One More Trigger Pt 18 (Patreon)

[Author's Note: since writing the last chapter, I have re-read Worm and taken note that the Travellers were (in canon) not established in Coil's base at the time of the bank robbery. I had the options of either rewriting that chapter to exclude them, or deciding that due to plot butterflies, Coil's base had been completed earlier, and so they had already moved in by this time. I went with the butterflies. It seemed easier.]

Universe A

The noise came again.

THOOOM.

The ground under their feet shivered; cracks spread in the concrete wall. Dust drifted down from above. Sparx tightened the grip of her tendrils around Coil's mouth.

Everyone started shouting at once.

“Back!” shouted Armsmaster. “Defensive perimeter!”

“No!” Tattletale protested. “It's what Coil wants! He's going to try to escape in the confusion!”

But her voice was drowned out in the general noise and mayhem.

Ladybug spotted Sundancer and Oliver trying to drag the unconscious bodies of Trickster and Ballistic out of harm's way; she tapped Sparx on the shoulder, and directed her attention that way.

Unwinding her tendrils from Coil's face – the damage was done already – the redhead moved in that direction and scooped them both up, bracing herself with more tendrils against the floor.

<><>

Universe C

Tattletale moved across and carefully shut off the intercom that accessed Noelle's vault. “Get him away from here,” she stated firmly. “He was going to say something, and things would have gone badly.”

Armsmaster nodded. He took Coil by the shoulder. “Come on,” he snapped. “Try anything and I will tase you into a drooling puddle.”

Sparx glanced at Tattletale; the blonde nodded. The redhead allowed her tendrils to relax from their grip around Coil's face.

“I'll come quietly,” Coil assured the armoured hero smoothly. “It's not as if I can escape now, is it?”

Tattletale glowered at him as he was escorted away.

“What's the matter?” asked Ladybug quietly.

“He's too confident,” Tattletale told her, equally quietly. “He's up to something. I don't know what it is, but he's very happy about how things are going.”

Sparx, overhearing, nodded. “We'll keep an eye on him. Ladybug, tag him, so that if anything goes down, you know where to find him.”

“Roger and done,” Ladybug assured her.

Tattletale took a deep breath. “Right. Now, as for Noelle.”

<><>

Universe A

THOOOM.

Another impact spread cracks across the wall before them.

“Run!” yelled Coil. “It's too big, too powerful! You can't fight it!”

PRT soldiers, hearing his words, and obviously not wanting to face whatever was trying to break out of the vault, began to edge back nervously.

“For fuck's sake, he's playing you!” shouted Tattletale. She reached for a PRT soldier's sidearm; he noticed, grabbed her wrist, and a scuffle began.

Ladybug stepped in, separating them. “Tattletale, enough,” she snapped. “What's gotten into you?”

THOOOM.

This time, chunks of concrete began to fall. The nervous retreat became a full-scale rout.

“Coil's going to try to escape!” shouted Tattletale, even as she and Ladybug fell back. Aerodyne was putting up an air-shield to prevent the worst of the falling debris from hitting anyone, while Sparx was transporting Trickster and Ballistic out of the way.

“Wake them up!” she called to Panacea. “We can move faster if they can walk!”

“Not Trickster!” Genesis told her unexpectedly. “Leave him unconscious.”

“Why?” asked Sparx.

“Because he loves Noelle,” she replied frankly, “and I don't know which side he'd take right now.”

<><>

Universe C

“Okay, so she's a Case 53,” Amy noted. “I'm going to need to see what data Coil collected on her before I can consider making any changes in her body – or if it's even safe for me to get close to her.”

“I, uh, had my bugs eat his computer,” Ladybug put in. “He really, really wanted to access something, and I decided that it wasn't in our best interests.”

Tattletale blinked rapidly. “A self-destruct for the base. Right. Yeah, he would totally do that.” She grabbed a surprised-looking Ladybug and hugged her, ignoring the squeak of surprise. “You just saved all our lives doing that. Good job.”

