May 15th, 2011, Sunday, 9:30 AM.

It had been over a week since Coil had screwed over the Empire and Kayden along with them. Brockton Bay had definitely become worse off because of it, as the Empire, now scattered across the city had been taking out their anger on everything around them. The fighting was, fortunately, starting to settle down, it had even been two days since the last incident, it might have even been a new record.

It seemed like the identities of the Empire was all everyone wanted to talk about, it was all over the news, all over the internet, and all the kids at school couldn't help themselves. Which resulted in a large number of fights between some of those more sympathetic towards the empire. I had already seen three fights in the last two days which was a record amount for Arcadia. I made sure to keep my head down, I just had to make it through the rest of this year, and I would finally be free of the prison they called school.

There had been several large battles between the Protectorate, New Wave, and the Empire in the Downtown area, one of which wasn't too far from my school and it made me incredibly nervous. I swear to god if Kaiser or Hookwolf destroyed Arcadia and I have to repeat my senior year I would absolutely lose it.

Kayden's precarious situation had somehow gone surprisingly well, no doubt thanks to Coil's supposed agents working behind the scenes. Aster and Theo had both been placed back in Kayden's custody within two days, which allowed me to stop plotting revenge and finally relax. Kayden had seemed happy enough with the outcome, and so long as nobody attacked them it would probably stay that way.

There had been no additional jobs from Coil in the meantime though, which was making me feel a little uneasy. I had heard about the Undersiders attacking the fundraiser that the PRT had held for the heroes. Judging by the released footage of the event it had certainly seemed to go poorly for them at the start, mostly thanks to Armsmaster preparation, although they had managed to escape this time completely without my assistance. It was possible that Coil just hadn't thought they needed our help this time, and not that our working relationship had been irreparably damaged.

I hoped that was the case and not the rift that I had been dreading for years.

I had made no progress at all on buying a warehouse, mostly because I wasn't sure how to do it without attracting a ton of attention to myself. If a random eighteen-year-old guy who was still in school suddenly turned up trying to buy a warehouse out of nowhere it would look very suspicious, I had absolutely no doubt that kind of thing would get me placed on a list somewhere. The authorities had to have been on the lookout for exactly that kind of thing, what with the existence of capes and hidden bases.

I was definitely not willing to go through Coil for this either, because my faith in the guy had been shaken pretty badly by the Empire situation. I wasn't comfortable with him knowing exactly where the warehouse would be located, because he had already proven that he was willing to break the rules if it got him what he wanted.

I had a sinking feeling that he already had all of the information he needed on me. I had known the guy for years now, there was no way he hadn't paid someone to figure out my identity, I had a feeling he probably knew who most of the capes in the city were in their civilian lives. Either way, the less incriminating or identifying information that I provided him with the better, I didn't want to wake up one day and find myself in the same position. My only defense against him if he suddenly turned on me was that he knew if he tried to screw me over I would come after him.

Not much of a defense I'll admit, but it would have to do, for now.

So now I was stuck with Squealer camping on my couch, which was giving me a giant case of the sads. I could already see the fake leather beginning to flake off the cushions from the constant use, I fucking loved that couch and it deserved so much better than this. Squealer was still driving me up the wall as well, for whatever reason she had taken it upon herself as a challenge to try and piss me off.

I had no idea what her end goal was though, maybe she wanted me to be so annoyed that I fired her? Who knows, either way, I just fought fire with fire, I could be very annoying, after all.

"What the fuck?!" Squealer shouted angrily from the bathroom. "Andy you fucker!"

I started laughing my ass off, I guess she had finally spotted the dicks I had drawn all over her face while she was sleeping. My revenge for her breaking into my computer and finding out my name, get wrecked idiot.

"Now who's the dickhead!" I shouted gleefully, "Pro-tip: It's you!"

I heard a crash that was either her slamming the shower door or punching the wall, I wasn't sure which. I heard the sound of water a moment later, so it was probably the shower door.

