Trump Card (Worm AU) [Complete]

[Asheram]

Why would Oni Lee blow himself up? He teleports by line of sight. He would notice if a clone didn't appear. And he wouldn't pull the pin on the grenade until after he teleported away. Otherwise he would be going around with a primed grenade.

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When you get used to your powers then you start to forget about safety. Lee was never the sharpest tool in the shed and I can easily see him rushing in with a live grenade to make a quick clone teleport bounce around the enemy, letting go of the grenade and cloning away just before detonation.

 

[Valor]

Every fucking time there's a grand showdown, I can't help but think about the millions in damage nd' shit they do to the city.

"Good job... Heroes."

Great chapter, tho.

 

[Xilph]

And then I watched as the torn section of the armour, lacerated by his claws, folded back into place and repaired itself. Red error messages gave way to green status messages, showing up on the left lens of my goggle-mounted HUD – the lens that had been shattered. Which had since fixed itself without me noticing.

Holy shit. The Manton field generator. It has to be.

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So my predictions on Panacea being able to go technopath were probably correct? Panacea tinker 12 when? Actually, Hax copies Panacea's power once for healing capabilities, happens to be wearing armour. Hax with Panacea's power with all the exploits laid out in a suit that lets tech count as biological material, striker 13?

 

[Ack]

When you get used to your powers then you start to forget about safety. Lee was never the sharpest tool in the shed and I can easily see him rushing in with a live grenade to make a quick clone teleport bounce around the enemy, letting go of the grenade and cloning away just before detonation.

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The idea is this. He's outside. Readies a grenade, pulls the pin. (More than 20 yards away, so Hax doesn't detect him).

Version 1: Still outside. Sends version 2 inside. Five seconds later, crumbles to ash.
One second later:
Version 2, just inside the door, face to face with Hax. Sends version 3 farther in. Drops grenade by the door.
Version 3, farther in, next to U&L. Sends version 4 outside. Drops grenade by U&L.
Version 4 is outside when the two grenades go off (Uber kicked his into the cashier's cage).
Version 4 sends Version 5 inside, crumbles to ash.
Version 5 opens the door, sends Version 6 to confront U&L while Lung goes after Hax.
Version 6 sends Version 7 outside, drops the grenade.
Version 7 sends Version 8 inside to U&L. Taylor activates teleport jam.
Version 8 tries to send Version 9 outside, drops grenade.
Version 9 never makes it, grenade explodes. Whoops.

Every fucking time there's a grand showdown, I can't help but think about the millions in damage nd' shit they do to the city.

"Good job... Heroes."

Great chapter, tho.

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Nearly all the damage was to the casino and abandoned buildings.

And besides, they're villains

 

[Ack]

So my predictions on Panacea being able to go technopath were probably correct? Panacea tinker 12 when? Actually, Hax copies Panacea's power once for healing capabilities, happens to be wearing armour. Hax with Panacea's power with all the exploits laid out in a suit that lets tech count as biological material, striker 13?

Click to shrink...

Probably not technopath.

Though if Panacea had engineering training, so she knew what she was looking at ...

Though no, I'd probably rule that she just can't affect it.

 

[Xilph]

I mean, you had regeneration work on power armour, Panacea's super bio senses applying to tech wouldn't be surprising in the slightest.

Of course the most OP direct steal is still Eidolon, considering a good part of his issues were lack of understanding of his power if Taylor got it complete with manual? that is just broken, although something with the Manton Field generator probably trumps though, so many powers have that as a core limitation.

 

[Muroshi9]

So we know Bonesaw can combine capes she just needs to capture Bonesaw and combine her with Panacea with Panacea's mind in control of the combined body much like when Hatchet Face was the mind in control of Hackjob after the addition of Oni Lee. Then add Browbeat for self biokinesis.

 

[Fishyface]

When you get used to your powers then you start to forget about safety. Lee was never the sharpest tool in the shed and I can easily see him rushing in with a live grenade to make a quick clone teleport bounce around the enemy, letting go of the grenade and cloning away just before detonation.

