Dynasty & Dystopia

If there was anything Emily Piggot had wished for New Year's, it would have been for a peaceful year. But she knows that's a pipe dream. So, she would have wished for a less violent year. But she realizes that this particular wish is as improbable as winning the lottery. In her heart of hearts, she wished that Ellisburg hadn't happened. In her rational mind she wished that the Endbringers hadn't shown up or just fucked off somewhere else or just dropped dead. But her biggest wish, in truth, was for all parahumans to fade from the face of the Earth so they would stop causing trouble. Fuck, she would have been happy if all parahumans in her city, at least the enemy capes, disappeared during Christmas morning.

That was the last wish she would have thought would have turned true from her list, even if not complete in its resolution.

Fuck.

Two gangs apparently disappeared, vanished from the city like a bad dream, in the space of six months and nobody noticed!

How?

Somebody, several somebodies, were going to get fired from this, God help their souls, and if she has anything to say about it, they won't even find a job flipping burgers after this.

At least, Armsmaster seemed just as perplexed as her at the news that Assault had given at the weekly Protectorate meeting.

The meeting started as usual: bland greetings, bland announcements, bland budgetary reports, everything bland and boring and good. Armsmaster, with his bad social skills, reported no weird or strange happenings in the city, no unusual movement from the gangs, no new reported parahumans. A professional meeting, with its participants having a another-day-another-dollar type of mood, like nothing was wrong.

Assault, the red jackass, had the gall to wait until everything was over to drop the nuclear bomb, right before everyone was already quite done with the day and wanted to go on their way. Like what he was about so say was another one of his quips!

The official report of the Protectorate ENE was that the Merchants were laying low after the past summer's events, underlining the possibility that Squealer might be working on something big for the next outing. On Chorus, Piggot's organization had marked them as gone from Brockton Bay, with three of their capes already gone to jail and the other last seen in New York the gang was as good as gone.

Sure, they had gotten rumours about a club at the docks that was being run by the Merchants but after an investigation by the PRT the entire establishment was shown to be legal and according to regulation. It was also owned by an unpowered man named Jack O'Reilly, a son of Irish immigrants, so if anything, the PRT had to give over the rest of the investigation to the BBPD. And even if they ran with the assumption the entire thing was a front for the Merchants they couldn't raid it, just like they couldn't raid the Palanquin or the Ruby Dreams Casino or Aegir's Bar. At best it might be classified as a small (but nevertheless considerable) breach of the unwritten rules, at worst a provocation to initiate a round of escalation by the gang raided giving them permission to rampage across the Bay. It was a way to destroy the status quo that Piggot has tried so hard to maintain since being inducted as Director.

So, when Assault raised his hand to speak after Armsmaster asked if anyone had anything extra to report the last thing she was expecting was:

"I was invited to a meeting yesterday." He said in an unusual severe manner. The first fucking clue that shit was about to hit the fan. But at the time Piggot had simply raised a single eyebrow.

"A meeting to what?" Piggot had said with no little annoyance.

"Well, you see, apparently some folks knew about my… chequered past and decided to invite me to a meeting." Okay, at that point everyone was giving Assault all their attention. The fact Assault had been a former villain was supposed to be a classified secret! "A meeting between villains. At Somer's Rock."

At this point the entire room had exploded with arguing voices, even Battery looked surprised. Piggot had been choking on her own spit for too long because it was Armsmaster that was able to be heard through the cacophony:

"What did they talk about?"

"What!" "Who cares!" "When did you go, exactly?" "How did they find out?" "Did th-"

"SILENCE" Piggot had screamed, finally having worked through the chocking.

Silence established itself immediately.

"Explain." She said with all the authority that her raging mind could summon.

"Ah." Assault shifted on his chair uncomfortably. "You see…[/JUSTIFY]

Ω

The bar was old, dim, dingy, and depressing. Everything rusted or about to rust. But it has been tradition for the villains, vigilantes and other ne'er-do-wells of the city to meet at Somer's Rock during Truces. Nobody knew exactly how the tradition started but it's origins could be roughly traced back to the Slaughterhouse 9 appearance in Brockton Bay. Because of that, Ethan wasn't exactly sure those suspicious looking gashes in one of the walls were made by Stormtiger or if they actually had far more… evil origins. Or that those dark red stains beneath it weren't ketchup. Despite that, he still tried to make himself as comfortable as possible on the red couch that he was sitting on, directly below said gash on the wall. He tried to summon up a bit more confidence and that feeling of arrogant showmanship from his days as a villain, but he came up a bit short when he took another look at the people around him.

