My dad was understandably excited for me when I showed him the paperwork, promising to help in whatever way he could. It hurt just a bit to lie and ask him to stay with a friend over the weekend to focus on studying but he seemed to buy it easily enough seeing as I had been using the 'friend' excuse ever since I had started my training under Stetson. I promised to keep my phone near me at all times and he simply waved it off without worry as he didn't want to bother me while with my friends.

Before lying to him hadn't really hurt all that much, as he had been too far gone to even care that I had been lying to him. Now that there was more life to him I could see he honestly did trust me enough to go out and be my own person and stay out of trouble. But no matter how much it bothered me I had to weigh the cost of not bringing Heartbreaker down versus the cost of lying to my dad for a bit longer. And there was simply no contest.

I spent most of Wednesday and Thursday split between texting and talking to Amy and Vicky who were both excited that I would be joining them at Arcadia and reaffirming my promise to meet with them on Saturday for a trip to the mall, and the other half focusing on preparing for the assault itself. Which meant more running, training with Karate Man, and going over a list of Heartbreaker's assets that Lisa had put together for me.

At the very least he likely had around thirty hanger-ons, likely split into twenty guards and ten women he had mastered for his sick desires. On top of that were his kids, the majority of which were parahumans in their own right with an extensive list of abilities that would make them a terrifying force, if most of them weren't younger then Riley. To add to that their powers were mostly useful on human targets, and just in case I had chosen a doll without a full personality to deal with the base.

That made for around twenty-five to thirty or so combat aligned targets, and ten to fifteen people that while dangerous most likely lacked combat training. But I nullified the advantage he held with a large number of master's.

"So then," Lisa took a seat across from me and pushed over a folder. "We got him."

I flicked open the folder and began to examine the pages she had printed out as she continued to speak.

"Building was going to be set up as a pharmaceutical complex built in the middle of the Boreal forest but was abandoned after the company went belly up, later purchased by Antoine Laurent and reinforced as a sorta doomsday shelter for his family and wait staff because of rich people's paranoia, and finally," she motioned for me to look at the last paper, a picture of the building surrounded by vehicles that had been hidden using camo coverings and branches from the nearby trees. "Home to Heartbreaker's sorry ass."

A vicious smile crossed my face, we had the bastard. But there were still issues that needed to be taken care of before I could begin a proper assault. "You said it was set up to be a doomsday shelter, what does that actually entail?"

Lisa flipped through the folder and pushed me a design layout for the complex. "Reinforced walls, probably a few escape tunnels. Any defenses like electronic fences or turrets are out, my source said that they are probably running on gas generators and focusing on the essentials only. The inside is probably going to be a maze of rooms but they probably aren't using the whole facility so once you find the place with the most guards you'll probably find the rest."

"You did an amazing job Lisa," I stuffed the papers back into the folder and closed my eyes for a moment. "Get some rest, you've earned it."

Lisa laughed a bit before shaking her head. "Sorry boss, until I hear the words 'Heartbreaker is done with' I don't think sleep is on the table. You got me invested now."

I let out a snort and shook my head at her antics, but to be fair if I were on the other side of this conversation I would probably be too worried to do anything close to sleep. "No matter what this ends tonight, I take Heartbreaker down and then once we have the Undersiders set up properly we can focus on taking Coil down."

Lisa's smile became positively predatory at the sound of that. "Good, I've been wanting to get out from under that bastard since the moment he aimed a gun at me and threatened to pull the trigger."

I could only really give a nod to that as my phone went off in my pocket. How I got a cell signal within the Dollhouse was a mystery to me but it wasn't something I would start complaining about.

Vicky: Hey we are going to be meeting Saturday afternoon.

Vicky: We gotta get you some new clothes for your first day!

A smile crossed my face as I sent back a confirmation and turned to Lisa. "Oh, I completely forgot. Vicky invited me to go shopping and I wanted to ask if you would come."

That seemed to catch Lisa off guard as she mulled over my words. "Vicky…you mean Glory Girl? You're inviting me to have a fun girls day shopping with a member of New Wave?"

