She tried to bite him, but her snakes did not move.

She tried to grab him, but her arms did not move.

She tried to speak, but her mouth did not move.

She was stuck.

"I have been working hard over the last few weeks to set this situation up, especially these past few days, lots of trial and error for Mr. Pitter to make a knockout gas that was strong enough to keep you out long enough for Regent to work his powers on you," Coil spoke, sounding very, very proud of himself. "Say hello Regent."

At that Medusa's head forcibly turned to the right where she saw Regent dressed in that white harlequin-like outfit of his with the 'crying' mask and the sideways 'crown'.

He playfully waved his hand at her and… he seemed to be enjoying himself now, seeming much more… emotive than the previous times she had seen him.

Medusa didn't like that.

Medusa didn't like anything going on right now.

"You have been both quite a thorn in my side, yet also a boon for my plans, but your latest actions in uncovering me has proven to be the last straw," Coil spoke. "...Monologuing is quite boring when the one you are doing it to can't respond. Regent, give her back control of her mouth would you?"

At that Medusa felt her jaw go slack.

She worked her jaw for a moment as she got control back, most of the rest of her face still frozen, her eyes unblinking-the bastard knew her beams were controlled by a secondary eyelid. Of course.

"Why?" Was the first word she managed.

"Why am I doing this? Well that should be obvious, I want control of the Bay."

"Why?" She repeated, a bit more forcefully as she started running her tongue along the inner part of her fangs. Her mouth was so dry.

"It is an easy starting point, and also to demonstrate Parahumans are the ones that deserve to control the unpowered masses." He answered as if the question she had asked was, what was the color of the sky. Though Verity felt like if she asked that question and Coil answered blue, she would have to look up to confirm it.

"And you're the one who deserves to be at the top then?"

"I am the most capable individual, my power makes me invincible, well invincible to all but one, but she won't interfere in this," Coil said. "The only reason this conversation is occurring in reality is because I've already won."

"How's that?" Medusa asked, hoping desperately that she could stall. That she could get him to talk out all of his plans and that she could find some way out of this while he did, or someone would rescue her, or something. "Well, beyond having me like this."

"Because I have you like this my dear Medusa," Coil said in the absolute slimiest way possible. It made her feel sick.

She responded by spitting the small amount of saliva she'd managed to work up in her mouth at him.

And the venom she'd coaxed out, of course.

And it hit a glass plane in front of the desk. And that was when Verity realized that Coil's voice wasn't coming from in front of him, but down from the floor.

He was behind what she now recognized as several-inch thick bulletproof glass.

"That has been the fifth time you've attempted that, hurt the first time I've had to admit, but speaking of venom, Regent."

Verity's jaw locked up again, and her heart began to accelerate at the words.

He meant his power, right?

Oh please god tell her he meant his power, and not that he'd already been doing things to her.

"Mr. Pitter if you would be so kind," Coil's voice said as a plain-looking caucasian man dressed like a standard doctor walked up to her with a vial in his hand as her head was moved forcibly backward and mouth opened up as the man started to… to milk the other venom from her. "Thank you for the assistance Mr. Pitter, now please administer that to Ms. Meinhardt, Trickster will be pleased to see the restoration of his girlfriend."

"Of course sir, sad I do not get to do further testing," The man said.

His scent, sound, and appearance all burned into Medusa's mind.

"I have confirmed that is a dead end for you, your power is better focused on combat enhancing drugs," Coil said. "Tinkers, the world becomes so much more fun with them don't you think Medusa?" Coil asked as Medusa got control of her mouth back.

"...Normally, yes." Medusa said. "I would. Not when I'm being stripped of bodily autonomy though." She said, using the biggest words she could manage to try and ignore the absolute fucking panic she was feeling.

Whoever was about to be injected-

For the first time, Medusa actually wanted her venom to have a mastering effect.

"Well I am being more courteous this time around, last time you caused such a stir when my men had such fun with you."

Medusa's blood ran cold.

"What?"

"You were being a naughty pet and needed to be punished," Coil sounded extremely gratified. "Such pleasure."

"Regent could you please aim my head downwards I am going to throw up." Verity said seconds before she did so.

The boy did oblige her request in time, though she heard a shudder of delight go through the boy as she vomited.

