Chapter 27

Sorry people, got delayed by some things, and then I decided to rewrite the entire chapter because I wasn't happy.

In the end, I'm still not happy with chapter 29, but I finally decided to move on, so here's the newest release for you guys, I hope you like it.

Anyway, the next chapter is gonna be a PHO interlude like the last one, where I use a different POV for a little bit and have them interact with PHO, then we're finally back to Anakin.

________________________________________________________--

Tattletale stared at the notebook screen in horrified silence, this wasn't supposed to happen, this couldn't be happening! It was bullshit!

Susanoo had just destroyed the Empire. He had destroyed the Empire and he wasn't even tired, killing or maiming their Capes as if they were small nuisances. All the while, her power had been providing commentary.

It wasn't that she was sad to see the Empire go, fuck the Empire, but it was a downright ridiculous show of power. It would mess up all her plans for Brocton Bay and the gap left behind could even lead to a second round of the Boston games, where villains from all over the country saw a chance and converged into the city because there was little competition.

Unable to help herself, she pressed the play button again and watched, almost frozen in place as the recording of the clusterfuck started again, the street camera catching the moment Armsmaster approached Susanoo after he single handedly dealt with the Empire.

.

No change in voice, posture in military relaxation, brief glance away from Armsmaster: Not affected by the killing. Not tired. Unconcerned by heroes.​​Change in timbre of voice, posture tensing, increased glancing towards assumed base, willingness to compromise: Worried. Knows something is wrong. Starting to lose composure.​​Armsmaster looking around, Protectorate heroes tensing, believe he's already won: Trying to buy time. Arrogant. Will refuse deal.

.​

Shit, she didn't need her power to know that! By now, Tattletale had analyzed the Protectorate hero enough times to know how he was gonna act, the chance to capture not only the Empire but Susanoo as well was just too much for the asshole to pass.

Pausing the video again, she took a second to think about the situation. If Armsmaster was gonna try and arrest Susanoo anyway, why take so long? Leaning forwards, Tattletale pushed her power further, trying to look at things from another perspective.

.

PRT forces moving slowly but with precision, Armsmaster craves a complete victory: Prior plan to engage Susanoo. Capture secondary objective. Delaying Susanoo is considered a victory.​​Susanoo unconcerned about heroes, constant glances towards workshop, capture not main objective: Thinker power to predict danger extends beyond immediate combat situation. Possible second PRT operation in workshop. Delay is to prevent interference.​​Dinah Alcott in workshop, Dinah Alcott's rescue would result in major PR win, Coil's objective is Dinah Alcott, Coil aware of confrontation: Rescue operation happening now. Coil's interference unavoidable. Coil's attempt likely to succeed.

.​

"FUCK!" Tattletale couldn't help screaming as she pressed the play button again. "Fuck, fuck, fuck!"

She barely managed to follow what happened next, Susanoo moving fast enough to almost keep up with Velocity, his combat Thinker power letting him react a step ahead of everything thrown at him, then he was gone inside a building and the cameras changed.

The camera on the next street was further away, barely managing to catch what was going on before the entire street just exploded in a level of destruction that put Susanoo's confrontation with Lung to shame, then the camera was ripped out of the wall and she lost sight of the battle.

.

Susanoo not tired from dealing with the Empire, confident he could defeat the Protectorate, confident he could deal with every villain while meeting at Somer's Rock: Holding back. Does not take Brockton's Capes seriously.​​Shaker power observed lifting buildings, predictive Thinker power not limited by distance or immediate future, powers not manton limited: Contingency plans inadequate. Can't be beaten by Brockton Bay's capes. Threat comparable to a member of Triumvirate or Faery Queen.

.​

Alright, Susanoo could apparently sense the girl's position even from across the city so Coil was fucked, even if he did capture the girl, he was complete and utterly fucked. That should be a good thing, right?

Yes, Coil was gonna use the PRT's rescue attempt to finally kidnap the girl, then Susanoo was gonna step on him like the cockroach he was. The only problem was Tattletale was working for the fucking wrong side!

Shit, with how mad he'd be at the girl's kidnapping, she wasn't sure Susanoo was gonna care that she wasn't exactly willing. She also wasn't sure he couldn't find out about her involvement with yet another Thinker power she didn't know about.

Now that she thought about it, Coil had probably leaked her analysis of Susanoo's powers and her contingency plans so, in a way, she had been helping both Empire and PRT fight him.

Getting up, Tattletale massaged her temples and paced in front of the notebook. She was alone in the hideout, Regent had been with her until a few minutes ago, but he decided to go buy some junk food and wasn't back yet.

Taking some medicine for her growing headache, she finally stopped. Her feet tapped against the floor as she stared at the notebook and tried to concentrate again, what did this all mean for the Undersiders? For her?

She was probably one of the first people to get those recordings, having hacked into the traffic cameras as soon as she learned what was happening, only the Empire and the Protectorate would know more.

