At My Fingertips Arc End
The Next Day
Director's Office, PRT ENE Building
"That's all three of the big gangs. This 'Mnemosyne' heroine that Glory Girl encountered must be the one behind it." Piggot growled. She thumped a hand on her desk in aggravation. "And the worst part of it all is that her strategy is, at least temporarily, working!"
Armsmaster and Miss Militia exchanged uncomfortable looks at that. It was true; the ABB, the Empire and the Merchants had been hit by this mysterious independent heroine, and they were now licking their wounds and retreating into the shadows. This was worrying for multiple reasons. First, the old adage about a wounded animal being more dangerous generally held true here, and it worried Piggot in case morons like the Merchants decided to go on a rampage in revenge.
Second, half of the reason to go easy on the criminals was to ensure they were arrogant enough at least partially transparent with their schemes; the less Watchdog had to watch out for small potatoes schemes, the more resources that could be dedicated to actual crimes that might warrant the intervention of the Triumvirate. It had to be said though, that Piggot was privately somewhat shaken by the amount of weapons and materiel Mnemosyne had destroyed in her bombing campaign; nothing that the police, PRT or Protectorate had heard had indicated that level of firepower being stored in secret.
There was an unspoken assumption that the gangs would have stores of weapons for possible gang wars among the law enforcement agencies, but the number of storehouses that Mnemosyne had destroyed, as well as the remains of items found in those locations, indicated that the estimates had been off by almost 150% across the board, among all three gangs.
"At least the gangs have lost a lot of their weapons." Miss Militia offered. "All together, it's estimated that the amount of money needed to replace everything the gangs lost is somewhere in the thirty million dollar range. And we have Skidmark and Squealer off the streets."
"Yes, but none of it is due to the PRT or Protectorate." Piggot growled. "I'd have preferred for New Wave to have taken the credit as they're at least PRT Affiliates. Mnemosyne is making us look bad by comparison, people."
"We cannot do anything about that." Armsmaster replied stoically. "Mnemosyne moves during the night only, and has not been found by anyone other than Glory Girl by pure chance. It is plain, when looking at the transcript of what Glory Girl and Mnemosyne discussed, that the latter is severely disillusioned with us and cannot trust us to act in Brockton Bay's best interests."
"There is more to keeping Brockton Bay safe than dealing with the three large gangs!" Piggot snapped.
"But a lot of it, such as ensuring that there isn't a vacuum of power in the criminal underworld, isn't known to the public." the Tinker reminded her. "Mnemosyne was, if her words to Glory Girl are to be believed, was born and raised in Brockton Bay, and has seen it fall deeper and deeper into the hands of the gangs, with the PRT and Protectorate seemingly unable to do more than slow the process down. And let us be honest, Director, that isn't untrue or exaggerated."
"Suffice is to say, Mnemosyne is somewhat justified in her actions, Director." Miss Militia said diplomatically. "Any attempt by us to discredit her, so long as she has not broken any laws, will simply be seen as sour grapes on our part, and even draw attention to her, as no one aside from the gangs, New Wave and us even know of her existence."
Piggot scowled again. One of the greatest weapons the PRT had was the ability to influence the mass media, putting their spin on events out before anything else, and she couldn't use it because it would instead encourage the damned Cape!
"Be that as it may, this is not some lawless Wild West frontier town where anyone can just act as they please." the overweight woman said, forcing her ire down with great mental effort. "The balance of Brockton bay is teetering on a knife's edge and Mnemosyne's actions may cause it to topple completely. I want night patrols increased, effective immediately. All efforts are to be made to get Mnemosyne to sit down and listen to reason. I was, fortunately enough, able to get some reinforcements from the National Protectorate; two new Wards and another member of the Protectorate."
"Who's being transferred in?" Miss Militia asked, curiously.
"For the Wards, Flechette from New York, who is replacing Shadow Stalker, and Weld from Boston, who will be taking over as Wards Leader." Piggot said briskly. "The Protectorate is gaining Cask, from the Anchorage Protectorate."
