I sat on the edge of a building's roof, staring down at the street. This was pretty normal for me, in my endeavors to copy skills off random people.

Today, I had a specific target in mind: A street performer. The infamous "Living Statue." He stood completely still, not a muscle moving. It was truly incredible.

Through my Sharingan, that unmatchable skill became mine.

My phone rang, distracting me from my hobby. Tattletale was calling.

"Hey, Lisa! How'd—"

"Pain," Lisa's weak and scratchy voice interrupted. "Need extraction. Somer's Rock. Now."

She hung up. I took that to mean things had not gone well.

Somer's Rock was on fire. And on ice. And on glass?

The pub was fucked. No doubt Bakuda's work. I flew over as a crow, searching for Tattletale. I spotted various capes: Empire, Merchants, and even Faultline's Crew loading into vehicles and fleeing the scene.

I found the Undersiders lying in a nearby alley, shivering. Tattletale, Regent, and Grue. I swooped down and dropped my transformation, landing with the group. All of their heads snapped toward mine, though only Lisa's reaction was visible.

She did not look good. Her eyes were bloodshot, her face pale, and her body wracked with shivers. Despite that, she still managed a small smile.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Bakuda." She responded. "Attacked. Hit us with a pain bomb."

I reached out with an illusion, investigating her nerves. I'm not exactly a medic, but Regent's insight into the human body gave me enough experience to know that they probably weren't supposed to feel like they took a metaphysical sledgehammer. I snagged both Regent and Tattletale in a genjutsu, attempting to numb their nerves.

To my surprise, it worked. I thought the lingering aftershocks of pain might prevent it, but luckily for the pair, they seemed to be under the threshold.

"Thanks, dude, you're a lifesaver," Regent sighed in relief. Tattletale's brow furrowed, now free from the aftereffects and able to think.

"I'll need to see your eyes to help you," I told Grue.

"How can I trust you?" the demon-masked man asked.

I slipped my face mask down. "I'll show you mine if you show me yours."

Grue's fists clenched and his body language displayed uncertainty. Well, and agony, but I already knew that.

"Grue, just do it," Tattletale grumbled. "He's fine."

Grue removed his mask and I got a good look at Brian for the first time. When he opened his eyes, I numbed his sore nerves like the rest.

I turned back to Tattletale. "What happened?"

"I'll tell you once we get to the car. Follow me."

The Undersiders finally stood up, able to ignore their pain. Grue slipped his mask back on and all three began to stagger out the alleyway. I changed back into a crow, flying up and perching on Regent's shoulder. Lisa stared at me transforming, comprehension dawning in her eyes.

The three slunk to a nearby vehicle, climbing in and starting the engine. Grue drove, Tattletale took shotgun, and Regent and I got the back seats. I hopped off Regent's shoulder and returned to my own body.

"Give me a second," Tattletale waved us off, "Gotta do some analysis."

Grue drove in silence, leaving me and Regent to talk in the back.

"Damn. This is one hell of a painkiller. Can't feel my face," Regent mused. "We can still move though, so you didn't disconnect our nerves. How'd you manage this?"

"Sensory replacement. Replacing the sore nerve feeling with the absence of feeling."

"Makes sense," Regent had an epiphany. "Can you get people high?"

I blinked. "Maybe?"

"Try inducing euphoria in me. Take it slow, though. I'm hoping for a hell of a body high to make up for how shit I feel."

We locked eyes and I gave it a shot, slowly ramping up the feelings of relaxation and euphoria throughout the nervous system.

"Ooh, yeah. That's nice, leave it like that" Regent hummed contentedly. "Really helps. Hey Tats, you want some of this?"

"You can't just offer him up to people." Lisa turned back to look at us. "Alright, I think I got it figured out."

"What the hell happened?" Grue finally spoke up, not taking his eyes off the road.

"Bakuda, obviously," Lisa sniffed. "The people who broke into Somer's weren't there willingly. Probably conscripts. The explosions originated from their bodies, so it looks like we figured out what the ABB's been doing with those missing people."

"Who got hit?" I inquired curiously. I wouldn't be too sad if some Nazis got caught in the crossfire.

"Hard to say," she frowned. "It was pretty sudden. Othalla, Victor, and Mush got glassed. Our Coil body double was incinerated. Faultline's group was fine."

