I found that it was getting easier and easier to quickly change into my outfit and get into the headspace of 'Thread'. It felt while I was wearing this and had the mask clasped over the lower portion of my face that nothing was impossible. I would find Amy, I would beat the gangs that ran my town, that there was nothing that I couldn't do.
That being said I carefully buried those feelings for the moment as I had the Dollhouse drop me off downtown where Lisa had mentioned the meet up. However instead of Lisa I found Regent leaning against a wall dressed down from his usual Ren faire outfit and instead was dressed in a loose button up and a smaller mask from the typical one that covered his whole face.
"Tattletale said you'd be here, follow me," he stepped away from the wall and motioned for me to follow after him. "So you really took him down?" Regent asked, curiosity mixed with hope in his voice.
"He'll live in a hell the likes of which will be worse than death for him." Heartbreaker would never again be able to have his needs met, for all of the power he might have over others he would never again be able to get what he wanted.
A small laugh escaped from Regent. "What about his kids? I'm guessing one way trip to some dark hole where they won't cause anyone trouble?"
I hadn't really considered exactly what would happen to his kids, but I had faith in Dragon to keep the promise to take care of the victims. "They'll be taken care of by someone trustworthy, and if they are taken…" I considered my answer for a moment. These questions seemed to have a deeper meaning than just fulfilling curiosity and thus it wouldn't do to give a half-baked answer. "Then I'll break them out and protect them myself."
Stetson had once asked during the early days of my training what kind of hero I wanted to be. I was told that no matter what choice I made he would support me, and the Dollhouse would always remain open to me.
I had been confused at the question when he first asked, so he had explained that things were never quite so simple as 'punch the bad guy and save the day'. Sometimes the bad guy was protected by the law, and sometimes the law itself was just wrong. He had described himself as someone who followed his own whims of right and wrong, with an inherent belief that people should be given a choice on how to live their lives.
It had taken some time, but after defeating Heartbreaker and seeing how the people who were controlled were put aside as not worth the risk of saving until after I had broken his control over them I had come to a decision, I would do what was right regardless of anything that tried to stand against me. Maybe it was selfish, but it was at least a decision I made for myself.
Regent let out a laugh and pressed a hand against his forehead. "Shit just like that huh?" He dragged his hand down to his mask and removed it, turning around and looking at me.
It took a moment for things to connect in my head, but seeing his full appearance without the mask told me all I needed. Regent couldn't be declared as the spitting image of Heartbreaker, but there were enough similarities to make it clear why exactly he had been the target the group had asked me to track down first.
"My 'dear old dad' can rot in hell for all I care, but I have enough of him in me to know that I'm never going to be some shining beacon of morality," his gaze was relaxed despite his harsh words. "I'm smart enough to know that I can't survive in this town against you, but that doesn't mean you are going to end up happy with a guy like me on the team. I intend to be who I am regardless of who it pisses off."
I considered it for a moment. "Are you anything like your dad?"
To my surprise Regent didn't seem to take the question too hard, giving a simple shake of his head. "I did plenty of fucked up stuff when I still lived with him. If you're asking if I used my powers to get my rocks off then no," he gave a shake of his head. "Before you get butterflies it wasn't anything to do with morality, I just thought it would be too pathetic if I had to go that low."
Despite his harsh words I could get the idea of what he was trying to say. His morality might be utterly screwed up but he had his own limits to what he would and wouldn't do. At the end of the day that was fine, if he was willing to do anything for money I would simply pay him to do good and we would go from there.
"Then you're fine. I don't care who you were before," I paused for a moment. "But just to be clear, this is the second chance."
He gave a lazy salute before finishing our walk toward a two story building that might have been an office at one point before being allowed to decay as whatever company used to hold it made tracks. Regent brushed aside a fake wall panel and hit a few numbers, the doors to the building opening up and holding them open for me.
I walked inside and let out a small whistle at the sight of the interior. While the outside looked like it was about to collapse, everything within the building looked like it had been furnished and cleaned recently. Regent led me to a room situated in the middle of the first floor of the building where the rest of the Undersiders were sitting around a circular table. Regent walked over and took a spot next to Grue, resting his head on a hand and looking perfectly at ease despite our conversation.
Bitch and Grue were both utterly unreadable with their masks over their faces, but Tattletale seemed perfectly content. "Like the building boss?" she asked with a cheeky smile. "Hope so seeing as I bought it on your penny."
"You did a good job," I took a seat at the furthest point from the others and got comfortable. "Why two stories?"
