20

Chapter 20

Alea Iacta Est

Part Twenty: A Man With a Gun

[A/N: this chapter beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]

Friday Midday, March 11, 2011

Empire Eighty-Eight Safe House

Rune

"Well, this sucks," Tammi grumbled. "I coulda been playing video games. Why are we here again?"

Victor snorted, then leaned over to give her a light noogie. "Could be worse, munchkin. You could be stuck in school right now."

"Yeah, I could." She tried to slap his hand away, but missed. "And then I could be going out to the mall later with my friends. Why'd Kaiser have to have files on all of us at Medhall, anyway?"

"In case you'd missed it, our late boss was a little bit of a control freak," Othala pointed out. "Those files were encrypted. That's what gave us time to cut and run. Unfortunately, when you have someone like Dragon doing the decrypting, nothing lasts forever."

"It's not the end of the world," Crusader said, leaning back comfortably in his chair. "Arranging for new identities shouldn't be too hard. A little cosmetic surgery, and we all get to re-enter society again."

"That's definitely on the table," Krieg announced as he entered the room. "But in the meantime, we have a bigger problem to deal with."

"What, Purity?" Victor frowned. "I thought we were going to just write her off. Let her go her own way." He didn't mention what had happened to Hookwolf as a result of not doing that.

"Not Purity exactly." Krieg pulled out his chair and sat down. "Or rather, not only Purity. I'm becoming more and more convinced that there's a new team in town, one that operates out of the shadows, and very specifically doesn't show up to take the credit. And this team—I suspect—has managed to recruit her. Especially given that she baited Lung into chasing her on Tuesday night; a chase that culminated in a half-drowned Lung being picked up after an anonymous call to the PRT."

"So this new team doesn't even have a name?" Fenja spoke up, after having sat silently beside her sister for the duration of the meeting so far. Since Kaiser's death, both the twins had been subdued, as though they could've done something to save him.

"Not that I'm aware," Krieg confirmed. "But they have at least one hydrokinetic in their roster, as well as Purity, and they seem to believe that they've got the wherewithal to go after the villain gangs. The ABB, the Merchants, Coil, and Uber and Leet have all gone down to them, if I'm reading the signs right. Now, I suspect they'll be coming around to take another snipe at us. Which means we need to hit them harder first."

"Uh … one problem," Crusader said. "If they're all that, then they know who we've got on hand, and they're probably planning for each of us."

Krieg smiled. "Yes. I thought of that." Raising his voice, he called out, "You can come in now."

And the man and woman entered the room.

Friday Evening, March 11, 2011

Kayden's Apartment

Taylor

I leaned back in my armchair and checked the domino mask, ensuring it wasn't about to fall off. Amy and Annette jockeyed for position in the other armchair, apparently trying to decide who was to be sitting on whose lap. It was kind of sweet, in my opinion; Amy had been reserved at first, but Annette had won her over to the point that they were inseparable. They still weren't at the stage of public displays of affection beyond hand-holding and lap-sitting yet, though. My guess was that Amy needed to take her time getting used to being in a romantic relationship, and Annette was respecting that.

The funny thing was, both Amy and Annette were also masked up. Amy was wearing a blonde wig, and they both had on dominos like I did. In fact, everyone in the apartment was wearing a mask of some sort. (Aster wasn't, but she was asleep in Kayden's bedroom).

This was because we were working to maintain secret identities with Browbeat for as long as possible. For this reason, Dad and Andrea were sitting this one out, so as to keep the number of potential clues as few as possible. Everything inside the apartment that could betray Kayden's name or the actual address had been carefully concealed.

Lisa raised her head. She was wearing a bright yellow sun-dress and matching mask, as far different from her purple skin-tight Tattletale costume as possible. "Incoming."

A moment later, there was a clatter as Vicky landed on the fire escape, carrying Browbeat. The window was already partially open; she pushed it all the way up and he climbed in.

As per the prior invitation, he was also masked up (despite the fact that he knew we knew his face) but otherwise wore casual clothing. I thought I detected a little musculature, but not ridiculous amounts. Or that could've been just him.

"Welcome, Browbeat," Kayden said. "I'm Evenstar. You already know Aeglea, of course, and you've met Management already." Dinah nodded at him from the sofa.

We'd decided that if Browbeat was going to meet the team, we'd need to brainstorm some names, if only to give ourselves some legitimacy in his eyes. Or rather; Lisa, Dinah and I had figured that out between ourselves. Thus, we'd picked names that weren't too terrible, even if some us weren't even capes.