"So we won't be getting any help from her," I nodded. "She'll want to keep out."

"Probably," Lisa sighed. "We might be able to convince her that an attack on neutral ground was an attack on her, but I doubt it'll work." She flinched, suddenly wracked with pain. "Fuck! Headache stopped the numbing."

She popped open the glove box, retrieved a bottle of pills, and popped one into her mouth. Thinker headaches can break illusions? Good to know.

"Victor and Othalla dead is big," I mused. "The Empire would survive losing Victor, but Othalla is their healer."

"Yeah, dude. Kaiser'll be pissed!" Alec giggled.

"Shut up, Regent," Grue grumbled. "You're high."

"It's a declaration of war," Lisa agreed. "The ABB is willing to use unwilling conscripts as human bombs. That's gonna get them a kill order."

"Not before they've already done the damage," Grue grumbled. "Brockton is going to be hell on earth."

"The Empire and PRT will fight our war for us." I decided. "We should focus on crippling the ABB so they can clean up."

"Oh? We breaking legs?" Regent asked eagerly.

"Bakuda's," Lisa decided. "The ABB wouldn't be able to do this without Tinker assistance. No chance. Which means they're going to hide her away. We can check the base you and Hive found, but chances are she's going to be shuffled between locations."

"I think we should keep an eye out for more missing people," I suggested. "I'm almost certain she's going for more and if we find where people are getting bombs put in them, we probably find where those bombs are coming from."

"Right," she agreed. "I'll keep you updated."

"Great," I replied. "I've got to go tell Hive. Oh, and see if she has a deadman's switch. That tends to be a theme with mad bombers."

I rolled down the window, transformed into a crow, and flew out of the car. As I flew away, I managed to catch the faintest whisper of their conversation.

"Lisa," Grue growled. "When were you going to tell me that we're working with vigilantes?"

"Are you sure they're ok?" Taylor asked worriedly over the phone.

"They are," I assured her. "We'll go back to Bakuda's hideout tonight, but Tattletale thinks she'll be gone."

"Good. And if she's there?"

"Alert the PRT, unless there's a guaranteed shot at snatching her myself."

"Alright," Taylor sighed. "As if Brockton wasn't dangerous enough already."

"Yeah, about that. If she's willing to attack neutral ground and civilians, she might be willing to attack a school. If you tell your dad, he'd probably be willing to cover for you not showing up."

"Huh. That's… terrifying. But you're right. If I do that, are we going to fight the ABB?"

"Yeah. Not directly, but through intelligence. We'll sweep through buildings, find any ABB locations, and send all of it to the PRT. If we try and fight anyone directly, there's always the chance of a bomb going off. Worst case scenario: we die a horrible death. Best case scenario: at least one civilian dies and the PRT uses it to portray us as reckless. The middle ground is the PRT trying to pressure us into joining them as a result."

"And if anything goes wrong when the PRT does it, they take the heat," Taylor connected.

"Exactly!" I cheered. "You've been getting better at understanding the public image parts of the job. Besides, neither of us knows how to defuse a bomb or do surgery, let alone bomb defusal surgery. Hmm, I should've learned how to do surgery. And bomb defusal, now that I think of it. I got distracted, I suppose."

"It's fine, don't blame yourself for not knowing bomb defusal surgery. That's a little ridiculous to ask you to learn on a whim."

"Yeah, but…" I barely stopped myself from saying 'I knew this would happen.'' It felt a little wrong to keep hiding things from her, but you can't argue with operational security. I'd need good biological science skills if I ever wanted to try medical Ninjutsu, not that I had any clue how to perform any of the techniques. "It feels like something I should've done. Surgery is the closest thing to healing someone I can do. Anyway, we'll meet up later tonight, alright?"

Bakuda's base was empty. I cursed.

"Entirely cleared out," Taylor frowned. "The other ABB sites are still here. There's a couple more people than last time. Do you want to go and see it yourself?"

"For all we know she's rigged it to blow."

"Oh. Right."

The war started as the sun fell. The ABB began to move, sending explosive civilians into PRT and Empire territory alike. It was grimly amusing that they didn't bother with Merchant territory.

We crept through that territory with ease. As a crow I could watch from the sky, and Taylor's awareness through her bugs let her stay out of sight at all times. Every few minutes we'd find a bathroom or corner to hide in and compare notes, compiling details and forwarding them to the PRT.

