AN: This was supposed to be 2.5, but I didn't have anything for Taylor to do during the day, so it ended up being an Interlude. It also ended up far, far longer than I was expecting. I got stuck a few times, but I think I handle the conflict in this one pretty good. I'm still trying to figure out how I'm writing OP characters without everything being a curbstomp, but its working so far.

Despite having a room in the Loft that all but one of the Undersiders shared, Alec tended to sleep in the living room. This wasn't usually by choice, more a by product of staying up late playing video games. He would play until he passed out because there just wasn't anything better to do. When they weren't planning jobs or doing jobs he found himself with little to do that he actually enjoyed. It wasn't major point of contention, but it did often lead to him just trying to sleep a day away. Such as he was trying to do now.

"Come shopping with me." Lisa said.

"Don't wanna." Alec replied lazily, not bothering to open his eyes.

"I wasn't asking."

"Do I at least get something out of it?"

"I'll pay for your lunch." Her voice got distant as she went into the kitchen to make her usual morning cup of coffee.

"I meant something more intimate."

"Well you can certainly go fuck yourself. I'm not doing it for you."

"Coward. Do your dirty work yourself." Alec yawned as he sat up. He immediately felt a burning pain in his hands and tried to shake it out before he realized what it was. "Stop it, you asshole!"

"It's what you deserve." Lisa smirked at him.

Alec narrowed his eyes, ignoring the pain in his hand, and cut off feeling in her legs, laughing to himself as she dropped to the floor.

"Alec, you asshole! What if I dropped my coffee on myself?!"

"Not my problem. Stop the pain or I'll take your arms next." He threatened.

"Fine, fine… Fucking…" Lisa trailed off and used the counter to shakily make her way to her feet.

"When are we leaving?"

"Twenty minutes." She sighed as she steadied herself properly and finished making her coffee.

"Fine."

—

Brockton Bay may have been a massive shit hole, but the one thing it had going for it was being a coastal city. Alec liked the ocean, but it wasn't something he got to enjoy growing up in Quebec. Heartbreaker made his compound in Montreal, which was on a river, but it wasn't the same. The river was nice but didn't have the salty breeze or the sound of crashing waves that came with the ocean. It was probably the only thing he really enjoyed about Brockton Bay.

"How do I look in this?" Lisa asked, knocking him from his musings of the nearby body of water. He looked to see his blonde friend in a knee length brown skirt and emerald green blouse. He barely gave her more than a glance before looking back out the window across the store.

"Amazing. Very fuckable. Ten out of ten." He drawled. She scoffed in mild disgust.

"Why is it always sex with you?" She asked hotly.

Alec gave a dismissive shrug.

"Of course." She shook her head. "I'm done for now. Let me buy this stuff and we'll find a place to eat."

"Kay." He stood to stretch and waited in line for her. The store wasn't crowded, but the less time spent there the better. Once they finally left the shop they went walking down the boardwalk looking for a place to eat. Fugly Bob's was out of the question. Good as the food was, he didn't feel like reeking of grease until he took a shower.

"Oh, hey." A voice Alec vaguely recognized said from behind them.

"Madison…" Lisa said calmly. There was a slight edge to her voice you'd only hear if you knew her and Alec knew that edge well.

"Ah." Alec nodded.

"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in school?"

Madison nodded and shrugged. "Taylor canceled our training session for today so I figured I'd just ditch out. Not like I enjoy my afternoon classes."

"Well you might as well join us. At least I can talk about boys with you." Alex shrugged.

Madison's brow furrowed and her head tilted to the side. "Are you gay?" She asked pensively, trying not to sound offensive.

Lisa let out a sharp bark of a laugh. "Alec will fuck anything vaguely humanoid."

"A hole's a hole and every hole's a goal." He nodded.

"Jesus Christ." Lisa sighed. "You could not have said that in a more gross way."

"Yeah, that was pretty gross." Madison grimaced.

"Well, if you've got money, might as well join us for lunch." Lisa sighed.

Madison was silent as they trawled the Boardwalk looking for a place to eat. They eventually settled on a decent looking Mexican place. The conversation was light until the food came.

