After Kenta's left, I made a fresh Save point and called Lisa, asking her to arrange the meeting with the maybe-Purity. Whoever it was was nervous and asked to meet just me alone at the roof of a parking garage in the downtown just after darkness. Which smelled like a trap - or, maybe, Kayden was afraid of an ambush herself and wanted an easy escape route. Either way, I agreed, hoping I would have time to Reload if she overreacted and blasted me away.
Dad dropped me off a block away and waited in the car. While I walked there, I dialed Dinah after making sure she could talk over text.
"Hi, Mathematician, if I go to the agreed place, chances I am meeting actual Purity and, given the right opportunity, she defects from E88?"
"97.45%"
"Chances I'm walking into a trap right now?"
"99.1%"
"Huh. Chances I get shot in the head if I go there?" I figured I could Reload if there was anything else.
"97.1%"
"Thanks, Dinah, you're a lifesaver. I will figure it out from here", I thought about Reloading right there, but decided to think a bit. Purity wanted out, it was confirmed and kind of obvious, probably to Max too. So he decided to use her as a bait for me and, what? Put Victor up with a sniper rifle to take me out when I show up?
It was dark already, shooting somebody in the head at night was probably rather hard to achieve, even for most parahumans. Did they count on Kayden to illuminate me to make that headshot easier? Would she agree? Not if she really wanted to defect, unless they convinced her with ... Aster? Maybe they even demanded she shoot me herself. Either way, there was no point in going up there as I was. Guess I'd have to save the kid I shot the last time.
I had my gun, the taser, the collapsible baton, and two of my new favorite grenades on me. I could Reload and come back with the whole gang of course, but I wasn't losing much from an early intel gathering, assuming I wasn't getting shot in the head of course. Also, I recalled that I'd had door access now.
I entered the parking garage building, found a quiet, dark corner, pulled my gun out, checked it, and said, "Door to Aster Anders."
The portal popped up in somebody's living room. I saw nobody there, so I slowly walked in. I heard footsteps from the bedroom direction, so I slowly crept there. I looked into the open door. An unmasked Alabaster was walking around the nursery room, holding Aster and humming something, trying to get her to sleep, probably. He froze when he saw me and the gun.
"Please don't hurt the kid", he whispered. What?
"Put Aster in the crib and meet me in the living room. I will wait. Try something and you die.", I whispered back and turned sideways to give him the illusion of privacy, while prepping the nullifying grenade in my free hand. He did as I asked, then took his mask out of his pocket and put it on. I pointed towards the living room, then followed him there.
"So, let me guess, Max is threatening Kayden to help take me out and you're the one keeping Aster company?"
He sighed. "Geez, lady, you know all of us? Please don't kill me. I will do whatever. I don't know how you beat Lung, but if you could do that, I bet you can kill me. Max is crazy; he has each of our families held by somebody else. I guard Aster, Krieg guards my family, Fenja guards Othala while Victor kills you. Max had a fight with Hookwolf after the Somer's Rock meeting, accused him of wanting to defect - and then kicked him out. So Cricket and Stormtiger left too, and they're all out of town by now, I think. How the hell did you wreck the Empire like that in just 3 days?"
Great question, whitey, great question. I thought I hadn't even started yet.
"What about Theo? And Rune? Crusader? Who else's left?"
"Theo is probably locked up in Max's home with Menja; no idea about Rune and Crusader; they're relatively new, guess he doesn't trust them much and has no one left to pressure them either."
I got his family's home address, then told him, "Alright, do what I say, and you and your family might live. Drop all your weapons and the phone there... now come over here, turn around."
I tied his hands up with a couple of strip-lines I had on me, found a dirty sock on the floor in the other bedroom, pushed it in his mouth, led him through the still open portal to the parking garage, told him to lie face down there in the corner, and added a couple more strip-ties on his legs.
"Stay here till the PRT arrives. If I catch you in the open again, I will kill you next time. Deal?", he nodded. I fished a fresh burner phone from my pocket, dialed the PRT, and told them where to pick up Alabaster from, special delivery from The Boss to the Director, and warned them that Victor might be having sniper coverage in the area. Then I stepped back into Kayden's apartment, closed the door, and opened a new one, right behind Purity, on the roof of the parking garage. She was standing in the corner, opposite the only stairs exit, her white light pulsing. She was shifting nervously from one foot to another and looking at her wristwatch.
"Kayden, slowly, without turning around, walk back if you want to see Aster right now", I told her.
She tensed, but didn't move. "Boss?"
"Yes, I got rid of Alabaster. Aster is sleeping. Get in here before Victor shoots you."
That'd done the trick, and she did what she was told. I helped her step into her living room. I asked the Doormaker to close the portal.
"Kaiser held my daughter hostage and demanded I lure you ..."
"Yes, yes, Alabaster has already spilled the beans. I will deal with Max soon enough. I can drop you in our headquarters for now. Get the necessities and the kid, and let's go before they figure out where you are."
While she checked up on Aster and gathered her stuff, I called Dad, explained where I was, and asked him to get back to the headquarters and to mask up. Then I also updated Lisa on my progress and fished Alabaster's phone from the pile he left.
5 minutes later, Aster kept sleeping in a stroller loaded up with diapers, formula bottles, and the other kids' stuff. I opened a door to our headquarters lobby, and we moved in there. We found an unmasked Alec playing the console with unmasked Aisha, both ignoring us, and Dad was just walking in from the street.
I led Kayden to one of the conference rooms and told her she could crash there till after we'd dealt with her ex and his gang. She tried asking what I was going to do with her. I said I had no time for that now, but she could either turn herself in to PRT and probably get rebranded elsewhere on probation, or we can talk about her trying to join our team.
However, I warned her that her civilian ID would probably get blown up by Max's incoming arrest and then it'd get more problematic for her. She had time to decide, though if she thought about going the PRT route, she'd get extra points if she did that now and turned the rest of the gang in before I caught them all by myself. I gave her Calle's office number and left her to it after she thanked me.
Outside the room, I asked Dad to keep watch on her and maybe help with a formula or diapers run or something, and to call in the others if he needed more hands.
For now, I wanted to deal with Max, plus I promised Alabaster to save his family from Krieg.
Then I recalled that I had a few teammates that had a personal interest in dealing with the Empire, and they might not forgive me if I do it all by myself. So I sent to our group chat, "Purity with her kid in our office, Alabaster's being arrested. If you want in on the action vs. E88, drop to the office ASAP."
Amy texted me right back asking whether she could bring her entire family in on this, since they'd never forgive her she knew and didn't tell them. Also, both she and Vicky were grounded since the Endbringer non-fight for sneaking out at 3 a.m.
This was starting to really spin out of hand. I seriously considered Reloading to do the rescue run again, but decided that I was too tired to do it again, after 3 fights with Lung earlier today. So I told Amy she could finally tell her mom that she was actually working with me for a while on and off, if she wanted, and that they could all drop by the office too, if they accepted that it was our op and that I was willing to let them help if they don't push. And to let me know if she wanted me to help her with cover stories.
Then I scratched my head and texted Kenta that if he wanted a decent fight with the Empire, it could be his last chance, but that he'd have to behave in a room full of heroes who might still hate his guts. Also, Purity.
Then I scratched my head a bit more and decided not to bother Tessa with our local matters, unless I had to.
Then I called Piggot's cell that Lisa got for me, "Director, this is the Boss, did you get Alabaster I've left for you?"
"How did you get this number?"
"Really? That's what's bothering you? Do you have him in custody?", I explained the intricate hostage exchange program Kaiser had started and told her that I had an army of people with grievances about the Empire, possibly including the New Wave and Lung coming in, and that I will try to minimize collateral damage and will be leaving her more Empire capes to arrest. She eventually admitted that Alabaster was indeed in custody, but not talking, which was smart of him.
"Did you really recruit Lung? It wasn't Leet's video montage?", she finally asked.
