Honestly, I'm quite nervous about this chapter. There's a large degree of attachment to the Undersiders that people have especially in fanfiction that I admittedly quite like. So… for this chapter, in particular, I will accept any form of criticism that would appear should it be given for the story moving forward but I will not detract from the decisions shown here at all because I would like to posit it to you, dear readers, that nobody is safe. That no plot armor exists for any such character even for those that I really like in Cannon.

I do hope you were entertained at least because this went through a lot of revisions and rewrites and I was quite tired doing it.

Sarah

-7:12:59

"Fucking migraines." Lisa cursed as she took another pill down her gullet.

This was the third attempt that day to try and wane her headaches down to a manageable level but any attempt she knew or any attempt she researched about (old-fashionably, mind you), had come up as failures.

Well, there was one more solution that could probably placate her ails to a level manageable than before, or downright removed completely…

But that method needed the help of a certain healer, a healer that was tied to a hero team and if prompted may call out an investigation on her case if they found anything about her being a parahuman.

No… that was simply too risky. Even if having full use of her powers again was the benefit.

She had to wait and endure for now just to make sure everything was as fine as it could be. Especially since her usefulness to a certain boss was being threatened should this whole ordeal continue the way it should.

However, it seemed she was not alone in that category since she had caught wind of a bunch of info regarding Thinkers having faulty data and such across the world. Not just those who were under the payroll of the heroes, but even those that were independent or were villains in the process.

It even got so far enough that before the internet and other devices that used signals were nuked in terms of usage, the stock market and every important sector used by the world were now failing in droves. Even the infamous Numberman was nowhere to be seen out of all of this.

Lisa sighed in frustration as she tried to nurse the ailing effects of her head being the way it was, but she just felt so helpless without her power. Add the fact that she could not use her laptop or her phone, or any other device be it connected to a wireless signal source just made the entire ordeal worse than it already was.

Hell, even her favorite coffee shop was closed for the day due to the severity of the current issues.

Tinker-tech still worked in some shape or form, given the bizarreness of their design and build she supposed, but any access to it was directly linked to her boss. Her boss that to now remained silent for the last two days. His last call even sounded as if he was very cranky at something.

At the very least she felt vindicated that the bastard was suffering at something as mundane and simple as a headache. A thing that she and every other thinker in the world supposedly was feeling right now.

It did make her question why exactly it was happening, especially with the coincidentally tied blackouts of information, data, and technology. Was there something interfering with the source of powers? Was it the Simurgh doing something to make fun of and terrorize humanity in their cruel, demented ways? Or was there something else to all of this that would spring about another issue that poor ol' Earth Bet had to suffer as well?

She did not know. Nor did she care enough to think about it at that current moment.

The headaches were just too much of a nuisance and even if she did care about those questions, she knew that the best thing she was always good at…

Was run.

To run away from every problem that would prove to be a hindrance to her. That would prove to be a major thing that would affect her emotionally.

In the end, she could still remember Reggie.

In the end, she was still that little girl that ran away from her past life because she had no one and nowhere to go.

As Tattletale and Lisa her attitude was pretty outspoken towards others, to the point that she always wanted to be the smartest one in the room. It made her look arrogant or miss-know-it-all as one mercenary would vehemently say with a thick amount of poison in her words. She even admitted to herself that it brought her satisfaction and a form of entertainment messing with others with how her power worked, but even then…

Even then she was afraid of being alone. She was afraid of having nobody to talk to.

All those weeks and days running away made her realize the depths of how her new 'personality' that she uses as a façade against others was merely just a justification to cover up all her flaws and issues.

A fact personally that she knew all parahumans possessed. Or at least the ones that she knew about and saw with her abilities in play.

It was strange how contradicting her own self was. It was strange why this whole world was messed up the way it was.

But it was a thing that she already grew accustomed to. A callous that especially those in Brockton Bay grew pretty used to. It was just a fact of life that was included as baggage when you get powers.

She sipped her glass of water again as she looked over her notes. Just a week ago their boss had planned a heist on some jewelry store downtown, but it was likely going to be postponed given all the shit that was happening around them, but she continued researching what she could not just with the heist but with the blackouts in general.

Even with her power being unusable as it was, she needed something to do even with the headaches. It kept her sane in some sense, to have something to work with despite all the pain.

The static or the emptiness left by her power being literally incognito this whole time was just too much of an adjustment to be completely rid of.

Strangely, however, despite the headaches being painful they were not as debilitating as the headaches that would render her unconscious many times before when her head processed too much information that it would overload her entirely.

No, this was specifically painful in the sense that it was progressive but not to the extent that it would render her inoperable for an extended period of time.

It was like a very itchy rash. It was painful and annoying as it would stick to you far longer than the maximum pain brought about by an injury. It would remain ever-present until the entire thing would go away as the extent of its stay passes.

And so far, that pain remained ever since the last vestiges of her power's useability faded away into nothingness.

"Hm." She hummed as she looked at her notes. She had theories of course but limited as she was, they would only remain as hypotheticals. There was only so much she could do with books 'borrowed' from the library or mere observations from anecdotes she had from the past that she kept or remembered.

