"Explain." Alexandra demanded.
"They are invisible to the path. I can't even work around it. Paths seem fine but when I go to enact, people are not where they are supposed to be. Usually because they are dead. Only when I personally visit the morgue and look upon the bodies does the path adjust but mostly it's still wrong. I can't rely on any Paths on Earth Bet that have had any Woe involvement."
"We have to put an end to this. We are losing all control." Eidolon stated with cold fury.
"How? Do you have any power that will let us find them? Half of our plans are in tatters. We have already lost over forty capes. Most of them had useful powers."
"Forty! I hadn't heard that number."
"The Seven, Heartbreaker and his entourage, Nilbog, Lung and Oni Lee are all dead but being kept quiet. You would have heard of most of the others."
"Crawler and Siberian? How did they kill them?"
"We were able to get some footage of Crawler's end. Some sort of grid trap that he ran into. Sliced him into small pieces. Most of which just vanished. The rest of the Seven were taken out by a massive explosion of superhot plasma, nothing left but a few charred pieces of internal reinforcements Bonesaw added and fragments of Spheres' body. They used the same plasma attack on Nilbog's creations and land."
"To kill the dead man pathogens?"
"That's the most likely theory. Not thinking confirmed as most thinkers are having problems with Woe."
"Do we have any leads?"
"Brockton Bay has had a larger that average number of incidents and is statistically significant when you map the known incidents. Also it was the site of the first high level parahuman death and the first city to have the illegal sex trade stomped on."
"I'm sick of that city. Does Coil have any leads?"
Contessa shook her head, "No, but he is planning to start using his power to investigate. Trying to set a trap of sorts to see how it all goes down."
"Fine. Well let's put together a plan to keep a close eye on him."
"Do you think he'll be able to find something out?"
"More likely he'll end up like the others but maybe we can learn something from how that happens."
"Is this legitimate and how did it happen?"
Victor nodded, "I am confident that he believes it and it does explain a few unusual things we hadn't been able to work out. Looks like Lung and Oni Lee turned up at the Blarken Whorehouse but didn't make it out before Woe got to them. Cops and PRT covered it up pretty well but our supporter at the morgue got curious about all the secrecy and managed to sneak access to the security cameras at just the right time."
"Well done. Reward him handsomely. So, this Woe, no actions against us since that first interrupted initiation. Maybe a supporter or with he right leanings but with a connection to that particular woman, the boy or race. Have we confirmed that neither the mother nor the son triggered?"
Victor nodded, "That's confirmed. Both are relatively stable in the hospital and under watch. Both have been in and out of consciousness and the times don't match up."
"See if Othala can swing by and give them a boost, couldn't hurt in case it was just a poorly chosen target by some our faithful and they have already paid for that mistake. She won't have a problem with that will she?"
"No, it won't be a problem."
"Well then, time to expand. Get the maps and let's start making plans." Kaiser turned to Fenja, "Call Krieg and Hookwolf, tell them to start readying the faithful and then to come here."
"Tarvy! We have another group. Go.." Captain Lee paused and looked closely at the short stocky man, "have you slept at all?"
Lieutenant Tarvydas nodded, "Yeah. Got a nap in after the Blarken House pick up."
"So, like half an hour max then. Not good enough, get some proper rest. I'll find someone else."
Tarvy shook his head, "You know I'm the best and a lack of sleep is nothing compared to the hell that these girls have been though. I'll get some shuteye and also make sure Esse gets some as well after this lot. She's also running on fumes."
Lee nodded; he would have liked to argue but Tarvy was the best. Unthreatening, calm and well spoken. He also worked well with Esse and the other nurses. That and he really didn't have anyone available. He would have to pull someone off a site and that would cause all sorts of issues even if everyone would nod in understand as they ripped into him.
He glanced back down at the preliminary report, six ladies of varying ages. The only good thing was that no effing teens in this lot. The previous group had been heartbreaking. He kept reading, twenty three dead, a third had been near the girls the rest had been preparing drugs, relaxing or sleeping. Seemed that Woe, and damn, even he was starting to use that name in his head, hadn't cared about that and shoot them whilst they slept. Personally, he had no problem with that which meant he had to be careful what he and his men said on top of everything else.
The PRT were still making noises about taking over but weren't pushing as hard since he has asked what they planned to do with all the victims. More recently they had had 'offered' assistance as part of a joint effort. Well, they had certainly assisted with the creation of additional paperwork and oversight, assistance in actually processing the scenes or dealing with the victims was yet to eventuate, and by victims he wasn't including those that were dead. Good riddance to them.
