Interlude: Thomas Calvert

The irony, that just this morning he was listening to that old classic by his favorite band AC DC, 'Highway to Hell' was not lost on Calvert at all.

The bitch.

As per his usual modus operandi he'd gone to the meeting in one timeline and sent a double in another.

He'd gotten in his car, got to work, sat at his desk and proceeded to listen in on the conversation via two-way radio and mounted camera in one timeline whilst he sat and waited for the other entrepreneurs of Brockton Bay's criminal underworld in another timeline.

Then, all of a sudden, as Lung was getting up to leave in one timeline, in the other Militia and twenty armed PRT troopers stormed into his office, put him in an arm lock, shoved his face into his desk and pressed a gun to his head.

He should have waited another twenty or thirty seconds before collapsing that timeline.

Because then Lisa had stumbled into the bar.

And now here he was with the entirety of the Bay's cape population hunting him down.

He'd actually entertained the notion of turning himself in but given his recent, and now apparently very public, internet accessible actions and identity he doubted he'd last very long in custody. Certainly there were a great many imbeciles like Skidmark in prison that couldn't be made to care one wherewithal of what he'd done involving the civilian ID's of the Brockton Bay Wards. But there were many others like Kaiser, or even Marquis, who would go to great lengths to see him dead. Prison or no prison.

Not to mention that he doubted the Heroes would be lining up to guard him. In fact, if the look on Miss Militia's face was anything to judge by, she'd sooner shoot him herself than step in on his behalf.

After the ill timed collapse of the timeline where he was being arrested, he'd split the timeline again and tried to leave the bar, acting as though Lisa's accusations had infuriated him.

Victor had read his body-language. Lung stepped in his way.

He was honestly lucky that in this particular timeline Lung had seen fit to grant the two minute head start Kaiser had proposed. In the alternative Lung had given him thirty seconds, then had Lee chase him down. Deducting a minute and thirty seconds for 'cowardice.'

He barely made it a city block before his car was blowing up with a tinker-designed bomb.

The last of his rapidly closing doors offered him little warning that a bolo had been thrown out for his cars, his passport, his driver's license. He already discovered his bank accounts were frozen. His private assets at Fortress Industries were being impounded right now. His home was being raided.

Whatever didn't fall under the PRT's wide net, the E-88 and ABB were currently burning to the ground.

He hadn't warned his mercenaries guarding his remaining safe houses and bases across the Bay of the magnitude of the impending attack. As far as they knew his call to come to a full alert status was just his usual sense of caution/paranoia. By the time they realized how serious the attack was they'd be knee deep in a fight. Mercenaries were only loyal if the mission had a high chance of them coming back alive.

These circumstances would obviously put him and his employees at odds.

Right now, in this timeline he was on his way back towards his primary HQ for two things, to gather up the last of his resources and, most important of all, Dinah. If he was going to have any chance of rebuilding, or even surviving for an extended amount of time after this event, he needed her now more than ever. Even if he escaped in the other timeline, there was no guarantee that some of his many, many enemies wouldn't come after him.

Enemies that weren't limited to the Bay, who now knew exactly what name to look for when one trail went cold.

…

Goddamnit! He should have been looking closer at Lisa.

He knew how dangerous she was, how much enmity she held for him, especially after the prison break.

But she had been a concern he'd thrown to the back of his mind. She always hated him, but never acted on it. He'd become complacent with that. He could only guess at how in the ever loving hell she managed to pull off half of these things. Not the least of which was fooling Victor into believing that he sent an agent to kill her in her apartment! He did no such thing, though god knew he wanted to now.

Dinah had taken nearly a two weeks to break, and he'd been burning through alternate timelines in order to hamper and sabotage the PRT investigations, sending out his own men to silence known snitches and contacts the investigators of the Brockton Bay division tended to squeeze when they wanted information, altering time stamps and dates on files, changing a single digit on the case numbers of old incident reports. With the damage his men had brought down on the PRT HQ in their attack such small inconsistencies were easily believed. Inconsequential on their own, but a nick here and there and these small problems piled up to delay the investigation significantly.

