Armsmaster raised his voice, “This is exactly the sort of manipulation-”

“Elaborate,” the one spoken word from Legend was sufficient to cut Armsmaster off.

She’s got his interest.

Army, if this is true and/or Tattle manages to convince Legend of that, you’re fucked.

“Armsmaster has a fancy computer system in his suit, set it up to predict Leviathan’s movements and actions.  Clockblocker tagged the Endbringer, put him on pause long enough for Armsmaster to set up the playing field the way he wanted it, with that predictive program.  Leviathan’s going after the people who can make forcefields, and Armsmaster uses this, dangles Kaiser like bait, puts more villains – Fenja and Menja- in the way to Kaiser.

Ahh, so that’s the point of showing both before and after the pause. Before had a natural distribution, whereas afterwards there were only villains after – *looks back at the list* Wait, no. Never mind all that. Where does Kid Win fit into this? Did he just get in the way without Army planning it?

Sure enough, Leviathan marks Kaiser as a target, charges through the conveniently arranged villains, and goes straight to the spot where Skitter is.”

“Oh no,” I heard Miss Militia mutter under her breath.

You’ve got her too.

“This is nonsense,” Armsmaster spoke, stabbing his index finger towards her, “Heroes died too.”

Tattletale didn’t hesitate a second in replying, “To your credit, if any credit is due, that was an accident.

Also, the two heroes who died did so before Leviathan’s villain-killing streak. The one hero in the streak was only “down”, unless he died after Taylor’s armband broke.

Your program can’t account for that many variables, probably, in the chaos of a bunch of capes trying to keep Leviathan pinned down.  Either way, Leviathan did as you wanted, followed the path you plotted.  You used a directed EMP blast to nuke Skitter’s armband, ensuring that she couldn’t report Leviathan’s position and call in reinforcements, buying you time to take on Leviathan one on one.

The EMP blast that we were just reminded of the existence of as Army tried to get his Halberd out to use it on Tattle. Good writing, that.

Who cares if she dies, after all?  She’s a villain, and you’re positive you’ll win, that it’ll be worth the body count you just allowed Leviathan to rack up.  Except you lost.”

And was saved from bleeding out by Skitter of all people. The irony is thick.

“Skitter’s right here, she’s not dead.”

“My armband broke,” I replied.

“Did it?  Or did someone break it?”  Tattletale’s gaze went to Armsmaster, her voice dropping in volume to ensure that our ‘audience’ didn’t hear.

I considered that possibility back when someone asked me what I thought had happened to the armband, but I don’t know why someone would intentionally do that.

…

Maybe so they could have Skitter join the Wards under a different name and costume, with the Undersiders not knowing a thing?

“What are you implying?”  Armsmaster growled.

“I’m implying that you set things up to guarantee yourself a one-on-one fight with Leviathan.  Who cares, after all, if some villains get murdered in the process, if it means stopping an Endbringer?”

…holy shit.

The breaking of the armband did happen when Leviathan crossed into Skitter’s area. Armsmaster knew enough about Leviathan to possibly predict that he would go there, allowing him to send Skitter there in the first place, having rigged her armband in particular. Then he could go there himself, potentially kill Skitter if she was there, and then claim Skitter was dead before he got there, just check the logs.

The one thing against it, besides him not having been particularly murdery in the past, is that he genuinely sounded surprised to see her alive. Was he acting?

“Except that you could be bluffing,” Legend frowned.  “You’re a master manipulator, according to Armsmaster.”

“True enough.  You know, Alexandria was giving me a recap on what I missed, in exchange for my intel on the Endbringer.  Let’s see… Armband, find me the largest break in casualties from the earlier Leviathan encounter.”

Oh yeah, the intel! Since she’s alive, the Protectorate can know about those!

Found.

“Mark this time period.”

Marked.

“The notifications in the minute before the mark?”

Sundancer down, ED-6.  Eschutcheon deceased, CD-6.  Herald deceased, CD-6.

If I remember correctly, this was when Taylor’s arm got broken. Herald was the guy Trickster exchanged for Clockblocker.

Ah, right, the largest break would be those minutes while Leviathan was frozen, of course. Is Tattle going to bring up Taylor’s importance in saving Clocky?

“What is the point of this?” Legend asked.

“Please replay us the notifications following the mark, until I tell you to stop.”

Fairly sure this would include Taylor’s request for a teleporter for Clocky.

Manpower deceased, CD-6.  Aegis deceased, CD-6.  Fenja down, CC-6.  Fenja deceased, CC-6.  Kid Win down, CC-6.  Skitter deceased, CC-6. Kaiser deceased, CC-6.

Or, wait, I misunderstood. Taylor’s request would be during the mark, since the mark covers the entire break, not the beginning of it.

And there we have it: The moment Skitter’s armband broke and she was reported as deceased.

I could see Tattle going for “Are you going to persecute a ghost?”, but that doesn’t work for long.

“Stop.”

“What is the point of this?”  Legend folded his arms.

Yeah, I don’t know either. Especially the first bit – if the point was only to bring up Skitter deceased, CC-6, then what’s the relevance of the bit before the break?

Also, Tattle’s kept bringing up the Protectorate having something to hide. Maybe it has to do with the apparent breaking of Taylor’s armband?

The only option the Protectorate has other than releasing Skitter is to take option 2 and bet on Tattle bluffing with her intentions to shatter the truce.

That’s not a risk they can take.

