Eighty-five minutes ago, Oni Lee received an anonymous tip about the civilian identity of the Iron Spider and the Entomancer. It was a blatant disregard of the unwritten rules.
After consulting with Bakuda, they made quick plans to kidnap a Danny Hebert from the Docks Association, transplant a bomb on his neck, and leave him in his house… it was a fairly decent trap that could induce equal mental trauma with enough killing potential.
Lee wouldn’t know if it succeeded. Currently, he was on his way to Lung to free him from his imprisonment. When Lung was free once more, ABB would rise again.
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Thomas Calvert was relaxing in his private jet with a wine in hand, and the window on his side. He saw Brockton Bay fade in his view. He smiled. “Retaliation. Revenge. I never knew I could get this hot-headed, but I have made the most out of my disadvantaged position. If the Spider dies now, then good… Though I was looking forward to my reunion with him. Hmmm... Sophistry would only get me this far, huh?”
He had anonymously informed ABB about the civilian identity of Iron Spider and Entomancer. It was a not-so-hard of an affair, one that he did not trust leaving to Tattletale… He was wary he might be tracked, but he had done his best to cover his traces. Not even Dragon could connect him to this incident.
It had hurt him to let go of Tattletale, but it was a necessary sacrifice.
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Friday— April 15th, 2011.
LISA WILBOURNE.
4:45 PM.
Lisa was packing her bags, when Brian came knocking and shouting from her door.
“Lisa! Open this! We need to talk!” persistently called Brian.
“Wait a second,” Lisa replied, sneakily grabbing a handgun. She opened the door while hiding her handgun under the door, its nozzle pointed right at Brian.
Brian Laborn was a dark-skinned man, physically mature for his age, with a muscular frame and a lantern jaw. His hair was in cornrows, and while just a teenager, he could easily pass for an adult. He was also the nominal leader of the Undersiders under the cape name ‘Grue’ with the power to generate cloud-like darkness.
“Lisa, you don’t get to leave the team with just a text message,” Brian started with a scolding tone. “That’s unfair.”
“I want out, and our ‘boss’ has abandoned us. I will have my freedom, and do what I want. Listen, Brian, I lied to you. I lied to the whole team. I have been acting under orders from Coil. He is the one who is pulling the strings… I wanted to beat him at his own game and raise this team into my vision with you as a figurehead. I am a ‘Thinker’ and I have thought of Coil’s sudden departure a lot. I don’t have the whole picture, but I believe it was high time we disband and we go on our separate ways.”
The reason Tattletale was so honest, was because only through this way could she bring her point across to Brian. No, she was not Tattletale anymore. She was just Lisa. Lisa Wilbourn.
Or maybe she would change her name again.
She wanted to fight Coil, defeat him. She wanted to prove herself. She wanted to rise, to become her own ideal cape, and to be not alone… She didn’t want to admit the last part as much as the others, but it was true. She hated leaving the Undersiders. She had ambitions. She had a life here now, but she had to leave. They all had to leave.
“The implications are bad, Brian. I’ve been getting lots of Thinker-headaches recently. My powers tell me there had been clashes of Thinker-abilities… a lot. And then there are the bombings now… A lot is happening. For some reason, Coil decided to put the new capes on the wringer with the intent to rip them to pieces…” Lisa closed the door on Brian.
But Brian pushed his one foot to the door, stopping her.
Brian argued, “What did you do?”
It was funny how Brian was not even a Thinker, yet he could now get a good read on her.
Lisa was secretive, and it annoyed her teammates most of the time. But she only meant good when she wanted to hide things. She sighed. If Brian was getting a read on her, then she must be really out of her depth.
“Coil took hostage of my civilian identity, and then took hostage of my life,” She murmured in a weak voice. “It was from him I learned how to be truly paranoid. We Thinkers are weak when exposed, and he took advantage of my weakness to a great extent. He had me work for him. He had me scout for Capes. I was his information broker and field agent for a long time. How did you think I found you?”
