When the door opened, Tattletale was standing there, in her suit, mask on. She grinned at everyone. Then the looked at me, blinked, looked closer.
Suddenly she gave me a hug. "Yeah, we missed you too, even if it was only for a few hours. You need to go see Grue."
Then she pulled away and grinned at me. "And you also owe the PRT for their brown pants, Ms. Mover 10/Master 10. That stunt you pulled…" Then she stared. "You can't do it anymore. But you could… Holy shit. You can grant powers? Powers like…" She shook her head. "Wow, the bastard daughter of Othala and Eidolon. The Protectorate is going to freak."
"Tattletale," I said. "These are my friends." I gestured at them. "Rena Rouge, Carapace, Ryuko, Queen Bee, Chat Noir and Ladybug. They know who I am."
"And I'd love to be yours," she said. "You all kept Taylor safe, and she doesn't just hand over her identity to anyone." She paused. "And you've already got your PHO page and the first Rena Rouge fics have hit the ground including one about your torrid affair with Alexandria, which explains why Alexandria punched a hole through space and time to get to you."
"But she doesn't even know…" Kagami fell silent as Alya raised a hand dismissively.
"We have the Internet back home."
"Yeah, and I have to safe search whenever I google my own identity," Carapace grumbled.
"The price of fame," Tattletale said. "So, I came here because you probably all need a hand, and I've got some news for you." She glanced around the room. "First off, you all need a way to move around openly and yes, I can fix that. I'll tell you how in a moment."
Everyone else was looking a little… run over. That was pretty common. Chat was looking at Tattletale, then looked away.
"Secondly, we're going to be having a… sort of truce with the PRT."
"Truce," I said. "We attacked them. We invaded the mayor's house—"
"And they've had an announcement about that, speaking about 'regrettable escalations' and misguided vigilantes."
"Why?" Marinette asked. She'd lost her nervous look and now had the focus I remembered from the battle.
"A couple of reasons. First, they think they can win the long term battle. Our power stems from being the only authority in a lot of areas, because of everything that has happened. But now with a gate to Gimel that's changing. Plans for funding, disaster relief, five hundred new cops being hired, and reopening the Boat Graveyard."
"I—" I don't dare ask. Tattletale looks at me and smiles. "Yeah, your dad knows. You should go talk to him."
Later.
Tattletale nods. "But downside of that? They figure that once everyone is working, has full bellies and Internet again, they'll forget what we've done and remember we're teens."
"How do you know all of this?" Rena asked.
"Not all of Coil's assets went away," Tattletale replied. "Not only that, but they're moving fast. I mean, the cops, the infrastructure? That usually takes time. But long story short? Our physical power isn't going to be as useful—sure taking down bad guys in our territories, but the PRT is going to be behaving nicely, and if we do anything, they'll point to their bloody nose and shout: why are you doing that!"
"But they're not starting from that point," Rena said. "They could play up everything you did, but they aren't."
"That gets into the bad news." Tattletale looked around. "According to our source, the probability of the end of the world is now 98.01 by the next six months."
I felt like my gut had been punched. We'd had almost three years…
"Yeah." Tattletale looked around. "I don't know how much the local PRT knows, but if you're thinking the world may end, not fucking around fighting a bunch of people over the city and delaying getting people out is a good idea. Even the fastest legal action wouldn't be done by the deadline, and if the world is gone, it doesn't matter."
"Wait. The World is ending in six months?" Queen Bee shook her head. "How are you—"
"Calm? Oh, it gets better." Tattletale pulled a recorder and hit the play.
"Dinah, can you give me a few questions?"
"No more than four."
"Good. Chance that the world Taylor was in will end in six months?"
"98.01 percent."
"Chance that Earth Aleph will end in six months?"
"98.01 percent."
"If we move refugees to Earth Gimel, chance that they'll all die in six months?"
"67.04 percent." There was a pause. "But 95.04 percent for large groups."
"Thanks."
"It's not just here," Tattletale said. "It's everywhere. Everywhere there are people, so it's not just a disaster like an exploding star or something."
I looked around. Rena was gripping Carapace's arm, her face pale under its mask. Ryuko was holding her sword so tightly her knuckles were quivering. Queen Bee was hugging herself. Chat and Ladybug were standing, utterly still.
"They're not telling anyone?" Carapace asked. "We're not telling anyone?"
"What good would it do?" Tattletale asked. "Set off a panic?"
"It may happen everywhere, but the way to stop it is here," Ladybug said. "That's why we're here."
"We've fought Akumas," Ryuko quietly said. "But nothing this big."
"Then we'll have to learn how," Ladybug said. "It's a bigger job, sure. But none of us knew anything about what we were doing when we started to defend Paris. And we did defend it. We'll do the same here."
For a moment, everyone was focused on the shortest girl in the room, wearing a mask and cast offs…
And a aura of intensity that seemed to fill the room.
"I can't…" I looked around. "We can't keep fighting like this. They'll need all of their resources." If they're still worried about me, about fighting the Undersiders, who's to say that won't be the thing that tips the balance.
"And we will. Because see, what they don't expect? Well not most of them, is for us to be reasonable. To offer them something more than they think we can."
"What?" Ladybug asks.
"A new, independent hero team, made up of the heroes of Paris, who will work to aid the Protectorate in Brockton bay. You."
"Us?" Chat asked. "We—"
"In aggregate? You're equal to any of the heavy hitters, short maybe the Triumvirate. Your participation during the battle and the way that repair effect worked freed up enough aid so capes who would have died didn't. If you come out and thank the Protectorate, maybe they don't hemorrhage so many capes." She held out her phone, and on it was a shaky image, probably from a Protectorate cape's helmet cam. Carapace holding his shield up, a group of terrified children behind him. "Stuff like this is all over PHO, and right now the the Protectorate could really use your help. Meanwhile, we work on purging the other criminal groups in the Bay from our end, with a quiet promise to fold all of our assets into legitimate businesses as the underworld is purged."
"Legitimate." Ryuko sounded skeptical.
Tattletale smirked. "It's not as if any of us are wedded to being crooks. Taylor wanted to be a hero and help the bay, I like to be the smartest person in the room, Grue… Well let's just say that none of us see this as anything more than a means to an end. Now we have a better means."
"And not much time," Ryuko said. "Why should we waste time with this, when the end—the end of the world, of our families, is here?"
"Because we have to," Ladybug said. "We have to act like we'll win, that there will be a world six months, a year from now. We'll look for the solution, and we'll find the solution. But part of that includes helping people in the here and now. Do you think this will work?" she asked me.
"I…" The Protectorate had failed me. From Sophia to Armsmaster. But they also had others who did their best. I didn't like them… but when did it go from not liking them to trying to make them fail. They hadn't said Noelle wasn't their problem once she was in Paris. They'd fought.
And if I said no, Lisa would go with me. But that might help kill the Protectorate, and later the world.
"Yes." I nodded. "I think it will."
"Good," Queen Bee said. Then she pointed at Ladybug. "But we're keeping that 40,000, right? Because I am not wearing that atrocity you just stuck Ladybug in."
For a moment I stopped, looking at her. Then I snorted, the laugh unwilling.
"Th-thanks," I said. "I needed that."