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Terror 3.b
Endbringer shelters were remarkable pieces of engineering. Buried under several hundred feet of dirt and earth their thick concrete and steel walls could survive the harshest of conditions. Storms would bounce right off them and earthquakes wouldn't even move the titanium anchored buildings. Blast doors a foot thick could withstand the main gun of a tank and were utterly airtight. Add in a dedicated generator with enough supplies and theoretically one could remain inside indefinitely. They were utterly self-sufficient. There were only a few things that could breach an Endbringer shelter with regularity.
Endbringers.
Coil supposed it was ironic that the one thing that Endbringers shelters were designed to keep out were one of the few things that they couldn't. No matter how thick the walls were built or how deep underground they were buried Endbringers would always find a way through. Behemoth would simply dig until the entire facility was within his kill zone and flood the bunkers with radiation. Leviathan would have his waves eat away at the foundations and sweep the buildings out to sea, assuming he didn't just sink the city. The Simurgh would lock everyone inside and drive them mad with her powers, using the very thing that was meant to keep them safe to destroy them all.
No, trying to build something to withstand the Endbringers was a futile endeavor, which was why Coil had long since stopped trying long ago. Unless the shelter was high profile or subject to rigorous inspection, it was rare for the buildings to be built up to the standard that he had originally set. It wasn't that he particularly wanted the Endbringers to kill thousands of the mindless peons, but the resources needed to build one were expensive. It was far cheaper to use lesser quality materials than trying to ship in thousands of pounds of steel and titanium. Besides, it wasn't like building them even stronger were going to save any of them in the end, so why should he bother? The money that would have been wasted on the bunkers were put into far more productive positions, like bribing local officials or hiring international mercenaries.
The one expectation he made was to his own personal bunker. If he was going to live in something, then he was going to make sure that it was well built. It still wasn't finished yet, but they were coming close. The project had been delayed numerous times because of the secrecy of it. It wasn't like they could just start digging a hole on the surface in plain view. Secreting the materials through the sewers systems was time-consuming, but it had been the best way to keep the bunker a secret. A few bribes to the right maintenance workers and nobody was the wiser than he had built his own personal Endbringer shelter underneath the city.
Unlike others, this one was built up to code, it not beyond. A barracks in the southern part of the building housed his mercenaries and their Tinker tech weapons. It was useful for keeping them from being discovered by a nosy investigator and allowed him to keep a close eye on them.
The rooms were airtight and soundproof, which meant no biological or chemical attack could get through. A sensible precaution, given the existence of the Slaughterhouse Nine and Bonesaw. The entirety of the bunker's systems could be controlled from his desk computer where he stored his most important files, including the codes to the building's self-destruct. Coil hoped that he would never have to use the shaped charges placed ay key points in the structure's foundations, but it was always better to be safe than sorry. Any invaders who managed to breach the bunker would find him long gone and themselves being buried under thousands of pounds of rubble.
This was his place of safety, where he could hide from all the dangers that existed outside and focus on his work. In one timeline, he was rereading the files that he had managed to acquire from the PRT's databanks. It was almost amusing how easy it was to gain access to PRT files compared to the Protectorate's databanks. The local Protectorate had the advantage of having Armsmaster as a member who regularly consulted with Dragon. The cyber defenses that those two could create together were almost unparalleled. He had often wondered why Piggot didn't have them work on the PRT's local mainframe as well, but he chalked that up to her bias against capes. It was something that he was going to have to correct once he was in charge, a goal that was starting to seem more distant by each day.
In his secondary timeline, Coil was taking out his well-deserved frustration of the events that were currently ruining his plans.
Thomas Calvert could feel a pulse of satisfaction wash over him as the tinker tech pistol in his hands thrummed with power. Smoke from the impressive amount of heat the pistol produced wrapped around the gunmetal gray barrel like a blanket. The smell of burning human flesh wafted up to his covered nose. Coil took a deep breath and allowed the scent of death to overcome him as his target slumped to the floor lifelessly.
