40

Extension 3

If there was one thing that was certain, it was that we needed to take down Coil. Both Dragon and Colin were fully locked out of information from the PRT ENE branch, even though Dragon had existing contracts and work with other branches of the PRT. Lisa had insisted that although Director Calvert appeared to be cleaning up the city, he was still responsible for many mercenary-related killings that were happening.

That, at least, was something she could gather information on legally. Or semi-legally.

Meanwhile, we were also trying to track down Dinah Alcott. Colin, at least, still held some respect among his former teammates. He made some calls and met with his former team over a few days, trying to extract what information he could. Unfortunately, Coil had anticipated some of it, and classified a lot of the information and documents. It took some convincing to get any of them to spill the beans against orders – something Colin was terrible at, though he got help from both Dragon and Lisa.

Battery had been the one to bring Dinah in, and she was the one who had written up the most detailed report. Unfortunately, she wasn't involved in the case afterwards, and thus had no chance to check up on the girl. Unofficially, she knew the girl had been moved, but had no idea where. Oddly enough, when she had gone back to her own written report to try to recall specific details, she had found that her own report was inaccessible. Information redacted and classified, invoking WEDGDG protocols and child-protection laws.

Thankfully, Coil couldn't be too heavy-handed with hiding things – it would have raised too much suspicion why nobody was allowed to talk about rescuing a little girl. Moreover, given the time frame Battery was able to recall, there was only a slim period when the girl could have been moved.

Between Lisa and Dragon, even working with the limited data, they still managed to scrounge up enough information for several good guesses. They used everything from piecing together traffic camera, satellite imagery, and public PRT records, as well as what I could remember from watching the streets with my bots to get a rough picture.

"She definitely won't be in any hospital," Lisa said. "The more people in on a conspiracy, the more likely it'll fail. He can't buy out or threaten all the staff, and it's too likely that someone would recognize her and turn her in. She must be held at a private location."

"In that case, we'll have to keep a lookout and alert the appropriate people when the time comes," Dragon said. "Do you have any insights as to how her appearance may have changed?"

"It's unlikely she's been eating correctly," Lisa said. "But Coil is keeping her alive for a reason. So she may have been force fed, or given a nutrient-drip to keep her alive. Some bruising around her wrists for restraints and maybe some bruising on her arms from frequent drug injections, or Coil may have had professionally placed a port into her."

"Aside from that, we don't have much to go on. I'll be sifting through satellite imagery but it's unlikely she'll ever be let outdoors," Dragon said.

That wouldn't be a problem for me. I'd have to flood bots into every single home and building, to find her, though. And that was only if she was still somewhere in the region of Brockton bay or Concord. At the same time, I was expanding outwards from both cities, but I had no idea how far away the girl was. At least I knew exactly what to look for. Telltale signs that were rare on kids, even if I couldn't recognize her from an altered haircut and body shape.

"But Coil seems to be very good at covering his tracks. For now, we have to make preparations."

"By that I guess you mean Tinkering?" I asked.

Dragon nodded. "Colin, do you think your equipment is sufficient?" she asked.

Colin shook his head sadly. "Give me a few days, I'll be ready. I just need to add jump-jet systems to my suit and motorcycle."

"Eunoia... do you know if Abyssal...?" Dragon asked without trying to reveal too much.

"He can be ready time," I replied. I had to divide my efforts between expanding my searching in distance and in depth. I was prioritizing distance at the moment, because I suspected Coil had stashed Dinah further away from the city.

I was also getting less concerned about revealing my alter-ego, at least to my team. I was thinking of when I'd reveal it to the rest of New Wave.

My volunteer shifts at Concord hospital still boring, even though they were slowly allowing me and Panacea to perform more advanced treatments. Thus, I spent most of my days more focused on my bots, searching more deeply within Brockton Bay while expanding outwards through Concord. When I got back home, I wanted to tell Dragon and Lisa what I had found – which wasn't much.

