Interlude 2: Tattletale

"Last night, the Trainyard became the site of a violent struggle between Trainwreck, an independent villain, and Squealer, a villain affiliated with the Archers' Bridge Merchants. The cause of their conflict is currently unknown but is suspected to be the result of a territory disagreement. The fight inflicted no civilian casualties and minimal property damage due to the secluded location, and both villains were shortly afterwards taken into custody by the PRT."

The two images of Trainwreck and Squealer behind the news anchor, both recognizable as the pictures used for their page images on the PHO wiki, transitioned into photos of them being taken out of a PRT truck and ushered into a containment building. Squealer looked sullen and bedraggled, hanging her head, with bandages wrapped around her arm and torso to provide a crude sling for one of her arms with her hands cuffed together in front of her. Though of the two, Trainwreck was more notable.

The man had been stripped of his mechanical suit, revealing just how little of him was a man at all. From the neck down his body looked malformed, like a wax sculpture that had melted past the point of recognizability, just barely piled back up into a vaguely humanoid shape. There were bumps in his flesh that gave vague impressions of a collarbone or ribs, but overall he looked like little more than a fleshy blob. The most prominent feature standing out from his pale featureless flesh was a tattoo of an omega symbol turned on its side, positioned just below his throat. It looked like someone had given him a pair of jeans to try and preserve his dignity, but without legs to actually wear them with, he was left to try and hold them in front of where his crotch would be with a half-formed arm protruding free from the rest of his body, its fingers fused together in a fleshy mitten and the arm itself still melded with his torso from the elbow up. Without a matching limb to handcuff, he was being marched along at gunpoint, clearly furious at the whole situation.

"But while the PRT brought these two into custody, they were not the ones to capture them. Credit is instead being given to an anonymous cape who called the authorities after subduing Trainwreck. Squealer was found a short while later as the transport was bringing Trainwreck in for containment, apparently defeated by the same cape. Unlike Trainwreck, part of Squealer's capture was recorded by a bystander, who then sent this video to us. The following footage may not be suitable for young viewers."

The video of the news anchor at her desk and the images behind her switched to a new feed. The first sound was that of an explosion, though abrupt enough that it was clear the video had only picked up the last half. The source was an oddly shaped vehicle skidding to a stop, flames bursting out from its paneling. The angle showed the street and vehicle from above, presumably shot from the window of a higher floor. It was shaky and slightly out of focus, clearly shot by an amateur, but the quality was good enough to show the important parts.

As the flare of light dyed down to a glow, the camera refocused and zoomed in on a woman on the ground beside it. She was easily recognizable as Squealer, wearing the same clothes as she had in the image of her being arrested. She was trying to scrabble away from the burning vehicle and put out the sparks that sprayed from the fire onto her, a task made all the more difficult by the fact that she clearly only had the use of one arm. The other clearly had something wrong with the shoulder and she visibly flinched whenever she accidentally put weight on it in her movements.

Squealer looked up from the ground in the direction her vehicle had come from and immediately began trying to push herself to her feet, an expression of fear crossing her face. The camera turned away from her in the direction she'd looked, briefly passing over a pair of figures moving quickly towards her before snapping back to focus on them.

They were, in a word, monstrous. Lit only by the light of the burning vehicle and a lone crappy streetlight behind them, their features were thrown in odd relief, emphasizing their inhuman features. Fanged mouths that bore little resemblance to any natural creature opened wide to allow long tongues to snake out. Oddly joined legs carried them forward in a swift bestial lope. Eyes sunken in their sockets glinted red in the dim light. They looked for all the world like creatures from a nightmare.

They caught up to Squealer in seconds as she tried to flee. One grabbed her by the wrist of her injured arm and pulled back, twisting her injured shoulder and making her legs buckle with pain. They were already grabbing her as soon as her escape attempt was stalled, seizing her in clawed hands and dragging her back the way they'd come. Squealer's feet dragged along the ground as she kicked and fought to try and free herself, to no avail. Though her angry cursing had been faintly picked up by the camera, her expression was more than a little afraid. The creatures didn't even react as they dragged her away from the light of the fire and into the dark. If not for the preceding news segment, no one watching would have thought of her as the villain of the situation.

