Chapter 8: Reckoning
Ross Moore - Polaris - April 11th
The first thing I became aware of was biting cold.
My entire body felt like it had been packed in ice. I tried to move and felt a twitch of pain, muscles stiff and unresponsive.
The second thing was the smell of salt and smoke and rotting seaweed.
I tried to open my eyes but my eyelids felt glued shut with dried salt. When I finally managed to pry them apart, pale gray dawn light flooded my vision. I was lying face-down on a rocky beach, waves lapping at my feet. Somewhere overhead, seagulls screamed their morning arguments.
What happened?
Memory came back in fragments. The full moon. Lung's ambush. Bakuda's pain grenade. The transformation—Oh god. Oh fuck.
I pushed myself up on trembling arms, my naked skin scraped raw against the rocks. Every muscle in my body screamed in protest, but I forced myself to stand. My legs nearly gave out immediately and I had to catch myself against a barnacle encrusted rock. I felt unnaturally weak and I couldn't tell if it was because of the cold or something else.
The shore was littered with debris. Chunks of concrete. Twisted rebar. A child's plastic toy.
What happened?
I looked down at myself. Scratches and bruises covered my torso and limbs. But my tail—I reached back instinctively and felt nothing. Just smooth skin and a faint scar where the appendage had once been. The tail was completely gone, not even a stump remained. I could still feel it there, like a phantom limb. My balance felt wrong.
My clothes were completely gone, probably destroyed during my transformation. I shivered naked in the morning sea breeze.
Beneath the exhaustion and pain, something else stirred. My Ki felt... satisfied. Content, even. Like a dog after a long run at the park, tired yet fulfilled. The energy thrummed beneath my skin with an almost cheerful quality that made my stomach turn. Part of me—the Saiyan part—was happy about what had happened.
Using the rocks for support, I made my way up the beach toward a small copse of trees. Each step was agony, my muscles protesting the movement. But I had to get away from the water, had to find somewhere to think.
The trees provided some cover, though not much. Through the gaps in the foliage I could see smoke rising from multiple points across the city. From what I could see, the nearby docks were in ruins. Where dozens of warehouses and shipping facilities had once stood, there was now just rubble and the occasional skeletal frame of a building still standing.
Memories flickered through my mind like the night after a bender. The sensation of power, of invincibility. The rage that had consumed every thought, every moment. The need to destroy, to fight, to—
I remembered fighting Lung, killing him. He started this. He attacked me. He deserved what happened. Was that Oozaru's thoughts? Or Ross's.
But you ARE Oozaru, a traitorous voice whispered in my mind. You can pretend there's a separation, but that rage, that violence—it's all you. It was always going to be you.
Without my tail the vague influence of the Great Ape was muted, but still present, like a figure partially concealed behind frosted glass. I felt dark satisfaction radiating from its presence, primal approval of last night's wanton violence.
I slumped against a tree, sliding down until I was sitting in the dirt and pine needles. My head felt like it was splitting apart, memories of the rampage mixing with human guilt and Saiyan pride in a nauseating cocktail.
I tried to make sense of the scattered memories. Fragmented images of fighting multiple opponents. Flying capes that attacked like wasps. Someone who hit hard—Alexandria? The taste of blood as bones crunched, silencing a muffled scream inside my own mouth… Jesus. Did I eat somebody?
My hand reached back reflexily to touch where my tail had been, half expecting to find its furry mass. Instead my fingers found that faint scar, smooth and fully healed, as if the tail had been severed years ago. Someone managed to cut off my tail, I realised. I couldn't remember who had done the deed. Somebody powerful certainly, perhaps Eidolon…
Good, I thought bitterly. I should have done it myself. Stupid. Stupid.
I don't know how long I sat there, shivering and trying to piece together the fragments of the previous night. The sun climbed higher, warming my skin but doing nothing for the lump of ice in my gut. My Ki continued its cheerful circulation, apparently unconcerned with the moral implications of last night's rampage.
What do I do now?
The sound of rustling leaves made me jerk my head up. Through the trees, I could see movement—people approaching. I considered my options. I could try to run, but I had nowhere to go, and a naked cape was sure to attract attention. I could try to fight, but I was exhausted and probably outnumbered. Or I could just be honest. Tell them who I am. Accept whatever comes next.
The decision was made for me when a figure in bronze power armor walked around the tree I was hiding behind. We both froze, staring at each other.
For a moment, neither of us spoke. Then I forced myself to stand, wrapping my arms around myself in a futile attempt at modesty.
"I'm Polaris," I said, my voice hoarse and raw. "A local independent…"
The cape took a step back, his posture going stiff. His hand moved toward something at his belt, but he didn't draw a weapon.
"Polaris?" He sounded uncertain. "The healer? I thought... we heard you were missing after last night."
"I was," I said. "I got caught up in the fight. I barely survived."
Another cape appeared through the trees. I recognised him instantly—Weld, his metallic body gleaming even though there were bits of rust and paint stuck to him, probably from clearing rubble. His expression was difficult to read given his metallic features, but I caught surprise and something else. Discomfort, maybe?
"Jesus," Weld muttered, raising a hand to his head. "Console, this is Weld. We found someone. It's... it's Polaris. He's alive but in rough shape."
Tecton pulled something from his belt—a simple black domino mask—he pinched it delicately between the metal fingers of his gauntlets. "Here," he said, offering it to me lamely. "For your face..."
"Thanks," I managed, taking the mask. Then Tecton was pulling off his cape and offering it to me as well.
"For, you know. Modesty." He looked profoundly uncomfortable. "We've got supplies back at the staging area. Clothes, medical attention, food."
I eyed up the capes, they seemed abashed by my nakedness… but there was no hint of fear or deception.
