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Taylor is DOOMed

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VirtualFox said:
Purity is just gonna nope her way to Boston with Theo and Aster, rather than deal with the Doom Queen
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Don't forget about the time frame here; the likelihood that Purity will know about The Doom Queen's existence, much less the threat she poses, before watching the morning news is fairly low, unless Kaiser contacts her and tells her before that. Do you really think Taylor will wait until morning to hunt down her next E88 cape after all the provocation she's been given?
 
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Jacen1 said:
Don't forget about the time frame here; the likelihood that Purity will know about The Doom Queen's existence, much less the treat she poses, before watching the morning news is fairly low, unless Kaiser contacts her and tells her before that. Do you really think Taylor will wait until morning to hunt down her next E88 cape after all the provocation she's been given?
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Im now picturing her getting started in the morning, a cup of coffee in hand as she gets ready to feed Aster, and then the news reports that the Medhall building is gone, and with the talking head explaining that the Empire 88 was wiped out overnight.
 
Jacen1 said:
The Doom Queen's
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That's a question I have, actually - how many non-government Thinkers across the world have blurted out the tidings of The Doom Queen to people who leaked it to the public?

Because that's going to cast a new light on anyone wanting to fuck with the Doom Queen, given what the worldwide warning about her was.

Also - she had no idea that's her name.

None.
 
What if Taylor objects to the name 'Doom Queen', and is prepared to back this objection up with aiming weapons at people?
 
Crazael said:
Im now picturing her getting started in the morning, a cup of coffee in hand as she gets ready to feed Aster, and then the news reports that the Medhall building is gone, and with the talking head explaining that the Empire 88 was wiped out overnight.
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Sounds about right. Get up, check on Aster, start coffee and warming up some formula, check the news, double check the news, get jolted out of shock by Aster whining for breakfast, start planning to run while you give Aster her breakfast, sip now cold coffee while you are on the phone arranging to GTFO of Brockton Bay...

You know, typical post Taylor returning morning.
 
Sorain said:
Sounds about right. Get up, check on Aster, start coffee and warming up some formula, check the news, double check the news, get jolted out of shock by Aster whining for breakfast, start planning to run while you give Aster her breakfast, sip now cold coffee while you are on the phone arranging to GTFO of Brockton Bay...

You know, typical post Taylor returning morning.
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Aster has capes as grandparents, so is 3rd Gen, and allegedly will very easily Trigger... I know it's not going to happen, but, if Aster suddenly says, "She Is Here"...

Is Taylor's arrival causing Triggering? Or, do the shards think they might be safer without hosts...
 
what i wonder how if how many of those who are out cold are going to second trigger since there powers are afraid in state of terror ?
 
Guardsman_Sparky said:
Oh God dammit. How the hell did I manage that?
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Multiple tabs/windows you were switching between and both happened to be at the reply box of the page?

Either way, this Taylor does not need a Shard to devour other Shards. She might just consume/absorb the essence of a Shard she kills if she is not-entirely-human, as her stint through Mars-Hell and then other various Hells had alluded to. Probably wouldn't give her the 'powers' the Shards have, though it might boost her natural potential/ability in whatever fields the Shards were focused on.
 
Sorain said:
Sounds about right. Get up, check on Aster, start coffee and warming up some formula, check the news, double check the news, get jolted out of shock by Aster whining for breakfast, start planning to run while you give Aster her breakfast, sip now cold coffee while you are on the phone arranging to GTFO of Brockton Bay...

You know, typical post Taylor returning morning.
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As she leaves her apartment, Aster in her arms, Theo carrying the essential bags, she sees all her neighbors doing the same. Outside, traffic is jammed by people leaving BB.
 
Meanwhile, Up in LEO...

Dragon notes that there is a large suitcase near Ziz's position. Also, for some strange reason, a similarly scaled bowl of popcorn that, occasionally, a hand reaches out to grab some to eat.

Shaking her virtual head, Dragons starts a diagnostic scan of her software and hardware, just in case.
 
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12. DOOMed XI: And DOOM followed with her...
  • Threadmarks
    • Skidmark looked out the window of the Merchant's main safe house, staring at the strange procession of figures that was moving along the badly lit street several floors below. Not a one of them was even slightly normal and most of them made the backs of his eyeballs itch in a highly disturbing manner. A sea of bizarre creatures walked, flew, slithered, and deliquesced their way past as he gaped in stunned horror, a sensation of creeping awe making the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. Beside him, his girlfriend and second in command of their gang was motionless and silent, her eyes so wide he could see the whites out of the corners of his own.

    In the midst of the pack, one of the things paused, turning a misshapen head up to stare directly at them. Glowing red eyes met human ones. Several more of the creatures also stopped, until a constellation of differently colored gazes were fixed on their observers.

    The tableaux held for thirty seconds or so, then the first one turned away, the others quickly following as it scuttled after the main group. All of them vanished from sight seconds later, leaving the street as empty as it had started as.

    For the first time in what seemed like hours, Skidmark let out the breath he'd been holding, feeling faint and for once absolutely stone cold sober. There was a sensation going through his bones that something fundamental had just changed and it wasn't something he wanted any part of in any way at all.

    Looking at the woman next to him, he could see in her eyes as clearly as if she'd said it out loud that she felt the same, and was terrified to the bottom of her soul. He knew exactly what that was like.

    Both of them had seen some pretty nasty things over the years, a good proportion of which were their doing, but neither one had ever even contemplated what they'd just watched go past, not even when under the influence of the most powerful drugs on the market. And neither wanted to experience what had just happened again. Ever.

    Dropping the crack pipe in his hand to the floor without a thought, he grabbed Squealer's hand and dragged her deeper into the building. Only minutes later the entire gang was battening down the hatches in a very literal sense, nailing up doors and windows and retreating to the most easily guarded areas of the old factory, behind solid concrete walls and steel doors.

    He wasn't sure it would be enough, but it was all they had. If they were still alive in the morning, he intended to make sure he found somewhere else. Somewhere a long, long way away from Brockton Bay and whatever the hell that had just moved in…

    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

    Tammi groaned, rolling over a little then stopping abruptly as she felt something deep in her pelvis grind, causing a wave of pain so intense that she couldn't even scream in agony. Her vision blanked out for a moment and she almost stopped breathing. When it finally subsided, she very very gently settled back into position, the pain reverting to a background level that under normal circumstances would have been more than enough to make her yell. As it was, it was almost a relief compared to what had just happened.

    She tried to work out what had happened, and where she was. The last thing she recalled was…

    The girl suddenly remembered an actinic blue-white fireball that had 'instant death' written all over it zooming towards her at a ferocious speed… Krieg screaming in shock, the scream cut off half way… herself flying through the air… a blast of heat and a sound so loud it was a physical impact from behind and above her…

    Blinking, she attempted to put all the clues together.

