The way the Travelers and Coil had positioned themselves, we’d formed a haphazard ring.

Just the Undersiders, Travelers and Coil, or everyone?

“No cooperation here, no sirree.”

From the top of the roof, going clockwise, the arranged groups were Hookwolf’s Chosen, Faultline’s crew, us, the Pure, Coil, the Travelers and the Merchants.

Ah, okay, everyone it is. That makes more sense anyway.

“It seems everyone is here,” Coil spoke, taking in the collected villains.  Forty-ish of us in all.

Damn, these numbers go up pretty quickly.

“Not quite everyone,” Hookwolf replied.  “Victor, Othala.”

Hm? Are you asking them to fetch someone?

Othala touched Victor, and Victor raised one hand.  A fireball appeared in it, then disappeared as he clenched his hand.  He repeated the process two more times.

Or, uh, summon a demon or something.

“Who are you signalling?” Purity’s asked.  Her hand flared with light, ready to fire.

Ahh, I see.

Better not be signalling Shatterbird, Hookwolf.

“It would be a grave and stupid mistake if you invited the Nine,” Coil told Hookwolf.

It would, wouldn’t it? This battlefield has their enemies gathered in a tight spot, but it’s otherwise not particularly suited to the Nine’s strengths. Then again, Burnscar alone could do some serious damage, and these are a whole bunch of high-priority targets.

Coil was the last of us to arrive, maybe because he’d wanted to be fashionably late.

Oh, hi! I was kinda figuring he’d decided to sit it out and let his subordinates do the talking, but I suppose that doesn’t make much sense.

The two soldiers who’d driven his boat stayed behind.  Purity set down by where the boats had landed, followed by Fog and Crusader, who I hadn’t seen in the dark.

Oh, hi there.

Night stepped out of the lake, between our parked boats and onto the roof, water streaming from her cloak.  Had she been the just-in-case measure if an incoming boat hadn’t known the signal?

…huh. I don’t know what the physical characteristics of her monster form are, but if it’s good at swimming, then underwater in the dark is pretty much ideal for her.

She would be invisible in the pitch black gloom beneath the water’s surface, which would mean she wasn’t in her human form.

Exactly.

Another series of flashes served to alert us, indirectly, of incoming arrivals.  The Travelers appeared soon after.  Trickster, Sundancer, Ballistic each stood on the back of some kind of turtle serpent.

Heh, nice one, Genesis.

I couldn’t make out Genesis’s form in the gloom.

Mentioned separately to highlight that Genesis is relevant to how they’re arriving.

What little light was available came from the moon and Purity’s radiance from where she floated above us.  I could have used my bugs to get a feel for the shape Genesis had taken, but my habit was generally to place my bugs on clothing where they wouldn’t be noticed, and Genesis was effectively naked.

Oh yeah, that’s both awkward and easily noticed.

I didn’t know anything about them, but they were our allies.  I didn’t want to irritate her and upset anything between our two groups.

Yeah, probably best to keep relations good.

She shook her head.  It was more the kind of head shake that accompanied an eye roll.

Hehe. An appropriate response.

Skidmark went on, “You’re mercenaries.  Don’t tell me you don’t have the cash.  I’ll only ask for five mil.  One for each vial you took.”

…you know, I can actually believe that that is a good deal for those vials. But Faultline and co. have approximately no reason to make a deal in the first place.

Fautline didn’t answer him.  Instead she looked at Hookwolf and asked him, “Did we really need to invite him?  Does he contribute anything to this discussion?”

Oof.

…but it’s true, he’s not among those with ties to people targeted by the Nine. I’m sure his people would get caught in crossfire if Shatterbird went big, but how much would he himself care?

The only real reason he’s here is that he’s made himself a bigshot in Brockton Bay.

“Hey, Faultline,” Skidmark’s smirk dropped off his face as he realized who else was present.  “What the motherfuck were you doing, fucking with my party!?”

Oh yeah, that’s right, he wouldn’t know why they attacked. From his perspective, it came out of nowhere.

“You had something we needed.”  Faultline’s response was as measured and calm as Skidmark’s question wasn’t. 

At least one of them seems to respect the truce and the idea that they’re not here to argue about past grievances.

Okay, maybe I’m being a little hard on Skidmark. It’s not like he just attacked Faultline over it, and it’s honestly no wonder he’s pissed.

“Who hired you, bitch?  Tell me and my Merchants won’t come after you in revenge.  All you’ll have to do is return that shit you stole or pay me back for it.  Maybe you can spit-polish my knob for a little goodwill.”

Oh yeah, of course. It kinda slipped my mind that Faultline’s crew primarily act outwardly as mercenaries and as such the others would assume someone paid them to attack.

