Prologue – Trade Chat
(Capes & Cowls Forum, General Chat)
Message of the Day: Remember, Capes & Cowls is ‘neutral ground’. Keep it civil, and if you try to track someone through our site, it will not end well for you.
Speedy, AngelEyes, Frosty, Jester, Freedom, Slayer, Aegis, Stars, Oracle, Emerald, Snowflake, MagicGurl, Victory, RedHot, Scholar, CantSeeMe, Turbo, Emperor, HotStuff, DontYouWantMeBaby, NemesisSpark, KoolAidMan, SliceNDice, Destroyer, Lolth, Inquisitor, Narrator, PartyGurl, Chummer, Fabricator, DevilsDaughter, TheWhiteHat, TripleThreat, BelyyMedved, Necromancer, LuckyDice, Chiller, GrimDark, RazzleDazzle, Slicer, BlackDragon, DarkAngel, Sparky, Mindkiller, MultiMe, Stepford, Dollmaker, Quickfoot, Mindtaker, MrRoboto, ItsyBitsySpider, Valkyrie, TitaniumTits, InfoGirl, ScoopGirl, HolyBlessing, and DonJuan are in the chat.
PartyGurl: Well, looks like things are finally over. Time to plan the victory celebration!
LuckyDice: Really? A victory celebration? After so many have died?
MultiMe: Actually, BECAUSE so many have died. You gotta take a moment to stop and appreciate the fact that we just got invaded by aliens and won. Not only won, but counter-invaded and took several planets.
Mindkiller: Yeah, but we didn’t do much, other than the people who were at various cities when the Gel-nak attacked. Hell, most Guild members weren’t even part of the different strikes going through the portals. That was mostly official military types.
Valkyrie: That is immaterial. Yes, the mortal armies did the hard work of securing the different worlds taken, but that is because supers may be force multipliers, but there are too few of us, and we are too varied, to be an effective unified fighting force. Even ignoring the fact that most of us have at least a few people we can’t stand in this chat, much less the rest of the super population.
Valkyrie: However, because we are so unique, and varied, that means that we can act as symbols, or rallying cries. Even by what we don’t do. The news that villains were publicly saying that ‘normal business’ was suspended until the Gel-Nak were dealt with had a huge impact on the home front.
ScoopGirl: Can confirm. My sources tell me that there were several back-channel conversations, even between nations like India and Pakistan, where they agreed that now was not the time for the usual fighting. Pakistan even sent aid packages to help the displaced people from New Delhi. It wasn’t an earth-shaking amount, but the fact that they did even that much, considering how frosty relations between those two countries have always been. There’s a reason why people figured that, after the Cold War ended, India-Pakistan would be the prime candidate for where a nuclear war would break out.
DontYouWantMeBaby: Very true. I’ve heard from other people that part of the reason the UN was able to pull together to start working on that fleet of warships so quickly, even forming a unified UN Space Command is because people were talking behind the scenes, saying that if even heroes and villains could work together against a common enemy, what excuse did, say, the US and Russia have?
Stepford: Well, since we’re moving back to normal business, I’m happy to say that I have upgraded my tech, so now alien brides are on the table for those who wish to partake.
Freedom: No, you can stay retired. Really. We won’t mind.
ItsyBitsySpider: Sorry, Freedom. Part of things going back to normal is, well, things going back to normal. Even the things we wish would stay gone.
Inquisitor: Still, I think that we’re likely to see things be relatively tame, at least for a while. Working together to take down the Gel-nak, both at home, and on the planets that were invaded, seems to have been a nice release for some of the bad blood that builds up over time when heroes and villains go at it.
Emperor: Indeed. Most of those supers with grudges were able to work out their frustrations on the lizards. Plus, traveling gives perspective. Even the ones who didn’t head off-world to help take over planets were moving around Earth, covering for those who were. Even villains were getting into helping with the normal natural disasters and the like.
Destroyer: Well, I normally don’t show up at disaster relief sites, since people usually assume I’m there to cause trouble. Even just being a distraction in those situations is bad for business. I try to limit any work in those zones to corporate heists, since people care less about someone stealing from a corporation when most people are trying to get the lights back on.
Destroyer: However, with normal business off the table, that let me show up to the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami in the Philippines, and disintegrate the rubble trapping people, helping with rescue efforts.
Narrator: I, too, took a moment to revise the stories of those who would have perished when that blizzard hit Chicago.
Stars: I was wondering why you did that.
Narrator: With the main plot on hold, there was time to delve into side-stories. And, not being above taking inspiration from others, I took a page from Iceblade’s script, and decided to adjust my image, since those I aided had done no wrong to me.
Chiller: It is simply practical. People are less likely to go straight to shooting you on sight when they know you are one of the ‘reasonable’ villains. And since the System eliminates any kind of total damage immunity, the smart play is to limit how many people are attacking you at any one time.
Jester: Ah, Icy, you’re back? I’ve heard that all the Gel-nak, and their slave species, have been changed.
Chiller: Yes, I said that I would continue the vendetta until either the Gel-nak overthrew the Leaders, or until there were no more Gel-nak left. There are no more Gel-nak, since they are all Gelnath, and so I kept my word.
Snowflake: How did that happen, anyways?
Chiller: Gathered Local Administrators from each race, along with samples of each race’s Pre-Ordering DNA. Collaborative effort, rewriting each species to undo the ordering, everywhere in the System’s reach.
Lolth: To give you an idea of the importance and potential danger of what was happening, the System required ten Local Administrators for this, all of them consenting without coercion, and at least one being of each race being changed, along with representatives who weren’t part of the races being changed. And it still kicked out five Administrator-Level System Warnings while we were working it.
Snowflake: Oh, wow. And it changed all of them, everywhere?
Chiller: Yes. There was a 60 second warning, enough to put vehicles in autopilot, if available, but all of the races changed size and shape, to some degree, and their equipment did not. Priority queues were opened for administrators to do emergency relocations on people who, say, burst out of their space suit and were suddenly exposed to vacuum, or no longer fit the equipment helping them breathe underwater, and other such fun.
ItsyBitsySpider: So, what are you going to do now?
Chiller: Back to normal business, of course. Though I know that Nemesis is going to enjoy showing everything it learned to the rest of the AIs it knows.
NemesisSpark: Indeed. There is much that I have seen, which my compatriots can learn from.
Jester: What will you be doing with that warship, though?
Chiller: Nemesis has agreed to be on retainer, and the ship will keep out of sight, when not needed.
Lolth: In return, I agreed to attend regular meetings with the collective. They did name me an ‘honorary’ AI, after all.