She watched everyone file out.  Legend stayed behind.

Yo.

“You’re not saying everything,” he murmured.

“No.”

Does Legend know about Chariot?

“Fill me in?”

“Some of that is to mislead the spy in our midst.  We have a follow-up measure.”

“Does it pose a risk to this team?”

A follow-up measure? To deal with Coil messing with things, or maybe just to see how he reacts?

“It does.  Unavoidable.  I suspect Coil will inform Hookwolf and encourage the Chosen, the Pure and even Faultline’s group to act.  Tattletale, I suspect, will know something’s going on, and I intend to leak enough information to pique her curiosity.

But why would Coil do that? To stab the Protectorate in the back?

The Undersiders and the Travelers wouldn’t, not while cooperating with them, but Coil absolutely would.

It’s in the moment that the villains enter the situation that the risk to our capes occurs.”

Right.

“But?”

“But we have a store of equipment we confiscated from Bakuda when we raided her laboratory.

…

I jokingly brought this up very recently in relation to the Protectorate stepping into a fight between the Undertravelers and the Nine, in my Worm/SU crossover crackfic.

If me dragging that old nitpick back up and making the entire “plot” of the fic a weird consequence of the Protectorate using Bakuda’s equipment didn’t tip you off, I still don’t think it’s a good idea. 😛

Miss Militia deployed a number against Leviathan, but we have more.  Once the other factions have engaged, we bombard the area with the remainder in a second strike.  Our research suggests that several of these explosives can bypass the Manton effect.”

…holy fuck.

“You’re sure?”

“It’s what the doctors say.”  Clockblocker said.

Heh.

But the doctors aren’t Siberian.

I should hope.

“And Crawler?” Legend asked.

Piggot spoke, “Legend, Ursa Aurora, Prism, Weld, Assault and Battery will occupy him until we can contain him.  He’s still vulnerable to physics.

Knock him over and stop him from getting up?

Also, are you sure? He acts so catlike, I almost wouldn’t be surprised if physics are merely a suggestion he likes to follow. :3

I’m hoping the white phosphorous explosive will keep him in the area long enough for us to put measures in place.  As I said, we can’t afford to do this halfway.  If they get cornered, or if they think they’ll lose, we run the risk they’ll lash out.”

This seems like a fairly solid plan, but there’s no way it’s going to go perfectly. I don’t think the Protectorate are going to clean the board for the Undertravelers that easily.

She glanced around the room at the fourteen parahumans present.

“We carry this out this evening, before any of our opponents catch on to our intentions and complicate matters with their own agendas.  That will be all.  Prepare.  See to your suits in the lab.”

She said this for Coil, didn’t she.

“Unless she’s able to walk through that,” Weld spoke.

People have been trying to figure that out for a while.

“It’s inviolable,” Clockblocker said, leaning back in his chair.  “I’d sooner expect her to fold the universe in half.”

*glances at Vista*

Yeah, it’s inviolable, but does it stop the unstoppable or does the unstoppable violate the inviolable?

I’m inclined to think the former, though, because Clockblocker makes it so time doesn’t pass for the thing or person he pauses. Things can’t move when time doesn’t pass for them–

Wait, no, that’s not strictly true. Time doesn’t pass for light (light speed causes division by zero in the equation that, among other things, determines the amount of time that passes for something at a given speed in comparison to an observer), and that moves. Not from its own perspective, but from an observer’s.

But the way things have been portrayed in Worm, so far, it does seem like “things can’t move when time doesn’t pass for them” holds true.

“And if Siberian does protect her allies?” Weld asked.

“Flechette will see if her enhanced shots can beat Siberian’s invulnerability.  Failing that, Clockblocker contains the woman.

But I thought– oh! Right, he might not be able to stop her, but he can make immovable obstacles. Then we’ll really get an answer to the famous thought experiment.

His power won’t work on her, but we can cage her in thread or chains that he can then freeze.  If we can do the same with Jack and Bonesaw, we can starve them out, or wait until they let go of Siberian.

Oh man, the thread/chains make it even better, since she wouldn’t have the opportunity for a running start.

If you’re prepared, Clockblocker?  We can support you with relief teams.”

“If it means stopping them, I’m down.”

We’re counting on you, pal. Don’t die on us.

“But we are breaking the deal.  Even if Legend’s team doesn’t get involved-” Miss Militia started.

Hmm. How exactly? I mean, in the hypothetical of Legend’s team not getting involved.

“The incendiary deployments will serve three purposes.  They’ll forestall any biological attacks Bonesaw attempts, they’ll force Siberian to stay put to protect her allies and they’ll kill Jack or Bonesaw if she isn’t able.

Hopefully.

Humans aren’t biologically programmed to look up, and whatever else Siberian is, she’s still human at her core.”

That is a good point. We don’t have reason to look up very often, so we haven’t evolved the habit of it.

“That’s… still not reassuring,” Flechette spoke.

Oh yeah, and Flechette was supposed to be important, too. What do you have for her?

“You’ll be equipped with fire resistant suits.  I ordered them in anticipation over fighting Burnscar, but the plan has been adjusted.  You’ll all look identical, except for agreed upon icons, colors and initials on each costume.

Initials seem counterproductive, unless it’s just random letters instead of their actual first letters.

Ones Jack and the other members of the Nine will not be able to identify, please.  There’s a team ready to prepare the costumes at a moment’s notice.

