Chapter 5

After Lisa had called the team together and explained that their boss, the man who was helping Brian take care of his sister, was actually the sociopathic supervillain Coil, who had zero problem breaking the unwritten rules, Brian was... unhappy. The sort of unhappiness that he would normally take out on a punching bag, or a den of drug dealers.

Unfortunately, he would have no time to vent, because next she revealed that, apparently, somebody had taken exception to Coil's existence and dropped an office building on him. Oh, and that person wanted to meet up with her.

In, like, an hour.

So now, it was up to Brian to plan out some way to keep his team alive, from a cape with unknown powers, who clearly gave no shits about collateral damage. He did not, for a single second, believe this cape was inviting Lisa over for a friendly chat, and as much as he wanted to wash his hands of this situation and declare it 'not his problem,' Lisa was still a member of the Undersiders. That being said, with their primary source of jobs and income gone, Brian had no idea how much longer they would exist as a team. Until they went their separate ways, though, they took care of each other. The fact that Lisa did not choose this life was irrelevant. As far as Brian was concerned, Lisa had done the best she could in a shitty situation. He was, well, livid, that she did not warn him about Coil's nature, but by the time they met, Brian was already on the man's payroll and Lisa was understandably wary. So, he would give her the benefit of the doubt, and continue to treat her as an ally and a friend.

The meet was to take place in the middle of the Boardwalk, on a bench outside a popular coffee shop. According to Lisa, she would often use the bench to people-watch, and practice her cold reading. The fact that the unknown cape knew this, flaunted it even, sent Brian's protective instincts into overdrive.

It was a statement, Brian understood that, even if Lisa didn't. I know who you are. It was the sort of blatant violation of the rules that Brian couldn't stand. A person's favorite coffee shop wasn't the sort of thing you discovered by accident. To make things even worse, the public nature of the Boardwalk provided next to no assistance, as the cape had already demonstrated a willingness to fight in a crowded civilian area.

Lisa claimed the cape somehow intentionally controlled the demolition of that downtown building to avoid civilian casualties. Brian didn't buy it. It was fairly obvious the girl wanted to believe the best of this new parahuman, wanted to believe her nightmare was finally over, and her freedom was assured. He could not bring himself to burst that particular bubble of hope, but he would prepare for the fallout, after everything inevitably went to shit.

The plan was fairly simple. He would follow Lisa to the meet, in his civilian identity and at a distance, and blanket the area in his darkness if the other party made even a threatening twitch in his teammates direction. Lisa would stumble fifty feet towards the shoreline, after which Brian would collect her, and they would flee towards the docks, where Rachel and Alec would be waiting.

It would bring unwanted attention upon him, using his powers in such a public area, but it was preferable to having an all out brawl on the Boardwalk. The PRT would hunt down any fools who started a cape fight in such a crowded area, and without the umbrella of protection that Coil provided, the Undersiders would be defenseless.

It was with these factors firmly in mind, that Brian followed his teammate onto the Boardwalk, dutifully keeping her within distance of a lunging tackle. It was extremely likely that this was a trap, after all. His caution was not shared at all by Lisa, who seemed to take leave of her senses as soon as she caught sight of the girl waiting on the bench. 

Brian expected someone taller. And older. And, though he'd never admit it out loud, male, possibly with a large mustache. He did not expect a girl his age, wearing a loose sleeveless tee and cargo pants. Lisa approached the cape without hesitation, her vigilance clearly overridden by unbridled curiosity.

Brian watched from his concealed position, leaning against the wooden railing that framed the Boardwalk, as the two girls conversed back and forth. Lisa was clearly in full-on interrogation mode, rapidly asking questions that the other girl fielded with an amused smile. Each answer made Lisa grimace, or frown, or narrow her eyes, or any of a dozen other bizarre facial expressions that signified just how utterly confused she was.

Honestly, Brian was starting to wonder if he had been a touch paranoid about this whole thing. The two girls were chatting almost like old friends, and the nameless cape was clearly unperturbed by Lisa's constant prying. Finally, it seemed as if Lisa found the answer she was looking for. Her smile turned triumphant, radiating the kind of insufferable smugness that only a high powered thinker can generate, until she froze, her face quickly losing color, to stare at her companion. Brian's hand clenched into a fist, fingernails nearly drawing blood against his palm, as Lisa leaned in and whispered something to the nameless cape. The darkness within him pounded against skin, screaming for release, as the other girl nodded and rubbed Lisa's shoulder with a soft smile. He forced it back down, when Lisa wiped her eyes on her sleeve, before throwing her arms around the shorter girl, wrapping her in a hug. 

The moment passed quickly, and the tension drained out of Brian completely, once Lisa straightened up and reacquired her smug grin. Whatever that was, wasn't a cause for concern, apparently. It seemed this meet was going far better than he could have ever expected, so he allowed his mind to wander.

Past the immediacy of this encounter, his priority was his sister. With Coil out of the picture, Brian's 'legitimate' job was most likely dead in the water. Even worse, he realized with a small amount of panic, he ran the risk of someone discovering it was never real at all. Without someone behind the scenes managing the situation, anyone looking into his work situation would quickly discover the ruse. He silently berated himself, this was the problem with trusting shady, faceless criminals. All their promises go sideways once they piss off the wrong person and get themselves killed. It was incredibly selfish, but he couldn't help but wish Coil had survived another few months, until he won custody of Aisha.