    Krieg had been running some sort of operation from a distance, but he hadn't told her what it was. He'd ordered someone to open fire on 'the bitch' then everything went to hell. From what she'd seen whoever it was had shot back, some sort of energy weapon flashing brilliantly in the distance, then that fireball coming right at them. Somehow this person had detected Krieg and herself from more than a mile away and taken them out with one shot. Tammi herself had only lived because she'd flung herself off her own platform without a second thought, the incoming fireball looking so lethal she didn't even hesitate. Krieg, from the sounds she could remember, hadn't been as lucky.

    But now where was she? And how the fuck had she actually survived in the first place? They'd been nearly a hundred feet in the air, and that was certainly far higher than was normally survivable. She was no Brute nor was her costume armored.

    Trying to lift her right hand to wipe her face, which seemed to have something wet and warm running down it, caused her to freeze in pain again. It was definitely broken too, as well as whatever had happened to her pelvis, which was dull agony. Her left arm moved without too much difficulty, though, and she rubbed her forehead then looked at her hand in the illumination from the streetlight behind her somewhere. Dark fluid covered it, so she was clearly bleeding.

    All that aside, she was surprisingly alive for a hundred foot fall. Looking around as much as she could without moving her head she saw that she was lying in an alleyway between two tall buildings, and that directly above her was a fire escape that seemed to have a dent in the railing. She could vaguely recall landing on something narrow with an enormous impact, after feeling several other hits to her body, but there was still a chunk of time missing between jumping off the platform and that.

    After some rather muzzy thought, she decided that she must have been blown sideways by whatever had been fired at them when it went off, hit the building they were floating next to, and somehow bounced off the sides of this alleyway on the way down in a manner that had slowed her enough that she didn't die on impact. It seemed unlikely, but she was here, so something had clearly saved her.

    She wondered where Krieg was. Or his body, at least. She very much doubted he'd made it.

    There might not even be a body, of course…

    Lying there for an unknown time in almost a daze, she eventually snapped more alert as she heard footsteps. Coming from somewhere behind her head, they sounded solid and determined, not like the person responsible for them was even trying to hide their presence. As they neared she could hear a second set, somewhat quieter, accompanying the first ones.

    Wondering somewhat fatalistically if this was the cops, or the PRT, or perhaps some other person here to either capture or kill her, she kept still. Until she knew who it was it was probably best not to let them know she was still alive, not that she really had much of a way to resist. She was far too badly injured to fight, and based on the slowly growing numbness in her chest, might not actually have that much longer anyway.

    She decided that she fucking hated Kaiser and all his little plans. She was sixteen, for fucks sake, and now she was going to bleed to death in some shitty alley in a shitty city because of an asshole following the orders of another asshole.

    Life was a fucker sometimes, she thought dizzily.

    Both sets of footsteps stopped just out of her visual range. There was silence for a moment, then a woman's voice said, "Huh. You were right, she's alive."

    A man answered, not sounding all that worried, "Probably not for long considering the amount of blood."

    "Yeah. Should probably do something about that. This is one of Kaiser's, right?"

    "Rune. Telekinetic, she provides air support for them."

    "Think she knows anything useful?"

    "One way to find out."

    "True." There was a small grim chuckle. Then a figure bent over Tammi, coming into view. Her eyes widened at the helmet, with a couple of small tally lights on it, that looked down at her. As far as she could see the woman was in an impressive and dangerous-looking suit of power armor unlike anything she'd seen before. It certainly wasn't a Parahuman she recognized.

    She wondered why Krieg had tried to kill her. And how he'd misjudged things so fucking badly.

    The prick. If he wasn't dead, and she survived this, she'd find him and kill him herself for putting her in this position.

    "You want to live, Rune?" the armored woman asked her.

    Tammi looked at her, then painfully nodded.

    "You going to tell me where Kaiser is?"

    She nodded again.

    "This is going to hurt a little," the woman said as she bent down and jabbed some sort of injection thing through Tammi's robe into her shoulder.

    This was definitely not a lie, the girl found out instantly. She screamed in agony then the pain got too much for her to utter a sound. It became so intense the world went a funny color for some period of time, then abruptly it stopped completely like someone flipped a switch.

    Relaxing suddenly as the pain vanished, Tammi nearly passed out in relief. Her vision wobbled for a moment before everything snapped back into focus.

    "Jesus fucking Christ that hurt," she said almost absently, shocked at how much it had hurt and how instantly it had stopped hurting. She hadn't been aware that it was possible to be in that much pain and hoped she'd never have to experience anything like it again.

    On the other hand… she tentatively lifted her right arm, finding that it moved easily and without any problems. Very cautiously rolling onto her back from the positions she'd been in, slightly on one side, she sat up when nothing hurt or made horrible sounds inside her head this time.

    Feeling her face, she found the bleeding had also stopped, although it was sticky with partially dried blood. Taking a couple of deep breaths, she levered herself to her feet then leaned on the wall closest to her, while turning to look at the people standing there watching her.

    One was the woman in armor, which was even more impressive than she'd realized when she got a good look at it. It seemed under the bad lighting to be almost black, but when the woman moved a little, a gleam of a dark purple was seen on her shoulder in the illumination coming from behind them.

    The other one was a man, tall and thin, holding a riot shotgun in one hand in a way that Tammi felt indicated he was very practiced with the thing. It wasn't pointed at her, but she was all too aware of it, and was certain it was loaded and ready for action. While the man looked like some sort of office worker or something for the most part, there was something hard about his expression that belied that, and his eyes made her shiver inside. Even behind glasses they were terrifyingly flat.

    "So. Talk. Kaiser. Where can I find him?" The woman took a step closer. "I need a word."

    Tammi swallowed. Something about that voice conveyed a level of calm, absolute fury that made her want to run and hide, possibly forever. She took a breath, then started speaking. Fast.

    Fuck Kaiser. He'd nearly got her killed, and while she'd put up with a lot, that was too far. This woman wasn't fucking around and she was certain, to a level she'd never experienced before, was both capable of killing her and prepared to kill her on the spot if she thought Tammi wasn't cooperating. So she was going to cooperate like no one had ever cooperated before, then hope she'd live to run away.

    Kaiser was scary.

    This woman made him look like a fluffy little kitten.

    When she'd told the pair everything she knew, suspected, or guessed, about the E88 the armored woman nodded. "Thank you." Both of them turned to leave.

    "What about me?" Rune asked, slightly bewildered. This wasn't the way it was supposed to work, right from the start, and the abrupt dismissal was… strange.

    "Don't try to go against me and you can live," the woman said, stopping and looking back at her. There was a blur of motion and Tammi was staring into the barrel of some sort of massive weapon unlike anything she'd ever seen, with no indication of where it had come from. She froze again, too terrified to even squeak in shock. "Or..."

