Coil

How had they known?

From the time that the lawyer in that other time-line had pointed out that he could detect those with powers things had gone wrong.

But he'd closed that other time-line so How had they known?

His attempt to grab Dinah Alcott had failed spectacularly when his purely human mercenaries had arrived and walked straight into a well prepared trap led by Armsmaster with assistance from Assault and Battery. The mercenaries had spilled the limited information that they had pretty quickly. As he had used disposable pawns that didn't know his identity or anything else their loss wasn't a great concern but it still meant that he didn't have the pet pre-cog that he had been planning on.

He had gotten back to his base to learn that the Undersiders had disappeared from the distraction that he had them on and now rumours were circulating that they had lost their powers as well. Up to that point they had only been more disposable pawns but if they'd managed the bank job he'd had plans to bring them more fully into his organisation. It was hard to say just what effect their loss would have on his planning at this point but they had been starting to shape up to being some of his best pawns.

He had picked up the services of The Travelers on the promise of succour and healing the monstrous girl. Housing her had cost him a tremendous amount for the massively reinforced bunker needed and it was likely that he wasn't going to get anything from it as things stood. A promise that he'd made on the premise that he'd have a precog to guide him to the cure. The only way he could think of curing her now was to remove her powers which meant, if rumours were to be believed, that he needed to get hold of the Undersiders and he could neither call nor track the Tinker made phone that he'd given Tattletale for the very specific purpose of being able to find her even when she didn't want to be found.

It had all gone wrong on that day. The very carefully planned day that should have landed him a pet precog and made him unstoppable.

Instead of being called and told that he had a pet precog he got a call from one of his men in the PRT saying that something had gone wrong… click. He had immediately split time-lines again with one of him going off to his secret base while the other went back to PRT headquarters… only to be arrested along side the person who had tried to call him. He'd dropped that time-line of course.

He recognised now that he'd panicked when the lawyer said that he could detect Capes and dropped the time-line too fast. He didn't know what he could have done differently though.

All of that paled in comparison to the fact that the PRT and the Protectorate knew. They'd been chasing him and he was faced with either running or trying to hold his empire together long enough to bring his plans to fruition. All that time and effort to be wasted…

He'd never considered himself a quitter and so he'd stayed, tried to pull all the pieces back together…

And now they were at his doors and breaking in. He didn't even have a double out on another time-line at the moment as they'd managed, somehow, to find every single one before it got anywhere thus ensuring that he wouldn't be able to escape that way. He was trapped with no way to escape but he wasn't going down without a fight.

Well, without someone else fighting for him. He reached for the intercom "Travelers, I'm sorry to say that I won't be able to hold up my end of our bargain as the Protectorate are here either to apprehend or kill me. I suspect it probably won't go any better for you and my forces are already being overwhelmed. How you proceed is up to you."

He leaned back in his chair. Might as well be comfortable while he waited to be gathered. There wasn't anything else he could do.

Armsmaster

Coil's voice came over the intercom "Travelers, I'm sorry to say that I won't be able to hold up my end of our bargain as the Protectorate are here to either apprehend or kill me. I suspect it probably won't go any better for you and my forces are already being overwhelmed. How you proceed is up to you."

Armsmaster listened to the broadcast and brought up all the information he could on the Travelers which wasn't much "Dragon, what do we know about the Travelers? All the info I have on me tells me that there's seven of them and no more."

"Little more than that I'm afraid." Dragon replied "Speculation that they triggered during a Simurgh attack after she brought them across from Earth Aleph but nothing concrete. They've been keeping a low profile and so we have nothing on their powers at this time."

"Have you managed to crack Coil's computers?"

"Not yet. He's using my own algorithms and I specifically left out a back door. It'll take time."

"Understood…" he shrugged "I'm going to try the intercom." He pressed the button and spoke into it "Travelers, this is Armsmaster, please come quietly and we'll see what we can do to help." Which was conveniently broadcast. He smiled to himself, people often forgot security on intercoms… his smile disappeared, or its been purposefully left open. He quickly made a recording, wired it into the intercom box and set it to repeat.

"What if they don't come quietly?" asked Dragon

"Then we'll have to deal with seven more Capes with unknown powers."

