Summoner

by codekinguu

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19. Chapter 26-30

Chapter 26

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

The entourage she came up on was not exactly what she had been expecting the Travellers to be, but then again she was expecting some team of professionals.

Not a wheelchair bound girl that was exuding enough guilt to make her choke and sputter on its tangy aftertaste, nor another girl that seemed to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown, shivering and jerking in the corner.

The guys were more composed, but of the two, only the injured one seemed to not be interested in participating in whatever lingering tension and drama seemed to thicken the air between them all, and that was because he was pretty much unconscious.

Speaking of Ballistic, he was… alive. He had been given the majority of the floorspace in the moving truck they used to move around, and their attempt at cauterization had worked, but seemed to be making most of them at least a little sick. The girl with the elaborate red sun costume seemed to have the worst of it.

Ballistic's burnt leg smelled nice, actually. Made her hungry.

Ew.

'Cosmic Insight' fed her with enough information to make a rough judgement on their characters, though most of them were in the middle of some monumental shift, it seemed.

And they were all from another planet, one familiar to this one. Earth Aleph, maybe? Probably, but how the hell? There was a portal to Earth Aleph somewhere on Earth Bet, but physical matter was difficult to transport as far as the public knew. That was why it was easy to send literature and programming drives through but not people or something like food shipments.

Regardless, she took a moment to think of what she would do with these people once they led her to Coil and she took over.

Ballistic was a guy who seemed torn between wanting to help people, do some kind of… competitive group activity which she could guess meant sports, and his extreme introversion. He would be happy in complete isolation and a bag of money to spend, but other interests forced him to interact with people, and he was unwilling to compromise. As a result, he was just constantly drained and tired mentally, but was friendly and a generally nice person who did not want the powers he'd gained, only able to destroy.

The guy wearing a tophat was being annoying even while wrangling a shitty tourniquet on Ballistic's leg, who was thankfully zonked out on morphine.

'Cosmic Insight' said he was an annoying asshole intentionally, to unite his team in their dislike of him.

Which was pretty damn stupid in her opinion.

Beyond that, he was a bit of a narcissist with an inflated sense of self. He struggled to show empathy to people who did not share his point of view on a matter. A prank to him would just be a prank, regardless of how frustrated or hurt the victim was, because in his view, it was just a prank, and the victim was unreasonable. But if that was the worst her power would say about him, then big whoop.

She doubted she'd like the guy, but he wasn't a horrible person from what she could see. Had his issues like everyone else.

The girl with the red sun costume was a friendly person that did not want to be here or be doing any of this. She did not want to hurt anyone, and she was only here because she had no other place to go. She had at one point been under the thumb of some controlling shadow, likely an authority figure, and her jaunt across worlds and into this mess seemed to have begun from that. She did not want to be a cape, and wished to return home.

Well, too bad.

The collective fight-or-slowly-go-insane mentality of parahumans was well-documented to anyone who bothered to dig, like Lisa.

But there were ways to circumvent that. Ways to give this girl a normal-ish, quiet life. Ways to manage that supposed itch with controlled fights every once in a while.

Hm. Thoughts for later.

The next girl was an unmasked, average looking girl with a mop of auburn hair and atrophied legs, sleepy and silently crying in the corner. The one who was making her choke on guilt. She likely thought she led to Ballistic losing his leg, which was a pretty rough spot to be in, mentally.

She was a bad actor and she felt lonely despite being around people, which had much to do with how her disability was an inconvenience for all of them. Had been disabled for a long time, missed her family, and was good at compartmentalising her life to deal with the difficulties of her disability. She was gradually losing grasp on reality due to her mental walls of stability that she used for said compartmentalization quickly crumbling due to circumstance. Fantasy and real life violence were starting to mould together in her head despite her desire to not hurt people.

On one hand, it was nice to know her future employees were not irredeemable monsters. On the other hand, she couldn't really Master them because…

Because of a rule she already broke with Maria…? That- wait, no.

Now that she had some time to think about it, she had haphazardly set a rule that she wouldn't master innocents, then immediately broke it for Maria because she needed an insider, without much thought.

So that presented a bit of a moral question she had to sort out before she could make judgements on how to deal with these guys.

She could either renounce her rule and work on nothing but a loose moral framework, or double down on it and try to somehow make every innocent cape she might come across at least passingly want to work for her rather than an enemy.

It was not an easy question to think about.

On one hand, she didn't really feel guilt, not really. She was embarrassed about how quickly she broke her rule to Master an innocent person, more than anything.

And she was prepared to do anything and everything to reverse Earth Bet's slow slide into the abyss. Maybe Lisa or even her own self did not quite understand what everything meant, however, the weight that word carried.

It meant that she was willing to become a monster to fix the world, if that was what it took. If she had to kill children, she would do it. If she had to commit genocide, she would do it. If she had to become a monster like those she hunted, one that had to be put down when all the rest of her kind were destroyed, she would do it, if only because at the end, she would have saved an ungrateful world that would live on in blissful ignorance of her actions in the far future.

That concept of the far future was a lantern in the dark for her. A shining aspiration of what could be, if she could just will and push it into existence.

It was difficult for humans to think of what would happen in a decade, a century, harder even more to care about it. Human lifespans and minds did not think and operate on such detached, distant concepts. She was in a unique position to have lived through history, and to be able to comprehend and care. So she did.

Regardless of that conviction however, she would also do her damn best to try and make it so that there would never be a need to stoop that low. She didn't want to become a monster, she just would if she had to.

So, she was not guilty about what she did to Maria. She had expected that she would need to break her rule in the future, depending on how necessary it was and how dire the situation was, but…

Hm.

This was a tad frustrating. Balancing what must be done and what is unnecessary, judging, weighing the scale.

It wasn't that she opposed Mastering innocents as a principle, not at all. It all lay in the individual circumstances. Maria was a hasty choice, but the woman did not have anyone around her who would be hurt by her shifting allegiance, and even said shifting allegiance was nothing but a fairly mild case of unthinking, unfaltering loyalty. Unpowered cult leaders had done things a million times worse to their followers, mentally.

Her main concern was to not slide into Heartbreaker territory unless completely necessary, but there was no scenario she could ever possibly come up with that would make it necessary to be like him.

And by god was that relieving. Not becoming like him was what her "rule" had been about, a clumsy sort of mental stopgap to give her pause.

It didn't work, obviously, so she took a moment to rationalise as she idly listened in on the bickering moroseness of the truck's occupants.

What was Heartbreaker like? What made him truly reprehensible and more than a little disgusting, even to her?

In short, the fact he controlled people for his monkey-brained hedonism, the fact he controlled them without regard for collateral damage or what would happen to them if he were to die, even claiming to have deadman switches all over the country, and the fact he left nothing but broken hopes and shattered families everywhere he went.

On all three of those fronts, she was nothing like him, and that was what mattered to her, not the act of Mastering someone itself.

Mastering people had so many incredible applications if done right. Why struggle for a lifetime with trauma when someone with a Master power could sit you down in a chair, fuck with your head a little, and all of a sudden, you'd be a functional, happy person in the course of a few minutes? Why remember traumatic events that crippled you if someone could just pluck that memory out of your head and leave you a well-adjusted person who did not carry a mountain on their crumbling back? Why make the tax payer and the lawful good people pay to keep monstrous scumbags alive in a prison that would only make them worse people instead of sitting them down with a Master and telling them to become functional members of society?

Most people did not think like that, because few trusted anyone enough these days, and the PRT had made things like this frustratingly illegal, but the general principle stuck out to her. Pragmatism.

Her distaste of Heartbreaker had everything to do with how and why he Mastered people.

The rule she put in place was not... bad, but unrealistic and hasty. A loose moral framework was required for her goals.

As far as she was concerned, while by no means was she a saint or even a passingly good person, she wasn't a monster like those she wished to hunt yet. Hopefully she could keep it that way.

Maybe she should employ Lisa or someone else with a bit of moral backbone, like Maria, someone that wasn't as flexible as her so they could tell her what might be a slippery step before she tumbled down the slope, but for now, she was doing fine. The rule was not bad, but was not needed.

The truck bed had gone quiet eventually, the auburn haired girl in the wheelchair holding onto the sun-dressed girl's hand.

She had caught some names, passingly, as she pondered on base ethics.

Sun girl was named Marissa, wheelchair girl was named Jess, and tophat asshole was named Kraus, or some variation of that. He definitely did not look German to her, but whatever. Ballistic was Luke.

Not useful info, but it helped humanise them a bit.

Eventually, their driver took them to the heart of Coil's territory, and that was where she found the man's hideout. A minute of zipping around at max speed then flitting back to the truck let her know the rough context of where they were and how this whole place came to be.

Coil's base was set up underneath a demolished old mall, judging by the melting, aged signs dotting the construction site, a mall that seemed to be in the middle of being rebuilt into an apartment building with an open yard before that construction was given up on, bricks and half-formed foundations sitting in the open wide space left behind.

Something that hadn't apparently been demolished was the underground parking lot beneath the mall, around the back of the construction site. The entrance was cleverly hidden by a shell of an abandoned squat little building that seemed to have been built around the entrance, and one of its walls was nothing but crumbling bricks and artistically dirtied detritus glued to a metal plate that extended outwards and tilted its bottom up until the truck could move into the underground tunnel, like a detachable wall.

It was so over the top that she immediately loved it. It felt like something only she would be paranoid enough to bother doing.

And to make it even better, the entire process had been hidden by the rusted, busted open cargo crates on either side of the little building, basically surrounding it in a way that was just perfect to not seem like they were actually surrounding it, like a puzzle whose purpose was to block all sightlines and the pieces were perfectly placed in all directions.

That, and the single heavily armed guard patrolling around, should be enough for nobody to ever wonder or bother to find out what this place really was.

One guard, just enough to indicate that there was some company or another interested in this place, discouraging those not brave enough to fuck with a guy doing lazy circles with a pistol on his hip, and just little enough to make people that were brave or strong enough realize that there was likely not something worth a damn in the construction site to bother with.

The carefully dusted security cameras littering the place also looked too aged and dusty to be actually working, but she just knew they were, all of them.

She had no doubt the man had even more surveillance and security measures she hadn't yet noticed or seen.

This place was almost cartoonishly like an evil villainous lair, and with her half-serious mannerisms of calling her employees and capes minions, this felt like a great place for her to set up some less sensitive operations within.

The industrial garage door with an entire wall glued onto its surface descended, and she quickly flit into the closing gap, and rocketed down the short winding drive to the parking area.

She almost got deja vu from the PRT building, though the armour on display here was much lesser.

There were plenty of jeeps and armoured cars, but for the most part it was just military transport trucks painted black, and nothing nearly as heavy duty as what the PRT had.

She tore her eyes away to follow the Travellers as their driver brought the truck to a stop. The team was met by an armed group that quickly took up a gurney and dragged Ballistic off for medical care, Jess now wearing a domino mask as they unloaded her with a ramp that extended off the underside of the truck.

Oddly nice of Coil to give them a truck with disability access, even if only accidental due to it being a moving company's truck.

After a few minutes of the Travellers unwinding and finding their footing again, shaking off the adrenaline, they moved to a giant section at the end of the parking area that was covered by two rectangular-looking vault doors. Coil's men were in the middle of half-jogging down the red-lit hall beyond, the doors slowly shutting behind them, so the Travellers slipped through the gap and attached themselves to the group as they moved down and down, through checkpoint after checkpoint and blast door after blast door, all covered by cameras and at least one guard each.

She stuck by them, but what she saw made her amazed enough to stop and gawk sometimes, before quickly relocating them and following them again until it repeated.

The base was…

Basically her dream lair.

Oh sure she could have her bunker and stuff for things that were truly secretive beyond measure, or too important to ever even think of having accessible, but this? This was a perfect secondary base of operations.

Hallways with blast doors upon blast doors, large stretches of space dedicated to mountains of ammunition and supplies, what must have easily been over a hundred mercenaries either training or fucking about, all armed with things so slick and clean it made her salivate.

Which was a strange reaction, much like when she saw the vehicles, but whatever was driving it was there to stay so she accepted it.

Some stretches were just metal walkways over large stretches of space, some others were just dozens upon dozens of rooms, and there was an area to the right side of the base that looked suspiciously like an Endbringer shelter, complete with vault doors and faded luminescent strips around it.

It certainly explained how the hell he got this all made. Likely some backroom deal with the companies that made these shelters.

Eventually, the group traversed the semi-labyrinthian halls, and after a minute of awkwardly waiting in a wide hallway guarded by two stoic men absolutely dripping with firepower, the guard on the left told Kraus to hand over the flashdrive and that they were dismissed for the moment as Coil was busy. After the Travellers had been dismissed, with some snarling from Kraus, which was fair enough, in her opinion, the door at the end of the hall opened with a hydraulic hiss.

She floated in with much more haste than the guard, and paused.

Whatever she had been expecting to see, it was not a ridiculously oversized room housing a child on a medical bed getting an IV put into her arm by some unassuming middle aged man next to Coil's sufficiently villainous-looking desk. The gangly villain himself had one arm around his stomach and the other caressing his chin as he hovered over both of them, damn near fretting.

"Sir, the Travellers acquired the package." The guard said, peeking into the room just enough to show the flash drive with his free hand as she idly floated above him, her gaze moving back and forth from the girl to the villain.

Coil didn't turn to address them, gesturing vaguely to the desk.

"Leave it there."

The guard nodded, and quickly did as instructed, leaving the room and shutting the door behind him.

The girl on the bed groaned and shifted, brows furrowed as she let out a tiny whine that tugged just a little at Taylor's heartstrings.

"Be careful with the dosage, Mr. Pitter." Coil carefully intoned, his words as much commentary as they were warning.

For a moment, she faltered, hesitated.