Damn it, she couldn't understand why the fuck Coil was pushing so hard against Susanoo, or why he was being so active about it, dangerously so, to the point of overplaying his hand.

Yeah, Coil had given her the whole 'control luck' speech, flipping a coin and getting the right side every time, but she didn't buy it for a second.

The guy was a Thinker, she just knew it.

The problem was Thinkers don't get into direct confrontations. They plotted, they manipulated and they planned around their enemies, only acting when they have already won. That was what she was trying to do to Coil and what he had done to her when she was 'convinced' to work for him.

It was as if he was just flailing about, making mistake after mistake despite having a perfect record for years.

.

Coil's is a predictive Thinker, predictive Thinker's interfere with each other, Coil can't beat Susanoo: Power isn't working correctly. Can no longer operate in Brockton Bay. Will flee.

.​

Oh, that's why he's doing this, if he killed Susanoo and captured Dinah, he won, no question about it. So this was a Hail Mary, after which, if it succeeded, he could work to recover.

But he can't beat Susanoo.

So he was gonna cut bait, or maybe he was already out of the city? Unfortunately, Tattletale couldn't see the man quietly packing up and leaving peaceably, he was too spiteful for that.

Suddenly, her eyes glanced at the window, then towards the listening devices in her bedroom. Her heart started to beat like mad as she almost threw herself to the ground, then closed the curtains and moved position.

Fuck, she knew the bastard, didn't even need her power to predict him right now. The second Coil knew Susanoo survived; he'd flee the city while causing as much damage as possible on the way out. Worse, she was a liability!

Tattletale had no idea the creep would grab her and turn her into his personal pet Thinker like he planned to do with the girl or just kill her and cut the connection clean, but she really didn't want to stay and find out.

Crawling along the floor, Tattletale pulled the laptop from the desk and started typing, activating every backdoor she had managed to get into Coil's system and trying to block him.

It wouldn't really do anything if the man was still in the city or, worse, in his headquarters, but she knew he wouldn't be here with something so big going down, he was too careful for that.

So, from the outside, Coil's own security features and her interference would prevent him from accessing his system and ordering it to do anything. She knew he still had some deadman switches and timed releases of information, but now he couldn't trigger them early.

Closing the notebook, she cradled it to her chest and started thinking about her next actions. She was fucked, she was so fucked!

Briefly, Tattletale considered just handing herself over to the PRT, but she didn't know if Coil still had moles he hadn't burned inside the place and, well, that was a last resort.

No, her best chance was to flee the city while Coil was too busy with Susanoo's operation. It hadn't worked before, Coil had always caught her, but his position was much weaker now and his power wasn't working correctly, she could make it!

Avoiding any windows, Tattletale grabbed her gun and crawled through the floor, moving out of her bedroom as quietly as she could manage, getting into the kitchen and grabbing a knife.

Using the point, she unscrewed the bottom of her notebook and carefully pried the tracker off, then she opened the microwave and stuffed her phone inside, pausing just before she snapped the door close.

Regent still wasn't back and the others were busy with their own things. She knew she shouldn't, it would reveal her hand earlier than necessary but…

"Goddamnit!" She cursed under her breath, pulling the phone out of the microwave and starting to type a message.

Fuck, she wasn't exactly loyal to the Undersiders, at least not to the point she'd die for them —she was ditching them after all— but she couldn't just let Coil kill them without at least trying to give a warning.

'Boss is fucked, will try to eliminate any liability. Undersiders not safe, go to ground, don't contact anyone and avoid the hideout. Last resort, hand yourself to the PRT.'

Pressing the button, she sent the message to the Undersiders, then she threw the device back into the microwave and set it for an hour. There, that should give them a chance.

Crawling out through a hole in the building, Tattletale pulled the plastic bag with the notebook in front of her, adjusted her hood and started walking, doing her best to mix in with the people out on the street, one hand never leaving the gun inside her pocket even as she used every reflective surface to watch behind herself.

She had a bug out bag a few blocks away, with it she should be out of the city in an hour.

Then she caught sight of a tall man in the reflection of a car window and her power activated.

.

Pretending not to look, steps matching your stride, not glanced at bag even once: Following you. Not interested in mugging. Military trained.

.​

Feeling a shiver spreading through her body, Tattletale tightened her hold on the gun and pretended she hadn't noticed, a cold drop of sweat running down her blank face.

.

—--

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Hannah woke up with a startle, she didn't really need to sleep but, after her ordeal and with the current state of her body preventing other activities, she had tried to relax a little. It hadn't worked.

She had relived the events before her trigger. The attack on her little village, the shooting and feeling of helplessness, the fear as the Turks took her and the other children away… the absolute terror as they forced her to sweep the field for mines before she triggered and killed them.

Every single moment passed through her mind with perfect accuracy, as if she was there once more, living it all over again, and it was only a day after being crushed by several boulders.

With some effort, Hannah pushed herself to a sitting position, then slowly moved her legs towards the edge of the bed. Finally, she pulled the wheelchair closer and sucked in a breath before trying to move, fragile arms shaking from the effort and almost slipping, but she wouldn't fall again.

