The days since Krieg’s death were filled with blood and chaos in the streets. Lisa was posting articles on various sites to throw off any pro-Nazi narrative that tried to form and was largely successful. The Empire might have framed Krieg’s death as heroic sacrifice, but Lisa was better at spinning the newscycle than Victor. One such story blamed the Gesellschaft for attempting to remove Kaiser in a power grab. Another had his ex-wife putting out a hit on him, thus linking Kaiser’s civilian identity to anyone willing to look even skin deep into things.
Medhall stocks were in free fall less than a day after Taylor pulled the trigger. Even now she was watching it all unfold in real time, the threats, the scramble to try and save face, it was amazing how quickly the powers that be shifted with one or two well-placed bullets. She hadn’t even hit her intended target, yet the splash damage was significant.
Taylor stayed out of things to the best of her ability, and Coil wasn’t ordering the Undersiders to act either. Lung and Hookwolf squared off almost nightly for more than a week straight and it was just too much heat for small groups to deal with. Arcadia was canceled for the foreseeable future due to the fighting routinely spilling too close and she was content to use that time to the fullest.
Her apartment building hideout was now fully renovated and ready for whatever she needed, even if the armory was lacking. That would be solved over time, and Lisa was already laying claim to one of the rooms, using her Toybox key as a discreet shortcut from the Undersiders base to Taylor’s Brockton lab.
The Major was officially a pariah, Coil was pissed with her for taking that shot, even if he claimed to understand why she did it. He officially cut her loose much to her chagrin. That meant more time spent patrolling with Shadow Stalker in her off hours since the Wards were benched.
Taylor was getting fairly skilled at tuning out the time the two were spending with one another, from simple patrols to sparring together. Sophia looked up to the Major in a way that made Taylor’s skin crawl, but the Major had to just roll with it. It was a price to pay for tempering a useful tool, she just had to keep telling herself that.
Taylor and Amy were seeing Jacob daily, and she was thankful for that. He never judged her, and helped her get her feelings sorted. She didn’t want to imagine what it might have been like if he wasn’t around. Lisa’s power was good, but she wasn’t a therapist. Maybe in the future she could study for it, but Taylor didn’t think her power was truly suited to the job.
Though, she was confused by Jacob insisting that she alternate between seeing him as herself and the Major. Apparently he and Melissa agreed it was for the best since she acted differently between the personas, even though they were both her.
Taylor and Lisa were enjoying a movie for once, something they didn’t get much time for given everything that went down. The city was calm, and that did not bode well. Hannah wanted another joint dinner on Friday, which she tentatively agreed to assuming nothing kicked off.
Naturally, that was when Lisa’s phone rang.
Taylor tapped the call immediately, beginning her trace and to nobody’s surprise, it was routed a dozen different ways to Sunday, but this time she was ready with Lisa’s help. By the third ring, they had a trace, piercing over two hundred different reroutes and a Tinkertech defense. The call originated in Brockton, from a site deep under downtown that didn’t exist on any public documents.
Lisa answered, sounding groggy. “Boss? Sorry, I was trying to rest up now that the whole Empire affair is starting to cool off.”
“You were rather busy, my Tattletale,” he agreed. Voice software listed him as Anthony, body number one for the man. “I have a job I want done.”
“Kinda figured, bossman,” she said easily, then yawned. “Whatcha got?”
“Brockton Central Bank,” Coil said with what sounded like a grin. “I would like for you to rob it with the other Undersiders.”
“Damn, you aren’t asking for something easy here,” Lisa said. “This will have way more heat than the casino, especially with the Empire’s nest all stirred up.”
“I have plans to keep the pressure to a minimum,” Coil answered. “The heroes will be distracted by another of my plans, meaning the worst you will encounter are a few Wards.”
Checking the map, Taylor confirmed Arcadia was close, just three blocks away. The Wards would respond in force, but so would the junior New Wave members. Shielder wouldn’t be much, but Glory Girl would be a problem. That did open a door, however.
“When do you want us to hit it?” Lisa asked. “No doubt you’re making a play and need all the heat off you, so when do you need us to distract them?”
“Sometimes you are too sharp for your own good,” Coil muttered. “Thursday, one in the afternoon. You are to remain for a minimum of twenty minutes.”
“Will we have support?” she asked.
“Unfortunately not. I have other business for Cyber at the time.”
“You’re killing me here, boss. She would be invaluable for lifting everything off the computers.”
“She will be spreading false alarms for the heroes and hacking their systems to keep Dragon busy,” Coil said easily. “Does that satisfy you?”
