Stealing My Way To Power

(Lisa P.O.V)

If someone told her that she would be plotting to skin someone yesterday….well, she would have probably believed them, considering how she was recruited, but it still would have been a stretch. Her previous goal had only been to slip the leash after all. Coil irritated her to no end, and being put underneath his thumb was aggravating but not infuriating. 

Did she have ideas about stealing as much money as she could from the asshole before she left? Absolutely, she was going to treat it as mental compensation for her trauma and shitty living conditions.

Did she contemplate taking over his shadow cabal after overthrowing him? Yeah, the guy was a dick head, and if she had a shot, she would have tossed him into a cell and watched as he danced for her amusement.

Both of those things were true, but the more prevalent worry on her mind was the lack of freedom. She could say that her personality just chaffed when being placed underneath others, but that would be a lie. She hated being used, plain and simple.

A trait she shared with her brother….if only she could have seen it before. He had to be the Picture-Perfect All-American teen to get any sort of approval from their parents. He chipped away parts of himself that did not fit that image and hid the parts of himself that he could not bear to cut away. 

While she cracked underneath their overbearing nature, he was all but suffocating, but she never noticed. Too caught up in her own problems to see the signs. To piece together the clues that were just sitting there to be noticed.

Ironically, that was never going to be her problem any longer, but it came too late.

She loved her powers and hated them all the same for that alone…All the signs, all the clues, all the pain was screaming at her the day he died, and she knew that there was not a single thing she could do now. The game had already been lost, and no amount of clever thinking would have changed that. Still, it did not stop her from plotting a wistful future that might have been.

While she was tearing at the seams, her parents were fracturing. Ripping and tearing into each other, trying to place the blame on the other. You were too strict. No, you were too distant. No, you were too busy at work. Countless words were thrown at each other in private to get the upper hand. The vilest cutting remarks were the bread and butter in her house for a long time after his death.

Couple that with their tarnished image, and the company they established was quickly losing gas. All points were pointing to doom, and she thought if she got involved, she could fix it. Instead of the bleak ending that was waiting for her, she could do something about it this time.

It was no longer too late to make a difference….that thought was naive, but she really thought she could have made a difference, and she did. With her power, the wealth and power her parents wielded skyrocketed. They went from a middling company that offered a lavish but controlled lifestyle to touching the cusp of new money status.

She should have been happy; she had changed the outcome from the bitter ending she saw….but she was not. While she fixed the issues her parents were facing now, all she saw in them was greed. The ugly human want to have more and more until there is nothing left.

When she saw those signs, it was easy to piece together the fact that they did not think of her as their darling daughter. She was just another tool to be used when appropriate. One that had to be coaxed instead of charged or maintained. She was like her brother in a cage of their own design, even if that cage was larger and gilded.

She could not take what her powers were telling her about her parents. She had to leave, to run away from the cage while she still had the chance. She did not want to slowly lose pieces of herself like her brother did to please them. They may sing her praises right now, but all it took was one wrong move, and the tower of cards they were building would crumble.

The person they would blame was obviously not the adults who were pursuing more and more day and night. No, they would have turned on her in a heartbeat. So, her actions were the only logical decision for her.

So yeah, working as just another tool in Coil's kit was killing her. She had thought she had more time. That she could have revealed piece after piece of the prick until the grand picture was solved. She had a team. Hell, she would even call them friends even if they were not on the same page.

Brian, with his overbearing concern over every single decision. Alec, with his languid and lazy actions. Rachel, with her aggressive and nonsensical nature….. She did like those guys, right? She was not looking at them through rose-tinted glasses, right?

Whatever, she was sure she would have been capable of talking them into betraying Coil if she had enough information. All of their motivations were pretty easy to read, after all. That's the issue when you employ supervillains by holding onto their handles. It makes it easy for someone else to come along and replace you.

With time and her 'friends' by her side, she was sure she could have slipped that leash… then she learned that idea was stupidly naive. She knew the sickening truth when she met those two, but she was still not sure how to feel about that.

Relief that she was finally able to escape? Disgusted and dirty over her theoretical other self? Fear at all her secrets being plopped right on the table for both Coil and this new guy? Blinding rage over being violated in such a strange and convoluted manner?

