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OR: 1001 Fun Things Superheros Can Do With Armed Intruders

“MOLON LAVE!”

-King Leonaidas of Sparta, in response to a Persian demand to surrender his weapons.
(“Come get them”)

Hence that … he is skilful in defense whose opponent does not know what to attack.
-Sun-Tzu, The Art of War.




The Analysis


The Reds:


Infierno: He can fly, and he can throw fire, and he shields himself with the same. He can also create flame in any shape or size, and appears to have gained greater mastery of his powers than the last time we saw him attacking Femer’s lab. Add to that Molly’s boosting effects, and I sure hope the sprinkler system is up to spec.

Molly: Other than boosting Infierno, all Molly has going for her really is the ability to inflict heat exhaustion on somebody by superheating the air around them. Basically defenseless on her own, so Infierno tends to protect her. How sweet. How useful… I recommend she be taken down first, only because it is easy, and it will hurt Infierno badly.

Battalion: Prima’s heavy hitter. Equipped with heavy armor, good firepower, technical skills, and the ability to fly and teleport, he will be a major pain in the posterior. The only reason he gets second priority is because of the ease with which Molly can be neutralized.

Plague: Though I do not plan on letting them even see Plague, it is best to be sure. We have all seen how he operates firsthand, and I must advise you not to touch. *Unconsciously holds his hand over his heart and grimaces.* Even so, I have a few ideas for him. More on that later.

Thugs With Guns: Because I hope Infierno does not expect to be able to storm the HQ with just the three mutants he has. If you cannot deal with these by now, please hang up your uniform and go home.

The Objective

All we want to do is hold onto Plague and minimize the damage the HQ takes. Full stop. It is not necessary to maim, maul, dismember, cripple, or kill anybody to accomplish this-we simply have to make it too expensive for Infierno to think he can win. If he asks to retreat, we should let him.

This being said, if we can capture any more members of Prima, we should certainly jump at the chance.


The Plan

Because we are playing defensive instead of offensive for once, I cannot present a coherent ‘this-then this-then that’ plan-all I can do is offer a number of ideas on how to repel the invaders, in no particular order.

Last time Infierno tried a move like this, he split his forces and came in from four directions. This time, however, he really lacks the forces to be able to pull it off, so I do not think he will try it this time. I will include ideas to cover the contingency, however.

I believe his strategy will be either a brute-force attempt to bull his way through whatever defenses we put up and rescue Plague, or to for his thugs, Molly, and himself distract us long enough for Battalion to teleport to Plague and accomplish the same end.

Change the Rules

If it is a chess game Femer wants, why not cheat? He has managed to get Prima on our case, maybe we can foist them off on him for a bit of sweet revenge. The deal is simple-we offer to release Plague to them if they can spring Nebula from Femer. Either they die or are captured fighting, or they bring Nebula back. Either way, we win.

The Shell Game

I was right-Plague did have a tracker on him. I left it on and in his cell, while I moved him to a new one-the better to let them think the tracker has not been compromised. Now, if we just move both the tracker and Plague somewhere else before the attack, let them have fun trying to find him.


Annoyed to Death

We have a distinct home-field advantage, since we know the layout of the place, and have access to the defensive systems and video cameras. We also have superior mobility, in the form of Mercy’s teleportation and Cheshire’s speed. Battalion can teleport too, but he will be hampered by not knowing the layout of the place, and inside is not really a flight-friendly zone for Infierno. The rest of our attackers are definitely foot-sloggers. If you cannot see how this comes together, think harder.

Basically, Bolt and I can run the battle from the main control room, while Mercy and Cheshire make repeated, unanswered hit-and-run attacks. Coordinate these with the defensive guns, and we can expect to see some really pissed-off Prima members. Combine this with The Shell Game above, and when they finally reach the tracer and find they have been tricked, they may very well give up in frustration.

‘You shall not pass!’

The antithesis to the death-by-a-thousand-papercuts strategy outlined above, here we take advantage of the defensive guns to meet them at whatever point of entry they choose and slug it out toe-to-toe with them. Our guns should roughly neutralize their thugs, and we have four mutants to their three, and one of those is largely ineffectual. The big danger here is that somebody could break away while we are pinned down fighting, rescue Plague, and get away.

Split Forces

As previously stated, Infierno does not really have enough forces to split up and attack via multiple avenues. I doubt he will let Molly out of his sight, while the thugs will not be able to stand up to us unsupported. So that really gives him two groups if he decides to go this route-Battalion and most of the thugs in one group, Molly and himself with the rest of the thugs in the other. Like I said, I do not believe this is likely, but if he does go this route, then we should likewise split to meet them-Bolt and me can take Infierno et al, while Cheshire and Mercy can take on Battalion’s, um, battalion.

*applauds slowly as Matty finishes*

Very good! I like all of those ideas. Preferably we should try and make the deal with them. Femer wants the monkeys to dance, but the monkeys shall not dance. Frustrating them with our defenses is an added bonus to the motivation roll.

Don't forget though, Mercy couldn't teleport out of the lobby. If we engage Battalion in the lobby, he won't be able to get away that easily.

Well even if he can teleport, keeping the transmitter and Plague separate should keep him guessing.

*looks back at Matty*

You did make sure that was his only transmitter, right? Did you perform the complimentary cavity search?

"Yep-just the one. Now, this is what I was thinking.

"We put the Plague and his transmitter in two seprate rooms. One of us can babysit the transmitter, in case Battalion gets impatient. Then, we let them break in, and we start wearing them down some with hit-and-run. Once they are bloodied, demoralized, and paranoid, we can all hit them at once, and offer them the choice of either 'Change the Rules' plan above, or getting their asses handed to them.

"And I suppose we could make the offer to them when they first get here too."

Sounds good to me.

Now the question is, what if they have something unexpected in their arsenal? What do we do if we don't have the upper hand? Leap out the windows after hitting the self-destruct sequence for the HQ?

"Um... If he has that ability and is that good he is going to have me beat. I am not sure what this place had before I left and I know things have changed alittle. Other then changing the passwords just before the fight and watching them during there is little you can do."

"Oh one things is to turn off all the connection places and option we don't need. Like turning of any wireless conections and ports we know we are not using or won't need during the fight. If he can't connect then we don't need to worry about hacking. In theory at least."

"Those sound like good ideas. Let us make sure they get done before our guests arrive."

[[+14 Computers]]

Alright guys... no e-mail, voicemail, texting, IMing, or otherwise attempting to use the network until this is over. Our communicators are entirely separate, so no worries there. I'll be in the control room setting this thing up. Matty, I'll see you there.

*turns and bolts out of the room, straight to the main control room where he begins hacking away*