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

[from_scratch]

Lovely!

So he can get to annexing this city, then? And giving it stuff? He likes that part a lot better.

[wormcan]

Yup. No parahuman obstruction, and the non-parahumans wouldn't be trying to stop him even if the project weren't literally giving away free stuff.

[from_scratch]

Hooray!

...After he has adjusted to having absorbed all this extra territory, which takes a little while, he follows up on verifying that Dragon is friends with that one dude.

[wormcan]

True. At least inasmuch as either of them has friends, they're both workaholic types who are almost never not heroing. But they're some combination of known and speculated to be closer with each other than either is with anyone else.

Dragon is in fact on the posters of the Protectorate's most poster-friendly heroes, and it turns out so is Armsmaster. Which is probably why he picked that as a proof of character.

[from_scratch]

Also on these posters is that person who shot a thirteen year old girl who'd just saved her life under truce conditions. While the Simurgh was singing, admittedly, but still.

Ugh.

[wormcan]

Well, it's maybe not the best proof of character.

End result, Armsmaster and Dragon are certainly on the same side and if it was true about Dragon's code needing editing then it's at least plausible that Armsmaster would be the one doing it.

[from_scratch]

Right.

Where does Armsmaster want the complete works of Richter dropped.

[wormcan]

Well, there's his email. Given the subject matter it's pretty certain to reach the person himself.

Of course considering that Cam can appear things at range, a large box in the Brockton Bay Protectorate HQ labelled "DO NOT OPEN UNLESS ARMSMASTER" would also be reasonably effective.

[from_scratch]

Yeah, Cam thinks physical media is the way to go when talking about working on an AI bound to stop anyone who looks like they might be thinking about trying. The wording he goes with is actually FOR ARMSMASTER'S EYES ONLY and a locking system that was not invented by tinkers and therefore should be openable by a tinker but inconvenient for anyone else to bypass without destroying the contents.

[wormcan]

In about an hour Cam doesn't receive a message thanking him for the information, but only because spontaneously appearing physical objects isn't a medium that allows for replies.

[from_scratch]

Well, Cam does think that email is secure enough for a this is Cam, did you get the thing? note.

[wormcan]

After which he does get that message.

No guarantees about a timetable Armsaster adds, but this should at least speed it up.

[from_scratch]

Luck.

And Cam goes back to supplying this-and-that to a growing chunk of Africa.

[wormcan]

Then it'll rapidly start to go the way of Japan.

[from_scratch]

Cam avoids cities, mostly, and definitely never forms a stable office in any specific one. He doesn't sleep. He flies around and makes things and keeps up with current events and teaches himself Umbundu.

[wormcan]

Nothing is allowed to go well for very long without being interrupted.


Russia is more likely than most to try to respond to Endbringers with the military instead of capes. This tends to go badly. For this Endbringer attack in particular they have enough parahumans available to not have to do that, and they are accepting international firepower.

The monitoring systems have narrowed down the location, and Behemoth will be there in minutes.

[from_scratch]

Any of Cam's paroled capes want to come fight Behemoth?

[whole_new_can]

A handful volunteer. None are especially powerful—if you're a major local player without being outright unassailable then you don't last long if you're also selfless—but it's not nobody.

Moord Nag says she'll do it but requires payment.

[from_scratch]

"Payment being Scavenger food?"

[whole_new_can]

"Yes. Thousands, if I am to fight him as an equal instead of a distraction like the rest."

[from_scratch]

"...Maybe next time we can try you on a mindless human. Today no." Cam's in too much of a hurry to try to figure out if she's overestimating what she needs to fight an Endbringer and has nefarious plans for the leftover juice. He takes the low-power parolees and hops in a ship and flies to Russia.

[wormcan]

The battlefield is well supplied with powerful hero teams. Red Gauntlet is taking charge; they may be run from Eritrea but they operate here enough that they apparently count as the home team. The Triumvirate and a few other North American capes are here with more on their way, and even the King's Men sent a force over from the UK.

When Cam arrives there isn't time left for much of a pre-battle briefing. He and his passengers get an abbreviated but strongly worded reminder that the instant death radius is thirty feet from Behemoth unless you're extremely tough, stay one hundred away so he doesn't close the gap, if you can't hurt him directly try to hold him in place or slow him down for those who can, here's an armband communicator, don't die.

[from_scratch]

Cam's passengers are mostly best suited for bopping around evacuating people, but he's not going to micromanage them.

Cam does not fear the kill radius, but he also doesn't need to be that close to do the moderately ineffectual damage he can do, and Behemoth doesn't move fast enough to be that hard to keep in line of sight unless he dives.

[wormcan]

They commence bopping. Later arrivals get progressively less information, until one group is interrupted by the ground rumbling and Behemoth appearing. He looks like a giant rock monster, what with the magma and the obsidian, but the fastest ranged attackers blow patches of that off and reveal the much tougher skin beneath it.

[from_scratch]

Cam interpolates/freezes/considers burning probably redundant/acidifies/etcetera.