"Hey, Lisa. You're actually studying or something?" I asked as I noticed she wasn't actually trying to dig up more intel on Coil. Then again, she had been stuck for a while until a few of Dragon's data requests went through. Slowed down by bureaucracy.

"Yep. Can't hurt to have some more skills," Lisa said. She sat at her computer with a textbook in her lap while she hacked away at the keyboard. I noticed she was using a personal laptop she had bought on her own, not a computer that Dragon lent her.

"What are you working on?" I asked.

"Oh, this and that," she answered. "I have some, uh, ideas to help out with Dragon. Make her data analysis more efficient, you know? The more data she can get, the better I can work with it."

I peered over her shoulder. "Programming? Tensor theory? Data sorting and learning algorithms? I never knew you were interested in this stuff."

"Oh, I just think it'll come in handy sooner or later," she said. "I can't rely on my power all the time, can I? Especially not with the stupid headaches."

"You know, your own research is pretty helpful, too," Lisa said. She clicked on a part of the screen to show what she had been reading. It was actually one of the scientific papers that I had worked on, with Dr. Kardon and Dr. Akagi being the primary authors.

"Oh. Huh. I… uh, I hadn't realized."

"Yeah. Shame your work with them has stalled for now. I think you were on a breakthrough in digitizing the brain. And not just the way Cranial does it."

"What? I am?" I gave Lisa a funny look. My research hadn't been going in that direction; all of it was still dedicated to more precise mapping of the organic brain and how parahuman abilities worked with or affected the brain. And replicating human brains, as far as Lisa was concerned. But that work was mimicking an organic-style brain, not a digital one.

"Your research and use of nanobots is at the forefront of neurological research," Dragon interjected. "With a more accurate map of the human brain, I could probably create a digital equiva… a… a..."

Dragon's avatar stuttered again.

Lisa looked at me and put a finger to her lips. What was going on here? Was this more than just internet connection problems? She started typing furiously on her laptop. When Dragon's avatar came back up, she slammed her laptop shut and went back to using the computer that Dragon had provided her.

"I'm sorry," Dragon said. "Where were we again? Oh, right. I have the data you wanted, Lisa. I've sorted the reports by time and location."

I just hoped Lisa knew what she was doing.

Since news of the Empire had been dying down, the team decided to head back to Brockton Bay for the weekend to do some patrols back in home territory. If things had settled down enough, without the threat of Empire retaliation or assassination, then the plan would be to move back home instead of continuing to rent the house in Concord.

Not that there hadn't been attempts. Just that none had been successful, since I shut them down before they even came close. Some hadn't heard the news that New Wave had moved. Some just wanted to destroy the homes as a symbolic act or cause financial damage to us. Some actually planned on driving all the way to Concord.

I stopped all of them with my bots, but without anyone able to report them to the police or act as reliable witnesses, I usually just made them suffer some "bad luck" to keep them down for a while. Their weapons would be destroyed, or their Molotov cocktails would spontaneously ignite in their own homes, or their cars would permanently break down. A little laser-guided karma to protect my team. Of course, I would keep my team protected on their first patrol back at Brockton Bay as well.

"Ames, Taylor, you guys okay hanging out with Dragon?" Vicky asked. "Mom still doesn't want you guys in the thick of the action."

"What action?" Amy complained. "There hasn't been anything happening in Brockton Bay lately. Have you seen the news? Or the forums? Everyone's praising the new PRT director for finally cleaning up the city."

She wasn't lying. Crime was definitely down, and even Abyssal had less to do these days. I was glad for that, because it left me with more bots to spy on the director and search for Dinah. On the other hand, it was a little annoying that people weren't acknowledging Abyssal's role in the cleanup. And not just cleanup in crime. I was rendering garbage down to create more bots, so the streets themselves were cleaner, too. People had been attributing that to the decrease in gang activity and Director Calvert.

"Yeah, I know, it'll probably boring as shit. But you know how Mom is about image and stuff. You okay on your own for a day?"

