After years of barely holding Brockton Bay together by the skin of her teeth, Director Piggot was discovering that victory brought its own share of problems. This didn't surprise her : in her experience, things didn't get better, and when they did it was never easy.
Case in point : the capture of a notorious villain with a Birdcage sentence looming over his head should have been great news, even if it had been delivered to her doorstep by a worryingly powerful independent rather than through the efforts of her subordinates. And yet, it was still causing her a headache.
"Hookwolf is secure in the containment cell," Armsmaster finished his report, which he'd delivered to her first thing in the morning once she'd returned to the PRT's headquarters from her latest dialysis. "If he so much as tries to activate his power, the guards have orders to use the countermeasures to shock him, and he tries to power through, fill the room with containment foam."
Truth be told, Piggot knew they were lucky to have achieved as much – though Armsmaster's skills had more to do with it than luck. Once word of Hookwolf's defeat had spread, the rest of the Empire's capes had disengaged from the series of minor clashes that had taken place last night and rushed to try to free him.
But Armsmaster's bike had been too fast for them to intercept him before he reached the PRT headquarters, and Emily had been able to capitalize on the sudden withdrawal of the powered Nazis to sweep the rest of their forces with the help of New Wave and the BBPD. The local jails were full of skinheads and other assorted racist thugs, though she knew there were still far too many left free for the Empire to call upon.
"Good. I don't suppose another Dragon transport is on its way to take him off our hands ?" she asked Armsmaster, who shook his head.
"Unfortunately no," the hero replied. "Dragon's aircrafts are always kept very busy by her many duties for the Protectorate : we were extremely fortunate that one of them was available to bring Lung and Oni Lee to the Birdcage when it was. I can ask her to send one here to get Hookwolf, but it will take several days before one becomes available."
It was typical of their luck, Piggot thought. As long as Armsmaster's tranquillizer worked on Lung (and there had been no sign that it didn't) they could have held the supervillain more or less indefinitely. Without him to keep them in check, the various sub-groups of the ABB had turned on each other almost at once, reducing the odds of them attacking the PRT headquarters to break him out (not that the Director expected such an attempt to result in anything other than a bloodbath, as she'd bet on her troopers against the ABB thugs any day of the week so long as neither side had parahuman support).
Even if they had needed to transport Lung and Oni Lee outside the city so Dragon could pick him up elsewhere as part of one of her regular supply runs for the Birdcage, the chances of someone trying to free him would have been low (though they would still have taken all possible precautions, as the ENE had suffered far too many humiliations as captured villains were released by criminal accomplices).
But Hookwolf was part of the Empire, and they had far too many capes under their hideous banner. They were guaranteed to attack a Birdcage transport if it meant getting Hookwolf back. And they couldn't hold onto him forever : eventually, Kaiser would either attack the PRT headquarters to break him out or, far more likely, would order his capes to capture a member of the Protectorate (or worse, the Wards) and offer an exchange of prisoners. Which would put Piggot in a no-win situation no matter what she chose, both on the strategic and PR level.
"I expected as much," she sighed. "And it's all academic anyway. With Purity in town, using one of Dragon's aircraft to get him out of the city wouldn't be safe. From the level of power we've on record for her, she could blast the transport out of the sky with ease, and pull Hookwolf out with little more difficulty. The only fliers we could pull on our side are New Wave, and while I'm pretty sure I could convince them to help us get Hookwolf out of the city, I don't think they'd fare that well against Purity."
"There have been rumors that Purity has split up from the Empire," Armsmaster offered.
"Ah, yes," Piggot scoffed. "I've heard those too. Nevermind the fact that she's still beating up minorities in the same costume and with the same name, while letting the Empire do as they please as they push into Lung's former territory. She hasn't changed, Armsmaster, she's just having a dispute with her Nazi friends, whatever she's telling others and even herself. If she really wanted to be a heroine without having to fight her former 'friends', she'd leave the city and rebrand elsewhere. God knows the Protectorate would bend over backward to accommodate someone with her skills. No, we can't assume she won't go running back to them the moment they need her help preventing Hookwolf from paying for his many, many crimes."