Still, it was worrying that these events were corresponding to a climax of sorts.

A climax heading to where exactly?

"Lisa! I'm heading out." She heard a voice outside of her door as she groaned while sitting up from her bed. She hobbled with enough of a pace towards her destination as she opened her door and went down the stairs to see one of the members of her team preparing to leave.

Lisa felt her eyes squint in focus and confusion as she saw how well-groomed Brian was, he was even wearing a long-sleeved buttoned-up shirt as well as a tie of all things.

Plus, his normally cornrow-styled hair had a swift shimmer on them than normal.

The whole thing while attractive on paper just made her glare at him further.

"I thought we talked about this?" she said with a sour tone.

"Yeah, and I told you specifically that I don't really care," Brian said dismissively.

"But if you leave, I won't have access to my errand boy anymore." She complained as she rested both her arms and her head on the railing of the stairs. Brian huffed at her words as he waved her off.

"Lisa, you got Alec here if you need anything and didn't, we already agreed that I had to go today, because it's Aisha's stupid bring your parent to school day?"

"And you just had to accept, huh? Brian, you know very well that Alec is far too absent-minded to get me the things I need, right? Even Rachel's better than him and I don't trust her to do the groceries!"

"Hey! I resent that." A voice said from the couch near them as the sounds (surprisingly) of a video game were heard in the room.

"Lisa. I don't need this right now, I'm already late by a few minutes to pick her up. Her whole presentation starts in two hours." Brian said as he finished fixing his clothes.

"Damn it, Brian… aren't you the least bit empathetic at my current state?" she said innocently in a sarcastic manner as she saw him snicker.

"I'll buy you something when I get back Lisa. I promise." He said as she shook her head, albeit she was not as affected by the entire affair as she tried to be in reality. She even had a little grin to herself knowing that Brian was this focused on his little sister's life.

It brokered some emotions down the line as well as some memories that were normally kept at bay by her power when it was in full stride.

"Go get em' I suppose. You're probably better than ninety percent of all the parents there anyway."

"Yeah… yeah, goodbye Lisa." He said as he left.

A small smile graced her features as she slowly finished her trek down the stairs and toward their makeshift kitchen. She pulled out a cup of instant noodles to prepare for herself when she noticed that Rachel had just arrived with her dogs.

The girl suddenly stopped when they met eyes with each other as her three dogs in their normal forms panted with their tongues out. "Head still hurts?" she asked Lisa with barely any emotion present on her face.

"What do you think?" she replied as Rachel looked at her and saw her very unkempt-looking nature. Especially her normally tied hair which was as messy as it looked.

She grunted at her and left to her own devices as the steam from Lisa's noodles started to permeate the air. Her headache was still keeping her from focusing straight still, but the smell of her meal seemed to stave it off a bit.

Even if it was only superficial at most.

Slowly, she started to slurp and eat her meal as she looked at Alec trying to achieve a new high score in his little game. It was odd that he was able to get the entire rig to work given the power and tech issues, but she assumed that when it came to the things he liked he would find a way even if it was difficult at the onset. He was hyper-focused on it as usual but when the moment counted, he was as reliable as ever, especially on jobs.

The guy was simple in everything that he did, and she respected that despite all of his annoying flaws. Rachel on the other hand…

Lisa found her feeding her dogs with probably the money from their last job.

She never truly judged the girl too much based on her many quirks, chief amongst them being her inability to truly socialize, but Lisa understood why she was like that exactly.

It was already baggage that many unfortunate Parahumans went through and for Rachel, whatever was left of her current personality and self was what came out of the entire ordeal. Still, she was a very reliable team member when things got rough.

She was never the first choice, but the value she provided already surpassed most of what their team currently had in scenarios where they needed transportation, or straight-up muscle when things went south.

Of course, the girl was hellbent on taking in any strays or go break apart the dog-fighting rings that the city had on occasion, and as much as she and Brian tried to scold her about it, she was stubborn as hell on continuing it despite their disagreements.

But Rachel was loyal enough like the dogs that she kept on her leash and with the money to fund her endeavors she knew that she was the last person to rat on them should they go their separate ways. At that facet, Lisa knew she could count on her.

She hummed to those thoughts, comparing, and thinking about her teammates. The people that she stuck with for how many months already. At first, she assumed all of this would just amount to a temporary alliance of sorts that would end in just a few days or weeks…

Yet here they were. Still stuck to each other despite everything that's happened.

Despite the sort of incompatibility that Lisa saw with them at the start.

They were the motley bunch of friends that Lisa was hired to be part of at gunpoint.

And they were the motley bunch of friends that Lisa did not expect to tolerate this long.

It almost felt endearing.

"BLEAAAGHH!" a painfully disgusting sound said almost as if in response to her thoughts. She turned and saw that one of Rachel's dogs just puked a degree of stuff on their carpet that she was not going to try describing or remembering at all in any shape or form.

Lisa turned away with a groan as she slurped on her noodles.

