Chapter Text
Thomas Calvert/Coil
April 2nd, 2010
Assembling my Undersiders has almost been more trouble than they’re worth. Not so much in physical resources of course, their needs are almost banally inexpensive even considering the hefty stipend and lodgings I provide.
No, it isn’t even the strings it takes to make them work together, those are also rather simple.
Mr. Laborn only wants custody of his sister and though I could solve his problem with little more than a snap of my fingers, it’s better to lead him on, better to give him his reward bit by bit rather than all at once. The profile I have on him was reviewed by Accord in another timeline and though his assessment says that Grue wouldn’t betray me without threat to his sister, it’s better to keep him on a long if tight leash.
Mr. Merceau, or Jean-Paul Vasil, is also rather simple to force in line. All I needed to do was provide him money, the occasional thrill, and of course, a vague protection from his father. That protection of course is little more than wind and air given that if Heartbreaker genuinely wanted him back, there’s very little anyone could do to stop him.
Ms. Lindt, misanthrope that she is, didn't even ask for money in our initial dealings. No, instead all she asked for was a big enough shelter for her to pick up as many stray dogs as she wanted and enough food to keep them happy. To be perfectly frank, I believe she’s the one most loyal to me, even if she doesn’t truly know who I am.
None of their strings are all that irksome to balance, no, if it were just the three of them, I think there’s very little they wouldn’t do if ordered.
But it isn’t just the three of them.
This morning I managed to apprehend my current greatest asset, Sarah Livsey or as she prefers to be known now, Lisa Wilbourn. Barely in the Bay more than three weeks and she already managed to make some very powerful enemies, powerful in wealth I mean, not so much in brains or actual ability.
She stole old money from them, likely not knowing that without any unearned wealth to cling to, many of them have been left floundering in poverty. I suppose there’s some sort of poetic justice in that but I know neither Lisa or I care to see it.
Her power is unlike anything I’ve personally seen, a Thinker whose power can be boiled down to: super intuition. Sounds underwhelming on paper and I’m hoping that’s what everyone else will think too. But it’s so much more than that, she doesn’t have to divine pixels from a photograph or prophesies that Wednesday is going to be cherry pie red, she just Thinks.
In just a few disposable timelines, she managed to know my real name, my position in the PRT, the passwords for nearly all my devices, and even my mother’s maiden name. All of that with only a five percent margin of error and a collective four hours.
The things I could do with a power like that almost makes my mouth water.
But of course… she had to be difficult.
Bargaining with her didn’t work, persuading her didn’t work, appealing to her sense of righteousness (and lack thereof) didn’t work. No, the only thing that worked was abducting her in broad daylight, sticking her in a car with myself and several armed men, and telling her this was how it was going to be, no exceptions.
She tried to play dumb at first but I’d already dissected that persona half a dozen times or so, next she tried bargaining herself but all it took was reminding her of her position for her to quiet. In truth, perhaps I should’ve indulged her pleas then in one timeline, at least to see where it went but by that point, I was already quite angry.
Assembling the Undersiders has been troublesome and fitting that last piece almost felt like I was measuring myself for a noose. But everything’s in place now and I only have one task that needs doing.
In one timeline, I am in my office, speaking into a phone that has both Grue and the newly christened Tattletale on the other end of the line. And in the other, they are in the office with me.
In both I've just finished explaining the many benefits of working for me.
In both, I wait to hear an agreement I know is coming and the only difference is that in one, I have played my hand too much. It's advantageous to know Grue doesn't have any qualms working for Coil but I'd rather only one member of the group know either of my identities.
I'm about to drop the timeline when I decide to push just a little more.
"You'll be meeting your other teammates within the hour," I tell them and put my hands behind my back, "I expect neither of you to hold secrets from each other."
Ms. Wilbourn looks up at me with as much hate as she can while trying to look amenable and Mr. Laborn takes my words for the order they are.
