April 13th

Such a chain of events was unprecedented, unpredicted, and Coil was totally unprepared for it.

And in a manner that had him running through his base.

The Empire, enraged and snapping at everything that moved, were all but forming riots on the streets as Kaiser and Co. whipped their followers into a frenzy by using both his injuries and the events of the fair to his advantage.

The Merchants, or more accurately, Squealer and Skidmark with a handful of just-as-high followers (the rest of them seemed to still have held onto a marginal bit of common sense), were running wild in the Docks in 'protest' to the sudden surge of capes and cops in the area, despite the heavy hands that the PRT and Protectorate were slamming down on them.

Finally, there were the ABB, who were amassing at the edges of their territory in preparation of the oncoming gang fight.

And to say nothing of what was happening at his base!

Three dead capes, dozens of civilians wounded, possibly several cape idents revealed, and four high profile capes were in critical condition, bad enough that Panacea hadn't left their sides, even after she'd healed them and gotten harmed herself.

It was just a smash-and-grab! How did Tattletale screw up this badly?

The PRT weren't just trying to stop the train, they were derailing it, just in an attempt to stop the city from burning down around them.

Coil ended yet another timeline, which again, failed. He had picked the wrong choice this morning and now he was paying for it.

But there was still hope, a choice from another day would be his savior.

The guards at the door took one look at him, practically sprinting, and opened the door without a word.

Had it not been such a serious time, he would have had them both shot for such lack of attention to basic protocols.

Now? Given what was happening? It just made it all the easier to get inside.

"Hello my pet, I have questions for you."


March 22th

In one timeline, Thomas Calvert went to the PRT headquarters, where he shared a large office with three other consultants. He was fully rested for the day, having gotten a full night sleep, a solid breakfast, and had even managed to read part of the mornings' paper.

In the other timeline, Coil was reviewing several reports, including one about the latest from Mr. Pitter about the drug regimen that he had requested.

The report he was reviewing at the time, however, had to do with Tattletale and Taylor Hebert.

When Coil had first encountered an issue with his power, he had assumed that he had simply made a mistake (not that he shared this information with anyone).

It was a simple thing, really. He ordered someone to perform a task in one timeline and gave similar-but-altered orders, in the other timeline; a standard use for his power.

After he collapsed the timeline, however, Coil found things not as they should be. Orders and taskings were mixed up, with reports stating that he gave both orders from the two different timelines.

The order to blackmail someone to place them under Coil's thumb was mixed in with the order to eliminate them. It was still a net gain for Coil, but still concerning.

His first thought was that perhaps he had missed something, that he had forgotten that he placed both orders, that the blackmail hadn't worked in either timeline.

The thought was discarded swiftly, because Coil had files and reports that suggested otherwise.

Then it happened again: several deeds were purchased for the land around the Bay, when he hadn't kept that timeline, instead picking the timeline where he had decided to lower the value of the land via manipulation of a gang fight to lower the price.

Several other events occurred as well, little things which spoke of a disturbing trend.

Mercs being in the wrong place, money being in the wrong account, teams reporting in later than they should because they were ordered to wait, work at his PRT cover not getting finished, his cup of coffee still being full after he drank it, and the most disturbing, ending a timeline to find himself not where he should be.

Currently, that last one was the most pressing, it hadn't been anything more than end up standing next to a chair rather than sitting in it, but the possibility of finding himself in the wrong timeline had crossed Coil's mind more than once.

This all had forced him to reevaluate his power; logically, Coil knew that it was highly unlikely that he was really duplicating an entire universe, it was more likely that he had some form of perfect Precog power. From there it was a simple matter of looking deeper into Precog research and how the world's leading scientists were trying to explain it.

Which would hopefully explain why he was… having errors.

The best that Coil could find was that Precogs were simply simulating the future to such a degree that they were predicting it. This theory was held up, and drew Coil's attention, by tests performed along the lines of Schrodinger's cat. Experiments of the theoretical quantum variety had shown that Precogs could be wrong.

Sometimes. The experiments and submitted papers were 'theoretical' after all.

But it did mean something to Coil: it meant that there was something, or someone, was acting like a quantum particle and messing with his power.

Which was better than the other theories that he was either losing his mind or his power was failing for no reason.

As such, Coil launched a hidden investigation, seeking out the source of the disruption.

This was a trial to be sure; he did not want anyone to know about his little… problem. While he knew he had the loyalty of those inside the organization, it was the few on the outskirts that presented the issue.

