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Alea Iacta Est - a Worm AU Fanfic

Part Nineteen: Expanding the Team
Alea Iacta Est

Part Nineteen: Expanding the Team

[A/N: This chapter beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]


Taylor

We converged back at Kayden's apartment, where Theo met us at the front door. "She's sleeping," he whispered. "How did it go?"

Annette grinned broadly and gave him a high-five with the hand that wasn't holding Amy's. "Operation Fleeing Goblin was a total success, bro," she told him with a broad grin. "Lung bought into it; hook, line and sinker. Then Janet trapped him in a water bubble, and Vicky played whack-a-Lung until he ran out of air."

He let out a sigh of relief as the rest of us trooped past him into the apartment. "The plan worked, then. I thought it would, but you never know until you try."

"You two gave us the best run-down on how he'd react and how to draw him in," Lisa said. "Between your knowledge of his motives and Annette's tactical know-how, this was definitely your win as well."

I thought he was about to answer that, but then his eyes went to Kayden. She was perfectly fine, thanks to Amy, but her costume was still a little scorched here and there. "Mom!" he said, still keeping his voice down but with concern evident in his tone. "Are you okay? Did he get you?"

"I'm fine," she assured him. "He tagged me a little bit, but it just made the plan work even better, and Amy fixed me afterward." She smiled broadly. "You should've seen him swimming around in that globe of water Janet had him in, like the world's biggest, ugliest goldfish. And every time he stuck his head out …"

"Pow!" Vicky whispered the word and mimed a swing of her fist. "Most fun I've had in ages."

Dad turned to Janet, who'd been quiet for the whole ride back. "You okay?"

"Yeah." Janet nodded. "I think I am. Working with all of you, taking menaces like Oni Lee and Lung off the streets, this is good. We're actually making a difference … right?"

"Oh, we absolutely are," I assured her. "This is what teamwork is all about. On our own, no single one of us could've done what we did tonight, or even when we took down Oni Lee. Working together, especially with someone like Dinah to manage our capabilities, we're capable of far more than the sum of our parts."

"What Taylor said," Dinah agreed. "I know some of you might be used to more freewheeling cape fights, instead of the paint-by-numbers stuff we're doing these days, but …"

"Oh, God, no." Amy rolled her eyes dramatically. "Those fights were nightmares. I had no idea who was going to get hurt, or if I was going to be able to get to them in time. The way we're doing it in this team? It's a dream come true. One, two, three, done."

Andrea tilted her head. "So usually it's a case of just go up to whichever bad guy doesn't have someone on them, and hope they don't have a power that'll totally no-sell what you can do? That's no fun."

"Also that they're as tough as they look, so I don't accidentally splatter them all over the nearest building," Vicky added. "For a while there, I'd actually wait until someone got hit by someone else, then figure out how hard I needed to hit them from that. Not the best strategy, just saying."

Lisa grinned. "So then you had Brandish yelling at you for being too hesitant. Which led in turn to stuff like the Great Bus Debacle."

Dinah cleared her throat quietly as Vicky facepalmed. "As much as we all want to hear that story—I know I do—it's getting close to my bedtime, and I'm pretty sure everyone else wants to go home too. So I just need to ask this question: does anyone have a problem with the way we took Lung down tonight? Any suggestions, queries, or objections? Ways we could've done it better?"

I knew why she was asking that—her power needed all the input—but it still felt a little odd to have her taking the lead when she was the youngest person in the room by a couple of years. I shook my head, then glanced at Lisa and Vicky. Neither of them seemed to have problems.

"None whatsoever," Kayden said. "You're batting a thousand, so far. I can't guarantee it will stay the same, but right now I'm not going to try to fix what's not broken."

"Yeah," said Andrea. "Just watching from the outside, you guys are like a well-oiled machine. Nobody has to do it all, and everyone's got a part to play."

Dinah looked around the room, observing each of us in turn. Whatever she saw must have satisfied her curiosity, because she nodded. "Good," she said. "Tomorrow night, we'll decide who we're going after next; the remains of the Empire, or Uber and Leet. Also, I have a feeling we need to recruit, so we can talk about that too."

"What?" I asked, remembering only at the last moment to keep my voice down. "Recruit? We're kicking ass. Why do we need more people?"

Dinah met my gaze with certainty in her eyes. "Because there are people out there who can no-sell us as we are. I don't intend to let that happen."

Almost by instinct, I took out a six-sided die and flicked it into the air, then held out my hand to catch it. While it was still airborne, I told it to bring up a number relating to how correct she was, with one being 'least' to six being 'most'. It smacked onto my palm, with six dots staring back at me. "Ah," I said. "Right."

"Understood." Dad nodded to Dinah. "Taylor and I can drop you home. Janet?"

Andrea fielded that one. "My spare bedroom's still clear."

Janet nodded. "Thanks. I still need to get a place of my own. I don't like living on charity."

"Pfft. You're one of us now. It's not charity. It's teamwork. This is me doing my part." Andrea hooked her head at the door. "C'mon. On the way, you can tell Annette and Amy and me how cool it was to put Lung through the wash cycle."

"Uh, I can give you a lift home, Ames," Vicky offered.

Amy glanced at her, then back to Annette. "I'm good. Let Carol know I'll be home shortly."

One by one, we filed out the door again. As the last one out, I paused and nodded to Kayden. "We kicked ass tonight."

She smiled back tiredly. "We definitely did."

<><>​

Hillside Mall
Two Days Later


"Excuse me, is this chair taken?"

The teenage boy looked around from his study of the crowd in the busy food court; a girl two or three years younger than him was standing there. "Uh, no, it's not," he replied, a little awkwardly. Social skills were not his thing, which was why he was people-watching in the first place.

Letting her take the chair so she can sit with her friends is obviously the polite thing to do.

"Thank you." However, to his surprise, she pulled the chair out and sat opposite him. "Can we talk?"

His attention, until then half on the crowd around them, snapped fully on to the girl. She had brown hair, and looked twelve or thirteen or so. Not anyone I know. Belatedly, he realised that she had no food with her; he had bought fries so he wouldn't appear out of place while he observed the crowd, but she had none at all. She specifically wants to talk to me. Is this some sort of prank? "What's going on? Who put you up to this?"

"Nobody," she assured him. She didn't seem to be bubbling over with mirth, as he would expect a prankster to be. "I just want to talk to you about something that we have in common."

"And what might that be?" He kept his voice neutral and tried to keep his face the same way.

If this is a gang recruitment, I'm outta here. If she's trying to pick me up, I'm definitely outta here.

"Powers."

Her delivery was calm, smooth and devastating. One word that rocked him back on his metaphorical heels.

Did she just say—

"What?" His voice sounded thin and reedy in his own ears.

"You heard me." She glanced around, not obvious, a flick of the eyes to the left and right. "I'm not going to say it again, but it's what we have in common. You've only recently gotten them, right?"

He nodded jerkily. There was no sense in trying to lie. He hadn't given himself away—his powers were hard to spot in action, by definition—so she had to be some kind of Thinker. "The—the PRT knows about them," he said. Maybe that would give her the message to back off.

"But you're not in the Wards yet." It wasn't a question. She knew.

"I … no." He was bad at social situations. Having some kid just come up out of nowhere and start talking about what should be the biggest secret of his life … he had no idea how to handle it. Saying as little as possible was his go-to, and even that wasn't working.

She leaned back in her seat. "Are you sure you want to even join them? You're not a combative person by nature. You prefer to be in the background. Would you really be comfortable wearing a costume alongside them, being in the public eye like that?"

She was leading up to a point; that much, he could figure out. Exactly what her point was, he wasn't sure yet. He corrected himself: I know where she's going with this, but I don't want to think about it.

"You're trying to poach me out from under them, aren't you?" he asked, keeping his voice down. It wasn't hard to figure out, and he'd never been stupid. She'd laid out all the clues, probably to see how he reacted.

"I am." Her tone was steady and up-front. The expression on her face remained polite and friendly; two strangers chatting in a mall to pass the time.

"… wait." He frowned. "I doubt you came here from out of town to recruit me, so what team do you belong to?" He wasn't aware of any teams in Brockton Bay that had a twelve-year-old as part of their number. "Am I your first recruit?"

If I am, that's a hard nope.

She chuckled. "No. We've been operating in the city for a while now. I spoke to the others and they agreed that we don't have many medium-heavy hitters. Thinkers, yes. Heavy-heavy hitters, yes. But nothing in between. Plus, you've got other capabilities that I think would make you a worthwhile recruit."

Now he was totally lost. "What's your team name?"

She leaned back in her seat. "We don't have one. We operate in the shadows."

Talking to her was like grasping fog. "So, what have you done recently?"

Lowering her voice, she leaned forward again. "Empire Eighty-Eight. Merchants. Coil. ABB. That's what we've done."

He blinked, staring at her. It was true that since losing Kaiser and Hookwolf—the details on the villains' deaths were still sketchy—and having Cricket, Stormtiger and Alabaster arrested by the PRT, the Empire had been left dramatically on the back foot. Nobody quite knew what Purity was up to, though rumour claimed that she was still seen occasionally, flying around the city.

He'd also heard that the Merchants had gone down hard, that Coil had been arrested after being dragged bodily out of his flooding underground base, and that the ABB had been picked off over three nights, the bound and unconscious capes left for the PRT to find. Up until this point, he hadn't connected all these arrests together. If true, then this was massive.

But was it true?

Could she be just running a scam on him?

She nodded, as though reading his thoughts. "I get it. I'm just a kid to you, making bold claims. You're going to want some sort of proof, right?"

"It would be good, yeah." He didn't like being pushy, but sometimes it was necessary.

"Good. You're thinking. I like that." Without taking her eyes off him, she raised her hand and snapped her fingers. A moment later, two girls walked past the table on her side, coming from two different directions, each one dropping a folded piece of paper on the table. They strolled on, not even bothering to look back, as he stared.

"What was that about?" he asked.

"I'll show you in a minute." She had her phone out now. Turning the screen toward him, she started a film-clip playing. "We don't have footage for Kaiser or Hookwolf—those were kind of ad hoc affairs—but here's the Merchants."

In the footage, he watched as water poured out of the doors and windows of a house. It looked like a movie, only the quality of the imagery wasn't good enough. In the next moment, Skidmark burst out the front door in a wash of water and sprawled on the road. Then he got up, threw a coloured field at the asphalt under his feet, and began to skate off … right up until he ran face-first into a fine-stranded net that had been strung across the road. It wrapped around him, tighter and tighter, until the villain was completely bound up.

He blinked. "Whoa …"

The girl grinned and tilted her head. "There's more." She turned the phone so she could see what she was doing, and flicked up a photo. "Whirligig." Similarly wrapped up, the Merchant lay in a pool of water in what looked like a back yard. "Squealer." This time, it was an alleyway, with the Tinker bound in a fishing net.

"That's impressive." He frowned. He and water had a … contentious relationship, considering his Trigger event. "How did you do the water thing?"

"We have a hydrokinetic." She flicked to another photo, of Lung lying face-up in a pool of water, unconscious. The villain lacked his trademark metal mask, but the dragon tattoos were hard to miss. "She's very, very good at what she does."

"Jesus." He rubbed at his forehead. "Okay, I get it. You're not just pulling my leg."

"No, I'm not." She picked up both folded pieces of paper, holding them between two fingers. "Quick question: what's your favourite ice cream flavour?"

Unprepared for the hard left turn in topic, he floundered briefly. "Uh, mint choc chip. Why?"

"In a second." She grinned. "Give me a number between one and a hundred."

"Uh, uh, eighty-seven." He glared at her. "Why all these questions?"

In answer, she passed him both folded notes. He opened the first one, to see the number 87 looking back at him. His breath caught in his throat, and he slowly unfolded the second one. Written on it were the words 'mint choc chip'.

Carefully, he turned the notes over, looking to see if other numbers or flavours had been written on them. Nothing. Finally, he looked back up at the girl, half-expecting to see her seat empty. She was still there.

"We have Thinkers," she said simply. "Sorry about the second-rate magic act. I wanted you to be sure that I hadn't faked the notes somehow."

"You have Thinkers," he repeated. "Most Thinkers can barely predict the weather. How …?"

She shrugged. "I'm a management Thinker. I can see who the best person for any given job is, and advise them on how to do it best. That's how I found them and built this team. And that's how I found you. So, are you interested?"

This was going too fast. "Um … can I have a while to think about it?"

"Sure." She slid a card across the table. "Call this number if you decide to take me up on it."

He picked it up and examined it. The word MANAGEMENT was printed on it, along with a cell number. "So … you're calling yourself Management?"

Shrugging, she waggled her hand from side to side. "It's more of a job description than a code-name right now. We're very costume-light at the moment."

"Uh … okay." That didn't fit any superhero team he'd ever heard of before, but she had said that they operated in the shadows. "Thanks."

"You're welcome." She got up and pushed the chair in. "Have a good one."

He sat and watched as she walked out. Slowly, he ate his fries as he continued to people-watch, but his heart wasn't in it anymore. The pieces of paper were still in front of him, still bearing the number and the ice-cream flavour.

The girl had been so certain of herself, so centred. He wished he could be like that, and knew he never would. Even before his powers, he'd had a tendency to step back, to second-guess himself. The one time he had acted on an impulse, he'd nearly died.

Again, he read the name on the card. He'd thought when he got powers that … well, not that he'd learn the secrets of the universe, but things about the cape aspect of society would make more sense to him. And in all fairness, some of it had. But this encounter, with a bunch of heroic capes acting outside even the understood guidelines of how superheroes operated, had thrown all that on its ear.

When the fries were finished, he got up and headed outside. There was a bus waiting at the stop, so he boarded it. All the way home, he wrestled with the problem. What do I do?

He didn't want to be a flashy hero, out in public, going after bad guys in the name of justice. The few times he'd costumed up and gone out, it had been more from a sense of obligation and to test out exactly what his powers could do rather than a need to punch evil in the teeth. This new team didn't show up as people who wanted him to be loud and proud with his abilities, but they still wanted him for his abilities. Which meant they'd want him to get into fights.

It was a problem.

Getting off the bus, he walked the one and a half blocks home, still ruminating over the dilemma. His mother was in the kitchen when he came in the front door. She called out a greeting which he automatically returned, then headed upstairs to his bedroom.

Closing the door, he kicked his shoes off, then reclined on his bed. His phone was in his pocket, where it had been all this time. Slowly, he pulled it out and dialled a number from memory.

It rang twice, then a familiar woman's voice answered. "Good afternoon, Browbeat. Did you have any more questions, or have you decided to join the Wards?"

"Neither," he said. "I'm looking for advice. Another team, one that's not in the public eye, has approached me, in my civilian identity. Somehow, they knew I was a cape. They showed me evidence that they were involved in the capture of the Merchants and of Lung, and they claimed responsibility for the Empire Eighty-Eight and Coil as well. What do I do?"

There was a pause, then a man's voice came on the line. "Browbeat, this is Deputy Director Renick. Have these people threatened you in any way, said anything about outing your secret identity?"

"N-no," he replied. "It was all very polite and civilised. She—the girl—called herself Management, but said it was more her job title than her code-name. I didn't feel threatened at all, the whole time."

"Hmm." Deputy Director Renick paused for a moment. "I want you to listen very, very carefully …"

<><>​

Taylor

As the bus with Browbeat in it pulled away from the stop, I headed down the street with Dinah and Lisa to where Dad waited with his car. He'd been in the food court with Andrea, just play-acting a couple doing couple things (though in my opinion it was more than play-acting on both sides) to keep an eye on the action.

I climbed in first, so Dinah could sit in the middle with Lisa on her right. Nobody said a word until seat-belts were clicked and Dad had pulled out into traffic. We didn't think we were under surveillance, but there was no such thing as being too careful.

"So, how do you think it went?" asked Dad.

I'd already rolled the dice. "No matter how Dinah approached it, we had at best a forty-one percent chance of him stepping up. But I've got an eighty-four percent chance of him contacting the PRT, and them advising him to join us as a mole."

Lisa nodded. "That's my read, too. If we hadn't acted, the slackening in overall crime would've had him hanging up the mask inside a year. As it is, we get a member who thinks we don't know about his little secret."

"Well, that's two of you," Andrea observed.

Dinah shrugged. "I told him my power picked him as the best person for the job. I didn't tell him that the job was 'mole'."

"And you're certain we need him?" Dad's tone wasn't overly pleased. I could definitely understand why.

"Yes." Dinah nodded. "We need a mid-range melee person. Plus, he can be bulletproof, he's less likely to require Amy's assistance because he can patch up minor wounds, and he has other capabilities which I personally think will be useful in future."

"You know, Vicky's good at the melee stuff; plus, she's also bulletproof," Lisa offered. "She can do everything you just said except the patching up of injuries. Besides, she can fly and he can't."

"We've been over this," Dinah said, her tone just a little acerbic. "Vicky won't always be available, and when she gets enthusiastic she's been known to break things. Browbeat's a lot more reserved. Besides, we can use him to feed Director Piggot the information we want her to have about us."

I scratched the back of my neck. "Okay, so if I get this right, Browbeat thinks he'll be working with us as a secret mole for the PRT, and the PRT thinks we don't know about him being a mole. So the only people in the know is us. Are us. Whatever."

"Sounds about right, hon," Andrea agreed. "Personally, I still think we should've tried to recruit that Vista kid. She does not look happy on the bottom end of the totem pole."

Dinah shook her head. "She's not mentally ready for something like that."

"Yeah," I agreed. "Thirteen point five six one percent chance of agreeing, twenty-two point one nine three percent chance of pretending to agree and taking it to the Director. Sixty-four point one three seven percent chance of just turning us down altogether." These were also rolls I'd done in advance.

"Long story short?" said Lisa. "She's a good little soldier, and she'll always be a good little soldier."

"Even though she'd be happier in our team." Andrea sighed. "Well, maybe she'll change her mind at some point."

