“No problem,” I said.

“Whatever,” Bitch answered, noncommital.

Yeah, no, this is going to be a problem.

It was only when Brian mentioned Imp that I realized Aisha was present.  I’d almost missed her.

Hah! I was hoping this was the case.

…also is this the first time it’s been explicitly confirmed that Imp and Aisha are the same person? I mean, it’s been obvious ever since she appeared out of costume in Parasite, but I don’t recall the names being used together before.

I wanted to believe that it was because she was sitting at the end of the table and there were four of my teammates between us, but I couldn’t be sure.  It would be damn nice if there was some sort of gradual immunity to her power.

Hehe.

Well, at least Tattletale’s mostly unaffected thanks to her power, and Grue seemed to be fully aware she was there already (though that’s probably because he arrived with her).

I wonder if anyone else is surprised like Taylor.

“And maybe someone else who isn’t raw offense?  Circus?”  Brian suggested.

Yes please.

Though I wonder what her perception of the Undersiders is, considering her reaction to being invited.

Coil spoke before Circus could reply.  “No.  I pulled her off of a task as a precautionary measure, as I had one aspect of my long-term plans derailed last night with Trainwreck’s demise at the Nine’s hands.

Ahh, okay, he did get caught up in that.

I would rather she did not fall to an unfortunate coincidence of the same nature.”

“I would prefer to keep this one safe because she’s particularly useful to me.”

At least he’s kinda upfront about it?

Sundancer cut in, “Which makes me wonder…  Sorry if this is a crummy idea, but what if we waited for Jack’s turn, and then tried to kill him?”

It’s risky, letting the time pass like that, but it does make sense that he’d be putting himself out there a lot more.

“No guarantees there,” Brian answered her.  “I think we’ll have to be proactive in going after him.  Maybe we can use Hookwolf’s distraction, maybe he’ll get cocky and make a mistake.”

Certainly possible.

“Doubt it,” Tattletale said, “He’s lasted years doing what he does.”

But this is a fair point. He clearly knows what he’s doing.

I couldn’t help but nod in agreement.

“Besides, he goes last,” Tattletale finished.

Was that mentioned before? Either way, I’m not surprised.

“To get back to what you were saying, you were proposing dividing the teams?” Coil spoke.

Yeah, though I’m not entirely sure why.

“Yeah,” Brian said.  “Bitch has offensive power of her own.  Skitter does too.  If there’s no complaints, we could play this largely geographically.  Maybe me, Imp, Bitch and Skitter?  If you guys can put your differences aside?”

Oh no.

This can’t end well, especially once Skitter finds out that Bitch is embracing the candidacy.

Also who’s Imp? 

…Is she here? Taylor didn’t mention her, but that’s standard fare by now. I actually really like that treatment, because it makes it super easy for the reader to forget about her too.

Then again, I suppose she didn’t specifically mention Regent either when she came in.

Trickster’s words reminded me of what Sundancer had said back when she and I had fought Lung.  Sundancer had held back in using her power because she was frightened about hurting bystanders or killing the people she attacked.

Oh yeah! I guess Noelle is in a similar position now, although there seems to be a mental part to it as well that makes her want to “feed”.

Her power was too hard to use without hurting someone.  Ballistic was the same.  Was Noelle another case of the same thing?  That same too-powerful ability, only on a greater scale?

At this point it’s becoming a theme of the group, although Trickster’s and Genesis’ powers are a bit subtler.

Brian sighed.  “We’ll deal with Noelle’s situation when it comes up.  We have three targets they’re going to be coming after, with a fourth if we consider that Mannequin’ll be after Skitter.

Right, there’s that too.

If we split into two groups, then we can maintain enough offensive power to defend ourselves against the ones like Mannequin, Burnscar, Jack or Shatterbird.”

So basically, the idea is to mix and split. I hope we get Trickster and especially Sundancer with Taylor, though I wouldn’t say no thanks to getting to know Ballistic and Genesis better either. I suppose that’s more likely from a writing standpoint.

Maybe I can finally stop being confused by Genesis’ power. I think I’m getting it, but it’s still weird for me to think about.

Trickster frowned.  “There’s not much to say.  She’s in containment, and if she doesn’t stay where she is, things would get worse, fast.”

Come on….

“So she’s dangerous, and she’s not entirely in control of her power?”

He tilted his chair forward until it was flat on the ground and set his elbows on the table, hands clasped in front of his mouth.

Time to get serious.

He glanced down the table at his teammates.  I wasn’t sure, but I thought maybe he glanced briefly at Coil.

Hm. Is that a glance of “am I allowed to divulge this”, or of “do I want him to hear this”?

I would think Trickster’s told as much as possible to Coil, but who knows. Might be more secrets here.

