AN: Next chapter! Also, some bad language and some more violence. Duh.
Have fun!
EDIT: Changed an error, after a review helpfully pointed it out
Chapter 11
I returned to my neighborhood on fire.
Panicking, I dropped my shopping bag and started running towards my home.
"Vega, can you tell me-"
"Your house and your father are alright.", the AI soothed me, "As promised I have been keeping an eye on them. But I did not notice the fire." Which meant it was not close enough to my house to be noticed by my friend.
"That is fine, as long as my family is safe.", I replied, as I corrected my course and now hurried towards the disturbance. My first thought had been that the Empire 88 had moved and responded faster to my show of force than I had anticipated, but that made no sense. This would be too fast, and they usually did not burn down buildings.
Because my house was not yet in danger of said burning, if Vega was to be believed – which I did – I focused more on the threat itself.
Getting closer to the reason for the destruction was easy, the deafening noise of some sort of machine getting scrapped guiding me. I turned the corner, to come face to face with an angry dragon. That was using some bastardized version of a tank as a chew toy.
Lung then. Joy.
Two tiny figures – in comparison to the burning beast – were trying to get the machine out of his grasp. Shimmering fields supercharging bullets before vanishing again. Skidmark and Squealer probably, two of the Merchants capes.
Well, Lung being in some sort of territorial dispute with some other villain dipshits explained things. But I would prefer it if they did so out of my neighborhood.
"OY! Can you guys finish your pissing contest somewhere else?!", I yelled annoyed. Unfortunately both parties ignored me, just like they ignored the destruction they brought to their surroundings.
"Fuck you, you piss-stained shit lizard! This is Merchant Turf! Fuck off before I make you into a purse and shove it up your gang-members asses!" That was Skidmark I would wager, he was known for his... uncouth mouth.
Well, that would just not do.
About to pull out my trusty cannon, I hesitated. Bullets were all fine and dandy, but this called for some heavier firepower. They were leaving ruins in their wake anyways, so what was the harm, right?
Deciding my course of action, I instead grabbed my Rocket Launcher. I had neglected this baby in particular and was feeling a bit bad about it. So time to change that!
The three parahumans still ignored me, too busy hitting each other to pay much attention to the girl in power armor. That suited me just fine. I took careful aim – I did not want to miss and waste my shot – before I pulled the trigger.
Just to get the barrel violently kicked upwards by an explosion, my missile streaking into the sky, to blow up like illegal firework. My arms burning in pain.
Unsure what happened, I threw myself to the side only because my instincts screamed at me to do so. Another shockwave made me stumble but left me otherwise unharmed, feeling slowly returning to my bruised hands. And then I had to dodge once again. This time I could see the perpetrator out of the corner of my eyes.
A simple black bodysuit, adorned with multiple knives and grenades. A horned, grinning mask hiding the face underneath.
Oni Lee.
So Lung was not actually fighting alone, he had his trusty minion shadowing him. Another Oni Lee appeared next to me, grenade pin spinning around his finger. Dodging the suicide bomber again, I considered my options.
Oni Lee could teleport, leaving a clone behind that could act on its own for a short moment. Before it disintegrated. Hence the suicide bombing with grenades. That was all I knew about him though.
I had no idea how one stops a teleporting sociopath. That had seemingly no need for breaks or similar to recharge his power.
Another attack, this time he surrounded me with half a dozen clones in short succession. Maybe he was hoping to get me stuck and blown up in the middle. Against someone with less strength and speed, that could have worked. But I simply chose the direction I was facing and ran him through, escaping the encirclement.
The wounded clone of course blew up directly in my face, but I mostly dodged the other ones. And Oni Lee used normal weaponry, so that explosion did not really penetrate my suit in the first place.
Any internal damage would be getting fixed by my regeneration anyways.
Honestly, this situation was not really that dangerous for me. He was not strong enough to ram the knives into my flesh through the Suit, his grenades had a delay and were not too difficult to deal with. And I did not even realize he was shooting me with a gun until he had nearly emptied one clip already.
He was not geared up to fight me, he was equipped to handle any Merchants coming in as backup. But how do I get my hands on him? I was fast, a good shot, but he kept appearing behind me. Forcing me to turn around to face him did just cost enough time so he could get an attack off and teleport again.
He was like an explosive mosquito.
Ignoring him to target Lung and the Merchants was not a solution. I could not deal the precise damage I wished to, with him actively working against me.
"Vega, a little help here?", I bit out, as I was swinging my chainsaw with each turn now, hoping to clip him maybe. I was running out of idea, okay?!
