"Amy," Victoria began. After briefly talking to Glory Girl in front of the news teams, we decided it would be better to take this somewhere more private. I had teleported us to my house, and immediately collapsed under the strain of teleporting three people and myself across half of the city. Victora and Amy were out of costume now, talking in the kitchen. Lisa sat in the living room with me while we pretended not to be listening. Somewhat oddly, I felt an underlying urge to go in and help them. To attempt to fix their friendship problem together, after all, we were kind of all friends with each other. But I didn't because this was their friendship problem to solve.
Didn't stop me from listening though.
"I don't get why you don't want to come back," Victoria said. "I mean, I get it Mom was a little harsh that night but-"
"A little harsh?" Amy asked accusingly. "Vicky, everything she said was based only on the idea that I might have done something illegal that night."
"And it was wrong," Victoria's stressed. "But come home, Amy. Things have been… stressed lately and I think it's because they're worried about you."
"Really?" Amy asked in a clearly disbelieving tone. "Or is it because I'm not where they can see me?"
"I-What? Amy, that doesn't make any sense."
"For I don't know how long I've been either at the hospital or at home or flying halfway across the fucking world to help some random child with an incurable disease. And the every moment of my life, Carol knew where I was. She knew what I was doing. She had control.
"Then the first night I go out she gets upset. She wants control Vicky, and she got upset because I got out of it for a bit."
"You know that isn't true! Mom didn't make you do all that, that was your choice to-"
"Not much of a choice is it!" Amy interrupted, her voice hitching for a moment. "It was Carol who suggested it. In fact, it was one of the few real gifts she gave me."
"What are you talking about?"
"When I got my healing powers Carol had gone to the hospitals and made up the papers for me, set them on my bed for when I got home. Never even asked me Vicky, not once. Because she wanted it."
"Stop it, Amy. Just stop. Mom isn't a control freak, she's just worried about you. Please, Amy, come home. I get that spending some time with the friggin cartoon horse is funny, but we want you to come home. I want you to come home."
"Vicky, I don't want to go home," Amy said sternly.
"... Amy, why?"
"Because I'm not hated here!" She shouted, causing me to jump a little. "I don't have to deal with Carol's fucking looks and off-handed comments. I don't have to deal with Mark forgetting to take his pills in the morning and getting into one of his moods because of it. Here? I at least have friends."
"Amy, we're sisters." Victoria pleaded. "Are you really putting some friends you've known less than a month above me? And all because you think Mom secretly hates you and wants to control your life? Because you think she's a control freak?"
"Do you really think Mark would be as depressed as he is if she wasn't?"
Things fell silent in the kitchen. I strained my ears to try and make out what was going on, but there wasn't anything. After a moment, I heard the back door opening followed by two sets of footsteps. I rose to my hooves to see what was going on, but as I entered the kitchen Victoria came back into the room.
"She surrounded herself with plants," Victoria said, a touch of exasperation and disbelief in her voice. "I've never seen her do that with anything before. She just made a massive shell around herself."
"And that's not the worst of it," Lisa said casually as she looked out the window. "Because now she is restructuring the plants into something that might be able to keep you out."
"Fuck," Victoria swore.
"I can try talking to her," I offered weakly.
"No," Lisa said before Victoria could say anything. "She really just wants to be alone right now. Give her some space and time, she'll come around."
Victoria let out a sigh and hung her head. "I guess I'll just go then," she said, disappointment creeping into her voice. She started shuffling towards the door when she paused and looked up, eyes narrowed at the two of us.
"And you two," she said accusingly. "You take care of Amy until she comes back to her senses and comes home."
She threw open the door and walked out, leaving it wide open and the two of us stuck in silence. I stood there silently for a moment before closing the door with my magic.
"Well," Lisa began in her most cheerful voice. "Does that mean we're ready to go over what we learned? Because I've been dying to unload this info on someone."
"Actually," I began a little glumly, "I was going to head out and stretch my wings for a bit." Lisa crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at me.
"Really?"
"Um, yeah."
"And this doesn't have anything to do with you trying to escape so you can be alone with your thoughts."
I shot her a look and didn't say anything.
"Alright, alright," she said with her hands raised. "But whatever it is that is bothering you, you're not going to figure it out flying around aimlessly. Besides," Lisa paused and looked me over. "You've used your magic all day. Flying the two of us, teleporting a lot, ripping a warehouse in half, then teleporting us across the city. Maybe instead, you should just go upstairs and think things out?"
