Pick Your Poison

The Knave

[Thursday, November 25, 2010]

Coil was at his wits end by this point. All his attempts to forestall or sabotage, or otherwise hurt the Merchants have all backlashed viciously in fantastic and ludicrous ways due to unexpected variables.

His initial assault by manipulating Lung into trying to kill Dealer ended with an acceptable scenario, because at least it meant the ABB were no longer an issue, but now he wished he hadn't, because then the ABB would still be slowing the Merchants down.

Then he tried to cripple the Merchants by convincing a group of E88 with a replica MG 42 to mow down Somer's Rock while he knew that Dealer would be having a meeting with New Wave and Purity, while simultaneously a bomb was detonated at the Fishery to expose their base of operations to the PRT and Protectorate. He would've dropped that timeline when he found out that Dealer had survived and the Merchants were already relocating their main base anyway.

But in his other timeline, he was spending his day off at a cafe near Medhall and hadn't ordered either assault to happen. He died shortly after the explosion that destroyed the top floors of the medical firm's skyscraper and he was crushed by falling debris. Thus he was forced to accept the sub-par outcome of his attacks because he had decided to relax.

He took out his frustrations on Tattletale, using alternate timelines to torture the girl for everything she had on Dealer and the Merchants, which considering Trainwreck had turned on him, was a rather surprising amount. The reason being because apparently Bitch had decided to pursue Dealer as a romantic interest and was in frequent contact with his lieutenants as a result. How convenient that teenage hormones give him such opportunity.

Getting the time and place of Bitch's date was hard, considering Tattletale kept nearly dying in her refusal to betray Dealer or her friends, but he did have to quirk an eyebrow at Dealer apparently having attracted the attentions of several girls willing to work together for his affection considering she kept going off on tangents about Dealer being a 'harem magnet'. His foe's polyamory aside, he decided targeting Marian Ruebs, Mr. Ruebs' mother, as well as Taylor and Daniel Hebert would get the best possible result for him to coerce Dealer to work for him instead of being a constant thorn in his side.

Needless to say, he was furious that Dealer had prepared for someone to move on his friends and family. His mercenaries who went to the Ruebs and Hebert homes found themselves assailed by military-dressed foes who were far too skilled to not have had military training. He lost a few mercenaries and the targets escaped. He dropped that timeline and split again, ordering the assault but this time having the ones ready to kidnap Taylor Hebert move at the same time while warning his mercenaries about the hidden protection detail.

This time the house assaults still failed, but this time his mercenaries suffered no losses, and the enemy was down a few soldiers instead. Meanwhile his team had successfully subdued Bitch and made off with the Hebert Girl. However, he hadn't expected the Merchants to so swiftly and expertly track them to the designated warehouse. Deciding that timeline was another failure, he vindictively ordered them to execute the Hebert girl and kept the split running to try and get a better understanding of how the Merchants would operate to extract a hostage if they thought she was still alive.

However, while both timelines had him in his office in his main base, and he considered himself perfectly safe, the one where he was closer to his hidden escape tunnel on the side of his console with the coffee maker died instantly from the false wall being smashed in, and the surviving instance of him bolted for the open door at seeing what looked like a few hulking man-rat things as the culprits, which then promptly ignored him in favor of his computer station.

He quickly sealed the door of his office when he was in the hall and declared a red-alert, calling the base to wake up and search. Coil was told by his security chief, who had arrived with a team of mercenaries, that when they went in expecting combat, his office was vacated by the rat-people, but his electronics had been ripped out wholesale and stolen.

Coil was incandescently furious and split the timeline, shooting his security chief in the face before turning on the mercenaries, who gunned him down, and he did so multiple times in another timeline to vent his fury. Because he was again forced to keep a failed outcome from some freak incident. Only this time was much more personal. The only person in the city who could make half-animal hybrids was Dealer, and whether intentional or not, he attacked Coil in his most sacred of places and even had the gall to rob him!

If that wasn't bad enough, the Travelers called in shortly after to report that they had failed to eliminate the rest of the Undersiders as he'd ordered earlier that night. The only consolation from this complete disaster was that the Undersiders had almost no time to make off with any possessions at Redmond Welding, not even Bitch's monstrous dogs. He ordered them to bring the dogs in alive, they could be useful in understanding Dealer's modifications better. On top of that, they even secured a half-full canister of one of Dealer's drugs; Surge.