Dad cleared his throat. "Well, there's no perfect solution for her situation, so let's leave things alone on that front for the moment. On the other hand, it might be an idea to decide what level of secrecy we're going to be using with this guy. He wouldn't know Dinah from any other girl of her age, but there's zero chance he won't recognise Amy and Vicky unmasked, and Kayden is pretty obvious as Purity when she lights up."

"That's a good point," I said. "Let me get together with Dinah and Lisa, and see if we can't figure out how to work this."

Dinah grinned. "Strategy engine …"

"For the win," Lisa finished.

"Darn tootin'."

<><>​

Browbeat

Lawrence pulled out the card Management had given him, and studied it. He wasn't at all sure that he liked what he was about to do, but Deputy Director Renick had assured him it was entirely innocuous. Or as innocuous as infiltrating a teenager into a shadowy cape team could get, anyway.

Renick hadn't tasked him to find out secret identities or sabotage their missions, which was good, mainly because he would've refused. His entire job was to watch and assist, and report back with his view of how the team operated.

One of the things Renick (and by extension, Director Piggot—Lawrence wasn't stupid) wanted to know was exactly how the team got their information; "they've got Thinkers" was a little vague. Another was to settle the question whether or not the elusive Purity was working with them. And finally, any hints as to the cape name of the hydrokinetic would also be good.

Lawrence decided that he'd cross those bridges when he came to them. Right now, he needed to dial the number and pretend to be interested in the offer. Of course, if their Thinkers sniffed out his intent and called him on it (as they'd be totally justified in doing), he would back off just as fast as he could.

Calling up the keypad on his phone, he tapped in the number, one digit at a time. It rang exactly once before it was picked up. "Hello, Management speaking."

"Hi, yeah, this is Browbeat," he said. "I've been thinking about it, and I want to work with you."

"Excellent," she said, even sounding like she meant it. "Just in time, too. We were planning on doing a mission tonight, and your capabilities will suit the parameters right down to the ground. Can you be ready by nine?"

"Nine?" He blinked and looked at his bedside clock. It was barely four in the afternoon. "Uh, yeah, sure. I can do that."

"Good to hear. Where would you like to be picked up from?"

He thought quickly. Either they didn't know his real name and address, or they were pretending not to in order to lull his suspicions. It was an article of faith that Thinkers loved to show off. If Management knew more about him, she almost certainly would've dropped a hint by now.

"There's a bus stop at Evanston and Craddock," he said. "You know of it?"

"We can find it," she said. "Costume most of the way up, but try to be inconspicuous."

He nodded from habit. "I can do that." Already, he was considering how he was going to sneak out. He figured this could be really cool, or it might be a total catastrophe.

"So, uh, who are we going after?" he asked as an afterthought.

"We were thinking of shutting down Uber and Leet. Don't be late."

The call ended, leaving him staring at the phone.

Uber and Leet? Oh, boy. The odds of 'catastrophe' had just improved considerably.

<><>​

Leet

"And that's the show for today. See you next week. Hopefully Leet's eyebrows will have started to grow back by then."

Uber looked over at him, and Leet mustered a smile. "Haha, yeah." Reaching out, he turned the camera off. "Seriously, did you have to remind everyone that I lost my eyebrows again?"

"Trust me, they don't need reminding." Uber smirked. "There's a site online that tracks the results of your tech malfunctions. Pretty sure that's going to be updated as soon as this episode gets posted."

"Great." Leet rolled his eyes sarcastically. "Remind me again why you hang out with a loser like me?"

"Well, because you're not a loser, for one thing," Uber told him seriously. "You're my buddy. My bro. We're a team, and don't you ever forget it."

"So how come we're never laughing about stupid stuff that happens to you?" Leet was feeling a little mollified, but not totally.

"Oh, there's an Uber's Greatest Hits site, too." Uber snorted. "All the times I face-planted because I was aiming my focus at the wrong technique at the wrong time. It's just that what your stuff does to you tends to leave marks."

"Tell me about it," groused Leet. "Okay, so you're gonna edit it and put it up now?"

Uber nodded. "Yeah, I'm going to just look over it and do any touch-ups that it needs. Want to give me a hand?"

"Nah." Leet chuckled wryly and shook his head. "You're the one who's good at that, and we both know it. I'm going to go look over the next project, see what I need to do to make it roll."

"Right, right." Uber paused in the middle of putting the headphones on. "Remind me again, what was that one?"

"Jeez, dude." Leet rolled his eyes. "I can't believe you've forgotten. We're going old school."

"Ah, yeah." Uber grinned, and they shared a high-five. "I can't wait to see how they react to us doing—"

<><>​

Glory Girl
On a Rooftop Opposite


"Pac-Man?" Browbeat looked incredulous. "Really?"

"Really." Vicky, wearing a dark brown wig over her golden curls and a pair of heavy goggles to obscure her features, nodded in confirmation. "That's what they said. Leet will be working on a Pac-Man setup, and there's a strong chance that it'll be operational enough to give us trouble if we don't shut it down hard."

Specifically, Lisa and Taylor had come up with the Pac-Man diagnosis, while Taylor had given an eighty-seven percent chance for the system to be online. Vicky was gradually coming on board with the idea of working with no fewer than three different Thinkers, one of whom was an ex-supervillain, but some of the stuff they pulled off still looked like black magic, pure and simple.

We haven't got anything like this back in New Wave. Maybe that's our loss.

"But how do you even know that?" Browbeat's question followed what Vicky's thought process would've been, not so long ago. "And how did you even manage to get the layout of the base?"

Taylor had explained this one to her, though she couldn't pass the explanation on to Browbeat for obvious reasons. If I'd know it in the future, my power can look ahead and tell me about it now. Still, it had been weird as fuck to watch a handful of toothpicks get tossed in the air and fall into a precise building layout on the table.

"Well, you know how Watchdog's got those Thinkers that sit around and give various hints and ideas for the way things are likely to go?" There'd been a TV spot on them recently, though it had understandably glossed over a few details.

"Yeah …?" Browbeat sounded doubtful.

Vicky snorted with amusement. "This is nothing like that. Our guys aren't guessing. They know their stuff. And you and me, we've been picked as the best people for the job. You know, in case you were wondering why we don't have anyone else along."

"That had crossed my mind," Browbeat confirmed. "But what if it's too much for us? What if shit goes sideways and one of them gets a lucky hit in? I mean, they always say, don't ever attack a Tinker in his base."

Did I ask this many questions? Vicky suspected she knew the answer to that one. "Chill. Just because we're the only visible ones, doesn't mean we're the only ones on site. We have backup. The big hitters are ready to come in and level the place if need be. It's just that we'd rather not do that to a building full of Leet's tech." The percentage chance of something bad happening if they did wasn't high, but it was in the double digits, and Vicky didn't like that.

"Okay, good to hear. So, what are we waiting for?" Browbeat was starting to bulk up, muscles bulging out everywhere as he exerted his power.

"The right time. In about three minutes, Uber will be distracted and Leet won't be watching the monitor screens. That'll give us enough time to bust in before they know we're here." She was seriously starting to wonder how she'd managed before joining this new team.

"Okay." He nodded, apparently accepting her words. "Hey, I've got an idea. Management said you've got a hydrokinetic on your team. Why don't they just flush the entire base out with water? Short everything out and neutralise Leet's stuff before we ever get inside?"

"Sources say Leet's stuff is likely to react unpredictably. Some of it might actually explode. This is the most effective, risk-free way of slapping the cuffs on them."

He shook his head. "How do they even know that?"

Vicky snickered. "Thinker bullshit is bullshit, I guess?"

Browbeat gave her a dirty look. She knew how he felt, but damn it was good to be in the know.

<><>​

Leet

The shell of the Pac-Man rover looked bare, almost skeletal, but that was because he didn't have the exterior hologram activated. He reclined on the laid-back pilot seat, fiddling with the settings of the teleport mechanism. When Pac-Man ate things, they had to go somewhere, after all, and there wasn't enough room in the chassis to store more than two or three people. Also, if they were in the chassis, they'd be in there with him, and he didn't much feel like being beaten up by the general public.

As it was, instead of a hover-field or anti-grav tech, he was going to have to depend on wheels to get around, because he'd used up a lot of the fancy options early on. Gloomily, he anticipated a future where he'd be hard put to build a simple walking mech without powering it via steam or something.

But that wasn't today. Today, he was working on an icon of the computer gaming age. Uber would be a 'ghost', herding the participants in his game around the force-field maze they were going to set up. Anyone 'eaten' by the Pac-Man rover would be teleported back to the basement of this building, where Uber and he would release them from, once the game was over.

He hummed loudly and tunelessly, ignoring the incessant beeping from the monitors in the corner. If it was something important, Uber would deal with it. He had Tinkering to do.

When the door to his lab smashed apart into several large chunks, followed by a flying figure, he was surprised, but not so much that he couldn't act. Leading with her fist, she flew directly at him. Straight at the mouth of the Pac-Man rover.

There was no time to form a coherent thought, much less work out a plan of action. But his finger was already on a very important switch.

He flicked it.

<><>​

Browbeat
A Minute Earlier


With her hands under his arms, Aeglea (he had no idea what the code-name meant, but she'd said it was a classical reference) carried Lawrence down to the side door of the building. He poised himself to kick it in, but she grabbed it and ripped it clear out of the frame.

Okay, then. She's definitely stronger than me. But he still had no idea who she might be. There just weren't enough independents running around for a teenage Alexandria package to go unnoticed.

But right now was not the time to start worrying about that sort of thing. Now was punch time.

He moved in through the now-open doorway, keeping low despite his current bulk. Aeglea drifted in beside him, a few feet off the ground. They headed down a corridor, alert for any sort of security measures. Leet wasn't exactly in the top tier of Tinkers, but it didn't take much to build something crude and nasty.

He spotted a security camera and pointed it out to Aeglea, who promptly ripped it out of the wall in a shower of sparks. Still, no alarm had been raised, which meant the gamer duo were either out and about, or just not paying attention.

When they came up to a door, Aeglea made a little half-bow and gestured to it; your turn. Grinning, he smashed a kick into it with all the power his current bulk permitted. It was enough; the door gave way and swung open, hanging half off one hinge.

Within was a combination living room/gaming area, which matched with the pencil-drawn building plan Aeglea had shown him (where she'd gotten it, he had no idea). Seated at a computer console was none other than Uber, headphones on, watching something on the screen. As Lawrence and Aeglea entered, he apparently noticed something amiss, because he turned his head toward them. His eyes widened, and he opened his mouth to shout.

Already keyed up, Lawrence launched himself across the room and tackled the supervillain clear out of his chair. As fit and muscular as Uber was, Lawrence had packed on twice the bulk, and they slammed into the floor with bruising force. Well, bruising to Uber; Lawrence's skin-level force field cushioned him nicely, so he wasn't even winded.

As he flipped the villain over to secure his hands behind him, Lawrence registered Aeglea flashing across the room toward another door; behind that, as far as they knew, was where Leet did his Tinkering. At this point, it was a gamble whether or not Leet had heard them. To paraphrase a saying Lawrence had heard once, it was better to assume he had and be wrong than to assume he hadn't and be wrong.

The doors crashed into pieces, and Aeglea disappeared within. That is, she didn't fly out of sight; she flew into the room, and between one instant and the next … vanished.

"What the hell?" muttered Lawrence. Flipping the prepped zip-tie over Uber's hands, he ripped it tight. He was under no illusions that it would hold the man long, but hopefully it would be long enough.

Leaping to his feet, he headed toward the smashed-open door. "Aeglea?" he called out. "You okay?" While calling out might alert Leet to his presence, he absolutely wanted Aeglea to know he was there, in case she tried to punch his head off his shoulders by accident.

He didn't hear her voice calling out. What he did hear sounded so out of place that he didn't recognise it for a moment. But then he saw the massive rounded yellow thing trundling toward him, the huge mouth opening and closing rhythmically, and he knew what it was supposed to be.

wakka wakka wakka wakka wakka

Oh, shit. She wasn't kidding.
"Pac-Man?" he said out loud, incredulously. "Really?"

It surged toward him, and he jumped backward out of the way. "Only the greatest video game hero of all time!" Leet's voice sounded from somewhere within. "Om nom nom, motherfucker!"

"What'd you do with Aeglea?" Lawrence dodged back again. Grabbing up a chair, he heaved it at the huge yellow monstrosity as it followed him. The mouth snapped at the flying piece of furniture; when it opened again, the chair was gone.

"Don't worry," Leet assured him, even as the Pac-Man turned to pursue Lawrence again. "She's safe. She only got eaten, that's all."

"What do you mean, 'only got eaten'?" Lawrence wrenched the wide-screen TV free of its attendant cords, and heaved that at the monster next. Just as the chair had disappeared, so did the TV.

"Hey, have a bit of respect," Leet complained. "Those things are expensive!"

"Really." Lawrence dodged back again. Trying to run around the monstrosity wasn't doing any good at all; it could swivel in place faster than he could get around it. "My heart bleeds. Bring Aeglea back, now!"

"What, so two of you can beat on me? Yeah, that's gonna happen." The Pac-Man trundled toward Lawrence again. "C'mere, you. 'Get in mah belleh!'"

"And that's a totally different franchise, you realise that, right?" Lawrence evaded another snap from the huge yellow mouth.

"Leet!" shouted a feminine voice as light flooded through the room. "Stand down! Browbeat, are you okay? Where's Aeglea?"

Lawrence turned to look, then had to shade his eyes. "Dunno! He said his thing ate her!" And that was when he had his brainwave.

"Fuck!" squawked Leet, the Pac-Man jittering between Lawrence and the newcomer.

In that moment, Lawrence took his opportunity. Darting over to where Uber was still struggling with his bonds, he picked the man up and heaved him bodily at the Pac-Man monstrosity.

The Pac-Man froze, just for half a second, long enough for Uber to vanish inside … a hologram? That's covered by a hologram? Lawrence didn't have time to think about it; gathering himself, he leaped after Uber, into the thing's mouth.

It didn't snap at him; instead, he passed through the hologram, just as Uber had, and landed in a cramped control cabin, on top of both Uber and Leet. Leet, still trying to push Uber off him, looked up as Lawrence loomed over him. "Oh, shit."

"Uh huh." Lawrence shoved Uber aside and took hold of Leet's shirt front. "Shut this thing down right the fuck now, and bring Aeglea back from wherever you put her. Or I'm going to see how many pieces I can break it into, with you inside."

"Okay, okay," whined Leet. "Geez, enough with the threats of violence." He flicked a switch, and the hologram faded away, the power winding down. "I give, I give."

Lawrence didn't release Leet as he looked around. "So where's Aeglea?"

<><>​

Vicky

Stupid, stupid, stupid. I flew right into the trap.

Vicky backed up to one end of the room—a basement, if she were any judge—and flew full-speed at the door. Six inches before she would've impacted it, she hit the force field instead. It didn't stop her instantly, but compressed, squeezing tighter and tighter until it rebounded, flinging her away into the centre of the room.

This didn't surprise her; exactly the same thing had happened, the last ten times she'd tried to bust her way out of the room. It did, however, irritate her. Kinetic redirection took her one big strength and turned it against her.

I guess Leet set it up so if he teleported a dozen people down here, they couldn't just break down the door and get away.

Her next big worry was about Browbeat. The guy was still a rookie, and he was facing Leet's tech all alone. God knew what else it could do. Though the chair and the big-screen TV (sadly, broken on impact) that had fallen out of midair where she'd appeared indicated there was something still happening. She just hated being left out of the action.

As soon as the guys realise that something's gone wrong, they'll move in. But it would be great to bust my way out of here before I actually need rescuing.

Drawing back her fist, she prepared to throw another punch at the door. It wouldn't do anything, she knew, but maybe she was wearing the field down or something—

—and then the force field vanished.

"Fuck yes!" Grabbing the door, she ripped it off its mountings and tossed it to one side, then flew up the stairwell thus revealed. It took just a few moments more of smashing doors until she found the same area where they'd seen Uber.

The room looked a little messier than before. A basic spherical framework on wheels sat in the middle of the room, with Uber, Leet and Browbeat all piled up on a built-in control seat. Kayden, off to one side and beginning to let her glow diminish, looked around as Vicky flew in. "Ah, there you were. I was beginning to wonder."

"Yeah, me too." Vicky pointed at the framework. "Please tell me that was supposed to be the Indiana Jones rolling boulder." Because if it isn't ...

"As if!" sputtered Leet. "Pac-Man's a classic!"

Vicky facepalmed. I got eaten by Pac-Man? Ames is gonna laugh herself sick.

<><>​

Later
Hebert Household


"Well, I have to admit, Browbeat came through with flying colours," Danny said, carrying the tray of drinks out to the living room. "He held up his end of the fight, and figured out the solution."

"While Vicky got eaten by Pac-Man," Annette said with a giggle as she took one. "Thanks, Mr. H."

"Now, now, be nice," Amy admonished her with a smirk. "He was probably just after some fast food."

"Oh, ha ha," Vicky retorted, rolling her eyes. "I just didn't expect a teleport, okay?" She accepted a glass as well. "Thanks."

Dinah raised her eyebrows. "I believe I might have mentioned something about being no-sold?"

"That you did, hon." Andrea reached over and ruffled her hair. "It was a good call. He supported his teammates, and pulled off a win."

Taylor raised her glass to the others in a toast. "Another villain gang off the streets, however temporarily. Next up, the Empire."

Janet and Kayden raised their glasses with everyone else. "The Empire."

There would be preparation to take care of, but Danny had faith in the team.

Together, as Dinah had put it, they were stronger than the sum of their parts.



End of Part Nineteen
 
Last edited:
Part Twenty: A Man With a Gun
Alea Iacta Est

Part Twenty: A Man With a Gun

[A/N: this chapter beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]



Friday Midday, March 11, 2011
Empire Eighty-Eight Safe House

Rune


"Well, this sucks," Tammi grumbled. "I coulda been playing video games. Why are we here again?"

Victor snorted, then leaned over to give her a light noogie. "Could be worse, munchkin. You could be stuck in school right now."