The video cut back to the news anchor, who still bore a professionally neutral expression that made it impossible to tell what her reaction was to the video she'd just presented. "Shortly afterwards, the PRT released an official statement regarding the unknown cape, stating-"

"Blah, blah, blah." Alec drawled as he muted the television. "Seriously, why are you showing us this? We've all seen this already."

Bored; lying, hasn't seen it.

"I haven't." Rachel said from the other couch.

Doesn't care, only speaking up to object to Alec.

"You haven't either." Brian said. "I know you don't bother with the news."

Stern tone, irritated, thinks Alec is being too flippant. Thinks Alec is being unprofessional.

"Okay, well everyone who cares has seen it already." Alec said.

Rachel grunted, not objecting to that one. She had her feet kicked up on a table, more focused scratching Brutus behind the ears than the conversation. She hadn't even looked at the tv since Lisa had turned it on.

"Why did you even record this anyways?" Alec continued. "Are you that much of a nerd that you've taken to recording the morning news? Besides, you have the inside scoop. So spill already."

Lisa grinned and leaned forward. After having to wait for everyone to be available for a meeting, which mostly meant wheedling Alec into getting up before noon, she was eager to get to business. The fact that she got to show off what only she knew didn't hurt her enthusiasm either. "Well, she was about what she sounded like from the boss's tip. New to the cape game, not very confident, more than a little uncertain of her own power. Also, wary enough that she heard me out instead of attacking me"

"I still would have been more comfortable if you had taken someone with you." Brian said.

Irritated, concerned I didn't think it through. Concerned that I could have gotten captured, left the group without a connection to the boss.

Lisa pushed that information to the back of her mind. She didn't really need it right now, but it had been a while since she'd had cause to really use her power. Going too long without it always made her overcompensate when she did need it, which always ended in a migraine. Better to keep it on a trickle than shut it off completely.

Lisa waved a hand at him. "Well maybe if somebody had a room at the loft instead of living downtown, he could have gotten there in time to back me up instead of showing up ten minutes after the meeting was over."

"C'mon, she got out of it fine, right?" Alec said. "Who cares what she should have done, it's done, doesn't matter."

"It matters," Brian stressed, "in case this happens again. The next new cape might not be so friendly."

"Eh, she wasn't that friendly." Lisa said. "The gifts helped soften the blow, but she didn't like me much. There was a bit of a… stumbling block in our conversation."

"And that was?" Brian prompted.

"She wants to be a hero."

Alec scoffed and sagged back into the couch cushion he was reclining on. "Great, so she's a lost cause. Great meeting everyone, perfect use of my morning. Where's my controller?"

"Told you we didn't need her." Rachel said, crossing her arms.

"Not quite." Lisa said, raising a finger. "I said wants to be, not is. You all saw this, right?"

She grabbed the tv remote and rewound it, ignoring Alec's protests as he looked for his game controller, before pausing it on an image of the monsters that had grabbed Squealer. They looked positively hellish in the firelight, clawed hands outstretched to grab the fleeing Merchant.

"What does this look like to you?" Lisa asked.

"Not the friendliest power." Brian said thoughtfully. "Do you think she'll end up with a villain label because the public gets scared?"

"Not quite," Lisa said, "It might be part of it, but she could probably still make it as an independent, whatever her power looked like. Her problems will come if she tries to join up with the Wards. There's a reason you don't see many mind-controlling Masters or particularly horrific Changers in the Protectorate, and a Nilbog-lite would face the same problems."

Brian perked up warily. "Nilbog-lite? What is her power, exactly?"

Wary; doesn't want the Protectorate attention that would come to the city with a power like that. Considering trying to drive her out of the city.

Lisa shoved down her power again and waved her hand. "Relax, I was being dramatic. From what I saw, I'd peg her as a decently leveled Master with some Trump thrown in for flavor. She can make different minions with different powers, with some sort of restriction that stops her from just making a horde of monsters. But they're definitely monsters, and that's the sticking point.

