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Fanfic: Worm/The War of the Worlds - The Martian Part VII
Continuing my Worm / War of the Worlds crossover story. A much shorter delay than usual...
The previous chapters are archived on these sites:
On Twisting the Hellmouth - https://www.tthfanfic.org/story.php?no=33872
On AO3 - https://archiveofourown.org/works/39112812
On Fanfiction.net - https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14083560/1/The-Martian
On Spacebattles Forum - https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/the-martian-worm-the-war-of-the-worlds-au.1034761/
See chapter I for disclaimers.
VII - Interlude
The Martian
VII: Interlude - Marvin
Through his taps into the PRT network, Thomas Calvert watched Miss Militia escort the Heberts out through the tunnels under the PRT building, and tried to think of uses for Taylor Hebert's power.
Tried and failed. Yes, she could make military vehicles, but he already had everything he needed for his mercenaries, including a good supply of armoured cars and vans that were more advanced and considerably less conspicuous than her tentaclemobile. Any attempt to bring her under his control would be fraught with danger - her powers could apparently change any material she touched, which would make containing her almost impossible. He didn't even know if she was Manton limited, not that it really mattered. His base was a concrete bunker, her powers could change and weaken it. At best, he could possibly remove her from the board, keep her a drugged prisoner or simply kill her, but neither really fitted into his plans.
She would almost certainly join the Wards - most Martians did if they triggered, because there was even less tolerance for Martian Villains and Rogues than for the human variety - and that would make it easy to keep an eye on her, without drawing more attention to Fortress Construction.
His attack on the Heberts was an unfortunate error in timing. The hit-man was E88, hired through a chain of cut-outs to kill Danny Hebert and make it look like a random gangland shooting. The Vt'kso'zubb family were supposed to cause a minor incident, enough to get Danny to the museum. The hit-man should have bailed the second the police and PRT turned up - instead he'd decided to show some initiative and stirred up a huge amount of trouble. Coil had enjoyed killing him. Now he had to untangle the rest of the mess and cool things down until he could come up with another plan. The obvious answer was to play up the terrorism angle. Bombing the Vt'kso'zubb house to reveal their explosives cache was an obvious first step, now he needed to be sure that he knew exactly what they'd done, and who knew what, before taking further steps.
He thought for a moment, and split time. In one universe he shifted form, and in seconds was the Martian that called himself Marvin, ironically-named leader of the Brockton Bay sleeper cell, the last remnant of Red Mars to the best of his knowledge. He doubted that the organization actually existed any more, outside a few fanatics such as the Barnes family, and even they were mostly in it for the money and chances to gain revenge on the "aristocrats" they blamed for the Martian defeat. He opened a hidden door and took a round-about route through tunnels to an office at the other end of the complex. In this form the mercenaries knew him as Mister Marvin, a henchman who took the lead in any actions involving the Martian community, and mostly ignored him. Careful scheduling of guards and henchmen made sure that nobody was entirely sure who was on site at any given time, the more observant minority assumed that Marvin was a Stranger who routinely arrived unnoticed.
In the other timeline he put on his mask, completing his disguise as Coil, leader of a ruthless gang of criminals and mercenaries. He wouldn't be able to split time again until he dropped one of the two forms, but that wasn't much of a problem when he was in the base.
As Coil he pressed an intercom button and said "Pitter, bring the Martians to my office." As Marvin he used a tinkertech voice changer to disguise his Martian accent and used an intercom set up to appear to be the one in Coil's office to say "Pitter, take the Martians to Marvin's office."
The waiting room was between the two offices, so his "guests" arrived more or less simultaneously in both timelines.
Marvin looked up from a stack of papers as his guests arrived, waited for the door to close, and said "When exactly did I tell you idiots to murder a Ward?"
"It was necessary for the plan," said Emma. "To discredit Taylor..."
"Shut up. Alan, did you instruct your child to attack her?"
"Not exactly."
"What... exactly... does that mean?"
"She was supposed to incite Shadow Stalker to attack Taylor."
"What went wrong?"
"Apparently Shadow Stalker was reluctant. She said something about her probation officer."
"Really?" said Marvin. "That's... unfortunate. Yes, I think that's the right word for it. Unfortunate." He knotted his tentacles angrily. "Do you know what's even more unfortunate?"
"No," said Alan.
"What's even more unfortunate is that your show of initiative attracted a lot of attention. Coil tolerates my work for Red Mars so long as it furthers his own plans. What you did has focused the attention of the PRT and the police on the Heberts, before Coil's plans could come to fruition."
Coil looked up from a stack of papers as his guests arrived, waited for the door to close, and said "When exactly did Marvin tell you idiots to murder a Ward?"
"He didn't," Alan said hastily, "we were trying to..."
