the right way. Maybe with the addition of Devil Diva and Femtite's Bug, but the alien has withstood the combined might of Captain Stalwart and Praetoria. Shunting him into another dimension worked the last time, but if he's prepared for the same trick it probably won't work. Unfortunately, the quickest way would be giving him Praetoria.
Horizon blasts at the drones deploying the stasis field, but they turn and encase him! Suddenly his muscles become rigid as he's frozen in place! Praetoria bursts out of the weakened field, though. "Thanks -- aw, damn," she begins, but sees Horizon caught in the same trap. She starts trying to bash them to free him, but they're nimble, dancing out of her way -- apparently they needed a lot more power to contain Praetoria than Horizon.
Indarius gives Foray a magical boost, and the swordsman flies into the fray. The wizard then turns to Ordnance to help the techno-alien from whatever disruption attack he's suffering. Unfortunately, the magic power line he reaches for is metaphorically thin and frayed -- Indarius can't draw enough to do any good! Ordnance crashes hard on the roof of a nearby building, still out of the fight!
Femtite's Electric Bugaloo lightning arc blasts Alcott's armor, causing sparks to fly around him! Unfortunately, his suit deploys emergency counter-measures and blasts back at the Bug! Alcott looks down briefly at the unexpected damage to his armor. "You've upgraded."
Any more discussion about the technological improvements of the Bug is cut off as Devil Diva drives her claws into nearly microscopic gaps in his defenses caused by Whippoorwill's monofilament whip, trying to wedge a gap for the winged hero's quills! The explosive ones detonate in rapid succession while Captain Stalwart appears from the hole in the building he'd been blasted into and delivers a massive uppercut!
Alcott is blown upwards, but he stabilizes. Whippoorwill catches Devil Diva before she falls and flips her back up in pursuit, just as Cap does. But Alcott shakes off the blow, and even though his armor is sparking a bit, more drones eject from his oversized back plate. "Not real fair, ganging up on me like this. Guess I'll have to play dirty," he says as he escalates the situation dangerously.
The drones start flying off in random directions, firing deadly lasers haphazardly!
What do you do??
Devil Diva grabs a hold of Alcott to stop from falling. Instead of continuing to attack him, though, she unleashes a concentrated burst of pheromones, hoping to distract and confuse him!
The pheremonal attack suddenly causes Alcott's entire suit to go on lockdown! A massively powerful forcefield encases the alien.
Captain Stalwart flies up and delivers a massive punch, but it doesn't budge.
Whippoorwill gapes briefly, then flies after the drones. "That gave us a breather! Let's get those drones!"
"Oh, what now..." Caio sighs as he sees the many drones flying around and causing wanton destruction. While he can't do much about them, he runs to help the people caught in the crossfire, for a moment forgetting he is as much vulnerable as they are.
As he runs around, Caio feels a small drizzle against his face and amid the blasts, he can hear a distant thunder.
Well this was unfortunate, as he found himself getting caught in the same trap as Praetoria - and he was not nearly as powerful as she was physically, so it didn't take much for him to get stuck. Thankfully Femtite's Love Bug, the clipped a drone enough to allow him to lash out and destroy enough of the other ones to escape. He was pretty ticked off about it though.
Then Alcott started sending his drones into the city, and he couldn't let that happen! "Focus you efforts on screening those drones! I need options - could we shut down his suit somehow?" He asks the team as he flies after drones to prevent them from causing more collateral damage.
Horizon's still wound up from getting caught by the drones in the first place. His own attacks aren't connecting as he restricts his power to avoid causing collateral damage of his own in the process, but he can't hit their erratically moving bodies!
✴️✴️✴️✴️▶️
Femtite activates the fail-safe measures in the new Bug.
Upgraded. That’s one way to put it.
She engages the enemy in conversation, while making evasive maneuvers. “From one alien to another, you should leave. You can’t go onto someone else’s world and expect them to yield to your world’s ways.
“And when a human comes to your world and does something you don’t like, then leaves your world never to return—
“You let her go.”
Femtite sees Alcott lock up. She turns to the drones and fires hadoukens, freeing Horizon in the process! She draws fire and makes evasive maneuvers so other heroes can take more drones!
“You are a true hero, Chastity.” As much as Femtite hoped to talk her out of wasting her time with Jonathan, she needs to do as she did with Oreo. Wait and see.