Tattletale herself likely had already gotten an inkling, if only because of her power. But Coil doubted that she would try anything… foolish (yet).

Finding the cause of his power's problems was far easier than understanding them, for there had been a public enough Trigger to give an easy lead.

Grabbing the girl while she was at the PRT-provided apartment was trivial, given both his power at the PRT and the resources at his disposal. Once he had her, it was easy to identify her as the source.

The short timeline where he grabbed and bagged the girl was enough to show him that her power (whatever it was) was causing the interference. Coil had toyed with killing her, before discarding the timeline, as the number of people that knew about Taylor Hebert were slim, and while he would walk through the investigation just fine, Coil knew that he would lose far too many assets by eliminating her at that juncture.

He made sure to always had one of the guards watching her under his payroll however, as a back-up plan.

The second attempt was a few days again. This one also featured grabbing the girl in one timeline, while he sent Tattletale to 'speak' with the girl in the other, with the end goal of pulling her into his ranks. Willingly or not.

It also was a test for the smug villain, to see if she would take advantage of his wavering attention.

Several issues had sprung up, however. For one, it seemed that the cameras watching the Herbert family home had been turned off, rather than fed a loop, causing the PRT to perk up their ears. It also meant that he had no idea what Tattletale and the new Trigger had talked about.

An error on his part, born from the same situation that he was trying to investigate.

In the other timeline, something even more strange had occurred. The PRT went on high alert, casting out nets and feelers, trying to find the girl in the few hours that he had her.

Alarmingly, they had gotten close at the end, with Dragon poking at his electronic systems as he ended the timeline.

Given Taylor's state within(or outside of) the PRT, this caused Coil to have questions.

Questions that he gained no answers to, as his second, stealthier timeline was cut short by an assault from unknown forces, who tore through everything he had in minutes.

That timeline ended when the door to his office exploded, killing him in the blast.

Coil had no idea what had happened, as he had gained no data from the intruders before his death. The best that he had come up with was that Kuzunoha had caught wind of his actions somehow and had taken offense to him. The Case 53 cape was very protective of her people and those she called her friends; and even with no evidence of having any contact with Annette in years, she still apparently followed her personal values enough to travel all the way to the Bay just to deal with him.

It was his own fault, really. Had Coil known about the tenuous link between Taylor and Kuzunoha (something he had only learned about after his base was torn apart and he dug a little deeper into the Heberts' past), then he would have never grabbed her off the street; he would have arranged something even more subtle. But that was the benefit of having two timelines to choose from, Coil always walked away with more information than he had at the start of it all.

Now, having picked the timeline where he'd only sent Tattletale (by default), the man waited, biding his time. With his power, he always had a second chance to try things. He would grab Taylor again, this time with systems and procedures in pla-

His personal phone ringing dislodged Coil from his thoughts. Tattletale.

Good, now… how best to approach this…

"Good evening, Sarah. I was expecting your call."

Simple, remind the girl that he knew about her, where she came from. And that he hel-

"How would you like to own a dragon?"

Coil blinked, then ended the other timeline. Simultaneously starting a new one, in which he ordered the men watching Lisa to grab her and bring her to the room downstairs in his base.

"By 'dragon,' I assume you mean Lung?" Coil asked, even as he listened to his men get ready to grab the girl in the other timeline.

"Correct," Tattletale of the non-kidnapped timeline quipped."See, when I went to the Hebert's, I had an idea. You know how her father, Danny, has basically become the head of the DWA through the fact that most of the administrators of the organization have left at this point?"

Coil knew this, Danny was part of his long-term plans involving the city, though until the man's daughter Triggered, that part of the plan was likely months (more likely years) down the road. As such, they had entered the field earlier than expected.

"Does this had to do with the reason that you were outside the Boardwalk area a few days ago?" Coil asks.

There were a few seconds where Tattletale paused, probably using her power to figure something out about his mood.

"Yes, actually, it was where I was talking to Lung about him going to the DWA for labor help in rebuilding his section of the city, help I was oh so graciously offering to assist with."

By this time, his men had grabbed Lisa and were pulling her out of the building. Interestingly, Rachel Lindt moved to defend her 'teammate,' despite the friction between them, resulting in her getting shot.

Which was fine, really, Coil had no plans of keeping that timeline.

"I would ask you to consider what you just said and to whom, but given the fact that you've brought it up, I take it you've found something… interesting?"

"Well, yes," Tattletale said with attitude. "Why else would I bring up what could be viewed as a betrayal to the man that could have me killed within a day?"