Coil interrupted him. "Is Marvin trying to screw up my operations? What the hell was he thinking? What did he tell you to do?"
"Just to keep up the pressure on Taylor Hebert. Maybe we got a little over-enthusiastic but..."
"A little over-enthusiastic?" shouted Coil. "I let you idiots get on with your plots because they were only causing problems for other Martians, now I've got the police and PRT digging into things that I wanted left alone, and they're treating it as terrorism."
"Terrorism?"
"If I'd known that you idiots had bombs I would have never had anything to do with you!"
Emma twitched her tentacles, showing agitation "Bombs?"
"The reports I'm getting are confused," Coil lied, "the police were sent to raid your house, my guess is that they threw in a tear gas grenade which triggered something much more explosive. Blew out the front room window and started a fire. Last I heard the goddamned FBI were there."
"Crap," said Alan. "My parents had a cache hidden in a concealed cupboard, I could never figure out a way to get rid of it without causing problems."
"What was in there?" asked Coil.
"Some explosives, timers, and guns and some Red Mars leaflets."
"Wonderful..."
"What was in there?" asked Marvin, "the same supplies you had at the end of the nineties?"
"I made sure it was stored safely," Alan said defensively. "There shouldn't have been a problem. To be honest, I never expected to need any of it."
"Not good enough. Once the Heberts are out of the picture we need to be ready to move on to a more active phase of operations. Some of that stuff will be hard to replace, and I doubt that Coil will be helpful."
He turned his attention to Emma. "As for you, how many of your little friends were involved in this? How many knew of your role in our work?"
"Me? I made it seem like normal bullying. It wasn't hard, most of the fucking humans hate Martians anyway, I just directed it at a single target. Most of them didn't even care."
"What about your sister?"
"Anne's never been involved," Alan said hastily. "When she was a child we thought that Red Mars was a lost cause, we decided that we'd keep her ignorant. By the time you contacted us it was too late to bring her in, she has too many human friends, so we made it a secret between us and Emma."
"I never told her anything," said Emma. "Or anyone else."
"You're telling me that your oldest kid, the one who got straight A's and a scholarship to UMass Boston, never had any idea you were fucking terrorists?" asked Coil.
"She was already friends with some of the Wards," said Alan. "It was too risky. We made it our secret, kept her out of it."
"Good to know. Okay, I can't say I'm pleased about this, but you guys have done good work for me. Marvin and I need to have a little talk, we need to salvage as much as we can... but there's no way you'll stay free in Brockton Bay...."
"I could fight any charges."
"You stay around to fight, you and your family will be targets for E88 and every other racist asshole in the city, that's if Homeland Security and the FBI don't bury you first. A big success against terrorists would be just what they need in the run-up to the next election, it keeps the funds coming in. No, we've got to get you under cover, and well away from this area..."
"Los Angeles is probably the best bet," said Marvin, "I have contacts there who can set you up with new identities. Give me a couple of hours, I'll get some transport organized, Coil will go for it if I can convince him you're more useful there than in jail. Meanwhile, go back to the waiting room, I'll make sure you get food and somewhere to sleep until we're ready to get you to safety."
"I need to talk to Marvin," said Coil, "but it isn't really your fault." He pressed a button on his intercom, and called Pitter in. When he arrived Coil said "Take them back to the waiting room, get some food organized and somewhere for them to sleep until we're ready to get them to safety."
He waited until they were out of the room then shut down the timeline he'd experienced as Marvin. He thought for a few minutes, mulling over his plans and considering all the options, then split the timeline again, staying human in both sides, and called Pitter back into his office.
"I've had it with those fucking Martian assholes. Wait until dark then get them into a disposable van and take them out towards Boston, say you're taking them to a private airfield for transport to Los Angeles. When you're well out of town kill the fuckers, spray some swastikas and E88 logos on the van, and set it on fire. You'll need more transport for your team, of course. Wear plain clothes, and take a couple of days for R&R in Boston afterwards."
"Nice!" said Pitter.
"Marvin won't like it, but he's pissed at them too, he won't make waves."
"What about the other one? The other daughter?"
In one timeline he said "She shouldn't know anything useful, it might be better if we leave her alone."
Pitter frowned. "You can't be sure of that. Kids talk, the other bitch might have said something."
"Good point." Coil dropped that timeline, Pitter was right.
In the other timeline he said "She shouldn't know anything useful, but there are plenty of E88 supporters in Boston. If I leak her location a little and call her a terrorist they'll take care of things. You can leave that side of things to me, of course."
"Works for me, boss."
"Thought you'd like it. Okay, I've got some paperwork to take care of. Let me know when you head out, and enjoy your R&R."
"Thanks, boss."
Coil smiled behind his mask. It was always good to work with underlings who enjoyed their work, and didn't realise how expendable they were.
