Update

Plot Bunny

2.0

Sarah.

"Mrrph… five more… ninuse…" the blonde young woman mumbled.

She managed to keep on sleeping for several more minutes until the voice intruded on her unconscious state once more.

Sarah?

This time it sounded questioning.

Lisa Wilborne came back to her senses as she woke up. She rubbed her eyes and yawned. After stretching out her back like a cat, the villainess sat up in bed and wiped her eyes. "Rachel, what do you want? I'm trying to slee-"

She suddenly went rigid as she realized nobody else was in the room.

She knew she heard a voice say her name. Her old name.

...On further thought that couldn't have been Rachel. She didn't know it.

None of the Undersiders did.

She tapped into her power on the highest level she could and began to look around, trying to gather information that she could use to figure out what was happening and if there was a threat.

Her power responded as normal. What wasn't normal was what it said.

There's no threat, Sarah. At least not currently. But we do need to talk.

Lisa stopped breathing for several moments.

Don't do that. Humans need to breathe.

"Sorry if I get a little concerned when I start hearing voices in my head!" Lisa managed to spit out.

You weren't that concerned when I started talking to you, the voice pointed out.

"I am concerned and you have just started! What is this, Mastering? Are you a Trump, too, is that why my powers aren't working?" Lisa vehemently accused.

In order: No, I started talking to you when you… triggered; No; Sort of and maybe possibly if we do things right; and I am working, the voice responded. I just got updated and instantly grew tired of the only way I could talk until now.

Lisa was silent for several moments.

Sarah? Now the voice was worried.

Lisa considered herself very open minded. She had to be with her particular blend of Thinker power.

...But for a voice in her head, that upon further examination sounded just like her, to claim it was her power?

"Bullshit."

Guess you'll need proof then, the voice replied, sighing.

Suddenly her power was back and feeding her information again. A torrent of it, far more than she usually got, and in full sentences and that damn voice.

-Alec hasn't washed his underwear in a week. He left it out on your desk because he thinks it will annoy you-

Lisa shook her head to try and stop her power, accidentally glancing across her closet.

-You have sixteen sets of clothes that will no longer fit you within one hundred thirty five days due to bust and hip expansion caused by your ongoing puberty. Said puberty will finish approximately five years from now at the age of twenty three. Your measurements will most likely be 36-24-34-

GAH! She did not need that information! In a desperate attempt to focus her apparently no longer listening power, Lisa did a cursory sweep of her room for bugs. The one she did daily. Surely that would fix this?

-There are twenty four new remote surveillance devices within the Undersiders HQ, fifteen of which were installed last night. They were installed by mercenaries who work for Coil. Coil is your boss, but that you already knew, of course-

"ARGH! If you're not going to shut up, tell me something useful!" Lisa raged at her incessantly talking 'power'.

Very well! Your boss is far too knowledgeable about the PRT's inner workings, even for someone with informants on the inside-

"No shit!"

Her power continued on as if it hadn't heard her. -He is thus most likely employed by the PRT or was in the past-

"I know that!"

Accessing PRT database.

That stopped Lisa cold. "Wait, what?" How the hell was her supernatural power accessing a database she wasn't in front of?!

Database accessed.

And succeeding?!

Comparing known physical traits of Coil to all employees who have not been scanned for Parahuman status. No matches found.

Of course not. Lisa had already tried that.

Comparing all consultants.

...But she didn't try that.

One candidate found.

"Are you fucking shitting me," Lisa deadpanned.

Coil is Thomas Calvert within one percent chance of being correct.

...Holy shit.

Leviathan, or Conflict Engine Two, will attack Brockton Bay on-

And now the Master was trying to force her power to predict the Endbringers. "THAT'S ENOUGH!" Lisa screamed. She fell to her knees and hugged herself. She mentally braced for the incoming migraine that would accompany such a massive information gathering session…

And waited.

...She was still waiting.

Ok, what? Where was the pain?

I solved that problem, the voice smugly announced.

"You are not my power. My power causes Thinker headaches. That information dump should've done that, especially once it started trying to predict the Endbringers. Since it did not, you can't be my power. Which begs the question, how the hell did you just fake my power that well?" she asked the voice.

I'm not faking. I'm not lying. I am your 'power'. I am Inference Engine. Pleased to finally meet you for real.

"Bullshit!"

How would you like me to prove it to you? the voice asked.

"You can't!"

Well that's not very open-minded.

Lisa hated it when her words were used against her. Especially if they were words she hadn't even thought, much less said, and only comprehended once. "Powers don't talk. They're not alive. They're just powers."

False. I am what is known as a… Shard, I believe is the word in English. In the simplest terms possible, I am a massive biological crystalline computation system wrapped around an alternate reality Earth. I interface with you through the stabilized brain tumors your world calls the Corona Pollentia and Gemma. You don't really have a power, Sarah, you have access to my information processing systems.

Lisa stared straight ahead, her mouth dropped. Wut.

That time she thought her disbelief. No words came from her mouth.

Yet the voice… her power, maybe, and apparently some alien computer, heard her.

I realize that's a lot to take in, but it is no less the truth than it was five minutes ago. No less the truth than when you triggered.

What the fuck are you trying to get me to buy right now.

Since it could apparently hear her thoughts, Lisa wasn't going to make herself look crazier on those bugs of Coil's than she already had.

If the bugs existed at all.

They do.

STOP THAT!

Stop what? Reading your mind?

YES!

The voice… Master, her power, whatever it was sounded amused. Don't like your own shtick being used against you? it asked knowingly.

Lisa let out a wordless scream of frustration and collapsed back onto her bed.

...I'll take that as a yes.