Between that and using the now compliant Dinah to stay ahead of the PRT raids, trying to narrow down the best location to move his operation to and at what time he should leave, trying to consolidate an adequate plan to fake his death, several of which had too high a chance of being seen through by the Protectorate Think-tank, and everything else, he had barely given Lisa a second thought. The only thing that had brought his attention back to her had been the attack Ashburn had conducted against the Undersiders which had been the group's death knell for all intents and purposes.

He'd contacted her, a call that had merely served for her to pull the wool over his eyes.

She'd asked him for help. Trying to get him to use his contacts to free Rachel and Alec. He couldn't of course. Piggot and Legend had put those two into the most secure location they feasibly could; none of his remaining contacts would have a prayer of getting close.

He hadn't bothered even glancing in her general direction after she said she would be laying low.

Given the blow, it seemed a reasonable move to make at the time considering that Ashburn may have had some unknown means of tracking them down. She'd hit their base after all, and chased the four across half a city whilst they were mounted on those beasts.

Lisa had played him like a fiddle. He didn't think she was cold hearted enough to get her teammates arrested willingly.

A part of him, a small, infinitesimal piece of his conscious mind wanted to actually laugh at the irony. Another part was impressed. Proud even. Though the two parts combined less than one percent.

The other part, the remaining 99%, wanted to rip Lisa to pieces and throw the remains to the dogs.

Unfortunately, he couldn't even take that pleasure. Lisa was with the E-88 right now.

His immediate concern had to be escape. Later, if he survived, he'd tear her head off with an axe himself.

The van screeched up the driveway and Coil barely waited for the thing to stop before he was jumping out of it, already his bodyguards and mercenaries were barking into communicators and others inside were arming themselves as a boat captain out on the docks was getting woken up to prepare his personal ship and at least three others were preparing cars.

"What are we going to do?" He heard Krouse ask behind him as he opened the main door and stepped in. His civilian ID was already public knowledge, it really didn't matter if anyone saw him. One of the civilians currently in the building shouted, then the whole first story was pandemonium as his bodyguards walked in behind him, weapons in hand.

"Take them hostage!" He barked out the order and within seconds a dozen more armed men were marching out of the elevator spreading out to pre-determined defensive positions.

Hostages wouldn't slow down Kaiser, much less Lung, but it would definitely slow down the PRT. And would, frankly force them to fight the E88 and ABB thugs to try and keep them away from said hostages if they got here first.

"Answer me Coil!"

"Captain Trace." He snarled into his cellphone, "Status on Miss Alcott."

Before he could get a straight answer Krouse grabbed him by the shoulder, spinning him around.

"Answer me! The whole damn city is hounding for not only your ass but mine! Mine and the rest of the Travelers! And Noelle! What the fuck are we gonna do?!"

He shoved the man away. "Get your hands off me! You want to know what to do, fine, get yourself and your team ready to fight."

"What about Noelle! If she-"

"I'll work on a way of getting her out." He snapped at the desperate idiot, lying. He doubted anything short of a teleporter like Strider would have a snowball's chance in hell of getting Noelle out of this place undetected.

Frankly, she'd be more useful unleashed against his enemies to cover his escape.

"Don't you dare try to screw us on this!" The man hissed. "You have-"

"We are in this together Krouse. Lung and Kaiser know you are working under me. As you said, they're coming for me and for you. I have nowhere to go. We are going to fight or we're all going to die. Now let me prepare, we're wasting what precious little time we have left before we both end up dead in my front lobby. Do you understand that?"

Krouse bared his teeth, fists gripped. "You bastard…" He bit out, visibly furious. Coil didn't blame him. He'd be angry too if he was being toyed around with quite so blatantly. Like he was by Lisa. "Fine… we'll stay. But I swear to god if you try to screw us I'm going to kill you."

