Well, this is a right mess.

  Things were moving at a rather annoying pace at the moment. Shortly after accidentally reviving upwards of a hundred people, Dragon told me that I needed to stick around. Not wanting to cause more trouble than I already had, I complied.

  Of course, I also made sure to call Lisa to give her a heads up on what’s going on, only for her to then inform me that she was already at Taylor’s house. Apparently, Danny was freaking out, Taylor was fuming, and the rest of the Undersiders were extremely confused.

  Not having the time to get into that can of worms, I shared what I could about the Ambassadors’ presence in the Bay and Accord’s possible motivations for getting involved. I could immediately tell that she wanted to ask more questions, but refrained from doing so once I told her that I would be meeting with the heroes and the PRT.

  The last thing she told me was that they were moving the Heberts to a safer location, which seemed to be an uphill battle from what I heard in the background. All of this to say that I’m in a bit of a hurry, but everyone else seems intent on moving at a snail’s pace!

  Okay, that might be unfair of me.

  I did just drop a huge problem in their laps. Who knew that processing so many formerly-dead-but-suddenly-alive people could take so long?

  So, here I was, sitting on a reinforced steel chair at the very end of a portable table, inside a tent where PRT officials and heroes were gathered: both Protectorate and Independent.

  No one approached me.

  Though there were a lot of stares.

  Most of them I recognized, with New Wave collectively glaring at me from across the tent. Understandable, considering how much I hurt them during our last encounter. Not to mention what I did to Glory Girl, unintended or not.

  Strangely enough, Victoria didn’t seem particularly angry, though the translucent figure of Fragile floating behind her was worth noting. As far as I knew, there were only a few ways that could have happened, even when discounting the potential side effects of White-Silver’s healing.

  A Second Trigger was the most likely.

  Shit.

  Other capes were present, as well, though I couldn’t identify any of them by appearance alone. Was Sere or Dovetail among them? I wasn’t sure.

  Fortunately, the Protectorate heroes were a lot more professional. Unfortunately, this professionalism didn’t really extend to the Wards that were here, for some reason. Aegis and Weld were easy enough to spot, but both kept shooting me surreptitious glances.

  My face was hidden by White-Silver’s headgear, which included a white headband studded with large, white crystals and a visor of the same color. So, there’s no fear that I’ll be exposed. However, it didn’t make the gawking any less uncomfortable.

  Finally, Legend entered, with whom I assumed was Emily Piggot following close behind. Her appearance is pretty distinctive, given how she was described in fanfics.

  “Good evening, everyone,” she greeted before taking her seat at the head of the table. “As some of you will already know, I’m Emily Piggot, Director of the Parahuman Response Team, East North East. We won’t keep you for long. Our only goal here is to establish a clear timeline of events, as well as to clear up the various aspects of this incident that are still unclear. To that end, Seraph.”

  I was startled out of my sense of surreality at Emily Piggot speaking by being so abruptly addressed. For some reason, hearing this woman talk in person felt more fanciful than anything else I’ve experienced since coming to Bet.

  Let’s unpack that later.

  “Can you lead us through the events that led to your confrontation with The Travelers?” she prompted.

  Oh, this wasn’t good. Public speaking! My one weakness!

  It’s fine. Just play it cool, Alfred.

  “I gained intel on The Travelers’ presence in the city, which included details on a particularly dangerous member,” I explained in as straightforward a manner as I could get away with. “That was Echidna. Upon consulting with an associate, I eventually tracked them down and discovered that they were trying to skip town. I held off on confronting them until they were out of city limits to prevent collateral damage. Unfortunately, by the time I got there, the vehicle they were using had already on its side.”

  “If I may,” Armsmaster suddenly cut in. “Can you tell us where you got your intelligence?”

  That got me staring at the Tinker really hard. He wasn’t even trying to be subtle, was he?

  “Not my secret to share,” I firmly rebuffed, hoping that would be the end of the matter.

  “And not particularly pertinent to this matter,” Legend added with a meaningful look at his colleague, much to my consternation.

  Can these people be any more obvious? Did Cauldron send this guy to suck up to me or something?

  “Please continue, Seraph,” Piggot urged.

  For a moment, I was tempted to contest the name they gave me, but decided that it didn’t really matter and simply conceded to the request.