Oh, it would be much faster than that, Coil reflected.

"While I will admit that your recruitment was unorthodox, simply having you eliminated for taking some initiative would serve no purpose."

"Coil please," Tattletale scoffed. "If someone asked what we thought each other's respective endgame plans were and we honestly answered, neither of us would have to lie. But we both don't view each other as idiots. We both know that our… arrangement, isn't exactly a two-way street. But if I am going to work under you, then I at least want a comfortable life; I might have more freedom working with Lung, but we both know that unless I can get him to take you out in the same hour that I prove my loyalty to him, you'll just have me killed, maybe even sooner than that. And I like where my brain is currently located."

All good points, even if Coil felt a spark of anger at how casually Tattletale brought it up. While it was a simple bit of logic, the flippant manner and her actions only served to remind Coil that at some point, he would have to either dispose of Tattletale or bind her to him in a manner that would ensure no chance of betrayal.

For now however…

"So then, what interesting thing have you found?" asked Coil, refusing to acknowledge Tattletales words.

"Well," started Tattletale. "As I was helping Lung track down the Farms- yes, I helped him, do you really think I wouldn't help the angry Dragon when he demanded it and I was within charbroiling distance?- I began to wonder about a few things. Lung was willing to listen to my plan, but he never really seemed interested. He still understood the plan, but then I remembered something he said: Economics."

"Now, Lung isn't stupid, he has managed to consolidate all the Asian gangs in Brockton Bay into something resembling a coherent force, all while presenting himself as a far bigger headache to take out then he was worth. Then he sat down on his hoard, happy to stay on it as long as he was left alone. This being said, my plan does contain risks for the man, no one in the Bay is going to stand by and watch Lung of all people fix things up, one way or another."

"Yet while he did show interest in my plan, one of the first things he brought up while asking questions was how it benefited him. One would think a man like Lung would understand why having legal businesses and the support of the people would be important; the Empire is a good example for that- as much as they could be called one, at least- and I didn't think much of it at first, but as I 'assisted' Lung in finding the Farms, I began to think-"

"Who would be so foolish to keep the Farms running after Lung ordered them shut down?" Coil interrupted, though it was more of an attempt at fishing for more information than an express wish for said information. One thing he had learned about Tattletale and her power was that if you didn't direct the conversation, then she could go on and on either until she got to the point or proved her 'superior intellect.'

It was actually kind of useful really, there were times (like now), that it would cause the girl to speak more than she should, if only to prove that she was the smartest person in the room.

"Given they remained hidden for so long they were at least marginally successful at keeping hidden, but to run the risk in the first place?" Coil asked.

Coil hadn't put much stock in the rumors of the Farms still being up, given that it was Lung that gave the order; finding out they were still running was a rather disturbing gap in his information network.

Lung had ordered the Farms stopped long ago, yet rumors of them still persisted for years due primarily to the fears from them, despite the fact that they were little more than brothels that focused more on the 'service,' rather than the 'product.' Even then most places were smart enough to know better than to grab anyone off the street, they tended to grab the desperate ones first. (Snagging people off the street had a tendency to bring down the heat, doubly so if someone of note was grabbed, even for a place like Brockton Bay).

"Bunch of kids and some guys on the edges of the ABB territory had a few places still running off-grid," Tattletale stated offhandedly. "Some of them were taking deals under the table with the human trafficking rings and were profiting off of getting low prices from the Merchants for some of their product to help keep things in line. Ironically, there were a set located within the borders of the Empires territory; some of them were apparently… fans, of… Asian baby dolls."

The tone of disgust in Tattletales's voice was really remarkable, and Coil understood the reasoning why. Interesting, Coil had not come across such information before. If he could find out who had visited such places, then it could be used to great effect via the old-fashion rumor mill.

Or as straight blackmail.

"Anyway," Tattletale continued after a few moments. "While Lung was busy taking down the last of the Farms, I began to think, on both his actions and his reactions during my pitch; he was keeping pretty much everything but the Farms running, from the human trafficking to the drug running, so why would the man really care about the Farms enough to take them down? He after all never really cared about anything that didn't affect the ABB, but suddenly finding out that the Farms were still running sent him into a rage, why did he even care?"

Coil knew a possible reason for the Farms dismantlement; there were rumors that Lung had once been captured by the Yàngbǎn, perhaps getting a taste of slavery turned the man off of it, and it would fit in with some of the man's actions. If there was something that he didn't like and he could do something about it, he would.

