Lisa surprisingly was not in the van. I assumed she was based out somewhere else with Grue running taxi service.
Speaking of the human darkness generator, he looked pissed.
Not 'I'm this close to snapping and beating the crap out of you' pissed, more 'could this situation get any worse?' pissed.
Angry, but more angry at the world, at the situation then any one particular person.
Which I felt was rather charitable of him.
"You got what you wanted done?" he asked flat faced.
"I didn't want any of this," I replied, "But yeah its done," I replied as I stepped in, and buckled up.
Guilt welled up in me as the seatbelt clicked into place. "Sorry about turning your life over on your head," I said from the side seat.
He made a sound of irritated confirmation. Lisa had probably long since confirmed I was basically in their camp on this, or at least Coil hadn't been. But Brian wasn't in a great situation really. He was small time, and he liked it like that. He didn't have huge aspirations. He didn't want the world, he didn't really want more power then he currently had and he certainly wasn't in the super villain gig for the excitement.
No what Grue wanted, what he really wanted, was simple stuff. A warm home, people he could count on, and safety and happiness for those people who mattered to him. He was a super-villain because it paid and paid good. Good enough to give him a legitimate chance for say, fighting a legal battle for the custody of a younger sibling who very well probably would be better off living with her only slightly older super-villain brother then where she currently was.
Plus enough to get that new game for whatever Nintendo/Sony clone currently held dominion in the field of videogames. You know, simple stuff.
"I owe for this," I observed more then anything, "Both for getting me in contact with Lisa and for... well my part in setting off all this mess early."
That pissed him off a bit more. I could see it on how he adjusted his grip on the wheel. I knew it would, but I had to say it.
"On the bright side," I mused, "Things are going to be pretty clear cut now. Hammering into the Empire until they're beaten down a good bit, switch to the ABB when they try to capitalize, maybe add Merchants to the mix after things start to balance back out. Heroes, villains and mercs are going to be so tied up groups like the Undersiders could fly under the radar even if you pulled a Bonny and Clide."
That at least earned a snort.
"Also without Coil cutting away options unseen from behind the screen, you've got some serious openings now," I commented. "Tattletale is probably the strongest Thinker in town for plotting jobs and she likes the lifestyle. Definitely not the sort to retire now that she's finally free. You could probably talk her and the others into going Merc if you wanted to cut down on the heat as well and focus more on a steady paycheck. Give Faultline some competition. Parahuman mercenaries are unrivaled in value. Particularly to a group who's powers are pretty much set out from the ground up to spot threats and escape from them."
That caught his attention for a second and he looked at me, "Seriously?"
I looked back with both eyebrows raised, "You telling me you never thought of it? I mean yeah Bitch has some legal problems, but she was a minor when that hit and everyone thought she controlled dogs with her mind. Not just ramped them up. Putting aside how desperate society is to turn a black hat to even a grey one, a good lawyer can make a cakewalk of getting her out of that kind of mess."
He turned his head back to the front, "That is creepy as fuck when you do that you know? Worse then Lisa. Just how many powers do you have?" he asked semi seriously.
It took me a couple moments to realize that he thought I was a Thinker like Lisa.
...Then I remembered that with Insignificant Embers Intuition, the charm that dramatically increased my perception, I kind of was.
Come to think of it I also had a power to determine if someone was lying or telling the truth, though I hadn't made use of it yet. I'd required it to gain a 'descendent' charm I wanted back when I'd been blowing through all my potential like an idiot.
That'd probably come in handy once I actually... you know... started dealing with people I needed to check the truthfulness of.
Anyway he had a question for me I might as well answer, "Bit over a dozen little ones," I explained. "They're kind of minor on their own but added up they let me do a lot, and I grow more over time."
He exhaled slowly, "And you owe me one?"
I smirked again, "Yep."
"Good to know," he stated apparently holding new weight to that statement.
"Mind you I'm basically going to be spitting in Kaiser's face before trying to kick it in sometime in the next month or two, so might want to cash that in soonish," I reminded him.
He snorted and eyed me from the side, "Going to kill him too?"
I looked back to where we had driven from, if I strained my eyes I could still barely make out the smoke trails from where Coil's base had been, "...no. I think I'm done with that... at least unless I get a shot at Jack and the nine."
He tensed a bit further, "Good to know."
Less then five minutes later we pulled up to a freaking holiday Inn with Lisa waiting inside.
She was not alone.