Snake hunt

"So what information do you have?" Cole asked as he leaned against the window. Lisa was positively vibrating from the mood that she was going through. His question seemed to knock her out of her happy mood as she thought it over and grimaced.

"Not as much as I wish." She muttered out as she bit her lip and thought things over. She was winching occasionally, so he assumed she was using her power.

Before she could overwhelm herself by trying to piece together minor clues to get something Cole stepped in.

"Well, you now know his power, Beyond that I can tell you that his name is Thomas Calvert and he works as a PRT consultant. He has ties to Accord. I know he has an underground base that was remodeled from an abandoned End-Bringer shelter." Cole listed what he knew about the prick.

He listed most of the things he could recall but there were some things that were better left unsaid. Like the fact that he bought his Power from Cauldron and he still had ties to them. However, those ties rolled down to him owing them so there was no need to worry about the superhero Illuminati.

Lisa seemed startled about the information being thrown at her but judging from the light building in her eyes she was piecing together some information. She shook her head and let out a laugh.

"Figures the PRT was incompetent enough to literally hire a Supervillian to 'consult' with them. I thought the infiltration of the PRT by the gangs was daring enough but Coil might as well be asking them to count the money as he sells them. God, that explains how he was able to get those access codes so easily." Lisa shot out with a shake of her head. Clearly baffled that the PRT was caught off guard like this.

"Not to defend them too much but Thomas had a career as a PRT Trooper long before he became Coil. He was one of the ground troopers sent into Ellisburg when Nilbog first started up." Cole spoke out with a wry smile on his face. She blinked at his words with an utterly confused look on her face.

"Really? Did not figure the coward had it in him to go into a hell hole like that." She spat out with an odd look on her face. She seemed impressed by Thomas's history but was seemingly disgusted by the fact that she was impressed.

Cole let out a chuckle at the look on her face before cutting in. "He did not exactly know how bad it was going to be when he signed up. He wanted to get his name out there to his superiors by volunteering constantly and the team was only supposed to scope things out and they had a fairly impressive load out." Cole finished explaining as Lisa nodded along as that fit her worldview better.

"Figures." She muttered as she started to search for things on her laptop. Several screens flashed by as she was going over information. Again most of it nonsensical to him but Coil's name was mentioned more than once.

"Well, I got his home address but knowing that you shut down his power tonight he is probably not there right now. The guy would not feel secure in a house in the suburbs not when he had other options." Lisa spoke out as she listed out an address for him to check out later. 

"Yeah, the snake is probably hiding away in his base. That's why I brought it up in the first place. He may have erased most traces on the location but knowing you I figured you would still be able to find it." Cole admitted as he watched her break into a government website with practiced ease.

"Your confidence is appreciated. Most of the Endbringer Shelters were commissioned by taxpayer money for obvious reasons so even if he bought over the company that won the bid, a record of them winning should still be somewhere. Even if it got shuffled away due to a sudden 'lack' of funds." She spoke out as she went through more and more pages quickly dismissing some and holding onto others.

She paused bit her lip and looked over the pages in front of her intensely. Cole gave her a moment but decided to pipe in as she looked indecisive and she started to cradle her skull to stop the pain from her power.

"You got something? You look like you can't decide between an apple or a cherry in a red contest." Cole spoke out trying to nudge her out of an information loop. She blinked and looked over at him with a flat look about his nonsensical comparison but he saw her lips twitch in mild amusement so a point for Cole.

"I did find several bids for Endbringer Shelters that were canceled from a lack of funds. I can even see Coil's involvement in this even if he decided to hide behind proxies. The issue I am having is there were at least four shelters that might be the place we are looking for. I was trying to narrow it done further but maybe you got something to share my fellow Thinker." She spoke out to him even as she rubbed at her temple.

Seeing her push herself for their goal Cole decided to give her a break. He took a step forward and reached his hand towards her temple. Again she looked like a startled Rabbit that was not sure if it should run or if it should lay down with its belly up.

That imagery had his lips twitch into an amused smile but he took the choice out of her hands by pressing his fingers into her temple and flooding her with RCT.

