Amy was definitely hating life more than usual at the moment as she frantically worked to heal the vast amount of people affected by Bakuda's insane bombs. Some she couldn't do anything for beyond easing their pain, such as the people that'd had limbs turned into glass or some other non-organic substance. For the rest it was a race against time to save their lives.

If she ever met the crazy bomb Tinker she was going to strangle the bitch with her bare hands, fuck her powers.

She'd been preparing for her first session with Alice when the first bombs went off. Her adopted mother, Carol, hadn't been sure about allowing it, worried about what an unknown might do with Amy or any information she might have about things such as cape identities, but in the end relented. The woman struggled to care for Amy, having some sort of trauma regarding the girl that made her have rather unreasonable expectations and/or fears regarding her and her powers, though Amy and her sister Vicky didn't have the details, but she did try, which Amy did appreciate in those times she was in the correct headspace to do so. When Amy confessed (more like when Vicky tattled) to working nearly seventy hours a week in some cases, Carol had folded, partly due to the horrified arguments of her sister, Sarah Pelham, the leader of New Wave, who hadn't realized just how much her niece was overworking herself and could easily imagine what that sort of burnout could cause in someone with Amy's powers.

It showed how savvy Vicky could be in spite of her reputation that she'd insisted on discussing the possible therapy with the entire family rather than just Carol.

Of course, just as she was getting ready to have Vicky fly her to Alice's public office the explosions had started throughout the city, and plans had obviously changed, with Amy heading to the hospital while Vicky raced off to perform search and rescue after dropping her off.

Now she'd been working for hours, non-stop, and she was getting exhausted. Initially she'd been savagely happy when she'd heard that Lung's breakout, which the bombings had been in service of, had been thwarted thanks to the Unbound's help, but any satisfaction she might have felt at Bakuda's failure was utterly annihilated when the bitch set off another half dozen bombs in what could only be called a tantrum. Since then even more bombs had gone off, though not as many at one time, for as good as that did them.

The entire city was in chaos and was going on lockdown, the National Guard had been called in, and every non-ABB cape in the Bay was scrambling to deal with the situation. The E88 were out in force as well, attacking any Asians out in public, since the news of the conscriptions had leaked, meaning that any Asian of almost any age could be working for the ABB whether they wanted to or not.

Fucking Nazis.

Still, at least Amy was getting some help. Alice, or Doctor Wonder, as she was called when in costume, had arrived with a large amount of apparently tinkertech medicines and drugs for the hospital to use. The young woman, clad in the blue dress Amy had seen her in when they were in her head, and wearing a mask that seemed to be made of dozens of living blue monarch butterflies, had pointed out especially useful ones, such as polypseudomorphine, a stronger yet less addictive, artificial variant of regular morphine, chorotazine for head injuries, a special bone-knitting polymer that had a lot of doctors excited, and the piece de resistance, biofoam, which had a large amount of applications but was meant primarily for triage and first aid.

Normally doctors and hospitals would be wary of using untested tinkertech drugs, but the current situation necessitated that they use anything on hand, especially as their own inventory of many drugs and equipment was running low.

It really had helped lessen Amy's load. Not enough, not even close, but it definitely kept her from having a complete breakdown.

Doctor Wonder had also stopped by to check on Amy briefly, gauging her mental state and giving her some support, before heading off to deliver more medicine to other hospitals and clinics in the city.

Those few minutes with Alice had helped a bit, and Amy was able to focus a bit more afterwards.

Still, she could only hope that someone would punt Bakuda straight into the pits of hell soon, or else things were just going to get worse.

Taylor hung her cell phone up, feeling herself relax a bit after touching base with her father, who she hadn't seen since this entire affair started and was still perfectly fine and staying in the office to deal with the situation. She'd made sure to call him when she had a moment after the bombings started in order to tell him she was fine, giving the cover story that she was in the office with Lara helping the woman organize their response to the crisis, which mostly involved providing aid to those in need with the company's assets. Her dad had been proud of her for that, and only asked that she call him every few hours so he could make sure she was still alright, which she had no problem with, since it reassured her that he was alright as well.

Setting that aside she made her way over to where Harry was standing by the tactical table, studying the situation alongside Cortana and Beast Boy. Most of the rest of the Unbound were either still out dealing with the situation or getting what rest they could.

It had been almost a full 48 hours since the initial bombings, and everyone had been busy, not just among the Unbound. The casualties continued mounting, especially after the second round of bombings and the ones following, and the entire team, along with the Protectorate and New Wave, had been busy either on search and rescue or assisting first responders. Thankfully they'd had large amounts of medicines they could hand out, which would no doubt help, even if it made her curious as to where they all came from.

Shaking the thought off she moved to study the holographic tactical map, hoping her knowledge as a native of the Bay would help the team figure out where the Tinker behind all of this madness was so they could put a stop to her insanity.

The map displayed the sites of all the bombings, along with the identities of those that had been verified to have planted them, the majority of which were showing as deceased, no doubt victims of the very bombs they had been forced to plant.

