AN: Hello! I am not dead, and neither is this story! Life has just kept me a bit busy, and then when I finally had some more free time, Elden Ring came out, sooo...

Chapter 12

For some reason, the Heroes never showed up at my place.

That was confusing, because I was sure they knew what I did and it's not like I was in any way hiding myself. After Miss Militia's initial reaction to my claim to kill any villain asking for trouble – meaning trying to go after Dad – I had been prepared for the threat of an armed assault by the PRT or something similar, after me splattering some villains. I did not even get an angry letter.

I was understandably suspicious.

So when the doorbell rung the next day, I was instantly on my guard for any sort of altercation. Maybe I should have opened the door and not let my Dad do it, but he was a lot closer to it and already moving. Stopping him with a warning would only work if I was completely serious and doing it physically. I would have to be the one to do it every single time somebody came over too, and I kind of didn't want to terrorize Dad this way.

So instead I just kept my guard up, waiting for a sign that something was wrong. The cheerful voice suddenly coming from the doorway was not something I had expected though. It also didn't really ring a bell in my memories.

"Hello Mister Hebert! My name is Lisa, I am an… acquaintance of Taylor and I owe her something! Nono, I am not one of her bullies from school, I am home-schooled. Otherwise I would have stepped in earlier, you know? Yeah I-" On and on it went, like they were talking on the phone or something and I could hear only half of the conversation. She just kept talking. At first I had no idea who that person drowning my Dad in a waterfall of words was, but in hindsight it was obvious.

She kept addressing issues that I knew my Dad would raise, but before he could so, was confident, owed me something and she had told me she would come to my house. I had not thought that she meant the very next day, but it wasn't like I had much to do right now either. Walking to the door, I came to rescue my father that had quite the glassy look on his face.

I knew how he felt.

Spotting me instantly, Lisa gave me a cheerful wave. "Hello Taylor! Told you I would come over, sorry that it was on such short notice though! Can I come in?" Yeah, her not reacting at all to the armor still adorning my frame was the last hint. Well, my helmet was in my room, on the bed. That did not sound too smart, now that I thought about it.

"Yeah, come in Lisa, but no funny business. She's fine Dad, and if she misbehaves, I can handle myself." On me mentioning that, her smile looked decidedly more fixed, but she still moved and spoke smoothly. "Thank you Taylor! No 'funny business', I promise!" She even did air quotes!

Giving Dad a nod, I walked upstairs with my guest, suppressing a wince when the stairs croaked in discomfort as my weight pressed down on them. Entering my room, I addressed the girl. "I had expected you to come in costume, not as a civilian. I did not recognize you at first."

And the contrast between her cape-outfit and her civilian disguise was truly startling. Dressed in calm colors, he hair in a ponytail. Freckles on her nose and green eyes that had seemed less striking when she wore a mask. She gave me a foxy grin in return.

"Yeah, but I figured this way was fairer to you, right?" She held out her hand. "Lisa Wilbourn, nice to meet you!" For all the drama the heroes had made about secret identities, this villain was surprisingly relaxed about giving me hers. And I did not have the feeling she was lying about it either. I took her hand and shook it, gently of course, I did not want to crush it.

I was still suspicious but more relaxed now, Tattletale was a known entity for me after all.

"I come bearing gifts-" here she dropped a lunchbox of all things in my hand, "and a warning." Aand there was the other shoe. I should have expected her to have ulterior motives, no matter what she told me yesterday night. Following my thought process with ease – and wasn't that a useful power to have? - she held up her hands in surrender again, a familiar gesture by now.

"I am not the one with ulterior motives, my Boss is. He got wind of my desire to pay you back and insisted on me giving you a message. And if the Boss insists, I have not much of a choice, I am sorry." A boss? Well, if the direct superior wants something, its probably hard to deny, but…

"Didn't you say that you are a part of the Undersiders and that your team came to me on your insistence? I thought you were the leader?" She made a so-so gesture with her left hand – so gesticulating when excited or stressed was a genuine tick of hers then? - before answering my question.

