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“You see kids get their ears twisted in the movies and on TV all the time.  What you don’t get is how much it fucking hurts,” I touched the part of my mask that covered my bandaged earlobe.  It was throbbing, due in part to Brian’s ministrations.

Sounds like we’ve skipped ahead to the trip.

“Just leave it alone.  The painkillers will kick in soon.”

“Alright.”

We sat in silence for a few moments.  I stared out the small window at the back of the vehicle.  Very few cars were going in the direction we were.

Purity’s rampage area is quite understandably not where people want to be right now.

The interior of the vehicle that Coil had procured for us was filled with medical equipment.  There was a gurney, which I sat on, a second smaller type of gurney that could be disassembled and reassembled as required, up near the ceiling.  The interior was efficiently packed with medical supplies: an oxygen tank underneath the bench where Grue sat, a heartbeat monitor, lifejackets, tubes of all shapes and sizes, lockers and drawers with pills, splints and bandages.

Huh, nice. I guess that’d come in handy if the vehicle needed to pick up some hurt Coil lackeys.

I’m including the Undersiders in that term, for the record.

It was, to all appearances, a real ambulance.  I couldn’t say whether it had originally been an ambulance, and Coil had added extra compartments for weapons and for my bugs, or if he’d gone the other way and built the vehicle from scratch, to accommodate his additions.

Does it look like an ambulance on the outside too? If so, that’s a good disguise for a vehicle moving towards a disaster zone.

“Holed up on the far side of the Trainyard, with the dogs,” Lisa answered, “Not a bad spot.  Better than the building Purity tore down.  Don’t know why she was set up there instead of here.”

The Bitch works in mysterious ways.

I heard a voice on the other end that was probably Bitch’s, though I couldn’t make out the words.

“So.  We meet?” Lisa asked.

Somewhere in the middle, maybe?

“We meet,” Brian replied.  “I’m going to call Coil for a vehicle, and to ask him a few questions, hear for myself that he talked to Kaiser.  However long it takes for the ride to get here, it should give me time to stitch Skitter up.”

I winced.

Sounds like a decent plan.

“Patch her up?  Why?”

“Not relevant to the current situation.  We’ll explain later,” he said.

Oh, yeah, I can imagine that would sound bad out of context – or rather, put into the other context due to lack of awareness of the original one.

Did that make sense? I think so.

“Later then.  Take care of yourself, Skitter”  Lisa hung up.

Brian held up the needle and thread, “Let me apologize in advance.”

Let me say ow in advance.

“So what’s next?” I asked, “I think we should do something to step in, but Brian was saying that he thought we should continue to lay low.  Before Purity said her piece, anyways. Not sure if he’s changed his mind.”  I gave him a look.

I don’t think he has. Not fully.

“I haven’t,” Brian spoke, loud enough to be picked up by the phone.  He dabbed ointment on my ear, making me wince.  “Sorry.”

Yeah.

I wasn’t sure if the apology was over his stance in the discussion or the medical care.

Heh. I first read it as the former, but both work. And hey, it could be both.

“According to the news and my, um, inside source,”  Lisa spoke, referring to her power, “Purity hasn’t stopped.  She’s doing strafing runs across the Docks.  She moves too fast for anyone but Dauntless or Velocity to catch, and she hits harder than both of them combined.

To be fair, Velocity doesn’t exactly add much to that last part when he’s at his highest speeds.

She’s knocked down four more buildings while we’ve talked, I’m pretty sure. How long before she happens to knock over our hideout?”

Brian pursed his lips.

Yeeah, the Loft might become a casualty here.

“And she leads her own sub-group within Empire Eighty Eight, so I’m betting that Fog, Night, Alabaster and Crusader are on the streets, doing their own thing.

Oh, so Alabaster is also in her group. Alright, maybe we’ll get to see their power before this Arc is over, then.

I dunno about you guys, but I have friends in our neighborhood.  I’m very not cool with that.”

Brian sighed, “Fine.  We go.  But no direct confrontation until we have a game plan, especially not before we reunite our two groups.  Where are you guys?”

