Disclaimer: English is not my first language. I'm using Grammarly to check the Grammar and using Word to write it.
A peek at what Lisa and the Protectorate.
I feel like I struggle to write this kind of chapter and I don't know why.
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Lisa Wilbourn (Tattletale) POV:
God, I feel like shit.
This's what I get for trying to keep my teammate from incurring the wrath of the Empire.
Last night when we realised that Rachel had gone to attack another one of Hookwolf fighting rings, we rushed to stop her as Brian didn't want to attract the attention of the Empire.
It took us some time to find her, and when we finally did, we were unprepared for what we saw.
Rachel and her dogs were being carried by fucking skeletons, and she wasn't alone.
Hookwolf was also present.
Something intriguing that I learned is that those bones weren't from human beings. Neither were they from any animal that I knew about.
We confronted the skeletons to retrieve Rachel and it was a goddamn miracle that none of us died.
There were twelve in total. Eight skeletons were occupied with holding Rachel, her dogs, and Hookwolf, while the remaining four charged at us.
They were determined to keep us away and showed no restraint as they swung their swords wildly at us.
I almost lost my head to one of those swings!
Brian had created several body doubles made of smoke to distract the skeletons that were attacking us.
And it worked a little too well.
He got slashed across his stomach for his troubles.
Alec and I ran to the skeletons that were holding Rachel, and it was a real struggle to free her.
Those things were stronger than they seemed.
Eventually, we managed to get Rachel and her dogs back but as we tried to escape, one of the skeletons grabbed my right forearm and broke it.
Alec was able to rescue me from the skeleton that had grabbed me.
As we made our escape, Brian had covered the entire area around us in smoke so that the skeletons couldn't follow us.
Which wasn't needed as the skeletons did not attempt to chase us.
After we arrived at our base, Brian and I took care of our wounds. Alec, on the other hand, didn't have a single scratch on him.
Lucky bastard.
And now here I am.
Lying in my bed with my right forearm in a cast, staring at the ceiling and searching for any excuses to not get up.
I just wish that the cast would stop itching so much.
"...fuck," I said.
I let out a groan as I got out of bed and walked out of my room.
I walked towards the kitchen and saw that Brian was sitting by the table drinking coffee.
He's exhausted and frustrated. He's in-
I forcefully turned off my power. I don't want to deal with a migraine right now.
The downsides of being a Thinker.
"Morning," Brian said.
"Morning," I walked straight to the counter to get a cup of coffee.
I took of big sip of coffee and sighed in relief.
"How's the arm?" Brian asked.
"Itching. What about you?" I asked.
Brian gently rubbed his stomach, "I'm trying not to move around too much."
Man, Brian really can't catch a break from getting stabbed in the stomach. First, it was Shadow Stalker, and now it was skeletons.
I took another sip of coffee, "Where's Rachel and Alec?"
"Rachel is still in her room and Alec went out to buy more snacks," Brian said.
I let out a hum and took another sip.
"What excuse did you give Aisha for why you won't go home today?" I asked.
"That I will be busy with work the entire day," Brian said.
That's not a bad one.
"And she bought it?" I refilled my cup.
Brian shrugged, "Doesn't matter since Dad's going to take her to the gym." He held out his cup for a refill.
I refilled his cup, "Wasn't his gym vandalized last week?"
"Yes. But it was just some broken windows and graffiti," Brian took a sip of his coffee.
Brian and I stayed quiet for a few minutes, enjoying the coffee.
Brian sighed, "Last night was a mess."
I snorted.
"What're we going to do about Magus?" Brain asked.
"Stay the hell away from him, that's what," I said.
"That's your plan?" Brian asked.
I raised an eyebrow, "You got a better idea? Or do you actually want to try your chance against him? And before you answer, let me remind you what happened to Hookwolf and Krieg."
"Didn't Magus and Lancer help Armsmaster in defeating Krieg?" Brian asked.
I scoffed, "Don't believe that crap, the local news got it wrong. Lancer single-handedly demolished Krieg. Magus and Armsmaster did help him a little but it wasn't necessary."
Coil sent me the footage of the fight to analyze it. He ordered me to prepare a comprehensive report on Magus and Lancer's abilities.
The only thing I got from the footage is that Lancer's freaking scary.
Seriously, you can't even call that a fight.
Naturally, Coil wasn't happy with that report and demanded Magus's identity.
My power did inform me of something very interesting: Coil is furious with Magus.
I took a closer look at Magus's actions and easily figured out why.
Magus attacked one of Coil's safehouses, resulting in the loss of over a million dollars worth of tinker tech that was confiscated, along with the arrest of several of his men.
Best news I got in a while.
But that does make me curious about why he would attack Coil.
No one pays attention to Coil. And he goes through a lot of trouble to keep it that way.
"Why's he being so aggressive?" Brian asked.
"I don't know. What I do know is that Chaldea is here to stay," I said.