Was this his daughter? Was he a villain because she had some incurable disease or something? He certainly seemed invested in her safety. And Amy Dallon did not heal villains, so that was another possible point as to why he hadn't gone to her.

Then she switched runes to bring up 'Cosmic Insight' and was just confused, because the effect did not even passingly mention the girl in any way. If anything he sounded like exactly what Lisa said. Ambitious, calculating, and paranoid, with a dash of uncaring cruelty.

"Yes sir. I know, sir. The men used a little too much chloroform, but this should fix that. There won't be an issue with brain damage, or anything. She's a strong girl." Mr. Pitter said in a croony, almost mesmerised cadence that made her immediately realise that something was deeply wrong with the man, and that was before he gave the girl the creepiest pat on the head she'd ever seen, including the one she gave Bakuda.

She checked him with 'Cosmic Insight' as well. Mr. Pitter had a disturbed everything, from childhood to adulthood, a seemingly unhealthy fascination and fondness for children that thank fuck did not extend to pedophilia, and a dark sociopathic streak that made him… indirectly kill his wife?

Then her brain caught up with what he said, and she paused.

Chloroform.

And a girl in a secret underground base with not one, but two creepy old men.

"I shall trust that you're correct. The special blends are ready. Remind me how long I have to wait until I'm able to dose her and get some answers." Coil asked, making his question sound both like a command and like he already knew the answer and was just testing the man.

"Ah, the opioids and painkillers don't interact well with this… solution. I believe we should let her be for twenty four hours. Shall I take her to her room?"

She heard enough. The palpable, growing sense of satisfaction and triumph in the air as Coil watched over his 'catch' made her all the more certain he probably had his timelines turned off right now. No better place to merge.

She checked around for any automatic defences or hidden switches in Coil's disgustingly tight costume, then waited until both men were turned away.

There was a brief debate of pretending to be the guard, as if she'd never left, or the tophat asshole who apparently could teleport, according to the discussion in the truck, but she decided to go for old reliable.

Brute force.

She materialised as Evelynn's base form, invisible, and shapeshifted a third arm on her back. Two ribbon-like tentacles wrapped themselves around both Coil and Mr. Pitter's necks, each jerking in surprise and choking as she lifted them each a foot up in the air.

At the same time, she swapped to the Rune of Sorcery, materialising the 'Nullifying Orb' behind her back.

She dashed forward, one hand grasping Coil's chin, and the other clawing into the material around his head. If her claws flayed his cheekbone a little and slapped his fumbling hands away, too bad.

The rubber-like fabric tore with ease, and she was rewarded with a wide eyed stare, muted bafflement and surprise in the air as his eyes jerked around the room to try and find her, legs and arms vaguely flailing as his eyes lingered on the purple-blue orb just hovering in the air a foot or two away from him. His hands twitched as he tried to speak.

Calmer than she'd expected.

Then, for seemingly no reason at all, the room filled with terror, his eyes widening comically. He likely just tried to use his power again, and failed.

Lisa you're the goddamn best.

He tried to reach for the orb, giving up on trying to peel away whatever was holding him up by the neck, and flinched when his hands met the solid flesh between him and it.

Namely, Evelynn's tits.

He recoiled quickly enough, but… ehguhg. Fuck, now she felt like showering. Or scraping her skin off a couple times.

She turned the invisibility off, and her eyes flashed gold as she dragged Mr. Pitter's choking form next to his employer's, pushing mindless, dreamy fuzz into their heads before gently lowering them to the floor, where they remained, silent and suddenly calm as a cucumber, if a bit breathless and raspy from the rough treatment.

She crouched into a squat, turned to Coil's placid, dazed eyes, tilted his head up to see them better, and dove into his mind with another brief flare of golden light.

Notes:

not sure why but i dont rly like this chapter and writing it was a slog

meh

see ya soonish

Chapter 27

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

She couldn't read minds.

Well, she could, but not like this. She would need an entire crate of resources and a process to read someone's mind, as well as plenty of preparation beforehand.

But by combing through mental connections and one's feelings towards them, she could learn a lot about someone.

Coil was…

By her standards, an amazing employee, honestly. He was cautious, he was intelligent, socially adept, incredibly well-connected, considering he had enough mental connections to entities to make her dizzy, and just cruel enough to not blink at kidnapping, torture, extortion, or whatever else she might require of him in the future, unlike Lisa who she'd rather keep away from such things, at least not on first-hand experience.

Sentimentality or not, she'd rather keep Lisa as her left hand, holding the pen behind her back.

Who her right hand would be, holding her sword, she wasn't sure yet.

Coil would not be it though.

She would need a powerhouse with her, someone on the field who could keep up. Maybe a flier? Oh, Purity? She seemed like a good fit.

Regardless, making Coil her literal puppet, along the speeds of what she'd done to Bakuda, but even more, just more balanced and restrained, took a lot of time.

She imagined that this was quite odd to be on the other end of. These emotions, so intense yet so balanced that to an outsider, it wouldn't be all that apparent. Nigh-worship mixing with enough temperance to rival a hundred monks combined.

Emotions so intense she doubted normal people would ever feel them, not without experiencing things that would have them slipping into madness. The human mind had an emotional threshold, of sorts, and it was different for everyone.

Thankfully, she could see that threshold, so while she tugged Coil ever higher towards it, she didn't go too too far.

If this happened to her, she imagined that it would be like she had lived her entire life seeing and feeling life in monotone grays, and suddenly, some girl strolled in with a bucket full of rainbow and painted a portrait of herself in the middle of her psyche.

Didn't even sound that bad honestly, pre-locker incident at least. Would have been nice.

It took half an hour of careful balancing before she dragged herself out of his mind, and left him there, dazed, to work on his weirdo sidekick.

On Mr. Pitter, she spent barely ten minutes, just ranking his loyalty to her and Coil as far as it could go.

More as a curious experiment on if this would be enough to Master people. Just loyalty.

Would resentment and other feelings slowly win over said loyalty? Was it possible? Evelynn and her scarce cults were never active for long enough to make such experimentation, so she had to do a bit of her own.

In fact, it took such little concentration to work on Pitter, that she began to idly wonder about some things.

Namely, Lisa's phonecall.

She had no doubt the PRT would have been trying to call her father over her sudden absence, but jokes on them, he didn't have a phone, and Lisa would likely cover for her when he got home and saw the phone buzzing away.

Still, if the PRT checked the phone call log, they might question the snake bit. Should she get a snake? Or turn something into one using Lulu? Would they even bother caring about that when there was some other incident that very same day?

She briefly considered turning Coil into a snake. She could even allow him to speak like a normal human for business purposes.

Interesting, but she'd shelf the idea for now.

After Mr. Pitter was sufficiently cowed, she withdrew.

Even while squatting, she almost stumbled to fall on her back, hastily saved by her tentacles before she straightened.

Curiously, there was no migraine that felt like someone was digging into her brain with a buzzsaw.

More like someone was pounding a nail into her skull every time her heart beat, and a bone-deep tiredness. Horrible, but manageable.

She let the fuzz from their minds clear as she rose to Evelynn's full height, and after a moment of confused blinking, Coil rushed to get up, blinking at her in confusion before straightening into a soldier's attention pose, staring up somewhere above her head.

Her brow rose.

The fact his response to overwhelming respect and inferiority was to snap to a soldier's pose suggested things his physique did not.

"Ma'am?" He asked, his voice rattled but somewhat firm.

"Call me Summoner, or The Summoner, in private. In varied company, I do not exist. Why is the girl here?" She dryly asked, flicking a claw at said victim.

Then she realized that wasn't a mannerism she had, and frowned.

She should probably use another Legend from time to time.

"She has a precognitive ability that answers what the chances are of any questioned event happening." Coil answered.

She stilled.

That was… incredibly powerful. It was powerful enough to rival Coil.

"And I assume you kidnapped her?" She coldly asked, and Coil gulped before nodding his head, stoic.

"Yes. I orchestrated an attack at Brockton Bay's National Bank utilising a parahuman team named "The Travellers", to retrieve confidential documents that will help me uncover the hidden identities of all the parahumans of Empire Eighty Eight through their financial crimes to launder and funnel money from legitimate businesses to their own ends. This doubled as a distraction, while I sent a strike squad to retrieve Dinah Alcott, age eleven, at her family residence. Her parents unfortunately saw my men, and thus had to be killed to tie up loose ends. She is unharmed, physically." Coil said, his cadence the carbon copy of a man giving a standing report on an operation, even his feet widening apart a bit.

She took a deep breath, let it out.

So, taking the Empire down became a cakewalk.

This was… all going blindingly fucking quickly. Was there really only Lung and the Merchants left?

Regardless, she squashed the offended, cold distaste in her stomach, and nodded.

"You work for me now. Whatever your goals and routines are, put them on hold for a moment while I go retrieve an associate. As for the girl, keep her on base until she is lucid, and I'll deal with her then, tell her her options. Anybody who touches her in any way unnecessary will die. Do you use any passes or devices or anything of the sort to identify who is allowed on base or not?"

"No ma'am. The mercenaries know everyone or are briefed in the case of unexpected visits." Coil said, eyes still staring off into the nonexistent horizon.

"Tell them that there will be new capes roaming around the base, and that they are Summoner's employees. Summoner is someone whose orders supersede even yours, should any be given. Relay that as well. Take the girl to her room, Mr. Pitter, whatever that may be. Coil, stay here."

She barely gave both men a chance to nod before she put a Teleport waypoint right in front of Coil's desk and Teleported to her house's basement.

The purple light vanished, and in its place she found Lisa, tension in her every muscle and microexpression, damn near bouncing in place, eyes wide and laser-focused on hers, not even bothering to comment on Evelynn's bizarre appearance.

"Did you get him? Is he-"

"He's ours." She cut her off, and turned back into herself, spreading her arms with a subdued smile.

Lisa damn near tackled her, and she felt her ribs bend and creak as her feet momentarily left the floor before Lisa shifted and she felt ground again.

" Air…" She wheezed out as she hugged her back, and Lisa laughed as she loosened the hug up, breathing heavily and making relieved groaning sounds.

"I was so fucking scared that he was going to split his timelines the wrong way and open a black hole or some shit, or just somehow see you coming or- or catch you. How- how sure are you that he's ours?" Lisa rushed out into her shoulder.

She thought of the little girl who just had her parents murdered today all so that a villain could enslave her for her power, and tilted her head a little.

"Dead sure. Hey, Lisa? Do you know what the best way to get over your fears and frustrations is?" She asked, quietly, and Lisa shrugged against her, still breathing heavy breaths of relief.

She leaned closer to her ear.

"To beat them into a pulp until they can't even whimper." She husked, fully aware that she was projecting her own desire to hurt Coil onto Lisa.

But she was doing it because there would be no point if she was the one to do it. Lisa would gain closure. Confidence.

Lisa stilled for a moment, her hug slowly tightening.

"I… does your spell thing heal brain damage?" Lisa quietly asked.

"Yes."

"How much damage can you heal?"

"Close to death with two casts. But don't kill him. That takes a lot more effort to bring back." She murmured, her hands softly rubbing Lisa's back through the bodysleeve.

The hug loosened, and Lisa stepped back, eyes hard and heavy, oddly mournful.

"Take me there."

She turned into Ryze, and grasped for space, mind and memory and geometry melting together into magical slag that pooled at her feet into a swirling vortex.

Her eyes did not stray from Lisa's.

Hers, calm, placid, observant, a dark push and impulse in them, a purpose.

Lisa's, heavy, angry, the echoes of grief shimmering around the edges.

As the vortex sunk them into the floor, she realized what this was really about, to Lisa.

Seeing Coil again made her freeze for a moment.

Not from fear, nor from shock, just…

It felt so bizarre.

So sudden.

In a basement one moment, in his office the next.

He lowered the phone with a muttered platitude, and rose to a pose she'd never seen on him. Stiff, military attention, eyes above their own.

"Coil." A man's oddly-pitched voice rumbled from behind her, and she flinched for a moment before remembering that that was not a guard, but one of Tay's bizarre capes. The voice threw her for a loop every damn time.

She took a step forward, another.

Coil's mask had been torn open.

There was something oddly ironic or maybe poetic about how this was the first time she saw the eyes behind the mask of the man who killed two of the only people she could loosely call friends.

"Do not defend yourself." Taylor's order came forth, and Coil did nothing but nod, eyes still somewhere above her.

She hadn't prepared for what she would do in this situation, what question she might ask, except for one.

"Did you plan to kill the Undersiders indirectly, or was it unintended? A mistake?" She asked, her voice unable to rise beyond a quiet, frothing hiss. Her nails dug into her palms.

Coil's eyes flit to the side, behind her, asking permission to speak from Taylor as her power politely told her.

He got it, and his eyes strayed back up.

She stepped around the desk, coming closer to him as he took a single, efficient step back, to give her room.

"It was not planned, no. I did not anticipate Lung finding their hideout nor the ensuing chaos that drew Oni Lee to the fight." Coil said, voice cold like giving a report, said as blandly as a soldier explaining why he was late to morning stretches.

"Did you have a chance to save them?" She whispered, her hands trembling and numb like someone was electrocuting every nerve.

"I had a timeline open with my power where there could have been a more favourable result, perhaps, but their end was total and thus cleaned up any loose ends. In the other timeline, a favourable circumstance regarding another step to a replacement project had gone underway. I judged the outcome acceptable."

She wasn't sure what she expected to feel when she got her answer, but at that moment, she felt nothing but fury.

She let out a cry as she slammed her fist into his stomach.

He gagged as he staggered back and hit the floor in a tumble.

He did not raise his hands to protect himself, even as she stomped on his stomach, merely tugging his mask down over his chin as he twisted his head to the side to vomit, his legs reflexively curling up to protect himself then forcibly extending straight.