Great, he was either high or a para-pervert.

Maybe both.

"You are the worst of the worst, Coil." Verity said shakily as her head was forced back to staring at his smug, smug masked face.

"Yes, yes you've said that many times before," He replied coily.

Medusa knew she was in a bad situation when she couldn't even enjoy her stupid, stupid mental puns.

"How many… how many times have we done this?" Verity asked, feeling so small. "How many of them were real?"

"This is the only 'real' one, Tattletale has explained how my powers work has she not?" He asked. "She is a smart fox, though too smart for her own good."

So her body was intact, or as intact as she'd experienced.

That was… ever so marginally better than what she'd been thinking.

Verity still hated everything that was occurring with every fiber of her being.

"But back to my plans, I do wanna tell them to you after all we are so close," Coil said, the words sending another wave of disgust and fear through her body. "You've done good work, eliminating Bakuda, removing the E88 after I published their identities, and putting the new Merchant Capes I had made in PRT custody. But poor Squealer, she just had to open her mouth and tattle."

"Close? Have we met?" Medusa was already running through every possible person she could think of with even a remotely similar body type.

"Like I said, this is not the first conversation we've had, other timelines that were not realized, other kidnappings of you, intimidations, persuasions, conversations with my real identity only I remember."

"How far can you see, Coil?" Medusa asked. "Can you see the day before it ends?"

"I do see the future, I see things that could happen concurrently, in one timeline I walked up to you, in another I didn't, but I still see the one that didn't become real, I still learn, I can try again and again as many times as I want though with only small bits of delay." Coil answered, high on his ego, and sounding like he might have been getting off on doing this.

No, he definitely was.

"You're doing it right now, aren't you."

"No. As I said, I've already secured my win condition," Coil replied. "...I have been spending too much time talking with Uber and Leet, they were of course a good hand in creating this scenario and bypassing your home security. They were so upset with you because of how you humiliated them they wanted to get back at you in any way possible. Didn't you find it strange they've been absent?"

"Not really, no." Medusa said, eyes still locked on him. Not like she could put them anywhere else. "I figured out pretty quickly that you were in charge and that you'd be playing your cards close to your chest. A Tinker who can do anything, once? I've been expecting the unexpected since then… didn't fucking think to check the damn transport though." She chuckled with negative mirth, trying rather hard to stay coherent and mine as much information as she could from him.

"Yes, it was a hard situation to engineer actually, but back on track, you did good work to help my plans along, but now you're a threat to them, you and your Protectorate coworkers, so I plan to have Regent use you to kill them all and the fat pig, so that my civilian identity can take over as Director, and then the Travelers will come in and slay you and be hailed as heroes who slew the traitorous Gorgon." As he spoke, Medusa tried shifting- shifting her legs, growing, shrinking, something, but there was no response. Her hair, she understood that it was literally one-way nerves or whatever the sciencey word for it was, but she'd been hoping her changing worked in a different way.

That hope had unfortunately been crushed.

"Use your power." Medusa said, changing gears.

"Excuse me?"

"Use your power. Right now." Medusa said, hoping to confuse or distract him or-or something. She didn't know enough about Regent to make him drop his concentration or however that worked, so her best bet was trying to throw Coil off-kilter. "What does it tell you will happen if you do that?"

"As I said that is not how it works, but if you don't think I am being serious, bring them in." Coil spoke and Verity heard a door open.

And her plans were dashed on the rocks.

"Let me go, let me goo!" Came Sabah's voice, and as her head moved against her will, she saw bound Sabah, Lisa, Rachel and Brian were escorted into the room. Men wielding guns, pressing the barrel into the back of their necks.

"Be quiet or I will shoot!"

"No… h-how?" Medusa asked in shock.

"Didn't I just say? I had Uber and Leet's help in breaking into your home, they and my men went in five minutes after you went unconscious." Coil said.

"Veri- Rege- no Hijack you bastard!" Lisa growled. "I thought you left that life behind?"

"What the fuck are you doing?" Brian asked while Rachel just growled.

"I left it behind to evade my father, but if I do this, I get a one-way trip to the tropics with millions in cash, so nothing personal, just business." He spoke, sounding way happier right now than before.

"...Oh, ohhh," Lisa said. "You can only feel things when you fully control people now can't you? Daddy broke your brain all the way didn't he?"

