Hideaway 2.3

Wednesday, January 12th, 2011. Brockton Bay

As the deal was struck, neither Phaerakh nor Tattletale were aware that they were being watched from miles away. Through the miracle of tinker technology, the entirety of the Undersiders' base was under constant surveillance. They were after all, a hefty investment, one that their employer would not discard hastily. It was for that reason that the two men assigned to the night watch had seen events unfold with increasing stress.

At first it seemed as if the night would unfold as it often did after the Undersiders completed another assignment. The money was collected, another gang was harassed, and as a neat bonus, they were about to get a nice show in the shower. Then everything had quickly, and rapidly gone downhill.

The ring leader, Phaerakh, had emerged from the wall like a living specter, casually restraining Tattletale and depriving her of the strength of her voice. At the same time, two more had emerged from the walls and made short work of the remaining powered teens. The larger one, Montu, had restrained Grue and Regent with a canister of containment foam. The smaller one, Cryptek, had thrown an odd cube-shaped device at Bitch, and she had vanished in a flash of light.

All of this was bad enough. It was obvious that they were dealing with a tinker who had had months if not years to plan this out in advance. Their technology was sleek to the eye and showed signs of professional craftsmanship. The sheer speed with which the entire operation went down suggested that, if Phaerakh was not a veteran, she was at the very least an intelligent and organized individual.

But then it got worse.

Now Tattletale was working for Phaerakh, and offering to give everything she knew about their employer to the tinker. The rest of the Undersiders were no longer assets to be relied upon, and an entire facility had been stolen out from under their noses in a matter of minutes. The only positive either of them could discern from their situation, was that the bugs were still in place. They could monitor and watch to their heart's content, and no one would be the wiser.

"Contact Coil, he needs to know about this." ordered the senior of the two men. Codenamed Watcher One and Watcher Two, there were protocols in place for scenarios like this. Once they got over their initial shock, Watcher Two would report it, Watcher One would take notes on everything that had happened, was happening and would happen. Intel, more than anything else, was absolute king today.

As Two contacted their employer, Watcher One observed the situation closely. The Undersiders were released one by one, Bitch the last of the four. It took some time for them to calm her down and to get her to listen to reason. Yet somehow, they managed it and she was more than content to turn with the others if it meant sanctuary for her dogs. Go figure.

Idly, One wondered if this would lead to them employing the Scorched Earth Contingency. If for whatever reason, the Undersiders had decided to turn on their employer, Coil had thought ahead with enough hidden and planted explosives to level the building ten times over. It was a single button press away, and this new problem would suddenly cease to be a problem.

Watcher Two returned, a grim expression on his face. Watcher One folded his hands in his lap, "Scorched Earth Protocol?"

"No," said Watcher Two, to his surprise. Two slid back into his chair and ran a hand over his face, "Coil says not to bother; Phaerakh disabled them."

Watcher One didn't bother to question how Coil knew that; over the years his employer had shown that whatever his ability was, it seemed to allow him the ability to pull seemingly random information out of thin air. If Coil believed the explosives were disabled, then they were as good as gone.

"For now," Two continued, "We're just to sit back and observe, and if necessary, report back to him. From the sounds of it, he's already preparing a response; by tomorrow this will all just be a bad dream."

"God I hope so," One said, and looked back at the screens. "It's gonna suck losing our free show though."

"Dude, internet. Seriously, leave your creepy fetish at the door." Two said, making no attempt to hide his disgust.

Before One could make a retort, there was a flash of green on one of the screens and the image went dead. The two men froze, staring at the now empty LCD monitor. They exchanged a slow, nervous glance.

Another flash of green shook them from their stupor, and two more cameras went dead. They sprang into action, frantically rewinding footage and working with the console to see what exactly had happened. With every second, there was another flash of green light and another camera went dead. The footage showed nothing, and they were receiving no signal at all, as if the entire device had been wiped from existence.

"No, no no!" Watcher One said, making no attempt to hide his horror as every camera went dead until a singular lone screen remained, showing the Undersiders still conversing with Phaerakh.

This did not last. The image shifted, something detaching the miniaturized camera from its mounting and sending it soaring through the air right towards Phaerakh. The woman paused as the camera moved to eye level, and turned her unblinking emerald gaze on it. Watcher One resisted the urge to shudder; it was as if she was staring through the screen and him.

"Oh my," she said, with genuine interest, "What have you found for me, Khepri? A little spy, hidden out of sight?"

She held out her hand and the image dropped into it, still focused on her face. One of the scarab drones floated into view, perching itself comfortably on her shoulder. Phaerakh's face was unreadable, but the smile was clear in her voice as she spoke.