Unfortunately there didn't seem to be any pattern to the placement of the bombs. The majority were in E88 and Merchant territory, though parts of the city marked as 'belonging' to the PRT also had their fair share, and even ABB territory wasn't safe, a few bombs having been set there as well.

"Any chance that the bombs in ABB turf are misfires or mistakes?" Beast Boy asked as he studied that section of the map.

"Unlikely." Cortana said. "Security cameras in the area are minimal, but one of the locations was a small police station, and another was near a Merchant stash house on the border of the territory, which means they were likely targeted as well."

"What about the ones in Empire territory?" Taylor asked, grasping for anything of use. "Any pattern there?"

Cortana's digital avatar shook its head. "No. The majority were placed in areas with large concentrations of people, likely to cause as much damage and panic as possible, though two places have been confirmed to have been E88 stash houses."

Taylor scowled at that but nodded in understanding before her attention was drawn to Tattletale, who had walked into the room with a laptop in hand.

"I've been keeping an eye on PHO and other news sources as requested." She said briskly as she set the laptop down. "Coil has called for a meeting between the villain factions of the city to discuss the current clusterfuck and their response. Faultline's crew has been contracted as security, and the Empire's leadership has already indicated they will attend."

Harry hummed at the information, fiddling absently with an old hand radio Taylor hadn't seen before, and which seemed rather anachronistic considering some of the amazing technology at the Unbound's disposal. "That sounds like something we should be involved in. It'd give us more information, not just about the current situation, but also the other major players in the city. And it'd get us close to Coil, even if taking him out at the moment isn't the best idea if only because of the volatility of the situation. We don't need the rep of being the type to violate neutral ground to get at someone we have a problem with."

Lisa nodded, though she didn't look happy about it. "Yeah, doing that would cause more issues than necessary. He can wait till after Bakuda and the ABB are dealt with. Especially since he might have resources we can use to find the bitch." Every word sounded like it pained her, which Taylor wasn't surprised by. They'd all heard about what Coil had done to her and what he likely intended for Dinah. Taylor would be out for blood as well if it was her.

"Who're you taking?" Beast Boy asked as he looked at Harry, his usually jovial face serious. Taylor'd been surprised back when he was introduced to her as one of the leaders of the Unbound, but seeing him now she really wasn't.

Harry continued handling his radio as he gazed at the tactical map, though he didn't seem to be really seeing it. "Taylor, do you feel up for coming with me?"

Taylor jerked, surprise. "Uh, sure, but, why me?"

He turned his head slightly to gaze at her from the corner of his eye, a small smile on his face. "I thought it would be obvious. You're the best option for keeping an eye on everyone and everything in the meeting place. I'm not risking putting Lisa so close to Coil right now. Either she'd decide to say 'fuck it' and shoot him in the face, or he might try something to get her back since he can't get Dinah. She can stay here and watch from our bodycams. Besides which, if it turns into a fight, you're ideal for crowd control."

Taylor nodded. It made sense, and she really should have thought of it herself, as he was right, it really was obvious. She might need to work on considering how she could best work with the team further.

Harry continued. "Chief is out, he's too imposing even if we got him out of his armor, and that's not happening in this situation, so John would be a good substitute. He's got experience dealing with the underworld, and he could probably take out half of the room on his own even without his new semblance." He paused for a moment, thinking, before resuming. "I also want Ruby to come with. She's the overall leader of the Remnants, and she's a powerhouse all on her own."

One day Taylor would figure out why the nine teens only slightly older than she was were called 'The Remnants' when they needed to be mentioned collectively. It really was a bit odd how they were treated as their own unit within the Unbound.

"Sure Ruby is a good choice?" Beast Boy asked lightly with a small frown. "She's grown up a lot since London, but she's still excitable."

Taylor shared a glance with Lisa, who looked just as lost since reading the Unbound didn't work well for her power, something that probably frustrated her quite a bit. What happened in London? Taylor heard about quite a few things that happened there, such as Simurgh downing a plane over it and Teacher killing a Prime Minister, so she couldn't imagine what specific thing they were referencing.

Sometimes she got the feeling that there was a lot more to that and similar random statements than she could even think of, but she kept a lid on her curiosity, seeing as she'd only been a member of the team for about a week. It wasn't surprising a group like the Unbound would have things they wouldn't share with a newbie like her.

"Hello Pot, I'm afraid Kettle isn't in, can I take a message?" Harry mocked the green boy with more than a bit of sarcasm, prompting the changeling to scratch the back of his head slightly sheepishly with a grin on his face.

"Ok, point taken, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm right." Beast Boy said a bit more lightly than before.

"Ruby has a lot of potential as a leader outside of combat tactics and strategy." Harry said after a moment. "She can be inspirational and engender loyalty. I want to nurture her a bit to help her grow, and things like this can only help. Plus it will give her a bit of clout among the underworld of the city if she's seen as one of the Unbound's representatives at a meeting like this."

