Abaddon Born(e)

[Leecifer]

Impediment 4.2

With the Undersiders hopefully suitably cowed, Regent and Tattletale both white and shaking, probably more due to their recently averted deaths than anything I'd said, I looked over at Herb who was holding a piece of glass, his metal gauntlets gripping it gingerly.

Floating over to see what it was, I realized that it was the face of a young man, maybe in his teens, maybe early twenties. It was one of the runners, frozen in a rictus of pain as he probably had a half second to feel his body turning to glass before he fell, shattering across the ground, pieces skittering over to us before I put up the barrier, and into the bubble of sound cancellation that'd stopped it from splintering like a grenade.

"Dude," I said gently, coming down next to him, making it so only he could hear me. "We gotta go; we need to get them to safety."

He looked at me, expression haunted in a way even accidentally eating a person hadn't managed. "Dude," he nearly whispered, voice hoarse, not from use, but emotion. "This is messed up."

I snorted. "Welcome to Worm, it's a modern Westeros, with less sex and violence."

"But, superpowers," he reasoned.

"Yeah, mostly created when people's minds are about to break," I pointed out. "There's a reason I've been working so hard to fix things."

His gaze slid past me to the three teens hanging onto the dino behind me. "This is what you went into when you broke?" he questioned quietly to himself, his words only reaching me because I amplified them. "This is how you live your life? The shit you do? The life you're stuck in?"

His eyes, usually full of energy and good humor dimmed in the realization of just what having a group of teenage supervillains meant. How many people had to fail you for that to happen. For me, it was obvious, but it looked like he only understood the ramifications when he could see them, scared and clutching onto Enter's back, trying their best to put up a brave front. "No," he said, focusing back on me. "I'm, I'm sorry," he apologized, voice thick with regret.

"For what?" I asked confused. I'd already forgiven him for going all feral, so I really didn't see what he had left to apologize for.

"This," he started cut off by a scream and an explosion, from somewhere close. He winced before continuing, "This was like a playground for me," he professed. "This was fun, with us being here, havin' powers, but, it's not for them." Looking back at the face in his hands, forever frozen in fear and agony. "We have to save them all," he informed me.

"We can't," I informed him, trying to be nice. "We can only save so many right now."

He shook his head, not conveying what he meant. "No dude, we have to save them all, like, from themselves, from everyone else, from so much."

I shrugged. "Not possible man, but we'll get as much as we can."

He gave a mirthless chuckle. "Reach for the stars, get gutted, right?"

"Um, I think it's reach for the stars, fall and get a face full of mud, but it doesn't matter. Who's everyone? Kids? Capes? Kid capes?" I questioned. "You need to be a bit more specific."

"As many as possible, but these poor kids, man," he frowned at the ground. "They're pushed and broken into this, it's not right."

I shrugged again. Did he not understand the implications of the setting? I thought. "Take it up with your bosses. They're ultimately the ones who're doing it."

His head snapped up. "What."

"Capes aren't made from happy families, and it's easier to get kids to trigger than adults," I informed him incredulously, wondering how he missed this. "Big C needs as many paras as possible to try to fight Goldenrod, and that means letting things get bad enough they suffer and almost die, without actually kicking it. There's a shitload of reasons I didn't go Conspirator, even though it'd let me get infinite money and transport. I was surprised when you did, but I figured you'd try and subvert 'em from the inside."

"Um guys, w- Ow! What the hell Lisa?" Regent asked from behind us. "We can't hear them so-"

"Shut up!" she hissed. Looking back I saw that she was staring at Herb in consternation.

Turning back to my friend, he finished stowing the glass into his pocket carefully before stating, "We need to go."

Rolling my eyes, I dropped the bubble. "Dude, we were waiting on you," before flying to the front of our group and leading Enter out of here.

<AB>
​

We'd almost made it out when we turned a corner, only to run into yet more ABB, grouped together and talking in a language I didn't know. These guys were armed and in gang colors, so I assumed they weren't your standard conscripts, though as they turned and raised their guns, I saw that only a third of them actually had weapons, the others shrinking back away from conflict. "Who are you!" the leader called, assault rifle held aloft.

