In the rare moments he thought about it, Thomas Calvert considered his power to be a collection of gifts, not a single one. Yes, the ability to live two lifetimes at once was the most blatant benefit, but there were other, less tangible things he valued far more. Freedom from regrets. Freedom from consequences. Freedom from failure. Most importantly, freedom from fear. He could make any choice twice. He could pander to any impulse, any whim. With preparation, he would never fail. With enough care, he could never die.
All that came crashing down in a single moment.
In one timeline, he had been Coil, deep within his office in his secret base, reviewing the latest intelligence on the gangs and the investments he relied on to finance his operation.
In the other, Thomas Calvert was indulging some rather violent fantasies. He was cheerfully breaking a bevy of laws and policies as he perused Director-eyes-only files, being careful to learn all he could before security busted down the door to Piggott's office and tried to arrest him for his espionage. Oh, and shooting that swine Piggott too, probably, but that was the lesser offense in his opinion. He guessed he could look through two more files before-
Pain.
Coil woke with his head on his keyboard, choking on the drool filling his mask and with what felt like a thousand red hot spikes jammed into his head. He tore off the mask and coughed fiercely, even as every motion made the headache worse. After a few minutes of coughing and hacking he collapsed back in his seat and tried to make sense of what happened. A glance at his computer screen told him he had lost hours.
And for the first time in a long while, Thomas Calvert felt fear.
It didn't take long for him to reach the logical conclusion: someone had triggered, and their power directly interfered with his. He'd experienced Thinker power conflicts before, most memorably in his experiences working with Accord, but never before had it been so abrupt, so violent. Whomever had triggered was a problem, a disaster waiting to happen. They couldn't be used, they couldn't be controlled.
Which meant they had to die. As soon as possible.
Coil stood and quickly made his way over to the wardrobe where he kept his extra clothes and costumes, and got out a towel. He carefully cleaned off his face, grabbed and donned an extra mask, and then returned to his desk and cleaned it up as well. Finally, he placed the towel and mask in a special plastic bag he pulled from his desk. He'd have to make sure all of it was incinerated before he left.
He then once again sat as his desk, and used his low-security backdoors in the PRT and BBPD databases to scan the day's events. It wasn't guaranteed, but there was a chance something would be mentioned. It didn't take long for him to find it: about an hour after his episode, police were called to Winslow High School due to an attack on a student, and even asked for PRT and Protectorate assistance.
It took some more digging, including a call to one of his moles in the BBPD to get a more complete story, and with it, some names. Coil was surprised at how out of control Shadow Stalker had gotten. He wished he had known beforehand, because reckless stupidity aside, the girl's behavior would have made a wonderful piece of leverage down the line. Nevertheless, he now had his target's name and location - Taylor Hebert, Brockton Bay General Hospital.
How fortuitous. Two birds with one bullet.
He picked up his phone and made a call. The sooner the girl died, the sooner his plans could get back on track.
***
As the echo of Taylor's scream faded, the soldier in front of her looked dazed, his eyes glassy. The gun dropped, pointing towards the bed between them. At the same time, Taylor felt another rush of warmth overtake her, filling her with energy and confidence. She felt taller, stronger. She knew how to handle this.
A moment passed, and the mercenary's eyes suddenly cleared and he looked at her with confusion that quickly turned into alarm. "What the... CAPE!" He started to bring up his rifle to a firing position, and Taylor burst into action.
With a hard shove, Taylor slammed the hospital bed into the soldier, who grunted and leaned forward, off balance. This gave Taylor the opening to reach forward, grab the barrel of the rifle and both rotate and thrust it so the soldier was forced to release his grip. She then jabbed it hard into his ribs twice and swung the barrel up to snack him in the face, hard enough to break his nose and knock him out.
As he collapsed and slid to the floor, Taylor heard a wordless shout of alarm and saw another mercenary had stepped through the door, his weapon ready to fire. She heaved the bed up for cover as crimson light burst from the barrel, and then grunted as a bolt penetrated clean through the mattress and scored a line of fire along her left ribs. She dropped to the ground, grabbed a bar of tube steel from the bed frame, ripped it off, then spring back up, swinging the bar at her assailant.
Surprised but still a professional, the soldier fired another shot into her midsection, but even as the searing pain flared, Taylor didn't stop and struck him as hard as she could, and was shocked to see the bar impact the mercenary's shoulder and send him flying into the wall, where he collapsed, groaning. Taylor smoothly jumped the toppled bed and kicked him in the head once, knocking him out.
