A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my Patreon for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story!
Taylor and Jason discuss the best path forward.
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"We can talk while you work."
Coming over, Taylor sits down on the couch next to him even as Jason leans over the collection of magical rings. Despite her words, she stays quiet initially as he spends a minute Identifying the first ring and then sets it aside. But eventually, she speaks up.
"… I think we should move sooner rather than ter, Jason."
Raising an eyebrow at that, Jason hums.
"How do you mean?"
"Well… the longer we give them, the greater the chance they'll succeed in their conspiracy. I mean, I guess in a way they've already succeeded in getting Thomas Calvert into the position of PRT Director, but he hasn't been in the position for that long. He hasn't entrenched himself yet, maybe."
She raises a good point, Jason acknowledges even as he continues Identifying the rings. At the same time though…
"We still don't know exactly who he's working for or what his power does. Moving on this too quickly could turn out disastrous."
Out of the corner of his eye, Jason sees Taylor nodding in agreement.
"You're not wrong. I mean, I'm pretty sure he has to be working for Coil… if his boss is someone actually in the city."
Now that, Jason hadn't thought of. It gives him pause for a moment, a rattling breath leaving his lips as he side-eyes Taylor.
"You think someone from outside of Brockton Bay is making a py?"
But this time Taylor shakes her head.
"No. I've been researching the possibilities and while the Elite seem like a potential option, this isn't really their usual Modus Operandi. Or at least, nobody has caught them infiltrating the PRT before now… it's entirely possible they're involved and just managing to stay completely under the radar, but I think it's far more likely that Coil is behind this. In fact… I have my suspicions that Coil and Thomas Calvert might be one in the same."
Wait a second. That gives Jason more than pause, that causes him to stop Identifying rings completely. Turning to Taylor to give her his full attention, Jason narrows his eyes.
"Expin."
His experience with Sabah and Lily might have rubbed off on him a bit too much, because the tone he takes with Taylor is more domineering and commanding than Jason really intends for it to be. And yet, she doesn't seem to mind. Straightening up and flushing just a little bit, Taylor ys out her observations.
"There haven't been many sightings of Coil, but he's shown up a few times, specifically to meetings at Somer's Rock. That's the pce where the vilins meet up whenever they need to talk under some sort of truce without killing each other. It's kind of an open secret in the city."
… A vilin hangout spot? Jason can't help but furrow his brow in confusion.
"Why wouldn't the Protectorate do something about that?"
Taylor just shrugs in response.
"I think it's half because of the Unwritten Rules and half just because they'd rather know where the vilins hold their talks rather than push it further underground and further ignite and enfme conflict between the different factions."
Sucking in a deep breath for a moment, Taylor continues on.
"My research has shown that the Brockton Bay Protectorate is rgely reactionary in nature. They're performing a holding action rather than trying to actually deal with the city's problems. And while I wish we could bme that on Calvert alone… it seems to have been a problem for a lot longer than he's been Director."
Jason could believe it. He couldn't remember the st honest 'win' that the Protectorate had gotten against the gangs. And by that, he meant he couldn't remember the st time a vilinous cape in Brockton Bay was taken off of the streets permanently.
Sure, once in a while you'd hear about the Protectorate capturing an Empire cape or something, but if you were paying attention, you'd then hear about that same Empire cape being broken out of confinement within the week to wind up right back on the streets.
Fuck, he's pretty sure the st time a vilinous cape from Brockton Bay even went to the Birdcage was Marquis… and that was back when Jason was still very much single digits in age.
"… You were expining why you think Coil and Calvert might be the same person?"
Taylor blinks but then nods… before looking a little less certain.
"W-Well… it's their heights, basically. From information leaked from the Somer's Rock meetings that Coil has supposedly attended, people are saying that he's pretty tall. Like at least six feet, maybe even taller than six feet. And… well, Thomas Calvert is also over six feet tall. Six and a half, I think?"
Huh, Jason hadn't known that. But then to be fair, the Director had stayed seated the entire time they'd met with him. Taylor must have found that information out ter, via her research.