"I haven't liked New England Mexican food since I had it in Texas." Madison sighed. "It's just not the same."

"That's to be expected." Lisa said. "We have pretty good Chinese and Japanese food here, though. Not as good as what I heard they have in California, but still."

"It's worse for me. Imagine being so close to Canada and not having good Poutine. It's a crime." Alec shook his head. It really was a shame. American Poutine just didn't stack up to what he liked. "Can't even get Maple Taffy or Ketchup Chips down here. There's a place that sales Beaver Tails up north but it's too far to bother with."

"Ketchup chips?" Madison asked.

"It's weird Leaf food, don't worry about it."

"Ketchup chips are good." Alec defended. "And don't call me a Leaf you fucking Burger."

"Syrup chugger."

"Yank."

"At least we got independence from the Queen of England."

Alec opened his mouth, but closed it back. He didn't actually have anything for that. Due to a weird technicality Canada was still beholden to England. They didn't act on it, they had their own problems, but British Parliament still had some say in Canadian policy changes.

This didn't change the fact that Lisa's smile was too smug for his liking.

"Cunt."

"I'd be offended if I hadn't won." She said, shit eating grin still spread across her face. Alec rolled his eyes and went back to his food.

"Can I ask a question?" Madison asked.

"I don't date." Alec said quickly.

"Wait, weren't you just talking about sex earlier?"

"They're different." Lisa cut in. "You want to know why Taylor is so comfortable with me, right?"

"Uh, yeah." Madison nodded.

"Well the short answer is I didn't help torture her for a year and half." Lisa shot, making Madison wince. "Doesn't matter that it was out of fear or that you regret it now. She's going to have trouble really accepting you as more than a casual acquaintance because of your history. Hell, I barely trust you."

"That's reasonable, unfortunately." She sighed.

Alec observed the conversation quietly. He knew Lisa knew he was interested, but she'd never say anything about it. Contrary to how he acted, Alec was actually rather attentive when he wanted to be. He could read people rather well when he felt like putting in the effort and he'd gotten a decent read on most of the people around him. Madison was the exception. He couldn't quite figure out what her deal was. She seemed to change moods like the weather. She could go from happy to blank slate in the blink of an eye and it made very little sense to him at first. But he'd figured out and he was going to ask her about it.

"Just make better choices." Lisa started. "If you really want my advice, and I know you do, you're on the right path. Taylor has started to trust me because I'm straight with her. I tell her the truth about my plans and intentions and never give her the run around or try to talk circles around her. She appreciates people being upfront because she's too used to subterfuge and lies. The cloak and dagger shit you and your friends pulled is what she expects out of people and the more someone tries to feed it to her the farther away she'll push them. As long as you don't push her before she's ready and continue being honest with her she'll eventually let you in."

"So she's like a cat?" Madison said slowly.

"Kinda." Lisa shrugged. "You do have to nudge her a bit, she'd never open up to anyone otherwise, but you can't push her on it. She's not the type of person to open up easily. She keeps the parts of herself she cares about walled off and getting past those walls takes effort."

"Taylor talks pretty easily though. She told me about the music she likes last night."

Lisa shook her head. "Taylor doesn't like opening up about her emotions. They're the soft fleshy bits that can still feel and she keeps them under lock and key. Anything else? Fair game. She'll talk and talk and talk about anything and everything and never actually say anything of any actual importance about herself. Her favorite brand of ice cream, what music she likes or dislikes, or her opinions on things aren't important to her. Those things don't matter. They aren't deeply personal things like her attachment to certain stories or certain types of tea over others. If or when she starts talking to you about something mundane and inconsequential sounding is when you've gotten into her good graces."

"Okay. I understand that. I appreciate the help." Madison smiled and nodded.

Alec looked to Lisa and twitched his eyebrows. She rolled her eyes but nodded, excusing herself to the restroom for a bit.

"How do you do that thing with your emotions?" Alec asked once Lisa was out of vision. He knew it'd be hard to make her leave hearing distance, but not seeing her was the next best thing. Out of sight, out of mind, after all.

Her expression fell for just a split second before she tilted her head in confusion.

"What thing?" She asked innocently.