"The Protectorate, and the Wards by extension, like the pretty, PR friendly powers that play well in the public eye. The ones who have powers that would get them a lot of uneasy looks tend to get out-of-the-way postings to quarantine sites or the nasty jobs no one likes to look at. With Wards it's trickier, since the Youth Guard would object to doing that sort of thing to a minor. Most likely she'd get a public announcement and then sit on the sidelines until either they get an opportunity to cut her lose where the public never sees or an S-class threat comes calling. And from what I know of her, she would not take that well, and even a hint of that showing up during the induction process would probably sour her to the whole thing."

Brian nodded, making a noise of agreement. "So, you're saying she'll stay independent?"

"I'm saying either she'll stay independent or she'll become a Ward and in the process become someone we'll never have to deal with unless we supremely piss off the Protectorate or their PR department becomes leagues more competent overnight."

Brian hummed in thought. "Well, from the sound of it we're in a pretty good position. If you're right about the Wards-"

"I am." Lisa interrupted.

"If you're right," Brian repeated, "Then she won't be much of a problem to us if she joins them, and we don't do enough day-to-day stuff for an independent hero to pin us down easy."

"So she's not just a lost cause, she's almost totally irrelevant." Alec snarked as he finally pulled his controller out from under a couch cushion and switched the tv over to his game console. "Remind me why we needed to have this meeting?"

Brian ignored him "But I'm guessing by the smug look on your face there's more?" he asked Lisa.

"Got it in one!" Lisa replied with a grin. "Like I said, she wants to be a hero, but she isn't one quite yet. Part of that's lack of connections, part of it's… mentality."

She paused. Between her power and good old-fashioned cold reading, Lisa had been able to learn a lot about the unnamed cape in their short meeting. But that left her with the dilemma of how much to tell the others. If they were going to be outright enemies she'd have no remorse about telling all, but she had a lot more reservations given the pseudo-alliance she'd managed to arrange, especially since she still hoped to draw the cape into a full team membership. She couldn't even trust the other Undersiders about the full extent of Rachel's issues, so telling them about a stranger's secrets? Alec would probably be too flippant about it to keep it a secret from the cape herself, Rachel would almost certainly try to use it as ammunition to drive her away from joining up, and Brian would probably tell her in an attempt to show sympathy if she ever did join. In any case, Lisa was certain the cape would take them knowing her problems without her being the one to tell them as a betrayal and sour any alliance, much less a chance at a membership.

So Lisa decided to stay quiet about the cape's array of issues and stick to the most relevant parts. "Tip of the iceberg, her approach to Trainwreck. According to my power, going after him wasn't motivated much by heroism."

Alec perked up at that. "Really?"

Interested; more interested than when he thought she was a potential ally. Amused by the idea of a villainous hero.

"Come on, don't make us guess," Brian said. "Why'd she do it?"

"I'm betting revenge," Alec said, not looking away from the shooter he was starting up. "Someone gets Triggered, goes out on a quest against everyone involved, it's a classic."

"Actually, pretty close." Lisa said. "I'm ninety-nine percent sure Trainwreck didn't cause her Trigger, but he did wrong her somehow. Taking him down was a form of catharsis. Justified to hell and back in her head, but taking him down was still mostly for selfish reasons."

"Great," Alec drawled, fingers tapping away at the controller, "So a wanna-be hero who beats up anyone who crosses her because she enjoys it."

"Not quite," Lisa said, "Best I could figure, it was more about proving something to herself. Either way, it was enough of a drive that she would have spent the night scouring the Trainyard for him if I hadn't pointed her the right way."

"Which brings us to point two of our meeting." Brain said. "What exactly happened during that meeting?"

Lisa grinned at him, preemptively stifling her power. "Before I start, promise you won't get mad."

"Saying that just makes me more certain I'm going to be mad." Brian said flatly.

Lisa laughed. "Fair enough. I made a deal with her to provide information about gangs, capes, basically whatever she asks about."

