In short, the PRT and Protectorate were not ready for such an attack, and therefore could not say anything coherent on camera. Within fifteen minutes, this recording began circulating online. While people across the US tended to justify the heroes, in Brockton Bay, people agreed with me one hundred percent.
When the situation became clearer and the process of deporting the criminal elements of society was completed, I made another statement via the internet and television. In it, I declared that the Protectorate did not have an exclusive license on legality and justice, and therefore I am taking power in the city into my own hands, intending to finally solve all the problems in the city. I asked the Protectorate and the PRT not to interfere and not to try to save villains at the expense of ordinary citizens. After such an attack, they had no choice but to remain silent and wait patiently for the moment when I would "mess up," so they could then bury me under tons of prepared dirt.
The defeat of the ABB could not go unnoticed by other villains. Empire 88 was especially alarmed. After all, they had been trying for many years to push the ABB out of the city, but the result was zero. And here comes an unknown newcomer who first took out Lung, then dealt with Bakuda, and in the end, cleaned out the entire ABB, throwing them out of the city. It was easy to draw the analogy that the Empire would be next.
Kaiser decided to convene another meeting to discuss the joint actions of all the city's villains. And it turned out that there were hardly any villains left. Merchants had disappeared without a trace, the ABB was defeated, and the Undersiders were subordinate to the enemy. On the balance sheet of the "allied forces" were only Empire 88, a lone Coil, and two gangs of mercenaries who could well be bought off.
Coil also couldn't find peace, because all his carefully crafted plans were going down the drain. He himself was planning to push the ABB and Empire out of the city, seize shadow power, and then take control of the PRT. And now, out of nowhere, a new "shadow king" appeared, who easily did what he couldn't do for a long time.
As a result, another villain meeting was organized in the shortest time. At first, I wanted to show up and troll everyone, but then I thought that essentially I had nothing to talk about with them. Our interests were completely opposite, I couldn't trust these capes, and in the future, they could all become game figures, which would further complicate our relationships. So, for me, it was most correct to consider heroes and villains as enemies. And the Undersiders were also essentially a wild card.
Therefore, while the villains were discussing my fate, I was pondering theirs. Overall, it seemed that organized resistance against me from the villains could only come from Coil. He was the one who now controlled Trickster and Faultline teams, planning to direct them to help Empire 88. In this situation, the most reasonable thing was to eliminate Coil, thereby isolating the opponents.
Another problem was that not long ago, Coil had kidnapped Dinah Alcott, a girl with the ability to predict the future. So far, he hadn't been able to make her submit, but the process of getting her hooked on drugs was in full swing. When Coil gains the ability to foresee the future, and not just reproduce two scenarios, it will be much more difficult to resist him.
So, when Coil headed to his secret underground hideout after the meeting, I decided to pay him a visit. I could have arranged an "accident" for him, but I wanted to face the enemy and "tear off his head" with my own hands. I wasn't generally inclined to excessive risk, but here I decided to deal with the issue personally. Maybe it was the shard influencing me, but I saw no reason to deny myself such pleasure.
As far as I knew, Coil had the ability to "live" in two reality options simultaneously. If something happened to him in one option, he would "cancel" it and make the second one real. Knowing this, it was quite easy to find a solution that nullified this advantage. I simply planned to eliminate Coil today at exactly midnight, regardless of where he was and what he was doing at that time.
Replicators had long ago infiltrated to Coil's base and hacked all the electronic systems there. As a result, I could infiltrate this security fanatic's lair unnoticed. The video cameras showed that I wasn't there, the motion sensors didn't react to me, and I bypassed the patrols and posts with real people. There were two posts that couldn't be bypassed, and I "dealt" with them using paralyzers. And no, I didn't do anything personally. The replicators, having penetrated through the ventilation, paralyzed them.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Exactly at midnight, I reached the door to the office where Coil was sitting. In my "virtual" plans, I decided that if this prophet was outside his base, I would kill him at exactly zero hours, zero minutes, and zero seconds. And on the base, I would kill him one second later.