I knew what she was doing, but I appreciated it all the same. Giving her a stiff nod, I began walking towards my room.
Opening the door with my magic I immediately climbed up on my bed and collapsed. Today had been irritating. The Four are sneaky, far too determined to undermine capes for a powerhouse like me to get at them effectively without go-betweens like Lisa. It grated, not being able to go in there on my own, not being able to take any action until someone else has set them up for me. Of course, I could have gone in guns blazing. Ripped off the roof, threw up a bubble shield to protect me while I destroyed their weapons, maybe invent a binding spell to tie them all up. But not only was that property damage for the sake of property damage, it probably wouldn't work as well as I hoped. And with all the security they put in place for all other kinds of capes, it wasn't much of a stretch to think they had something in place for someone like Glory Girl or Alexandria attacked them. Granted, I had no idea what they planned to do if Alexandria came after them, but I wouldn't put it past them at least try.
I was a glowing alicorn at the best of times and a hardcore fan of Nova when in human form. There was no way I was going to get inside their operations like Lisa. The most useful thing I had right now was an ever-growing reputation that sometimes helped intimidate people, but even then Panacea had done more to do that recently than I have. Unless there was some sort of spell I could whip up, I was basically resigned to the supporting role until we cleared these people out.
While it was annoying, it was also nice to know I had friends I could count on and trust to help me complete a job. But I was going to need more than some talented friends. I was going to need more spells, and lots of them.
My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of my father coming in through the front door. Shaking my head free of my thoughts, I climbed off my bed and when to rejoin Lisa downstairs. It would probably be better if we discussed what we learned tonight without waiting any longer. We still had to destroy the rest of The Workers and find out more about this guy supposedly in control of them. And that left a lot of work ahead of us.
***
"Sir," A Worker said respectfully on the other end of the line. Max Clay spun around in his chair boredly, tapping his fingers idly as he held the phone up to his face.
"Mhmm, what is it?" He asked, clearly not caring all that much.
"One of our men just leaked our passphrase to the PRT. Their circulating information about it now."
"Ah, damn," Max said, with about as much care as he showed before. "Well, isn't that a downer. Go frame him for a murder or something, I don't care."
"Yes sir, but we were wondering…"
"Wondering what?"
"Uh, if we were going to retaliate against Nova and Cheshire at all?"
"What? Now, why would we do that?"
"Well, sir, she did attack our main operation. And if what she said is true, she exposed one of your secrets."
"One of them," Max agreed. "But by no means a reason to attack her, unless you've come up with a plan to combat her that our war council hasn't."
"No sir, but what about-"
"All Nova and Cheshire have done is force us to reveal ourselves a little earlier than intended. Give it a little time, and I'll get us control of the situation again. In the meantime, make sure Max Ander's assistant has the package for when we do."
"Alright, sir."
Max hung up the phone and lightly tossed it on his desk. He paused a moment and reached for the bottom drawer, pulling it open to reveal it was full of suckers. As he picked out a tangerine flavoured one, his phone began to ring again. Max shot it a sour look and then eyed his sucker again. With a sigh, he held off on the sucker and answered the phone.
""Ello?" Max asked, even though he already knew who it was.
"Max," The smug, sour voice he had become so familiar with answered him. "Would you like to tell me why I'm getting reports a Thinker was able to infiltrate one of our bases."
"Not particularly, no," Max answered idly. "You know how Thinkers are, real pains in the ass."
"Quite," the man on the other side answer snidely. "I that case, I suggest you hurry and show us you are in charge of the Brockton Bay branch. Because if you can't then, well, I don't have to remind that we can put you right back where we found you. Understand?"
"Yes sir," Max said with his normal bored tone as he twirled the sucker in his hand.
"Good," The man hung up. Max tossed his phone back on his desk and pop the sucker in his mouth.
"Prick," he stated.
***
"Mentally, they're all what you can expect from a parahuman." The therapist said. "Though Regent and Biohazard worry me a little."
"How so," Piggot asked sternly. She was looking at the recently captured villains in their cells. After failing to pull off a bank heist, they were sitting in individual cells where Piggot was able to watch them. The one named Ergo was sitting cross-legged on top of his bed, his head hung low. He wore a green suit with white accents, along with a green hood that helped mask his face with the green domino mask he wore.