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He wasn't stupid enough to do that in canon because it's too risky. He didn't even use any grenades against the Undersiders. He couldn't have lasted that long with that level of self preservation. And on the off chance dirt gets into his eyes he dies like an idiot. He couldn't have always gotten lucky either.

Also in canon he always teleports away before attacking. His got 15-20 seconds. No need to rush.

 

[Ack]

He wasn't stupid enough to do that in canon because it's too risky. He didn't even use any grenades against the Undersiders. He couldn't have lasted that long with that level of self preservation. And on the off chance dirt gets into his eyes he dies like an idiot. He couldn't have always gotten lucky either.

Also in canon he always teleports away before attacking. His got 15-20 seconds. No need to rush.

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I thought it was about 5-10 seconds. Not 15-20.

Anyway, he was jumping in and out of the building, sending the new clone away before dropping the grenade. He just didn't know that the teleport jammer was in effect, and that his duplicate never appeared outside. So he dropped the grenade, and .... boom.

 

[jcogginsa]

Much better. Though i'm fairly sure Lung's power doesn't make him dumber. I know it amps up his senses to the extreme, which logically would mean his mental faculties improve

 

[Ack]

Much better. Though i'm fairly sure Lung's power doesn't make him dumber. I know it amps up his senses to the extreme, which logically would mean his mental faculties improve

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I said nothing about it making him dumber. He just got angry because she beat him at being a dragon.

And where does that logic come from? Eagles have far better eyesight, wolves have far better hearing, bloodhounds have far better smell. Humans outperform all of them at mental faculties.

 

[jcogginsa]

I said nothing about it making him dumber. He just got angry because she beat him at being a dragon.

And where does that logic come from? Eagles have far better eyesight, wolves have far better hearing, bloodhounds have far better smell. Humans outperform all of them at mental faculties.

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My bad, misread a part of the early fight. The line i objected to was actually referring to Oni Lee's power not Lung's

 

[Fishyface]

I thought it was about 5-10 seconds. Not 15-20.

Anyway, he was jumping in and out of the building, sending the new clone away before dropping the grenade. He just didn't know that the teleport jammer was in effect, and that his duplicate never to see it aappeared outside. So he dropped the grenade, and .... boom.

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It's LoS. That was his weakness. He has to see to make the clone so he also has to see it appear first.

Also Tattletale was the one who posted the 15-20 seconds on the wiki Taylor was checking.

 

[doomlord9]

It's LoS. That was his weakness. He has to see to make the clone so he also has to see it appear first.

Also Tattletale was the one who posted the 15-20 seconds on the wiki Taylor was checking.

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It's dependent on how he actually feels his power working. Likely it isn't via sight and instead he can feel his power activating, plus there is likely no mental link between his clone and the original to give him any feedback on if it had worked or not.

With his power dulling his intellect and it having never failed before, he feels his power activate, or begin to activate, then releases the grenade as per normal since he believes he is going to turn to ash soon, and dies as the creation of the clone is jammed rather than blocking his power itself from activating, giving him a false positive signal on his power working.

 

[Ack]

My bad, misread a part of the early fight. The line i objected to was actually referring to Oni Lee's power not Lung's

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1) His power lets him be a serial suicide bomber.
2) He gets dumber as he goes along.

Yeah, no, this can never go wrong.

It's LoS. That was his weakness. He has to see to make the clone so he also has to see it appear first.

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Citation on line of sight?

Also Tattletale was the one who posted the 15-20 seconds on the wiki Taylor was checking.

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Where is this?

It's dependent on how he actually feels his power working. Likely it isn't via sight and instead he can feel his power activating, plus there is likely no mental link between his clone and the original to give him any feedback on if it had worked or not.

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God, how would you feel, experiencing your death a dozen times a day? Yeah, no, probably no mental link. He's just used to it happening.

