Coldreading Alexandria

A moment later we were outside, and a doorway was waiting in space in front of me.

"Part of the conspiracy, eh?" I asked, glancing at her.

She didn't say anything to me; presumably she thought that her ability to stay completely still would act as a counter to my Thinker ability and keep me from getting information from her. That might have been true once, but not so much now.

"It's a slippery slope," I said. "I mean, the things you guys have had to do to what? Save the world? And yet now it almost doesn't seem like you're doing anything."

"We're doing everything we can," she said shortly.

"Oh. You're irritated about the Nine, right. You knew that the Siberian was a projection? Not at first I'd bet, or you wouldn't have lost the eye. I'd imagine that would have stung a bit, when the others told you to let her go."

I frowned.

"You're trying to cause triggers, right? A delicate balancing act, then, letting the world go to hell in the hand basket, but not quite enough for everything to fall apart. You feel like you need a lot of parahumans… for the Endbringers? No… something bigger. Scion?"

She glared at me.

"I'll probably be able to fix your eye, you know," I said. "I've got Hatchetface's power, and I'll have Panacea's soon, so maybeeee…"

"I can't be bribed," she said.

"I don't have to bribe you," I said. "If the others didn't want me here, I wouldn't be here."

I meant that in multiple ways. Not only would they have not brought me to their super secret base, but I'd have escaped before Alexandria even got there. Even if they caught my body somehow, I'd been sure to destroy everything of the disease Bonesaw had created that I could find.

"What makes you think I don't want you here?"

"I annoy you," I said. "You've been trying the same thing for years, and what do you have to show for it? The slow death spiral of society and a few new triggers, with the Endbringers wiping out a quarter of the capes in every attack, if not more? Does the math even work for that?"

"Every Endbringer attack creates almost as many new triggers as it destroys."

"So you trade inexperienced capes for experienced ones. What kind of army are you going to end up with? An army of incompetence against the most powerful parahuman alive, one who… wait. He's not a parahuman? He's one of the parasites?"


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Strategy