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Sadde and Bell in Worm
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Sadde feels... strange. They poke that feeling this way and that, trying to make sense of it, and tentatively conclude their crush on Chelsea, with whom they hang out somewhat frequently, is the cause of it. And the fact that she's bi and Bella isn't. And she's so nice and pretty and cute and she gets them, and sure, Bella gets them, too, but it's—different somehow, even if they can't quite put a finger on what the difference is. It just is.

They don't have fights. There isn't conflict, per se, in the relationship. Just a sort of... unease. A loss of synchronicity. They're sure as soon as Chelsea goes (must she? She could stay...) everything will come back to normal, even as they fall further and further in love with her.

Unrelatedly, one day Lorica's patrolling and gets a report about a building near her where no one's answering any doors.

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"Building's in lock down, calling in reinforcements, Lorica you might as well send one of your bots to check one of the comatose victims for traps, see if we can't remove them from there. Assume hostiles are still in the premises, calling in backup, medical assistance should be here any minute but we cannot let the civilians out until we know what's going on. Dauntless, keep your shield up at all times."

"Acknowledged," Dauntless says.

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"Acknowledged," Lorica says, and a hardware bot approaches a victim and looks them over.

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The civilian is unclothed under the skin blanket, and much freer of blood than he should be under the circumstances. Uncovering him or moving him does not seem to trigger anything except for a little bit more bleeding from the cuts.

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"Looks clear, at least on this one, but he's not bleeding as much as I'd expect."

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"Can your bots check vitals?" the Captain asks after barking a few more orders for other officers.

(Glam tries making a new bot appear and it completely fails to. This is very worrying.)

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"Checking." The bot takes a pulse.

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Slow and weak. The person's whole metabolism seems to have been significantly slowed down. If there was any doubt this was power-caused it should be gone by now.

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"Slow, weak pulse -" The bot gently opens an eye and checks pupillary response.

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No response.

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"No pupillary response, that's bad."

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"Can you move them? Drupe's going upstairs to meet up with you and help."

"I can move them without dropping the forcefield," Dauntless offers.

"Do. Paramedics are here, one of the squads is, too, and Miss Militia's on her way with Rewind and Silica."

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(Try again. Fail. Why.)

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"Bots aren't specced for weight but I can carry them myself."

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"Do it. Be careful. And," the Captain offers one half of a password phrase.

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Lorica's bot produces the matching half for her, she's busy scooping up a guy in a coma and flying down the stairwell to turn him over to medics.

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The PRT squad pour solvent on the foam covering the main entrance and do a password check again before scanning the comatose guy for any hidden traps or cerebral activity and handing him off to the medics.

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And Lorica ferries more of them down and out.

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Some of them are a bit less alive than just comatose. Other heroes and more officers arrive and scout the general area and the building, and other than the fact that Glam continues to fail to produce anything there (and doesn't mention to anyone they were trying) no further significant events occur.

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Well, that... could have gone worse. Or better, but still.

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It could. After all civilians have been evacuated and it has been determined that they are all in fact really comatose for real and not actually disguised people, they're all hauled off to the hospital attached to the PHQ. Heroes and the PRT squad continue to investigate the premises but no further clues about the powers of whoever decided this would be a fun prank to play are found. They return to headquarters to debrief.

What do they know about the powers involved?

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Bot-poofing, without being on the premises (or being undetectable to Lorica and bots alike). Shattering glass-and-such. Metabolic effects, see medical reports for more. It is unlikely that the skinned people were skinned manually; it would have taken a long time. Entire thing was very subtle; inactivity, not activity, was noticed.

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The medical reports suggest a deep coma with severe brain damage, with no external agents detected. It's not very likely any of those people will be waking up. And that is quite insufficient to determine much about the natures of the powers, but it does suggest more than one person, grab-bags of powers aren't typically that strong and versatile.

(...Glam doesn't mention the fact that it was copy-proofing in addition to poofing, because the hypotheses going through their mind are. Not very pleasant. They look fidgety and nervous.)

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Lorica will ask about that later.

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The combined effects suggest strong shaker, possible stranger but due to having completely eluded Lorica more likely breaker, blaster, or just shaker again. The skin and the coma suggest some kind of biokinesis.

And no one brings up the possibility that it might've been the Nine.

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Well. Lorica does. The quiet approach is uncharacteristic but the scale and brutality and the suddenly appearing on the scene are about right and the power array's not far off.

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