For now she is too impressed with the girl she can’t have to resent that she can’t have her.
Connie stays hidden; she doesn't trigger her comms or even raise her voice as she says. "Kayla? Praetoria? I know you don't want to hear this, especially from me, but I think this is the best way to actually keep everyone safe..."
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Indarius actively falters when the ley-lines seem so dry. Perhaps it was just a weak branch, but... they'd never felt that low especially here. That scared him a bit.
"Shit, okay new plan... low energy way to defend the city from dozens of drones attacking all at once."
He takes a trickle of aetheric energy and starts to form it into a rune designed to attract a similar rune. He then casts renders the rune into a small sigil and multiplies it several times while leaving a single 'base' to attract to. Taking aim he flings the 'base' rune at one drone and then sends the others arcing along towards the other drones. With luck that should pull them all together and make it a much easier target.
Femtite's words are unconvincing to the mercenary doing a job for currency.
Once Alcott goes into lockdown and system purge of DD's pheromones, the heroes get to work dispatching the drones.
Horizon fights his way free from the stasis field and turns to fight the drones, but his lack of a clear head costs him. He misses and finds himself dead-to-rights in the target's weapon. But before it can fire and perhaps do the unthinkable, a razor-thin whip coils around it and slices it to pieces! Whippoorwill's feathered shape passes over him toward another drone, but she still chides, "What have I told you! Keep your head clear!"
Caio sees some drones head his way. He pushes the civilians he's with out of the path of a laser blast that comes so close to him that it leaves a burn line on his skin and his clothes blacken. The reality of his lack of superhuman toughness hits home.
Indarius succeeds in reversing the spread of the drones and pulls them together. Ordnance gets a chance to recover and lobs an explosive shell in the middle of the grouping, blasting several of them at once. Unfortunately, the mage dropped his guard as he was working his spell, and one of the drones that had slipped the net blasts him!
Femtite feels something land on the Bug right after helping free Horizon. She quickly realizes it's Foray, balancing on her Bug's hull. She pilots her Bug into the path of a couple drones and the swordsman's blades slash them as they move past, which frees Captain Stalwart to focus on another pair drifting away in the opposite direction.
Conflux reaches out to Praetoria. "Okay, so, brute force isn't cutting it, and he has essentially infinite hostages while we're fighting him here. We need to let him win."
Quickly forestalling Kayla's complaints she continued. "Not for real or anything. But we need to give him a win, a convincing win. Now you could just surrender, and we could figure out how to follow after him and rescue you, buuuuut..." she grinned wickedly up at Praetoria while she levitated down to where Conflux was hiding. "I'd much rather have you leading the charge when we go after this guy for keeps, where you won't have to hold back. So whaddya say? You want to get the jump on this jerk for once?"
Over comms back, Praetoria replies "No! I…What kind of hero am I if I risk letting him hurt anyone else? Even if we win, unless we kill him it will just piss him off and he can come back here for revenge. And if we did kill him…then we aren’t heroes anymore. No…this…this is the only way. Keep the team back. And…and tell Max I’m sorry.”
"Girl, what?! If we successfully beat him down we can just get rid of his suit with a f#$%ing can opener. Then we can throw him in prison or just f#!#ing forget about him. He's clearly tough, but tech like this ain't cheap anywhere. Besides, I never said we were gonna give him anyone else. Your PR team literally makes little effigies of you. Some samples from you and a little secret sauce, and we don't have to get anything important hurt! No offense to the resale value of the Praetoria line, it's already out of the original packaging"
Praetoria makes definitive eye contact with Conflux before removing the earbud and dropping it purposely to the ground. "Call the attack off, Alcott! You win!” Praetoria turns to Captain Stalwart and calls out, "Tell everyone to stand down. I am choosing to go with him on my own. And tell everyone not to follow.”
What do you do??
Shin didn't flinch when the drone that was about to bore a hole through him was ripped from the sky, though he felt stupid for letting it get the drop on him in the first place. "Yes sensei! Sorry sensei!" He shouts as he flies after her to help with the clean-up of the drones.
Horizon looks at the rebooting Alcott and ponders if there's a way to fully lock down his suit through magic, when Praetoria starts to surrender. This was really bad if she was giving up. Horizon feels more than a little frustrated because it's not likely any of them, least of all himself, will be able to convince her otherwise. Especially when she's dropped her comm, if his visor picked that up correctly.