The Travellers

"Well, that fucks things up." Said Trickster "And we'd only just got here."

"We've got to get out of here." whined Oliver "No telling what they'll do if they get their hands on us."

"And go where, do what?"

"You heard him, the place is sealed." Said Ballistic "He's hoping that we'll cause enough of a ruckus that he'll be able to escape. My suggestion is that we sit here and wait for the nice people from the Protectorate to come and detain us." The sarcasm strong enough to peel paint.

Trickster turned to Ballistic "You know what they do with people affected by the Simurgh."

"I figure three options." Said Ballistic "They kill us outright, they throw us in the Birdcage or they help us. I figure it's most likely going to be a combination of two and three… unless we fight in which case it will be the first option."

"I could get us out of here." Said Sundancer then she paled "But the number of people killed… no…, no, I won't do it."

"We sit and wait." Said Trickster "I'll go talk to Noelle."

There came a shudder through the building "I don't think Noelle is in a talking mood." Said Genesis

"Shit." He ran over to the intercom and slammed his thumb on the button "We surrender, we surrender but we really need your help in the cells." He opened the door and ran.

Hunter

I was at the kennels with Rachel discussing some plans I had "Can you do it?" I asked her

"Hunt-mistress? To raise and train animals that you… breed." She seemed somewhat uncomfortable with the fact that I'd be adjusting some breeds of animals to better suit our purposes.

"And to train others to also be hunters."

She pointed to her office computer which had her game character up "Elf."

I looked "I can't do the ears like that as the weight and leverage would rip the side of your head off. Good for the game but not so good in real life. All the rest, including the interesting facial markings, are within the parameters of the Elfin race."

She nodded but was prevented from saying more as Lisa came over the intercom "Taylor, come to ops. There's a situation developing that I think will require your intervention."

I listened and then turned to Rachel "Think about it and, especially, about what animal types you'd like." I had noticed that her character's pet was a large cat and not a dog as expected "And we'll get started on it tomorrow." She nodded and I teleported to ops.

Ops

"What have we got?" I asked as I appeared in Ops

"The Protectorate have gone after Coil as expected. Using the devices that you showed them how to make they were able to determine Coil's location and from there have been able to find almost all the exits."

"Almost all?"

"After they determined the location I sent in some bugs. Not enough to for the entire base yet but enough to find Coil's office. After he sent out his message to the Travellers he then opened another tunnel in his office. He didn't use it, still waiting for the right time I suspect, but watching him do so gave me an in to his computer system which gave me this." A live feed of a large, once human female, appeared on screen "Her name's Noelle and she's one of the Travellers."

I watched as the once human smashed herself against the door again and again. The door was holding for now but it was only a matter of time before it was breached. "I assume she's why you called me?" Lisa nodded "Who are the Travelers?"

"According to Coil's records they're a bunch of kids that were brought over from Earth Aleph by the Simurgh during her attack on Madison, Wisconsin. There isn't a lot of detail just a quick list of their powers and the fact that they got their powers from a Cauldron vial."

"A vial?"

"Yeah. No idea how it works though."

"After I learnt how to detect capes I noticed that Coil's power was blue compared to most others being red. What are the chances that the Travellers' powers are also blue?"

"Not something that I'd wager against."

"Do we know who Cauldron is?"

"No and neither do the PRT or the Protectorate as far as I can make out as there's nothing about them in their systems." She looked at the screen as Noelle once more smashed herself against the door "I suspect that Coil may but, apart from that single mention, it's not in his system either. I haven't got any bugs on the Travelers but Coil's system did record their surrender and call for help. It didn't transmit it which, I assume, is Coil trying to cause enough disruption to produce an opportunity for him to escape."

"Do you know where the Travelers are?"

She shook her head "Still looking and I'm only assuming that Coil has a map stored in here somewhere. I'll transmit it to you when I find it, if I find it."

I nodded again as I transformed into a male Vukaahla in full plate mail "Contact Dragon and give her an in to Coil's system while cutting him out. Highlight this video feed to give the Protectorate an idea as to what the Travelers want help with. Do we know what else she can do besides break down hardened steel doors?"

