In Nuclear Fire

[Poliamida]

In Nuclear Fire 11​

There's electricity in the air as I walk through the halls of Clarendon High. No one's saying anything, but the faculty must be on edge. I see it on the way the principal remains glued to the phone, talking to what must be some concerned parent, and on the way that only half of my classmates attend that day.

Missy is there, but she doesn't seem to have slept last night. The fire must have also put the Wards on high alert.

"Hi, Missy!" I greet her.

"Peter." Wow, she really doesn't seem to be in the mood for talking.

"Everything fine with you?"

"Yeah, yeah." She rubs her eyes. "I just had a busy weekend, that's all. Do try to behave today because I seriously don't have time for your bullshit."

"I'll do the best I can."

"Make sure you do."

I don't see her again for the rest of the day.

---

This time, when I get home, I don't even have time to say hello before Taylor is already on me, crushing me under a hug.

"Peter!"

"H-hi." I manage to say. "You seem happy."

"Look at this!" She drags me to the kitchen where there's an open newspaper waiting for me. "They wrote an article on us!"

"They did?" I ask in surprise.

It most definitely didn't make the front page, but on page 20 there's a small article about the man we saved. According to the story, he was coming late from a get-together with friends when his taxi was boarded. He was dragged out, stabbed, and robbed, but the intervention of two independent heroes saved his life. He successfully arrived at the hospital and is on his way to make a full recovery.

I do make a small observation. "The article doesn't mention our names."

"Who cares?" Taylor says swinging her arms over her head. "We did something good. We saved a man's life."

I'd be lying if I said I don't feel all warm inside too. To save another person's life… there's no feeling that can compare to that.

"Now come to the attic, there's something else I want to show you."

Taylor's on a roll! I follow her command and when we arrive she hands me my visor.

Wow. The number of resources that the drone consumed suddenly jumped up from this morning. I can also see that the 3D map of the bay has suddenly increased in size, with several 'patches' of explored terrain all over the neighborhood. But no tunnels are connecting those sections, suggesting that Taylor physically moved the drone around.

"What happened here?"

"Well, do you remember the computer carcasses we found at the factory?" Dear Lord, she's talking at ten words a second. It seems that the article and the absence of Winslow have done wonders of her mental health. "Well, I went back and forth from there all morning! I cut them down into smaller chunks with the blade and brought them here to feed the drone!"

"Oh, that's very smart." But wait, that alone wouldn't be enough to report this growth in resources.

"Then I thought-" Oh, she's already explaining that part. "There are a lot of constructions all over the city that were left abandoned years ago! But they weren't dismantled because of something about a legal dispute over their ownership. At least that's what dad explained to me that one time I asked him."

"Taylor, breathe."

"Yes, yes, sorry. I'm excited. So, I found several. There were no copper wires or anything of what you usually search for, but I found a lot of steel beams. I did the same, cut them up, and carried them here!"

For how long was she at it? "That's great! But why did you bring the drone with you?"

"Because there was a lot more metal there than I could possibly bring, even with the teleporter. So I brought the drone with me to tag the location in your map so I could then order it to dig straight to the construction site from our basement. I did that with several other construction sites. I found four that haven't been touched in years!"

I slowly nod. "You did an incredible job."

"All in a day's work!" She proudly punches her chest. "I thought that as I'll be having some free days, I should do more to help."

She's making me blush. "Thanks. Seriously."

"Oh! I also found these!" Maybe she didn't find copper wires, but what she did find were water pipes and valves. Also a water faucet. She has an entire bathroom in here! "This looked useful so I saved the pieces before feeding them to the drone."

"Good thing you did." The faucet isn't that interesting but there's a lot I can do with the pipes. Some changes here and there and I'll have a barrel and a compressed air tank. "Remember the tranquilizer darts rifle you wanted? I can build it with this." Building the darts will be a problem, though. Maybe I can build a dispenser? Something that I can feed chemical to, and that will pop out ammunition.

"Great! Next patrol will go much better than the last one!" Her enthusiasm is worthy of admiration, it's very contagious.

We hear the main door opening and her attention shifts to her father.

"Dad! We're up here!"

"Taylor?" His voice sounds sore and tired. More than usual. "Come here for a moment, we need to talk."

We exchange glances. That doesn't sound good.

My mind races through the possibilities as we dash down the stair. Does he suspect something? Were we found out? Did the PRT contact him?

We find him seated on the sofa, his briefcase in front of him, and his head on his hands.

"Taylor, we have a problem."

"Dad? What's wrong?"

"It's about your transfer to a new school. You don't show up in the city's records."

My heart skips a beat.

"What!?"

---

Inside my room, I muse and grumble while I think.

A little piece of trivia I'd forgotten from canon was that one of the reasons why the PRT had trouble finding Taylor was because of the mess that were Winslow's records. She didn't even have a picture and freaking Dragon had trouble making sense of them! And if an AI couldn't handle them, what can we expect from stupid meat bags?

That isn't helped by the fact that Winslow's servers are now a melted piece of plastic because, as it turned out, the records in the city's department of education are outdated.

Who would have guessed that Brockton Bay had a half-assed educational system?

The only silver lining is that Taylor isn't the only student in a similar situation but still means that if we don't fix this, she might have to retake the 10th grade next year.

Honestly, I wouldn't care if it happened to me, but Taylor doesn't seem to share my opinion.

"I don't want to get pulled a year." The girl of the hour freaks out while walking back and forth around my room.

While she does that, I'm busy doing more useful stuff. Namely, finishing a small upgrade for my visor. For this, the Khaydarin Crystal has proven to be worth its weight in gold as it allowed me to bypass several material requirements and go straight for the programming.

With this new module, I can access the local internet.

Now, the problem here isn't just that Taylor needs to enter a new school mid-semester, but also that there's no registry of her grades.

I browse for options. "You could claim to be homeschooled and take the entrance exam for Immaculata or Arcadia."

"Don't they cost money?"

Shit, they do. And looking at the two schools' webpages… yeah, that looks like way more money than we have.

Ok, next plan.

"What if you pretend to be Jewish?"

"What?!" You don't need to yell, Taylor! Good thing that Dany left trying to look for options on his own.

"Well," I explain. "Hebert is a surname related to Jewish people. If we make them believe that you're part of a minority, that will increase your dollar-value as a student and have more schools want you." I very purposely do not mention her curly hair.

Taylor's face goes blank for a moment there. "I… I don't even know where to start with that, but what about the part where the fucking Nazis control half the city?"

"Yes, but they are on my list." A very, very long list, but which got shorter after Winslow.

"I'm not pretending to be a Jew!" She folds her arms. "That's disrespectful."

"As you wish." Two options down, not that many left. "Now, how good were your grades last year?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"If your grades were good enough a school might take you if they believe you can bring their average up. That's important for funding."

She shakes her head. "They weren't good. Ever since Winslow started my grades have been going down."

That's not an option either, then. If this was just her trying to move to a new school it would be much easier, but the fire left hundreds of students on the streets. The good schools poached the few honor students that were in Winslow, and then blocked the access to everyone else claiming space concerns.

"Ok, I do have good news. There's one school that will take you."

"What's the bad part?"

Oh, she's not going to like it. "Its name is Institute 3409, doesn't have a proper name, and from what I'm reading might be as bad as Winslow. Also, because of your lost records, they'll probably stick a 2.0 in all the classes you were supposed to have taken, and shove you into remedial classes."

"No. No, no." She presses her palms against her eyes. "I'm not going through another Winslow. I don't want to end up in remedial classes! This was a mistake."

Well, that just settles it. Our legal options are a bust but that doesn't mean we don't have many others. And that's where the module I just installed in my visor once again comes into play because that's just the first step into a more robust upgrade.

"Why did I have to listen to you? This is your fault!"

There's a thud when my visor slides out of my hands and hits the floor.

Thankfully nothing is broken, but that was just uncalled for! Because, yes, I know she's distressed! Yes, I know this is an awful situation for her! And yes, I know this is my fucking fault for not thinking ahead, but I don't need her to remind me of that fact! "I know." I tell her through clenched teeth. "And you know what? I'm proud of it and would do it again."

"Of course you would! You weren't the one screwed by any of this!"

I bit my tongue to not yell at her. "I wasn't, no." I stare right into her eyes. "But do answer me this: when was the last time you felt this happy? When was the last time you actually looked forward to a new day? When was the last time you smiled and considered that killing yourself wasn't the answer?!"

Her eyes widened in shock.

"That's why I'd do this again."

Her entire body shakes with my question, her fingers clenching as she grips her pants. She doesn't answer, and with heavy steps, she walks out of my room.

A moment later I hear her slamming her door.

With Taylor away, I release a sigh. Shit, that could have gone better. Everything could have gone so much better. I could have thought more about this, maybe save the archives in case something like this happened, or do something else to smooth things out. Have a plan to fall back into.

Part of me wants to tell Taylor how stupid she's being for worrying about school in a world that's about to end, and another part fears adding to Taylor's worries by telling her about such imminent end of the world.

Shit, I so much hate this place. Why can't things go right for once?

Well, when life gives you lemons, you break her legs and force her into compliance.

I'll make things right.

 

[Poliamida]

In Nuclear Fire 12​

Thursday comes and goes mostly like the day before. Some more students attend this time around but several chairs remain empty. Missy is there, looking far better than on Monday, but still clearly distracted.

When I get home I find Taylor absent. We haven't talked since our argument and I find both the Blink Band and her visor at her spot in the attic. I'm worried about her. Eventually, she returns, claiming to have been at the library, and remains distant for the rest of the day.

Shit, this is just like the first day! I don't want things to go back to how they were!

Dinner is done in the blink of an eye and she secludes herself in her room.

At least my tinkering offers a nice distraction from the drama of human interaction.

On Wednesday, Missy notices my mood. "What got you down?"

I play with my food a bit but I'm just not feeling hungry. "I got into an argument with my cousin."

She nods in sympathy. "Ah. Yeah, arguments in the family are never nice." I'm reminded that her trigger event was her parents' messy divorce. "She goes to Winslow, doesn't she?"

"Used to." I push my tray away. I'm just not feeling like eating right now. "After the fire, she has been looking for a new school, and that has all of us in a bad mood."

"Sorry to hear that." She palms my shoulder. "Hope things get better on your side. Truly."

"Yeah, I hope for the same thing."

It's on Thursday when things take a turn in Clarendon.

"Attention students," The sound system flares into life with the Principal's voice. "Classes will be suspended until further notice. Please return to your houses and wait for an official announcement on when we'll be returning to normality."

My classmates start whispering to each other, as confused as I am about what just happened. As we walk out, I see Missy leaving with her grade.

"Hey, Missy!" I call her. "What's going on?"

"I don't know." There's an edge to her tone. "They haven't told me anything."

'They' could refer to the PRT or the school faculty, I can't be sure. Whatever the case is, I make my way back home.

"Hello?" I tentatively called out. It's not a surprise when I don't get an answer, but what is a surprise, and a fairly worrying one, is that both the Blink Band and Taylor's visor are missing.

Shit!

Is she out on patrol? No, her costume is still here and I doubt she'd go out without it, no matter how frustrated she's feeling.

