42

You jog with Taylor, shower with your girlfriend, and hit up a morning class before changing in to your costume to go grow some breasts on Sandralina Tolli, the pouty-lipped film star.

When you fire up your Warlock phone you expect to see some texts from Quinn Calle verifying that everything's going on as planned.

You are not expecting to see a number of texts from Templeton.

Temp: you asshole

Temp: what did you feed coil?

Temp: he's in the goddamn ducts

Temp: no one can get him out!

…you check Quinn's messages and respond to tell him you'll be in his office to pick him up in half an hour, then hurry over to scry on 'ol Tommy-boy.

When you first get a look at him, he's hiding in a ceiling and sweating like a hog. There's a klaxon blaring in the background and he's furiously typing something into a phone.

As he sends whatever message he was typing he does the fuzz thing, which you have to assume is him spawning a timeline. He starts creeping between rafters, fuzzing pretty much constantly.

Dropping into an empty office, he turns and looks at nothing, blurring crazily as he shadow-boxes with some figment of his imagination before pulling out a knife and 'stabbing' it. You don't know what beast he just slew, but he resheathes the knife and counts his fingers carefully as if he's missing one before looting the small personal fridge, dumping water over his head, and creeping out into the hallway.

Leaving liquid snake alone, you get ready to head off to your lawyer. Should you text Templeton back?

[x][Text] …let me know if you need help, be busy for a bit.

-=-=-

…let me know if you need help, :Warlock

gonna be busy for a bit :W

Temp: what did you give him

…he must be high on life, dunno :W

gotta see a girl about a thing. :W

-=-=-

You apparate into Quinn's waiting room and wave to the receptionist as you walk to his office. As soon as you walk in the door he hands you the signed documentation showing that Sandralina has agreed to all of the pre-surgery alteration disclaimers. She's commandeered the top floor of the nicest hotel in town, so you'll be arriving on the balcony. You also managed to test a smoke-producing rune engraved on portkeys, so you can continue to do the 'appears out of smoke' thing with multiple people.

Quinn's a lot more relaxed about this portkey, and the two of you appear poised and posed, only to be met by Sandralina's personal assistant. What follows is an interesting lesson in someone saying 'my boss is crazy, so please don't provoke her and drive her into more weirdness please' while not using those actual words.

Sandralina Tolli is reclining on a divan when you're lead inside, looking pleasantly plump and bracketed by two topless women introduced as her 'muses', 'Sandra' and 'Lina'.

Really.

You peek into her hand and see what you can only describe as a functionally crazy person. There's no way to tell without trawling back through her entire life, but the actress believes whole-heartedly in… well, pretty much everything. Angels, demons, aliens, vampires, fairies, lizard people, etc, etc, etc. So you are to her not a cape, but indeed a wizard, come to bippity-boppity-boob her.

Quinn and the PA are hovering just out of sight as you walk up and casually grow a seat out of the floor and sit back. "Miss Tolli, I see that you did indeed listen to my instructions. Are you ready to have restored what cancer took from you?" You feel like your words are stilted and fake, but it's just like reading from a script she's written in her head.

"Yes!" she exclaims, whipping her shirt off. "Work your magic upon me!" While the mastectomy scars are minimal and her nipples were apparently reattached, you can still see the faint lines crossing where her breasts once were. Touching the small jar of blood around her neck she leans forward and whips out a knife from behind her. Checking her thoughts over, she's already planned the 'restoration of her perfect body' as some kind of occult ritual. While you watch she lightly slices her chest, as well as the the palms of her muses and they press their bleeding hands over the scars. Sandralina starts chanting in… some made up language while the other two ladies writhe and moan.

Turning your head over to the PA, you see her rubbing her temples and rolling her eyes so hard you're afraid you'll need to reattach them after they fall out. Quinn's giving you a look that clearly says 'Sorry, I didn't know she was this fucking crazy'. Turning back to the blood ritual you decide to cast verbally in order to play along, so with an incantation her breasts begin to swell as you pull mass from other locations. Sandralina screams ecstatically in tongues as her muses' hands get pushed out and you turn her otherwise-flat chest into what is likely a pair of double-Ds.

Vanishing the blood—and telling it her it was 'used up' in the process—you do your best to keep your amusement from your voice as you go through the process of correcting her nipples so they no longer look like sewed-on pepperoni. That she wants them to have small Kabbalah symbols worked into the areolae… well, you can't find it in you to be surprised.

