Theoretically This Sucks

As Cole was looking at Tatteltale Tammi swatted his shoulder and threw a pout at him. She was clearly dissatisfied with Cole looking over at another girl during their date. Especially a girl that seemed to be looking back at him with surprising focus.

Cole winced at the hit and the situation he put himself into but how else was he supposed to react to her being here? Lisa intruding in on their date was the last thing on his mind but here she was.

"She's not even that pretty." Tammi shot out while looking down at herself with a frown. Tammi was a bit more lilith in comparison to someone like Lisa. That stemmed from Lisa being older than Tammi but that did not mean she was not dissatisfied with her body in this moment.

Cole leaned over and kissed her again to wipe that frown off of her face.

"Sorry, I should not be looking at other girls during our date." Cole apologized first before trying to explain anything. Cole had his reasons for doing things but it was best to calm her upset mood before moving on.

Tammi wore a pout on her face but there was a hint of her lips twitching from the sudden kiss he provided. She licked her lips absently before calming slightly.

"You better watch yourself, mister. If you want to win me over you got to do better than this." She announced with a small huff but Cole knew it was more of a show by this point. Cole had loved her for a very long time and Cole was the only thing she had left.

Not exactly a healthy dynamic but they had years of friendship to settle on to build off of this new scenario. 

"I will Tammi I promise," Cole spoke out seriously matching gazes with her. For a brief moment, the two were locked into a moment designed for only them as their gazes matched. Then that moment broke as Tammi looked away with a blush on her face.

"Good," Tammi spoke out quietly as she got back to sipping at her sweet drink.

"It was just that girl has been staring so intensely at us. I figured she was watching us for a specific reason and I was trying to figure out why. It was not like she could recognize either of us in our current get-up." Cole finally explained now that Tammi was in a calmer mood.

Tammi jolted from that comment and looked over at Lisa with a newfound focus. Seeing that girl still looking over at their table a frown grew on her face. Even with Tammi looking over at her did not stop Lisa from looking over at Cole with an unnatural focus and several emotions flashing across her face.

"Do you think she is a part of the PRT?" Tammi asked as she shifted gears from relaxing on a date to combating a problem ahead of her. Lisa apparently read the change in behavior as she wore a wry smile as she waved over at the duo on their date.

That action furthered the frown on Tammi's face but before Cole could respond Lisa picked up her laptop and made her way across the Cafe to their table. She was soon leaning against their table as she looked away from Cole for the first time and focused in on Tammi with a disarming smile on her face.

"I can answer that question. I'm not from the PRT and I have not been sent to monitor you by anyone." Lisa spoke out with a smile that said she had everything in control. Tammi tensed up further at Lisa blatantly addressing her worries. Cole just let out a sigh as they clearly had to deal with this now.

"While she is clearly suspicious I think she is telling the truth about her motives. The PRT should have no idea we are here and I doubt anyone else is really all that interested in us." Cole spoke out as he reached across the table and interlocked his fingers with Tammi to calm her down. That worked slightly as her hostility diminished slightly but she was still glaring at Lisa.

"Hey now, I resent being called suspicious. I was just enjoying a nice afternoon in my favorite Cafe and two people clearly wearing disguises just waltzed in." Lisa announced as she sat down at their table dragging a chair from another table nearby.

Tammi tensed further at her words but Cole gave her another squeeze and a calm smile.

"She can say whatever she wants she is not much of a threat," Cole spoke out seriously. Lisa glared at him for that comment but when she looked back at Tammi she flinched and scooted her chair away from the other blonde girl at the table.

"He is right, if I knew how scary you were I would never have come within touching distance," Lisa spoke out with a wry smile as she looked over at Tammi who was glaring at her. Hearing her words Tammi lessened her glare slightly and threw a sharp smile at the girl.

Lisa was basically Sherlock Holmes on crack. She could put together facts to create a stable image of what was truly going on. Which means she needs to pick up more facts and clues before she could piece everything together. The only reason she approached the two of them was because she allowed her interest in Cole negating her power to dominate her mind and she read that from Tammi that they were paying attention to her.

So she marched over her with a small little power play by displaying the fact that the two of them were in disguise and that they were hiding from the PRT. As Tammi's hostility grew Lisa learned that she could be an absolute menace at touching distance but she was already too far into the game to back off now.

"As you can probably guess she is a Cape as well. Judging from her unnatural insight she is probably a Thinker. One who can pick up context clues and make inferences until she reaches the truth of the matter." Cole explained with an insufferable smile of his own as he looked over at Lisa. She narrowed her eyes at Cole hitting the mark so quickly.

"Perhaps I should have been more worried about you as opposed to Ms. Gunshot touch over there." Lisa spat out with a frown on her face. She was not used to being on the back foot in conversations like this but Cole was stonewalling her power so she could only get a read off of Tammi and it was a slow process.

