Just as a FYI, yes, I do in fact know that saying 'Taylor and me' is grammatically incorrect, but you have to remember that Skye is physically speaking, and when speaking, usually people are more lenient about exactly how things are worded.
Just heading that off at the pass, since I've used it once already and already gotten two different PMs pointing it out.
Chapter 12
Staring at the girl sat on Taylor's couch, looking very much like the cat who ate the canary and framed the dog, Skye resisted the urge to throw something at her.
It wasn't that Tattletale, or Lisa as she had also offered to them, was really that annoying, but her fascination with Skye was pretty off-putting. The way the girl had framed it was that her powers, basically a stupidly-high level of intuition and an ability to pull together snippets of information and make correct logical leaps to make a finished picture, were utterly ineffective on her. When she tried, apparently it was like she was looking at a blank wall, featureless, not even a crack or crater to give her any information. All she got was the fact she was looking at an impervious wall.
Taylor didn't have that protection, in only a minute or so she had found some of Taylor's deepest secrets, followed by her very promptly shutting up when Skye glared at her. She knew Taylor had powers of some kind, was hiding them from her father, and was in the process of saying something that made Taylor freak out, which was when she got the girl to shut up.
There were undoubtedly things her power had revealed, if the glances Lisa sent the two of them were any indication, that had gotten her very interested, but also very wary of saying them for fear of what Skye would do if she just blurted them out. And while Skye had a small nudging desire to know, it was way too over-the-line in terms of breaching Taylor's trust, making it pretty damn clear to Lisa that if she revealed that information to absolutely anybody, it would not go down in any way good for her.
Lisa had also explained that Coil had sent her, with the message exceptionally clear that she was to try to befriend them. Not under a guise or a thin veneer of spying on them, but because Coil felt it best that he have someone near them so that he wouldn't get caught flat-footed. He had made it clear to the girl, who in turn made it clear to them, that he had no intention of hiding the fact that Lisa was there so that he could keep appraised of their situation.
Amusingly enough, Coil had explicitly told her to tell them that he was not going to be deliberately using his powers against her. Each time he made a parallel reality, the other version of her would obviously exist, so if she got into danger through some kind of butterfly effect, it was not intended to be deliberate. Of course, that could have been a lie, but with how Coil had reacted to her, she doubted he'd be quite so bold as to pull something like that. And even if he was still going to be trying to find a way to subvert her, she could easily stop holding back so much and crush him with powers she wouldn't reveal unless she absolutely had to.
That fact led to Lisa starting to question her about pretty much everything that came to the blonde-haired girl's mind. Apparently, she could intuit some information from Taylor, but not nearly enough to satisfy her curiosity. And, of course, Skye was still heavily suspicious of her, making sure to not answer anything particularly obtrusive or sensitive, like Lisa's attempts to ferret out what exactly her powers were, aside from the obvious.
When all was said and done, she was left at a bit of a crossroads. Coil had requested that she allow Lisa to live with her, or at least try to spend time with her and keep her appraised of what they were planning, so she could, in turn, inform Coil about their activities, and he could then plan around that. His plans for Brockton Bay were as he had informed her, and her presence had the potential to not even be a speed-bump, or alternatively she could tear that entire line of thinking to shreds.
His main issue was supposedly the fact that he couldn't get a handle on how she intended to act. On one hand, she could keep on as she had told him she and Taylor intended with, meaning that she would stay away from combat and try to work with Parian, a route that meant he had nothing to worry about. But, on the other hand, she could tear apart the criminal element of Brockton Bay, which would achieve his goal, but would also leave a power vacuum for groups like the Teeth to try and fill. Coil intended to fill that gap, plugging the criminal hole that would emerge before new and potentially worse groups could do so, in effect taking over the criminal underground of the bay, but he'd need to be ready to do so, being caught flat-footed made it more likely that an even worse group took over the bay.
It was why he was so interested in keeping himself informed as to her intentions. If, as she was already intending, she started going out and fighting criminals, she had the potential to smash the criminal groups in the bay, just because her presence and abilities would attract their attention like moths to a flame, and would then light them on fire in turn, burning away the overconfident parahumans who would believe her to be an easy new cape to defeat or subvert to their way of thinking.