"Uh…oh…right." It somehow only now occurred to me how that might be a bad idea, but Lisa was already giving one of her cat-like smiles at the idea.

"Sounds like a blast, I've been invited on worse first dates after all." Lisa's voice was teasing to the extreme.

It was lucky I hadn't been drinking anything when she said that, because I was barely able to get a word out between the blush on my face and my voice seeming to drop in and out of tone.

"Relax I'm kidding," Lisa finally said, raising a hand in mocking surrender and laughing a bit. "I don't really do the whole dating thing…plus I'm way out of your league."

"I…you…" I simply lowered my head in defeat and sighed. Give me a villain to fight anyday over trying to figure out other people.

Lisa smirked and walked over to me, putting a hand on my shoulder. "Hey, one last thing," she took my hand and put a small box-like object topped by two metal prongs. "I get that your doll's are pretty much the best weapons in the world, but it might not be a bad idea to keep something like this on you, just in case."

I quickly scanned the device and touched the button, seeing a spark of electricity dance between the two prongs.

"It's a bit souped up compared to the market model, you can toggle the amount of strength with the little button at the side. Normal will make someone think twice about putting their hands on you. The full one will stop someone from thinking of much of anything for a few hours, maybe give edgy stalkers a second thought before trying to follow my friend around."

I couldn't help the smile that came to my face, while it wasn't exactly what a normal person would give as a gift it was still probably the best thing I had gotten in quite some time. "That's Lisa."

"Don't mention it, like literally I'm pretty sure that thing is super illegal." Lisa smirked and the two of us had a small laugh over it, but all the same I turned on the device's safety and stuck it in my pocket.

Night came faster than I could have imagined, spending the hours playing games with Riley and Lisa and getting some small amount of sleep in before preparing for what was to come. But eventually it arrived and the two of them came together to see me off.

"You have the infuser attached to your mask?" Riley asked, looking for all the world like a small girl and not the villain she had been forced to be, gripping Lisa's leg tightly and eyes filled with worry. "I triple checked on the formula so it should work at least five seconds faster."

"Everything is connected," I said from behind my mask, a small tube running from the back and connecting to a liquified version of the blood pills I used as a civilian. It was good for about two hours of intense usage of a doll, but after that I would have to use the feeder system built into the mask to go back to the solid version of the miracle medicine.

"Go kick his ass Taylor." Lisa hid her own worries well, though I still could pick up a small hitch to her normally jovial voice.

It felt nice to have people worried about me, and I intended to show them that there wasn't a need to worry for anyone but Heartbreaker. "Dollhouse, teleport me to predetermined location."

Confirmed.

My feet hit the cool dirt of the Boreal forests just a short distance away from Heartbreaker's complex, giving me enough time to finish any preparations needed before the assault began.

"Dollhouse, Inventory Select."

Command from authorized user accepted

"Select Edge Shooter."

The doll that arrived before me was quite different from those I had called before, most of its body was covered by a thick black smoke that clung to its body, wrapped up in a black trenchcoat that looked like it was pulled from a pulp novel. Its hands covered by white gloves and the single glowing red eye that emerged from the mist were the only easily visible things in the near pitch black night.

"Blood Brain Connection."

Confirmed.

As I connected to the doll I suddenly found that my vision became much more clear, the darkness not seeming so unyielding as before as I shared part of my senses with Edge Shooter. "Follow me but stay hidden." I didn't actually need to verbally communicate with the doll, but my nerves were already on edge and it helped me relax a bit.

The doll responded by simply disappearing into the woods, becoming impossible to see amongst the otherwise dark night. There was no longer any reason to delay at this point, so I began to walk toward the faculty and scooped out the entrance that I had decided to use. Due to the size of the complex I could have picked any point to begin at, but this was the one that was guarded most closely so it had the highest chance of leading me to Heartbreaker.