She didn't let him have that, slamming a foot into his ribs.

He let out a sound like a wounded animal as his back curled around her foot, and she felt his ribs crack against her as he hacked and croaked and gasped on the floor through his vomit.

She staggered a step back, her breaths heavy as she stared at the bastard that fucked everything up for her. She took another step back as she stared at him, reminding herself that he wasn't a threat, not anymore.

A hand stopped her, a familiar one.

"Is that it?" Taylor murmured behind her, in her actual, normal voice, and Lisa paused. "Don't you think he could take a little more? That he deserves a little more?"

She worked her jaw, her teeth gnashing, her nostrils flaring.

He did. He deserved so much more. He deserved to scream and wail while his flesh sloughed off his bones and his bones cracked open from the blistering heat, he deserved to gasp for breath as he stared up at the sky with dazed eyes and a hole in his chest, his blood painting his shirt red as he mouthed 'Angelica' without a voice.

The edges of her vision pulsed like veins, red.

"All the years he took from them…" Taylor quietly said, her voice sounding upset for them, and Lisa felt those words move through her brain like a physical shockwave.

She could feel her pulse in her fingertips. In her tongue, she could smell blood and felt her spine roil and coil with eager shivers, her breaths turning stuttered with shudders.

In her room up in Lung's shitty club, she would sometimes torture herself with the future that would never be, things that might have happened if Brian and Rachel hadn't died.

She'd imagine Rachel content under some big name gang or another, an army of dogs rushing at her with wagging tails as she snarled her way to an orderly breakfast.

She'd imagine Brian having breakfast with his sister, away from whatever made him want to take custody of her in the first place. Maybe they could even hang out in the future, out of costume, reminiscing about the stupid asshole that made them work together before his inevitable downfall.

Hell, she even imagined Alec, lounging back on the world's most extravagant couch and gaming setup, playing his stupid Aleph games on a screen that belonged to a theater, being a brat to them as he lazed about.

"All their potential, all their experiences, their future, gone. Because of him. And this is all you think he deserves? You heard what he said, right? Does it matter that he's on the ground? Does it matter that he's ours when he's yet to pay?" Taylor emphasized, the hand tightening, a light prod forward.

She knew this was wrong, that this was a step too far, but she could hardly see Coil himself anymore, leaving behind nothing but a bag of bones and flesh, a dehumanised icon responsible for everything that had gone wrong since she stepped into his city, even if a more rational Lisa would have argued she was at fault for much herself.

She wanted to kill him. She wanted to rip him apart.

"Do you feel satisfied? Has he paid?" Taylor whispered softly, like both the devil and the angel on her shoulder saying the same thing, agreeing with each other without realising it, and she…

She remembered Alec throwing potato chips at Brian's helmet, yelling ' score' whenever he would land one inside the rim. She remembered the way Brian threw it off his head when he tried to put it on and she heard a series of crunching, and the way they both devolved into giggling and wheezing cackles, even Bitch snickering a little on the side as Brian literally seethed with golden potato chips covering his new haircut, his eye twitching as he contemplated how hard he should punch Alec.

She remembered Bitch passing her a beer, unprompted, her fumbling attempt to mimic a human behaviour she did not understand, simply to convey a 'thank you' that she wasn't even sure of why she felt the need to give.

She remembered the arguments, the hissy fits, the snarly, grudging understanding standard to a group of troubled idiotic teenagers.

"Just let it go. Let it out."

With a strangled cry of hatred, she did.

Taylor surveyed the scene before her for a moment, watching Lisa like a hawk as she panted with her butt on the floor and her back to Coil's desk, her head upturned and every breath mingling with something like a sob and snarl. Her hands were covered in blood, smeared and drying all the way up to her wrists, some in splotches and others in a collective sheen.

She prodded her summoner spells.

Another thirty seconds to use 'Heal' on Coil again.

That... wasn't even satisfying, she was just concerned for Lisa at this point.

She moved her eyes over his form, over the teeth and blood covering the floor around his weakly rasping body. A single eye stared back at her from within a puddle, torn out of its socket by blunt force, the result of a swing that Lisa took with one of Coil's cabinets before she threw that side to get more personal again.

She might have pushed Lisa a bit harder than she'd intended.

Scratch that, she wasn't even sure if this was a result of herself or if Lisa had been… feeling a lot of stuff lately, and she just hadn't noticed. Or Lisa hadn't let her notice. Or maybe…

Lisa had probably suppressed it all. Old reliable for damaged people like them. Just shove it into a corner and move on because you don't have the time nor the mental capacity to truly deal with it at the moment.

Still, she wasn't sure she'd done the right thing by pushing Lisa forward. She just wanted her to let out her frustrations now before they could cloud her judgement later or slowly ebb away in an unsatisfying haze, but she hadn't expected it to be so… explosive. She didn't even know that Lisa was capable of such violence, not intentionally. She had been expecting the lack of resistance to make it a lot more unsatisfying to just wail on him, thus ending it quicker, but it... hadn't really seemed to factor in.

She had broken bones, punched his teeth out with enough force and so many times there were more teeth on the floor than he had in his mouth, stomped and kicked at everything that wouldn't be fatal, breaking fingers and ribs and bruising everything. She'd kicked him even if he was groaning or writhing or fading in and out of consciousness.

Had she not healed Coil twice so far, he would be dead.

And now, here they were.

Lisa's breaths slowly took on the edge of sobs, and she crouched down in front of her.

"Do you want me here?" She whispered.

Lisa went to speak, sniffled, and lowered red-rimmed eyes to her, before they slid further down, in shame and some desire to not be so exposed. She extended both shaking arms towards her in a hesitant request just a moment after.

Tasting emotions felt oddly like cheating, somehow, at this moment.

She crouch-walked forward into them, and narrowly avoided her head smacking into the desk when Lisa tugged her forward, bringing both of them forward to meet in the middle. She let Lisa sob into her shoulder she held her, ignoring the faint pressure where Lisa's fingers dug into her back and sides, enough to bruise her when not using Evelynn as a cover.

There was... both more and less guilt than she expected in the cocktail of emotions that Lisa was exuding. Perhaps somewhere during the tail end, she'd realized how incredibly over the top she'd gone, but who Taylor to judge her? She wasn't the one who'd lost her team to him.

She came up with speeches, words of comfort, words of realistic promises. None felt right.

So she said nothing.

And when she healed Coil, he had the social awareness to not shift an inch from his spot on the floor, to not draw attention to himself even a little, to let them have this moment of bloody catharsis.

Lisa had the awareness to know he was conscious too, but by the time she seemed capable of caring, she was pretty much limp against her, not crying nor doing much of anything beyond occasionally sniffling.

"I can take you back home and let you sleep. You've had a tiring day."

Lisa shook her head, rasping "No," before clearing her throat a few times, then leaning back enough to be against the wooden frame again, eyes closed and Taylor pretty much sitting on her lap awkwardly.

"We've uh… we've got work to do. I could use some work right now. Will he listen to me If I tell him to do stuff?" Lisa quietly asked, eyes still closed. Wariness, some kind of distaste... She couldn't quite tell what she was feeling.

She turned to Coil.

"You obey her like you would me." She said, and he nodded, still lying on the floor.

"Will he forget he heard any of my gross sobbing if you tell him to?"

"No, but he doesn't know who you are yet." She said, mostly going from hints of confusion and bewilderment she could taste wafting off Coil.

"Fuck." Lisa sighed, and gently pushed her back.

She got off of her, and helped her up by grasping a sleeve and yanking.

Lisa went to rub at her eyes as she opened them, before blinking at the blood on them and grimacing as she paused midway. More out of guilt and shame than disgust, but there was some in there as well.

She grabbed her wrists, and mouthed an incomprehensible chant, something too low to hear besides a strange, tiny whistle and a whispering inhale, mentally targeting spots and nudging distances.

The blood vanished in a fast wave, leaving Lisa blinking for a moment before a resigned ' of course' expression came over her, muted acceptance radiating before being smothered by everything else.

Even if one shitty cleaning spell emptied her dry of mana, it was something she could do at this point, and it felt like it might help.

"Thank you." Lisa whispered, and wiggled her wrists.

She let go.

Lisa straightened, took a deep breath, wiped her eyes, and just like that, she seemed remarkably more composed, more like herself, but… something was missing. Then she glanced at Coil, laying there in a pool of his own blood and vomit, and a smug, vindictive little smirk curled her lips as she backpedalled onto his leather office chair and dropped into it, rolling back and kicking her feet.

Ah, there it was.

"So. I'm Tattletale." Lisa began, cheery and smug with only an undercurrent of exhausted heaviness to her voice and motions, the emotions in the air tasting somewhat like she was… not faking it, but exaggerating it quite heavily, to make herself really feel it. A familiar thing as well, to Taylor.

Coil's head jerked to the side to stare at her, wide eyed in realization. He was probably wondering what the fuck the beating was about, until now, or where he'd heard that voice before.

"And unless-"

"Summoner." She interjected before Lisa could spill her name.

"- has an objection to this, I'm your new boss under her, and you're my new bitch."

Coil's brow twitched, but he nodded.

"So…" Lisa began, and crossed her legs as she stretched. "Tell us what your plans are while I rifle through your stuff. Don't tell me your passwords, I want to figure them out myself."

Coil nodded, and went to get up.

"No, bad. Stay." Lisa said like speaking to a disobedient dog, one fist propping her cheek up and the other hand pointing at him as her grin widened to show teeth, despite the sag in her shoulders betraying how tired she was.

There wasn't much emotion there. It seemed the satisfaction had bled away, and Lisa was just kind of going through some mental routine.

That was fine, if it helped her feel a bit less unbalanced.

Coil had a brief flash of humiliated annoyance before it faded for reluctant acceptance, and he settled back onto the floor, staring up at the ceiling.

She wasn't sure if this was the type of closure Lisa needed, or if this would just haunt her as a moment of unneeded violence that would shame her, but she hoped it would bring more good than bad.

Coil began to speak as Lisa began to tap away at his keyboard, and both their eyebrows slowly rose.

Notes:

not sure if this chap's good or not, but i like it a lot

had a lot of fun making taylor accidentally turn into jack slash for about ten seconds

also big thanks for the criticism on last chapter, made it like, twice as good

i rly do appreciate genuine criticism

and i do read all ur comments, they make me fuzzy inside and smile, so thx :)

Chapter 28

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

It took Coil three hours to explain everything he knew. Uninterrupted.

It took another hour for them to take stock of all of Coil's metaphorical pies.

Part of her was annoyed at how she tried so hard to start making money and getting people into the PRT, only for Coil to come in with immeasurably more effective means and connections. He was a PRT consultant for god's sake.

And as for his resources...

Gas stations, businesses, front businesses, real estate, hedge fund and relief funds, stocks in Fortress, Blackrock, the owner of a mercenary contract company, multiple operations for arms dealing across the entire world barring some of the more stable regions of Europe, and a dozen other huge companies and conglomerates.

His assets were on the upper end of seven hundred million. His bank accounts had a combined one hundred and six million dollars in them, with an average of twelve million more being added per year.

Coil was just shy of a billionaire, something his power no doubt helped him achieve. Any problems she could ever possibly, feasibly have to do with budget or resources vanished instantly. She could make anything she wanted now.

Yet, as much as she wanted to go to the most expensive restaurant the Bay had and just splurge a nice meal for her and Lisa while whooping incessantly, she couldn't. She had to stop, and think. Specifically, she had to plan.

Two things bothered her the most, of what Coil told them.

The organization that shall not be named, because according to him, they were literally fucking omniscient and even speaking their name gave them the knowledge that you'd said it, and was apparently some shadowy group of immense power that gave him and many others their powers in fucking vials. She only let him speak because she didn't buy the omniscience bullshit, especially with how her power seemed to fuck with Thinkers and adjascent powers. But the existence of these people presented another opportunity.

A power for herself. Despite the summon core that replaced her heart, she technically didn't have a power.

She could get one, if she could somehow contact them without making them an enemy.

According to Coil, every moment he explained things about the organization was another moment where a portal could open and kill them all, so she'd been very, very careful with her Legend choice until he was done.

Vial capes. It was something that was oddly infuriating to even think about, even to her and especially to Lisa.

And then, the second problem. Noelle Meinhardt, and the hidden camera they'd seen her through.

She could probably fix her, given a few months of growth for her soul to be able to take the load of what she would have to do and who she'd have to do it with. It would be massively inconvenient and she'd be banking on her soul growing enough to not have her collapse with her brain bleeding out of her ears once she was done, but it could happen.

But there was also a way to make use of her in a way that, while immoral, would make Brockton Bay seem…

Too small for her boots.

The world and possibilities were expanding right before her very eyes like an endless vista, and she had to think about how to grasp every last one of those possibilities.

Two more hours passed as Lisa took stock of every contact, contract, ongoing operation, and helped Coil compile his new data to figure out who every Empire cape was. And despite their seeming distaste for each other, she and Coil worked incredibly well together. Lisa had him split timelines, and call timeline A the one where she did X, while timeline B, she did Y.

Hacking into Medhall became trivially easy with the combination of their powers.

They did however have a couple misfires with Coil's powers that painted a unique problem.

Coil's timelines refused to work if she was involved, and they did not find out the easy way.

She had merely thought of making an offhand comment to see how they were doing on their Medhall hacking operation. Then Coil had suddenly gasped like he'd just been stabbed, and immediately launched himself up from his chair and began stumbling around, staring in shock at things that weren't there and mumbling to himself like a madman, spinning and gaping at nothing.

It took Lisa giving her a wide eyed stare and making several panicked 'cut' motion for her to realise she was the problem, and she resolved to say nothing and do nothing, looking away.