Armsmaster didn't say anything. There wasn't anything to say : he knew Piggot was right, and had only mentioned the rumors to make sure she was aware of them and had all the information.
"Which means that we're going to need to send Hookwolf out of town the old-fashioned way," she went on.
"Our record on successful transport of captured capes is … less than stellar," said Armsmaster, and only someone who knew him as well as Piggot did would have noticed how angry that admission made him feel.
It was an anger Piggot shared. The number of times one of the PRT transports carrying a captured parahuman to a detention center outside of the city had been ambushed since she'd arrived in Brockton Bay was frankly absurd. It was a stain on all of their records, and one of the primary reasons why the PRT was so poorly regarded in the Bay.
Every time it happened, they'd run a security audit, and while they had caught several gang moles over the years, they'd never found the ones responsible for the leaks. At this point, Piggot was convinced one of the gangs was keeping a powerful Thinker under wraps and using them to fuck with the PRT. The only sticking point with that theory was that such leaks had happened when transporting members of every gang at some point or another. She'd still swallowed her pride and asked for support in rooting out the cause, only to be denied each time, her superiors citing 'insufficient resources' and 'lack of evidence'.
"We're going to have to keep the information as contained as possible," she decided. "You and Miss Militia will plan the op : see if you can ask Dragon for assistance and computer security. You will report to me with your plan directly, and I'll set things up so that whoever you need is available at a moment's notice."
"Understood," replied Armsmaster. "I will have a proposal for you by tomorrow morning. I would already suggest, however, that we perform the transfer at night."
"Why ?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Firstly, to minimize the risk of civilian casualties in the event of an attack despite our precautions. Secondly …" the hero hesitated, then carried on : "all of Lasombra's sightings have occurred at night."
"It's your operation, and you will be on the frontline," she replied. "If that's what you want, I have no issue with it."
Armsmaster probably didn't need his lie-detection software to see through that last bit. For all the good that Lasombra had done for the city since his debut (and there was no denying that he had done a lot of good), he was still an independent cape, and Piggot didn't want the PRT to look like they needed his help to do their job. Even if (especially if) that was the case.
"Speaking of Lasombra," she changed the subject with the subtlety of Glory Girl in a china shop. "What can you tell me about this wolf he had with him last night ?"
"To begin with, Lasombra's Stranger effect appears to extend to his minion," Armsmaster said. "My armor's systems were unable to record anything about the beast, though given they remained in close proximity the entire time, it is possible that Lasombra was merely covering it. From what I saw, it is completely obedient to Lasombra, but has its own instincts : it didn't behave like a puppet who needs to be manually controlled at all time."
Minion-type Masters came in different varieties, according to the PRT official documentation on the subject. Some were capable of controlling their servants completely, usually with some assistance from their power to manage the multitasking involved. Others had more autonomous summons, who followed general orders but acted independently. From what Armsmaster was saying, Lasombra was in the second category.
"I didn't have much time to observe it, however," the hero continued. "The moment I arrived on the scene, Lasombra greeted me with a nod, then vanished, and the wolf along with it."
"Same way as during previous encounters ?" Piggot asked.
"Yes, for both of them. They appeared to sink into the shadows, at which point the lighting conditions in the area returned to normal and the Stranger effect stopped – in that order."
"What about the Empire thugs who were attacked by the creature ?"
"None of them suffered from any physical injury beyond a few bruises from falling onto the pavement. M/S scans showed an intense, unnatural level of terror, but we believe they will recover naturally in time – though they're likely to be traumatized. Merely mentioning Lasombra in their presence caused them to undergo a panic attack."
Piggot frowned. Emotional manipulation like this was (quite rightly, in her own opinion) regarded with great distrust by the public, mostly due to association with the like of Heartbreaker or, God forbid, the Simurgh. It was why Gallant was officially a Tinker, after all. In this case, the fact that it required the victim to be bitten by a huge wolf was a positive factor, because nobody would be able to miss that happening to them, and it was preferable to being literally chewed and spit out. Still …
"We're going to need to add a Master rating to Lasombra's profile, both for the summon and for its capabilities. And the next time we meet him, we'll need to warn him that if he uses it too often, we'll have no choice but to come down on him for excessive force."