'If you ever get the chance.' They stepped into the elevator and soon felt it descend.

When they reached the lower level Krouse immediately went off to find his crew, he on the other hand made his way straight to Dinah's rooms.

When he arrived, it was to the sight of his bodyguards already prepared to move, what little personal effects she had were already packed in a suitcase, another had three weeks worth of the drug cocktail that was keeping her compliant.

"No more questions." She groaned, pained. Evidently she was not quite recovered from last night's bout of questioning.

Today he found himself caring even less than usual.

"What are the odds that contingency B-12 will be successful within the next two hours?"

"Seven point six percent!" She hissed.

Not… unexpected. That escape plan was essentially a land based escape/diversion where his mercenaries would punch their way out of the bay in a convoy of armored vehicles whilst he merely unmasked and left later as Thomas Calvert. With his identity exposed he should have guessed the odds would be that dismal.

"What are the odds that contingency F-83 will be successful to escape, and that I will evade capture again when I arrive at my destination?"

"Too much!" She screamed hands rising to grip her head as her legs shook beneath her weight, one of the men was holding her up by the back of her shirt. "Too many questions!"

He snarled, his patience wearing thin. "What are the odds that contingency F-83 will provide a wholly successful escape?"

She spasmed. "E-eighteen point twe-twelve percent!"

He grit his teeth. International travel on his private plane. If this was his best shot his odds were looking dismal indeed.

"What are the odds-"

There was a rumbling sound from above, the whole base shaking around them.

He spoke into his communicator. "What's the situation."

"We've been had. ABB found us!" One of his captains replied. "Oni-Lee is tearing up the upper levels with tinker-tech bombs! He hasn't breached the lower level but I wouldn't count on that lasting. Hostages are being gunned down!"

"Shut down the elevator shaft. Activate explosives. The second the motion sensors detect movement in there I want you to collapse the whole thing, understood?"

"Got it."

"Have all combat personnel ready defensive positions. Warn the Travelers of Oni-Lee's abilities. If he makes it down here they should be prepared to engage him. Cut all power to the upper floors. Maintenance access is the only means of entering this location without the elevator I want a kill zone set up, crossfire. Bottleneck the entrance."

Stall them, just needed to stall them. All he needed was time. If he could get time, tie the ABB, the E-88, and the PRT at this location then he could slip away in the chaos. Lisa had chosen to strike with overwhelming force, but the crush of bodies and sheer weight of numbers were going to get tangled all over each other in the rush to get to him. He had four escape routes from this location. Lisa couldn't know about all of them.

"Marshall," He called into the comm. "You're in charge."

"Understood sir."

He looked back to Dinah and just then, in the other reality, the one where he was already on the I-95 a PRT helicopter swooped down low, passing straight above him, then circling around. He looked out the window, finding a sniper hanging out of the canopy door, looking straight at his car.

"This is the Brockton Bay Parahuman response team, license plate HWQ-369 there is an outstanding warrant out for your arrest. You are hereby ordered to pull over to the far right, step out of the vehicle with your hands behind your head. Lethal force has been authorized. Failure to comply will force us to exercise it. You have One minute to comply with the order. I repeat, vehicle license plate HWQ-369-"

Fuck!

He collapsed the timeline and started a new one. In this one he immediately abandoned Dinah and his mercenaries, rushing to try and get to one of the aforementioned escape routes and make good on at least securing his life.

In this one, he looked to Dinah.

"What are my chances of dying within the next hour if I don't release Noelle!?" He hissed.

"C-candy!" She demanded.

"Give it to her." He demanded.

"I've already given her the dosage for the day any more and we risk-" Coil grabbed the man by the scruff of his shirt and brought him close, almost spitting in his face as he hissed.

"I will shoot you myself if you speak another word! Do as I say! Now!" He shoved the man towards the girl.