Biohazard wore an all-black costume decorated with red and yellow biohazard signs. She also appeared to suffer from hyperactivity as well. Already she had flipped the bed on its side, grabbed the mattress and repositioned it in several places around the room. Each location not lasting more than a few minutes before she moved it again.
Regent was pretending like he was trying to sleep, with one arm draped over his face and another dangling off the edge of the bed. He hadn't done much since arriving And neither had the one named Grue, who pacing back and forth across his cell.
"Well," The therapist began, unsure of where to start. "Biohazard cannot sit still very long will probably need medication to calm her down. But more importantly, it seems she doesn't understand certain boundaries."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I mean, according to her she nearly died early on because cut open her hand to get a better understanding of how her bones worked. Then she talks about opening up other people and maybe taking a few organ they don't need. Make no mistake, I'm not saying she is a psychopath, she just doesn't understand those actions are wrong and it is going to be hard to teach her that."
'These are the people I'm getting forced to hire?' Piggot thought to herself.
"How about Regent?" She asked.
"That one is a sociopath." The therapist said with a nod. "He didn't say much in terms of family history or anything that would help me corroborate it, but by all accounts, he seems to lean in that direction."
"Is he going to be dangerous to the other Wards?"
"Well…" the therapist began. "I wouldn't say so, but I'm going to need more sessions with him to make a more accurate assessment."
"Fine, what about Ergo, did he say anything?"
"Him? He is pretty straightforward. He wants money, the freedom to use it, and a lab. He isn't actually a Tinker in the normal sense, but he claims his power helps him in academic pursuits of science. Past that, he doesn't care who he works for or why, so long as those conditions are met."
"Are they safe to become Wards?" Piggot finally asked plainly.
"I would say so, so long as considerations are made for them."
"Then let's get this over with," she said, grabbing the papers she would need.
"So yeah," Lisa said as she took another bite of cereal. "That was basically it."
Dad let out a sigh as he played idly with his food. "When I asked about everything you two did yesterday, that wasn't exactly what I was expecting… that."
Lisa shrugged in response.
"Hey, Lisa," I asked, taking a bite of my own breakfast. "When do you think Amy is going to come out of the dome in our backyard?"
"She'll leave now if you go and talk to her," Lisa answered.
"Speaking of Amy and other things," My dad began. "Do you two know what you're going to be doing when you get home from school?"
Lisa and I shared a look.
"Well," I began. "Lisa and I decided that if we started pushing The Workers, we'll either get rid of them or they'll retaliate and we can fight back."
"And exactly how dangerous are these Workers?" The question was directed at Lisa.
"Oh, not that dangerous," Lisa said, then paused. "For the most part anyway. At least, I doubt they have anything that can quite stop God's Hammer over there." She pointed a spoon at me and I shot a look back at her. I was about to say something when there was a knock on the door.
Dad got up to answer it out of instinct when I saw Lisa's eyes narrow in its direction, a frown growing on her face. That usually wasn't a good sign. I watched carefully as my dad pulled open the door and reveal a short man with curly red hair, nerdy glasses, and a tight fitting business suit.
"Good morning," the man said with a nod of his head. "My name is Tom Monta, and I'm here to discuss some extracurricular activities your daughter has been a part of recently."
I straightened up in alarm, but Lisa didn't make a move. Just watched him with the same narrowed eyed expression. Dad shot us a quizzical look, but upon hearing no objects he stood aside and let the man in.
He approached the table with no reservations, not even pausing at the look Lisa was giving him.
"Just you two?" He asked casually. "I was under the impression there was a third," He spoke with a slight British accent and stood completely straight.
"She's indisposed at the moment," Lisa answered. "Why are you here?"
"I've come to deliver a message from my employer," Tom answered, pulling a letter out of his suit pocket. "He sends this in conjunction with the message that all the villains in the city are moving against the conspiracist group you brought to light just yesterday. Even the Merchants have come to an agreement with the others on how to approach." He handed the letter to me, which I took and then shifted so Lisa could see it along with me.
