Disclaimer: Have Idea → Write Idea
Reichenbach
Reggie's frown deepened as he walked to the front door. Something was very wrong. He paused and started looking. A black tire mark on the driveway, tread pattern consistent with a tire belonging to a two thousand ten Mercedes S-Class sedan. He turned in a slow circle and saw a torn receipt for lawn care and garden services. He kept looking and found a dozen more indications that his parents were in residence but no sign of his sister. Reggie's jaw tightened.
He'd mastered himself by the time he got to the door, deciding to knock after a moment of indecision. His father answered the door shortly thereafter.
"Reginald." A smile bloomed on the man's face. "Come in."
He broke the threshold. "Where's Sarah?"
"Your mother is going to be thrilled to see you again," his father said, ignoring the question. "Come this way."
Reggie followed his father into the sitting room to find his mother reading.
"Reginald," she said, putting down the book. "Is this a visit or are you back for good?"
"There shouldn't be any need for me to stay away anymore," he replied. "Where is Sarah?"
His mother smiled. "I assume that means there is no more danger to us?"
"Not anymore," he agreed. "Where-"
"Good. I trust that you've learned your lesson and are through playing those silly games?" she asked.
"Boy did his duty," Reggie's father laughed. "Same as my father did in World War II. We can't blame him for that.'
"I suppose not," his mother agreed with visible reluctance. "I still don't think that it's an appropriate thing to expect from someone of our station, but I suppose there's no harm in a young man taking a bit of time to have an adventure."
"Exactly," his father agreed. "Best for him to get that sort of thing out of his system early so it doesn't interfere with his career later in life."
Reggie's jaw tightened. "Where. Is. Sarah."
"Her?" His mother sniffed. "Gone."
"Gone? How can she be . . . you . . . what did you do?" he asked flatly.
"We told her that you committed suicide," his mother stated blandly.
"We couldn't very well have told her the truth," his father added quickly. "It could have compromised what you were doing and put all of us in danger."
Reggie's eyes flicked around the room. No photos containing his sister that didn't also have him in the frame, no trophies in the cabinet with her name, no signs that his sister was there at all.
Reggie stood abruptly and stormed up the stairs. His room was exactly as he'd left it. Sarah's had been converted into a home office. He felt a lump form in his gut.
His parents were still on the couch when he got back downstairs. "Where is she?"
"Gone," his mother repeated calmly.
His gaze sharpened. "Gone where?" his tone deepening and becoming more guttural.
"We don't know," his . . . the male subject admitted.
Reichenbach seemed to grow taller as he rose to his feet, his eyes remaining fixed on the two subjects as he did so. "You will answer all of my questions truthfully and promptly. Is that understood?"
He left the house an hour later, satisfied that he'd learned everything either of the two subjects knew about the disappearance of his younger sister. He took a deep breath. Control, Reggie reminded himself. He was the master of his emotions, his emotions were not the master of him. He took a phone out of his pocket and dialed from memory.
"It's me. I need dossiers on every female thinker between the ages of sixteen and twenty in New England to start with. White, natural blonde, green eyes, freckles on the bridge of her nose. Approximately five foot six and one hundred and twenty pounds the last time I saw her. My younger sister, she was told that I killed myself and she ran away from home." He paused to consider the question, glancing over his shoulder at the front door as he did so. "No. A cleanup crew will not be necessary at this time." Best see what the girl in question wanted before doing anything permanent. "Thank you for asking."
It took two hours to find Sarah who was apparently making her living as a small time villain in a cesspit of a town. Reggie wasn't sure if he should be disappointed or impressed. If one was able to avoid being forcibly recruited into a gang, there wasn't a better place to be a villainous cape thanks to the revolving door installed on local branch of the PRT's detention block.
He continued looking through her dossier and couldn't help but feel a touch of worry. She was in over her head, already attracting the wrong sort of attention, and it was only a matter of time before she ran out of luck. Now then, what would be the best way to extract her without tipping his hand?
IIIIIIIIII
The US attorney hung up the phone with one hand while reaching for her intercom button with the other.
"Tell the PRT that I need to know everything they know about a cape named Reichenbach," the US attorney barked. "Tell the FBI the same and tell them both that I need that information right now."
