Escalation 4-6

"Wait here." Gamakichi didn't spare the stunned human any further attention as he moved to follow his distraught summoner. How violently he chose to deal with the chemical user would depend entirely on how and what the human had done to cause such a reaction from Taylor.

When he found the room his summoner was occupying he was greeted by the sight of Taylor pacing violently, running her hand through her hair as she tried to deal with the most recent shock in her life.

"What the hell do I do?"

Gamakichi was saved from announcing his presence by the question from his summoner. His hand clenched into an angry fist at the near hysteria in his summoner's voice. If he ever found an excuse to go after those responsible for Taylor acting like this, he'd show them what it meant to cross the Toads.

"So that was Greg," he said in lieu of a proper answer. "I expected someone smaller. And with big glasses."

That earned him an eye roll from Taylor.

"I said that he was viewed as a nerd, not that he was a stereotype."

Gamakichi nodded amicably at the correction. The male human's status in high school was hardly important to the toad, but distracting Taylor enough to distance herself from her emotions and think was.

"And he was never involved?"

Taylor crossed her arms defensively, a habit when someone broached upon that particular subject but shook her head in the negative.

"No, he was never picked on like I was, and he never did any bullying himself. Greg isn't really among the popular kids.

"You know he's freaking out? I can feel his nervous energy from here."

Taylor winced at that muttering an uncharacteristic curse as she threaded her hand through her hair and tried to think. Gamakichi spoke again with a carefully measured tone when she failed to think of anything useful to say.

"It wasn't just that it was Greg that freaked you out, was it?"

Taylor shot a hard look laden with resentment at the toad who seemed utterly immune to her pointed stare before relenting.

"No," she answered reluctantly. An uncharacteristic bout of frustration expelled from the normally controlled girl as she continued. "This was supposed to be different!" She exploded furiously. "This was supposed to be mine. And now I find out that I've been working with someone from there this whole time. The only way it could have been worse was to find out that I'd been teaming up with Emma or Sophia all along." Her sudden anger left as quickly as it had come leaving her feeling tired and empty. "What was the point of it all?" She asked her partner. "I told your father and the elders at the mountain, that I wanted an escape. To be better. I know it's selfish, but, how am I supposed to do that when I can't escape from that place." Spent, she ran her hand through her now thoroughly disheveled hair and did her best to calm down.

Gamakichi had weathered the storm of her emotions in silence. Eying his summoner to be sure that she was done speaking he said his piece.

"You feel betrayed perhaps, by his identity."

Taylor rose her head to stare at the toad, latching on to his words.

"You've been working together with him for a little over a week now. Maybe you were even starting to like him as a person and not just for how useful his abilities are. And now that you found out his identity you feel like you've been lied to this whole time. Maybe it even makes you feel like the bullied girl you used to be while wearing your mask for the first time."

Taylor stared dumbly as Gamakichi calmly dissected her frenzied thoughts and feelings, laying them out plainly to be examined. He was right for the most part and Taylor had to resist flinching at how foolish it sounded. Taylor mentally berated herself for punishing someone else because she couldn't handle her own problems. Gamakichi spoke before she could stew in her thoughts further.

"When I took you to be tested before my father and the elders, you told us that you wanted to use your powers to be a hero. To be a stronger and better person than you were."

Taylor nodded at that frowning inwardly. Some nights, if she thought about it for too long, she would criticize herself for the selfishness personal reasons to be a hero. Her thoughts would whisper that her desire to flee from her life were wrong and self-serving, that it wasn't a heroic reason. On those nights, she pushed herself to patrol longer and fight harder. To help more people and silence the traitorous thoughts.

"You've taken down a lot of criminals in Brockton Bay. And more importantly, you've helped a lot of people. Sometimes even saved them outright," Gamakichi informed her. "It's undeniable in the relatively short time you've been active that you have done good work. Parian and Chemist would certainly vouch for that. But," he continued with a penetrating stare, "How can you be stronger than what those bullies turned you into when all you're doing is hiding behind a mask? You aren't overcoming what happened to you, you're running from it." The toad's voice was uncharacteristically cold as he dissected the flaws in his summoner's desires.

