I’d be staying at his apartment?  I could remember the tension from the last time I’d been there alone with him, just how aware I’d been of his presence.  The idea of going there to stay overnight forced me to focus very carefully on keeping my expression impassive and my hands from fidgeting.  I was glad for the distraction of Alec’s response.

It’s not guaranteed that it’ll just be one night, either.

“The fuck?” Alec spoke, “You’re telling us to get out of here, stay in some random place with a bunch of stray dogs, while you go home and kick back?”

Ahahaha

Yes, I suppose that’s pretty much what he’s saying. Just, y’know, with an added “with your probably-crush” at the end.

“Do not get on my case right now, Alec,” Brian pointed a finger at Alec, “As a member of our group, you agreed to answer your fucking phone when it goes off.

Yeeah, might be a bad time, Alec.

I’m not much happier with Lisa, for not having a phone ready, but you’re the one I’m really pissed at.  From what I heard, if things had gone a little differently, one or both of your teammates could be dead.  Because you guys weren’t able to back them up when Taylor asked for it.”

Yeah, this was a pretty big fuck-up. Sorry, Alec, I kinda get it, but I have to side with Brian on this one.

Lisa frowned, “Okay.”

“If he’s as clever as he acts like he is, he’ll find some angle to make it work.”

“Alright.  I’ll try.  What else?”

The best approach for Coil might be to frame a mutual enemy of his and Kaiser’s. That way, the Empire doesn’t go after the Undersiders, but rather that mutual enemy, dealing damage to both E88 and the mutual enemy and letting Coil swoop in from the side if he wishes to.

Hm. Didn’t we hear about a couple more enemies of the Empire back in Interlude 2, alongside Coil? But I’m not sure those are also enemies of Coil.

“Take Alec and find a place to stay with Rachel and the dogs.  I think Bitch has more than one shelter like the one I saw today.  If none of those places work, ask Coil for a place.”

More doghouses? Fair enough.

Lisa nodded, “Okay.  What are you doing?”

“Taylor and I will stay at my apartment.  It’s out of the way, and so long as we don’t go out in costume, we shouldn’t run into trouble.”

……..

…I was not expecting this situation to come with so much potential for ship fuel. :3

Lisa, first thing, I want you to get on the phone with Coil.  Get that transportation – I’ll text you directions to the place – and get Coil to make a statement, have him make it damn clear to Empire Eighty Eight that he’s responsible for this email.”

Hm, well, she can try.

“I don’t think he’ll be willing, as far as ‘fessing up.”

“Tell him that I’m not going to sign any deal with him if he can’t own up to this and get the heat off us, when we weren’t informed and we didn’t agree to taking this kind of action.”

It’s something, at least. Coil doesn’t know that they were planning to decline anyway because of Rachel’s stance on the issue. Question is, though, how much does he actually care whether the Undersiders agree or not?

If his power is strong enough, he wins either way.

Speaking of which – at this point, my biggest question about Coil is exactly that. How strong is his power, anyway? How large can the outcomes he controls be? How far into the future? Does other people’s free will (to whatever degree free will is a thing) and/or the Manton effect weaken his power the more people are involved and the more the outcome goes against their wishes?

I spoke up, “Even if they don’t blame us for this email that’s outing them, secret identity-wise, I’m betting there’s going to be more than a few that just want to hurt someone and vent their anger… and we did just get in a fight with their people.  It makes us an easy target.  I’m with Brian.  I think we should lay low, at least for now.”

Yeah.

One thing about the email, by the way – there is still technically the possibility of none of the news outlets spreading the information to the public, but a) that’s an outcome Coil can quite possibly prevent, b) Coil would have plenty of options for publishing the information anyway if the news outlets chose not to cooperate, and c) most importantly, it wouldn’t be satisfying. It would take quite the spin to take that narrative direction and not have the issue coming up in the first place feel pointless, especially since this is what’s setting into motion the rest of this Arc’s plot.

It’s kinda needless to say at this point that I have more faith in Wildbow as an author than that.

“Okay,” Lisa said, “I’m not sure I agree, but I don’t see any harm in it.  You guys think you can convince Rachel?”

“Already did,” Brian said, “More or less.  She’s packing up at her personal dog shelter, and she’ll be ready to go the moment transportation arrives.

I guess she does care more about that than the Loft anyway.

“It’s too dangerous to stay here,” Brian spoke.

“What?” Lisa and I asked him, almost simultaneously.

Are you suggesting evacuating entirely, out of the Loft? How would the Empire even know… right. Rachel. They could easily have had intelligence agents following her back there.

Or is Brian taking it a couple steps further and advocating evacuation from the city?

“They’ve got too many heavy hitters and they have absolutely no reason to hold back anymore.  After the ABB thing and the issue with Bitch earlier today, with the number of powered individuals they’ve got at their disposal, they can probably figure out our general location and go on the offensive.  We can’t afford to still be here if they decide to try and root us out or if they lay siege to the Docks.”

That’s also a good point – the Undersiders may or may not be fully aware of this, but we know the E88 do want to take over the Docks in general. That includes the Loft.

“So, what, we run?” Alec asked.

“Tactical retreat.  Just to be safe,” Brian stated, his voice firm, “In case Empire Eighty Eight does decide to organize and come after us in force”

Tactical retreat is a good way to put it, so that it feels less like a cowardly move.

Speaking of which, I can’t help but wonder how Rachel’s going to take this. She’s agreed to tactically retreat from the doghouse, but this is bigger.