They don't know. They have no idea.
Relief and guilt warred in my chest. "Right, food sounds good." I said weakly.
My stomach punctuated my statement with a loud gurgle.
"Great," Tecton said earnestly. "We're just about done setting up these seismic sensors, if you want you can come back with us."
"Sensors?" I asked as I began to stumble along with them. Every step felt like I was crossing uneven ground, even though the path was mostly flat.
"We're investigating the possibility of damage to the bedrock from Kong's attack. So far things seem pretty good. All things considered…"
"We're not supposed to call it Kong." Weld said chastisingly. His voice had a metallic timber to it, like he was speaking into a metal drum.
"Oh. Right–sorry." Tecton said distractedly, tapping at the display on a football sized device. "What did they name it again? Armok?"
"Amarok," said Weld, turning to me as Tecton planted the device in the ground, easily pushing it into the dirt with his power armor enhanced strength. "The PRT decided that the name Kong was inappropriate, so they gave it the name Amarok, it's the name of a mythological giant wolf in some native cultures."
"Can't say I've ever heard of it." I said honestly. Kong. Oozaru. Amarok… it didn't really matter what people called it. For a second I had the impulse to explain that its real name was Oozaru. But I just ignored it.
The trek through the broken docks was slow and awkward. The heroes made small talk as we walked, clearly trying to put me at ease. I answered any questions in short, non-committal replies as I looked around at the devastation. Internally I was trying to figure out my next move. They clearly thought I was just another cape who'd gotten caught up in the ape's rampage. I wanted desperately to question them, but didn't know how without seeming suspicious.
How long before someone connects the dots? Armsmaster knew I was there when the Great Ape appeared. Plus there were ABB members… Bakuda. Any of them could point the finger… if any of them survived. The fact that I hadn't been attacked on sight probably meant they hadn't.
The staging area turned out to be a large clearing that had been converted into a temporary command post. There were tents, folding tables laden with boxes of supplies, and dozens of people in various states of exhaustion and distress. I spotted PRT agents, firefighters, paramedics, and even a few other capes I didn't recognize.
"Wait here," Tecton said, gesturing to a bench near one of the supply tents. "I'll grab you some real clothes."
Weld took a final look at me before striding off to join the group of heroes gathered near the largest tent.
As the heroes dispersed, I sat down heavily on the bench and tried to process everything. The organized chaos of the staging area, the exhausted faces, the quiet conversations about search and rescue operations—it all felt surreal.
Am I really responsible for all this? I didn't have an easy answer. I had no control over my actions last night, so was there any point in self recrimination? I never even had a chance to reign in the Great Ape. Vegeta and others had apparently learned to control it, and after waking up today I had no fucking idea how that was even possible. All I'd felt was anger and excitement, like some kind crazed attack dog injected with all the meth in the world.
Tecton returned a few minutes later with a bundle of clothes. "Here. These should fit, more or less. There's a tent over there if you need privacy."
I changed quickly, pulling on gray sweatpants, a yellow t-shirt, and a zip-up hoodie that was slightly too large with the word FEMA emblazoned in blocky orange letters. The domino mask completed the ensemble, turning me from a random disaster victim into an anonymous parahuman. When I emerged, a ward in a blue and silver costume was waiting with a polystyrene cup and a handful of protein bars.
"I heard you were hungry," she said with a smile after introducing herself as Grace. "Fair warning, the coffee is terrible but it's hot."
"Thank you," I said, accepting both. The coffee was indeed terrible—bitter and scalding—but it was a distraction.
Grace sat down beside me on the bench. "Hell of a night, huh?"
"Yeah," I managed, taking a sip of the coffee. "Hell of a night."
"Where were you when it started?" she asked, her tone breezy, as if we were discussing the weather. "Like, when the sirens went off?"
"Near the shipyard," I said vaguely. "I was... looking for somewhere to stay."
She nodded sympathetically. "Bad timing. Did you see it? Amarok?"
I hesitated, trying to figure out how much a witness would have seen versus how much I actually remembered. "Bits and pieces. It was dark, and I was mostly trying to stay alive. I saw..." I trailed off, swallowing hard. "I saw it destroy a building. Just swept its hand through it like it was made of cardboard."
"Jesus." Grace shook her head. "I can't even imagine. I got here after most of the fighting was over—Strider brought us in from Chicago around three AM. By then the worst was done."
"How bad is it?" I asked, grateful to turn the questions back on her.
"Not as bad as it could have been," she said conversationally. "The evacuation was mostly complete before Amarok really got going. Vista's power saved most of the city by compressing the skyscrapers. Made it look less appealing as a target, I guess."
"Smart," I said quietly.
"Yeah. She probably saved a hundred thousand lives last night." Grace kicked at the gravel with her boot.
"How many?" The question came out rougher than I intended.
Grace studied me for a moment. "You don't have to do this to yourself right now, you know. You survived. That's what matters."
"How many?" I repeated.
She sighed. "Preliminary count is around three thousand confirmed dead, with around double that missing. There's always a lot of 'missing' people just due to the breakdown of communications, but..." She gestured vaguely at the ruins visible in the distance. "Total losses will probably be a lot higher once they finish searching. Maybe eight or nine thousand. Could be worse though. Newfoundland was six-hundred thousand. Kyushu was nine and a half million"
I took another sip of coffee to give myself something to do. Eight or nine thousand. The number felt impossible to imagine.
"Is that what Amarok is?" I asked, latching onto the thread. "An Endbringer?"
Grace shrugged. "That's above my pay grade.The Protectorate's being cagey about it. Officially it's an 'S-class threat of unknown origin' or something."
"What do you think?"
"You want my completely unsubstantiated theory?" She grinned slightly. "I think it's some kind of projection."
