A Young Girl’s Criminal Record

by Crossposted

A crossposting of TorontoTower’s SpaceBattles Fanfiction on SpaceBattles, all credit goes to the original author.

34. Interlude 1G

2.G

-- Hannah Newsom Miss Militia --

I ignored the 'closed' sign and tried the door. Unlocked, as I'd been told to expect.

From the outside the little cafe/bookshop was unassuming. I'd walked past the place -- off the boardwalk but not quite in the docks -- three times since it had opened last year and had thought it looked pleasantly cozy each time. It still did, in a sense: the boarded-up windows would at least keep the rain out.

I took a moment to brace myself, recalling what I'd seen of the layout from those times. The cafe section was on the left, separated by rows of bookshelves from the customer entrance. Behind the counter there was a stainless steel door presumably leading to a kitchen, which would have a receiving area. An alternate exit, for all the good it would likely do me if I did need it. Well, hesitating wasn't doing me any good either.

"Ready?" I asked, glancing at Stockton.

He stood a few feet back, as though to give himself room to maneuver a rifle around me after I opened the door. He didn't have a rifle. His hands fidgeted as though dissatisfied with that fact. But he answered me coolly.

"When you are, Ma'am."

I opened the door and, since we weren't actually clearing the building, strode in.

... Huh. It actually was pleasantly cozy. Warmly lit and clean, smelling of coffee and books and not omnipresent mold. There was a bit of water damage on the back wall, but otherwise I could almost believe the space had skipped the last month. A colorful butterfly took flight as I looked over the shelves, heading purposefully towards the cafe. Well, if there'd been any doubt we had the right place...

It didn't take long to reach the little nook the villains had set up in. Two teenage girls observed us calmly from a pair of armchairs, drinks ignored on the table in front of them. I immediately identified Tattletale -- blonde, green eyes, and I'd seen her near the end of the Leviathan fight, makeup washed away -- but the other briefly threw me. The hair gave it away, of course, but this girl was not at all who I'd expected to see under Skitter's mask. Younger than I'd imagined, for one, not even sixteen, and dressed in unassuming baggy clothes that didn't fit at all with Skitter's sleek, professional look. And, well, Skitter had presence.

... And that was everyone. I scowled at the two.

"Oh, settle down," Tattletale said dismissively. "Did I say she'd be here?"

"You implied it."

"Did I? Or was that just what you wanted to hear?"

I thought back over the phone call.

"You implied it."

She rolled her eyes and kicked out the chair -- a normal wooden dining chair, not an armchair -- opposite her.

"Well, be glad she isn't. You're a lot more likely to survive the conversation this way. And you're already here; nothing to lose by hearing us out."

I hesitated and she scowled.

"She doesn't want to talk to you. Maybe I could change that, but I'm not going to because that's a terrible idea. If you want to change my mind, walking out on me definitely isn't going to do it." She flicked her eyes toward Stockton. "I don't think you have much room to complain about discrepancies with the guest list, anyway."

There was only one chair on the other side of the table. And only one drink in front of it. After a moment I took it and Stockton went off looking for another chair. I stared at Tattletale, blank faced, as I tried to figure out her game. She sighed.

"This isn't complicated. We have a compelling mutual interest in limiting the number of heroes Argent murders. I'm here to tell you how to do that."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Out of costume?"

"We needed to keep this low key. If she ever learns about this meeting she'll kill us. Probably won't bother going after you, not if she thinks you've had time to report back."

I paused. That was a lot of leverage they were putting in my hands. If it were true, anyway. Tattletale nodded.

"And there's that. It demonstrates we're serious, that we really believe the situation is so dire that identities don't matter."

"Or it's a con and you're just overconfident," Stockton said, sitting down in his own chair. "Wouldn't be the first time."

She shot him a glare.

"Aren't you guys meant to be seen and not heard? Don't you have a corner to stand in or something?"

Skitter addressed me before he could fire back.

"Tattletale says you're a decent Thinker. Better than anyone gives you credit for."

And that was Skitter's voice, confident and cold. But I still couldn't see it.

Tattletale nodded.

"And that's the final reason. Your power and mine work better without masks. Should help build trust."

I sat back and considered. She wasn't wrong, exactly -- perfect memory is a lot better than it sounds -- but her phrasing implied that placed us on equal footing, which wasn't remotely true. Of course, I had caught that attempt at manipulation. Of course, she might have let me. I really wasn't in any position to play Thinker games with Tattletale. The smart move was to refuse to engage with her.

I picked up my coffee. If they wanted to poison me, Skitter could have done that from across the street.

"You had this prepared just how I like it, I presume?"

She scoffed.

"There's sugar and creamer on the counter."

Black, then. Which was just how I liked it. I took a sip. Lot better than the swill they were serving at the HQ. Colin had had terrible taste. I felt a pang, remembering the four times I'd teased him for it and how there would never be a fifth.

"Introductions, then?" Tattletale said. "I'm--"

"Sarah Livsey. And you're Taylor Hebert."

Sarah's eyes widened slightly. Taylor didn't react at all, composure so perfect I nearly doubted my identification.

"You recognized me from the missing persons report, obviously," Sarah replied lightly, no sign of her surprise in her voice. "I go by Lisa these days. But Taylor?"

I frowned.

"We make an effort to reach out to potential triggers. Her name came up."

"I don't remember that," Taylor said, monotone.

"You were unconscious when we did our rounds at the hospital. There was supposed to be a follow up, but..." I shrugged, a bit apologetic. "Things slip through the cracks sometimes."

It was an unfortunate lapse, and not just because it lost us the first shot at a Master 8. Public outreach is part of the job and I do it without complaint -- enjoy it, even, unlike some of my coworkers -- but I have doubts how effective most of it is. Meeting people who'd gone through something awful, though? Showing them someone cared? That--

"They do, don't they?" she snarled abruptly, startling me with a quiet fury not reflected at all in her body language. "That's hilarious." She didn't sound remotely amused.

Depersonalization disorder? Reduced affect could mean several things but that fit best with her power. Assuming it was power related, which was likely. Not a mild case, if so. But the clinical thoughts couldn't make me forget how wrong it looked. If she had joined the Wards, Glenn might have found himself in the novel position of insisting she wear a full face mask...

I went over every interaction -- video from the bank and the Bakuda fight, the Gala, Leviathan, the truce meeting, the last few minutes -- and saw how they fit a scared fifteen-year-old in over her head and making it up as she went. Skitter was cold and purposeful, precise and graceful in motion and unnervingly still at rest. But her erratic aggression wasn't the calculated cruelty it appeared to be, her fearlessness was an illusion, and her maturity and experience were my dumb misread.

This realization did nothing to explain her competence, however. She'd really started less than two months ago?

While I thought Lisa had put a hand on her shoulder, concerned. She waited for Taylor to meet her eyes, still the picture of calm.

"You want to get into this?" she asked quietly. "I can handle the explanations."

That had... unfortunate implications. If it wasn't just an act, something both were likely capable of.

"... No." Something to consider later, then. She turned back to me. "And you?"

Right, introductions. Well, they'd seen my face. I had no doubt they'd find my name sooner or later, if they went looking. For that matter, I didn't really doubt Tattletale could have figured it out without seeing my face. If she'd refrained out of respect for the Rules before, she was entitled now. Which presented an opportunity, maybe. Notarin had baited her easily enough. I remained silent. My companion cleared his throat after an awkward moment.

"Sergeant Patrick Stockton. A... pleasure to make your acquaintance."

No one acknowledged him. After thirty seconds, Lisa's face contorted in disgust.

"No, you know what? We're not playing this game. I don't need to know your name. I already know you. What would I even use it for? To go after the extended adopted family you only remember because you literally can't forget? The handful of unpowered friends desperate enough to keep trying even though you constantly blow them off with transparent lies? When's the last time you had a relationship that lasted a whole month? You are Miss Militia, the hollow persona, the second-rate cape and C-list celebrity. How long has it been since you even bothered to take off the mask? Even Armsmaster took his off to sleep. Your life is simply too sad and boring to justify the effort."

She took a breath, relaxing noticeably. She smirked.

"But it's bad form to call you by your cape name out of costume, right? Let's just go with 'Hannah.'"

... I maybe jumped a little. OK, definitely, the sensation of it undeniable in my flawless recollection. I took a sip of coffee, regaining my composure. Not that she'd missed my reaction.

Now it was Taylor looking at Lisa with... actually, I thought there was a hint of concern in her expression. And amusement.

"Feel better?"

She turned her smirk on Taylor.

"You know, I really do. Thanks for asking."

I shook my head, a bit bemused. Not exactly the first time a teenager had called me uncool, though rarely with such... panache.

"Needed that, did you?"

She bared her teeth.

"It's been a stressful few days. You're a pretty mediocre punching bag too, but I didn't want to take it out on people I like."

"Want a go at me?" Stockton asked. "Take your best shot."

She snorted then narrowed her eyes at him.

"Well, your wife's not cheating on you... Stop thinking about your sex life, I don't want to hear it. The whole relationship is kind of sickening, honestly. Even though you haven't had a lot of time for her lately. Her or your daughter." She paused, considering. "Ah, she's taken that a bit harder, hasn't she? She's always been a good kid, but... Well, when's the last time you met her friends? The Merchants start recruiting young, you know. I mean, I'm reading you, not her, maybe... No, actually, forget I said anything. I'm just confirming your worries. Probably. You don't really want to spend your limited time with her on an interrogation, do you? If--"

"Lisa," Taylor interrupted, not amused anymore.

Stockton, initially confident, had gone a little pale. But after inspecting Taylor's face for a moment, Lisa sighed and looked back at him, rolling her eyes.

"Pure cold reading. You didn't really think you were worth using power on, did you? Every happy family is the same."

