I paced in an alley. True to her word, Tattletale had told me the time and the place of the Undersiders' meeting for whatever job they were currently planning. I'd put on my costume, come to the area they were meeting, and only when I could see the building the meeting was in did I start getting cold feet.

I groaned and spun on my heel to continue the circuit I was walking. I'd already made up my mind that I was going. I wouldn't be able to bring down the Undersiders if I never even went near them. Even aiming low and putting aside thoughts of taking them down myself, getting enough information to hand over to the PRT required me to gather that information in the first place.

But taking this step and walking into a villain meeting felt like something irrevocable, something I couldn't take back no matter what I did in the future, even if I was the only one who ever knew. I turned my attention to what I was seeing from the eye-spy I'd slipped into the warehouse, appraising the situation I would be walking into.

The warehouse was similar to many of the ones I'd seen over the past month, though it resembled less the ones used by gangs and more the attached, abandoned ones I'd moved my eye-spies through to get to the relevant ones. Piles of old wooden boxes filled the room, many halfway rotten and all long ago pried open to salvage any valuables inside. In the middle of the mess was an open space, recently cleared going by the marks in the dust, in the center of which sat a table and the group I was here to meet.

Tattletale sat in a cheap folding chair at one end of the table. Spread out before her was an arrangement of papers, carrying tubes, and… was that a box of pizza? Well, she had mentioned takeout as a part of their planning process. It still seemed weirdly out of place, but I ignored it to focus on the villains.

A roughly human-shaped patch of darkness stood at the other end, a chair pushed back behind it. That would be Grue. Out of the four in the group, he was the only one I had really known about before finding out about the Undersiders. He was a mercenary, one who had only arrived in the city last summer. He'd been in the business longer than that though, working jobs in the cities and towns surrounding Brockton Bay for about a two and a half years beforehand. I'd first assumed he'd just gone where the work was, but Tattletale's comment about our similarities convinced me it had been more calculated, building up reputation and renown before moving to a more well-known city with more capes, a place where it would be harder to get those things as a novice struggling against the already established groups. A tactic that I might have used myself if only my attachment to the city hadn't given me a bit of tunnel vision, though it was only with the benefit of hindsight that I considered it.

Off to the side stood the other well-known villain, Hellhound. Her only costume was a cheap plastic dog mask, but that was enough to easily distinguish her. She was a nomadic troublemaker, moving from city to city and causing trouble in each for a few months before moving on. Brockton Bay was just her latest stop in a two-year long journey, though strangely enough she'd all but dropped off the map for a year before showing up again just a few months ago. After what I'd read about her, she was the member of the group that scared me the most. Lounging on the floor around her was a trio of dogs that caused a good chunk of that fear. According to the wiki, she could turn those dogs into mountains of muscle and bone with a thought before having them tear me to pieces. The other part of that fear was that the wiki had been very clear about her lack of a secret identity. Her cape and civilian life were one and the same, and that meant she had very little to hold her back, an assertion the wiki had backed up with notes about her violent and antisocial behavior. If anyone in the group decided to throw reason to the wind and lash out with violence, I was certain it would be her.

Sitting at the table across from her, leaning his seat with his feet on the table, was the group's mystery member. His clothing was of an old style I guessed to be renaissance-era, with a loose shirt and leggings. The top half of his face was hidden by a venetian mask, complete with a silver circlet atop his head. I was the most scared of Hellhound, but I was the wariest of him. I didn't know anything about his powers or personality. Even his name was a mystery to me.

Was he the leader of the group? It certainly seemed possible. Grue was a mercenary with no record of him working alongside other capes before the Undersiders, so I assumed he'd been bought out by the group on a longer contract. Hellhound, from what I knew about her from the wiki and the forums, was too volatile to pull a group like this together without feeding at least one member to her dogs by now. Tattletale… she was certainly intelligent and good at collecting information, but I couldn't imagine any group staying together for this long with her as the central personality.

