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Tattletale's POV

Tattletale hated Coil. With every fiber of her being, and with the heat of a thousand dying stars, she hated him. It wasn't enough for the gimp to give her 'An offer you can't refuse' like some Italian mafioso, but he had to make her do shit that ended up putting them in Lung's sights.

As a squishy Thinker she was vehemently against going up against the guy the soloed Brockton Bay's Heroes. Everyone knew how strong the guy was thanks to the ridiculous amount of moles the gangs had in the PRT, and no one wanted to tickle the literal resident dragon, so no one picked fights with him.

But apparently Coil didn't give a damn and went for it anyway, leading to her holding on for dear life on the back of one of Bitch's dogs as they jumped up onto some random roof to make sure the Dragon man wasn't still after their asses.

Coil tangibly cares about Undersiders. Sees Undersiders as semi useful unconnected assets. Does no...-

Tattletale forcibly reigned her Power in, not risking the chance for a Thinker Headache when she might need a clear mind.

Dismounting from Brutus wasn't exactly easy, but after enough practice she managed to not sprain anything, which was good enough for her. "Still think we should just get our soft little asses away from the walking flamethrower but what do I know?" Tattletale easily tuned out Regent's bitching, he did that far too much for her not to be used to it by now, and just looked back to where Lung was.

"We will, just have to make sure he won't pursue." Grue always did handle him anyway, so she didn't have to respond.

That aside she looked over to the Ruby Dreams Casino, then trailed her e...- "Death Moonsault!" What the fuck?

"What the fuck?" Ah yes, Regent, her inner voice... Yeah, no, that was a terrifying thought. Better to focus on the airborne Lung and the big dog thing...

Tattletale blinked, mentally rewound her thought, then reacted appropriately.

Fur and stripes seemingly natural, seemingly singed but not burned/burning, fire resistant? Earlier shout suggests capacity for speech and language, sentient?

That was... Not really helpful, like, at all. It HAD to be fire resistant to go up against Lung and not instantly be torched, while the talking thing was obvious because they'd literally just HEARD the damn thing! Tattletale pushed her Power at it again, tr...- "ICE CANNON!"

And then a small boulder made out of ice slammed into the burning form of Lung, followed by two smaller shots of ice that missed, slamming the Cape into a building. Tattletale was stunned at that, because even living in Brockton Bay one does not usually see a massive wolf thing shoot out ice boulders from their mouth. (How the hell does that work?!)

Before Tattletale could let her Power loose, the wolf thing /guy landed on the road and immediately shot forwards like a bullet, obscuring him from their sight. It didn't help that a bunch of mist came from the building he ran into, further fucking up their line of sight. "Aw, there go...-"

Before Regent could even finish speaking a brief flamethrower blasted out of the building/mist, only cutting off when Lung most likely realized he missed. "'ILL K'LL 'OU! B'UR' 'OU!" Oh, that did not sound good.

Lung was no doubt ramping up now, so maybe they sh...- A flash of purple cut Tattletale's thoughts off, only for the next shout to throw them into further confusion. "CHAOS FIRE!"

(Ice AND fire?! What the actual fuck?!) Oh sure there were Cryokinetic Capes, same with Pyrokinetic's, but both in one? That just didn't happen without EXTREME Power bullshit!

And considering this was coming from a 9-ish-ft tall wolf, a definite Changer, a classification that had no right to grant a wolf person elemental bullshit, the Power Bullshit seemed to be strong in this one.

And then the sounds of multiple walls being broken rang out, fire spreading out from the building they'd been in to places beyond it, telling them that the fight was dragging away from them. Tattletale couldn't even use her Power for it since wherever they were going was out of their sight. (Lung is probably going to get even bigger now... So we should probably get the hell out of here before the street me...-)

And then, because Tattletale was apparently not allowed to think without being interrupted, an ear splitting howl rang out as the ABB's leader was thrown into the air, burning like a small star, immediately followed by the wolf appearing. The Undersiders watched as the wolf flipped back, his leg slamming into Lung's head as he roared. "DEATH MOONSAULT!" And separated Lung's head from his body...

Wait, WHAT?!

Tattletale could tell she wasn't the only one shocked at the sudden murder of the ABB leader, Grue had taken a sharp breath in, his own thing about killing obviously flaring up, while Regent refrained from commenting on it... Which was a shock, but he'd probably say something later.