Mr. Pitter's eyes were frozen in fear and shock as what little life remained was slowly drained out by the gaping wound in his chest. Along his sternum was a near perfect circle about the size of a quarter. No blood seeped out of the wound, the intense heat from the blast having cooked the man inside out. The beam had punched straight through Mr. Pitter's body and left a black burn mark on the titanium reinforced door behind him.
"Thank you, Mr. Pitter," Coil said to the lifeless corpse.
As the last twitches left the former doctor's body Coil allowed the timeline to collapse back in on itself, leaving him alone with the paperwork he had managed to collect. He split the timeline again, but this time he pulled out the fold up bed from the bunker's wall to get a nap, but not before double checking the door's seal. It wouldn't do him any good if he couldn't think straight in at least one of his timelines. While his other self was settling down for a short rest, Coil had buried himself in paperwork, looking for some way to salvage this mess than had fallen into his lap.
Coil could feel his hands tighten around the papers as a thought of the one responsible for this catastrophe filtered through his mind. If he ever saw that Ward he was going to shoot her, damn the consequences.
What was even more galling about the situation was that had this been kept in-house he could have used it. The threat of such a PR nightmare would have been just what he needed to force Piggot out of office. It would have been a little sooner than he would have liked, but one didn't become a millionaire by letting opportunities pass. A scandal like this would have destroyed Piggot's career and with the dirt he had on the few other candidates for her directorship, he would have been all but guaranteed the position.
But now the scandal was public, and the entire world knew that something was rotten in the state of Denmark. Reporters were coming in from around the country looking to get the next big scoop, tourists were canceling vacations, business were looking at the city with a warier gaze. And to top it off, the city was on the brink of a gang war that he wasn't prepared for. He was still compiling a list of Empire identifies, and that would take weeks for him to finish. The Undersiders were only just starting to get some traction, and hadn't even gone on their first heist yet.
But honestly, none of that frustrated him as much as the internal scrutiny the local PRT was getting. If the situation had been kept an internal he could have bribed or threatened the investigators off so that they would look away from his agents, but with the public outcry so great that wasn't going to be possible. Internal Affairs was going to send their best agents to look into the hellhole that was Brockton Bay, and Coil doubted he would be able to cow them into submission.
It meant that he was going to have to cut back on his intelligence operations and make sure all of his agents' histories were in order. Which meant wasting time scrolling through files double checking for irregularities that could have been spent more productively. It also meant that he was going to be flying blind during one of the most unstable times in the recent memory.
What was even worse was that this was likely to kill any chance of him becoming Director. The best-case scenario was that Piggot's career survived the purge by a thread. He could worm his way in by presenting himself as a man who existed outside of the PRT and uninvolved in the scandal. His best bet would have been to divulge his former history as a PRT strike squad member and how he left because of internal issues. He would have to keep exactly what the internal issues were a secret of course, but that wasn't impossible.
But Coil had been in this business long enough that even with near infinite retries, one didn't always get what they wanted. It was just as likely that they would bring someone from outside the Bay to deal with the issue, and he would bet that whoever they brought in would be experienced and capable. The public would need to be assured that they had someone who knew what they were doing was on the job. They wouldn't be able to afford another screw up like this.
He could manipulate Piggot because he knew her. He knew of her stubbornness and headstrong attitude. A new director would be a complete unknown and be far more difficult to manipulate. It could very well take him months or years to set up the pieces to bring them crashing down.
All because of one idiot Ward.
He was going to kill her in both timelines, that's what he was going to do.
Coil could feel his teeth grinding against each other as he scanned the paperwork once more, looking for anything that he could use to fix this colossal screw-up. But for all of his efforts, his search was coming up empty. Rules and regulations were splayed out before him in a disjointed chaotic mess as he tried to find a loophole that could get him out of the pit that had been dug. Something that could draw the investigator's attention away from the local PRT.