That was when according to Coil, things went back to normal like someone flipping a switch, and after a few moments of breathing harshly, began to describe some very… discomforting imagery.

According to him, the world in both timelines broke and began to flash and spin around him in a kaleidoscopic mess of different landscapes, medieval and fantastical environments.

Lisa spent about five minutes trying to figure out how exactly Coil's power worked and why it got so messed up when Taylor was involved, or at least a working theory on why, which was interesting trivia even to himself, and after that, she went back to planning and not even thinking about getting involved in whatever he and Lisa were doing.

It also meant that Coil would solidly be in Lisa's hands, and Taylor would have to know in exhaustive detail everything he did and planned on doing lest she break his timelines by interacting with them or something he was doing in his timelines. Or 'simulations' as Lisa theorized. But that was a fine exchange for his power, even if it made it impossible to use for truly big operations.

Soon after, a confused janitor cleaned up the room, brought them a new suit for Coil and a couple chairs, and left while Coil cleaned himself up and redressed in the corner.

So, she sat in the opposite corner, and stared at the wall with empty eyes, thinking.

Another hour passed before Lisa cheered, and printed out a list she gave her. A very detailed list.

The first name alone made her inhale and breathe out a sigh of incredulousness.

Kaiser was the CEO of Medhall, apparently.

Another multimillionaire at the very least, and one whose home address she could literally see on the paper in her hand.

The details made her head spin with more opportunities, more possibilities.

The Empire was hers.

Lung and the Merchants were left.

Coil's dossier on Brockton Bay's capes was also stacked to the fucking brim.

He hadn't unmasked everyone, but it was close enough and those who he hadn't unmasked, he still had a ton of information on.

For example, he knew Faultline's civilian identity. The woman apparently had parents somewhere in Cincinnati too.

Invasion of privacy or not, she knew entirely too much about entirely too many people now.

And strings just kept moving.

After she read the entire file on the Empire capes, she tossed the paper into the trashcan in the corner, and got up to stretch.

"Give me some pen and paper." She said, and Coil moved to do it for Lisa, opening a drawer and quickly presenting them to her. She nodded at him, dragged the chair off the corner and next to Lisa's much more luxurious one, and began to write.

It was a shopping list, actually.

Lisa paused while reading something, and turned to her. "Hey, T? I want to try to befriend Panacea."

She stopped writing, and turned to her with a blank stare.

"In the bank, I saw some flashes of something being real weird with the Dallons. I didn't get much honestly, but something was off. I also kinda saved Amy from getting kidnapped, so she might be… positively inclined towards me. After reading Coil's file, I've been able to connect some things. For example, she sure as hell doesn't know who her real father is, and I do. I think it's doable. I don't think she'd be willing to join us by any measure, the girl fucking hates villains, and if she doesn't, she'll twist herself into a pretzel to hate them. But I do think that I could provide her with some answers, and some insights. Maybe even a couple offers. At least maybe enough to warrant a favour in case we need it, or enough for her to cooperate with us in case something real fucked up happens." Lisa said, leaning back in her chair and looking at her with an oddly uncertain look.

"Also, you might want to start wearing sunglasses, there's something fucked up with your eyes and I feel like im burning my retinas out, but mentally." Lisa added with a shrug.

She rolled said eyes.

"I'm going to look like a fucking jackass wearing sunglasses in a dimly lit underground lair, so no. Might have to do that with the Wards... About Amy, sure, feel free to try. Sounds like a great idea, and way out of my league. I can read people well, but not you well. Also feel free to announce yourself as the new boss around here and save us both the logistic headache of running everything through Coil, I'll stick to the edges for now. Also, route a million into my NM account."

"En e- oh, Number Man. Okay. Show me the card real quick." Lisa nodded, and sighed, pushing herself up along the chair by the arms.

She dug it out, and thirty seconds later, eight hundred thousand dollars were in the account.

Enough for a lot of things. More than she could come up with.

She turned back to the paper and kept writing, before pausing.

She was pretty sure half the tools in her head were vastly inferior to modern ones, and much more frustrating to use.

Dad's mechanic friend was expecting her tomorrow to teach her the modern stuff, what they were called and how they were used. And unlike Tinkers, she actually had to know that shit because she couldn't just flick her finger at a battery and power it out of nowhere with pure bullshit.

She crumpled the list before switching Runes and tossing it into the bin, deciding to make it tomorrow.

Now, to deal with the Travellers.

"Make a guard bring you some firepower and strap up. Also consider some torso padding. I don't want to see you with a busted rib again if I can help it. I'll change your appearance only a bit so Panacea won't think you're lying, but I'll do it when we're home. Speaking of which, wanna stay with me or get an apartment? I'm giving you five percent of Coil's yearly cash inflow as payment. Is that good?"

Lisa leaned back, staring at her wide eyed.

"Okay, but like, one at a time please?" Lisa scrunched her nose cutely in an expression of annoyance, and Taylor exhaled in amusement, smiling faintly. "Like, I got the ribs part, sure, which is sweet by the way,-" Lisa said and lightly kicked her knee, "- but I'm kinda woozy. Repeat."

She did.

Lisa frowned.

"I mean five percent is kinda stingy- wait, no, that's like…. Uh, six hundred grand a year." Lisa's eyes went glassy for a moment before incredulity made her slump. "Holy shit that's a lot of money. I mean, I'm handling more, but it's different when it's my money you know, jesus. Fuck yes that's fine. I can retire in luxury after five years and… do… I don't know, I'll figure it out. Eat steaks covered in golden tinfoil or something." Lisa snorted, leaning back with a dreamy grin. Then it fell. "Ah, but this dastardly villain has me in her clutches… However could I escape the bonds of sisterhood…" Lisa faux-mumbled, appearing greatly puzzled as she adopted a thinker's pose.

She smiled and shook her head in exasperation.

At least Lisa was in a better mood.

"Jokes aside, I'm not going anywhere." Lisa declared, breaking the pose to swing slightly from side to side on the chair. "I'm still going to hog your bed and you can cry about it. In fact, when you do ditch your dad after the Wards, wanna bunk together? It's… nice, you know? Warm bed, warm breakfast, company. I'd go for a penthouse myself, but I just… don't like being alone." Lisa said, then tried for a nonchalant shrug which failed massively, her nervousness fully apparent.

"Sure. It's quite nice. You're doing the laundry though. And be aware I swing every way so don't be too handsy at night or it will get awkward." She said, and leaned back, staring at the drab gray ceiling and trying to figure out how the fuck she was going to handle the Travellers.

Lisa blinked at her, then grimaced. "Oof, yeah that's… ew. I mean, not you ew, just, you know. I'll try not to make shit weird. Or you could be the big spoon and just keep me in place by force, I know I roll around in my sleep. You're taller too, it works out." Lisa said distractedly, staring at something on the screen.

She hummed.

"True," she hummed back, then steepled her hands on top of her head with a sigh. "Fuck, I'm procrastinating. Okay. Lisa. The Travellers. I have a plan. It's immoral, borderline monstrous, and If anyone finds out I'll likely have the entire roster of US capes sent here to annihilate me."

Lisa stilled, closed her eyes slowly.

"The mood whiplash you give me when I hang out with you is going to give me an aneurysm one day. And the fact you said all that with complete seriousness makes me want to go hide in a hole." Lisa sighed, then gestured in a 'go on' fashion.

"Okay. So, remember how Noelle's power works? Grabs people, clones them and clones their power to some extent in weird ways. What are the downsides to this?"

Lisa frowned at her like it was obvious.

"They're evil, hate everything the original likes and loves, and come out deformed as hell in some manner or another?"

She nodded, leaning further back in her chair to stare at the ceiling, then side-eyeing Lisa.

"Okay. What are the downsides to those clones that I cannot fix?" She asked, and Lisa blinked at her uncomprehendingly for a moment, two, before her eyes widened in realization, her jaw slacking to gape at her, genuine, bewildered awe in her eyes mixing with fear.

"You- you want to keep her around as a cape printer?" Lisa asked, tone somewhere between disgusted, awed, and fearful.

She nodded firmly.

"Lisa, let me… try to lay this out for you. My Mastering is rather unique. First, it's very divorced from the brain itself. I change something more immaterial, imagine it like a soul, or rather, a mind. A representation of a consciousness. I change that representation and the brain changes to match it. The thing is that I can freeze emotions."

She lifted herself up a little, and jerked the chair to the side so she would be facing Lisa.

"Noelle has been changing due to her power. Her mind is being changed by the tumorous growths. Whether she's becoming an Endbringer, I cannot say, but the point is that I can Master her just to freeze her emotions in place, maybe even tweak them to something fairly placid, calm and happy, and that problem is solved. Then, I can make a large time bubble to keep her suspended in place. I have a power that is… absurdly costly, but can allow me to turn back time for someone." She half-lied, not quite yet willing to admit to how much power she technically could wield given some time.

Admitting to the distant possibility of time travel would likely make Lisa freak out more than this explanation.

"However, the longer the time I need to reverse, the more it's going to cost, the more likely I fail, et cetera. So if I freeze her emotions, then make a machine to put her in a time bubble to freeze her body's time in place, and unfreeze her whenever I want her to make me some new capes, before freezing her again, eventually, when my goals are completed, I'll be able to unfreeze her for one last time, and reverse time for her body, all the way back to before she drank that C- that vial, and remove the emotional block before sending her to somewhere safe with her Traveller friends and her boyfriend. No power, no mental fuckery, and we… we get an army." She whispered heatedly, and Lisa's jaw worked up and down, a glazed look in her eyes.

"For her, it might just be a couple weeks of flashing in and out, before she's fixed. Then, I think I could actually send her back home. So, yes. I'm planning to keep her somewhere a little more secure than this place, and have her make me an army of parahuman clones, Mastered to be obedient but content, numerous enough to where nothing in the world could threaten me and mine. Enough to cleanse Earth Bet of every Jack Slash and Ash Beast and Endbringer."

Lisa just blinked at her, wide eyed, not quite seeing her, processing.

"Lisa, Coil did not just hand us resources and connections. He handed us the Bay. Fuck, if I do this right, I could probably rule the entire American continent. Which I won't, because there's no way I'll be able to do all this flawlessly without making everything tumble down like a house of cards, but the Bay? We won already. We have a girl that can create capes. And we have me, who can fix any deformities and power-induced mind-fuckery with my own powers. As long as we can buy time and keep it all secret, we're unstoppable."

Lisa took a deep, shuddering breath, then raised a hand in a 'stop' motion, leaning back in her office chair and closing her eyes, a hand over her eyes and the other softly tracing the armrest.

A minute passed.

Taylor shifted.

Three, four.

She stared at Lisa, getting a little concerned, worried of rejection.

It took fifteen minutes before Lisa heaved an explosive, sigh, and raised her hand to blink at her.

"You really did mean that you're willing to do everything, huh?" Lisa murmured, then licked her lips. "Look, T, I'm… I'm not going to act like I'm a saint, or a good person. I mean…" Lisa jerked her head at Coil, who was still acting like a statue in his new visitor's chair, pretending to hear nothing and react to nothing.

Ah, referencing the beating incident.

"And while this sounds about as horrific as anything I've heard, I mean… as long as the clones are treated right, and like actual individuals, I… can't say I'm opposed." Lisa grumbled as if the words hurt to say. "It's insane, but you're fucking… you. So, I feel like that's par for the course. I'm just worried that if this gets out, we'll face exactly what you said. The world will crash down on us and I'm going to die before I even hit twenty." Lisa breathed out, stress lining her face as she slumped in the chair sideways.

"First of all, you can call me Sam in front of people who can't know my name. Like Coil. I can handle three names. As for you dying… the chance of that is not zero, but honestly, that's cape life, and I think you know full well how I feel about letting my uh, 'little sister' die. Even if Legend vaporises me, I'm going to put down enough contingencies to drown the Protectorate in to make sure the people who matter to me get out unscathed. You included. One of the security measures I'm taking is just me taking the… kid gloves off, I suppose. I'm Mastering everyone involved in our more secretive operations. Every mercenary, Traveller, cape. Anyone who knows about Noelle, about anything that would instantly get us all a Kill Order and a bounty with at least nine zeroes in it attached. I'm not happy about it, but with what we just gained… the stakes just went through the clouds."

Lisa took another deep breath, massaging her temples. "Fuck."

"Are you still with me?" She asked plainly, calmly, trying to hide the plea in her voice.

"Yeah I'm fucking with you, I'm in too deep to back out. And honestly, a mixture of morbid curiosity and a feeling like I'm watching literal biblical tier history happen is going to keep me glued to your side like a fucking leech. I can't goddamn resist. Fuck me… So… yes. Just don't give the clones fucking… numbers as names or something, please." Lisa grumbled, and before she could even nod, Lisa straightened and glared at her in determination, jaw set.

"No actually, you know what? I'm not just 'with you', I'm going to dig my comfy little grave even deeper. You want me to start calling the Travellers in here? Your power works on one-by-one basis, right?"

She stared at Lisa for a moment in sheer surprise, then bowed her head and chuckled.

"Dig as deep as you want, If you die I'll still drag you right out and resurrect you. Yeah, one by one."

Lisa smiled, one even more exhausted than before, and dragged her chair closer to the desk, quickly tapping away at the computer.

"I'm bringing Trickster first."

She nodded.

"... Hey Lisa?"

"Hm?"

"You're not going to die. Ever. I'll make you immortal if I have to."

Lisa snorted.

"Yeah, then we can watch the sun go supernova in a couple trillion years and drift in the void of space."

"Sounds like a plan." She mildly agreed, as if agreeing to a shopping trip.

"Trickster's on his way. Show time, T. Or, Sam. That's going to take a bit to get used to. Alright, make sure to give me a good view. I wanna see if my power will let me see what you're doing to him."

