======== SAMPLE 1 ========
cattletale is a top priority target," Tattletale said. "You’re just making things harder still."

"I think we should," Imp said.

"We can’t afford to wait another three days," Tattletale said. "What do you do?"

"My plan is for the Travelers to break off contact with the Nine when they’re done visiting the local population and start moving elsewhere," I responded.

Imp nodded.

"Agreed."

"Agreed," Tattletale replied.

"I don’t think either of you have a problem with that," I said. "But Grue?"

"No problem," he replied. "We’d be better served if we kept this a secret."

I could almost sense Imp tensing up. Was Grue preparing to come after us?

"Can you keep it a secret while risking having the public speculate on the Endbringer situation?" I asked.

"Honestly? Yes. I-"

"You can keep it a secret when you’re coming after us," I said.

"They already know, damn it," Tattletale retorted. She folded her arms, letting her head rest on the ground.

"I don’t care if they know. I care that it matters. If we all stick together, if we get the word out and everything comes together, then we can make it hard for them to follow."

I didn’t like that Imp was folding her arms. I’d fought alongside her in the Protectorate, back when I’d been brimming with confidence, but I hadn’t fought alongside a group of people who were as aware of how easily intimidated I was as she was.

But she was still doing it. It made her feel less nervous. It only made her more dangerous. She’d taken the path that let her fear show through, without getting in anyone’s way. The more she did it, the more danger she posed. If there was any benefit to it, then it could only help.

I turned to Tattletale. "I don’t like that you’re so casually suggesting we go after the Birdcage."

"Are you aware that anyone in the Birdcage could come after us?"

"I don’t know," I said. Was there any chance we could contact Coil, get him to make an example of someone. Skitter? Even Defiant?

"You’re insinuating that there’s a chance they could catch on."

"They could," Tattletale said.

"I don’t buy it. You’re not doing us any good if you think they would."

"They could do some good. We should be focusing on stopping them, not them."

"Why?" Tattletale asked.

"Simply put, no one wants to be the victim of a malicious parahuman attack."

"I’m making the same mistake you did," Tattletale said. "Putting my hopes in Weaver to stop him."

"That’s not an option," Tattletale said.

"It is if we’ve got a way to stop him immediately," I told her. "And I don’t think Weaver’s likely to stop him with guns."

"I agree," Tattletale said.

"I’m inclined to agree with Tattletale," Grue said. "If we need a way to stop him, then let the Birdcage be the place to start. Convince the Birdcage residents that the toughest cape in the jail’s in the Birdcage, and make sure the others don’t have ideas of their own. Offers, bribes and promises of resources don’t even make it to Lieutenant Colonel Cage or the Birdcage residents."

"Exactly right," I said.

"What kind of measures would we have to go to in an attempt to get the Birdcage inhabitants to do as we said?" Grue asked. The Undersiders were only just arriving, and they were already starting to head up the stairs to the roof.

"There’s two options," I said. "You can either convince all the prisoners in the Birdcage to break their usual rules and accept your terms, in exchange for parole, probation and medical care, or you can go to the streets and attempt to rob the store that sells the most expensive tinker devices."

"That’s what Tattletale suggested," Grue said. He shook his head. "I don’t like the idea. So you

======== SAMPLE 2 ========
citch said, "I will go in there, I will do whatever you want me to, because I just don’t care anymore. I don’t give a fuck anymore. I feel so betrayed and so angry at myself that I feel I can’t say anything."

"Oh, but you can’t say that. You’d be saying that we are all fucked, that there’s no hope left. The only thing stopping the Endbringer is the Slaughterhouse Nine, and they are fucked."

There was a crash. Sparks marked the sound of metal on metal.

My team was fighting another of the Nine, the man with the glowing hands. A young woman in yellow and black armor.

"No. I don’t care about the people she’s hurting."

"That doesn’t make a lot of sense."

"I’m a doctor, and I know how easily things can go wrong when used in the wrong hands. She’s being selfish. I don’t care if she doesn’t have the courage to go fight the Nine."

"I don’t think she has the courage."

I listened. A faint rumble.

"Skitter," Weld spoke. He’d pulled his truck to a stop so it could serve as a barricade against the rampaging villains. "Be advised, this may be a physical change. I will do what you can to make you comfortable, but there is limited time."

I looked at Tattletale. "You don’t want to go?"

"No."

"Not really. Can you watch her?"

She met my eyes. "She’s not the type to watch."

"That makes a lot of sense."

"There’s a lot I’m going to miss."

"And you’ll see soon." He tapped his head, then tapped the metal table with surgical precision. It rotated on the ground until a metal disc with a hole in the middle surrounded a metal bowl with a plastic bottle on top. He leaned in close to my ear and murmured, "A good friend of mine, he got his throat cut. I talked to him after it happened. Needs surgery. Won’t have any complications, he said."

I listened for the first time since the fight beside the truck had started. I found Weld, Trickster, Regent and Sundancer talking.

"That can wait," Weld said, looking at me as he spoke.

"Please."

Weld got up and followed me as we left Trickster in my care, letting the others depart.

"I need to see Coil," I spoke over the noise, "What can I do?"

"This best explain your situation."

"What? Nothing. Just thinking."

"I need to talk to him." I pointed at the two villains that were still circling the perimeter with Bastard and Scapegoat.

"Go," Trickster ordered.

"Tattletale?"

I looked over at her, "Need reassurance, before I jump to conclusions."

She gave me a serious look, "I think we’re done, Trickster."

"Don’t take too long, but-"

"Give me fifteen minutes so I can eat and get ready for battle then," I told Tattletale.

"What is it?"

"I’m having trouble getting our boss on board. When we lost the fight last night, he mentioned that his family had some medical care they could use. We’re trying to find an architect, and we need someone to look after our civilian assets."

"Then prepare to fight. Be ready to fight the Nine if they appear."

"Yes, ma’am."

"Will do."

Tattletale headed into the helicopter and took three steps, nearly falling. She caught ahold of the wheel just in front of the handle, then gripped it.

We had a working lockdown, with everyone wearing masks and carrying masks that covered their faces. I opened my mouth to speak, coughed instead. I tried to speak, but couldn’t.

"We’re moving," Tattletale confirmed, then she and Trickster cleared the ramp, the one that had been reserved for capes with real strength or parahuman abilities. The elevators opened up beside us, and everyone filed into the center of the helipad.

The Dragonfly was the first class of six suits, and it was followed by the Longinus, a heavy assault craft designed to counter the Endbringers and be ready to deploy at a

======== SAMPLE 3 ========
c’s head.

"The hell’s this?"

"Three-twenty-eight, there? Where the fuck am I? I thought—"

Her phone vibrated. She pulled it from her belt, but she didn’t get a chance to check the screen. The woman in the suit was still on the ground.

She kicked the phone from the ceiling and rushed to it with both feet. The suit was standing still so it wouldn’t get in her way as she grabbed its head.

"Oh god," it said.

"I’m hurt," she gasped. "Give me a hand."

It turned, saw her. She had to leap back to avoid being slammed against the ground by the woman. The woman had the light weapon drawn and pointed at her face.

"Can’t die," it said.

She turned it around, and the words shifted.

"I’d say no. But just say no is better than doing nothing."

The suit on the ground moved its gun to point at one side of her face, and then a small lens popped into existence. She took two steps back.

"The fuck?" she gasped. She looked around, tried to see who was behind the strange prism. Nobody.

It’s not working. It’s broken.

"What are you doing?"

The suit didn’t respond.

She threw herself to the ground, fighting the cringing, crying, writhing body to get back to the center of the courtyard.

It opened its mouth.

And out swept the three capes.

The woman in the suit stepped forward and plugged the lens.

Then she took a full second to breathe, to clear her head of the incomprehensible thoughts that continued to swirl around her. "Wh- What are you doing?"

"You said it’s wrong. It’s not the way to go about things."

"No!"

"It’s the best way to go about it."

"Custodian."

"My sister."

"Can you find them?"

"No."

"They’re on the way."

There was a rumble, heavy, and then a dull roar, high in pitch. It reached a crescendo, and the suit moved, veering violently.

It hit the wall of the hangar, heavy.

The woman in the suit took one minute to open her mouth, open another door.

■

March 23rd, 2013

Teacher paced the perimeter of the quarantine area, surveying the area with a metal detector. He paused at the very back, before reaching out to everyone that was still in contact with the Undersiders. He made a second list, and those same people were being directed to the back perimeter of the quarantine area. A few dozen, maybe thousands.

He hadn’t finished checking it. Someone must have tampered with the procedure. He paused at the very back, then again at the very top, so everyone was gathered there.

The only people not on that list were the Travelers and a small handful of others he’d asked to wait patiently.

They’d agreed to meet him outside of normal times, given the risk of being discovered. If they didn’t show, he’d search their contacts, and he’d kill one of them.

Everyone but the Travelers arrived, and he found one person who wasn’t on the list. A girl.

"Did you bring anything?" she asked, as she crossed the perimeter.

"My bag."

"Can you use the bag?"

"I could if someone gave me a lock."

He walked around her to step carefully behind her, then pressed a button. A red warning light caught his eye.

"Can you hear us?"

"Yes. But everyone else here likes to be careful."

"Who are you?"

"Guess. You’re from Brockton Bay, right? Yeah, you might think-"

"Can you guess?"

"I’m guessing that it’s a lot easier to figure out what a lock is, than it is to figure out what a key is."

"Guess I could ask you. You’re a Protectorate member, aren’t you? What do you typically use to protect your teammates?"

"Yeah. Sometimes keys or locks, sometimes passwords."

"That’s a little tougher to say for everyone here. You can’t answer a lot of questions, sometimes two or

======== SAMPLE 4 ========
c. A series of small buttons. The man on the phone was talking to a woman inside the building. "I want the video footage. Please. I’ll also take the phone for you. If I forget, call back the supervisor, you understand?"

"Okay. Thank you."

"You can leave the phone in the car if you want. Maybe. I’m taking it home with me as proof. That’s all."

"Got it. I swear by the cape in black that I’m the best cape in the world, to do this, to make sure your district doesn’t get trashed like that-"

He stopped talking as she pulled the car into an open garage door. The man in the passenger seat had his back to the car, staring at the contents of the briefcase as it sped off in the other direction.

She sighed. "You okay?"

He nodded.

"We’re going to go over this stuff over again, see if anything falls apart. You’re more likely to have a problem with me if I catch on to what you’re doing."

He nodded again. "Okay."

"We’re going to talk about this later. Just plug in that bag, let me put everything inside, then we’re going." A deeper breath, then a bow. "Thank you, by the way, for coming. I didn’t think you’d come by now."

He nodded.

She started up the ignition and pulled onto the highway.

■

The park was packed with children and parents who were sitting and relaxing in the shade. They hadn’t had contact with Brockton Bay since the portal opened, and the last time they’d seen their kids was the last time anyone had visited. Everyone wore their winter wonder or winter clothes, but it was in stark contrast to today: no windows, no artificial lights, no snow. The kids were wrapped up in their beds.

Trying to keep them centered, Amy sat on the snow-covered hill overlooking the park with Michael. She brushed the boy’s hair away from him and then took his hand. "Can we go sledding?"

"I don’t know how much ice there’s going to be. This is pretty high up, after you guys have a chance to get used to the city."

"That’s good. What are you doing?"

"I stayed here to take advantage of the food and fresh flowers that were around. Amy said it’s going to be better tomorrow. I’m going with the thinkers. Trick or treating."

"It’s still pretty brutal," the blond kid said. "You don’t know how much I’m going to miss you."

"I’m glad. There’s nobody else here. I was going to head back to my house for a bit, but I wasn’t going to stay too long. I wanted to see how bad the storm was and get an idea of how bad it might get."

"Okay. Don’t worry about leaving too long."

"You’re welcome. I’m trying to take advantage of yesterday’s break, so my diet’s probably a mess. Can you make me something healthy? Maybe some fruit?"

"You’re eating a whole bowl of cereal while I’m telling them to get back to work?"

"It’s okay. Don’t worry too much about me."

"I don’t know how. And you’ve been so helpful lately. Was that before, after you joined the group?"

"After I came to the group?"

"I don’t know. We’re in the middle of a bigger job. Can you help out, or do you have a limited amount of time you’re willing to use?"

"I’m fine," she said. She flashed an amused look at Trickster, "Thanks."

He grinned and waved.

They made their way back to the point where the truck was parked. Amy watched them go. It was only a matter of steps before Trickster headed to the other end of the park.

"You’re doing the sled thing wrong," she commented.

"I’d bring something, if it’s even capable of working."

"You don’t need to ask."

"I know it doesn’t feel like it, but if you’re doing it wrong, you already took a hit."

"I can’t even remember

======== SAMPLE 5 ========
c’t even need them anymore."

"Maybe I will," I said. "I’ll find one, find Faultline, and we’ll sort things out. If not, I’ll get as many of you on board as I can. But they can do something with you, can’t they?"

Grue climbed up to a spot in the corner of the roof, and his darkness spread out around him. When it stopped spreading, Grue began waving his arms frantically in front of him and between the rooftops, warning people to get down.

I joined him, standing in the center of the dark with only my bugs to guide me.

"You’re asking me to leave," the girl with the bugs said.

"Yes. But you’re only asking me to leave when I really need to go somewhere," I said, feeling a pang of guilt.

My conscience was telling me that I shouldn’t say this. I felt like I should, but I didn’t. My brain scrambled to connect the dots, and I found myself thinking of the people I’d helped, of the little favors I’d done, to make the most of a situation. I wasn’t sure I believed them without some of the small favors I’d committed to the memory banks. Being a damsel in distress didn’t fit. Especially with the stakes this high.

"No! This isn’t the time for games!" the girl raised her voice.

Grue put his hands on her shoulders, and she dropped the hand that clutched the bag of drugs.

She held the bag higher, so Grue could see it. It was plastic, bent and bent in places, and had blood stains on the side.

"This bag is enough," he spoke, staring at it.

"No. We don’t want you distributing to the wrong people."

"We’re not talking about that," he said. "This is more critical."

"If we discuss it, it’s for the sake of our understanding of the PRT, our ability to protect these individuals and our ability to protect the city."

"You’re talking like you need us to protect the city."

"I’m assuming you have good reasons for keeping us here, some of which have merit. But maybe you already know this."

I glanced at the cell phone. I shouldn’t have had to look at this. It’d be in another room. "I think I already know."

"Excellent. Let’s start with the basics. Who are these individuals calling?"

"As a matter of fact, we have a new containment van parked outside. All of the newcomers are being nice, and the newcomers like the one we took over there are getting a second set of eyes on them, to make sure they have everything they need. If they need it, if they’re hungry, or if there’s a crowd around them…"

"Cool."

"We’ll be arriving in the area of Highway P and E not long after this thing is delivered. In the meantime, I have a couple of groups of people who may want to meet."

"Meeting?"

"To talk about what happened, and to plan. There are probably people in the surrounding streets and alleys who have information to share, but they also need guidance, and guidance can be found here. There’s a community center there, too, if you want to take a private vehicle."

I saw the community center building. What did they do? They had plumbing.

"The people who live here haven’t had a hard day. They’ve been dealing, using the drugs, the vice and lack of work as a coping mechanism. They’ve been working, and they’ve got enough equipment. No, this is more a concern for the rest of us. Your little rebellion is making it worse, and there’s a lot of people in this area that are at their weakest just looking to make a little extra cash, for their enjoyment. If you get caught, you’ll be sending the wrong message."

"Not likely."

"Then why? What do you want us to find out?"

"I could use some input. Feel free to offer."

All the while, I was trying not to lose my train of thought. Grue was watching my back, and he kept his eyes on the girl. I kept my own eyes on the building. It had a parking garage on the ground floor, which was maybe a bit more appropriate than getting people stuck in a garage with no place to go

======== SAMPLE 6 ========
cetain"

I felt very, very uneasy as this went on. I looked at Brian, who I’d recognized with his expression taken off the outer layers, but I tried to conceal the same anxiety that was simmering. I only told him how the line had left my head, that the doctors had given me advanced notice and that I was worried about the people I’d been meeting. I think the intention had been to make some sort of connection or break in the cycle, here, with Brian, and to show him that I was there if he needed it.

It hadn’t been enough to make the line go away, but I’d known it was coming. I still trusted him, still knew that it would all be better when he explained the situation to us, when we figured it out and worked out how to deal.

And maybe this was my best shot at getting Brian to come to the point of no return, to admit what he’d done, then do something about it.

Brian didn’t come up to me for the first time in nearly a year at the grocery store. It was a long time before he found himself asking me the same question, but he eventually stopped walking and made his way to the bench opposite the gift shop.

I felt a sick feeling in my gut at the realization that he was leaving me behind. This was my life as a teen, my only real shot at anything.

Weld had been the type that had wanted contact with girls. It was how he was dealing with his crisis mode; he was incapable of getting enough, so he fucks up or fucks up too much. With the help of his new powers, he was able to fuck up or fuck up too much. He’d had friends, but they’d been victims, and in some cases the victims were the same people Holden’s changed to become. Maybe they were victims of their own stress, their own demons.

I knew what he’d done. I knew how he’d acted. He’d left me feeling empty inside, but that wasn’t it.

I had a choice I could have made, that I hadn’t. I could have contacted Lisa, talked to her.

I shook my head a little. No.

I stood, stretched. The sun was getting a little in the way as we made our way inside. Brian asked Lisa if she wanted to mop up some more mess, put more food in the oven, clean up the dishes. She looked at me and smiled gently. It wasn’t a very dangerous smile, but it was her smile I saw above the rest.

He hadn’t touched the trash, had even gone out of his way to pick up all of the trash bags and empty bags from the front of the house and move it into the back of my van. I saw him grab one bag and toss it into the back of the truck with a slight roll. When Lisa got it, she found the contents scattered on the floor of the van.

My hands were so full with food that I almost couldn’t stand. I opened one bag, and I saw a plastic container with scrambled eggs inside.

Brian was wiping at his mouth when he caught on something, looked over with one eye, as much as he could get the light on the stuff without distracting from the fact that he’d helped someone.

"Scouting for bugs with my bugs? I think the girls over there have a mite of a skin burn. You want a closer look?"

"Sure," Lisa pulled the hood of her sweater over one shoulder. She had her hair pulled back in an almost forced bun, and her hood was low enough that the majority of the light fell on her head.

Brian didn’t seem to notice. He wiped at his hand with the back of one hand, "Damn it. Why did you bring her?"

"She’s been scrubbing the floors," Lisa pointed, "Clean everything, except where I asked for you to do your best to clean and see everything. That’s been scrubbed as well."

"We’ll be needing people to help clean the walls and the bathrooms," Brian pointed, "Anyone we let walk around, work or volunteer, get a cut or two and go clean up."

Lisa nodded, "No problem. Anyways, the part of town we were going to was the part with the three shelters and the doctors. You’ve heard about the trouble in there? People taking their clothes off, or just generally being unashamed?" Her eyes went wide. "I don’t know… I don’t want to give away the little hints, but if I’m being completely honest

======== SAMPLE 7 ========
c- What do you want? It’s only natural you want my help!"

"It’s… I would prefer you get that, but-"

"But I’m willing to work for it. I’d like to have you join the Undersiders so I can have you by my side for as long as you need."

"I understand."

"We won’t force you with your secret identity, but I imagine you aren’t worried."

"I’m not… I barely had anyone recognize me before I got my powers."

"Do you feel guilty about not recognizing you sooner?"

He shook his head. "I feel bad about it. I was in a hurry, maybe. But I can’t help but wonder if I wouldn’t have recognized you if it’d had to happen."

"It wouldn’t have to."

"It’s your choice whether you use your real name or go by Skitter, and the consequences are your own. And if people realize you’re Skitter at a school, a store or a party, well, it wouldn’t be good."

"What do you want from me?"

"A hug, maybe, if you’re feeling particularly brave."

She hugged him, her whole body being wrapped in a firm hold. He squeezed her hands. "I want to be left alone."

