Patches (v2)'s Story

A few shots went through the imposter's body. In response, it drained some more light to recover.

There is now a large load of light building up in the imposter's body. If it absorbs any more it's likely to burst.

"Help would be appreciated!" said Dr. Y.

Nikolai fires some Magnet Bombs at the fake Dr. Y, while Terrus turns his hands into Magnet Bomb launchers and joins in. I think you can guess what John and Dr. Y are doing, while Duma and Patches, lacking decent long-ranged abilities, hang back.

The fake Y soon realizes that it's close to bursting. Sprinting back from the onslaught of attacks, it enters a liquid state again, this time morphing into a replica of Nikolai. In this state, the fake Nikolai used Mirror Coat, bounding the projectiles back at their casters.

Nikolai hurls up a Light Screen, absorbing the blasts as they come at him, while Terrus transforms into Nikolai and mimics the real one. Dr. Y and John take cover behind the Light Screen, and the former pulls out his cell phone.

"Now's not the time!" said John.

"Now's the perfect time," said Dr. Y, dialing Nikolai.

The thing about calling Nikolai is that he doesn't really have a phone number - it's more like a radio frequency. And if anyone were to call that frequency, Nikolai would freeze up until the call was over or timed out. The same went for anyone mimicking Nikolai's form - in order for them to successfully do that, they'd have to mimic his frequency, too. So as Dr. Y called Nikolai, he and Terrus were paralyzed - and hopefully the shapeshifter would be as well.

Indeed, this locked up the fake Nikolai.

As the fake Nikolai is locked up, Dr. Y calmly walks up to it and puts a shotgun right at its eye.

"Dodge this," said Dr. Y.

Dr. Y fires at point-blank range.

The fake Nikolai burst into a dark ooze, which quickly evaporated in midair.

Dr. Y hangs up, freeing Nikolai and Terrus. The latter transforms back to normal as Dr. Y and John holster their weapons.

"Wot was that?" asked Patches.

"... John?" asked Dr. Y.

John is silent for a few seconds. Then...

"It's not safe here any more," said John. "We need to hurry somewhere else."

"We get a boat from the shipyards here and head for Coronach," said Dr. Y. "We'll find allies to the cause there."

And so the White Platoon members headed out for the shipyards, the lights going out as they passed...

They left soon enough - another of the bugs was starting to make its way out of the rubble.

The bug is way too late to catch up to the White Platoon members as they sail north, away from Arsenal Cove...

Meanwhile, a boat from Haven carrying six passengers approaches the shore of Fontin, just as the barrier around it begins to flicker... Could they be here to attack the industrial district?

The nuke that struck Bacaina Shrine was fast approaching...but could only reach to the very edge of Fontin. This city should consider itself lucky, suffering only some damage on a side.

However, several of the monochrome bugs were flittering in, searching for victims to suck dry. Everyone in town had vacated to a shelter prior...

The shockwaves from the nuke cause the boat to shudder rather violently in the waves, coming close to tipping over - but thankfully, the gang is close to the shipyard, so they can swim/fly ashore quickly and safely.

"What the hell was that?" asked John.

"... Looks like we picked a bad time to go to Coronach," said Dr. Y.

There are still people in the streets of Perlar - unfortunately these people are "nanite soldiers". One bursts into a house... only to find it empty.

"No one here," said the nanite soldier, who probably shouldn't be talking... not that anyone's around to figure that out.

"Dammit," said Black Jack (yeah I'm not even gonna pretend he's a nanite soldier). "The operation's a bust. We need to fall back."

And so the "nanite soldiers" headed for the shipyard, blowing away every monochrome bug that even looks at them funny.

One of the bugs evaded their shots, and then it mimicked the form of Black Jack. It created a smoke arm with a tommy gun, then fired upon the soldiers.

The soldiers expertly roll out of the way... except for Black Jack, who stands there and takes the shots. They don't seem to do much to him. The other soldiers fire on the fake Black Jack.

Meanwhile, at the shipyard, Dr. Y and co. look around to see the streets completely empty.

"Wot 'appened 'ere?" asked Patches.

Dr. Y looks down the street to see a large building a few blocks away - the shelter, presumably.

"If people are hiding and staying indoors," said Dr. Y. "It must be for a good reason..."

A couple more of the bugs appear behind the soldiers, also turning into fake Black Jacks and opening fire on the soldiers (focusing less on the real Jack).

A few more bugs are heading toward the shelter's front door, attempting to break it open.

Some of the soldiers are taken by surprise and fall - a few of this "some" number are wounded instead of killed and desperately open fire on the new bugs, while Black Jack pulls out a grenade and hurls it at the bugs. All the while, the fighting-fit soldiers and Black Jack slowly fall back towards the shipyard.

Meanwhile, Dr. Y hears the sound of gunfire coming from near the shelter.

"Terrus, Duma," order Dr. Y. "Get rid of the bugs at that building. Nikolai, John, you're with me."

"Wot about me?" asked Patches.