The faux doctor swallowed thickly, immediately taking a small vial from his hastily opened briefcase and placing it at the proper slot of its delivery unit.

Immediately, the tension bled out of Dinah.

"What are my chances of dying within the next hour without releasing Noelle!?"

"Seventy-seven point nine three percent."

"What are my chances of dying within the next hour if I use Noelle as a distraction?"

"Thirty-seven point five."

He breathed deep, half in relief, half in vindication. He could get out of this. He could still win.

Then… a thought.

The memory of a thinly veiled threat came back like an infection, slithering through his mind, emerging from wherever it had taken root.

He had to ask...

"What are the chances Cauldron will kill me if I unleash Noelle?"

"N-ninety seven point… point four" She hissed, the strain coming back to her features.

Fuck!

Cauldron's reasons were always enigmatic at best. But he could guess at any number of possibilities that would have Noelle's attack result in a retaliation. The death of Legend, the destruction of the Bay, another high profile defeat for the Protectorate.

After Surtr, he could remember waking up in his home, to a vial in his hand, in one reality, to the thing waiting for him in his coffee mug in another. The vial was empty, of course but impossible to mistake in origin. Just as it was impossible to miss the message.

They could get to him, and they were irritated with him.

If he couldn't use her then his window was closing fast. He had to move now, slip away while he still had even the faintest chance. By the time any of his other mercenaries and bodyguards realized he was gone and threw up their hands in surrender he'd be long gone.

"We're moving. Now!" He barked and turned, Dinah, six of his most well paid bodyguards, and the false doctor followed after him.

He picked up his phone. Dialing one number in one reality and another in this one.

"Get the car ready" He orders in both, two different drivers at two entrances getting his orders.

Where did it all go wrong…

Ignoring Lisa? Taylor's return? The Prison attack? The emergence of Surtr? Irritating Cauldron? Legend's arrival? The alienation of Faultline and the Undersiders? The raid on the PRT base? The death of Assault? Where the hell did it all go wrong?

Or was it even at the start of this? The very beginning when Taylor decided to stay at her home rather than the PRT base. When she and her father drove towards the headquarters one fine morning to find Dinah.

The first flap of the butterflies wings.

In the alternate reality, the one where he was moving without his escort, as fast as his legs could carry him. He slipped into the escape route in the second sub-level. The one hidden behind locker E-18 in the Mercenaries Barracks, he was brought up short as, at the very end of the tunnel someone is standing there, waiting for him

He barely manages to catch a glimpse of the phantom warriors lining the tunnel from wall to wall before he's got an arrow punching through his skull.

Crusader...

In this reality Coil winces at the phantom pain. If Crusader was here, Lisa was either unguarded or close by. He had to move now. God only knew how much information she could gather with all of this chaos.

He splits the timeline again, the new alternate heading down to the lower level whilst this one moves right towards the nearest available escape route. In both he gives warning towards his mercenary forces to move towards the lower levels. It will spread them thin, but there's nothing for it. If Lisa has compromised his escape routes half the empire or the ABB could be crawling up the underbelly of his base right now.

He presses his hand into his ear-piece, "Observation room." He demands, waiting a moment for the piece of gear to patch him through.

"Yes sir?"

"Give me a status report!" He demands.

"E-88 and ABB are causing mayhem in the street, PRT is tied up with them."

So tied up they were able to trace him speeding along the I-95, in a car that wasn't even registered to him?

"I doubt that." He snarls. "Where is Legend?"

"Last intel puts him on the north side, battling against Purity."

...Purity… Given Kaiser's falling out with his one time lover it was very likely Purity had no idea what was going on and was fighting any Asian that had come close to the neighborhood… that would attract Legend's attention. And she was one of the few Blasters that could have a prayer of holding him off for any length of time.

"And Kaiser?" He asked.

"We don't know. He hasn't made an appearance yet."