“We should be able to pull the hard drives, right?” asked Aerodyne. She glanced at Ladybug as Tattletale released her. “You're the computer geek. Would that work?”

“They might be encrypted,” Ladybug pointed out.

Tattletale grinned. “Not exactly a problem.”

<><>

Universe A

“I can stop this,” Coil urged the young private assigned to guarding him. “I just need to get to my office.”

“I don't know,” Private Donaldson temporised. “The sergeant -”

“- is busy organising things. Look, you've got the gun and I don't. We need to get up to my office and I can fix all of this.”

“If you try to escape -”

Coil held out his hands. “Cuff me if you have to.”

Donaldson pulled handcuffs off his belt. One cuff went around Coil's right wrist; the other around Donaldson's left. “Lead the way,” the private ordered him grimly. “But if I find out it's a trick -”

“It's not a trick,” Coil promised him. “And what am I going to try, with you there?”

<><>

THOOOM.

More bits of the roof fell, but Glory Girl was up there, doing her best to hold up the biggest pieces. Large cracks were starting to show in the wall hiding the vault from view.

“It's okay, I'll keep an eye on him,” Ladybug advised Tattletale, looking around. “Where is he, anyway?”

She scanned the milling PRT troops; Armsmaster was organising them, making sure no-one got in each other's way. But she didn't see the tall, cadaverous figure that was Coil.

“Fuck!” shouted Tattletale. “He fucking got away!”

“We don't know that!” Ladybug tried to reassure her.

“Yes, I actually do know that!” Tattletale reminded her. “Fuck!”

“Didn't you have him tagged?” shouted Sparx over the general melee.

“Yeah - fuck, no!” Ladybug shouted back. "He just bug-sprayed himself!" She pointed. "He went that way!"

THOOOM.

Everyone was up on the second level by this time; near the wall, there was less chance of falling debris, so Glory Girl had rejoined them, carrying Genesis in her wheelchair. The vault door burst open, and there she was. The girl who had once been Noelle Meinhardt, at least from the waist up. From the waist down, a horrific monster, all tentacles and eyes and mouths and strange heads. Great elephant-like legs, with wicked claws, supported the oversized lower body.

“Don't let her touch you!” shouted Sundancer. “She'll absorb you and spit out twisted clones!”

But Glory Girl was already streaking in, fist raised to strike.

<><>

Universe C

Coil suffered himself to be escorted out of his base, out the way that the invaders had first come in. There were PRT all around here as well now. Not out this way, then, he decided.

Casually, he glanced over toward a nondescript alleyway across the street from the construction area; there were no PRT troops near it. Excellent.

Armsmaster prodded him with the butt of his halberd. “Move it,” he snapped. “Director Piggot wants to see you.”

“I'm sure she does,” Coil replied cheerfully, and climbed into the back of the truck as indicated. Several PRT troopers climbed in as well, followed by Armsmaster. Every eye was on him. There would be no chance to escape.

He settled back to enjoy the ride.

<><>

Universe A

Vista had left only two ways out of the base; the way the Samaritans had come in by, and the escape tunnel that Coil had tried to use as an exit. The latter would still be covered by the PRT, and now he knew that the former was also blocked off.

Thankfully, he had planned for a third way; the escape duct that he had been trying for in the discarded reality, when Glory Girl broke his jaw.

They don't know about it, here.

He had gone with Donaldson to one of the ground level storerooms. Inside, there was a stairwell to the upper storey; it wasn't so much a secret passage as a way of getting around without being seen. Once on the upper level, they gained entrance to his office.

“Okay, what now?” asked Donaldson.

“Now I fix this mess,” Coil assured him. He sat down at his computer and moved the mouse with his right hand to wake it up. It was on, of course; his computer system was always on. It had not been destroyed by the bugs because he hadn't been at his computer when the invaders broke in.

Moving the mouse woke the screen up, and he could see all the cameras. Then he clicked on a particular part of the background. Donaldson was distracted by the click as the office door locked, and he glanced around.