"It seems appropriate," Armsmaster nodded. "I really wish we could ask Lasombra to come in for some proper power testing : his abilities are not only powerful, but extremely varied."
"I've already received an email from the analyst team telling me as such," Piggot replied drily. "I told them the same thing I told you : I'd love for that to happen, but it doesn't seem likely at present. Weirdly, the only team in the building who don't seem to want Lasombra to come in from the cold work in PR."
One of the most frustrating aspects of this whole situation was that they hadn't been able to properly talk to Lasombra. His powers made communication from his side difficult : whether he could only speak in single-word sentences or was limiting himself to such to avoid making people collapse in fright was unclear, but the practical results were the same. If they could have just one proper conversation, maybe they could figure out why he didn't want to join the Protectorate, and maybe make accommodations around that. At the very least, opening communication channels would allow them to cooperate, rather than show up once the dust had settled to take the perps into custody.
"I cannot imagine why," Armsmaster deadpanned. "Have a good day, Director."
"You too, Armsmaster. And try not to spend it all in your lab : whatever plan you and Miss Militia concoct, you'll need to be in top form for it."
Armsmaster nodded and left her office. With a sigh, Piggot went back to checking the many, many reports and emails that constantly arrived into her inbox. One thing the series about the PRT and Protectorate somehow always failed to include was just how much paperwork went into waging a war against parahuman crime on a daily basis.
She consoled herself with the knowledge that, however busy her day might be, it wasn't going to be as bad as the Empire's leadership. Shadenfreude, she had found out long ago, was a great way to de-stress, especially when aimed at Nazis.
Max was furious. Last night had been a complete disaster : not only had they lost Brad, but they'd been forced to withdraw from their fights with the Protectorate, making them look like cowards as well as costing them a number of soldiers. Sure, they'd be out on bail within days, but even that would cost the organization money and influence. They could afford it, but it was still a blow to the Empire, to him.
"Talk to me. What the fuck happened ?" he snarled.
James was seated on the other side of his desk, looking completely calm despite his boss' anger. Neither of them were in costume – they were in Max Anders' office in the Medhall building in the middle of the day, after all, and had crossed the paths of dozens of employees who weren't privy to their employer's secret identity as leader of the Empire Eighty-Eight. A pair of empty coffee cups sat on the desk : they'd both stayed up late last night and needed the caffeine to deal with this mess.
"Lasombra happened," James replied. "From what I've been able to put together, Brad left the push on the ABB's territory when he got news that Bitch was raiding another of his dogfighting operations. He took a handful of our soldiers with him, but realistically, he alone would have been enough to deal with her."
Max nodded slowly. That made sense : Bitch's monstrous dogs were strong, but they couldn't do anything to Hookwolf once he was transformed. He was still furious that Brad had left without asking him permission, but was honest with himself enough to know that he wouldn't have thought anything of it if it had worked out as Hookwolf had intended.
"Except, when Brad arrived, it was Lasombra who faced him, not Bitch," the man known to the Protectorate as Krieg continued.
"Was it a trap ?" asked Max. "Could Lasombra have been working with the Undersiders ?"
"I'm not sure," replied James, frowning. "Bitch was definitely there, and the rest of the Undersiders were present as well – they were last seen driving away from the scene with a bunch of animals in cages, some of which have since been returned to their owners or delivered to various shelters across the city. It's not clear whether Lasombra was working with them from the beginning to draw Hookwolf out while the rest of our forces were engaged elsewhere, if he followed Bitch without her knowledge and seized the opportunity to use her at bait, or if it was just a coincidence she and Lasombra went after Brad's operation at the same time."
"I find it hard to believe that the cape who took down Lung would lower himself to rescuing dogs," Max pointed out. James simply shrugged.
"If he knew, or even suspected it would draw Hookwolf while the bulk of our forces were busy elsewhere, it would make sense," he pointed out. "He really shouldn't have withdrawn like this, but his desire to kill Bitch himself was well-known. Maybe Lasombra took a gamble that paid off."