"Your move, snake."

And then the image died, in a fizzle of static. Watcher One sank into his chair, hands on his head and expression one of dread. Whoever this was, whatever their goal, it was obvious that they were on the same playing field as Coil. The only question now, was who was going to win?

Thursday, January 13th 2011. Brockton Bay

"Behold! I am Phaerakh! Reality bends before my iron will, none stand before me, and… and this is really stupid. Trazyn, is this really necessary?" I asked, dropping my mask and looking away from my mirror at the Necron.

Trazyn watched me with that never-changing expression of apathetic malice plastered across his faceplate, but the exasperation was clear in his body language. Live with someone stuck in your head, and you start picking up on the little details.

"Completely necessary," he said.

I groaned, "But do we have to do it right now? I've spent all day being grilled by the cops about what happened with the trio. I'd like at least five minutes to myself, please."

"Time waits for no man, or woman, my dear. And as your time in particular is limited by the feeble weakness of your flesh, that is even more reason to continue onwards."

"No, no." I rubbed my temples. "Trazyn, this entire week has been insane. I've been working non-stop every hour of the day. I get it, we need equipment, we need to prepare. But I have equipment, I have an entire suit of alien battle armor, I have minions, I have a base of operations. I have enough resources at my disposal to put a lot of smaller teams to shame. I think I've earned at least a short break."

It could be argued exactly how successful I had been at all of those things, but the fact of the matter was I had been very busy over the past few days. There had been next to no time to plan, to prepare, or to unwind. It was one event to the next, constantly with Trazyn breathing down my neck, or providing snide commentary when I was actually busy. I had hoped that after my interview with the police, I'd have time to unwind. That had been an entire saga in of itself, trying to trick them and dad into believing I was still actively going to Winslow. Somehow I had managed to pull it off, even if I had looked like an idiot in the process. Couple that with how long it had dragged on, and it amazed me how close we were to evening. I needed time to decompress before I returned to my base.

Montu and Cryptek (I refused to refer to them as Uber and Leet when they were under my employ) were tasked with warning me if anything came up related to Coil or the Undersiders. So far we'd avoided that mess, but I had a sneaking suspicion that an attack or response was imminent. We had gotten lucky with finding those explosives and cameras, and doubly so when Tattletale and her team had offered to work for me or to disappear off the grid.

That didn't mean I trusted the Undersiders though. Maybe Tattletale was telling the truth about being held at gunpoint by Coil. Or maybe she was lying to me; my experience with pretty girls lying to me had left me reluctant to trust her. Again, Montu and Cryptek were keeping an eye on her, but if her power was anywhere near as powerful as she claimed it was, I wouldn't be surprised if she could twist at least one of them around her finger. A pretty face plus a silver tongue would be a dangerous combination. If it weren't for my own obligations at home, I never would have left the base in the first place.

So, needless to say, I felt I was under a lot of stress. Trazyn's impromptu lessons on how to properly behave as a 'phaerakh' did not help. While he seemed to enjoy hamming it up whenever the opportunity arose, I didn't. This of course, was an argument we'd been having now for about… thirty minutes, if my bedside clock was accurate.

I took my glasses off with a sigh, and rubbed the lenses with my shirt. When I put them back on, Trazyn was looming over me. Despite my best efforts, I flinched and nervously stepped back. It was hard to remember sometimes how large he was, given that he was just projecting himself in my mind's eye. But he towered head and shoulders over me with a width twice over to boot. If he were real, he probably could break me with a flick of his wrist. As if he read my thoughts, Trazyn's arm twitched.

I didn't flinch this time, and I steeled myself. My heart hammered as I glared up at my benefactor. "I thought you were above intimidation?" I asked.

He cocked his head to the side, and spoke in a chillingly calm tone, "Oh I am. This is no farcical attempt at menace, Taylor. This is a reminder to you that we have a bargain. To you, I provide all the wonders and technology of the Necron people to use as you so desire. In exchange, you would provide me with new additions to my collection. While you have certainly been entertaining, your capacity to fulfill your word has been very lacking. I felt it only appropriate to remind you that I am being very patient with you, and have tolerated a great many things. After all, new prizes shall come along, history is an ever growing tapestry; I can afford to be picky. But until you begin to honor your word, I would ask that you treat my advice with more respect, instead of this childish rebelliousness of yours. I have marched across the stars for 60 million years. Consider, perhaps, that my advice may be of some use to you, whose lifespan can be measured as a literal blink in comparison to mine."