"What makes you think that?"
She leaned forward, lowering her voice conspiratorially. "Well, for one thing, they collected samples during the fight, bits of blood and hair. They were running tests on them when—Poof!—all the samples disappeared. Just vanished, like they'd never existed. The exact same time Legend hit it with his final attack."
"That's... weird," I said, trying to keep my voice neutral.
"I know right? As far as we know, Endbringer tissue doesn't do that. Even after Behemoth or Leviathan leave, their scales and blood and whatever else stay behind. I think that maybe the giant ape is like a shell, and the real threat—the core, whatever you want to call it—escaped when the shell got destroyed."
It wasn't a bad theory, and I wondered if it was a common one. Grace didn't seem like the kind of person to come up with something like that on her own. She'd probably heard it from another cape.
"Makes as much sense, as anything." I said after a long pause.
"We won't know if it's an Endbringer or not until the next Endbringer attack probably…" She trailed off.
"Did anyone see where it went?" I asked
"Into the bay apparently. They've looking, but the water's deep and murky, and there's so much debris..." She shrugged helplessly. "If it was an Endbringer it's probably long gone by now." She sounded like she was trying to reassure me.
Before I could respond, a figure in red appeared in a blur of motion, resolving into Velocity. His costume was torn and scorched, and even through his mask I could see the exhaustion in his posture.
"Polaris!" His voice carried genuine relief. "Thank god. We've been looking for you. When you didn't report in after Lung's attack..." He trailed off, seeming to realize he was being too familiar. "Sorry. I mean, it's good to see you made it through."
"Thanks," I said. "You too. You look like you've been through hell."
"We all have." He glanced at Grace. "Has anyone checked him over? Medical?"
"I'm fine," I said quickly. "Just scratched up. I'll heal."
"You should see Panacea anyway," Velocity insisted. "She's at Brockton General, I'm sure she could spare a minute to—"
"No." The word came out sharper than I intended. "I mean, I'd rather not. Let her save her energy for people who actually need it."
Velocity and Grace exchanged glances. I could practically hear him thinking.
"Fair enough," Velocity looked me over critically. "You were near the shipyard when this started, right? Your communicator pinged there before it went offline."
So they had been tracking me. "Yeah. I was looking for a place to sleep when... when Lung showed up."
"Lung." Velocity's voice went flat. "Did you see what happened to him?"
I shook my head. "I ran. I heard explosions, saw that thing—Amarok—and I just ran. I don't know what happened after that." It wasn't entirely a lie. I didn't remember most of what the Great Ape had done.
I nodded, then seized the opportunity to ask the question that had been burning in my mind. "How many capes did we lose?"
The silence that followed was heavy and terrible.
"Lung's confirmed dead," Velocity said finally. "Vaporized by Amarok's beam attack. Armsmaster saw the whole thing. Bakuda—his new Tinker—is also dead. Crushed, we think, though there wasn't much left to check."
I killed them both. I remember killing them both. I resisted the urge to look down at my hand, remembering the exposed flesh.
"The Empire took losses too," Velocity, his voice taking on a strangely official tone, like he was reading off a list. "We're still getting reports, but it sounds like at least three or four capes went down, maybe permanently. They're being tight-lipped about it, naturally."
"And on our side?" I forced myself to ask. "I mean you guys—The Protectorate?"
Another heavy silence.
"Miss Militia went down with a PRT helicopter. No survivors." Velocity said, and his voice cracked slightly. "Triumph. A building came down on top of him. We pulled him out, but he didn't make it…"
"Gallant," Velocity said after another pregnant silence. He started to say something else but stopped, and shook his head once.
The water bottle squeaked as I tightened my grip..
"Hey, hey," Grace was saying, her hand on my shoulder surprising me. "It's okay. It's not your fault. You couldn't have—"
"Who else?" I interrupted,"You said there were others. Out of town capes." I needed to know if any of the major players were out of the game. I needed to stay focused.
Velocity rattled off a list of names. Most I didn't recognize or only half-remembered from wiki binges and fanfiction. Heroes from Boston, New York, Philadelphia. The list seemed to go on forever.
"Raymancer," Grace said softly, and I saw her head drop. "He was from Chicago like me. Blaster, force fields and energy manipulation." Her voice wavered. "He volunteered to be carried by a flying cape..."
I watched a tear slide down her cheek, and I felt like she was a thousand miles away, even though she was close enough to reach out and touch. Weren't people supposed to freak out when something like this happens? I just felt numb. Like it was a movie I was watching or I was just an actor playing a role.
I'd met Miss Militia. I'd liked her. Why couldn't I feel anything after murdering her? What the fuck was wrong with me?
"I need to go," I said abruptly, standing up.
"Go? Go where?" Grace's voice was gentle but firm. "Polaris, you're clearly in shock. Let me get a medic—"
"I'm fine," I said. The food had revived me somehow. I could even feel the smallest cuts stinging as they closed, even without cycling my Ki. "I just... I need to check up on some people."
"At least let us set you up somewhere safe," Velocity said. "There are temporary shelters, or we can get you a hotel room. The PRT's covering emergency housing for displaced capes."
"I appreciate it, but I need to..." I couldn't finish the sentence. Need to… what? Run away? Get revenge? Turn myself in?
I need to do something, I realised. Anything. Because I'm sitting here, finding out how many lives I ruined and I feel bored.
I'd do anything to not feel bored right now.
"I understand," Grace said, though her expression suggested she didn't, not really. "But please, if you need anything—food, shelter, someone to talk to—come find us, okay? We take care of our own."
I'm not one of yours, I thought. Not even close. But I just nodded and mumbled my thanks before walking away from the staging area, moving on autopilot. Behind me, I heard Velocity call out something about checking in later, but I didn't stop.