Seeing the sour look on Lisa's face Tammi wore a smug grin of her own as she faced her fellow blonde. She did not even flinch at the comment about her shooting Lisa with a touch.

"You really should be but you were the one who stepped into my web so you can't escape now," Cole spoke out as he shifted his gaze away from Tammi and watched Lisa with a smug grin that he was sure would annoy Lisa.

"Oh? Well, you two clearly have a problem with the PRT if I make a big enough scene here I could really get you two into some trouble." Lisa spoke out with a glare and her own smug grin. Cole rolled his eyes but before he could reply Tammi cut in.

"If you tried you would end up dead." Tammi spat out as she wiggled her own fingers at Lisa. Lisa flinched at that and again scooted her chair away from her. Cole raised an eyebrow at that as Tammi did not have any truly lethal wounds stored up in her inventory but then it hit him.

Tammi stored the gunshot wound in her inventory of injuries but she was the one who got to assign where that wound ended up. So she could move that injury to the head of the next person she touched. Her power became a whole lot scarier than he expected. She was effectively lethal no matter how minor the wound she had stored. A simple cut to the brain could be absolutely devastating.

Even someone like Glory Girl with 'invulnerability' would not be able to avoid her strikes. Hell, the time-locked Superman clone called Alexandria was susceptible to her attacks as well.

"Right scary girl on my right and prick who knows too much on the left. My nice afternoon is going down the toilet." Lisa spoke out with a frown and elaborate sigh.

"Hey, now this is not on us. You were the one who decided to play around with things you did not quite understand. Curiosity killed the cat I'm sure you are more than familar with that." Cole spoke out with a shrug of his shoulders as he leaned back in his chair.

"Yeah, Yeah I get it. Although I prefer the end of that quote with satisfaction bringing it back." Lisa spoke out with a helpless smile on her face. Cole chuckled as it figured Lisa would take that part out of the often misquoted line.

"Well, how is that working out for you now?" Tammi asked with a sharp smile on her face.

"Poorly but I'm usually dealing with people I can talk circles around. This prick over here has shut down that route sadly." Lisa spoke out as she leaned into the table in a dejected manner. Cole chuckled at seeing her current state which earned him an annoyed glare from the languid blonde.

"Yeah, laugh it up you smug bastard," Lisa spoke out with a glare on her face. Seeing the defeated look on Lisa's face really brought up Tammi's mood.

"Be honest now little fly you are not all that upset about being unable to read me," Cole spoke out as he sipped the hot chocolate in front of him. Lisa rolled her eyes at his words but there was a glint of fascination in her eyes as she looked over at him.

Blank really was catnip for Lisa. It was both grating and fascinating to her. She hated not knowing everything about someone with a single glance but in the same vein, she was absolutely enthralled at the notion of not knowing someone's deepest darkest secrets within minutes of meeting them.

"Guilty as charged but I should have expected something like this. Only thinkers could have smiles that smug. So I guess I was dealing with my own breed. One who has advantages I do not." Lisa spoke out with a fox like smile on her face as she tried to examine Cole more thoroughly.

Before she could really get into it Tammi reached over and poked at her cheek forming a bruise on her face that had Lisa flinching from the sudden pain before Tammi took the bruise back.

"Mine." Tammi glared at Lisa with her fingers wiggling in a threatening manner again.

Lisa put up her hands in surrender with a disarming smile on her face.

"Geeze I get it, Prick is off the table. No need to threaten my life so quickly. I would like to live beyond my teenage years thank you very much." Lisa spoke out with a small pout on her face. She was clearly surrendering but she did cast a frown-filled look at Cole for a moment.

"Don't we all," Cole spoke out with a sigh as he contemplated the coming troubles. This world was really fucked up and if Cole did nothing. He and everyone he loved was likely to die either from a massive tsunami from a fucking Kaiju or a depressed Space whale flipping the table off of some asshole's prodding.

"Preach brother preach," Lisa spoke out with a solemn nod as if seeing the same sort of mood brewing in Cole. For once she was relying on her own intferances instead of her power. Tammi looked at the sudden comradery with a frown on her face but she just squeezed Cole's hand a little tighter.

Tammi made to say something to bring up the mood as the two teenagers in front of her were being a bit moody but then closed her mouth. Most people were lucky to live past their teenage years in Brockton Bay and them being Capes brought those odds even lower. So Tammi just joined the duo in sighing about the troubles of living.

"This was not the mood I was expecting on our date," Tammi spoke out with a frown on her face. Cole winced at her words and Lisa looked at the two of them with a glint in her eyes.

"I blame her." Cole pointed at Lisa passing the blame as quickly as he could. Lisa froze for a moment not expecting to be dragged into this.