"Vejovis, Hero of the Penumbral Defenders," I called back without fear. If they opened fire I'd cover Taylor with my body, drop another pressure wall and let go with air claws. I wasn't strong enough to take them all down nonlethally right now, and as badly as I would feel about hurting the unwilling conscripts, corrupt as they were, the police and the PRT could have taken down the ABB if the people who lived there had done more than turn a blind eye when it hadn't hurt them specifically. They were civilians, but except for the kids, they weren't innocents either.

"Who?" the ABB gangster called, barrel swinging between me and the dinosaur behind me uncertainly. I tried not to be annoyed at the lack of brand recognition, it had only been a few days after all.

"New team, we were going after Merchants in the area when we heard the explosions," I lied easily. "When we got here members of your gang where exploding, and not normally. The group started looking uneasy. "Is it a new Merchant cape we should be concerned about? If it is, they look pretty indiscriminate, and you should get to cover. We are."

One of the others said something to the leader in another language and Tattletale's indrawn breath meant it probably wasn't a good thing. "Who're they?" the leader asked, using his gun to indicate the teens.

"People are dying!" Herb tried to argue. "We all need to get to safety!"

"I'm asking the questions here!" the leader yelled, gun waving in a way I'm sure he thought was threatening. "Who are they?"

"Another team we met up with, might join ours. Break's got a point, we need to get out of here," I urged, trying not to have to kill them, even though I was sure that several of them likely deserved it.

"You lie!" he declared, a nasty grin on his face. Technically, I didn't about that, I thought, but it was academic at this point. I got ready to unleash hell. "They're the one's Bakuda wants! Turn them over and we won't kill you!"

As I was about to eviscerate these dumbasses, the conscripts having moved back far enough that I wouldn't hit them by accident, a young girl, no more than twelve, started screaming. Hating what I had to do, I yanked on her with my air control, picking her up and throwing her to the middle of the thugs, who had turned to look at her. Enter moved backwards as Herb tried to dive forward, face desperate.

I caught him by the back of the collar with my free hand, dragging backwards as he struggled yelling "No! I have to save her!" He tried to twist out of my grip, but I wouldn't let go, slamming down a wall of air pressure between us and the poor girl. I felt of something try and shove its way through the air and the gang members around her started screaming again, tearing at their skin as they visibly aged, the oldest in the group dropping first, bodies withering away as time continued to ravage their corpses. After what was probably only thirty seconds, but felt a lot longer, it was over. The girl was a wizened crone, sobbing and surrounded by corpses. Herb moved to help her, but was stopped by the wall of air in his way as her crying petered out and she fell over, dead.

My friend turned on his heel, punching me straight in the face. A distant part of me took note of the time it took for my shield to recharge, as I calmly blocked his next two punches on autopilot. Halfway through the bomb's effects my mind had stalled, effectively rebooting in safe mode, the horror of it popping a mental breaker and suppressing my emotions until I could handle the effects. "Herb," I placidly told him. "Stop."

"I could have saved her!" he cried as he ripped off his mask, wiping away tears. "I could have stopped that!"

"How?" I asked simply. "Your powerset couldn't have helped, and neither could mine. You know that. I told you, we can't save everyone."

"But you!" he accused, taking another swing, which I turned aside. "You just tossed her like she was nothing to take out those guys."

"I pulled her away from the civilians," I disagreed. "You know me Herb, I never have one reason for doing anything. She was dead no matter what. The only one who could have saved her was Panacea, possibly, and even then it was probably too late." Moving Taylor behind me to make room I grabbed his wild blow, forcing him by his wrist to twist and look in the direction of that atrocity. "Look Herb, not at the dead, but those alive. If I hadn't moved that girl, they would be dead instead of those who threatened to kill us and the children we seek to protect. Look at them, and know that I saved them."

He elbowed me in the face, draining my newly restored shield, but I let him go, point made. "The way you're talking, it's like you don't care, it's like. . . oh," he realized, slumping. "This is fucking you up too. That's why you're. . ."

I raised an eyebrow in numbed exasperation. "What was your first clue, dumbass, now get with the kids we can save."

He looked at me, before nodding, letting out a breath, and retreating back to Enter, still laden with Undersiders.