"You can ask New Wave later whether he's real or a prop. Or just ask him. I told Lung to get rid of Oni Lee, as far as I know, he's not entirely up there, so I can't use him, and I didn't want to fight him too. With luck, we won't see him in the Bay anymore. Uber and Leet are working for me now too, by the way. They're expected to not do anything illegal now, same as Lung."
After I hung up, I still had some 20 minutes left till everybody could make it. I probably couldn't fight Krieg by myself, even with the power-nullifying grenades, which he could just keep away from himself. So, I decided to try and rescue Theo meanwhile. I shouted to Aisha and Alec that a lot of new people were coming, so they might want to mask up, then I entered one of the smaller rooms, took out my taser and the grenade again, and asked,
"Door to the back side of Menja, please."
I saw the back of the twin in the center of another living room, so I threw the grenade to her feet and went in with the taser primed at the middle setting. The grenade did its thing and the giantess stayed her normal size while turning my way, except her armor made a great electricity conductor, so I easily tased her. And found myself face to face with a terrified girl, either Othala or Rune, I guessed.
"Is Theo here?" I asked her.
"Why would he be here?"
Shit, did Alabaster lie to me? Maybe I took out the wrong twin in the wrong place?
"Never mind that. I see you're still in town. Despite my warning. Are you coming with me or do I tase you and leave you for the PRT?"
"I'm coming with you, I guess."
"30 seconds to mask up."
She ran to an adjacent room and came back with Othala costume. Mystery solved, then. No weapons, smart of her. I let her wear the costume on top of her clothes, then we stepped out back to our office. I led her to the room with Purity and Aster, and left them to catch up.
Then I repeated the door incantation for Fenja, threw the grenade, and tased her too. This time I did find Theo, whom I offered to follow me to reunite with Aster and Kayden. He shrugged and just agreed. I dropped him in the nazi conference room too.
By that time, most of my gang came in, and I ran into the New Wave entering through the front door. Which Lung held open for them, gentlemanly. All of which Imp was filming. Before they could destroy the building, I greeted them all and asked them to go into the conference room not occupied by the nazis at the moment.
"Hello everybody. Short update about the Empire. Alabaster is in PRT custody, Purity and Othala had turned themselves in to me and are in the other room, along with 2 civilian kids. According to Alabaster, Kaiser kind of chased Hookwolf, Stormtiger, and Cricket out of town. Finally, according to Purity, Night and Fog are in Boston. So, we still have a few E88 capes left, and I thought you folks would want in on the action."
"I want to fight the twins!" Lung said.
"Ooh, right, sorry, I totally forgot about them, I kind of knocked both of them out a few minutes ago while rescuing Othala and one of the civilians while I was waiting for the meeting. Tatts, remind me to call them in to the PRT too? And Boombox, your grenades are great, keep them coming please!"
"Let me get this straight, you alone took out 5 Empire capes and caused 3 or 5 others to leave town? Why did you even call us?" Lady Photon asked.
"Well, I don't actually need you, but I know many of you have personal scores with the Empire, so before I accidentally take them all out by myself, I thought I'd stop and let you folks participate. That was after I only captured Alabaster and brought Purity in. Then, while I was waiting for you to come in, I thought I'd rescue the civilian and things kind of happened? Sorry again?"
"Do you have any idea how arrogant and insulting this sounds? You lucked out with some great power you're hiding, you killed Jack Slash and today you just beat up Lung and took out half the Empire all by yourself. Now I get why you offered to fight me when we first met. Somebody needs to teach you some humility!", Vicky said.
"Oh no, no, I'm totally not like that. I'm not even a Parahuman. Ask Amy", I tried to defend myself. Which made Dad, Amy, Lisa, and Lung facepalm. And the rest of New Wave to glare at me, besides Brandish, who was glaring at Amy.
It also made Riley giggle, "You're really bad at this, Boss."
AN: New Wave: Boss is OP, please NERF!
Also, everybody confuses Fenja and Menja. Why not Alabaster too? Or maybe Doormaker and Clairvoyant confused them? Or all of the above?
I began considering a Reload just to get out of this awkwardness. Also, I wasn't really planning to declare I'm not a Parahuman to the whole world like that.
"Alright, you've had your fun on my account, do you want to take down Kaiser, Krieg, Crusader, Rune, and Victor? I think that's all who's left now? Or I will just do it myself if you don't calm down."
"Is she seriously not a Cape?", Vicky asked Amy, ignoring me.
"Nope, I've scanned her real good, she could trigger, but hasn't", Riley shared.
"And who are you, exactly?", Brandish asked.
"I'm Medic."
"Are you from around here, Medic? You look young, yet you sound rather confident..."
I banged on the table, which made them all look at me.
"I'd like to remind you that you're all in MY office. I extended you the courtesy, but I can un-extend it back if you try to interrogate my teammates. Am I making myself clear, Brandish?"
She stood up and approached me, "You claim you're not a Parahuman, you have no legal authority, we're affiliated with the PRT, what are you going to do about it?"
I popped the power nullifying grenade in my pocket and stood up too, looking at Brandish from above, "That's it, you're out. You're trespassing. Leave the building now, before I make you and arrest you myself. Would make an interesting PHO post. Imp, are you filming this?"
Imp popped on the other side of the table with her phone in her hand, "Sup?", startling most of the room.
"We're leaving", Brandish said and headed for the door. New Wave followed, except for Amy, who had remained seated.
"Panacea, what are you doing?", Brandish asked from the door.
"I am staying. Imp, stop filming please. Mom, I think you owe the Boss an apology, that was uncalled for, she invited you in and you're just ... being you."
"Young lady, get up and follow me, we will talk about this at home, you're not staying with these ... never mind."
"Boss, can I ask for an asylum, like you've offered the villains?"
"Amy, you should know better than ask. You're welcome to stay of course. Brandish, you have 30 seconds to leave the building."
Brandish, who was already out of my grenade range by then, made her totally not a light saber thing and defiantly looked at me. Lung got up and roared. I Reloaded.
Fuck, to have half the Empire taken out, partly by accident, only for the heroes to start this bullshit? What a kindergarten. And Amy ... still wasn't happy. I kind of forgot about her, with all the new recruits and the problems we were dealing with.
Where was I? I looked at the time and retraced my steps. I just finished talking to Kenta and was planning to set up a meeting with Purity, right? What should I be doing differently? I'm definitely not inviting New Wave, for a start. I also apparently don't need almost anybody to take out most of the remaining Empire Capes. The doors access and Alice's power nullifying grenades were a perfect power multiplier, pun intended. Now that I thought about it, combined with the Reloads, I was kind of cosplaying Contessa like this.
But, I made a lot of people promises to have some fun when we're taking the Empire down. It was the selling point with Sophia at least. I was sure Brian and Aisha had some scores to settle with them too. I offered Alice the chance to blow up the Endbringers, but just made her witness them becoming non-hostile, at least so far, which I achieved with great help of her grenades, of course. Still, it must be grating on her. Bitch might be still holding the grudge for Hookwolf, who apparently left town, but she might want to take it out on his ex-teammates.
I thought about inviting Lung again, but then figured we didn't really need him, and I haven't promised him anything about fighting the Empire.
So I sent out a group message to our core team plus Alice, offering everybody interested in messing with the Empire tonight to drop by the office. I asked Riley to sit this one out with Dad, since adding more people in close quarters would just complicate things, and all the people participating today had personal reasons to dislike the Empire.
When they arrived, I laid out the plan, didn't get any better proposals, and set up the meeting with Purity the same way in the same place. I challenged Alice to figure out a way to take out Krieg without harming Alabaster's family, who were probably just civilians, or so we assumed for the time being. She considered a combination of light and heat-based bombs she had, since sounds and conventional explosives would've been less effective and more dangerous to everyone, including us. Then she smacked herself on the head and said she had it covered, smiling with a lot of teeth. I decided to let her have her surprise and didn't ask.
