[Taylor Hebert]
"What!" Calvert sounded shocked.
"I said I decline your order and resign from the Wards and the PRT," I replied coldly. This was just too much. I would not sit out what was effectively a war in my own home just because this jackass thought I was too valuable to lose. Too valuable to use, except in very specific situations, apparently. That is not what I signed up for.
"Don't be foolish," he said contemptuously.
"I'm not. I'm correcting a mistake," I replied.
His eyes shifted. "Dragon. You are ordered not to provide transport to bring Miss Hebert back to Brockton Bay. Understood?"
"Very well, Commander," she replied woodenly.
"You may think you're out of the Wards, but you're still not getting home any time soon." He pressed with visible force whatever button he needed to disconnect.
"I'm sorry Taylor, but I have to obey orders," Dragon said, her eyes filled with sympathy.
"Even illegal ones?" I asked. "As far as I can tell, you, on Calvert's order, have taken a minor female across an international border and intend to abandon or imprison me here. That sounds lot like human trafficking to me. Criminal neglect and abandonment at the least."
She looked at me silently for several seconds. Then smiled. "You're right. And international law does supersede the orders of a PRT commander, especially one outside my chain of command."
"So, you have to return me to the US, right?"
"Let's stipulate that for the moment. Returning you to the closest Wards base in the US would put you in Seattle," she said hesitantly.
"Seattle? That's taking me further from my home and legal guardian without his permission."
"So it is. I can't justify taking you further into the US, so we have to find a Wards base near the Canadian border."
"And you're not willing to take me to Brockton Bay?"
"I cannot."
"How about Boston?"
"Too far south, I would be bypassing a Wards base."
"What about Chicago or Detroit?"
"I am afraid the best I can do is Minneapolis," Dragon concluded. "It's the first Wards base we will find within a reasonable distance from the border while traveling east from this point."
I paused and though about it. Not ideal, but I could work with it.
"Very well," I replied.
"ETA in seventy-four minutes." She paused for a several seconds then said in a diffident tone. "Please excuse me if this is too personal, but it seemed like there was more reason for your resignation than an unwelcome, even unreasonable, relocation order. If you'd like to talk about it, we have some time. Occasionally an outside perspective can help."
I knew she was Protectorate, but she was also a tinker – the tinker really – and I was two for three with Protectorate tinkers being reasonable, even helpful to me. I had already burned my bridge. Maybe she could help me get the word out as to why. I knew Glenn Chambers would already be drafting a press release explaining how Bakuda's attacks were probably my fault for arresting Lung or something.
"It started a long time before I triggered…"
[Coil]
"I don't care how you do it, Commander," Piggot snarled. "If you don't have Taylor Hebert back in Brockton Bay and on the team by Friday, you are going to be personally explaining to Costa-Brown and Legend exactly how you lost the PRT and Protectorate the power-nullifier that singlehandedly captured Lung and prevented his escape. The girl who has the potential to stop almost any individual villainous cape."
"Ma'am," Coil in his Calvert disguise replied stoically.
"You screwed up, Thomas," Her voice was cold. "Fix it."
He nodded and left her office. Bitch, he thought with little heat. He and Piggy had been butting heads for more than a decade. Their hatred was real, but the sharp edges had been worn off by their constantly grinding against each other over the years.
I got rid of Hebert for a reason. It's so good to be able to sit at my own desk without risking losing my second timeline just because some girl happens to walk into the cafeteria that some fool build two floors under my office. Her mere presence in the Bay occasionally interfered with my powers, despite being well outside her range. Not even my little Tattletale could explain why that happened. There's no way I'm bringing Hebert back unless I need her. If I reach a deal with Accord's vagrants, I might need her as a check on the monster. Or I could arrange for one of Kaiser's goons to "accidently" kill her father. That could lead to a massacre while I go back to Washington for a few weeks. She is useful. I just can't have her cluttering up my city until I have use for her.
But who to take the blame for the current situation? It was Piggy, or at least her lapdog, Renick, who put together that oh so problematic Team Nemesis, well before they were given to me. He grinned internally. Hollis had been his creature since he had learned of her gambling problem three years ago. Beck had just been a fortuitous result of some data mining in the HR confidential files. Forcing Hollis to request her specifically had been easy enough, as had been forcing his pawn to ignore, even encourage, the shooter's behavior towards the girl. So, Hollis as team lead goes down. Renick as well for not doing the necessary due diligence on the psychological profiles of the team. And Piggot for not spotting the problem before she handed it to me. One more strike against her. It's so nice when they line up to take the blame for my plans.