"Yeah, I could." She tried to slap his hand away, but missed. "And then I could be going out to the mall later with my friends. Why'd Kaiser have to have files on all of us at Medhall, anyway?"

"In case you'd missed it, our late boss was a little bit of a control freak," Othala pointed out. "Those files were encrypted. That's what gave us time to cut and run. Unfortunately, when you have someone like Dragon doing the decrypting, nothing lasts forever."

"It's not the end of the world," Crusader said, leaning back comfortably in his chair. "Arranging for new identities shouldn't be too hard. A little cosmetic surgery, and we all get to re-enter society again."

"That's definitely on the table," Krieg announced as he entered the room. "But in the meantime, we have a bigger problem to deal with."

"What, Purity?" Victor frowned. "I thought we were going to just write her off. Let her go her own way." He didn't mention what had happened to Hookwolf as a result of not doing that.

"Not Purity exactly." Krieg pulled out his chair and sat down. "Or rather, not only Purity. I'm becoming more and more convinced that there's a new team in town, one that operates out of the shadows, and very specifically doesn't show up to take the credit. And this team—I suspect—has managed to recruit her. Especially given that she baited Lung into chasing her on Tuesday night; a chase that culminated in a half-drowned Lung being picked up after an anonymous call to the PRT."

"So this new team doesn't even have a name?" Fenja spoke up, after having sat silently beside her sister for the duration of the meeting so far. Since Kaiser's death, both the twins had been subdued, as though they could've done something to save him.

"Not that I'm aware," Krieg confirmed. "But they have at least one hydrokinetic in their roster, as well as Purity, and they seem to believe that they've got the wherewithal to go after the villain gangs. The ABB, the Merchants, Coil, and Uber and Leet have all gone down to them, if I'm reading the signs right. Now, I suspect they'll be coming around to take another snipe at us. Which means we need to hit them harder first."

"Uh … one problem," Crusader said. "If they're all that, then they know who we've got on hand, and they're probably planning for each of us."

Krieg smiled. "Yes. I thought of that." Raising his voice, he called out, "You can come in now."

And the man and woman entered the room.

<><>​

Friday Evening, March 11, 2011
Kayden's Apartment

Taylor


I leaned back in my armchair and checked the domino mask, ensuring it wasn't about to fall off. Amy and Annette jockeyed for position in the other armchair, apparently trying to decide who was to be sitting on whose lap. It was kind of sweet, in my opinion; Amy had been reserved at first, but Annette had won her over to the point that they were inseparable. They still weren't at the stage of public displays of affection beyond hand-holding and lap-sitting yet, though. My guess was that Amy needed to take her time getting used to being in a romantic relationship, and Annette was respecting that.

The funny thing was, both Amy and Annette were also masked up. Amy was wearing a blonde wig, and they both had on dominos like I did. In fact, everyone in the apartment was wearing a mask of some sort. (Aster wasn't, but she was asleep in Kayden's bedroom).

This was because we were working to maintain secret identities with Browbeat for as long as possible. For this reason, Dad and Andrea were sitting this one out, so as to keep the number of potential clues as few as possible. Everything inside the apartment that could betray Kayden's name or the actual address had been carefully concealed.

Lisa raised her head. She was wearing a bright yellow sun-dress and matching mask, as far different from her purple skin-tight Tattletale costume as possible. "Incoming."

A moment later, there was a clatter as Vicky landed on the fire escape, carrying Browbeat. The window was already partially open; she pushed it all the way up and he climbed in.

As per the prior invitation, he was also masked up (despite the fact that he knew we knew his face) but otherwise wore casual clothing. I thought I detected a little musculature, but not ridiculous amounts. Or that could've been just him.

"Welcome, Browbeat," Kayden said. "I'm Evenstar. You already know Aeglea, of course, and you've met Management already." Dinah nodded at him from the sofa.

We'd decided that if Browbeat was going to meet the team, we'd need to brainstorm some names, if only to give ourselves some legitimacy in his eyes. Or rather; Lisa, Dinah and I had figured that out between ourselves. Thus, we'd picked names that weren't too terrible, even if some us weren't even capes.

"Hi," I offered. "I'm Random, and that's Athena." Lisa, also on the sofa, waved as I introduced her.

Annette perked up from where Amy was sitting across her lap. "Paladin here, and this is Nostrum." She gestured at Theo, who was sitting next to Dinah on the sofa. "That's Archive." Finally, she indicated Janet, who had chosen to sit back out of the way on a dining chair with her hand and stump in her jacket pockets. "And say hi to Storm Surge. She's the one who flooded Coil out, and took Lung for a swim."

We already knew this wasn't giving away any information the PRT didn't have, and of course they had no idea who she actually was.

"Uh … hi?" Browbeat looked around at the group of us. "You're all … well, mostly … kids?"

Annette snorted. "You're a kid. Wow, hasn't anyone told you that age isn't everything, especially when it comes to powers?"

The prompt comeback seemed to put him on the back foot, which … wasn't very surprising, actually. Annette had a way of doing that. He pushed his fingers through his hair and looked around at us. "I'm really bad with names," he confessed. "So I'll probably need to be reminded. But uh … you're Random, right?"

He was looking at me when he said this, and I nodded. It might've had something to do with the dice I had running over my knuckles at the time. "That's me. Dice-based precog. Catch." Taking one of the dice, I tossed it to him. "Three."

Awkwardly, he caught it, then looked questioningly at me. "Three?"

I nodded to the table he was standing next to. "Roll it. You'll get a three." I knew that because I'd rolled a three just before he showed up.

"Um, okay." He rolled, and the three pips came up, just as predicted. "Wow. That's kind of impressive."

"When I said, 'we have Thinkers', I actually meant it," Dinah reminded him. "So, any questions before we get started?"

"Uh …" Browbeat looked at Kayden. "I'm guessing you're the one who showed up while Aeglea and I were fighting Uber and Leet?"

"That's correct." Kayden pulled out a couple more dining chairs from around the table. "Please, sit down. Would you like a glass of water, or juice?"

"Neither at the moment, thanks." Browbeat sat. "So, what's this meeting all about?"

Sitting forward in my chair, I took up the tale. "We've taken the ABB capes off the board. Lung's presence was the only thing stopping the unpowered factions from fracturing along ethnic lines ... well, any day now. Likewise, what's left of Coil's forces are either in hiding, in custody or gone. The Merchants were hardly even a gang, but now the cops can hit their dealers and drug factories without worrying about Skidmark showing up. And thanks to you and your help, Uber and Leet are behind bars. Which means there's one gang left."

"The Empire Eighty-Eight." Browbeat proved he was at least listening. "But didn't a whole bunch of them get killed or captured? How many could there be left?"

I dropped the dice I was manipulating into the tray on my lap, scooped up two ten-siders, and rolled percentiles. Zero-nine. "Looks like nine," I said.

"What?" he exclaimed. "I thought they'd lost more than that."

"They've lost six so far," Lisa said didactically. "Two dead, three captured, and one who just … left."

"I heard a rumour about that," Browbeat agreed. "That was Purity, right?"

"Yes," Kayden said, deadpan. "That was Purity."

Everyone around the room, except for Browbeat, seemed to stop breathing. Would this be the deal-breaker? Would he excuse himself and go straight to the PRT, and confirm that Purity-now-Evenstar was working with our team?

"Huh," he said. "Well, gone is gone, I guess. But you're sure there's still nine left? That seems like an awful lot to me."

I met Lisa's eyes briefly. From the quirk of her brow, the hint had gone straight over his head. Dinah also looked subtly relieved, probably because her power had told her the same thing in a different way.

Picking up one of the ten-siders, I rolled it again casually. Chances that he figured it out and he's just being cagey, nine being high. "They were always the biggest cape gang in Brockton Bay," I reminded him, and scooped up the alphabet dice. The ten-sider was showing a zero. He was definitely clueless in the matter.

"Are those … letter dice?" he asked, getting up and coming closer to peer at them. "I didn't even know they were a thing."

"Neither did I, until I got my powers," I said. "Fun fact; thirty-sided dice totally exist."

"Learn something new every day." Frowning, he watched as I rolled. The letters read K-R-I-E, but he didn't have my perspective on the matter. "… Erik?"

"Krieg," I said, aware that Lisa had produced a pad and was writing this down. I took up the dice and rolled again. V-C-T-R. "Victor." O-T-L-A. "Othala." F-N-J-A. "Fenja." M-N-J-A. "Menja." C-R-S-D. "Crusader." R-U-N-E. "Well, that one was easy. Rune." N-G-H-T. "Wait … Night?"

"Yes," Lisa said immediately. "Ten bucks says your next roll is Fog."

"No bet." I rolled the dice. F-O-G-space. "Called it."

"And that makes nine," Lisa declared, stabbing a dot on the paper with her pen. "As though we needed confirmation."

"I could've done without Night and Fog, though," Kayden said, then chewed her lip briefly. "They're going to make this fight a whole lot harder."

Dinah's head came up. "And that's why Krieg brought them back into play. Because he's aware that we're out of other targets, and that we're likely to be focusing on them again."

Browbeat went back to his chair. "I wouldn't have believed you could name them all like that. But I don't even know who Night and Fog are, sorry."

"Ah; of course." Kayden glanced at Theo. "Archive?"

Primed for his role, Theo cleared his throat. "Are you aware of a group called Gesellschaft?"

"Sorry," Browbeat confessed. "No idea who they are, either."

"That's not surprising. They're not that well-known in the States. They're a neo-Nazi German organisation that triggers and brainwashes capes into working for the cause." Theo's voice was steady, though his tone betrayed his distaste. "They've had their hooks into the Empire Eighty-Eight since before Allfather died, putting Kaiser in charge. Krieg is their current representative; as such, he held a position of power in the Empire while Kaiser was alive, and has now succeeded him into the top spot."

"Wait." Browbeat tilted his head slightly. "Wouldn't Kaiser have had someone else nominated to take over in the event of his death?"

"He did." Kayden fielded that one. "Purity and Hookwolf."

"Oh. Oh, I see." Hookwolf's death had been dramatic as hell, to say the least. "Forget I asked. Anyway, what have a bunch of German neo-Nazis got to do with Night and Fog?"

"Everything," explained Theo. "Gesellschaft created them. They may look human, but they act more like aliens who've been given a quick training course. There's no moral core, no good side, nothing to appeal to. Just a bunch of programmed responses. They'll cut your throat then sit down to watch TV right beside your twitching body. Or rather, they'll look at the TV. Because that's what normal people do."

From the look on Browbeat's face, he was beginning to wonder what he'd gotten himself into. "What ... what are their powers?"

Theo nodded to acknowledge the question. "Night appears to be an ordinary person, a well-dressed woman, until nobody is looking at her. That's when she becomes a horrific murderblender with no discernible weak points. Switching between forms seems to heal all injuries. Fog, on the other hand, just turns into a cloud of fog. Intelligent, corrosive, murderous fog. Any questions?"

"Well, yes. How exactly are we supposed to fight people like that? And why us? Isn't that supposed to be up to the Protectorate and PRT?" Browbeat wasn't exactly panicking, but he didn't sound all that thrilled either.

Lisa put her finger up to catch his attention. "Remember Coil? How we took him down, last month? Just between you and me and everyone else in the room, he was a PRT strike squad commander. Now, if a supervillain could masquerade as a ranking officer in that building, how many low-ranking moles do you think the Empire could infiltrate the place with?"

Just for shits and giggles, I rolled the dice. "Five," I reported. "Or at least, that's how many we'll find in the end."

"And there you have it," said Lisa, not missing a beat. "Now—don't roll for this—what do you think the odds are that one of those moles won't report in if we tell the PRT everything we know, then sit back to let them handle it?"

Browbeat seemed to consider that. "Not very high?" he guessed.

"And the well-muscled young man in the first row wins a prize," Lisa declared. "If by 'not very high' you meant 'minimal to zero', that is."

"And as for how," Annette chimed in, "you see before you more Thinker chops than any given Protectorate team can muster in a month of Sundays. We know our enemy; we know who they are, where they'll be, how they'll react to our plans, and how to get to them before they realise they're looking in the wrong direction."

Theo's head came up, and a look of alarm crossed his face. "Uh … about that."

Lisa's eyes widened and her lips moved silently. Dinah was more direct. "What's up?"

His eyes found me. "What are the chances that the Empire has realised K-Evenstar is part of our team?"

"Shit!" Lisa jumped to her feet. My hand had found the dice, and they were already clattering to a halt by the time she managed to shout the next bit. "They'll be coming here as soon as it's dark!"

I glanced down at the dice in the tray. Two zeroes stared back at me. One hundred percent. Then I looked out the window, at the deepening dusk. "They know." My voice sounded weird in my ears.

"Archive, get Aster!" Dinah snapped. "Aeglea, the window. Storm Surge, perimeter. Who's closing in on us right now? Random, Athena, anything you can give me is good. Evenstar, check the corridor. Browbeat, go with Archive. Paladin, guard Nostrum. Everyone, prep for a fighting retreat! Move!"

Theo jumped to his feet and dashed down the corridor toward the rear of the apartment. Browbeat, apparently surprised by the rapid-fire commands, followed him on what looked like reflex, already bulking out.

My backpack was by my feet and I dumped my dice into it, retaining the tray and half a dozen d10s. Annette was already on her feet, pulling Amy out of the chair, while Vicky flew over to the window and Kayden hurried to the door.

There was a cushioned thud as Annette pulled the chair over onto its side, facing away from the door and window. "Get down," she told Amy, pushing her into a crouch so she was shielded by the chair. Going down next to the healer, Annette huddled over the top of her.

Janet breathed deeply, closing her eyes. I knew she could sense people through the water in their bodies, but how accurate it was and how far away she could sense someone, I wasn't sure. We hadn't spent time checking on that sort of thing, and now I intensely regretted the lack.

"Fliers," she reported. "Two of them. Three coming up the fire escape. Three in the corridor, coming this way."

Dinah ran through into the kitchen, and that was when we heard the rending, cracking noise coming from the back of the apartment.

<><>​

Crusader

Justin watched as the last of the sun disappeared over the western hills. He only had a few ghosts flying in formation around the slab of concrete that he was sharing with Rune, because they didn't want to get spotted before the ambush was in place. "I kinda feel bad about this," he confided.

"About what? That she killed Brad, or that she stabbed us in the back and joined a hero team? Get real," sneered Rune. "Kayden's got to learn. She's allowed to not play with us, but she can't go joining the opposition." She steered the slab up closer to the closed window in the side of the apartment building. "I rip the window out, you grab the kid. Got it?"

"We're not going to hurt the rug rat, are we?" He just wanted to make sure about that. While he wasn't the sort to get down on the floor and make funny noises at babies, Aster was kind of cute, and it wasn't her fault her mom had turned traitor.

"Of course not." If she was facing him, he figured he would've seen her eye-roll. "We're just gonna use her as leverage to make sure Kayden knows which side her bread's buttered." Moving to the edge of the slab, she traced a glowing rune on the window, making sure to get the frame as well as the glass. "Ready?"

He sent his ghosts in through the wall. "Ready—shit, there's someone in the room!"

"Fuck!" She exerted her power, tearing the window clear out of the wall and showing the room beyond.

Justin recognised Theo, despite the fact that the little chubster was wearing a domino mask; he'd clearly just picked up Aster when the ghosts came through the wall. With him was another guy, also a teenager, but ripped as fuck. This guy could give all the gym-bro's Justin had ever known lessons in definition.

Before Justin could adjust to the new situation, the new guy yelled at Theo to run, then vaulted through the window opening onto the slab itself. A couple of the ghosts reflexively stabbed at him with their spears on the way past but only scored shallow wounds; it looked like he had some kind of protective field around him.

One massive punch knocked Rune clear off the floating slab, while a backfist collided with Justin like a freight train. Head spinning, he found himself in free fall, looking up as muscle-boy tried to haul himself back in through the window. His ghosts were already swarming to grab him, and he had to consciously divert a couple to grab Rune as well.

Even though the ghosts were slowing him down, the ground was coming up way too fast.

This was gonna hurt.

<><>​

In the Corridor Outside

Krieg


Victor's voice came through James' earpiece. "Shit, they know we're here! Someone just took down Rune and Crusader!"

Scheiße. "Did they secure the package?"

"No package. I say again, no package."

"Is it a trap?" asked Fenja. She was still normal-sized, but there was room in the corridor to grow to half again as tall and smash the door in. "How could they know we were coming?" It was abundantly clear that Kaiser's demise had given her a distinct hit to her self-confidence.

"Does it matter?" Night studied her fingernails. "Traps are fun. They make the enemy gather in one place."

"Enough talk." Krieg gestured at the door. "Get that open."

Fenja began to grow …

<><>​

Janet

A clatter of dice across the room drew Janet's eyes as she huddled in her chair. What should I do? She couldn't see any bad guys, and didn't want to guess about people she couldn't see. And she had no idea why Taylor was rolling dice at this point.

Taylor looked up from the result she'd just rolled. "Victor's invulnerable!" she shouted.

"He's on the fire escape with Fog!" Lisa chimed in, half a second later.

Oh. That's why. God, these people are so much better than me at this.

"Incoming!" warned Kayden, then jumped back as the front door smashed in. She began to glow brighter and brighter. A couple of rounded objects bounced into the room, ending up in the middle of the floor, already beginning to trail plumes of smoke.

Shit, shit, shit. Grenades! They didn't have any water in them. What am I supposed to do with grenades?

Theo came running back up the corridor with Aster; Janet had no idea where Browbeat was, or what the noise had been. Did they go after Aster? That was probably a bad idea.

"Vicky!" yelled Taylor, leaping forward and sliding across the hardwood floor on her belly. Putting her hand down for traction, she spun end for end and kicked the two grenades across the floor in a way that looked like she'd practised for ages. They rolled and bumped to Glory Girl's feet, leaving a trail of smoke behind them.

"Fuck off!" Glory Girl shouted, putting a hand on Victor's face—Victor was right there, at the window!—and pushing; unfortunately, she couldn't seem to budge him. On the other hand, as strong as she was, he couldn't push past her. With her other hand, she grabbed up the grenades and tossed them out the window.

