Ablation

Taylor

We found a 24/7 bar on the highway to Chelmsford, a cozy looking place full of bikers. As it turns out, only Chelsea and I were confident in riding one. Chelsea because she took classes, me because I’m built different. I help Chelsea hotwire her motorcycle and we drive off to angry shouts of the bike owners. Chelsea blasts the remaining vehicles with her slippery beam which cuts the chase short as she just… wow. Yeah, don’t fuck with Chelsea unless your tech is made of uniform welded together materials. The moment they revved up, all the nuts and bolts on them flew off and the leather clad bikers were left straddling comically disassembled hunks of metal that were already spilling gasoline all over the place. Tinkers, beware!

Anh decided to ride with me, probably still riled up from her fight with Chelsea to sit with her. Oh man, I could get used to this. We should discuss maybe being a biker gang. But if we do, there’s a non-zero chance of the Teeth taking notice of us. Now, I know I said we should have a mindset of every villain gang or even any gang that isn’t ours, being our enemies from the get go. But there is a big difference between being hostile on a chance meeting and seeking out trouble on purpose. And starting a biker gang near Boston, especially in the Teeth’s hometown, is the definition of seeking out trouble.

Stopping in a familiar alley, we disembark our rides and I dust them in case they had trackers. Then, I ask the question that I’ve been marinating since we set off. “So, how did you get to Ayre in the first place?” I ask Anh.

“Uh. I rode the bus and stayed in their park the whole day,” She says. Oh man.

“You really don’t care about your civvy identity, huh?”

“Well… it’s not like I can live a peaceful life.” Oh lord. My fantasies about juggling my civilian life and my cape life are slowly crumbling to dust just like if I used my goddamn power on them. Do I send all caution to the wind and come out to dad? Maybe drop off Arcadia? I was going to drop off anyway at the end of this semester, but things are moving so fast. It hasn’t been a full month since I got powers and I’m already considering outing myself. But no, Taylor, you know the main reason you can’t get outed.

“You know, once we start the gang up, we will get crazy rich.” She nods. “And if your civilian identity gets outed, you won’t be able to enjoy the legal luxuries of life. Like owning a cool car, living in a big house. You’ll either have to resort to having to register them to someone else’s name and that’s a whole different hassle, or to risk getting your properties taken by the authorities.”

“Oh. I didn’t plan that far, honestly.”

“What did you plan anyway?” Asks Chelsea. Anh pauses and thinks about it for a minute.

“I didn’t really uh… formulate it in my head. But I… I- I was going to get all that Sharpness from the knife factory a-and- and-,” Uh oh, she’s crying. Oh no. I see what she wanted to do. Chelsea seems to catch on as well as she approaches Anh and wraps an arm around her shoulders. I’m not even that enthused about what her words implied power-wise. I just recruited a kid who wanted to commit suicide by cape.

“We could kill Lung.” I say, and the sobbing stops. “And Hookwolf. We beat him once. They won only cause they outnumbered us and we didn’t have a clear way to injure them aside from blunt force. I also realize now that I was going easy on them for no reason. Ugh, I wanted to be a hero once, and that mindset must have remained still, cause I held back on dusting them. I could just… end them. Turn them to dust. And nobody would ever find their bodies.” I stare at my hand, keenly aware of Chelsea’s worried gaze on me. “We could keep acting as joke villains. And just... Clean our city up from the shadows. Or we could execute them in public. Make them an example. We do want cleaner crime, don’t we? Harming civilians during cape fights seems like a clear violation of that.” I look up at Chelsea.

“If… I-If you- if that’s what you want, I don’t mind.” She says, voice barely a whisper. “I could be your fall guy, your e-enforcer, like Hookwolf is to Kaiser. Claim the kills for myself, that is. They expect that of me anyway.”

“I’ve got nothing to lose,” Anh pipes up. “I can do it.” Oh my fucking god. Okay. Let’s all calm down. Jesus fucking christ. This went dark way too fast!

