Basically, fuck you, Max.

A channel had been carved out of the brick wall to Purity’s right.  Motes of light still danced around it.  An intentional miss?  No.  It would have been Regent throwing off her aim.

Ohh, nice work. Scratch “non-vaporizing”, then.

“Purity!  Kayden!  Not looking for a fight!” Tattletale called out.  She raised her hands, her gun dangling from one finger by the trigger guard.

This might work?

Purity just raised her hand, and more light began glowing in her palm.

Though, uh, not immediately.

“Dale and Emerson!”  Tattletale added.

Purity didn’t lower her hand, but she didn’t shoot either.  “What?”

Hm?

“Aster.”  Tattletale stood up, “She’s at Dale and Emerson.  Outskirts of town.

Ahh, that’s what she’s doing. But, uh, make sure she knows you’re not behind the e-mail before Purity vaporizes you during her blast off towards Dale and Emerson.

The PRT has a safehouse there, for when a villain’s after someone, or in case some member of the Protectorate or Wards gets outed, and their family needs a spot to stay.”

Huh, nice.

“How-”

“You worked alongside me when we were dealing with the ABB.  Your subordinates and allies have as well.  You know I have my sources.”

Man, I wish we’d learned more about the other groups’ adventures during Hive.

“Don’t believe you.  You have no reason to tell me this, you told everyone-”

Tattletale interrupted, “We didn’t tell the media that stuff.  I’m even a little pissed about it.  Not just about us getting blamed, but that they didn’t just attack you, but your families?  It’s fucked up.

Sometimes lies are well and good, but this is absolutely a situation where honesty is the key.

Entire reason we came here was to set the record straight and get you your kid back.”

“Kaiser said-”

“Kaiser thought he’d get more out of this debacle if he turned you against us, first, before directing you at the people or person who really sent the email.”

And if there’s anyone who knows how manipulative Kaiser can be, and thus might be inclined to believe this, it’s Kayden.

When I could see again, I tried to grasp what had changed and what had happened.  Dust filled much of the alley, Night stood beside Purity, unhurt, and my teammates were on the ground.  No blood.  Nobody dead or dying.

…the transformation heals her. That’s why that was established at the last minute! Purity just brought Night back from the brink of death by way of a non-vaporizing light blast that blinded everyone long enough for Night to transform and thus heal up!

Niiice.

Of course, that means we now have Night, Fog and Purity to deal with. We’re worse than back to square one in this battle.

Although, to be fair, getting Purity’s attention was a goal. It’s just that it would’ve probably been better if it was fulfilled after dealing with the other two.

At least, nobody that hadn’t been dead or dying when Purity arrived.  I was getting worried about Grue.  He didn’t look nearly as lively as he had two minutes ago.

Damn, dude, you really shouldn’t be here.

I saw her raise one hand toward Tattletale and the others, energy welling up.

Not even gonna say anything before you obliterate them?

The blast of light momentarily blinded me, and it struck me just why Purity had Night and Fog working as part of her personal squad.  There were no happy coincidences there.  She must have calculated how their powers could collectively work together.

Oh, absolutely.

Her light and Fog’s mist could blind their foes, with Night leveraging any opportunities gained.  

Sounds about right.

Alabaster and Crusader?  Probably intended as the front line, to slow the enemy down, take out the problem targets and buy time for the core group to do what they needed.

Hm… we know what Crusader does, but not Alabaster. This is still too vague to really figure it out from, though, but at least we know what kind of role they have in the group.

Or to do what they were doing now, and occupy enemies elsewhere.

Isn’t that basically the same thing, just with less of a strict formation?

I suppose there is a chance Night survives – she doesn’t seem to be quite dead yet (corpses don’t silently writhe, usually), but she’s getting close. But that’s a slim chance, and if she survives, that’s not likely to be thanks to Tattle, and so the characters will probably treat Tattle accordingly.

The villainess lay there, silently writhing, hands behind her back.  Blood welled from holes in her lower back and the space where her buttock met her thigh.  I glanced at Tattletale, who had her gun raised, looking slightly surprised and disturbed by what she’d just had to do.

Well, it was between her or Grue. And really, Tattle makes a lot more sense textually, given that she opened the paragraph the gunshots were in. I just kinda forgot Tattle had a gun at first.

So, Taylor. That makes three murderers on your team, but this one was doing it to save you. What do you think?

Any sense of relief I felt at Night being taken out of action was short lived.

Too bright to look at, Purity hurtled down from the sky to land just beside Night and me.

…

Good job, you successfully got her attention.

Jeez, and here I thought one supervillain upset by this development was gonna be enough trouble for the rest of this chapter. At least Purity might be more willing to listen to Tattle, though the fact that the latter just shot one of her subordinates probably doesn’t help on that front.

“Hey!” Tattletale spoke, “Pay attention!”

Night drew a knife from a hip sheath.  She bent down over me.

Ah, dammit, are we doing the hostage thing? We’re doing the hostage thing aren’t we.

I dropped her cloak and struggled to reach behind my back for my own knife, but she was faster.  The blade pressed against my throat.  My hand caught her wrist, stopping her from going any further.

By the way? I like that Tattletale is completely open about the fact that she was looking for a way to “fuck with” the pair, even though that immediately reduces her credibility and can cause hostage taking of the “okay I’m listening but if I think you’re fucking with me, she dies” kind.

I was pretty sure my costume could take a cut from a knife, but if she found the gap where my mask was separate from the body portion of my costume that extended around the lower part of my neck, she could slide the blade through with no difficulty.

Ah, right, the one spot where this suit allows skin access.

“Damn you!” Tattletale shouted.  I was only aware of Night’s unwavering, unblinking gaze, the feel of her wrist in my grip.  Then the gunshots.

Grue?

Night didn’t even scream.  She dropped partway on top of me, falling onto her side, her weight on my legs.

Rest in pepperonis.

Fog isn’t gonna like this, is he.

Night stood closer to me than the others.  I could see how she had various pieces of equipment strapped to her hips, forearms, and back.  Grenades, canisters, knives, something that looked like spray paint.

Told ya she had more.

She swatted at the bugs that were crawling around her face and eyes, but her attention was on Tattletale.  I could have stood, maybe, but I didn’t want to draw her attention.

When your one of your power’s main uses requires you to talk to the enemy, it certainly doesn’t hurt to know how to make people listen.

“So I was at a loss to figure out how to fuck with you.  You’re two dimensional. 

Hehehe. Did she come to the conclusion that this is how to fuck with them, or did she eventually Know the one juicy thing about them?

Until I remembered that you left the Empire when Purity did.  And when she came back?  So did you.”

Ooooh this is probably even better. Through some extraknowlation, Tattle can figure out that these two don’t actually want to be here for Kaiser or even Purity, and work from there.

Night cocked her head a little to one side, listening.  Again, she slapped at the bugs on one side of her face.

I can just imagine this as a shot in a cartoon. She cocks her head, the shot lingers on her for a couple seconds and then suddenly her arm comes up very quickly and slaps her cheek on the side she’s leaning away from.

Her face didn’t feel swollen, from what my swarm was conveying.  Her eyes were open, blinking closed when a bug touched her eyelash.  I suspected she healed back to perfect condition whenever she entered her other form, which would include cleansing herself of any toxins or allergens.

Huh, kinda like the dogs. Interesting. And also very inconvenient for anyone trying to defeat her through violent means.

Night looked down at me.  Pale blue eyes.

How fitting that Night would have eyes like the moonlight.

…I’m not hitting on her.