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Interlude 5: Coil

Coil didn't hate his power. After all, it was certainly better than having no power at all. He wouldn't be where he was without it. Nor did he regret his purchase – he had specifically asked for a stable formula, even if it wasn't as powerful. If he had turned into one of those freaks, all of his plans would have gone down the drain, regardless of how strong the power actually was. No, he had gotten exactly what he had asked for. His power gave him more possibilities. It gave him options he didn't have.

It was the lack of options that irked him. Being confined. Working within someone else's limits. If the PRT had been willing to truly commit to eliminating villainy and crime, they had the manpower to do it. But they were too obsessed with rules and image. The entire reason he himself had chosen to become a self-styled villain – he had a city to clean up, and he needed to be free of the shackles of bureaucracy.

With only two timelines to work with and a city to save, though, he had once again found himself in a limiting position. He couldn't afford to run a single parallel timeline for days or weeks to ensure things went well. He needed to finalize his decisions regularly and hope they hadn't tripped some silent bomb or time-delay destruction. His pet helped with that, but when the stakes involved the entire city, both action and inaction were risks.

After all, he couldn't be the city's saviour if the city itself went down in flames.

He'd used every asset he had at his disposal. A major donation to the Kill Order bounty would bring more firepower against the mad bomber; his mercenary contracts could even potentially assure that the money would come straight back to him.

One thing he didn't want was for the Undersiders to take down Bakuda and claim the prize money for themselves. Money was still a simple and strong motivator for the team, but if they were fully satisfied he wouldn't be able to so easily convince them to take on riskier jobs.

However, in his other timeline when he recalled the Undersiders and sent in mercenary teams to finish the job... it had ended in utter disaster. The entire city, destroyed. Hundreds of tinkertech bombs exploding across the entire city.

Two timelines. One an obvious failure.

He had no choice but to allow the Undersiders to take the prize.

Clearly, Coil needed to investigate Abyssal more. Where had Tattletale met him? He couldn't track all her movements and communications; her Thinker power was almost a match for his. Thankfully, the PRT did have some files he had access to.

Some of the Wards had encountered him on the street, and they'd recorded a full video of the encounter. Of course, they had an after-action report as well, but it was always good to judge things on his own before introducing any PRT bias.

Kid Win and Aegis had been performing an aerial patrol. The good thing about thi was that it allowed Coil to survey the level of damage around the city visually. Reports and statistics didn't always give an intuitive or complete sense of the situation.

Bakuda's destruction hadn't simply destroyed the city. Normal bombs would have just destroyed buildings, leaving rubble to be cleared. Some of Bakuda's bombs had done that, but many more had left the city and infrastructure in a questionably fragile state.

When one-tenth of the load-bearing columns of an apartment had been turned from concrete into glass, nobody really knew whether the building could be repaired, or how to demolish it. When an overpass had been flash-frozen to to liquid helium temperatures, it wasn't something engineers had accounted for when it was designed, and nobody knew how to check if it still retained its original strength. Time-stop bubbles, localized earthquakes, and corrosive clouds all left aftereffects on the city's infrastructure that made people afraid to go to work or walk the streets.

It was one of the reasons that the Wards were only allowed aerial routes for now. Too many buildings were at risk for collapse. That didn't stop the criminals, especially the Empire and Merchants. Since ABB had mostly been crippled and were undergoing plenty of internal strife at the moment, the other major gangs were going on a looting spree. Criminals had a much lower standard of safety than rescue crews and police did, after all.

"Kid Win to console, possible looters spotted. Five total. No capes identified. Are we clear to engage?"

The young Ward's visor cam picked up a small group of people sneaking through the alleyway.

"Console to delta patrol, confirm your location first."

"West Hunt Street and Fifth Avenue."

"Negative to engage. Stay back, observe, and collect evidence only. There's a known damaged building there, and you're outnumbered. The BBPD has been notified."

Coil watched as the criminals moved from the shadows. The video quality was quite good, probably enhanced with Armsmaster's tech. The video file he was watching had already been enhanced and cleaned up before archiving. Combined with the fact that he was expecting an encounter with Abyssal (given the after-action report), he knew what to look for. Even then, it was hard to spot.

It was small shift in the shadows that didn't quite line up with the movements of any of the people, or the light sources, in the video. It was even more subtle than what Shadow Stalker often did in her patrols. The shadows grew, and didn't shrink, despite nothing being there. Interesting.

The pair of Wards altered position to maintain silent observation of the criminals. They certainly hadn't noticed the unusual shadows. They were mostly focused on the unpowered gang members. By their appearance and chatter, they were likely Empire members.

