“You guys are making a mistake,” Grue said.

“I think you have things the wrong way around,” Hookwolf said.  “Nobody wants to break the peace at neutral ground, so perhaps you should go before things get violent?”

Yeeeeah, this could’ve gone better.

Tattletale asked, “You won’t let us stick around and discuss the Nine, who they attacked, what our overall strategies should be?  Even if we aren’t working together as a single group?”  She paused, looking deliberately at Faultline, “You know, the smart thing to do?”

Hah, nice one. :p

She was met only with cold stares and crossed arms.

There was little else to be said or done.  We’d lost here.  I turned and helped push our boat into the water, then held it steady as everyone piled in.  Tattletale had started the motor, and we were gone the second I’d hopped inside.

Well. See ya, folks.

“And Miss Militia?” Hookwolf asked, “A truce?”

“Keep the business to a minimum, no assaulting or attacking civilians,” Miss Militia said, “We still have to protect this city, there’s no give there.  Don’t give us a reason to bother with you, and we’ll be focused wholly on the Slaughterhouse Nine in the meantime.”

Those seem like reasonable terms.

“Good.  That’s all we ask.”

The leaders of the new group crossed the roof to shake hands.  In the process, things shuffled so that our group, the Travelers and the heroes were near the bottom of the roof.

The underdogs.

…That would be a good name for an AU version of the Undersiders led by Rachel.

The heroes moved off to one side, as if to guard us from any retaliation, making the separation in forces all the more obvious.

I appreciate that they seem to protect the Undertravelers here, whether it’s intentional or not on their part.

“It seems,” Hookwolf said, “The Travelers and the Undersiders won’t agree to our terms for the truce.  Merchants, Pure, Faultline, Coil?  Are you willing to band together with my group?”

But yeah, I suppose the truce proper isn’t really in effect yet.

And it’s looking that it’ll be Undertravelers vs Empire Mercoiline.

Maybe having it both ways was Coil’s plan here? Getting a foot in on either side of this conflict?

Purity, Coil and Skidmark nodded.  Faultline shook her head.

“You’re saying no, Faultline?”

Ooh! Another ally? Or are they going to pull the same schtick they did last time and go with “whoever pays more”?

“We’re mercenaries.  We can’t take a job without pay.  Even a job as important as this.”

Looks like it.

Well. The Undertravelers have money to spend, but so does the guy who provided them with that money in the first place.

Question is whether he’ll make a bid or let the Undertravelers have Faultline.

Besides, the other groups probably aren’t poor either.

“I will handle your payment here as I did for the ABB, Faultline,” Coil said, sounding just a touch exasperated.

Alright, guess he’s going for it. I suppose his main objective is to get as many people against the Slaughterhouse Nine as he can.

“We could make the same arguments about ourselves,” Grue pointed out, “If we agreed, we’d be sitting ducks for whoever came after us.”

Yeah. As I said, they would almost certainly attack this “hotel”.

“I think the Protectorate can help watch and guard nine people,” Coil replied, “I’m less confident of their ability to protect everyone present.”

That’s a fair point.

So Coil wasn’t willing to play along if it meant losing his ability to stay where he was, but he was willing to make life harder on us, his territory holders.  Did he have some plan in mind?  Or was he just that callous?  Either way, he was an asshole.

He’s Coil, he can have it both ways.

“No.  I’m afraid that compromise won’t work,” Hookwolf said, squaring his shoulders.

Miss Militia glanced my way.  She didn’t say or do anything, but I could almost read her mind: I tried.

It was a good attempt. Thank you.

Hookwolf wasn’t about to give up anything here.  He had us right where he wanted us, and he was poised to kill two birds with one stone: The Nine and his rivals for territory.

You’d think this sort of manipulation would constitute a breach of the truce, honestly.

“Mannequin went after Armsmaster.  Armsmaster was hospitalized.”

That was some small shock to everyone present, though I might have been less surprised than some.

Huh.

Well, I guess she’s less surprised by Armmaster being someone the Nine would be interested in.

Armsmaster as a prospective member for the Nine.