With his power dulling his intellect and it having never failed before, he feels his power activate, or begin to activate, then releases the grenade as per normal since he believes he is going to turn to ash soon, and dies as the creation of the clone is jammed rather than blocking his power itself from activating, giving him a false positive signal on his power working.

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Boom. Splat.

 

[Ack]

A quick and not entirely serious preview of the highlights of next chapter:

Piggot, viewing the video: "Meep?"
RCB, on the phone: "Aren't you glad you didn't make an enemy of her?"

Clockblocker: "BULLLLSHIIIIT!"

PHO boards: "Kaiju fight!"

Lung: "NYAAAARRRRGH!"

Oni Lee: (slowly dribbles down wall)

Kaiser: "Find out if Hax is Aryan. We want to recruit her."
Kreig: "And if she's against us?"
Kaiser: "Prepare to leave town."

Aegis: "Y'know ... I think she went easy on us."
Vista: "So do I."

Glory Girl: "Well, dang. And I dissed her."

Skidmark: "Duuuude. This is gooood shit. I just thought I saw Lung fighting himself on TV."
Squealer: "That wasn't a trip. Lung just got his ass kicked by another dragon."
Skidmark: "That leaves only one thing to do." (takes a huge hit on his joint)

Tattletale: "You know, if they'd kept fighting, they just would have kept getting bigger and bigger."
Regent: "I know, isn't it cool?"
Grue: "Lisa, you should stop introducing us to such SCARY PEOPLE!"

Lung's shard: (lies back and lights up a metaphorical cigarette) "God damn, that was good."
L33t's shard: "I know, right?"
Uber's shard: "Just don't get any ideas. She's with us."
Hax's shard: (cuddling up to all of them) "Boys, don't fight. You're all pretty."

 

[Fishyface]

Citation on line of sight?

Click to shrink...

Hive 5.7


Anyone else would be dead by now, but the fact that the body had exploded into dust meant it was just a clone, a leftover remaining behind after Oni Lee had teleported away. He probably wasn't remaining in one place for more than a second. My bet was that he was appearing, immediately looking for a new target or vantage point, then making a quick exit, leaving the clone to do the deed.- According to Taylor

Also his always looking around through the whole battle.


Worm Wiki


Essentially, he can create another version of himself anywhere within his line of sight.

 

[Ack]

Hive 5.7


Anyone else would be dead by now, but the fact that the body had exploded into dust meant it was just a clone, a leftover remaining behind after Oni Lee had teleported away. He probably wasn't remaining in one place for more than a second. My bet was that he was appearing, immediately looking for a new target or vantage point, then making a quick exit, leaving the clone to do the deed.- According to Taylor

Also his always looking around through the whole battle.


Worm Wiki


Essentially, he can create another version of himself anywhere within his line of sight.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, Worm Wiki isn't the best of resources.

I'm going with the idea that he usually uses LoS, but he doesn't specifically need it, that he can blind jump if he has to.

 

[seeing_octarine]

I'm going with the idea that he usually uses LoS, but he doesn't specifically need it, that he can blind jump if he has to.

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The problem with blind teleports is that it comes with a ton of fridge logic. Either it means he has local omniscience, or has some other way to sense his surroundings outside line of sight, or is extremely likely to telefrag himself, or it isn't working as a teleport power from his point of view (see Redshift from Intrepid for an example), or he'd fall flat on his ass every time he does it. And all of that for Oni Lee ranges from "extremely implausible" to "contradicted by canon".

 

[doomlord9]

The problem with blind teleports is that it comes with a ton of fridge logic. Either it means he has local omniscience, or has some other way to sense his surroundings outside line of sight, or is extremely likely to telefrag himself, or it isn't working as a teleport power from his point of view (see Redshift from Intrepid for an example), or he'd fall flat on his ass every time he does it. And all of that for Oni Lee ranges from "extremely implausible" to "contradicted by canon".