"Sent. Apparently, she can make evil clones of whoever touches her." She looked up "And don't you think that armour is a bit much?"

"The armour's important not as armour but as an explanation as to why I can take her hits if I end up having to tank any." I grinned "I may want to leak the feed from Coil's cameras later."

Lisa indicated her understanding "And making the armour massively showy helps with that. What are you going to do?"

"Find out what the Travelers want." I paused as I stared at the monster on screen "Nobody willingly goes into a prison if they're out to cause trouble." She nodded and then held up a hand before I stepped through a gate

"What about Coil?"

I grinned "Watch, that should be a good show." Then gave her a quick kiss and stepped through a portal into Coil's office.

Coil's End

Coil spun around and backed away as I emerged from the gate directly in front of his escape route "Where did you come from?"

"There are doors everywhere… if you know how to look." I glanced around the office then back to him "Cosy little set up you got here. Must have taken a lot of planning and a lot of money but don't worry, I'm sure someone else will be able to put it to good use."

"I was putting it to good use." He glanced at the tunnel "Have you seen the incompetence of government and the PRT?"

"Many people say things like that but, once they have power, prove to be even more incompetent. I suspect you only got as far as you did because of your cheat, your corruption of the PRT and probably lots of murder to hide your actions. Nothing you've done shows that the city or the country would have been better off under your rule."

"I would have rebuilt the city, got it functioning again."

"People who say such things make far more mistakes because they don't actually know how government functions or, in fact, how anything works. They dictate what is to happen and then get upset when it doesn't go as planned, immediately blaming anyone and everything else except for themselves and their own incompetence. That is why dictatorships fall down in time. Incompetent people demanding that things be how they want them to be rather than how they are while ignoring everything that actually makes a society work."

"I've seen the corruption in the PRT and in the council, I've seen how they promise to do things, to make changes but they never do. To truly make change requires someone with vision telling people what to do, to follow a set plan."

"Of course you've seen the corruption in the PRT, you were a large part of it. Considering how long you've been in the PRT you've probably been a part of it since the beginning. And everyone has a vision of how things should be and a plan to bring it about. All of them will differ from yours so which makes your one better?"

"I have plans to get the port going again, plans that would turn Brockton back into the trading hub it once was."

"Can't have a port if there are no ships and there aren't any due to Leviathan. So, what plans do you have for him considering that all the Capes have so far failed to stop him?"

"I…"

"Ah, and there is your incompetence showing through already. Plans don't work if someone else's plans trump them or, as in your case, are completely missing." He'd stayed constantly moving around his desk. I stepped the same way as him leaving his escape tunnel open "Now, are you going to come peacefully, or am I going to have to get rough?"

"No point I suppose. My distraction hasn't worked…" He waved his hand at the office door and while I looked in that direction he pulled his gun, fired at me and he dove for the tunnel. I staggered back… and then pounced forward slamming him into the wall with my shield. I slammed him again and then grabbed him with sword hand and threw him across the office.

He got up from where he fell and fired again and again. He was fast and accurate with his weapon but my shield came round in time to deflect the bullets. I stood my ground and when he stopped firing said "The armour's not just for show. Now throw away the gun, kneel and place you hands behind your head or you really will get hurt." He looked at the door behind him "Don't bother, you locked it remember." He looked at me and I smiled.

"And the escape tunnel is locked as well isn't it? Despite the fact that I unlocked it."

"Of course."

He nodded and knelt down, threw the gun into the corner, and placed his hands behind his head.

"Glad we could come to this agreement, now, Chains of Binding Fire." His wrists, ankles and neck were caught in rings of flame and he tumbled onto his side. I grinned "Heh, always wanted to do that."

I knelt down beside him "Tell me about Cauldron."

"I don't really want to sign my own death warrant."

"If they're that dangerous then you signed it when you bought your powers off of them." He looked sharply at me "And that's all the confirmation that I needed." I stood up "By the way, that collar prevents you using you power and doesn't come off until the shard itself is gone." Then I stepped through another gate.

Surrender

I found myself facing Armsmaster's halberd "Who are you?" he demanded "What are you?"

