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2.2 - In Enforcement of Claims

Taylor had thought long and hard over the past few days, looking at the brass shotgun cartridges before her and thinking about whether she could do it. Yes, this was America, if you believed the foreigners in the /pol/ board of PHO shooting someone was an everyday occurrence and they all wore cowboy hats and big leather boots. But the truth of the matter was that even in those engagements where she had her sword, she had not once so much as drawn blood even from those who by all accounts deserved it.

That was the question that bothered her, could she shoot a living human? Paint their head onto the wall and give their family a closed casket funeral? No, perhaps in another lifetime she could be a killer, but the Taylor Hebert that sat in her bedroom today could not do it. That was why she'd gone out and bought a packet of the largest rock salt available and had replaced the buckshot within with it. It was wildly inaccurate, would hurt like a bitch and could probably still take out an eye. But it would not kill, she could comfort herself in that much at least.

She'd been calling Dinah nightly and every night the girl had told her the percentage chance that she would be kidnapped today, for that reason she'd kept her jobs close to home, so she could gear up in as close to a flash as public transport could permit and then be out to save her debtor. Yet nothing had come for so long that despite clearly having seen Dinah's power functioning just fine, it was as if her kidnapping was somehow an exception.

Her phone rang and she picked it up, gently putting away the brass as she held it up to her ear "This is Servant speaking, how may I assist you?"

"Hey," the distantly familiar voice of Tattletale sang "I was wondering if you would be available for some driving tomorrow morning. Me and the rest of the Undersiders could use a lift from the bank downtown."

"Tattletale" Servant sighed "You should be aware that I do not have a driving licence, I would also have to pull over if a lawful authority figure requires it. Let alone everything to do with aiding a criminal enterprise, it doesn't take a Thinker to realise that you're probably not going there to make a deposit in costume."

"Aww, you're no fun. Well, the boss can't say I haven't tried!"

The call went dead, and Taylor thought it odd. She had a rough idea of what Tattletale's power was, something that allowed her to better discern information. If so, why did she bother to call her? The outcome was practically obvious.

Leaving the topic with a shrug, she went off to finish her evening routine and get into bed. She'd stayed up late finishing off the cartridges and needed her sleep if she wanted to be chipper for her bookings tomorrow.

She was brought out of her slumber by two things, firstly the alarm clock was set for 8 AM; she usually woke a fair bit earlier than that but it acted as a reminder to log on to her online classes. The second matter was a feeling of unease, very strong unease, like something inside her had a shiver run down its back.

Blinking her eyes open, she picked up her round glasses off the bedside counter and sat up in her nightdress, gave her arms and head a bit of a stretch and sat up, ready to start her day.

Then she noticed him.

He sat in her armchair, dressed in a slim navy blue double-breasted suit of fine herringbone wool and a bowler hat. Were it not for the featureless flesh-pale facemask he wore he could have passed off as a side character from some golden-age mobster movie.

"Good morning" he tipped his hat to her.

Taylor had half an urge to scream, or even to grab the shotgun she'd concealed under her bed. But the rational part of her won over, by his dress and manner he was clearly some eccentric cape, if he wanted to harm her, he'd certainly have had the opportunity. Even then, why not just shoot her while she was out working? The fact that he was being so polite suggested she was needed for something, alive.

"Who are you?" she asked, projecting Servant's confidence while lightly covering herself with her blanket.

"Who am I? Always that question" chuckled the man "I am Stranger. Before you ask, yes, they did name the rating after me."

"Alright then Stranger, what do you want from me? Don't you know not to enter a lady's bedroom uninvited?"

"Ah, my mistake. Please, go ahead and make yourself presentable."

And then he disappeared.

Taylor got up and put on her casual combination of pants and a T-shirt before hurrying downstairs to get some breakfast in her. The online classes would be starting soon and she wanted to brainstorm some ideas for the history assignment they would be working on to present at the end of term. She exchanged pleasant conversation with Dad, who was confident that he'd fully move on to crutches by the end of the month, then headed upstairs with a glass of juice and a plate of eggs and bacon, intent on working as she ate.

