Oh right. That's why she uses it anyway.

It's a good thing she didn't say anything about leaving Cherish alive.

When she gets down, the drones are mostly keeping their distance. They're firing on the Nine occasionally, but Crawler can take it. He's rampaging and cutting in to her supply. Jack, Cherish, and Bonesaw are facing different directions and each reaching backward toward the Siberian's outstretched arm. Jack is occasionally helping Crawler out, not that he needs it. The Siberian's other arm is holding a monstrously long glass rod that really should break under its own weight. Once in a while it slices an arc through any drones that happen to get too close.

Mannequin's probably up to no good somewhere out of sight. Crawler's a more immediate threat.

She's got more tools to close with him now.

While he's all in favor of her using them, he doesn't want her to actually kill him. The Siberian jumps, and the other three don't seem to weigh her down. When she lands on his back Bonesaw drops something that sticks her foot down without it having to dig into his carapace. They look pretty ridiculous.

"Congratulations on driving Shatterbird off," Jack calls. "I'll have to tell her I was disappointed, afterward."

She'll go clear the the area while they're having group hug time.

It's pretty extremely clear. A side effect of giving the Siberian a weapon with reach. They're perfectly fine with waiting for her to get back, though.

Any signs of Mannequin activity?

No, but if she focuses for a minute she can track him by the suspicious lack of signs.

Mannequin isn't doing much damage to her robotic horde. He's mostly staying unseen, but every so often there's an unaccounted-for vanishing of a drone. The majority of those are in the same direction and getting closer.

And then there's an impact from behind her, the minority direction.
Mannequin looks up at his rocket-propelled fist, tingling with about fifty-seven varieties of exotic energy, then reels it back in. He looks about as disappointed as a faceless bogeyman can.

Rude.

He's not touching the Siberian, though. All she has to do is crack open one of his pods. They're probably hardened against just about everything. Coincidentally, that's approximately what she has in her arsenal. Time to make some experiments.

He's missing an arm, possibly from battles with her army. And also his shade, probably not from that.

Mannequin floats up on either subverted or cannibalized drones; it's not immediately obvious which. Then he tries again.

More likely he purposefully detached the arm after moving some critical functions to it and hid it somewhere. She's getting tired of people who don't bring their whole selves to the fight. At least it's possible she can kill what he sent.

She blocks his attack with a field, and launches a barrage of her own.

He dodges whatever he can, of course, and where he can't he prioritizes. Slithers out of the way of Damsel of Distress' power, moves from the path of some beam he hasn't seen before into the path of a lightning bolt, and hits back. Apparently at least one of whatever he's got lets him batter through force fields.

She narrows down to a couple powers he doesn't seem to like, and fills other slots with containment to hold him still.

He stays slippery, but eventually she manages to land a hit. Nothing happens. Aside from picking which to dodge, he gets to pick which to telegraph dodging.

And her metal body gets unexpectedly bisected. Crawler and his passengers land, the Siberian flourishing her lance.

Okay, really time to do something about that. Regroup, reform. What's she got for options? Not much, especially with Jack right there.

Her comm flashes. The drones have found something, possible projector. She brings out Labyrinth and instantiates part one of the more malicious world-sections here. Might be a brief distraction while she investigates.

The drones have been doing terrifying quantities of surveillance, and managed to keep track of who zones out while the Siberian is being particularly active. They've got a short list of candidates, headed by an unkempt and unhealthy-looking man. When she approaches, the Siberian vanishes from the others and reappears near him. Got the right guy, apparently.

"I'm not actually here for you. Just Jack. Are you willing to listen or are we doing this the hard way?"

"I'll talk." His voice comes out as barely a step above a rasp, but he's recognizably aware that he's very dangerous.

"The people who told me where to find you asked that I leave you and Shatterbird alive, as insurance against the end of the world. Leave Jack and the others to me, and I won't come after you, now or later."

"Cauldron. Got to you, did they.

Leave Bonesaw alive and you can have Jack and Alan."

"Fair enough. You might want to see about spiriting her away yourself, I don't actually have any direct control over my army's targeting algorithms."

"Deal."

The projection disappears, and the man's eyes go half vacant.

Back to the others with her as well.

Mannequin, Crawler, and Jack are cutting through her army. But not trivially. Cherish is already down; apparently the others couldn't manage to protect her.

Good.

Shame about the waste, but nothing to be done for it now. She has a distraction to make of herself, and a Crawler to kill.