Chương 67: Hope in One Hand

After a couple hours of awkwardness, Lyn ended up gently lowering herself into an available chair while Tharaxialee dutifully watched, fighting to keep a scowl off her face at how things had played out. The intended tour of the labs had been nothing short of a flop, especially when the fey had revealed halfway through it that she'd largely seen almost all of it before.

That had explained the odd vibes throughout the whole thing where it felt like the spider monster was more intent on watching her "mistress" rather than looking around. This even included areas of the facility with no reflective surfaces, which the creature was frustratingly evasive on when Lyn was pressed her on just how she managed that.

So instead of keeping herself occupied with a new part of the Starsilk line-up, the villainess got to experience what it felt like to have a second shadow that practically tripped over herself to be subservient whenever she was addressed. Not that Lyn wanted her new batch of subordinates she'd never asked for to not listen to her when they popped through the mirror, but there were only so many "Yes, Mistress"s and "Of course, my Princess"s you could put up over a few hours.

Ruling the world might be harder than she thought, even with Alex's musings that they could leave a lot of the day to day stuff for robots to handle. Well, Celeste hadn't gotten around to making them their own deathbots, but it turned out that Lyn's deal with Scarlet had gotten them the perfect little robotic helpers who were more than happy to hang on every word and only probably intended to betray them at a later date. Yay…

Of course, the moment Lyn finished sighing at that thought, the spider creature had to ask, in her breathy, almost broken voice, "Do you require anything, mistress?"

"Look, are you planning on betraying me? Because otherwise we need to talk about how much you're licking my boots," Lyn snapped.

"We… were not aware that service was required," Tharaxialee actually began to crouch at the comment.

"Stop!" Lyn quickly interrupted.

"I- Look, I'm a little bored and frankly still getting used to having people fawning over me like this. You guys weren't exactly what I was looking forward to when I cut that deal." The fey seemed to take that in good stride as far as Lyn could tell, given that her face was completely alien and unreadable, "We understand. Mother did not disclose. Did not trust the mage." Lyn raised a brow at that, thankful at least that she could now do that these days, "She didn't trust Scarlet?"

The fey shook her head, "Only for exchange. Otherwise, their greed: monumental. Felt it even through their wards. Can't trust any who would sell their own soul so willingly. Especially those already bending rules like they do. Never showed face either. In contrast, Mother tried to reveal self to mistress during blessing. To show trustworthiness. To look upon her heir." Lyn processed that, her hand drifting to her phone once more. The spellcaster had left another message earlier.

This one had been far less pushy than the one from yesterday, but it had still made her reluctant to let Alex out of her sight this morning. To be honest, she'd originally summoned Tharaxialee to see if she couldn't find a way to have her tail him to his little meeting today, trying to figure out a good way to offer her to shadow along with her ninja-trained boyfriend. In the end, Celeste had thankfully, though unexpectedly volunteered to tag along and she hadn't needed to come up with a sales pitch.

And she hadn't spent the entire tour in the abnormally quiet lair worried that the two people she cared most for in this world were currently wandering the very streets that the League currently was hiding in. With no backup or full set of gadgets or any superpowers of their own. Completely at the mercy of random attacks by villains that didn't play by the normal rules. Or heroes who might somehow recognize either of them. Nope! She was so confident!

Tharaxialee silently watched for a moment before finally speaking up, "Mistress? Did you want another report?"

"Yes," Lyn immediately answered.

"Your… boyfriend and cohabitant are still inside," the fey told her, tripping over how to address Alex, but somehow able to find a word for roommate just fine. Lyn sighed once more. Apparently, according to the report from ten minutes ago, the whole building was warded against all sorts of things and the rest of her army of tiny spiders couldn't get closer. Although that hadn't been the only difficulty in tailing the pair, since apparently her minions had a hard time in general keeping eyes on Alex for some reason.

