Trial Interlude 1

Lung, having long since scaled down, was in a contemplative mood as he awaited the return of Lee and the others. He had already contacted Bakuda. He had much to discuss with his subordinates tonight.

It'd been long since someone willingly jumped into a fight with him, and the new girl, Lilith, had done it twice. The Protectorate pursues her relentlessly. Lung himself had been similarly pursued in his younger years, with constant offers to join the protectorate and later his imprisonment and subjugation by the Yangban. Lung was shaken from his memories by a few arrivals: Lee and his group returned at the same time that Bakuda arrived. He dismissed the non-powered members of his gang with a gesture. When they were alone, he addressed Lee and Bakuda.

"There has been a change in plans. For now, the Undersiders live."

Bakuda spoke: "What changed?"

"The story is long. It begins with Lee and myself defeating the Undersiders and tracking them to their lair to deal the killing blow. As I burned their home, the new cape in town, the one called Lilith, rushed through the crowd and attacked me. Lee did battle with her, but she proved beyond his abilities and he had to use one of your grenades on her."

Bakuda raised a hand, like a student in a classroom. "Which one?"

Lee spoke up: "Agony"

Lung was in an uncharacteristically good mood, so he let the interruption pass… this once."Once Lilith was down, I attacked her with my fire, but she had somehow survived. She was unconscious, however, so I left some men to guard her while I turned back to finish the Undersiders. Within mere moments Lilith was on her feet attacking me once more, even having the audacity to devour my flesh raw. I sent Lee and the other men to create a distraction, and I faced her, thinking her a cockroach that required my personal attention to stamp out. Tell me, Bakuda. What do you think happened next?"

"The Undersiders ran away while you killed Lilith."

Lung laughed.

"No. My assumption was wrong. She was no roach, but a tiger or perhaps even a dragon. She is young and inexperienced, but she is strong, very strong. She was growing stronger, slowly, all through our battle. Had we more time, I have no doubt that I would have slain her, but to kill her before she reaches her potential… It would be wasteful. I want to see her grow into her power, I want to see what she does with it, and I want to fight her when she reaches her peak!

Bakuda stepped back a small amount, shocked. She knew that Lung was violent, that he enjoyed a good fight, but...

Bakuda didn't know the whole story, 'd been awhile since Lung had encountered someone he could consider strong in the way he considered himself strong, and the number of parahumans that he could name as such could be counted on one hand. Even though the battle at Kyushu was not quite as others believed it, fighting an Endbringer on even footing tends to skew one's scale of strength, at least when it comes to physical prowess or parahuman ability.. The girl, this Lilith, she wasn't quite on his level yet, but the possibility of her becoming his equal, his worthy rival, it appealed strongly to the dragon within him, the part that craved a good fight.

"And this is why the Undersiders still live. She intervened to save them. Was this a chance occurrence, or is she an associate of theirs? We'll see in the days and weeks to come. Besides, the Undersiders are without a lair. They'll think twice before crossing us again. That's enough... for now."

Lung dismissed Bakuda and Oni Lee, and made to return to his own home. He wondered, idly, if Lilith had Asian blood in her veins.

*Break-Uber*

"Boss, Leet and I have got something to talk to you about."

The boss had been in a bit of a funk since last night. Almost getting to bring his little girl, Taylor, home and just barely missing her hit him hard. The PRT managing to get there first, so he couldn't even track her. They'd already gone through the footage. They'd managed to keep the Sky-Eye on her for a bit, but had lost her when she went into the sewers At least they had a lead on her know. The boss was currently Tinkering on something, some kind of com system… Or at least that's he was trying to do.

He kept stopping and going over the footage again, mumbling to himself. "So close… She's grounded when she gets home... giving me grey hairs. Oh, um Uber. What is it? And where's Leet?"

Uber cleared his throat. "Leet's figured out how to make two similar gadgets, he's trying to make a second sky-eye. Anyway, we want to edit the footage from last night and release it online."