Gamakichi was careful not to express the regret he felt at the utter shock that painted Taylor's voice, clearly visible even behind her mask. She needed to hear this. Things were getting serious in Brockton Bay, and lying to yourself could only take you so far. Naruto had learned that lesson the hard way at the Falls of Truth. Taylor needed a clear head if she was going to keep throwing herself at more and more dangerous enemies. That didn't mean he had to like hurting her.

He watched patiently as she struggled to digest what he'd just said. Cold truths always went down the hardest. When Taylor spoke again, her shoulders were slumped. The picture of exhausted defeat.

"You're right." Her voice was barely more than a whisper. Volume choked by shame.

"Everyone lies," Gamakichi consoled his partner, "most just don't realize that who we most often lie to is ourselves."

"What now?"

"You've acknowledged your weakness," the toad said in answer. "All that's left is to accept it, and grow from it. I have faith that you will become the person you want to be."

"I have to go talk to him don't I?"

The question was rhetorical given that Taylor was already straightening her jacket and putting her appearance back into some semblance of order, but Gamakichi answered anyways as she made to head back to the no doubt confused and worried tinker.

"Yes," he agreed. "And," he added, causing Taylor to stop, "something to consider. If Greg has those powers of his now, that means that he also went through a trigger event too, yeah?"

Taylor paused long enough to absorb that before giving her partner a final nod as she left to speak to the other cape, "I understand."

Gamakichi let out a sigh as he found himself alone in the room. Tadpoles. Scratching the top of his head and following after his human, he idly wondered if he had been as much of a handful when he was a younger toad.

"I'm sorry," Taylor apologized to the still unmasked tinker upon walking back into the room. "I wasn't expecting to be familiar with your identity."

She didn't give him time to speak or question that or herself to second guess what she was doing, without permeable she reached up and pulled down her mask.

"I'm Jiraiya, you can call me Taylor Hebert," she told the thunderstruck tinker.

Greg stared at her as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. He mumbled something to himself that she couldn't hear, still staring.

Taylor scowled at his obvious shock and the situation she found herself in. Doing her best to ease her expression into something more neutral, she examined Greg critically. Even seeing him without a mask it was hard to picture him as the same occasionally annoying kid from school.

He'd been quieter lately in school, but, now in his costume, he seemed more… mature, though that wasn't quite right. At school, lately, he was slower. Or maybe less frenetic was a better way to put it. Before he was always moving, full of nervous energy, even when sitting still he was prone to twitching or tapping his feet. He seemed more deliberate now, even in his current shocked state. Taylor couldn't really figure it out, but, he was different. Fair enough, she was different when she was in costume as well.

Eventually, he seemed to come to his senses, "What now?" he asked, still staring at the other girl as though he thought if he were to look away she would disappear. "I understand if you don't want to work wi —,"

"Nothing changes," she interrupted brusquely. "We'll go to the meeting together, and afterward if you still want to, we'll continue our partnership. But," she continued, "It might be best to take some time to for both of us to come to terms with this."

Greg nodded still looking a little dazed.

Taylor steeled herself and spoke her apology, "sorry about running out earlier," because it needed to be said, even if part of her balked at the idea of apologizing to anyone from Winslow for any reason.

"It's fine," he dismissed, "I understand."

Something inside her clenched painfully at the other cape's words. Because it was true, he did understand a little bit, he'd been there after all. It wasn't a welcome reminder.

"I'll call you the day of the meeting and we can go there together."

Greg thankfully seemed to understand the request for solitude because he just nodded agreeably and made to leave before stopping.

"I just realized, I don't actually know where I am," he said awkwardly. "How do I get out of here?"

"Sorry," Taylor said, shaking her head at her own forgetfulness, "Kichi can lead you out."

"Okay, thank you," he made to leave before pausing once more. "Taylor," his voice was hesitant, a little unsure, "it won't be like school. I've got your back," he finished strongly and left before he could get a response.

Taylor stared after Greg as he walked off with her partner. There had been a lot left unsaid between the two of them that would need to be addressed at some point. Taylor pressed her palms against her eyes in an effort to stave off her encroaching stress induced headache. She would almost rather have fought Bushido once more than do that again.

Chemist

"Whelp, this is it. Think you can make your way home from here, kid?"

Greg was startled from his whirlwind thoughts by the toad that had led him out of the base. Looking around, he recognized the area. Right at the edge of the docks, not exactly the nicest neighborhood, but not everyone could live downtown he supposed.

"Yeah, I can figure it out."