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Kinda sorta. A blind jump could be as simply as he tries to activate his power, he gets back an 'Invalid Location, Not Enough Space' error when there is something where he would appear and tries again and again until it works, randomly selecting directions and distances until he finds one that works. LoS just makes it easier because he knows that said spot is open and doesn't have to bother with trial and error.

Which also explains how he would have failed here with the jammer active. He got a positive return on his power activating and since it has never failed before, went with SoP without knowing that the jammer scrambled the creation of the clone.

 

[Ack]

The problem with blind teleports is that it comes with a ton of fridge logic. Either it means he has local omniscience, or has some other way to sense his surroundings outside line of sight, or is extremely likely to telefrag himself, or it isn't working as a teleport power from his point of view (see Redshift from Intrepid for an example), or he'd fall flat on his ass every time he does it. And all of that for Oni Lee ranges from "extremely implausible" to "contradicted by canon".

Click to shrink...

This is the guy who wasn't human enough to measure up as a member of the Nine. He blows himself up on a regular occasion; every time he teleports, he 'kills' himself.

Kinda sorta. A blind jump could be as simply as he tries to activate his power, he gets back an 'Invalid Location, Not Enough Space' error when there is something where he would appear and tries again and again until it works, randomly selecting directions and distances until he finds one that works. LoS just makes it easier because he knows that said spot is open and doesn't have to bother with trial and error.

Which also explains how he would have failed here with the jammer active. He got a positive return on his power activating and since it has never failed before, went with SoP without knowing that the jammer scrambled the creation of the clone.

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And that, yeah.

 

[Fishyface]

It's definitely LoS.

Back to Hive 5.7 also known as canon:

I knew his power was a hybrid between duplicating himself and teleportation. He could teleport, but when he did, he left a body behind that could act autonomously for a few seconds. So when I saw him glance out the window, I followed his line of sight, and saw he had already appeared just behind Bitch, half-crouching on Brutus' back, one hand on a hook of bone to help him balance. There was a flash of steel in his other hand as he reached around her throat with a blade.

Anyone else would be dead by now, but the fact that the body had exploded into dust meant it was just a clone, a leftover remaining behind after Oni Lee had teleported away. He probably wasn't remaining in one place for more than a second. My bet was that he was appearing, immediately looking for a new target or vantage point, then making a quick exit, leaving the clone to do the deed.

 

[Ack]

It's definitely LoS.

Back to Hive 5.7 also known as canon:

I knew his power was a hybrid between duplicating himself and teleportation. He could teleport, but when he did, he left a body behind that could act autonomously for a few seconds. So when I saw him glance out the window, I followed his line of sight, and saw he had already appeared just behind Bitch, half-crouching on Brutus' back, one hand on a hook of bone to help him balance. There was a flash of steel in his other hand as he reached around her throat with a blade.

Anyone else would be dead by now, but the fact that the body had exploded into dust meant it was just a clone, a leftover remaining behind after Oni Lee had teleported away. He probably wasn't remaining in one place for more than a second. My bet was that he was appearing, immediately looking for a new target or vantage point, then making a quick exit, leaving the clone to do the deed.

Click to shrink...

I'm not disputing that he uses line of sight. It's a smart way to go in an open-air battle, especially when it lets him locate his next target or vantage point.

But I can rewrite it a little if it breaks your SoD that badly.

(I note that you're not offering a way to fix it. I could, if I wished, ignore what you are saying. But I'll fix it anyway.)

 

[Ack]

Okay, this is what I've changed the opening part to:

Trump Card

Part Twenty-Three: Serial Escalation


Tattletale's voice crackled in my helmet. "We're nearly done here. What's happening up there?"

I was still tapping her power, so I was able to answer with a fair degree of certainty. "Lung's outside, but he's not trying to get in. Which means that he's either ramping up until he's certain of getting in quickly, or he's waiting on backup."

"Which means Oni Lee."

"Which means Oni Lee," I agreed.

"I don't like that idea."

