I took a sip of a surprisingly good white tea. "Is it time?"

"It is," Lisa responded. "We're settled into our new territory nicely. Empire's morale isn't looking too good, but there's always a number of Nazis willing to die for their beliefs. A lot of them are the remnants of Fenrir's, surprisingly. My best guess is that traumatizing someone with a look is a pretty good way to convince them that you're a demon who needs to be slain."

"Wait, really?" Alex snickered. "They think he's Satan?"

"A few do. Indra, are there any people you cranked the trauma meter a little higher than you should have?"

"A few," I admitted. "Mostly the ones that go for headshots."

"Protective of those eyes, huh?" Lisa leered. "And a bad history with headshots in particular? Interesting…"

"Asking for a ride on the trauma coaster with that attitude."

Lisa snorted. "You wouldn't. Maybe you'll make me think I'm a horse again, but you want me to run this meeting."

"I like creative solutions to problems." I induced the constant sensation of needing to sneeze. "Have fun with that. It'll end when the meeting does."

Her nose scrunched up. "You bastard. Ugh. Alright, I'll wrap it up quickly. The Empire isn't going to start any major conflicts at the moment, but they aren't going to play nicely. Small, short raids. Supply lines. A lot of propaganda. We could start an invasion of our own, but it wouldn't be too fun. They've been building up for that, and we'd lose a lot of manpower to traps and explosives. Either way, at the end of the day they're a cape-based organization. We blow open the roof and the rain floods the building. I see two ways to give us a chance: either we watch and wait for one of them to join a conflict or you seek them out now, aiming for the upper rung."

"Oh, we seek them out now," I said, a tinge of malice in my grin. "I've been looking forward to thisb and I've been preparing something special."

"Can't wait to see it. You've got three targets. Purity, Krieg, and Fog. The rest of their capes are fodder and not involved much in management. Purity is the head in the same sense you are: she's got the most firepower so everyone says yes when she comes knocking. Try to avoid being vaporized. Krieg actually runs the operation, but he's been secretly looking to cash out and join back up with Gesellschaft. He stops being a problem if we wait for a couple of days, but you could go after him if you want. Last, there's Fog. He's more of a tool than a person. Him and his wife were bought from Gesellschaft. Subdue him before he can go fogmode." Lisa sneezed in relief. "And that's all the business you needed to deal with today."

"Great! See you later!" I flickered away.

Krieg, publicly a pharmaceutical CEO, had a very nice house. Not as nice as Lisa's, but more upper class than most of the upper class. He came home to his lovely house after a long, hard day of raising insulin prices, skimming money off cancer cure research funds, or whatever else a pharma CEO does.

He froze as he entered his living room, but it wasn't a reaction of shock. It was an unfortunate consequence of looking right at my face, trying to identify the individual currently occupying his favorite armchair.

I got the feeling he didn't like the answer, but he didn't have the liberty of expressing that anymore.

I darted out of the chair and poked his forehead with two fingers charged with chakra, snapping his head back and snapping him out of the genjutsu. He tried to make a run for it, only to trip on air as his body started to seize up. He hissed and tried to reach for his forehead where a small black dot slowly spread, only to fail as those limbs also failed him.

After a moment of writhing, the black dot started to form into a shape: A swastica. The spasms faltered as the symbol set in, branding his forehead with the black tattoo. I would've gone for the arm, so that he could literally wear his allegiance on his sleeve, but his cape outfit did that already. Better to put it where he couldn't hide it.

I forced him to see what his new forehead looked like with a quick application of genjutsu, then grinned as sinisterly as I could muster. "Like it? Best get used to it. It may look surface level, but that thing's wired into you brain and nervous system like you wouldn't believe. Those muscle spasms weren't for show, you know?"

"What did you do?" He gasped out.

"Well, usually I'm not one to explain my tricks, but since you'll be living with this for the rest of your life I'm willing to play ball. That lovely thing is something called a 'cursed seal' that I've developed as your punishment. It's a simple system: you wish harm upon someone and you get to experience what that would feel like. Go on, think about how satisfying it would be to blow my brains out."

Krieg cried out in pain and clutched his head, forced to experience the presumably agonizing sensation of his skull being blown open from a bullet.

I laughed. "Ah, it's just how I imagined it. Congratulations, Krieg. Have fun being a pacifist. Oh, and try not to think about the holocaust. I don't think you could handle that. Or do, it might be a good change of perspective."

He fell unconsious pretty quickly.