I looked past him at the others, letting the pressure wall fade, the scent of death, age, and stale air blowing into my face. I suppressed a gag as I addressed the still surviving civilians, "Any of you who got knocked out have a bomb in their heads, get to a doctor to get it out as soon as possible, or it will go off. Bakuda's traps are detonating randomly, and the only thing that will save you is moving quickly."

The shocked conscripts reacted: some screamed, some ran, some did both. I didn't care, I'd warned them, and now I was getting the hell away from them. Turning back, I flew over to the Undersiders, ignore their gazes as we continued to escape this maze.

<AB>​

It was twenty minutes later when we found our way out. I called our pickup and gave them our location, answering their question that we weren't currently under fire. We heard the sound of an engine running at high performance minute later, a large black windowless van pulling up to us with a muted screech of tires.

Glancing over the guy riding shotgun had an automatic one in his lap, looking past us, eyes searching. The side door opened and a man clad in black with an assault rifle opened the door, stepping out and waving us inside, not even blinking at the dinosaur.

The kids jumped off Enter's back, legs unsteady as they supported each other. Enter disappeared, causing Regent and Grue to jump, a quick glance of power sight showing him back to hiding on Herb's coat. The teens climbed inside, followed by Herb, before I finally I maneuvered Taylor in, the guy closing the door behind us.

"Dropoff the same?" the driver asked through a metal grate separating us from the driver's compartment. At my nod the man outside jumped in, sliding the door shut, taking a position near what, from the inside, I realized was a one-way window, a slot in the door set to open, theoretically so that he could fire out of it.

As the driver sped off, Regent looked at all the hardware and whistled. "Your guys run quite an operation."

I glanced over at Herb. He was better with the quippage, but he looked reticent, so I responded. "Just friends in odd places. This is costing us a bit, but you guys can't fly and we needed to get you all out asap."

Tattletale looked at me at that, eyes narrowing before blinking in pain and looking away. I turned to the man here with us, who was very obviously not looking at us. "Can you tell us what's going on in the city? Nothing confidential, just general info."

He glanced back at us before returning to his job. "Explosions every which way, an' weird shit. Other team down south had tentacles comin' out a fuckin' buildin'. Had to skip a street 'cause it turnt ya around the way you came. Bodies there were turnt inside out. Din't notice till it turnt us around." He shivered. "Ya know anythin'?"

I glanced around. "ABB has a Tinker that specializes in bombs, named Bakuda. We ran into her. She's apparently had her thugs knock people out and put bombs in their head, but something went wrong and they're going off. If you see someone start screaming and hold their head, get clear, fast. The ones we've seen give a few seconds, but with Tinkers? That's no guarantee."

He nodded, "Thanks mate, ya hear that Bernie?" The man in the passenger seat nodded, pulling out a phone and texting while driving down side-streets at sixty miles an hour. We drove for another several minutes, the van swerving back and forth at times before there was a bump and it drove down an incline, slowing down and pulling to a stop.

The gunman opened the door and stepped out, checking the area with his gun up before waving us over. Moving to a service entrance, he motioned towards a key-code. Typing in the code I'd gotten from the hotel, it sprang open, revealing a man in a suit, the side bulging where he carried a sidearm.

"Client 3482?" he asked, and at my response he showed us all to an elevator which led to our sweet of rooms. Shepherding the shell-shocked teens inside, the man said he'd send the hotel doctor up for the young lady, and promptly left.

After a quick check of the rooms, I laid Taylor down on one of the double beds. Checking the bureau, I saw that it held a number of clothes in a number of sizes, and the question the hotel had asked for the gender and sizes of our guests made more sense. As did the cost.

No, this was still an obscene amount of money, but the several thousand I was paying for a secure location was still money well spent. I looked down at her, hoping I'd made the right call. I'd been flooding her with my general "Get Better" power for almost an hour, trying to heal her using Biokinesis without actually directing it to do anything specific, but I had no idea if that had been the right call.

Stepping out of Taylor's room, I addressed the Undersiders, "Everyone, there's a change of clothes in the bureau, Tattletale, get Taylor out of her costume before the doc gets here, Grue, call if you want to, call your sister. It looks like Bakuda's left bombs everywhere, so it'll be safer if she's here. This place will have checked for that."

"What about me?" Regent asked, seeming almost bored.

"You have anyone you need to make sure is okay?" I asked flatly, knowing the answer.

