It took me some time to recall where I was (back home) and what I was doing. Luckily, Dad and Lisa filled me in, that I've just told them about our talk to Alexandria, and we were thinking of talking to Legend.
I took a moment to consider what I was telling them and decided to mostly repeat my steps again, except come more prepared to ... What was the town's name? I've never learned it. Oops.
But Legend first. I thought about it and decided that if Legend was about to fuck us over, he'd have done so in the few days it took us to pack and drive to meet the Nine. On the other hand, getting rid of Jack was potentially an even higher priority thing than stopping Endbringers. So, I decided to repeat our talk to Legend, starting him on his path, then Save again, and focus on taking out The Nine's management. Worst case, we will be back to Eidolon's problem after the 'vacation'. Besides, I haven't given up on the general idea of getting to Florida.
Like the last time, I asked Amy to arrange the meeting at the same place and time, and on the way over there, I asked Dad what Cape name he would like. It seemed to have surprised him. I decided it was a good lead-up to our talk about the Nine incident I've promised to have with him. We didn't come up with anything good, again, so I asked how he felt about Unioner. He laughed and said he didn't have a better idea, so he had no problem with it.
Legend arrived like the last time, and we've had mostly the same, rather difficult talk, again. I tried not to change anything. I did ask him how he was going to come up with so many therapists out of the blue, and he admitted the Protectorate apparently had a rather big bunch of them on retainer, but hadn't used even a half of their hours due to most Cape's general reluctance to talk to them. He said he was going to lead by example, set himself some therapy hours, and demand that all the other cities' leaders do the same, including Eidolon, which was expected to help the rank and file to follow suit. I admitted it was a rather sneaky plan, but he claimed it was addressing his genuine concern that others might also have issues that need dealing with.
Before we parted, I asked him what would be his policy if I brought him a half-reformed Bonesaw. Just her. He stared at me, shrugged, and asked me right back what I would want him to do with her. I asked him how he would feel about me trying to integrate her into my team. I explained that the other option, besides just killing her, would be to dump her into Doctor's and Contessa's lap, which could turn problematic if or when we tried to get rid of them. He asked whether my interest was academic, and I promised to update and consult him when it no longer was as such.
After he's gone, Amy, Lisa, and Dad turned on me with the expected questions about why on Earth I was asking or thinking about 'adopting' Bonesaw of all people. So, I invited them all to our house to watch Kill Bill the next day, since I was mentally exhausted, and promised to tell them the next steps of the plan then.
I checked with Lisa, Legend still didn't plan to fuck us over. So, I Saved, just to not repeat this talk anymore.
The next day, on Saturday morning, we watched the movie, and as promised, I paused it at the 'overreaction' scene in the end and told them about our little adventure with the Nine and how Dad has overreacted when Bonesaw was about to cut my head open. I didn't go into the specifics of why and how we ended up there yet. I warned them not to think about Jack, so he'd not decide to visit the Bay, and didn't mention he was the goal of the upcoming expedition. Instead, I focused them on the potential to reform Bonesaw, like we kind of did in the future.
I unpaused, and we finished the movie. I pointed out how a small kid raised by a killer Dad was still a kid and that with some effort we could probably make Riley into a net gain for society, as opposed to executing her. They didn't argue anymore, but weren't too happy either.
On the related note, I asked Lisa to figure out which town we were aiming at, mentioning the general area on the map, the end of the town's name, and the population. Apparently, it hasn't narrowed the search too much down. Then I recalled there was a clinic, a police station, and a fire station, and she ended up with only 3 candidates. She pulled out their maps and satellite photos, and I was able to point at the correct one. First problem solved in 10 minutes of Lisa's time.
Next, I wanted to decide on the team members. I asked Lisa whether she kept the contacts for the mercenaries (she did, of course), and whether she could look for a sniper-spotter team that would be agreeable to travel on short notice, ambush a Cape, and then run away. They could keep the Kill Order award money, for all I cared, and I was willing to pay them some advance fee to show up. She promised to get back to me by the evening. I haven't told her it was for Jack, but her lack of questions might have implied she was onto me.
I also asked her to check with her contacts about getting us 6 military-grade short-range handheld radios hardened enough to survive Shatterbird's Song. She promised to try that too.
Our team personnel-wise, I assumed we'd get to meet Dinah again, and we probably needed Imp to take out Manton this time too. I was conflicted about adding more people, on the one hand being concerned that too big a team would alert Jack and change things around, while on the other, I needed a better exit strategy than what we had the last time.
In the end, I decided to make it a volunteer-only thing. Also, remembering Bitch's remark, I've messaged everybody on our extended team roster that we were planning a trip to the South with a planned stop on the way to deal with a few high-reward villains, but that it was rather dangerous. I invited the interested parties to come in the evening to our house.
Before Amy has left, I've raised another subject that was bothering me.
"Amy, hypothetically, how open would you be about trying to connect a person to powers? With their consent, obviously, and with my Reloading support, naturally."
"WTF? Where is this coming from?", she asked.
"Well, Bonesaw can do it, so I figured, you're at least as good as her with this stuff?"
"I mean, I could try, but which part of 'I don't mess with brains' isn't clear?"
"You don't want to fuck up, I get it, but now, if you do, I can Reload and you get to try again, or to give up, so what's the problem?"
This seemed to have startled her.
