The Eldritch One (Celestial Forge)

[Optimal Robotics]

Semi random end of month status report for February 2011

Delayed until Saturday March 5th due to imposed Endbringer truce.

Recorded on a closed system due to security concerns.

Piggot​

I see everybody is in attendance today. Every Protectorate hero, select trooper captains, a couple consultants, Calvert, a local PR employee, and all the senior PRT staff. The higher echelons of power and everybody who needs to know.

"All right. Now that everybody's here we can begin. First on the docket is Taylor Hebert." A collective slump went through everybody at that. No wonder too, she's made us look either puppy kicking evil or hilariously (if you're not us) incompetent.

"Don't give me that, she has a multi million dollar bounty on her head. She needs to be addressed."

"If I may," From Calvert. "We could just do nothing here. Her and the rest of the Undersiders dispatched that Waldo character well enough on their own. And the Empire's attempt on her just yesterday didn't amount to much either. They could end up taking all comers with their team composition. And if we do decide to address the Undersiders we would first have to find them."

"While those are good points that's not what I'm referring to. We've managed to get in contact with New Wave, and are now cooperating on this. Panacea managed to strike up a rapport with her in school and has seen fit to share some information about her.

"First up is that she hates cape work and wants to be a civilian. The timing she learned this was such that she was already a member of the Undersiders though, so it can be surmised that she has a particular goal for doing so beyond revenge for her trigger. Everybody involved in that has already either been thoroughly fucked over or driven off. Ideas people?" That sets the room abuzz with speculative whispers. Probably the most productive any of us is gonna be today.

"She could just be stuck in the roll." From Miss Militia. "The incident with the Empire's and Coil's men could have had her running scared, while the McCormicks and the smear campaign would have just prolonged that. If that's the case she will continue to stay with the Undersiders for as long as this bounty is up for the backup in cape fights."

"Could be." From Assault. "Could be that thinker on her team is manipulating her too. We all heard the Palanquin recordings, right? That little lady is a smooth operator. Convinced her not to call the fire department or ambulance for Faultline's mercenaries in just a couple sentences."

"And her anti thinker qualities?" From vice director Rennick.

"Could only apply to her projection." Says Armsmaster.

"Let's not get bogged down in the minutia of her powers." I say, trying to steer the conversation back on track. "Anybody else have any other theories?" A few murmurings, but nobody is confident enough to speak up.

"Then I believe it is time for solutions. We'll reclassify Taylor as a violent vigilante, and her team as a vigilante group with villain members. Are there any serious concerns about this?"

"Wouldn't this embolden them to do more egregious crimes if they know they can get away with it like they have been?" Asks a trooper captain.

"We can make it clear the kids gloves are contingent on their behavior. I believe the PR team can handle that, can't they?" A quick nod from the one of them in attendance.

"Good. Second item on the agenda is the Simmurgh. She attacked Canberra on the twenty fourth during evening rush hour local time. This was very good for us. It's estimated that because people were already in their cars that about twenty percent of those who otherwise would've been her victims got away. Naturally there's a catch.

"She has been known to modulate her times like this to cause disruptions elsewhere, or bat down orbiting debris on her way down to accomplish side objectives. Through New Wave we found out that Taylor Hebert was mere feet away from The Instigator when the Endbringer alarm went off. Ready to kill him either then and there, or within the next hour." And oh the chaos that brings to the table. Personally I think she should've just killed him then and there, and damn the consequences. Judging by the noises from the table about half my staff does too.

"If that is quite enough" The room quiets down. "Then I will be changing the Interloper from a national threat to a possible Simmurgh asset." The possible is there because we went after a couple people in his position before a little too hard, and it backfired horribly. Goddamn Simmurgh plots.

"Armsmaster. Would you go over the statistics for me?"

"Yes ma'am. General gang violence has been down this month. I expect those numbers to go up once temperatures and tempers start rising though. The news cycle was dominated locally by the Undersiders, but there were a few incidents involving independent parahumans." And on and on it went. Most of it was inconsequential, but a couple incidents warranted a slight change in a patrol or two.

After the meeting I'm in my office with deputy director Rennick.

"So, how likely do you think it is that the Dallons will keep up their end of the bargain?" He asks me.

"As long as we avoid tripping on one of their neuroticisms we'll be just fine." I answer. "So in other words I have no idea."

"Ha!" He barks out.

"Go deal with whatever waves this meeting made in town. I've got some interdepartmental relations to take care of." I dismiss. As he's leaving the office I dial the number for Chief Director Rebecca Costa Brown. I'm not put through immediately unfortunately. The Director is a busy woman with many demands on her time, and she doubtlessly can't drop everything to listen to me. I do get through eventually though.

"Chief Director speaking, what is it?"

"Hello Director, this is regional director Emily Piggot calling to inform you of a classification change."

"This is about The Instigator? Why are you calling me about this?"

"Because somebody in our command structure is protecting him." I hear an intake of breath.

"Go on."

"If I'm right this is probably a long running Simmurgh plot taking advantage of the division in our ranks. Lord knows we've lost enough good and dependable men and women over the years to make it a viable option. Some chucklefuck in the Elite probably noticed and took advantage, despite any logical thought dictating you not take advantage of Endbringer casualties. Said advantage being suborning WDGD in order to protect their chaos sowing tinker."

"What proof do you have of this?"

"Not much I'm afraid." I lament. "Only that the man was a national level threat, and we were denied national assistance in dealing with him once he slipped up."

"I see. I'll look into that Director. Of that you have my word." And she hangs up on me. I look around to make sure nobody's watching.

"Yes!!" As I do a little fist pump. I may not have much reach beyond Brockton Bay, but the Chief Director is another matter entirely. The little dickheads fucking with my department couldn't possibly have more reach than her. I think I'll look into shaking some more trees in about a week too. See what pops out.

Three days later​

I'm going through my usual routine in the office when my phone suddenly goes off. My work cell phone in my purse. Damn thing slips out of my hand when I try to answer it. Stupid fat fingers. I bend over-

*BANG*

*CRASH*

Holy shit I'm being shot at!! I immediately dive off of my chair, grab my phone as an afterthought, and roll myself in a most undignified manner to interpose my solid metal desk in-between myself and the now shattered window. Minor lacerations aside I am now safe.

*BANG*

For a given definition of the word at least. I look down at my phone to see Armsmaster calling me. I answer.

"Director I have news about Taylor Hebert."

"Armsmaster I do not give a flying fuck about that glorified prima donna right now!! I am being fucking shot at!! Get the goddamn alert out and mobilize!" A moment passes.

"Yes ma'am."

I spent the next half hour huddling behind my desk, bleeding onto the floor, and desperately trying to organize a response through the comms. Brings back memories. I hate it. After said half hour we finally got the all clear.

Apparently the perpetrator got into position, fired ten shots into the building, some of them through the walls, and left immediately afterwards. Now all of my senior staff, including Deputy Director Rennick, are dead.

The only footage of the fucker we got is a couple blurred frames of a fedora.

 

[Optimal Robotics]

I went a little bit overboard on training during the truce. Nothing truly ridiculous, but I was clocking at least five hours a day with either Brian or Bitch. Training with Bitch was... an experience. When we did this the first time she just set her dogs on me in the backyard of her shelter, never letting me rest. I tired out all her trained dogs she had to throw at me eventually, so we worked on our hand to hand after that. I'm not entirely sure she wasn't just trying to beat me up, but it was good practice regardless.

My practice times in general quadrupled from before, and whatever time I didn't spend relaxing, training, or in school I spent reading up on various subjects. One of these subjects being how well received my actions were by the public. Apparently I'm a divisive figure. Every single major news outlet tried to vilify me, but about three quarters of anybody online was on my side. The flame war on my PHO thread was epic.