Which meant that he had to fly in close enough for her to hear him, and Alcott as well. Great. "Kayla, if you do this, you're betraying everyone that this man has hurt for the sake of his wallet. You're not the one who needs to submit herself to justice, Alcott does. If you go with him, he escapes justice. You tell everyone down there watching us it's all right to let a man destroy their homes and leave. Don't give in to his bully tactics, Prae. You're too damn stubborn to let him have you that easily."
Fem soars over to Praetoria, pulling to a hover at Horizon’s side.
“Praetoria, please listen to him. You saved an enslaved princess. Alcott invaded our world and endangered lives.
“He cannot claim his world is sovereign while on your world, denying its sovereignty.”
If she and Horizon still have not convinced her, Femtite will try to get a read.
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As the explosion rocks out and destroys most of the drones Indy takes a moment to celebrate perhaps too prematurely as he throws up a flash barrier to try and block one of the escaped drone's attacks. With the thin aether it pierces through and burns through his robe. Then the world goes red before fading to black as one of the drone wreckages strikes him in the head sending the mage sprawling on the ground.
"Un-f!@&ingbelievable. Why do I bother? What was I thinking appealing to duty or even arrogance when self-destruction was right there for her to go for?"
Okay, Plan B? Imagerie's too far away, and Percy's down... I can't take Kayla out, make a duplicate, **and** keep Alcott from noticing
Plan C then. Just gotta hope inter-dimensional tracking and inter-planar tracking aren't **too** different... Just need the Praetoria doll, a bit of chewing gum, and a prototype Conflux-brand tracker, Extra-Strength.
Max's eyes widen when she hears Praetoria agreeing to surrender herself to Alcott. The demoness still clings to the bounty hunter's armor, listening as Shin and Femtite try to talk Kayla down.
"Kayla, please. Don't do this," Max pleads earnestly. "There are many other ways to resolve this and prevent any further danger. The city needs you here. I--."
She pauses to swallow and lowers her eyes. "I need you. Things ended between us in a strange place, and I can't let you go until I make things right again. So, please. Stay. If not for yourself, then for me."
Caio looks at his blackened clothes and the burn mark, both relieved that it was nothing serious and terrified with the knowledge that if he was a couple inches closer he could have been dead. He shakes his head at the thought, not wanting to be paralyzed by fear.
As Praetoria's drama unfurls, Caio sees Indarius falling, and seeing no one was paying attention, he rushes to catch him.
Caio sprints to get beneath Indarius and catches him before he hits the ground.
As the drones threat is nullified, the heroes try to talk Praetoria out of giving herself up. Even Captain Stalwart and Whippoorwill join in. "Your friends are right. We don't capitulate to threats like what Alcott's throwing around," the caped hero says.
"Think about it: you're putting yourself at the mercy of an alien legal system. You don't even know the penalty you'd be facing. You can't even put up a defense, he said you were convicted in your absence," Whippoorwill warns.
Praetoria grits her teeth as everyone tries to dissuade her. She gestures in the direction of the alien bounty hunter. "You think it's going to end with him? What if they send more?! What if a battleship drops into orbit and threatens the planet?"
She turns to Femtite. "Yes I saved a princess. I don't regret what I did. So I'll face the consequences. I'm not afraid." Praetoria pivots to look at Horizon. "You know I'll fight and I hate that he's forcing my hand, but I'm choosing to make the sacrifice. My parents did the same thing, remember?" A tear runs down her cheek.
She starts to look in the direction of Max, but turns her head away quickly, not able to meet her eyes.
What do you do?
Femtite doesn’t need time to think. She knows her history.
“Praetoria, understand that when the pixites were freed from slavery and tyranny, there was no great war. One pixite faced the Nanite King in single combat, slayed him, then blasted the claw-arm off of his right hand man. With the strongest Nanite taken out, his second surrendered while he still had most of his limbs.
“So why Alcott’s interest in you? Maybe his people do plan on bringing battleships here. What better way to embolden the enemy and increase their chances of winning than to remove Earth’s strongest young hero from the equation?”
Femtite opens her magenta dome and hovers to the teen paragon.
“I cracked his armor. I need you to break the suit, then give it to me. I can learn about his technology, then in addition to capturing Alcott, there may be a means to prevent an invasion from his dimension.
“But you’re the only one strong enough to get him out of that suit!”