Taylor stopped cold, and listened for any indication of more attackers. Hearing none, she crept to the door and carefully looked into the hall, first one way, then the other. Seeing none, she she carefully made her way into the hallway and saw a couple people cowering and staring at her in fear. She only made a couple more short steps before she heard an odd tinny noise from the ground. A quick look and she discovered something that looked like an ear bud. With care, she picked it up and held it to her ear.
"Team two respond. Alpha target captured. Status of Beta? Team two, report!"
Taylor figured she was Beta. But the only person she could imagine anyone wanting to capture at the hospital was Panacea, as Taylor had overheard nurses talking about the famous healer earlier. But what could she do about the other team and target? Once the other attackers learned the assassination attempt had failed...
And suddenly, Taylor really registered what had just happened to her. "Wait, what? How did I do that?" She whispered, and then jerked in sudden realization. "Shit! I've been shot!"
Taylor looked down at herself to see the damage and-
Well. Those are new.
***
Armsmaster rolled up to the police cordon outside the hospital a good thirty seconds before Dauntless came in for a landing. He felt a bit pleased about that, but shook his head slightly as if to admonish himself as he got off his bike and secured it. "You connected, Dragon?"
:Signal is clear. I've got suits twenty minutes away if you need them.:
The BBPD officer lifted the police tape acting as a barrier for the two of them, and they made their way briskly to the command area, where Lady Photon, Manpower, and a glum Flashbang were already speaking with the officer in charge, an intense looking middle-aged man in plain clothes.
"Armsmaster," the officer greeted. "It's good you're here. We're clearing the bottom two floors, but these jackasses have set up a bunch of weird tinkertech traps in the stairwells. No one can get in or out of the upper three."
"Thank you," he responded, and flicked up his eyes to where Dragon had helpfully supplied the officer's name on his HUD, "Lieutenant Winters. Do we know what these traps do?"
"Big boom," Manpower offered, and pointed up to where a thin stream of dark smoke could be seen coming from the hospital roof. "At least, that's what happened when Photon tried to go through the door from the helicopter pad."
Armsmaster repressed an eye roll as he heard Dauntless ask if she was okay, as if he couldn't tell that from looking at the woman. He frowned and said, "This doesn't make sense."
"Pardon?" Winters asked.
Armsmaster pressed a button on his left forearm, and a small slot opened, from which he pulled out a sheet keypad. As he tapped on it, he continued his thoughts out loud. "Whomever these people are, they've trapped all the entrances and exits. They're on upper floors, so they can't escape through the sewers, and have clearly blocked off the roof. There's no real targets of interest in there-"
"Panacea's inside," Lady Photon sharply corrected him.
Armsmaster looked up in alarm, but then scowled. "Trying to attack a cape that's considered off limits by everyone short of the Slaughterhouse Nine is even more ridiculous, but it's the only lead we have. Do we know what her schedule was?"
Lady Photon and Manpower looked over at Flashbang who shrugged and admitted, "She's supposed to be in school."
"So it's doubtful she was the target," Winter concluded, and Armsmaster smiled thinly in agreement. "This is too involved for a kidnapping attempt, it's either a distraction, or a delaying tactic. Excuse me, I need to call this in." With that, he walked over to a uniformed officer and appropriated his radio.
: I've informed the PRT,: Dragon reported over their radio link. : I'm sending over two suits and a few drones now, ETA eighteen minutes.:
"Dauntless," Armsmaster ordered briskly. "The Lieutenant may be correct, but there still a chance whomever these people are, they've got some plan. I want you above the building so we can have a bird's eye view of any attempt to escape." He looked over at the members of New Wave. "I don't have authority over you, but any rash actions could be disastrous."
Manpower barked a short laugh. "So try to keep Brandish and the kids in check. Don't worry, we know our jobs."
"Thank you." The tinker gazed upon the building, frustrated. "What is going on in there?"
***
"I have powers, and they gave me boobs." Taylor said to her reflection, and then snorted in amusement at the stranger's face in the mirror. "As well as abs, a perm, a butt most girls would kill for, and amazing plastic surgery. My life has become a bad comic book." She poked and prodded at the areas she had been shot, and marveled at the lack of any sort of wound. Heck, her clothing was even fixed!
Oh, her clothing. Not to be left out, her hospital gown had transformed into some sort of pin-up girl's version of military gear. Her top was now a grey-green tank top that pendant world have been tight even without the assets she was carefully ignoring. Her pants were some sort of faded and ripped camouflage cargo thing, all the pockets suspiciously intact, tucked into a dusty pair of grey combat boots. She had padded fingerless gloves on, and white tape around her wrists. And her face...