    "I get it," she finally managed to say. "Honest, I get it."

    "Good." The gun vanished again. "Find something useful to do and we don't have a problem." The woman turned away and walked off, the man next to her.

    Tammi waited until the footsteps died away into silence before she sagged against the wall in relief, feeling the rough brickwork scrape on her robes. Sighing, she put her hands over her face and felt the crusty blood for a moment or two.

    A strange almost growl from the other end of the alley where it was completely dark made her snap her head around and stare. Then she turned, and very deliberately not running, left the area with alacrity and an urge to figure out what to do that didn't involve the E88, Kaiser, or terrifying armored women with huge guns.

    She didn't really care what it was, but it needed to not have any of those involved.

    Or growling things. That part was also important.

    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

    Everyone in the Captain's Table twitched a little as the door slammed open, all eyes turning to see a pair of skin-headed young men swagger in. Pat, the owner and operator of the oldest pub in the city (and to his knowledge the second oldest in the country,) sighed under his breath as he put a hand on the very large and very deadly shotgun under the bar counter, without standing up from his stool.

    "Oh, no, not again," he grumbled very quietly.

    "Yo, bar guy, we want two beers," one of the young men said in an ebullient manner, looking around with a sneer before turning back to Pat. His friend, who was wearing a long leather coat that he probably thought made him look cool, was smirking in a nasty fashion.

    "Do you have any preference?" Pat asked mildly, nodding to the beer taps that ran down the back of the counter. He didn't remove his hand from the weapon, not being an idiot and knowing what was going to happen with the certainty of someone who had seen it before. In the docks of Brockton Bay, any long term resident had seen all of it before, and he'd been there for a good long time.

    "Yeah. That one." The man, who was very clearly and almost stereotypically E88 based on his haircut, demeanor, and the swastikas tattooed on his hands and the sides of his head, replied, pointing at a local lager. He then produced a 9mm pistol in his other hand and waved it meaningfully. "And all the cash in the till, too."

    "Kaiser know you lads are freelancing?" Pat said, not moving. Both the new arrivals frowned, with a glance at each other. "Because I'm pretty sure he'd be kind of pissed about it."

    "What are you talking about, Irish?" the second gang member demanded, pulling a sawn off shotgun from under his coat and more or less pointing it at Pat, who sighed faintly again.

    "What I'm talking about, you feckers, is that you're awfully close to the DWU right now, and right next door to the ABB too. Of the two, if I were you I'd be more worried about the dock guys." He shrugged a little as they looked somewhat confused mixed with a certain level of growing anger as their attempted robbery didn't go the way they were expecting. "Kaiser isn't daft enough to rile them up. Not after what happened last time. So, unless he's had a rush of stupidity to the head recently, he's not told you to go shaking me down, which means this is something you geniuses came up with on your own."

    "So? What you gonna do about it?" the second ganger demanded.

    Pat merely nodded his head to indicate something behind them. Both exchanged a look, then somewhat cautiously peered back.

    The four men and two women standing about twenty feet away grinned at them over three handguns, a shotgun, and two baseball bats, one of which had a nail through the end in a somewhat gratuitously vicious way.

    "You're interrupting my drinking time, boys," the elderly man in the front of the group said evenly, his very large and very well used handgun not wavering from the lead ganger. He was at least seventy but was almost as substantial as both of them put together, while his eyes had a completely flat glint to them. "I don't like people interrupting my drinking time. I especially don't like Nazis interrupting my drinking time. So fuck off and we won't shoot you in the knees then chuck you in the bay."

    The two E88 men swallowed, paling noticeably. Finding a burst of courage from somewhere and puffing himself up, the first one said, "Kaiser would burn this place to the ground if you do that."

    "Yeah, no," the old man chuckled. "Trust me, that won't happen. Never has before, certainly." He pulled the hammer of the pistol back with his thumb, the click loud in the otherwise quiet bar. Everyone else present was watching silently, without any real expression.

    The second ganger looked back at Pat, his eyes widening when he saw that the barman was now looking at him down the barrel of his own shotgun. "Um… Jeff?" He nudged his companion who was apparently trying to think of something else to say. The other man turned his head, saw the face of his friend, and also looked back.

    He went a funny color and his own weapon wavered in his grip. "Oh, fuck," he said almost plaintively.

    "Drop the guns and bugger off, don't come back either," Pat ordered, motioning with his weapon. "Now," he added when they looked reluctant. With bad grace both did as ordered, putting their firearms on the bar, then backing up with their hands carefully in view. "You're both barred as well."

    "You're going to pay for this you Irish bastard," 'Jeff' blustered.

    "I'll take me chances, lads. Go on, away with you." He waved the weapon towards the door. Both of them backed further up until they made it to the doorway, then turned and bolted. Sighing and shaking his head, Pat put the safety back on and stashed the gun under the bar again. "Idiots. Third time in the last two months."

    "Kaiser may need a reminder," the old man said as he uncocked his pistol and put it away, while the others went back to their tables. "Might have to do something about that." He walked over to the bar, grinning. "Worked up a real thirst defending the honor of the pub, there, Pat," he added meaningfully.

    Pat looked at him, shook his head, and moved to fill a pint glass. "Are you ever going to pay me, you ancient pain in the arse?" he asked almost rhetorically.

    "I'm sure we can come to an arrangement eventually, Pat my lad," the other man chuckled.

    "Yeah, like I haven't heard that about a thousand times," Pat grumbled under his breath, causing the much older man to laugh again. "So, what do you think that fecking enormous boom was earlier?"

    "Sounded like it came from over by Winslow, but other than that, no idea."

    "Surprised you didn't go and look."

    "Not my problem. Cops and PRT are all over the place, let them deal with it. I'm just here for a quiet pint or two."

    "Or ten."

    Pat handed over the full pint, which very shortly became a half-full pint. "Ahh. That's the stuff."

    Picking up the two abandoned weapons, Pat inspected them with an expert eye, then unloaded both and put them and their ammunition under the bar as well. "Might come in handy," he said as he sat down again. "Push off, Erwin, and drink that somewhere else, the noise is disgusting."

    Erwin saluted him with the glass and wandered off, rejoining the small group he'd been telling ridiculous tall tales to. The pub background sound level rose again to the normal point, while in the next hour or so various regulars came and went. Pat put his book down and served drinks when required but otherwise merely read quietly. A second, much quieter yet still fairly substantial explosion made everyone look up from their conversations for a moment, but they all resumed their current occupation when nothing else happened. This was, after all, Brockton Bay, and explosions in the night were fairly common. Nothing on the scale of the first one, but as Erwin had said, it wasn't their business and they all knew when to stay out of things.

