74.2 Interlude Lisa
Lisa took a breath as she centered herself in her room. She was alone in the hideout, Brian, Taylor, and Rachel having returned home and Alec out enjoying his bonus from the team's performance at Somer's Rock. She could have made this call from her apartment, but even with everything her power told her about Joe's monitoring practices or lack thereof, she wasn't comfortable with that. It felt like exposing herself. Not that she seriously believed he wouldn't be able to find her apartment, but extending cape work to that place could easily break down whatever arbitrary boundaries he was holding himself to.
Assuming he would still hold to them. The Joe she was currently calling could be a completely different person from the Joe she had seen at the summit. Just like every other time she had met Joe. If all that was happening was his powers getting stronger or more versatile than she could have managed. It was easy to predict how a person would behave if they were granted a new ability or opportunity, even if you couldn't tell exactly what those abilities would be. Unfortunately, that wasn't what was happening with Joe.
His powers affected his mind. It was a terrifying concept, and exactly the kind of cost you would expect from that kind of growth. Everyone knew that the strength of a parahuman corresponded on some level to instability. It was something evident through the standout cases. Glaistig Uaine, Gray Boy, the Siberian, Nilbog, Ash Beast, Sleeper. The effect had been clear through all of them. Near limitless power that was intrinsically tied to a warped mindset, either as a direct result of their abilities, or as a consequence of what that kind of power could do to someone.
Joe was working to moderate the impact of his power. She was sure of that. He had assured her of as much when she first asked him about it, after he rescued them from the ABB. She could tell he wasn't comfortable with the changes, that they took him by surprise and occasionally upset him, but he wasn't afraid. There was concern and moderation, but not the creeping terror that should have come from having your mind chipped away one piece at a time. Joe had a level of confidence in his power that she couldn't understand, not with what it was capable of, or what it had done to him.
Maybe that was because of her own perspective. She knew the cost of power. The impact that her own abilities had on her mind, the way they seeped into every part of her life and completely upended the way she saw the world. She could barely relate to the girl she was before her trigger. Looking back at those memories, on the rare occasions she cared to, it was like peering through frosted glass, or recalling a period of bad eyesight before you got a pair of glasses that brought everything into focus. She missed and overlooked so much, so many important things, but there was also a peace in that ignorance. The ability to ignore the world, to pretend that it was a simple place that you didn't have to worry about, that had been stripped away. I was the price she paid for her power.
By all accounts Joe had paid that and more. His constantly expanding power warped both his body and mind. She had watched as the very structure of his body changed, expanding along with a sense and control of fire and heat. She could only guess how many changes had happened when she wasn't watching. Thinking back to their meeting before Somer's Rock it was clear he was concealing things. More change, buried under a disguise effect that she could only recognize in retrospect.
She hadn't seen the true extent of his changes until he walked into Somer's Rock. Showmanship. A display of power. Her own advice to him, and she couldn't fault him for taking it, as much as she might want to.
Just dealing with Joe would have been difficult enough. Accounting for the other members of his team was borderline impossible. Maybe if they had been rank and file henchmen, basically extensions of his will hanging on every word, things would have been different, but that wasn't the case. Every member of his team was an individual with their own objectives, goals and initiative. They worked together and operated under Joe's leadership, but had their own agency, a fact that was clear in their response to the Empire.
Modeling the dynamics of seven near-Apeiron level individuals was impossible. Not with the information available, not with the persistent questions about their abilities. Not with the clear implication that Joe's growth wasn't an element unique to him. By introducing his team Joe had created a situation that was impossible to predict or control, and he knew it.
That was the reason he had introduced them. They were a buffer against manipulation. A source of deniable action. Apeiron might not go against his word, but that word explicitly didn't extend to the rest of his team. Possibly the only thing moderating Joe's actions was the understanding that the next time Apeiron opened up it would provoke a response worthy of an S-Class threat. With his team he suddenly had the ability to act on a smaller scale through agents who didn't have strategic response protocols assigned to them.
Really, the greater chance of intervention from his team was only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the concerns they raised. There was clear power there, and not only as an extension of Joe's technology. Roles and capacities that were suspected to be part of Apeiron's power set were on full display through his team. Apeiron was terrifying as a generalist, able to bring anything and everything to bear on a moment's notice. His team were not just carbon copies of his own methods, they were specialists.
Only the extent of the specializations and how far they could be stretched was anyone's guess. Even her power was only able to scratch the surface, but what she had been able to glean was concerning enough.
Fleet's speed and strength had been demonstrated to a harrowing degree, but from the reactions of his team that hadn't even been regarded as his primary ability. He had another role within the team, likely connected to how Joe credited him for the design of the weapon that put down Lung. Based on the design of his costume and his activity of PHO a level of specialization towards vehicle technology could be assumed, but the fact that it was apparently more notable than his demonstrated physical abilities was concerning.
Really, there was no shortage of concerning aspects of the situation. As a standout, Lisa's mind jumped back to Survey. The image of that cape was an easy thing to bring to mind. On reflection she was sure that Joe had had a hand in the design of Survey's body. She briefly blanched at the unintended pun, sifting through the cavalcade of lewd comments and reactions the cape had elicited from the internet following the release of the surveillance footage. There was no shortage of speculation regarding Survey's relationship with the rest of Joe's team, her role in it, and exactly what kind of situations would lead Apeiron to having a hand in Survey's anything.
They were completely off base. That was one thing Lisa was sure of, and it was something of a relief for her. There may have been a clearly unnatural perfection to Survey, but it spared her the constant barrage of grotesque details that her power would normally provide. No, she may have been privy to every vile thought held by the attendees of the summit, but despite clearly supernatural beauty, Survey wasn't involved with any member of the Celestial Forge, nor was there any tension or unrequited feelings. The most she had picked up was a rather close fraternal/sororal relationship with Fleet, but even that had been subtle.