Faultline could lie here and subject someone else to the Merchants’ revenge, but I don’t think that’s her style.

“Not going to happen.”

Especially the last part, I would assume.

“Then forget sucking my cock.  Pay me back and tell me who hired you and we’ll call it even.”

Apart from that particular unreasonable demand, he’s actually being fairly civil about this.

I mean, for Skidmark.

“Hey!” Hookwolf growled, “What part of keep a low profile don’t you fucking understand?”

And within moments of Skidmark arriving we already have the first verbal conflict of the meeting.

Skidmark smirked, raising his chin to give it an arrogant tilt, “We did.  My Squealer built a box that cancels out light and noise at a certain distance.  Nice and in your face up close, almost invisible and silent when far away.  Isn’t that right, baby?”

…okay, I’ll give you that one, that’s kinda neat.

Squealer just smiled.  It probably wasn’t as sexy or cute as she thought it was.  Aisha, when left to her own devices, was a pretty girl who dressed trashy.  Squealer, I felt, was more of a trashy woman who dressed trashy.

One thing you do with trash is burn it. Taylor’s thoughts are already making good progress on that front.

Squealer had apparently never grasped the concept of elegance in design.  From what I’d read and heard, she went for size, augmentations and additions when she built her vehicles.

A bit pragmatic, huh? Well, that means this vehicle is probably packed to the brim with utilities and weaponry. Might come in handy if the Slaughterhouse were to attack here after all.

She was kind of the polar opposite of Armsmaster in that regard.

To be fair, Armmaster’s power lends itself well to making tons of additions without damaging the aesthetics. But yes, he was absolutely concerned with looking good.

The hull of their boat scraped against the edge of the building, nearly running over the boat that Grue and Bitch had come in on.

Classy as always.

All of the lights shut off, and the Merchants descended onto the roof.  Skidmark, Squealer, Mush, Scrub, Trainwreck, the telekinetic whirlwind lady with the long hair and one other.

Oh hey, I was right about Trainwreck being on the boat. :p

Telekinetic whirlwind… did we see that in action in Infestation?

Another reason for this meeting place had been subtlety, keeping out of sight and off the radar.  The Merchants apparently hadn’t gotten the message.

Ahaha, or they just didn’t care.

All at once, an incoming boat made its presence known.  As though a switch was flipped, there was the sound of something that sounded like the combined noise of radio static coming from a bank of speakers, an eighteen wheeler with the muffler off and an onrushing train.

Woah.

It wasn’t just noise – the vehicle flickered with flashes of electricity and lights that people could probably see from anywhere downtown.

Surprise! It’s the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000!

Anyway, could this be Trainwreck? Or are we looking at the introduction of one or more new characters here?

It would seem odd for Trainwreck to be given this much attention unless he’s more important than ever before in this chapter.

Seeing it approach, I had no doubt it was a tinker contraption.  It was the size of a small yacht,

Well at least the word “yacht” did make it into the chapter! It’s the little victories…

but it looked outfitted for war, with what looked like tesla coils crossed with old school tv antennae fueling its forward momentum and sending arcs of electricity dancing over the waves in its wake, as though it was riding on a current of lightning.

Huh. Maybe I wasn’t too far off in jokingly comparing it to the weird-looking mechanical vehicle/contraption that is the SSCS 6k. Does this thing make apple cider?

Also, is this Chariot, risking his (already compromised, unbeknownst to him) cover by hanging out with the villains?

That doesn’t seem quite right. I think my money’s on a new character for now.

Various guns had been placed haphazardly around the upper deck, each manned by a Merchant.  Skidmark stood at the highest deck with Squealer, the driver.

Ahh.

Of course they’d have a vehicle tinker.

I saw a flash of light above us, and spotted Purity in the air high above the rooftop, using her power to create a flare of light, extinguish it, then create it again.

Hah! I see how it is. Who needs a flashlight for signalling when you’ve got Purity over here?

There was an answering series of flashes from across the water.  It was a different set of signals than the ones she’d set up with us.  It made sense for the light signals to be different from group to group, so Purity could keep track of who was coming and where from.

Yeah, sounds about right. And if someone uninvited observes from the shores and tries to use the same signal as someone they saw go through the process, Purity will know something’s up.

The main reason we’d agreed on this meeting place were the seclusion it offered, and the fact that it was just hard enough to access that the Nine wouldn’t be able to approach without us knowing.  Hopefully.

Shatterbird being the one exception. And her clothes are probably quite reflective, which in a bit of a problem for a stealthy arrival in the dark with someone who creates light on guard duty.

Theoretically, though? Shatterbird could probably take the entire group on top of a block of glass and fly them all across. The only thing stopping her would be a weight limit, and as far as we’ve seen, she doesn’t seem to have a particularly low one.