Monday morning is here and I've come to school armed with the knowledge on how to deal with the type of bureaucratic stonewalling that Blackwell loves. He dropped me off personally today, and then drove off to work.
Emma and her cronies, Sophia notably absent, gathered to greet me in the entry hall. Only for a fake timeline to split off, a bunch of paramilitary goons to start shooting into the air, and tell us to get on the ground. I complied because this doesn't matter to me.
And to my absolute shock and amusement they kidnapped Emma.
Coil: One Week Ago
Today is nothing special. Just another Monday after the new year. I've finally established one of my Parahuman patsy gangs and I'm well on my way on enacting my actual plans for Brockton Bay. Life is good. Currently I'm splitting the timeline between work and my lair. Work to log in to the PRT computers personally and my lair to copy over the information to my computers. It's generally very slow going. Not because of my typing speed, no no. It's because I didn't have all the access I needed at first. I also fell into some misinformation traps early in my tenure here. Took me quite a while to undo the damage those did to my information networks. I did the gangs the favor of revealing those to them once I found out about them. Because I was feeling
nice that day.
I'm putting in my standard four hour workday today, not really doing anything much productive. I can get away with this because I'm a consultant. I'm not really doing anything because I'm not being asked to do anything. Because Director Piggot hates me. By the same token she can't really fire or transfer me due to my contract making that basically impossible. When I'm not 'working from home' I get by in the office generally playing being at loose ends and filling out the occasional spreadsheet or something for one of our overworked clerks. Makes me very well liked, and easy to trade favors in the office building. Multiple times even with my power.
At this moment I'm burning through my favors in a disposable timeline to get access to a great deal of information I shouldn't have. Most of it is totally useless, but this is actually how I've managed to blackmail my way into having as many moles as I do in other departments. It's at this time an automated alert pops up on my screen. Hmm... Shadow Stalker's identity compromised. Got into a fight in school where she used her powers. Yada yada yada. Well I can't say I'm surprised about this considering what the little psychopath did to Grue over the holidays. Damn shame I couldn't capitalize on it. Though you never really know what the deranged are going to do at any given moment. Oh well.
The next day I'm doing it all again. Not really much new information, but I make up the time wasted in my other timeline. Getting loads of petty bullshit out of the way that I have to deal with in my lair. Then I get an automated alert. Shadow Stalker's identity compromised on Winslow computers. Well no shit Sherlock, it's already been compromised. That ship has sailed, the genie is out of the bottle. No reason to get so upset over it though, it's just a machine. Better to be sure though. When my shift is over I make my way to Deputy Director Renick's office. I'm waved in.
"Hello there Thomas, to what do I owe the pleasure?"
"I'm having some confusion about the alert about Shadow Stalker." He grimaces.
"Ah yes, that. While the lack of details are concerning her case worker is investigating as we speak." Ah good, he didn't notice that I'm not actually cleared for this information. Wait, what?
"Wasn't her identity compromised already? Just yesterday she got into a fight that revealed her power." He furrows his brows for a few seconds then starts looking it up on his computer. I wait patiently.
"Are you feeling alright?" I shift uneasily. This seems suspicious.
"Yes, why?"
"Oh no reason." As he subtly reaches for the panic button. Ah hell. Troopers slam the door open behind me and hold me down by the shoulders. "Take this man to Master/Stranger quarantine."
"Oh for fuck's sake." As I'm lifted up. "I take it that Shadow Stalker
didn't blow her identity yesterday?"
"Correct." I end the timeline.
The situation here is an easy fix, and it has to do with the nature of my power. You see my power has an inescapable limit to how long I can keep going with it. That limit is the butterfly effect. You see my power relies on how closely the timelines match. I also need to be in a position of power to do anything within my constraints. This creates a dilemma for me. As a person of power walking the halls of power, however local they are, every single one of my actions has a disproportionate effect on the world. For example: taking the last pot of coffee in the break room without replacing it could piss off all the paper pushers in the building. This would lead to more mistakes and less productivity for the PRT overall for a day. That could have all sorts of knock on effects that I cannot measure. I can vaguely see the sequence of events here though. Something I did at work affected the PRT agent assigned to Shadow Stalker somehow and from there things went all caddywampus in Winslow. That said, I try to only use my power for three days or less at a time. I
have gone for more, but that was mostly to make plays on the stock exchange.
My solution to the situation is simple. I'm actually going to go to work and apply my power there, while anonymously tipping off the E88 to be ready to capitalize on the Ward's unmasking. Only now it's Friday and no unmasking happened. Irksome. Well back to business as usual.
So it's Friday afternoon after my 'workday' and I just got finished torturing Tattletale. Not for fun mind you. Well,
mostly not for fun. She's a forcibly recruited asset you see, and I have to keep her in line. Right now, in the timeline I'm going to keep, I'm instructing some of my mercenaries to dismantle her plans to escape me. Over the next few months I'm going to be periodically ruining her plans like this to instill in her a sense of learned helplessness. Hopefully that manages to get her settled in as my new underling. It would be most unfortunate if I had to burn such a useful asset. I turn to the mercenary just outside the torture room before I close the timeline.
"Did anything happen that I should be aware of while I was in there?" He checks the terminal I put here for just this purpose.
"Shadow Stalker was unmasked." My eye twitches.
"What." The man gets visibly nervous at my anger. He knows what I was doing in there. I push past him to power walk to my office. Checking the time it's 8PM right now. I start calling up every favor, spy and, threat I can to get information on this. First as Thomas, then as Coil. It takes an
unacceptable amount of time to get a name here. Emma Barnes. I recognize that name, I'm absolutely
certain she was part of the original incident. Phone records show that she had Shadow Stalker's identity and had already tried to unmask another cape that she possibly triggered herself. Just one more cape and she would be in the running for the Darwin awards. I end the timeline.
Come Monday I put together an operation in a disposable timeline to kidnap the girl in question. I'm going to get the answers out of her about what's setting her off, one way or another.
Three hours later
Oh my God, she's certifiably
insane. She couldn't even give me a straight answer to the most basic of her motivations when her life was
literally on the line. There is just no telling what will set her off. She's far too deranged to predict!
You know what, fuck it, I just won't do anything all that important until Shadow Stalker is unmasked. Shouldn't be too long now. Just have to update my tip to the E88. 'Unmasking can happen any time within the next month.'