It would be a bit of a walk unless he changed into his civilian clothes and took the bus, but right now he just wanted to be alone.

The toad seemed to sense the mood because he just nodded obligingly.

"Don't worry too much kid," Gamakichi spoke, "she just wasn't expecting somebody from that place. It's nothing personal. But hey, watch her back like you said okay? Otherwise, I might have to hurt you." Giving the unnerved human a cheerful wave, the large toad disappeared in a blast of smoke.

Greg didn't remember much of the walk home. He remembered finding a place to change out of his costume, but the motions had felt distant, his mind otherwise occupied. He wandered in the general direction of his house slowly through the edge of the docks. Greg wouldn't have felt comfortable in this area after dark, but, he felt safer with his hood up and a few chem-balls in his pocket.

Never in a million years would he have guessed that Jiraiya and Taylor were one and the same. It was obvious now in hindsight. There weren't many girls of Taylor's height. And her long curly dark hair was one of her most distinctive features. But that was after seeing her take off the mask. Before that, imagining Taylor pulling off the acrobatic feats that Jiraiya was capable of, and picturing her fighting with the brutal efficiency that Jiraiya did was laughable. If Taylor was capable of all of that, then why would she let the bullies walk all over her the way that she did? Greg shook his head, Taylor showed a lot more restraint than he would have in her situation.

It had to have been the locker that caused her to get super powers. When he'd first triggered, he'd done a lot of research about triggers and capes in general. There wasn't really one accepted theory, unfortunately. Capes were to new and little understood for that, even nearly 30 years after Scion appeared to the world. One theory, though, that he'd liked because it felt like it matched his experience, was that trigger events correlated with powers.

He'd been desperate to try and help Taylor. To finally find within himself the ability to actually step up and help her for once. Nothing he could have said would have mattered. His voice against the three most popular students in the school? Not a chance. But he hadn't even tried. He'd been too afraid of ending up in the same situation as her.

Greg wasn't sure he could ever really forgive himself for that. Maybe if Taylor had known that somebody had cared enough to at least try to help her it would have helped her in some way. And then he had heard about the locker. How he'd unknowingly walked by her as she was locked in suffocating amongst the refuse, alone and isolated. That had been the breaking point. Now he had his powers, and the will to use them. Greg was certain that as long as he had enough time, there wasn't a problem he couldn't solve with the right mixture.

Taylor had always been alone in school. No matter how much he might have wished otherwise, they hadn't been close. Looking back on it, he knew he'd come off too strong. He'd desperately wanted the movie ending for himself, the two outcasts banding together to take on the world. Taylor hadn't reciprocated and kept him at arm's length.

Greg wasn't sure if it had been because he had been annoying or if part of her had worried about having a friend might draw some of the negative attention to them that she experienced daily. The point was that she isolated. He supposed it made sense that Taylor's power made sure that she would never be alone again. The idea appealed to him. That there was some sort of justice in suffering something horrible like a trigger event.

His thoughts ran full circle and came to a stop at the fact that Jiraiya was Taylor. Greg did his best to squash the tiny ray of hope that sputtered to life at the thought of them working together. He didn't deserve her even if she reciprocated his feelings down the line. That fact was branded into his mind clear as day alongside his trigger. He'd only got the power to help her when it was too late.

As his neighborhood came into view Greg made his promise. It was the only decision there was as far as he was concerned. He may have been too afraid to help her in school, but he would do his best to help her as a hero. Greg knew that it would never make up for his inaction when she'd needed somebody the most, but that wasn't the point. To do nothing would be to spit in the face of the lesson that his trigger had etched into his mind. Greg might not have been the bravest hero, or the smartest, or the strongest. But damned if he wouldn't learn from his mistakes.

Somer's Rock

Taylor stared at the outside of the bar unimpressed. Somer's Rock was a dingy affair, with peeling paint and bars on the windows. She had nearly walked past the place, nearly hidden as it was amongst the other nearly identical hole in the wall businesses on the rundown street. It didn't exactly seem like the kind of place that the most powerful independent capes in the city would congregate and hold a Conclave to decide a course of action about a gang war. Which was probably the point she conceded mentally.

"Ready to go?"