This was something Janet could help with. She reached out to Victor's body and tried to grab control of the water in it, to help Glory Girl push him back, but she couldn't get a grip on it. No matter how she tried to manipulate him, it didn't work.

Janet became aware of the sound of running water from the kitchen. Dinah had turned the sink on full, and water was gushing down the drain. That was water she could affect. But then she was distracted by the nine-foot-tall Valkyrie who came stomping into the apartment, bending to clear the door-frame. Shield in one hand, sword in the other, the newcomer was a fearsome sight.

… or was, right up until Taylor tossed a handful of small objects across the floor. Janet had just enough time to recognise them as plastic dice before they landed right beneath the supervillain's descending foot. Two went crunch under her weight immediately, but the other four performed admirably. Her foot skidded out from under her, and she let out a startled yelp as she lost her balance. With a sound like a saucepan chorus line, she landed heavily on her back.

Does that mean we're winning? Janet felt an unexpected surge of hope, which was just as quickly extinguished as Krieg himself stepped into the room. Immediately, she felt a tightness in her throat. She could breathe, but it was an effort, and moving took far more strength than she was capable of. Worse, at the far end of the room, a greyish cloud was boiling in through the window past Victor and surrounding Glory Girl. Is that Fog? I think that's Fog. Does he even have water in his body right now? Her power didn't seem to think so. Glory Girl appeared unharmed at the moment, but she wouldn't be able to hold her breath forever.

"Night, if you will!" Krieg's command was imperative, not to be ignored.

A cloaked figure darted in past him to where Theo was desperately trying to retreat down the corridor. Janet watched in horror as Night caressed his face, then dug her nails in, drawing blood. "Stupid," she remarked, as though discussing the weather. "You will lose. You will always lose."

As Night reached for Aster, Dinah spoke up from the kitchen. "No. You've. Already. Lost."

The Valkyrie on the floor rolled over and started to get up—Janet was pretty sure the hardwood floor would never be the same again—while Krieg pulled an efficient-looking pistol from a holster she hadn't seen, and pointed it at Dinah's head. "Silly little girl," he sneered. "We have you checkmated." A side-glance toward where Kayden was desperately trying to turn toward Night. "Once we have the baby in hand, your biggest hitter will be reminded of where her loyalties should lie."

Dinah stilled, but spoke defiantly anyway, her eyes turning toward where Fog still cloaked Glory Girl. "Water. Soluble."

The two words ignited a spark in Janet's mind. The water was still blasting into the sink; she grabbed it, pulling it into a mass she could use. But it wasn't enough. She needed more.

The rumbling was palpable before it ever became audible. Janet had never done this before, but there was always a first time. All the water in the building was hers to command, and she directed every drop toward this sink, these faucets. The pipes were not intended to take this kind of water pressure, and she could hear the rattling and hammering as she told them to man up and do their damned job.

Even Krieg was looking around as the building itself began to shudder, the sound of water rushing through pipes like distant thunder. Small objects danced on the floor and shelves. On his face, for the first time, Janet saw the stirrings of apprehension. Even Night had paused in her efforts to drag Aster out of Theo's arms.

"What's that?" Krieg asked. "Who's doing that?"

With the inevitability of a wave crashing onto shore, all the water arrived at once, erupting from the sink faucets and the plug hole alike. Janet guided it onto her targets, scooping up Krieg and the armoured Valkyrie and flushing them out through the open doorway. In the other direction, the wave smashed into Night—dividing neatly around Theo and Aster—and washed her toward the open window. It briefly sluiced over Glory Girl, then hit Victor full in the chest and pushed him back through the opening. Night followed after him, squirted through the window like a melon pip, then the wave receded.

Dinah's suggestion had worked; the water had indeed engulfed Fog and removed him from around Glory Girl, leaving her dry as the water pulled back again. Fog himself was a dark stain of pollution in the water. Janet sent a tendril into the bathroom and flushed the contaminated liquid down the toilet.

As Glory Girl slammed the window shut and Janet sent a tendril of water to close the door, Kayden's glow faded and she ran to Theo. "Are you alright?" she demanded; Janet couldn't quite tell which of the children she was asking the question of. "Did she hurt you?"

"I-I'm fine," Theo stammered. "She didn't hurt Aster."

"I'm here, I'm here!" Browbeat stumbled down the corridor from behind Theo. His hands and front were covered in brick dust and what looked like blood. "Is everyone okay?"

"I think we're good," Taylor answered, sitting up. She scrambled over to retrieve the dice that had survived. "What happened to you?"

"And what did you do with Tall, Dark and Nazi?" asked Annette, helping Panacea up from where she'd upended an armchair to protect the healer.

"I fell out the window and had to climb back in. It's harder than it looks." Browbeat looked around at the damage. "Tall, Dark and Nazi?"

"Krieg and Valkyrie woman." In the aftermath of the action, Janet felt very tired. "I washed them along the corridor, down the stairs, and out into the street."

"Fenja," Lisa supplied. "Menja was probably on the fire escape."

"I don't care about their names." Janet set her jaw. "I just wanted them away from me."

"And you did real good." Dinah came over and gave her a quick hug. "You saved, uh, Aeglea's life for sure."

It took Janet a moment to remember that they were all going with different cape names for Browbeat's benefit. "Right, well, you gave me the hint." She drew in a deep breath and looked around at the others. "Sorry I didn't do something sooner. I guess I'm just not the fighting type."

"Hey. It's okay." Glory Girl put her hand on Janet's shoulder. "I would've been screwed pretty soon, so I'm glad you worked through it."

"So what happens now?" asked Amy. "Should we be preparing for another attack?"

<><>​

Taylor

"No." Lisa and Janet spoke at the same time.

Lisa glanced at Janet and got a nod in return. "Some of them got hurt this time around," she said. "And Krieg isn't sure who the hydrokinetic is. Also, Storm Surge just no-sold Fog hard. They're going to be pulling back and regrouping until they can find him. Then they'll try to figure another approach."

"In the meantime, we need to relocate Evenstar, Archive and uh, the baby," Dinah said. "We screwed up badly, here."

"I'll say." Annette still looked and sounded more than a little shaken. "I've seen your Thinker work. You guys are frankly better than this. How about next time we don't hold a meeting in a place that the Empire Eighty-Eight knows about?"

By now, Kayden was holding Aster securely, settling her down again. "I am sincerely forced to agree. We're going to need a place to live, until the repairs are complete and I'm unlikely to get unwanted visitors anymore." Her eyes found me, and they were full of worry. "I hate to ask for a favour like this, but …"

"I'll call Dad," I said immediately. "Just hang on one second." Climbing to my feet, I rolled the four d10s on the table. Chances of the Empire being able to track Kayden down to my house.

The numbers came up 7, 3, 9 and 0. Zero point three nine seven percent.

"Well?" asked Kayden, searching my expression. "Can you find a safe place for us?"

I smiled. "Yes." Our sofa would fold out into a bed, and there was a camp bed somewhere in the basement that we could probably dust off. As for Aster, I was pretty sure her crib would fit in the back of Dad's car.

Putting them up might be a little cramped until we got things sorted out, but I could live with 'cramped'.

<><>​

Later
Empire Eighty-Eight Safe House

Crusader


Justin rubbed his arm and flexed his fingers. There was still a little residual soreness, but not as bad as it could've been. Broken arms sucked. So did broken collarbones. Fortunately, Othala had been able to fix both issues.

"Well, that was a shit-show from beginning to end." Victor said it first, but only because Justin didn't feel entirely comfortable about antagonising Krieg with his failures just yet. "We should've had the drop on them from the beginning, but they were waiting for us. Tammi's still got a concussion because of whoever it was that punched her, Fog got flushed down the crapper, and they've got Leviathan's little sister on their damn team!"

"Might've been Theo," Justin offered. "Which would make him Leviathan's little brother. You know he's prime third-gen material."

"It. Wasn't. Theo." Krieg set his jaw as he snarled the words. "It had to be the girl in the kitchen, the one who turned on the water. She was the hydrokinetic. I would wager rather a lot of money on it."

Fenja raised her head. "Well, whoever it was, we'd be stupid to take them on near any source of water. Maybe we should've paid more attention to how Lung was taken down." She evidently had vivid memories of being washed down three flights of stairs and out onto the street, which would have been less problematic than Fog's experience only by a matter of degree.

"I thought the reports said that water main was busted open by Purity," Justin protested.

"Well, clearly the fucking thing wasn't!" Victor snarled the words as he jumped to his feet. He began to pace across the room and back. "This team of theirs has been hiding most of their strength in the shadows instead of flaunting it from the rooftops like any normal bunch of newbies would. I wondered how they managed to talk Kayden onto their team, how they turned her against Max."

Justin frowned. He thought more of Kayden than that. She wasn't one to jump ship because of powerful potential teammates. "Not sure what you're referring to, there. I thought the thing with Max was because of that other kid of his he was talking about."

"Do I have to fucking spell it out for you?" Victor stared at him, then around at the others. Othala was busy with Rune, the Biermann sisters were simply sitting and watching the show, Night and Fog were immersed in their own little world, and Krieg was observing without adding commentary.

"Maybe you should." Justin spread his hands. "Because I seem to recall how Kayden was stabbed by Max, just before he got struck by lightning. Then that idiot Hookwolf sent Cricket to murder her in the hospital, and when that didn't work out, tried to do it himself. Now he's dead, and I'm not exactly surprised that Kayden might not want anything to do with us. You tell me why she might be interested in joining a team—that isn't us—with at least one powerhouse on it."

Victor paused, and Justin thought for a moment that he'd accepted the logic. Then he shook his head. "No. The Kayden I know would never turn against us. Walk away, maybe. Backstab us, her friends, not in a thousand years."

"And if she felt endangered by us?" Justin stared at his teammate. "Hell, what proof do we have that she was even going to come after us? We attacked her in her goddamn home."

"It was the only logical thing to do," Night said unexpectedly. Fog said nothing. He'd barely spoken since rejoining them after the fight. "She was a danger. She is a danger. Dangers must be eliminated, or curbed."

"No, you don't get it." Justin waved his hands in the air. "That's what we are to her now. We came after Aster. There is nothing more precious in the world to her. Even if she wasn't going to work with that other team against us, she probably will now." Running his hands over his face, he slumped back into his seat. "I knew this was a bad idea, but I didn't realise just how bad until just now. I mean, holy fuck."

"You had one job." Krieg's tone was implacable. "You and Rune. How could you have failed so thoroughly? One non-combatant and one combatant, and you still could not overcome them?"

"You weren't there!" shouted Justin, jumping up. "You were looking to do your grand entrance through the front door like a conquering fucking hero, after the rest of us had mopped up the resistance for you! And that musclebound asshole came for us, instead of backing off like a normal person! If he'd backed off, I could maybe have dogpiled him. But he was on us before they could stick him more than a couple of times, and he didn't even seem to notice. Punched out Tammi altogether, and what he gave me was no love-tap either." He rubbed his jaw in remembered pain.

"Maybe you should've had more ghosts out," Victor said flatly. "We could've avoided this whole shit-show then."

Justin swung toward him. "You specifically told me not to," he snapped. "We didn't want to tip anyone off ahead of time, remember?"

"Alright, alright." Krieg raised his voice in command. "Quiet down. Rehashing our mistakes isn't going to fix them. We need to figure out what we're going to be doing, going forward. Crusader, how sure are you that Purity will be coming after us now?"

Taking a couple of seconds to breathe deeply and still the harsh words that wanted to come out, Justin thought about the question. "Either that, or she'll be looking to leave town with Aster as soon as possible, and probably take Theo with her."

"You sure?" Victor frowned. "She's likely to get something out of Max's holdings that weren't connected with him being Kaiser. And so's the little fat shit, for that matter."

"I doubt she would stay around for the reading of the will," Krieg decided. "Max made it very clear that he was making the other child his main heir. The Campbell girl." He didn't bother hiding his distaste for this course of action.

"Right," agreed Justin. "So yeah, she's either going to cut her losses and bolt, or stay in town and come after us for trying to grab Aster. The will isn't gonna come into it."

"Okay, so let's assume she stays." Victor rubbed his chin. "We need a way to neutralise both her and that damned hydrokinetic."

"I have one way," Krieg offered. "Do you still have your sniper rifle?"

"Whoa, wait, what?" protested Justin. "Are we just going straight to 'murder'? Is that what we're doing, now?"

Krieg glared at him, and Justin felt a tightening in his throat. He wasn't sure if it was real or psychosomatic, but he didn't like it either way. "When Purity hits us with her blast, exactly how much restraint do you think she'll be using?"

Fuck. Justin knew he was between a rock and a hard place, and he liked that even less. "Well, when you put it that way …"

"Good," said Krieg. "It's settled, then."

As Krieg turned to talk to Victor, Justin slumped in his chair. How the fuck do I get out of this?

<><>​

Hebert Household

Taylor


With one final grunt of effort, I helped Dad get the sofa bed unfolded. "There," I panted. "Now I'll just grab some sheets and make it up for you."

"I really do appreciate this." Kayden gave us both a smile. "I know how much of an imposition it must be."

"No trouble at all," Dad assured her. "We've put up friends and family before. There's a half-bath under the stairs, and the bathroom upstairs is the third on the right." He turned to Theo. "Will you be okay in the basement with the camp bed? There's not much room for anything more than Aster's crib up here with the bed folded out, I'm sorry."

"I'll be fine, Mr Hebert." Theo ducked his shoulder. "At least I know you're not doing it deliberately, to 'toughen me up'." He even went so far as to make finger-quotes. "So yeah, I appreciate it."

Dad shook his head. "I've seen the dark side of your father so I'm not going to do you the disservice of pretending that sort of thing couldn't happen." He slapped Theo on the shoulder and addressed both of them. "So, if you've got any questions or problems, you bring 'em straight to me or Taylor."

"We will." Kayden took on a concerned expression. "With my apartment out of commission until the repairs are done, we're going to need a new place for the team to meet and make plans. Especially since I don't intend to move back there until the Empire Eighty-Eight is no longer a threat. Is it okay to meet here, or should we find another location? I would totally understand if you didn't want a bunch of heroes converging on this location every few days."

I had my own opinions, but this was Dad's decision. He frowned and rubbed his lips with his thumbnail as he thought about it. "Seven kids and two adults," he mused.

"Three of whom already live here right now," I added helpfully.

"Very true. And Andrea's apartment is even smaller than yours." Dad paused, his head coming up. "Shit! Andrea! If Annette was there, they might try to grab her next!"

I delved into my pocket for a couple of dice as I eyed the mattress. It was flat enough. "Annette was keeping her head down behind an armchair, protecting Amy, so they might not have even noticed her."

Chances that Andrea and Annette are in danger of being kidnapped by the Empire Eighty-Eight.

The dice rolled and bounced on the springy cloth, but eventually came to a halt. 5-1-4-1.

I let out a breath. "One point five one four percent that the Empire will try to grab them."

Dad similarly sighed with relief. "That's good. That's really good. So long as she stays quiet and doesn't draw their attention, she should be safe."

Kayden nodded. "Of course, the best way to keep her and Annette safe is to deal with the threat once and for all." There was an edge to her voice that promised mayhem to the Empire Eighty-Eight.

"Yeah." I scooped up the dice and looked around the room. "It'll be crowded, but we can make it work. So, you think they'll keep coming at you?"

"Absolutely." There was no doubt in her voice. "They know they've made an enemy of me now. It's me or them, and I intend to make it me."

Dad put a hand on her shoulder. "Damn right."

<><>​

Browbeat

"Report."

Lawrence stood in front of Deputy Director Renick's desk. His wounds had been healed by Nostrum and he was dressed in civilian clothes, with the obligatory domino mask for form's sake. "Well, sir," he said. "It's been a day."



End of Part Twenty
 
Last edited:
That's an interesting mapping of dice rolls to numbers.
She automatically knows what the actual order is.

When she rolls dice, she can get them to either land where she wants or in what alignment she wants. So when she's getting actual predictions like this, it's unlikely that they'll land in a neat row to be read as per normal.
 
The dice rolled and bounced on the springy cloth, but eventually came to a halt. 5-4-4-1.

I let out a breath. "One point five four one four percent that the Empire will target them."
That's an interesting mapping of dice rolls to numbers.

She automatically knows what the actual order is.

When she rolls dice, she can get them to either land where she wants or in what alignment she wants. So when she's getting actual predictions like this, it's unlikely that they'll land in a neat row to be read as per normal.
Yes, I remember that. But the number of digits doesn't match. 1.5414% is not a permutation of 5441, as the one got used twice.
 
This was quite the read, I've enjoyed seeing all of these goons play 4d chess with all the villains around them. It's wonderful to see The Best Case Scenario with people working together and just trouncing every problem they come across honestly. I do like that you're using the Thinker weakness to full effect with relation to specificity causing problems. You're really juggling these series huh? Tons of good ones going at any given time.
Oh additional note since I won't comment on the other thread so as not to necro, but Collateral damage was also a delight to read, though a bit more of a Michael Bay movie in terms of content.
 
This was quite the read, I've enjoyed seeing all of these goons play 4d chess with all the villains around them. It's wonderful to see The Best Case Scenario with people working together and just trouncing every problem they come across honestly. I do like that you're using the Thinker weakness to full effect with relation to specificity causing problems. You're really juggling these series huh? Tons of good ones going at any given time.
Oh additional note since I won't comment on the other thread so as not to necro, but Collateral damage was also a delight to read, though a bit more of a Michael Bay movie in terms of content.
Hello, but you're necroing... just look at that last post date in Ack's post.
 
Part Twenty-One: Backlash
Alea Iacta Est

Part Twenty-One: Backlash

[A/N 1: This chapter beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]

[A/N 2: The Empire Eighty-Eight appear in this, and slurs will be uttered. Said slurs are in no way the opinion of the author.]

[A/N 3: Apologies for how late this came out. It's been a horrendously hectic month.]



