Chapter 4-Interlude

Crime does not pay, as the old saying goes.

That's a lie. Crime does pay, as long as you don't get caught. It's just that if you do, you'll be making up the difference with interest.

Lisa found herself thinking about that. Not like there's anything else to do in a PRT interrogation room. It was completely empty, save for a table, some chairs, and a mirror that was obviously a one-way screen. If it weren't for her power telling her otherwise, she would have thought that the white hats had dragged her to a set from a cop show.

Boring, boring, boring.

Lisa sighed. She couldn't even get mad about all this. If anything, it was her own damn fault that she ended up here. She was so sure that there'd only be three or four Wards at most, not the whole damn team. Apparently the heroes thought the Undersiders were a much bigger threat than she'd thought. Most people would probably be flattered by that, but Lisa wasn't most people. In her line of work, being seen as a danger was actually a danger. Sooner or later, your enemies will stop fucking around and send the big guns after you. That usually kicks off a chain of events that lead to one dying, being put into a hospital, or ending up in a cell waiting for some PRT goon to tell you how screwed you are. Speaking of which, what was taking them so long anyway?

Leave a suspect in a room with no communication to the outside. Standard PRT interrogation protocol. Believed to make suspects more pliable.

Right, that. Cops shows had to get their material from somewhere.

Time passed. Lisa sighed again. This was getting annoying. Couldn't the pigs just throw her in jail already? It's not like she'd stay there for long. Capes like her rarely did. Either she'd get busted out by her friends, or murdered by Coil, her boss and sponsor, who's power lets him split reality, do two different things, and keep the timeline he likes best.

Right now, the thought of getting killed was a bigger worry, though. The downside of knowing everything is that you know everything, including a few things you were better off not knowing. Things like how your supervillain boss almost certainly has moles in the PRT and using them to further his plan to take over the city. The kind of things that get little girls like Lisa murdered.

Suddenly, the door opened and a lawyer stepped through. Finally.

"Afternoon, miss. Wilbourn. I apologize for my tardiness. Traffic was bad and I had…other matters to attend to."

In Coil's pocket. Under orders to make sure you don't say something that could compromise his operations.

Lisa didn't bother to hide her scowl. Then again, it wasn't his fault that she couldn't afford a lawyer that actually acted in her best interest. Crime paid well, but she didn't have the funding to hire someone a stupidly wealthy supervillain like Coil couldn't turn. Not yet, anyway. "Better late than never, Mr. Carlson. I'm surprised they hadn't tried to interrogate me yet."

"Interrogating a minor, even a supervillain, is difficult at best, legally speaking. Honestly, I'd kind of wished they did. It would have been your best bet at getting out on a technicality. The PRT gets away with a lot, but not with everything." The man said, simply. "Let's get down to business. A PRT officer will show up soon, so we don't have much time. I'll be blunt: you're in big trouble. Robbing a bank in broad daylight was a terrible idea. You're not getting out of this scott free. It's my job to make the most of an already terrible situation.

Coil thinks you're too valuable to kill, if he can avoid it, but he will if he thinks you'll compromise him. Situation wasn't part of his plan. Running damage control. Knows that you know enough to expose him. He feels that letting you live isn't worth the risk unless you can prove that you're too useful to get rid of.

"Really, confessing is probably your best shot. It may even be possible to get a lighter sentence in exchange for intel on your teammates."

"That's the kind of thing that gets people like me killed, Mr. Carlson." Lisa answered, morosely.

A small test of your loyalty. You passed this one.

Not that she'd have ratted out anyone, even if she thought it helped. The Undersiders were the closest thing she's had to friends in a very long time, and Coil was too smart for her to beat from inside a prison wall. Better to lose a few years now than to lose the rest of her life. If she started talking, Coil would just finish her off as a matter of principle.

Then, the door opened and Armsmaster stomped through.

"I assume you already know who I am, Miss. Livsey." He grunted.

"I prefer Lisa Wilbourn, if you don't mind. The Livsey family and I aren't exactly on speaking terms."

"Irrelevant. Anyway, you're in trouble. Armed robbery, multiple counts of assault, resisting arrest…I could continue, but I'd be wasting my time. You were there, after all."

Lisa sighed. This was getting tiresome. "Can we just skip to the part where you throw me in jail until my teammates bust me out?"

She expected Armsmaster to get angry, but instead, he did something unexpected. He smiled. "Actually, I'm hoping we can avoid that. I'd like to offer you a place in the Wards."

Wait, what?

Armsmaster is a glory hound. Wants to make a major push against the gangs soon. Knows you're a powerful Thinker and that your power would make him much more likely to succeed.

"You're serious."

"I'm always serious." The hero replied.

True. Doesn't have a sense of humor. Thinks it's a waste of time.