Yeah, this was the people she was stuck with. Maybe it was fate perhaps.

Or maybe this was just a reflection of her own personality and how it attracted birds of the same feather? What did that mean for her specifically?

She was not sure of that question at all truthfully. The madness was just something that she just accepted the day she ran away from her former life entirely.

And in some way, she was happy and content for a bit, even if the danger of being shot and killed by an unknown paranoid boss was still lingering in the background. That was still something she was working on but with how hands-off and absent their boss had been lately…

She did manage to relax despite the headaches.

"Lisa." She heard Rachel say. She turned to her and raised an eyebrow.

"When is the next job?"

She stared at Rachel before massaging her temples again in annoyance. "He hasn't called me yet and with things being what they are I don't think he'll be calling anytime soon."

"Hm. Dog Food is about to run out." She said with finality and walked away to God knows where.

Lisa closed her eyes for a few moments as she tried to massage the sudden spike of pain in her head which grew out of nowhere until she opened her eyes again and saw something peculiar.

There was a cockroach on her currently empty cup. Its eyes bore into Lisa's own as if it had the cognition to understand what she was feeling.

Lisa did not find it too alarming at first, but the way the insect seemed to focus so intently on her eventually made her feel suspicious…

And way all of the sudden.

She gazed at the small creature for a few seconds as she tried to reach the closest object near her to swat it away and kill it until a loud annoyed grunt was heard in the air.

"OH, COME ON! I WAS SO CLOSE!"

Lisa sputtered out of her current disposition as she saw Alec and his rig now becoming static before turning off completely. Lisa remained quiet as she returned her gaze at the cockroach which was now skittering away.

She immediately grabbed at her slipper and tried to smack it with her arm already raised when the lights within their little lair flickered consistently in an eerie manner before stabilizing again.

Lisa blinked at what just happened as the pain in her head subsided somewhat. The headache was still there but the spike of pain from earlier had vanished by a bit.

"Tats? Hellooo?"

She turned her head towards Alec who was sporting a major frown on his face. "W-What?"

"Fucking TV's out. I thought you said this was going to be a temporary thing."

"I didn't. I said this was happening around the world and nobody knows what's going on."

"Then when am I going to get my TV and games back?"

Lisa ignored his oddly heated rambles as she looked around their compound. The lights while stabilized were emitting their charge far lower than their usual output and as she walked slowly to get to the outside…

She looked towards the sky and saw the near absence of clouds against the sun as she felt a stiff, almost hollow breeze go through her.

The entire setting just felt off for some reason as she tried to understand why she was feeling that way.

Suddenly, the sound of a pair of insectoid wings flew by near her face and Lisa almost reckoned that it was the same cockroach from earlier. She could not tell of course, but there was this gut feeling that made her feel the goosebumps running up her spine.

Lisa never believed in a sixth sense, especially with her power being used most of the time.

But there was something different with the way she was feeling and as she stared towards the heavens with that certain chill clinging to her entire form…

She could not help but feel that this was leading up to something big.

Something disastrous.

Someone was screaming.

She could feel her entire body being woken up bit by bit from its former numbness. Her vision was still dark, and her sense of touch was still trying to recover from its sleep. Her ears were ringing by a small margin as they tried to stabilize back to normality. The warped sounds against the subtle ringing made her wonder what was going on.

Her memory was still fuzzy. Her thoughts swayed like that of a pendulum as a small lace of pain permeated in the background. Even her sense of taste was dull for a moment when each of her primary senses was seemingly booting back up online.

Yet beyond it all, Lisa felt as if something was amiss.

That something was-

"TATS! WAKE THE HELL UP!"

SLAP!

Pain emerged from the side of her face as Lisa's entire body was jolted further into consciousness. Her once blurry eyes were clearing shortly as she was left face to face with Regent who had a very alarmed look on his face. Worse, she felt her entire body being crawled over by various…

"W-WHAT THE FUCK?"

There were insects and vermin that skittered around them like water rushing against a stream. She immediately panicked, so much so that she and Alec accidentally slammed their heads against each other.

"Damn it why'd you do that?" she heard him say as against her panic and judgment she was still in horror at what she was seeing and experiencing. Her eyes immediately widened as she stood up and tried to swat all of the creatures away but to only find it a vain attempt because they were simply everywhere.

From their ceiling, their walls, and all the spaces of their entire lair, they were all crawling. Even the smell of the air was repugnant with this excess of vile earthy quality that came from the sickliest of soils. It was loud too. The buzzing, the frenetic skittering and just the sheer intimidating factor of seeing the number of vermin from all walks of life move around them at such a volume and speed was just overwhelming on every front that their bodies could perceive.

Lisa felt herself hold both sides of her head as she took a step back at the madness that was taking place. Even Alec, as uninterested as he was at many things was panicking at the sheer absurdity of what was happening as he swatted and tried to stave the insects away in a demented-looking dance.

"Tats! Do you have anything on what's going on?!" Alec shouted as a beetle flew into his mouth as he gagged. Lisa swatted a group of dragonflies buzzing around her face as she tried to look around, hoping that her power would tell her anything.