"Cut the shit. I know faked emotions very well. It took me longer to figure out on you. I want to know how you do it."

Madison's eyes fell dull and her face became impassive.

"Why do you want to know?" Her voice was empty. Not cold, he noticed. Cold would imply there was still something there. Her voice was as flat and neutral as he'd ever heard.

"It's not that I care." He stuffed some chips and guacamole in his mouth. "But I'm curious. I've never seen anyone fake emotions so well outside of movies, and even then you know they're acting."

She hummed, her dull eyes never leaving his casual face as he ate.

"It's easy to put my emotions on because I've been doing it for months. I didn't at first, but then my "friends" at school started asking what was wrong with me. Why I was so quiet and subdued. That's when I realized just how dull everything was. But those girls are sharks and if they smell blood in the water you're doomed. So I started small, plastering on a smile," She pushed her cheeks up into a smile, "Then I started faking anger. Then confusion. Then I was faking pretty much everything. I eventually got to a point where I was faking my emotions so well I didn't realize that I had basically stopped feeling. I'm not incapable of emotion, but everything is so muted it might as well not be there. I tend to overplay what I should be feeling because I find it's more believable that way, ironically."

"You overplay them and people think that's how you actually emote?" The notion was ridiculous, but if it worked for her then who was he to call it stupid?

"It's been working so far. I don't have people asking if I'm depressed all the time." She shrugged.

"Are you?"

"Can't be depressed if you can't properly feel."

"Isn't that depression in and of itself?"

"Under different circumstances, probably."

"I'm back." Lisa said, approaching the table. Seeing Madison snap on a happy-neutral expression was almost startling. Creepy to say the least. "Hope you weren't talking about me behind my back. That'd be bad for both of you."

"We weren't. Alec was just asking me about my make up." Madison answered.

Alec choked on his drink and even Lisa was stunned for a moment. Alec knew he thought it was clever, but she wasn't sure how Lisa felt about the double speak other than shocked. When she recovered she looked at him and he shrugged, saying she should roll with it. Then she smirked.

"As long as you feel comfortable, who am I to judge."

She thought that was a dig.

"Damn right. I know I'm beautiful, bitch. Don't hate."

Lisa rolled her eyes, but it got a giggle out of Madison. They parted ways after lunch, Madison heading a different way and Lisa still wanting to shop.

—

Going out twice in one day was a real pain in the ass. He barely had two hours to play some games before Brian dragged them all back out again to help him pick out stuff for his apartment, which ended up taking even longer because Lisa wanted to buy stuff for her apartment too. He didn't even know why she had one. She hated being alone almost as much as someone insulting her intelligence. By the time they got back to the Loft they were almost half an hour later than they were supposed to be.

"Bitch isn't here." Brian said. "Only two of her dogs are here."

"Well, we are late. She probably took one on a walk." Lisa offered.

"Maybe. Suit up. We're late enough as it is for our drop off. Any later and it'll reflect badly on us."

They all split into their rooms to get changed. Alec slipped on his costume and just slid a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt over it. No point in dressing in anything fancy since they were gonna drop the clothes anyway.

"She's still not back." Brian said once they were back in the living room.

"You think she made the drop without us?" He asked.

Lisa sighed. "Probably. Let's get to the locker."

The ditched their regular clothes a few blocks from the hideout and made their way to the drop point.

The storage facility they were supposed to drop the money at was just outside the Trainyard. Maybe a block, if that. The place was large enough that part of it crossed the border. It was a large maze of ten by ten foot lockers largely forgotten about by the rest of the city. Some people still bothered to keep things there, and the homeless people who could afford it used some of them as dorms, but the expansive facility was largely desolate.

There was a word for it, Alec knew, but it escaped him for the moment. The place looked wrong, especially at night. So many broken lights that some of the alleys only got the barest bleed off from the brighter lights further away. The atmosphere of the place was like walking into a different dimension. Like exploring an abandoned hospital. It was just wrong and creepy.

"We're looking for thirteen-oh-six." Grue said.

Actually finding the locker wasn't difficult, despite how large and creepy the place was. When they opened the locker they found nothing. Alec was the first to speak.

"I saw we kill her." He spoke casually.