"Pretty sure that none of us do."

"I'm thinking that we should go with Plan B. Like, right now."

"Plan B will put us not all that far away and the teleporter makes for a nice big flash when it arrives. If someone notices, they could easily catch up with us while you're doing your best to manhandle me, in unpowered armour, out of there."

"Yeah, I had noticed the flash. So you're thinking Plan D?"

"The boys have armour too. We'll lead the fight outside, then you can evac with the panicked mob. Once you're away, we'll disengage."

"Easier said than done."

"If I can zorch Lung before the fight starts, it should -"

In the next second, there was a loud BANG, and a splintered hole appeared in the door at about head height, four feet away from me. I jumped, staring at the hole. In my earpieces, a medley of voices all demanded to know the answer to the same question; what had that been?

"Shotgun," I answered shakily, gleaning the answer from Tattletale's powers. "Solid slug. Missed by a mile."

"Keep away from the door," Tattletale warned. "They may be trying to get you."

"It was only the one shot," I replied. "If they were trying to probe for me, they would have fired more." But something was nagging at me; they're trying something, but what?

My HUD was currently running the targeting reticule for the stun rifle; on instinct, I flicked it over to the cape detector, and jumped again. "Shit, there's a cape just outside!"

"Who is it?" demanded Über.

Before I could answer, before I could even decide to pull the light-spot from Tattletale and place it on the cape outside – who my borrowed intuition was telling me was Oni Lee – it happened. Between one eye-blink and the next, the cloaked form of Oni Lee was standing right in front of me; I couldn't see his face due to the red-and-green-painted demon mask he wore, but I did see the round black object that he dropped from his hand.

"GRENADE!" I screamed, not caring who I deafened, hurling myself backward and away from the innocuous-looking object. I could leap some distance in the armour; unfortunately, I was still in midair when the grenade went off. I may have been flung further back; I wasn't sure. My hand came up instinctively to protect my eyes from the blast, then I hit the floor with a tremendous crash.

At least, I got the impression that it was a tremendous crash; I felt the impact, but my ears were ringing badly from the detonation. Rolling over, I tried to get to my feet; it took me two tries. Vaguely I saw, through my one good lens, Über making a kicking motion; a second or so later, the cashier's cage disintegrated from within. L33t was swinging at Oni Lee, but the ABB cape was already collapsing into the white ash that was his trademark.

Where's he gone? I looked around, saw him at the door, undoing the heavy locks. I brought up the stun rifle, tried to trigger it, but all I got was a HUD full of error messages. Either the grenade or the leap to safety had jarred something loose and the stun rifle was now out of the picture. And then it was too late; the door was open.

Lung stepped inside.

<><>​

I took a deep breath and flicked the light-spot to Oni Lee; if I could harness his teleportation the way he did, it might assist greatly in the fight. But the concussion from the grenades going off must have affected me more than I had thought, because before I could focus on the powers, Lung was right there in front of me.

He was already grown to about eight feet tall and was starting to cover himself in the metallic scales which were his trademark. His eyes were visible behind the metal mask that he wore. I could swear that they were glowing with an internal fire.

His fist came around and I reacted too slowly to block it; the impact smashed me in the ribs, driving me across until I hit the wall. If I hadn't been wearing the armour, I would have lost all the ribs on that side of my body; as it was, the breath was driven forcefully out of my lungs. Error messages sprang up in my single working HUD lens, detailing problems with my armour.

Dragging myself to my feet, I forced my thoughts to focus. My head was still swimming from the blow, but I couldn't let him pin me down where he could rip my armour apart. There was another explosion, but I didn't see where it was or if the boys had been hurt; Oni Lee was standing in the doorway. Then he crumbled to ash once more.

Have to use his powers.

I looked at them properly for the first time and shuddered. No. Not like that. Every use had a price; infinitesimal at first, it gradually eroded his intellect and his will, making him duller and less intelligent as time went on.