'Nova and Cheshire," it read, "You may know me as the villain Coil. And because of that, I understand any reservations you might in regards to assisting me, but know that I offer some valuable compensation if you do. Today, the villains will be out enforce, and we neither want to get in your way nor do we want you to get in ours. So I propose a truce of sorts, an alliance, even. We won't bother each other as we take down the four conspiracy groups and you will hit some of their harder targets. Enclosed in this envelope is a list of secret locations of bases The Four use that would be optimal for you to target.
'As incentive, I offer one hundred thousand dollars, hidden in a location known only to Mr. Monta. And secondly, I offer you the name of the man that pulled the trigger on Rune. Also information Mt. Monta has. I ask that you kindly consider my offer.'
When I finished I let Lisa pull it out of my hand to look it over as the words tumbled around in my mind. That was a good amount to process at one time. The cities villains had apparently entered a brief alliance with each other to fight The Four. One of these villains was attempting to hire me, knew my secret identity, and knew Rune's killer. I didn't know if I wanted to demand information or run out the door to go help in the fight.
"I was told to give you this as a sign of goodwill," Tom stated as he pulled a second envelope from his coat pocket. He held it out to me showing that it was unsealed and a lot of money was contained inside. All one hundred dollar bills. "Just to show Coil will make good on his word," Tom assured me. Gingerly, I took the package and set it on the table as if I was afraid to touch it. Which, to be fair, I was in a certain sense. I was being led into something I was completely unsure how to handle and I could very quickly get in over my head.
"So, to clarify," I began. "Coil wants me to take this payment, go after these locations he wants me to, and not attack the other villains?"
"In essence, yes."
I resisted telling him exactly how suspicious that was and just turned to Lisa to see how she was gauging it. She was wearing a look I had come to associate with her being on the fence about something as she continued to scan through the letter.
"It's not a lie," she said slowly. "But we're missing something." She looked up at Tom and shot him a look. He held up his hands passively and said,
"I'm just a messenger, I'm not aware of such things."
"But you're not just a messenger, are you?" Lisa accused. Tom's expression didn't even twitch.
"I have no idea what you mean. I'm just another person he has hired to do a job." Lisa made a face at him but turned away. She faced me and took a deep breath before sighing.
"It's up to you Nova," she said. "No one is lying, as far as I can tell."
"But we would be working with villains," I stated plainly. Lisa shrugged.
"In a way, yes, but has siding with the heroes really helped us out at all yet?"
"Now hold on," Dad said, coming up to the table. "It was one thing when you girls were going out to fight these dangerous gangs on your own, but working with villains? Taking money from Coil? Isn't that going a little too far?"
I bit my lip as I considered that. He was wrong, this was very different from what we normally do. Not to mention the possible connotations of accepting money from a known supervillain. But I wasn't just being offered money, I was going to learn who it was that killed Rune. Somewhere there was a part of me that knew that whoever did it was just a guy taking orders from someone else far, far up the command chain. But at the same time, I didn't care. I wanted to know, I needed to. Besides, if all goes well, then we could be a few steps closer to this 'Max Clay' we've learned about. Not to mention, the villains uniting like this could possibly mean running these gangs out of the city entirely. I couldn't pass up that chance.
"Maybe," I answered him. "But we're all after the same things in the end, to get rid of these gangs."
I turned and looked at Tom, who had been standing passively the entire time. "Will do it."
"Good," he answered with a nod before retrieving yet another envelope from his coat. "You'll find all the promised information in here, I wish you the best of luck." He placed the envelope on the table and turned around on his heels, heading for the door.
"Taylor," Dad asked seriously. "Are you sure about this? Associating with supervillains?"
"It's actually not that uncommon," Lisa cut in. "When a threat like this pops up it isn't that strange that villains make nonaggression pacts with the heroes and other villains to deal with the threat. What was odd was how they came here, to your house, and made the deal."
I nodded in agreement. "Because that either means they're really afraid of what I might do-"
"-or it was a power play." Lisa finished. "Showing you that he knows things without tipping his hand. Like really subtle blackmail."
"So our house is no longer safe," Dad concluded with a frown.
"To be fair," Lisa said. "He probably knew for a while so we aren't any less safe, so to speak."
"Not reassuring," Dad said dryly. Lisa shrugged.
"Is there any way we can lose him?" I asked Lisa. "If we bought a new house? Moved across town?"