She froze completely stock-still but she let out a low sultry moan of pleasure from the energies flooding her body. This time it was his turn to freeze from the sounds coming from her as he took back his hand like her skin was a hot stove.

There was a moment where Cole was looking at Lisa with a mortified look on his face and Lisa was looking back at him completely red. Both of them were trying to figure out how to respond to the off moment but they were not sure how to handle it.

"Right, uh sorry. I thought healing you would be helpful. I did not think the energy would do…that." Cole spoke out quickly as he tried to figure out why that was the case. He knew that RCT flooded a person with Positive Energy but at most, they should feel a strange sort of happiness.

"Wait it's not like that!" Lisa shouted out with a bright red face as her gaze danced across the room trying to avoid looking at him. "You have no idea how bad my headache gets when I use my power. When you healed it the relief was…a bit much." Lisa quickly explained as she finally looked over at Cole a little mortified but something else dancing in her eyes as well.

Cole rubbed the back of his head and accepted her words even if he felt awkward about what just happened.

"Right, well there is no need to be stressed about not knowing the right place. I can send clones to all the locations and raid them at the same time." Cole spoke out as he thought over what she told him. She blinked at that and looked at him intently but eventually, she shifted to an amused smile.

"Well, you are certainly a bag of tricks. Every time I think I got a handle on you some new thing pops up." She spoke out with a smile and a glint in her eyes. "The four spots that have recorded permits are by the docks, Boardwalk, Captain's Hill, and Downtown. Considering Coil's ego I would bet on either the Boardwalk or Downtown." She spoke out slowly with a frown as she tried to narrow it down again.

At least this time she was not wincing in pain every couple of seconds. Cole thought over the locations for a moment but then a fact bubbled up from his memory.

Coil's base seemed to be situated in a populated city center as he threatened to blow up the base killing massive amounts of people. So his base should be the Downtown location. The Docks were nearly abandoned and Captain's Hill was pretty clear of anything. The Boardwalk had the population but it was too spread out to really hit the population.

Or was that something he read from fanfiction? Fuck, trying to figure out what was real and proper when he barely recalled the source is a pain in the ass.

"Got it, I'll head out right now. Do you have a place I can stash Coil that will have no one asking any questions? I know you want to take a more personal hand in his death so I need a place to drag his comatose body to." Cole asked with a wry smile on his face. Even if the Downtown location was wrong he still had his clones to offset that problem.

Several expressions flashed across her face before settling on vindication and a resolute determination. 

"The Undersider's base should be good, Give me a chance to go talk to them and you should be able to have them working for you as well." She spoke out absently seemingly focused on what she was going to do with Coil after this.

Cole raised an eyebrow at her words and let out an awkward laugh that had her looking over at him.

"Well, I may have messed around with them when I picked up your things….So they might not be in a talking mood." Cole spoke out with a guileless smile but shifted his expression to look over at her. She gave him a flat look at that. "You planning on sticking around? I figured with Coil out of the picture you would pack up and leave." Cole finished with an interested look on his face.

He may have wanted to let Lisa bond with Tammi but that changed when he decided to take care of Coil. He was going to leave him alone at first to have her under his thumb to help out but Coil really was going to be a pain in the ass if left alone. Sure, he was turtling up because of Blank but how long would that last?

Lisa again bit her lip while looking over at Cole with emotions flashing across her face. Clearly, she was conflicted but there was something here that was keeping this self-interested girl here.

"I want to. I really do but I'm not that naive. Coil slipped a collar around my neck. There is no telling when someone else is going to do the same. Here I can use Coil's resources to protect myself a whole lot better. I can't really read you all that well but from the pieces I was able to gather from Tammi I think I can trust that you would not slip another collar around my neck." She spoke out after a moment of hesitation. Her gaze locked onto him as if searching for the answer she wanted to be in his soul.

Cole looked over at her seriously for a moment. He would not say his motives were completely selfless when he picked up Lisa. He saw an opportunity to get a useful person by his side and he was playing games to ensure that. Coil becoming a bitter problem changed that but that did not change his initial plan.