The next home I visited was Purity's. Much like the last, her home didn't have anything that reeked of Nazi affiliation. A quick glance through her walls showed me what she was up to, eating a family meal with her son and daughter.

I interrupted their meal by flickering onto the table, landing in a crouch. My eyes bored directly into her own, completely paralyzing her.

Her son let out a strangled gasp and jumped in his seat. I turned my head to try and paralyze him, but he'd already purposefully turned his head away from me. He was trying to rise from his seat and grab his phone. Another flicker and a jab of medical ninjutsu left him temporarily paralyzed from the neck down.

"Good instincts on you, I'll give you that," I commented to the paralyzed boy. "What's your name, again?"

"Theo," Theo grunted.

"Sorry Theo, but I'm afraid your mom is a Nazi. I'm here to take some corrective action."

"She's not really one," he frowned. "What are you going to do to her?"

"This," I grinned, jabbing a cursed seal onto her forehead, and adopted a saccharine tone to my voice. "And what, was she just following orders?" A scoff left my throat. "Regardless, she's a figurehead. An attack on her is an attack on the Empire."

Theo looked rather terrified at the sight of his spasming mother, but retained his composure quicker than I was expecting.

"What's happening to her?"

I grimaced. "Ugh. It's annoying to have to explain it again. I think of it as... enforced pacifism. She's forced to experience any act of violence she wishes on someone."

I abruptly leaned to the side, narrowly avoiding a blast of light that would have hit my chest. Instead it only clipped my shoulder, searing the flesh down to bone and punching through her roof. Almost instantly after, the woman was curled up into a ball and screaming, clutching her chest like it was on fire. I quickly flickered over to Purity and poked her in the neck with my still fully functional arm, knocking her out. The baby started crying.

"Looks like it's in full effect. Congrats, your mom is no longer suitable to run The Empire. Have a good life, Theo. Try not to be a Nazi."

I flickered away.

Now, for the interesting one. I've got a bit of time before Theo or Purity can send any warnings, and a bit of a task ahead of me.

I found Fog at his home, by his bathroom mirror, brushing his teeth. I broke in and flickered behind him, catching his eye through the mirror. Once his nervous system was on lockdown, I turned his head toward my own. Our eyes inches apart, I began a deep-dive into his cranium.

It took a bit of digging and a lot of verbal feedback, but I quickly realized that Fog's mental state was less of a brainwashing situation, and more of a psychological power-washing followed by an artificially induced cognitive structure. How exactly it was implemented was a mystery to me outside the obvious answer of 'parahuman power,' but digging around in his head was giving me some good idea fuel for the worst-case scenario where I need to start making sleeper agents.

I shattered and stripped away conditioning as I ripped through his psyche, saving a more precise touch for later. It was incredibly layered brainwashing that fed into routine that fed his conditioning that had a tendency to loop back around to brainwashing: almost nothing that resembled a normal human.

At the very core of it was something I liked to call the 'trauma ball.' I had some difficulty discerning what exactly the trauma ball is, but the trauma aspect of it was loud and clear. Years of repression and brainwashing reduced it to an old, but foundational experience. Core to his identity, it was the experience his brainwashing was founded on, but the only real psychological impact directly tied to it was a lingering dislike of needles.

I decided to pop that bubble.

Turns out that erasing someone's foundational experience and ripping out everything tied to that isn't very good for their psychological stability. Thankfully, decimating Fog's psychological stability is a pretty good way to remove all that Nazi brainwashing nonsense.

After chiseling out his 'personality,' I started to rebuild. Unfortunately, I don't know how to build a personality from scratch. I shoved in a rough understanding of human nature and society, topping it off with a few encyclopedias and a college-level education in biology and physics as a parting gift.

All-in-all, it took about five minutes. I burnt a bit of chakra into Omoikane to see what I needed to round out the base of his being, then cut our connection.

Fog's eyes fluttered open, then screwed up in confusion. "Who are you? Where am I? Who am I?"

"You're in your house, the house of Geoff Schmidt. That's legally your name, and you should have a pretty comfy sum of cash you can access online with it. Who you are is a bit more difficult… because I've basically just erased that. Sorry."

"What?" He seemed baffled, but simultaneously slightly upset. Pretty normal reactions to being told your self-identity has been erased.

"Yeah. You were a brainwashed Nazi slave. Cape known as Fog, working for the Nazi cape gang known as The Empire. I'm realizing I probably should have added in the political and cape situation of Brockton Bay, I think you'll figure it out soon enough."

"And you? Who are you?"

I smiled. "I think you'll figure it out. I'm not as covert as I used to be."

He didn't look very comforted.