"There you are dressed, fed and watered."

Taylor put down the plate and scowled at the suited man still sitting in her armchair "What the hell was that?"

"A simple demonstration of my power. I consider it important for soon-to-be associates to know each other. Please rest assured that I left the room while you changed."

"That doesn't answer my question" Taylor was nearing the last straw before she'd grab her shotgun and just blast this pervert.

"It's simple really. My power allows me to erase myself from the perception of others, but what makes it a 'Stranger 10' is the fact that electronic devices such as cameras are affected as well. Please be assured that if I really wanted to, you would never see me coming, even on your home security system."

"If that was you trying to put me at ease then you've failed. Now, what do you want? Unless this is some kind of hobby to you."

"Announcing myself to random people in their bedrooms and then leaving? I assure you that got boring after the first few times. But yes, to business. Please correct me if I'm wrong but you've agreed to protect a certain Dinah Alcott from a certain kidnapper. Is that correct?"

"What the hell did you do to her?" she growled, moving closer to the bed.

"I did nothing, but, unfortunately. It would seem that she has been kidnapped today. Some men in an armoured vehicle rammed her driver and spirited her away. Consider that information free by the way."

So that was the feeling within her, it was a perfectly reasoned fear of failing in her contract, she just hadn't realised it this morning.

"Now then. I know who kidnapped her, I can assist you with some information, for a price."

"Name it."

"That would require a bit of context, my dear. Bear with me for a moment" he stood and passed over a photograph "Now, this fellow is a villain by the name of Coil, he and I do not particularly see eye to eye and he has a tendency of meddling in my business. Unfortunately, his power allows him to create two instances of himself and select the outcome he prefers, thus every time I have attempted to eliminate him he has evaded me into his real self. A certain Thomas Calvert, one of the PRT's consultant lapdogs."

"You've just outed him" Taylor stated, "that's against the unwritten rules…"

"Ah, my dear, how naïve. Perhaps in the future, you'll realise that past a certain level of power, the rules are more of a guideline" his masked grin caused a shiver to go down her spine, "Now, a certain Prophet has told me that if I provide you with this information and a little advice, you will succeed in finding little Miss Alcott within Mr Calvert's lair. What I'd like in return is for you to eliminate him for me."

"I refuse. If he is a criminal then he deserves to be brought to justice, not to get lynched by a vigilante. Besides, if what you say about his power is true, he would just switch to the other timeline."

"While you enter his base of operations, I will pay a visit to the PRT headquarters and bury a hatchet into the back of his head. Why, provided that you threaten him enough to enter his other timeline, I will be the only one with blood on my hands. Besides, do you really think he'll let you live after doing so brazen?"

"I'll consider it. Now, where is she?" Taylor figured that she could get there eventually if she used this newfound Servant Sense, but sweeping a good part of the city would take time, time which she wasn't confident Dinah had before something bad could happen.

"You hesitate," tutted Stranger "You know, of all the gangs in your city he is the most deplorable. The others at least know what going too far is, Coil has done everything and more; it would be a justice of a most perfect sort that would finally put a bullet in his head."

"Where is Dinah."

"There is an old Endbringer shelter on 20th Aurora Avenue in the Southern Docks district under a car park. Using his PRT and government connections, he had it abandoned and then moved in with about a platoon of mercenaries armed with the finest firepower money can buy, including Tinkertech weaponry. I imagine your little Dinah will be there somewhere."

"That will be all then, I thank you for your assistance but I must depart at once for this shelter."

"Thank me by putting an end to Coil. I shall see myself out."

He was gone, yet her memories remained this time, she supposed it would be pointless to explain all this and ask for her help if she would remember none of it. Presuming that he'd left, she sat down to peck away at her cold breakfast as she picked up the phone once again and dialled the client number for Uber and Leet.