He had tried to help the PRT push the blame onto the school, but Sophia's handler had already confessed to hiding evidence of wrongdoings. He could have tried to silence her in an "accident", but Pandora's Box had already been opened. If he had gotten to her before she had confessed the PRT might have been able to contain the damage, but that opportunity had long since passed.
No, the public had tasted the blood in the water and were going after the PRT with a ravenous hunger that almost bordered on zealotry. In the privacy of his head, he doubted that even if he found a loophole in the rules to force the investigation away that he would be able to. The public was demanding recompense, and if the PRT didn't deliver…well, then they could very well find themselves facing full blown rioting in the streets. At the very least they needed to make a show of evaluating every aspect of the local PRT, and knowing Piggot she wouldn't let an opportunity like this slip away from her. Even if her own career went down the toilet, she would milk this for all that it was worth.
He suspected that his agents weren't the only ones that were going to find a noose tightening around their necks.
Coil sighed irritably as he allowed the paperwork to slip from his fingers. It was infuriating that he knew exactly what the problem was but lacked the ability to fix it. His only real option was to cut back on his activities and hope that the PRT didn't find anything damning. It was galling to have to secede control of the situation, but there was little that he could try to do without making things worse. This level of scrutiny wasn't something had he usually had to deal with, and it was already starting to take its toll on his operations.
It was difficult to play chess when someone went and flipped the board.
Coil shuffled his hand through the pile of papers looking for one file in particular. He had to burn a favor of his to get a copy of it, but given the speed at which the city's political landscape was changing it was a necessary sacrifice. The last thing he wanted to do was start a fight blind. He still had nightmares of the last time that happened.
As he pulled the file in question out from the pile he had to wonder if someone ever actually stopped reading a paper just because someone had plastered the word classified on the top. Someone who had already broken the law to get their hands on the document wasn't going to be stopped by a little ink. A single name stood out on the manila envelope.
Boogeyman.
As much as he despised Sophia Hess for being the reason that his plans were circling the toilet, there was a not so insignificant amount of that anger towards Boogeyman. She had been the catalyst of this entire situation that he had found himself stuck in. He needed to know about her if he was going to deal with her.
The file was virtually empty, but there was enough that he could start to get a rough idea of how to deal with the new parahuman. Unfortunately for Coil, what it suggested was that it wouldn't be an easy fight.
PRT Threat Analysis
Codename: Boogeyman
Civilian Identity: Taylor Hebert
Affiliations: Independent Villain- Class V
Profile: In- Progress
Power Classifications:
Master 6-8 (Sub. Mover 4)- Boogeyman's primary power consists of creating constructs that resemble equines. These constructs appear to be made of some sort of sand-like material, though samples collected have proven to be impossible to analyze. These "Nightmares" can manipulate their forms to some degree and are capable of vanishing into shadows. It his hypothesized that they share the same Mover capabilities as Boogeyman herself. It is currently unknown how many of these constructs Boogeyman can create, though unconfirmed testimony suggests well over a hundred.
Mover 4- Boogeyman and her minions have demonstrated the ability to "dive" into shadows and vanish from view. It is unknown if this is a form of direct teleportation or some sort of pocket dimension. The range of this Mover power is also uncertain, though supposition from Protectorate Hero Velocity suggests a range of 100 yards at a minimum.
Brute 4- Boogeyman has demonstrated the ability to lift fully grown men up in one hand without any visible effort on her part and has survived a point-blank headshot with little reaction. Use of heavy firearms is authorized.
Thinker 4(?)- Though little direct evidence exists, interactions with Boogeyman suggest some form of Thinker information gathering. Boogeyman was able to bring up certain information with several individuals that would be difficult if not impossible to obtain. Though extensive surveillance should not be discounted, it is likely that she has some form of information gathering ability.
Striker/Blaster 4- Boogeyman has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to create weaponry from the same substance that her minions are made of. These weapons are primitive swords and other melee weapons, though it is likely that she can create ranged projectiles as well.