"Okay."

"And maybe, just for me, you can find someone to hug," she offered him. "Someone you can call if you need to talk, someone you can turn to if you need to talk, about being a superhero."

"I don’t want a hug."

"I’m not that weak. I could stand up for you."

He hugged her even tighter. "I love you."

"I love you too."

Tattletale made a pained expression. "How does this impact things, Skitter?"

"It means your friends and teammates are more likely to suspect or report you."

"If there’s an impact, I don’t see any impact. I got this far by committing to it. I’m stronger than I was a few months ago, I’m skinnier. It’s not like I’m getting any bigger or weaker."

"Okay."

"If you decide to leave, I will be waiting for you."

His face drained of breath. "I… I don’t want an escort."

"Then you will have an escort."

"I won’t… I won’t," he repeated himself.

"I’m sorry, Alex."

"It’s fine."

Tattletale shrugged. "Go home, take some time to yourself, think about what you’ve been going through."

He looked at the others. Parian, Foil, Citrine and astrone had been the first to depart. The groups shifted slightly as they registered the news.

Alexandria, dead.

Others had arrived shortly after, as the four pre-prepared teams took their positions at table. Trickster gestured for her to stand, then sat down, putting water bottles in a bowl by the table.

Imp caught up with him, "We’re going to talk. Two minutes."

"Two minutes" Tattletale grunted in agreement.

Imp pulled a chair out from the middle of the desk and sat at the opposite end of the long table. The only other person who was close enough that he could hear her was Regent.

"We’re going to talk," Tattletale repeated herself.

Alexandria died, I kid you not.

Regent was silent for long seconds.

Then he said, "Not exactly."

"I think we’re there. It happened," Tattletale said. "I hope he wasn’t murdered."

"I don’t want to be presumptuous, but who killed Alexandria? Why?"

"You don’t know the answer to that," Tattletale said.

"We’re talking timelines," Miss Militia said.

"Thrives on contradiction."

"I’m on the same page as everyone else here," Miss Militia replied.

Tattletale nodded. "Let’s try a statement from the dead."

Alexandria was dead, and he’s never going to be able to find the perspective to look at it and not feel like he

======== SAMPLE 8 ========
cid."

Golem looked at the two, "But I get it, maybe we don’t get along as far as we’d like. Let’s go home. Let’s go fix that stupid clock."

"Why?" Regent asked.

"So we can hang out longer," I said, "Maybe. But we’ll see you on the other side of the portal." I turned and went to my computer.

Golem hung up before I could say anything.

"So," Tattletale said, "If you’re willing to go through with this, I’d like us to meet at Coil’s headquarters."

"Cool," I said. "I’d show you my other costume design, and you’d tell me which costume you like best, in addition to pointing out which flaws it does have."

"We can do the background and the main costume?" Regent suggested.

I nodded. I thought about it. "I like the old costume, but I’m a little divided on the details. You could definitely use a little help colouring it right."

The most obvious way to go about it would be to go with Tattletale’s costume, but I wasn’t entirely sure I liked that. We could go for a simpler pattern or go for an elaborate costume. I wasn’t sure I felt like I had the build or the confidence to do the former, and I certainly wasn’t sure I felt like I could do the latter.

"Do you mind showing me your other costumes, and I get to choose?" Regent asked.

"I want to," I answered.

"Okay. Regent, you have any idea what names people have been using to call each other?"

"I’ve heard," he replied.

I looked at the two kids who were sitting next to me. Krouse and his friends.

"That thing you guys were saying…" I said, pointing at the doorway, "That we should just go home?"

"Not exactly," Regent said, "I heard it from several people. One of them said it in a bad way. I’d suggest the mayor get a pair of ears, but he seems reluctant at best. There’s at least three adults here, and they’re worried about the worst case scenarios. The kid with the powers can probably decide on a better name, or he can call himself something resembling Coil."

"No point," I said. "We should probably get home."

"Either way," Tattletale said, "We should keep talking, wrap this up and then see about a bunch of other stuff. We can make plans to meet tomorrow if everything goes well."

"Sounds good," I said.

Tattletale shook her head, "I don’t know what to tell you. I’m exhausted, and I really shouldn’t be saying this, but I’m exhausted too. I’d planned to stretch to keep myself going, but I’m dreading another long day spent dealing with your… other issues."

I frowned a little. I was exhausted, as well. I’d been awake an incredible amount. Hadn’t slept for over an hour.

"It’s not like I can tell you to go fuck yourself because I don’t like what you’re saying. Or I can tell you that the worst thing you can do is wait and cause a fuss, and now you’re asking me to take a drastic step to fix a broken world. Fuck you."

There were chuckles from the three kids who were still sitting in the sitting room. Nobody raised their heads, but they didn’t seem to care.

"Fuck you," I echoed Tattletale’s words.

I sighed a little. I should have known that.





Monarch 16.2


"We’re not the problem," Grue said.

He had to have been to school this morning, to keep his face in order, to keep his mouth from being dry and full. He’d shaved, but hadn’t shaved his head. There was still hair on the lower half of his face and neck. The trim kept the hair from clinging too tightly to the part where the mask pulled over the part of his face where the hair wasn’t fully pulled away and all the more noticeable when he tilted his head upward. A small featherlessness fetish. It was maybe a little unnatural for a kid his age, tall enough to reach for the top of the bookshelf if he had to stand so

======== SAMPLE 9 ========
c. It is only if a member of the Undersiders is present that we start dealing with the threat posed by an Endbringer within a week of their entry into the city… and only if they remain within the confines of this city for five days."

"You said you heard the Endbringer would come before we dealt with it," Defiant commented. "What do you know?"

"That the Simurgh will return," Defiant said.

"That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t," Tattletale said. "If they’ve already seen the end of the world, it means we still have plenty of time to make a difference."

"I’m sorry," I said.

"No. It’s nice that Coil’s doing this. I wish we’d dealt with it sooner, but he’s done us the favor, being there to try and organize this group."

I felt a moment’s trepidation. I couldn’t tell if he was being facetious or not. I’d been having a lot of words with Rachel, not so long ago, and I’d made a lot of enemies in the process. Was it an attitude I’d be setting, setting on him, or had I overlooked something? Defiant and Tattletale were the only two people I’d talked to here that weren’t working under me, and if they were manipulating me here…

I swallowed. "Defiant… can you please go now, while we wait for Tattletale and Coil to get here?"

"I’m not so sure," he responded.

"Good. And, as always, if there’s anything on your mind, or about the situation, let me know."

I watched Tattletale and Coil walk away, making their way into the conference room. I knew them well enough by now that I wasn’t likely to stir them. I was focused on Dragon, though. I watched as she opened the door for her teammates.

I stood up, stretched as the trainers did, and entered the underground base. A series of gates, each of which led down into some kind of storm drain. Outside of these drains, I could see the Simurgh. She had a gun in her talon, firing a cartridge-thin projectile that sailed in a general direction along the drain. Between the length of the suspension-suit legs and the cushioning provided by the larger, more streamlined legs, she stood a good six feet tall.

I crossed the room to check the cameras and read the labels on the ones in a nearby office.

DEFENDER — A twenty-something black male in journalist, cape, and civilian clothes. He is a regular member of the Brockton Bay Wards team. PRT crisis communications specialist.

CIVILIANS — A social group I had to explain, because I was in an unfortunate enough position to be in the right place at the right time. They had the exact same description, though their costumes varied in design.

WARD 3, 5, 2, 1): A young woman, five or so, tall, with her best friend being noticeably shorter. The woman’s name is Latoya.

DARKHAID — A young man, five or so, with two companions. Their general description included some combination of an unemployed single father, a male cape and a female villain.

CIVILIANS 9, 8, 4): Two men, eighteen or younger, with a heavy Colombian overbite who speak only simple, monosyllabic Spanish.

WARD 11, 3, 10): A woman, five or so, with an ex-boyfriend.

WARD 21, 4, 3, 12): A Hispanic man, wearing a suit, wearing sunglasses, dark hair and short, wavy brown clothes. He’s got a tattoo across his face, depicting a cross, with the words I mós a cross beneath. His name is Leonor.

DARKHAID 3, 9, 9): A young boy, three or four, with a tattoo across his face. His name is Erick.

DARKHAID 3, 9, 8): He has two teenage girls with him. One is barely old enough to be pregnant, the other’s breasts are larger than her head. They’re wearing loose fitting plastic clothes. The guy looks like he could swim, the girl doesn’t seem to care.

DARKHAID 3, 9, 8): I think Erick has bigger breasts than the first one, by a hair.

Now it hit me… this was the person who would be paying for the flights. If I didn’t know

======== SAMPLE 10 ========
c. It’s a good spot."

"I can tell you are good at figuring stuff out."

"So can you," he said.

"What makes you think I’m good at it?"

"You’re new to it. And you think I’m in the same boat as you guys."

There was a pause.

"Then we’re in a good position to have a good conversation," Alec said. "You’re okay if Rachel can join us?"

"I don’t think she’s entirely capable of handling it," Defiant said.

"If she isn’t, well…" Alec trailed off.

"What can I do?" I asked.

"Can you figure it out?" Alec ventured.

"I don’t think there’re many cracks in the general theory. It kind of hinges on how skilled Rachel is at handling the girl."

"It’s not saying much," Alec replied. "But I think it’s doable."

"Good! Good!" I said. I looked at the others. "Let’s get the others on board."

The biggest guy turned to our sides, and Canary hopped up onto the side of a warehouse-incorporated stairwell. Not quite what I’d hoped for. There were too many gaps. Still, it made for a wide, solid platform for everyone to stand on.

We reached the front door, and my team checked out of the space where we’d been situated. Rachel was sitting on a crate with her dog, sitting as high as she could, with Bastard waiting, tentatively, probably not fully grown, but bigger than what I had on my shoulders.

"You don’t plan on it?" I asked. My eye moved to Bastard, then to Rachel. I didn’t see his growl.

Alec looked at me, "It’s funny, but I’m really liking this. I’m liking this."

"It’s our house, not yours," I told him. When he nodded, I said, "Let’s go."

We headed for the back hall, and I climbed up onto Bastard’s back. I turned to Rachel, and I asked her, "What are you doing?"

She shrugged. "Hitting the town."

"And that’d be fine, if it wasn’t affecting us in such a big way that we needed to check it out."

"It’s fine. Just hit me."

Alec looked at me, and Rachel joined the conversation, "You’re checking out our house? Is that because-"

"Yeah," Rachel said, stopping the chain in its tracks with one more look than we normally did when she was looking directly at us. "Because we have stuff to be worried about. I went through everything we have in our bags, and I have my own quarters I could change into if we needed to go somewhere, or take a break, and you have that, and then my spare room."

"How’s that sound?"

"It’s a little creepy. I kind of want to be able to leave the room tidy too."

I glanced down at the keys from my keys combination. I’d lost track in the chaos that ensued, as Dragon’s victory dance had us scrambling for the codes and locking ourselves in. Since Rachel was already on her way from the end of the basement, and since she was keeping all the key items, like the stuff for her room, we already had a pretty strong bond of trust.

"You kind of need to give me keys," I told her.

"I’ll do that," she offered.

When she turned to go on her way, I could see her returning with the other luggage.

I was still a little shaken, but I was more focused on the scene than on Rachel, which was probably the best thing for my own feelings.

There was a guy slumped on a couch just far enough away from the couch that his back was against the wall. The back was dark purple and he had his head against it.

"I don’t suppose you could move him?" I asked.

He frowned, and his head lowered.

"I’m not sure I can."

It took a little bit of convincing, but the PRT officers did manage to haul him to his feet, and Rachel followed soon after with another bag. I could see Alec, Lisa and Aisha backing away from the couch. I noted the guy stop shuffling and start struggling.



======== SAMPLE 11 ========
cll stop and stand there like a bunch of idiots. And he’ll keep talking."

"We need to take out the Undersiders asap," Grue spoke, "They’re reinforcing the remaining group. That’ll be our number one priority."

"Okay," Tattletale spoke, smiling, "I’m trying to get ready for my shift, so I’m going to be out."

"Aw," Regent replied, "That’s great. Let’s go, then."

Tattletale and I took a different route. Our group had split up, with Parian, Grue, Imp and the Travelers taking the afternoon shift. We found an empty city street and began making our way north.

"You’re sure you want to go?" Grue asked.

I shook my head.

"If you’re willing to come with us…" he trailed off.

I saw him flicker, turning and then quickly backing away.

Something was wrong.

I gathered a small army and made my way through the Docks, forming a broad semicircle. I held my breath when Regent bit the bullet and dove into the alleyway.

We encountered a group of the Merchants, along with the two villains that Tattletale and I had named, Sanguine and Panacea. I’d wanted to be ready for an ambush, so I’d tagged them and called Tattletale.

There was no ambush. Merchants. Sanguine. Panacea. Whatever the case.

The guy with the glowing hands and feet had one of his hands pressed to one of his ears. An ugly bloody rash was running down his neck, ear and shoulders.

The girl in bright yellow? She’d torn the section of her dress in half. Blood sprayed what looked like fizzles and clumps around the cut, the sleeves of her dress hanging loose around her figure. I didn’t see much else on the man’s shoulder.

The other villain, who I named Grunge, sat at one table with a pitcher of water and a grating metallic hum in exchange for one of each. He’d brought in a large pan of a very dark blue liquid, something Grunge mixed into a mug. It didn’t appear to be the liquid he’d used a few minutes ago.

"You don’t have to do that to me," Grunge spoke. "It’s a little too syrupy for every-"

"No," Grunge growled, "It’s a little spicy, a little sour. You know what I mean. Let me finish."

He pulled a chair over and set it in front of us, separating us from the rest of our group.

I wasn’t sure what was making Grunge mutter under his breath, but he didn’t stay quiet.

What was it? A compulsion? It didn’t fit with how I had my last few conversations with my bugs. A lack of emotion? Embarrased?

I felt my heart sink. We’d just been walking our separate ways, and now this?

But I didn’t ask him to repeat himself, not with how terrified I was for him. Didn’t want to disappoint the guy who’d seen his friend die, and then had been reduced to crying by the end of it.

"How long are we going to be gone?" Grunge asked.

"How long is too," Tattletale spoke. "We’re out of juice. Better to buy more drinks."

"But-"

"But it won’t be that long, and if Coil does what he’s doing, then this ends pretty soon." Tattletale leaned against the railing, just to my left. Nobody else was near, which was strange, considering that there were quite a few Merchants clustered around the entrance to the Docks.

I looked at the people who were sitting around us, and saw Flechette and Vista nearby, together.

"What’s going on?" Grunge asked.

"Coil just sent us a coded message," I spoke, "Recalling who he’s supporting and what his goals are. We should inform everyone."

"You got me," Tattletale sighed, "Coil told us to inform everyone. Including the heroes. Remember what he said?"

"Yeah," I spoke my thoughts aloud. "You’re right. We shouldn’t repeat what he said, and we’re not against the message being broadcast over the

======== SAMPLE 12 ========
cuhhh," she replied. For just a moment, she let go, and the bird started flapping in response. I could feel it taking hold, and that heady feeling of rush I got when I stepped onto a wet street became a kind of rush I didn’t want to get into.

We’d done some talking, and I wasn’t so sure I wanted to repeat that any further.

It was a change from earlier, in that she wasn’t speaking for us, for myself or for the people we were using for direction. For them, it was just a ride, an escape, a break from all the worst days they’d ever known.

"Now, now," I was talking to Myrddin, as we passed through the doorway to the next set of lockers.

And that was nice. He didn’t sound too annoyed.

"I suppose we can count that as a win," Myrddin said, as we passed through the doorway to the next set of lockers. "We won, now that you’ve got us working together."

"Well said," I said. I could see Noelle tensing, as if anticipating an attack.

Except there was none. The two teenagers in yellow shrugged off the outerwear, leaving Noelle to stare at the clothes on the inner side. She looked more relaxed than she did earlier, her hair free and free of excess, no scab or spiderwebs entwining it.

For the third time, she let the chains go, letting the chairs and a railing drop from the height of the structure. I didn’t know what she said or did, but I thought I saw a flare of emotion cross her face.

I didn’t know if it was because she’d won, or if it was some sort of power boost, she was able to lower her shoulders, her wrists and her feet. In the same moment, she raised her hands, pressing them to her mouth and nose. The smoke from the flares faded a little.

The smoke would be dangerous, if anyone could hear or see her. Either way, she did it without flinching. I drew bugs around the edges of Noelle’s clothing to give her some cover from the rain, while Myrddin and Noelle headed into the lockers.

Myrddin moved like he was going to jump in the lockers, then paused abruptly. He started laughing, almost gleefully, and we laughed along with it, in awe and passion.

"You didn’t get much of a second to breathe," Noelle said. "You might not be able to if you’re hiding under those clothes."

"Hush," Myrddin said. His grin widened.

I didn’t know if he was seriously considering attacking Noelle, but he went for the locker anyways, seizing the lock panel and forcing its open. He didn’t bother trying to smash the locker, but just entering wouldn’t hurt anything. He moved as though he were going to fire straight up, then got tackled.

"Sorry for tacking," he said.

"Tack?" Noelle looked at me in surprise.

"Thought I meant when I said I’d make fun of your face."

"You’re serious," she said, "What are you doing? No- face or no."

I was already turning to walk away from the locker when a hand touched my shoulder.

Grue flew out of the locker as Myrddin stopped him. "Skitter!"

Myrddin ducked and covered his upper body, but he couldn’t make himself slip off Noelle’s upper body without leaving any space beneath. He was only partially covering himself now, but he still fit within the volume of bugs I was using to sweep through the area.

Grue hit him with a multitude of streams of darkness, drenching him, and he started to slide down, one leg swinging in front of him as he slid. I ducked low and helped push him forward.

He’s not supposed to be this strong.

I reached the edge of the parking garage and paused a few feet before Grue. My bug-laden costume had gotten about two thirds full. The bugs I’d spent my life without had probably increased their number by a hundred percent. I was glad to be naked, barefoot and able to breathe, if sweat was a factor. I’d been sweating more, being wet.

And I’d had a few too many. Too many people were giving me the cold shoulder because they didn’t like the way I dressed and didn’t want

======== SAMPLE 13 ========
cavity, and two more of Remnant’s power were in place. One was a weak version of Crescent Stile, the other was an Exalt-level cape of hers.

The second had a cape with an Exalt-class ability. I recognized the cape before, knew who the cape was from my interactions with him.

My eyes fell on the man who hovered the furthest away from the others.

Remnant had a power that let them swap bodies with anyone they touched, but that power was degraded as quickly as it appeared. Tattletale’s power, for its part, was limited to only swapping with those who were currently within her.

Except they were different. They swapped with other capes, and one appeared to be a member of the Protectorate.

She’d made it about ten feet across, with wings extending throughout the top. The point touched the roof of the van.

Her new form wasn’t any slower, but she wasn’t any easier to figure out either.

She was a member of the Young Bucks.

"I got a power," Rachel said.

"Oh?" I asked.

"You met them."

I couldn’t really figure out the person behind the mask without looking at the costume, and I didn’t want to alert Remnant that I knew she’d used her power against the Young Bucks. "Oh."

"They didn’t pay very much attention to us at first. They started moving slowly and making a lot of noise after you showed up, but they eventually picked up on us. They got angry, and a few of them came after us. I think two of them. Tattletale and I went after one, and she blew the whole building up. I got hurt, but she made it out okay. The other one went after the one that was carrying Grue."

"Going after them?"

"Yeah."

I could see Rachel tense as though she was going to cry.

"I remember you saying something similar-"

"Don’t," Rachel said. Her voice thick with anger. "Don’t you fucking remember what I was saying?!"

"That’s not-"

"I’m really not that fond of you. Probably is. But I-"

She stopped talking, and I almost felt troubled by the realization that Rachel had stopped talking, that she was about to speak again.

"That’s Remnant, isn’t it?" Tattletale said. "They are the creators, not the victims. The creators are the children of the multiverse, they took on a life of their own, lived for hundreds, thousands or tens of millions of years, and they’re victims."