The ABB would either fight her or leave her alone, owing to the fact that she wasn't Asian, and thus they would have no interest in recruiting her. The Empire were far more likely to attempt to recruit her, owing to the fact she was white, but would also be likely to attack her thanks to the fact that she had absolutely no care for their ideology aside from loathing. They literally copied nazis, and while they hadn't started a second holocaust, it was probably only a matter of time before their fucked-up ideology started something even more horrific.
The Merchants were the lowest in interest for her out of the three groups. Drug-users and psychopaths, she would only attract their attention if she did something directly to them, especially since she obviously wasn't a drug user and held no interest in becoming one. Then again, that would require intelligence, and Skidmark, their leader, was possibly the only member of the entire group with maybe two brain-cells to rub together, considering some of the stupid crap the Merchants had pulled in the past.
But, getting back to the point, Coil was effectively asking her to willingly let his spy live either with her directly, or at least close enough that she might as well be. And the fact remained that honestly, it felt like it was just his attempt to get somebody ingratiated with her. She had a phone, she could easily just text him to inform him of changes. Of course, he could just be worried that it would slip her mind and the first thing he'd hear about her plans would be when the ABB collapsed inwardly from losing Lung. It could also be that he wanted a spy for her meeting with the Contessa, that was a distinct possibility, though unlikely given his reaction to the woman.
"Okay Lisa, here's the deal. I don't trust you. I think that your boss is just using you as an impromptu spy and an attempt to get someone into my good graces so he can nudge me away from any ideas that he wouldn't be happy about." To her credit, Lisa didn't seem very affected by her words, just waiting for her to go on. "So, instead of that plan, I propose a new one. You go about being normal, and maybe once a week we can meet up at a cafe on the Boardwalk to talk about plans or whatever...actually..." Skye turned her gaze to Taylor, running ideas through her head.
Lisa was a Thinker, and a pretty damn good one. Sure, it was as an analyst, but maybe they could actually incorporate her into their fledgeling little group. Of course, the problem with that was that Lisa was already locally known as Tattletale, a villain, and while her powers hadn't been accurately documented, they had been closely speculated upon based on what she had shown. But that was pretty easy to fix, some hair dye and a different costume and she'd be able to just play her powers off as a Thinker. Tattletale disappearing from the villain scene would definitely tip a few people off about them, but there wasn't exactly anything they could do to prove that Lisa was Tattletale. "You know, this sort of thing usually goes better when you don't keep all your ideas in your head."
Blinking, Skye realized she'd been silent for maybe a minute as she ran things through her head. Sighing, she leaned back against the cushions. "Okay, hear me out about this. Taylor and me, we were thinking of actually going out to do fighting, and when you showed up, we were starting to talk about what we'd have to do if we actually planned to go out and fight. Taylor would have to tell her dad, and we'd have to be ready for the sudden backlash of interest at Winslow, since with my tail and ears I can't hide who I am. So, what if you joined us? If you dyed your hair or something, you could wear a different costume to split from Tattletale and be someone new, you'd be able to keep easily apprised of what criminal-related stuff we're getting up to without having to basically be a spy. Though, it does mean you'd have to be willing to actually fight criminals." Lisa glanced between them both before frowning.
"Look, I never planned to be a villain. It was either become Tattletale, or get a nine-millimetre bullet through my skull courtesy of a certain snake." Skye's eyes narrowed, her slightly-raised opinion of Coil falling straight through the floor. "And, before all this, I didn't exactly have a chance to be a hero or a vigilante or anything like that. I was too busy running from my past. So, if you two are willing to bring me on-board, I'm more than happy to join. Coil gave me pretty much carte-blanche to do anything to stay in your good books, so if that means being a vigilante instead of a villain, I'm one-hundred-percent okay with that." Nodding, Skye turned to face Taylor, who seemed pretty deep in thought.