“Free speech is a wonderful thing, isn’t it?” I saw Tattletale’s lips moving as she broadcast the message.  She wasn’t holding any buttons down on her armband, but it was going through with no difficulty.  Miss Militia held a handgun pointed at Grue’s heart.

Killing a semi-hostage isn’t gonna break the truce any less than killing Tattle.

Other capes were in the vicinity, some of the Travelers, New Wave, out of towners.  Not quite in earshot, maybe, but close enough to see everything unfold.

Excellent.

The heroine looked at Armsmaster as we arrived, “She said something about deep access, offered your name, then the armband asked her for your password.  She knew your password.”

Ahaha nice.

“Armband, pause announcement,” Tattletale spoke.

Acknowledged.  Her armband replied.

With his one arm, Armsmaster reached for his shoulder, but his Halberd wasn’t there.  Photon Mom had apparently decided not to bring it when she’d carried him here.  No EMP burst possible.

*sticks tongue out in Armmaster’s direction*

“Let’s negotiate,” Tattletale spoke, taking a step to one side, ducking a little to ensure that someone else was always in between herself and Miss Militia.  Bitch scowled as the gun moved to point toward her head, with Tattletale roughly on the other side.

Ah, right, she wasn’t trying to aim at Grue, he was just in the way.

“Negotiate?” Legend asked.

“Sure.  Let’s turn things around.  You gave Skitter your three options.  Here’s my three.  Number one: Shoot us now, and confirm to everyone in this room, civilian and cape alike, hero and villain, that you’ve got something to hide.  It doesn’t even have to be lethal, people will still have their concerns if you knock us out rather than let us talk.”

Yeah, no, that one’s out.

Legend nodded, “Okay.”

“Two: I do my little announcement, and the truce ends.  I really don’t want to do that.

Yikes.

I recognize how necessary it is.  But if you decide that one cape’s identity maybe getting publically revealed is worth the truce, well, that’s on you, not me.”

Yeeeeah, nope.

“And the third option is that we release the girl,” Legend guessed.

“You got it,” Tattletale spoke.

Tattle has really put them on the spot here, and I love it so much.

When they were out of earshot, Legend floated over the counter to land in front of me.

“We’ve given you three options.  Pick one or I’ll choose for you.”

Well. It’s clearly between jail time and an identity reveal that would either make life even more hellish or, though Taylor doesn’t expect it, less.

Besides the possibility of Sophia possibly gaining a tiny bit of respect for Taylor also being a cape, there’s also the fact that it would act as a mutual blackmail. As it stands, Sophia doesn’t know that Taylor knows her identity, nor will she unless Taylor’s identity is also revealed to her. But if Taylor does reveal her identity to Sophia, Sophia will know that Taylor has the power to strike back if Sophia continues bullying her. On the, uh, third hand, Sophia would have the exact same power over Taylor.

But I mean, what happened during the Cold War? Both countries did what they could to not piss off the other enough for the other to go “fuck it”.

Grue looked at her.

“It’s cool,” she gave him a little smile, then she offered me one, “Hey Skitter, don’t sweat it.  We’ll handle this, kay?”

“Kay,” I muttered.

Kay.

In a way, I was relieved at the idea of them leaving.  I had no idea what I’d do, but it was a relief anyways.

Oh, I thought she wanted Skitter to come with them. Then again, Armmaster’s still got his steel grip on her.

Miss Militia raised her gun a fraction, waved it toward the others to prod them onward.  One by one, they turned.  Tattletale led the herd in walking away, followed my Regent and Bitch.  Grue was the last to turn away, with Miss Militia following him.

See ya, guys!

“It’s not a concern,” Legend spoke.  “Miss Militia?”

“Come on, let’s walk,” she told the others.

Well. The Undersiders can’t very well break the truce either.

“No,” Grue replied, his chin raising an inch, challenging, defiant.

Tattletale raised one hand, “If  could just say my piece, I-”

“Quiet,” Armsmaster interrupted her.

But in this situation where neither party has power over the other even with threats of violence… the Protectorate can’t tell the Undersiders what to do and expect them to do so.

“Nobody ever lets me talk!” she spoke, turning on her heel to walk away, flouncing, almost.

Ahaha!

Still frustrated about the incident last week, are you?

It was a bit theatrical, overacting.  I wondered if someone that didn’t know her would catch it.  “Whatever.  Grue, let’s go.”

Heh. It’s time to play along – Tattle seems to have a plan.

“Seven?  I’m flattered,” Tattletale replied, grinning.

Maybe she knows what it means, maybe she’s entirely bullshitting… I can’t tell.

“It’s reason enough to end this conversation here and now,” Armsmaster spoke, “Before you find some angle.”

…fair enough.

“Fine,” Legend nodded, “That’s all I need.  Miss Militia?  Escort them away?”

Green-black energy leapt to Miss Militia’s hand, materialized into the shape of a gun.  She didn’t raise it, and she kept her finger off the trigger, but the threat was implicit.

Looks like we’re done here. By declining both working with the Wards and revealing her identity to Sophia, Taylor has implicitly made her choice: Jail time.

Masters of the getaway, it might be time to do your thing.

“You start a fight here,” Grue spoke, “You better pray to some higher power that you can fucking spin this well enough with all those others looking, because it’s an end to the truce if you don’t, too many eyes on this.”

That’s a good point.

Grue turned his head, and I leaned forward a little to see what he was looking at.  There were capes at the far end of the hallway, staring at the scene, kept out of the main triage area by a set of PRT officers.  Trickster leaned against a wall with a cell phone raised, recording video.

Hah! Hi there.