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Published:2026-05-07Updated:2026-07-30Words:60,582Chapters:14/?Comments:255Kudos:390Bookmarks:136Hits:13,105

Tangled in a Stranger's Web

CHPrime

Chapter 11: Interlude: Tattlelate

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Lisa groaned as distant sirens woke her up. She dared to glance at her clock and instantly tried to smother herself with her pillow.

Eleven AM. The Empire couldn't wait for a reasonable hour to attack anymore. They really were savages.

Thankfully, the sirens were going away, but still obnoxious enough that they wouldn't let her go back to sleep anytime soon. Grumbling, Lisa rolled out of bed, stumbled into the shower, and after a few minutes was reasonably aware enough to operate the coffee machine.

When Lisa finally felt like she was fully conscious, she glanced around the loft. Taylor was at school, and Rachel was out taking her dogs for a walk based on her open door. Brian had been busy with family drama, but should be stopping by in a few hours. And Alec was busy playing one of his FPS games—

Voiceover playing and non-player characters on screen, usually plays multiplayer—

"Internet's down?" Lisa asked between sips. She fished out her cell phone, and after a second, bars missing on her screen confirmed it.

"Whoever made the cops spring into action a few minutes ago must have taken down a cell tower, right when I was about to unlock the achievement for a 10/0 KDA." Alec gave a put-upon sigh. "It almost makes me angry enough to go out there and join the carnage."

Great. That meant that if the boss wanted Lisa to do anything important, she was going to have to walk to a coffee shop or try her luck with one of the clunkers at a library. And it wasn't like the damage was going to be fixed anytime soon, given the part of town they were in, and the added chaos of the ongoing gang war.

It had been nearly a week since Kaiser had launched his crusade, and all signs pointed to him actually winning. The online chatter was always tilted in the empire's favor, but the silence from the usual ABB accounts was telling. Police bands also suggested the ABB wasn't hitting nearly as hard as they needed to make the empire back off.

Kaiser finally managed to rub his two brain cells together and use his numbers effectively by constantly moving his people from one target to another before anyone could react. Who knew multi-pronged attacks could be so effective?

The Merchants attacking sore wounds also made a mess of things, though they didn't hit any Empire Eighty-Eight or ABB targets. Apparently, even methheads could learn restraint and how to hedge bets.

The PRT and the cops were, as always, useless. They chased after Kaiser's tail, only to be distracted by Oni Lee's bombing spree, and then get caught between Hookwolf's latest rampage and Purity's strafing runs, before having to flee the scene when Lung showed up ready to level buildings. The fact that they still hadn't got any backup this late into the game, aside from a few national security guys looking over Bakuda's bombs, confirmed what Lisa already knew: the rest of the Protectorate was just as incompetent as the local branch.

If they actually cared, it should have taken Eidolon and maybe Alexandria a weekend to clean up this mess. But instead, they sat around in their own little fiefdoms, ineffectually dealing with the same villains who were used to distracting them.

Lisa wasn't quite sure why the public swallowed their pathetic excuses. If she were in charge, she'd have solved half of the bay's problems by now. She'd actually use the Triumvirate to accomplish something of value, instead of having them collect dust doing PR bullshit between Endbringer attacks.

Of course, the fact that they didn't do as much as they could, even with Watchdog's backing, pointed to the other uncomfortable truth Lisa had figured out: They didn't do anything because they couldn't. Showy gladhanding and baby-kissing was the best they could accomplish. That, or organizations like the Elite and the Cartels had bought the House of Representatives and maybe the Presidency.

Either way, this elaborate game where villains got to run hog-wild as long as they didn't overstep was the best the PRT could manage. Cops and robbers was the only viable strategy the biggest think tank in the country could come up with.

In short, the world was fucked, and everyone was just along for the downward slide.

That worked for Lisa. She could handle herself just fine, and once she figured out how to escape her leash, she'd make sure to actually accomplish something. Build something nice that would last, instead of the house of cards every other villain was stupid and megalomaniacal enough to try their hand at.

