Motoko watched with some amusement as the room took in Calvert’s bold declaration. To claim that the Nine should be treated with the same response as an Endbringer was overselling their danger, but there was some merit to the approach. It would certainly make their job harder if they flooded the city with volunteer heroes and villains. Good thing Legend wouldn’t allow that to come to pass.
The statement answered another question however, clearly Calvert was aware the Nine knew he was Coil, which meant that Melissa had visited him already. Motoko noted that Taylor sent a message to Lisa to make sure word was passed along to the rest of the team.
Lung snorted, breaking the silence. “I have fought an Endbringer alone, and that is a bold claim to make.”
“It is not an exaggeration,” Armsmaster said. “The Nine have killed thousands over the years and despite the efforts of hundreds of heroes we have been unable to defeat them in total, merely keep them in check.”
“Panacea is the only true hero they’ve nominated,” Cyber said. Motoko had to force down a wince to keep up their charade. “The Major is a villainous rogue, Shadow Stalker pretended to be a hero, but that’s nothing new… There isn’t any debate on Kaiser being evil incarnate and Lung is just a lazy ass.”
Lung growled, puffing smoke from his nostrils. “Is there a point or are you simply provoking those you have issues with?”
“I have no issue with you, unlike a certain other Dragon,” Cyber said. “I do find it amusing that I have issues with four of the people nominated so far, though I would have suggested Armsmaster if they were actually asking me, he would be a perfect fit.”
“Says the villain,” Armsmaster said.
“Only because you have a better PR team and you set me up to die,” Cyber sneered. “You outed me in violation of the Rules, bastard.”
“Children, please,” Motoko interjected, playing it up to fan the flames further. “This is a truce meeting, not a pissing match.”
“Excuse me if I don’t think he belongs here,” Cyber snarled. “My father would still be alive if not for him. The heroes are worse than useless in this city and frankly, I’m only here because Amy is my friend. I’m still pissed with you for taking that deal with Coil to kill Crusader.”
“Pardon?” Kaiser said, sitting up a bit straighter.
“Yeah, Coil set all that up,” Motoko confirmed as if she was describing the weather. “Hell, I’d probably still work for him if he had read me in on his plan to kidnap the Alcott girl. Stalker here tipped me off to some suspicious people investigating a middle school, so I looked into it and ended up in a pissing match with my then boss.”
The Major’s eyes flicked over to Calvert for a brief instant, almost challenging him to call her on the lie. He was too professional to react, but the message was delivered. His identity was known to people.
“Have the Nine delivered their tests yet?” the girl in the corner asked.
Everyone turned to the muscular punk girl who had largely remained out of things until then. Taylor ran her software, the results shared across their connection, getting a result in seconds. Vex, also known as Chrissie Dawson. A minor villain that tended to keep her head down in Boston. Recently pissed off Accord and went to ground. She must have thought Brockton would be safer only to walk right into the Nine, unlucky that.
It was a simple matter for Taylor to isolate her phone and send a message. She would be worth approaching if she was truly isolated in the city, though based on her record Motoko thought she would be more of a fit for her own growing team rather than the Undersiders. Hell, she would probably make for a decent member of the Nine if her family history was anything to go by. Triggering in a Haven run conversion camp didn’t sound pleasant after all.
Absently Motoko made a note to ask Jacob if they could go after Haven sometime after they were done in Brockton. The group was barely better than the Fallen, and that was just because their torture was better hidden.
“Bonesaw wants me to do three things,” Amy said, drawing attention away from the girl. “Cure a plague, kill one of her abominations and fix Miss Militia.”
“Fix?” Armsmaster asked.
Motoko chuckled. “When I broke into the PRT building to free Shadow Stalker, I found Miss Militia alive in the PRT medical room, she was already pronounced dead despite her mind still being quite intact and her heart beating. Armsy, care to explain that one?”
The entire Protectorate table stilled, and Assault’s gloves creaked with the sounds of strained leather.
“She was in a coma after I patched her up,” Amy continued, not waiting for an answer. “I don’t mess with brains, it’s too easy to break something.”
“Bonesaw doesn’t have that issue, she took her when they nominated me,” Motoko continued. “She’s up and functional but unable to fight against the implanted constructs in her mind. Cranial might be able to remove them with Surgeon’s help, but that isn’t exactly easy to arrange.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“Then she is to be treated as another member of the Nine,” Armsmaster said.
“You can’t be serious!” Assault exclaimed, his anger finally bubbling over. “She’s one of ours and you’re just going to write her off for what sounds like a second time? You forget, you declared her dead, we sat in that room mourning her while she was fighting to stay alive! How dare you!”
“Sit. Down,” Calvert said sternly. “You’re out of line, Assault.”
Assault chuckled ruefully. “Maybe I am, but after all the shit I’ve seen these last few months?” He stood, stepping from the booth and over to the Undersiders table. “Cyber, mind if I take a seat? You seem more likely to give a damn about people than my boss at the moment.”