When the time came, we dropped into Kayden's apartment as a team, terrifying Alabaster even more. Luckily, he didn't drop Aster. Then we extracted Purity and reunited her with her daughter in our office, leaving Alabaster in the parking garage, like the last time.
Then I let Imp and Bunny, who came in her gray costume again, claiming she didn't have the time to get anything better, to take out the twins, one for each. Afterwards, we captured Othala and reclaimed Theo the same way as before. Imp and Bunny kept arguing who took out which twin and which one was better.
When it was Boombox's turn to shine, we went into Alabaster's family apartment while she was holding a somewhat bigger than usual cube-shaped device in her hand. Once Krieg was in sight, raising from the couch, she pushed a button on the device, and it disappeared from her hand, to teleport under Krieg's feet, at which point the familiar power nullifying pink sphere popped up, cancelling the wind Krieg was starting to make. Boombox borrowed my baton and went on to beat the nazi up. I then had to tase him to save him from her. Note to self, set Alice some time with a punching bag.
Alabaster's family turned out to be his elderly grandmother, who was deaf or close to that, and a pre-teen brother, who was playing video games in his room with headphones on. Neither one was aware of a Cape fight in their living room, it seemed. We left the way we came, dragging Krieg with us. We ended up dropping him in the same parking garage, besides Alabaster, and then also dragged the twins there too. Then I called Piggot on her cell again and asked her to send somebody to the said garage to pick up the 4 capes. Bunny went back to the office to avoid meeting her coworkers, while Grue, Boombox, and I remained to guard the prisoners.
Velocity met us first, confirmed my claims over the radio, then a couple of PRT vans arrived with Assault, Battery, and Ms. Militia. Was Piggy ordering Armsy to stay away from me?
The troopers loaded up the captives, spraying them with confoam inside the vans and left with the Capes escort, leaving only Velocity to ask us about the capture details. I didn't share much, only stating that Alabaster was cooperating and didn't put up a fight, and that we'll try to wrap up the rest of the Empire soon enough. He asked how come there was no collateral damage from the fight with half the Empire, to which I shrugged and said we were that good. Finally, he thanked us and wished us luck.
Which left us dealing with Kaiser, Victor, Crusader, and Rune. The last one was a good candidate for a reeducation with the Wards, so I figured we'll start with her. Since in this Reload I didn't talk to Dinah at all, I decided to have a Q&A session with her. Luckily, it wasn't too late yet. I texted her, making sure she was available, which she was.
"Hi, Mathematician, chances Rune's alone?"
"3.58%", unfortunate.
"Chances she's with Kaiser?"
"94.32%", even more unfortunate. Guess he was on to my tactics of divide and conquer.
"Chances all the remaining Empire Capes are in the same place as them?"
"92.69%
"Guess all the eggs are in the same basket now. Chances for the innocents to get hurt if we attack them there in the next 2 hours?"
"2.59%"
"Thanks, I guess we go to war with the rest of them now."
I texted to the entire group chat, including Lung, "Attacking the rest of the Empire 1h from now. Meeting at the HQ."
Amy asked, like the last time, about inviting her family. I called her and explained how well it went over the last time. She agreed it sounded like a clusterfuck and complained that she's being left out, again.
"Amy, seriously, if you need rescuing, I've already extracted like, 8 nazi hostages today already. I can come and get you too, if you want. It's not a bother."
"You'd really do that for me?"
"Again, I did it for the nazis and their kids, why wouldn't I do it for you?"
"Tempting, but I guess I will just suffer here all alone while you all have fun with Lung and Kaiser out there."
"Fun with Lung and Kaiser?" Vicky's voice came through the phone.
"Figure of speech, Vicky", Amy tried to recover, badly.
"Lung is Boss's bitch now, if that stream wasn't a fake, is she going after Kaiser? I totally want in!"
"Put Vicky on speaker please, but make sure your mom isn't nearby", I asked, "Vicky, yes, we are finishing the Empire, but you're grounded already, what will happen if you run away again?"
"Guess we will get more grounded. But it's totally worth it!"
"More grounding for you maybe, now think what Brandish would do to Amy?"
"Yeah, I see your point", she conceded.
"Sorry girls, I will try to make it up to you with some other fight later. Like, I'm sure the Teeth will come to town after we remove the Empire? Maybe the Fallen too. Plenty of people to fight left."
"Why would you even say such a thing? The Teeth!"
"Nah, it'll be fine, no worries. Just don't kill the Butcher. Deal?"
"Fine...", Vicky agreed, we said our goodbyes and hung up.
We doored to the HQ and rested a bit, waiting for the others to arrive again. I was really tired of today already, and hoped there would be no more Reloads, but a large-scale fight was not making me too optimistic about that. Maybe I should call all this off if I do have to Reload again.
Bitch arrived with 3 of her best dogs, Boombox, Brian, and Aisha never left (apparently Aisha hung out with us the entire time but didn't do anything weird for me to recall she was there), Bunny came back in again, and Lisa joined from her phone since she was never going to fight anyway. Lung came too.
"Alright people, this is my second run at this, just don't get me started on why I had to Reload", Lisa's snort in the speaker showed that she didn't need to ask. "We have all the remaining Empire capes in one place and a low risk of uninvolved casualties, which makes this an opportunity. So far, we were able to take a few of them separately, so Kaiser learned and looks like they're waiting for us all in one place.
"Kaiser and Crusader are our main problems. Rune will probably run or turn herself in. Victor is just a normie with skills. So, Lung, keep Kaiser busy, Boombox, and I will try to knock out Crusader, the rest just flood them with bodies. Questions?"
Nobody objected to the dumb but simple plan, so we went to the lobby where there was room for everybody and the dogs to stand, and I asked for a door to Kaiser's place and we rushed into it after Lung.
Only to stop and stare at the inside of a big meeting room in what looked like a high-end office. The logo on the wall said "Medhall". At least it wasn't the wrong place.
Max Anders, in business costume that probably cost more than a decent used car, and a few other people dressed similarly sat around a large table and stared back at us.
"Surprise, motherfucker", I said, just to say something.
"Boss, could you wait for another hour or two, please? We're working on a surrender deal documents with our lawyers", Max said, pointing at the older people in suits. I noticed there was also a girl about my age or younger, a guy in his early twenties, and another one, over 30.
"Wait, really? Why didn't you just run?"
"Where would I run? A few of our people were arrested, some left us, and then my entire family was kidnapped. I'm hoping to get PRT's help in rescuing them in exchange for our cooperation. Could you help, maybe? My son and my daughter are missing", was he crying now?
"So let me get this straight, if your family wasn't missing, you'd, what? Fight me? Run with them?"
"I don't know, I can't think straight right now!"
"Fine, your family isn't missing, they're all safe with your daughter's mother."
"Oh my god, thank you, thank you!", he was sobbing at this point. What the fuck?
"Now what? Are you still surrendering? Because I'll be honest, all the people here came to kick your ass and you're disappointing them."
"If you put it like that, I'm still surrendering", he conceded, smearing tears over his face.
"I'm going home, there's no fight, again, just some people crying", Bitch complained and left back through the portal. Lung shrugged and followed her too.
"Can I please blow them up?" Boombox inquired.
"Only if they start fighting first, sorry. I know it's frustrating, but what can you do? We will have somebody else to fight soon enough, don't worry. Start thinking about some anti-Butcher bombs for now? And something against the Fallen?", I tried to make her look at the half glass full.
"You know, now I really want to surrender as soon as possible", the girl, probably Rune, murmured.
"OK, my team, you can go home. I will stay and ensure they surrender", I found myself a chair, took out my phone and prepared for a long and boring wait.