He let out a breath but didn't really relax, good humor gone. Had to say, she was good at that. I recalled our previous encounters, trying to sort out when she'd been bluffing. I failed. I wasn't even sure whether she'd actually used her power on me just now rather than relying on previous deductions. Did seeing their faces really give me anything at all? Taylor treated her own body like a puppet and Lisa was so skilled an actor I couldn't even see the signs in retrospect.

"You know, I have half a mind to talk to your fathers," Stockton said, recovering himself. "Leaving them to wonder seems cruel."

I let myself wince. Stockton showing some aggression was fine. It was one of the strategies we'd discussed yesterday and a bit more on the ride over, and most of the others had relied on Argent actually being present.

The relationship between the Protectorate and the PRT is nuanced. The cape organization as a whole is subordinate to the PRT. Or it's supposed to be, at least; the fact that a Protectorate team leader and triumvir had also been chief director for as long as either had existed, less four days, confused the situation somewhat. Regardless, Stockton wasn't formally in my chain of command. I could be -- and generally was -- granted authority over agents in the field, but no part of this expedition was authorized. And using that authority was discouraged in most cases, anyway. They knew their jobs and coordination was best handled through Console.

But none of that mattered here. In villainous organizations the capes are always in charge. Always. So he could push a bit, try to provoke responses. Say things I couldn't get away with saying because then they'd have to take them seriously. Still, there was a limit...

Taylor had silently turned her placid stare on him, letting the seconds stretch.

"Remember who you're talking to now, Sergeant Patrick Stockton."

She didn't sound angry and she didn't place any particular emphasis on his name. I couldn't even see any bugs, though a faint rustling hinted they weren't far. It was hard to believe in retrospect I'd ever doubted she was Skitter. He didn't look away but it was a near thing.

What did this tell me? That she still had a relationship with her father, clearly, but that wasn't really useful. The time to approach a teenage parahuman's parents was before they became a successful, independently wealthy villain. Or, failing that, when you had them in custody. Talking to him now wouldn't make her stop, just damage one of the few tethers she still had to her civilian life.

"Well, chat with mine all you want," Lisa said brightly. "Make him squirm a bit. He knows I know where the bodies are buried."

"And if we arrest you here and now?" he probed.

"We'd fight and you'd lose," Lisa said dismissively. "Badly. Don't bother pretending to have backup waiting. And if you did somehow win? I hope you already know how that ends. Argent will learn about it in no time because you leak like a sieve and then she'll retrieve us over the bodies of anyone who gets in her way."

Taylor shook her head.

"Not like that. You said she approaches fights like me?" Lisa nodded. "Well, given that you must realize how outmatched you are, if you did something that dumb I'd be certain you were laying a trap. I'd come from a direction you're not expecting. Capture a couple heroes on patrol, let you sweat for a bit, then offer a quiet prisoner exchange. Maybe it works or maybe it just draws out your trump card and I'd have to make further plans around that. When everything's settled I'd send an artillery spell into your motorcade so you can't mark it down as a draw."

... Two months. Less. Forget the Wards, how many of the adult heroes would have come up with that?

"I don't think so," Lisa said with a pensive frown. "Not second guessing you on tactics, but if they challenge her word like that, they're not getting away with some wrecked vans. She doesn't think in terms of proportional response or even measured escalation. Not without us to try to rein her in, at least. She thinks in terms of efficiently and completely destroying the enemy so she can move on to the next."

Taylor shrugged and Lisa gave us each measured looks.

"That's the first thing you need to understand: if she talks about killing, she means killing. If she talks about fighting, she means killing. If she talks about disincentivization, she might not mean killing but she probably does. If she delivers a threat and doesn't clarify the consequences, the consequences are death. I mean it. I don't care how relaxed she looks, if she's smiling, if it sounds like a joke or a metaphor or an exaggeration. Even if you've got Gallant monitoring her and you know for a fact the feelings are genuine. Ask Cherie if you don't believe me. She doesn't need to be in a specific state of mind to kill and she doesn't need to work herself up to it. If she can see you she's already got a plan in mind to kill you, and following through would mean as much to her as shaking your hand. Less, 'cause if she shook your hand she'd worry you might secretly be a Striker."

I pressed my lips together. Stockton nodded. Lisa's expression lost its intensity, turning curious.

"You know, I'd thought we'd get stuck on this one. You understand I'm being one hundred percent serious about this? Giving you a warning at all is a show of unusual magnanimity for her. I'd hate to see you waste it."

I grimaced and Stockton spoke up.

"I served a tour in Japan. You know, 'peacekeeping.' Not exactly the Somme, but I saw real combat. And I met guys who'd seen a lot more, enforcers for one warlord or another. Crazy bastards." He shrugged, a bit uncomfortable. "A few I might say the same about."

She cocked her head slightly. I wondered whether she'd decided he was worth using power on now.

"It's not just that, right? Or the bounty meeting, either. You've heard from the other Case 91s."

He nodded, expression carefully blank.

"Well, we'll dig into that later once I've convinced you you really don't want to keep information from me." She turned to me. "And you, Hannah?"

"Why don't you get through everything you want to say, first?" I responded neutrally.

She sighed.

"Look, you think I want to believe this? We have to deal with the Argent that exists, not the one we wish did."

... Huh. She thought I didn't believe her? Well, we'd known for a while she got Thinker headaches, which almost always served as a limit on usage. Given her talent for bluffing, maybe she was substantially more limited than we'd imagined... Or that was what she wanted me to think.

"I'm listening."

"Fine. To state the obvious, avoid fighting her at all costs. And I do mean 'at all costs.' There's no imaginable situation that would be improved by suicide-by-Argent. And I don't think she's planning much you'd strictly have to respond to, anyway. No bank robberies, at least."

I raised my eyebrows.

"You haven't explained--"

"Yes, actually, I have explained. Not just once. It's like telling her the custom is to hop around on one foot instead of walking. It wasn't too hard to get her past total denial, but only because she already thinks cape culture is nonsensical. She's not about to follow along or respect anyone who does. Not that she was going to respect you anyway."

"She thinks the equilibrium is nonsensical," Taylor disagreed. "She can understand her individual incentives point elsewhere."

Lisa shook her head.

"She talks a good game, but you can't dangle a fight in front of her and expect her to hold back. Her relationship with violence is... stupidly complicated, but it won't even come to that. She's not going to stop and consider the situation, she's going to do what she's trained herself to do, what she's had enormous success doing: killing the enemy as quickly, safely, and efficiently as possible." She frowned, considering. "If she goes into the fight with a different plan that might be enough. Might. I recommend immediate surrender and total compliance, if you last long enough to try it."

"We aren't uniformed combatants entitled to protection under the laws of war," I dryly replied.

Lisa huffed, half amused, half exasperated.

"You're not, but it'd probably still jar her out of her initial response. She might decide to murder you in cold blood anyway but she also might not. Best you're going to get, if it comes to that." Her expression grew serious. "Please do not let it come to that. Who's even next in line for Protectorate lead? Triumph? Battery? Might as well just pretend Gallant's eighteen."

I hesitated. I didn't have to say anything. They were actually being pretty open with us. I could simply take what they offered and try to leverage that information to beat them. They clearly thought we didn't have a chance, and, well, we hadn't. With Gobi, though? With Rephase and Flechette? On paper... I remembered how Valiant's hands had shook as he prayed to himself. I sighed. No way I could have hidden the plan from Tattletale, anyway. I wished I could talk to Colin. Or Hero. Hell, I wished I could talk to my mom.

"Gobi, most likely," I finally admitted.

Lisa had been observing my internal conflict with interest and now she groaned.

"Gobi? Of course it's fucking Gobi."

"Gobi?" Taylor asked.

"Strongest Protectorate hero you've never heard of," Lisa explained. "He'd wipe the floor with Chevalier ten times out of ten. Very strong, very precise telekinesis. Shred-a-block-of-steel-then-shred-you-with-the-pieces telekinesis. The gimmick is that he only has a few inches of range, but he's strong enough that hardly matters. Oh, and he can effectively fly, if that wasn't enough, by throwing mass down." She glanced at me. "Brute 8, Blaster 6, Mover 4?"

Might as well, at this point...

"Blaster 7. And Thinker 1 for a crude mass sense."

"Funny how he's only arriving now," Taylor said with just a hint of dryness. "Actually, how have I never heard of him? And why 'Gobi?'"

"Like the desert," Lisa said. "He dresses up as a sand dune so he's always got mass on hand. As for why the Gobi specifically?" She shrugged. "Chinese, possibly? Fled to America to avoid conscription into the Yàngbǎn?"

No clue. I shrugged.

"And the reason you've never heard of him is that he's spent his whole hero career in Austin, under Eidolon."

She smirked and after a moment Taylor obliged her.

"Why would they waste someone that strong on a team that already has Eidolon?"

"That's the question, isn't it? It was probably meant to be a short term thing -- you know, feel him out while he's around someone who could stop him. Didn't really work out that way. There was an... incident. Tens of millions, maybe low hundreds in property damage. Probably at least a couple deaths too, but if so they covered them up. Stupidity, not malice, but who even cares when you fuck up that badly?"

"Really?" Stockton frowned. "I never heard about that."

Lisa hummed.

"Funny how that works. Not that it wasn't in the news, but it certainly wasn't there for very long. You know, I saw another article about the Forsberg gallery fundraiser last week? The building is rubble and we didn't even steal anything. You'd think they could let it go."

Stockton snorted.

"You're whining that people are still talking about your publicity stunt?"

She smiled and shrugged.

"Makes you think, is all I'm saying." She turned back to Taylor. "Oh, and Gobi's an ass. I mean, that never slowed Armsmaster down, but it factors in." She frowned. "Actually, I'm surprised he's willing to work under Militia."

I smiled tightly.

"He certainly wasn't happy about it."

"No."

"No?" Gobi asked after a moment, tone flat, the mass of sand that comprised his costume swirling a little faster.

Director Piggot didn't notice, concentrating on her paperwork. Or that was the impression she wanted to give, at least; I knew her ticks too well to be fooled. She only looked up after twenty long seconds, staring him straight in the opaque lenses covering his eyes.

