(Author's Note: This was originally going to be the preamble for the next chapter. Unfortunately, I had another difficult week and the next chapter proved to be more demanding than I anticipated. As such I'm posting this as another half-chapter, hopefully getting back to full length work next week.)

68.2 Interlude Alec

Alec stood in the corner of the hideout's kitchen watching the rest of the team. He was doing a lot of that recently, ever since that night at the storage yard. Initially he assumed it was basic self-preservation. He knew he was on everyone's shit list, blamed for letting Bakuda get away, for screwing up his job. It was only natural to watch the rest of the team to gauge which way the wind was blowing. To figure out what the repercussions were going to be. Whether it was something he could ride out, or if he should start packing. Or worse, if he needed to be ready to run without notice, to dodge a more serious reaction.

That was the kind of thought he was used to. From his experience, after a mistake of that level he would have been ready to cut and run at a moment's notice. There would always be some punishment, some consequence to make it known that failure, particularly personal failure, was never acceptable. He'd seen enough people made examples of to know what to expect, and to drive him to avoid the same fate.

Not avoid failure. That just wasn't possible. Things went wrong and there was no way to control every factor. But he had at least learned to avoid being the target of the blame. To be able to frame things so the repercussions came down on anyone but himself. Throwing his family members under the bus to save his own hide. Just like they would do to him. It wasn't a matter of right or wrong, just a question of who could control the narrative that made it to their father.

That kind of mentality, the paranoia and backstabbing, it wasn't necessary here. If there were going to be any violent repercussions they would have happened on the night in question, not after things had cooled down. Brian might still want to lay him out for ruining everything, but without the excuse of being caught up in the heat of the moment it wasn't going to happen. He wasn't the kind of person who could make that kind of decision from a place of cool detachment. It would clash with the image of the kind of person he wanted to be.

The only other person who might have gone for a violent retaliation was currently sharing the kitchen with him, showing him the cool indifference that had characterized their working relationship since the team had formed. Rachel was digging into the fridge while the floating screen of her watch scrolled through a seemingly random assortment of twitter posts. She was mostly ignoring it until a picture or video of a dog showed up, occasionally causing her to issue a like or retweet.

"Hey?" He said. She glanced towards him and he inclined his head towards where Brian, Lisa, and Taylor were milling around in the living room. "Are you okay with how that went down?"

She gave him a look of mild irritation, but by Bitch's standards that was practically a smile, especially compared to how she'd been acting immediately after his screwup at the storage yard.

"Why wouldn't I be?" She shot back. "It's a good deal. Everyone agreed."

That was a bit of a generous take on how things had played out. Lisa's presentation of the boss's offer had indeed seen universal acceptance, but it wasn't the ringing endorsement Rachel made it seem. Brian had clearly been briefed in advance and wasn't even trying to hide the fact that he was onboard for Lisa's sales pitch. Taylor had nodded her way through the whole thing without much comment, really only focusing when future plans for the team came up, and Rachel honestly didn't seem to care. As for himself, he knew better than to be the sore thumb in the arrangement. That barely would have worked if everyone was being honest with them.

Which was the main concern here, the main concern with the entire mess of their situation and something he had been counting on Rachel to point out. Unfortunately, she seemed perfectly content, even more so that she usually would about a decision of this level. He dropped his voice and turned away from the rest of the group, though with Lisa it was doubtful whether it would actually do any good.

He glanced at the living room again where Lisa, Brian, and Taylor were chatting over the coffee table. He turned back towards Rachel and dropped his voice further. "You know they're not being straight with us, right?" He said quietly.

"Yeah." She said without looking up from the fridge.

Alec blinked. "You don't care about that?"

The girl scoffed slightly. "Nobody's ever straight with me." She paused briefly and glanced down at her watch. For a second she looked almost contemplative, then shrugged and turned back to finish digging out soda and leftover pizza from the fridge. "The deal was good. No reason not to go along with it." She said as she let the door swing shut.