"Grue is the official leader. And you are right about that. But what not many people don't know is that our little group is sponsored by a bigger Villain named Coil. He is a small player in the grand scheme of things, but he has big plans. We sometimes take jobs from him and he pays us. But I am in his direct employ."

I had heard of Coil of course, but the only thing he was known for, was using mercenaries instead of capes. And that he had not much to do with any of the other gangs, with a small territory. But if he had a full villain team working for him, then he was a bit more dangerous than assumed. Also, it could be my imagination, but Lisa did not seem too happy about being 'employed'.

Or she was trying to play me again. No ulterior motives my fucking chainsaw.

"So, what is this message you are supposed to give to me?" She hadn't said it yet, but I had a pretty good idea anyways. "He wants to hire you. To keep you on retainer, sort of what we are doing for him already." So I was right then, recruitment. By a villain of all things.

"You do not have to become part of the Undersiders – you can, if you want to – but it is not mandatory. He pays well and you can decline any and all jobs." That not only sounded too good to be true, it would still mean working for a villain. Which meant crime, at the very least.

I did not even have to open my mouth for the girl to get the message. She sighted, but did not sound too put out. "So that is a hard no from you then? I told him as much, your reaction is not very surprising." Leaning a bit closer to me, like she was about to share a big secret, she whispered: "But be ready for him to try again in the future. As a heads up."

Well, that was not very shocking, one did not become a gang-leader by giving up after the first setback. "If he is too pushy, I will give a more passionate answer. Also as a heads up." I was completely serious about that of course, but for some reason Lisa found my statement funny, I could see her lips twitching before she suppressed it. Answering my unasked question she shook her head. "An inside joke, don't worry about it."

We did some more small talk, but it seemed like the biggest points to talk about had been checked off. So after some more meaningless chatter – and wasn't that weird, to be casually talking to another cape, this time not even a hero but a villain? - the as civilian disguised Tattletale took her leave. As I watched her casually walk away, waving off my Dads concerned look, I turned to my trusty AI that had been silently observing the whole situation.

"I recorded everything as we agreed upon Taylor. We can go over anything I may have missed together later." I nodded, sitting down on my bed. "The only thing I care about right now is to check if your theory was correct. What do you think? Did she realize you were observing us?" It was an idea that Vega had told me about. Tattletale herself had described her power as "gathering clues" around her. But she obviously had not gone into detail. So how much information did she need to start with, to get useful knowledge out of it?

"She looked upon the helmet once, as she came in, and that was it. She was not more tense in any way afterwards and ignored it for the rest of her stay. Either she expected to be under a camera lens or she did not realize its significance. I find the latter more likely, because the short profile I have compiled about her shows, that she would have at least mentioned knowing about it in passing. She seems like the type of person that wants to feel important and on top of things."

Another thing that I just now realized strengthened that argument. "You are right, she was also a lot more calm than yesterday night. Do you think that is because she considers herself and her information as valuable?" My friend agreed with me readily. "Yes, it is likely that she felt more in her element; dealing and trading with information. You hurting her, the messenger, is probably unthinkable for her, because she had information that you wanted. Or that she thought you wanted at least."

I hummed in agreement. "Well now it is time to look up some more information on Coil, I doubt we have seen the last of him. Tattletale warning us or not doesn't change that."

Coil

"And, how did it go?" A short pause. "She declined the offer and implied bodily harm should you become too pushy for her tastes, boss." That was unfortunate, but not surprising. The answer had been only 5% for a willing recruitment. No matter, they all were stubborn at first. Lisa had been no exception. But he always found ways for them to get into his service.

Or at least become no problem.

And this girl would be a problem, his newest pet had told him as much. Usually he was more of a long term planner, careful and cautious in his scheming. Doing things that way not only made his power far stronger and more reliable, it also stopped the public from becoming too aware of him. He was a non-factor in most eyes, the only person that had an idea of how dangerous he actually was, was Kaiser.