My visor is here, so I could use it to track her down!

That doesn't sit well with me, though.

But what if she's in danger? In her first night out she fought Lung, and the two times we went out we found troubles!

No, no, she doesn't have her costume so she shouldn't be looking out for troubles. Also, it's the middle of the morning!

Oh, please, this is Taylor! She'll jump in at the first sight of anything potentially life-threatening! And didn't the Undersiders robbed the bank in the middle of the morning too?

What should I do? What should I do?

Should I trust her not to get into trouble?

Ha! As if.

I have to get out there! I need to help her in case she's in trouble and--

And that's when I'm momentarily blinded by a sudden flash of light, and then Taylor is there standing in front of me with a backpack over her shoulders.

It takes both of us a moment to realize that the other is there.

I yell in surprise.

She yells in surprise, and then trips and falls to the ground. There's a clunking sound as several circuits boards and other electronics come rolling out of the backpack.

"Peter!" She finally manages to exclaim.

"Taylor." I reply in kind. "Hi."

"H-hi." She picks herself up from the ground, glancing with embarrassment at the circuitry scattered all over the floor. "Why are you here so early?"

This is… kind of awkward. But it's nice that we're talking again. "School's suspended until further notice. Maybe because of the fire."

"Ah." She replies in an equally awkward fashion.

"And you? What have you been up to?"

She looks uncomfortable for a second, as if not sure what to say, and finally she shows me the content of the backpack.

My eyes widened in surprise. There are a lot of electronics there.

"Where did you find this?" I pull out motherboards, the inside of a broken sound system, and more.

"Here and there." She shrugs looking away from me. "I have been picking them up from trash cans and other places. I also made a trip to the garbage dump outside the city. That's what I had been doing these last few days."

"Why?"

"Because-" She pauses, taking a moment to compose herself. "I wanted to apologize. For telling you that this was your fault."

I need a moment to process that. "It... kind of was?"

"No, it wasn't!" Her yell makes me flinch. "I was right there, I could have stopped you but I didn't."

"I forced your hand, didn't I?" I mean, I told her about the burning after I had already cut the pump in half.

"Oh, please, I'm the older one here. I should be the one thinking ahead instead of going along with whatever you came up with."

There is… a lot to unpack there. Starting with my actual age, but age alone is not a reflection of a person's maturity or experience. And I'm the first to admit that I'm far from the most mature person around. "I'm not very good at measuring the consequence of my actions."

"Oh, believe me, I noticed." She smiles. "And it's also not your fault that the city screwed me over. That's on Winslow. Again." She takes a seat, and I make myself comfortable next to her. "You were right, you know? The last time I felt as happy as I was on Monday… I honestly don't remember. I haven't felt happy for a long time, not since mom died." She sighs. "So, sorry, and thank you."

That is nice to hear if I'm being honest. "Eh, don't worry about it. I shouldn't have yelled at you either. So, friends again?"

"Definitely." She ruffles my hair. "But, hey, a question."

"Shoot."

"That thing you told me. About-" She gestures with her hand, trying to find the right words. "About me wanting to kill myself. Why did you say that?"

Because you're self-destructive and borderline suicidal, Taylor. At least that was what Tattletale said in her interlude. Or was that in one of Wilbow's posts? Is that even canon? I don't remember.

Of course I don't tell her that! It would raise far too many questions, but there is another thing I can say. One that isn't even a lie.

"I think I was projecting a bit there." I shrug. Not for the first time, I wonder if the reason I hate Taylor so much as a character is because of how much she reminds me of myself at my worst. And that's not a pretty image to see. "Some years ago I went through a bad phase. I just accused you of what I'd have done in your place."

She puts an arm over my shoulders. "Sometimes it's hard for me to grab my head around the fact that you're younger than me."

I smile but don't say anything else.

"Now," She adds. "Are you going to show me what you've been working on? Because I know you have something planned."

I jump to my feet. "Oh, absolutely! Now, let me show my Visor 2.0."

I point her at what would be best described as my workstation. My visor no longer looks like futuristic night vision goggles, and instead like the bulbose eyes of a mechanical fly. Very much like a mix of Nova's visor and Adam Jensen's shades that will go very well with Taylor's insect theme once I'm done with hers. Among many others, the most important upgrade is Jensen's Hacking Device that will allow me to access any mundane computer system.

"I was thinking that, as the City doesn't have your entry, we should break into the Department of Education and load the info ourselves."

Taylor takes a moment just staring at the new thing I created. "If the PRT already believes you to be a tinker, won't they get even more suspicious when my name magically pops up?"

That… is not something that crossed my mind. Not at all. I raise an index and… no, still nothing. "Well… any suggestions?"

"I do, actually." She presses her fingers together. "I was looking online, and instead of just adding my file to Arcadia's roster, you could add me to their enrollment test. Does that sound good to you?"

That sounds like a simple and reasonable plan. Not something I'd have thought about. "We'd still need to break into the Department of Education."

"Consider that my gift to you."

"And you'd need to take and pass the test. Unles--"

"We are not breaking into Arcadia to steal the answer!" She quickly adds before I can even formulate my idea. "This is something I want to do. Prove myself that I can be in Arcadia."

I can respect. I still find it stupid, but worthy of respect. "Fine, but I am helping you study."

"That I'd appreciate."

Well, that went better than expected.

"So," I clap. "Considering that I won't be having classes for a while either, why don't we do this tonight?"

 

[Poliamida]

Armsmaster's Interlude​

Inside his laboratory in the Protectorate Base, Colin Wallis hummed to himself as he finished his next project: a tranquilizer serum and delivery system that would counter the regeneration of high-level brutes. That device would be the one to finally help him bring Lung down.

On the corner of the room there was the container that housed his halberd, currently going through debugging, and on the desk, stained by oil and battery acid, laid abandoned a child's drawing of a power armor. That one had been given to him by Vista, who in turn had received it from one of the children that the Wards program had identified as a potential trigger. So far that case remained inconclusive, and so Colin had promptly forgotten about it.

It wouldn't be the first time that a gifted child was confused with a parahuman one.

His computer pinged informing about the reception of a new message. He opened it and saw the image of an orange cat eating what looked to be an Italian dish. Underneath it, there was a short phrase that read: This is your daily reminder that you have to eat real food.

Colin smiled at that. Dragon always had a way to get to him.

The message did remind him about something but not just his diet. He had the data on continental tides that Dragon wanted, and maybe with another month of hard work they'd be able to successfully predict where Leviathan would attack next.

He was halfway through writing that message when his computer pinged again. This time it wasn't a message, though. It was a call, and an urgent one for the look of it.

"Armsmaster here." He answered.

"Armsmaster, this is Renick. I'm sending you pictures from the Fire and Arson Investigation team. I want your opinion on them."

The case the Deputy Director was talking about was Winslow's fire. Normal arson cases took weeks to properly investigate, but this had been a school, a public building. The case had been classified as a potential terrorist action, speeding several procedures up. And if now they were asking for his expertise…

He frowned as he opened the files.

One hour later the entire Protectorate team was assembled at the conference room, together with Deputy Director Renick, and Director Piggott through teleconference.

"What's the issue, boss?" Assault asked in his dismissive tone.

Ignoring him, Armsmaster signaled at the screen where several pictures were in display. "As you all know, Winslow High burned down on Friday. Moments ago, the case was reclassified as 'Arson with Parahuman Powers'."

The team tensed at his words. He couldn't blame them. Brockton Bay was already the center of criminal parahuman activity of North America, but at least most villains tried to stay clear of schools. Not only to not bring heat on their heads, but also because places like Winslow were prime centers of recruitment, and markets for drugs and other illegal items.

The burning of a school suggested a level of malice that his city didn't need.

Assuming that this had been an adult parahuman, of course. Something he wasn't sure about yet.

"What evidence do we have to support that it was a parahuman?" Miss Militia asked, pulling her scarf down to massage her upper lip.

Pressing several buttons on the keyboard, Armsmaster brought to the front of the screen several photos with his annotations written over them. "The backdoor was cut open by a blade-shaped object emitting extreme heat. So was the pump of the fire sprinkler system. This could have been the work of a striker, but the running theory is a tinker." The screen changed one more time, this time to show what remained of Winslow's computer lab. "The reason for this, is that multiple computer parts were found missing."

"Could it have been a recently triggered student?"

Armsmaster had spent the previous half an hour arguing with Renick's people over that, and they had failed to reach an agreement. "That's still under investigation, but my personal opinion is that it's doubtful. Not only the pump, but also the alarms and the cameras were disabled before the fire started. This suggests a level of planning and premeditation that doesn't fit with a recently triggered person." Even less so if they assumed a recently triggered high schooler.

This time it was Director Piggott's turn to take the floor. "Kid Win and Aegis fought a new parahuman during their patrol two weeks ago. Could it be related?"

Armsmaster had seen those pictures. The few ones that survived after Kid Win's equipment had malfunctioned due to the discharge of electricity. The parahuman in question was almost as tall as Aegis, suggesting a male, and had been carrying tinkertech equipment.

"Maybe. 'Sting', as was tentatively named, was equipped with an energy blade that would fit with the shape of the damage caused. Their weapon was observed only dealing nonlethal damage, but we can't discard the possibility of alternate modes, or the tinker in question having developed a new tool. For now, they are considered a potential suspect, and have to be approached as a villain."

Sting was also a big unknown for the PRT. His costume looked amateurish and hand-made, yet the acts of distracting Aegis with sand, and later by throwing a heavy object into the water, suggested he had some form of combat experience.

"How are we going to proceed with the investigation?" Once again Director Piggott was asking the important questions.

"The Brockton Bay Police Department has shared with the PRT the files they have on Winslow. Including the students' roster. Even if they aren't the prime suspects, we are working under the theory that a student was involved in the incident, and so the PRT will monitor their activities in search of abnormal behavior. Any question?"

There were none.

Armsmaster looked at Piggott, who nodded at him. "In that case, you're dismissed."

 

[Poliamida]

Nuclear Fire 13​

The Brockton Bay Department of Education is not located in the Town's Hall, nor anywhere near the city's center. Instead of that, it's located in an apartment block, close to the docks, that the city's renting for that exact purpose. Located in the same block is also a dance studio, an art studio, and a local radio station.

"Is this the place? I was expecting, I don't know, something more?" Taylor is standing next to me on the roof of the neighboring block, sporting her recently retrofitted visor. I'll need several days to finish her upgrade but at least now she's starting to look like an actual ladybug.

"Looks about right to me." I reply with a shrug. The Department of Education in my previous city was just the same.

Now, how are we going to proceed with this entire mess?

I activate my visor's scanner mode and discover that the unassuming front hides a complex network of cameras and motion sensors. It very much looks like an electronic spiderweb. And these work passively, constantly sending an 'ok' signal to the outside, so I can't just destroy them as I did in Winslow.

I suspect it might be to protect the Wards' identities, at least from normals. Against a dedicated cape infiltrator, though? Not much they can do against that. And guess what Deus Ex is about, besides augmentations!

"Do your bugs feel anything?"