"Well," Lisa said slowly. I could see her working things out in her head. "Not publically. If any of us bought a house, we would be noticed. And we still got a few weeks before the companies we gave the potions to announce the new product and we can get the money to purchase a new house, given the hundred thousand Coil just gave us probably won't buy a decent house."
"But…?" I prompted as I sensed she was going somewhere with this. Lisa grinned at me.
"But if a supervillain were to use the accounts where I'm holding all my illegal money to make a massive withdraw, then used E88 business to clean it for a small fee, then said supervillain purchased a house under the radar, then a particular Alicorn teleported all your belongings to said house, we might be able to shake him for a while. But that doesn't exactly solve a lot of problems."
"Because he still knows who we are," I said with a nod. Even if we did all that, Coil would still know who my Dad was and who I was. So while even if we managed to relocate to a place he didn't know about, it would only be a matter of time until he did simply because we would go back and forth to school and work a lot. It was almost not even worth the effort because of that.
"I think you two are going at this the wrong way," Dad stated, causing both me and Lisa to look at him with a small amount of surprise. Dad gave a small smile with just a hint of smugness and said,
"Look, the biggest threat of this villain knowing who we are is that they might attack our civilian identity. But even since Taylor has been going out to fight villains, I've been looking into all of this cape stuff. And apparently, there are things called unwritten rules that so you can't do that."
"It isn't as simple as that," Lisa answered him. "They're more like guidelines, but for it to be enforced everyone would have to know he attacked our civilian identities. Kind of defeating the point."
"But that is what I'm saying," Dad pressed. "We join New Wave as a third family, because you kind of are living with us Lisa, reveal our identities so that they can't be attacked without everyone knowing and we'd have New Wave to back us up."
Lisa opened her mouth to contradict him then stopped herself. She closed her mouth and started considering it. It would be a little harder and more complicated than my dad described, but it wasn't impossible. The idea of going against the norm like that felt weird, but I could see it working. But even more oddly, I felt my mind drift towards school and the reaction people would have to me. Right now, my identity was protected by the sheer fact everyone thought Nova was some sort of Case 53. Could I throw that away after spending the effort to keep it concealed? Maybe, if it meant making father safer. And who knows, maybe have a popular cape as a daughter would give him more leverage at work?
"It could work, if done right." Lisa finally said. "But I think we should wait."
"Right," Dad said with a nod. "But I think I'll give Carol a call and talk to her about, I got her number when the three of you did that deal with the companies."
"Alright," I said rising from the table. "I think we all sort of agreed that school isn't going to be a thing today."
"Yup," Lisa said, standing up to join me. "I'll get my costume on real quick." I nodded to her and start striding for my room. I heard my dad sigh as we left.
"Be careful you two."
***
Amy sat nervously on the edge of the bed thing she had made as she considered things. She had never used her power like this before, creating a dome and then hardening the outside of it. Making edible fruit out of some of the plants so she wouldn't have to face the embarrassment of going inside to get breakfast. Crafting a bed out of a soft moss-like material. It wasn't perfect but it had worked for last night.
Every time she thought about going back inside she felt a flutter of anxiety at how they would react to her, at the awkwardness of it all. In the end, she decided she would just stay in her little hut until she was sure everyone had gone to school or work. Then she would turn this thing back into plants, head inside, and hoped no one mentioned it when they came home.
And then there was a knock on the dome.
Her breath caught in her throat as she thought what to do and how to respond, what she would do if it was Victoria. And then she heard,
"Amy? I just wanted to check on you. Are you doing okay?"
She let out a sigh of relief, it was just Danny. After a moment of hesitation, she touched the walls of the dome and opened up a little doorway for him. Danny came into the room looking mildly amazed at it all. He turned around and looked at the door for a moment before spinning and looking at her.
"This is pretty incredible," Danny stated as he touched one of the dripping moss plants she had made to produce water.
"Um, thanks?" Amy responded weakly, unsure of where to go from here. Danny turned to her and let out a sigh. He didn't look all that great. He still had dark circles under his eyes and a general defeated look about him. Not all of the time, Amy had notice. He didn't have it when Taylor was in the room, but he couldn't quite get rid of it completely.
"Taylor and Lisa have already headed out," he said. "I'm leaving for work here in a few minutes, but I wanted to talk to you about something."