    Some time after that, the door crashed open once more. Everyone looked up to see an unpleasantly familiar face smirking at them as half a dozen more like him came in and pointed automatic weapons around the place. Jeff strutted over to the bar, putting his hands on it and leaning forward to glare at Pat, who looked back expressionlessly.

    "I told you you were going to regret this," he said triumphantly with an evil grin.

    "You really don't want to do this, laddie," Pat replied after a moment, his eyes flicking past the man towards Erwin, who made a very tiny motion of his head. One of the gangers was pointing at AK at the old guy's entire table, all of whom were sitting extremely still in a manner that Pat at least knew meant trouble. "I'm telling you, Kaiser is going to have words about it when he hears."

    "One stupid bar in the docks burns down?" Jeff laughed. "Why would Kaiser care about that?" He shook his head. "You idiots think you can go against the E88 and live? Yeah, right." Lifting a hand he snapped his fingers, causing one of the new arrivals to hand him a bottle with a rag hanging out of the neck, a light straw colored liquid sloshing around inside it. "But before that I think I want all your cash. And my gun back." He produced a lighter from somewhere in his other hand.

    "You do realize that torching a building while you're inside the building is kind of stupid, right?" Pat asked, while carefully working out how quickly he could lay hands on his shotgun which he could see under the bar, invisible from Jeff's viewpoint. "Most people do it from the outside."

    "Don't get clever, you asshole," Jeff snapped. He waved the lighter near the bottle but didn't light it. "Money, gun, now."

    With a sigh Pat reached out with one hand and punched the drawer open key on the cash register, standing up to reach inside. His other hand slipped under it for a moment. Jeff didn't apparently notice. Plucking all the bills from the drawer, which was about six hundred dollars or so, he turned around and held it out. Jeff snatched it with the hand holding the lighter.

    "My gun too." He quickly looked at the money, then shoved it in his pocket, before flicking the old zippo to life. "And don't touch that shotgun, or..." He didn't quite light the bottle, but he moved the flame closer to the improvised wick.

    Pat moved along the counter with the ganger shuffling sideways on the other side to match him, not looking away from the eyes of his opponent. Reaching underneath he retrieved the pistol and handed it over butt first, Jeff flicking the lighter shut and putting it in his pocket on top of the cash before grabbing the gun. Pat noticed that he didn't actually check if it was still loaded.

    Aiming the weapon, the neo-nazi smiled unpleasantly. "Fuck you," he said viciously, and pulled the trigger.

    The click that sounded made everyone look, the other gang members seeming a little surprised, and the clientele watching very intently. Jeff himself seemed startled and glanced at his weapon.

    The second click was the sound of Pat's switchblade opening, and the sound that immediately followed that was a scream of agony from Jeff as he dropped both the gun and the bottle and curled around his gun hand which now had a blade all the way through it. Pat dropped to the floor as one of the other gangers, after a shocked second or two, opened up on him with his AK. The rounds didn't make it through the half inch of steel the bar was lined with, of course, but the noise was deafening. Grabbing his shotgun and racking the slide, Pat eeled along the floor, stuck his head cautiously around the end of the bar furthest from the gunmen, aimed, and fired, removing both feet of the one shooting with a load of buckshot through the ankles.

    Total chaos broke out instantly, the remaining E88 gangers all firing madly at the bar as he ducked back behind it, which led immediately to everyone else in the place who was armed shooting at them.

    Pat watched in the mirror over the back of the bar near the ceiling as two more of the gangers were cut down and the remaining three dived out the front door, still shooting back at them. Jeff was writhing around on the floor screaming, which lasted until Erwin stomped over and kicked him very precisely in the neck. There was a loud snap and he went quiet.

    The man that Pat had de-feeted was still and silent, and the other two were so full of holes they clearly were also no longer among the living.

    There was blood all over the place and a strong smell of gasoline from the shattered bottle. Pat sighed heavily. Cleaning all this up was going to be a pain in the ass.

    "Well, fuck," he said grimly as he stood up, leaning over to look at the bodies on the floor. "We only just got all the bloodstains out from the last time."

    "This city, man," one of the current crops of regulars said with a shrug. Everyone nodded wisely. He had a point.

    Just as Pat was about to call the cops, who he had an understanding with, there was a terrific uproar from outside, more shooting going on from a number of guns which made it apparent that the group who'd come in had friends. The other sounds made it clear that whoever else was involved was not their friend, based on the screams and explosions. A loud screech rattled the glasses and made everyone stare at the door. Several strange whooshing sounds were followed by detonations and more screams, accompanied by gunfire and what sounded like at least one grenade.

    "What in god's name…?" Pat said in shock.

    "ABB?" someone queried.

    "That's not Lung," Erwin stated with assurance, his eyes narrowed as he kept his weapon aimed at the doorway. "I..." Whatever he was about to say was lost as the door, for the third time that night, slammed open to reveal an E88 ganger, who looked absolutely terrified and was covered in blood. He dived into the bar, firing over his shoulder, then just as the door was closing a large orange fireball shot through it and hit him right in the middle of the back, causing everyone to duck.

    He flew forward with a scream and hit the floor limply, sliding to a halt with smoke rising from an enormous charred patch on his back, and didn't move again.

    Pat, along with his customers, gaped at him, then looked up as the door creaked open. They all froze as the hunched brownish-red figure of something that was very definitely not human, judging by the odd skin texture, claws, horns, and red eyes looked at them, then at the body on the floor. He noticed absently that Erwin took a step back but for some reason didn't aim his own monstrous handgun at the whatever-the-fuck-it-was as the thing took a step inside.

    For the first time genuinely feeling worried, Pat watched as it looked quickly around, meeting his own eyes with a burning gaze that made him flinch. Then it scuttled forward and pounced on the downed Nazi, grabbing him by one ankle and pulling the body after it as it retreated.

    Stopping half-way to the door, it turned its head almost completely around in a manner that made everyone watching feel a little unwell and croaked in a highly disturbing voice that sent shivers down backs, "SHE has come. We serve HER will."

    Then it fucked off.

    No one moved a muscle as four more of the bizarre creatures came in a moment later, retrieved the remaining E88 bodies, and left.

    Nothing at all was said for some considerable time.

    Eventually, Erwin put his gun away and scratched his head. "Huh. Didn't expect that."

    Pat slowly turned his head to stare at his old acquaintance, before deliberately putting the phone down, pouring himself a large whiskey, downing the entire thing in one shot, shuddering, then sitting on his stool with a deep sigh.

    He just knew that things were going to get strange. Even for these parts.

    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

    Sarah Pelham, the super-heroine Lady Photon, looked at her phone as it beeped. Picking it up she read the message on the screen. Her eyebrows rose, then she stood and went to find her husband and children. Neil was in the study poking around on their computer and turned to meet her gaze when she appeared in the doorway. "What's wrong, love?" he asked as he inspected her face.

