“We use the same strategy we used to fight Aegis,” Brian said.  “When fighting an opponent who won’t go down, you run, you distract, you occupy them with other things, and you contain them to buy yourself time to do what you have to do.”

Distractions seem like the only part of this that might work on Siberian. Running is hard to do against an enemy with Siberian’s speed, and it’s gonna be incredibly difficult to contain her. Bakuda’s time bomb might work to take her out, but the Undertravelers don’t have access to that.

He was right.  It just wasn’t ideal.  Avoiding or containing them was easier said than done, for one thing, and it was less an answer than a stopgap measure.

Yeah.

“We’ve addressed the most pertinent crisis, then,” Coil said.  “Is there anything else?  Any ideas or requests?”

“I had an idea,” Aisha said.

Ooh, what’cha got?

“No,” Brian said.  “I know what you’re about to say, because we talked this over.  It’s a bad idea.”

“Let’s hear it,” Trickster spoke up, leaning forward.  Brian scowled, and Aisha smiled wickedly.

Judging by Brian’s behavior last Arc, it might be a bad idea because it puts Aisha specifically in danger.

“The biggest threat from these guys is that they could strike at any time, from any direction.  So why don’t we spy on them?  We find out where they are, and then we keep tabs on their movements.

Yep. She’s the perfect spy, and Brian doesn’t want her to go wandering into the enemy’s lair like that.

I can handle one shift, Genesis does the next.  They won’t notice me, and Genesis can stay concealed.”

She can? …I suppose the spying tactic from the Lake Heroic meeting, a small form, counts towards that.

“My bugs did hear something just before the blast hit,” I said.  “Is her power ultrasonic?”

I wonder if Bitch’s dogs started acting up too.

“Something like that.  Tattletale believes that Shatterbird’s power causes glass to resonate at a very particular frequency, where it generates that same resonation in other pieces of glass with the aid of her power, perpetuating the effect until it runs out of large pieces of glass to affect.”

Sounds legit.

Hm… large pieces, specifically? So it won’t shatter smaller shards or tiny bulbs and such?

“And,” Lisa said, “She probably has a reason for hitting the entire city like she does.”  She took another drink of water.  “Big pieces of glass help transmit the signal, maybe smaller shards help her in another way.  Probably helps or allows more delicate movements.”

They also make for excellent weaponry.

“I’m not saying I’m not happy to be getting more concrete information on how they operate.  I just wish it was against the ones we don’t have any idea how to stop.  Like Crawler and Siberian,” I said.

Yeah, that would be useful, wouldn’t it.

“Then Trickster?  Or Genesis?”  Brian asked.

“I would rather stay close to Noelle,” Trickster said.  “If Genesis is willing, that would be fine.”

Let’s get to know her a bit!

“And that leaves Ballistic, Sundancer, Trickster, Noelle, Regent and Tattletale for the second group.  We stay together, we keep an eye on our territories to watch for trouble from Hookwolf’s contingent, and we keep an eye out for opportunity.

Sounds good!

Tattletale?  You’re good watching the downtown areas?”

Lisa nodded.

“And Skitter has the sensory abilities to check areas of the Docks where the Undersiders have territory.”

I mean, she does have to move around a bit to make that work, but that should be fine.

“I’ll need to visit each area in turn.  Unless we have some people to pass on messages, and a means of communication.”

That would certainly be good to have in any case.

Maybe Genesis’ power would be useful for that?

“I arranged a delivery,” Coil said.  “You’ll each be provided with a satellite phone before you leave, with mobile phones to use when the towers are in operation again.  It won’t be immediate, but I have shipments of new generators, appliances, laptops and other necessities on the way.

Of course, there’s nothing stopping Shatterbird from using those phones against them if she finds out about them. Unless they have plastic screens, I guess.

With the information Hookwolf has provided us about Shatterbird’s power, I think we could shield the most necessary pieces of equipment with soundproofing in case of a repeat incident.”

Ooh, good call.

“What happened?”  Sundancer asked.

“They’ve eliminated the Merchants,” Coil said.

Quite thoroughly, although only parts of the group were present. Honestly, to eliminate the Merchants, killing Skidmark would probably be enough.

I wasn’t sure how to feel about that.  The Merchants were scum of the worst sort.  It wasn’t just that they polluted everything they touched and did some reprehensible things.  They reveled in it.  They wanted to be the lowest of the low.  On the other hand, it was a point for their side.

For a moment there I though Skitter was about to have more sympathy for the Merchants than I did. But nope, pure numbers.

Seven or eight parahumans we no longer had to fight the Nine with.

Yep.

“Also, I would prefer her involvement in my operation stay under wraps.  She can defend Noelle and myself for the time being.”

I guess that’s fair. At least she’ll be helping out.

“No problem,” I said.

“Whatever,” Bitch answered, noncommital.

Yeah, no, this is going to be a problem.

It was only when Brian mentioned Imp that I realized Aisha was present.  I’d almost missed her.

Hah! I was hoping this was the case.

…also is this the first time it’s been explicitly confirmed that Imp and Aisha are the same person? I mean, it’s been obvious ever since she appeared out of costume in Parasite, but I don’t recall the names being used together before.

I wanted to believe that it was because she was sitting at the end of the table and there were four of my teammates between us, but I couldn’t be sure.  It would be damn nice if there was some sort of gradual immunity to her power.