And those things would remain a mystery until I actually went in there. I'd decided I was going to go to the meeting, so I was frustrated that I was having hang-ups now. As I considered it, the moral aspect of it wasn't actually my main concern. Sure, I didn't like the idea of involving myself with them, but I'd been associating with Tattletale for weeks now. My main problem with just walking in was the potential of danger in the situation.

Tattletale had made it clear she expected to come out on top if I tried to betray the Undersiders. That begged the question of how she planned to stay ahead of anything I tried. The Undersiders were thieves and escape artists, so I was reasonably confident the answer wouldn't directly involve violence. They got by by avoiding fights rather than winning them, so starting a fight fell outside their typical behavior. That meant they likely wouldn't preemptively attack me simply out of caution.

Tattletale's general know-it-all schtick made it more likely that any counter-betrayal would be more intellectual in nature. The first thought that came to mind was knowing when I would try to betray them and taking steps to ensure it would simply be ineffective. She'd given me my phone after all, and I couldn't wholly rule out that it was bugged, which meant calling ahead to the PRT to set up a trap for them would be difficult. I could always snag a phone from a gangster, but with the way she was always able to provide information regarding villain locations and hero patrols, I suspected she had some sort of source in the PRT itself.

The second thought was some sort of trick to show me to the public as a villain, ruining my own plans for betraying them. That thought was more concerning than the idea of getting the crap beaten out of me by Hellhound and Grue. Bruises and broken bones could heal, but a major stain on my reputation, especially if it was made into my first real public appearance, would be something I couldn't recover from.

I had to reassure myself that Tattletale had asked me to come along, which meant her ideal ending to the entire event involved me still on her side, and by extension, the Undersiders'. Deliberately making me appear as a villain to the public would destroy any hope keeping the arrangement we currently held, much less building any stronger relationship in the future, and she was smart enough to know that. If that was her plan, she couldn't afford to use it preemptively and it would most likely be a last-resort.

Simplified, it all meant the likelihood of this meeting being a trap was minimal. I had a good arrangement with Tattletale going on, there was no reason for them to set up a whole fake offer for me to come on a job just to try and get rid of me. But I was still nervous.

I contemplated whether to just send a savage in my place or call Tattletale and do the meeting over the phone. Both ideas were quickly dismissed. Sending a savage would give away my ability to wordlessly command my minions at a distance, and I wanted to keep that card up my sleeve as long as possible. Doing the meeting over the phone would arguably be even worse. It would definitely set off warning bells with them, which would put them on guard and hamstring my attempts to gather information.

Meeting in person was my only chance of getting the information I wanted without overtly playing my hand. I reluctantly stepped out of the alley towards the building, wishing I had some way to secure myself against whatever they might pull.

I felt my power twitch at the thought, but nothing happened. No air fracturing, no new monster. I sighed and slumped my shoulders a bit. Apparently walking into a meeting with supervillains wasn't enough of a reason for my power to create a new minion.

As I reached the building I considered whether to summon some savages, but decided against it. For one thing, it would come across as too hostile or untrusting if I showed up with a couple of mutant bodyguards. For another, if I did end up needing them, they would be of more use being created in the midst of the Undersiders.

I adjusted the strap of the backpack I carried over one shoulder. The zipper was open, leaving the assortment of assorted blunt metal items easily accessible. If it came down to violence, my savages would at least have easy access to weapons.

I opened an old employee door and walked inside. With my eye-spy in the rafters providing an overhead view, I was able to easily find my way through the maze of boxes to the center. They'd managed to turn on only the light above the meeting place, giving the table surrounded by villains a suitable dramatic look as I rounded the last set of boxes and saw the group with my own eyes for the first time.

Though Hellhound was the one looking in my direction, Tattletale was the first to see me. "And she arrives!" she said with a wide grin.