"I'm Vukaahla, Elfin Shadow's associate."

"Are you the one that sent us the information about Coil and the Travelers?"

"That would have been Aesara but she did so at my request."

The halberd lowered but Armsmaster's suspicion didn't "Thanks for the info. We can handle it from here."

"And what are you going to do about Noelle?"

"We're working on it."

"You don't have time to work on it." Aesara's map had appeared in my HUD showing the best route and I started walking that way "She'll break free in minutes and from there it'll be easy for her to break past you and we really don't want her in the city with her evil clones."

"Where do you think you're going and what evil clones?"

"To talk to the Travelers. They've put themselves in Coil's clutches for a reason and if we find out what that reason is we may be able to end this without violence, well, beside what I've already done to Coil. Limited info on the clones but apparently she creates an evil clone of anyone who touches her."

Another thump shook the building "I don't think Noelle's in a listening mood."

"Probably not but we won't know if we don't try and the only way to do that is to talk to her or, at least, the rest of the Travellers."

We came round a corner to find four youths with their hands up confronted by a number of PRT troops with their guns pointed at them. When we appeared they looked us over and then the big guy in front recognised Armsmaster and said to him "We've surrendered, no need for the guns."

"We'll determine what's needed." Said one of the troopers.

I rolled my eyes "Not helping." I turned to the kids "You're from Earth Aleph, brought here during a Simurgh attack?"

The room shook again as the soldiers took a step back "Yes." Screamed one of the girls "But we need to help Trickster with Noelle."

"I thought there was seven of you?" questioned Armsmaster

Over-riding Armsmaster I immediately asked "Do you want to keep your powers?"

Somewhat nonplussed the answer was "Well, no but…"

"Then I accept your surrender. Aesara will take care of you." Light enveloped them, an electronic buzzing sound echoed in the hallway and they vanished. Taking the time to catch up on Star Trek from Earth Aleph was totally worth it.

Armsmaster's halberd, buzzing slightly, appeared in front of me "What the hell are you doing?"

"You were taking too long." I said as I pushed the halberd out of the way, the buzzing increasing to a whine, started forward again and smiled as I felt Armsmaster step back. Sure enough, seconds later the PRT soldiers let loose with the containment foam. I turned and smiled at the now contained Armsmaster "Active armour which reflects gas and liquid attacks back with malice aforethought. While you have time to think consider what your country's normal response is to those engaged in a Simurgh attack." My face hardened "The Travelers are a problem of your own making, one that I'm going to fix because of the injustice that has already been perpetrated upon them."

I hurried on to where Trickster was yelling at a nearly breached containment cell.

Echidna

I came to the embattled door that kept Noelle locked away and found the fifth member of the Travelers speaking frantically into the intercom "Please, Noelle, we have to talk. We have to…"

BOOM

The massive door shook again and the Traveler was thrown to the ground from the shock of the impact. He twisted, jumped to his feet and came face to face with me "…Who… what… the fuck are you?"

"Call me Vukaahla, I've come to help."

His eyes narrowed "Where are the Protectorate?"

"They're presently… occupied elsewhere." I checked the bugs that I'd left in the hall "Really, we've only got a couple of minutes before they turn up and get in the way again."

"Again?"

"They seemed upset when I accepted your fellow Travellers surrender and sent them to my place. The PRT then tried to stop me."

"Are they…?"

"They're in good health and are being taken care of. Worried about you and Noelle as is to be expected." I looked at the video feed of Noelle who seemed to be having an argument with herself "We don't have a lot of time so, quickly, why are you here? Why is Noelle locked up?"

"We're here because we'd run out of other options, Coil promised to help Noelle and Noelle's locked up because she can't be let out." He sighed "Noelle understands that which is the only way we could have got her in there but… some part of her doesn't really accept it."

"I don't think Noelle's the problem but her Passenger."

"Passenger?"

"The powers that a Cape has are delivered via a foreign entity that's taken up residence in the brain that is called the Passenger. Typically it has some influence on the host but its usually fairly minor. In Noelle's case… it looks like its trying to take over." His eyes widened in disbelief "We have to get in there as the PRT are on their way."

"The door doesn't work any more."