Brian didn't respond immediately, and even without her power Lisa could tell he wasn't happy. "And what do you get out of this?" he eventually asked.

Lisa shrugged. "Honestly? Nothing. I promised her the info with no strings attached, and I intend to honor that."

That was enough to make Alec glance away from his game, where he was mowing down computerized foes with almost contemptuous ease. "Seriously?" he asked incredulously. "I'm pretty sure it's business 101 to never do anything for free, much less as a villain."

Brian crossed his arms and fixed Lisa with a stare. "Explain to me exactly what your reasoning was for making a deal to help a hero."

Crossed arms; annoyed. Annoyed at me for doing this on my own. Annoyed at himself for not being there to have a say in what happened.

Stance and posture militaristic; learned behavior from father. Attempting to assert authority. Doesn't consciously know where he picked it up.

Lisa shoved her power down again. She liked Brian, or at least got along well with him, but when he got like this he always seemed more like Grue, mask or not.

"Like I said," Lisa said, "She's not quite a hero. I give her good odds for ending up as a full vigilante, especially given how her public debut's gone, worse odds for becoming a full-fledged hero one way or another. In any case, she's going to be out there beating the shit out of gangs. By helping her, I, and by extension, the Undersiders, become too useful for her to turn on."

She grinned again. "Plus, a business arrangement could eventually grow into an alliance, or even recruitment."

Lisa stayed quiet about her certainty that just being a consistently friendly face to the cape would probably make her more disposed to joining them, given what Lisa could pick up about her utter lack of strong social connections. Saying anything about the cape's isolation would be the first step towards exploiting it, and Lisa had standards.

Really, exploiting it was the last thing she wanted to do. Lisa genuinely did want to help the cape. She'd been partially honest with what she'd said about her hatred of the gangs in her sales pitch. But the way the cape was on her own, just trying to do what she felt she needed to by any means… It remined Lisa of herself, in the time after she'd split from her family before joining the Undersiders, wandering and robbing because she just didn't see any other way forward.

That time of her life had sucked, and the cape apparently had the double whammy of only Triggering a few weeks ago, and Lisa couldn't help but feel for her. Not to mention the other issues she'd picked up on that might be her power overreaching or might be genuine. If they were real… well, she didn't want to do nothing and learn she should have done something only after things went bad.

Rachel abruptly stood up, drawing Lisa and Brian's attention. "We don't need her." She said bluntly.

Brian turned towards her, though his eyes flicked between her and Lisa.

Unsure how to approach. Afraid backing Rachel will make her challenges of authority bolder. Afraid backing me will be approval of my reckless decision.

"Maybe." He said. "We'll see how things go. She might not want to work with us, or she might not fit in with us."

"I'm telling you she won't fit in." Rachel growled, standing from the couch. Brutus perked up as his master stood. "We don't need anyone else in the group."

"We've had this discussion before." Brian said, meeting her gaze with a glare of his own. "We, as a group, decided that we wanted Spitfire on the team. And then you decided to scare her off rather than go along with what we'd decided."

"Fuck off!" Rachel spat. "She wouldn't have lasted anyways."

"Well we'll never know now, will we?" Brian said. "It doesn't matter anyways. You don't get to just go against the group like that."

"Technically, didn't Lisa do just that by making that deal without asking us?" Alec piped up.

Brain made a noise of annoyance, but didn't break eye contact with Rachel. "Not helping."

The stare-down continued in silence a few seconds more. Rachel broke first, sitting back down in a huff.

"Let's put it to a vote then." Brian said. "Lisa, you're obviously in favor of the agreement. Alec?"

Alec shrugged. "Sure, why not. If there's a monster maker running around, I'd rather she's on our side."

Brain nodded. "Alright then. I still don't entirely like it, but we might as well work with it."

"Sounds like it's three to one in my favor." Lisa said cheerfully, "I promise you won't be disappointed."

Rachel made an angry noise of disagreement but didn't speak up again. Her dogs picked up on her attitude anyways, shifting out of their relaxed positions as if getting ready to move.

"We'll see." Brain sighed. "So, what are the specifics of your deal?"

