As much as I wanted to hunt down Kaiser and personally impress on him exactly how stupid I thought this move of his was, I did recognise that flying into a rage while surrounded by the Protectorate and a lot of civilians was not a good plan to make sure my friends came out of this in one piece.

  Civilians that were suddenly looking a hell of a lot more nervous around me and quickly backing away.

  ‘Guess your secret identity is officially blown, huh?’ Ddraig commented.

  ‘Thank you, I hadn’t noticed that.’ I bit back.

  ‘Well that blue knight is headed your way now, just in case you missed that too.’

  Yeah, I had seen Armsmaster heading my way. Kinda hard to miss him actually, considering the gala attendees were parting like fish around him. I thought something very rude at the snarky lizard and did my best to calm down while waiting to see what the Protectorate leader would do.

  How he and the rest of the heroes responded to Kaiser’s announcement would determine everything going forward.

  “Miss Gremory.” He said, coming to a stop in front of me. His trademark halberd in hand but not held aggressively.

  “Armsmaster.”

  “I’m going to have to ask you to come with me.”

  “That’s fucking bullshit! Are you seriously going to do what Kaiser of all people wants?!” Vicky exclaimed, stepping up next to me. And I could see the rest of our group right behind her.

  While I appreciated the show of support, Armsmaster scowled. “It’s a temporary measure while we clear up the situation and verify Kaiser's claims. Being uncooperative is only going to make things harder for everyone involved.”

  “What situation?” I asked bluntly. “The one where he claims we’ve kidnapped a child – one you know is false because we told you why she’s there and gave you a way to get in contact with her that you never used. Or the one where Kaiser claims I’m Lucifer? Because…” I flared out my wings, somehow getting surprised gasps from the crowd. “I think we both know the ship for keeping that under wraps has sailed.”

  Armsmaster’s scowl grew deeper, but Miss Militia stepped forward before he could say anything else.

  “Miss Gremory, we just want to make sure this doesn’t get any worse than it already has.” The bandana wearing cape said reassuringly. “We won’t let Kaiser just get away with what he’s done, but we need to make sure the public is safe…”

  “Then maybe it’s better if I just head home.” I said, focusing a bit as a spell circle bloomed beneath my feet. “The public is safe, I’m out of the way, and as a bonus the Protectorate is freed up to deal with whatever the Empire is about to pull. That work for everybody?”

  They didn’t have the opportunity to respond.

  Something big smashed into the glass ceiling above us, heads snapped up as giant cracks started spiderwebbing where a dark shape was shifting around.

  I dismissed my spell circle and moved back a bit with the rest of my group to stand between some of the guests and the impact site, even if it was on the other side of the room. A good thing too because about five seconds later, there was another impact and this time the glass didn’t hold out and three massive shapes accompanied by several smaller ones fell to the floor in a shower of glass shards.

  It wasn’t hard to guess who had just crashed the party. Especially when that side of the room erupted into clouds of black smoke and insect swarms.

  The Undersiders – Coil’s semi-private and more importantly disposable cape team, probably here to keep me off balance while the rest of his plan unfolded. Because there was no way the Empire had managed to get them onboard with attacking a building full of heroes and there was no way that them being here after Kaiser’s announcement was a coincidence.

  They were doing pretty well after their entrance too. Between the clouds of darkness and insects I could see that they had already incapacitated a few of the PRT agents that had been part of security and ironically used their containment foam launchers to incapacitate most of the security and hold off several of the heroes.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Shadow Stalker in particular seemed to have been singled out and buried under several layers of foam.

  “Shouldn’t you go handle that?” I asked Armsmaster, who was watching the ongoing attack but hadn’t moved to do anything yet. At the same time I subtly motioned Crystal to go help out if she wanted. I wasn’t going to force her or her family not be heroes just to back me up.

  “Yes.” He said tersely. “Don’t leave. For now we can extend truce protections for you, but if you leave we will have to take the stance that you are guilty of what Kaiser alleged.”

  Bullshit.

  He was telling me he would disregard everything New Wave had told him, my actions during the bombings, and everything else to take the side of a Nazi? What a fucking prick.

  “Ladies and Gentlemen!” Our glaring match was interrupted by Tattletale screaming out over the sounds of combat. “Please calm down, we are not here for any of you. In fact we’re actually the good guys here! We are only here to stop a child kidnapper and then we’ll be on our way. Rias Gremory, also known as Lucifer! We’re even willing to work with the Protectorate to bring her down,” she turned towards me and Armsmaster and gave us a sharp grin. “Unless the Protectorate is willing to work with someone who is keeping the mayor’s niece captive?”

  “Are you seriously claiming to be the good guys after you crashed through the roof?!” Vicky exclaimed. “Someone could have gotten hurt!”

  Part of me instantly wanted to call her a hypocrite, but then I remembered that Amy hadn’t been involved with the bank incident so Vicky hadn’t either.

  “Well good guys might admittedly be a bit of a stretch considering we’re getting paid for this.” Tattletale continued. “But I figured you’d be used to that, Glory Hole, considering that’s pretty much exactly how New Wave runs. Oh, sorry, you call them ‘donations’ don’t you?