He shrugged. "I might." Under my stare he relented. "Not really, but you never know." Doing my best not to argue with him, he was probably just as nervous as the rest under his façade of nonchalance, I shifted my costume to jeans and a t-shirt, ignoring his whistle of appreciation at the trick from the body-controlling boy as I plopped down in my seat, trying not to listen in as Grue argued with his sister.

Herb tiredly sat down next to me, taking out the face in his pocket to stare at it. That probably wasn't healthy, but I'd deal with that later. Grue hung up. "She's coming, but I want to go get her. Can I?" he asked, businesslike.

I nodded as Tattletale walked out in civvies, domino mask in place. "Yes, and you being there might be a good Idea," I responded. "Your power might smother energy-based explosives, or at least attenuate them. Take Break & Enter, and pick up Bitch on the way back, but have her drop off her dogs in her kennel. Tattletale, where did the odd couple stash her?"

She looked startled that I addressed her. "Um, docks," she stated, rattling off an address. "How did you?"

Ignoring her I turned back to them. "Break, if you see a bomb, have Enter minimize casualties. He can survive death; you can't."

Ignoring Tattletale's complaint of "How does that even work!?" Herb nodded, getting up. From the window we heard the sound of several explosions, layered on top of each other and Tattletale shot me an accusatory look, as if to say 'this is your fault'. Herb caught it and gave a derisive snort, getting her attention. "What?" she demanded, sounding offended.

"You didn't do much better without us," he said, taking her aback as her power flared, likely filling her in on what happened originally as her eyes widened. He motioned for Grue to follow and the two of them walked out to gather up their wayward members.

The rest of us sat there in awkward silence for a few minutes, Tattletale looking scared and introspective, while Regent just looked bored. He broke the silence, asking, "Mind if I?" as he grabbed the remote. Turning on the tv, he flipped to a news channel, which was detailing the bombings.

Energy bombs, Transmutation bombs, Spatial Distortion bombs, even a few literal Time bombs had gone off, though not the time bubble grenade Miss Militia would end up using on Leviathan. Instead they all had temporary effects, speeding up, slowing down, or skipping forward and backward in time, which wouldn't be that bad if the effect didn't happen in bands, slicing people apart.

Regent laughed as they reported one that turned everything in four meters to vanilla pudding, including two cars and four and a half people. He stopped laughing when they flashed an image, the off-white stained red.

I checked my phone, hoping that our base was still intact, and while a couple of the cameras now saw blast zones outside, one looking at a pool of acid while another saw a sphere carved out of the area, digging out of the ground and the walls, but leaving everything else untouched, the base was intact, and there wasn't anyone nearby.

Looking over I saw that Tattletale was also clicking away at her phone. "Checking your base cameras?" I inquired.

She looked up, blinking. "What?" she finally asked, hand twitching upwards.

I rolled my eyes, "One, stop using your power on me, it's just going to leave you with a headache and no answers. Two, the cameras you have around your base, are you checking them? If you have ABB try to break in, it should tell you if they're planting or retrieving a bomb."

"Cameras?" she repeated before putting her face in her hands. "Why didn't I think of that?" she moaned.

I shrugged as Regent looked on, amused by the byplay. "Your power gives you info about things, but it's entirely uncreative. You need to cultivate that yourself to use it to its fullest."

"How?" she questioned, frustrated, before wincing and holding her head.

I sighed. "You need to learn to control your power. You're probably halfway there, but it'll let you shepherd it for when you really need it. Try meditation, it might help."

She glared at me before turning back to her phone, probably not trying my suggestion specifically because I suggested it. Ah, the pleasures of working with teenagers.

 

[Leecifer]

Impediment 4.3

The doctor came by, checking up on Taylor, whose face was covered with bruises to the point that it looked like she had a splotchy yellow complexion. After checking her over, including taking what looked like a piece of Tinkertech out of a locked box and passing it over the girl's body, he informed me that she appeared to have suffered blunt force trauma across her entire body, bruising her skin, muscles, organs, and even bones. She had also suffered a moderate concussion, though it, like the extreme bruising, seemed to have been healing well in the past week, as had the microfractures in her bones. Leaving a small bag of pills for her to take twice a day, I tipped him a hundred and thanked him as he left.