I swallowed, slowly, ignoring the nervous tingle running up and down my spine. Trazyn had a decent point, even if he was being a ferocious steel dick about it. But, I wasn't going to let him push me around either. This was my mind, my body; I had the final say in what did and did not happen. Of course, he had the final say on what I learned about Necron tech, so I couldn't exactly tell him to shove off either.

I'd have to be diplomatic.

"That's… fair. But, like you said, I'm not an immortal metal skeleton. I have limits, and if you keep pushing them, I'm going to break. I need time to recuperate. What use am I to you if I'm so tired I can't even think straight?"

There was that familiar amusement again. Trazyn strode away from me, chuckling softly, "Well, that is certainly a fair point of your own. May I offer a compromise then? Ten more minutes of practice, and then you may rest until it is time to convene your court."

He raised a hand before I could protest. "Additionally, allow me to explain why these lessons are important. If I may."

I sighed. "Any excuse for a monologue?"

"A monologue is a powerful thing my dear," Trazyn replied without hesitation; bastard had prepared one already, hadn't he?

"Understand that in the coming days, you will present to the world the image which may stick with you for the rest of your existence. The people of this planet will come to associate you with various ideas and preconceptions for better or worse. I wish to prepare you so that when this time comes, you can use these preconceptions to your advantage. If your enemies believe you to be, as you have so eloquently described, 'a pompous windbag in love with the sound of your own voice', do you think they will truly believe you to be a threat?"

I opened my mouth, then shut it, as I started thinking over what he said. Trazyn continued without so much as a pause. "Under my wing, Taylor, I can teach you the subtle art of what you humans call 'kayfabe'. Lies as reality. It is arguable that the entire setup of hero and villain is one colossal kayfabe waiting to come crashing down. Maybe, maybe not. But for your purposes, I can use it to teach you how to become something more."

He gestured at me, "As you stand, you are Taylor Hebert. A plain mortal thing with the likeness of a terran frog and an alien intelligence lodged in your brain." he casually ignored my withering glare and continued, "But, with my training, when you put on that mask, you become Phaerakh. A woman with the world at her fingertips and the freedom to do whatever she wants or be whoever she wants."

He leaned forward, "Now tell me, Taylor Hebert. Is there any possible advantage to mastering such an art?"

I stared at his unblinking eyes for several seconds, then looked away with a curse. "Dammit, I hate it when you're right."

The bus dropped me off about two blocks away from the base in the docks. It was as far as this route went and I was in a hurry. Not that there was anything urgent, but I needed to talk to another human being that didn't speak in monologues. Hell, I would've taken visiting Emma over sticking around any longer for Trazyn's lessons. Good point or no, it was hard for me not to blush whenever I started 'practicing'. No one would ever take me seriously ever again; which might have been the point, if Trazyn was to be believed, but I didn't enjoy it.

I shook my head clear and focused on my walk, slinging my backpack over my shoulder as I did. The Undersiders base, sorry, my base was located firmly in the middle of the docks, surrounded by plenty of empty warehouses and businesses that had died when shipping had dried up. Most of those probably would have been fine as bases too, but I had decided that if I was going to set up my own base, it would be at the expense of one of the gangs. Two birds, one stone. That I happened to take out a super villain team in the process was a serious plus, even if it did put me in a very seedy neighborhood.

Rule number one growing up, never go to the docks alone. Funny how easily I flagrantly ignored that rule now. But I wasn't worried, my scarabs were set in patrol mode within several blocks of the base, and I had my own personal patrol following me. If any gang bangers got any funny ideas, they would be in for a world of hurt.

I was about half a block from the base when I decided to duck into a nearby alley. I dug into my bag and pulled my mask out. After removing my glasses and safely stowing them away, I pressed it to my face and let the living metal I wore underneath my clothes react to it.

My vision was filled with alien runes and a faint green tinge as I fully connected to the quantum network that was rapidly expanding across the city. Status updates that I was already aware of quickly rolled over my HUD, before settling down.

Once that was done, I stripped off my clothes and shoved them into my bag, leaving me in my necrodermis body suit. I lifted my bag overhead, and a pair of scarabs took it away; they would hide it on a rooftop, and keep it safe from thieves or wild animals.

Several more scarabs descended from the sky with my armor plating in tow. A pair set down my boots and I stepped into them. They seamlessly sealed themselves against my feet, quiet as a whisper, and I started walking. Scarabs scrambled over me, attaching the plates with machine precision. With each attached plate, more of my systems came online.

