Mannequin was holding his own.  The hits that did land seemed to have little effect, as he went limp and bent with them.  It seemed he was keeping to the old adage of a supple willow bending in a hurricane that topples a sturdy oak.

Yeah, that sounds like Mannequin’s style.

Even when Battery was moving at super speed, he was quick to take the advantage of a kick that went too high or a sweep aiming to knock his feet out from under him.  He ducked beneath the former and hopped over the latter, then using his grappling-hook hands to haul himself a distance away.

In case there was any doubt about the speed of Mannequin’s perception and reflexes. Jeez.

He managed to get close enough to cut down two of Prism’s duplicates, then pointed his hand at her third self, extending a blade from the base of his hand and firing it like a harpoon.

Uh oh.

Battery used up her charge and swept it aside before it could strike home and finish off the heroine.

Good work!

Prism and Battery went after Mannequin.  Prism split into three copies of herself, complete with fireproof suit, closing in as Battery used her power to cross the distance and trade blows.

Called it!

I was only peripherally aware of Prism, given how she was based in New York, but seeing her in action reminded me of how she operated.

She was a self-duplicator, always producing two other versions of herself, but there were nuances.  So long as one duplicate lived, she would survive whatever happened to the others, but they didn’t last long.

So each duplicate can end up being the one that lives on?

And this makes her three times as difficult to kill, just for a moment. Presumably there’s a bit of a recharge/cooldown time or something that keeps her from spamming it. It also make her able to deliver lots of blows at a time.

She could also expend them to enhance herself.

…interesting. Enhance how exactly?

It made her an effective partner for Battery.  Both were all about the setup followed by execution.  Prism formed her duplicates and spread them out while Battery attacked, then drew her duplicates back into herself in a flash of light before delivering a crushing strike.

That’s pretty cool!

Ahh, I see, the enhancing represents the union of the multiple light rays into one strong one, the reverse interaction (between a prism and light) of the one the splitting represents.

…did that sentence make any sense?

He rumbled with a low, guttural laugh, mocking.  Was he enjoying himself?

I mean, he seems to enjoy getting tougher. I’m sure he feels a bit of satisfaction when attacks don’t do much, and even more so when they do hurt him.

He was a masochist, and it was the rare thing that could hurt him.

Hmm. Does he actually enjoy the pain, or is his focus on the strength boost the regeneration gives him? The latter is how it has seemed so far.

Miss Militia interrupted his gloating with a shot from a rocket launcher.  His claws dug deep into pavement as he resisted being knocked over.  She used her power to reload the rocket launcher and shot him again, uprooting him.

This is one of the differences between Crawler and Siberian. They’re both (near-)invulnerable, but Crawler can at least be moved.

Triumph used a full-power shout to send Crawler sliding across the clearing Vista had made.

FUS RO DAH!

Vista widened the distance by stretching the landscape.

They all make a good team.

Vista and Flechette moved to positions just behind and to either side of Weld.  The group blocked Crawler’s view of Glory Girl.

Miss Militia directed the adult heroes with a series of short commands and hand signals.  Ursa and Assault led the way with Miss Militia, Prism, Battery and Triumph following, clearly aiming to flank Crawler and close the distance between them and Mannequin.

So the adults are on either side of him now, while the kids stand right in his path.

Somehow that feels a bit backwards.

Crawler spat, and Vista used her power, reducing the distance the spit traveled to a tenth of what it might have been.

Sweet!

Crawler leaped, and she widened the distance between him and everyone else so he stood in the midst of a clearing.

I really, really like Vista’s power. 😀

Flechette fired a bolt straight into Crawler.  It penetrated his face and stuck there.  Little surprise on that front; I’d seen her stick Leviathan with one of those giant needles.

Hm. So will he regenerate so that the bolt eventually falls out?

Crawler’s face bubbled around the wound where it was rejecting the foreign object.  Almost imperceptibly, it began to slide out.

Yep. And “eventually” implies too much time.

“Wards!”  Weld hollered.  “Crawler and Mannequin, like we discussed!  Close ranks around Victoria!”

I’m all for Weld having a speaking role.

So now that everyone’s out, it’s time for team tactics. Let’s see what they’ve got in mind!

His words broke the spell that the scene had over Vista and Flechette.  Surprising that there were so few Wards here, on a level.  Kid Win wasn’t in sight, nor was Chariot, and Clockblocker was under the sway of his own powers.

Yeah, this was optional.

Shadow Stalker, Aegis, Gallant and Browbeat were dead or gone.

Right, Browbeat… moved, was it, when his family evacuated? As for Shadow Stalker, that’s a story you’re quite personally familiar with, ain’t it, Taylor? 😉 Though not as familiar as you think.

The final sorta-maybe member of their group, Glory Girl, was being eaten alive by Crawler’s acid.

…wait, hang on. If the acid doesn’t keep the shield down, could it reform around Victoria, keeping some of the acid in? That would be bad for any attempts to save her.

Oh hey, I was right.

I wonder if any of Bakuda’s bombs could manage to hurt Crawler. She was capable of reproducing people’s powers as bombs, and seemingly only needed to have observed them in order to do it. She couldn’t have reproduced the one power we know for sure can hurt Crawler so far, because she was arrested and killed before that power was bestowed on Scrub, but she may have had access to other powers that could do it.