Beast Boy considered that for a bit before nodding slowly. "Alright, I get where you're coming from. You're not wrong about her, after all." He became a bit serious again. "So, just you four?"

"That should be all we need for a meeting that isn't meant to end in a fight." Harry said with a nod. "Worst comes to worst we're definitely enough to hold them off until I can create a portal to leave or call in reinforcements."

Beast Boy pursed his lips before turning to Lisa. "How likely do you think this'll be to end up in a bloodbath?" He asked her.

Lisa considered the question for a couple of seconds. "On a scale of one to ten, I'd say a three. The situation is too serious for the various groups to break the truce for no good reason, and Faultline may be arrogant, but she takes her job and her rep seriously. She won't let anything happen on her watch."

Beast Boy nodded, satisfied, before frowning as he turned his gaze back to Harry. "Oh no. I know that look, dude. What are you planning?"

Indeed, Harry had a small smirk on his lips and his green eyes were practically twinkling with mirth as he looked down at the radio in his hand, something Taylor hadn't really considered a thing that could happen outside of literature. "Nothing at all, BB, nothing at all…" He said in a voice that wouldn't convince a newborn baby before turning to Cortana, who's avatar had been simply observing for the moment, though Taylor didn't doubt the woman was busy communicating with the Unbound in the field and keeping track of everything else going on the entire time. "Cortana, please contact New Wave and ask if they want to send a representative to this meeting with us. I think it would be a good idea for one of the more official heroic organizations in the Bay to attend as well…"

Cortana looked at him with bemusement, her smile amused and curious. "Beast Boy's right, you've got something planned."

"Who, me? Never." He said without even trying to hide his growing grin. "I just want to make sure everything goes smoothly, that's all." He turned to Tattletale before more accusations could be levied against him. "By the way, where is the meeting going to be held?"

Lisa was studying Harry intently, apparently trying to figure out what he was up to, but in the end she answered. "Nowhere special. Just a little dive bar that's the designated spot for these sorts of things. It's called Somer's Rock."

Harry's smile widened. "Excellent…"

Taylor couldn't help the feeling of apprehension that trailed up her spine.

Calling Somer's Rock a dive bar was doing dive bars a disservice, Ruby decided as she stared at the small building that looked like it hadn't seen any care in decades. Not that she had too much experience with them beyond occasionally having to help Yang drag Qrow out of one or two.

She sat on an AC unit on a rooftop not too far away from the bar alongside Harry, John and Taylor as they waited for the New Wave rep to arrive before they headed into the meeting. They were all prepared for a fight, since they were heroes attending uninvited, though hopefully it shouldn't be necessary.

"Faultline and her people are already in the bar, spread out to cover the entire building with Faultine herself sitting at the big meeting table." Taylor reported from where she was leaning against another unit. "The only other capes there are who I'm assuming are Uber and Leet."

It really was impressive how low-key scary Taylor could be. You could never be safe from her if you were within her range, she'd always have eyes on you, and if necessary could overwhelm you in moments unless you had some sort of counter. Ruby had never really been a fan of bugs, but she could admit that the slightly younger girl's powerset was very effective in her hands.

Harry nodded in understanding upon hearing Taylor's report. "Alright, we have two options now: we can head in now and be ahead of all the other attending groups, or we wait until they've all arrived and then make our entrance. Thoughts?"

"We don't want to make it seem like we're coming in to start a fight." John said almost immediately. "Best option is to be there early and be non threatening so nobody has a valid reason to object to us being there."

Ruby nodded. "Right. If we show we're not here to cause trouble then things'll probably go smoother.

Harry glanced at Taylor, who nodded in agreement. Before anything else could be said, however, they were interrupted by the arrival of Sarah Pelham, aka Lady Photon, aka Photon Mom, the leader of New Wave. She flew down to the rooftop the Unbound were occupying relatively quickly, the blonde hair framing her beautiful, unmasked face shifting as she gazed around at them, her eyes mostly curious. "So, you are the Unbound? It's nice to meet you, my name is Sarah Pelham, though in costume you can call me Lady Photon."

Harry stepped toward her and held a hand out to shake. "Nice to meet you, Lady Photon. I'm Nevermore. These are Rose, Imperatrix and Thanatos. I take it you're the only member of New Wave attending?"

Lady Photon nodded. "Everyone else is too busy at the moment considering everything that's happening. Not to mention some of the others are more volatile than I am when it comes to villains, so as leader of New Wave I thought it'd be best I come alone, especially as I assume I can count on you to back me up if this turns into a fight."

"Of course." With that he turned to look at the meeting place. "Well then, if we're all here then there's no point in waiting. Let's go introduce ourselves." With that he floated down to street level, Lady Photon doing the same. Ruby, for her part, leapt down from the roof, as it wasn't a very tall building, landing next to Harry with ease. John, despite having aura as well, wasn't quite so used to doing such things, so joined Taylor in climbing down a fire escape to join them.

Once the five heroes were together again they made their way into the bar with Harry in the lead, Lady Photon right behind him.