She waited a moment before waving her tail in front of her face, grinning when she saw her jolt back in surprise before reaching for the furry appendage, "I guess? I don't know, we haven't exactly fleshed out our plan anyway. I don't...I think my dad would probably freak out and try to wrap me in cotton and ship me off to the Wards if I told him I have powers. After...mom, I don't think he would survive if I got really hurt or killed. He almost fell apart entirely when he visited me at the hospital, and...that was psychological damage more than physical, making it harder to be seen. I think if I ended up in a hospital bed with heavy lacerations or something he could physically see..." Skye watched Taylor shiver, curling her tail slightly to rest the tip on her shoulder.
"Yeah, I can see what you mean. For me it's not an issue, my mother would probably just keep on existing as-is, though she'd probably be annoyed if I got hospitalized and stopped making food. Even if she puts two-and-two together and figures out that I have powers, she would probably just shrug and leave me to it." Stretching, Skye pushed her focus onto Lisa, giving her a curious look. "So, how much about what I and Taylor can do did Coil give you?"
Lisa hummed. "Well, he didn't tell me much about Taylor, because my power pieced together most of what she can do on its own just from being here. For you, all he said was that you can duplicate objects seemingly permanently, apparently just by touching them. You can make them disappear at will, he doesn't know if you have a weight or complexity limit but suspects it, and he is exceptionally confused about your, y'know...?" She watched with a thin smirk as Lisa gestured at her head and her behind.
"...Right. Okay, we can work with that I guess. I do have a sort-of limit, I can't duplicate buildings or anything like that, and I can't replicate human beings, but as long as I touch something and it isn't too large, I can copy it pretty much indefinitely. However, it also accumulates mental strain, so if I duplicated a car five times, I'd probably knock myself out and cause an aneurysm." It wouldn't, but that was the line she was going to be selling to stop people from demanding that she use her powers to duplicate endless supplies of something like blood or PVC or steel. If she established no limitation to the quantity, then she could easily see herself crushed by a wave of public pressure to become a living material producer.
But, with the limitation that using her power too much could cause her brain damage in too-significant a quantity, nobody could demand that she use her powers in that way. Well, they could demand it, sure, but she'd have a damn good reason for not listening. Plus, it wasn't like she could be forced to do it, not if she didn't want to. Maybe duplicating some kind of weapon or armour or something to give to the PRT as a show of good-will would go down well. Though, when she thought about it, there were actually ways she could be forced to do things. She hadn't encountered a master yet, meaning she wasn't sure if she was immune to their effect.
And the thought of someone like Heartbreaker coming along and just...controlling her, that thought scared her more than anything else. She would be more willing to cut out her own eyes with scalpels than let anyone ever control her like that. Not being able to control herself, being forced along at the whims of someone else...it took her thinking about it, but she realized that it was actually probably her biggest fear. Combat didn't really matter to her of course, she wasn't afraid of getting hurt, though she'd avoid it where possible. But losing her own free will, potentially being ordered to attack others like a fucking dog?
She'd rather kill herself than be controlled like that.
It took a while, but eventually she, Taylor and Lisa were able to hash things out.
Coil was paying Lisa enough cash for an apartment in the same building Skye lived in, and while Skye vaguely felt like she could trust the girl, there was a difference between tentative trust and sleeping together in the same room. Maybe after a trial period of working together she'd be able to decide whether the girl was actually trustworthy enough to live with, but for now, she'd be just living in the same building. And while it irked her, Taylor was going to be the one crossing the city to come to her apartment, thanks to the fact that her mother was a lot less caring about what she got up to than Taylor's father, who would definitely notice the sudden gathering of three girls and get curious.
That fact alone, that Taylor was going to have to cross the city alone to come and meet up, made her feel cold and...afraid almost. Sure, Taylor wasn't an idiot, she was strong and kept her eyes out using her bugs, but that didn't stop her from being worried. Before they had decided on this, every time Taylor had come round, it had been both of them walking there straight after school, and she'd always walked Taylor back to her house. Having Taylor cross ABB territory to get to her apartment from her home just made her uncomfortable, but outside of getting Taylor to stay over on those nights they intended to meet up, there wasn't much she could say to protest.