Lisa 's words were answered by Regent smacking his taser-staff across her face. "Bitch."

"Sarah." Came Coil's slimy voice. "Rachel, Brian, and of course young miss Sabah, I am so glad you could join us, though for the first three of you, I am so disappointed."

"I coerced them under threat of me, they did the only reasonable thing." Medusa said, her panic now quadrupling with immediate people in her vicinity.

"Oh don't lie my dear, I know coercion, my favorite method, but you are teenagers you don't know better, but Sarah, Sarah, you should."

"Don't call me that," Lisa responded as she spat blood out of mouth, her cheek now bruising and swelling from Regent's hit.

"For the two of you, you get second chances to correct your ways, but you my dear tattletale, I think you need to join my other pet as a member of my Think Tank," Coil said. "Mr. Pitter is working on a drug that will keep you nice and happy, while keeping those pesky Thinker Headaches away. The prototypes have been showing great effect on Miss Alcott."

"You sick fuck." Medusa spat.

"You… sick bastard." Lisa growled. "You are worse than Jack Slash."

"Now, now, that is a bad thing to say."

"Verity…" Came the panicked cry from Sabah, and as Verity's locked in place head looked at her, she could see tears running down her face. She was in an utter panic right now, her breathing was erratic and looked like she was about to pass out.

"Sabah, Sabah, everything's going to be okay doll, everything's going to be okay." Verity said.

"Ah yes, sorry for ignoring my last guest, but as I said, to you my dear Medusa, I am quite serious, Regent if you would demonstrate." At that Medusa got up on her legs from the sitting position she'd somehow remained in and started walking towards the four, her jaw locking as it did.

Towards Sabah.

A prisoner in her own flesh, forced to watch, even as she screamed inside.

"Regent. Regent! Don't do this you bastard!" Lisa cried as Verity stood over her girlfriend, arm raised.

Claws outstretched.

She couldn't even cry.

The bastard wasn't even letting her cry.

She-

She-

She swung-

BANG!

A gun shot rang out.

Her arm stopped, inches from Sabah's face.

Her body was frozen.

"WHAT!" Came Coil's scream of surprise and shock. "WHO?"

Verity's eyes could move now, and she could feel it.

The paralysis of her body undoing slowly as feeling returned.

In the periphery of her vision, she saw Regent. The world in slow motion as he touched his chest.

Red spreading across the white.

"Oh?" He spoke in shock. "This is fear... I forgot."

At that he collapsed.

She was in control.

Medusa was moving in an instant as the world continued in slow motion, her hair whipping out and grabbing the guns that were being fired and crushing them before the triggers could be fully pulled.

And then slamming the men themselves into the walls.

Before a full second had passed she had then turned around.

Staring at Coil's surprised face(It was easy to see even under the mask) through the bulletproof glass, slowly rising from his chair and trying to run away.

Verity had already been used to moving a bit faster than before in her current body, but she certainly wouldn't argue with whatever level of adrenaline rush she was on that let her experience something like this.

She blinked.

Thwoom.

The majority of the glass between the two snakes of the bay melted near instantly, and the rest was easily shattered as Medusa lunged through the molten glass, not even registering the pain as the material clung to her skin.

She did register the feeling of her hand closing around Coil's throat though.

The adrenaline rush or whatever it was faded, though Medusa could still feel rage flowing through her veins.

As she ripped off his mask.

And what she saw was the most generic pasty white guy she had seen in her life.

She had no idea who he was.

Medusa still memorized his face just in case.

"Verity!" Lisa yelled. "That's not him! That's a body double!"

Medusa simply scratched the trash's arm and dropped him as she turned her attention on the group, Sabah coming down from her panic attack and undoing their bindings. "Where would he be? And whoever our Guardian Angel is, thank you." She said the latter part to the room.

"Yeah you can't fucking see what you don't remember, bitch snake!" Yelled Aisha as she suddenly appeared where there hadn't been a person before.

A still smoking gun in her hand.

And as she did, Medusa remembered her existence.

And could clearly recall the sound, if not the sight, of her taking the gun from one of Coil's men.

"Good job Guardian Angel, stay the fuck hidden, call the PRT."