This gave Coil just enough time to reach under his desk with his left hand. Clipped to the underside was a pistol, identical to the one that had been taken away from him. He shot Donaldson twice, then grabbed the key and unlocked the cuff from his wrist.

Next, he pulled a can of insect spray from a desk drawer and thoroughly doused his surroundings in it. Checking the cameras revealed that spiders seemed to have webbed over some of the lenses. It was an annoyance, but not too much of one.

And then he tapped in the key sequence that opened the secret panel at the rear of his office. A muted click told him that he had been successful; remembering what had gone before, he typed in a code which closed off all air vents. Finally, one more quick key entry armed the base self-destruct. And then he scrambled for the panel that was even now swinging gently open.

<><>

Victoria Dallon struck Noelle Meinhardt on the point of the jaw. She was flying at full speed, and did not pull her punch. There was a sickening crack, and Noelle's head was driven back, her torso limply flopping sideways.

“Hah!” snapped Vicky, coming to a halt in midair, hands on hips. “So much for -”

And then Noelle's head came up, the neck resetting with a grisly crackling sound, and she turned to look at Glory Girl.

“Bitch,” she growled.

Tattletale shouted a warning – too late.

The tentacle that whipped up and grabbed Glory Girl from behind took her entirely by surprise. For a moment, she struggled, screaming, prising at the tentacle - no, it was a tongue - that was dragging her into a horrific maw.

“Vicky!” shrieked Panacea. “Oh god, Vicky!”

“Shoot her!” shouted Sundancer. “Kill her!”

The horrified PRT men lined up along the rail obeyed, pouring fire into the mass of the creature. Mouths and heads roared discordantly. Bullet holes registered in the upper torso, closed a moment later. There was no other appreciable effect.

A moment later, Glory Girl was gone, subsumed.

“Not Noelle, you idiots!” raged Sundancer. “I meant Glory Girl! Fuck! Now we're all dead!”

Tattletale got her meaning an instant later. “Fuck,” she breathed. “Twisted clones.”

“Defensive posture!” shouted Sparx. “Armsmaster! We have to get out of here! Now!”

“I can't help against Noelle,” Tattletale told Ladybug tensely, “but I can take down Coil. I'm going to need a gun.”

Ladybug nodded; she turned to the closest PRT man. “Pistol. Now.”

He hesitated, and she repeated the word. “Now.”

Drawing the pistol, he handed it to her. She slapped it into Tattletale's palm. Tattletale nodded to her once. “Good luck.”

“Same to you.” Taylor watched as she slipped through the crowd and disappeared. Then she turned her attention elsewhere; Sparx had given orders, and the integrity of her team depended on following them.

Vista had widened the underground base so that Noelle appeared to be glowering at them from the length of a football pitch away. Armsmaster was organising the PRT soldiers into an orderly retreat; Sparx and the Samaritans were going to be covering said retreat.

And then one of the mouths on the side of the ungodly horror that was Noelle Meinhardt's lower body opened up, and spewed a mass of sticky, slimy substance on the concrete floor. Bodies moved, twitched, got up.

As they rose into the air, Panacea gasped in horror.

“Vicky.”

<><>

Lisa came to the locked door, and knew that Coil was inside there, somewhere. Levelling the pistol, she fired point-blank at the lock. Three shots later, the door swung inward, the lock a twisted ruin.

Ramming the door open with her shoulder, Lisa swung the gun to cover the room. The sole inhabitant of the room was the corpse of a PRT private who had been shot to death; the room stank of cordite, blood and liberally-applied bug spray. At the back of the room, a hatch hung not-quite-closed. She dashed over to it, pulling it open.

Coil, you bastard. I'm coming for you.

<><>

The PRT troopers were pouring into the escape tunnel, which Vista had also widened to accommodate more people. In the massive internal space of the underground base, six figures floated in midair. Each was easily recognisable as Victoria Dallon; for a given value of 'recognisable'. One was bald, lacking the flowing golden hair. Another was huge, bulked out, a caricature of a body builder. Another had a swollen, distorted head. The other three were also deformed in some small way, but not as thoroughly as their sisters. All were naked, but for the birthing slime.

