I joke about this as someone who spends at least 15 minutes in the shower.

“Hey,” I spoke up, hesitant, “Can I take five minutes to grab a shower and change while you guys hash out the rest of the details?”

Brian made a pained face, but he nodded, “Go.”

I don’t think Brian particularly likes the idea of Taylor missing out on some of the details, but at least he’ll be able to tell her personally later.

(Also, showering and changing in five minutes? Taylor confirmed for having timebending powers.)

Grateful, I hurried to the bathroom, stopping by my room to grab my costume, a fresh outfit, and my towel.

The shower was being more uncooperative than usual, and I didn’t have the time to wait for it to decide to give me warm water, so I jumped in and endured the chilled water just long enough to rinse myself off, scrub the priority areas and get my hair wet.

Hm, fair enough. I wouldn’t quite call that “a shower”, but alright. Maybe she won’t need timebending after all.

Maybe.

The shelter group – Lisa, Alec and Rachel – is the most vulnerable. Rachel doesn’t have a secret identity, so she’ll have a hard time hiding, and her dog shelters are fairly noticable too. The E88 are likely to find them much easier than they do Brian and Taylor, at least if Rachel goes out.

Before Brian could get on Alec’s case again, I cut in to ask, “Shouldn’t we all maybe stay together?”

“No,” Lisa answered me, “Brian has the right idea.  Together, as a group of five, we might draw attention from anyone keeping an eye out for our team.  Especially if there’s dogs around.  Having two teams means we can mount a rescue or provide a distraction if one group gets in a bad spot.”

Hm, yeah, that’s true. Might get in the way of communication and cause some delay between an attack and the team getting to full power, but that’s pretty much it as far as drawbacks I can think of go.

“Keep your phones on and answer them if anyone calls.  We take turns checking in on each other, every half hour, using the same passwords as before.” Brian instructed.

“Got it,” Lisa replied.

“A.” “C, grass.”

This sounds like a good plan.

“If you really can’t find a place to stay, and the dogs are safely put away somewhere, you can stay at my place.  You’d be crashing on the couch and the floor, though.”

Lisa nodded.

Yeah, the apartment is only really suited for two people.

Alec’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t reply.

Brian’s voice was low, his tone controlled.  “I’m angry enough that you should count it as a good thing that you’re not staying at my place and having to put up with me.  That’s why you’re not coming with me.

Ahaha

I also need a level head with you and Rachel, and that means Lisa goes with you two.  I’d leave Taylor instead, but I’d rather spread out the firepower between our two teams.”

“Whatever,” Alec looked back to the TV.  “Forget I mentioned anything.”

I’m not sure to what extent I believe that this is the entirety of why Brian picked out Taylor to stay with him, but if it is (consciously or not) a ploy to spend more alone time with Taylor, at least he’s got his excuses in order.

People are very skilled at rationalizing their behavior in this story, after all.

I’d be staying at his apartment?  I could remember the tension from the last time I’d been there alone with him, just how aware I’d been of his presence.  The idea of going there to stay overnight forced me to focus very carefully on keeping my expression impassive and my hands from fidgeting.  I was glad for the distraction of Alec’s response.

It’s not guaranteed that it’ll just be one night, either.

“The fuck?” Alec spoke, “You’re telling us to get out of here, stay in some random place with a bunch of stray dogs, while you go home and kick back?”

Ahahaha

Yes, I suppose that’s pretty much what he’s saying. Just, y’know, with an added “with your probably-crush” at the end.

“Do not get on my case right now, Alec,” Brian pointed a finger at Alec, “As a member of our group, you agreed to answer your fucking phone when it goes off.

Yeeah, might be a bad time, Alec.

I’m not much happier with Lisa, for not having a phone ready, but you’re the one I’m really pissed at.  From what I heard, if things had gone a little differently, one or both of your teammates could be dead.  Because you guys weren’t able to back them up when Taylor asked for it.”

Yeah, this was a pretty big fuck-up. Sorry, Alec, I kinda get it, but I have to side with Brian on this one.

Lisa frowned, “Okay.”

“If he’s as clever as he acts like he is, he’ll find some angle to make it work.”

“Alright.  I’ll try.  What else?”

