AN: Next chapter! Some more hunting of a certain villain!
Chapter 13
I considered myself quite powerful now. After all, I had killed three capes in just a couple of days, all of them powerhouses in their own right. So I was very much dangerous.
Tattletale was a different sort of scary.
In a straight up fight, she would have not even a sliver of a chance against me of course. Hell, she would probably lose against nearly everybody that had a power useful for combat. And yet she had been able to lock Glory Girl inside a bank vault, a hero so strong that I was not sure I had the advantage in a clash.
Searching for Coil just hammered that point home more. I had been looking for quite some time beforehand. With Lisa, we entered the first base after not even half an hour. And most of that time had been spent getting towards our destination. "This is the base he brought me to multiple times, of course at least in the back of a van, if not blindfolded.", she had explained, "Not that that makes it much harder to find the place. He won't be there of course, but there should be enough clues for my power to work on, to find his other hideouts.", which was accompanied with her now familiar gesturing.
If I got forced to fight her, I would need to be quick, decisive and strike without warning. The best defense against a Thinker was to not let them talk in the first place, but that was easier said than done. Well, hopefully it wouldn't ever come to that. Killing demons indiscriminately was one thing, just rampaging through every Parahuman in reach was completely different.
Villains that attacked me first didn't count.
My temporary (?) ally of course picked up on my musings, but she did not comment on them or try to flee. The only thing she did was emphasizing the word "boss" every time she talked to me, as a reminder that we were on the same side.
The underground base we found was below an empty warehouse. The entrance was a trapdoor, hidden in one of the containers, with a steep set of small stairs. Neither the visible nor the hidden building were very sizable, but walking inside it was still a strange feeling. I felt like one of those agents in spy movies.
Well, with less sneaking and tactics, and more me just blasting my way through.
The corridors were narrow and had a low hanging ceiling. Unpleasant fluorescent lights lighted the way. I was not able to look more than a brief moment, before hostile fire answered my intruding. Stone cracked and shattered, dust got whirled up. And the violent sounds got amplified to deafening levels by the tight corridor. Some may have considered an advance to be suicide; Coils men had a good position to violently stop any encroaching troops.
They had forgotten that grenades were a thing.
This base had been defended by being unknown, it was not equipped to stop an intruder willing to kill indiscriminately. They could not do enough damage to me, and after only two grenades their formation and discipline was shaken. This had never been a fair fight.
I lighted up a bit more than half a dozen remaining mercenaries and then it was pretty much over. They had been equipped with Tinkertech-guns which mostly fired lasers. They evoked the unpleasant feeling of a hot needle inside my flesh, but after I got quickly used to the pain they were not really dangerous.
Maybe a hit in my bare face would have been lethal, but I had to tank multiple attacks in short succession for that to happen. I simply did not give them the time to do real damage. Lisa had waited outside until the sounds of screams and weapons in action had been silenced, then she popped her head in like a reversed jack-in-the-box. Her long hair nearly touched the ground from her upside-down position, which made it look even more comical.
She was doing it to endear me to her, I knew that, but it was working anyways.
"Well done boss! Now just let me do my thing!" Her 'thing' being her walking into every of the small rooms, nodding her head, saying 'Mhm', and then walking out again. I had no idea how that was supposed to help, honestly. She looked like a discount Sherlock Holmes, giving things not more than a cursorily glance. And yet, after exiting the last room, while ignoring the slumped over body in the doorway, she made her way outside with a triumphant nod and gave me a grin just brimming with smugness.
And then we were on our way to the next base.
Coil
Tattletale had betrayed him.
Nothing else explained the quick, successive hit's to his hideouts. He had considered himself to be reasonably protected – how big was the chance of her hitting this exact place after all? But if they kept this up, then it was only a matter of time. Now he regretted pushing his new pet so hard, she was unable to answer any more questions for the day. So he could not check upon his chances.
She had been supposed to make him unstoppable, a combination of powers that could not be beaten. Then he realized that his power was unable to cheat hers, to get more answers. And he had only acted so rashly because of her power.