The first thing she noticed was the eyes. They were dark and warm and expressive in ways hers had never been. Then the nose, a bit larger than average, but straight and perfect, drawing the eyes to the lips, naturally dark and full. The cheeks were high and round, and it was all framed by rich, curly dark hair. It was a beautiful, perfect face, straight out of a Mediterranean postcard.
Taylor hated and loved it all. Loved it, because who didn't want to be so amazingly gorgeous, and hated it, because... it wasn't hers. It almost felt like an insult.
"Dad isn't going to believe this," she whispered. "No one will, they'll demand to know what I did with Taylor, demand I give her back... I want her back."
Like cold water had been thrown on her, Taylor shuddered and reeled as the strength and confidence left her. And at the same time, seemingly between blinks of her eyes, she was starting at regular Taylor Hebert in the mirror, clad in a drafty hospital robe, her glasses on again on her face.
"It's gone?!" she cried out as she touched her cheek and looked over the rest of her body. "But how?"
A noise made her look around, and she peeked outside of the bathroom into her hospital room. The soldier's were still collapsed on the floor, but out the window there was something moving. She carefully picked her way through the mess and looked outside, and took in all the police and holy crap, that was Dauntless and Photon Mom flying around out there!
She scrambled back into the bathroom, and sat on the toilet. "Okay, the heroes and police are here, but they don't seem to be doing much. I mean, it's been been a while. But why?" She stood and stared into her reflection's eyes, a grim conclusion coming to her.
A hostage situation. If Alpha was Panacea, then law enforcement was going to try to negotiate. If that's so, the soldiers are probably going to come looking for their pals. And her as well, if she really was the Beta target.
A shiver went down her spine at the thought that someone wanted her dead.
Which meant she was going to have to do something about it herself. With a firm nod, she tried to will herself back into that other form...
And nothing happened.
Taylor began to shake in panic. "No! No no no no no, it has to come back!" She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth, and firmly thought about changing. Opening one eye, she glanced at her reflection, only to be disappointed. She cursed under her breath, and collapsed back to the toilet seat.
"Okay, think, Taylor," she muttered. "It happened when you were in danger just now. Would that be it? Do I need to be about to die?" Her eyes widened as she considered the locker. "Did it happen then too? Is that why I got out? The doctors were surprised I had no signs of infection, and the locker was really easy to open all of a sudden..."
Taylor sighed. It made sense. If her power was trying to protect her, then it would only kick in if she was in danger. Wanting to go fight bad guys and save Panacea wasn't a good reason...
A rush of warmth flowed into Taylor.
***
An actual active request! Well, not quite, but it would do. You are hopeful this means the host will be using you more actively. You were dismayed to discover the positive and negative feedback mechanisms usually available have been disabled, so other methods may have to be considered to encourage the host to be more active.
You are also concerned by the transformative module your selections pass through. It appears to be tied into the host's subconscious, and your attempts to query its functionality are fruitless. It also seems to have a broadcast effect - obfuscation of some sort?
Choices must be made. The host has a goal.
What do you choose?
*********
I hope I did Coil well, he's tricky to work with.
You have now discovered Taylor's fourth always on power! Taylor has an active Stranger/Changer effect that makes her transform into a suitable heroic form that matches her powers and also makes people actively disassociate the transformed state from regular Taylor. Don't push it though, it's not foolproof!
Powers on cool down:
Skill Enhancement: Close Quarters Combat Mastery
Body Enhancement: Fast Regeneration
***
Important Note on Coil's Power:
Coil believes his ability is to independently live two separate timelines, and at any point shut one of them down and make the other reality. He's incorrect.
What really going on (based on Wildbow's comments) is that at the point of split, his power simulates two timelines, selects the one Coil would choose, and then autopilots his body through the selected timeline while playing back both simulations to Coil's brain.
What Me-as-author is saying this means is that when faced with something it can't properly simulate (Contessa, Eidolon, Endbringers, Scion, even other precogs) it has to have some sort of error handling scheme. In the best case it leaves Coil with false memories once the simulation/autopilot is complete - for example, he remembers Behemoth attacking Reykjavik when it really attacked Jakarta. In the worst, it craps out, fakes a sudden 'fail condition' in the false timeline (rocks fall, everyone dies) to make Coil think he dropped it voluntarily, and returns control. This latter case is what likely happens when he's encountered Contessa.