Did he really deserve such trust from her? Cole was not sure but when faced with these words his heart softened to her. It was not like he had a truly negative opinion of her. So he let out a sigh and a dry chuckle.

She looked over with some trepidation at his reaction but she still seemed firm in her actions.

"You really know how to pick the winning side," Cole spoke out wryly and that shifted Lisa's focus and it let her relax from the intense mood brewing. Again several things flashed in her eyes but she settled on a relieved sigh and a fox like smile.

"That I do, so what did you do to my teammates?" She asked with that smile that seemed to enjoy encroaching on awkward subjects.

"....I may have gotten Alec mauled by Rachel's dogs and tased him. The other two might be annoyed that I knocked them out." Cole spoke out deciding to just cut to the chase. Lisa paused for a moment before she giggled at the image being played in her head.

Cole raised an eyebrow at her being so light in the face of one of her friends being mauled by dogs. Then again he did not really have a handle on their relationship just yet.

(22)

Cole stood in front of a large towering building with a stunned look on his face. This was probably the last place he expected to find when he traveled here. Yet here he was, the skyscraper that was the Med-Hall building right in front of him.

Of all the places the Endbringer Shelter could have been built under it had to be this one. This place was a front for the Empire. His father did not work for this place for obvious reasons as the Empire did not want their connection to Medhall to be revealed but he did work at a company associated with them.

There were actually a lot of Empire supporters working in that company but it was seen as a necessary evil in the public eye. The company that his father worked at was part of a vital logistic chain after all. No one really asked any questions after that fact was revealed.

There is no need to question why such a vital connection was left to them or why they could not forge a new connection. Business was cutthroat after all, if you wanted to advance it meant making deals with less-than-ideal people.

Anyways the Medhall building was a major landmark in the downtown area so he should have expected it would be close to the shelter. The thing is from the permits and mapping that Lisa gave him it was placed right on top of the fucking thing.

Thankfully Cole was not dressed as himself as the security cameras would have caught him instantly. Which would lead to even more problems for him.

He looked around but obviously, the entrance to the Coil's super secret base was not going to be in the open. He was at least fairly confident that the entrance was not in Medhall itself as that was firmly under the Empire's control.

That left the rest of the buildings on this street to case out. He took one last look at the Medhall building before he slinked away to a more private location so he could send clones to infiltrate and search for the entrance.

While his clones were breaking and entering with near reckless abandon he was texting Lisa to get her input. He had to foot a new phone bill to get her set up but he did nuke her previous phone so it was fair game.

Her replies were slow but insightful as she went over the information he provided. She was getting ready to talk to the Undersiders to get them on board so she was a bit preoccupied but she was able to offer some new angles.

Thankfully he did not have to wait too long as one of his clones managed to find the place after breaking into an office building. The top floors were the standard office affair but the basement had an elevator that was fairly hidden and was not anywhere near the regular elevator path.

After swapping with the Clone he arrived in a dark corridor that was hidden behind several winding paths. At the end of the hallway was the elevator that the Clone spotted but there was a camera monitoring said elevator.

Cole cursed softly as that was going to be an issue but it made sense to monitor the fucking entrance. He could do the whole EMP routine again but that might lead to Coil freaking out and trying to get away.

Beyond that considering the amount of resources that Coil put into the fucking base it was most likely shielded from EMPs. It was not exactly a difficult task for modern equipment to shield an EMP after all. As much as it pained him to say Coil was not one to cut corners in any of his plots.

Cole frowned as he tried to figure out a way to get to that elevator shaft without alerting the cameras. He let out a sigh as he could not see a way to slip into a blindspot considering the coverage and hacking the security system would require an access point. 

He knew that there would be air ducks but unlike movies, most of them were not exactly inhabitable for humans. This was not like the purposely poorly built prison. Like he said Coil did not cut corners so such easy methods were definitely off the table.

So instead of trying to slink his way into this base he went for hiding his motives in audacity. He swapped into his Cape outfit clearly showing exactly who was showing up and waltzed his way down the corridor. Taking out the camera with a flick of his wrist as he sent a metal card at it.