"No, I'm not handing my department to someone I don't know. Someone who doesn't know me, or my department, or anything at all about the extremely delicate situation he just stepped into. Someone with no relevant experience. Someone with zero name recognition. Certainly not to someone who knows all that and believes he's entitled to the position nonetheless because he lucked into a strong power. And certainly not over Miss Militia, who's your senior in Brockton Bay, in the Protectorate and in life, who has a long record of reliable service as Armsmaster's second, and who is broadly liked by both the department and the public."

Gobi's stillness was impossible to read, sand slowing in its intricate dance to a barely perceptible crawl. But after staring him down for a few seconds, the director elected to take it as acceptance.

"Which is fortunate, since I intend to keep you much too busy to focus on a Protectorate team leader's responsibilities."

Gobi's posture relaxed slightly, costume returning to its steady roil.

"Oh? The Chosen? The Merchants?"

Director Piggot gave him an unpleasant smile and produced a map, several locations circled.

"I met with an engineer from National Grid this morning in anticipation of your arrival. There's damage to the power lines in--"

"I'm not a repairman," Gobi interrupted contemptuously.

"You are a public servant," Piggot snapped. "This is the service that the public requires." He started to respond hotly but she continued over him. "Think it through! You want a promotion? You need to prove yourself to the public just as much as me. Do you have any idea how rare powers that are really good for anything besides fighting are? Restoring power to thousands of Endbringer and S9 victims? Any careerist with half a brain would kill for the opportunity to attach their name to something like this."

After a tense moment he grabbed the map and strode off.

"Come back when you're done," Piggot called after him. "I have people putting together a map of priority road repairs now."

He didn't acknowledge her, striding through the door -- the closed, solid steel door, which dissolved before him and reformed in his wake. After he had left and it was clear he wasn't coming back, the director let her head fall into her hands.

"Say what you will about Armsmaster, at least I never had to explain his own interests to him."

"I miss him too, Ma'am," I replied.

She heaved herself up, giving me a wry look.

"I didn't say I missed him."

"No Ma'am."

I caught a hint of a genuine smile for a quarter second before she refocused, moving to the door. I got up and followed.

"He better not have screwed up the latch. Now, you and I need..."

Lisa laughed loudly as I finished my recounting. She'd been struggling to hold it in to catch the end.

"You know, maybe Tanya could come to respect you. Piggot, anyway. God, I wish I was there to see that."

Taylor watched her for a second, blank faced as ever, then turned to me.

"Does his power work underwater? If he's that strong maybe he could clear the wreck in--"

"Oh!" I exclaimed. "You're that Hebert."

The resemblance was obvious in retrospect. Again, it was the hair that-- right, she'd inherited the hair from Annette Rose Hebert, literature professor, who's obituary I'd skimmed on April 13th, 2008. And, actually, I'd seen them both when...

"You came on a tour of the Rig almost five years ago." I blurted. And given the date... "For your eleventh birthday?"

She stared at me. At a loss, I'd guess. Even for me, this was... something.

Stockton chuckled.

"Wonder what eleven-year-old you would say about meeting your favorite hero like this?"

I shook my head, bemused smile forming on my lips.

"No, she was very clear that Armsmaster was her favorite. After Challenger explained Alexandria couldn't make it, at least."

Taylor still wasn't reacting, but Lisa had recovered from her earlier laughter.

"Aww, I'm sure you're her favorite now. By process of elimination, if nothing else."

Stockton and Lisa laughed, but I had to admit I didn't find that especially funny. I suspected Taylor agreed with me, though she was as unreadable as ever. Actually, I realized, this information was useful in at least one way: 2006 Taylor had worn her heart on her sleeve. Evidence her depersonalization disorder was power related?

"Why did you only notice now?" She asked, trying to change the subject.

I hesitated and Lisa rolled her eyes at my reticence.

"Perfect memory, not perfect information retrieval," she explained. "Imagine you had a photo album of every person you'd ever seen, one picture for every second you'd spent looking at their face. How long would it take you to look up someone you'd only seen once or twice? It's not quite that hard for her but it's not trivial. She recognized me from missing persons and you from a dossier on a potential trigger, because those are sensible places to start looking for capes. She'd have done a more thorough job later, but... you know Mr. Hebert?"

"Not personally." I shrugged. "But I've seen his face, and I think everyone in the city government knows about his quest to restart the ferry and dredge the bay."

"... Well, can Gobi do it?" Taylor asked after a moment.

I thought about it.

"You know, I think he could. His power works on water, and he's certainly fast enough. Would probably take him a couple days, which is much faster than any other method I've heard proposed."

"Could but won't," Lisa corrected, grimacing. "He has a thing about water. Triggered in a diving accident or something, I guess. It's why he always skips Leviathan even though he's the only one he'd really be good against." She turned to me. "Actually, you should probably convince Piggot not to bring it up, if he's as high strung as you say."

I briefly considered that she might be lying, but... Why? I nodded.

"Well, fun as this has been, let's get back to the point," Lisa said. "I hope you realize Gobi's not enough, not nearly. He's strong enough to threaten a mage, sure, but so are all the other mages. Consider how that's worked out for them when they've come after Tanya."

Stockton frowned and started to speak, but Lisa interrupted him.

"What, the name? Trust me, she does not care. I'm the one who has to badger her into wearing the mask every time she goes out. And you already know it. And, again, she'd kill us just for being here, so what's another meaningless secret?"

"I'd need to look into the details to be sure," Taylor said, "but your description of Gobi made him sound substantially stronger than a mage. You're sure he'd lose?"

She bit her lip, uncertain. Unless there was a truly elaborate deception going on here, I thought I was getting a pretty good sense for how the two of them thought. Lisa seemed clever -- though who could say how much of that was her power -- but that cleverness was laser focused on people. Her power's proclivity or her own, I couldn't say. While Taylor -- the severely bullied girl who's power suggested an isolation-related trigger -- probably hadn't been very good with people before she lost the capacity to express emotion. She'd naturally focus on the hard factors, capabilities and tactics. And she was pretty damn good at it, as I'd observed. It was a potent combination, and perhaps helped explain the Undersider's recent rise.

It also suggested a potential vulnerability. It was obvious who'd really wear the pants in that partnership, and it wasn't the one who was good in a fight. Now, maybe Taylor realized that and accepted it... but maybe she didn't. I might be able to drive a wedge in there and... torch my single connection to Tanya and Otto... Lisa had said it, hadn't she? That they were deliberately exposing vulnerabilities to demonstrate how certain they were I wouldn't want to exploit them. Maybe I should be more concerned about who was really wearing the pants in this meeting.

"No, I think I agree with Lisa," I admitted. "Gobi is stronger in some respects, but not nearly enough so to make up for the experience gap. And he's weaker in other areas. Flight, especially, and he's completely missing the mental acceleration, which is a potent force multiplier. And if he's fighting to capture while Argent... isn't..."

Taylor nodded.

"Right, that's a major handicap. I don't know if he'd lose -- depends on the specifics -- but he certainly wouldn't win. Not outside of an ambush, anyway."

"Which is exactly what Tanya will focus on," Lisa grimaced. "Trust me, she's already paranoid enough. You do not want her to consider you a credible threat, especially since you really aren't. Just so you know, every time there's been the slightest risk of you ambushing her, she's had the men waiting and ready to make you regret it. Deeply."

"Just so we're clear," Stockton said slowly, "you want us to deliberately weaken the department so Tanya feels safe?"

Lisa didn't blink.

"Ideally. Well, that's what I want from Hannah. I still don't really understand why you're here? If you don't like what I'm saying, you can just leave?"

I sighed.

"I have the same question."

She refocused on me and shrugged.

"What exactly do you need a strong department for? Fighting Argent is a bad idea, and until you can call in Alexandria it's going to stay a bad idea. Hell, even beating her wouldn't work out well for you, not the way you want. I understand there are limits to what you can get away with, but directionally? A weaker Protectorate is better for everyone."

I let all my skepticism show on my face.

"I'd need a strong department to fight other villains, for one."

"What other villains?" Lisa said dismissively. "The Merchants? If you can't take them with your three mages, I don't--"

I stiffened.

"Three mages?" I demanded.

Lisa frowned.

"What, did you find anoth--" She paled. "You lost one. God, tell me you didn't. Tell me it wasn't Richter?" Her voice drooped at the end, my face offering all the confirmation she needed. "Fuck!" she exploded, slamming a fist down on her armrest. "How the fuck did you lose him? It's not complicated, you just needed to keep him safe and fed. People trust you to look after their children? They shouldn't trust you with a goldfish!"

"You thought we had him or you wouldn't have been surprised Lisa said 'three,'" Taylor pointed out. "We don't, obviously. We haven't seen him since the truce meeting. Why did you think we did?"

"... To all appearances he left willingly. Where else would he go?"

"With anyone who claimed they were working with us, maybe?" Lisa asked snidely. "It's not like that's hard to figure out, not after that discussion at the truce meeting."

"He was led out," I admitted. "Agent Reyes -- or a similarly-statured man in his armor and with his ID card -- entered the Wards living area at 5:54AM on the tenth and spent two minutes forty one seconds inside -- there are no cameras there, for obvious reasons -- and just walked out of the building with Otto in tow. He was challenged on the way out and provided the appropriate M/S code."

"Oh, well that's just fine then," Lisa said. "He kidnapped a Ward but at least he wasn't Mastered. Maybe. You know that code system only works on, like, fifty percent of Masters, right?"

"I have to agree," Taylor said. "Why would this Agent Reyes have permission to take a Ward?"

I sighed.

"Well, they didn't know he was a Ward. We do try to keep their identities secret, and we employ a number of teenage interns to provide cover. Everyone who encountered them assumed he'd just gotten off his shift. Several interns actually had. Believe me, we've had plenty of discussion already on the failures that led to this incident."

"Let me guess," Lisa said, sounding more defeated than angry. "You haven't found Reyes? And you assumed Regent got to him?"

