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The Fate who calls herself Mountain tried to convince some of her neighbors to allow the occasional mountain in their lands, for stability purposes.
"I meant no insult!" Dodge ball of lava. "I don't intend to interfere, you said no!" Dodge house-sized spear of ice. "I'm leaving peacefully, okay, so stop tearing up the tile!"
"You'll respawn at home. No permanent damage. You interrupted an important meeting, you need to learn a lesson about territory, mountain bitch." Dodge- no, fail to dodge a thrown tree, and then another ice ball. The next sphere of magma is what destroyed that form.
She wakes up, stripped of all her tools and enchantments and even clothes, and groans in pain.
Steel in Wormverse
sturdycoldsteel
sturdycoldsteel
"Roger." Don't Chatter On The Comms During A Fight is a sensible rule. She wants to know how it's going, but she can just listen to comms to figure out that it seems to be Not Well.
She redesigns her heat sinks, which still doesn't help that much, and puts more shielding over both the reactors and the piles of waste sitting in a big pool in different corner of the building. And she waits.
She redesigns her heat sinks, which still doesn't help that much, and puts more shielding over both the reactors and the piles of waste sitting in a big pool in different corner of the building. And she waits.
Eventually someone arrives, a cape with a blue-and-red costume with fiery designs on the blue part and icy ones on the red part. "I can cool stuff off, tell me where to go."
sturdycoldsteel
She's extended the heat sink out more, but metal can only transfer heat so fast.
"This way."
It's a grid of metal fanning out in all directions, a classic heat sink. The parts closer to the reactors are glowing red. "Here it is, tell me if you need to get closer to the center and I'll make a radiation shield. The nuclear people say alarms would be going off if there were dangerous amounts of radiation here, should be safe for now, but we still want to be as fast as possible obviously."
"This way."
It's a grid of metal fanning out in all directions, a classic heat sink. The parts closer to the reactors are glowing red. "Here it is, tell me if you need to get closer to the center and I'll make a radiation shield. The nuclear people say alarms would be going off if there were dangerous amounts of radiation here, should be safe for now, but we still want to be as fast as possible obviously."
"This is close enough," he says, and closes his eyes.
...and doesn't seem to do much of anything more than that. Except he's certainly doing something, or so say the measuring apparatuses who seem to indicate heat disappearing into the Abyss.
...and doesn't seem to do much of anything more than that. Except he's certainly doing something, or so say the measuring apparatuses who seem to indicate heat disappearing into the Abyss.
sturdycoldsteel
It's definitely helping... The core temperature is dropping, and the fuel's heat output is steadily decreasing. But the Nuclear People say it's not enough. Too risky to try and move the thing with just Freeze Guy cooling it unless Behemoth is getting really close. Damn.
She tries to extend and optimize the heat sinks more. She attempts to replace the pumps and finds that she doesn't have anywhere near enough finesse to do that. It's still not enough, and Behemoth keeps getting closer. She swears some, and asks Freeze Guy to keep it up anyway. How can this be solved? She doesn't know what kind of capes are here. What resources there are. With one exception.
She tells the comms, "Scientists think the reactors are still too hot to risk moving. Is there anyone else who can cool things or move water? Is Glam still in the fight? If so tell them I need their freeze ray."
She tries to extend and optimize the heat sinks more. She attempts to replace the pumps and finds that she doesn't have anywhere near enough finesse to do that. It's still not enough, and Behemoth keeps getting closer. She swears some, and asks Freeze Guy to keep it up anyway. How can this be solved? She doesn't know what kind of capes are here. What resources there are. With one exception.
She tells the comms, "Scientists think the reactors are still too hot to risk moving. Is there anyone else who can cool things or move water? Is Glam still in the fight? If so tell them I need their freeze ray."
sturdycoldsteel
Would've been nice to know that up front...
Here's another heat sink, not connected to the first. Waste heat can go there.
Here's another heat sink, not connected to the first. Waste heat can go there.
mxglam
Soon enough waste heat goes there. Less heat goes there than the heat drained, however.
And soon enough Glam appears. "'Sup?"
And soon enough Glam appears. "'Sup?"
sturdycoldsteel
"Behemoth is heading for this nuclear plant and we're slowing it down but not stopping it. What are the odds it can make a humongous explosion if it gets here? So I'm going to move the whole building far away. Problem is, if I move the building the coolant pumps can't get water from the river anymore and explosion happens anyway. So I need a freeze ray."
mxglam
"Oh, wow. You need a super freeze ray." They spot the other cape. "What do you do?"
"I can store heat and dump it elsewhere, with some loss."
"Which in this case is a big pro," they agree. "Okay, super freeze ray, can I set something up to scan what you're doing and serve as inspiration?"