All activity in the bar, what little there was of it, came to a stop when the heroes walked in. Faultline, the leader of a parahuman mercenary group, stood up from where she'd been sitting at the main meeting table, waiting for the arrival of the invited parties. Wearing an odd combination of a dress, martial arts outfit and riot gear, with a welding mask to hide her face, outwardly she seemed calm, but they all knew she was likely ready to fight in an instant, as did her people which were scattered throughout the bar.

"Lady Photon." The mercenary said with a nod to the woman before turning to Harry. "And you would be?"

"Nevermore." He said with an easygoing smile, seeming to be completely at ease despite how tense the situation was. "I'm the leader of the Unbound."

Faultline cocked her head before nodding. "I see. What are you doing here? Nothing illegal is happening in this location." She said guardedly.

"We're not here to start a fight." Lady Photon assured her, arms crossed underneath her breasts. "We heard of the meeting taking place here, however, and decided it would be best if there was some input from the heroic factions of the city. We haven't informed the PRT, don't worry about that."

Faultline stared at the five heroes for a minute or so before nodding. "Fine, but there will be no fighting beyond heated words here. A fight starts, me and my people end it, no matter who it is. Understood?"

"Of course." Harry said, still smiling, before heading over to the meeting table with Lady Photon as Faultine sat down, the two of them taking a seat at one end and beginning to converse in low voices, presumably hashing out on how they were going to play things once the meeting started.

Ruby made her way to one of the booths along the walls of the bar, where she and the others could sit and watch the meeting. Taylor sat against the wall, where she'd be hardest to reach and thus most protected. Ruby sat beside her, setting Crescent Rose against her seat, within easy reach, while John sat on the other side of the table, half turned towards the rest of the room, eyes taking everything in calmly behind his obfuscating glasses.

A sullen looking girl that appeared to be the server walked over to the main table to see if Harry or Lady Photon wanted anything to drink, the two declining, prompting the girl to make her way over to Ruby and the others, the look on her face making it seem she'd much rather they'd just leave, or even better, drop dead, than having to serve them. Ruby and Taylor declined any drinks, not only being underage and not interested, but not trusting any drinks this place might serve. John, on the other hand, ordered a glass of bourbon by using ASL. Ruby glanced at Taylor, the girls shrugging.

Kaiser, the leader of the E88, arrived soon afterwards with his people, the armor and helmet made of blades gleaming even in the dingy light of the bar. He had seven of his capes with him: the size changing twins, Fenja and Menja; one of the strongest Blasters in North America, Purity; Krieg; Night and Fog, teammates that specialized in ambush tactics; and Hookwolf, the E88's top enforcer, who ran their dog fighting rings and had been sentenced to the Birdcage twice due to the amount of people he'd killed or maimed, only getting away before he could reach it due to the intervention of the rest of the gang. Ruby couldn't keep her lips from curling in disgust at the sight of him, and not just because his very hairy upper body was shirtless and thus visible.

"How very like someone like Kaiser to make this a show of force." John muttered so only Ruby and Taylor would be able to hear, the young reaper nodding tightly as she glared at the group.

She really, really hated Nazis…

Kaiser paused when he saw Harry and Lady Photon sitting at the table, both of them watching him, ready to defend themselves. "I was unaware we'd be expecting someone from New Wave at this meeting…" He said smoothly, not betraying any unease even as his people visibly prepared themselves for a fight.

"We wanted to have some input on whatever is decided during this little conclave of yours." Harry said just as smoothly with a small smile on his face as he sat back in his chair. "After all, the current situation is affecting everyone, so it's best if we're all on the same page."

"And you are...?" Kaiser asked with interest.

"Nevermore, leader of the Unbound, and I took Lung out in a couple of seconds when he tried to break out, so I think I've established my bona fides, Kaiser. Now please be so kind as to stop posturing and sit down." Harry said as he absently pulled a bottled water out of his coat, handing it to Lady Photon before drawing another for himself.

Hookwolf apparently didn't like that, stepping forward and audibly snarling from behind his metallic wolf mask. "Watch your mouth, brat. You should be more respectful to your superiors. Besides which, shouldn't you and the New Wave cunt be dealing with the fucking chinks' bombs rather than here?"

Kaiser appeared to be about to make a token effort to chastise Hookwolf as Lady Photon's eyes tightened before Harry spoke as he finished the sip of water he was taking. "Well, shouldn't you be organizing a bake sale or something to make back all the money that someone took from you?"

Hookwolf took another step forward, his eyes promising bloody murder, but as Faultline and Lady Photon tensed Kaiser reacted. "Hookwolf, enough!" He barked, making his enforcer pause before stepping back, though he didn't stop glaring at Harry. "We're on neutral ground for something more important than petty bickering." He said sternly before making his way to one of the seats along the meeting table, the Nazi leader taking a seat as though he was an emperor taking to his throne, waving the server away as his people moved to take seats on booths and tables in order to observe the proceedings.