"He was the one that joined in." She shot back quickly giving Tammi a wary look. Everything she was reading from the girl told Lisa that she was unlikely to attack her now but her powers have been wrong before. As far as she could tell Tammi was on the emotional edge and it would only take a certain amount of prodding to push her over.

Nut cases like that were usually easy targets for Lisa but she was currently in the splash zone so she was not going to trigger that landmine. Tammi rolled her eyes at the two of them messing around.

"So why did you even approach us? Beyond the curiosity that screwed you over." Cole pipped in to Lisa trying to change the topic. Tammi glared at him for a moment before letting it slide with a huff. Lisa also latched onto the out that was given.

"Honestly, the curiosity was the main thing. It's not every day I see such juicy gossip and well meeting someone like you is a first." Lisa spoke out to Cole. Tammi narrowed her eyes at Lisa for a moment which had the blonde sweating nervously.

".....Why are you still here then?" Cole asked with a raised eyebrow. Lisa let out a huff before glaring lightly at Cole.

"I figured backing off at this point was out of the question. Ms. Hair Trigger over there would not accept such a blatant loose end and I can't get a read on you. So all I can do is beg for my life, which might as well be the headline for my life." Lisa shot out with a sour look on her face.

Cole looked over at Tammi to see how she was handling this. Tammi matched his gaze and gave him a shrug punting the issue back to him. She had been following Cole's lead so far and she was going to continue to do so. She did not exactly trust her own opinion anymore, not after said opinions left her rotting in a cell for the past month.

Seeing that Cole felt conflicted. He honestly did not want to deal with the hassle that Lisa represented but he could not deny she was useful. She was the main cog in the Undersiders that really made them work. Without her, that gang of misfits would fall apart.

Coil was the reason they had such success but Lisa was the thing holding them together. She knew how to dance around Alec's lack of feelings and was able to establish a stable communication method with Rachel. Brian was easier to handle in comparison to them but she still had to put in some effort to make him relent in his pursuit of Aisha's custody.

Could Coil get them to run in line with his thoughts without her? Certainly, but it would require far more effort and frankly, the Undersiders were not that valuable.

Her ability to read the room was not why Cole was interested in her. Her ability to plan things out would be massively helpful in future heists and she would be easy to work with. It was already proven that he was pretty fucking reckless and Lisa was someone who had to deal with the Queen of Escalation. The issue was making sure she could become a free agent.

Coil had his fangs in her and that guy was not exactly going to let go of her. That was something Lisa knew from the bottom of her heart and while she wanted to escape desperately she had long since accepted the gun hanging over her head.

Cole looked over at Lisa with a frown on his face. Said girl was giving him a calm but disarming smile. She knew that her fate rested on his shoulders even if she could not read that from him. Knowing what he knew about her he let out a sigh.

Lisa was a manipulative smug bitch but she was also a teenage girl who just wanted her own freedom. Was she willing to see the world burn around her if she got her way? Yes, but that was not something Cole would argue against. He knew desperation and he was not going to begrudge others for seeking their own safety.

He was not noble enough to look down on someone struggling against the cogs of fate. He was more moral grey for the most part even if he tended to lean towards the lighter shades of grey.

"You are free to go if you want." Cole shot out with a sigh as he looked over at her again. Lisa froze for a moment before she looked over at him again with an odd look on her face. She understood that he was letting her leave but she also understood that he was also offering something else.

"Is that so? What else do you have up your sleeve?" She asked as she relaxed in her chair now that her death was off the table for the moment. Lisa really did not learn her lesson in regards to curiosity but in this case she was going to come out on top for satisfying that urge.

"Well, you called me a smug prick since I was able to read you while you can't read me but that allowed me to read a bit more than expected. Your current boss is not exactly someone you would have chosen for yourself right?" Cole asked with a knowing smile as he set down the cup he was drinking from. Lisa narrowed her eyes and Tammi looked between the two of them with a frown on her face.

"That was a bit of an understatement. I would rather streak across the Boardwalk completely nude than have to deal with that asshole." Lisa shot out with a glint in her eyes as she watched Cole with everything she had. She frowned rather quickly as her Power failed her but that just increased the glint in her eyes.

Tammi blinked at Lisa's words but looked at the interaction happening here with a frown. 

"Well, I could imagine that having a gun pointed at your head and being given no other option is a pretty shit way to build loyalty," Cole spoke out softly as he looked over at the Cafe making sure that no one was really paying attention to them. They had gotten into some pretty serious territory earlier but he made sure to keep an eye on the crowd to make sure no one was watching them.

"Again understatement of the century. Are you going anywhere with this?" Lisa asked with a frown on her face. The glint was still there but she was also pretty frustrated at someone else poking at her issues. She did not really enjoy being on the other side of the dagger in this case.

"Patience little fly. While I don't think loyalty for loyalty sake is in your nature but I can trust that when it comes to your own interest you will follow along with everything you got." Cole spoke out with a wry smile on his face. Tammi narrowed her eyes at Lisa but said girl just shrugged off his words.