Sounds like a good call. This is very much not a case where the Undersiders can rely on brute force.

Hm… I wonder what would win out between Purity’s light and Grue’s darkness. In theory, the darkness should stop it, but that’s pretty clearly not normal light she’s tossing around.

…I suppose the same can be said about Triumph’s shouts, except with sound instead of light, explaining why Grue couldn’t just cover Triumph’s mouth with darkness to incapacitate his power. (That said, I still don’t get why he removed the darkness from the heads of the Protectorate members in the first place.)

“Tattletale,” Brian spoke, “Did you talk to Coil?”

“Coil says he told Kaiser straight up that he was responsible for the emails.  I believe him.

Hm. But Kaiser hasn’t informed Purity about that?

If Purity and Kaiser’s other subordinates don’t know, Kaiser either hasn’t seen fit to tell them or he’s intentionally keeping them in the dark.”

“What?  Why would he do that?” I raised the phone closer to my mouth to ask her.

Maybe he actually appreciates his subordinates targetting the Undersiders. This gives Kaiser an excuse to attack the Undersiders as well, which he may have been actively looking for in the Hookwolf case. Coil is the bigger enemy, but the Undersiders are also in the way of taking over the Docks.

“It makes a warped sort of sense to me,” Brian answered for Lisa.  “He lets his people believe we’re responsible, with Purity’s group gunning for us and the Protectorate.  Hookwolf hates us anyways, because of Bitch, so he goes along.  Kaiser lets them deal with us, with all that fury and hate and no-holds-barred torture, murder and maiming that comes with blaming us.  When we’re dealt with, or when it’s convenient, he tells them the truth, turns that bloodthirst against Coil.  His people won’t ever be scarier or more vicious than they are right now.  Why not maximize the damage?”

Ah, right, that’s a good point, too. He can turn it around and hit both enemies.

“Doesn’t that fall apart if Coil admits, publicly or to the members of Empire Eighty Eight, that he’s responsible?”  I asked.

Yeah, but is he willing to go that far?

I suppose telling it directly to Kaiser wasn’t that different, given the assumption that Kaiser would send the information along.

“Yes,” Lisa’s tinny voice replied, “But Coil won’t.  He was willing to talk to Kaiser, fess up to the man himself face to face, but going with a more public route risks putting him in the spotlight, drawing attention to himself, and he’s not going to do that.  I suspect Kaiser knows that and is accounting for it.”

True, Coil is more the type to sit in the background, controlling the puppets and chess pieces in the foreground but being out of focus himself.

I feel like I’m probably just being dumb about the J…S thing, by the way 😛

“Bumblebee S,” she replied.  “No immediate danger, but the situation doesn’t look good?”

“Right,” I replied.

I guess they found somewhere with a TV too. That, or Lisa Knows what’s happening, maybe.

Or maybe they’re yellow for other reasons.

J…S – Jonas? Julius?

Wait, could they use one of their surnames? If that’s the case, it’s one of the two I don’t know yet, though.

Brian put the cotton wipe aside.  It was a red-pink with flakes of my dried blood on it.  He prepared another to continue working.

“You see that bit on TV?” I asked her, “Hold on, I’m putting you on speaker for Grue.”  I’d used his codename for security’s sake.  I fiddled with the keypad to get the phone to speaker mode.

Yeah, probably a good idea. You never know who’s listening in – the code system makes it so they’re secure against listeners each speaker knows are there, but even if you discount wiretapping, there could easily be a parahuman with the power to listen in on any phone call.

Lisa’s voice was tinny through the low quality speaker.  “Purity?  I saw the bit on TV.  From what I picked up, child protective services and a contingent of capes went into her place and walked out with her baby while she was at work, before she even had a chance to hear about the email.  Mama bear snapped.”

Yeeah, kind of understandable, really. I mean, it doesn’t excuse any of what she’s doing (it’s a little… over the top), but it’s a reason that fits with everything we already knew about Kayden.

Hm, to be fair to the channel execs, cutting the feed might’ve drawn Purity’s anger towards them.

