The plot marches on, even through other eyes.


Some of the stuff that Calvert says is… not great, and I just want to make it clear that his views are not representative of mine.

Also, I am not a lawyer or other legal professional, and while I might have a little information more than normal about the internal workings of a school district, I'm not an actual school administrator so what I say is probably not super accurate to real life. (Ah, saying this disclaimer reminds me of the Good Old Implacable days.)


Thomas Calvert was… concerned.

Oh, he'd never admit to it, to anyone he wasn't imminently about to kill at least, but it was true.

Taylor Hebert was causing him problems, in multiple ways.

Piggot's response to her existence was obviously not great for his plans, but it was… manageable, if not perfect. He just had to get himself on record as against the course of action she was taking and he'd have maneuvered himself into a good position to take over as ENE's director once her tower of cards fell.

She was also talking with New Wave, potentially strengthening their capabilities, which would need to be carefully managed, going forwards.

The most direct was that she existed as a free agent, and one with such limited information about her abilities available to boot.

That wasn't for lack of trying, mind you. He'd made his efforts to elicit reactions from her, to take his own measure of her abilities (in throwaway timelines. He's no idiot), but… well, it hadn't worked out. The first time, he'd gotten… something, but it was some sort of odd sensory effect, as reported by his mercenaries in PRT uniforms, combined with the sounds of insects and some sort of energy blasts, before they started screaming. He had dropped that timeline quite quickly.

He had managed to track her on her visit to Vista and Quarrel, fortunately, but that just brought up more questions. The armor was… an odd costuming choice, given the presence of the Empire 88 in the city and the runic markings on said armor, but given the fact that his watchers had noted the presence of what looked to be some sort of hovering runic sigils (futhark, from all reports) before she activated what seemed to be a Mover effect, given that she covered much more ground than should be possible.

It was likely a highly versatile ability similar to Eidolon's, then, given the scope of abilities she had demonstrated, which was… worrying. His plans for the city were… robust, yes, but not robust enough to handle the bumbling interference of a child with delusions of grandeur and the parahuman equivalent of a nuclear warhead strapped to her fist.

Her involvement with Shadow Stalker's civilian identity shouldn't have been a problem… except for the fact that Piggot had decided to take the position that she should bury anything she could about her Trigger event. He'd had to scheme for almost a week to get permission to approach her over Vista, and that only worked because Piggot didn't trust parahumans as far as she, in all her disabled, out-of-shape-lack-of-glory, and her personal biases let him smooth-talk her into investigating the Hebert girl.

Of course, since he'd… well, he didn't panic, he didn't, but the fact that he'd pulled back in both timelines meant that he had to investigate her again, and… well, apparently Panacea was sandbagging far more than he had been aware, given the way that she grabbed two of his mercenaries and they practically exploded into chunks of bloody viscera.

Given the circumstances, he felt justified in ending his assault on the hospital before the rest of New Wave arrived, even if he had managed to put down Panacea and failed to get more information about Taylor Hebert than her ability to escape the hospital on lockdown. Even if they weren't hiding any additional powers like Panacea, they were far more likely to reply violently over the death of their publicity cash cow than over the mid-tier Shaker who was already pulling away from New Wave.

He didn't see the bloodstained hand before it grabbed his ankle, blood corroding through his suit somehow. It barely got to his flesh before he felt something squirming within his chest.

The rupturing of the first something in his chest was only the first by random chance, since a number of other things burst at almost the same time, ending the timeline and making him realize that Panacea was a solid contender for the most dangerous cape in the city if she had somehow managed to survive multiple bullets directly to the head.

This was… a problem, in so many ways.

He almost didn't notice the report of Hebert's lawyer showing up, in the timeline where he'd stayed in his base, although in retrospect he would wish he had. The involvement of Aides Truth would inevitably have led to his own discovery, had his hand not been tipped thanks to Odin's- well. That is for another time, now, isn't it?


Aides Truth, as he went by nowadays, was… somewhat concerned.

Not for himself, no. Direct applications of power aside, he'd amassed enough soft power over the years to all but guarantee that any person foolish enough to go after him would find themselves very swiftly out of a job, if the magnitude of their act was not sufficient to require his… direct retaliation.

No, he was concerned for Odin's successor.

She might have been being relatively discreet, for human standards, but even if he hadn't been able to see Odin's spirit offering her advice just as Mimir had for the Allfather, he had more than enough experience spotting godlings to catch this one, especially since she was well on her way to apotheosis, albeit not nearly close enough to have the protections of the Runes' favor.

Not nearly close enough to properly deal with the kind of timeline manipulation that Coil favored.

That kind of brute-force quantum bridging was likely all that could be wrested from the mind of a dying god (and there was no mistaking it for anything but stolen knowledge, not when it was that sloppily done) and was easily seen through, but the kid hadn't grown into her power enough to use any of the simpler methods of bridging timelines.

He was just thankful that, for all that power could be used for, Coil seemed content to play puppetmaster in a small town.

Of course, the man's small ambitions were still enough to present problems, especially since he had his hooks sunk deep into local government. That was actually why he was taking action at all: Odin's kid had gotten the eye of the PRT in a bad way, and he was more than willing to help her out when they were brazen enough to approach her in the middle of the hospital after being attacked at her school.

It took some convincing to let him past the front desk to her room since the PRT had already gone in, but after a few invocations of his position as her lawyer, as well as the presence of her father (who had, fortunately enough, arrived at about the same time as him) to vouch for him, had managed to get him into the room.

