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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 -
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imeanforever
imeanforever
"I'll go check my gate again."
She goes and checks her gate again. Is it settled yet?
She goes and checks her gate again. Is it settled yet?
wormcan
It is.
Armsmaster sees the opening. "If you're returning now, when can we expect you back?"
Armsmaster sees the opening. "If you're returning now, when can we expect you back?"
imeanforever
"In a day or two, depending." She picks up the flattener. "How do I work this?"
wormcan
"This button turns it on or off, that switch is if you want to reverse the effect, and you can alter the affected area with these knobs. If it breaks there isn't likely to be much you can do about it, but ask me and I'll fix it. By the time you're back we'll have a proposition drawn up about the gates, and hopefully some way to convince you to work with us."
imeanforever
"Okay. I'm looking forward to it, I really do want to help if I can be sure whatever I'm doing is helping."
She puts the flattener under her arm and her bag over her other shoulder and goes through the gate.
On the other side, she shuts the gate, and then she investigates the Valley Continent.
Eventually she finds a nice roomy glade with no nearby neighbors and a brook and space for her tree and food. She sets up the flattener, and she plants the tree cutting from her bag, and she plants the rest of her seeds, and then she grows the fuck out of all of them until they are big and she can have a satisfying lunch. Then she concentrates on the tree; she misses sleeping inside her tree.
The flattener works just fine. Presently her tree is big enough to curl up inside and tuck the flattener into as well. She force grows a bit of fluff for a pillow. She sleeps.
When she wakes up, she forces more growth into the tree, does a more thorough inspection of the environs, and then collects the flattener, goes back to her gate, opens it, and goes through.
She puts the flattener under her arm and her bag over her other shoulder and goes through the gate.
On the other side, she shuts the gate, and then she investigates the Valley Continent.
Eventually she finds a nice roomy glade with no nearby neighbors and a brook and space for her tree and food. She sets up the flattener, and she plants the tree cutting from her bag, and she plants the rest of her seeds, and then she grows the fuck out of all of them until they are big and she can have a satisfying lunch. Then she concentrates on the tree; she misses sleeping inside her tree.
The flattener works just fine. Presently her tree is big enough to curl up inside and tuck the flattener into as well. She force grows a bit of fluff for a pillow. She sleeps.
When she wakes up, she forces more growth into the tree, does a more thorough inspection of the environs, and then collects the flattener, goes back to her gate, opens it, and goes through.
wormcan
When she returns, the room is empty and alarms are blaring. Outside the door, uniformed agents are running to and from different places and generally looking like whatever is happening is very important. No capes are in sight.
A man in a grinning mask appears out of nowhere at one end of the hallway, stabs a human with one of his myriad knives, and then dissolves into ash. During the stabbing an identical man appears at the other end, drops a handheld object, and dives down a staircase. An explosion fills the corridor while he makes his escape.
A man in a grinning mask appears out of nowhere at one end of the hallway, stabs a human with one of his myriad knives, and then dissolves into ash. During the stabbing an identical man appears at the other end, drops a handheld object, and dives down a staircase. An explosion fills the corridor while he makes his escape.
imeanforever
The fuck.
Well, her room is still expanded and she still has the flattener. She can fix the human and maybe the human knows what's going on. Flattener on and near-enough human: check. Healing - go.
wormcan
The human successfully becomes less stabbed, and assumes Promise is a cape. She manages to cough out a brief description: teleporter, temporary duplicates stay behind, watch out for suicide bombings. He's got to be here to rescue Lung, locked up three floors down but he'll be checking them one at a time.
wormcan
"Not his real one." That detail has gotten around.
"Lung is very dangerous, he gets stronger the longer he fights and whole teams have failed to bring him in. If you think you can prevent the breakout, go quick, but more capes won't be here for minutes. It's just you and the PRT."
"Lung is very dangerous, he gets stronger the longer he fights and whole teams have failed to bring him in. If you think you can prevent the breakout, go quick, but more capes won't be here for minutes. It's just you and the PRT."
imeanforever
"Mm." She isn't sure if she can prevent it or not, but she can be sure she won't die trying.
Down she and her flattener, both invisible etc., go.
Down she and her flattener, both invisible etc., go.
wormcan
They have no idea she was even there.
She reaches what is presumably where Lung is being held. Lung himself isn't visible; he has been preemptively covered with a sticky yellow-white substance that is probably what containment foam looks like. Agents are talking into communication devices to keep informed on where the teleporter is, and positioning themselves to attack the direction he'll likely come from.
She reaches what is presumably where Lung is being held. Lung himself isn't visible; he has been preemptively covered with a sticky yellow-white substance that is probably what containment foam looks like. Agents are talking into communication devices to keep informed on where the teleporter is, and positioning themselves to attack the direction he'll likely come from.
imeanforever
That seems like a weird way to fight someone who can teleport, but maybe they're exploiting a weakness in the power that her informant didn't have time to tell her.
She's not sure what to do here but stand by and hope the teleporter is in one place long enough for her to do something. And heal the mortals, if they are further stabbed.
...She should probably tell them she's here. She creeps up to one, drops the inaudibility, and murmurs, "It's Promise. Can I help somehow?"
She's not sure what to do here but stand by and hope the teleporter is in one place long enough for her to do something. And heal the mortals, if they are further stabbed.
...She should probably tell them she's here. She creeps up to one, drops the inaudibility, and murmurs, "It's Promise. Can I help somehow?"
wormcan
The listener starts, but remembers Promise is capable of looking like empty space and answers the question.
"He needs line of sight. Can you blind him?"
"He needs line of sight. Can you blind him?"
wormcan
The humans confer briefly, and then decide. "Do it. But be ready to cancel it, he has to have come prepared. If that means his own light source we're good, if it means night vision we're doomed."
imeanforever
"Right."
There is a delay; she expands the range of the flattener -
And there is darkness.
There is a delay; she expands the range of the flattener -
And there is darkness.
wormcan
The door opens.
Promise can immediately hear containment foam being sprayed in what would probably have added up to a solid wall if her darkness weren't already blocking line of sight. Two explosions, loud but muffled by the foam that presumably intersected and surrounded the grenades, a shout of pain from the door's direction, and then silence.
After a few tense seconds, someone asks, "Did we get him?"
Promise can immediately hear containment foam being sprayed in what would probably have added up to a solid wall if her darkness weren't already blocking line of sight. Two explosions, loud but muffled by the foam that presumably intersected and surrounded the grenades, a shout of pain from the door's direction, and then silence.
After a few tense seconds, someone asks, "Did we get him?"
wormcan
The door is partially open. A predictably large mass of containment foam occupies the floor in front of it, with a human-sized indentation in part of it. The indentation is lined with ash.
Someone shouts "go dark!" but the teleporter is already in. Almost as soon as he's in he's also behind them, and PRT body armor confers incomplete immunity to knives.
Someone shouts "go dark!" but the teleporter is already in. Almost as soon as he's in he's also behind them, and PRT body armor confers incomplete immunity to knives.