The SAC was in her office fifteen minutes later holding a worryingly thin file folder.
"What have you got?" she asked.
"Not much, ma'am. Even combined with what the PRT was willing to admit they had."
"Summarize it."
"Currently believed to be a member of the Elite, believed to have been involved in the execution of at least three kill orders, powers unknown."
"That's it?" she asked in disbelief.
"Yes, ma'am. Officially."
The woman smiled. "What about unofficially?"
"Has given us a lot of information in the past which has been helpful in resolving cases. I don't know if he's done the same with other agencies. Possibly an undercover for someone, low confidence on that."
"Does it say which branch of the Elite he's in?"
"Believed to be affiliated with Star Dawn. Indications that he may have worked with other branches in the past."
"He wants a meeting," the US attorney announced. "He said that he will be here in." She checked the clock. "Twenty minutes."
"I'll have a tactical team standing by," the SAC promised. "Do you want me to bring Emily in on this?"
The US attorney laughed. "God no. I don't want every gang in Brockton Bay knowing that I'm meeting with a cape."
The corner of the SAC's mouth twitched. "You said it, ma'am, not me."
Reichenbach arrived exactly on time and was quickly waved into her office for the requested meeting.
"What does the Elite want with me?" The US Attorney asked bluntly the second he broke the threshold.
Reggie smiled. "Not a thing, so far as I am aware. That said, I am a contractor rather than a member so do not assume that I speak for the organization."
"Your file says you're a member of Star Dawn's cell," the woman stated.
"My file is incorrect," Reggie stated calmly. "Star Dawn contacted me approximately six months ago because she wished to secure my services for a specific task. I did not join her organization at that time and I have not joined it since."
The US Attorney leaned forward. "What service?"
Reggie raised an eyebrow. "Confidentiality is something my clients rather insist upon."
"Fine. If not to share information on a criminal organization, why are you here?"
"I'm in the area on personal business," Reggie replied. "While here I thought I'd see if I couldn't be of some use to you. Assuming you are interested."
The woman's eyes narrowed. "What are you offering?"
"Does your file say what services I normally offer to my clients?"
"Enlighten me," she snorted.
"Mainly internal security. People feel better when they get a report from an independent auditor," Reggie stated. "I've also been known to do other sorts of investigation when called upon. I thought you might be interested in procuring my services to deal with your little mole problem."
The woman tilted her head. "What mole problem?"
"The one responsible for the fact that the only capes the Brockton Bay branch of the PRT has brought to trial in the last seven years were independents," Reggie replied. "Unless I was mistaken and the fact that they can't hold anyone prisoner for more than a week was due to gross incompetence rather than treason. If it's the former than you have my most sincere apologies."
The US Attorney ignored the insult, it was one she'd uttered herself more than once over the years since she'd been appointed to her position. "What do you want in return?"
"I would like the chance to recruit a few villains before you make your own offer and I would like to determine what offer you make to the ones I choose not to recruit."
"No one bound for the Birdcage," she said firmly.
"Of course not. Nor anyone destined for a kill order." Reggie smiled. "The worst most of the ones I'm interested in would get is to be forced into the Wards or the Protectorate."
The US Attorney's fingers drummed on the interview room table. "How many?"
"One per mole found," Reggie replied innocently.
"One for every two," she retorted.
Reggie smiled widely. "Deal."
The woman's jaw tightened. "Exactly how many moles are in the Brockton Bay branch of the Protectorate?"
"There should be more than enough," Reggie replied. "If not then I suppose I can offer up the moles in your office or the ones in the Boston PRT or in any number of police departments." He rose to his feet. "Thank you for your time, I'll have my attorney contact you to formalize our agreement."
Her teeth ground together. "What do you want to clean my office?"
He paused at the door. "I'm sure that I'll think of something. Why don't you think of what you're willing to offer in the mean time? My attorney will be in contact shortly."
IIIIIIIIII
He who can access the switchboard can access everything Reggie reflected to himself as he strolled into the telephone company building.
"Sir, you can't-" the security guard cut off when he saw the credentials in Reggie's hand. "Sorry, sir. Didn't see them at first."
"Don't worry about it," Reggie stated. "I'm a new face and you're doing the job you're paid to do. Well done."
"Thank you, sir."