Said guards were dressed for the near freezing temperatures in what amounted to thin coats that wouldn't have held up to a slight wind much less what the forest had to offer, the large rifles in their hands shaking slightly as they were forced to stand in position. From Edge Shooter's position I could see that there was one other guard on the roof of the single story complex who looked even worse off.

I thought I couldn't be any more disgusted by Heartbreaker, but seeing him putting his own people at risk by working them in the freezing cold without proper protection only increased my anger toward the man. Maybe once I had cleared some space I could have them dragged into a room inside and lock them in.

But that would all have to come later, I allowed a moment for Edge Shooter to get into position and began to approach the building, wrapping my arms around myself and lowering my head slightly as I walked toward them. "Please help, I'm so cold." I had turned the distortion effect on my mask down slightly to give me a more innocent tone of voice.

"Stop right there!" one of the men yelled through clattering teeth, and although I couldn't see it I knew that his rifle was likely shaking in his hands as the cold bit deep into him. "This is private property, leave now!"

All three of the guards were likely focused only on me, which was all the distraction that Edge Shooter needed.

The doll moved out of the shadows from atop the building and thrust out a hand, a toy-like pistol appearing in his gloved hands. To all the world it looked like a foam dart gun, the kind that a kid's parent might buy only to see it break a few weeks later. Garish yellows and blues took away any sense of danger that a gun might normally bring, and seeing as the end of the gun only contained what to all the world appeared to be cheap foam capped off a slightly more dense piece of foam with an orange tint at the end.

Edge Shooter squeezed the trigger of the gun and the dart fired at the back of the guard's head, striking silently and causing the man to instantly pass out as if struck by a potent tranquilizer.

Edge Shooter- Classification: Non-lethal Assassin Type

Designed to act as a stealth focused doll that could easily eliminate enemy combatants without any direct harm, it can summon forth a variety of blasters which contain darts that affect organic and inorganic substances differently. If launched against an organic target the dart will force the target into a state of unconsciousness for a minimum of two hours or a maximum of six, while if fired at an inorganic substance will produce a powerful kinetic force with variable strength.

The doll discarded the gun and jumped silently down from the roof, extending his arms in either direction and calling forth two more of the small blasters and launching the dart's at the ground level guards, forcing the two to bonelessly fall to the cold ground. With that done I walked forward and directed Edge Shooter to put them into the recovery position to prevent any further accidents and knelt down to examine them.

So far the Dollhouse had been completely accurate in regards to the abilities of the various doll's within, but some small part of me needed to ensure that they were okay. Of course it only took a few moments of observation to see that okay was about as far from a description to be used on these people as I could imagine.
Their faces were gaunt and their clothes hung loosely on their bodies, the cold seemed to have also taken its toll on them with various marks all across their body. The fact that they were able to stand and move at all was shocking, but then again people could push themselves to amazing lengths when they had their minds turned toward utter devotion.

"Fuck," I muttered to myself, standing up and eyeing the door into the building. Before coming here I thought I had steeled myself against what I might find, after all Heartbreaker wasn't exactly known to treat the women he controlled with a great amount of respect, so why would he put anything more toward those he planned to use as tools?

With a mental command I had Edge Shooter open the door and slip inside, finding that the lights in the main hallway were lit and the dull hum of a gas generator could be heard throughout the hallways. Four more guards were standing indoors with their weapons by their sides, easy targets for Edge Shooter to remove with his summoned weapons. That made a total of nine guards out of twenty, and given that they were adults it was unlikely any of them were Heartbreaker's kids.

So far I had managed to keep the element of surprise, but with the tight hallways and unknown number of doors that wouldn't be an option anymore, so I drew Edge Shooter back to me and began to slowly move through the area, following the sound of the generator and the lights. After a few feet the doll stopped and put up a hand, showing that its enhanced senses had picked up something I hadn't and motioned toward a door along the hallway, stepping forward and opening it with one quick movement, summoning a colorful rifle loaded with multiple darts into the room, firing each shot quickly before stepping back.

