this is crazy

[from_scratch]

Cam is watching a new recording of Atriama, tail swishing in the gap in his couch, and doesn't stop to pause the show when he feels a summons go by.

Comments

[wormcan]

Yes! Definitely the stabbing!

The Simurgh has an objective now; she's meandering toward the cape with the indestructible Endbringer tissue cannonballs. He stands his ground until Alexandria shouts something and his armband starts buzzing. Pursuing him does also bring the Simurgh in Cam's direction, conveniently for stabbing.

[from_scratch]

Cam flies at her, sword and its leash tense for suitably destructive stabbing, and if he notices himself flinging away from the Simurgh he's going to be attached to her with keratin so she can't shake him.

[whole_new_can]

Possibly for exactly that reason, she doesn't try to shake him. Instead, the leash goes slack just at the fifteen-second interval since Flechette last imbued it and the Simurgh pushes the sword away in the split second while Cam repairs it. She pushes it with her hand, not her telekinesis, and her face is showing what might be contempt if it were attached to a human.

And suddenly her target is back—or at least his armor is; if he's inside it he probably didn't survive the sudden jerk from being pulled over—and he and his sword are blocking Cam's.

[from_scratch]

Well, that's inconvenient. Cam doesn't really mind stabbing the sword but he doesn't want to stab the dude. But he keeps trying to stab her - she's a bigger target than the human shield.

[whole_new_can]

Alexandria holds her in place, and he does manage to stab her. Cam will have to tear the sword outward instead of just slicing the Simurgh in two if he doesn't want to test Alexandria's invulnerability against this weapon, but it's a very deep slash through the Simurgh's side.

The armored cape is apparently still alive. He starts battering the Simurgh by shrinking his weapon and extending it explosively, each time punching a hole through her outer skin. Eventually the sword does intersect Cam's, and it falls apart the way the cannonball did. One small sword that looks like a scaled-down version of the original, one similarly small aluminum one, and one thirty-foot giant made of Endbringer flesh.

A sliver is cut off the largest blade where Cam's sword intersected the hero's, but the other two fall away unharmed. Short enough that they didn't reach the intersection point. The Simurgh releases the cape, having gotten what she wanted. The blade starts twisting around her unpredictably, twice her height, blocking ranged attacks and sometimes lashing out at close combatants.

[from_scratch]

Cam doesn't slice Alexandria. He just stabs the Simurgh again. Get her to go away, that's the idea, as fast as possible.

[wormcan]

His sword stops mid-slash and shatters.

[from_scratch]

New sword.

[whole_new_can]

While snapping that one, the Simurgh maneuvers the sliver that got cut off the giant sword and inserts it end-first into the deep gash Cam gave her. Stray feathers flutter upward and attach to it. Her new wing is shorter and less angelic than the others, but unmistakably a wing. The scream gets louder again, and adds a new strain of disharmony.

[from_scratch]

Stab stab stab stab FUCKING GO AWAY SIMURGH.

[whole_new_can]

Snap snap etc., no.

[from_scratch]

Then Cam will just have to keep replacing his sword and stabbing her, won't he.

[whole_new_can]

He can do one of those two things, yes.
He's perpetually occupying a bit of her attention as she neutralizes each blow before it connects, but that might mean more if she had ever been observed to run out of attention.

Eidolon manages to sever one of the smaller wings. The scream does not go down to the intensity it was at before the Simurgh gained one.

[from_scratch]

Of course not.

Well, Cam's not going to get any tireder than he is right now. He will continue trying to stab her until she gets out of town.

[wormcan]

After a few attempts at stabbing, one connects. Nothing happens. And it wasn't a carefully timed severing of the leash, because it's still taut and the next stab does equal amounts of nothing.

[from_scratch]

Ah fuck. He looks back at Flechette.

[wormcan]

Flechette is collapsed and not moving. She did have bodyguards, but they apparently failed. Right now they're rushing her to the battlefield medical center in case she's alive.

[from_scratch]

Cam zooms in her direction in case he can help. Depends what's wrong with her...

[wormcan]

When he arrives, Cam will see that the current supply of injured is getting the very best in medical care.

[from_scratch]

"...Brain dead?"

[wormcan]

Riley freezes as soon as she sees Cam.

"I didn't do it! But I got my power back and I thought, what would I be doing if I were good, so I came down here and started helping. Please don't put the brain back."

[from_scratch]

"You can help. Under truce conditions. Afterward we can talk about it."

[wormcan]

She exhales. "Thank you!"

One of the capes who rushed Flechette here interrupts, "This is Flechette. She's important. Can you save her?"

Riley glances at her current patient, then at Flechette. "He might wake up any time, I was expecting to be done pretty soon. How importan—"

"Very."

"I'll save her."

[from_scratch]

Cam supervises. Helps, as possible.

[wormcan]

"It's okay, she's only mostly dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. Cam, can you make me a... I'm not sure it has a name. Can you make me a copy of all the tools I used for building the double-cape you killed in California?"