I tried to summon grief. I tried to feel the weight of all those deaths. Miss Militia had overcome so much to die pointlessly. Gallant was just a kid. Thousands of civilians who'd done nothing wrong.
Nothing. Just that persistent numbness, and underneath it, that satisfied purr of Saiyan contentment. I should be horrified. Instead I just felt... cheated.
I'd be robbed of my own humanity by this alien body that cared more about a good fight than human life. Fuck this. Fuck feeling nothing. And fuck Lung for causing all of this. If I couldn't feel guilt, I'd settle for rage. Rage at least was something. I wished Lung was still alive so I could hunt his scaly ass down and kill him all over again. That flicker of anger was enough to warm me for a moment, but it faded in a second.
Except… It wasn't really Lung's fault either, I realised. There was no way the ABB could have randomly stumbled on two of my hiding places in one day.
Not without help.
The thought crystallized everything with sudden clarity. I suddenly understood.
There was only one Cape in the bay who could have guessed my hiding spot randomly. Tattletale. She could have figured out my likely hideout and must have told Coil. Coil had tipped off the ABB and they'd come looking for me.
Coil had done this. Coil had set me up. It all came back to Coil.
He needed to pay for what he did.
The smart thing would be to run away. Go to ground in another city and consolidate. Come back when Coil wasn't expecting me.
But I'd never been particularly smart when I was angry.
I reached a clear space, just outside the makeshift camp and reached for my Ki. It responded eagerly, that cheerful satisfaction thrumming to life at my call. The energy wanted to be used, wanted to flow, wanted to do something.
Fine, I thought. Let's fucking do something.
I turned my senses inwards and reached for my Ki, gathering it beneath me. The sensation was strange but instinctive, like the power had been waiting for me to figure this out. If nothing else the Great Ape had taught me that my approach to Ki was far too cowardly. You had to grab onto it, force it under your control and push until it felt like you were going to break something. So I did just that.
I saw tiny pieces of gravel at my feet begin to tumble randomly, standing on their ends and rolling over as my power intensified, tiny flickers of static electricity appeared between them as they collided.
My feet left the ground.
Behind me Velocity called out, but the pounding of my heart and the internal rush of my Ki drowned him out.
I wobbled in the air unsteadily. I was flying, well technically hovering, about three feet off the ground. It wasn't graceful but it felt natural.
Higher.
I rose jerkily into the air, my control was shoddy. But with each passing second, it became easier. My Ki seemed to understand what I wanted, adjusting instinctively to keep me aloft.
I remembered my dreams from before all of this. In those dreams I used to fly freely, crossing continents and oceans in the blink of an eye. Often I'd be so excited by the feeling of freedom that I'd wake myself up. Flying in real life was a lot like that, I simply willed myself to move and I did. Higher and faster.
But sadly, this was no dream with a pleasant ending. As the city spread out below me, the scope of the destruction was even more apparent. Entire blocks were simply gone, reduced to rubble and ash. I tried to make sense of the trail of destruction. I knew vaguely where I'd first transformed, but I'd never seen the docks from up high, and the destruction was seemingly random. Some buildings were smouldering piles of concrete and steel while the next street over was seemingly untouched by random chance.
I flew over an enormous footprint, preserved in a broken road. I did this. Oozaru did this. We did this. Because really… I was the Great Ape and he was me.
There was no denying it, no point in bothering with the self deception now my tail was gone. The Great Ape was a version of Ross Moore with all morality and restraint ripped away. A creature of pure rage and domination, but still possessing my mind, my memories. It had known how to kill Alexandria and how to react to Narwhal's force fields because I knew those things.
But that version of me wouldn't have existed without Coil's interference. Without Tattletale's information. Without Trainwreck's betrayal.
Find them. Make them pay. Then face whatever comes next.
I turned my attention to the docks, or what was left of them. My enhanced senses were working overtime, vision and sense of smell sharper than ever. A function of greater Ki density perhaps? I realized I could smell more clearly from up here. The wind carried scents across the city—smoke and blood and the acrid tang of burnt metal and plastic.
And incredibly faint, yet familiar, the scent of dogs.
—
The dog scent led me toward the edges of the destroyed docks, into an area that had escaped the worst of last night's rampage. I descended lower, skimming above the rooftops, following my nose like a bloodhound.
This part of the docks was unfamiliar territory. During my patrols, I'd stuck to the more central areas, closer to the water. This neighborhood was different—older, with plants overgrowing half the lots. There were still signs of damage, slumped in roofs and leaning walls, but not as bad as most of the docks.
The Undersiders' hideout, if that's what I was tracking, had been spared by sheer luck.
The scent of dogs grew stronger as I circled lower. Not normal dogs—the smell was wrong. Bitch's power did something to canines that covered them in monsters of muscle and bone and I could smell the lingering traces of it.
I spotted the building finally: a two-story industrial structure with faded letters on the side reading "Redmond Welding." The windows on the ground floor were covered with metal shutters, and the main entrance looked like it had been chained shut. But the dog scent was unmistakable, concentrated around the building like a fog.
I landed in an alley beside the structure, feet touching down more gracefully than I had any right to.
What's the plan here, I asked myself. Kick down the door and demand answers? Why not? None of the Undersiders were a threat to me.
It felt like crossing a line, invading somebody's home to demand satisfaction with the threat of violence. But at the same time, that's exactly what had happened to me with Lung… more or less.
I approached the main entrance cautiously, my enhanced senses on high alert. I could hear movement inside—footsteps, the click of claws on concrete, low voices. At least three people, maybe four. Plus the dogs, of course.
The main door was rusted shut, but I found a locked side entrance, but that was barely an obstacle. A gentle push, and the door popped open with a sharp snap.