The general public might have been focused on Survey's admittedly striking appearance, but the major players had far more pressing concerns. Survey was clearly Joe's information specialist. Possibly a thinker, or at least possessing some thinker powers. The unprecedented mapping of Victor's power in real time had cemented her credibility for the world. It was a strong message. Around Survey, subtle powers weren't. Anyone planning to leverage a specific parahuman ability against the Celestial Forge was rapidly reassessing their plans. It was such a master stroke that she almost wondered if it had been set up in advance.
It hadn't been. If anything, Joe was upset at needing to admit to having the capacity to detect powers at his disposal. The intimidation factor and ability to cow half the cape population with a single display was of secondary importance, merely a consolation prize for having to give up the strategic advantage of keeping that power or technology concealed.
It was a point that gave her hope for the coming call. One of the few points that did. Joe was still trying to be subtle. Of course, considering that he was Joe, his subtly still outshone the best efforts of most teams. But people didn't know that. They still didn't understand just how much he was holding back. The appearance of his team was generally seen as a reveal of the source of his escalation, rather than a product of it.
That was a point that still grated at her. Six parahumans, all of which had clearly been involved with or connected to Joe for a long time, all with an established relationship and dynamic, and she had completely overlooked it, not even considering the possibility. Part of that had been March, and part had been the pace of things both before and after Joe's fight with Lung. She both didn't have time to pay attention, and her attention was being obscured or redirected. Even now Coil was leaning on her for more analysis, more assessments, more information.
She was providing what she could, with what modifications and framing she could afford to risk. Open deception could be exposed within an alternate timeline, but playing into Coil's continued overconfidence of the situation helped keep things at a manageable level. Or what she tried to tell herself was a manageable level, if you didn't consider his precog. Or the Travelers. Or the monster in his basement.
That was the reason she needed this call to succeed. Needed Joe to agree to stand down, not just the surface level agreement he made for the benefit of the summit. Actually stand down. Give her the time to regain some measure of control over the situation. She knew she could do it. Coil was still relying on her for guidance and analysis. The Travelers were almost pathetic in their desperation and were willing to share everything with her in the hope of finding their lifeline. With time she might actually be able to discover the truth about the bank robbery and find Joe the answer he was pressing for.
But she couldn't do any of that if Joe insisted on launching an attack the day after he promised peace and stability. She knew Joe worked on a different scale from normal people, and it had only been getting worse. Part of that was the impact of his power, but that couldn't account for everything she had seen. It was very clear that a day for Apeiron was not the same as a day for the rest of the world. It was hard enough to interact with Joe through just the impact of his power. Add in the fact that he might not even be experiencing time like a normal person and it started to look like a hopeless task.
But she couldn't afford to think of it that way. Couldn't afford what would happen if Joe charged in and ran into Noelle. Honestly, she wasn't even sure what would happen if Joe was cloned. There was a chance that Noelle might spit out the version of Joe they had met two weeks ago, when he had been struggling against Oni Lee in an improvised costume and what equipment he'd been able to scrounge. Or they could end up with a copy of current Joe, able to fight Lung to a standstill while stripped of all his equipment. Able to work faster than humanly possible, repairing and upgrading equipment in the field. Able to concentrate Lung's fire into a shaped fusion charge that launched the gang leader into the upper atmosphere, the kind of attack that would have left any city devastated.
Or more devastated. She could admit it to herself, the scale Joe worked on was terrifying. From the first moment when she had watched him jury-rig a tactical weapon from his sword and play it off as intentional, she knew she was out of her league. More out of her league than she normally was. This wasn't directing a team against regional heroes or dancing around the orders of a crime lord. This was another world of power.
All the panic and speculation regarding Apeiron's Final Slash was centered around his reason for developing it, his restraint in its use, and the potential impact it could have if deployed carelessly. They weren't there, watching as Joe fumbled with his equipment, groping for a way to get them out of Bakuda's thorn trap. They didn't see his surprise as some unknown ability modified his fabricated blade. Didn't know he was basically guessing at the result of the effect he applied to his sword. Didn't realize that he was basically throwing power at the wall to see what stuck. You could watch the impact of that attack and be harrowed and shaken by the power on display. Seeing the desperation and instability behind it? That would shake you to your core.
And then Joe had gotten more powerful. So powerful that the strike that leveled the storage facility was basically a footnote. The concept of Apeiron, a cape rapidly developing new and powerful technology at an unprecedented pace was frightening. The concept of Joe, the college dropout being dragged in random directions by a power he couldn't predict or control, was terrifying beyond belief. Was terrifying on its own, independent of the risk of Noelle cloning him. Or any other member of the Celestial Forge.
She had the sense that Joe intended the presence of his team to be a reassuring factor. A demonstration of his abilities and resources. More forces available for the inevitable strike against Coil. A week ago, that would have been true. Now, it just made things worse. Everything made things worse. The assurance that had been provided by Joe's growth in power had turned into a liability, and the team only made the situation worse.
If she couldn't predict the abilities a clone of Joe would possess, then the rest of the Celestial Forge was even more of a concern. Would a clone of Fleet be able to move with that strength and power? Would an evil duplicate of Survey be able to scream secrets to the world? If Kataklyzein was as powerful as Joe implied, how much damage could a clone of him unleash? Could the Matrix even be duplicated? What abilities would a copy of Proto Aima possess? What abilities did the original even have?
And then there was Lethe. The stranger was regarded differently from the rest of the team. Clearly the youngest and weakest member, but only when regarded in terms of pure power. Taking the utility of her ability into account, she entered a new league altogether.
Lisa glanced up, her eyes darting to the various printouts posted around her room. The most prominent one clearly stating 'THE CELESTIAL FORGE HAS SEVEN MEMBERS. THE TEAM INCLUDES A STRANGER.' Other pages included pictures of Lethe's armor, both from her recovery of Joe after his fight with Lung and as part of the team shot outside Somer's Rock. Some had details of Lethe's powers, both official records and what she had been able to learn from her power. Everything directed back to the central statement.
It was an infuriating power. She was able to draw some mild satisfaction from the fact that every other thinker and analyst in the country was having the same problem she was. By all accounts there were only a handful of capes resistant to Lethe's power, usually due to some complex breaker of perception-based ability. Those capes were finding themselves the subject of a great deal of attention as people desperately scrambled for a way to counter what was quickly becoming regarded as the most powerful stranger on the planet.