Not impossible, but difficult according to more than one spirit spider who had reported to her. Given how little the fey chose to explain in general, that revelation had raised a lot of questions that Lyn had to guess would unfortunately only be answered by some other person with more knowledge about fey bullshit than she had. Probably magical knowledge. Probably Scarlet. We're not that desperate, she assured herself. N ot yet.

"Report to me when you have eyes on them again," Lyn said for the fifth time in the past hour. Tharaxialee made a clicking noise in response. It was something she'd been doing lately which Lyn still didn't know how to interpret but at least it wasn't groveling. The villain drummed her fingers on her legs, wondering if she should dismiss the fey already, but the paranoid side of her worried that sending her away might delay any important updates.

Her eyes focused on her fingers and then on the soft flesh they were tapping against.

"All of this for a pair of legs…" she muttered.

"Mistress? Do you require something else?" She groaned, wondering what trivial task she could give this woman to get her to stop hovering. Nothing really came to mind that wouldn't send her too far away however so she just shook her head while continuing to tap at her soft legs, the back of her mind enjoying the tiny reverberations travelling to her endoskeleton. She could feel the spider creature's eyes lingering on her as the minutes passed in silence.

She allowed that for roughly five minutes before finally snapping, "Do you want to say something?"

"Forgive me, but… I wondered what plans were with the ducal house absorbed," she said.

"What do you mean? I thought that I left that to you," Lyn eyed her, unsure of where this was going. The new expansion of her… was this a court or a house of her own? Gods, she needed to go over some terminology when she wasn't stressed. Regardless, the other day's events and their consequences were just as planned out as the entire fey succession in general.

While it sounded like something of an unexpected windfall, Lyn remained loathe to get further into fey politics while the League hung over their heads, feeling like if she started to focus too much on it right now, she risked getting blindsided by the people who actually seemed to be a threat.

The mandibles clacked against each other as Tharaxialee considered her words, "We are siphoning the excess power the duke has agreed to tithe us, but a thought occurred upon noticing your splendid form that my mother granted you. Do you not want the same from him? It would be your right as his ruler."

"I like this body just fine," Lyn said through gritted teeth, starting to grow more upset. All of the little "bonuses" that had been thrown in were already more than enough. She didn't need the rotund duke poking at it and adding who knows what bullshit that she'd need to deal with while she was still getting used to piloting it. Reading the spider fey might've been difficult for Lyn, but apparently that wasn't mutual.

The faerie was becoming quite adept at figuring out when Lyn was pissed off enough that she needed to back off.

"Of course!" she quickly said.

"Obviously mother's masterpiece would be loved by mistress. Based off her greatest-" Axia yelped upon seeing Lyn's eyes gleam and quickly sputtered, "We simply wondered if mistress was not interested in adding another body to her arsenal!" Lyn's fingers stopped their tapping and she sat up straight, "Another? Wait… are you saying that every single one of these fey courts-""Houses," Tharaxialee corrected, before shrinking back.

"Or families… or knightly orders… or… courts…" Lyn didn't let up her glare until she heard the creature whimper, "You're saying that every single one we conquer, I get another new form, like I'm playing RoboJoe?" ¹"The reference escapes us…" Lyn's minion muttered before shaking her head.

"If that is your desire, mistress. So long as mistress grows her court in the Inverse Light, the realm of mirrors and masks, then should be able to use subjects to fashion suitable vessels."

"And you didn't think to lead with 'Hey, go stomp a few faeries and we can give you more superpowers?'" Lyn growled, frustrated at once more having details left out.

"Was not prospect of conquering magical realm enough to imply growth of power?" the creature had the audacity to tilt its head. Lyn shot out of the chair, transforming into her original body. She towered over the other spider being, especially as the otherworldly creature shrank in on herself to cower beneath the villain.

"I am tired of implications and unsaid stipulations," Lyn warned, earning multiple nods from the fey.