The armor's primary purpose, aside from protection, was to increase my strength, speed, and control over the necrodermis. With the full suit attached, I could easily shift into my phase mode with but a thought, or remove parts of the living metal suit at will. I'd used the latter to bind Tattletale the previous night and I was relieved to find that Trazyn had told the truth. So long as living metal had time and a constant power supply, it could simply produce more of itself. Which meant that soon I wouldn't need to dedicate my scarabs to making more of the stuff, and could focus their efforts on other advances.

The Undersiders' base was a three story warehouse. Empty storage space on the bottom, living area on the second floor, and private rooms on the third. It had been furnished decently (or as nicely as an abandoned warehouse could be) in the upper two floors, but the storage space had interested me. Even as I approached, the telltale green glow of scarab's hard at work was clear in the windows. I was going to have to fix that too, otherwise everyone would know how to find the base eventually..

The fruit of their labor was clearly displayed in my HUD. Power was no longer the issue it had been. Generators were slowly rising, and they had completed the first one earlier this morning, and had started on the second. Keeping my scarabs powered, along with the armor for myself, Montu, and Cryptek, would no longer be an issue.

An old fire escape led up to the second floor of the building, and I hesitated at it. Not necessarily because I was afraid of interacting with others… well okay, I was nervous about that. But I was also nervous about how I was going to deal with them, especially Tattletale. If her power filled in the gaps of her knowledge, how much did she know about me, and how much more would she learn simply from us talking?

Only one way to find out, of course.

I steeled myself and began to slowly march myself up the stairs, wincing at the sound of my boots thudding against steel. Note to self, fix the stairs at… some point. I realized I was stalling, and forced myself to enter.

Inside, I was almost disappointed to find Montu and Cryptek talking with Tattletale. My amusement made up for it though. She was standing on the table, arms spread and an annoyed look on her face while Cryptek had been taking studious measurements. All three were frozen and staring at the door when I walked through. It took an effort of will not to check and see if I had messed up something on my costume.

I focused instead on Cryptek and asked, "What, Cryptek, are you doing?"

He stood up straight, "Just taking measurements, Phaerakh. Tattletale was wondering if we could make a new costume for her, figured I'd save you the trouble."

"A bullet proof skin level costume sounds tight." she said, grinning.

I glared at her silently, and she winced, "Or not tight. Whatever is less annoying."

I turned back to Cryptek. "My living metal alloy is adaptive, Cryptek. As long as it shares her relative proportions, the material will mold itself to her body much like it has yours." I added, with a note of amusement, "Make sure you have plenty of padding when you wear it, Tattletale, it leaves little to the imagination."

"Noted!" she chirped.

I didn't quite stalk to the kitchen island, but I did gesture for the three of them to follow me a bit impatiently. "Montu, anything to report while I was out?"

"It's been quiet." he said. "Undersiders have kept to themselves for the most part, barring one incident…"

"Incident?" I asked.

Cryptek glowered. "Regent is a cheating piece of shit, I had that win in the bag."

"I warned you." Tattletale sang.

I silenced them with a raised hand, and was thankful none of them could see my grin. It took a moment for me to make sure I wasn't going to start laughing before I told Cryptek, "Do be careful when interacting with the Undersiders, Cryptek. The last thing we need is for them to have a sudden shift in loyalty again and for you to be caught unprepared."

"Which brings us to you." I said, looking sternly at Tattletale.

She pointed at herself, an innocent look on her face, "Who, little ol'me? What did I do?"

I folded my arms and remained as serious as I could. God I hope she couldn't see how nervous I was with her power.

"Your loyalty is still in question Tattletale. Both Montu and Cryptek should know better than to be letting you walk on such a short leash." The duo at least had the decency to try and look sheepish when I called them out. I continued on, ignoring them, "You claim you're working for us now, but you wasted no time turning on your previous employer. What's to stop you from doing the same to us?"

Tattletale shrugged, "As long as you don't point a gun at my head or make unreasonable requests, I think we're golden. So far you're leagues better than my old boss, but that's not really much of a threshold to cross."

Right, okay, time to move the subject. I wasn't equipped to deal with her, not yet anyway. I had a feeling, a hunch really, that if this conversation continued, it would wind up making me look weaker than I was. Plus, after my conversation with Trazyn earlier that day, I wasn't in the mood for another verbal sparring match.

"Very well, perhaps there's an easy way for you to prove how trustworthy you are."

With a mental command, Khepri detached himself from my armor and landed on the table, folding his little legs under himself and going still. A moment later, a three dimensional representation of Brockton Bay appeared on the island, tinged green like everything else. Cryptek made a low noise in his throat and Tattletale whistled.

"Fancy."

