Extension 4

On the day of the mission, I was at Concord Hospital along with Panacea. The team agreed to send both of us there for our own protection. Primarily it was so I had something to do. Not that work at the hospital was especially difficult, even with the more advanced cases they were letting me do. It also provided some more obfuscation of my alternate identity, since we hadn't finished debating whether or we should go public about Abyssal. For now, I would be maintaining the secret. I'd still be contributing in a multitude of ways.

Princess, not being officially part of the team and barely tolerated by Brandish, had to fend for herself. Though, being inside Dragon's armoured lair was reasonably safe, but I added some additional protection and watchful eyes in the area.

Further away, before the rest of the team even left Concord, I was scouting out. I made sure Coil hadn't set up any traps along the way like he tried with Ballistic. Director Calvert had stayed the night at the PRT building, saying he had "too much work" to do. In reality, I knew he was doing it for the additional protection – he was afraid of being out on the streets. He had alerted the Protectorate and PRT about a potential imminent attack by a villain group, from an "anonymous" tip. Because the ABB was the only real gang left in Brockton Bay, they had geared themselves up to be ready for anything up to and including Lung. He was ready to deploy PRT strike teams at a moment's notice, but right now, they were all just waiting.

I was certain at this point that he had one more base shielded from my power, because I still couldn't find the Travellers or more mercenaries on the streets – aside from Sundancer, who was in a PRT cell, and Ballistic, who I allowed to wake up and slowly try to hike back into the city on foot, in the middle of the night. He was tired and currently resting on the side of the road. In the years since the Slaughterhouse Nine, nobody picked up hitchhikers any more, so he had to get back on his own.

My bots were ready to knock out Calvert and Sundancer at any time, though if I did it now, it would instantly put everyone on edge and convince the entire PRT that it was a true villain attack. It was something I'd have to save for more opportune time.

However, my main priority was Dinah. While everyone in Purity's home was sleeping (other than the mercenaries, who were sleeping in shifts), I had my bots perform as much medical intervention as I knew. I couldn't feed her, or force her to eat, but I could clean her up. I was starting to understand drug addiction more, and I could recognize the alterations to her brain that the drug had caused. Now, I wasn't completely experienced in the actual treatment, but I knew enough of the basics to at least lessen the withdrawal symptoms. I sent bots to her damaged synapses to help them function properly, as well as block the effect of any more of the drug.

On top of that, I had bots surround the injection port. Any more drugs they put in her body would immediately be captured and contained by my bots so it wouldn't affect her. There was probably some bad withdrawal symptoms, but I would use my bots as best I could to mitigate those as well.

I also didn't quite know how her power worked, but I was guessing she was compelled to answer. I hoped Coil hadn't simply tortured her until she was trained not to resist. At the very least, I could just plug up her ears so she couldn't hear any questions. No questions meant no answers. And maybe keeping her asleep would help too.

The team left just before the morning rush hour. Through bots inside Dragon's workshop, I kept them updated on what I saw, but it wasn't much. The first action I noticed on Coil's part was to send more men to Purity's home.

The creepy, shorter man returned to Purity's home, along with more mercenaries and heavier weaponry. Six more men and some very dangerous-looking weapons, including machine guns and sniper rifles, were brought into the house. Nine in total now, but again, they weren't parahumans as far as I could tell. I could take them down quickly when I had to.

While the mercenaries got more things set up, the man went down into the basement, where the kids were all still sleeping. Purity watched him go, wary of the briefcase he was carrying.

He nudged Dinah. "Wake up, little one," he said. "Your master has questions for you."

I blocked a few nerve signals so that she stayed asleep, completely unaware of the man.

He crouched down and tried shaking her. I made sure there was no response. I started moving more bots to help armour Dinah in case the man got violent.

Thankfully, he didn't. He turned to Purity, who was watching from the doorway. "Did you give her anything? Painkillers? Sleeping pills?"