It was ironic, really.
The asset that he had carefully collected, over months of work, was the very reason he was in such a mess, for the first time in years. Having a future sight like hers at his disposal had made him too cautious and yet arrogant at the same time. It had worked better for years without her.
No matter, he was far from being beaten. He could do a last stand here, use everything at his disposal to stop the rampaging new cape. He may even win the confrontation. But why risk it? He would of course make things difficult for her, as much as he could. But a head on fight was not only unnecessarily risky, it was also pointless.
No, instead he would gather as much of his assets as he could, and then seek refuge. If violence did not work, then defamation and social pressure were much more fearsome weapons. He had to move quickly though, he had no idea how much time there was left.
Only minutes later, the walls shook with the dull roar of a distant explosion.
The novelty had worn off quickly, mainly because there were so many secret hideouts. And those were all owned by a single villain?! Did that guy never sleep? And how the fuck did nobody know about this? This last base was in the basement of a hotel for gods sake!
The man had style though, at least in this particular building.
The other structures had all been obviously impersonal, unpleasant and all around not a place one would like to stay in for a prolonged time. This one was already much grander. We were in an elevator! With a real, 'hidden basement' button too!
It was also currently trying to kill us.
Tattletale had insisted on coming with me, citing security problems only she would be able to handle. I called bullshit on that – raw violence would triumph in the end, brawn over brain – because I was sure she just wanted to come gloat at the guy. He had recruited her with a gun pressed to her temple (at least that was still her story), so I could kind of understand the urge.
It was stupid and immature, but hey, neither of us was an adult anyways. Actually, was I older than Lisa? Had I asked her that already? Before I could ask my question, the elevator abruptly stopped. That was reason for concern, but my companion wordlessly broke open a panel next to the buttons and started doing something.
Bigger reason for concern were the hidden tubes that started spewing some sort of green smoke. This guy had the villain classics all thought out, it seemed. At first I tried to squeeze the pipes shut, but I was unable to get my fingers on them. So instead I carefully took aim, and then rammed my fist through the left wall.
Why the left wall?
Because there were two elevator shafts, and we had taken the right one. So I gave us some breathing room by ruining expensive equipment. If the hotel was in fact not working for Coil, that hole would be quite awkward to explain. But that was a problem for future Taylor!
Watching the green smoke (and why did he color it, maybe we would have missed the hissing if it wasn't accompanied bya green wall of gas?) escape through the new opening, I turned back and gave Tattletale a satisfied look.
"See? Brute force also works."
Giving me an unimpressed stare in return, she ripped something off and the elevator started moving again. The gas also stopped flowing. "I had things well in hand… But good job making sure that nobody missed our arrival." Well now, that was just uncalled for. "Are you trying to say that means trying to be stealthy is pointless now anyways?"
Taking the panicked widening of her eyes behind her mask as confirmation, I gave her a toothy smile. She couldn't see that of course, but I was sure her power was filling in the blanks. "Now boss, Taylor, let's not be hasty. There is no need to-" I ignored her and instead readied my rocket launcher, pointing it at the door.
"We have no idea about the structural integrity of this place, so maybe opening up with explosives is not the best idea and-" I pressed an armored finger on her lips. "Shht. You had no problem with my strategy in all of the places we already visited, and now you suddenly have second thoughts? No no Tattletale, we are doing this my way."
Why she was no complaining and didn't do so before was obvious of course. This time she was right next to me, and not just coming in after I was done. Her own fault for wanting to taunt her previous employer.
That would teach her for not being suitably awed by my genius solutions.
Long before she could change my mind, the elevator gave a soft 'ding' and stopped. The moment the door was opening, metal was already being scorched by lasers. So no chance of me hitting some bystander. Returning fire, I let multiple of my cute little payloads shriek down the hallway.
There were screams and shouts, the ground shaking from the shockwaves. But even before the dust hat settled, they were again returning fire. And not only Tinkertech lasers. I had no idea if they realized that common weaponry was more effective against me, but nonetheless bullets accompanied their other attacks.