Possibly the worst part was how casually the power would activate. By all appearances, Lethe deployed her ability with no regard for the chaos it wrought across the entire thinker community. To be fair, she had likely been doing so for some time, but forgetting about someone you didn't know about wasn't really a problem. Even when all they had was footage of Joe's recovery, the flickers of her power hadn't been obvious.
Looking back, it was. You could see it, clear as day, Lethe was conspicuous by her absence. You didn't have the hyper vigilance of people charting every use of the stranger's power, but you could see the effect of it going back to the Ungodly Hour. Reports that meticulously detailed every incident on a second-by-second basis leaving out the details of how Joe was recovered. Technology analysis that included the 'rescue suit' in one draft and left it out of the other. The worst offender had to be a news broadcast that suddenly cut away from a discussion of the suit, jumping to the next segment in a way that played merry hell with the scheduling of the rest of the program, leading to them hitting their commercial break two minutes early.
That might have been the most frightening aspect of the ability. Oh, altering memory on a global scale was scary enough. You had plenty of people focusing on that, but they didn't realize just how expansive Lethe's power really was. It affected electronic records of her existence. When the power was deployed you couldn't find a single reference to Lethe anywhere. She would be absent from photos, edited from video recordings, and even written reports failed to load sections that mentioned her.
It was the same effect that caused the entire planet to overlook her existence, but somehow seeing it play out through digital records drove home the true power of the cape in a way memory modification failed to accomplish. Probably because forgetfulness was a natural human thing, while computer memory was supposed to be foolproof. Realistically, altering digital records was orders of magnitude less complicated than what would be required to alter global human memory, but that wasn't the way people looked at things.
What really mattered is that the standard failsafe against strangers was useless against Lethe, leading to the printout situation. Her own arrangement of printed pages was mirrored at just about every PRT office in the country, plus most of the Think Tank. It was, against every common expectation, where the bulk of the attention was being directed.
Fleet could move faster than the eye could see and trigger sonic booms by lifting an arm. Survey could detect parahuman powers with an unprecedented level of accuracy and scan the contents of vans that were blocks away. The Matrix had access to an Endbringer-sized robot that ran on a type of particle that could shut down a city. Proto Aima was a blood-drinking biological disaster connected to an impossibility of a glove who either killed or enhanced everything she touched. Kataklyzein could allegedly have handled the entire Ungodly Hour himself. The entire thing. Joe hadn't just been talking about his fight with Lung.
All of that power, and the world was focused on his stranger. It made sense. Power could be met with power. The scale of power that Joe could bring to bear wasn't met easily, but enough combined forces could conceivably counter it. Something like Lethe was another matter. As unlikely as it was that they could effectively counter the Celestial Forge, they could at least make an attempt. You couldn't block the hit you didn't see coming. Lethe was frightening in a way entirely unique to her.
And one wrong move could see her cloned. Even if she was only a baseline human without any of the complimentary powers that seemed to run through that team, even if she was denied her incredibly powerful armor, how much damage could a homicidal clone do when nobody could remember her existence? The mentalities of Noelle's clones were beyond deranged. With just a knife, a clone of Lethe could create a scene worthy of a member of the Slaughterhouse Nine. With time, freedom, or any of the skills or powers she could have picked up from Joe? That elevated things to critical levels. An unperceivable Noelle clone loose in a hospital, or airport, or powerplant?
Strictly speaking, it wouldn't be more damaging than the immediate damage that could be caused by clones of any of the other members of Joe's team, but just like with the wider response, the fact that you couldn't fight against it, that you wouldn't even be aware of it, that made it so much worse.
It was what she needed to head off. And to do that, she needed time. She needed a chance to get control of the situation. She could do it. She knew she could. Coil was trusting her, more than she expected him to. He was highly confident in the analysis of his precog, and either that confidence was badly misplaced or she was walking into a trap. It was a concerning possibility, but an unlikely one. The nature of Coil's power kept him focused on short term issues, things that could be completely resolved within the span of a single timeline split. It was unlikely he'd be able to fake the level of confidence she was seeing and maintain that front for this length of time.
She could use that trust. She had been using it, but things were coming to a head. Faster than she would have wanted, but she could manage, as long as Joe gave her the time to do so. She was slowly subverting Coil's finances and authority. His men held no personal loyalty, not beyond their own professionalism. Finding points of leverage would be essential to resolving the situation without triggering a massive disaster.
Speaking of which, the Travelers. There was something wrong with that team. There was no question about that. It wasn't just the accumulated stress of their itinerant lifestyle or dealing with their friend turning into an S-Class threat. Something was off about every member of the team. Normally it would have been concerning, but right now anything that allowed her an extra lever of control was a godsend. They were closed off, distrustful, emotionally stunted, and desperate. It was the same points of control that Coil had used to secure their services, but he wasn't the only one with access to those buttons.
They were also dangerous. Even without considering Noelle, the team was a high-level threat with powers that would be difficult to circumvent. Trickster in particular would be a problem. He was unusually adept at the use of his power and had an unfortunate cruel streak that could manifest at the worst time. There was no question that he would go scorched earth in response to any direct action by Joe. It would combine a vindictive teleporter with a situation where contact between any member of the Celestial Forge and Noelle would mean the end of the world.
It was the reason why she couldn't just come clean to Joe about the threat. Every time she went over the situation just served to remind her how little power she actually had. How she couldn't guarantee that Joe would stay away from Coil until it was safe. She could think of ways to present the information, ways she could frame things so that he might be willing to follow her lead and let her make sure the world wouldn't end with one stupid move, but she couldn't be sure.
She couldn't even be sure of her chances, and not just because of the uncertainty imposed by his team. Something that might have convinced him two days ago could fall on deaf ears now. Even if she managed to secure an agreement he could get a power in five minutes that would completely change his decision, leaving her with nothing but a brief warning before he powered towards Coil's base.
Providing he could find Coil's base. She had ideas, theories of where it was located, with assessment of his resources and records of construction being able to narrow things down further, but he hadn't actually shown it to her.