Taylor's still having trouble distinguishing shapes and sounds, but her sense of smell is top-notch. That was how she found the bleeding man before my visor did.

"I don't think so? My bugs are acting weird around the air ducts but I think that's bug repellant."

I nod at her words as I continue my investigations. Luckily for us, there's just one guard at the entrance, with all the alarms handled by the automatic system. That system is wired to a central server station on the ground floor, close to where the guard's stationed, which in turn is connected to an antenna on the roof sending information to an outside security agency. No component of the systems seems to be tinkertech, so it's time to see if my hacking device works as expected.

If it doesn't, well, at least we'll have the teleporter to flee from the scene.

"Let's do this." I grab Taylor's arm and we teleport to the opposite roof. The servers are surrounded by cameras, so my first target is the antenna. It works as an input and output system, so I should be able to… there! I put the outgoing signal in a fifteen second loop. It will be quickly noticed by any human on the other side, so we must move fast. We teleport into the servers' room.

"Tech-Priest, something's happening with the guard outside." Taylor shakes my shoulder. "He's coming our way." The alarm in her voice is clear despite her not raising it.

Yeah, the security agency in charge of this place must have noticed the loop, but it's done. We teleport out of the room just in time to see the man enter it through the cameras that now I control. After a quick search, he returns to his post not having found anything. And I made sure that there wouldn't be anything to find as I deleted all traces of our activities.

Okay, so far so good. I can now pick which cameras to loop and which sensors to disable, so we should be good to go and not risk raising any more alarms.

We teleport inside the Department of Education's office. It's a room barely bigger than our living room, with four computers inside, and a single window that leads to an air shaft.

"Help me turn the computers on." I tell Taylor, and slowly the room fills with the hum of cooling fans.

I crack my knuckles.

It's showtime. The security system was no match for my visor, but now it's time to see how it fares when it has to search, sort, and modify information. Hundreds of emails and documents flash over my visor as I run the hacking program. Cracking passwords is a joke, and so is tricking the computer into forgetting this unscheduled connection.

The visor has finished sorting through 75% of the archives when I receive a warning.

"Tech Priest?" Taylor asks in concern, as she too can see what I'm seeing through her enhanced-reality HUD.

"It's fine, we weren't detected." The warning isn't about us triggering an alarm but about the visor finding a heavily encrypted folder and asking me if it should try opening it. It finds three folders like that. One for Arcadia, one for Clarendon, and one for Winslow. "I think I found the Wards' folders."

"Don't touch them!" She yells.

I'm not that stupid. I mean, I guess so. "I won't, don't worry."

Despite my calming words she still eyes me warily. "Good."

I don't think I even could, honestly. My visor calculates a catastrophically low chance of opening it without being detected, so there has to be some tinker tech at play here. But now that reminds me of something. "Say, Taylor, what was the name of that Sophia girl you told me about?"

She goes very still for a moment. "Hess." She spits. "Her name's Sophia Hess."

I search for her name and… well, I was sadly expecting that. "She's going to Arcadia."

"What?! Why?!"

"According to this-" I read further into the transference trying to find what excuse they came up with, "Because of sports credits."

Taylor paces back and forth clutching the side of her head. "She was a member of Winslow's track and field team."

Yes, that probably helped, but I know that the real reason must be because she's Shadow Stalker of the Wards. "Anyone el-"

"Madison Clemens." She says before I can even finish fo

"She's going to Immaculata."

"Okay, that's good. That is good." Her breathing gets heavy. "One last name. Emma Barnes."

Let's see, I search for her name and… shit. "She's going to Arcadia too."

"Why?!" It's a good thing that we're on a second floor and no one can hear us or we'd be in deep shit right now. "She doesn't do sports, the only thing she has is her modeling career! And she doesn't have the scores to get into Arcadia! I should know, that's why she went to Winslow and why I followed her there!" She collapses on a chair like a puppet who got her strings cut.

"You went to Winslow because of her?"

"Yes." She pulls her mask up so she can breathe easier. "I could have gone to Arcadia but insisted on going to Winslow to be with her."

We didn't bring provisions with us assuming this would be a quick operation, but there's a water dispenser in the corner. I fill a disposable cup and offer it to her. "You couldn't have known any of this would happen."

"No, I guess not." She empties the cup in one gulp and gives it back to me. I'll make sure to destroy it later. "How did she get in?"

"She was recommended by the law firm Barnes and Hamlet. Her father must have used his influence to pull that one out." And money. Lots and lots of money.

"Of course he did."

"I could send you somewhere else." I offer. "Clarendon is fairly strict against students who misbehave. I should know. We could also get registered you as homeschooled, or even-"

"No." She cuts me. "They aren't ruining this one for me too. If anything, this convinces me even more to take the test! Not only I'll be there too but I'll be there on my own right, unlike them."

On one hand, she's a bloody stubborn girl. On the other, doing something out of spite is a thing I sympathize with. "Only if that's what you want. If anything, I'd like to see them trying to bully you there. If they try, they'll get stomped hard."

She laughs. "And if Arcadia fucks this one up we can just burn it too!" I can't tell if she's being serious or not. Taylor's scary when she gets angry.

"Oh, we will." I reply with a subtle smile of complicity. "Let's do this then."

Where are the correct documents now?

Found them! And it seems that because of the fire Arcadia got an unprecedented influx of new potential students, making a mess of their paperwork. Several transfer documents are incomplete, and some even contradict others about who should go where. With some luck, this means that Taylor's name will get overlooked. "It's done, Ladybug. Next Friday at nine you'll have to be at Arcadia for your entrance test."

She slowly nods. "Not much time to study but I can do this."

"With my help, of course you can!"

"What about the syllabus? I don't want the answers but I will need that."

That is very true. "Got it. I saved it to your visor."

"Perfect!" She presses the side of her visor, looking through it. "So, is that it? Do we leave now?"

We could, yes, but that honestly feels like a waste. I have access to governmental servers here so there should be something for me to do.

Idea!

"Give me a minute. I want to find out what the schools have been doing with their outdated equipment."

"Their what?"

I reply while browsing through the archives. "When a school receives new equipment, they have to do something with the old stuff. Normally the city would send them to other schools, but I want to check if I can't get that trash."

"Sounds reasonable."

Acquisition of books… no, I don't care about that. Oh, look at that, Arcadia has an infirmary and is correctly disposing of its biological wastes. Neat but I don't care about that either.

Wait, what is this?

"Tech Priest?" Taylor asks, maybe noticing how I stopped at a particular document.

"A moment. I found something weird." I'm reading about the donation of several new computers and other school supplies to Winslow. It supposedly happened a year ago, but the specifications don't match. Those most definitely weren't the computers that I dismantled. "Did you hear about this?" I send the document to Taylor.

"I didn't. Maybe it got canceled or something? It wouldn't surprise me if Blackwell kept it and sold it to someone else."

"Maybe." But there's something that rubs me the wrong way here. The donation wasn't made public, and according to this document the one behind it is... Blue Mountain, a construction company.

Wasn't Fortress Constructions just a fanon name?

I search for more info, browsing the web trying to figure out who the owner is.

I find nothing. There's no name, the webpage is barren of information, but I do find several newspaper articles more than five years old about renovations across the city.

Blue Mountain was the company responsible for building the Endbringer Shelters in Brockton Bay and several neighboring cities.

Fuck me, this is Coil's company.

"So? What did you find?"

"Something big."

What else was this group involved in? If I'm reading this manifest correctly, the donations arrived at their designated storehouse but didn't reach Winslow. No reason is given, and the company didn't reclaim them either. The boxes are still there.

At least boxes that claim to have the donations inside them.

What if Coil used them to smuggle illegal stuff? He could have brought anything in them! From drugs to weapons, to equipment for his mercenaries.

Where did the donations come from?

Boston.

Isn't that great? The same city that has Accord in it, one of Coil's allies and a powerful thinker. What a bloody happy coincidence!

I need more.

Coil not only donated materials to Winslow but also to every other school in the city. Unlike Winslow's, these ones reached their destinations after having been stored in a different warehouse. I even have a newspaper clip here about how happy Arcadia was to receive the material.

Shit, could Coil have bugged the computers? That sounds like something he'd do.

And there's even more still! The old material was scheduled to be recycled and sent to Boston, where it'd be received by struggling schools there. It was sent to the same warehouse where Winslow's donations were stored -which now I'm sure belongs to Coil- and that's where the trail ends. There are no accounts of the old material leaving for Boston, assuming that it ever did and that the snake didn't use it for something else.

I leaned back, pushing my back against the wall.

"So? What is it?" Taylor sounds concerned, and how could I blame her? I'm very concerned too.

How do I explain this to her? Much of what I found comes from my out-of-universe knowledge.

"I think I found a drug ring?" I blurt out. That sounds like a reasonable conclusion, doesn't it? One that I could have reasonably reached with the information I have here.

"What?! How?"

"Well, I have no defining proof but I have an entire supply chain here of donations not reaching their intended destinations. They just mysteriously vanish on the way."

"Could they have just lost the registries? I mean, it happened to me and… shit, they totally would care more about a desk than me, wouldn't they?"

"Don't be like that. You are at least as valuable as an A/C Unit."

"Jerk." She folds her arms but I can see her smiling underneath the mask.

"You're right, this could be just a huge coincidence." As if! Not when Coil is involved. "But just in case, I noted down the direction of the warehouse where the stuff was lost."

"Do you want us to go investigate it next?"

"No. I will go scout it ahead, and call you if I find anything weird. You need to start studying."

She scratches the back of her neck. "Oh, yes. I will need to start doing that, won't I?"

Our plans for the next day made, we cover our tracks and go back home.

 

[Poliamida]

Nuclear Fire 14​

Something to consider about vigilantism is that running around the city at two in the morning isn't healthy. I could compensate for it during the weekend because, well, it was the weekend, but with school canceled my entire sleep schedule has been scrambled.

That's why it's way past ten in the morning when I enter the kitchen looking for breakfast, only to find Taylor already there surrounded by books.

"Studying for Arcadia?" I read the covers. She has history, biology, and literature in there. There's also a notepad next to her already full of scribbles. How long has she been up?

"Yeah." Her reply gets interrupted by a yawn. "I got mom's books and started noting down all the useful things."

I go to the fridge and pull out some milk. "Wasn't your mother just a literature teacher?"

Shit! We haven't talked much about her mother yet. I shouldn't know that she was a teacher.

Thankfully she notices neither my slip nor my panic. "She never tossed a single book out, and still had her university books when she-" Taylor takes a deep breath. "She died."

"Hey, we don't need to talk about it-"

"No, no. I'm fine." She stops me with a wave of her hand. "I got over it a long time ago, but then Emma happened and everything became a mess."

I remember a bit of that. Taylor's strength to get over her mother's death was one of the things that drove Emma into that insane jealousy. Plus Sophia. Plus the rape attempt by the ABB.

And let's not forget her father who insisted she was okay and didn't need therapy!

I should add him to the list.

"Tell me if you need anything." I offer, patting her shoulder.

"I'm studying history right now, and don't take this the wrong way but after what you pulled at your history class I don't think I want your help."

"Hey, not my fault that your books are nothing but propaganda."