I ignored them at first. But after a high caliber round – some sort of modified sniper? - ripped open both my arm and armor, I got more careful. For all her sass, Tattletale was not used to this sort of violence I could tell. She had seemed unaffected by the remains of my carnage.
She was very much affected in the middle of the fight.
After I swapped my rocket launcher and started drowning my enemies in bullets, she too began shooting with her small pistol. I had offered her an actual weapon, but she had refused. Honestly, why go for a pistol when you can have something that blows off limbs?
Just as sudden as the assault had happened, it was over. Confusing, because I had for sure not gotten them all yet. "They are retreating to a better position further inside the base." Ahh, that made sense. Well not really, I would have just blown up the elevator instead.
"Alright, so chop chop!" Ignoring the protesting sounds my first minion was making, I started to advance. Maybe people became villains to have minions? Because tormenting her like this was fun! I was really getting comfortable in that role. Wait, did that mean I was an asshole? "Taylor wait, there could be traps!" Nah, I would be fine, probably. In both counts.
I had no idea if other brutes just worked differently, or if it was the combination of my armor with it, but the damage they were doing to me was pathetic. As long as they had no big Railgun or something hitting my head I would be alright.
And then somebody suddenly turned of the lights.
Lisa
She had been expecting something like this, so the sudden black smoke rolling over her and Taylor was no surprise. It muffled all sound and light, it felt like being held underwater. She had long become used to it.
It was also no surprise, when the darkness suddenly lifted around her. In front of her stood a man clothed in black motorcycle leather, a helmet resembling a skull staring back at her. He was, as usual, towering over her. She grinned. "Hello Brian!"
Brian, or rather the official leader of the Undersiders known as Grue, gave a heavy sigh. He didn't even bother distorting his voice with his power. "Hello Lisa."
"What brings you to this place?" He crossed his arms with a grunt in response. "You know exactly what. Why do you betray us like this? What happened? I know there were some difficulties, but I thought we were doing fine, as a team?" Oh Brian. Always trying to be the professional, and yet the teams mother-hen.
She waved it off, like so many things. "I didn't quit because of difficulties with the Undersiders. I quit because Coil 'recruited' me with a weapon to my head. In a back-alley. In my civilian Identity." She had never tried to turn Brian against Coil. Because he even with his desire for personal freedom, he would side with the villain if it meant protecting his sister.
Still, it was important for him to be able to walk away. So to learn that Lisa never had a choice – and then, how likely was it that he could leave when he wanted to? - would sting. Which was good. "Ah." he was searching for words. "I can understand your resentment then. But I am still working for him, you know why."
An apologetic shrug.
"He is willing to give you another chance and a better offer, I have been told. So will you accept?" Yeah, the 'offer' to lock her in the basement and drug her to the gills instead of giving her any freedom at all. Not an option. Not when she finally had hope to get away. This wasn't working, so time for a change in strategy.
"I have nothing against you personally Brian, alright? Hell, I have nothing much against the others, and they are a lot rougher around the edges than you are. So I am gonna be frank. Your employment to Coil will be terminated in the near future. Like Coil himself, if I have any say in the matter. Step aside and let us do our thing. I am sure Taylor is nearly done with looking for a way to combat your power-" when in doubt that would mean 'shooting until the problem was dead', so she had to finish this quickly, "So your time is running out. I do not want you dead. And I am sure Aisha doesn't want you dead either. And I don't think Taylor wants to kill you, but she will if you stop her from getting to Coil. He targeted her father."
That would be another doubt planted; if Coil went after Taylor's father so quickly, why wouldn't he go after Aisha to blackmail Brian? Also, mentioning his sister would perhaps stop him from doing something foolish here. Reminding him about what he had to lose and all that. "Clock is ticking, my old teammate." The blood on the floor was messily showing how serious the situation was. He could see the full amount of carnage too, because his fog did not obscure his own vision.
But no matter how he decided, this was the end of the Undersiders. They were both aware of that.
"Vega, what is this and how do we kill it?"