The Protectorate was scrambling to protect their borders and push back. We saw various capes as we moved through the town, mostly long-range ones, taking down genuine and conscripted ABB members alike.

The Empire and PRT must have come to a mutual nonaggression agreement. The few times we saw the groups meet, they joined to take down the threat and then immediately left after the conflict was over.

That's happening now, as Triumph and Kaiser worked together to restrain groups of people. It's odd to see someone with incredible moral virtue working with the scum of the earth. Fenja and Menja were there as well, protecting their boss.

Triumph corralled people with blasts of sound while Kaiser created cages of metal to restrain ABB combatants. They were a surprisingly capable team. Kaiser still had to make The Empire look good, so he couldn't go around killing civilians.

Taylor froze. "Oh, no. That's Oni Lee."

I whirled my head around, searching for him. Indeed, Oni Lee was approaching the battle, teleporting from rooftop to rooftop. Every hop left behind a clone of himself that eventually disintegrated. He couldn't see us, we were too far away and hidden.

Through my Sharingan, I got a more detailed look at the process by tracking the parahuman 'veins' I could see. Oni Lee himself teleported instantly, his true body switching to his new clone. The clones left behind were constructs, not truly Oni Lee, but he left a bit of himself in the clone to puppet it.

That bit of him disintegrated with the clone.

Damn, I wish I knew the clone technique. All I've managed is my redneck-engineered transformation technique. I'm a bit scared to try it if I risk something like that.

"We have to stop him," Taylor decided.

I've seen Oni Lee fight before: he's brutal. And now he's armed with Tinkertech. This was probably an assassination attempt on Kaiser. That made me conflicted; All I had to do was nothing and I might be rid of Kaiser.

But Triumph was at risk too. Fuck.

"His power is based on line of sight," I told Taylor. "He's never teleported behind himself, not even when it would be advantageous."

"Got it," she confirmed, beginning to gather her swarm.

"He's a bad matchup for me," I admitted. "I can't see through the cloth covering his eyes on that mask, not yet. And in melee, he just has to detonate himself once."

"Don't worry about it," Taylor said confidently. "I can handle this."

Her swarm reached Oni Lee as he popped up on the roof nearest to Kaiser, drawing the gazes of the nearby capes. Her bugs engulfed his head. Smart. She's targeting the cloth over his eyes to give me a line of sight for Genjutsu.

Oni Lee screamed. The swarm dispersed to reveal empty eye sockets.

God damn it, Taylor. I suddenly felt very self-conscious about my own eyes.

I got us the hell out of there, picking up Taylor and bolting. No way I'm sticking around Triumph after accessory to mutilation, even if it's Oni Lee.

"Taylor, you could've just gotten rid of the cloth over his eyes," I told her. "I could've caught him in an illusion, then."

"Bakuda got Lung out of PRT custody, Lung and Bakuda could get him back out. Removing his eyes prevents him from using his powers, making him a non-issue."

I looked closer at her head, watching her connections to her bugs.

"Taylor, are you shunting your mind to your swarm?"

"I am. It allows me to think clearly at all times. I will continue to do this until I am back at home."

"What do you think people will do when they hear about you eating a guy's eyes?"

"We have little public presence to mitigate consequences of cape activities."

"Taylor, how do you think Triumph will react to that?"

She finally paused. "Call me Hive in my costume," she avoided the question.

I sighed. "Taylor, please drop the emotional suppression. Not having emotional feedback seems to be messing with your ability to interact with people. I know you're better at this than that."

Her shoulders slumped and a shiver went through her body. "Oh. I ate his eyes out. I felt them eat his eyes."

"It's alright," I shook my head. "You weren't technically wrong. You've stopped him from being a problem. I think going hyperlogical can cause some issues. Would you stick to using it in active combat, not during planning?"

"Yeah," she shakily responded.

"I think we should head back," I decided. "We've caused enough problems for the ABB today."

I woke up to a message from Dinah the next morning.

I'm sorry, but Rory wants me to stop helping you.

There goes my precog support. If I dump a ton of chakra into my Sharingan Genjutsu, I could probably force her to respond to questions. That's a last resort, though, not something I plan to do. I can live without a precog.