"I know how to microwave some pizza. I'll survive," Amy said, rolling her eyes.

"If we're really desperate I might be able to convince my dad to cook lasagna for us," I told her. I would actually be giving them backup, not that they really needed it.

As they all piled into the cars to head back to the Brockton Bay, I finally noticed Director Calvert do something slightly odd. Normally, he gave orders via text or email, often through a burner phone of some kind that he disposed of regularly. That was odd enough for a PRT director, but even if I fished the phones out of the garbage, there was no way of proving he had been the one to use them. I also couldn't read the text on his screens easily without making my bots' presence obvious, so it had been difficult to trace what exactly was said or who it was going to. Not that he even used real names anyway.

However, this time, he looked like he was panicking. He excused himself from an early meeting and went to his office. He sealed up the room and turned on some kind of anti-Master force field, similar to what he had in that one base where he had originally kept Dinah. The control of my bots dropped out for a minute, leaving me blind to what he was doing.

In other parts of the city, I noticed a few odd things that started to happen. A dark tinted car turned into the Pelhams' old neighbourhood and drove slowly along the street. Meanwhile, another car with tinted windows had pulled over along the side of the highway to Concord. A man climbed out and started hiking up a hill that overlooked the highway. Definitely an odd place to start a hike, so I kept bots on him just in case. He seemed to be collecting pebbles along the way.

The car near the Pelhams' acted first. My bots had invaded the inside of the car, looking for weapons or bombs, expecting more Empire goons as usual. Two of the people inside had handguns, which I silently rendered inoperable. I didn't find any explosives or arson equipment, so I figured they were planning on shooting up an empty home or maybe robbing the place. I kept watch on them the way I usually did for Empire vandals.

Instead of using their weapons, the window rolled down and a fireball shot out from the window. The heat even caused some of the paint on the side of the car to blacken even with the short exposure. The fireball smashed straight into the Pelhams' home and set the whole thing ablaze. I knew this fireball and this heat. It was the same cape that had destroyed my own home.

This time, she was inside a car instead of flying, so I had all my bots inside the car pierce her skin and enter her bloodstream. It was too late to stop the house from burning, but I could knock her unconscious now, and any time in the future if she came back. While the car sped away, it didn't get far. I managed to disable the engine and knock out the passengers, then knocked out the driver after the car had come to a stop.

At the same time, I was on high alert for guy who was hiking up the side of the highway. I had as many bots swarm over him as I could without him noticing, hoping I could find some evidence to use. I overheard instructions coming from his earpiece. There was no surprise when I heard a voice describe the colour and model of the Dallons and Pelhams' cars. He was looking down the highway with a pair of binoculars.

Even though I didn't find a weapon on him, it was easy to assume he was some kind of cape. I didn't let him have a chance to attack my teammates, I just knocked him out then and there. Maybe someone would find him before a bear did.

"Coil just sent the Travellers to destroy the Pelham home," I said to Lisa and Dragon. "And I think one of them was going to assassinate them on the highway. I stopped him, but the house is on fire."

"Firefighters and police are already on their way to the home," Dragon said. "If I had to guess, this was a pre-emptive attack to dissuade the team from moving back into Brockton Bay."

"Independent registrations are down in Brockton Bay," Lisa added. "Way down. My guess is when it's New Wave's time for renewal, it won't be approved. Or there will be a whole lot of hoops to jump through. He's trying to consolidate power. Either join the Protectorate, or join Coil. Both of which he controls. The ABB is all that's still standing up to him."

"That is something we will have to change," Dragon said.

"How did he even know, though?" I wondered aloud. "The decision to patrol Brockton Bay was just a spur-of-the-moment thing that was decided last night at dinner. I haven't found anyone spying on us."

"I do regular sweeps of the neighbourhood for espionage equipment as well," Dragon added. "It must be a parahuman power of some kind."

As Lisa and Dragon discussed the problem between them, I decided to try to investigate my own way.