I nodded.

"And you'd gotten the code out of him. Or he was one of Coil's--"

"You're still on that?" Lisa snapped. "Coil's dead, and good riddance. God, I didn't really expect that lie to last the day. But apparently I've been overestimating you. Dramatically."

I made note of that but it wasn't the immediate priority.

"Who took Otto, then?"

She groaned.

"I'm sure we didn't and I'm pretty sure you didn't. The plan is probably too complicated for the Merchants. That only leaves a little less than seven billion suspects. Assuming we limit the pool to Earth Bet, which I'm only mostly confident is a good assumption." She took a deep breath and slowly released it. "OK, we know he didn't fight his way out once he realized he wasn't being taken to Tanya. She said he's 'nothing special' but that could really mean anything, coming from her. Probably even a below average mage is too much for most capes. Given--"

"He didn't have his orb," I corrected.

"Oh? Figured that one out, at least? And you took it from him. Guess that's related to why you thought he'd be so willing to walk out?"

I grimaced.

"I... wasn't privy to the discussion on the topic, but I suspect he was considered a flight risk."

"So you gave him a few extra reasons to run?" Lisa asked lightly. I started to respond and she cut me off. "Don't bother, I get it. You obviously had no chance to supplant his loyalty to Tanya, so why make nice? Better to cut your losses and secure the priceless orb before he pulls a runner. Reasonable. Completely wrong, but reasonable."

"... It wasn't my idea. By the time I discovered the plan, it was clear I wasn't going to change anyone's mind."

"Oh?" She squinted at me. "You managed to hold yourself back from reflexively taking his side to preserve some political capital? Or was there a little more to it? Eh, not worth digging into. Admirable progress, regardless."

I didn't give her the satisfaction of reacting to her condescension.

"Why was the reasoning wrong?"

She smirked.

"Tanya's planning on ordering him to cooperate fully. Though if she wasn't, pissing him off and sending him whining to her would have been pretty dumb. She wouldn't have cared, but I doubt you knew that." She stopped smiling. "Of course, that's all moot because went and fucking lost him!"

"... Let's focus on next steps," Taylor said. "What are the implications?"

Lisa sighed and bit her lip, considering.

"If you worked out the orb thing between the bounty meeting and 6AM, we can probably assume the kidnapper didn't know. Not because I have any faith in your information security, to be clear, but just because that detail didn't have long to spread. You did at least keep it from the rank and file, right?"

Wilfong and Gardner...

"... Mostly."

She shot me a withering stare.

"Did the kidnapper go after the orb?" Taylor asked.

I shook my head.

"That's something, anyway." Lisa said. "It's probably more valuable than he is, so they should have gone for it if they did know."

"I'm feeling a bit lost," Stockton said.

"Surely you're used to that?" Lisa asked sweetly.

Stockton continued without acknowledging her.

"The reason mages and orbs are so valuable is the possibility there are potential mages on Bet, right?" I nodded. "But who knows that? They all pretended to be parahuman at the truce meeting, didn't they? And we only figured out the implications after the bounty meeting. In the same interviews that revealed the importance of the orbs, actually."

"So who could possibly know one and not the other?" Lisa murmured. "Good point." She blinked and actually looked at Stockton. "... Sorry."

"She's really not this bad normally," Taylor offered. "Lot of pressure lately."

Lisa scowled at her but Taylor met her stare serenely. I couldn't say what Lisa saw there -- I certainly couldn't see it -- but after a moment she looked away.

"It's not ironclad," Lisa said. "Maybe they just thought they were picking up a strong cape. That's not nothing, but it's probably not enough to attract the attention of the Yàngbǎn or the Elite or Red Gauntlet or Gesellschaft."

"Aren't the Yàngbǎn always interested in picking up strong capes?" Stockton asked.

"Capes with exceptionally strong single abilities," Lisa corrected. "Individual spells aren't that impressive. Divided forty ways? Even with Two's enhancement they'd be pretty useless."

"Two possibilities, then," I summarized. "One: a powerful group with weirdly incomplete information--"

"The more I think about it the less plausible that sounds," Lisa interjected. "It's not impossible -- a lot of Thinker powers have weird limits -- but the sort of group that can pull this off on a few hours notice from across the country or even outside it? Surely they'd investigate further." She shook her head. "Regardless, there's not much we can do about something like that. Too many possibilities, too few clues. Let's not waste time on a dead end."

I nodded.

"Two: a strong Master with relatively common information doing some opportunistic recruiting. Probably local, which leaves... just Regent, right?"

"Definitely not Regent," Lisa replied. "Putting this kind of effort into something on his own initiative? Not likely. For that matter, he'd have had to have been awake at six o'clock. Rank it behind 'Gallant second triggering and deciding to go villain.'"

"Cherie, maybe?" Taylor asked. "She could have set it up between the truce meeting and her run in with you."

"Hmm. That's..." Lisa tapped her fingers on her armrest. "... No, I don't think the timing works. Regent said she needs to be subtle if she wants her changes to stick when she's not around. Getting a PRT agent to kidnap a Ward? Almost certainly too much for the time she had, even if her Thinker power let her pick out an especially disloyal agent. And I doubt she was in any state to pull it off. If she'd had the wherewithal to plan out and execute something on that level, she'd have done a better job with us."

"A clone, maybe?" I said. "Not the mirror image Genesis or the body jacking one, our screening process catches those."

Lisa bit her lip.

"Think any Regent clones made it out?" she asked Taylor.

"... Don't think so, but I really can't be sure. Too much chaos, and I couldn't place any bugs on Echidna herself."

"Well fuck. I don't think most clones are capable of keeping their head down that long, but it would be Regent if it was anyone."

"I could tell when my range overlapped with one of my clones," Taylor said. "Like our powers competed over the bugs, or something. Would Regent feel anything?"

Lisa shook her head.

"Can't say. No one he's fully Mastered in the city, at least as far as I know, so maybe there'd be no competition to feel. Well, there was Cherie, but she was very careful to stay outside his range."

"He... Mastered his own sister?" Stockton asked.

"Yes," Lisa immediately replied, not even looking over. "And I'd rather continue not thinking about that, if you don't mind."

After a moment she shook her head.

"We're looking at this wrong. If there's really a Regent clone out there it's a self-solving problem. He'll come after us eventually and since he was cloned before we met Tanya, he'll underestimate her and get himself killed. I'll float the possibility so she's not completely blindsided and that should be more than good enough."

"Except we'd have to deal with her paranoia that whole--" Taylor started.

"Right, that'd be way worse than the clone. She'll manage just fine without the warning, I'm sure."

"So, a clone of someone else?" I broke in.

Lisa sighed.

"We can't discount it, but without knowing who we really can't follow up on it. We'll just have to hope they'll reveal themselves sooner or later, which is probably a good bet."

"A new player, then?" Taylor prompted. "Someone trying to exploit the Leviathan power vacuum and playing things slow or the Echidna one and playing things very fast."

"Could be, but... Oh. Oh fuck. Heartbreaker. Regent's always been afraid he'd come for him and, hell, I'm pretty sure Cherie joined the Nine at least partially to fend him off. If she'd sensed him around, that could explain why she was so desperate. He doesn't normally go for guys, however useful, but I doubt all his kids are so picky. If--"

"Relax," Taylor interrupted. "Heartbreaker is probably the best case." Lisa shot her an expression of extreme skepticism. I doubted my own face looked much different. "Surely Cherie's not the only sibling Regent's Mastered? And his range is good. Just fly him through a search pattern. Might help us find any Regent clones, too"

Lisa let out a breath.

"Yeah, that works. Thanks. I can't tell you how little I want to meet Heartbreaker." She shook her head. "It's not a perfect plan, mind. Killing him won't remove the effects of his power and that's certain to be a cluster fuck, and-- No! No, Taylor, we're not going to try to capture Heartbreaker. That might be the worst idea you've ever had. I mean, you can try to sell it to Tanya if you'd like, let me know how that goes." She glanced at me, frustrated. "There are programs in place to help Mastered civilians, aren't there?"

There certainly were. Programs that could help Heartbreaker's victims, on the other hand? Not so much. I knew for a fact there were no human Masters of that caliber on the Protectorate roster at present and the notion we might recruit one one day would probably just condemn the victims to a miserable life of confinement and permanent suicide watch. Pretty damn sure Lisa knew that. But I had to agree with her here: trying to capture Heartbreaker and force him to undo his work was... not a good plan. I was willing to take responsibility for that decision so Taylor didn't have to.

"Of course," I smoothly reassured. "You'll need to move quickly to prevent suicides, but if you can get them to us alive we can help them. That's not the sort of trauma that vanishes overnight, but we're prepared to deal with it."

Taylor nodded after a moment.

"That's not the only issue, though," Lisa said. "What about his kids? Second gens are a mixed bag: sometimes you get Shielder, sometimes you get Panacea. Cherie was stronger than him in some ways. If they've got a second Cherie ambushing them becomes a lot harder. Regent should know most of them but he's been away long enough for a couple more to trigger."

Taylor shook her head.

"We'll need to talk to him about that. Get a sense for the range of abilities we can expect. And I'm sure Tanya will have her own ideas." She glanced at me. "We don't need you for this. We'll handle it."

"Actually, I don't think we need to have this conversation with them at all," Lisa said. "Tanya's not going to trust them to handle it, not after they lost him in the first place. Keeping them in the loop is just unnecessary temptation." She shot me a cutting look. "You, on the other hand, need to pass any new info to us. If you value Otto's well-being at all, at least."

I could feel my power shift from a belt knife into something much heavier, ready to leap into my hand in an instant. But what could I do? Shooting Lisa certainly wouldn't help.

"And if you do retrieve Otto?" I asked stiffly.

"I still don't think Heartbreaker would Master him himself," Lisa said. "It's dumb, but so is raising a dozen parahumans who despise you. So it'd depend on which of his children did what to him. Doubt it'd be anything lethal given their powers, and that's the only thing that really matters."