Motoko could tell that Taylor wanted to blink so badly it hurt but couldn’t due to the little display she was forced to enact to keep to the plan. Neither of them anticipated Assault flipping in the slightest, but she really should have given the man’s past. Madcap used to fight against the heroes unjust imprisonments. A quick check confirmed he first became active in early two thousand, shortly after…
After Lustrum was sent to the Birdcage.
Cyber looked up at him with wide eyes, her voice came out soft. “Are you familiar with Hirschfeld?”
He smiled, taking a seat. “I am. She helped me a lot when I was a homeless teen who joined during the tail end of the Lustrum movement.”
Motoko could tell that Taylor wanted to send the emotional display anywhere else, but the tears came freely at the support on display. Motoko could feel the shape of Taylor’s thoughts, of how different things might have been if he had been the one to approach her instead of the bastard at the table. Then Taylor buried them and steeled her expression.
Motoko didn’t want to consider that, because would she even exist in Taylor’s little ‘what if’ scenario? It was a rabbit hole best left unexplored. What ifs had their place, and this wasn’t it.
“Divisions in the ranks, how quaint,” Kaiser said ruefully.
“I do believe the subject was trials the Nine are arranging,” Armsmaster said. “Panacea has outlined hers, but nobody else seems to be volunteering.”
“Assassinate Director Calvert, put Kaiser’s head on a pike, slay a Dragon,” Motoko said, finger tapping on the table. “That last one made me raise an eyebrow because the way Jack said it heavily hinted he wanted me to poke at the digital one.”
Neither Calvert nor Armsmaster visibly reacted to that declaration, but it was easy enough to pick up on the raised heartbeat that followed. That’s right, people know what Dragon actually is, and that she has heavy enough ties in Brockton Bay to warrant her as a test.
The heroes were off balance, which meant it was about time, and checking the operational timer only confirmed it. A single message was sent, and was followed by a deafening crack just outside the door. It was a sound that anyone who studied the Nine was aware of, the Butcher had a reputation after all.
The door swung open as everyone rose to their feet, readying weapons or powers. Melissa stepped inside, not a weapon on her, not that she needed one. The Butcher had many powers that weren’t well documented, which made her a bit of a wild card.
“Evening,” she said cheerfully, even waving to everyone present. “Sorry I’m late, but I seem to have misplaced my invitation.”
“Given the meeting’s purpose is to counter the Nine, you were not invited,” Armsmaster said.
Assault’s head dropped to the table with a loud thump.
“Aww, that hurts,” Melissa said, clutching her chest as she prowled around the table. The assembled capes cautiously gave her room, not wanting to be the one to set her into motion. “Anyway, it occurred to me that I forgot to give Kaiser his testing terms. The test is twofold. Any nominee that kills Kaiser gets a free pass on one of their own tests. For each day that a proper attempt isn’t made on his life, I’ll kill a random person of import within the city. It could be the Director there, it could be the mayor or even a major CEO, you never know.”
“That does not seem very sporting,” Kaiser said coldly. “You failed to mention what happens if I survive these attempts.”
“Ah right, I knew I forgot something,” Melissa said, tapping her chin. “Survive three proper attempts and you are exempt from everything else to come. That was Skadi’s idea by the by, she’s still bitter that you cheated on her with Purity after all.”
Kaiser’s armor bristled at that, and in a way she had outed him even further than Motoko’s own sniper shot had. It was almost beautiful watching everything he had inherited, and all his actions since, come tumbling down on his head.
Everyone flinched when Melissa snapped her fingers.
“Oh, and one last thing just because I find the idea of it amusing,” Melissa said with a grin, pausing for effect. “If one of you kills Kaiser before the Truce meeting is done, you’re free to go, the Nine will leave you be.”
Melissa didn’t wait for an answer and simply teleported away with a puff of smoke and a distant crack, leaving the room to mull over her ultimatum. Nobody seemed willing to speak up at the moment, likely afraid that if they did, it might tip the whole room into violence. Motoko wanted to laugh, because Melissa ad-libbed that last condition, and it was simply too perfect.
A sound that reminded Motoko of crunching chips broke the silence, and she half expected exactly that when she looked over to Vex. Instead, she was greeted with the sight of the girl biting her own hand to try and keep herself in check, choked laughter came out in garbled snorts. Their eyes met and her barely restrained humor flooded out in a raucous cackle.
“Care to share the joke with the rest of us?” Lung asked after a moment, his own idle amusement obvious.
It took Vex a moment to contain her own mirth enough to speak, hell, she even wiped a tear from her eye. “I came back to Brockton because someone was finally taking the fight to the fascists and wanted to get in on the fun. Now, even the Nine is basically asking us to kill the Nazi fucks with a pretty please and sprinkles on top. I’m not even a nominee and I’m tempted to just slice his head off at this point.”
“You would violate the Truce?” Kaiser said, blades already forming along his armor.
Vex flipped him off as translucent shapes formed in the surrounding air. “Bitch, I’d kill you for a Klondike Bar.”
That seemed to clinch it for Taylor as she called digital dibs on recruiting the girl much to Motoko’s chagrin.