“Okay, let’s pause, just for a minute. I want this thing to last. The gang, I mean. Marquis held his territory for a decade. We can too. And you’re my first teammates. I want you to remain as well. We do it silently. We do it quickly. We do it together. And then we don’t repeat it ever again. Lung and Hookwolf. That’s it. Nobody else. Am I clear?” They break out of their stupefied dazes and nod. “Good. Chelsea, take Anh with you and rest up. Tomorrow, we’re killing the metal mutt. Then, I’m challenging Lung to a fight while you raid his casino and his holdings.” Chelsea is about to speak up, but I shush her. “Nuh uh. No. I do it alone. I’m bringing you along to kill Hookwolf only because he’s surrounded by his thugs most of the time.” Chelsea nods, reluctantly. Anh looks conflicted but nods as well. We split, I go home while Chelsea brings Anh to her apartment.

Chelsea

The walk to her apartment was awkward. They fought a couple hours ago and now Anh is going to be sleeping on her couch. She picked a place in Coil’s territory. The apartment cost a pretty penny but it was worth it in Chelsea’s opinion. It came furnished, with a big shower and a nice bathtub. She wouldn’t care for a view of the sea so it was somehow cheaper than east-facing flats. It had one bedroom and a living room combined with a kitchen, separated by an island, a euroflat. Chelsea switched the sofa for a sturdier, waterproof one with a replaceable cover, in case Taylor needed to crash at her place and bled all over the fabrics.

“Feel yourself at home,” Chelsea said, breaking the long silence, “There’s some stuff in the fridge but if you don’t mind waiting, I was going to order pizza. What’s your favorite?” She asks.

“Anchovies,” Anh mutters. It is with reluctance and barely hidden regret that Chelsea orders a big anchovy pizza and a medium meat-lover’s. She catches Anh fiddling with the knives on the kitchen counter. Ah. They would get along well with Taylor. She eyes the knives on her apron. She didn’t use them in the fight, not once. So they are either there for aesthetic reasons, or, given the girl’s planned impermanence, because she couldn’t keep her hands still and needed to fiddle with something sharp while she waited for her fateful trip to valhalla.

“Taylor also likes to fidget with stuff in her hands,” Says Chelsea, and the girl drops the knife and puts her hands to her sides like she’d been caught stealing cookies. “It’s okay. Do you want me to make you a couple ice blades?” Chelsea offers.

“They’re cold. I don’t like extreme temperatures.” Anh says. Right. She can still feel the cold.

“Okay. So how does your power work?” She asks then, curious by Anh's audible capitalization of Sharpness. Like Taylor does often with Durability and Toughness.

“I can dull sharp stuff. I store its Sharpness uhh… in me. I can then apply it to any surface.” Oh! Like Taylor then!

“Is it permanent?” Chelsea asks. Anh nods. “Can you stack the sharpness?” Anh nods again. Well! Holy shit! “It’s fascinating,” She says then, which elicits a confused brow raise from Anh. “I mean, isn’t sharpness a quality that refers to having a thin, refined edge?” Anh nods. “So how does it even apply to a flat surface like yours does? It’s crazy!”

“Uhhh… I don’t know? I just… do? Doesn’t the Siberian just ignore physics all the time? That’s what powers do, right?” Anh says carefully.

“So if I were to make a super fine, very thin blade of ice, could you take that sharpness?” Chelsea asks, already forming the blade. Anh walks over the kitchen island and touches the blade, wincing at its temperature.

“It… kind of melted a bit already.” She says. “But it is much sharper than some blades I’ve dulled.”

“Hm. Okay. How about this?” Chelsea forms a hollow sphere and lines its insides with a maze-like structure of sharp inner walls, just a millimeter of space between them. Anh touches it with her nail and her eyes lit up.

“Wow. Yeah! It worked! Those are super sharp!” Anh exclaims. Chelsea nods along in pride, both because she distracted the girl from her spiraling thoughts and because she got proof that she can make atom-sharp ice. Too bad it’s still brittle. “But uhh… its quality feels a fair bit lower than steel blades’. I don’t know how to explain it. Like… the material matters a lot.” Anh says then, dashing Chelsea’s grand ideas of using super-sharp ice blades all the time. Oh well.

