The next several weeks are a blur of activity. Skitter discusses the railway with Lucien and the Undersider's finances with Tattletale, deciding to approve the project and put Lucien in charge of their finances instead of Tattletale from then on. Lorica Sarcina gets her skyscraper and Sundancer starts melting down the boat graveyard for scrap soon afterwards. A joint mission between Grue, Foil, Velocity, and Dragon manages to find and kill the Siberian. Meanwhile Lucien hires accountants and sets to work on spreadsheeting Undersider finances.
"Nah, I psyched myself up over the course of saying that, I'll take point. Also, like, maybe I can just turn the Butcher into a bird and this will make containing them easy? That would be neat."
The Loricae have designated Plumata, in a full-armor suit she will not be able to take off if I don't let her, to take point on the Butcher. Please send more intel while they mobilize.
A strike team of individuals is being formed to locate the source of the minions within a quarantine zone - current roster including Dovetail [non-lethal mover - full powers in appendix] and a non-lethal remote operated suit I will be deploying, and any further capes who respond to Director Armstrongs request for aid.
Likely Teeth roster:
Approx 15 regular non-cape members, with ~20 part-time or loosely affiliated members. Not particularly organized or well armed but more violent than many other gangs.
Animos (Changer/Trump 4): Temporary tansformation into quadruped form with a power nullifying scream (not believed to be effective on Trump or Master powers). Can't hold transformation for more than two minutes at a time.
Hemorrhagia (Striker 2/Brute 1): TK control over her own blood. Can harden it into weapons or protective scabs.
Spree (Master 4/Possible upgrade to Master 10): Extremely rapid fire clone production, with clones lacking the powers and their intelligence declining to brain death in under one minute. Possible second trigger allowing indefinite clone lifespan with enhanced durability and stamina.
Vex (Shaker 3): Able to fill empty space with swarms of sharp, individually weak but collectively strong, forcefields.
Butcher XIV (Blaster 6, Brute 6, Master 4, Mover 5, Thinker 2, Trump 5): Most notable for the fact that the killer of the Butcher inherits all of their powers, with each power weakening the first time it is inherited. Each inheritor thus far has become a villain leading the Teeth, either by natural inclination or insanity induced by the voices of the prior Butchers. Extreme caution is to be taken in deploying capes directly against them in order to minimize the chances of future Butcher's acquiring particularly dangerous powers, which includes most most powers sufficient to safely oppose her. Preferentially deploy non-capes, capes that can avoid deploying lethal force even under extreme conditions, or capes that immune to her Master ability.
Additional Butcher powers:
- Ranged attacks always hit so long as target is close enough. Makes use of a variety of projectile weapons.
- Short range teleport with small explosions on arrival. Believed to need line of sight.
- Can see hearts, veins, and arteries - even through walls.
- Danger sense that provides warning a fraction of a second ahead of physical attacks.
- Ability to cause intense pain at a distance of approx 70 feet.
- Ability to cause mindless rage at a distance of 10 feet.
- Inflicted wounds fester.
- Extremely strong and durable from multiple powers stacking.
- Slow regeneration.
- Immune to pain.
- Miscellaneous minor powers included in Appendix A.
Additional Note: There is a pre-signed kill order for the Butcher to be used retroactively if it is determined if the Butcher has been effectively neutralized.
Additionally there is a kill order for the source of the minions.
In go the Loricae. The suits - except for the slimfit Zephy's wearing - should be reasonably proof against most physical attacks, but the ranged pain thing might or might not go around their immunity, so that's going to suck if it does. They fill drones with foam and tranqs.
The drones go first, to get up to the minute intel and lay in pockets of reinforcement in possible staging areas.
There's a perimiter quarantining the monsters - barely. The Boston Protectorate, Wards, and several independent capes are coordinating with squads of PRT to keep the still growing swarm from spreading farther or growing to numerous. Inside the quarantine zone the monsters seem... feral, but not coordinated enough to be dangerous. Individuals or small groups ineffectually attempt to force their way into buildings. The area isn't entirely residential - there are several warehouses, a mall, and some sort of indoor sporting arena. There's also a combined operational center and field hospital two blocks from the perimeter.