"Maybe. I guess we'll never know for certain. Where's Brad now ?" Max asked, fairly certain he already knew the answer.
"In the PRT's custody inside their headquarters," James replied. "The odds that he will break out on his own are low to non-existent : his powerset is well known by the heroes, and Armsmaster will have made sure the cells can hold him. Our best shot at freeing him will be when they move him out, but if they do the same thing they did with Lung and use an aerial transport, we'll have no chance of rescuing him before Dragon drops him into the Birdcage. Rune is our only flier, and sending her alone would be a suicide, pointless mission. Unless you can get Kaiden back on board, Max ?"
Max glared at his lieutenant across the desk at the mention of his ex-wife. James endured it without flinching, and after a few seconds, Max sighed and lowered his gaze.
"I … I'm not sure," he admitted, hating that he had to do so but knowing that lying to one of his top advisors about something like this would be a mistake. "With Lung gone, convincing her that we need Hookwolf to defend the good people of the Bay would be more difficult, and you know she's never approved of his activities."
In truth, he might be able to, but he'd have to offer her something in return. He knew what she wanted most : custody of Aster in their divorce, but that wasn't something he was willing to give to her, ever. Theo had proven a failure as an heir : barring making another child, Aster was his only shot at securing his legacy.
"I see." James didn't push the subject, showing once again why he was Max's second-in-command. "Well, from what our moles have told us, Lung was a special case anyway. Brad is more likely to be transported out of town using ground vehicles, and those, we can ambush without Purity's support."
"We'll do that," Kaiser decided. "Tell our informants to keep an ear out and tell us when and where they are planning to move him out of town. We'll hit them hard, free Hookwolf, and bloody the PRT's nose all in one swoop. Then, depending on Brad's condition and that of our fighters after the breakout, we'll resume our push into ex-ABB territory."
"I will do that." James paused, then added : "What about Lasombra ?"
Kaiser's mood, which had lightened somewhat as they discussed their response to Brad's capture, immediately darkened.
"I want him dead," he said between gritted teeth, before taking a deep breath and forcing himself to relax. He was usually more in control than this, but lack of sleep and the fact that James was one of the few people he actually trusted was making his emotions come to the surface more easily. "I know we were hoping to bring him onboard if possible, but after last night that's not going to work. So we need to make an example out of him instead."
"Hmm. Figuring out his identity won't be easy, given he's both a Changer and a Mover," mused James.
Neither of them commented on this casual violation of the so-called Unwritten Rules : these only applied to those without the might to break them, and the Empire Eighty-Eight had done so many times over the decades of its existence. There was a reason Brockton Bay had so few independent capes, and it wasn't just because the PRT was desperate to grab all those it could to bolster their numbers.
"See what our sources in the PRT can tell us," Kaiser ordered. "If we don't get anything useful, we'll see about contacting Gesellschaft to ask about Thinker support. Until then, we'll pass the word to our soldiers to keep an eye out for the bastard, and keep a reserve force of our capes to respond to any further attack against our territory."
James nodded, then exited the office, returning to his own desk, where he would do what his boss had asked surrounded by Medhall employees who had no idea of his true purpose in the company.
Left alone, Kaiser brooded over the events of the last few days.
Lasombra was strong; after the last two days, nobody was stupid enough to deny that. But Kaiser had seen many cape battles, and one thing he'd learned early on was that no power came without weaknesses. Until now, Lasombra had only fought one cape at a time : he suspected things would be very different once he had to deal with multiple foes at once.
And once Lasombra was gone and Hookwolf was back into the fold, he would have the breathing room to focus on how to handle things going forward. For all that he'd played up the collapse of the ABB as a great thing for the Empire and the Bay to his followers, Max was no fool : many of their recruits had come from those who were afraid of Lung's savages and sought protection the police and PRT couldn't provide. Now that threat was gone, and the PRT was much more free to act than before.
The Empire needed victories, and fast, in order to seize the advantage. They couldn't afford to look weak – he couldn't afford to look weak.