She hopped out of her chair and walked over to me, moving to sling an arm around my shoulders. I shied away reflexively, an impulse born of being on the receiving end of that same maneuver so Sophia or Emma could 'talk' with me. I winced under my bandanna, hoping I hadn't just offended her before I'd even gotten to say anything, or worse, made it seem like I didn't trust her. Which I didn't, but the whole information gathering thing hinged pretty heavily on them trusting me in turn.

But she took it in stride. Tattletale stepped away from me and pulled her arm back. "My bad, should have asked if you were cool with touching. So, you know who everyone is? Read all our wiki pages?"

I nodded hesitantly. It seemed weird to admit that I'd read someone's wiki page to their face, but the note of pride in her voice made me think she was more bragging about having a wiki page than actually asking a question. "Mostly. You, Grue, Hellhound-"

"Bitch." Hellhound spat. She glared at me through the eyeholes of her mask. Seeing her up close I realized for the first time just how much stockier than me she was. Considering our respective powers, I wouldn't have thought considering her as an opponent in a fistfight would be necessary, but by her stance I was about half certain she might have punched me if I was close enough.

"Excuse me?" I asked, balancing indignation with caution. I glanced at her dogs. Still normal. That was good. They had gotten up from their previously relaxed positions, which was less good.

"You heard her." The mystery cape said. "Bitch." He emphasized the word, distinctly pronouncing each syllable. He had a smile on his face, one far more satisfied that I felt the situation warranted.

I bristled, my power rising up. My attention flicked between Hellhound, her dogs, and the mystery cape, trying to figure out if one of them was going to make a move. I didn't want to start a fight within the first ten seconds of the meeting, but I also wasn't about to take insults lying down. I had enough of that as a civilian, letting it happen as a cape would be-

Tattletale interjected before I could respond. "It's not an insult. Her name is Bitch, the press just calls her Hellhound. Broadcast standards and decency and all that."

"Oh." I said lamely. I let my power die back down. Why hadn't they just said that to begin with?

"So she's Bitch, the jackass who tried to goad you to some sitcom misunderstanding is Regent, our illustrious leader is Grue, and I…" The pause and a movement from Tattletale drew my attention from where she'd been pointing at each person as she spoke. It took me a moment to realize understand what she'd done.

Tattletale had pulled her mask off. "…am Lisa. Nice to meet you."

She held out a hand to shake. I did so on reflex, still trying to work out what had just happened. She'd just… unmasked? The mask still dangled from her other hand. Yeah, that had just happened.

I looked at the other Undersides to try and gauge their reactions. Hellhound, or Bitch rather, didn't seem to react at all. Regent, as I now knew the mystery cape to be called, had a wide grin and seemed half a second away from bursting out laughing. And Grue…

I let go of Tattletale's hand and stepped away as I realized Grue and approached to within arm's reach. It hadn't quite clicked for me before just how dark the darkness around him was. It was so deeply, utterly black that it looked more like a hole in reality than anything else.

"Tattletale." The voice that came from the darkness sounded hollow, echoing and reverberating as if it was speaking out of some deep cave. It made it impossible to tell how old he was, and if the wiki hadn't mentioned he was a man, it would have been too distanced from any normal-sounding voice for me to guess his gender with any accuracy. The eerie effect was compounded by a glimpse of a skeletal face in the darkness, barely visible. "Can I talk to you for a moment?"

The two stepped away, leaving me with Regent and Bitch. Great. The one who was most likely to start a fight and the one who'd tried to goad me into starting one.

A moment of silence stretched on. Bitch pulled her own mask off and tossed it on the table with a noise of annoyance, though who or what it was directed at, I couldn't say. The picture of her unmasked face on the wiki was clearly a bit out of date, but not so much that it was a stretch to recognize her. Short auburn hair, blunt features, a nose that looked like it had been broken more than once. I looked away before she could catch me staring. No use pissing her off.

Regent finally laughed. "Dumbass."

I looked to him before registering it wasn't directed at me. I glanced to where Grue and Tattletale were talking, then back to him. "Does she…?"

