Lil for Good (Leadership)

Lilith wanders the corridors (NO NOT OF A CHURCH, STOP THINKING IN SONG LYRICS) of the Underworld, slowly making her way to where she knows her mother will be plotting her demise. Not that her mother could enact such a plan, not without angering Ozul, but Seraphina can dream can't she? Lilith knows that her mother will forever hate her, and that is okay. Lilith is long past the time where she craves her mother's approval and affection. Doesn't mean she won't have her guard up, she isn't an idiot, her protection under Ozul only goes so far, something she is really very well aware of.

"Mother." Lilith will always ensure that she is perfectly respectful to Seraphina, again because she likes her head attached to her body.

"Oh look, it's the offspring who can do no wrong. What are you doing here?" Seraphina looks up from the sharpening of her blades to see Lilith standing in front of her, in a slight curtsy.

"I have a list, and a breakdown, of what villains I am going to need, to go after specific leadership within the Hero Initiative." Lilith specifically came to the Underworld by herself because she knew there was a chance Seraphina was going to get violent, and she didn't want to expose Jas to that, something he protested quite loudly, but she stood firm.

"And I suppose I am to just follow this breakdown exactly, word for word, because you are Ozul's precious little princess." Seraphina has somehow gotten even more bitter since Lilith has rejoined the family, working on this plot to take over the Hero Initiative, not even Ozul's crazy plan being foiled bothered him, because this coup was in the wings.

"I mean, I came to you first, hoping I wouldn't have to bring him into it, but we can go see him right now if you would prefer? Would it being an order from your leader, rather than a request from your daughter be better for you?" The snark starts to leak out of her, and she recognizes that her tone swung a little from being respectful when Seraphina tensed up.

"Just give it here you little brat." Seraphina is not in the mood to deal with her daughter today. If she is being honest she is never in the mood to deal with her daughter, but today seems worse than normal. Maybe it is because Seraphina has started noticing the differences in the Underworld, and even Topside. Something is brewing, she just isn't sure what it is.

"Are you sure? I am more than happy to pass these off to Father first, I just don't know how he would feel about being bothered with something that so clearly fall under your jurisdiction." If Lilith had any sense of self preservation she would stop talking, and she would stop talking right now. But she doesn't, at least not a reasonably tuned one, she is a villain after all.

"I swear you little sewer rat, I will rip you up into so many little pieces and burn every single piece everyone will think you are actually a Twilight Vampire, that is if anyone even missed you." Seraphina growled at her daughter, yes literally and legitimately growled at her, her patience at an all time low (NO, NO BAND NAMES, NO SONG LYRICS WE ARE BETTER THAN THIS).

"Fine, wow, you have absolutely no chill today, yeesh." Lilith hands the folder to her mother, knowing that this will be a bit of a fight.

"No, absolutely not, I thought we were going to be sending low level ,non factioners, not some of our best villains for this. I don't even want to call this a plan, it seems more like a mess pretending to be well thought out." Seraphina didn't have to look very hard to see the names of some of the highest powered villains outside of the Elementals on the list of villains needed for the assassination.

"You think a bunch of low level, hardly trained non factioners can take on some of the highest ranking heroes in the Hero Initiative? Are you kidding me? They wouldn't even send them out for a non factioner. You are lucky I was able to find people that rank high enough that aren't you know, you." This was something that Lilith was seriously considering doing, suggesting that she needed her mother to handle one of the assassinations, there is always a possibility that they will lose a villain or two (or three) to this process, and if one of those villains happened to be her mother, is that really the worst thing that could ever happen?

"You seriously think I am going to sign off on this? Or order these villains Topside to run this crazy scheme? You must have gotten worse than soft living up there Topside, you must have gone well and truly insane." Seraphina looks at the list again, and really there isn't a single person on there that she would want to send Topside for a potentially suicidal mission.

