Snake 5.1

January 13, 2011, Brockton Bay, 10:36 PM

I frowned, I thought we'd been cautious enough, "Do we need to prepare for hostilities?"

She shook her head, "Hopefully not, good news is, you're completely in the clean. Coil actually complimented me on my choice of date, he probably meant it as an implicit threat and leverage. I found it flattering, because he couldn't hide the fact that he was impressed. So yeah, he has eyes on you, but entirely as a civillian of interest." She added with a wink.

I nodded, "That is expected. So why do you think he's suspicious?"

Her brow crinkled a bit, "He's suspicious of me. I was very careful not to let out anything, in fact I was mentally prepared to blow my brains out if I felt that I was going to be compromised - To beat his precog, that is. The meeting was going pretty well too. But his demeanour suddenly changed near the end. I don't know what triggered it, my power insisted that he wasn't looking into the future. I was all the more convinced that something twigged him off when he ordered me to plan an Undersider heist of an ABB holding. Sure it was not something out of his character, but this move was to come much, much later in his plans. Something has shaken his trust in me and in extension the Undersiders, and for the life of me I can't figure out what!" Her frustration was quite evident.

I was slightly confused, "He wants you to poke the dragon intentionally?"

She nodded, "It's either a sacrificial move, which is unlikely - or he wants to ingratiate himself with us by aiding us when the ABB retaliate."

I nodded, "I see. Do you think we're wrong about his power? He's not a precog?"

She shook her head, "No, that's what's stumping me. The limited precog concept fits him to a T, but I think we're still somewhat clueless about the exact application that he uses."

I nodded, "I'll be getting better info tomorrow. So how's your schedule looking? Can you spare about a week without meeting him?"

She sighed, "I'm not sure, we've already planned the hit, I called an emergency meeting of the Undersiders today. We're going to hit the Ruby Dreams Casino near the end of the month, preferably the day before they move most of their money out, which my power tells me would be around the 30th. The problem is, Coil would call on me at least twice during this time, and surprise meetings are a thing he loves to spring. Also, if we are to usurp his financial empire, each of those meetings is more chance for me to pick up more info. But once we make the hit, he'll probably leave me alone till ABB retaliates, which would take around 10 days for Oni Lee to sniff us out."

I shook my head, "Leave recon to me. I'll be tailing him nonstop. You just keep clean of Coil's radar. Also, probably best not to have the suicidal mindset, it could be the thing that raised his hackles. Best keep a cleaner intent of simply not revealing anything."

She shrugged, "Could be that. Could very well be that. I'll keep that in mind. So if you'll be tailing him from tomorrow onwards. We can't meet? Meeting you is currently the simplest way to lose Coil's tail right now."

I smirked. "That's the only reason you want to meet me?"

She sniffed haughtily, "Why else? Be grateful."

I mock bowed, "Of course your omniscience. By the way, don't use it as an actual tactic. I've scanned the house previously, it's clean of electronic bugs, but there are cameras out in the neighbourhood. He'd need some way to keep a lazy eye on dada if nothing."

She nodded, "Yeah, I know. I can even point you to the ones he has access to. But you'll probably be using your pocket universe bullshit to move around, so you're least bothered. Honestly though, do make some time to meet poor old me?"

I chuckled, "Heh, don't worry, you can meet me any time you want."

She frowned, "What do you... You'll make me meet a body double?! No! Not a body double... a clone?! Not even a clone... aargh! Aveek! Spill!"


January 14, 2011, Brockton Bay, 9:16 AM

Lisa had left last night around 1am. We had, ahem, experimented a bit more. Taylor confirmed that her Lisa's two man tail rejoined her from about four blocks away. I spent the rest of the night processing more of Panacea Sensei's teachings. Bashing construct mooks in IDs was giving me lesser and lesser XP compared to leveling requirements. We'd soon need to go out and grab us some real mooks.

I'd also been chatting with Taylor about creating bioengineered bugs, my Biology level was now sufficient to at least tell which modifications were feasible, but I'd need to process the insect scans thoroughly to level it up to a place where I could make any. Maybe we could ask Amy for help, a decision to be made after we see her reaction to Swarm.

I was currently at home in my Aveek body, chatting with dada over some tea, while also camping inside an ID near the gates of the PRT HQ parking entrance in my Maker body. I was watching the entrance from a miniscule hole camouflaged near an overhead light fixture. I'd broken a ceiling in the ID to carve out a comfortable perch.

Calvert should be coming in soon. I still had a tough time believing that guy was Coil. In hindsight you could probably see it as clear as day if you filtered through his more obscure assets and holdings. Not that it was something simple, it took a genius of Dada's level to dig into Fortress' books to find him. I'd have to agree that his civilian cover was one of the best ones possible. Not a PRT employee who'd have to be bound by their overwatch, but a consultant with a high level clearance who was also a pretty successful investor otherwise. Absolutely brilliant.

And there he was, driving in by himself. My dossier already had his car on record. He came in and parked about 10 metres away from my peephole. Then he came out. I immediately shot off an observe.

What the actual fuck?

Two Headed Snake
Thomas Calvert / Coil
Lvl. ? ? Evil Mastermind

The observe results were half baked, just his base stats (no higher than an average, fit, smart person), no description, power only said Corcognition - no definition, status effects were Paranoia and Sociopathy, No further details.

How high was his level that the observe got botched? The two question marks suggested less than 100, the highest I'd seen yet was Miss Militia's, which was below 50 levels above mine. That must be the limit, according to RPG rules, above which they supposedly went beyond my pay grade.

But honestly, what is this corcognition thing that puts his threat level above Lvl. 69 (as mine was 19) and why exactly was it so dangerous despite absolutely average stats? I couldn't even trust those stats though, could be possible that his stat boosts were not being shown. His title, class and statuses rang enough alarm bells though. I could definitely believe someone whose job class was Evil mastermind being deadly enough just through correct leverage alone. As far as I knew that my power did negate his, so was the Gamer System labelling his threat purely based on his information warfare capacity? Then Lisa would have a much higher level. Or was it because he had a whole organization of trained mercs and parahumans at his beck and call? Dammit! Not sufficient info!

At least his identity was confirmed. Hopefully these clues would be enough for Lisa to sherlock out enough clues about his powers. Aveek/I texted her to meet later in the day. I had about two weeks before I needed to know his proper observe results. I'd need to level up enough to be within 50 levels of him by then.

Letting a spare mind continue the biology training. I started training mana constructs too as I settled down for a long wait, Calvert had already walked into the entrance, flashing his badge at the guards. I didn't want to risk opening a dimensional breach inside the PRT HQ main premises, it paid to be wary of any building which housed a tinker's lab.