Purity dropped the camera, and the view spun lazily as the camera hurtled to the ground.  There was the briefest of glimpses of the trail of light that marked her departure, before the camera hit the ground and the television went black.  After a moment, the ‘BB4 News’ logo appeared on the screen against a blue background.

“Crap,” Brian said.

So, uh

Where were the channel execs? It seems like they should’ve cut the feed when it became evident there was going to be an on-screen murder.

“So.  If you’re not going to go after them to save people,” I wasn’t able to keep all the bitterness out of my voice.  “Maybe you’ll do it for our rep, after we got called out like that?”

“That’s not- Taylor, I don’t want people to get hurt or killed, either.  I’m not a villain that aims to hurt people.  I’m just being practical.”

Yeah, going out there would very likely lead to the Undersiders suffering a similar fate to the cameraman.

On the other hand, it’s the thing that would allegedly stop Purity’s onslaught, at least for a moment. It’s a classic ultimatum for the heroes.

“You didn’t answer my question.  What are we doing now, after hearing that?”

“We’re calling Lisa.  Or you are, and I’ll take care of your ear while you do it.”

Yeah, better keep everyone in the loop.

I nodded.  I took the opportunity to get my top back on while he got the first aid kit, and grabbed my cell phone.  Brian used saline and a wet cotton wipe to wipe around my ear, and I dialed Lisa.  She picked up on the first ring.

“Lemon J,” I told her.

J? I guess they’ve switched from the system that used their names.

The fog moved as though it had a mind of its own, congealing into the man once more.

That’s because it did.

When he had fully pulled himself together again, there were only a few spatters of blood six or so paces from where the body had fallen, and Night, standing in the middle of the road.  No body, no clothes, no blood remained where the fog had passed.

Jeez. Must be good for cleaning up crime scenes.

“We are not the ABB,” Purity spoke, not bothering to turn the camera back to herself, “We are stronger, both in powers and in numbers.  We have discipline, and thanks to you, we have nothing left to lose.  I will have my daughter back, and we will have our restitution.”

Yeeah, the Empire seems to be going all out – or at least Purity is.

Our heads turned back to the television screen.  The camera showed a brilliant glare that could only vaguely be made out as a face.  The view shifted, and I heard her command, “Hold it.”

Ahh, looks like she was actually chasing that camera man down so she could give this message.

The camera steadied and focused on Purity’s face, from ground level looking up.  I suspected the cameraman was on the ground.

“You took the most important thing in the world from me,” her voice was without affect, flat.  “Until she is returned, this doesn’t stop.

Oh

Oh no

Did Max take Aster to motivate Purity? Or did the Protectorate or child services take her because they found out who Purity was?

I will take this city apart until I find you or you come to stop me.  My subordinates will murder anyone, everyone, until the matter is settled.  I don’t care if they are genetically pure or not.  If they haven’t allied with us already, they missed their chance.”

Damn. I wonder, if it’s the latter case, is Kaiser on board with this, or is he losing control of even his closer subordinates?

She bent down to take the camera.  While the image swayed wildly, Purity spoke, “Night, Fog.  Demonstrate.”

Well fuck. Good night, camera man.

The camera steadied, fixed on a man and a woman in gray and black costumes, respectively, featuring cowls and cloaks.  Behind and to the side of them was an unnaturally pale and white haired young man.

The man in gray evaporated into a rolling cloud of white-gray fog, moving toward the camera.

Mister Fog, I presume.

Purity took flight, moving up and above the scene, keeping the camera focused on the cameraman.  As the camera rose and the view of the scene expanded, I could see Crusader off to one side, leaning against a wall with his arms folded.

Hi.

As the mist enveloped the cameraman, Night strode forward, disappearing into it.  The timing of what happened was wrong, too soon after she entered the fog.

The power of invisibility, presented as being hidden by Fog for dramatic effect?

There was a ragged scream, and then blood sprayed out of the mist to paint the surrounding road in dozens upon dozens of long splashes of crimson.

RIP.