Another subject I researched was the history of the heroes and villains of the bay. Not in the forums where everybody 'knows' what happened, but the newspaper and press release archives. And surprisingly things are better on the cape front than they were fifteen years ago. Back then the Empire was far more powerful with three ferrokinetics on Kaiser's level, the Teeth and Marquis were in their heyday, like five different Asian gangs all competing for power, and then the Slaughterhouse came into town right after the boat graveyard was sunk to kick us while we were down. Wow.

After that, Marquis kicked out the Slaughterhouse, he kicked out the Teeth, he kicked out like seventeen other minor gangs that nobody really cares about. But they still had guns and men and shit!! Looking at this cynically it seems like the heroes took him out because he was making them look bad. I'm having trouble looking at this any way other than cynically. Makes my guts churn with a feeling I can't quite place.

Taking a look at the Nazis... They have experienced a steady decline due to cape casualties taken during Endbringer fights. Hell, the only reason our tourism is so good right now is because they lost their five craziest members about five years back in an especially brutal one. Surprising that the empire sends out capes for Endbringer fights and the ABB doesn't. Even if they do only have two capes total.

The heroes? Have done fuck all, really. Behind all the wishy washy press releases and spin doctoring, they haven't really been doing much of value. The last big move they did that stuck was the Marquis arrest. Which was done at his private home, leveraging New Wave's mostly female roster to not get immediately murder blendered. Wow. They immediately unmasked in order to try and promote accountability among the wider cape community, but we all know how that went, don't we. Biggest splash the PRT made was when Chubster transferred out in disgust over not being allowed to make a difference here.

My wider point being this. Why doesn't anybody talk about this? Any of it? All this information is publicly available isn't it? Barring the whole 'Lung' issue, we have it better than ever since Parahumans started showing up. In regards to heroes and villains that is. Sure our economy is in the shitter, but where isn't it? And that whole bit about not being allowed to make a difference has got to be the biggest red flag I have ever seen in my life. Bigger than the ones I've seen from Alec even.

I also found out what the PRT is calling me in their official press releases...

Enough philosophizing though. We have a mission from Coil right now. He gathered Intel on the E88 during the truce and we're about to raid one of their storehouses. A little less exciting compared to my other exploits, but I'm all for that. If we can go back to raiding minor storehouses exclusively that would be fantastic.

"We ready?" Brian asks. He gets nods from every one of us. We're in an alleyway nearby our target. We're all situated on the dogs so we can all get there at the same time. He leads the charge on the dog he's on, while I'm riding with Alec, and Tattletale is riding bitch with Bitch. The dogs rip the door off in a cacophony of splintering wood and metal tearing, and I'm on point.

That's Alabaster just chilling on the couch. A Nazi cape with a constantly resetting immortality power who is just stark white. He's aiming his gun at me.

"GUYS! CA-glrrk" I gasp as the previously unseen thug to my left grabs me by the 'throat'.

"Well looky what we have here. The local money pinata." I try dissolving the grip he has on me, but, of course, he's a brute. He throws me out of the window right quick.

"Kill them." He says almost nonchalantly. I hear the rapport of gunfire as Alabaster unloads into one of the dogs, and in response Grue turns the whole area pitch black. But not before I see a shifting mass of malevolent knives and metal come through the window after me.

Oh that was Hookwolf. Hookwolf just threw me out a window and is landing on top of me. He grunts as his blades pierce me and fail to hurt.

"Messy bitch. Cricket be a dear and unmake their eardrums." He's still shifting a little bit, and dragging me with him.

"Amoeba!!" From Grue. Yeah, I hate it. I'm just about to to remove myself from Hookwolf before I lose any sense of direction and balance. Oh God why? I gotta make due with my proprioception and hand eye coordination and that is just not cutting it. Bitch's dogs are barking at the Nazis, and in response,

*BANG*

*BANG*

*BANG*

You know what? I think I'm done with these nazi fucks trying to kill my friends. I might not be able to stand or tell which way is down right now, but I can tell Hookwolf here is moving. I start gripping and pulling shit apart randomly to try and stop that from happening. I am rewarded by my efforts with flailing motions and skittering blade on pavement sounds. I reach into the shifting mass of blades some more an pull-

*CRUNCH*

Wait, what was that sound? Wait, why am I feeling blood drip onto me? Hookwolf can bleed?! Since when!? I thought he was just made of metal! Almost as soon as I can formulate these questions, the bastard shrieks, my entire world gets shaken, and whatever Cricket is doing redoubled on me and I can't really keep my shape in response. I basically just melt out of Hookwolf onto the pavement.

"What, did the Nazi not like what I did to him?" I taunt. "Well too bad! Get over here and give me another hug!"

"Taylor?!" From Alec on the dog.

"Alabaster, Cricket, we're retreating!" Hookwolf growls out. He makes good on his word and muffledly skitters away down the street. Cricket's stupid anti balance aura goes with him. It's still pitch black out right now because of Grue's fog, but I latch onto Regent's mount and pull myself up.

"Yeah it's me. Hey Grue are we still robbing this place?"

"Hell no!!" Sounds like he's across the street, but he's probably only a couple yards away. "We're leaving before they come back with reinforcements. Let's go!"

---

Back at the loft we get to licking our wounds and taking stock of the situation. The dogs got off the lightest due to the trickery Bitch's power does with their forms, but the woman herself was bleeding from her ears for a little while. She was closest to Cricket in the fight.

"So Tatts. You got any insights as to how that clusterfuck happened?" Asks Brian.

"Well I can tell you they weren't surprised to see us!!" She yells out. "They weren't expecting us specifically though, so I get the feeling they were feeding a line to one of the boss's sources to see who they were spying for!!"

"Goody. Taylor, what happened back there?" And all I can hear from that is 'how are you still alive?'

"Well I got engulfed by him, and I guess it didn't really matter to me." As I combine and separate my index fingers as a demonstration.

"Gee, you think?" Sneers Alec.

"Well excuse me for not going that far in my power testing! It seemed like kind of a bad idea at the time! Anyways when I was inside him I couldn't coordinate myself due to whatever Cricket was doing. So I started trying to pull him apart from the inside. I'm pretty sure I found something organic." Brian looks simultaneously happy and mildly disgusted at my news. I'll take it.

"Lisa please tell our boss that we're not taking any jobs until he's got his intelligence situation sorted."

"Will do!!" As she gives him a thumbs up.

---

A few days later there's a shooting at the PRT building with multiple dead officials and officers. Then the call came back from 'the boss' that we're on double pay for a month to lay low.

God damnit Coil, what the fuck are you doing?



AN: and now to calculate how much time Taylor spent training total. Yay...

Also a friendly reminder that Taylor speaks in the PPG Him voice on the job

Behold Haxcalibur (Modded Skyrim) (400CP)
Congrats, you broke the crafting system. Anything and everything you make, build, enchant, or otherwise create is now ten times better than it really ought to be. Make an ordinary dagger that does 12 damage? Now it does 120. Pick up an endgame weapon and enhance it for its supposed max of 200 damage? 2000. Guns that hold more bullets and do more damage, magic staffs that massively amplify your magic, armor that shrugs off OHKO's, potions that let you ignore 110% of fire damage, weapons with ten or twenty enchantments. And if that wasn't enough, you'll learn anything crafting related ten times as fast, just to blow the competition out of the water even more.

 

[Optimal Robotics]

The rest of March was exceedingly uneventful. It was nerve-wracking. I mean sure, Coil tried for Tattletale again, and I managed to narrow down his base of operations to a downtown city block, but a psychopathic sore loser being a psychopathic sore loser is to be expected. Not to say I'm unhappy for the relative peace, but I feel like the longer it takes for the other shoe to drop, the worse it's gonna be.

