A/N: I took a tumble last night. No bones broken, thank goodness, but I'm hurting in places I forgot I had. My right arm especially is stiff and sore where I managed to make myself fall backward instead of face-forward down the steps. So I'm taking it easy today, which means no writing. Which means no Review Responses. I appreciate everyone's reviews, I just don't feel up to doing all that typing this morning.

Fortunately this chapter was ready.


Ascension 6.4

The mayor's residence was southwest of the Towers district, a stone's throw away from Immaculata, the private Catholic school where Dinah was to go when she was old enough. It was one of the few areas of the city with restored utilities, likely because the mayor lived there. Decent man or not, Harry didn't doubt for a second the mayor would use his political power to ensure he and his were taken care of first. Or, at the least, those who served him would ensure he was happy whether he asked openly or not.

Around them, the majority of Coven sat interspersed with a handful of volunteers from the DWA, all of whom were ex-military men let go when Leviathan essentially scuttled the world's navies.

It was startling to see just how many capes they had now—with George's not inconsiderable addition and Genesis eager for some field work herself after a week's house arrest in the lair, they were fielding six capes. That was more than most major criminal gangs—hell that was as many capes as the Protectorate could field without the Wards.

Granted, Stephanie wasn't a great fighter yet, but her ability to split any surface she saw was even more powerful than the mercenary Faultline, who required touch to work.

Taylor's dad drove their van, while Phil drove the other van that held most of their volunteers. Every one of them was dressed in PRT tactical gear. Driving through the recently repaired streets between torn up glades and tree-filled hills, they looked like a perfectly respectable team of PRT agents on assignment driving to the Mayor's house half an hour after dark.

Taylor's plan called for them to tell the mayor there was a credible parahuman threat that made them have to search the house so Harry could collect some of Dinah's hair, and then leave. They hoped nothing would go wrong, and didn't plan on hurting a fly.

That plan went out the window when they reached the front of the Mayor's sizable estate and found a BBPD squad car parked on the sidewalk, the doors open and two police officers on the ground. Danny reached them before Taylor and checked their pulse.

"Alive," he said.

One of the cops giggled. "I can see your brain," the officer said with wide eyes. "It tastes like purple."

"Oh, they are so fucked up," Qiana said as she joined them.

Harry watched as Taylor knelt down behind the squad car and spread her power out, easily covering the entire estate as she sent out a quarter million scouts.

"There are…I'm having a hard time counting some of them. At least nine adults and two children," she told them quietly. "Maybe more. Something's screwy in there. Wait…masks. Fuck, capes. And…I'm not sure, but…I think Faultline's crew may be in there."

She looked at Harry. "One of the capes knocks my bugs out every time they land on him. Not dead, just out of commission."

"Newter, then," Harry guessed. "Coil made me study all the area capes. Newter's skin is like super-crack. Genesis, you'd be a perfect match for him."

Genesis had taken her gargoyle shape again and nodded. "Easy enough. Any idea who else?"

"Not sure," Taylor admitted. "But the one's I could actually detect are all in the same room."

"Danny, you and the boy's stay back," Harry said. "No point sending you guys up against capes that can drug you with a touch or spit napalm from their mouths. With the cops down, I think we can say they aren't having a calm discussion."

"I'd say so," Taylor muttered. "Faultline's people are good. We need to take them down first."

"Okay. Everyone line up for invisibility spells. They'll last for about five minutes. Don't move until they wear off on their own, or you can see Taylor and me," Harry said.

One by one Harry cast the invisibility spells to render Taylor, Qiana, Stephanie and George invisible. Unfortunately, it didn't work on Genesis.

"Huh, I guess it's because you're not really here," he finally said. "Okay, go…be scary out of sight or something."

"I can do that," she chirped with a chuckle.

They stepped through the chain-linked fence onto the mayor's yard, moving as quietly as they could until they reached the locked front door. A simple spell undid the latch. Harry was just thinking how unlikely it would be for someone like Faultline—reputed to be an excellent cape Mercenary—to leave the front door of a target area unguarded. As thought led to action, so too did common sense lead to a petite female figure in a glistening red suit and an odd gasmask just inside the door. Even without being able to see who they were, she began spewing white-hot fire at them.