Greg, no, Chemist when in costume, was eyeing the building as unsurely as she was. There was an awkwardness between the two of them that hadn't been there before. They had gotten comfortable working together over the past week, starting to mesh when it came to patrolling as a team. With the tinker usually following the toad cape's lead. That ease of interaction between the two had suffered since their mutual unmasking. She could only hope that they regained it sooner rather than later.

"One second," she replied as she flipped through a set of hand signs. Unlike when she summoned, she felt the energy that powered her abilities flow to her eyes as opposed to her palms. Just like at the warehouse her eyes mutated from their normal brown to a yellow, her pupils expanding and morphing to a horizontal bar reminiscent of her toads.

At the completion of the technique, Taylor was looking at the bar before her through two sets of eyes. Her own, and the little bright blue toad on their shoulder. Gamakichi hadn't been pleased about Taylor going to the meeting without him, no matter that it would have been the equivalent of walking into a cape meeting waving a loaded handgun.

The solution was the little toad on her shoulder. Not only was she an extra set of eyes in the meeting, but, through the use of some mix of sealing and a secret toad technique that Taylor didn't even begin to try to understand, Kichi was able to see what the little toad saw through the reflection of a pool on Myoboku. Personally, Taylor thought that him having to watch and be unable to do anything in case anything went wrong would probably be even worse for the toad than not knowing until after the fact, but, she appreciated the thought.

"Whoa," Chemist said, taking a half-step back from Taylor before remembering himself.

And, as her ally demonstrated, the toad eyes had one other benefit. A pair of yellow eyes glaring out from the hood of her battle coat made for an intimidating sight. When the light reflected on them they seemed like they were glowing, creating an eerie, intimidating effect. It could only help with where they were going.

"Let's go."

Taylor focused on keeping her stride loose and relaxed, doing her best to ensure that none of the tension she experienced showed through her body. She wasn't surprised to find that the inside of the bar matched the exterior. The walls were a varying shade of grunge and it seemed like only half of the lights actually worked. The countertops looked like the owners took pride in the length of time since they'd last cleaned them. A large space had been cleared out in the center dominated by a large wooden table and flanked by booths on each wall.

The occupants of the bar ensured her attention didn't last long on the décor. The room was already occupied by quite a few capes. She could feel their eyes pressing on her and Chemist. Taylor had never seen so many capes in one place before.

She recognized some of them immediately. Manpower, his hulking form making him extremely conspicuous, stood on one side with Lady Photon and Brandish representing New Wave. On the opposite side of the room stood Faultline in her costume, an odd mix of riot gear and an elegant dress, accompanied by her mercenary crew.

The recognizable faces made the reason for the clear divide between the Conclave's attendants obvious. Villains on one side and Heroes on the other.

She took a moment to fully absorb the sheer number of capes in the place. She only recognized two of the heroes aside from the New Wave representatives. Dressed in a simple costume of leathers, faces covered by bandanas, and bristling with enough guns to wage their own war were the vigilante duo of Spray and Pray. Taylor didn't even know what their powers were, she just knew of them through their bloody reputation. They hated criminals and weren't shy in expressing it. The pair had a particular hatred for the Merchants, and between the two had racked up a body count in the double digits, mostly comprising of the Merchant drug dealers. Judging by the dark glares they were sending across the room and the way their fists clenched as though trying to grasp a weapon, Taylor assumed that their reputation was well deserved. She would make sure to keep her distance from them.

A frown crossed her face when she realized that the Villain half of the room was noticeably larger. Faultline's crew made up the center of the group. A massive figure Taylor didn't recognize that almost matched Manpower in size clad in hulking metal armor stood at the side while an extremely androgynous figure of indeterminate gender in clown makeup lurked in the background. Uber and Leet were present as well, though it took her a second to recognize the pair in their current video game theme. She didn't recognize what they were supposed to be aside from the fact that it seemed to be of some sort of military theme.

Realizing that they were just standing at the entrance getting stared at, Taylor made her way to the hero side of the room with Chemist following at her heels. She ignored the curious and sometimes hostile looks from the rest of the occupants. Taylor had to withhold a smirk when Leet flinched after meeting her yellow gaze. She may have been relatively new, but she wouldn't let herself be pushed around.

"Hello, Jiraiya is it? And I'm sorry, I don't know your name," Manpower spoke, voice surprisingly normal for a man his size, taking initiative for the hero side and directing the latter part of his question to her tinker ally.

"Chemist," Greg answered stiffly, the nerves getting to him despite his best efforts to keep a calm demeanor.

