glowfic | witch's cape, not hat

And if only Tattletale were using her power, she'd know that. Regular cold reading it is, then.

"Coil, right? Skitter told me.
We teamed up with him against the ABB, for a while. Most of the villains did. We were small fry then, barely earned a seat at the table. That was while he had you, going by when the other Witches arrived.

More recently, I got into some of his accounts. Locked him out, stole as many of his revenue streams as I could—not giving you any details there, sorry—even bribed some of his mercenaries." On the assumption that this is being examined with her own power, Tattletale has to assume Copycat knows where she's being evasive. She may be wrong, but better safe than sorry.

"Do you have a lead on what he's been doing since?"

"I'm starting here 'cause Brockton Bay is the last place anybody's seen him as far as I know. Gather intel before trying to move on him, and all, though I've never been very good at intel." It's about time to start using the power, headache be damned.

That's what Tattletale was waiting for. Now, to see if Copycat picks up on what she's doing.

"I've got...good information on what he was doing, if that would help."

The power informs Gren, Itentionally avoiding naming the source. Thinks it should be obvious. Coil's former employees. Expected me to guess that. Knows I did. Knows I know she expected me to guess. Knows I know she knows...
It'll keep giving her a steady flow of useless information until she focuses, stops, and starts again.

"It would help. But I'm a bit nervous about the kind of things you might want in return."

Edited 2016-01-14 04:09 (UTC)

"You think the guy's still in Brockton Bay, and more criminal masterminds are not what this city needs. Get rid of him and I'd consider it a personal favor." Dislikes Coil, unstated reason, thinks Copycat would agree with the reason, not stating anyway, expects her power to try to find out. Is trying to distract it.

"He secretly hired the Travelers for cape muscle. Going by what he told his soldiers, his endgame was to clean up the city. Not unlike us, or at least Skitter, just with worse methods. And they would have worked for him regardless, so it's not like he had to lie to them." Her power picks up on the obvious implication, Undersiders have differing motives, Tattletale is in this for sport, successful attacks are counting coup. Fighting the ABB scores points against Lung, attacking PRT HQ was a goal against the heroes, many fights have secondary reasons... it got irrelevant again.

Edited 2016-01-14 04:38 (UTC)

"The Travelers are no longer relevant. They let some sort of evil-clone-making monster loose in my homeworld, then got arrested once we killed it. Trickster died, though. You got into his files. He would have abandoned or drained everything in them if he has any common sense, but can you give me a name or a location from them anyway?"

Edited 2016-01-14 04:49 (UTC)

"That was one of the Travelers' power. You killed Noelle?
When I hacked him I got most everything he knew at the time, but he knew I know it. I could point you to safe houses and backup bases, but they'd be empty. Never did get his secret identity." All statements true, incomplete, would be incomplete even if innocuous to cover for the real secrets, at least one omission isn't innocuous, already knew about the incident with the clones, has up to date information on the Protectorate.

Tattletale notices when she makes that connection. She starts using her own power to keep track of reactions and better direct Copycat's copy down more harmless trails.

"Of course you do, that's your power. Ugh. Spy games. At least I'm careful with my passwords." Has an eidetic or otherwise improved memory. "You're starting to make me feel like I'll come out worse behind even if I find Coil and take him down." Dislikes complex plans, impatient with information gathering, might do something rash or unexpected, intends to fight the Slaughterhouse Nine.

Edited 2016-01-14 05:13 (UTC)

Tattletale reflexively hides her surprise at finding out that last bit of information. Not well enough, of course. "You might, I think he's got arrangements or influence with other villains, but even if they extend to bailing him out I wouldn't bet on them succeeding. I'd worry more about getting yourself killed with some other reckless plan." Knows about the plan to fight the Slaughterhouse Nine, considers it suicide.
Coil has dealt with out-of-town villains. Former employees went to some of those groups. Suspects this is him extending his reach, does not think he has enough influence to make them rescue him. Knows which groups. Adepts. Ambassadors. Elite.... Not exactly a relevant list, if this isn't part of any deals he has, but there goes the power again.

