113 Interlude: Rebecca Costa-Brown

There were times where Rebecca wondered if it was even worth the effort to keep her job.

Working as the Chief Director of the entire PRT is a stressful, painful thing, something that is all the more obvious as she sits in her office and watches another report on the news about the Nine laying waste to another city.

The only positive, if it can even be called as such, is that they haven't done anything even nearing the casualty count from that disaster in Columbus, but that's hardly a reassurance, especially with the knowledge that no matter how much she might hate it, she can't just gather the Protectorates strongest fighters and turn the Nine psychopaths into a crater the size of Nevada.

The simple fact that she has to sit back and allow them to roam freely, even knowing that killing them all is more or less possible, just makes the idea of resignation all the more appealing.

But then she reminds herself exactly what is at stake, what the price will be if she just went and did what she wanted, instead of what was needed.

Yes, they were a necessary sacrifice, no matter how bitter of a pill it is to swallow.

But after a little over two decades of the Slaughterhouse existing, Rebecca's cold, dead heart has long since stopped sparing them a single thought.

The stakes are simply too high, and a bleeding heart wouldn't be capable of making the sacrifices necessary.

She has no choice but to cast aside empathy. To become remorseless, apathetic. Emotions will not bring salvation, only the most probable Path to Victory matters.

Nothing else matters, only that we increase our chances as much as possible. The survival of a species is worth more than a few sacrifices, and if that means she will have to face the burning eyes of the Devil when she finally passes away?

Then so be it. She has already accepted that there will be no place in heaven for her, if such a place truly even exists.

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Sometimes she really wants to find whoever first said that and punch them through a wall.

However, despite closing herself off from everything, despite having personally witnessed the worst of the Nine, her missing eye aching at the thought, there is only one reason that her incredible mind cannot get them out of her head once again.

The monitor on her desk showing a news feed of their latest antics flips through some mugshots, or as close to a mugshot as is possible, of each of the current members.

It briefly pauses on their latest recruit, an escaped patient from the Parahuman Asylum, going by the name 'Burnscar', a reference to the cigarette burns extending from the edges of her lips to the sides of her eyes in a mockery of a cheshire smile.

She was already in the middle of burning down a third of a town in Pennsylvania, Indiana, her mind supplies, when the Nine rolled into town, reduced to eight by that point after Hatchet Face found himself with significantly less face after meeting a Tinker with a cannon half a month prior.

Then the monitor flicks again, forcing the current subject of her ire's face to take up the screen.

Lusia Abel. Tear.

The woman is a menace, and nothing at all like the rest of the Nine.

She is certainly insane like them, and no one can doubt her power.

The issue, is that she is 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘵.

Yet she only seems to want to use that intelligence to be as much of a pain in the ass as possible.

Ever since she joined the Nine, they've 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘥, and while objectively Rebecca knows it's a good change, less people are dying after all, Columbus excluded, that doesn't make it any less 𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨.

The Nine have always been a problem, not that that's unexpected for a roving band of serial mass murderers that are surprisingly elusive for a group so utterly lacking in subtlety, but one thing that could always be counted on when they showed themselves, was that they were 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦.

Now that Lusia has joined them, that is no longer the case.

Less people are dying, sure, but those deaths have been getting increasingly convoluted, rather than the simple-mindedness of before.

Columbus is enough of an example. The city has been declared a Quarantine Zone and evacuated, wasting even more of her diminishing recourses to make sure no idiots wander inside and fall pray to the frankly ludicrous number of traps hidden throughout the city.

There's been talk of running through the place and disarming everything, but some of the traps are Tinker made, or at least Tinker influenced, making metal detectors useless, and even considering the available options, it will take at least half a year before the joys of bureaucracy finally lets us solve this issue.

And that was just the first time she showed up with the Nine!

She's singlehandedly started a whole new wave of fear towards the Nine, and they were already the second most feared existence for any American.

Because it used to be a simple fear. The Nine shows up? You're either going to die horribly, or be tortured and 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 die horribly.

Now however, there's 𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘺. Before it was just a primal, physical fear. Fear of pain, of death, of losing someone or something. But Lusia has started a far more 𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 fear.