If she got pushy about it, Taylor would probably see her as being possessive or controlling or something, and she really didn't want that to be her thoughts. It was just that, for the past however-long, she hadn't had anyone she had to look out for, and the idea that she couldn't be there to help them and protect them really got under her skin. It was something she'd have to learn to deal with lest she become some kind of controlling psycho, but it didn't mean that her stomach wasn't currently doing innumerable backflips even as she calmed herself with the repetitive stirring of food in a pot.
Tonight was going to be their first excursion, and Taylor was undertaking her third journey across the city. It was the afternoon, not nighttime, and so not quite as dangerous, but it didn't make her feel better. The only upside was that Lisa, who was currently lounging on the sofa and using her laptop, was able to recognize the signs of agitation she was clearly displaying even without her powers, and was wisely keeping her mouth shut about it.
The girl had a rather infuriating need to be the smartest person in the room, and since her powers didn't work on Skye, that just left her with her own natural abilities of deduction. She hadn't said anything too bad, but it still wasn't very pleasant to be on the other end of her verbal dismantling. Of course, the girl was exceptionally careful after she'd started drawing connections between her and Taylor that made her distinctly uncomfortable, and her sudden avoidance of the subject entirely told her more than she needed to know about Lisa. Obviously, she'd pieced something together that she knew would really piss Skye off, and was keeping it incredibly close to her chest. Since she was a smart girl, she knew that while she could get away with a little casual needling now and then, anything too extreme would definitely see repercussions of some form.
Not violent, she wasn't a sociopath or anything, but it was probably the kind of thing that'd see her out on her ass. And considering what Lisa had said about her own circumstances, of either becoming a villain or getting shot in the head, she was probably very keen to make sure Coil had absolutely no reason to get angry at her. Maybe he would be understanding, but if she got kicked out for blurting out something private or perhaps even unrealized, Coil would definitely be displeased with her at best.
Her thoughts on Coil let her onto thinking about the absence of the sparks of danger she had been intermittently receiving. It had only occurred once in the week since Lisa had shown up, and the day after it occurred Lisa had informed her that Coil had attempted a larger operation, the ripple effects of which caused the ABB to attack her and Taylor on their way back to Taylor's house, upon which he dropped that timeline and sent the message to Lisa to inform her, keeping her in the loop about some of what he was doing.
In kind, she kept Lisa appraised of their plans, considering she was going to be a member of their little group, who in turn could inform Coil about them as she deemed necessary. If Lisa held information back, well, it was up to her. Skye wasn't exactly responsible for how loyal the girl was to the man who effectively had a gun to her head. If they started on something that would interfere with Coil, the blame would be laid solely at Lisa's feet, something the girl obviously understood based on her intelligence. So, it was in her best interests to make sure Coil knew anything he needed to know, and she could withhold any information she felt he didn't need, to use as she pleased.
Not that there was really anything she was worried about. Lisa obviously knew that fucking with her was a one-way trip to a grave, and fucking with Taylor or anyone she cared about was equally suicidal, so the chance of her trying to use any information she discovered against them was basically zero. Maybe she assumed that with enough information she could go to the Protectorate, but she didn't seem that dumb. Coil had his fangs deeply embedded into that organization, and if she tried to flee there, he'd probably have her dead within a day.
A knocking at the door pulled her from her thoughts, and she turned to glance at Lisa before rolling her eyes and throwing open the door, heading back to the stove to avoid burning anything as Taylor stepped inside. There were two bags in her grip, and within was undoubtedly the main reason they'd waited a week to have their debut. Skye had her Praetor Suit, but neither Taylor nor Lisa had proper costumes.
Of course, said Praetor Suit had been modified, necessary additions thanks to her tail and ears, but it wasn't a big deal. The helmet had been adjusted slightly with little pyramidal sections to accommodate her ears, and a metal tail-piece was now connected to the back of the suit for her other appendage to inhabit. It would actually have the added benefit of making her even more lethal, since the tail-armour had small spikes and blades with which she could use to attack or use to stab the ground and hold herself in place more firmly.
Modifying it had taken a few hours, since the suit wasn't exactly simple technology, but she'd managed it, thanks partly to the fact she was already used to taking the suit apart and adding modified additions like the Delta-V boot thrusters, and partly to the fact that she was doing it all in her mind, meaning if she made a mistake she could just undo it with no issue.
