"Tripping isn't the point, locating and holding is."

"Right, that's what I meant, he'd need to not know they're there otherwise he could just avoid them."

"Not if they were dense enough."

"Oh, you mean, like, conjuring them around him? Or around the area where he was?"

"Yeah, what were you thinking?"

"Conjuring it somewhere he might go so he'd run into it. His own expectations would run counter my conjuring around him so I'd need some witnesses on our side who knew what was about to go on, probably."

"Wouldn't be too hard to get."

"No, indeed not, especially if we were broadcasting bots' vision to tactically relevant people here in the PHQ."

"Of course then we'd have to be authorized to take potshots at the S9."

"They all have a kill order on their heads, I'm pretty sure we're authorized pretty much whatever's not immediately and obviously terrible."

"I mean authorized in terms of risk-taking, not in terms of desired results."

"Oh, yeah. I mean, they will invariably attack either Brockton Bay or wherever the next Endbringer attacks, after I Siberian giant monster butt."

"Yeah, then we're probably good to go."

"I can probably have something mechanically plausible if I design some sort of black box machine at the edges of the wires. It might help if some tinker actually comes up with a layout or something."

"Not quite my area, but maybe I could finagle it."

"Finagling is fine, it's what my power runs on, it's just, stuff that works even badly on its own is easier to make work than literal magic."

"Fair enough."

"Which leaves only the Siberian and Jack himself to deal with. And it still makes no sense that Jack can manage to survive."

"Yeah. It might be something I cut through like butter but it might not."

"I wonder if I can convince Piggot or Armsmaster to give me access to the classified info on the Nine..."

"Good luck," she snorts. "Better luck in five and a half months, probably."

"In five and a half months they'll already have attacked wherever they'll attack after I Siberian an Endbringer's butt."

"Yeah, there's that. Go through Armsmaster," she recommends. "Make it all very dry and strategic."

"Yeah, probably best way. He might still be irritated with me for not having told him about being able to Siberian stuff in the first place..."

"Maybe, yeah. Still not as bad as Piggot directly."