"You really think she'd run off with the money?" Grue asked.

"If you had asked me an hour ago, I'd have said no. She may be reckless, a loose canon, crazy even. I'd have said she may not like people, but I'd have said she was loyal and she wouldn't have thrown away whatever relationship we have. Now, though…" he shrugged, feeling he got his point across. He may not be emotionally attached to his teammates but he liked to think they cared as much as he tried to. Even Bitch.

"Bitch didn't run off with the cash." Tats said, eyes zipping all over the unit, devouring and dissecting every bit of information she could process. "Someone broke in. A cape. Picked the lock. Whoever it did it is still nearby." She paused for a second, something in her eyes shifting. "There." She pointed to the top of the line of units across from us just as someone started clapping.

"Brilliant deduction, Tattletale." The voice spoke as he stopped clapping. Two people stepped into view.

Uber and Leet. Those losers barely rated on the bottom of B-list villains. They were dressed in blue leotards over skintight white bodysuits. They had bubblegum pink shoes, gloves, and antennae along with blank masks with black eye lenses.

"Oh," The relief in Tats' voice was easy for him to hear, "Uber and Leet. And here I thought it was someone to worry about."

With what experimentation Alec had done with his new powers, he was pretty sure most of the capes in the city weren't an actual threat anymore. He alone could drop most of them with a flick of a finger, let alone how tough he was now. Five Finger Fillet was boring when the knife just bent if you screwed up. He knew Lisa knew as well, she'd probably figured out the extent of their toughness before he had, but she was playing coy with her powers. Something about not trusting their boss. He understood that, distrusting your boss was a lesson carved deep into his soul, but he wasn't sure he understood what her plan was in the long run.

"Oh believe me, you do." Uber announced. The jackasses power made him sound like a move trailer announcer. He couldn't even pick something even slightly more intimidating than that?

"What game are you guys even doing this time? Your costumes are too ugly for me to look at long enough to figure it out." Alec taunted. They scowled, and when Uber opened his mouth to speak he swung his hand, making them both lose their footing and shutting off the feeling in their legs. They tumbled off the roof and hit the concrete across from them pretty hard. Lisa laughed, but Grue was in "Professional Mode" so didn't say anything. "I'm glad they got that on video."

"It'll make a good clip." Lisa said as they walked over to the fallen villains, both writing in pain.

"Where's our money and how's you find out?" Grue asked, his power making his voice more intimidating than it should have been.

"Your fourth team member led us right to it. Lucky happenstance really. As for how we found her. Well…" Uber trailed off.

"They got Bitch and the money. We need to find her quick and get out of here. Something feels off about this." Grue said too low for the other villains to hear.

"You're right." Tats nodded. "There are a ton more people here than they let on. We grab Bitch, the money, and go."

"How can you tell?" Alec asked.

"Illusion power. I didn't figure out what it was until we got here but I have a sort of map in my head that tells me where the people in my illusion range are. I didn't notice before because there were too many people to see that detail."

"I wish my new powers let me do that." He sighed. That'd be super useful.

"Figure out your new powers later. Can you lead us to Bitch without us needing to interrogate them?" Grue asked.

"Yeah." She nodded.

"Then let's go." Grue covered their camera, the "Snitch", in darkness and nodded to Alec.

"Well," Alec spoke loud enough for the whispering duo to hear, "It's been real, it's been fun, but it hasn't been real fun. So we're gonna go ahead and take off. Later losers." He reached for his new power and did something new with it. He gave them back their sense of touch, but in exchange wrecked their perception of time. As far as they were concerned the next hour would feel like a hundred years.

"What did you do to them?" Tats asked as they made off for their last team member.

"Scrambled their sense of time. It'll probably take them fifteen minutes to even move a finger. We're good for an hour." He explained.

"That's pretty brutal." Grue said.

"If I combined it with Tats' pain thing we could probably accomplish something similar to Gray Boy's bubbles." He said casually like the idea wasn't terrifying.

"Please don't do that to anyone."

"You say that like I'd actually help him do it." Tats scoffed. "Shit." She said quietly as a car engine roared just around the corner.

