“Free speech is a wonderful thing, isn’t it?” I saw Tattletale’s lips moving as she broadcast the message.  She wasn’t holding any buttons down on her armband, but it was going through with no difficulty.  Miss Militia held a handgun pointed at Grue’s heart.

Killing a semi-hostage isn’t gonna break the truce any less than killing Tattle.

Other capes were in the vicinity, some of the Travelers, New Wave, out of towners.  Not quite in earshot, maybe, but close enough to see everything unfold.

Excellent.

The heroine looked at Armsmaster as we arrived, “She said something about deep access, offered your name, then the armband asked her for your password.  She knew your password.”

Ahaha nice.

“Armband, pause announcement,” Tattletale spoke.

Acknowledged.  Her armband replied.

With his one arm, Armsmaster reached for his shoulder, but his Halberd wasn’t there.  Photon Mom had apparently decided not to bring it when she’d carried him here.  No EMP burst possible.

*sticks tongue out in Armmaster’s direction*

“Let’s negotiate,” Tattletale spoke, taking a step to one side, ducking a little to ensure that someone else was always in between herself and Miss Militia.  Bitch scowled as the gun moved to point toward her head, with Tattletale roughly on the other side.

Ah, right, she wasn’t trying to aim at Grue, he was just in the way.

“Negotiate?” Legend asked.

“Sure.  Let’s turn things around.  You gave Skitter your three options.  Here’s my three.  Number one: Shoot us now, and confirm to everyone in this room, civilian and cape alike, hero and villain, that you’ve got something to hide.  It doesn’t even have to be lethal, people will still have their concerns if you knock us out rather than let us talk.”

Yeah, no, that one’s out.

Legend nodded, “Okay.”

“Two: I do my little announcement, and the truce ends.  I really don’t want to do that.

Yikes.

I recognize how necessary it is.  But if you decide that one cape’s identity maybe getting publically revealed is worth the truce, well, that’s on you, not me.”

Yeeeeah, nope.

“And the third option is that we release the girl,” Legend guessed.

“You got it,” Tattletale spoke.

Tattle has really put them on the spot here, and I love it so much.

When they were out of earshot, Legend floated over the counter to land in front of me.

“We’ve given you three options.  Pick one or I’ll choose for you.”

Well. It’s clearly between jail time and an identity reveal that would either make life even more hellish or, though Taylor doesn’t expect it, less.

Besides the possibility of Sophia possibly gaining a tiny bit of respect for Taylor also being a cape, there’s also the fact that it would act as a mutual blackmail. As it stands, Sophia doesn’t know that Taylor knows her identity, nor will she unless Taylor’s identity is also revealed to her. But if Taylor does reveal her identity to Sophia, Sophia will know that Taylor has the power to strike back if Sophia continues bullying her. On the, uh, third hand, Sophia would have the exact same power over Taylor.

But I mean, what happened during the Cold War? Both countries did what they could to not piss off the other enough for the other to go “fuck it”.

Grue looked at her.

“It’s cool,” she gave him a little smile, then she offered me one, “Hey Skitter, don’t sweat it.  We’ll handle this, kay?”

“Kay,” I muttered.

Kay.

In a way, I was relieved at the idea of them leaving.  I had no idea what I’d do, but it was a relief anyways.

Oh, I thought she wanted Skitter to come with them. Then again, Armmaster’s still got his steel grip on her.

Miss Militia raised her gun a fraction, waved it toward the others to prod them onward.  One by one, they turned.  Tattletale led the herd in walking away, followed my Regent and Bitch.  Grue was the last to turn away, with Miss Militia following him.

See ya, guys!

“It’s not a concern,” Legend spoke.  “Miss Militia?”

“Come on, let’s walk,” she told the others.

Well. The Undersiders can’t very well break the truce either.

“No,” Grue replied, his chin raising an inch, challenging, defiant.

Tattletale raised one hand, “If  could just say my piece, I-”

“Quiet,” Armsmaster interrupted her.

But in this situation where neither party has power over the other even with threats of violence… the Protectorate can’t tell the Undersiders what to do and expect them to do so.

“Nobody ever lets me talk!” she spoke, turning on her heel to walk away, flouncing, almost.

Ahaha!

Still frustrated about the incident last week, are you?

It was a bit theatrical, overacting.  I wondered if someone that didn’t know her would catch it.  “Whatever.  Grue, let’s go.”

Heh. It’s time to play along – Tattle seems to have a plan.

“Seven?  I’m flattered,” Tattletale replied, grinning.

Maybe she knows what it means, maybe she’s entirely bullshitting… I can’t tell.

“It’s reason enough to end this conversation here and now,” Armsmaster spoke, “Before you find some angle.”

…fair enough.

“Fine,” Legend nodded, “That’s all I need.  Miss Militia?  Escort them away?”

Green-black energy leapt to Miss Militia’s hand, materialized into the shape of a gun.  She didn’t raise it, and she kept her finger off the trigger, but the threat was implicit.