"I don't think I can get reception down here." Aisha said before…

Who was she talking to?

"Tattletale, where are we?" Medusa said as she confirmed she didn't have her armband or her bag. "And which way did you guys come from?"

"We are underground, and at this depth, I think this is a misappropriated Endbringer Shelter," Tattletale said.

"How many men did you see on the way down?" Medusa said as she checked the door behind the other side of the glass.

"They only just took off the bags," Grue said as black smoke began wafting off his body, he was obviously shaking in rage.

"Yeah so Tattletale how many people did you hear/feel/intuit on the way down?" Medusa said as she confirmed it was just a hallway, and one that she was getting too many scents from to be conclusive- and then began smashing any camera she could find in the room.

"He employs a PMC, so… There are about 250 men in the complex, all armed with Tinker Tech Laser Rifles from Toybox," She answered.

"Good, less than I expected." Medusa said as she checked on each of her people.

Especially Sabah.

"You okay?" Verity asked, already knowing the answer.

"I am… not okay, oh by…" She began muttering a prayer in arabic.

Verity reached out to pull her into a hug before flinching and pulling back. "I… I'm sorry."

"Haaaaaa," Sabah breathed heavily before she answered verbally. "It's not your fault."

"You're only involved in this because of me." Verity siad.

"If it wasn't for you, The Empire would probably have killed me by this point."

"And if it wasn't for me, Coil would have never-"

"Hey no time for the blame and pity game you two," Tattletale said. "We are in enemy territory, and we need to get out before Coil dines and dashes. Via blowing this place sky high."

"Of course." Medusa shook her head. "From the way he was talking and the way he acts, Dinah would be somewhere else, right? Or taken away by Mr Pitter to keep his… 'Think Tank' around?" She almost threw up again saying that.

That term was forever dirtied for her now.

"They are probably retrieving her now," Tattletale said. "Mr Pitter went past us."

"Then we're going that direction first." Medusa said. "TT, you're with me. Grue, your job is to get the rest of you out of here alive. Can you do that?"

"I can do that, I am so fucking resigning from this asshole," He responded. "Though what about?" He asked as he pointed at the dead body of Regent who was currently being kicked by a very, very angry and sad looking Rachel.

"Normally I'd have more tact about this, but if you want to bring a corpse with you and don't think it'll slow you down, do it. If not, mourn later once you're safe to." Medusa said, before gently putting a hand on his shoulder. "Its fucked up, but right we all need to get out alive. Can you do that?"

"I can do that." He replied. "Rachel, Sabah, stick close to me." Grue spoke as darkness enveloped the three as they left through the other door, a surprisingly clearly labeled emergency exit sign having been back down that hallway.

Well, repurposed shelter, not that surprising.

"TT." Medusa said, hair opening.

"I am with you," She replied as she got in.

"Which way?" Medusa asked as she left through the door they'd come in.

"Hmm, he went that way."

Medusa shot off like a bullet.

Mr. Pitter had a few minutes headstart and knew the lay of the land.

Medusa could run at 60 miles per hour.

They were not the same.

And so, as she approached, she heard a voice.

"Mr. Coil wants the base evacuated, I will be retrieving another asset, and for you Miss Noelle, a bit of practice will allow you to resume human guise." Mr Pitter spoke, his voice coming through the otherside of a slightly ajar, full size bank vault door.

Just as her claws sunk into the door before she slammed it fully open, not having slowed in the slightest.

Inside, she saw Mr. Pitter standing with six individuals.

Three costumed, yet maskless individuals, the fourth and fifth were in plain clothes and the fifth in a wheelchair. The sixth though was a familiar sight of animal and human, though one that was uncomfortably close to herself. A serpentine, naga-like form with seafoam green scales sporting a repeated circular pattern and pale purplish skin.

She registered this as she grabbed Mr. Pitter, and while she was going to question him she put her attention on them. "This place is rigged to explode. Get out. If you don't get in my way I won't get in yours. And you, to regain human form, just think about it really hard. It's literally that simple." Medusa said, giving them her ultimatum.

"...Yeah we got what we wanted, we don't want to be stone." The man called Trickster said as he held the hand of the one that had been turned.

"Thank you," She simply said. "Because of you, I am not a monster any more."