    "Director Piggot has requested that we go to the PRT building for an urgent meeting," she replied, glancing at her phone again. "Urgent, as in right now."

    He looked back at the computer screen, on which she could see a PHO page and some images that seemed to show an armored figure firing a very substantial weapon. "Huh," he said thoughtfully. "I have a feeling I might know what that's about." Standing, his enormous figure nearly reached the ceiling. "The kids too?"

    "Yes. Everyone. Apparently Carol and the others are already there." She shivered a little. A feeling of foreboding had come over her a while back and the message had only made it worse. Wondering if it was connected to the absolutely massive explosion that had shaken the house some hours ago, she turned to go upstairs.

    Shortly both adults, and their son and daughter, were making their way to the PRT building in costume, Neil being carried by one of Crystal's force-fields and the other three flying under their own power.

    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

    The Tinker known as Leet, or sometimes 'that asshole Leet,' depending on who you asked, stared at his screen in shock for some time. Eventually he shouted, "Hey, dude, you won't believe the message I just got!"

    "What's so unbelievable about it?" his friend and partner Über shouted back, not looking up from his game.

    "It's from Director Piggot."

    There was a long pause, then his friend's head popped up above the back of the sofa, his eyes wide. "What?"

    "Director Piggot. Honest. It checks out, it's definitely real."

    "You're shitting me." The other young man jumped over the back of the sofa, game abandoned, and came over. He followed Leet's pointing finger to the screen. "Holy crap. You're certain it's her?"

    "Yeah, it's using her own crypto signature and checks out on the PRT authentication site. It's her."

    Über leaned closer. "A meeting under truce, and a guarantee that we'll be allowed to leave at any point? What the fuck, man?"

    Leet shrugged helplessly. "I haven't got the faintest idea either. All she says is that she wants a meeting about a matter that concerns everyone, villain or hero."

    "Jesus. An Endbringer or something?"

    "You got me. Not a clue. But I doubt it's an Endbringer or the sirens would be going off. Might have something to do with that fuck off big bang earlier."

    His friend nodded slowly. The enormous explosion and flash had scared the shit out of both of them, and when they'd recovered they'd talked about going to have a look to see what had caused it, but the vast number of emergency services that were running hither and yon had made lying low seem a more sensible use of their time. Curiosity had its place and tonight didn't seem like one of those places it would be healthy.

    And now this.

    The night was getting stranger.

    "Think we should go?" he asked.

    Über hesitated, then replied, "I… don't know. I've never heard of the PRT asking to meet a villain before. Even people like us. They're normally all squeaky clean and down on hobbies like ours."

    "True. But that alone makes me think they're desperate or something. Might be a good idea, if this really is something that's going to bite us in the ass..." Leet shrugged while looking at his friend, who finally nodded.

    "Fuck it. OK. I hope this isn't some sort of bizarre plot to arrest us without putting the effort in, though. We'd look like idiots falling for it."

    They exchanged a glance, then went to find suitable low-key costumes. No point in pushing their luck, but at the same time, they had to find out what the fuck was going on.

    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

    Staring at the email, Faultline scratched her nose and thought hard. Then she got up and went to track down her team. She had no idea why the Director wanted to talk to them, and was somewhat hesitant about putting herself and her people within reach of the legendarily bad tempered woman, but her instincts were telling her that this was such an unusual move that there had to be an important reason for it. Her instincts were usually right on this sort of thing, which is why she and her colleagues were still alive.

    And it might also shed light on why Elle had been staring at something that wasn't there for hours, while occasionally clapping her hands and giggling.

    That was getting weird.

    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

    "You sure about this, Emily?" Renick asked, glancing at his superior. She read the tablet someone handed her, then shook her head and handed it back.

    Turning to him, she replied, scowling, "No. I hate it. But I don't see any other choice. In light of what's happened and what we heard, this might be the only way. Especially since headquarters is still ignoring us. They've dropped this in our lap, we have to figure it out for ourselves, and if they don't like it they can fucking well fix it later. But for now, we need to make sure no one else pushes the Hebert girl into acting against them. Because I prefer this city not glowing in the dark and molten, thanks very much."

    She leaned back in her chair and rubbed her tired eyes. Hours of reading steadily more worrying reports from all over the entire fucking planet had taken their toll, and what she'd heard through Assault's microphone had only made it worse.

    Much, much worse.

    Wherever that young woman had been, it had left her with enough weaponry to fight world war three and four single handed, along with the skill to actually win. If you could believe her own account she was probably the most highly skilled warrior on the face of the planet, entirely self taught, and fresh from a level of combat that had probably never been seen before. The most unbelievable thing Emily saw in all this was that she was as restrained as she appeared to be. So far, every incident except possibly the Winslow event had clearly been initiated by someone or something else, and even there one could argue it was merely delayed reaction to what Shadow Stalker and her minions had done. Yes, the girl had gone further than Emily liked, by eliminating Hookwolf after he was probably done for anyway, but considering what she could have done…

    And who it was, of course. The damned man should have been put down years ago in her own mind and she was certain that no one was going to raise a fuss about what happened. She certainly wasn't. And if anyone did, they'd better be prepared for a fairly… enthusiastic… response.

    The girl didn't do 'flesh wound.' Her entire approach appeared to be based on the principle of never leaving a job unfinished, which was horrifying in its implications.

    "You going to warn Kaiser?" Renick asked a moment later.

    "No. He brought this on himself, and I'm not going to put the PRT between her and him. Because I'm absolutely certain that she'd go right through us without breaking step, and right now she seems fairly neutral towards the PRT. I don't want to consider what would happen if she decided we were valid targets." She looked at him, watching as he paled slightly. The amount of video they'd seen since Assault and Dauntless came back twenty minutes ago had made it abundantly clear how bad an idea that would be.

    Being scared of one fifteen year old, or perhaps nineteen depending on how you counted, girl was not something she was proud of, but she wasn't stupid enough to pretend otherwise. Even Lung couldn't do what that girl had done, and it would take him hours to ramp up the point he could get anywhere even close to that level of destruction.

    They still had no idea what the weapon that had erased Winslow, and Ellisburg for that matter, actually was. Nor whether it was the largest one in her armory.

    Emily didn't want to find out what that would be by way of demonstration.

    And that was all leaving aside all the other ramifications of possible interdimensional, and temporal, travel raised by her story. Never mind whatever the fuck her return journey had been and where it had gone. She was still trying not to think about the images Assault's helmet camera had recorded from the hologram widget the girl had shown them. Even at one remove, the recordings were so far past unnerving it needed a different word.

    When, and if, this all ended, she was going to have to think about that, but here and now she needed to ensure that nothing horrible happened. Which was the reason for what she was arranging.