And Kaiser was busy right now, taking territory in huge chunks, using the power vacuum left after the deaths of both Lung and his right hand, Oni Lee. The ABB was wobbling dangerously, their newest addition of a Tinker the only parahuman left in their ranks. And if the Cornel Bomber, or Bakuda, as she called herself now, could stop the biggest parahuman gang in the city alone? Well, that was something the future would show.

No, the important part was, that everybody else was busy. So he could move more aggressive, without being noticed by the other big players. And Kaiser being busy, made this a very good time to use Plan B. "Boss?" Ah, he had been lost in his own head again. Well, no matter, his little Thinker knew better than to hang up on him.

"Alright, go back to the Undersiders, I have a new task for you soon." Coil hung up and leaned back in his chair, then he slowly pressed one of the buttons on his desk. "Tell your men to get ready, I have a target for you to acquire. Non-lethal means only."

This would do nicely, he hated leaving any of the pieces unused.

I realized quite quickly that something was wrong. Well, not that it was very hard to do so, admittedly. I am sure most people would have noticed, except maybe one of the Merchants. But those were completely fucking high most of the time, so that did not mean much. What was wrong exactly, you may wonder?

Well, a big metal arm had blown open my front door.

I had thought my warning to take root, at least in Hookwolf himself, but it I was obviously wrong. He was waiting for me in the streets, shouting for me. He could have started with that, instead of trashing my front porch?!

"COME OUT GIRL! WE HAVE UNFINISHED BUSINESS!" Well, that's what I get for not giving chase after the fucker. Lesson learned. Walking outside, helmet secured on my head, barehanded except for my Doomblade, I advanced on the metal creature disturbing my peace again.

"I thought you would be smarter than this. Guess teaching an old dog new tricks is harder than I anticipated." Said mutt in question gave an angry howl and then charged at me. This time there was no Victor to weaken me. I felt fresh and ready. The violent clash of us both meeting was still impressive.

Wolfie was going all out from the very start, it seemed.

I ducked underneath the rotating chasm of blades that was his maw. Running my blade through his side I blocked one of his limbs with my arm. Said limb immediately split up into serrated edges, trying to chew through me. Kicking away from him, I answered another swipe with one of my own. Then we met again, in a violent shockwave.

It was exhilarating.

I had not felt that good fighting him and Victor before. Perhaps the latter had dulled the sensation somewhat with his power. But as I noticed cuts and holes seemingly mending with ease, transforming to different weapons while doing so… Well, it was fun. And it also showed me exactly what sort of powerhouse Hookwolf was supposed to be.

Many capes would have no real chance to fight him. Especially any that had to go into melee. And he was only a Brute 7! How awesome would it be to fight Alexandria for example?! The most powerful Brute?

We were still clashing of course, now down the street. I had subconsciously herded him away from my home. Good job subconscious! I had a few bruises, which healed quickly. Hookwolf still looked like he had at the start of the fight.

Ducking under a lunge, I slit open his stomach. Instead of an injury, it opened to reveal a dozen spears, ramming down on me with astounding force. I threw myself to the side to avoid getting skewered. Hookwolf used his own spears to sharply change the angle of his momentum, suddenly gaining speed and closing the distance to me sideways.

With a sharp yell of exertion I kicked at the approaching shape of metal. Like an oversized ball, he crashed into a house at the other side of the street. Wait, was I supposed to pay for that? The PRT had not contacted me about the destroyed street yet either. And where were the fucking Heroes anyways?

Vegas urgent voice ripped me out of my musings. "Taylor, your house is under attack!" That was like a bucket of cold water. "Is Dad fine?!" "The Intruders have immediately restrained him, but he seems to have no injuries. We are dealing with professionals."

Fuck!