He was playing up the foolhardy teen who was too reckless for his own good. Coil would certainly be cautious about the new cape on the scene targeting him but from what was publicly known he should be able to handle the kid. At least that was what Cole hoped Coil thought.

So Cole was betting on him not immediately bolting. It was risky but it worked out this way. Cole called for the Elevator and waited for it to arrive.

As the cold metal doors parted to the brightly lit elevator he blinked. He expected that he would be dealing with guards coming up immediately but maybe Coil wanted to lure him in deeper first.

Again there was a camera monitoring the inside of the elevator but it was soon taken care of. Before he could even hit a button to go somewhere the thing started moving so he faced towards the door and waited. While he was doing that he produced two clones and had them hide on top of the elevator by popping open the top.

He opened up his Inventory and gave them some tools for fabrication. If he was going to pull this off he needed to be prepared after all.

The clones would be taking care of his more secretive motives while he drew attention to himself. The doors of the elevator opened and he was greeted with the sight of a long brightly lit hallway that currently had half a dozen men pointing rifles his way. Instead of the professional gear that was on the mercs, the guns were odd looking.

Still clearly guns but strangely designed with bulky and unnecessary-looking apparatuses. Tinker Tech even mass-produced was not pleasant to look at. Cole raised his hands up with a calm smirk on his face.

The mercs looked like they were a moment away from riddling him with bullets if he so much as twitched in their direction but him slowly raising his hands gave way to a more peaceful solution for now.

"Come now boys, if I wanted a fight I would have been a whole lot more aggressive. I just want to talk to the man in charge. I figure a man of his talents would want a man of my talents working for him." Cole spoke out calmly as the guns did not shift away from him for a moment.

There was a tense moment as the mercs waited for someone to make a call but that tension was broken by the crackle of one of their radios.

The mercs moved as one at that signal. Two walked forward with uneasy looks on their face and the other four kept their guns trained on Cole. He just smiled blandly at the men walking towards him.

While they were approaching him he had his clones start working on the next step of infiltration. He took a cursory glance at the Mercs uniform and how they were equipped. The first clone started fabricating a uniform and fake tools while the other one started working on a face mask.

Cole's job was to keep an eye on one of the mercs to capture their movements, appearance, and mannerisms to the best of his abilities.

"Boss-man said he would have appreciated a more subtle approach but now that you are here he is willing to forgive…your aggressive approach." One of the men spoke out stiffly clearly not fully on board with this but willing to follow orders.

Cole smiled at him for a tense moment, trying to drag out this interaction a little longer. The moment the lead guard frowned as if he was dissatisfied Cole piped in again.

"Well, I could not afford to waste time with subtly I'm in a bit of a bind and I needed to catch the Boss-man's attention," Cole spoke out with a nonchalant shrug as if there was no lethal tech being pointed at him.

The guard let out a scoff and looked like he was going to say something but Cole beat him to it again.

"Come on boys, surely you can understand that life can get a bit messy. Sometimes you end up far too deep into something and have no idea how to get out of so you have to do something drastic." Cole spoke out slowly dragging out his words to fit an elegant persona but mostly to keep wasting time.

The guard looked at him flatly. "Whatever, just follow me." The guard spoke out as he started to lead forward with the other guard following behind Cole with his gun still out and pointed at Cole.

Cole paused for a moment but thankfully his clones had finished up their tasks. So Cole looked over at one particular guard and swapped his position with his own disguised Clone. The fellow Mercs around him did not even notice the change as they were too focused in on him.

His other clone knocked out the guard that suddenly appeared beside it already prepared. Thanks to the hive-mind nature of his clones Trickster's power was massively boosted. So he could swap the guard with his clone despite said clone not being in his eyes sight since the other clone was watching it.

Cole went along with this whistling a jaunting tune that seemed to annoy his escort but they were not really his concern. He was in a fantastic mood after he was able to get some of his plans to work out. 

While he was leaving the Clone was swapping its fake gear with the one on the unconscious guard. So that the fakes would not be called out later.