"Normally do that when we meet people?" he finished. "No. Normally she's smart."

That was an interesting comment. Unless this entire meeting was a rehearsed deception, he'd basically just confirmed that Tattletale had given me her real name. For the life of me, I couldn't understand why she'd do that. She'd brought me here with the explicit understanding that I would betray them! She could have gotten through this meeting perfectly fine without telling me her name, if not better. Why give me even more information I could use to screw her over?

Bitch leaned over the table, glaring at me. "I don't want you here."

The non-sequitur threw me for a loop. "What?"

"We don't need you." Bitch said. "We can do this job fine on our own without you."

"Don't mind her." Regent said casually. "She doesn't like the idea of new people getting involved, gets pissy at the thought of getting a smaller share."

"Fuck you." Bitch spat, glowering at him.

Regent ignored her. "Though for the record, I don't want you here either."

I frowned. Okay, so half the group already didn't like me. If things continued at this rate, I'd be running away from the meeting with a pack of angry supervillains on my tail.

"What, you don't want a smaller share too?" I asked, trying to avoid an awkward, angry silence.

Regent shook his head. "Nah, I've plenty of cash. I was really just talking about this." He said, gesturing around us.

"This… meeting?" I asked.

"Yeah." He groaned. "Usually when we plan stuff we just do it at home. Crash on the sofa, pitch in here and there. Usually I don't even have to change out of pajamas. But now we've got to put on costumes, come out to a shitty warehouse, wait around for you to show up. It's a lot of hassle."

"I see." I said slowly. I was pretty sure I had his measure now. He was the kind of guy who liked to mess with people, say something to freak them out or make them think something different than what he meant. Though I wasn't sure if he even enjoyed it, it seemed like it might have just been an automatic response.

Though from that one exchange, I'd learned Regent liked to screw with people and wore pajamas while planning criminal activities. Looking back, I felt almost embarrassed by my suspicions that he was the leader.

"For the job itself, I'm all for you being there." He continued. "I'm all for having some freaky monsters on our side, especially if they're free."

"I'm getting paid." I said, a little more severely than I'd intended to. I didn't like the implication that they were planning to avoid paying me, especially after I'd made it clear to Tattletale that I wanted some of the money upfront. Though I was planning to sell them out to the Protectorate or find a way to beat them up myself, so I supposed it wasn't entirely unfair for them to not pay me.

He shrugged, apparently unconcerned. "Yeah, but I don't have to pay you. Tattletale's covering all that with her share." He stretched to snag the box of pizza and pulled out a slice before offering the box to me. "Pizza?"

I shook my head. Internally, I was still a bit shocked. Maybe I didn't have the full picture, but Tattletale, or Lisa, apparently, seemed to be staking a lot on me. She unmasked to me, she was paying me entirely out of her cut of whatever the job was, all for someone she'd openly invited to betray her. What was her plan?

I looked back towards her and Grue to find them returning to the table. Neither of the made any comment about what they had discussed as they returned to their places. "Well, now that that's out of the way," Lisa said, "It's time for your part of the introductions."

I felt nervous under the gaze of four sets of eyes. "I don't have a name picked out yet." I lied. I did have an idea for a name, but I didn't want to use it until I was joining the Wards. I definitely didn't want to use it for whatever they were planning.

"We need to call you something, otherwise we'll just be yelling 'hey, you'." Grue said. "Why not Bogeyman? It's what the forums call you."

I shook my head. "If I do this, it's under the condition that it doesn't get tied back to me later. Calling me that would just streamline the process of identifying me."

"How about Freak?" Regent suggested.

I stiffened. "No." I said coldly. I'd heard that name enough around Winslow. And as much as I wanted to avoid this meeting becoming a confrontation, I would probably punch him in the face without a second thought if he started calling me that.

"Critter, Bestiary, Aberration, Cadmus, Cryptid." Lisa rattled off. "It's only for the short term, it doesn't need to be great."

"Aberration, sure." I said, picking one at random.