"Hello? This is Servant calling. No, this isn't about that, I need to borrow that invisibility cloak you used to create my mask, I will pay you forty thousand dollars and perform a reasonable act of service for you in exchange. Yes, I am being particularly generous because I need it today and would prefer it if you could have it brought along to 20th Aurora Avenue in about an hour. Best not to ask what it is for."

"Mayor Alcott, this is Servant. I have information on where your niece is and am moving to retrieve her at once as per my contract, I would appreciate it if you could direct this call to the Chief of Police."

"Servant? Do you have information on where she is? As much as I appreciate the thought you should call the normal emergency number if you want to pass it on."

"I'm afraid that the BBPD is compromised with agents of the man who kidnapped her. What I need is for the Chief to deputise me, allowing me to enter his premises under probable cause. I will take care of the rest."

The paper documents of her deputization would have to wait, as she watched Leet's shabby van pull into the parking garage the form was already being written up and provided they did not dally, her little raid would begin with the full authority of the law behind it once she got the invisibility cloak.

She certainly wasn't stupid enough to enter a bunker full of armed mercenaries without an ace up her sleeve, the cloak would allow her to bypass or perhaps take down as many as a hundred men, however many would be down here.

"Hey Servant", Leet walked over and handed her the faux silk fabric that she could not see "So I know you said not to ask but I am curious, what's up with needing the cloak? Plus, the armour, and that shotgun…"

"Leet. I am about to bust into a bunker with a small army of mercenaries standing between me and my client. As much as I maintain that I am skilled, sometimes a little more than skill is required; your equipment will serve me well in this regard."

"Really? That's awesome" his eyes widened "Say, how about we wave the forty grand if you wear a headcam? I've got a GoPro Hero in the back."

Servant mused on that, some Police were starting to wear body cameras for liability reasons, if nothing else the camera could be used to show that she did not act with unreasonable force or perhaps she could use the footage to go over her mistakes afterward.

"Very well, do you have something to secure it with?"

She handed it over and Leet got to work fixing the camera with some duct tape, as she watched him work her phone buzzed the Mayor's number 'The Chief called me to say it's done. Please, get her out safe. Godspeed.'

Nodding at the phone Servant turned to Leet "Everything is ready. I suggest you leave, there is no point in getting caught in the crossfire." She took the somewhat heavier helmet and affixed it over her head as Leet pressed the record button for her and nodded as the red light came on.

For Benjamin Gonzales, gate duty was probably one of the more interesting assignments. Over his past year manning this position there was constantly something going on; sometimes there would be local kids running about playing, and other times a stray cat would chase a rat around the parked cars. Today, he saw the Rouge cape Servant receive a package of some kind from Leet of all people, the boss would be interested to hear about it and might even issue a bonus for his trouble!

But his present attention was drawn to a rectangular brown shape where the two had met, perhaps a wallet but he could not tell by the poor resolution of the outside security cameras. "Menzales, with me, one of the capes may have left a wallet. Benzales, man the gate and let us back in once we've retrieved it."

"Aye Aye Sir. If anything happens to you, I'll make sure to wipe your hard drive!" Saluted Benzales as he let the two of them through the airlock disguised as an ordinary maintenance door. There were other, larger exits, for their vehicles elsewhere in the area but this particular one was designed to be subtle, considering this was still an active parking space.

"Benzales, any civvies upstairs?"

"No Sir, you're clear to move."

Gonzales raised his rifle and began to sweep upstairs, slowly making his way to the capes' meeting spot. There was indeed a plain wallet of brown leather on the floor, cautiously he poked it with the barrel of his gun. When the world didn't explode he picked it up while Menzales covered him.

"Holy shit, there's ID cards and everything in here, even her bus pass. Benzales, we're coming back down, give the boss a heads up on what we've found yeah?"

They made their way back downstairs more casually, feeling much better that this wasn't some kind of trap. The airlock back opened and the two were cycled through as he looked through the wallet. "There's a fair bit of cash there Sir," his subordinate pointed out "We taking it?"

"You must be new around here. If the boss gets something useful out of this we'll be getting far more as a bonus than this small change."

"Hey boss, the big boss wants you to bring it over to the lab. We'll cover the gate for you."