"You're on lookout," said Dr. Y. "If anything more than these bugs shows up sound an alert."

Dr. Y heads off past the shelter, John and Nikolai following, while Duma and Terrus (taking Duma's form) run at the bugs trying to break down the front door and hack away at them.

Meanwhile, a puddle of black ooze... oozes into Fontin from the east, also heading for the shipyard...

Dr. Y and Black Jack team up to fight Minils, Umbra is creepy/basically invisible to the Minils

As Duma and Terrus continue fighting the bugs at the front door, the ooze passes by several of the bugs unmolested. It's not that they don't see her, it's just that she registers to them as another life-absorbing bug. Someone else watching from the shadows, though, knows better...

Meanwhile, Dr. Y, John, and Nikolai arrive at the scene of Black Jack's crew in the middle of battle. Dr. Y pulls out his shotgun and opens fire on the monochromatic Black Jacks, attracting the attention of the real one. John opens fire on the bugs as well, while Nikolai pulls up Light Screens in front of the fake Black Jacks... unfortunately they don't help, and the bugs' smoke bullets phase right through.

"Fancy seeing you here, Doctor!" said Black Jack, firing at any bugs that haven't taken his form while throwing grenades at any who have.

"The pleasure's all yours," said Dr. Y.

"You know him?" asked John.

"I cut off his arm," said Dr. Y.

"For no good reason, might I add," said Black Jack.

"I had plenty of reasons!" shouted Dr. Y. "You work for Majestic and you bring shame to that uniform!"

"Oh, right," said Black Jack, continuing to fire on bugs. "The fact that I wear my father's uniform sends you into a hissy fit. What, does it remind you of how he died under your command?"

"The real Black Jack would never-" began Dr. Y.

"I AM the real Black Jack now," said Black Jack.

Black Jack turns his tommy gun towards Dr. Y and fires... at bugs that were approaching him from behind.

"And I strive to fight with just as much honor as my father did," continued Black Jack. "You're welcome, by the way."

Dr. Y turns his shotgun towards Black Jack and fires at a bug behind him... which was sucking the life force from a Majestic trooper. He ends up blowing the trooper's head off in the process.

"Well, that's a fine 'thank you'!" said Black Jack.

Several Minils join the fake Black Jacks, turning into more copies of Dr. Y. This time, the fake Ys went on evasive, staying on the move while firing their shotguns upon Dr. Y and Black Jack. Some of the Minil-Jacks move in the way of the shipyard, blocking the path with smoke-gunfire. One of them threw a chaff grenade over the area, resulting in the area being cloaked in a field of electronics-disrupting filaments.

-----

As for the safehouse area, some of the Minils do indeed sense Umbra's presence. One of them even borrows her form. With this, the Minil-Umbra shapes its shapeless arm into a hardened hammer head, slamming it against the safehouse door. Said door is starting to crack now, and the people inside are even more scared.

Nikolai unfortunately qualifies as electronic and falls to the ground under the weight of the chaff grenades. I totally didn't have him work on calling up Light Screens before. Nope. Black Jack and Dr. Y dive to the side of the gunfire, the former opening fire on the fake Ys while Dr. Y works on the fake Black Jacks. Umbra heads past both the scenes in the street and at the safehouse, heading straight for the shipyard. The figure in the shadows would follow her, but sees Black Jack and Dr. Y in the streets, pauses, and vanishes beneath the ground...

... Only to phase through the ground behind two Dr. Y clones and stab them both with daggers, which quickly glow with the light of the sun! And, since light is lethal to Gloom soldiers, this is probably lethal if not immediately crippling. Black Jack takes notice of the pale, pointy-eared elf woman.

"Feathertop!" said Black Jack. "My father told me a great many things about you!"

The elf (Feathertop)'s appearance only seems to piss off Dr. Y, who contents himself by firing on bugs and Majestic troopers.

---

Eleven years ago. Dr. Y is in a training room, dueling swords against Feathertop's daggers, while Black Jack the former looks on. The doctor is holding his own against the much better-trained elf... right up until she phases through the floor, reappears behind Dr. Y, and kicks him to the ground.

"I said no powers," said Dr. Y, slowly pushing himself up.

"You think your enemy will allow you that privilege?" asked Feathertop.

Feathertop kicks Dr. Y in the stomach, sending him back down to the ground.

"I ought to shoot you right now," said Dr. Y.

"Oh, I guarantee you're not fast enough, doctor," said Black Jack. "Not that shooting your own coworkers is a good idea, anyway."

"You hired me for my skills," said Feathertop. "So I'm going to use them. Is there a problem?"

"... Freaking elves..." muttered Dr. Y.

---

Meanwhile, Terrus sees the Minil-Umbra and wonders where on earth Umbra came from - last he heard she was in Hellborne Valley. He transforms into a Windigo and gallops past the Minil-Umbra, casting an air of freezing ice behind him as he goes, while Duma busies herself with the non-transformed bugs.