It still sucked. But what the heroes can't provide, the villains can.

I called Taylor. "Get ready. We're dealing with Bakuda today."

"I've tracked Bakuda down to this district," Lisa explained. "This is where all the bombs come from."

The district in question was deeply in ABB territory. The pictures she brought showed it was heavily guarded.

"The PRT probably won't be able to deal with this," I realized. "They're too busy on the front lines. Getting enough capes here to tackle Bakuda's home base isn't an option."

"It gets better." She dropped a photo down: a photo of a massive man with a dragon mask, standing outside of one of the buildings in the area. "It's also where Lung set up shop."

"Shit," I cursed. "What the hell do we do about this?"

"Well, I have a plan," she grinned. "See, today is Showa Day."

"I know. I'm Japanese, you know?"

"So is Bakuda, apparently. Seems like her family made a tradition of it. She's requested various eel-based street foods and six dancers to do some traditional dances while she eats. Your mission is simple: watch the dancers practice, replace one of them before they go in, and pretend to be a dancer to get close to Bakuda." Her grin turned smug, the same smile I'd already copied. "You can copy things you see, right?"

"Won't they implant a bomb in me?"

"The dancers already have bombs in them. It's why I've got this." She pulled out a canister. "Coil had some Tinkertech knockout gas in his armory. It's invisible, odorless, and will put someone to sleep for a day before they notice a thing. Just open it in the same room as them with a gas mask on. It'll go inert after a few seconds."

She handed me a slip of paper with an address, a gas mask, a covert in-ear receiver, and a radio. "Feel free to keep the equipment, it's practically untraceable. Very short range, though. Call it thanks for showing up at Somer's Rock, even if you didn't have to do anything. Now get going, you don't have all day!"

I met with Taylor at the address, which was a small dance studio about a block away from the ABB's fortress. We moved there slowly, hopping from roof to roof only when we determined through Taylor's bugs that all was clear.

It was a single-purpose building with multiple studio rooms, though only one was in use. Active war must be bad for business. As usual, Taylor mapped the place out before infiltration, providing me with a path through a hole in the roof.

I turned into a dragonfly, using its superior mobility to dart through the building with ease. The ventilation system was a lot cheaper than Coil's, allowing me to slip in and out of rooms unimpeded. I made it to the room with the dancers, who idly chatted in Japanese while going through a routine dance.

All of them were dressed in elaborate orange and white Kimonos and heavily covered in make-up. They all seemed relatively friendly to one another, aside from one of the girls. She rarely spoke, and when she did she was professional and slightly shy.

A perfect target. It's a lot easier to imitate someone who speaks very little.

I watched them practice from a vent, learning the dances and routines. Every once in a while, one would excuse themself to the bathroom. Eventually, it was my target who did so.

I buzzed my way over to the women's restroom, climbing my little buggy body out of the grate as she entered and walked into a stall. I dispelled my henge, silently dropping to the ground and equipping my provided gas mask. I waited till she finished doing her business, opened the knockout gas canister, and waited.

A small thump came from the stall, which I slipped under to investigate. She'd fallen to the ground, completely unconscious.

Taylor's voice spoke in my ear, able to radio me now that I'd returned to humanity. "Take out the bag of the trash can, stick her in, and put the bag over her. Nobody will find her."

"Jesus Christ, Taylor."

"It's not that bad!" She defended herself. "She'd have the bag stopping everything from touching her."

She was right, unfortunately. I quickly studied her, transforming into a perfect copy, kimono and all. Then I stuck her under the trash.

I returned to the practice, blending in seamlessly. Maintaining the appearance of a shy, professional woman is mostly just body language: the easiest thing for me to copy.

Eventually, a group of men in ABB colors walked in. All the girls went silent.

"Follow me," a Korean man spoke in English, and we followed.

Security was surprisingly light. The most we got was a pat-down inspection after our bomb scars were seen. A couple of the girls got groped, but the people doing grunt work also had bombs in them and therefore a modicum of sympathy for us.

We were led into a small courtyard with a stage. In front of the stage was a couch and table, the table piled full of eel dishes. On the couch sat Bakuda and Lung.

Shit.

"Keep your cover!" Taylor hissed. "I'm sorry I missed this. I had to move to get in range."