Now Coil was in a holding pattern, seeing no way to move forward with his headquarters possibly compromised, and his secret escape tunnel sealed off, again robbing him of another possible advantage in a worst-case scenario.

Deciding to try and seek assistance with his situation, he reached out to a dear acquaintance's secretary last night with a request for a phone conference and a detailed summation of the purpose of said conference. Today, on Thanksgiving, he would be calling in at noon on the dot since Accord had few things to do on a day that hampered his business with most people. At a few seconds until 12 PM noon, he speed-dialed the conference number he was given.

"Greetings Coil." Came Accord's clear and concise tone, not a single hitch in the reception.

"Hello Accord. Shall we get to business, or is there something I missed?" Coil calmly queried, since admitting one's own faults and asking for advice on improvement was one of the best ways to keep Accord appeased in conversation. So long as you weren't his subordinate.

"I would first inform you of your situation." Accord's voice wasn't at all aggravated, which was good despite his words. "You have moved too hastily, and your opponents are at a clear field and public advantage. That's not mentioning their firepower or their resources quickly outstripping yours." Coil had to wince at having this outlined so clearly by the best planner in the world. "I will first state however that your base should still be safe, the thieves who made off with your office equipment are likely a pure coincidence with the Information I have available."

"That is one less concern." Coil commented as some of his stress abated.

"Quite. I would advise that you pull back, do not risk further encounters for a while, and allow outside forces to weaken them first." Coil creased his brow at that. The only other major power in the Bay at this point was the Protectorate and PRT. He didn't count New Wave since they were clearly allied or at least indifferent to the Merchants. "I am not surprised you are unaware, but prepare to bunker down. The Teeth are invading." Coil twitched.

"Thank you for the warning. I'll have my men fall back in full for now. Is there anything else?" The money he paid up front for this call was looking inadequate at this point.

"The Bloods and the Mara Salvatrucha as well. They smell blood in the water and are moving your way." That was perhaps some of the worst news Coil could have gotten, and he rubbed his temple as he realized his situation. "Consolidate your assets and resources and build back up, that is my advice. I would also like to thank you Coil, you have drawn plenty of annoyances away from my business. I will refund you for this call since you have helped me in other ways."

"Thank you Accord. I wish you well in your endeavors." Especially now it seems that inadvertently thanks to Coil, Accord only had Blasto and the heroes over in Boston to deal with.

"Goodbye." The call ended, and Coil split timelines to vent his fury on the furniture in his personal room. Once he had vented he dropped that timeline and rubbed his forehead through the comfortable mesh of his pure-black bodysuit only interrupted by the single white serpent coiling from the head at his forehead, down his neck, around his torso, and then coiling tighter down his left leg.

The supervillain pondered how he was going to achieve dominance in the city now. Originally all he had to deal with were easily duped druggies, asian-supremacists and white-supremacists on top of an overtaxed and easily subverted legal system. Now he's dealing with a massively growing small army of super-humans on top of them having the most capes what with the remaining Empire capes having fled, surrendered to the law, or gone into hiding. Or, he mentally groused over the Undersiders' escape, having joined said army in all likelihood.

And all he had were the Travelers, one of which was an endlessly hungry monstrosity that he was unable to help when he promised them aid for poor Noelle. He did try, he even kidnapped Panacea in an alternate timeline, but the healer was just eaten and nothing else helped either. However, he was going to test something on that front today. It was almost feeding time.

Coil got up and walked to the room just above Noelle's vault, where food was dropped directly onto the gluttonous mutant below. Coil indifferently ignored the barking of the two massive dogs Judas and Brutus in the cage over the feeding chute as he approached the mercenary at the console that operated the chute and other dispensers.

Coil split the timelines. In one, he ordered the two dogs fed to Noelle, in the other, he told the mercenary he had second thoughts, and would rather the two incredible beasts be kept with Angelica to breed superior attack hounds for a K9 unit, something he felt suitably ironic.

The yelping howls as they fell to their doom was satisfying in a morbid way, and hearing Noelle moan in disturbing amounts of pleasure at eating them alive through their screeching squeals before the chute closed was barely disturbing to him.