"Hi," I offered. "I'm Random, and that's Athena." Lisa, also on the sofa, waved as I introduced her.

Annette perked up from where Amy was sitting across her lap. "Paladin here, and this is Nostrum." She gestured at Theo, who was sitting next to Dinah on the sofa. "That's Archive." Finally, she indicated Janet, who had chosen to sit back out of the way on a dining chair with her hand and stump in her jacket pockets. "And say hi to Storm Surge. She's the one who flooded Coil out, and took Lung for a swim."

We already knew this wasn't giving away any information the PRT didn't have, and of course they had no idea who she actually was.

"Uh … hi?" Browbeat looked around at the group of us. "You're all … well, mostly … kids?"

Annette snorted. "You're a kid. Wow, hasn't anyone told you that age isn't everything, especially when it comes to powers?"

The prompt comeback seemed to put him on the back foot, which … wasn't very surprising, actually. Annette had a way of doing that. He pushed his fingers through his hair and looked around at us. "I'm really bad with names," he confessed. "So I'll probably need to be reminded. But uh … you're Random, right?"

He was looking at me when he said this, and I nodded. It might've had something to do with the dice I had running over my knuckles at the time. "That's me. Dice-based precog. Catch." Taking one of the dice, I tossed it to him. "Three."

Awkwardly, he caught it, then looked questioningly at me. "Three?"

I nodded to the table he was standing next to. "Roll it. You'll get a three." I knew that because I'd rolled a three just before he showed up.

"Um, okay." He rolled, and the three pips came up, just as predicted. "Wow. That's kind of impressive."

"When I said, 'we have Thinkers', I actually meant it," Dinah reminded him. "So, any questions before we get started?"

"Uh …" Browbeat looked at Kayden. "I'm guessing you're the one who showed up while Aeglea and I were fighting Uber and Leet?"

"That's correct." Kayden pulled out a couple more dining chairs from around the table. "Please, sit down. Would you like a glass of water, or juice?"

"Neither at the moment, thanks." Browbeat sat. "So, what's this meeting all about?"

Sitting forward in my chair, I took up the tale. "We've taken the ABB capes off the board. Lung's presence was the only thing stopping the unpowered factions from fracturing along ethnic lines ... well, any day now. Likewise, what's left of Coil's forces are either in hiding, in custody or gone. The Merchants were hardly even a gang, but now the cops can hit their dealers and drug factories without worrying about Skidmark showing up. And thanks to you and your help, Uber and Leet are behind bars. Which means there's one gang left."

"The Empire Eighty-Eight." Browbeat proved he was at least listening. "But didn't a whole bunch of them get killed or captured? How many could there be left?"

I dropped the dice I was manipulating into the tray on my lap, scooped up two ten-siders, and rolled percentiles. Zero-nine. "Looks like nine," I said.

"What?" he exclaimed. "I thought they'd lost more than that."

"They've lost six so far," Lisa said didactically. "Two dead, three captured, and one who just … left."

"I heard a rumour about that," Browbeat agreed. "That was Purity, right?"

"Yes," Kayden said, deadpan. "That was Purity."

Everyone around the room, except for Browbeat, seemed to stop breathing. Would this be the deal-breaker? Would he excuse himself and go straight to the PRT, and confirm that Purity-now-Evenstar was working with our team?

"Huh," he said. "Well, gone is gone, I guess. But you're sure there's still nine left? That seems like an awful lot to me."

I met Lisa's eyes briefly. From the quirk of her brow, the hint had gone straight over his head. Dinah also looked subtly relieved, probably because her power had told her the same thing in a different way.

Picking up one of the ten-siders, I rolled it again casually. Chances that he figured it out and he's just being cagey, nine being high. "They were always the biggest cape gang in Brockton Bay," I reminded him, and scooped up the alphabet dice. The ten-sider was showing a zero. He was definitely clueless in the matter.

"Are those … letter dice?" he asked, getting up and coming closer to peer at them. "I didn't even know they were a thing."

"Neither did I, until I got my powers," I said. "Fun fact; thirty-sided dice totally exist."

"Learn something new every day." Frowning, he watched as I rolled. The letters read K-R-I-E, but he didn't have my perspective on the matter. "… Erik?"