Taylor

The council of war opened in our living room. With the sofa bed tucked away, Kayden sat on the sofa with Aster on her lap, with Janet and Andrea beside her. Arms folded, Dad leaned against the wall, while Amy and Annette claimed the armchair and the rest of us fetched chairs from the kitchen. At one year old, Aster was apparently following the conversation alertly, but I wasn't betting on her staying awake the whole way through.

Browbeat wasn't here for this, mainly because it was one thing to show up to one apartment in a building full of them, and totally another to actually go to someone's house in the suburbs. The address of Kayden's apartment we could obscure, but it was a lot harder to do with our house. While we could've technically done something like blindfolding him, that would've alerted both him and the PRT that something was wrong with their plan.

Even Lisa, as scornful of the PRT's general intelligence as she was, had conceded they might begin to suspect that we were on to him, so it was easier all around to simply not tell him.

Annette opened the discussion. "This is bad. And by 'bad', I mean 'catastrophic'. The Empire Eighty-Eight knows that we exist, and they've picked up valuable intel on our capabilities. Worse, they've decided to eliminate us as a threat by direct action."

Lisa poked a finger in the air at that. "We can't exactly say we didn't draw this down on ourselves, at least partially. We took down Coil in his own base, and attacked the Merchants in their flophouse. Worse, we got complacent, expecting that we could keep chipping away at the gangs while they floundered around blindly."

"I don't care." Kayden thrust out her jaw. Her features were fairly mild, but she managed to make it work. "If you were going to refer to the whole thing about capes not attacking each other at home, I couldn't care less. But they specifically went after Aster. And if they've tried it once, they'll try again. I've only got one answer for that."

Andrea reached across behind Janet to squeeze Kayden's shoulder. "That's the problem in a nutshell. We're going to have to come back at them with the same amount of dedication, because otherwise they're going to capture or kill some or all of us before we know it. And the more they know about us, the harder they can hit us."

Vicky grimaced. "I'm all for punching Nazis, but this sounds uncomfortably like we're at war with them. Not just ordinary cape-versus-cape antagonism but full-on kill-or-be-killed war."

"That's the situation as I understand it," Dad agreed. "When you've got two sides and at least one of them can't be persuaded not to keep attacking the other side, then you have either a massacre or a war on your hands. Now, from what I can see, you've got three options in front of you."

Kayden lifted her chin. "If any of those options is 'surrender', then we've got two options, not three. Just saying."

"Hardly." Dad straightened up from where he was leaning against the wall. "I'm union, remember? We don't surrender, we just retreat when necessary. The three options I can see are simple, but none of them are going to be fun. First option, we go dark. Cease all operations, let them punch fog for a week or two, then hit them from behind again. Second option, we come back at them just as hard as they came at us. Third option, we apply for affiliate Protectorate membership and dare them to come at us when we've got the full weight of the PRT behind us."

Amy shook her head. "Just getting affiliate status won't be enough. Aunt Jess—Fleur—was murdered by some kid who was looking to join the Empire. He cried in court and everything. Once he got out of juvey, they welcomed him straight into their ranks. Nobody outside New Wave cared. We'd have to go for full membership to get the level of protection you're talking about, and that just isn't going to work for us."

"No, it's not," Janet agreed. "I'm truly not comfortable with the PRT finding out exactly how powerful I am, or being able to tell me what to do and where to go. And I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one." She glanced sideways at Kayden.

"No, you're not." Kayden bounced Aster on her lap. "Right now, even if the PRT suspects that it's me—and I'm sure some of them do—the way we're going about it gives them enough of an excuse to pretend it isn't. And going under the radar instead of broadcasting to everyone what we're doing lets me get stuff done that I couldn't do before when I was trying to go hero."

"And going dark is problematic," Dinah added. "Victor isn't a Thinker like me or Lisa or Taylor, but he's got lots of skills from lots of places, and now that he knows about us, he'll be trying hard to track us down before we can regroup and come back at them."

Lisa nodded. "Yeah. Because even if we did want to stand down and leave them alone, they'd never accept or believe it. We're a danger to them and they are going to keep pushing. Taylor?"

I already had dice in my hand, rolling in the small tray. "Chances that they find us before the week is up … fifty-seven point nine one three percent."

Theo sighed. "Yeah, I can totally see that. And Lisa's right, of course. The Empire's whole mentality is based around attacking anything it sees as a danger, so they think everyone else thinks that way. They can't imagine anyone as powerful as we've shown ourselves to be just standing down voluntarily, so even if we did it sincerely—even if I personally told them, as Kaiser's son—they wouldn't believe it for a second."

"Maybe I'm being naïve here," Vicky ventured, "but wasn't Kaiser the lynchpin—hah—behind the Empire Eighty-Eight? With him gone, with Kayden defected, with Hookwolf dead and Alabaster and Cricket and Stormtiger captured, won't the rest of the gang … well, fall apart? They've lost a good chunk of their heavy hitters, and as much as I despise Kaiser, he was charismatic as he— as heck."

"He was." Kayden gave her an approving look for the amendment of her language. "He was the reason so many capes joined. But he was also the reason they moved on, once they'd had a year or so to realise that he was a self-absorbed narcissist." She smiled wryly, and not a little sadly. "It took me a little longer to pick up on that aspect of his personality, unfortunately."

Dinah nodded. "But they'll stick together for the moment because Krieg is making the effort. He's not the leader Kaiser was, but they're also already there, so there's a little inertia already in place. The reason he's doing this is because the Empire is a pipeline for Gesellschaft to funnel drugs and weapons and capes into and out of the States, and if they lose Brockton Bay as a convenient port of entry, things get a lot harder for them."

Silence fell over the room as we all digested that information. It wasn't a revelation as such; I'd kind of known most of it already. But to have it presented so baldly was a minor shock to the system. Worse, Gesellschaft wasn't 'just' a gang. Per Theo's information from earlier, they made capes, then brainwashed them into some semblance of loyalty. I didn't want that happening to any of us.

Annette cleared her throat. "So … just to float a proposition … what happens if Krieg is taken out of the equation?"

Dad glanced at her sharply. "I hope you're not proposing assassination. They might be going for blood, but we shouldn't be."

"It might be the only way." Kayden lifted her chin as he looked her way. "Yes, I get it, we're trying to be heroes. But if we hamper ourselves too much, we give them the leeway to win." She met his unrelenting gaze. "Okay, fine. Suppose we took him out of the picture non-lethally? Handed him over to the PRT and by some bizarre course of events, they actually managed to keep him? What happens then?"

I reminded myself that Kayden loved Aster fiercely, and Krieg had almost managed to have the infant kidnapped. Kayden's current ire toward him probably didn't reflect her usual state of mind. At least, not from what I'd seen from her. Squealer and Lung had survived their encounters with her, anyway.

"Hmm." Dinah frowned deeply. "I've just done a check. Asked a question. 'If Krieg is no longer available to lead the Empire Eighty-Eight in Brockton Bay, who is the next best choice for leader?' Menja and Fenja are powerful enough, but they aren't leaders. Neither is Othala; her mindset leans more toward support. Rune is a believer, but she's too young and she lacks the family connections. Crusader thinks he's got a shot, but he'd be a terrible leader, mainly because he's only used to telling his ghosts what to do. Night and Fog can follow someone else's plan, but on their own they display a staggering lack of intuition and flexibility. The only real contender is Victor."

"Bingo," agreed Lisa. "Like you said before, he's got all the skills. He could totally keep that herd of Nazi cats heading in the same direction, if Krieg got captured. But if he goes ..."

I rolled the dice. "If both Krieg and Victor were out of the picture, there's a sixty-one point seven five two percent chance that the rest of the Empire would fragment within the week." They clattered again. "Within the month, ninety-six point four one four percent."

"So we need to take down both Victor and Krieg," Vicky concluded. "Not impossible, but not easy either. Krieg's got that dam— that darned can't-touch-me Shaker effect going on, and if Victor's going into a fight, he's likely to get Othala to power him up. And we've got no real way of knowing what she's giving him until he shows it off, and by then it's too late to plan around it."

Theo shrugged. "Hit her first. She can't protect herself with her powers, and the effect drops if she's unconscious. I was there when they tested that out. Father insisted on it."

"This is getting more complicated by the second," Andrea objected. "First it was just Krieg, but now it's Othala, Victor and Krieg?"

Annette shrugged. "Othala is a force multiplier, mom. But she doesn't need to be captured, just put out of the fight so she can't reinforce Victor while we're trying to take him down. She should be the easiest, and Krieg the hardest. Victor won't be easy, either. Physically, he's only a guy, but he's a really skilled guy, so we can't afford to get complacent with him."

"Definitely," agreed Lisa. "Most of us are pretty darn squishy as well. I can outthink him, but he can punch my face in. In fact, the only really punchy one among us is Vicky."

Janet took a deep breath. "If it comes down to it, I can immobilise him. You know how much I dislike using my powers on people, but I'll give him a full-body muscle cramp before I'll let him hurt any of you."

"No," Dinah said thoughtfully. "If we're going to pull this off, we need to make a coordinated move before Victor figures out what we're doing and devises a counter. We also have to assume that they'll have all water sources locked down so you can't pull off Operation Building Tsunami all over again. So, they all need to go down at the same time, and Vicky has to get Victor and Krieg out of there. Nobody else can reach Krieg, Janet, so you're going to have to take him down. Can you reliably lower his blood pressure so that he faints?"

"Remember how I said I'm not comfortable with using my powers on people?" Janet gestured with her hand. "I'm really uncomfortable with using my powers on the organs people are using to stay alive. I can make water go from zero pressure to beyond firehose in less than a second. If I gauge this wrong, I could pop his head like a grape. Or his heart."

"And nothing of value was lost," murmured Annette without moving her lips. Amy, on her lap, elbowed her gently. "Okay, fine, popping Nazi skulls is off the menu. It's a pity you can't …" A moment later, she sat up, eyes going wide. "Wait, I bet you can!"

"Can what?" asked Andrea. "And I will remind you, young lady, that we've already had the talk about when and where it's appropriate to pop your enemies' skulls like grapes. Do I need to go back over that?"

Annette rolled her eyes. "No, Mom," she said with an exaggerated sigh. "But what I was saying was, what if Janet did what I said she could maybe do to Armsmaster that one time. Fill his bladder so full that all he can think about is how bad he has to pee."

"Just so you know, bladders can burst too," Dad cautioned her.

"Yeah, but he's not gonna die instantly, or even before Amy here gets her hands on him." Annette rubbed her head affectionately alongside Amy's. "And once she does that, it's lights out."

"Well, I could do that, I suppose," Janet nodded thoughtfully. "It would be a lot more survivable than an explosive brain hemorrhage. But how are you going to deal with Victor and Othala while I'm doing that?"

Lisa smirked, and Dinah high-fived her. Observing this, I picked up my letter dice, ready to roll. "Well, first we have to figure out what Victor's going to be doing."

They clattered in the tray. My eyes widened as they came to rest on the letters S-N-P-R. "Oh."

<><>​

Director Piggot's Office

Browbeat


Lawrence liked to watch people, mainly so that he could figure them out for future reference. He liked to think he could understand most people, at least superficially. Director Piggot, though, came across as either extremely calm or extremely pissed, or maybe both. Irritation seemed to be her ground state, but he didn't think it would be smart to make any kind of reference to that.

"I've read your report, and Deputy Director Renick's attached notes," she said. These were the first words she'd spoken since curtly inviting him to sit down.

He wasn't sure how to answer that. She wasn't giving him any kind of signals; did she want an excuse for how badly it had gone, or for him to shut up and listen? In the end, he essayed a hesitant cough, to see how she reacted.

"Did you have something to add?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Uh, no, ma'am." He was relieved that she'd invited the response, but not so thrilled that he had to answer in the negative. "All my observations are there in the report."

Piggot put her hand flat on the Manila folder apparently holding the report. "I've read your observations. Now I'm interested in your thoughts and assumptions. We already know that the apartment was leased by Kayden Anders, widow of Max Anders, who we now know was Kaiser. From what you saw of Ms Anders, do you believe she could be Purity?"

Lawrence frowned, thinking hard. "I didn't see her powers in action. The most impressive power use that happened there, as far as I know, was Storm Surge literally washing the villains out of the building."

"Understood." The Director changed tack then. "Did Storm Surge give any indication as to why she's not eager to use her powers? More to the point, do you think she might be open to recruitment by the Protectorate?" She didn't sound eager about such potential recruitment; more like it was a box she had to tick off.

"Not really, no, and I honestly could not tell you, one way or the other." Lawrence figured openness was the best policy there. More to the point, he doubted any good would come out of trying to lie to the Director. "I got the impression she was uncomfortable about having me in the group. She didn't look suspicious of me, just … touchy around strangers."

"I see." Her lips tightened slightly. "Do you believe it is safe for you to rejoin the team after that near-debacle? From your description, the Empire was out for blood."

He drew a deep breath. "And yet, they were driven away. Literally within seconds of the team realising there was a potential problem, they'd verified it and formed a threat assessment. Anyone else would've been caught flat-footed when the door got kicked in. The one they called Management was right on top of it from start to finish."

"So, you think this team has the capability to defeat the Empire Eighty-Eight in a straight cape battle, despite having fewer combat-capable capes?" Her tone evinced a level of mild disbelief.

He paused, thinking, before he answered. "My presence may have tipped the balance in this instance, ma'am, but my impression was that they don't normally do straight cape battles. Their hand was forced this time, by the Empire. From what I could tell, their standard MO is to use their Thinkers to analyse the situation ahead of time and send in the capes most likely to succeed at a particular endeavour. The Uber and Leet thing, for instance. I thought Aeglaea was going to be the primary hitter while I backed her up, but as it turned out, she was there to act as a distraction until I could get in the right position to beat them both."

Piggot nodded slowly as she digested his words. "That could be a worthwhile strategy, though I'm still personally wondering if that will allow them to defeat the Empire in detail, as opposed to merely driving them off."

"I honestly don't know, ma'am, but considering how well they operated even when they were seriously on the back foot?" Lawrence shrugged. "I wouldn't make any bets against them, not once they've had the chance to make solid plans to hit back."

Her gaze hardened. "You believe that's what they're going to do?"

"Evenstar dotes on her child. So does everyone else in the team." He paused, searching for words. "I mean, the kid's a cute enough little tyke as babies go, so I kind of get it. The Empire made a solid effort at kidnapping her, so they could blackmail Evenstar into surrendering. Which means that whatever rulebook they were still playing by, they've just torn up and thrown in the fire. Even if the team were inclined to back down now, I don't think they can do so safely. Krieg and the others made that plain enough."

"Granted, yes." The Director nodded to acknowledge his point. "However, do you think it's possible for this shadow team to devise a plan to take down the Empire? Even missing six members including Kaiser, the Empire's still got a formidable lineup."

Lawrence frowned, thinking. Eventually, he nodded. "If anyone's got a shot at it, they do. I didn't even see most of them in action, but the four Thinkers I saw doing their thing—Management, Random, Athena and Archive—worked together like a well-oiled machine. They're really good at what they do. And even though they were recruiting me for muscle, they've still got at least three heavy hitters that I know of, and maybe more that I don't."

"Hmm." Piggot tapped the folder again, her neatly trimmed nail making a gentle thap sound on the cardboard. "Thank you for your insights. Let us know when they contact you again."

After a moment, Lawrence realised that was her version of telling him the interview was over. "Ah, right. I'll be sure to do that." He got up from the chair.

"Good. Close the door on the way out." She had the folder open and was reading the contents again as she spoke.

"Yes, ma'am." He did as he was told; outside, in the corridor, he heaved a deep sigh.

He wasn't sure when (or even if) they'd contact him again, but it was for damn sure not going to be boring.

<><>​

Director Piggot

Emily browsed through the report again, focusing on the capes making up the mystery team.

Management organises people, Random rolls dice for precognition, Athena deduces conclusions, and Archive knows about things. It's a versatile setup. She could see how they'd done well so far. And for the heavy hitters, they've got a Blaster, a Shaker and an Alexandria package. Melee, ranged precision and area effect. More versatility.

It was an enviable lineup. For all her dislike of capes, she'd seen for herself how well they performed under competent direction. She strongly suspected that Athena and Random would be invaluable additions to WEDGDG, if they could somehow be recruited into that organization. Archive and Management would be less so, though their powers would still be useful to the PRT in a consultancy role.

Absent Browbeat pulling off a miracle, they were unlikely to do any of that, so their role seemed destined to remain as it was: a massive pain in her ass.

<><>​

Rune

"The question is," Victor mused, "how do we draw them out? They actually have a grasp of strategy beyond the usual thuggery espoused by most cape teams. And from their performance to date, their Thinkers are somewhat competent."

Crusader stepped forward, holding up a finger and opening his mouth.

Krieg grimaced. "You're not wrong. And somehow, I don't think challenging them to a showdown on Lord Street like in a cowboy movie will work. So think of something that will."

Shutting his mouth and lowering his finger, Crusader stepped back again.

"So long as they've got a moment to think, they'll be able to react intelligently." Menja frowned as she considered her own words. "I saw them grab the initiative back from us the instant they had an opening. We can't give them time to think. We have to make them react on an emotional level."

"The redheaded woman," Krieg said flatly. "She was masked, but there can't be too many short redheads that were associated with Max Anders. Max was obsessed over her. He had all her details—including where she lives. If we take her, they'll have no choice but to dance to our tune. And while we're pretending to negotiate a ransom, Victor can be lining up the shot."

"Which means we can't do this in Somer's Rock, unless I shoot Purity on the way in or coming out," Victor mused. "Also, I spy another difficulty. How realistic would it be for us to show up at a negotiation without me there to do the negotiating? And how suspicious would it be for me to not be there at all? Purity knows I have a sniper rifle."

Tammi finally had something to add to the discussion. "So, we don't do Somer's Rock. We don't do a negotiation at all."

Krieg tilted his head. "Go on."