"I might have a way to find him, but I wanted to clear the obvious leads first. It's just common sense, dealing with someone as slippery as him. Some things just need doing." Thinks she can teleport directly to Coil. Thinks Coil doesn't have a power. Thinks Coil is a genius of evasion. Thinks she can beat the Slaugherhouse Nine. Knows the Siberian's weakness. Fought a Siberian-clone. The Siberian is an alternate manifestation of Genesis's power. Has copied the Siberian.

Edited 2016-01-14 05:43 (UTC)

Well, that little detail about Copycat and the Siberian got left out of Tattletale's sources.
And then, since information gleaned by cheating doesn't come with the assumption that both people know it, "Well, that little detail about you and the Siberian got left out of my sources.
But this is bigger than Coil ever was, and it was never their powers that made the Nine dangerous." Sees cape life as a game, Slaughterhouse Nine don't play it. Expects attacking them to fail. Expects teleporting to Coil might succeed where other attacks would fail. Wouldn't mind if it did.

"...This power is kind of bullshit." Thinker headache is starting. "If Coil really is small potatoes, then I could use the practice. But I take serious threats seriously, you don't play fair when losing is unacceptable." Disapproves of treating cape life as a game. Isn't going to push it. Has been discussing plans of attack on the Nine with Legend. Is much more willing to kill than when she was a Ward.

"Okay, if people better informed than me think you've got a shot that's something else. You're still talking going from a local crime lord to the Slaughterhouse Nine, and that's a bit of a leap.

Must not have used her power heavily recently. Hasn't exerted it enough for a headache yet. Thinks hiding whatever she's hiding for this long means she's winning. Smug. Smug smug smug smug smug. Radiating an aura of smugness visible even without the power. From Vermont.

"...There's something wrong here. You called him a local crime lord. As if he's still active, and still here. That's not much by itself, just a turn of phrase. But you're hiding something really hard." Suspects Undersiders have a detente or alliance with Coil. Doesn't trust her own conclusions. Is not used to plotting and information games. Not that Tattletale didn't know that last bit already.

Edited 2016-01-14 06:36 (UTC)

"Oh, I've got a pretty good guess he's still active. Especially now that I've seen how sure you are; you've got a source.
And of course I've got secrets. That's why all the effort to point your copy of my power away from them. Working well, if I do say so myself."

Used to this power. Knows what it will and won't latch on to without being carefully directed. Had this planned since finding out there was a power copier in the city.

"You can be as clever as you like, I have no interest in your secrets. And I've had enough spy games for today. Bye." Has other obligations. Is suppressing thinker headache with healing, only somewhat effective. Doesn't want to lose any more of her own secrets.

"Thanks for stopping by!"
Genuinely means that. Glad for the chance to go up against her own power. Messed with Copycat to see if she could. Not malicious, just kind of a jerk.

Edited 2016-01-14 08:34 (UTC)

Copycat goes around on her regularly scheduled non-heroing for a while.

Some time tomorrow, she tries to teleport to Coil. The way 'porting to a certain person works is seeing the whole world in a sort of vague sense, which narrows to a continent which narrows to the east coast which narrows to Brockton Bay which narrows to Downtown which narrows to the PRT HQ... And refuses to narrow any further.

Wonderful. Coil has some way of blocking her from locking straight on. But it's extremely suspicious that he seems to be in the PRT building. He probably has a position there, an excellent spot for a sneaky espionage-focused supervillain to be, really.

She's glad she never joined the Protectorate. She might have gone under Coil's thumb again without even realizing it. Which leaves her wondering what to do next. She can't very well go to the PRT about how Coil's in the PRT, she might as well send up fireworks that say 'I know where you work, Coil!'

Let's see if Tattletale's power gives me any hints. She starts it up, thinking about what she knows about Coil, the Undersiders, the PRT, and capes in general.

She gets a sudden urge to connect every point in a room's worth of bulletin boards with color-coded pieces of string.

The power does help, though. It focuses on a single target, which conveniently enough is Coil. He's operating from the shadows as much as possible, arranging for people to do things without them knowing it's at Coil's behest. Capes are harder to control, but the PRT gives access, and, depending on position, ability to affect what the heroes do. If Coil is working in the PRT, it's because he thinks the PRT is the place to go to get the influence he wants. He's not just working there, he's in a position of power. Might be the Deputy Director, any of the department heads, even the Director, but he's definitely someone important.