"Again... I am more than happy to bring the list to Father if you want, he did ask that I keep him updated...?" Lilith knows that her father would sign off on all of it, just as much as her mother is aware of that fact. But this is the little song and dance that they have to do, for her mother to feel like she gained the upper hand, while Lilith knows that she truly owns it, but she is smart enough to keep from saying it.

"Fine, I will authorize it, but it will happen in the order that I want. I am going to assume that you ensured that none of this can be traced back to you?" Seraphina took a closer look at the list, wanting to make sure that none of it was super obvious that these are assassinations rather than just some really bad luck happening for the heroes.

"Of course, another reason that we can't use the non factioners. Everyone knows at this point that I run them, or at least did when I was down here full time, just like we all know they are still loyal to me, if they all suddenly started killing it would be super suspicious." Lilith knows that this is probably something that her mother was hoping she wouldn't know. That Lilith would use the non factioners, not thinking about the fact that they could easily be linked back to her, and maybe the Lilith from a year ago would have made that mistake. But Lilith has learned a lot in her year Topside, in her working with Jas and the Princess, even her working with Storm Seeker.

"Of course, that would be a mistake, naturally. You should probably get back to your precious heroes before they notice that you are missing, and think maybe you aren't as golden as you appear." Seraphina smirks evilly at her daughter, annoyed that she hasn't been able to get a rise out of her.

"See that's the thing with the precious heroes... they don't expect me to be golden, they don't expect perfection. They just expect that I try. Something I never got here. I could never stumble, you'd eat me alive, sometimes I think literally. And that is exactly why I am able to trick them so perfectly Mother, because they don't expect perfection, and I am always on point. So really I should be thanking you for all of this, for me gaining the power and influence that I have. It is all because you required me to never miss a step." Lilith knows nothing will bother her mother more than hearing that Lilith is not only doing better than her, but it is because of her.

Without allowing her to make another comment Lilith Shadow Travels back Topside, even though it meant that she was technically breaking her fathers rules. He doesn't like people popping in and out of the Underworld without using one of the specific exits, but she does have special permission to do so, but she doesn't love to flaunt it. Except in front of her mother, who does not have that permission.

Yes she is that petty.

She changes out of her Underworld clothing and climbs into bed, knowing that the next few weeks, all the assassinations, it won't be easy.

But in the end it will be worth it, for her, for Jas, for the Princess, for the rest of the world.

Lil knew that she wouldn't know when it all started. That was sort of the whole point, that she be as unaware as everyone else. It is the only way to keep her from being a suspect.

But it was still weird when it happened. She heard the alarms going off and she almost wanted to ignore them. But she knew that she couldn't. She was well aware that this would look incredibly weird, if she just started ignoring the alarms going off, especially in the middle of the night. So she plays the part. She stumbles out of her bed, hair purposely kept messy, even though she could have fixed it quickly before opening her door, but she didn't want any insinuation that she knew this was going to happen. In her mother's favor, it is very unlikely that Lil would ever start a coup in the middle of the night, she loves her sleep, something fierce.

"What's going on?" Lil looks around and sees that the Compound is buzzing, everyone seems to have a role to play, and it doesn't matter to them that it is the middle of the night, they know what is expected of them. And if it wasn't the middle of the night, if she wasn't woken up from a dead sleep where she was dreaming up some new and interesting torture techniques, she probably would have remembered that she has a job to do when those alarms go off, but as it stands everyone is just lucky that she didn't burn the place to the ground in an effort to get the alarms to stop.

"Increase in villain activity all around the city. It doesn't make sense. The power readings are off the charts, can you come look at this please?" Storm Seeker gestures for Lil to join him at the map, the map that is showing power spikes that are far more than they have been experiencing recently, and none of them are concentrated in one place.

"This doesn't make any sense... why would they be attacking like this? And in the middle of the night, those are all industrial parks, there are no civilian casualties to be accounted for. Villains this high up the food chain, to produce this level of powers... they would know that we are likely to wait this type of attack out, rather than attack them head on?" Lil doesn't know exactly what her mother's plan is, but whatever it is, it's genius, she can almost guess what Storm Seekers response is going to be, and he doesn't disappoint.