Inside, the ground floor was clearly a workshop or garage. Old equipment sat in corners, covered in dust and rust. Metal scraps and half-finished projects littered the space. But everything had been pushed to the sides, creating a clear path to a metal staircase that led upward.
The false dog scent was overwhelming here, mixed with the smell of motor oil and old metal. I could hear scratching and panting from above, along with the low murmur of conversation.
I started up the stairs, but each step creaked loudly under my weight. I paused, then gathered my Ki and began to hover, rising slowly and silently up the stairwell.
The upstairs seemed to be one large loft, with several doors off to one side separating out smaller rooms. Three of the doors had their own graffiti: one displayed a jester's crown, the second had a man and woman cutout and the last a picture of a girl's 'kissy face'.
This was clearly where they lived. Mismatched furniture was arranged around a large TV. Empty food containers and soda cans littered a coffee table. Video game controllers sat abandoned on a couch. The entire scene screamed 'no parents'. A glass coffee table had a dozen stacks of cash bound by rubber bands in a loose pile over discarded magazines. I could only guess how much money it was, thousands of dollars probably..
The voices were coming from the TV, some program I'd never seen before.
As I hovered there in the center of the room, a girl suddenly entered from one of the unmarked doors.
She was wearing a dirty tank top and jeans. Her bulldog mask hung loose around her neck. Her dark hair was pulled back in a rough ponytail, and her arms were covered in scabs. Rachel Lindt, aka Bitch I realised. She was shorter than I'd expected, maybe five-foot-six. Three dogs padded out on her heels.
Bitch's eyes widened as she saw me. "Who the fuck—"
"Where's Tattletale?" I interrupted, my voice flat and deadly serious.
"Get out." The dogs noticed the tension and began to growl, bunching defensively at Bitch's feet.
"Not until I get answers." I said. "I'm going to ask one more time: Where. Is. Tattletale?"
Bitch's expression hardened. "Kill!"
The dogs charged.
A growl erupted from my throat, deeper and more bestial than any sound a human could make. At the same time, I unleashed my Ki, letting it pour out of me and fill the room.
The effect was instantaneous.
The lead dog stopped so abruptly it skidded across the floor, its claws scrabbling for purchase. The other two actually whimpered, pressing themselves low to the ground in submission. One of them lost control of its bladder, urine pooling beneath it even as it began to swell into its monstrous form.
Bitch stared in shock, "What the fuck did you do to my dogs?" she said angrily.
I landed and took a step forward, and all three dogs flinched. Another step, and they scrambled backward despite Bitch's commands, their instincts overriding their training. They knew what I was, even if she didn't. Somehow, they recognized me from last night.
"Call them off," I said, my voice still carrying that inhuman bass. "Now."
Bitch's hand moved toward something else in her pocket—a weapon, or maybe a phone—but she froze when I looked directly at her. I could see the calculation in her eyes.
"Brutus, Judas, Angelica—down," she commanded, her voice rough. The dogs obeyed immediately, practically melting into the floor.
I relaxed slightly, pulling my Ki back in. The pressure in the room eased, though the dogs remained pressed flat against the ground, watching me with fearful eyes and flattened ears.
"Good," I said. "Now. Where is she?"
Bitch's jaw clenched. "Fuck you."
"Wrong answer." I took another step forward. "I'm not here to hurt you, Bitch. I'm not here to hurt your dogs. I'm here for information. Tell me where Tattletale is, and I'll leave peacefully."
"And if I don't?" There was defiance in her voice, but also fear.
"Then we fight, and I win," I said simply.
For a long moment, we stared at each other. I could hear my own heartbeat, feel the Ki churning inside me, still eager for more violence. My inner beast, urging me to fight.
Finally, Bitch spoke. "They left. About an hour ago."
"Where did they go?"
"Don't know. Don't care." She jerked her chin toward the door. "Now get out."
"You're lying," I said. Not because I knew for certain, but because it felt right. "Tattletale's your teammate. You know where she went."
Bitch's eyes narrowed. "Maybe. But why the fuck would I tell you?"
That was a fair question, actually. What leverage did I have? I couldn't torture it out of her—I wasn't that far gone. And threatening her dogs would be counterproductive, she would just attack me again. I couldn't offer her anything she'd want.
Before I could formulate a response, I heard footsteps on the stairs. Multiple people, moving fast.
I felt a smile bloom on my lips. To her credit Bitch opened her mouth to call out, but I was much too fast for that. I crossed the distance between us in an eyeblink, my hand clamping over her mouth before she could shout a warning. She struggled, surprisingly strong, but I was far, far stronger. With an apologetic shrug, I lifted her off her feet and tossed her through the doorway into the room full of dog beds. Her three half-transformed dogs scurried after her, still whining in submission.
I turned to see black smoke billowing up the stairs, quickly filling the loft.
Then I was in darkness.
Absolute darkness. The kind that didn't exist in nature. Even when you closed your eyes in a dark room you still saw something, tiny flecks of blue and red and something. This was pure, pitch blackness. Complete sensory deprivation. I couldn't see anything, couldn't hear anything beyond a dull, muffled hum. Even the air around me felt thick, like I was wrapped in cotton wool.
But I could still smell.
Through the darkness, scents filtered in like threads of color in a black void. Perfume—something floral and expensive, Tattletale. Cheap cologne mixed with the acrid smell of old sweat, Regent. And something else, a rapidly fading scent carrying traces of old leather, Grue. Did his power suppress his own scent? It seemed so.
They were positioning themselves. Tattletale on the stairs, staying back. Regent circling around to my left. And Grue…
Something heavy impacted my face with a dull thunk.
A brick, maybe, or a chunk of concrete. In my old world, it would have broken my nose, shattered teeth, probably fractured my skull. Here, it felt like someone had gently tapped me with a foam pool noodle. I didn't even move my head.
