"Okay so, which of you is going to start explaining things?" Tattletale looked at us from the opposite side of the massive table, nursing a cup of coffee with an expression that was fighting its hardest to remain calm.

It had been a close thing but the impromptu meeting in the foyer hadn't dissolved our agreement before it even began. A gun had been pulled, Trauma Bear had roared, and I had managed to talk everyone into not killing each other long enough to get us to the stupidly large eating area and had the Mass Production Doll's bring in some coffee and light snacks for Tattletale. While I desperately wanted to down a cup or two I had to go to school tomorrow. Riley for her part got hot chocolate, which I might have been more envious of then the coffee from how good it smelled.

"I guess I should," I was technically the one in charge at the moment and it had been my decision to bring her here. "I just need to figure out where to start."

Tattletale pointedly looked at Riley. "How about the part where you have a member of the Slaughterhouse 9 being followed around by a giant teddy bear?"

"Yeah that's fair," I looked at Riley and she gave a small nod to me.

"It was a few months ago, Jack had taken us to a small town so we could restock on supplies and-" a shudder ran through the young girls body. "Let out some steam." given that this was the Slaughterhouse 9 we were talking about the nature of that was better left unexplained, and I could tell from Tattletale's face that she agreed on that note.

"We were getting ready to go when an old man appeared, he asked if we had killed everyone," Riley's eyes narrowed for a moment as if she was reliving the scene. "He summoned a wooden doll, it looked like a kid dressed up as a devil and holding a baseball bat," something between a laugh and a whimper came out of her. "Jack thought it was funny. Then he sent Crawler into the air and dented Mannequin, and he didn't think it was funny anymore," the thought of Jack made Riley clench her fist tightly on the cup of hot chocolate she had in her hands.

The Dollhouse helpfully chimed in aloud as Riley took a moment to compose herself.

"Doll classified as a Lil Batter."

"Whenever its bat hit an object, it became a "homerun ball", sending the object flying by applying whatever force was necessary in relation to the object's weight. Speed and strength varied, but the object would always end up flying far away."

Now that was an ability worth filing away until later, after all my fight with Lung might have gone a bit differently if I had just been able to send him flying into the water or somewhere that the Bludgeoning Angel might have been more able to maneuver in.

Riley finally seemed to calm herself and continued. "The Siberian managed to break it, punched through its chest and sent bits of wood and blood everywhere. But then he said that he was sorry for what was about to happen. The broken doll disappeared and a bigger one appeared." her cup shook in her hands, a tremble that followed through to her entire body. "He was playing an instrument and everything started to hurt. I heard Crawler screaming louder then anyone else and…it was like reliving every bad thing I had ever done to someone. Everything else was gone and all of the people I hurt asked why did you hurt me, why did you kill me, why did you do this?" tears ran down the girls face as the memory consumed her.

"Concertmaster- Classification Mass Evil Eradication Doll."

"Information redacted from loud speaker systems. 'This song I play stands in testament to all sin, in hopes of a world where this song is free of all stains'."

That caught my attention, not so much the information being redacted but the description at the end, it was the first Doll I had encountered with anything more then a generic explanation of its abilities. But I didn't have time to dwell on that, instead trying to put a comforting hand on Riley's shoulder. "You don't have to continue if you don't want to."

The smaller girl shook her head. "No I need to," she swallowed her tears and refocused on a very uncomfortable looking Tattletale. "I thought I was going to die, hearing those voices hurt so much I wanted to. But the old man told me that it wasn't my fault, that I might have made a mistake but other people had forced me into it," she spoke those words like a lifeline in the middle of the ocean. "When I woke up the others were dead, except for Jack. He just kept screaming and said the walls were closing in on him, that he wanted to be let out of the bunker."

I couldn't help but shiver at that, whatever the song's effect it must have been terrible to face if it left a hardened killer like Jack Slash begging. Once again it seemed like Tattletale was in agreement, looking visibly ill at the idea of the serial killer cape screaming for mercy.

"After that he brought me back and told me I could stay here until I got better," as she spoke, Trauma Bear appeared behind her, putting a comforting paw on her head. "I'm still working on things, but I don't want to be Bonesaw anymore. I want to just be Riley and help people. I know its selfish and I've hurt a lot of people but I don't want to die before trying to make up for it."

I stood up and put a hand on her shoulder, looking to Trauma Bear. "I think its been a long night, can you take her back to her room?" the massive teddy bear gave a nod and lifted the small girl in his arms, holding her against his fluff filled stomach as the girl curled in. "Goodnight Riley," I gave a pointed look to Tattletale, who muttered her own goodbye.

"Fuck," Tattletale reached out to a napkin and turned away from me, dabbing her eyes a bit before turning back. "Just…fuck."

"Yeah," this was my second time hearing her tell that story, the first time had required Stetson there to help her through most of it. "That about sums it up."

We sat there in silence for a moment before she let out a sigh and leaned back in her chair. "Now I feel like an asshole for pointing a gun at her."

I couldn't help it, a small laugh managed to escape me which earned a grin from her. "I'm pretty sure she will forgive you for that. Just bring chocolate next time and you'll be her new best friend."

"Best friends with a former Slaughterhouse member, how is this my evening?" Tattletale let out a short breath and took a long sip of her coffee. "So what about you?"