"I know it's flimsy, but think about it… we're the only ones who know that Thomas Calvert has a power of some sort. And of all the capes in Brockton Bay who would be involved in a conspiracy, it would definitely be Coil. Not only is he extremely secretive and mysterious, but his entire thing is also snake themed."
Again, Taylor has to take a deep breath before she continues speaking.
"Plus, the specution online is that Coil has some sort of Thinker Power that makes his operations run much smoother than any other gang in Brockton Bay. A Thinker Power would be perfect for someone who had managed to infiltrate the position of PRT Director."
Jason inclines his head to show he agrees with that point. It would make a lot of sense. And it would also expin why he didn't find any Master Effects on Lily or Sabah. A small shudder runs through him for a moment as he thinks on what he learned from THAT experience, but he's not about to tell Taylor.
She's… he trusts her with his life, but he's not sure he can trust her or any other parahuman with this information. What if he tells her and it alerts the thing on the other side of the connection to her powers? Jason has no idea what might happen then.
Better to focus on the matter at hand.
"If Thomas Calvert is Coil, or at least working for Coil which seems pretty likely at this point… how exactly do we go about this? How do we 'move sooner rather than ter' like you suggested earlier, Taylor?"
Taylor frowns at that and falls silent for a moment. Jason uses that time to Identify the st of the magical rings, setting it aside. At this point he's formed three piles of the damn things instead of the two piles he'd initially pnned. Turned out it wasn't just a matter of cursed or not cursed, but also some were in between as well.
Therefore, he'd parceled them out into the 'Definitely Cursed' pile, the 'Not Cursed but has a downside' pile, and finally the 'Definitely Good' pile. Only half a dozen of the two dozen-ish rings are 'Definitely Cursed', but the middle pile has a lot more in it while only half a dozen make it into the 'Definitely Good' pile.
"… The way I see it, we have two options right now."
Turning back to Taylor, Jason gives her his full attention.
"We can't just barge into the PRT HQ and try to citizen's arrest the Director of the PRT. That's almost certain to end in disaster. And even if Thomas Calvert isn't a Master, we can't be certain that other members of the Brockton Bay Protectorate aren't compromised either, so approaching them even with Fletchette seems like a big risk."
Jason smiles, pleased to hear Taylor is giving this all the consideration it deserves. She's right that both of those options seem a little… prone to failure.
"However, before Fletchette was a member of the Brockton Bay Protectorate, she was a Ward up in New York years ago. New York, where Legend is the Protectorate Team Leader."
Oh? Jason hadn't known that. But then, Taylor has clearly been doing a LOT of research on this.
"Now, even if we think the Protectorate here in town is compromised, it's hard to believe that Legend would be compromised. If we had Fletchette go to him, then we might not have to do anything. He would do his own investigation, and once he found out the same things we found out, the problem would be resolved."
Jason slowly nods, approving greatly of this idea. Legend was… well, he wasn't just one of the Triumvirate, he was a legend, pardon the pun, in his own right. And personally, Jason had to admit… he was probably his favorite member of the Triumvirate. Something about Alexandria had always struck him as slightly fake, while Eidolon had always come off as unapproachable and closed off.
Legend though… Legend was Legend.
"Of course, that idea has its own risks to it, doesn't it? We don't exactly have any proof outside of what your power is telling you. Sure, they could demand he undergo an MRI to check for an active Gemma, but if word gets back to Calvert at all, he could probably find a way to fake the test… or if not, he might just go to ground entirely. And if I'm wrong and Calvert and Coil aren't the same man, then taking down Calvert will only be a setback for Coil, it won't actually shut down his operations. We'll just be right back where we started, back to where we were under Director Piggot… and frankly, Brockton Bay wasn't any better off then."
Damn, those were fair points as well. Furrowing his brow, Jason crosses his arms over his chest and sits back.
"Huh. So then… what was the other option you thought of?"
Taylor smirks slightly.
"Well, it's technically two options in one I guess. Basically we take matters into our own hands. First, we can use your power to hunt down Coil's hidden base or bases. You'll be able to tell where they are by the concentration of glowing red enemies from how you described it, right?"
Oh, that was a fair point. Jason slowly nods as he thinks it over for a moment before responding.