At least not in any timelines that she remembered.
No, if Joe wanted to find Coil he could probably find Coil, even without her help. Then, assuming that his attack didn't trip any failsafes, assuming no member of his team ran afoul of Noelle, assuming the Travelers could be contained as their final hope evaporated in front of them, then maybe Coil could be taken down without disaster.
Which would only leave the aftermath. She would need more time to secure the Undersiders against any fallout, both the natural consequence of losing their benefactor and any intentional repercussions that Coil might have arranged for the event of his defeat. Securing Brian's position would take even more work. His mother was constantly trying to gain ground in custody challenges, and it wouldn't take much disruption to set things back to square one. And that was just the effect on the team.
Simply put, if Joe launched a major offensive so soon after promising restraint, the consequences could be dire. The world was watching Brockton Bay and, for some reason, the world was convinced Apeiron would stay reserved as long as he wasn't provoked. Every point Joe had made about stability being necessary was true, but it wasn't just true for the city, it was true for the world. The situation was volatile enough with the Butcher's presence. Joe launching into another gang war could take things past the point of no return.
She took another breath as she readied herself. No pressure, she just needed to keep an inherently unstable cape from taking action that could end the world. A cape whose situation changed faster than she could hope to keep up with, and who was less than favorable inclined towards her.
If it wouldn't have come across as a transparent attempt at manipulation she might have left this to Taylor, at least the initial stages of it. Joe's relationship with Taylor had started as a godsend, but quickly became a double-edged sword, one that was further complicated by Taylor's own objectives and reason for joining the group. If she was less entrenched, if she hadn't become the dread Lady Khepri on her first public appearance she might have abandoned the group. It was the kind of thing that could have started a cascade that would have seen the entire team fall apart, leaving Lisa and Brian clinging to the name and nothing else.
No, she had to be the one to do this. Joe barely trusted her and didn't particularly like her, but he did care about her. He cared about all of them, and not just because of the initial push from his thinker power. He cared because of who he was.
Honestly, it was one of the most annoying things about him.
For anyone else, that kind of attitude, that idealism, it would have been brutally crushed the moment they stepped into the cape world. For Joe, that moment should have been the aftermath of the bank. The moment he realized the reality of what conflicts between parahumans actually meant. Instead, it had been tempered. He kept going forward, confident he would find his way through. Confident in a way only he could be.
In a world of superpowers, only Joe had the strength needed to be kind. That conviction could be admirable, if it wasn't so frightening. Kindness and anger were two sides of the same coin, the capacity for one fueled the other. You had to care to take offense, and she worried about what would happen when that coin flipped. She just hoped she could keep it in the air long enough to make sure it landed in their favor.
The delays weren't going to do her any more good. She had gone over all the analysis she had. She had prepared as much as possible. Maybe, just maybe, she would be able to head off a disaster.
She sat on the edge of her bed with her watch spread flat across her desk. The tiny silver band that housed one of the most powerful computers on the planet stared back at her, a glimmering slip in the dimness of the room. She could have worn it. The watch was more than capable of handling video calls while mounted on someone's wrist. The field of view should have been at a steep angle, looking up someone's nose, but that wasn't how the watch displayed things.
Because the watch didn't use video recordings. When the Undersiders called each other, they weren't talking to video captures. The screens showed reproductions of their bodies generated from the watch's impossible sensors. Perhaps the most advanced detection system on the planet, used to set the point of view at an arbitrary point in the air, letting them speak face to face. It dwarfed even the professional teleconferencing equipment coil employed, but that was to be expected when you used miracle technology to address petty annoyances.
She felt a surge of hunger as she looked at the watch. She wanted access to those sensors so badly. She had come so close, so very close to unlocking them right before the watch had triggered its countermeasures. Admittedly middling countermeasures, more demeaning than harmful, but it had stung to be so close and then realize the situation you found yourself in.
She wasn't blind to the parallels in her current predicament. The difference was she could probably make a reasonable case for sensor access. Joe had offered to unlock it, if it was critical to a mission. They both knew what he was talking about, but pressing that point would put her on more of a timer than she currently was. She couldn't afford to press her luck, not with what was at stake.
"Watch." She called. There was a tone from the device on the desk. "Video call to Joe."
The holographic screen popped into existence. A minor convenience feature of the watch and it put all of her monitors to shame. Just another reminder of the scale of what she was dealing with. The watch displayed the call attempt over the large window, with a small sub-screen showing her own video feed. Even without wearing the watch, she didn't need to adjust her position or play with the lighting levels. The sensors had her perfectly framed and lit with the viewpoint arranged perfectly with where Joe's eyeline would presumably be displayed.
It was the sensors. The sensors and the processing capability of the watch. The computational power dwarfed any system she could ever hope to acquire, and yet was so primitive by Joe's standards that it wasn't even worth salvaging. Her life was changed by a piece of technology that Joe wouldn't even bother stripping for parts. Not even for the legendary sensors.
Those sensors were why the watch wasn't on her wrist. Sure, she knew it wouldn't make a difference, not with their power and range, not with how they had been able to pick out detailed medical scans through dozens of feet of rubble. But the discussion was going to be stressful enough with wearing what amounted to a super-polygraph.
She knew Joe wouldn't use the watches like that. He was adamant about their privacy, but still, if she was wearing the thing she wouldn't be able to stop thinking about it. Mostly because she knew what those sensors could do. She knew how she would use them if she had the chance, the insight she could gain from that kind of biometric information. Measuring every reaction down to individual capillary dilation. Tracking stress, breathing, tension, muscle twitches, and every involuntary response. She got light headed just thinking about it.
Joe wouldn't do that. Because Joe didn't have to do that. He could afford to be kind in a way the rest of the world couldn't. Wielding kindness as a weapon was only possible if you already had a full arsenal. That was the nature of the world. Kindness could only be found in extreme weakness or overwhelming strength.