Their target was quite clear. On the building they were walking to, part of the wall had been turned to glass. The opposing building had taken most of the damage, but that one was extremely dangerous and at risk of collapse. The PRT was overly cautious with the Wards, that building was the entire reason they couldn't engage, even against unpowered individuals. Crowbars and sledgehammers were no match for even Kid Win's technology or Aegis's power.

The criminals smashed through the glass wall with their tools. They wasted no time making their way inside as soon as they had a large enough opening that didn't leave them cutting themselves on broken glass.

At this point in the video, it was a little more clear to see the shadows move. Again, with the broken glass glittering on camera, it would have been easy to think it was a trick of the light. But with the benefit of video enhancement and post-encounter debriefing, it was now obvious that Abyssal was already present in the area, and was tailing the criminals.

They spent a fair amount of time going through the store, some kind of Asian pawn shop. They were probably taking their time to choose the most valuable things they could steal. Meanwhile, just outside of their makeshift entrance, Abyssal appeared in his full glory. Coil noted that, again, the shadows appeared to move, from all directions that collected into a centralized point.

"Whoa, who is that?"

"Crap, it's Shadow Knight."

"Official name is Abyssal, actually."

"Update, console, we have a rogue cape on scene."

"Roger that, keep observing. Do not intervene without Protectorate backup."

As the looters exited the building, they were suddenly faced with a monstrous, seven-maybe eight-foot-tall knight in vicious-looking armour. The angle of the camera, and lack of good lighting made estimates difficult.

They froze at the sight of him.

Abyssal stepped forward, and the entire alley darkened. It was as had been reported before; he had some kind of Shaker ability. It bore similarities to Grue, but with obviously different effects.

The looters started running and screaming.

Abyssal leaped forward with an impressive show of strength. The angle from above made it hard to esimate, but it appeared that he was able to rise over ten feet in the air. Coil paused the video and referred to the after-action report; yes, Striker 2 was a justified minimum show of strength. Personally he would have rated it higher.

Abyssal had caught up to the slowest one. With one hand, Abyssal smacked the slowpoke across the chest and sent him flying at the wall. There was a loud crack upon impact. He fell down, either unconscious or dead.

"Delta patrol to console, they've started fighting. We're going to need ambulances. One down so far."

With the next two, he grabbed each of them by the neck and threw them over his shoulder. These ones hit the ground, conscious but groaning in pain. One-handed lift of grown men, each around a hundred and eighty pounds, by Coil's estimate. About the same as most of his mercenaries, and he didn't think an extra twenty or thirty pounds of gear would make a big difference there, given how casually Abyssal had performed the maneuver.

This was definitely a cape his teams would need specific training for.

Another leap, this time more vertical. Over fifteen feet high at least. He jumped over the men he had just thrown, who were trying to crawl away. The sound of impact on the ground proved he weighed as much as he looked; it was no illusion.

"SURRENDER."

One of them pulled a gun. A puny little handgun. With shaking hands, he fired. Again and again and again, until the magazine was completely empty. Sure, he was a poor shot, but Abyssal was so huge, and so close, that there was no chance of missing.

"Console, we have shots fired. I repeat, shots fired."

"Roger that, Delta team. Any casualties?"

"...None, I think. No bystanders. Cape is a Brute, it looks like."

And they were right. Abyssal didn't look like he had even felt the bullets. Coil could only hope he wasn't as resistant to tinkertech laser rifles he had purchased. Abyssal drew his two massive swords. Given his size, and the way he held them, the tips of the swords were scraping both sides of the alley. One side was completely blocked off.

"Should we jump in?" Kid Win asked. "He... looks like he's gonna kill them."

"Orders were to stay back. We still don't know the extent of his powers. This is the guy that took out Bakuda, remember," Aegis reminded his teammate.

The two remaining gangsters started to run away. Abyssal didn't chase after them quickly, instead following them at a sedate walking pace. Interesting. The body language still seemed to indicate confidence, Coil noted.

Then the gangsters tripped and fell. Not luck, Coil knew. He rewound the video a few seconds and watched again more carefully. The light had darkened, the shadows extended. Something dark wrapped around their legs and tripped them. That explained it.

Add a Shaker power on top of that. He would want to know the range of it – his mercenary teams would need to engage at distance.

Abyssal showed no mercy and little restraint. The criminals were dragged through the glass shards they had left through the alley.

"That's too much. I think he might actually kill them. Console I'm going to try to distract him. Kid Win, back me up but keep your distance," Aegis said.

"Console to Aegis, do not engage, I repeat..."

"I'm not engaging, I'm just buying time!"