The Empire was his, and Kaiser would burn the city to the ground before he let a jumped-up new cape like Lasombra take it from him.
Topic : Lasombra & Hookwolf fight – Hookwolf captured
Bagrat (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)
Posted On Jan 10th 2011 :
Folks, it appears that Lasombra wasn't content with 'just' taking down Lung and Oni Lee. Last night, he took on Hookwolf, beat him unconscious, and handed him over the PRT (along with a handful of E88 thugs, but it's not like they matter in this situation).
As always, details on how this went down are scarce, but I've managed to gather a rough timeline of events :
Hellhound of the Undersiders (here is her page and here is that of the gang) launches another raid on one of Hookwolf's dogfighting rings. The unpowered Empire members are quickly overwhelmed by her monster dogs.
Lasombra shows up while Hellhound is in the building. They do not come to blows. Then the other Undersiders arrive, probably to rescue Hellhound in case she got in over her head. They still do not come to blows with Lasombra.
Hookwolf arrives with three E88 thugs and calls out for Hellhound to face him. Instead, Lasombra comes out of the building, accompanied by a large (over 2 meters high) black wolf. After some posturing, battle is joined. The wolf takes out the thugs (none of them appear to be injured, as they weren't sent to the hospital or the morgue), while Lasombra faces off against Hookwolf.
Lasombra punches Hookwolf in his fully transformed state, then uses his ability to create shadow tentacles to tear at his metal covering until the Nazi is exposed, at which point he knocks him unconscious.
Letes
Replied On Jan 10th 2011 :
Guess that answers the question of whether Lasombra's going to do something about the Empire, huh ?
Geronimo
Replied On Jan 10th 2011 :
If Lasombra could summon that big wolf, why didn't he use it against Lung ?
Laravelo
Replied On Jan 10th 2011 :
Maybe he didn't have time ? Hookwolf arrived to find Lasombra was already on the scene, while Lung stumbled on Lasombra while he was making his way through the brothel. If he needs time to summon it, that would explain it.
XxVoid_CowboyxX
Replied On Jan 10th 2011 :
Or maybe the wolf was created from the spirits of the dead animals, and Lasombra gave them a chance to avenge themselves on Hookwolf !
Venturain
Replied On Jan 10th 2011 :
… I want to say that's not how parahuman powers work, but even now, we still don't know jack about how parahuman powers work, and some of them have pretty esoteric requirements. So, I cannot believe I'm saying this, but maybe XxVoid_CowboyxX is right ?
Brrr, writing that felt so wrong.
XxVoid_CowboyxX
Replied On Jan 10th 2011 :
Oh come on ! It makes perfect sense ! Obviously Lasombra is summoning spirits from Hell to punish those who have committed evil !
Venturain
Replied On Jan 10th 2011 :
Aaaand now the world makes sense again. Phew. I was worried there for a second.
Sapphire_Prophet
Replied On Jan 10th 2011 :
Wait, why didn't Lasombra stop the Undersiders, though ? They were right there !
Shadow_Seeker (Verified not a cape)
Replied On Jan 10th 2011 :
Well, given that they were seen delivering kidnapped pets back to their owners this morning (here is a link to the article), my best guess is that after seeing the Empire's dogfighting ring, he thought they weren't that bad ? Also, the Undersiders aren't a big name in BB (I hadn't heard of them before), so maybe he assumed they were vigilantes come to rescue the animals.
Sapphire_Prophet
Replied On Jan 10th 2011 :
I guess they haven't done anything heinous since arriving, but doesn't Hellhound have a murder charge ?
Brocktonite03 (Veteran Member)
Replied On Jan 10th 2011 :
Compared to Hookwolf, Hellhound might as well be Mother Theresa. That son of a bitch has sent more of my buddies to the hospital (or the morgue) than I want to think about. I'm glad that he's been taken off the streets, but I'm forced to wonder how long that will last. It's not the first time the PRT got him, after all.
Letes
Replied On Jan 10th 2011 :
Oh, right. He escaped from a Birdcage transport once, right ? With any luck, the PRT will take precautions to avoid a repeat.
