Tattletale

Lisa barely made it till they were out of the duo's sight before she slumped forwards against Rachel's back. The girl growled and pushed back slightly but didn't seem overly aggressive, so Lisa took it as permission and laid her forehead against the other girl. Pain pounded through her skull; a Thinker headache stronger than she had ever felt before.

"Tattletale?" She dimly heard someone calling from beside her, a deep echoing voice. Grue?

Her memory was patchy from there, vaguely aware of moving shapes blurring across her vision and flashing lights. She remembered moving, or being moved, something slamming open (a door?) and being put down on something soft. Completely disoriented, she flailed around, or tried to, but multiple pairs of hands held her down. When she tried to access her powers so that she could just think, an ice pick drove itself through her skull.

Eventually after what could have been hours or days or mere minutes a strong hand forced her mouth open and put something in it. Without thinking she swallowed and near instantly Lisa's vision started clearing. The blurs above her solidified her into the (mostly) concerned unmasked faces of her teammates. Rachel was an apathetic as ever and Alec tried his best to seem much the same, but even without her powers, which she was still too afraid to touch, she could see the worry flickering beneath his eyes.

Everything was quiet for a few moments as her eyes focused on each of them in turn, Brian letting out a deep sigh of relief when she gave them a shaky smile.

"Hell of a night, huh?" Even to herself her voice sounded weak. Her attempt at a smile fell flat when she saw the serious looks the others were giving her.

Brian took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

[Composing himself, getting questions straight, very worried-]

She cut off the stream of thoughts that came with her power as her head flared up, she hadn't even reached for it intentionally, but she had sunk into it without thinking.

"What the fuck was that Lisa?" Brian spoke slowly, evenly. Like he was trying his best not to lose his cool.

Lisa laughed humourlessly.

"That new Cape really did a number on my power. Worst Thinker headache I've ever had, by far." Even talking about it, and the guy – Invictus – stirred phantom pain above her brow.

"That wasn't just a headache." the large teen replied, shaking his head incredulously, "You collapsed Lisa."

"No, really? You're telling me." She shot back waspishly, pushing herself up and sliding into an upright position. She waved off Brian's hand and just sunk into the back of the couch for a moment. Rachel had already left to who knows where, while Alec was looking more and more disinterested with every passing second. Like he was bored and disappointed that she was okay, asshole that he was. Oddly enough it made her feel better not having them all fussing over her, at least something was normal. "Here I thought I was just taking a nap."

Brian gave her a Look. Lisa shut up but her mouth feel into her patented smirk. The familiar expression seemed to put her teammate at ease as his shoulders relaxed.

"How're you feeling now?"

She shrugged, "Fine enough, I won't be using my powers for a good while but I'm not going to collapse… again."

He gave her a firm nod and his face became serious again.

"Good. You up for talking about it now?" When he got an affirmative gesture in response he continued, "You said using your powers on the new Cape did this, which one?"

Lisa snorted, "Which one do you think? Bug girl? No, that girl has problems, but she didn't cause mine."

"Invictus then." Brian didn't look surprised, "What's up with him? Isn't he just an Alexandria Package?"

Alec cut in then with a lazy chuckle, he'd already descended to lying spread eagle across the carpet.

"Dude took a hit from Lung. And then blew the big guy to literal pieces with a punch. Don't think we can call him 'just' anything."

Brian raised a finger as if to contest it, then lowered it when he realised, he really couldn't.

"Whatever," he continued, "but what caused your reaction? I know you've seen Alexandria Packages before and it hasn't bothered you at all."

Lisa took a deep breath, composing her thoughts before she spoke.

"The Alexandria Package powers didn't affect me, everything else did." Once she saw that both were focused on her, well Brian was and Alec was looking in her general direction. Close enough, "He's a lot more powerful than he's letting on. Like a lot."

Alec looked a little more alert now and Brian's eyes had narrowed.

"What, exactly, do you mean?" Brian asked intently.

"I mean level the entire city in moments, kind of powerful." It was one of the few times that Lisa's tone didn't contain any smugness or joking lilt, it was only deadly serious. A fact that her teammates picked up on, Brian's eyes widening almost comically and Alec sitting up fully alert. Idly she noticed her last teammate trail in the doorway, presumably having heard her.