She nodded, and got up, swapping to Evelynn.

Notes:

*cackles maniacally like a demented hyena until i die from asphyxiation*

Chapter 29

Summary:

Songbird: Get

Notes:

supa fast uploade

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Lisa stretched with a massive, jaw-cracking yawn as the jeep rumbled down the street, making a weirdly cat-like mewling noise as she writhed in her seat for more leg room.

Their driver, a mercenary, had the decency to pretend he didn't exist. The fact she Mastered him about thirty minutes ago likely helped.

Taylor stared ahead with half-lidded eyes, trying to reduce visual stimuli in the chance it would make her feel better.

Her head still hurt from yesterday. Thank god for the suspensions being so damn crisp on this car, or her head would have hurt a lot more from all the potholes bouncing her brain up and down her skull.

They had only managed to get to Trickster and Genesis yesterday before Taylor had to stop or risk a horrid migraine, so she'd have to Master the rest of the Travellers soon.

Healing Ballistic likely hadn't helped with the migraine, but Lisa had felt really bad for blowing his damn leg off, and she gave into the request.

Immediately after, they had gone home and she had to reschedule with the PRT, who were oddly happy to delay her power testing. Then dodge her dad's questions and annoying fussing, change Lisa's appearance again, subtly, changing her hair to black and curly and her hands into being covered in geometric, vaguely runic-looking tattoos she had come up with on the spot, and by the time they should be eating dinner, they had both been nursing a horrible headache from their respective powers, and had pretty much fallen on top of each other on Taylor's bed.

That lent itself to stiff limbs and a bad rest for Lisa.

For her, nothing much changed, but she had a few extra couple hours to plot.

…Why was her inner language so cheesy? She wasn't sure.

She glanced aside.

"Any ideas for your new cape name?" She asked calmly, letting downtown flit by as the jeep continued its morning trip.

Lisa groaned.

"No. Can't come up with anything. I mean, I have, but nothing that fits. You say Tattletale is too childish, which, fair, we're getting serious now and you want your theme to be severe and edgy, but everything else feels dumb. Oracle doesn't fit because I'm not a precog, Thoth, the egyptian god of wisdom and secrets unavailable to anyone else, fits really well, even if its foreign, but it sounds male and pretentious-"

"Doesn't matter if it sounds pretentious if you can back it up. We can't commission you a suit until you pick something. Thoth sounds easy to costume around."

Lisa paused, and frowned, adjusting her domino mask.

"I mean, I guess, but it still sounds like a guy's."

"Okay, fair. I'm going to throw some suggestions then. Allseer. Meaning is obvious, but too precog-y. Khal' Am Velkhara. Means 'the discerning eye that unearths' in a dead language only I know. Bit of a mouthful, so, consider. Herald. Beyond the meaning that comes to mind, which is that of a sign that something is about to happen, in older times they were officials employed to oversee state ceremonial, precedence, and the use of armorial bearings, and to make proclamations, carry official messages, and oversee tournaments. So, you'd be my Herald, in a sense. My official, there to proclaim to my enemies and allies that I am coming." She said, pitching her voice with grandiosity undercut by the deadpan tone as she spread her arms in the back seat.

Lisa took three seconds of thinking in silence before bursting into laughter.

"Okay, the weird tongue twister sounds the coolest, but it sucks as a cape name. But Herald... I like it. Heavy as hell with context. Doesn't even spoil my power, now that I think about it. Alright, it'll do." Lisa sighed as she shifted to curl up against the door. "I'm pretty sure there are at least two or three other Heralds in the US though. Have to be."

"We'll pay them a polite visit then." She shrugged, and Lisa chuckled again, an edge of impressed incredulity in it.

"I mean it's not unheard of for capes to fight for names, but I'm not sure we should be sending a damn hit squad on people just for my name."

"I am." She deadpanned, a smile playing at her lips, and Lisa snorted again.

"Well, your boundless creativity has won. Herald it is. Costume design?"

"My current mockup for when and if I inevitably get discovered and have to come out in public as myself, is basically a dark grey suit of plated armour with red spikes all over it. But, I don't really have a dress code for my capes beyond some basics. Costume design is yours to think about."

Lisa hummed.

"No, no, I dig it. Herald. Someone who signals the coming of something else, or general change. So something that could be either a sign of hope, or something as a warning to say 'you just fucked up and you're going to die horribly when my sister gets over here'." Lisa blew a raspberry, staring at the car's roof as they took a turn.

"Mix it up with something whimsical and playful and such, because while you're holding out admirably, I can still feel the need to be an annoying brat whenever you interact with anyone else. So… something dual in nature, of sorts? Half the costume eerie and creepy, and half the other bright and flashy? Something like someone mashed up a cryptid and a fairy?"

Lisa's eyes livened up, her grin widening.

"You're just full of good ideas. Yeah, that's sick. I'll think up of some ideas later, pester you for inspiration and such."

"Can't wait." She dryly huffed, and Lisa exhaled jerkily in amusement, a silent piel of laughter through her nostrils.

Two minutes later, and they were there, parked comfortably in the back of the club, where only the employees were allowed to park.

She swapped into Evelynn, and assumed Renata's form once more as she stepped out, her attitude slipping back on like a well-worn glove.

The driver got outside the car, but didn't follow.

"So, Herald. What did I say about this meeting?"

She couldn't see Lisa, as she was behind her as they walked forward into the back entrance, held open by one of Faultline's men, but she could taste the exasperation from here, and imagined that she was rolling her eyes.

"I know how to act as someone's subordinate, Ren." Lisa said.

She decided to leave it at that as they stepped through the back doors. A winding path through back hallways, and another staircase that brought them to the VIP room again.

The usual cast of characters awaited them inside, with the addition of Trainwreck looming behind Faultline menacingly at eight feet tall, likely because none of the furniture could take the weight of his power armour, and one Paige Mcabee, sitting on the edge of the couches on either side of the coffee table, still wearing the heavy contraption around her neck like a brutalist mask-collar, a notebook and pen in her lap.

Now that she had time to actually see her, Canary was quite a sight. Shock-yellow hair, bright enough to almost be glowing, like the fuzz of an exotic bird, and accompanied by equally yellow feathers coming out of her hair and adorning her head like cosmetic highlights.

Her eyebrows were also intensely yellow.

A rather plain, but pretty face, and timid, scared and despondent eyes that examined her with a mixture of fear and meek, fragile determination.

Faultline nodded at her.

"Renata."

"Faultline." She rumbled back through the mouth-piece, the tinny quality adding a certain flavour to her voice that was hard to match.

"Hey, Faulty." Lisa quipped, cheery but mild, grabbing a beanbag from the corners of the room and tossing it down by Taylor's armchair, before moving over and flopping down on it, lounging as she crossed her legs.

She felt a mild tang of annoyance at the action, but powered through it.

Faultline startled, her visor moving to Lisa.

"Herald, behave. Excuse my subordinate." She calmly said as she walked around Lisa's legs and sat down in her chair. "She's new, but insisted on some mild field experience. I believe you knew her as Tattletale."

Lisa steepled her fingers on her stomach, but not before giving a two-fingered salute.

"We did. Glad that the rumours of your fate proved wrong. My condolences." Faultline said, sounding quite genuine, and Lisa went still for a moment, before giving a tight nod, her light mood seemingly vanquished by those two words.

"Let's get down to business. First, where is Oni Lee, and why is Canary down here with us?"

"Upstairs," Newter answered, his eyes half-lidded in exhaustion, tossing his thumb over his shoulder. "Blindfolded, tied, unarmed, and given a tap that should keep him under for an hour, every thirty minutes."

She resisted the urge to glare at him with the venom of a pit full of vipers.

"Miss Mcabee is with us because she insisted on coming, and frankly, I found no harm in letting her." Faultline filled in.

"I see. Before we begin to talk, Miss Mcabee, do give me a moment to clarify something to Faultline." She said, directing her purple-glowing eyes to the feathered woman, who gave her a nervous thumbs up in lieu of a nod.

Her eyes narrowed as she turned to Faultline, just enough to portray displeasure, but not enough to glare.

"Faultline. I will be blunt. While not knowing that the PRT had laid a trap is not something I can wholly say is your fault, your subordinate's indiscretion is. If this is the level of so-called professionalism I can expect," She said, nearly spitting the word out, "-to have Newter namedrop his clients in the middle of a fight, in front of heroes, I might as well grab any random thug off the street and give them enough brews to act like they have powers." She said, voice hard as ice and twice as cold.

Lisa sucked in a small gasp.

Faultline, to her credit, did not react beyond stiffening a little.

A useless restraint when she could feel that sudden flare of muted frustration.

"Let me make something perfectly clear. Should Newter, or anyone else in this room, reveal information about Summoner, even their name, we will treat it in the same manner as if you had unmasked them, and return the favour."

Everyone in the room stiffened, caution, doubt and defensive anger in the air.

And a bit of vindictive, amazed glee from Lisa, but she ignored that.

"They will reveal themselves when it is time or if they are forced to. No more slips of the tongue if we wish to continue working together. Consider this a warning, but not a threat. We have no interest in grandstanding."

There, a bit of sugar to lessen the sting of the lemon.

Faultline slowly nodded.

Labyrinth turned her head to stare mutely, curious. Odd child.

"While disproportionate in its response, I understand where your frustration comes from. Newter has been reprimanded quite severely for his slip-up. It will not happen again." Faultline assured, turning her head to Newter a bit, who rubbed the back of his blue-haired head and grimaced, guilty.

His eyes were strange now that she bothered to meet them. They had no whites, only blue irises that extended from corner to corner, with rectangular, horizontal pupils.

She looked away.

"Good. Now, to move on from the unpleasant part of this discussion. Having to rescue you and escape without being traced placed Sovereign out of commission for a week, and forced us to tip our hand. While I will not be ruthless enough to seek compensation for this, do consider that this will factor into the weight of the owed favour for your rescue, which will not be cashed in for now. Unless there is something else… I do not believe we have more to discuss."

"I don't believe so either."

"Good. Newter, could you carry Oni Lee to our transport? It's the armoured black jeep in the front, one of our men will help you place him. Give him a fresh dosage too."

"Sure thing." Newter said as he bobbed his head up and down, before vaulting backwards off the couch to stalk off into the restricted hall in the corner.

"Faultline, could you remove Canary's collar?" She asked, more out of politeness, and eyed the hoodie the woman was wearing. It would have to be enough until they worked something out for her.

Faultline hesitated. "I can, and Canary seems like a fine young woman, but are you certain?"

She nodded.

"I'm immune to Master effects. If she tries-"

"She won't. She's considered it, but she won't use her power to tell us to kill ourselves or something. She knows the situation she's in, to some extent." Lisa interrupted, and Taylor turned her head to give her a caustic look, half for show and half-genuine.

Lisa raised her hands placatingly.

"Sorry boss, it just seemed like you were about to threaten her. She really doesn't need that right now."

She acquiesced with a hum.

"Fine."

Faultline took that as an affirmative, and she got up to walk over to Paige, who looked decidedly more nervous now. Her gloved hands clamped around the collar, and it slumped, perfectly separated in the middle, before with some of Canary's own help, they lowered its parts to the floor.

Newter walked back in before Canary could get a word out, a limp Oni Lee on his shoulder.

"By the way, just so you know, something is wrong with this guy. His breathing is all messed up and the few times he's tried to shift in his sleep, it looks like something out of a horror movie. I think they zapped him or something and his nerves are all messed up, but I'm not a doctor or anything."

Lisa jerked a little, as if startled.

Gregor sent her a questioning look, as did everyone else in the room.

It took a moment for Taylor herself to get what the reaction was about.

Regent. Lisa had vaguely mentioned something about nerve damage from long-term control, hadn't she?

Newter walked past them and down the stairs.

She got off the chair, and extended a left hand to Canary, who took it.

"Greetings, Miss Mcabee. I'm Renata Glasc," she said as she shook her hand, then gestured towards the exit. "Let us go. We can discuss things in the car."

Canary opened her mouth, gulped, closed it and nodded, getting up. Lisa did the same.

They walked out, Canary trailing behind them, mostly so she would get a false…ish sense of freedom, and Newter sent them a salute as he walked past them, the mercenary settling Oni Lee's limp body in the corner of the back seats, all but hog-tied and blindfolded.

"Herald, take the front seat."

Lisa shrugged and did.

She opened the back door, and slid in beside Oni Lee, and Canary hesitated outside, tugging her hood lower and eyeing the black, bulky beast she was about to get into.

Lisa leaned back, wrapping an arm around the head of her seat and twisting over it to meet Canary's eyes.

"Hey, relax. We're not going to drive you into a dungeon full of spiders or something, we just wanted to get somewhere where we can actually talk without someone overseeing or overhearing."

Canary worked at her lip for a moment, then nodded, and ducked into Taylor's left side, squeezing in a little.

Taylor subtly slimmed her hips from the wide shape of Renata's, to make a bit of room, and the door closed.

"Drive." She rumbled.

The mercenary did.

Lisa spent about five minutes slumped backwards on her seat, chin on its shoulder, staring at Canary.

At the sixth, Canary broke, directing a weak glare at Lisa, who just gave a shit-eating grin.

"What?" Canary asked, a tad testy, and Taylor pretty much felt her eardrums have an aural orgasm.

Wow. She could tell why Canary was pretty much a mainstream celebrity at this point, if Earth Bet could be said to have any of those left.

Even a snippy 'what' sounded like the sound was made from a divine instrument rather than a throat. Like her vocal cords were both violin and harp strings.

If Canary didn't want what she was going to offer, she was going to offer her a job to sing lullabies to her or something.

Lisa raised a lazy finger to point at Canary's head.