I approached the door, prepared the specially created shotgun for today's operation, aimed, and then at the right moment, the replicators turned off the lights in the corridor and office, and then opened the automatic door. Between the door opening and pulling the shotgun's trigger, only a second passed, but in that second, I experienced something very strange.
I felt thousands of reality options where in a second I would blow Coil's brains out with a shotgun. He tried to dodge, block, run, call for help, and beg for mercy, but the result of all these probability lines was the same - a bloody smear of brains on the wall of his office.
Having confirmed that the villain was dead, I headed to the chamber where Dinah Alcott was held. I intended to save her and thus earn points in the mayor's eyes. After all, he was the official authority, and it was better to cooperate with him. However, entering the room, I saw a girl scared to death, looking at me with wide eyes. As soon as she saw me in the doorway, she screamed, expressing the depth of her despair in that cry.
"Why are you screaming?" - I inquired about such a strange reaction.
"With a probability of 99.999% you're going to eat my soul right now."
"Really?" - I was surprised. - "I didn't plan on doing that, but if you insist..."
I extended my spiritual tentacles to the girl, "licked" her, and found that her body currently contained not only a human soul but also an angel's soul, which was controlling her behavior at the moment. It seemed like a game figure. And by the way, I hadn't eaten angels yet. As they say, itadakimasu!
I didn't indulge in reflection and immediately devoured the angel's soul. From his memory, I learned that today at exactly midnight, game figures were incarnated into all capes on Earth. No wonder Coil was so freaked out in the last second of his existence. Ha-ha, I distinguished myself again: I finished off another demon just a second after his incarnation into the body. I think that's a record.
While I was pondering how to live on, Dinah came to her senses and looked at me with interest and hope.
"Get up, you're going home" - I said to the girl.
"Okay" - she nodded. - "But right now, bad uncles and aunts want to interfere with us."
"Well, yeah, where without that. Stay here for now, I'll tell you when it's safe."
I turned and went to meet the approaching group of enemies. If the mercenaries were simply worried about the power outage and Coil not answering calls, Trickster's team living at the base were now demons heading to the angel on their territory to take him under their control. Only to their surprise, it was me who came out of Dinah's room.
"Who the hell are you?" - Trickster inquired, though such behavior wasn't typical of him "in life."
"I'm your boss" - I replied with a brazen grin. It wasn't noticeable behind the mask, but the tone of my voice and the emotions I projected should have made it clear to the demons that I wasn't afraid of them.
"Coil?" - Faultline asked, though it was off-topic. However, she was a blonde, so such a question was understandable.
"I'm Black Cloak" - I introduced myself. - "A figure of Shub-Niggurath."
The demons glanced at the mercenaries and mentally marked them as expendable.
"So, it's your soul that's got a bounty?" - Ballistic rubbed his hands joyfully.
"Looks like your game will end just as it starts" - I replied, turning into a fire-breathing crocodile.
My costume was initially designed to adapt to my "transformation." So, the face mask folded away, giving room to the elongated muzzle, and the armor covering my body parted as the size and volume of my body increased.
Honestly, the situation was not in my favor. In front of me were Trickster, Faultline, Ballistic, and Genesis' creation. The leader of this group was a teleporter, so he didn't pose a direct threat to me. Faultline could cause trouble by creating her "fire sphere." But since she was just a human, I planned to simply blow her brains out with a shotgun. Ballistic was strong enough to injure me, as he could accelerate objects to supersonic speeds. And Genesis had created some giant gorilla that could hold me up, even at the cost of its own life.
I still had an ace up my sleeve in the form of the replicators in the ventilation, which had paralyzers. I could definitely stun Trickster and Faultline, and Genesis could be taken out while she was unconscious. But on the other hand, I was now facing not just capes but demons with the experience of nineteen games.
"So, who’s eager to die first?" - I asked, scanning my opponents and shifting the shotgun from one target to another.