They had barely made it down to the end of aisle they were in before being ambushed by a woman in the same ridiculous outfit as Uber and Leet, only she was wearing a gas mask with red lenses instead of black.

"Hold it." A mechanical voice called from behind them. "Take another step and all of you end up as… well, it depends on what bomb you're standing near." With no indication the area across from them burst into glass, the blast radius stopping just before it hit Grue.

"Holy fuck." Grue said lowly.

"Ah, that one." She said dully to herself. "I'd like it more if it were more destructive. It's certainly impressive if you're not me, but I like a little more bang. The glass transmutation bombs are just too clean."

"Fuck me, of course the game theme was Bomberman. What are you doing here, Bakuda?" Tats asked.

Bakuda stood and gave a theatric bow, but dropped to her knees before Alec could throw her off.

"Ah, ah, ah. You won't get me with that." She said mockingly. He wasn't sure it was possible to be more smug than Lisa, but she was surely making an effort.

"Did you seriously leave the ABB to work for those losers?" Alec gestured to Uber and Leet, still on the ground trying their best to move and failing.

"Ah, not exactly." She snapped her fingers and a unit door opened and three men walked out. One with a gun, the second with a bat, and the third with an Axe. Then the other doors opened, thirty or forty storage units all with at least one person and some had up to five. All of them were armed.

Had this happened before he got his new powers, Alec probably would've been at least a little scared. Too many people to disarm at once and a crazy bitch who set off bombs seemingly telepathically. It would be a very bad situation if he wasn't as close to invincible as Alexandria was.

"Those two were cheap hires. They just wanted a few hundred bucks and I had to wear this costume. Guess you really get what you pay for." She sighed.

"Well, at least you make it work better than they do." Alec commented.

"I'm afraid flattery will get you nowhere, though who am I to deny a compliment." Bakuda put a hand to her chest in mock bashfulness. "As I was saying, I'm still with the ABB. In charge, in fact. I would've like to commemorate my new leadership by taking out the people who captured Lung, but the Espada are surprisingly difficult to get a bead on. So I'll have to settle for the ones who put him into that position in the first place." She took a second to stare them down, then spoke in the most serious voice she had since she showed up, "Get them."

The ABB members charged and Tattletale was the first to start running.

"What the hell, Tats?" Alec asked as they dipped around a corner to avoid a bomb going off. "We could easily take them out. Why are we running?"

"Well, I know why I'm running." Grue said as he spread his darkness around to make them harder to get to.

"I need time to think. I don't know where her bombs are or what they do. I need to figure out how she's setting off her bombs. If we fuck this up she might turn this whole place into a crater and we don't have Sacrosanct here to keep us from whatever fucked up shit her bombs can do. She was genuinely surprised by that glass bomb. That means she doesn't know exactly what they do after she builds them, she just does."

"Well that's fucked." Alec said.

"Very." Grue agreed.

"Stop." Tats ordered, pulling everyone against the wall.

Grue noticed the jeep turn the corner just after they pressed to the wall.

"I know you're here, Undersiders!" Bakuda called playfully. "Come out and play, kiddies!"

The jeep drove slowly past them before turning the next corner.

"That bitch is capital "C" Crazy." Alec said.

"Megalomania and a God complex will usually do that to you." Tats said before they started again.

"Are we going to Bitch?" Grue asked.

"Yeah. Once we grab her it will be easier to get out. Hopefully without having to actually confront her."

Just as she finished explaining they heard a click. They dived for it, trying to get away from the explosion, only to get pulled towards the epicenter. The pull wasn't powerful enough to drag them off their feet, but it did keep them from running, or crawling, away. The pull stopped for just a split second before exploding outward in a blast large enough it cratered the ground a good three feet.

The sound of the Jeep engine stopped a few feet away from them.

"Drop the darkness. I know you're here. You're not getting away. I've trapped the whole area." Bakuda said.

"Drop it. I might still be able to get us out of this." Tattletale said. The darkness slowly faded to reveal Bakuda and her small army, all pointing guns at them.

"You know, I honestly didn't expect you to make it this far. I thought you idiots would've set off far more of my traps than you did. I guess good job on not being complete idiots." Bakuda mocked.