"First of all, the feathers look fucking awesome. Second, can I grab one or two for my new costume? I feel like fake feathers can't compete with those. Seriously, do you do something to get them looking like that?"

Taylor briefly broke character to sigh in exasperation.

Canary blinked at Lisa, befuddled.

"I… t-thanks? I uh. No? I don't… do anything. They fall out naturally, but if I pull them, it hurts. So… I could give you some in the future?" Canary asked, wringing her hands together, considerably less tense.

Whatever Lisa was doing was working, so she didn't say anything.

"Yeah, I'd really appreciate that. Thanks. Just keep them in a bag as they shed, I'll pay ya for em."

A moment of silence.

"So… when do we give her the pitch?" Lisa asked, raising a brow at her.

Taylor briefly looked around, through the tinted windows. Slightly less desolate than usual streets.

Fine enough for her.

"I-I'm not going to Master people for you." Canary said, the determination in her voice ruined by the crack in her voice, and the ensuing blush on her face.

And the taste of fear in the air.

She nodded.

"Good."

"No- I- what?" Canara fumbled, staring at her with wide, yellow eyes.

She raised an arm, and slowly draped it over Canary's shoulder, relaxing into the cushions as her charge stiffened.

"I don't want you to Master people for us. What I want from you is something entirely different. Consider it like signing up with a record label, actually. Me and my associates will soon own this city. Until then, I want you to lay low, and stay safe. We'll provide you with housing and a stipend to live off until we're done taking over, which should be soon enough. And when we do own the city, what we want from you is to do the thing you love. We want you to sing. We want you to hold concerts, upload videos, do autograph sessions, be a major star and attraction for this city."

Lisa stared at her, wide eyed and grinning.

Canary was just gaping at her, something like fragile hope and resigned dread in the air around her, even as she gradually relaxed.

"I- I'm a criminal. I was supposed to be in the Birdcage. I can't hold concerts, or upload videos or-"

"Canary. Let me talk for a bit, I'll give you some insights and context."

Canary nodded, glancing at Lisa who held an encouraging smile as she lounged like a cat across the front seat.

"First of all, Brockton Bay. This city is dying. There are many reasons for this, and If I went into details as to why, we'd be driving until nightfall. One of the reasons, however, is the lack of tourism. This place is sinking into the gutter, and the only reason anyone ever comes here willingly is either because they're an illegal refugee from overseas, or because they came here for Panacea to heal them. We're going to fix that. Part of that solution is you. The perception of you online and in real life, is not what you think it is. Of course, the PRT and its lackeys have managed to sway a lot of the population that has never heard of you and never would have cared, that you were just a parahuman singer who gave into her evil nature and Mastered a man into killing himself."

Canary flinched as if she was slapped, lifting her legs off the floor to hug them. She squeezed her shoulder a little, and surprisingly, it did make Canary feel a bit better.

"For everyone who looks past the skin-thin surface of the narrative however, you are the victim. A victim of the corrupt system who needed a sinner for their pyre, and made one up on thin justifications and a sham of a trial. Your fans made an entire internet campaign, websites, petitions, even crashing TV interviews with their movement. You've touched people's lives in a way that few parahumans do. Parahumans usually fight. They destroy and ruin and break things, even the heroes. You are one of the very few examples of parahumans who resist this nature, and create. You, and Panacea."

She lounged back a little, allowing the menacing tinny-ness of her voice to fade out for a more comforting tone, almost motherly.

"You are something special. You have presence, fame, even now that the world has basically written you off as dead. So, what happens, when we take over this city, and you begin to post on the internet again, explaining what happened to you? What happens, when you begin holding concerts again? Brockton Bay's name gets out there. People come here, the news cycle begins to buzz. We become a city that holds something special, and instead of keeping it in a crypt, we flaunt it. We flaunt you. And we become the only city that holds something this special, because no other city nor organisation cares to pour resources into defending a mere noncombatant singer, not like us."

An additional benefit would be to put into the eye of the world that sometimes, the courts and the PRT were not right in their assessment. A bit of contingency in case Taylor got a Kill Order somehow, because the public's opinion did matter, to some extent.

It was also part of her loose project to make people stop being such apathetic doom mongers. A bit of soul-touching music and a monthly slash bimonthly celebration in the spirit of a festival can go a long way.

Canary seemed entranced, eyes laser focused on her own.

"You make Brockton Bay your city. You become another brick that will uphold the city and keep it from keeling over. You sing, grow, put it out there that you live in Brockton, become a forbidden attraction that nobody else can access anywhere. You use your fame and name to grow, expand, and you occasionally use it for our benefit, to some extent or another. You don't join or deal with other parahuman aligned entities. The only real caveat that might be dangerous is that in the case of an A-S class threat arriving, we'd like you to stick around and try to help us defend the city if your power is able. That is all. In exchange? We protect you from everything and everyone, and give you all the resources you need to become a star again."

Canary swallowed, a shrill note of hesitance still around her.

"Just think about it. You keep all your profits, continue to do what you love, and Brockton has a songbird to lift its spirits, to attract attention and people. What we want from you is nothing all that more nefarious than the average record company. We want to use you, of course, let's not pretend, but you will use us. Mutual benefits."

Canary took a moment to digest that, resignation and hope biting at eachother like rabid dogs, fighting for dominance.

"But… I'm…" Canary quietly started.

"Are you worried about the heroes?"

Canary nodded, biting her lip, eyes glazed in thought.

She scoffed.

"Don't be. Once we've taken over, we could hold the concerts right on the Boardwalk, across the Protectorate's base, and if the heroes tried anything, they'd be faced with a wall of villains with the explicit orders to protect you, all of whom could probably turn them into mincemeat. There is no world in which it would ever be worth the price to attack you or try to bring you in. And, we have a tracker. If you give us a drop of your blood, even if you were captured, which will not happen, we could track you to the other ends of the earth and just bust you out again."

Canary's emotions numbed as they mixed together. She glanced at Lisa.

"She's serious, by the way." Lisa said, shrugging with a slight smile. "I was in a somewhat similar position as you, you know. Captured, surrounded, no allies and powerful enemies. A villain who wanted to kill me and had enough money to hire an army to look for me. Ren's boss busted me out, and fixed all my goddamn problems in a week."

"I… okay. But I just… I-I'm not a villain. I really want to say yes, but I don't know what you guys do."

"Ah. So it's a moral reasoning to some extent. Well, to give you a rough gist, we're essentially a shadowy syndicate of sorts, but without much of the ugly parts. No need to tie up loose ends when we don't make loose ends, for example. Neat operations have no victims, and we're quite careful. However, I will not lie to you and say that a lot of our agents are good people, or unblooded. We're hardly good guys. But, compared to what most gangs are like, and what the Bay's gangs are like, we're practically saints. We don't torture, we don't deal in prostitution or racial violence or meaningless chaos. We're professionals where we can be."

Canary, surprisingly, seemed to accept that answer a lot more easily than her attitude would have suggested, nodding once. Perhaps she wanted to be convinced.

"Okay…. Okay, I'm in. So, uhm… what do I do, exactly?" Canary asked, wringing her hands.

"Not much, in all honesty. We'll drive you to your new apartment. Then, I'm going to bring an associate to change how you look, namely, your brows and hair, so you can even go outside and live normally without anyone knowing who you are. You'll give us a drop of blood, we'll give you new documentation, new papers, a car, and even a bodyguard if you want one. Everything you could need to stay alive and safe. We'll also send you a slight stipend to live on, and a phone with a panic button, in case anything happens. When we take this city over, that's when your new adventure begins."

Canary nodded, licking her abused lower lip.

"I… can you tell your boss thank you? From me? I was… I thought I would end up in the Birdcage, to… to be someone's b-bed warmer, or something. Or just, dead, because I can Master people. I-" Canary said, her voice hitching as her breathing grew a little uneven. She hurriedly wiped at her eyes.

She squeezed her arm around Canary, just a bit.

Lisa gave her a look that was so oddly full of satisfied pride, that she almost felt like an actual hero there, for a moment.

It was a heady feeling.

"I'll be sure to tell them. Congratulations on your new life, Paige." Lisa said, not an ounce of snark in her voice, and Canary bobbed her head in a hurried nod under her hood.

A moment later, Lisa gasped.

"Wait, where am I going to get my feathers from if you change her?! Can you give her like, a week to keep them and shed?" Lisa pleaded, awkwardly clasping her palms together over the top of her seat as she swivelled to Canary.

She closed her eyes, breathed deep and let it out in a massive sigh, rubbing at her temples.

Canary exhaled in amusement through her nostrils, before nodding. "A week is fine. I'd like some peace and quiet for a bit, and uh, Herald gets her feathers."

Then she turned to her, and Taylor took her hand away from her face to look back.

"Uhm… you'll change me back when you're… done, right?"

"Of course."

"Okay. I'll uhm… how do I contact you?"

"Your phone will have contacts in it, just call them. Or text, preferably."

"Ah. And-"

"Canary, stop fussing. We have it all covered." She reassured her, and rubbed her shoulder a little, unsure if it would help or not.

Surprisingly, it did, and Canary nodded, slumping down.

The rest of the ride was silent, and after they escorted Canary up to her new apartment, nicked her finger with a pocket knife, and handed her the keys, their new associate muttered another thank you and quietly closed the door.

Lisa beamed at nothing the entire walk back to the car as Taylor grimaced at how weird it was to lick blood off a knife.

Then she began to delegate some protective company for Paige as they drove off to the outskirts of Brockton Bay, somewhere where Taylor could quietly Master Oni Lee and quickly go off on her scheduled meeting with dad's mechanic friend.

Notes:

minimal editing, point out any issues you see, i kinda rushed this one out in a day

Chapter 30

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Oni Lee was not what she expected after she peeled an eyelid up to Master him.

He was…

Not a person.

There was little to nothing there, nothing left in his mind, compared to real people. Few if any connections to people, ideas or concepts existed, and even those seemed like they were just missing huge chunks. His feelings towards Lung were more like a computer who had decided who its operator was.

None. Nothing. Just a vague sense of wishing to do something, and waiting for Lung to tell him what that something was, of expectance.

She had seen something like this before, during the last days of Noxus's collapse, where brainwashed mages and necromantic abominations were told to march against the Void. Even they had more substance within them however.

Oni Lee was not really a man. He was a golem, waiting for his orders.

Which was greatly confusing. This was either an effect of his powers, or some kind of power-assisted brainwashing.

For her, he was perfect.

She didn't have to do much to Master him. Even just a sprinkling of positive emotions was enough, so she gave him that, then muted his feelings towards Lung even further, moving those towards herself.

Then, a heavy dash of secrecy around herself, and she was done.

A minute later, she dragged Lisa over to stare into his glassy eye as she peeled his eyelid back, just so he would insert Lisa's idea into his own mind, even if only as some kind of fever-dream blur, and then dove into him again to solidify Lisa's presence, putting a decent dose of obedient respect towards her.

If she would delegate, she had to at least put down the roots of a functional information network.

They just had to wait for him to wake up.

Lisa lounged against the car, parked in a mess of cracked gravel-heavy concrete surrounded by neck-high reeds and weeds, in the corner of the Trainyard, so Taylor watched him like a hawk as he lay on the ground, not taking her eyes off of him as the mercenary driver patrolled around the perimeter.

Oni Lee was a rather wiry man, who had a very slim, average and forgettable face. Whipcord muscle and blank brown eyes with a short tuft of hair on his head of the same color. His cheekbones stood out a bit, and his chin was rather pointed despite his wider jawline, but beyond that, he was the picture of another face in the crowd.

He looked to be somewhere in his mid-thirties, if she could guess.

Eventually, he woke up, something exceedingly obvious by how he took in a sharp breath. Lisa's hand flew to the massive revolver in her jacket, holding onto it with narrowed eyes as she whirled around.

His eyes snapped open, and with a swift move to the side, he managed to get the blindfold over one eye enough to see. And then he was gone, a bound version of himself standing up, staring at her from a dozen feet away while the one on the floor did the same.

"Which one of you is the real one?" She asked, and the upright man inclined his head.

All he could do, really, while bound up like a turkey on thanksgiving. Stand and nod.

A few muted moments of silence, and the man on the floor turned to fine ash by her feet, carried away by a stray morning breeze.

She shapeshifted into herself.

"Hello, Oni Lee. I am your new master."

He stared at her.

"Do you understand?" She asked, and he nodded.

"Good. Your orders are simple. I want you to go back to the ABB and act like nothing changed. If someone asks, say that you were sedated in the transport and woke up in a ditch afterwards then made your way back. I am Summoner, this is Herald." She jutted a thumb at Lisa, who wore a thick, wide domino mask more akin to an opera mask.

Something about the 'tatted goth aesthetic', she couldn't remember the full reason Lisa gave for swapping out of her normal domino one.

She took a small paper out of her pocket.

"Memorise these numbers and add them to your contacts when you get a phone. Bakuda is with us as well, so make sure both you and her survive. Text us any goings-on and general movements that Lung is making, we want to know everything."

A moment of silence passed, placid eyes staring into her soul.

"Is that all?" Oni Lee asked, voice little more than a raspy, unused whisper.

She was about to say yes, before Lisa butted in.

"No, actually, could you explain how your power works, and what you feel during it?"

Oni Lee turned to Lisa, and stared in contemplation. Lisa stared back with a familiar discerning look, her power likely on full blast.

"I push myself, split. I visualise my exit. I leave things behind, and move." Oni Lee whispered, his calm voice barely higher than the faint rustle of reeds in the wind around them.

Taylor's brows furrowed a little as Lisa shoved the revolver back into her jacket pocket, and eagerly stepped forward.

"What exactly do you leave behind?"

"Pieces. Memories. Other things as well." Oni Lee whispered in an inflectionless, hollow whisper, and Lisa's eyes widened.