Which brought Lisa back to Coil, and her current predicament.

Right now, her gracious boss was quiet. He hadn't asked her for much of anything other than a bit of research on where ABB safehouses likely were, as well as the names of one or two Empire front businesses, a task she accomplished on her first night back.

Which only made Lisa more paranoid.

There was no way Coil wasn't using and abusing his power to its maximum potential. She hadn't figured out the exact mechanics of his timeline selection, Coil wasn't stupid enough to let her get that close, but there wasn't a shadow of a doubt in Lisa's mind: he was using her in his dropped timelines. Extensively.

And the worst part was that Lisa had no idea what it was.

She could guess. He was definitely using her talents to help stir the pot to his advantage. He always did. But instead, he went nearly radio silent. Something Lisa should be able to enjoy. It made her skin crawl thinking about what he was doing with her. What he was doing to her.

Lisa had seen how Coil looked at his second in command. Because he wanted her to see how he looked at his second in command. What his stare promised to do to a man blissfully unaware of his employer's powers, and how Coil could act without anyone else's knowledge and total freedom from consequence.

There was no doubt that the gun at the back of Lisa's head had been fired. Many times.

But it wouldn't do her any good to dwell on it. Not yet, when she couldn't make a move against him. She just had to keep a few cards close to her chest, wait for Coil's ambition to overstretch as his type always did, and stay alive until then.

Still, the waiting was starting to get to Lisa. There was only so much to do, and with the internet dead, she'd have to rely on her phone's wi-fi, which would chug through data. The only other thing to do at the loft while Alec hogged the TV was to bully him into switching to local co-op, and see which one of them could best hide their obvious cheating (Lisa was, but it was always funny to see Alec try).

So, back to ruminating on the gang war. Coil clearly wanted Kaiser to win, his subservience to the nazi's agenda at Somer's Rock said as much. And then there was that recording—

No, that didn't matter. What did matter was what Coil actually wanted. Given that he had sent the Undersiders against Lung in the first place, he was definitely angling to remove the ABB. Right now, he was probably getting the Empire to wear itself out fighting. That would give an opportunity to backstab them, but Lisa wasn't sure how he was planning on doing that.

The Empire Eighty-Eight was currently outnumbering the Protectorate and their New Wave allies. Was he hoping the escalation and removal of the ABB would force the national office to react? Unlikely, given that they weren't sending reinforcements with the current chaos. They also had dithered during the Boston Games a few years back, and clearly hadn't learned their lesson.

The door opened and slammed shut. Rachel walked in with her dogs, grumbling about the sirens. "Goddamn fucking morons can't do anything right, pissing off my dogs—"

"Think you should go let Brutus catch the cops' fenders to teach them a lesson?" Lisa smiled.

Rachel snorted in a way that told Lisa she was amused, but stalked into her room, leaving Lisa once again alone with her coffee and her thoughts. And Alec playing his terribly loud and terribly acted modern military shooter, but that hardly counted.

No, Coil's angle was something else. Lisa wasn't quite sure what he accomplished while the Undersiders did the bank job, but it had to be important, and was probably playing into his current moves. Maybe his next play would be sending the Undersiders to act as a deniable resource? Especially with the Travellers in town, obvious hires if Lisa had ever seen them. She didn't even need her power to put that particular mystery together.

It was a decent idea. Use Kaiser's own tactics against him, having Lisa and her team hit softer targets, while the much heavier-hitting Travellers could tangle with the nazis' muscle. Combine that with the PRT and New Wave knocking on the front door as Coil leaked them the right information, and he could do serious damage to whoever Lung didn't burn down in his death throes. It accounted for basically every player in the bay, except for the handful of independents.

Of course, Lisa wouldn't be surprised if Coil already had most of them on his payroll. He already had two teams. Why wouldn't he also have independent contractors? He could have his fingers in any of them…

…except Spider-Man.