Harry cast his most powerful shield, while Qiana answered fire with fire by launching a barrier of pyroclastic ash right in front of Harry. They heard a terrified squeal as the wall struck, cutting off the stream of flame long enough for Harry to stun the cape. Behind Spitfire, he saw another girl with scraggly, long blonde hair and a face covered in a green mask covered in black maze-lines.

The floor and wall around her were not that of the mayor's house, but of ancient-looking, weed-choked brick. The effect began to spread quickly before Harry hit her with another stunner.

Coven swarmed around him toward the living room, with George leading the way with a mighty roar (though it was more scream-like than a deep manly roar. Harry was much too cowardly to tell the big guy, though). Taylor followed behind with Stephanie, having already begun her attack with her swarms.

Harry took two steps to follow when something struck him like a bolt from a Zeus that just caught him in bed with Hera—a bolt that blasted him not just back, but all the way through the wall onto the Christner's front porch.

He fought off the bone-deep ache he got whenever something really pummeled his runes and rushed back into the house, only to find himself a second later standing with their DWA volunteers, while Danny Hebert stumbled on the Christner's porch.

"Trickster," Harry snarled.

He spun and teleported directly into the living room where Coven was in the middle of a no-holds-barred fight with Faultline's crew, Ballistic and Trickster. He saw Genesis very effectively beating the snot out of an orange-skinned kid with a barbed tail, while Qiana engaged a monstrous, gelatinous boy whose streams of snot-like goo struck her pyroclastic clouds with a sulfurous steam.

Stephanie was down not from any special power—Faultline just spun in a pretty acrobatic wheel kick that took the young cape down in one blow, only to run directly into George's fist as she regained her feet. The blow sent Faultline stumbling back against the wall with an angry growl. Taylor had her swarms surrounding the Mayor's family while simultaneously attacking Ballistic and Trickster.

Harry himself searched through the melee until he found the distinctive red and white mask. Unfortunately, Trickster saw him through Taylor's bugs the same time he saw Trickster, and a moment later Harry found himself back on the porch, while through the living room window he could see Danny Hebert was in the living room filled with capes suddenly fighting. That was Trickster's power—he could switch the positions of any two objects of similar size within sight.

Which meant Harry needed to be out of sight. He ducked out of the window, cast his best silencing and invisibility spells, and then apparated back into the living room against the back wall. He conjured a bowling ball into the air directly above the Trickster's head. The villain didn't even see what knocked him out.

Just like Harry didn't see what blew him through the wall behind him not even a second later.

"Bugger all!" he shouted as he scrambled back to his feet, only for another projectile to slam into his shoulder and send him cartwheeling over the back lawn like a toy. He barely had a chance to stand when he saw a silhouette stepped outside the house with several bearing balls in his hand. His face and chest were covered in riveted steel plates surrounded by a black robe.

"Ballistic," Harry said. "It's not what…"

A bearing ball slammed into him again, blasting him half way to the back fence. He struggled to regain his bearings in time for the next blow, but it didn't come. He picked himself up with a groan and saw Genesis carrying Ballistic into the air.

"Fucking listen to me, you asshole, or I swear I'll drop you!" Genesis screamed as she flew him even higher. "It was Krouse! He shot Melissa and Coil helped him cover it up. I swear to you, Luke, it was Krouse! Harry loved her. He'd never have hurt her, not in a million years! He was in the Trainyard trying to save Tattletale and the Undersiders from Bakuda!"

As powerful as her projected form was, Ballistic was still a strong young man with good training. He shot both arms up and out, breaking the hugging grip she used to carry him, and then dropped twenty feet in a fall that would at the very least have broken both his legs, if not killed him outright.

