Sleep came easy that night. Another strange dream conversation with The Navigator of Unknown Skies, followed by a botched assassination attempt on me by Alabaster who I ended up slaying in a explosion of glorious golden light only to go mad with grief at the collateral damage that resulted, which of course ended with even further loss of life.

There was also something about toothpicks and going out to the movies with The Simurgh on a dinner date but frankly I had no idea what the hell that could mean.

The morning brought housework. I said I'd cook and clean and I damned well meant it. Though the practicality of cooking for a chef struck me as somewhat odd. I'd probably have to burn motes to ramp my skill beyond 'acceptable'.

However 'Acceptable' was more then enough to make some basic applejacks and start up the coffee machine.

The motions were familiar, extremely so, but at the same time... different.

Something from my Exaltation's last host maybe? Back when I'd been purely human I made this kind of breakfast often enough, but...

It was different. Two sets of memories guiding my hand, one familiar and nearly complete, the other only half present and hollow, all guided by hands so steady and smooth I couldn't really accept them as my own.

Man life had gotten weird since I became what I now was. It was funny how I only recognized it in the small quiet moments like making breakfast.

~Are you angsting again?~

No, just... musing on things. It wasn't a crime to just think to myself was it?

~Eh, you're the prince. I guess you'd be the one to decide that wouldn't you?~

That was a point.

So what to do now? I had a gang war on my hands and not the slightest idea where to hit first.

~Well traditionally the best way to kill a an army is to go for the leadership~

Which meant Kaiser, Skidmark and Lung. Unfortunately once I took out one, the other two would go nuts.

Well, maybe not Skidmark in either case. The Merchants were functional equals of both the Azn Bad Boyz and the Empire Eighty Eight but only due to their metaphorical 'logistics' advantage. They had a massive hunk of their area hooked on drugs, and so controlled it through a level of addiction neither rival gang was able to handle. On the flipside they lacked the military muscle either incompetentregular combatants, or parahuman muscle.

I hadn't had time to research things properly but I'd bet dollars to donuts that the only reason they held out on that field was a mixture of three factors. They were the only gang with a tinker, 'Squeeler', who's specialization of large crude but powerful vehicles and as result was particularly well suited to large scale combat. That what few capes they had synergized particularly well in terms of power-set and quite possibly personality. With the final edge being the raw number of untrained but desperate addicts they could bring up into a ramshackle combat force any time needed.

I couldn't see them maintaining the territory they claimed without every one of those advantages... or at least something of equivalence. They were up against to stiff of odds without something akin to that.

Lung was Lung, he was one man, but one man who could take on every other villain in town at once and crush them into the ground, with no limits to how strong he could get.

~Yeah that would be pretty difficult to deal with~

Oni-Lee wasn't exactly chump change either, even if I'd winged him, his ability to make an instant, skilled, and utterly disposable strike force at no effective cost to himself made him dangerous. Particularly to those prone to being worn down by attrition tactics...

Like me.

The only good news is they didn't seem to have recruited Bakuda yet. If they got their hands on the explosive tinker then their danger would grow exponentially. Particularly with how her power synergized with Lees.

Still I needed them around if I was going to keep the Empire in check.

The Empire Eighty eight was a terrifying force. A group of Neo Nazi's with vision that had lasted generations without anything to keep them properly in check. The Protectorate tried, but was understaffed. New Wave had done their best but had been to focused on other threats in the early years. The end result? A force containing over a dozen parahumans, a large semi trained ground force, significant economic backing, and overseas allies they could call in if needed.

It was not exaggeration to say that without Lung's ominous presence Kaiser could very well take over the city with such a force. Only the monstrous dragon man or the Protectorate throwing their full, international spanning might against him really stood a chance at facing the raw force he could bring to bare.

Well that or one very focused Celestial Exalt... hopefully.

Taking out Kaiser would shatter the empire. It happened in the original timeline, with a fractionalisation occurring into two separate, much more manageable groups.

However they were only manageable if Lung didn't sweep in to take them all out.

I needed to be careful about this. Lung was the linchpin of the entire situation. Take him out and start a war, give him to big an opening and do the same. Provoke him and I might end up biting off more then I could chew.

~Ouch. Yeah this is a lot messier then I thought~

Wars always were.

Armsmaster had a counter to Lung. Maybe. He had a poison designed to shut down the dragon man's regeneration. Likewise there were certain charms I could tap into that would make it...difficult for him to recover from injuries I inflicted. Some locked behind conceptual lines I didn't want to cross in how I pushed my powers, but others...

Well it'd be stepping my game up a bit higher then I wanted, but maybe...

No. I couldn't afford to cross those lines yet. Eventually I'd have to, but not yet.

That meant I needed to plan this out carefully. I needed to fight my way up, rather then down. Less efficient but more effective in preserving the city itself.

The ABB was basically all or nothing. I could take out Oni-Lee maybe, but the gang lived and died by Lung's existence. That meant I needed to take the Empire down to a state where they couldn't capitalize before going for him.

Tricky, but maybe doable. I had to hit them in a way that they had to much problems to handle to move, but still enough military force to fight off an incursion.

Simple enough. If I couldn't hurt the empire's fighting force... I'd hit what they valued.

I hummed to myself as I flipped the pancakes, they were coming along well now, and wondered if I should make some extras for Lisa and Rachel.