Honestly, she was not anywhere close to getting a handle on that complicated mess, but she did know she was going to take great joy in skinning that fucker. Maybe skinning him was too light of a punishment….the question was if the boy Wonder would be able to get her an iron bull in the time it took to kidnap the prick.

She would not be surprised if he managed to pull something like that out of his ass. So far, she has learned a lot about her 'boss.' Far more than he thought she knew, at least.

Reading anything from Cole was a pointless action, but she was able to piece together some information from the girl who had a terminal crush on the boy. She learned enough that she was going to go against her need to slip away and stick around despite everything being solved for her.

Cole was something crazy, and she needed to get in on the ground floor while still having the chance. You would not expect that from a guy who pulled off a reasonably minor heist and broke one little girl out of kiddie jail, but that was just the surface. For one, the powers he had shown off to the public were not his real power.

So, the swapping teleportation or the Clones were not his primary weapons. Neither was his various tech, which might as well be Tinker Tech. No, Tammi considered Cole's power to be far more overwhelming than her own, and that mess of a girl was a monster.

Tammi was able to take away anything that could vaguely be defined as a wound and store it. She would then be able to throw those wounds at anyone she wished, and she chose where that injury appeared. Finally, she was not limited to just taking injuries from others. She could store her own injuries, meaning as long as she was not instantly killed, she would be fine. For some bizarre reason, her range was also growing from the touch-based distance to now an inch away.

With a Bullshit power like that, Tammi considered Cole to have far more potential. That notion was absurd, and Lisa thought at least a part of it was from the girl's damsel in distress routine but a belief that firm did not come out of nowhere. The second thing she learned undoubtedly pointed to that, at least.

Cole was a Trump; she was not sure of what variety, but from what she read from Tammi, he was growing in power through some sort of act. His Trump nature and the overinflated opinion the girl had on him and Lisa was beginning to think she might have stumbled upon the largest rough diamond in the world.

So when he asked her if she wanted to leave, she lied. She really wanted to run with everything she had, but she knew she could not miss it. She had already had her hands chained and bound with herself being violated in the strangest way. She wanted that never to be a possibility from now on.

That meant she had to use her big brain to her advantage. Tammi was a weak link that was begging to be taken advantage of. The girl was cracking apart, and she was being held together by only one concept. 

Lisa felt a sort of annoyance and fondness for the girl that was left for her to deal with. She chaffed under the notion of being a glorified babysitter/psychiatrist, but at the same time, all those signs were being thrown at her all over again, and….well, she could not just let things play out in a bitter ending even if it was annoying.

Something that Cole was apparently counting on. She may not be able to read the guy, but that smug, knowing smile on his face as he looked at her when he gave her this task was clear enough. Admittedly, she was familiar with that look because she wore it so goddamn often, but she was convinced even a baby would have noticed the same. 

So, Lisa kind of hesitated about how to deal with Tammi throughout the day. A weak link that was blatant was precisely what she needed to not end up just another tool, but her fellow Thinker also knew that. God, Thinkers fucking suck, a sentiment that she had gloated over from the other side before.

She decided to play it safe for now and just try to help the girl adjust to the overwhelming world around her while endearing herself to Tammi with pity and empathy.

Thank god she made that choice. Cole revealed that he could Clone himself when they talked earlier. Meaning she was probably under surveillance. Again, something that irritated her to no end, but she could acknowledge that when you wanted to protect something, you have to play all the tricks in your book.

She already knew there was something funky going on with her sudden assignment. So, it was easier to handle the frustration from all of this.

She shook off those thoughts, saying that she needed to subdue her teammates for the bossman. She was a bit worried about trying to get to their hideout, considering her small blonde girl status. Usually, she only went to the Undersiders base during the day as she was not exactly a stealth expert, and the place was swarming with undesirables.

If she was needed there at night, then she would just go early and wait. Now, she did not really have that option, but the wonder kid came through. She talked to the Clone at the house, trying to get an escort, but she suddenly found herself in a familiar abandoned street.

She froze at that and thought over exactly what that meant but took a deep breath and shelved it. She already knew she was on the winning side. She did not need to look too deep into this….at least not yet.

Thankfully, she was dressed in her gear and had all the stuff she needed on her. If she had been dragged over here in her civilian attire, it would have undercut the authority she was trying to build.