She heard as Taylor tossed one of the bags towards Lisa, the ruffling noise clear to her hearing as it impacted the girl, before idly noting the footsteps bringing her up behind Skye. That was the main reason she didn't jump when Taylor looped something over her head suddenly and placed it around her neck, a quick glance showing it to be one of the scarves she'd been working on. Reaching up, she tugged on it gently, turning to give Taylor a smile. "Thanks, Taylor, it's...stupidly soft actually, jeez. So these things are pretty tough then?"
"Against knives and slashes yeah, they can stand up to a moderate amount of punishment, but I'd watch out for open flames. They aren't flammable, and thanks to how densely-woven they are they won't just immediately contract or anything, but they'll melt if you let them get hit by fire for too long." Skye took up the end of the scarf, rolling it between her fingers slowly.
Honestly, it just felt like really soft fabric, mixed with her tail fur, which itself was absurdly soft. It wasn't exactly meant to be durable, but she supposed making the scarves was also Taylor's way of practising for making the two bodysuits she had made, one for Lisa and one for herself. Skye was going to be using her Praetor Suit obviously, but the outfits Taylor had made for herself and Lisa would need to be strong, and if they could protect for a short while against slashing attacks, it'd be better than nothing. "Oh, that reminds me, I looked into making some kind of armour out of carapace, but even using the toughest I could find, it'd be worse than just layering more spider silk, considering this cushions me, and isn't an amalgamation of dead beetle exoskeletons." Skye snorted, glancing over at her to see that she was laying out her bodysuit.
The one Lisa was holding was pretty much the same, except they had different patterning and small changes here and there, enough to make differentiating between the two easy enough. One thing they were undecided upon were masks. Skye saw no real need to bother with them, because the fact remained that it would take just a very cursory look through the city to find out who Skye was, then from there who she hung out with. Since she literally had one friend and one acquaintance, both of whom would match their descriptions, hiding who they were was pretty pointless.
Taylor had argued that the unwritten rules meant that even if people did look into that, the fact that they would have a clear divide between cape and civilian meant that nobody could attack them claiming they were attacking their cape identity. In the end they decided that for their first few outings, they would be wearing masks, or in Skye's case her helmet, and then as they got settled into the cape scene, they could debate whether or not to take their masks off. Taylor was relatively safe from being ambushed, and Lisa was in the same building, so if either got attacked, they had ways to protect themselves.
And if someone attacked Skye, they would definitely regret it.
Kneeling on the edge of a building, Skye didn't hold back the small frown from her lips.
Taylor and Lisa were on the ground, neither of them had the same level of mobility that she did, so while Taylor scouted with her bugs and Lisa tried to figure out if anyone criminal was around, Skye used the buildings to stay out of sight, ready to leap down if she needed to. But so far, in an hour of patrolling around, they hadn't encountered anybody even vaguely criminal.
She supposed it made sense. The Wards only got into fights occasionally, and it was the same with the Protectorate. It wasn't like going outside and finding fights every single night, even if her brain honestly assumed that she'd be doing just that, for some stupid reason. No, they'd spent an hour, and all they had to show for it was that, for all that Brockton Bay was a hotspot of capes and crime, it wasn't likely that they would find criminals every single day.
It was probably partially the fact that they were hanging around the Trainyards, which weren't exactly a hotspot of visible crime. Heading all the way across the Docks to get to Downtown was a bit far to travel for their first night out, and it would put them squarely in the patrol area of the Wards. Sure, she didn't think an encounter would go poorly, but the fact that her Praetor Suit was pretty menacing, as well as Taylor and Lisa's outfits being pitch-black, didn't exactly paint them in a bright and flashy heroic light.
The Trainyards were ABB territory, and every so often they saw someone walking around sporting their colours, but just because they were wearing the correct clothing, were Asian and had tattoos, did not mean by any stretch of the imagination that they could go after them. Lisa had been very helpful for them in learning what exactly they were allowed to do.
As vigilantes, they were allowed to take down anyone in the process of performing a crime, much like a citizen's arrest. The laws around excessive force were a bit skewed in favour of the capes though, to the point that if there were broken arms involved in a run-of-the-mill robbery, they wouldn't get punished for it. If there was an attempted murder, and the person doing the murdering ended up dead, so long as they could prove that there was a significant risk to life, they wouldn't get a strike against their names.