As to what I did during this relative peace and quiet? I got a car and became my own mechanic. Not the most useful of things to me specifically, but I have this fully stocked garage I'm not using. The car i got was a real cheap model I'm intending to practice on. The actual plan is to buy a van for later, stuff it into the extradimensional garage, and stuff the van with anything I might need to, uh, leave. Meanwhile the car made Alec less bitchy, so there's that.

The car itself? Multiple engine parts were heavily corroded, and there were several miniscule leaks everywhere. I'm pretty sure the dealer sold me a lemon. I eliminated the corrosion and replaced the missing metal in a complete engine rebuild. Not even that, it was damn near a complete car rebuild! But I'd say the lessons learned on the way were entirely worth it. Not least of which being I'm not knowledgeable enough to design my own engine or car yet.

I gained the necessary skills for all this through the resources Tattletale finally got delivered. A bunch of chemical testing kits and some base elements to use. The biggest problem that I have with my chemical powers being that I have almost no way to confirm what I'm making is what I meant to make. We worked on that these past couple of weeks. Of course this does nothing for larger hydrocarbon chains. Just one left handed hydrogen bond there instead of a right handed one catalyzed the entire mixture that one time, and left me with a 'big' mess. We just don't have the specialized chemical tests for those, and it would be a waste of money anyways. I'm developing a sense for this.

One thing that surprised me was the Undersider's status changing. We're a vigilante group now. Me, Regent, and Tattletale are vigilantes, while Grue and Bitch are still villains. A move nobody expected from the PRT. Tattletale managed to deduce that we were all on thin ice though. Her in particular for some reason. And wow does she like to complain about that when we're alone. Well that and her lack of options in general. Our options should open up significantly once Coil is dead.

Right now it's April second, and Lisa called a meeting to discuss a new job from the boss.

"Lisa, why are we here on a Saturday? I had plans this weekend." Alec complains.

"Because the boss didn't want to entertain even the possibility that we would treat this like an April fools joke." Everybody at the table looks at him. "The boss has a big job for us. He wants us to rob the ABB's Ruby Dreams casino. The illegal one that all the rich people don't want us to know they go to. He wants us to gather any blackmail material we can get our hands on, and rob the place blind. And he wants it done by Tuesday morning. Any questions?"

"Yeah this sounds kind of high profile." Brian chimes in. "What kind of security are we looking at here, and what's the likelihood of the two ABB capes butting in?"

"There's going to be significant resistance, but the boss has faith in us ever since we sent Hookwolf packing. The likelihood of cape interference is negligible. Lung has a mystery project he's working on personally, and Oni Lee is stretched thin patrolling. We just have to make sure they can't call for help, and your smoke doesn't let out any radio waves."

"How much money are we looking at?" Asks Alec.

"Boss will pay us fifty grand for the job, and the casino itself will have anywhere from one hundred thousand to two hundred thousand. It would be higher, but this is a low rolling establishment. Any other questions?" A quick look around the table confirms that there isn't.

"All right, I vote we take the job."

"Take it." Brian says.

"Take it." I say.

"Yes." Bitch deadpans

"Let's do this thing!" From Alec.

"All right." From Brian. "That was an easy vote. Unfortunately none of us can get in to do recon on account of our ages, but we can still pull the blueprints for the building. Tattletale, go do that and come back once you have some approximation for the likely layout of the building. Bitch, did you want to be here for the planning phase this time?"

"I'm going to walk my dogs." And she walks off to her room.

"Alright, Taylor come with me, you can log in for me while I change into my costume." I follow her to her room. I start to hear the ruffling of clothes as I log into the computer. She showed me the city public works website while we were looking for the television infrastructure. Tap tap tap.

"Lisa, I'm in."

"Start navigating the website, I'm not done changing." I hear muffled under a shirt or something. Sure thing. Click, click, scroll, click. Ah, I opened up a random blueprint by accident. No idea what I'm looking at.

"Taylor?"

"Yeah yeah yeah, I can go back."

"No, wait, this is the correct blueprint. How did you get this on the first try?"

"Luck?" I shrug.

"..." I turn around to see her squinting at me in suspicion.

"What? It was!"

"Yeah, okay. Let's get this thing into Paint." The next few minutes were spent highlighting the most likely configurations the inside of the warehouse would've been modified to. We know they have two safes, one of them in a security booth, limited staff areas, and the actual casino part of this operation. The planning session goes down real smooth. My most vital task is going to be getting the bystanders out of the way. Don't want any panicking civilians to screw up the plan. We will be carrying it out tonight.

Later, after sunset.​

I'm in an alley in an awkward position hanging from a fire escape with a wire cutters and a radio.

"Now!" From Lisa on the other end. I cut the phone line. Apparently this building has two for some reason. Then I climb up and into a window. The break room and such for employees is up here on the second floor. I bound inside and tie up everybody I can find. Mostly scantily clad serving girls, but there was one guard I was able to catch by surprise lounging around. Nothing to tie them to, but that shouldn't matter in the timeframe we're working with.

*CRUNCH*

I crash through the door to the actual gambling floor. "Everybody down on the ground! Now!! This is a robbery!" It takes a couple seconds for anything to happen.

*BANG*

But when it does, it takes the form of gunshots, all the guards lining up shots on me, all the middle class people here panicking, and the front doors crumpling inwards to reveal a giant angry dog running out of the black fog. On that dog is Grue, and on the next one is Bitch. I myself am currently running in, taking weapons, and disassembling them at super speed. Kicking people's feet out from under them too. All in all we had the room under control in about twenty seconds from a grand total of six security guards in the main gambling room.

"Well that was easy." From Regent.

*BANG*

I'm going to have to glare at him later for that. The gunshot came from the staff only rooms on the ground floor, followed by more gunshots. Wow these people are dumb. Don't they know their customers are out here? Also I'm bulletproof. I go in, smash some guns, and tie them up. All the ones on the bottom floor, I start dragging to those fancy gambling tables to tie them to. Tattletale finally stumbled her way over in the dark and has her megaphone out.

"Everybody stay calm. We are not robbing anybody except the casino. We don't really care about anything you have on you. This should be a nice little in and out. Now everybody sit down by something we can tie your hands to. Make sure it's in a position you can hold for at least twenty minutes.

"If you do not do this we're going to have to assume you're plainclothes security, knock you around, and tie you up in an uncomfortable position. Understand?" With most of the bystanders having already taken shelter, or fled and lost themselves in Grue's mist this was an easy choice for most of them. There was some grumbling, but what I could hear of it, they were mostly complaining about wrinkles in their clothes. That is to say they just repositioned themselves to a suitable spot to get tied up in. I sped up and tied them up real fast. Between forty to fifty gamblers were tied up by me.

"Amoeba, you got the safe in the money changing room." From Grue. That would be the room up front where money is exchanged for casino tokens. The cage protecting the employee here is smashed a bit, and the receptionist is cowering in the corner. Looks like somebody gave him a zip tie and he tied himself up there. I morph myself through the bars and reform on the other side.

"Don't mind me, you should be perfectly safe right now." I say. Putting my hand up onto the safe i start seeping myself in there. The catch with most safes is that you can't angle any tools past the metal walls to manipulate the internals. Gotta use fancy magnets or sonar or something to work around it all to break in. That's by no means an extensive list or anything, but you get the idea. None of that applies to me at all, I'm fully prehensile. I just get in there, feel where the grooves are on the tumblers, and align them directly. Luckily this thing is fully analogue. I just know Tattletale is dealing with some fancy bullshit on the other safe right now.