Although there was something to be said about going for a more down-to-earth encounter, no, that would only work on Brian, and barely at that.

Alec would laugh in the face of such blatant emotional attachment, and Rachel simply did not understand the thought. Brian would be willing to stab her in the back if it meant getting his sister safe, so playing on his emotions was pointless.

So, going for authority would play out better here.

She wandered down this familiar street feeling nervous. She thought she knew exactly how things were going to play out, but this was still important. It was not going to sour the relationship that she was building with the overpowered duo, but she wanted to prove her worth with this. So she was nervous about everything going south, even if she thought it was unlikely.

The world did not really let good things happen, so her paranoia over this was at least understandable.

Still, she was not going to let nerves ruin what she had going on. So she took a deep breath and strode forward with a familiar, confident gait. She arrived at the entrance to their base quickly, and she walked down with her heart beating a mile a minute.

That tense but nervous mood floated away like a cloud when she opened up the base's door. She had kind of glossed over what Cole did to her teammates for the most part, but she heard that he took them out. She just did not expect to find the three of them sleeping on the couch.

Brian was in the center of the couch with a tense sort of posture that looked like he would wake up with a stiff back. Alec was sprawled over the sofa like a sack of potatoes, which was equally uncomfortable, but the emotionless boy was limp enough that he might end up fine after this. Rachel was almost buried underneath her pups, but she looked the most relaxed. She was clearly used to sleeping in a position like this.

Lisa took them in before letting out a sigh. As she was looking them over, she could tell they were sedated from her assessment. Cole really downplayed how out of this they were going to be. She walked forward and spotted a note that resembled a gift card. She opened it up with a raised eyebrow before snorting and stuffing the thing in her pocket.

She was glad she arrived before they woke up. The conversation that needed to happen would be so much worse if Cole continued to antagonize them. Then again, as long as everyone got what they wanted, they did not really care who they worked for.

She looked back at her teammates with a frown. She could not really wait around for her teammates to wake up naturally. Cole was kidnapping Coil right now, and she wanted to have this taken care of by the time he was done.

"What am I supposed to do about you guys?" She mumbled out as she bit her lip and contemplated. It was not like she had Tammi here to erase the drugs from their system. It was not like she had a drug that could wake them up, either.

"Right, Bossman did not really think you were going to take care of these guys tonight, so he left you with a mess. But don't worry, as always, we come prepared." A voice spoke out behind her, and Lisa felt her heart reach her throat as she jumped from the sudden jump scare.

She turned around and glared at the figure standing there when she got a look at them. It was another Cole, probably a clone, considering its words and the fact that Cole was supposed to be kidnapping the dead meat.

"Jesus, warn a girl next time you dick head." She spat out with a glare, but the Clone only gave her an annoying smile before opening its hand and presenting something to her; in its hand laid three pellets that looked like pills.

She glared at the thing as it did not say anything more, just smiling at her with an annoying look. She let out a sigh and figured it would help wake them up, so she reached over and took them. Only to jump again as the Cole before her dissolved into a gooey purple mass that was hard to look at.

She blinked, and the weird nonsense was gone. She glared at the spot and let out a sigh. She was not sure if that meant the Clone was gone, or it had gone back to hiding. Whatever, that was not her problem.

She looked over the pills, trying to figure out what they would do, but she was not getting much. Her power was great, but telling exactly what a pill did by how it looked was beyond her. She did get some information about the manufacturing process and some small things, but what they did was well beyond what her power could tell.

Whatever, they were probably not going to kill them, and it was not like she was the one taking them. So she walked over to the three to feed them the pills.

She shifted their masks to feed them and then put them back. After a few moments of worried waiting, she finally started to see signs of them stirring awake.

She could also see they were coming out of their slumber in a rather aggressive mood. Considering the last thing they remembered was being jumped, it made sense, but it was a worrying thought. She did not want to be jumped in return after all.

At least Rachel's dogs were still out of it.

Brian sprung forward with a gasping breath and his frame shaking with a fight or flight response. Rachel also jolted awake, casting a wary glance at the room before settling on her dogs, her whole body as tense as a spring. Alec was the least dramatic, but he had this sort of dazed smile on his face as he looked over at his hands.