Verity felt a moment of sympathy for the girl. "Just… just go, and cut ties with Coil if you don't want to be caught in the fallout of what's about to happen. Speaking of." And then she turned her attention on Pitter, who had been clawing useless at her arm. "Where is Dinah Alcott?"

"You will neve-"

"She is in a room beside his lab, so that he had direct access to his favorite test subject." Tattletale said.

Making Mr. Pitter freeze.

She squeezed just enough to make him uncomfortable. "I want to snap your neck so bad right now… but unlike you, I'm not a monster." She said before scratching him and then dismissively coiling him in a hair snake, held aloft and unprotected. Even now, she couldn't justify killing an unarmed man, even as much as she wanted to (she could justify it, she knew she could, but then he'd get off easy). "You're going to experience the proper punishment for your crimes. Since I can't promise the same for your boss." And with that, she no longer cared about him. "TT, lab. Which direction." She said as she walked out the Vault door the Travelers had already vacated through.

"That way," Tattletale said as she guided Verity to her destination and thankfully, or un-thankfully their journey was cut short as they came across soldiers pushing a clearly drugged out of her mind twelve-year-old in a wheelchair, guns being pointed at her.

Medusa didn't think twice before aiming at their head-level.

And their bodies collapsed to the ground, their now stone heads shattering as they crashed into each other.

"Whoops." Medusa said, deciding to feel bad about that later, before carefully picking up the very much so not able to resist Dinah Alcott in her arms. "You with us sweetie?"

"82%"

"So the answer's no, got it." Medusa said as she shifted the girl around and wrapped some of her hair around her protectively, mirroring the move she'd used to carry Taylor way back when. "TT, exit?"

"That-."

"Detonation will occur in t-minus 3 minutes."

"Of course…" Verity groaned… but was quite grateful for the fact Coil was so high on his own supply he even had a countdown. "TT?"

"Forward, left, then up the stairs."

"On it." And she was off.

She had to trust Grue and the others would be able to make it out.

The place had to be able to be evacuated by normal humans, after all, or Coil would be blowing up all of his men instead of just the unlucky ones.

On the way up, a scant few of said men tried to shoot her.

She shot back.

The rest got the message loud and clear, considering she wasn't actually trying to stop them in saving themselves.

Those rifles stung, though. She'd have to watch out for Toybox lasers in the future.

"Detonation in t-minus 30 seconds." Came the voice as they exited the complex and came out onto a street she recognized as being at the north end of the commercial district.

She saw her people.

And then she saw civilians looking surprised with phones out.

"EVERYONE RUN AWAY, NOW! THE WHOLE STREET'S ABOUT TO EXPLODE!" Medusa ordered at the top of her lungs.

She didn't see how many obeyed as she grew larger as fast as possible, picked up Grue, Sabah, and Rachel and as many people as she could with her hair, each individual strand grabbing a person with their now enlarged size, her brain straining from the act and feeling like she was being torn apart by her scalp, before moving as fast as she could away, grabbing more people as she ran.

Boom!

The explosion came from down below as the entire street shook, a column of dust and fire spewing up into the air, as the ground within a few hundred feet of the base turned into a rapidly collapsing sinkhole.

Verity had moved a third of a mile in that time.

Once she had, she placed the people down as gently as she could, her brain screaming at her in agony before she immediately shrunk back down as her concentration gave way to pain.

"Verity you okay?" Sabah asked in concern.

"No."

"Well still alive."

And that was when it started to rain.

"Of course." Lisa said.

Then a siren started blaring.

A siren she had recently familiarized herself with, considering what was supposed to be coming.

Endbringer.

Arriving here.

Immediately after a very, very sizeable shelter had just been blown up.

If Coil survived this she was going to…

She was going to…

Oh god.

She couldn't think that far ahead right now.

She had work to do.

"EVERYONE, TO THE NEAREST SHELTER OR EVAC POINT, NOW!" Medusa ordered, ignoring the feeling that her brain was being ripped out through her skull like play-doh.

"28%"

"Is that our rate of survival?" Medusa asked as people came out of the shock and began controlled panicking.

"28 percent chance you will survive today." Dinah spoke, her voice sounding as far off as she looked.

"Huh, better than I expected."

"This is… the worst day." Grue said.

"Worst day so far."