"I remember that," I said.

"Yeah. They did."

"But those guys aren’t monsters. They’re the pawns in a grand plan. They’ve been taken over, and they’re doing something to spread their misery across the multiverse. If you can’t see that, you can’t convince yourself that they’re truly monsters."

"Maybe," I said.

"They’re suffering greatly at the hands of their creators," Tattletale said. "In many ways, they’re worse people than they were on the battlefield."

"They’re suffering greatly at the hands of the people who were pushing them to do great damage, and diminished effects like this. Perhaps they will continue to suffer greatly until someone takes care of them, a hero or a villain in need."

"Maybe," I said. I didn’t disagree entirely, but I did have a degree of doubt. I’d said that on some occasions.

"The heroes and villains who volunteer to help are few and far between," Tattletale said. "The villains are few and far between in general, and they’re no good to the heroes as a whole."

"If this is all it takes for them to turn on us, then-"

"It could," Tattletale said.

It’s not quite the same as confronting Coil, but I saw Imp’s expression change, sympathy giving, as she looked at Rachel.

Rachel was my escort to the Undersiders. I passed her and the others as I approached Coil.

"No," Coil said. The sarcasm in his voice wasn’t in the tone I’d heard it, but in the emotion that betrayed.

I drew my gun and crossed the room. Tattletale was propped up against a wall with Imp beside her. Rachel sat

======== SAMPLE 14 ========
c, I’m just wondering. What was it that made you want to destroy us? What triggered your urge to kill?"

Parian’s eyes went wide.

"It was pure curiosity. I mean, if I was going to get killed for trying to kill you guys, I’d at least do it in a way that was satisfying."

"Is that so?"

"I hate when people lie to me," Parian said.

Krouse stood and took hold of a phone from Noelle’s left hand. He dialed the girl.

"Hey, Krouse. Something’s going on?"

"It’s Cassidy. He’s at the loft, and noelle and Luke are looking after him."

"Cassidy?"

"Yeah. They said he got knocked out. I wanted to ask that you guys keep an eye on him while we talk to the others about what’s going on."

Cody’s face fell, "Really. Thanks."

He hung up.

Krouse hurried to the computer room, logged in, and started running commands as he entered and exited the room, checking each system and its partitions on the way.

The computer started humming with activity. When it stopped, it took on a life of its own, with a whining noise. Every set of eyes on the pair turned to Krouse, no doubt as a consequence of his bluff and his promise.

He saw Noelle’s expression change as she looked at Krouse. The small grin was gone, and she was watching him for any hint of betrayal or betray-



Drone 18.1


"We’re short on time," a female voice cut through the channel. "Can you fill us in?"

The tiny windowsill filled with a screen shot of the local television station, showing the D.D.I.D. helicopter dashing toward Scion with an sledgehammer.

"Twenty minutes."

"Then it’s done. Rest assured, Krouse, I’ll make time for us to fill you in. If you have any questions, you’ll want to ask."

"Okay. Thanks."

The woman hung up. The screen went black.

Krouse turned around. "Wait, that was Noelle."

"Me too," Jess said. "You’re not done on us."

"We’re both going with the city, aren’t we? We’ll see about booking room on this thing?"

"Me too. Can you arrange something for breakfast?"

"No problem. What time is breakfast?"

"Eight thirty."

Jess said, "Then we have a little more time before we get started. Give me a second to grab my things, and then we can discuss this later."

"You got it. Thanks."

The small TV in Krouse’s corner office flashed on, casting the screen with the message across it, ‘D.D.I.D.‘

"Okay. Let me grab my stuff. I’m coming with," Krouse said, heading out the door, pulling off his armor. Jess followed him, her arms around his shoulders.

"Wait, aren’t we just going to hug?" Luke asked. "The plan was to do it like we did when we were doing prison reform in the TV factory."

"I guess that’s how you guys made the transition," Jess said. "Not so bad, huh?"

"It’s not like it sounds, but I’ve been having a bad day," Krouse admitted. "…And I’m kind of wanting to hug."

Jess shrugged. "I haven’t had a good day since we’ve been going on any of the principal stuff."

"Me too," Luke said. "Me too. I’ve been a little less enthusiastic lately."

"Sorry," Krouse admitted, "About that."

"It’s fair to say you two aren’t exactly on the ball."

Krouse grabbed his cell phone. Checking the screen, he could see a text message from Noelle:

Ow. I’m back from the cold. Saw your body. Have to see how you react. Didn’t have the guts to come outside in the first place. I was waiting for the chicken. Saw some ducks. Not bad. Will let you know when I’m back.



Krouse put the phone back.

He dialed Jess, and her voice was strained, "You’re awake,

======== SAMPLE 15 ========
c’t even remember the last time I’d had a nightmare like that."

Sophia didn’t respond. Was Sophia just too tired? Or was it that she’d passed out, and now she felt an awful lot better?

She was still there when the man reached for her hand. He pulled it away, and she could see the crowd moving. She heard something, but she couldn’t make it out the entire thing. A screech. A bark. Something big.

The crowd moved, and the man in the suit raised a massive gun and fired it into the air. A flare of yellow-white light, and debris began streaming out of the door, but the man didn’t seem to care. He charged for the woman, and Sophia scrambled out of the way before the shot even flew.

Another car pulled up and the man in the suit retreated, still firing into the crowd. He was still firing as Sophia headed inside.

The crowd scrambled to clear out of the alley, and the man with the gun charged them. She took a step back, using her enhanced strength to leap through the intersection to avoid being sandwiched between two pairs of legs, and then threw herself to the ground at the far side of the alley.

Two bullets struck her, and she staggered into the alley to fall against a wall. A third bullet lodged in the side of her leg, leaving the wound a little worse than it had been.

It was done. The man with the gun was gone.

"Hey!" Sophia shouted, "That’s Tattletale!"

There was no response.

"Hey!" Sophia shouted again, "Stop!"

Tattletale turned to look over her shoulder at her. There were a number of reporters scattered around the perimeter of the scene where the fight was still ongoing. She watched Sophia with her back to the wall.

Three bullets struck Sophia, and she staggered to her feet.

The screaming continued, but the chaos was beginning to lift. The reporters scrambled over one another to get to the middle of the street, others ran around the perimeter.

"Shatterbird! Shatterbird!" Sophia shouted.

The glass that had been shrapnel tore free of the wall and rattled as it crashed against the hood of a passing car. Shards of glass streamed out from the openings Sophia’d created.

She spun on the spot, quickly retreating, and Sophia slammed into her, pulling. All of the reporters who stood in the same direction were thrown to the ground, and the sound was muffled. The shards of glass that still danced after her were splashed and cut to pieces.

Shatterbird struck Sophia again, but the girl screamed and kicked the aluminum legs away from her. The glass shards that remained clinging to the armor on her feet were scattered or scattered throughout the area.

The explosion was small, but enough. More fragments struck the area as they entered the alley. Fragments ripped through the walls, and shards shattered in the ensuing blasts of bright light. The pair fought to maintain a fighting attitude as their fighting comrades were whittled down or eliminated.

The gunfire stopped. Sophia had dropped her crossbow, while Tattletale had her staff.

The man who had left the phone in the front lobby was gone, and the reporter who had been standing in the alley was gone, too.

Sophia’s eyes went wide. She saw the woman in the suit, through the window, standing over the body of a young boy.

She reached out, grabbed the man by the shoulder, and hauled him close enough that his eyes could close together, making the man almost indistinguishable from her. He screamed, blood running from his ears, nose, and mouth. He was small.

Sophia’s hands cupped the boy in her own.

The body slammed into the wall, shuddering, then started to move, the head of the boy’s body slamming into it.

The screaming increased, a rising panic that seemed to match the rising screams of alarm. People started to leave the alley. Some were trying to help the dying, face to face, but most were running in the opposite direction.

The man began thrashing, slapping and pushing one with two identical hands, then one with two hands and a head the size of a pony, reaching out to grab someone else.

The girl’s eyes went wide as the man reached out to try to tear their neck from its socket and they were soon joined by someone else.

"Get back!" one bystander shouted across the street.

The suit slammed one hand against the nearest window. "Don’t provoke her!"

The girl raised a hand to block the stranger’s attack with one

======== SAMPLE 16 ========
c.

A man I didn’t recognize approached her.

He was a man of average height, broadshouldered, with heavy eyebrows and a mouth like a rhino’s. He held a clipboard in one hand, and a bottle in the other. He fished for a word in a thick stack of paperwork on a table in front of her.

"You’re here to mess with my people?"

"Not that I know of."

"The people we sent against Echidna?"

"Yes. A small group, including me."

"Okay." I thought about what Charlotte said, but I couldn’t think of a single good word in response. I’d expected her to try to help, but she’d been busy looking after her people. "So what are you doing?"

"Taking care of some wounded. Will do you another favor?"

He gave me a suspicious look. "I’m not that easy to handle. Take what you can, but I won’t bargain."

"They’re your people. They’re here to help."

"I hear you’re moving up."

"Yes." He fished in a nearby bowl and grabbed a plastic sheet. He slid it under one arm, motioning for me to follow, so I could see the other injured. "You’ve fought other gangs."

"Yes."

"Hate groups, too. Empire Echidna is one. Do you know why they targeted you?"

"I don’t know-" I started, but I stopped when I saw a burned pile of body parts at his feet. My bugs were leaving him unmoving and were in place just in case he wanted to attack me.

"I heard the Slaughterhouse Nine were targeting the city because people were making a big deal out of just how weak the local gangs were. When the governor came, everyone thought he was going to make a statement against them. Then he came and he said something about how the heroes were stretched too thin. We thought it was some kind of veiled endorsement that the Slaughterhouse Nine would be making a play for the big guns."

"Yeah." He looked directly at me. If my eyes were deceiving me, that would be something to look out for. "I heard about it through the media. People were getting murdered in the streets, the local gangs were getting splinter groups and new groups, and nothing was being done. And you got into it."

"And?"

"The Butcher got his hands on one of your groups, and he made his own unholy fire play, lit the wounds up, and then sent his minions after your wounded."

"How?"

"By getting them to play their fifth sense into the fifth dimension. He’s a tinker, so he got some peripheral enhancements, a higher-pitched screaming sound and incantations so he could use the powers without the healer having to take time away from the other stuff that needed doing."

"I see."

"He wiped out one of your groups, but the only one that was dealing with the Butcher was one Tattletale set up, with the intention of trapping him in that hell hole and burning him to ash. He escaped, and your friends are stuck there."

"So?"

"So, that’s why your parents are calling you out on this. You know I’m not stupid, you’re not stupid, and I have a way of seeing it. I’d say you’re just as smart as the next guy, but that’s only if I’m on the same page as you."

"I think we’re on the same page."

"So that’s why I’m saying no. You’re not stupid, you’re not stupid-"

"It doesn’t matter! You’re distracting me!"

"Skitter," Charlotte cut in. "Skitter!"

With my bugs traveling over Charlotte, I could sense her grab her phone, hand it to Skitter. She walked away, and Skitter grabbed a soda from a nearby shelf, throwing it at Charlotte. With her help, I brought the wounded and one injured cape I’d left behind to the ground.

Charlotte took her time putting a bandage around the ears of one of the wounded. Everyone else was busy taking care of the wounded, looking increasingly disorganized with every passing second. The last to make any real headway was Imp, who was still straddling the Butcher.

With the way Imp was positioned, it was a matter of feet between the two of them. Knowing how imp

======== SAMPLE 17 ========
c’s little brother. That’s one I’m keeping pretty close to his chest. Another is a copy of Faultline from the board, which is okay. A different design, with hair on the body instead of the arms. They’ve got to be the same person, because the tattoos all match up. I can guess the one he’s wearing, if it’s any indication."

"Yeah," Weld said, "I almost want to put bugs on that one."

"Sure as hell can’t hurt to check, can we?" Shadow Stalker said.

Weld nodded. He touched his phone, turned it around, then texted Tattletale, "Want to make a phone call, before we run into some trouble? Can you get your hands on a spare keycard and some spare change?"

"Sure," Tattletale’s reply was as polite as it was quick.

"Alright. If you can’t come, I’ll make myself. I’ll be out soon, and I’ll meet you."

"Be careful, Tattletale," Weld said.

"Sure," she responded.

"Hey, Weld?" Regent asked, "You okay?"

"More or less."

"You there?"

"Yeah," Tattletale’s voice sounded close by, through the armband. "Need a hand with this thing that’s going around."

"Handing keys to people. Seems pretty heavy handed."

"You guys know each other."

"Pretty much."

"You goin’ this way."

"Yes," Tattletale replied. "But I’m thinking Weld here might be able to help with this, especially in the long run."

"He’s pretty heavy handed," Weld agreed.

"Alright. Well, this is either going to be a really good day or a really bad day. Can you guys think of something? Anything you think we could use?"

"A few," Clockblocker said.

"I think we could use seeing that there’s peace out there somewhere."

They cocked their heads to one side, then nodded.

Weld pulled off his helmet and unfurled it.

"This is turning into a team thing," Imp said. "We need everyone’s brains on this."

"It’s not us versus the team, it’s me versus the individual," Weld spoke.

"It’s really important," Grue said, "that we keep the numbers up. Figure out which projects we need to pick up and prioritize."

Weld nodded.

"And we’re putting this into effect with a time limit."

"Two days?"

"Yeah. Weld’s on call that same afternoon. He wants to make sure this doesn’t fall through, that we have the manpower to make it work."

Imp nodded.

Weld said, "I’ll talk to him. Make a judgment call in the meantime."

"I’ll talk to him," Shadow Stalker said. "Feel like meeting him, but better if you don’t bring your dogs."

"Alright."

The group crossed the room to give her room. Tattletale remained at the end of the hallway, separating herself from the group so she was out of the line of fire for the explosions that followed.

Imp was making her way toward Regent, Grue and Imp. She glanced at the girl who was standing in front of Weld, then at us.

"Imp," Tattletale said.

Imp hesitated.

"Excuse me?" Tattletale asked.

"Wouldn’t you know?"

"I know."

"And I’d like to explain," Weld spoke.

Imp shook her head.

"It’s a bad habit, Imp. That’s not you. It’s someone you trust implicitly. You’d probably agree with that, from a moral standpoint, but trust is a good thing, don’t we agree?"

"I don’t understand what the fuck you’re talking about," Imp said.

"My point is moot. I’m here to help."

Imp bent down to pick up some packages, then walked awkwardly around the group until she was alongside Weld and Regent. She gave them the evil eye. "I’m not helping. I’m doing exactly what I feel I should be doing."

"No offense intended," Regent

======== SAMPLE 18 ========
c and then came from a doorway she’d opened behind her girlfriend.

"Don’t let her get to you. If she does, if your friends drag her into this alley, I’m not going to be able to get her out."

"It’s a trap," Ballistic responded. "Only reason they haven’t started it already is because she doesn’t know how to use her power. If she does, I think she’ll use it anyways."

"If they hit the shelters, they’ll use the explosives there," Tattletale said. "Or they could get Skitter and come after us there."

"It’s a trap, but she probably won’t use it against us. She’s on the ground floor."

"I think we’ll get her," Tattletale said. "But I don’t think we’ll outrun the explosion. Better that we run headlong into it."

Ballistic grunted, but he didn’t stop running. I was surprised at how quickly he covered his tracks were when he was moving. I felt an ache in my chest. Perhaps it was envy, or it might have been a kind of rage, I set my bugs on him, trying to get a sense of his body. He wasn’t there.

Tenth floor? I didn’t have many bugs with him. I had a few on him, but none that would be working on him the way I might like to think I was working on his body.

Innate, I thought. He’d get the same aches and pains that I did.

Breath in my ears, I thought. This is the sound someone would make if they could hear me over him. I reached for my bugs, but they were already gone from the area. I left them where they were, praying that someone on the periphery of the explosion might stumble across them, using their senses or their tracking abilities to find us.

"What do you need?" Grue asked.

"I’ve been drawing the fire and strength bugs into this hallway, behind me. I need eyes on these people."

"How do you know their patterns?"

"I know the general location, with my bugs, and I can track where their attention is."

I nodded.

"We need radio silence. I think that woman upstairs is telekinetic, her power derives from her ability to manipulate the patterns and rhythms of her bugs, and her precogs give her a built-in weakness to any energy, not unlike my own weakness. Anything she’s prepared to sacrifice would be vulnerable to my power and my bugs if they weren’t able to intercept it. With this arrangement, we don’t have as much presence on the periphery of the explosion."

"Are they your people?"

Grue nodded.

"Good. Have the civilians to help escort their loved ones make their way down here clear?"

Grue nodded once, "Mostly."

Tattletale leaned forward, put her elbows on the edge of the desk, and stepped up to the table. She reached for a piece of whiteboard, reached for a stack of plastic chairs, and began organizing them. Her little ceremony had me scrambling to get ready.

"What do you need?" I asked Grue.

He gestured at the containers he had on his belt, adding, "Bring enough plastic chairs."

I glanced from one of the plastic chairs to the whiteboards we’d gathered on the tables. "Eight. It’s barely anything we could use."

"Eight? If every volunteer here brings something to the table, we’re barely scraping by."

"If we’re going to manage, we need to do this."

"I’ll go," I said. I waited until Grue climbed down, then joined Tattletale, Imp and Parian in heading for the doors.

I gathered my bugs from within the building. I’d been wearing a full costume, with the right armor panels and the right headgear, but it had shrunk over the last hour or so. It was heavy, and there were no less than five feet of reach at the back of my head. I wasn’t sure I liked this. My swarm sense told me there were a fair number of people, but I could find nothing that said people resided on the fifth or any higher floor.

I gathered my bugs into two defensive lines. Not enough to be effective if they somehow came out ahead in a fight, but they were a defensive line. A line that could force the enemy to attack us where they were already

======== SAMPLE 19 ========
c, then walked past him. "There’ll be a room set aside for the wounded."

He pointed at the door. "Let’s go. The PRT office is here, and it’ll be a while before everyone is back in action."

Weld nodded. He grabbed the chains that remained around one of the dogs’ necks and hauled it behind him.

Weld and Chevalier made their way into the storm drain, and Weld grabbed Chevalier’s wrist as they walked to stick around. They continued down the one hallway that wasn’t already flooded with people. People were squatting in a storm drain below a vault, blocking their exit. There were two people getting help to get to safety, one of whom had blood running from his mouth.

A sound was heard a distance away. Chevalier’s head turned our way. "Hey."

It was Weld. The leader of the Wards.

Weld extended a hand.

A gun was aimed at Chevalier’s chest. We moved backwards into the storm drain, and took cover beneath a vault door. Weld didn’t even flinch at being called out like that. He didn’t even look at us. "You okay?"

Weld shook his head. "Hate his power. I don’t even know what we could have done if we had the chance."

"I’m glad we didn’t," I spoke. "What would you have done?"

"I would have hung back, ducked him if I could have. But I would have stayed with my team, with Bitch and Regent."

"That’s what I’m thinking."

"That doesn’t make any sense."

"It’s… he calls himself the knight of the round table, he’s a big guy, and he’s the mayor of a big city. He’s not that big a name in the non-"

Tecton cut me off. "No. I have more experience than most people when it comes to dealing with these types of situations. I would have backed you up."

For an instant, I felt my stomach sink. "Who the fuck are you, and how do you know all this?"

"I’ve spent a lot of time around these guys. And I got the training, I know what I’m talking about. So I’m pretty confident. Not just the knowledge, but the way they compartmentalize. This is how they compartmentalize. How they keep information from the bad guys, the ex-members and former members of a gang, or even the locals. And I follow the money. So I know exactly what these guys are making, and I know exactly how much it’s making you."

"It’s not worth any more than that. I’m going to get mugged, and whoever gets the loot first gets what they want."

"That‘s not why we’re here. I just figured I would drop by and see how things are."

"You don’t need to come."