She smiles. "Mom would have liked you."

"She sounds like an intelligent woman." I finish with my milk and wash the cup. "Well, if you don't need my help I'll be leaving for the warehouse."

"Be careful, alright?"

"Don't worry. As I told you, I'm not getting anywhere near that place. I'll just scan it from a distance and keep the teleporter ready in case I need to flee."

"Ok, but remember that it's my job as your older sister to worry."

Taylor was starting to like this.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't liking it either.

---

On my way to the warehouse, I look for information about it online. There are no publications, no advertisements, no nothing. Not even a contact telephone. It exists, and that's all that the internet can say about it.

The more I find -or fail to find- about this place, the more convinced I am that there's something illegal going on. That or the underdeveloped internet of Earth Bet is giving me problems. Whatever the case, soon I'll have the answer.

It takes me half an hour to reach my destination, teleporting in my way through empty buildings to ensure no one can see me.

The warehouse is surrounded by dilapidated industries, has two big gates on the front, and is wide enough to accommodate six trucks, one next to the other. Connected to the main building there's also a smaller two-stories section where the offices are located.

I see all that through the telescopic function of my visor, while I remain safely hidden inside of an apartment located more than a block away.

I activate the more powerful scanners of my visor and-- sweet mother of baby Jesus, what the fuck am I looking at? The entire warehouse just lit up like a freakin Christmas tree!

Deep breaths, deep breaths. Let's try to make sense of this. What am I looking at exactly? Once again, a security system. A really… interesting one. The server room is located in a room below ground. That room is behind the water tanks, and only accessible by punching a code in a keypad. I see medical equipment, several computers, and what seems to be an armory. And weapons! Lots of weapons. And not chemical-propelled ones, those are laser rifles! I can tell by the way they flare in my visor. I want them so much! I could just teleport in and… no, I can't. The bunker is lined with sensors: motion, sound, pressure, and even heat. And the worst part is that each one is wired to a different computer through several redundancies. There's no way for me to hack into this system. If I manage to get into one computer, then the others will announce my presence. And that's assuming that I can even get inside that room!

This is definitely Coil's doing, no doubt about it. Not his main base, it's too small for that, but it must be one of his satellite ones.

And if Coil is behind this… yeah, there it is. The floor of the bunker is lined with explosives, all linked to a detonator controlled by a radio receiver. All tinkertech.

The guy did have a thing for his explosives.

Any misstep and this entire place will turn into a crater.

But enough about the bunker for now, what about the main storage area?

I count five people scattered around the premise, and I seriously doubt that the handguns that they all carry underneath their jackets are part of their 'official' uniforms.

The crates they are guarding contain… actually mundane stuff. There's food and medicine, nothing that could be considered illegal, but Coil still needs to feed and clothe his mercenaries, so this could be where he stores their supplies.

I could disable the major systems with an EMP grenade (thankfully Deus Ex also has those), but I'd still have to deal with the mercenaries. Not something I look forward to, they are built like bricks and the way they're positioned makes it impossible for Taylor to strike them all down with one swing of her blade.

This place is a freaking fortress, and we'll need to prepare accordingly if we want to crack it.

---

After lunch, Taylor brings her books to the attic so she can keep studying while I tinker.

"Can't we just call the PRT?" She asks, her voice accompanied by the scribbles in her notebook.

I did spend a long time thinking about it. Not about the pros and cons of calling them, but about excuses to not call them. Coil has several moles infiltrated across the PRT and we could get severely screwed if one of them finds us.

"They'll need a warrant to investigate," I explain while finishing with the compressed-air tube. "And the only evidence we have we acquired illegally through the use of tinkertech."

"Can't we just give them the information anonymously?"

"I'm not sure who those mercenaries work for, and the place has a bomb underneath it. If we don't hit hard and fast, whoever's the leader will just make it explode."

"I guess that's true." She sulks down, her attention returning to her exercise. "Hey, can you help me with this?"

Putting my work on pause, I move behind her to look at what she's doing. Oh, neat. Trigonometry.

"I give you three words for you to remember: Sor, Car, Toa."

She gives me a look as if I had suddenly started speaking in Spanish. "Excuse me?"

"Sine is Opposite divided by the Hypotenuse, the Hypotenuse represented by R. Cosine is Adjacent divided by the Hypotenuse, and Tangent is Opposite divided by Adjacent."

Her eyes look back to the paper. "Oh. Ohhh, that's useful!"

"Note it down so you remember." And with that last piece of wisdom, I return to my tinkering.

Now, if I must be honest with myself, a lot of my reasoning for not calling the PRT is motivated by no small amount of greed. The weapons that the mercenaries have are excellent, and I want to keep them. Same with any other useful stuff that I could find in the warehouse.

I am not risking us for them. Well, I am not risking Taylor, I don't care about myself nearly that much, but if things get heated I'll pull the plug before she gets hurt, and call the PRT.

Tightening some final bolts I shout: "Taylor, catch!" And toss her my most recent creation.

She receives it in open arms. "Finally! You took your sweet time with it." It's the tranquilizer rifle of Deus Ex Mankind Divided.

"Put your visor on and look at what happens."

She does. "It's like a videogame!"

Our visors now display an aiming reticle and remaining ammunition when holding a linked weapon. It's not perfect, without the arm implants the reticle lacks stability, and the system doesn't compensate for wind and distance falloff, but it's a good start.

Taylor plays a bit more with the rifle before putting it aside. "Only ten darts?"

"For now, yes. I'll upgrade my drone to be able to turn into an ammo dispenser, but ten should be enough for us."

"Will you build anything else?"

"A riot prod for me in case I need to fight, and a couple of EMP grenades to disable the explosives." Even if we don't use them tonight, grenades are always useful to carry around.

And I must say that the drone's ability to process metals has been really useful. With it, I have been able to salvage scrap that I wouldn't have been able to use on my own. I can't wait for it to reach the first construction site! That should happen tomorrow morning.

"But won't our things get frayed too?" Taylor asks with the tip of her pencil against her lips.

Nice to see that she's already thinking ahead.

"Already accounted for! I'll shield our equipment before we leave." Both Adam Jensen and DC Denton had several EMP shields, and those I'm adapting for our items. They can only take so many EMP blasts before going down but should be more than enough to resist a grenade or two.

"Well, I guess you already thought of everything."

"Of course I did!"

We'll be ready to attack Coil's base after midnight.

---

This is unexpected.

"Tech Priest, how many mercenaries did you see this morning?" Taylor, in her Ladybug costume, asks me as we look at the display in front of us.

"Only five. And they weren't this well-armed."

This is most definitely unexpected. The number of mercenaries has risen to twelve, and these ones aren't pretending to be warehouse workers. They are in full military gear, armed with both conventional and laser weaponry.

What happened here?

Shit! Did Coil get tipped that we were going to attack? No, that makes no sense, that's not how his power works and he shouldn't have Dinah yet!

That reminds me that I should do something about Dinah soon.

"Maybe they are waiting for a delivery of drugs?" Taylor offers.

Now that makes more sense! "Maybe. That'd explain the extra security."

"So, what do we do now?"

Whatever the real reason is, this is most definitely one of those 'pull the plug' situations. With my equipment and the element of surprise on our side, I trusted us to be able to take down the five mercenaries I saw this morning. But against these many? No. That's just too risky.

Maybe noticing my indecision, Taylor makes a suggestion of her own. "Can we track where they are going?"

I rub a finger against my chin. That's not a bad idea at all! If we follow this group they eventually should go to some other base, or maybe even to the main one if we're lucky. "If we wait for the contraband, we could see who picks it up, and follow them to their destination."

"And get the boss of this entire operation!"

Underneath my mask, I smile. "Yes. Now we just need to wait for the delivery and-" I get suddenly interrupted by Taylor gripping my shoulder. "Ladybug?"

"There's like… there's lice and... are those parasitic worms?" Her eyes dart towards the road and soon we see a pair of lights that turn into a box truck.

Under my scanner, the truck only looks like a black mass. Not even my visor can pierce the walls of the cargo area!

It must be carrying the contraband, and be shielded against tinkertech scanners.

The vehicle drives into the warehouse, the gates closing behind it. It comes to a full stop, and the mercenaries surround it to help unload the cargo.

The back doors of the truck open.

I feel a jolt of electricity traveling down my spine. My hairs stand on end, my knuckles ache, and my nails cut into the skin of my palms with how hard I clench my fists.

I can't see her next to me, but I just know that Taylor feels the same way.

Now we know what they are trafficking. It isn't drugs and it isn't weapons either.

It would be better if they were.

The inside of the cargo area is built like a prisoner's transport, divided in the middle by a barred gate. In one half there's an extra guard, and who looks to be a medic. And in the other, gagged, bound, and without enough space to move, are two children.

It's a boy and a girl who can't be older than ten, dressed as if they were going to a ballroom dance.

Coil hires desperate people who crave special 'payment' that only he can provide. That's how he keeps them loyal and under his control, terrified of ever going against him in case their secrets are ever made public.

I was right after all, this is where Coil keeps his mercenaries' supplies.

 

[Poliamida]

Nuclear Fire 15​

There's a buzz in the air. It's not an impression nor my imagination, it's the sound of all of Taylor's bugs flapping their wings in perfect coordination.

I grip my hand around her wrist. "Stand down, Ladybug." I tell her through clenched teeth.

"We're saving those children." Her voice is eerily cold. Almost mechanically so.

"I know." I feel my heart beating inside my throat. "But there's still a bomb in there, so before we can go in and rip those bastards' throats out, we must disable it."

The buzzing reaches a crescendo and then suddenly stops. "V-very well." Taylor stutters, her voice returning to normal. "What do you suggest?"

Let's see. The offices are located on a nearby two-stories building. There are a couple of mercenaries on the roof, and a third one on a balcony below them. There are no cameras outside, maybe to not bring attention to the place. After all, that's what the guards are supposedly for.

I tag the ones on the roof. "We teleport behind those two first."

"And then-" She stops, swallowing hard. "And then I stun them."

Come on, Taylor, you know you want to kill them. I want the same thing.

But I guess that dead people can't be interrogated. Not now, not yet. Not until they can be turned into servitors. Also, most of our weapons are non-lethal.

I'll start working on lethal options after this.

"Yes. But not with the Darkcoil." That one's too flashy. It would reveal us. "Use your rifle with one, and I'll stun the other with my riot prod." I built the prod as a defensive tool. I wasn't expecting to use it offensively so soon. "Then--" I take a deep breath. The kids haven't been taken down from the truck yet, and one of the mercenaries is talking with their doctor. I can also see that a group of three goons is seated in a small room at the back of the storage area. The coffee machine reveals it as a breakroom. I notice that there's a narrow blind spot next to its entrance, and feel the weight of the caltrops in my pocket, knowing that Taylor carries a similar package. "Scatter some caltrops around this part to get them when they rush out." The bunker underneath is thankfully empty. "And then trigger one of your EMP grenades."

Taylor gives me a sharp nod. "And after that?"

"After that, you hit them with everything you got."

Let's do this. It will be dangerous but these people need to die. Slowly. Painfully.