Praetoria shakes her head and glares at Femtite. "You weren't there. Luz 7 is obsessed with commerce. I committed they're biggest crime -- disrupting a sale. So your plan is to keep fighting so I can break open his armor. What do you think I've been trying to do? And then hope there's tech that can stop an invasion? I'm not risking this world for that!"
Suddenly, the force field drops around Alcott. He has a high-tech gas mask over his mouth, but he can still be heard through the translator in his armor as he looks around with his beady eyes. "Oh good, you're still here." He gets ready for more combat.
"Wait!" Praetoria throws her hands up. The alien pauses.
There's a moment before fighting breaks out again. What do you do?
"You know I'll fight and I hate that he's forcing my hand, but I'm choosing to make the sacrifice. My parents did the same thing, remember?"
"Yeah, because they didn't want their daughter to make the same kind of sacrifice as well. This doesn't honor them, Prae. You're not making a choice to protect the world from an invasion. And you're assuming that it's all on you to protect the world. No one can hold the world on their shoulders alone," Horizon tells her, as he looks over at Alcott.
She's right about one thing - powers and strength alone will have a tough time to get this bounty hunter to stop. He certainly knew how to plan ahead to counter them all, judging by how he was wiping the floor with everyone. But he had options, and ideas. "Hey, Alcott, for someone who's doing this for the money, seems like you're going to be spending more on fixing your armor and replacing your drones than you'll be getting paid for this job. How much longer until your costs are more than double the pay? Triple?"
She doesn’t deserve DD.
Femtite taps her Bug, transforming it to a cell phone. She watches Praetoria without saying another word. But she types a few.
☀️: It’s the rift.
☀️: I’m going to examine it as soon as the rift closes.
☀️: My Mom can hook up a rift generator to the Bug.
☀️: Two. We would need one for the return trip.
☀️: I assume we’re going to rescue her, in addition to discouraging an alien invasion.
Alcott eyes the forces against him warily, but doesn't make a move. Instead, he looks Horizon up and down, considering his questions. "My expenses incurred in bringing in the convicted is assessed against her sentence. So the more she resists, the bigger her sentence." He turns to Captain Stalwart. "Incidentally, your planet can submit a claim for damages caused by Praetoria. They too will be applied to her sentence and you will be reimbursed."
He turns back to Horizon. "So you see, young Terran, you can't simply raise the costs in the hopes that I'll give up. All you'll be doing is making her debt greater."
Praetoria interjects. "Wait. Debt? You mean I have to, like, pay you back?"
He doesn't seem fazed at all about your threat to jack up his costs. He must be telling the truth about compensation.
You could gain Influence by trying to talk Praetoria into surrendering. (Big surprise)
He plans on doing what it takes to bring her in. You get the sense that there's a reputation that he has to maintain as well.
“As a slave, obviously,” Femtite says to Praetoria.
“I wonder what a society that enslaves would have you do with your powers. Do you really think innocents will be safe if you surrender to these monsters?”
"So on that, reasonably speaking, how much would it cost Praetoria to simply pay off what she owes now in debt? If all the denizens of Luz 7 want is financial recompense, can't she just give you the value of her current debt to hand to them without you bringing her in?" Horizon asks as he arbitrates and also stalls for time while his team works in the wings. Though he's starting to realize that perhaps there's a way to get out of this without a fight.
"On that note, if you're saying we're allowed to claim damages caused by Praetoria, what about damages caused by the bounty hunter assigned to bring her back? You're saying you're not at fault?" He asks.
Alcott consults a readout on his gauntlet. "An initial debt of 1.2 billion standard currency units, with a guilty assessment of 20 percent, plus my fee and costs... the being Praetoria currently owes 1.785 billion scu."
Praetoria gasps at the sum.
The alien continues responding to Horizon. "Of course I'm not at fault. The damage was necessary to bring about her capture. This planet is not a member of the commerce guild, but may still make a claim for damages pursuant to Provision 9367.2. Of course, not being a member of the guild means you probably won't have the scus to cover her debt."
Praetoria speaks up, hands balling into fists. "Femtite has a point. I won't be used as some tool to hurt innocents."
Alcott sighs. "You'll be free to pick the compensation contract of your choice. Someone of your abilities will be offered plenty of options."
Femtite points out the destruction. ”Are we seriously having this discussion? Who is going to honor our claim? The same government that permits you to invade and risk killing innocent people? I suspect the panel review would be heavily biased.”
