Chapter 18 - Markus V

I was floating invisibly in the sky above Brockton Bay, apathetic towards the early February snowfall causing the city to be covered in a slight layer of white powder. It was softening the harsh edges of the gray buildings, managing to mask the slow decay of the last two decades quite effectively.

My phone flew into my hand, its position controlled by a small gravity field, while far below me I could see the crashed car of the Travellers. They had landed in a closed off parking lot littered with trash on the edges of the city. They had managed to avoid dying just like I had expected.

I had always liked Brockton Bay. It showed the true nature of humanity, of hierarchy, of tribalism, of the strong ruling over the weak. It even allowed skilled outsiders, like the Travellers, and little fish, like I had been until recently, to nibble at the edges and find their own niche. I couldn't ask for a more perfect whetstone to sharpen myself on.

I scrolled through my contacts until I landed on Coil's number, taken from the Undersiders when I first met them. Meanwhile the Travellers and a lone normal mercenary sat on the curb outside the property, nursing their wounds. Trickster looked very bad, cradling his arm while trying not to move. Interestingly none of his teammates seemed overly concerned with his condition.

Of course I wasn't the only one that saw the potential of the city as a proving ground, there was a reason Fortuna, the most powerful Thinker, was using it for her experiment on parahuman feudalism. Or at least that is what she let her co conspirators believe. I was sure that in reality it was just another attempt to maximize stress and pressure to force as many people to trigger as possible. As soon as someone would have decisively won Brockton Bay, Fortuna would have plunged it back into chaos to start the fighting anew.

I pressed on the number in my phone and it started ringing, the line still active.

That's why I had left Coil alone for a bit, secure in my knowledge that she would collect him at some point anyway and to see what he would do now that he was in charge of the strongest gang interested in taking over. How would he leverage his and Dinah's power to finally gain what he had been working towards for years now. I was more than willing to give him a head start while I acquired a couple more resources.

I just hadn't expected him to immediately go after Pantheon instead, but I probably should have. Having us in his neighborhood was like living next to a nuclear bomb. Even if he wanted to ignore me, he just couldn't without having some kind of leverage.

Unfortunately for him, he had cut the wrong wire and laid down a challenge I couldn't let go unanswered. The timer towards his demise was now ticking.

A white delivery van stopped in front of the Travellers and they slowly filtered into the car. I started following them as it drove off into the city.

The phone clicked as someone picked up on the other side. "Tattletale, what…"

"Coil, it's me." I interrupted whatever mind games he wanted to play. He surely knew that the call hadn't come from the stupid teenager's phone.

"Ah, Markus, I've been thinking about you." Coil answered with his usual polite tone while blatantly throwing the words I had spoken to him at Somer's Rock back in my face. I almost chuckled in response, apparently I had underestimated the Thinkers pettiness.

"Yeah, I haven't thought about you until the Travellers came by." I said while trying to keep the amusement out of my voice. I had never been a good actor but I didn't need to be as long as he wanted to believe that he was finally gaining power over Pantheon. In the end he would convince himself.

"I hope they were polite houseguests." There was a clear smile on his lips.

"They didn't get that far." I answered shortly as I continued following the winding path the Travellers were taking. "I made sure they had a pleasant flight back to the city."

"And I appreciate that but I am sure this is more than just a courtesy call about some wayward mercenaries." Coil chuckled. "Don't you want to ask me about something?"

"...Coil, what do you want from us to return Aster back to Kayden?" I didn't even bother trying to hide my emotions, his undeserved smugness was grating on my nerves. I already couldn't wait to see him as his whole house of cards collapsed under him.

"I positively have no idea what you are talking about." The cape gang leader answered smugly. "But I am more than willing to help you look for any missing children."

The more he talked the more he was annoying me. "Coil, don't fuck around." I just about had enough. It was one thing to pretend he had managed to kidnap Aster, it was another to let him think he was more powerful than me. "I am extremely generous right now but my patience isn't endless."

There was a pause on the other end of the phone and I knew he was thinking about dropping his safety timeline to better control the conversation. Finally he continued, none of his earlier smugness in his voice. "Of course, my apologies, I didn't want to make light of the current situation. I'm sure we can come to an agreement we can both be happy with."

Got him, I thought as I ducked into a short tunnel beneath the rail lines, smiling when a second van in the exact same color was waiting for them. They changed vehicles and the two vans exited the tunnel at the same time. The drive continued. "What do you want?"

"Director Piggot and Deputy Director Renick." Coil finally answered. "I want you to embarrass them."

My nonexistent eyebrows went up. "More than I've already done?"