"Krieg," I said, aware that Lisa had produced a pad and was writing this down. I took up the dice and rolled again. V-C-T-R. "Victor." O-T-L-A. "Othala." F-N-J-A. "Fenja." M-N-J-A. "Menja." C-R-S-D. "Crusader." R-U-N-E. "Well, that one was easy. Rune." N-G-H-T. "Wait … Night?"

"Yes," Lisa said immediately. "Ten bucks says your next roll is Fog."

"No bet." I rolled the dice. F-O-G-space. "Called it."

"And that makes nine," Lisa declared, stabbing a dot on the paper with her pen. "As though we needed confirmation."

"I could've done without Night and Fog, though," Kayden said, then chewed her lip briefly. "They're going to make this fight a whole lot harder."

Dinah's head came up. "And that's why Krieg brought them back into play. Because he's aware that we're out of other targets, and that we're likely to be focusing on them again."

Browbeat went back to his chair. "I wouldn't have believed you could name them all like that. But I don't even know who Night and Fog are, sorry."

"Ah; of course." Kayden glanced at Theo. "Archive?"

Primed for his role, Theo cleared his throat. "Are you aware of a group called Gesellschaft?"

"Sorry," Browbeat confessed. "No idea who they are, either."

"That's not surprising. They're not that well-known in the States. They're a neo-Nazi German organisation that triggers and brainwashes capes into working for the cause." Theo's voice was steady, though his tone betrayed his distaste. "They've had their hooks into the Empire Eighty-Eight since before Allfather died, putting Kaiser in charge. Krieg is their current representative; as such, he held a position of power in the Empire while Kaiser was alive, and has now succeeded him into the top spot."

"Wait." Browbeat tilted his head slightly. "Wouldn't Kaiser have had someone else nominated to take over in the event of his death?"

"He did." Kayden fielded that one. "Purity and Hookwolf."

"Oh. Oh, I see." Hookwolf's death had been dramatic as hell, to say the least. "Forget I asked. Anyway, what have a bunch of German neo-Nazis got to do with Night and Fog?"

"Everything," explained Theo. "Gesellschaft created them. They may look human, but they act more like aliens who've been given a quick training course. There's no moral core, no good side, nothing to appeal to. Just a bunch of programmed responses. They'll cut your throat then sit down to watch TV right beside your twitching body. Or rather, they'll look at the TV. Because that's what normal people do."

From the look on Browbeat's face, he was beginning to wonder what he'd gotten himself into. "What ... what are their powers?"

Theo nodded to acknowledge the question. "Night appears to be an ordinary person, a well-dressed woman, until nobody is looking at her. That's when she becomes a horrific murderblender with no discernible weak points. Switching between forms seems to heal all injuries. Fog, on the other hand, just turns into a cloud of fog. Intelligent, corrosive, murderous fog. Any questions?"

"Well, yes. How exactly are we supposed to fight people like that? And why us? Isn't that supposed to be up to the Protectorate and PRT?" Browbeat wasn't exactly panicking, but he didn't sound all that thrilled either.

Lisa put her finger up to catch his attention. "Remember Coil? How we took him down, last month? Just between you and me and everyone else in the room, he was a PRT strike squad commander. Now, if a supervillain could masquerade as a ranking officer in that building, how many low-ranking moles do you think the Empire could infiltrate the place with?"

Just for shits and giggles, I rolled the dice. "Five," I reported. "Or at least, that's how many we'll find in the end."

"And there you have it," said Lisa, not missing a beat. "Now—don't roll for this—what do you think the odds are that one of those moles won't report in if we tell the PRT everything we know, then sit back to let them handle it?"

Browbeat seemed to consider that. "Not very high?" he guessed.

"And the well-muscled young man in the first row wins a prize," Lisa declared. "If by 'not very high' you meant 'minimal to zero', that is."

"And as for how," Annette chimed in, "you see before you more Thinker chops than any given Protectorate team can muster in a month of Sundays. We know our enemy; we know who they are, where they'll be, how they'll react to our plans, and how to get to them before they realise they're looking in the wrong direction."

Theo's head came up, and a look of alarm crossed his face. "Uh … about that."

Lisa's eyes widened and her lips moved silently. Dinah was more direct. "What's up?"

His eyes found me. "What are the chances that the Empire has realised K-Evenstar is part of our team?"

"Shit!" Lisa jumped to her feet. My hand had found the dice, and they were already clattering to a halt by the time she managed to shout the next bit. "They'll be coming here as soon as it's dark!"

