AN: I am not dead, and neither is this story! Time is just being meh right now. Updates will be irregular, but I will finish this project. And there is still a loooot to come. Enjoy!


Chapter 14

Emily Piggot

Emily Piggot was not a happy woman. She was rarely pleased either, after all. That came with the territory of her job of course. She was the PRT ENE Director, or simply the woman in charge of the Parahuman Response Team in Brockton Bay.

Yes, a dedicated Director for only a single City.

Why? Well, because it was Brockton Bay of course. It had been the go-to City for any aspiring Villain for a long time, after a population mainly working in the shipping industry was forcibly cut off from doing any more business.

Protesters had never been smart people, in her opinion, and the idiots responsible for that fiasco had single handedly done more damage to their City than any of the government practices they were protesting against.

So Brockton Bay was enough of a problem that they established the specially designated PRT ENE. It was seemingly not enough of a problem to warrant giving Emily any of the troops she was regularly asking for.

Because of course not, god forbid she would be able to have at least even numbers with the Villains.

So her job was stressful and thankless, but nobody else competent enough was there to take over. Not that Emily Piggot would trust them. The job alone was not the full problem, after all. Why she was so miserable.

She hated fucking capes.

They were bullies at best, monsters at worst. She had been there when Ellisburg had been overrun by a single Parahuman and his creations, when it became a quarantine zone. She had been one of the operatives tasked with killing the Goblin King, Nilbog.

Their parahuman support had fled and left them to die. Only she and one other had survived, crippled. She had been called a hardass before that, stubborn and bullheaded, but now? Now she was fat and ugly, hated the people she was responsible to police and she was still the best person they had for the fucking job.

She was aware of her flaws of course, some of them at least, so her dislike was never accompanied with an abuse of power. No matter if it was the Protectorate or the not yet adult heroes in the Wards, she treated them like any other of her agents.

Which also meant she did not tolerate disobedience. Not from herself either, no matter how much she was gnashing her teeth.

"Have I been understood?" Rebecca Costa-Brown, Chief Director of the PRT repeated her question. "Yes.", Emily spit out grudgingly. "But at least tell me why? You never give me the resources I ask for, I have become used to you not seeing reason on that front, but now you tell me how to police my own City!? Why should I allow such a violent criminal free reign?!" Her respectful tone was admittedly slipping somewhat.

She was tempted, so tempted to ignore her orders. And of course Costa-Brown took notice of that. "I will know when you try to undermine me.", she warned. "There has been information brought to light that is still being analyzed. But even so it already warrants the Parahuman in question special treatment. You are to ignore her, understood?"

"Are you talking about that stupid stunt Shadow Stalker pulled?!", Piggot shouted, now definitely losing control of her temper. "In what world does her allow that free reign?! She will start a gang-war Director! I do not have the people to stop that! I do not have the people to survive that!"

The woman was unmoved by the outburst, cold eyes drilling into Emily even trough the computer screen. "I am not talking about that, no. But now that you mention it, how are things going on that front?" The overweight woman threw her hands in the air. "We have her secured tightly, she is waiting for her transfer. We are trying to contact the father, but your orders combined with the fact that he is confined to his home right now make that nearly impossible! I can't tell my people to keep their distance and then contact the father of the parahuman we are not supposed to get into contact with!"

Costa-Brown hummed in thought for a moment. "That is fine, with all the excitement he is having right now, I doubt he would go public with his knowledge. We still have time considering that." She ignored the muttered "So now its we again." "The most important part is that you do not take aggressive action against her."

Seeing that the woman was still not convinced, the head of the PRT pressed the point once more. "I mean it, Emily. This is important. S-Class important, at the very least. Am I understood?" Mustering her, she gave a satisfied nod. "Keep me updated, as always. Costa-Brown out." The video call disconnected.

Sighing Piggot leaned back in her chair. She hated being such a blatant hypocrite to her agents, but Costa-Brown had made her orders very clear. A parahuman that had already destroyed property close to a million dollars, with two (maybe three!) confirmed parahuman kills too. Anybody else would be a candidate for the Birdcage, with orders to attack on sight. And yet this one was special. S-Class important, she had said.

The last potential S-Class threat Emily had gotten into contact with had been Nilbog. If this girl started to take over the City, Emily would fight her with all she had. Fuck her orders.


Alexandria

What a pigheaded woman to deal with, the hero sighed. No matter if she was being Alexandria or hiding behind her appearance of a normal human as Costa-Brown. They had put Piggot as the Director of Brockton Bay because she was the perfect person for the job. If one considered the experiment they had wanted to make out of the City.