I turned back, trying to return, but the stupid wolf rammed into me. He had noticed my distraction and used it. "THERE WILL BE NO RUNNING AWAY LITTLE GIRL!" His voice was distorted, loud and metallic, but still understandable. My previous enjoyment had disappeared. What was the point of giving Dad an emergency portal if he could not use it in time?! "Fuck you!", I snapped. "You were the one running before! Now let me through!"

He gave a hollow cackle and lunged at me again. I barely dodged, and kicked his belly with all of my strength. Not watching how far I had thrown him, I rushed towards my house. I was freakishly fast, it took me maybe two minutes. But there was nobody left. I had been too slow.

They had taken him.

"GET BACK HERE AND FIGHT GIRL!" Was Hookwolf working with them? Was it the Empire? "Where. Is. My. Dad?" I had to force out every word. "I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT. AND I DO NOT CARE EITHER. NOW FIGHT!"

I believed him, this did not look like his style. "Vega, tell me where I need to go next after this. I have to take care of something first." He wanted a fight? He would get one.

As I rushed at the villain, he gave an excited shout. At first. He noticed quickly that something fundamental had changed. Gone was the thin layer of respect from before. Letting him get up after I trashed him into another house? No.

No quarter given.

I was aiming to hurt and maim. To end this fast and decidedly. So things got more intense. Two people with superpowers fighting with gritted teeth and grim determination. I had been happy about his tenacity before. It meant the fight would be long and enjoyable. Now I was looking for any way to actually hurt the wolf.

I gave him dozens of cuts. He gave me countless bruises and maybe fractures. We both healed in moments and then clashed again. There was only one thing that had gotten a reaction from him. Me ramming my blade deep into his body. He had fled afterwards. But he was not stupid, no matter his brutish appearance.

He did not give me an opening to pin him again. Instead we only did short, violent hits. He was not really favored in those. Maybe he did not know about my regeneration and was trying to slowly beat me down? No matter the reason, it stopped me from doing any damage at all. And he was too strong of a brute to care much about my other weapons.

That was a trend I really disliked. What was the point of carrying a whole armory if my enemies just ignored it?

A sharp pain in my shoulder made me go on the defensive. So Hookwolf could penetrate my armor with enough force. He had done so once before, when I held him. But I had hoped he would need longer contact for that. Instead he had used his massive body as a pile driver for one of his lances breaking out of his body.

"Someone tried calling your landline, Taylor. I could not trace the number fast enough, but I would wager the call came from the kidnappers." At that pointed reminder I felt red hot rage cursing through me. Somebody had dared to attack my family. After I had explicitly warned them. Good thing there was a convenient target nearby. I had killed Lung. This little wolf would not stop me.

If taking damage was the only way for me to pin the wolf? Then I would do so. He lunged again, but this time I did not dodge. Instead I tackled him in midair. He was caught off guard, but I already felt the sharp bite of blades sawing through my protection. Ignoring my discomfort, I did something resembling an RKO, ramming the big wolf into the ground. Immediately scrambling on top of him, I started simply wailing on him.

Beating the big metal construct to a pulp was not a very refined strategy. And for someone weaker than me, it would not have worked either. But I was me, so I just kept beating down. Fist raised, fist coming down.

Again.

And again.

And again.

The asphalt was cracked and broken. Every punch ruined more of the street. Hookwolf was not just taking it of course. At first he had tried to get free, but when that didn't work he changed his wolf form for the first time. Instead of an animal, he was no more resembling a carpet of blades, each trying to spear my fist when it came down. Without my regeneration, my arm would just be a stump of ruined flesh.

But I healed. And I kept hitting.

Until, finally, there was a dull crack. Afterwards Hookwolf reactions became a lot slower. I had broken something in his body. Or in the shell that was supposed to be his body. With my blade flicking out of my arm, I rammed it in.

He had not spoken a word since we had picked up the fight again. But this? This got a reaction. The pained shriek reminded me of the time I had killed Lung. It was not the same of course. It was deafening, a head-splitting howl. Like air rushing through broken pipes. Like ten full classes of elementary school kids using a whistle for the first time and doing so with great enthusiasm. It hurt, but I pushed on.

