The power armor folded like paper as McHammer’s…hammer…smashed through it. I froze halfway through my mad dash into the room, a [Limelight Barrage] dying on my lips. I’d expected the blow to break bones and reveal bruised skin, but instead, under the flimsy power armor, there was…nothing. A delicate metal spine. Some intricate-looking mechanical bits that had fanned across the floor. And…empty space. She wasn’t human. She was…a bot?
I froze as Crossbow raised his bow. “Back off, villains. We won’t ask twice.” The other council members dropped into fighting stances as McHammer finished smashing the power-armored robot. But none of them moved—not to help their fallen, fake comrade, and not to attack McHammer, either. The bow pointed at me, then at Fursona, moving between us almost too fast to follow.
What was going on?
None of this made sense. The rough pile of gears and struts that had, ten seconds ago, been one of the council members sparked and popped as a small fire broke out in her…heart? I’d thought…I don’t know what I’d thought. That the Council was working with the Ilneats, maybe? Or that they were retired heroes from before my time. But not this.
McHammer hefted his mace. “You don’t even have to ask once,” he replied. And, just like that, he rushed the remaining four council members.
Crossbow’s bolt took him in the chest, knocking him aside for a moment, but he recovered almost instantly as the hero backpedaled and reloaded. A moment later, Fursona roared into battle; she had to be tired out after being Full-Kaiju, but she doggedly slammed into the ski racer. A second later, something crashed into her, knocking her back a foot or two.
I blasted the man in the white suit with a [Starlance]. Even as the bolt of energy left my wand, I prepared for a bigger [Limelight Barrage] in case the first attack wasn’t enough. After all, we had four major league heroes to deal with—assuming they weren’t robots, too.
[Dramatic Damage! +1 Drama Point]
They were.
Suddenly, there were two. The white-suited man went down with a smoking hole in his chest, while Crossbow—or whatever he was—wouldn’t be getting up anytime soon. The one Fursona was in the process of mauling wasn’t looking so good, though the spandex-clad man hadn’t been hit yet.
I raised my wand and started blasting.
----------------------------------------
The ‘fight,’ if you could call it that, only lasted fifteen seconds. When it had finished, digital voiceboxes and chunks of motherboards littered the oval-shaped room’s floor, every camera we could find had been smashed, and a thin electric-smelling smoke hung in the air.
We’d taken the Tokyexico Council of Heroes building.
But the Episode still wasn’t over.
“What’s next?” I asked McHammer. The plan hadn’t accounted for such a quick victory—or at least, the version I’d heard hadn’t. I was both relieved that we’d pulled it off and apprehensive about what came next, especially when my phone buzzed. I blocked the call without thinking more about it. Rocko wasn’t someone I wanted to talk to today. Or at all, probably.
“Next, we sit tight for a bit, ladies,” McHammer said. He walked to the bucket seat the Crossbow bot had been in, plopped down in it, and started fiddling with his watch. “Reinforcements are going to be a few minutes. We need to get ready for their arrival; once they’re here, we can consolidate and plan our next move.”
That sounded…reasonable. Surprisingly reasonable, especially coming from a villain I’d always figured was more the berserker type. I nodded and settled into the ski racer’s seat. Fursona stood near the door, no doubt not wanting to bend her tail trying to wriggle into a chair of her own. “So, we just hold it for a couple of minutes? That’s it?”
“Yeah, pretty much. She’ll either show up herself or send reinforcements. From there, even Stella won’t be a threat. Don’t want to say it’ll be easy, because—“
An explosion from below interrupted McHammer before he could finish.
“That, huh?” I asked, popping to my feet and running to a shattered window.
“Yeah, that.” Tele-Portal stepped through a portal behind me. “I warned you not to go up here, but here you are. The only option now is surrender.”
McHammer cleared his throat. He hadn’t stood up when the explosion happened, and he still looked relaxed as he leaned back in Crossbow’s seat. “Lady, you’re the fifth hero who’s told me that today. One of them’s over there.” He pointed at the wreckage scattered across the room.
