This chapter has been largely rewritten based on the feedback of you readers. Remember, all your comments are appreciated even if I don't reply to them all. If you would like to read the original version, it will be available on Spacebattles as a spoiler at the bottom of the chapter.

With that, we begin.

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!"

As Taylor put her phone back down, she felt that there was something she was missing. 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 girl could easily deduce that she would refuse her request, so why did she partake in this objective waste of time?

She did not know. It was not a pleasant feeling that enveloped her as she went to sleep.

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 her phone rang.

When Taylor had first started her business proper, she'd bought a second phone to use for work since she didn't want her actual number hanging on every corner of the city. She'd had her work phone set to refuse calls between 9pm and 9am, with the voicemail directing the perspective customer to her business email.

This was her personal phone ringing…

Dad was home, she could hear him downstairs in the kitchen washing something, so who else would even have this number?

Dinah!

She jumped to the phone in a flurry and checked the caller ID, it was not recognised, she hit the call button and put the device to her ear "Hello, who is this?" she asked, trying to keep her voice calm.

She could hear sobbing on the other side of the line "Hello? Is this Servant?" the female voice kept trembling "I'm Dinah's mother. She told us that you had some kind of agreement to help her if something ever happened…"

Taylor felt a shiver down her back "What happened ma'am?" she asked in a calm tone that was the utter opposite of what she was feeling.

"This morning, Dinah's taxi had a tire burst while taking her to school. While they were waiting for a tow, armed men in black pulled up in a van and held the driver at gunpoint before taking my girl." She could hear the voice shudder "Please, I've already called the Police but if there is anything at all you can do… We'll pay whatever it takes, please just get her back to us safe."

"There is no need for money ma'am." Taylor answered the distraught woman as she reached under her bed to pull out her recently purchased body armour. "Dinah has already paid me. Rest assured, I will have her by the end of the day."

She questioned the woman some more, but she could only relay what the driver had said in a panicked call as soon as the armed men had departed. They had come in an armoured van, armed to the teeth and moved like special forces, that was the impression she'd gotten.

As she finished pulling her costume on and began to strap the bulletproof vest to her chest, she began to wonder just who the hell she was facing. What if it was the government? Forcibly recruiting Dinah for some kind of top-secret project. Would she be willing to shoot and cut her way through a government facility full of special forces for this one girl? She paused at that; she was trying to keep on the right side of the law after all.

But what kind of person would she be if she let this go? Even if this was the government, she was bound by both morality and her contract to rescue the girl and get her back home safe and sound.

Stuffing her shotgun, salt shells and helmet into a duffel bag, she ran out of the room, past Danny before he could turn to comment on her starting work far too early and into the garage. The busses were highly inconsistent in the city, let alone out in suburbia where she lived. So, she turned to something she hadn't used for several years at this point, which had sat in their garage under a tarp along with Mom and Dad's own, her bicycle.

Unfortunately, her bike seemed much too small for her now, and the tyres were cracking, having been made out of a very cheap rubber used for the likes of children's bikes. But, her Mom's was still there, the tyres a bit deflated but otherwise looking as good as a disused bike of it's age should. She thought about her as she took out the pump and began to work on the tyres, giving it a final look of nostalgia before she lifted the garage door and hopped on, not neglecting to lock the door behind her as she sped towards Brockton Bay.

For all her initial speed and enthusiasm, Servant had no idea where to actually go to find Dinah, it was quite possible that the kidnappers had already fled abroad, or at least into the next state, especially if this whole affair actually involved the US government.

But as she rode around aimlessly, worrying about her charge, she began to notice something about that feeling she'd had since that morning. While going in some directions, it appeared to become worse, while it subsided while going in the other. In a moment of eureka, she realised that, logically speaking, this feeling of discomfort was trying to guide her to Dinah. After all, the girl was in peril and she had a contract to rescue her; She couldn't recall reading about this part of her power in that guidebook, but if this was a nice bonus to it, she wouldn't complain.

She crossed the city several times, veering steadily inward before settling on one end of a long road called Aurora Avenue, not far from a parking lot, a shopping centre and quite a few high-rise flats. This side effect of her power could not get her any closer though, as where she stood, she felt none of that fear, even if she moved a few hundred metres in one direction.

No longer being guided by her power, she resorted to wandering up and down the street, checking windows and trying to see if she could feel anything else; she could not, she was stuck on this street without further clues as to where Dinah was.

It was around early mid-day when she remembered Tattletale, her power was practically ideal for this sort of work! She punched herself mentally for not thinking of this earlier before grabbing her work phone and calling back the number the cape had used the day before for their call.

"Yello? Who's this? Ah, hello Servant, is there something I can help you with? I'm afraid the offer to drive us is off the table, we've already left the bank."