"Just you fucking wait!" Squealer shouted furiously. "I'm going to kick your fucking ass!"

I looked nervously at the door for a moment, she sounded pretty angry this time, I would probably need to start sleeping with one eye open.

"Hah! You're a thousand years too young to try and defeat me, Squeaky!" I said bravely.

Never show fear, gents, they can smell it.

"What the fuck did you just call me?" Squealer said horrified.

I just laughed nervously.

May 15th, 2011, Sunday, 11:43 AM.

I ended up fleeing my apartment before she got out of the shower, she was still shouting when I left, so it was better to not risk it. I stepped out of the stairwell and onto the sidewalk. I made it exactly five steps down the street before an awful keening alarm suddenly started up, scaring the absolute shit out of me.

"What the hell?!" I yelped in alarm.

I spun around to stare at where the noise was coming from, on top of the nearest power pole there was a speaker aimed at a downwards angle that I had never noticed before. I thought it was echoing down the street for a moment until I realized that there was more of the speakers down the street, repeating the keening wail.

What the hell was this?

"Leave your homes. Find the nearest shelter. Follow the directions of local authorities. Leave your homes." The P.A system said sternly.

It was obviously a recording in a woman's voice, on repeat. The words blared out just as loud as the siren had, and I could hear the same lines being echoed off almost every street corner around me. People started appearing from inside the surrounding building, all shouting and carrying on. They started tearing off down the footpaths in the same general direction, and a guy bumped my shoulder in his panic.

I stared after the man in confusion, I had never heard anything like this before, what exactly was happening? I reached out and snagged a guy my age by the shoulder, the guy spun out of my grip.

"Don't touch me!" The guy said angrily.

I rolled my eyes at him before pointing down the street.

"What's the siren about? Where is everybody going?" I demanded.

He stared at me like I was an idiot.

"Don't you read your mail?" The guy demanded, "It's a fucking Endbringer!" before stepping back into the wave of people fighting their way down the street.

I felt an uneasiness settle in my stomach before I turned around and headed straight back up to my apartment. Fuck, which one was it? Which one had attacked last time, I couldn't remember, I hadn't been keeping track of them lately either. It had always felt like it was some distant thing that happened somewhere else, I mean there had been some attacks in different parts of America, but I couldn't remember where.

One of them had attacked Canberra recently, hadn't it? That was in Australia I think? I remember one of them had attacked Japan as well, years ago, it was the reason that there were now so many Japanese citizens now living in America. The Endbringers had never come anywhere near Brockton Bay before, why the fuck would they come here now?

I felt a chill down my spine, which one was it? I swear to god it had better not be the fucking water one. I slammed my apartment door open, before striding straight into the middle of the room to find Squealer, standing naked next to the couch, her towel on the floor next to her holding her underwear in her hands.

I stared at her shamelessly as her look of shock quickly turned to anger.

"I am going to fucking-" Squealer started.

I cut her off immediately, not bothering to look away.

"One of the Endbringers is attacking Brockton Bay." I said distractedly, "You should put your tits away, can't you read the atmosphere?"

Squealer stared at me, stuck somewhere between fear and anger. I stared at Squealer stuck somewhere between her face and her belly button.

"Fuck!" Squealer said panicked. "Which one is it?"

Squealer started pulling her clothes on in a rush, and I let out a thoughtful hum as I watched her, causing her to look up at me again.

"Stop fucking staring dumbass!" Squealer demanded as she yanked her pants up.

I nodded seriously at her request, without looking away.

"I have no idea which one it is," I said honestly, slowly getting my mind back in gear. "I'm going to help fight it though, what are you going to do?"

Squealer yanked her shirt down over her head, before turning to stare at me again.

"Why the fuck would you fight it?" Squealer demanded, "Those things kill most of the people that turn up!"

I scoffed at her, clearly, Squealer had forgotten exactly who she was talking to.