As for the other thing…

"This led to a bit of digging into the ABB businesses, quietly of course. What I found was…. interesting."

"The reason Lung wasn't all that interested in my plan, was because he was already doing it."

"… pardon?"

"That was kind of my reaction as well," Tattletale admitted. "What he is doing isn't as… comprehensive, as what I suggested, but the ABB actually controls nearly sixty percent of Chinatown, ten percent of the Docks, and is the actual owner of TriGen, the local transportation company that is one of the few groups that still moves things from the Docks. Hell, you know of Fortress Constructions? The Guild- and PRT-funded sub-contractor?"

Fortress Constructions had both a general contract with the Guild and PRT to assist when needed, as well as fought over smaller contracts in the cape business with other contractors. They had both diversified and specialized in everything cape related, with particular aims towards personal defense, fortified constructions (as the name suggested), as well as setting up defenses for containment zones and assisting in said containment zones with maintenance and support.

Coil knew this because he had purchased suits from them for the PRT strike teams he managed in his civilian identity. While not Tinker-Tech, what FC made was often better than what the PRT fielded normally.

"Yes, I have," Coil replied, even as he began to dig into Tattletales words with his vast network. Such information… it was troubling because he should have spotted something like this; he had been working the long game for years now, this wasn't something he could have missed!

"Well, Lung somehow has gotten a number of its stocks into ABB hands, which is an easy mil for a rainy day right there, at least."

"Tattletale," Coil began sternly. "What you are talking about… if you are lying about it-"

"Check out the names and information about a chunk of Chinatown's landowners," Tattletale interrupted. "Then cross-reference it with arrest records from the last five years of ABB higher-ups. You find that each of them should be in jail or prison, yet somehow are around and buying up locations then sitting on them until they get up and repaired/remodeled within two to three years. After that it goes into a shared ownership with the tennets, who wisely keep their mouths shut about the whole thing."

With two timelines running, Coil was quick to gather the required information, though he purposely waited longer to reply; the only way that she could have gotten this information before him was if her power led her it, the same power that made her so valuable.

And dangerous.

Coil had no doubt that Tattletale had something on him, this was a given. The question was… how much? Her power was useful, but not irreplaceable. He would survive without Tattletale with ease (though things could be easier if he had her support, the Empire Project came to mind).

And while having her control the Undersides helped in keeping the gang where he wanted them, he had always planned to 'bring them into the fold,' at some point.

Perhaps a change in plans was in order, as it was very clear that Tattletale had plans and agendas of her own. Maybe a friendly-fire incident?

"If I turned to Lung, he would never trust me," Tattletale stated matter-of-factly, interrupting Coils' thoughts. "I would have already betrayed you, so he would be watching me twice as much, and I doubt that I could easily set myself up to avoid having a boss in the first place; so, why not make myself more valuable to you for when you take over the city? Because it is rather obvious that's what you're trying to do. I would be fine with managing a district or something, rather than always looking over my shoulder for the bullet with my name on it."

A rational decision, and one that Coil only somewhat believed. Lisa wasn't the type of girl to let herself get stuck in a trap; at some point, she would try something.

The questions were, what, when, and where?

However, Coil chose not to address Tattletale's current predicament, instead choosing a different path.

"Well, I must thank you for bringing this to my attention Tattletale. I will forward you a bonus for this, as well as one for any more workable information on this matter. As for Taylor Hebert however… how receptive was she to you and your offer?"

"As well as could be expected," replied Tattletale smoothly. "She played the part of a typical, scared fifteen-year-old girl. From what I can tell, she's still traumatized from what happened at Winslow but is beginning to at least consider the Wards, if only to learn more about her power in a safe place and to avoid another Winslow. Surprisingly, there has been little in the way of the PRT reaching out to her, and she was… receptive, to the information that I provided. To a point, at least; she didn't like the fact that I both knew who she was and was inside her home, but she still paused to consider things."

Coil processed the information; it matched the PRT Psych profile well enough, as well as his own views and opinions he'd extracted from the failed timelines involving Taylor.

As such, it was unlikely to be entirely truthful.

He would learn more in the other timeline; the circumstances involving Taylor, this new issue with Lung, Tattletale's style of recruitment and her personality and her power meant that Coil needed to take care, lest she find a way to undermine all that he had worked for.

While her explanation for why she was taking the initiative was sound, that didn't mean that Coil believed that there was all to it.