With her breasts restored, you lean back in your seat and twirl your wand, letting it trail sparks. She seems to consider you some kind of benevolent all-powerful Merlin-figure, so you play up the lazy confidence. "Do you find your form to your liking, Miss Tolli?"

You're pretty sure she appreciates the fact that she has feeling in her nipples again, because she can't stop flicking them. "Yes, Master Warlock. However, if I may prevail upon you….."

…this woman is a fruitcake.

Over the next hour or so you end up fiddling with the size of her ass—"give me an apple bottom, as it symbolizes the temptation of the apple from the Garden of Eden", removing all of her body hair from the nose down (to be 'more like the fae'), and sculpting her cheekbones to be more angular (…'like the angels'). Luckily her 'muses' and PA were there to offer multiple points of view, because what she actually looked like, and what she saw in her head were very different, and would have had her looking more like a grey alien than anything remotely human.

Said muses and assistant also ended up getting a bit of work done on the house. The girls were apparently up-and-coming actresses in their own rights, doing mostly indie films and having been hired to pretty much be eye (and bed) candy for the more-famous starlet, and the PA was already compiling a list of other assistants that she worked with frequently who she'd be recommending to you.

As you're finally finishing up you exchange autographs. The personal assistant has an instant camera and get a stack of signed pictures of Sandralina's new look and you pose with all of the ladies and sign a couple of pictures of your own (with color-changing, glowing ink from a hippogriff-feather quill that Aelfie slipped you while they weren't looking).

Before you portkey out, Sandralina asks you for a benediction. You…

With Sandralina kneeling on her divan in supplication, you turn and slowly pace closer.

-=-=-

"I offer you a benediction of love…"

"Love, Miss Tolli, is the strongest force in the universe, for good or for ill. The love of a mother for her child, the love of a soldier for his brothers, the love of the wicked man for the power he wields over others."

You spread your hands out and send a soft warming charm. "But the love that we have for our fellows is what I give unto you; the love that will rebuild cities, a love that will restore families, a deep, abiding love for every man, woman, and child that has been beset by the cruel monstrosities we have been forced to battle."

A soft cheering charm joins with a gentle breeze to blow the hair from her face. "Take this gift, this love, and build it up within your soul and repay that love a thousandfold, nay, a millionfold, for love is a gift that only grows greater in the gifting and a flame that only burns brighter when shared."

You raise her head up and trace your symbol in the air to glow in front of her. "In the name of the Hallows I place this benediction upon you; may it fill your heart and sharpen your words. Go forth and tell all who will listen that the love of humanity must rise up to battle against that which tries to destroy us. Offer an open hand and a calm heart to those who have been harmed, and your pure, honest love shall overcome all that is arrayed against it."

Sandralina is openly crying and you place an hand on her head. "Look not to me for further words; look within yourself and meditate upon your love for your fellows; speak your heart and make your love manifest upon the world. Dōmi amāyō dō dhoubnom."

Give love to (the) world

Happy, joy-filled weeping follows you as you join Quinn on the balcony.

-=-=-

Disappearing in another cloud of smoke and getting back to Calle's office, you flop down in his visitor's chair and look at him. The man looks like he just realized that a favorite actress of his is a complete wacko. Finally he turns to you. "That was… a thing."

"She's completely crazy, you mean." You spread your hands and shrug, "She really gets into her performances and lives them if it helps."

"No, it doesn't help."

Back at your lair, you go over a couple more texts from Janice, as well as a couple from Crystal and Lady Photon. Crystal and her mom had done a noon patrol and have asked if you've heard anything about the PRT today, as they're not responding to calls like usual.

Templeton's texts are her opening up emotionally to you.

Temp: if I ever piss you off

Temp: just fucking kill me

Temp: He shit himself and threw it

Temp: and is hooting like a monkey

Temp: no more gang stuff after this

Temp: im going on vacation for a month

Scrying Coil shows that he's apparently escaped the PRT building and is currently fighting the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (or something like that) in a sewer somewhere, having lost his guns. At least you hope it's the Turtles; assuming it is the movie will be awesome, the fight choreography is incredibly life-like.

After a few moments Tom apparently 'wins' his fight and finds a sewer opening with the manhole cover off and climbs up, stumbling towards the street while trying to look a little less like he just escaped from a mental asylum.