"A week ago?" Tattletale asked me in the suite's entryway after he left. "How?" She wrinkled her brow as she stared at Taylor's supine form. I watched her mounting frustration with ill-hidden amusement. Apparently not only could she not read me directly, she couldn't read me at a single remove like this. Abaddon you magnificent bastard, I mused before stopping her. "Don't bother, you can't figure it out since you're still trying to read me through her," I told the Thinker. At least, that's what I think is happening.

"I'm a healer," I told her. "But for anything complicated I need a mental model. I can do general healing though."

"That makes no sense," she told herself, brow knitting. "Unless. . . Can you apply the general healing to a specific area?" she asked suddenly. I shrugged. She gestured towards Taylor, either trying to tell me to do so or indicating that I already had and should fess up, but either way I shook my head no.

"I'm not trying anything on her if I don't have to; if you want me to experiment on you or Regent, sure."

She shot me an indecipherable look, before Regent yelled from the suite's common room, "Wait, you're a healer? Can you do me?" having listened in.

We walked back in as he held up an elbow with a wince. "My arm's messed up; can you make it not?"

Giving another shrug, caring a lot less if I screwed something up with him, as he was by no means a hero, I reached over and touched his hand. "Not sure if I can heal power overuse, but I'll give it a shot." Focusing I tried to heal just his arm, not giving Panacea's power any particular instruction other than 'make this better'.

"How'd you kn-oooh, that's the stuff," he sighed, his arm going limp, an angry bruise across his knuckles slowly cycling through several shades. Before lightening to his pale skin tone.

"Oh that's such bullshit!" Tattletale cried. "I can see it happening but, Ugh!"

Glaring at Regent's arm, she held her head. "You want me to take care of your headache?" I offered, only for her to shift her glare towards me.

"No," she snapped, when the small girl's angry look didn't bother me in the slightest, "I don't want you or your, blankness, anywhere near me!"

I held up my hands in a pacifying gesture as I moved back to my seat. "Fine, no need to bite my head off about it, just wanted to help." She shifted her attention back to Regent's arm, much to his amusement as he stretched it back and forth before turning back to the television, watching the news covering the ongoing bombing spree. "If your power gives you nothing Tattletale, don't rely on it. You're smart without the shard, use your own brain instead."

Her head snapped over. "Shard?" she asked intently. "What's-Argh!" she cried out, holding her head. I mentally facepalmed. I hadn't meant to mention them, for fear that something like this might happen, but fuck it, teaching experience.

"There's certain things your power not only will not give you information on, like me, but will actively try to stop you from thinking about. I need you to take a breath and clear your mind, okay? If it helps, focus on the sound of my voice. I'll give you a null result, which is better than a negative response," I instructed patiently, falling into professor mode.

"Is this like one of those hypnotism things?" Regent asked, eyebrow raised.

"Closer to autohypnosis," I corrected. "And it's really more a metacognitive skill then a subconscious programming device." At his blank look I simplified. "It's a way of thinking about thinking instead of hypnosis." Ignoring his "Oh" I focused on the girl in pain in front of me. "Are you focused on me?" I asked.

"Yes, you fucking blank," she spat. Okay, some issues there I wasn't gonna touch. "Okay, now you need to feel whatever part is giving you that blank, and try to shut it off." If it was giving her the same result every time, I reasoned, then it should be easier for her to focus on the power itself without it distracting her with a rush of new information.

I sat there for a minute before she commanded, "Keep talking!" through gritted teeth.

"Oh, um, okay," I responded. "I suppose, since you've closed your eyes, that focusing on a single sensory stream would help isolate the sixth sense that is your power, possible eighth sense if you count balance and proprioception, but you get the point."

"Are you a college professor or something?" Regent asked as I drew breath.

"Or something," I responded over her growls of annoyance. "I'm not actually versed in parahuman studies as you know it, to be honest half of this is stuff I'm throwing together from my pre-existing knowledge of a whole bunch of things, but I'm tweaking my plans as I get responses, thus closing in on the truth of the matter all the time. It's annoyingly similar to having a math problem and the result, but needing to figure out all the steps between. Reverse engineering is always easier than the regular kind."

Tattletale held up a hand. "Think I got it," she said, opening her eyes. "Fuck!" she swore, closing them again.