Lisa came for her rescue, surprisingly, "When she messes up and you Reload, she'll only have your word on what went wrong and what to do differently. It's not the same as it is for you, where you're learning from each iteration."
The Thinker had a point. But so did I, "Sure, it's not ideal, but it's still mostly risk-free."
"What if I succeed and the newly made cape kills us all? Or what if it looks like all's good, but we only learn later how much I fucked up?", Amy continued, "Who'd even want such a thing?"
"Well, I was going to volunteer myself, but yeah, good points."
"How do you know any change to your brain wouldn't permanently fuck up your Reload power?", Lisa asked.
This stopped me dead. How haven't I thought of this myself?
"Fuck, you're right. Dad, guess I haven't thanked you then, so, thanks for not letting Bonesaw mess with my brain in the other timeline." I admitted.
"So, you're not sorry for making me Trigger out there, you're just thankful I didn't let you ruin your precious power?" Dad asked, smiling. I guess he'd not be smiling in the timeline I dropped.
"Pretty much, yes. Would you like to get powers, Dad? If we were to convince Amy here, or to get Bonesaw to play nice? I mean, without making you Trigger? Or, if it happens again, and you do Trigger despite me trying to avoid it, would you like me to make an effort and keep that timeline, or should I plan to drop it once there's nothing else to learn from it?"
"How on Earth could I answer this, Taylor? What did I say after I Triggered?"
"You could use my, well, our power from the get-go. That was impressive. You'd be a nightmare. Maybe more than I was in my day. Thought you'd like it long-term. But at the moment, you were freaking out, which is a natural reaction, I think? I mean, you thought she's going to cut me open and I was cooperating..."
"You WHAT?"
"I wanted her to Trigger me, it sounded like a good idea at the time? I no longer do, calm down."
"You're an idiot, you know that?" Amy said.
"Well, that's why I keep you all around, to stop me from time to time." I conceded. "Anyway, moot point now, but Dad, think about it?"
He shrugged, and I left the subject.
Amy and Lisa left; Lisa promised to be back for the evening meeting.
Amy went to the hospital so she wouldn't show. She'd not be able to just go for a long trip with us, missing school and healing sessions - and, mostly, without her family noticing. I wasn't ready for the drama named Carol Dallon, Reloads power or not.
I tried to bring myself to talk about Dad's demand we go to therapy, but I didn't find the courage. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe after the trip? I never promised when we'd talk about it, only that we will. Now was not a good time.
Sophia showed up early. Figured she'd not miss a good hunt. Grue showed up too, surprising me. I thought he didn't deal with the high-risk stuff. Bitch stayed out, and so did Alec. Lisa came back, of course.
After we ate a bit of the pizzas and I counted the slices, I cleared my throat.
"I'd like to introduce our new member, please. Any guesses? Lisa? Brian?"
Lisa scanned the room, scratched her head, but seemingly came up with nothing. Brian just looked at me, confused.
I smiled, "Aisha, please don't be a Stranger!"
"How did you know?!", Aisha cried.
"What the fuck, Aisha!" Brian cried out, shocked, after she popped up near him.
"I know everything. I came from the future. Anyhow, you must be all wondering, again, why I've summoned you here."
"Amy's right, this is getting old", Lisa said, a bit grumpy, probably because I managed to pull the introduction thing the way I did. "So, this is the famous Aisha? And she's a Stranger? And Brian didn't even know? Oh, a relatively new thing..."
"Lisa, leave the girl alone, please. You can piss each other off afterwards. Now, I will try to make this quick. This is a second Reload at this. Last time, I informed you that Dad and I were going on vacation while a long-term project brings its fruit, or fails. When we were on our way, then, we've discovered an extra passenger, a certain Stranger. But we kept going. We've encountered the Nine in a small town. Our Stranger took out the Siberian's Master, yes it's a projection. Way to go, Aisha. Meanwhile, Dad and I took out Jack and Bonesaw, but she released a plague before she died. So we're back here.
"Now, I want you to pay attention. None of you are going after Jack. You're not thinking how you'd do it, you're not thinking about him at all. He has a less-known power that allows him to communicate with other Parahuman's powers and that's how he avoids or anticipates any attack on him, also that's how he herds all the other assholes around him. So, if any of you focus on him, he will know and screw our plans up. I'm not a Parahuman, so that's why I was able to kill him, and I intend to repeat it till we succeed.
"So, I'd need your help dealing, distracting, or delaying the other members of the Nine till we get away. We have a chance to take out Siberian because I know how its Master looks. We might also get a Precog on this mission if she shows up this time too. If she does, she will help us know where which member of the Nine will be.
"We have 5 days till they attack a small town a few days' drive from here. Lisa will tell us about it later. Besides Siberian and Jack, all the other targets are secondary and of low priority. I don't expect us to deal with Mannequin or Crawler, for instance. We will leave that for the Protectorate. I have Legend on a speed dial.
"Bonesaw is a potential asset and a possible ally. She was in the future, but she was two years older when she did the switch, so I don't know how it'd go now. I was making some progress intriguing her, but then Dad here triggered and tried to kill her. On that matter, attacking her straight up is a bad idea. If she feels cornered, she could release some plague, and then everybody dies. Maybe if Amy came with us, she could counter her somehow, but she doesn't, and besides, I want to keep the team small; else, it might alert Jack too.
"So, show of hands, who still wants to come after you know all this? I need to know the size of the bus we're getting for the road trip."