That or be stunned and captured, whatever happens first.

I set the beacon for our first teleportation and we go in. In the blink of an eye, we're standing across the street, behind our first two targets.

I lung forwards, tazing one man while Taylor shoots at the other. They both go down with muffled grunts.

Shit!

I grab mine from the back of his vest, slowing his fall down. He's incredibly heavy for my noodle-like arms, but I manage.

Thankfully Taylor notices what I'm doing and does the same. If we had let them hit the ground, someone might have heard them.

We toss their weapons away and tie them up with the zip-ties. Two down, far too many to follow.

It's too dangerous to talk this close to enemy lines, so a nod is all I can do to tell Taylor that she's good to go.

One moment she's there and the next she's not as she teleports inside the warehouse.

Shit, shit. Why are we doing this? We could have waited, followed them around like the plan was, and maybe even take pictures to post online. But we didn't, and instead charged in because we're angry, emotional, and don't measure the consequences of our actions. Also because there's no greater reward than brutalizing those that deserve it.

At least for me. Taylor's another bundle of issues.

I hope we are doing the right thing here. Coil will know about us after this.

A buzz puts an end to my train of thought. It's an electronic one, not caused by Taylor's bugs. It comes from the radio of one of the unconscious guys.

"Mike Seven, do you copy?"

Oh, you have to be kidding me! I hack the radio. Where does it come from? The guy in the balcony!

"Mike Seven, do you copy?" He asks again, more forcefully.

I need to get to him. There's a set of stairs that'll bring me right to his back but there's no way for him not to hear me.

Unless… idea! I rush down the stairs.

"Roof, what's going on over there?"

I use my visor to send an acoustic pulse so loud that could drive anyone deaf.

He yells and that's when I go in. He's too dazed to notice my presence and I have no trouble tasing him.

There! Three down and… why is he leaning forwards?

Oh, crap!

I try to grab him but I can't get a good grip. He slips from my fingers and goes over the railing, falling to the ground below.

A sonorous 'crunch' then follows.

That was his neck, wasn't it?

And that's when all hell breaks loose. There are shouts and screams followed by a loud bang and all the lights going off.

At least Taylor had enough time to do her thing.

The doors of the warehouse open and tires burn rubber. The truck tries to escape but it doesn't make it out of the building, the floor below my feet trembling as it crashes against one of the walls.

I aim at it with my visor and see that the driver is covered in wasps. Same with most of the mercenaries.

Good work, Taylor!

Okay, time to get down to business. With the bomb deactivated it should be safe for me to call emergency services. And look at that! There's a phone on a nearby desk, a rotatory one that was thankfully spared by the EMP.

"9-1-1, what's your emergency?"

"There's a shoot-out next to me!" I give her the address, and just on cue several guns discharge outside the room. "I think that a man's dead! And there are parahumans and-" A door bursts open and in comes a mercenary. "Oh, shit!" I don't even have to fake my curse as I let go of the tube.

Thankfully the man hasn't noticed me, too busy screaming and fighting against the insects that are crawling all over his face. I dash towards him, ram the riot prod into his midriff and press the button. He goes limp as the battery of my prod goes into the red.

I'm almost out of charge.

There's a window that leads to the warehouse, maybe there so the suits can keep an eye on the workers below.

I hear orders and curses, and search for Taylor. I find her with her blink band on cooldown, hunkered down behind a pillar, the concrete slowly chipping away under the continuous barrage of laser shots.

In the cargo area, several unconscious bodies are scattered. Some of them knocked unconscious by the Darkcoil, others by an adverse reaction to Taylor's insects, but the survivors are finally putting together a coordinated resistance.

Good thing that they are showing their backs to me.

I pick up the rifle from the guy I just knocked out, steady it against the frame of the opened window, and aim at the goons below me. The weapon is in full automatic, and I manage to unleash a volley before it jumps out of my hand and smashes against my face.

Ouch, ouch, ouch! Why the fuck does a freaking laser rifle have recoil?

Freaking tinkertech.

Whatever the case, my distraction works by attracting the mercenaries' attention to me.

Shit, I don't have anywhere to go and I won't win on a firefight against them!

Two mercenaries are already heading towards the stairs.

Another idea!

I hide behind a desk, next to the door, and scatter my caltrops in front of me. The plan works, and when the first mercenary enters the room and twists to the side, he steps on my trap and screams in pain. That gives me the opening I need. I jump out of my hiding place and knock him unconscious with the prod.

The battery goes dead.

I try to level my rifle but it gets kicked out of my hands. I groan in pain at my hurt fingers, and then again as a fist forces all the air out of my lungs.

I see the end of a barrel.

I raise my hands.

There's a flash that makes me close my eyes and then a scream.

But it doesn't belong to me.

I crack my eyes open just in time to see the severed arm of the man falling to the ground, with Taylor standing behind him.

So, the psy blade cauterizes wounds. That's good to know.

The mercenary looks at his wound in confusion, as if incapable of processing that his arm is no longer there, and that's the time it takes for Darkcoil to go back online. With a second swing of the blade, he goes down.

I remain perfectly still for a couple of seconds waiting for something to happen but everything is quiet.

Taylor doesn't move, and the only sound that reaches my ears is that of my own breathing.

"Is it over?" I ask, my voice coarse and rough. I can barely recognize it.

She nods.

Through my visor, I can see the mercenaries scattered around the building, covered in insects and spiders weaving their webs to keep them where they are.

One of the bodies has a hole in its back.

Oh.

I did manage to land one of my wild shots.

Two kills for me!

Yay-fucking-me.

I can also see the children still inside the truck. We should… Taylor's already walking down the stairs.

I catch up to her just as she opens the back of the truck with a swing of the blade.

The kids are bruised because of the crash, but fine beyond that. At least physically.

"We're here to rescue you!" Taylor tells them but they don't react. They don't even turn their heads to look at us. She walks to their little cell and opens that one too. "You're free to go."

Still nothing.

There's a crack when Taylor steps on an empty syringe. There are more of those all over the truck's floor, together with pills and other medicaments.

"Ladybug, I think they are drugged."

She looks at me, then back at the children's empty eyes. "Fuck, fuck!" She swings her arms around.

"Please, calm down."

"After this?!"

"Yes! We need to help them! And we won't be of any help if we aren't thinking straight!"

There's that eerie buzzing again, and Taylor straightens up. "I'm calm now." She says in that robotic tone from earlier. "Will we call the PRT now?"

Damn, I'm actually scared of her. "I already did. We should wait now."

She nods as even more bugs converge on our position.

It doesn't take long after that. I only had a couple of minutes to break apart some of the rifles for pieces, and steal the mercenaries' wallets and phones, before the first patrol appeared at the edge of my visor.

I panic for a moment there, thinking that it might be Coil sending more of his mooks, but then I see who's leading the group. Under my scanner, it looks as if a sun was coming our way. That is how full of technology the motorcycle and armor are.

The roar of the engine stops outside the warehouse, and the hero descends from his vehicle.

So that's what Armsmaster looks in person. The polished plates of his power armor glimmer under the moonlight and each movement is followed by a soft, almost melodious hum of servomotors.

It's a daunting, beautiful sight.

I want that. I want to be just like that.

But better.

The man inside the suit still hasn't realized how limited he is by his own biology, how much more he could be if he improved his body the same way he has improved all his other tools. But he can learn. He did in canon.

Armsmaster approaches us with his halberd raised, ready to strike us down if we make any sudden movements.

It might have something to do with the fact that we're surrounded by a bunch of unconscious mercenaries, some of them needing some serious medical attention, and two dead bodies.

And let's not forget the fact that we attacked the Wards some weeks ago.

"Unknown parahumans, identify yourselves!"

Ready or not, it's time for us to meet the larger hero world.

 

[Stef]

Note: The following text is supplemented by the videos. While not mandatory it greatly enchant the experience, in some cases.



Omake: One possible future?



…

Diary from Wonderland

…

Entry 1

Hello, my dear reader. First of all, I have to congratulate you, after all this book was either in a heavily fortified location or burned and you somehow restore it. Anyway today I may or may not have fucked up. It wasn't even that worse, just a few upgrades, unity tools, and such. Then the blonde hag entered the room and began bitching. "What the hell did you do??? People will associate you with the Mannequin at best, maybe even Bonesaw if they learned you can be bio tinker." After that, there was a lot of screaming, which I didn't manage to ignore thanks to her stupid power.

The worse of all is that she somehow convince me to write my troughs on a paper, the easiest to steal medium but in her worlds, the symbolism will help me, somehow. Anyway, you probably had already heard of me, after all, I did manage to make a name for myself, or a few but that's not important at the moment. I decide to begin writing some of my more obscure ideas here because the hag is stubborn and will probably insist on it. I am pretty sure this is just me wasting precious time that can be used for more shiny tech, but I don't want to create friction in the team, at least as long as they are useful, so I will do as she says, for now.

…

Entry 2

Now I get it. The idea of full-body modification, especially the ones that require the removal of flesh, are outright hated by the people here. Maybe it was going to be better if I slowly added more and more instead of directly replacing an arm, but oh the unity, it can be so useful in the field. The hag came to scream at me today, for the third time this week. Another full lecture about how upgrades are gross, unethical, how more than a few people wonder if I will go full-on Bonesaw, the possibility of failsafe capable of killing everything in my vicinity upon my death e.c.t. Thankfully my specialty has synthetic skin, so that plus a glove can take care of any quick check.

The dilemma is how to proceed from here, any direct upgrade makes it more likely that the government decides "He is nuts, better be safe than sorry, kill order" on other hand without any upgrade its possible for any hobo to just stab me to death. Sadly I won't be able to flex my superiority to this the meat bags, my new shiny arm shall stay hidden from the public eye, for now. I had this grand idea about a practical joke. It included showing off my fingers that can rotate and vibrate, also some remark about adapting tinker tech from one toy shop, if possible suggesting it to Armsy or Kid Win. I still can't stop laughing. Somewhere in America, right now, there is a rogue that works as a toymaker for the adult industry.

…

Entry 5

This is bad, not completely awful but still useless overall. I now have Sword Art Online, if it was at some other time I won't mind at all and even have fun while exploring all of its possibilities. The problem is that, soon, shit will hit the fan and I wanted some new trump card, just in case. Everyone knows that you can't have too many trump cards. Anyway, it will be useful to upgrade the A.I. of a few toys I have, but to be honest I don't have too much hope. After all, if I let my new pets travel cyberspace freely that can bring me a lot of trouble.

The creation of a new sophisticated A.I. will draw the attention of two problematic characters, namely Big Lizard and Saint Nicholas, after all, one of them will probably be obsessed with their creator while the second will keep an eye to make sure they don't do anything too drastic. Nerve Gears can be interesting, after all, VR was one of my wet dreams before I found myself here and will always be. Probably creating some kind of death game won't bring me repercussions but that doesn't help me with the upcoming menace. I already decided how testers will be picked, there are a lot of homeless people and terminal patients, I just have to find some that are desperate enough. Now that I think about it, a few won't be a huge a huge deal, just write code and work on realism. It will take some time before the A.I. can generate the world realistic enough to warren testing.