The other cape shrugs, but apparently his job takes some concentration so he doesn't say anything more.
"I can store heat and dump it elsewhere, with some loss."
"Which in this case is a big pro," they agree. "Okay, super freeze ray, can I set something up to scan what you're doing and serve as inspiration?"
The other cape shrugs, but apparently his job takes some concentration so he doesn't say anything more.
sturdycoldsteel
"From what I can hear on comms we have about half an hour. Can I help somehow?" Other than believing as hard as she can that Glam can do whatever they want, that is.
mxglam
"Nah, this should be quick." They conjure a Tinkery thingamabob in their hand, which bleeps as it scans the other cape.
"Okay, now you can, I'll need you to help me assemble this, real quick."
And pieces start appearing and Mountain's help is requested.
"Okay, now you can, I'll need you to help me assemble this, real quick."
And pieces start appearing and Mountain's help is requested.
sturdycoldsteel
She helpfully assembles things, being a bit showy about it. The Nuclear People still watching don't know what to expect a freeze ray to look like except 'big and tinkery' after all.
mxglam
It turns out not to be a freeze ray, but rather a glass ball mounted on a pedestal. Glam explains it's going to use a principle similar to the other cape's power to simultaneously draw heat from all four sources.
Buuuuullllllshit.
Buuuuullllllshit.
mxglam
Well, it might help more if she doesn't actually think about it so much, but of course there's no way for Glam to tell her that.
There's enough spooked physicists and hopeful capes around that it does in fact work quite well, however.
There's enough spooked physicists and hopeful capes around that it does in fact work quite well, however.
sturdycoldsteel
Which means she can tell everyone, "Excellent. This is going to work. I'm going outside. Keep up the cooling and hold on."
She flies outside, perches on the lip of one of the cooling towers, and lifts the entire facility - reactors, cooling towers, radioactive waste and all, out of the ground. She proceeds due north at significantly-greater-than-highway speed - certainly faster than Behemoth is managing with plenty of capes still working to slow it down.
After twenty minutes, she lands the facility a couple hundred miles north, far away from any significant towns and near another river, changing the earth around it to match. The coolant pumps come back on without a hitch, and the squad of physicists tell Glam and Transfer that they can take a break.
Is the fight still going on? Because if so, Mountain is going to throw herself right back into it. She takes Transfer with if he wants a ride.
She flies outside, perches on the lip of one of the cooling towers, and lifts the entire facility - reactors, cooling towers, radioactive waste and all, out of the ground. She proceeds due north at significantly-greater-than-highway speed - certainly faster than Behemoth is managing with plenty of capes still working to slow it down.
After twenty minutes, she lands the facility a couple hundred miles north, far away from any significant towns and near another river, changing the earth around it to match. The coolant pumps come back on without a hitch, and the squad of physicists tell Glam and Transfer that they can take a break.
Is the fight still going on? Because if so, Mountain is going to throw herself right back into it. She takes Transfer with if he wants a ride.
mxglam
Glam comes with, and would like to know that as well. Apparently the fight is still going on, but the lack of a target has changed its character somewhat. Enough that by the time they arrive, Scion's there.
sturdycoldsteel
Mountain protects the rest of the city from the shockwaves and fallout of the Scion-and-Behemoth brawl as best she can. Which is only about halfway.
mxglam
That's quite alright. Glam tries to do the same, with bullshit forcefields and whatnot. Scion manages to drive Behemoth away, and on the whole this has been one of the mildest Endbringer fights.
"Well, that could've gone a lot worse than it did."
"Well, that could've gone a lot worse than it did."
sturdycoldsteel
Mountain is still doing medevac, but can spare a moment or two to chat. "Yeah. I think they just keep getting tougher closer to the middle, like twice as tough every foot. Your lightsaber shaved off a whole leg's worth of skin but wouldn't cut deeper."
mxglam
Glam themself is creating floating litters to carry the injured. "Yeah. I need to talk to you later, by the way."
sturdycoldsteel
"I figured as much."
Medevac proceeds. Mountain is asked to put the nuclear plant back where it was before and remove your heat sinks and so on now that Behemoth's gone, thank you very much. They might even be able to start it back up in a month or four. The planes to take capes back home come and go and eventually Glam and Mountain are in New York again.
Medevac proceeds. Mountain is asked to put the nuclear plant back where it was before and remove your heat sinks and so on now that Behemoth's gone, thank you very much. They might even be able to start it back up in a month or four. The planes to take capes back home come and go and eventually Glam and Mountain are in New York again.
mxglam
And Glam draws Mountain aside, which by cape standards is "floating around somewhere," and asks, "Is there something you think I'd be interested if you told me?"