"Of course not," Purity said with a tone of annoyance. "I've been following your orders. I've fed and bathed her. Are you sure you haven't killed her with all those drugs you keep giving her?"

The man didn't answer her and instead opened his briefcase. He took out several instruments, including a syringe. He drew up a drug that I didn't recognize. When he tried to inject it, I had my bots block off the injection and damage the syringe. Nothing got through to her, and the instrument broke in his hands.

"What the –" Modern syringes almost never broke these days, so I could understand his surprise. It also put him on alert that something strange was going on. He quickly grabbed a radio and shouted. "Possible cape attack und…" I knocked him out with my bots, but the alert had gone out.

I had hoped we would have more time. The rest of the team was still ten minutes from the city; Errant was five minutes away from Purity's home. I tried to use my bots to knock out Purity as well, but as soon as she changed forms, all my bots in her body sizzled into nothing. As I figured, she wasn't even physically human when she transformed, so I couldn't stop her. I did stop the mercenaries though; all nine of them were quickly rendered unconscious too.

"Sorry. Attack at Purity started. Mercs down. Purity is alert."

I sent the message to Dragon and Princess, who in turn relayed it to the rest of the team. I made sure my bots covered the rest of the team in an extra layer of armour in case of an ambush I didn't see.

Over at the hospital, I let Panacea know as well. The early morning shift didn't have that much for us to do, especially with how the hospital was limiting us right now. We were both sitting in a mostly-empty Emergency Room.

"The operation's started," I said quietly to her.

"Is everyone doing okay?" she asked.

"They haven't arrived yet. I had to start early to protect Dinah," I said. "Don't worry. I'll keep them safe."

Panacea sighed. "I still can't believe you've been doing so much without even telling anyone. You could be on par with Dragon someday. While I'm stuck in this stupid hospital with its stupid policies."

"Maybe… are you thinking about it, too? I, uh, saw you experimenting with some plants a few days ago," I admitted. I didn't mention the plants she had on her body under her clothing. That would be too embarrassing. Heck, could they even be considered plants at this point?

Amy looked shocked, and a little scared. "You knew?"

"Um. Sorry. I'll keep it a secret if you want," I told her. "But yeah, I see almost everything outdoors between here and Brockton Bay. And I keep an especially close watch on our neighbourhoods. Did you know there were actually twenty attempts at vandalizing your homes since we left Brockton Bay? The last one was the only one I couldn't stop," I told her.

Panacea's head dropped to her hands. "Ugh. Of course you did. I've been playing around with some ideas. Like a nutritious plant that can grow in seawater. Improved gut bacteria. Things that Dragon was talking about, you know? Why be stuck here when I could be saving millions of lives around the world with an invention?" she waved her arm at the nearly-empty emergency room.

I nodded. "That's a good idea. I could help you with distribution, if you want. My bots could carry seeds and stuff…"

"Thanks. Let's just keep it between us for now," Panacea said. "I don't think Carol would approve. People don't like Bio-tinkers even if it's something to help the public."

"It's the same thing they say about nanobot tinkers," I said. "Nobody ever believes we can actually do good with our powers, so I just pretend I can only do a tiny fraction of what I do."

Panacea nodded in understanding. I held up a finger to stop her from continuing, because I noticed a nurse around the corner coming towards us. "Panacea and Eunoia, you're up! We've got a head-on collision incoming, three victims."

"Yippee, something to do," Panacea said blandly.

I let take first dibs. I already had something to do.

Errant sent us a discreet message once he was nearing Purity's home. Glory Girl and Laserdream flew above, being the two fastest capes and the only ones who had any chance at all of standing up against Purity. I started moving mass amounts of nanobots in the area into the building.

Since I was still at work with patients, I couldn't talk to them, but I was keeping watch on everything. Body-cameras linked to Dragon's computers, along with Princess-led analysis allowed them to coordinate the team. They couldn't see what I saw, but I could give them hints. The recordings were vital to making sure everything was by the book and could be used as evidence. Unfortunately that also meant Glory Girl had to be on her best behaviour.