Harry caught him with magic before letting him fall gently. The taller cape scrambled back to his feet as Harry approached. "Luke, I swear to you, man. I swear, it wasn't me. Marissa killed Noelle because…God, Noelle was so miserable. And Coil wasn't going to help her. He bought people with whatever price he knew would work, and used them until done, then he killed them. It's how he worked. And Krouse…you know how he was. He was so pissed about Noelle that he…"

Harry ripped off his helmet and mask, knowing damned well it would show his tears. "Damn it, Luke! She was…she was the first girl who ever cared. Or at least seemed to. It was all Coil!"

"Luke, she told me she was going to kill Noelle," Jess said as she settled down on the grass beside Harry. "She came into my room and talked. She realized that Francis and Coil were lying to us—that Coil couldn't help us. There is no way to help someone like Noelle. She killed Noelle, and Francis murdered her in revenge. And Coil set it up to make Harry look guilty because Harry knew Coil's civilian identity. Don't you see?"

"That was the PRT's official determination as well, young man. After all was said and done, that is."

The three capes turned to see the barrel-chested, red-faced Mayor standing in the Harry-sized whole in his back wall. All the man needed was a white handlebar mustache and a top-hat and he'd look like the Monopoly guy. Behind the Mayor came Danny Hebert in tactical gear, but with his mask off.

"We won, Harry, Genesis," Danny said, still puffing from exertion. "Faultline retreated with her people. We have Trickster restrained. The mayor was willing to talk to us."

"Perhaps you could use the door to come in, though," the Mayor said.

Harry nodded tiredly. "Ballistic, are we done? I really, really don't want to fight you."

"Like you could, Little Man."

"I fucking killed Lung in the Birdcage, then escaped. Try me."

"Enough," Genesis said. "Ballistic, we're done. Get your ass in the house right now. Or I'll kick your ass again."

Luke snorted with disgust behind his mask, but did exactly what she said. Harry, mean time, cast a reparo on the hole. The mayor simply stared, startled.

"I'll repair any damage before we leave, Mr. Mayor," Harry said tiredly.

They stepped into a shattered living room where Trickster lay on the floor, his hands bound behind him and a blindfold over his eyes. Harry could see the goose egg on his head. The surprising part, though, was the attractive young brunette in the dress bundled up next to him.

A young man with the same lines to his nose and cheeks as the mayor knelt beside her, glaring at Taylor, while the Mayor's wife cradled a cute little blonde girl of no more than ten on a sofa across from the bundled capes. Another Reparo set everything to rights within the living room, with the girl ahhing at how the magic restored the room to its previous state.

Danny clicked his throat mike. "Phil, we have the situation under control. Go ahead and set a perimeter. How are the cops?"

"Still stoned," came the response.

Harry joined Taylor and the rest of his team for a good, long stare at the Mayor and his family. It was the mayor who broke the silence by clearing his throat.

"Young man, I'm willing to listen to you because Bill Perkins from Magnate Shipping swears up and down that you were innocent of the charges you were sent to the Birdcage for. I've known Bill for forty years and never known him to be that wrong about anyone. But…" He pointed to Taylor. "That young woman viciously attacked my son's…"

Harry frowned and tuned the mayor out. The son looked like an athlete, but the song in the back of Harry's head sounded like the roar of a crowd. Frowning, he drifted closer to the brunette and heard echoes of the same voice, over and over again.

"Holy shit, Taylor is that Prism?"

"The one and only," Taylor said. "She tried popping out a clone when Faultline went after the mayor's daughter."

"Oh you jackasses," Rory Christener, who could only be Triumph in costume, said. "You utter trash. You just unmasked…."

A million bugs all chirped so viciously the house shook, silencing him. Taylor glared through the visor of her PRT helmet. "She's the bitch that let me into the New York PRT Headquarters, shut off their defense systems, and paralyzed Legend to make sure he couldn't defend himself when they sent me to assassinate him. She's more of a murderer than I was—I was mastered. What excuse did she have?"

Triumph's indignation sputtered. "What…what?"

"Legend saved my life," Harry explained. "He…picked me up from the street where the Simurgh tried to kill me, and flew me out of the containment zone. He checked up on me after that. He never realized I'd been kidnapped and enslaved by villains, but he cared about me. Taylor knew that I cared about him. And they knew he personally approved our plan to kill Leviathan. And Taylor thinks that Legend was about to take responsibility for what we did when they killed him."

