When we got the final plan from Coil about how we were going to split up our teams for the ABB raid I immediately knew he was trying to screw me over.

  Why else would I be placed on a team with Kaiser while the rest of my Peerage was split among the other two teams?

  It was probably his way of trying to get me back for sheltering Dinah from him, especially since he had gotten a taste of what her power was capable of when our groups shared information and some of the planning.

  Obviously we didn’t let the thirteen year-old directly talk with her potential kidnapper, but Coil wasn’t stupid. He kept sending us plans and asking how likely we thought they were to work and refining them based on our responses. He knew she was with us and was trying to figure out how to use her power with his, using the truce as an excuse.

  The worst part was knowing that and not being able to do much about it.

  Coil’s power was hard to work against from a distance.

  He had the ability to ‘split timelines in two’ and chose the one that benefited him the most. Or so he thought anyway.

  Really, it was more he simulated what would happen from any given point and then his power would puppet him through the simulation he wanted to make ‘real’. Not that I could share that – stupid fucking geass…

  It made fighting Coil infinitely easier, since all we needed to do was find where he was and attack there and no amount of ‘timeline’ shenanigans would change that. But it made talking with him a nightmare.

  I had to assume he was trying to pull something with every conversation we had and was proved right because none of the plans we had gone over had mentioned this.

  Nothing I could do about it now. Not without disrupting everything tonight for apparently no reason.

  I sighed. Deal with the snake later, focus on the ABB and stopping their bombing spree tonight.

  Unfortunately, I thought as I walked up to the group of villains I’d be working with tonight, that means putting up with racist idiots.

  “Lucifer,” Kaiser greeted me once I was in comfortable speaking distance. “I hope that we won’t have any issues working together?”

  “Not as long as the truce is respected.” I replied. “Is this everyone?”

  Behind Kaiser were his two bodyguards/arm candy Fenja and Menja. Blonde twins that could grow to giant sizes and had increased durability when doing so. Off to the side were Faultline’s contribution of Newter and Labyrinth. Lastly, two mercenaries belonging to Coil, kitted out with very high end looking guns even farther away.

  “Not yet. We are still waiting for members from the Undersiders and Travellers to arrive.”

  I nodded and moved away. If I was going to be waiting, I wasn’t going to do it standing around the Empire.

  Time to introduce myself to the less objectionable mercenaries making up our group.

  “Hi there! Newter, right?” I half-asked, raising a hand in greeting towards the orange lizardman looking case-53.

  “Yeah, unless you know another 5’7’’ lizardguy running around.” Newter joked back. “In which case, you should ditch him and hang with me. Trust me, I’m way more fun.” He wiggled his fingers for emphasis.

  Right, his power had something to do with hallucinogenic body fluids.

  I looked to his partner, Labyrinth was a girl that looked around my age that could reshape her surroundings at will. I didn’t have a clear idea of what that meant, just that she was powerful and needed help functioning because of it. To the point that she had been in an asylum before joining up with Faultline’s group.

  “Ah, don’t mind L.” Newter said, noticing my gaze. “She needs to focus a bit to use her power quickly, makes it hard to get out of her own head sometimes. She likes you though. We caught your fight with that cult guy on the TV a while back. She said it reminded her of something out of one of her shows.”

  I blinked at that. What kind of shows was Labyrinth watching?

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  “Glad to hear it. Hopefully we can talk more when things aren’t so tense. I actually have an idea that I’d like Labyrinth’s help with if we can manage it.”

  “Ugh, come on Lucy, that sounds like business talk.” Newter complained. “And I can’t talk about that without Faultline nearby. Not anymore.”

  “Noodle incident.” Labyrinth said softly.

  Did she just–?

  “The others are here.” She pointed back towards the other groups.

  I turned to look.

  Sundancer from the Travellers had arrived at some point but had kept to herself, and the last two arrivals – Skitter and Bitch from the Undersiders accompanied by a trio of dogs – were walking up to the rest of us.

  “Arrived with less than a minute to spare, Undersiders.” Kaiser said, not that it really mattered. But I guess a Nazi asshole wasn’t being a Nazi asshole if he wasn’t nitpicking everyone else in some sort of childish powerplay.

  “Doesn’t matter as long as they’re on time.” I retorted, unwilling to let him take the lead because no one else spoke up. “And if this is everyone, please gather closer. I’ll get everyone connected.”

  “Connected to what?” Skitter asked, living up to her name and refusing to get closer.

  “I’m going to connect us all with the same communication spell we used during the Kaiju attack.” I explained as I started connecting us one by one. “It will give us a clear way to coordinate during the raid.”

  “A spell?” Sundancer half-scoffed. “You really call it that?”

  “It’s basically a magic cellphone.” I shrugged. “If the shoe fits…”

  “How do we use it?” One of Coil’s mercenaries asked.

  “It’s mostly intent based. You can send a message to everyone in the group or just certain people. Hand gestures can make it a bit easier if you can’t focus for some reason.” I demonstrated by holding a hand to my ear like I was talking into a headset. “And you can end a connection by imagining the call ending.”

  “Any limitations? Duration?”

  “It only works for the people I’ve connected to. You won’t be able to call any of the other groups even though they’re using the same spell. As for duration, it’ll last on its own for a few hours unless I redo the connection.”