There was still no blood or similar staining my blade. But I was obviously doing harm to my foe. And after two dozen stabs into the silver construct, the screeching abruptly cut off. Suspiciously, I stabbed down again.

Nothing.

He was dead then? I stood up, still searching for any sort of movement. But the remains of the villain did not seem alive in any way. They looked more like some sort of artistic sculpture, to be perfectly honest. But not like a living thing.

Stretching, hearing the satisfying popping of tension being released, I addressed Vega. "So? Any idea where I have to go next?" "I would go in your house first. Not only to look for some clues or a message, but also because they may call again." Right, right. I had hooked up Vega to my landline, but that was not something I wanted advertised. Returning to my house, I looked through the different rooms more carefully.

There was no sign of destruction, except for the shattered windows (and my poor front door of course). No blood, shells, anything. The moment I was close to the phone again, I started ringing. That was not suspicious at all. I took the receiver.

"Yes?" There was a moment of silence, then a mans voice answered. "Hello Miss Hebert. I wish to make an offer to you." The man sounded arrogant and confident. He was pushing my buttons, by accident or design. "Coil, I presume?" "That is correct. Now, my offer: You work for me. And in return your dear father does not catch a bullet to the head."

What an asshole.

Before I could answer – and I do not know what I would have said, to be fair – Vega got my attention. "Your father is securely in the Fortress. They did not realize he had a way to escape." Well, that was not only a relief, it made things simple. "You can shove your offer up your slimy ass. I will make room there with my shotgun, if you tell me where to find you."

There was a short pause, then he talked again. He seemed annoyed. "Miss Hebert, I assure you I am not joking. For your cheek he will lose at least a finger. Now, I hate repeating myself, so-" I did not know if he kept talking after I hung up, and I did not care. Time to hunt down a villain, that dared threaten me like that.

Coil

What had went wrong? He had used his power, to make sure everything worked smoothly. And it had. Everything pointed towards the girl being willing to do anything for her father safety. What had happened to make her hang up on him?! This was not how hostage negotiations worked!

"Sir?" "What?!" "The prisoner has escaped." How? Why? HOW? The man was no parahuman! He had no background in the military, as mercenary, as infiltrator, as anything! The man was a dockworker for fucks sake!

How does a normal man, bound and gagged, in a secure cell, disappear into thin air?!

Coil drew his weapon and emptied two full magazines into the incompetent fuck that had given him the message. Then he discarded that reality and addressed the patiently waiting man. "Sweep the whole base. Give the teams on the surface his description and make them look for him also. Go!" Next time he would put him in a cell with a camera and two fully armed soldiers. This was ridiculous.

And it looked like he would need to prepare himself for some open action.

Coil had seemingly known about me being close to the telephone. That could have been his power of course – nobody knew what it was, many doubted he even was a parahuman – but there was another, more likely option. The man used mercenaries.

So I was likely being watched.

And I had been right. The guy reporting on my whereabouts had been hidden decently, but once I was actively looking for him I spotted him quite quickly. He tried to run, so I shot his legs off. Sadly, he did not answer any of my questions, for example where his boss was to be found. He was stubborn and did not say anything, did not even whine in pain.

Which was impressive, but very annoying for me to deal with.

Giving this line of action up as worthless, I splattered his torso over the roof and then walked into the Fortress via portal. I had to see that Dad was fine with my own eyes.

He did look a bit ruffled, to be fair. But as I frantically checked him over for any sort of injuries – after giving him a big hug first, of course – I could not find anything amiss. He had given a relieved chuckle at my appearance, and let me do my thing. He was actually fine.

He didn't mention the remains of blood on my armor, and I kept my silence about it aswell. The suit was hard to truly stain, but I had just blown up a dude spying on me. Still, this brief respite had loosened any remaining tension, I felt a lot better.