“That’s on me for having two teammates with wonky esoteric powers.” Chelsea concedes.

“So, what’s your power?” Anh asks.

“Eh, I shoot a beam or a dozen, and get a full 3D image of stuff it hits. I’m then able to make a split second decision to make any of its parts slippery. And I can bring any substance in contact with me… within around five feet of me, to a dozen degrees below its freezing point.”

“Oh. You got two powers because you’re a second gen cape?”

“Kinda? I don’t know. Maybe there is some poor sod who triggered right next to me and we’re both unaware that we’re a cluster trigger. Or, most likely, I really did inherit weaker and slightly different versions of my parents’ powers.”

“Can you make people’s skin peel off? Or freeze their insides?”

“Uh, no to the last one. There’s this thing called Manton Limit. Kinda fucks with you in one way or another. You either can’t affect living matter or the other way around, and most of the time, you can’t affect yourself.”

“Oh! Yeah! That’s why I wear gloves! I can’t cover my skin in Sharpness.”

“But you can somehow breathe razor sharp air?”

“It’s not part of me.” She deflects. Which is fair, but somehow still feels like cheating to Chelsea. “You didn’t say no to my first question though.”

“Weeeell. I can. But that carries very negative connotations. Like, a member of the Nine did that. A former member.”

“Oh.” Sohia inhales sharply, “Yeah.”

The pizza arrives and Chelsea turns on the TV, stopping on Discovery channel featuring that old narrator who always made you pity whichever animal he was narrating. Once they finally wind down from their adrenaline rushes and the food weighs down their stomachs, Chelsea quietly walks away into her bedroom, leaving the sleeping Anh covered in a soft blanket.

Taylor

On Saturday morning, I get a message from Lisa, asking if I’m free to hang out. I tell her that I’ll be busy today, but will probably be free on Sunday. I debate inviting Chelsea along, but last time we asked Lisa, she flunked away. Maybe because she didn’t want to hang out with Chelsea. Why, though? They’ve never met before. So it’s more likely that she was really just busy that day. So I ask her if I can bring Chelsea along. I feel like inviting Anh would be a bit overboard, considering she just joined my gang, while Chelsea has been my friend for the last two months.

I spend the rest of the morning in a scrapyard not occupied by Trainwreck. I find a decent length of steel chains that I reinforce with better stuff and make significantly heavier. This can be my weapon for a while. I also make a more jagged copy of my armor for Cutting Edge. I make it from a darker material, add more hooks, more sharp angles and flat faces. The mask I make with a blade in the center, like a shallow axe head. This time I decide to make it a two-piece helmet with tiny chains that look like hair. Jagged blades on the sides of the new gauntlets make her look like she’s a Shredder ripoff. It fits her thematically though. At her elbows and knees I also attach retractable chains for her to use with her power. She could pull them back up using the chain ends at her hips and shoulders, attaching them to hooks on her body to adjust their effective length, and set them free by pulling at the joints. I also make a set for Chillax. A mirror-like smooth face mask, a breastplate that looks like it’s a mirror covered in frost, with a big snowflake at the center. I also make a couple dozen shurikens for her, also shaped like snowflakes, and a couple straight swords for Anh to Sharpen. They both would benefit from the extra reach while I don't need a blade to cut. I pump them full of Toughness and Durability, the best I have that isn’t already used on myself. At noon we meet up in the same scrapyard and I buff Anh, bringing her close to Chelsea’s Toughness and Durability. I don’t have any diamonds or gemstones for her, I used those all up on myself and Chelsea. But we’ll raid enough jewelry stores soon. Right now, both Chelsea and Anh could take a speeding truck in the face and survive with only a bruise. That, in my opinion, is kind of crazy. Preparations done, we set off.