“Hey, sis,” purred one of the less deformed ones. “Wanna play?” She smiled, showing razor-sharp teeth.

Panacea looked as though she wanted to throw up. “What has she done to you?” she whimpered, taking an involuntary step forward.

The only response was a widening of the smile – and then the faux Glory Girls rocketed into a charge at the remaining people on the balcony.

Those PRT soldiers left opened fire; two of the attackers faltered in midair and fell, spraying blood from multiple wounds. Two more ploughed into the PRT troopers, ripping limbs and heads off indiscriminately. One, aiming at the Samaritans, collided hard with the shield that Aerodyne raised. The shield popped like a soap bubble, but the Glory Girl clone was thrown into the concrete wall beyond. Bones crunched, and she fell to the ground, leaving a splash of blood on the wall. The two clones attacking the troopers encountered Sparx and Armsmaster, and went no farther. And the last …

… the last retreated, with the screaming, struggling form of Amy Dallon in her arms.

<><>

Amy writhed, trying to get free of the implacable grip of the girl who held her. It was Vicky – the mannerisms were the same, the expressions on her face. But it wasn't Vicky; it couldn't be. Not when there had been five others, all different, all with Vicky's face.

She struggled to come to terms with what was happening. On one level, this was one of her most deeply held fantasies, to have Vicky, naked, holding her in her arms. And there was a glint in this Vicky's eyes that indicated that she might not be held to the same morals and standards as anyone else.

But on another level, she was terrified. She wanted to fight back, to do something to stop what was happening. Intellectually, she knew that she could use her powers to hurt someone. To hurt … Vicky. But … she couldn't. She loved Vicky. She would never do anything to hurt Vicky. And even though she knew that this wasn't really Vicky (or was it? It was so like her) she could not bring herself to use her power offensively. I'm a healer, not a killer.

And then it was too late, because the swarm had arrived.

<><>

Ladybug had been trying, without notable success, to use her bugs to sting or bite Noelle into some sort of compliance. In fact, as her bugs touched the skin of the monstrosity, half the time they got stuck, and disappeared from her control. Now, as she saw Amy as the prisoner of her sister's clone, she immediately understood what was going to happen next.

Twisted clones … I'm sorry, Amy.

Every bug she had, everything with venom or stingers, or anything that could possibly put an end to Amy Dallon, she threw at the biokinetic. Amy was literally covered in bugs. She opened her mouth to scream as stingers plunged into her flesh, as venom flowed into her bloodstream. Other bugs swarmed into her mouth –

- and then the Victoria-clone flew downward, dragging Amy with her, into one of Noelle's many gaping maws.

Taylor felt her connection to all the bugs – disappear.

They were gone.

Amy was gone.

She looked around to see why the troopers had not fired, and saw that they were all down. The other two Glory Girl clones were also down, one sliced into two messy halves, and the other one smoking gently as Sparx's tendrils unwound from it. She met the eyes of her teammates. This is very, very bad.

Armsmaster was already talking; probably trying to raise PRT headquarters. He shook his head. “We have to get outside. I have to call in a strike on this place.”

“Go!” shouted Sparx. “We'll cover you!”

<><>

Coil climbed out of the manhole, carefully fitting the cover back into place. He moved slowly and cautiously, mindful of the PRT troopers surrounding the secret entry, just across the street. Just a little farther and I'm free and clear, he told himself. And then I'll set about leaving the city. I do not wish to share it with that enraged beast.

He was almost at the other end of the alleyway when he heard the manhole cover grind open once more.

"Oh, for fuck's sake," he muttered. "Do these people never give up?"

Resisting the urge to collapse the other timeline and start fresh - he was not yet free and clear, after all - he hurried out of the alley and across the street.

