My bugs began to gather like a dark cloud, their mass casting a shadow on the already gloomy surroundings.

There’s a storm a-brewing.

“So I end the world?  Interesting.”

You’re more like a catalyst, somehow, but yeah.

“The source is a little unreliable,” I lied.

You think that’s gonna deter him, Taylor? I’m pretty sure that’s just gonna make him more intrigued.

“Still, I would love to see how that comes about.”

I’m interested in that too. I think I’ve got a fairly decent pet theory on it that doesn’t actually require you to leave the city (”in every timeline where Jack leaves the city alive the threat is catalyzed” doesn’t mean that every timeline where he doesn’t leave the city alive is safe), but who knows. That theory doesn’t fully explain it anyway, so exactly how that would play out is also interesting.

Actually, I should probably recap in case some of my readers have forgotten this theory: I think Jack already did the thing that catalyzes the threat, all the way back in Interlude 11b. He set Theo on a path to become a cape in two years, and I suspect that this somehow leads to the threat. Perhaps if Jack hadn’t done what he did then, Theo would’ve triggered later, explaining the difference in timescales. Exactly how Theo becoming a cape leads to the future threat is a bit up in the air, but there are certainly ways it could happen. The simplest of them being that his power is ridiculously strong and uncontrollable.

The knife cut the girl more than it cut me.  I could feel it raking across the exterior of my costume, failing to penetrate, but he was swinging it underhand, and it caught me in the chin, slicing through the side of my cheek and up to my temple.

Ouch.

I tried to keep a hold on the girl for the sake of using her as a human shield, but I saw her reach into her dress and withdraw some vials.

Oh jeez, what does she have now? More stuff to put in the water?

I shoved her toward Jack, then stepped forward to kick her square between the shoulder blades.  She collided with him, interrupting his follow-up swing.

You’ve got some nice moves here, Taylor!

For good measure, I drew the bugs from beneath my costume and sent them chasing after her.  Some capsaicin-laced bugs, just the few I had remaining.

Awesome. I’m not sure how well that’s gonna work – Bonesaw has a history of not giving a flying feather about the bug stings – but at least it reduces visibility for the Nine and increases Taylor’s sensory abilities.

Jack caught her shoulders and spun her around so she faced me.  The vials were already billowing with a chemical reaction.

Uh oh.

Hm. Would she do the same thing she did in Dolltown again, to ward off the bugs?

Or is this gonna be something new? That seems more like Bonesaw.

She threw them at me.

I backed away, and they hit the ground between our two groups, black smoke joining the crimson mist around us.

If it were the same thing she wouldn’t throw them. Probably best to stay clear of the smoke if you can.

The fact that Taylor didn’t seem nearly as affected by the miasma as “Brian” and “Lisa”.

“Lisa” being as adamant about swearing as a certain other blonde.

All the fucking signs!

The miasma’s effects had almost made me lose track of her.  She was fighting, grappling with mechanical spiders.

Ah, I see Bonesaw’s put her minions to work.

It’s looking like Taylor is right.

She went from fighting like an ordinary individual to moving at high speeds and throwing crushing punches, then back again.

Battery?

I couldn’t think of how to help her, and she was obviously unable to help me.

Maybe, maybe not. I wouldn’t rate her all that highly against the Nine, even if it’s just these two, but she’s got a chance.

Cherish had been engaging in double-speak, saying one thing to us, while addressing the two people with me the entire time.  She’d told them about where she was being held captive, and she’d offered the most valuable information she had to avoid getting tortured to death after they’d freed her.

And Jack is totally the kind of guy who’d learn Latin for the hell of it.

But what does Jack want to do with that information? Leave the city? He ought to be thrilled at the chance of having such an impact.

From the way she’d talked about the message being received, one of the people with me had to be Jack.

Yeah, I don’t think Siberian’s in any state to be playing this game right now.

If only I could have blamed the miasma for my idiocy.  Everything clicked into place.

I kept my voice level, “I don’t think you’ll get much goodwill if we don’t understand what the fuck you’re talking about.

Fair point!

Coil?  We’re moving out now.”

“Report back when you’ve found the healer,” Coil told me.

Good luck.

I hung up before Cherish could speak, then I glanced at the others.  “Let’s go?  Arcadia high?”

They nodded.

So, Taylor didn’t elaborate on what “clicked into place”. Did she figure out what Cherish had said, saving that translation for the end of the chapter?

My heart pounded with such force that my vision wavered.  I turned to head toward Arcadia high, joined by the two members of the Nine.  Stay calm, don’t let on that you know.

Ah, fuck.

…

Fuck, she might actually be right. Damn it! No wonder they were so eager to kill earlier, if that’s true!

Wait. But Lisa, if that is indeed her name, definitely knew things Bonesaw and Jack shouldn’t, even with Cherish’s help. Then again, she didn’t help out with the disgusting toe code.