"Too long." Regent commented. "I'm just going to call you Abby."

I sighed. I'd dealt with this enough at Winslow, I knew reacting would just encourage him. "Fine, go ahead." It wasn't like I'd be stuck with the name forever.

"Great, that's dealt with." Lisa said. "Pull up a chair and we can get started."

The others were sitting, leaving me with a fifth chair sitting at the edge of the cleared space. I grabbed it, and after a moment's consideration, moved it to sit between Regent and Lisa.

Lisa scooted over a bit to give me some more room, then offered me the box of pizza from where Regent had placed it. "Hungry?"

"No thanks, Regent already offered me some." I said awkwardly.

Lisa nodded knowingly. "It's the mask, right? Can't eat without taking it off? Don't worry, we'll leave you some to take with you once we're done."

"That's fine." I said. "But before we start, I have some questions."

Lisa glanced at Grue. "Go ahead." He said.

"First, what's up with you and Faultline?"

Lisa grinned as she snagged a piece of pizza for herself before pushing the box over to Bitch. "You talked to her, huh? I figured you would. Short version, personal disagreements. Long version, back in November we hit a tech firm that she was also hired to rob. We got away with the loot and I was a less than graceful winner."

"She bragged her ass off about being smarter than Faultline." Regent pitched in.

Lisa inclined her head in acknowledgement. "Yeah, that. She's a professional merc with years of experience under her belt, so losing to us was a blow to her ego, and I pretty much took credit for it. From there things kind of spiraled. Mostly just insults, but occasionally there's some actual interference."

"Like Spitfire." Regent commented.

"Her newest recruit?" I asked.

"She was going to be our newest recruit." Grue said. "But Faultline poached her before we got the chance."

I nodded understandingly. In actuality, my thoughts were far from Spitfire. Lisa had only mentioned it offhandedly, but her feud with Faultline had started over something that happened in November. That was months earlier than anything had shown up about the Undersiders being a group online. This whole meeting was a goldmine of information. Besides that, now I knew that Grue was their leader, that they were recruiting, and more about Regent than the entire PHO.

But I needed to know more. "Okay, I guess that makes sense. Second question, what are your powers?"

"Why do you want to know?" Grue asked.

I shrugged. "If there's a possibility I'm doing a job with you, I want to know what I'd be working alongside. I already know you and Hel- Bitch's powers, and you probably know mine, but what about them?" I asked, gesturing to Regent and Lisa.

"Well…" Regent said with a grin.

"No." Grue cut in. "His power gives him minor control over other people's reflexes. Makes them stumble, drop things, flub a punch."

"Come on!" Regent said in annoyance. "Why can't I explain my own power?"

"Because you were going to give a demonstration." Grue said. "And this is neither the time nor the place."

"As for me," Lisa said, "Sorry hon, that's a trade secret for members only. But I'll tell you this: I know a lot more than I should."

I hadn't even realized I was tense, but I relaxed. The power of Regent, the mystery cape, was to make people twitch. That was significantly less ominous than some of the alternatives I'd imagined leading up to this meeting.

Lisa, on the other hand, continued to miff me. Now I at least had confirmation that she was some sort of Thinker, but the exact mechanism was still secret. Unfortunate, though not entirely unexpected. I'd concealed the details of my own power from Faultline, though I hoped this meeting would go better than that one.

"Any more questions?" Grue asked. When I shook my head, he stood up. "Alright then. Let's get down to business. Tattletale?"

Lisa grabbed one of the carrying tubes and popped it open, unrolling a blueprint on the table. "Ladies and gentlemen, I give you our target: the Ruby Dreams Casino."

I perked up at that. "Isn't that owned by the ABB?" Maybe this wasn't so bad after all. That casino had to bring in quite the cash flow for ABB and I was all for cutting it off.

"No," Lisa said, "Despite what the rumor mill likes to circulate."

"Really?" I said.