"So tell me what this involves. Now." Tharaxialee opened her mandibles and spewed forth a wealth of information, slowly dissolving her mistress's scowl into a broad grin. Suddenly, a boring day promised a lot of plotting and scheming.

Nick eyed the scene below with a sneer. About five League superchumps and twice that many goons in matching constumes were currently breaking just about every window on the street and throwing whatever was in arm's reach into the back of a slow-crawling van. Probably just for the hell of it.

"They're just doing whatever these days…" Irene sighed at the disgraceful scene as she peered over the ledge, tapping her pulse pistols together impatiently. Nick grunted in agreement, slipping on the plain mask he'd been wearing more often these days than his Sharp Shooter one. Despite Irene and his immediate read on what was happening, Vandal had explained the meaning behind these seemingly random strikes around the city which was a little more charitable.

Apparently, this was part of a test of the League's latest suppression technology. They'd set up jammers nearby before making a big scene to get the civvies crying out for heroes. Ordinarily, in places like this neighborhood, the local heroes would probably show up in less than ten minutes regardless of whatever the League did to block calls, but Vandal had let slip that they were busy at the moment. That meant this was clearly a test whether or not they could block Amberheart's response network.

If they could, that would endanger any hopes of a Victory Day celebration. No hero would party in the tower if they knew the streets below could possibly be crying out for help they couldn't hear up there. Sharp Shooter and the others had too much riding on this ridiculous job their bratty little info broker had cooked up, so they were more than eager to help put the League in its place one more time. He glanced back at the others, still not used to seeing them in muted greys, browns, and ugly olive greens.

Not to mention that Crowmaster probably shouldn't have his arm out of the sling the docs had him wearing, but as long as he kept out of the melee, he should be fine. It was why he was holding the one pulse rifle they had in the group. Stolen novel; please report.

"Let's get going already," Cluster Rocket – sans his giant rocket pack and rattling armor – grumbled. Catterwallop nodded in agreement, her ears no doubt uncomfortably flattened by the balaclava stretched over her head, and she clacked the over-sized knuckledusters on her fingers together. Sharp Shooter's eyes drifted over towards Irene and Shockjock, who simply nodded his way.

"Right, I've got the car," he reminded them.

"SJ, jammers are in the alley on the north end and on the rooftop right there. Remember to make it look natural. We've got roughly eight minutes once you've got them both down. The rest of you, minions first then tango with the big idiots." Rocket muttered something, still upset he wasn't the one messing with the League's tech, but he pulled out his stun baton and lit it with obvious glee. The others were even more eager as they all shot to the ropes secured nearby which would send them straight to the street.

Nick smiled as he rolled up his sleeve and took his glove off before aiming at the tires of the van. A blade began to grow on his fingers.

Hopebreaker laughed as his men got to run wild. The past few weeks had been a shitshow for the League in so many ways, but they were so fucking back now! This is what it was all about! This is the kind of shit that he joined up for! Countless little mundies ² were scrambling left and right to get out of the path of his boys as they ransacked this street without a single cape in sight. Not that Hopebreaker was afraid of the losers this city had to offer.

No, he had his sights set on one day being the guy to break Mr. Wonder's fat jaw. All he had to do was prove his worth here, the city that had embarrassed the League in the first place. He'd impress Over Seer or someone else with enough pull to have Overlab give him all the best upgrades and serums they had stockpiled. Or he'd just threaten them himself since no one was in charge yet and spend whatever favors he earned to keep himself safe from the retribution. Regardless, this was his chance!

So he welcomed the challenge if the little shitstains wanted to rumble. More heroes meant more chances to get noticed and it would all be just more stepping stones for his rise to glory. To his disappointment, apparently the trio who ran around this neighborhood were off frolicking in a park today according to the mission brief. Too bad they'd left all these little mundies unprotected. Perfect opportunity to take out some frustrations and embarrass some snotty little heroes who didn't know how this world works.