Before inevitable clash occurred, I was using my nanobots to quietly grind through the walls of the reinforced basement. The panic button had sealed the place shut, and while the room wasn't as secure as, say, a military bunker, it was reinforced with hardened steel. The innovations I had worked out with Dragon on the Nanothorn project were helping; I could grind through this stuff a lot faster than I used to.

I also let Dinah wake up. I didn't know how cooperative she would be, but I was hoping she wasn't completely drained of willpower. My bots that were already inside the room started slicing away at the handcuffs that kept her there. It would help if she tried to escape on her own, so we didn't have to search the house. The quicker we got her out, the less time the team would have to be flying around fighting a Blaster 8.

The young girl woke up, and she immediately realized things weren't normal. For one, the two other kids were in the room with her. Theo, or Thomas, or whatever his name was, held the baby and was trying to calm her down. I'm sure she noticed the lack of withdrawal pains, too. Then there was the man at the foot of her bed, unconscious. She recognized him. A rush of adrenaline helped bring her to alertness, and she also noticed the handcuffs had been sliced open.

"Eighty-two percent chance I escape today," she whispered to herself. Her heart rate increased.

Outside the house, Purity wasn't hesitating one bit. She was flying high above the home, and when she saw Glory Girl and Laserdream flying in, she immediately took a shot at them. A stream of light pierced through the morning sky, which was easily dodged by the two capes. Purity knew full well she was under attack, she knew she was outnumbered, and she wanted to make the first strike.

"I was wondering where she ran off to," Laserdream said. She started to charge up her own lasers at her fingertips before sending a barrage of light at Purity, which streaked in wide arcs in every direction. Before she could make contact, though, Purity sent another blast directly her way, which forced her to abort the attack.

Glory Girl flew straight in, narrowly dodging Purity's attack on her cousin. Between dodging Laserdream's attack and avoiding Glory Girl, Purity wasn't able to charge up a particularly powerful blast or aim well. As the three fought in the air, the distraction was great enough that the ground wasn't covered. I suppose the mercenaries were supposed to have had that job, but they were all unconscious. That meant Errant was able to get close to the home before she noticed.

However, Purity was keeping an eye on the home. All of the fighting so far, she had been trying to keep Laserdream and Glory Girl away from the home, and put herself in between them and the house. That was probably why she was so distracted. When Errant got close enough, she finally noticed. She ignored the two other fliers and started bombarding the road. Thankfully, Errant's new motorcycle was more than capable off-road, and could even handle smashing a few fences.

Back indoors, I had managed to slice through the side of the wall. Dinah responded immediately, and began to crawl out of the hole that was just big enough for her to squeeze through. It simply led to the laundry room, where she easily found the path upstairs.

Just for additional safety, I coated her body in nanobot armour as well. She was surprised, but didn't resist after whispering another question to herself. I formed Abyssal upstairs to help defend her, not that the unconscious mercenaries could do anything. She paused when she saw him, but allowed herself to be carried by him.

"I have Dinah. Tell Errant, front door," I relayed the message through Dragon.

Up in the air, the battle was still ongoing.

Errant's bike was too nimble to be hit at long range, so Purity was trying to close in on him. Glory Girl chased after her, managing to snag her ankle for a second, although she was forced to let go to dodge a point-blank shot in the face.

When Errant skidded to a halt in front of the door, she ran towards him before he had fully stopped. She immediately climbed on to the bike without prompting.

"You're a very trusting girl," Errant said.

"Ninety one point two percent chance I see my family again if I go with you," she simply said.

Errant grunted as he spun the bike around. "Here's to making sure it's a hundred."

"No!" Purity yelled. She had somehow gotten away from Glory Girl and Laserdream for a second. She sent the beam of light straight at Errant's motorcycle, aiming for the front wheel instead of the back where Dinah was sitting.