"Yeah. The ABB do skulk around the area sometimes, but there's nothing to suspect they have actual ABB ties."

"Not doing much to encourage me to help you rob the place." I said dryly.

"You'd find out eventually, and I'd rather be honest with you than build a relationship on a lie. If you agree with the plan, I want it to be because you actually agree with it. But I digress. The important thing about the casino is that it's outside the city. They built it there to avoid city property taxes, but it also means they're outside the Protectorate's usual scope in Brockton."

"By how much?" Grue asked.

Lisa shrugged. "Enough that if our robbery happens on a night and at a time where the on-duty PRT capes are all Wards, it would take them too long to either get extra-city authorization for the kids or call in an adult hero to deal with us in any reasonable timeframe. Easy enough to plan if you have access to the PRT schedule." She held up a printed page of notes with a grin. "And I do."

That definitely caught my attention. It seemed I hadn't been off the mark with my suspicions of her having a source in the PRT.

Grue nodded. Or at least I thought he did, the patch of darkness where I assumed his head was bobbed down a little. "Alright. What are the building's key points?"

Lisa grabbed another set of papers and spread them over the blueprints. "Power. The casino is pretty far from the main grid, and that means vulnerable power lines. Cut those and the whole place goes dark."

Grue made a hollow noise I took to be a hum. "Why would we want that? We do smash-and-grabs, not heists."

"Yeah, but think of the rep." Lisa said. "Anyone can knock down a door and grab some cash. Blowing the power is a step above, shows everyone that we're more than just common thieves."

"I still think it's unnecessarily complicated. The more steps to the plan, the more we risk the whole thing failing if one goes wrong."

"You would think that, but that's where this comes in." Lisa tapped a set of papers. I grabbed one and skimmed it while she kept talking. "The casino keeps its cash in the back, and given how much it hangs onto between bank visits, security is pretty tight. One of the more prominent problems is a set of reinforced security doors. Someone presses a button or the sensors pick up someone without the right authorization, the doors drop and lock in place until the primary administrator comes to open them, no exceptions."

"And cutting the power helps with these?" I asked warily. So far, Lisa and Grue had done most of the talking and I was cautious about catching attention in this conversation.

"Exactly," Lisa said, acknowledging my input without a second thought. "The doors are fail open for fire safety purposes, which means that if we cut the power, the lock-down doors go out of commission. If we just try and bust in there, we'd have to spend time breaking open each door with the dogs. We could do it, but it would take a much longer time than just strolling through an unobstructed hallway.

"And that's not to mention the other stuff that goes down without power. The alarm signal to the authorities for example, or the security cameras."

She looked at me as she said the last part. The message was clear, if the power was cut, there would be no security footage of me being there.

"I agree." I said. "Cutting the power seems like it's the best way to remove the most obstacles the fastest.

"Alright, you've sold me." Grue said. "We'll cut the power. But you're overlooking something. A business that big would have a backup generator."

"It does." Lisa said. "But with the primary power flow interrupted, the whole building switches over to a power conservation set up, which lessens the security around the breakers. We get to those and we can shut down the parts we want."

"So security cameras, security doors, alarms." Grue said. "What's the security on the cash room itself?"

"Analog safe door." Lisa said with a grin. "Probably didn't want anyone to be able to hack it, but my power can get us in fine and it isn't impaired if we cut power to the whole area."

"Alright. So for out route, I'm thinking we go here." Grue reached an arm out of the darkness to trace a finger across a particular section of the blueprint. It was the first glimpse I'd gotten to the person behind the darkness. He wore a glove and what seemed to be a leather jacket, which seemed at odds with the skeletal face I'd seen looming from the darkness. Had he spent most of his budget on a mask? Or was he a Case 53 under all those shadows?

Lisa looked at the route he'd indicated and raised an eyebrow. "Right past the security offices?"

"Sure. If we avoid them, we give them time to spread out, come at us from an unexpected place or time, or just call the cops. This way we go to them and deal with them on our terms."