The next to enter, shortly after the Empire, was Coil. He came alone, not seeming to be concerned or worried at all. Much like in the pictures the Unbound had studied when he became one of their higher priorities he was exceptionally thin and dressed in an opaque black costume with a stenciled white snake that hid all his features yet allowed him to somehow see and breath without any issues.

Ruby had to work to keep her grimace from showing when she saw him. Hearing what he likely intended for Dinah made her want to rush over and kick his ass, but now wasn't the time. They had a mad bomber to deal with first. Coil would still be around for them to take out afterwards, unless said mad bomber happened to explode him first.

Then again, Lisa had said that this would possibly be a body double, so either way there was no point in acting now.

"It seems we have some unexpected guests." Coil said lightly as he studied the heroes while making his way to his seat. "Still, as long as they don't cause any trouble, I see no reason they can't attend."

"Much appreciated, Coil." Harry said as he fiddled with his ancient red radio as he'd taken to doing lately, sounding completely sincere.

Ruby was honestly a bit surprised that Harry would risk one of his 'souvenirs' from Silent Hill by taking it out in the field, but not too long ago she'd come across him fiddling with it using his wand, so she assumed he'd somehow protected it. It also coincided with when he started carrying it around with him, which reinforced the assumption.

"It seems everybody of importance has arrived." Kaiser said evenly, taking command of the meeting as though it was his right. "Unless anybody else I'm not aware of was invited?"

"I sent a message to the Undersiders, but it appears they are still… indisposed… since their bank job." Coil said, seeming to stare at Harry, who simply smiled back idly, not responding.

Almost as soon as Coil finished speaking a new group entered, one Ruby wasn't familiar with. Almost immediately the HUD embedded in the lenses of her mask started to display information courtesy of Cortana. The Travelers, nomadic villains who traveled from city to city with no apparent rhyme or reason. Not too much was known about their powers, as they kept on the down low, but they were generally recognized to be somewhat heavy hitters in spite of that.

The man in the lead, wearing a black costume like a circus ringmaster, with a red mask and a top hat, was Trickster, the apparent leader. Behind him came a slim, tall woman in black body armor emblazoned with red suns, Sundancer; then a man with the build of a football player in bulky, angular black armor with hard-edged pads and pockets, a square mask obscuring his face, Ballistic. The last member of the group, however, was weird, and made Faultline and her crew study them with interest. The closest way Ruby thought she'd be able to describe it was as a four armed hairless gorilla, with a vest, mask and leggings in the red and black style its team was wearing, six-inch claws tipping each of its fingers and toes. Cortana said it might be Genesis, who was believed to be a Changer but she didn't have concrete information.

"I'll be taking a chair, I think." Trickster said.

"The Travelers." Coil said lightly. "You aren't local."

Trickster shrugged. "We happened to be in the city when this all started happening, much to our chagrin. We figured we should contribute, if only to get this over with as quickly as possible. Don't worry, we know the rules. This isn't the first neutral meeting we've been to. You won't even realize I'm here unless I'm addressed."

Coil nodded and motioned for one of the seats at the meeting table, Trickster quickly taking it as his people went to the other tables and booths, the gorilla thing taking a seat on the floor.

"Now then, that should be everyone, so we should get down to business…" Coil was saying, but was interrupted when Taylor spoke.

"We're about to have more company." She said, her voice sounding aggravated as she gave the warning. The capes in the building began to turn to her, several looking irritated by the interruption, but then the door opened and Ruby almost gagged, for multiple reasons, and she could see a practical wave of revulsion wash over the room as they realized who'd arrived.

Skidmark and Squealer walked in, the leader of the Merchants having a smirk on his face that was unpleasant for more than just the horrifyingly bad teeth the parted chapped lips revealed. An African-American man, his ill-fitting and ill-cared for costume with a mask that hid the upper half of his face did nothing to hide the fact that his drug abuse was clearly wrecking havoc with his body. If Ruby'd ever needed another incentive to never do drugs, just the sight of him made sure the mere thought would send her screaming for the hills.

His Tinker and only other cape now that Mush was in prison was a similar example of the dangers of drug abuse. A blonde woman that might have once been attractive, the addiction had clearly had an effect, and it wasn't helped that she dressed in the trashiest way possible. Ruby wasn't big into fashion, but she knew Weiss and Yang would be gagging in disgust if they were watching the feed. She looked like she was planning to audition for a porno with a budget in the negatives, her identity only vaguely hidden by the oversized goggles she was wearing.

It didn't help that they literally stank worse than some dumpsters. Ruby absently brought a couple of fingers to her nose to try to block the stench out.

When Skidmark reached for a chair at the meeting table Kaiser didn't hesitate to kick it to the floor and away from his grasp, making the Merchant leader's smirk disappear. "The fuck?"

"You can sit in a booth." Kaiser said evenly, the tone both threatening and uncaring at the same time.

Skidmark snarled, exposing more rotten teeth, much to Ruby's revulsion. "Let me guess, shitstain, this is cause I'm black, isn't it?"

