49

Date

2011 February 8th - Tuesday - Earth Bet Time

"…several experts brought up the possibility of the Nine going on a revenge run. With the possibility of that happening, we contacted the Protectorate, and…"

Click.

Max turned to James and raised an eyebrow. "What do you think?"

"It's a good thing. If we are lucky, the Nine are stupid enough to attack the Guild and Dragon."

He hummed in response, still preoccupied with the news. "What about the Merchants? And Oni Lee?"

James nodded and immediately spoke. "Merchants are finished, no question. Lee was harder, but the word on the street is that Dragon took him."

"The street, hmm?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Good, there is no need for that kind of trash in our city."

"As you say, Sir."

He thought about it for a moment, then spoke. "Do a review of our territory, reinforce everything. Lung will not let this go and will go for the free real estate."

"Shouldn't we take over the Merchant territory?"

"No need, my friend. Let the PRT fight it out with the lesser ones, and when they are finished, we will swoop in…"

"I see. An excellent idea, Sir. I will make sure everyone knows what to do."

"Good. Make sure Brad is careful. This is a chance we won't have ever again."

James grimaced hearing that. "He won't like it."

"I don't care. If he knows what's good for him, he will do as I say."

James made a non-committal sound, made some notes, before speaking again.

"What about Kayden?"

Max turned around with his chair and looked out the giant windows. "What about her?"

"There have been whispers of her trying to…"

Max didn't let him finish the sentence. "She will do nothing, as long as I hold the cards."

James, sensing his boss's anger, wisely dropped the subject. "Very well, what about Dragon?"

"Hmm… Continue what we were doing. Stay clear of her and try not to get her interested in us."

"Yes, Sir."

Date

2011 February 8th - Tuesday - Earth Bet Time

He watched the man in front of him with a bored look, giving him a report about the situation. He waited until the man finished, then dismissed him, ignoring the stark relief on his face.

He leaned back in his chair and idly gazed at the ceiling.

The situation changed, and he was confused.

When Dragon arrived in the city, it was easy to give the order for his people to stay back and observe. And then he was validated in his choice when the idiot Merchants were captured by her.

After that, nobody even made any noise about being cowards.

Fools…

He wasn't a coward; he was a warrior. And when the battlefield changes, a warrior makes sure he knows what changed.

And now, as he beheld even more changes, he didn't really know what to do.

No, that was false. He knew what he could do.

He could go and do what people were expecting him to do. Take over the Merchant territory, go to war with people.

But he could see where the wind was blowing from.

The moment they would start, Dragon and her army of robots would descend on them.

He would survive, of course, but his territory and people wouldn't, and that would be even more shameful than losing a fight.

The times and the situation were changing, and he needed to change with them.

Date

2011 February 8th - Tuesday - Earth Bet Time

She rocked Aster in her arm, trying to get her to sleep, though truthfully she was holding her daughter close to her to calm herself down.

She saw the news, watched the videos, and knew what will be coming.

War.

Max would never be satisfied before holding the entire city in his palms, and she was pretty sure he would use this moment somehow to further his rule.

And with that came the fear he would drag her back and force her to participate.

She looked down at Aster's sleeping face and smiled slightly.

As if she would allow that to happen.

She wasn't a good person. She was very clear on that. But her daughter was innocent, and she would do all sorts of things to protect that.

And Kayden knew that Max also knew this. So here she was between a knife and a hard place.

However, Max forgot something. She had other choices.

True, they would require bigger sacrifices, but she was willing to do them.

She walked away from the window, deeper into the apartment. She stopped at a closed door and knocked.

"Theo, still up?"

There was a sound of rustling before the door opened to a bleary-eyed, blonde-haired kid.

"Yeah?"

"Set your clock early. We are leaving tomorrow."

"Oh?" he was surprised, but Kayden could see that he was somewhat expecting it. "To where?"

"To meet someone." She gave him a fond smile, tousled his hair. "Now go get some sleep, tomorrow will be a long day."

Date

2011 February 8th - Tuesday - Earth Bet Time

Brian looked around the loft.

It could be barely called clean, and he could see trash spilling out of Alec's room. The boy was sitting in front of the screen, playing one of his games, ignoring everybody.

Rachel was sitting on the sofa, Angelica in her lap, while the other dogs lazing at her feet. She was furiously petting the dog, who was clearly enjoying the attention, but he could see that the girl was obviously angry.

He could understand that. Getting a message from Lisa, saying 'Boss is dead. Meeting ASAP.' wasn't doing anything good for his blood pressure.

He was about to call up the annoying blonde when the door was opened and Lisa strode in with a grim face.

She shucked off her jacket and shoes, then dropped bonelessly onto the sofa next to Alec. She leaned back and put her hand over her eyes and let out an exhausted sigh.

He waited for a second for Lisa to start, but in the end, he couldn't restrain himself. "Well, Lisa, care to explain your message?"

Rachel just let out a small growl while Alec was still playing his game.

"Yeah… Basically, it's shit."

"That doesn't explain much."

"I'm okay with shit." came the irreverent interjection from Alec.

Lisa ignored him and looked at Brian. "Short story: our boss was Coil and the stuff that happened on the weekend was planned by him. And it failed and Dragon captured him, and everything he owned."

The loft fell silent. Even Alec paused his game.

"So, no more money?"

"No, no money. Or jobs. Or anything."

Brian stood up and began to pace. "Goddammit Lisa, will Dragon come after us?"

Rachel growled even deeper. "I will fight!"

Lisa gave a closed-mouthed smile to the young woman. "Rachel, honey, you are strong but against Dragon… Just no."

Rachel huffed in derision and returned to aggressively petting Angelica.