Oh, and he'd definitely earn some brownie points with Over Seer by testing out some gizmo they'd set up here last night. She'd made it sound like it was more important than half the League's forces here, and she'd given it to him and his boys. Yeah, he was fucking close to his dream now. Hopebreaker smiled as Bull Dozer slammed his horns into another shop's window before hopping inside.

He watched the bull animalia push through the small crowd that hadn't gotten the memo before ripping the register off the countertop and throwing it hard enough to embed in the wall, just barely missing the heads of the little shits milling around. That finally got the crowd panicking and screaming like they should've been and he laughed as a dozen of these powerless fucks ran screaming into the street.

They had orders not to draw too much blood, since the higher ups were still too fucking squeamish for some reason, so Hopebreaker was saving their "allotment" for a grand finale before they bounced out of here. His boys knew that and were being just careful enough to not pulp the mundies, but it was probably about time to get a little rough given how slow all of them were moving. His eyes scanned the bodies as they streamed past him, looking for the right choice of victim.

His eyes settled on a pretty thing that tripped and fell over the curb. The young woman scrambled to get up clearly having already twisted her ankle. That was no good. Hopebreaker couldn't go having the official injury numbers including someone getting hurt on accident. That would make him look bad, like he was someone who needed to pad out the casualty counts. Better make sure everyone knows that his crew were the real danger, not the city's urban planning.

He took three steps towards her before he heard a whistling noise. Then came the sound of a tire exploding behind him. He turned just in time to see four masked figures rushing them, all of them in drab colors and wielding weapons in their hands. The one at the front cracked a sparking baton in a wide arc against the head of two of the minions he'd been ordered to bring along. As expected, the two mundies crumpled the moment they were hit, dropping to the ground with loud crashes.

Three more immediately hit the floor as one of the figures leveled a pulse gun and hit them dead center with blasts that sent them straight to unconsciousness. Half of the minions down before the fight had even begun. Typical. Hopebreaker rolled his shoulders and rushed forward to meet the oncoming pack of idiots, no doubt mundies who fancied themselves vigilantes. Two with ranged weapons and two who seemed to want to get up close and personal.

Well, they'll learn what ma k e s a real super villain soon enough, he thought to himself, weaving out of the way of more pulse blasts as he noticed the figure seemed to have a hard time adjusting his aim. Even though he was far from his ideal self that Overlab would bring out, his superhuman reflexes, enhanced durability, and superstrength were enough to put idiots like these through the concrete, assuming they didn't go splat first.

He almost closed the distance to the closest of them when that whistling noise from before gave him just enough warning to roll out of the way of some projectile aimed at him. He traced its path and saw a fifth figure on the rooftops nearby. He snarled.

"Don't know who you fuckers are, but you just made the last mistake you're ever gonna make," he growled as his men pooled forward to meet them, pushing past the useless minions to get a bead on the newcomers. None of them answered him, which was typical of vigilantes in this city as Hopebreaker had come to learn. Or perhaps these were the pissant villains taking potshots at their betters. He'd find out when he ripped those stupid masks off.

Bull Dozer rushed forward, heaving two massive arms up to pound the ground with the giant sledges he'd strapped to them when one of the figures dropped her twin guns – at least they were dainty enough that Hopebreaker figured it was a chick despite the loose clothing making that hard to tell – leapt forward and slapped a hand against his abs. Hopebreaker almost laughed it off only to watch as Dozer froze in place, arms heft in the air but the big lug made no move to bring them down.

The one with the baton stepped in and shoved it directly into the larger man's neck, and Hopebreaker's large lackey immediately seized up as the electricity short-circuited his nervous system. He collapsed into a heap a second later. The rest of his crew howled in outrage as they surged forward as one, all eager to take revenge.

