So much hinged on how the next few moments played out.

“The Nine are distracted.  I’m going to help the people run.”

Oh boy, good luck.

The lack of response was as damning as anything they could have said.

Yeeah. “Your choice, none of our business as long as it doesn’t fuck up the plan.”

I waited until Purity fired again, then used the rumble as an excuse to stir various bugs into action.  I did a body count, placing bugs on people’s right feet, trying to calculate how many there were and how they were distributed.

There was a crowd inside the building with the Nine.  People huddled in a room with Crawler, who lay on the ground with his chin resting on his forelimbs, facing them.

That’s probably not the most comforting roommate to have.

I couldn’t find Grue.  Was he in that group?  No.

How would you even recognize him without putting bugs all over? Are the bugs individually sensing some sort of identifying characteristic?

Coil had informed Hookwolf’s contingent about the general location of the Nine.  Sure enough, they’d gathered, girded themselves for battle and marched on, hoping to overwhelm through sheer firepower and force of numbers.  Odds were good that it wouldn’t work.  It hadn’t in the past.

Alright, so they were indeed part of the plan.

But… why the ruse?

But, we were hoping, it would put the Nine in a position where they had to decide whether to hold their position or respond to the immediate proximity of this many enemies.

Ah, I see. Them arriving at all is meant to pull the Nine out into the open.

Shatterbird and Genesis were tasked with distracting Hookwolf’s forces and preventing them from mounting a direct attack on the Nine’s real position.  We couldn’t save Grue if Purity leveled the building.

Ohh. Yeah, that makes sense.

Shatterbird took flight, calling up a storm of glass shards to accompany her.  She flew low to the ground, relying on the surrounding buildings and ruins to keep out of sight.

Genesis had finished pulling herself together.  Her form resembled Crawler, but with some additions.

Hm. Are they going to pass this off as Crawler having managed to reclaim Shatterbird but taken some damage in the process? Better hope Crawler isn’t with the rest of the Nine if that’s what they’re going for.

Growths on her back resembled Bonesaw and Jack.  She tested her limbs, then looked at us.

…and apparently they’re going to pretend they have Bonesaw and Jack with them too.

That makes at least three members of the Nine who can totally call their bluff.

At me?  I couldn’t tell.  She had too many eyes to tell.

Hah.

“I can’t agree with that.”

“Then make your call.  If you’re absolutely certain you’re not going to fuck us over and give away the plan, if you’re positive that the lives you might save are worth risking our lives and Grue’s, you can go ahead.  You don’t have anyone’s support here, and it’s all on you if you fail.”

At least he gives her the choice, even if he’s heavily indicating she shouldn’t try.

Tattletale spoke, “If you’re going to do something, you better do it fast.”

She pointed, and every pair of eyes in our group turned to look.

Purity streaked across the sky, followed by Crusader and a floating rock carrying a whole contingent of their group.

Oh shit! Have they too come to attack the Nine (perhaps inspired into action by the Undertravelers?), or did they just happen to be in the area?

The rest would be moving along the ground.

“Shatterbird, Genesis, go!”

Up to communicate?

…if that’s the goal, sending Shatterbird might be a bad idea.

Regent nodded in agreement.

I looked at the others for help.  Tattletale remained quiet, and Sundancer, the one other person I’d hoped would be sympathetic, looked away.

This feels familiar. It reminds me of when Taylor found out about Dinah.

“Those are people,” I said.  “Real people.”

“So’s Grue, and so are we.  We look out for ourselves first.  If we can take out members of the Nine, we’ll save more people in the long run.”

It’s a hard choice, but I think he’s right.

“The ends justify the means?  You realize that when this all goes down, they’re going to die?  Almost guaranteed?”  I’d directed Sundancer to attack a group of people who included bystanders, but they’d been goners already, dead for all intents and purposes.  This was something else.

Fuck, sounds like what they’re planning is quite destructive.

“Thirty people for the sake of hundreds.  It balances out,” Trickster said.

Numbers.

Of course, Taylor has never really managed to think like that, for better or worse.

“If we stick to the plan and if we’re successful.”

“Don’t fuck around or their deaths will be in vain.”

I asked, “Tattletale, do you know where the Nine are, specifically?”

She shook her head.

That would probably have been helpful, especially with Ballistic on the team. Boom, bunch of rubble over them.

“There’re people here.  I’m counting thirty or so, but there could be twice that many.  I haven’t even taken a serious look at the building the Nine are in, because I don’t want to alert them.”

Anyone who’s in that building is probably fucked already.

“Ignore them,” Trickster said.  “This is risky enough without splitting our focus.”

That’s asking a hell of a lot out of miss “four out of maybe thirty didn’t make it so it wasn’t a victory” over here.

“If I know where the Nine are, I can tell these people where to run, give them a chance.”

“It’s not worth the risk,” Trickster stressed.

Trickster is to some extent taking over Grue’s role in Grue’s absence.

He glanced at his teammates, “There’s still five or six of the enemy in the area.  If they see what you’re up to and get any advance warning we’re here, this all goes balls-up, and we suffer for it.  Grue dies for it.”

I suppose so.

Waiting.  The last thing I wanted to do.

Look, I get it, but consider this: Refusing to wait is what got Grue into this mess in the first place.

Using my bugs, I tried to scope out the area.  Please don’t let there be people here.

There’s gonna be people here, isn’t there.

There were.

Yep.

I had to be subtle, not giving the Nine any reason to suspect I was around, but even if I counted only the people who had bugs on them already, there were far too many people in and around Dolltown.

Maybe they took the fighting as “they’ve dealt with the threat, they’re not coming back anytime soon”.

“Regent, can you stop Shatterbird from listening in?”  I asked.

*shapes glass into earplugs*

“Sure,” he said.  Shatterbird shut her eyes and covered her ears with her hands.

“LALALALALA”