  “I attempted to establish a dialogue, but the cape known as Trickster instantly became belligerent. From there, contact devolved until Ballistic and Sundancer attacked. Even then, I tried to talk them down, but that’s when Echidna tore out of the vehicle and went on a rampage.” Laying out the facts like I was doing helped settle a few things in my own mind. I couldn’t have known that Noelle was already primed to go berserk, so I didn’t feel the need to change my approach.

  Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

  “Trickster attempted to calm her down, but got eaten for his efforts,” I continued. “From my observations, Echidna was no longer conscious of her surroundings, nor could she recognize her own companions. At that point, I had to switch my priorities to protect the rest of The Travelers. The appearance of the clones vastly complicated this goal, and in the end, I was only able to secure two.”

  “These would be Ballistic and Sundancer, correct?” Piggot asked.

  “Yes,” I confirmed.

  “What happened then?”

  “At some point, Dragon arrived and began assisting me in taking out the clones. I shared what I knew about the threat, which she then shared with you. Unfortunately, by that point, there were so many of them that containment was impossible with just the two of us. Having to eliminate the copies, while also keeping two people safe, occupied most of our attention until backup arrived. The rest, Dragon should already know.”

  There! Clean and clinical. No unnecessary details added.

  “Thank you, Seraph.”

  I nodded in response.

  After that, others were asked to give their own accounts. Most weren’t all that interesting, unless you count the systematic massacre of sapient clones. A few did catch my attention, including Glory Girl chasing after Bakuda.

  It would seem that the mad bomber finally crawled out of her hole in an attempt to make a big splash. Well, she certainly succeeded. Her interference made things a hundred times more difficult with Purity getting gobbled up.

  With that said, her opening move did answer the mystery of where she’s been this whole time, and I did not like it. The egotistic brat had been building bombs based on my Dragoon Spirits’ abilities.

  The fire tornado was obvious enough, but she apparently threw lightning grenades at Glory Girl, too. Hell, she even tossed out bombs that created swarms of super hornets out of thin air! Like, how does that even work? Did they get teleported, or was it some fucked up version of a Poké Ball?

  I already knew that Tinkers were bullshit, but come on!

  Fragile’s presence came in clutch here, since she absolutely shredded the attacking cloud of stingers. So, Vicky managed to survive, but Bakuda and Oni Lee got away.

  Good news, though? They technically violated the truce that I wasn’t even aware was in effect by using an attack when Dragon and I were in the AOE. It didn’t matter that the Tinker was remotely piloting her suit and that I was able to protect Sundancer and Ballistic from the flames.

  Everyone’s gonna be gunning for the idiot, now.

  A few more questions were tossed around, including my testimony regarding Accord’s meddling; information that surprised more than a few people. But we eventually got to the elephant in the room.

  “Now, about the seemingly miraculous healing of Echidna, and the revival of the 152 victims of her uncontrollable hunger.” Piggot’s delivery was so dry, it made Death Valley sound positively flooded. “According to what we’ve managed to get out of her, so far, the former monstrous cape, who has since identified herself as one Noelle Meinhardt, supposedly ate these people. And yet, we now have them filling an entire block of emergency triage tents with no recollections of their demise.” Fixing me with an irritated look, she then asked, “Can you explain to us how you managed to do this?”

  So, here’s the thing. I don’t really know for sure how I pulled that off. At most, I hoped that White-Silver could fix Noelle’s abnormal status – that is to say, her deformation. But I never could have imagined that it would bring back people who should have long been digested.

  That they were suggests a new level of fuckery.

  My current theory is that they weren’t actually dead while inside Noelle. At least, not in the traditional sense. They simply became a part of her greater whole. That’s why she was always hungry.

  So, when she was subjected to Moon Light’s healing effects, not only did it remove her abnormal status, but it also attempted to revive her as a singular entity. Except, she wasn’t just one being at all, was she? At that point, she became an amalgamation of more than a hundred.

  Now, here’s the problem: I didn’t intend to revive anyone when I set out to capture The Travelers.

  At most, I would have healed Noelle. Perhaps even Genesis, since, well, I was already there and it would be incredibly douchy of me if I didn’t. But since I did show that I could absolutely bring people back from the dead, I had enough common sense to know that my life was about to get a lot more complicated.

  This was made evident enough by the amount of interest the people in the tent were showing after Piggot’s question. If I’m to dissuade the plans already forming in their heads to take advantage of me, I had to use desperate measures.