"What?" I asked, frowning.

"Pay attention!" she snapped. "Why do I care about Otto?"

I raised an eyebrow.

"Humanitarianism?"

She laughed.

"What, are you pretending that's why you care? Try again. And try thinking this time."

I took a deep breath, refusing to let her get to me. It wasn't hard to figure out what answer she wanted, however little sense it made.

"You said you want to 'minimize the number of heroes Argent murders' and that 'if she delivers a threat and doesn't clarify the consequences, the consequences are death.' And she in fact did threaten us at the truce meeting 'if we got Otto killed with our bungling.'"

"Good." She sighed, slumping back into her seat. "Look, I appreciate you're emotionally invested. That's not a character flaw. Hell, it's a good thing. But you cannot afford to let that part of your brain do your thinking for you, not on this. You need to draw the right conclusions without me around to correct you because the wrong ones will get you killed. Now, tell me why you think my reasoning is bullshit so we can move this along."

"Why, if Tanya cares about Otto enough to insist we keep him alive, would she not care about any injury short of death? The clear implication is that she expected us to keep him safe, not just alive."

Lisa nodded, unsurprised.

"Reasonable points. Unfortunately, we're talking about Tanya. She does not care about Otto. At all. She thinks she's supposed to care about him, and she thinks the men expect her to care about him, and maybe she even believes she does care about him. But if he'd died on the Front she wouldn't have bothered stepping around his corpse. There are exactly four people in the world she cares about and he's definitely not one of them."

She met my eyes firmly.

"She issued that threat primarily out of a tenuous sense of professional responsibility and secondarily to bolster her reputation. But now that it has been issued? Well, her word is something she does care about. If he's hurt or Mastered or whatever I can convince her to be reasonable. She won't be thrilled about it and it definitely won't do anything good for her opinion of you -- well, maybe lowering her opinion of you is good -- but we can probably avoid murder. If he's dead, though? That's... dicey. She certainly meant to threaten your lives, but I suspect she left herself some wiggle room deliberately. I'd give it... sixty percent, maybe."

She shook her head.

"But let's not linger on that. You were already going to cooperate when you thought it was just Otto's life on the line. What you meant to ask is whether we'll give him back once we retrieve him, though of course you already know the answer. No fucking way," she abruptly snarled. "You know, fool that I am, I stuck my neck out for you on this? I told her you'd keep him safe, that retrieving him wasn't worth damaging relations. I was all ready to present that here as a gesture of good faith. But now? I highly doubt I could convince Tanya to hand him over to the morons who lost him in the first place and I don't see any reason to make myself look like an idiot trying."

I scowled, trying to come up with an argument she'd accept.

"And his orb?" Stockton asked. "More valuable than he is, you said."

"Oh, in a general sense. Tanya's obviously already got her own, which means the only real value of taking his is denying it to you. Which, actually, I'd have guessed she'd be all for. But..." She glanced at Taylor, who shrugged. "If she was going to do that, she already would have. If you were smart you could have already moved all the mages and orbs out of the city to LA or Austin, where we'd have no hope of retrieving them. And she's not comfortable assuming her enemies will act stupid, even when she knows they are stupid."

"So the smart move in your opinion would have been... sending off our three strongest capes to Alexandria in hopes she'll toss us some scraps in return?" Stockton asked.

Lisa smiled wryly.

"Sure it would have been... for Alexandria. Or for Chief Director West. The stupid part was leaving that decision in your hands. Anything you want to say about that?"

"No," I said flatly.

"You told us about Gobi so you're not planning on beating us," Taylor said. "Why hold back now?"

"Don't bother pushing," Lisa advised. "Not yet, anyway. Much more important they hear what we're saying." She turned to me. "But you are willing to talk about your other transfers? No way it's just Gobi. And that'll be public information within a day or two, anyway."

"Why do you need to know now, then?" Stockton asked while I considered.

Lisa shrugged.

"I don't actually have ready-made profiles on every hero in the country. I want to have something substantial to hand Tanya as soon as the announcements are made."

"You want us to leak confidential information so you can... look good to your boss?" he asked. He'd tried to sound disbelieving but couldn't quite manage it.

"Her faith in me has already saved your lives," she responded irritably. "And it's best not to give her time to catastrophize. Especially if you've actually got someone she'll consider dangerous."

"Bastion and Leonid for the Protectorate," I said, mind made up. "Rephase, Lag Switch, and Flechette for the Wards. And there's been some discussion about integrating New Wave, though Lady Photon still isn't too enthusiastic."

"Bastion? Shouts-racial-slurs-at-children Bastion?" Taylor asked. "Isn't that kind of a bad look?"

"He's half the reason the boardwalk still exists," I defended half-heartedly.

"Which the public doesn't actually know," Lisa pointed out. "But he's pretty strong and very available." She shrugged. "Definitely a win for us. Too late to work it into the interview, unfortunately."

I grimaced. I didn't really disagree but we weren't exactly in a position to turn down reinforcements. But...

"Interview?" I questioned.

"Well," Lisa said, smirking, "I think I mentioned we needed to keep this meeting from Tanya? I thought it best to schedule it when she'd have somewhere else to be." My eyes widened and so did her smile. "She'll be on in... thirty six minutes. WBBP. You can stay and watch with us, if you'd like."

"... Well, I think you've miscalculated," Stockton said. "What's the point in making nice with the mere Protectorate lead when you've thrown down the gauntlet at Image?"

Lisa chuckled.

"That's the beauty of the move: if we pull it off, Image is going to have to insist you back off. You'd win a knock-down-drag-out fight, I'm sure, but it'd cost you more than you'd gain."

If they pulled it off. Which I could prevent, if I acted now. Could but wouldn't. It wasn't hard to see how Lisa was playing me, presenting each new demand only after I'd accepted its necessity. I'd known walking in there was no winning here but I'd hoped to lose less badly. I needed to throw her off her game.

"That's pretty clever... Whose idea was it, really?"

Her lips didn't stop smiling but her eyes certainly did.

"You know, I'm curious about the memory thing: is it retroactive? Or do your pre-trigger memories fade like normal? Have faded, I mean, they must be pretty much gone by now."

... Well, that told me something. She hadn't really been trying to hurt me before.

"... Leonid is that Vegas Thinker/Mover, right?" Taylor broke the silence after a few long seconds of not-glaring. "Sound manipulation and sound based teleportation?"

"Stranger too," Lisa said, purposefully turning to her friend and away from me. "He can't sneak up on you, obviously, but perfect silence is pretty good against anyone else. And non-line-of-sight teleportation is very rare and pretty great for infiltration, though it's probably too slow to use in combat."

Taylor nodded.

"And Triumph gives him some punch. He fills in some important gaps but he's not really a threat to us. The Thinker power is more... Wait, when did he show up? Did he hear the conversation between Reyes and Otto?"

I shook my head.

"On his way to the city now."

She shrugged an acknowledgement.

"I remember Flechette from Leviathan. The Blaster 10."

"Striker, actually," I corrected.

She looked at me for a second.

"The classifications describe what a power does, not how it works. Bitch is a Master even though her power doesn't give her any control. Flechette's power pokes holes in Endbringers."

"Wait," Stockton interjected, horrified, "She just turns dogs into those things and lets them do whatever they like?"

"Pretty much," Lisa brightly confirmed. "Why do you think she only uses a few at a time? The limit is training time, not anything inherent to her power." All those dog fights... "You get it. Incidentally, any half-decent lawyer would get her off on that murder charge no problem. Going after trigger event incidents is gauche, anyway."

I shrugged.

"She's entitled to a fair trial, not prosecutorial discretion. I suspect you're right she'd beat that charge. Do you want a list of the charges I think would stick?"

"We don't have all day," Lisa dismissed flippantly. "The many failings of the classification system aside, Flechette might be a problem. No threat in a straight fight, of course, but utterly lethal in an ambush."

I frowned.

"We wouldn't--"

Lisa waved me off.

"I know, but Tanya doesn't. Or, well, I think she believes me when I say it's not common but she's not willing to trust her life to that... She doesn't even really trust in incentives, though she pretends to preserve her self image. That's good enough sometimes, but don't expect it to bear any real weight. Her model of human behavior is unreliable out of a few narrow contexts, and she's come to view people as irrational and unpredictable. The only sort of guarantee she really trusts is inability. That's impossible for us, unfortunately, but it's definitely where you want to be."

"... What," Stockton complained.

"Haven't even scratched the surface," Lisa said tiredly. "I'm not going to try to explain her psychology to you for... several reasons, actually, but two big ones are that it would literally take hours and that I don't actually understand it."

Even Taylor reacted to that admission, looking at her friend and blinking.

Lisa briefly looked like she wanted to brush over the moment, but her expression soon firmed.

"I came to you for help, didn't I? Obviously things aren't going well." The words were typically harsh but she couldn't muster any real bite to put in them. She sounded overwhelmed, mainly. "It's like... if you'd never seen a car before and had to figure out how they work by examining Squealer's wreckage. There was something there that made sense once; complex, maybe, but sane. Then a drugged up lunatic with only the most tenuous grasp on the rules of physical reality contorted it into impossible shapes and weaponized it to hell. But it still worked, somehow. Absurdly well, even. But I don't even get to see that."

She took a ragged breath.

"Maybe a sinking ship is a better metaphor, because it makes it clear what will happen if I can't salvage something functional from the pieces in time. It's the hardest thing I've ever tried to do. It'd be impossible without my power. It might be impossible with it, at least before it's too late." She forced a smile. "But hey, at least Coil died knowing I'd won. And I helped kill Siberian, which half the Triumvirate failed to do. It's something, anyway."

I exchanged a glance with Stockton. I seriously considered the notion that the true purpose of this meeting might be exactly what Lisa had said it was. I was wary of over-weighting my ultimately quite limited experience with the girl, but it all pointed towards sincerity here. Not that she necessarily couldn't fake this sort of desperation -- though it'd be a new high water mark for her skill in that area -- but that she wouldn't.

