It wouldn’t stop them, of course.  The only ones that explosion might have hurt were Shatterbird and maybe Mannequin, if he’d survived Ballistic’s attack and slipped around through some other angle.

Yeeah.

Ideal world, it would also slow down Siberian.  More realistically, I was hoping that they’d get pissed, and they’d get sloppy.

“slow down Siberian” is a hard phrase to process, much like “dry spot in Brockton Bay”.

I chanced a quick look through the binoculars.  Crawler was stampeding towards the site of the explosion, Cherish was still prone on the ground, bleeding out from Trickster’s sniper fire, and I couldn’t make out the others.

Hm. Lost/blurry visuals. That’s bad.

Wait, no.  I could see rubble shifting as Siberian shrugged it aside.  It was enough debris that Crawler would have been hampered, but even with her hands tied up in holding her teammates, she cast the chunks of concrete and brick aside with the same sort of ease that I might walk through a pile of balloons.

I don’t think walking through a pile of balloons is always as easy as it sounds, but fair.

She shook her head, and her hair fanned out behind her, draping partially over Bonesaw, who was riding her piggy-back.

This arrangement is still adorable.

Trickster rolled his shoulders, stretched his neck and adjusted his hat.

Heh. “Well, that was a nice morning workout.”

“Don’t waste time,” Grue growled.  “Do it.”

Oh boy, what next? Sounds like they’ve got a big finisher ready.

By the way, is Genesis on her way back in a more battle-ready form yet?

“Times like this call for a certain flourish,” Trickster said.  Trickster withdrew a small remote from his pocket and depressed the button. 

Boom?

The rooftops the other two teams had been situated on virtually shattered with the explosions.  The bazooka rounds had also carried a small collection of plastic explosives.

Boom.

Since Trickster’s team had only needed the sniper rifle, their case held a hell of a lot more.

Part five done.  Baiting the hook, reeling them in, then hitting them as hard as we could.

Nice work! Now did that actually work?

Not someone who couldn’t heal.

Oh, yeah, that also excludes Lung.

I could see her thrashing, trying to stay aloft even as her concentration faltered.  The brown recluses were insurance of a sort.  If we happened to take out Bonesaw, it could mean Shatterbird was out of the equation as well.

Maybe!

The darkness Grue had generated around the rooftop disappeared all at once.  Grue and Ballistic crouched at the far corner.  Canceling the darkness was a signal.

It doesn’t sound like a good one. Retreat?

The mannequins hanging from the first rack disappeared, replaced by the two boys.

Ohh.

That’s their use! And canceling the darkness makes it so Trickster can have line of sight to them.

Grue and Ballistic disentangled themselves from the metal frames and hurried to our side. 

Trickster and Regent appeared soon after the other frame was up.  I could see Siberian on the rooftop. 

Did Trickster just use his power on himself? I guess that’s a thing he can do.

They’d escaped just in time to avoid being caught in a melee with her.

Yikes, that would be unpleasant.

Even if they wouldn’t be cut to shreds, I wasn’t sure they would survive if Shatterbird detonated that case of rocket launcher rounds with a shard in the right place or a large enough impact.

Eesh.

“Bitch,” I spoke.  “The boxes!”

Bitch was sliding off of Bentley’s back, opening the first metal box and stretching out the contents.

Oh right, I suppose it wouldn’t make sense for them all to have explosives given how it turned out they wanted to use them.

So, whatcha got?

The case was a piece of camping gear I’d noticed ages ago, when I’d first been buying things for my costume.  A watertight case for luggage with a metal frame inside that campers could stretch out to use as a drying rack for clothes and towels.

…nice. How does it help here?

We didn’t have luggage inside.  No, the box held parts of the mannequins I’d been using for costume design.

My question still stands.

Strung together with silk, two mannequins dangled from the frame.

Bitch adjusted the way one mannequin hung and headed over to set up the other case.

The one use I can think of is as decoys, but we’ve already got the bug decoys and the shadow decoys, neither of which needs a skeleton.

My bugs had reached Shatterbird and started attacking her.  Brown recluses, capsaicin, wasps, hornets and bees.  I’d never attacked someone like this.

Even Lung didn’t have to feel the capsaicin on his dick.

She was protecting them, which we hadn’t anticipated, but she couldn’t do that and come after us.

I wonder if she’d do the same if Bonesaw hadn’t been one of them.

Or maybe she can.  I saw Siberian virtually toss Bonesaw in the air, the girl wrapping her arms around the woman’s neck as she landed.

Dammit, I just decided against adding “also, are you sure?” to that last section.

Holding her two teammates, Siberian sprinted for Trickster and Regent.  She was fast, but it was a speed borne of her peculiar powers, more enhanced strength than augmented acceleration.  Not so different from Battery on that count.

I guess? I had assumed it was that she’s ignoring air resistance and any other effects that would slow her down.

Air resistance and inertia didn’t hamper her in the same ways.  More than that, whatever it was that made her invincible and untouchable to any outside force, she had the ability to snap it out to affect any surface she touched.

Ohh, that makes sense. She’s essentially hardening the surface under her feet.

Her strength was virtually limitless, and the pavement didn’t shatter with her footfalls because she made it as untouchable as she was.

I suppose the “unstoppable force” part of her power description is actually a thing, not just an extension of the “immovable object” part.