And hey, if they don't, maybe Lasombra will show them how it's done !
I smiled as I read through the rest of the comments on the thread, although part of me was equally worried and shocked that XxVoid_CowboyxX had more or less nailed what had happened (before descending into his usual rambling). I consoled myself with the thought that, for all that the rest of the thread weren't dog-piling his suggestion into oblivion, his reputation alone would make sure nobody took it seriously.
As for the Undersiders, I could admit to myself that I'd completely forgotten about them once I'd heard Hookwolf was coming. By the time I'd beaten the Empire cape, they'd already left, and I couldn't go after them and let Hookwolf escape. Between the Nazi who tortured and killed dogs for sport and the petty thieves who rescued them, I knew which one I wanted to see behind bars.
I could feel Marchosias' presence. Right now, she was asleep, or at least in a state that resembled sleep, having feasted upon the terror she'd inflicted upon the Empire's thugs. Unlike my main projection, she was a semi-independent entity, more similar to the types of minions I'd found described in the Master sections of PHO's wiki – albeit one far more powerful than most examples.
I still wasn't sure what my familiar (the word was about as good as any for the bond between me and Marchosias) really was. She'd come from the Abyss, that other realm of purest blackness which my consciousness could access while I was unconscious and which was linked to every shadow in the city. At the same time, however, I felt like I had created her – or perhaps I had provided her with a reference shape she could use to manifest with the pet corpses of the E88 cold room.
One thing was clear : Marchosias was not a demon I'd summoned from the underworld. I was the one who had given her the name, pulling it out of one of Mom's books I'd read years ago. Which was good, because for all the rumors that Brockton Bay had been built on an open portal to Hell, I didn't want to have to deal with the heroes' reaction if they thought that was what I was doing. Actions might speak louder than words, but I knew enough about capes to know that image was also important to avoid being named a villain purely for aesthetic or naming reasons.
Was the strange images and emotions I'd received from her just how my brain translated the information my power was feeding it through my Corona Gemma ? There wasn't a lot of hard data to be found on the Internet regarding parahuman perception (or at least if there was, I couldn't find it amidst the veritable sea of conjecture and wild theorizing).
I supposed I would have to find out for myself. The more I used my power, the more I learned about it. At some point, I would run out of new abilities and would be able to focus on mastering the ones I already had.
No time like the present, I decided. Leaning back in my chair, I closed my eyes and tentatively reached through the connection with my familiar. Without being unconscious and letting my awareness slip into the Abyss, it was more difficult, but the tie was here.
Marchosias ?
I blinked, and suddenly there was an enormous black wolf in my room with me. She was laying down on the floor, completely filling the space between my desk and my bed – yet still, she was noticeably smaller than when I'd called her for the first time.
In hindsight, I realized that maybe I should have done this in the basement, where there was more space. Fortunately, my curtains were drawn (the light of the January sun had been hurting my eyes), so nobody would call the police on account of seeing a huge wolf inside a house.
Slowly, carefully, I reached out with my right hand and petted Marchosias' head. Her fur didn't feel real : it was like touching smoke, or the memory of an animal's fur. There was definitely something there, though, and I stroke her as gently as I could.
Marchosias stared at me with what I could only described as an amused look (I didn't know wolf faces could be that expressive), then closed her eyes and lowered her head, graciously allowing me to continue petting her.
So, I could summon Marchosias without being remotely controlling Lasombra at the same time. That was … I guessed it could be useful if I were ever attacked in my civilian identity, since I couldn't exactly pass out and project Lasombra on command. Sure, it would risk exposing myself, but if it was a life-and-death situation, I would much rather stay alive than die to keep my secret.
I would have to be careful, though. I'd read enough superhero comics to know that having one's secret identity revealed rarely led to anything good.
In one timeline, Coil listened to Tattletale finishing her report on the events of the previous night over the phone.
"I see," he said once she was done. "Nicely done. Keep up your investigation, pet."
In the other timeline, the one where he had insisted on Tattletale reporting her findings in person, he grinned as he looked at her, bleeding and broken, bound to a metal chair. His men had been working on her for the past two hours, and he knew she was at her breaking point. After the number of times he'd done this, he'd come to recognize the signs.
