"So I hear."

Okay, reminding her that Lucien joined the bad guys is not the best idea. Her brain reflexively files that away in case she ever wants to upset Lorica, which she does not want to do right now, at all.

"It;'s really unfortunate how my company's branding can be so off putting."

"Well, I'm sure if it's ever your top priority you can fix that."

"That sort of thing a priority of yours?"

"Branding? Not as such."

"Well I don't take you as someone concerned with dotting their Is and crossing their Ts...."

Honestly she's starting to feel like bible camp lied about how easy it is for people to be tempted into villainy.

"No, no, not at all. I just care about, well, what the passages I'm writing actually mean."

"Honestly, I think half my company is in the same boat, and those are the only ones who care about the mission statement these days anyways. I wouldn't ask them to do anything they felt was unethical for them to do."

"Oh, good. Maybe one day you won't ask anyone to do anything I feel is unethical to do either."

"I'd expect our mission statement to be inline with yours? Most of how we differ from your former company is in how much latitude we offer our employees."

"Really. What do you know about my mission statement?"

"Honestly not enough - I was hoping you could help with that."

"I can't imagine why I'd invest the effort."

Man, this is a pain.

"I can't exactly offer you neat stuff if I don't have any idea what you'd want."

Next time she needs to hire someone she's just going to show up in costume with a pack of goons and a suitcase full of unmarked bills, like a normal supervillain.

"Then I guess I imagine I'd invest the effort if I were hoping to be hired."

Fuck it, she'll cheat. What's her power got on why this girl won't work for her and what she wants in life?

She wants universal sapient flourishing, or at least to save the world, of course. Also her dad would probably be pretty disappointed if she went supervillain.

Great, Taylor if Taylor was more ambitious and more upstanding.

"Hm. I wonder if you'd work well with the person we outsource our forecasting to. They wanted to thank you for help averting the quote End of the World unquote."

"My old email forwards."

Sigh, you win some, you lose some.

"I'll see that she has it."

And off to her next meeting to blackmail a sewage company. She misses the simpler days when she could traumatize teenagers in spandex for a living.

Bella brings her groceries home.

Starts learning to code the long way. Her bot helps her. (Its physical hardware still lives at the Protectorate headquarters, but it has the internet.)

The next two months see the start of Brockton Bay healing, slowly but without major incident. Evacuees return and things are out back together, as best as people can manage. The protectorate isn't quite recovering but so far that hasn't been an issue. The Undersiders (and allies) are far more peaceful than the gangs that existed previously. Sure the odd electronics store is ransacked by Regent or a dog breeder traumatized into finding a different profession by Bitch*, but overall things are better than they were before the Leviathan, when gang warfare crippled the city for months.

*The PRT designation of Hellhound becomes less popular as her preferred name becomes more wildly known.

For the first time in half a year, Lucien has free time!

Hey, any chance you would be interested in a board game night?

It's possible! Guest list?

Taylor, Missy, Dinah, you, me, Tentatively: Tattletale but I'll drop her if you mind. 
Missy and Lisa you already know, Taylor is Undersider-affialiated and I think she's pretty great. Dinah is Missy's age and ~rogue affiliated.