Amy held her breath as she prepared for whatever commentary he had. She had replayed hypothetical conversations with Lisa and Taylor about this more than once, but she was unprepared when it came to Danny.
"Taylor is doing some dangerous work," Danny said. "Fighting some gangs that have killed other capes, capes that have been around for a very long time. And now she accepted money from a supervillain to help fight them. I know her reasons, but it doesn't change the facts." Danny raised his gaze to look at her. "It makes me feel better to know you're out there with her, able to heal and help her if she needs it."
"I'm not sure how I'm, um…." Amy trailed off as she searched for the words she was looking for only to find she didn't even know where she was going with that. Danny walked forward and put a hand on her shoulder.
"What I'm trying to say Amy is that I'm glad my daughter is friends with you, I'm glad she has your help with things. And whatever issues you are having at home, we're all here to assist you with them. You're welcome to come back inside whenever you want. And if you want to talk about things, we'll all be here. And if you don't that's fine too. I won't make you go home if you don't want to."
"Thanks, Mr. Hebert," Amy said quietly. Danny smiled a little and said,
"Don't mention it kiddo, but I got to get to work now. See you after while." Danny turned around and start to walk out. Amy watched him leave, thoughts flying through her mind as she considered his words. Then slowly, she reached out to touch the dome and began to break down the walls she had made around herself
"Men!" Max shouted. He was standing a catwalk overlooking the Industry members that had gathered in the warehouse. He spotted the cameras he ordered to be set up to distribute the message to the other members. He gave the cameras a hard look before going into his well-rehearsed speech.
"Our informants have revealed that all the villains in the city have come together to strike us down. Which means we can no longer operate under the cover of four different gangs. What you have been hearing in the news is true, you are all working for the same cause, by the same employers. And today, it has come time to unite and fight against these villains. It is time to do what we have been preparing for.
"It isn't simply enough to beat them!" Max raised his voice and leaned against the railing of the catwalk to communicate his tone. "It is to take away any trust they have in each other, which is why our moles will be making the first strike. And then, it is your job," Max pointed at them all, "to show the world that humanity is perfectly capable fighting against parahumans! After our moles have torn them in half, crippled their already tenuous trust in each other, it is up to you to perform the plans we have spent years perfecting. Remember your training, and do what you were hired to do. We will divide them! Tear them apart! Make them turn on each by planting seeds of doubt and growing hatred! And when it is over, we will watch them burn!"
Max stepped away from the edge and step to walk away, letting the gather people cheer or start to shuffle away as they chose. He still heard the cheering men as he opened the door to his personal exit and began to climb down the ladder, getting to the ground just a few feet back from a sleek black car waiting for him.
"Our base on Third and Clark Jeeves," Max said as he slid into the back seat of the car. The man in the front shot him a curious look in the rearview mirror.
"Third and Clark?" The driver asked. "Isn't that one of the bases we leaked to Coil's men?"
"I don't pay you to question my life choices," Max answer with rude sarcasm.
"Uh, yes sir."
As the driver started the car and started in his way, Max pulled out a clipboard and several sheets of paper and wrote some names at the top of each.
"Coil, Lung, Whirlygig, Faultline, Fog and Night, Fenja, Menja, Oni Lee," Max murmured as he scribbled them on. Then he paused and considered something for a moment.
"Does it say something that these speeches are the most tiresome part of my job?"
"I'm afraid I don't understand sir."
Max rolled his eyes. "Of course not, I don't pay you to do that either." He fell silent as he began writing out his contingency monologues.
***
"The bombs are in place," the radio buzzed. The Doctor squad leader hit the response button and said,
"Get clear and hit it."
"Wilco."
The squad leader let the radio drop silently as he stared at the Palanquin. Faultline left not too long ago, leaving behind just one of their own. A strange bald man named Gregor the Snail.
The squad leader watched the club silently as he waited for confirmation from the bomb team. He got some confirmation from the gunmen on the exits and the two snipers across the street, each one making it seem like the bomb men were taking too long.
Their confirmation came when the front of the Palanquin exploded.
"Move in!" He shouted as soon as they were going, raising his own assault rifle. Five men followed behind him as they approached the building. He kept his eyes peeled for any movement inside. Gregor the Snail wasn't much of a threat in this situation, probably died in the event of the explosion.
"Sir," the radio went off. "We have a problem."
As soon as it was said, the squad leader saw it. The building was changing shape.