"I am working on it Taylor, just keep this up for a little bit more.", my companion replied.
Trusting him to know what he was doing, I kept at the (in my eyes quite pointless) exercise. The grenades were no lethal threat, but they were not comfortable either. And I was already not in the best mood to begin with, because of the stupid fuckers rampaging through my neighborhood. I was slowly getting actually angry.
Moments before the red haze of rage could fully set over my eyes, without me being truly aware of it, Vega gave a triumphant sound.
"Alright, keep at it, but the moment I mark a spot on your visor, fire at it! He is getting more predictable for me!"
Finally some good fucking news. Swapping to my cannon, I suppressed impatient excitement. Waiting for the right moment.
There!
Blindly firing into empty air, I watched gleefully as the masked man appeared in the very same moment I fully squeezed the trigger. Then I remembered that he was not actually a brute.
He went down in a shower of gore, the high caliber bullets ripping through his body suit like it was tissue-paper. I had shot of Victors arm with a handful of bullets. And there had been quite some distance between us.
Oni Lee had been pretty close to me.
Now he still was. Well some parts of him. The street looked like it had been pulled straight from a bad slasher movie. I had not shot holes into him. Because he was not a singular body anymore, his remains sprayed in an arc away from me.
Oops.
The only thing still intact was his mask – Vegas mark had made me aim for his torso, probably because it was easier to hit. Well, I had said I would show no mercy if they came looking for trouble. And being close to burning down my home did count. In my opinion.
Before I could turn to my actual target, said target came to me. Meaning I got run over by a big angry dragon. I guess he had noticed the messy end of his lieutenant. There was no sight of the Merchants. They had used the distraction to leg it, I was sure.
Using the moment that he bathed me in white hot flame to get my bearings, I fired a grenade into his open maw. The reaction would have been comical in a cartoon or anime, but in real-life the constipated expression was superseded by a bloody explosion.
Giving a growl that was part pained and part angry, the big creature swiped at me with sharp claws. The silver scales glittered in the fire, the wounds inflicted by the explosive already fully closed.
Right, he got stronger and tougher the longer he fought. At least that was the general gist of his abilities.
Now how would I stop him?
I had gathered a lot of experience fighting foes bigger than me. The biggest difference was the human intellect behind the bestial appearance and his steady escalation in power. I was also used to foes healing themselves after all, if not that fast.
"I ILLL OUUUUUU!"
Seems like the more he transformed, the harder human speech got for him, which made sense. But that was not really important right now. I closed the distance, shotgun cocked.
Let see what weapons could actually hurt him.
Well, good news first: Every single one of my weaponry was able to hurt him. Some more than others of course, but they all had a noticeable reaction at least.
Bad news: Nothing I did did really 'stick' to the villain. He healed every wound in seconds. I had not known how much his regeneration could escalate in a heated battle. Combined with his steady growing size.
He had been bigger than the armored vehicle the Merchants had piloted when I arrived. Now he was bigger than any of the buildings. His flames kept me on a permanent level of charred flesh. I was not getting cooked inside my suit only because of its slight temperature regulating properties, combined with my own healing.
The thing keeping me in the fight was that he was not getting faster in the same way everything else about him improved.
Right now I was dancing between his legs, chainsaw and Doomblade kneecapping him as often as I could and generally making myself a nuisance. I looked like I had bathed in blood, but nearly none of it was my own.
I was in my element after all, and Lung was slowly getting better at fighting me, but he had still some way to go.
He probably relied on simply overpowering his opposition, not on any skill. I regularly did both, so I was in a way the more experienced fighter. Which is why I was able to brainstorm with Vega. While fighting him.
There were some questions to be answered after all. Why was there still no other Hero here, giving me backup? (Vega theorized that they had orders to back off once Lung reached a certain size.) Was it simply random chance that made the capes battle close to my home? Would we be forced to eat takeout, after all? (It was late) And of course:
How do I put this fucker down permanently?
I had been tired before all this, just wanting to relax a few days. Get my thoughts in order. Slowly ease my Dad into my new reality. Maybe decorate the Fortress a bit. Then came the talk with the heroes, paired with very unpleasant revelations on my fathers side.
My fear of hurting him had played a big part in turning my anger and hurt into horror and numbness.
Then some Nazi idiots stopped me on my way home, after I had spend what felt like hours waiting in queue. A shopping trip that was supposed to calm me down. After that my neighborhood is under attack and I have to deal with a stupid suicide bomber before I can stop the threat.