He went up the elevator and strolled past several confused technicians until he reached the correct office.
The man behind the desk looked up as Reggie closed the door behind him. "May I help you?"
"I have a warrant to tap the following people." The US attorney had thought it a small price to pay for him to root out the traitors in her office and fortunately the federal magistrate had agreed.
"Uh. Okay, I can do that," the man agreed. "I'll need to run this past someone in legal first."
"Someone will be here shortly," Reggie promised.
"You already called them? Guess that's no problem then," the man said cheerfully. His eyes went back to the warrant.
"You will not tell Martin Brooks about this order. You will tell him that he's been suspended for a month without pay pending his transfer to the most unpleasant hole you can find and that you will decide not to handle things in house if he complains."
The man glanced up from the document. "He supplementing his income?"
"He is," Reggie confirmed.
"I don't have the power to do anything about that."
The phone on the man's desk rang.
Reggie smiled. "You're about to. I suggest you answer that."
IIIIIIIIII
Emily felt nothing but satisfaction as she watched the FBI agents cuff several of her former agents. It was never good to have another agency come in to clean your mess but it was even worse to have people watching your back that couldn't be trusted.
"How many is that?" Renick.
"Eleven," Emily replied.
"Think that's all of them?"
"It's eleven less traitors than we had when I came in this morning," Piggot stated flatly.
Renick nodded in agreement.
IIIIIIIIII
It wasn't hard to figure out what had happened to Sarah, not when he had access to all of her calls, messages, and metadata. It also wasn't hard to connect her botched bank robbery with a kidnapping on the other side of town after he'd figured out who had forcibly recruited his sister and had added him to the warrant. Decisions decisions, now what would be the best way to handle this?
He pulled out his phone. "It's me. I would like a bit of help to resolve a small personal issue."
IIIIIIIIII
Roy glared at the strange cape who'd first insisted on a meeting and had then proceeded to sit in his office taking up space without so much as a word.
"Get to the point," the mayor barked, his patience at an end. "What do you want?"
"Of course." Reggie nodded. "Your niece was kidnapped recently, I was wondering if you'd like to have her back."
The mayor's face turned red. "If you've hurt her, I swear to god I'll see you hang."
"I am not the one who took her. I am simply offering my help in getting her back." Reggie smiled. "Well, depending on what you're willing to offer me for my time."
"You're charging me to save a little girl?" the mayor asked in disbelief.
"I suppose a good man wouldn't do that, would he?" Reggie agreed. "On the other hand, a good man wouldn't accept money from the gangs to run interference either so I suppose that description doesn't apply to either of us."
The mayor swallowed. "What do you want?"
"Do you happen to know how much you've profited from the gangs since you got elected?" Reggie asked. "I do. Surprising that a man who ran on a promise to clean up the local government could make so much in such a short amount of time."
"I didn't have a choice," the mayor said quickly. "They'd have killed me."
"You had a choice," Reggie disagreed. "Silver or lead." He counted seven heartbeats. "What choice are you making now? Blood or silver?" Not that it mattered what the man said since Reggie was planning to free the girl regardless of the answer he got. Every additional cape he took from Coil was one more to obscure his real target and the less risk to his sister but it was always nice to be paid twice.
IIIIIIIIII
Thomas was in his office and in costume when the phone on his desk rang. The man frowned, why wasn't the caller ID working?
"What is it?" he demanded the second the handset was against his ear. "Well?" he prompted after a few moments of silence.
"You have taken something that belongs to me," a raspy voice stated calmly. "If you acknowledge your error and make amends then this will be the end of it. It will be as if there was never anything between us and as if our paths never crossed. Refuse and I will be forced to take action to retrieve what you have taken from me and to make an example of you to ensure that no one else will ever believe that they can safely steal from me again."
AN: Correction by Luan Mao, many typos by Joey Zoot
Omake: A possible direction to take this if I were to continue it
Coil split the time line. In one he agreed to the other cape's proposal, in the other . . . the villain went cold. "Ah, I think we can do business. What exactly do I have that belongs to you and what were you proposing I pay as restitution?"
IIIIIIIIII
Lisa's eyes went wide with alarm, her powers weren't talking to her. She glanced around and saw similar looks of alarm and confusion on the faces of her teammates.