Shit. She'd expected someone else to take up the idea. "Um … when we go to this woman's house … she's got a daughter, right? We grab both of them, but we let them get an SOS off to their friends. But when Purity shows up, we're still inside and Victor's outside with the sniper rifle." She made a finger-gun. "Bang."

Victor blinked. "I … that could actually work. Okay, then. We need to work out details. The redheaded woman was masked, so that means she's probably a cape. Did anyone see what her powers were?"

There was a pause. "Don't look at me," muttered Crusader. Tammi got the strong impression he was still pissed off at being punched off her platform by Mr Muscle Beach 2011. Seriously, the guy could've outbulked Hookwolf.

Krieg frowned. "I didn't see her use any, but that doesn't mean much. It could be that she's a low-level probability enhancer and just makes her teammates luckier, or something of that sort."

Othala nodded. "It would definitely explain why they've pulled off as many wins as they have. Nobody could maintain that level of cooperation and integration without some sort of cape power helping them out behind the scenes."

Tammi knew what she wasn't saying out loud. Even at his best—and his best had been pretty good—Kaiser had never been able to keep all the capes in the Empire pointing in the same direction at the same time. After a while, he'd stopped pretending to even try. He'd just let them go their own way and only called them together for the big jobs.

This mystery team, however, seemed to have capes she'd never heard of on their roster, none of whom had broken cover and gone public with their own exploits. Someone who could keep that many people marching to the same beat had to have something backing them up, and luck as a power seemed to fit the bill as well as anything.

"Yeah," said Fenja. "If that's how it is, they'll totally want her back. And if Victor's up on a building somewhere, they'll be looking in the wrong direction when Purity's head explodes."

"They do have an Alexandria package," Victor reminded them. "I'd much rather not be out in the open when she gets to me. Glory Girl is bad enough. I'm just glad the two of them haven't chosen to team up together."

"Exfiltration is mere detail." Krieg rolled his head on his neck. "Draw up a plan, based on taking the redhead and her daughter hostage, and sniping Purity when she attends. Make sure we all have primary and secondary escape options. I'd rather not leave anything to chance when it comes to dealing with this group."

"Gotcha." Victor paused and raised a finger. "Am I just sniping Purity? Is this a targeted hit against her, or the whole group? What's happening with the redhead?"

Krieg stopped and ran his thumbnail over his lips. "I'll get back to you on that one."

Victor smiled slightly, probably picking up the same unspoken meaning that Tammi had. They sided with Purity against us, they die. "Gotcha."

<><>​

The Next Morning

Andrea's Apartment


Bacon sizzled in the pan, wafting a delicious odour throughout the apartment. Andrea leaned out of the kitchen nook and smiled at Janet. "One strip or two, hon?"

Seated at the table, Janet looked up and blinked. "Oh, uh, two, please." As if expressing a nervous tic, her index finger tapped several times on the table.

"Two it is. How about eggs? Sunny side up?"

"Uh, yeah. Yes, please. Sunny side up." Janet's finger tapped on the table again.

"Coming right up!" Andrea ducked back into the nook and started plating the eggs and the bacon. "So, did you need a lift anywhere today?"

"No, no, I should, uh, I should be able to … uh …" Janet's voice trailed off. When she spoke again, her tone was somewhat higher. "Andrea?"

"What is it, hon?" Switching the stove off, Andrea left the plates where they were and leaned out of the kitchen nook, then stopped. Very slowly, she raised her hands.

This was mainly because she was looking down the muzzle of a pistol, held in the hand of a man wearing a stylised Nazi uniform, with goggles over his eyes. Behind Krieg, she could see Janet holding very still with a sword across her neck, wielded by one of the armoured women who'd invaded Kayden's apartment. Other members of the Empire Eighty-Eight had also crowded into the apartment, but the door was now closed. Although she couldn't see him, Crusader was somewhere around, because she could see his ghosts here and there.

"Andrea Campbell?" Krieg's tone was as arrogant as it had been the previous time she'd heard him speak. She could totally hear him say something along the lines of 've haf vays of makink you talk' in her head.

"Yeah, that's me," she responded gamely. "Look, I can make bacon for everyone, but someone's going to have to run to the store—"

"Shut up," he snapped.

There was a time to keep blathering on to irritate the opposition, and a time to shut the fuck up. Andrea shut the fuck up. To emphasise this, she nodded, and raised her hands a little higher.

"Kid's not here!" called out Crusader from the general direction of Annette's bedroom.

Krieg jerked the pistol slightly; Andrea's eyes never wavered from it. "Where is your daughter?"

There was also a time to be a smartass and refuse to talk due to the 'shut up' command, but right now Krieg didn't look like a man whom it was smart to push. "Sleepover," she said. "Friend's place."

His lips tightened, then he jerked his head toward Janet. "And who's she?"

It was good that he hadn't recognised the hydrokinetic, but then again, her clothing was different from the previous occasion, and Andrea had given her hair a temporary pink rinse job. Taylor had given less than five percent chance that someone would make the connection. "She's a friend. Staying over for the night. You can let her go. She's got nothing to do with any of this."

There'd been exactly zero chance that Krieg would let Janet go anyway, but his smile indicated how much he enjoyed exerting control over the helpless. Paradoxically, this reduced the danger slightly. Giving Krieg the chance to bully them would make him happier, and less likely to murder either of them out of hand.

"Friend, huh?" Crusader emerged from the corridor leading to the bedrooms. "I read your file. She a dyke like you?"

"Last I checked, that wasn't a crime," Andrea countered. "And I'm certain the Empire Eighty-Eight didn't break into my apartment just to critique who I sleep with. So, what can I help you with?"

Crusader's eyes narrowed and a couple of ghosts surged forward, but Krieg put up a hand and they stopped. "You don't seem overly worried about our presence." He frowned. "And you haven't even asked how we got in."

"I'm fucking terrified," Andrea retorted. "I just don't show it very often. And Max had a spare key. No doubt you found it if you read his file on me. But that still doesn't explain why you're in my apartment, and what I need to do to get you to leave."

"That part's easy." Krieg gestured at the table, where Andrea's phone lay. "Take that and send a message to your friends. The ones you were with last night. Tell them that the Empire Eighty-Eight is breaking into your apartment and to come quickly. Is that understood?"

It was Andrea's turn to frown. "… kind of? They kicked your asses last time. I didn't even have to do anything. What makes you think you can beat them this time?"

The tone of her voice was more curious than defiant, specifically so that Krieg would take the bait. Pride was at stake here, and Krieg was a proud man. "Last time, you caught us unawares. This time around, you and your team will learn not to cross the Empire Eighty-Eight."

That was Janet's cue. "Um … I don't know anything about this … can I just go ...?"

"Shut it, pinko!" snapped Crusader. "You're staying right here." He eyed her left arm, where it was buried in her bathrobe pocket. "Let me see your left hand. What've you got there?"

"N-nothing." Janet lifted her arm, showing the stump where her wrist should be. "Now can I go, please?"

"You stay right the fuck where you are." Crusader stomped away, muttering to himself. "Fucking dykes and cripples. What a fucking day."

Krieg gestured at the phone, and Andrea obediently picked it up. Carefully, she typed in a text to Vicky's number, though the name came up as Kayden. Empire Eighty-Eight is trying to get in. 1 innocent on site. Pls come now .

"Is this what you want?" she asked, holding the phone out to Krieg.

He took the phone, scanned the text and nodded, then hit Send. "Smart. I like that. Just don't try thinking you're smarter than us."

She shook her head vigorously. "Nope. I know my limitations. Are you sure you don't want some bacon?"

"Yes, I'm sure I don't want bacon!" Krieg turned away and strode to the nearest window. Carefully, he pulled the blinds down until no light gleamed through. "Cover the windows," he told the others. "We don't want them seeing who's not here." Taking a radio from his pocket, he keyed the button. "Message sent."

Yeah, thought Andrea. Message sent.

<><>​

Rune

The radio clipped to Victor's belt crackled out two words. "Message sent." Without looking, he reached down and pressed the button twice in acknowledgement.

"Okay, everyone, keep a lookout all around," he said tensely. "When Purity hears that we're attacking a teammate of hers, she's going to be coming in hot."

Tammi nodded, then rolled her eyes at her own slip. "Right," she agreed, scanning the sky. It wasn't like Purity was exactly stealthy. The only way I'll miss her is if I've got my eyes closed.

Of course, once Victor sniped Purity (along with the hydrokinetic kid, if she showed up too), it would be time to go. That was what she was there for, along with the chunk of concrete they'd flown up to the rooftop on. Othala was there to give Victor invincibility, just in case the Alexandria package came after them while they were getting off the roof.

And of course, unless the Alexandria package was truly bulletproof, they'd regret it, because Victor was a really good shot—

"Hey."

Tammi whirled around, because that voice had not belonged to either Victor or Othala. At the same time, there was a sickening crack and a scream from Victor, because—as she rapidly found out—the Alexandria package had landed on top of Victor's leg hard enough to break it. Othala tried to lunge toward him, only for the big asshole who had punched out Tammi the last time to grab her. One punch to the jaw, and Othala sagged to the rooftop.

While Tammi could've tried to help Victor against the Alexandria package, she figured it was a lot better idea to let the others know what was going on. So she lunged toward her slab of concrete as it slid toward her, already powered up and ready to go. It was already beginning to lift up as she clawed her way on to it.

And then the hand latched onto her ankle and dragged her right off again. "Put it down!" yelled the guy who had hold of her. Frantically, she kicked at his hand, trying to get loose. In the next second, there was an almighty yank to her ankle, the world spun around her, and his hand closed on her throat. "Put it down," he repeated, his face two inches from hers. "Now."

Very carefully, she lowered the slab back onto the roof. She'd already been punched out by him once before, and didn't want to experience it a second time. "Where the fuck did you come from?" she demanded, trying not to sound like she was whining. "We were looking for fliers."

The Alexandria package came over to them, dragging an unconscious Victor by the scruff of the neck. His sniper rifle was slung over her shoulder. Even wearing goggles, she looked insufferably smug. "Haven't you ever seen any war movies where the enemy ace comes at you out of the sun? We've been hovering up there for an hour, waiting for you idiots to get in position."

"And it was way too cold," muttered the muscled boy.

"Oh, suck it up. It worked, didn't it?"

The revelation rocked Tammi's world like nothing else had. "You were waiting for us? You knew where we'd be?" This whole thing was a trap? We were the ones who were supposed to spring the trap, not them!

Laying Victor down, the Alexandria package began securing his hands. One of his arms seemed to be broken, but that didn't stop her. "Honey, we knew about your plans before you did."

As muscle-boy put zip-cuffs around her wrists, Tammi closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. Fuuuuuck.

<><>​

Storm Surge

Janet couldn't figure out how Andrea managed to stay so upbeat. No fewer than six supervillains had invaded her apartment, any one of whom could easily murder them out of hand, and she had remained chirpy through it all. It was all part of the plan, certainly, but plans could easily go awry. It didn't help that they apparently knew Andrea was bi, and thought she was too; Nazis had never been tolerant of alternate lifestyles at the best of times, and homosexuality was one of the things that had gotten the death penalty.

For the moment, there was no overt threat to them, but Janet knew that once Victor sniped Purity the plan was to murder her and Andrea before getting out of there. Determined to be the good host, Andrea had offered the eggs and bacon around a third time. This time, Night and Fog had taken her up on it. They were seated on the other side of the table, passing utterly inconsequential remarks while mechanically eating the food.

Krieg's radio crackled. A hoarse male voice hastily whispered, "Incoming," then the transmission cut off.

"Places, everyone!" snapped the Nazi-uniformed cape. He pointed at Andrea, who was at the sink, scrubbing at the frying pan. "You! Sit down!"

Andrea spun both faucets to full on, then turned and threw the pan, hard. It hit Crusader on the back of the head with a loud clang, dropping him to the floor unconscious. All his ghosts winked out at the same time.

Janet slid out of her chair and went under the table. Night and Fog, already groggy from the sleeping pills Andrea had ground up and dosed the eggs with, went out like a light when she dropped their blood pressure just a touch. Slumping down, they began to snore.

She felt Krieg beginning to pull his pistol; in desperation, she gave him the same kind of full-arm cramp that she'd inflicted on Alabaster. His arm spasmed and the pistol clattered to the floor. Fenja or Menja, one of the two, heaved the table out of the way and the other reached for her. The water blasting into the sink turned into a tentacle that lanced across the apartment and wrapped both their heads in an ever-growing globe of water.

Diving for the pistol, Andrea grabbed it with both hands and pointed it up at Krieg, who was still grimacing with pain over his arm. He pointed toward her with his unafflicted arm and she gasped, choking. Janet grimaced, rolling away from Menja and Fenja. Reaching into Krieg's body with her power, she grabbed all the water in the blood vessels surrounding his lungs and forced it through into his air passages.

He choked in his turn, hand going to his throat. Andrea didn't hesitate; the shot echoed through the apartment. It punched into Krieg's chest and he stared down at the spreading bloodstain, as though he couldn't believe what had just happened. Then he fell to his knees, and toppled onto his face.

With Janet's lapse in concentration, Menja and Fenja were able to breathe again. Sopping wet and furious, one came after Janet while the other launched herself across the room at Andrea. Both were increasing in size, even though the apartment wasn't all that big to begin with.

Janet tried the cramping trick again, but it was far less effective against their increased muscle mass. Desperate to get to her feet so she could beat a more hasty retreat, she rolled aside again as an oversized foot smashed down right where she'd been. The water tentacle began to grow again, but not as fast as they were.

The front door smashed open as Vicky came through it at full pelt, carrying Browbeat with her. Letting him go on the full, she tackled one of the giantess twins across the room and halfway through the wall. Browbeat hit the other one and they tumbled down the corridor that led to the bathroom and bedrooms.

Hauling off, Vicky slugged her opponent once, twice, three times. Armour flew from each impact; on the third hit, the blonde giantess went limp in her grasp and began to shrink.

Able to focus on one opponent now, Janet concentrated on slowing down the woman Browbeat was fighting. The fight was anything but one-sided; he was strong and tough, but so was she. However, when Vicky got down there to lend a hand, it was all over.

As Vicky and Browbeat trooped up the corridor again, the latter carrying the villain over his shoulder, Andrea got up and looked around at the scene of utter chaos. Janet could only imagine what she was thinking; furniture was shattered, there were full-body dents in the walls, the front door was in pieces, and the fight at the other end of the apartment must have done even more damage.

"Well, dang," Andrea said, looking at the pool of blood oozing out from under Krieg and shaking her head. "I'm never getting that out of the carpet, am I?"

Janet just shook her head. Andrea was definitely one of a kind.



End of Part Twenty-One
 
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"You sure?" Victor frowned. "She's likely to get something out of Max's holdings that weren't connected with him being Kaiser. And so's the little fat shit, for that matter."

"I doubt she would stay around for the reading of the will," Krieg decided. "Max made it very clear that he was making the other child his main heir. The Campbell girl." He didn't bother hiding his distaste for this course of action.
'The Reading of the Will' is an invention of Hollywood and murder mystery writers. Whatever Kayden and Theo stood to inherit, it was theirs the moment Max was declared dead. It wouldn't matter one bit if they left town, other than possibly having to send a lawyer of their own to handle receiving the assets and signing the paperwork.


"The redheaded woman," Krieg said flatly. "She was masked, but there can't be too many short redheads that were associated with Max Anders. Max was obsessed over her. He had all her details—including where she lives. If we take her, they'll have no choice but to dance to our tune. And while we're pretending to negotiate a ransom, Victor can be lining up the shot."
Huh, I wonder if Taylor is about to get a sharp lesson on the fact that a 1.4% chance still happens 1.4 times in a hundred?

Seated at the table, Janet looked up and blinked. "Oh, uh, two, please." As if expressing a nervous tic, her index finger tapped several times on the table.
Ah, no, it's just another planned ambush. Pity, it would have been more interesting to see the good guys actually on the back foot and struggling for once.

Letting him go on the full
Either you're missing some words on this is another Australianism I've never heard before, Ack.
 
'The Reading of the Will' is an invention of Hollywood and murder mystery writers. Whatever Kayden and Theo stood to inherit, it was theirs the moment Max was declared dead. It wouldn't matter one bit if they left town, other than possibly having to send a lawyer of their own to handle receiving the assets and signing the paperwork.
Turns out Krieg watches movies too.

Huh, I wonder if Taylor is about to get a sharp lesson on the fact that a 1.4% chance still happens 1.4 times in a hundred?
Usually involving a lot of other factors going wrong first.

Ah, no, it's just another planned ambush. Pity, it would have been more interesting to see the good guys actually on the back foot and struggling for once.
Like when the Empire crashed the planning session last chapter?

Either you're missing some words on this is another Australianism I've never heard before, Ack.
Basically it means 'without slowing down'.
 
Yes, except with the 'on the back foot and struggling' phase lasting longer than a page.
When the heroes are up against people who are actively trying to murder them, it's hard to set up action where they are significantly losing without someone dying.
 
When the heroes are up against people who are actively trying to murder them, it's hard to set up action where they are significantly losing without someone dying.
I get that, but... as someone once put it, drama is the art of convincing your readers that the protagonists are in actual danger of losing, even when they know Doylistically that they won't. It's something your stories struggle with a lot. Having the villains take the unlikely path, launch a successful attack which captures Andrea, Anette, and possibly other members of the team, and then the rest of them have to struggle and scramble to find a way to rescue them (because they may have been caught off-guard by the attack but plan 'snipe Purity' certainly isn't going to surprise them)... that would have been an excellent opportunity for drama.
 
I get that, but... as someone once put it, drama is the art of convincing your readers that the protagonists are in actual danger of losing, even when they know Doylistically that they won't. It's something your stories struggle with a lot. Having the villains take the unlikely path, launch a successful attack which captures Andrea, Anette, and possibly other members of the team, and then the rest of them have to struggle and scramble to find a way to rescue them (because they may have been caught off-guard by the attack but plan 'snipe Purity' certainly isn't going to surprise them)... that would have been an excellent opportunity for drama.
I'm looking into fixing that, for the stories that run on drama.
 