I glanced down at the dice in the tray. Two zeroes stared back at me. One hundred percent. Then I looked out the window, at the deepening dusk. "They know." My voice sounded weird in my ears.

"Archive, get Aster!" Dinah snapped. "Aeglea, the window. Storm Surge, perimeter. Who's closing in on us right now? Random, Athena, anything you can give me is good. Evenstar, check the corridor. Browbeat, go with Archive. Paladin, guard Nostrum. Everyone, prep for a fighting retreat! Move!"

Theo jumped to his feet and dashed down the corridor toward the rear of the apartment. Browbeat, apparently surprised by the rapid-fire commands, followed him on what looked like reflex, already bulking out.

My backpack was by my feet and I dumped my dice into it, retaining the tray and half a dozen d10s. Annette was already on her feet, pulling Amy out of the chair, while Vicky flew over to the window and Kayden hurried to the door.

There was a cushioned thud as Annette pulled the chair over onto its side, facing away from the door and window. "Get down," she told Amy, pushing her into a crouch so she was shielded by the chair. Going down next to the healer, Annette huddled over the top of her.

Janet breathed deeply, closing her eyes. I knew she could sense people through the water in their bodies, but how accurate it was and how far away she could sense someone, I wasn't sure. We hadn't spent time checking on that sort of thing, and now I intensely regretted the lack.

"Fliers," she reported. "Two of them. Three coming up the fire escape. Three in the corridor, coming this way."

Dinah ran through into the kitchen, and that was when we heard the rending, cracking noise coming from the back of the apartment.

Crusader

Justin watched as the last of the sun disappeared over the western hills. He only had a few ghosts flying in formation around the slab of concrete that he was sharing with Rune, because they didn't want to get spotted before the ambush was in place. "I kinda feel bad about this," he confided.

"About what? That she killed Brad, or that she stabbed us in the back and joined a hero team? Get real," sneered Rune. "Kayden's got to learn. She's allowed to not play with us, but she can't go joining the opposition." She steered the slab up closer to the closed window in the side of the apartment building. "I rip the window out, you grab the kid. Got it?"

"We're not going to hurt the rug rat, are we?" He just wanted to make sure about that. While he wasn't the sort to get down on the floor and make funny noises at babies, Aster was kind of cute, and it wasn't her fault her mom had turned traitor.

"Of course not." If she was facing him, he figured he would've seen her eye-roll. "We're just gonna use her as leverage to make sure Kayden knows which side her bread's buttered." Moving to the edge of the slab, she traced a glowing rune on the window, making sure to get the frame as well as the glass. "Ready?"

He sent his ghosts in through the wall. "Ready—shit, there's someone in the room!"

"Fuck!" She exerted her power, tearing the window clear out of the wall and showing the room beyond.

Justin recognised Theo, despite the fact that the little chubster was wearing a domino mask; he'd clearly just picked up Aster when the ghosts came through the wall. With him was another guy, also a teenager, but ripped as fuck. This guy could give all the gym-bro's Justin had ever known lessons in definition.

Before Justin could adjust to the new situation, the new guy yelled at Theo to run, then vaulted through the window opening onto the slab itself. A couple of the ghosts reflexively stabbed at him with their spears on the way past but only scored shallow wounds; it looked like he had some kind of protective field around him.

One massive punch knocked Rune clear off the floating slab, while a backfist collided with Justin like a freight train. Head spinning, he found himself in free fall, looking up as muscle-boy tried to haul himself back in through the window. His ghosts were already swarming to grab him, and he had to consciously divert a couple to grab Rune as well.

Even though the ghosts were slowing him down, the ground was coming up way too fast.

This was gonna hurt.

In the Corridor Outside

Krieg

Victor's voice came through James' earpiece. "Shit, they know we're here! Someone just took down Rune and Crusader!"

Scheiße. "Did they secure the package?"

"No package. I say again, no package."

"Is it a trap?" asked Fenja. She was still normal-sized, but there was room in the corridor to grow to half again as tall and smash the door in. "How could they know we were coming?" It was abundantly clear that Kaiser's demise had given her a distinct hit to her self-confidence.

"Does it matter?" Night studied her fingernails. "Traps are fun. They make the enemy gather in one place."

"Enough talk." Krieg gestured at the door. "Get that open."