AN: New mini-arc starts, kind of? Or the 2nd part of the slightly bigger mini-arc? New bombastic name, anyway. They're coming for Jack for the 2nd time. Hope it's not offensive.
I checked with Google, in both Carolinas there are tens of towns with the names that end with 'ville' with less than 1k people, but only a few have all the mentioned services, so I figured Lisa could do in 2011 what Google can do now.
"I'm in", Sophia said, "no way I'm missing this. Especially if you will keep Reloading till we succeed?"
"Hm, still undecided on the Reloading part, but, yeah, if some of you die, I will Reload. I just don't guarantee the next attempt will be in the same format or with the same team." I kept the Save point from this morning, after the run, for now.
"Will you be able to just disappear from ... your other job, school, family?", I inquired. I was pretty sure everybody knew what Sophia did elsewhere, though I wasn't sure about Brian and Aisha.
"Will be fine. Filled the forms for vacation, left the work phone at work. No worries."
"I'm totally in," Aisha said, "I'm gonna kill the Siberian again and I want to remember doing it this time! And I'm keeping the reward money."
"No fucking way, you have school, Boss, you can't be serious!", Brian panicked.
"If school is the only problem, she can do the assignments in the evenings and read in the car. We will make sure of that. Look, Brian, last time she just sneaked into our car and I found her out when we were out of the city already. Once she applies her power, nobody remembers she's there, as long as she's around. Except for me, because I remember her from my past life and when I see weird shit she does my brain reminds me of her.
"The point is, she can sneak out now, and you have no way of stopping her. So I advise cooperation. Imp was a decisive force of the team in my time."
"Who's Imp?", Aisha asked.
"Oops, right, that was your ... her Cape name. You can choose your own, of course."
"Nah, I like it. The other me chose well. Imp it is!"
"I'm coming too, now, obviously", Brian said.
"If it's only because of Imp, you don't have to. We will keep her safe. As long as she doesn't make us forget her."
"I'm coming." Brian repeated, more decisively. All right then.
With Brian, Aisha, Sophia, maybe Dinah, Dad, and me, we were just about too many to not become too threatening for Jack, I figured.
"I'm keeping one more place for the Precog." I continued, "Will introduce her when and if she shows up this time too. I don't want to pressure her if she doesn't. She found us the last time and made sure we were going. The reason is, Jack is playing a rather significant role in the later end of the world, so removing him now can leave us much more breathing space later. That's why I'm rushing this now to begin with.
"Lisa, you're holding the fort here. We might need Thinker help. Be available and don't use your power too much. We might also need to get Amy in there fast if Bonesaw goes on a rampage or something. I guess Legend will organize the transportation for her and/or you, if needed.
"OK, so we're 5 or 6 people. We need a bigger car or a van - or 2 cars".
"I'm taking my car", Brian volunteered.
"OK, it can sit 6, if it's the same van I remember?" he nodded. "Good, if we lose the other car, you can give us a lift. Last time our car got trashed by Shatterbird. I will try to avoid it. Worst case, we'll be getting new cars afterwards.
"Next order of business, how is the prospect of the hardened radios coming, Lisa?"
"Probably will have them rush delivered tomorrow."
"Perfect. We leave the day after tomorrow. Be here at 10 a.m. Have costumes, weapons. If you can and are willing, have something lethal with you. At least knives. Pack some spare clothes for a few days. Questions?"
Nobody said anything and started to get up. I asked Lisa to stay behind.
"Do you have a sniper team for me?"
"Yep, 100k buys you a 48-hour heads-up for them to be anywhere in the US. I think I know who they're for, and I guess you want me nowhere near that part of the op?"
"Exactly. Give them my burner number and tell them to call me tomorrow for the instructions."
"Gotcha, good hunting. I'm paying for them, it's my participation fee, instead of coming."
I didn't object.
The next morning my phone rang at 9 a.m., a pleasant male voice asked whether I was the Boss and whether I ordered 2 specialists.
I confirmed, told them they'd need a long-range anti-materiel rifle or an equivalent to take out a brute, preferably with a headshot. They'd also need everything they had with them to be Shatterbird-proof. I advised them to be in the woods by the town in question about 2 days before our planned encounter, to have the time to scout it and to find a good ambush point around the clinic area in the Eastern side of the town. And, once they had a shot at Jack Slash, to take it, retreat ASAP and wait till the area is cleaned up by the Protectorate. They should make a record of the shot to be able to claim the reward money, which was all theirs. I emphasized they were to ignore anybody else and advised to try and take out Jack only when Bonesaw or Siberian weren't beside him. He acknowledged, repeated the name of the place, the date and the main points of everything I've just told him and hung up. It was nice working with professionals.
Next, I started the conversation I was dreading with Dad. I asked him to help getting me a gun. Which he agreed to, rather soon, surprising me. And he even knew where to get it. We drove to some backstreet in the Docks, got into a dive bar, Dad talked to the bartender, who made a call and gave him a piece of paper with an address. There, a guy showed us into a private parking lot obscured from the street, counted the money and brought us a medium-sized package. It held two brand-new 45's, 6 magazines and 300 rounds of ammo. We thanked the guy and drove to a shooting range, next. After about 100 rounds each, we've managed to start hitting more often than missing and called it a day. I liked our quality time. We should be doing this more often.