She turns to Praetoria. “What choice will you get on a world that enslaves princesses and sends reckless bounty hunters after those who free slaves? You will be the one catching slaves and those who free them!
“Sorry if my plan isn’t good enough for you, but is it really worse than letting these jerks own you?”
I really miss having a psychic on board.
Horizon rubs his temple as he recalls the information seared into his mind by Alcott when they first met. If Praetoria was to serve this sentence, it would be unlikely she would be able to pay it off in her lifetime, or even her grandchildren's lifetime. It was a concerning amount. Something didn't sit right with Shin about this.
He gestures to the combined forces of the team and the Alliance. "They didn't field a bounty hunter like you to capture Praetoria just because of the value of her crime. They picked you because they knew that no one else stood a chance to capture her. After all, we overthrew the intergalactic warlord who forced the princess to sell herself and her planet in the first place. So if you fail to bring Praetoria in, I'm betting the farm that they have only unprofitable options to get back. Which would also leave a black stain on your record for the rest of your career," He adds to poke at the hunter's reputation.
"You know, I thought that Princess Ai'leyla was going to work something out now that her homeworld is a member of the Iron Confederacy to null the whole contract of sale. Those guys don't seem like the type to leave loose ends like that hanging." Horizon looks at Alcott. "But I don't suppose you've checked in with your employers recently to see if anything's changed?"
"Princess Ai'leyla?? F#**. I really should have read the dossiers."
Switching back to team comms she sidled closer to the conflict
"Okay, I'm not on team let Alcott win, obviously, but I don't think I can crack his armor without samples or prep. Buuuut if we can't fight him somewhere safe, I have some ideas to lock him down here..."
Femtite hears Connie. She checks Alcott’s armor where it’s already cracked to see what she can take at the molecular level.
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Caio carries Indarius on his shoulder towards the others, trying to think about a way around the whole situation, while mentally congratulating Connie to keep her cool as Femtite seemed to compare their own rescue mission to the Nanometeor as to what Alcott was doing, while ignoring that Praetoria's sentence was basically the one Femm's mother's tried to force upon Connie.
He then gets an idea. "Alcott, could you communicate with your employers a different proposal?" He asks once he finally gets closer. "Look, even if Praetoria is willing to surrender to you, there will be some among us who will not accept it and will do whatever they can to see her free, which you can certainly see could cause more damage and costs. "
"You say your employers plan to use her powers to their gain, but even if she is powerful, she is only one person... How about instead of her, our team goes to your world instead? As a team, we are far more resourceful, and we can certainly achieve success in a trade agreement your masters are having trouble with... But we'll have to discuss with them about a work that doesn't violate our own morals. Meanwhile, Praetoria stays here, arrested." He looks between all involved. "Does this seam reasonable? I'm sure your masters can see that a new trade route or agreement will quickly be worth much more than what Praetoria owes them."
Praetoria replies to Femtite under her breath, "They try to make me do something like that, I'll bring their entire society down around their heads."
Alcott waves his hand dismissively at Horizon's mention of Princess Ai'leyla and the Iron Federation. "Luz 7 is strictly neutral regarding the current conflict between Nuvoa and the Iron Incursion. I took the job because it's worth my while."
Caio's idea is met with a shrug from Alcott and some concerned looks from Captain Stalwart and Whippoorwill.
The alien speaks first, sternly. "They're not my employers; I'm an independent contractor. I can't make any arrangements other than bringing the target in. Any arrangements you can make to shorten her sentence has to be through Luz 7's commerce council."
Whippoorwill says softly out of the corner of her mouth, "And be careful about making bargains on behalf of the whole planet, kid."
While this conversation is going on, Conflux weighs her options. She notices the earlier cracks are repaired with some sort of sealant. That's probably the best place to stash a tracker that could be missed. Physical vulnerabilities seem in short supply, but with more information about this ultra-capitalist society there might be a weakness Connie can identify.
Femtite gives Prae a look that shows respect. She makes no move to sway her further.
She says aloud, “You Earthlings and Luz-Sevenites have a lot to discuss. I’ll just clean up the litter while you all chat.”
She hops in her Bug and starts to collect pieces of the drones.
☀️: Their remains should suffice for the samples you need.