First, the failure of both teams to report in allowed me to overhear some radio chatter. That let coordinate with other bots that were eavesdropping around the city, trying to match up exactly was speaking.

I managed to find one group that was also receiving the messages, hiding in a van, but they appeared to be a backup of some kind. Not the leader or coordinators. Meanwhile, Coil himself wasn't dealing with the issue himself; he was still stuck at the PRT office with plenty of staff and cameras around him. He wasn't even listening.

However, I did manage to overhear a short radio message. Someone said something about "checking on the asset." Vague, but suspicious enough for me to try to follow up on. I continued to search through massive numbers of cars while there was still some radio chatter going on. I managed to find the vehicle while they were still trying to organize backup for the arsonist team.

The car was already mildly suspicious because it was an SUV with three burly men and one smaller guy in it. Most cars on the roads only had one person. Wasteful, I know. Even groups tended to be couples or friends who were chatting, often playing music. These guys weren't talking. And they were armed. Their radio communications sealed the deal. I used more bots to swarm the car to track them.

They were heading out of the city in a direction that I hadn't been spreading as many bots. I had been mostly spreading my bots towards Boston and Concord, of course. Maine was just uneventful in general, so it had been very low priority for me. Now I rushed to send as many bots as I could in the direction the car was going, and just hoped their destination wasn't too far.

Thankfully I was also able to attach some additional, pre-made cloned brains to the vehicle, dropping them along the side of the road as they drove. I nearly ran out when the car pulled off the highway. They stopped at a small, rural home.

Given how stretched-out my range was, I didn't have enough bots in the area to do a thorough search. It would take hours before I could properly flood the place with bots. It was only the few bots I had attached to the car that could observe, so I focused on the conversation with the resident.

I wondered where Purity had disappeared to. Apparently she was living the quiet life now. "She's fine. You just saw her this morning," she was saying to the man.

"I insist," the man said firmly.

She let him in as he pushed past her. I was surprised a woman as powerful as Purity would allow herself to be talked down by a guy like him, but apparently he was calling the shots. Again, without enough bots, I couldn't really see what he was doing. But I had a few on his body, so I knew he had gone somewhere down in the basement. Whatever he found, he was satisfied with.

Down in the dark room, he typed out a text. Seconds later, Coil's burner phone buzzed that he had received the message. I still couldn't actually read the screen without bots noticeably swarming over his phone, but Coil seemed to be satisfied with a glance. A minute later, he typed a short reply. The man at Mrs. Anders' home checked it, then asked a question.

"What are the chances that this home will be attacked within the next twenty-four hours?"

"Twenty-two point five percent. It hurts... No more today… no more..." a young girl's voice answered. She didn't sound healthy.

He must have texted the answer to Coil. Again, I saw Coil type one more message, then dispose of the phone in the PRT's secure shredder.

Walking upstairs, the man spoke to Purity. "There is a good chance some enterprising hero is going to make a rescue attempt on her soon. See to it that they fail."

The three heavily-armed mercenaries stepped out of the vehicle, unloaded some additional equipment from the back, and walked inside of the home. The smaller man got into the car and left without them.

I was still slowly flooding more bots into the general area, but it would take a while before I had a complete overview of the home. For now, I focused my few bots on Purity herself and the girl downstairs. The mercenaries probably weren't much of a threat once I had enough bots.

"Theo - Thomas, take care of Alice and Diane. You'll have to stay in there for a day or two."

"Mom? What's going on?" the young boy asked, carrying the baby down to the dark basement.

"You know where the button is, right? If I tell you, get ready to hit it. Right now, just… stay in here. Let me know if you need anything. You can… you can play on your Nintendo all you like, watch TV."

Surprisingly, she actually brought the game console and some games into the basement for the kids, along with snacks and other things. She then closed a heavy, reinforced door, but didn't lock it. Not that it made imprisoning a child any better. Then again, she was also locking her own children in there, so she must have considered herself a protector, not a jailer. Hypocrisy and neo-nazis, name a better duo.