Alec let out a breath as he reflected on 'the deal'. He really wondered if Rachel had bothered to look past the money. Well, the bonus for their performance at Somer's Rock, and it was certainly generous. Not on the level of what they would have gotten from the payout from Kaiser if they didn't need to cover for Rachel's little crusade, but enough to be a pleasant distraction.

Fifty thousand dollars, each. Ten thousand in cash, with the rest in the accounts set up for them following the bank job. It was enough to take the sting off the team's issues with Rachel's behavior while also dealing with whatever issues Rachel had about them not doing conventional jobs anymore. It probably also addressed any problems she had with moving from a four-part to a five-part split when Taylor joined.

But it was clearly a distraction. Money flashed in their faces, partially to show that they were still valued by the boss, but mostly to show that the boss had that kind of cash to throw around. It distracted them from upcoming problems, like the gang conflicts, the Teeth looking to start shit, and the fact that Bakuda was still out there, taunting the PRT about her hostages.

Bakuda. He felt his blood briefly rise as he remembered that gas masked face, the light of the flames reflecting in her lenses as that electronic laugh echoed around the tiny room.

He immediately clamped down on that feeling before it could show. He didn't like feeling that way. He didn't like feeling, period, not on the level he'd been since last Saturday night. It was like he was back home, trying to figure out how to function while defending himself on all sides. Before he had his powers, before he could handle things better, before he learned how to endure. That time had seemed so long ago, so distant that it was like looking at a different person. A week ago, he could barely have seen the connection. Now he was suddenly living that life again and he did not like it.

If Rachel picked up any part of his reaction she didn't show it. He took a breath and pressed on. "You're not worried about how this is going to play out?" He asked. "The kind of work that's going to be dumped on us? What we're going to be asked to do?"

Again, she shrugged. "Everyone's going after the Teeth. It's not like helping with that is a big deal." Except they weren't helping in any coordinated manner. There was no alliance of villains, no coalition amongst the local powers. From the sound of things, they were ready to be used as a strike team. For some reason Alec couldn't help but think it was less about speedily resolving the situation and more about tipping the balance in whatever way the boss wanted. About laying the groundwork for what came next.

"What about the stuff after that?" He prodded.

Once again it didn't seem to bother her. "Grue made good points. The city's going to be different. We need to find our place in it. There's no reason not to hear out Lisa's boss, especially if he's going to keep paying like that."

"That's the thing." Alec said quietly. "People who pay like that, they can get difficult if you try to turn them down. It's not going to be as simple as Lisa made it sound."

Alec had never given much thought to the boss before. The man was just a stable source of money and a way to deal with the little inconveniences, like getting cable hooked up to an abandoned building. Things were fine when there was distance to the relationship and Alec was three steps removed from whatever chess bullshit Lisa was pulling.

That was before the storage yard. Looking back, the fact that their showing at the bank hadn't drawn any concerns from their employer should have been a red flag. After the storage yard, after what they had done, and what had been done to them, the kind of publicity they had gotten, that should have been Defcon 1. At the very least it should have drawn out some kind of emergency meeting. It would have, if they were actually just a smash and grab gang like had been pitched when he joined.

No, everything he was picking up from the relationship said 'potential crime lord'. Normally he would be alright with that, but this wasn't a normal situation, not for Alec and not for the city. Alec knew his mind was working differently. Joe basically confirmed it himself. It was harder to ignore things, more difficult to put aside details and sink back into that comfortable irreverence that had let him weather his family for so long. Now that he'd been 'fixed' that wasn't a possibility anymore. He was worried about their situation. Not just HIS situation but all of their situations, and the state of the city only made that more concerning.

It was one thing to be a pawn in a power struggle between gangs. It sounded bad, but was actually a fairly workable arrangement. You had to make sure you didn't get sacrificed, but if you pick your side well you could basically coast with a larger organization taking care of everything. That was assuming you were in a situation where the criminal underworld was either stable or stabilizing. It had been specifically pointed out at the summit; Brockton Bay wasn't exactly the most tempting target. Despite that, the boss was apparently still willing to move forward. Most concerningly, the man was willing to do so even with Joe and his entire team waiting in the wings. Even with, or possibly because of their connection to Apeiron. That suggested either moronic overconfidence or a terrifying level of power and resources. Or, in the most concerning possibility, a combination of both.