And now all those plans of not interfering and observing and all that had been tossed aside, because one woman told them to. And so they did. Like always, because not listening to her was being unreasonable at the very least. She turned to her silent companion, which was the woman in question. "Was that how your Path wanted it?" The fedora bobbed on her head as the Thinker nodded. "Yes."

She did not elaborate, to Alexandria's frustration.

"I hate it when you keep m- us in the dark like that. Usually your Paths allow you to share them with us. At least in part." The woman in the suit shrugged apologetically. "Not this one, unfortunately. Not yet." She looked into the distance, with unseeing eyes, deep in thought. Or that was how it looked like at least. Knowing if Contessa or her Power were piloting her body at any moment was impossible. "I also have to go now. More and more steps are appearing that I must take." Alexandria gave a frown of concern. "Isn't that usually a bad sign? That complications are happening?"

"No, this is a good sign, I have gathered." "Why?", pressed the hero. "Why is it suddenly a good thing? Didn't it start with only half a dozen steps or something?" Some weird symbols that Alexandria had carved into metal with her bare hands, she remembered those.

The most powerful Thinker in the world answered the question with a nod. "Usually yes."

"So how is this good now?"

"Because", the woman in the Suit answered easily, "There are not more steps for the same goal. There are more steps because I can go further than before. My sight has cleared more and more. Not using this opportunity would be foolish."

If that was true, that were truly monumental news. If Contessa's power was growing in strength for some reason, there was maybe a way for them to win and not just work at a desperate attempt to survive. Alexandria refused to fall prey to naïve hope though. If the Path wanted Contessa to lie to her, then she would.

Until they were looking down on the broken body of their enemy, there would be no self-delusions of safety.


Lisa

It was really difficult to see Taylor swap moods like she did without considering her schizophrenic.

She had been apocalyptic with rage the moment she realized what the appearance of that little girl meant – said girl was a Thinker by the looks of it, but she was not yet sure what exact power she had. But just as fast as the rage had come, it had seemingly disappeared, traded for some sort of adorable awkwardness.

She was not used to handling small children, it seemed.

"Stop laughing at me and do something!" the girl clad in power-armor hissed in desperation, one hand patting the small girl on the head like a pet. Carefully of course, she was wearing heavy gloves. And she had no idea what she was doing.

Lisa gave her a grin and ignored the plea for help with more satisfaction than she probably should have. Not because it was payback for all the teasing and insanity she had to endure at the hands of her "boss".

That was simply the explanation that Taylor would consider the reason.

No, Lisa should stay careful and aware of the fact who she was dealing with. People without her power would see Taylor, and either find a young woman, that was shy and polite, with tons of insecurities that were still clinging to her. Or they would see a killer, bathed in blood, the being that had single-handedly mostly destroyed one of the major villains. A bit of a contrast, one could say.

What Taylor actually was, was insane. At least Lisa was pretty sure about that. She had no idea what sort of trigger event created such a persona, but it reminded the former thief a bit about what she imagined Jack Slash was, in his more stable days. An outside observer would see a girl being completely unsure how to act with a child, but what they could not see was the desire and will for bloodshed hidden beneath, even now.

If she had to, Taylor would kill anybody. Maybe not her father, or at least not easily, but the girl was damaged in a way Lisa had not personally seen before. She had likely already forgotten the mercenaries she had slaughtered on her way in. Her power constantly whispering of danger, how quickly the other parahuman could decide to kill her. And the hidden anger had not been at Lisa, not even once, not true anger at least.

Taylor Hebert was a monster, but as long as Lisa could appeal to her reasonable side, she would be fine. Hopefully. Honestly, she liked her more than Coil.

Of course, right as she finished that thought, a portal opened in the air, and a pale woman, clad in a black suit, fedora on her head stepped out. Lisa's power had been afraid of Taylor, especially once her temper got going. But there were lines the girl would not cross too easily. This woman?

There were no lines she had not already crossed.

Lisa whimpered.


Taylor

The small girl still holding onto my boot was the only reason I did not immediately dash behind cover as a portal opened in midair. It was not made by the technology Vega and I had access to, but it was still very familiar. I had wondered when our mysterious benefactor would show themselves again.

I had not expected somebody to actually come out of said portal, instead of another scavenger hunt. I also had no idea who the woman was, that looked at me with calm superiority. Her arrogance granted on me immediately, but she was not visibly armed or hiding her face.

So she likely had some sort of protection and was confident I could not deal with it.