  “I don’t know,” I bluntly confessed to a shocked reception.

  “What do you mean, you don’t know?”

  “Are you kidding me, right now?”

  “He’s lying!”

  “Can you revive people or not?!”

  Complaints, invectives, accusations, and demands were hurled at me from all directions. Which is fine, since I already expected them.

  “That’s enough!” Legend roared. “Get ahold of yourselves! We’re not getting anywhere bombarding him like this.”

  Once quiet had been restored, the Protectorate’s big boss then turned to me. “Can you please clarify what you mean?”

  I was now at a crossroads. The rest of my stay here will be dictated by what I say next. A heavy decision, to be certain, but one that needed to be made.

  “Look,” I sighed with an appropriately regretful amount of remorse. “It’s been made abundantly clear to me that I’m not the sharpest stick in the warehouse. Every decision I’ve made since that night with Lung has had, err, unfortunate results.” I ducked my head and avoided looking at the heroes who were definitely glaring at me. “Talking about verifiable facts like how I encountered The Travelers is one thing. Speculating, however, isn’t something I can do without risking potentially severe consequences.”

  “Then work with us!” Miss Militia exclaimed, causing everyone to stare at her in surprise. “You’ve been running around the city causing chaos. By working with us, we can avoid any further misunderstandings.”

  Despite Piggot, Armsmaster, and Legend regarding the heroine with consternation at such a brazen act, they didn’t contradict her, either. Nor did I doubt the sincerity of her plea. With that said…

  “If it were up to me, I would,” I shook my head sadly.

  This caused the heroes and PRT personnel to freeze on the spot, including Legend.

  “Seraph,” Piggot began, voice trembling slightly. “Are you being controlled by someone else?”

  “I can’t say any more,” I replied. “But, if you really want my cooperation, then you’ll have to…”

  I pause just long enough to raise the tension.

  “...get in touch with Tattletale of the Undersiders. Okay, that’s it for me. Gottagobye!”

  Not waiting for the energetic response my parting statement was bound to induce, I flew through the nearest flap and rocketed toward the sky. As fast as I left, though, I could still hear Carol Dallon’s unpleasant shrieks of rage.

  Once far enough in the air, I quickly switched to Darkness and really pushed my flight speed.

  Eventually, I made it to the Docks area, where I then landed on the rooftop of an abandoned building. Shedding my Dragoon Form, I took out my phone to call Lisa.

  It hardly rang before her voice came through.

  “Pizza!”

  “...Pineapple.”

  I may have forgotten to mention that the Thinker’s paranoid ass started insisting on passwords whenever we talked on the phone. Said I’m so stupid, I’d exchange my burner for a pebble or something. I could only hope that she was exaggerating.

  “Good,” she breathed out in relief. “Is it done?”

  “Yup! How ‘bout you?”

  “We’re fine. Guests are a bit rowdy, though.”

  …

  …

  …

  “This is ridiculous!” I complained. “No one’s listening in on our calls!”

  “You don’t know that!” she shot back. “Or did you forget who gave me a housecall?”

  “They don’t need to tap our phones! If they wanted to know, they’d know!”

  “Every bit of security helps, especially with your himbo ass always shitting the bed!”

  “Shitting the – I’m not that bad!”

  “Oh, yeah?” she challenged, sarcasm practically spilling through the burner’s speaker. “Your meeting with the PRT went perfectly, did it?”

  “Absolutely!” I said with pride. “Didn’t give anything away that might get us in trouble. I even told them that if they wanted to work with me, then they should call Tattletale.”

  The pause that followed stretched for nearly a minute.

  “Hey, uh, you still there?” I asked.

  “Me?” she repeated faintly. “You told them to call me? Known small-time thief, villain, and suspected Thinker. That’s who you told them to call?”

  “I mean,” I tried to explain weakly. “It’s better this way, isn’t it? Not like I could give them Tay – uh, you-know-who’s number. And I’m clearly no good at this whole planning thing, so it had to be you.”

  An even longer pause followed. This time, I didn’t bother to prod, since I could hear labored breathing on the other side.

  “When I get my hands on you,” she eventually said with a voice that sounded disturbingly blank, “I’m going to open your head, scoop out what passes for your brain, and put it in a pickle jar.”

  Okay, so I might have messed up.

  Coulda happened to anyone!