<><>

Lisa eased open the manhole cover, aware that she was eminently vulnerable. But she didn't think Coil was waiting in ambush. Lifting it farther, she climbed out, letting the cover down carefully. Glancing around, she quickly divined which way Coil had gone; holding her gun low at her side, she set off after him.

No matter what else happens, I'm gonna kill that sonofabitch.

In her left hand, she held a phone, busily typing a text.

<><>

Armsmaster bolted into the escape tunnel; immediately thereafter, Vista closed the exit. The glance that she shared with the others was frightened but resolute; she had occasionally wondered if she would be killed in the line of duty. After all, she had come close once or twice before. In the end, she had decided that if this was the way she was going to go, she would face it unflinchingly.

I just wish Dean -

The thought was broken off, because the clones were attacking again. And this time, the Glory Girl clones were backed up with Panacea clones. Noelle had spat out even more versions of Vicky than before, and reinforced them with twisted versions of Amy.

Flying up close, several Glory Girls began pummelling the air shield with hammer-blows that dimpled the shield deeply, but did not quite rupture it. Aerodyne hung on, but she was jolted with every impact; under her mask, her face was as white as her draperies.

"Make a sun!" yelled Sparx, at Sundancer.

"I can't!" sobbed the blonde. "It would be inside the shield!" Which, Sparx realised, would kill them all.

In her chair, Genesis closed her eyes. Off to the side, a shape began forming.

Two Glory Girls peeled off and ripped it to pieces.

"Hole!" shouted Sparx. Aerodyne obediently created a hole in the top of the shield. Tendrils extruded and shocked two of the Glory Girls, but then a third arced up and over - Aerodyne gasped and shut the hole, but Sparx' tendrils were still extended through it - and landed a hammer-blow, right on the weak point.

The shield popped like a bubble, for the second time.

<><>

Armsmaster sprinted down the corridor. Running full armour was not easy, but he had practised. He didn't know exactly where he was going, but he had a fairly good idea. All he had to do was reach open air so that he could get a clear signal, send his message, then return to assist the Samaritans.

In the back of his mind, he knew that they would never last that long, but he could hope.

Abruptly, a barred gate slammed down in front of him. As he skidded to a halt, another dropped behind him. Gas began to pour out of vents above him.

Activating his halberd, he swung at the barred gate, high and then low. The metal, electrified though it was, parted like so many carrot sticks. Bars clattered to the ground.

He had instinctively held his breath when the gas began, but now he started to feel an ominous tingling over those parts of him not covered by his armour. Skin agent. He began to run on, still holding his breath, but the tingling sensation spread. A weakness, a lassitude, began to spread through his limbs. He grimly staggered on.

<><>

Ladybug was desperately trying to bring in a second swarm, but the air vents were all closed, and the tunnel behind her was likewise blocked. She brought up her arms in a futile gesture, pepper-spraying one of the Glory Girls right in the face. Her forearm was seized - she felt it snap like a twig - and she was wrenched right over the rail and flung through the air. She landed on something warm and pulsating, and had half a second to think, I'm okay? before the tongue wrapped around her and dragged her into the gaping maw. Her very last thought was Dad, I'm sorry -

Sundancer flung herself aside from the onrush of the clones. Landing prone, the wind was driven out of her body. But still, she had enough presence of mind to hold her hands before her and start forming a sun. Maybe I can -

Two feet landed in front of her, before she was properly started, and she was hauled abruptly to her feet. She saw what had hold of her, and gagged; one of the Panaceas, who sported spikes from her body at odd intervals for some reason, had taken one of the Glory Girls and distorted her into a living suit of armour, literally pulling her apart and reforming her clone-sister around her own body.

Pulling Sundancer close, the Amy/Vicky hybrid extruded a long finger that punched through Marissa's breastbone and into her chest. She expected to die then, but she didn't; instead, she felt the fiery spread of the deranged clone's tendrils as they traced every nerve ending, culminating with her brain. And to her horror, she felt her attitudes begin to shift, to change. She loved the Panacea/Vicky hybrid. She loved Noelle. Everyone else ... would burn.