There was a moment of awkward silence.

"Why?"

"Your daughter fought Lung. Do you have any idea how big that is?"

"Well, I know he's dangerous, but-"

"That's the understatement of the century. This is the Dragon of Kyushu we're talking about, the guy who fought evenly with Leviathan. The guy who came to the Bay and forced all the different asian gangs, who hated each other, to shut up and work together because he said so. He's not just dangerous, he's probably one of the most dangerous capes in the continent, and that's counting the villains in the Birdcage. Surviving a fight with him is a big deal, but she didn't just survive, she kept up with him. she ripped off strips of his flesh, shrugged off most of what he did to her, and he ran away. She's already got a pretty decent reputation in um, our circles-."

The boss interrupted Uber, confused: "She does?"

"Yeah, she does. Think about it. She's been on her own, on the streets, for what? Four months? The PRT has her listed as a serious threat. She's not quite a priority target, but that she's evaded capture for this long on her own? That's big. She also got away with stealing money and drugs from the Merchants. They had a reputation as washouts, but they took their drugs seriously and they've killed people for trying to do what she's done at least four times that we know about. The two together gave her a mid-tier rep."

"You mean a reputation?"

"Yeah. The thing about the Cape scene is that, hero or villain, it's basically a game. Big enough rep, small time villains don't bug you, and small time heroes won't be sent after you if you go villain."

"So, what you're saying is," the boss said with a tone of curiosity, "if it gets out that she did this well against Lung…"

"She'll be a whole lot safer." Uber finished. "Most of the villains in this town know not to mess with Lung, except sometimes Kaiser. If your girl has the reputation of "Girl who kicked Lung's ass," then chances are most of the villains are gonna leave her alone, and she can probably take whichever villains won't. Meanwhile the PRT won't be sending Wards or PRT agents after her. They'll call in the Protectorate, and She can probably take most of them too, if she doesn't manage to get away before they show up."

The boss smiled. "So she'll be safer."

"Exactly."

The boss went back to watching the footage. "What can you tell me about these people she left with?"

"Those are the Undersiders." Uber replied. "They're small time villains, but they've got a reputation for getting out of scrapes and escaping situations that you'd expect would get them killed or arrested."

"So, she's working with villains now?"

"It's possible, We didn't see the beginning of the fight, she might have just stumbled across them, but if she's leaving with them…"

The boss sighed.

"I had hoped something like this wouldn't happen."

"Well, look on the bright side: The Undersiders mostly go after other Villains. Short of convincing New Wave that she wasn't a criminal and having them pick her up, they're probably the best team she could join and have a chance of not being a criminal once this mess gets cleared up. Hell, Leet and I robbed a mint once and you hired us, so..."

The boss seemed to ignore the last statement Uber made. "I'll take your word on that, the kind of people these Undersiders are. Go ahead and release the video."

"We'll get on it. Now remember, your flesh and blood fought the strongest villain in the city and kicked his ass hard enough that he ran away. That's something to be proud of."

The boss was smiling as Uber left him.

*Break-Piggot*

Director Piggot was working on some files heard a knock at her office door. "Come in."

A somewhat haggard agent came into the office. And reported "Director, something's come up in the investigation about the Incident between Lung and the Undersiders the other night."

"Yes?"

"We have proof that Lilith was involved."

This raised the Director's curiosity. "What proof?"

The agent handed the director a slip of paper with a web address written on it. "I have a URL here. It'll take you to a video on Leet and Uber's website."

A moment later, she was watching the video in question, with the game themed Villains narrating over a still image of a burning building.

Uber began, with an excited announcer's tone. "Welcome gamers, to a very special production by Uber and Leet"

Leet picked it up in the same tone. "Now, I know it's been awhile since we've really uploaded anything. We've been busy, and we still don't have a regular episode, but we've got a special treat for all you loyal fans."