"He's not going to be happy if we decide to walk away after we finally meet him." Alec continued. "If secrecy is this important to him he's not going to be willing to cut ties after he's exposed himself."

Once again, Rachel shrugged. "Then we talk to Joe." She said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"What?" He asked. "Just fall back on Apeiron?" It wasn't the worst idea in the world, but it was assuming a lot. Mostly that Joe would be willing to bail them out, and that the rest of his team would be willing to go along with it.

Dealing with Joe was already a harrowing experience. When you were actually with the guy it was easy to forget what you were dealing with. It was either a case of masterful acting or a genuinely disarming personality that just didn't come out in costume. You could talk with him in that easy going manner and forget that you were sharing a room with a walking weapon of mass destruction. If Joe was tricky to deal with then the arrival of that team made things a thousand times worse.

Nobody knew anything about them. Even after a day of rest Tattletale was still mostly in the dark, only able to provide PRT assessments and vague connection to Joe's previous appearances. And, of course, the possibility of just asking Joe what was going on was deferred until Lisa had completed all of her research and scheming. Until then there was no guarantee that the rest of the team would be anywhere as accommodating as Joe had been.

Relying on Joe for a bailout with their boss would also mean throwing Joe against someone who was presumably competent, or at least competent enough to acquire some level of money and power in the cape world, and still thought making a play in a city with the Celestial Forge was a solid plan. Once again, either stupid or dangerous, and stupid didn't last long in this business. There wasn't really any concern that Joe would lose in direct confrontation. No, the concern was whether Joe would step in, how quickly he would move, and how much damage could be inflicted before things were settled.

Rachel ran a thumb along the fur lining of her costume jacket. The immaculate jacket that Joe had made for her. Rachel's outfit was tame enough to not be instantly recognizable if worn in public without the mask. It was something she was taking advantage of to let her basically live in the costume. She finished contemplating her new clothes and reached over to dismiss the holographic window for her watch.

"Joe didn't kit us out like this just to dump us when things get complicated. He doesn't want cash, so he'll stick around until we're paid off." Rachel looked towards the living room and Alec followed her gaze to Taylor. The real confirmation for why they weren't going to be cut loose.

Or at least looser than their current arrangement. They weren't exactly close, at least not compared to the level of Joe's actual team. Nobody had any idea how he found those people, but just seeing them fully kitted out in what had to be Joe's top end gear had been a harrowing sight. It also made the division between the Undersiders and the Celestial Forge clear. Any concerns Brian might have had about the Undersiders being seen as extensions of Apeiron were dead in the water. Sure, they were associates, but now everyone knew what the real teammates looked like.

The only one who came anywhere close to that level was Taylor. Always one step above the rest of them in terms of equipment. Extra weapons, better enhancements, and free bonuses. He still wasn't sure exactly what was going on there. It wasn't the love story the internet was still running with, but the two of them seemed to have worked something out. Joe might cut the rest of them loose if things got complicated, but he wasn't going to do that to Taylor. Rachel seemed to be banking on it, and he sincerely wished he could share the girl's confidence.

He didn't like the situation. There were so many levels to it that were bothering him, even beyond the frantic buzzing of his mind following last Saturday's hell. He wasn't comfortable leaving things as they were, and comfort was all he had been looking for when he signed up for the team. He didn't like being on the run, having to look over his shoulder and manage every little annoyance of life. The Undersiders had been the perfect arrangement, or it had been at the time. Slide easily into a role with maximum entertainment and minimum obligations.