She understood the others, but Alec was odd. He was coming down from some sort of high? Did Cole give him a different sedative? No, his high was not coming from drugs. His whole body language was different. He looked like he was seeing something for the first time, and he was both fascinated by it and fearful of it.

"Bitch get the dogs ready!" Brian commanded, his inky black smoke rushing out of him, only to pause as he caught sight of his displacement and Lisa waving cheerfully at him.

Rachel sort of growled at the command, wanting to follow but knowing her pups were not in a condition to follow through.

"Alright, let's all calm down; combat is no longer on the table," Lisa spoke out quickly, trying to de-escalate the situation. Something she was not used to doing.

Brian was tense, but the billowing smoke hovered around him for a moment before dissipating. Rachel was cradling her dogs with a tense sort of anger about her. Alec was still too out of it to even acknowledge his teammate.

"Tattletale? What the fuck is going on!? You suddenly go off the grid, and the Boss is freaking out about it, and then we get jumped by a fucking Cape!" Brian exploded as he needed an outlet to dump all the agitation he was currently feeling. Rachel also looked over with an almost laser-like focus.

Lisa frowned at the aggression, but she could work with it. At least the other two were somewhat calm, even if it was a step too far. 

"Let's just say management is going through some changes. The Cape that took you out is currently going after your Boss." Lisa spoke out with a shrug. The intensity from Rachel seemed to dial up again.

"Fuck, does the Boss know!? We got to do something!" Brian shouted out in a panic as the lifeline that he was holding tightly onto was suddenly in danger. He looked like he wanted to pace around but was holding himself back.

The shout seemed to have dragged Alec out of his fugue as he let out a barking laugh that was filled with mirth. Lisa froze as that was not something she had ever seen from him. That sort of pure laugh was not something that belonged to Alec. Lisa twisted her gaze off of Brian and focused in on the usually lethargic teen.

Alec was shaking with laughter as he looked over at Brian with trembling lips. He looked like he was buzzing with energy and was willing to take on the world, which was very much not who Alec was.

"What's so funny, Regent!? This is serious! If the Boss is taken out by that fucker what's going to happen to us!" Brian shouted, but it was more than clear he was not that concerned about the others. His primary focus was on what this would mean for his sister.

Rachel was also tensed up, and her fists were clenched. Alec took all of this in and laughed harder.

"You just don't see it Bri-Bri. Lisa did not say that our Boss was in trouble. Her specific words were your Boss. Meaning she is not on our side. She defected to that dude. You are all wound up, and it's likely to all be over by now. She would not be here talking to us if they were losing after all." Alec explained with an almost playful smile on his face as he looked over at Brian.

Brian froze as he took in Alec's words and turned to look over at her almost mechanically. Rachel also spun around and stalked towards Lisa with a threatening aura radiating off of her.

Lisa quickly shifted her body posture to communicate with Rachel, which was the only way she knew how.

"Relax, Rachel. The Boss was weak, plain, and simple; someone else was challenging him for the top spot. That's not a game that involves people like us. The new Boss even made sure your dogs were not harmed in the long haul." Lisa quickly explained, and half of the menace coming from Rachel faded.

After a moment, she just grunted and went back to hovering protectively over her dogs.

"NO! It's not that simple! Fuck, how could you do this, Lisa! We need the Boss! Some fuck comes around, and you are all up for switching sides!" Brian shouted out and trembled in rage as he marched towards her with manic energy, only to trip suddenly and hit the ground as his leg spazzed out.

Again, the air froze from that as Brian looked over at Alec with body language that screamed betrayal.

"The fuck Alec! You were the one who told me what was going on! How could you join her side!?" Brian shouted out as he tried to get up, but his body was twitching randomly, stopping that route. Lisa also wanted to know what the fuck was going on as she had not even gotten into selling her pitch.

Alec again gave Brian a playful smile as he leaned against the couch like he was truly and utterly relaxed.

"Sorry, my guy, but the benefits the new guy provides are just too sweet. I can't give up something like this." Alec spoke out playfully at first, but he ended in a serious tone as he looked over at his clenched hand with fascination.

Lisa kind of gawked at the sudden betrayal. She never saw that coming, considering how Alec set Brian off, but something was clearly going on. Rachel was watching what was happening with a quiet growl, not liking it but understanding why it was happening.