With a relieved sigh, she leaned back against her wheelchair and closed her eyes, taking a moment to gather herself, then she drove the electric wheelchair towards the bathroom and started her morning routine.

She knew she had been lucky, Panacea had been able to heal everything, but the girl was stretched so thin, and Hannah's wounds had been so serious, that there had to be compromises.

Putting her toothbrush away, she stared at herself in the mirror, bottle green eyes stared back from a gaunt, skeletal thin face.

Yes, she had been healed, but Panacea had to cannibalize a lot of her fat and muscle reserves to do it, enough that it was hard to even stand up right now… and she had been the lucky one.

God, it had been like fighting a member of the Triumvirate or, worse, an Endbringer, that stupid PHO thread comparing him to the Simurgh coming far too close for comfort.

Unfortunately, others hadn't been as lucky. Sere, the shaker hero with water powers, had died, crushed under the broken remains of the building he had been standing on, together with 12 of the PRT troopers said building was thrown at.

Velocity survived, but for how long was anyone's guess, his skull had been fractured in the fight and, while Panacea could relieve the pressure in his brain and fix his bones, there was still damage she couldn't deal with. He was currently in a coma and, even if he survived, there was little chance he could remain a hero.

Assault had made a full recovery, but Armsmaster was in a similar situation to her own, missing an entire arm whose mass had been cannibalized to help heal his remaining limbs. Basically a rush job by Panacea so she could continue helping the remaining victims, and there were a lot of them.

Despite the PRT's best efforts, they hadn't been able to evacuate every civilian in the ambush area before the fight and, with Anakin's rampage, a lot of them had gotten caught up in the conflict. 12 dead and 49 wounded, without counting the Empire members.

They considered it luck, the fatalities could have been so much higher. At least Dinah Alcott had survived, Panacea managing to get to her in time, if she hadn't…

At Hannah's side, her knife changed, taking the shape of a large machete for a few seconds before becoming a high caliber handgun that she almost palmed for comfort.

She knew she should hate Anakin for what he had done, in how many lives he had taken and, in a way, she did. But she also couldn't deny her disappointment in everything else. Things shouldn't have come to this.

Hannah wasn't blind to the faults of the system she supported, she didn't think the people who worked on it were paragons of virtue or anything, but she believed in it, she believed in the core values that formed the system, that it was something worth fighting for.

It was why, having come from a place where most of those values didn't exist and those who did had been thrown away by people who found them inconvenient during a war, she had decided to be a Hero.

Unfortunately, Hannah was starting to believe she was the only one still doing that in the entire Protectorate.

Instead of safety measures and necessary bureaucracy, she was starting to see the signs of maliciousness. A system meant to hinder, not help, the corruption starting to overcome what was once great.

Should she leave? Was she doing good because of the Protectorate or despite it?

Perhaps she should have joined Minnie when her fellow Ward left the Protectorate to become Mouse Protector, if only she wasn't such an unpleasant friend to be around, never knowing when to stop with her jokes…

Washing her face, Hannah tied her mask on and drove her electric wheelchair towards the door, she had a meeting with the Director.

Thankfully, until she recovered some more and her secret identity wasn't in danger because of her state, she was living in the PRT headquarters so, at least it wouldn't take long to arrive.

—---

"How's Vista?" Hannah asked Assault as she saw him while driving towards the PRT Director's meeting room.

The meeting had already started but, despite everything going on, there was only so much overtime she could take before people ordered her to rest, so being late wasn't her fault.

Still, currently Assault, Battery and Dauntless were the only heroes fully on their feet so a lot of the Protectorate's job had fallen on their shoulders… Well, Armsmaster was technically well, if missing an arm that was used as biomass, but he was too busy analyzing the battle and trying to justify his actions to really do anything else.

Thankfully, the entire city was eerily quiet, even the Merchants not daring to poke their heads out after what happened yesterday. Every single person, be they a Parahuman, gang member or civilian was waiting to see what Susanoo would do or if the Triumvirate would make a visit to their city, escalating the fight.

"Not great," Assault sighed and took a sip of his coffee. "Whatever Susanoo did, it's still messing with her power, she says she can still sense space, but she can't act on it."

"And the Alcott girl?"

"Meditating," Assault said, then shrugged when Hannah gave him a look. "What? She's sitting in a lotus position with her eyes closed, what else do you call that?"

"So you didn't break protocol to talk with her?" Hannah asked with suspicion.

"Of course I did," Assault said while taking another sip of coffee. "She's a 12 years old in MS lockdown after having almost been murdered by a villain, fuck protocol I talked with her, I just didn't ask about her meditation."

"Good," there was a reason the protocol was important, but Hannah didn't think it applied here. "How's she taking it?"