"I think that is exactly what they are thinking. That we would just let them destroy the property, that we would just send builders in the morning to fix it. We aren't entirely sure what is going on, if you have any insights now is the time to share them, otherwise we are going to have to send in the big guns, because these power levels... Do you have any clue who we could be up against?" Storm Seeker has gotten better over these past few weeks, he has been working with Lil instead of against her, there is a level of understanding between the two of them that has allowed for him to be able to ask this question honestly and with no hesitation.

"You know, every Elemental has a specific pattern to their power, it is how you can tell two different Fire Handlers apart but while I can tell you their elements, and possibly even the family line, I don't know every Elementals power pattern by heart, I don't think anybody does." Lil needs to balance her knowledge, she can't know too much about who is attacking, but she also can't know nothing, both are equally dangerous and increase the chances that someone will find out what she has been doing.

"Whatever information you can provide, I'm assuming family line is important for some reason?" While the middle of the night is not necessarily the best time for a lesson in Villains, sometimes these moments are the only times that Lil tells them these things. Storm Seeker has learned that this is not out of intentional withholding, but simply this is knowledge the entire Underworld has, and she doesn't think to explain it, the same way no one Topside would think of having to explain that you have to pay money if you want something from a store.

"It tells us a couple things, it isn't always a perfect indication but it can tell us a lot about their ability, I don't just mean their power levels. I am actually more powerful than my mother, the boost I get from my father being my father handles that, but she can fully cover herself with fire, whereas I am merely a fire handler and can throw it. Other fire Elementals don't possess the ability to throw it, merely create and extinguish it. Each element has these varying degrees and it typically falls along the family line. So my handling status is a direct result of the family line, even though the power itself is different than my mother. It isn't going to be perfect but it should help us narrow down who we are looking for." Lil is looking at the reports as they are coming in.

"Fuck." Lil swears, wishing that she didn't but noticing that her mother certainly deviated from the plan, in a brilliant way, but also in a way that is going to be a pain in the ass to fix.

"I don't like the sound of that." Storm Seeker isn't sure exactly what Lil is seeing, but he can tell that it won't be pretty.

"It's the royals, the ones without a lot of political power but a hell of a lot of elemental power." Lil continues to curse her mother in her head.

"What do you mean?" Storm Seeker knows that Lil has titles, but he didn't think everyone in the Underworld was.

"The Elemental family lines. There are a few in every type of element that rule. They only rule their particular domain with the exception of my parents. My father who presides over the Shadowland, also rules the Underworld. My mother is the Fire Queen but is my father's second in command. The other Elemental Royalty are strong, incredibly so but they lack any real political power. They are titled, but in practice are more like... knights and soldiers for my parents. We can't go after them without accepting that this will lead to all out war." Lil realizes that this was her mother's big plan. She is technically doing what she was told to do, but at the same time pushing forward her own agenda.

"So bottom line this for me. What does this mean?" It is far too early for Storm Seeker to even pretend to understand all the inner workings of the Underworld.

"We are going to have to send in the big guns. I am talking leadership level heroes here, there is no other way." Lil makes sure that she puts on a whole show, the pacing, the shaking her head, acting as though this wasn't what she wanted all along.

"The leadership doesn't fight anymore, that is why they run the hero teams." Storm Seeker reminds her, as if she isn't incredibly aware of that face.

"I know but these villains, we don't have enough heroes with enough power to face them, and they made sure to include both a Water Prince and an Earth Prince, because I could take on any Shadow or Fire Elementals in my sleep, but water will take out my fire power and the earth fighters... they know the shadow weaknesses. This is a good plot, I mean it is terribly evil in every way but it is sound. If we had the time to train... maybe we could take them but as it stands...? No way. But the leadership could. They are probably the only ones, aside from me who have fought people of this caliber before. We need them." Lil knows this is the push necessary for her plan to succeed. (Lil would also like to point out that she knows that she should be feeling badly or guilty, especially now that she knows the leadership personally but... she does not. She knew this plan was going to require them dying and she is okay with that. But she knows she should care. That was apparently very important to her, that you know that she knows. I don't know man, I don't know what's in her head, I just write what she tells me to write.)