Everyone can see the writing on the wall.
The status quo is changing.
The question now is: who is going to lose their territory to Chaldea?
I hope it's Coil.
"We gotta do something," Brian said.
"Like what?" I asked.
"Is there anyone that we can recruit?" Brian asked.
"Nope," I said.
We lost our chance with Emily. And Faultline, that bitch, loves to rub that on my face whenever she got the chance.
Brian looked at his coffee with a thoughtful frown for a few seconds before turning his gaze back to me.
"Get in contact with the boss. He might know someone," Brian said.
I had to stop myself from grimacing at his suggestion.
"I will get in contact with him later," I said.
"...how long do you think we have until Magus comes for us?" Brian asked.
"It's going to be a while before he comes for us. He got bigger fish to worry about than a group of thieves," I said. "That's if we don't do anything to grab his attention," I said with a pointed look at Brian.
"Hey, that's the last thing I want to happen," Brian said.
Every villain in the city is on the chopping block. We're just lucky to be at the bottom of that list.
Alec walked inside the kitchen.
"You guys look like shit," Alec said as he walked to the fridge.
"Fuck off," I don't have the patience right now.
"Buy me dinner first," Alec said.
I raised my middle finger in response.
Brian sighed, "Alec, not right now. We're having an important discussion."
"I caught part of your conversation, and I've got some news that I think you two will want to hear," Alec said.
"What news?" I asked.
"You gotta say the magic word first," Alec said.
"Fuck you!" great, now I'm getting a migraine.
"That's not the one," Alec said.
"I'm going to strangle you!" I said.
"Hm, how kinky. But first, we need a safe word. I suggest pineapple," Alec said deadpanned.
"ALEC!" I growled.
Brian groaned as he got up, grabbing my left arm to prevent me from hurting Alec.
"Knock it off Alec," Brian said seriously.
"You guys can't take a joke," Alec said. "The gang war is over."
Brain and I blinked in surprise.
"What?" I asked.
"Lung, Othala, and Alabaster are in the custody of the PRT. The rest of the Empire capes are in bad shape and Oni Lee might not survive his wounds," Alec said casually.
"What?!" I asked.
What the hell happened?!
"How did that happen?" Brian asked.
"Lung attacked the Empire and every hero in the city joined the fight. In the end, Kaiser ran away with his tail between his legs, and Lung was beaten to a pulp," Alec said.
"At least explain it properly," I said, my eyebrows twitching with irritation.
Alec shrugged, "That's what happened."
You're so lucky my forearm is in a cast.
I started to hear a familiar tune and let out a groan.
It's Coil.
I rolled my eyes at the information.
Gee, thanks power. It's not like I could have figured that out on my own.
"I will be right back," I went to my room.
I answered my cell phone.
"Yeah?" I said.
"Check your email," Coil said.
I turned on my computer, logged in my e-mail, and downloaded the file he sent me.
It's the report of last night's fight between the ABB and Empire.
"I want the report done by the end of the week," Coil ended the call.
Asshole.
"I'm going to need more coffee," I sighed tiredly.
I glanced at the report and hummed thoughtfully.
"This could be my chance," I thought.
Magus already has Coil on his sight.
And maybe all he needs now is an extra push.
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Emily Piggot POV:
I wish I could have a drink right now.
"Thank you all for coming," I started the meeting.
The Protectorate and Dragon, all sat around a massive conference table.
The Wards couldn't attend this meeting since they're all in school right now.
I was seated at the head of the table, with a TV behind me displaying images of all the Chaldea members that we know so far.
"Why's one of the images a sketch?" Assault asked.
"Currently, we don't possess an image of her," Renick said.
Neither did we know about her existence.
"Velocity was the one to inform us about her," I said.
"I got a glimpse of her in last night's fight," Velocity explained.
"As you all know, a new organization has been established in Brockton Bay," I said.
"Can we really call Chaldea an organization? All of their members are projections created by Magus," Battery said.
"That's still under discussion but for now we're considering them an organization," Renick said.
"Which leads to the question: Where did Magus come from?" I asked.
It's impossible for a cape with his powerset to have stayed hidden all this time in a city like Brockton Bay.
"I searched our database and couldn't find any cape that matched Magus," Armsmaster frowned.
"Facial recognition of the servants didn't yield any results. I also looked into capes that are missing and none of them match any of the servants," Dragon said.
It's a relief to confirm that Magus isn't a master that can control other individuals.
"Maybe Magus is a new cape," Velocity said.
"He could be a combat thinker," Miss Militia suggested.
"No, that doesn't feel right. Magus behaves in a way that only comes from experience. Last night's fight showed that he knows what he's doing.," Dauntless said.
Armsmaster nodded in agreement, "He also made the strategic choice of attacking the gang's supply chain. That shows he understands how cutting their resources will weaken them, not just in the gang war, but in the long run as well."
And that's one of the things that makes Magus such a headache.
He's a walking contradiction.
