“Shatterbird.”  A dark-haired, brown-skinned woman with a helmet covering the upper half of her face, in a beak shape.  I was reminded of Iron Falcon, the boy I’d tried to help, who’d died in the Endbringer attack.

“Squawk!”

I saw a glimpse of the next line and it seems like Taylor is going to say what she knows about Shatterbird’s power, so I’m gonna take a moment to speculate:

Maybe her power is to shatter bones? Not sure what prompted the bird aesthetic if that’s the case, though. Shatter bones and fly?

From what I’d read, Shatterbird usually used her power as the Nine arrived in a city, to maximize panic and terror.

That sounds… familiar. It reminds me of the Simurgh, who is a presumably birdlike being who spreads panic and terror by virtue of what she is, and apparently leaves cities in a state that’s potentially even more destructive than the Simurgh herself.

I wonder if there’s going to be a watery Fellowship member. We already know there’s a firey one, due to the charred body.

Also, I guess I should speculate on Bonesaw too… I mean, what do you use a bonesaw for? To cut things up. I’m thinking her power might be kind of like Faultline’s, except it works on living beings. She might be the one behind the chain-limbed person.

I supposed they were flying under the radar for now.  Fuck, I’d have to do something about my costume, just in case.

Hm. Pray tell, what can you do about your costume that might help you against whatever Shatterbird does?

“Crawler.”  No portrait, this time.  It was a still from a surveillance camera, a misshapen silhouette, not even humanoid, in a shadowy area.

Hm, was Crawler mentioned back in Interlude 3, when the Wards were trying to come up with a name for Skitter that wasn’t taken?

*rereads*

Nah. The names that were suggested before Skitter were Maggot, Worm, Stinger and Pestilence. The latter two were taken.

Anyway, it sounds like Crawler is a Changer of some sort, maybe into some sort of giant spider or similar.

I doubt that would let Skitter control them, but that’s a fun idea to imagine.

I’d come across stories about him when I’d been researching possible superhero names for myself.  Not pretty.

Ah, heh. The Wards didn’t consider it, but Taylor did.

It was disturbingly intimate in a way I’d rather not think about.  No, not intimate.  That was the wrong word for the impression I was getting.  Possessive.  I looked away.

I know, right? Eaugh.

“Yes?” Dinah asked.

“Likelihood that one of my groups encounters the Slaughterhouse Nine?”

“Who?”

I guess she needs a bit more context… although I’m not sure if she’s asking for more info about the Slaughterhouse Nine, or asking Coil to specify a team.

He moved to take the laptop, and the middle-aged man stepped back to let him.  He typed for a few seconds, then turned it around so Dinah could see.  It was a gallery of images.

“Bonesaw.” he spoke.  The girl on the screen looked barely older than Dinah, maybe the same age as Aisha.  The image showed her wide-eyed, a spray of dried blood painted her face at a diagonal.

Well that’s… suitably crazed-looking.

Not gonna lie, I wasn’t expecting people around that age in the Fellowship of the Meat. Are they all youngsters? Or are they mostly grown-ups with like three hobbits children in their midst?

Seriously, the “pet” thing manages to bother me more than the “candy” thing.

Regent asked the question for me, “The Slaughterhouse Nine?”

“At least some of their members have been seen in town, preying on the locals, disrupting recovery efforts.  The recent chaos makes the city a playground for them,” Coil spoke.  “One of my teams is bound to run up against them soon.”

Hm. No mention of direct attacks on his people. Guess that’s not it. Maybe they were just random civilians?

Also it doesn’t elude me that the Undersiders fall under the umbrella of “one of my teams”. I have a feeling they’ll be up against the Fellowship within the next Arc or two. Maybe three, but that’s pushing it.

“How likely is it?” Tattletale asked.  She tilted her head in Dinah’s direction.  “Can you ask her?”

Hm, given that she’s already gotten her “candy”, I’m not sure how willing or capable she’s going to be to answer right now.

“I suppose.”  Coil put his hand on Dinah’s head, stroked her hair, then slid his hand down the side of her face until he could place his fingertips under her chin, raise her head to look at him, “Pet?”

Fuck you.

“Can you fill in the blanks?” Coil asked him.

I have a feeling this guy might be a parahuman with computer powers, but he might just be a regular computer wizard.

“Probably.  Will take some time.  There’s encryption.  Good encryption.  Maybe a few days, with the full team working on it?”

Never mind, sounds mundane. Though maybe Tattletale can help them figure out the encryption keys.

“Most likely it is Dragon’s work,” Coil spoke. “Let’s assume it’ll take a week, minimum.  Perhaps Tattletale will be able to assist.”