"Good with me." Regent pitched in. "But I have to ask, what's stopping any old schmo from just calling the cops?"

"Not much." Lisa admitted. "But a phone call doesn't have quite the same kick as an emergency protocol. Besides, if we avoid the main floor of the casino and leave the power on to the office sections on the upper floors, no one besides the guards will even know we're there. And since our working plan involves taking out the guards and cutting all the automated alarms, we've got a pretty good chance of pulling this off without anyone hearing about it until it's over."

Regent groaned. "Why did you say that? Never say anything like that, it's just asking for trouble!?

Lisa ignored him. "Now, let's talk guard routes."

An hour ticked by, then another. Lisa led the discussion with Grue providing comments and criticisms. Occasionally Regent would pitch in, or very rarely, Bitch, but for the most part they seemed satisfied letting the other two handle the planning. I stayed mostly quiet. Occasionally I asked a question to clarify something or another, but I didn't actually contribute. I didn't want to make the plan better considering my participation hinged on how good it was, but it was feeling more and more likely that I would be going along.

I was almost certain now that Lisa had sources in the PRT. Besides the schedule, she'd spouted off notes on the tactics and habits of the heroes on duty for the planned day that you couldn't just get from the wiki. That meant just calling the PRT on them wasn't an option, though considering their reputation for slipping out of tricky situations, I'd already eliminated the option of just calling the Protectorate to snag them at the arranged meeting place. If I wanted to take them down, I'd need to get involved myself.

But how well I could do that depended on the plan. And the thing was, these guys were good at planning. They laid out guard routes, how to move through the casino without alerting the patrons, what to do if something went wrong and the plan to screw with the power failed. Lisa had even made certain to cover her bases in terms of secrecy, enough that I had to stretch my imagination to find objections in the arena of keeping my participation secret. There wouldn't be cameras, there wouldn't be any circumstances that specifically called for the use of my power. I could probably make a second, even shittier costume just for this job and go through it without ever using my power if all went well.

But participating without risk was meaningless if I didn't also accomplish my objective and find a way to capture the Undersiders. Maybe an opportunity would arise during the plan if they separated or if something else went wrong that I could capitalize on, but those seemed less likely. The best opportunity I could see was on the return. They planned to drive out to the casino in vans, use Bitch's dogs for the job, then shrink them back down and return in the vans. Sabotaging the vans wouldn't stop them when they had the dogs to ride, but it would leave them exposed as they tried to make their way back to Brockton, especially if I managed to place a call to the Protectorate in the middle of the job. Lisa had mentioned they wouldn't make it to the casino in time, but they'd certainly have a chance of intercepting the large and obvious mutant dogs making a beeline to the city.

Or I had the option of just calling it now. Walking away with the information I'd gotten to trade in to the PRT and hope that was enough. That was… not a satisfying thought. It was certainly my safest option, but it meant relying on the hope that what I'd learned wasn't already documented in their professional files. The only tidbit I was certain they didn't have was Lisa's identity.

As if knowing I was thinking about her, Lisa looked over to me and shot me a grin. I'd tried to keep thinking about her as Tattletale, but she still hadn't replaced her mask. The first and only other time I'd seen her had been in the poor light of the Trainyard, making this my first chance to get a good look at her. Her eyes were bottle-glass green, a shade I hadn't seen often before, and her face was dusted with freckles, though most would have been hidden beneath the mask.

It jarred me a little just how normal she looked. She was pretty, sure, but I wouldn't have thought twice if I saw her shopping at the Market or passing me in the hall at Winslow. But here she was, planning to rob a casino and laying out plans for how to avoid superheroes.

"So!" Lisa said, clapping her hands and shaking me out of my thoughts. "I think we've got everything covered. Anything else?"

"Yeah." Bitch said, pushing herself to her feet. "We still don't need her here."

She jabbed a finger at me, her scowl deepening as she glared at me.

"Bitch." Grue said warningly.