So I stayed my hand. Also, I still had a small body holding on my boot. A quick glance to Tattletale showed her being pale and subtly swaying, which was not a good sign at all. Whatever she had picked up from the intruder was obviously bad news.

"Greetings." The woman's voice was cool and calm, with no hint of hostility or haughtiness. "My name is Contessa. You have never heard of me, but I am here to make you an offer." There was certainty there, that the people knowing her were likely very, very few indeed. With a soft smile, she added: "Also, you will not need this. Not for this little chat at least."

I became dimly aware of my weapon aimed at her chest. I had no idea when I had done that, but the fact that this Contessa was still so confident made me uneasy. In silent rebellion I did not lower my gun. "And what offer is this? Also, if you are the person that kept giving me scavenger hunts, I owe you. Both a kick in the ass and a thanks."

Bravado instead of true confidence did not feel very good, but it made a decent substitute, for now.

Contessa gave an amused laugh, seemingly not offended or caught off guard in any way. "Then you can deliver those two things to me, in time. Right now I would advise against it. I am not sure I would be able to continue this chat after getting kicked by one such as you." So I could hurt her then? Or was this a deliberate slip?

"You have not made your offer yet." I pointed out. For suddenly appearing underground, in a secret lair and with a weapon aimed at her, she was really taking her time. "She wants to take me with her.", the little girl explained. I blinked behind my helmet. "And how do you know that, kid? Do you know her? Is she one of the people that gave you 'candy'?" If the answer was yes, I would kill Contessa, no matter how confident she was. Giving drugs to a child was horrendous.

"We have never met.", the woman in question said, relaxed. "And I have not supplied the 'candy' in question either. But I know about her. Little Dinah would be in good hands with me." Yeah I did not trust that statement at all. "Could you really care for a child addicted to Tinkertech drugs? Don't be stubborn for stubbornness sake Taylor. You could meet her again after she got a clean bill of health, if you want?" the impeccably dressed woman offered.

She had a point of course, I had no idea what to do with the child (that was apparently named Dinah). I would have given her to the PRT probably, but I doubted they would not try to lock me up at the same time. And I really did not want to fight the Heroes – I did not consider myself the bad guy, only a bit more… enthusiastic than the average Hero. Taking my silence as being unwilling still, Contessa made a thoughtful hum. "How about a trade then? You allow Dinah to go with me and you will be able to see her once she has recovered from this little ordeal. And in return I tell you who and where Coil is." Her face still had that same relaxed smile as she casually sold out one of the big Villains.

"How do you even know that?" That was information that was likely very hard to get for most people. "I have my ways. So do we have a deal?" For some reason I was sure that her information would be genuine, but I was afraid of missing something important.

"Tattletale, what do you say to this deal?" There was no answer. I had not taken my eye of Contessa since she had appeared, but now I turned my head to see what was the problem. The sight gave me a chill in my bones.

I had seen Lisa afraid before of course, hell, I was the one scaring her some of those times. But no matter how afraid she had been of me, she had never acted like this. She was sitting on the ground, head turned away. Her eyes were pressed shut with as much force as she could muster, while her hands fully covered her ears. She was also humming quietly, face scrunched in concentration.

Alarmed, I turned back to Contessa, my fingers tightening on the trigger. "What is she doing? Is this your fault?" The woman was unconcerned with my now hostile tone and gave a careless shrug. "In a way, it is my doing. She is simply afraid of finding knowledge that would make me kill her. So she is trying her best to not see or hear anything."

"Would you try to kill her?" Left unsaid was that I would fight for my minions defense. "No, not if she does not speak of it. At least until things are ready. I am not your enemy, we are on the same side in the grand scheme of things. Go on and talk to her, if you wish. We have time."

My aim never wavering, I walked over to my new friend (?) and softly shook her shoulder. Tattletale immediately stopped humming and looked up towards me. But before I could gesture for her to remove her hands from her ears, she caught sight of Contessa still standing there, watching our interaction with a neutral expression.

It took only a moment for Lisa to try and resume her previous actions. A bit annoyed – both that I had never scared her like that and that she did not seem to trust me to protect her – I grabbed her hands myself and simply pulled them away. She tried to struggle, humming frantically, but I was obviously a lot stronger than her. "Stop being silly Tattletale." But no matter what I tried, the girl refused to stop her futile efforts, until Dinah pried herself off my leg and whispered something into her ear.

I had forgotten about the child again. But in my defense, she was just so quiet!

I don't know what the small parahuman said, and I did not care to find out, but Lisa stopped her wiggling around and looked up at me. She could tell that I was very unimpressed by her antics. But I gave her a pass for this one, Contessa was unsettling me too and she was just standing there and waiting patiently.

