Mirtis - Another Glaistig Ulaine

So what about Mirtis?”

“People are going missing in all the gangs,” she said. “He's planning on killing all the parahuman villains in the city, but he's looking for hidden powers so he's killing all of them.”

“Why?”

Insight asked the question, but there was something in her expression that made Jim think that she already knew, or at least suspected.

“He's stealing brains,” Tattletale said. “Could be a trophy, but brains rot and they decay. Something that lasts would make for a better one... jewelry, hair, anything other than a piece of meat.”

“Eating them?”

“Maybe,” Tattletale said. “But why focus on parahumans then? Low reward, high risk unless you have another reason.”

“Oh,” Insight said. “You think he's got another use for them then. Powers?”

“Yeah.”

“Damn. That's going to make fighting them a bitch. You know he's a male?”

“Analysis of attack patterns,” Tattletale said. “More likely male than female but not definitive. I'm sure you'd have come to the same conclusion if you had the same data.”

***

Jim heard his supervisor curse under his breath.

“What?”

One of the technicians asked, looking away from his monitor for a moment.

“They're saying Mirtis is another Glaistig Ulaine.”

Fuck.

Jim felt a chill go down his spine.

The only reason Glaistig Ulaine had gone to the Birdcage was because she'd wanted to go. She'd had the powers of at least forty parahumans by that time, and possibly a lot more; he'd never read an official account. She was limited to three at a time through her spirits, but there didn't seem to be a limit to how powerful those spirits could be. They'd sent a small army of fifty parahumans after her, and thirteen of them had died and the rest had fled.

She'd essentially become an Endbringer lite by that time, and no one knew what would have happened if she hadn't agreed to go away voluntarily. There were some people who thought that she could escape from the Birdcage at will even now.

Glaistig hadn't even been all that aggressive in seeking out powers. Mirtis had been headhunting.

How many victims had he had?

Jim knew that the bigwigs would be accumulating a list of things he was likely to be able to do. It would easily explain how he'd overwhelmed his victims if he had an almost literal Rolodex of powers to choose from.

***

Headache