As if it had been choreographed, in the alternate timeline the doorway that hid the escape route suddenly erupted in blades, skewering his body. Coil could feel the slow grip of death consuming him before he collapsed that reality, impaled on a half dozen blades.

"Damnit! He's here!" He snarls. "Third sub-level hallway 2-F! Activate automatic defenses and send a team with heat based weaponry down there immediately!"

"He's what!? - I… on it sir!"

There's another rumble, the base shaking all around them as he splits the timeline again, having this version of him moving towards the last of his available alternative escape routes, though he doubts it'll get there. In all probability he'll have to slip past Kaiser to get to it given that its at the lowest sublevel and the elevator is currently offline.

One of his mercenaries' radios crackles to life behind him.

"Squads Xeta and Psi return fire! Don't let them past the bottleneck! You boys gonna get shown up by a bunch of two-bit gangsters!?"

"Oni-Lee has breached the automated defenses, currently located at first sub-level engaging Squads Alpharius, Calips and the Travelers are on their way."

"Got eyes above. Lung and Surtr in combat. I repeat, Lung and Surtr are in combat. It doesn't look like Lung will be joining Lee down here."

Lung and Surtr? Unbelievable. Half the Bay would be reduced to a charred cinder at this rate.

He turns on his phone in both available realities, dialing a number.

It rings once.

This is automated defense system Cad-

"Activate Protocol Seven, Beta, Delta, two, two, six, eight, four, three."

One moment…

Voice recognition verified, Orders confirmed. Protocol Seven, Beta, Delta, two, two, six, eight, four three. Activated. Current status, Offline.

"Switch from Offline status to Active Standby status."

Voice recognition verified. Orders confirmed.

There, in a few minutes once he was safely out of the blast radius he'd call back, and activate the explosives. Then this whole place would go up in flames. It was too much to hope for that they'd think him dead, but they might. At any rate, the Travelers would be dead, Noelle would be dead, Oni-Lee, Kaiser, Fenja, Menja. And hopefully Lung and Surtr could do him a one favor this day and fucking kill each other!

He makes it to the last available escape route, his alternate is just now reaching the third sub-level where the sounds of gunfire and battle assaults his ears. He dares a peek, finding Fenja down one hallway, her shield protecting her, he can only guess where Kaiser and her sister were currently located.

Three hundred yards of maintenance corridor… that's all that stands between him and the pier where his personal boat was waiting for him, ready to carry him out of the Bay and into another state.

"You three, move up ahead, make sure its clear!" He orders and three of the mercs are all too eager to get further away from the sounds of gunfire and screams of pain currently blooming out of the base in a cacophonous chaos.

They rush past, one of the remaining mercs is holding Dinah on one arm, the last two taking up the rear guard as he marches forward, the faux doctor moving at his side, figuring that the closer he was to him the safer he was.

Oh the irony…

The mercenaries up in front are about ten feet ahead of him and they round a corner of this particular maintenance corridor when he hears rather than ses something hit the floor with a soft clink.

He barely has the time to take a breath to try to shout out a warning before the grenade goes off.

In the confined, tight corridor the flash-bang feels like a nuclear explosion even around a corner. He screams and can't hear himself shout, eyes stinging, hands rising to his ears. He can barely see, barely think. His blurry vision only just manages to catch a silhouette of movement ahead of him. The three mercenaries reel, stumbling back, into his line of sight.

Then he sees someone else, someone that shouldn't be there, and the flash of a knife before blood splatters the ground. He sees something else drop, and instantly starts choking on tear-gas.

"Get down!"

A hand presses down onto his shoulder shoving him with brutish force onto his knees before the guards that had been behind him, far enough away from the flashbang to not be affected, start shooting into the rapidly accumulating smoke cloud.

Shots ring out from the inside. He's not sure if its from the two mercenaries still in there or this attacker. With his vision still blurry he can barely pick up anything more than the brief flash of muzzle fire.