  “Anyway, your sister’s new best friend over there crossed a line and word’s out it’s open season on the Peerage. We’re not selfish though, we’ll happily let the Protectorate help. Call it our good deed for the day.”

  I took a breath as I figured out the Undersider’s role here.

  It wasn’t to actually fight me, though I’m sure Coil would be happy if the Capes here did manage to bring me down. No, the point of them crashing the gala was to shove Coil and Kaiser’s narrative down the public’s throat in a way that forced the Protectorate to move against me.

  The Empire 88, the Undersiders, the Travelers, and now the Protectorate and PRT and possibly part of New Wave if he could manage it at least, with the other groups as an unknown for now... Coil was trying to point every group in the city at my Peerage just like what had happened to the ABB.

  And now Tattletale had framed me of the same bullshit Kaiser had spouted in his message to a room full of the city’s richest and most influential.

  The Protectorate was going to have to respond to that beyond just media statements that everything was fine.

  I messed up. I should have teleported out the second I saw Kaiser’s announcement. And leaving now would just reinforce the opinion that I was actually guilty of what I was being accused of.

  ‘Think about any screwups later, Partner. Focus on this situation first.’ Ddraig said, knocking me out of my slight mental spiral.

  Right. Coil was trying to turn the city against me. Just reacting to everything was going to play into his hands.

  I started to walk towards them, but was interrupted by Armsmaster blocking the way with his halberd.

  “Don’t get involved.” He warned. “The PRT can work with you under truce as long as you are cooperative. That goes away if you start fighting.”

  “He’s lying you know!” Tattletale called over. “They’re going to try bringing you in after dealing with us, but we all know how that would go down so you’re better off taking our offer to help, Armsmaster. We’ll even let you keep most of the credit again!”

  “Now who’s the one lying?” Armsmaster shifted his halberd to point at the Undersiders. “I’ve studied each of your powers and created counters. Which means you can stop trying to use your power on me, Regent. I’ve got a little blinking light in the corner of my H.U.D. telling me you’re trying something. I’ve set up psychic and empathic shielding, to protect myself from you and Tattletale.”

  I shot him a glance because how the hell did that work?

  Tattletale wasn’t actually psychic so the shields wouldn’t affect her at all, but Regent affected a person’s nervous system… or something like that – I was a little foggy on the details – so how did ‘psychic and empathic shielding’ block his power?

  “I don’t need to read you,” Tattletale told him. “You’re the only one with shields, so I can read your teammates and the PRT staff to get anything I need. Like when I say you were planning a little doublecross with Rias there, or that Kiddie Wave is preparing to back her up. Seven vee five, not great odds against someone like her. We add another five to your side, eight if you count the dogs. So how about it?”

  I saw Militia, Velocity, and Clockblocker at least look over at my friends and frowned. Even if they didn’t trust her, Tattletale was driving wedges between our groups.

  “It’s a bit ironic that you’re putting in all this effort to convince everyone you’re on the good guys’ side when you're working with Nazis.” I spoke up, getting everyone’s attention. “And this time it’s not even to stop a madwoman from blowing up the city, it’s so you can help deliver a twelve year old to someone who wants to use her like a tool. Then again, I’m sure you’re pretty familiar with Coil’s recruiting methods aren’t you Tattletale?”

  It admittedly felt really good to see the smirk slide off the blonde Thinker’s face.

  It also helped that everyone’s attention was on the Undersiders now instead of my group.

  Hell, even they were giving Tattletale some questioning looks. Skitter in particular seemed thrown by the fact Tattletale didn’t immediately deny it.

  “Makes it pretty obvious why he’s dragging so many people into this, doesn’t it? The more chaos he causes trying to bring me down, the more parties he can point the finger to should Dinah ‘mysteriously vanish’ at some point. And since the PRT seems to have some communication issues around information we’ve given about Coil,” I looked pointedly at Triumph, who still looked pissed but not as much as earlier. Hopefully he’d had a chance to confirm what I’d told him. I didn’t want to beat up Dinah’s cousin for no reason. “I wouldn’t be surprised if word gets around that I moved her somewhere else or that the Empire kidnapped her depending on who’s still standing at the end of this, leaving either of us as a convenient scapegoat for Coil to try pointing the Protectorate at.”

  “We were keeping that information compartmentalized for a reason.” Armsmaster growled. Not that I particularly cared at this point.

  “So now that we’ve all had a chance to make our dramatic reveals, is there anything else someone wants to say? Because no, Armsmaster, I’m not going with you. I have a kid to check on and friends who just had their lives upended by a Nazi and a snake that both need to be crushed.” I spat.

  The blue and silver colored leader of the Protectorate paused and cocked his head in a way that made it clear he was listening to someone talk in his ear. Not just him either because Miss Militia’s power changed to some kind of assault rifle and was pointed my way and a few other heroes were looking my way as well.

  “Perhaps you’d like to explain why four members of your Peerage were just reported attacking a Birdcage transport then?” Armsmaster asked while brandishing his weapon aggressively.

  …fucking damnit girls. That was some awful timing.

  “This discussion is over.” Armsmaster announced, apparently considering his previous question rhetorical. “All villains will surrender. Now. This is your final warning.”

  I summoned the Boosted Gear onto my hand.

  “I think we all knew that was never going to happen.”