"Bottom floor gives us room for separate areas until we can upgrade. Room for Bitch's dogs to roam and for me to set up a room to do my own business in. Plus there is room for a bit of expansion." Lisa answered.
Bitch let out a small growl at the mention of expansion, but Grue seemed to cut in before she could properly say anything in response. "Before we get into details, you kept your end of the bargain and that means we are willing to work for you. But your explanation last time wasn't exactly clear. What are you expecting us to do for you?"
I had put more thought into the hard mechanics of what I wanted from the Undersiders since our first meeting, bouncing ideas off of Lisa in order to get the best results from our partnership. So rather than floundering like I had before there was an answer waiting for them. "I want you to help me mug every single gang in this city."
The responses across the table were mixed. Regent laughed loudly, Bitch gave a small noise of excitement, Lisa simply snorted at my wording, and Grue…
Well honestly he seemed a bit thrown. "Come again?"
"The Undersiders have a reputation for being one of the most effective groups in the city when it comes to breaking and entry, along with information gathering. So you'll be focused on stealing weapons, money, drugs, basically anything valuable that the gangs around the city want, along with providing me with information so that I can accurately track down villains in the city." I explained and waited a moment for things to sink in.
The truth was that I didn't feel comfortable fighting alongside other people, while I could probably trust the Undersiders to do their jobs I couldn't ask them to stand and fight the kind of enemies I would make. So long as they could be dragged into the light I would handle the heavy lifting.
"And what happens to the materials we get?" Regent asked.
"Drugs and weapons both get destroyed flat out, money will be divided as a bonus for the team with thirty percent going toward local charities, and anything else of interest will be case by case." I had no need for guns of the normal or tinkertech variety, and even if I had a passing interest in drugs I was fairly confident that Riley could probably make something a hundred times better then whatever the Merchant's cooked up when they weren't getting high on their own goods.
As for money I had no interest in being rich, or richer seeing as the card Stetson had given me was still pushing along in terms of any limits. Besides most of it belonged to the people of the city anyway, and with Lisa I could help recirculate funds held by the gangs to be put to actual use cleaning things up.
"Within a year I want to collapse the powerbase of every single gang in the city until they are starved out and run away with their tails between their legs." I was under no illusion that I could solve every issue in the city, but if I could remove every gang from the board within a short period of time then things might be able to stabilize.
The ABB already had their backs broken with the loss of Lung and Oni Lee, the Empire 88 had lost their leader to Stetson and then Hookwolf to our combined efforts. Which left the Merchants, Coil, and arguably Faultline and her organization. After that I could try and clean up any remaining minor criminal groups and leftovers from other organizations.
But without the gangs stoking the fires and the beaches being cleaned up it was possible that Brockton could actually get on the path to healing that had been denied to the city for so long. Or it was equally possible that I attracted every nutjob evil organization in North America to come and attack me.
Which would at least save me the time it would take to hunt them down by myself.
"For now you'll all work together once information has been gathered, but I still expected some work outside of large hits. Regent and Tattletale," I looked toward the two, both of their expressions taking on a slightly more serious look. "You two will gather information needed for raids where you can. I don't care about methods so long as innocent people aren't caught up in it."
Lisa simply gave a nod while Regent had a grin grow over his face.
"Grue and Bitch, the two of you will work on driving away any gangs from around our building and set up a safe space for us. Beyond that scaring the hell out of any illegal businesses or gangsters is free game." Bitch let out a laughing bark and Grue simply nodded silently.
"Beyond that I'll be working with you individually over the next week to help us get better acquainted." if it turned out I had made the wrong call with them, having some one on one time would help me discover the issues before something horrible happened.
The group agreed for the moment and I figured it was time to finish up my promises I had made toward them. "Tattletale and Regent have already gotten the extra parts tied to them down, so that leaves the two of you." I glanced toward Grue and Bitch. "Bitch, Tattletale will inform you of any dog fighting rings in the city, and a variety of well vetted animal shelters will be opening up in the city."
The last part hadn't been hard, there were plenty of pounds in town that had been forced into closure or working for gangs in the city. With most of them weakened and a donation from my funds it wasn't difficult to get things going on the right track.
"Grue, paperwork in regards to what you need taken care of is already in the works, and some money is already being set aside to take care of the future in regards to it. Talk with Tattletale for the extra details but everything should work out." His goal of protecting his sister from the awful family they had been born into was a good one, and I would do what I could to make sure it came true.