I walked toward the open door and quickly regretted it, motioning for Edge Shooter to close the door as I took a moment to calm myself. Just the sight of it alone was enough, without my mask the smell of it might have actually made me sick to my stomach.

The room had probably been set up as a break room when the building had first been designed, but it had been turned into a living area for Heartbreaker's guards. However it seemed they were all too broken to really think for themselves. Most of them had sported wounds and the same gaunt look that had been over the guards, some worse off then others but not a single one looked like they would make it much longer without medical attention.

They didn't have anything in the room to actually heat it, so they had all curled together in the room to gain some sort of warmth, a mass of broken humanity bleeding and rotting on each other without even the thought to try and rebel because some heartless bastard decided they weren't worth the extra attention to be taken care of.

"Lets go," I spoke to Edge Shooter, mainly just so I could have something to center myself with. The only comparable sight to that I had seen was a raid on a Merchant den that had been supervised by Stetson, seeing people drugged out of their minds and laying about, some babbling and others just moaning. It had been awful but it was more human than the sight I had seen in that room.

I tried my best to put the image in the back of my mind and focus on moving down the hallway, eventually finding the room with one of the generators in it and having the doll clear it out. It had been slightly less horrifying than the room with the guards, containing the women that Heartbreaker had brought with him. Most of them were in slightly better shape then the guards, meaning that their wounds had been treated and it looked like they weren't about to starve, but it was a near enough thing.

As my doll closed the door to the room something struck me from behind, an odd energy that seemed to creep into my mind like tendrils of pure ice. Thoughts of defeat began to plague me, hopelessness that didn't seem to have an ending, like the weak girl I was before.

Mental contamination by outside forces detected, purging negative influences.

And all at once it was gone, the sense of defeat replaced by anger as I turned to see a young girl with hands covered by dark blue energy whose face was a mask of surprise. "Why aren't you affected?" she asked, her voice small as she stepped back.

I directed Edge Shooter behind her, having the doll press its pistol into the back of the girl's neck so I could get a proper look at her. She was around the same age as Riley if I had to guess, a whip curled at her hip and gaudy looking jewelry hanging on her. From what I could remember about the known members of Heartbreaker's family she was likely Chastity, Striker/Thinker who could instill a sense of defeat with some stipulations and could detect people within a set distance.

Also probably the oldest remaining member after Heartbreaker had lost most of his family during the rescue of the movie star he had attempted to kidnap.

"Your powers won't work on me," my projected voice was set to its full unnatural limit as my mask scrambled my voice. I was lucky that the ability was one meant to directly affect the mind, if she had managed to sneak up on me with a more direct combat power or even the whip by her side I might have been in trouble. "Put your hands in the air, or I can promise you will regret it."

I didn't exactly feel great about holding a preteen at perceived gunpoint, but I couldn't take the risk that she would try and make enough noise to alert any remaining guards, or the rest of her parahuman family. I wasn't worried about losing, but more due to the fact I didn't want to fight a bunch of kids who should have been running around with friends after school instead of freezing in this abandoned place.

The look on her face was slightly defiant, but her eyes and the slight shake of her body betrayed her fear as she raised her hands, the glow disappearing from them. "You're here for our dad aren't you?"

I saw no reason to lie to the girl, simply giving a small nod and keeping a set distance between us. "Exactly, I don't have any interest in hurting anyone here, but I will do what I have to in order to get to him."

My hatred for Heartbreaker only increased as I was forced to say I would hurt her family just to get to her dad, but there wasn't anything else I could do at the moment. As much as I didn't want to do so I had to weigh the evil of scaring this girl with the good that would be done by bringing Heartbreaker to justice.

I could practically see the numbers being run in her mind, guessing at the chance of me being able to successfully bring down her father. Given that I had no-selled her own ability she probably already understood why I was confident in facing him, and that she had no real way to oppose me short of saying she wouldn't tell and being shot from behind. "If I tell you where he is, will you leave me and the other kids alone?" The defeated tone in her voice was clear.