"Cheers," he went over to the next door and pulled out his keycard "A round on me once this shift is over, I'm feeling a bonus in my bones."

His two men cheered and he disappeared into the first of the corridors which made up this bunker proper. The lab wasn't too much further, once that was delivered he could take his time returning to his post; perhaps an extended bathroom break was in order.

Suddenly, he felt a whoosh of air and then a very heavy hit to the right of his head, hard enough that even with his helmet on, he could see the world grow dark as he collapsed onto the floor.

She moved the guard into a locker after frisking him for his keycard and some assorted grenades he kept in his vest pouches, naturally her wallet went back into its proper place. She could somehow sense that Dinah was near, very near compared to the feeling she'd gotten at home.

She re-entered the airlock room and used her gun to divert the camera pointed at the entrance door as the two mercenaries inside turned expecting their sergeant only to see nothing. At the sight of the floating Browning Auto 5 they did the only reasonable thing and reached for their weapons, only to cry out in pain as they were peppered with rock salt in two rapid shots. They were both crying in pain when she delivered two blows with the buttstock of her shotgun and left them limp on the floor.

Her shots were quieter than she expected, but that still didn't mean there wasn't a microphone in here, she'd have to move quickly on the off chance an alarm was sounded. She scanned the Sargeant Gonzales' card and let herself back into the bunker proper, there was wisely no convenient map for her to find Dinah with so she would have to check every door and feel as she got closer to her Debtor.

When the silent alarm went off in the break room, Captain Welles scrambled to arm themselves much like anyone else before they all filed out into the corridor and took up defensive positions. This place had been modified into a veritable fortress since last year and even now he huddled behind one such concrete barricade as he adjusted his radio and listened in. "All personnel be advised, Code Red, Stranger rated parahuman intrusion, defensive stature. Parahuman response ETA twenty minutes." Spoke the calm-voiced dispatcher, that message had been looping for the past few minutes but when he tried to reach the man nothing came of it. He could only assume the communications room had been compromised.

They were all pointing their guns in the direction of the sole door which led deeper into the facility. Everything at this level was essentially storage, barracks or vehicle storage; it was the stuff downstairs the assailant would be after, and that meant that they would be coming here.

Suddenly, a thump could be heard from the air ventilation duct above them.

"Oh fuck! They're in the vents, they're in the goddamn vents!" shouted one of the newer mercenaries and opened fire. The rest did not so much as wait for his orders before unloading everything from assault rifles to Tinkertech laser weaponry at the air duct above, badly disorienting themselves with so much fire in such a narrow corridor. If he did not have ear protection, he probably wouldn't have noticed the flashbang that had just flown out of the door below the vent.

Though his ears didn't ring out, his eyes swam with light and as the others fell covering their eyes or ears, he began to blindly unload his machine gun at the door before suddenly he felt an explosion of pain such as he'd never felt before across his face. Without regard to his contract, he fell to the floor screaming, before he was silenced with an impact to his head, more dull gunshots as he slipped away into the darkness.

Things had gone so well. Just like the timelines he'd set in the past few days, he'd kidnapped Dinah Alcott and she lay unconscious in his office, even Servant had failed to stop him in those instances and while she always somehow found his base, she was always stopped by his mercenaries, usually ending up dead but he'd managed to capture her once by ordering his men to take her alive. But he'd had to abandon those timelines since his distraction with the Undersiders at the Bank wasn't due until this Friday; with it, Police and Protectorate resources would be too busy to do anything about one missing girl...

Not this time it would seem. According to the reports of his men, Servant had shown up with Leet and then she left, for a moment he thought that she'd decided to abandon protecting the girl. Then the silent alarms went off and everything went to hell. Assuming the Tinkertech transponders on his men were working as they should, about two-thirds of the expensive mercenaries he'd hired were down for the count, the rest were reporting that they were facing a shotgun-armed Stranger. Of course, without the full picture, none of them would be aware that it was merely Servant under a Tinkertech cloaking device.