Aegis flew down to the alley. "Stop right there!" he shouted at the cape, while still hovering about thirty feet away.

Abyssal picked up one of the conscious looters by the neck and held him, facing the Wards. Given Abyssal's height, his feet were dangling, blood and glass falling off his body to the ground.

"CRIMINAL."

"Let go of him! They're already down, you don't need to go any further," Aegis advanced cautiously while Kid Win drew his blasters.

"Let go of me- gghrrrk!" The looter struggled as Abyssal tightened his grip. "I'll talk… I'll talk.. We… were looting the place."

"We know. We caught it on video," Aegis said. "But that was excessive. Let them go. We'd like you to stay and make a statement, register yourself with..."

Abyssal shook his head in a way in what looked like annoyance. Then he just dissolved and disappeared. The shadows clearly shifted slightly through the entire alley, giving some indication on how he moved, but it was difficult to track beyond fifty feet away.

Coil closed the video file. He turned to the after-action summary and the PRT's file on Abyssal, of which there wasn't much information. They had tentatively listed him as a member of the Undersiders, which he knew was wrong. Aside from that, their investigations hadn't gone very far. They had no way of finding out his identity. Not exactly a Stranger power, just a byproduct of a full-coverage costume and whatever the Breaker power was.

Still, there was good news from reviewing the video that wasn't in the PRT evaluation. Abyssal was inclined to fight crime, yet unwilling to join the Protectorate. He was inclined to violence, possibly even lethal violence if Bakuda's capture was any indication. That made his unwillingness to work with the Protectorate more understandable. Coil could work with that. In fact, their long-term goals could align quite well, as long as he presented himself as another rogue hero willing to do whatever it took to improve the city.

As dangerous as Abyssal was, there was no need for them to actually fight against each other.

First things first, though. He needed to use his pet to find the best approach.

"Wake her."

Mr. Pitter took a light taser to the girl, who was faking her sleep. It wouldn't do to let her think she could simply fake her way out of her job, after all.

She yelped, jumping up and scrambling to the far edge of the bed, and pushed herself up against the wall. She didn't cry any more, which Coil liked. Her incessant blubbering had been annoying in the beginning, muddling her responses even when she gave them.

"Answer my questions, pet, and I will let you have your choice of breakfast cereal."

The girl gathered her blanket more tightly. "Two... two questions," she said.

"What are the chances that Abyssal will ally with me if I give the soft sell?" Coil asked.

"Two point seven three percent," she answered quickly.

Coil was rather surprised. That low? Even with the soft route? Strange. Even though he was only intending to send Abyssal against other villains, like the Empire or Merchants... why would he be so unwilling?

Then again, there were always other options.

"What are the chances of a successful hard sell on Abyssal?" he asked. It would certainly take more work, without Abyssal's civilian identity. But he would find it, eventually. Everyone had something he could use, and twist.

"Zero point eight one percent," she responded. "Can... can I have Coco Puffs now? I'm... I'm so hungry..."

Even lower. Why? How? It could mean one of two things; Abyssal had few to no ties left in the world. It was a possible explanation, given how powerful he was, which would correspond to an extreme trigger event. The other possibility was just the opposite – what few ties he cared about, he cared for so strongly that any threat to them instantly made Coil a sworn enemy.

But that didn't make a whole lot of sense, either. If Abyssal cared for something or someone, then Coil could offer additional protection as an ally. No cape could be everywhere at once, watching both their back and their loved ones simultaneously. He had a network. He had something to offer.

And yet, it was still under three percent recruitment chances.

Why?

The only thing he could think of was that he had already been warned against by someone. No matter the recruitment pitch, if Abyssal went in even more distrustful than normal, then he would fail. But who would have already set the mysterious cape against him?

Coil could only think of one person.

"One more question, pet."

"Noooo... I can't, it hurts too much..."

"If you answer one more question, I'll let you have candy."

His pet didn't answer, but that was as good as affirmative. Still a tiny bit of pride left in her, enough that she didn't want to admit she would be swayed. But she would accept, nonetheless.

"If I eliminate Tattletale without Abyssal's knowledge before attempting a soft recruitment, what are the chances of a successful recruitment?"

"Twelve... point... six two?" she answered, clutching her head. "It hurts. It hurts! No more today..."

A marked improvement. He was satisfied for now, he could work out the details later.

"Mr. Pitter, do give my pet her candy now. Not too much, of course. Wouldn't want to spoil her appetite for Coco Puffs."

The girl's caretaker began measuring out the exact dosage as Coil walked out the door. He didn't stay to watch; Mr. Pitter was one of his most trustworthy men.

