“Maybe they are, but I wouldn’t bet on it.  We should be focused on what we can do,” Brian said.

Yeah. Let’s let Hookwolf do his thing while the protagonists take care of the issue with a more clever tactic. There’s

still

the Shogi plan, for one thing, which Taylor thinks will be easier with the testers taking turns.

“You guys are better set up for information gathering and escapes,” Trickster said.

True. Masters of the getaway, and all!

“We could take them on, depending on who it is and how small the group is, but I don’t know how well we’d do in those circumstances.”

I stand by what I said about Sundancer being good against Mannequin. Hell, maybe even against Siberian – she can handle blows easily, but what about heat?

(Legend doesn’t seem to be able to hurt Siberian with his lasers, but they seem more like “punchy” lasers, if you know what I mean?)

Also, Trickster would probably be good against Jack – Jack relies on his blades, and Trickster can replace them with other things. Leaves or sticks or something, for example. He could similarly mess with Bonesaw’s tools, and put people into the fire Burnscar makes underneath herself / teleports into or in the way of her fireballs.

“It could mean the end of the world.”

Or something pretty damn close to it.

“Right,” I said.

“Hookwolf has proposed an all-out attack,” Coil spoke for the first time since my arrival.  “He wants to gather the more powerful members of his alliance together into an army and attempt to overwhelm the Nine and kill Jack Slash in the chaos.”

Sounds like a plan. A brute force plan that’s not going to work in this story (there’s too much focus on clever solutions over raw strength for that kind of plan to be a satisfying solution, not to mention it seems to completely avoid the main protagonists having an impact on it), but a plan.

So if the Slaughterhouse Nine were to lose this all-vs-all battle, would they all each have a day deducted?

“That won’t work.”  Brian shook his head.  “These guys specialize in dealing with crowds, and they’re experienced when it comes to that sort of thing.”

Good point.

“Hookwolf believes our local capes are collectively strong enough to do what other groups couldn’t.”

Honestly, I think he just wants to lead an army.

“Me, Bitch, Armsmaster, Noelle, probably Hookwolf and someone in Faultline’s crew?”  Alec said.

Close.

Wait, was it mentioned to them that there are just six?

“No.  Jack said they picked two heroes.  Hookwolf, yes.  But their last pick is a hero, not one of Faultline’s,” Lisa said.

Oh, good catch.

Is your power taking it further to tell you which hero?

“And we can’t say for sure who this person is or what actions they plan to take,” I said.  “Too much hinges on everyone else’s willingness to cooperate and play by the rules, and the stuff that happened at the last meeting of the city’s villains makes me skeptical.”

Yeah, I can’t blame her for that.

Brian nodded.  “It’s important that we find this person, make sure they play along, so we don’t wind up losing before this game of theirs even starts.”

I agree. Panacea is currently the most likely to leave the city, and that’s before considering that the Nine may not have managed to tell her about the rules.

“There’s other problems here,” I said, “We can’t forget what Dinah said about Jack.  If he leaves town, it could mean disaster.  If we win, we could all lose in the long run, because it’d mean he left town and Dinah’s prophecy would come true.

That’s a very good point. Gotta open that extra slot – and possibly break the Nine apart entirely, thanks to Jack’s central position, potentially causing each of them to wreak havoc on the city separately, not caring about the game anymore.

And it might still be for nought if I’m right about Theo.

Hell, a lot hinges on whether the Protectorate is on the same page as us.  If they arrest him and take him out of town…”

Yeah, whoops.

At least they know about the prophecy. Now it’s just a matter of whether they believe it.

“It’s not all advantageous,” I said, thinking aloud.  “Yes, we’re now in a position where we could win, with some planning or luck, and the plan we were hashing out at our last meeting might be easier, now.  But we’re also facing pretty heavy consequences if we fail… heavier consequences.

Like I predicted back when Tattletale made the suggestion. It’s pretty obvious that if you make it a game, the opponent will want an incentive, a consequence in case they win.

And there’s a lot of places where this could go wrong.  We don’t even know who all the candidates are.”

Hmm. I think you do, actually? You just don’t know that Burnscar passed on picking one and Jack’s candidate was turned into a backpack.

Also I guess you might not know that Noelle is one.

Oh, wait, she doesn’t know about Panacea either. I think Hookwolf made it clear that he was one, though. So that means she knows about four out of six and believes there are two more than there are.

She caught me looking and gave me a wink.  She took another gulp of water and cleared her throat before speaking again.  “They took one day from Mannequin because they thought he lost.”