"Labyrinth!" He shouted, plucking Kinder gas canister off his belt. "Smoke her!" Immediately, everyone went for their own canister. Within seconds what was left of the club was beginning to fill with smoke. The squad leader pulled out a grenade, popping the pin and holding the lever down as he waited for the gas to reach a critical mass to increase the likelihood of it getting the cape.
The gas started to disappear as jets of some unknown substance shot down from a set of stairs inside the club. Seeing his window closing he tossed the grenade into the club right before concrete walls rose up around the building, courtesy of Labyrinth.
They all waited for a tense moment as they heard the muffled explosion of the grenade inside. Keeping their guns trained on the building in case the two inside tried something, the squad leaders began to back away.
"How the hell were they able to leave Labyrinth behind without anyone noticing?" The squad leader demanded.
"I don't know, sir." An answer came from one troop or another. "What do we do now?"
"We withdraw, head back to base. Mission success."
"Success sir?"
"Yes," The squad leader said with a nod. "Massive damage down to Faultline's base of operation, causing tension between them and others. Now, pack it up and move out! I have no desire to be arrested."
***
Max Anders sat at his desk, moving some money around in preparation of today's exploits into the city. Everyone else should be out getting prepared, gathering the men, setting up the strike teams. He considered not attending at all, giving people no reason to think Max Anders had anything to do with E88 exploits of the day. But he decided against it, a leader should lead. He just had to make some final preparations. He might not as be well connected as Coil believed himself to be, but he still had ways of figuring things out. Including certain business that happened to be more than a little welcoming to The Four. He started moving funds, purchasing insurance policies and titles where he could. There was a frustrating little amount of them he was able to do that, but he would manage.
His computer let out a ping, alerting him to a breaking news story involving capes. He frowned as he opened the related link, think about how anything thing large enough to set off his alert would likely impede today's plans.
What he saw was surprising.
It was a man sitting in the centre of a half circle table surrounded by several people on each side of him. All of them wearing black and red robes. The man leaned forward and looked directly into the camera.
"This is a message to all those who make Brockton Bay their home." His stated.
"My name is Max Clay. You probably recognize that name as the man Cheshire and Nova recently uncovered as being in charge of The Workers and the other three new gangs. And it is true, I am Max Clay and we are The Sentient.
"But let's forget about us for a moment and talk about someone else we all know. The PRT. Not but a few days ago, Hookwolf burst free from his cell because the PRT purposely didn't put him in a cell with the proper security measures for him. They did this because villains staying in the cycle of fighting is good for their PR in the long run, good for manipulating you people into supporting their corrupt position.
"They also had a known Neo-Nazi Rune locked away, but when their cameras were manually shut off from the inside and she was executed without any willing witnesses, the PRT saw fit to tell no one. When Hookwolf's body was melted around itself they didn't make a statement on it. In fact, if it wasn't for people's camera phones we wouldn't know about it at all.
"And now, the PRT is turning criminals and murderers into heroes. Tomorrow the PRT was going to announce four new Wards currently know by their villain names Ergo, Biohazard, Grue, and Regent. Between these four they have multiple accounts of theft, assault, organ theft, and property damage. And that isn't mentioning Shadow Stalker who actually killed a person just one day before she was announced as a Ward! All of which is documented here." Clay waved his hand and photos of some official documents appeared on the screen.
"This is the PRT that pretends to protect you. The PRT that lets villains go, covers up facts of their incompetence, hires killers, and doesn't mention it to the public even in the smallest sense. But of course, you all already knew that. After all, Brockton Bay's rising star said it herself." The screen cut the footage of the Nova standing before a crowd of news crews.
"I am stating as fact that the PRT is incompetent. They write their own press releases and actively have tried to make these people seem less of a threat than they were. These Workers, these conspirators, killed dozens of Merchants and melted Hookwolf's body around himself. But try to find where they said that in their press release because they never did. Because the PRT's business isn't about making you safe from threats, not even large ones like this. It is about making people feel safe. But feelings don't change facts."
The screen cut back to Clay, a smug grin on his face.
"I couldn't have said it better myself." He said. Suddenly, he stood up and leaned across the table, putting his full weight into to convey a large amount of intensity.