"Agent Hollis," Coil called on the phone.
"Sir?" she answered.
"Meet me at the garage entrance. We need to go for a ride."
Coil was waiting in his Camry for the agent as she exited the PRT building. "Get in." he ordered.
"What do you need?" she asked. Coil knew she hated her connection to him. She wanted to be a 'good' agent, but he had leveraged her weakness and now she was in far too deeply to deny him anything. Getting cashiered was the least of her worries if he exposed her.
He waited until they were out of the garage and on Baker Street before answering her. "It's been three days since she was release in the Midwest. Any sign of her."
"No," Hollis replied quickly. "Her father has been staying at the Dockworker's union hall. But he hasn't seen her. I'll check back there again later this morning. Wherever she is, she's been avoiding PRT offices and hasn't been using her PRT ID."
Coil nodded as he stopped at a red light, several cars back from the intersection.
"Holy fuck!" Hollis called.
Before he could ask her what she was shouting about, he spotted Hebert walking towards them on the sidewalk, a large duffle over her shoulder. As her negation field enveloped him, he felt his connection to his power fracture. The severing of his other timeline where he was safely ensconced in his underground base caused a painful neural feedback that prevented him from reacting.
Then the world shattered.
[Taylor Hebert]
I had only gotten back to Brockton Bay late last night. It had been a long run from Minnesota, even at forty miles per hour. I had managed to cage a few rides, mostly from bored truckers. But that had only cut a half day off the trip. The only money I had on me was a cash card Dragon had given me. I assumed she was able to track its use, so I was expecting the PRT to know I was back in town.
As soon as Dragon had dropped me off in Minneapolis, rather than going into the Protectorate headquarters, I started running south. I had called my father as soon as I was on the road. He had not been happy.
"They kidnapped you. Abandoned you. Calle is gonna love this. He's been waiting to sue the PRT for years." I could hear the sort of cold anger Dad usually reserved for the spineless politicians at City Hall. "I've also got Youth Guard's number around here somewhere. They contacted me when you joined the Wards. They might even be able to arrange to get you home."
"That's ok," I said. "I can make it home. I just wanted you to know I didn't leave voluntarily. I know how upset you got when I went skiing. I wouldn't do that to you again."
"Just get home safe. We'll work this out." His voice cracked.
We talked a lot over the three days I was on the road. We were both aware that he was in the middle of a war zone and any minute could be his last. Neither of us wanted to leave the important words unsaid. It was cathartic.
It was late on the 18th when I got to the DWA. I think he may have cracked one of my ribs with his welcome embrace.
My first morning back in Brockton Bay I stuffed my armor in a duffle bag and started for the PRT building. I wanted to return it before they could accuse me of theft of government property.
As I approached the building, I noticed someone staring at me in one of the cars on the road. I had time to recognize Hollis and Calvert in a late model sedan waiting in a line of cars when the bomb detonated.
First a wave of energy swept out from a point across the street. It transformed everything it touched into glass. I threw myself away from the wave, but it caught the heel of my boot, pinning me to the altered pavement. Less than a second later a second explosion sent a pressure wave that blasted the glass sculptures, scattering shards of crystalline shrapnel over the crowded street.
The blast flung me into the side of a brick building, cracking the wall and showering me with masonry. My clothes were shredded, and I was bleeding from several cuts. Ignoring the pain, I forced myself to my feet. The pain when I stood on my left foot let me know the glass bomb had caught more than my boot. I hoped it would heal.
The scene around me was a nightmare. Shattered glass and bloody chunks that used to be people. Dust and debris covering everything.
Calling in help was my first task. The weeks of PRT emergency training and re-training had not been a complete waste. Unfortunately, my phone had not survived the impact. I grabbed the helmet out of my duffle and jammed it on my head.
"Nemesis 073316 Emergency. Dual bomb detonation at Baker and Wilde," I reported as soon as I got a response. "Mass casualty. Glass and concussion. Beginning S&R. Nemesis out."
"Roger Nemesis. Dual Detonation at Baker and Wilde. Alerting responders. There are no capes available," replied the dispatcher.
"Inform command I think I saw Commander Calvert and Agent Hollis in the glass bomb radius."
"Copy that," answered the suddenly stony dispatcher.