"You were toying with us." Tats said. Things that should be questions were usually statements with her. The need to be the smartest person in the room at least made it so they could cut out the middle man and didn't have to wait for confirmation of most things.

"You're very right." Bakuda spoke. Her mask made it difficult to convey tone, her words coming out very flat and robotic, but she more than made up for it with the unbearable aura of smug that surrounded her and body language. "Though I think you, specifically, should shut up. Boys?" She placed her hand on the head of an ABB member in front of her jeep, making him flinch. "If the blonde so much as opens her mouth, shoot them all. I don't care what the others say, but she keeps quiet."

Tats narrowed her eyes and drew her lips into a thin line. Her ability to speak, until recently, had been her biggest weapon. Now she could throw out lasers that brought down buildings, but she was still acting like she couldn't, so it wasn't of any help here. Alec was content to go with the flow for now. If she wasn't showing her hand, neither would he. Not until he was sure their boss wouldn't fuck them over.

"See," Bakuda straightened up, putting a foot on the jeep door and leaning forward with her elbows on her knee, "You're the one I don't get. No idea what your powers are. Maybe you alter moods as you talk, maybe you're just good at talking, either way you don't get to, kay?"

Yeah, the megalomania and God complex were certainly present. Alec had spent enough time around people like that to know.

"Now, I've found myself with a bit of a problem." Bakuda stood up, looking at the back of her hand like she could examine her nails through the gloves. God did this bitch love to hear herself talk. "Lung taught me a lot of things, but the only lesson I really took to heart was that being an effective leader is all about fear. Business like this? People are only truly loyal when you drown them in enough fear. If they're sufficiently scared of you they stop worry about what they can get out of it. Stop wondering if they can usurp you. With enough fear they do what they can to keep you happy. Or keep you from being unhappy. Whichever one keeps them alive longer."

She hopped down from the jeep, grabbing one of the men by the back of the head and shaking him slightly. "Isn't that right?" She asked equal parts playful and threatening. That was a skill. The man mumbled something under his breath. "But it goes further than that. I may have inherited the ABB, but I also inherited Lung's enemies. So, the question becomes what can I do to you that will instill enough fear in them that they won't fuck with me? What act of violence, malice, strength, anything really, will show them that I am not the bitch to bare your fangs at unless you want your whole block literally turned to glass?"

She spun around, putting her hand out to the man next to her. He quickly gave her the gun and she walked through the crowd of people, examining them.

"You have a plan yet?" Grue asked. Tattletale shook her head. Alec could see her brain working as fast as it could, figuring out the best way to get out of this without revealing themselves too blatantly. The hidden bombs and Bakuda's trigger for them was the problem that prevented them from just going. It was times like this he really wished he could just let his powers loose without worrying. With what he could do now they'd be done with her in a blink and he could be home. But no—.

"You!" Bakuda stopped in front of a teen wearing a uniform Alec realized was from that one Catholic school in town. "Park Jihoo, yes? You ever held a gun before?"

"N-no."

"Ever beat someone up?"

"Please I… No."

"Ever been a fight? And I mean a real one. The kind of fight where you're scrambling for anything and everything to win."

"N-no, Bakuda."

"Then you're perfect for this." She shoved the gun into his chest. "Shoot one of them." She ordered.

The boy held the gun like it was a rancid diaper, held at arms length with two fingers. The fear in his eyes was easy to see. The kid looked ready to pass out.

"Please, I can't."

"I'm make it easy for you." Bakuda might have tried to coo or something and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. "It doesn't even have to be a lethal shot. Aim for a kneecap or something. Just wait a sec, Okay?" She turned to another person, "Get the camera and start recording."

The man followed her orders, getting to the jeep and pulling out a camera. Once it was recording Bakuda turned back to the kid.

"Thank you for wait, Park Jihoo. Now you can shoot someone."

The guy spoke in Korean, probably praying, then said "Please, no."

"Are you sure?" Bakuda cooed. "They're bad people if you're worried about morals. No one will miss them."

Grue twitched slightly at that.

The kid blinked back tears and dropped the gun.