She sat up slightly as the call connected, revealing Joe. The real Joe, not the illusion he had hidden behind when presenting himself in public. He had the sharp, striking features she had seen at the summit, with that shade of gray hair and glowing red lock in place of his previous light brown. He was in the same clothes he usually wore, that casual style that stood out as being incredibly well fitted and suited to him, but not the majesty of his cape costume. No, that majesty was saved for his physical appearance.
There was so much subjectivity in evaluating male appearance that it was hard to gauge any absolute qualities of attractiveness, but by any that could be quantified, Joe was excelling. It was such an odd thing to consider, and not just because of the usual blitz of inappropriate information her power provided. She knew Joe wouldn't focus on that. It was probably his lowest possible concern, doubly so after the rumors about him and Taylor. Which meant that his power had randomly developed in that direction, some specific changer or stranger effect directed towards physical aesthetics.
She had basically given up on trying to understand Joe's power. It was clear that he didn't even understand how it would develop or what he should expect beyond some vague connection to the idea of crafting. She didn't know why his power would affect his appearance like that, but she didn't know anything about his power. Previously, having to accept that kind of ignorance would have stung like the worst kind of insult. After the last week, after working around March and being harried by Coil, after constantly being blindsided by the next impossibility of Joe's power, she had learned to accept that limitation.
Well, she had learned to tolerate it. 'Accept' suggested she was happy or at peace with the situation. This was more acknowledging an impossibility and trying to move on to where you could actually accomplish something.
A concerning possibility did spring to the surface. She knew that Joe applied additional aesthetic effects to his creations. It was evident in his equipment, and had been getting more pronounced as time went on. There were similarities between the nature of that effect and Survey's own unnatural beauty. Joe clearly had some medical expertise bundled in amongst all his other abilities. He had also been badly injured by March and Oni Lee's ambush. Were the changes in his appearance a result of that? Surgery as a form of crafting? And if so, what had happened to Survey?
Not that it mattered. Her power could only pull so much through the display screen, though considerably more than with a voice call. It was the reason she had pushed for it, and was grateful Joe accepted, even if it left her feeling more than a little exposed in return.
"Hello Lisa." He said, leaning back in his chair. He had taken the call in some kind of office, sitting behind an impressive oak desk on a large executive office chair. She felt her power open up, pulling what it could from the information on display.
All items in room hold signature of Apeiron's workmanship. Same quality found in combat gear, directed to the home comforts. Design focused on creation of ideal office environment.
Not that she was jealous or anything.
"Joe." She said, tearing her eyes away from the background of the scene. "I have an update on the Undersiders, our plans following the summit." She took a breath. "And I have some questions as well."
"That's good." He answered warmly. "We need to sort things out." His posture relaxed, each movement unnaturally smooth and efficient.
The uncanny nature of his movements was evident at the summit, but it was more apparent here, without the presence of other factions. Back then it could have been seen as a performance. Wasn't a performance. Performance when he was out of costume, 'acting' normal. This was his natural state.
"Yeah." She said, steadying herself. The rest that Alec had pushed for had done her a world of good, as much as she hated to admit it. The incessant babbling of her power over trivial details no longer caused a dance of phantom pain behind her eyes. Her reserves were at least partially restored, enough to make it through the conversation.
Still, the fact that she had been pushing herself that close to her limit without noticing was more evidence that then needed to slow things down. Even if Joe was ready to go after Coil, they weren't, and too much was on the line to hand that task off to anyone else.
"About your team…" She continued. She had given considerable thought on how to approach this subject. Rachel's suggestion that they just call and ask was wonderfully straightforward, providing there weren't any other complications in play. And unfortunately, there were plenty. "I would have appreciated a warning before you brought them to the meeting." It was a fairly neutral way of pointing out how insanely disruptive the decision had been. "Just knowing about their existence would have been a good start." Basically, anything other than being blindsided in public at a critical meeting.
"Sorry." He said, only looking mildly apologetic. Not actually apologetic. Amused by situation. "It wasn't my information to share." He added. Lisa raised an eyebrow, but her power confirmed his sincerity.
"You're serious." It was less of a question and more a statement of shock. That kind of stance was both commendable and infuriating. Joe keeping someone's confidence, placing a priority on that kind of information, that was important, and a good sign overall, but she couldn't help but be offended at being kept out of the loop, even if it had effectively kept them off of Coil's radar. Off of everyone's radar. She could respect that stance a lot more if that 'everyone' hadn't included her.
"They decided they wanted to come." He explained. "I wasn't going to share any information before they were ready."
It was a convenient excuse, but she could tell it wasn't the full story. Another advantage of working with a team, Joe effectively had diffusion of responsibility. Group decisions, or decisions on behalf of a group, couldn't be challenged on the same level as personal actions.
And Joe knew that. It was part of why he had brought them. Part of why he decided to start operating as the head of a team, rather than a powerful lone cape.
Lisa took a breath and switched tactics. "Nobody knew about them." From Joe's expression it was clear that was intentional. "The team had some concerns, mostly about what you might have told them about us."
It was an important point to clear, but it was also a way to shift the flow of the conversation back in her favor. There was a knowing look in Joe's eye before he shrugged, effectively dismissing concerns about private identities and personal information.
"Lisa, I don't even know that much about you. Aside from Rachel and Taylor I don't know anyone's last name, and that's only because Rachel's identity is public." He explained without a hint of concern.
"But you haven't kept what you know concealed?" She pressed.
Once again, he shrugged. "I haven't shared it either. If you're asking who knows what…"
"I am." She said, "This is kind of important for us. Nobody likes to wake up and find out their secrets are compromised."
It was the kind of statement that should have put him on the back foot, or at least gotten a tacit acknowledgement of the severity of the situation. Instead, he continued to look amused. It wasn't a dismissal of her concerns, it was like he was picking up something else on top of them, some other dialogue to the conversation.
Her eyes briefly flickered to the watch. The too-good-to-be-true watch with its miracle sensors that could look right through you. That could peel back layers and layers of deception, breaking out truths that there was no way to conceal.
But no, he wasn't accessing her biometrics. The medical systems were still active, but he wasn't getting a live feed from them. She was sure of that. Whatever was going on, it wasn't based on a subversion of the watch's systems.