"… The other gangs will have simir hangouts and concentrations of enemies I imagine, but none of them will be hidden underground like Coil, right? So it shouldn't be too hard to hunt them down, yeah."
Taylor beams, looking like the cat who caught the canary.
"At which point, we can still try the Legend option once we know exactly where Coil's hideouts all are. However, that still doesn't confirm a connection between Coil and Calvert… so we might just want to take matters into our own hands. We may not be able to storm the PRT HQ and take down Calvert, but nothing says we can't break into one of Coil's bases and take down Coil, right?"
Taylor raised a very good point there. Though… it would be risky. From what Jason had heard, Coil didn't have normal gang members. His thugs were of a more 'sophisticated' variety and generally had military training of some sort. They were paid mercenaries… and they wielded tinkertech weaponry on Coil's behalf.
"What do you think?"
Blinking, Jason looks over to see Taylor biting her lower lip and watching him hopefully. With a chuckle, he wraps an arm around her shoulders and pulls her into his side where she happily melts against him as he hugs her for a moment.
"I think you're amazing, Taylor. You really thought this through… certainly more than I could have in the same amount of time."
Blushing at his praise, Taylor huffs good-naturedly.
"Well, I had the extra time while someone was pying games with a particurly kinky lesbian couple. Plus… I feel like it's only a matter of time before Calvert moves against us."
Jason frowns at that.
"Why is that?"
"Because we represent forces outside of his control. If he and Coil are the same person, or at least working together, then clearly the goal is to control both sides of the coin. He wants to eventually control the city's underbelly while also controlling the topside. As independent heroes who managed to capture someone like Hookwolf on our first night out, we're basically threats to his pns. He's only pying nice with us for now to lull us into a false sense of security before he inevitably strikes. Either to bring us under his control as PRT Director… or to do away with us entirely."
Jaw clenching, Jason's eyes narrow. He wasn't about to let that happen. He wasn't going to let anyone hurt Taylor or anyone else he cared about. Certainly not some… snake themed bastard of a vilin.
At the same time though, he didn't want them to get in over their head here. Calvert and whoever he was working for, whether it be Coil or otherwise… they had clearly been working on this pn of theirs for a long time.
The question became… what was the best option? Who were the right people to take Calvert down and excise the rot from the heart of the PRT? It felt… more than a little egotistical to try and say that was him and Taylor over someone like Legend.
Surely they weren't anywhere near the level where they were a better option than just leaving this whole mess in the hands of a member of the Triumvirate and the leader of the entire damn Protectorate…
… Right?
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The Vote:[ ] Work with Fletchette to pass off what they know to Legend so he can take care of it - 9%[X] Hunt down all of Coil's bases to find a connection to Calvert and then pass it off to Legend - 77%[ ] Hunt down all of Coil's bases for the express purpose of capturing Calvert themselves - 14%
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A/N: Will try to keep this up to date at the end of every chapter, get on me if I forget please. Though if it gets too out of hand, might have to change it at some point.
Jason's current banked points:
0 Celestial Points
Jason's current banked power:
N/A
Jason's current powers:
= Fsh Air (Gained in Chapter 1= Transformation Pendant (Gained in Chapter 4)= Keen Eye (Gained in Chapter 4)= Blood, Death, and Demons (Gained in Chapter 6)= Alchemical Prodigy (Gained in Chapter 8)= Staff of Magnus (Gained in Chapter 13)= Bind and Seal (Gained in Chapter 17)= Hero of a Hundred Faces: Everyone's Leader (Gained in Chapter 20)= Minor Regeneration via Blood Empowerment Ritual (Gained in Chapter 23)(Taylor got Major Agility, Vicky got Major Intelligence)= Restraining Order (Gained in Chapter 25)= Focus (Gained in Chapter 28)= Scarborough Fair (Gained in Chapter 30)= Chaos Magic (Gained in Chapter 36)= Major Regeneration via Blood Empowerment Ritual (Gained in Chapter 40)(Taylor, Vicky, and Amy all got Minor Regeneration)= A Collection of Magic Rings (x6 Cursed Rings, x12 Drawback Rings, x6 Buff Rings) (Gained Chapter 44)