"They who?" Mayor Christner asked.

"Good question," Taylor said. "Ask Prism. She was a part of it."

"Guys, don't get too distracted," Stephanie said. Her hair hung loose form her helmet and her chin bore a nasty bruise where Faultline put her down. "And remember there are kids in the room."

"Oh fuck, that means no cussing, right?" Harry asked.

Everyone stared at him until he smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, right. Anyway, Mr. Mayor, we actually came here because I need something to find Dinah," Harry said to the Mayor. "Panacea told us sometime she slept here. Can you show me her room?"

"Why?" Mrs. Christner said with an angry flush to her cheeks. "What else can you do to her that…that…"

"Ma'am, Dinah came to us," Genesis said. "I was there when Armsmaster and her parents took her. She told them that if they took her, they'd die and Coil would take her back. She told them that using her power, they did anyway, and now she's gone and they're dead. Harry here might be able to save her."

"This way," the Mayor said brusquely. He walked purposely through his crowded living room to the stairs, with Harry a step behind. "She'd often have sleepovers with her cousins, and stayed more often after…after her first kidnapping. She said you helped her then, too."

"We're only villains because the real villains labelled us that," Harry said. "We just want to help make the city better. I'm going to help Panacea set up her own clinic, damn whatever that harpy mom of her says. I'm going to help the DWA set the docks back up. We're going to get supplies out to our people. We just want to help the city recover."

"My earlier guests were ordering me to keep Washington from condemning the city," the mayor said as they reached the top of the stairs. "Which seems odd."

"Coil's got his own plans," Harry said. "Dinah's just another tool he's using to get there."

They stepped into a small room with white walls adorned with a few posters, a comfortable-looking full-sized bed, a night stand, and an antique dresser. It looked like what it was—a guest room reserved for the same recurring guest.

And on the night stand was a hairbrush. "And this was Dinah's?"

"Yes. It belonged to her grandmother and she inherited it."

"Even better." He paused and looked around the room before he met the Mayor's stare. "Sir, the Protectorate is more corrupt than you can imagine. I don't know what their long-term plan is, but I promise it has nothing to do with protecting the city. What they did to us was bad enough. But sir…they put a shock collar on Canary's neck and tortured her until she was forced to use her power to compel Skitter to murder Legend. Someone took us out of Brockton Bay right after we killed Leviathan, sent me directly to the Birdcage and shanghaied Prism into helping Taylor murder the only decent member of the Triumvirate. You can't trust these people."

"What would you have me do, Mr. Bailey?"

Harry shook his head. "Not Bailey. Potter. Or just Mage. And I'd have you…work with us. Maybe. Or at least hear us out. We can talk more, but I don't want the police or the city government as our enemies. We want to save the city, not burn it."

"And you'll return Dinah to us?"

"Er, we're actually going to keep Dinah with us where it's safe," Harry said. "But I can promise unlimited visitation. She won't be a prisoner, but a pre-cog as powerful as her would be in constant danger and the PRT can't keep her safe from Coil because he has too many people in it. That's why she came to Coven in the first place."

The mayor didn't look pleased, but he didn't say anything. The two started back to the living room when they heard a loud thump and screams. Harry flew down the stairs three steps at a time, but when he reached the living room it was already done. Trickster's body was propped against a wall, but the wall behind was glistening with blood and cranial matter. The villain's head was utterly gone.

Opposite, his shoulders slumped in defeat, Ballistic sank down to his knees. Genesis hovered over him, her gargoyle face twisted with grief. Skitter looked up as Harry rushed in. "Trickster admitted it," she said. "He admitted he killed Sundancer. Ballistic…lost it."

"Right," Harry said, swallowing in a dry throat. "I've got what I came for. What about Prism? I could curse her with IBS."

"You seem to like that curse," Qiana said.

"I stick with the classics."

"Can you make her have to tell the truth?" Taylor asked.

"Not without a potion using magical ingredients that don't exist in this universe. But hey, Coil told me Armsmaster had something that could detect the truth, right?"