All the villains in the bar were clearly looking at him with suspicious stares and giving him the stink eye. Some curiosity was mixed in there but main one was confusion. Good, they weren't sure why he was there and that meant they didn't know who he used to be. But still, it wasn't exactly comfortable being side eyed constantly.

Kaiser and his entourage had arrived first. Krieg, the Valkyrie twins, Alabaster and Hookwolf. All of them in their respective costumes and a confident half goose step military style walk. Short greetings were exchanged and if they were surprised that he was here they tried not to show it. They sat down on his right side and only Hookwolf ordered something from the bar. Kaiser seemed so at ease in his section of the booth that Ethan would bet that there was a dent in the stuffing in the exact shape of his ass. He seemingly suffered no discomfort from wearing that bulky metal suit.

An awkward type of silence ensued.

A silence that was disrupted with the entrance of Lung and Oni Lee. The Dragon of Kyuushu sat opposite to Kaiser's right and ordered a beer. Oni Lee, silent as the grave, kept standing as still as a statue behind Lung, who seemed to be radiating a sense of quiet boredom. Ethan lamented not bringing a camera so he could immortalize the moment Lung only moved his metal mask in shape of a Dragon so he could drink the beer through a straw. Ah, the incoveniences of full face masks...

The third group arriving was Faultline's Crew, the only mercenaries in Brockton Bay. Faultline, with her welder's mask, walked in first followed by Newter and Gregor the Snail, the Case 53's she had adopted into her crew. Newter was a tall orange skinned humanoid with bright blue hair and a large tail dangling behind. Gregor, well... he looked like his namesake with a large protrusion in his back. His skin, however, was transparent leaving his insides for all to see. The rest of her group were nowhere to be seen. They sat down on one of the empty seats that were arranged in semi-circle around the booth.

The fourth group arriving was Uber and L33t, who came in dressed as Mario and Luigi, and sat down on one the farthest away seats from the booth. They ordered sodas and kept whispering to each other in hushed tones.

A bit more time after that the Undersider's arrived. They were relatively new group in the Bay that although classified as villains were working their thieving skills more on the gangs than in civilian places. The group consisted of Grue, their leader who wore a motorcycle helmet modified to look like a skull and according to reports he generated some type of darkness effect. Tattletale was a blond teenager who wore a purple and black full body catsuit beyond that her powers were unknown. Regent was another member who's powers were mostly unknown but it was speculated to be some type of minor master power. Hellhound, however, was well known, being a known criminal with an exposed identity. She could command dogs and physically alter them to better make them fight. They sat down on the seats closest to the booth and Regent ordered a novelty soda. Now only four seats remained.

Circus was the last of the independents to arrive. Classified as a grab bag cape since the powers reported were all over the place. Just like the Undersider's they were deemed a villain, but they were mostly a thief. Their gender was also unknown and even Ethan had difficulty pining it down since her costume was mostly feminine in style. After they chose their spot, only three seats remained.

The silence at this point was only broken by Regent making slurping sounds with his straw.

After a few moments of that, Hookwolf was looking like he was seriously considering breaking the Truce just to punt Regent across the bar.

Kaiser was the one to finally break the silence:

"Where are they? We have been called to this meeting by those degenerates so they should have been here already."

"Coil is missing as well. He's not the type to miss these… reunions." Faultline added.

"Is anybody gonna point out the red elephant in the room?" Said Krieg, pointing at Ethan. "Why is one of the heroes here?"

"That, my dear Krieg, is for me to know and you to never figure out." Came a voice out of nowhere. Everyone jumped a bit in surprise (except Lung who was already looking there and Oni Lee – zombie bastard –). The voice belonged to a tall woman who was coming into the bar through the back door. She was wearing a dark purple suit with white vertical lines that reminded Ethan of one of those mob bosses from the 50's. The mask she wore was a full face one seemingly made of copper metal with eye openings that showed purple eyes that seemed to shine with their own eerie light. The lower part of her mask was distinctly a gas mask decorated with green ampoules around it and seemed to distort her voice making it more breathy and mechanic sounding. The back of her mask was open leaving her dark brown hair to cascade down her back. She didn't have much of a bust or feminine figure to begin with but she carried herself with confidence and a certain slow movement that brought Ethan's instincts to stand on edge.

She was carrying a fat looking suitcase, wider that it was high, on her right black gloved hand. On her left hand, she had a cane whose handle was on the shape of some kind of bird skull.