Jess, still attempting to form another body, never had the chance to wake up; a Glory Girl clone threw her over the rail, chair and all.

A Panacea clone leered at Aerodyne; she felt a scream welling in her throat. But two fingers brushed across her cheek, and it was all over. Before the scream could even reach her lips, she was already paralysed. Even her brain could not engage, activate her power.

Vista leaped over the rail; she reduced the distance to mere feet, then once she was down, began sprinting across the room. Her power served to keep the pursuing clones off of her, and she began to dare hope that she could perhaps escape into a corridor, seal it behind her -

- until her power abruptly began to fail her. She tried again and again, desperately, then realised the truth when she started coughing blood. One of the Panaceas had created a cloud of living spores, and she had run right into the middle of it.

She was on her knees, blood spraying from her lips with every convulsion of her diaphragm, when she was plucked up by a tentacle-tongue and drawn into the nearest gaping maw.

Sparx held out the longest. She saw the others struck down, and knew that all was lost.

They had discussed this, long into the night, just the three of them. If it's all gone bad, and staying alive is worse than dying ... Each of them had sworn a solemn oath to do what had to be done. Taylor, before she was taken, had tried to perform that little mercy upon Amy; ultimately, she had failed, but she had tried. And it was down to Emma to do what needed to be done, to ensure that Noelle had as little ammunition as possible with which to strike at the city.

She already had a dozen clones enmeshed in her tendrils; some were dead, mostly the Panacea clones, but also a few Glory Girls as well. But now she extended more tendrils, to those of her friends, teammates and fellow capes as she could reach.

This would open her up to the clones, allow them to reach her, she knew. But she had to do this. A moment of concentration, a searing pulse of electricity, and each of them died; Sundancer, Aerodyne, Trickster, Ballistic.

A Glory Girl clone grabbed her, and drew back its fist -

<><>

The self-destruct mechanism, activated mere minutes ago, counted its last seconds. There was no bright flashing LCD timer, no bundle of colour-coded wires that intrepid heroes could cut just in time to save the day. There was just a timer, activated but not controlled by the computer, there was an independent battery backup, and there was about a ton of Semtex, distributed in weak points throughout the complex.

The timer ticked over. It sent the signal. Every electronic detonator received it, and functioned perfectly.

The interior of Coil's base dissolved in a maelstrom of flame, superheated air, and flying debris. Already weakened, and then spread far wider than it was supposed to, the main gallery collapsed ahead of schedule, but not before Sparx and everyone still not subsumed into Noelle's gross body had been killed.

Armsmaster, reduced to a shambling totter, was almost at the exit. He saw the signal strength rise dramatically ... and then the tunnel blew itself to pieces. Ironically, he survived the initial explosion, but a piece of rebar speared through his chest; he would drown in his own blood before the shocked PRT soldiers could ever dig him out.

Lisa, almost at the end of the alleyway, looked around at the rumbling boom; her eyes widened as the manhole cover blew straight up, followed by a cloud of smoke and flame. She knew exactly what had happened, and that all of her newfound friends were dead, or worse. "Fuck," she muttered, a little more loudly than she had intended.

Coil also heard the explosion, and the expletive that followed it.

That voice sounds familiar.

Peering from around the cover of a dumpster, he saw the lone figure, gun in hand, venture into the street. She turned her head, as if scanning, then looked straight at him. Raising the pistol she held, she fired twice.

He had to admit, for an untrained amateur, she wasn't a bad shot. One bullet gouged brickwork two feet above his head, while the other pinged off of the dumpster, even closer to home.

But he had been a trained PRT man before Ellisburg, and had recertified when he had been brought back into the fold and made a strike team leader. He aimed, even as she lunged for cover, and fired. It only took one shot.

Standing up from cover, he walked out of the alley and across the street. Tattletale lay there, her pistol six inches from her outstretched hand. She stared up at him, labouring for breath, as she pressed her hand to her stomach. A dark stain spread in all directions, turning the already-dark indigo costume black in the weak street-lighting. A trickle of dark red ran from the corner of her mouth.