Ack: Actually, now that I think about it, why did the Empire remnants attack the Campbell place? As I said, I initially thought it was just the 1.4% chance coming up, but given it was a planned ambush by the team, they presumably did something to turn that 1.4% into a much higher number. Only I can't see how they could have done anything to affect the Empire's decision-making process.
 
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Ack: Actually, now that I think about it, why did the Empire remnants attack the Campbell place? As I said, I initially thought it was just the 1.4% chance coming up, but given it was a planned ambush by the team, they presumably did something to turn that 1.4% into a much higher number. Only I can't see how they could have done anything to affect the Empire's decision-making process.
No, it was a 1.4% chance that the Empire would try to kidnap them.

No such kidnapping was attempted.
 
No, it was a 1.4% chance that the Empire would try to kidnap them.

No such kidnapping was attempted.
The Empire's plan was explicitly to take them prisoner and use them as hostages to lure in the rest of the team. And this doesn't count as kidnapping?
 
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The Empire's plan was explicitly to take them prisoner and use them as hostages to lure in the rest of the team. And this doesn't count as kidnapping?
Taking them away would count as kidnapping. Not moving them just counts as holding them prisoner.
 
Part Twenty-Two: Recruiting Assistance
Alea Iacta Est

Part Twenty-Two: Recruiting Assistance

[A/N: This chapter beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]



Saturday Morning, March 12, 2011
The Apartment of Andrea Campbell

Director Emily Piggot, PRT ENE


"What. The absolute. Fuck."

It had been quite some time since Emily had gone out into the field to attend a crime scene in person. She was only out here at all because Renick had personally called her—he handled the PRT building over the weekends—and she absolutely wanted to see first-hand just how badly the Empire had stomped on their own dicks. Despite the fact that she knew damn well Browbeat was entirely unlikely to embellish his account of the action—he possessed neither the inclination nor the imagination to do it in a believable fashion—she had to see the truth that lay behind the semi-coherent verbal report that Renick had passed on to her.

And boy, was it some truth.

Krieg was dead, shot by his own pistol. Night and Fog, snoring blissfully, had already been loaded into a van to be taken away, with two separate cameras pointing at Night and sending the signal to several different video feeds. The apartment itself was an absolute mess, though thankfully the woman who lived there (Emily already knew of her, from the debacle that had ended in Kaiser's death) had emerged from the incident unscathed.

Right at that moment, Emily was looking over the scene while the techs gathered what evidence they could. Intellectually, she could understand the basic sequence of events as garnered from the initial statements; the attack plan, as best she could see, should have succeeded. And it would have too, if the Thinkers hadn't done what they did best.

'If it wasn't for those meddling kids …' The phrase popped to the top of her mind, and she immediately squashed it. There was no way on God's green Earth that she was saying it out loud, ever, under any circumstances. Even the comment she had made was meant for no ears apart from her own.

She hadn't often seen the gangs go into all-out war mode, mainly because they knew damn well that doing this would usually open them up to another gang hitting them from behind while they were preoccupied with their first target. However, with Coil and Lung both off the board and with the surviving leadership feeling under threat due to their previous misadventures, it was easy to see why they'd decided to take the chance. And, as she'd already noted, it should have paid off.

"Armsmaster," she said more loudly.

The armoured hero, who had been playing a scanner over a broken section of drywall, looked in her direction. "Ma'am?"

"Is what you're doing essential to the investigation?" On one level, she knew it was all important to the investigation. On another, the chances of him finding anything that would materially change the outcome were minimal to zero.

"Not particularly, ma'am." He powered down the scanner and stowed it on his belt. "All indications are that everything went down exactly as Browbeat and Ms Campbell described. Was there something you needed?"

She gestured toward the door. "Walk with me. I'm going to need as complete a perspective on this shitshow as I can get, so I'd appreciate your input."

He nodded imperturbably. "I agree on all points so far, ma'am." As she headed outside, he followed along behind until they were out of earshot of any casual eavesdroppers. "Where would you like to start?"

"This shadow team." She frowned, thinking about it. "As a sidenote, has Browbeat indicated that they might be choosing a team name? We need to either officially call them the Shadow Team, or use whatever name they've chosen."

"Let me check." He fell silent for about ten seconds, then shook his head. "He hasn't made mention of it, ma'am."

"Shadow Team it is, then." But that wasn't what she'd wanted to talk to him about. "What's your analysis of how they pulled off such a complete ambush on the Empire, especially following the near-debacle in Purity's apartment? Also, why? If their Thinkers are as impressive as we've been led to believe, they could've stopped the plan dead in its tracks simply by dropping a dime to the PRT and giving us chapter and verse on its particulars."

Armsmaster smoothed his beard with finger and thumb before replying. "I believe the answer to the first question is simple. They don't have any auto-precogs, or they would've seen the first attack coming. However, once it was turned around and they were made aware of exactly how hard the Empire was willing to come at them, they had three options. Go dark, come to the PRT for assistance, or fight back."

It wasn't hard for her to follow his line of reasoning. "And their Thinkers decided that going dark or coming to us were not acceptable options."

"Doable, but not optimal," agreed Armsmaster. "So my analysis is that they worked out the Empire's plan to take them down, to a degree I would've found frankly implausible in any other situation except for the fact that they did it, then worked out their own plan to activate within that plan. To ambush the ambushers, so to speak. According to Rune, Aeglea claimed that Shadow Team knew of the Empire's plans before the Empire did."

"So if they had access to that level of foreknowledge," Emily persisted, "why didn't they loop us in on their plans? I'm finding it hard to believe that they don't know about Browbeat, given their other Thinker coups to date."

Armsmaster hesitated. "They … might not, actually. So long as he acts in good faith and doesn't do anything to screw them over, either betraying them to us or for any other reason, there's a good chance they'll never look that hard into him."

"Or," she retorted darkly, "they already know about him and they're stringing him along for the extra muscle while letting us think they're still ignorant about him."

After a moment, Armsmaster nodded. "So if they then used him as a conduit to ask us for help, that would be tacitly admitting that they know of his double-agency, and thus it would make things a lot more complicated for them." He tilted his head to one side. "The question is, how do we tell which one it is? Because on the surface, the two situations have an identical end result."

"Welcome to my world," she said sourly. "My read on the situation is that they decided, possibly with Thinker help, that our assistance either wouldn't improve the outcome or might even make it worse. If, say, some of the Empire capes spooked and ran, they might keep coming back and attacking. Whereas right now, the Empire officially has zero capes."

"And Krieg's dead." Armsmaster's tone was thoughtful. "He was Kaiser's successor as leader of the Empire, so that raises a question. Was he killed deliberately to make a point about that position being fatal, or is it just the way things went?"

"Who killed him, again?" Emily hadn't had access to that part of the report yet.

"Ms Campbell, actually." Armsmaster's voice held a note of respect. "According to her, he dropped the pistol in the confusion, with Menja and Fenja growing too large in the apartment, and she took her chance."

"That's putting it mildly," Emily observed. "I don't even remember the last time someone knocked out a supervillain with a frying pan. Or with ground-up sleeping pills."

"Also according to her, she was coached in what to do." Armsmaster sounded at least a little dubious about this claim. "Shadow Team knew the Empire would come after her due to her connection to Kaiser. Why they would do this wasn't adequately explained, at least by Ms Campbell."

"And by the Empire capes? Did they have anything to say on the matter?" Emily knew it was a long shot at best. Smart villains rarely made any kind of statement to law enforcement without a lawyer present, much less statements that would directly implicate them in criminal activity.

"Before Victor told her to shut the hell up, Rune let slip that they suspected Ms Campbell of being a cape. She didn't elaborate, but the strong implication is that Ms Campbell is a member of Shadow Team, which absolutely gives them a motive to take her as a hostage."

"It really does. Did they fill in Browbeat on any other aspects of what they thought the Empire plan to be?"

"No, but adding two and two with Victor up on a building with a sniper rifle, I can only assume he meant to kill someone from a distance. Factor in the hostage aspect, and I suspect the idea was to lure Purity to the location to save her teammate, and kill her along with any other members of Shadow Team who presented themselves. Ms Campbell and her daughter were likely on the kill list as well, if only to get rid of inconvenient witnesses."

Emily tilted her head at the reminder. "Right, there's a daughter, isn't there? Where's she?"

"On a sleepover with friends," Armsmaster confirmed. "Yes, she has been contacted. Her friends' parents will be putting her up until everything settles down here."

Emily wondered exactly how long they'd been planning for this sleepover; it seemed suspiciously convenient for the situation. Then again, it was the weekend, and the previous information they had on the Campbell girl indicated a large friend group. The fact that she was also apparently Kaiser's illegitimate child was just the icing on top of a very weird cake.

The temptation to go back inside and view the scene again was strong, but she knew she'd seen everything she needed to. By the time Monday morning rolled around and all this landed on her desk , she'd be as prepped to handle it as she was capable of. "Before I go, was there anything else you've found out that I might need to know?"

"Only that there was another person here this morning, apart from Ms Campbell, Aeglea, Browbeat and the Empire contingent." Armsmaster gestured back toward the apartment complex. "Ms Campbell hasn't mentioned anyone, but she does not strike me as being particularly shy. It may be that she took advantage of her daughter's absence to indulge in a one-night stand." Even though he wasn't the most socially conscious person, he didn't sound as though he believed a word of it.

Nor did Emily; if she'd possessed hackles, that explanation would have raised them. "Not if she knew the Empire was due to attack. No: whoever was in the apartment was a member of Shadow Team. I'd bet my retirement pension on it."

He nodded slowly. "If I had one, so would I. And it was almost certainly a woman."

"Not that I'm saying it wasn't, but why do you say that?" She looked at him curiously.

"Because a man, however innocuously there, would put them more on guard. For all that the Empire have female members, neo-Nazis tend to be strongly right-wing, conservative, misogynist and reactionary. They would see an apparently civilian woman as being of minimal threat to them. Shadow Team's Thinkers would know that."

Emily could connect the dots just as easily as Armsmaster could. "You forgot homophobic. If the Empire thought this woman was sleeping with Ms Campbell, they'd accord her even less respect, out of sheer disgust. Thus, leaving them distracted and off-guard to whatever she intended to do."

Armsmaster shook his head. "Using their own prejudices against them. Sheer brilliance." He paused. "Do we have any indication that Ms Campbell might actually be a cape, or information on any putative powers?"

"None that I've heard of," Emily admitted. "The trooper who took her statement added in his notes that she possessed Endbringer-equivalent levels of sass, but the last I checked, that wasn't a power."

"She and Mouse Protector must never be allowed to meet, check," he agreed, deadpan.

Emily snorted in dark amusement. "We're on the same page, then. Keep the Deputy Director updated on anything you think we might want to hear about."

"Roger that, ma'am."

<><>​

Saturday Evening
Hebert Household

Taylor


Under Dad's direction, Theo and I lugged the dining chairs into the living room. The sofa bed had already been transformed back into a sofa, and Dad's armchair would likely be claimed by Amy and Annette. Just as we were arranging the chairs, there was a knock at the back door.

"That'll be Amy and Vicky," I announced after glancing at the clock. "They're due about now."

"I'll get it," offered Theo, and headed in that direction.

"Cool," I said. "Leave the door open. Lisa will be along in a minute or so." Heading to the front door, I unlocked it then swung it wide open just as Andrea had her hand raised to knock. Behind her stood Annette and Janet, both of whom looked suitably impressed at my sudden appearance.

"You weren't just standing there and waiting for us to show up, were you?" asked Andrea.

"Nope. I rolled dice for everyone's arrival times. Amy and Vicky just showed up, and Lisa will be coming in the back door in about one minute. Dinah's parents are on the way to drop her off." I stepped aside to let them in. "What's happening with the apartment, and where are you going to be sleeping?"

"In the apartment, duh." Andrea shrugged. "Armsy was nice enough to fix the door after what the battering ram crew did to it, so we can secure the place. My bedroom got kind of busted up, but the mattress works just fine on the floor, and the sofa never got touched, so Janet's still got a place to sleep. We'll need to get repair guys in on Monday to fix the holes in the wall and stuff, but that's about it."

I had to give her props for equanimity; if I'd been through what she had just that morning, I was not at all sure I'd be bearing up nearly as well. Also, I'd never heard anyone call Armsmaster that, and I'd been living in Brockton Bay all my life. I was pretty sure that if she ever encountered the 'Halbeard' nickname on the PHO forums (I had no idea who'd come up with that one) she would instantly adopt it and make it all her own.

"Battering ram crew, huh?" asked Vicky, who'd just come through into the living room. "I think you might have mispronounced 'cavalry' there, just saying."

"Hey," Annette said, making a beeline for Amy.

"Hey." Amy put out her arms and hugged Annette. They held each other for a long moment.

"Oh, I'm totally glad you showed up when you did," Andrea conceded cheerfully enough. "Things were getting kind of fraught, right about then. I was pretty sure I wasn't going to be able to gank them like I did Krieg."

"No, you weren't." Vicky shook her head. "I had to hit Menja, I think it was, pretty damn hard a few times before she went out like a light. The other one got a bit bigger so it took the both of us, but she trashed the room pretty good first."

Amy looked up from where she and Annette had their heads resting on each other's shoulders. "Hey, did you know the PRT's given us an official name?"

"Hey, Theo." Lisa strolled in through the back door. "Yeah, I found it today in a PRT memorandum. They're literally calling us 'Shadow Team'."

Vicky wrinkled her nose in the general direction of Lisa, who was grinning unrepentantly. "You suck. It was going to be a grand reveal and everything."

"More to the point," Dad observed with a sternly raised eyebrow, "we're supposed to be heroic. That doesn't involve hacking into the PRT for any reason."

"Meh, heroism's overrated," Lisa retorted impudently. "We're taking the trash out, and that's what matters. Besides, it was hardly even a hack. There was no access to confidential files or anything. I just wanted to know what they were saying about us behind our backs."

"So, what else did you find out?" asked Annette. "And maybe we should drop them a line with a better name. 'Shadow Team' doesn't exactly make the world fall to its knees in awe, just saying."

I shook my head. "It's the perfect name for what we are." A few dice-rolls had gone into finding out what names the PRT might slap on us, and I'd had no objection toward that particular one. Letting Lisa and Vicky squabble over revealing it to the rest of us was no great trial for me. "We're not in this to be famous, just effective."

Lisa shot me a look that gave me the distinct impression she'd figured out my minor subterfuge, but she didn't say anything. At that moment, I heard the Alcotts pull up out front, and I went to open the door again. I knew that so long as her parents saw me at the front door, they'd be happy to drop her off. Since she'd gotten her powers, they were getting along much better, which made her happy as well.

"Hi, Taylor!" she greeted me as she bounded up the steps to the open door. "It's good to see you. How's everyone?"

"They're all good," I reported. "Come see for yourself."

As she came inside, I waved to her parents and waited for a return wave before closing the door behind her and following her into the living room. Everyone had taken their chosen seats; as expected, Amy and Annette were sharing Dad's armchair. Dad, Andrea, Janet and Kayden were seated on the sofa, while Theo and Lisa had taken two of the kitchen chairs.

Dinah and I sat down on the last two chairs—Theo was holding Aster, who was burbling sleepily to him—and Dad cleared his throat, albeit quietly. "Okay," he said. "Results on the Empire bust this morning?"

Lisa put her hand up first. "Clean sweep confirmed, and the PRT is serious about holding them until they can be Birdcaged or transferred to other high-security facilities. Word is spreading through the underworld faster than it can be squelched. Some want to hold out as a non-cape gang, but they're haemorrhaging members on an hourly basis."

"Gesellschaft?" asked Kayden. "They've got a strong interest in the region. What's stopping them from sending in another cape or three to unify the local skinheads under the Empire banner again?"

Dinah fielded that one. "Theoretically, the PRT. In reality, us."

"Krieg wouldn't have held onto the leadership for much longer," Theo observed. "What's left of the Empire may be made up of neo-Nazis, but they're American neo-Nazis, and proud of it. I honestly don't know if they'll tolerate having outsider capes telling them what to do, shared ideology or otherwise. Personally, I'd bet against it."

Vicky snorted with amusement. "Meanwhile, nearly half the people in this room have either been involved with Kaiser, or are directly descended from him. If we were inclined to go that way, you guys would have more claim to the Empire than any of those jerks."

Annette's eyebrows rose in surprise. "Huh, you're right. Mom, can we—"

"Nope." Andrea shook her head. "We've already agreed that you wouldn't be taking over any evil empires to convert them from the inside until you were at least twenty-one."

"Aw, Mom," Annette groaned, casting doubt on my initial suspicion that Andrea had made her objection up on the spot. "Can't we make an exception just this once? How many other evil empires am I going to actually have a blood right to mold in my own image?"

"I said no, young lady." Andrea shook her head. "If I make an exception this time, what next? We've put these rules in place for a reason. Not until you're old enough to drink, at least."

Annette subsided, muttering something about 'totally stifling my potential', which Andrea seemed determined to ignore. Amy hugged Annette a little more closely and whispered something to her, making her giggle. I decided I didn't want to know. Besides, I had other fish to fry.

But just as I was about to speak, Dad cleared his throat. "Before we dislocate our shoulders patting ourselves on the back, it should be noted that Andrea and Janet came very close to being badly hurt or killed before Vicky burst in with Browbeat. It was my understanding that the plan had more of a margin of success than that. What went wrong, and how do we avoid it next time?"

Lisa took a deep breath. "I think … part of it might have been me. Or my power: if we can even be told apart."

Theo nodded. "That thing you were talking about, where it's got a tendency to downplay problems?"

"Yeah, that's the one." She closed her eyes and ran her hands through her hair. "I did my best to be as pessimistic as possible about the whole thing, but all I got was green lights from one end to the other. Even when I asked it the most stringent questions I could think of."

"Could it just have been a mistake on your part?" asked Andrea. "I mean, never attribute to malice blah blah blah stupidity."