Uber again. "Recently Leet's been working on a flying Spy-Camera for use in filming our show."

Leet. "The other night, during a routine test, we picked up a little scuffle between a new Cape in the Bay and the Dragon of Kyushu himself."

Uber "The PRT calls the new girl 'Lilith' but we don't know what she wants to be called, so we're just gonna go with 'New Girl' to keep from pissing her off"

Leet, in a far more serious tone. "Trust us, you do not want New Girl mad at you."

Piggot furled her brow at this. Lilith was dangerous, to be sure, but to call attention to it specifically? The duo spoke in unison for the last line.

"So, without further ado, let's play!"

The still image began moving and then zoomed out to a scene of Lilith and Lung standing across from each other while the Undersiders stood at the sidelines. The gamer due were narrating, but the Director paid them no mind as she watched the battle on the screen.

She'd had suspicions about Lilith, ever since the students at Winslow had supported Shadow Stalker's story. These suspicions had been supported by security cam footage of Lilith breaking into stores, or of witness testimonials. Lilith's fangs, her claw, the way she moved…

This footage confirmed it. The girl was savage, moving across the ground on all fours, tearing into Lung with tooth and claw, the director could even see blood around her mouth early in the video. The girl was an animal. A monster, plain and simple. Director Piggot's thought turned to days gone by, and of shadows and beasts, of another human turned monster, of injury and of cowardice and betrayal. It wasn't quite the same situation, the two humans turned monster weren't quite the same, but Director Piggot felt that the only reason the city still stood was because the girl was a brute. She couldn't take a city the same way he could.

"Director," interrupted the agent who brought this to her attention, "are you aright? You're shaking."

"I'll be fine," lied the director. "It's been a stressful few days."

"If you say so."

As the video finished, with a last question of "How strong does New Girl have to be for Lung to run away like that?" from Leet, Director Piggot dismissed the agent and called for a fe forms to be brought to her. Lilith's threat ratings needed to be adjusted and the Wards and Field Agents needed to be informed that they were no longer to engage Lilith without Protectorate support. This was going to be another long day.

*Break-Lisa*

Coil's men worked fast. It'd only been a few days since the old lair burned down, but now the Undersiders' new lair was bought, paid for, and inspected. Apparently, the building hadn't been abandoned for very long. All that needed to be done was to replace the doors and locks before it was up to code. They'd already had furniture shipped in, and Regent and Rachel had their lost clothes replaced.

Lisa, Brian, and Alec were sitting in the main room of a large apartment on the second floor, which they were planning to turn into a meeting room. Lisa had already checked it for bugs planted by workers under Coil's employ. Brian wanted to talk about Lisa's actions the other night and why she took action without consulting the rest of the team.

Rachel came up into the room and sat down.

Lisa asked her, "How's Taylor?"

Rachel shrugged. "She swallowed a whole thing of pills, then took a nap."

"Okay then," Lisa replied, "we have an hour or so."

Lisa then looked around the room for any sign of Taylor's mutant flies. No sign, even with her power. "We're clear."

Brian stood up and faced the others.

"Okay, Lisa. What were you thinking, hiring a new recruit on your own like that? Especially out of nowhere, that's not like you."

Lisa took a moment. "Everything I said the other night was true. She's been screwed over like we all have, she could use some friends, we could really use someone on her level of power on the team, and it'd be better if we picked her up than some people who only care about her for her power. But, there's another reason."

"And that is?"

Lisa took a deep breath. "Our boss doesn't have our best interests at heart."

The others were confused. Briand asked: "What do you mean?"

"Our boss," began Lisa, "he has a power. I'm not sure what. It could be some kind of long range probability manipulation, or some kind of reality warping, or maybe he works like a videogame and he can save his progress and restart if he screws up. I don't know. What I do know is that he's been using his power to make sure our jobs go well. He could have saved us from Lung the other night, but he didn't."

Brian questioned this. "How do you know that his power wasn't why Taylor ran into us when she did?"

