“Shall we begin then?”

  I looked each of the seated Capes in the eyes and tried to get a read on their intentions, but it was easier said than done considering the only one without a fully concealing mask was the tophat guy.

  And thanks to that I could tell that the last guy was a little annoyed when it seemed I was attempting to take over the meeting from the beginning.

  “Hold on a second, don’t you think you should introduce yourself a bit? It's a bit rude to us out of town teams.”

  I glanced from him to the table where his team was watching from and took in their costumes. It was easy since they all had a matching color scheme – red and black, which made me wish Parian was here just so I could point out again that Nazis didn’t own the combo – where the girl had a sun motif, the guy had some decent looking armor, and the third looked like someone stuffed a four armed hairless gorilla in a vest and leggings and decided to call it a day.

  There was one team I ‘knew’ that matched that description and I guess everything that had happened hadn’t managed to butterfly their arrival away.

  “Trickster of the Travelers, huh? I’m surprised you’re still on the East Coast after Accord ran you off.” I said, noting how not only the team in question tensed up, but Coil did as well. Not much, just a slight jerk of his hand that I only noticed because I was specifically watching him for a reaction. “But I guess he doesn’t care as long as you aren’t making a mess in Boston anymore, yeah?”

  On paper the Travelers were a mostly no-name nomadic group of villains that would take jobs from the locals before moving on after a period of time, usually because they had a habit of collateral damage, but the truth of the matter was a bit more complicated. Definitely something that would have the geass I was under shutting down whatever I wanted to say. Thankfully, there was enough online about them that I could get around some blocks by backing up the truth with something beyond metaknowledge. Such as PHO reporting the last official sighting of them botching a job in Boston.

  The reason everyone was tense? The Travelers shouldn’t be famous enough that I could have recognised them on sight.

  Coil could sort of get away with it because he had a reputation for knowing things no one else did even if he wasn’t the one that invited the Travelers to Brockton Bay in the first place, but me? I never showed anything like that. So I either got lucky, had someone gathering intel about Capes outside of the city for me on some level – and they could be another Cape or just regular minions, or had some connection with Boston among other possibilities. Basically I just introduced a bunch of questions about my group’s capabilities and if there was one thing people like Coil disliked it was uncertainties about anything that could affect his plans.

  “Well now, it looks like we’re moving up in the world if you know who I am.” Trickster said cautiously. “But you have me at a disadvantage, miss…?”

  ‘He’s professional at least.’ Ddraig commented at the top hatted cape’s faux-formal tone.

  I privately agreed. If someone had called me out by name when I was supposed to be a relative unknown, I’d have had a heart attack. Though after the Godzilla incident and the Cult broadcast, it wouldn’t surprise me if more Capes started recognizing me locally.

  “You can call me Lucifer.” I replied to Trickster in the same fake tone he used. “I lead the Peerage.”

  “That should be everyone.” Coil dipped his head in a nod and steepled his fingers in an attempt to retake control of the meeting’s pace. “Seems Lung won’t be coming, though I doubt any of us are surprised, given the subject of tonight’s discussion.”

  “The ABB,” Kaiser replied.

  “Thirty five individuals confirmed dead and over a hundred hospitalized in the past few days alone. Armed presence on the streets. Ongoing exchanges of gunfire between ABB members and the combined forces of the police and military. They have raided our businesses and bombed places where they think we might be operating. They have seized our territories, and there’s no indication they intend to stop anytime soon.” Coil clarified the situation for everyone.

  “It is inconvenient,” Kaiser spoke.

  “They’re being reckless.” Faultline said, gravely.

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  I snorted at that. As if that was the problem here.

  Coil’s morphsuit covered face turned to look at me. “You disagree?”

  “Oh, no. They are a problem.” I didn’t hesitate to wave him off. “I’d be more worried about the continued disregard for the unwritten rules than their actions being inconvenient.”

  “The rules are unwritten for a reason, girl.” Kaiser said in an uninterested drawl. “If I need to remind you of that, maybe you don’t deserve a seat at this table after all.”

  “She isn’t wrong.” Coil said in my defense. “The ABB are drawing attention to our fair city. Homeland security and military forces are establishing a temporary presence to assist in maintaining order. Heroes are flocking to the city to support the Protectorate in regaining control of matters. The ABB can’t sustain this. Something will give, they will self-destruct sooner or later, and they will likely cease to be an issue. But in the meantime it makes business difficult.”

  “Bakuda is at the center of this.” Grue said, joining the conversation. “Lung may be the leader, but everything hinges on her. She ‘recruited’ by orchestrating raids of people’s homes while they slept, subduing them, and implanting bombs in their heads. She then used those bombs to coerce her victims into kidnapping more. No less than three hundred in total, now. Every single one of her soldiers knows that if they don’t obey, Bakuda can detonate the bombs. All of them are willing to put their lives on the line, because the alternatives are either certain death or watching their loved ones die for their failure. Taking her down is our ultimate goal, but she’s rigged her bombs to go off the second her heart stops, so it’s a little more complicated than a simple assassination.”