With a resigned tone, he told us, “She’s dangerous enough that if Siberian got to her, I think she’d make it out okay.  The rest of us wouldn’t.”

Damn.

No wonder Crawler’s interested.

“We should mix up our teams, then,” Brian said.

Ooh, good idea.

“Just between us, we’ve got three candidates.  Noelle, Regent and Bitch.  Three targets.”

Yep. Half the heat is going to be on the Undertravelers, and that’s before considering the schism.

“Crawler couldn’t reach Noelle where we’ve got her stashed,” Trickster said, “I’m not sure what the others could do.”

Make sure not to light any bonfires in there.

But yeah, I’d reckon Siberian could bust through that vault door. Doesn’t matter how thick the obstacle is if you’re an unstoppable projectile.

“What about when Siberian comes after Noelle?” I asked.  “Will the same measures stop her?”

Eyy, Taylor and I are on the same page. I like when that happens.

“Probably not,” Trickster replied.

“This would be a lot easier if you’d tell us more about her,” I pointed out.  “Unless you think she can hold her own against the Nine, we’re going to be helping protect her.”

It would probably help, yes.

Feed me, Trickster. Feed my curiosity.

“Maybe they are, but I wouldn’t bet on it.  We should be focused on what we can do,” Brian said.

Yeah. Let’s let Hookwolf do his thing while the protagonists take care of the issue with a more clever tactic. There’s

still

the Shogi plan, for one thing, which Taylor thinks will be easier with the testers taking turns.

“You guys are better set up for information gathering and escapes,” Trickster said.

True. Masters of the getaway, and all!

“We could take them on, depending on who it is and how small the group is, but I don’t know how well we’d do in those circumstances.”

I stand by what I said about Sundancer being good against Mannequin. Hell, maybe even against Siberian – she can handle blows easily, but what about heat?

(Legend doesn’t seem to be able to hurt Siberian with his lasers, but they seem more like “punchy” lasers, if you know what I mean?)

Also, Trickster would probably be good against Jack – Jack relies on his blades, and Trickster can replace them with other things. Leaves or sticks or something, for example. He could similarly mess with Bonesaw’s tools, and put people into the fire Burnscar makes underneath herself / teleports into or in the way of her fireballs.

“It could mean the end of the world.”

Or something pretty damn close to it.

“Right,” I said.

“Hookwolf has proposed an all-out attack,” Coil spoke for the first time since my arrival.  “He wants to gather the more powerful members of his alliance together into an army and attempt to overwhelm the Nine and kill Jack Slash in the chaos.”

Sounds like a plan. A brute force plan that’s not going to work in this story (there’s too much focus on clever solutions over raw strength for that kind of plan to be a satisfying solution, not to mention it seems to completely avoid the main protagonists having an impact on it), but a plan.

So if the Slaughterhouse Nine were to lose this all-vs-all battle, would they all each have a day deducted?

“That won’t work.”  Brian shook his head.  “These guys specialize in dealing with crowds, and they’re experienced when it comes to that sort of thing.”

Good point.

“Hookwolf believes our local capes are collectively strong enough to do what other groups couldn’t.”

Honestly, I think he just wants to lead an army.

“Me, Bitch, Armsmaster, Noelle, probably Hookwolf and someone in Faultline’s crew?”  Alec said.

Close.

Wait, was it mentioned to them that there are just six?

“No.  Jack said they picked two heroes.  Hookwolf, yes.  But their last pick is a hero, not one of Faultline’s,” Lisa said.

Oh, good catch.

Is your power taking it further to tell you which hero?

“And we can’t say for sure who this person is or what actions they plan to take,” I said.  “Too much hinges on everyone else’s willingness to cooperate and play by the rules, and the stuff that happened at the last meeting of the city’s villains makes me skeptical.”

Yeah, I can’t blame her for that.

Brian nodded.  “It’s important that we find this person, make sure they play along, so we don’t wind up losing before this game of theirs even starts.”

I agree. Panacea is currently the most likely to leave the city, and that’s before considering that the Nine may not have managed to tell her about the rules.

“There’s other problems here,” I said, “We can’t forget what Dinah said about Jack.  If he leaves town, it could mean disaster.  If we win, we could all lose in the long run, because it’d mean he left town and Dinah’s prophecy would come true.

That’s a very good point. Gotta open that extra slot – and possibly break the Nine apart entirely, thanks to Jack’s central position, potentially causing each of them to wreak havoc on the city separately, not caring about the game anymore.

And it might still be for nought if I’m right about Theo.

Hell, a lot hinges on whether the Protectorate is on the same page as us.  If they arrest him and take him out of town…”

Yeah, whoops.

At least they know about the prophecy. Now it’s just a matter of whether they believe it.