It’s going to be interesting to see how Sierra and Charlotte react to the news.

I really didn’t like that idea.

“Easy decision for you guys to make,” Trickster said, chuckling wryly, “You’re not giving anything up.

You tell ‘em, Trickster!

In fact, if we went with your plan, there’d be nothing stopping you from sneaking a little territory, passing on word to your underlings to prey on our people, consolidating your forces and preparing them for war, all while we’re cooped up in that hotel or wherever.”

Yeah. This whole scheme leaves the Undertravelers’ territories defenseless while their enemies prepare.

He was right.  I could imagine it.  Not just weeks, but months lost.  We’d just lost the element of surprise thanks to Hookwolf outing us here, and the local villains and heroes were now all too aware of the scale of what we were doing.  Add the fact that they would get a breather?  A chance to regroup and prepare?  To retaliate?  Regaining any of the ground we lost while we helped hunt down the Slaughterhouse Nine would be excruciating.

Yeeeah.

And it doesn’t sound like Hookwolf even wants you on board to help with that, either.

“Hey, howsabout you guys just sit on your asses for a while? No reason.”

Coil deliberated for a few seconds.  “I think this makes the most sense.”

Coil, you’re a manipulator, surely you see the loophole?

Then again, you did stumble with the wording back when Dinah was introduced.

Skidmark and Purity nodded as well.

Coil’s response caught me off guard.  He was throwing us to the wolves to maintain his anonymity in things.  I felt my heart sink.

Yeah, he is, but part of the whole territory deal is intended to benefit him in the overall takeover. He wouldn’t do this if he didn’t think the territories could be reinstated afterwards without much difficulty, I suppose.

It made sense, on a basic level, and I could see why the other groups were agreeing.  I mean, our territory wasn’t worth risking that the world ending.  Coil was apparently willing to delay his plans, or pretend to delay his plans while he carried them out in secret.

Yeah, that’s true. A territory dispute is a bit small-fry compared to the apocalypse.

But I would be giving up my territory, condemning Dinah to more days, more weeks of captivity.

And that? That’s even more small-fry on the grand scale of things, at least when it comes to Taylor’s territory. She cares especially much about saving private Dinah, but she’s also helping lots of people along the way.

Coil clasped his hands in front of him, “I knew you might come to these conclusions if I volunteered this information.  You all should already know I am not a stupid man.  Would I weaken my position if I did not wholeheartedly believe that what I was saying was correct?  Jack Slash must die, or we all die.”

He makes a good point here. The only flaw is that yes, he would, if some hidden benefit of successfully convincing everyone to go after Jack Slash would far outweigh the loss.

“And to maximize our chances for this to happen,” Hookwolf added, “The alliance of the Travelers and the Undersiders must concede to our terms.  They hold no territory until the Nine are dead.”

Until they are dead? That’s a loophole and a half. The Slaughterhouse get chased out of town, some of them perhaps killed, the truce ends and Hookwolf can be like “No, guys, we agreed that you wouldn’t hold territory until the Nine were dead. The Nine aren’t dead, they just left.”

I think the other villains would take that as the bullshit it is, but many might support it because they don’t want the Undersider-Traveler takeover either.

Coil added, “She took a week to decide, then contacted me during one of her attacks.”

Okay, no, this part I’m sure is a lie.

Of course, the heroes weren’t about to take his word for gospel.  Miss Militia’s lips pursed into a thin line.  “Could I contact her to verify this?”

That would make sense, but at the same time, Dinah would have reason to lie, unless she felt desperate enough to beg the heroes for help at the cost of getting no candy for a while.

“No.  For one thing, I have no reason to let you.  Also, the process of gaining control of her power requires that she be kept strictly isolated from outside elements.  A simple phone call would set her back weeks.”

Oh, sure.

“So Coil has a precog,” Hookwolf growled, “That explains how he always seemed to fucking get the upper hand when he pit his mercenaries against the Empire.”

Well, it’s part of it.

“You think Dinah is Coil’s source.  That makes a lot of sense.”  Miss Militia turned from Weld to Coil, and her voice was heavy with accusation, “Coil?”