TBC
Comments please before I post to archives.
The previous chapters are archived on these sites:
On Twisting the Hellmouth - https://www.tthfanfic.org/story.php?no=33872
On AO3 - https://archiveofourown.org/works/39112812
On Fanfiction.net - https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14083560/1/The-Martian
On Spacebattles Forum - https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/the-martian-worm-the-war-of-the-worlds-au.1034761/
See chapter I for disclaimers.
VII - Interlude
VII: Interlude - Marvin
Through his taps into the PRT network, Thomas Calvert watched Miss Militia escort the Heberts out through the tunnels under the PRT building, and tried to think of uses for Taylor Hebert's power.
Tried and failed. Yes, she could make military vehicles, but he already had everything he needed for his mercenaries, including a good supply of armoured cars and vans that were more advanced and considerably less conspicuous than her tentaclemobile. Any attempt to bring her under his control would be fraught with danger - her powers could apparently change any material she touched, which would make containing her almost impossible. He didn't even know if she was Manton limited, not that it really mattered. His base was a concrete bunker, her powers could change and weaken it. At best, he could possibly remove her from the board, keep her a drugged prisoner or simply kill her, but neither really fitted into his plans.
She would almost certainly join the Wards - most Martians did if they triggered, because there was even less tolerance for Martian Villains and Rogues than for the human variety - and that would make it easy to keep an eye on her, without drawing more attention to Fortress Construction.
His attack on the Heberts was an unfortunate error in timing. The hit-man was E88, hired through a chain of cut-outs to kill Danny Hebert and make it look like a random gangland shooting. The Vt'kso'zubb family were supposed to cause a minor incident, enough to get Danny to the museum. The hit-man should have bailed the second the police and PRT turned up - instead he'd decided to show some initiative and stirred up a huge amount of trouble. Coil had enjoyed killing him. Now he had to untangle the rest of the mess and cool things down until he could come up with another plan. The obvious answer was to play up the terrorism angle. Bombing the Vt'kso'zubb house to reveal their explosives cache was an obvious first step, now he needed to be sure that he knew exactly what they'd done, and who knew what, before taking further steps.
He thought for a moment, and split time. In one universe he shifted form, and in seconds was the Martian that called himself Marvin, ironically-named leader of the Brockton Bay sleeper cell, the last remnant of Red Mars to the best of his knowledge. He doubted that the organization actually existed any more, outside a few fanatics such as the Barnes family, and even they were mostly in it for the money and chances to gain revenge on the "aristocrats" they blamed for the Martian defeat. He opened a hidden door and took a round-about route through tunnels to an office at the other end of the complex. In this form the mercenaries knew him as Mister Marvin, a henchman who took the lead in any actions involving the Martian community, and mostly ignored him. Careful scheduling of guards and henchmen made sure that nobody was entirely sure who was on site at any given time, the more observant minority assumed that Marvin was a Stranger who routinely arrived unnoticed.
In the other timeline he put on his mask, completing his disguise as Coil, leader of a ruthless gang of criminals and mercenaries. He wouldn't be able to split time again until he dropped one of the two forms, but that wasn't much of a problem when he was in the base.
As Coil he pressed an intercom button and said "Pitter, bring the Martians to my office." As Marvin he used a tinkertech voice changer to disguise his Martian accent and used an intercom set up to appear to be the one in Coil's office to say "Pitter, take the Martians to Marvin's office."
The waiting room was between the two offices, so his "guests" arrived more or less simultaneously in both timelines.
Marvin looked up from a stack of papers as his guests arrived, waited for the door to close, and said "When exactly did I tell you idiots to murder a Ward?"
"It was necessary for the plan," said Emma. "To discredit Taylor..."
"Shut up. Alan, did you instruct your child to attack her?"
"Not exactly."
"What... exactly... does that mean?"
"She was supposed to incite Shadow Stalker to attack Taylor."
"What went wrong?"
"Apparently Shadow Stalker was reluctant. She said something about her probation officer."
"Really?" said Marvin. "That's... unfortunate. Yes, I think that's the right word for it. Unfortunate." He knotted his tentacles angrily. "Do you know what's even more unfortunate?"
"No," said Alan.
"What's even more unfortunate is that your show of initiative attracted a lot of attention. Coil tolerates my work for Red Mars so long as it furthers his own plans. What you did has focused the attention of the PRT and the police on the Heberts, before Coil's plans could come to fruition."
Coil looked up from a stack of papers as his guests arrived, waited for the door to close, and said "When exactly did Marvin tell you idiots to murder a Ward?"
"He didn't," Alan said hastily, "we were trying to..."
Coil interrupted him. "Is Marvin trying to screw up my operations? What the hell was he thinking? What did he tell you to do?"