"This is a town that’s been hit hard. And I’m not just talking about the financial crisis. We have a whole bunch of folks in Brockton Bay looking for work, and you don’t exactly have the best track record. You’ve got drug dealing, ransom demands and murder attempts on your hands."

"I had someone try and kill me before," Weld spoke. "He got half of what he wanted."

I could get used to a paycheck. I could even afford to hire a hand when Weld asked for cash. I wasn’t sure I could afford to walk away and leave everything still.

"You coming?" I asked.

"Yeah. Just dropping by. You know the drill."

"I’ll be back in twenty minutes."

"Then it’s good. If you need anything after you leave, call, I guess, or we’ve got a place to stay while you look."

I nodded.

We departed from Coil’s headquarters, meeting three parahumans that had apparently fit the bill to avoid being locked up alone. The trio approached just behind us, and Weld extended a hand for them to shake. We all took it in mutual agreement, joined in on the hug. The three stared at Chevalier, and it caused one to whisper, "What in the blue fuck?"

None of the three gave me the slightest of glances, though one did make slight inflection in his tone. The slightest inflection,

======== SAMPLE 20 ========
c.

I had the two of them. It made a difference.

I could feel them, the vibrations as I opened portal to take them into my personal space.

Tattletale was right. Not all of them were as invested in keeping them as safe as I was.

There were a few that were being stubborn, that were refusing to cooperate.

I didn’t have a solution to that.

I had leverage. Enough of this shit I’d been through, I could do other shit, do stuff that nobody else had ever considered.

Then I could do the stuff that mattered.

I created a door, and Tattletale opened it for me.

I stood on the other side, not quite on the same level of security as I’d managed on my own. I tried to be stealthier, opening and closing my costume without drawing attention.

The other travellers were putting the last touches on the rooms. I could hear the soft creaks and the movement of air through the narrow portal as they prepared to move on to the next phase.

Drain.

I’d have to move this in progress.

I moved. There was a movement across the room with the motions of equipment and the movement of furniture. I could feel it on my bugs. My spiders were busy pulling off the first layers of my costume, fabricating the parts I wanted and making sure everything was put together properly.

But there was no way I could be absolutely certain that everything was put together for one pair of jeans.

I took my time pulling it all together. Each part was a little different, and I had to make some guesses based on that.

The jean part. I wanted to move a little closer to Tattletale so I could talk to her.

Movement was a little bit experimental, much like tapping with a finger. Mostly for me, more for the people in my territory.

The ‘y’ of the jean was a jumble. I didn’t want to get close to anyone, but I didn’t want everything in one place. I left it be.

Other things I could move… knee high x two inches, a little off to the right. I’d have to handle that during my interaction with the others.

Scissors. Nothing that would really hurt me.

Clothes. I was a little rusty with my knife skills. Could I do something like cutting vegetables in half? I turned the knife around in my hand so I could get a view of my hand, and decided to leave it. Too many things in here that I didn’t need or want.

What I did have were the two dogs. I used my bugs to explore the room. Fuck, even the corners were open to movement.

I used my bugs to smell things. Everything was stinky. Everything was filthy.

I smelled food.

Something heavy, almost dry, settling at the base of the stairs, a little ways up.

I didn’t turn around. The others wouldn’t look too happy if I did.

I turned and faced the source of the smell.

Then I smelled. The others were still in the cafeteria. Only two were working, and I could see the mess from the two remaining members of the Wards. Tired, ineffectually.

I moved, and they didn’t climb to their feet for a reason.

I turned and ran.

I’d be right there with them if I followed.

I ran into the gymnasium at the back of the school. I’d used the time to figure out where the stairwell to the auditorium was. Some people were still in the lobby, trying to get their coats on. I made my way down and found a construction crew working nearby.

They blocked my way with one of them.

They were wearing helmets, but I could see some blood on them. Maybe blood had been spilled when they’d arrested me. They’d had plastic cuffs on their hands.

I drew my bugs together into a rough shape, then put it on my head. I took off the gloves I’d been holding, put it on a real hat.

The others were a little more forgiving.

I drew out words in white marker along the underside of my mask: ‘Justice4Johnathan’.

Then I joined the crowd. I could still smell it. I’d had some spray painted on my mask to read ‘Shoot to Kill’, more for ‘Shoot me now’ and ‘No More Leakages’, but this was ‘Justice4

======== SAMPLE 21 ========
c. They had been trying to capture a handful with the same weapon that was in my bag. The chains themselves were steel, but the hooks and the pointy end were plastic. It took all of three minutes to break the plastic with the screwdriver I had in my hand. The dogs would be smaller. Better, maybe. But I didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

Noticing the woman’s back, I directed a large enough dog to step on her. She started to struggle to keep from bucking against me as the leash got tangled in the chain. I forced myself to release her. The chain was too short a cord.

She got tangled again, and I had to sever the connection with a spray of bugs, using the larger ones closest to me instead. Small ones, maybe two or three inches long and blunt, hundreds of them. I had enough to get me free.

She reacted, kicking everything but the strongest material. The plastic wrapped around us in the least pain as she fell, the chain on her neck winding around her feet and hands. She began trying to free herself, using her power on her hands.

The people at the back were using containment foam to spray at the dogs. I couldn’t get a sense of whether their bullets were penetrating or not. It helped, but it didn’t hurt the dogs enough.

I took a deep breath. I had a choice to make.

"No," I said. My eyes moved to the one on the rooftop. No pain. I lowered the dog. Still choking, it struggled to get the restraining device through the remaining foam. The second it started to suffer from too much weight gain, I forced it down and sent it flying into the forcefield. The chain went taut. "I’m only doing this because I need you to help."

It was then that I saw Grue, his arm around Tattletale’s shoulders in a way that seemed too gentle to someone who was predisposed to physical violence. He could have hit me, but his concern seemed more to stop her from hurting the people on the rooftop than to hurt us.

I could almost remember telling them they needed to get out of here, but… yeah. That’s the way I would have done it. Sloppy. More information would have helped, too, if I hadn’t been so eager to throw everything on the table and give us a quick and painless exit.

"What?" Regent asked. "Sorry."

"You remember my mom and dad? My teammates and I were really close."

"I remember."

"We weren’t really close. Not as far as talking and casual stuff, anyway. I was spending a lot of time in the other world, and I’m pretty sure you won’t do that again."

"Not exactly. I… I went to college with her."

"You were in a relationship with her?" I asked. Not my question, not Regent’s, but his inability to hide it.

"I was, but I think we broke up."

"I heard," Regent said.

This is just going to be a one-off? I was willing to bet that if this went on for long enough, we would eventually run into each other? That I would go back to where we had been, try to make amends and fix what’s broken?

"I… I’m going to take it one step at a time," I said. "I’m just… I’m sorry I was completely off the mark in thinking you’d choose my power over going after the Nine. I know it’s been a little while since I’ve done a serious injury and it’s been a little while since I’ve had a serious injury, but I’m just, I want to do a lot of good, and I sort of want to help this city and make a difference in the world and that’s more than a few things at once."

"There’s other things at work too," Regent said. His eyes were fixed on Weld. He knew who I was.

"I’m not trying to argue that. I’m just, I need a little something to occupy my attention right now, and I’m not sure what it’s going to be. The last thing I want to do is to leave something of a vacuum. I just need to know that I’m doing the right thing for the right reasons and that I’ve made the right choice."

"You’re a little twitchy," Regent said.

I didn

======== SAMPLE 22 ========
corn, black.

"I want to talk about how you got here."

"Because I think if you show up now, you’d be too late. There were cape groups from across America. Just like there are people from all around the world who want to come to this city to be a part of this. We need you in our corner."

He stood, and I felt the hairs of my arms stand on end. This time, I didn’t wait for him to leave, but to step forward and meet my eyes.

"Okay."

"What kind of situations led to your joining the Undersiders?"

"The city isn’t that big. We can’t afford to lose one of our members."

"Just filling in for some officer who isn’t around. We have enough without having someone on the opposite side of the city."

"You’re talking like you’re filling in for an officer. No."

"No. I’m saying we should aim to have you and I by the time the other group heads out."

My dad folded his arms. I watched him carefully. He couldn’t really rise or step away from his chair until I took that final step. If he did, I could see that she was ready to strike.

"Fine."

"We could talk after this meeting is done with Shadow Stalker is done with the Nine."

I glanced at him. Was he making or breaking the relationship? Or helping to ensure it wasn’t broken?

"I’m willing to talk after this meeting is done. I only want reassurance that you’ll be here."

I glanced at him, and he gave me a sidelong glance. The moment he saw me looking, his face fell.

"No such thing as a good advice session," Legend said. "I don’t like confrontation."

"That’s okay," I said. "I think we’d do fine as individual constituents."

"Conversations are good," Taylor said. "But I don’t want to be left out."

"Sure, whatever you say."

We left the meeting without a formal meeting of the Undersiders. It could have gone worse. Shadow Stalker and Legend exchanged glances.

"Are you going to help us?" Shadow Stalker asked. She glanced towards Shadow Stalker.

He didn’t reply. "Sorry."

"Let me guess," he commented. "You took out Number Man and Manpower in the last fight."

"I helped against Manpower, sure. That was more in vain that it being our thing."

"But you’re helping."

I didn’t reply, and I looked at Alec. He wasn’t nodding.

Maybe I shouldn’t have.

"We’re on the same side," I told my dad.

"That’s… disappointing," he said.

"We could talk again," I offered. "About what happened, what’s going on."

"I’ll pass," I told him.

"Bye, dad," he said.

My dad paid a visit to check on his new daughter. Grue was at the door, and Tattletale opened it for me.

"You going to tell me everything?" she asked.

"Um. Yeah. But not until after this meeting’s over. Sorry."

There was another silence. I couldn’t read her expression.

"Don’t worry," he said. "Taylor’s off the chain."

"Don’t worry?"

"Don’t you dare let it happen again. It’s not only my daughter."

I turned to Tattletale, "I need to pass on any messages to my new team before I go, though. Grue will get any messages, and if we’re all going to make the same trip, I’m worried we’ll forget each other."

"Doesn’t sound like it."

"It is," I said.

I led the group through the mass of people who’d gathered to listen to Legend speak. I passed by a group of people holding baby dolls, throwing them into the air as they hopped. I thought of something.

"You’re losing people," Tattletale spoke.

I didn’t respond. I moved forward, and nearly tripped them as I had to curtsy at her to keep from getting stung. I was getting a second degree

======== SAMPLE 23 ========
c. She knew where she was."

"How do you know this?"

"By the smoke. And I’m using my relay bugs to get a sense for the size of the swarm, enough that I can adjust my position."

He nodded.

"So, you’re leaving," the Doctor said.

"I guess I’ll see if I can find a spot to rest. Maybe if I see if the wind gets strong enough, a window can’t get shattered?"

"You can’t? There’s glass everywhere, no doubt in my mind that it’s still there."

She nodded. "I’ll see what I can do."

She headed to a spot where the windows were still open. For the time being, everything was as it had been without Legend’s interference. She set about clearing out the building’s contents.

Parian sat in her chair, her head lowered, reading a small, creaking book. Her legs were cranked up to the maximum capacity, and her feet were set outside where they wouldn’t be pushed around. Her head lolled.

"If I was going to be trapped here all day, I’d rather be with my partner," the Doctor spoke. "In case I’m wrong-"

"We’re okay to be anywhere but here," Legend spoke.

"In case you’re wrong," the Doctor replied.

Legend nodded. "Thank you."

"I’m going to go get changed. You look like you could make some light use of that shower. Take your time, but take off as much as you can while we’re talking."

Legend nodded.

"Can we see each other tomorrow morning?"

"If you’re going to sleep, I’m thinking we should go for breakfast first thing in the morning."

Legend nodded. He was wearing an early morning outfit, jeans and sweatshirt, both short and long, without a mirror or alarm clock. He settled in the chair, with Parian sitting on the opposite end of the couch.

"So, we know which team you’re on?" Legend asked.

"Oh, I’m on the Shatterbird side."

"Oh wow!"

"The’s the Shatterbird side, aren’t they?"

"Yeah."

"On the Protectorate side?"

"Two of the Shatterbird types are on the team. The elite three of the Shatterbird Five. The rest are regular members."

"That’s confusing," Parian said. "Why wouldn’t they be on the Protectorate? You think there’s a reason you wouldn’t have heard about this already."

"The Protectorate isn’t anything special," Legend said. "They recruit. Everyone that crosses state lines knows how to play the game, and this is an urban area."

"It’s a bad place to be," Parian said.

"It’s bad, sure, but we had a situation where the area was flooded, and we had the same issues with the city as anywhere else. We needed firepower here, and we needed cover against Scion. Alexandria’s dead, Bonesaw’s a prisoner, behind bars, no offense, but it’s not the same city everyone lives in. So there’s no shortage of people willing to shoot one another to take what they have."

"It’s a pretty dire situation," Lady Photon remarked. "Anything as horrific as a zombie apocalypse wouldn’t be able to match up to the things that occur halfway around the world."

Legend fished in a paper bag and grabbed two sheets, one yellow and one red.

"We’ll be filling this sheet with names and contact information for ourselves if necessary," Lady Photon said. "I know some people in your territory. Let me know if you find anyone suspicious."

"It’s enough. Give me the contact information for one of the heroes in this situation. My guys can check it at the end, if it’s suspicious enough. It’s not a major point, but if someone drops a bomb on our heads and somebody decides the only people with clearance are your people, then that’s probably the most valuable information I have."

Legend left. He grabbed a second paper and tore it into confetti. Like a normal person would, he put it in his backpack.

"He got away," Legend said.

"I’m surprised," Lady Photon said. She seemed to be

======== SAMPLE 24 ========
cid? We’re being watched.

"Fuck off!" Imp cursed the first of her failed attempts at speaking.

The two girls in the group stared at Shadow Stalker. The man in the black costume hadn’t budged an inch, and Shadow Stalker only slowly followed this with an awkward jerk.

Grue spoke, his voice calm, "Shadow Stalker, you’re going with Bitch. There are people you should be going to."

"You said it yourself, I’m smart as fuck," Shadow Stalker snapped, shoving the man in black into the darkness, "But I really feel like I need to spend time with you, and you’re the only people around who get me. If you’re really done with that, then go now, or get another costume. We can get you set up on some complicated, time-consuming system to take your mind off things. Take your mind off things, and I can fix you."

Grue and Tattletale raised their guns to their shoulders.

With that, the two girls in the group retreated, leaving Grue alone on his own. He watched Shadow Stalker leave with Tattletale in her darkness, then turned his attention to his passenger. When there was only the darkness around him and the cape he was following, he couldn’t get the mental footing to form the appropriate orders.

It was as much a relief to turn on this capes that she had appeared to, without a doubt in her head that he was going to be killed in the coming battle. Her focus, when the darkness started consuming her, was more towards Skitter than the group as a whole. She felt like there was no point, that she would be better at manipulating the darkness, having a little more control over it. And then it consumed her. No more then a third of the people in her darkness. It swelled rapidly.

She was barely able to fight, if that. She could see the darkness rippling to their surroundings, the darkness distorting as if she were making it wider, the cape that she had been following at the front line in the skirmish with Crusher using the same basic ranged attack moving from one part of the city to another.

Grue could see the same thing, the distortion of the space around them fade in speed, then stop. He could see the volume of the smoke that surrounded the area climb, the intensity of the color changing.

Her darkness swelled, filling their surroundings in, in addition to cutting them off as it made its way back towards the center. The amount of darkness continued to increase.

Finally, the cape she was following abandoned her attempt to close the gap and came tearing out of the cloud of smoke as it came back to her. Scion. They were gone, and the darkness that surrounded them was quickly filling in the gaps.

When they weren’t even a hundred feet away from the portal, a cape in a nearby alleyway died, falling to his hands and knees. The darkness swallowed him, but his name was Mike, and he had been one of the ones buried beneath the rubble.

He had fallen and broken his neck, she realized. It would have been a painful way to die, one that anyone could sympathize with.

She watched, one hand clutching the side of her head, as the darkness crept up over their heads, thinning out until the point where a teenage girl could look directly at the portal they stood in and through.

She turned towards them, then ran for it, a sprinting stride meant that she almost lost her footing, losing her balance. She found a wall and made her way across it.

When the darkness had largely cleared away, she saw Skitter, in her full Skitter garb, with the dog shielding her. The girl was clutching the leash of her coat and lead, and was crying with what was probably a broken voice. It wasn’t the same as what she’d heard at the shelter, of course, but it was something.

Skitter dropped the dog as a barrier was raised to protect herself and the girl. She took the moment to think, unbeknownst to her, Scion was approaching.

He was a plesiosaur, she discovered. Her first dinosaur. She’d grown to like him from the moment she’d read up on him, even if she didn’t know the details. He was tall, broad-shouldered and muscled, and he had a long snout that had been half-scarred by a coarse hair that clung to his face. He was covered in armor that covered everything but one or two inches at a time. His tail was bigger around than the rest, something akin to a dragon’s elongated maw, broad and

======== SAMPLE 25 ========
c. There wasn’t a better place to place it.

"If we put all these disparate groups together, do you think the Undersiders would still want to work with us?"

"Not likely."

"Then what if we split the group up so everyone came from the same area of the city? Then everybody came here? And if we kept the Shire intact, what if the Travelers split up, and one group stayed in Brockton Bay and navigated elsewhere? Maybe a group like the Chosen made their way here by way of a shortcut, or a group of underachievers might defect."

"That’s not a good enough reason to abandon the idea," Grue said. "Let’s talk about more concrete things."

"What if we don’t do anything concrete?" I asked. "Nothing illegal, no matter what Tattletale does. What if we assume that things will continue to deteriorate here, and that people will find another way?"

Grue shook his head. "I don’t want to sound arrogant, but I’m betting we can cut through the perimeter security and entry guards and still make it out okay."

"All of the hard work that went into this? All of the fear and loathing that people are feeling? We could still make it out okay."

"What if we just let them? What if we give them what they want. What would happen to us?"

"Just give them what they want. Do your worst."

I nodded.

"I can’t agree with that," Grue said.

"Why not? Because we went through the same things we did because we had to," I said. "People hate us because of who we are. All of us that’re here, we put our blood, sweat and tears into this. There’s nothing they can do against us."

"Because we’re scared shitless to death," Grue said. "Scary as hell to look at."

"Fuck me," Regent muttered. "Fuck me, I’m scared to death. I almost wish I was dead."

Grue grunted and threw his makeshift lantern onto the ground. "Bitch!"

I held up the phone. "What happened?"

Her voice was muffled. "Tattletale got commandeered by some gang members, and left without a phone. I caught a flight to an undisclosed location and call the Protectorate, who contacted the Travelers. They said to hold on to her, or they can take her to a hospital but they won’t."

"Fuck that," Grue said. "Fuck them, just let go."

"You’re scared," I told him. I heard one of Imp’s mumbles.

I raised the phone to my ear. "Hey, no."

"What? Tattletale?"

"She’s fine," I informed her. "They took her to an area the Travelers could take her to if she needed it. I think."

"And you caught the other guy with her," Grue said. "Go, Skitter. We have stuff to do early."

"Go, Skitter," Grue answered.

"Skitter," Grue said again. "We have stuff to do."

I nodded, silently, folding and pressing the bugs I had in his mouth said something about mouth-watering, "I’ll go see what we can do."

Grue climbed the stairs and climbed to his feet with me following him. I didn’t let the fact that he was a trained hero stop me. I grabbed his jacket and wrapped it around him as he set foot on the street.

"See you later?" I asked, as he approached.

He nodded, and headed off to make another call. I pressed the button on the phone.

"That was dumb," Regent muttered.

I sighed, belatedly remembered my phone. I still had the receipt. I reached out and saw another text.

"Need help."

Silence reigned for a few moments. Grue was gone, and Tattletale was leaning on the wall, her head hanging.

"You okay?" Tattletale asked.

"Yeah. No big deal. Sorry."

I touched my earbud.

"I’m on it. Keep moving. I’m not giving you a single second to stand still or you’ll miss the entire thing."