"I haven't told them anything, but I haven't asked them to avoid the information. They know something, since they helped with coordination on Thursday night." She held back her excitement at the news. Of course, she didn't have any idea how many of 'them' were active that night, but it was more of a timeframe than she had before. "And they have access to my database. They could have used that to find your base through tracking my movements when I delivered the costumes, or look up your faces from the medical data." She moved to say something, but Joe cut her off. "But they haven't." He seemed to focus on something else for a moment. Not his power modifying trance. More mundane. Access to information mentally. Possibly integrated data link, possibly some form of enhanced sense. Unfortunately, even her power couldn't keep up with Joe's abilities. "Nobody had accessed that information for any application that would compromise the identity of any of the Undersiders."
It was a very specific and very strong claim, but she had no doubt that Joe could back it up. And also no doubt that pressing the issue would be a thoroughly unhelpful endeavor. She held back a frown. Even considering the instability inherent with Joe, there was something off. Something more than his usual caution and suspicion.
In fact, he seemed markedly less cautious than he normally would have been. That level of guardedness that had characterized their discussions, well, it wasn't gone, but it was definitely diminished. There was something that had changed, something that was providing him with additional assurance.
And she had no idea what it was. Even with the feed from the video call, she didn't have enough information for her power to pull anything more than a string of near-random theories. A new power, some novel technology, support from a teammate, some development in the city that she wasn't aware of yet… no, probably not that last one. Whatever this was, it was specific to Joe. She could see his pride in it, mixed with his confidence. There was something about this new capacity that differentiated it from his other powers. Something that made him see it specifically as an accomplishment.
But that was all she had. No idea of how it worked or even what he was getting from her. Given the critical nature of this discussion, it was the last thing she needed. She steeled herself and focused. She had to get through this.
"But they know something about us?" She prodded. "At the very least more than we do about them."
Once again, he just shrugged. "If you want, you can just ask them." He said casually.
Lisa's train of thought skidded to a halt. In the back of her mind, she could hear an echo of Rachel's suggestion from the previous night. The obvious and obviously impractical suggestion that had just been echoed by Joe.
"What?" She asked.
"Your watches are tied into my communication system." He explained. "If you want to ask my team anything you can just call them."
Of course. Because to Joe, they were basically a friend group, not a terrifying strike team of A-list parahumans who had the entire world on edge.
"Call them and ask what, exactly?" She asked.
"Whatever you want." He replied. "If they want to speak with you, I'm not going to stop them. I mean, I'm not going to force them to take anyone's calls, but at the very least you could leave a message if you have any questions or concerns."
Briefly Lisa wondered what the cash value of Survey's phone number would be on the open market. Or Fleet's, for that matter. Once again, Joe was handing out things with no regard for how valuable they were, and effectively upending the conversation at the same time. Have a problem with what he might have told his secret team? Just ask them, freely and openly, like it was nothing.
Well, it might be nothing for Joe. Did he even realize the implication of putting six capes of that power level on someone's speed dial? Then again, he didn't seem to understand the implications connected with the Undersiders having him on speed dial. They effectively had the most dangerous contact list on the planet.
"We can follow up later." He said, effectively taking control of the conversation from her. "You said you had an update on the Undersiders?"
Lisa took another breath. She could handle this. It was what she was good at, even when dealing with someone like Joe. And this was going to be the critical point. Even if she hadn't been able to set the groundwork as well as she would have liked, she needed to press on.
"We've had a meeting, and an offer from the boss." She watched his reaction carefully, noting exactly how he responded to the news. "We're not going to be doing more heists." The news was hardly surprising. "Not while the city's recovering. He wants us to help support stabilization, for as long as the treaty lasts."
"Is he sending you against the Teeth?" He asked directly.
"No." She said, which was technically true. "If things spill over we might step in to help protect his interests, but we aren't going to be launching attacks on the other gangs."
"If things spill over you won't be the only ones stepping in. I made that clear." He said. She fought to maintain a neutral expression in the face of exactly what he had just threatened.
"Every gang knows your terms." She assured him. "They're not going to cross them." Though they would be trying to bait or goad each other into any violation they could manage. "Stepping back like you did, it made a world of difference, especially with the Butcher in the city. That helped more than you can imagine. It's really important that you hold to that and stay out of minor conflicts."
"Right." He said, taking a breath. "And what about your boss? Does that count as a minor conflict? And am I still staying back?"
Lisa felt her eyes widen. If not for the soundproofing of the watch and her own efforts to secure the room that statement might as well have been a death sentence. Joe would need to have complete faith in his technology to risk it. Which he clearly did.
"That's not something we can deal with now." She explained.
"Why not?" He pressed. His tone was firm, but not irrational. This wasn't coming from impatience or bravado. He actually wanted her reasoning.
Which actually made it harder. She couldn't appeal to emotion, or provoke him into overextending himself and then argue against the new position. He wanted a reasoned argument, and was expecting her to provide him with one.
Joe was pressing for information harder than he ever had before. It was the exact thing she had been afraid of. Shifts, not just in his knowledge and understanding, but in the very way he thought, the way he approached problems. Quickly she shifted tactics and launched into an explanation.
"You said the city wasn't ready for another major conflict. Well, this is going to be one." She explained. She saw the skeptical look on his face and continued. "Even if you can deal with everything in one strike, there's going to be fallout. The boss, he's more connected than you can imagine. Even if you can take him out quietly, it is going to have consequences. I can deal with those, create contingencies, but it's going to take time. Hit too soon and they'll be chaos. The exact kind of chaos you were advocating against at the summit. The kind of chaos that could be taken advantage of by the Teeth, or Bakuda, or some new player."
She put as much sincerity as she could manage into her impassioned plea. Everything she said was true, even if it wasn't her primary motivation for delaying any rash action on Joe's part. She watched as her explanation clearly failed to land and a look of amusement crept onto Joe's face.
"Well, I guess it makes sense that your boss would be wrapped up in so many areas." He lifted a hand and swirled one finger in a tight loop. Or coil.