"It's because your team and your gang are pathetic losers that the cockroaches wouldn't touch, much less talk to. I don't like the people at this table, but they're worth at least listening to. You, on the other hand, are not." Kaiser said just as evenly as before, though there was a note of fading patience in it.

"Fuck you." Skidmark snarled again, his bloodshot eyes roaming the table and finding no sympathy with anybody there, pausing briefly when he saw Lady Photon, probably not having even noticed her before, when his eyes fell on Harry. "What about this little bitch? I don't know who the fuck he is. Why the hell is he at the table?"

Before Harry could once again introduce himself, though the look in his eyes said he wouldn't be as polite as he had been before, Coil spoke. "That is the leader of the Unbound, Skidmark. The group that you might be aware, if you were sober, has more members than the Protectorate or the Empire, brought down Lung, and even captured one of your own, Mush." He said just as evenly as Kaiser, who didn't react to the reminder that he no longer had the strongest parahuman force in the city.

Faultline cut in before Skidmark could react, and in contrast to the other men, her voice was as cold as the arctic. "Nevermore has proven that he can contribute, especially after his easy capture of Lung at the beginning of all this. What, exactly, have you done that entitles you to a place at this table?"

"We fucking hold territory and are one of the ruling gangs of the city, cunt!" Skidmark snapped angrily.

Harry barked a laugh at that. "By the most technical of technicalities, Skiddy. Your 'territory' isn't worth shit, seeing as it consists of the areas of the city no one else wants. If the ABB or Empire tried to move in on them you'd run and hide like the vermin you are."

"And the only reason you haven't been taken out yet is because no one wants to deal with the consequences of the minor power vacuum doing so would create." Lady Photon added, speaking up for the first time since they'd arrived. "Though I'm sure most of us are rethinking that stance right now…"

Skidmark looked murderous. "Listen you fucking fleshlight-"

Faultline slammed a fist on the table. "Find a booth, Skidmark, or my people will remove you, and I'm sure the rest of those gathered would be happy to assist."

Skidmark looked around, once again seeming to be looking for some support, but even Uber and Leet, who apparently had enough survival instincts to just stay the hell out of everyone's way so far, gave him looks that clearly said he was out of luck, Leet outright flipping the bird.

"This isn't fucking over, you bunch of puckered assholes." Skidmark finally said before heading to a booth, thankfully at the other end of the bar from Ruby's.

"How is that guy not dead yet?" John muttered into his glass as he eyed the man that was muttering insults to himself as he sat down, prompting Taylor to sigh in apparent agreement with the sentiment.

After a moment in which Ruby, as well as likely half the room, waited for some other unexpected arrival to rear their head, Coil spoke once again, beginning the meeting proper. "Now then, it's time to discuss the reason we've all gathered, namely the unprecedentedly idiotic moves by the ABB."

"Idiotic is underselling it." Lady Photon said with a scowl. "Almost two hundred and fifty confirmed dead and hundreds more injured in just a couple of days, with more being added every hour. The hospitals are at capacity, even with Panacea working around the clock, to the point we were forced to bar her from the emergency room to get some sleep before she collapsed."

"Indeed." Coil said. "Along with that, armed combat in the streets between ABB forces and, essentially, everyone else, including law enforcement and even the military. Raids on our businesses and bombings at anywhere we're suspected of operating from. Encroachment and seizing of our territories, and they show no signs of stopping."

Well, Ruby supposed, for villains who's foremost concern was money, territory, membership and the power those conferred, those would be big concerns in this situation, though she wasn't exactly pleased by their priorities.

"It is exceedingly inconvenient." Kaiser said, as though he wasn't discussing what amounted to city wide war.

"They're being amazingly reckless." Faultline added, making that almost sound like the greatest crime the ABB had committed so far.

"Normally I would say to weather the storm, as there is no way the ABB can possibly sustain this. Eventually they will implode, especially now that both Oni Lee and Lung are in custody. If it weren't for the severity of this spate of madness I'd almost call it a good thing. But it is bringing more attention to our fair city, attention none of us, or at least, most of us, want." Coil said with a nod of acknowledgement to Harry and Lady Photon. "The military has established base camps in order to intervene directly. Heroes from all over the country are making their way here. I have heard rumors that even the Triumvirate might be called in."

"Normally I'd say 'about bloody time', but considering the amount of destruction being wrought every minute this goes on, we can't afford to just be idle and wait for the government to send in the proverbial nukes." Harry said, serious now that the main topic of the meeting was being discussed. "I have my people searching every moment of every day, but Bakuda is somehow evading us, which considering some of the things in our arsenal I hadn't really considered possible or even likely, and unless she's taken out, this isn't going to stop until Brockton Bay is a smoldering crater." He took a sip of his water. "And I'm not being hyperbolic. According to some samples of her tech we've acquired, some Thinkers and Tinkers I have access to have inferred that Bakuda's specialty isn't limited to relatively low scale explosives. I'm sure Hiroshima rings a bell for everyone here, and it would probably be a hell of a lot worse depending on what exotic effect she packs into whatever she ends up making."