"For the last twenty going on thirty years it has always been, 'Humans, Lung is here! Run and hide.' 'Humans, The Empire is here! Run and hide.' 'Humans, the Slaughterhouse Nine is here! Run and hide.' 'Humans, the Endbringers are here! Run and hide.' 'Humans, the Nilbog is here! RUN AND HIDE!' Well? We. Are. Tired. Of. Hiding."
"We humans killed Hookwolf! We killed Krieg! We killed Skidmark and Mush! And when the villains of the city come after us today, we will kill a dozen more! Already we have done more to clean this city of the filth that has abused and poisoned it in the few decades than the PRT ever has and ever will. Today, we normal, everyday humans, will take out some of the worst parahumans in the world
"So if you are a normal human that is tired of getting punted around by parahuman big shots, if you are tired of your homes and business getting wrecked because villains that keep going free, if you are sick of getting forgotten by parahumans that are too important to consider you, then rise up! We are The Sentient, and we are human! We wear no masks, we play no games, and we won't suffer any longer.
"... And this is a message for Brockton Bay's PRT Director Piggot. You know as well as we do that united your parahumans stand a threat, but uniting parahumans is a task in and of itself. You know that a single seed of doubt is enough to tear apart any bonds parahumans make. So if you send the so-called 'guardians' of Brockton Bay to stop us know they will fail. That everything you built will be torn down. We will divide you, and you will never be able to recover. That is our warning to you Director Piggot. Do not take it lightly."
Max Ander's grip on the edges of his desk turned white as the video continued. As soon as it finished he stood up in his chair angrily.
"Is there something wrong sir?" Max looked up to see his assistant stand in the doorway innocently, his head cocked to the side as he waited for a response.
"Nothing," Max answered. "I'm leaving the office, tell my secretary to hold my calls. I have things to take care of."
The assistant hesitated for a moment before reaching behind him.
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that, sir." The assistant said as he drew out a pistol and pointed it at him.
Two things happened at once, his former assistant pulled the trigger and Max caused blades to sprout out of the gun.
His former assistant hit the floor as blades shot through his feet. Max looked down and saw blood welling up from where a bullet struck his thigh. He hit the floor as he felt the pain of it shoot through him the moment he noticed it.
"Mr. Anders?" A woman called, running into the room. "Are you alright? I heard-"
"Get out!" Max shouted through gritted teeth.
"Sir? You're bleeding! Let me call the-"
"I said get out!" He shouted again, throwing a stapler from off his desk at her. She scampered out without another word. Max out a shuddering breath and checked his wound again. Putting his hand back on it, and struggled to his feet, his side screaming in pain as he did so.
"Who sent you?" Max asked, making more blades around his bleeding assistant.
"I don't know, I don't know!" He screamed. "They approached me anonymously, offered me half a million dollars. I don't know who they are!"
Max took a deep breath and resisted the urge to kill the man at that moment. He had work to do without all the paperwork included in that. That was, if he still was in a position to do paperwork at the end of the day.
***
Max Clay propped his feet up on the desk and listened to the sound of fighting coming from the other end of the phone and one of the Industry communication leaders spoke to him. Apparently, a certain Thinker found his communication hub and they were in the process of combating them.
"With Lung and Oni Lee away we've been able to loot most of the ABB's warehouses with our inside men."
"Good," Max said with a nod. "That's at least one thing going off without a hitch. And what of The Merchants? I was under the impression we eviscerated them, why are they still on the field?"
"They have new capes and faux soldiers on PCP or something. Brutes and Blasters that we're having a hard time understanding the powers of. They appear to-" The single cut off suddenly, apparently the other cell phone getting destroyed. Max rolled his eyes and hung up, tossing his phone on the desk again.
"Oh no," Max said dryly to no one in particular. "I care sooooooo much."
The phone rang again and he picked it up again with about the same enthusiasm.
"'Ello?" He asked.
"Sir, they're here."
"Oh good," Max said, rising up out of his chair and grabbing the papers he had written before. "Who is it?"
"Its… Nova sir."
"Oh?" Max said. "Now that is interesting. Hold her off for a bit." He hung up the phone before the foot soldier could respond. Max tore up the other speeches and grabbed a fresh piece of paper, writing 'Nova' at the top of it. He put the pen to the first line and paused. Slowly a smile spread across his face.
He walked out of the office with only one word written on the paper.
'Improvise'.