Fenja began to grow …

Janet

A clatter of dice across the room drew Janet's eyes as she huddled in her chair. What should I do? She couldn't see any bad guys, and didn't want to guess about people she couldn't see. And she had no idea why Taylor was rolling dice at this point.

Taylor looked up from the result she'd just rolled. "Victor's invulnerable!" she shouted.

"He's on the fire escape with Fog!" Lisa chimed in, half a second later.

Oh. That's why. God, these people are so much better than me at this.

"Incoming!" warned Kayden, then jumped back as the front door smashed in. She began to glow brighter and brighter. A couple of rounded objects bounced into the room, ending up in the middle of the floor, already beginning to trail plumes of smoke.

Shit, shit, shit. Grenades! They didn't have any water in them. What am I supposed to do with grenades?

Theo came running back up the corridor with Aster; Janet had no idea where Browbeat was, or what the noise had been. Did they go after Aster? That was probably a bad idea.

"Vicky!" yelled Taylor, leaping forward and sliding across the hardwood floor on her belly. Putting her hand down for traction, she spun end for end and kicked the two grenades across the floor in a way that looked like she'd practised for ages. They rolled and bumped to Glory Girl's feet, leaving a trail of smoke behind them.

"Fuck off!" Glory Girl shouted, putting a hand on Victor's face—Victor was right there, at the window!—and pushing; unfortunately, she couldn't seem to budge him. On the other hand, as strong as she was, he couldn't push past her. With her other hand, she grabbed up the grenades and tossed them out the window.

This was something Janet could help with. She reached out to Victor's body and tried to grab control of the water in it, to help Glory Girl push him back, but she couldn't get a grip on it. No matter how she tried to manipulate him, it didn't work.

Janet became aware of the sound of running water from the kitchen. Dinah had turned the sink on full, and water was gushing down the drain. That was water she could affect. But then she was distracted by the nine-foot-tall Valkyrie who came stomping into the apartment, bending to clear the door-frame. Shield in one hand, sword in the other, the newcomer was a fearsome sight.

… or was, right up until Taylor tossed a handful of small objects across the floor. Janet had just enough time to recognise them as plastic dice before they landed right beneath the supervillain's descending foot. Two went crunch under her weight immediately, but the other four performed admirably. Her foot skidded out from under her, and she let out a startled yelp as she lost her balance. With a sound like a saucepan chorus line, she landed heavily on her back.

Does that mean we're winning? Janet felt an unexpected surge of hope, which was just as quickly extinguished as Krieg himself stepped into the room. Immediately, she felt a tightness in her throat. She could breathe, but it was an effort, and moving took far more strength than she was capable of. Worse, at the far end of the room, a greyish cloud was boiling in through the window past Victor and surrounding Glory Girl. Is that Fog? I think that's Fog. Does he even have water in his body right now? Her power didn't seem to think so. Glory Girl appeared unharmed at the moment, but she wouldn't be able to hold her breath forever.

"Night, if you will!" Krieg's command was imperative, not to be ignored.

A cloaked figure darted in past him to where Theo was desperately trying to retreat down the corridor. Janet watched in horror as Night caressed his face, then dug her nails in, drawing blood. "Stupid," she remarked, as though discussing the weather. "You will lose. You will always lose."

As Night reached for Aster, Dinah spoke up from the kitchen. "No. You've. Already. Lost."

The Valkyrie on the floor rolled over and started to get up—Janet was pretty sure the hardwood floor would never be the same again—while Krieg pulled an efficient-looking pistol from a holster she hadn't seen, and pointed it at Dinah's head. "Silly little girl," he sneered. "We have you checkmated." A side-glance toward where Kayden was desperately trying to turn toward Night. "Once we have the baby in hand, your biggest hitter will be reminded of where her loyalties should lie."

Dinah stilled, but spoke defiantly anyway, her eyes turning toward where Fog still cloaked Glory Girl. "Water. Soluble."

The two words ignited a spark in Janet's mind. The water was still blasting into the sink; she grabbed it, pulling it into a mass she could use. But it wasn't enough. She needed more.

The rumbling was palpable before it ever became audible. Janet had never done this before, but there was always a first time. All the water in the building was hers to command, and she directed every drop toward this sink, these faucets. The pipes were not intended to take this kind of water pressure, and she could hear the rattling and hammering as she told them to man up and do their damned job.