For whatever reason, that didn't happen here. Coil's power basically threw a segfault and crashed hard.
You should probably take that into account in the future.
All that came crashing down in a single moment.
In one timeline, he had been Coil, deep within his office in his secret base, reviewing the latest intelligence on the gangs and the investments he relied on to finance his operation.
In the other, Thomas Calvert was indulging some rather violent fantasies. He was cheerfully breaking a bevy of laws and policies as he perused Director-eyes-only files, being careful to learn all he could before security busted down the door to Piggott's office and tried to arrest him for his espionage. Oh, and shooting that swine Piggott too, probably, but that was the lesser offense in his opinion. He guessed he could look through two more files before-
Pain.
Coil woke with his head on his keyboard, choking on the drool filling his mask and with what felt like a thousand red hot spikes jammed into his head. He tore off the mask and coughed fiercely, even as every motion made the headache worse. After a few minutes of coughing and hacking he collapsed back in his seat and tried to make sense of what happened. A glance at his computer screen told him he had lost hours.
And for the first time in a long while, Thomas Calvert felt fear.
It didn't take long for him to reach the logical conclusion: someone had triggered, and their power directly interfered with his. He'd experienced Thinker power conflicts before, most memorably in his experiences working with Accord, but never before had it been so abrupt, so violent. Whomever had triggered was a problem, a disaster waiting to happen. They couldn't be used, they couldn't be controlled.
Which meant they had to die. As soon as possible.
Coil stood and quickly made his way over to the wardrobe where he kept his extra clothes and costumes, and got out a towel. He carefully cleaned off his face, grabbed and donned an extra mask, and then returned to his desk and cleaned it up as well. Finally, he placed the towel and mask in a special plastic bag he pulled from his desk. He'd have to make sure all of it was incinerated before he left.
He then once again sat as his desk, and used his low-security backdoors in the PRT and BBPD databases to scan the day's events. It wasn't guaranteed, but there was a chance something would be mentioned. It didn't take long for him to find it: about an hour after his episode, police were called to Winslow High School due to an attack on a student, and even asked for PRT and Protectorate assistance.
It took some more digging, including a call to one of his moles in the BBPD to get a more complete story, and with it, some names. Coil was surprised at how out of control Shadow Stalker had gotten. He wished he had known beforehand, because reckless stupidity aside, the girl's behavior would have made a wonderful piece of leverage down the line. Nevertheless, he now had his target's name and location - Taylor Hebert, Brockton Bay General Hospital.
How fortuitous. Two birds with one bullet.
He picked up his phone and made a call. The sooner the girl died, the sooner his plans could get back on track.
***
As the echo of Taylor's scream faded, the soldier in front of her looked dazed, his eyes glassy. The gun dropped, pointing towards the bed between them. At the same time, Taylor felt another rush of warmth overtake her, filling her with energy and confidence. She felt taller, stronger. She knew how to handle this.
A moment passed, and the mercenary's eyes suddenly cleared and he looked at her with confusion that quickly turned into alarm. "What the... CAPE!" He started to bring up his rifle to a firing position, and Taylor burst into action.
With a hard shove, Taylor slammed the hospital bed into the soldier, who grunted and leaned forward, off balance. This gave Taylor the opening to reach forward, grab the barrel of the rifle and both rotate and thrust it so the soldier was forced to release his grip. She then jabbed it hard into his ribs twice and swung the barrel up to snack him in the face, hard enough to break his nose and knock him out.
As he collapsed and slid to the floor, Taylor heard a wordless shout of alarm and saw another mercenary had stepped through the door, his weapon ready to fire. She heaved the bed up for cover as crimson light burst from the barrel, and then grunted as a bolt penetrated clean through the mattress and scored a line of fire along her left ribs. She dropped to the ground, grabbed a bar of tube steel from the bed frame, ripped it off, then spring back up, swinging the bar at her assailant.
Surprised but still a professional, the soldier fired another shot into her midsection, but even as the searing pain flared, Taylor didn't stop and struck him as hard as she could, and was shocked to see the bar impact the mercenary's shoulder and send him flying into the wall, where he collapsed, groaning. Taylor smoothly jumped the toppled bed and kicked him in the head once, knocking him out.