  He reached into the darkness that shrouded his chest and withdrew a package. “She videotaped the ambush she pulled on my group a week ago and left it behind when she ran. I’ve made copies. Maybe you’ll find it useful for getting a better understanding of her.”

  Grue opened the package and handed a CD to everyone at the table.

  I almost laughed as I took the jewel case. It had been a while since I had seen one being seriously used, but I guess it made sense in a world where Tinkers existed. Much harder to hide any Tinker tricks on a CD than the body of a USB stick, but it was still funny.

  The video wouldn’t be all that useful since my group was well aware of how deranged the bomb tinker was, but maybe Carl could glean something from it.

  “So,” Coil said, letting the word hang in the air for a while. “We’re in agreement? The ABB cannot be allowed to continue operating.”

  Since the whole meeting was more or less just theatre to formally acknowledge that, there were only nods and murmured agreement from everyone.

  “Then I suggest we establish a truce. Not just everyone here, but between ourselves and the law. I would contact authorities and let them know that until this matter is cleared up, our groups will restrict our illegal activity to only what is absolutely essential to our business, and we will enforce the same for those doing business in our territories. That would let police forces and the military focus entirely on the ABB. There would be no violence, infighting between our groups, grabs for territory, thefts or insults. We band together with those we can tolerate for guaranteed victory, and we ignore those we cannot cooperate with.”

  It was nothing unexpected…but at the same time I couldn’t help but be suspicious.

  Things were moving entirely too quickly while the discussion remained reasonable so far. I knew part of that was because the first half of the meeting was basically scripted…but I couldn’t shake the feeling I missed something…

  -o-

  Skitter, undercover hero (self-proclaimed) infiltrating the Undersiders with the intent on discovering the hidden boss behind their actions, watched quietly as the leaders at the table agreed to the truce and shook hands. In less than ten minutes nearly every villain in the city had decided to come together to remove the ABB. They were even planning on working with the other side of the law! It seemed crazy…

  “Funny.” Tattletale muttered next to her.

  She turned towards her teammate, “What?”

  “Most of the people at that table are already thinking about how they can use the truce to their advantage, except for the one who is probably the strongest cape here.”

  Skitter’s eyes drifted to the unfairly beautiful redhead at the table, not even needing Tattletale to clarify who she was talking about.

  Lucifer had exploded onto the Brockton Bay cape scene in a way that only Lung had done before, taking on over half the heroes in the city by herself and getting away unscathed.

  If that was it, then Lucifer would have been just another powerful villain. But then the redhead helped drive off a giant sea monster, apparently resurrected Panacea, and destroyed an entire town fighting another giant monster that was apparently leading a cult trying to take over the world.

  Skitter hadn’t heard of any other cape that did anything like that. And now hearing that she was apparently not concerned about using the current city crisis to her advantage…

  It almost made Lucifer sound her–

  “She doesn’t want to be a hero.” Tattletale said suddenly.

  “Huh?”

  “Lucifer. She doesn’t want to be a hero.” Her teammate clarified. “Remember what I said about Cops and Robbers? Lucifer is one of the ones like us, trying to stick to the game instead of trying to claim territory or push an ideology. She likes being chased more than doing the chasing. The main reason she wants everything settled with the ABB is so she and her friends can go back to play fights with New Wave. Not to be heroes.”

  Skitter did her best to hide her disappointment with the ease of long practice.

  She had thought–

  Well, she guessed it didn’t matter what she thought. From the sound of it though, the Peerage wouldn’t be interested in helping uncover the Undersiders’ secret boss. But maybe…

  …maybe they would be willing to let the remaining Undersiders join their group when Skitter finally took what she learned to the Protectorate and proved she was a hero. Skitter doubted she would still be welcome on the team by that point, but even if by some miracle she was, most of the Peerage was practically unmasked by this point. That wasn’t a risk she didn’t think she could take. She needed the separation Skitter allowed from the rest of her life as Taylor.

  Pushing her feelings of guilt down, Skitter checked the other members of the Undersiders to make sure no one noticed her spacing out. But Tattletale was back to looking at the table, focusing on the leaders. Bitch was glaring towards the rest of the Empire’s cape. And Regent was still so pumped full of painkillers after their last encounter with Bakuda that Skitter doubted he would notice if someone said his name to his face.

  Thankful that no one had noticed the slip, Skitter went back to paying attention to the main table, just in time for Coil to move on to the last part of the meeting.

  “Then that’s our major piece of business concluded tonight. Anything else before we go our separate ways? Offers, announcements, grievances?”

  “I’ve got a complaint,” a man at the side of the room spoke. Heads turned to Kaiser’s group where Hookwolf, one of the deadliest capes in the Empire that had managed to escape being sent to the Birdcage twice, jabbed a finger at Lucifer.

  “My complaint’s with her.”

  Everyone tensed as the room’s atmosphere turned a little more hostile, and Skitter was suddenly very aware of the sheer destructive potential in the room.

  This…could get complicated.