Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars or Worm. They belong to their respective copyright owners. This story is not created with a commercial purpose. It is not for sale or rent.

Chapter 15

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Part 3

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14 January 2011
near Boston
United States
Earth Bet

The Travelers gathered within closed gas-station using it as a temporary shelter. To everyone's relief, Noelle was in the back, surrounded by the sound of breaking shelves, shattering glass, and loud munching.

"Krouze, are you insane?!" Marissa hissed at their leader, clutching tightly her helmet.

"Noelle's getting worse!" Krouze hissed right back, trying to keep his voice quiet enough that his mutated girlfriend would be able to hear. He held a cigar in trembling hand and nervously tried to light it up with a lighter that refused to produce even a single spark. "We need to do something, soon! Do any of you have a better idea!?" Trickster snapped.

"Do you want to leave Noelle at the mercy of the Sith?!" Jess stared incredulously at him from her wheelchair. Her pale skin almost glowed in the twilight within the abandoned building.

"Not particularly, no," Francis admitted. "However, Panacea's in Brockton Bay too. She's our best bet and even if she can't help, the aliens might – you saw that news report of them providing advanced medical technology!"

"Why would they help us?" Marissa demanded.

"We'll offer them our services. Those Mandalorians are mercenaries, right? It can't be worse than what we've been doing ever since ending up in this hellhole!" Krouze snapped back. "Besides, we'll look for Panacea first!"

"This is a stupid plan, Francis!" Jess shot back.

"Hell, either Panacea or the aliens should be able to get you up and walking! It's our best bet, I'm telling you!"

"It's crazy what it is!"

"Francis, it hurts!" Noelle shouted from the back a moment before a loud crash echoed through the building.

"Not doing anything, fast, is crazy!" Francis hissed under his breath and rant into the twilight.

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14 January 2011
PRT HQ
Brockton Bay
Earth Bet

Live feed from drones and reruns from muted news channels ran on multiple screens across the conference room. Emily looked at the unfolding chaos with critical eyes, knowing very well that thanks to Armsmaster, the fallout of the ongoing debacle would likely end her career… However, not right now. No one else wanted to be in her shoes and thus be in the spotlight for potentially even greater disaster, this one on American soil. Of course, the odds of Brockton Bay finding itself on fire soon, suddenly grew exponentially, because, for all it's training and preparation, the coming operation to clean up the city was now being rushed even more than before.

Emily had a painful experience with rushed operations, one of those was the reason she ended up in Brockton Bay in the first place after all. Yet, given the circumstances, Piggot would have it no other way. She didn't even want to think about what a nightmare a hardliner like Tagg might cause, even if surprisingly enough, his rhetoric concerning the aliens was subdued compared to his usual vitriol. After seeing what the Mandalorians considered a quick reaction force, Emily was more determined than ever to ensure that no one in her city would provoke them to call down that huge warship… or something even larger and meaner.

That's why, she had every Parahuman in the PRT-ENE who wasn't currently out on patrol, which meant prowling in the general vicinity of the docks and hopefully discouraging through their presence any shenanigans against the aliens, the Wards included, stuck into the room with her.

They had all seen either the edited or full report on the events at the Docks when the Merchants decided to commit mass suicide. That by itself should have been more than eye-opening, but then again, Parahumans.

"This could have been Brockton Bay," Emily pointed at a close up on Dragon's burning base, now under alien control. "if the Merchants or any other gang in this city managed to provoke our… guests any more than they already did." Piggot paused. "This still could happen to us, if any of the villains likely heading this way to take advantage of the opportunity to gain access to alien technology provokes the Mandalorians. This," Emily stressed for a third time, "could happen if we are unable to contain and crush our gang problem in the coming days and it spills over into alien-controlled territory."

The Director let their new reality sink in if it hadn't already, before pointing straight at the large monitor at the far end of the conference room. This one was showing an aerial view of Vancouver. Almost half the city was dark, a stark contrast to the glowing windows from the rest of it during the fast-approaching early night.

"Half a city had its infrastructure fried as collateral damage, in Canada, at the height of winter. This could be us, and if something like it happens, it would be Brockton Bay's death knell unless the aliens take the city and rebuild it." What happened to Vancouver was a major disaster, yet it could have been so much worse it wasn't even funny.

It could have been deliberate for example, it could have been the whole city… or the city might not be even there at all. The same could happen to Brockton Bay, soon.

Emily looked at the heroes under her authority, and Armsmaster's absence was a painful reminder of her failure, yet another thing to haunt her. Soon they would be spearheading the assault against the ABB and Empire 88, and the last time, Lung by himself was more than enough to hold off not only all assets the PRT-ENE could throw at him but even limited reinforcements, which was, in fact, the last time before the current crisis that Brockton Bay saw any real aid from the PRT and Protectorate at large.

Now, she had almost all the help she could ask for, even the Triumvirate on standby but so far not authorized to intervene in order not to provoke the Mandalorians through their presence. In the next forty-eight to seventy-two hours, heroes and PRT units from New York, Boston, and L.A. would be converging on her city, get briefed on their part, and prepare to join an assault led by troopers using alien equipment.