It being the strange darkness that had swallowed me. "I would suggest it is a Parahuman power, likely the one of the leader of the Undersiders, Grue." Ahh, right, I had looked that up. Did that mean the others were here too? Was this a trap and Lisa had led me in it?
"So how do I get out?" "Patience, I am trying different ways of penetrating it. It is even trying to interfere with the connection I have to your suit, these powers are truly something else." I waited in the black silence, weapon ready to shoot anything giving it's position away. In the same time, my visor was flashing through different 'filters' of some sort. I could tell, because symbols appeared and disappeared in front of my eyes. And that was pretty much it.
Until Vega gave a satisfied hum, that is. "Alright, we will need to upgrade your Suit to stop things like that from happening in the future. I am using a modified way of locating- ah forget the explanation, it is rather similar to how I found the caves in hell. I can not share the data with you directly, but I can give you a rough overview."
With these words, two vaguely humanoid targets got lined out on my visor. One was bigger than the other, so the smaller one was probably Lisa. Vega warned me about a margin of possible error, so I did not just open fire on the taller figure. Instead I closed in on them, carefully looking for any sort of warning coming from the AI.
Then the darkness lifted, just as sudden as it had appeared.
Next to Lisa stood a tall man, clad in leather and wearing a skull helmet. Grue, a member of the Undersiders. He had been standing in the back with the others when I met them for the first time. He was also the guy I had been expecting. The description of 'Darkness Generator' on PHO had been vague, but who else would fit the bill? Lisa was staying partly in front of him, which stalled my finger from pulling the trigger. I had no real desire to kill him in particular, but if he was working for Coil?
Well, then he was an obstacle in the very least. And soon to be a smear on the ground.
"You are going to become a problem for me?", I asked him, my tone light but carrying a serious threat nonetheless. He considered me for a moment, then he shook his head. "Tattletale tells me that I have no real chance stopping you, and looking at the corpses you left behind, I am inclined to agree." Yeah, that was nice and all, but that didn't answer my question.
The Undersiders were no two man team after all. "And what is with the rest of your team?" "Let me guess!", Lisa piped up, morbidly cheerful in the tense situation. Trying to lighten it up, maybe? "And correct me if I am wrong! But: Regent has likely seen my betrayal of a sign to jump ship and has already disappeared, taking all of the money that he could get his hands on. And Bitch is probably using the fact that you, Taylor, kept Hookwolf busy, to save as many animals from the Empires dog fighting rings as she can. Right?" A villain – that the PRT called a murderer! - likely busy saving dogs? Can't say I expected that.
Grue seemed annoyed by his former know-it-all teammate, but gave a grudging nod. So there was no ambush coming for me, unless Lisa was in on it too. "And our fearless leader here got probably shortly picked up by Coil and dropped here. Officially to stop us, but actually to stall for time. Which is also the reason we have to go now."
Coil was getting away?! Hell no! "Yeah, lets go! He is not allowed to flee!" We immediately pushed on through the wide corridors (well wider than any other base at least). We left the tall villain behind, staring at us forlornly. He seemed uncertain of what to do now. Understandable.
Well, not my problem.
Coil
They were here too fast!
He had hoped that they would clean up all of his other hideouts first, but they had skipped quite a few. He was not done! His funds were still being transferred and all the data he had collected to hurt the other gangs was still being copied to his personal laptop. Having everything at one place was risky of course, but better than risk losing anything.
He had been so close to striking the Empire a lethal blow too!
His transport was ready and waiting for him, but his pet was also proving to be suddenly stubborn. The little bitch had known something like this would happen! Not that that realization helped him much right now. She had bitten his hand as he took her out of her room. And had disappeared under his desk. His own fault for trying to handle her alone, but his men were a little busy right now.
Also, he really liked his desk, it was big and expensive. Solid, with a lot of space, integrated console and all that. The sheer size was also the reason why he had not gotten a hold of his escaped quarry yet. She was sadly faster than him in scurrying under and around it like a little rascal.
And they were both using their powers.