So Siberian’s feet are applying an unstoppable force onto the pavement, which she’s turned into an immovable object. The reaction to that force, which is going to be equally unstoppable, drives her forward. She too is an immovable object, but she’s letting that reaction force move her.

No wonder she’s fast.

Tattletale said something, but I missed it over the roar of noise that came with Sundancer using her power.  She was forming another orb.  Everyone else was busy with their own things.

Better ask her to repeat that, it might’ve been important.

Siberian was protecting Jack and Bonesaw.  That was both good and bad.  We’d planned this strategy under the assumption that Siberian would come for us and we’d use the dogs, Grue’s Darkness, my bug-decoys and Trickster’s teleportation to keep our distance from her until we decided we needed to make a run for it.

No plan survives contact with the enemy, at least with the Unspoken Plan Guarantee apparently not being in play. Wildbow went for the other option I mentioned in the intro post, continually explaining what was supposed to happen.

All of that was in line with part four of the plan, maintaining our distance and avoiding a toe to toe fight.  In the meantime, we’d intended to use our ranged abilities to take out Jack, Cherish, Bonesaw and Burnscar.

So Siberian isn’t acting the way you planned for and she’s protecting two of your main targets. What’s the good side of this? That she’s not chasing you down?

Bitch whistled, and Sirius started bounding across rooftops to head our way.  I could see Shatterbird turn and notice us.

Hi there! That’s right, there’s more of us!

That was fine.  I sent a payload of bugs her way; wasps and bees each carrying several spiders, and more expendable caterpillars and the like that were smeared in capsaicin.

Nice. Bonesaw’s protection might be dealing with direct damage, but I’m not sure it’s going to protect against venom or pain.

I wanted to make absolutely sure she knew where we were and that she wouldn’t ignore us.

So she’ll divert her attention from Grue and Ballistic?

Crawler reached the base of the building only to be switched with yet another car, resetting his position a second time.  He roared in frustration, then turned toward the miniature sun, breaking into an all out run as he charged for it. 

Rubberbanding is such a frustrating form of video game lag.

“Sundancer, switch off!”  I called out.

You think he hasn’t faced heat before? I suppose maybe not this intense heat.

The orb disappeared, and Crawler crashed through the alleyway, only barely avoiding Jack, Siberian and Bonesaw.  The edges of the alley were unrecognizable, and the walls were on fire, but the trio were untouched.

Bravo, Bonesaw. Bravo.

Siberian had Jack draped over one shoulder  and another hand clasping Bonesaw by the back of her shirt, holding her high.  The pavement was a molten liquid beneath them.

At least it might be difficult to run in? Though Siberian’s power would probably make it easier.

I clicked the button on the walkie-talkie and informed the others, “Siberian’s granting her invulnerability to Jack and Bonesaw!”

Oh yeah, I forgot that was a thing she could do.

Also I guess she is invulnerable to heat. Fair enough!

I suppose if Trickster were to look up from his rifle and could see Crawler approaching Grue and Ballistic, he could also move Crawler away from them. Replace him with part of a building or something.

Part four of the plan?  Avoid direct confrontation.

Ah, yeah. Direct confrontations haven’t gone great so far.

“Trickster,” Grue said, the one word buzzing over the walkie-talkies.

Oh hey, looks like I was onto something!

Crawler disappeared, and an empty pickup truck toppled from the edge of the roof to the ground.

Nice.

Crawler was back in the vicinity of the other Nine, not far from Sundancer’s burning orb.  Blocks away from Grue and Ballistic.

I would imagine he’s immune to intense heat by now, so at least it probably isn’t going to make him stronger.

The monster lunged after Grue and Ballistic again, and was supported this time by Shatterbird, who conjured up a storm of glass shards to pelt the pair.  Ballistic retaliated by firing a warhead at Shatterbird, who prematurely detonated the explosive with a thick cluster of glass, shielding herself against the worst of the blast with another wall.

This would look awesome in motion.

She drew more walls around herself and maintained her assault.

And here I thought Assault was Battery’s.

I glanced at Sundancer and she gave me a grim nod.

Crawler had reached Grue and was scaling the side of the building with surprising speed.  I’d taken him for a quadruped, but apparently his joints were modular.  His proportions were more simian, now, and he was climbing up the side of the building twice as fast as I could have run it if it were laid out horizontally.

Wouldn’t he be at least a hexaped anyway, depending how you count?

Part three of the plan had been to hit them as hard as we could.  Trickster was using his rifle to take shots at Mannequin, but I couldn’t see if it was having any effect.

I highly doubt it.

Ballistic finally decided to contribute, and fired a warhead at Mannequin.  Then he reached into the box he and Grue had unloaded from Sirius’s harness and grabbed two more.

That might be a bit more effective.

I suppose it makes sense that he’d have an easier time attacking someone as obviously inhuman as Mannequin.

He fired them into the smoke cloud that had expanded around Mannequin.

Smoke? Is that from the first warhead’s impact, or does he have a new trick that’s less explosive?

I could see Crawler reaching the edge of the roof, not twenty feet from Grue and Ballistic.

Just before reading this, it occurred to me that we haven’t gotten much contribution from Grue either after the initial commander role.

At least the darkness may be good for dealing with Crawler. Crawler is immune to most attacks and grows stronger from the ones he isn’t immune to, so attacking him isn’t the solution. With the darkness, Grue can instead make escape easier, as long as Crawler doesn’t have special senses.