"Can we talk later?"

"If you want to walk and not run. If you’re just sitting there writhing in

======== SAMPLE 26 ========
c," she gave me a small nod, glancing around this corner. She was doing the same with Shadow Stalker as Stairs was doing. Both headed down the other side of the building. Not every angle was as dramatic as our perspective here.

"So we’re kind of in a pickle," Tattletale said, as she looked at our situation, "So you’re either with us, or you’re some other gang."

"I’m sort of splitting my thoughts," Shadow Stalker answered. "I’m with Coil. I think I’m going to go right back to work with Coil, or head down to my headquarters and start laying my w- I don’t know… two years of rebuilding or something like that."

"A year?" I asked. We hadn’t exactly been quiet on details.

"Two years," she repeated herself, making it clear in the same moment that she wasn’t answering a question.

"I wasn’t going to split my thoughts on it either," Shadow Stalker said. "But I heard you had something in mind for your team, what with them being the focus of so much of it. Have you considered a plan of attack?"

"Attack?" Regent shouted the question.

"What’s the plan?" she gave him an expression that could have been graciously tired.

"For now, I’m just going to stick with the plan that Brian mentioned," Regent said.

"Alright."

"But before we do that," she said, "I thought you should know the status of Skitter’s project."

"It’s three days out of the air," I said. "Too long to fight through the clouds. We also know that Mannequin’s not going to be able to make much headway. It’s all about the dogs."

"Okay. We’re going to get into the combat aspect of it," she said. We made our way into the stairwell.

"What’s your plan?" Regent asked.

"I’m looking for people," I said. "Anyone."

"You want to go on the offensive?"

"Yeah," I said. "Unless we get lucky, I’m hoping we don’t."

"Sure," she said, "But do you feel like you’ve found anyone?"

"Yeah," I said.

"Coupled with your knowledge of Mannequin, I can probably get an idea of their general behavior."

"Yeah," she said. "I can probably get an idea of their general demeanor. Like, did the last five people they replaced bring their friends or family with them?"

I glanced at Grue. "Yeah."

"Then I guess it’s a tie, between you and Shadow Stalker," I told her. "We should take out as many of the other members of the Undersiders as we can, before they organize a show of force."

"If we don’t get rid of them before they show up, we’ll never get rid of them." Shadow Stalker said.

"Exactly," I agreed.

"Tie," Regent commented.

"Tie," Grue agreed.

"Okay," Tattletale agreed.

This situation was becoming a match. The villains were taking the same approach I was, eyeing the people they’d collected and making a mental check to see who they were dealing with. I knew it, knew they were looking for allies, but I was hoping for a better explanation.

Was there a reason we’d come to this deal? Was Tattletale trying to bait me into going all-out, leaving the Raizers to handle this situation on their own? Was there some other motive?

That was, until Bitch attacked.

The bugs I’d planted on Bitch had an internal counter on them. It freaked me out, because I immediately had a secondary power.

Secondary powers weren’t necessarily a bad thing. I’d experimented with them before, and enjoyed them. I’d have a problem with that, if it pushed me over the edge, but they were easily reversible.

Except this wasn’t simply a power escalation. I could pinpoint exactly who the Raizers were targeting. Bitch.

Bitch was the one the Raizers were targeting. I could pinpoint whether they were looking at individuals they could directly affect, like Grue or Regent, or groupings of people, like the Undersiders.

Except it wouldn’t work

======== SAMPLE 27 ========
c was gone, not even looking at it, and I had some new clothing sitting on a shelf by the computer.

The wind blew harder now, and I had the extra clothing on. I wrapped my hand around the top and gently crumpled it. It had the face of a cat, and a cat’s features; large, for one thing, with big eyes and a long snout. The other two were more or less accurate replicas of the ones I’d seen in the paperwork. They were accurate enough that I had to use it against the other cape, trying to confuse him enough so he couldn’t come after me and hurt my teammates.

Foil shot her crossbows, and they hit hard enough that they rattled my costume. Foil used a spray of bullets that flew through the air, rather than catch on the ground and fall to the ground directly. That didn’t necessarily help against the crackling, tearing wind, but it helped against the occasional burst that would spray us with sparks and create a steady wind.

Rachel stopped chasing me, and she had started to walk back into the city with Bastard. I had no choice but to run with Rachel. I couldn’t trust that she’d keep walking forward until she found a space that let her dog Chase follow her. It was like running against the wind, except there was really no escaping the currents of wind that were blowing in our faces.

If she found something I couldn’t see or hear, if she was deaf or completely blind, I had little doubt she would follow me into the cloud of smoke and go straight for the capes. I could only hope that her blind leading her was as ill-advised as my risking stepping into the smoke myself.

We were taking a left turn onto a street that was facing the north, towards Coil’s base. Regent and Foil were talking, and I could imagine Foil pointing towards a camera as she passed by. It made me think of Regent taking a picture with his phone. It was an unpleasant idea, putting us in the line of fire for whatever reasons.

Coil was building up his control over the weather. As cold and wind rushed towards us, he was shaping it into a sort of veil, shaping the clouds into shapes we couldn’t hear, felt or see. The sky above us was darkening into slivers of light, with the occasional storm cloud. As the slivers of light caught on something or someone in one of those clouds or slivers of light faded into darkness, we could see Coil’s men standing their ground in that same direction.

They weren’t doing anything particularly risky or risky looking, but I could imagine that the men with guns and all the firepower that accompanied a general presence of men in armor or without the protection of their protective garb were a little more intimidating.

Regent and Foil were still discussing tactics and strategies for potential new recruits, and Regent was gesturing for Foil to follow him. Foil was a little confused, but she did follow Regent, stepping forward. She had the knife in Regent’s glove and was holding it.

I could see Coil at the end of the street I’d taken shelter behind, trying to find me and knock me out. Rachel had probably tagged along because she would have been able to get out of the worst case scenarios a second time around, but she wasn’t here, and I was betting she wasn’t in the same room with Coil.

Either Regent had been unable to break my fall and I wasn’t in the same state to run, or Coil had other measures in place, and he chose to go for a third option. Either Coil was protecting more areas of our defensive line, giving him more time to take his time with his reinforcements and make a run for it, or he’d decided in the midst of this distraction to go for broke and isolate us.

I wasn’t sure if it was the best course of action, but I couldn’t really take the back road and not give Coil a chance to finish setting up. If he went this route, I was going to get in more trouble than I’d hoped to if Coil wasn’t prepared for the potential violence we could bring on. Still, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to convince my teammates to pass on word to their families, or make sure that no one was left in the dark if they made their way outside.

Rachel had spotted Bastard as well. She approached him, and their eyes met.

What did I do? Grab him and bring him back with me?

No, I was too big for Bastard. At my command, two dogs picked him up and carried him to us. Bastard

======== SAMPLE 28 ========
c’s hands, and the man had a black costume layered over him.

I’d looked at the PRT in the past. The PRT was some combination of a police force, sheriff, head of the local parahuman defense force or government and military. They had capes in capes and cape costumes, and they had the image of a giant robed figure in the middle of a field, standing guard. It made them vaguely familiar.

But this?

The man was dressed more like a soldier. He had a white costume with a patchwork look to it, with a long cape that extended beneath or over his head and shoulders, an image of a white uniform on the front (or cape, depending on who I was talking to), heavy armor and a cape-shaped helmet with a crown. He was dressed up like a soldier at a funeral.

What was this guy really doing here?

The man didn’t move.

This wasn’t going well.

We wouldn’t get more than five more minutes before there was a heavy crash and the sounds of gunfire. Fallen buildings loomed around us.

"What the hell are you doing here?" the man asked.

"I came for a reason."

"You’ve been playing a long time," the white man said. "It’s your prerogative to go to some lengths or worse for a reason."

Again, the man didn’t move.

"This is serious," a woman said. "There’s people in here that need help."

"We’ve been called here, too. We’ve tried to help."

The man looked like he was going to say something else right then, but he didn’t.

"Do they know we’ve been helping?" the woman asked.

"No," the white man said.

"Then who are they?"

"The ones at the top."

The man didn’t move, staring.

"Have they communicated anything since you got here?" the woman asked.

"No."

"What?"

"They don’t know."

There was another crash. Dust and darkness swept over the rooftop, and everyone present turned their head or looked directly at the man.

The man took a second to compose himself and stand up. "I’m with the lawyers."





Crushed 24.2


"Let’s go," the woman in the group said.

We were half a block away from the apartment before the group split. The door was open, and the interior was dark, with an overcast sky.

I didn’t want to comment on Emma’s actions, but the chaos that followed anything was very concerning. The actions of the other members could occasionally be summed up in a few words: stupid, mean, and over the top. A thousand things, put together, and they amounted to something that would haunt me for the rest of my life.

The woman followed the group by pushing the two cars into the front of the grocery store. She pulled a small cart off the ground, opened the passenger door, and then drove the car into the side of the store.

Everyone else was already out. The woman stopped when the car was halfway into the parking lot. Looking at her, I didn’t want to argue. I knew her, and with two or three bad apples in a room full of twenty-ish people, it was hard to imagine that she’d be able to fight someone like that.

"Let’s go," she said.

"What?"

"I’m not going to argue."

"Can’t you see it’s obvious? He’s playing the same cards as you guys."

"I’ll argue."

We stepped into the alleyway, and the woman led the way up to the second balcony. There was a row of six windows, facing out onto the street, and she pulled her phone from her pocket. Using both the cell phone and the phone, she dug a series of alleys out from the far side of the parking lot, until one led to an empty lot behind the grocery store.

I did what she said. I followed her, checking signs, using my bugs to give directions, but I had no use for them. I was too reliant on my swarm-sense, and using my eyes to follow the individuals around me made me feel dizzy. That, or I’d been too focused on the number of bugs, and my senses had been overridden.

"You’re wearing black."

My swarm

======== SAMPLE 29 ========
crease it in half, with me? You could be the person that knocks out that machine. The part that’s still functional, though? Yeah. We deal in pieces."

The man nodded.

"If you’re not going to say anything else, then I guess I’ll go. We’ll talk?"

"I’ll be back."

"If that’s the case…"

"See you then."

I gathered my army and headed out.

Two-six-five made his way to the roof, then fell on top of Lung. He wouldn’t be the only one on the outs; the men and woman in the group ranged from average height to shorter than average. Lung had a bad attitude.

Was he nervous? I saw the changes in his posture, the slack jaw, in the way he hung his head, then rose to look him in the eye. I wasn’t one for drama, but I respected him for it. If anything, he seemed happier as he looked me in the eye than some of the other members.

"I’m sorry for picking on you," I addressed the man, "I hope you know there’s nothing you can do about it. Lung wouldn’t have wanted you around."

Lung didn’t respond. He crossed the rooftop with a leap that sent his hat and the metal railing tumbling onto his head, smashing it into a hard surface.

"He took you for an asshole, right?"

Aerokinesis?

He didn’t reply to that, either. Just rising from his head before I could put any questions to him.

Then two members of Bitch’s animal army materialized, one atop the other. They were women, and Lung was one of them. He’d had blood added to his makeup to toughen the edges of his jaw, to thin his neck and head.

The look on his face was so strange it caught me off guard.

"Lung," I spoke into my swarm.

He only cocked his head a little, not reacting to my voice. I left my mouth where it was, and drew some flies around myself, alighting in a position between my hand and his.

Then I moved my bugs to the man. Every bug in range. I felt a little alarmed at that, but I still moved them as close to him as I could. I could sense the way he opened and closed his mouth, the way his muscles tensed in response to the contact of something else.

"That could be a sensory effect," he told me.

Lung wasn’t the only one I could sense. There were the two people that Bakuda had used to produce the bloodbags, and a small herd of dogs. I couldn’t focus on either of them, but I could sense the crowd surrounding Lung. There were a few shadows with the crowd around them. Two people were straddling the tops of the railings, one over the other.

The scene was slightly different from what we’d seen at the initial stages of the fight. This was the Endbringer, and the sky was darkening. Fog was thicker and clouds of dark smoke were rolling from the edges of the fighting, making the roads appear more like rough natural depressions.

The one hiding spot I could find was a cluster of buildings that wasn’t in the line of fire, and the building was surrounded by a thick cloud of smoke. I dove there, and was promptly followed a few hundred feet down by a contingent of dogs. They were mostly large, some smaller, but every set of paces felt forced, as if they’d been ordered to travel long distances and there wasn’t really anywhere to go.

The scene got even more eerie as I got further away from the scene. The sky darkened, the clouds became denser, and the density of the clouds meant that an overwhelming presence was haunting the area. A thick fog.

It wasn’t the wind or the rain that bothered me; I was more irritated by the general presence of the creatures. In her human state, they were translucent, but whatever magic or sorcery it offered could obscure them, and that fog was thick.

That fog extended as far as the eye could see in one direction and close the other. In another, it slipped over the top of Lung’s head. I could feel the cold hitting me.

He crumpled to the ground, but he was alive. A voice caught my attention, sounding remarkably normal, "That was some solid shit, wasn’t it? You think you can pull that off in the real world?"

The words made me sh

======== SAMPLE 30 ========
c of them. It had changed.

They’d reached their upper limits. They were no longer capable of moving as a unit. The last of them were leaving the cloud of darkness, collapsing into one spot.

"The portal!" I called out.

Coco moved, and the entity moved with her. They were a single, unified, vast line, stretching from the cloud of darkness to the portal itself.

It was the best place I could do the test. If I took them all into a single entity, then they were all I had.

Then I needed one to save them.

The portals opened, and the number of people in the world exploded.

One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.

The number of beings in the world had to be a multiple of two, by definition. That left eight raw points to work with:

Number of raw points to work with: 2

The number of realities to test: One



Three more that the entity could see. The ones in the outside world. They were hurrying through the portals.

One of them looked like a small toddler. It was staring at the end of the line.

I’m sorry, the entity said.

I didn’t have a coherent response to that.

I’d hoped that this line of thinking would lead me to see this as a chance to reach out and fix things, to fix the worst of the world, but it had felt more like I was gambling than asking for help. If anything, I felt uneasy about this as a decision. I could see a pattern to it, where it was asking for help and responding in kind, but at the same time, both requests and responses felt premature.

This was an opportunity, an all-too-familiar feeling, being faced with a monumental decision. I’d hoped, had put so much stock in the idea of my teammates and the idea of a mission, between my discomfort with their request that I’d been forced to do this and their insistence on doing this in their limited time, given their schedules.

But if I was going to do this, I’d have to do it otherwise. I wasn’t sure what that entailed.

The entity didn’t give me a response.

I waited, watching.

It was time.

The number of people entering my reality was increasing. For long minutes, the entirety of my territory was on mute, inaudible, and Defiant’s face was blurred out.

My bugs were being blasted into the air, and those same civilians were being shot. I could hear the screams, my bugs could sense their own fear, the sounds of anger and frustration.

Tensions were building. I couldn’t tell exactly how they were doing it, but the dead were falling, and it was spreading across the entire world. Twenty, thirty people, now.

More were arriving, but the scenes were getting increasingly confused, splitting into two as they died in another place, or as they passed through a portal we didn’t yet control. There were small screams and screams of pain in reaction to each new arrival, and every so often, I would catch a scream or two of anger or rage. I’d stopped all of those unpleasant sounds long ago.

I looked at the entity. What did I need?

I had a thought, and it was a thought I’d probably needed countless times prior.

There was no room for reflection.

Something got the better of him, and then he snapped out of it. He started shouting something I couldn’t understand. I could see him, aware of who he was and what he was doing. He looked like a skeletally thin child or adolescent with rough patch around his ears, a beard and a raised rough patch at the neck. There were obvious physical changes I couldn’t make out in his expression.

He slammed his hands down against the ground, and I could see steam billowing.

Another person appeared nearby. A man, with thick hair to spare that wasn’t quite long enough for me to look at him in any detail, a black robe with thick, curly hair spread over one shoulder, muscular arms and legs. Nothing I could see that would suggest any real injuries. I looked at the body, but I couldn’t make out much. The scruff was more prominent than the injury on Marissa. The fat, a tangle of red-brown curls. He held a bottle of water, and the water’s contents scintillated with the light of the setting sun.

"What can I do for you?" the man asked.

"I’m here if you need anything."

======== SAMPLE 31 ========
c. It’s been a really long time," Tattletale said. She shrugged. "Do you have your ID?"

"No," Cuff said.

"We’re not going to be locked up. If you want to take us to a room with a TV and a computer and talk, that’s perfectly fine."

"I have the door. I can press one set of keys against the one set of bars, but I need one key from the dummy keypad, one for each window. I can get the keys, I just need-"

"We’ll open the window," Tattletale said. "No TV, computers or phones."

"Right," Cuff said. She crossed to the window, took a second and found the keys she’d placed across her shoulders, and used her fingers to drag them through the opening.

The two members of Revel’s team had taken another window, which meant that there was one left. They entered the hallway, and Tattletale used the windows to her advantage, opening a door to allow us entry. I stepped through to peer through one of the other windows at Scion’s still active location.

Scion was still reeling from being struck by the glancing blow. He used one claw to dig his hands into the rock, then used the force of his blows to break the rock apart. The resulting fragments floated through the air, and are now positioned delicately so he would not have a way of simply stomping them apart as easily as he had with his claws. I could see his face growing more grim as more and more of the rock became translucent.

I grabbed the pieces of glass that were still intact. I could see as far as the small windows. I looked through one to look at Rachel and her dogs, who were moving slowly but surely toward Scion. Imp grabbed Rachel as she passed through a crack in the wall, catching a piece of glass with one hand and catching one dog in the neck with the other.

Rachel’s eyes went wide, and she pointed at a point a few paces ahead of us.

"Go!" I shouted.

Rachel and Imp moved forward at the same time, and Imp seized a glass vial from where the contents had landed in Bastard’s claw and pulled the button. A brief light show signaled the start of the glass-circus effect.

The glass flared briefly, and then began to rotate in a tornado that ripped through the area. Pieces of glass shards that had remained on the road began falling into the middle of the narrow hallway, where the dogs and Rachel’s group were.

I could see the dogs growl, and Rachel moved forward to intervene, drawing Bastard’s attention.

Imp grabbed a piece of glass with the side of her hand and hauled it up over her head, her middle fingers extended. She pointed at the vial.

Rachel scowled a little, but didn’t say anything.

I took the vial from her. I held it by the bottle opener as I stepped through the opening Imp had made, past Rachel and me. "Take a good, hard look at this."

Imp turned and ran.

"Damn. Glass," I said, looking through the slit in the bottle. The glass was still hot enough I could see it was boiling. I took a deep breath and then used my body to push the contents into my jeans pocket, grabbing my cell phone and putting it there as well.

"What are you doing?" Tattletale asked.

"Getting supplies and looking for you two. You going to let her go?"

"I’ll make her take another nap if she’s stuck here," Tattletale said.

Imp turned to look at me.

"I can sense your power," Tattletale said.

"Not too many. Your sense of balance, the way you’re not making as much noise when I’m in my shadow state. I guess it’s because I can’t make you focus on me and focus only on what’s in my reach, in this case."

"I’m getting the vibe you don’t care about the hostages enough to pay a few grand for this."

"It’s more than that," Tattletale said. "The fact that you’re suggesting this, that you’re calling this attack a nice gesture for a villain, I read it all. But that’s not why I’m saying it."

Imp raised a finger as Tattletale turned around, stepped close and slapped her hand against the corner of her mouth.

Tattletale’s voice was a low growl

======== SAMPLE 32 ========
cans, to the point that they didn’t even need to be contained. I was going to get some form of revenge on the Slaughterhouse Nine that way, but I couldn’t put a plan into action while the Nine were fighting.

"Custody pods," I said.

"I could make another set," Tattletale said. "I just don’t want to. They take up too much space, they’re not good for any but the strongest, and I don’t want you to try to get more. I won’t get in your way."

I glanced at Noelle. She looked agitated. She was glaring at Tattletale as Tattletale stood at the stairs. "Why do you think we’re fighting them?"