"We have to get out of here!" she said, bolting upright. "It's a tra-" She cut off when the door opened to admit a tall and thin, clean shaven, pale, ascetic-looking man wearing a suit that would not have looked out of place in Victorian London and a domino mask that did little to hide the man's deep sunken eyes.
"Good," the odd cape said. "You're all here." Six PRT troopers armed with foam sprayers followed the man into the room. "My only interest is in the blonde. You may take the others."
"Who are you?" Lisa demanded, refusing to show fear.
"Coil has agreed to release you from his service," the man stated. "Come with me."
Lisa's powers remained stubbornly silent as she followed him to a parked limo on the street.
"Get into the back," the strange cape ordered.
"Not until you tell me what you're going to do with me," Lisa said stubbornly. The cape smiled in a way that made her feel safe, emotional master? The girl wondered. Her powers remained silent.
"That is your choice to make," the man replied. "I will give you some options after we are some place more private and you will chose which one most appeals to you."
"What if I want to walk away?"
"That is not one of your options at this time," the man admitted. "Though we will discuss that after I have presented you your choices and given you enough information to make an informed decision."
"Fine." She walked past him and got into the limo.
"Wonderful." He got in and sat across from her.
"Who are you?" Lisa demanded.
"Someone who wants only to see you safe, happy, and successful."
Lisa's eyes narrowed in annoyance. "I meant what is your name?"
"You may call me Reichenbach for now," the cape stated.
"For now?"
"I believe that you will call me something else after we have reached a more private setting and you have more information," the cape replied.
"Fine."
"Were you happy with them?" the strange cape asked suddenly.
Lisa glanced at the man, still nervous about the fact that her powers had gone silent. "With whom?"
"Your team," the cape clarified. "Did they treat you well?"
"As well as to be expected, I suppose," the replied. "Why?"
"What would you like to happen to them?" The strange cape's head tilted in a way that sparked an half forgotten memory. "Would you like them to end up on the bottom of the bay? Would you like them to go to prison? Would you like them to be given the chance to start over? What?"
"Are you trying to buy my cooperation by threatening them?"
The odd cape laughed in a way that felt familiar but try as she might she couldn't place it. "No," the cape stated. "I took them because I didn't want Coil to realize that you were my target. I have no further need of them and I am giving you the opportunity to decide how I dispose of them. Do you want them to land on their feet, to live on their knees, or to die?"
IIIIIIIIII
Amy looked at the emaciated child on the gurney. She wished it was the first underaged drug addict she'd treated, hell, she wished it was only the hundredth.
"What makes this one special?" she asked the PRT agent.
"Two things," the agent replied. "The first is that she's the mayor's niece."
Amy frowned. "That's why you brought me here? It couldn't have waited."
"She was kidnapped and addicted to drugs by a villain wanting to take advantage of her power," the agent added calmly. "That's the second reason."
"Oh." Amy reached down to make skin contact, that put a different spin on things.
IIIIIIIIII
Taylor felt sick as she waited in the interview room for something to happen. Armsmaster knew she was undercover so everything would be okay, right? Her heart pounded in her chest so heard that she was afraid it was about to burst.
The door opened to admit a friendly looking woman holding a large file folder. "Hello, I hope you're comfortable."
"I'm okay."
"The foam was terrible, wasn't it?" the woman asked. "They make all of us go through it in agent training."
Taylor chose to stay silent. The woman carefully closed the door, walked over to the interview table, and handed her the folder as she took a seat.
"What's this?" Taylor asked nervously, afraid to open the thick file folder the agent had handed her.
"The publicly disclosable parts of the case we've been building against Sophia Hess, Emma Barnes, Alan Barnes, and Madison Clements. We're building a separate case against the school and the teachers," the agent replied. "The fact that you triggered gave us jurisdiction."
Taylor felt a wave of relief rush over her. "That's why the police acted like they weren't gonna do anything?" She realized she was smiling. "Why didn't you send anyone to talk to me?"
"Did your companions tell you about the unwritten rules?" the agent asked. "That's a big part of the reason. We . . ." the woman sighed. "We don't always get things right because of them. Ideally you'd have come in yourself to join the Wards or at least to get power tested and we could have gone from there without admitting that we already knew your identity." She shrugged. "I suppose this works too, but it doesn't exactly start us off on the right foot now does it?"