"Just to keep up the pressure on Taylor Hebert. Maybe we got a little over-enthusiastic but..."
"A little over-enthusiastic?" shouted Coil. "I let you idiots get on with your plots because they were only causing problems for other Martians, now I've got the police and PRT digging into things that I wanted left alone, and they're treating it as terrorism."
"Terrorism?"
"If I'd known that you idiots had bombs I would have never had anything to do with you!"
Emma twitched her tentacles, showing agitation "Bombs?"
"The reports I'm getting are confused," Coil lied, "the police were sent to raid your house, my guess is that they threw in a tear gas grenade which triggered something much more explosive. Blew out the front room window and started a fire. Last I heard the goddamned FBI were there."
"Crap," said Alan. "My parents had a cache hidden in a concealed cupboard, I could never figure out a way to get rid of it without causing problems."
"What was in there?" asked Coil.
"Some explosives, timers, and guns and some Red Mars leaflets."
"Wonderful..."
"What was in there?" asked Marvin, "the same supplies you had at the end of the nineties?"
"I made sure it was stored safely," Alan said defensively. "There shouldn't have been a problem. To be honest, I never expected to need any of it."
"Not good enough. Once the Heberts are out of the picture we need to be ready to move on to a more active phase of operations. Some of that stuff will be hard to replace, and I doubt that Coil will be helpful."
He turned his attention to Emma. "As for you, how many of your little friends were involved in this? How many knew of your role in our work?"
"Me? I made it seem like normal bullying. It wasn't hard, most of the fucking humans hate Martians anyway, I just directed it at a single target. Most of them didn't even care."
"What about your sister?"
"Anne's never been involved," Alan said hastily. "When she was a child we thought that Red Mars was a lost cause, we decided that we'd keep her ignorant. By the time you contacted us it was too late to bring her in, she has too many human friends, so we made it a secret between us and Emma."
"I never told her anything," said Emma. "Or anyone else."
"You're telling me that your oldest kid, the one who got straight A's and a scholarship to UMass Boston, never had any idea you were fucking terrorists?" asked Coil.
"She was already friends with some of the Wards," said Alan. "It was too risky. We made it our secret, kept her out of it."
"Good to know. Okay, I can't say I'm pleased about this, but you guys have done good work for me. Marvin and I need to have a little talk, we need to salvage as much as we can... but there's no way you'll stay free in Brockton Bay...."
"I could fight any charges."
"You stay around to fight, you and your family will be targets for E88 and every other racist asshole in the city, that's if Homeland Security and the FBI don't bury you first. A big success against terrorists would be just what they need in the run-up to the next election, it keeps the funds coming in. No, we've got to get you under cover, and well away from this area..."
"Los Angeles is probably the best bet," said Marvin, "I have contacts there who can set you up with new identities. Give me a couple of hours, I'll get some transport organized, Coil will go for it if I can convince him you're more useful there than in jail. Meanwhile, go back to the waiting room, I'll make sure you get food and somewhere to sleep until we're ready to get you to safety."
"I need to talk to Marvin," said Coil, "but it isn't really your fault." He pressed a button on his intercom, and called Pitter in. When he arrived Coil said "Take them back to the waiting room, get some food organized and somewhere for them to sleep until we're ready to get them to safety."
He waited until they were out of the room then shut down the timeline he'd experienced as Marvin. He thought for a few minutes, mulling over his plans and considering all the options, then split the timeline again, staying human in both sides, and called Pitter back into his office.
"I've had it with those fucking Martian assholes. Wait until dark then get them into a disposable van and take them out towards Boston, say you're taking them to a private airfield for transport to Los Angeles. When you're well out of town kill the fuckers, spray some swastikas and E88 logos on the van, and set it on fire. You'll need more transport for your team, of course. Wear plain clothes, and take a couple of days for R&R in Boston afterwards."
"Nice!" said Pitter.
"Marvin won't like it, but he's pissed at them too, he won't make waves."
"What about the other one? The other daughter?"
In one timeline he said "She shouldn't know anything useful, it might be better if we leave her alone."
Pitter frowned. "You can't be sure of that. Kids talk, the other bitch might have said something."
"Good point." Coil dropped that timeline, Pitter was right.
In the other timeline he said "She shouldn't know anything useful, but there are plenty of E88 supporters in Boston. If I leak her location a little and call her a terrorist they'll take care of things. You can leave that side of things to me, of course."
"Works for me, boss."
"Thought you'd like it. Okay, I've got some paperwork to take care of. Let me know when you head out, and enjoy your R&R."
"Thanks, boss."
Coil smiled behind his mask. It was always good to work with underlings who enjoyed their work, and didn't realise how expendable they were.
TBC
Comments please before I post to archives.
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