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Tree branch: check. Assorted lightweight seed-bearing fruits and nuts: check. Other seeds: check. Water bottle, for when she has to veer away from the river: check.
Better not linger in her starting place too much longer. Yellow's faster than her and may have already come home to a wreck. Thorn might have a habit of checking up on the place, even, just in case. She's invisible, inaudible, unsmellable - that won't help if he sends someone thorough. Or comes in person.
She sets out.
She's been flying for about thirty minutes after her shopping trip when she falls through a tear and squeaks inaudibly and lands in the middle of -
imeanforever
wormcan
"Hologram bombs. Cameras recording how you operate. Getting his slightly less useless partner to attack you."
imeanforever
Well, that's a better answer than 'they'll explode if they don't'.
"How long will it take to deactivate all your bombs?"
"How long will it take to deactivate all your bombs?"
imeanforever
"If there were a well-informed PRT agent here, what would they want me to tell you to do next?"
wormcan
"Turn myself in. Help arrest those losers. Show them where my workshop is and deactivate the traps. Get the bombs out of the hostages' heads. Tell them what Oni Lee's doing right now. Charge against Empire Eighty-Eight and go out in a blaze of explosive glory they can pretend they didn't know about. I don't know."
imeanforever
"If I bring you back to the PRT, they will send you to prison. I could also try to keep you. Do you have a preference?"
wormcan
"Second thing."
She just bombed a city. That's a Birdcaging. And outsmarting the disembodied voice eventually is inevitable.
She just bombed a city. That's a Birdcaging. And outsmarting the disembodied voice eventually is inevitable.
imeanforever
"Is there a place I could send you to wait for me where no one else would find you in at least the next hour or two?"
imeanforever
"Okay -"
Leaving Bakuda's employees as unknown but probably minor quantities who she can't neatly take in right away, Promise sends Bakuda to the safehouse to deactivate the trap and wait. If Promise doesn't show up in twelve hours Bakuda is to turn herself in to the PRT, but the PRT doesn't have to know that.
Promise flies back to the headquarters, puts in an appearance for Oni Lee and Lung so they won't have to tell anyone anything, and looks for someone to report to.
Leaving Bakuda's employees as unknown but probably minor quantities who she can't neatly take in right away, Promise sends Bakuda to the safehouse to deactivate the trap and wait. If Promise doesn't show up in twelve hours Bakuda is to turn herself in to the PRT, but the PRT doesn't have to know that.
Promise flies back to the headquarters, puts in an appearance for Oni Lee and Lung so they won't have to tell anyone anything, and looks for someone to report to.
wormcan
The PRT knows she succeeded by the lack of things going boom. They also know that they have no idea what happened or where.
The Director wants to rant at her in person, but has a reason not to do that. So she sends Armsmaster.
"To start with: Good job. You apprehended a dangerous criminal and saved unknown numbers of lives. That said, what were you thinking?
Being a solo hero is dangerous. Many die, and I realize that's not a threat to you, but we found out tonight that Bakuda can do worse than that. Even if she can't harm you, she could have had unexpected capes backing her up, or just handed her weapons to someone else. And keeping her, or whatever you did, no matter how airtight your orders were there better have been an impossibly good reason for that."
The Director wants to rant at her in person, but has a reason not to do that. So she sends Armsmaster.
"To start with: Good job. You apprehended a dangerous criminal and saved unknown numbers of lives. That said, what were you thinking?
Being a solo hero is dangerous. Many die, and I realize that's not a threat to you, but we found out tonight that Bakuda can do worse than that. Even if she can't harm you, she could have had unexpected capes backing her up, or just handed her weapons to someone else. And keeping her, or whatever you did, no matter how airtight your orders were there better have been an impossibly good reason for that."
imeanforever
"She did have other capes backing her up, but they were easy to distract and might have been more of a problem if someone less suited to stealth had been with me. I didn't get their names, though. Apparently she has hostages with bombs in their heads - which will not explode, but still sound unpleasant. She says she can remove them and I wanted to figure out how to best go about getting that done; maybe you have a better way to do it?"
wormcan
"Ordinary surgeons might be able to handle it. Depends on what she did. Panacea has been known to remove foreign objects, but she doesn't do brains so it would again depend. We might need Bakuda to demonstrate at least one removal, if anyone volunteers for that."