"Oh, the pipsqueak is absolutely furious we rescued her, and she is still asking for her robot arm back," he snorted in amusement. "Even then, she couldn't hide the relief and eagerness in her eyes when I told her her parents are here in the headquarters. Then she told me there was still a 2% chance Coil would attack again and went back to meditating, completely ignoring me."

Satisfied, Hannah drove her wheelchair towards the meeting room and knocked, driving inside when Dauntless held the door open for her.

Looking around the room, Hannah saw that the meeting was small, only Director Piggot, Deputy Director Renick, Armsmaster, Dauntless and her were present, even Dragon wasn't here.

The room was also a mess, with various papers and office supplies spread through the floor while Piggot threw herself back to her chair, running a hand through her blond hair.

The Director gave her a glance, then composed herself and turned to Armsmaster. "Have…" she started, huffing from the effort and doing her best to seem professional despite apparently having just thrown everything on her desk to the floor in a fit of rage. "Have you at least managed to connect him to the construction company?"

"Yes, Director," Armsmaster answered, his back straight and hidden rage in his voice. "Calvert's involvement was difficult to trace, but the abandoned Endbringer shelter was built by his company. The project was supposedly abandoned due to lack of funds. If you give me a few days I can…"

"No," Piggot interrupted in a harsh voice. "Armsmaster, you're no longer the leader of the Protectorate or in charge of the Wards, you're to finish your report and start handing your workload for those particular jobs to Dauntless and Miss Militia respectively. Calvert is no longer your responsibility."

Armsmaster froze, his stiff armor, still heavily damaged from the confrontation with Susanoo and missing all its limbs, seemed to shake from his barely contained anger and frustration, but he managed to gather himself.

"With all due respect, Director, I'm not going to be blamed for YOUR mistakes," Armsmaster said between gritted teeth. "Arresting or at least delaying Susanoo so the rescue operation could happen was the correct choice with the information we had at the time and you were the one to trust Calvert, you were…"

And there it was, Armsmaster's need to be right. Hannah hadn't started to hate, or even really dislike, her co-worker and friend, she understood his faults, but the way he was acting now had made her lose a lot of the respect she held for him, which was perhaps worse.

It wasn't so much the way he led that operation or the decisions he took, she agreed with those decisions at the time. It was his self-justification, the way he wanted to spread the blame, to preserve his career only a day afterwards that had started to change her view.

Hannah had always known Armsmaster craved recognition, it had been the same ever since their time together in the Wards, but she had believed his drive to do good was more important than his ego… now she wasn't so sure anymore.

"Shut up," Piggot growled with more venom than Hannah had ever heard before. "First, I never trusted that snake, didn't even want to hire him, but all three independent background checks I ordered came out clean, he was too well connected, his record of success after Elisburgh was too perfect, and I had been asking for support from the other branches for years… Still, I only thought he was after my job and would try to sabotage me, probably to use it as a stepping stone for a political career later, not that he was a damn cape.

"Besides, I'm not trying to push the blame on your glory seeking ass. Even if I wanted to, there's far too much blame for it to work anyway. No, I'm going to be sacked for this… if they can't stick a criminal charge in there too, I'm just hoping the higher ups will be satisfied with your demotion and not escalate further because, as much as I hate to admit it, you're right, I agreed with your decision to delay Susanoo, if not for the same reason you made it."

Hannah had her own thoughts about that whole disaster. In hindsight, attempting to arrest Susanoo despite his peace offer had been a terrible mistake, but only in hindsight, after they discovered all the information they had about his powers was wrong by an order of magnitude.

Every piece of information they had about the cape indicated they could do it, Susanoo had just been in a battle with the majority of the Empire, he should have been tired, at least a little bit, while they were ready and had a diversity of powers to deal with him. They couldn't have asked for a better opportunity.

Susanoo had been far from Dinah, it was a perfect moment to attempt a rescue and, if he could escape, delaying him for two to three minutes should have been enough to get the girl out and into PRT custody.

Unfortunately, things had happened too fast, their miscalculation became clear and the order to disengage was given less than 40 seconds into the battle but, by then, Susanoo had already captured Armsmaster and was about to murder him.

After that, they no longer cared to arrest or even delay Susanoo, they just wanted to keep the cape from killing anyone, working desperately to free Armsmaster… and they had failed miserably at that.

"We're sure he's Coil?" Dauntless asked, trying to bring the meeting back on track. "Calvert, I mean."

"88% certain he's the leak, 74% chance he's Coil, based on his personality," Armsmaster said. "After her capture, Genesis confirmed the Travelers knew about the rescue team, that they were prepared and received the go ahead from Coil himself when everything was happening."

Hannah closed her eyes. So, not only was Anakin right and the girl wasn't safe in PRT custody, but they had likely hired the very Cape that wanted to kidnap the girl to organize her rescue. No wonder Dinah hadn't wanted to be rescued.

"I burned every favor I was owed to have PRT officers from a different branch on the Empire transport, one free of any moles, at least from our gangs," Piggot said after seeing Hannah and Dauntless' questioning looks. "Everyone who knew the ambush on the Empire was happening was either monitored, or didn't know about Dinah's rescue team, Calvert was the only one who could have leaked the information."