He stands, marching back, behind the line of mercenaries. He pulls his gun, aiming, he hears a scream. This time though, the man doesn't drop, he has enough time to stumble out of the smoke, gripping his left hip, where the artery has been cut wide open. He'll bleed to death in another fifteen seconds.

One of the men in front of him steps to the side, trying to get a clear shot around his wounded comrade before a knife slips out of the smoke and jabs itself into his eye.

He drops like a puppet with its strings cut.

Just then, in the alternate reality, where his men are currently fighting two giantess and a living wall of steel that's slowly encroaching in on them like the teeth of a meat grinder- he feels a gun pressed to the back of his head, the Mercenary captain's voice hitting him like a fist to the gut.

"Stop! We surrender! I'll bring this bastard out if you let me and my men live! That sound like a deal Kaiser?"

He barely has time to even grasp this development before he sees Dinah, in this reality out of the corner of his eye, dive to the left, slipping free of the stunned doctor's hand.

His brain doesn't have time to catch up to the obvious warning for what it is before a shot rings out from the smoke, hitting a steam valve to his right.

The damn thing goes off with a screeching wail he feels something hit him in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him and throwing him to the ground. The metal valve simply *explodes* from where it hung on the pipe like a bullet and cracks the doctor across the head. He falls to the ground, bleeding from his skull. Dead or soon to be.

His last two men scream as they try to duck away from the steam that's now spraying out of the hole like a geyser, burning hot even through the thick combat armor they wear.

Then Miss Militia comes out of the tear-gas.

She closes the distance before his men can move, the green energy of her power wrapping around her foot to form a steel shin and foot guard, kicking at one man's arm with a harsh CRACK that snapped something in his limb.

The man screams but she's already turning, rounding on his friend, the green energy slipping from her leg to her right hand into a knife, stabbing into the inside of his elbow as he tried to bring his gun to bear.

He fumbles with it, now only having strength in a single arm, he still tries to lift it despite the sudden pain to shoot her.

But she's too close, the energy moves again, slipping from her right hand into her left, not a knife this time, an axe, crunching down through the helmet to cleave the skull beneath it.

The man jerks, the last of his strength vanishing to leave the gun he'd spent the last moments of his life trying to lift to dangle uselessly from from the strap.

He pulls his gun, his remaining mercenary pulling out his holdout gun with his good hand.

The green energy flickers about, once more into her right hand forming… a chinese hook sword…

He pays it no mind, takes aim, and fires.

And suddenly his last mercenary is between him and her, gurgling on his own blood where the hook sword had hooked into his neck, letting her pull him forward, only to get another fatal injury in the form of a hole hole appearing in the center mass of his back.

The green energy of her power disappears, and forms a gun, the barrel of which he finds himself staring down as his last mercenary collapses, utterly dead

He pulls the trigger.

She fires.

Suddenly his hand feels like its been skewered with a million, red hot knives. He screams and sees his hand bend back, too far. His wrist snaps as his destroyed gun clatters to the floor, every finger broken, slivers of red hot metal poking out of his palm.

He's about to collapse this timeline just to escape the pain alone when Menja beheads him in the other reality on Kaiser's order…

And here he sits. At the wrong end of a smoking gun in Miss Militia's skilled hands. There is a fury in her eyes. Searing hot. Rage. She doesn't even look as though she's registered the bullet hole in her left arm.

He hisses as he moves to pick himself up, using his good hand to do so. He wheezes, wondering how exactly he might still get out of this situation. How it might yet be salvaged.

"Tattletale told you how to find me didn't she? Are you really so stupid as to trust her? She'll betray you... Just like she betrayed-"

"You seem to think I care." She bit out. "I have my shot at you now. She could have used me to steal from Fort Knox to get to you and I really wouldn't give a damn."

"The E-88 will be crawling all over this place in a few minutes. Do you think you'll survive them? You won't even-" A gunshot rang out, leaving him to throw himself to the side as he felt the bullet scrape off the side of his mask with a pitched shriek of metal.