"I'll take that as a no. Shame." Bakuda sighed. "You're of no use to me." She kicked him hard enough to send him sprawling on his back.

"Please!" He shouted desperately. "Please, no! No, no, no!"

Bakuda skip-stepped away from him and the others took that as a sign to get away too. Then, the boy melted.

"Jesus, fuck…" Grue said lowly.

The guy just died. Dissolved into flesh soup at the drop of a hat with no indication but a sound similar to a vibrating cellphone. He was there one second and a puddle the next. The people around him scrambled away, all screaming and trying to hide behind one another.

There was a sound, difficult to hear over all the screaming, but everyone was eventually silenced by the sound of a gunshot. The sound was louder now. It sounded like the rusty wheeze of dying machinery trying its best to keep doing what it was made for. Everyone turned to Bakuda, doubled over with her arms wrapped around her stomach.

Well, if the bitch wanted to terrify people, she was certainly doing a good job. Anything that managed to give Alec the chills was beyond fucked by its very nature.

"Oh man! The six-eighteen! I forgot all about that thing! Oh, it's perfect! So much better than I imagined!"

"That was pretty cool." He spoke, drawing as many wide eyes as Bakuda's laughing. He sounded completely unbothered by the sight. And he honestly was. He'd seen worse in his short life, and it was really her laughing that brought the situation to disturbing. He could see Lisa still thinking. This was the best way to buy her a bit more time.

"Wasn't it?" Bakuda asked with presumably a smile. "I modeled it after Tesla work with vibrations. He theorized—."

"Yeah, no offense," Alec cut in, "Well, I don't care if I offend you, but what I mean is don't shoot me, I don't care about all the sciencey technobabble. Goes right over my head. I was just saying it's pretty neat to see what a dude smoothie looks like. Gross, creepy, fucked up, but still pretty neat."

"Yes it is!" Bakuda said, basking in the praise. "It's like the answer to a question you didn't know you were asking!"

"So how'd you do it? Stick bombs in all these civilians to make them work for you?"

"Everyone." She answered, almost high off the attention for her work. She skipped and turned, pulling a man close and patting his cheek lightly. "Even the most loyal of my men. Real bitch of a job. Not the procedure, I mean, I could do it with my eyes closed after the first twenty. I actually did a few that way, just to try it out." She released the man and took center stage again. "I mean tranq-ing the first dozen was real tedious. Opening peoples heads up lost its novelty surprisingly fast."

"Sounds like work. I'm too lazy for something like that."

"Got it." Lisa said. No one reacted to her talking.

"We're good?"

"Yeah. Her bombs are activated with something in her shoe. If you slow her down like you did with Uber and Leet we'll be long gone before she's able to set off even the first bomb. Is there a way to do it so she doesn't notice?"

"I haven't been doing it long enough to know. Let's grab bitch first. Do you think the door is trapped?"

"Probably. But we can just Garganta in."

"They can be used like that?"

"I know, right?"

"Hey, can we get going. I'd like to get away from the crazy bomb chick before she realizes something's off." Grue stated.

Tats responded by opening a portal. The stepped though to find Bitch and Brutus tied up, the money still in the duffel they stashed it in on a desk nearby.

"Took you long enough." Bitch said, once they got her down.

"Listen, we had to deal with that crazy chick outside trying to bomb us. Give us a break." Alec scoffed.

"Whatever. You guys beat her?"

"No, we came to grab you first. She's still out monologuing about how great she is." Tats explained.

"Of course she's one of those." Grue sighed.

"I hate people who talk too much." Bitch grunted. "Can we get out of here now?"

"Yeah, just one more thing to do." Alec said. He looked through the window to see the conscripted ABB members shakily aiming their guns where they used to be. He dropped them all, taking their sense of touch, then slowed Bakuda's perception of time to a crawl. "She should be out for at least the next two hours or so. If she manages to set off a bomb before then, I'll be surprised."

"Then let's get out of here. I need nap." Tats sighed.

"A-fucking-men, sister."

Alec opened the portal this time, taking them back to the base. They'd done enough Cape shit for the night. It was finally time to relax.

I like Bakuda too much to cut her. She's also still integral for next arc, so she kind had to be here.