That role wasn't simple or ideal anymore. Anyone who pretended otherwise was either lying or kidding themselves. Lisa was in the first camp, and he was pretty sure Brian was in the second. Rachel was opting out of the whole mess, so that just left Taylor as the unknown factor. Considering the fact that she was the linchpin for their survival, unknown motives weren't exactly a comfortable prospect.

Alec took a breath, centered himself, and did his best to settle into the character he had always played up at team meetings. He moved to saunter into the living room with all the irreverence he could muster. Lisa would see through it, but she already knew what he was dealing with. Plus, she was the last person who could complain about someone putting up a front. He grinned at her as he flopped down onto the couch before picking up his share of the cash from the table.

Five stacks of twenties, two grand each. Deliberately chosen to be easy to spend. The bills were used and non-sequential. Five kids with cash burning a hole in their pockets. Even the most guarded person would be prone to splurging on something, even if it was just an impulse purchase.

He tried to not dwell on the image of the boss shooing them out of a motel room while saying something to the effect of 'Go buy yourself something nice'.

Instead, he arranged his stacks of cash into a makeshift fan and waved it under his chin while giving the three remaining Undersiders a cocky grin. "So, finally a payday that doesn't need to be laundered. Anyone else feel this was overdue? I mean, you rob a bank, you should at least be able to roll around in the cash afterwards."

"You can do whatever you want with it." Brian said, carefully packing away his money. Taylor's had already disappeared into her magic bag while Lisa's was probably slated for some blind deposit to join the rest of her funds in some stock shorting scheme or whatever she did with her takes.

"That would be a more appealing prospect if half the Boardwalk wasn't shut down." He replied, but stopped playing around with his cash. He was being flippant, but the money was enough to get him out of the city and established in a new location if things truly went to hell.

Brian just shrugged. "They'll bounce back soon enough. You can go on your shopping spree later."

Alec nodded as he turned to Lisa. "So, are you briefing Joe on this, or are we dumping the task on Taylor?" He glanced between the girls.

"I've got it." Lisa said quickly. "I'll give him a call tonight, get him an update and see if he wants to meet again."

"Right." He looked around. "And are we going to find out anything about the team, or are we just leaving that hanging?" There was an awkward silence at his question. "I mean, I'd want to at least know what he's told them about us. Plus, the whole question of where the hell they came from would be good."

"I'll bring it up." Lisa answered again, but left it at that.

Taylor was staying conspicuously quiet. She had been ever since the team's new role had been outlined. He could see that, now that he was watching. Less interested in the money than the prospect of expanded duties, of meeting the boss and learning about their potential new place in the city after everything settled.

"And how is Joe going to react to the new mandate?" He asked.

"We haven't committed to anything specific yet." Brian said. "If we sign on for specific action against the Teeth we'll inform him, as per the agreement. The deal was for informing him on jobs, not team strategies."

Alec gave him a flat look, enough to make sure Brian knew what he thought about leaning on that technicality. Grue didn't want to mention that detail because then Joe might decide to do something. Worst case scenario Apeiron or the entire Celestial Forge would decide to throw out their agreement and go after the Teeth before the team could get mixed up in things. He would possibly find some loophole in his phrasing to justify things, but Alec doubted Joe was really as hard and fast with contracts as he played up for the public.

Brian trying to pull something like this… well, a week ago Alec wouldn't have known what he was playing at. Well, he probably wouldn't have cared, even if he did know. Now he knew and the knowing was bothering him, now that he had a better picture of Brian's situation.

Running into Brian's old gym buddies on Thursday night had been hilarious, even considering the severity of the events around them. The way Brian awkwardly stuttered his way through explanations while Alec exposited on their fake history had been the most fun Alec had had since that nightmare at the storage yard.

Between their apparent closeness, Brian's nervousness, and the fact that the group hadn't heard anything about him before, Alec was pretty sure a few of those guys had suspicions about the real nature of his relationship with Brian. Not supervillain suspicions, but suspicions for the more conventional reason why people sneak around and hide large parts of their lives.