Lisa needed to know exactly what was going on, so she focused on Alec despite her pushing her powers earlier to help Cole. 

Alec was coming down from a high. Alec was experiencing effects similar to uppers. The effect was a rush of positive emotions flooding him from head to toe. He was no longer feeling such highs, but he was yearning for it again. Despite not feeling similar levels of emotional high, some of it still lingered in Alec. He was feeling….HE WAS FEELING!

Her power was all but shouting out that last point as it reached the crux of everything. Whatever Cole had done with Alec had lit that dead spark in the emotionally stunted boy. Alec was both fearful of the sudden change and desperately wanted more. So she did not even have to put up a token effort in recruiting him; the guy was already prepared to sell himself to Cole for more of whatever he got.

That was concerning since that might be a Master power, and something like that was worrying. She decided to throw her lot in with Cole, but having something like that hanging over her head rubbed her the wrong way. She was going to have to look into that further, but she could use it to her advantage now.

Considering Rachel's Alpha dog mentality, as long as Cole brought the subdued Coil here, she would follow in line. Usually, she would want to challenge the guy for the top spot, but Cole had already made it clear he could handle her...Fuck, was she even needed in this recruitment? Two of them were already selling themselves without a single effort from her.

Lisa turned to Brian with a frown and let out a sigh. She was just going to have to prove her worth with this guy and help Cole take over Coil's network.

"There is no point in fighting this, Brian. Our new Boss is already taking care of the old one. Everything had already been set in motion, so be a big boy and roll with the changes." She spoke out to the teen who was still struggling to get up while cursing Alec seven ways to Tuesday.

"You know I can't fucking do that!? I need him, Lisa! You know that!" Brian snarled out as he managed to limp forward despite his body fighting against him the entire time. Smoke billowing off of him but flickering out as his body spasmed. She shrugged at him and let out a sigh.

"I know, Brian. I was the one who recruited you, after all. Honestly, you don't need the guy. He was never planning on actually helping you with what you want. When you have a weakness that is easy to take advantage of, people generally don't want to let go of it." Lisa explained callously.

Brian froze at that, and his struggle died down enough to drop him, knocking him out of his daze. 

"No! He promised he would help! You said he was going to! YOU WERE THE ONE WHO CONVINCED ME TO JOIN ALL OF THIS!" Again, Brian snarled with a fury well beyond anything he had showcased before. Despite Alec's constant firing of his nerves, Brian was still able to lunge forward, operating off of pure anger.

Lisa spun forward herself, taking a pistol from her side and tripping the barely functioning teen. Knocking his helmet off and placing the cold metal on the back of his head. She clocked the gun back as it made a loud click to showcase how serious she was about this.

Brian froze at the sudden blatant threat, and Alec even stopped messing with him. Rachel was watching with anger boiling off of her but was still holding back.

Lisa leaned down to Brian's ear and spoke. "I say a lot of things. You know that. I tend to get chatty when I have a gun to my head. What did you expect from all of this, Brian? He is a villain, plain and simple. Did you think the minor amount of money we scraped together was enough to get him to pay attention to us? He wanted to add to his tool kit with some superpowered teens. If he had to bleed a little cash to have that happen, it was a small price, but he owned us. He was never going to let you go because that was counterproductive to his own goals." Lisa explained coldly as she pushed the barrel of the gun deeper into his flesh.

Brian flinched at that but seemed almost comatose from the information she was throwing at her.

"Life is not fair, Brian. You, of all people, should know that. Stop living in a delusion that everything will go your way as long as you bleed for it." She spat out, pulled back her gun, and took a step back from him.

Brian lay limply on the ground, his body clearly showing defeat as he was processing what was happening.

"Does the new guy pay well? Don't get me wrong, I'm a turncoat, but a guy's got to eat." Alec cut in, breaking the tension building in the room. Lisa was not sure if he had done it on purpose, but he had undoubtedly offset her heavy threat.

Good, now that everyone knows the pecking order, she could work on selling the sudden change.

It was not difficult as she only had to really sell it to Brian, and she knew all the right words to say.

(Done)

Was going to release this chapter later but I pumped out an Armsmaster Interlude that I felt really good about so here we go again. Think of it as another Christmas present.