The two massive dogs nearly twice the size of a normal man were surprisingly easy for the skilled dog-handler among his mercenaries to order, and the merc voiced he was quite happy to have such well-trained dogs to work with, as they followed his every direction perfectly.

Coil returned to his office, which was home to only a single computer for now, and he watched in fascination over the special CCTV line fed from Noelle's cell to his monitor in the first timeline. She was changing. Her body, in all it's grotesqueness, a mishmash of random bits and bobs of both human and animal parts began reshaping. She screamed in agony as her human upper half grew larger while her impossible almost slug-like tauric lower half grew smaller and more uniform. It ended with Noelle no smaller than before, but clearly much more coherent and mobile as she gawked down at her dog-like tauric lower body which had four forelegs.

In the few hours that timeline took for the dog's sacrifice to bear fruit, his dog handler reported that Angelica was already pregnant with pups, which were likely to be just as huge as their forebears. Just what did Dealer's modifications do to a subject's virility and fertility to get results this fast? He just told the handler to give her some Surge-laced food after Angelica was chemically induced into heat and bred with Brutus, and she's already visibly pregnant?

Weighing between the two timelines was tough for Coil, so he let both progress as in both he ordered his field agents to return to base and prepare to hunker down as Accord had informed him to. In the sacrifice timeline, he gathered the Travelers and introduced them to a much more stable Noelle. He decided to drop that timeline when, unexpectedly, Trickster went insane and tried to kill them all, raving that Noelle was supposed to destroy everything. Coil had suspected, but having confirmation one of his parahuman subordinates was a Simurgh Bomb, perhaps even all of them, left him much more apprehensive.

At least now he knew that likely it was Stim along with Surge, two of the drugs Dealer has made which he gathered info on from Tattletale, that could help Noelle's body stabilize. He had to keep this as quiet as possible. He also would like to see if another of Dealer's creations, Addictol, would help with Noelle's mental state, and possibly the mental health of the Travelers as a whole. He doubted that Trickster was the only one set by the Simurgh to go off at a trigger. And, if Addictol could, in fact, break a Master ability as powerful as the Simurgh's? Invaluable.

At least he knew from Dealer's business with the Undersiders and New Wave that the biotinker was willing to sell his wares. It would just be difficult to get someone neutral enough to pose as the buyer who wouldn't betray him over such valuable goods. Perhaps he would have to order extra, for himself and the patsy doing the buying to ensure whoever he picked wouldn't try to run off with regeneration in a needle to the highest bidder.

That decision made, Coil began organizing, planning for where to send operatives more frugally, when he froze at hearing a series of knocks. Not at his door. At the hastily sealed former secret escape passage. He stayed silent, until a furless clawed fist smashed a clean bowling ball sized hole through the admittedly thin cement cap and Coil took out his FN P90 from his desk, and sprayed the hole while calling for another alert. He wasn't going to have his current make-do laptop computer taken by some mutant sewer rats!

"THIS ONE PEACE!" Coil held his fire and split timelines, in one he backed up towards the door which was still sealed, in the other, he drew slightly closer to hear better. "I sorry for young one's theft. They desperate, not know better."

"Who are you? What do you want?" Coil demanded in both timelines, but the one at the door was ready to bolt, holding up a hand at the arrived security team for them to stay in place, while the other Coil go closer as he ordered his mercenaries to stand down but be ready. Peering through the hole revealed a surprisingly intelligent rodent face on the other side.

"I Splinter. At least, is name was given. Not smart then, like now. Want say sorry. Tell kids to be patient, but teenagers." Splinter's rueful tone got Coil to scoff wryly at the fact he could sympathize with a sewer rat of all things over the universal truth of teenagers being headaches.

"What your kin have stolen is worth far too much for a simple apology. I would rather kill you than just take your words." Both Coils said. Coil in the curiosity timeline prepared to die, while the Coil in the caution timeline was prepared to run Splinter off or kill him.

"Have more than words. Took thing they made with your stuff and brought back." Splinter then knocked on the rest of the thin wall, which curiosity Coil took as a warning to back off, and in both timelines, Splinter carefully punched a hole in each corner of the wall, and handily broke it down, revealing a hulking 6-foot tall grey man-rat with a prominent fu manchu and ragged pants. After the wall and debris was out of the way, Splinter hefted up something into his arms and brought it into the office. "Here, no clue what they did, but it all here."