I sent Abyssal directly in its path, taking the brunt of the force. She didn't have enough time to charge up her shot, so Abyssal didn't disintegrate instantly. But he wasn't going to be able to withstand the blast forever.

Glory Girl managed to get in the way and tackle her, disrupting the beam.

Errant gave a small nod at the pile of bots, then revved up his motorcycle. He accelerated away, popping a small wheelie from the sheer power. "Dragon, has the mayor arrived at City Hall?"

"I confirmed him entering the building," she said. "He's likely in his office. Most other workers are also arriving now."

"Good," he said. "More witnesses are beneficial. Let's go ahead with the public revelation plan."

"You're not getting away with her!" Purity shouted from above. She was about to chase him, but I re-made Abyssal and slammed his sword into the door. I deliberately waited until she responded to the noise before making him walk inside.

Purity looked torn, but made her choice. She flew down, into the house, and didn't hesitate to blast Abyssal apart.

I didn't bother resisting the blast. He was blown to pieces easily, along with the wall behind him.

"Theo! Theo, are you alright?" Purity yelled.

"He is not." I echoed the threat throughout the home, giving her no clear target.

I then created a full version of Abyssal inside the prison room. The boy quickly tried to escape through the same hole that I had created for Dinah, but carrying the baby slowed him too much. Abyssal easily grabbed on to both the boy and the baby with one arm, and neither could put up any meaningful resistance. I didn't want to resort to threatening kids, but if it could stop Purity in her tracks, so be it. I began sealing up the hole as well, welding the metal wall shut.

Both of them were making plenty of noise, crying and screaming as they were taken. Noise that could easily be heard outside the room. Purity rushed to the basement and started unlocking the vault-like door.

By then, Laserdream and Glory Girl were circling the house, unsure if they should enter. Close-quarters fighting was always risky, especially in unfamiliar territory.

"Should we go in? What's Purity doing?" Glory Girl asked.

"Purity inside. Distracted," I told them through the bots on the front lawn.

"Oh, hey there, Eunoia. You know that still sounds freaky as hell, right?" Glory Girl said. "I'm going in."

"I'll be behind you," Laserdream said.

By the time Purity unlocked the door and swung it open, Glory Girl had found her. The bright light was hard to miss.

"Give it up, Purity!" she shouted.

"If you think I'm going to let you hurt my kids…" she growled.

"Says the kidnapper!" Glory Girl interrupted with a laugh. "Good one!" She put up her fists and got ready for round two.

"Glory Girl, wait. She cares about those kids. Lock her inside that vault with them," Princess said over the radio. "It'll leave us with more evidence to collect."

She was right. We needed Coil's men apprehended and the weapons documented as evidence. A violent fight could have ended with Purity vaporizing everything, and we would be left with nothing to pin on Coil. I had to remind myself that today, we were after evidence, not just beating up villains.

"What? She can blast through that door in two seconds," Glory Girl replied over the radio.

"Not without killing her own kids in the backlash. She won't do it," Princess pointed out.

She was right again. It was a pretty tight space inside there. Maybe the boy could survive, but the baby? Probably not.

"Stand down. Lock yourself in," I told Purity. Short of actually knocking her out or killing her, Dinah's former prison was the ideal place to stop her, and only if she was in there with her kids. Thankfully, she looked desperate to reunite with them and check on their safety. I could use that. I made a show of dissolving Abyssal to free the kids, then had him reappear behind her. There was a clear and open path to her children.

Purity weighed her options, and then floated into the room and hugged her children. Abyssal dragged Coil's man out before closing the door on Purity, then locked it. I jammed up the mechanism a bit so that she wouldn't be able to simply let herself out, and finished welding the hole.

"Now what?" Glory Girl asked.