By now, she'd figured out what his power was : being in his presence and using her own talent to make sense of her situation ensured it. But it wouldn't help her. All she wanted was for the pain to end, and she would do and tell him anything for that to happen, even if it ultimately screwed over her alternate self.
The first time Coil had done this, it had taken multiple attempts to determine just how much brutality was needed to bring his pet to the point where she wouldn't attempt to lie to him but would still be in a state to answer his questions. He'd perfected the process over time, until now, he could pump her out of every bit of information she thought she was concealing from him with a minimum of fuss.
After savoring the look of despair on Tattletale's face for a few more moments, he pulled his pistol and shot her in the head, out of what he could admit to himself was mere pettiness, and collapsed that timeline.
Back at his desk inside his lair, he pondered what he'd learned.
It would be problematic to say the least if Lasombra were actually connected to the Fallen in any way. Given the well-deserved reputation of the Fallen, even a hint that Lasombra might be associated with them had been enough to make Tattletale and the rest of the Undersiders panic. Not that she'd admitted as such to Coil on the phone, but she'd confessed it all in person, once given the proper incentives.
Neither Coil nor Tattletale believed that the cape was part of the Endbringer cult : while it was possible they'd send one of their own to act as a hero in order to infiltrate the Bay's cape scene, they wouldn't be so foolish as to have him use the Marchosias name if that were the case.
The most likely scenario was that Tattletale had overreacted and the naming similarity was a coincidence : even in a world with the Simurgh, these things still happened. It was a weakness of all Thinker powers to read too deeply into things and come to erroneous conclusions, and one such as hers who depended on the quality of input most of all.
Still, the connection was a potential lever of control : making public the name of Lasombra's summon would harm his image at the very least, and might be seen as cause to try and take him in depending on how the dominoes of institutional paranoia fell.
More interesting was the girl. Taylor Hebert, the victim of Shadow Stalker's little indiscretion. Tattletale hadn't told him about the possible connection between the girl and Lasombra over the phone, but she had in the timeline where he'd had her tortured for two hours. There was a possibility Hebert was linked to Lasombra, though Tattletale hadn't been certain : the timelines certainly aligned, but she'd still been at the hospital when Lasombra had first appeared.
However, Thomas Calvert's position within the PRT meant that he was more knowledgeable on parahuman theory than his pet. And once you added the fact that Lasombra was using a summoned minion, the odds that the parahuman responsible was a Master instead of a Changer increased dramatically. And given that Hebert had been sent to the hospital after her theoretical Trigger Event, she – theoretically – wouldn't have the remarkable abilities of her – still theoretical – projection herself.
And if that theory was correct, then bringing Lasombra under his control suddenly became a lot more plausible. He wasn't arrogant enough to think he could threaten a cape who had gone toe-to-toe with Lung and emerged victorious, but a teenage girl holding the metaphorical remote to said cape ? That was another story. He already had been planning to setup a room in his base where his pet Thinker could be kept drugged and quiescent once her utility as a mobile agent had run its course : adding another bed would be simplicity itself.
He would follow up on that lead later, though. For now, he needed to use his influence within the PRT to make sure that, when Hookwolf was taken out of town, the Empire had the opportunity to rescue him. Last night had been an overall victory for Piggot, and he couldn't let anyone think the tides of the war against the gangs were turning in the PRT's favor. At least not until he was the one calling the shots and could take the credit for himself.
AN : Ah, Coil. Coil, Coil, Coil. Why are you like this ? It's not even powers messing with his head, since he's a Cauldron cape. I'm going to enjoy what I have planned for our dear evil Bond villain-wannabe, friends.
Once again, do not get used to this update speed. It's going to slow down sooner or later, but I'll take advantage of the Muse's enthusiasm while I can.
My next update should be ACCWAMD, as it is very nearly done at time of writing. The two Cain stories also each have chapters close to finished - I'm hoping to update them sometime next week.
As always, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I look forward to your suggestions.
Zahariel out.