Pure Thinker triggers involve acute mental or emotional strain, often focusing on a need to know or a sense of intellectual inadequacy, and her behavior comported perfectly with that sort of trauma. I unfortunately hadn't looked any further into her missing persons report -- the Livseys lived in Upstate New York and it hadn't seemed likely she'd actually end up in Brockton Bay -- but I certainly wasn't aware of any evidence suggesting her trigger didn't follow the general pattern. And while Gallant's report on the bounty meeting hadn't confirmed her response to Notarin's baiting had been genuine, he likely would have noted it if it had not.

So the weight of evidence suggested pretty strongly that admitting ignorance like this on a question she'd thought hard about should be very difficult for her; about as difficult as it appeared to be. Of course, it'd be a difficult thing to say whether or not it was true. But only if it were true would the discomfort of appearing ignorant be counterbalanced by the fear of the consequences of that ignorance if she didn't seek assistance. And what Gallant's report had said about her -- that she'd spent most of the meeting halfway to a nervous breakdown -- fit too.

Could all these elaborate Thinker games -- even this moment was planned, I was certain -- really just be intended to provide evidence she was being truthful? It made a strange sort of sense. If she hadn't tried at all I'd have just assumed I was so totally outclassed I couldn't even see her moves. I might have left without hearing her out and probably would have tried to get her rating bumped a point or two, which would have ensured no hero would ever give her a chance to talk again. Her talent for dishonesty made her exceptionally difficult to trust, so she'd had to put in exceptional effort for her honesty to be taken at face value. I knew full well I'd been led by the nose right to this conclusion, but that didn't make it wrong.

I could -- and would -- carefully review every thought and observation that had led me here later. I'd go over her every word, every expression, every scrap of information I could dig up on her, in and out of costume. Maybe I even would contact her family, since she genuinely didn't seem to care. And once I'd done all that I'd feel a lot more confident in my judgment, whichever way it went. But for now? I'd accept she was being straight with me. On the big things, at least. Here and now that amounted to being more open with the information I had, which wasn't really that sensitive, anyway. Not given what she already knew. In fact, there was one particular detail that might prove all her worry unnecessary, if it was genuine.

"... Actually, we believe Tanya has an anti-Thinker power," I said finally.

"That makes a lot of--" Taylor started while Lisa violently insisted, "No, she does not have--"

Then they noticed each other. Lisa's expression of surprise and betrayal was very convincing.

"You have to admit it makes some sense," Taylor defended softly. "What's really more likely? That she's so impossibly complicated that she can stymie you and Cherie and whoever they have? Or that she just figured out an anti-Thinker effect?" She hesitated. "Maybe if you--"

"The former," Lisa spat. "You think I can't tell when my power spirals off into nonsense?" She gestured at me without waiting for an answer. "She doesn't even really believe that, she just doesn't like what the Thinkers are telling her." Huh? She fixed me with a hard stare. "Tell me, Hannah, has this 'anti-Thinker power' affected you? Or Notarin? Do the other mages have the same protection? Even if she'd invented it, she'd have taught her men. Does it work on any of the mage Thinker abilities? Because if it doesn't -- and I'll tell you right now it doesn't -- how and why would anyone from her world have figured it out?"

"... I'm just passing on a note from Watchdog. They haven't shared specifics."

She blinked at me, completely thrown. Then she laughed.

"Oh, of course they wouldn't tell you anything. Let me guess: they kept requesting clarifications and new interviews and every scrap of paper you have with the word 'Argent' on it until Piggot got fed up with them and demanded answers. Then they mumbled 'anti-Thinker power' and slunk off with their tail between their legs." She laughed again. "You know, it actually makes me feel a lot better to know she's making them suffer too. A migraine shared is a migraine halved, or something."

"... I think that's just spite," Taylor noted.

Lisa waved her off.

"Schadenfreude at worst. Though I'd prefer to think of it as a sense of cosmic justice." She turned to me with an easy smile. "You do need to bother them some more, and not just for my amusement. I'd bet a lot of their preliminary work is good; narrow Thinker powers tend to give reliable, clear answers within their limited scopes. The problems arose when they handed that info off to the social Thinkers and generalists, who had to try to assemble it all into, heh, a coherent picture of a real person. But get me all their notes and I should be able to make something of them."

"What makes you think you'll do any better? Do you realize how many Thinkers Watchdog has?" Stockton challenged.

Lisa rolled her eyes.

"No, and neither do you. They hide even basic information about themselves as a honeypot for dim fresh triggers. They've probably got someone who can locate people who know specific details, or something. I don't bother them and they don't bother me. And the reason I'll do better is that I actually know Tanya, obviously. I met her seconds after she arrived on Bet and I've spent more time in her company than any other Bet native. I have access to vastly more information in a much broader context and I can actually test theories on her. Or even ask her questions, for whatever her opinion's worth. And I've accepted she really is just that fucking weird, which is probably the bit they stumbled over."

She frowned, contemplative.

"And I frankly doubt they have many generalists on my level. There aren't that many in the first place and I certainly don't see the appeal in an office job on a government salary. Actually, I bet most of them don't either, and surrounding myself with cranky Thinker conscripts in a cubicle farm? Pretty sure that's one of the inner circles of Hell."

(Interesting that she identified herself as a generalist and not a social Thinker considering she sometimes pretended to be a telepath. Not that 'generalist' was a real Thinker archetype -- Scatterbrain or Esoteric, maybe? -- but I had never found the archetype schema terribly useful. The primary classifications weren't perfect, but they were good enough to quickly communicate useful information about the vast majority of powers. Far fewer fit cleanly into a single archetype. Still, it was a hint.)

Stockton faked a shudder.

"I take your point."

She narrowed her eyes in acknowledgment of the jab but seemed willing to take it in good humor. I cleared my throat.

"I can ask for their notes but I'm not sure how receptive they'll be. What exactly do you expect me to see in them I'll dislike so much?"

"Yeah, they'll want to hide their specific capabilities," Lisa nodded. "Pass along my objections to the 'anti-Thinker power' theory. Imply they're morons for even considering it. Because they are. You'll figure it out. As for the other... Well, I don't see any reason to get into that if you might never see the notes. Consider it a bit of additional incentive to get them, if you'd like."

She'd been almost tolerable for a moment there. Oh well.

"Something I don't understand about your metaphor: why is the ship sinking? Why wreckage?"

She shrugged.

"You saw Gallant's report. I'm sure you've already worked out the basics. A close... friend, let's say, died between one and two weeks ago and she does not have the tools to handle it. Like, at all." She leaned forward and made firm eye contact. "Never acknowledge this fact in any context where Tanya might ever learn of it. She values my life several orders of magnitude more than yours, and I'd still rather punch Lung in the face than bring it up with her. If she brings it up, pretend you don't understand and change the subject. If you ever see her visibly upset... run, I guess, but it's probably too late for you at that point."

That... cast some things in a different light.

"... That's really not a healthy attitude," I responded. "Trying to hide from reminders like--"

"If I wanted to talk to your therapist I'd have invited her," Lisa snapped. "It is a healthy attitude. Exceptionally healthy. For you. And if that's not good enough it's pretty damn healthy for her, too, because murdering you would be a big step in the cycle of escalation that ends with her Birdcaged or dead." She sighed and rubbed her face. "It's not a long term solution but we're in no position to worry about the long term. You can bother me about it in two weeks if things haven't blown up by then. For now, you really don't want to put any additional strain on her self control."

I considered for a moment and nodded. Two weeks.

"I don't blame you for not noticing how she's falling apart," Lisa continued. "She's still better put together than most normal people from the outside. Like, if I told you she's way off her game, would you even believe me? That she's uncharacteristically unmotivated and careless? That her nerves are shot, her composure is wavering, and her self-assurance has been badly shaken? Thing is, those were her very strongest points. Just because she still comfortably outclasses you and me on all those things doesn't mean she's not doing badly by her standards."

"I believe you," Taylor said quietly. "Sorry I doubted you earlier."

Lisa finally broke eye contact with me to look at her friend, expression softening.

"It's alright," she sighed. "I can understand how this must look from your perspective."

She looked back to me.

"Doesn't sound that bad, right? What's it matter if she's not at her best when this world demands so much less of her? And for most people that logic would work just fine. But her psychology is -- was -- a set of tightly integrated, mutually dependent components. If you cut your carburetor's performance in half, you don't get a car that goes half as fast. You get a car that probably doesn't go at all, and if you try to force it you'll damage other components, potentially leading to cascade failure as the whole engine tears itself apart. We're midway through that phase right now."

Well, she definitely wasn't a mechanic.

"And how does something like that come about," Stockton asked, frowning, "if the system doesn't work without all the pieces working perfectly? Presumably you're not claiming she was assembled from independently manufactured components."

Lisa sighed.

"In theory that's pretty simple: there have to be viable intermediate states and a lot of pressure to improve in some way. It's not an evolutionary process, per se, but there's a similar dynamic where too much optimization pressure in one direction reduces robustness versus other pressures. It's not that weird to find people who are unstable in this sense and she's not even really that bad on that score. I've met plenty of people I could unravel with a sentence or two and she was never one of them."

"Oh?" Stockton asked, eyebrows raised. "Who?"

She smirked, returned to form.

"Any heroes, you mean? Don't push me and you won't have to find out."

Stockton leaned back and considered her.

"Nah, you're bluffing," he finally responded. "You'd have done it by now if you could."

Rather than the snappy reply I expected, she turned serious and studied him in turn.

"'Haven't' isn't 'can't,'" she said, no trace of flippancy in her tone. "I'd rather not, not if I don't have to." She shrugged. "That said, I have come pretty close. Panacea at the bank? Just a hint and she suddenly had much bigger concerns than us. Won a fight and made an enemy for life. Not sure how things would have turned out if I had followed through, but there were good odds I'd never have had to worry about her again."