Even Krieg was looking around as the building itself began to shudder, the sound of water rushing through pipes like distant thunder. Small objects danced on the floor and shelves. On his face, for the first time, Janet saw the stirrings of apprehension. Even Night had paused in her efforts to drag Aster out of Theo's arms.

"What's that?" Krieg asked. "Who's doing that?"

With the inevitability of a wave crashing onto shore, all the water arrived at once, erupting from the sink faucets and the plug hole alike. Janet guided it onto her targets, scooping up Krieg and the armoured Valkyrie and flushing them out through the open doorway. In the other direction, the wave smashed into Night—dividing neatly around Theo and Aster—and washed her toward the open window. It briefly sluiced over Glory Girl, then hit Victor full in the chest and pushed him back through the opening. Night followed after him, squirted through the window like a melon pip, then the wave receded.

Dinah's suggestion had worked; the water had indeed engulfed Fog and removed him from around Glory Girl, leaving her dry as the water pulled back again. Fog himself was a dark stain of pollution in the water. Janet sent a tendril into the bathroom and flushed the contaminated liquid down the toilet.

As Glory Girl slammed the window shut and Janet sent a tendril of water to close the door, Kayden's glow faded and she ran to Theo. "Are you alright?" she demanded; Janet couldn't quite tell which of the children she was asking the question of. "Did she hurt you?"

"I-I'm fine," Theo stammered. "She didn't hurt Aster."

"I'm here, I'm here!" Browbeat stumbled down the corridor from behind Theo. His hands and front were covered in brick dust and what looked like blood. "Is everyone okay?"

"I think we're good," Taylor answered, sitting up. She scrambled over to retrieve the dice that had survived. "What happened to you?"

"And what did you do with Tall, Dark and Nazi?" asked Annette, helping Panacea up from where she'd upended an armchair to protect the healer.

"I fell out the window and had to climb back in. It's harder than it looks." Browbeat looked around at the damage. "Tall, Dark and Nazi?"

"Krieg and Valkyrie woman." In the aftermath of the action, Janet felt very tired. "I washed them along the corridor, down the stairs, and out into the street."

"Fenja," Lisa supplied. "Menja was probably on the fire escape."

"I don't care about their names." Janet set her jaw. "I just wanted them away from me."

"And you did real good." Dinah came over and gave her a quick hug. "You saved, uh, Aeglea's life for sure."

It took Janet a moment to remember that they were all going with different cape names for Browbeat's benefit. "Right, well, you gave me the hint." She drew in a deep breath and looked around at the others. "Sorry I didn't do something sooner. I guess I'm just not the fighting type."

"Hey. It's okay." Glory Girl put her hand on Janet's shoulder. "I would've been screwed pretty soon, so I'm glad you worked through it."

"So what happens now?" asked Amy. "Should we be preparing for another attack?"

Taylor

"No." Lisa and Janet spoke at the same time.

Lisa glanced at Janet and got a nod in return. "Some of them got hurt this time around," she said. "And Krieg isn't sure who the hydrokinetic is. Also, Storm Surge just no-sold Fog hard. They're going to be pulling back and regrouping until they can find him. Then they'll try to figure another approach."

"In the meantime, we need to relocate Evenstar, Archive and uh, the baby," Dinah said. "We screwed up badly, here."

"I'll say." Annette still looked and sounded more than a little shaken. "I've seen your Thinker work. You guys are frankly better than this. How about next time we don't hold a meeting in a place that the Empire Eighty-Eight knows about?"

By now, Kayden was holding Aster securely, settling her down again. "I am sincerely forced to agree. We're going to need a place to live, until the repairs are complete and I'm unlikely to get unwanted visitors anymore." Her eyes found me, and they were full of worry. "I hate to ask for a favour like this, but …"

"I'll call Dad," I said immediately. "Just hang on one second." Climbing to my feet, I rolled the four d10s on the table. Chances of the Empire being able to track Kayden down to my house.

The numbers came up 7, 3, 9 and 0. Zero point three nine seven percent.

"Well?" asked Kayden, searching my expression. "Can you find a safe place for us?"

I smiled. "Yes." Our sofa would fold out into a bed, and there was a camp bed somewhere in the basement that we could probably dust off. As for Aster, I was pretty sure her crib would fit in the back of Dad's car.

Putting them up might be a little cramped until we got things sorted out, but I could live with 'cramped'.

Later

Empire Eighty-Eight Safe House

Crusader

Justin rubbed his arm and flexed his fingers. There was still a little residual soreness, but not as bad as it could've been. Broken arms sucked. So did broken collarbones. Fortunately, Othala had been able to fix both issues.