And now said threat. Won't. Fucking. Go. Down.
Thinking about the events in this way pissed me off even more. And some part of me begged to just embrace that annoyance and to just turn it into an all encompassing haze of red rage. And honestly?
Why the fuck not.
Every civilian in the vicinity had fled already. If they did not, then they were suicidal idiots and thinking about them was pointless. My home was far enough away to not take any damage. There were no Heroes here to judge me or get in the way.
And the memories of me braining the Minotaur and the Marauder were some I was very fond of.
I put my chainsaw away. Then I focused on all the reasons I had to be angry. How good it would feel to just show this overgrown lizard its place in the pecking order. How he deserved it, as a despicable gang leader.
The constant anger I had pushed into the recesses of my mind came shockingly easy to the surface. As I lost myself in it, the last coherent thought I had was that I would rip and tear him apart. Then there was nothing for a while.
I felt a bit like I was dreaming.
My limbs moved seemingly on my own, inflicting wounds and breaking bones. A kick from me briefly lifted the dragon into the air and made him stumble into a building. Glittering scales already reforming where I had hit him, he charged at me again.
I felt... detached from the scene. Had I felt like this the previous times too, and just forgot about it and my actions afterwards?
A giant claw was deflected into the ground. Hacking and slashing with my blade, I was able to rip the appendage off. The pained shriek of my victim pulled my lips into a grin. But he was already healing the wound, a complete new claw forming after not even a minute.
And yet I knew it was me doing these things. And it felt so… right. No unnecessary thoughts, no lingering resentment on my father. Or on the heroes. Just me and something to defeat.
This was not the first time I had felt this way, I still dully remembered my joy in breaking the Minotaur. That had been the first time.
A swift dodge to the side, pulling on the arm that passed me, to catapult myself towards the dragons belly. I carved open the ribcage, but before I could go further, white hot flames made me back off.
A single white rib still held tightly in my hand.
Could I even function as a normal human anymore? I had not even considered getting out of my armor in Brockton Bay, at least not seriously.
And now I was worrying instead of enjoying the fight. A problem for future Taylor.
As if somebody had listened to me, the weird sense of detachment got reduced in intensity, even though it did not leave completely. It gave me a weird sort of focus, my thoughts immediately only narrowing in on winning the fight.
In a direct contest of strength I would lose. But honestly, Lung was not as dangerous as other beings I had fought before. But he regenerated everything. What was a thing he could (hopefully) not heal?
My gaze locked onto a scaled serpentine neck. I had an idea about that.
He was too big for my explosives to blow off his limbs, but that was not necessary anyways. Instead I retreated backwards. That gave him an easier time hitting me and negated the only advantage my (comparably) small size got me. But it was important.
Lung was temperamental one could say. So when I sidestepped his angry charge, I did not attack him in melee. Instead I fired at his face. His snout became bloody for only moments, before it healed.
He attacked me again. Like an angry bull with no strategy at all. I shot him in the face again. It did no lasting damage of course, but he still felt it. I remembered how annoying it was to fight Oni Lee. There had been a point where I just wanted to get my hands on the flighty bastard, no matter what.
Lung felt the same way, after I 'poked' his face again. With a hate-filled roar, he opened his colossal maw wide and created a sea of flames. He knew that that did not actually stop me. But it hurt me and that was all he wanted to do in that moment.
Pushing through the heat and pain, I finally closed in. Why? Because he leaned forward when spewing fire. I was unsure if that was an animalistic instinct from his transformation or if he could simply aim better like that. I just cared that it brought his head into reach.
Pushing off the ground with enough force to leave it cracked, I jumped at the dragon. His own flames covered me for a good part of it, so he noticed me too late. Snapping after me, I barely escaped the giant teeth.
And then I was on the side of his face.
My first punch rattled him. My second punch cracked his jaw. My third punch got interrupted by a big claw rushing towards me. Cackling, I skittered over his neck like an insect. He missed me, and I immediately punished him with my blade biting in his neck.
This woke up memories.
Fighting both his regeneration and his flailing limbs, I ripped open his neck with my bare hands. Well, and my Doomblade. Time blurred. I was always only focused on the next attack, to defeat him. It took long, longer than I had anticipated. The moment I was not carving through one side, muscles and scales immediately bridged the gap I had made.
But the panicked movement below me told me, that he was unsure how far I would take this. And if he could take the punishment I was giving out. Neither my hands or my blade were enough for my purposes. My chainsaw was unwieldy for the situation. By itself it would not deal the necessary damage either anyways. But I still had some grenades left.