Finding Hookwolf’s den is not an easy task. We waste the majority of daylight searching for it. Me on foot, walking around the city in civvies, Chelsea in costume, skating along rooftops and blasting every building she sees to scan them. She has attracted quite a tail, Aegis of the Wards and Vista stopping her for questioning. They don’t recognize her new costume but her power set is rather distinct. Chelsea manages to lose them after making Vista slip for a third time and trapping Aegis in a three-foot thick block of ice. He’ll survive, that’s his entire power! It’s not like a famously adaptable superhero died in a movie from something he should have survived!

Worried for his well being, Chelsea still offered to free him if he promised to stop following her. Aegis tried to brush it off, but Vista butted in and convinced him to agree. So Chelsea used her newly acquired sword to set Aegis free, which seemed to scare the heroic duo even more. Oh right, the only cape who made super sharp blades others could use was Damascus or something. That is, Butcher XII. Yeah, the idea to give Tinkertech to normals didn’t work quite like Damascus wanted. Note for Anh, don’t leave her Sharpness around. Butcher Nth could stumble on it and fucking die.

Wards dealt with, Chelsea reports her findings on the burner phone and we gather around what looks like an active dog fighting ring. We find all the secret entrances, monitored and not. There are a couple surveillance cameras around, but I dust them. I find a secret passage to the sewers in the “main office” of the pit. How convenient. We drop down to the sewers, Chelsea freezing the wastes so that we don’t get our stuff soiled. Approaching the secret entrance, I get the feel of the room. I swap the walls’ properties for steel and make the room as durable as I can afford. Hookwolf won’t be able to lift a stack of paper, let alone turn the doorknob. Cutting Edge steps up at my signal, cleanly cutting the entrance and rushing blade-first at Hookwolf. He reacts rather quickly, turning to his changer form. Cutting Edge grabs him by the snout, burying the blade with her other hand. She nods at me, signaling that she defanged him. I step up and dust his outer shell. Hookwolf detransforms for a brief moment, but it’s long enough for Cutting Edge to plunge her sword into his chest. I step on him and dust his Changer form again, the sword stays stuck in his chest. He struggles one last time before succumbing to death.

Chelsea looks around the room, rifling through the papers. I eye the safe he has, probably the main safe for most of his stuff, given its size and heft. Might as well, right? Waste not, want not. I tell Anh to gather up the money from the safe, dusting its lid for her easy access, and busy myself unclasping Hookwolf’s mask. I then dust all his flesh, except for his skull that I hide in my duffel bag. I beckon for Anh to approach me once she’s done with the safe and hang the mask on her pauldron, hooks specially made for this mask. I hook the straps of the mask on her chains around her shoulder blade and chest. This could be both an intimidation tactic and a solid fashion choice. Like the woodsman who killed the big bad woof. Anh looks down, clenching her fists. I pat her other shoulder and we leave, switching back the room properties. We could also cripple Hookwolf’s remaining capes. But we have more fun to do now. That is - an entire list of Empire stashes and hideouts that were directly under Hookwolf’s purview.

We took a short break in the alley we entered the sewers from, choosing which spot to hit. Then we split up in three directions. It’s very convenient that all his businesses are scattered in a tight area. That’s how during my third clearing of a hideout, I get a ping from Chelsea.

Suddenly, PHO

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♦ Topic: Cape fight weekend
In: Boards ► News ► Events ► America ► Brockton Bay
Bagrat  (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)
Posted On Feb 5th 2011:
So that just happened. I'll try recounting the day's events as close to their chronological order as possible. But, because so much happened at once, I can't guarantee it's totally accurate.
1. We see our newest resident villain, Chillax, run around the town, blasting buildings with her laser beams. A couple minutes into that, the local Wards, Aegis and Vista approach her for questioning. She trounces them and threatens to, quote "make them shit themselves if they don't let her be" unquote. We can then see Aegis encased in around three feet of ice, being dug out of his frozen cage by the PRT as Vista tries not to trip over her own feet.
2. Chillax disappears for a couple hours. Then makes an announcement hereabout their team, posing in front of dozens of brutalized Empire thugs bound in ice in Downtown west. Then, five minutes later, sends another pic of Krieg, Victor, Alabaster and Crusader also bound in ice and covered in what looks like Wasabi.
3. Their new member, Cutting Edge, is seen fighting Hookwolf's team, sans Hookwolf himself, and Rune in Downtown south. She grabs Cricket by the arm, cutting it off in the process, and covers Stormtiger in “stripes". Rune manages to rescue her fellow capes and flees the scene unharmed. Stormtiger's condition is yet unknown.
4. Kaiser, along with Fenja and Menja, is seen confronting Durasteel(/steal) near the Boardwalk, in Downtown east. She tanks Kaiser's blades and uses an electric pole to bust both twin giants' kneecaps. The Empire capes manage to flee when the Protectorate heroes Dauntless, Assault and Battery, and the Wards Clockblocker and Kid Win rush to put a stop to the fight.
5. Durasteel escapes pursuit in the Docks where her teammates create a dust smokescreen that throws the heroes off the villains' trail.