Coil gawked. Whatever those other rats did with his computers, it looked like some monstrous homemade supercomputer that some tech geek welded together, and then felt there was no such thing as too many cables or heat sinks. It looked like trash. But the LED lights that he recognized from his former computer array were all lit, and it wasn't plugged into anything. Coil collapsed the caution timeline, feeling that curiosity had won this time. "What is it?"

"Ricky say was trying to make something smart. We not learned, barely able to speak. But they could have taken broken things and done same, so brought it back." Splinter explained admittedly quite well, and Coil decided to unplug his laptop's USB from the desk's built-in port connected to the base's system, and gestured to it.

"May I?" Coil may not like differing to others, but when the half-beast mass of muscle was within arm's length, he didn't want to test his civility. Splinter grunted and nodded at it, so Coil did so, and instantly, his OS was subverted entirely, and a cascading sequence of ones and zeroes overtook the screen as his laptop's cooling fan worked overdrive. Then came the voice.

"WinWin is online. Direct function." The voice was bland and monotone, but Coil felt his heart start to race. He typed in a query; 'are you an AI?'. "WinWin is a limited structure of action and reaction tied to a simple formula and modular directive. Direct function."

"You're saying...Ricky? Ricky, made a VI?" These rats have parahuman powers?! At getting a nod from Splinter, Coil split the timelines. He needed to see how this could turn out. "I would ignore the damage you and yours have done to my property, if you came here and helped me with my goals. I'll even provide beds, food, shelter."

"No." Splinter staunchly refused, Coil dropped that timeline since he had dealings with people like Splinter before, and they were just as hard to convince. Usually if the 'first' approach failed, that was it with people like Splinter who were honest but suspicious.

"I'll forgive all the unpleasant things that have happened if you and yours come here. I'll provide learning materials as well as food and comfort. In exchange, I would like access to some of your group's works." Coil's new ploy had Splinter humming in consideration, even crossing his arms and creasing his brows.

"Would need to speak to young ones. Not just my say." Splinter's words were sensible, and expected. Coil kept the result, then split timelines again for the sweetener.

"If it may entice them, we also have leisure and luxury here." Enough that his men barely complained about being underground. The small court for indoor sports was helpful with that, and he was still considering adding a pool once he could manage to get that much water quietly.

"Hm...that may work a little too well actually." Splinter's rueful admission got Coil to smile and drop the other timeline, split again, one holding out a hand, the other ready to keep bargaining.

"Let's shake on it. Gently. I help you and yours with your education, you all help me by lending me your abilities." Coil winced inwardly at grasping the filthy rat's hand, but he would have to learn to deal with it, since Splinter represented an unexpected resource.

"It is deal. We come here and help for learning. Will go get others. Make room for…." Splinter paused, and counted off of his fingers. "Nine. Three other rats not make it."

"Sorry to hear that. What happened?" Coil wondered what could kill such tough creatures.

"First was Slinky got hungry. Other two got sick, died, fed them to Slinky." Splinter's nonchalant acceptance of what sounded like cannibalism reminded Calvert he wasn't speaking to a human. "Be back soon." Splinter tramped off down the re-opened escape tunnel, and meanwhile WinWin decided to sleep, or something, because the laptop wasn't on anymore.

Coil called his security chief through the base's closed direct landline. "Captain Brooks, we have 9 new tenants arriving. They are from those rats that robbed me yesterday. Before you ask, one of them came here to apologize for the others and brought back a Tinkertech VI console. So be ready to tread lightly. They're not too bright even though they have tinkers."

"Understood Coil, I'll brace my people for their presence and prepare rooms as far away from the rest of us as possible." Coil smiled. He appreciated the professionalism of people like Brooks.

"Do so." Coil said in an approving tone, then called Mr. Pitter. "Pitter, I have need of your expertise. We'll be hosting several non-humans here with human level intellect and size. I'd like you to be ready to examine them for disease or other ailments. Brush up on your veterinarian skills."

"Yes sir." Was his only reply, and Coil hung up, reclining in his office chair with a dark grin. Sometimes, you just had to make lemonade. Didn't mean you couldn't drown it in sugar too.