The multiversal traveler had thrown Lisa for a loop when he first appeared. He was a bizarre combination of Mouse Protector-style silliness and moral absolutism that didn't make much sense on the surface, but made up for it by being one of the stronger grab-bag capes to ever call the Bay home.

His seeming nonchalance after being spat out into another universe was another curveball, and Lisa hadn't been able to get as much as she wanted out of him during their two meetings. And for some reason, he didn't like to showboat. Lisa had only found one real interview, which was the usual tacky crap that she couldn't use to find anything useful about the guy. He didn't even mention anything more about his home reality, just that he had "recently moved to the bay."

Even so, Coil hadn't asked her about the guy, despite knowing they had met once. What did that mean? It wasn't like him to keep information about someone the Undersiders would meet in the field. Which meant…was Coil trying to keep something from her?

Intrigued, Lisa pulled her phone up. The PRT press release about Bakuda's arrest had nothing worthwhile in it, but now that she was actually looking, the interview in the Bulletin had one nugget:

Q: What message are you trying to send to the public? Do you have any goals for your heroism?

A: I guess the most important part is to not just be better, but make sure other people have the chance to do more, no matter how bad a hand life has dealt to them so far.

Makes vague statements about other people. Interview given after second encounter with Undersiders. Makes obvious allusions to difficult living conditions—

Ha. The jerk was still on about that? They were all doing fine. The Undersiders didn't need any help from some asshat who washed up from some goody-two-shoes dimension and didn't understand the first thing about how Earth Bet worked. If Lisa had to deal with his mealy-mouthed "Just Say No" condescension, she'd find a way around his precognition and sock him in the face herself.

Everyone in the Undersiders was already in the thick of it. Maybe they could get a favorable plea bargain, but more likely the PRT would hover over them forever, and demand they take part in every stupid little game they trot out to the public, lying about how "things were under control" and "the heroes will save the day!"

Another siren blared to life a few blocks away.

Alec, Brian, and Rachel all understood this. They would be getting a shit deal if they ever went crawling to the government, which, despite nominally having control of the largest single force of capes, couldn't actually do anything important. The Slaughterhouse Nine was still operating unopposed after one of their members killed Hero, for fucks sake. And if that didn't say everything…

…But Taylor was still trying to be a hero.

Was that what Coil had picked up on? Taylor was new, and she still thought she was going to find Coil's identity and flip on them. If anyone in the group would be moved by Spider-Man's gollie-gee let's-do-the-right-thing attitude, it would be her.

The door slammed open and closed again, this time with a genuinely angry edge. Alec actually paused his game to look up.

Brian stalked in, face carefully blank. He made his way to the fridge and quickly pulled out a vegetable shake he had made the other day.

"What did the door ever do to you? You know, other than stubbing your toe all those times?" Alec asked as he bent his head upside down over the couch to look at Brian.

Brian rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything as he stalked off to his room. Barely a few seconds later, his fists slammed into his punching bag.

Shoulders tense. Muscles coiled, looking for a fight. Wants to let off steam—

Something to do with his family, then. Nothing too serious, but definitely exacerbated by the gang violence. He'd be alright once he got some aggression out.

But back to Taylor. Lisa doubted she would actually flip on them, not after what they had been through the past three weeks, but Taylor might go for the independent hero route, especially if Spider-Man offered her the right out. Which would be a disaster, because Spider-Man clearly didn't understand anything about Earth Bet. He still had that obnoxious, infuriating optimism that everyone sane had abandoned years ago, was hopelessly naive—

"This is not a game. Not in my reality or yours. Not ever."

…No, that wasn't right. He had seen some real darkness in his time. His mask did a decent job of hiding his microexpressions, but you didn't need to be a psychic to figure that out. In fact—

…In fact…Spider-Man had only ever called Lisa "psychic." And not in the jokey way he usually did with other things. If anything, he said it like it was a fact of life. Like he dealt with it regularly and had experience with the subject. Like it actually existed on his earth. As if he had experience with people who could genuinely read his mind. And if that was true, did that mean he knew how to defend against real, genuine psychics? And if that was true, could it also apply to her powers?