We went to a hunting store and bought 6 big combat knives similar to the ones we've already had. If it was good enough to take out Jack the last time, it was good enough for most other uses.
We passed at an optometrist store and picked up plastic compact lenses we've ordered earlier. I was not getting to the area code Shatterbird was in, wearing my glasses again.
When we got home, a package waited on the front steps. It contained 6 compact military radios, each with a discreet earpiece.
Then we took a taxi to a second-hand car dealership and paid cash for an old-ish van with not too high mileage, that could sit 8 in reasonable comfort and had decent trunk besides that.
The next morning, we finished packing before the rest of the gang arrived. Dinah came too, like the last time, except earlier, adapting to our new schedule. She was as uncertain as the last time, so I invited her inside and repeated the introduction and the explanation of where things stood. I asked her whether she must be there, despite our much better preparation and higher headcount. She insisted she had to come too.
I shrugged and made her do the parental consent thing again. Dad, whom I've warned in advance of the possibility, played along, the same as the last time.
The rest of the gang arrived, Sophia riding in Brian's car, which seemed odd to me. After I introduced Dinah to everybody, and we got into the cars, Sophia preferred to keep Brian company, too. Which was fine by me. A few miles out of the city, I realized I was forgetting someone.
"Aisha, are you here?" I asked.
"Sup", she replied, sitting beside Dinah, who jumped.
"I thought you'd be going in Brian's car?"
"Nah, it's weird as it is."
"What's that supposed to mean?" What was I missing?
"You know they're dating or something, right?"
"They WHAT? Just to be sure, we're talking about Brian and Sophia? I thought they couldn't stand each other!"
"I think they did, initially, then they sparred, beat the crap out of each other, and ... no idea, but she's around bro's place all the time now. The bitch is annoying. Hey, I thought you knew everything?"
How could this happen? Well, whatever, it wasn't really my problem.
"I know what happened in my timeline. It wasn't this. They were fighting to death, then. Well, guess I can be surprised too, from time to time. Anyhow, Dinah, this is Aisha, or Imp."
We took a somewhat faster pace than on our previous vacation, haven't stopped for attractions, and tried to get there faster. We did leave time in the evenings for Sophia, Aisha, and Dinah to do their homework. It was nice not having to do that myself.
Dinah chose a new name for herself: the Mathematician. While it reminded me of the Number Man too much, it was her choice. She was outed in my time with the whole kidnapping by Coil thing and never had a chance to get herself a proper Cape name.
We've conducted an exercise in some forest we stopped for lunch beside, mostly to get used to the comms usage, but also to drill our less experienced members a bit.
When we crossed into North Carolina we stopped at a guns enthusiast place and bought some armor piercing ammo, adding to the regular bullets and the hollow points we've already had. It required some convincing and an extra cash infusion, AP being illegal for civilians and all, but we got us some 50 extra rounds and divided them between us. We've loaded our magazines with a mix of all the 3 bullet types, getting higher chances to make more damage to all sorts of targets.
Brian brought an old 9mm from home, but didn't plan on actively using it, besides self defense as a last resort, so he stayed with his regular ammo. He categorically did not let his sister have any firearms, which I didn't argue with. The big combat knives I brought enough for everybody were just fine.
We've spent the last night before the big day in a small motel some 10 miles from our destination. In the morning we've moved all our stuff, including our glasses and phones, into Brian's van, keeping just the costumes, weapons, and comms in ours. Then we all got into our van, drove to the town's outskirts, parked on some forest road about 2 miles out, costumed up, and started walking.
Sophia was back in her Shadow Stalker outfit, claiming she was far enough from the Bay to care about people connecting her to our group. She brought her newer, bigger crossbow, though. It was a bit defying my orders about a bright and happy costume, but I've let it slide just this time. And, I got back to call her Stalker for now, too.
We've gotten to our old staging spot, and I made Dinah check that the place was still safe from the Nine's members finding her there. Then we waited for an hour for the Shatterbird's song, which came right on time. While we didn't have anything breakable with us, we still dived to the ground to avoid any shrapnel from the pre-existing garbage lying around.
Then we repeated the search algorithm, consisting of Dinah finding where Manton, Bonesaw, and Mannequin were, which hasn't changed from our previous visit. I asked Dinah not to waste any more questions in case we need to make a fighting retreat later.
We've checked our comms, and I tasked Imp to go after Manton, like the last time. Grue was to trail her from afar, being able to back her up if something went wrong, as well as to help her disappear into his darkness. I figured it'd make both of them calmer and safer.
I asked Stalker to back me and Dad up in a similar manner from the tree line, but not to interfere, not to aim at Jack, and not to come into view till the shooting started.
Speaking of which, I've heard a distinctive lack of any high-powered rifles sounds since we've gotten into the area, which was making me somewhat nervous.
Since I had no idea when the exact moment I've accidentally startled Jack was, I had no hope of repeating it. Instead, I've positioned us under the trees overlooking the Clinic and waited. Ideally, Jack would come out, or in, and get shot by my snipers. Then we'd just leave and move on with our lives.
Big nothing happened. After about 10 minutes of silence, Imp reported 'mission accomplished'. I decided that it lowered the risks enough and signaled Dad that we're moving. I repeated our path from the last cycle, gripping the knife at the ready and making sure Dad wasn't too nervous with his shotgun.