As he started writing up a requisitions to house the newest arrivals, he felt conflicted. If there were any more in similar situation, he certainly didn't want them to be left in it for a second longer. However, he had no idea how he or his team could handle another scene tonight… this morning. No. He didn't want to think down those lines.
He looked up, "whoever is saving those girls, keep at it, you are the best thing this city has had in years."
There was no answer and he doubted anyone had heard him.
I sat twiddling my thumbs in history as our teacher once again went off track when another student asked another question about the biggest story in the news for two weeks straight now. Woe, or as it was first coined by a talk show host, the 'War On Evil!' The presenter had been lambasted for many of his comments and theories but the name had stuck. I was rather proud of it and it had in fact led me to look at other crimes outside of drug use. That had been very unpleasant but I felt the few, well actually - the many, sleepiness nights since then had been well worth it.
I had, perhaps foolishly, started looking too close to home but as each day my first portals had to be in line of sight it was close to home where I first saw the need for action. Only the need to actually find an active gun range prevented me from acting immediately and that had certainly been the cause of a horrible ten minutes. I had since made alternate plans in case a quicker response was needed in future.
I had the location of twenty different gun ranges memorised and it usually didn't take long to leapfrog portals to one or more of them. Quicker when I wasn't freaking out and trying to rush. That still satisfied most of my planned crime elimination sessions.
I knew I had started being a little less cautious, however every session was saving people. Each day I personally saved a dozen or more and possibly many more indirectly. If I stopped that meant someone wasn't being saved. Some criminal was getting away with murder or worse. No one else could…. No that wasn't true. There was someone else that had similar power but they didn't target criminals.
I wasn't how they picked their targets but I would ensure they would pay when I found them and finding them was a problem I was already working on.
I find myself gritting my teeth and slowly, very slowly, managed to relax my jaw.
The teacher was still rambling on about how Woe's actions had similarities to Roman law. What a moron, didn't he realise that he wasted a quarter of each lesson answering inane questions only asked so the students could laugh at him after class?
I let my mind's eye roam over the nearby streets and sadly found yet another crime in progress only a block away. Very brazen though I guess I hadn't targeted individuals before. Maybe it was too close to school but I'd just make sure to target a few other individuals in other cities, I didn't expect any issues finding crime given how prevalent it had turned out to be.
What I didn't expect was for one of my classmates to jerk in surprise when I linked the local portal to the one set up to receive a bullet across the country.
I might have guessed it was a coincidence if she hasn't then turned to face the direction where they would be rapist was now slumping to the ground.
I closed the link and noticed, though one of the micro portals I kept nearby to monitor my surroundings, a slight frown appearing at that action as well.
I opened and closed a series of micro portals facing her and then did the same in the alleyway but she didn't react to those. I then tested creating a new portal near the school and linked it to a portal I had earlier formed in Australia. I kept them both microscopic, the only use linking those had so far been so I could listen to international radio stations and to improve my TV's reception but I wanted to know if it was the size or the linking that had caught her attention.
She reacted again. Not so obvious and she didn't turn her head. But I still caught that same small flinch.
I left the portal open and used my ability to view and sense what was near any of my portals to see if I could sense anything about her power when I noticed an unusual collection of insects gathering near both portals.
Now fairly sure I knew what her power was I conducted a new test by switching the portals with ones six inches wide and immediately relinking those. They would be visible but there was nothing bar the insects near either end. I then waited until she had a number of insects travel through the portal in both directions noting that she favoured brings insects from Australia to Brockton Bay. She even had a few suicide against the, what were beyond sharp, edges of the portals.
I admired how quickly she had reacted to and explored my portals so I left them open a full minute before I closed the link and replaced both portals with microscopic versions so I could continue to watch the locations.
The insects on the school side continued to investigate the area for a minute, flying back and forth across the area, before dispersing all at once in three distinct directions whilst those on the other side scattered randomly as soon as the link was broken with some actually attacking each other.
I wasn't great with science but even I could make a pretty solid hypothesis based on that test.
Taylor Hebert, the underdog of the school, was a cape with the power to control insects at least a block and a half away from her and even further if I linked portals in her range. I wasn't afraid of insects as such but I had seen enough horror movies to know just how scary that power could be.
I looked over at Emma Barnes who was once again glaring at Taylor. How we weren't already facing a Carrie situation I had no idea.