Lisa thought back to the second meeting. Spider-Man's posture had been steady, but in control. She didn't have any real difficulty reading him because he put basically all of his emotions on display. He mostly talked to her, and a bit with Brian, but…

Think, what would fool someone who actually could know everything you were thinking? Lisa had thought about it when she started playing up her "I'm psychic" shtick as a fun exercise, and had concluded that the trick was probably to not think about pink elephants. If you were disciplined enough not to focus on something you didn't want someone to notice and could also distract them from pushing the issue with other, flashier, useless information…

And now that Lisa was thinking about it, that sounded like a really good way to spoof her power.

Which meant she had to try to remember things she didn't focus on. Which was always a pain in the ass, because unfortunately, her power didn't give her a crystal-clear memory, so she could get distracted really easily. Right, time to focus…

Spider-Man had gotten angry when they brought up the joke that was Bet's cape scene. He was angry that they were being so flippant—no, not right. He was angry that they weren't taking things seriously, which…told Lisa nothing she didn't already know.

Time to try things from the beginning. Spider-Man had appeared pretty conveniently after the Somer's Rock meeting…almost too conveniently…but no, Lisa couldn't go down rabbit holes without any evidence. There was a gang fighting in the area. It could simply be a coincidence, and she hadn't been paying attention to that particular detail because Alec and Rachel were busy arguing with her. She'd put a pin in that.

Then, Spider-Man did a comedy skit with Rachel and Alec, followed by setting his ground rules with Brian. Then a back and forth with everyone about how he didn't understand how useless the Protectorate was, him giving away that his world's PRT genuinely was a big game of cops and robbers all the way through, right up until it wasn't…

Damn it all, what was Lisa missing? If Coil hadn't distracted her after the fact with a bunch of useless info-gathering he probably could have done himself, she would have had time to do this while everything was fresh—

Was that Coil's motive, then? He hadn't even called her to get her usual gauge over everything at the bar, which was something he usually did in the dominant timeline. Had he found something out he didn't want Lisa to know then?

This was the most frustrating part of dealing with Coil. He could always leave people guessing and jumping at shadows, even Lisa.

So did she have to go back and think over her boring night scrolling through ABB text chains and empire propaganda boards? It started when Taylor was trying and failing to flirt with Brian, who was politely ignoring her awkwardness. Then Lisa went onto PHO, because that was the only website that anyone cared about when it—

Wait. Rewind.

She hadn't thought about Taylor at all. More importantly, Spider-Man barely even looked at her during the whole exchange.

But they had ended their first meeting with Spider-Man feeding Taylor a massive ego-boost. He had been genuine about that. And he had been trying to get the Undersiders to rethink their lives in the second meeting.

Even though the hero brought up the spiders at the bank, he didn't push the issue. And if he knew about the bank, he knew Taylor was the newest member of the Undersiders, and that had been her first public appearance. She had also nearly been killed by Bakuda along with the rest of the team, only to be saved by Spider-Man.

Any half-decent white hat would have seen Taylor as the natural target. And if nothing else, Spider-Man had experience. But he didn't go for her. And he had called Lisa a psychic the first time, which meant he had plenty of time to prepare for their second meeting. And if Lisa was right about him at very least having experience with throwing off psychics…

There was still a missing piece. Spider-Man wouldn't jump to a defensive posture against Lisa unless he had more info on Taylor. Which meant he had to have learned something about Taylor in between the first and second meetings to change up his approach. Which meant—

Fuck. Spider-Man knew Taylor's secret identity.

That could have a lot of implications down the road—not the least being that he had followed her to the loft at some point, and they were going to need to move out real soon and real fast—but more importantly, it solidified Spider-Man's motive: He somehow learned about Taylor's personal life, and wanted to 'save' her from a life of villainy.