It took hours before I was able to have enough bots get a clear picture of the actual house. Surprisingly, it seemed to be pretty normal aside from the heavily armed mercenaries. A messy living room. A kitchen with some unwashed dishes. Toys scattered around. Textbook and notebooks open for elementary-school subjects. Diapers, baby bottles, and a crib. I knew the kids were all locked in the basement already.

That basement. Thick steel reinforced walls and doors. Electrified. One would think it was a saferoom, except for the handcuffs.

Dinah was basically chained to the back wall. There was a little bit of movement allowed along a steel rail, but only enough freedom to move from a toilet to the bed. She looked just as unhealthy as the time we had found her before, in Coil's base. Hopeless. Listless. A shock collar on her neck also stopped her from escaping even if she got out of her handcuffs, though her room looked much cleaner and comfortable than the one she had at Coil's base. Not that it was much better.

Upstairs, the mercenaries had set up positions around the inside of the house with booby-traps along the main entrances, and defensive barriers further back. The mercenaries didn't matter much to me. I could take them down easily with my bots. Purity, on the other hand, was an issue.

I knew she turned into a bright glowy thing. Was she still human underneath afterwards? Did she still have a circulatory system when she did that? I didn't want to set her off only to fail immediately. If she had to, she could probably pick up Dinah and fly out of my range if she had to. There were the other two kids, who seemed like they were her actual children. But I didn't want to stoop to the level of actually threatening innocent children. Or being accused of kidnapping. I would need backup.

"Hey everyone? I found Dinah. Purity has her," I told Lisa and Dragon. I gave them the address, which allowed the others to search up ownership and other legal things. A bit of digging allowed them to find some tenuous connections to Calvert – the home belonged to a rental company that. "She's pretty sick. I'm treating her as best I can without Purity noticing." I also created a model of the girl's face, so they could recognize her better.

"Why so much security? She's got to have a useful power," Lisa said.

"Oh, right. Coil's henchman asked the girl if the house was going to be attacked. She said there was a twenty-two point five percent chance of it happening today," I told them.

"Well that narrows down exactly why Coil wants to keep her under control. She's a precog."

"A powerful one, assuming those numbers are accurate. Then again, power-generated information often is inexplicably precise or has limited scope."

"Wait, did she know you were listening in? Now that you know her answer, wouldn't that change our decisions and alter the answer?" Lisa pointed out.

"Unless that answer has already taken it into account," Dragon pointed out.

"But, hypothetically, if it were a low number, like less than one percent, then I would have suggested we attack immediately, because Coil would have been thrown off-guard. But that's turning it into nearly a hundred percent chance. A power like that, if it's true precognition, would end up interfering with itself…" Lisa started rubbing her head again.

"Which is why it has ended up being a middling number in the twenties," Dragon said. "If you want a philosophical debate on free will, we can do it another time. At the moment, we have a rescue attempt to prepare."

"It depends on how much better prepared we can be than Coil. I've told you, that man has an unusual knack for making sure things go right. I say we hit them early before he can set anything up. He can make use of the extra time better than we can," Lisa insisted.

"I'll still need time to prep my bots. I was only just barely able to get enough bots into the area to observe. I won't have enough there to put up a good fight for maybe twelve hours at least." I also needed more brains there to cover a wider area; it wouldn't do for Purity to simply fly a hundred feet north and suddenly be out of my range again.

"Some backup would be helpful. I'm sure there may be several Protectorate members who would be willing to help, even against the Director's orders," Dragon said. "Colin may be able to convince them. His gear is nearly ready, and he should be putting the finishing touches on his new motorcycle," Dragon pointed out.

"Fine… alright. Let's try to get this ball rolling in less than a day," Lisa said. "Dragon, I'm going to need your coffee machine."