I tried my best. “Tele-Portal, it’s over. Even if your team’s back up and running, we’ve got the building, Stella-Lunar’s out of position, and it’s only a matter of time before we lock down control here. I’m asking you, as your intern and auxiliary, to back off. Please.”
“Yeah,” McHammer said. “Back off before someone gets hurt…permanently. Right now, we can call this the Episode. If it keeps going, it’ll turn into something else.”
“What?” Tele-Portal asked, eyes narrowing and mouth yawning. Boredom or exhaustion, I couldn’t tell.
“Your finale.”
I stood up. Fursona loomed behind her, but the still-open portal cut her line of attack off. If things happened, we’d be separated, and I’d have to fix that quickly. Somehow, I doubted that Bud Lightbeam and The Underdelver were ready to go again, but I also didn’t know what their base’s capabilities were—only that they were major leaguers, so anything was possible.
Including, apparently, a second Underdelver mech that juggernauted its way out of the portal and slammed into McHammer as he stood and swung his mace in a wide arc!
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
I reacted quickly, putting a full [Limelight Barrage] into Tele-Portal before Bud Lightbeam could join the fight. The [Stellar Ray] offshoots aimed toward the mech suit, which seemed to shrug them off. Tele-Portal was less fortunate; her exhaustion was showing, and she couldn’t get a redirection portal up in time to stop the damage.
[Dramatic Damage! +5 Drama Points]
Then Bud zipped through, firing lasers toward all three of us and heading for the window. Fursona lunged toward him, but she was a touch slow. Her flame breath caught the back of his cape just as he zipped outside.
And just like that, the battle continued. And, in spite of her exhaustion, it quickly became clear that Tele-Portal was still making stuff happen. Bad stuff…for us.
I threw myself out the window toward Bud Lightbeam, only for a portal to open right in my path. A moment later, I popped out—right into an Underdelver drill punch that smashed into my face. As I staggered back, another blow came in—this time from Lightbeam, who appeared from the same portal, punched me in the stomach, and then disappeared into a different one.
[HP 0/14]
That last hit had hurt, too. I was out of superhero damage, and if I wanted to stay in the fight, I needed some healing right now! I rotated to Rainy Day with [Quick-Time Change], using my seconds of [Freeze Frame] to reposition behind The Underdelver. If I was lucky, I’d be able to use him as cover for a couple of seconds.
[Flashy Fitting Room! +1 Flamboyance Point]
[Steel Yourself! +1 Grit Point]
Then, before he could turn his mech, I used [Virga] to fill the room with rain that mixed with the sprinklers Fursona’s flame breath had activated. Bud Lightbeam would heal—but my team would heal more.
[Medic! +6 Cunning Points]
[HP 3/14]
[Doctors Without Borders! -3 Cunning Points]
It wasn’t much, but it was something.
McHammer rushed toward The Underdelver, hammering away with his…hammer. Every blow of his maul seemed to shake the Council of Heroes building, but that might also have been the destruction Fursona had caused with her first transformation.
She was busy trying to pin Bud Lightbeam down, but I could tell that was a mismatch. He was too fast and could hit from too far away; my partner didn’t have a chance.
I had a choice to make. I could help knock the cloning laser-beamer out of the fight or try to take out Tele-Portal. The only thing I could imagine that was worse than letting Fursona lose her part of the fight was letting my former mentor win the whole thing for her team, so my choice was clear.
I used [Ride the Lightning] to hit Tele-Portal before she could warp either herself or me away, then followed it up with a [Thunderhead] to knock The Underdelver and McHammer away from me.
[Electric Lightshow! +1 Flamboyance Point]
[Badass Move! +1 Badass Point]
The storm forming outside the Council of Heroes was still building as I backpedaled for a little extra space, then started up another [Quick-Time Change], this time back into Understudy.