With the safe open I look at a perfectly respectable haul of about twenty grand. I then open the door here from the inside, grab a duffel bag from Regent, and stuff it all in there.

I patrol amongst the casino goers for a few more minutes after that, waiting for Tattletale to get done with the other safe and the computer system. Assuming the latter exists. There are cameras here, but the recordings might just be off site.

Not ten minutes later Tattletale and Grue come back with a couple heavy looking duffle bags. Grue took one, Tattletale took one and paired up with Bitch, and before I paired up with Regent I freed one of the bystanders with my wire cutters.

"Take this and start away from us." While giving it to him.

"Oi! Let's go!" From Regent. I pair up with him on a dog with my much lighter duffel bag. Eh, I lost my chance to trade. Grue leads the charge out, and the other two dogs follow.

Once we get back to our base Alec speaks up. "Well that was easy."

Both me and Lisa smack him upside the head.




AN: I have finally defeated the dread writer's block!


Powers gained this chapter:

Memory Crystal (Five Star Stories) (100CP)
A backup memory crystal, strong enough that it could easily be used to instantly record live combat information to be replayed later. It could also be used for other mundane purposes, such as serving as the hard drive for multiple supercomputers.

 

[Optimal Robotics]

"Lisa, what is this?" I ask. We moved our extradimensional check to Sundays. It was more convenient for us. And there's finally something new here.

"...Looks like some sort of quantum computing crystal. A good one. A real good one." The thing looks like a small slab of crystal with a fancy touchscreen and a couple miscellaneous ports. None of which are standard to Earth Bet. It also has a camera on the back and stainless steel siding where it can slide in somewhere.

"Think we should do anything with it?"

"Nah. Not until Coil's dead at least. We don't want him questioning where we got any top tier equipment like this from."

"Fair enough. Let's go get waffles!" Lisa nods and we walk out of the room. Only to see Alec leaning on the doorframe.

The fucker waves at us.

"Hey there guys! Let me tell you, I was not expecting this when I woke up today." I run up to him in a flash.

"Alec!!" I hiss in his face. "What the fuck! Why did you follow me!?"

"I was curious. I noticed you were getting new powers after the cake thing a while ago and I wanted to know more."

"New powers?" I ask with dread.

"Yeah, the cake thing, surviving Hookwolf, the Tinker shit you and Lisa were doing in her room... Honestly, I came here half expecting to be wrong. Maybe you and Lisa would've been sneaking off to have kinky lesbian sex- Hey there Lisa. -which would've been wild in its own way."

"How did you follow us without me realizing?" Lisa demands.

"I woke up from my nap on the couch, noticed you were gone, and got really lucky."

"Alec what the fuck! There's stuff here I don't want anybody to see!"

"What, like the antimatter factory floating over actual hell?" Yes!! "I hope you don't mind, but I switched that thing over to gasoline production." What. "I mean if the plan was to blow Brockton Bay up entirely, I think you have more than enough. The readout said seven thousand, five hundred eighty nine units. Hell, that might even be enough to wipe out the entire eastern seaboard."

"More like the entire planet." Grumbles Lisa to the side. I shoot her a look.

"Alec we should leave." As I push him physically out the door.

"So, is the plan to blow up the bay? If so I'd like to be out of the blast radius if it happens."

"No, the plan is not to blow up the bay you sociopath." I whisper to him. "I didn't even set that stupid thing up! Lisa, is he going to blab about this to anybody?"

"Hmm, I don't think so. Alec what's your ideal goal here?"

"Oh I wanna stay with Taylor here. Hey if we aren't bombing the city, could we drop off an annihilation bomb at my Dad's place?"

"No! Stop talking about it! Fuck's sake! Lisa?"

"He really does want to stay with you. He thinks you can keep him safe from... His father?"

"Makes sense. We're gonna have to kill the boss before we're safe from anything though."

"Wait, what?" He asks.

"Yeah, we're just disposable meat as far as the boss is concerned." Lisa explains. "So you in or out on this little scheme of ours?" We loom over him. He grins.

"I'm in. Balls to the wall, ride or die. Just, y'know, let me know when we're pulling the pin on this grenade, yeah?"

"There will be no grenades here Alec. No explosions of any kind. Holy shit man."

"Okay, geez, calm your tits. It was just an expression. I'm gonna go back to the loft to play video games. Please tell me about any updates in this plot or scheme or whatever, okay?" And he walks off. I wait with Lisa until I'm sure he's out of earshot.

"Alright, what's his deal?" I ask. "He's rarely ever this cooperative."

"The facility caught him off guard, and is scrambling to blow it off. He also thinks our boss is hilariously fucked."

"What? He doesn't even know what his power is!"

"I think it was the ludicrous amounts of antimatter that did it. I don't think you quite realize how powerful a card that is Taylor. You can wipe out the city whenever you want." The thought hadn't even occurred to me. And now that it has I find it repugnant. Even if Coil killed my dad again, I don't think I could just wipe out a city for personal gain like that.

"Or at the very least you could use it to force the timeline to end." I don't like it.

"So you're sure he's gonna take our side?"

"Yes. Taylor, there's nothing strange about a guy taking the side of the girl he's currently with over a greasy mystery man."

"And the money he'd be losing?"

Lisa gives me a withering look. "Taylor, you can print diamonds. And any other chemical thing. Money is no issue. As long as we can keep Bitch's dogs safe and fed, Grue will be our only stumbling block."

"Yeah. What did you say Coil had on him?"

"He's giving him documentation for a legit job, and help with the custody battle for his sister. I don't believe for a moment he's planning to follow through on that second part though. That would just be far too much leverage to just give up for a man like Coil."

"Hmm, you think we'll have to fight him?"

"Hopefully not. Let me cook some more on a solution for that." I nod and go back to the loft.

Thankfully Alec kept to his word about not telling anybody.



AN: I had a bit in mind for the end of this chapter, but it works so much better as the beginning of the next.

Spoiler: Alec this chapter

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8vNZ4Pm-rIM

 

[Optimal Robotics]

"So I heard you robbed a casino recently. Any particular reason for that?" Amy asks. It's after school on Tuesday right now and she found me studying in the library.

"Nothing in particular really. It was a juicy target. The more money out of the hands of the gangs, the weaker their grip becomes."

"And the angrier they get. Lung isn't going to take this lying down you know. You made it look like he can't protect his guests, dealt a blow to his image. Most Asian cultures take that kind of thing incredibly seriously."

"He'll have to find me first. Not so easy a task as it seems."

"Yeah yeah, you're untraceable. Problem is the Instigator released some more information about you online. Said your base of operations were somewhere in the docks. Lung's territory." Typical. "The map he used narrowed it down to a strong possibility of you being in a particular three square mile area." She pulls out her phone and shows me a picture. It has two cones of effect, one starting from the McCormick estate, the other from the Palanquin. Motherfucker, the one coming from the Palanquin follows the route I took downtown. And our hideout is actually in the predicted area too!

"Thanks for the warning. Was there anything else?"

"Yeah, my sister wanted to know if you wanted to come to a party this weekend." I look up at her and put my hands together in front of my face.

"Fuck no." I gesticulate towards her.

Sunday​

The last few days had us raiding safehouse and drug dens at a breakneck pace. The boss wanted everybody distracted from our real intentions, (moving our base) and have it be clear to the public we were agitated about our lack of privacy. To transport the loot he arranged a series of vans we could pick up and drop off at set locations. To bypass people following us home, ostensibly. He was probably telling the truth about that. Hell, he was supporting us with his power a few times too. Saved us the trouble of a couple Empire ambushes. Now this support is nice, but I'm still killing his ass when I can.