Coil and I are on the same page about that, it seems.

“Yes, sir.”

“Priority number one, I want the data on the Slaughterhouse Nine.”

Hm, interesting. I guess that makes sense – now that they’ve shown up in Brockton Bay, he’d want to know as much as possible about them.

Besides, it’s possible the Slaughterhouse are going up against Coil rather than vice versa. We don’t know who the corpses were; they could be Coil’s people. That might also explain why the Travelers were at one of the corpsehouses – they may have had something planned with Coil’s people at that location and then arrived to find them hanging on the walls.

I felt a chill, but didn’t say anything.  Was he intending to hire them?  It would be a huge mistake in my book, if he was.

I doubt it, though he does have a precedent for hiring nomadic heavy hitters.

Regent looked at us, shrugged.  “Good enough?”

“She might be mad enough to come after someone else in our group, but yeah.  Good,” Grue said.  “Let’s go deliver the stuff.”

Yeah, but she can’t be sure Regent won’t be near the other members.

■

We didn’t meet Coil in the underground base, and the people surrounding him weren’t all the same uniformed mercenaries that had made up his entourage in our prior meetings.

Hm, alright. So where are we now?

The meeting place was at the south end of the Docks, near the border to the downtown area, and it was closer in appearance to the refurbished, ramshackle building where I’d reunited with the Undersiders than anything else.

Fair enough. I guess the base might still be under repairs after the damage Leviathan did?

By the way, I wonder what Coil thinks of the whole Taylor situation? It seems to be common knowledge in the PRT, so it’s probably just a question of time before he finds out about it if he doesn’t already know.

Wait, of course he knows, he’s the one who told Tattle there was a hero there in Gestation, duh. Never mind.

The building was an old quadruplex, and it had been reinforced with metal panels, sandbags and plastic sheeting to keep the interior crisp and dry, much as the other building had.  Small rooms with bunk beds filled half of the lower level, with a bathroom, kitchen and living room taking up the rest.

Looks like a decent enough place. Not fancy by any means, but better than many of the other buildings around here are these days.

Finding the lower level empty, we headed to the second floor and found an open space supported by two metal pillars.  There were a half-dozen mercenaries with Coil, as well as a collection of people who looked like they had come from every walk of life.

Hiya!

Teenagers, professionals, and two guys that might have been capes – one thin, short guy with brown skin and a tattoo around his mouth, depicting a mess of sharp teeth penetrating the skin of his cheeks and lips.

Sounds like a pretty badass tattoo, honestly.

The other was burlier, shirtless, and wore a rusty, old fashioned looking mechanical rigging around his hands, with a bear-trap jaw plate.  The frame seemed set up to hold metal claws around his fingertips while allowing his hands the full range of motion.   He had a spiked collar of much the same style.

Huh, interesting.

So I highly doubt we’re not seeing these guys again down the road in some capacity or other.

Incidentally, I forgot to mention that if Shadow Stalker does move, and she gets a say in where, she’s probably going to Portland.

She nodded, slowly.  The movement was jerky, which was peculiar.  Was he giving her limited control of her own movements?

Maybe just enough to move her head and nothing else?

“Now let’s walk you off to the other end of the city before I release you.

That’s more like it. I guess the only reason he released her here in the first place was so that he could illustrate this little speech.

I don’t think you’re quite stupid enough to try and follow us, but I think my teammates would be more comfortable if they were sure.”

Yeah, sounds about right.

Shadow Stalker turned and walked through the door.

Bye bye!

He had her raise her crossbow and point it at her temple.  It was a tranquilizer dart, but the meaning seemed pretty damn clear.

Oh shit, yeah, that’s one way to make sure someone doesn’t try anything.

By the way, the Undersiders are rapidly becoming Sophia’s worst nightmares in general. Grue has her pride. Skitter has her identity. Regent has her body.

“Next time I get control?  I’m keeping you for a full day.  Maybe two, if I feel like pulling an all-nighter.  And here’s the funny part,” there was no humor in his voice, “I’m going to do it even if I’m in civilian clothes, if my power tells me you’re in range.  You won’t even know when it’s coming.

Oh boy.

You’re now a liability to the Wards, and you won’t ever know when or where I’m going to get control again…

And there’s a good chance Piggot knows this.

“Unless you leave.  Skip town.  Join another team.”

…huh. Is this going to work?

And just when the Undersiders and Wards had been equalized in terms of member count, too… also, if Shadow Stalker does leave, does that mean Flechette gets to stay here with her needle girlfriend?