It's been three months since I got dropped here with no apparent way back and I feel like I've acclimated rather well in that short time. My day job is fulfilling in a strange way and, based on how I'm not dead or captured, my night job goes as well as it could. I made friends/allies in both aspects of my life and the same can be said about enemies. Funnily enough, I got more problems from that group in the safe environment of middle school than the rough streets of Brockton Bay. The Empires efforts to see me dead are somewhere between ineffectual and flattering, the bounty on my head is high enough to cause stirrings in the nether regions of the local dirtbag population but not enough to attract out of town attention. And since they have no way to track me, it doesn't matter. On the downside, the search combined with the recent increase in activity means... collateral damage. I'll be sure to voice my complaints in my next "conversation" with the upstanding members of the white power community.
As much as I would like I can't solve my school problems in the same fashion. Almost every day I imagine jamming a gun in Blackwell's ass but alas, that brief moment of satisfaction would be followed by ganging up on me, handcuffs and intense session of drilling in a small room with people watching from behind the glass. And not in a fun way either. So I have to endure a few idiotic colleagues that want to relieve their glory days, a corrupt principal and the rest who gave up a long time ago. Fun times.
The training with the dynamic duo, they hate to be called that so I'll continue to do so at every opportunity, goes smoothly and, with Danny's permission, Taylor joined us a few times. Everyone involved agreed that it wouldn't hurt for her to learn some self-defense but Danny was… slightly concerned about what I and both of the guys consider worthy of teaching. Let's just say if the unfortunate does happen and Taylor finds herself in a situation where backing-out is not possible… well, broken fingers and aching balls are the starting point. That is not to say she's ready in any shape or form. Physically, a strong wind could push her over and it'll be years if ever she'll be able to compete with even average-sized attacker. The skill side is better, she doesn't have any experience (read bad habits) and she approaches the training with the same passion as her usual lessons.
Speaking of physical attributes, I see Sophia "dumb enough to have SS as her cape initials" Hess every day and it's… funny. Original, every fanfic ever, PHO and her recent Ward introduction paints her as an absolute badass capable of going toe to toe with Lung and she's… not. In costume, she has the advantages of gear, surprise (that's the main thing), power and (some) training so she can take down people above her weight class but in civies? She's a 14-year-old girl with an anger problem, I would compare her to chihuahua but, at least, she has enough sense to only bother kids "below" her, those that won't fight back.
As helpful as Mike and Damien are, they also supplied me with a new obstacle to overcome. Constantly I find myself in a situation of not having enough time. And that's with not needing to waste 8 hours on sleep. Jesus, how do normal people accomplish anything? I'm not bothered about most of the stuff I had to put on the back burner except for one. I hit a hard wall with Coil. With my current equipment/support/time limits there's literally nothing I can do about him. Following him- I gave up on that a week ago, no time and there's a possibility of getting caught, cameras- I have to know where to put them, bugs- awesome for anyone else, for paranoid fucker like him I'm not risking it. And his people operate similarly to me so there's no chance of repeating my Empire process.
I'm down to the nuclear option. Until now, my main reasons for not doing it were that I wanted him for myself and doing it would give me access to better gear. I'm not greedy however so I'm willing to give others a chance. I don't have any proof but if I alert the PRT about the connection (as in they're the same person) between a villain they have no information on, and one of their consultants (one with security clearance) something will happen. Depending on my wording there is… well, let's be optimistic and say a decent chance that director Piggot will take it seriously given their history. Then give the same to anyone interested and sit back to watch the show. Just the power info might do the trick. There is one issue with that route. Right now he's doing his normal Coily things, my activities might have helped or disrupted his master plan but ultimately it's business as usual. Blowing the whistle would have a side effect of alerting him that someone is after him. I'll give it another few days or weeks and I'll proceed with it for lack of a better plan.
In other news, a funny thing happened to everyone's favorite group of psychology enthusiasts. A large operation consisting of many parahumans and PRT personal managed to defeat and scatter the S9 as they were leaving the site of their latest massacre. That alone doesn't mean much, it happened plenty of times before, what drew me was the "reported" deaths of Bonesaw, Siberian and Jack Slash alongside two other members that nobody cares about. I put reported in quotes 'cause I don't believe it for a one second. Jack and the two I'm fine with, pretty simple reasons for doing it now and without the need for a catalyst he was a good target. Riley and the good doctor, however… unless I see otherwise (no bodies) I assume they're chilling in Cauldron custody. Riley is just too useful to have (and too dangerous to let run around without supervision) and Manton… far being from me to advise our highly competent shadow leaders but I would brainwash the shit out of him and keep him as a failsafe against hard-to-kill threats.
You know, things might be looking up.