"No, so far they have benefitted from your presence. You have delivered almost the whole E88 into their hands, have given them a mundane gang war in which they can show off and have so far not clashed with any Protectorate members which they can spin as keeping you in check." Coil explained and I couldn't help but suddenly feel like sinking the converted PRT oil rig down into the bay. It wouldn't take much to destroy the underwater supports but no, that wasn't enough. If some useless and fat bureaucrats were using my actions to gain more money and power then they deserved something special. It was going to take a bit but I would make sure they regretted ever joining up with the PRT.

"I can make them vanish." I offered after a moment, thinking about how to speed up this interaction. I already wanted to be done with it.

Unfortunately right at that moment the new van was driving into a garage under one of Brockton Bays highrise buildings and through a gate that closed right behind it. I frowned and flew closer, looking through the ventilation grates above the door, just managing to see the van stop in front of one of those private garages with their own closed off entrances.

"No, I want them to resign in disgrace." Coil answered. He didn't sound spiteful but I knew he had some kind of connection to the PRT Director, I just didn't remember what it was exactly. It couldn't have been particularly relevant.

"Fine, how am I supposed to embarrass them?" I thought it was stupid, trying to control the law and the underworld at the same time. Once I was done with this country, both wouldn't exist anymore.

"I will put together a list of actions I want you to take. You will follow them to the letter and check in with me every step of the way." He explained but I was barely listening. At this point it was almost certain that he had decided to keep the current timeline so it wasn't necessary for me to follow anything he was saying. "I will contact you in two days and then we can get started."

"Two days." I answered, already knowing that by that time things would be over, one way or another.

"And Markus, I'm sure we can continue our relationship in the future. I have a very interesting piece of information my people in the PRT have given me. Information I will be eager to share once this exchange has been completed." Coil prattled on, sounding very pleased.

I watched as the private garage opened and the van drove inside, its back lifting up like they were driving down a ramp. "Of course. We will see a lot of each other real soon."

Later

"What did the snake say?" Kayden asked me with her best attempt at a growl in her voice. Her current attempt at intimidation was almost laughable if I didn't know what she was capable of. She couldn't do anything against me of course but she was definitely one of the strongest capes in America.

"He bought it." I nodded at the glowing woman and made my way over to the couch. "Things will start moving quickly."

"I'll be ready." The ex gang member answered with determination. Maybe I would even leave Coil to her, she looked like she already had an idea what to do with him.

As I was about to answer her, Alice came into the room, her hair a disheveled mess and her pants covered in some strange liquid that changed colors seemingly randomly.

"You look like someone died, or is about to die." The Tinker told Kayden while barely glancing at her and moving into the kitchen. Her guest house had a kitchen as well but she quickly emptied it out when she was working.

"Were you here the whole time?" The flying artillery piece asked Alice as I sat down on the couch and pulled out my laptop. Kayden was looking at the Tinker in shock, like she had completely forgotten about her.

"I was in my lab doing shit, where else would I be?" Alice answered as she wrenched open the refrigerator and grabbed for a soda can. She was nonchalantly shoving things to the side to get at her beverage and then not bothering to put them upright again.

"Aster was almost kidnapped!" Kayden hissed while Alice gave her a dismissive glance as she opened the can with a hiss.

"And?"

"If you paid attention, Theo and Taylor wouldn't have needed to stop it!"

"If they stopped it, who cares where I was?"

"You…" Kayden stepped closer, her skin lighting up in a display of power. Her hands were clenched and power was starting to build up inside her fists. I had seen what her blasts could do to a human body and I doubted that Alice could survive even a glancing hit.

"Kayden. Calm down. Alice, don't provoke her." I told them absently as I read through the email Taylor had sent me. Apparently she had spent the last two hours working with Tattletale to gather as much information about Thomas Calvert as possible.

It was fairly impressive how quickly the Thinker had pulled together addresses, vehicle registrations and sales reports from dealerships. Thomas Calvert bought three of the same vehicles while only having one registered. Probably backups for his civilian identity. I quickly replied that I wanted to have a camera pointed at his house as quickly as possible. If he returned back home I wanted to know it, though with what I had planned, I doubted I would ever see him out of his bunker again.

"Alice, I have something for you to do." I interrupted their uninteresting tiff, the women now staring at each other with narrowed eyes. The Tinker slurped her soda obnoxiously loudly as she looked over at me.

"Yeah? You know I'm still working on that other stuff for you, right?"

"I want you to gather up some bombs you have in storage. It's time to get ready to blow some shit up."

AN: Alice working in her lab hearing gunshots: 'Must have been the wind'