And Cherish mentioned Brian and Lisa being there, and while she absolutely enjoys making things difficult, I don’t believe her when she claims to be a paragon of loyalty now… but then again, maybe she said that specifically to fool Jack and Bonesaw?

I’m gonna have to reread this entire chapter before I move on to the next one, aren’t I.

Another issue: Where’s Siberian? Do they want Panacea in order to heal him up?

And then there’s the girl/woman who’s been following them. Lisa? Except she’d need to get a gas mask somehow, and the effortless escape from the bonds doesn’t match her either.

So many questions. Well played, Wildbow, whether these are Jack and Bonesaw or not.

Fuck, I just remembered “Lisa” suggesting that “Brian” could use his power to do it, which I questioned for a moment before reasoning that he could steal Taylor’s power. But if he’s actually Jack, his power would be perfect for what he’d be trying to do – ranged murder. He might even get away with it by virtue of Taylor not remembering Brian’s actual power.

Was this even the ending line of the chapter?

If I could direct the woman to us…

No. No it wasn’t.

And yeah, if you’re right which is very much unclear right now, you’re probably better off letting the woman catch up.

Unless she’s Siberian, but that’d just raise even more questions.

“I’m not versed in Latin,”  Coil spoke, sounding annoyed.

“For shame, Coil, for shame,” Cherish said.  Her voice was too cheerful. “You can’t sell the cultured supervillain image without the ability to make quips in an ancient language.

Pfft.

I had the benefit of my power, languages are easier to learn when you can get a sense of what the other person’s feeling.”

Huh. That actually makes a lot of sense, assuming you’re not trying it on a language teacher spouting pre-written lines. I can’t imagine this works nearly as well on someone who doesn’t mean what they’re saying.

“That was something about Jack?”  I asked,  “Repeat that in English?”

Yeah, no, she’s dead set on being difficult.

“Doesn’t matter anymore,” she replied.  “The message was delivered.  I’ll leave you to think about it.”

Doesn’t matter anymore? Do you mean that literally? Well, shit. Bye, Jack.

I assume the others went / are going with him. In which case Brockton Bay may finally be rid of the Nine.

Well, unless you count Cherish, Shatterbird and/or their lingering miasma.

“You’re stalling?”  Coil asked.  “I don’t see the point.”

“Just trying to see if I can provoke a reaction from you.  There’s only so many times I can read the labels of the shipping containers before I lose my mind.  Have to amuse myself somehow.”

That ought to be enough for Lisa to figure out where Cherish is, in case tracking her down in person should actually turn out to be a necessity.

“What will it take for you to tell us where Panacea is?”  Coil asked.

“Oh, I’m feeling generous, and I want to see what happens.  I’ll tell you that as a freebie.  They’re at Arcadia.  Somewhere in the top floor.”

They’re – Amy and Victoria? Let’s hope they haven’t clashed.

A freebie.  Something was going on, and I wasn’t aware what.

Yeah, if she’s giving a freebie, there’s something else she has up her sleeve that won’t be free. She’s already implied as much, too.

I had to piece it together, but I had so little information.

I suspect it may have something to do with the person following them, somehow. We may have to let her catch up in order to find out.

Wildbow is clearly keeping her identity from us until a reveal. Back during the Scene, that made total sense. The audience, while most likely meant to be on Taylor’s side like I was, needed to feel the same sort of uncertainty about who this woman is as the characters did. That mattered much more than who it actually was. But now, she’s been pretty clearly established as “important somehow”. The question is just how she’s important, and that ought to become clearer when we find out who she is.

“And maybe I could offer you something, in exchange for some goodwill.  Maybe you’ll even want to let me go free, no obligations.”

That’s gonna take a hell of a playing card. What’cha got?

The feeling of dread that had been following me wasn’t getting worse as the woman approached.  It was staying steady, like someone had a gun pointed at me, and they’d had it aimed my way for some time now.

Oddly enough, I’ve been more and more getting the feeling that the woman isn’t actually a threat, though this particular paragraph doesn’t help reinforce that.

“I’m listening,” Coil said, “But if this is frivolous or another waste of our time-”

“Nah.  Critically important.  I’ll trust that you’ll take it for what it’s worth and repay me in kind.”

So spit it out already.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Oh, it’s simple.  Going by what I’ve been able to observe around the city, there seems to be a major concern.  Si Jack effugit civitatem, mundus terminabitur.”

Fucking Latin? She’s not gonna make this easy for them, huh.

Fortunately, though,I’m able to tell what it says without looking up any translations: “If Jack leaves the city, the world will end.” So the other information she has for them is that he’s doing so?

I’m still not sure averting this is still on the table (in-universe – out of universe I’m pretty sure it never really was), but it’s worth a shot.