"Eh, a girl's got to eat. The world's a shit place so looking out for number one should be everyone's priority." Lisa spoke out with a disinterested look in her eyes.

"So how about I bring you out of Coil's reach and you help me take out the prick? Oh, and you will help me plan out some….well let's call it resource gathering." Cole spoke out with a smile that all but said he knew she would fall in line. Tammi again frowned but decided to stay out of this. Lisa frowned as well but that glint was rising quickly in her eyes again.

"Sounds like a win to me but what's in it for you? Coil's a pain in my ass but as far as I am aware no one has any real beef with him." Lisa spoke out with some caution. She really wanted to screw over the prick but she also knew that something too good to be true tended to be exactly that.

"Well, being in the same city as a raping kidnapping melodramatic monster is not really conducive to my continued existence." Cole shot out as he drank from his cup now that things were a bit more in his control. The frown on Tammi's face deepened but at least it was not in regards to Lisa.

Lisa on the other hand blinked at his words before she paled at the notions being thrown at her. She was not able to read Cole but with his words, she was running through her interaction with Coil and recontextualizing what happened. 

"No, but I don't remember….FUCK…is he a master?" Lisa asked desperately as the pale complexion on her face took on a green tinge. She almost shouted in her desperation but her more rational side kept her words to a hiss. The hostility that Tammi was feeling towards Lisa faded at the image that was being painted in front of her. Now all she felt was pity for the nearly reching blonde in front of her.

"No, he is not. You have not been….used in that way no matter what your power is saying. He is only a theoretical rapist/sicko who gets off on the thought of drugging ten-year-olds." Cole spoke out softly to not push her over the edge even if his words were tinged with disgust as he talked about Coil. Lisa's completion continued to shift rapidly from different colors as she went over information after information trying to form the image but she was one clue away from that prize.

The rapid use of her powers was clearly getting to her as she winched and glared at the pain running through her head.

"What the fuck does that even mean? No bullshit please I'm minutes away from breaking down here." Lisa spat out with that desperate look on her face. Cole would make a comment about it not being so nice on the other side of the fence but that was a bit callous. This topic was not exactly something pleasant to listen to.

Even Tammi was on her side as she squeezed Cole's palm and gave him a pleading look. It was not needed as she was going to tell her anyway but it did soften his heart a bit.

"It all runs down to his power. Coil can simulate two different timelines using a form of foresight. He can do all the sick games he wants in one timeline and erase it so it never affects the timeline he is currently in. When he chooses a main timeline his body is puppeted by his power to redo the actions he did in the timeline. So from his perspective, his power is to split timelines while it is more in line with prophecy." Cole explained trying to get all the points so he did not have to revisit this topic. Tammi paled at his words and again gave Lisa a pitying look.

"Thus the theoretical rapist title…fuck… I don't think that makes it better." Lisa spat out with a furious bitter look on her face. Which was understandable she was just told she was theoretically raped by the smug asshole who put a gun to her head and forced her into his little kingdom-building plan.

Cole let her ruminate on her emotions as it was not really the time to offer anything. Pushing anymore than he had already done would just be cruel. There was silence in the air as Cole gave her time to adjust to the new information she was being given.

"Fuck it I'm in. I would have screwed over that fucking monster for just trapping me in his mess but now I want him dead seven ways to Tuesday. Your disguise is nearly fucking perfect even knowing that you both are disguised I can't find the faults. So you should be able to follow through on getting me out of his reach but if he is simulating a different timeline right now that asshole could just close this timeline and run with the one that still has me in his control." Lisa spoke out quickly with a nervous anger billowing off of her.

"Yeah, he could but the power that is currently blocking you can be expanded to shut down all Thinker powers, and if I do that his timelines will be forcefully shut down as he would not be able to gather the data he needs to simulate a different timeline. I was just waiting for you to make a decision on joining up." Cole explained calmly as he put Blank at its max setting for a moment before dialing it back to the setting he had it at before.

Lisa flinched when he did so and she must have had a massive headache as she gripped her skull with a hiss. Tammi gave her a concerned look but did not say anything right this instant.

"Please never do that again… Actually do that all the time just make sure you knock me out first. If I'm dealing with this headache then Coil must have pissed himself from the backlash." Lisa spoke out with a wry smile that was quivering as she was still dealing with the aftereffects of the pain.

"Yeah pulling off a global blackout on all Thinkers for a second probably has people freaking out so going to avoid doing that. If you want to torture the guy we have plenty of ways we can go about it. Now that you have joined the superior side that dumbass will end up homeless and with all his limbs broken whenever you wish." Cole shot out with a wry smile of his own.

Lisa's wry smile morphed into that vulpine-like smirk that he was more familiar with.