"Yeah, I'm going to need a bit more than that Lisa." Brian pressed her.

Lisa let out a sigh. Her teammates were rather intelligent but having to explain her Thinker powered conclusions got old fast.

"Look, I didn't get a full read of him and even what I got set me off like this," she gestured angrily at her head. Stupid Thinker headaches, "but what I got was ridiculous. Firstly, he's stronger than Alexandria, faster and probably smarter too. Or at least has the capability to be. Lung wasn't even a threat to him. Extrasensory too, he hasn't practiced with it enough but he can see and hear at far above the human level."

The room fell into silence, only filled by the soft panting of Rachel's three dogs. Nobody knew how to respond to that. Even Alec didn't shoot out his typical wisecrack. Eventually Brian shook himself out of his thoughts and went to ask something else, but Lisa held up her hand before continuing.

"Secondly, he knows who we are."

If the prior response had been stone-walled silence then this would be complete pandemonium. Brian and Alec shot to their feet in a tense, fight-or-flight reaction. Even Rachel's apathy broke as Lisa could hear her snarling from behind her.

"Lisa, what-" Brian started, pacing in frustrated anger. Not at her, but at the situation? Her powers had boosted her standard intuiting abilities, but without them it was merely at a well above average level.

At the same time Alec shot out, "All of us?" Even me? Lisa saw the question the teen boy left unsaid. His history, or more specifically his family, was perhaps the worst of them all if it was found out. If Invictus knew about Heartbreaker and their relation…

Lisa only nodded firmly, and Alec stumbled away, eyes darting to the exit as if he were considering running. He absolutely was, Lisa knew, nothing could terrify him more than the idea of his father finding out about him. Rightfully so.

"All of us." She confirmed verbally, voice quiet, "On a personal level, like first name and surname level. He knows who we are." Lisa didn't relish their fear, it actually upset her to a worrying degree.

"But," she continued quickly, cutting of their panic, "for whatever reason he seems fond of us. I don't say this to worry you even further or upset you, but if he didn't like us, we'd know. They'd still be scraping us off the ground three states away."

Brian collapsed onto the couch next to her, head in his hands as if the house and the world was collapsing around him. It may as well be, a cape like Invictus knowing who they were… Lisa shuddered, she hadn't even got to the worst of it yet. Alec still stood off balance and terrified in the corner while Rachel's deep growl had only increased in volume.

"There's more." Lisa spoke coldly, cutting through the tension and panic in the room. Her teammates subsided slowly but focused back on her again. She could feel Rachel's eyes boring into the back of her head.

"Fantastic," Alec drawled, his voice didn't waver, but Lisa could still see his eyes quaking slightly, "because of course there is. What's next, he know your cup size?"

Lisa didn't dignify that with a response, just gave him a sharp glare that he returned with a completely unrepentant look. At least the normalcy of the interaction seemed to rub off on Brian when he lowered his hands and clasped them together between his knees. They still shook.

"Something is seriously messed up in his head. Like some split personality level shit. When he was choking out Lung, he was so furious, I'm pretty certain Lung killed both his parents. He was going to kill him, I'm certain of it, then it just stopped. Just like that," Lisa clicked her finger and thumb together, "like a light switch. All of it. I mean a complete blank slate. It passed after a few moments but the anger was depleted somehow. Either he's been Mastered or he's Mastering himself. I think it's more likely the latter but…" She shrugged helplessly.

Brian stared at her, words caught in his throat, and Rachel was startled into silence. But it was Alec's reaction she was most focused on. Emotional Mastering on that level… there weren't many Capes who could do that.

"Was it – Is he –" the boy choked out, desperate for an answer but at the same time terrified of it.

Carefully, deliberately, Lisa shrugged.

"I don't think so. In fact, I think the chances of that being the case are very low but," she didn't sugar-coat it, if anyone deserved the truth about this he did, "I can't rule out the possibility that it is. Again, we can't jump to conclusions and I think it's relatively safe to say that the effect is something his powers are doing to him. I think he messed with my readings without meaning to, his full face mask left me with only his body language to work with."