"You stupid little bitch," he told her, kicking the gun farther away from her hand. "You had to go be the big fucking hero."

She coughed, weakly. More red ran from her mouth. "Brought ... you ... down ... din't ... I ...". Her lips tried to curl in the familiar, irritating vulpine grin.

"Hardly," he told her curtly. "I'll start again. But first, I might just dispose of your Undersiders, just in case they decide that I had something to do with your demise."

That got a reaction, a flinch, but he decided that he'd had enough of this conversation. "Any last words?" he asked, levelling the pistol.

She coughed again. "Fuck ..."

He fired before she could get the second word out. Predictable.

<><>

In the ruins of the collapsed base, Noelle shifted slightly. She had survived the majority of the explosions, being already covered with rubble from the collapsed roof. Within her body, she held Glory Girl, Panacea, Ladybug, Genesis and Vista. Enough to destroy the city. Enough to kill everyone and level it to the ground.

I think I'll wait a week, and start sending out clones. Undamaged ones, back to their families. When they murder their loved ones, and start on everyone else, that should spread enough chaos. I'll come out then, claim more bodies, send out more clones. Kill the city, kill the country.

Kill the world.

<><>

Coil holstered his pistol and turned away from the body of Tattletale. She had been useful once; it might have been worthwhile to put her in Dinah's place, but such was not to be. Stepping into the road, he decided that it was probably about time to collapse the other timeline -

He never saw the car coming; his ears, still ringing from the multiple gunshots, had not picked up the growl of the motor as it idled down the street. But when the lights came on to full high beam, and the engine note rose to a roar, he saw it and heard it all too clearly.

And far too late.

The car's bumper caught him and flung him in the air; he felt bones break, and he landed on the street in a tangled pile. As the car door opened and closed, he tried to reach his pistol. He had his hand on it as the tall figure - almost as tall and skinny as him - walked toward him. He pulled it out; the tall man brought his arm down and something metal struck his wrist; he heard the bone snap, and the clatter as the gun hit the asphalt. He may also have cried out; he was not sure.

"You killed my little girl, you son of a bitch."

Now he had the man placed. Danny Hebert, head of the Dockworkers' Association, and agitator for the ferry to be reinstated. Not that it will do me much good now.

"Danny -" he managed, before the tyre iron came whistling down again. Bone broke, and Coil tried not to cry out again. His left arm was now useless.

"And you killed my best friend's little girl."

There was something utterly terrifying in Hebert's cold, remorseless delivery.

"Danny, we can -"

This time, it was his jaw that shattered under the impact of the heavy iron. He cried out, wordlessly. Teeth ripped loose by the impact, were trapped inside the mask of his costume.

"Shut. The fuck. Up."

Coil could not speak; Danny chose not to. He began to systematically, brutally, beat Coil to death. The only sounds that he made were the hissing of his breath through his teeth. He broke both of Coil's legs, shattered his kneecaps, and then his arms and collarbones. The fact that some of these bones were already broken mattered not at all to him.

And then, finally, he raised the tyre iron over his head, and Coil saw for the first time the tears standing in the man's eyes. He did not imagine for a second that the tears were for him.

Up until this point, he had held off on collapsing this timeline; freedom was freedom, after all, and broken bones could be mended. But when the tyre iron slashed down at his head, Coil admitted defeat, and collapsed the timeline.

<><>

Universe C

As the truck pulled in toward the PRT building, Coil scowled under his mask.

He wasn't enjoying the ride so much any more.

<><>

As Sparx led the others out of Coil's base, she turned to Tattletale. "So, how do you like being a part of the Samaritans?" she asked with a smile.

Tattletale grinned. "Oh, I could get to like it.” She glanced at Ladybug. “Your dads are kinda cool. It must be nice having positive male role models.”

Ladybug snorted. “I think you could do with a positive anything role model.”

They all burst out laughing. Lisa grinned her fox-like grin, and did not argue with her.

Part 19