"We probably don't have enough evidence for it to stick in court," Renick said, shaking his head. "But his disappearance and being able to connect him to the Endbringer shelter was pretty damning, enough for an arrest warrant."

"So, he must have known his cover was blown and gone to ground," Hannah concluded with a bitter laugh. "Must have thought the girl was worth blowing his cover for."

"Calvert was always an arrogant bastard, becoming a Thinker as we suspect would only make it worse," Piggot released a breath and laid back on her chair. "He probably thought he could get away with it, to blame someone else. Either that or he was ready to flee and just wanted to cause as much damage as possible on his way out, that sounds like him. What about the girl?"

"She's currently in MS lockdown," Hannah said. "Her stomach wound was healed, but she absolutely refused to have her hand regenerated and Panacea didn't continue with just her parents' consent."

"Well, at this point there's not much doubt the girl is a cape," Piggot rubbed her face with both hands and continued. "With Coil and one of the Travelers still missing, we're gonna have to keep her in headquarters even after she's out of the MS lockdown tomorrow. I'm trying to get her on witness protection, but I'll not be around long enough to offer her anything else. Still, I'm sure my replacement can deal with that."

"What about Susanoo?" Dauntless finally asked, deciding to deal with the elephant in the room.

"He's been declared an A-Class threat and the higher ups have already signed his kill order, but it's not going to be made public," Piggot confessed. "The last thing we need is a bunch of idiots provoking him into action. Even if he goes on a rampage, Chief Director Costa-Brown has explicitly ordered us to not engage him again unless we have Triumvirate support."

"And if he comes for the girl?" Miss Militia had to ask.

"That's the question, isn't it? Until the girl's application for witness protection is accepted, there's not much we can do but keep her here," Piggot said with disgust. "During one of the meetings, I was informed we can't be SEEN to hand the girl over, the Chief Director was conspicuously absent in that meeting. It was also discussed if we should just release the girl to her parents. Susanoo's master power doesn't last long after all."

"Director, you're saying…" Renick started to say

"If he arrives while she's still here," Piggot cut him off. "You're to do your best to make nice, say the girl is still recovering, offer him some coffee, heck, offer him a tour and some souvenirs while someone calls the Triumvirate and hopes all three of them arrive, but I'm not gonna be in charge much longer, orders may be changed."

Hannah couldn't believe what she was hearing, they knew Coil was still after the girl and, if he couldn't kidnap her, he appeared to be willing to kill her, releasing the girl to her parents was even worse than just handing her off to Anakin, it left her with no protection.

At least Panacea had confirmed the girl wasn't mistreated while in Anakin's care, there were some signs of extended exercise, but only in the fact she was in better condition than ever, no signs of drug use, physical or even emotional abuse in any way.

"And what about the robot?" Armsmaster asked. "It doesn't have any hidden weapons and I've disabled any outgoing signal or connection ports, so it can't access anything, but it's still comparable to a brute 3 and I'll need help confirming if it's an AGI or if it can self replicate."

"Right," said Dauntless with frustration. "Forgot about the terminator he built, because of course he can build terminators too."

"Susanoo already has a kill order," Piggot said, sounding absolutely done with everything. "Armsmaster, unless we start seeing a terminator army, we're not gonna do anything about it. Keep a watch over the usual signs on the energy grid but, at this point, I don't care if it's an AI, just focus on finding out if it can self-replicate, you're free to ask for Dragon's support. Without destroying the damn robot. Then focus on the Tinkertech we recovered from his base… at least we managed to get the arrested Empire capes out of the city."

They discussed the situation for another 15 minutes or so but, in the end, both the PRT and the Protectorate were in such a sorry condition there wasn't much they could do, the only saving grace was how quiet the city had become after Anakin's rampage, nobody wanted to be the first to step out and risk getting stomped.

Hannah was put in charge of the Wards and, while she still wanted to quit, she couldn't leave during the crisis, neither could she abandon the kids in the middle of this mess. No, she'd see this through and then… Well, then she'd consider her options.

On the other hand, Dauntless became the leader of the Protectorate until further notice, but the decision was subject to change when a new Director arrived.

Finally, Armsmaster was the first out of the room, walking back to his workshop in large steps and ignoring Assault's greeting. Looking at him, Hannah saw the signs he was talking with Dragon through his helmet's comms.

Then, while she was leaving the meeting room, she saw him stop, his body going ramrod straight while he listened with his full attention to whatever information Dragon was telling him before turning around and marching right back towards Piggot.

"What now?" The director asked from the floor where she had started to gather her thrown about papers.

"Dragon has just informed me. Yesterday, at 15:43, our monitoring devices registered movement from the Simurgh. The Endbringer first turned her body, then flew to a point above the Atlantic Ocean 50 km from Brockton bay and has been keeping position ever since, her movements started exactly a second after the end of Susanoo's confrontation with Vista."