…

Entry 12

I am miserable. I ended up with something similar to "Breaking Bad" until I can change my specialty, which means I can produce highly refined drugs. That's days wasted, days it was possible to create lasers. According to my power, most of them leave almost none after effect, as long as you don't become addicted. I decided to give a test path to some people, you know ones that don't mind testing and according to them "this is the best shit, it's like Jesus brew it himself and then decided to be generous". I am typically not for promoting irrational drug usage BUT this is the only thing I can do, at least before I can change it, so I will just exchange them for electronic parts and chemicals, I don't care from where they can be taken. After all, what's the worst that a few junkies can do?

…

Entry 13

Apparently a lot, I just learned that one of the smarter ones created a cult. Some of the hallucinogens were so strong that he managed to deceive a few poor souls how he is the Messiah. He targeted primary junkies and homeless people, promising salvation and gathered quite a followers, so much that the locals decided to take him down. The effect was so strong, according to the news article, that while the police came a few screamed some religious nonsense about heretics, everything escalated until PRT came and used foam. I am not sure which is worse, that now PRT searches for bio tinker or that Taylor now follows me everywhere to make sure I won't do something similar, which I won't. After all, I don't have the same talent as Caleb.

…

Entry 27

I messed up. I used my latest specialty to upgrade my VR A.I. but this had some rather unexpected consequences. It began just like any other test, I contacted the usual group of subject. The five ones which I generally use, after all being a villain with access to life-saving medical supplies that they need to survive is more than enough to keep them loyal. Anyway they get into the simulation, this week is was phase wonderland, testing a new algorithm which is supposed to make the character experience just enough stress to keep going. The Perfect Amount Of Awful.

From then everything just began to get worse and worse. The system locked me out, I try to brute force my way in, which I failed, and just before I decide to remove the power source to restart the system a message played. According to it the A.I., whose main purpose was to design the VR world indistinguishable of reality, it began to the simulation as normal, during the initial period when the testers were in the waiting zone he began with the weekly psychology test. While testing their limit something happened and all of them became stuck inside the simulation, which continues to push their limit. I think one of them managed to trigger but i can't be sure. In the end, they are stuck in the game so I can't do much for them.

I am more worried about Tattletale, after all, if my memory is correct she lost her brother which maybe will make her softer regardless of anything if there are any kind of siblings involved. Besides that, I am not sure what to do. Maybe it's immoral of me to continue using the same A.I. but this pushed my research so much farther, the data is magnificent. I just hope I will be able to convince her to keep the data. I also decide to name it Dream.

…

Entry 28

She kept it surprisingly well, least from my perspective. She permitted me to keep the simulation running but i won't take new testers and I have to make everything in my power to give them new bodies in the real world. Until then, for them at least, life is just a game.

…

Entry 30

Is it wrong that I found their adventure fascinating? I can't believe how much person can chance in such a short time, but maybe I am not the one to speak. The A.I. also progresses rather nicely if the scenarios it creates are any indication.

Hitorinbo Envy

Daughter of Evil

Candle Queen

Mind Brand

Tale of Mary Drew

Oldest Profession

Dark And Stormy Night

The Face Within Mercedes Lackey

Brittle Bones Nicky

…

Entry 100 – The End

Dear diary, I haven't written in months so I think it will be important to update you one last time. First of all, I finally manage to finish the VR system. The realism is ninety-nine percent, it can emulate all five senses. The rendering is with enough depth that for the human eye it's impossible to see the difference. All bonus features that i wasn't sure were possible were created, one way or another, from time dilation to memory limiting program. The second is something i am particularly because I had struggled for a lot of time to achieve it. After all its function is that it creates separate space in one's memory, allowing the user to experience the game as a newborn baby without any memories from his real self. Of course, there are fail-safes, one of who is that the information won't be permanently stored in the long term memory, thanks to the time dilation, it's possible to use the short term one as a safe file and once the character in the simulation die you remember only the key moments. Right now I am in my private world, after the apocalypse, some of the red idiots decided to attack my lab, and I kindly the same. I was heading to one of their bigger bases, if my memory is correct this happened after i massacre every attack and robed two of their bases from any resource imaginable, I intended to continue but they send a delegation. Something along the lines of, it was splinter cell, please don't massacre our forces and we will give you this plan, which I accepter. After that, I spend a lot of time fortifying the place. It's cool to have planet all for your own, I had lots of fun building the defenses, which should be enough protection from anything other than some of the more broken powers. Death is but a few seconds away for any trespasser as some kind people tested on their own risk. My body is upgraded to such a degree that the only things that still resemble human is the brain, or to be more the brain was the only thing I didn't manage to upgrade mechanically, plus even if I do create a clone or scan my brain I can't be sure on 100% this will be me because, no one is sure if the soul exists, which left me with my brain being the only vanilla part of my body. Thankfully during one of my specialties I manage to create a machine that produces brain booster juice, it contains oxygen plus some chemicals which either make it better or take care of it. After all upgrades, my body right now is over five meters tall and wide as a wardrobe. There are more than dozen fail saves which in theory can reincarnate me but I don't want to try in case I either lose my power or maybe the original owner of the body came back. After all the way I arrived was rather unique plus my power function a little differently so it's better to be safe than sorry.

I spend years researching VR and finally, I will begin experiencing different lives. The idea is that once I enter I will experience a nonstop cycle of reincarnations, allowing me to live tens of lives in a time that human only experience one. After more than half-century living in this universe, I hopefully will finally spend some time in peace, in a place where my passenger won't have too much influence. If everything goes according to plan this is the last entry as I will spend all of my time inside until some incident happen and my planet is destroyed, minus the time spent creating new tech and making sure the world doesn't stop rolling.

 

[Poliamida]

Nuclear Fire 16​

I lick my dry lips. Okay, how do I do this? What can I possibly say to keep things from escalating?

We are all fellow heroes here! Maybe a 'hi' would help?

No, no, that's just too stupid.

Thankfully, Taylor is more decisive than I am. "Independent heroes Tech Priest," She points at me. "And Ladybug." And then at herself.

Ah, yes. Answering his question does sound like the most reasonable way to start this conversation.

"You don't look like heroes." And as he says that, a dozen PRT rush into the warehouse. Most of them move to investigate the premise and check on the incapacitated mercenaries, but two come to stand next to Armsmaster. They are armed with what looks like blocky flamethrowers. Foam dispensers most likely. Completely useless against our teleporter, thankfully.

"We haven't been doing this for long." Taylor shakes her head. "We're slowly putting our costumes together."

As Taylor finishes with her explanation, I set a teleportation beacon. I hope to end this in friendly terms with Armsmaster, but better to be ready for anything.

"And in your second night, you decided to launch an attack on a group of unknowns, after you attacked a Ward during your first one." He says, pointing at the Psi Blade.

I swallow hard. That wasn't one of our proudest moments. Should I have worked on a way to disguise the Blade? It's kind of noticeable.

Taylor remains calm, though. It must be her power at work again but I don't mind, someone has to keep their cool in moments like these.

"That was an accident!" She cries out. "I panicked and messed up there. And this is our third night!" The fourth one, actually. During the second one, we burnt Winslow down but I'm not telling Armsmaster that. "In our second one, we saved a man's life!"

There's something in the hero's posture, I can't put my finger on what, but he looks frustrated with Taylor's answer. "The PRT has no information on that."

"We were in the newspaper! The man had been stabbed and we rescued him!"

Ok, Taylor is raising her voice so I better step in. "The policemen that came with the paramedics asked us about what we'd seen. They should have our statements."

Armsmaster says nothing as he... Is he actually staring at me? I can't see the man's eyes behind his visor but he does cock his head in my direction. The only expression that his helmet betrays is that of his jaw tensing.

"Armsmaster, come here! You need to see this." An officer calls for the hero.

It seems that they found the content of the truck.

"You two," Armsmaster signals at the officers with the containment foam. "Keep an eye on them." And then he rushes in.

Drops of sweat roll down my back and I find myself gripping Taylor's hand.

It's to ensure that we teleport together in case of being covered in containment foam.

Yes, that.

When Armsmaster finally returns, it feels like minutes have passed despite my visor's clock telling me it has only been some thirty seconds. "Tell me what happened here."

With Taylor, we share a look. How do we explain how we found out about this place? I'm most definitely not telling him that we broke into a public building.

Shit, Taylor hasn't said anything yet. Maybe she's unsure of how much of my technology I'm willing to share.

Does Armsmaster already have his lie detector? Oh, that will be a massive headache to work around.

How much time have we spent in silence already? He must be getting impatient.

Ok, here it goes. "By chance, we stumbled across what we thought were drugs being smuggled." I explain. "It just turned out they weren't drugs."

There! That was technically true, so his lie detector shouldn't have pinged on that. Or maybe it did and now is flagging me as a half-lier.

Goddammit is this man infuriating!

"Any evidence of illegal activities must be shared with the Protectorate."

Yes! Maybe we should have shared it! But guess what, we didn't! "We were stupid, alright?" I yell. "We thought we could handle this on our own. And we didn't even think about going in at first! We thought about following them around and seeing where they were going. But then when we saw what was actually going on we said 'fuck it'!"

"We couldn't leave the children in there." Taylor's voice is almost a whisper as she hugs herself. "Alone and in the dark, surrounded by blood and insects."

Blood and… oh, crap. Her facade of perfect calm cracks and I'm reminded that, despite everything, Taylor is still just a wounded child.

"Breathe, Ladybug. You're here with me." I rub her back and slowly her breathing stabilizes.

At least Armsmaster has the decency to wait for her panic attack to be over.

"Your actions here put not only yourselves but others in danger. And it's because of that that two men died."

"Yeah, well, my bad." I say with a shrug.

"Is that how you reply to killing two people?"

I mean-- yes? I'm unsure how else to act about the issue. Should I cry? Start an 'oh, no, what have I done' rant? It's not like I purposely killed the first one. And with the second one, I just opened fire at him with lethal force but with no clear intention in mind. That counts as not purposely having killed him, right?

It doesn't really matter to me.

"What do you want me to say? I built non-lethal tools so we could capture them." I show him my Riot Prod. "We went in with the idea of subduing them but shit happened."

Even with his helmet on, I can hear the sound of Armsmaster's heavy breathing. "That attitude is exactly why the Wards Program exists. If it hadn't been because someone heard your ruckus and called emergencies--"

"I was the one who made that call!"

"Before or after you attacked?"

"What does it matter?"

"It matters because in one scenario you did everything right and only attacked when you were left with no other choices. In the other, you went in intending to deal potentially lethal damage to people, and only called when you found yourselves in over your heads!"

Ok Tech Priest, think about a clever retort.

I have nothing.

"What were you expecting us to do?" Thank you, Taylor! I'm so happy to have you around to yell at people when I go mute! "Just to sit back and let them do whatever it was that they were going to do?"

"Under these circumstances, yes! How did you know that the criminals wouldn't just shoot the children?"

"I had my bugs circling around the truck to stop anyone from going in!"

"Would that have stopped a stray bullet or laser shot from also going in?"

Taylor gets taken aback by that. She looks at me for support but just as shocked as she is.