"The chemical Tinker?" Armsmaster asked in interest.
"Yes. Although not a combatant, his formulae may prove useful." Piggot answered with an irritable sigh. "In truth, I had been hoping for someone along Glory Girl's power-set, but I was offered a choice between Cask and Mouse Protector."
Both of the heroes winced. They knew Mouse Protector fairly well, with Miss Militia being a member of the first batch of Wards, trained personally by the Triumvirate, with her, and it was obvious that, given any alternative, Piggot would never have Mouse Protector as a member of her Protectorate team, mostly because she was the most irrelevant and whimsical person on the planet and could drive anyone up the wall given enough time.
It wouldn't even take a few minutes to get Piggot so steamed that she couldn't talk.
"So when will they all be arriving?" Miss Militia asked, avoiding the conversational landmine that even Armsmaster could see.
"Given the time needed to wrap up their civilian identities and fabricate appropriate reasons for arriving, I'm penciling it in that all three will debut here next month, although Flechette will be here next week." Piggot stated
The heroes nodded. Having to transfer was always a pain when you had to deal with secret identities and ensuring that no one put two and two together when it came to new arrivals and new Capes. It was even harder when it came to places like Brockton Bay, which were literally dying and hemorrhaging more and more people every year as those who could leave, did.
Fortunately, the PRT had long since anticipated situations such as this, and had several businesses under their influence that allowed members of the Protectorate to have a civilian job as cover for their movements and possible transfers. It also helped pay for some of their salaries, and allowed the National PRT and Protectorate to cut back on the salaries they paid their Capes.
As for what the companies got out of it? Tax credits.
"Anyway, Miss Militia, you are to get the Wards ready for their new teammates, and Armsmaster, have a lab area set aside on the Rig for Cask." the Director said with a sigh. "I also want Watchdog to try and discover the next target of Mnemosyne before she strikes. She needs to understand that she can't go around upsetting such a delicate balance all willy-nilly as she has been."
The Next Day
Cafeteria, Arcadia Highschool
"I can't believe this Mnemosyne character even managed to get around Lung!" Vicky shook her head in disbelief.
"Around the ABB, you mean?" I interjected.
"No, really around Lung! The Empire's practically gloating about the fact that Mnemosyne managed to blow up the warehouse that Lung himself was guarding." the former basketball player shook her head sourly. She didn't like the Empire at all. "I was able to overhear a bunch of not-so-hidden supporters talking in English Literature."
"And how would the Empire know?" Amy asked dryly. "I highly doubt Lung went and shared a beer with Kaiser after the fact."
"That's...a really good point." Dean said with a small frown. "Maybe a third party's spreading it using the Empire's footsoldiers as a front? They aren't exactly the brightest bulbs."
"They're only smart if you compare them to the Merchants." Vicky snorted. "Anyway, what do you think Mnemosyne will do now? They've almost disarmed all of the three big gangs."
"Maybe move on to the smaller ones?" I suggested. "Though I can't remember if there are any small gangs in the Bay."
"They tend to keep their heads down to avoid the attention of the big three, but they do exist." Amy replied. "There's Über and L33t, the Gaming Capes. They do game-style crimes. There's a guy called 'Coil' who operates a team of hired mercenaries. No one actually knows if Coil's actually a Parahuman at all, though. Then there's Faultline's Crew. Technically they're mercenaries, but they work for whoever pays for their time, hero or villain. I've heard they don't take jobs in the Bay though."
"That leaves the Undersiders." Vicky added in. "They're not much, just four teenagers; Grue, Tattletale, Regent and Hellhound. They're known as the 'Masters of Escape' because of their hit-and-run style tactics. They've not done anything more serious than knock-over a few jewelry shops, so they aren't seen as being anything close to a priority compared to even Über and L33t."
"Wow...that's pretty harsh." I blinked. Even I'd heard of the two worst Capes in Brockton Bay.