I didn't bother to mention that I had just ripped the map from an online source and ran it through the appropriate Necron tech. Sometimes it was easier and better to take the lazy route - Trazyn certainly didn't object, though the metal bastard would probably call it something bombastic. Or condescending. Or both. Bastard.

"Coil is clever," I started. "He clearly has contingencies in place. This is a man who thinks three steps ahead for every one he takes. But, no one can account for every possibility. This is where you come in, Tattletale; if you know anything about Coil's operations, now is the time to share it."

I decided to keep the fact that I had a program already mining for potential locations a secret. If Tattletale told me what she truly knew, it would line up with what the program found. Or, alternatively, there would be more variables to add which would make finding Coil that much easier.

Unfortunately, before Tattletale could open her mouth, the map suddenly flickered and vanished. I felt my throat tighten, as a new screen appeared. Cryptek cocked his head to the side, "Well that's new."

"It's video feed from one of my canoptek scarabs." I explained. "Someone has entered our territory."

Said territory was only a few blocks across, but that was just the effective range my scarabs could reach, for now. According to them, a pair of plain white vans had rolled onto our turf. Though the windows were heavily tinted, my scarabs were still able to give me a general idea of what was inside the vans using short range scanners. Long story short, there were about two dozen heavily armored men and women driving right towards my base.

"Oh shit." Tattletale breathed. There was a genuine look of worry and fear on her face. If I hadn't found all those camera's the previous night, I might have thought that she had called in her boss. But, I knew better now, and had in fact expected a response.

Trazyn materialized beside me, chuckling, "This should be easy enough. The scarabs will make short work of these fools."

I resisted the urge to glare at Trazyn, leaning forward against the table on my hands. Trazyn was right of course, the scarabs would reduce these people to literal atoms if I let them. But, well, I wasn't exactly interested in murdering a dozen people; the idea alone made my stomach churn. I still wanted to be a hero, I was definitely going to be a hero, which meant I'd need to take a nonlethal approach.

But how to present that to these three (former) villains without making myself look weak? As I thought, Montu spoke up. "The scarabs will rip these guys apart if we have enough of them. You gonna give them the go-ahead boss?"

"Not...quite." I said, slowly.

Three sets of eyes turned towards me, surprised and curious. Tattletale in particular was watching me like a hungry fox. I ignored their looks and made a show of rubbing my chin thoughtfully.

"Killing these men is… easy. I would dare say it's insulting to suggest otherwise. Coil has issued a challenge to our actions from last night. I feel it's only fair to show him exactly who he is dealing with."

Before any of them could ask what I meant, I ordered the scarabs to action. Across several city blocks, hundreds of scarabs, some inches long and others well over a foot, sprang to life and swarmed through the streets. The first few hit the sides of the vans and latched on with their clawed legs, making one of the vans swerve in surprise. Those that followed purposefully avoided the windows, going instead for the wheels and doors. Even as they did, the first to arrive quickly began to devour the outer shells, burning holes into the cargo inside.

Tires screamed as both vans came to a halt and men poured out, firing on the scarabs as they did. I winced as several crashed to the ground, unresponsive The scarabs were built for construction, not combat, so it was no surprise how easily they went down. But I had plenty to spare, and even those that were shot out of the sky quickly began to reassemble themselves and return to action.

The vans were slowly reduced to scrap metal by a good half of my swarm, letting me direct the remaining scarabs towards the men themselves. They screamed in terror as my little metal minions mobbed them, covering them in their shiny metal bodies. Guns fell apart in their hands, and armor was quickly and easily ripped asunder. As quickly as it began, it was over.

And over two dozen men went sprinting out of territory wearing only expressions of terror. Even the hair on their heads and bodies had not been spared, and I'd even had the scarabs take a few layers of dead skin, leaving them all a stunning shade of bright pink.

Once they were outside of our territory, I made sure to dispatch a few of the smaller scarabs to tail them and turned my attention back to my stunned audience.

"I think that sends quite the message; wouldn't you agree?"

A/N: I'm back~! So the only reason this chapter took so long was laziness. I knew how it was going to unfold weeks ago, but I just… couldn't summon the energy to write it out. I've been bouncing around with other stories to keep my writing going, but it felt good to return to this one.

I hope you all enjoyed it though, and please feel free to let me know what you thought via comments or criticism down below.

Oh, quick addendum, I'm shifting my schedule because trying to update three times a week is literal hell. So instead of updating Monday, Wednesday, Friday, I'm cutting out Wednesday and only updating on Mondays and Fridays. This goes into effect next week, so the possibility of a Friday update is… iffy. I won't promise anything, but keep an eye open nonetheless.

Otherwise, I'll see you guys next time!