"All Wards Mask up and proceed to the lobby, this is no drill." Jim was out of his chair and calling his armor before the last words were silent. By him, Dennis was pulling a boot on.

"Can Merlin give me that?" he asked, watching as Jim's armor flew onto him.

"Trust me," Jim said. "He charges a lot."

A portal opened and Claire came flying out, followed by Missy and Dean. "We were in the cafeteria, what's going on?"

"I don't know," Jim said.

But it's excitement, at least. Two weeks of waiting for something to happen, with skirmishes between the E88 and the PRT. An attack on a police station had been routed by Legend and Miss Militia, but half the media was complaining that they were violating their First Amendment rights and the other half was complaining that Legend didn't just vaporize them. Arcadia was still in school, but Winslow had been shut down for a week after a miniriot had broken out at lunch—and been broken up by a band of antagonized wasps and aggressive moths.

Exterminator's work, unofficially. Officially it was just poor chance that the wasps and moths had made their nests in the ductwork where they could get anywhere in the school. Bad luck that they had been agitated by the screams and yells.

Officially, it was just chance that the only people who had been stung, as opposed to being scared, were those who actually had knives or other weapons out.

Officially, the idea that there might be a hidden insect master at Winslow was just crazy talk.

Unofficially, they all had orders to play nice, and do whatever they could to maintain a friendly relationship. Carlos had said that Director Piggot had flat out stated that she would personally murder anyone who screwed up the pitch to a new trigger who was both capable of and level-headed enough to stop a riot with no deaths or serious injuries. The implications for both crowd control and recon were…

Yeah, Jim could see why the Director wanted whoever the Exterminator was.

"Let's go!" Carlos said. "Trollhunter, you and Shadowdancer are at the front rank with Armsmaster and Legend."

What is going on…

And then they were out, with PRT troopers at the ready, Armsmaster and Legend standing at the entrance. Jim looked up and saw a rock heading for them, a little wobbly.

She's not going to… No. The rock touched down, and Rune got off of it, walking up to them. It was close to dusk, so Jim's vision was really good. The visible skin around her face was bruised and her eyes were red.

She's been crying.

"I—" Rune swallowed. "I was solely responsible for the attack on Trollhunter and his Asian companion. The Empire 88 had nothing to do with that, and in order to save the city from further disorder, I am surrendering."

With that, and with a ton of camera flashes, she walked forward to be arrested by Armsmaster and handed off to some guards. Then Legend got up and gave a short speech, thanking the BBPD for its help and promising that the city would be back to normal soon.

But is that a good idea? The Empire had a lot of capes.

On the other hand, it wasn't like Jim was going to be able to pay the people who lost their homes if everything blew up.

Things had been so much simpler with Gunmar. If he won, everyone died. That made the right choice pretty easy.

Then Legend shook Jim's hand and thanked him.

For what? My high score while we were all in the Ward's Quarters? And a few moments later, Legend was rising up and heading back to NYC.

It all seemed…

Scripted. Kaiser had never intended to seriously fight and the Protectorate had never intended to seriously attack him.

But it's better than the city burning down… I think?

On the other hand, back to regular patrols and not having to spend most of our time under house arrest. More time to go out with Claire, especially since Merlin's going to be leaving now.

Merlin had informed them both. He'd also handed Claire a number of potions, to help her voice during her speech exercise.

"Do not," he'd told her, "Attempt to brew any replacement potions. If you do something so stupid, I will have this… Panacea regrow your vocal cords—slowly and without any moderation of the discomfort—to remind you that you don't assume you know what you're doing."

What a great teacher, Jim thought. He shook his head. The 'battle,' if that was what it had been, was over, and they were going back to normal. Starting with a trip to Winslow tomorrow to show the flag.

Now that it's safe. That had never stopped Jim before.

Thomas Calvart split the timeline. In one he read reports while watching the special on TV. Rune was dropping before the PRT HQ, walking forward, a little unsteadily. As the soldiers came out, she lifted her hands, waiting for the cuffs that Armsmaster put on her.

Calvert smirked. Always looking to be in the limelight, are you…

The news media was talking about the loss to the E88, talking about how this meant a new era for the city. Idiots, as usual. The E88 was already gaining new recruits, the benefit of the implied message that the PRT would defend a monster and his Latino woman, over the interests of the white residents of the city. They were finding a fair number of recruits—The lockdowns and police activity had antagonized a number of people.

Granted, Thomas had had a hand in some of those calls. After all, if you had a thinker who was good at picking out the right pressure points, why not use her? He was especially pleased with the Winslow Riot, even if it had been stopped by that unknown cape.