"Now we collect evidence," Laserdream said. "I mean, I've already spotted illegal fully-automatic weapons and explosives upstairs. Touch as little as possible and record everything. I'm sure we'll find other stuff. This is just going to be tricky because we can't call the PRT for this, not until Calvert's locked away."

"Errant has the package and is en route. Has team B and C contacted the VIPs?" Princess asked them through the radio.

"ETA five minutes," came the response.

The Brockton Bay team had only just parked their car. They split up, looking to make contact with two people in particular – the Alcotts, and the Mayor. It was probably a lucky coincidence that Dinah was related to someone politically important at all, but we would have to make use of it as best we could in order to counter Coil's deep clout across the city.

Thus, the adults of New Wave were sent to contact them before Calvert could realize. Lady Photon and Manpower were still recognizable heroes and often dealt with business or political meetings, and they knew the mayor personally. Brandish and Flashbang would be looking for the Alcotts, as she understood the legalities and could explain the situation to them better.

With the other bots, I kept surveillance of City Hall, where everyone would be meeting up. I surveyed as much of the area in deep detail that I could, and didn't see any of Coil's mercenaries and snipers. Good. The Pelhams were already in, and were trying to talk their way into meeting the mayor on short notice without an appointment. It was a fine line Lady Photon had to tread between being incredibly insistent without getting security called on them.

The Dallons were having better luck. The Alcotts were eager to hear any good news about their daughter. They had been losing hope with no news or sightings for a few months. And as relatively well-known heroes, they were more willing to believe Brandish and Flashbang. They agreed to meeting at City Hall as well.

Coil had certainly noticed what was going on by now, and he was panicking. Sure, he held himself quite calmly, but I had bots on and inside his body. Heart rate and perspiration weren't visible to the people around him, but to me it was clear as day. The man had a lot of practice working under pressure and hiding his emotions.

In a calm voice, he gave orders to someone to deliver a message to the holding cells. The only notable cape in there right now was Sundancer; the others were a no-name fresh trigger and one of the ABB's new hires, Boombuster. I couldn't even tell if the agent was a mole or a stooge. That was the issue with trying to root them out; people rarely questioned orders from above even if they seemed strange.

Either way, a simple coded message was delivered to the cape. She seemed to understand it just fine. Within minutes, the lights flickered and the power went out in the building. Sundancer used the opportunity to sear a hole through the side of the building. With the power down, none of the force-fields, foam dispensers, or other security measures came online – apparently even the backup power hadn't kicked in.

Director Calvert was the only one who could authorize those controls, and he was also the only one capable of erasing the records afterwards. Which was exactly what he was busy doing right now. I decided to give him an additional "glitch" and turn cut power to his office computer. Hopefully Dragon or other cybercrime experts could dig up the records later.

As for Sundancer, she was not something I wanted my team to have to deal with. Neither their shielding powers nor my bots could withstand the plasma that she created. Thankfully, I still had bots inside of her. As she took off, I cut off her blood flow to her head. Within seconds, she passed out, and fell three stories from the sky and crashed onto the hood of a car. Whoopsies.

The mercenaries at Purity's home, and the man there, had radios that were coming to life with chatter. Calvert had managed to get out a few orders as Coil, and he was starting to deploy some of his own mercenary forces. Thanks to the spare radios, I was able to more easily figure out where they were coming from.

Which made it easier for me to promptly shut down as well. Flat tires, tinkertech fizzling, and sudden fainting overcame several mercenary forces I found around town. The more resistance they encountered, the more they ended up talking, and the more of their communications I could eavesdrop and track.

In the confusion within the PRT building, Calvert actually acted like a PRT director. He blamed the power failure on an unknown villain and a direct attack on the PRT, and then used it to elevate his legally acceptable use of force. With his own computer broken, he was now wasting time trying to log into his secretary's computer, while splitting his time between actually managing the PRT forces and trying to erase his own footsteps. The orders he secretly sent out as Coil came few and far between, because he no longer had a chance to hide it.

