Work Text:
Business was booming in Brockton Bay.
Coil's empire was dismantled, his assets seized by the authorities and his mercenaries fled into the wind. With Coil dealt with, the Undersiders returned back to their original roots of being a group of freelance villains. They had no grand ideals for conquering the city, nor were they willing to escalate out into a full confrontation with the PRT.
Since the Undersider's primary backer was gone, it was up to them to find their next job and keep the money flowing. No one wanted to quit, the team had built a strong bond with each other and were determined to keep working together. So it fell to Lisa to procure new work for the team.
In the past, Lisa would spend days, if not weeks vetting a single rich smuck just to see if they would be interested in the Undersiders services. It was an impractical and time-consuming method, and now that Lisa wasn't forced to waste time on Coil's stupid jobs, she could put her Thinker powers to use. Why spend so many hours schmoozing and charming a single client when you can throw your services up on the net and wait for prospective clients to come to you?
Undersiders.com was Lisa's answer to their financial problems.
A publicly available website, that anyone could access. Lisa had to call in a few remaining favours to make the domain hackproof, as authorities would try to pull the website down, but once the bugs were ironed out, the site was online and going to stay that way.
The requests started coming in. A new mercenary company was born in the heart of Brockton Bay, and they were affordable to the common man. Undersiders: Villains for Hire. From petty theft to complex revenge jobs, the Undersiders were in business. They had rules, and morals that they held to. No gang work, no drugs, nothing too violent and nothing too loud. Beyond that, they would do anything for the right price and people were willing to pay.
Their professionalism built up their reputation. Their reputation made them popular. Popularity brought in better-paying jobs. The amount of people who would pay to have their boss's house robbed or threaten a problematic person in this city was exceptional. They had an entire week where all they did was blackmail and beat stalkers and abusive partners. At some point, the citizens were even calling the Undersiders a modern-day Robin Hood.
Lisa spent her mornings looking through the latest requests. The trouble with taking jobs from the general public was that there was a pile of anonymous requests that needed to be vetted all the time. She scrolled through the thirty or forty requests that were obvious traps from the PRT and rival gangs. They were easy to spot most of the time. Then she had to delete all the junk requests from people who were obviously not serious. Removing the extreme requests and the silly ones that wouldn't be worth it, Lisa was left with five perspective jobs for the Undersiders to take.
"Let's see…" Lisa sighed as she scrolled through her messages. "Hmm, boring. Boring… Wait, maybe. We'll see. Oh, that looks… oh, eww, no." Lisa was disappointed with today's selection. With the current selection being so dreadfully dull, she expanded her search to include some of the silly and extreme jobs. "Maybe I was too harsh, let's just list it by the highest bidder and see what I can stomach-" Lisa's thought was cut off as she read the job at the top of her list. As she read the job description closely, a smile slowly formed on her lips.
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"So who are we meeting?" Skitter asked. Usually Tattletale handed the client meetings. Skitter stopped meeting with them after one such client almost had a heart attack. "And why are you bringing me along?"
"What? Can't I have a meeting with my favourite girl?" Tattletale said with a grin. Skitter eyed her suspiciously. "The client wants us to scare someone, so I figured you'd be good to help make the sale."
That was almost plausible. Skitter shrugged and followed Tattletale's lead as the two villains headed towards the meeting place. A rented office space that was empty for the weekend. Skitter and Tattletale sat at a large desk as they waited for their client. Tattletale playfully tapped the desk and kicked her legs as she waited, swaying side to side as Skitter sat up straight.
"Oh and Skitter?" Tattletale got her attention with a smile. Skitter turned to look at her companion. "Remember, we can't attack our clients. We have to remain professional, it's all about reputation."
"I know that," Skitter said with heavy suspicion in her voice. "Why would you think I'd attack our clients?"
"No reason~" Tattletale sang out as she playfully swayed.
"Alright… Who's the client?" Skitter asked again.
"Oh, nobody important," Tattletale said, her tone made it clear that Skitter was about to be the butt of some kind of practical joke. "Just some daughter of a prestigious lawyer or some such stuff." She waved her hand away.
"Daughter of a prestigious lawyer…" Skitter repeated, thinking to herself. Tattletale continued to grin as Skitter slowly understood. "Oh no. You're kidding me, please tell me you're fucking kidding me!?"
Tattletale didn't say anything in response, simply holding her shit-eating grin as they heard footsteps approaching the door.