"Listen, a client of mine named Dinah Alcott has been kidnapped by a bunch of special-forces types in an armoured van. My… sense has led me to Aurora Avenue, around the mall and car park. Can you assist me? I'll make it worth your while."

The line was silent for a moment before she heard laughter on the other end "I'm afraid I know exactly what you're talking about, why, I've been to that exact area quite a few times myself!"

"Really?" Servant said hopefully "Do you know where she's being held?"

"I do, check the car park, bottom floor, service door with the missing doorknob on the right. Be careful, there's cameras watching it and the rest of the car park." She could hear a smile on the other end of the line "Remember, you owe me."

Servant had been about to ask why she was being so helpful, why she has provided her with such accurate information when her usual replies were usually more akin to guesswork. But the line went dead and she was left with a target, but a lack of answers.

"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 with her, 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."

Despite the man's reluctance, she was eventually redirected as she'd asked. It was almost frustrating how long it took her to finally convince the Chief that she was in fact Servant, the cape that hand been working in the city for several months now.

The paper documents of her deputization would have to wait. The form was already being written up and would hopefully be within her mailbox by tomorrow. Now, her little raid would begin with the full authority of the law behind it once she got the invisibility cloak.

She'd been scrolling through various phone numbers saved on her phone when she came up on Uber and Leet's, which had been shared with her over the course of a few jobs she'd done in their service. Feeling the tinkertech transparent fabric covering her eyes for a moment, she'd decided that she should ask about it. With their Harry Potter-themed episode a distant memory she figured it was probably lying in a mess on one of their shelves at the moment, completely disused.

She certainly wasn't stupid enough to enter some kind of underground facility full of armed men without an ace up her sleeve, the cloak would allow her to potentially pass past however many of them were down here to find Dinah. Should the worst happen, she could always use it to hide in some corner and wait out the search. It was probably unrealistic to swing her sword from underneath, but poking out her Auto-5 might be more doable if she had to actually take some of them down.

Hearing the screech of tires, Servant turned to be greeted with Leet's van entering the car park where she'd been waiting. It had been a surprisingly quick matter for her to convince the young man to lend her the invisibility cloak, though he had been rather curious about what she'd needed it for, not that this stopped him from demanding a rather hefty sum to loan it.

"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 secret facility full of men in black more heavily armed than myself 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 waive 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 Rogue 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.

Servant 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 had correctly assumed that whoever these people were, they had access to the car park's CCTV. By simply leaving a nice piece of bait in the form of her wallet she had drawn them out to collect it, then simply come back into the building and followed the two men through the disguised front door.

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 delay his plans 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 some kind of a Tinkertech cloaking device. He would take care of Leet for that, but tinkers were valuable and he'd been able to obtain tech from him on occasion.

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 she'd gathered so far, to her relief this wasn't a government black site but rather an old Endbringer shelter that had been bought by some villain to be used as his base. The soldiers themselves were mercenaries based on her snatched ID card, yet they seemed completely inept against something as simple as an invisibility cloak, for all their fancy tech they were little more than apes stumbling about in the dark.

She wondered if there was some kind of Tinkertech that could defeat Leet's cloak, the villain seemed to have a lot of money to hire and arm all of these men as 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 costume and a fancy cloak? 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.

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. There was no one else here.

Servant stepped over to the computer on the sole desk of this large office. 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 this villain had taken precautions to secure 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.

It was unfortunate perhaps, Coil mused as he observed Dinah's rescuer, he had just lost his main base, certain financial resources and even his mercenaries to Servant.

He had been in his split timelines as usual at this time, in one he was questioning Dinah and in the other he was in a meeting with Pigott and a few other senior PRT staff, briefing them on potential solutions to the gang problems in the city. That is when his base was invaded, he could have selected the timeline in which he'd been down there, held a pistol to the girl's head and forced Servant to stand down. But, that would potentially cost him his position, this meeting had been set for months and if he pulled out at the last minute there would be suspicions…

But, perhaps this was a wake-up call for him, how many years had he been sitting down there, pulling strings from the shadows and using mercenaries to do his bidding. All of this could have been avoided, perhaps. But money could be remade, mercenaries could be rehired and bases could be rebuilt. He could still control the city, even if the gangs would expand while he was regrouping. Servant had proven competent if nothing else. Perhaps there was a place for her in his plans.

There was relatively overwhelming feedback to the original chapter that The Stranger felt like too much of a contrivance, so I rewrote this chapter significantly to remove him. Now, Tattletale is the one who tells her about the bunker, and there is no timelines BS; my bad on misunderstanding how Coil's power actually works.

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 I went with a sort of armoured suit for him with a miniature turret on the back.

As for Coil, it seems he shall remain a thorn in Servant's side for a while longer. Also, look forward to the world's reaction to the headcam footage!