  “Can we get rid of it ourselves?”

  I held back a sigh because I knew where this was going to go.

  “Yes, you can dismiss it yourself. Just know if you do for some reason, I’ll need to manually reconnect you.”

  I looked around to see if there were any more questions, but it looked like no one else was going to speak up.

  “Enough questions. The raid is scheduled to begin in less than ten minutes. We’ll use the time to get there, get in position and decide our method of attack.” Kaiser ordered our group, stepping in front of me. “Move out.”

  And then one of Bitch’s dogs exploded.

  Okay, it was a little less violent than that, but not by much. I was not prepared to see a dog swell up like someone plugged an air compressor into it until its skin split open and showered most of the area with blood.

  Everyone except for Bitch, Skitter, and Labyrinth flinched away and shouted in surprise. Even me. But funnily enough because Kaiser had decided to step in front of me, he had ended up shielding me from a lot of the blood splatter.

  Bitch simply ignored all of us and walked over to her monster dog and pulled herself onto its back, urging it towards our destination.

  If I hadn’t been shocked and mildly disgusted by the display, I would have clapped for Bitch making Kaiser scream like a little girl. Unfortunately there was no time to enjoy it, and we just had to trail after the so-far silent girl.

  -o-

  The atmosphere was tense as we moved towards our target.

  Not unsurprising considering we were a group of criminals, mercenaries, and Nazis who basically pinkie promised to not betray each other going to attack the gang that had access to very exotic explosives. It was a serious situation and there were no guarantees anyone here wouldn’t get hurt or worse.

  It was a feeling I wasn’t used to.

  Nearly every time I worked with others it was with my Peerage or a team I felt I could trust at least a little bit. Here? I was becoming very aware half our ‘team’ would happily hang me out to dry if it benefited them.

  It had functionally killed my desire to talk with anyone. Something that most in the group seemed to agree with.

  Funnily enough, except for Skitter.

  The same girl who I had struggled to get more than a few words out of when I accidentally bumped into her at the mall had decided to chat up Sundancer despite the other cape’s obvious reluctance. I couldn’t hear what they were talking about very clearly, but it was still funny.

  I frowned.

  Apparently the two were so caught up in their discussion that they didn’t notice we were almost at our destination and some of us were moving into cover. Sundancer I could understand, but Skitter was supposed to be basically locally omniscient due to her powers with enough multitasking ability to keep up with it all.

  So why did Newter need to stop them before they walked into the middle of the street across from the warehouse clearly tagged with ABB gang signs?

  ‘Maybe she hasn’t grown into that aspect of her powers yet?’ Ddraig suggested.

  ‘Maybe.’ I thought back at him. ‘I know she needed time to understand people through her swarm, but I thought the multitasking thing was something she always had.’

  ‘Guess not. Does that matter?’

  ‘No, I guess it doesn’t.’ I admitted. It just reminded me how little experience Skitter had even compared to even the newest of my Peerage when in my head I’d been comparing her to her future self.

  “Looks like the place. Place is tagged up, but no visible patrol at the moment.” Newter said, checking his watch. “We’ve got two minutes until it’s time to move. What’s the plan?”

  “My girls and I will circle around.” Kaiser stated from where he and his twin capes were hiding out of view from the warehouse. “Attack from another direction.”

  “Hey, no!” Skitter objected. “That’s not the deal. We’re in groups like this for a reason, and that reason flies out the window if we split up like that.”

  “I didn’t ask your permission.” Kaiser replied as he stalked off, followed by his bodyguards.

  “Then the Empire takes responsibility for any mishaps because of this then, right?” I demanded. “Up to and including considering the truce broken by your organization?”

  That got him to pause. Kaiser turned back and I got the impression he was glaring at me through his helmet.

  “You’re entitled to your opinion.” He spat. “Childish and immature as it may be.”

  “Are we going to stop them?” Skitter asked as the Empire capes continued to leave.

  “I could catch up to them.” Bitch offered as she rejoined the group.

  “Not worth it.” Newter offered, looking at me. And I could understand why. I was the only one that could realistically try forcing all three back. “It’s dangerous to fight among ourselves in enemy territory. We’re also almost out of time anyway.”

  I nodded at him. “Agreed. Let’s just hammer out the details for our plan then.”

  “Fine.” Skitter huffed. “Bitch, can you call Grue and Tattletale, let them know? They can take measures if they need to.”

  While Bitch made her call the rest of us started planning for what Bakuda might have set up and the roles for each of us. Skitter naturally ended up with the role of forward scout and would try to disable or at least mark any traps, Bitch and Newter would assault the warehouse directly - splitting the floors between themselves. Sundancer, Labyrinth, and Coil’s mercenaries would hang back and provide support and if needed help us retreat.

  I would be acting as a hammer in case we encountered any significant resistance.

  With those details settled all that was left was to start.

  “Five seconds.” Newter announced as a timer on his watch ticked down. “Skitter, start us off?”

  “Okay.” She said as dark masses of insects started gathering around us and headed for the warehouse…

  Just in time for the entire thing to suddenly explode.

  And this time it was exactly as violent as it sounded.