Heh, nice, she caught onto that.

“If the enemy thinks they lost,” Brian said, “That’s a good enough reason to think you’ve won.”

Well, in this case at least. It’s not always true. It’s possible for both sides to lose.

I just don’t think that’s what happened with the Skitterquin fight.

I privately disagreed, but I didn’t say anything.  I pulled up a chair and sat at the corner of the table furthest from Coil, wincing at the pain in my ribs as I bent down.

Really can’t blame her for wanting to be as far away from Coil as is available.

“So,” Brian said, “You intend for something like this to happen when you made your suggestion, Tattletale?”

Yeah, how well-planned was this?

Lisa shrugged, “Sorta.  Thought he’d take the bait, didn’t know how far.”

Fair enough.

I highly doubt Amy would be willing to help. She hates Tattletale even more than she does Taylor.

“Honestly, I didn’t kick his ass.  He got some of my people, he thrashed me, I got a piece of him.”

He bruised you, while you reduced him to a shambling headless mess.

Well, more shambling than usual.

“No,” Lisa said, her voice quiet.  She couldn’t really move one corner of her mouth when talking, so her words came out slightly slurred.

The one who mainly uses her power to verbally manipulate people and who would’ve won Witch Weekly’s Most Charming Smile Award many times by now if she’d been a witch, gets the injury that slurs her speech and

mars her smile.

I think Jack did that on purpose.

I saw her work her tongue in her mouth and then take a sip of water, wincing.  Brian had updated me: the cut had probably damaged one or more of her salivary glands, and she’d have dry mouth until it healed.

That sounds very uncomfortable.

Maybe forever.  The really scary part was that she might have suffered some nerve damage as well.  How much of that half-frown was because of the direction of the cut and the way the stitches pulled, and how much was because her nerves were damaged enough that her face was drooping?

In that case she might never be able to properly smile again, even if the scar itself heals.

I got my first good look at Lisa since I’d left her bleeding in Ballistic’s headquarters.  The scar ran from the corner of her mouth to the corner of her jaw, and dark stitches ran down the length of it.  The slang term for this kind of injury was a Glasgow smile or a Chelsea smile, but the term seemed ill-fitting.

I think I prefer her real wide smile.

Where Lisa often had a grin on her face, the cut pulled the corner of her mouth down into a perpetual lopsided-frown rather than a smile.

Hrm.

I don’t like it. But hey, it’s the sort of thing that happens when you’re dealing with fuckers like Jack.

Bitch gave me a dark look as I entered, but many of the others were smiling.

Is she extra pissed at Taylor for something? Running off instead of helping with Tattletale, maybe?

“The people in my territory are singing your praises, Skitter,” Ballistic said.

Oh yeah, I suppose the first part of her run would’ve been through his territory.

It’s time for Skitter to hear about how much good she did on that run. That’s something she needs to hear, so I appreciate Ballistic bringing it up.

“My territory too,” Alec added.

“I didn’t do anything that special.  My power did the work.”

Wow, Skitter, you sure know how to avoid looking positively on your accomplishments effectively.

“And you kicked Mannequin’s ass,” Trickster said.  He leaned back in his chair, balancing on two of the legs, his feet on the table.  “You had a busy night.”

Yeah, that’s for sure.

Although I’m not sure Mannequin has an ass, technically. I don’t think so. Much like Leviathan, actually, until Skitter happened.

Mannequin is the first to carry out his round of testing.  He has two days remaining.

We will be in touch.

See ya soon!

“Where is everyone?” I asked, handing the paper back to him.

He pointed down the hall.

I take it “everyone” covers the Undertravelers? Or did this somehow result in Hookwolf’s schism ploy breaking apart?

“Christ,” Brian said, shaking his head as he walked, rereading the terms.  He opened the door for me.

Coil was inside, at the end of a long table.  The Undersiders sat at one side of the table, with Circus sitting at the farthest edge, beside Coil.  The Travellers, minus Noelle, sat along the other side.  I took note of the blond teenager who wasn’t even wearing part of a costume.  Oliver.

Oh nice, Circus too. How about Trainwreck, is he around now that the team he was undercover in has been pretty much obliterated?

And hiya, Oliver-who-is-not-Ballistic!

Coil was the opposite, as fully covered as ever.  Everyone else was costumed but they had their masks and helmets off.

Well, guess we’re adding Circus to the group of people who’ve seen Taylor unmasked.

I hope Circus has a significant speaking role here. She seems like a fun character.