Alright, enough of this.
I closed my eyes—not that it mattered in the pitch black—and reached for my Ki. Not to attack, just to... sense. I let a trickle of energy flow out from my body, expanding slowly like ripples on a pond. It was something I'd felt during fights before, that vague awareness of opponents around me. Now, with intention behind it, it came easily.
The darkness remained absolute, but suddenly I could feel them. Not see them, exactly, but perceive their positions like warm spots in my mind. Three distinct presences in the void.
Tattletale was hunched on the stairs, about fifteen feet away. She was holding something—a phone, probably, fingers moving rapidly. Calling for backup?
Regent was edging his way around the right side of the room, moving slowly and carefully. His energy suggested he was trying to get an angle on me, looking for an opening.
And Grue was right next to me, less than three feet away. I could sense his arm moving, swinging a crude punch—
A knife scraped across my cheek with a sound like metal on stone.
For a moment, neither of us moved. I could feel Grue's shock in his aura, I could imagine exactly the way his body tensed when the blade skittered harmlessly off my skin.
I turned my head slowly, deliberately, until I was facing where I sensed Grue standing. Even through his own darkness, I could feel his presence like a candle flame in my awareness. And I smiled as I opened my eyes.
"Nice try," I said, my voice vanishing into the muffling effect of his smoke.
His panic radiated off him, before it turned to sudden anger. He lashed again, aiming for my open eye. I caught his strike with one hand and plucked the blade from it with the other. He struggled tremendously, trying to wrench his arm free while pummeling me in the face fruitlessly.
The blows felt like raindrops.
I considered my options. I could knock him out—one tap would do it. But would his smoke disappear if he got knocked out? I didn't—
Light flooded back in, harsh and disorienting after the pitch darkness. I blinked, my vision adjusting instantly, and took in the scene.
Grue was still struggling in my grip, his skull-helmet tilted at an angle that would have been comical under different circumstances. Behind him, Tattletale stood on the stairs, her purple costume pristine, one hand extended toward me holding a pistol.
"Let him go," she said, "Now."
I opened my mouth to respond when my body suddenly twitched. Not a voluntary movement—my fingers spasmed, releasing Grue's arm against my will.
Regent.
Grue stepped backwards, fists raised and smoke swirling around him. Regent stood pressed against the far wall. His head was tilted and the end of his scepter cracked with two short bursts of electricity. He tilted his head the other way and I felt my neck spasm.
"Bad idea," I said. I hit Grue softly, sending him tumbling onto the couch.
I moved.
The burst of speed created a shockwave that overturned the couch, sent the coffee table tumbling, and shattered the TV screen in a shower of glass. I crossed the room in less than a heartbeat, my fist already drawn back.
Regent's eyes went wide behind his mask. "Oh s—"
I hit him once in the stomach, pulling the punch at the last second but still putting enough force behind it to fold him in half. He made a sound like a deflating balloon when you pinch the neck tight and crumpled to the floor, gasping for air.
I crouched down beside him, bringing my face close to his mask. "Listen very carefully," I said quietly, my voice carrying that inhuman growl again. "If you ever use your power on me again—if you even think about it—I will grab you by the ankles, fly you up to the edge of space, and dropkick you into the fucking sun. Are we clear?"
Regent wheezed something that might have been an agreement, still clutching his stomach.
I stood up and turned back to face Tattletale. She still had her gun but it was half raised, pointing at the floor a few meters away from me. Grue scrambled from the fallen couch and stood off to one side, glaring at me through his helmet.
"Polaris," she called out. "You just fucked up."
"How so?" I asked, calmly approaching her.
She smirked at me. "Oh, they didn't tell you? They declared a week's truce thanks to Kong—Amarok's attack. Which you just broke, by the way." She held up her phone with her other hand. "I just queued up a timed message to be sent to PRT. So unless you want to be on every cape in America's naughty list. You're going to do exactly what I tell you." The smugness raiding off her was palpable.
I took a deep breath, forcing down the anger. I shoved Saiyan Ross into a box and brought out Human Ross. This wasn't the time for recklessness, and at the end of the day. I held all the cards, the only way she could win was if I lost composure.
"You all attacked me first. Bitch with her dogs. Grue with his smoke. Regent with his fucking Master power." I spat as I took another step forward. "I simply responded."
Tattletale laughed. "That's not how it works, you invaded our hideout. That's a hostile act. We were just defending ourselves."
"Really?" I smiled back at her. "I had no idea this was your hideout. I was just looking for a safe place to sleep. I am known for hiding in abandoned buildings after all…" My voice was dripping with implication.
Tattletale froze as her power informed her that I knew she had fucked me over.
She took a moment to compose herself before responding, "Whatever he told you, it's a lie. He's trying to pit us against each other. Trust me."
"Ok." I said, slapping my thighs with both hands. "I trust you… So go ahead and convince me that you didn't sell me out to the ABB."
"I didn't!" She protested, "It's his power! Coil can—
—I know exactly what Coil's fucking power is. Thank you very much." I cut her off, "And I know that he didn't figure it out on his own. You helped him, or at least some version of you did. Either way you're on my shitlist now. Congratulations."
"How do you know about our powers?" she asked, trying to regain some control of the conversation.
"I know lots of things," I said evasively. "Did you receive any info from Trainwreck?"
She smirked at me again. Fanfictions always described it as foxlike, but it was the exact same idiotic smirk which decorated the lips of bitchy teenage girls everywhere. The kind of face they made when they told the teacher that they didn't have to do what the teacher told them; like it was some great secret they were revealing.
"There's still a truce. You can't touch me."