"About that..." I said.

She glanced at me.

"Right, you mentioned trying to recruit New Wave. Don't. Well, the Pelhams are fine -- you know, for capes -- but Photon Mom isn't going to let the dream go. You could peel off the Dallon kids -- Flashbang would probably sign whatever you ever put in front of him just so you'd stop bothering him -- but they're really not worth it. Glory Girl is good muscle, but, as I already mentioned, you neither need nor want more muscle. Especially unreliable muscle. She's... Well, not as big a liability issue as Stalker, but that's the scale you should be thinking on. Excessive force claims and plenty of property damage. Like, we stole forty grand from Brockton Central. Was the damage she did to the building even that much less?"

"Yes," I responded flatly. She quirked an eyebrow. "... Fine, not that much less."

"Panacea's power is fantastic, obviously," she continued. "Easily the strongest power in the city pre-Echidna. Still is, in some ways. Amy Dallon, though? You want nothing to do with her. Saner and more stable than Bakuda, maybe, but not by all that much. Try to get her out of the city and away from her family and in a couple months she'll hopefully have either pulled herself together or self-destructed somewhere that isn't our problem."

I waited for her to elaborate. She didn't.

"That's all you're going to give me? You can't possibly expect me to act on that."

She shrugged.

"Well, there's the truce violation. And I'm certain you already know about her covering up Vicky's little oopsies, as convenient as ignoring that fact might have been. Give her twenty grand and a one way plane ticket to Hawaii and tell her it'd be best if she wasn't around to answer questions for a while. Hell, I'll fit the bill. Fighting the good fight doesn't pay what it should, I know."

"I certainly could do those things," I dryly noted.

"If I actually told you what was going on in her head, she'd immediately guess it was me. Not because it'd be so difficult for anyone else to figure out -- I'm embarrassed for Gallant -- but because I'm the threat she's fixated on. I can't see any attempted retaliation on her part turning out well for her, but I can certainly see it turning out poorly for me. Probably not just me, either. So I've told you all I'm going to. Act or don't, I've already got my own ticking time bomb to focus on."

I grimaced. I genuinely had no clue what Lisa was talking around. If, in fact, there was a real problem. I hadn't interacted with the healer much since the bank robbery -- I'd seen her twenty one times and we'd only really spoken eight of them -- but I still knew Lisa wasn't exaggerating their enmity. Just because she was being honest on the big things -- if she was -- didn't mean she wouldn't lie on the small things when she thought she could get away with it.

There was something that gave me pause, though: why insist on separating Amy from her family? It wasn't like Victoria was all that much more well disposed towards the Undersiders, so why not try to get rid of her too? And she'd surely realize I'd feel a lot more comfortable sending the whole family on a vacation than sending a teenager alone, even if Mark wasn't as reliable these days as he'd once been.

Two possible reasons occurred to me.

First, of course, was that Amy's issue is genuine and related to her family. Not ridiculous, though my read had always been that Carol was the source of most of the tension there. Well, she still could be if Amy didn't share Vicky's grief.

And I'd noted Amy showing discomfort regarding Vicky and Dean's relationship four times. I didn't know what that was about -- the list of reasons a single teenage girl might be uncomfortable with her frankly much more attractive sister's similarly attractive boyfriend was not short -- but it was possible it was more serious than it appeared. There was absolutely no way Gallant would be permitted to leave the city any time soon, however much he might deserve to escape to Hawaii for a couple months, but Lisa might not realize that.

Finally, there was Mark's depression. Not a comfortable situation, surely, but his negligence would hardly be reduced by leaving him behind. It was a plausible contributing factor to another issue, though.

Altogether the theory was... Well, not ridiculous but not very well supported either. Not that I really knew Amy well enough to expect I would have substantial evidence one way or the other on hand. Perhaps Lisa expected me to uncover evidence quickly if I looked into the issue. 'Saner and more stable than Bakuda, maybe, but not by all that much' shouldn't be especially subtle.

The second possibility was that Lisa had invented the stipulation purely to imply the first possibility. Maybe there was no way to convince me to send three of the city's few remaining heroes away and getting rid of just Panacea was better than nothing. I didn't really doubt she was good enough to pull that off, so I was once again left with very little to go on. I'd have to revisit the subject later with a clear head.

Returned from my thoughts, I noted with a start that Stockton was speaking. I quickly reviewed my recent memories -- my senses are faithfully recorded even when I'm not paying attention to them, though in practice that's only really useful for hearing -- and thankfully discovered I'd only missed a few words.

"You're willing to just give us twenty thousand dollars? In cash, presumably?"

"Not to you, obviously," Lisa replied. "But to Hannah? Sure. She'd hardly just pocket the money. Actually, I wish she'd just pocket the money." She looked to me. "Any chance you're more open to bribery than I'd realized?"

I suppressed an eye roll and shook my head.

"To be clear, we're talking seven figures here. Fuck, I'll give you every dollar to my name. And all of Taylor's money too." Taylor gave her a look, eyebrows raised. "Oh, like you care," Lisa dismissed and she looked away, unperturbed as ever.

"How generous," I said flatly.

She shrugged.

"This situation could end with me dead or imprisoned or driven insane or in a dozen other terrible ways I'd rather not consider. There's no way it ends with me poor. But I can tell you're not tempted, so let's drop it."

"Actually, I think there's something here," Taylor said. "You might not care about the money, but Lisa does. Wouldn't a payment show she's serious?"

I frowned.

"Taking a bribe gives you leverage over me, even if I throw it away immediately. You might not have too high an opinion of Watchdog, but this is the sort of thing they would absolutely uncover as soon as they were given reason to investigate. Reason you could easily give them, if you chose."

"A payment to charity, then," Taylor immediately replied. "Something local."

We all paused for a second as we considered what Taylor had done.

"... You know, I think I would find that rather convincing," I slowly replied.

"What's the issue?" Taylor asked Lisa coolly. "You were willing to spend the same money on a bribe."

"Because I wanted leverage over her," Lisa replied hotly. She shot me a withering look. "Never pretended that wasn't the goal."

"Well, now that it's been brought up," I said, "I'm finding your reticence rather unconvincing."

"No you're not," she growled.

I shrugged.

"Maybe, but I haven't made any final decisions yet. When I do, this is a point I'll consider."

She stared at me, presumably checking whether I was lying. I wasn't. I would consider everything. Her shoulders didn't slump or anything, but I could still clearly see the moment she accepted there was no way out. She turned to Taylor, completely ignoring Stockton and me.

"Fine, Taylor, you win. This'll really show me for... looking out for you? That is still what you're pissed at me for, right?" Taylor stared at her impassively. "Well, friend?" Lisa asked, resigned. "How much are you extorting me for? I risked my life for this money, you know."

"I don't see how that's her choice," Stockton crowed. "I believed the phrase 'seven figures' was mentioned? 'Every dollar to your name?' We're outside the normal PRT fundraiser schedule but-- Ow! Fuck!"

He slapped at his neck, completely missing the hornet as it flew away. Neither of the villains had looked over.

"Of course I'll match your donation," Taylor finally said, softening slightly. Maybe? "But--"

"But you don't actually know how much money you have," Lisa interrupted, disgusted. "That sure makes me feel better." She glanced at me. "Expect one point four million or so going to..." She shot Taylor a challenging look. "The Dover Street shelter, I think."

After a moment Taylor inclined her head, as though acknowledging a point.

I felt like I was missing some context. Lisa was a runaway; she'd presumably been homeless for a period of time. But that didn't feel like enough. Was it just that the Dover Street shelter had few ties to the PRT? Regardless, that exchange was certainly informative. Maybe Taylor wasn't as badly outmatched in their partnership as I'd imagined. I briefly considered that even this was a performance put on for our benefit, but... I just wasn't seeing it. If Lisa were that good she surely would have shown it sooner in her career.

(There was also the fact the two had blown several times my life savings on a petty spat, but I was pretty well inured to just how much more profitable villainy was than heroism by this point.)

Stockton raised his hand like a school kid. Lisa rolled her eyes and Taylor stared at him impassively for a moment.

"You could just... not call on him," Lisa offered. "Sting him whenever he tries to speak. Just making sure you understand your options, here."

"Yes?" Taylor finally asked.

"You don't care about the money, right? That's the implication? And you wanted to capture Heartbreaker to free his victims?" he asked. "Why the hell are you a villain?"

"Oh, Taylor just loves crime," Lisa said immediately. "Can't get enough of the stuff. Pure sadism. It's not about getting the money herself, it's about the thrill of denying it to others. Even her closest friends..."

Taylor ignored her.

"None of your business," she calmly replied.

Or was there a hint of hostility there? The one time I'd heard real emotion in her voice -- when I'd referenced the circumstances surrounding her trigger event, naturally -- was in a similar context. Even in retrospect I wasn't sure whether I was actually getting better at reading her or if I was looking so hard for something that wasn't there that I'd started to hallucinate what I expected to see.

Either way, I signaled Stockton to back off a bit. Pushing Lisa was fine -- if anything, I suspected she appreciated the excuse to hit back -- but Taylor might be as cool as she looked or right on the edge of violence and we'd have no way of knowing until she snapped. Though Lisa's behavior implied she could read her, at least a bit...

"Flechette," Taylor said, trying to get the conversation back on track. She glanced at Lisa. "You said you think she'd be an issue? Why? She's not really any more dangerous than Gobi, right?"

Lisa hesitated.

"Gobi doesn't poke any holes in Endbringers... But I suppose I take your point. They can both get through a mage shell without much problem. I suppose the difference is that Gobi can plausibly go for a capture and Flechette cannot. Tanya might read the fact that she's here as an indication of intention. Like if Narwhal showed up, right? She's strong all around, but the thing she's known for is chopping people in half, bypassing any defense. Her range is short, but that just makes preemptive action more appealing."

"Flechette has killed no one and captured plenty," I said. "In extreme situations she can even use her power to non-lethally pin someone to a surface."