"I'm not going to let some flying-feathered-fuck kill me, who the hell do you think I am?" I demanded.

Where was the god damned respect? This was Polite Guy all over again.

"Are you retarded?!" Squealer said furiously. "It's a fucking Endbringer!"

"You're a fucking Endbringer!" I accused, matching her energy.

"What the fuck does that mean?!" Squealer raged, stepping forward aggressively.

"I don't fucking know!" I shouted back, "I'm still thinking about your tits!"

Squealer immediately tried to punch me in the face, and I barely managed to sway back out of the way of the sudden attack. My phone started ringing in my pocket, so I quickly generated a wire construct to hold her back while I answered it.

"Hello?" I said curiously.

Squealer was doing her best to fight off the wire hand I sent her way, but it certainly looked like a losing battle from where I was standing.

"Andy," Kayden said calmly. "Are you going?"

I had been thinking of calling Kayden before, but Squealer being naked had completely derailed me.

"I am," I said easily, "I don't think Squealer is up for it though."

"Fucking thumb!" Squealer strained, trying to break the hand's grip. "Get your fucking hand off of me!"

I let the construct disintegrate around her obligingly. Squealer quickly dragged herself back to her feet, red-faced and breathing heavily.

"Do I want to know what is going on over there?" Kayden said strangely.

I thought about explaining it for about exactly one second, before ignoring her question entirely.

"What are you going to do?" I asked cheerfully, "Where are Aster and Theo?"

"I'm going with you." Kayden said simply, "I've already dropped them off at a shelter near the edge of the city, Theo is going to look after Aster for me."

"Nice," I said happily, "I'll probably drop Squealer off at one of the shelters, where do you want to meet?"

Squealer was starting to look worried once more, I would have to do something to distract her again.

"Your apartment?" Kayden suggested.

"Alright," I agreed, "See you in five."

I hung up, before heading over to where I had stashed my costume.

"Fuck the shelters, take me to where all the capes are." Squealer said sounding torn.

I shrugged my shoulders at her as I got changed, and I made sure to keep an eye on her, just in case she tried to get some revenge, but she just watched me get changed, fucking perv.

"You sure?" I asked curiously, "How are you going to help?"

"Fuck!" Squealer said in frustration, "I don't know, I'll fucking drive injured people around or carry shit for the medical people, does it fucking matter?"

I finished getting dressed in record time, with ample use of my power to speed things along.

"Do whatever you want, idiot." I taunted, "Just don't die."

Squealer narrowed her eyes at the insult but somehow managed to hold herself back from going nuclear again. Shit, she was starting to build up an immunity to my bullshit, I would have to step up my game.

"Let's nip on out of here then, before everything goes tits up." I smirked at her, "What do you say, Squeaky?"

That seemed to do the trick.

May 15th, 2011, Sunday, 11:57 AM.

Kayden arrived in a blinding flash of light, barely a minute after we had gotten to the roof. I watched as she touched down and the light receded, revealing her standing in her white bodysuit.

"Jesus Christ," I greeted cheerfully, "That's twice I've been flashed today, bitches be thirsty."

Kayden narrowed her eyes at the comment, before glancing over at Squealer.

"Stop bringing it up you fucking idiot!" Squealer demanded before she took another swing at me.

I stumbled out of range of her attack, before circling around to keep Kayden in between me and the angry lady.

"You sound like you've had a rough day," Kayden said dryly.

Squealer tried to get at me, but I managed to keep my meat shield in place.

"You try living with this dickhead." Squealer huffed in annoyance.

Squealer gave up on trying to get me, unwilling to try and bodily push past Kayden.

"I've had nightmares about it," Kayden admitted honestly.

I stepped out from behind her in shock and found them both smirking at each other. What the fuck was going on here exactly?

"Hold on a god damned minute," I said completely offended.

"It's worse than any nightmare." Squealer said sullenly. "Trust me."

Kayden nodded in understanding.