"I'll give them a call, they won't be happy, but it is what it is. You know we will be on this first thing in the morning right? At least attempting to do some clean up?" Storm Seeker sends a missive to the leaders, explaining everything Lil just explained to him, hoping that they won't give him too much pushback.

"I figured as much and that is fine, a little bit of clean up never hurt anybody, I am sure we can come to some kind of understanding. Because we all know I am here for the blood, not so much here for the trash though." Lil laughs to herself a little bit before checking that everything is still on track.

"I already have my contractor connections on notice so we should be good there." Jas joined the conversations.

The team watches the monitors as the leadership head out to fight... and it is a slaughter, a full out, no holds barred slaughter, It is really bad, like worse than Lil ever thought it was going to be. Like she knew they were going to die, that was kind of the whole point, but this was something new, something she had never seen before. She watched the faces of her teammates and once again knows that she should feel bad. She still doesn't but she really knows that she should. Their faces drop with every body that falls, because most of the time they are not villains bodies, most of the time they are heroes, the hero leadership falling right before their very eyes and no one quite knows what to say, no one quite knows how to even move at this moment.

"I just... what happened?" Diamond attempts to form a sentence, but it is weak, even for her.

"It was a slaughter... this was not an attempt to shift powers... this was an attempt to topple the leadership forever, to finally end the war between good and evil." Lil knows the role that she has to play here, it isn't even so much a role as it is keeping some information from her team, something she does all the time anyways.

"What do you mean?" Storm Seeker has started to really rely on her information and knowledge from the Underworld and he is relying on that now, to make sure that he doesn't make a mistake, to make sure that he understands exactly what is happening.

"This is a well thought out, incredibly well executed attempt to dismantle the Heroes... forever. This has my mother written all over it, my father wouldn't be so brash about it, he wouldn't want the war that will inevitably follow such an action, he is smarter than that, but my mother... her need for power knows no bounds, and she would do something like this." Lil decided she needed to come up with a new mastermind of this plan, someone to lay the blame on and there really is no one better than her mother for that.

"What can we do?" Duke wondered out loud, not necessarily at Lil, even though everyone knew that she was the one who would be giving them the answers at the end of the day.

"We strike back, we go after the villains who just took out our people, and we go after them hard, we show no mercy and we let the Underworld know exactly what they are getting for going after us. They might have gotten us off guard this time, but it won't happen again, you can be sure of that. We show them that we are not lost without our leaders, that we will bounce back stronger than ever and they will regret their decision to go after us." Lil figured in this moment a little bit of ruthlessness isn't a bad thing to show off, and it appeared that she was right, everyone seemed a little more determined than they were the day before.

Later that day, in the light of well actual day the team, decked out in their superhero costumes head to the site of the massacre. The clean up crew has already been by so there wasn't any blood or anything on the ground, but everyone already knew this was going to be hard to see. And it was. I mean for everyone that isn't Lil. Lil still doesn't feel bad, she tried, all morning. She perfected the look that she was upset, which to be fair was just her normal face, but she hasn't managed to have the emotions that she is faking.

"This is... Lil please tell me that you will be able to use some of this to figure out what happened, who attacked and how to fight them." Storm Seeker turned his head to Lil, hoping she got something, anything, because he can't do this forever.

"I should be able to recreate a lot of what happened, not everything, but based on what we heard over the comms, plus this scene I have a few ideas about who and what did this. We are going to have to hit them back hard though, this is no time for second chances." Lil is actually a little shocked at everything that she is seeing. She knew it was going to bad, but she didn't expect it to be this bad.