Only to come with a literal blank against the seething pain that still lingered in the background.

"I-I got nothing… w-what the hell happened?" She shouted as she saw that Alec's own rig was now flooding with all of the bugs as if they spontaneously appeared within its bowels.

"I don't know! You blacked out as soon as this shit happened. I had to pick you up so that you weren't drowned minutes ago." He said as he kicked off a conglomerated mess of ants and millipedes that were climbing up his legs.

"You mean there was a lot more earlier?" she cried out as she saw him nod.

Lisa gawked at the madness as the noisy and nightmarish landscape was starting to sink in. This was happening. This was occurring right now and with how severe it was, Lisa could only wonder what was happening in the world outside.

"Where's Rachel?!"

She then heard an angry and furious scream as she saw the girl, holding a broom trying to smash and bash away the insects near their pseudo-living room. The amount of fury and desperation in her tone shocked Lisa at an untold amount as the fear and panic started to further increase within her.

Despite the buzz of pain in her head, she ran up the stairs toward her room as quickly as possible. She slammed open the door and saw the state of her room. The disrepair and utter chaos from all the bugs coming out of everywhere just made her want to jump away in fear, but she shoved those away as she nearly lunged toward her drawer and pulled out a few items that were important to her.

Chief amongst them was the small handgun that she kept under her drawers.

She placed the gun at the back of her pants and quickly grabbed the notebook that her notes earlier in quick succession. Lisa then ran downstairs as fast as her legs could carry her as she saw Rachel still going at it with all the fury her now hoarse throat was giving to her.

Lisa then turned towards Alec who was doing his best to try and save what food there was left in their equally affected fridge. She ran to him and grabbed him both by the sides.

"We need to leave, NOW!" she shouted.

"But what about Brian?"

"Whatever's happening is happening everywhere! Brian would know where to go if the PRT and Protectorate are mobilized." She then grabbed the last rack of soda from their fridge and shoved it into his arms to satiate him. "We need to stop her from doing all of that so we can leave."

"Uh, Tats…"

"What?!"

"We don't have a ride out of here," Alec told her with a serious expression on his face.

"What do you mean?" she replied until she took a step back and nearly slid towards the floor only to be caught by Alec just in time. Lisa against the chaos looked confused at first until she saw her barefoot now covered in a strange, almost tar-like black liquid dripping down her heel as her eyes focused on something on the floor that made her freeze in fear.

Against the plethora of insects walking and emerging from it, Lisa saw it clear as day…

A body was lying on the floor. Its skin was almost entirely gone as sickly, nearly purplish-looking rotten flesh was visible in full clarity. Black oozing liquid much to Lisa's horror and realization was the blood of the now deceased body that was starting to seep onto the floor.

Insects emerged and crawled around their entire bulk like cursed abominations emerging from the flesh and carcass of a once healthy, living being. There were many things strewn as well near its bare, exposed belly section that Lisa could no longer see or describe in full detail due to its vile nature.

And the smell…

So that's why the air was so thick and repugnant.

Lisa, having seen enough, grabbed Alec's shoulders to climb up back to stability and lunged towards their currently infested sink. She then purged the contents of her stomach as the vermin there seemingly reviled in the act Lisa wiped her mouth and turned away, not wanting to further relish the horrid things she saw.

"I told you," Alec said in a low tone as they both saw Rachel slowing down with her rampage Lisa finally noticed three or four more bodies lying inside their lair. The girl had her eyes red and wet against her heated emotions as Lisa's will and determination managed to scrape themselves back up from the brink.

She ran towards Rachel and grabbed her arm much to the girl's groan of protest as Alec followed behind.

"We need to LEAVE!" she shouted as they all ran to the door only to stop short when said door was violently kicked open, revealing a heaving and panting Brian holding a young girl in his arms.

"Brian?" Lisa said in shock as her rather large friend nearly shoved them inside in his panic as he threw the contents of their infested table to the ground and placed what Lisa assumed to be his sister.

"Brian! Why are you here? Why did you bring your sister, can't you see-

"There's nowhere to go Lisa! It's chaos outside. Me and Aisha barely got out of the frenzy when everyone started running and nearly kill each other down the streets."

"But the Protectorate… the heroes, hell, the villains should be out and about getting everyone to safety per the Endbringer Truce," Alec added.

"I just got there damn it! Even the police are disorganized! Everything's turned to shit and there's no phones, no communications, no cars… no nothing! Everyone's panicking and with the mass confusion outside nobody's doing anything to stop or calm things down."

"There's nothing?" Lisa said as she looked through their open doorway and saw that whatever was happening inside their lair was much worse outside.

"Nothing as far as I know. I haven't seen anyone outside of Lung who's rampaging in the streets out of the bugs attacking him or something." Brian said as he nursed his unconscious little sister who sported a few bruised and scratches on her face.

Brian looked worse for wear too with how his neat look from earlier that day was now in shambles.

The feeling of hopelessness started to envelop them all as Lisa saw her companions starting to crumble from all the pressure and terror they were experiencing.