"Because Scion destroyed the moon," Tattletale said.

"What?"

"Because he destroyed humanity. Because he’s trying to take control of everything that isn’t his."

I wasn’t entirely sure what she was saying. I pointed at the television, and then pointed at the building.

"Custody pods!" I pleaded.

Tattletale scowled, but she followed my instructions, sticking her hands into her pockets.

"Custody pods! Fuck you!" Tattletale threw a handful of plastic bags at the television, hard. The television fell with a small splash.

I caught the TV, but it wasn’t holding. The second it touched ground, I realized something would need to be done.

I raised my hands, and two guards joined my side. I handed them the television.

One had the box, while the other held a rope. With a few deft movements, they hauled it onto a flatbed. The guard, I was pretty sure, lowered it to safe altitude.

I signaled for my bugs to return. Six or so were already present, but the rest deserved their pay. They gathered at the base of the staircase.

In the hallway, there were more guards. More to go.

"Let’s go!" I called out, flying below the cityscape that was Dragon’s craft. The stairs led down to the storage facility.

On the flat side of the storage facility, there were two tiers. The lower level had three levels. Storage for boxes, plus a more secure area with three pens and a small TV stand.

The upper level had three levels. Storage for boxes, plus access to the lower level.

The TV stand had a television with a recent news report, a photo with Jack Slash, and a caption below it.

‘New York City heroes make first contact with Kaiju threat’



I didn’t want to show the Merchants the TV report. I’d held it for Jack, and I wasn’t sure it would be in their interest to see the verdict.

Noting the second was a bad idea, since it would have some bearing on the verdict they’d get, and there was little doubt they’d know or suspect. Besides, what would their immediate reaction be? A look at the faces of the Merchants? Their general reaction if they’d gotten the report right?

"Candy?" Noelle asked, from the other side of the pens. "Can I have some?"

"You can? I’m so hungry I could eat these things right now!"

Innkeeper: "They’re not ready to eat yet."

Candy? She started to climb the stairs, but Noelle stopped her.

"Don’t look like you’re getting excited," the woman at the desk said. "We took one bite today, everyone, and we’re not ready to eat them."

"Can’t we just walk away?" Noelle asked. "I want to stay and eat with you!"

"It’s a good idea," the woman at the desk said. "But it won’t be as easy as this. The city’s going to start losing some of its originality pretty soon, and there’s not going to be a lot of places to go if people are throwing parties and stuff like this."

"My house burned down," Noelle said. "I’m lucky I survived."

"I’ll think about that," the woman said, her voice quiet. "You wanted to try again later? I’ll get you set up again. Don’t forget to drink water."

"I drank some yesterday. Not enough, but I’m okay."

"Good. I had some trucks coming with bottled water just

======== SAMPLE 33 ========
cretin and the man with the knife.

"They’re going to arrest each other today. We get arrested too, of course," Weld said. "We should stay out of trouble."

"But what if-"

"Don’t mention I’m aware," he said. He didn’t want to mention Eidolon had powers.

Tattletale spoke up, "The fact that Coil was operating in this area suggested he had something in mind for us. Something to target the Undersiders."

"Coil was doing the same thing. Just off the top of his head, he was wanting to target the city infrastructure, the major arteries that led from one place to another. Targeting the most important people in the city and putting the screws to them."

"So it’s a very deliberate approach. You think so?"

"Maybe a little," Tattletale offered.

Weld went on, "He was going to target our boss, the Mayor. And you, Miss Militia. I don’t get where this is going, but my gut is that you had something in mind."

"We knew," Tattletale said. "All of us excepting the girl with the sniper rifle-"

"Right. I get that you don’t want to talk specifics. What I don’t get is how this gets you more worked up than any of the others."

"But you’re…" Weld started.

Tattletale shook her head.

"But I sort of don’t get how we could do this to Coil. As easy as it is to take the credit, to be the mastermind, it’s harder to take the credit for the plan."

"It’s a question of perspective," Weld said. "I sort of imagined it, but I’m not sure I get the gist of it. I kind of remember seeing what the Undersiders were all about, when they’d first started doing that. I think it’s hard for me to wrap my head around how it could be possible for anyone to do anything like this. It’s the sort of thing that just takes one person with the right mindset and enough power to throw off the system."

"This won’t work," Tattletale said. Her voice tightened. "It’s not like there are any reinforcements in sight or there’s any people willing to run."

"No," Weld responded, "If there are any, they’ll show up in the next 24 hours. Or they won’t. We’ll get the information we need, we’ll capitalize on it, and then we’ll resolve this once and for all."

Tattletale didn’t buy that, looked at Weld.

"We’re still riding the coattails of Noelle."

"That’s the spirit," Tattletale laughed, "Funny thing is, we’re riding the coattails of one of the worst members of the Slaughterhouse Nine yet. Maybe ever."

"That you’d have us believe you’re riding the coattails of the Slaughterhouse Nine is telling me exactly what I need to know."

"Honestly," Weld said, "It is. I’m not sure I have it in me to do something dramatic, something last minute like that. I need to do this in a more responsible manner, or I feel like there’s a possibility I’d ruin the greater PR image if I did it."

"You‘re a little irrationally certain," Tattletale said.

"I would hope so," Weld said. "But we can’t let our guard down just yet."

"Yes, we can," Tattletale replied. She sighed, and broke into a large metal door, as if to enter her boss’s office.

"Are you leaving?" Miss Militia asked, breaking to enter Tattletale’s group?

"If I’m allowed into Coil’s headquarters, I’m crossing my fingers we make it out okay. If I’m not let in-"

"But you will be," the Director made it sound like the threat was imminent.

"If I’m not allowed inside, it’ll be the same. I won’t ask you twice as a prerequisite for getting into the building if that’s exactly what you’re doing. You guys will be pissed about this much easier if I act like you’re the second or third coming of Butcher, and you have to remind people why

======== SAMPLE 34 ========
cund was there, and was waiting.

I waited almost a year before Scion showed again. No way for him to show up, and with his powers and the threat he posed, it seemed he would show up as a mere threat. No, no. He would win. He’d be killing more of us in the meantime. Only the moment he was gone, he’d be making enough enemies that there wouldn’t be much of a threat left for the heroes to fight to protect.

I knew he would come back. I just wasn’t sure what form he would take.

I knew, deep down, that I liked these guys. That there was something about them that made me feel like I could trust these guys to handle this.

I liked the Undersiders, but that didn’t make me a good person, and it didn’t make me a good teammate. If anything, being a part of this team made me wish I had fewer of the people I did.

I hated that I got in this team, that these people I had so much respect for, and some of the people I’d been most excited about being a part of before I met these people, they found my mom’s body and dumped my dad. I hated that it had taken me this long to even realize it, but I knew it had to be a factor. I wasn’t surprised that the Undersiders had pulled that off, but I was pissed. It was the longest, most difficult road to travel, and it hadn’t been worth it.

But I knew I was a bad person for bringing this on myself. I knew I’d hurt people, I knew I was a disappointment to the team I’d wanted to join, and I knew I’d probably be a little unstable when I got back. I would miss the team less, maybe for a year or two, maybe never.

I couldn’t even put my thoughts into words. Words were a bitch to find, didn’t have the power of sound. I could hit a long pause, but I couldn’t find the words as well as I might like.

This city? I’d moved away. I couldn’t give my opinion on whether it was because of the pressures, the people, the crime, the insanity, the people were still leaving, or a combination of factors.

If the influence from capes was dwindling, if The Simurgh was showing up less and less frequently in parahuman situations, then Scapegoat would find a reason to stick around.

If the Simurgh was going the way I was thinking, then maybe this wouldn’t work out.

I clenched my fist, and I prayed.

"I hate this," she said.

I felt a flare of irritation. I glanced at her.

"You really don’t need to do this, and it’s really not that bad. I would let you know if you needed surgery, even if it was just minor, but no more self loathing than that."

When I turned my head her way, my eyes were down toward her knees. I felt a chill.

"Okay…" I said, trying to sound reasonable.

I made a small noise. My fists were clenched, and I didn’t even know if I’d be able to strain to move them with the swelling vise-grip gloves I’d brought with me.

When I turned my head my head back around, my eyes were wide. I didn’t let on, but I knew that ‘I’ had to look up’ at the figure beside me.

Golem. Scion. Had it been intending to throw me off?

My other self hovered on the roof of the nearest building, one hand outstretched, a hand extended.

"Okay," I said. My voice was tight, but not quite as angry or irritated as I might have liked. How many of these people were just concealing their darkest secrets? Was this one of the few cases where people just needed to maintain that outward appearance? "Scion is here, he’s on his way back. I’m going to go help see that he crosses paths with the people who killed Bates and Burnscar. If they don’t let me know, I’m going to make a point of leaving you guys a voice in my ear."

I’ll go. I muttered.

I made my way out of the alley, moving at a light jog pace. I was careful to keep a wary eye on any buildings and people I had to hurry to avoid.

No. I made a point

======== SAMPLE 35 ========
cornet

It wasn’t so important to get a lock of hair free, but I did want to minimize contact between my hand and the device. The other end would remain out of commission while I set up the hairball out of the box.

I turned the device on its side, and set it into place on the counter. The user manual was included with the unit, and there was also an included boot loader, with options to download and install third party software. I chose not to install either.

I walked around the counter and reached the bins containing sunglasses and contact lenses, making my way to a rack of contact lenses. The straps had been cut at the elbows, and the angle meant the lenses had tended towards the front of my face, with the bridge of the nose and upper lip.

I picked one up and closed it into a tube. Opening the lid, I slipped it into my mouth and chewed through it with my lower lip. Pulling my tongue from the rest, I told myself I would be better when ready to contact someone. There was only one person I wanted to contact, and the contact I was making was minimal compared to what I was already on the ball. "Hello?"

"Taylor."

My eyes traveled across the assembled crowd. Lisa appeared out of nowhere, in the center of my field of vision.

"You’re not dressed, for all of the-"

"We’re in costume." Lisa pointed, "And you’re wearing skintight costumes. That’s not the issue."

"I know it is. We’re talking costume here, not costumes in general. The mask that Dragon put on, it wasn’t much nicer looking than the masks you guys gave me. I think some people looked at me funny. I had to look up how someone could look like the Endbringer and still be very human to make sure it wasn’t obvious enough they were skintight."

"Well looky here, we are going to get attacked for the costume," Alec said, "But we don’t really wear skintight costumes. It’s a trademark of the fringe groups. And if we do, we don’t have you guys wearing any skintight costumes."

Lisa frowned, "You don’t have to say anything. This is a problem you are facing."

"And it’s a problem you are facing for the first time in your life, being on the verge of losing your home, your family, and the thing that made you feel like you were belonged, being in a wheelchair? It’s a big deal."

"And being behind on my rent, bills and utilities, which have skyrocketed due to the crazy thing with my dad and the bullshit we’ve been up to, all at the same time we were trying not to lose our minds over Lisa’s ass, trying to figure out how to take care of our dogs while we were dealing with the city trying to patch things up… where I was living in a shed with nothing but my dog and a tent over my head in case some shit went down, with nothing but a couple of bugs to keep me company," I said, feeling lame.

"I know what you mean."

"It’s a big deal. Brian made a deal about it. He said we can’t cut the lease, but we can negotiate an amount we both can’t be bothered to increase."

"Which amount?"

"Three months rent. Fifty and sixty dollars a month. Which we can each do without raises. That’s a little over a year of pay. The only reason we don’t are the ones who have jobs, and the ones who don’t are people who already get a lot of money from the team, based on appearances and the fact that we take jobs. Alec and me."

"You’ve talked about being a little over a year in the industry." He touched his chin thoughtfully.

"How’s that work?" I asked. "Working two jobs to pay for school, maybe. And you want to keep me out of your life?"

"Please. I know it sucks having to remind you with a situation like this, but do you want to fly solo or with a team?"

"Team," I said, not budging. I could see the change in Alec’s posture.

"I don’t think it’s quite so bad," Brian said. "I think it’s a moot point. I’m having fun, doing what I want to do. But I think we should stick together, or we’ll always be rivals."

Lisa nodded.

"

======== SAMPLE 36 ========
c, had to be that I had access to a computer. I opened a channel to make a channel open, and the portal floated into an open window above my head.

Tattletale was still leading us through one set of checkpoints. We passed the site where I’d found the cells, and two blocks ahead of us there was a construction site. Coil was here, his people in tow.

I was still a little confused, why he’d bring the Undersiders when he had Undersiders.

"Skitter? You’re alright?" Tattletale asked me.

"Hm?" The question was too vague for me to ask.

"What happened?"

"Last I heard, he was giving the orders to his people to clear out of the city. They think so, too, but I’m not focusing my attention on that right now."

We reached the construction area and I could see a collection of the buildings Coil had maintained throughout the business trip. Trunk level shelters, sections of road leveled, all of it still in rough shape after the excursions he’d had to go through at the stadium, after the attacks and the rescue attempts.

We stopped, at what had to be one of the shelters. There was a mound of bodies, and a single body that wasn’t a member of the Nine, lying at the very back.

My dad, in his late fifties, he looked like. His hair was still stained with the blood that had flowed from Butcher’s wounds. He was wearing body armor: a metal mask over the loss of facial hair, a silver gorget over the two-tone metal of his face that had been cut short. His helmet was plain. He gestured towards the man in the wheelchair with the paper bags.

"Thank you for coming." Tattletale said.

"You don’t have to."

"I am. Thank you again."

I touched one bag to my chest to collect some fresh air. It puffed out to fill the entire size of my chest. It felt heavy. My coat had probably expanded to contain the contents of the sack.

The others were busy dealing with the aftermath of the bodies. Rachel was helping another man, and then helping two more. Bitch was leading Bastard around the perimeter of the area, while I dealt with the remaining clones and the wounded who hadn’t yet returned.

"What does he do?" Rachel queried me. "He goes up against Dragon? How do we take out him?"

My head shook. "I don’t know the techniques we have for dealing with the clones. Rachel, can you use your dogs to keep them from running into the clones?"

"They’re walking to the other teams," Regent spoke.

I turned our head. "Defend three sides, and each take at least one hostage."

Rachel nodded, but she took it more seriously than Tattletale or Imp. Grue, Ballistic and the four dogs that Bitch rode were a short distance away from the front lines. I could see the Undersiders starting to pull bodies out of buildings, rushing for the closest cover.

I closed my eyes for a moment. I wasn’t sure what to do next. I turned my attention to Tattletale. I’d been in a state of paralysis for a solid fifteen minutes now, and her power was too strong. I was about to point the blame for that at her feet when something piqued my interest.

Tattletale shook her head a little. "I think that’s a mistake. There’s a lot going on that doesn’t make sense. How is it that we’re here, when the Endbringers weren’t even on the horizon?"

"We know where they are," I said. "And we’ve been looking for them for a long time."

"They’re heading towards you."

"Don’t you?" I asked.

"We know they’re coming," she said, "Because they’re coming, and you left."

I shook my head. "You’ve been looking for them, and you’re not finding them."

She didn’t argue. "Okay. Sorry. That’s all I was going to ask. Thanks again. For the help."

"Let’s go check it out." Tattletale smiled as we approached the front doors.

The moment we were on the ramp, the entire building started to shake. For a second, I thought it was the Simurgh, but it was Grue that made the waves.


======== SAMPLE 37 ========
c. There’s a good nine of them, and they’re still alive. Nobody dead yet, if we’re lucky."

"No?"

"What I’m saying is that we should leave now, before they finish putting the last of their strength through the doorways. That’s the only way we’re really going to land, there."

"Okay." That would do a lot of things for me. Maybe even a lot for you. I thought of the heroes who couldn’t fly and wanted to.

"And you can land here in time to get here, and you should. The dog is climbing fast." If they didn’t expect the catapults, they could climb the catwalk.

"I might have to."

"I’ll need to."

He dropped his head a little. I watched as he opened his mouth and vomited.

"I know it’s hard to believe, but you’ve actually been hearing about this stuff? You’ve heard about this being cool? Being able to use your power like you’ve seen others use it? Your family getting up out of their beds at noon to watch a video of you?"

I shook my head.

"The Simurgh says she’s going to hell for slaughtering humans. There’s going to be a lot of people who hate us just from the beginning. The only reason we’ve been able to achieve anything is because we’ve been willing to work together. Scion wasn’t that. He was a dictator who swept humanity under a carpet, a man who picked and chose people from one of the bestial classes of humanity, and he did all of this to order. He’s just a little bit of a monster. He’s a monster who’s done a lot of harm, and he’s done a lot of good. How much more can we make of him?"

I took another drink of water. My body felt like it was being rained onto it, the dry, heavy sensation felt everywhere.

"You’re talking about doing him a shitty favor," the Vargas told me.

"I’m talking about doing him a favor. He’s done us a lot of harm, and now he’s going to do us a lot of good, if we’re willing to work for it."

"You need more leverage, Taylor. Or you’ll find somebody to work with you on this."

I was still paying attention to my body when I shifted my attention to my swarm. I’d spent the morning gathering them, stacking them so they sat on four walls, with a gap between them so they were huddled in. It was only after I’d had breakfast that I decided on a name. It wasn’t mine, by the by, and it didn’t fit the Vargas or the Scion we’d seen.

I was surprised at how much more I was able to accomplish as the morning wore on. I was surprised at how much more I was able to do, with a new attitude. I woke up, dressed, had breakfast with my swarm, then joined the others.

The Adepts made their way to the top of a nearby building. There were crowds gathered outside, now, but they weren’t actively hostile. I saw one group that had changed their style of dress, headbands that had vertical stripes of light contrasting black against a lighter black background, a choice that seemed intentional in a city that was already full of gloom. I noted two heroes with the word ‘Imperium’ embroidered on them, one dressed like a pirate, the other like a supernatural being.

The heroes had arrived roughly half an hour before I started doing my morning patrol. I stopped to give them a pat on the head before flying down with them, to make sure they were okay, but mostly to congratulate them on having found a new gig.

"You could fly," the Tattletale girl informed them. She was talking to a cape I recognized as Grue. Another cape I didn’t recognize was Valefor. Or Valefor, depending on how one looked at it.

"I prefer the cape is on a rooftop," I said. "And I’m not up on the things we were talking about."

"I’m more prepared to survive," Grue said.

"You are not," Tattletale said, obviously annoyed. "I’ll take what I can get. I was hoping to see you more regularly."

I looked at her, "You have a thing for me?"



======== SAMPLE 38 ========
card has. And, oh, oh, oh. I get why you’d feel that way. Kind of creepy how you’d think the whole supervillain thing has to do with being in charge."

I could see what she was getting at. The way people acted when they were in charge, the confidence that came with the ability to make people do things. Or maybe they did things together, kind of.

And the idea that it was all all a projection was… off-putting.

"I have no problem with people feeling a certain way if they’ve been through a hell of a lot, they deserve to feel that way too," I said. "But I have an issue with people projecting that way onto others."

"You don’t know anything about her," Tattletale said. "I know you’ve worked with people who are the polar opposite of what she is, and I think we should be able to agree on something minimum viable in terms of shared experience before we start sharing anything substantial."

I closed my eyes for a moment, and I could almost see the gears turning in my head. I closed my eyes again, and I felt too much electricity coursing through my body.

I felt dizzy. That was my first sense. My second was the feeling of heavy blood flowing in my legs.

"Let me know the details after my power is back online," I told her. "I’ll double check the logs afterward, make sure it happened."

"On it," she replied. I could see her laptop light up. My bugs were being joined by a legion of other capes, who were gathering in the surrounding buildings. I knew Dragon was watching over her servers, so the logs wouldn’t be spooky if the capes weren’t spooked as well.

"On it."

There was a click, and we had a video line of small screens in place on the monitors.

There was a live feed of the local heroes, edited for clarity, as I detailed what we’d found at the core of the temple. The temple was a part of a larger complex with a high rise apartment building, a tattoo parlor and several private shops and restaurants within. A series of balconies overhanging grass allowed me to get my drone to fly low to the ground, lay out a network of bugs and gather them into a dense cloud.