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—-----

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To say Dinah Alcott was unhappy would be a huge understatement. Still, she did her best to keep it out of her face the entire time so that stupid Assault wouldn't accuse her of pouting.

She didn't pout, she brooded… it just didn't have the same effect without her mask and cape. They even took her cool robot arm and now the ugly stump wouldn't stop itching.

Yeah, Panacea offered to heal it, but she'd refused.

She told them that having a mechanical hand was cooler than a regenerated one, but the truth was she had lost it defending herself, it was proof that she could do it… that she wasn't helpless.

Dinah was kinda proud of it.

What was worse is that there was now a fifty eight point three, five, nine percent chance Coil would be dealt with before she could get out of PRT custody. She wasn't exactly complaining, but she had wanted to deal with the villain herself, wanted to show everyone she could do more than just sprout numbers at people.

Star's end, she couldn't even meditate or sleep properly, Trickster's face kept interrupting her, the walking cane switching with the laser pistol, the barrel already pointing towards her, the sound of it firing.

Frowning, she attempted to dismiss the fear, the confusion when things kept skipping around, people moving in a flash or disappearing from second to second while she just couldn't focus or understand what was going on through the pain.

Later, she learned it was Clockblocker's power keeping her alive, but at the time it had been… yeah.

Her eyes snapped open and she released a breath, taking a second to look around the room while she calmed herself. It was mostly empty, padded brown walls with a comfortable bed and a boring set of clothes she couldn't damage, with nothing else she could use to entertain herself.

She supposed it was so people couldn't hurt themselves here, but it really didn't help make her mood any better.

Hmph, even the food was boring, easy to eat with her hand but bland, she really hated it here…

Even if, for some reason, there was now only a two point nine, seven, one, three percent chance Coil could get her.

Even if, after she thought about it, Vista, Clockblocker and Shadow Stalker teaming up against Trickster and saving her with a creative use of power had been kinda neat.

… Even if she could see her parents again.

Great, now she didn't just feel annoyed, she felt guilty too.

Dinah knew she shouldn't feel relief at being here, but there was a ninety two point seven, two, one percent chance the PRT would release her to her family, and the chance they'd be safe together was only slightly lower.

She couldn't help feeling happy about that while, at the same time, already missing Anakin.

Did… did he really cause that much damage trying to reach her?

Did it make her a terrible person that a small part of her, the part that was still terrified of what could have happened, the part that was disappointed they couldn't keep her safe, was glad he had done it and thought the PRT deserved it?

Putting her back against the wall, Dinah stopped thinking about Coil and started daydreaming about what she was gonna do when she got out. Anything to stop the boredom, really.

She knew there was little chance the PRT would give her the robot hand back. And even if they did, there was less than a one percent chance the gun would still be there, could she convince her parents to buy a new one?

Her power was pretty versatile and Anakin HAD convinced Faultline to look after her in exchange for some questions, so others would probably pay her to use it, money wouldn't be a problem, and the secret gun HAD saved her life.

Then, if she was already getting a new one, she had to get a better model. Dinah loved Anakin's gift but she couldn't deny his design was kinda… ugly, it looked old and patched together.

If she was gonna get a new hand, she wanted something sleek.

Using her second question of the day, she smiled, there was a ninety eight point seven, one, one, nine percent chance Armsmaster could build her a sleek arm with a missile launcher.

Then she groaned, rephrased that question, and her smile disappeared. There was only a two point nine, nine, seven percent chance anyone could convince him to build that arm.

Maybe she should stop wasting questions like that. Ever since Dinah had started training with Anakin, the amount of questions she could ask had multiplied several times so she had started to get a little careless.

Still, that gave her an idea and she adjusted her sitting position, a smirk appearing on her face. Despite her efforts, she wasn't a Brute or Mover, she was a Thinker and Thinkers didn't need to move or even be free to mess with someone and ruin their day.

There was an almost 60% chance someone would deal with Coil before she left PRT custody. With the right use of her power, she could make that 100%, it would just take a lot of effort.

The easiest, most obvious use of her power was to ask questions about the future and receive a percentage chance of it happening. Too bad Dinah needed to know what questions to ask and, right now, she didn't even know where to start.

If she could ask Anakin, she was certain he could come up with something, give her a few suggestions, but she couldn't think of anything.

So, she'd have to use the second part of her power, the one that still hurts despite all her training, to search for a single future amongst all possible futures where things happened the way she wanted, observe it, and then try to replicate the steps to make it a reality.

Now, how did she go about it?

After her first confrontation with the Travelers, Dinah had a lot of time to think about her ability, she had also taken to experimenting at night, when she hadn't used too many questions during the day.

The first time she had used her power fully, before she had met Anakin, the pain had been unbearable, enough to knock her out for hours and leave her with a huge headache for days afterwards.

When she used her powers the second time to save herself from the Travelers, after quite a few days of Matukai training with Anakin, it still hurt. It hurt a lot, but not enough to keep her from moving, even if she hadn't managed to follow her vision perfectly.