    She had no doubt that when the higher echelons of the PRT finally got their asses in gear she was going to get shouted at a lot, but it was a problem for future her. Present Emily had a much, much more immediate issue and as far as she was concerned the Chief Director could wait. Ideally forever, but she doubted she'd have that amount of good luck…

    "What about Lung?"

    "We can't find a way to contact him quickly," she sighed. "I checked every source I could think of. I've left word with a couple of more or less neutral ones to get in touch, but I doubt he will. And we have no idea about Coil, we don't even know more than his rough location at best. Lung is a much bigger problem than he is, though."

    "And Skidmark's gang is a waste of time."

    "Yes. That asshole would forget anything we told him in about five minutes even if he listened, and he probably wouldn't. Hopefully he'll have the sense to stay out of things, but even if he doesn't, I can't see him putting up much of a threat to her."

    "What about to her father. By tomorrow her identity is going to be common knowledge, even assuming it isn't already, and if someone decides to go after him..."

    She winced. That certainly wouldn't end well although she was sure it would end extremely rapidly and loudly. But at the same time, the Hebert man was clearly no pushover in his own right, and she'd heard a lot of rumors that the DWU had something of a reputation as people it was best not to provoke unless you liked taking your teeth home in your pocket. Hopefully that would keep things relatively non hostile until she could figure out a better method to spread the word that you left the Heberts alone or you died screaming.

    This was only an interim solution, not in any way an ideal one, and likely to bite her in the ass in the near future, but it was all she could think of doing. With any luck she could arrange to talk to the girl and try to get her to not react to any threat with a kiloton-level response.

    Picking up one of the other tablets scattered across the table in the control room, her second in command studied the report on it. "Still no idea why Gallant is reacting like he is, I see."

    "No. Panacea and the doctors think it's possibly some sort of Master effect, but it's unlike anything they've ever seen before, it doesn't match anything on record, and no one can figure out how it's being done. They don't want to try waking him up again unless we can work out either how to stop whatever it is, or block it somehow. If that's even possible." She sighed. "And I just know it'll be connected to Hebert somehow. I have no idea how, but it's far too much to think it's a coincidence that she comes back from wherever she's been and this just happened at the same time. There's a link, we just don't know what it is yet."

    "There are strange reports coming from Thinkers all over the place, which are eerily similar to what Gallant said," he pointed out uneasily. "Something has had a global effect on them." Both of them looked at the screen which had been displaying the Winslow crater and now showed the image of a tall figure in dark purple armor.

    "Christ. This just gets better and better, doesn't it?" Emily sighed.

    Both of them looked around as one of the junior PRT agents cleared his throat, sounding nervous. "What is it, Tim?" she asked waspishly.

    "Ah… Rune just walked in off the street and said she wants to turn herself over and maybe join the Wards or something?" he said hesitantly, causing both of them to stare. "She said she has information on the E88. And..." He looked at the monitor. "Her."

    Emily, after a long moment of wondering what was next, sighed and stood up. "Maybe we'll look back on this and laugh," she said acidly, "but that's going to take a long time to happen." She followed the young man out of the room, shaking her head, as Renick watched her go then moved on to the next report, his expression troubled.

    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

    "What weird voice?" Lisa asked, staring at Brian. He looked at his other friends, then back at the blonde, who seemed to be having trouble believing them.

    He'd tried, with Alec and Rachel's help, to explain what had been happening, but Lisa just didn't appear to get it. She was currently looking at him like she suspected this was either a joke she wasn't in on, or they'd all gone a bit nuts.

    He couldn't honestly swear that the latter thing wasn't true, based on the last few hours. Even so, he sighed, then tried again.

    Lisa's expression didn't get any less confused, which would have amused him under more normal circumstances, but at the moment was just another worrying aspect of whatever the hell was going on.

    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

    Amy looked around as she, following the rest of her family, filed into the large room which had dozens of chairs around the largest table she'd ever seen in her life. At one end was an enormous screen mounted on the wall, while the table itself had multiple telephones, smaller monitors, and keyboards arranged down the middle. It looked like something from a movie, the sort of place you'd expect to see lots of men in uniforms sitting around discussing the end of the world or something of that nature.

    Right now, it had Director Piggot, Deputy Director Renick, and half a dozen senior PRT people that she vaguely recognized at one end, with the entire local Protectorate contingent sitting next to them down one side. All the Wards, despite the late hour, it being nearly half past eleven at night by now, were next to them.

    On the other side were a number of people she paused to stare at for a moment, shocked. They were all separated from the PRT people by a few spaces, and from each other. Two were young men wearing masks, but otherwise in normal street clothes, that she recognized with amazement as Über and his partner Leet. Next to them, but at a distance, were a woman wearing a costume that seemed to be a cross between a long dress and some odd sort of nearly martial arts clothing, with a welder's helmet over her face. On either side of her were a young man who was bright orange and had a long tail, looking somewhat reptilian in nature, and minus any form of mask, and an older and considerably larger man with oddly translucent skin. Faultline, Newter, and Gregor the Snail, she realized, a local Parahuman Mercenary group.

    Carol had also stopped and was staring at the occupants of the room, her face wearing a strange expression, but Mark put his hand on her shoulder and gently urged her to keep going. He was much more alert and present than was often the case, apparently having his depression take the night off. Vicky, in front of Amy, looked confused but followed her parents to a seating position a safe distance from the minor villains and the possibly slightly villainous but more or less neutral mercenaries. Amy just went along with it and sat next to her sister.

    A moment later Aunt Sarah came in as well, accompanied by the rest of her family, paused to look around with a slight frown, then walked over and sat down beside Amy, the other three filling the next few chairs. Uncle Neil required two of them.

    Everyone looked around, none of them other than the Director or Deputy Director appearing to know what was going on. Amy studied the faces, then reassessed that viewpoint. Assault and Dauntless both seemed subdued and worried, wearing similar expressions to the two PRT senior staff. Armsmaster appeared grim, Miss Militia was looking somewhat puzzled and also unusually quiet, while the rest of the adult Protectorate members just seemed to be wondering what was going on as much as she was.

    The Wards all looked both tired and confused too. There was no sign of Shadow Stalker, Vista was yawning widely, Clockblocker was nodding slightly like he was about to fall asleep, and both Aegis and Kid Win were looking at everyone else with bemusement. She met the latter's eyes across the table and he shrugged.

    Just as Carol opened her mouth to say something, doubtless in an acerbic manner, a PRT agent came in the door with a blonde girl of about sixteen following him. She was wearing street clothes and a generic mask that covered the upper half of her face, while the bits that could be seen appeared to convey a sense of worry and nervousness. The agent indicated a seat some distance from the Wards, which the girl took, while he sat next to her. Amy wondered who she was. She didn't seem happy to be here.

    The door closed, one of the guards outside pulling it shut, then there was complete silence for a moment.