Behind her, two more people came in. A girl wearing a red and black suit with a copper mask which seem to have red ampoules around it to decorated it. It also clearly showed her mouth by having small vertical openings around it. The man, however, was the most eye-catching. He was wearing black and copper power armour adorned with green and purples tubes. His face, which was ugly looking, was only hidden by black goggles.

"Who are you?" Said Lung in a calm authoritarian tone.

"That, oh Dragon, is why I called in this meeting. To officially introduce myself and my group to the city." The woman said. Without further discussion she moved to middle seat of the remaining chairs. The black and red girl also sat down, but the man – clearly a tinker – decided to stand, probably so he wouldn't destroy the chair with his weight.

"I thought the Merchants were the ones to have called this meeting." Kaiser droned with a calculative eye.

Without responding the woman picked her suitcase and placed on top of the table.

"Before that, let me order something. The discussion will be long, I am sure, so I must have something to ease my throat." She said, raising her left hand to call down the waiter. Ethan noticed that her first two fingers were mechanical, and her glove had that portion of it cut showing the metal contacting the skin. They were tinker prosthetics. The waiter came and the woman asked for a cup of black tea, which was swiftly granted a few moments later. With a mechanical woosh the part beneath her nose detached from the rest of her mask revealing a wide mouth and perfect white teeth. With a slow movement she put the detached part on the table. Ethan would bet his salary that she was enjoying having all these villains being kept waiting. He could have sworn he was seeing Krieg almost blow a gasket.

"Thank you." The woman said to the waiter, she put a bit of sugar in the drink, and after mixing she took a sip. "Now, …"

She took a moment more to look at the people in the room.

"My name is Duchess Sera; you can call me Duchess for short. At my right, is one of my lieutenants Spitfire and on my left is another by the name of Trainwreck." She took another sip. "And I am here today to announce that the Merchants and Coil's Organization no longer exist."

To say the room was stunned was an understatement.

"What?" Said Lung, Ethan could already hear the gravelly tone of his voice getting heavier.

"Today makes five months that the gang known as the Merchants ceased to exist while two days from now it will make two weeks since Coil's Organisations demise." She reiterated seemingly oblivious to the surprised looks of the people around her.

Tattletale, who was just as stunned, moved her eyes quickly looking at the woman, seemed to catch her breath, a sound somewhere between a scoff of disbelieve and a sob, and started laughing. A full bellied laugh. The attention of the room turned towards her.

"You did! You really did!" She continued laughing. "Fuck yes! Hahahaha!"

The woman took another sip.

Tattletale stopped, more for the lack of air than wanting to stop, and turned to the woman:

"She… she really did take over both gangs! Oh my god, that is awesome" A small laugh escaped. "Thanks a bunch! Really!"

"Hmm" Duchess said. "If you feel that indebted to me, you may want to call me later for a private conversation." The woman raised slightly from her seat and grasped the clasp of her suitcase. The entire room tensed. There was a resounding click and the case was revealed to be a vitrine, a black panel dropping with a soft thump. Inside three gleaming white skulls were showcased to the world. Two of them had an M carved on their forehead while the other had a carving of a small two headed snake. Like pieces in a museum there were three tags beneath each one.

Skidmark. Squealer. Coil.

The mood in the room dropped. Several villains immediately jumped from their seats with Grue, L33t, Krieg and Alabaster all seemingly ready for a fight. Ethan too prepared for things to go pear shaped. But, thankfully, that wasn't what happened.

Kaiser simply raised his arm telling his subordinates to sit down.

Uber put a hand on L33t's shoulder making him go back to his seat.

Tattletale grabbed Grue's arm and pushed him to sit down, all while sporting a vicious grin.

The woman took another sip.

"May we ask, why such… final measures were taken to these villains?" Ethan wondered if Kaiser asked that so he could avoid said measures.

"Yes, one might wonder why we suddenly have three dead villains." Said Faultline. Ethan noticed how tense she looked. Apparently, she must have resisted the urge to jump from her seat like him.

"These three villains committed two grave mistakes." Duchess said, apparently it wasn't her mask that gave her voice a haunting sound. "The first was to flaunt the Unwritten Rules." She picked up the bowl and served herself more tea. "The second was to make me their enemy." She put the bowl back on the table.

"And how did they make you, their enemy?" Said Lung who crossed his arms in a menacing pose.

"Coil attempted to infiltrate my organisation, which would have made me reveal myself sooner than planned. The Merchant scum…" Duchess said with venom in her voice "… were a problem of a more personal nature."