He highly doubted that Tattletale was simply falling into line, and knew that believing it for a second would invite betrayal.

"Thank you for your services, Tattletale, I'll forward requests for any more insights into this ABB business. If there is nothing else of that nature?"

"No, but ther-"

"Then good day, Tattletale."

Coil didn't give the girl a chance to reply and hung up. It didn't matter anyway, he'd soon be seeing her to make sure about a few things.

… perhaps he had gone too far, Coil reflected. Tattletale was a powerful resource, if not without her flaws. It would be hard to keep the Undersiders together without her steadying hands, but they were never supposed to be a long-term team in the first place.

Provided that they had succeeded, the Undersiders would either end up being another secret front of his underground movements, or rolled into his forces, both of which entirely depended on which of his plans bore fruit. And in the event of things falling apart, they would make great distractions for his escape, especially Tattletale and Bitch, both of which were possible problems that needed to be mitigated.

Tattletale was far too smart for her own good (as evidenced). Bitch would be far easier to control on paper, but her idiosyncrasies, stubborn nature, and aggression would mean walking a minefield of literal dogshit.

Making sure that there was nothing to trigger her would be annoying, but manageable, but the issue still remained of trying to avoid her issues just to keep her from lashing out like the animals she kept with her as she attempted to become an 'alpha'.

Of the other two, Regent would just be a matter of giving him rewards for good work, while making sure that he understood where it was coming from. As for Grue, giving him a team of his own and making sure that his sister was taken care of would cover most things.

'Though it would be wise to watch what happens when he realizes how much time she spends with Alec,' Coil mused. He didn't quite know how Brian would act, it was difficult to gauge those type of emotional responses, even from someone like Brain Laborn (he could try to keep the pair apart, or even attack Alec, or he might just learn to deal with it).

The Undersiders were a foil to his own plans, useful in keeping things distant and separate from those that bothered to look. Sarah might have been integral in that plan, but she nor that set of events were irreplaceable, there was always another way.

In fact… after the next job, there was a very good chance that he could dispose of both Tattletale and Taylor Hebert, his limited tests with his power had shown that Dinah was a level of Precog far outside any that he had heard. When combined with his own power, it would allow him to operate much more freely.

And likely change what was going to be a years-long plan into a few months of hard work, provided that he had the right tools and chances.

In the end, it wouldn't matter. Without Sarah manning the helm of the Undersiders, Coil knew that they would most likely fall apart, but he could find other ways to put them to use.

Trevor was young but more than willing to prove himself, and as a Tinker he was extremely valuable for the sheer depth that he brought into the picture, add that to the fact he wanted to provide for his mother and continue to Tinker, well, money was easy for Coil to come by.

Brian was less useful but could fit into certain situations and had a bit of a knack for leadership. Plus, with his sister's legal situation and well-being to deal with, speaking nothing of the problems she'd caused with her power, Coil was certain that he could and would maintain a grip on him.

Rachel would be slightly more difficult to find a place for but could be molded into a powerful player, provided that she proved to be more valuable than her issues, else Coil would just place her in the path of the PRT for a distraction at some point.

And Alec… Coil wasn't quite sure what to do with the young villain, as he could be useful with his powers, but ultimately his personality left a few things to be desired. Alec wouldn't take any initiative unless it benefitted him in some way, and while Coil could arrange things for that purpose, he had no space or patience for freeloaders.

As usual with information gathering, everything was in flux: so far, what little Coil had uncovered through a basic check of Tattletale's info had proven her correct, the ABB had been amassing power in secret for years, as a matter of public record no less!

Coil wondered how he missed this; he had moles and informants scattered among the gangs, the PRT, and city hall, yet had had no knowledge of this happening? Despite it directly affecting several of his possible plans?

Something for Coil of the first Timeline to look into, however, as the one in the second had a meeting to get to.

It was a leisurely trip through his (unfinished) base, a check with the patrols there, a confirmation of construction there, and a final check with the Quartermaster about the state of the current Tinker-Tech weapons and asking him to ready a report about the status of them.

(all the while digging into the ABB's history via his information network; did he miss this information because of the fact that it was done through legal actions? Or was it something else?)

From there, it was to a set of rooms placed deeper within the facility, off the beaten path from everything else needed to keep the place running.

Here the walls were nothing but raw concrete, unsmoothed and adorned by exposed cables and wiring, fitting for a less used portion of the base. It was here that things like the plumbing and the air systems were serviced, as well as were a number of less important supplies were stored (i.e. spare metal, bags of concrete, other odds and ends).