"Brian, we still need to go."

"Go where Lisa? I haven't heard from anyone outside; I don't think anyone's organized to do anything." He said in frustration as he held his sister's hand.

"Somewhere, anywhere damn it! We can't just stay here we don't even know if this'll end." She said with both arms outstretched out of terror and desperation.

"Is it an Endbringer? Why isn't anyone doing anything?" Alec interrupted again as he looked outside as the loud cacophony of noises rang through their ears.

"I don't know. They all just appeared out of nowhere. W-we… I was going to lead her home, but we were suddenly jumped by these things and then suddenly everything turned bad. O-Our place was the nearest one we could go to, and I don't want to risk going to a hospital under these conditions." Brian said as he tried to shake Aisha back to consciousness.

Lisa was about to say something when the ground around them shook.

Significantly.

Then a loud groan was heard when one of the metal beams above them failed and broke off. Brian pulled his sister away into his arms as Lisa and the rest moved away and landed on the floor as the beam finally crashed into the ground with a loud booming sound.

Accompanying it were pieces of the roof clanging next to it in a loud symphony of rings.

Smoke and dust filled the entire area of their vision as Lisa quickly sat up and motioned Alec next to her to wake. She started coughing as a ray of light from the outside shined down on them while the sound of the many vermin around them grew louder like a torrent of rain in the hardest of storms.

Rachel also stood up and walked to them as Lisa saw Brian holding his sister in a bridal carry in his arms. Lisa saw the grim look on their faces as they all nodded in agreement without words on what needed to be done.

Moments later, they ran closely together outside as Lisa took in the chaos that was attacking Brockton Bay in full force. Biblical waves of insects flew over them like a heavy set of clouds that were building up to something as they slowly but surely with the pace they could muster navigate against the seemingly endless chaos.

There were screams everywhere and sounds of various things that Lisa did not wish to know the implications of as they tried desperately to wade through the deluge to find safety…

If there ever was a thing anymore.

But as soon as they were about to round against a corner into a new street, Lisa did not notice that a person had completely blocked her path until something hard was slammed into her head.

She blacked out more quickly than she could even perceive as the noises of her teammates shouting against the background turned into a warped sort of quality while she inevitably faded away into unconsciousness.

…

-1:28:14

"AISHA!" a voice cried out as Lisa felt a splash of water hit her face. She sputtered quickly into consciousness as the voices around her turned frantic, almost furious.

"You fucking touch her again I'll bea sure to kill-

There was a loud smack as her eyes slowly adjusted from their previous blurriness. As soon as they cleared up Lisa's own fear grew thrice as more when she saw who accosted she and her teammates were.

With the gun trained on her head and with the rest of her companions on the floor in front of her, she already dreaded forgetting temporarily about his existence.

"-you promised me that if I get you results, I would be able to cash in that favor and I guarantee you, I will get you your results." An incessant voice said to break the gloomy silence against the sounds of insects crawling around them.

Lisa felt herself gulp. Her boss was never this heated up or angry in the whole time she knew him. Even on the phone of all things when she failed to get him what he needed. The fact that his angry tone and the way she kept hearing his footsteps in the background brokered a sense of fear within her, knowing that he was becoming steadily unhinged.

"-I don't care if I have to be indebted by another favor from you people. I need your promise that once I give you what you want, you will gladly displace me to who knows where it benefits you." She heard Coil say without full context as the number of steps she was hearing was increasing as his voice seemed to rise up with each annoyance, anger, and frustration that was building up to something.

"-I'm begging you to give me asylum and I'll do everything you want after everything's said and done! What MORE do you Need of Me?!"

There was a loud hiss of anger as Lisa felt herself straighten up. There were some words she could not make out but the sudden subtle sound of the tinker-tech phone either losing its signal or the call being divorced from its source forced him to stop walking in circles.

"DAMN IT!" A loud scream was heard as the skittering sound of the insects around them only increased the sense of dread they were all feeling as if they were relishing her boss' excess of emotions.

Lisa looked around her as she took in the scene fully. They were in a rundown building, she guessed that this could be near one of the abandoned parts of the docks or somewhere near the ABB-infested portions of the city, but she could not tell. She looked up and she saw that there was literally no roof over their heads as it was exposed wholly to the outside world…

Yet it was dark. A permeating shadow was cast over them as if a conglomerated thicket of storm clouds were gathered by an upcoming storm. But instead of clouds, there were just insects.

Waves upon waves of vermin in their untold, almost endless number of bodies flying over them like a signal of the apocalypse.

The fact that it cast a shadow at all just made the feelings of misery and hopelessness latch onto their hearts in full stride.

It did not help that a group of at least ten or twelve men in full combat gear despite the state of disarray they were in had their guns trained on each of them. Even Aisha…

Much to Lisa's shock because she was now cognizant and being restrained by two men holding a pistol toward the side of her face. The girl's tears were present on her face as Brian, looking bruised and battered on the floor was focusing on his sister entirely despite the state he was in.