Colin's new motorcycle wasn't bigger than his old motorcycle in terms of length, but it was certainly bulkier and heavier. The same could be said of his armour. While it was still pretty sleek as far as most power armours went, it was heavier and thicker than his iconic Armsmaster suit. I didn't know if it was because of extra features he stuffed into it, or because he couldn't reproduce a suit that was as high-quality as his old one in such a short time. I didn't understand his tech well enough to judge, but I trusted that he would still be effective in combat.

"What's the situation?" Colin asked.

"We've managed to track down Dinah Alcott," Dragon told him. "We believe this is the incontrovertible evidence that can take down Calvert once and for all."

"How? The PRT already captured one person who admitted to be Coil. It'll be difficult with so much evidence already against him."

I should have known the guy we'd apprehended was a fake. But, even as a decoy, he was working for Coil and serve as additional evidence, if we could get him to confess properly. He was probably being paid or threatened to take the fall as Coil, so he would falsely confess to everything. We had to pin things directly on Director Calvert that couldn't be blamed on the decoy.

"We'll need Dinah Alcott in good health to identify Calvert as Coil. I'm sure she saw him at some point," Lisa said. "Then we'll have to seize their phones and computers. That's how Director Calvert has been operating as Coil. Between you and Dragon, I trust that you'll have the necessary skills to extract the evidence."

Colin gave her a questioning look. "How do you know that Dinah Alcott is still alive?"

It was my turn to address him. "Wait, how do you not know? Assault and Battery brought Dinah into the PRT when we raided his secret base."

"That was her? She was treated as a Jane Doe in our systems. Calvert moved her to another location outside of Brockton Bay before being seen by the PRT medics," Colin said.

"Yeah, she's living in a house being guarded by Purity," I said.

"You still haven't explained how you found out," he grumbled.

"I'll tell you later," I said. The info would have to come out eventually, so it was better my own team knew first.

"We need to know what we're up against," Dragon said. "Form a proper plan. Get as many trusted allies as possible."

"Then I'll ask if the rest of New Wave will help," I said. "And I can give you a layout of Purity's home. And keep watch for more mercenaries on the streets of Brockton Bay."

Thankfully, it didn't take much convincing. The team members who had personally seen Dinah Alcott the first time were horrified to learn that the girl hadn't been taken care of. Even worse was the idea that Coil they captured might have been a decoy.

The fact that Coil may have ruined their chances of returning to their home just made the decision easier. Even though it would cost far more than they could afford to move back to Brockton Bay, visiting for a weekend patrol, or a special raid, wasn't out of the question.

"You're saying that asshole was the one who burned down our house? Of course I want to get him," Laserdream said.

"I can't believe we missed it by less than an hour," Lady Photon said, shaking her head. "The only major crime during our trip to Brockton Bay, and it was targeting us. We could have stopped it."

"It wasn't a coincidence, I'm sure," Manpower said. "It was a message not to return to the Bay."

"I'm not even sure we can afford to now. Insurance won't cover everything," Lady Photon said with a sigh.

"Screw the house, we'll just keep living here!" Glory Girl said. "But that's not going to stop us from getting that fake director!"

"He's the real director, Vicky," Panacea reminded her. "We're not going to be assaulting a PRT director. We'll just be helping you guys find evidence against him. Right?"

"Right. There are quite a few things we can nail him with. First, Dinah Alcott. We know where she is, it's a matter of getting to her before Coil can take her away elsewhere. The second is the Travellers. They're his main parahuman asset right now. They're essentially mercenary villains, but I don't think they're hardened professionals. So we can expect to get some good evidence if we can interrogate them."

"What about his regular mercenaries? He has a lot of those, doesn't he?" Lady Photon asked. "I remember the base we raided had quite a few of them."

"They won't talk. Not that they'll know much anyway. Those ones are professionals, used to working in need-to-know situations," Lisa said. "He hired them from outfits like Briarlock and Etherguard, or personally-vetted recruits."