But on the other hand, they had to toe the line very carefully. Bringing in battered and injured criminals constantly wasn't a good idea. Knockouts and stuns were the aim of the game, using lethal force was not a wise idea. And that way lay the main issue. Skye's Praetor Suit could take any conventional weapon impacts without a scratch. That meant that even if she encountered a group of criminals with guns who started shooting at her, she wasn't allowed to use lethal force, since she wasn't in mortal peril. Taylor and Lisa were able to do so, since their bodysuits, whilst protective, wouldn't protect against armour-piercing rounds or a higher calibre than a pistol round.
They also each had micro-cameras, courtesy of Skye's abilities, which would record everything and give a good record of exactly what they'd been getting up to. if, in future, someone tried to paint them as violent or unstable, all they'd need to do is showcase their past actions to make that argument fall to pieces. For example, their current actions, diligently patrolling the streets and keeping an eye out for criminals. They weren't frantically blitzing around looking for fights, instead making their presence known to the civilians that were around, making themselves a visible target.
Or at least, Taylor and Lisa were doing so. Skye was much less visible than they were, and that was their plan. If Taylor and Lisa were attacked by something they couldn't handle, Skye would stop in to beat them down. They, like everyone else, had no idea where Lung or Oni Lee were, so there was a small chance of running into one of the two capes, but it was incredibly unlikely. What was more likely was an E88 cape running across them during a mission, since there were so many more of them. The ABB only had two capes, while E88 had at least a dozen, more than the local Protectorate or the Wards had.
According to Lisa, there was one cape in Brockton Bay that she thought Skye had a real need to worry about, Crusader. The other capes were more conventional, but Crusader could stab her straight through the Praetor Suit, his projections being favourably manton-limited to pass through inorganic matter, but piercing people without an issue. So he could just stab one of his spears straight into her, ignoring any amount of armour she could generate.
That didn't mean that other capes weren't dangerous, but they were more conventionally dangerous, big hitters and fast movers. Crusader was the only one that could entirely ignore her armour. Purity might be able to overwhelm it, Fog could potentially poison her and Cricket might be able to disorientate her, but really, Crusader had the most dangerous power.
Those were just from the Empire Capes obviously. The Merchants had nobody inherently dangerous to her, and from the Protectorate heroes, the only significant danger there was Armsmaster, his halberds could potentially pierce her armour. From the Wards, Shadow Stalker was the most dangerous of the group, her arrows could be phased through her helmet and into her head, or anywhere really.
Other Wards had powers that could cause issues as well, like Clockblocker being able to freeze her in time, but for the most part, the other Wards weren't a big deal. New Wave was even less of a big deal, at least in terms of special abilities. Glory Girl had her strength, obviously, and many of the group had significantly dangerous attacks, but nothing that could negate her defences. Panacea was the most dangerous, and she required skin contact to operate, so as long as the integrity of her suit was able to keep her protected, the girl wouldn't be able to do anything to her.
It wasn't that they expected to fight any of them, but being prepared in case of an encounter in the case of the villains, or a misunderstanding in the case of the heroes, was really the best option. And understanding which were the biggest threats was a good way to go about things. Not to say that Lisa didn't also drill them a little on which of the groups were the most volatile, the most confrontational, and the most likely to actually listen if they tried to speak.
Encountering Armsmaster would likely lead to aggression and confrontation owing to his ways of acting, whereas meeting Miss Militia was far more likely to turn out alright, owing to Skye's past meeting and discussion with her, as well as the fact she was far more level-headed and less 'glory-seeking' than the other hero. Meeting Lung or Oni Lee was basically guaranteed to turn into a fight, for obvious reasons, whereas quite a few of the Empire 88 capes would probably converse with them in an attempt to recruit them, owing to the fact that they were in ABB territory and obviously not ABB members thanks to the colour of their costumes. New Wave was a bit more difficult, but it was likely that if they met them, it wouldn't end in a confrontation.