“Did you kidnap this girl?”
“N… n… yes. I did.”
“Shame on you. Now, about this threat…”

“I did not kidnap her.  I offered Dinah training and relief from the drawbacks of her abilities on the contingency that she immediately cut off all contact with her family and friends and provide me a year of service.”

Oh sure…

Actually…

That’s completely within Coil’s MO and does explain why she was okay with accepting the candy in the first place when she was so clearly aware of what it actually was. These days she’s definitely there against her will, but it’s very Coil to first get her on board willingly by offering her something she wanted very badly.

He lied so smoothly, flawlessly.  What really rattled me was hearing him refer to her as Dinah for the first time.

Oh damn, that’s right, he didn’t ever call her that until now, even when Taylor wasn’t present. Hell, not even in his narration.

*shudder*

Actually, what if it’s too late?

What if that “someone” was Theo?

“That’s vague,” Faultline spoke.

Might want to expand on what you mean by “everyone”, Coil.

“I’ll be more specific.  Should Jack Slash not die before he leaves Brockton Bay, it is very likely the world will end in a matter of years,” Coil spoke.

That’s better, thank you. 🙂

“Bullshit,” Skidmark answered.  The others were showing varying reactions.  I doubt many bought it.

Yeah, not the most believable story without the context of Dinah’s power. Maybe Coil will have to talk about that too, but that would be giving away part of the secret to his success and making himself a target for people interested in taking this “source” for themselves.

“You contacted us to say something very similar a couple of days ago.” Miss Militia said, “But I have the same questions now that I did then.  Do you have sources?  Can you verify this?  Or provide more information?”

Oh, so he has been trying to get this information out there. That’s good.

Behind her, Weld reached into his pocket and withdrew his smartphone.

“More information?  Yes.  I have sought further details and pieced together a general picture of things.

Heh, is Weld looking for something relevant on his phone or is he just kind of bored?

Honestly, I would’ve expected that from Alec long before Weld, so I’m leaning towards the former.

Also, sounds like Coil has been probing, asking Dinah for further details. Before her Interlude, of course.

Jack Slash is the catalyst for this event, not the cause.  At some point in the coming years, Jack Slash kills, talks to, meets or influences someone.

I see. But it’s something that’s pretty much constant as long as he makes it out of Brockton Bay.

This causes a chain of events to occur, leading to the deaths of anywhere from thirty-three to ninety-six percent of the world’s population.”

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m pretty sure Jack would be thrilled to hear this.

All at once, this meeting had become about us versus them.  The Travelers and the Undersiders against everyone else.

Good job, Hookwolf.

But let’s not forget there is still an actual threat that warrants this meeting to deal with too.

Hookwolf said, “Then agree to a truce.  So long as the Nine are here, you’re hands off your territories, no fighting, no business.  We can arrange something, maybe you all stay at a nice hotel on the Protectorate’s tab until this is dealt with.  That’ll mean we can all focus on the real threat.”

You mean the one you haven’t been focusing on?

Yeeah, there’s no way this isn’t a ploy to make their territories defenseless.

Stay in a hotel until the Nine were dead, arrested or driven out of town.  He couldn’t seriously expect us to do that.

And, also, this would put nine powers, some quite useful, out of the battle.

Besides, the Slaughterhouse Nine would very likely attack the hotel, because of Bitch and Regent.

“I’m inclined to agree,” Coil answered, after a moment’s consideration.  “Perhaps now is an opportune time to share this information:  I have sources that inform me that should Jack Slash survive his visit to Brockton Bay, it bodes ill for everyone.”

Yeah, might be good to put that out there. Get everyone on the case of attempting to kill Jack.

I still have no faith that it’ll work, though. I don’t think the climax of this story is going to happen when Taylor is around 30.

Hell, even the short time scale of two years seems far off if we keep going at the pace we’re going and the point I’m at within the story (I’m aware that I’ve passed the quarter mark, though I think I may have forgotten to post the ETA calculations that informed me of that) without any larger-than-usual timeskips.

(Some character traits I’ve made it clear that I like: “cheerful”, “skilled manipulator”, “hard to predict” – is it any wonder Tattletale is my favorite?)