Brandish didn't seem to appreciate the fact that Lisa seemed to be leading the mission, but given Dragon and Colin's presence, she begrudgingly accepted the fact that this could be a legitimate accusation. "So how will the teams be divided? What exactly are we up against?"

"Abyssal will take care of most of the mercenaries. You'll only have to watch for stragglers. Dragon's team will mostly be focusing on securing Dinah Alcott, though we'd like Laserdream's help. Purity is working for Coil and guarding her," Dragon said.

"Can we trust Abyssal?" Brandish asked.

Oh boy.

"Yeah," I said. I could feel Amy and Vicky's eyes on me. "Because I am Abyssal."

There was a strained silence.

"What?"

"Excuse me?"

"Could you say that again?"

"I'm Abyssal. He's just a remote-controlled collection of bots. The same ones I use for medical procedures," I told them. "Oh, but I sanitize them first, of course."

"That's not the issue," Brandish said with a disapproving glare.

"This is… going to be a problem. It undermines our team's philosophy," Lady Photon added, frowning.

"He just happened to be a byproduct of some experimenting," I said. "And I needed a way to protect myself and dad. You guys can't watch over him all the time!"

"Look at your situation right now. She's right. I mean, you couldn't protect your own home, did you really expect her to fend for herself?" Lisa said.

"As if a former villain like you would understand the concept of having principles," Brandish said to Lisa. "What does our team even stand for if that were the case?"

"She does have a point," Manpower said. "We're in this situation because the whole 'single identity' thing has become a liability for us. And Eunoia was the first one to be targeted probably because she was the most vulnerable. Maybe now's a good time to re-evaluate the whole movement. Weren't we planning on that once we got established in Concord anyway?"

"And it's helpful," I added. "I can give all of you bulletproof armour!" I demonstrated on Lisa, forming a thick layer of bots over her.

"Well, I'm not saying no to free armour," Shielder said, looking impressed by the display.

"I don't really need it," Glory Girl said.

"Yes you do," Panacea said, poking her sister. "You're only invulnerable most of the time."

"You don't seem so surprised by all this," Shielder said, looking over at Panacea and Lisa.

"It was my idea originally," Lisa said with a shrug.

"She told me a while ago," Panacea admitted.

"I figured it out on my own during the Behemoth battle," Dragon added helpfully.

"Hey, guys, why don't we argue about this later? At least now we know we have a strong cape at our side. If we really want to, we can figure out whether or not we want to let the rest of the world know about Abyssal. Cool?" Laserdream said. "Because I think an evil PRT director is the bigger problem."

Colin seemed to like that idea. He had no interest in internal politics. He stepped forward and pointed to the biggest screen in Dragon's workshop. "We'd like New Wave to handle the Travellers, should they arrive to back up Coil to aid his escape. I've compiled a list of their known skills and abilities. Sundancer and Ballistic will probably 'escape' from the PRT headquarters if they haven't already."

Dragon brought up the Traveller's profiles. "Their heavy hitter is Sundancer, who literally creates miniature suns. Very high temperature and radiation levels. She's the one who burned down two of your homes. Ballistic can imbue objects with kinetic energy, turning anything into a projectile. Including your own weapons and armor. Both of them have demonstrated restraint and have no direct kills, but are perfectly willing to cause massive property damage. Their support and leader is Trickster, who is capable of swapping objects and people within line-of-sight. Not Manton-limited, and known to be lethal. We also know of either a Master or Changer who can take on multiple monstrous forms, called Genesis. There may be others on the team."

"Coil has some sort of Thinker ability, either short-term precognition exceptional luck, or something like it. Dinah has generalized long-term precognition. As long as he has access to her, he's not going to make any wrong choices," Lisa added.

"Hey, we almost got him once. We can do it again," Glory Girl said firmly.

"One more thing, though. We can expect to be labeled as villains once we do this. Coil, as Director Calvert, will be able to do that in order to request backup from other heroes, and run a smear campaign against all of us," Lisa said.