Really, she was kicking herself for not figuring it all out sooner. She'd been so focused on trying to pick apart Coil's scheme and Spider-Man's tantalizing hints about a whole new, alien world also full of superheroes that she had missed the obvious. Or more accurately, the lack of the obvious.

Back on point, Spider-Man was aiming for Taylor. Lisa couldn't let that happen. She was an important member of the Undersiders, and in the short time since they met, she became a good friend. Her power had a lot of information-gathering applications that could help Lisa take down Coil.

And most important of all, Spider-Man didn't know Taylor like Lisa did. He hadn't seen the gaping, open wounds that showed when the girl had fought Lung, and then spilled open when Taylor had accepted a post on a message board from someone she knew was a villain at face value.

Taylor was suicidal. And under a white hat like Spider-Man, she would crash and burn under the pressure. The hero put up a silly mask, but it was clear to Lisa that it was a facade. His outburst all but proved it. When the going got tough, Earth Bet tough, Spider-Man would crack, and then drag Taylor under the waves with him.

And Lisa couldn't let someone else commit suicide. She couldn't let there be another Rex. Not when she had the power to stop it.

And she had. She'd given Taylor real friendship, with herself and the rest of the Undersiders. Brian was the eye candy, and Alec was Alec. Even prickly Rachel had come to respect her. Taylor was showing signs of improvement. She was getting better and didn't need some stranger pushing her off the path to recovery because he couldn't tolerate how the world worked.

Because being a hero was agony in Brockton Bay. Lisa saw it every time she saw Armsmaster give a canned statement to the press, in every paranoid twitch in Miss Militia's eyes at the sound of a pin dropping, or just the blast zone and impending implosion that was New Wave's shit sundae. An impression that only reinforced itself after watching the Wards trip over themselves and learning more than she ever wanted to about Panacea at the bank.

In a world as fucked as theirs, the only sensible thing was to become a villain. Small time and under the radar, with rules and regulations to keep everything in check, taking their place in this madhouse dance the PRT had set up. Tattletale knew how to work that. Just the right amount of corruption, just like her dear folks had tried to get out of her when her brother's body wasn't even cold. Once she found the angle to end Coil, it would be smooth sailing.

Lisa's goal was clear. She just needed—

The door snapped open long enough to let the distant sirens waft through the loft before slamming shut once again.

Lisa looked up. Taylor was walking in, carrying her backpack in her hand.

Eyes dull. Fingernails squeezing into palms. Face blank, fits her usual pattern of upset behavior—

"Hey, Taylor." Lisa's eyes quickly glanced down at her phone. 1:12 on a school day. "What's up? You're a bit early—"

"I'm going out to stop this gang war." Taylor declared. Alec was looking over his shoulder, all trace of amusement gone from the sociopath's face.

Streaks of moisture on her cheeks. Skin flushed on her right arm, just below shoulder. Sign of injury—

Oh.

"Taylor, think about—" Lisa began.

"I can't sit by while Brockton is destroyed!" Taylor snapped. Rachel was peeking out of her room.

Lips chapped and skin cracked, has been biting them. Redness at edge of eyes, was wiping away tears—

Oh, this was bad.

"I know, it sucks, but if we take a step back—"

"NO." Her words came out as a growl. Brian had walked out of his room and was wearing a pensive expression.

Information was racing through Lisa's brain. She knew what Taylor would say the second she started talking.

That didn't make putting it all together any easier.

Doesn't care if she lives or dies.

Notes:

A bit late this time, unfortunately. Let's see if I can make a Sunday release and get back on schedule, or if we'll have to wait for a Wednesday release.

Tattletale is kind of tricky to write. She's one of those characters who is usually so overwritten by fanon that you have to go back to the source material often to get a refresher, and we never get a present-day Interlude spelling out her thought process. Hope my read of one part smarter then you, one part genuinely trying to help, and one part stupid brat lands.

Otherwise, our brief burst of Interludes are done, and we will be returning to our regularly scheduled narrators.

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Chapter 1392 - TANGLED 11