I sighed and rubbed my forehead. "Alright then. Go ahead and call the PRT. I'll wait." She looked surprised. "When they get here I'll tell them all about your buddy Coil and the shit you've been getting up to…"
Her smirk vanished as her stare intensified. I could practically feel her power brushing over me, trying to solve a logic puzzle which had no sane answer. Eventually she spoke up.
"That wouldn't end well for either of us… since he has dirt on you as well." She didn't sound confident.
"Oh, really?" I said. This should be good.
"You're desperate," she said slowly. "That's why you're here. It's not just about revenge—you need Coil gone. Urgently." She tilted her head. "But why? Lung's dead. The ABB is in chaos. You should be in the clear. Unless..."
"Coil knows something. Something about last night." Her voice grew more confident. "Something you can't afford to have him share."
"But what exactly? Did you work for him—no, that's not it." She was speeding up, tumbling over her words as her power worked, "You don't care if I call the PRT—You don't care about being accused of truce-breaking because you already broke the truce during Kong's attack! You killed someone who wasn't fair game. A civilian maybe. Probably a villain though, or maybe even a hero! Coil either knows or suspects, and you need to silence him before he can reveal it." She was almost breathless by the end.
I stared at her, my expression carefully neutral. Despite myself, I couldn't help but twitch when she said the word 'hero'.
"I'm right," she said, her damn smirk creeping back in. "That's why you're so desperate. That's why you came straight here instead of going to ground. You're racing against the clock." She finished, looking at me victoriously.
I paused for a long moment before answering.
"I'm disappointed," I said theatrically. "I'd expected more from the great Tattletale."
It wasn't a bad guess. I'd been half expecting her to make the connection between me and Kong, but apparently that was too difficult, even for her power. It was an approximation of the truth, but still a miscalculation.
Her confidence faltered slightly. "What?"
"You're wrong. Your power is filling in the gaps with assumptions." I shook my head. "Coil doesn't have shit on me. I just want revenge. Lung is already dead, so you're going to pay me back by helping me make sure Coil gets his reckoning."
Tattletale recovered quickly. I could tell she didn't believe me. "Then let's make a deal. I help you find Coil and deal with him. In exchange you can work for me. I promise I—
—No," I interrupted.
"No deal. Here's what's going to happen. You're going to help me find wherever Coil is hiding. I'm going to dig him out and you're going to make sure it isn't his body double. Then I'll deal with Coil. Permanently."
"Wait," Grue interrupted. "Hold on. You're talking about killing Coil. Murdering him."
"Yes," I said flatly.
Behind us, the door to Bitch's room creaked open slightly. I caught a glimpse of movement in the darkness beyond, but she didn't stick her head out.
"I can't—we can't be part of that," Grue said, his voice strained. "We're villains, sure, but we're not killers. There are lines—"
"Coil is the kind of guy who keeps drugged-up little girls in his basement," I said coldly. "So I'm going to ask you seriously: do you have a problem with me killing him?"
Grue was silent for a long moment. He glanced at Tattletale, who nodded grimly. He shook his head slowly. "We can hand him over to the PRT…"
"We'd be breaking the truce if we arrested him now." I explained, looking at Tattletale for confirmation. She nodded and I continued. "It wouldn't work anyway, since Coil is more than capable of ruining all of your lives from inside a jail cell. Although I doubt he'd even end up in one for long. He has his hooks deep in the PRT, and he's had a long time to come up with contingencies for that exact scenario."
"Coil needs us." Tattletale said.
"Are you sure about that?" I replied, "he's already got his eyes on a new pet Thinker. I'd be surprised if he didn't take a swipe at grabbing her last night. And now that Lung is out of the picture his next move is to unmask the Empire 88 and blame you for it. Probably before the truce runs out for maximum chaos."
I was taking a risk by revealing any future knowledge, but Tattletale's power clearly processed my confidence and told her I was right.
"Shit." She said, finally letting the gun drop all the way to her side.
"Why do you care if he ruins our lives?" Grue sounded genuinely confused.
"Good question. I'll admit, I don't like any of you. I don't really care what happens to you. But Coil is my enemy, and I hate seeing my enemies succeed." I said.
Grue was silent for a second before turning to Tattletale.
"Coil is our boss?"
She grimaced. "Yes. And before you ask, no, I wasn't allowed to tell you. He's very particular about operational security."
"Why Coil?" Grue asked me, his attention split between Tattletale and me.
"Because he has it out for me," I said flatly. "And I want to know why."
Her expression flickered, but she recovered quickly. "You already know why. Your Trump ability interferes with his power. It makes you... problematic."
"Problematic how?" I pressed. "Does he get headaches? Or does he lose timelines?"
"Timelines. They collapse when you're involved. Not every time, but often enough that he can't rely on his usual methods. It forces him to end a single timeline at random. You can imagine how much he hates that. He's been trying to kill you since the day you triggered. But he always loses any timeline which got close to hurting you. So he tried using Lung as a catspaw."
This led to a series of questions from Grue as Tattletale revealed the nature of Coil's power and the circumstances which lead to the forming of the Undersiders.
When everybody was all caught up, I asked Tattletale. "What information did you give him about me?"
"Nothing," she said quickly.
"Bullshit." I took a step forward, and Grue's darkness flared warningly. "Try again."
Tattletale held up her hands placatingly. "Okay, okay. Look, Coil gave me some footage from your power testing. I combined that with my own research—I've been keeping tabs on your activity, news reports, people you talked to, that kind of thing. I figured out some things…"
"Like what?"
"Not much. None of it was anything he couldn't find out himself." she said. "You're careful, paranoid even. You don't leave much to go on. I know you're stronger and faster than you let on during testing. I know you can heal, obviously, but there's aspects of it you're afraid of. I'm guessing you had a bad experience in a hospital, probably a relative dying unnecessarily—medical malpractice. You've been trying to keep a low profile, which suggests you're either running from something or trying to avoid attention for another reason…" She trailed off.