So what do we know about them?
Their leader, Durasteel, looks like a textbook Brute, high end at that. She tanked everything Kaiser and the twins threw at her like a champ, and proceeded to dogwalk them like Chort did the Choir in '03. She also seems to be a Striker, her touch disintegrating solid objects. She was also seen tanking Dauntless’ arc lightning spear and Kid Win’s blasters. We don’t have a clear view of what she did with objects frozen by Clockblocker.
Their self-promoted second in command, Chillax, is a Striker/Blaster. Her Blaster power is turning any surface her lasers touch slippery. Her Striker power seems to be freezing air by touch. There's speculation going on that it's just a very short range Shaker power.
Their last member, Cutting Edge, was seen fighting Oni Lee a couple days prior to her joining the Tough Crowd. Her power seems to be primarily Striker with a minor Brute power. She was seen shrugging off Stormtiger's air blasts and Cricket's sound blasts. Her Striker power lets her cut through a lot of things and also create cutting edges on flat surfaces or even air, which was how she gave Stormtiger his lethal makeover.

    (Showing page 115 of 119)

►Chilldrizzle
Replied On Feb 5th 2011:
I personally welcome our new Striker overlords.

►Brocktonite03  (Veteran Member)
Replied On Feb 5th 2011:
So has anyone pointed it out yet? Was Cutting Edge wearing fucking Hookwolf's mask on her shoulder?

►Lasersmile 
Replied On Feb 5th 2011:
Holy shit you're right!

►Miraclemic 
Replied On Feb 5th 2011:
Let's not forget Chillax clowning on Krieg's entire team?? In under five minutes? Didn't they get destroyed the last time they fought Empire capes?

►SoonTzu 
Replied On Feb 5th 2011:
Do I spy with my little eye, the new Lustrum gang emergence? Lustrum juniors? Lustrum lite?

►Fence4th  (Verified Cape) (Verified Villain)
Replied On Feb 5th 2011:
@SoonTzu
We accept boys too! Boss was already thinking about press ganging Trainwreck into our team before Cutting Edge barged into our lives <3
Also~ @BirdOfParadise, @ImproperUseOfBeads? DM me

User received an infraction for this post: stop using PHO as your personal dating site.

►ImproperUseOfBeads 
Replied On Feb 5th 2011:
How did you even find me?! Stop @-ing me! I'm straight! Mods? There's a villain on PHO flirting with people! Ban her!

►Fence4th  (Verified Cape) (Verified Villain)
Replied On Feb 5th 2011:
Just sayin'. I only @'d you and the rest is you jumping to conclusions~

►Valkyr  (Wiki Warrior)
Replied On Feb 5th 2011:
@Fence4th, so you're a girls' girl? Is everyone else in Tough Crowd a girls' girl? Can you do a Q&A about your powers? Are you being genuine about press ganging capes or was that an unfortunate joke?

►Confusionist 
Replied On Feb 5th 2011:
Is this allowed, actually? Why is there a whole ass villain posting here talking about actual criminal activity?

    End of Page.   1, 2, 3 ... 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119

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►DopeEffect: Okay @Fence4th fess up. What the fuck?

►Slymouth: Uh, yeah. Is that why you’ve missed our last session, huh??? You’re out caping?

►Fence4th: Will you believe me if I say I got hacked?