“I thought Dragon was playing up in Montreal?”
Coil chuckled. “My dear, I have eyes where you do not. Believe me, Dragon will have a presence in the city come Thursday. I mean to keep it chained.”
Taylor swallowed at the implications of those words, but she was also busy, Coil was running a secondary line to another conversation. One that was equally hard to trace, with far more effective defenses. She was breaking through the fourth Tinkertech firewall when Coil continued.
“You have your instructions, I’ll contact you if they change.”
The call disconnected and moments later, the second connection ended with it, but Taylor had an indication of things. She discovered what seemed to be the final defense, and the implications of it were not lost on her.
Whoever was pulling Coil’s strings was involved with the PRT, and one of the doubles worked for them. It seemed caution was indeed paying off.
----------------------------------------
Thursday was fast approaching, and Taylor received word that Arcadia was reopening on Wednesday, which didn’t feel like a coincidence. A quick check confirmed that the PRT was pushing for a return to normality and would be patrolling in force to ensure that schools were safe. That meant she needed to ensure all her pieces were in place come showtime.
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The Major landed silently on the rooftop, and finally had eyes on Shadow Stalker. She was looking over the side of a building, down into an alley. The Major was silent on her feet, the stealth systems weren’t quite ready, a critical component was on rush order and would be ready by Thursday, but sound dampening wasn’t nearly as tricky as full optical camo.
Down below, a woman was being mugged at knife point. She wasn’t resisting, and was handing everything over. No doubt Stalker would move once the woman was safe, but the Major also knew Sophia could be a sadist at times and might be pulling whatever bullshit she had at Winslow all over again.
The Major drew her gun and waited. The man bolted a moment later and Stalker moved away from the edge. Sighing, the Major fired a single shot.
Stalker spun, two darts sailing through the air in an instant. Both struck true, hitting her arm and torso. The payload would have worked on most humans, but her body was cybernetic, not flesh. The paralytic was all but useless even if it did manage to pierce her skin.
The woman ran over and kicked her assailant in the dick before grabbing her belongings and running off. That was good enough for the Major, so she left it at that and gave the Ward her full attention. Stalker wasn’t on the patrol roster for the day, and no solo patrols were ever sanctioned.
Their meetups were rather routine after several weeks, though she usually called ahead. There was no doubt that the PRT was fully aware of Stalker’s little habit of slipping out on her own; she was too easy to track. Still, Sophia wasn’t someone Taylor wanted to work with, but dammit if she wasn’t useful. She wouldn’t shy away from violence, and that was something the Major needed more than Taylor needed to like a potential teammate.
“That was rude, Stalker,” she said, picking the darts out of her clothing. “You’re lucky I have a Brute rating.”
“Major!” Shadow Stalker exclaimed, then cleared her throat. “I didn’t think you were available today.”
“The situation has changed,” the Major said, looking at her gloved hand. “The city’s calmed down since I took that shot at Kaiser, and I’ll admit that spatial warp shell was a bit vicious even by my standards, but I did ask for something fitting.”
“I had a feeling that was you, but the reports are all over the place,” Stalker said. “Is it true that Kaiser’s ex put you up to it? What about Rune? Kaiser claimed you killed her and our official reports are going with that despite the claims online.”
The Major snorted. “Damn, talk about twenty questions.”
Shadow Stalker looked away. “Well I’m sorry, you’ve been tight-lipped and I’ve respected that. You’re talking now, so out with it!”
Shaking her head, the Major looked skyward. “The rumors about Rune were correct. She was being abused. She came to me, and I made sure she was safe. After confirming she was going to be as okay as someone can be after that, I decided to make sure Kaiser paid for allowing it. That I did so in his seat of power or on the street makes little difference to me, even if his rook did take the hit for him. The Empire has never respected the rules, so I gave them the same courtesy.”
Just to emphasize the point, the Major mimed firing a rifle.
“Damn, where were you five years ago?” Shadow Stalker muttered. “We might have made this city halfway respectable with you around then.”
Taylor bit her tongue, angry that her focus had slipped due to the emotions brought back to the surface, then cursed back at the Undersider’s lair. She wanted to mouth off about having only triggered four months prior, at Sophia’s hand more or less, just with a few extra steps, but what was the fucking point? It would just blow the Major’s cover, and that wasn’t something she could afford just yet.
“I’m here now,” the Major said instead. “Not that I intend to clean up the city or anything, I’m not being paid enough for that.”