"It's always good to see more heroes," the New Wave member said, "as you can see, we find ourselves a bit outnumbered."

"Unfortunately, becoming a hero seems to be the exception rather than the expectation," Lady Photon remarked at his side. "I heard about your encounter with Hookwolf Jiraiya, I'm glad that it ended well," giving a nod in greeting to the two independent heroes.

Taylor noted that it was only the New Wave members among the other heroes that decided to approach them. Spray and Pray stood off to the side and the other two that she hadn't recognized were consumed in their own whispered dialogue. Though it was a little inaccurate to say that all of the New Wave members were the ones to talk to them. It was just Lady Photon and Manpower, Brandish remained where she was sending a cold stare to the gathered villains with enough venom in it to rival Spray and Pray's own.

She was saved from having to find something to say by a loud thudding noise that cut through the suspicious stares and quiet muttering. Her eyes widened in shock as she saw through her curious toad's eyes when the little blue toad looked toward the source of the noise.

Revenant.

Probably one of the most infamous cape in Brockton Bay before Lung made his loud debut. A shirtless man with no mask that looked to be in his early 20s, his bare chest was almost entirely consumed by brutal scar tissue. Numerous wounds covered his body, any one of which would have been almost certainly fatal to anyone else. Once graced with a strong jaw and sharp cheekbones, he now seemed more gaunt than striking. Curly black hair with a greasy sheen tumbled down to his shoulders in an uncared for mess. He had probably been handsome at one time. Whatever good looks he may have had at one point was robbed by the sickly pallor of his skin and the dark bruises that were a constant feature under his eyes.

There wasn't a person in Brockton Bay that didn't know who he was. The longest active cape in the city, he looked to be in his early 20s, and he had looked that way for the past 20 years. If he had another name aside from Revenant, no one remembered it or wanted to risk admitting to the knowledge.

He had started off as a relatively normal brute. Nothing exceptional, a little bit of lower end strength that was barely worth mentioning when compared to others of his class and a respectable amount of durability. Revenant had reportedly been killed early into his cape career. He had reappeared a week later fighting the cape who was his would-be murderer. Only, it hadn't gone the same way. The cape who had killed him had been a mid-level blaster, powerful enough to easily take out Revenant the first time. When Revenant had reappeared and they fought again, the blaster found his power less effective than it should have been against the zombie cape and was unable to save himself from a bloody death at the hands of the enraged vigilante. Since then that pattern had continued, with him being seemingly killed by villains, sometimes multiple times, until he finally was able to resist their powers enough to kill them. The PRT had labeled it as an adaptive trump ability that seemed most effective against exotic energies and blaster powers. He was smart too. Chose his fights carefully. He hadn't lasted on the scene for as long as he'd had by having someone like Kaiser pin him in place with blades long enough for the PRT to find him and arrest him.

The experienced cape had been one of the independent capes that Parian had reached out to about the legitimacy of the Conclave. Taylor shivered, discomfited at the very thought. Parian had to seriously stop underestimating her own bravery if she willingly sought out someone like him, even if it was through the PHO. Such was the reputation for Revenant's capacity for violence, that even grouped as they were, the villains stayed at a respectful distance from the vigilante.

The noise was from the man clunking a half-full bottle of whiskey down onto the table. If the whiskey had any negative effect on the vigilante it didn't show on his face or in his voice.

"So," he spoke with a rough voice, as though it had been a while since he'd spoken to anyone other than himself, "we were all invited here to this shindig, and I can't help but notice that the person who called us all together has yet to make an appearance."

There was the beginnings of impatience threading through Revenant's voice. The gathered capes exchanged looks as they tried to figure out a response. She traded a glance with Chemist who was looking marginally more comfortable amongst the heroes, he gave a helpless shrug in reply. Better to just watch and wait she supposed, they were still relative newcomers after all.

"My apologies," a smooth voice interjected, "travel has become difficult with events such as they are. Especially if one wants to remain unnoticed."

Revenant grunted irritably and took another swig of his whiskey straight from the bottle.

The voice came from a skeletal figure clad in a head-to-toe black outfit that clung to him and merely served to accentuate the thinness of his frame, the outline of his ribs nearly visible. The only concession to color was the white snake design that coiled along his body, the head of the animal coming to rest on his forehead.

Coil.