The best approach for Coil might be to frame a mutual enemy of his and Kaiser’s. That way, the Empire doesn’t go after the Undersiders, but rather that mutual enemy, dealing damage to both E88 and the mutual enemy and letting Coil swoop in from the side if he wishes to.

Hm. Didn’t we hear about a couple more enemies of the Empire back in Interlude 2, alongside Coil? But I’m not sure those are also enemies of Coil.

“Take Alec and find a place to stay with Rachel and the dogs.  I think Bitch has more than one shelter like the one I saw today.  If none of those places work, ask Coil for a place.”

More doghouses? Fair enough.

Lisa nodded, “Okay.  What are you doing?”

“Taylor and I will stay at my apartment.  It’s out of the way, and so long as we don’t go out in costume, we shouldn’t run into trouble.”

……..

…I was not expecting this situation to come with so much potential for ship fuel. :3

Lisa, first thing, I want you to get on the phone with Coil.  Get that transportation – I’ll text you directions to the place – and get Coil to make a statement, have him make it damn clear to Empire Eighty Eight that he’s responsible for this email.”

Hm, well, she can try.

“I don’t think he’ll be willing, as far as ‘fessing up.”

“Tell him that I’m not going to sign any deal with him if he can’t own up to this and get the heat off us, when we weren’t informed and we didn’t agree to taking this kind of action.”

It’s something, at least. Coil doesn’t know that they were planning to decline anyway because of Rachel’s stance on the issue. Question is, though, how much does he actually care whether the Undersiders agree or not?

If his power is strong enough, he wins either way.

Speaking of which – at this point, my biggest question about Coil is exactly that. How strong is his power, anyway? How large can the outcomes he controls be? How far into the future? Does other people’s free will (to whatever degree free will is a thing) and/or the Manton effect weaken his power the more people are involved and the more the outcome goes against their wishes?

I spoke up, “Even if they don’t blame us for this email that’s outing them, secret identity-wise, I’m betting there’s going to be more than a few that just want to hurt someone and vent their anger… and we did just get in a fight with their people.  It makes us an easy target.  I’m with Brian.  I think we should lay low, at least for now.”

Yeah.

One thing about the email, by the way – there is still technically the possibility of none of the news outlets spreading the information to the public, but a) that’s an outcome Coil can quite possibly prevent, b) Coil would have plenty of options for publishing the information anyway if the news outlets chose not to cooperate, and c) most importantly, it wouldn’t be satisfying. It would take quite the spin to take that narrative direction and not have the issue coming up in the first place feel pointless, especially since this is what’s setting into motion the rest of this Arc’s plot.

It’s kinda needless to say at this point that I have more faith in Wildbow as an author than that.

“Okay,” Lisa said, “I’m not sure I agree, but I don’t see any harm in it.  You guys think you can convince Rachel?”

“Already did,” Brian said, “More or less.  She’s packing up at her personal dog shelter, and she’ll be ready to go the moment transportation arrives.

I guess she does care more about that than the Loft anyway.

“It’s too dangerous to stay here,” Brian spoke.

“What?” Lisa and I asked him, almost simultaneously.

Are you suggesting evacuating entirely, out of the Loft? How would the Empire even know… right. Rachel. They could easily have had intelligence agents following her back there.

Or is Brian taking it a couple steps further and advocating evacuation from the city?

“They’ve got too many heavy hitters and they have absolutely no reason to hold back anymore.  After the ABB thing and the issue with Bitch earlier today, with the number of powered individuals they’ve got at their disposal, they can probably figure out our general location and go on the offensive.  We can’t afford to still be here if they decide to try and root us out or if they lay siege to the Docks.”

That’s also a good point – the Undersiders may or may not be fully aware of this, but we know the E88 do want to take over the Docks in general. That includes the Loft.

“So, what, we run?” Alec asked.

“Tactical retreat.  Just to be safe,” Brian stated, his voice firm, “In case Empire Eighty Eight does decide to organize and come after us in force”

Tactical retreat is a good way to put it, so that it feels less like a cowardly move.

Speaking of which, I can’t help but wonder how Rachel’s going to take this. She’s agreed to tactically retreat from the doghouse, but this is bigger.