Worse, Rachel was on the floor bloodied as a scar now ran between her eyes where her nose was. She was tied unlike the rest of them and based on how immensely bruised that bordered on a purplish color, she was the most vehement in trying to fight back for her freedom.

"Tattletale. I thought I ordered you last to lay low for a while." A voice cut through the silence as Lisa felt a hand forcibly hold her head to look upwards at the speaker. The action in itself was so forceful that she felt as if she had suffered a minor case of whiplash.

She then saw the familiar mask of the mysterious boss that hired her at gunpoint. She wanted to sneer at him if she was not feeling immensely scared at that very moment. Yet, even with the familiarity aside, there was just something different with him.

The air and the way how the small facial features coming through his mask harkened a body language that suggested the man was in immense pain based on how much his eyes seemed to focus on her and how his voice and demeanor were a little more extreme than usual.

"I thought… I told you that you and your team were to follow my words to the letter in scenarios like this. Yet even something as simple as making them stay put, you failed to even get them to obey?"

Lisa was taken aback by how intense Coil was being. How desperate he was now sounding.

A heavy slap across the face was administered to her as the buzzing pain in her head seemed to flare quite a lot more to the action as Lisa felt Coil's hands forcibly grip her hair.

"It matters not I suppose. My… benefactors need my assistance and you will play ball so that you and I, perhaps even your pretty little friends get to be spared from all of this." Lisa felt confused as to what he meant so he let go of her completely. "Turn her around, please." She heard him say as the two hired guns beside her moved her entire body to face the other direction completely.

They dropped her back to the floor as Lisa nearly felt herself move back at what she was being presented with. There, besides where Coil was, was an open batch of windows that revealed the current state of Brockton, or at least part of it to her eyes in full.

Smoke was bellowing across the city, an untold number of fires and desecration built off by the panic and chaos wrought by the deluge of insects, and the gravity of the entire thing finally fully sunk in for Lisa. The noise, muffled a bit by the building they were currently in was enough to tell her what was going on beyond the visual horror of it all…

And what made the entire premise a lot more shocking and terrifying was the fact that the biblical-sized exodus of the vermin that she saw high into the skies was converging somewhere.

They were all going in a direction that pointed toward a source. A source that was accumulating it all for unknown reasons that already made her wish this was all a nightmare.

A nightmare that she was incapable of waking up of.

"Tattletale. I need your perspective on what we're seeing." She heard Coil say as the buzzing in her head started to flare up again, nobody started to notice that the insects were not as aggressive to them as they were on the outside…

No, they seemed to be watching the entire scene playing out.

"B-Boss. I… don't know what you want out of me," she admitted.

She then saw Coil massage his temples in frustration as his knuckles started to form into fists. He looked so irritated, so in pain, as he angrily walked towards her and grabbed her chin.

"I need your perspective, Tattletale. What that little mind of yours that I have found use on so many occasions that devised needing of investigation. I need information on what this is all leading up to. It's as simple as that." He said to her with such intensity she feared he was going to scream in her face. He then forcibly let go of her as Lisa looked at him.

"I… I don't know. M-My powers aren't working." She said, scared with each word that came out of her mouth. "T-They've been gone this morning a-after the recent blackou-

A loud smack towards her abdomen was made as the mercenary beside her kicked her there. She nearly spat out what little was left in her stomach as well as losing her breath in the process at that one action as Coil stood over her.

"Tattletale, haven't we gotten through with this already? Lying isn't going to help your case any further and you know well that it's pointless resisting this far." He said to her with his tone rising with each syllable. The sheer annoyance and frustration in his voice made everyone, even the mercenaries that were watching look on in with some mild disturbance. "I need your assistance with this, and if you can't even make use of your little head then what do you think am I going to do to you once I decide you're no longer of use to me?"

Lisa looked at him and despite all the pain she just found his threats insulting.

She spat on his face in anger as it landed on his mask.

"F-Fuck you. Even if I had my powers what fucking makes you think I'm omniscient?!"

She was slapped across the face again, harder this time as she groaned from the impact. Lisa was about to say something again until Coil wiped off his mask and gestured towards the nearest mercenary to hand him a gun. That gun was now inches away from her face.

Lisa instantly quieted at what that all possibly meant, but she kept a defiant, glaring face towards him.

"I'm going to level with you, Tattletale. You see that?" he gestured with the gun towards the window. "Whatever's happening is causing even the heroes… and Triumvirate themselves to run around like headless chickens due to all of the panic and fear. Whatever's happening in the Bay, it's all just a prelude to something, and that something is going to cause death on such a massive scale that Earth Bet may as well be gone."

Lisa found herself turning her eyes toward the chaos outside. She then turned to Coil and saw him massaging his temples again. "You see, my power hasn't been working well for more than a day at this point and it was already having a few issues even earlier than that… and last night I just had a dream. Perhaps a premonition of sorts… it all entailed just fire and brimstone on a scale nobody would truly comprehend."

Lisa found herself balking at his words. "Today when all of this happened, I started to connect the dots. I started to realize that even with my power not functioning as it was, my small pathetic little dream brought forth by the incessant pain in my head was not just my imagination playing tricks on me."