Ramming everything I still had into his neck, I waited for the explosion. It nearly shook me off, but it stopped Lungs attack on me, blinded with pain. And gave me some more space to work with. Revving up the chainsaw, I carved a straight line through the giant neck and throat.
He could, in fact, not take it.
Breathing heavily, I stood on top of the dragon as it collapsed. There was no more movement. A scream of triumph ripped itself out of my throat, combined with the roar of my chainsaw as I held it into the air.
Now that the fight was over, my bloodlust also receded a bit. I had stayed mostly in control for that fight, or at least I could (mostly) remember it, which was nearly as good. As I jumped down from the giant carcass – it was not shrinking down to the human it had been before, was that normal? - a voice suddenly piped up and startled me.
"Well, guess you did not need the help we wanted to offer."
On reflex I swung around, weapon somehow already in my hand. The woman (girl?) raised her hands in surrender immediately.
"Woah, relax! No threat here!" She was smaller than me, clad in a skintight lavender suit of some kind. A black domino mask on her face was framed by her dark blonde hair, which was long enough to cover her shoulders. Behind her I could make out three more figures, keeping their distance.
I had never heard of any of them in any capacity, and I was a cape fan. So villains then. Again. I could not help my frustration rising up again. If I had known that being 'unmasked' would lead to constant meetings with villains and other capes, I would have perhaps been more careful.
As if sensing my mood, the girl actually flinched back and started talking faster than before.
"Hey hey, we are villains, true, but we are the friendly neighborhood variant! We are not here to recruit or fight you or anything! We came to help you with Lung!", she seemed a mix of frantic and frazzled. Admittedly, I did not believe her.
"No no, really! It was kind of our fault that this situation happened in the first place and-" had I spoken my thoughts out loud? Wait, did she just say that she was responsible for the fucking dragon in my neighborhood?
"Second-hand responsible! I did not mean that we tried to make this happen or anything! We made Lung look weakened some time ago and the Merchants tried to capitalize on that!" She had stepped back a few meters, hands still raised in the air. A part of me wanted to focus on the Lung part of her statement, but something else was more important right now.
"How are you doing that?" She was reacting to things I had never said – I checked with Vega if I had spoken loud by accident – and that was suspicious in itself. It was too dark now for her to make out too much of my expression. Also, my visor was still not transparent from the outside.
"I do not know what you mean I simply-" She was lying to me. If I did not get a satisfactory answer, then I would have to force the matter and-.
"It's my power!", she blurted out. "I can get clues and stuff from things I see and hear! Nothing nefarious, I swear!"
Well, she crumbled quickly. And she was starting to sound really fearful now. Fearful enough, that the others behind her had started to move, before she gesticulated at them to back off. Which did not stop her from talking.
"Of course I am afraid in this situation here! You are a new cape that immediately unmasked and then afterwards spit on the unwritten rules! You have just killed both the leader of the ABB and his lieutenant and probably started a gang war! You wanting to force the matter is reason enough for me to be very, very careful!"
If she said it like that, I sounded kind of unreasonable. I ignored her squeak of "I meant no offense!" to gather my thoughts. A gang war was not what I wanted to accomplish by going grocery shopping after all. If they targeted me, I would simply kill them – now that I had started there was really no point in holding back, the heroes would be on my ass no matter what – but what about the rest of Brockton Bay?
And what was I supposed to do with these villains here? That reminded me: "Who are you anyways?"
The blonde seemed to regain her proverbial footing and perked up. "We are the Undersiders! We are a small, kid-friendly villain group! I am Tattletale. The people behind me are, from left to right: Grue, Regent and Bitch!" A cape that called herself Bitch? Really?
"That is the second time you mention how 'friendly' you are, but you are villains. Criminals. Explain."
Tattletale had visibly calmed down, now that we were in somewhat of a civil conversation, and explained her reasoning readily: "Well, we are criminals, yes, but we mostly target the other gangs or insured people. We have a kill and cripple count of zero – that includes civilians – since we have grouped up and we are focusing on non-violent crimes. We do not rock the boat, and in return the Heroes do not need to focus on us and can go after the real threats."
I was sure that she was making herself and her team look better than they actually were, but that did not sound too horrible, admittedly. Picking up on that thought, Tattletale gave an exaggerated nod.
"We are not violent drug dealers like the Merchants, Nazis like the Empire, or human traffickers and kidnappers like the ABB! And we came to help you with the dragon, because we felt bad about you getting caught up in this little turf-war."