He would win in the end of course, his power was more useful for such direct actions, but he had to work for it. If only the Travelers were on base already! Sadly they had not yet accepted his offer, requesting some time to 'consider their options'. They would have accepted his offer for sure, but that did not help him right now. Another swipe, and again little legs escaped his grasp. How was this little girl so full of energy after getting drugged to Nirvana?!
And now he had hit his head.
Time was running out, so he had to compromise. Groaning in pain, one hand pressed against his forehead, he focused one timeline on catching the Precog. In the other one he finished up everything else. If he got a hold of her, he would flee immediately, his other resources be damned. Nothing was as powerful as knowing the future. The gunfire was coming closer steadily, so he grabbed his laptop, stuffed it in his suitcase and fled through the opening escape tunnel.
In the other timeline, he had finally gotten the girl and was doing the same, ignoring everything else. She was wiggling and fighting him. Somehow she was still mostly lucid after the smack he had given her head. But now that he had her in a secure hold, his progress was quick and steady. His door had been broken down, he realized. But the intruders were not giving chase yet, in either Timeline. He barely heard a girl ask something about children, before his legs got blown off with an indignant shout.
As the girl skittered away from him, a shadow loomed over him. The Suit looked more menacingly up close. "So you do not even stop at targeting parents, you kidnap children too?!" Those disgusted words were the last thing he heard before the timeline cut off abruptly.
He cursed and kept running, heavy suitcase clutched to his chest.
Those guys were good, I could give them that.
And like in any movie, there were turrets in the ceiling and walls that fired on us. And traps in the ground too. And heavy doors ramming down in front of us.
Not that any of that actually slowed me down much. Now that I had started moving again, I would not stop until I got to my destination. I just used the brute force of my body, tearing of deadly contraptions with my bare hands. The impact with the doors knocked the air out of me every time. But I still broke through them without slowing down. Much at least.
Of course they tried to stop me, first with bullets and lasers, then with their bodies.
Which was an impressive amount of loyalty for mercenaries, but just because I respected them did not mean I had to spare them. And we, or rather I, was doing good progress in reaching the office at the end of the corridor. Until, well… Do you remember how I said I would be fine against most weaponry? Except if they had a big Railgun or something similar?
Well, they had a Railgun.
I noticed it too late, not being ready for it. So the big metal projectile was able to rip a chunk out of my side. It was the first time since Grue that I had to stop my momentum. This time I immediately crashed through the walls of one of the side rooms. First step was to break line of fire.
Lisa followed me, cursing again. She had ran out of steam, too busy keeping up with my speed, but this new development had given her a new boost of energy. Quite the pottymouth on that one. Testing my injured side, I gave a hiss of pain. It hurt, but I could see the blood flow already becoming sluggish and weaker.
"Well, that didn't go as planned.", I exclaimed cheerfully. "How good are the odds that Coil is still in his Office?" Because if he wasn't, blowing everything sky-high was not a good option to go for. Sadly. It would destroy any possible clues about his whereabouts, or at least make things harder for us.
And I wanted to be done in the near future.
"So now you are listening again to me?", my blonde friend pouted. "Are you sure you don't want to just ignore me again and just go charging in?" Well, if she put it like that, it was tempting. "Nonono! Taylor! Take this seriously for a moment!" I raised my hands in surrender, a gesture that I had not copied at all from a fellow parahuman. The jokes were distracting me from losing my temper and just charging in again, but it was time to get serious.
"I give it a fifty-fifty chance that he is still there. I am sure he did not expect us to arrive as quickly as we did, or there would have been more capes to stop us. He sometimes hires Faultline's Mercenary Crew, they usually do not take jobs in Brockton Bay but he would have tried at least. So he could still be in there. Or he could have fled through one of his escape tunnels." And blowing things to shit meant risking the tunnel to be inaccessible.
"So how do you think I should do this?" I had been tormenting my minion/ friend/associate/ companion, but that did not mean I didn't care about her or her opinion. I mean, that had been the main argument; why working together was a good idea and all that. "I only got a glimpse of the weapon, but my power suggests that it can't fire twice in quick succession. OR it overheats after half a dozen shots."