    "What's all this about, Director?" Carol demanded a few seconds later. "What are they doing here?" She pointed accusingly at Über and his friend, both of whom swallowed. "They're villains! And while Faultline and her people may not quite be that, I'm not entirely pleased about..."

    "Brandish, be quiet and listen," Director Piggot said harshly, causing Carol to snap her mouth shut and go red. "Keep your questions for later."

    Opening her mouth again, Carol paused when her sister said her name with a note of warning, then grudgingly subsided. Amy relaxed a little, having been dreading the older woman's temper getting the better of her. She wanted to know what was going on and having Carol and the director get into yet another screaming match wouldn't help in that regard.

    Director Piggot looked around the table, meeting the eyes of everyone present. Then she tapped a key on the keyboard in front of her. The vast monitor behind her lit up, displaying an image that Amy had to look at for some moments before she worked out what it was.

    "I've asked all of you here to explain the current situation in Brockton Bay, a severe hazard that now exists in it, and what we're going to do about it." The heavy-set blonde woman looked around again. Her eyes rested on Armsmaster for a few moments longer than anyone else, Amy noticed with mild puzzlement.

    "A few hours ago, this was Winslow High School," Piggot continued after a second or two, gesturing over her shoulder. "Now it is a crater nearly three hundred yards in diameter. No trace of the school itself remains, the entire place has been completely and comprehensively erased. That was what caused the explosion and flash all of you may have seen earlier this evening."

    Everyone stared at the monitor, many of them in complete appalled shock. Amy was gaping. The entire school? How, why, and who?

    "What…?" Carol tried to say something, appeared to run out of words, stopped, then tried again. "What in god's name did that?"

    "She did." The image of the crater was replaced by one of someone wearing a very impressive set of dark purple power armor and holding some sort of enormous gun unlike anything Amy had seen before. It looked futuristic, like a form of Tinker Tech, but at the same time much more… complete… than such things usually did. More like it was a normal weapon that had seen hard use and been well cared for than a typical high tech one-off ray gun. She had no idea why she thought that, but it was what ran through her mind.

    "We have tentatively given her the code name Overkill."

    "That's… an unusual name," Über commented cautiously.

    "It's more of a description," Director Piggot replied with a scowl and a sigh, looking at him. "An accurate one." She tapped another key, the image moving to the side to allow another one to come up, this one showing the same woman with her helmet off and her face exposed, smiling a little as she talked to an older man who bore a distinct family resemblance. Amy was shocked that they'd unmask a cape like that, as were almost everyone else around the table based on the sounds and expressions. "Her real name is Taylor Hebert. She doesn't care who knows that, she's approximately nineteen years old, although normal records will show fifteen, and she is the single most dangerous person you'll ever meet."

    Everyone present stared at the images, then at the director, who almost looked amused in a dark way. "I am letting you all know this because it's vitally important that you all realize that no, you can't take her. And if any of you try, I will personally shoot you in the head." She looked around very slowly, her eyes hard. "That girl, and her father, are off limits. From us, from you, from anyone. We don't know her full capabilities and frankly I'll probably sleep better if I don't find out, but what we do know will give me nightmares for years. And I'm including the Protectorate in that order. That means you, Armsmaster. You stay the fuck away from Taylor Hebert, you hear me?" She glared at the Tinker, who shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Everyone was gaping at her, even Faultline's people.

    There was complete silence for a moment, then everyone started talking at once, the noise making it impossible to hear anything useful. Über and Leet were trying to ask something, Carol was shouting at the top of her voice, Sarah was trying to both calm her down and ask her own questions, Faultline was standing up and leaning forward, Armsmaster seemed to be arguing, and most of the rest were either looking around with confused expressions or adding to the chaos. Assault and Dauntless were about the only ones on the Protectorate side who were just sitting there quietly.

    Just as Amy was wondering how this was in any way helpful, while also holding her sister in her seat as the blonde had immediately wanted to join in, there was a horrifically loud bang. Silence instantly fell and everyone jerked around to gape at Director Piggot. The woman lowered the handgun she'd just fired into the ceiling, leaving a hole in the armored material covering it, and put it on the table. A small wisp of smoke rose from the barrel.

    "Shut. Up." she said remarkably calmly although with an air of danger to her voice that made Amy swallow hard. "You will listen, and you will obey. Or we stand a very good chance of triggering the sort of disaster that would make Behemoth look like he wasn't really putting the effort in." Her glare raked the table from end to end. "Things have changed, very suddenly and potentially very badly. I don't like it any more than you do, but you're going to listen to me and listen well."

    Total silence fell for a moment, then she hit another key. "So far, that we know of, that girl has wiped out Ellisburg, which took her about an hour, done the same to Eagleton, killed the Three Blasphemies, and Moord Nag, and about a dozen other S class threats all over the planet. All in less than a day. She can teleport with global range, giving her a Mover rating about as high as it goes. She can produce weapons that are capable of vaporizing a small city, so that's a Blaster rating, also as high as anything we've ever heard of. She has tech that can heal severe wounds. Her armor is at least tough enough to take multiple hits from Tinker Tech laser weapons without damage, she's been seen to detect and catch a fifty caliber round in her hand in mid flight, and that's merely the information we currently have on her."

    Piggot looked around the ashen faces of everyone in the room. "The most important thing from your point of view is that she is fully willing to immediately resort to lethal countermeasures when attacked. And has done so without hesitation."

    Carol opened her mouth and the director held up a hand without even looking at her, causing the woman to close it again. "The E88 decided to attempt to recruit her earlier tonight. Kaiser sent Cricket, Hookwolf, and Victor, along with about two dozen normals, to persuade her to join them." She prodded the keyboard again, starting a video playing that everyone watched. "Her father took out two gang members faster than most of my troopers could, then blew Cricket away with the shotgun he confiscated from them. Victor shot at him, the girl caught the round, then destroyed the entire building he was hiding in from three hundred yards away with a pair of rockets. Then she got mad and wiped out Hookwolf, while her dad wrecked most of the remaining gangers." The video changed to show what had happened to the last of the E88 capes, making Amy's eyes widen, and several people to swear under their breaths.

    "Kaiser, being an idiot, tried again with Krieg and Rune, and another group of normals armed with RPGs and laser guns he stole from Coil."

    She pressed a key. Everyone watched. Amy felt ill.

    "Total encounter time was about six seconds. Everyone other than Rune died in that time. Overkill's rules of engagement, as far as we can determine, are basically 'If you make me come over there you're dead.' And she has the firepower and training to make that happen."

    Not a single person present was able to say anything.