As he should have known. Tattletale had been both a blessing and a curse. Her power meshed with his almost perfectly, but it inherently prevented him from successfully giving her the soft sell. They were at each other's throats far too often, each trying to sabotage the other's plans.

But now, Tattletale had gone too far. Perhaps she thought she had finally found a way out, or even stage a coup. The cost of keeping her around was starting to outweigh the benefits, and Coil knew when it would be time to start cutting losses. But he could always get at least one nice heart-to-heart chat before they parted ways for good.

"Oh, Tattletale. I give you so much – money, a home, a team... and all you do is spit in my face," Coil said, looking at the girl with the black hood still covering her head. He knew it was too dangerous for her to get more information about her surroundings, or him, but it was much more satisfying to take out his frustrations in person.

"I don't... I don't know what you're talking about," Tattletale stammered. "We found Bakuda, just like you asked..."

"So you did. And yet, you just advised your entire team to leave town and go solo with the reward money."

"Hey, it was their choice! You know half of them were motivated by money, what did you think would happen when they had enough?"

"You have standing orders to assemble a team, Tattletale. Not break it up. You could have convinced them to stay, easily. And you haven't told me anything about that new cape working with the Undersiders."

"I tried recruiting him. We crossed paths, he just wanted to tag along. He wants to be a hero, so he only helps against other villains!"

Coil knew she was lying. He'd already interrogated Grue, Regent, and Bitch in another timeline. They had said Tattletale had sent some messages from one of her burner phones, and that she had been expecting him. The others were much more helpful, often they didn't even need to be tortured. The carrot worked with them quite often, but Tattletale held grudges.

Tattletale needed the stick.

He pulled out a knife and stabbed her straight into her thigh. She screamed, both in pain and in shock.

"I know you're lying Tattletale. Don't make me do this. Now tell me everything you know about Abyssal."

Instead of telling him anything, Tattletale paused for a while, and then started laughing. "You're going to kill me, aren't you?"

"You're planning on turning Abyssal against me," Coil realized. She had never been so confident under torture before. Either that or she had gone completely insane, which was unlikely. The girl was brash, defiant, and persistent. As annoying as any teenage girl, multiplied by five.

He pulled out his gun and placed the barrel on her shoulder. "I could let you live, Tattletale. Right now, you're only suffering unnecessary pain. Tell me what you know, and you'll live, and I can bring the best doctors here. Otherwise, this becomes permanent." He pulled the trigger. Her shoulder exploded as flesh and bone shattered.

For once, Coil was actually glad that the gunshot's loud bang temporarily deafened him, it helped him ignore Tattletale's annoying voice. But as her screams died down, it wasn't the sound of defeated whimpering that he was expecting.

"I figured you out. I get it now. Why this interrogation session seemed so... unusual, but my power's telling me you've done things like this often," she said. "This isn't real. You can... you can erase this. Go back in time, or something. You've done this before, that's why it's so easy for you to throw away an asset like me. Ha... Ha..." She was still trying her best to laugh in his face in spite of the pain.

She still wasn't giving up the information. And what's more, Coil now knew she was on the verge of uncovering his power, which was too close for comfort. She had figured him out before, usually just before he killed her, but more often than not it ended in a desperate plea. Not this time.

She likely had some kind of contingency plan, possibly a dead-man's switch, maybe some kind of timed release. He knew she wouldn't go down without dragging his operations down with her. He'd need his best hackers and mercenaries to search her home, her phones, her computers. With her power, the amount she knew about his operations, and possibly even his identity, was too much to risk.

Was it New Wave? She had been seen with Eunoia before, on more than one occasion. Yes, New Wave, as a team, was about as powerful as the local Protectorate, possibly even more so. If Tattletale somehow managed to turn all of them on him, it would be a very difficult recovery.

Tattletale was almost a total loss. He'd have to take her out of the equation, but without Abyssal tracing it back to him. If he played this right, it would at least end up in an even trade.

He emptied the gun into Tattletale's head, until there was nothing left but a shower of red dripping from the black hood. He punched her once for good measure, his hand going through the fractured and broken skull like a sponge. His frustrations relieved, he ended the timeline.

Coil wasn't too worried about the loss of the Undersiders. He could reasonly reclaim a few of them if he wanted to – that is, if his other parahuman team didn't prove their worth. On paper, his more recent acquisition seemed much more powerful, and they were certainly proving themselves. He watched on the security cameras as they walked into base. "Erica, tell the Travellers to place the package in holding cell four."

Coil took his time heading down to meet the figure with a black hood over her head, handcuffed to the chair. He took a seat at the desk opposite her. Coil's personal guards aimed their taser rifles at her before one of them pulled the hood off.