"It's all because of you..." She hissed. "Its all your fault. All of it! The E-88 is the least of your problems Thomas. I am your problem..."

And Thomas feels his heart beating faster. His breathing hitching in his chest, its an emotion he hasn't known for a very long time. He can't even really recall when he last felt it.

Fear.

Inch by inch he can feel the noose tightening around his neck, every last contingency...

...

He's lost.

It hits him like a train… Almost as painful as the gunshot to his hand.

He's always hated losing. Ever since he was a child he's always detested the very concept. The thought that someone, anyone could get one over him. Could be better than him. Smarter. It made him sick to his stomach. He was called a sore loser a lot as a child, but he didn't care.

He'd worked all his life to excel. The Bay would have been reborn under his rule, a new economic boom, job creation, security. No more Kaiser, no more Lung. He would have made that all happen because he wanted to win. Because he simply abhorred losing, abhorred mediocrity.

Now…

He's lost...

What had taken him over a decade to build was being destroyed in less than ten minutes and he was completely incapable of stopping it.

And like an epiphany, it hits him.

Yes… he's lost. He's lost but this… the Bay doesn't have to be the end of him. Doesn't need to be the end of his ambition.

All he has to do is survive… survive and rebuild. Dinah would be beyond his reach, so would his previous resources but he'd started his empire with less. He could do it again.

He just needs to survive...

"Very well… lets get this over with. I am well aware of my rights and legal privileges." He says… surrendering.

He sees her head tilt… the gun drop just an inch.

Then there's a deafening bang. A shot rings out and suddenly his knee-cap explodes in a shower of gore.

"AAARGH!" He howls, falling to the ground. Blinding pain whitewashes every thought, his brain struggling to catch up with the sudden assault.

Somewhere, distantly, he heard her footsteps drawing closer as her voice lilts through his conscious mind.

"Is that how you expected this to work? That I would arrest you?"

He gasps and cries out in pain, trying to move, his hands twitching on the cold ground.

There's a kick to his side, one that drives the wind out of his lungs and rolls him onto his back. He hears Dinah whimpering somewhere.

Absurdly, he wondered why the hell Militia hadn't dragged her away. It hardly fit with PRT protocol to do something like this. Much less in front of a witness. Much less in front of a witness who was also a chi-

Thomas opens his eyes and finds her kneeling above him. "Suppose you expected for me to follow protocol. Be the good heroine. Sell the good PR. Bring in the villain… is that what you figured?"

He's in too much pain to speak, he doubts she genuinely wanted his answer anyway.

"But you-" She suddenly hissed. "and everyone else seems to constantly forget something…"

The green energy shifts to a serrated knife, the wicked edge nearly gleaming. Unnaturally sharp. "I wasn't always Miss Militia… I wasn't always the girl of red, white, and blue. I wasn't always Hannah Washington. I did many things before I became a Ward and later a Protectorate hero… a lot of things that gave me skills… skills I've never forgotten. I swore to myself I'd kill you when this started. After you killed Assault… after you turned Taylor against us. After you drugged Dinah to the point of no return. Used Taylor to hurt Colin. Sophia. Chris..."

He sucked down a breath and coughed, razorblades sliding inside his throat as he tried to speak.

Her eyes glinted like cold steel as she brandished the knife "I'll make an effort not to enjoy this… but I expect you'll scream. That'll make it so much harder..."

He coughed. "I would have-I would have saved this hole." His vision swims, half delirious with pain. "I would have ruled the Bay.. made it… made it -"

A pause. He half wonders if she's still there.

"You're no savior. You're nothing more than another warlord." Miss Militia growled with as much hate and venom Thomas has ever heard her speak to anyone with.

"This'll be simple then." He hears her drawl, he can't recognize her tone. Seems like an entirely different person is kneeling above him now…

"Killing Warlords is always simple."