Brian thought things had been going well for the Undersiders recently.
They hadn't really been making more money per say, but there jobs had gotten a lot easier. When they had first started out, they had been thieves. There wasn't a much better way to describe it than that. He would describe them as 'Smash and Grab' specialists, but that was mostly because it sounded more impressive than 'asshole with powers who steals things' - which he most certainly was.
Then their ever elusive 'Boss' had slowly started pushing them to do more and more dangerous things. He had been fine with robbing a business here and there. Most of the big companies still in the bay were just taking advantage of all the cheap labour anyway. They were better than your average Chinese sweatshop only in that they mostly didn't employ actual children.
It hadn't been great. Brain would have been perfectly content never going anywhere near another cape. He was, for lack of a better way to describe it, happy in his mediocrity. He was well known for what he did, competent at it, and was well below the notice of anyone who could easily do anything about him or his team. But picking fights with the gangs? Hitting Medhall offices when they were the biggest source of income in the bay? That kind of attention got you put on lists somewhere he was sure. It got you noticed as more than just a passing nuisance. Despite Lisa's blatant distaste for the woman, Brian had really been hoping to run the Undersiders like a parallel of Faultline's Crew. Happily mercenary, content to stay out of major cape movements, and with a reputation that made handling her in any meaningful way a waste of time.
Basically, he wanted to make it clear that, despite working within the city, he wouldn't shit where he ate. Lung, Kaiser, The Protectorate, none of them should have ever had a reason to get involved in his business.
Obviously that hadn't worked out, what with his many encounters with the Protectorate since the night Shadow Stalker had nearly killed him - again. But since they had 'earned' their release from lockup by handling Victor during the Empire's ill thought out take over attempt of the city, everything had been going great for the Undersiders. With Nexus a major presence in the city, suddenly 'get in, do the job, get out' became the best possible way to do business. Even better, the local heroes were so busy handling the flood of nobodies entering the city, that they were a lot more willing to play ball with groups like his provided they didn't make too much noise.
Well. Not his group specifically. They had sort of burned that bridge with the job at the TV station. But still. The protectorate were too busy dealing with all the new faces that didn't know to keep their heads down to deal with him and his. And if once in a while they got a tip about something the Undersiders saw? No one had to question where that info came from.
Even if half the time it was just because their boss told them to pass it on for him under their name.
"Where the fuck are we even going?" Alec asked in annoyance, from his seat in the truck they had all piled into.
"To see the Boss." He grunted back, shooting a glance to the front of the truck to see if the driver was paying any attention to them. She wasn't.
"Okay but, why?" Greg asked across from him, leaning forward to plant his elbows on his knees and tenting his fingers - mismatched in length and coloration - in front of him. Brian restrained a groan. Objectively, given the ghoulish appearance of a man sewn together from other people, wearing a tattered and ill fitting suit, the pose gave off the appearance of a late night horror shows host beckoning enigmatically for the audience to listen.
In reality, Greg was just copying something he'd seen in some cartoon or another. He could maybe pull it off if he stuck to one 'theme', but given his eclectic and altogether unnecessary knowledge of most forms of media, he had a tendency to swap between several of them. So instead of creepy, Greg just came across as ... sort of Schizophrenic, honestly.
"He's getting ready to make a big move, I think, so he's bringing us deeper into things." Lisa said in her usual know it all tone, although it wasn't accompanied by her usual smile. Instead she was frowning in thought while staring blankly at the opposite wall of the vehicle.
"Big how?" Greg pressed, his hands closing around each other and tightening as his anxiety rose. Brian could sort of see why this might bother him. To hear it told, he had sort of been friends with Nexus before joining them. He didn't really know how to feel about that, honestly. Greg was their friend now, but part of that was just the fact that they were all he had. He had pretty openly snubbed Nexus to help them out. He was always going to be thankful for that. He was pretty sure he was going to die that night before the dweeb had whipped his phone out and called her. He tried not to think about the fact that the most powerful cape in the city had several bones to pick with him though. Greg was the problem. There was no way he would vote to go anywhere near something that could set his old friend off. He would actively fight it, if he had to.
"I don't know. I think..." Lisa paused, glancing from the wall to Greg and back again, "I think he's going to make a big play for territory. Try and establish himself how the Empire and ABB used to have turf." She finished. Then she looked him in the eye for a moment and grimaced before turning away again.
So, that was definitely a lie then. Maybe not a 'lie' but definitely only part of the truth. Which wasn't hard to figure out, really. You wouldn't be able to establish territory in Brockton the way it used to be before. Not when Nexus could Alpha Strike any major location faster than you could defend it. Not when there was a cape in the city who could go anywhere and fight anyone. That was the Undersiders whole claim to fame, nowadays.
They never had to fight Nexus. Or Trainwreck. Or Aspirant. It wasn't even that they couldn't take one or both of them. It was the terror of what inevitably would happen if you did. Lisa had been very clear with the rest of them once Greg was out of earshot. The difference between Nexus and Jack Slash wasn't nearly as wide as he might have personally liked.
Still, a couple of the newbies in town had tried to muscle in on the clean little neighborhood widely acknowledged as Nexus' turf. Brian wasn't even sure what the hell their powers were though, because as far as he could tell, one or another of the Oathbound had appeared out of nowhere to smack the shit out of them before they so much as managed to break into the first building there. Some people thought Nexus had a surveillance network setup around her castle. Personally, Brian just thought the residents knew what a good thing they had going on, and were more than willing to tell whoever they had to in order to keep it that way.