Cole walked with the two guards while the rest of the Mercs were heading back to a certain point. His clone was mainly following the lead and acting like he already knew everything but thankfully it appeared they were a part of a group.

He was being led around through countless hallways as they took twists and turns to get to their destination. Cole was fairly certain they were taking unnecessary turns to mess with his sense of direction as they constantly took turns. Even if this complex was massive and it was sprawling underneath the city the amount of turns they took was outrageous.

Sadly for them, Kaito Kid had a photographic memory so all they were doing was building up his mental map of this place. Even if said mental map just equated to hallways and how to get back to that Elevator.

Still, even if they were stalling Cole eventually reached the destination they wanted to lead him to. The Lead guard took out a card and swiped it opening the door in front of them. The guard then gestured for him to enter the room while he gripped his rifle tightly. Again Cole gave him a bland smile and walked into the room with a relaxed gait.

The room they brought him to was a richly decorated office. Tasteful but clearly showcasing its wealth. It was a stark difference between the bland white hallways that all looked the same but the two things had different purposes. Those hallways were purposefully bland to disorient anyone wandering them while this office was meant to intimidate from the wealth disparity.

Seated behind a desk in a dark leather chair was an almost skeletal man. He was dressed in a tight body suit that did not take away from that skeletal image as it clung tight enough to him that you could see the man's rib cage. The black body suit was mostly featureless but there was a white snake drawn on it wrapping around the man from head to toe. It was coiling around him which of course meant this man was Coil.

Or that was what Coil wanted him to think. From what he can recall Coil was known for using body doubles to issue orders on his behalf. Why put yourself at risk when you had other options? Even with his almost fail-proof power, Coil was someone who put his safety above everything else.

Again this might have been another Fannon theory that got stuck in his head but he was fairly confident that it was right. The man sitting at the desk in front of him was far too calm after all. He was carrying himself like a man who was used to being in control and who was in control of the situation in front of him. There was not a hint of the nervous energy that Coil should be feeling as his power was effectively shut down right now.

Cole gave the man a cocky wave as he stood in front of him without a worry in the world.

"You must be the bossman, I heard your name was Coil but I did not think it would be quite so literal but I can dig the snake motif you got going on. God knows that most Capes in this city can't understand the need to pick a theme and stick to it. Look at me, I got this whole stage magician look going on for me but Lung just wanders around shirtless. Sure it's intimidating but that is more about his power than his outfit." Cole rambled out with an easy smile on his face. 

The longer he spoke the more exasperated the body double before him would be. He really wanted to sell the image of a cocky teen losing his head. Cole could tell from the subtle twitches of his body that at least a part of this was working on the Bodydouble.

Too bad he was not the one he needed to convince. Coil was bound to be watching this but not knowing how he was taking this image was worrying. Hopefully, the rest of this can work out as he expected.

"That's quite enough Mr. Diamant." 'Coil' spoke out in a calm but slightly annoyed tone. Hearing his words Cole paused for a moment and felt his lips twitch. Coil really was willing to poke at the unwritten rules so blatantly. Then again it was clear that Cole really was moments away from his identity being exposed.

"Huh, I'm afraid I don't quite understand bossman," Cole spoke out with a guileless smile. The both of them knew he was lying out of his ass but that was not the point of that exchange.

"My apologies, I must have confused you with someone else. I'll look into that further later but for now how about you introduce yourself? Or would you like to be called Stagehand?" Coil spoke out calmly with a hint of edge. The guy was basically brushing past his 'mistake' while making it blatantly clear he did not mind using said mistake to his advantage.

"I was thinking of going by Phantom Thief but that sounds kind of lame as well. Making up a Cape name on the spot is a pain in the ass. I know I don't want to be Stagehand at least. So I guess we could roll with Phantom for now. Oh, maybe Joker that would fit the whole stage magician motif as well and it sounds way cooler." Again Cole rambled out trying to lead this conversation in pointless circles. He was drawing attention to himself after all.

His clone had followed along the Mercs to a rest station. Filled with beds and a table. The Mercs started a game of Poker but someone had to patrol the halls so his clone volunteered. The others did not even think about his choice. Just letting the clone wander out of their rest area.