Now, if the Nine show up, you might simply die horribly, you might get tortured first 𝘰𝘳 you could have your mind broken and rewritten, your body turned into an aberration. You could be eaten alive or turned into a living board game.

Then, as if to just make things worse, she has started POSTING IT ON THE 𝘍𝘜𝘊𝘒𝘐𝘕𝘎 INTERNET!!

Even if they were feared, it was always a distant fear, like the Endbringers. Everyone knows they're out there, and that seeing them means death, but it's always in the distance, so they could at least pretend they don't exist.

Lusia however, is a twenty year old woman, so perhaps it shouldn't have been a surprise that she is active online, unlike the other members of the Nine who each have their own reasons to not have bothered.

She even has a fucking tag clearly stating her current allegiance, and the fact that a member of the Slaughterhouse-fucking-Nine, is 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 on the internet is both baffling and irritating.

But as if that wasn't enough, as if she simply had some personal grudge against Rebecca for reasons unknown, the damnable woman started spreading a certain piece of knowledge that Rebecca has put a considerable amount of effort into supressing.

That secret, hidden thing she's successfully spread through the internet?

Pictures and videos of Alexandria in the nude.

It's something that has happened a number of times, her clothes simply not being nearly as durable as the woman herself, yet Rebecca has always done her best to supress them, to keep it out of the public eye for the sake of the reputation of Alexandria.

It's hard to intimidate men when you know they've jacked off to your naked body after all, and more than one villain has proudly proclaimed such, either in the hopes of distracting her or simply to be assholes, no one knows.

All of that is without even going into the mess that is FoolsNet. The site has already been banned on every browsing server available, but it's not like it's difficult to instal a VPN, or simply use one of the less 'corporate' browsers.

The point stands however, that Lusia is someone Rebecca strongly dislikes, which is why she is even more annoyed at the fact that she has been told not to go out of her way to interfere with her growing network of 'Clowns.'

It's only the fact that they aren't technically an organisation that has saved them from suffering from Lusia's actions with the Nine.

There is no 'Clowns' group after all, they don't hold any territory, nor is there any business attributed to them, for all intents and purposes, it's just purely a 'coincidence' that all these people in clown masks have started popping up, just 'happening' to know each other.

But Rebecca has had enough. She refuses to do nothing but watch as the psychotic woman's pet project grows, yet she has been told not to simply go and destroy them.

However, no one said anything about simply infiltrating them, and since no one has shown up with a gun fruitlessly pointing to her head, she understands that she is being given free rein to put her plan into motion.

Obviously, she can't infiltrate them herself, but luckily Rebecca knows just the man for the job.

Unfortunately, he is one of the very few people who she actually has to go to to meet, rather than simply calling him to her.

She is the Chief Director of all of the PRT, and yet she has to personally visit one Agent just to get him to do his damn job.

However, even if she may complain, she doesn't truly mean it this time, because she has a rather high opinion of him, despite his sloth.

He was an interesting, not to mention incredibly lucky find.

There was a case of a cape who was traveling around the country and challenging other capes to fights, mostly low level capes, as the man himself had no clear strength beside his immense skill.

It was assumed he was some kind of Combat Thinker, and that he was simply traveling around looking to increase his skill against good opponents.

But then he bit off more than he could chew, and ended up caught by Alexandria herself, only after he single headedly beat down an entire casino's security team, as well as a few dozen enforcers sent by the gang that ran the casino at the time.

Without any enhancements beyond simple skill, Alexandria had no problem capturing him.

But then something interesting was revealed.

He was not a cape.

He was not a Parahuman. In fact, he doesn't even have the Corona Pollentia needed to Trigger Parahuman powers. He was just a normal.

A normal who could fight on par with a large number of Parahumans.

Then his mask was removed and the plot thickened even further, as the man was none other than Angel Gardener, renown Neurosurgeon, philanthropist and well known medical prodigy.

Through a number of interviews, followed by some tests and deals, it was made clear that the man was not just a medical genius, but also a martial arts prodigy like the world has never seen.

Hence why he has a Brute, Thinker and Stranger zero rating, that Stranger part coming from something that came up in later interviews.

At that point he had already agreed to working for the PRT as a Special Agent in exchange for not being thrown into a cell, which was when he expressed an interest in espionage, claiming that it 'sounded like a blast.'