The faces of everyone in the room darkened at that, no matter who they were. The threat of being nuked by a mad bomber with a chip on her shoulder and an ego the size of Beacon wasn't a pleasant thought.

"There's also the fact that the ABB wouldn't have nearly as many bodies to send at everyone else if it weren't for her 'conscription'." Lady Photon spat out angrily.

The first thing the Unbound had done with the intelligence on the bombs in the heads of the people working for Bakuda was have Cortana share it with essentially everyone, so the villains should all be well aware of what the conscription entailed. Though Ruby wouldn't be surprised at all if Skidmark didn't.

"Indeed. Rumor is that she has even begun to take non-Asians and do the same to them, though I haven't been able to substantiate that." Kaiser said seriously. "Beyond the simple issue that this means she'll have more troops, it also means they will be able to infiltrate more places more easily. Currently people are much more wary of Asians than other races, but if blacks or, worse, whites, become bombers as well such caution will be pointless."

Ruby grimaced at the clear racism, yet couldn't deny that the Nazi had a point. If Bakuda's conscripts were all Asian, it made sense for Asians to be feared, even if they had nothing to do with it. The entire reason Bakuda had been able to put so many bombs in position at first was due to the fact her agents hadn't looked even close to gangbangers. The same thing could happen again if she began widening her pool of potential 'recruits'.

"We'll need to act fast then. I've received word from friends in the PRT that a Kill Order for Bakuda should be signed by the end of the day." Lady Photon said.

Harry cursed at that. "We need to get them to belay that, immediately."

Coil leaned forward. "What do you know?"

Harry shook his head as everybody focused on him. "Not so much 'know', not with any certainty, but my people, which include Thinkers and a trained psychiatrist, have gone over Bakuda's psych profile. She has an ego the size of the fucking Behemoth, and is vindictive as hell. Just the Cornell bombings she was behind show that much. They think it's possible, even likely, that she has all her bombs on a dead man's switch, in order to get in a final 'fuck you' in case anybody manages to kill her."

Lady Photon's eyes widened. "What we've seen so far has been bad with just staggered detonations. If she has too many more, and they all went off at once…"

"There wouldn't be enough of Brockton Bay left to put on a map." Faultline said grimly.

Things were silent for a moment before Coil spoke again. "Taking all this into account, I propose a truce, not only between those of us here, but with the legal authorities and heroic elements as well." He said calmly. "I would contact authorities and let them know that until this matter is cleared up, our groups will restrict our illegal activity to only what is absolutely essential to our business, and we will enforce the same for those doing business in our territories. That would let police forces and the military focus entirely on the ABB. There would be no violence, infighting between our groups, grabs for territory, thefts or insults. We band together with those we can tolerate for guaranteed victory, and we ignore those we cannot cooperate with."

"Just saying, my group won't be getting directly involved in this without a reason," Faultline spoke. "We won't be going after the ABB unless they get in my way or someone pays my rates. It's the only workable policy when you're a cape for hire. Though considering the information disclosed here, and the likely consequences if the ABB somehow win this, we will decline to work for them. I don't trust Bakuda not to try to force bombs into our heads as well anyway."

Coil shifted as though to speak, but Harry beat him to it. "Done." He lifted a hand and, as if by magic (meaning definitely magic) a check appeared in his hand. He flicked it to Faultline and made it float over to her, the mercenary snatching it out of the air and bringing it to her face to read. In lieu of an expression they could see on her face, she tilted her head in intrigue.

"This is good?" She asked simply.

"I guarantee it. If it bounces for some reason, I'll give you double what's posted." Harry said simply. Then he flicked a card at her. "Here's a number you can contact our administrator at. She'll give you your instructions. And if things go well this time, we might have more work for you."

Faultline nodded and slipped the check into a pocket of her costume. "Understood."

"I assume this means you both agree with the terms of the proposed truce?" Coil said lightly, not seeming to be bothered by the fact that Harry had essentially poached Faultline from under him. At both of their nods he turned his head. "Kaiser?"

"I find this acceptable." He said simply.

"Lady Photon?" Coil asked next.

The blonde heroine's lips were pursed, but she nodded. "As long as there are no complaints if any members of New Wave apprehend anybody doing something overtly illegal in plain view."

"If such a situation comes up then we will simply chalk it up as the consequences of being sloppy." Coil said simply. He turned his head to Trickster, who nodded.

With that the group started shaking on it, sealing the deal, and as Ruby got out of the booth with the rest of the team to head home, glad that nothing had gone wrong and the rest of them didn't end up being needed, her attention was drawn by John. "What are the odds they aren't all trying to figure out ways of using this situation to their advantage?"

Ruby was young, and maybe a bit naive even in her own opinion, but she wasn't stupid. "I wouldn't take that bet in a million years." Taylor nodded from where she'd stepped up beside her, watching as the Empire began to leave first, waiting with the rest of them for the door to be cleared. Then the local heroine turned her head to look at Harry. "What is Nevermore…?"