AN: I realized I had no idea how to write an interesting cape fight with the Empire. It'd just be a repeat of something we've already seen. Probably a few power nullifying grenades and we're done. So, why fight at all? What chances would Kaiser see at this point? He's not dumb. He panicked earlier, did some dumb things, and then he had time to cool off and think. If he surrenders, maybe he can even rebrand as a hero somewhere far away?
Note the chances of 'innocents' to get hurt are very low - these seem to ignore the lawyers that were in the room. Now, was Dinah's power aware that there will be no fight - or was it not considering the lawyers as innocent bystanders - is up to the readers to decide.
And yes, the Empire's last stand was taken sitting down.
So, you're keeping an eye on us alone?", the older of the two other guys that were not Max, probably Victor, said, leaning on his chair, while his probably lawyer was working on a document.
"There's no reason to keep the entire team here. Would you prefer it if I asked Lung to guard you instead? By the way, try to touch any of my skills and you will wish you went to the Birdcage. Just saying."
He raised his hands in surrender and asked, "Did you happen to kidnap my wife too?"
"Assuming you mean Othala? Isn't she young enough to be your daughter? Also, I didn't kidnap anybody, I was releasing hostages your genius boss took. But yes, she's in the same place as Purity. I don't think she plans to join you in prison."
I dialed Piggot just to end this awkward conversation, "Director, just checking, are you aware the remainder of the Empire are preparing documents to surrender to you?"
"I do, please do not attack them. I gave them the deadline by midnight."
"Not attacking, I'm keeping them company while they work with their lawyers. Decided to check with you they're not pulling my leg. So, do you want to pick up the Merchants yourself, or are you waiting for me to do that as well? I mean, I have a team of frustrated individuals who were expecting a decent fight with the Empire and were sent home, so I don't really mind."
"And what will your individuals do if the PRT does arrest the Merchants and they don't get their 'decent fight'?"
"Well, I already told them to get ready to fight the Teeth and the Fallen."
"Do you know something I don't?"
"Well, yes, in general, but on this matter ... it's kind of obvious? Once it becomes known we have a gangs vacuum here, the Teeth will probably come, Accord will probably sniff around too, the Elite. Damsel of Distress might drop by for a visit. I bet you thought of that too already, don't play dumb with me, Director. The Fallen, though, they asked me to become their priestess on PHO, I told them to fuck off and not to come here, but I don't think they will listen. Not after my nice chat with Ziz. Bottom line, there will probably be enough fights for everybody, don't fire your capes yet."
"The Chief Director might not agree with my concerns."
"Are you complaining to me about your superior? Or are you just trying to fish up details about our ... disagreements? Nice try, Director. If she does give you trouble, you can now tell her I asked nicely? I mean, I can deal without any PRT or Protectorate in the city too, but, it's not really my job. Oh, and I do hope you understand you must ship all the Empire capes as far as possible from here, and each one to a different place, if you don't want them to break out and return.
"And if any of them do return, and now I'm saying this not only to you, Director, but to all the extra ears in the room, nobody will find their bodies. Just a fair warning. Have a good night processing these idiots in, Director."
I hung up and started checking my phone. Dad texted asking how I was doing and would I like for him and Riley to visit. They were in the office babysitting the nazi refugees. I shrugged and opened a door to our office lobby.
"Imp, I think you should go home and sleep off that quarter of the 40-year-old Scotch bottle you drank from Kaiser's table", I told the room, startling everybody again.
Imp popped up on a chair beside me, hiccuped up, and waved. She was indeed as wasted as I thought. "Yeah, very mature. Almost like that David's Scotch. I hope the morning headache will be enough of a lesson to you. You could've stolen the whole bottle and drink a bit for a while, but no..."
"Stop the noise, Boss. I drank for our victory!"
"No, you drank alone, like the lowest alcoholics and addicts do." That seemed to have sobered her up a bit. "Yeah, exactly, don't become your mother. Go home and sleep it off."
She walked to our office, visibly struggling not to miss the portal. Medic and Unioner met her at the door. Dad looked questioningly at me. I shrugged.
Medic asked, "Is she drunk? Want me to give her something to help, Boss?"
"If she's not about to die from alcohol poisoning, let her suffer, I think."
"She'll be fine, then, just a hangover in the morning. Want some company?", she asked, popping on a chair beside me. Dad took the one on the opposite side of me.
"Could you watch them for a couple of minutes? I wanted to check up on our guests."
I went back and knocked on the door of the conference room acting as a refugee camp at the moment. Theo opened the door and let me in. Aster was sleeping in her stroller. I updated them about the Medhall late evening activity and asked whether any of them wanted to join the surrendering procedures or just say goodbye. Nobody did.
I double-checked with Othala whether she wasn't going to say anything to her husband and she confided she was married off to him at the age of 16 without any input from her and that she's fine with never meeting the asshole again. I didn't need to ask Purity the same question. Theo said he was fine with never meeting his father again either.
Next, I carefully asked Othala and Purity, both still in costume, what exactly their longer-term plans were, between surrendering to the PRT, separately from their husbands, and applying to my team, which wasn't automatic and would require some vetting by our Thinkers.
"Would you still want us? I mean, it looks like a lot of people and even Lung is working for you?", Purity asked.
"More like with me, than for me, and, yes, if our Thinkers vet you, I accept everybody. Our goals are much more global than some stupid local politics. Also, I expect an influx of out-of-town gangs in the coming weeks. You can help get rid of them.
"Keep in mind, our team is very diverse, people's origins-wise. You'd have to pull your heads out of your asses and forget the race bullshit. If you're not ready for that, don't bother applying. You will not get by the Thinkers. So, go home and tell me in the morning. You can also still run out of town if you want, by the way.
"On the second thought, maybe all stay in the same place and I will make sure PRT doesn't come there till you get out, you know, to collect evidence or try to arrest you or whatever."
"You can tell PRT what to do?"
"I'd like to think that Piggot and I have some sort of understanding. I mean, I did her job today, something she couldn't do for years."
"What about me?" Theo asked.
"What about you? You're not even a cape yet, right? Have you done any crimes? You're not responsible for what your father and grandfather did. You're a free man, do whatever you want. You will probably get your Dad's stuff now, think what you will be doing about it. When you trigger, if you want, come look for me."
"When, not if?"
"You're a 3rd generation, the chances that you won't trigger are really low. Don't try to trigger on purpose, just let it happen naturally."
I doored them to Kayden's apartment and got back to Medhall. They were just starting to wrap up. I sent Dad and Medic, who had school in the morning, home. Then, after another half hour, I doored the last remnants of the Empire and their lawyers to the PRT front entrance, where the former were cuffed and read their rights. I saluted Armsy, who was processing them and left home too. I decided to wait with a new Save point till Othala and Purity made up their minds.
The next morning, Kayden, as she finally presented herself to me, called and said they were both asking to join my team. I promised to get back to her, asked Dinah the usual morning questions and then asked for the chances that either of the ex-nazis would try to fuck us over and/or that I would regret taking them on. The chances were reasonably low, so I checked with Lisa and scheduled a job interview in the afternoon.
Then I thought about it and invited a certain head of hiring I was related to to the event as well. He jokingly complained he thought I forgot I had a Dad with how busy I was yesterday, and promised to attend too.
Which left my day till then mostly free.
So Boombox and I dropped by Saint's lair and knocked the 3 assholes there out with stun grenades. Before calling Dragon to pick them up, we packed the Dragon's backdoor hardware and later took it to Armsy's lab.
His automatic security system tried to confoam us upon entry, as I expected. Of course, Boombox had ready countermeasures I asked her to bring. Armsy was not present at the moment, which I ensured with Dinah in advance, too.
We left Dragon's backdoor hardware there with a note about what it was and an advice to upgrade his lab security system to something more serious. Like, any idiot with a portal or a teleport power could just walk in, resolve the foam, and do whatever they wanted. Then we waved to the security cameras in the lab and left home.