Lisa shrugged. "Don't know yet. She's calling tonight so we can hammer out the particulars. My guess is some rules like only meeting over the phone or her getting to pick the specific topic I give her info on, typical paranoid stuff to make sure we can't ambush her or manipulate her into taking out our rivals."

"Could we?" Alec asked curiously. "Give her info so she takes out Kaiser or Lung so we don't have to worry about them?"

Lisa shrugged again. "Could I cherry pick the intel I give her to guide her on a specific course? Even with whatever restrictions she gives me, probably. Could I do it in a way she wouldn't realize? That would depend on her being stupid, and I wouldn't say that's a smart bet."

"Speaking of intel," Brian said, "I assume you'll be getting at least the basics from the boss?"

"Yeah," Lisa replied, "I was planning to call him right after this and hash it out. And before you ask, no, this shouldn't cost us anything. He has some side projects he's working on that he's willing to pay me to help with, I'll just pick those up and take a pay cut there in exchange for intel on the gangs' activities."

"So we're done here until you get those phone calls done?" Brian asked.

Lisa nodded. "Yeah, pretty much."

Brian's body language changed almost immediately, going from a business-oriented villain boss to a teenager in a second. "Awesome. Hey, Alec, tag me in." He said, grabbing another game controller from by the tv and dropping onto the couch beside him.

Rachel was already up and storming down the stairs, her dogs following close behind. It didn't take a Thinker power to realize she'd wanted to leave some time ago, but hadn't been willing to lose her chance to object.

Lisa left them to it and headed to her room. She closed and locked the door behind her before pulling a box out from under her bed. Flipping the lid open, she revealed a case full of organized rows of SIM cards. Most were unused, but a minor use of her power helped Lisa find the one she wanted mixed in with the others. She pulled it out of the case, removed her phone's current SIM card, and slotted the replacement in before making a call.

While it rang, Lisa opened the gates of her power again. Dealing with the other Undersiders was a much different matter than talking with the boss, and she wanted every advantage she could get.

It only rang twice before he picked up. "Tattletale." The voice of Coil said through the phone, faintly tinny. "You have something about the new cape."

Statement, not a question. Doesn't know I know something; demanding I know something.

Poor quality of audio due to-

She shut her power off before it could get off track, refocused on the conversation rather than the medium. "Hey boss," she said, putting on a grin even though he couldn't see her, "Yeah, I talked with our mystery cape. Thanks for the info, by the way, would have been a bitch to track her down otherwise."

Coil made a quiet hum in response before speaking again. "And what have you learned?"

Amused about providing information to me given my power.

Impatient; wants to know more about the cape. Wants to know how to approach the cape.

"Well," Lisa said, drawing out the word to be several syllables longer than it should. "Bad news and good news. Bad news, she wants to be one of the white hats."

A short pause, almost too small to note, passed before Coil replied. "I see." He said calmly. "And the good news?"

Disappointed but not surprised. Already thinking of how to work the cape into existing plans. Already thinking of ways to kill the cape.

Lisa suppressed a shudder. Getting recruited at gunpoint tended to set a tone for an employer, but it still made her uneasy just how often her power picked up a casual but very genuine consideration of murder from Coil.

"Good news," she said with well-practiced false cheer, "Is that I got to play the role of devil and make a deal with her. That's most of why I'm calling now instead of last night, had to talk the others into letting me go through with it. She wants to hit the gangs, so I give her info on them that she can use, and in return the Undersiders won't be in her crosshairs."

"And I suppose you'll be wanting me to give this information to you, so that you may past it on to her."

"Pretty much, yeah."

Coil didn't reply immediately, though the phone picked up a creak as he adjusted his position in his set.

Lisa waited impatiently. Talking over the phone like this, there was only so much her power could tell her based off of silence. She could tell he was considering the pros and cons of the situation, though if she relied on her power to tell her more she'd get nothing but overextended guesses. So she suppressed it and waited for Coil to talk again.

"Very well," Coil said at length, "I will provide you with general information on the gang's activities, though requests for more specific information must be given several days in advance, and this is going to cost a portion of your monthly salary."