"Small fry villains." the flying brick shrugged. "Irritating, and ignorable. L33t's Tinkertech gives those two a more serious threat rating because it keeps blowing up. From what I heard, he can't make more than one of anything, and the closer one invention is to one he's already made, the more liable it is to blow up in his face."
OK, yeah. I could see how that kind of danger would be a bit above some petty thieves.
As the conversation changed to Vicky grousing about her new training regimen from hell, courtesy of Lady Photon and Manpower, I considered what to do now. I could go after the smaller gangs; just because they were smaller didn't mean their actions didn't hurt people. Then again, judging by how Vicky and the others had jumped to that conclusion almost immediately, perhaps doing what everyone expected wasn't the brightest idea.
Nope, going after specific targets right now was a dumb idea. Going on patrol to capture low hanging fruit, on the other hand, might be a better idea. If I alternated my patrol location between the areas where the three major gangs showed up, all of them would hopefully be worn down equally.
Of course, this was just going to royally piss of the gangs...but so what? They deserved a bit of payback for everything they'd done to my home over the years. Picturing Kaiser and Lung getting pissed at me was scary, yes, but also somewhat amusing.
Tonight was going to be fun.
Later That Day
Max Anders' Office, Medhall Building
"So all we know is that this 'Mnemosyne' character is pissed at all three of the big gangs and is waging a one-person war against us?" Max Anders, the true identity of kaiser, asked with narrowed eyes.
"And that Mnemosyne is female." Victor replied. "Our moles in the PRT were able to tell us that much. They literally know nothing more than that though."
"How do they know that?" the fake Neo Nazi asked with a scowl.
"Watchdog." the skill thief shrugged. "Having a think-tank full to the brim with Thinkers has its uses. That, and the name 'Mnemosyne' comes from a female figure in mythology to begin with. Not many men would choose to take such a name."
Max nodded at the logic. "OK. Fine. So aside from that, we know that whoever Mnemosyne is, she's well educated in the classics. There can't be many people in the Bay with that sort of education."
"Aside from anyone who has attended English Literature classes at Arcadia, Clarendon, Immaculata and Brockton Bay University, you mean?" Victor poked logic-shaped holes in his leader's words. "Hell, even English Literature at Winslow touches on Ancient Greece once or twice. And that's leaving out home-schooled kids and people who moved here. I'd say about half the women in the Bay fit the 'well educated' qualification, boss."
Drumming his fingers on his desk, which was made of mahogany and hand-carved, Max scowled again. "Victor, we cannot afford to allow Mnemosyne to get away with what she has done to us. The slant-eyes and the drug-addled morons are one thing, but we cannot be seen to be lowered to the same level as them, especially not by a single Cape!"
"I'm not saying you're wrong, sir, but Mnemosyne has no patrol patterns. She has no agenda other than 'punishing' the gangs. She has no territory to protect." the skill thief pointed out. "She is essentially operating as a guerrilla fighter, hitting us where it hurts before fading into the shadows again. We have no way of targeting her."
"And we need to be seen as 'reasonable' to the plebs, so we can't just indiscriminately run rampant to try and draw Mnemosyne out. Damn it!" Max hissed, furious that he was unable to strike back at this latest indignity forced upon him. Letting out a breath, he calmed down, or appeared to, and looked at Victor. "And what have the Merchants and ABB been doing?"
"The only Cape the Merchants have left is Mush, and he's busy organizing a raid to free Skidmark and Squealer from the PRT when they're transported to prison." Victor replied. "As for the ABB, they have started moving a vast sum of money, likely to replace the armaments that they lost to Mnemosyne. Rumor has it that Lung is looking to recruit more Capes, and has started with a Tinker, the Cornell University Bomber, Bakuda."
"Leashing a mad dog...tch." Max shook his head. He'd looked into the bombing in hopes of recruiting the one responsible himself. Her mixed-race made that impossible, but he wouldn't have recruited her even if she had been pale-skinned, blond-haired, blue eyed and wearing lederhosen due to her obvious sociopathic tendencies and her superiority complex. He wished Lung the best of luck in dealing with that mess of a woman.