"Hi-hi! Sorry, I'm late," A voice called out from behind the door. Skitter immediately recognised her as Emma Barnes walked in with the usual cocky attitude that Taylor knew her for. Sitting down across from the two villains she flashed a bright grin. "Thanks for taking my request into consideration. Tattletale, Skitter. Ma'am… uh, Ma'ams… So, how does this work? Do we talk specifics first, or payment?"
Skitter's fist clenched in her hand as she sat across from the girl. Tattletale placed a calming hand on Skitter's shoulder before turning toward Emma with a smile.
"Oh payment, of course," Tattletale said with a smile. "Now we've already agreed to our flat rate, and depending on the complexity of the operation we'll also require an additional fifteen to thirty percent increase on top of that." Emma was in the middle of doing some mental maths before Tattletale pulled out a calculator and presented her summary.
"Oh, sure…" Emma nodded hesitantly after looking at the price. "No problem. I can afford that."
"And what is the job?" Skitter asked, before turning back to Tattletale. "You want us to… scare someone?" Tattletale chuckled as Skitter deepened her voice in the presence of Emma.
"Yes," Emma said with a smile. "As I said online, I was hoping to hire you for a... prank of sorts."
"A prank?" Skitter asked.
"Yeah, a prank," Emma said again, a little more confidently. "I thought it'd be funny if the Undersiders scared a girl I knew."
Tattletale could feel Skitter's cold, contemptuous glare behind her mask. It didn't stop Tattletale's smug grin in the slightest as she stared right back at her partner.
"I see," Tattletale said, taking the lead in the discussion. "I imagine you have a specific prank in mind?"
"Y-yes!" Emma said, a smile growing on her face. "I was thinking like… she always walks home past this creepy alleyway after school. I don't know where she goes but it would be the perfect spot for her to run into a swarm of spiders or even those giant dogs you have. I don't know, I'll leave the specifics to you, but scare her, y'know, put the fear of god or whatever into her."
"Sounds like a standard job, right Skitter?" Tattletale chuckled, looking over to Skitter.
Skitter didn't bother to respond to her question, instead looking at Emma. "Who's the target?" The girl was oblivious to Skitter's angry growl as she asked.
"Right, yes," Emma said, fidgeting with her phone. "A student, at Winslow High. Taylor Hebert. I got a photo," She showed the two villains a photo of Taylor, Skitter looked to Tattletale who responded with another smirk. "I can also provide a home address if you need," Emma added, shrinking under the view of the two villains.
"No worries," Tattletale said with a charming smile. "I'm sure we can manage."
"So, can you do it?" Emma asked expectantly. "It's not too complicated, right?"
"Oh, I don't know," Tattletale said as she thought to herself. "Scaring a minor, tends to bring a lot of heat, what do you think, Skitter?"
"Anything else you want to do to her?" Skitter growled. "Maybe we should remove some of her fingers? Or bury her alive for a few hours, or do you just want me to devour her with my bugs?"
Skitter was pissed. This girl had just tried to hire professional villains to torment her, given them a goddamn photo and even offered to give her home address. If it wasn't for the fact that Tattletale was sitting with them, Skitter might've reconsidered her opinion on personal revenge.
"Woah! No!" Emma yelped back. "No killing. I don't want anybody to die. Just scare the girl. Shake her up a bit and then leave."
"Don't worry," Tattletale stepped in. "We don't kill people. We're professionals."
Emma relaxed after hearing that, Skitter and Tattletale noted her reaction. She wasn't a complete monster apparently. Just a stupid bitch who hired supervillains to torment someone for no apparent reason.
"Well, I think we have enough information," Tattletale said, typing into her calculator again. "It's definitely something we can do. Cost-wise, something in the range of this amount." She pushed the calculator out towards Emma again. The price was more than three times their normal rate before any extras were discussed. However, Emma didn't know any of that.
"Yeah, of course," Emma said, nodding back to Tattletale. "How do we do this? Do I Venmo you? Or do I need to get cash out?"
"We'll send you a payment link later today," Tattletale said with her corporate professionalism tone. "You can expect an email later today. Payment will be expected in full, and the job will be completed within a week of payment. Link will stay active for three days, if we don't get payment, we will assume the contract is cancelled and we won't contact you again."
"Alright, cool," Emma said, she stood and extended a hand towards Tattletale. "A pleasure doing business with you… I guess." She turned to extend a hand to Skitter, the villain kept her hands folded and glared down at the girl.
"One question, before you leave," Skitter said after she was done intimidating the girl. Emma straightened up as she spoke. "Why this girl? What did she do to you that deserves this kind of response? It's an awful lot of effort to put into a prank. A rather traumatising prank by the sounds of it. What did she do to piss you off?"