But there was a recent change of Directors, shortly after Coil vanished. Assuming that benefited him, it clicks. Coil is Director Calvert.

...Interesting. And now the question is, what's the best way to get him? A director in the PRT's word against a relatively new independent hero, if a powerful and successful one, with good reason for a grudge. It could go either way, but it'd probably swing Coil's way. And she doesn't have contacts... Er, make that reliable contacts, with anyone who's good at spy games.

There's always the direct approach, but assaulting a PRT director would get her in all kinds of trouble if she can't prove without a doubt that he's Coil. And probably even if she can.

Ugh. Spy games are giving her a headache. But she sets to gathering evidence in her spare time, leaning heavily on Tattletale's power and enhanced senses (and what internet prowess she got from Cranial's instant tech education), trying to find something to connect Coil to Calvert. Even if it wouldn't hold up in court, a healthy amount of suspicion on him would be enough revenge.

Well, Coil appeared in Brockton Bay shortly after Calvert did. That doesn't say much. Coil's operations tended to be high-risk, high-reward, start suddenly, and of course always pay off. After Calvert became the Director, the heroes shifted more toward following the same pattern. And Calvert is a large investor in the construction company that built Brockton Bay's Endbringer shelters and Coil's old underground base.

Asking Tattletale's power for an inference, it jumps to yep, that's the guy easily.

Okay, that's pretty suspicious, but not quite enough that she'd feel confident in the public opinion fight that's going to happen. She fishes around for something else to connect the two, if it's at all findable. Has that construction company been getting better-than-average deals with the PRT lately, or anything like that?

Nothing like that, he isn't sloppy.

Coil's allies are getting better treatment from the Protectorate lately, though. It's subtle, but it's there. Enough that relevant superpowers can pick up on it. The cells of the Elite that hired Coil's agents are a little more likely to be classified as the non-villainous kind of Elite, that it's safe to do business with instead of fighting. The heroes are a little more willing to leave Accord be in favor of pursuing other threats. These aren't things that the Brockton Bay director could manage directly, but Calvert was a PRT consultant before he was a PRT head and maybe he's offering suggestions they're listening to.

The Undersiders' continuing escapes would fit very well in this category, if not for the fact that there's no obvious way for him to let them get away after every loss. He can't exactly be ordering the heroes to do it.

Well maybe he's deliberately being sloppy and letting Tattletale work out the Heroes' actions.

...Maybe he's Tattletale's inside source. There's no good way to try to verify this without risking getting discovered by either party, though. And pushing Tattletale's power too far might lead to bad answers. She notes it as 'possible' though.

To hell with it. She wraps up everything she has on this matter, from Coil's list of crimes (plus evidence) to the connections (all the evidence, right there) into a neatly-presented little bundle of informative research with a little help from Uber's power. She's no writer, but it should be easy to understand at least.

She uses Tattletale's power to identify the capes and any important non-capes most likely to believe her about Coil.

Edited 2016-01-15 02:05 (UTC)

The Undersiders do always seem to know the heroes' plans. This is generally assumed to be some combination of Tattletale and Skitter, but since few people know exactly what Tattletale's power even is nobody knows for sure.

It's slow going. She has to check candidates one at a time, looking into whatever she can find on them and extrapolating to what would they do if they found out their boss was a supervillain. Would be easier if she could meet them in person safely.

It turns out that plenty of the relevant parties will take her seriously. Miss Militia is thoroughly Lawful Good and will consider it her responsibility to find out if it's true, Armsmaster would love the chance to capture a supervillain who crossed as many lines as Coil did, but would be a bit displeased if someone else did and it came out that he had been taking orders from one. Convincing them it's true is going to be harder, especially with all the evidence being so circumstantial. Armsmaster would be a good candidate there; he'd at least be able to tell that Gren believes it.

Most of the Brockton Bay PRT non-capes would either reject this as crackpottery or just inform their boss that he has an enemy. Coil's superiors are an option, but the Chief Director probably isn't in the habit of listening to unknown thinker powers borrowed by strangers.

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