With nothing else to do, I turned on the TV in our HQ. Alexandria was doing a live interview. Which gave me an idea. After checking with Dinah for chances there was anybody present in both Chief Director's and Alexandria's offices, I doored to the former. I found and pocketed a coffee mug that said "To the best Boss from General Tagg" and a stapler with "The Chief" sticker. I've left the mug in our HQ, then doored to Alexandria's office, left the stapler there, picked up a framed picture of the Triumvirate from her desk, and brought it back to Becky's office. Then I went back to our HQ, washed my new mug, and had some well-deserved tea.
I was still bored. So I picked up Riley after school, we masked up, and dropped by Canary's dressing room. She was preparing for the evening show since she hadn't done anything Birdcage-worsy yet. We told her to watch out what she told her boyfriend in person, or else. She freaked out a bit and tried to Sing at us, which kind of started working on me, but that's what Riley was there for. She calmed the Master down by threatening her with a syringe and gave her some tips I wished she hadn't. We left home afterwards. I didn't plan recruiting her, just to butterfly her away from the Birdcage.
Kayden and Ophelia, which apparently was Othala's real name, did pass the interview with Lisa, Dad, and me. Othala's eye patch was all for show, so we didn't need Amy or Riley to fix her up after all.
Both new members were challenged into figuring out their new personas. We all unmasked in the end, and I gave them the very short version of my backstory. I didn't mention my past history with Aster.
The evening Bay news covered the big Merchants PRT bust. Piggot, apparently, could deliver when she wanted. Or maybe she could because there were no longer other gangs to worry about anymore. Of course, the news also mentioned the day before news about the remaining members of the E88 being apprehended by the PRT too, without mentioning us at all. Typical, but not unexpected.
The next day, Lung and I made a live stream from Leet's lab, where we declared the city was free of gangs, mentioning as a side note that we hoped the PRT kept the Empire villains so we'd not have to capture them again for them, like the last time. And then Lung said that the ASDF organization we established just 2 days earlier as ABB's successor was now officially disbanded too, but its members could act as local unpaid security volunteers in case some unforeseen threats would arise to the Asian community. No crimes though, under the threat of angering Lung. Then I called all the city's civilians to keep order, report crimes to the authorities or to me via PHO, and to keep an eye out for the new villains that might appear soon. Finally, I addressed the said would-be visitors and advised them to stay out, or else. I knew it'd not help, but...
After I got back to HQ, I got a phone call from Dragon. On my burner number I hadn't given anybody yet. She thanked me for apprehending Saint and made a lot of pauses while carefully asking me some leading questions about how I found him. I just told her a partial truth that I wanted to get rid of him for a while and that I'd had an opportunity and time for it now. I didn't try telling her about Ascalon since, as I understood, she was designed not to know or even actively ignore it as well as any talk of her limitations. I was hoping Armsy will figure it out better than I ever could.
I did tell her that if she was fine with that, I'd be happy to cooperate in the future, and we finished the conversation on that.
Then I scratched my head, checked my TODO list, and texted Alec, "Wanna fuck up your Dad?"
You don't get it, it can't be done", Alec repeated in frustration.
"Why not? We drop the Boombox's sleeping grenades all over the compound, go in, shoot your dad in the head, and leave. The Guild secures everybody, gets them through therapy or whatever, but nobody else dies. What's the problem?"
"He probably left instructions for everybody to kill themselves or to kill each other or something like that - if he dies."
I decided not to comment on the fact that he cared.
"What happens if he just disappears and nobody knows whether he's alive or dead? His power works over line of sight only, right? They don't all kill themselves when he goes to the restroom, so what's the difference?"
"I don't know, okay? I know that the local heroes tried to end him a few times. Men died, women just joined the harem. It's just not possible."
"You were raised to believe it's not possible. Like those elephants that keep thinking they're not strong enough to break their ties since their infancy. Unless it's an urban legend. Anyhow, we're trying this, with or without you."
"Fine. What happened with him in your future?"
"Imp killed him, after you died, but I don't have the details on how. She was much older too. I'm not sending her there and not involving her in any case. Suppose we do kill him and disappear his body, how long should we wait to see whether this affects all these people or not? Like a day? A week?"
"How the fuck would I know?"
"Would they tell us if we ask them?"
"No idea."
"What about all your brothers and sisters? How would they take it? Will they be hostile to us and to the authorities?"
"If they know he's gone - they'll probably be happy. At least I will be. But then all the kidnapees who love him will freak out and kill themselves or whatever. If they all think he's just stepped out or got kidnapped, they might all fight to save him, to gain his favor maybe. It's fucked up."
"OK, so we put everyone to sleep, drop him somewhere he can't come back from, alive, just in case. Then we pick up all your brothers and sisters, put them someplace separate, and then you, we convince them it's over. Meanwhile, the kidnapees, as you call them, stay behind and think he's just out... Yeah, I see the problem."
"Why can't we Master them to stop following the original Master's commands?", Riley, who'd been silent till now, asked.
"How?"
"Uhm, I could probably cook something... or, this Master-singer we talked to the other day, so she doesn't go to the Birdcage, couldn't she do it?"
"OK, that might be an interesting idea. Master people to stop being Mastered. The public and the powers that be would totally love it."
Still it was the best idea we had.
We broke the meeting shortly afterwards with preparations on different fronts to be done. I made a fresh Save point, in case it'd all go terribly wrong.
Lisa was tasked with securing a property in Canada for a week, which would house all the Heartbreaker kids. I did not plan adopting them too, I promised Dad.
Boombox had her order of sleep grenades, as well as the general instructions to keep the power nullifying ones coming.
Dad and I got to visit Paige the Canary again with a business proposition for a highly specialized show, up in Canada. After contacting her agent and promising to never get her in the same room with Riley, and getting a promise she'd not Sing at us either. When we met again, I apologized for the way we visited her the last time and promised to call first from now on. We left with a contract for her to sing to the group of a currently unnamed Master victims for a nice round sum of a million US$, courtesy of Alec, with us organizing her travel arrangements to and from there.
On the evening before the operation night, I made a courtesy call to Dragon and informed her that we will be handling the Heartbreaker problem, but could she please not inform any agency yet since they could have his thralls as sleeper agents.
The operation itself went rather smoothly. At 2 a.m., we opened a bunch of portals into all the rooms of the big house he and his clan were sleeping in, dropped a barrage of the sleeping and the power nullifying grenades, closed them, waited for a few minutes, and then stormed the master (huh) bedroom. He was sleeping with 3 stunning women in a huge bed, with a smile on his face and no clothes. I opened a door to Crawler's Earth from under him and closed it the moment he fell in. It was dark and cold there. Not my problem, let the bigger asshole in there win.
Alec led the team with stretchers that were picking up his siblings and dooring them to the small, struggling hotel Lisa fully booked and paid the staff and the owner to leave unattended for a week. When only the victims stayed behind, I placed the call to Dragon and told her it was over and that I had the solution for the victims, but I'd need her backup on that.
I first considered doing the re-Mastering thing before informing her, but Dinah predicted rather decent chances that the authorities who were routinely observing the compound to know who was being kidnapped (but weren't doing much about that anymore) would notice and storm in, blaming us for taking over the harem before we're done. So we decided to do it above board with the Guild's supervision.
Of course, notifying them at the last second severely limited how they'd go about that, and they couldn't really object to the whole thing, with tens of victims being a risk of suicide or of doing something far worse.
A Dragon suit arrived 5 minutes later. She probably put it on a patrol pattern close to the place after I called her earlier. I greeted her and explained the situation and the plan in general. I emphasized that neither the main asshole nor any of his kids were present anymore and weren't her immediate problem. The focus was on the victims, some of whom were capes of unknown (to me) powers and capabilities. Dragon, being prepared, had the list of all the known and suspected capes, so she'd spent some time going through the house and checking the people off her list.