Whippoorwill gestures to Horizon to step aside. Once several yards away, she positions herself so she can view Alcott and Praetoria but they can't see Shin's face. Softly, she says, "Only you and Praetoria have been to Luz 7. I need your assessment of the place. What sort of people are we dealing with? Let's say we subdue Alcott and contain him here. Is Praetoria right? Would we be looking at a potential invasion?"
Caio turns to Praetoria. "Even if for honorable reasons, you already broke their laws, so there is no chance they will trust your word. If they want you locked down, for sure they will have some way to nullify your powers. If they want you to act as their pawn, for sure they will have a way to force you into doing their bidding." While she had earned a bit of his respect by offering to go with Alcott, he still thought about her as a short-sighted hothead.
He doesn't really understand Whippoorwill's concern as he only offered his team's help.
Not wanting to fill her Bug with garbage, Femtite doesn’t bother taking more than one broken drone. And if Connie isn’t interested, she’ll likely toss it somewhere. She shrinks her Bug and observes Caio talking to Prae. She’s not sure why he suggested Earth locking her up for an act of heroism which is only a crime on Luz 7. Is that really how Halcyon City’s legal system works? Any world can impose its rules on another’s?
She hears Caio’s warning that Luz 7 might have power-nullifying technology. Femtite wonders if that would leave a pixite stuck in her humanish form, like what Mother did to Connie.
She hovers closer to Foray. Seeing that he surfed on her Bug, he may be among the few who has noticed her and appreciated her performance. A big improvement over the defending-robots lesson!
“It’s wrong for Praetoria to be arrested. Alcott broke several Earth laws, and Luz 7 wouldn’t hand him over to us. What’s the point of a sovereign world if any other world can impose their laws and make arrests? From Earth’s point of view and my world’s, slavery is wrong.”
Femtite is aware Connie thinks her own Mother is a slaver, which she isn’t, just as she understands her Queen Mother broke no law, but she wronged Connie in a most horrible way. And she knows how badly things could escalate…!
“Not to mention Princess Ai'leyla’s world. I’m sure taking their princess is grounds for war. It’s possible Praetoria saved a multitude of lives.”
She isn’t sure if Foray will respond, but the conversation she really wants would need to happen later. She remains ready for the situation to sharply escalate on Alcott’s whim or a teammate’s. Her Ladybug hair clip will be her craft (and maybe Foray’s surfboard) if fighting starts again.
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Whippoorwill gestures to Horizon to step aside. Once several yards away, she positions herself so she can view Alcott and Praetoria but they can't see Shin's face. Softly, she says, "Only you and Praetoria have been to Luz 7. I need your assessment of the place. What sort of people are we dealing with? Let's say we subdue Alcott and contain him here. Is Praetoria right? Would we be looking at a potential invasion?"
Horizon reflects on the society of Luz 7 as he recalled it from an adventure that seemed like a lifetime ago. "They're a capitalistic society. Everyone who comes in is assessed for their value. One of them offered me 50 scus for one of my teeth. But Frostbite sold off some of his blood and though his value went down it was recovering after a while. Prae got offered to be bought wholesale and I think that didn't help her decision to break their laws to get the princess out of there."
Shin was looking at this like a complicated diagram for a gadget. He had the pieces, but there was something itching at the back of his memory. Something that-
Could have told them about her brother-
Oh. OH!
Shin accessed Clocktower suddenly. It had a huge database that as hodge-podged from numerous decades of technology. But he was looking for something that correlated to what he knew. A man with pink skin and iridescent scales and purple hair. Someone that had terrorized Halcyon in the Golden Age and fought Rocketman and the Praetorian. The Pink Pirate, they called him for his strange manner of dress. But he vanished and then reappeared in the sixties for a spell, the eighties, the turn of the millennium - almost as if by time travel. And if he could time travel, he was also most certain an alien. One of Ai'leyla's people, though he'd been beneath Shin notice except in vaguery. He'd also appeared again shortly after Shin's arrival to this time period, though it seemed that he'd stolen some alien ship and jetted off into space. Clocktower had only managed to update its missing files recently as well.
His brain felt like it was running hot as he considered all the angles. "Luz 7 denizens value commerce above everything, sensei. But I've been treating Alcott as one of them when he's anything but that. He cares more about his reputation than his payday," He tells her. "Don't worry. I got this now. Leave it to me," Horizon says ashe turns back to face Alcott.