Afterwards, while she was experimenting, she discovered that the more specific the future, the less pain it took to see it.

A few days ago, there was a eighty six point seven, two, five percent chance Anakin would let Dinah keep the laser gun in her arm, when she used her power to watch a specific timeline where that happened, there was a lot of pain, she had to use a lot of tissue paper to stop her bleeding nose, and she had just seen herself making puppy dog eyes at him.

It hadn't even mattered, she didn't even need the special technique for him to frown, voice his dislike and, well, let her keep it without a fight.

Later, there was only a one point nine, seven, two percent chance she beat Hal while they were training but, when she tried to see a future where she beat Hal in their lightsaber spar the next morning using a sword flourish, it was much easier, her nose only bled a little bit.

It was also useless, requiring her to make some moves she just couldn't replicate in real life. Well, it wasn't completely impossible, she just couldn't pull it off on purpose… yet.

Closing her eyes, Dinah focused on narrowing her goal. She wanted a timeline where Coil was captured, but also one where she learned how he was captured and could use that information.

The pain hit her like a spike going through her ears, a pressure at her temples that made her fall sideways, her nose bleeding all over the bed, every muscle in her body tensing.

Pressing her forehead against the soft mattress, she took deep breaths and tried to relax her curled fingers but, as the medical officer burst into the room to sedate her, Dinah couldn't help a small smile forming on her lips.

The women shouted, two of them jumping on top of her and grabbing her arms so she couldn't hurt herself. Dinah wasn't resisting, there was no need.

Carefully, the needle pierced her neck, injecting a dose heavy enough to knock her out in a minute or two and, to be honest, she was kinda glad they did it, the pain almost instantly starting to go down as the medication made its way through her body.

Later, Dinah woke up strapped to a medical bed, there was some machine she didn't know the name monitoring her heartbeat and an IV on her good arm.

"Hey, pipsqueak, I can see you're awake."

Turning towards the voice, Dinah saw Assault sitting by her bedside, he had his feet up on her bed and was eating an apple she just knew was meant for her.

"Ca-Can you help me up?" Dinah asked, still a little disoriented.

"Sure, just a sec," he said and grabbed a remote, starting to press a button that slowly lifted her bed up, putting her in a sitting position. "So, after your little scene some idiot wanted to extend your stay in MS lockdown, but we both know you weren't trying to hurt yourself, neither was it any hidden effect of Susanoo's Master power."

"What time is it?" Dinah asked, searching for a clock around the room, there wasn't any.

Assault clicked his tongue. "See, I'd usually answer that question without a thought but, well, I recognize the signs of a Thinker overusing their power, heavily overusing it, so I don't think I should," Slowly, he ate another piece of apple, then peeled a third and offered it to her. Dinah took it. "How about we make a deal? You stop using your power to try and escape and I convince the Director to take you out of that boring room, maybe leave you with your mother inside the headquarters?"

"I… I wasn't trying to escape," Dinah started to say, trying to gather her thoughts. She didn't think she could pull off an escape even with her power. "What time is it?"

Assault gave her a long look, his eyes searching her own. "I don't know if I quite believe that, but I'll take the risk, this time. I hope you know things will get really annoying if you abuse this. It's 4 in the afternoon."

Dinah smiled, she was still in time.

Straightening her back, she met Assault's eyes and said with her most serious voice. "You guys failed me, I told you I was safer with Susanoo. I warned you the PRT wasn't safe, and yet you still failed me."

"Kid, I…"

"Today, around 8 at the docks, between the market and the trainyard, be there or she will die," Dinah said, doing her best to keep her composure despite her situation, she bet Anakin could somehow be cool even in a hospital bed. "Do not disappoint me again."

In truth, Dinah didn't even know who would die, she had barely overheard a guard talking about it in the future she had watched, but she wasn't about to tell that to Assault, or to Miss Militia when she asked later.

What Dinah did know was that the woman was important in that specific future, not the most important, but still a key to how they utterly destroyed Coil that time.

So, she just stopped talking, laid her head on the pillow, closed her pulsating eyes and ignored everyone. Her head wasn't quite killing her, but the use of her power had still taken its toll.

Dinah did wish people would stop asking her things, with mental discipline, her power no longer triggered with every question asked, but keeping it from doing so still took concentration.

.

—--

.

Director Piggot and Dauntless discussed the information, the Protectorate was stretched to its limits, they weren't about to send the Wards into an unknown situation and, while their own PRT troops were mostly intact, there would be a revolt if Piggot ordered them on the streets without Cape support, especially not after what had just happened.

Hell, even with Cape support there was a good chance they'd flee at the first sign of conflict, their morale was that damaged. Nobody wanted to die and PRT troops were trained to deal with low level Capes, not A-class threats.

Still, in the end, Assault and Battery volunteered, and Piggot agreed they couldn't stay turtled up or they'd lose all trust the public had on them, after all, there's no PRT without PR first.