Trump 3- Attempts by Watchdog Thinkers to analyze Boogeyman's power set have proven useless. While models of her behavior have proven useful*, any attempt to scan her powers have resulted in Thinker headaches. Precognitives have also claimed that predictions involving Brockton Bay have started to become "fuzzy". Boogeyman had also demonstrated the capacity to interfere with non-Thinker powers as well (see Miss Militia Personnel File).
*Due to the apparent interference with Thinker powers, any psych analysis must be subject to thorough review.
Combat Strategies:
Due to recent public opinion towards Boogeyman as a result of her destruction of the Merchants (see File 1177) and the Shadow Stalker Scandal (see File 1921) Boogeyman is not to be engaged in combat unless in the process of a crime.
If a conflict is inevitable, PRT units should focus on evacuating civilians from the zone of conflict and wait for parahuman support. While numerous, her minions can be destroyed from sufficient kinetic or energy impacts. And while Boogeyman has survived gunshot wounds to the head, it is suspected that a sufficient level of force could force her down for a time.
Containment measures should focus on keeping her away from shadows so that she is incapable of teleporting through them.
Threat Level: B
While she possesses an array of powers, Boogeyman has not shown any apparent interest in engaging in criminal acts for profit. Her motivations and testimony align with those of a violent vigilante. While it is likely she will continue to escalate against the criminal elements of the city, it is unlikely she would start harming civilians.
-Authorized by Director Emily Piggot.
Coil bit back a string of curses as he tossed the file to the side. He had been hoping for a psych profile so he could determine what buttons he could push to manipulate her. But it appeared that the difficulty Watchdog was having with her had them second guessing their reports.
But even without that information, he didn't like what he saw. While she wasn't the second coming of Lung, she was a powerful cape in her own right with a respectable and diverse set of abilities. Her Mover rating would make her difficult, if not impossible, to contain if she really could teleport through shadows. After all, what was a shadow but an absence of light?
All it would take was the failure of one lightbulb and she would be able to free herself. Coil felt a chill travel up his spine at the thought of her jumping out at any one of the shadows that dotted the room. Coil wrapped his hands around his pistol as he eyed the shadows by the bookshelves and under his desk. He was going to have to install some for a light fixture to remove those. Some might call him paranoid, but his experiences had taught him the value of paranoia. Still, it wouldn't do him any good to have a panic attack. Coil wrenched his mind away from that rabbit hole of her Mover rating and brought his attention back to her other powers.
Her Master rating was somewhat concerning, but he was confident that he and his mercenaries would be able to plan around them. The Tinker tech laser rifles he had commissioned for a pretty penny could cut through steel, given enough time. That should be more than enough to deal with her minions given proper preparation.
Coil made a mental note to look into the possibility that their protocols for dealing with Crusader could be modified to deal with Boogeyman's minions.
Her Brute and Striker/Blaster rating would make direct conflict with her difficult, but if he could throw her at Lung of Hookwolf he could sit back and wait for the blood to spill. No, what worried him the most were her Thinker and Trump ratings.
Knowledge was power. That was a concept that Calvert had always held close to his chest. It didn't matter how strong your opponent was, so long as you had enough information on them you could defeat them. Use them. The entirety of his plans revolved around the idea of gathering information. If Boogeyman's Trump rating could interfere with his power, that would put a significant wrench in his plans.
Testing tactics was always easy when you could remove of the failures. RPG didn't kill Hookwolf and half the men got killed? That's okay, just shut down that timeline and try again another day. He had used his powers to determine the best ways to deal with the majority of the capes in the city. He probably knew more about them than they did about themselves. But if Boogeyman's power could interfere with his…
Well, Coil didn't need to be a Thinker to understand that would be bad. But what made matter worse was her apparent Thinker rating. He didn't have the pull to find out exactly what Boogeyman had said during her confrontation with Miss Militia, but he had watched the video of Shadow Stalker's verbal dismemberment. Part of him was impressed with how thoroughly she was able to rip apart her opponents, the majority of him was concerned about her bringing that might against him.