Lisa paused for a few minutes, giving the curly black haired teenager time to settle down and sort through his emotions a bit. Before the lull in conversation could be taken as an invitation for more questions, she opened her mouth again.

"The last bit I got is the most worrying bit," seeing the incredulous looks on their faces she quickly shot out, "from a power based, purely not personal point of view. The Alexandria Package isn't the worst of his powers, or the self-mastering. They weren't what split my head open. I couldn't even get a full read on what this other power was, the only evidence of it was his suit and-"

"His suit?" Brian interjected before she could finish, "It didn't look like anything special to me. Well made for a first appearance but…"

"Did you see any stitches on it? Any seams?" the Thinker shot back without pause, "You didn't because there were none. That 'suit' wasn't made out of any physical material, it was just pure energy that he had shaped around him and coloured in like a toy."

"So what, he's a walking battery? I thought we had enough of them with New Wave flying around like night lights." Alec's caustic reminder of his presence broke her flow this time, while Brian frowned. Like Alec he didn't think it sounded so bad but Lisa was a Thinker, she was here for stuff like this.

"No, asshole, not like a battery." Lisa shot back, tone tight as her head thrummed in pain just in memory, "I barely even got a look at it but it did this to me. But what I got… I don't think it's just energy manipulation. And when I say energy, I mean every form of energy, not just some guy shooting force lightning out his hands. Thermal manipulation, electromagnetic manipulation, gravity, sound, everything." Shaking, she took several deep gulps of air, "There's – there's more though. I only got a slight hint as to what's beyond that but…"

When she didn't keep going Brian raised an eyebrow at her but waited patiently for her to continue. Rachel was shifting behind her but stayed typically silent while Alec still looked half stuck on what they were talking about before. Eventually, still taking deep breaths Lisa moved her gaze down to her trembling sweaty palms. Distantly she thought that if Invictus was actively listening then he could probably hear everything they were saying. All the hints pointed that he wasn't making active use of that part of his power for whatever reason but the worry still curled up in the back of her mind.

"But I think it's manipulation of everything. Energy and matter. Just fucking everything. I don't even know his range, or if he even has one. I, I just don't know." Normally it would gall her to admit that.

Stunned silence hits the room like a sledgehammer and Lisa lets her head drop against the back of the couch and let her eyes drift close, profoundly exhausted by the whole thing. She just wanted to curl up in a ball and cry, and sleep, not necessarily in that order or separately.

With the revelations seemingly finished, Rachel stomped off to her room accompanied by the soft padding of six pairs of paws before slamming the door behind her. When she heard the sound of rustling clothes around her she looked up again, Grue was pacing still in his leather clothes 'costume' and trailing impenetrable black smoke behind him. Alec had slid down the wall in the corner, staring off out the window at something in the distance only he could see, mask dangling from limp fingers. It was Brian that inevitably broke the silence.

"We'll talk more about this tomorrow, and about Bug Girl and what went wrong and…" he trailed off and the side of his lips twitched upwards as he deliberately mirrored Lisa's earlier words, "and about everything. For now, we should get some rest. We're no good for anything like this." He gestured down at himself then at Lisa and Alec.

With a tired nod Lisa hauled herself from her seat and stumbled over to the stairs. Despite his words, Brian didn't make any move to stop pacing and Alec didn't react at all. Whatever, Lisa thought, if they want to waste more time like this then fine. She was about ready to conk out.

When she finally managed to pull herself to her room however, she found her laptop screen blinking, waiting for her. Exhausted eyes stared back at her in the dark sections of the screen but she pressed through, typing in the code for the day. Her boss really was a singularly paranoid individual, daily code on top of weekly code. She was half surprised the in built webcam wasn't used as a retinal scanner.

The urge to cry came back with a vengeance as she read the short message that was printed across the screen in bold green letters.

We need to talk.

Boy o'boy did they, Lisa thought, somehow she didn't imagine that the following conversation would be one that she would enjoy. Intense desire for sleep and stress aside, the images of a gun pointing at her head flashed across her mind. No, talking with Coil was never fun.

A/N: So yeah first of the two interludes for this section done. I'm not sure how well I managed to capture Lisa or the Undersiders here, especially Lisa's internal voice or whatever. Hopefully you enjoyed it, but let me know what you think!