Wants the cape under his influence in some way. Knows the cape can be useful somehow. Knows the cape's power.

That part only surprised Lisa a little. He'd known where the cape was in the Trainyard to pass on directions, so of course he'd known her power after she used it there. She pushed her desire to work out the specifics of his network of spies and surveillance to the back of her mind and tried to focus on what her power was still telling her.

Plans to censor information. Plans to avoid providing information that could lead to his own activities. Plans to avoid providing information that would help me single out his sources.

And there it was, the paranoia even against her that showed up eventually in almost every conversation they had.

"Speaking of that, I was thinking I could pick up some extra projects instead to cover the cost? I know you still have those files you want me to look over."

Coil considered it for a moment. "Very well. Your consultation would be appreciated. We can talk exact percentages when the work is complete. You can start by sending me a dossier of everything you've learned about our new cape."

More pleased about my consultation than he wants to show. Wants material analyzed quickly. Intends analyzed data to serve as trump card.

Intends to use my information on new cape against her if need arises.

"Whatever you say, boss! Though I do have one more request."

"Yes?"

"Can I get a raise if I manage to get her to join up?"

"…Perhaps." Coil said before hanging up. Short and brisk, but still more of a response than she'd expected.

Genuinely considered the request.

A lot more of a response.

Lisa flopped down onto her bed with a groan. Coil, the Undersiders, the cape herself. Five different people, all with different wants and goals, and she had to find a way to convince all of them that the best thing to do is have the new cape join up with the Undersiders. Well, four people. She just needed to convince the majority of the Undersiders, so she could afford to write off Rachel's opinion.

How to do it? Coil would probably be on board for the sake of the Undersiders becoming more effective minions. The overhead of funding another member for the team probably wouldn't dissuade him, he'd never shied away at payment before. On the other hand, if she proved too effective on her own, he might want her to stay independent and unassociated. Lisa found herself hoping the cape avoided any more high-profile targets unless the possibility of recruitment was settled one way or the other.

Brian would probably be on board with having another member, especially one who could provide them with more muscle. Rachel wouldn't be convinced to change her mind through words alone, which meant the cape would have to join before Rachel came around to her. And that left Alec the deciding vote between a tie and agreement. Alec had backed her up today, but out of the three of them, he would be the most likely to change his mind. She'd have to make sure the stayed interesting and practical enough to hold his interests without problems on the cape's part that would dissuade him, or Brian for that matter.

The cape herself would be the trickiest part. As it stood, Lisa was fairly certain that simply helping her out and not being an utter shitheel in the process would be enough to start a good relationship. It was almost a good thing that all the major groups in the city were so terrible, otherwise one of them would certainly be able to capitalize on the cape's need to belong. From there it was a matter of building up a relationship, with a delicate balance of providing enough support and general friendliness to matter without her overreacting and dropping the bargain, or worse, lashing out. Joining the Undersiders really would be for her own good, it was just a matter of putting her in a position to realize it.

Further complicating things was the time constraint. Sooner or later, the Wards would manage to put together a meeting with her or she'd get enough confidence to seek them out herself. Lisa had to get her to a point where she'd be open to a more permanent partnership and put forth the offer before either happened, or else the window of opportunity would close.

There was always the possibility of a fourth group in the form of the Wards, Protectorate, and PRT. Pull the right strings, throw the right stones through the right windows, and she could create a situation where a Wards membership wasn't on the table for the cape in any form that would possibly appeal to her, if at all. Lisa dropped that idea almost as soon as she had it. If it ever came out that she'd manipulated the system, she could kiss any hope of being so much as friendly acquaintances with the cape goodbye. No, if she was going to do this, it would have to be legitimate, or at least as legitimate as she could be given her profession.

Multiple sides, conflicting desires, and a whole lot of outside factors, all to get one person on the team. It would be tricky without a doubt, with a lot of potential for things to go very wrong. Still, Lisa realized she was smiling. Whatever else this all ended up being, it certainly wouldn't be boring.