Assault walked slowly through the streets, making a show of patrolling so people would think things were going back to normal. The patrol had started Downtown but he was now at the end of the broadwalk, moving towards Lord Street Market.

They were an hour early, so he wasn't in a rush but, as Battery finished signing a girl's backpack, they moved on, walking in a way that told people they were no longer available for idle conversation.

Fifteen minutes later, they turned a corner at Fugly Bob's and started walking towards the Trainyard. The houses were much shabbier in this part of town, some of them just empty containers before that was prohibited, and there were some empty buildings where business had failed.

"I don't like this," Battery said at his side. "What if the girl sent us to Susanoo and we're walking into a trap?"

"Nah," Assault shook his head. "The guy doesn't need a trap to deal with us, besides, the kid isn't the type."

He hated to admit it, but Susanoo was out of his league. In his villain days, when he had been going around as Madcap, Assault had been a heavy hitter, a Striker 7 that could and had fought Legend himself. He hadn't won, but he hadn't been captured either and very few people could say that.

Still, when he thought about Susanoo, he thought of the man on the same level as Alexandria and Eidolon, a Cape that you just couldn't fight, it was absolutely helpless unless you had someone on his level.

He supposed he should be angrier at what had happened, and he'd be plotting the guy's death if Battery had died or been put into a coma like Sere and Velocity, but he kinda understood the guy.

Could have done with a little less collateral damage, but Assault didn't think his own hands were that clean, not with how long he'd spent as a villain. He had never killed on purpose, but shit happened.

He also knew the PRT was fucked up, the entire system was fucked up. It was one of the reasons he had helped people escape from birdcage transports — not the only reason, not even the most important, he wasn't a saint, but it had weighted heavily— Still, this particular fuck-up took the cake.

They had hired the girl's kidnapper to help plan and rescue her from her protector, it would be funny if it wasn't so pathetic.

Assault also understood his wife wouldn't see things his way, her morals were far less flexible than his own, so he knew better than to ever voice it aloud.

"No, the girl is plotting something, but it's not against us," he shook his head. "You know, seeing the girl acting all cute like that, I kinda want a mini-me too, think I can convince Vista to rebrand and wear all red? I knew she's been wanting to change uniforms for a while now."

Battery gave him a disgusted look, as if she couldn't believe what he had just said. "Acting like a mass murderer isn't cute."

"Coming from a 12 year old, it kinda is."

"Just… shut up."

Ha! He could see the hint of a smile as she shook her head, at least he had managed to cheer her up a little.

"Wait, you hear that?" He paused, turning towards an abandoned warehouse to his left, he swore he had heard a muffled gunshot coming from inside.

"Console, possible contact here," Battery immediately said. "Warehouse number 711, at the end of 7th street."

"Understood," answered Miss Militia's voice. "The building belongs to a transport company that used to have business here before the bay was blocked, it was rented as storage until two years ago but it's been empty ever since."

"Alright, I'm taking a look," Assault said.

"Warning the PRT support, they'll be on standby in case of anything," Miss Militia said.

Walking slowly towards the warehouse, he gave the PRT team time to get in a position where they could reinforce him at a moment's notice, taking the chance to search around the nearby streets for anything suspicious.

Reaching the warehouse, he didn't hear anything else from inside the building, but he noticed a broken window a little to his left, unfortunately, he couldn't be sure it was recent. "Alright, do I have permission to go inside?"

"You think you heard something," Battery reminded him. "It's not enough for probable cause."

"Right," he nodded, then grabbed the lock and used his power to break it open without damaging anything else, "Console, I think someone just broke the lock and I hear movement, I'll check inside before moving on with the patrol."

Behind him, he could almost feel Battery's glare burning a hole through his mask, but he'd just buy a new lock later if she didn't forget about it, it's not like that broken window kept people out anyway.

Besides, he didn't want to disappoint Dinah, the girl had worked so hard to be threatening when talking with him and Thinkers could get… creative.

Opening the door, he strolled inside, making sure to use his power to absorb the energy from any possible gunshots coming his way, there was nothing.

The warehouse was, unsurprisingly, empty, rows upon rows of shelves scattered about, some having fallen to the floor with the time, at the back, there was what he supposed had been an office and, in a corner, there was a mount of old cardboard that must have served for a house to some homeless guy once upon a time.

The door to the office had been forced open, someone having destroyed the lock with what Assault recognized was a gunshot, a small trail of blood leading inside.

Approaching the door, Assault fully expected to get shot in the face for his troubles, instead, he found a half naked blonde girl hiding behind a desk, a small revolver aimed at him and a mixture of frustration and relief on her face.

"You're kidding me," she said, letting the revolver drop atop the desk as she pushed herself back into the chair, a hand cradling the exposed wound at her side.

Looking around the room, Assault saw a notebook, a blood soaked shirt and an open bug out bag, a purple costume and mask visible inside it. Well, it seemed like he had found his target.