Of course, he would never deign to lie about such a thing, or make any statements confirming or denying such suspicions. Demurely avoiding the topic when it had been hinted at was definitely the right thing to do. If they happened to come to their own conclusions about why Brian and Alec were together in the middle of the night, well, that was hardly his fault.

Aside from the hilarious potential of that particular misunderstanding, and the surprisingly open-minded attitude from Brian's old acquaintances, Alec had been able to pick up other details about Brian's situation. Details that brought a lot of Brian's behaviors into focus.

Alec couldn't exactly relate to that kind of family concern, but he understood the concept, at least when it wasn't coming from a truly terrible place. Nobody had come forward to completely spill the beans, but between assorted hints and the occasional bit of eavesdropping, which may have also confirmed how widely a certain misconception was spreading, he had put things together.

Everything Brian had been getting from the Undersiders was above board, funneled through the employment tied to whatever front company the boss had set up. It was easy to match up the length of Brian's current job with the formation of the team. Alec had thought Brian was just being overly stuffy, the kind of control freak behavior you saw from certain people. No dirty cash and a paper trail to make sure the civilian ID would hold up. He hadn't known about Brian's sister.

Alec was no stranger to how bad certain circumstances could get particularly in family environments. You could usually judge the severity of things by how willing people were to talk about them. The way people avoided mentioning anything about Brian's mother or the reason why she had lost custody of his sister was telling enough.

It was a horrible situation, or at least he could see it as a horrible situation now. Go back a couple of weeks and it would probably just have been a random item of note. A fact filed away in case it became relevant. Now he could actually appreciate what Brian and his sister had gone through, but besides that, it wasn't just rumor anymore. It was a crucial piece of the puzzle.

Brian was leaning on the boss for the legitimacy of his employment status. He needed that to both cover the expenses of looking after his sister and to have a chance to win custody in the first place. It was the kind of problem that all the Apeiron grade technology in the world wasn't going to solve.

Well, not unless Joe started spreading it around and buying people off, but that didn't seem to be his style. The new team called Alec's earlier impressions into question, but it was clear Joe liked hiding away from the rest of the world. Plenty of capes would be out flexing their powers and basking in the glory of their accomplishments, but Joe basically vanished from the world between his major, disruptive appearances.

The point was, Brian wasn't going to be willing to walk away from the boss. Not the way Rachel had suggested. He was invested enough in their situation that he didn't really have a choice. The last thing they needed was any sense they were playing things against Joe, but aside from Rachel it seemed everyone had their own plans in the works.

Alec sighed and flopped back into the couch. "Sure, that will probably fly. Besides, we can always follow his lead and let him know thirty seconds before we move out." That actually got weak smiles from the rest of the team, even Bitch who was leaning against the kitchen counter with a slice of pizza in one hand and a twitter screen floating in front of her.

"If we're lucky it won't come to that." Lisa said. "The Teeth know they won't be able to move freely, and the Protectorate knows about them too. Nobody is going to want things to get out of hand."

"Right. Everyone knows throwing a half-dozen unrelated cape teams at the same problem is the best way to safely manage it." Alec quipped.

"We'll make sure it won't come to that." Brian said, like they could actually accomplish anything at this point. "It's what we've signed on for."

Alec actually managed to avoid scoffing at the comment, though it seemed to resonate with Taylor for whatever reason. Of course, they were going to be the ones to swoop in and make sure nothing got out of hand, because de-escalation was definitely their specialty, rather than, you know, the exact opposite of that.

"Uh, I should probably get going." Taylor said, standing up and shouldering her super bag.

"I'll get everyone an update after I speak with Joe." Lisa added. Anything to keep the rest of them from feeling the need to reach out. Tattletale treating Joe like a live bomb wasn't exactly unreasonable, given the circumstances, but Alec couldn't wonder if that approach was causing as many problems as it solved. He had the sense that one phone call would be enough to strip away the layers of duplicity and misunderstanding and get everyone on a level playing field.