You're considering swooping in and grabbing him when through the scrying mirror you hear an explosion, see crazily-strobing lights, and your phone starts blowing up.

Laserdream: Uh… PRT building just got hit by Fenja

L: w/ a battering ram

Temp: might need sum hlp

And in the mirror Thomas Calvert makes it to the end of the alley and is immediately zapped by an image of a flying head screaming 'Wise fwom your gwave!'

He turns into a weretiger, stares at his claws, and looks down the street.

Wolves, zombies, headless skeletons and demons shuffle at him from one side, and grey blobs, demons, and bipedal wasp-things approach from the other. In the distance there are werebears, werewolves, and weredragons laughing hysterically and zapping enemies.

Throwing a hand out towards a blob creature it gets zapped by a corkscrewing ball of energy and explodes in a shower of pixels. With his own manic laugh he turns into a glowing ping-pong ball, rocketing up and down and destroying another couple of monsters.

L: U&L stuff going on near PRT

L: E88 attacking PRT

You let Templeton know what's going on downtown and get a short message back

Temp: prot doing leet

Temp: e88 jailbreak

Where do you go?

[x][Fight] Head to the PRT building with Laserdream and Lady Photon

[x][Prepare] Have Aelfie track Coil

-=-=-

You text Laserdream and tell her you'll meet at the car park from a couple of weeks ago and let Templeton know you're on your way. "Aelfie?"

With a near-silent pop the elf appears. "Master James?"

While you tap out an update to Amy with directions to let Vicky and Eric know you turn to the elf. "Coil—the snake man—has gone crazy and is running around. He's been caught in in another cape's powers and looks like a tiger-man." At her blank look, you remember she's from the 10th century and has never seen a tiger. "Um, a cat-man. There are also dragon, bear, and wolf-men, but they're glamours, not actual werewolves. Anyway, as long as Taylor is safe, track Coil for me. If he is about to leave the city, stun him and let me know. Otherwise let him keep acting crazy."

"Okie, Master James. Miss Taylor be okay right now." she agrees and pops away.

You apparate to the roof of the park and look out on the PRT building down the street. Part of the side has been staved in and an odd couple of Fenja and Mush are guarding the hole with a forest of blades restricting access from the sides. Hookwolf is currently destroying a PRT truck on the northeast side of the building as the agents run away, and the street to the south is blocked off by an opaque fog with something skittering inside it.

A moment later with a clickWOOSH something slams into the opposite side of the building from the capes and explodes in a shower of papers.

This is… this isn't a Coil plan, this is pieces of a dozen Coil plans mashed up and spit out into a fucking mess.

Laserdream and Lady Photon land a moment later and you all compare notes.

The E88 and the remainder of the Merchants (Mush, Ink, and possibly some guy in a armored suit) are trying to break the capes in the PRT cells out, Uber and Leet have turned almost the entire area between the PRT buiiding and Arcadia into a free-for-all, and mercenaries with heavy weapons are around taking potshots at buildings and PRT vehicles, but not people—that they've seen.

That just reinforces how crazy things are. Coil has taken bits from a number of plans he had in case of various issues, like capes being arrested, and triggered them all to happen at the same time. Uber and Leet are the wildcards but something made them set up this close to the PRT base.

"Why were so many capes held here instead of out on the Rig, anyway?" Crystal asks.

The three of you exchange looks. "Piggot making a bad decision?" Lady Photon offers.

You text Templeton for an update and get a pretty quick response:

Temp: 2dz CAS

Temp: pulled back to top flr

Temp: giving up capes

Temp: kaiser n ink inside w/backup

Lady Photon has been checking her own phone and Manpower, Brandish, and Flashbang will be converging on Arcadia to meet up with the younger New Wave capes and start swinging north to deal with the Uber and Leet invasion and hopefully join up with the Protectorate and sweep up to back you up afterwards

You three are the only assistance that the PRT building proper is going to get at the moment. Even if the Protectorate ignores Leet's craziness and tries to come across the force bridge, Hookwolf would meet them if they came from the north or east, and Night and Fog keeps them from approaching from the south, so they'd have to fight through one or both, and that's before one of Coil's hit squads does something.

Looking out with a supersensory charm, you can spot two merc squads with eyes on the building. One looks to have antimateriel sniper rifles, and the other has at least two visible RPG-7 launchers.

You…