[Flashy Fitting Room! +1 Flamboyance Point]
[Rejuvenation Activated! HP 8/14]
There. I had more wiggle room. A Lightbeam light beam came in, and I ducked it, then jumped over Tele-Portal’s attempt at a portal save. [Solar Wing] caught me mid-jump, and I zipped toward the ceiling.
McHammer’s maul crashed into The Underdelver with a ripping metal sound, but the mech seemed to shrug off the blow. Fursona was tiring, too, and I definitely couldn’t keep fighting this hard. Most of my best powers were offline, I had no Spotlight Star, and—somehow—both Bud Lightbeam and The Underdelver had arrived fresh and ready to fight after only a couple of minutes out of the Episode.
As it stood, we didn’t have a chance, and I had no idea what was happening outside, but if Stella-Lunar won…
I didn’t want to think about that. She’d mop the floor with us, even if we resolved this fight right now.
McHammer took another swing at the Genius-driven mech suit. This time, the block was too fast—or maybe he’d delayed his hit somehow. A ringing bell sound filled the room, and The Underdelver backed off a step. So did Tele-Portal. “Okay, you’ve put up a good resistance. Now, let’s talk terms for your surrender. I can keep you and Fursona out of the worse parts of Almhurst, Understudy. That’s the best I can offer.”
“That’s a pretty piss-poor offer,” McHammer said. He laughed. “I’ll show you why in three.”
“This is your last chance!” Tele-Portal shouted over him.
“Two.”
Tele-Portal opened another portal. This time, it wasn’t a member of The Triad that came through. Stella-Lunar’s Eclipse Form flew through, solar flares arcing across her arms. She flew straight for McHammer, using [Total Eclipse] and [Dark Side of the Moon] simultaneously.
But McHammer only laughed. “One.”
“And then Stella-Lunar found herself on the other side of town,” a familiar voice said.
= = = = =
Stella vanished, her powers disappearing with her, and The Narrator strode in through the main door. All three members of The Triad turned toward her. Powers started, but she just smiled behind her glasses. “The Council of Heroes building’s defenses activated and recognized The Triad as enemies.”
= = = = =
“Shit,” Tele-Portal said, opening another portal as the room suddenly bristled with weapons I hadn’t seen before. She threw herself through it as a laser Gatling turret turned her way. It stayed open long enough for The Underdelver to follow her through. Bud Lightbeam was already out the window, disappearing in three separate contrails of color as he faded into the distance.
The Narrator took one look at McHammer. “Bob.”
“Mrs. N,” he replied.
“It’s been a while. You’re still causing trouble, just like old times?” She unfolded her newspaper and sat down in one of the remaining chairs.
“Yes, Mrs. N. Hopefully, not for much longer.”
“Alright. Good kid.”
[Episode Finished!]
[Episode: Power War: The Battle of Mid-Town - R]
[Penalties: 0x Rating Warnings - No Penalty]
[Episode Finished! +3 of each Style Point]
[Winner, Winner! +3 of each Style Point]
[Role Focus: Drama + Flamboyance - Goal Partially Met: +10 to Drama]
[Alias - Understudy] [Archetype - Magical Girl] [Community Rank - 120/523]
[HP 1/14]
[Styles and Skills]
►Archetype Skill - Transformation Sequence
►Combo Skills - Power-Weaving
►Badass (55) (Skill Roll Available)
►Cunning (44)
►Drama (70) (Skill Roll Available)
► Limelight Barrage 2
► Starlance 2
►Flamboyance (26)
►Signature Skill - Adaptive Armoire 3
►Stored Costumes: (Rainy Day, Copy Cat, Lab Assistant Panic)
►Solar Wing 2
► Quick-Time Change 3
► Improvised Ovation 1
►Grit (36)
► Freeze Frame 2
[50 Badass Credits Used. Rolling Skill!]
[50 Drama Credits Used. Rolling Skill!]
[Rank-Up! Pouncing Panthers 1 > Pouncing Panthers 2: Additional damage on impact in a small area of effect.]
[Rank-Up! Meter’s Running 1 > Meter’s Running 2: +2 power uses.]