"From today forward you all work for me," I injected more confidence in my voice then I actually had, drawing from the times Stetson had worked with me. "That means I'm trusting each of you with my reputation. If you decide to abuse that, then you will become my first priority."
A chorus of worried agreement came forward, even Lisa seemed a little scared from the serious tone I put forward.
"Then we'll continue this later," it was getting late and I had Arcadia to look forward to in the morning. Even if I didn't need as much sleep as a normal person it felt good to get in my hours where I could. "Try and keep your schedules open over the next two weeks and we will go from there."
With that said I allowed the Dollhouse to pull me away from the base, disappearing from their sight and quickly changing before dropping myself off at home.
It took me some time to realize that my hands were shaking, and even longer to get control of myself. Fighting villains was nowhere near as terrifying as trying to talk to people it seemed. Without the confidence that came from being Thread it might have caused me to trip over my words.
But Thread wasn't me, at least not really. Taylor Hebert was a mousy nobody who had been shoved into a locker to die by her best friend. Thread was the hero that Stetson had trained to help protect the world. There was still a rift between the two that I didn't know how to properly articulate.
I collapsed on my bed and tried to focus on getting some sleep, but found it was a bit more difficult than I would have thought given how exhausted I was. Laying down with my eyes closed tightly didn't seem to be doing anything, so instead I tried to think of a way to pass the time.
"Dollhouse, can you give me any information on the Third Cause?"
Stetson had asked me to avoid engaging whatever was tied to the name at all costs, and if the Dollhouse rejected my question then I wouldn't have lost anything for the effort. Rather I could spend the time searching through the archives of the Dollhouse and learn more about my power.
However, contrary to my expectations I got a response from the Dollhouse.
Third Cause
Real Breaker Rank: 3
A hivemind type extra-dimensional entity linked to the Church of Entropy. The main body exists in a pocket dimension and requires outside interference in order to enter into real space.
An image flashed across my mind, and I was honest enough to admit the sight turned my stomach. Uncountable numbers of flesh like tendrils wrapped around each other in a vague approximation of a circle, constantly writhing like a ball of worms. At the center of which sat an unblinking white eye with even more of the tendrils making up the iris of the thing. The center of the eye was hard to look at, a pure black hole that seemed to draw in and repulse my senses at the same time.
Each tendril contains a copy of the personality of the hivemind, so long as one exists the full memories and power of the whole can be maintained. Its main form of attack is entering into real space and subverting the form of local inhabitants, flooding the infected mind with mass waves of pleasure until they fall into a vegitative state of bliss, allowing the tendrils to pilot and control the body while gaining all memories and abilities of the user.
That caught my attention, it sounded a lot like an upscaled version of the Butcher's ability to inject the personality of all of its former victims to whoever killed it. But even that wasn't quite an accurate description based on what the Dollhouse had told me. This thing was on a whole other level compared to a few Nazi parahumans or even Heartbreaker. But at the same time I couldn't deny the sort of chaos something like this could cause, and I refused to back down just because it was a few sizes bigger then what I was used to dealing with.
After all, one day I would likely be forced to fight an Endbringer, and as terrifying as this thing was, it didn't hold the fear in my heart that they did.
The final bit of information that played was more like a memory playing through my mind, just as clear as if I had lived it myself.
"All of the places I've visited have been the same, two causes that drive people to war and chaos." a man with tanned skin spoke in my memory. His voice was light and almost pleasant, but there was a sense of wrongness about him. When I looked closely it was like something was moving under his skin, and with a slight shiver I realized that it was likely the tendrils of the massive creature I had seen. "Good and Evil. For the cause of Good people will go to all lengths, to help others and bring joy to the world. And obviously those who champion the cause of Evil will do whatever it takes to fulfill their own selfish goals regardless of who is trampled beneath their feet. But both seek the same thing, dopamine. All living things seek a chemical reaction that tells them to be happy. I provide it at no cost, giving the goal of life with no struggle. That is why the we who are I are called the Third Cause, the grand cause of Bliss."
The memory cut out along with a message from the Dollhouse saying that further information regarding the Third Cause was blocked out, which honestly I was thankful for. But it did give me a better idea of the kind of things that I might have to one day face. There were so many more questions I wanted answered, but I had to face facts that Stetson didn't believe I was ready for them yet, and even if it irked me slightly I would admit that I probably didn't need any more fuel for nightmares.
So I simply laid back and tried once again to sleep, the words of the infected man playing themselves in an endless loop being the soundtrack to my eventual rest.