It wasn't enough time to properly coordinate such an operation and ensure everyone knew their place in it. It might have been plausible with Dragon coordinating, but without her, AI or not, it was going to be an order of magnitude harder.

"To prevent this from happening, we'll have to contain and apprehend a raging dragon, a serial suicide bomber, face a rain of swords and everything else the Empire 88 could throw at us. We will have one chance to do this right…" Piggot trailed off and waved a hand at the monitors streaming live footage of the disaster up north, "or that will happen right here."

The only silver lining Emily found was that for once both Assault and Clockblocker kept their mouths shut, paying close attention both to her words and the camera feeds.

=MK=

Mandalorian Knights FOB
Brockton Bay
Earth Bet

Lisa couldn't wait for her medical leave and an opportunity to get away from her too-eager power for a bit. The immediate fallout of Coil's over-reach had been exhilarating, scary and a pointed reminder that she exchanged one amoral, evil overlord for a much more dangerous one. Having access to Coil's files told her all she ever needed to know about what would have happened to her in the fullness of time if she hadn't escaped his reach. Hell, her power gleefully informed Lisa what exactly had happened to her while she still worked for the bastard – almost certainly every single visit in person, along with who knew how many kidnappings to ensure she wasn't about to run away, complete with torture, rape and worse, all in throw-away timelines she thankfully couldn't remember.

It was primarily because of alien drugs she wasn't still barfing her guts out or close to catatonic because of her power's unwanted extrapolations. At the same time, it was a blessing in disguise that her power didn't have enough data to properly project what the Sith would do to her if she ever betrayed them, something Lisa kept telling herself she wouldn't even think about, for a very good reason too.

What just happened to Dragon's base was a pointed reminder that she might run, for a time, if she was very good and very lucky, however, she couldn't really hide and more importantly, there was no power on Earth which could protect her. Lisa swallowed down the bile trying to rise in her throat and rinsed her mouth with a mouthful of cola, before trying to drag her wandering mind back to the task at hand.

Coil had his grabby fingers practically everywhere as far as Brockton Bay was concerned – from the PRT to the gangs, from a legitimate business, to what passed for unpowered criminal enterprises within the city.

He had the secret identities of everyone on the radar within Brockton Bay and some beyond the city – heroes, villains, and rogues alike. Lisa's included and not just her alias, but her real name, those of her bastard parents, her late brother… Lisa's face twitched at that, and not for the first time, she hoped that Coil was indeed enjoying all the "hospitality" the Sith would offer to someone who crossed them.

The thinker glanced at the spider-like Medical Droid hanging at the corner of her makeshift office and raised an eyebrow at the dull silver machine. It focused a cluster of sensors on her and beeped in displeasure.

"No more medicine for at least one more hour." It chided her as if she was a child, using the next best thing to a posh British accent. It was almost like something out of the movies but not quite.

Lisa grumbled under her nose at the spoilsport of a machine and did her best to drag her mind to the job at hand. As soon as she was done, she could take the next shuttle to orbit and a ship out of Sol and thus, away from her power being "helpful". She needed a vacation damn it! She cursed in a very much unladylike manner, one which would make her mother infuriated if she heard her, an image had to be maintained after all and glared at her laptop's screen.

The ABB was a no go. Knowing Lung's identity – Kenta didn't help any. Lisa couldn't see a way to bring him on board. The same was true for that madman Oni-Lee and if Coil's notes were right, it would have been mostly futile anyway – their resident serial suicide bomber might be losing his mind if he had anything to lose in the first place.

The Merchants were dealt with anyway, which left only the Empire 88, independent villains, rogues.

Even if pained Lisa to say so, the Nazi bastards had a handful of members who showed promise. Rune, who Coil for some reason believed to be a lesbian and had it noted as a way to potentially blackmail and subvert her, Kaizer, who could be attacked through his identity as Max Anders and wasn't that a surprise… and then there was Purity, who was Anders' wife, who had a few months old daughters as a weakness to exploit. Curiously enough, the baby, Aster wasn't slated as a possible weakness as far as Kaizer was concerned… who would sacrifice her without a second thought and use her death to bring Purity fully back into the fold, Lisa's power hurried to supply?

This made for two Empire capes who might be "easy" to subvert, and then there were Victor and Othala, where gaining one might bright the other onboard if reluctantly…

=MK=

Part 4

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Mandalorian Knights FOB

Docks

Brockton Bay

Earth Bet

Aria jumped off the shuttle's ramp before the transport could land, leaving a decidedly unhappy Armsmaster behind. She nodded at the FOB's CO, who fell in step with her.

"There have been no major new developments, ma'am. We're observing and increased presence of local reporters along with security forces keeping an eye on them and our perimeter. You've got five calls from Director Piggot, and Specialist Wilbourn has a briefing for you."

"I see. The Director can wait, keep the situation on the perimeter peaceful if at all feasible and arrange a transport for Armsmaster to a destination of his choice, within reason of course." Aria went to the armory, using the Force to shed her damaged armor faster and easier, before designating it for shipping back home so Mandal Motors could study the damage pattern and figure out if any improvements were feasible, before hitting the fresher and getting into a clean change of clothes.