"All right, you've got to bring Praetoria in. Resisting more on that is just going to cause more collateral damage in the long term. Still think you ought to leave some drones to help fix the mess you made, but that's besides the point. Here's a fun fact you might have missed, but the Princess might have been overselling herself to the auctioneer when she put herself up for sale." He says. "That 1.2 billion scus is based on her being packaged with her home planet, when in fact she didn't own or control the planet - High General Urug'dash of the Eleventy-Second that's One Hundred-Twelfth, that pompous jerk Independent Fleet had sole possession of the planet at the time. Basically, she sold a bill of goods. She admitted as such to me and Praetoria. I don't know how drastically that devalues the crime, but I'm fairly certain it's far less than the auctioneer is going to be willing to pay out for your now staggering operating costs."
He lets that sink in for a moment before continuing. "But what's you stop you from not mentioning this to him until you get paid? Not much, unless there was more in it for you. Because there's someone that I believe has to have more value now to you. The biggest, baddest bounty hunter in your dimension has to have more than one contract at a time. Maybe one that despite your efforts the trail has gone cold. Someone like the exiled prince of the House of Unitas, Princess Ai'Leyla's brother - known to some of us on our planet as the Pink Pirate."
He projects an image from his visor that shows some newsreel footage from the 30s in black and white, of a strange man in frilled attire and fighting off the Rocketman with a laser saber in one hand and some ray-gun in the other. "Funny to see that this guy, who's been suspected of time travel already, is also a dimension hopper. But that's probably no issue for what tech he used. Or used, I think. In his last skirmish with the Heralds, it was reported that a jewel-encrusted belt of his was torn off by Ragnarok and effectively destroyed." Another image of the news article, with a picture of the destroyed belt. "I submit that this was what allowed him such unfettered ability to slip between dimensions and time, because shortly after this encounter he apparently stole an impounded alien craft and left Earth. I think he's looking for similar tech...or knows that he's got to be on the move again to avoid his pursuers. Like the famous Alcott," Horizon says.
"Praetoria," He speaks to her. "You want to protect the people of this city. I think that can be arranged by some jolly cooperation. You act as his guide and helper in this universe for searching for the Pink Pirate. Alcott will return with both of his quarries but provide the evidence necessary to prove your debt is significantly lower, and then have it paid off with whatever share of the bounty you would be owed from the capture of the Pink Pirate. You would have to work with Alcott in good faith - no going off on your own, no acting without his say-so. And it might take a while for you to find the exile. But this way, I can guarantee that you'll at least be able to pay off Luz 7 in your lifetime, if not less than a few months."
Horizon looks at Alcott and reads his expression like a book. He feels like he's in his element. He remembers fondly how Whippoorwill stopped a fight with words instead of fists. True victory was accomplished by removing the need to fight.
"Are you satisfied by these terms? As long as Praetoria and you agree to them and we bind the agreement in whatever format you find appropriate?"
Whippoorwill stares hard at Horizon, then nods and steps aside. The Protege moves up to Alcott and begins to speak. The alien bounty hunter scoffs at first, but his beady eyes open wide when Shin shows the images of the pink-hued pirate.
Praetoria also is drawn into the proffered solution. She looks skeptical initially. However, Alcott folds his arms across his chest and looks the young hero up and down.
"That... is compelling." He meets Praetoria's eyes.
The heir to the Praetorian legacy takes a deep breath. "I have to say, I'd rather hunt a criminal than just turn myself in to hyper-capitalists."
Alcott nods, then turns back to Horizon and studies Clocktower's images. "Catching Altra'vura -- the 'Pink Pirate' -- would be worth it. I'm in agreement."
Foray watches Horizon's actions, then turns to Femtite. "It sounds like there were many things we didn't know. This is great wisdom that young Horizon is showing."
Whippoorwill cracks a rare smile. Captain Stalwart folds his arms as he watches Alcott, Praetoria and Horizon come to an accord.
Femtite replies to Foray, “The rest of us either wrote Alcott off as a villain or saw Praetoria’s self-sacrifice as her noble right, and based our proposed solutions on the respective faulty premise. Horizon showed the understanding that people are complicated, and solutions are found by understanding their motivations.
“He didn’t judge, and so he wasn’t blind to a solution that satisfies both parties.”
She watches the scene with genuine admiration, and is even somewhat at ease with her own various worries.
And for Horizon, she’s very happy Whippoorwill witnessed this moment.