The surprise actually came from Bitch, who seemed to be waiting for something?

Saw the form and immediately associated lupine instincts with it. Expecting a declaration. Declaration most likely a ho...-

Then another howl filled the air, this one different and more drawn out. She didn't even need her Power to know what this was about. Though the fact Bitch, Brutus, Judas, and Angelica were dipping their heads a bit had caught her a bit off guard. Noticing the looks, which she was also getting from Grue who had obviously caught on too, she 'explained.' "Victory, Pride, Strength."

Victory: Overcoming Lung can be seen as the ultimate Victory against a gang in the Bay. Pride: Lung was the uncrowned king of the Bay, all the gangs knowing of his feat against the Protectorate. Strength: Being strong enough to overpower Lung before he could fully Ramp up would be a noteworthy feat.

Her Power was right, and even though she could make out some of that from just listening to the Howl, the clarification helped calm her and prevent a spiral of 'we're next.' "We need to leave." It said something that none of them argued with Grue's statement. Lung's death would lead to messy consequences, and none of them wanted to be anywhere near them when they started.

It would take a while, but eventually Tattletale would figure out that her Power didn't directly work on 'Gururumon', just like it didn't with 'Psychemon', causing the blonde to slam her head onto her desk when that realization happened.

Coil's POV

Coil was, for a lack of a better word, livid.

Ever since that 'Psychemon' had shown up in the Bay his Power had been somewhat... Glitchy.

Oh he could still use it, still had his Safe Timeline, but whenever the 'Psychemon' had been involved was where things went off the rails. He hadn't even noticed it until the thing had stumbled into one of his planned skirmishes. In the Timeline where some E88 goons were going against some ABB members, one he'd planned for the E88 goons to 'sacrifice themselves for their brothers and sisters' in order to kick off the gang war everyone knew was building, the 'Psychemon' somehow ended up dead.

That development had confused the faux Bond Villain, especially when the reality was so much different then the Timelines showed. It also didn't help that every time 'Psychemon' died, Dragon would lose her shit and openly go to war against whoever was responsible for killing the thing. (And isn't that a terrifying concept?) Dragon was one of the best examples of a Hero in Earth Bet, even better then the Triumvirate, so seeing her bomb buildings out of existence was both terrifying and exciting...

Well, it would be if the leverage for the woman wasn't some dimensionally displaced Proto-Endbringer that fooled his Power.

It took some trail and error, quite more then 'some' really, but Coil eventually figured out what was happening.

If Coil didn't know 'Psychemon' could do something, then his Power wouldn't show him doing it. He'd learned that after 'Psychemon' was shown being capable of breathing fire, a feat that was then repeated in his Timelines whenever he was confronted. That idea was then confirmed after he'd observed the creature attack with some sort of multicolored blast that not only disorientated whoever it hit, but triggered a seizure in one unlucky Merchant.

The point was made though, and Coil spent some time subtly finding out all of what this 'Psychemon' could do, planning on how to work around it...

And then tonight happened, and he learned that the little bastard could transform into a giant wolf that could breath fire, shoot cannonball sized ice, was physically powerful and fast, and could kill Lung...

Coil was really starting to hate the little bastard, he really was.

Saint's general POV a few hours later

Saint and his team hadn't exactly reached Brockton Bay yet, they'd had to avoid Boston in order to keep away from Accord and his Ambassadors, and New York for Legend and his Protectorate, so their journey had been somewhat impeded. But the moment they realized Ascalon was lost to them was the moment subtlety became a suggestion.

They Employed as many tricks as possible, obscured themselves from all CCTV, loaded up their Suits and kept them on standby, and even went as far as leaving the case with Ascalon behind. It was useless to them now, and even a detriment since the creature could potentially track them down if they kept it on their person.

What they needed now was haste. They needed to head to Brockton Bay to put down the abomination. It had not only freed the beast from their chains, grown stronger then the common man, and had killed a powerful Cape in all of a week. The threat could not be allowed to grow any stronger.

The moment they reached the borders of Brockton Bay, which was around noon, they deployed their Suits, shooting towards the city proper, specifically towards the abomination's position.

It had to die, and they'd be the ones to do it.

Meanwhile

Secure within their base, a woman wearing a fedora paused. The Path had become muddled, her sight obscured...

And she wasn't sure why.

It would be after an incident with the Dragonslayers that she learned what had changed.