While he 'patrolled' he was mapping out the complex further. Most of the rooms were cells and empty storage areas but he was finding more and more things as he went. Eventually, he managed to get to the security room that was filled with walls of monitors and computers to well monitor the complex.

When he opened up that door the people inside looked up at him in alarm but he excused himself quickly. Thankfully they shrugged off his random entrance. Knowing what was in that room the Clone played the same trick they did earlier. By preparing a different disguise and cracking open the door slightly to replace one of the men at the computers.

One more swapped guard and a knocked out merc later and he finally had access to the compound. Thankfully his Clones could make more Clones or this would have been more difficult. So the original Clone went back on patrol while the new Clones started to work on the terminal. The Clone started breaking into the system to the best of his abilities so Cole was close to getting what he needed.

"Well, I'm sure we can come up with something more appropriate later. For now, let's focus on your recruitment. You said you were in a bit of a mess. I have an inkling of what you mean. I am more than capable of securing your friend and your family. No need to worry about the PRT taking them back or the Empire threatening their lives." 'Coil' spoke out with a silky smooth delivery. The voice of a snake whispering sweet sweet words.

Again he was all but saying that Cole Diamant was the Cape before him but he was at least dancing around the subject. Despite knowing that he was going to take care of this asshole soon Cole still gritted his teeth for a moment. 

Coil was clearly paying attention to him already. He really needed to be thankful to Lisa for barging into his life. Without her suddenly showing up he would have been completely and utterly blindsided.

"Again I don't know what you are talking about but I may or may not have a friend that needs a service like that," Cole spoke out calmly despite his frayed nerves.

The two 'Capes' stared at each other for a tense moment but thankfully some information had Cole relaxing. The clone had finally managed to get the information he needed. He could not take total control of the compound from the terminal he was at but he was able to locate where the actual Coil was.

The Clone on patrol started bee-lining it toward the real Coil while Cole was having his face off with the body double.

"Well, I'm sure we can help your friend with their issues. Beyond that, I can assure you that the pay you will gain here is rather lucrative. That is of course assuming you are worth the money. There is not a lot known about you just yet after all." The body-double spoke out while leaning back into their chair in a display of raw confidence.

Cole smirked at the man as his Clone reached the door he needed to open up.

"Well, I am certainly worth a pretty penny for example look at this," Cole spoke out as he took out a device from his inventory. It was a handheld device that had a cable to hook into something.

The body double tensed for a moment at the sudden appearance of the device but seeing it do nothing he relaxed.

"So what does it do? Or are you just trying to impress me with your ability to take out items seemingly from nowhere?" 'Coil" questioned in a bland tone trying to underplay any sort of interest. Cole smirked at him while snorting.

"No, this really is what I wanted to show you. This device can break into the majority of digital locks ignoring any Tinker Tech for obvious reasons." Cole spoke out with a sharp smile before the device was swapped with a syringe that his Clone had.

The Bodydouble paused at the sudden change but Cole reacted first. He sprang forward and injected the Bodydouble in front of him knocking him out while the Clone used the codebreaker to enter the room where the real Coil was hiding.

The room opened up and a man dressed exactly like the body double before the real Cole swung away from the computer in front of him. Coil to his credit did not even pause for a moment before several bullets tore into his Clone. Tearing bloody purple chunks from his Clone and embedding them into the wall behind said Clone.

Coil did not stop shooting until he finished the full clip inside his pistol. As his Clone did not drop from the first dozen or so bullets. The Clone was using RCT after all, as soon as the bloody chunks of his flesh were torn out it was soon replaced.

Cole swapped with his Clone when it finished taking all those shots and lunged forward to inject Coil with a sedative. The man tried to put up a fight but his skeletal frame did not really offer any sort of strength.

He looked down at the downed man with a victorious smirk. He hoped Lisa was going to like this nice little welcoming gift.

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Merry Christmas! Combined two chapters as I figured you guys wanted the Snake hunt. Next up is Lisa Interlude.