As Ruby turned to look at her leader he was bringing his radio up, fiddling with it, likely turning it on. Suddenly a gruff sounding man's voice came from the radio at max volume, as though Harry had forgotten to lower it before turning it off.

"Through the gates of Hell!

As we make our way to Heaven!

Through the Nazi lines!

Primo Victoria!"

It was obviously a taunt. It couldn't possibly be anything else, even if Harry had done so in a 'plausible deniability' way, and Hookwolf, who had been about to leave before Kaiser to act as protection, took the bait, turning around with a murderous look visible through his mask. Even as Kaiser lifted a hand to stop him, yelling at him to cease, the Empire's enforcer began to shift into his Changer form, turning into the form of a wolf made out of a mass of grinding blades and hooks as he charged at Harry.

Even as everybody else was beginning to react to the attack, Faultline and her people moving to engage, Ruby and the rest of the Unbound doing the same, Harry held a hand up, palm open. When Hookwolf leapt to take off Harry's head he suddenly stopped in midair, caught by Harry's power. Then the Unbound's leader closed his fist, and as he did, with the tortured shrieking of grinding metal, Hookwolf's blades and hooks began to slowly, forcefully retract, like a video of the man changing but in slow-mo reverse. Soon enough the sound of shrieking metal was replaced by Hookwolf screaming, and once the man was fully flesh and blood once again, Harry let him drop to the floor with a thump, where he instinctively began to huddle into himself for protection.

The only noise in the dingy bar for several moments was the music still coming from Harry's radio, a pounding heavy metal song, as everyone stared at him, most of those there in fighting stances in case of further violence. Then Harry stepped over Hookwolf's cowering form almost contemptuously, his point made. As Ruby holstered her weapon and began to follow, she and everyone else clearly heard his last words to the downed Nazi.

"Down, puppy."

You. Have no idea. How much of a pain. This chapter was.

To be fair, it wasn't the chapter's contents themselves that were a problem. When I had a chance to sit down and write it flowed very nicely. The problem is that I've been immensely busy for over a month.

As you may know if you read my other stories, I lost my job at the end of November. Because of this I have elected to move back to the US, and will be doing so at the beginning of February.

I've been very, very busy getting everything I need ready for the trip. Need to cancel several services, arrange to be able to continue paying a loan I have even from another country (which has been a gigantic pain in the ass), buying the things I need for the trip, tickets included, on a tight budget (seeing as I have no income, though my parents have been kind enough to help), making sure my current residence will be okay without me, and spending time with my family since I likely won't be seeing them for a while.

I wanted to get this out before the end of 2021. I tried working on it on December 31st to get it out by midnight, but too many other things required my attention, not the least of which was my family.

I typed the last 2000 words or so through the blinding pain of having had a tooth removed only a few hours ago. Because I won't have medical, much less dental, when I get to the US, and these sorts of things are a lot more expensive up there.

Even beyond all of that, it has been far too long since my primary story was updated, for which I deeply apologize. I just had a bit of a block on it, really, so I generally focused on my other work. I knew what I wanted to have happen, but couldn't get the words out till I had a brainwave last month, when I started seriously working on it.

In any case, I hope this chapter was worth the wait. I know there wasn't much action, but that's coming, trust me. I have plans. Oh so many plans.

Speaking of which, after some original events I have planned for after the battle with Leviathan, I plan on having my first PHO interlude chapter, and am considering how to do it. My primary idea, at the moment, is making a forum thread, either here or on SB or SV, where I make an original post like one would see in PHO, and then just invite my readers to respond to and discuss it in character as though it was a real PHO thread. I would, of course, cut any comments I don't think would fit, aren't IC, or are just abusive, but I'd make the PHO chapter from those that work.

Please tell me what you think of that idea. Would you like it? Hate it? Contribute? Not care? I really would like some feedback about this to know if it's viable.

I can't think of anything else that might need to be discussed, so I guess I'll give my customary reminder:

I am always deeply grateful to those of you willing to toss a dollar or two my way just because you like my silly scribblings. I'm hoping I can continue counting on your generosity to ease the transition now that, as stated before, I'm jobless for the time being, and likely will be for another month or so.

Of course, let us not forget that you do get something out of it. For each dollar that you donate to my Pat A Ron, you get a vote in my monthly update poll stating what you want to see updated next month. And if what you vote for doesn't win immediately, no worries! Non-winning votes roll over to the next poll, so a fic that only gets a vote a month will eventually win (though it might take a bit, to be brutally honest).

That said, if a fic hasn't won in a long time, I will take it off the poll and update it anyway. For example, that is why I've been working on No Good Deed lately in between other, higher priority projects, since it's been so long since that won, so those of you who can't donate and want to see that updated, I hope to have the next chapter done soon.

So yes, donate to my Pat A Ron, you get a say in what I update. Everybody wins! So that's Pat A Ron dotcom /athanmortis. The current poll ends on February 8th, so go make sure your votes are counted.

I think that's all I have to say. Thank you everybody once again for reading, I truly appreciate it, especially when you review. I hope you all had Happy Holidays and New Year. Till next time!