The preliminary psychological analysis of Magus's powers described a young man who had spent a long time isolated from his peers and was desperate for companionship.
That wasn't even close to what I saw when I met him.
But most important was the look he had in his eyes.
Those were the eyes of someone who went through hell.
I should know.
I had the same look after Ellisburg.
"He could have received training from his servants," Dragon suggested.
"But how do they have the skills and knowledge to teach him? That doesn't make sense," Battery said.
"Powers don't make sense. I can summon any weapons that I think about without needing to know how they work," Miss Militia shrugged.
That's a good point. Expecting parahumans powers to follow common sense is a futile endeavor.
"This's going nowhere. We will return to this topic once we gather more information on Magus," I said. "Next topic."
"With Oni Lee out of commission, we believe that Chaldea will take over the ABB territory," Renick said.
"The longstanding status quo in Brockton Bay was being changed by a group that has been active for less than a month," I thought.
"We will increase patrol in the Downtown and the Commercial District," I turned to Armsmaster. "Did you find out what Coil was really doing during the gang war?"
Coil has always been an enigmatic figure. Besides the occasional clash with the Empire, he never caused too much trouble.
Only to find out that he had an alarming amount of tinker tech when Magus attacked one of his safehouses.
How did we miss that?
Now I'm trying to find out what he is up to.
"I still haven't found anything that shows that Coil did anything besides protect his territory," Armsmaster frowned. "He's changing the locations of all his safehouses."
"Keep a close eye on him. I want to know everything that happens in his territory," I said.
"Are we just going to let Chaldea take over the ABB territory?" Velocity asked curiously.
"It's not ideal but I rather take my chances with Chaldea than some villain from out of town," I said.
"Now let's talk about the servants," I said.
"Do we know how many in total he has?" Armsmaster asked.
"Unfortunately no. But Magus made it clear that Chaldea has a wide variety of members," Rednick said.
He was already hiding one of his servants. Who knows how many more he's hiding?
"I think there's a fantasy theme to it," Assault said.
I raised an eyebrow, "Go on."
"Look at their names, appearance, and fight style. Caster is a wizard, Saber is a paladin, Lancer is a barbarian, Berserker is a wizard and the skull-masked woman is a rogue," Assault said.
"You're using DnD classes?" Dauntless asked.
Assault shrugged, "What can I say? They fit the roles perfectly."
I glanced at the pictures once more and hummed thoughtfully.
They do follow some kind of fantasy aesthetics.
Is there a deeper meaning to it? Or it's all just a coincidence?
Goddamm parahumans and their nonsensical powers.
"I don't think Saber would be a paladin. She seems more of a knight," Dragon said.
"I know what you mean but knights are a subclass-"
"Let's focus on the meeting," I interrupted Assault.
"I have a report from Narwhal that she was contacted through PHO by Uomo Universale, who claimed to speak on behalf of Chaldea," Dragon said.
"That sounds Italian," Miss Militia raised an eyebrow.
"It's Italian for Universal Man. It refers to an individual whose knowledge spans many different subjects. This term has been used to describe many great scholars throughout history," Armsmaster explained.
"Wow, one of Magus's servants has one hell of an ego," Battery said.
"Magus wants to join the Guild?" Dauntless asked.
"It wasn't a request to join the Guild but to offer Chaldea aid in dealing with S-Class threats," Dragon said seriously.
Everyone turned to Dragon in surprise.
"What?" I asked.
This doesn't add up.
There's no doubt that Magus and his servants are strong, but S-Class threats are an entirely different beast.
You don't go after such monsters without a reason.
What is Chaldea aiming for?
"What was Narwhal's response?" I asked.
"Naturally she refused. As strong as Chaldea is, they aren't ready for S-Class threats," Dragon said.
"Are we certain of that?" I thought.
There's a world of difference between the Empire and the monsters of SlaughterHouse Nine.
But with how effortlessly Chaldea is taking down the gangs and considering that Magus can summon even more servants...dear god, could Chaldea actually handle SlaughterHouse Nine?
I'm getting a headache.
"Director, this meeting isn't getting us anywhere. We have too little information on Chaldea, and all we're doing is raising more questions," Armsmaster said bluntly.
Leave it to Colin to say how it is.
"I'm going to send the information we have of Chaldea to Watchdog," Hopefully they will have more luck. "For now Magus will be classified as a Master/Trump 8."
"And the servants?" Rednick asked.
"We will wait for Magus to summon all of them first," I said.
"What's our next step?" Velocity asked.
"Dauntless, reach out to Magus and organize a patrol together, bring Gallant and Kid Win with you. Dragon, gather as much intel as possible from Uomo Universale. Armsmaster, continue investigating Coil. The rest of you, focus on patrolling the city, we need to demonstrate that the Protectorate/PRT is as strong as ever," I said.
Hopefully, Chaldea's presence will be something positive to the city and not just another source of headaches.
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