I stepped around the corner and found Jack Slash ducking behind a parked ambulance, looking in the direction of the forest to our left, a knife and a straight razor in his right and left hands, accordingly. He noticed me immediately, repositioned himself to watch me too, and raised his eyebrow.
"Hello, Jack", I said, hoping Dad would take the hint and hang back, "I am the Boss. I was looking for you."
"Howdy, Boss, and who's behind the corner?"
"The Unioner", Dad announced and stepped from around the corner too.
"Is whoever hiding in the forest that way, yours too?", Jack asked, pointing in the direction he was looking at when I found him.
The common sense said that's where the snipers could've been. How did he spot them? It looked like this cycle was a bust again, or at least the chances pointed at that. I couldn't call the mercs since our phones were back in Brian's car and I wasn't sure they'd even have theirs, for the same reasons.
"I am frankly not sure, let me check. Stalker?", I asked into the comm.
"Yeah?"
"Can you see me?"
"Yep. Want me to try and shoot him?", luckily I wore the earpiece, so Jack maybe hasn't heard her.
"Definitely not, we are here just to talk to mister Jack. Please go through the forest in that direction", I pointed in the direction Jack showed, "and see who's there? If it's a couple of dudes with a sniper rifle and good camouflage, give them the radio to talk to me. If it's somebody else, make them fuck off."
"Fine"
"She's checking", I told Jack. "So, while we wait, I just wanted to say I am a big fan, and I was hoping to have a friendly chat."
"Fascinating," Jack said. He flicked his wrist with the razor and cut my right arm holding the knife off, just above the elbow.
"Again?", I sighed, looking at the blood spraying out of my missing limb. "Unioner, can you apply a tourniquet, please? You should have one in your kit."
Dad was visibly panicking for a second, then looked at me, dropped the shotgun, took out the first aid kit from one of his pouches, and approached me.
"Yes, put the tourniquet here, wrap it around, and pull as hard as you can." Dad started following my instructions.
"I guess that was fair. I did hire a sniper team and asked them to take you out. In hindsight, it was uncalled for." I told Jack, who was curiously looking at Dad, trying to stop the blood, and at my reaction.
"Stalker, any luck yet?", I asked into the radio I still held in my left hand, just to keep myself occupied and distracted from the pain and the blood loss.
"Getting there. Did you just lose an arm?"
"Yeah. I've had worse. ' Tis but a flesh wound."
"Are you quoting Monty Python? Now?"
"It's never a wrong time to quote Monty Python!"
"Are you going to Reload soon?"
"Nah, we're here for a reason. I don't need all of my limbs for that. Keep going."
"You're a crazy bitch."
"Look who's talking. Anyhow, ping me when you find them. I'm being rude to Mr. Jack again." I lowered the radio and turned to Jack again. "Sorry about that. So, since this town doesn't seem to have any local capes, I suspected you would be somewhat bored. I wanted to offer a friendly competition to make things more ... challenging. Are you interested?"
"You have my attention", Jack said.
"You see, I'm organizing my own team, and we're recruiting. I got inspired by your recruiting methods and thought I'd try to poach some of your members - according to the rules we can agree upon, of course. Naturally, you will have a chance to poach my teammates. What's fair is fair."
"You know, it sounds like a really novel idea. Nobody's ever tried to poach anybody from the Nine yet. Tell me about your team", Jack continued to look at us, while having one eye in the direction of the forest and, probably, the snipers. I've had my suspicions about why they got his attention, of course, and I was hoping Sophia would help me prove or disprove it.
"Well, you've met me and the Unioner here already. There's Stalker in the forest, Grue elsewhere in the city I imagine."
"I see, and whom would you like to poach from my team?"
"Well, we also have Panacea back in Brockton Bay, where we're from. I thought it'd be nice to introduce her to Bonesaw."
"Hm, Boss, are you sure you haven't lost too much blood?", Dad inquired. His voice was a bit shaky. He'd finished applying the tourniquet. Yeah, I probably sounded delusional, fair. And I did feel somewhat lightheaded, but not too much, so I figured I was fine, mostly. Besides the missing arm, of course.
"Nothing I haven't experienced before, no worries."
"I see," Jack said, "and what rules were you thinking to propose?"
"Well, usually your team members name their candidates and then everybody tests them, right? So I thought, I will offer to test all of the Nine's members. If any of them pass, you pick up whoever you want from my team. And if I win them all, I offer Bonesaw the opportunity to join. If she agrees, you let her go. If not, well, it was fun and we part ways."
"Ballsy. And what kind of test would you propose?"
"For you, I was going to propose arm wrestling, but...", I took a look at my missing arm, "Let's have a knife fight instead. One on one, you and me, no powers."
"Ahahaha, I love it! And what is your power?"
"I know things."
"Boss, I'm here", Stalker said over the radio.
"Just a second, Jack, let's deal with whoever it is in the forest." He made a gesture for me to continue.
"Stalker, who did you find?"
"Some sniper guys, as you said, aiming guns at me. I told them the Boss sent me, they don't believe me."
"OK, can you give the one in charge the radio?"
"Sure, yo, big guy, the Boss wants to talk to you."
"Yeah, you're the Boss?", a familiar, pleasant voice said. At least it sounded familiar over the imperfect radio link.
"Yes, are you the guys I hired?"
"Prove it was you?"
"Let's see, I told you to bring an anti-material rifle and to not bring anything that isn't Shatterbird proof. And I told you to shoot Mr. Jack, film it, and run away."