Our last target for the night is an ABB drug den. Fairly minor all things concerned. We've been using the same strategy we used against the casino to avoid cape backup. Cut the phone lines, Grue smoke to keep any wireless signals from escaping, and smash and grab whatever we can. And we have the boss's support on this too! In one timeline he tells Lisa to abort, and the other he tells her to proceed.

About a minute into the abort timeline, a van pulls up on the alleyway we're hiding in, and a bunch of ABB thugs spill out.

We're about to bash in the door in the attack timeline when Tattletale notices my agitation.

"Something the matter?"

"My autistic side is acting up." A code phrase. "I'll tell you after the excitement's over." Honestly I'm surprised Coil hasn't closed the other timeline yet. Guess he'd want to see how the heist shakes out.

We break open the door, only to see a man in a black tactical vest, a bandoleer of grenades, and a traditional Kabuki demon mask sitting on a couch. Oni Lee. He shows zero hesitation in throwing one of these grenades towards us. I start to scramble away, only to remember that my teammates are also in the line of fire here. My half aborted lunge puts me between them and the grenade. Only they were able to retreat back past the doorframe. Oh well, I can take it. The grenade explodes and starts sucking me in. Wait, that's not supposed to happen. The thing sucks me in where it exploded, about a meter in front of me, and starts compressing me into a levitating sphere of slime. I try and extend an appendage towards him only to fail to make more than a slight bump on my surface. Then the fucker turns to ash, as he's already teleported away.

Fuck.

Looking around at my surroundings it seems the architecture is doing little better. The drywall all around me is bending, cracking, and sprinkling little dust motes on me. And then the couch Oni Lee was sitting on smacks me in my face.

*CRUNCH-CH*

And like that I'm set free. The couch drops down along with me, and the gravity effect ends. The couch itself is bent forward and crumpled vaguely like an accordion. The effect itself lasted about eight seconds and-

*KABOOM*

That was an explosion from outside! Bitch and her dogs are outside! They can't see shit because of Grue's darkness! I start running outside, only to see Tattletale, Grue, and Regent crumpled against the wall bleeding slightly from their eyeballs. Probably more under their masks. Well they're still breathing, so they're probably just unconscious. Hopefully. I take the fancy walkie talkie from Tattletale.

"Yo, is the boss on the other end of this?"

"Yes, yes I am, Amoeba. What happened to Tattletale?"

"She's down for at least the rest of the night, along with Grue and Regent."

*KABOOM*

"And that would be Oni Lee chasing after Bitch in Grue's darkness!"

"Hmm, quite."

"The bastard was waiting for us in ambush! What the fuck happened to your intelligence boss?! I thought you fixed this shit!!"

"Good point. However-" And he ends the timeline.

Prick.

Meanwhile​

In the other timeline we were dodging gangsters and bulldozing through their hastily constructed barriers. Whenever they caught up with us Grue let out a bunch of smoke to let us lose them. They're catching up to us far more often than I would like. I wouldn't be surprised if Lung offered any money to civilians who reported sightings of us. This feels way too coordinated. Then I found about Oni Lee.

"Grue! Grue this feels wrong! Like a delaying action! I think they're trying to delay us for cape support!" Tattletale twitches violently at that. "How big can you make your smoke cloud?"

"A couple blocks wide, but that'll take time. Time when it'll be real obvious where I am to Oni Lee if he's coming." Actually why hasn't he come to gib us? He's just a few blocks away in the safehouse after all.

"Is it riskier then having him catch us in the middle of fighting his men?" I ask. He stares at me for a second. He then starts positively flooding the area with black smoke. So much so that I feel a slight breeze as the wave of it hit my face. He does that for about forty seconds before muffledly yelling out.

"Follow me!" He starts leading us up a building, still covered in fog. He led us through a winding path through the alleys and streets after that. Took us backwards a couple times too to get us away from gangers or car crashes. All in all it was an uneventful journey through the fog. It was once we were out of the fog that things got interesting. It sounded like Tattletale got into a hushed argument with Coil.

"Boss wants us going down 27th Street on the way home."

---

"Boss wants us going down 31st Street on the way home."

Okay I guess we're having some more shenanigans on the way home. We didn't actually use the streets though. That would've been stupid. We used the rooftops right next to them. In the 31st Street timeline we came across something concerning. Some loud shouting in an Asian language. Grue brings our procession to a stop as we listen.

"Uh, sir, I don't actually speak Cantonese boss."

"Oh for fuck's sake, in english then! You see the children, just shoot. Doesn't matter your aim, just shoot. You see one lying on the ground? Shoot the little bitch twice more to be sure. We give them no chances to be clever or lucky, understand?" what follows is a short cheer, and a bunch of affirmative sounds. I myself get off the dog and creep my head up over the edge of the roof. Motherfucker, that's Lung. Lung and a squad of gangsters, Lung and a squad of gangsters walking out of the alley and towards our hideout. I see Grue poke his head out next to mine. I slowly back away and tug on him to follow.

"That was Lung." He says.

"Yep, and I think they know where our hideout is."

"..." From everybody else.

"I'm going to go distract him." I say.

"What!!" From Regent. "No, Taylor, that's crazy. We can leave everything there it's just stuff. And most of it's already moved anyways."

"There's also some sensitive information that Tattletale's been working with. We need to at least get that out of there. Look I'm not committing suicide here. They can't hold me, and I'll run away if it gets dicey. You just need to get all the sensitive and last minute stuff out before time runs out." He's still uncertain.

"It's a solid plan." From Grue. "Buy us just a few minutes and we'll be golden."

"I'll meet up with Bitch at the dog shelter after school tomorrow." And I jump down to the street.

Now my plan was to casually walk up behind them and punch one to the ground. Maybe quip a one liner in their faces as I did it. Unfortunately one of them saw me and-

*RATATATATA*

started blasting. I ran at him, punched his stupid face in, and turned to see all the other gangsters drawing on me. There's a pregnant pause as everybody finds their footing.

"...So I hear you're quite explicitly trying to kill me and my team."

"Fire." Orders Lung. What follows is a cocaphany of pistol and Uzi fire that echoes in the street and somewhat disorients me. None of it does them any good. I promptly run up to them at super speed and break each and every one of their necks. The escalation in violence being entirely justified here. They are a kill squad coming after me and mine. They get to die, simple as. In three short seconds there are seventeen new corpses on the ground surrounding Lung.

The man himself doesn't seem too bothered by this. Though it's hard to read facial expressions under that metal mask. He's shirtless, shoeless, has so many dragon tattoos on his body, a little bit of pudge obscuring his muscles, and he is just radiating heat right now based on the shimmer in the air. Oh wait, that last bit probably means he's angry.

"Honestly I did not think you had such ruthlessness in you considering the gentleness you treated my employees until now."

"Then you should have paid attention to the McCormicks."

"Hah! Die!" And he lobs a fireball at me. I dodge and it hits the brick wall behind me. I dodge the next two he sends at me as well and the flamethrower he breathes out at me. All of which is impressive with how fast he's belting these out, but I'm just faster. By the time he's stopped trying to burn me alive, the blacktop is steaming and one of the nearby buildings is on fire. Lung himself is breathing heavily and standing there braced. I let him catch his breath.

"...Hmmm. I am going to go kill your friends now." Fuck! No! By the time I've recovered from my panic he's turned his back and started walking away. I dash up to him, break his neck, flip him over me by his shoulders, and throw him through a brick wall.

...Did, uh, did that kill him? Surely not, right? I know it's been a few seconds, but if it was that easy the Nazis would've done it by now right? Hookwolf would've done it by now, right? Well sure enough I see a clawed hand pull an enlarged body out of that hole he made. Where once there was a six foot man, there is now a nine foot man in the throes of transformation. His mask is gone, as if that would do anybody any good in any circumstance, but it's especially useless now as his face is in the middle of elongating into a snout. Thankfully his pants survived. For now.