Tattletale's grin finally broke as she leaned back and let Skitter take the lead. Emma looked between Skitter and the floor as she collected her thoughts, the question seemed a lot harder to answer than whatever generic answer Skitter was expecting.
"This might sound stupid but…" Emma began, looking away in what could almost be considered as shame. "She used to be a friend of mine… a close friend of mine," Her face scrunched up as she admitted that much. "Some shit happened to her and she became… lame. Sad. Pathetic. It was just depressing to be around her. Anyway, I ran into some trouble, in an alleyway, a bunch of… people roughed me up and threatened my life. I got lucky enough to come out of it alive and… I was so much stronger for it. Taylor, this girl, she's so meek and pathetic. I keep trying to make her strong but she keeps rejecting it, so I figured, it worked for me, so I'd try it with her. I don't know, my friend thinks it stupid and maybe I'm obsessed, but I'm trying to help her."
Skitter didn't say a word in response. Tattletale stepped up before the silence got too awkward.
"Well, that's all we have time for in this meeting," She said, gesturing Emma to the door. "Like I said, you'll get an email later today, just pay through the link and we'll do our job." She shuffled Emma out the door and closed it behind her, sighing in relief once the redhead started moving away. "So, that was enlightening."
"Tattletale, what the fuck!?" Skitter said as she threw up her hands. "Seriously, what the fuck was that? Is this your idea of a joke?"
Tattletale held out two hands in a calming gesture. "Calm down Skitter. I know you two have a history but look at it from this perspective."
"What perspective!?" Skitter growled. "We just accepted a job to traumatise myself. This bitch isn't satisfied enough with putting me through my own goddamn trigger event, she wants me to get mugged by a bunch of supervillains too? What if she went to the Empire!? What if I didn't have my powers and she actually went to someone who would do this for her?"
"Yes, Emma is a fucking idiot," Tattletale agreed with a pointed finger. "And she also has unlimited access to her Daddy's credit card. So, why not take advantage of her stupidity and take her money? Easiest job in the world. Just act like you ran into… yourself."
"And if she wants proof?" Skitter asked.
"Then we take a photo of you covered in bugs or something," Tattletale waved her hand. "Think about it, this is three times the payday to do absolutely nothing. I say we take the money and spend a weekend out of town. Road trip. You, me. Maybe Rachel if she wants. Aisha if Brian lets her. Make it a girl's night… weekend trip… thing."
Skitter nodded her head. She wasn't happy with what just happened, but she could understand Tattletale's reasoning. From an outside perspective, it was funny, ripping off her high school bully and having them pay for a fun trip away. That didn't stop her from feeling pissed off right this second.
"Do you… wanna talk about what she said, at the end there?" Tattletale asked, taking a seat again next to Skitter. "I know you have a lot of mixed feelings up there," She tapped Skitter on the head. "But if a part of you… wanted Emma back in your life. You could use this as a stepping point. I could help give pointers on how she wants you to act."
Skitter shook her head. "No… Fuck that. She's crazy, her plan is crazy, her logic is batshit crazy. I don't want… Just no."
"Good," Tattletale said with a smile rising back onto her face. "You deserve better friends than that. Plus if anyone tried to take the mantel of your best friend, I'd have to kill them." That managed to cause Skitter to chuckle, only slightly. Tattletale grabbed Skitter's hands and looked her directly in the eyes. "Let's take this cunts money, milk her for everything she's worth, and have the best goddamn weekend of our lives."
"Fine…" Skitter sighed, a small smile being heard in her tone.
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A week later, Taylor and Lisa were sipping glasses of overpriced champagne in some luxury penthouse hotel. Aisha chased one of Rachel's dogs around the room as it chewed up one of the expensive pillows. Rachel would occasionally ask Aisha for help ordering some fancy room service meal.
The girls had climbed into a van headed for New York City with the expressive intent of having the best night in the city that they could imagine. Everything was bought and paid for thanks to Emma Barnes and her Father's credit card.
After exploring the city for the day and returning again to finish off the bottle of champagne, and two or three more, Taylor got the silly idea to update Emma on how their operation was progressing. They put a little flair into their story, exaggerating the details of how they scared Taylor Hebert in that alleyway, and then they used Brutus to help frame a fake photo to attach to the message.
None of the girls remembered exactly what they sent in the email that night but suffice to say, the next time Taylor saw Emma at school, it was a very strange experience. Emma practically broke down sobbing in apology to the girl, thinking that Taylor had died from a vicious mauling by dogs and insects.