"That is another question." Said Faultline. "How did you take down two gangs with nobody noticing?"

"It was easier than you'd think but more difficult than you'd imagine." Duchess said cryptically. "The Merchants were ignored on general basis by everyone present, including the Protectorate." At this she nods at Ethan, recognizing his presence in the crowd. "Only newbie heroes attacked the Merchants, mostly to test their mettle before fighting the bigger gangs." She took another sip from her cup of tea. "So, after the past summer's events everyone thought they went underground to recoup their strength, but the truth is I cut them down before they regather their numbers. Afterwards, I seized the opportunity and took control of Chorus's unpowered members to bolster my own numbers. Then I began certain projects and contacted several parahumans from outside the city to gain funding. On the month of October, however, Coil sent a person to infiltrate the Merchants and gain information on them." She took another sip and Tattletale took the opportunity and piped up:

"But the Merchants no longer existed. He was going to infiltrate your organization instead. So, after you questioned the intruder… Trainwreck was the intruder?" She questioned but the look Duchess gave her made her think twice. "No, he forced Trainwreck to infiltrate your gang you got offended from that and decided he had to go. Nice." She smiled a foxy grin. She turned to Grue, and her grin fell a bit. "Not nice." She amended at his look.

"You would have to know that your ruse would have been impossible to maintain in the long term." Added Kaiser.

"Yes." Said the woman. "That is why we had originally intended to break the masquerade in December. However, after Coil's attempt at infiltration we wanted to gather more information on him. By Christmas, we already had gathered enough to conclude he had to go."

"What information was so valuable that a man had to die for it?" Asked Lung.

"The civilian identities of everyone in this room." She answered.

Silence.

"Appropriate then." Lung nodded cautiously.

"Like I said before: he broke the Unwritten Rules. He was undermining every single one of your organisations. Including the PRT." She looked directly at Ethan's surprised face. "Indeed, Assault, he worked as a consultant for the PRT in his civilian identity. He was slowly eroding any faith that the PRT had in Director Piggot so he would replace her." She took another sip. "With several operations he had, that I assure you all would have most definitely worked, he was going to rule the city's criminal world as Coil and own it publicly as PRT-ENE's new and promising Director."

That brought another round of silence. Kaiser was the first to break it.

"Well, we thank you then, for taking care of such a… conniving snake hiding in our midst. May I ask, however, what has been done with that information?"

"Destroyed." Duchess said, looming a bit over the table and interlocking her fingers. "We have no use for it. If we wish to either imprison or kill any of our competitors in this city we will do so publicly." She was definitely giving a look to Kaiser, the type that said we are above such petty things. "We won't attack people in their sleep, like some degenerates…" At this Kaiser seems to straighten his spine. "…that have no concept of how this game must be played."

"You said you would kill publicly; despite the fact you killed those three in secret." Said Faultline, pointing to the grim display.

"Ah!" She exclaims softly, almost wistfully. "A necessary measure, I am afraid. Coil had several backups and insurances in case anything ever happened to him, so we had to do it secretly and quickly. His power was a major pain to deal with, after all. The other two…" She shrugged, uncaring. "Personal business."

"What are your plans, now?" Lung asked, taking a pack from his pants, and lighting a cigar.

"Officially? I am here to establish myself and my gang and to personally inform you that I am taking control of the following areas: the Docks, the Trainyard, the northern half of the Boardwalk and Lord's Market. Coil's former territory is also mine. I am also here to announce my presence to the PRT and the Protectorate. This way there is no disruption of the status quo and no power vacuum to fill" Another sip. "Unofficially? I am building a dynasty in the middle of this grimdark dystopia and anyone who dares attack it will end as another skull in my display."

Well, Ethan mused in his head, if anything this new villain certainly knows how to silence a room. It was at this moment that he decided to speak for the first time in this meeting:

"As member of the Protectorate, I feel that I must remind you of your crimes and possibility of lenience if you give yourself up and cooperate with the authorities." He grimaced a bit, at the look the villains gave him – don't blame me, I was never good at this official shit –, but he soldiered on. "I must ask you one thing, however."

"Ask it."

"Why that name as a villain?"

He could hear a pin drop in the room.

The woman released a small laugh. He counted that as a win, if he was good at anything it was cracking jokes to release tension… and this room was so wound up that were it a violin it would start playing Paganini.