Chainbrain, Hot Hammer, and Killbeat moved to intercept the known supe of the group before they could do whatever shit they pulled again, hoisting their own weapons to keep out of range of that fucker's arm's reach. Hopebreaker meanwhile launched himself forward once more to keep the fucker with the pulse rifle pinned down. The weak little shits that had tried ambushing them fell over themselves to get out of range.

Hopebreaker vaguely saw the weird supe slapping at the weapons with their hands, quicker than they'd seemed before but clearly wincing as they did so. Whatever they were doing, something weird happened to his men's attacks but none of them froze like Dozer had. They were coordinating enough, despite their bloodlust so that none of them were letting the guy with the baton close enough to try shit when he tried to move over to help out his little pal.

Hopebreaker smiled, using his enhanced strength to hoist a nearby manhole cover one-handed and fling it like a discus at the rifleman before rolling away from another whistling projectile, knowing that this was in the bag. Most of his guys had simple ass powers, but he had a few tricks up his sleeve and these three on the ground floor were already- His eyes widened, Three? Where's the fourt-?!

Two swift strikes hammered into his side with heavy force, sending him flying end over end directly into Killbeat while the man was raising his over-sized drumstick. He rolled off the blow with practiced ease while his minion struggled to find his feet, just in time to watch the fourth attacker who had punched clean off the ground rushing away towards the five minions in the back, gracefully moving between shots as the idiots finally remembered their beam weapons in their hands.

The knuckledusters didn't look like they were tech, so that meant another supe. Fuck, good chance all of them were supes! Hopebreaker shook his head, cursing himself for losing focus as he yanked Killbeat to his feet. Let that other supe distract themselves with the powerless help back there. He'd kill their friends and then-"Hopebreaker, what the hell are you doing?!" Eyecon's voice shouted in his ear. Instinctively, he almost cursed back at the man before remembering two things.

One: this guy reported directly to Over Seer. And two: all communication should be down.

"We-" he barely managed to say before being cut off.

"The jammers are down," the man snarled.

"Amberheart's already been called in. Get out of there now!" The line went dead and Hopebreaker didn't have time to process any more before another projectile from that fucking dipshit at the end of the street flew his way. He pulled Killbeat's shoulder forward and let the other man take the blow. Neither of them had truly impenetrable skin, but the League had the resources to fix up things like that so Beat could deal with the pain.

The big man cried out as the long needle-like blade sank several inches into him before shattering, "What the fuck, Break?!"

"We're leaving!" he howled, loud enough for the other two to hear him. He glanced back at Dozer who was peeling himself off the ground slowly.

"Grab what you can and run!" He watched Chainbrain and Hot Hammer break away cleanly from the two they'd been fighting, neither opponent committing to pursuing them. His nose wrinkled in disgust at how cowardly they looked while doing it. His temper flared once more when his eyes flicked over to the disabled van, full of all the loot they'd grabbed but he chose to take off running instead.

His group dodged more projectiles from both the guy with the rifle and the fifth asshole sniping at them, but the punch happy bastard they passed on their way out seemed content to finish off the last of the henchmen rather than try and keep the real threats boxed in, allowing his group to slip down an alleyway and retreat without further incident. A couple blocks away, his crew finally slowed their run, coughing and wheezing as their lungs burned.

Hopebreaker's enhanced stamina kept him from such a disgraceful display but he still felt his shoulders heaving up and down as the rage ran through him. He howled at the sky and slammed a fist into the side of a nearby building as he vented his frustrations. All these fuckers getting in his damn way! This fucking city would rue the day it messed with him!

Vandal smiled as Sharp Shooter gave his report. The ambush hadn't gone off without a hitch, but they'd still managed to ruin the League's plans and send them running off with their tails between their legs. Her laptop screen was the only light in the room, with the midday sun being kept out by a set of curtains and some black paper she'd taped up against the window. She was currently squatting in an abandoned office space above a closed laundromat roughly three subway stops down from Starsilk.