Looks like we’re done here. By declining both working with the Wards and revealing her identity to Sophia, Taylor has implicitly made her choice: Jail time.

Masters of the getaway, it might be time to do your thing.

“You start a fight here,” Grue spoke, “You better pray to some higher power that you can fucking spin this well enough with all those others looking, because it’s an end to the truce if you don’t, too many eyes on this.”

That’s a good point.

Grue turned his head, and I leaned forward a little to see what he was looking at.  There were capes at the far end of the hallway, staring at the scene, kept out of the main triage area by a set of PRT officers.  Trickster leaned against a wall with a cell phone raised, recording video.

Hah! Hi there.

I wonder if the similarity of the words Thinker and Tinker ever causes confusion in the Protectorate.

“She always does,” Armsmaster replied.

Grue turned his head sharply to look at the hero.

…

a) What exactly do you mean by that?

and b) you just revealed to the Undersiders, knowingly or not, that you know Taylor better than they’re aware of. Welp. Seems like Taylor’s little secret might be coming out in the near or immediate future, whether she likes it or not.

It’s about time, I suppose.

No.  He wouldn’t.

I’m not sure about that, but at the very least he just gave them a hint that might lead to some uncomfortable questions from Grue.

And then there’s Tattle.

“Well, you’ve made a good case,” Tattletale spoke, “Let me make mine?”

“One second,” Legend spoke.  He turned to Armsmaster, “I need more details on this group.”

Fair.

“The one that is speaking is Tattletale, member of the Undersiders,” Armsmaster spoke, his voice a hair away from being a growl, “A master manipulator, penchant for head games, likes to pretend she’s psychic but she isn’t.  We don’t know her power, possibly clairvoyance, psychometry, or some combination thereof, but we’ve got her pegged as a Thinker 7.”

Sounds good. I mean, I have no idea what the 7 means, but Thinker is accurate.

Grue nodded, “So?”

“So he agreed to reveal his real face to the other cape, so that any abuse of the knowledge on his part could or would be just as damaging to him.”

On one hand… that’s pretty reasonable.

On the other hand… shit.

Shiiit.

There’s no way Taylor’s going to be pleased with this, but it’s either jail time, working with Shadow Stalker and revealing her identity anyway (clearly the worst option), or this.

Reveal myself to Sophia?  No.  On so many levels, no.

Yeeah.

“I’m sorry,” I told her, “That doesn’t work either.”

Armsmaster tightened his grip on the armor of my shoulder until I could feel the pinch.

Armmaster, internally: “for fuck’s sake girl we’re trying to help you here take the goddamn offer”

Miss Militia leveled a very cold look at me.  I saw Tattletale staring at me.  I met her eyes.  She was easiest to look at.

I think Tattle knows what’s up, starting now.

Unwilling to reveal identity to the other cape: The other cape is one of the bullies.

“You’re making a difficult situation even more difficult for you, by being stubborn,” Legend spoke.

“Knowing Skitter, I’m sure she has her reasons,” Grue replied.

Oh, she does.

“Skitter escaped her restraints and uncovered another cape’s secret identity, and we can’t say for sure whether it was intentional or not,” Miss Militia explained to the rest of the group.  “In the interest of protecting that cape, who I assume isn’t well enough to join the discussion…?”

Certainly didn’t look like it. Jeez, that would be really uncomfortable for Taylor.

She looked at Armsmaster, who shook his head.

“…We’re left with three options,” she finished her thought.  “Jail time, especially if it’s discovered that this was intentional.  Joining the Wards under a probationary program-”

Regent snorted.

Heh. He doesn’t even know about the main reason Taylor said no to that, and he still finds it silly to even consider.

Granted, he also doesn’t know that she wanted to be a hero to begin with.

“Or, as a final option, some sort of collateral.”

“That option is generally reserved for capes we can trust,” Armsmaster spoke, his voice low.

What do you mean by collateral, though?

My pulse picked up as I heard Armsmaster’s words.  This was a dangerous situation, all of a sudden.

“Collateral?  Explain?” Grue asked Miss Militia, apparently not gathering the deeper meaning of Armsmaster’s statement.

Yes, please.

“This isn’t the first time we’ve run into a situation like this, though this is a first for an Endbringer event that wasn’t a blatantly intentional attempt to gather information on a rival.  In the previous case, the villain couldn’t be detained conventionally, and the Birdcage wasn’t yet running.

Sounds like a difficult situation.

To top it off, he… wasn’t Protectorate material.  For reasons I won’t explain.

I wonder if this is someone we’ve heard of.

My first thought was Lung, but I’m fairly sure he could be detained conventionally as long as they kept him out of fights. Unless he can start the transformation without being in a fight, but it doesn’t seem like it.

Or, could, I suppose might be the right tense there.

Yet every individual involved was concerned that if we didn’t resolve the case, it would be a costly loss of resources on both sides with an ongoing pursuit by the heroes, and there would be potential escalation leading to serious harm or death on one side or the other.”

Yikes.