Aria found her newest minion rubbing her temples and glaring at the Medical Droid looking after her.

"My head is killing me!" The blond girl pouted at the gleaming Droid.

"Then it's time to take a break. No more drugs for the next two hours." The spider-like machine answered with a hint of exasperation. That by itself was an achievement, because this particular model was known for its patience and good bedside manner, which was naturally one of the reasons it was the standard model used by the Freehold. Good bedside manners hugely decreased dismantling incidents when treating irate wounded Mandalorians, or Sith for that matter.

"Lisa, you can let your power have a break, or your power can let you have a break, I don't care which. You're talking a break from using it anyway." Aria declared, making the girl snap her head around.

These Earthling's reactions never ceased to be amusing, often delicious too, especially when they knew they were dealing with a Sith. At the same time, just like her Master warned Aria, constantly enjoying people's fear and suffering thanks to the Dark Side, didn't make for good head-space or bright shinning future if you ever let your control slip.

"Hi boss!" Lisa waved, plastering a strained smile on her face.

"You know, fake smiles don't work on me, especially when they're that obvious. You have something for me, Lisa? And you can chill off, I don't bite." Well, that was a lie, in certain circumstances Aria did bite and scratch a lot as a certain very good friend of her could attest to, but there was no reason to strain Lisa's brain anymore than it already was.

"Briefing, yes!" The Thinker nodded rapidly. "I've gone through Coil's files pertaining local Parahumans and have a list of targets, who might be open for recruitment. Most useful and controversial are going to be a number of Empire 88 Capes, who are obviously Nazi."

Aria scrunched her nose at that. Not just human supremacists, which were normal occurrence, just like Chiss supremacist and every other species-supremacists, but imbeciles believing that skin color mattered beyond aesthetics. That said, blue was best color, and it was shame that her boy-toy was kind of brown but no one is perfect… These so called Nazi on the other hand? Followers of a failed ideology, all but worshiping an incompetent system led by a crazy moron, something that was obviously even after a cursory examination of reputable history sources collated by a Droid data-analyst.

"Are you sure a few of those could be of use? Their crime-syndicate already overstepped their bounds by presuming to threat with us as equals."

"First, Purity, Blaster Eight, one of the heaviest hitters not only in the city but globally. There are indications that she is trying to separate from the mainstream Empire 88, she's a new mother too and that likely contributes, along with the fact that the father of her little girl is bastard. He's Kaizer too, enough said I think…" Lisa rambled.

"I can see how something like that might make her re-evaluate her priorities even without really changing her attitude. So the self-proclaimed king spawned?"

"And according to Coil's notes, he wouldn't really care if something happens to his daughter, beyond it being a great excuse to bring Purity back into the fold and go medieval on whoever crossed him."

"Ah, so he's that kind of scum too." Aria nodded in understanding. "Such ruthlessness is almost commendable and utterly moronic as far as retaining the loyalty of your people go. If you sacrifice your own family to gain an advantage, you would surely sacrifice both your minions and their families without a second thought as well."

Lisa gave her a weirded out look, which she chose to ignore.

"Well, we can offer this Purity a lot of benefits, taking her unlamented husband out of the picture and keeping his organization far away from her and her daughter for starters. Who is next?"

"Rune, again from the Empire 88…" Lisa continued her report.

An hour later, the briefing was over, and Tattletale was still trying to wrap her aching head around the new insanity thought up by the Sith. She really shouldn't be surprised anymore. Here she was, wearing casual, and thankfully very warm clothes, walking hand in had with Aria, as if they were sisters or best friends. No one paid them any attention as they slipped past the far off police and PRT cordon around the docks, not to mention the media and assorted hangers-on who wanted to get a glimpse of the aliens. The less said about the ever increasing crowd of Star Wars fans, many in costumes, including what looked like a small army of Stormtroopers, the better. Thinking about them was enough to push Lisa's power into even further frenzy and it was already acting up more than enough.

"You're insane!" She hissed at the Chiss happily dragging her to take a taxi of all things. It was almost as bad as taking a shuttle there!

"What gave you such an odd idea, Lisa?" Aria looked down at her with eyes sparkling in mirth.

"We're breaking the unwritten rules, no we're setting them on fire and dancing on the ashes!"

"Do you have a point or is this your nervousness talking?" The Sith asked in concerned tone. "You really need a vacation. Perhaps a boyfriend or girlfriend too, or both if that's what you like." Aria nodded sagely to Lisa's unmitigated horror.

Tattletale was still spluttering and struggling with all the options her power gleefully showed her when they arrived, took an elevator and soon found themselves in front of an armored apartment door. Aria pressed the doorbell without a care in the world and when the door opened, revealing a short brown haired woman, who looked almost as harried as Lisa felt. The woman's eyes widened when she saw them and blinding glow filled up the stairway.

"Hi, Kayden!" The crazy Sith announced without a care in the world. "We're here for a job interview!"

=MK=

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