He then stood up and looked at her. "And now… seeing it all play before us, I needed a way out. A means to escape due to the limitations posed by this calamity and the one thing keeping us from salvation is the necessary information that the people I owe need to absolve and fix this mess."

He then turned towards the window. "If it even can be fixed at all."

"B-But I can't help you. I-I'm in the same boat," she admitted.

"Tattletale… is that truly what you wish to say to me?" he said, his voice now neutral as he walked towards her close enough for her to see his gun again.

"I'm telling you the truth, my power isn't-

A gunshot rang in the air. A thud was heard after as a pool of blood now flooded the floor. The entire area was now just filled with the sounds of the skittering insects washing in the background as Lisa turned her head towards her companions.

Rachel, who was grieving rather furiously earlier about what happened to her dogs, was now unmoving against the floor as the pool of blood near her head started to expand slowly. Lisa felt herself freeze at that moment, as well as the rest of her companions Brian, Alec, and Aisha watched in shock and horror over what had just occurred.

Lisa turned towards Coil and saw the last vestiges of smoke from his gun leave the barrel.

"Do you care to be defiant still now?"

"W-What did you just do?" she asked, surprised at the tone of her voice. Surprised how much she had cared at that current moment for Rachel's death. "W-Why? Why did you-

"Tattletale. Bring me results… I've studied you for a long time, and if anyone can make up information that matters, it's you." He punctuated as the amount of irrationality and desperation in Coil now started to burn a fire within her soul even against the fear.

Seeing that she was still not doing what he wanted, he moved his gun to point it at another.

"We can make this a lot easier you know."

"Tats…" she heard Regent, no, Alec say as Lisa looked at Coil in desperation.

"I don't know! My power isn't working the same as you. I-I can't do what you want out of me, I'm as useless as-

Another gunshot, accompanied by the loud screams of Aisha who was now in tears as well as Brian who was now trying to free himself from the mercenaries echoed in Lisa's head as she heard and saw the thud of Alec's body land on the floor.

Aisha was sobbing hard as she cursed and tried to free herself from the hold of the mercenary in charge of her. Brian kicked and screamed before being smacked in the back of the head by a tinker-tech rifle as he was momentarily silenced from the fear and desperation permeating around them.

"Why? W-Why the hell did you do that?" Lisa managed as she felt a tear roll down her cheek.

"I'm surprised you cared. You never once spoke of your teammates in the Undersiders as friends. The fact that you're this affected screams the confirmation of that I suppose." He said as he walked over towards Aisha much to her and Brian's horror as Lisa felt another kick towards her chest.

"No! Aisha, you son of a bitch, if anything happens to her, I'll kill you!" Brian screamed against the pain as the younger girl was now being pressed with a gun against her head while she cried.

"Brian… H-help me-

The sobs were now rising to the full pitch as Lisa watched in horror as memories of her own past returned to her. Aisha screamed with her hand reaching out to her brother as Brian did the same.

Lisa started shaking as the sadness of all those memories came back in full force.

She had to do something… she had to stop this all from happening again to another person as she saw Coil slowly putting his finger on the trigger.

"STOP! Please for God's sake, stop!" she screamed as Coil turned to her.

"Are you going to be cooperative now?" the man said as Brian and Aisha continued to scream.

"I'll do anything you want… please just let them go or keep them alive, I don't care!"

"Is that so?" he said as he removed the gun from the younger girl's head.

"Yes… yes! Just please let them live. I beg you."

Coil now started to walk towards Lisa, much to the relief and comfort of Brian and Aisha as the two sobbed in unison. Brian continued to console his sister as the mercenaries still trained their guns on both of them.

"Tell me what I need then, so that we can all finally leave in peace."

"I…" she looked at the window, the buzzing in her head still present, and despite her efforts she still came out blank. Yet she failed to notice that the insects or the world outside had quieted down and even the insects inside the building they were in had stopped and stood still.

She looked back at Coil in her helpless state as she saw him visibly frown underneath the mask.

"I'm disappointed."

Lisa tried to scream but it was too late. What remained against the silence was the loud cries and sobs of Aisha as the memory of Sarah Livsey sobbed quietly against the tombstone of her brother's remains. Lisa could only watch in silence with a partially opened mouth due to the shock as numbness seemed to seep into her form.

The entire affair was so appalling that even the mercenaries were quite shocked at the amount of irrationality and lack of mercy their boss had, especially with what seemed like the apocalypse happening around them. None would dare to say anything of course as they continued to watch while the little girl in one of their arms continued to cry her heart out.

"Get the bodies out and keep that gun on the little girl, Tattletale will break eventually, and we still have time to convince my contacts to get us out." Lisa heard Coil say as she stared at the bodies of her companions on the floor.

She heard footsteps coming up behind her and she felt herself give up being as helpless and hopeless as she could feel at that very moment. There was just simply no point anymore.

No point at all in fighting back, and if Coil finally realized that she was not lying, she would be next in taking that bullet to the skull.

But before that could happen, everything around them had begun to sing.

"aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. ~"

A low, eerie cry was heard as it echoed not just in the building they were in, but in every inch of the city. Lisa perked up as well as the rest of Coil and his mercenaries at the sudden cries in the air as every insect sang their melody.

Then a great shadow loomed over them all.

It was now nearly dark as night. The sky was no longer visible to their eyes…

And what emerged over the horizon much to the gaping shock and awe of every person in the city suddenly appeared to wake from its ethereal slumber.

Lisa was at a loss for words. Everyone was, to the point that nobody even noticed that Aisha had gone missing from the whole debacle.

But the stunned silence from the ironically awe-inspiring sight was replaced by a loud roar into existence.

OOOWOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHH!

Everyone's ears rang.

Everyone held their heads from the intensity of the sound as their sense of hearing vanished against the loud endless tone of the ringing.

Lisa could not even focus her eyes as she tried to relinquish her equilibrium…

Only to feel her sense of gravity being violated when the sensation of falling was felt.

It happened so fast. So… inordinately fast as she slid against the floor in a free fall before grabbing onto a beam with both her arms. She felt her mouth screaming despite the ringing in her ears as she saw the mercenaries try desperately to cling to anything they could muster as the exposed rood of the building they were in was torn away bit by bit by the force pulling them down to fall.

Lisa felt herself losing her grip as an arm clung to her foot. She looked and saw Coil, still holding his gun trying to grab onto her as she finally lost her hold on the beam.

They both cascaded downwards near the window as the sensation of falling dragged and took away most of the mercenaries, helpless as they were above them. The entire building was now losing all its walls and foundations as Lisa felt her back crash against the still intact wall near the window.

She then turned much to her alarm against Coil who was still holding his gun as she lunged at him.

Trying to take control of the weapon as she glared and screamed at him despite the ringing. They clashed as they tried to relinquish the hold of the gun by their chest areas as their arms tried to vie for supremacy until she saw Coil force his finger to pull the trigger.

Lisa could never hear the sound of gunshots.

She only felt three separate feelings of pain on her chest and body as she grabbed both of Coil's shoulders and with what strength she had left, she forced him through the window…

The last that she saw of him was his entire form trying to reach out to her in vain as he fell against a maw that he would forever fall to.

Lisa clung towards the edge of the window as she pushed herself far enough towards the side as she lay there seeing the world crumble around her.

The ringing was still there as she felt the pain in her chest festers.

She hoped Aisha had gotten out. She hoped the girl had escaped.

There was… nothing she could do nor think any more of how she was helpless in preventing all of the events that transpired up to that current point.

Was this what it was? To see your life flash before you in your final moments?

She sighed heavily as she found herself slowly relaxing against the wall that she knew in mere moments would be swept away as well towards the end.

She wondered where Aisha was again. It was painful being reminded of her brother with that interaction earlier. It was painful seeing such a sight again albeit differently this time when compared to her situation.

Still, she once again hoped that the girl escaped, that she could run away fast enough to never be swept by the world ending around her.

Maybe thinking about her being successful would calm her down about what came next.

Maybe that could only be the final satisfaction she would have for an otherwise shitty excuse for a life. Maybe she was never meant for anything after she ran away.

Sarah tried to muster a smile at the reality of how her life would end.

She wondered if Reggie would be happy for her.

She wondered if her brother would even care about what path she took in life.

She wondered if her terrible parents would even glance at her final fate.

"Maybe not." She muttered as she felt the building groan around her.

Sarah was scared of course. She was scared of being alone again in the darkness. Of having no one to talk to or confide to. She wishes the afterlife was real…

And she wishes, maybe… just maybe Reggie was there to see her.

Because she did not know what she would do should the lights come out…

And for nothing to embrace her forever.

"That was a waste." She heard a voice say much to her shock as she blinked.

There was a face greeting her as the last parts of the building around her had vanished into the void. It was a face she did not recognize, but the way how that impression on their very prominent frown displayed made the slow process of death to her fear all the more frightening.

"But you and nearly everyone else in this world have already plotted their epilogues… and yours, I'm afraid was as tragically insignificant as the rest."

Sarah did not understand what the face was telling her.

"A pity, in another world we could have become acquaintances, but fate it seems has better plans for both of us." They said, almost with genuine sincerity in their words, or perhaps it was all a lie.

She could not tell as she blinked after, and they were gone.

Sarah sighed one last time and thought to herself…

At least I killed the one holding my chains.

-1:04:53

AN: Yay, this was finished. Now onto the next one, and like I said we are 2-3 chapters left before we leave Brockton permanently after it goes down Mothman's stomach.

Yes, any thinkers near the site of the "rebirth" where Oberon appears have different interactions with how their heads parse the incoming information of what is to come. To most, it's only static and just the absence of data, but to anyone close enough to the epicenter it's just a weird batch of varied effects that to Coil in this case, were nightmares that turned him insane and irrational.

Yes, Aisha survives. We will get a brief PRT POV next chapter to see it happen… though I will add that while it's technically a villain POV, the events there will be in the 1st person perspective of Oberon!Taylor.