Which made it the perfect place to have these rooms.

There was a single guard outside the door, as well as Pitter. A precaution, one that he doubted that he would need given the state of things.

Lisa was tied down to a chair when he entered, a raw, solid, concrete thing of a room, with a single drain in the middle of it, a set of blubs on two opposite walls, and nothing else besides a single rolling cabinet on one side.

There was little doubt to those in the room of its use.

('Ah,' Coil realized. The main gang that formed the backbone of the ABB had started this little landgrab project, via taking ownership of the businesses they controlled to better hide their movements; Lung just went along with it, but also partially gave them back to the owners? Why? To ensure loyalty? The man cared nothing about his people, just the image of power.)

Tattletale was smiling when he entered, though Coil didn't miss how her eyes flickered to the door, nor how it faltered when he closed it behind him.

"So… Coil, Boss, what seems to be the uh… problem? Because this seems kinda sudden and I know that we hadn't, haven't, exactly seen eye to eye about some things, and I might have skimmed a few things off the top here and there-"

Coil ignored the girl and went straight for the only object in the room, the cabinet, within which were tools of both the surgical and household varieties.

All the while Lisa blabbed.

"- but come on, I don't see how that justifies this. What will the others think? Hmm? Because I don't think that Bitch enjoyed getting thrown across the room like that, even if all your men did was taze her and her dogs trying to get little old me."

(Coil drew up his considerable list of informants on his heavily encrypted computer, scanning through them in hopes of finding one that had either been in Brockton long enough to remember a time before the ABB, or one that was higher up in the ABB chain that would know about this years-old deal. Perhaps it was something else that Lung didn't really know or care about?)

The rattle of wheels were the only answer to Tattletale's words, as Coil dragged the cabinet over to stand beside the girl, whose eyes flickered from the masked villain, to the cabinet, and then back again.

Having disposable timelines was beyond useful, as it allowed Coil the opportunity to do things that he never could under normal circumstances.

Like this one here.

"Now, Lisa," Coil began, placing his arms behind his back. "I never wanted things to come to this, but your recent actions have forced my hands. But I do value all the work that you have done for me, so I'm going to give you a chance."

"Why did you meet with Lung by the Boardwalk?"

Lisa half-chuckled, half-sighed. "That actually was what I was calling about, I found out some information about the ABB and Lung that I thought you would want to know about, and I just figured that, well…"

Coil hummed and began to walk about the chair and the captive in it. "I'm sure. But, taking such a move without telling me… those actions speak another story here; that level of initiative doesn't speak very highly of trust, and given our… relationship, this calls into question what your plan was. Why did you even seek out Lung in the first place?"

"… I found out something involving the ABB and their holdings," Lisa explained, following Coil as best she could with her eyes. "About how they were buying up land and buildings, using it to secretly gain control over the city."

(So, Tattletale had already known about what the ABB was doing before she met Lung? Interesting.)

And concerning. The fact that Tattletale was about to find it when Coil himself knew nothing about it spoke of hidden plans, the type that Coil found worrying about.

It was one thing to have a plan or a bid for freedom (Coil expected it from Lisa at his point), it was another to have something like this; something that greatly affected his plans for the Bay? and then she just goes and tells him about it?

What was this girl planning?

"…Let's say I believe you," Coil stated, stopping in front of the young woman. "Then the issue I have becomes this."

"You found something that I only had believed was simply the ABB gaining more control over their populace," Coil explained. He also took the time to reach inside the cabinet, and to root around for several moments, before taking out a set of pliers.

"And you somehow found enough information on this to believe that either you or I can control Lung, the man that is known for fighting off an Endbringer and is called, The Dragon for very good reason. Yet rather than hold onto this information- as I would expect you to do, given your situation here- you came to me with it. This would paint the picture of a loyal follower seeking to gain approval, but we both know how things really work between us."

"Therefore," Coil began, reaching out with the pliers to grasp onto one of Lisa's fingernails-

"You are lying to me about something, and I really don't like that."

-and then he pulled, hard.

Coil observed the bloody fingernail in the pilers for a moment, ignoring Lisa's pained gasps.

Torture was such a silly and nearly useless thing Coil reflected. It was entirely dependent upon you already knowing what you wanted to learn, and simply confirming and getting the details of it from a human source via pain and threats.

Coil knew this because the fact was that once you started to use torture, you messed with the formula of information gathering: you influenced the very information you were seeking to get by limiting the choices of the subject. While it did greatly increase the chances of you getting what you needed from the subject, you also ran the risk of tainting the information through your own bias and having the subject agree just to get you to stop.