His helmet comes off without a sound and the black fog he was using to augment his voice puffs away as he shows his face. He stares at Tattletale and after just a moment, she too reaches up to take off her domino mask.
"Nice to meet you," Mr. Laborn greets, tucking his helmet under one arm and uses the space between leather and plastic to take off one glove.
"Likewise," My Tattletale replies, her hand offered to shake.
It's an odd tradition, one I haven't indulged in many years. In the PRT's mobile task force it was a source of great pride to introduce people, to have them subtly in my debt, having them know that they wouldn't be in such a well oiled group were it not for me.
Grue finally gets his hand free and what happens next shocks me hard enough that I drop the first timeline in reflex.
Lisa Wilbourn/ Tattletale
April 2nd, 2010
The moment my hand makes contact with Grue's, a bright flash erupts from our joined palms. The purplish black light shines from between our fingers and the warmth it brings makes both of us jump back.
I fix my eyes on Coil, that snake didn't tell me Grue had any sort of Striker power. Was it a brand? Some kind of Master—
"O-oh…" there's a crash in front of me and I turn my eyes down to see Grue's helmet rolling on the floor.
I turn my eyes up and away from the helm and to its owner, his dark brown eyes are fixed on the palm of his hand and his throat bobs as he gulps.
He was affected too? By what? There’s no one in the room that has any power resembling what happened.
Is surprised, is very surprised, is disbelieving, is happy, incredibly happy, worryingly happy
My power just makes me more confused and I resist the urge to groan. Of course, now of all times, it's decided to give me nothing to go off of. When I look down at my hand, I realize why it told me what it did. There's nothing it could've said that would've prepared me for what's on the skin of my palm.
A bleach white skull stares up at me, the lines of it shift to remain static on my palm even as my fingers spread apart. The design is ridiculously intricate, from the teeth to the nose and brow, every detail pops out at me. There's pock marks in the cheekbones, the vomer is slightly off center and the texture of it… I want to reach out and brush my fingers across it.
The moment my other hand reaches for it, a rolling black smog glides over it, slipping between the teeth and sockets in random patterns, all of it dark enough to completely hide parts of itself from me
My other hand rises to my mouth to hold my gasp in. That thing on my hand, the thing on Brian's hand, it's a—
Soulmark, my power repeats what I already know. A mark that appears on the skin when touching a soulmate, Grue is your soulmate, Grue has a soulmark, your soulmark, is your —
I look away from the skull and back to Grue and for the first time ever, I'm completely speechless. He's just as dumb struck as I and with a shaking hand, he shows me his own palm.
A purple iris looks back at me, the ring of color is made up of millions of interwoven strands, with a deeper violet surrounding the pupil and a nearly white lavender lining the edges.
Briefly, little flecks of gold pass over the black pupil and I can feel the air taken out of me when it turns its face to stare at me. It… it seems happy somehow.
For an instant, the whole design vanishes before reappearing and it has to happen one more time for me to understand it. The way it disappears, the top and bottom are wiped away first and when the two lines meet in the middle, the eye grows from the same spot.
It's blinking.
Movement indicates strong attraction, indicates a strong soulmark, size indicates a strong soulmark, strong soulmark indicates strong romantic feelings
I want to deny it, for all the world, as much as I want to believe it's true… it can't be. I'm not— I didn't even think I would— the odds of actually meeting your soulmate are so low!
"And that…" Coil takes both of our attentions back, ripping us away from our private little world and reminding us that we're still in his bond villain base. He leans back in his chair and steeples his fingers. "Is just one more of the many opportunities you'll have working for me."
Intended for this to happen , my power hits me like a major league swing and I can't help but widen my eyes. Has experience grouping couples together, has experience grouping people together, power is based around precognition, precognition involving people, involving soulmates.
"That…" I nearly collapse, my head suddenly feeling like it's underwater and my legs turning to jelly. The only reason I don't crack my skull on the ground is because Grue manages to catch me. "That's why you wouldn't let me leave… isn't it?"