"You have my sympathies," Kayden said with false sadness.

"Stop teaming up against me!" I demanded, looking between them. "This is insubordination-"

I was distracted by a motion in the corner of my eye and turned to see a massive armored suit flying through the sky, headed down towards the city, a roiling cloud of dark smoke trailing behind it.

"Is that Dragon?" I said amazed, turning to face it.

What could only be a god damned mech, dropped down pretty close to the beachfront, which I did my absolute best to ignore the existence of, right next to a large multi-story building that was sitting on some kind of hill. I squinted in that direction, trying to make out the tiny moving shapes, there were people all around the building, standing on the grass, and the car park beside the building.

"That's Dragon." Kayden confirmed, "I guess that is where we are going next."

Why did the meeting point have to be right next to the beach? I felt my stomach twist at the thought of going over there, it must have shown on my face because Squealer was looking at me strangely.

"What's your problem?" Squealer frowned.

Kayden also turned at the words and followed her gaze up to my face, I belatedly dragged on my mask.

"No problem here," I said weakly.

I sent a wire out to Squealer and generated a platform for her to stand on, before lifting myself off the ground with my own wire armor. Squealer stepped onto the platform without issue, still frowning.

"Andy?" Kayden asked quietly.

I swallowed, trying to fight down the nausea that was clawing at me and did my best to mask it with false cheer.

"Full Frontals, let's go kick some ass." I forced out.

If there was one silver lining to this situation, it had to be that the Endbringer couldn't possibly be Leviathan, the fucking water one, because there was no way we would be meeting right next to the beach if that was the case, that would be stupid as fuck, we would totally get our asses kicked trying to fight the thing near the water.

Kayden turned her power back on before lifting up into the air beside us. I floated slowly towards where the building was, slowly building up speed. The awful feeling increased as we inched our way closer to the ocean, but I managed to force the panic down.

"You're acting weird as fuck." Squealer accused, thankfully distracting me for a moment.

I did my best to focus on her high-pitched voice, rather than the looming mass of water we were approaching. I don't know why I was being such a pussy about this, I should just tell them and get it over with, who cares if they laughed.

"Fuck." I said forcefully, "I'm scared of the water, Squeaky."

A flash of annoyance crossed her face at the name, but I'd managed to derail her initial response. I looked down at the building's car park below us, there were so many capes, I had never seen so many in one place, not even Somer's Rock had anywhere close to this amount. There were hundreds, and Kayden's brightly glowing form had attracted a great deal of attention from a lot of them, but they made no move to attack us. At least the Endbringer truce was still in effect, that was nice.

"Are you scared of water, or just the ocean?" Kayden said quietly.

Squealer just kept on staring at me with narrowed eyes, waiting for her opportunity.

"Large masses of water, I'm fine with showers or rain," I admitted quietly. "The ocean fucking sucks."

Squealer laughed suddenly, and I turned to glare at her, she returned the look with a smirk.

"Poor baby," Squealer mocked, "Are you going to cry me a river?"

I felt my eye twitch at the words. This. Bitch.

"It's such a shame too because I would have loved to see you both in a swimsuit." I shot back immediately, "Then again, I've already seen everything that Squeaky has to offer."

"Fuck you!" Squealed shouted immediately.

Kayden just sighed at the bickering.

I cut off Squealers tirade before it could get started by suddenly dropping down towards one specific cape below, standing apart from the others. Squealer let out a terrified shout as her platform suddenly vanished, I caught her barely a moment later in a harness of wires.

"Good morning, Dragon!" I said cheerfully.

I had strategically landed with my back to the ocean because fuck looking at it. I knew it was still there, it almost felt like a presence bearing down on my mind. The hulking mech was sitting on its own, facing the beach, it had a bunch of shoulder-mounted weapons, and it sat poised as if it were about to shoot the fucking ocean.

"I knew you were one of the good ones," I said happily.