This was the reason that good investigators always used it as the very last option. If one had the time and ability to look into other leads and paths, the amount of information that could be found and leveraged was far more useful than what you had to pry out of someone with pain; you could even end up using what you had to get someone to talk without laying a finger on them, bypassing the whole time and effort needed to perform torture.

Coil didn't have those problems however, as having a separate timeline that was effectively nothing more than a dream or an idea meant that he could both torture someone to their deaths, while in a separate timeline ruthlessly go through their lives to uncover everything about them.

Then he could go and use everything that had been assembled to craft the solution that he needed, and even try again as many times as he wanted to make sure that it all went the way he wanted it all to.

All the while keeping the timeline where he did nothing of the sort and just went about his day.

Like this one for example, a timeline that he was free to pry anything that Lisa was hiding out of her-

(-while in the other he was hard at work digging into what she had provided, finding links and connections hidden in plain sight, unnoticed, unless someone knew where and how to look for it.

It was ingenious, really, they had even gone as far as to use their bank accounts and old homes to further sell the ruse, which also ended up pulling the people and families that now lived in those homes into the deception. Which made perfect places for Coil to put pressure onto to get an inside man.)

"Now then," Coil of the second timeline began, while making no effort whatsoever to hide his slightly jolly tone as he clamped the pliers onto another of Lisa's fingernails.

"Tell me, what was your end goal of this? To put me against Lung? To make me overextend myself chasing down leads which you have full knowledge of?"

Lisa glared at him, eyes in pain but holding strong. This happened from time to time, where she would grow a spine of steel for some reason.

She always was, and had been, so… defiant, when it came to situations like this. Coil chalked it up to her power, mostly because it drove her to find more information, so she did in hopes of finding something that she could use against him, which likely made her hold out for that one piece of knowledge that would get her out of the mess she found herself in.

A pity that it never worked, even without taking into account his power.

Still, Coil mused as he reached for another fingernail, it was never uninteresting pushing Lisa to the point that she would start to spill to what little secrets she had found out about and never bothered telling him, or how she planned to kill him to take over his little empire, even if it took a while.

'No matter,' Coil thought. 'It isn't like I don't have time.'

And with that, Coil tugged on the na-

"Oh, this old trick? Seems a little old school, huh, Scarecrow?"

There, near a corner of the room, was… himself.

He lacked a mask, only having the bodysuit and nothing else as it leaned casually against a wall.

Coil didn't panic, despite the situation, he had the other timeline t-

(Coil reared back, his chair sidling backward from the figure sitting on his desk, cross-legged. And then it smiled.)

("Then again, that isn't so old school in this here and now, right?")

(It was reflexive to end the second timeline an)d reach for the gu-

Coil found himself in the hallway just outside his office, hand extended as if to reach for something, with no one around but himself.

A hand that turned into a fist as Coil channeled his fear and shock into anger.

Coil had gotten used to setbacks: everything seemed so simple when you could try and try and try again, but it would often take several attempts to change the situation to his liking. He always ran the risk of losing a window of opportunity by the simple fact that his power didn't affect time, five minutes in one timeline equaled five minutes in the other. When time passed and people and situations changed, he would lose that chance and have to wait for another one to show up.

It was something that he had learned to deal with, but this… this was new, and frankly upsetting. Previously, when he would find errors in his timeline, it was more like the two were mixing what was happening (like how he found himself outside his office despite not leaving it in the timeline he'd chosen), but encountering an image of himself that interacted with him in both timelines…

There had been reports from the PRT about people encountering a vision of themselves after being exposed to Taylor Hebert's power, but he had never been anywhere near Winslow or the girl.

So how was he being affected?

This… this needed to be corrected.

Coil was not the type of man to give in to fear, he had spent far too much time and effort to get where he was now, and he had far too many plans and goals to let what (so far) amounted to a few blips and a ghost to derail him.

These 'errors' may have been frightening to Coil: things were no longer in his control even with his power, but not bad enough that he would throw caution to the wind.

It was something that he needed to deal, with lest it became more than an annoyance, especially because it was simply a matter of time before an 'error' happened which did more damage than he could recover from.

So, what was causing the issue? The Tree?

No, he had no interactions with it of any form, not even in another timeline. A cape?

For what purpose? While there were all sorts of types out there, Coil highly doubted that some unknown cape was the cause of this. Taylor?