"Anyway, I've got to go. I recommend you start moving some money—Actually, there's a guy I recommend, called The Number Man, let me write his contact info down for you—and find a motel or someplace to hole up. Your associates aren't going to be very happy if they show up and instead of a merciless killer they find a confused man who hasn't figured out how to use his powers again."

I flicked the quickly scribbled note at the man, then flickered away.

"I'm back," I said as I teleported back into the meeting room, "Oh, hey Taylor! Show up while I was out?"

"Yeah," she nodded.

"Cool. We're good to go, by the way. Purity and Kreig aren't going to be fighting, and Fog is having an identity crisis. "

"Great," Lisa grinned a rather nasty grin. "I'll get some people on it. Congratulations, we've taken over the Bay."

"How should we celebrate?" Alec asked. "I bribed Cherie into babysitting today, so I wanna make the most of it."

"I say a spa day," Lisa decided. "It'd be good for us. I'll rent out a place, set up some screens, and we'll just relax while Indra's clones do the dirty work."

"That does sound nice," Taylor admitted.

"And I like to treat myself… You in, In'?" Regent smiled at his shortening of my name.

"Yeah, why not?"

"Sick. We'll set up some screens and shit to watch your clones Make your clones do something entertaining while we watch. Like trickshots."

The spa wasn't really my thing, but everyone else seemed to enjoy being pampered. Alec especially, I think he likes the attention.

It was another almost ubiquitously Asian company in the heart of my territory. They were more than willing to rent out the entire place to us for as long as we needed it, another benefit of taking over after Lung. I did feel a little bad taking advantage of our positions, but once Lisa whipped out the checkbook and made a very generous offer, I stopped feeling that pressure.

At first, the employees did their best to pretend to not listen to our conversations and pointedly avoided watching the clone bodycams. Probably good instincts for dealing with most capes, but it's not like we were doing anything we didn't want people to see.

It was a damn good show for us, though. Front row seats to watch my clones break bones and mindfuck Nazis, relentlessly and ruthlessly scouring through Empire territory. Our casual attitude (aside from Lisa's usual snide insights) eventually got the workers watching the screens nearly as much as us, and eventually one was brave enough to speak.

"Excuse me, sir?"

"Yes?" I gave the woman a small smile.

"That man," she pointed at one of the screens, at a particular skinhead. "I know him. He attacked me and my mother, once."

"Ooh, looks like we have an invested spectator," Alec seemed mildly interested. "Tats, is she telling the truth?"

"Yep. He hurt her mother pretty badly, if I had to guess."

"Well then, I think the harmed party should have some say in his judgement," I offered, "What do you think is fair recompense? Broken bones, tormented by his worst fears, or an illusion of your choice? Feel free to be creative."

She considered the options while I scribbled a note, which I quickly slapped a teleportation seal on and sent to my clone. In a flash, the other me read the note. Seconds later, the group of Nazis were unconscious. With the exception of the skinhead of the day trapped in a paralysis illusion, of course.

"He hurt my mother, so I want him to feel the pain of a hurting mother. Can you make him lynch someone, then reveal it to be his mother? Not in reality, just in the illusion, I mean."

I grinned. "An eye for an eye, crossed with tainting his perception of enacting his ideology? I like it."

By the end of the day, most of the spa employees were offering suggestions with the rest of us.

Just like that, I was the ruler of the majority of Brockton Bay. Without the Empire's major capes to rally behind, there wasn't a thing the Empire could do to stop us. There were a few surprise Nazi capes still left in the mix, but they couldn't even beat a clone.

There were still Nazis out and about, but the Empire as an organization was mortally wounded. Lisa began to organize Vritrahan movements to occupy the territory and her own mercs to start investigating holdouts, but the bulk of the fighting was over.

It was incredibly satisfying. I've been fucking with the Empire since the start of my vigilante career, all the way back to that first drug stash I'd looted. You shouldn't have killed my cat, you sorry sacks of shit.

You've been avenged, Mei.

Interlude - Cauldron

Contessa stepped from a portal and smoothly sat down at the table, signalling the start of the meeting.

"Our Terminus candidate has been successful in eliminating the underworld competition," The Number Man slid updated territory maps around the table. "All that's left to resist him is the Protectorate, though it's unlikely for him to take direct action unprompted. Considering he didn't react to his identity reveal, it's unlikely that anything they could do on their own would stir the pot enough."

An 'unlikely' from Number Man usually meant a lower chance of it happening the most people's 'impossibles,' so the rest of the table was quick to accept the imminent stability.