Then his secretary's computer also suffered a mysterious short-circuit and his phone's antenna malfunctioned. I wondered how much more it would take to make him really slip up, because he was still really good at hiding his aggravation.

PRT employees of all stations were bombarding him with reports and phone calls about what was happening in the city and in the building. People were reporting the heavily-armed men who had suddenly fallen asleep at the wheel and crashed into telephone poles. People were reporting sightings of New Wave in the city. People definitely noticed the power outages and the escaped prisoners. He didn't have enough privacy to act as Coil right now. Not well, at least.

He started to use his last resource he had that didn't arouse suspicion: the PRT itself. To their credit, PRT officers immediately began rushing to get geared up. They were well-trained and didn't need detailed orders to know what to do in an emergency.

He contacted the police, who were already dealing with the mercenaries. The police force was advised to deploy anti-riot countermeasures, prepare for something bigger, concentrate less on arresting the unconscious men.

And then came the kicker. "Inform the public that the cape team formerly known as 'New Wave' has turned villain and have kidnapped a child, and have taken the mayor hostage. They may have partnered with Dragon to disrupt the PRT response," he announced in an emergency press release.

Brandish was going to have a field day with that one.

On the other hand, the inside of City Hall was actually much calmer. The mayor certainly didn't act like he had been taken hostage. He was having a chat on the phone with his sister and brother-in-law, and they were all coordinating an emergency meeting.

Errant parked his bike on the front steps of City Hall and ran into the building carrying Dinah. Right behind him, I formed Abyssal at the door. I didn't attack anyone, I just had him stand there, still as a statue, swords crossed in front of him. It drew attention, though technically he wasn't doing anything illegal, which would give the heroes fewer distractions and more time to speak to the Mayor. On the other hand, we wanted more attention. Especially media attention.

Apparently the news networks had been alerted – capes were common in the Bay, but capes rushing towards City Hall was actually newsworthy. From Abyssal, I watched as news vans screeched to a halt behind the police line. Velocity was the first Protectorate member on-scene. He was already trying to get inside from the other entrances, but I had the other nanobots close and lock the doors.

When Errant managed to meet up with the Pelhams, Dinah spoke out loud. "95% chance I can live with my family if they are all here," she said.

That caused Errant to pause for a second. "I need to make a phone call to Triumph," he said. "Excuse me. I'll leave her in your hands."

"They're on their way. We'll make sure they get here safely." Lady Photon assured the girl, guiding her to the mayor.

I was doing my part to make sure of that as well. While Shielder and Brandish flew outside the vehicle that Flashbang was driving with the Alcotts, I was worried they wouldn't be able to take on all possible attackers. Including the Travellers and mercenaries.

I kept a close eye on them. Around the city, I was noticing armed men being deployed in heavy, armed vehicles, more mercenaries that I had missed. I was certain now that their bases had some kind of anti-Master, or Stranger-like shielding around them that stopped me from seeing inside, but once they were on the streets they were easy targets. It took only a quick check to see that they weren't some kind of undercover police or PRT, then sliced and diced the engines and weapons to dust.

"Coil knows. Mercenaries deployed. I've taken care of them. He's declaring us villains." I updated Dragon and Princess before the news became public.

"I am aware," Dragon said. "Legally there is nothing we can do for the moment, it's something we can fight in a public hearing. Unfortunately I will have to cut my support short. From this point forward, because I am not a US citizen, the legal consequences would be more dire for aiding a villain until you have the designation overturned."

"Right. Just keep doing what we're doing, it doesn't change our plans," Princess added. "Keep the cargo safe!"

She didn't have to tell me twice. Nobody even got close to any of the Alcotts. I was especially wary of red lights, which would have been ideal times for them to be ambushed, but no ambush came. The Travellers still hadn't been deployed, aside from Sundancer's failed escape. I suppose Coil was too busy as Calvert at the moment to actually issue orders to his criminal organization.