"Any other movements?" he asked.
"Coil's men have been quieter than usual, while the Undersiders have raided more shops and the like." Victor noted. "Faultline's Crew is still out of town on a contract, while the Two Morons are gearing up for another caper, apparently."
"Dear lord..." Max massaged his temples. The antics of Über and L33t were amusing, when they didn't involve his people. The infamous 'Grand Theft Auto Incident' had involved several prostitutes that worked for the Empire, although it was, once again, L33t's abysmal tinkertech that had caused the issue. "Make sure we find out where those two idiots start to cause trouble and get our people out of the area. I don't want another incident like last time."
"Yes sir." Victor nodded. "What should we be doing ourselves?"
"For the moment, restructure the way we organize the storehouses; I want only our top unpowered members and our Capes to know their locations." Max ordered after a moment of thought. "Put feelers out to our fellow believers across America; I want more Capes, preferably Tinkers and Thinkers, to join up, soon. We cannot rely on Gelleschaft to help us, not without heavy strings being attached. We've become too complacent in the absence of serious opposition. This has to change. Send Hookwolf and Krieg to see me; they need to be updated as well."
"Got it." the skill thief nodded. "And if Mnemosyne strikes us again?"
"Then we show her what it means to strike against her betters." Max Anders smiled coldly.
Later
With Oni Lee, Streets of Brockton Bay
The person known to the world at large as Oni Lee, had actually long since forgotten his original name. This was thanks to the 'tabula rasa' effect of his powers, robbing him of his personality and individuality with every use. He still remembered who he was, he still remembered that he had once ruled a group of the Yakuza in Brockton Bay before the Dragon arrived, and he still knew very well how to use a knife.
He looked completely unremarkable as he walked around bereft of his bodysuit and mask, just wearing ordinary jeans, a t-shirt and a jacket. He'd been shopping for food, as evidenced by the plastic bag in one hand, and he was making his way back to where he had stored his costume.
Ordinarily, he would have just ordered some soldiers of the ABB to acquire sustenance for him, but his paranoia had risen with the recent actions of the Cape Heroine Mnemosyne. She had struck ruthlessly at all but one of the storehouses that provided the ABB with their ability to fight back against the Empire and Merchants. The only reason that the other two gangs were not taking advantage of the temporary weakness of the ABB was that they had been struck before the ABB.
Oni Lee was an assassin, one who dwelled in the shadows and struck at those who went against his master, the Dragon. He could appreciate the abilities of Mnemosyne in stealth and precision, even as he cursed them for embarrassing his master. It also gave him information about her, however.
Much like Oni Lee, Mnemosyne obviously lacked much in the way of defensive abilities. While his tele-duplication could count as defensive if you squinted, it did nothing to enhance his body to attacks. Thus why he frequently teleported and left a clone behind, even when it seemed as if he was alone. He had been a Cape for over a decade and a half, a rare achievement as a villain, and the experience he had gained in that time was utterly priceless.
Mnemosyne's ability to ignore the obvious challenge of Lung standing outside of her target was also telling; she had a fairly good focus on her objectives, and the will to carry out her goals in the face of overwhelming opposition. She fought smarter as opposed to harder, and lacked the overwhelming pride of most Capes evidenced by their inability to focus on their objectives over a brawl.
She was dangerous. A Cape who possessed the self-control and focus she evidently had was very dangerous. What was more worrying was the lack of information about her powers; even the PRT knew next to nothing about her save for the fact she could fly in a similar manner to Rune, could slow down her falling speed by quite a bit, and was something of a Brute. Exactly how strong she was, or even what other powers she might possess, was up in the air.
Oni Lee didn't fear anything, aside from failing the Dragon, but he felt a decided amount of wariness towards Mnemosyne. Should he cross blades with her, he would show no hesitation in cutting her down without mercy. He never held back against any opponent, but one such as Mnemosyne deserved his full attention. And should he fall by her hand? Then it would be an honor to die to such a worthy opponent, in the service of his Master.