Fiine, I would let them go. I was no official hero, I was hungry and they had not done anything, as far as I could tell. Not worth the hassle, at least not right now.
"Thank you!", she hesitated for a moment. "Can I give you my number? I kind of want to give you an apology gift for this whole mess." She pointed at the ruined street and the bloody remains splattered on it. What was it with parahumans suddenly giving me their numbers?
"I don't have a phone." Vega could probably simulate one, but we haven't even had the time yet to really integrate him with the internet. My statement deflated the villain – why did she not know that I have no phone if she could seemingly read my mind? - but she bounced back quickly.
"Then, is it alright for you if I swing by your house sometime? I just want to give you the gift, I swear! Nothing malicious!" She could be a good actor, to simulate the honest fear of me, but even then, what was the harm? My house was known, and if they tried to leverage that, they would pay a steep price. So I nodded.
"Thank you! Then we are gone! The Heroes will arrive here soon, so if you do not want a confrontation with them, for uhm, killing two capes, then you should make yourself scarce too." With these words she turned around to her teammates. Three giant beasts thundered out of the nearby alley (my finger twitching to pull the trigger), which the villains swung onto, like big horse-monsters. And then they rode off.
She had made a good point, so I turned back towards my house aswell. Not hasty, but not dragging my feet either.
Without my groceries.
We ate take-out in the end. Chinese, which was a bit ironic. Dad had been worried about my delay, so over the food I gave him the gist of what happened. Edited to make things look better than they were of course. So I glossed over how exactly Oni Lee got stopped, or that Lung was dead instead of just knocked out. To make sure that such a situation would not happen again – meaning me fearing for my Dad, not the whole killing villains thing – I ordered Vega to create a device that my father could wear.
It would be something like a wristwatch, and armband, a belt or something similar. And it would allow Vega to create a portal next to my Dad, no matter where he was. The small sensor we had planted in my house was just not going to be enough.
For that he had to be comfortable with said portals of course, which was its own challenge.
"If this thing-", I waved towards the shimmering rift in space, "- opens up in front of you, or next to you, you get in it as far as you can. I am not risking your life, alright?"
He had fought with me over it of course, saying that me risking my life was not acceptable either, but Hell had changed me. I did not raise my voice, did not call him out for being a hypocrite (I myself was one too, true) or directly defended myself. Instead I made clear that there were things I could not stop and things I would not stop.
I was still very young, but I was also a killer. I felt older than my age would suggest. Perhaps I would have not chosen this life for me previously, but now that I was living it, I did not truly mind it. So instead of arguing in circles, I had quietly stated:
"If they kidnap or hurt you, or even kill you, I will burn this country to the ground. And I have the tools to do it." I had shocked and hurt him, which was... unpleasant, but he agreed to my demands. So I got what I wanted, even if I felt bad about it.
Back in the present, he seemed… skeptical about the whole portal thing.
"And you are saying this is safe?", he asked dubiously. "This doesn't look very safe. Has this been tested?" He could be so goddamn stubborn. A part of it was payback for my declaration of violence, I was sure.
"Daaad," I said exasperated. "I have walked through these dozens of times. Hell, I walked through this one four times already to prove it to you! Just walk through the stupid portal!"
"Alright, alright.", he grumbled, "but if I lose the rest of my hair, I will not allow you to forget it. Ever." With that threat, he finally stepped through, I followed him of course.
At least the Fortress of Doom impressed him enough to silence him. Even his mouth had fallen open. I was a bit giddy to finally show him my 'new place' so to speak; I had my very own space station in deep space, who wouldn't brag about that?!
"So, this is where you plan to live?", he asked, after his mouth had snapped shut with a click. "Yup.", I answered, popping the 'p'. "Not full time obviously, at least not for a while, but its a good safe heaven, right? Still needs furniture and stuff, but its stocked enough to sustain a small group of people indefinitely. Any basic resources that are missing can be created on station."
I showed him around my place, my personal quarters, the bathroom, the gym and so on. I told him that the 'Ripatorium' (the prison/ arena complex in the bowels of the station) was off limits – it was empty, as far as I knew, but still. And then I finally showed him the thing I was the most excited about.
The Hangar. With the broken Atlan.
The view of the stars had made his eyes bug out and left him temporally speechless. But this thing, my baby? He seemed a bit faint on realizing the dimensions.
"So, this is the 'toy' you wanted to show me?", even his voice sounded weary. I cackled. "Yes, but it is not yet fully operational! Or operational at all... But Vega is working on it!"