"Ok, I'll answer." She served herself another cup and took a long sip of her tea. "I have a specific set of skills that I am extremely good at and one of those skills is administration, therefore I took a hierarchical name that would better fit me and so: Duchess. I could have taken several others: Queen, most prominently. Unfortunately, I think that one makes people too nervous, nowadays. I could have taken other names of noble rank, like Baron. Even came up with a nifty name with it." She shrugged with one arm. "But we already had a Marquis, and we still have a Marchioness, so I decided to go for a higher-ranking name. The Sera part?" She snorted delicately. "It's a reference."

Suddenly, there was a bip-bip sound coming from somewhere in her jacket. With her right hand she went inside it and took out a golden pocket watch. She opened the lid and peeked inside. Before Ethan could inspect the carvings on the lid, Duchess closed it just as quick and put the watch back in her jacket. There was a sigh that came unbidden.

"Well, ladies, gentlemen, assorted beings." She said with an air of finality. "I must away now. People to see, things to do, stuff to make." She took a hearty gulp of her tea. "Is there anything else you'd like to discuss?"

Each of the gang leaders shook their heads.

"Very well. Thank you, everyone, for your presence today. I must thank Assault, especially, as an unofficial representative of the authorities and for braving into a villain meeting." She turned to him and threw him a small metal object. "Inside of that is all the proof I have gathered on what I have said. I do hope you give a glowing review of me to Director Piggot." She was about to raise herself from her chair, when she look back to him. "By the way, good luck reining in Shadow Stalker. Keep her well chained and my group will have no problems with the PRT or the Protectorate." She snorted a bit more crudely than before and added: "More than the usual between heroes and villains, that is."

With a click, she closed the lid of the suitcase with her mechanical finger. Picked up the detached part of her mask, got up from the chair and, with her lieutenants in tow, left the building.

Ω

… and that's how the whole thing went." Assault finished. "The other villains left pretty quickly after that." He snorted and showed the small cylinder that ended in a USB connector. "I think they didn't want to be anywhere near the same zip-code that she was in."

At this point Piggot was on a hair trigger. She was quite sure if she had a gun in reach she would have shot Assault.

Fuck. Two gangs – three supervillains! – gone for weeks apparently and nobody noticed!

And one of them was a consultant for the PRT!

Who!?

"Thomas Calvert." Said Armsmaster, taking the blasted thing from Assault.

Ok, she hadn't realized she had spoken out loud.

"Why him?" Why Calvert? He had been the only other survivor of Ellisburg. He would have... Bu... she had heard of what he had done, back then. He was always ruthless, and the plan described by this new villain seemed plausible, but…

"I immediately cross-referenced all our consultants; Calvert is the only one that hasn't shown up for the last few meetings the PRT has had for the past two weeks. He hasn't called back or presented a reason for his absence yet. Besides, we only have two other consultants in Brockton Bay, and they are female. He's the only option." Responded Armsmaster.

Piggot just tried to rally herself up in the only way she knew how: by giving orders and delegating. She could wallow sometime later in private.

"Okay, people. This is what we'll do: I want a review of every single employee in this organization. If Calvert was indeed Coil, he didn't do this shit alone. Search and frisk everyone quickly and efficiently. I want to get the rats before they jump ship. Assault, if this information wasn't so valuable, I would have suspended you and swiftly after made my personal goal in life to end your entire career. But right now, we have a new player in town; a new devil to contend with, when I would have much preferred a devil I know. I want everyone in high alert. Miss Militia and Battery will work out a new patrol pattern for the Protectorate and the Wards. Armsmaster, focus on that device. I want to know everything in it. Velocity, if any mole pops out and tries to run for it, I want you to be there to catch them so stay in the building and keep a sharp eye. Assault, go inform the Wards, tell them to stay vigilante both in costume and out. We have a villain in town that is not afraid to kill and show us her trophies, so they have to be vigilant. Especially, Shadow Stal-, actually Assault keep that brat tightly handled, we don't want to see what that villain has planned if our new ward goes for the deep end." She swallowed a breath of air and continued: "Everyone understood?"

"Yes, Ma'am!" they chorused.

"Everyone dismissed!"

BONUS SCENE 1

You watched as your boss proceeded to demonstrate exactly why she was so terrifying with her demeanour. And also because you couldn't keep your eyes off her. You licked your lips in anticipation.

"Unofficially? I am building a dynasty in the middle of this grimdark dystopia and anyone who dares attack it will end as another skull in my display."

Oh, God. That was fucking amazing! Now, you are quite certain that this idiot villains won't accept her warning at face value. Some fighting is certainly going to happen. Until then?Well, you are just thankful that you have a front row seat for this.

All of this, all of her, was so interesting after all.