"That's what I thought." Armsmaster presses on. "And that's without taking into account possible parahuman support. Did you even know who you were attacking?"

My throat feels as if I had swallowed a glass of sand. Far too much could have gone wrong there. We had nothing that could have stopped one of the mercenaries from shooting into the van, and we got lucky that they had no capes.

If it wasn't because of my foreknowledge--

Wait.

Wait, wait, wait! I can use this!

"I do know." I tentatively raise my hand. "It involves someone named Coil."

Yeah, he looks far from convinced. "How did you find that name?"

"I managed to hack one of their computers." I blur out.

"That's a lie."

Well, fuck you and fuck your lie detector too!

"And what if it is?" Taylor sounds as done with all this as I am. "He was telling the truth when he gave you that name, wasn't he? If not, you'd have said something back then!"

Oh, she got you there!

"Look, we want to be heroes, alright?" I add. "And all I know is that someone named Coil wants something with one Dinah Alcott."

"What?!" Someone yells at my back. Holy shit, that almost made me jump out of my skin! I search for its source and find… a helmet in the shape of a lion staring back at me.

That's Triumph.

Triumph, Dinah's cousin, has been standing behind me this entire time.

This is a good thing! I think. Hope.

"What did you say?" Triumph takes a step in my direction, and I toy with the idea of triggering the teleporter right there.

"Eh--"

Taylor steps in, putting a protective hand over my chest.

"Triumph, stand down!" Armsmaster orders.

"But sir, I--"

"Triumph." He repeats. "Stand down. Go call Console, inform them about this new development, and await further instructions."

Rory, as I think his true name is, slowly nods. "Yes. Yes, sir." He sounds far from happy but obeys and marches toward one of the vans.

Ok, good news, the distressed Triumph is out. Bad news, Armsmaster remains. "You two are playing a dangerous game," He raises an index which he points at each of us. "And without someone to regulate your actions, you'll cause more chaos and destruction in your misguided attempt at heroism than what most villains do."

I feel my hands curling into fists.

Before I can tell him what I believe about the Protectorate's competence, there's a bip, and Armsmaster takes his hand to the side of his helmet.

"I've been informed of a bunker underneath the premise." He explains after a moment. "Were you responsible for disabling the security systems?"

"I was." My voice is dry as I stare at where I think his eyes are. "I built some EMP grenades to take down the electronics."

"Show them to me."

Taylor's hand closes around mine as she pulls our last grenade out, her thumb close to the trigger.

Is she-- is she about to do what I think she's about to do?

For the love of God, Taylor, don't activate it! We don't need this amount of heat over our heads just yet!

Armsmaster extends his waiting hand and the tense standoff continues for several heartbeats. Taylor finally relinquishes and gives him the grenade.

I'm breathing once again.

"A device that creates a localized pulse capable of rendering electronics inert." Armsmaster says, mostly to himself, as he brings the device up to his eyes. "I'm familiar with the principle behind it. My halberd has a similar function, and my armor has been shielded against devices such as this."

The implied threat is clear for everyone to see.

After a couple more seconds of examination, he gives it back to Taylor. That wasn't something that I was expecting him to do, but I'm grateful for it all the same.

"We used it to disable the cameras and the other sensors that were around this place." I say still not letting go of Taylor's hand. Wait, am I forgetting something? I feel like there was something really, really important involving the EMP and the-- Oh, shit. "And the bomb!"

The world stands still as every single PRT officer in the surrounding area turns their heads towards me. "What?"

"There's a bomb down there! I disabled it but-"

"Evacuate the premise!" Armsmaster orders, raising an arm and signaling everyone out. "Call the bombs disposal squad!" He then turns his head at us. "And you-" But we don't hear the end of that sentence. With things having turned far too chaotic for my taste, I trigger the blink band and we teleport out.

 

[Poliamida]

Coil Interlude​

For millennia, society had survived thanks to the carefully crafted illusion that the state had the monopoly of the strength of arms, forcing everyone to comply with its law. It was when this illusion cracked that the world fell into anarchy and chaos, with the masses grasping to satiate their wild desires by feasting on each other as if they were cannibalistic vultures. Society would eventually rebuild itself, but not before the individuals were restrained once again.

No single event had threatened the pillars of society and risked dispelling that illusion in its entirety, as the arrival of parahumans had. How could it survive when the child following your son to school could kill an entire squad of trained soldiers on his own?

And that was why being a parahuman was the art of living a double life. Not a chosen path, but one imposed by necessity. Society had created a new illusion where the demigods fought in the sky while leaving the mortals to continue with their normal lives, only occasionally interacting with the ones above.

Few understood this as Coil did. After all, his power allowed him to take the 'masquerade' to its logical extreme, and exploit it for maximum gain.

He lived two lives like few could, always picking the best of two choices.

Sometimes he was forced to take greater risks, though. That day Coil had been forced to focus on a single reality as he was expecting a package from Accord.

It was the third of its kind that he had received in the last three months, and like the previous ones it was its eventual destiny to be sent abroad. But first, it had to go through Coil's city.

In one reality, the warehouse where the package would be received had been left empty except for a single soldier. That soldier was in charge of inspecting the state of the package while the rest of his troops waited in a building across the street, ready to intercept an attack or a potential betrayal.

Once he ensured that the package wasn't damaged, the vehicle continued on its way. But it didn't reach far. It turned a corner and then violently stopped as it diverted off-course and crashed against a private house. His mercenaries rushed to its aid, only to find its three occupants unconscious and the package missing.

Coil collapsed that reality and focussed on the other one. In that one, his mercenaries had been waiting inside the facility with orders to restrain the transport until Coil gave them orders to continue. He raised his radio and was about to inform them about the potential attack when the warehouse went black. All his cameras, sensors, and systems stopped transmitting. He triggered the self-destruct system but nothing happened. The explosives, too, had been disabled.

He split the timelines once more, and in one reality he ordered Chariot to rush to the warehouse with a team of his mercenaries close behind.

Chariot managed to send a final message about him reaching the facility before going silent.

A moment later the reinforcements arrived, only to be swarmed by a variety of poisonous bugs. The mysterious assailant managed to keep them busy long enough for Armsmaster to arrive, at which point the battle had been lost with even more of his resources compromised.

He collapsed that timeline and kept the other. The one where he had done nothing.

He split the timeline again.

In one he said: "Sergeant Hector, come in."

"Yes, si-" The good sergeant's words were cut short when Coil pulled a gun and spilled the man's brain over the door.

He closed it, and in the remaining one, he returned to his other works.

Being forced to wait and let things happen represented a waste of time and effort, but it wasn't the first time he was forced to cut his losses. Even with careful calculations, two lives weren't enough to account for every single permutation of reality. True skill came from recovering after a loss like that, and recover he would.

There was no information in the warehouse connecting his identity of 'Coil' to it, and the men stationed there didn't even know the true name of their employee. They just knew that he paid them, and the consequences of betraying him.

The authorities might be able to link the warehouse to his company and his civilian identity, but there was enough obfuscation for him to claim ignorance of it. The convenient death of some members of his personnel would ensure that no suspicions would fall on Thomas Calvert.

Several projects would suffer setbacks, others would have to be scrapped, and his relationship with Accord would take a hit, but he'd survive the witch hunt.

And then he'd simply recover the package once the opportunity presented itself. For as long as the PRT ignored the name 'Coil', he'd be able to move at his leisure.

---

Coil waited in his office, the tick of the clock like hammer blows against his skull.

He had been blindsided.

Made a fool of.

In another timeline, his commando team had finished interrogating Director Piggot just in time for the PRT to storm in with hero support. It was a great disappointment that the woman hadn't known more than what Coil had already managed to uncover, and because of that was that he was waiting for his Tattletale to arrive.

His intercom came to life informing of her presence, and Coil let her in.

"Hi, chief! How are you today?" She greeted him, always with that irreverence of one who didn't understand how disposable they truly were.

"Take a seat." He replied, aiming at the chair across his desk.

"Woah, chief, you're cranky today." Her lips curled as her power absorbed the information around her and used the scattered facts to put together a conclusive picture. "Wait, the PRT found out about you? Oh, that's not good."

"Not good for any of us. Especially you, Sarah."

Lisa, born Sarah, stiffened her grin in a vain attempt at hiding her true emotions.

Every human had a desire, and hers was as simple as they came: to own it all. She could have escaped his control months ago but he had shown her the forbidden fruit and now she craved for it. She couldn't allow Coil to fall until she was in a position to stage her coup and take over his enterprise.

She was a threat, but a predictable one. That made her useful and easy to control.

"Whatever you say, chief."

On her seat, she found a folder with the information Coil had taken from the PRT. Including photos and a transcript of a meeting between Armsmaster and Director Piggot.

---

"So, do we have our pyromaniacs?" Director's Piggot's desk was covered in photos. Some taken by Kid Win, some by Armsmaster, and the majority by diverse security agencies.

Acquiring copies of those same photos had been trivial.

The person she was talking to was Armsmaster, the servos of his armor locking him in place to not crush the chair under its weight. "After comparing the way the truck was opened with the damages caused to Winslow, I can say without a doubt that the same weapon was present during both events."

There were two photos that were of interest to prove his point: one of an engine that had been melted in the middle, and the other of the back door of a truck that had been melted in a similar pattern.

"And the same people?"

The hero went quiet for a moment. "I'm still undecided."

"The situation looks very clear to me, Armsmaster. A pair of children triggered and burnt their school down."

It wouldn't have been the first time something like that happened. Chariot had been about to do the same when Coil found him.

"There's something that doesn't fit. After being allowed access to Winslow's ruins I managed to find this." Browsing through the photos on the desk, he picked two. One had been taken on a concrete floor and was of what looked to be a metal cylinder full of wires. The second one was of the same cylinder but taken on Armsmaster's workshop.

"That's a tinkertech device." The Director observed.

"With Dragon, we have been trying to rebuild it, but our current theory is that it's an EMP emitter."

Those words had clued Coil into what had happened to his warehouse, and later to Chariot in the reality he had discarded.

He'd have to prepare defenses against devices such as those in the immediate future.

"More evidence that Tech Priest was behind it."

"At first glance, yes." Then Armsmaster presented a third photo, this one of the EMP grenade that he had inspected on-site. "But from what we managed to discern, Winslow's device works under different principles to reach the same result of Tech Priest's grenades."

Piggot's eyes narrowed. "You're saying that they were built by two different tinkers."

"Maybe Tech Priest inspired -or got inspired by- the first device. In whatever case, I'm sure that they are in contact with a second tinker."

"Maybe he suffers some unknown limitation?" Piggot drummed her fingers against the desk while with the other hand she rubbed her lips. "He could be like Leet."

"I thought about that but there's something else. The girl confirmed that she was the person that the Wards fought, but claimed that this was only their third night out."

"How good is your lie detector?"

Coil had tested it extensively in alternate timelines.

"It has been heavily tested and I trust it as much as the rest of my equipment. Only people with abnormal mental conditions can trick it."

"Could Ladybug have one of those 'abnormal mental conditions'?"

"That's a question for the PRT psychiatrists, not me."