Lung slashed at me with razor-tipped claws; I deflected the blow with difficulty, but I managed to do two other things at the same time. The first thing I did was switch the light-spot to Lung. The second thing was to switch over the teleport disc to its secondary function; teleport jamming.

<><>​

Lung was more than a little surprised when he realised the identities of the three thieves in his casino. Über and L33t were no more than a step above common street scum in his estimation; they had lost out so many times in their career that the authorities did not have the heart to put them away for good. Of course, since they had gained their third member, their fortunes had turned around. He hadn't thought them suicidal, however.

Oni Lee had done his job well, getting Lung into the casino. From this point, of course, he was to keep two of the three busy while Lung engaged and defeated the third. It would only be a matter of time before all three were either dead or at the mercy of the ABB; the result would the same in the end.

The armour that they were wearing came as another surprise, but he supposed that it was to be expected; L33t was a Tinker, after all. That the armour had not exploded or failed to work altogether was a step up from L33t's usual capability, but Lung saw no real difficulty in winning the fight. The armour could only be so tough, after all. He would win. It was merely a matter of time.

<><>​

Lung's power surged into my body. My head cleared almost instantly, the lingering pain in my ribs clearing up as if by magic. Across the room, on the other side of the ruins of the cashier's cage, Über's plasma rifle went off, followed by an explosion. I heard it clearly, because the ringing in my ears had finally cleared up as well.

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This is the sequence of events:

Oni Lee has a short-fuse grenade. He will only drop it once he's teleported away.

Minion strolls up to the door with shotgun loaded with slugs. Blows a hole in door. Oni Lee looks through the hole, sees a spot inside the room next to the door that he can teleport to. He does so, teleports on. The clone left next to Taylor drops the grenade. It goes off almost immediately.

In the meantime, across the room, he's ended up next to Uber and L33t and teleports back to the door just after the first grenade goes off. The clone left with U&L drops a grenade as well. Uber kicks it into the cashier's cage.

The clone at the door teleports back to U&L after that grenade goes off; the one left at the door opens it for Lung. Lung comes in and starts beating on Taylor.

Oni Lee shuttles back to U&L, drops a grenade, jumps to the door, waits for the grenade to go off, then jumps back to them once more.

He's about to teleport away again when Taylor triggers the teleport jammer. He tries to run, Uber shoots him in the arm with his plasma rifle, he drops the grenade. It goes off at his feet.

 

[Adyen]

Eh. The only one who is 100% sure of canon is the author, especially considering that it's written in 1st person so we are never really sure of the guesses Taylor makes in the story are 100% true or not.

 

[Ack]

Eh. The only one who is 100% sure of canon is the author, especially considering that it's written in 1st person so we are never really sure of the guesses Taylor makes in the story are 100% true or not.

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Well, there's enough mention of him using LoS in a fight for me to consider it worthwhile to do it that way. In any case, all it required was a hole in the door.

 

[Fishyface]

Sorry about that. I thought of suggesting him being blinded by smoke or maybe shrapnel from the fight then getting shot or something.

 

[inverted_helix]

Honestly even if he does need LoS for teleports I don't think it really makes a difference to him blowing himself up. If the previous 1000 times it worked fine, I very much doubt he's going to notice and react in time when this time the teleport didn't fire before he drops the grenade.

If something works every time you're going to start assuming it's going to work this time.

 

[ViperhawkZ]

Lee's mind has been gutted by his power, as well. He's basically a soulless shell at this point. I could easily excuse a fuckup like this based on the fact that he's basically walking unconscious.

 

[Fishyface]

Lee's mind has been gutted by his power, as well. He's basically a soulless shell at this point. I could easily excuse a fuckup like this based on the fact that he's basically walking unconscious.

Click to shrink...

It's not that bad. If it was Lung would pretty much be his full time babysitter. Can you imagine how awful that would be?

Lung- Don't forget to pack your grenades again. You remember what happened the last time?
Lee- *forgets*
Lung- *swears*