Now that my big brained friend had stopped with trying to deprive herself of as much sensory input as possible, her power filled her in quickly, which was very useful. "I am guessing she made you an offer and you want my opinion on it?", she guessed correctly.

"Yes, she wants to take Dinah with her, because she is saying that she can help her. She also said that we can meet her again as soon as she has a clean bill of health. In return we get the information to hunt down Coil." Seemingly expecting that, Lisa nodded once, considered the offer for a moment (accompanied by a sneaky, frettful glance at said woman) before she nodded again. This time more grudgingly.

"Yeah, she can for sure help Dinah. I don't doubt that. I also don't doubt that she only lets me see what she wants me to see." The former villain shrugged, a bit helplessly. "Her power beats mine, whatever it is exactly." Unfortunate. I silenced my helmet and then asked my mostly silent companion. Since I gave him access to the internet, he had been engrossed in the whole new world at his disposal. That and the efforts he put into the Fortress ensured that he was busy around the clock.

"What do you think Vega?" The AI still answered immediately, no matter how much he was doing simultaneously, which I was grateful for. "I think that her offer seems genuine at first glance. She has no physical tells for me say more about that. I also think that she has access to portal technology or powers of some sort, that are superior to my own in a way. If you brought Dinah to the Fortress for example, I would only be able to tell you that she is teleporting in the moment she does so. So you would need to cover the girl without any breaks 24/7 to stop a possible kidnapping. I do not think the PRT has a way of dealing with such a power either. If there was, then Coil would probably have some device to stop such portals build in this very base. He hasn't, so they likely don't exist."

Wait, that also meant that my Fortress was not actually a safe place?! A problem for another time, but good to keep in mind.

So I was back at square one. None of the others could give me a decisive answer. In that case, the question wasn't if I trusted Lisa's judgment or if I trusted my own (if she could fool a Thinker, she could for sure fool me). The question was if I trusted Dinah's judgment. She obviously had some sort of strong Thinker power and she actually wanted to go with Contessa.

Honestly, if she could just snatch the child the moment somebody was not looking, then this was not really a choice at all. It was a farce. "For what it's worth, my offer is genuine. But I know that words alone will not sway you.", Contessa even looked apologetic. And yet neither Vega nor Tattletales power was not strong enough to find out if she was legit or not. Maybe Contessa's power was superhuman acting or subterfuge? But she reacted to my thoughts and decisions a bit like Lisa did, so I doubted that.

"We accept your offer. And if you lied, I will hunt you down." Not a threat, but more like a declaration. The woman in the suit lifted her fedora in a thankful fashion and beckoned Dinah to her. While the child was walking towards her, she looked at Lisa and made eye contact.

"Thomas Calvert." Then she nodded towards me and turned around with a mutter of "Door." She grabbed Dinah's hand and walked trough a portal appearing in thin air. Really hoping that I had not just been scammed, in turned to my Thinker friend. "That was the information I am guessing?"

Lisa nodded, with a frown. "Yeah, it was Coils civilian identity." Now I was the one frowning.
"You do not seem to be too happy about that? Is he hard to find?" Lisa grimaced and shook her head.

"No that is not the problem. He will actually be fairly easy to find if he tries to go undercover with it. The problem is to whom that identity is connected to." Interpreting my gesture as a demand to continue correctly, she added: "He was a PRT agent and is working as a consultant for them right now."

Oh. And I had wanted to not get into a fight with the PRT. This was someones idea of a shitty joke, wasn't it? On the other hand, maybe if we told them about Coil they would do our job for us? No, I was against that idea. He had abducted and drugged a child to do his bidding. And that was only the last thing on a probably very long list of crimes.

I would kill him, personally.

A warning for the heroes was still a good idea though. I glanced at Lisa again. Now that the excitement was over, she looked completely unfazed, like I had simply imagined the scene of her huddling in a corner. She noticed my attention of course, and waved my concern off.

"'m fine Taylor. Don't worry about me." That she called me by my name just made more internal alarms go off. I mustered her with narrowed eyes. Then, to strengthen the effect I was trying to convey, I pulled of my helmet and looked directly at her suspiciously. "Are you sure about that?", I drawled. A brief smile hushed over Lisa's face because of my antics – I was trying to lighten the mood a bit – but the unsaid question I asked her was nonetheless serious.