Lisa becoming a hero. Now there's a punchline Regent would abuse for all its worth. Being a hero means accepting hard, dangerous work for lousy pay to save people you don't give a fuck about. It'd be little more than a gilded cage, the very thing she'd ran away from in the first place. If there was a single neuron inside her skull that actually wanted that, she'd have joined the Wards the moment she realized her parents were just being nice to her because of her power.

Armsmaster continued: "It'll be a probationary membership, of course. You robbed a bank and you will be punished for it in some fashion. You will almost certainly be constantly monitored and your actions restricted, but I think it's still better than going to prison."

Then, Mr. Carlson spoke up. "It could be a good deal, depending on your exact terms. I don't want my client to be put in any unnecessary danger."

Lisa blinked in surprise. Coil was okay with her being a hero.

Coil expected an offer like that to be made. Wants to keep you as a mole. Will try to abduct or kill you if you refuse.

Oh, no. Fuck that. Fuck him with a ten foot pole topped by a chainsaw. That shit would not fly. She was not going to be someone's plaything. Certainly not for a sick fuck like Coil. Everything her power told her made it abundantly clear that the man's a total sociopath and that she was better off dead than being his pet.

That said, Lisa liked living and if she had to dance to his tune for a while, so be it. Yeah, she'd play along with Coil's little spy game for now. Once she's ready, though, that fucker would die. Horribly. She would rip Coil's beating heart out of his chest, feed it to a starving goat, then dance on his corpse while playing violin very, very badly. But first, she had to convince both him and Armsmaster that she wasn't a danger to either of them.

"Being a superhero is inherently risky." Armsmaster replied. "Danger comes with the job. Still, I'd argue that it's a lot less risky than being a villain."

"You're missing the point." Lisa told him. "I'm not worried about getting beaten up by some Nazi punk. I'm more worried about being assassinated."

"You think your boss won't let you go. Before you ask, yes, we already know about that. It's Coil, isn't it?"

She tensed, for a moment. Apparently Armsmaster knew more than he was letting on. That would make convincing him harder.

Someone overheard Grue talking. Suspects Coil thanks to process of elimination.

"Right. Look, I'm a Thinker who knows too much. Even if you hire me, my boss will just have me murdered."

The hero smiled. "I highly doubt that. People that try to murder Wards don't tend to live for very long. Even if you boss is crazy enough to do it, we're more than capable of protecting you."

Won't allow a member of his Wards team to be assassinated. Knows it would be the end of his career if it happened. Will arrange 24-hour protection if he thinks it was necessary.

This…could actually be a good thing. While Lisa knew she'd be a crap hero for God knows how many reasons, the Protectorate was her best bet at taking someone like Coil down. Especially now. Now she just had to convince Armsmaster to help her.

"I don't believe you. My boss is very good at what he does. If he decides I need to die, he'll make sure to shift the blame on someone else. He's smart enough to do it too."

Armsmaster looked at her for a moment before concluding: "You really believe that."

Has a lie detector built into his helmet. Makes up for Armsmaster's social ineptitude. It can be fooled. Coil knows this. Used it to escape detection several times already.

Lisa bit her lip. Irritating, but not something she couldn't work with. The best lies are the ones that are indistinguishable from the truth anyway.

"Yes. Look, I have no love for Coil. He recruited me at gunpoint. I'd never have popped up on your radar if it weren't for that son of a bitch. Thing is, he doesn't like it when people leave his employ without his permission."

The hero rubbed his chin. "I see." He leaned forward and said softly: "Sa…Lisa, I promise you, Coil will not hurt you. I will personally make sure that that never happens."

Believes you're a scared little girl, in over her head. Thinks Coil and Grue bullied you into compliance and that your earlier behavior was all an act.

Inwardly, Lisa smiled. He was actually buying her little song and dance routine. "I don't know…"

"I'm not going to say that I've never lost a Ward before, but I will do everything in my power to protect you from your boss."

She nodded, weakly. "Okay."

"Good. Now, don't take this the wrong way, but I have to ask: if he doesn't like people leaving his employ, how do I know you're not a mole?"

Did he really just ask that? Seriously? That man has no social skills whatsoever. Nevertheless, it was an obvious question. One that Lisa saw coming a mile away. It had to be asked. "You have a lie detector in your helmet. Truth or lie: I want him gone and I never want to worry about him again. What makes you think I even want to sell you out to an asshole like Coil?"

"Fair enough." Armsmaster replied. "I will tell director Piggot that you're open to joining the Wards. I will also arrange some sort of protective custody for you, or at least keep you in the base until Coil is captured, killed, or otherwise driven off. Considering that you'll be on probation, I assume that that won't be an issue. We'll hammer out the details on a later date."

The lawyer nodded. "I think we can work with that. It's better than the alternative, I suppose. Unless, of course, Lisa has something to add?"

"No, I don't. Not right now." Lisa said.

"Excellent. I think everything will work out just fine."

Believes you agreed to be Coil's mole. Will contact him and tell him not to assassinate you yet. You're safe, for the moment.

Lisa let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding. Step one of Operation Fuck Coil complete.

Onto the next.