As he entered, flicking the voice recorder in his pocket on, he absently took note of Panacea in the right-hand corner, glaring at the PRT troopers looming over the girl looking too small in the bed.

"-a simple question, kid. Just tell us what happened on the third, and we'll be out of your hair." The trooper's voice seemed calm, on the surface, but there was an edge of irritation in his voice that spoke to how hard either Coil or Piggot was leaning on them for results.

He took the barest of instants to reach out across the fading link to the recently-abandoned timeline and register a pile dead ex-Coil on the floor and Panacea laying hands on Taylor, knitting together a pair of bullet wounds in her arm, put a number of conclusions together about Coil's gambit, then refocused on the task at hand.

"What in the name of Mike are you doing?" asked Truth, crossing his arms.

The three troopers all turned at once, hands twitching towards their sidearms. "Sir," said the one standing over Taylor, "this is a PRT matter, Mr…"

"Aides Truth, Esquire," he replied. "Next to me is Danny Hebert, father of that teenager you're interrogating with just an underage medical intern in the room. No offense, Panacea." The edge in his voice disappeared with the last sentence.

"None taken, sir," replied the New Wave cape, still pressed against the wall.

"Good. Now then," he said, turning his focus back to the troopers, "you can tell me what you're doing interrogating a minor without a parent or legal guardian present in a hospital, of all places."

"Standard PRT Procedure, sir," the trooper lied. "We keep abreast of police systems for potential persons of interest, then under certain circumstances like this one we try to get in touch with them about the situation in question."

"In that case," said Truth, keeping an iron grip of his powers to prevent them from acting up, "why were you asking about the incident on the 3rd of January now, when she's in the hospital for a separate issue?"

Truth could see it put the troopers on the back foot, but the self-appointed spokesperson recovered admirably. "That I cannot talk about due to an ongoing internal PRT investigation."

Truth's eyebrows rose. "Is that so. In that case, we'll have it out in court, since you decided to drag my client into it. If you have nothing else to say here, then I suggest that you leave."

"If you insist," said the trooper, jerking his chin up. They left, albeit not without their faceless helmets lingering on Truth for a moment.

He turned to Taylor, offering a shade of a nod to Odin on the opposite side of Taylor as Panacea on his way. "Are you okay?" asked Truth.

"Well enough," said Taylor, hints of her predecessor's warrior temperament showing through in her voice. "Thank you for showing up so quickly, Mr. Truth."

"Of course, kid," he replied. "Once Panacea gets you cleared, go home and take a break. I assume that a police report has been filed based on what the troopers said?"

Taylor nodded. "Yeah, I said that I was attacked on school grounds by Sophia Hess again, and denied medical treatment at school."

"In that case, we should be able to have a case for having the school shut down. Do not go to school tomorrow, I should be able to get a judge to sign off on some kind of intervention within a few days." Truth turned to Panacea. "Call me if any legal issues come from this situation and Brandish is unable to help. Your mother should have my contact information, but if not, the Heberts should be able to reach me."

The tired-looking young woman nodded. "Thank you for the offer, sir."

"Thank you again for all your help, Mr. Truth," said Danny Hebert, nodding to the Greek-looking lawyer.

"Of course. I'll be in touch once I have a date for preliminary court proceedings against Winslow. Have a great day," he replied, nodding to all of the people present in the room before departing. He paused on Panacea for a moment, registering her own burgeoning divinity, before continuing on his way out.

Interesting. He wasn't aware that she'd found godhood too.

In any event, he had things to do, both here and… elsewhere, both as part of his contract to Odin's kid and otherwise.

Hades exited the hospital, acknowledging Thanatos' presence with a pulse of mystical power, then continued on his way. Death never stopped, after all, and neither did its gods.


The Butcher folded their arms, glaring at the metal-clad fool in front of him. "Kaiser."

"So, you finally killed the Butcher, then, Leverage?" replied the Empire 88's leader, deceptively relaxed, with Krieg, Hookwolf, Crusader, and Stormtiger at his back.

The Butcher, standing alone, bared their teeth. "I did what you never could, kid," they replied, silvering hair catching the sunlight as they cocked their head and grinned, a feral, toothy expression under the faceguard that the Butchers had adopted three years before Jack Slash had driven them from Brockton Bay.

The Butcher saw Kaiser's lips thin through their bloodsight, metal armor doing nothing to block the parahuman sense. "Why are you in Brockton Bay, Butcher?"

"Oh, that?" The Butcher twitched violently, then fixed Kaiser with their glare. "We're here for the filthy traitor who abandoned us and tried to kill Hemorrhagia. No one betrays the Teeth, not if they want to survive."

"And you know that Quarrel is here." Both of them knew that to be the case, but it had to be said, for formality's sake.

"Yes. Don't worry, brat, your twig of Gesellschaft will be left completely undamaged, so long as you don't stand in our way."

Kaiser really only had one option here, having no way to properly counter the Butcher (and, to a lesser extent, Spree and Vex), that let him walk away from this meeting saving any degree of face.

"Very well then, Butcher. I grant you leave to hunt your wayward member in my city."

The Butcher smirked. "Most gracious of you. Don't worry, it should be a quick in and out operation. After all, Quarrel isn't exactly a threat to me."


Famous last words, Leverage.

Anyways, like I said last chapter, I started a (relatively) Fay-centric fanfic, I have two chapters of There Is No Death, There Is Only The Force up.

That's about it, so read, review, enjoy, and have a nice day!