Taylor stopped cold, and listened for any indication of more attackers. Hearing none, she crept to the door and carefully looked into the hall, first one way, then the other. Seeing none, she she carefully made her way into the hallway and saw a couple people cowering and staring at her in fear. She only made a couple more short steps before she heard an odd tinny noise from the ground. A quick look and she discovered something that looked like an ear bud. With care, she picked it up and held it to her ear.
"Team two respond. Alpha target captured. Status of Beta? Team two, report!"
Taylor figured she was Beta. But the only person she could imagine anyone wanting to capture at the hospital was Panacea, as Taylor had overheard nurses talking about the famous healer earlier. But what could she do about the other team and target? Once the other attackers learned the assassination attempt had failed...
And suddenly, Taylor really registered what had just happened to her. "Wait, what? How did I do that?" She whispered, and then jerked in sudden realization. "Shit! I've been shot!"
Taylor looked down at herself to see the damage and-
Well. Those are new.
***
Armsmaster rolled up to the police cordon outside the hospital a good thirty seconds before Dauntless came in for a landing. He felt a bit pleased about that, but shook his head slightly as if to admonish himself as he got off his bike and secured it. "You connected, Dragon?"
:Signal is clear. I've got suits twenty minutes away if you need them.:
The BBPD officer lifted the police tape acting as a barrier for the two of them, and they made their way briskly to the command area, where Lady Photon, Manpower, and a glum Flashbang were already speaking with the officer in charge, an intense looking middle-aged man in plain clothes.
"Armsmaster," the officer greeted. "It's good you're here. We're clearing the bottom two floors, but these jackasses have set up a bunch of weird tinkertech traps in the stairwells. No one can get in or out of the upper three."
"Thank you," he responded, and flicked up his eyes to where Dragon had helpfully supplied the officer's name on his HUD, "Lieutenant Winters. Do we know what these traps do?"
"Big boom," Manpower offered, and pointed up to where a thin stream of dark smoke could be seen coming from the hospital roof. "At least, that's what happened when Photon tried to go through the door from the helicopter pad."
Armsmaster repressed an eye roll as he heard Dauntless ask if she was okay, as if he couldn't tell that from looking at the woman. He frowned and said, "This doesn't make sense."
"Pardon?" Winters asked.
Armsmaster pressed a button on his left forearm, and a small slot opened, from which he pulled out a sheet keypad. As he tapped on it, he continued his thoughts out loud. "Whomever these people are, they've trapped all the entrances and exits. They're on upper floors, so they can't escape through the sewers, and have clearly blocked off the roof. There's no real targets of interest in there-"
"Panacea's inside," Lady Photon sharply corrected him.
Armsmaster looked up in alarm, but then scowled. "Trying to attack a cape that's considered off limits by everyone short of the Slaughterhouse Nine is even more ridiculous, but it's the only lead we have. Do we know what her schedule was?"
Lady Photon and Manpower looked over at Flashbang who shrugged and admitted, "She's supposed to be in school."
"So it's doubtful she was the target," Winter concluded, and Armsmaster smiled thinly in agreement. "This is too involved for a kidnapping attempt, it's either a distraction, or a delaying tactic. Excuse me, I need to call this in." With that, he walked over to a uniformed officer and appropriated his radio.
: I've informed the PRT,: Dragon reported over their radio link. : I'm sending over two suits and a few drones now, ETA eighteen minutes.:
"Dauntless," Armsmaster ordered briskly. "The Lieutenant may be correct, but there still a chance whomever these people are, they've got some plan. I want you above the building so we can have a bird's eye view of any attempt to escape." He looked over at the members of New Wave. "I don't have authority over you, but any rash actions could be disastrous."
Manpower barked a short laugh. "So try to keep Brandish and the kids in check. Don't worry, we know our jobs."
"Thank you." The tinker gazed upon the building, frustrated. "What is going on in there?"
***
"I have powers, and they gave me boobs." Taylor said to her reflection, and then snorted in amusement at the stranger's face in the mirror. "As well as abs, a perm, a butt most girls would kill for, and amazing plastic surgery. My life has become a bad comic book." She poked and prodded at the areas she had been shot, and marveled at the lack of any sort of wound. Heck, her clothing was even fixed!
Oh, her clothing. Not to be left out, her hospital gown had transformed into some sort of pin-up girl's version of military gear. Her top was now a grey-green tank top that pendant world have been tight even without the assets she was carefully ignoring. Her pants were some sort of faded and ripped camouflage cargo thing, all the pockets suspiciously intact, tucked into a dusty pair of grey combat boots. She had padded fingerless gloves on, and white tape around her wrists. And her face...