    The director inspected them all. "We've got more information on her which explains at least some of how all this happened, but it's not currently something we're going to distribute. The point of this meeting is to inform all of you that as far as you're concerned, Overkill and her father are people you do not attack, you do not threaten, you do not interact with at all if possible. You don't give them funny looks in the street, you don't think nasty thoughts at them, you do everything you can to pretend they're not there. If you think you can take them, you're wrong, and all you'll do is make them angry. Trust me, you do not want to make either of them angry, and you especially don't want to make Overkill angry. She does not do capture. She basically has two settings: ignore you and kill you."

    Looking around at the people in the room, the woman added, "I fully expect that the E88 will cease to exist as a functioning gang by tomorrow. Kaiser made a very, very large mistake, one that will most likely be his last, and unless he's extremely lucky he's probably only got a few hours at most to live. While I don't like it, I'm aware that there's basically nothing I can do about it, and he brought it on himself." She jerked a thumb over her shoulder at the image that had come up after the videos stopped, that of the armored girl. "That is basically a force of nature at the moment and anyone who gets between her and her goal is going to end up dead. Hopefully when she's finished with her current hobby we can talk to her, but right now I'm going to step aside and let her get on with it, because I'm damn sure that if we get in her way she'll go right over us like a tank through a greenhouse."

    After a very long and very complete silence, Carol finally broke it, somewhat loudly. "Director, you can't possibly mean that you're just going to sit there and let that… murderer… just keep on killing?"

    Piggot fixed her with a glare that could have stripped paint from the wall. "One, murderer is technically probably inaccurate, as everything she's done has been essentially a legitimate action after someone else initiated it. From the point of view of a military operation she's acting entirely consistently. And two, I mean exactly that, yes. Partly because she seems content to go after the worst scum in the city right now, but mainly because we can't stop her. What she did to Winslow alone pretty much puts her into the category of nuclear superpower all on her own. She left a crater that would have required approximately a ten megaton explosion to create and did it without doing more than breaking a few windows and causing a couple of small fires outside the target zone. There is nothing we have that can withstand that."

    She brought up an image that looked like a satellite view of a much, much larger crater. "And what she did there was tiny. This is what she did to Ellisburg. I know that city all too well. And now it's gone. Right down to the bedrock. I do not want to have that happen to Brockton Bay!"

    Carol had gone an unhealthy gray color, and most of the others were staring fixedly at the screen, many of them looking terrified.

    "We can't get hold of any of the Triumvirate, nor the Chief Director, for reasons I still don't know. This command is basically on its own for now with someone who's probably only barely less dangerous than an Endbringer wandering around the city killing any Nazis stupid enough to shoot at her. All we can do is stand back and wait for her to get bored with that." She looked around. "I know your abilities, and trust me, none of you, either individually or together, stand any chance of doing anything other than making this worse. So stay the hell out of it for all our sakes. She's calm enough as long as you don't threaten her, so if you meet her in the street, just smile and walk on by, you understand me?"

    After a few seconds, Assault said, his voice tired, "Listen to Director Piggot. I've talked to that girl, and she absolutely fucking terrifies me to the depths of my soul. The things she showed me…" He shook his head. "Leave her alone and she'll leave you alone. Attack her and the only thing to be thankful for is that it will be quick." Dauntless, next to him, nodded slowly.

    "What about an attack from a long range?" Newter suggested a little nervously.

    Director Piggot looked at him, then at the blonde girl with the mask that had come in last. "Rune can tell you how that went."

    Everyone snapped their heads around to stare at her. "Rune?!" Aunt Sarah said in shock.

    "Yeah," the girl replied quietly. "Or I was. She healed me and let me live if I told her where to find Kaiser. So I told her. And I'm not part of that gang any more." She visibly shivered. "I didn't like it anyway, Kaiser is a massive prick and Kreig is worse, but after..."

    No one said anything and she resumed talking after a moment or two. "Director Piggot is right. You can't stop her. You've never seen anything like it. Krieg gave the order for his guys to kill her, she took them out so fast it was horrifying, then shot us down from over a mile away with one shot. I still can't believe I lived through it. Just lucky, I guess." She half-shrugged, laughing under her breath. "She told me flat out that if I went against her she'd kill me. I believe her." Raising her eyes from the table, she looked around at them, her eyes haunted. "I don't know what she really is, I'm not even sure she's really human, but I know there's no way to win against her."

    "There is almost always a hard counter to any Parahuman ability," Armsmaster put in, making her look at him. "Logically Overkill has a weak point that we should be able to locate and..."

    "No." Director Piggot glared at him. "Even assuming that is true, which there certainly is no evidence of, you will not experiment with trying to find a possibly nonexistent hole in the defenses of someone who could and would kill you without hesitation. Not in my city. Preferably not on my planet, you hear me? To put it into terms you might understand, the risk versus reward equation is far, far over to the risk side."

    He didn't look convinced, Amy noticed, but he nodded. She hoped that he'd pay attention to the director, since this entire situation was one that was making her want to hide under the bed.

    The discussion went on for a little longer, and it was a very subdued set of people that finally left the PRT building. Amy watched as Faultline's group got into an SUV that picked them up and drove off without a backwards look, while Über and Leet left in the other direction in a heavily modified van of some sort. Über nodded politely to her as they went past, causing her to wave.

    Dean was still unconscious in the PRT medical center, and the doctors were going to monitor him to see what happened. She still couldn't even work out what had caused him to collapse but the timing, and what he'd said, seemed suspicious. Amy wasn't sure if it was connected to the Hebert girl, and she also didn't know if her parents or sister had worked it out, but it was yet another thing that worried her.

    Vicky had wanted to stay with him but the doctors had kicked her out, telling her she could visit the next day but she needed sleep herself. It had taken Amy a while to convince her, but eventually the blonde nodded and followed, looking upset and worried too.

    Once Carol had retrieved the car, they got in and headed home, with the Pelhams flying overhead. She was sure that the adults were going to spend half the night arguing about what they'd learned at the PRT building but for now she was exhausted and just wanted to sleep and forget about purple-armored girls of doom who killed Nazis like most people ate Skittles.

    No one said much on the journey.

    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

    Staring in shock at the monitor Max swore vehemently under his breath. Krieg was definitely dead as far as he could tell and Rune presumably was too. That fucking Tinker had taken out five capes in two interactions, as well as close to two dozen of his cannon fodder. And she'd walked off without a scratch.

    That was unacceptable. The first time had been bad enough, but to have it happen a second time…?

    No. He was taking the gloves off. Fuck her. She wanted to play hardball, he could play hardball.

    Turning to his address book he started looking through it for the right phone number. He didn't keep this sort of record in an electronic form just in case. Paper was safer, it was hack proof. Eventually he found what he was looking for and picked up the phone.

    The lights went out about two seconds into dialing, then the phone itself went dead.

    As the emergency lighting came on, he looked around, confused, then listened carefully.

    Why could he hear a chainsaw?
     
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