Taylor's eyes narrowed at her first look at the man. He was certainly confident. He walked into the room full of capes without any discernable backup or weapons aside from the pistol at his hip. With a measured stride, he walked past Revenant, not giving him the space that most of the others had, and took a place at the table. Without turning her gaze from the villain, she could see through the toad on her shoulder looks of distaste from the female members of New Wave at the sight of him.

As if that were a signal, Faultline broke apart from the villain side of the room and joined the two capes at the table. The three present New Wave members exchanged a look, communicating with each other silently. After coming to some sort of decision Lady Photon broke apart from the group to take a seat of her own while the remaining heroes and villains settled into the booths at either side.

It was the last piece of the puzzle for Taylor. Coil was the one who had called the meeting. Revenant's reputation spoke for itself and Faultline represented a force of powerful and diverse capes. Lady Photon was a founding member of the strongest grouping of heroes outside of the Protectorate. They were all big players in the city's cape scene and would probably be dictating the course of the meeting.

"Are we ready to get started?" Lady Photon asked, voice carefully neutral.

"Almost," Coil answered, his voice never straying from a smooth, even tone, "we are still waiting on a few people."

As if his words were a cue another cape entered the room. Taylor raised an eyebrow, it was a blonde girl who couldn't have been much older than her. She was dressed in a skintight black outfit with purple accents, an image of stylized eye emblazoned across her chest. Taylor didn't recognize her, though from the irritated sneer on Faultline's face she wasn't unknown.

A face mask covered her eyes and cheek bones, disguising the lines of her face, but didn't do much to hide the exhaustion in the way she moved. She sported a teasing, superior grin as though she knew more than everyone else in the room, but it seemed a little forced to Taylor. As something of an expert concealing her feelings, Taylor could tell when somebody was putting up a front. There was a tenseness to her. The blonde cape casually made her way through the group of villains to the table and took a seat, lounging indolently in her chair without a care in the world, as if daring someone to protest that she belonged there.

Taylor sucked in a quick breath when the girl shot a quick wink to the toad on her shoulder. Not to her, but to the toad. Did she know? How could she? Unnerved, Taylor shook her head at Chemist's questioning gaze and mentally reevaluated the girl as someone to keep an eye on.

If anyone thought to protest the blonde girl taking a seat at the table they quickly lost the opportunity. She was almost immediately followed by a group of capes dressed in red and black. The most startling of which was a massive… thing. It looked to be a large gorilla with four arms, an alligator tail, and a razor sharp beak in place of a mouth. The creature's fur, where it had fur anyway, was patterned in red and black tiger stripes to match its teammates.

The Travelers.

Taylor didn't know much about them. The only reason that she knew about them at all was because they'd robbed the bank on the day of Lung's attack and her fight with the ABB capes. They were powerful, but they didn't tend to stick around any one area for long. She wondered what they were doing here.

A sentiment that was mirrored by the other cape's in the room.

"The Travelers," Coil acknowledged. "You are not local," he observed neutrally.

The one in the top hat walked forward to take a seat at the table as the rest of his team separated to claim one of the booths.

"No," the cape with the top hat acknowledged easily as he delicately tapped a cigarette out of a pack. "But," he continued once he lit the cigarette, "Our team is hanging around here for a while, so we felt it in our best interests to be aware of current events. What with the current unpleasantness."

"You are aware of the rules," Faultline interjected, her voice clear and surprisingly deep.

The Traveler nodded amicably, "Of course," he said easily, "the most important of which, obviously being not to cause any trouble."

"Since we're on the subject," Faultline replied, still eyeing the out of town cape suspiciously, "you should all know that my crew has been retained to keep the peace for this meeting. If anyone causes any trouble, you can be rest assured that it won't last long enough for you to enjoy it," she finished directing her words to the room at large, her hard stare shifting to the blonde cape Taylor still couldn't identify only to get a cheeky grin in reply. Satisfied at the understanding nods she received from the majority of the capes Faultline settled back into her chair and gestured for Coil to continue.

Coil nodded graciously at the mercenary and he cracked his fingers one at a time. The pop of his knuckles echoing throughout the space.

"Now, let's get down to business."

AN: Well, quite a few things have happened. A glimpse of Tattletale without her merry group? Some more insight into the mysterious mind of Greg Veder, and the beginning of a super secret cape meeting. Fun stuff.