I grabbed him and pulled him against me "Doors? Who needs doors? Teleport."

We appeared in the other end of the cell from Noelle and just in time to hear her pleading "No, I don't want to…"

I swung the Traveler behind me "Noelle." I called "Do you want to be free of the entity trying to control you?"

Her head swung towards me "Yes, I…" and then her face grimaced and her whole, monstrous body turned and charged "AAAARGHHH…"

"That's not Noelle…" I heard from behind me

"Figured" I said as I formed a gate immediately in front of the charging beast "But this makes it so much easier." I closed that gate and turned to him "If you're coming you will lose your powers."

"I go where Noelle goes. I have to take care of her… especially in her current state."

I smiled and opened another gate "Then lets go."

Noelle

We stepped through to find Noelle staggering several meters in front of us "Noelle." I called

She turned, took a couple of steps towards us and then collapsed onto the sand. She smiled sadly at us "I can't control this body. The other is gone and I'm myself. Thank you for freeing me." She looked into the cold wind, staring out over the ocean and the scattered icebergs, and then looked back at us "I suppose there are worse places to die."

"I didn't bring you here to die."

"Then why are we here?" demanded the Trickster "This doesn't look like a place that anyone could survive."

"Security." I said "That body is a force to be reckoned with and if I didn't manage to remove the entity then I didn't want it rampaging through my home."

"Oh, I ah…"

"Don't worry about it." I held up my hand and let light flow from me to surround the encumbered woman.

"What happens now?" She asked

"…Depends." I turned to the male "Pretty Boy, I don't suppose that you're the soppy romantic type that carries a lock of his girlfriend's hair? From before you arrived on Earth Bet."

"Ah… no."

"Picture of her lying naked on your bed?"

"Definitely not."

I looked at the slight blush on her face "Really? Why not. I think she'd like it if you did. Still, Pretty Boy, do you have any pictures at all?"

"My name's not pretty boy, its Trickster and what's with the Twenty Questions about what I carry? We don't have a lot of time as its damn cold."

I blinked and let the light flow around him "Oh, sorry. The problem is that the entity hasn't just changed her appearance but altered her DNA. If I made a clone of her present DNA she'd look exactly the same with the same problems." I looked at the girl "I suppose we should be thankful that the entity hadn't finished the transformation else there would have been nothing of you left."

Noelle looked down, obviously saddened "There's nothing that you can do?"

"There is something that I can do but I can't give you back your exact body as I don't have the DNA. A full length picture would have allowed me to create a body near enough to fool human senses." I sighed "Now all I can go on is your face and…"

"I, ah, have a picture." Pretty Boy said as he handed me a photograph that had both of them in it

I looked at the picture "Well, it gives me height and frame…" I frowned and looked at her "You look a little thin though."

She looked down, blushing in shame "I was… anorexic… when I met Trickster."

I nodded "That's not a problem and his name's not Trickster."

"What do you mean, not Trickster?" He demanded

"When you came here you lost your powers, ergo, no longer Trickster."

"I… oh." He shrugged "Well, then, my name's Francis."

I started forming a holographic image of Noelle "Nice to meet you Francis, now stand there so I can get the height right." I turned to Noelle "Let me know if you like it or not and any specific changes that you want."

"Any changes?"

"Well, as long as its within the human genome."

"So, no blue hair?"

"No blue hair but pretty much anything else."

"Hang on, how do we know that this is going to work?" demanded Francis

I looked at him and then morphed myself into Elfin Shadow "See, not a problem."

He blinked "Wait… what… Are you male or female?"

"I was born female but is that really your concern?" I shrugged and turned back to Noelle gesturing to the image "That's about what I think you should look like and the DNA will support that. Any changes that you want?"

"No, that's…" Eyes tearing up "That's how I always pictured myself even when…"

I nodded and then made some flowing gestures, allowing light to form into my hands and then flung out both so that the light washed over both the monstrous body and the image, a stream of light connecting the two and the image solidifying into a body. Speaking to the girl "You're going to sleep for a bit." She nodded and then the monstrous body slumped even more, appearing boneless as it collapsed. Then the light around it brightened and started burning away the body as it did so.

