“If we did want to take countermeasures,” I said, “We should maybe think about tracking down Amy.  Or figuring out where she is.”

I kinda doubt we’re getting two Arcs in a row of the Undertravelers cooperating with Amy, as much as I’d enjoy that.

“Panacea?”  Grue frowned.  “She didn’t exactly leave us on good terms.”

“I know.  But she can counteract whatever Bonesaw does.”

Hopefully, yeah.

“Unless she falls victim to it,” Tattletale said, sighing.  “After two bad incidents downtown, I’d lay odds she’s heading up toward the docks.  It gives her the best odds of finding a place that’s empty, where she and Glory Girl can hide out for-”

“Heads up!”

Makes sense to me.

So, uh.

Heads up for what?

I wasn’t sure who had shouted the warning, but I turned to look in the direction of the fighting, and I instantly knew it was Bonesaw’s work.

Huh. Didn’t expect anything so soon.

But is this the thing she had prepared, or something else she’s made?

The water was turning crimson.  Where it was only one or two inches deep above the pavement, it turned a dark red that resembled blood.  That alone might have been spooky enough, but it was spreading over hundreds of feet in a matter of seconds, and there was a thin red mist rising in its wake.

Holy fuck, I love this.

You, uh, might want to cover your breathing holes.

A thirty story skyscraper tipped over and crashed to the ground in the distance.  The rumbling crash of the building’s collapse seemed delayed in getting to us.

Far enough away for the speed of sound to matter, or the sound being affected somehow by one of Bakuda’s bombs? You choose!

(I’m leaning heavily towards the former.)

…also fucking thirty stories and it isn’t even a building Taylor feels the need to name. I know that’s not much compared to some buildings over there in the States but that’s super tall compared to anything near me.

I could see Legend, more through the flashes of his lasers than anything else, but everyone else was out of sight, specks I couldn’t have made out if they weren’t on the ground.

Clearly they’ve got some distance on the chaos here.

“If we’re lucky, we won’t have to worry about Bonesaw’s plot,” Trickster said.

How so? Do you mean if the heroes manage to finish off the Nine here?

Not gonna happen.

“Plan for the worst,” Grue replied, staring into the distance, “If you’re right, you’re prepared.  If you’re wrong, you’re pleasantly surprised.”

Yeah, that’s fair enough. And very character-appropriate.

“Heard that one before,” Imp commented.

Hah.

“Still true,” Grue replied, sounding annoyed.

“Can’t plan for this,” I said.  “I’m growing to hate tinkers.  People with enhanced senses and tinkers.  And fire manipulators.  Sorry, Sundancer.”

Hehe, yeah, those groups do keep giving Taylor trouble in various forms.

“I don’t know about you guys,” Sundancer spoke up, “But monsters scare me enough.”

Aw. 🙂

“Says the girl who can vaporize buildings and give Leviathan pause for thought,” Regent said, giving her a sidelong glance.

And Regent continues to be on-point.

“Leviathan broke half the bones in my body.  The only reason I’m standing here is Panacea,” Sundancer said, a little defensively.

Fair enough.

Man, the Endbringers play rough.

“You two do raise a point, though,” Tattletale cut in.  “Capes are powerful.  If she wanted to scare the locals, she’s done that.  I’d be willing to bet the ace she has up her sleeve is going to be more aimed at scaring people like us, like Legend.

Makes sense.

She wants to terrorize the strongest, target people who everyone looks up to and fears.”

And, if she wants to add some extra fear to the mundane side too, she could also make the heroes look scary to them as a bonus.

“Just us?” I asked.

“She’s shown she knows how to disable powers,” Trickster said.  “If she did that on a larger scale, then-”

I believe that has been brought up as an option before, but I forget by whom.

But somehow that doesn’t quite seem like the Nine, though, let alone Bonesaw.

“No,” Tattletale shook her head.  “She wouldn’t have used the dust and the darts if that was the big reveal.  It doesn’t make sense tactically, because we could have come up with a way to deal, and Skitter’s partially immune anyways.

And artistically, it’d be like giving a preview of her secret masterpiece. Probably not something she’d want to do.

And it doesn’t make sense artistically, either.  You have to think of her as less of a scientist or doctor and more of a performer.”

Yes! Lisa has the right idea here. This is how I have been thinking of Bonesaw for some time now.

I could see Bitch react to the mention of Siberian’s creator.  She looked startled, then scowled.

…you okay?

“You found them?”  Tattletale asked.  “Siberian and Legend?”

“Yeah.  Legend told me to scram, in case Bonesaw deploys the threat she’s been holding over our heads, and so I don’t get in the way.  I would have fought to stay, but he’s an intimidating guy to argue with.”

That’s fair. I wouldn’t want to argue with him either, even if I don’t think he’s the type to get aggressive about it.

It’s more a sort of… Dumbledore-esque kind of intimidation.

Grue nodded.  “I wouldn’t feel bad about it.  It means we can serve as backup if the heroes lose.”

“And this threat?  Do we know what it is?  Some zombie apocalypse?”  Regent asked.

Your turn, Lisa.

“No.” Tattletale shook her head.  “She sees herself as an artist.  She’s going to want to do something that catches us off guard, something that scares us in a way that simple horror movie monsters don’t.”

Hmm.

Not to mention that she herself doesn’t seem to consider her usual creations scary.

I feel like she’d do something that’s not going to make everyone the same. She’s not going to mass-produce her art, y’know, so she makes it so each one should have a unique touch.

Hmmmm.

Something that takes people’s inner demons and puts them on the outside?

Some kind of subtle change that puts everyone right into the Uncanny Valley? Except Bonesaw might not have the concept of that.

Making people disturbingly like the Endbringers?

Hm, I suppose all my guesses so far are appearance-related. That doesn’t really sound like Bonesaw’s style.

Forcing people to have trigger events and/or making them not have control over their powers?

There are a lot of ways this could go.

“How did it go!?”  Tattletale called out to me before I’d even landed.

Pretty well if you don’t count the total destruction of at the very least 15 blocks of the city, and probably many more.

Actually, I had a thought earlier today: What if the reason Legend was fighting in the area and not caring about the destruction was because he knew it was in the planned bomb strip and had, perhaps, been evacuated?

I set Atlas down on the ground and hopped off.  “Whatever the fuck they just dropped on the city, it apparently took out Crawler and Mannequin.”

Oh, huh, she didn’t figure it out, even seeing the time stop bubbles?

I guess she didn’t think it was important enough to ask.

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Tattletale said.  “I think that was Bakuda’s stuff they just used.  What about the other members of the Nine?”

How did they verify that Mannequin and Crawler were down? Did they actually see the corpses in the chaos? I suppose they’d have to be sure before transmitting it on the radio.

“They’re on the run.  Last I saw, Siberian’s creator looked pretty rough.  Not sure if the spider bites and stings will kill him or if Bonesaw will manage to counteract it.  Depends on whether Legend and the other heroes can keep up the assault long enough to keep Bonesaw from getting to work.”

…right.

I don’t think he’s going to die like that.