"Go on."
She sighed. "You're also a megalomaniac with delusions of grandeur. You have some kind of savior complex and you think you can solve all the world's problems. You think—" She cut herself off.
"Go on." I repeated firmly.
"You think you're the strongest cape in the world and you can beat the Endbringers on your own. All of them all at once. Which is seriously insane." She said, wincing preemptively at my reaction.
I didn't explode in anger as she was expecting. Her power's guess was not bad, but not great either. I didn't think I was that strong, even after the powerup from last night, but I'd always known I would become that strong eventually. I obviously wasn't going to dispel her misconceptions, so instead I said, "We're wasting time. The longer we stand here talking the longer Coil has to prepare."
"She's not going anywhere with you." Grue said angrily, "And nobody is killing anybody. We can work things out with Coil."
"You could try. But it would be your sister's funeral if he decides he doesn't want to play nice anymore."
Tattletale and Grue both inhaled sharply. Darkness began to flood the room again.
"What did you say?" Grue was radiating anger. "How do you know about that?"
"How do you know about any of this?" Tattletale continued. "Our powers - I could maybe buy. But our boss's plans? Our identities? That's not information you should have."
I'd overplayed my hand. Time to deflect. "I have my sources. You're not the most powerful Thinker out there. Not even close" I said to her.
"Answer me!" Grue roared, stepping forwards.
I turned to face him, casually holding up a warning palm.
"You think Coil's helping you get custody out of the goodness of his heart?" I let out a short, bitter laugh. "He's not going to let you have her, Grue. Not ever. He's just going to use her as leverage to get even greater leverage. It's textbook extortion."
The darkness around Grue faded. "You're lying."
"Think about it, why would he give you an out?" I said. "He keeps dangling your sister in front of you like a carrot while making sure you never quite reach her. You stay trapped in this loop until he decides you're not useful anymore. The moment she's under his control, she becomes a permanent leash. You step out of line? She suffers. You try to leave? She dies. That's how he operates."
Grue's fists clenched. "Why should we believe anything you say? You're a fucking crazy—"
"I might be crazy. But I'm not stupid" I interrupted. "If I wanted you dead, you'd be dead, and nobody in this room could stop me. I'm here because we have a common enemy."
Tattletale studied me for a moment. "You're not going to let this go."
"No."
"So," Tattletale said slowly. "You want me to help you find Coil's base. Make sure you're actually killing him and not a body double. And in exchange..."
"In exchange, you walk away from this alive and free of Coil's leash," I finished. "No blackmail, no manipulation, no deals with devil's clauses. You help me, I solve your Coil problem, we go our separate ways. Clean and simple."
"Nothing about this is clean or simple," she muttered. "After this what's to stop you from deciding we need to be taken out next?"
"We're in this together, and after this you'll all have plenty of dirt on me. I'm sure Grue can figure out some kind of dead man switch to rat me out in case I come back and try to tie up loose ends. After this is over we're in mutually assured destruction territory. We can both hurt each other equally badly, so we both play nice."
"But really, your power should be enough to tell you this much. I don't give a shit about you. I don't care about the Undersiders. I don't care about your tragic backstories or your petty crimes. I want Coil—That's it. If you think it's a good idea to try and sell me out to the PRT like you did to the ABB then go ahead. But next time I won't be pulling any punches."
She laughed, but there was no humor in it. "This is insane. You're asking me to help you while threatening to kill me."
"That's no different from your deal with Coil. Mine just comes with an expiration date. Hell, you're dead right about one thing. I am planning to kill the Endbringers. So all you have to do is wait a few months and I'll probably be dead, right?"
She sighed, glancing at Grue before looking back at me. "Fine. Not like we have a choice. But we do this carefully. If Coil suspects—"
"Then we work fast." I moved toward the stairs. "Come on."
"Wait, what?" Grue stepped forward. "You're leaving? Just like that?"
"We're going," I said firmly, glancing back at Tattletale.
"It's not that simple. I need time and information to track him down. If we move too soon we'll just tip him off." She complained.
"Can't you call him?" I asked
"No, he always texts first. Or he calls. Sometimes it's his double."
"Fine. It doesn't matter. I know somewhere you can get information to draw from." I said, continuing to the stairs.
"I'm coming with you," Grue said firmly.
I looked him up and down. "No thanks."
"Excuse me?"
"You're slow, you're compromised, and your power is useless. You'd be dead weight. Stay here, be ready to move if we need backup." I started down the stairs. "Tattletale, let's go."
"Like hell—" Grue looked like he was going to make an issue of it, but he looked back at the loft which had been half destroyed in an instant just by me just moving across it. He let out a long, low sigh, almost a groan.
"I'll be ok," Tattletale told him placatingly, "you stay here and be ready in case we need anything."
Grue seemingly deflated. He moved to the upright armchair sofa and slumped into it.
From the floor, Regent wheezed out, "Can someone please help me up first?"
Nobody moved to help him.
Tattletale took one last look across the loft, nodded at Grue once then she followed me down the stairs.
"For the record," she said as we reached the ground floor, "this is insane."
"Probably," I shrugged. "But you're still coming."
"Because you'll kill me if I don't."
"Nope. You can run away if you really want. I won't stop you at this point." I said, pushing open the side door. "But you know I'm right about Coil. And you're smart enough to know this is your best shot at getting out from under his thumb. If it's any consolation, this was always going to end this way."
She didn't respond, but she didn't need to. We both knew I was right.
"So where are we going?" Tattletale asked.
"Up. Hope you're not afraid of heights."