All theory, but Lisa had taken time to analyze the various capes in the city beforehand, owing to her position as a villain, meaning her information had already been solid beforehand. There was the slim chance she was misleading them, but after living in the same building as her for a week, and having her over pretty much every day, left her wit ha pretty solid picture of Lisa, and she didn't seem the type to try and betray them. Even if she did, Skye was confident she could handle it. Not that she arrogantly assumed she could handle anything, capes like Gray Boy existed, and she couldn't see an easy way to handle that, so settled for simply obliterating anything like him with an unrestricted BFG-9000 shot.
That was something else she had messed with. As she suspected when she first took the weapon, it was heavily neutered, the released Argent Energy being contained within a tight electromagnetic field, which still let sparks of the energy out, using living matter as a conduit, which was why the sparks hit and effectively disintegrated its targets. When unrestricted, she expected that the impact of the shot would be far more explosive.
Another modification she had made was to the Gauss Cannon. The ammunition had been changed, taking away the bland steel flechettes, and replacing them with destabilized Argent Energy Cores. That was the name for the power source contained within the BFG-9000, except without the destabilized part. The core could endure being fired, but upon impact, it would break containment, letting pure Argent Energy explode out of its containment.
She had tested it, grinning slightly as she recalled the crater she had accidentally made in the forest. The problem was that it attracted a fuck-ton of attention, and the fact that a ball of Argent Energy remained floating at the centre of the crater and sparking for a good five minutes. The sparks fried any living creature that got close, which meant that firing it would announce that she was the one with 'dangerous tinker-tech', and would see the PRT on her ass pretty damn quickly. So no, that was an emergency weapon, the kind she'd use if she had absolutely no other choice.
Sighing, she leapt across the street onto the next building, using short and weak bursts from her boots to guide her flight and ensure she landed as gently as the Praetor Suit was capable of. Honestly, it was a little disconcerting how little activity they'd seen so far. Not a single criminal act in over an hour of wandering around. Maybe they had some kind of informants or drones or something watching them, and they were making sure to keep all their mooks away while they got Oni Lee or Lung to come out and deal with them. If that was the case, she had to admire their intelligence, even if she doubted it'd help them much.
Oni Lee was pretty dangerous, he had a nasty habit of using an ash clone to drop fragmentation grenades, abusing the time-limit of their cloned existence to make the grenades explode. It was just fortunate that ABB didn't have access to a Tinker, otherwise he'd definitely have more dangerous grenades to drop. The grenades didn't worry her, the Praetor Suit, now that it wasn't running off that silly system that the ball had rigged up, would take the impact with ease. But it wasn't her she was worried about. A single fragmentation grenade in front of Taylor or Lisa and they'd be dead. The suits would maybe stop the shrapnel, but the pressure wave from the detonation would rupture their internal organs with ease.
Still, while he was dangerous, Lung had the potential to be much worse. If she encountered him, her plan was basically to blast his limbs off with a few Gauss Cannon shots...regular shots that was, not AEC rounds, as she had taken to calling the modified shots. With his limbs shot off, it would hopefully put him out of action. She would prefer shooting him in the brain and stopping him for certain, but some-fucking-how, the PRT hadn't issued him a Kill Order, probably because of his contribution to fighting Leviathan, even if it still ended up with Kyushu underwater.
Everybody knew the ABB were fucking scum, and since Lung was the leader, the shit they got up to fell on his head, yet despite the fact they raped, murdered, and even forced some into sexual slavery, he still was left alone, on the off-chance that the 'dragon' would make an appearance at an Endbringer fight, not that he had. Of course, this information wasn't publicly known, it had come in the form of a very pissed-off rant from Lisa when they had come to him. Curiously enough, Lisa didn't actually seem that pissed off about Lung, just the fact that the ABB got away with so much crap, just because Lung had the potential to fight an Endbringer off.
He had performed a pretty impressive act, and the PRT let him get away with letting his gang fuck up Brockton Bay, just in the hopes that he would fight off an Endbringer again. Lung never showed any intention of going to another Endbringer fight, and yet, they still held out hope. 'Oh, maybe next time he'll come' was probably the way of thinking surrounding why Lung didn't have a Kill Order on his head. Oni Lee had a Kill Order owing to the dozens he had killed, including several capes, but Lung didn't.