"Well, that was a shit-show from beginning to end." Victor said it first, but only because Justin didn't feel entirely comfortable about antagonising Krieg with his failures just yet. "We should've had the drop on them from the beginning, but they were waiting for us. Tammi's still got a concussion because of whoever it was that punched her, Fog got flushed down the crapper, and they've got Leviathan's little sister on their damn team!"

"Might've been Theo," Justin offered. "Which would make him Leviathan's little brother. You know he's prime third-gen material."

"It. Wasn't. Theo." Krieg set his jaw as he snarled the words. "It had to be the girl in the kitchen, the one who turned on the water. She was the hydrokinetic. I would wager rather a lot of money on it."

Fenja raised her head. "Well, whoever it was, we'd be stupid to take them on near any source of water. Maybe we should've paid more attention to how Lung was taken down." She evidently had vivid memories of being washed down three flights of stairs and out onto the street, which would have been less problematic than Fog's experience only by a matter of degree.

"I thought the reports said that water main was busted open by Purity," Justin protested.

"Well, clearly the fucking thing wasn't!" Victor snarled the words as he jumped to his feet. He began to pace across the room and back. "This team of theirs has been hiding most of their strength in the shadows instead of flaunting it from the rooftops like any normal bunch of newbies would. I wondered how they managed to talk Kayden onto their team, how they turned her against Max."

Justin frowned. He thought more of Kayden than that. She wasn't one to jump ship because of powerful potential teammates. "Not sure what you're referring to, there. I thought the thing with Max was because of that other kid of his he was talking about."

"Do I have to fucking spell it out for you?" Victor stared at him, then around at the others. Othala was busy with Rune, the Biermann sisters were simply sitting and watching the show, Night and Fog were immersed in their own little world, and Krieg was observing without adding commentary.

"Maybe you should." Justin spread his hands. "Because I seem to recall how Kayden was stabbed by Max, just before he got struck by lightning. Then that idiot Hookwolf sent Cricket to murder her in the hospital, and when that didn't work out, tried to do it himself. Now he's dead, and I'm not exactly surprised that Kayden might not want anything to do with us. You tell me why she might be interested in joining a team—that isn't us—with at least one powerhouse on it."

Victor paused, and Justin thought for a moment that he'd accepted the logic. Then he shook his head. "No. The Kayden I know would never turn against us. Walk away, maybe. Backstab us, her friends, not in a thousand years."

"And if she felt endangered by us?" Justin stared at his teammate. "Hell, what proof do we have that she was even going to come after us? We attacked her in her goddamn home."

"It was the only logical thing to do," Night said unexpectedly. Fog said nothing. He'd barely spoken since rejoining them after the fight. "She was a danger. She is a danger. Dangers must be eliminated, or curbed."

"No, you don't get it." Justin waved his hands in the air. "That's what we are to her now. We came after Aster. There is nothing more precious in the world to her. Even if she wasn't going to work with that other team against us, she probably will now." Running his hands over his face, he slumped back into his seat. "I knew this was a bad idea, but I didn't realise just how bad until just now. I mean, holy fuck."

"You had one job." Krieg's tone was implacable. "You and Rune. How could you have failed so thoroughly? One non-combatant and one combatant, and you still could not overcome them?"

"You weren't there!" shouted Justin, jumping up. "You were looking to do your grand entrance through the front door like a conquering fucking hero, after the rest of us had mopped up the resistance for you! And that musclebound asshole came for us, instead of backing off like a normal person! If he'd backed off, I could maybe have dogpiled him. But he was on us before they could stick him more than a couple of times, and he didn't even seem to notice. Punched out Tammi altogether, and what he gave me was no love-tap either." He rubbed his jaw in remembered pain.

"Maybe you should've had more ghosts out," Victor said flatly. "We could've avoided this whole shit-show then."

Justin swung toward him. "You specifically told me not to," he snapped. "We didn't want to tip anyone off ahead of time, remember?"

"Alright, alright." Krieg raised his voice in command. "Quiet down. Rehashing our mistakes isn't going to fix them. We need to figure out what we're going to be doing, going forward. Crusader, how sure are you that Purity will be coming after us now?"

Taking a couple of seconds to breathe deeply and still the harsh words that wanted to come out, Justin thought about the question. "Either that, or she'll be looking to leave town with Aster as soon as possible, and probably take Theo with her."