"Yeah, I am better now." Seeing that would not be enough to satisfy me, she went into more detail. "Its hard to explain my reaction to someone that isn't a similar Thinker like me. Consider it like this: You are scary Taylor, I know that, you know that. No matter how much you act like a girl, it does not change the fact that you are a killer." Well that was not very flattering. "But even though you are a killer, you can be reasoned with, I can understand you and your motivations. Well, mostly at least." She paused for a moment, obviously searching for words. "I do not know what sort of trigger she had, or what exactly her power is, but this, this-"

"Contessa", I said helpfully.

"- yeah, this Contessa. I can't see her motivations at all. My power works kind of on her, but that is because its working around her. Deducting from her surroundings, her clothes and so on. The woman herself is a blank slate."

"So she scared you because you lost any affirmation you usually have when dealing with people?"

"Yeah, kind of, but that's not fully it." She seemed frustrated that she was unable to tell me what she meant exactly. "Alright, to make it simple: You would kill me if I betray you. I know that. And I do not intend to betray you. Contessa would probably kill me the moment it suits her plans. That's what I got from a brief glance, but I can't tell if that is something she is showing intentionally! Whatever, its not important. She is dangerous. The most dangerous Cape I have met so far. Is her information about Calvert legit? It would make sense for it to be. Could it be a lie anyways? Yes. So we should be careful." Eh, I was confident that Lisa could confirm Calvert to be Coil once we had the man in front of us.

"Time to go to the PRT! Let's get not arrested while we are at it." I would fight if they forced my hand, but I was really hoping they would be reasonable.


We decided to follow the escape tunnel instead of turning around and leaving through the main entrance. The path was actually not very long, after only a few minutes we arrived in an unremarkable side alley.

The door had been reinforced, but from this side it looked like nothing special at all. Likely that was by design. There was no sight of Coil or any of his men. Exiting the alley, we could see the entrance of the hotel not too far away. Multiple cars from the police stood around it, officers stopping any people from going in.

"That is strange, the PRT should be here. The police is not equipped to handle parahuman threats.", Lisa commented.

"Maybe they don't realize its a parahuman threat?", I mused. "Coil mainly uses mercenaries after all."

I looked to my left to see a very deadpan look directed at me. "Taylor, I know you have a bit of a skewed perspective, but we walked in there. I am a known villain and you are clothed in power-armor and equipped with heavy weapons. Of course they know its a parahuman threat."

Ah right, that made sense.

"Well, if the PRT were here we could just tell them about Coil, as a heads-up, but that seems to not be in the cards. Well, in that case we-" I abruptly stopped talking and instead pushed Lisa forcibly back into the alley. I had noticed the movement out of the corner of my eyes, but I was too slow to get myself to safety aswell.

A car crashed into me with enough force to knock me down for a brief moment. The metal groaned under the strain, but I proved to be stronger than my assailant. With a grunt of effort I ripped the car apart with my bare hands. That seemed to stop the force directing them and they stopped moving.

Looking up, I could see a young teenager in a black and red robe, flanked by a bare chested man with a tiger mask and a man with white hair, eyes and skin. The Empire 88 again, because of course. They really did not get the message. My arm snapped up, cannon already in my hand, but before I could finish the motion, the girl in the robe gesticulated and another car rammed against my back. That gave them enough time to dodge from my line of fire.

Well at least two of them did, the albino did not move at all. Mentally shrugging I let my bullets rip through him. Turning my weapon away from the bloody mess, I was shocked to see the masked man already closing the distance. He had been catapulted by another car, that had suddenly flipped.

Preparing myself for hand to hand combat, I got blindsided by a blade ramming into my back. There had been another cape riding the car behind me. She was a woman with a cage as mask and two small scythes in her hands. Kicking the car away from me with some effort, I turned on the blonde. She seemed surprised by my sure movements, but nonetheless dodged my attempt to hit her with infuriating ease.

Her blades came down again, screeching over my armor. At the same time something like a shockwave made me stumble, accompanied by small arms fire. The masked man had some sort of air projectiles.

And the guy I turned into swiss cheese looked like nothing had happened and was shooting at me. Lovely. Four capes just for me, wasn't I special? In broad daylight too, just a few hundred meters away from the police cars and the hotel. The Nazis really did not care about keeping up appearances at all.

And if the Empire was willing to go this far for me, then there were probably even more of their capes on the way. The cage-woman (called Cricket I think) was unable to penetrate my armor, but I was not invulnerable. I was sure if they stalled enough time to call reinforcements then I would be in deep shit.

I had not idea if Kaisers power worked on my suit for example.

So I was working on a time-limit, with a squishy Thinker to protect. A glance showed me that the alley was empty, so Lisa was safe for now at least. Well, I had had worse odds. I could make this work.


AN: Until next time!