The head of Dragon's massive mech tilted down to look at us and I smiled up at the giant from behind my mask, anybody that hated the water was alright by me.

Squealer was dead silent as she stared at the massive machine with wide eyes, I wondered if it counted as a vehicle to her power? If she had the tools could she make something like this? I couldn't help but imagine the giant rusted pile of crap that she would have added on top of it and shivered.

"Urchin, Purity, Squealer." Dragon said surprised. "I'm surprised to see you here."

Dragon's voice was slightly synthesized and very noticeably female, I was going to have to shoot my shot.

"Dragon, I like your voice," I said smoothly, "Can I get your number?"

Kayden, still glowing brightly beside me, turned to stare at the side of my head incredulously, but I ignored her. Dragon tilted the mech's head to the side as if confused and I stared hopefully up at where I thought the cockpit would be, trying to guess what the pilot might look like based on her voice.

"Why do you want my phone number?" Dragon asked strangely. "Do you want to turn yourself in?

What?

"Crash and burn, Idiot!" Squealer cackled hysterically.

I brushed off what could only be the foul sting of rejection with all the grace I could muster, anything was better than thinking about what was right behind me.

"Moving on," I said awkwardly, "What's the situation, beautiful?"

This was one of the members of the Protectorate, so surely she would have some idea about what we should be doing, I was thinking I could try to make some barriers or something.

"The meeting will be starting very soon, inside the building." Dragon said curiously, gesturing with a wing. "I highly recommend that you attend, we will be discussing strategy and assigning groups.

"Sweet!" I said happily, "Thanks Dragon, we should totally get coffee sometime, bye!"

I patted the giant mech on the leg before heading towards the building doing my best to ignore the laughter coming from Squealer. Most of the capes that had been idling around in the car park were now either already inside or heading there now. I noticed that Kayden had remained strangely quiet, no doubt impressed by how much game I had with the ladies. Eventually, we pushed our way through the throngs of capes into a massive room that had plastic chairs everywhere.

As soon as I had a moment to look around the room I found my next distraction, a lady with long pale purple hair leaning against a wall, she was even taller than I was. I stared at her for a moment astonished, before moving straight towards her, she was at least as tall as my mother had been.

For whatever reason this woman was also naked, well at least I thought she was until I had gotten close enough to see that she was actually completely covered with what looked like tiny crystals, they stuck to her like she had been poured into pale pink glitter, and I could see every contour of her body perfectly, leaving nothing to the imagination.

"Damn lady, you are tall as fuck!" I said amazed as I stopped in front of her.

The unicorn-woman stared down at me blankly, and I met her gaze easily. Kayden hissed something under her breath and tried to tug me backward by my coat, sounding worried, even Squealer was standing several meters back watching the three of us with wide eyes.

"You are quite tall as well." The unicorn said calmly. "Who are you?"

"Urchin. You're in the Protectorate, aren't you? I think I've seen you on a poster somewhere before." I said thoughtfully, "What's your name? No wait let me guess. The Pink Unicorn? Glitterhorse? The Horniest Woman?"

Kayden made a strangled sound in the back of her throat, but the tall pink woman just watched me for a long moment before nodding.

"My name is Narwhal. I am indeed a member of the Protectorate, the Toronto branch specifically." Narwhal said calmly. "I'm sorry to say that I have not heard of you before."

I pouted for a moment, before realizing that she couldn't see it. Kayden was still holding onto the back of my costume as if she might need to suddenly pull me out of the way of something but she seemed slightly less panicked at least.

"I'll have to do something really impressive then, so you remember me," I said cheerfully. "We should totally hang out sometime and do tall people things!"

Narwhal watched me silently as I suddenly walked away from her, my next distraction had just caught my eye from across the room, I had better go say hello to her before she did something drastic. Kayden let out a sigh before letting go of my costume, choosing instead to remain with Squealer.