Yeah, that.

I mean, even from Taylor’s perspective of the guy, it seems like a stretch, but she has reason to be somewhat less surprised.

“What you suggest is too dangerous,” Faultline said.  “We’d all be gathered in one or two locations for them to attack, and if Armsmaster was attacked, we could be too.”

That is true.

“And their whole reason for being here is recruitment,” Coil spoke, “Perhaps the plan would work if we could trust one another, but we cannot, when many here were scouted for their group, and may turn on their potential rivals to prove their worth.  We would be vulnerable to an attack from within, and we would be easy targets.”

Funny you should mention that. *glances at Bitch*

Miss Militia frowned.

“Please.”

She turned away from me and called out, “I would suggest a compromise.”

Nice. What do you have in mind?

The arguing stopped, and all eyes turned to her.

“The Undersiders and Travelers would move into neutral territory until the Nine were dealt with.  But so would the powered individuals of the Merchants, the Chosen, the Pure, Coil and Faultine’s Crew.”

Hm, nice. Though it is still worth noting that the Merchants, the Chosen and probably the Pure practically have small armies of mundanes that could still be sent to take territory and terrorize citizens.

“Where would this be?  In the PRT headquarters?” Hookwolf asked.

Where exactly are the PRT headquarters these days anyway? Apparently Armmaster’s house arrest apartment is part of it, at least.

“Perhaps.”

“You were attacked as well, weren’t you?  Who did they go after?”

Ooh, this might get an interesting reaction from Taylor if Miss Militia answers honestly. Not just finding out Armmaster was targeted by the Nine, but finding out that he didn’t get punished as hard as they were going to punish her for a smaller crime.

“You’ll be earning the enmity of everyone here if you refuse,” Hookwolf said.  Was there a hint of gloating in his tone?

“I’ve won. You know I’ve won.”

“We’ll be ruining ourselves if we agree, too,” Grue retorted.

“I strongly recommend you agree to this deal,” Purity said.

I don’t think they’re very receptive to your advice, Purity. You’re one of the beneficiaries from this nonsense.

“No, I don’t think we will,” Trickster said.

“No,” Grue echoed Trickster, folding his arms.

Good work, boys. Stick to your guns.

There’s a bumpy ride ahead.

That only provoked more argument, along many of the same lines.  It was clear this was getting nowhere.

I turned to Miss Militia, who stood only a few feet from me.  When I spoke to her, she seemed to only partially pay attention to me, as she kept an eye on the ongoing debate.  “This isn’t what we need right now.  Hookwolf’s made this about territory, not the Nine, and we can’t back down without-”

Miss Militia seemed to be particularly interested in keeping the meeting focused earlier. It’s a wonder she hasn’t interjected more.

I stopped as she turned her head, stepped a little closer and tried again, “We, or at least I have people depending on me.  I can’t let Hookwolf prey on them.  We all need to work together to fight the Nine.  Can’t you do something?”

Miss Militia is among those who know about Taylor’s original scheme. I’m sure that might help her be more inclined to believe Taylor here, especially when mixed with Battery’s reports. Battery might also be relevant to bring into this side discussion.

Hookwolf was manipulating this.  He wasn’t as subtle about it as Kaiser had been, it was even transparent, what he was doing.  Dead obvious.

Oh yeah. But it works.

At the same time, the scenario he was suggesting was just dangerous and believable enough to the Merchants, to his Chosen, and to the Pure that they couldn’t afford to ignore it.  Coil couldn’t talk sense into them without potentially revealing his role as our backer.  Even the heroes couldn’t counter his argument, because there was that dim possibility that he was right, that they would lose control of the city to villains if we continued to grab power.

He’s got them spun around his finger.

Which was admittedly the case.  Dealing with the local heroes was one of our long-term goals, for Coil’s plan.

True that.

We were fighting for Coil’s plan and Coil wasn’t helping.  He remained silent, inscrutable, sticking to the situation that worked best for him and him alone.  Damn him.

Yeeah. He’s just racking up the “damn him” points with every major appearance.