"Tha's more like i'!!" He exclaims. He throws more fireballs at me as I dodge again.

"You canno' ourrun me li'l girl, I arready win! I now 'ave zhe mass 'o burn your li'l hideou' to zhe rrround!!"

"And you think I'll let that happen?!" He just laughs in response and starts walking towards the loft again. I run up to him and trip him as violently as possible. Hopefully a broken leg will slow him down for a few minutes.

"Hahahahaha!!" And I watch as he shifts to a quadruped configuration. Goddamnit! "I wonner. Ho long 'afore you have hea's'roke?" And there's that too. The man is fully on fire now. He's purposely blasting fire up and down the street. And I'm... not feeling any of it? What the hell? Looking at the blacktop underneath me it's melting. And the only heat I feel from that is a slight warmth. What? I thought I was vulnerable to the elements. Is electricity just an extra specific weakness for me?

Well shit, I gotta test this. I move in to see if I can feel his heat under cover of breaking one of his arms/front legs. Worryingly he's getting durable enough to where I was only able to trip him up. And he's growing a tail now. But more importantly I'm fine!

Next is grappling. I move in to try and wrench him to the ground. Doesn't really work all that well. Super speed isn't all that useful in a grapple with somebody undoubtedly stronger than you. But I'm entirely untouched by the flames! And Lung himself is concentrating enough to where he has to shut up while fighting me.

Now the issue here is that this big old muscle head can't really lose a physical confrontation. His power makes him stronger, bigger, and meaner the longer he fights. Nigh unkillable in all circumstances, as my earlier attempt proves. Now how do I turn this into the kind of fight he can't out muscle, or walk away from? And as I look at him in his big ugly mug, I have it!

I disengage his hands/claws and scrabble up his arm. I punch him in his snout. And grab on. Now he knows something is up, but my speed is once again an asset to me in the fight. I suction cup my entire body up to his face before he can move his claws halfway up.

And then I start shoving myself bodily down his throat and up his sinus cavity. I'm about halfway in once he starts scrabbling at my face. I let that part of me go slack to the ground so he can't pull me out. Then I start dissolving him from the inside out. The man starts howling like a deranged wolf thing and breathing fire at me. It doesn't work. In fact it only allows me into his lungs as he breathes back in. And then I start dissolving those.

Suffice to say the next few minutes are extremely disgusting for everybody involved. I'm not proud of my work there, but I won't allow my team to get slaughtered by the mad unkillable bastard. Almost unkillable. Took a bit of doing, but I finally found something he couldn't live without. No idea what it was either, his power did some weird things to his insides. Makes me wonder what a medical professional would've done to get his fully powered form in an MRI. Eh.

I squirm my way out of his leaking carcass to the sound of Armsmaster's bike revving closer in the distance. I'm fully recovered here, but I'm not confronting the man in this situation. Fuck. That.

I start running towards Bitch's shelter. Her dogs know what I smell like by now, I'll be safe there.

Coil made the Lung fight timeline real ten minutes later



Powers gained this chapter

Mundane Supply World (The Celestial Foundry) (100CP)
This item gives you access to all the materials that one could get on Earth, but with one caveat, you'll have to find and harvest them yourself. Your warehouse gains a portal that is linked to an artificial plane of existence that is of infinite size in all directions, where humanity or sapience of any kind never developed. You can find an unlimited number of any resources given enough time, but they are spread around as would naturally occur in nature, meaning you have to often move when you exhaust the local supply. Resources are always located in environments where you would find them on Earth, and when you travel to this world, you are able to choose which environment you arrive in, or return to any prior location you have been before. Environments have realistic distances between them, so if you need something found in several biodomes you need to return to your warehouse, or use a fast transport of some kind.
Every time you gain a perk that requires access to a new raw material, this raw material appears in the most native form in this supply world and has to be collected as it normally would be. If your material is only found inside stars, you better be ready to get a rocket to go collect it somehow.

 

[Optimal Robotics]

"You did what!?" Brian isn't taking this as well as I'd thought. Alec on the other hand, is stifling a giggle in the corner. The other two are fairly stoic about this. It's actually Monday morning too. Bitch checked her pound early and called the others over.

"I didn't want to do it, he just threatened to walk off and kill you all if I wasn't keeping him busy. And he was getting unmanageably big."

"How did you even pull that off?"

"From the inside out. Look, that's not important. What's important is that we all survived a trap meant to kill us all. Why are you even upset about this anyway?"

"Rrrr... It's because our actions have consequences, even if they were only taken for survival. When this gets out people will expect us to take over his old territory. Or something. People who do robberies for a living don't make power moves like taking out the local gang boss Taylor. It just doesn't happen."

"Oh come on man, she probably did save our asses." Says Alec. "Lay off a little bit why don't you? Hey Lisa, what're the white hats saying about all this?"

"That's a good question. One second." She pulls out her phone, and starts tapping. About a minute later her eyebrows rise to the top of her forehead.

"Press release dropped a couple hours ago. They said Armsmaster captured him." Brian turns to look at me with the obvious unspoken question.

"Don't look at me like that! He was stone cold dead when I left! Not regenerating, bleeding out on the pavement, and I dissolved his lungs again on the way out. If he was faking, he was an incredible actor."

"Lung would never fake his death." Lisa supplies. "His pride and reputation would never allow it."

"You know what? That's fine. If the PRT wants to cover his death up I'm all for that. As long as it doesn't blow back on us. Was there anything else?"

"Yeah, I need help getting to the new base. I didn't actually go there because I was busy hanging out at the old one." Guarding Lisa's computer from Coil's thugs while she was out.

"Sure, just get on back of my bike. With a helmet on. I'm not blowing my identity by being seen in public with you and your face." We leave Bitch's dog shelter and... Oh yeah, Brian has a motorcycle. Not a very big one, but he does have it. I get on and he drives me to the new place. In a basement this time instead of a loft and closer to the shore and the boardwalk. We made the journey in a few minutes. I don't think I like motorcycles. They make me feel like jello on top of a washing machine.

---

School today was pretty standard. I've been slowly lowering my reading speed to something a little more conventionally possible. Both to stand out less, and to make sure I don't run out of things to read by the end of the school year. I have chewed through at least four percent of the school library so far, so it is a concern.

At the beginning of lunch Amy waylaid me in the hallways.

"Taylor! I heard the Undersiders had a little run in with the ABB last night. Did you have anything to do with the capture of Lung?" I narrow my eyes at her.

"Wouldn't you already know about all that?"

"I wish, the PRT is being unusually tight lipped about things. Normally they'd tell us the date of the prison transfer so we could be on standby if anything went wrong." Well I can guess the reason for that, now can't I?

"Well far be it from me to upset any plans the PRT have." I say with an eye roll. "I'll say that last night was far wilder than planned, but I can't bring myself to shed a tear over the results."

"Oooh..."

"What."

"Was Armsmaster hot?" I glare at her in response.

---

After the monotony that was school I started going to the new base. I stopped at a random disused doorway on the way to pick up my earpiece from my storage. I stopped at one of my usual restaurants. I get a table and then call my Dad while I'm waiting for the waitress. I trust the general noise of dinner rush to mask my conversation.

"Taylor? I saw the news speculating on last night. Please tell me you weren't involved."

"I'm pretty sure I killed Lung last night Dad."

"..."

"Dad?"

"Taylor, you're going to make me go bald. You know that, right?"

"Dad it's not that..." Bad.