►DopeEffect: Never.

►WingedOne: Great job out there! You looked amazing! Was Owlie with you? Which one is Owlie?

►MoistOwlwO: Neither.

►ClickSlack: Suuuureeee

►Slymouth: So when were you going to invite me to your gang?

►Fence4th: You got powers?

►Slymouth: … no?

►Fence4th: Well get in line then. We still haven't decided on what to call our flunkies. Henchmen is too gendered and henchpeople just doesn't have a nice ring to it. You can't say minion without thinking of the little yellow guys. And don't get me started on the word goon.

►ClickSlack: Thug?

►MoistOwlwO: That's what I've been calling Empire normals all this time. Can't have the same name.

►DopeEffect: Underling?

►MoistOwlwO: We have Undersiders here. I wanna have not unfriendly relations with at least one other gang in town.

►DopeEffect: Fair. Hmm. Tough Nuts? Tough Nuts for a Tough Crowd.

►Fence4th: Oh god I love it! Owlie pweaseee

►MoistOwlwO: Sure. Sounds fun.

►Slymouth: I'm not joking tho. Sign me up for goonery. I'm ready to nut!

►MoistOwlwO: … No.

Taylor puts down the phone and breathes a huff. “Okay, well, it was a nice debut I think. And you did screw the pooch by accidentally using your main account.”

Chelsea sucks in the air sharply. “Yeaaaaaa. I really fucked the dog there. Might need to… I don't even know. Also why did you out yourself to them too?!”

“Ehh. Can't have you hog all the spotlight,” Taylor pokes her on the side.

“Ouch ouch ouch. Easy! I got a fracture there, I'm pretty sure. Krieg fucking… played pinball with three parked cars, the lightposts, and me.”

“Well, you gave them all third degree frostbites, right? So you're even.”

“Yeah, but we don't have an Othala now, do we?”

“... Fair. Wish we had a healer but my next prospective recruits are… uh.”

“Let me guess. Striker and Brute?” Anh joins in.

“Yeah, actually. I have two capes in mind. One’s been active up in Alaska, the other-”

“Fuckin’ Alaska?! Why the hell are we going so far for them?” Chelsea asks, agitated.

“It better be some cool synergy.” Anh demands.

“Well. She's got a couple things we lack. And I think she'll synergize well with me.” Taylor says, sheepishly.

“Taylor. Honey. Sweetie.” Chelsea pokes her. “A half chewed gum and a bottle of piss can synergize with you. You are the ultimate power multiplier. That's not reason enough to go to fucking Alaska.”

“I agree. There are much better candidates closer to home.” Anh suggests. “We could poach Flechette?”

“Anh, that's a hero.” Chelsea says.

“She's also a flaming homosexual and we're a gang consisting entirely of girls around her age. She will fold in five minutes.” She presses.

“She’s in Legend’s city.”

“Well. We wait till she's reassigned. Considering she’s been jumping around the country, she’ll leave NYC before summer.”

“So are you saying… that you’re willing to honeypot a Ward JUST so she considered joining our gang?” Taylor asks after a minute of contemplation.

“Uhh, well… Chelsea’s single.”

“Hey! Don’t throw me under the bus! Also, since when did I become the straight man in our comedy routine?”

“Nobody is a straight man in this gang,” Anh says somberly, and breaks down in giggles when Taylor snorts and chokes on her own spit.

Amy

Amy’s late to lunch. She didn’t have an appetite today. She resolved to tell Taylor about… ask Taylor to be her biotinkering subject. Openly, and honestly. That means telling her about her true powers. That means trusting her with it. That means, if Amy’s judgement of Taylor was wrong, she might end up in the Birdcage, or worse. Disowned.

“Hey, Taylor. I want to talk to you about something,” Amy says, tense and nervous. When Taylor looks up at her, gaze questioning, she adds, “In private.”

Amy leads her behind the bleachers and stops when they’re sufficiently obscured.

“I- uh… I- I,” Amy prepares herself for the worst, “I wanna kiss you!” She says instead. Like a cowardly coward that cowards.