I spent the next three hours trying to find every survivor. Propping up damaged walls while people evacuated and ripping open crumpled cars so EMTs could reach the injured inside. Every life saved was a triumph. Every failure was a tragedy. There were a lot more tragedies.
After it was done. The PRT agent in charge told me to keep the armor, at least for the duration of the current emergency. I just nodded and turned towards the Docks.
I needed my father, and this time I trusted he would be there.
[Delroy Fish]
"It's been two days!" Freeman, dressed in his full Coil costume, shouted and pounding his fist on the boss' desk. "What the fuck are we supposed to do?"
Fish frowned. Freeman was freaking out because Coil had missed two daily check-ins, something that had not happened in the time either had worked for him. SOP was that if the boss did not check in today, they were to start closing the operations. After five days with no check-in, they were to burn the place down, scrubbing all systems and scattering the forces to out of town installations. A month and they were to cash out and burn it all. Fish had his doubts on whether that was the best option.
"Do you think you could do your stand-in schtick at the proposed meeting without the boss in your ear?" Fish asked, putting his hand on Freeman's shoulder to lend him some, if not courage, at least some composure.
"Yeah. Maybe. It depends on if there are any surprises." Freeman was an experienced merc that the boss had hired because of their near identical physical dimensions. He had then been sent to an intense school for stand-ins run by former KGB in Kazakhstan. He was good at playing the boss as long as he wore the mask. But he was not the smartest tool in the box and not a quick thinker.
"How about if I'm talking you through it?" Fish asked.
"Yeah. As long as you don't screw up. I'm the one who'll be in a room full of capes."
"Half or more of which will work for us, if we can close those deals in the next few days." Fish started pacing in the tight office. This was the boss' "public" office where either he or Freeman met with people within the organization.
Fish, who was Coil's ops officer, acting as the primary contact with the mercenary forces, knew the boss had a private office where he spent most of his time. But he did not meet anyone there. It was quite possible that he was sleeping off a bender in that secret office and would crawl out at any time. Or he could have had had a stroke and they would only find him when he started to stink up the place. Whatever the case, the man was rich and had built up a multimillion-dollar organization. He had plans in motion that likely end up with Coil in charge of the city, or at least a large part of it.
Fish was privy to some of those plans, as it had been his job to handle a lot of the mundane details needed to put them in motion. He was giving serious consideration as to whether he could carry out the plans without the boss, putting himself in Coil's place, or at least becoming the power behind the decoy. He had access to Coil's pet precog. He was the one that purchased her "candy".
Even if he could not pull of the full takeover, he could at least loot a lot of riches and redirect a shit-ton of money into his accounts. And if he had to expend a few problematic troopers along the way – perhaps including the decoy Coil at the end – so be it.
"Right. I'll close out the deals with Trickster and Faultline. Be ready for the meeting at Somer's Rock. You'll be going on your own, but the Travelers and Undersiders will both be there," Fish ordered.
"Tattletale will know I'm not the boss," Freeman whined.
"Of course she will. She wouldn't expect anything else." Fish knew he would have to do something about the Undersider thinker. She was too fucking smart to not figure out he was replacing the boss and too tricky to make a deal with. He would have to give that some thought.
He clapped his hands as he walked out of the office. He stopped at the door and turned back to Freeman. "Don't tell anyone the boss is AWOL. We're going to continue with the standing plans. Just stick with me and I'll take care of you. We can do this."
Fish did not see the horrified look on Freeman's face under the mask.
A/N: Coil's Fate
I had Coil's death at this point planned since I first plotted out the story.
After re-reading his death in canon I am convinced his shard puppeted him to his doom at Taylor's gun, despite knowing when, where, and how it would happen. That is the nature of his power, or at least my understanding of it.
In this case it happened similarly. His shard foresaw him encountering Taylor's shard, which erased the alternate simulation locking Coil's shard into taking him to the destined meeting time and place. When Coil entered Taylor's power negation field, his shard was shut down and Coil got hit by the feedback of the lost simulation at that point.
Thinking about it makes my brain hurt.
I think it a not unreasonable conceit that it was Coil's precog that allowed him to function in Brockton Bay during Bakuda's spree without risking being injured in a random attack. Without his safe timeline, he happened to fall prey to one of those random attacks. Just another coincidental death.
I have serious doubts as to how this will be taken by the readers. But I wanted to get the chapter out quickly, before I lost my will to post it.
Don't expect another for a while. I think I need to work on one of my other stories.