Coil doesn't react to me at all and when Grue rights me back on my feet, I find myself examining him in a whole new light.
Before, he was just someone I was forced to work with but now… now he's my soulmate. Like, my actual fucking soul mate and oh my fucking God I don't even know his name!
But that— that's so damn important but I need to know if I'm right and something tells me that this will be the last time I see Coil in person for a while.
"That's why you wouldn't let me go," I echo myself and even without any eye holes in his mask, I know Coil is staring right at me. "Why you told me to come here, why you threatened me, you— that's how your power works isn't it? You need to match people for some reason, it's an important step."
Again, Coil stays quiet for a moment too long and my power fills in the silence itself.
Is measuring his words, is unsure what to tell you, is worried of over sharing his hand, is worried you'll turn on him, is worried—
"I— I get it," I tell him and I put my hands up to emphasize how much of a threat I'm not. "It's a weird power thing, I— thank you."
Grue nods with my words and he reaches out a hand to shake Coil's. The Boardwalk's unofficial owner shakes it as the darkness Shaker speaks.
“I…” the formerly impassive teen gulps and the words that tumble out of his mouth completely betray the persona he was trying to show me earlier. “I don’t know what to say sir, I— thank you. Thank you so much, I—”
“That will be enough,” Coil orders and pulls his hand away. “You still have two more people to meet today and I don’t care for unneeded delays.”
“Oh!” Grue suddenly remembers his composure and almost hits his forehead on the edge of the desk as he bends down, scooping up his helmet. “Yes sir, we uh— thank you.”
Grue puts his helmet back on and I do the same with my mask, the task made just a bit harder by my suddenly numb fingers. With our identities back in place, we march out of the office and back down the hall I came through.
My head is spinning and when I lift my hand up to cradle my forehead, I stop to stare at the skull that greets me. It’s… honestly not what I pictured my soulmark would look like but then again, I didn’t actually expect to meet my soulmate.
I mean, only one in ten people ever actually meet their soulmate and usually, the people they match with are from where they’re from. When I moved out of North Carolina, I said goodbye to whoever might’ve been my soulmate. I never expected to meet him here, I—
“So, uh…” Grue speaks up and I let my hand fall as I look up at him. He’s got his left hand rubbing at the back of his neck, his shoulders rolling. “I uh— I’m gonna be honest, I didn’t really expect to meet the boss today. I mean, he’d already contacted me, uh, obviously, otherwise I wouldn’t uh—” he turns his head and coughs, “Be here.”
He clears his throat and offers me his right hand again, the purple eye blinking inside the palm. On reflex I take his hand and I can’t tell whether or not I imagine the little spark that jumps up between our marks.
“Yeah,” I agree. “I mean, I knew him already, he was… a bit more forceful with my recruitment and… you wanna save this until we get to the car? At least so we can take of our masks and meet each other for real?”
“Yeah, that uh…” there’s an infectious smile in his voice and the chuckle he gives makes me laugh too, “That sounds great.”
His thumb rubs a circle over my knuckles and I never thought I’d melt for anyone before today. A week ago, I’d been abducted and forced to live in an admittedly nice apartment and today, I got to meet my soulmate.
The odds of this, the astronomically low odds for us to meet and for both of us to be capes… I can’t even imagine it.
Odds were extremely low, low to the point of negligibility, odds were raised, odds were raised by Coil, assembled the Undersiders to act as his strike force and distraction, needed absolute loyalty, used his power to achieve that.
I’m not sure about absolute loyalty, playing matchmaker or otherwise, he still kidnapped me and held a gun to my head. But looking up at Grue, seeing the bounce in his step and hearing the joy in his voice… I know Coil just made a really loyal ally out of him.
And maybe… just maybe, he might make one out of me too. If he keeps pulling his weight that is.
Coil/ Thomas Calvert
April 2nd, 2010
The door closes behind my two Undersiders and as I create another timeline, I say quietly, in both of them.
“What the hell just happened?”