He also had the sense that Lisa was desperately leaning on those layers of duplicity and misunderstanding to facilitate whatever she was trying to pull, because she was definitely up to something. She was always up to something, but this was beyond her usual desire to show up opponents or prove how smart she was. Tattletale's manipulation was only amusing when it was directed at someone else, and even then it generally needed to be pointed at someone less frightening than Apeiron.

So, Lisa was playing the situation. Brian was stuck in it. Rachel didn't care. That just left Taylor.

"I'm heading out as well." He said as he stood up and slipped his cash into his jacket. "Gotta find something to do with this good fortune." He smiled at Brian. "Maybe the recovery efforts could use some more help."

Taylor gave him a confused look, missing the way Brian tensed at his words before turning away and pointedly ignoring him. He smiled slightly at that as he trailed Taylor out of the hideout.

"So…" He said as they descended to the factory floor, out of earshot of the rest of the group. "What brought you on board with the new direction?"

She tensed briefly before responding. "What do you mean?" She asked as she made her way over to push through the exterior door of the factory.

"Well, Rachel is all about the money. Grue's a hundred percent team focused. Lisa's the one with big plans. Which part sold it for you?" He asked as he kept pace.

Taylor went stone faced. He'd seen that before. He didn't think she was actually shutting down emotionally, but she could put on a front of it better than you'd even see from some of his own family.

It also made her a terrible liar. Sure, you couldn't read anything, but bluffing was about more than hiding your reactions. You had to have some skill at putting up a front to be convincing. Taylor could hide her emotions so perfectly that it even seemed to affect her nervous system, but she couldn't fake any kind of genuine response.

"What Brian said." She replied. "Joe… he's going to try to do something. If we can keep him from the Teeth, from having to deal with that, then it will be for the best."

"Yeah, but what about after that?" He asked. "You said you were doing this to escape. That's great for how we used to run things, but are you onboard for whatever the new circumstances are going to be when we finally meet the boss?"

The girl locked down again. No emotion, even deadening the responses in her own body, at least as far as Alec could detect. In the corner of his eye, he saw clouds of insects springing up from the mouths of alleys and sewer drains. Less a threat and more a nervous habit for her, but still much more unnerving than she seemed to realize.

"That will depend on what the deal is." She said plainly. "Lisa was confident in it, and if it changes things up with the gangs, makes the city better, then that's a good thing, right?"

"I guess." Alec said with a shrug.

Lisa. If Alec knew Taylor was lying there was no way the girl was fooling Lisa. But Lisa was alright with it, or at least willing to move forward despite whatever she had picked up. And Taylor seemed to think she had people fooled, probably because of distractions from all the other crap they were dealing with. She had something, probably something related to her direct line to Joe, and some reason why she wasn't exploiting that connection to just point him at whatever she needed dealt with.

"We'll find out when we meet the boss." Taylor said with a shrug, as if planning two weeks ahead was anything like a reasonable strategy when dealing with Joe.

"I guess." He replied with a shrug as they split off in their separate directions.

He took a deep breath as he reviewed the situation. Lisa was scheming, Taylor was hiding something, Brian was trapped, and Rachel was willing to go along with whatever. It seemed he was the only one who recognized the mess they were in, but was too fucked up to do anything about it.

Well, there was only one response he could think of.

"Fuck that." He shouted to the empty street.

Everyone seemed to be happy leaving things to play out, like the stakes didn't start at the future of the city and roll up from there to truly terrifying levels. Well, he wasn't going to sit on his hands and let everything burn down around them.

He considered his options. In all likelihood the city wasn't going to go crazy before Lisa checked in with Joe. She could frame things however she wanted, dance around the problem, and try to manage the situation in her own special way, but there was no reason to exclusively lean on her for that, not after everything that had happened, not with things changing as quickly as they had.

He would see how things were playing out, what Lisa was trying, and then, depending on the situation, he might have to do something absolutely desperate. Something he never would have considered before.

He would give Joe a call and actually talk about what was happening.

Effective communication with a degree of honesty and actual trust. God help them all, they were truly entering desperate times.