I sprawled in the plastic chair next to her, curious as to why she was sitting alone. I noted that the rest of the Undersiders were sitting nearby, staring at her sullenly, I waved to Regent and got a nod in return.

"Skitter," I said happily. "Bite anyone on the-"

"Shut up." Skitter said waspishly.

"Bee in your bonnet, huh?" I said curiously. "Want to talk about it?

Skitter stared at me for a long time, staying remarkably tense. I had seen her a bunch of times before, and we usually had something of a back and forth going. The way she was sitting now was like she was either about to attack me or was expecting to be attacked by me in turn. I couldn't remember having seen her look like this before.

It had to have been because of the Endbringer, which was enough to make anyone tense.

"Do you know a girl named Dinah Alcott?" Skitter said suddenly.

I noted movement in the Undersiders group, as Tattletale had just stood up abruptly, and was looking over at us both warily. Skitter had noticed the movement as well and had glanced over at her teammate in alarm, they were all looking very tense all of a sudden as if something were about to happen.

"Nope." I said honestly, "Who's that?"

Skitter turned back to look at me and Tattletale quickly started moving towards us.

"The twelve-year-old girl that Coil kidnapped, routinely drugs, and keeps locked in his basement." Skitter said quietly.

Tattletale had arrived, and the two of them started whispering to each other, voices harsh. I stared at the side of Skitter's head as I tried to figure out exactly how I felt about the words she had just spoken. I tried to reconcile the Coil I knew, calm and collected, with the image that she had just put in my head, but they were nothing alike.

Coil was meticulous, he planned years ahead, and as far as I knew he hadn't actually killed a single person, not even the members of the gangs that he had considered his enemies. He usually hired teams of professionals to take care of problems quickly and quietly. If he needed something done he just paid for it, seemingly with his unending horde of gold.

Why would he kidnap a random twelve-year-old girl and drug her? The action seemed so out of character for him, almost as out of character as suddenly unmasking every cape in the Empire. I was vaguely aware of someone at the front of the room talking, but I didn't have a chance of focusing on the words, my mind was racing.

Coil never seemed to do anything just for the sake of it, there was always something for him to gain, some condition he set out to fulfill. So what was his motive here? There had to be something special about the girl, she was important somehow.

Dinah Alcott, I almost felt like I might have read the name somewhere before, back when I had been researching people who could have been the Rail Tracer. One of the files maybe, was it one of the train staff? I vaguely remembered searching through that same list hundreds of times, had I seen the name there?

One of the relatives of someone who I thought was suspicious? I couldn't remember, but now I was almost positive that was a real person.

Skitter was part of the Undersiders, and they all worked for Coil. Why would she suddenly tell me this? She knew that I also worked for Coil, hadn't I told her that during our first meeting? Was she trying to turn me against Coil or was it real and she had just found out about it? Tattletale was clearly upset that she had told me, why would that be the case? Why wasn't Skitter sitting with the other Undersiders? Were they fighting?

Could I trust what she told me? Fuck.

I stood up suddenly, before ripping my phone out of my pocket. Skitter and Tattletale both moved away from me instantly at the abrupt movement, sending the plastic chair skidding across the floor, bugs crawled out from under Skitter's hair, buzzing threateningly. A man made completely out of metal stepped between the three of us warily, looking like he wanted to play peacekeeper.

The rest of the Undersiders had stood up now as well and were quickly making their way over to us. Metal Man started saying something, but I ignored him, scrolling through my phone for the right contact, I found it and pressed call. I watched as the Metal Man gave them both armbands, he held one out to me, but I made no move to take it.

"Urchin," Coil said calmly.

The two Undersiders were still staring at me but now Tattletale looked truly alarmed, someone was still speaking to the group far behind me. Metal Man was still staring at me steadily, his hand was still outstretched.

"Coil, who the fuck is Dinah Alcott?" I demanded.

Tattletale turned suddenly to stare across the room, which is when someone shouted at the top of their lungs and a massive wave smashed through the front windows of the building.