"How bad is this?" I asked her.
"Bad," she replied. "Things exploded bigger then I intended. You couldn't know but- Wait you do know? How do you-"
"Ta-" I bit my tongue, "Focus. And keep it cliffnotes unless you want this overheard."
"Right captured empire cape. That's not good," she muttered, "You didn't call them? No of course not."
"Think you can? I'm on seven fifty first on main. Just let them know to look for the big green lightshow," I requested.
"Me? Why- Okay yeah I can do that no problem," she agreed. I think she was about as frazzled as I was at this point. How was she using her power so much? Wasn't she near her limits only an hour or so ago?
It didn't matter. Or rather if it did she'd probably bring it up. There were more important matters to discuss, "Anyway... Cliffnotes?"
"Right," she agreed at once. "Okay so Kaiser just got a big economy boost. I shouldn't have to explain how easily a metal generator can embezzle from a construction company," she explained.
"Probably laundering as well," I muttered.
"Definitely, but the big issue is the Fortress Construction also has a lot of political sway and-" she suddenly cut herself off, "Look strategically he's never been better. This means his value in the eyes of his European allies just went up a lot."
"And he likes to play aggressive," Tonight proved that handedly.
"It's less aggressive then moving with overwhelming force," she corrected. "But he also plays things up and after taking a hit to his reputation like this he's going to need to make a move to reassert his reputation."
Hit to his... what was Lisa talking about?
"Wait, what? Hit to his reputation? He just stomped out Coil! And got his hands on-" I paused and glanced back at Alabaster who was not even trying to hide how intently he was listening in, "that thing."
"And then Lung came in and stomped him," She explained. "And you caught one of his capes. Some new nobody that no one's heard of."
I wanted to deny that, I mean I'd fought The Simurgh and had more power then all but the strongest Parahumans but no one actually knew that yet.
"He still got a lot more then he lost," I countered.
"Strategically yeah, but he can't claim that publicly or it vanishes," she explained.
I blinked in confusion for a moment.
Then things clicked into place.
Kaiser was one of the capes my knowledge of the setting let me know the identity of. Max... something. He owned a business called Medhall which I think was pretty big. It was probably a fundraiser for his 'empire' on par with all the illegal money making methods combined.
And something with enough economic power to contest Coil.
So Kaiser had probably bought it out or something? Originally I'd thought he'd just bought the men with the shares or something. Wasn't that how it was traditionally done?
No, even if he had done something like that he wouldn't be able to declare ties publicly because once Fortress Construction became a known gang affiliate no one would trust it. Why hadn't I realized that?
So that meant that Fortress Construction would instead end up as one of the resources he had to hold to his chest... just like he had Medhall.
Which meant he would actually know how to use it effectively as well.
Crap I was tired. How hadn't I realized all this right off the bat?
"Shit," I muttered.
So publicly the Empire had just attacked a relative minor power with massive overkill, only to loose at least one cape, and maybe as many as three depending on what Lung did when he entered after them. That left them in a bad spot politically. At the same time they just gained massive funding, which meant they would have resources to burn to fix that.
Which meant one thing was coming, and coming soon.
"So how long until the marching orders come down you think?" I asked looking back at Alabaster.
If I could kill him, I'd weaken the Empire's ability to wage war by a modest margin. Not enough to turn the tide or anything but it'd hurt it.
At the same time it'd probably provoke them further and throw my budding reputation as a hero into the incinerator.
Which was bad politics.
Also he was kind of unarmed and helpless right now. I didn't know much about him, for all he was part of a supremacist movement he might just be a punch clock villain with a tendency to make bad judgments. Not something I personally considered a terminal offense.
Plus, I didn't actually have a power to kill him. That kind of rendered the whole thing moot.
"Days?" Tattletale broke my train of thought, "Maybe weeks? He's going to want to consolidate his power first."
"Then we can get ready for it," I replied. Weeks wasn't bad. I could stretch that by going on an early offensive and start capturing Empire capes.
Mind you that'd also certainly trigger a major response in turn but it was an idea.
"I'm going to call in the PRT for you, don't let the cape get away," she ordered.
I snorted in irritation, "Your lucky you give good advice little missy. You're not my boss yet," though if things kept going this way I might have to watch out less she actually manage that.
Gods I was tired.
Sirens suddenly kicked up form a short distance away.
Huh, well at least one thing was going right in this mess.