Thomas had men out getting information about them. They would be quite useful as part of the Undersiders or an independent under his thumb. Independents were highly vulnerable to pressure. Still, that kind of subtlety would be very useful to his future plans…

On the PR front, there were already rumblings that the PRT should just have ignored the fight between Rune and their monster cape, since Trollhunter had won and Kaiser had tried to make amends… Thomas had already funded some editorials about the fact that Director Piggot had clearly overreacted to what had been, at its core, a minor brawl, with a call for forces that had shut much of city down.

And it hadn't even hurt the E88 that much.

In terms of cape strength, Rune was useful but not vital. If anything, Kaiser had made some subtle gains against Lung, who was far more vulnerable to losing even one cape. Rumors indicated that Lung was, for the first time, actively seeking out more parahumans, which indicated interesting times ahead.

In the other timeline, he spoke with Tattletale.

"You want me to make friends with the Trollhunter? Not just collect info?" Her voice sounded cautious. "That puts me really close to the PRT. What if they—"

"Any background checks will show nothing unexpected." Thomas said.

"Okay, fine." The voice paused. "Why? I mean, Trollhunter is a powerful brute, and yeah, Shadowdancer is really good, but—"

"I have received records from the PRT. Merlin is teaching Shadowdancer. What does that say to you?"

"He… A Teacher like power?" There was a pause. "No, wait, the PRT would never allow him to be anywhere near their people…" Her voice turned shocked. "Their world's powers can be changed, and taught. They're all Trumps."

"With the exception of Mr. Lake, who apparently received his power and transformation from Merlin."

That had come from a discussion with the chief scientist of the PRT. One timeline at lunch, the other with her strapped to a dental chair. It had been both informative and relaxing.

"Shit…" Tattletale fell silent for a moment. "Yeah, I wish you could have told me this before. I never got to see Shadowdancer actively using her power up close, and Trollhunter just felt like a brute… maybe a little different, but that makes sense now."

"Do you think you could learn more if you were close to them?"

"Maybe…" Tattletale frowned. "I mean, if they're Trumps, they could have ways to mess with my power."

"We'll see. The fact that they call their powers magic may give us an in. If they're approaching as a superstition…"

"Maybe." Tattletale paused. "But we'll have to ratchet down on any crimes. I can tell you, right now, that both Trollhunter and Shadowdancer are really straight-arrows."

"Unfortunate, but acceptable. I will continue to subsidize the Undersiders, of course. I may have to see what I can do with Merlin." Coil leaned back. A man who actually believed in sorcery—that kind of individual would be child's play to manipulate. Still, he should wait until after he'd used his Trump power to eliminate the Grey Boy loops. It was a pity, but there were too many eyes on Merlin for anything not handled by a throw-away timeline.

"Very well, Tattletale," he said. "See what you can do to get in contact with our two guests, and get back to me on things."

"Right, Boss," Tattletale said.

Tattletale put the phone down.

Coil's confident, very confident. Well, she didn't need her power to tell her that. Normally Coil wasn't overly interested in the Wards, but those two…

Jim was tough and skilled. Oh sure, he'd never be any Alexandria, but then, who was? Lisa could see him ending up running his own Protectorate team. Didn't hurt that he verged between calmly focused in a fight and adorkable when someone caught him off guard.

PHO still had those clips of the Trollhunter, all 7 plus feet of muscle and fangs, shopping for fruit and telling that housewife how to make certain the fruit was still good.

Claire on the other hand… Her power tended to slide off hers. Oh, she could see what Claire had done, but whenever she tried to focus on what she could do, it just… Got fuzzy.

Makes sense it's a Trump effect. More so than just blowing Grue's darkness away. Maybe her power had a Stranger component?

She looked out over their quarters. Grue was working out, punching a boxing bag. Regent was laying on the couch, playing yet another game.

Yeah, maybe not a good idea for them to meet Regent, not just yet… Grue was the leader and he'd already fought with Jim…

And then there was Bitch. Rachel was occupied with grooming a few of the dogs they'd recovered from Hookwolf's ring before the cops and PRT got there. Rachel had almost been caught, and thank God Legend hadn't been around. She was also pissed at Jim for manhandling Brutus. On the other hand,

On the other hand… Jim hadn't hurt Brutus.

Maybe that's an in, after I get to know them in my civilian ID. After all, what kind of hero could resist saving a bunch of bait puppies from one of Hookwolf's rings…