The Alcotts arrived at City Hall completely unharmed and none the wiser. They paused in fear at the sight of Abyssal, but the Dallons assured them of their safety. Abyssal let them pass, but nobody else. That definitely caught peoples' attention. The PRT vans and SWAT teams were both being deployed – all the big guns were arriving, and it looked like Calvert only had time to use the legal channels against us for now.

At least they tended to be more cautious and had regulations limiting them. Abyssal could take them on. I made sure to keep him looming over the forces below, ensuring that they knew any attempt to force their way in would be a real challenge. And, of course, I quietly sent my bots into their weapons to make sure they would malfunction.

I kept Abyssal there until I saw more of the Protectorate members arrive in PRT vans, including Triumph and Miss Militia. Her power started forming into various weapons. It looked like she was going through what data the PRT had against Abyssal to try to figure out the best thing to counter his abilities. She seemed to settle on a grenade launcher - presumably loaded with gas grenades or something less destructive.

"Let Triumph enter. He has a personal connection that can aid the case," Errant said over the radio. Well, he did know his former team best.

Abyssal pointed at Triumph, then pointed back towards the building behind him. They seemed surprised at his gesture. The regular police held back while the PRT and Protectorate members approached; it seemed that Abyssal had warranted a high enough rating to be considered a danger to them.

"What are your demands?" Miss Militia asked, stepping in front of Triumph.

"TRIUMPH. ENTER." I wondered if this was the first time his voice was recorded on live TV. It probably was. I made his voice extra-deep and bassy, just to be sure. Had to make a good impression, after all.

"You want him to go in there?" she asked.

Abyssal nodded.

Triumph nodded. "Have to check on the mayor."

"No. Reports are a hostage situation. You're not going in there alone," Miss Militia told him.

"New Wave capes were seen entering earlier, and no reports of violence," Triumph said to her. "I'm going in. I need to find out what the hell's going on. Everything about this feels fishy."

"Not without backup. They could have been Mastered," Miss Militia told him. "New Wave's independent license hasn't been renewed, and the Director is actually considering them potential villains. He might have intel that was handed to him from above."

One of them could be Coil's mole and ruin everything. I knew Miss Militia was unlikely to be Coil's mole, but she was annoyingly supportive of Calvert. I did trust Errant's judgment. If he wanted Triumph there, so be it. It didn't mean a free pass for the other Protectorate members, but having Triumph inside was probably more important than keeping Miss Militia outside.

"AGREED."

"Thank you," Triumph said as he ran past. Miss Militia kept an eye on Abyssal as she walked by, stepping backwards into the building with her grenade launcher still trained on him. I made sure he didn't make any sudden moves. Once inside, they went straight for the Mayor's office.

Velocity arrived seconds later, running around the building, trying to open the doors again. I made sure they stayed locked for now; nanobots jammed in the keyholes prevented them from being unlocked easily.

Inside, the moment of truth had come.

We revealed Dinah Alcott to her family, with the mayor present. The parents recognized their child. Even Triumph seemed to know her personally.

"Dinah? It's really you?" Her parents rushed down to give her a hug, sobbing in relief.

"It really is, isn't it?" Mayor Christener said. "I had given up hope. The chief of police told me there were no leads and no suspects. I swear I had them put their top detectives and forensics teams to the case."

I was surprised when Triumph took off his mask. "Hey, Dinah. It's me, Rory. I swear, I won't let anything happen to you again." He stood up and faced Errant. "Armsmaster… I had a feeling you were being set up. I'll petition to have you brought back. It won't be hard to convince the entire team…"

Errant held up his hand. "It's Errant now. And I prefer the way things are now. I'm joining the Guild."

Triumph sighed. "I see. Got your sights set on bigger problems, then? Glad you still found the time to help clean up the Bay. I can't thank you enough for rescuing Dinah."