Still, he would have to consider hiring some new mercenaries, Servant was no Brute, Blaster or any other combat-oriented cape, she was a Thinker; for the sort of princely salaries he was offering, they should be capable of taking down what was for all intents and purposes an ordinary girl who was just graduating high school. He was in negotiations with the Travelers at the moment, perhaps he ought to expedite them, even if it would end up costing him more.

She was running through the flashbangs very quickly, it was a good thing most of them had those or else she'd have to resort to the fragmentation grenades, they probably wouldn't kill unless it was very close to the men but she would still prefer not to risk it.

Servant had fought through most of the second floor like a menace, a mixture of flashbangs and her invisibility cloak making what should have been a hard-won victory feel a bit more trivial. Based on what The Stranger had told her the man made timelines, so wouldn't he be aware of her cloak, surely he'd brief his employees on it? No, who was she kidding, what kind of child-kidnapping villain would care about labour best practices? It was an inherently stupid question.

She moved to open what should be the final door. Having checked everywhere else, this was the only remaining location where Dinah could be. By sheer instinct, she fell wayside of the opening doorway as it was shredded by high-calibre bullets.

"Ha Ha! Pendejo! Come out and play you sneaky fuck!" a mechanically altered voice rang out from within "My name is Captain Martinez, and I'm going to kill you so hard you'll die!"

Servant risked poking out the barrel of her shotgun under the cloak, could he see through it? Lightly peeking, she saw a huge man absolutely covered in heavy body armour his face concealed by a metal faceplate with a grinning skull on it. She could not see what was on his back but what poked over his shoulder was nothing short of an automatic gun turret, likely chambered in something approaching fifty-calibre based on the holes behind her. In his hands he held an oversized sledgehammer, the tip painted red showing wear from extensive use.

"Come out puta! I promise to make your death very quick if you give up! Actually no, it's been a while since I've had a chance to fight. Since you killed all my men you will make for a nice warmup!"

"I didn't kill your men, why would you even assume that?" she shouted into the doorway from under the cloak. Suddenly, high-calibre bullets began to chip away at the wall she was standing behind and she threw herself across the doorway to the other side before the concrete gave way and a new window appeared into the room ahead.

"Then I will have to kill them myself!" the Captain laughed "What kind of shit mercenary gets defeated by some puta in a maid outfit? Why, if I'd lost to you, I'd off myself from embarrassment!"

While the Captain bragged and boasted, Servant was considering her next course of action. She had no chance against the turret on his back, but if she could disable it; she'd just be against a massive guy with a sledgehammer in heavy armour, how hard could that be? Her salt shotgun shells wouldn't do anything to the turret let alone his armour, she had no slugs or even buckshot with her. What she did have was the fragmentation grenades she'd picked up along her journey here.

Removing the pin from the largest of the grenades, she pulled out a spent cartridge of brass and tossed it across the floor into the room. Immediately the auto turret pulled itself to the right, smacking into the face shield of the Captain as it tried to track the glint of metal. She let go of the lever, counted to two and hurled the grenade at his head, ducking just before the explosion littered the room with fragmentation.

Glancing back in, she saw the turret hanging limply to one side by a wire while the Captain himself appeared to clutch his head as he coughed up blood behind his visor "You bitch, that gun was expensive! Toybox and all that shit. Fuck a quick death, I'm going to make you suffer!"

With a roar he tore off the hanging gun and took up his hammer, swinging it wildly as he made his way to the door where Servant hid. Another grenade would probably kill him, and using any of the incapacitated mercenary's guns would be useless against the sort of armour he was wearing; Likely Level VI plates if not higher than the NIJ rating scale went. But she still had her sword. If he wanted a fight so badly, she'd oblige.

Springing out from under the cloak, she went under his swing and delivered a few strikes at his thighs, which were deflected by the armour. As the Captain attempted to stop down on her, she scrambled by, entering the space where she'd have the most room to manoeuvre.

"You finally show yourself, Choomba. I guess you've got more balls than I thought. Ha! Give me a good fight with that little cocktail stick before I hammer you to paste, Yes?"