We walked up to the stage, beginning our dance routine. Bakuda occasionally watched us, but seemed more interested in eating food and relaxing. She spent most of her time ordering people around like slaves. Lung sat unmoving, simply watching everything around him.

We completed our scene and politely bowed. I'll need to act before this opportunity is wasted.

"You," Lung pointed at me. "Follow me."

Had he figured me out?

I walked off the stage, doing my best to keep my composure. Lung rose from the seat and walked towards a building, leaving Bakuda to party. It's the perfect opportunity, though. If I split them up, I have a better chance of getting Bakuda.

Best play along. I followed Lung into the building, up a flight of stairs, and down a hallway.

"Ahh, what do you want with me?" I asked, keeping up my confused and shy act as we neared the end of the hallway, a window at the end displaying the setting sun.

"You were the least scared," Lung stated, opening the door and entering the room. "I'm going to fuck you now."

I jumped out of the window. I broke through the glass, my transformation dispelling as I jumped down into the courtyard. Bakuda whirled around in confusion, meeting my eyes as she looked at the sudden noise. Unfortunately for her, I could see her eyes through her gas mask. She froze, trapped in a world of illusions: a world completely devoid of any sensory input.

You don't have to worry about dealing with the nervous system or targeting parts of the brain with Tinkers. Their powers have no way of directly affecting the real world, so just dumping chakra into their brains is plenty. I wouldn't have been able to do that a month ago, though, so my visual prowess and chakra are developing wonderfully.

I scooped her up and began to run before anyone managed to pull a gun on me. People finally responded as I crossed the courtyard, beginning to fire. My eyes darted around as I weaved and ducked Bakuda and I around bullets, before jumping up to the nearest roof.

Lung threw a fireball at me as he leaped from the shattered window, charging after me. The sun shining at the window made seeing more difficult for his inferior regular human vision, causing him to miss me entirely. Lung continued to grow and rage, but I was already gone.

Taylor used some flies to direct me to her location. I arrived, scooping her over my other shoulder. She held tightly onto the radio as it jostled against my back, shaken as I darted from ABB territory as fast as I could.

I made my way to the coastline, hijacking a boat. Illegal? Absolutely. But when I'm getting Bakuda herself to the Rig, the souped-up oil rig they used as a base? The place safest from Lung, surrounded by ocean?

I think they'll tolerate a bit of hijacking. Turns out that learning how to hotwire cars was useful.

Multiple PRT boats pulled up before we got halfway there, surrounding us and frantically talking into radios. I killed the engine, picking Bakuda up and displaying her inert body.

A moment later, another boat pulled up. Miss Militia and Armsmaster sat in the back other piloted the boat, watching us as they approached.

They pulled up alongside us. "Is that really Bakuda?" Armsmaster asked.

"It is," I confirmed. "I just kidnapped her from under Lung's nose. I apologize for the mess it will cause, but I believed it was necessary."

"You did the right thing," Miss Militia decided. "Without Oni Lee or Bakuda, they have no way to make any more bombs."

"The problem will be Brockton Bay surviving the collapse," Armsmaster pointed out.

"I'll try to deal with Lung later," I told them. "I can't rush it, though."

"Are you willing to take a statement this time?" Miss Militia asked.

I laughed. "No."

"Very well," she sighed. "We appreciate the intel you gave us yesterday. You saved a lot of people."

"Just doing our job," Taylor interjected.

Miss Militia looked at her in surprise. I realized this was the first time she'd heard Taylor speak in person. I moved to hand Bakuda to them, pulling their attention away from her. Armsmaster reached out and took her from my arms.

I restarted the boat and turned us around. As we left, I deactivated my Sharingan. God, my eyes hurt.

We returned to the coastline and I tied the boat back down. I did damage the boat getting into the wiring, so I left a small pile of twenties, a few hundred dollars. It was a pretty shitty boat, it should be plenty.

Taylor stood tall as she stepped out of the boat. I could see it in her posture. Right now, she was Hive, the cape that just helped spell the end of the ABB. She stood strong, ready to take on the world. If life gave her lemons, she would feed them to her ravenous swarm.

Life challenged her back.

We heard a thump behind us. The tide suddenly retreated, and the boat we left dropped to the ground with a small thud. We looked out to the sea, spotting the dark clouds of an approaching storm in the distance. The Endbringer sirens rang.

A/N: I love reviews!