Triumph stuttered. "How did you know that?"

"Duh, Coil was Thomas Calvert, assistant PRT director, and I guarantee he wasn't the only villain that's infiltrated your little group. So, Mayor, why don't you have Armsmaster ask Prism here if she assisted Skitter in the assassination of Legend. Seems pretty straightforward, right? Taylor, anything else?"

She reached down and with a long military knife that evidently came with the uniform, she cut Prism loose. "No, we're done here. Sorry about the mess."

"Guys!" Genesis pointed down at the kneeling Ballistic.

"Oh, right." Harry stunned him. The Christner girl screamed again as Ballistic toppled over. "So, that should have him out for an hour or so. Genesis, he was your friend. Leave him or take him?"

"He was a good guy, once," Genesis said sadly. "But now…. I think we leave him."

"Easy enough. Come on, Coven, let's go free the fuck out of our friends!"

"Language, Harry," Stephanie reminded.

"Fuck, right. Sorry."

As they left, Harry kept casting reparo charms until they left the house in as good condition as it was before the night began. Except, of course, for the blood and body.

~~Simurgh's Son~~

~~Simurgh's Son~~

Rory tried his very best not to stare at the gruesome body which the villains decided to leave behind, or the other villain who murdered it. Instead, he forced himself to stare at his girlfriend of the past eight months.

Samantha and he served as Wards together in Boston before graduating. He came back to Brockton Bay, while Legend accepted her in New York. It seemed so perfectly normal that she'd request a transfer after the trauma of watching her mentor die like she did. He shouldn't have believed a word Mage or Skitter said.

Except…the doubt had been planted. It had always seemed odd that someone like Skitter could have killed Legend of all people, whose control over lasers was so effective he could make light bend corners or diffuse them to burn huge tracts of land. Rory remembered in one documentary how Legend stopped a forest fire by diffusing his laser into a white beam that burned the forest to create a firebreak. He should have been able to burn every bug Skitter had right out of the air.

"Sam, is it true?"

It wasn't Rory who asked. It was his father, who stood with his best politician's expression—the same he used to face down unions and state legislators alike.

Sam flushed down to her neck. "Mr. Christner, I can't believe you would…they're villains!" She sputtered and waived her hand toward the body of Trickster. "Skitter murdered a dozen people after she killed Legend. Mage killed an entire Endbringer shelter! Thousands of people. How can you believe anything they say?"

"Because they're the ones who saved my niece the first time, not you or your Protectorate," the mayor said. "Because they're the ones who saved us all tonight. Sam, Dinah told me herself that Mage was her best hope. My brother just couldn't accept that. Anyone I know who has had dealings with Coven say they are honest, decent people trapped by circumstance. But Rory obviously cares about you, and it seems there is an easy solution. Will you go with Rory to PRT headquarters and let Armsmaster ask you about your role in Legend's death?"

"Why would I…?"

They all heard the faintest sound of breaking glass. A red dot appeared in the left side of Samantha Beuchelle's head, while the right side of her head erupted in a geyser of blood and cranial matter not so different than what decorated the wall separating the living room from the entry way.

Kyla screamed.

Rory shouted, "Everyone down!" before diving and tackling his father to the hardwood floor. He glanced over his shoulder as Samantha collapsed near the still feet of Trickster, her blue eyes staring sightlessly at the ceiling as blood pooled around her head.

In the distance, they could hear sirens fast approaching.

"Don't say a word about this, son," the mayor hissed in Rory's ear. "Not a word."

"But…"

"You don't understand! The people who sold me that vial that gave you powers—they don't always trade in money. Sometimes, they trade in favors. If Sam got her power from a vial too…they owned her, son. And you just saw what happens when they don't think their investment has any value. Keep your mouth shut."

Just feet away, a girl he thought he might someday marry lay crumpled on the floor, while his young sister clung to their mother crying. Kyla liked Sam, she made a point of taking her out for ice cream when she moved up. She taught her how to do French braids and shared her music play list.

First rule of assassination—kill the assassin.