“Why is she so against this?” Trickster asked.

“Headaches,” Dinah answered, pressing her hands to her head,  “It breaks my power.  It takes days, sometimes weeks before everything is sorted out and working again.

Sounds like not just a headache, but a full-on burnout.

Headaches the entire time, until everything is sorted out, worse headaches if I try to get numbers in the meantime.  Have to be careful, can’t muddle things up.  Can’t lie about the numbers, can’t look at what happens, or it just becomes chaos.

Huh, that’s interesting, she’s sworn to honesty by the power, or she risks it leaving her for a while.

Also, if looking at what happens causes a burnout, I suppose the glimpses she already gets of each branch are part of why the power causes headaches if she uses it too much normally as well.

Safer to keep a distance, to make and follow rules.  Safer to just ask the questions and let things fall into place.”

I suppose that makes sense.

“Pet,” Coil said.

What she didn’t get from his tone, she grasped from the vague images she saw of her most immediate possible futures.

That sounds ominous.

“No,” she pleaded, before he’d even told her what he wanted.

“It’s necessary.  I want you to look at a future where we survived, and I want you to tell us what happened.”

Ohh, that’s a pretty neat touch. Her ability lets her see moments from each branch, but she can focus on a specific branch and look through it for the course of events that led there. Sounds like that takes a lot of mental power, though.

“No.  Please,” she begged.

“Now, pet.”

I feel like it says a lot about how much mental power, that Dinah doesn’t want to do this even though it seems to be their only solid way out of this mess.

This isn’t going to be pleasant.

“A start,” Coil noted.

Something about the image bothered her.  She pushed forward, seeing the possible realities that unfolded after that.  Very, very few extended any meaningful distance into the future.

…well then. “Oh but we almost certainly die within an hour and ten minutes.”

“Six percent chance we survive the next five hours.”

Which is pretty interesting, because it suggests that this situation would last for at least one hour before Crawler killed them.

Coil stopped, then sighed.  “Thank you, pet, for clarifying that.”

Yeeah, that was pretty important.

She nodded.

“Awesome,” Trickster responded, his voice thick with sarcasm.  With a more serious tone and expression, he said, “Let’s not give him access to Noelle.  Agreed?”

It does sound like that turns out badly, yeah.

“Agreed,” Coil conceded.  “Any further ideas?”

Time’s running out.  She looked at the numbers for herself, even though she felt the initial throbbing pains at the base of her skull that foretold the encroaching headaches.  53.8 percent chance I die in the next thirty minutes.

Bad numbers: the chapter.

“Which makes me wonder all of a sudden how he found us,” Trickster added.

So far, the Slaughterhouse members have all seemed to have fairly good intel on their targets.

And they have someone who’s good at finding people, so there’s that too.

Coil shook his head, “One thing at a time.  If he is here because he’s seeking someone who could harm him, the only individuals on site who would be capable are Sundancer and your Noelle.”

Hm, interesting. I do suppose “solar heat” isn’t a damage source you come across often, and whatever is actually happening to Noelle seems new and unknown.

That gave the three teenagers pause.

“Noelle?  But who even knows about Noelle, except-”

…Tattletale?

Coil raised his hand to silence Trickster.  “Pet, the chance that Crawler would seek out Noelle first, given the opportunity?”

Oh yeah, good call.

She felt the images filter out until she was looking at a pattern of scenarios.  The vague shape of the hulking figure, the open vault door.  The images snapped into two groups, one vastly larger than the other.

“Ninety three point four percent.”

Damn.

…but is it to let her damage him, or to recruit her? Or both?

Trickster added, “I read up on these guys after you mentioned them the other night.  Crawler eventually becomes immune to whatever was hurting him, and he’s that much less human, afterward.  He wants to get hurt, wants to further his transformation, like a crazed masochist or someone with a death wish.

Hm, makes sense. If you’ve got a power like this and you like it, or just want to become more powerful, it’s reasonable to a crazed mind to want to hasten it.

By now, he’s probably immune to slashing damage, at the very least, and quite likely other forms of physical attacks. Probably lasers too, having likely been up against the Triumvirate repeatedly like Siberian.

Throws himself into suicidal situations and then comes out stronger.  Which may be why he’s here.  The soldiers?”

Trickster might be right, though there is still the recruitment plot.

Then again, maybe this isn’t about recruitment so much as stealing a valuable resource: Dinah.

And if the Slaughterhouse Nine have both Bitch and Dinah, that might be reason enough for the remainder of the Undersiders to want to do something, and for Coil to support that desire. Though he’s smart enough to know that the Undersiders still don’t have that much of a chance, so he might not approve of following through on it.

Coil shook his head, “He’s immune to conventional ammunition and explosives, and most likely to most unconventional forms of ammunition and explosives as well.  The laser attachments might have some small effect, but not enough to draw him here.”

Hm, good point. I mean I did say he’s probably immune to lasers just before Trickster suggested that he was here for them.

“What’s going on?” Trickster asked.

“My pet has graciously informed us that Crawler of the Slaughterhouse Nine is less than thirty minutes away from entering this complex and murdering us all.  Suggestions outside of the obvious would be appreciated.”

Can’t accuse him of not being straightforward.

And now you gotta think outside the box.

“Trickster and I could go and try to stop him,” Sundancer suggested.

“Outside of the obvious, Sundancer.  I’ve asked my pet.  You try that and we’re all more likely to die.”

For some reason. Maybe Crawler gets stronger the more you hit him?

Also apparently Crawler is a him.

“Why?”

“He’s a regenerator,” Coil answered, sounding irritated at having to explain, “And he regenerates exceedingly quickly.  More to the point, he has the added advantage that any part that grows back is stronger than it was before, typically with extra features, growths and increased durability to render him more resistant to whatever hurt him or give him other capabilities.

Ahhh. So for example, you cut off his arm, it might grow back with spikes or a pincer.

That is if he still has anything that can still be considered an arm. Taylor’s narration in 10.6 said he didn’t appear to be humanoid, and it kinda sounds like these changes might be permanent.

These adjustments are not only permanent, but he’s been working on it for some time.”

Ah, yes, they are.

The soldiers that were at ease in the lower area of the base jumped to action, grabbing weapons and protective wear.

So, uh… wasn’t this one of the things the numbers just indicated they should *not* do? Did Coil just get so fed up with the bad chances that he went “screw the numbers”?

It wasn’t going to make a difference.  The numbers weren’t changing enough.  But he was already upset, so she didn’t tell him that.

I suppose his influence could theoretically make it worth a shot, but it doesn’t seem like it’s doing that in practice.

So does he have another reality where he didn’t mobilize the troops?

Trickster, Oliver and Sundancer appeared, running along the metal catwalk.  Sundancer had her mask off, and her permed blond hair was damp against her scalp with sweat.

And the Travelers, for that matter.

Are the soldiers going to use the purple beams, and Coil and Dinah going to leave the premises, just to fill out the bad idea bingo card?

Also, Oliver? Ballistic?

Oliver was in casual clothing, like Trickster.  He was good looking, his features chiseled.  Athletically built.  Trickster wasn’t.  He had a hook nose and long hair that didn’t suit him, but she knew he was smart, and she would have guessed it even if she didn’t know, just going by the way he looked at stuff.

Yeah, Trickster’s a guy who seems to know what he’s doing.