He charged at her swinging like a freight train, trying to adjust his swings as she dodged and delivered her own strikes. A few times, he let go with one hand to suddenly extend his reach twofold forcing her to drop low and far. But, when he did so she had the time to notice something crucial. His armour left gaps, presumably for practical reasons and to reduce the weight of a suit which would alone be at least two hundred pounds, let alone the backpack even minus the turret.

As he made another of those extended swings, Servant used his temporary lack of control over his weapon to slip by and deliver a thrust into the back of his knee, past the plates which would nullify the hit. He roared in pain and swung to face her, but she was essentially behind him at this point; a second strike to the other knee's back caused the hundreds of pounds of armour and steel to finally overwhelm the man's strained knees and he collapsed backwards, still clutching his hammer.

She stepped back, admittedly there was some comedy in this sight. The Captain was swinging about with his arms legs and hammer but the weight on him was so much that he could not actually get up. Turning away from him and to the final door, she left his string of expletives behind as she pulled her invisibility cloak back on and picked up her shotgun.

Servant's heart sank as she saw the sight before her. Dinah's face was peaceful as a pistol pressed to her head by a man in a black bodysuit with a white coiling snake upon it.

"Coil" she whispered.

"We both know you're here, remove that cloak or the girl gets it."

Servant removed the cloak with one hand, the other still pointing the shotgun directly at Coil's head, "Let go of her you bastard, I don't want to have to kill you."

"Oh, you silly girl. I could have ended you the day you first went out in that stupid costume of yours, but I thought that you weren't a threat, that you were of use to me. It seems I was wrong. You are too much trouble to be kept alive, don't worry your little head. Next time I capture Dinah here, you won't be around to rescue her."

He pulled the trigger. Intense spasming pain coursed through her body.

She pulled the trigger.

The poor girl was being kept in a cage like some kind of animal, Servant growled quietly as she picked the lock and pulled the girl out. Coil was not here. Did that mean that what The Stranger had told her was true? This was the second timeline. It did not matter, she had to get Dinah out of there.

But first, she went over to the supervillain's computer. There was an entire bank of servers in the other room, full of compromising information, civilian identities and evidence; some of it against her. She destroyed it all, chaining her unused grenades into a massive fragmentation bomb before tossing it in and locking the door. But this computer was completely separate, from what she could see it even lacked a Wi-Fi card or any other means of connection, the only wires going in being the power supply and the only ones going out being for the mouse, keyboard and screen.

She thought of destroying it too for a moment, but, there could be important information there of the sort Coil didn't want to leak under any circumstances. There was no time to hack the encryption here, so she removed both of the hard drives, wrapped them in some paper he had in his drawers and put them into her pockets. There were also a few interesting things in the drawers, she took those too before turning back to Dinah.

She was fortunately asleep the entire trip out of the facility. As the sun hit her eyes once more, Servant pulled out her mobile phone and dialled the Mayor. He'd have his good news at last.

The Stranger is an OC (own cape heh) which sort of reflects the scary possibilities for those on the upper end of the power scale. For every hundred who can control water or run really fast, there are these scary bastards out there, and you don't want to get their attention because if you do; there is little you can do besides accepting your death.

As for why The Stranger wants Coil gone, who knows? Perhaps they're buddies from back before Elisburg, perhaps he has foiled some plan or other. The point is, he is unwilling to divulge and Taylor has nothing to entice him to share that information.

Gonzales, Menzales, Benzales, Martinez. Yes, I am being a bit lazy with the names, but hey, let's just say that in the 'In Service'-verse Coil's mercenaries are from Mexico and South America. It doesn't change anything materially about the story but it's also a funny headcanon. BTW, Yes, Martinez is a reference to Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, hence why he was so chromed out.

It probably doesn't need spelling out but yes, Coil did pick the timeline in which he was simply in the office doing some PRT Consultant stuff, only to get a hatchet to the back as soon as he did so. 'Burying the hatchet' because yes funny pun.