Seeing that no one else had much to say - Alec had found a handheld console somewhere to entertain himself, Lisa and Greg were deep in thought, and Rachel was sitting in the corner with her dogs warily watching the driver - Brian decided to settle down and wait.
Brian started to think there was something wrong at about the same time their driver disappeared from behind them, up a side tunnel.
Actually no, that was a lie. Brain started to think there was something wrong at about the point when they were led into an underground tunnel that stretched out for entirely too long.
"Tatts?" He asked urgently when it became clear to him that there was no one to lead them and no one to stop them from leaving.
"I don't know!" She hissed back at him.
"Uh, guys?" Greg stated with a frown, his left arm shifting into something spindly with pointed fingers before it started to droop, as if made of liquid. He quickly changed it back. "Something else is-" he started to say, before the entire tunnel exploded in chaos, as something appeared behind him, grabbed him in a headlock, and then vanished again.
With Greg in tow.
"Shit! Bitch!" He called, immediately allowing his darkness to flood out of him to fill the hall they were in. Almost as soon as he had started another spindly figure appeared behind Tattletale, but he managed to leap forward and strike it in the kidney being very careful not to maintain physical contact with the thing, which turned out to be good, because it immediately vanished after being struck. Once it was gone, he grabbed Tattletale and stepped to the side, placing their backs against the wall, and shot a quick glance at Bitch and her dogs. They were slowly swelling, but not transforming fully. They couldn't with the size of the tunnel as it was.
It was with some slight trepidation that he realized they were perfectly positioned inside of killzone specifically designed to counter them. The corridor was so narrow that all someone with a gun would have to do to negate his darkness was shoot down it. Bitch couldn't get her dogs up to full size. And they had no where obvious to run to.
"What the fuck Tats?!" He growled, clearing a space around their heads so they could talk while he kept an eye out for anymore attackers. Regent had already shifted towards the wall with him, and Bitch was surrounded by her dogs.
"It's not Coil! Something got to him and forced him to call us!" She screeched, having withdrawn her hold out pistol and pointed it to his right before he could react, firing at something the was just about to stab a bony finger into his head. He didn't have time to process the fact that their boss had been Coil though.
Cursing, he whirled around to get a better look at it as it stumbled backwards and cringed at the sight of it. It was... misshapen, would be the best word he could use. Someone had made a rat stand upright and stretched a naked human woman over top of it. One of its arms was too long, and the other too short, matching its bizarrely proportioned legs and causing it to have a weird stutter stop gait.
A gait that, in no way stopped it from vanishing from sight, even as he enclosed his and Tattletales heads in darkness, then began dragging her and Regent back the way they came through the darkness, trusting in Bitchs dogs to be able to smell or hear him and follow suit.
Of course, then three more of the things appeared in front of him, just outside his expanding clouds range.
They spoke briefly, too quietly for him to easily hear over the pounding if his heart, and then vanished again.
Brian wasn't stupid. There were a limited number of useful ways to fight as a teleporter.
So the second the things vanished he kicked backward with all his strength, and was gratified to feel the crunch of a knee breaking under his foot before rolling forward, dragging everyone else to the ground with him.
Behind him, he could hear Bitches dogs barking as they no doubt jumping on another of the things, and above him, he felt the air move as the one remaining swiped at him in frustration, missing because it couldn't see him.
To his right, he could feel Regent twitch slightly as he stood, and the thing that had attacked him stumbled backwards, giving him the breath room to kip up and throw a blinding fast series of punches into its distended nose before backing off and stomping on the head of the one whos leg he had broken.
Seeing the immediate threat handled, he cleared a space in the darkness for his team, keeping the walls, floor and ceiling covered, in case there were cameras watching them.
"Everyone good?" He asked quickly, scanning them. One of Bitches dogs had a slight gash across its snout, but otherwise no one seemed hurt. Except Greg, wherever the hell he had been taken.
"I hate our boss. I want a new one." Regent replied instantly, eliciting a growl from Bitch that might have been construed as agreement.
"Tat's what the hell were those things?" He asked, making sure to keep everyone moving to the exit as they spoke.
"Projections or something. Maybe Biotinker creations. There are definitely more of them though. We need to go." She rattled off, glancing around them before gesturing in the right direction with her head and beginning to run, with the rest of them quickly following afterward.
"Where to?" He breathed out once they had made their way to the mouth of the tunnel, and stepped out into the sunlight peeking through the unfinished facade of the half constructed building they had entered through.
"PRT or Nexus. Doesn't matter which." Tattletale rattled off, quickly pulling her phone out and hitting tapping at it for a second before looking towards the car they had arrived in.
"Good, let's-" He started only to be cut off by an unfamiliar voice.
"Halt horrified dogooders!" A nasally voice yelled at them, causing him to look up at the slightly overweight woman crouched on a girder above them. She had on a loose fitting set of sweats, and wore a slightly too small bulletproof vest over it. Her head was - just barely - covered by part of a grey steel helmet with micky mouse ears sticking out of it - one of them noticeable damaged as if torn in half.
He wanted to see what Lisa was thinking right now, but didn't dare turn away from the enemy Cape.
"Who the hell are you, and what the hell do you want?" He asked harshly, projecting more confidence than he was actually feeling, stalling as Bitches dogs got up to proper size in the larger area they were now in.
"I, am the cheese that fell behind the oven when you were six. The pet you flushed down the toilet. I-" the overweight woman yelled jubilantly, flourishing her hand in the air, only to open her mouth and sneer at him with a toothy, yellowing smile.
"Am the Ratpack." She crooned, just as a dozen more of the unpleasant rat-like beings burst from cover to run at them.
He grimaced.