Unexpectedly, someone called out to Brian. Someone who shouldn’t be here.
“Hey, I am sorry to intrude, but…” Alec was in his civilian identity, he had curly dark hair and attractive features that were more categorically ‘pretty’ rather than handsome. “I don’t know what the hell you guys brought into us, but we have had terrible luck recently… I don’t blame you Lisa for this but fuck! The two of you raise your hands and not do anything, or you’ll be dead, there is a—”
Before even Alec finished, Lisa realized what was this all about…. No. Not Lisa. She was back to being Tattletale. ‘A spider. Black. A black widow is hiding under Alec’s sleeve. Alec is hurt. A broken arm, he tries to hide it. A hostage situation. An attack. Brian. A black widow sneakily sets up on his shoulder. Me? How about me?’ This all occurred to her within half a second, and in the other half, she was already acting on the information availed to her by her powers.
The very second she saw the black widow sneakily crawling on her knee, she immediately swatted it before the Entomancer finished her threats through Alec. Tattletale then stomped on the black widow and made a run for it.
“Oi~” Alec grimaced, while Brian remained confused. “Fuck, she’s ditching us… Don’t move, Brian, there is a black widow on your neck, so stay still.”
Brian froze by the doorway as he felt the spider on his neck.
Tattletale tripped on her legs, it was Alec’s work.
In his cape identity, Alec donned the name ‘Regent’, and his power was a Master-variant that allowed him to cause involuntary movements of the other people’s body parts.
“The fuck,” Tattletale cussed as her nose was bloodied by her fall. On top of this, she also dislocated her other foot. She remained prone while she composed herself, simultaneously throwing a challenge at Alec. “You betrayer. No wonder your daddy thought you were wasting your potential.”
Alec stepped on her good leg, making sure she wouldn’t run away. “Ooo~f… Right on the jugular with your powers, huh? But nah, taunts won’t work on me in these circumstances. Betrayer? Nah, this is all on you. I really liked this team, and I felt bad doing this… but it is checkmate now for the Undersiders. You should at least help the others have a safe way out.”
Tattletale raised her handgun and aimed for Alec, but Alec was a step ahead. He used his powers to make her flung her gun away. Alec continued, “Let’s be honest here. Among the Undersiders, the bad eggs are you and me. Brian has a sister he cares for. And Rachel has her… dogs… Yep, Rachel is more human than we can ever be, Tattletale.”
“You act as if you know me so much. What? You secretly a Thinker now?” Before Tattletale made more attempts at taunting Alec, someone else inserted themselves into the conversation... not a word leaving the intruder's mouth.
As Tattletale and Regent engaged in their tense standoff, Brian was pushed aside. Stepping inside was the Entomancer and her presence was commanding attention. Brian's surprise was evident, but the Entomancer paid him little mind as she settled onto a nearby sofa with a calm and collected demeanor. She glanced at Tattletale, lying prone on the floor, and then turned her attention to Regent, with an unreadable expression.
The Enromancer’s costume and mask were intimidating, and the lack of dialogue was most concerning.
Regent glanced at the Entomancer with a mixture of apprehension and annoyance. “Nice entrance. Where is the Spider? The dude broke my arm real nice… it was a clean break.” His sarcasm didn’t do him any good as the black widow from his sleeve crawled right on his cheek as a threatening show of power.
Tattletale was caught in a precision strike targeting her teammates first. She had no way of escaping this. Her powers had told her she would be tracked, but not this fast. ‘Something that messes up with Thinker-powers, operates on a set of parameters that feeds misinformation if the user in question was targeted by hostility. It was either Entomancer or the Iron Spider. The reasons for Coil’s hasty retreat and liquidation of his assets were most likely the result of Coil's fear of the anti-thinker power. Entomancer? What is there to be seen on Entomancer? She was grieving? Why? Parents. No, it was a ‘parent,’ a father, dead by explosion. Fuck… Did I mess up? Did revealing her civilian identity kill her father? But that’s impossible, the PRT would have acted on my information faster than ABB would, but it changes things if ABB was informed in advance. Coil did this. Freedom? Not likely to achieve. I am cornered.’