"Could it? Sure." Lisa shrugged. "I've made mistakes before, but they've always happened because of bad information, a lack of information, or personal assumptions that were just plain wrong. I had good information and no need to make assumptions, and my power still downplayed how fast and effectively the Empire would react. Worse, it gave me an overwhelming sense of confidence about how accurate my analysis was."

Dad nodded seriously. "That's definitely something we're going to have to work on, going forward. Your power supplies very impressive analyses most of the time, but if it's going to put its thumb on the scale in situations like this, we'll need to figure out a way for you to reality-check your own assumptions."

"Yeah," Annette piped up. "Now, if only we had a couple of other powerful Thinkers around who could help you out with that."

There was a brief silence, then everyone turned to look at Dinah and me. Dinah shrugged. "Well, to be honest, we're not the best people for the job. That would be the non-capes in the room. The rest of us are just as vulnerable to the same power-influenced misconceptions as Lisa, just in a more subtle way. So we can't check her conclusions, because we won't see anything wrong with them."

"Huh," said Andrea, looking thoughtfully at Lisa. "That makes exactly as much sense as everything else about capes does."

I cleared my throat and waited until everyone was looking in my direction. "Not to change the subject, but I'm going to change the subject. While Gesellschaft infiltration isn't going to be hard to keep under control, we will have a bigger problem to deal with once word gets out."

Dinah's head came up as her power kicked in again. "Vicky, Amy, you'd know more about this than the rest of us. You lived through it."

The Dallon sisters stared at each other, then at Dinah. "Sh-shoot." Vicky changed the swear at the last moment. "You're talking about the Boston Games. You think that'll happen again?"

"Not in exactly the same way as it did back then," I said, "and not with all the same players, but yes. There are no major cape gangs holding territory in Brockton Bay right now, and there are enough power-hungry villains out there to absolutely make a concerted effort at turning our underworld into their own personal fiefdom."

"Meet the new boss, same as the old boss," Lisa quoted sarcastically. "What should we do? I mean, I could talk to the other Undersiders and Faultline's Crew about presenting a united front against anyone trying to push in from the outside."

"Wouldn't be enough, just with them," Dinah said at once. "But with us lending a hand, in between smacking down any attempts to revive the Empire Eighty-Eight and feeding the heroes and villains information on where the bad guys are likely to show up, we should be able to keep things under control."

"Until the real next big problem shows up." Over the last few hours, I'd spent a lot of time rolling dice and noting down the answers, and there was damn little in any of those answers that I liked.

Some of this must have leaked through in my expression and tone of voice because Lisa paled, the freckles over her nose standing out sharply. "No. Don't say it. Not like that." Her voice was almost pleading.

"Don't say what?" asked Dad, eyeing me curiously. "Taylor, what's the matter? What's coming?"

I gave Janet a sorrowful glance before I looked back at Dad. Whether she liked it or not, she was going to have to take front and centre when what I'd foreseen came to pass. "Leviathan."

<><>​

Glory Girl

"Nope. Nuh-uh." Vicky shook her head emphatically, trying to dispel the chill that was spreading outward from her spine. "You're saying we're going to have to deal with two separate bunches of villains trying to waltz into Brockton Bay while we're still cleaning up after the last crop of assholes, all while Leviathan is bearing down on the place? Please tell me you're pulling all our legs. Because okay, fine, you got us good."

Taylor grimaced. "I truly wish I was. We've got two months until it happens, but it's got a ninety-six point four nine three percent chance of happening on May the fifteenth. People are gonna die, heroes and civvies alike."

"Unless they don't." Dinah frowned. "I just asked myself how we could improve on that three and a half percent chance of Leviathan not hitting here, and the best person for the job … is Director Piggot. We're going to have to loop her in on what we know, sooner rather than later."

"That's a bad idea." Lisa shook her head. "She's a hardass at best, and a closet anti-cape bigot at worst. If we tell her how we know this, she will want to grab the reins."

"Is that so much of a problem?" asked Taylor pragmatically. "I don't really care how we do it, just so long as we can actually get it done."

"The trouble is, if we let her take control just once," argued Lisa, "she'll have our number from then on. And the next time we have just a little trouble, it'll be easier to give in to her."

Dad cleared his throat. "In the Association, whenever I saw someone who looked like they were voting against their own self-interest, I made a point of finding out whose interests they were voting for, and why. Lisa, why are you pushing back so hard against letting someone stop a monster from wrecking our home?"

"Because my power says it's a bad idea," Lisa retorted. "It'll end up being far more trouble in the long run."

"Just to be clear," Andrea said carefully, "this is the same power we just established could be leading you to problematic conclusions, right? Why is it being pessimistic now when it was optimistic up against the Empire?"

Annette snapped her fingers. "It's not about pessimism or optimism, or even about the Empire or Leviathan. It wants things to happen. What's more likely to ensure more fun stuff for it to do? The Empire going down, or the Empire sticking around? Leviathan coming here, or Leviathan going somewhere else? If I'm right, powers don't care what you want. They push for situations where they'll be used, where they can do stuff. It's got to be why you hardly ever hear of capes just retiring and never using their powers again."

"Wait." Theo looked at her oddly. "Are you saying powers want stuff? That they're somehow self-aware, and that they mess with the way capes think?"

Vicky was still trying to fit her head around Annette's entire statement. The words were all technically understandable, but the order they were in just didn't make sense.

"Huh." Annette frowned thoughtfully. "I guess I am saying that, aren't I? I hadn't really thought it all the way through, but yeah, that's the gist of what I was trying to say."

"I have no idea where you're getting that from," Lisa declared, "but my power keeps trying to give me reasons why it's BS of the highest order. Which, considering what Andrea just reminded me of, I'm gonna take with a large grain of salt."

Andrea nodded. "As one of your unofficial advisers, hon, I suggest you do that." She tilted her head. "Theo, you're the one non-cape in the room who's had the most experience of living around capes from a young age. Would you say Annette's got a point? Do capes sometimes seem to do things for no other reason than to stir up some action?"

Put on the spot, Theo blinked. "Um … I … actually, that would explain most of the crap I've seen in my life, you know? I never really understood what drove most of the Empire capes to go that extra mile—no offense, Kayden, but it's true—until now."

"None taken," Kayden responded soberly. "I still don't really see it, but if you say you do, I trust you."

"Okay," Dad said thoughtfully. "My question is, how's Director Piggot supposed to make Leviathan not come to Brockton Bay?"

<><>​

Director Emily Piggot, PRT ENE

The evening was getting on; just as Emily was just considering microwaving something to eat—despite the fact that she'd been out of the field for ten years, home cooking was still not a skill she'd ever prioritised—there was a ping from her laptop. Immediately, she muted the TV and got up from her armchair. While she was technically off duty (just as much as she had been when she was looking over the Empire crime scene that morning), this could have something to do with the capture of the Empire Eighty-Eight, and no way in hell was she willing to let herself be blindsided in that regard.

However, when she sat down in front of the laptop and woke the screen up, it wasn't an alert from Renick. Instead, it was a notification that she'd been sent a private message on PHO by someone calling themselves Management. She frowned; if this was the same person as the one in Shadow Team, Browbeat had reported her as being a young teen at best. Still, his description of her capabilities had been nothing less than glowing.

The next question, of course, was 'what does Management want?'. The pessimistic side of her brain immediately threw up several scenarios, most of which centred around Browbeat being outed as a mole. Were they angry? Was Management calling to taunt her? Were they going villain?

There was only one way to find out. Ever cautious, instead of clicking the link, she opened up her own window to the PHO boards then accessed her private messages that way.

<><>

■​

PRIVATE MESSAGE

To:
Director_Piggot_PRT
From: Management
Subject: We need to talk

Hi,
This is Management, of Shadow Team. (Yes, we know the name. No, Browbeat hasn't told us.)
As your projection team has almost certainly informed you, there are likely to be a couple of imminent crises due to hit Brockton Bay: specifically, a Gesellschaft attempt to revive or replace the Empire Eighty-Eight, and a general influx of villains attempting a replay of the Boston Games.
Just so you know, we are entirely willing to play bird dog for the Protectorate and other heroes to make sure the bad guys don't get what they want. However, we also need to talk to you about an even more stringent situation inbound to Brockton Bay (per Random) which can *only* be resolved via a cooperative venture between our team and your office, with your authority behind it.
Are you interested in a discussion regarding said joint effort? Please note: we have no desire to join the Protectorate or the Wards, or to go to work for Watchdog.
Awaiting your reply,
Management



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Emily stared at the words on the screen. Relief had initially fluttered by like an upbeat sparrow at the friendly tone of the message, only to be smashed by the eagle talons of the unnamed third crisis. Management wasn't saying as much, but her tone very much indicated that it was going to be more problematic than the Gesellschaft incursions (which her people hadn't even begun to draw up projections about) or the potential reprise of the infamous Games.

It's the Nine, she decided almost immediately. They're coming back to Brockton Bay. She hadn't been here when they first hit the city, but she'd heard the stories. The Slaughterhouse Nine specialised in spreading terror among capes and normal alike, only leaving when they'd done what they came to do. Not on my watch.

Drawing a deep breath, she opened a text window and began to type.

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PRIVATE MESSAGE

To:
Management
From: Director_Piggot_PRT
Subject: Re: We need to talk

Congratulations, you've acquired my undivided attention.
I'll wait and see how we do against the Gesellschaft and other capes. If it seems like we need help, we may contact you.
Regarding the other crisis: it's the Nine, isn't it? What's your plan for dealing with them?

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PRIVATE MESSAGE

To:
Director_Piggot_PRT
From: Management
Subject: Re: Re: We need to talk

Good guess, but it's not the Nine.
It's Leviathan.
Random has him showing up here in mid-May, but (like I said) there is a very slim chance that we may be able to divert him elsewhere. And that's where you come in.



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Emily sat frozen in her chair. The Slaughterhouse Nine, for the want of a better phrase, was a human-shaped target (mostly, anyway). Its members could be, and had been, killed. They were circumspect about attacking hard targets, never coming directly at a city that had the firepower and resources to track them down and enact that Kill Order once and for all.

Leviathan … was a crisis of an entirely different scale. Pun not intended, she thought grimly. When the Nine were done with an area, those that were left behind could bury the dead and mourn the fallen, then move on with their lives. Leviathan reshaped the landscape. Sometimes, after he allowed himself to be driven off, there wasn't even a city left to rebuild.

And he's coming here? Fuuuck.

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PRIVATE MESSAGE

To:
Management
From: Director_Piggot_PRT
Subject: Re: Re: Re: We need to talk

How certain are you about this?
What do you mean by 'divert'?
And what can I do that you can't?

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PRIVATE MESSAGE

To:
Director_Piggot_PRT
From: Management
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: We need to talk

Random gives it a 96.5% chance of happening, most likely on May 15. Casualties will be higher than normal, especially after he collapses the aquifer. Between injuries and deaths, you've got a 77% chance of losing at least four capes from your roster, and an 84% chance of losing at least a dozen PRT troopers.
By 'divert' I mean reduce the likelihood that he comes here to the point that he doesn't. Yes, this will mean he goes somewhere else. It sucks, but it is what it is.
You are the highest-ranking non-cape in the city who can order capes around and make it stick. Not being a cape, you will also be immune to certain biases that they are likely to fall prey to.



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Were it any other cape they were talking about, even a precognitive Thinker, Emily would've scoffed at the precise percentages. She'd never met a precog who could predict with both detail and accuracy what was going to happen more than five minutes into the future. But Browbeat had gone into detail about Random's capabilities, as demonstrated right in front of him.

She checked her calendar, and nodded grimly. May 15 was right in the middle of the projected window for the next Endbringer attack, and Australia was still reeling from the Simurgh's assault on their capital, so Leviathan was an understandable prediction for who. But the bald statement about the aquifer, and the projected numbers she would lose in capes and troopers, chilled her to the bone.

She found the notion of sending Leviathan to attack another city raised fewer qualms in her than she would have otherwise thought. In a sense, it was the trolley problem writ large, except that it was hundreds of thousands of people she was trying to keep safe. Also, she owed it to everyone to see if Endbringers could even be diverted. And if Random could predict Leviathan two months early, she could supply adequate warning to whoever he decided to attack instead.

When it came down to it, she didn't want to believe what Management had to say, but unless this was somehow all a giant con aimed specifically at her (and even if it was), then she needed to find out more.

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■​

PRIVATE MESSAGE

To:
Management
From: Director_Piggot_PRT
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: We need to talk

While I have no doubt about the existence of these biases you allude to, I'm not entirely certain how that translates into being able to make Leviathan go elsewhere. Care to fill in the blanks?

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PRIVATE MESSAGE

To:
Director_Piggot_PRT
From: Management
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: We need to talk

The keyword here is conflict. Capes live for it and by it. Endbringers are attracted to places where there is already conflict, or where the attack would trigger more conflict than their mere presence would normally engender.
Conversely, removing enough of the powder kegs from an area would make a city sufficiently less attractive to Leviathan that he would go elsewhere.
You'd think that by removing the Empire, the ABB, the Merchants and Coil from the board we would've reduced the overall cape conflict in the city, and you'd be right. For a short while, anyway. But we both know about the Gesellschaft ambitions and about the potential for Brockton Games, which when taken together will punch up the overall level of conflict in the city to a point beyond where the Empire and ABB had it. Especially if heroes are trying to force them out again.
If we put this to capes to solve, it would invariably end with more conflict than we wanted or needed: the bias I was referring to. I'm only able to convey this to you because my power is literally aimed at determining who the best person for a particular job is, and how to do it. Even though I've got all the answers, I couldn't pull it off myself, no matter how earnestly I tried. All I can do is appoint the best person (you) to the task and give you pointers.
TL;DR—you have two months to tell Brockton Bay to chill the fuck out, and make it happen.
Also, you can't tell any capes exactly what you're doing or why, because subconscious biases will invariably lead to pushback. Likewise, I'd keep what you're doing from the upper echelons, mainly because informing Chief Director Costa-Brown will lead to capes finding out.
So, what do you say?



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Emily pushed herself back from the laptop, her mind whirling with the implications of what she'd just read. She had no idea if any of it was true—or rather, how much of it was true—but it all resonated deeply with her own experience in the matter. Capes sought out conflict and conflict sought out capes, the two truisms so deeply intertwined that it was often difficult to tell one from the other.

She desperately wanted for none of it to be true. For this just to be a juvenile prank and for Leviathan not to be due to hit the city. Being the regional Director held enough responsibility for a lifetime; if she was reading between the lines accurately, there were few people she could even confide in about this, much less trust to help her get it done.

But there was far too much at stake, and there was too much circumstantial evidence regarding Management's reliability to safely assume it was anything but genuine. Which meant that she was going to have to pull on her big-girl panties and step up to the plate.

Oddly enough, the repeated insistence that capes should not be told about this reassured her more than she'd thought it would. Ever since the Ellisburg debacle, she'd held the not-so-secret opinion that capes should never be trusted with any truly serious matter, and that mindset had been borne out more than once. The idea that Shadow Team was coming to her to save Brockton Bay, not some spandex-clad ninety-day wonder, made her feel obscurely better about the whole thing.

Sitting forward again, she poised her hands over the keyboard while she thought about how to phrase her answer.

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■​

PRIVATE MESSAGE

To:
Management
From: Director_Piggot_PRT
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: We need to talk

I still have questions, but these mainly cover execution and other minor details.
Otherwise: I'm in.



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Hebert Household

Taylor

"Whoo, haha." Looking and sounding as giddy as I felt right then, Dinah sat back from Lisa's laptop with a broad grin plastered across her face. "She's going to do it. We're in business, people."

"Meh, I always knew she was going to go for it." Lisa, apparently going for a 'too cool for school' act, leaned against the doorframe with her arms folded.

Taking advantage of her height, I hooked my arm around Lisa's neck and applied a moderate level of noogie. "Yeah, but it's still great that she is."

"Hey! Pfft! Lemme go, you beanpole!" Lisa squawked and flailed, then stepped back once I released her, previously-neat hair now all over the place. Trying to get the tangle back into some sort of order with her hands, she glared at me. "Do you have any idea how long it takes to get a French braid just right?"

"Not really." I grinned at her. "Now ask me if I care."

"So, it worked?" asked Theo from the doorway. "It's really going to happen?"

"Well, we're not totally behind the eight-ball anymore," Dinah said carefully. "Though a lot can happen in two months, just saying."

I rolled my eyes. "Trust me, I know that one. So, you've got all the notes I made?"

"I do." Dinah took up the first one. "Empire capes need to be shipped out of town as soon as possible, so any Gesellschaft infiltrators can't just let them back onto the street. Likewise, the transport of Lung to the Birdcage needs to be expedited before he can break out."

There were a lot of these notes, but I had faith in Dinah to pass them onto Director Piggot in such a way that our mutual goals would be satisfied. It wasn't going to be easy, but at least we had a fighting chance now.



End of Part Twenty-Two
 
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A great way occurs to me to prevent many more sensible gangs from trying to get a slice of the pie.

Make a public post on PHO, listing all villains likely to enter Brockton Bay in the next few months, and the date and time they are most likely to arrive. Then, make clear your team can easily find out the new time they'll adjust to, should they be made aware of this post. Finally, list for each entry the most likely time their last significant member enters police or PRT custody should your team focus on them, not doing this whole idea if any individual entry ends up not being soon enough to be sufficiently threatening.
 
A great way occurs to me to prevent many more sensible gangs from trying to get a slice of the pie.

Make a public post on PHO, listing all villains likely to enter Brockton Bay in the next few months, and the date and time they are most likely to arrive. Then, make clear your team can easily find out the new time they'll adjust to, should they be made aware of this post. Finally, list for each entry the most likely time their last significant member enters police or PRT custody should your team focus on them, not doing this whole idea if any individual entry ends up not being soon enough to be sufficiently threatening.
See, that's showing your hand.

Atropos already did that. (Repeatedly, and with lots of murder).

Shadow Team works differently.
 

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