"Sounds about right. Now what?"
"How should I put it, does whoever is aiming the gun happen to be a Parahuman? Or is the gun - Tinkertech? Because if that's so, you have absolutely zero chance of hitting Mr. Jack here. That's a guarantee. Pack up and go. I will wire you another 100k as an inconvenience fee. I probably should've been more explicit when we talked. Please pass the radio back to my associate."
"Yeah, Boss, they seem to be leaving."
"Gotcha, can you slowly come here, please? We're still talking, and we might have a friendly competition soon."
I turned back to Jack, who was following my side of the conversation with visible interest.
"You told the sniper that a parahuman has zero chance of hitting me? How so?"
"Wait, you don't know? Like, seriously?", was he shitting me?
"Enlighten me, please", Jack said. He had lost a smile and was focused on me.
"Well, your secondary power communicates with all the other powers around and makes sure they can't hurt you, or not as much as their hosts intended. You've seriously never noticed that you've been playing on the easy mode all these years? I mean, how else can you explain that nobody from your team has ever killed you? I bet they tried, but you always had a feeling or something random happened and saved you, right?"
Jack was just staring at me. Then he laughed.
"That's a nice story you're telling, you've almost gotten me. Seriously, what's your power?"
"I am telling the truth and nothing but the truth. I've hired the snipers because I was pretty sure they were normies. Then they'd have had a chance. I didn't actually think to ask them, my bad. Once I realized what was going on, I sent them away. How did you spot them? You just felt them, right? Can you feel other capes that don't try to harm you? I bet you can't?
"I realize now it's hard to believe. You can ask Bonesaw to test it with a scientific method. I bet she can measure these things. Or, I don't know, ask Crawler to harm you and see how he fails to do so."
"Amazing story. So, if no cape could ever harm me, what were you hoping to accomplish, knife fighting me?"
"Ah, that's because I'm not a cape. So, if I'm right about you and I can harm you, it means all this time you were cheating death and everything you've achieved in life was thanks to your power and not your wits or developed abilities. And if I'm wrong - you're as great as you think you are and you really managed to rule the Nine with your brains and charisma."
"I'm not buying that you're not a cape."
"Fair, can you ask Bonesaw to confirm it?"
"Poppet, have you been listening?", Jack called towards the building we were standing beside.
"Of course, Uncle Jack, it was fun. She has a fascinating theory. I really want to look into her head now!", Bonesaw emerged from the Clinic escorted by 4 of her monstrous spiders.
One of them jumped on my shoulder and opened, like a fan, a small parabolic antenna. It started moving the antenna over my head, keeping a few inches of clearance, until it seemed to have found an optimal position close to the top.
"Uncle Jack, she was telling the truth this whole time! She's really not a cape. She can trigger, but she hasn't! And you're saying no cape can harm Uncle Jack? Is that even ... Can we test this, please? Please, Uncle Jack?"
"Sure, poppet, go ahead", Jack said. Was he confused? He seemed to be thinking about something, really hard. Did my bullshit really get to him? I had really no idea what I was doing at this point, but I figured it'd be informative to get into his head a bit more, so I didn't rush Reloading yet.
"You!" Bonesaw commanded Shadow Stalker, who carefully approached us from the forest, "Can you shoot Uncle Jack?"
Sophia looked at me, visibly confused. The other 3 spiders spread around forming a large triangle around Stalker and Jack.
"Sure, go ahead, Stalker", I shrugged.
She aimed her weapon at Jack, standing about 30 feet from him. Jack still looked thoughtful. She looked at me again. I urged her to shoot. She fired the bolt, but Jack jerked aside at the same time and swiped out with his knife. Stalker went intangible and avoided the counterattack, re-materializing behind the other side of the parked ambulance and started to reload her crossbow.
Bonesaw clapped, "Yes, it's working like she's said! I've recorded it. There's some link between her and your power, Uncle Jack. Just when she was about to shoot with the intent to harm you, there was a spike in your brain that made you move. This is so exciting!"
Jack was almost crying now. "But ... I've made my name, people fear me, how can this be? Nobody could ever kill me? At all? I got injured, Poppet fixed me, made me stronger. No, it can't be right. Knife fight, you say? I will cut you in two, no powers. Just you and me, Boss! Poppet, fix her arm please."
Was he for real?
The spiders jumped to work, the one sitting on my shoulder injected me with something in my upper arm. I got ready to Reload, but just felt the pain subside. Then another spider picked up my cut arm and brought it to me, while a third stood on top of the fourth one and introduced a battery of surgical instruments. The quartet of machines started working on my arm at an incredible speed. 5 minutes later my arm was sewn in place, bones glued, blood vessels and nerves reconnected. One more injection later I felt the arm again and could move my fingers. The sensitivity wasn't perfect, but it was improving every second.
"Thank you, Bonesaw, I've always admired your work ethics", I said.
"That was trivial! Now I'm dying to see you fight Uncle Jack!"
"Sure", I said, picked up the knife with my reattached hand, and returned it into its sheath. Jack did the same.
"Let's do this an old duel style? We meet back to back, walk out while counting to three, then we take our knives out and go at each other?" I offered.
"Whatever", he said, uninterested. What's going on?
We've met at the center of the small plaza in front of the entrance to the Clinic and turned our backs to each other. I was holding my metaphorical finger on the Reload 'button' all the time, but nothing happened.