"Hurting a bunch of kids isn't something I'm interested in doing if I don't have too. Once your dad is done I'll do everything I can to make sure that all of you will be safe." which was true for the most part. I had most of a plan together for what to do once Heartbreaker was defeated, which was sadly the most I could do. Beating someone like Heartbreaker wasn't ever going to be as clean as just tossing him in a cell and calling it good, the victims he would leave behind were much more of a priority in this case.

My words seemed to be enough for Chastity who gave a nod at that. "Turn left at the end of the hall and keep going until you reach the connecting room between the two buildings, he is staying in a big office by himself," she bit her lip for a moment and turned her head away. "He has someone guarding him, dad hired him after we started running to keep him safe."

I didn't miss the fact that it had been to keep 'him' safe instead of 'all of us', the resentment at least was clear. "Go to the rest of your family and stay put, don't leave the room no matter what you hear." I had Edge Shooter move away from her but not lower his weapon.

Chastity looked at me for a moment with searching eyes before turning away, muttering under her breath. "Good luck."

I watched as she left down the hallway and began to follow her directions, watching as the lights gave way to darkness as the hallway lights in this part of the building weren't being fed with power. But soon enough I saw the door to the next building and the lights under it, pushing through with Edge Bringer behind me into a large lobby, filled with overturned furniture and various bits of broken stonework from the ceiling and walls.

"Man and not a peep from the guards, if I wasn't a professional the boss man would have been done in one huh?" The voice came from a figure sitting on what would have at one time been a secretary's desk, casually relaxing on top of it as if it were a chair.

The figure itself was covered in silver armor from the torso up, its arms covered by slightly bulky gauntlets which ended in curved knife-like claws. The helmet contained a black D on the front in the middle of which a glowing red orb tracked my movements. The lower parts of his body seemed to be covered in a thick black fabric.

"Listen between you and me I don't particularly want to fight you and your scary friend, so if you decide to turn around and leave we can call this a learning experience." The man's voice was rather calm despite facing down an unknown enemy, perfectly conversational and even polite given the circumstances. But despite his tone I could see that his body didn't quite match, seemingly ready for a fight at any moment.

Seeing as he was willing to talk I decided to see if I could get past him without a fight. "Counter offer, leave and I won't have to go through you."

The figure crossed his arms and tapped one of the claws against the lower part of his helmet. "An enticing offer, but you don't get the name Desperate if you cut and run on a contract the minute you have to actually do work."

With his answer I figured there wasn't any reason to bother with negotiations, besides anyone who would work for Heartbreaker deserved to go down in my books. Edge Shooter quickly summoned up a pistol and fired the dart at the center mass of the armored mercenary.

However before it could strike him an odd disk flew off of the enlarged gauntlet on Desperate's hand and went into the path of the foam dart. When the two collided in midair a massive amount of force radiated off of the dart and blew back some of the smaller pieces of wood and stone around it. But while the dart fell to the ground the disk flew back over to Desperate, the red eye of his helmet examining the disk for a moment.

"Impressive, my turn." Desperate raised a clawed finger to the disk and flicked it against the back. Before I could realize what was happening Edge Shooter had grabbed me and moved me away fast enough to knock my breath out of my lungs, once I was able to right myself I could see the reason for the sudden movement.

A blast of pure force had directed itself to where I had been standing, putting a hole straight into the stone floor. Even with my protective clothing I would have likely had a few ribs and other assorted bones broken by taking the full brunt of that attack.

"So then, sure you don't want to run?" Desperate's voice held a small mocking quality to it now.

I righted myself and directed Edge Shooter to be ready to go on the attack. "I'm not leaving without Heartbreaker."

"Then let the games begin."

This is the first part of Orpheus 7, the second half is probably going to be a bit longer then I thought so I'm getting this out now while I continue work on the next part.

Blaze1992
New question can she summon up two dolls and combine their powers into a greater effect?

Technically yes, but the overall drain on Taylor's body would be double the amount from a normal doll, so by and large it makes more sense to pick a single doll's whose ability matches the situation then try and mix and match unless things get desperate.