"Only have it if you aren't seeing things?" I guessed, and received an angry nod in response. "You've turned it back off?" Another nod. "Okay, the one thing you need to know, and sharing it will piss off the Simurgh, so you know, don't, is that shards are powers. The actual name the tiny crystal that lodges itself in your brain when you Trigger calls itself."

The blonde girl growled in pain and irritation.

Why? Oh. . . whups. "Yes, there are all sorts of implications that go with the name, and a lot of them are spot on," I told her. "They're morally neutral, but using a power that gives you knowledge on the thing that gives you knowledge doesn't just cause a recursive error, it sets off security protocols. That's why, amongst a whole host of other reasons, you need to use your own intelligence instead of leaning on your shard's, because it isn't you, and thus has some things that are restricting it that aren't restricting you."

"What about my s-" Regent started to ask before stopping as I slashed my hand in the air. "What?"

"Don't refer to them by name, or at all if you can help it. The same thing that has your partner's power slide off me lets me talk about this stuff, but if you talk about it directly, even to me, I'm not sure you'll get the same protections."

He looked offended. "What, you can talk about it but I can't that's n-"

"Unfair?" I asked. "Bullshit? Yes. You can hijack people's nervous systems, how is that not complete bullshit compared to a normal human. Not all powers are created equal. Deal."

Tattletale pointed at me, eyes still shut tight. "When you say piss off the- Her," she stated, catching herself. "What do you mean."

"Someone in the Birdcage figured out what I just told you, tried to tell the people monitoring that super-illegal prison, and the bird wonder changed course in orbit, specifically because the same hardware that monitors it monitors her, and the priority message unflagged the vital intel due to a glitch in the coding. If you're not a Blindspot, fighting precogs blows."

Tattletale groaned, putting her face in her hands. "Now I have even more questions!"

I couldn't help but grin, "Save it for the team meeting we'll have when our compatriots return!"

"I hate you," was her only response as she opened her eyes just to glare at me. "Are you even human?" she finally demanded.

I grinned. "Just as much as you are, Sarah."

"Who's Sarah?" Regent asked looking at her.

"We all have fake names Jean-Paul," I informed him.

A slight widening of the eyes the only reaction he gave to his real name before shrugging, commenting, "Yeah, fair."

"Then what's your name!" she demanded. "Since you know ours."

I shrugged, not really seeing the entire point of the pseudonym game at this stage. "Lee."

"Lee?" she asked, looking down at the jeans I was wearing. "Like Le-vi. Lee Vejovis? You're an ass!" she declared. "If you're not gonna tell me your name, don't make something that obviously fake up!"

I shrugged again. If she didn't want to accept the truth, it wasn't my job to correct her.

She sat there, still glaring. "At least tell me why I can't read you. You said you were a 'Blindspot', but what does that even mean?"

"It means that I am one of the few people out there that precognition just doesn't work on," I told her, wondering if she'd connect the dots.

She didn't. "But I'm not a precog, so why does that stop me?"

"You're a Pericog, It's apparently close enough."

Tattletale, apparently a glass cannon when it came to intellectual cat and mouse games, threw her hands up in anger. "What does that even mean!?"

"It means you know around things, your power fills in missing details, but it needs something to work on first. When you get things wrong? It's because you've given your power faulty information to anchor against," I explained, trying to help.

She growled at me. It was adorable. "But how do you know that?"

I grinned unrepentantly. "Precogs."

"That isn't an answer!" she yelled, getting up and marching out the door to Taylor's room where she totally wasn't going to sulk.

"It is and it isn't!" I yelled back before she slammed the door closed.

I exchanged a look with Regent before I turned to perusing my Base Manual on my phone, as I only had about four hundred pages left. The door slammed open, and Sarah strode back over to sit back down, still glaring at me. "You didn't win." She informed me.

Yes I did, I thought, replying, "If you say so."

As she growled Regent tried to play peacemaker, though it might have just been so he could watch tv in peace. "Just leave him alone Tats, can't you see he's one those stoic heroes, sitting there, ignoring us as he reads his book on how to control us all." He's trying to tease me? Two can play at that game.

"Left that one back at base," I commented. "This one's on corrupting the Wards."