Bonesaw started counting and we started walking away from each other. "One ... Two ..."
I took my gun out while turning around and saw Jack was also turning around early, with the knife already in his hand. I shot him in the hand with the knife, then the rest of the magazine went into his head. He collapsed. I came over while swapping the magazine, and kept shooting into his face, eyes, and open mouth till I clicked empty again. I've swapped the third magazine and emptied it into Jack's head as well for a good measure. He wasn't moving, and his head looked like a smashed pumpkin.
"You... brought a gun to the knife fight?" Bonesaw said, "It's so fitting! You proved Uncle Jack was cheating this whole time, and then you cheated right back! I love it! Will you be my new big sis, along with Sibi?"
AN: And, we're continuing the Whole Set Episodes too, as we finally get to talk to Jack for a while, as opposed to just killing him on the spot. Monsters have feelings too, you know.
Jack, in Number Man's interlude, said he wanted to make something of himself:
| "If it's a farce, a joke, let's run with it. We take simple names, dumb names, and we make people quake in their shoes at the sound. Jack… Slash."
And he did make something of himself, alright. To learn that it wasn't really his achievement, but his power's, to learn that everything he did was on the easy setting, I think it can shake a person, even Jack. This fic recently became too serious to my taste, so I thought it's time it went a bit more farce, just like Jack wanted. What do you think? Too much?
"Well, Riley, ... can I call you Riley?" she nodded. "I've never had a little sister, but I can try. On the condition that you're coming with us right now", I told Bonesaw.
"You know, nobody called me Riley since ... I'd really like that." Bonesaw, or, possibly Riley now, said and paused.
I turned around and started walking towards the trees, trying to make a distance from the rest of the Nine, while also figuring out whether she will follow us, fight us, or just stay behind. Dad looked at her, picked up his shotgun, and followed me. Stalker just ... observed. I did task her to cover us from behind.
Riley seemingly issued some sort of a command to her spiders, and they all ran towards the trees as a pack, overtaking us. They didn't look hostile, so I didn't slow down and just kept a steady pace. Then, Riley started walking too, and Sophia followed.
"Grue, position?", I said into the radio.
"Boss? We're back to the staging area. Instructions?"
"We're coming back, and we're having a new recruit. Please pick up the car keys from Mathematician, go to the car, check if it's still intact, and bring it back to meet us?"
"Roger."
We kept walking through the forest, in silence.
"Are you just accepting me, as I am?" Riley finally asked.
"Well, some adjustments will have to be made, I'm afraid. But I'm confident you can make them."
"What is it your team is doing? I've never heard of it. I know of Panacea, of course, but she's just healing? Shadow Stalker, isn't she a Ward?"
"I'm glad you've asked. Our team's goal is saving the world, and Jack was about to help end it. So we had to take him out. I believe you can be of great help in preventing it, if you put your mind to it. Our team has real heroes, like Panacea, the ex-villains, like ... me, and everybody in between. We're not looking for attention, so it's good that you've never heard of us. That's the idea."
"But what is it you normally do? And how come everybody listens to you? You're not even a Cape."
"I'm not a Cape now, but I've used to be. Also, I know a lot of secrets, like the one about Jack's secret power. And you'll have to ask the others why they listen to me. After we get to know you better, I will tell you a bit more about myself. For now, we need to get out of here. As for what we do, this is it - we deal with the threats against the world."
"You said, 'ex-villains like you' and you didn't mention me? Am I not villain enough?"
"I was ... being careful about what to call you. I think you're transitioning. Let's leave it at that and maybe talk about it in a few days?"
"You told Jack you liked his methods of recruiting?"
"To tell you the truth, I was panicking when I bumped into him, okay? I was totally bullshitting him. I didn't lie about his power, though, as you've proved."
"Language!"
"Riley, I think it's time you start growing up and learn that people are using strong language from time to time. It doesn't mean they're bad. What matters are their actions."
"OK... Wait! What about Sibi?"
"Are you asking about Siberian? Do you think she'd fit in our team? After what you've learned so far about us?"
"Yeah, you're probably right... Can I tell her goodbye, at least?"
Crap, I was hoping to avoid the news that Imp killed Sibi's Master for a while.
"Sorry, Riley, I'm afraid we can't do that. Also, do you know that Siberian was a projection?"
"Wait, really? She never said!"
"Was she talking to you?"
"No... But she braided my hair and sometimes slept beside me when I've had nightmares. Was a projection?"
"I'm afraid its Master, an old man called William Manton, is dead now."
Riley was silent for a few moments. "I'd still like to say goodbye to her. And Uncle Jack, I guess. He was a cheater and a bad man, but he was family."
"That's fair, Riley. Tell you what, we get to the car, drive to our other car, get some lunch, and then hold a memorial service for Siberian, and for Jack, if you want, OK?"
"You'd do that for me?"
"Sure, it's important to say goodbye to family and people we loved."
"Thanks!"
We've reached the staging ground and reunited with Dinah. I called out to Imp to make sure she didn't start attacking our new recruit, and she popped up among us. I introduced both Mathematician and Imp to Riley, who wasn't masked. I explained that we'll be holding a memorial service for Siberian and Jack later, meaningfully looking at Imp to keep it quiet. She seemed to have gotten the hint. Then we started walking towards the car.