"Because when I called him about bringing in Taylor and buying this place, he was surprised that we were still alive."

"Well," countered Brian, "he might not have known until it was too late, and-"

Lisa cut him off. "Let me explain what kind of person out boss really is. He forced me to work for him at gunpoint and he's said and done things that make it clear to me that he'd torture us for information if he had too or would kill us in a heartbeat if we got in his way. You're working for him because he can fake up a paper trail to make it look like you're earning money legitimately. As soon as that becomes inconvenient for him, it stops. If he thinks you'll be too hard to control, he might threaten your sister."

"...Damn."

"Exactly. And that brings us back to Taylor. She's potentially one of the strongest capes in the country and she's only going to get stronger. Having her on the team makes us significantly more valuable, so the boss is less likely to fuck us over. And, I saw this when she first jumped Lung-She hates bullies. If I told her about what the boss did to me, and who he was, she'd probably try to kill him as soon as she could. I know how to take him down, but until I can figure out how his power works, we're all dead the second I try… Except she might be able to protect us if she get's a little stronger."

There was silence for a moment, and Brian answered her. "So what do we do about..."

"We keep doing any jobs he gives us,"said Lisa "And we do them well, until we get a chance to bleed him dry and drive him out of town. Until then, we can't give him any sign that we know what he's really like."

"So," said Brian, and Lisa could tell he wanted to know even without her powers. "Who is he?"

"I can't tell you, not yet."

Brian tensed up. "If you do manage to take him down. Can you keep the paper trail going?"

"Compared to bleeding him dry in the first place, keeping that going would be a cakewalk."

Brain seemed to relax a bit"...Okay. Now Taylor's one of us now, but just so we're clear, what are everyone's thoughts on her?"

Rachel spoke first."I'm with Lisa. Better to have her with us than against us."

That was odd: Rachel rarely agreed with Lisa. Lisa already knew the real answer, but asked for the benefit of the others: "Why's that?"

Rachel's posture changed, and she adopted a tone as if she was explaining "She's strong. There's something about her. Like a wolf, or a dog, that's so big and strong that it doesn't need a pack. If she wants us to join her, we should. I'm not fighting her."

About what Lisa expected. Brian turned to ask the next member his thoughts "Okay. Alec?"

Alec was hard to read, even with Lisa's power. "I tried to give her a little tug on the way here the other night. When I was um, staring at her ass. I couldn't get a good grip on her and I don't think she even noticed. It's like her nerves are so different from anyone one else's, the way they're shaped, and the way they go through her body. That black stuff on her head isn't hair. The big ones are full of nerves and the little ones are nerves. While I was trying to get a hold of her, I could almost feel her body changing, and then this thing happened. I can't really describe what it was like, but I couldn't even look at her nerves anymore. I can't mess with her body at all. If we piss her off and get into a fight, I'm cannon fodder."

"Lisa?"

"Oh, there's so much that I don't know where to begin." After thinking about it for a moment, Lisa began again. "Rachel's right. Taylor has the instincts of an apex predator. And they were pushing her to fight Lung. Like, she attacked him because she hates bullies and what he was doing to us set her off, but she kept fighting because something inside her was pushing her. She adapted to the damage that he and Oni Lee inflicted on her in the fight, like Crawler of the Slaughterhouse Nine but not quite as extreme as the rumors about him. She seems to have some ability to incorporate traits from what she eats into herself. She got taller and gained more muscle mass after eating Lung's flesh, and I think that the metal from the beer can she ate yesterday was absorbed into her bones and carapace."

Lisa took a moment to breath and think about where to go next. She's been getting more information on Taylor every time she looked at or thought about her, even now. "Taylor's regenerative ability seems to work by fixing damaged tissues instead of making more, that is to say she only replaces tissues when the tissues are gone or unsalvageable. Her body is constantly adapting to the events surrounding it. Lung was the first time she's eaten human flesh. The same instincts that drove her to attack Lung are what compelled her to eat his flesh-They're driving her to grow stronger by fighting strong opponents and consuming the flesh and blood of strong beings, but she herself has more influence on her actions that her instincts do. She's still human in general mindset, but…"

Brian seemed to sense her hesitation. "But?"