She focused on Oni Lee and blinked rapidly, realization blooming.

What a horrid fucking power. To lose a memory, some piece of emotion, or whatever else he meant, gone in the breeze with every clone. Did most of his mind migrate, and the pieces that didn't simply fade?

"Shit. Tay, you might need to uh, refresh him and his mind, if you know what I mean, every once in a while?"

She shook her head.

"I work with the mind, not the brain. No matter what gets removed out of his skull, anything I touch will freeze. Remember? It'll grow back quickly, in theory. I'll have to check him a couple times soon, and see if his power has an interaction with the metaphysical, even if I doubt it, but I probably won't have to 'refresh' anything."

Lisa gave her a skeptical look, but nodded.

She reached into her pocket for a blue card.

"Come here, I'll free you."

Oni Lee teleported in front of her, his back to her.

She swiped the card through the zipties, all four pairs of them.

"Domo arigatou gozaimasu." Oni Lee breathed out, and before she could open her mouth to give him a switchblade or something, or the pair of clothes they'd readied for him, anything that wasn't a dirty orange jumpsuit at least, he teleported away, rapidly forming a line of clones all blankly staring at her as he rushed for home base.

In less than a second, he was out of sight, through the trees and broken fences and weeds.

"... I don't know if I should feel bad for him or ask that you get rid of him." Lisa mumbled, hands on her hips as she stared at the six clones all staring at them within their line of sight.

With only a millisecond of delay, they all scattered in the wind.

"How about neither?" She hummed, and sighed. "I've gotta go learn some stuff about tools now, meet you later in Coil's base."

Lisa stretched again, before fluffing her hair up.

"First of all, it's my base. Or ours, I guess. Coil's just my assistant until he signs everything over to me and I poach all his contacts. Second, I think I'll go straight to base, interrogate the Travellers you brainfucked first, see what I can dig up about them. Some stuff just doesn't fit." Lisa mumbled.

"Right. I'll just fly off. C'mere." She said, and stepped towards Lisa.

Lisa stepped forward and opened her arms for a hug.

Instead, she grabbed her by the cheeks, dragged her chin up, and kissed her forehead, before going for a second strike, ruffling her hair as Lisa sputtered, flailing to push her hand off.

"Mandatory big sis checklist." She said in lieu of an explanation, gave Lisa a tiny smirk, and turned to smoke, flying off.

"Rude! Ffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuudge you! You know what a pain curly hair is?!" Lisa yelled up at the empty sky like an old man yelling at the uncaring clouds, shaking a fist at nothing, while she worked to untangle the mess on her head with her other hand.

Taylor did in fact know what a pain curly-ish hair was.

So she turned to her as she flew off.

Payback for cutting me off and butting in like a brat like three times today. She said in her mind, and then sped off.

Jeremy Graham was a pretty good teacher, once she clarified in no uncertain terms what exactly she wished to learn. Namely, by just giving him example tasks, he would tell her roughly what she might need to make them, then show her how to use the stuff, if he had it on hand in his mechanic workshop.

However, she had vastly overestimated what he knew and owned.

Some of the things, like a lathe machine, he had on hand, and teaching her how to use one safely took about twenty minutes, which surprised the man.

It didn't surprise her much, because Piltover had these things as well. Piltover had more advanced ones too.

Some other things she might need, like a metal press to shape sheets of metal in very specific ways using clamps and tungsten corners, edges, and half-spheres, like molds?

Not so much. He didn't even know what they were called exactly, only that she would have to go to a metal working factory for that.

Still, by the time four hours had passed, she had learned every tool he had, memorised their sometimes different names, their definitely different classifications and regulations, and how to use them.

After that, she simply flit into some abandoned building for privacy, and teleported into Coil's office.

She checked her phone first, and stared with apprehension at the ' 99+' number sitting next to the messaging app.

She opened it.

Seventy four from Bakuda.

Bkd: hey boss

Bkd: hey :d

Bkd: so I found out how to make a gray boy bubble

She paused, blinked, squinted.

Re-read it.

That… what?

Bkd: I was always like 'where do i get these ideas' then i realized i had a hateboner on Shatterbird and i kept watching her vids on livegore which is how i made my glass bombs, then I looked into the butcher and figured out how to make pain blast bombs and pretty much my power is copying powers and turning them into bombs! I figured it out :d

Bkd: so yeah if you ever want to make a mass mastering bomb im your girl! We can master the whole bay and they'll lick our boots clean while feeding us grapes and you can be the empress and ill be whatever you want but preferably something close i can be ur maid or i

Bkd: sry lung walked into the room and i forgot what i was saying i love u boss hmu if you need anything at all ill even clean your room if you want or be your footstool haha im not joking at all btw pelase i wanna be useful to you and im so fuckign bored of making the same four bombs i swear im gonan kill this lizard looking shitbag can we plz go have coffee or something ill be happy to let you nap on me again it was pretty fun

She took a deep breath.

"F uuuuck. " She groaned in despair, rubbing her face as she tilted back and fell into a chair.

She had the powered equivalent of an obsessed, murderous squirrel with a god complex spamming her messages because she'd screwed up her Mastering process.

With an appropriate level of trepidation, she glanced at her messages through her fingers.

Bkd: also is there a chance that you might come over? The labs rly lonely and i miss you

Bkd: hi again 3

Bkd: here's a bunch of safehouses and two smuggling companies Lung uses to get me stuff for my bombs andn theres a warehouse full of chicks somewhere along that road with the blue dinosaur scribble on it

- squiggly

Bkd: boss?

Bkd: am I being annoying?

Bkd: im sorry

Bkd: ill do better

Twelve hours gap before the rambling continued.

Bkd: I have a dozen bombs for you, one of them is basically purity in a bottle and i even made a bomb based on the vista kid

Bkd: do you want to grab a coffee or something?

Bkd: did i do something wrong?

Bkd: im probably being really annoying im so sorry

Bkd: ill be a good minion now

She took a deep breath, and blew it out in an incredulous sigh.

"Oh my fucking god…" She breathed out, and scrolled down, down, skimming through pages upon pages of random trivia, play-by-play reports of her daily activities, mixed in with actually good information and walls of rambling and Bakuda continuously going through something like Taylor withdrawal, begging and asking continuously to meet up and hang out, over and over, before her eyes skimmed past something and forced her to stop, and scroll back up, just before reaching the end.

Bkd: imma make a nuke

Bkd: currently making a nuke

"What the fuck did I create?" She breathed out in disbelief.

Bkd: i think i broke my toe by kicking my generator

Bkd: i think i also almost died because that generator was connected to my nuke so ahahaaaaaaaaa fuck im sorry

Bkd: no wait nvm nits good

Bkd: *its gud

Bkd: forgot ot plug it into the nuke i just realaized

Bkd: no dying for Mia today

Bkd: okay so apparently making a nuke is pretty easy i already got the outline for it just gonna take a couple gorillion eons to make it

Bkd: you said no killing but can i turn a not insignificant portion of yellowstone national park into flaming hellfire pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty please? :3

Bkd: please reply im gonna cry

Bkd: BOSS GOOD NEWS I GOT ONE OF OUR WHITE BOYS TO GO TO SOME ARENA THE EMPIRE DUDES HAVE AND HE TOOK SOME RLY GOOD CELLPHONE FOOTAGE OF CRICKET FIGHTING SO I MADE A BOMB THAT LIQUIDATES PEOPLE FROM THE INSIDE OUT USING VIBRATIONS THIS IS SO FUCKING COOL

Bbd: am i being annoying?

Bkd: please tell me if i am

Bkd: im so sorry

Bkd: ill stop

She heaved a sigh, and texted back a quick reply.

Was she being annoying?

A bit. But reading through this mess was oddly cute and endearing and entertaining, she couldn't lie.

The fact that Mia was something like twenty years old just didn't register. That might as well be a child to her. Same reason she likely wouldn't feel comfortable getting into a relationship until she was middle-aged at the least.

000: you're not being annoying, don't worry mia

000: but preface actual important information with some kind of weird symbol like (((info))) to differentiate from your more mundane reports and requests, please?

She hit send, then paused.

000: im rly busy, sorry for not replying often. I got Oni Lee, he's with us now. We'll see about getting that coffee or hanging out too. You're doing a great job. I'm proud of you. But no nuking anything, and if you make that nuke, make sure it's got a way to unarm it, we can use it later.

She wouldn't lie, it was half pity that drove her to adding that last bit, and a mixture of fondness and an actual bit of interest in hanging out with someone without having to do with work.

She could even bring Lisa and introduce her, see how that dumpster fire would work out.

She flipped through her other texts.

Haze, her new drug, was selling… okay. Eight hundred bucks in its first day.

According to Chut, for a new, untested drug with no rep and a high entry cost, that was pretty damn good. Using the Newter excuse seemed to allay most people's fears, considering the bouncers weren't kicking them out and were actively protecting them, adding another layer to believability.

He was expecting to start selling out within the month.

Eight hundred was literally pennies at the moment, but there were reasons to keep this operation going. After a brief discussion of getting her minions' bank accounts to route some money into, she closed the conversation and spent a couple minutes thinking.

Once she took a hold of the rest of the bay, upsizing her operations and shipping internationally would be pretty easy. Best to build some type of reputation here first, no matter how small, so she had a clientele to point at when she reached out.

Sile hadn't had anything interesting to report, and neither did her dealers, beyond reporting the same as Chut.

She eyed the silent man tapping away at his computer to her left.

"Coil. How difficult and eye-catching would it be to gain access to some things for me in your other timeline?"

He rose into his standard soldier pose, slowly but not slowly enough to seem reluctant, allowing his chair to slowly slide away.

"Depends on what, ma'am."

"I want you to find out what happened to Regent. Find out how Oni Lee was caught and where. Beyond that, send me a text with everything you know about the Protectorate heroes and the Wards, the PRT's standard guidelines for console operations, rules of engagement, safety protocols, and all A to S-class threats. Then, I want all the information the PRT has on the Endbringers, and all major gangs and crime syndicates of the United States."

She paused.

"I mean Empire major, not Merchants or anything. Additionally, gather me a list of schemers and plotters. I don't mean people like Accord, I mean people like you, whose power makes them a threat to either me or the world, or would, if their powers worked right. I also want you to find out who and where Grue's sister is, and set a healthy chunk of our resources into finding Spitfire, but not capturing her. When you find her, trail her and tell either me or Lisa, depending on whose available. Pass along everything to Lisa as well, she's looking for Spitfire until she gives up and goes to visit Panacea."

Coil took a moment to think on that, before nodding.

"Shouldn't even raise a brow, ma'am. Everything you mentioned, I can access under the guise of refreshing my memory. You will have it soon, so long as you stay away from the Protectorate building for the next few hours and don't think to contact me. I'll set our men and informants into looking."

"I have an appointment for power testing at six PM tomorrow."

"That's more than enough time for me to get the information and close the timeline."

"Good. Also, does this place have a gym and sparring area?"

"Yes."

"Good, route two skilled mercenaries to me, tell them to obey me. Prospective cape, or some such. I want sparring partners."

She went to leave, then paused.

"Text me the floor plans of this building, I'll go to the sparring area right away. And I just remembered, find me a skilled tattoo artist who will keep quiet."

"Understood." Coil nodded again.

She turned back into herself, covered by her breathable face mask and her hoodie, and opened his door, ignoring the guards to confidently walk down the tunnel.

Her phone rang a constant stream of notifications, ding ding ding, and no matter how annoyed the mercs got at it, she ignored it, finding it as tangible progress with her plans.

Another bit of tangible progress would be sparring while using the rune of Resolve with 'Grasp of The Undying' as her main effect.

The ability to rip out small chunks of lifeforce and incorporate a chunk of that chunk into her own lifeforce was immense, and even if she only had mortals to practise on, it was fine enough. Had to start somewhere.

"We were told to come here and do as you said, miss. What do you need?" The man on the left spoke, his voice having a baritone purr that momentarily reminded her that she was in a hormonal teenager's body.

She did some basic stretches on the mat as she began to explain, ignoring the monkey-brained urge to flirt.

"I need someone to spar with. I knew martial arts but I'm extremely rusty right now. And I need a second guy who will just be a punching bag for my power after I'm done getting beat up. No, it's not lethal, it won't even bruise you. But the more I hit someone with my power, the more I can use it in the future. It's sort of a growing type thing. It only grows if I'm hitting a living thing however, so one of you might walk out of here with a sore back, at most. Which one's the punch bag and which one's gonna be punching me?" She asked, flicking a finger between the two men.

They turned to each other, uncertain.

"Rock paper scissors?" The second man asked, his voice like gravel.

"Loser gets power-whammied." The first guy chuckled, and turned.

She watched with faint amusement as the two buff dudes covered in tactical gear began to play rock paper scissors, and the second guy lost.

"Fuck."

She snorted in amusement.

"Okay, strip. Or don't, I don't know. Also, tell me your names."

"Dilan." The first guy said as he unlatched his helmet. Rugged, wrinkled face with a scar winding up his neck up to his jaw. Looked tough as nails.

"Dominic." The second guy said, doing the same. Somewhat olive-hued skin, far younger, with a badly healed broken nose being the only oddity on his face, perfectly average otherwise, if masculine.

She idly nodded, wondering if she should say a name at all, before deciding that Sam would have to do.

It was quite a reach to go from 'Sam' to 'Summoner', so she wasn't concerned about safety overmuch.

"Call me Sam, if you want." She shrugged, and remembered she was wearing shoes.

So she joined them in stripping off the useless bits, like shoes and socks and stuff, getting the sparring gear on, bulky helmets and gloves.

Then she spent another ten minutes enjoying the eye candy as they stripped off their gear.

It was a lot of fucking gear.