She kept talking, ignoring him. "She's not important to the plan, we can get it done without having to bring along some dead weight."

"Bitch." Grue repeated, more firmly this time. "We've had this discussion, and everyone but you voted in favor of bringing her along. Drop it."

Bitch clearly didn't want to drop it. From the way she was glaring at me, I was surprised a blood vessel wasn't bursting in her eye. To the side, the shadowy form of Grue moved a step closer to her. She glanced sideways at him and the laser focus of her anger seemed to break. Bitch sat down heavily in her chair, still fuming but clearly having ceded the argument.

"Though we still haven't gotten the most important vote." Lisa said. She turned towards me with a smile, a more genuine one than the self-satisfied grins she'd been making while she planned. "So how about it? Want to help us rob a casino?"

I considered the question, though my mind was already all but made up. If I wanted even a hope of trying to bring down the Undersiders, or even just of gathering more information, I needed to go on the job with them. And the job itself was sound, enough that I was reasonably certain I wouldn't be linked to it afterwards.

Or I could not do this and be back to facing a long and arduous slog to build up a reputation, only vaguely bolstered by a few tidbits of information on the Undersiders, most of which probably wouldn't remain relevant for long.

"Alright," I said, taking the plunge, "I'm in."

There was no cheer of joy from the assembled villains, only a few monosyllabic expressions of satisfaction, with the exception of Bitch. Lisa's smile grew wider. "Glad to have you on-board, Aberration."

She turned back to the Undersiders. "I think that does it for the meeting. You guys can head back, I just have to settle up some stuff with our new friend first."

Part of me wanted to object to that. We weren't friends, this was just a business arrangement. But another part of me wasn't about to object to someone calling me a friend, especially since there wasn't even a hint of sarcasm when she'd said it.

Bitch wasted no time in showing herself away from the table and stalking off. Her chair fell over behind her, but she didn't even look back. Her three dogs trailed after her, followed by a lazily stretching Regent. Grue didn't follow immediately, instead grabbing the assorted papers and tubes from the table. He left a minute later, leaving behind only one sheaf of papers and the few remaining slices of pizza in the box.

Lisa watched them go, then turned back to me. "Just thought you might feel better talking about our deal without all of them here."

"Yeah." I said appreciatively. "So…"

I hesitated. Part of me wanted to ask about betrayal issue, but at the same time I felt like even mentioning it would cause problems, even if she was the one who had first raised the idea to me.

"I want to have an alibi." I said instead. "The night of the job. Just a couple of hours before, give me a drug house or something to bust. Nothing too big, just something that would make sense."

Lisa nodded. "Yeah, I can do that no problem. But in the short term…"

She reached into a pouch on her belt and pulled out an envelope, sliding it to me on the table. "I went with a median amount based on out past jobs. One point four thousand dollars, as requested."

My eyes widened as I grabbed the envelope. I hesitated for a moment before tearing it open and checking inside. It was filled with fifty-dollar bills that I quickly counted. It was just like she'd said. It was hard to wrap my head around. That one envelope had almost three times as much money as I'd ever had in my bank account.

What could I even do with this? Pay for self defense classes, for one. The first aid class I'd taken on the weekends was great and all, but it wouldn't help me if someone ever managed to get past my minions to me. Or maybe I could just buy a taser. Hell, I could buy a dozen!

Or I could buy nothing, since she'd gotten this money to pay me with from other crimes, I reminded myself. Still, I wasn't about to just hand it over to the police. An envelope of probably stolen cash couldn't really help them all that much, right? I was fighting gangsters essentially on my own, I might as well use it to help myself.

"And one more thing before you go." Tattletale said. She grabbed the papers Grue had left behind and held them out to me. On them were simplified images of a human body, ranging from full body shots to closeups of heads and hands. Each was also connected to numerous empty boxes by dotted lines that seemed to wrap around various body parts. The papers showed, in essence a blank slate.

Lisa smiled at me. "You get to design your costume."