I paused. "That are two totally different statements Li- Tattletale." She gave me an apologetic shrug. "Yeah, but my power is not foolproof. Garbage in means garbage out. Not mentally committing to only one of those options is hard enough already. Also, it's Tinkertech. Tinkertech does not play by the rules. But since I am still alive, and I was behind you, I think the first option is the most likely." I hummed in thought.
"Alright, I will push them. If they shoot once and then nothing else happens, I close the distance. If they shoot multiple times I keep my distance until they are forced to stop." Not a very sophisticated plan, but it would be serviceable.
If I was able to dodge good enough.
Well, no time like the present. I checked my injury again – the side was tender, but the wound it'self was closed. The Suit was also crawling over my skin and fixing the hole. It was a weird feeling, but one I was used to. Poking my head through the doorway, I immediately had to pull back, as a metal projectile punched through both it and the wall.
I poked again. There was no second projectile. So no overheating, but also no distant bullet-hell. Instead I had to close the distance to what amounted to a big sniper. While they were trying to take my limbs off. Joy.
The next bullet grazed my left arm. The impact made me stumble for a moment, before I regained my momentum. My arm was still attached to my shoulder too. So no real damage done. I was hyper focused. Being in mortal danger made paying attention to minuscule details easy. In front of me was the weapon. A long barrel pointed at me. Thick metal shields protecting the men behind it. The barrel shuddered.
The bullet had been on target. But it missed anyways. I picked up speed. They were forced to reload every single shell per hand. Which explained the delay in firing. They were also getting panicked. The next shell was aimed at my legs. They were desperate to stop me. It hit my leg, but I could still move. So I did. Pain was not important. I was very close now, my mouth was already stretched in a wide grin. The last shell never left the barrel.
With a mad cackle I vaulted over the defenses and fell upon the mercenaries like a bloodthirsty god.
"You terrify me."
"Huh?" I looked up from the dented door. I was making progress, but this thing was proving stubborn. Better quality than the others in this bunker for sure. "You terrify me." The girl repeated. Now where did that come from? I hadn't threatened her for quite some time, right? Lisa threw up her hands exasperated.
"It's not about threats Taylor! Look at this!" She pointed at the remains of the heated battle. "No, no! That wasn't a heated battle! This was a massacre! And I had a front-row-seat!" I frowned, but turned back to hitting the door. "If it bothers you, don't watch next time?" The blonde sat down gingerly next to me with a sigh. "It's not about that. Yes, these things make me queasy, but it was us or them. No, what terrifies me is how easy doing this is for you."
Ah. Right, none of these people had been to Hell. Well, as long as she did not try to backstab me, I would use that ease to protect her. "Wait, what was that thought you just had?" I raised my eyebrow. I was still not looking at her, but it wasn't like her power needed that to work. "That as long as you do not backstab me, I will fight for you and not against you?" "No, the thought before that! What was that!? I just got something like an 'Error'! My power doesn't do errors!" Not gonna think about it, not gonna think about it. Nope. "We can talk about that after this shit is over and done with, alright?" Lisa was not happy, but she grumbled her acceptance.
The door finally gave up with an agonized groan.
Pushing it open impatiently, I was greeted with a decadent office. Giant desk, wooden floor. Soft lights on the ceiling. And an open tunnel that was a lot less pleasant to look at. I wanted to give chase immediately, but Lisa stopped me.
Or at least I thought it was Lisa, but the hand holding on my boots was definitely too low to the ground. And too small. I looked down, and was greeted with a sight I had for sure not expected when busting open a villains office. The small girl was visibly malnourished, her long brown hair unkempt and frazzled. Her brown eyes had a glassy, floaty quality to it. But they were still focused on me with a startling intensity.
"Candy?"
I was getting a very bad, ugly feeling about this. My blood was boiling and pounding in my ears. If my growing suspicion proved to be correct? Well, Coil would not get the pleasure of a quick death.
AN: Next Chapter will have more of the Cast showing up! After all, can't forget about the little Stalker for example, right? Until then!