Knives, flashbangs, grenades, knives, pistols and magazine belts, pouches of first aid, some kind of segmented… plate harness?

She didn't know what half the stuff was, but it had to weigh at least eighty pounds. It was insane that they could move around with this stuff.

"Alright, come here and beat me up. I'm rusty as fuck." She called, and Dilan stepped onto the mat as she took a stance.

"That green stuff is freaky." Dilan grunted, rubbing at a phantom ache in his chest as he backed up.

She shrugged her shoulders, wiping away sweat as her bracelets turned thirty seconds of rest into nearly two minutes.

The green energy swirling around her hands faded within seconds, however.

"Okay, go again."

They did.

She knew every motion, every counter, everything. Theoretically, she was the best fighter on planet Earth right now. She had thousands of years of memories, fighting in every context and situation. She knew how to read every swing of Dilan's fist, how his center of mass moved to allow for momentum, reading tension and key points to know every move he would make a moment before he actually made it.

To him, it likely looked like he was fighting a combat Thinker, judging from the annoyed scowl he wore.

The problem was her conditioning and her muscle memory, and it showed. No matter how easy Dilan was to read, her body reacted slow and clumsily, and so, she did get hit a few times.

She'd take the bruises. Some pain was good.

Still, the green energy of 'Grasp of The Undying' built up and up, until she finally landed a proper hit rather than a redirect or a block.

She watched the energy briefly rush into Dilan's body, then back into her fist, sinking into her, and like the last four times, she felt ever so infinitesimally tougher, the rest of the lifeforce rushing into her body and healing aches and bruises, ever so slightly, more soothing than healing, in truth.

Then her phone rang, and she hurriedly drew a stop sign as she jogged over to it, grimacing at how sweaty her facemask had gotten as she adjusted it.

Lisa was calling.

She clicked accept and brought the phone to her ear.

"Heyyy! So, I've got a slight problem here. I was talkin' to Trickster over on the other side of the base, and found out something you probably will freak out over.

"Okay…?" She slowly said, leadingly, and Lisa hissed out a sigh.

"They're Simurgh bombs. The winged bitch teleported a bunch of buildings from Earth Aleph into Madison, and they found the vials there before they used them to escape the cordon."

She froze, her hands twitching.

She took a deep breath, and let it out.

One of them was far too important to let go, but the rest weren't.

She covered the phone, and turned to the troopers.

"Both of you, get out, now. Dismissed."

They gave her confused stares, but nodded, hurrying over to whatever bits of their gear they had shed.

"One second, Herald."

Lisa grumbled something.

After both mercenaries had left the room, she sighed.

"I'll get rid of them." She grit out, voice tight.

She hadn't escaped the Simurgh's notice, it seemed. Or maybe she had, and their purpose here was something else, something more destructive than if they'd landed in her clutches, but she wasn't going to chance it.

"Wh- whoahwhoahwhoah wait!" Lisa rushed out.

"No. Lisa, just think for a moment. Does this not absolutely stink of a Simurgh plot? She just so happened to teleport people into our world, then they just so happened to get vial powers, then it just so happened one of their vials turned Noelle into a deranged cape printer, then it just so happened that they found themselves here, in Brockton Bay?"

Lisa was silent, in thought.

She was thinking too, thoughts racing a thousand miles an hour.

Three whole minutes of slow, meandering silence passed, before she groaned.

"Lisa, I'm not sheltering Simurgh bombs, nor allowing them anywhere near me or our plans. For all we know the Simurgh sent them here specifically because she knew I'd come to take over Coil. From a guess, this was either done just to cause chaos and kill someone important in the shitshow that would ensue if the heroes tried to take Noelle, or, to very specifically target something wider, like an organisation. Let's face it, I'm the most important figure in the Bay right now, even if nobody knows it yet. There is no fucking way this is a coincidence she ended up in my lap." She hissed.

Lisa audibly gulped.

"From my guess, the purpose was to somehow lead to Noelle getting discovered, getting me a kill order, some other situation where I die from having Noelle around me, or a situation where I get killed by dominos she wrecks around me without even being directly involved, or to capture someone in the know like me or you and make a clone who goes out and declares our plans to the world and ruins everything before I even have a chance to start working on killing that winged cunt."

Then she considered the possibility of the Simurgh further exacerbating Noelle's deteriorating mental health to control her like some kind of permanently wandering Endbringer, sowing further chaos. Or somehow throwing Taylor into Noelle and ending up with a clone of herself, one with technically infinite potential and an esoteric energy that nobody else in this world had, and shuddered.

She doubted that was possible to any extent. Mana and metaphysical things just didn't play along with this world's rules. But there was a chance.

"It doesn't matter if I've already Mastered them, the chances of this being a coincidence with the Simurgh involved are fucking zero. Something's going to go wrong, something will tip over, and everything will crash and kill us and everything I'm working towards."

"I- Ta- Sam, look, I know this pushes every button you have, but…" Lisa trailed off, oddly quiet.

But she couldn't come up with anything, because Taylor was right.

"Are you considering that maybe that's what the Simurgh wants from us? To kill the Travellers?" She asked, and Lisa groaned.

"Yes- maybe? If Noelle is some kind fledgling Endbringer under someone else's control, it would make sense, but you're not going to kill Noelle even if she's a Simurgh bomb, you will just Master her into a vegetative state or something. Will killing the Travellers accomplish anything if you don't get rid of Noelle?"

"Getting rid of Noelle would be the exact kind of thing that I think the Simurgh would want. You told me not to give the clones names as numbers, but let's face it, versus the kind of threats I'll be facing, they will die. A lot of them will die. But for every- fuck, I hate to word it this way- replaceable clone that dies, an irreplaceable hero will live. For every Armsmaster that gets to live, some cloned version of Hookwolf won't. Noelle is a threat to everything the Endbringers fight for, which is to kill the world by a thousand cuts. So, maybe the Simurgh's plan was to have the Travellers ruin us, what we're trying to build here. Maybe killing the Travellers without getting rid of Noelle won't even do anything-"

"Or maybe she will have some unique interaction with your Mastering, or she's immune, or something crazy like that, and you killing them will end up ruining the last of her mental stability and toppling everything in the exact way you were trying to prevent by killing them in the first place."

She paused, gritting her teeth, because that was another possibility that she was terrified of.

If nothing else, this told her in bright red letters that the Simurgh had her eye on her already.

"Look it's just… T, you have a Thinker-Precog blocker ability that never turns off because of your power. From the way it seems to function, it's because our powers are trying to read into each and every one of your capes at the same time, likely in completely different times too, assuming they got assimilated into your power like an opposite version of the Butcher or something. Likely due to dimensional bullshit, which is the exact same thing that has been proven to be the Endbringer's biggest weakness."

She refused to be that optimistic. It would get her and everything she's working for killed.

Before she could voice that, Lisa continued.

"I know the Simurgh is a fucking Endbringer, but I honestly doubt she could precog a hundred different shuffling places, people, points in time itself from a whole different dimension or wherever the fuck your power came from, and somehow plot all of this to bring you down a full year and something before you were even a parahuman. And we're running into the usual Simurgh paradox. No matter what we do, we don't know if that's exactly what she wanted us to do or predicted us to do."

She let out a strangled snarl of fury, pacing in tight circles.

Then she stopped cold with a simple realization.

"I need to master Noelle before anything else. I need to know if that possibility of immunity or whatever you said isn't an option. If it is, they live. If she's not immune, which is what I suspect, then they die. Sorry Lisa, but I'm not going to condemn millions for five teenagers."

Lisa spat out a long sigh. "Yeah, okay. That's fair. Look, how does your head feel? Do you think you can do it now?"

She chewed her lip, before nodding to herself.

"Yeah. I'll have a raging migraine after power testing in the PRT, but physical exertion is tremendously less draining than more esoteric or bizarre powers, so I should be able to pull through by doing my usual 'oh im just a super boring brute' routine."

Lisa made a positive hum, then sputtered.

"Wait, T. Why the fuck are you still planning to go to the Wards?"

She automatically went to recite the reasons, then blinked in realization.

Coil had more insiders in the PRT than she'd ever get, and the best Maria could give her was office gossip like how Assault and Battery were apparently in a relationship of some kind.

Using their resources?

Meaningless. She had all the things she could need. She could have the entire catalogue of gym equipment, even though she wouldn't get to beat on some Brute in sparring sessions like she'd been hoping for.

Knowing how they worked, operated, getting access to even surface-level clearance files so she could get a peep into threats?

Again, meaningless. Coil was literally sending that to her right now.

The only possible reason she could have for joining them now was to built rapport and camaraderie with the future heroes, so she could try and convince them of her planned deal or mutual agreement in the future, but…

It was just a waste of time now. She already had far too much on her plate to be playing hero while getting treated as a kid.

"I guess I'm not, now that I think about it. Yeah, that's over before it began. Whatever."

"Well, good. Also, according to the file Coil just sent me here, Gallant is a Thinker Master Blaster combo that can sense emotions, which means if he sees you in person, and then sees you while you're pretending to be some other cape, he could put two and two together or just draw some kind of connection there." Lisa added.

Taylor cussed under her breath as even more work got thrown onto her table.

"Sec."

She took the phone away, and quickly navigated to Coil's contact, scrolling through the nigh-endless series of documents in file forms until she found something that mentioned the Wards.

She skimmed through their civilian identities, willing to know but not willing to do anything about them, then paused when her eye flitted past Shadow Stalker.

Her first reaction was a feeling like someone had lit a flare and pressed it tightly against her heart, a burning sensation of rage and disbelief.

It didn't last. She'd endured worse. The bullying and the locker were little more than footnotes. She'd been skewered and burned alive, eaten by void insects in sands dried and clumped with rivers of blood and broken weapons, flayed alive, crushed between two blocks of bone too large to be called teeth.

It helped that apparently Sophia was in a juvie right now.

The bullying, the locker? They were too juvenile to muster more emotion than that momentary outburst and a bitter aftertaste.

Her second reaction was a slow realization that drained even that aftertaste away.

Sophia could be used. She could be used very effectively, because the PRT knew about what had happened between them. Sofia wouldn't be in juvie otherwise. It was right there in the afternotes, her reason for being booted.

Her brows furrowed, a plan slowly forming and coming together.

She briefly flashed into Evelynn just to check there was nobody around, then turned back into herself to let her body recuperate from the sparring.

"My head's still rather tight, so I'll go get Noelle tomorrow. I'm going to go Master the Travellers and my father first and call it quits for the day on power usage. He should be getting off work in an hour or so."

Lisa choked on air, coughing into the mic.

"No, shut up Lisa. No arguments, this is too important." She said, voice steady and firm as steel.

"I- okay." Lisa said through a small series of coughs, voice heavy with strain.

"Get Coil. I want Shadow Stalker. Mobilise a team to burst into that prison and bring her here by tomorrow. Make it obvious that it's Coil getting her out. Set up fake papers for my father and get an apartment somewhere as safe as possible. I'm moving him to New York or where Eidolon is sitting, I don't know, just somewhere safe. Set him up with a job too, I want to leave him alone and be sure he won't die randomly or get snatched by my future enemies. Tell Coil that after Shadow Stalker gets here I want two people kidnapped and brought here. One male, one female. They can snatch a gangster or something, I don't care, as long as it's not some random innocent. Bring me some human scum nobody will miss. Race et cetera doesn't matter, but preferably white. Get us an apartment too, somewhere half-decent and quiet. We've also moving out of our current house. Call Sundancer and Oliver to Coil's office, I'll go master then, then go grab my dad. I'll master Noelle when I have the tank full."

"Okay. By the way, the kid, Dinah? She'll be getting up soon, and I don't really think it's humane to keep her waiting in a brightly colored cell. Want me to just keep her unconscious until you're ready to meet and explain things to her?" Lisa asked.

She grimaced.

"I don't like the notion of drugging a kid, but if it's safe, keep her under. I want to give her the pitch. If she says no, which I expect, we just let her go. Oh that reminds me, organise a blood draw for everyone on base with pictures next to their glass sample, I want to be able to track everyone."

"Yeah, alright. Moving all of it down the command line. Go master your dad." Lisa said, sounding oddly bitter.

She wanted to just ignore it and bulldoze through, but kept herself in check enough to sigh.

"Lisa, what is it?"

"It's just… it's unfair that you get a parent that loves you, and you're probably the only person I know who doesn't want that love." Lisa groused.

She spent a moment to think.

"It's not that I don't want it. There's just no room in my life for it to have anything but a withering death, through distance and brick walls. It's better he moves on and starts something new, and I don't have to worry about my useless wreck of a father getting squished by the superpowered psychos infesting the world. Also, I can't lie, I hold a lot of resentment for him. Probably something to be said about trust issues as well."

"Trust issues? Oh you don't say, miss 'I must either be able to track everyone I interact with or master them into submission'?" Lisa asked in an exaggeratedly high pitch. Then she snorted. "Okay, I get it. I won't keep you. I've sent your orders to Coil, and he'll delegate further. I'll set your dad up right next to the Houston Protectorate-"

"Why Houston?"

"...Eidolon is in Houston."

"Oh. Okay." She simply said, unsure of what to think about the blatant 'this is obvious' tone that Lisa used.

She hadn't been checking on fucking Eidolon, she'd been checking on villains to kill or take for herself.

"Look, just check your phone, don't leave it in the pocket dimension thingie for when you pick a cape. See ya."

"I will. See you in a bit."

She ended the call, and after checking again for anyone nearby, stalked towards the Traveller's quarters as her phone continued buzzing endlessly in her pocket.

She would have so much fucking reading to do when nighttime came.

Notes:

im starting to feel as overwhelmed as taylor as the pressure keeps ramping and shit keeps mounting :d

im not sure that's a good thing but by the holy creed of Escalation, i seem to be doing right