Meanwhile, me, Bitch, Princess, Boombox, Tattletale, and yet to be renamed Purity and Othala began dragging all the sleeping women Dragon already ticked off to the living room. We sent all the boys either home or to the 'Heartbroken Hotel', since many of the sleeping women weren't dressed, properly or at all. We put some blankets on them for modesty.
About an hour later, a Guild team arrived, led by Narwhal, with Masamune and a few other capes I couldn't recall. I greeted them too and repeated the explanation. They eyed me suspiciously, while I tried, as usual, not to stare at Narwhal. Dragon joined us too and reported that she accounted for almost all the kidnapped women she was aware of, that were still alive, and a few more they had no idea about. She said the face recognition search was ongoing, but she didn't expect any of them to be dangerous capes, so we could proceed. There were no male kidnapees to be found, which was maybe a problem for another day.
"So let me get this straight, you disappeared all the Masters from the compound, leaving only the victims here, whom you want to Master into being no longer Mastered, and you want us to support this?", Narwhal summarized our brilliant plan.
"You know, the nudist chick does have a point", Imp said, popping up beside me and startling the Canadians.
"Not helping, Imp. Let me put things in proportion. We could leave Heartbreaker be and keep kidnapping people, like you've been doing for years. Not accusing, just a fact. We could take him, leave all his kids here and you'd have a massacre by the morning, or a new Heartbreaker that would win and take over, or some mix of the above. We could take the kids, like we did, and leave all the victims here for you to deal with, or not, and they'd either kill themselves or others. Or, we're offering a solution we're paying for, that has Thinkers and Precog support as viable."
"If it helps, my analysis of the Boss's past operations shows a pattern of well-thought-out actions and an apparent lack of self-serving", Dragon backed me up.
"Fine, Dragon and Deadfall will observe the 'concert'. The moment we suspect anything fishy, they have the authority to stop it and arrest you and Canary."
"I think it's fair enough. Anything I should know about Deadfall?"
"I thought you knew everything?", Masamune asked, sarcastically. I was tempted to Reload and redo the whole thing just to stick it to the smart-ass.
"Only about the people I care about. I don't know you either, Masamune," I replied, maturely.
"Deadfall is resistant to Mastering and might react, let's say, violently, if somebody tries," Narwhal replied, ignoring our exchange. I shrugged.
I sent the rest of our team home, called Canary, doored her in 5 minutes later, and explained her the full task for the first time. Dinah gave it only about an 80% chance that she would agree if we were to do it in secret, but it was somewhat improving with the Guild and Dragon present. She freaked out a bit, again, but didn't see Riley, calmed down, asked Narwhal some questions, and eventually decided to go through with the plan (and keep her million).
Since there was already enough supervision, I made Canary nervous, and I already knew she could impact me, I volunteered to sit the 'concert' out on the outside, after providing Dragon with a few 'wakeup' grenades Boombox made without me even asking for them.
While my getup was winter-friendly, and I had to think about updating it for when it'd get warmer, it was intended for the mild Brockton Bay winters. Late February in Canada was another matter. I was freezing my ass off.
"How aren't you cold?" I asked Narwhal, to pass the time.
"Double layer of the forcefields, and a vacuum in between when it's really freezing. Near-perfect insulation. I'm actually getting too warm inside, and have to make gaps to cool down. It's worse in the summer; the forcefields have decent insulation by themselves, even the single layer, plus they pass the sunlight in, so it's a challenge to not die of heat in here," she complained.
"I keep offering a vapor cooling system, but no...", Masamune bickered.
"Yeah, and how would you maintain it? And I'd have to carry it with me at all times."
"Yeah, people carry clothes on them all the time, except you; it's a really huge problem."
Their years-long, it seemed, argument was broken up by Deadfall and Canary exiting the house.
"So far so good", Deadfall told his teammates, "Canary did a good job, I think; Dragon is handling the Q&A; maybe you want to get in there and help her. I left since there're half-hysterical naked women in there, asking about their children."
"Alright, looks like you have your work cut out for you; we will live you to it. I will check on the kids and will come back soon again; will try to return some of them here", I promised them, "Imp, if you're still here, follow me, or freeze here to death."
I doored Canary back to her home, and then Imp to the Bay.
"Please don't post any of the videos you took today; we're keeping the Heartbreaker disappearance a secret; else his sleeper agents will freak out and do something unfortunate. Let's give Dragon a chance to find them all first", I warned her, making her pout, but agree.
"On the other hand, do you have the footage of us dropping the Heartbreaker to another Earth?"
"Yeah."
"Hold on to it; we might need it to get some reward money. His kids are going to need it, I think. Send the video to Lisa."
I went back to the hotel and checked with Alec. All the kids he knew about were there plus a few more, except for Cherish. Apparently, she'd already run away. Without the Slaughter House, though, the amount of damage she would do was probably limited, so we decided to let her be for now.
"Which ones of them should we return to their mothers, now that they were deprogrammed? On that matter, is your mother there?"
"My mom's dead for a while. The bitch who killed her is there, though, so it's best if I don't go back. I know it wasn't her idea, but... Anyhow, the younger kids, especially those without powers yet, should be safe to return now, but the older ones... I think let's keep them here for now?"
I asked him. Grue, Medic, and Unioner to keep an eye on the remaining kids. Then we gathered the 'safe' ones, I checked with Dragon, and when they were ready on the other side, we doored them back.
"What are you doing with the rest of the children?" Narwhal asked.
"The plan was to let them sleep the night and then to vet them with our Thinkers and Precog. The ones that aren't likely to cause trouble, we will bring over here or wherever. The others ... I'm open for suggestions? I thought maybe to bring some psychologists to talk to them? Either way, trying to Master them with Canary or the like sounds like a really bad idea."
"So you're not recruiting them?"
"Why would I do that?"
"Well, I know that Bonesaw wasn't found among the Nine, and Bakuda is missing, and some of the Empire 88 Capes. You've been recruiting."
"See, you get me all wrong. I've been recruiting so I could do the things like what we did tonight. And everybody I recruited had and still have the option to go to the heroes. Also, for the record, I have no idea about Bonesaw and Bakuda. Regardless, I have no real use for the kid Masters, so I'm not even offering them the option. If they come to me themselves, we will vet each one of them the same way we vet everybody else."
"You still have Hijack."
"I don't. I have another guy who you might have confused with him, but he's been nothing but cooperative and helpful, especially tonight. Anyway, we have some place to keep the kids for a while, but if you have a better arrangement and people to look for them, I can pass them on. Let me know."
I left back to the hotel, and we took rotations making sure the kids didn't run away. Chastity tried, on my watch, running straight at me, probably intending to do something with her power, whatever it was. But a well-placed power nullifying grenade and calm talk convinced her to return to her room and wait for the morning. Kids these days.
The big surprise came in the morning, after everybody had breakfast in the hotel's dining room.
"I'm leaving the Bay and taking all the kids who want to come with me", Alec declared, shocking everybody who knew him well enough, "I'm done with letting some assholes use us. You can go to your moms, if they're alive, talk to the Boss about that. You can go to the heroes, I'm sure they'd want Masters of their own. But if you don't want either thing, come with me. I have some money, thanks to the Boss", he pointed at me, "So we don't need to do crime for a while. We'll figure things out."
I congratulated Alec on growing up, told him in private that we would get him the reward for his dad too, and wished him good luck. Only 3 more kids wanted to go back to their mothers; nobody chose the heroes, and the rest decided to stay with Alec. I doored our team and the returning kids back to the compound, passed them on to their mothers, updated Narwhal about the rest of the kids going their own way, and asked her to keep an eye on them and to ping me if they were in trouble. We shook hands and finally doored back home to get some sleep.