"So what's the plan, Tats?" spoke up Alec, his face missing his usual blasé smile.

She sat back and let out another sigh. "I don't know guys. Dragon has some kind of anti-thinker effect going, so I can't really read her correctly. But we have the usual options…"

"And those are?" asked Brian, desperately looking for a solution.

"Fight, run or give ourselves up before they try to capture us."

"I'm not running!" exclaimed Rachel standing up, sending the poor dog from her lap scurrying in panic.

They spent the next half an hour calming down the girl. After that, they ordered pizza (as usual to the next building) and started talking about what to do about the situation.

All of them were sitting around the coffee table, ideas exhausted and watching the phone for the pizza delivery guy to call them.

Lisa was about to check up on the tracking info when their doorbell rang.

Her power helpfully pointed out the obvious.

No doorbell

Noise is fake

High quality

They looked at each other. Rachel, even angrier, Brian scared, and Alec with a surprised face.

"Pizza Delivery! Here in an hour or free!" came from the other side of the door from a cheerful female voice.

Brian was immediately engulfed in inky-black darkness. The dogs around Rachel began to growl, and Lisa reached for his gun, even though she knew without a doubt, that whoever was on the other side of the door would not be inconvenienced by any bullets. Her power helpfully supported that theory.

Banana

Banana

The other banana

Do nothing and banana won't hurt you

Guns don't work on bananas

While she was wondering what the hell her power was smoking, Alec stood up and carelessly walked to the door and opened it.

"I hope you got my mushroom and jalapeno pizza."

On the other side of the door was a beautiful woman, with a confident smile, long dark hair holding several boxes.

"Oh, yes, I made sure everything is alright, Alec," she said with an impish voice.

"Cool," he answered, took the boxes from her, and strode towards the kitchen, looking for some plates.

The woman looked around, took in the black gas swirling around Brian, the growling dogs next to Rachel, and the white-faced Lisa.

"Hello, Undersiders. My name is Dragon, and I came to talk to you!"

Alec walked back from the kitchen, holding a plate and already munching on a slice. "This is good, want one?"

Date

2011 February 8th - Tuesday - Earth Bet Time

He sat in his office and contemplated his life choices. Spending the last several days with only emergency lights did wonders for philosophy.

He tried everything to get out, even though his power was more than useless. His mercenaries tried everything, but the bombs that would have allowed them to blast out were locked behind doors that needed bombs to get through, for obvious reasons.

Communication was totally down, and the only thing that was working was the food storage and bathroom facilities.

After a few hours of trying after the base was locked down, he even tried calling Cauldron on a specifically prepared Tinker phone that was given to him. The only thing he got from that was a message calling in his favor. Then the phone self-destructed.

When that happened, he intimately missed his power-given ability to vent on people.

For now, he busied himself and mercenaries with destroying as much evidence as they could, preparing for the inevitable.

Date

2011 February 9th - Wednesday - Earth Bet Time

Vicky watched as Amy walked out of the examination room, grumpily muttering to herself. While she didn't like when her mother brought up the M/S examination, she stopped herself from saying anything when Amy agreed with her.

After some explanation, she had to agree with their reasons. There wasn't really a lot known about second triggers, and the entire situation was just so weird that an M/S screening was really warranted.

For now, only for Amy, because her change was more noticeable, but if the PRT found something they would ask one for her too.

Thankfully, everything was alright, and their weird (and wonderful) talking powers were not some Master's creation.

After Amy received her official papers, she scooped her sister up and flew back home. Their parents were still a little scared about what happened, so they forbid them from going out without any escort, no matter how much she pouted.

It was annoying, but at the same time, it made Vicky happy.

This event, while horrible, brought the entire family closer to each other. Her mom was even nicer to Amy!

She could still see the same disguised distrust in Carol's eyes, but it seemed the event awakened something in her. Or she just didn't want to seem as if she didn't care for her in front of the others.

Sometimes it was really hard to tell…

When they got home, they gave the paper to Carol for her to go over, and retreated to her room to practice their new power. At least that's what she told her mother.

Her reply was rather predictable.

"If you break something, Vicky, it's coming out of your pocket money!"

"I know, Mom! Don't worry, we will be careful!"

Carol just snorted in derision and returned to the documents.

Safely in her room, they sat in front of each other on her bed.

Amy was playing with her snake plant, causing it to become even more healthy-looking, and Vicky could swear that the plant was starting to move like a slithering snake, just extra slow because it was a plant.

As always, she was the one who started the conversation. "So, Ames, what should we do?"

"About what?" replied Amy absentmindedly, still fixated on the plant.

"Taylor, of course!" she replied cheerfully, then joined her sister in staring at the plant. "What are you doing to poor Bruce?"

Amy looked at her in surprise. "Bruce?"

"Yeah, he looks like a Bruce!"

"Trying to perfect it without modifying it enough to be no longer the same plant."

"Why?"

"Why not?"

"Oh, okay. But what about, Taylor?"

"What about her?"

"Well, she is obviously a parahuman, so we need to talk to her before she turns to villainy or gets hurt!"

Amy just snorted. "We don't know for sure, that she is a cape."

"Well, I'm sure!" Vicky replied confidently.

"So what, just go over and ask her if she is a parahuman?" asked Amy sarcastically.

Vicky, with long practice ignored the obvious sarcasm. "Well, yeah, she saved your life, so we need to thank her somehow. I have been trying to sneak in some cape know-how into our conversation to make sure she doesn't make some mistake, but…"

Amy put down the plant before answering. "Right, that makes sense." She looked back at her sister and smiled a little. "We can talk to her, but if it turns out she is not parahuman, you owe me one."

She didn't really resist when a second later she was engulfed in a bombastic blonde hug.