"I've been contacting my former team, but there's no guarantee that all of them will be on our side over the Director's," Colin added. "It could be worse if he calls for backup from Boston or New York."

"Are we sure that's going to be enough to charge Director Calvert with being a villain? It still doesn't seem like enough. We stand to lose a whole lot more," Manpower asked.

"There's also the electronic evidence," Lisa said. "I've been working on that. I've given Dragon data on all the bank accounts and shell companies that I know of. If we can just get enough for a warrant to investigate him, I know exactly where to point the real authorities to really nail him."

"Well, we'll have to take time to gather evidence before we can present a case," Brandish said.

"No. In fact, the longer we wait, the less evidence we'll have. Coil's destroying, sealing, or redacting all the evidence he has control over via the PRT. The longer we wait, the less we'll have to work with," Lisa pointed out. "We need to do this soon. Like, tomorrow at the latest."

There was a bit more discussion but in the end, there wasn't much left to prepare for. Our original plan still worked with only minor tweaks.

"This had better not be some kind of trick," Brandish said to Lisa. "And taking down another villain doesn't make you a hero. You still need to make up for the crimes you've done. Do the time you owe society."

"And she will, if she's given the chance," Dragon said. "I intend to formally submit my recommendation that Lisa be invited to the Guild," Dragon told us. "The Guild does allow reformed villains to work under probation, with supervision, with the work counting towards community service hours. I believe Lisa can redeem herself as a hero."

"Come on, mom, she's really not that bad," Glory Girl said.

"I think I could live with that. How long do you expect this 'community service' to last?" Lisa asked.

"Given your known crimes, with an argument for working under duress, we could have it reduced to one to two years under house arrest, working for the Guild," Dragon said. "I'd put in a request that you work directly under me and my supervision. I think our talents synergize quite well."

"Well, at least you'd be better employers than Coil," she answered. "I'm starting to get used to this place anyway."

"Naturally, I'm joining the Guild as well. I already had a name in mind," Colin said. "I will be Errant. Being newly-independent, I'm no longer limited by the regulations that had held me back before. I'll be able to stand up to villainy and be a hero on my own terms."

"Like a knight-errant? I guess that fits pretty well." Laserdream asked.

Colin – or Errant, now – nodded.

Dragon smiled. "I'm sure the Guild will be perfect for you. We do have a few obligations, but you'll have quite a bit more freedom so long as what you're doing is for the greater good."

"Lisa, you should pick a name, too."

"I guess I could use a new name. Insight is taken already," Lisa said. "You have any suggestions? My power's no good for creativity, it only tells me factual answers."

"Deduction?" I suggested.

"That makes it sound like I have the power of tax returns," Lisa said.

"How about a detective theme? Sherlock Holmes... Shirley Holmes?"

"Surely you're not going to call me Shirley," Lisa responded with a completely flat tone.

"Why not Princess?" Glory Girl suggested.

"Why the hell would I go by Princess?" Lisa answered, completely flabbergasted.

"Well, we already have a knight," she said, pointing to Errant. "And Dragon." Her finger moved to the screen. "And since you've basically been living in Dragon's lair for the past month…"

"Oh, you are not doing that –"

"Princess is a good name," Shielder said.

"I agree," Laserdream added. "Nice one, GG."

"I have to admit I've been lacking a certain something with my theme," Dragon said in an amused tone.

"Oh, not you too!" Lisa complained.

"Stop whining, Princess. We don't have time to waste trying out new nicknames. Coil's targeting my family and I want him taken down," Brandish said. I thought saw a hint of a smirk on her face as she said that. Maybe she wanted that just because she didn't like Lisa.

"Fine, whatever. Princess it is," Lisa said. "We can go over the detailed battle plan, and if you're not too tired, we can start at dawn tomorrow."

Author's Notes:

- not dead, just busy. Though in these times, I'd rather have too much work than not enough.

- Also ended up re-writing or deleting a lot, because I felt like I was just re-hashing things too much.