I considered her for a moment, before slowly bringing my hands to either side of my mask and pressing my thumbs on the release mechanisms. The weight of the device disappeared as it fell into my hands, and with another movement my hood was pulled back. "I kind of fell into it."

Tattletale looked panicked for a moment. "Unmasking is usually a big no-no unless you plan on killing the person."

"Are you going to tell anyone?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Am I going to risk my life going around and spreading your identity when you apparently have the firepower to take out an S-class threat just laying around?" Tattletale asked retorically. "No, seems like a really bad plan there boss." with a sigh she reached up and pulled off her own mask. "Lisa Wilbourn, at least thats what it says on all of the very real I.D's I have in my wallet."

"Taylor Herbert, actual real name." I pinched the bridge of my nose and let out a breath of air to calm myself. I hadn't intended to reveal my secret identity on the first day, there had been a whole big plan of figuring out if she was trustworthy and then build up to something like this. But adapt or die was the rule of the game. "So I guess I should explain." I waved my hand in a roundabout motion.

"Yeah, Riley I get but from what she said you're not the one actually running the show." Tattletale leaned forward with some interest. "So how does a high school girl end up in what is either the biggest Tinkertech project since the Birdcage or a literal fucking magic house?"

I gave a helpless shrug. "Would you believe it was an accident?"

"Bullshit," Lisa looked at me for a moment as if reading my expression. "Oh bullshit." she laughed a bit and put her head into her hands. "You just…what? Cracked open a candy bar? Winning lotto ticket?"

"Almost died." I said in a tone that was all fake cheer.

"Okay yeah that makes more sense," she blinked and threw her hands out. "Explain?"

I took a deep breath and thought back to when this had all started, the day when what had been heavy duty bullying had transformed into something that could have ended my life. "I was at school and I got pushed into a locker," the smell of decay was something I could summon up at a thought, the rancid odor of blood and waste clinging to everything. "Filled with…you don't want to know."

I saw her looking at my face and apparently she had decided it was better not to know.

"I don't know how long I was in there, but I remember thinking that I was going to die surrounded by filth and how I would give anything to get out of there," it was hard not to gag from memory alone, but I pushed through. "Then it felt like something was digging into my brain, filling it up with…with I don't know. Something."

"A Trigger event," Tattletale muttered, and after my nod she continued. "But I'm guessing someone else happened."

I gave a nod. "From there things get hazy, something happened and the images just disappeared and it felt like my head was going to explode." from what Riley had told me it looked like someone had set off a firecracker in my brain. "The last thing I remember was an old man looking up at me from a bed and asking if I wanted to live no matter the cost." and despite how shit my life was, with only a hazy understanding of what had been happening I had managed to croak out a yes.

"So your trigger gets interrupted and what, he cloned you?" Lisa shook her head. "No you weren't cloned, but if your brain was that messed up then how are you, you know?" she waved in my general direction.

I brought my knuckles up and rapped them against my skull. "The one who actually is in control of this place, Stetson Aegis, made me a new brain."

"Wait like, made?" she seemed even more confused by this point. "Pretty sure that even with all of the bullshit parahumans can pull off, that isn't how biology works."

To that I had no real answer to give the other girl. "And yet I'm still here."

"Okay so you get a new brain and what, he says 'sorry for blowing up your old brain here are the keys to all of my weird dolls that can make some of the top tier gang bosses in your city look like rank amateurs?" Lisa's tone wasn't quite disbelieving, but I could tell she was straining slightly.

"Sort of?" It wasn't quite an inaccurate description of the situation.. "When I woke up Stetson explained what had happened and what he had done. He told me that my brain was connected to this place," I knocked on the wood of the table slightly. "He told me that if I wanted I could just leave, put this all behind me. Or he could train me to be a hero." there had been no real choice between the two. The power would ensure that I would never be that girl in the locker again.

"And from there you start going around and fighting with the biggest scumbags in the city, and Uber and Leet." Tattletale let out a long breath and leaned back in her chair. "So where is the head honcho anyway?" she peaked around as if expecting him to jump out from some corner of the room and surprise her.

"I have no idea," I answered honestly. "Before he came to Brockton he was apparently touring around the U.S. and gathering information," I gave a simple shrug. "My best guess is he is in another country figuring out his next move."

"Next move toward?" Lisa guided.

"Saving the world." I answered.

The expression on her face was one that I imagined mirrored my own when he had first explained his end goal. Plenty of capes talked about protecting people or trying to spread hope, but ever since the first Endbringer attack, honestly maybe even before that, the world had seemingly been sprinting toward disaster.

If it wasn't the giant monsters that the best the world could do was attempt to slow down then it was the villains that even the best heroes couldn't stop. Anyone who talked about wanting to save the world was seen as delusional, the best that could be done was carving out a small portion of the world and hoping that no one noticed you were there.

"And you actually think that's possible?" Lisa's voice was heavy with doubt, but under it was something else, a small bit of hope. Or maybe that was just me projecting onto her.

I offered a genuine smile. "Yeah. I think so."

Lisa gave a small pause and looked down at her drink. "Fine, fuck it. I'm in," she drew in a slow breath before looking at me. "After Heartbreaker there is one other villain we need to focus on if you really want to help this shithole."

"And who would that be?" I asked, slightly cautious of the looks she was giving me.

"What do you know about a villain named Coil?"