The live feed showed Defiant with two of his new Watchers, Taylor and Sophia. Tattletale/Regent was with them, standing close to a panel.

"The core module is located at the very top of this panel," Defiant spoke, sounding disinterested.

"I’ll double-check," Tattletale/Regent replied, before Taylor or Sophia could join him.

"Anything odd?" I asked.

"No big deal," Regent/Shatterbird spoke.

Shatterbird moved to the side, stepping away from the panel. The damage to the exterior was more extensive than the interior.

I started collecting my own pieces of gear. My armor pack was more or less in one piece, and my flight pack in the panel beside the windowsill for the lower half of my body. I had to remove the protective bodysuit I’d donned and unpick it, then do some underarm wrangling on my end.

"Anything odd?" Regent/Shatterbird asked.

"No big deal," Tattletale/Regent replied.

"Need a cloth, size small, to match top to bottom of cloak," I said, grabbing a pair of synthetic legs, and an aluminum raccoon mask from the small storage compartment in my flight pack.

"I’ll do that," she said, pushing one piece of clothing and then pulling it on.

I handed her both items. She started down the length of the hallway, folding and unstrapping it. Once she had the raccoon mask, she removed the top portion and peeled off the underside.

"What the hell is this?" Tattletale/Regent asked.

I turned towards Tattletale/Regent and whispered, "The costume Coil designed."

"If this costume is any indication, she got a lot of extra mobility and versatility out of her Wards and Undersiders."

"That’s a bunch of brass," Regent/Shatterbird muttered.

"I’ll prove it," Tattletale/Regent replied. She fiddled with her armor, making changes to the textures and making minor adjustments to the meshes. "See, for the last couple of weeks, my teammates and I have been working on polishing and streamlining her internal rendering. It should be

======== SAMPLE 39 ========
c. If I’m right, this is the closest we’ll get to finding out about the Slaughterhouse Nine’s plans for global domination, and it’s where they figured out about Dinah Alcott. Coil wants to bait her into a trap, so he can use her as leverage against us. If I’m wrong, or if there’s something else we don’t know, he’ll pay us to find some way to get a piece of information on their plans."

"And you’ll take out Hookwolf or Bonesaw with this?" Coil asked.

"Yes. They weren’t planning a counteroffensive. It could be that Jack or Panacea sent Shatterbird or Ursa Aurora in to try to pierce Siberian’s defense."

"Then who are you going to be?"

"I went by the codenames Saur and Behemoth in the board, and you called me Tinker, which I interpret as a strong word. I am on the same page as you, here, though I will call myself a little more careful. I will assume Jack or Panacea designed and built the suits. That means Siberian must have used them for some time, at some point, after Jack defused her."

"Which are you assuming?" Coil asked.

"That Jack designed and built the suits and that she was used as a stepping stone to build them. If that’s the case, then your issue with me being careless is over. We already know what suits Jack or Panacea built. The real questions are about the abilities they used and the collateral damage they caused."

"So if she’s the sort of individual who draws strong feelings from her creations, then she presumably couldn’t draw hatred from her people?" Coil asked.

"If that’s the case, then yes. But we know her creators hate her. That’s taken into account. My point stands. If she was drawing people together with intentions of recruiting them, I will make arrests immediately."

"If she wasn’t, then what is your argument?" Regent asked.

"I don’t think there’s anything to it. If she wasn’t recruiting… well, there’s potential for her to lose her connection to any group that isn’t hostile, and anyone that is hostile would be capable of attacking those recruits. Jack’s crew, Coil’s crew, Hooks crew, and the rest are likely not to succeed in their goals against us. We could arrest the seven members of the Teeth and release the rest, for example, and most likely they would not be reformed. To top it off, I don’t think there’s anything tying them to Siberian’s real body."

"What are your thoughts?" Grue asked.

"I think it has more to do with whether they’re creative or not," Regent said. "And I’m more focused on this than anything else."

"Creativity?" Sundancer asked.

"Creativity. If it’s the same in every department, then it’s something the Teeth are going to have to adapt to. If they’re dealing with members of the Slaughterhouse Nine in costume, then we need creative solutions."

Coil nodded. "Well then. At least let us know when the next major incident comes up."

"Will do. Regent?" Grue asked.

"No hard feelings?" Trickster asked. "I don’t think it was the best idea."

"A bit of a hard feeling," Regent replied. "Yeah. Well, I’m going to go buy a box of candy from the girls over there."

"Go," Grue told Regent. "We’ll talk after."

"Thanks," Regent said. "For the lead. Sorry I can’t make it. I had to get this far."

"No prob. We’ll talk when you’re in a better mood."

"Sure," Regent said. Then he went to the nearest side street, parked his bike and pedalled down the gravel path to the water.

"You’re so lame. You can’t just walk away from issues, from a situation like this. You’re not taking your eye off the problem. You’re putting yourself in a position where you could be causing more damage, risking your life, your friend’s life, if we’re being honest with you. I was with you for the start of it."

"I could walk away and get by," Regent said.



======== SAMPLE 40 ========
c.

My hair stirred slightly, as if the wind were blowing in a different direction. It should have been there, but I was grounded.

I looked to my left, and my arm jerked with the motion. My bones were still jittery, but the muscles in my back were taut, my upper body rippling.

"I think I can handle this. I- I’m stronger, I’m less likely to panic, but I’m still not a hundred percent." The word left my lips.

"Fine. If you need to check everything is okay, maybe you can head into the kitchen and take the stairs down."

"Go ahead."

"I won’t ask for help. I’m not a doctor, and I don’t know everything I’d need to know for you to do some things properly, but I’m fighting and struggling for this one thing, and it’s not worth it." My voice was quiet, but clearly I was really hurting, for how my thoughts were racing in my head.

"Okay. But don’t go anywhere."

"I’d get you some help."

"I don’t know if I should. I don’t know if this is the place, or if it’s the right thing to do, but-"

"It’s the best option."

"I just want to help."

"I know."

I could feel my stomach sink. Couldn’t take the responsibility we were taking on, not being able to help, not knowing exactly what to say and when. But I couldn’t do anything to resolve this with the people who were apparently unable to think of a way to help.

I was barely out of the bathroom. There were lines and staff whooped and cheered, as we all filed out of the bathroom.

If this went any further, I’d be stuck like my dad. I couldn’t say for sure, but there was a pretty high chance it would be the opposite.







Shell 4.11


My phone buzzed.

I stepped over to see what it was. It was Dragon’s voice.

‘Sup?’ she responded.

"You got this. I’m glad. I’m actually pretty proud of you."

"I should be thanking my dad. He’s going to be angry."

"It’s a good thing this is happening to me."

I couldn’t disagree. "But you’re not the only one who’s struggling."

"No. I’m trying not to. I’m just- I’m taking it on faith that you’re doing the same thing I’ve been doing for a long time."

"Oh."

"Everything we’ve worked to put into practice hasn’t really changed that much. Sometimes it’s done, other days it’s not."

"I guess it’s like, my power’s a good enough counter to your own. If I work with what I know, I can make some of those shitty little accidents your power caused me."

"Doesn’t seem like we could really do that on the fly."

"We can. But if it gets better than this, I can check on you every few hours, see if I can’t figure anything out."

There was a long pause.

"We could try a sleep deprivation, maybe."

"Fuck, you want me to say something really stupid. Like, give you a commandment?"

"You would die, if you give the commandment to anyone."

"If you give the commandment make me die, is-"

"Or else. I’m not sure we’d really fix that without a good reason."

"You think so?"

"If you go ahead with this plan, you will die eventually."

So I had the vehicle pointed at the spot where I’d taken her. The crew started up the crankshaft and started removing the rear section.

"Going ahead with this?"

"If it comes down to it, sure. I’m not invincible, and I don’t expect to be for long."

I watched them at the side of the vehicle, looking over each other for reactions. The last reaction from Amy.

"Amy!" Tattletale’s lips twisted into a scowl. My heart pounded.

"Hey, Taylor

======== SAMPLE 41 ========
cilt.

It was so quiet and still I thought I might hear a tear roll down his cheek.

"Away we go," Kid Win announced. "This is it."



Cell 22.6


The elevator clicked shut, with a crunching noise. Alec grabbed a bottle of water, and I grabbed three glasses glasses.

"Come on, Charlotte," I said, squeezing her hand. "Let’s go back. We can grab a table."

She didn’t reply. She was still finishing up with the next guest. The kids. She stood and crossed the room to grab one.

She looked so small in that small school uniform. Was she five feet tall? I doubted the glass would pass through her large body, much less her face.

She said something, but I couldn’t make it out with my ears.

Cell 22.6


The lights went out. A rumble shook the buildings.

When Alec saw the lights go out, he grabbed one of the books I held.

"Found it," he said.

"What?" I asked.

"Finds it first," he said. He found the second volume of the same book I held, then began looking through it. At first he picked up the history text The Myth of Sisyphus, then Classics…

Was he looking for the next book? The one with the same name…

No, it was the third volume… The One Who Knows Everything.

Charlotte took the next available seat, and I waited while she fiddled with the settings to make it so the curtains shut behind her, preventing light from getting inside.

There was a shouting match going on on the other end of the table. Charlotte was the only one in her chair facing out the window, and she was the only one who had the light on it. She was shouting at someone else.

"What’s wrong?" I asked.

"Light show," she said. "They’re breaking the rules. We aren’t supposed to work together."

"We should deal with this soon," Defiant said.

"It’s not about rules," I said. "It’s about efficiency. Keep our enemies focused on a few big threats, make dealing with them simpler for everyone."

"Charlotte down," a higher calling said from the comm channel. In a different voice, someone from the Dragonfly said something.

Charlotte wheeled around, gesturing at the two televisions, then at us, "It’s Defiant."

"We can handle him," I said. "If we’re moving, we’re going to be in bad shape if he manages to—"

I thought about it. The Dragonfly had stopped, and was now the base of operations for the Pendragon II. If we were moving, we wouldn’t necessarily need it.

"Two opportunities in less than twenty four hours," Defiant said. "One opportunity every five minutes?"

"Five minutes," I said. "This is getting ridiculous. I thought he would be more focused than this."

Something in the back of my mind informed me that I still had enough time. I glanced at Charlotte. "I’m sorry. We’ll see what we can do about this. We have people to help."

"You want to call it quits?" Charlotte asked.

"I would like to talk to Armsmaster about this, but I think it’s very much in the best interests of the city if we just take matters as they come," I said.

"If you’re of sound mind," Charlotte said, "Maybe we’d talk to the mayor?"

I could see the confusion in her voice. There was anger, frustration, even anger in the words.

"I would like to see the Undersiders prosper," I said. "I’ve worked in law enforcement for a long time. I’ve dealt with a lot of pissed off citizens, people with a lot of anger. I think it’s a step forward, a chance to do something about it. The end of the ABB, more bloodshed, more gang involvement in the local level… it’s already begun."

The television showed a map of the city with the red and amber hues surrounding the areas with the orange and blue lights.

It did a lot to help frame things. My eyes roved over the crowd, and I saw some of the faces I’d seen so many times before – good and bad. There were the fortyish looking guys that had the costumes of the bruisers. There was the older crowd, the people

======== SAMPLE 42 ========
c. I’ll need to ask some of the others. Who or what is the entity?"

"…Homer."

I sighed a little. "Alright. I’ll ask you one last time. Who is Homer?"

"That one is a toss-up. He’s not a client, but he’s still a person. He’s responsible for bringing people into existence, and for keeping them from falling apart."

"He could still be working to break me if you aren’t careful."

"He’s not a client, but he’s working to make it as difficult as possible. The individuals he’s looking to are among the most vulnerable members of the population, those who are most at risk of being coerced or exploited by those who would take advantage of humanity."

"Okay. So I get it. You want to kill him."

"Yes. But I need some help doing it."

"We could use your help. I can take a body part."

"I don’t think we can just leave him there."

"We can. We’ll have the body from the container be transferred to your custody shortly."

"The container?"

"The box Coil left me, with a tag still left on it, a few books left. He’s keeping a few dozen copies of the second edition of Neonomicon, under the guise of a protective containment foam. They won’t have ISBNs or anything good with that kind of writing on it, but I think he’s protecting them or saving them for future reference."

"Okay. I’m interested to see what kind of research goes into the tags."

"You could leave him there. The writing could be on clear coated paper, or just the bare surface of a substance he’s wearing, so it can absorb moisture. Then I’d look through the box for tags in a similar vein, tag him with whatever information he has left over from the day he was generated. If it’s clever, if it’s original or non-abrasive technology, we’ll leave him be. It’d be only seconds before he’s sufficiently hydrated enough to need to go to the bathroom, and the tags could be put on before then. Or put on before he has access to any sort of water. Whatever we use, we’ll leave him."

"Okay."

"There’s more. I’m looking for an employee in New York who’s looking to hire a contractor. Is there any use to it?"

"Not really. We’re not looking to hire anyone. If he needs to go somewhere, he goes where he needs to go. The last time he visited the area was the Boardwalk. We’ll stay at the highest end of whatever accommodations we can find. It’ll be better than squatting in a van."

"Okay. How much are you paying him?"

"I won’t say for sure, but I’m thinking three hundred to five hundred dollars for the first and three hundred dollars for each of the following two months. Pay him a decent wage for what he’s doing. Then, if you’re able, I’d like him to take six months of classes over the next two years. Get a license to work, pay rent and utility bills for the year and travel expenses deducted from that. If that sounds generous to you-"

"It does. But I want him to be able to pay for it. If he needs to buy things, pay for them himself. Otherwise, figure some chunk of money out over the course of the next year, maybe a little bit of cash put together every month after deducting costs like food, cleaning, and legal fees…"

"Okay."

"Then I’d like him to contact me. I’d prefer to have him contact the other Brockton Bay residents, but I’m willing to extend that as a compromise. I’ll take the fall for any of your responsibilities if it means having him with us."

I was starting to see where all this was leading. My dad was taking the fall, on a number of levels. He’d inherited what I’d inherited from my mom. If he wasn’t the property holder, who? My lawyer? My teachers? My fellow students? Was the fact that I was the daughter of the mayor in the city potentially a conflict of interest?

I wasn’t positive I wanted to talk about that. My mind wandered to the fact that I’d picked up the bag from the fridge and was carrying it downstairs

======== SAMPLE 43 ========
caw?"

The girl nodded slowly. "Yeah. My father. We’ve been trying to get in touch with him."

"I hear."

I took another second to think. Could my dad be contacting Coil? No, his phone wouldn’t ring, and he’d be out of reach of a trap of some kind. Still, I was feeling a touch nervous. Maybe that was part of why I felt so out of my depth.

The third, funniest part of my analysis, on a whole lot of levels, was that Coil was contacting me, through someone I didn’t know.

It was the sort of thing I would have done instinctively, even if I knew who this person was. I reached out to everyone I was controlling, hoping they were okay. Trickster and Genesis were among them. My bugs were flying over them like a strong wind. I didn’t have the power to do anything in those circumstances, which was fine – people were dying anyways.

But if my bugs got a sense of a movement, a change in direction, I could use them to find my people.

The red-skinned man who carried the bottle appeared in an alleyway. I moved them as a trio, and then opened a wide gate, allowing for people to gather in the area.

My gate did two things. It created a solid barrier, both vertically and horizontally, and it also allowed me to open a narrow, blind gate to let in a trickle of people into the city.

The man who had the bottle appeared. He reached out to the bottle-person and gave him a kiss on the cheek. He turned and walked away.

"Cocky, cocky," Regent said, "You-"

But the man who had the bottle moved before he could, stepping through my swarm, dropping a bottle in the one man’s hands. The bottle man disappeared, but the swarm remained, a tangled mass. My bugs flowed out of the mass, and I had a full, detailed picture of where the man who had the bottle was. He was probably trying to get away, but I couldn’t get a good look inside.

I swallowed. "Good job, little bro. Shit. How the hell am I supposed to close this thing, before someone finds the creator?"

I didn’t get a chance to see that person or figure out who that was. Bugs poured from the gate and shut it. I was left standing there, dizzy, soaked with sweat.

I was still standing when Trickster appeared. "We need to talk in another place. We’re trying to get things organized at the board."

"No, no," I replied without a moment’s hesitation. My bugs swept over him. He was in full costume, his blond hair cut in half, his beard short and scraggy. He moved with less deliberat-"

Trap, I thought. And there was something of a distraction.

Noelle was screaming. She was using a combination of what I had on her throat and the painkillers I had in my vial to make fewer unintelligible noises.

"Candy?" I whispered, looking to the girl in the suit to check she was okay.

Noelle was still thrashing with the kids. Trickster and Sundancer were busy trying to herd them into the nearest spot to hide, keeping them from being struck by Noelle. I could sense them from the scene by the fact that they had been pushed back into the heart of the mall, trying to retreat back to the outside of the mall.

I could send words of warning, letting them know to back off.

Too weak, too far, I thought. It’s still better than the alternative, but… this is it. We run, we get caught, it’s hours before we can do anything, and this is what we’re going to sit and pray for.

"Hey," I heard Regent murmur among the crowd.

"Listen," I addressed him.

"You know how I treat you. Not like you’re in charge of some stupid little schoolgirl thing, making up for the fact that you’ve been shot twice. I’m going to treat you like you’re in charge of some stupid little schoolgirl thing, making up for the fact that you’ve lost your powers. Strict and unrelenting punishments for any that break the rules and get in anyone’s way. I don’t care if you’ve broken the rules twenty times, in a hundred different situations, if you’ve spent two years in this city and done things I don’t think you did twenty times, if you’ve gone

======== SAMPLE 44 ========
c’t do it, but I’d rather not go to jail for a stupid decision."

Regent replied, "They will think twice before taking her back."

"You just need to fill in the details here and let us know how she is doing. We could name her, or keep her as-is, but I prefer to let people think it for themselves, don’t you?"

"Pretty please?" Regent offered a pained face, "You mean it."

"No, no, no. I just don’t want her to be disappointed."

"I see," I said, "That sounds really cheap, but I’m thinking two things. One, let’s at least try to get this thing over with so we look smart if we end up back at the shelter for another ten days, and two, let’s at least try to keep her out of more trouble."

"Okay," Grue said, as if that was that and we could get the paperwork together in time to get our stuff out the door later.

I knew what they were getting at, but I thought Grue was being a little hard-nosed. "Alright, I think we have a deal, with that car you were trying to get, and a couple of small favors to do for the other major players."

"Favor to do?" Grue asked.

"These guys are on our side. They’re not going to screw us over just because we’re trying to rescue Dinah. If you’re really convinced, I could do it."

"Okay."

"And here’s the catch," he said. "In exchange for all this, I think we’re going to have to let you go. You won’t be imprisoned, and I’m okay with that. You’re just going to have to let us take Coil’s stuff."

I glanced at Regent, but he didn’t speak. I suspected he knew he was being incriminating if he didn’t back off. I wasn’t sure if Grue was willing to let Dinah go if the terms were at risk of hurting his relationship with Regent, so I wasn’t sure exactly how I’d go about dealing with the Wards and the PRT here.

"Thanks," I said. Maybe it was more subtle than he intended, but I tried to make it sound like I was genuinely thankful.

Grue nodded and stepped closer, then stepped back again, much as I’d held my hand out to shake mine. "Let’s go deal with the paperwork and then let Dinah have her damn damn damn damn peace."

"Want to see off a good guy?" Regent asked.

"Sure," I said. We headed into the stairwell and I took the lifted stairs and led Regent and the others in climbing up to the lower level. Grue, Parian and the girls climbed first, with me taking the stairs and leading the way.

Me, Imp and Bitch all in one group of four. Bitch was making her rounds in the lead, taking short jabs at our enemies who were retreating or simply moving to flank us. I was glad to be out of her way.

I paused at the top of the stairs. The PRT office was out of sight in the stairwell, and the only light was filtering in through the gaps in the heavy cloud of bugs. Their fire had done a decent amount of damage, and I wasn’t sure how well it would be absorbed.