Piggot folded her arms over her chest, spending a moment in deep thought. "Very well, what's your theory then?"

"I believe that someone else is supplying them with tinkertech equipment. Supporting my point are the aesthetic and functional differences between the blade and the rest of Tech Priest's equipment. Tinkers always upgrade their equipment, but never to such an extreme degree when they're just starting out and working with what scrap they can scavenge."

"And so we have Coil, a gang leader who outfits his mercenaries with tinkertech, being attacked by a pair of independent heroes outfitted, too, with tinkertech not of their own."

Those words awakened a deep hatred in Coil's stomach. He'd built his enterprise piece by piece on blood and sacrifice. And now someone tried to emulate him? And target him directly? He had years in this game! He wouldn't be defeated.

"Correct."

Piggot browsed through the documents, picking out their medic's description of the wounds the mercenaries suffered. "I know some ex green berets who were trained in the use of caltrops as a tool of area-denial."

"Do you think they were trained by someone with military training?"

She tossed the paper aside as she released an annoyed groan. "Or read a book on it. I don't like this, there are far too many unknowns here. Tinkers always represent wild cards and we won't be able to predict Tech Priest until we figure out what his specialty actually is. But if your theory is correct, and I'm not saying that it is, that would explain those quirks of their behavior."

"Should I upgrade their status to villains?"

"Not yet. We want them to keep attacking the gangs and not us, so we'll maintain their status as vigilantes. But I want you to bring them in for questioning. Even if they weren't directly responsible for the fire of Winslow, we now have evidence that links them to that crime."

"Understood."

That worked fine for Coil. The more information the PRT extracted from the independents, the more information that would reach him.

---

His Tattletale put the folder down. "They are wrong." She declared, making an unnecessary pause to make herself look intelligent. "There isn't just a second Tinker but they also have a Thinker. That's how they got information on you, boss."

Coil pressed his lips into a thin line. So that was how it was. For someone who hid in shadows and secrecy, Thinkers were the greatest enemies. "Any idea who they might be?"

"None, but I'm positive that they are adults." She laughed. "I know right? An adult sponsoring a team of teenagers to carry out his dirty deeds? What a strange concept!"

"Were they responsible for Winslow?" He asked through clenched teeth.

"They… Armsmaster's lie detector worked fine. But… uff, what a headache. I don't know. I'll need more information for that."

It was frustrating not to get a definitive answer but it was ultimately irrelevant. He already had plans to investigate Winslow's students.

"What's their relationship? Brother and sister?"

"They... are they siblings?" She massaged the side of her head. "No, they recently met. The thinker put them in contact. Yeah, I think that's all I can get out of this."

"Very well then."

Coil split the timeline.

In one reality he ordered his Tattletale out, with instructions to search for more information on the new player of the Bay.

In the other, he pulled out his gun and enjoyed the expression of surprise in her face before he pressed the trigger.

He collapsed that one and got back to work.

Sadly his Tattletale hadn't given him as much information as he'd hoped, but once again he was one step ahead of the PRT.

Dinah Alcott might no longer be in his reach, but now a new opportunity had presented itself. A thinker had come to his city and had dared to make war against him. Coil would find him, destroy him, and force him into submission.

 

[Poliamida]

Nuclear Fire 17​

My eyelids weigh on me, my back aches, and my tongue feels as if I had spent the last hour eating grass.

I'm counting yesterday as a victory but the stress was too much for my poor heart. I could barely sleep after returning home and now I have a massive headache.

A fact not helped by that infernal beeping sound that makes me feel as if Fenja and/or Menja were dancing the polka inside my skull. Together with the band.

What the hell is that sound?

I force myself to crack my eyes open and find its source in my visor. Why is it flashing an 'update' sign?

I reach for it with a lazy hand and when I put it on the map we have been drawing with Taylor flares into life.

It's an update on my drone's activities. Atlas reached the first abandoned construction site some hours ago and has already started dismantling it for materials.

Joy.

I want to be more enthusiastic but my energy is completely spent.

I quickly check for the stability of his work. Ok, there's no need for me to do that because the drone automatically accounted for that, and has started 'eating' the half-built walls in a way that will ensure a controlled collapse. Atlas has been cutting through the columns, ignoring the concrete but keeping the metals, which he then stores inside his own body to bring back to the base later.

Wait, back to the base? Each trip will take at least half an hour!

I order it to dig a chamber underneath the site so it can store the resources there. Later with Taylor, we'll help him bring the materials by hand.

If everything goes well, I'll have enough for a hatchery in a couple of days.

Seeing Atlas work is relaxing, like looking at the work of a diligent little ant. Soon the Bay will be covered with hundreds like him.

I pull my visor off and start thinking. Solving Taylor's problems with school was crucial but it forced me to delay several projects.

It was the right thing to do, and the resources we stole from Coil's base will be extremely useful, but there's much I want to do with Deus Ex and not much time left. In a week I'll have to say 'bye-bye' to this tree and get ready for whatever it's to come.

I need to use it to its fullest.

We almost died last night. I almost died last night, and almost blew Taylor's cover because I had overestimated my own strength.

I look down at my hands.

They look so… soft and small. Weak. I was never one to exercise in my previous life but I was still a healthy adult male.

Now I don't even have that.

I won't let what happened yesterday repeat itself and put Taylor at risk because she has to come to my rescue.

I will become stronger, faster, better!

I have the technology.

And another thing that I have, which is a far more pressing issue, is an empty stomach.

First breakfast, then synthetic evolution.

---

"Hi." Taylor greets me as I enter the kitchen. Her voice is raspy and she drags her feet as she goes to the fridge to get some milk.

It seems that yesterday's event took a heavier toll on her than me, but she stills finds the will to bring her books down here to study.

"Earlier today your school called," she tells me. "You're getting back there on Monday."

They did? I didn't hear-- ah, that must be why she looks more tired than me. Up in my attic, I can barely hear the phone.

I can't hide my disappointment. I had gotten accustomed to having my mornings free but I guess there isn't much I can do about it.

Do you know what I need right now? An aspirin. And a big-ass cup of coffee. Sadly I don't know how any of those would interact with my childish biology. Is caffeine actually unhealthy for children? I heard it is but I never researched the topic on my own.

Eh, I'll just remove my need to sleep with tinkertech and be done with it.

"Say, how did you figure out that this 'Coil' was involved with the warehouse?" It feels as if Taylor has been waiting several hours to ask me that question.

"The cellphones." I'm honestly surprised at how easy the lie comes out of my lips. My exhaustion also plays a crucial role in masking my stuttering. "I didn't want to tell Armsmaster that I had stolen them so I lied to him."

"Should we have given the phones to the PRT then? There might have been useful evidence there."

I shake my head. "No point. The phone deleted itself after I cracked it."

"Makes sense." She puts her cup down and returns to her studies, but it doesn't take long before she's groaning again. "Who is this Coil guy anyway?" The question isn't directed at me in particular, Taylor just threw it up at the wind in anger and maybe a bit of fear.

"No idea." I lie. Again. "But to stage this entire operation he had to have a lot of resources."

"He had an underground base for Pete's sake! Who does that?!"

I chuckle at that. Little does she know that he has several all over the Bay. "Don't forget that he had mooks armed with tinkertech. Not even the Empire has those, and you know how much they like to parade their money."

"Yeah." She toys with her pencils, placing one in her mouth, not chewing but pressing it between her lips. Now that's a behavior I understand! It's when you try to do something but your mind remains preoccupied with something else. "I still can't believe that Armsmaster treated us like that. Can you believe him?" And that's what she's been preoccupied with!

What to answer? Taylor has a huge problem with Authority, and in canon, she spent most of her time butting heads with whoever tried to rail her in. A commendable attitude, but not when you don't know how not to self-sabotage your own endeavors.

"Are you asking because you want me to agree with you or because you aren't sure what to believe?"

Taylor's eyes widen with my question. "I-- I don't know." She admits, shaking her head. "I was so angry! I was finally doing something and now he comes to tell us that what we were doing was wrong? After we saved those children?"

"But we almost got them killed too."

"Yes!" She yells. "We almost did!" Her shoulders drop in defeat. "Armsmaster was right." Wait, what? Taylor admitting that someone else was right and not her? What a fascinating development! "God, I can't stop thinking- I couldn't sleep because I kept wondering what would have happened if a bullet had gone through that truck."

She sounds so exhausted, not just tired but drained of any energy and emotion. It's such a sharp contrast with how she was last night with Armsmaster.

I move my chair next to her and place a hand on her shoulder. "But it didn't."

"I know! You already told me this. I shouldn't worry about what didn't happen, but what if it happens again? What if we find more captured children and this time I mess up?"

"Then we do something different. Taylor, we learn and we get better. And we will get better. You'll train and I'll build, and the next time we face a situation like this we'll be better prepared."

"Yes. That sounds like the right thing to do." With her elbows on the table, she presses her palms against her eyes. "You know? I grew up hearing about Lung's human farms but it all sounded so unreal. Now I have it in front of me and I'm scared."

Oh, yeah. That. Should I kill Lung before or after the Empire? Decisions, Decisions. I guess that's a bridge I'll burn once I get to it. "I'm not letting them do anything to you."

"I'm not worried about me, I'm worried about you!" Me? Why me? "Those kids were your age!" Oh, that's why. "Besides," She cracks a sad smile. "I don't think they'd be interested in me."

I release a sigh. Are The Simpsons a thing on Earth Bet? I hope not because I'm about to blatantly rip-off one of their lines "Taylor, as your brother I find this extremely hard to say: you aren't ugly."

"Thank you."

I return her smile. "But wait, are you saying that I'm cute?"

"All children your age are cute." She ruffles my hair. "But don't worry, in just a couple years you'll grow up and become just as ugly as everyone else."

Little does she know that I plan to grow up into a beautiful machine. Oh, well, no need to tell her that yet. I'll let that be a surprise!

My job is done here and my stomach filled, so it's time for me to return to work.

"Hey, and another question." Taylor stops me on my way out. "About the men you-- mh--"

"That I killed?" I finished her sentence. "I will not mourn them, nor will I lose sleep over their deaths if that's what you're asking."

"If you don't, then-- then I think I won't either. Thank you."

"Don't worry about it."

We don't go on patrol for the rest of the weekend. It's better to lay low for some time while I tinker.

The next time we go out, I'll have my drone with us. We will have drones with us. The next time we face an enemy, we'll be better prepared.

And talking about preparations, I should work on some defenses for the house too.

---

"Today, class, let's give a warm welcome to our new students! They come from Winslow Mid."

Monday comes and with it new people. I thought that Winslow was only a high school but apparently it also had a middle school section.

"Why don't we let them present themselves?"

So, three new kids are joining my grade, and making a wild guess I'm going to say that another three must be joining Missy's class.

Oh, well, not much I can do about it. I'll have to learn to live with them and ignore them for the best of my abilities.

The first is a chubby guy with googly eyes who's looking at us with panic in his face.

The second is a girl whose brain looks vacant of any interesting thought.

And the third is a black girl who looks a bit old to be in our group. "Sup. Name's Aisha."

Oh.

That should explain the age.

At the risk of sounding repetitive: fuck me.