It was still horribly damaged, but there were visible improvements. The scrap we had gathered from the other mechs beneath the ice could be enough to get it operational. Maybe even to repair it fully, if there were no complications.
It was glorious.
The 'Super Shotgun' was sadly not something that would be crafted any time soon. We were missing unknown components, and we – meaning mostly Vega – were not able to find substitutes yet. There had been one prototype, but it had only minimal more firepower than my normal shotgun and it broke after a single training session.
But that was alright, if my mech would be done instead, you would not hear me complaining. This beauty would have made the fight against Lung trivial, I was sure. But did I even want that? The struggle and close up fight itself was a big part of what made combat so enjoyable. Just stomping through the opposition was not much fun. And then doing so from inside a cockpit? No, even if I had the Atlan available for me, I would only use it when necessary.
Risking my life for fun was not something, umm smart of course, meaning piloting tough fights from inside the Atlan, and everything else with my bare hands. Otherwise Vega would never let me hear the end of it.
"Can we go back sweetie?", my guest interrupted me from my thoughts. "As much fun as this is, I still need to go to work tomorrow."
"Right, right! But first: Vega, is the tracker finished?" The AI hummed an affirmative, and I dragged Dad back to the bridge, to one of the fabricators. Gesturing for him to grab into the soft blue light that kept the device floating in mid-air, he pulled it out of the machine.
It looked like a belt buckle, a design choice Vega explained: "As far as I know from your explanations, Tinkertech belts are a lot more rare than armbands, wristwatches and similar. So if he is in a bad spot, they will hopefully take longer to find it."
"Good thinking.", I praised my friend. "Right, there are probably people smart enough to get rid of your electronics." This way was likely the better choice. After he had equipped it, we turned back to the portal home.
My first night back at my home after so much time had passed. I was curious how good I would sleep.
AN: I thought about making this part seperate, keeping the 'only Taylor' theme in the main chapters, but I decided against it.
Kaiser
"So let me get this straight. You engaged her after my specific orders to only go for the soft sell approach. She was able to beat Hookwolf into retreating and was matching him while you were draining her. And on her way back she killed Lung and Oni Lee."
A sigh while the man paced up and down.
"I allowed Hookwolf to lead the negotiation because I hoped she would be receptive of the 'Warrior Code' he likes to talk about so much. If she didn't, you had orders to back off again." He whirled around, angry eyes narrowing. "Why was that too difficult for you? And where the fuck is Hookwolf!"
A bandaged Victor gulped.
"I was not the one that engaged her first, but she seemed to take my words as a threat quite quickly! Not intentional on my part, I swear! But Hookwolf was the one actually threatening her! He is probably nursing his wounds somewhere, I do not know his location."
Kaiser sat down again, heavily. "We will not engage her for the moment. Make that clear to all others, especially Hookwolf. Her rash actions gave us an opportunity to expand into the ABB territory. Use that, before somebody else does. We deal with her later.", he decided.
"Sir, she is a loose cannon!", protested Victor. "She killed two capes after a single day! If we do not put her down hard, who says she doesn't come for us first?!"
"Because she will be busy with the remains of the ABB. They will try to regain a semblance of strength by killing the cape responsible for their leaders death. They will also most likely splinter into different groups, Lung was the one holding them together. As long as we don't show ourselves an immediate problem, she will have her hands full. Understood?"
A grudging "Yes Sir." was the answer he got. Satisfied, he dismissed the injured parahuman.
Things were heating up quickly.
?
"Well, my pet, how did it go?"
"She is clearly unstable. I would strongly advise against targeting her specifically Boss." His pet seemed honestly scared, that was rare. Well, unless she was talking to him of course. He chuckled, knowing that she would immediately understand his thought process. He could nearly hear her gritting her pretty teeth.
"What about the father? He seems to be a good bargaining chip."
"I will get more information once I meet her at her house, but right now everything suggests that she is volatile enough to not make it worth it for you, Boss. She killed two capes just for being and fighting in the general vicinity." Someone was not happy to meet the violent newcomer at her home.
Tough luck.
Her observation was true of course, but that only meant that the connection with her parent was a genuine one. One he could exploit for sure. He would wait for Tattletales next report, but then he would make his move. "Keep me informed." He hung up. The situation accelerated his plans and gave him a possible new minion or a scapegoat. He had not expected her to kill Lung, but he did not regret coaxing the Merchants into making their powerplay. His plans would be a bit more risky now perhaps, but that was alright.
After all, he was incapable of losing.
AN: Until next time!