"You sure?" Victor frowned. "She's likely to get something out of Max's holdings that weren't connected with him being Kaiser. And so's the little fat shit, for that matter."

"I doubt she would stay around for the reading of the will," Krieg decided. "Max made it very clear that he was making the other child his main heir. The Campbell girl." He didn't bother hiding his distaste for this course of action.

"Right," agreed Justin. "So yeah, she's either going to cut her losses and bolt, or stay in town and come after us for trying to grab Aster. The will isn't gonna come into it."

"Okay, so let's assume she stays." Victor rubbed his chin. "We need a way to neutralise both her and that damned hydrokinetic."

"I have one way," Krieg offered. "Do you still have your sniper rifle?"

"Whoa, wait, what?" protested Justin. "Are we just going straight to 'murder'? Is that what we're doing, now?"

Krieg glared at him, and Justin felt a tightening in his throat. He wasn't sure if it was real or psychosomatic, but he didn't like it either way. "When Purity hits us with her blast, exactly how much restraint do you think she'll be using?"

Fuck. Justin knew he was between a rock and a hard place, and he liked that even less. "Well, when you put it that way …"

"Good," said Krieg. "It's settled, then."

As Krieg turned to talk to Victor, Justin slumped in his chair. How the fuck do I get out of this?

Hebert Household

Taylor

With one final grunt of effort, I helped Dad get the sofa bed unfolded. "There," I panted. "Now I'll just grab some sheets and make it up for you."

"I really do appreciate this." Kayden gave us both a smile. "I know how much of an imposition it must be."

"No trouble at all," Dad assured her. "We've put up friends and family before. There's a half-bath under the stairs, and the bathroom upstairs is the third on the right." He turned to Theo. "Will you be okay in the basement with the camp bed? There's not much room for anything more than Aster's crib up here with the bed folded out, I'm sorry."

"I'll be fine, Mr Hebert." Theo ducked his shoulder. "At least I know you're not doing it deliberately, to 'toughen me up'." He even went so far as to make finger-quotes. "So yeah, I appreciate it."

Dad shook his head. "I've seen the dark side of your father so I'm not going to do you the disservice of pretending that sort of thing couldn't happen." He slapped Theo on the shoulder and addressed both of them. "So, if you've got any questions or problems, you bring 'em straight to me or Taylor."

"We will." Kayden took on a concerned expression. "With my apartment out of commission until the repairs are done, we're going to need a new place for the team to meet and make plans. Especially since I don't intend to move back there until the Empire Eighty-Eight is no longer a threat. Is it okay to meet here, or should we find another location? I would totally understand if you didn't want a bunch of heroes converging on this location every few days."

I had my own opinions, but this was Dad's decision. He frowned and rubbed his lips with his thumbnail as he thought about it. "Seven kids and two adults," he mused.

"Three of whom already live here right now," I added helpfully.

"Very true. And Andrea's apartment is even smaller than yours." Dad paused, his head coming up. "Shit! Andrea! If Annette was there, they might try to grab her next!"

I delved into my pocket for a couple of dice as I eyed the mattress. It was flat enough. "Annette was keeping her head down behind an armchair, protecting Amy, so they might not have even noticed her."

Chances that Andrea and Annette are in danger of being kidnapped by the Empire Eighty-Eight.

The dice rolled and bounced on the springy cloth, but eventually came to a halt. 5-1-4-1.

I let out a breath. "One point five one four percent that the Empire will try to grab them."

Dad similarly sighed with relief. "That's good. That's really good. So long as she stays quiet and doesn't draw their attention, she should be safe."

Kayden nodded. "Of course, the best way to keep her and Annette safe is to deal with the threat once and for all." There was an edge to her voice that promised mayhem to the Empire Eighty-Eight.

"Yeah." I scooped up the dice and looked around the room. "It'll be crowded, but we can make it work. So, you think they'll keep coming at you?"

"Absolutely." There was no doubt in her voice. "They know they've made an enemy of me now. It's me or them, and I intend to make it me."

Dad put a hand on her shoulder. "Damn right."

Browbeat

"Report."

Lawrence stood in front of Deputy Director Renick's desk. His wounds had been healed by Nostrum and he was dressed in civilian clothes, with the obligatory domino mask for form's sake. "Well, sir," he said. "It's been a day."

End of Part Twenty