If she could do that to anyone of his spies, then his entire network could very well be in jeopardy. As professional as his spies were, all it would take was one man breaking and the entire thing could come crashing down.
But even her powers were secondary to the one thing that really made her a threat to his plans- her activeness.
Coil could deal with a powerful parahuman. He lived in a city with Lung who was easily one of the most powerful parahumans on the east coast, given enough of a head start. But Lung didn't go out and demolish entire gangs in a single night. Lung, like all the other villains, were rather content with the balance of power in Brockton Bay. That wasn't to say they wouldn't take the chance to change in in their favor if the opportunity arose, but they usually didn't actively seek widespread change.
Boogeyman, though, she had torn apart the status quo without a moment's hesitation. She had been the equivalent of a paper house under a destruction of the Merchants had been a mixed blessing for Coil. On one hand, that was one more opponent that he no longer had to deal with. On the other hand, all of that time and resources that he had spent trying to insert Trainwreck into their ranks had been wasted. He had originally hoped that he could have set Trainwreck up as a linchpin of the Merchant's supply lines. Trainwreck would have gained popularity and support and then Skidmark would have an unfortunate "accident".
The end result would have been an entire gang of cannon fodder and patsies under his control. He could have even ordered Trainwreck to cut back on Merchant activities to give himself some political clout once he was the director, but now those plans were nothing more than ash in the wind. But not only had she shattered the delicate balance of power that Coil had been trying to keep until he was ready, but she then spat into the Protectorate and PRT's eye and backed the Empire into a corner. She had no apparent desire to slow down her activities or reign herself in.
He might have dismissed that as an eager youth biting off more than she could chew, but there was a certain level of calculation to her acts. Most parahumans didn't really think critically. They didn't look beyond the immediate problem and focused their energies on instant gratification rather than long-term planning. Coil had originally put Boogeyman into that category after her first official public appearance, but now he was starting to wonder. Her unveiling of Hess' activities and her killing of the Empire minions, that spoke of someone who understood the importance of the image they presented.
Reading through her school records, which had been disturbingly easy to grab and duplicate, didn't show someone of that intelligence. Her grades and attendance had been abysmal, barely passing most of her classes. She was clearly below average intelligence, so why was she so successful?
Coil rose from his seat and started to pace around his room. Could she have some sort of backer and she was merely a pawn in a greater game? Coil shook his head in disappointment. At this point, all of this was merely idle speculation. He didn't have enough information on Boogeyman to predict how she was going to act and he didn't want to risk the possibility that his power might fail on him if he went up against her.
He could see if Miss Livsey was able to discover anything about her, but contacting the girl this soon would betray his weak hand. She would latch onto his supposed weakness like a hound, and the last thing he needed at this juncture were his own tools rising up against him. No, it would be better to let things stew a bit longer before contacting her about Boogeyman. Knowing her she would start the investigation herself for no other reason than to show off to her newfound teammates.
It was almost a pity that a power such as hers was wasted on someone who didn't have much self-control. Instead of making something of herself with her powers Miss Livsey had been content to merely show herself off as the smartest person in the room. The very displays that she used to give herself satisfaction had been the very thing that had led him to her. The shade of red her face had become when he had informed her of that had been particularly amusing. A pity she didn't remember it.
Coil let out a deep sigh that ruffled the fabric of his skintight costume. Most of his usual options were off the table for information gathering at the moment it seemed. Even assuming that his spies survived the purge, the reshuffling of security codes would throw his operations into chaos for weeks. It would take at least that long for his spies to get the new codes and clearances for all juicy information they weren't supposed to have access to.
Still, he supposed that the situation wasn't entirely unsalvageable. If he managed to keep his head down, he might very well witness the end of the Empire. Despite Kaiser's protest about how the attack on the Hess family was unsanctioned, most people didn't care. The PRT and Protectorate were going to come after the Neo-Nazis. So long as he stayed in the shadows he could get through this.