"What do you mean?" Diamond has been slowly turning around looking at the devastation that was left behind, even after the cleaners had done their sweep.

"If we show mercy, if we offer second chances and redemption to the people who did this... every villain will know that they can get away with anything. Because when push comes to shove we just ask nicely that they stop. But if we are ruthless, if we go after these villains with everything we have, and then some. If we handle this permanently, we will be showing the Underworld that we are not to be trifled with, that this won't stand. I know that it isn't what you want to hear, but it is the truth. We need to attack hard, and we need to attack now. We can't give them time to regroup, or to plan another attack like this. It is now or never, we have to make the statement." Lil knows that this is hard for the heroes to hear, she knows that they always want to do the right thing, and give people second and third and even fourth chances, but that won't accomplish anything today.

"I don't know if I can go along with that plan." Mystic looks around, wondering if she is the only one who feels that way, but she sees similar looks on the rest of her team, except strangely enough Storm Seeker.

"Guys, I know this is a lot to ask, I know it is going against everything that we ever planned for, but this is not something any of us could have seen coming, not even Lil saw this coming. We have to adapt if we want to keep the Underworld from taking over. So I saw that this is our only chance, we have to do this. I understand if you guys don't want to join, if you aren't comfortable with it. Lil and I can do it ourselves." Storm Seeker is never going to ask anyone else to abandon their beliefs and morals but for him, there isn't even a question, he would do whatever is necessary to protect the people of Topside.

"We can provide support, but I don't think any of us can do what you are asking, not really. Speaking for myself I wish I could tell you that I have what it takes, but I think when faced with it I would freeze up, not something that you need right now, and definetly not something you need in the moment." Duke may talk a big game about wanting to fight, but when push comes to shove he does most of his best work talking to people, his powers of manipulation come in handy with crowd control and keeping the press on their side. He's a solid fighter, but he doesn't have the stomach for what Storm Seeker and Lil want to do. He looked around to his teammates seeing them both nodding their head in agreement with him.

"Honestly that is probably the best plan, have you three do damage control, press work, stuff like that. Storm and I can handle the blood and guts, well I can handle the blood and guts, we will see if Storm can handle it as well." Lil smirks at Storm Seeker, feeling like she really bonded with the whole team a lot during this charm offensive that her and Jas had been doing.

Storm Seeker looks at her and nods, before barking out a bunch of orders to the rest of the team. Once that had been handled the two of them head out to handle the situation, and to handle it in a way that is rough, and certainly tarnishes his halo... just a little bit.

The two of them get back to the Compound after completing their goal to see that the team had followed their instructions... but that it didn't matter all that much, the Hero world is struggling with the loss of its leadership in a really bad way.

Turns out that the fact that they handled the situation didn't matter, the Hero world was still without leadership, and they do not do well without leadership. The truth of the matter is that the leaders were constantly making the tough decisions and calls that the heroes themselves were unable to make. And so without them the heroes had basically grinded to a halt. None of them know which alerts to go after, they didn't know if anyone else was answering any of the alerts, it was just a bad time for all. And with Storm Seeker distracted with hunting down the assassins and handling that situation, and especially given that Lil was with him, there wasn't anyone around with the experience of making those tough decisions.

Even the Princess doesn't have that experience, and even if she did the masses didn't know that she could help them, they were still getting used to her being around and making suggestions, even though they all knew that her suggestions always worked.

The entire Hero Collective has gathered, the room filled to the brim with every hero in varying degrees of horror and disbelief at the fact that their entire leadership is gone, even with Lil and Storm Seeker having gotten revenge and avenged them.

No one knew who was going to lead them now, and they needed a leader, or two and they needed them now.

Thankfully the Princes had an idea, a really good one. One that would have seen insane even just a few months ago but now seems to make perfect sense.

Since the entire collective is together right now, there will never be a more perfect time.

"And now, in front of all of you, I present to you, Princess Lilith, Princess of all Evil, Princess of the Shadowland, Fire Princess and your new leader."