Lisa nodded.

"That helps. I'll do some more research to figure out how to sell it. Then there was..."

"Rephase and Lag Switch," I offered.

"And their powers?" Lisa asked, frowning.

She hadn't heard of them. Good.

"Lag Switch can see possible futures a few seconds out, and if he finds one he likes, he can see what he has to do to bring it about."

"Hmm. That's a bit less ridiculous than it sounds, isn't it?" Lisa asked. "If it takes him a few seconds to find a good future, it's already gone. Though, actually, they should be shifting continuously... It really depends how much assistance his power gives him on that side." She shrugged. "Though there are plenty of situations where speed doesn't matter. He could sit next to someone on the bus and consider how they'd respond to him shouting any given four digit number and then select the ideal pick pocketing approach. Perfect power for stealing debit cards."

"Is that how you assess Thinker powers?" Stockton asked. "What does that say about you and your power, I wonder?"

"Excuse you," Lisa replied haughtily. "I had to learn to pick pockets the hard way. It does help with pins, granted."

That said a lot. It as much as confirmed that she'd been homeless and desperate. Now she was worth millions, but there'd been a time in her life where her best option was to steal debit cards, and it had been long enough for her to get good at it. She'd run away in November of 2009 and debuted as Tattletale in July of 2010 and likely spent all the intervening time as a street kid, a drifter and a petty criminal.

Those first few months must have been rough, going from a sheltered life with her well-to-do family to trying to ride out a New England winter on her own without reliable shelter. She'd had a super power to fall back on, of course, but not the sort that really lent itself to that situation. But she'd pulled through, learned the skills she needed to survive, and... sought out other capes living on the fringes of society to start her own team? Jean-Paul Vasil and Rachel Lindt certainly fit the profile, and Grue had been only slightly better established at the time. Multiple people had noted that the team had unusually good synergy, but perhaps Lisa had had the luxury to be selective. Before the Undersiders formed the only member I'd heard of was Grue, after all, so who could say how many minor capes were flying under the radar at any given time?

On the other hand, I didn't know anything about Imp's past and that profile didn't fit Taylor at all, based off everything I knew about her. But they'd joined late, after the gang was well established in their niche. And Taylor's trigger event had made the news, if not for long. It was entirely possible Lisa had done what we'd failed to do and made a good impression on the fresh trigger, earning herself a powerful new recruit when she was ready to go out a few months later.

It was a pretty compelling picture but it didn't answer everything. 'Where did Coil enter the picture?' for one. And 'Why start her own team when any group in the country would have loved to take her?' for another.

"Lag Switch isn't a problem, then?" I asked.

Lisa shook her head.

"Nah. Not in your hands, anyway. You'll just give him a baton and use him as a middling combat Thinker. It's offensively wasteful, but that's the Protectorate in a nutshell. Rephase?"

I took a deep breath.

"Shaker. Thermokinetic, kind of, with a decent range. She can alter the state of matter of--"

Lisa groaned loudly, head falling into her hands. Well, so much for that.

"Steam Machine. You're talking about Steam Machine. The Ward with the kill aura."

"... She does not have a kill aura."

"She often chooses not to activate her kill aura, which is not at all the same thing," Lisa cynically corrected. "That makes Lag Switch... Delphi, was it? Fuck."

"Feel like cluing me in?" Taylor asked patiently.

"Not really..." But after a moment she kept speaking anyway, head still in hands. "Little Ash Beast, pretty much. She can instantly change the state of matter of anything and everything in her range. Well, she is Manton limited... which just means you get to die in horrific agony when she plunges you into boiling asphalt instead of painlessly vaporizing in an instant. She is herself completely immune to temperature issues, of course. And unlike Flechette, that's not a hypothetical."

"The Raleigh incident was clear self defense," I replied stiffly.

She righted herself to glare at me.

"Oh, for sure. No arguments from me. When the Fallen come to mind fuck you into joining their little apocalypse cult, you pull out all the stops. And I wholeheartedly approve of running away afterwards and changing her name. Even though if they could figure out her real power when you billed her as a discount Grue, there's no way they'll fail to see through the brilliant word play contained in the name 'Rephase.' No problem with her, really. No, the problem is you inviting her here. And that'd be bad enough, but you had to take the precog she stole from them too!"

"Let me see if I've got this straight," Taylor said. "She joins the Wards and they quickly realize she's got an extremely deadly power. So they name her Steam Machine and that's all they let her do. But maybe there's a leak or maybe she's careless. Either way the Fallen somehow realize she's a good candidate for their Behemoth cult. They send a team including a powerful Master to 'recruit' her and it goes... poorly. The Master dies and probably most of the rest, except Delphi who... was freed when the Master died? So they recruit him, rebrand them both, and send them to Brockton Bay?"

Lisa let out a long sigh and gave Taylor a small smile.

"Pretty much. But the 'Raleigh incident' was... early March, I think." She looked to me, smile vanishing in an instant. "They've just been floating around because no one was dumb enough to take them until now?"

I nodded, frowning.

"You think the Fallen will come here for revenge?"

She shot me a disbelieving look.

"Obviously. Oh, sure, they're not super consistent about that sort of thing, not like the Nine, but Brockton Bay was already an appealing avenue of expansion for them. If we can't make it crystal clear there's no power vacuum in the city real fucking quick, you've guaranteed they'll stick their hand in." She groaned. "You know, a couple days ago I tried to convince Tanya that powerful Masters are very rare and not that much of a threat. Now I have to tell her we'll probably have to deal with both Heartbreaker and the Mathers clan. We have a couple months before the Simurgh has an opportunity to show up, at least."

"Well, there isn't a power vacuum, right?" Taylor said. Trying to be reassuring? "We're plenty strong enough to hold Brockton Bay. Probably strong enough to take Boston if we wanted. So who'd come here to challenge us for the lesser prize?"

Interesting phrasing. Argent hadn't tried very hard to hide the fact she had very little interest in the Undersiders aside from Tattletale, and she'd been very clear that they worked for her and not the other way around. So where was this 'we' language coming from?

"Anyone who doesn't know that, which is pretty much everyone," Lisa replied. "It's not even public knowledge we beat the Nine yet. The interview will help, of course, but without official confirmation?" She shrugged fatalistically. "Even with it, a handful of no-names destroying the Nine? It sounds like a fluke. Don't underestimate the stupidity and arrogance of powerful capes. And we're trying to keep the Chosen cluster fuck low key."

I stiffened.

"That was you?"

She looked at me, annoyed.

"Obviously that was us. Argent, anyway. Who else could it have been?"

I swallowed, already knowing it was futile.

"The Nine--"

"Had already been dead or gone for twenty hours. I know you didn't get the time of death off by that much. Never mind that someone probably would have told you sometime in those twenty hours if dozens of corpses had been sitting out in public that whole time."

The theory had been that Jack and Bonesaw hadn't truly fled, actually, but what was the point of correcting her? It hadn't happened.

"And Hookwolf?" I tried. "That was no spell."

"It wasn't a standard spell," she corrected. "Did you ask the mages if they could do that? More to the point, did you ask them if Argent could do that?" She shook her head. "This isn't the PRT's theory, is it? It's your theory which you were really hoping we'd confirm. Not that I blame you. I'd sure like to live in that fantasy land."

She took a moment to collect herself and fixed me with an intense stare.

"Well, take this as a lesson, as an underline for everything I've told you today. You feel for Tanya. So do I and so does Taylor. I imagine Patty feels for her too, though I can't be bothered to check. But so what? Every cape has a sob story. Hers is better than most, I'll grant, but I think we all understand being a victim hardly precludes being a villain. The opposite, really. You've rated me Thinker 7? Here's what my power tells me, what it has told me ten thousand different ways, what it never shuts up about: trauma makes people worse."

She let those words ring for a moment, her total conviction obvious.

"You want to know what happened there? I've seen the recording. Fuck, I've hardly stopped seeing it. They didn't even press any of her buttons! She pressed her own buttons by accident and then she murdered them to make herself feel better. And it really did, by the way. And then she came back and acted like it was no big deal. Not because she was trying to minimize it or anything, but because to her it really was no big deal. Why would it be, when she's killed so many more people who did so much less to deserve it?"

She took a deep breath.

"I'm certainly not telling you to give up -- fuck, I'd be so screwed if you did -- but I am telling you that you need to understand what we're dealing with. She's not their Alexandria and she's not their Jack Slash either -- there's no equivalent, really -- but you have to have realized that's how all these hardened veterans of World War One treat her. She expects all that respect and fear because she's earned it. And all that was the old Tanya, who was basically content living with her happy little adopted family of vicious killers who obey her every whim, just the way she likes it. Then some poor dumb fuck somehow managed to kill her favorite. Now she's mad."

...

"You're wrong about one thing, at least," I finally responded. "A lot of Indomitable and Valiant's fear of her is from the last couple weeks."

She frowned.

"What? How much news could possibly have made it from the Eastern Front to the rank and file in Africa in a week? Not like every soldier has a smartphone and a data connection."

Uh...

"... Who are these others, then?" Argent asked.

"Oh, they're... Ah, actually, I'm not supposed to share their names. I'm supposed to call them Indomitable and Valiant," Otto said. "If that's alright, Colonel? You wouldn't know them." He paused briefly. "They're not Imperial."

"The 188th is still stationed in Africa, correct?" Argent demanded.

"Yes, Ma'am."

She nodded, relaxing.

"Well, I see no profit for the Empire in dragging the war to this new world. I commend your prudence, Corporal...

"I... think there might have been a miscommunication," I carefully explained. Lisa, rapidly paling, jerkily gestured for me to continue. "Indomitable -- Lieutenant Colonel William Drake, Allied Kingdom -- and Valiant -- Colonel Edvin Mikel, Russy Federation -- were summoned shortly before Otto, not at the same time. From the Eastern Front. Not all that far from Tanya, as I understand it. Certainly not nearly as far as they'd have liked."