Since I've mentioned the possibility of recruiting Bonesaw before we even left the Bay, nobody was freaking out too much. Even Imp was mostly silent and didn't bother Riley with awkward questions.
Grue met us about halfway with his car. I introduced him too. We loaded up and drove back to the motel parking. I've unmasked in the car, and the rest of the team followed. I advised Riley to leave her blood-stained apron with her instruments in the back of the van, and her spiders to guard it. Which left her in the equally stained formerly yellow cardigan and gray slacks.
Once at the other car, we got the rest of our stuff. I found one of my jackets and gave it to Riley to put over her dirty clothes. Then I called Legend and told him where he can find the dead Manton and Jack along with the not-yet-dead remaining members of the ex-Nine, for him and the Protectorate to herd and take out or whatever. I didn't tell him about Riley at this point as I wanted to make some distance first. I also wanted to wait and see how things with her would go. I was optimistic, but she had a massive baggage to unload, and I had no idea how to even start on that.
We drove for some 20 minutes back North till we saw a diner and had lunch there. Then we went to a small park across the road and held a war council.
"First, Riley, any preferences for the memorial service? Open air? Church? Synagogue? Mosque?"
"Never been to any of those, I don't think. Open air would do. We can do it here, I think? I actually don't remember I was ever to a memorial service. What would we be doing?"
"Well, usually the people who knew the person being remembered gather and talk about the best things they remember about them, their best qualities, what they would miss about them. Makes sense?"
She slowly nodded.
"Alright, but let's finish the meeting first? Think of what you'd want to say meanwhile? Also, think of all the people you'd like to remember?" Riley nodded and started doing just that.
"Next, Dinah, do you have room for some questions?" Dinah shrugged.
I was interrupted by the noise of an overflying quartet of fighter jets and what looked like 2 stealth bombers they were escorting, going relatively low towards where we came from. Guess Legend asked for the air support. Probably, or hopefully, not against Crawler, which would be pointless. Also, hopefully they were high enough not to be in Shatterbird's range when they reached her.
"Chances for more than a billion people to die in the next 3 years?" - "23.41%"
"Alright, our little operation seems to be a success. Without Jack, the immediate trigger is gone, it seems. The chance is still rather high, but that's probably due to other factors we will have to deal with. Good job, people.
"Now, the important question, who continues to Florida with us and who wants to get back to the Bay?"
"I was afraid Florida was a red herring to make us come at all!" Aisha said.
"On the contrary, Florida was always the goal. This was a ... detour. So, does anybody want to go back?"
Nobody volunteered.
"Alright, so we keep going to Florida, then. I suppose we've all earned a vacation after all."
We've rearranged ourselves a bit, and I prompted Dad to kick off a memorial service for two of the most horrible, hated, and feared mass murders in recent history.
"We've gathered here to remember the members of Riley's family", Dad started, trying not to name names. He was interrupted again by a very fast-moving Dragon suit, following the jets' direction.
"Riley, would you like to say a few words?", Dad continued after the aircraft noise level had subsided.
"I mean, Uncle Jack wasn't really my uncle, and Sibi, apparently, wasn't even a real person, but they were the only family I had for a while, and I'd like to say thank you for being kind to me. Uncle Jack taught me about art and encouraged me to express myself artistically. He taught me that I am able to achieve anything I want to achieve.
"Sibi was protecting me, braiding my hair, and calming me down when I've had nightmares. She was like a big sister to me. She never spoke, but I felt loved and cared for."
She looked questionably at me. I nodded for her to keep going, then an idea hit me, "Riley, is there any other family you've had that you'd like to say goodbye to? Maybe before Jack and Sibi?"
"There were Mommy, and Daddy, and I had a brother named Drew and a cat named Muffles. But I've said my goodbyes to them when they died. I couldn't save them anymore, and Mr. Jack told me to say 'goodbye' to them and that I could come with him, and I did. I don't remember them very much, not anymore, but that's what I have nightmares about, sometimes. I'm still trying to save them, even though I don't remember their faces. I'm not being a very good girl, am I, Mom?"
I was shocked to find myself crying besides the serial killer who looked like she wanted to cry too. So I just stepped closer and hugged her. "I think you're trying very hard to be a good girl, Riley, by remembering them as much as you can, and that's what counts.
"I will ask my friend to find where your Mommy and Daddy and Drew are buried, and maybe we will go and visit them too. What do you think?"
"I'd really like that, thank you, Taylor. You're being a great sister. Maybe even better than Sibi", she said into my shoulder. Fuck me, how does such shit keep happening to me? I looked at Dad, who shrugged and showed me a thumbs up.
Aisha pulled out a phone and was filming us, the bitch. I glared at her, but that didn't do anything to her smirk. Maybe I should Reload just to show her.
Our moment was interrupted by the Dragon suit coming back, much lower and much slower, carrying Crawler in its many mechanical arms. Crawler was screaming something we couldn't hear, tried to bite the limbs that were holding him, and it looked like acid was pouring out of him, everywhere. The suit's arms seemed to have been coated with something his acid wasn't affecting much. They soon disappeared in the northeastern direction.
"Goodbye, Ned", Riley said, "Let's go to Florida, please?"
While we were walking back to the cars, I asked, "Dinah, chances we all get to Florida and then come back to the Bay, safely?"
"82.45%"
AN:This was a hard chapter to write, even more than "The Bully". I hope I'm not overshooting into the "too serious" dial code too much, after the farce in The Joker...