Since then, he has proven to be scarily capable, either at removing problems or sneaking into gangs and foreign organisations alike, sometimes simply gathering intel, sometimes singlehandedly collapsing the organisation.

Despite not even having any powers, he's one of her most useful tools, more effective than any other agent. So much so that she didn't even protest when he rejected the chance to get powers of his own, claiming not to want to deal with the 'super freaky parasite mind fuckery' that comes with having powers.

It has been proven time and again, including by Angel's own studies, that Parahumans tend to have an increase in aggressiveness, being more confrontational and drawn to conflict, so she was actually happy with his decision, since his job is one that rather heavily relies on avoiding conflict all together.

All in all, he's the perfect man for the job. With Lusia's intelligence, combined with any Thinkers she might gather, Rebecca would only trust Angel to infiltrate them without being caught, and she has no doubt that he will be more than happy to accept the incredibly dangerous job.

With the decision set in her mind, Rebecca presses a button under her desk, causing the door to lock and all the windows to be covered, a faraday cage closing around the room at the same time, making it all but impossible for anyone to know anything about what is happening inside of the room.

"Door to Angel." Rebecca says out loud, seemingly to no one.

Except, as soon as she finishes speaking, space tears open in front of her, forming a portal, a 'Door', that shows a luxurious penthouse bedroom.

Stepping through the Door, Rebecca is immediately assaulted by a musky smell, one she recognises a the smell of sex. She doesn't so much as flinch, having completely expected it from the man whore.

Looking forward at the bed, she sees Angel himself, a man in his mid-thirties, despite looking like he's in his twenties. Standing at a respectable 6'2 and weighing somewhere around 210lbs of pure, athletic muscle, with a build of lean but incredibly powerful muscles and a head of rose blond hair, bordering on pink and a pair of sky blue eyes that seem to pierce the soul.

With the scars lining his body just adding to the aesthetic, it is no surprise to Rebecca to see the pair of beautiful women slumped down asleep in each of his arms, both of their bodies holding evidence their recent... activities.

"If you wanted to join, I'm afraid you're a bit late, unless you're just shy, and wanted me all to yourself? Why, Becca, I never knew you cared, it's about time you let me work through some of that stress with you, but honestly, you're wearing way too many clothes right now, everyone else here is naked, stop being weird." His voice sounds out, wide awake despite the state of his 'companions.'

Here she was, one of the most powerful women on the planet, and he just doesn't care one bit.

"First of all I would like to reiterate that I hate you. Secondly, stop fucking around untangle yourself from your.. 'friends' and come with me, I've got a new job for you."

He lets out a put upon sigh, acting as if she isn't his superior as he gets to his feet, not even bothering to dress or clean himself of the evidence of his recent escapades as he walks past her and into her office, taking a seat on her chair without a care and kicking his feet on the her desk imperiously.

It's only by reminding herself of his competency and their end goal that she can calm herself from how casually he makes himself home, sitting his bare ass down on her chair as if that's just a fine thing to do.

Thankfully, it doesn't take long to explain the details of his newest job to him, allowing him to swiftly return to his penthouse, his nakedness allowing her to clearly see his 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 at his latest job.

As the Door closes, Rebecca looks down at her now stained seat with a sigh.

She's going to have to burn that and get a new one now, and the fact that she's sure he did it just to piss her off doesn't stop it from working.

=================

A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!

Fun fact! Glee came it in may 2009. I thought we were in 2009 rn, but we're actually still in 2008, which ruined my idea of having Lusia force the Nine to watch Glee :<

Also, with this chap, I tried to write it in such a way that it did not give away a certain identity that everyone who knows anything about worm will already be aware of, all while trying to avoid making it unnatural, the idea being that it all sounds right, but doesn't actually confirm anything. This isn't for any plot reasons or anything, it won't matter, I just found the idea of keeping people in the dark about it funny :)

Also, nearly deleted like, half this chapter, but decided to keep it after realising that I'm fucking tired and want to sleep

Also also also, can someone help me with some grammar? idk which is right.

'blah blah blah x spoke like y. "speech"'

Or if I should do,

'blah blah blah x spoke like y.

"speech"'

or

'blah blah blah x spoke like y, "speech"'

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