"Do we expect him to expand outside the sacrifical zone?" Doctor Mother asked. "We've already had to deal with the mess left by his assassination of our Master production, and he's sourced his newest Luitenant from Boston."

Number Man was silent for a second longer than his usual delay, running the calculations. "Possible. If he believed expansion was in the best interests of him and others, certainly. However, he finds security in territory and his bunker. It would be easy to convince him to better Brockton Bay and therefore attract others to his territory over continued expansion."

"Still, gaining power rapidly can bring out the worst in people," Alexandria commented. "We've been able to gain some control through manipulation of his allies, but that's a far cry from direct influence. Now that he's proven successful, it may be wise to assert ourselves."

The Number Man frowned. "I disagree. We've only been successful because we've been indirect. He's the sort that values freedom above all."

Alexandria matched his expression. "That's more reason to act. Someone who values freedom will struggle to maintain control of his territory. Some pressure would incentivize cooperation, to ensure he retains freedom."

"Or, he'd look to undermine us. We already deal with with enough problems without a powerful blindspot looking to dismantle our operations. Many of our endeavors would be viewed as moral atrocities, as you're well aware."

The argument continued until an alarm rang.

PRT HQ

Director Emily Piggot glared out of the glass windows of her office. Nobody in the room dared to bother her. Even Assault held his tongue, hoping to avoid being the spark that set off that powderkeg.

This was a smart decision, because a powderkeg wasn't nearly enough to describe Piggot's current emotional state. A powderkeg would just blow up, but the Director's rage would burn until nothing was left. A better metaphor would be an oil spill mixed with Napalm, or a Californian summer.

Piggot eventually gathered herself, turning to face the assembled Protectorate, PRT directors, and Dragon's screen.

"Our city has been conquered by a superpowered teenage biotinker abomination, who breaks into capes' homes and brands them with behavior-enforcing swastikas," Piggot took a deep breath. "Defiant, Dragon, could you please explain your current plan of action?"

Dragon spoke first. "We've been unable to locate Bonesaw, even with the emergency privacy exemptions. We know she's near the city due to multiple appearances with Indra, but she's not in any known structure. We've extended the search to nearby wilderness and small towns, but we've turned up equally empty-handed. Similarly, we've been unable to locate Indra's home base. I'm sorry, Director."

Piggot's eye twitched. "Any news from the thinktank?"

"WEDGDG are almost certain that Indra has a Thinker running interference. Most likely Tattletale, judging by the occasional sightings of them together."

"The thief?" Deputy Director Rennick wondered.

"A thief who seems to have figured out how WEDGDG operates, and how to exploit that. They're running counteroperations with little success."

Piggot groaned. "So they can manipulate the economy, too?"

"Indeed," Defiant grimly agreed. "And with Indra's revealed cloning power, attempting to capture him is almost certainly out of the question. Even if we captured him and not a clone, we'd have no way to ensure that he couldn't break himself out with a clone, or a clone could simply continue to run the Bay in his absence. As such, there's little point in attacking him."

"So we can't eliminate the unifying power, we can't undermine them economically, and we can't find their Tinker support. What the hell are we supposed to do?" Piggot demanded.

The room was quiet.

"There's been talks about designating Indra as an unofficial S-class, and treating him with hands-off behavior as long as he limits his reign to Brockton," Dragon admitted. "Nothing substantial yet, but many people believe that we could negotiate a nonaggression pact with certain concessions."

Piggot drummed her fingers, visibly fighting to keep her face calm. "So, abandon another city to a biotinker?"

"I'm sorry, Director," Dragon repeated. "But Indra is a very real problem. He's been open about his willingness to tolerate a PRT presence, and that has people hoping for a peaceful resolution."

"So, bow to a child with too much power or risk another Ellisburg…" Piggot sighed. "I understand why people are hoping for peace. I just don't think that's the way it'll turn out."

"Well, we have to work with what we have," Assault said. "I don't like the situation anymore than you do, but at least we don't have Nazis in charge!"

"...Thank you for your insight, Assault," Piggot growled. "Does anyone else have any wonderful news to share?"

The room went quiet again.

"Well, then. Let's move on to—"

Defiant suddenly stiffened and Dragon interrupted the Director. "Seismic activity detected—it's Behemoth. New Delhi, India."

Absolutely sick of this shit, Emily Piggot's forehead fell to her desk.

A/N: Final Chapter coming soonish :D it's been a minute since i wrote it but i remember putting my all into the fight scene and loving it. hope you all enjoy reading it as much as i did writing it