"You know cape identities? Then why haven't you arrested Kaiser or Lung or any of them?"
"As terrible as this world is, it could always get worse. So long as they think they're safe in their secret identities they're well behaved in their secret identities. Short of a kill order, we pretend not to know and they pretend to believe we don't know. I wish I had a better answer for you but I don't. I'm sorry."
"That's okay."
"Would you like your father to be present when I ask you about what happened?" the agent asked. "Or an attorney? We can wait until they arrive."
"That's okay," Taylor said quickly. "I don't want to . . . I don't want to be a bother?"
"Are you sure? It's no bother and I think it would be better if you had at least one of the two here. It won't cost you any money if you want a lawyer."
"Okay, um, if you think that would be best," Taylor agreed.
"I do." The woman smiled. "Do you want one or both? If you just want an attorney, we can still send someone to your house to let your father know that you're okay if you want. We don't even have to tell him that you're a cape."
"Um, both if . . . if he wants to come." Part of her hoped he would because it would mean that he cared about her.
"Of course he will, he's your father," the woman said. "I bet he's worried sick about you right now. Now, there's one thing I want you to understand before we start and that's that when we're in this room, I'm not your friend, okay?"
"Okay?" Taylor felt a rush of nervousness.
"But I would like to be and I think we can be friends in the future so I'm trying to make this as easy for you as possible. Okay?"
"Okay," Taylor agreed, feeling much better about the situation.
"Good. Now, are you hungry? Don't hesitate to ask if you need or even just if you want anything. I promise that I'll do my best to make this as painless as possible." The agent wasn't sure why word had come down from above to go kid gloves with the Undersiders but hers was not to reason why. In any case, it was a nice change of pace to be telling the truth when she played good cop.
In the adjoining interview rooms, two of her now former teammates were engaged in similar conversations. The third was downstairs with the dog handlers and happier than she could remember being around humans in her life.
IIIIIIIIII
Reggie held his little sister as she cried into his shoulder, doing his best to comfort her. She hadn't wanted to believe that he was real at first, convinced that some sick stranger was playing games with her. It was only after he explained just how terrible their parents were and how they'd lied to her and kept her from seeing any of his letters that she had started to let herself be convinced. He kissed her on the forehead. He'd wait a bit before he broached the subject of what she wanted to happen to their former family members. The two had better pray to every god they could think of that their daughter was a better person than their son.
AN: And that's all I wrote.
Omake by Veive
It had been three weeks since the US Attorney had made his deal with Reichenbach, and today was the day. In a few minutes the woman would be meeting again with a list of moles.
The US Attorney took a deep breath to settle herself and looked at the clock. Precisely as the clock turned to 9 the door opened to admit Riechnbach. He was hauling a dolly loaded down with a stack clear plastic totes filled with what appeared to be USB thumb drives, with a suspiciously thick folder perched on top of the stack.
"What's all this" The attorney asked with trepidation.
"Proof." Reichenbach said cheerfully, as he righted the dolly and plucked the suspiciously thick folder from the top of the stack.
"And a list of names, of course." He said as he proffered the suspiciously thick folder. It may seem to be repetitive that I keep writing that the folder was suspiciously thick, but it was very thick, and very suspicious.
The US Attorney looked dubiously at the folder. There, written neatly on the label of the folder were the words "List of moles." The US Attorney gingerly took the folder, and cautiously opened it. Yup. There was a list."Wow." Was all the attorney could say as she turned the page. Yup. The list continued. She turned the page again. More names. "I assume you have proof?"
Reichenbach nodded, all too cheerfully. "I do." He said as he slapped the very tall stack of plastic totes. "It is amazing how much proof you can fit in ten thousand flash drives."
"Damn." The US Attorney cursed to herself.
"What was that?" Reichenbach asked.
"I said, how many villains are you recruiting?" The US attorney replied.
"I thought about just taking all of them but far too many of them are psychotic, so I just took all of the ones on the eastern seaboard who are not, except for one who needed to be made an example of. Oh and most of the non-psychotic villains from Las Vegas, and a few other places too. You can keep the crazy ones."
"Thanks" The US attorney said sourly.
End omake