Curiously enough, at least from what she had gleaned from Parahumans Online forums and the page set up specifically for him, he hadn't actually killed very many people. Sure, there were a few kills here and there, and those made her pretty pissed, but for the most part, while he was painted as a fucking monster, and the fact he ran the ABB and let them get away with fucked-up shit like they did definitely made him qualify for getting his head blasted off, he hadn't actually directly killed very many people.
The kill-count of the ABB itself, however, lent credence to the idea that he didn't kill his enemies himself. Instead, he just had his gang do the killings. A very underhanded and sneaky trick, not something she'd expect from effectively the embodiment of being struck, getting tougher and stronger, then striking back harder than before, but it did make at least a decent modicum of sense.
Right up until Lisa pointed out that if he really was that underhanded, he would have leveraged his position in Brockton Bay to more effectively control the city. In his early days, sure, he couldn't really do that, but now, he had more than enough power and capabilities to push out the Merchants, then turn and crush the Empire, much like how Hitler crushed France then turned and began to crush Russia back in the 40s. With Oni Lee's capabilities, his advantage in numbers, and his own power, he could definitely pull it off.
It turned into a bit of a verbal sparring match as they debated back and forth, eventually settling on the fact that he could definitely start it, but the Protectorate would never allow him to do so. That left Lisa to then, with a smug grin on her face, point out that Lung was actually doing what he was doing because his position in Brockton Bay was stable. He was earning money, earning recruits, and he was able to keep a firm hold of his current territory with ease. Unless he was greedy, there was no point in trying to push an expansion, not when right now, everything was on the rise.
The Protectorate couldn't dislodge them, and neither of the other two main gangs were willing to attack, since the other gang would pounce on their distraction and claim territory for themselves. The ABB had the fewest capes, sure, but they also had the largest regular population to draw from. That was most of the reason why they chose to go after ABB territory rather than either other group, they wanted to cut their teeth on regular criminals, rather than leaping straight into a cape battle.
Her lips curled down as she spied Taylor waving up at her, hopping off the building and activating her boots to steady her descent. Lisa spoke up just as her boots touched the ground. "I think we should head back. It's been almost two hours now and we haven't seen or heard anything going on. Taylor has been keeping an eye out with her bugs, but tonight is just one of those quiet nights where nobody has anything going on. We could go down to Archer's Bridge and see about whacking a few Merchants, but it's across the entire city, and I don't think you two want to wreck your sleeping patterns immediately."
Skye shrugged. "Sure. I mean, I kinda hoped for something to happen, but it's probably best we get it into our heads that being a cape doesn't mean fights every night." Lisa and Taylor both nodded at that. It wouldn't do for their first night to have a bunch of action, just for the next week or two to be utterly routine and boring. Getting into the groove of patrolling and coordinating would be best. "So, guess we should..." Glancing upwards but keeping her helmet still, Skye narrowed her eyes. "...move."
The other two looked confused for a moment, but when she suddenly leapt upwards, they got the message, splitting apart as they spun to look in the direction she'd been facing, then upwards as they saw her gliding towards the figures she'd seen on the roof. As she pulled out her pistol and held it out to the side, she really cursed Murphy's Law, as well as whatever other laws of bullshit there were.
It was just her luck that, just as she began to actually think that a quiet first night out was good for the three of them, Uber and fucking L33t had to show up.
Yay for cliffhangers!
To be honest, all the way through the last segment, I intended for it to be a peaceful night, a more realistic one than 'hero/heroes go out, find bad guys on the first night, have a big knock-down drag-out fight that hammers into them their need to train, then they somehow pull a win out of the bag and limp home to lick their wounds'. But then I said fuck it, Skye already knows how to fight, and Uber and L33t are fun enemies for her to go against, not that dangerous really, but still interesting, and with a wide repertoire of stuff to call upon.
Also, just curious, and I don't want to annoy people by writing in a way they don't want, but who here would prefer me to write L33t as Leet? Because I can write either one.
Reviews equal awesomeness and sweetness, so please scribble one out for me ^.^
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