She was the best bet, but eliminating her didn't guarantee a solution (one just had to look at the Grey Boy bubbles to see that), and he would have to find a way to do so that wouldn't implicate him in any way, or run the risk of having a repeat of when he had grabbed her before.

It was with this in mind that Coil moved, walking swiftly into his office; given the information and his options, Coil saw only a few choices he could take, ranging from the most extreme and simple (to just take out Taylor and hope for the best), to something more mellow and his normally preferred choice (a systemic investigation of his subject and everything about them done over several timelines). However, given what was occurring, Coil wasn't in the mood for the perfectly safe approach.

It was time for something a bit more drastic.

… He would need to use his PRT contacts first, see what Piggot was doing with the girl. Emily was never the type to sit on something for long, Taylor had been enough of a bump in the grand scheme of things that she fell outside the normal parameters. What end-goals and plans that the PRT had for dealing Taylor would be important factors in what Coil could do.

After that, Coil just needed to see what he could do without drawing attention to himself. Killing Taylor would always be an option, but one that carried risks if not done properly. Shifting things around and leveraging some of his civilians ID's power to address the subject of Taylor and what the PRT planned to do with her would net Coil more information.

From there, several plans and contingencies would be made, and Coil would adjust things as needed: if she went into the Wards, if she was tried for her (seemingly unaware) power usage, or if she was forced away due to other factors. And once he had a better picture of the situation, Coil woul-

The vision was back, sitting on his desk facing him as he walked in, kicking its legs to an unknown beat. Coil paused at the sight. It laughed at him, its voice echoing in the empty room.

"Sir?"

The Quartermaster stood behind him, a questioning look on his face and a set of papers in one hand. Coil realized that he had turned away from his vision and all but spun back to look for it.

It was gone, and there was no sign of it having ever been there in the first place.

Oh yes, this was something that would be dealt with regardless of what it really was. Removing Taylor from the field may not remove the effect (not to meant that she might not be the one causing it), but it would be a start, because it was the only lead he had at the moment and was something more believable than a new cape showing up.

This would require planning and experimenting. Finding the right patsy that could get the job done while also having no chance of being linked back to him would take a bit of time. There was also the PRT files on the other Winslow victims he could get, in order to ensure that it was Taylor and not something else.

He also needed to check if this phenomenon was being experienced by others, as that could prove beneficial if leveraged. At least then Coil would get something good out of being 'stalked,' and if the effect could be directed… then Taylor might have a purpose besides a bit of leverage.

But first, he needed to deal with the report from the Quartermaster. It would do no good for morale if he started to come off as a crazy person.


Tattletale flipped her phone shut with a *click* and then carefully set it down on the counter beside her laptop.

A glance around showed no one busting through the door or walls, no sign of increased surveillance (though that one would likely take a few days) or the sudden appearance of cops and capes.

Granted, that last one would just either end up being another 'plan' or a way to get rid of her via police (or cape) brutally but with the way Coil operated, Tattletale figured that he would have a convoluted plan in place for the very reason that it was convoluted. All the better to separate himself from it all.

Lisa didn't really understand Coil sometimes, some of his plans and tasks seemed to end in dead-ends at times, and even with her power it was hard to unravel without taking a whole day just to connect the dots of years of work.

But in the here and now? Lisa let loose a shaky breath in the empty loft; Brian was out, Alex was visiting Aisha again (Lisa was hoping that those two weren't doing anything stupid, Brian was getting suspicious and she wasn't going to cover for them if they got caught), and Bitch had stepped out to walk her dogs.

The perfect time to enact her plan.

Because she knew that he knew that she knew, and because she knew that he knew that she knew, she knew that he would know that she knew, which would prevent either one of them acting out in any obvious way. The solution to that, Lisa had figured, was to not act upon their shared knowledge, and instead roll the dice on something completely different, which relied upon something neither of them really understood or knew about.

Which left her shaking from the adrenaline of dealing with Coil and hoping that he didn't focus his questions, but instead would rely on his power to get more of what he needed.

However, that relied on both Coil's power having the limits that Lisa believed it did, and Coil lacking the information that she now had- which appeared to be the case.

But… given the fact that she was still sitting there, and there weren't armed men busting down her door, meant that her plan worked.

And now onto phase two.

Lisa steadied her hands with another solid breath and smiled.

'The ball is in the air Coil,' she thought as the smile took a sharp turn towards menacing and hit enter on her laptop.

'Let's see if you can keep track of it.'