The Entomancer remained silent, her gaze flickering between Tattletale and Regent with a hint of amusement. She seemed content to observe the unfolding confrontation, or maybe this was all acting.
‘Yes, this was acting,’ Tattletale power was churning information at every second, but she was not finding any breakthrough. ‘I am still trapped. No escape. Entomancer wants me. Show of power, authority, and confidence. What is her play? Revenge? Highly likely. Against the Undersiders? No. Recruitment? No. What is it? She wants the Undersiders. She wants to take over… us.’
Unknowingly, Tattletale gulped, she never took the new cape to be so ambitious, but what about Entomancer’s partner?
Entomancer began with a low voice, “It is a pity. You had to kill the poor black widow… I had to stop at the nearest insectarium to get them, and there weren’t plenty of them. Tell me, Tattletale, where is Coil?”
“I don’t know,” Tattletale gritted her teeth. She didn’t truly know, but she had to give something if she wanted to survive this. “Coil is very careful. The snake had shed his skin the first instance it got. Why? I don’t know. Normally, he would have killed me to deny any involvement with the Undersiders, but he offered me ‘my freedom’ as a prize if I do one last job for him.”
“Go on,” dismissively gestured Entomancer with a shooing motion.
Tattletale continued, deciding honesty was the best policy right at this moment, “The job was exposing your civilian identities, Taylor Hebert. Coil provided me with the information, he had a lot about you, but not much about… the Iron Spider. I did a little digging on my part and it took me little effort to learn about Winslow High and your likely Trigger Event.”
Her words were filled with hidden barbs, and she could see it in Taylor’s body language. Tattletale continued, this time more careful on her words. “The Iron Spider had nothing on him except for a face in a picture. I only found out his name… through my power. Peter Parker, 16 years old, attends Midtown High, Brooklyn, but he was a ghost. Most likely a ‘Stranger’ effect. If it was his power or an effect of another person’s power, I don’t know.”
“Not bad,” Taylor stood, and picked some stuff from her belt, there were two cylinders the size of a pinky finger. “Tracking devices. This is better than the alternative I have in mind, so you guys are lucky Peter is such a nice person.”
At hearing the word ‘alternative’, Tattletale’s powers informed her that the ‘Tracking Device’ was a more welcome development. ‘I cannot decline this… She needs my power. Maybe to hunt down the ABB or the bomb tinker responsible for the explosions.’
Alec piped in, “I suggest you guys accept this, the alternative was to make us eat worms. Our Lady Entomancer here claims she can rig worms or larvae, in general, to act as a kill switch by making them worm through near our lungs or heart. It is very motivating, I tell you…” His joking tone was not highly appreciated as Brian simply huffed.
But Alec was not done yet, “The way I see it. We will be teammates again, guys… I am looking forward to it. What is the saying? Ah, if you cannot beat them, you join them.”
“No sudden movements,” Entomancer warned as she flicked a piece each at Brian and Tattletale.
The cylinders disappeared and seeped on their skin. Tattletale only felt a tingling sensation in her skin and realized it was nanites. Little ‘nanobots’ began to flow in her bloodstream. This kind of nanotech was too advanced for her, and she was not confident of getting rid of it. Not even modern technology could help, despite the advancements in science that iteration after iteration of Tinkers had contributed to society.
Entomancer made a formal announcement, “From now on, the Undersiders are mine.” There was a cold conviction in her voice and a hint of bloodthirst.
It appeared it was not time yet for Lisa Wilbourn to go… and it seemed for a distant future, she would be stuck here in Brockton Bay for a prolonged period of time.
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#Warlord Taylor’s New Origin Story? #I loved the Black Widow scheme, definitely one of my favorites. #Where is Spidey? Most likely watching Taylor’s six after webbing Rachel.