A distinctive huff came from Stalker, one Taylor was quite familiar with as Sophia moved off to the side and sat down. “This city is fucked. I’m sure you’ve noticed.”
“You aren’t wrong,” the Major said casually. “What have you been doing about it?”
“Nailing rapists to walls,” Shadow Stalker said. “PRT didn’t like that, so they arrested me and pressed me into the Wards for my ‘protection’. What a fucking joke.”
That event was certainly spun differently in her PRT file, but Taylor knew better than to trust the local office after all the shit she had seen. Toybox might have been the brainchild of Hero, but they weren’t truly affiliated with the organization and those who seemed to run things were certainly more up front. Taylor knew Toybox had secrets still, but they didn’t hesitate to tell her when she needed to know.
“Want to go back to your roots?” the Major asked casually. Shadow Stalker perked up a bit at the question. “I was hired to keep an eye on a certain middle school tomorrow around one. Interested in being a second pair of eyes for me?”
“Why would someone be stalking around a bunch of kids?” Shadow Stalker asked carefully.
“I was contracted by someone to perform recon at the school before everything went down and he cut me loose,” the Major said. “I kept notes and upon speaking with Cyber, was informed of a city wide plan to distract as many heroes as possible. I want you to skip around lunch and be ready to help save someone who doesn’t deserve what’s coming.”
“Do you know who the target is?” she asked.
The Major shook her head. “No, but Vista goes to the school. She would likely be part of the Ward response to the Undersiders’ job tomorrow.”
“Why not just tell the heroes?”
The Major chuckled. “The heroes are compromised, or have you not noticed? I have read all of your files, I know everyone’s civilian identity in this city, including yours, Sophia. Where do you think I got Kaiser’s identity? Capes only play by the rules if they can’t afford to break them.”
Shadow Stalker had both crossbows on her the moment she spoke her civilian name. “What the fuck are you playing at? Give me one reason to not shoot you.”
“I haven’t killed you for what you did to Cyber,” the Major said with a smirk, though Taylor’s teeth were grinding. “The records are out there, despite Dragon’s attempts to bury them. If I hadn’t killed Crusader when I did, odds are the Empire would have taken a shot at you instead.”
She was blustering a bit, but wasn’t far off the mark. Sophia was under Empire observation, but they weren’t planning to kill her so much as use her as a recruitment tool. Taylor’s own hospitalization was listed on a few of their sites as a danger that people of color represented. It pissed her off to no end, but taking the story down would be suspicious, and crashing their servers only did so much. They kept proper back-ups, and even corrupting their articles simply saw them restored in a matter of hours.
“Well ugh, thanks for that?” Shadow Stalker said, unsure of herself. “What do you want me to do if stuff does kick off?”
“Not even going to object about being up for punishment if caught?” the Major asked. “Eh, not important. I’m just one person who is good at shooting, I need someone who is mobile and stealthy in the event they do get the kid and escape.”
The Major paused for a moment, then sighed, taking a seat. “Would telling you one of my own secrets help convince you? It was a bit of a bitch move to just out you like that.”
“You’re an open cape,” Shadow Stalker said as she began to pace. “What secret could you actually tempt me with?”
Taylor didn’t want to say the words she knew were coming, but the Major said them anyway. “I’m a fair bit younger than the records state. Closer to your own, actually. I’d be Wards age if they did recruit me.”
“The fuck?” Shadow Stalker said, looking her over. “I’ll admit, you don’t look nearly thirty, but that’s still…”
“What better way to hide myself?” the Major said. “There’s a reason I picked you out of all the capes in the city to hang out with.”
It was a gamble, as she could easily take that back to the PRT, but the Major didn’t think she would. Call it a hunch, despite what Taylor thought. Shadow Stalker had her issues, but most capes did.
If Taylor knew who the target was, she could easily make a cybernetic dummy, use it as bait instead of recruiting Stalker. If quality wasn’t an issue, a good enough analog could be completed in less than a week. Lisa’s shell was almost done and Taylor’s own cybernetic civilian model was only a few weeks behind. She had the time to start a new project if it was pressing.
She didn’t know, however, so she was forced into a reactionary role. She didn’t want to cede the initiative, but it was necessary to set a trap. Coil was a man of long plans and shuffling pawns. There was something at the school he wanted, and there were three possible candidates. Taylor knew it was a risk, but what else could she do but trust in her own plans?
“I’m in,” Shadow Stalker said, and with that, the last piece of her plan fell into place.
Taylor intended to draw out the snake, then claim the bastard’s head, and the Major would be the one to deliver the blow.