A shrill screech filled his room, making him jump in surprise and panic. He could feel his heart rate soar through the roof as he aimed his Tinker tech pistol in the direction the noise was coming from. Coil let out a relieved sigh at the realization that the sound was coming from his desk phone and not from a nightmarish creature pouncing out of the shadows.
He was going to have to tell Bob to install new lights on the double.
He could feel a growing pit in his stomach as he was awakened in his secondary timeline by the shrill noise. The sound in question was only supposed to be used in emergencies, and his men were professional enough to know when to sound the alarm. If they thought the situation was that bad, then something important was happening.
Coil picked up the phone in both timelines even as his second-self had to shake off a few mental cobwebs.
"What is it?" They both asked. They kept their voiced calm and even as to avoid betraying the internal dread they were starting to feel. It wouldn't do for his mercenaries to feel as if he was panicking. Soldiers for hire rarely worked for people who couldn't hold themselves together.
"Someone's attacked Pastorius, sir," the man on the other end of the line replied. Coil frowned beneath his mask in both timelines. Pastorius was the codename for Lewis Piennar, one of the higher-ranking spies in his organization. The man's place in the PRT's data analysts made him useful for spotting new capes that he could coerce for his plans. Coil could feel a dread climbing up his spine as the realization that his spy network was under attack hit him.
"Who attacked him?" Coil asked in one timeline. If it was a villain then he would have to deal with them in short order, no matter how useful they might be in the future. He couldn't afford to lose his network on top of everything that was already happening.
"What happened?" Coil asked in another timeline. Mr. Piennar was competent at his job and had a moral flexibility that made him an excellent spy. For someone to have discovered his activities meant they had a substantial amount of information about him, more than he was comfortable with anyone knowing. Or even worse, it was the PRT clamping down on his spies.
"The police and PRT scanners suggest it was Boogeyman, sir," the mercenary answered, unaware of the fear he had just lanced his employer with. Coil could feel the phone's plastic casing start to creak as his hand tightened around it. He could feel his heart starting to pound against his ribcage. Despite that, he managed to keep his voice relatively level as he responded to the man.
"I see," he said. Really, there was nothing more that he could say. He could feel his free hand twisting into a fist as he tried to contain his rage.
"Pastorius was dumped on the PRT's doorstep with the word 'spy' carved into his forehead, sir," the man said. He was well trained, but even he couldn't keep a faint trace of disgust out of his voice.
"How long ago was this?" Coil demanded. If the PRT had already started looking into Piennar's files, then he needed to get those dealt with immediately.
"About ten minutes ago, sir," the man replied. Coil had to forcefully keep himself from sighing in relief. Ten minutes wouldn't be long enough for the PRT to have looked into the man's history. But it was only a matter of time before someone started looking.
"Initiate scrub protocols, and lock down our other agents," Coil ordered. Perhaps a slight overreaction, but he couldn't afford any breaches in security on top of everything else. Even using a Nazi based codename to throw off investigators he didn't want to take any risks. Coil got a dutiful yes sir from the man right before he hung up to carry out his orders. Scrub protocols weren't something he initiated lightly. Not because he cared about the mercenaries in particular, but they tended to get…rowdy when one of them was killed by him. It was just part of business, but they couldn't help but wonder if they would be next in line.
He was going to need to give them a bonus of some sort to settle their grumbling.
But regardless of what was going to happen to Mr. Piennar, it was clear that Boogeyman had taken an interest in him. He had no idea what could have possibly led her in his direction with how low a profile he had been keeping, but he supposed that didn't matter in the end. What did matter was that he now had a very active and violent vigilante sticking her nose into his business, and he had no idea how to stop her.
"This cannot possibly get any worse," Coil muttered as he clutched his head in his hands.
"Keep me apprised of the situation," Coil said in his second timeline before hanging up the phone with a soft click. Once the line was clear Coil dialed up another one of the base's more expendable occupants.
"Mr. Pitter," he said, his voice brimming with barely contained rage. "I am in need of your assistance."
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