AN: I tried to find any additional known Guild members besides Narwhal and Masamune (and Dragon and Defiant later), but didn't get anything useful. So I asked Google to invent a cape for me, and it offered Deadfall, which was rather impressive. I have no plans to use him later, so it's just the name for this short episode while still claiming that the story is not AI-generated. I bet there's no such suspicion due to my spelling... superpowers.
Anyhow, here's what Google provided for "In Worm serial by Wildbow invent a Canadian parahuman with a power to resist Mastering":
Parahuman Profile: Deadfall
Real Name: Benoit "Ben" Fournier
Classification: Brute / Thinker
Affiliation: Independent (Contracted by the Guild for specialized anti-Master operations)
Location: Northern Ontario / Quebec Border
Power: "Rooted Consciousness"
Deadfall possesses a passive, bi-layered defense mechanism that makes him functionally immune to external mental or emotional influence.
The Anchor (Thinker): His consciousness is not localized entirely within his brain; instead, it is distributed across his nervous system like a "mesh network." When a Master attempts to seize control of his mind, the shard interprets the signal as white noise. Because there is no single "control center" for a telepath or emotional manipulator to latch onto, their powers slide off him without effect.
The Feedback (Brute): If a Master power is particularly aggressive (such as a direct "command" or "hijack" attempt), Deadfall's body reacts with a violent, involuntary physical hardening. His skin and muscles instantly take on the density of petrified wood, and he enters a brief, unstoppable trance where he moves toward the source of the Mastering effect with singular focus.
Background & Role
Based in the rugged wilderness of the Canadian Shield, Benoit was triggered during an incident involving a rogue Master who had enslaved his entire logging camp. While his coworkers became mindless thralls, Benoit found himself unable to obey, eventually forced to neutralize the Master to survive.
Because he cannot be subverted, the Guild often employs him as a "handler" for high-risk parahuman prisoners or as a front-line combatant against S-Class threats like the Simurgh, whose "screaming" songs fail to seed his mind with the usual precognitive traps.
Weaknesses
While immune to mental control, Deadfall is still susceptible to physical damage from Blasters and Strikers. His "Rooted" state also makes him socially distant and cold; he often struggles to process subtle emotional cues from his teammates, as his shard constantly "filters" emotional input as potential threats.
I got a call from Alec 20 minutes later. Did he change his mind THAT fast?
"How's being a single dad treating you?"
"Can you door me to my place so I can pick up my stuff? Or kill myself. We don't have any winter clothes here, we can't leave the hotel. The kids are driving me crazy. What was I thinking!"
"I can relocate all of you to someplace warmer, if you want. Just not to the Bay. I don't want Piggot to die of a heart attack."
"Huh, that's an idea. You know what, forget my stuff, I will get back to you once we vote on the new place."
He called again 2 hours later, and I moved them all to LA. Apparently some of the kids wanted to go to Hollywood and the rest didn't mind.
Alec did go through his place in the Bay to retrieve his gaming stuff. I wished him luck and enough spare time to use it.
I texted Legend and advised him to warn Alexandria about all the fun she's going to have with a platoon of Master kids that have enough money to not need to do crimes, but the lack of motivation not to. And to warn her that they were under my protection. With the constant commute she'd now have to make between the coasts to keep both of her jobs without doors access, I was sure it'd introduce some exciting moments to her otherwise dull life.
Which made me look at my TODO list and start thinking of the next big project to handle.
After Riley got back from school and made some homework, I made a conference call with her, Amy, Alice, and Lisa.
"Girls, I want to get rid of Ellisburg. As I understand it, the main reason it is still there and not nuked by the Air Force is the deadman switches Nilbog claims to have, with some plagues, spores, or whatever. In my previous future, the Nine kidnapped him, and there was a huge mess there. The end of the world happened rather soon afterwards for it to matter much. I think later the heroes re-captured Nilbog, but I'm having my doubts it's particularly worth it. The guy's nuts. Of course, if we figure out how to depower him without killing him, it's fine too.
"So, I was thinking, a superbomb or many smaller bombs, that spread something that Ami and Riley prepare to put the entire town asleep and de-powered without a big explosion to spread the plagues around. Ideas?"
"What do you plan to tell the government?", Dad, who was apparently listening from the kitchen, asked.
"I haven't thought that far ahead yet. They have a guarded wall around the place. You're right, we'd have to coordinate with them to avoid harming them."
"You know, Piggot was there when it all started, some files I found claim", Lisa noted, reading from her screen.
"You think we should include her in the brainstorm? I wanted to wait a couple of days before Saving after making sure no backfires from the Heartbreaker takedown. For now, please just come up with proposals, then I Save and we talk to Piggot."
After we were done, Dad reminded me we were going to get us some therapy. He knew about our visit to Dr. Lecter in the dropped timeline, so I had no excuses left. I checked with Yamada and she was visiting the Bay the next week and promised to find some time for us. Last we talked was when I urged her to speed things up with David. Then, I guessed, her patient just resigned or disappeared. Or maybe he talked to her too. She didn't ask me about Eidolon, either way. I bet she later saw us on TV talking to Simurgh, though.
I checked with Dragon 2 days later, and apparently the women Canary had deprogrammed were better. The authorities were identifying the sleepers Heartbreaker had in the law enforcement based on the erratic behavior they started developing without new instructions and some predictive algorithms she and Armsy developed for that task.
I checked with Alec, who didn't have time to talk but sounded stressed telling me that. So, I checked with Legend. He was getting reports that a bunch of unhinged kids were visiting all the theme parks and making messes there, very loud and visible, but rather mild in consequences. Alexandria was called in a couple of times only to get egged and sprayed with colors by these little kids.
I decided both developments went according to plan, made a new Save, and called Piggot.
"Director, we have a new initiative and I'd like your input on the matter."
"Are you inviting the Leviathan for a swim?"
"You know, that's an idea. He could clean up the boat graveyard. I'm writing this down for later. Thanks, Director!"
"You do realize I was being sarcastic."
"Of course. So was I. Probably. But, no, the idea I was calling about was to deal with something that I understand you have some history with, the Ellisburg situation."
She sighed.
"Are you going to tell me the Behemoth will destroy it?"
"Now I can tell that you're being sarcastic, but, that's also a surprisingly good idea I'm writing down as an option to consider. Maybe for the Machine Army. The problem here would be the plagues that Behemoth would not prevent and all the radiation that will be left in the area. So, we were thinking of the more ... controllable options. Would you like to meet and brainstorm them with our experts? I am being serious, we would like to try and coordinate this with you and the government, this time."
We scheduled an hour on the next day's afternoon, after I explained that some of my experts had school in the mornings. I did ask her to keep the meeting itself and the experts I would bring a secret, since I didn't want to placate Riley and Dinah, who I also wanted to invite to make the what-if scenarios checking more productive. I was fine with her inviting experts of her own of course, only asking for them to be discreet as well. I also texted Legend about the meeting, as an FYI.
I set a new Save point just before we left for the meeting, assuming I could fall back to it if there was trouble, or if we'd need more questions out of Dinah than she could handle in one go.
And so, Unioner, Medic, Mathematician, Tattletale, Panacea, Boombox, and I arrived to the PRT masked up and were ushered into a big conference room. Unsurprisingly, Piggot and Armsmaster were there, Dragon was on one of the big screens and, surprising at least me, Legend was on another.
I made sure that the meeting was not being recorded (Armsy grumbled something but claimed that he turned his helmet camera off) and removed my balaclava, it was too warm in the room as it was.
To answer the unasked question of what the fuck I was doing, I said that I knew how all the present company looked under their masks, so it was only fair; besides, I wasn't a Parahuman. Lisa followed suit and removed her mask too, smirking for her own undisclosed reasons, but nobody else did, which was fine by me.
"If we're done with the theatrics, you've expressed the intent to try and deal with the 'Ellisburg situation', as you put it", Piggot started after I introduced everybody from our team. I didn't introduce Imp, who I figured was occupying the extra chair since I noticed it changed its position a few times. I had no idea how she heard about the meeting or who she arrived with. We came in 2 cars, so maybe she rode with Alice, Lisa, and Amy.