After having been in their own little repurposed warehouse, she was wondering if she shouldn't try and relocate to the same district and see if anything was available. It would make for a much better lair than her previous one, but she was comfortable with her current digs for the moment. No point trying to get set up before things evened out. Plus, this place had been set up with enough of her tech by this point to make it homey enough.

The room next door had a pile of servers warming it which made for comfortable sleeping if you'd grown used to the noise. And the water still worked so she was doing pretty alright here. Better than Over Seer, probably.

Vandal had managed to figure out the last couple places she'd been chased to thanks to her strategic drip of information and it brought a smile to her face to know that the prestigious head of the League's spy network was having to rough it in warehouses and backrooms of abandoned malls rather than reclining on silk sheets.

Vandal wasn't quite ahead of the curve enough to start leaking Seer's locations in time to really do some damage, but it was clear the League was burning through a lot of its real estate in the city.

With Hawk managing to feed her information from the heroes side of things, including a few contacts with capes outside of Amberheart that the Wild Warriors had good relations with, and all the villains willing to sell any info on the League to her for cheap so long as it meant someone was breaking their kneecaps, Vandal had been swimming in credible tips and map data. Not just about Seer, either, which was good for business.

Without her old set up, that meant she was practically glued to her laptop for hours on end, and was beginning to feel the effects of the shrimp-like posture she'd been stuck in now. Not to mention an empty stomach that was none-too-pleased to see her stockpile of ramen noodles and fuck all else. She sighed, once again wondering if she should risk delivery. No…

I've managed to keep off Seer's radar so far, but there's no reason to tempt it, she thought, reluctantly taking one of the packages of noodles down the hall to a small kitchenette. A pot with the beginnings of scorch marks on its bottom sat upside down on a towel, just barely finished drying from her last "meal". She heft it to the sink and flipped the faucet on. It didn't work for a moment. Then water sputtered out and began to fill the pot.

Vandal sighed and watched it slowly run, swearing to herself that it was going slower than before. It gave her time to wonder: If the city caught on and shut this place off, what was she going to do? She shrugged and figured she'd contact Hawk and get him to do something behind the scenes to take care of it. Or maybe make it a mission for Nick and his crew? Oh that could be fun, but she'd need to figure out a way to make them believe it was pissing off the League or they'd charge her for it.

Maybe she'd see if Alex could help instead? No, he had better things to do right now… Ugh, that probably left Laser Badger… At that point she'd take Hawk's help. The pot finally finished and she moved it to a crappy stove. If it had been gas or even electric coils, she might've been able to flare one of her eye sigils underneath it to speed up this whole thing, but no dice. It was one of those smooth top ones that took forever to heat.

She looked over at the sink and shrugged, figuring that she might as well try to get a shower in while the water was still cooperating. She'd be busy most of tonight with all the heroes and villains running around so she might as well grab one while things were calm. Plus her back could probably use the hot water after being bent over the laptop all this time. She left the pot to slowly heat, the pack of noodles abandoned nearby while she went to go grab whatever clothes she had that still looked clean enough.

She hadn't risked the laundromat downstairs just yet, but it was starting to get more and more tempting. Along the way, her gaze wandered back to her laptop, manifesting a sigil to let her check if any new messages had come in just yet. Nothing important so she skipped down the hall where the worst shower she'd ever had to suffer using awaited her, still not sure why an office building needed one. At least it wasn't an emergency one, since those tended to get all sorts of shit stuck in the pipe.

She sighed before flicking the water on and got ready.

The sink dripped in a steady pattern while the unwatched pot slowly began its climb to a boil. Tap. Tap. Tap. Then it went quiet. The only sound was the soft hum of the slowly heating oven and the dull noise of the far off shower. Not even the soft noise of the servers crept into the small breakroom. In this eerie quiet, a green tendril snaked out of the faucet, peering around the room. Without making a sound, it retreated back into the pipes, allowing the steady sound of water droplets hitting the sink to resume.

Tap. Tap. Tap.