"Taylor, you don't know what you're saying. Just about the only thing that can fix this is all the Nazis catching a similar case of dead or captured real soon, and I don't want you to be the one to have to do that. This will start a gang war when it gets out. And it will get out, it's too big not to. Even if your involvement might stay a secret."

"So what, am I just screwed?"

"I didn't say that. You could use this. If it gets out that Lung died early you could take credit before anything else happens. It could be a deterrent to those bounty hunting idiots coming here to collect."

"I don't think I like that idea."

"I don't either, but there's a lot of things I don't like about this situation. I just want you to be the safest you can be Taylor." He sounds tired.

"... So what do you think I could've done differently?"

"You could've faked your death and ran away."

"No!" I all but snap at him.

"Taylor these are still criminals we're talking about, right? The people who would've been trying to ferret us out and kill us if Coil thought it was a more convenient solution?" I narrow my eyes. Brian isn't a killer.

"And what would that have solved? A few unfortunate teenagers burnt to death, my bounty in Lung's pocket, and a return to status quo. The status quo sucks here Dad. In case you haven't noticed." I'm careful not to yell here in case somebody overhears.

"You are a very stubborn daughter." He sighs. "Do you have a plan?"

"The plan was to get rid of Coil first. I wasn't even going to touch the ABB beyond a few robberies here and there."

"Uh-huh."

"Well that obviously didn't go to plan. I do not plan these things Dad, they just happen. It's like ever since Mom died it's been an uninterrupted string of holidays called 'lets shit on Taylor Hebert today.' I hate it." He sighs again.

"Well whatever you do stay safe Taylor."

"You too Dad." And he hangs up.


AN: sorry about the delay guys, I got some serious IRL shit screwing with me. Unless things go fantastically I don't expect to be posting for at least a few months here.

 

[Optimal Robotics]

This is such bullshit.

I'm looking down at a particle physics book. I already know everything in here, and I know for a fact I've never touched this subject material in my life. It's not just this either. Materials sciences, biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, virology, astronomy, geology, computer science, statistics, and so many more. It's Thursday now, and the past couple days I've been scouring the library for something I don't know. Even now as I'm looking down at a graphic derived from the large Hadron collider from Aleph I can only feel satisfaction at a successful experiment. And that makes no goddamn sense!!

Whatever. More than sixty percent of the library is unavailable as reading material now. I'm not bitter, you're bitter. Fuck off. All I can read is fiction now. Which is fine, but-

*BBRRRIING*

The hell is that? The alarm sounds out a couple more times and I see students leaving the classrooms. Oh wait, I know. This was in orientation. In the case of a full Wards mobilization we're supposed to go to a preassigned room to help disguise their identities. Oh goody, wonder what absolute moron poked this hornet's nest. Never a dull moment in Brockton Bay, that's for sure.

I go to my assigned room with a stack of books and start reading. I make sure to keep a steady, but slowish pace. It was the first five books in a mystery series. I'm done in a half hour regardless. Goddamnit! I know they weren't the thickest of books, but come on! Can't the Wards have already wrapped this up by now? They have a couple brutes, a couple tinkers, a space warping powerhouse, and a striker whose power is just 'I win' if he touches you. I'm probably even forgetting someone too.

Screw it, may as well try socializing. I see a couple girls over by an open window with a cell phone out. Smart. Probably the only way past the faraday cage.

"Station eight news here live from Brockton Public Bank and Trust." They're watching the news? I walk up closer.

"Yes Susan. We're here with an update on the hostage situation that the Undersiders started." Who did fucking what now? I silently stalk up to the girls and eavesdrop on their phone. Molten rage flows through me as I learn more about the situation. Glory girl down. How the fuck?! Twenty seven other hostages, the vault cleared, a picture of one of Bitch's monster dogs through the window, and the Wards and PRT outside trapping them in there. I'm flabbergasted and livid at the whole situation.

"Hey, uh, Taylor, how are you doing?" One of the girls finally noticed me.

"I need to go to the bathroom." I say with a smile plastered onto my face. The two girls look at each other as I turn around and leave. The teacher takes note of me leaving, but I can't muster up a shit to give.

Now how do I want to play this? I need to get rid of Vista first, or else it's gonna be a real short escape attempt. The chemistry laboratory? No, probably guarded. I make a detour to the pool to steal a washcloth and siphon up some pool water. I can just exit the building right here and start running towards the bank. I'm in my 'slow' mode for some reason, but it still takes me less than a minute to get there. I weave through the PRT cordon at superspeed, slide up to Vista, and

"Hey, does this smell like chloroform to you?" As I slip the rag over her face. She struggles and muffledly screams as the troopers around us spray us down with containment foam. Impressive reaction speeds. Totally wrong reaction though.

Once Vista loses consciousness I tunnel a small hole through the containment foam and into the fray. Looks like the Wards were in the frontline of the response force here with Clockblocker in front, and the rest in a haphazard formation behind him. I pick out my second target: Aegis. Current leader of the Wards. Adaptive regenerator, with a side of flight. I run up to him, kick his knee out from under him sideways, and dislocate his shoulder.

"Oh God why!!"

"Oh stop whining. I know for a fact you've had worse than this." I then pick him up and throw him at Clockblocker. Oh good, he was in too much pain to use his flight. They're both sprawled on the ground right now. Hopefully out of the fight for at least a few seconds. Then a super bright light from behind me staggered me forward. Turning around I see Kid Win has some sort of energy cannon set up and he's already charging up another shot. Fuck that noise though. I run up to it and kick it as hard as I can in a sensitive looking part. The thing shorts out in a small electrically charged explosion. Perfect. I'm already charging ahead into the bank. All that's left of the Wards are Gallant, who will be absolutely useless in stopping us, and some new guy. The new guy looks like a brute, and unless he's also a mover he will also be useless to catch us.

I enter the bank. The lobby looks a little ruined with a bunch of civilians being corralled by two of Bitch's dogs. The third one is sitting down with Glory Girl's arm in it's mouth. The rest of Glory Girl is, thankfully, still attached and is looking incredibly grumpy. A bit bloody though. The guys have tote bags of presumably money ready to go, and the only other notable thing here is that Tattletale's dominant arm is broken. Not sure how broken as it's already in a splint, but it is broken.

"Guys? What. The fuck."

"Amoeba, I told you-" Starts Grue, but he's interrupted by Glory Girl.

"I knew it! I knew you were a villain!"

"Shut up, you." As I shove the Chloroform rag in her face. I motion for him to continue.

"I told you when you joined that you get no vote on jobs you aren't available for." My eye twitches at the idiocy of that statement.

"Let's table that discussion until we're back at base. First of all how'd you take down Glory girl here? Isn't she a mini Alexandria?" I feel the subject in question go limp. I remove the rag.

"Ha!" Cries out Tattletale. "She didn't live up to the hype. We can discuss that at the base too if you want. The more important thing please." She looks to be in pain. Her ribs are probably injured too. Hmm.

"We need to go before Vista wakes back up. I could tell from the news that she was doing something screwy with space, and I'd rather not deal with it legitimately."

"Right, just let me get the rest of the money." Says Alec.

"Fuck the money! Let's go!"

"Figuratively fucking the money, yes ma'am." As he does an about face.

"Now hold on." From Grue. "I didn't come all the way here and almost get captured to come back empty handed. I'm getting paid for this job." He crosses his arms at me. I walk up to him so the hostages don't overhear me.

"I swear to God Grue, I'll get you all paid. All at once even. I just need you all not to have robbed this bank by the time we're done here."

"Oh yeah?"

"She's telling the truth Grue." Interjects Tattletale. "In the meantime my arm is broken and I'm in a lot of pain. If we're swinging a bunch of full duffel bags around I'm not sure if I'll be able to hold on all the way to base. You gonna leave me behind for the sake of your pride?" He looks around at us all.