The first thing she noticed was the eyes. They were dark and warm and expressive in ways hers had never been. Then the nose, a bit larger than average, but straight and perfect, drawing the eyes to the lips, naturally dark and full. The cheeks were high and round, and it was all framed by rich, curly dark hair. It was a beautiful, perfect face, straight out of a Mediterranean postcard.
Taylor hated and loved it all. Loved it, because who didn't want to be so amazingly gorgeous, and hated it, because... it wasn't hers. It almost felt like an insult.
"Dad isn't going to believe this," she whispered. "No one will, they'll demand to know what I did with Taylor, demand I give her back... I want her back."
Like cold water had been thrown on her, Taylor shuddered and reeled as the strength and confidence left her. And at the same time, seemingly between blinks of her eyes, she was starting at regular Taylor Hebert in the mirror, clad in a drafty hospital robe, her glasses on again on her face.
"It's gone?!" she cried out as she touched her cheek and looked over the rest of her body. "But how?"
A noise made her look around, and she peeked outside of the bathroom into her hospital room. The soldier's were still collapsed on the floor, but out the window there was something moving. She carefully picked her way through the mess and looked outside, and took in all the police and holy crap, that was Dauntless and Photon Mom flying around out there!
She scrambled back into the bathroom, and sat on the toilet. "Okay, the heroes and police are here, but they don't seem to be doing much. I mean, it's been been a while. But why?" She stood and stared into her reflection's eyes, a grim conclusion coming to her.
A hostage situation. If Alpha was Panacea, then law enforcement was going to try to negotiate. If that's so, the soldiers are probably going to come looking for their pals. And her as well, if she really was the Beta target.
A shiver went down her spine at the thought that someone wanted her dead.
Which meant she was going to have to do something about it herself. With a firm nod, she tried to will herself back into that other form...
And nothing happened.
Taylor began to shake in panic. "No! No no no no no, it has to come back!" She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth, and firmly thought about changing. Opening one eye, she glanced at her reflection, only to be disappointed. She cursed under her breath, and collapsed back to the toilet seat.
"Okay, think, Taylor," she muttered. "It happened when you were in danger just now. Would that be it? Do I need to be about to die?" Her eyes widened as she considered the locker. "Did it happen then too? Is that why I got out? The doctors were surprised I had no signs of infection, and the locker was really easy to open all of a sudden..."
Taylor sighed. It made sense. If her power was trying to protect her, then it would only kick in if she was in danger. Wanting to go fight bad guys and save Panacea wasn't a good reason...
A rush of warmth flowed into Taylor.
***
An actual active request! Well, not quite, but it would do. You are hopeful this means the host will be using you more actively. You were dismayed to discover the positive and negative feedback mechanisms usually available have been disabled, so other methods may have to be considered to encourage the host to be more active.
You are also concerned by the transformative module your selections pass through. It appears to be tied into the host's subconscious, and your attempts to query its functionality are fruitless. It also seems to have a broadcast effect - obfuscation of some sort?
Choices must be made. The host has a goal.
What do you choose?
*********
I hope I did Coil well, he's tricky to work with.
You have now discovered Taylor's fourth always on power! Taylor has an active Stranger/Changer effect that makes her transform into a suitable heroic form that matches her powers and also makes people actively disassociate the transformed state from regular Taylor. Don't push it though, it's not foolproof!
Powers on cool down:
Skill Enhancement: Close Quarters Combat Mastery
Body Enhancement: Fast Regeneration
***
Important Note on Coil's Power:
Coil believes his ability is to independently live two separate timelines, and at any point shut one of them down and make the other reality. He's incorrect.
What really going on (based on Wildbow's comments) is that at the point of split, his power simulates two timelines, selects the one Coil would choose, and then autopilots his body through the selected timeline while playing back both simulations to Coil's brain.
What Me-as-author is saying this means is that when faced with something it can't properly simulate (Contessa, Eidolon, Endbringers, Scion, even other precogs) it has to have some sort of error handling scheme. In the best case it leaves Coil with false memories once the simulation/autopilot is complete - for example, he remembers Behemoth attacking Reykjavik when it really attacked Jakarta. In the worst, it craps out, fakes a sudden 'fail condition' in the false timeline (rocks fall, everyone dies) to make Coil think he dropped it voluntarily, and returns control. This latter case is what likely happens when he's encountered Contessa.
For whatever reason, that didn't happen here. Coil's power basically threw a segfault and crashed hard.
You should probably take that into account in the future.