"Hey, what are you doing? You're killing her."

"No, I'm not. She's fine but there was no way I was going to let any of that corrupted DNA to continue upon my world."

"But…"

"Watch." I pointed to the tube which now glowed brighter, flowing from the pyre to the new body "I had to kill the old body so that her soul could release but I also needed to capture it so as to put it into the new body. She understood that."

He stared at me, fear in his eyes "But… what if it didn't work?"

"Then I'd be dead." Noelle said as he spun toward her "But it did." She looked at me, screwing up face "Kinda feels… funny."

"It will do so for a while until you get used to it. Now lets get out of here before this sandbank disappears beneath the waves."

Cafeteria

We materialised in the cafeteria where Aesara had the rest of the Travelers waiting with drinks and food "Rescue successful." I said as I walked over to her "Have we learned anything?"

"We've just been confirming Coil's recor…"

"NOELLE?" A girl jumped up and ran to the two leaders, paused, and then hugged the startled Noelle "You're looking good…" She stepped back, looking her up and down "Real good."

That started a rush as most of the other Travellers jumped up to greet their leaders, talking over one another and demanding to know what had happened.

I looked at them for a bit then grabbed Lisa and pulled her into a far corner and raised my eyebrow.

Lisa shook her head and then "Their story is simple enough. They're a bunch of kids" she failed to notice the irony "that are professional gamers on Earth Aleph. They were gaming at the time when the building they were in was grabbed up from their Wisconsin by The Simurgh and dropped into our Wisconsin. After some time they managed to make their way out of the building and cautiously make their way around, trying to figure out what had happened and if there was any help available. After some time they managed to get close enough to the wall where they saw everyone who tried to leave getting shot."

"Panic can make people do the worst things." I said

"Anyway, after seeing that they fled back into the city and kept under cover and away from others as it was pretty much dog-eat-dog in there. They managed to find a radio and listened to that which is how they found out that they were, effectively, under a death sentence. They scrounged around for a time, got into a couple of fights where Noelle was injured and then they found the Cauldron vials. Six vials, seven people."

"How'd they work that one out?"

"Easy, five took a vial each while the last two had half of one each. I'll let you guess who took the half."

I looked at the Travelers then said "What was the young boy's power?"

"Having a perfect body. And, yes, that changed as he got more info on what people thought was the perfect body."

"But nothing else?" she shook her head "Makes sense then."

"How?"

"Noelle got the power to produce clones and the monstrous body that entailed and the boy got the perfect body that would have hidden the monstrous. I suspect, but have no way of knowing, that the perfect body would also have kept the monstrous from arbitrarily creating clones and so the person who took all of the vial wouldn't have been too much of an issue except for their own propensity for crime."

"They could have been a hero."

"Could have been but I get the feeling that this Cauldron sells to the highest bidder and doesn't care too much about who they're selling to. Do they have any info on how the vials got there?"

Lisa nodded "No, they were just lying there waiting to be picked up. No names, just a small sheet of instructions."

"Quite a coincidence that, six undamaged vials being available in a destroyed city where the Travelers would find them."

"A precog then."

"Yes, but of what type? What information does it provide? Then we have to consider that these Passengers appear blue compared to the red that seems more common. It may be that they're opposed to each other. We need to find out more about them and what they're up to."

"Case 53s" I raised my eyebrow in question "What if the people giving out powers don't actually know how those powers work?"

"Then they'd need to experiment." My eyes narrowed "Take people that won't be missed and force feed them whatever's in those vials."

"Maybe not force feed them but lie to them about the possible effects and then wipe their memories afterwards when, or if, things go wrong. All Case 53s have no memory of who they were or what happened before they were found." Lisa paused "If they're opposed to the red, as you suspect, then it may be humans that have got access to a source of powers and are giving them out to increase the number of people to oppose whomever is giving out the red."

"Find out where Scion and The Simurgh is and track them. I believe I need to go and check them out." I turned to the Travelers as they started to return to their seats "But for now I think its time to return our gamers to their own world."

"Ah, I'd like to try and heal the crippled girl first. I don't think its difficult but I'd like you there when I did it so that you could fix it if I stuff up."

"We can do that."