"Wait, you have one?" he asked, interested, Tattletale giving him a look that said she doubted his sanity. "I mean, with the ride here and this place, he might," he defended to his teammate.

"I don't need one for you, all I need to do is kill your dad," I stated simply.

"What?" the two cried in unison. "Like, people say they're going to all the time," Regent clarified. "But no one ever does."

"Wait. You're okay with that?" Tattletale sputtered. "Oh. You are, because he's, holy shit."

I ignored the sputtering Thinker. "His power's line of sight, his eyes aren't as good as mine, and being a flier means I'm never wanting for a sniper's ideal elevation. He's an asshole, and the only reason he doesn't have a kill order is the ones that issue them can't do math, so I'll shoot him from a thousand yards away, or six."

"Um," he said, obviously not sure how to take that, finally just shrugging. "Okay, good luck."

I turned back to my manual as Regent turned back to watch TV, glancing over at me every few minutes. As fun as they were to mess with, I didn't trust either of them at all, and the sooner Taylor was better the sooner I could get back to the mission.

<AB>​

It was another forty minutes before Herb got back. Regent tried to make conversation with his teammate, only to get flipped off with the explanation that she "needed to think" before going back to what I was pretty sure was meditation. I was tempted to point out that I had suggested she try that before she got a migraine, but I was the adult here and that would be petty. I was still tempted though. Regent gave up and turned back to the tv, which led her to retreat to Taylor's room, claiming the other bed in that room while muttering to herself about how the news anchor was cheating on both her husband and her taxes.

As Herb opened the door, I grabbed my pistol from where it was hidden in the pocket on my back, ready for anything. The sound of a female teenage voice announcing, "This is swanky as shit bro!" caused me to relax. A familiar looking black girl ran into the room and flopping onto an empty loveseat.

Grue walked in after her, gruffly telling her, "Aisha behave. I brought you here to keep you safe."

Looking at her, my eyes itched and my Power Sight activated. I hadn't realized it before, but Aisha'd already Triggered. Looking at her I saw a Black and Purple flame of Direct Cognitive Masking, spreading out similar colored smoke in a translucent ghostly miasma around her. Her power flashed for a second, the fire igniting the miasma as I looked at a power that had no source which let me focus on the source which let me see Aisha as her power flared and I looked at a power that had no source which let me focus on the source which let me see Aisha as her power flared and I looked at a power that had no source which let me focus on the source which let me see Aisha as her power flared and I looked at a power which- My head hurt as my eyes BURNED, my vision clearing as I saw a power which had no source which my brain told me was Aisha.

"You okay man?" Herb asked, looking at me. "You've been staring at her for five minutes."

"Yeah," the bodiless flame commented from her position on the arm of the chair her brother was sitting in. "It's super fucking creepy! How are you even doing that?" as Grue asked "Looking at who? He's not looking at anyone."

I blinked, hard, holding back profanities at the pain I felt, thought it started to fade. I was trying to appear at least a little mature and swearing a blue streak right now wouldn't help. "Okay, that's how I deal with Strangers." I commented, as it felt like someone had maced me. Or at least what I assumed being maced was like. Either way, it wasn't fun.

"Strangers?" Tattletale asked, sitting up straight. "Where?" Herb and I both pointed at Aisha, as I got the sense the fire was waving to the Thinker, though I couldn't say why, stupid Stranger powers. "I, what? Invisible? No." the Thinker said, struggling as her headache came back. Bitch looked down at a Rottweiler at her feet which was looking in Aisha's direction, ears back, but not growling. "Brutus smells her," the canine-empath stated, looking in the general direction of the girl.

I glanced at Herb. "Wasn't she gonna drop off all her dogs?"

He shrugged, "She wouldn't leave him, and I didn't want to fight her on it when we were in a hurry."

Looking at the group, I decided I'd handle one problem at a time, motioning them towards the couch Regent and Tattletale were sitting on. "This'll help. Group photo everyone. Grue, Bitch, stand behind that couch. Aisha, sit next to Regent." Herb shot me a grin which I ignored. When everyone was in place, I took out my base phone, the camera showing Aisha just fine, and the pressure on my eyes faded a bit more. I snapped the photo, then turned the phone around to show everyone.