Same Time
Coil's Office, Underground Base, Brockton Bay
In one timeline, the office was neat, tidy and organized. In another, it was a wreck filled with dead bodies...at least before that simulation was closed.
Letting out a deep breath, Coil leaned back in his chair and scowled at the closed door to his office, brooding. Things had not been going according to the plan ever since this irritating Trump bitch Mnemosyne had shown up.
Oh yes, he was aware that Mnemosyne was a Trump-class Parahuman of some degree...mostly because the presence of a Trump made Thinker powers act in bizarre manners, distorting future predictions and making cold-reading hard. Even his splinterpoint simulation power became distorted around her, placing the oddest of things into possibility.
Such as the PRT Building spontaneously collapsing on itself when he was the only person in the building, for example, or even his base becoming flooded because the sprinkler system wouldn't turn off. Another time, he had been squashed to death by Menja falling breasts-first on top of him. He had never wanted to be 'snuu-snuu'd' to death, and he certainly hadn't wanted it to be when he was going to an early lunch!
Mnemosyne had to go. There was simply no other way he could carry on with his plans. In addition to interfering with his power (more than Dauntless did, for whatever reason), she had also crippled the ability of the gangs to enter into a gang war for quite some time, which had removed a key element in his plan to discredit Emily Piggot and usurp her position as the PRT ENE Director.
Yes, he had wanted the gangs to be weakened, but the only weakening had been of materiel and their street reputation. Their fighting strength was almost completely untouched, and now they were buckling down and actually being competent with the security of their information! His moles were, fortunately enough, spread widely and deeply enough in the Empire that he would get up-to-date information on the locations of their new weapons storehouses as they were set up, but the ABB was penetrated far less thoroughly, and he deemed it unlikely that he'd get to know more than a couple of them.
As for the Merchants, they were still trying to keep ahold of their current territory and planning on retrieving Skidmark and Squealer. Something that Coil felt inclined to help with, just to get a measure of petty revenge on Mnemosyne, who had been responsible for capturing them. Leaking the details to a suitably gullible druggie wouldn't be hard.
Huffing, he turned his mind to Cauldron, who were being immense pains in the ass as per usual. In order to buy the three vials that he had in his safe, he had needed to promise three more favors and pay a hefty chunk of capital, but they would be what was needed to make his men a more serious threat. A Tinker vial, as well as a Striker/Breaker vial and a Mover/Blaster vial, would seriously up the power of his troops, but they would be a dedicated assassination squad, with their target being Mnemosyne.
It was infuriating to admit, but he knew nothing about her that the gangs and PRT didn't already know. Part of it was her relative newness on the field, but another part was her caution and paranoia. He had no clue as to her objectives aside from 'attack the gangs', he had no idea who she was beneath the mask and he had no idea how to bring her to heel.
He had never, ever, wanted to feel as helpless as he had when he had shot his CO in the back to escape from Ellisburg, which was why he had sought out Cauldron and acquired a power. Specifically a Thinker-Precog type power, so he could fail however many times as was needed without his enemies knowing, and always emerging victorious in the end. He was no longer used to being impeded like this, and it grated on him like nothing else in the world.
'We shall see, Mnemosyne, if you can stand up to my little group...to the Titanomachy.' he thought grimly as he started to go through his roster of mercenaries for suitable candidates for the first vial.
And that's the tale of Mnemosyne over...for now.
I plan on ending this particular collection of ficlets at Chapter 250, then starting on another story afresh, so any second arcs will be in that one, if you're curious to know.
In other news, SB and SV went down until yesterday due to a bunch of stupid reasons involving a power outage, a generator going 'ptttht' and catching fire, and the water damaging things. It was very silly. Thankfully, everything's back up and running now.
The next ficlet I'll be working will be, as you have all hoped, [Survive, Adapt, Win]. Then I'll start on something new that I've had on the backburner for a while. Enjoy, and please review! Also, only review about this story, no asking about other fics in reviews please...