Errant just nodded. He captured the whole thing on his camera, as did Dragon with her own surveillance equipment, and the rest of the team with their body cameras. There was a lot of confusion, hugging, tears, but eventually the story was clarified. The rest of the team was explaining the details about where we had found her, her condition, and who was responsible. I figured that, for the most part, everything was going swimmingly.

I kept watch on the inside of the building and surroundings. The most important thing right now was that the right people were hearing the whole story uninterrupted, even if it meant causing a bit of a scene outside. I was certain that Errant, Triumph, and maybe Miss Militia would do the right thing and be on our side. Coil couldn't possibly try to anything against them at this point, not without destroying any possible chance of his own defense.

The police were standing back, the Triumph was contacting the heroes, the mercenaries were all lying unconscious in their broken-down vehicles, and the villains were nowhere to be seen.

And over in southern Maine, while Glory Girl and Laserdream were still waiting for the local police to arrive to arrest the mercenaries, Purity was being quiet. She was holding her children, locked inside the safe room. Agitated, but not violent.

Even in Concord, there was nothing that was threatening our home, Lisa, or Dragon. Lisa was merely making recordings and backups of videos for evidence to use against Coil.

Honestly, all I had to do now was just make sure nobody interfered, and let things play out. Wait, why was Lisa panicking?

Errant noticed something was wrong as fast as I did. He attempted to message Dragon, but she didn't answer, which had me worried. I focused on the nanobots I had around my house, fearing some kind of retaliatory attack on my home. I didn't see any signs of a struggle or even any mercenaries or capes at all. Lisa was there, though, and she was running around inside Dragon's workshop like crazy. It almost looked like she was tearing the place apart.

"Dragon?" I tried to ask her what was going on, but the screens were frozen and only static was coming out of the speakers. Dragon wasn't responding.

"Errant! Dragon's under attack! The source is in Toronto! How fast is your bike?" Lisa shouted.

"At top speed, I can be there in an hour."

"I'll tell Narwhal! It's the Dragonslayers!"

"Princess. What's happening?" My bots boomed through the workshop.

"No time! Emergency!" She was ignoring it in favour of messing around with the computers desperately. "Destroy the antenna on top of the workshop!"

"You sure? What's happening?"

"YES! DO IT NOW!" she practically screamed at me.

I used my bots outside to quickly slice through the connections on the mini-satellite dish-antenna Dragon had. Lisa looked completely frazzled but the number of alarms and error messages popping up on the screens slowed down. She continued to do whatever she was doing, completely focused on her task.

Errant didn't even hesitate. It was clear that he was more worried about Dragon than Coil. "Emergency. I'm heading to Toronto. Try to handle things here on your own," he said to everyone in the room. From Abyssal's point of view, I watched him jump out the window and glide down to his new motorcycle. It transformed and flew off into the air. As impressive as his new tech was, I couldn't believe he was abandoning us now of all times.

What the hell! Wasn't that Narwhal or the Toronto PRT's problem? Not that I didn't care about Dragon, but even so, could he even do anything useful after an hour's flight time?

I also wondered what they could even do to Dragon. I mean, normally they just stole some of her weapons or just acted like a nuisance, right? What was the big deal this time? Had they been trying to hijacking her mobile workshop with Lisa inside of it? But without an internet or radio connection any more, it shouldn't be an issue any longer. Whatever the problem was, I had to concentrate on Coil, and finish what we'd started.

Author's Notes:

Well, the Coil takedown finally begins.

Not that I'm any kind of expert writer, but a general piece of advice I give to other writers and I try to follow myself is don't be afraid to delete stuff. Even if it's feels like you threw away a lot of your own efforts, but that's the cost of polish.

In any case I think I deleted an entire chapter and a half that I felt didn't quite work this time around. I think it helped with consistency and pacing a little but even then I still think I could trim more... but I've had so little time to actually write this month as it is. Oh well.