"Fine. We're leaving then."

"I'm going to go back to school. Just to make sure nobody questions what I've been doing." I whisper over to them. I'm not overly worried about making him wait. It was a little bit after lunch when the situation happened, and school is out at three.

"Angelica. Drop it." From Bitch to the dog holding Glory Girl. She rag dolls to the floor. Everybody gets on the dogs except for me and we all make our escape through the front windows. Me with my ludicrously fast speed, and the rest of them bully a van out of the way. They'll be fine.

I got back just in time for the rest of the school day to be cancelled. Apparently due to secret identity concerns. Hey, no skin off my bones. That just lets me get back to the hideout faster. Back at the hideout I see everybody but Bitch seated in a circle.

"Oh good, she's here." From Brian. "So it's come to my attention I may have been a bit too harsh back at the bank. Maybe. But what exactly gave you the idea you had the authority to say anything about a job you had no say in?"

"Well one, the fact I had to save your asses from an entire team of capes sent your way. The second being that this may have screwed up the entire team's vigilante status."

"I fucking told you so!"

"Shut up Alec, we already know your opinion. So you're saying you're mad we made a team wide decision without you. Like you did while killing Lung?"

"You mean the thing nobody knows I did that also saved your lives? You stupid son of a bitch, this was on the news!! This is an escape artist team, why would you ever expose yourself like that?!"

"For the money! We had fifty grand there easy! And the boss promised to match our take!" I get up and start dissolving a fistful of chair.

"I think you're forgetting about something I can do."

"What, are you resorting to threats now?"

"No, it's a demonstration." As I close my fist around the sizzling wood. "You have forgotten about my most profitable ability." I open my fist and let three small clear stones clatter to the floor. "Three dimensional chemical printing. Diamonds motherfucker! Had you brought this to my attention I would have bribed you to not take the job."

He takes a look at the diamonds on the floor, takes a deep breath, gets up, and storms off. I look to the side.

"Lisa, what the fuck?" She shifts in her chair, injury clearly bothering her.

"I didn't think it would go this bad. The boss said he was using his power to assist."

"Well he didn't because we're currently having this conversation in both timelines, Lisa."

"Well shit, I think I'm gonna go make dinner." From Alec as he gets up. "You know, away from all this secret shit." And he leaves.

"Which makes us-"

"The distraction." She interrupts me.

"Well I was gonna say totally screwed, but that works too. Say what was the deal with Glory Girl?"

"Oh, we got unlucky. She was there doing a deposit or something for her family. She broke my arm and got literally dog piled for it. Her power must not work as advertised, because that was enough to take her down."

"And why the torching of our reputation?"

"Well the boss wanted it done and it came down to a vote. I voted yes because of the promise of our boss's support. Bitch voted yes for the money. Brian voted yes to wrest some control back over his life. Apparently he's been feeling a bit insecure as team leader ever since you showed up. Surprisingly, Alec was the only person who considered the legal aspect of it."

"Oh God damnit. And they say girls are the emotional gender."

"Ha! Ow, shit. Please don't make me laugh like that."



AN: So stress might be my muse.

Well she can fuck right off if that's the case.


Powers gained this chapter:

SCIENCE! (Megamind) (100CP)
You can do science! Mad science is your bread and butter, but that sort of thing can't be done if you don't have the basics first. This perk provides you an extensive, vast knowledge in every branch of science that exists in the world, from maths to biology to astrophysics to everything in between!
No matter what it may be, if it can be called a science, you have skills and knowledge equivalent to a lifetime's worth of study and research in it. This carries over to future worlds, but the extent of your knowledge and skills reduces the more complicated and esoteric the science in question gets. You'll always have a novice's level of skill, anyway.

 

[Optimal Robotics]

This is such bullshit.

I've just been 'informed' that my transport is going to be delayed for a month so they don't confuse mine for Lung's. Now I have to spend. Another. Goddamn. Month. Looking at these same four metal walls around me. So much hatred. I mean it's not like I'm in any kind of hurry to get to the containment zone. But goddamn, it's gotta be less boring than this!

I've tried everything I could to stay entertained. But everybody else here is above me, books are boring as shit, and they don't let me run at all because of this stupid tinkertech taser they got attached to my ankle. Has to be within a certain distance of bla bla bla bla bla. Pretty much the only thing I can do here is calisthenics. But even pushing myself and feeling the burn got old after a while. Not even the new exercise charts they got me helped with that.

If only that little bitch Hebert didn't blow my identity. The Nazis killed my brother because of that, and I'll see her dead for it one way or another. Not too much on that front, though the guards did let a few things slip. For one, apparently my 'attempted murder' made national news for a while. What dramatic fuckheads. I mean it serves that Piggy bitch right, but still. Second thing is, she apparently joined the Undersiders. Heh. Two birds one stone as far as I'm concerned. That darkness generating Grue also has it coming. Kinda surprised he survived our last encounter to be honest, but I'm down for round two.

In funnier news I heard Dean got his legs broken-

*BOOM*

My head jerks in the direction I heard the explosion from. That's not right. I'm in one of the basement levels of PRT HQ right now. There's no way-

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

Okay, yeah, fuck me sideways. Hiding in the fucking bathroom corner now. That's supposed to be the sturdiest part of any construction right? What is even going on up there? It sounds like the explosions are gonna continue until morale improves. Or until everybody's dead. They're getting closer too. I snap my head to my ankle bracelet and glare at it with hatred. Stupid fucking thing. If I didn't have it on I could just leave. And I know from experience it's gonna take more than a couple minutes to pry off of me.

*BOOM*

Getting closer.

*BOOM*

Goddamnit!!

*BOOM*

Just fucking leave already would y-

*BOOM*

The door to my cell blasts off its hinges and pancakes on the opposite wall like we're in fucking looney tunes. I feel the adrenaline ROAR in my veins as the dust clears.

A figure in a gas mask pokes their head in.

"Well who the fuck is this bitch?!" She yells out. She retreats and some armed asian dickhead enters my cell. The ABB?

"I think it's Shadow Stalker." A flash of movement catches my eye.

"The crazy bitch who got her sadism boner caught in the cookie jar? Holy shit that's hilarious!" It's my shock anklet rolling around the floor.

"Hey crazy bitch, you know where Lung is? This is the special containment section so he should be around here somewhere." They must have broken it's power source with all those stupid explosions.

"Yo. Bitch. Say something." My power must have activated automatically when the explosion came through.

"What the fuck is she doing?!" It does that sometimes like with that grenade that one time.

"Staring at the floor" I'm free!

"Then kill her and move on!" I've activated my power and started moving forward by the time she's finished talking. Fuck this new asian cape and the couch she rode in on. I'm not dying here, and if I am it's not going to be from some gangbanging dipshits like these. I feel bullets pass through my shadowed form from the idiot I'm charging and the open door. I become tangible just long enough to grab him and phase us both through the wall. I make sure to leave him half in though. Not exactly sure what will happen to him without me to pull him out, but I guess the PRT can find out if they want.

I leave immediately out of the back of the cell though. I heard how fast she was cracking cell doors open, and I want no part of it. Shouldn't be too hard to escape the rest of the way either. The troopers have other things to be dealing with right now.

*BOOM*

Like that.

Next step would be retrieving one of the stashes I stored inside crawlspaces and walls. Cash, fresh clothes, spare costume, and lethal bolts. Everything's gonna be coming up Shadow Stalker. Then I can kill that weakling Taylor Hebert.

I can take her, easy.


AN: so apparently bad things aren't happening yet. Though I'm still expecting a major disruption to my posting in the next few months. Not sure if I'll be able to give any more warning than that.