Hehe.

Well, at least Tattletale’s mostly unaffected thanks to her power, and Grue seemed to be fully aware she was there already (though that’s probably because he arrived with her).

I wonder if anyone else is surprised like Taylor.

“And maybe someone else who isn’t raw offense?  Circus?”  Brian suggested.

Yes please.

Though I wonder what her perception of the Undersiders is, considering her reaction to being invited.

Coil spoke before Circus could reply.  “No.  I pulled her off of a task as a precautionary measure, as I had one aspect of my long-term plans derailed last night with Trainwreck’s demise at the Nine’s hands.

Ahh, okay, he did get caught up in that.

I would rather she did not fall to an unfortunate coincidence of the same nature.”

“I would prefer to keep this one safe because she’s particularly useful to me.”

At least he’s kinda upfront about it?

Sundancer cut in, “Which makes me wonder…  Sorry if this is a crummy idea, but what if we waited for Jack’s turn, and then tried to kill him?”

It’s risky, letting the time pass like that, but it does make sense that he’d be putting himself out there a lot more.

“No guarantees there,” Brian answered her.  “I think we’ll have to be proactive in going after him.  Maybe we can use Hookwolf’s distraction, maybe he’ll get cocky and make a mistake.”

Certainly possible.

“Doubt it,” Tattletale said, “He’s lasted years doing what he does.”

But this is a fair point. He clearly knows what he’s doing.

I couldn’t help but nod in agreement.

“Besides, he goes last,” Tattletale finished.

Was that mentioned before? Either way, I’m not surprised.

“To get back to what you were saying, you were proposing dividing the teams?” Coil spoke.

Yeah, though I’m not entirely sure why.

“Yeah,” Brian said.  “Bitch has offensive power of her own.  Skitter does too.  If there’s no complaints, we could play this largely geographically.  Maybe me, Imp, Bitch and Skitter?  If you guys can put your differences aside?”

Oh no.

This can’t end well, especially once Skitter finds out that Bitch is embracing the candidacy.

Also who’s Imp? 

…Is she here? Taylor didn’t mention her, but that’s standard fare by now. I actually really like that treatment, because it makes it super easy for the reader to forget about her too.

Then again, I suppose she didn’t specifically mention Regent either when she came in.

Trickster’s words reminded me of what Sundancer had said back when she and I had fought Lung.  Sundancer had held back in using her power because she was frightened about hurting bystanders or killing the people she attacked.

Oh yeah! I guess Noelle is in a similar position now, although there seems to be a mental part to it as well that makes her want to “feed”.

Her power was too hard to use without hurting someone.  Ballistic was the same.  Was Noelle another case of the same thing?  That same too-powerful ability, only on a greater scale?

At this point it’s becoming a theme of the group, although Trickster’s and Genesis’ powers are a bit subtler.

Brian sighed.  “We’ll deal with Noelle’s situation when it comes up.  We have three targets they’re going to be coming after, with a fourth if we consider that Mannequin’ll be after Skitter.

Right, there’s that too.

If we split into two groups, then we can maintain enough offensive power to defend ourselves against the ones like Mannequin, Burnscar, Jack or Shatterbird.”

So basically, the idea is to mix and split. I hope we get Trickster and especially Sundancer with Taylor, though I wouldn’t say no thanks to getting to know Ballistic and Genesis better either. I suppose that’s more likely from a writing standpoint.

Maybe I can finally stop being confused by Genesis’ power. I think I’m getting it, but it’s still weird for me to think about.

Trickster frowned.  “There’s not much to say.  She’s in containment, and if she doesn’t stay where she is, things would get worse, fast.”

Come on….

“So she’s dangerous, and she’s not entirely in control of her power?”

He tilted his chair forward until it was flat on the ground and set his elbows on the table, hands clasped in front of his mouth.

Time to get serious.

He glanced down the table at his teammates.  I wasn’t sure, but I thought maybe he glanced briefly at Coil.

Hm. Is that a glance of “am I allowed to divulge this”, or of “do I want him to hear this”?

I would think Trickster’s told as much as possible to Coil, but who knows. Might be more secrets here.

With a resigned tone, he told us, “She’s dangerous enough that if Siberian got to her, I think she’d make it out okay.  The rest of us wouldn’t.”

Damn.

No wonder Crawler’s interested.

“We should mix up our teams, then,” Brian said.

Ooh, good idea.

“Just between us, we’ve got three candidates.  Noelle, Regent and Bitch.  Three targets.”

Yep. Half the heat is going to be on the Undertravelers, and that’s before considering the schism.

“Crawler couldn’t reach Noelle where we’ve got her stashed,” Trickster said, “I’m not sure what the others could do.”

Make sure not to light any bonfires in there.

But yeah, I’d reckon Siberian could bust through that vault door. Doesn’t matter how thick the obstacle is if you’re an unstoppable projectile.

“What about when Siberian comes after Noelle?” I asked.  “Will the same measures stop her?”

Eyy, Taylor and I are on the same page. I like when that happens.

“Probably not,” Trickster replied.

“This would be a lot easier if you’d tell us more about her,” I pointed out.  “Unless you think she can hold her own against the Nine, we’re going to be helping protect her.”

It would probably help, yes.

Feed me, Trickster. Feed my curiosity.