I didn’t want to leave Bitch and the others behind, but I could see what was happening. They were too focused on dealing damage to Coil and his henchmen, and they were moving the way they were strictly for us. There was little point in running unless there was a good number to go up against and a lead to follow.

If the group was covering us, then that was a bad sign, and I was assuming that was the case. My bugs weren’t coordinating well as a group. I was having a hard time wrapping my head around this group, not coming up with a good fight when I ran into trouble, but they were just too disparate, and that was if my swarm wasn’t being diluted. It wasn’t being diluted enough to put me at a severe disadvantage when the fight descended into confusion and chaos.

I wasn’t nearly so sure about Bitch. The way her subordinates tended to be more concerned about being misunderstood than about killing, even if they weren’t fully equipped to fight. From what I’d seen in my searches, she wasn’t one to

======== SAMPLE 45 ========
crease speed to increase the distance you can see."

"Okay. Thanks," I said, giving the words, hoping to distract him from his distraction over it.

I looked out over the city, at Brockton Bay itself. The moon was completely still, but the various water muck and surf was noticeable, as was the crack in the road. Everywhere was flooded. The city was at the mercy of a series of currents that weren’t quite waves, but they were muck and the sort of thing you saw when one of Sydney’s major thoroughfares flooded.

The city was also a mess of debris. Everything was tied together with chains, ropes and bolts that had been tightened and loosened by events or by the movement of things. From the looks of things, the city was falling apart before our eyes.

"That’ll be Eidolon, working with some of the locals," I said.

"That’ll be tricky," Grue answered. "It’s not just the cape situation. Tons of stuff fell all over the city. We have limited time, we’ve got nowhere to go, and it’s not just debris."

"But they’re coming," Defiant said. "It’s not just Alexandria, either. Dragon’s here too."

"I’ll have to check on them and relay instructions to you later," I said.

"It’s good to check on the process. You know how long it’s been since I had a chance to go all out. I was worried my old team would realize what I’m trying to do and go to the cops. I was wrong. I have your permission to stand like that, to be as vague as I need to be, just to be clear."

"I’m not going to police all of this," I said. "Not with the amount of loose change you’re bringing. No place is clean or pristine. But things are better now than they were then. The city is vibrant, the coastlines are clear, there’s less clouds of dust than there are… but there are crowds. People’s lives are better."

He stared at me. I couldn’t tell whether he was impressed or bothered.

"We’ve changed more than a few things since I walked the city. I think it’s important to remember that some of that comes with change. I’m asking that you check all of the pertinent areas to make sure no violations have been committed and to let me know if anyone has been pushing or bumping into any staff."

He paused to glance at Canary.

"I’ll wait," I said, seeing no reason to argue. "I’ll take the spare costume, the spare tank of gas and… I’ll take the spare Dragon set up. I’ll take any and all materials they have laying around the house."

"You’re promising you’ll leave everything," Defiant said.

"I will. I can say with higher confidence than I can right now that Dragon’s setup and the things I’m taking with me to the house are going to be far more powerful, both in terms of the amount of raw materials they’ve got and the processing power they’ll have… and I’ll deliver it right here to your headquarters or Dragon post."

"That’s…" he looked at Dragon, "Fine."

I took a deep breath, then added, "I may be off base, but I think a lot of people are going to be buying that story you’re selling a cape-killing attack and you’ll be left in the dust, and some of them will be reporting you to the authorities."

"That’s not our goal."

"I said this is not our plan. Right now, we’re focused on the task at hand. You’ll be returning to the city."

"Okay," he said. He didn’t miss the obvious contradiction in his statement. "Okay. But we can put this off for a little while."

"Thank you," I told him, stepping around the small mound of standing water. I turned my attention back to the fight. "Any updates on the situation?"

"Capes are still coming back to Brockton Bay," a young woman spoke. She was heavily accented, with a Brooklyn accent. Punches to the face. I turned my head to follow her.

Rachel moved next to me, and her hands went to her pockets. I noticed she had more gauze wrapped around her finger. Apparently she’d taken the stuff Gr

======== SAMPLE 46 ========
cis, he’s not going to do anything. We don’t have any power that he can’t compensate for. I think he’s going to attack one of us, and that’s going to be it."

"Doesn’t make sense," Golem said, "You’d want us working for you, given the reasons we came."

"The reasons are quite simple," Foil said. "He thinks Tecton has lied and it’s because of that fucking mind control Tecton used, and we get in his way."

"The first scenario is more likely," Defiant said.

"If I had a dime for every time you’ve tried to tell me you came up with a satisfactory way to deal with the clones, I could stand to spend the money," Clockblocker said.

Chevalier nodded. "I think we’ll take it. Tecton is no longer under mind control, so there’s nothing in the way of issues there. It’s just an interesting coincidence that this particular group came through the portal you opened for us."

"I think we can take those, then," Revel said.

"You have a car?" Canary asked, giving the signal.

"Car, yes," Revel replied.

"And you’ll get in touch with all the drivers?"

"The portal works in reverse too. We’re using fingerprints, just in case," Revel said.

"And by using fingerprints, we allow us to match our cars to the individual passengers," Defiant said. "If there’s a person on the road, we can find them quickly."

"There’s a chance he’s already there," Tattletale said.

"Yes," Revel replied. "If the individual drops off the face of the Earth, there’d be a hundred vectors we need to watch for. One that he hasn’t been observed using, though it’s been found elsewhere. Topping it off, with the portal keeping everything in order and allowing rapid response, we can do some heavy strikes and collect a few of the clones before this event can get out of control."

"I’m not sure I want to do this," Clockblocker said, "Not with the loss of the cars."

"We’ll try to organize a convoy," Revel said. "Buses, if we can get one made."

"I don’t really care," Clockblocker said. He glanced at Foil. "I only care that people are safe."

"Boys," Foil answered. "I won’t say it’s not sacrifice worth making, but the time will pass before we find them again."

"It’s not so difficult," Defiant said.

"It takes a lot of coordination," Grue answered. "And I don’t have many bugs on the ground, besides my bugs, so it’s hard to do."

"It’s easier," Clockblocker said.

"So’s our burden to take care of the civilians," Pretender said. "That’s the reason we came, to get your attention."

Clockblocker turned to the PRT officers. "We do this safely, or we die trying. There’s time to be spent. We’ll sign papers, decide how this goes, and then we’ll make our calls. All of us out there on the battlefield, be ready to fight at a moment’s notice."

"Let’s go," one of the PRT officers said.

"On it," Golem said.

They left, the two traveling squad leaders taking flight with a contingent of PRT officers following.

"We’re not looking for any trouble on your part," I said. "But we wanted to see how this played out. That’s all."

"That’s all."

"Let’s see. We’ve got two groups, with one holding out against us while the other lines up to go work for the major factions," I said. "Both of them, I think, will win."

Grue put two hands on my shoulder, "Don’t underestimate our powers."

Bitch hopped down from her vantage point at the top of the ramp leading up to the stairs. She leaped down from her perch on the wall just beside us. She struck Bastard between the legs, hard.

Grue’s head turned as he looked at me.

I jerked, turning my head. Grue

======== SAMPLE 47 ========
c or a dud. I could make some kind of crude decoy. There was a time for that sort of thing. For the heroes, for the public. But right now, it was good to put my mind to the task. We were better equipped to fight the Nine if we could find Jack before they found us. To find and rescue him, if we had to.

The computer system loomed in the air, and I had only a couple of seconds to make my appeal.





Monarch 16.1


"Hey Arnold," the female voice came through the speaker.

"Arnot?" I asked. "Can I meet you halfway? Dinner’s out."

"Weaver, can you ring me?"

"You couldn’t get any more than fifteen feet away from the computer if it was attached to a phone pole or something," the voice sounded. "Arrange a ride."

I took a deep breath. "Sure. How much?"

"Twenty or thirty thousand bucks up front, and I don’t count allowance in the future, but the total is yours."

"Twenty-three thousand."

"Okay."

"I figured it would be in your usual hands by now."

"No."

"I thought you’d have gotten out by now, if you don’t mind me bringing along a bag of chips."

I shivered.

"Oh god," the female voice sounded. "I’ve been terribly cold."

"Have you eaten?"

"Some. But not enough to warrant keeping you here."

"My phone just rang. Thirty three."

"Wait," Carol said. "Thirty three thousand dollars."

"What?"

"Three big houses on the block. I figure they’re paying a little extra for the privilege of being in the property owners’ exclusive group."

"It’s not yours, Arnold. I wouldn’t give it to you."

"I don’t care about money, nor about the houses like the one you bought. However you want to define exclusivity. I am not interested in dealing. I was making as much as anyone else, I’ve had for twenty years, but I am not getting as much as anyone else."

"Oh fuck," she said.

"I mean, it’s not fair that you’re screwed over several hundred, maybe two hundred, if not more if you have two houses instead of one."

"You could have offered more if you’d had more money to spare."

"You’d talk me down?"

I shook my head. "I’m ready to talk to you, Arnold. Anything and everything."

She put her hand over the mouthpiece. "Tell her, no, I don’t think there’ll be major problems."

"Okay," I responded. "I should go get them."

I paused at the doorway. "Carol? Want to go talk to the boss? Maybe make up a few quid on the side? Cash only."

"Cash only? You’d be better off with a job."

"The bosses are only interested in what they’re interested in. If they said I had five or ten million, I’d listen."

"Five million?"

"That’s what they’re offering. I’m… I’m not sure how to act around it. Like, I’m not a big fan of the multitudes the world over, and they’re all people."

"You don’t have to be a fan. Go for it."

She didn’t budge, staying silent. I knew I didn’t get a lot of support in the office, but I wasn’t prepared to have my back be talked down to.

I entered the room. The computer terminal was in plain sight, and the yellow crime detection squad locker sat beside it. In the corner, there was a bed.

It wasn’t ideal. Too many rooms in the building, with non-standard layouts. That, and there were bunk beds in hallways that were exposed to the elements, like this one. I was acutely aware that I was stepping into a secure room, full of armed guards.

Still, I made my way to the bed, with my bags strung out around me. I gathered my costume pieces and the weapons I still had in my pockets and stashed them in my bag as well. My pepper spray and knife were in my bag, along with my flight pack and the insect repellent, which

======== SAMPLE 48 ========
c" in the same breath.

"She’s saying we got her number? Tells me everything I need to know to shut her up."

"If you get on my case right now, you’d die," Grue said, "But what do you want? Revenge? Fame? Money? Love? Revenge? Money, love, revenge."

"All I want is Amy," Regent said, "I have feelings for her, I know she’s probably close to where she’s at now, where she has to be thinking about me, but she’s still Regent. I’m not a money person, and I think it could use some focusing, but I’m a fan, at least. I could swing out and buy her that power just to piss you off, see how far I could get."

Grue folded his arms.

"What I’m saying is that if you and Amy get into a fight, it’s better to get Amy out of a situation, than to have her die horribly and have the rest of us suffer for it."

"So you’d kill her?" Regent asked.

Grue shook his head, "We’re not gonna kill her. Not when we can help it."

Regent looked at me, "But you would go after Regent in a situation like that, if the stakes were that high? You can say something like how Regent attacked her, and a few other inmates from the Birdcage got their hands on her, and you’re good to go?"





Buzz 6.3


"You’d think they don’t have plans like that anymore," Grue spoke.

"I got a lot of case studies."

"You’d think," Grue responded, "But you would be horribly mistaken. This is a group effort."

"We had our disagreements, but I’m pretty inoffensive there. I can agree to anything anyone wants," Trickster spoke.

"I said I’d accept a fair bit," Grue replied.

"Fair enough. And I understand if we’re a little busy right now, but I’ll try to keep it brief, starting with, I hope you don’t think you’re being recruited into this group."

"Don’t have a problem with that."

"There is one more thing I want to get to before we get into your cell block."

There were gasps from the group. Regent, Genesis and Shatterbird turned to stare at him.

"There’s two more things, before we get to those."

Grue opened his mouth to speak, then shut it. I glanced at my teammates, saw Ballistic was taking Ballistic’s place, his hand on his head. I caught Regent’s eye, saw Grue’s body language and nodded to catch his attention. Grue turned his head, and Regent glanced over one shoulder before he turned back to me and the others.

"What?" Trickster asked.

"You don’t have to ask," Grue replied. His expression was neutral.

Trickster turned his attention back to me. "What is it?"

"Going home. Your gut says you’re in a few minutes, and the PRT office is putting together a group to get you home. It could be a checkpoint, or it could be-"

"It’s not a checkpoint," Grue interrupted. He looked at my teammates, saw Ballistic, "Need-"

He changed his mind as the crowd parted in reaction. He raised his hands to the rafters, then shut them. Grue and Ballistic stood to one side of the corridor that led to the outdoor area of the building. Trickster trailed just behind, just behind. Sundancer was in the lead, and Genesis was following just behind Sundancer. Trickster led the way, and all the others stayed behind.

I could see the uniformed receptionist flinch at what Tattletale was doing. The director would be angry. I had seen the photos of the receptionist, and I knew that attitude would be just a little more pronounced if she were to see the resemblance between myself and my costume.

"Can I come by?" I asked, "I want to talk to Grue."

"No."

Was she being ignored here? Did she want me to use her back? If not, what did that mean? It had nothing to do with what my plan entailed.

"Okay," I spoke. With that, I raised my hands and stepped out of the corridors. My hands

======== SAMPLE 49 ========
cans that had been on the roof stood off to one side, crouching to defend themselves.

It didn’t take long for the drones to arrive, with the drones rapidly expanding in number as more capes joined the fray. Capes with reflexes better than mine, capes with the ability to sense things better than my power’s mere senses, capes whose powers I couldn’t parse or test. Capes with some semblance of a personal forcefield that hovered around the capes they threw at Behemoth, slowing him down enough that he had a chance to swing at them, then letting up and waiting a moment before charging forth with a series of attacks.

Two drones carried the bodies of Behemoth’s closest aerial combatants, two more were set on the body of the energy-based Endbringer. Another drone was set on top of a section of the sky that had blown away in the collision, prodding the body toward the ground.

The drones fired off a series of beams, only a few focussing on a single point at once, and I could tell that some of the lights that dangled from the rigging were failing.

One drone’s beam turned beet red. Two others were out of commission. One was out of commission too. Which meant a third drone was coming online.

If they couldn’t shoot him, someone else would, and then someone else would again. The drones would run out of fuel and self-destruct.

"Report," I spoke through the drones. The one taking Behemoth’s spot reported, "The drones have all the fuel they need. The beam they had on him was only a frequency they could use in conjunction with one of the other beams, the superheated one at the side of his neck, or a different one at his chest and legs. It took some time to arrange, and they didn’t manage to hit any vital organs, but I think they did manage to disable most of the engines on him."

That confirmed the reports from the drones.

The drones, the capes… I wasn’t sure what to call them. Ranged attackers, versatile capes who could be changed into something else at a moment’s notice?

I shook my head a little.

"Any questions?" I asked.

"Questions."

"Can you use a gun?"

"No," I confirmed. "Drones aren’t designed to fly without reloading regularly."

Not an answer I wanted or able to give, with the situation as it was. There were other questions I needed to ask. An offensive against the drones? A defense against ranged attacks?

"I’m pretty sure a gun would be ineffectual. It’s not like Behemoth can really knock down a drone, and as far as I can tell, he only shoots energy rays. Fire and stuff. So you want to use a laser or something? Or something that could penetrate the hull? If it’s about destroying the laser beam that’s pointing the cannons at the drones…"

"We have a spot we can watch out for," Grue said. "In case the lasers come back on target. But for the most part, I think we should stay put and take it easy."

"Okay," I said, drawing all the skeptical glances I could. Grue didn’t appear to mind the attention, and I could only imagine what it was like for the man. "Where is everyone?"

"Houston," he said. "You got us."

The entire settlement was still in the shape of a flattened ruin. The few intact buildings that had stood in the center of the area were inoperable or in peril. Most of the damaged buildings had high enough elevations that Behemoth wouldn’t be able to do too much damage there, but there were a few high points where the elevations were dangerous enough that Behemoth was sitting this one out. They were taking him cautious paths between the high points, keeping an eye on the terrain and routes that the drones were probing for.

"Behemoth, I want you to stick to the routes I said you would. Don’t stray too far. I want you to go slow and steady, watch your backs and see if you can’t find the way back to the other settlements."

"That’s…" He trailed off, and there was a heavy note of disappointment in his voice. "That’s terrible."

"I have an idea. If it’s not too hard, maybe we can try using your power on a larger scale? Maybe you could try putting a megablast in that tank?"

"Fuck that," Behemoth snarled. "I want this thing. I

======== SAMPLE 50 ========
c’p. The man took two or three seconds to decide, then lowered his hand. It settled for him to look at the camera, before he turned his attention to the papers.

There were six pages, not all dated and marked ‘Wins’. There was a notice regarding the Novero case, and a page titled ‘Statement of Rights and Responsibilities’. The statement of rights and responsibilities was signed by all of the accused.

As for the perpetrator, it read as follows:



Name: Owen C. Taylor Age: 59 Affiliation: Guild p.r.o. Name: Richard C. D. Taylor Age: 62 Affiliation: Guild p.r.o.

It was a statement of knowledge, expressed in the simplest terms possible. They knew.



Dismissing the statement of rights and responsibilities, the man turned to his next statement.

"I will be taking the Fifth."





Transmission: Interdiction One

-two-



The statement was one of silence.

"I’m not here to court, or point fingers," Defiant said. "But this situation’s not helping the status of the guild in any way."

"We’re at our best when we stand together, Defiant," Dragon said. "If there’s a need, a volunteer can step up to fill a gap. Any additional members will be made up over the course of two weeks. Everyone stays in their individual cells."

Defiant could see the faces on the screens. There were the heroes, there was the Wards, there were the prisoners. The male hero was in one group, the red-skinned guy with the long hair in the other.

He turned his attention to the villain in question.

He had to make sure he wasn’t being used. He couldn’t have two heroes in one cell block.

He glanced at the cell block that had the male villain, but there weren’t many other options. He moved further away, closer to the perimeter, and saw how the situation was going. So many packed into that one cell block.

He stopped, and stepped over the line that was marked with a white line. In doing so, he entered one of the cell blocks with the other major players.

The Wards were occupied, and the heroes were discussing strategy.

Dismissing the male hero, Defiant moved further into the room, checking more of the cells.

Then the white line appeared. As far as he could see in every cell, the line was moving steadily towards the center of the room.

The Defiant on the perimeter raised a red hand, pointing towards the center of the room.

Silence.

The Defiant on the rooftop turned around. "Attention citizens of Brockton Bay, Protectorate members and civilians. As of two o’clock this afternoon, you are no longer to participate in this defense. We have a target on our hands."

He pointed his hand at the screens, at the assembled heroes and villains.

"Fuck you, Defiant!" the villain said, from the crowd.

Capes bristled. Some seemed to be taking his point. The female parahuman in the crowd spoke up. "Don’t fucking insult us."

"I wasn’t trying to insult you," his response was clipped. She could hear him mutter under his breath. "I’m more or less done with this stuff. I can get you another costume, or help get you one from stock. We need your help, now."

One cape stepped up to offer what looked to be a mercenary service. "Sure. Cash, weapons?"

Defiant didn’t take the opportunity to take a paycheck. Instead, he turned to his subordinate, "How far are we willing to go to get this taken care of?"

"As of five hours ago, the north gate of the quarantine facility is now occupied. Anyone needing to make a break for the hills or move across the city should know to expect a patrol or two."

"And the south gate… any patrols are off, so keep north."

"And the area just to the north of that?"

"As of three o’clock this afternoon, the area to the northeast is also occupied. Criminals should expect a patrol or two. Anyone needing a place to camp should take the road that curves around into the surrounding hills and hills around the city will do. Don’t forget to take care of your pets, and don’t forget to take care of your house and lawns as well."

"I’m afraid that’s all we can do,"