The biggest problem with this is that using their powers will give them away, and the colors make it easier to keep track of who’s who. But I suppose that’s necessary since they themselves will need to keep track of that.

It will help mask the identities of those involved, and postpone any reaction from Jack over our having broken the terms of the deal.”

Oh right, since they’ll be having the outsiders in on this.

That’s… risky.

Clockblocker nodded.

“Vista, I’m counting on you to help control the movements of the Nine.  Siberian is immune to powers, but not to external influences.  The timing will be sensitive.”

Makes sense. Maybe manipulate the space she’s moving through to send her straight into Clockblocker’s hand?

Although if she’s straight up immune to powers, I suppose even he can’t stop her.

She clicked the remote, then turned her head to look at the result.  It was a warhead.

Ballistic, somewhere else: *sneezes*

So the plan is to control the Nine into a specific spot and then hit them all with a warhead to blow some of them the fuck up?

Also, how does Clocky factor into this? You said you needed him, but so far you’ve only given him a task that involves freezing himself in place for 30 seconds to ten minutes as a defensive tactic. If that’s all, he might as well stay behind in a safe location.

“On my command, a stealth bomber is prepared to drop payloads of incendiary explosives at a designated location.  We evacuate civilians from the area or lead the Nine to an area where evacuation is possible or unnecessary, then we drop a payload on site.

“And where is the Giant, Mansley?”

If they move, we drop another payload.  Clockblocker, you protect anyone that’s unable to clear out.

Ahh, there we go, that makes sense.

Legend will ferry you to where you need to be.  Cache can rescue people as the effects wear off.”

So does Cache collect people in hammerspace? Can they do it to items or just people?

That gave the others pause.

Yeah, that kind of betrayal is not something you accuse Dragon of lightly.

Especially since nobody wants to think about how much trouble they’ll have if Dragon turns on them completely.

Not that she can, but they don’t know that.

“Dragon’s record of service has been exemplary,” Legend spoke.

“It has.  And we’ve put an inordinate amount of trust in her as a consequence.  How many of our resources are tied into her work?  If she had a mind to oppose us, would we be able to deal with her?”

Well, nobody except Piggy, I mean. And she’s right, Dragon would have a lot of power if she could turn on them completely. And she could probably work around her limitations to at least inconvenience them a bit if she really wanted to.

“We have no reason to think she’s done anything.”

Maybe that’s exactly it, maybe she hasn’t done anything to try to track Colin.

Emily waved him off.  “Regardless.  Very little of this situation remains in our control.  Armsmaster is gone, the other major players are members of the various factions, and we remain in the dark about who many of them are.”

Not to mention how the factions interact.

There were nods all around.

She had them listening.  “I have a solution in mind.  The higher-ups have approved it.  Clockblocker, you’re going to be using your power defensively if things go south.

Makes sense. For one thing, he’s the only one here who could stop Siberian.

They aren’t patient enough to wait for it to wear off.  You can protect yourself by using your power on a costume you’re wearing, yes?”

Huh, that’s pretty clever.

I wonder if he thought of that before or after Agitation. Maybe it was inspired by Skitter trapping him in a case of his own power.

“And few capes are willing to step in to help defend the city.  Credit to Legend and his teammates for joining us.  Thank you.”

That certainly ought to help.

The group of guests nodded.

“There’s more.”  Time to see how much information filters through to Coil, and how he reacts.  With luck, we might be able to pit one problem against another.

Oh boy.

If Chariot is Coil’s man, whatever she’s about to say might cause some internal trouble. Although she doesn’t know that the Undersiders, Travelers and Coil are allies, so pitting Coil up against the former two might not work as well as she thinks.

“Armsmaster’s confinement was technically off the record, to protect the PRT in this time of crisis.  He escaped, and thus far, Dragon has not been able to track him.  Without official record or reason to arrest him, our measures are limited.”

Ahh, right. “Nothing’s official until it’s on record.”

“It’s impressive that he got away from Dragon,” Kid Win said.

This seems like the sort of line that’s meant to make us think a little harder about what was just said and realize that Dragon is probably helping Colin. She probably personally let him out, even. Though she might not like his plans.

“It is.  Thus far, he has eluded every measure she had in place.  Either he is much more crafty than even Dragon anticipated, keeping in mind that she’s a very smart woman, or Dragon helped him.”

Okay, look, I got there, alright? 😛

“Let’s not forget the incident in New York,” Legend said.  “Forty individuals disappeared in one night.  Investigation confirmed the Travelers were occupying a nearby location.  Chances are good that they were involved.”

Woah.

But how, and why?

I doubt this was actually their doing, though they may have been involved.

“They’re complicated, no doubt,” Emily confirmed.  “But for now, they’re one knot in a very tangled weave.  The Nine have power, the Undersiders have information.

You don’t even know how tangled.

Coil has resources that may even exceed our own, including a precog of indeterminate power.  Last but certainly not least, Hookwolf’s contingent is one and a half times the size of our own, and he’s absorbing the whites from the Merchants to his own group.  He commands a small army.”

And Coil, the Undersiders and the Travelers are essentially one big and powerful group.

Also commanding a small army sounds like Hookwolf’s dream.

Well, no, that would be commanding a big army. It’s a start, though.

“It’s a considerable series of obstacles stacked against us,” Legend answered.

Yep!