Coil put his elbows on his desk and interlaced his fingers. "Shadow Stalker, also known as Sophia Hess. Congratulations. You're not in prison any more," he said.

"Who the fuck are you?" Sophia snarled. She looked ready to use her power to slip her restraints, but Coil's mercenaries made it clear they were holding high-voltage weaponry pointed straight at her.

"Why, I'm the reason you're free. I thought you'd be more grateful," Coil said.

"This sure as hell doesn't feel like 'free' to me," she said, jiggling the handcuffs against the chair.

"Well, I'm going to give you an offer. It's quite simple. You work for me, you earn some money and freedom. You do a few jobs, I'll let you walk out of here with a lot of cash in your pocket and a new identity. You don't, I'll throw you straight back into prison," Coil said.

"Doesn't sound like much of a choice," Sophia said.

"I'm sure you'll find we actually have much in common," Coil said. "After all, didn't you want to clean up this city, but the PRT only got in the way? Called you a villain, and then threw you away when you didn't play by their rules?"

Sophia glared at him, but said nothing. Good. She was interested.

"I find myself to be in much the same position. They call me a villain, but all I truly want is to clean up this city. End the Empire. Annihilate the ABB. It was one of my teams that took down Bakuda, and yet the PRT was quick to suppress the information and take credit. And they call themselves the forces of good," Coil chuckled. "I could use someone like you. Someone who wants to actually fight crime, bring real justice back to the streets of Brockton Bay. Not people who spend all their time with image and public relations."

"You for real?" Sophia asked.

"Yes. In fact, far too many terrible people tend to benefit too much from simply having good PR. Did you know, the girl who landed you in prison... she's walking free? People laud her as a hero now."

"WHAT? You're telling me that fucking useless piece of shit Hebert is a hero?"

"Exactly. Where is the justice in the world? The truth is, there is no justice but what we make on our own. You won't get it from the PRT. Join me, and we can set things right. Make sure people actually end up where they deserve."

"You ain't shitting me, are you?"

"No, I am not. If you join me, I can give you actual, real weaponry. Not some hobbled toy that's too scary for the gift shops. I can give you targets to kill, like a true warrior should. Righteous kills. Nazis, gangbangers, the scum of the Earth. I can give you purpose."

"Quit the movie villain yammering. Let's talk guns. What are you giving me?"

"We can work that out later. First, I need to hear you say it. Employment, or prison?"

"...I'll work for you," Sophia growled out. "But if you're fucking with me..."

Coil turned to one of the mercenaries. "Show her to her room, and bring her the specialty equipment," he said. "Allow her access to the training rooms and gym."

He left before everyone else, and went back to his usual office. He picked up the phone and dialed.

"Hello, Bryson and O'Malley legal firm."

"I need to speak with Mr. Bryson. I'm one of his clients."

"William Bryson speaking."

"You're speaking to your retirement fund, Mr. Bryson. How is the Hebert case progressing?"

"Quite well. The girl's receptive, we've worked out the basics and collected some evidence. She's very open about her experience at Winslow and with the PRT. Another meeting or two and we should be ready, and we've got a court date set."

"Excellent. Your next payment has been transferred. Send me all of her statements and you'll receive the third installment," Coil told him.

"I have to remind you that this would be a major breach of client privilege laws..."

"Your beachfront home in Barbados is already waiting, Mr. Bryson. The Bar Association's opinions are worthless if you can retire comfortably at thirty-five."

Author's Note:

Man, this chapter took a lot of rewriting. Next chapter might too. Hm.

Another note: One thing I've always had a gripe about with Worm canon, as far as power categories go, is where "super-strength" goes. Worm puts it under Brute. Brute is supposed to be for tough, difficult-to-kill capes. But super strength does not guarantee super toughness, especially in Worm. IMO, super-strength is a Striker ability - for all intents and purposes, super-strength is just a melee-range, touch-based power that lets them move bigger and heavier things than a normal human should.

The secondary excuse is that the power categories aren't actually classifying powers, but how the PRT should expect to respond to them. But that makes just as bad. How does the PRT handle a Brute 5? Bring out the high-power, heavy weapons, or just the thicker handcuffs? One can accidentally kill the cape, the other could accidentally kill the trooper. Both of which defeats the purpose of a quick, short-hand summary.

If super-strength was classified as Striker, though, what would their (basic) response be? Simple. Just like any other Striker: do not approach, do not get into melee range. As a shorthand summary for powers, super-strength simply doesn't make sense being classified in Brute instead of Striker.

So yeah, I just reclassified it for my fic. Just because it makes more sense to me.