Fuck.
"You know." She said in a hollow voice. Her power started going into overdrive, picking over every moment she could remember from the summit, any point where something might have been given away. To find what point she had failed to account for. "Survey?" She guessed, but Joe shook his head.
"Thinker power." He said, gesturing to himself.
Lisa nearly cursed. The first and most obvious source of information he had. Well, most obvious until Joe started restraining his reactions to it. And then went through an unknown number of physical and mental alterations, burying the power that had once been as easy to read as anything in the world under a dozen layers of static.
"Still," She said quickly. "What I said is true. For the moment, he'll be focused on the other gangs. Conflict will be limited outside the Teeth, and they're going to be keeping quiet out of necessity, if nothing else. Kaiser is ready to go on the warpath for them, and Skidmark isn't far behind. You said you would follow my lead on this. I said I'd get you the information when it was safe. Well, this isn't a safe time. It doesn't matter how strong you are, or who you have supporting you, this isn't the right time to move." She paused her frantic near-rant and took a breath. "Do you understand that?"
Joe looked at her impassively. She didn't see agreement or defiance in his expression, merely contemplation. It worried her. It worried her that she was dealing with a new approach that she had never seen before. It worried her that there was yet another capacity in play, one that she couldn't begin to place. It worried her that Joe could decide to throughout all of her concerns, mount up, and charge into Coil's layer right then.
"I understand." He finally said. And he meant it. "Those are good points, good reasons to hold off." Lisa thought she might melt with relief right then and there. Then Joe leaned forward. "But they're not the real reason."
"What?" Lisa stammered. Joe glared at her.
"There's another reason you're trying to convince me to hold off. Something more important than timing and fallout and reactions. What is it?" He asked her directly.
Lisa's mind whirled. Her power launched itself into a flurry of analysis. Every blink, every breath, every shift of posture over the course of the discussion was dissected. Was he working from new information? Survey could be feeding him analysis, or providing the results of some unknown thinker power. No, this was an active effect, and he was emphatically not compromising their privacy. He wasn't, wouldn't use her medical scans to pick apart her position, not if that would compromise the watch. Some less sophisticated effect? Image analysis? Blood flow and pupil dilation could be read from the screen and used to map out responses. No, there wasn't enough information to work with from that, not with the confidence he was showing.
A power. It had to be a power. A new power he was proud of, but proud for a reason beyond this. The ability to pick apart her arguments with complete certainty was a side benefit, but that didn't change the reality of the situation. Was it some kind of truth reading? At best her statements had contained a bit of obfuscation, or misrepresented her opinion on things. No direct lies that would have flagged that kind of power. Something even more complicated?
She knew Joe had expanded senses. Senses that were a persistent part of his awareness. He could read her reactions, metabolic rate, and even the heat of her body without looking at her. It was a big part of the reason she was doing this through a call. But she had no idea how Joe had developed those senses, beyond one of them being somehow connected to sudden pyrokinesis. If he could spontaneously develop that kind of ability, then he could spontaneously develop anything.
Anything. Joe could be anything, could be doing anything. She was floundering. Her power was spinning off, trying to sift through an infinite number of possibilities to figure out what she was dealing with. Without that, without any assurance of what she was walking into, what was she supposed to do? Blunder out and risk the end of the world? The only way she could figure out what she was up against was to try something, and the wrong thing could be disastrous. After all, it wasn't like Joe was just going to tell her-
"I can see through manipulation." He explained.
Instantly her mind, her powers, it was like they fell into rails. Wheels that had been spinning against nothing suddenly caught and launched her forward. She could see it now. Recognition of the way she had presented herself. The subtext of her earlier questions. Attempt to create a dynamic in her favor instead falling flat. Even when she had been directly presenting her reasons, he had known there was something else. He hadn't seen what it was, but he knew how she was trying to direct him.
A pit formed in her stomach. She honestly wished it had been something as simple as truth detection. Something she might be able to work around, instead of an apparently blanket sense arrayed against the one thing she desperately needed to accomplish.
And he had just told her he could do it. No, he hadn't 'just' told her. He told her when he saw that she was in distress. He had told her, betrayed a spectacular advantage, to help her from losing herself in panic and the feedback of her power. It was the kind of compassion she could use to her advantage, except trying to use it to her advantage would make him aware that it was being used to her advantage, which would disincline him to assist her, which would make the problem worse, which would incline him to help, but once she realized he was inclined that would disincline…
"Lisa!" He called out. She blinked and looked up at him. At the impossible cape who pulled out another impossibility and casually tossed a monkey wrench into all her plans. What was she supposed to do now?
"Just tell me." He said.
"What?" She asked.
"Tell me what you're really worried about." He continued. "I know it's serious. If it wasn't you wouldn't still be reluctant to move after what you saw on Thursday night. You definitely wouldn't be after you saw my team. I know you're not stupid."
The statement had weight to it, especially after the last week. Too many people assumed thinkers were idiots who leaned on their powers to the exclusion of everything else. Idiot savants who were incapable of intelligent thought. She'd run into that whenever her power failed her. Whenever it spun off on trivial details and burned her out. Whenever she pushed it for answers with insufficient information and ended up with elaborately detailed theories that turned out to be complete nonsense.
Over the last week March had driven her to her limits. Her chance to shine, to direct her team against the growing chaos, to show her strength to Joe, to counter the woman who left her to die in that fucking locker, it crumbled away as she reached for it. Her power rendered useless on anything March touched. Demands from all sides as the city went to war. Desperately trying to stay afloat in a sea of information that made no sense. Bombarded by nonsense and insanity on every front. Then, just when it looked like the nightmare was over, she was thrown into an entirely new hell. Playing go between for an S-class threat and a man who might as well be an S-class threat, or seven, depending on how you looked at it.
"I know you wouldn't be doing this if you didn't have a good reason. And you wouldn't be dancing around the topic if you weren't worried about how I would react." She could tell that concerned him more than whatever she was concealing. The reason she was keeping it from him. "You don't have to tell me what it is, but I need you to tell me why you don't want me going after Coil."