A tap on his shoulder broke him out of his reverie. Lisa stood in front of him with an amused grin. "Good looking out, Brian," she snarked.

He stared at her, and more importantly at the shorter girl beside her, in anger, "Lisa what-"

"She knew already, Brian. According to her, a secondary effect of her power lets her sense other parahumans." Lisa cut off his rant before he could start, "She pointed right at you and said 'let's go say hi to your teammate'." 

"I bet she didn't know my name," Brian hissed at her, glancing at the other girl, who watched the exchange with mild amusement.

Lisa rolled her eyes, "She's a friend, trust me. Or, you know, my power. We've worked out a deal anyways, so it was time to introduce her to my fearless leader."

"What kind of deal?" Brian demanded, his mind immediately remembering the disaster that was Coil.

"Lisa is gonna help me steal Coil's, um, everything. He was a bad, bad man, but boy was he good at making money." the unknown girl butted in, "I'm Jaya by the way. Nice to meet you." She held out a hand expectantly, meeting Brian's eyes.

He looked at her, really looked, relying on his instincts to gauge her honesty. Something about her was... off. There was no proper word for it, but the way her eyes moved, when she looked away from him, to observe the crowd around the Boardwalk, was wrong. Like she was looking through them, rather than at them. But there was nothing untrustworthy in her posture, and he would find no deception that Lisa could miss. It helped that he had made deals with worse people, intentional or not. He took her hand. 

"I'm Brian. Glad to make your acquaintance." He turned towards Lisa, "And what does the team get?"

"I figure we can deal with that problem when it comes," Lisa answered with a shrug. "I'll honor Coil's arrangement with you, of course. I can certainly spare the resources. If he has half as much dough as I suspect he does, I'll be set for life."

"You're ditching the team?" Brian asked, not bothering to hide his irritation.

"Nah, but there will be some necessary downtime" Lisa quickly reassured him, "I'll keep paying the retainer, which will keep Alec and Rachel happy, but consolidating Coil's organization will take some time and... honestly, Brian, do you want to keep up this villain thing? I kind of like the idea of being a kingpin, if I'm honest, but I'll get you custody of your sister whether you work with me or not. It's the least I could do to repay you for having my back all this time."

"I- That-" Brian paused. That had never entered his mind, somehow. He looked back towards Lisa, "I'll have to think about it. In the meantime, we should get going. Bitch will be getting impatient by now, and Regent might consider her rampaging through the Boardwalk as funny."

Lisa nodded, and glanced towards Jaya, "Yeah, my power is just about used up for today anyway. You said Coil is secure, wherever it is you stashed him?" The shorter girl nodded, and Lisa continued, "Okay, I've got your number so I'll give you a call when I'm fresh and we can work on getting rich."

Jaya smiled at them, and spoke with gentle reassurance, "That's fine, stay safe, you two." She hugged Lisa, and gave Brian a polite nod, before strolling away into the crowd. Brian watched stoically, as the sea of people seemed to flow around her, and she disappeared into the distance.

Once he could no longer see Jaya, he turned towards Lisa and snarled, "What the fuck was that?" His arm wrapped around her bicep and he dragged her away from the crowded Boardwalk. "Are you out of your damn mind? You just met that girl and you're, what? Suddenly best friends?" Oh hell, was Lisa mastered?

"I'm not mastered, Brian, calm your shit." Lisa said wearily, her hand massaging her brow. "I didn't give her any information she didn't already have. That girl... she knows us. All of us. All about us. And I only have the vaguest idea how."

Brian flinched, and turned towards her, "Define all."

"She knew your name before you introduced yourself. She knew about your sister. She knows about Rachel and Alec. She knows about... my situation. She knew I would know she knew- Fuck it. She knows everything about us."

"How?" Brian demanded.

"Didn't I just say I'm not sure?" Lisa replied angrily, "All I know is, it isn't her power."

"How can something like that not be her power?"

"I don't know? That's not the important bit though. She likes us. She wants to be friends with us." Lisa explained patiently, "But did you see her watching the people around the Boardwalk? It's like they barely exist to her, just chunks of matter."

"Oh great, another sociopath. That's exactly what we need." Brian threw his arms into the air in exasperation, "So you're saying, what, she knows all about us somehow, and now... what exactly? She wants to hang out? Maybe go shopping for a new dress? Lisa this person destroyed an entire building."

Lisa shrugged, "Look, this is all just speculation. I need to spend more time with her to be sure, but don't think she is dangerous to us. She isn't crazy, it's more like... well I'd guess she has trouble with new people. As for why we aren't considered 'new people' when we've never even met, fuck if I know."

Brian groaned and held his head. He wasn't hearing any good reasons to interact with this girl. Fuck it, this was just too much to deal with right now. They needed to meet up with Rachel, then have a very long team meeting, and then he needed to consider where he went from here. If leaving villainy behind was in the cards...

"By the way," Lisa mentioned nervously, "Jaya suggested you keep Aisha near you at all times, at least for the next few days. Coil was apparently a paranoid bastard, and neither of us are discounting some sort of dead man's switch that would put a hit out on everyone even remotely associated with him. I'll know for sure once I take a look at him, but until then..."

Brian stared at her for a moment, then shook his head. He felt drained, and anger would do him no good here. What was done was done. They trudged onward, towards the docks, as he planned out how he would convince his sister to stay with him this week. 

Fucking Coil, Brian grumbled to himself, life would be so much simpler if he had never shown up.