I pulled the pin free, then dropped it straight down. 

Easy as, uh, dropping a grenade!

Wind carried the grenade further than I expected.  It landed somewhere a few feet behind Cache, rolled, then detonated.  The car that had been propped up against Cache was thrown off, rolling onto its roof.

I think that’s a success!

How did Weld and Mannequin take that?

The other debris scattered.

I felt a wave of relief that I hadn’t managed to hit them with the grenade just as they came out of stasis.

That would be… less of a success.

Mannequin backed away from Weld to stare up at me.  Weld, for his part, had absorbed the metal of the chains and disconnected the excess from his body.

Oh, so he did get stuck to the chains. Fair enough, that settles my concerns on that front! That just leaves the question of why the cars don’t get stuck on his blades (or vice versa).

When he reshaped his hands into weapons, it was faster than I’d seen him do it during our attack on the PRT headquarters.

Hm. Practice? Holding back before? Or perhaps this situation has put him in a state of mind similar to his trigger event somehow and that made the shapeshifting more powerful and thus faster?

There were crunching sounds and the noise of metal striking metal.  I directed the beetle around one particularly thick cloud of black smoke and saw Weld hacking the cars to pieces, his arms a pair of oversized blades.

Nice. That does kinda give Mannequin a lot of ammo to work with, but it’s smaller ammo that’s slightly less dangerous for the time-frozen heroes, as it’s harder for Mannequin to stack the weight of it all on top of them.

Mannequin threw a car at him, and Weld lunged forward to slam it down into the ground with both hands.  Mannequin used the opening to leap forward, his feet momentarily resting on Weld’s shoulders, before he hopped down to the ground.

Weld is being pretty cool in this fight.

Meanwhile, Mannequin is… doing something.

Spools of chain unfolded in Mannequin’s wake, and he bound Weld, dragging him away from his allies.

Well, shit.

Okay, seriously, did I misinterpret the bit about Weld’s clothing? Is he not basically topless here, his metallic chest exposed?

Because it really seems like both the cars and the chain should be sticking to him. Especially the cars, which he’s definitely touching with exposed blade-shaped arms.

Hmm. Did they cover Weld in some sort of organic oil or something? (Zinc, while appropriate as a covering for him, wouldn’t work because it’s a metal.)

I frowned and suppressed that instinct.  As it stood, it was dangerous.  If he was flying and I got knocked out, he might keep flying.

…that’s exactly what I pointed out!

The same might apply if I was turning, or adjusting to compensate for my weight and got distracted partway through.

Suddenly you’re going in circles.

Also, if you get knocked out while calling for Bailey to come to you, but the others get you out and to a doctor, John Cleese might not be happy.

Even less so if you ask Bailey to stay close and defend you.

No, after testing it I didn’t like how slippery it made the navigation feel.  I’d only use it on a case-by-case basis.

Hey, at least you can toggle it, so if it does come in handy sometime, it’s available.

Besides, it was something I could do with my power anyways, with greater effect and nuance.  I’d been knocked out once, and my power had continued directing insects by my last given order.

Hm. Might that still happen with Bailey even with this instinct suppressed, or even before Amy added this feature?

Irritating.

If it’s Amy you’re irritated at now, please cut her some slack. She was trying.

Now, where were we…

Ah, right, Taylor was flying off to help Weld, Clocky, Cache, and everyone Cache has in store, on a Bailey with a little more autopilot than before.

And probably getting herself trapped by a rain of Bakuda bombs. Though I suppose the PRT might be saving those until all the good guys are out of the blast zone. Which would be a good tactic considering that Bakuda’s bombs might be among incredibly few things that could bypass Clocky’s power, and even if they don’t, some of the effects can linger until the freezing wears off. Or cause it to never wear off. 

Let’s try not to get anyone blown up or crushed by cars, okay? Unless they’re members of the Nine, of course.