Speaking the name somehow brought the situation into focus. It wasn't just 'the boss' anymore. They were working to bring down Coil. He had lost his anonymity. It was the strongest layer of his defenses, and one that she knew he would react strongly to, if he knew it had been breached. The days of dancing around the topic were over. She considered how to phrase things. How to manipulate someone who could see through manipulation.
There was only one choice. Be straightforward and hope he would agree. Well, there were probably longer bets she could take, even if the stakes were terrifyingly high.
"Coil has contingencies. Not just the kind I talked about earlier. Those are still a concern, but I'm working to deal with them. This is something else." Joe nodded and she continued. "He had something. A fallback that… if you try to deal with it and it goes wrong, that could be it, for everything." It was basic and straightforward. She felt juvenile in her phrasing, but from Joe's reaction she could see his power wasn't triggering. Or if it was whatever he was seeing through, he didn't have a problem with it.
"I'm afraid of trying to explain it, because if I get something wrong or misinterpreted things then you might think you can deal with it." She explained. "You might go, or send one of your team. And if I'm wrong, that's it. Massive disaster, and it's on me. That's why I don't want you to go after Coil. Not yet."
There was a long pause as she watched Joe process her words. Her power tried to break free, to launch into analysis of every twitch and movement and micro-expression, but she held it back. Finally, he spoke.
"Okay." He said simply.
"Okay?" She asked in near disbelief.
"Okay." He repeated himself. "I knew there was something bad, and if it's as serious as you say we shouldn't rush in."
"You knew?" She asked.
"Thinker power." He replied with a slight smile. The analysis she'd been holding back broke through and things fell into place.
"Enough for the severity, but not enough for details?" She asked. Joe nodded in response. Possibly he knew more, but not with certainty. His power was like that. His original power, from back before she needed to reevaluate his capabilities on every meeting. "And you're alright with me dealing with it?" She asked.
"That depends. What is your plan for dealing with it?" He asked.
She swallowed and tried to conceal her nervousness. Then clamped down on her first instincts. Any attempt to 'play' this would fall flat. She might be able to figure out the limits of his power, but this wasn't the time for experimentation. This was do or die, almost literally.
"Coil still trusts me." She said, "I can use that, try to keep him off track. And I have some access to the rest of his organization. I don't know where his base is, not for certain, but I might be able to figure it out." She took a breath. "And there's a meeting planned. For after the Teeth are dealt with. It's for all the Undersiders, but I'll be able to confirm things then. Maybe sooner if I get a chance."
"And you'll be able to 'confirm' that I can handle things? Or what we'll need to deal with this threat?" He asked.
"I should." She replied. "I'll be able to access Coil's data on it, and if I can get there…"
"No." He said and her blood ran cold. "If it's as bad as you're making it out to be, we're not leaving things to chance." There was a beep from her watch and Lisa gave him a questioning look. And saw a smug expression. And felt her power fill in the gaps. Her breath hitched in her chest.
"Did you just…" For once, she didn't know how to put her thoughts into words.
"Your material sensors are unlocked." He explained. "Get close enough to whatever this is, scan it, and I'll be able to tell if it's something we can't handle. Is that good enough?"
Scanner. The scanner. The scanner that could do anything, it was unlocked. Lisa had to fight down her excitement. This was serious. More serious than having access to the watch's material scanner.
"It should be." She said, struggling to keep her eyes off the watch and its limitless potential. A detailed scan of Noelle, with full medical workup, should be enough to confirm whether she would be able to make contact through Joe's countermeasures. She had the feeling her standards would be considerably higher than his, but just having him both agree to delay and provide the assurance of hard data, it was more than she could have hoped for.
"Alright. You keep working on this. I have other things I need to focus on." Lisa nodded. Assuming he was serious about being able to crack Bakuda's signal, that would certainly justify his attention. Concern over the situation with Noelle had left little time for worries about the bomb tinker, but that merely put her as a less pressing concern, not an absent one. "But we're not leaving this be, not if it's as serious as you're making it out to be."
She nodded. "Check ins?" She asked.
"At least daily, and whenever there's a new development." He glanced to the side. "I can ask Survey to look into things as well, if that will help."
"No." She said quickly. "I can handle it, and I don't want to risk anyone finding out what we're doing." Not to mention the other layer of problems on top of Noelle. Everything she's been struggling with before the ABB imploded was still an issue, only now she had to juggle it with management of a S-class threat.
"If you say so." He didn't sound convinced. She was concerned about where that could lead, but compared to the concerns she had before the call, it was something she could manage.
"Joe, the scanner on the watch?" She asked. "Can I use it outside of this job? I mean for other work?" Normally her policy would have been to beg forgiveness rather than ask permission, but she'd seen how well that went.
"I'm tying the scanner into my own database. You can use it for whatever you want, but I'll get a copy of the information." He smiled slightly. "Sound fair?" He asked.
Unfortunately, it did. Her dreams of having free rein of unrivaled information faded, or more specifically were moderated. She could still use it, just with levels of deniability. And more importantly, it would be there when she needed it. Maybe finding a way to deal with Noelle safely, or maybe just convincing Joe that he shouldn't be anywhere near a cape like that. Either way, it was a win, especially compared to the alternative.
"Sounds fair." She confirmed.
The call ended, leaving her with an obligation to see this through and the burdensome responsibility to keep the super cape away from the evil duplicator. Her strongest asset had been neutralized and she had skated through by the skin of her teeth, but she had done it. She had bought time. Apeiron wasn't going to instantly charge into the lion's den and trigger the apocalypse. By her current standards it counted as a victory.
At least until he got another power and decided to throw everything out the window and act on his own mad initiative. But that was an unfortunate reality of dealing with Joe, and this was as much a victory as she could hope for. Now she just needed to see through the rest of the nightmare.
(Author's Note: This interlude counted for points towards additional abilities, but there were no successful rolls during this chapter. For those who are interested, there were failed rolls for the Time, Knowledge, Capstone, Magic, and Resources and Durability constellations. 500 points are currently banked, meaning the first roll of the next chapter will have 600 points available.)