"She believes implicitly that she's psychic. She claims that her telekinetic ability, her shaker power, is the same as her thinker ability, and from her body language her mastering those mutant flies she cooked up is another application of the same power. She's otherwise sane, so I'm inclined to believe her when she says she's psychic. In order for her to have legitimate psychic powers, as opposed to a thinker or shaker power that imitates or replicates a psychic power… She'd either need to have significantly more brain matter, a more complex brain structure, a brain that's infinitely more efficient that anything occurring in nature, or a combination of the three." Lisa began, speaking slower than before as she tried to stay focused. "Taking Regent's claim that her nerves were changing, it's safe to say that her brain structure is radically different from human norm. She still behaves like a human, but I'm not sure how long that'll last."

Brian began to look worried at that, but Lisa paid him no mind as she continued. "Growing after consuming Lung's flesh is the first time she's increased in size or put on more muscle mass. She had problems with how she looked and the changes to her body had previously either upset her or were something that she felt nothing either way on, but her stronger, more muscular and more feminine figure seems to have changed that. She likes the way she looks now, and it's improved her confidence significantly. She has developed a great deal of pride in her new appearance. I suspect that whatever her problems with bullies involved her appearance… Shit!"

Lisa clutched her head as she began to experience a migraine.

"Lisa,"said Brian, expressing concern for his team mate. "Are you alright?"

"Thinker headache," replied Lisa before continuing. "New information about Taylor's powers. They don't just change her based on what she's doing or what she's been hurt by. They're trying to fix whatever problems she has about herself."

"Okay then. Do you know why she's using those drugs?" Brian clearly wanted to know if there was a reason for Taylor's habits of if they needed to add "Get the new recruit clean" to the todo list.

"Uh, from what I can tell she's been dosing herself in order to build up an immunity. The same with the beer in her mini-fridge,though it seems that however much she's consumed to become immune has given her a taste for it. She can't even get buzzed from the amount that she drinks, but she still drinks it. Um, considering that last night, when she drank over three and a half liters of LSD in one sitting and only suffered mild hallucinations for a minute, I'd wager that at this point she's practically immune to most drugs and toxins."

"That could come in handy. Have you managed to get anything about her Bio-Tinkering?"

Lisa sighed. "She believes that she can make things whole cloth instead of modifying existing organisms, but she needs to construct some kind of structure first. That's why she asked for those chemical and biological samples when we were talking about things she'd need. She already has ideas for bigger and more numerous organisms. Ordinarily I'd suggest we try to make her minimize the number of creations she makes… But she literally connected her mind to those flies, and while I'm pretty sure that her improved temperament is based on improved confidence from her new body, I'm not going to rule out that she has some need to create and connect to these things… That's gonna cause problems if we can't find out a safe balance between 'enough for her sanity' and 'few enough that the PRT doesn't decide to evacuate the city and glass it to prevent another Ellisburg.'"

There was an awkward silence before Brian responded. "Lisa. I trust you, but if this gets us killed-"

"It won't. I think. Alec, Rachel. You've been quiet. Thoughts?"

"All I'm hearing," said Alec, "is don't piss off the scaly blue chick. I wasn't planning on pissing her off to begin with."

Rachel remained silent.

The Undersiders went their separate ways soon after, Rachel and Alec to their own apartments in the building, Brian back to his apartment elsewhere in the Bay, and Lisa to go arrange a few things. They still needed more stuff for this old apartment building to be a proper lair, and getting it meant going through Coil. Lisa's last thought as she departed, massaging her temples to deal with her headache, it was that as soon as she knew what his power was, Coil was fucked.