I would still hunt down Coil of course, but now I would feel better while doing so.

And with that cheerful thought, I took my leave. Dad was situated in the Fortress for now, he agreed to stay for a while, at least until I had taken out Coil. I would have maybe allowed the Heroes to protect him, but those useless morons still had not shown hide or hair. For some reason. No use worrying about it, if they kept out of my way until I was done taking out the trash, then I would have no problem with that.

Finding said trash was gonna be annoying as hell though, but oh well.

I was roaming the streets, in the area that most sources agreed on being Coils territory, looking for 'suspicious activity'. Without any success of course, until now. I did not find any of the morons I was looking for, but one person I wasn't looking for found me instead.

"Taylor, Taylor! Wait!"

Confused I turned around, to see a familiar figure close in on me. This time not in her civilian clothes, but again in her skintight outfit. "Li- Tattletale. Again you appear out of nowhere. Are you stalking me?" Now that I saw her again, I couldn't shake the thought that she had used her visit to spy out any of my defenses, but I would give her the benefit of the doubt.

"I wanna help you!" Huh? "You want to help me hunt down your employer?", I asked flatly. "Somehow I do not trust your intentions here very much." She gave me a foxy grin and waved her hand in a so-so gesture. "Well, he held a gun to my head when he employed me, so I am not feeling too bad about it. Also, you got your father out of his grasp somehow, so I think sticking with you is the smartest decision here."

Ah, so Lisa was a person that held grudges. That did not shock me at all, she seemed to be the type. She had not used her power offensively against me, but it was probably very good at making people cry. I did not like bullies, but as long as I did not see her do it, I would let he be. She was still a bit uneasy around me too, so I doubted she would try to stick a knife in my back. If she did, I would stick my chainsaw in her back.

"No need for those grumpy thoughts, I am on your side! Honestly! Pinky swear and all!" Cheerfulness to disarm my desire to murder did not sound like a reasonable solution, but it was working for her. So she was doing something correctly.

"Or my power is doing the heavy lifting.", she winked at me. "So, what do you say? Together we can find his bases pretty fast for sure." Working together with a villain? Well, I had spent quite a bit just chatting with her already, in her civilian identity no less.

So was this really any worse?

"No more robbing people.", I told her sternly. "I looked you up, you guys robbed a bank. You made Glory Girl lock herself inside the vault. I like Glory Girl." She immediately gave in to my demands, interestingly enough. "The bank thing was something we got paid to do, not our usual style. As a free tip for you: Banks are usually not worth it. So alright, no more robberies. I will quit the Undersiders too. Got it boss!"

"For wanting to quit your former employment, you are awfully quick on giving up your freedom again." That by itself was suspicious already. "I just like you better. I have my reasons, and I will tell them to you, if you want me to. But I would prefer to keep them to myself for now."

She seemed honest, and I did not truly care about why exactly she was helping me, as long as she was legit. "Alright. So I am guessing you have an idea of where I have to go now?" Another vulpine grin accompanied her answer.

"You know it, boss!"

Coil

"Candy?"

"Not yet pet, first the questions again." The girl gave a sad whimper but nodded. He felt no sympathy, this was important.

"Chance of Taylor Hebert interfering with my future plans?" "91%."

"Chance of Taylor Hebert trying to kill me?" "99%."

"Chance of her succeeding in trying to kill me?" "75%."

The number had gotten worse. That was to be expected. His attempt at forced recruitment was the likely reason for it. He did not care much about the changes for the first two answers, they did not come as a surprise. That her chance of success had suddenly jumped up from the previous 50%? That was reason for concern. Something important had changed, and he would have to find out what. Quickly.

"Candy?" "One more, then you get your candy." Another sad whimper. "It hurts." He ignored her complaint. "Chance of Taylor Hebert finding this base?" It had been 20% this morning, without that assurance he would not have started things. But it was important to check regulary. "90%."

Fuck.

AN: Until next time!