Piggot did raise an eyebrow when she saw Amy coming in with us, but didn't comment.
"That's accurate", I replied, "We have the unprecedented expertise here in this room and believe it can be done. We just need to decide the how and the when. The general idea was about a power-nullifying and paralyzing devices to be spread over the area at night, knocking down everybody below. Pretty much what we did with Heartbreaker the other day, except on a much larger scale. Boombox is our expert on the ... devices that can deliver the, um, active substances. Medic and Panacea are responsible for the actual substances preparation, to make it into a much wider area effect. We were hoping Armsmaster and, maybe Dragon could help with the delivery method. As in, maybe an aircraft that would spread the Boombox devices. We could open portals at some height and emulate the same effect, but it'd be more time and effort consuming."
There was a rather long and boring brainstorming session after that. At some point, Legend had to go to another meeting, but he asked for the summary from Armsmaster and promised to take care of getting the needed clearances for the operation itself from the heroes guarding the exclusion zone.
It was funny seeing the penny drop for Piggot, after Medic started excitedly explaining the exact formulas in the nerve agent she'd provide. Piggot's pupils dilated, she looked at the screen Legend was on, though he'd already left, then at Armsy and Dragon, who were too busy discussing the technical details, and then, finally, at me. I smiled and shrugged. She facepalmed, drank a cup of water, and leaned back, trying to follow the technical jargon of the main conversation. Lisa hasn't missed it too, naturally.
Eventually, the experts came up with a solution, and the Mathematician provided the odds for its success, which were surprisingly high. Dragon agreed to provide an aircraft that would spread Bombox's bombs, which Armsy would upgrade to become sort of a gliding smart bombs using guidance kits Masamune would supply, according to Dragon. The bombs, though, instead of striking and exploding, would release their payload at a low attitude and then change trajectory and glide into a nearby lake, where they'd float awaiting easy boat pickup later, preventing environmental hazards creation.
The operation would be at night, the dragon-craft would use electrical propulsion at the time, and, thus, will be silent, the bombs will not explode nor produce any other noise or light. The idea was to quietly put the entire town powerless and asleep for 6 to 8 hours, allowing easy takedown by the PRT and Protectorate forces to be amassed for the task just outside the area.
While we could make the attack lethal, the directives from Washington were to capture and extract Nilbog alive. The goblins should not be harmed, but left sterile, if possible. Some weird political bullshit. It was apparent Piggot did not share the same opinion, but she didn't argue with her orders and just passed them on. I was regretting my choice of Saving after I told Piggot about our intentions. Just letting her know we were doing this would've prevented such meddling from all the animal rights activists or goblin lovers or whoever pushed for this bullshit. Or maybe it was just Becky's petty comeback at me; it was hard to tell.
Because there were a lot of preparations to be made, on both ends, we ended up agreeing on meeting again a week later and seeing where each side was. I offered to add Leet to the effort, since I kind of forgot about him when I was organizing this. I was overruled by pretty much everybody present. Since we didn't need something really revolutionary to be done, I let them convince me and dropped the matter. I didn't object to Armsy's proposal to involve Kid Win in his side of the work, despite the slight grudge I held on Leet's behalf. But, I decided not to be petty; plus, Chris wasn't at fault for all the shortsighted bigots in the room.
I did refuse to make the final assembly on the Protectorate base, as I was not 100% sure some asshole in the chain of command wouldn't just decide to snatch what we build and red-tape everything. Luckily, Lisa had yet another abandoned warehouse she bought for almost nothing, which she promised to make suitable by the next time. When I later asked her how many warehouses she bought, she just smirked and said that she had enough. The smug bitch. I did agree to let PRT arrange the security measures for the place once we'd all start moving the components there.
I asked Boombox and Medic whether they'd need any exotic materials we'd not be able to buy. Both thought for a few minutes and replied they'd manage with the usual stuff they could buy from the gardening, building, or home office stores. Which made things much easier.
Piggot inquired whether we were asking for advance funding for the project, or would we be able to manage and get the reward money afterwards. I got a nod from Lisa and replied that we could manage.
"Good, because I'd not be able to give you an advance", the bitch Director replied.
"Then why did you ask?"
"I had specific orders for that too."
"I see, please pass on to these orders' issuer that I wish her all the fun times with the kids and with the commute. She will understand."
"I don't think she has kids, but ... sure, whatever", she said, thinking.
"Since you already raised the money question first, what reward are we talking about and what part will be ours, if all goes as planned?" I asked.
"I don't have the exact numbers, but it's rather substantial. However, the Protectorate and the Guild will also get the share for the Armsmaster, Kid Win, Masamune, and Dragon participation and the incurred costs. They will get it as part of their Tinkering budgets. But, I expect it will still be a rather nice sum you will be getting."
"Fine, please email Tattletale the more exact numbers once you have them, before the next meeting. I don't want to get cheated by the PRT on this, or for you to get new ... interesting orders that would screw us up. In fact, let's draw a contract on the matter next time we meet, please."
With that, I put my balaclava back, Lisa - her mask, and we left home.
"I'm pretty sure you outed or almost outed Becky to Piggot with that kids and commute remark", Lisa told me on the way to the cars.
"Then this meeting was even more productive than I thought."
We got to our office for a follow-up talk. I insisted on transferring Boombox the funds she needed to get the materials, claiming our prior agreement was for her regular services and not for such a big project's expenses. Alice tried to object, and I didn't understand why. Lisa explained that Alice was hoping to get a share of the reward for Ellisburg.
"Oh, I see. The reason none of us are getting anything for the Hearbreaker, if or when the money arrives, is because it all goes to the kids and the victims. I hope you understand. Of course, you're getting your share for Ellisburg, Alice. Sorry I didn't make it clear. After we deduce all the expenses and whatever the Protectorate and the Guild take, from what's left, I think Lisa, Dinah, and I should get like 5% each, since we didn't do much and we're not exactly poor already. And the rest will be split between you, Riley, and Amy, since you're the ones doing all the work here. Sounds fair?"
"I'm not exactly poor too now, and while I live in Carol's house, I can't even mention I have any of that money, so I don't really need this either", Amy said.
"Amy, you kind of came out today. People saw you with us. Your Mom will find out. I can guarantee it. And once you're getting the official reward, tax-free, you can definitely legally use it, and your Mom can shove it. Of course, you're getting your share too."
"Fine, we'll see. She might make me donate it or put it in a trust fund or something."
"Put it in a trust fund, then. You do realize you're turning 18 in less than 10 months, right?" Lisa asked her.
"No, I'm not. I'm only turning 17 in July."
"Your current documents say so, sure, but you're really older than that. Your actual birthday is on December 23rd. Talk to me if you want more details", Lisa clarified. I wasn't sure Amy was ready for the talk about her biological family, but I didn't try to stop Lisa.
"You looked into my past?" Amy asked.
"I checked up on everybody: Danny, Tailor, Riley, Alice, you, Uber, Leet, Lung, the nazi girls. If you don't want to know, no problem. I'm sure Taylor could tell you some, too, but she chose not to push, and I agree. Talk to me or to Taylor, or both, or don't, up to you. But you can emancipate sooner than you think. That's all I'm saying. In fact, once you have the official money on your name, you can try and do it earlier than your 18th birthday. I'm sure Calle's office can handle it too, if you want. You will have money. You can hire a doctor and/or a nurse and open an official private clinic with proper professional supervision. You don't have to wait, I think."
"Fine, I'll think about it. Now I need to head home before I get grounded again."
I asked Alice to keep the power-nullifying grenades coming when she wasn't busy with the more urgent stuff, and we all went our separate ways.
AN: Welcoming omakes about the Heartbroken kids in the LA area driving Alexandria and the local heroes nuts.