"The fuck?" Tattletale yelled, looking at the photo. Grue told himself, "Right, sis's here, why'd I forget?" as Regent reached to the left and tried to touch her, my brain telling me he accidentally copped a feel and was slapped for it as my eyes and ears said he touched nothing, and there was no sound made.

"Why does my face hurt?" he asked to himself as Aisha jumped off the couch to take a seat off to the side.

"Right," I told everyone. "Before we begin, Grue's little sister, who goes by Imp, triggered as a decently powerful Stranger."

"Imp?" the girl in question said. "Didn't have a name, but that works. I'm all mischievous n' shit, and I don't know, mess people up. Imps do that, right?"

I nodded. "They do, and it's the name you'd eventually pick."

"Holy shit! Can you see the future? Do you know lottery numbers? Do I make it big? Oh! Do I get big tits? 'Cause they're pretty fuckin' descent for my age, which means they should be real nice later!" she asked in a torrent of questions.

I pinched the bridge of my nose as Herb laughed and the rest of the Undersiders looked at us in confusion. "In order," I responded, trying to remember all her inquiries, while unable to remember hearing the words themselves. "Sort of, no, as much as you can with your power, and I have no clue, that's not something that was focused on a great deal, but they tend to be genetic, so you'd know more than I would."

Regent held up a hand. "Um, Lee? Who are you talking to?"

I sighed. "So, Grue's little sister, the Stranger, is the sixth member of the Undersiders that none of you can remember because, unless she suppresses her power, you don't realize she's there. I showed them the camera picture again. "See her in the photo, she's sitting in that chair over there. Suppress your power and say hi Aisha."

My eyes registered what my brain knew as she waved to the group, saying "Hi Aisha!" before disappearing again.

"And now you know enough that her power probably won't erase her from your mind, just whatever she's doing at this time." I explained.

"But that doesn't explain why my face hurts." Regent pointed out.

I looked at him incredulously. "Think of where you put your hand to try to feel where she was, now figure out where you would have touched her if she'd been sitting next to you."

He considered this, as Grue's helmet tilted down at him, the older boy probably glaring. "Fair enough," Regent admitted, "Though I should at least be able to remember what I got slapped for."

"That's my sister," Grue groused.

"You can grab one of my sisters if you want," Regent responded blandly.

"My thirteen-year-old sister," he practically growled.

"And?" Regent asked, confused.

Tattletale and Bitch were staring at him now, though Tattletale decided to copy me, sighing and pinching the bridge of her nose. "Let's just say he had a messed-up home life, I'm eventually going to kill his dad, and he's totally okay with that," I told the group getting their attention.

"Aren't you a hero?" Bitch glared.

"And rabid dogs need to be put down." I declared. "Not misunderstood ones, or mis-trained ones. Mad ones."

She held my gaze before nodding, then looking down and away.

"What he said, now let's order dinner!" Herb declared into the awkward silence, holding up a menu.

 

[Leecifer]

Impediment 4.4

Once we were properly fed and watered, and Aisha got over having people she could talk to, we settled down to business. Sitting down in the lounge area, most of the group had un-masked to eat, Regent commenting, "You already know who we are, so what's the point?" and they never put them back on. Herb's vampire teeth had gotten a few comments, and while Lisa and I had both not removed our domino masks, no-one remarked on it.

"First of all," I started. "Tattletale, I need you to call Taylor's dad and tell him that she was out with friends, got caught at the edge of a blast, and got thrown by it. She's a bit banged up, your mom looked her over, she's staying at your place until things calm down, and she's sleeping, but okay." The girl thankfully nodded after a second of thought and stepped away, pulling out her phone. As we'd had dinner the rate of detonations had slowed, but hadn't stopped, and there was now one every thirty minutes or so according to the news.

Leaning back in my chair, I dropped a sound bubble between Herb and I. "So, time for your recruitment pitch."

He looked back, a little confused. "You're better at speechifying than I am."

"Yeah, but the Undersiders are your project." I pointed out. "I'm willing to give them a chance, which is a hell of a lot more than anyone else has, but I'm not spending the effort I'm giving to Pan & Taylor. You want to convince them thoroughly, you convince them." I dropped the bubble and got up, helping Bitch collect the plates, though she didn't say anything, the others having remained silent as my friend and I seemed to silently talk to each other.

The Undersiders had spread out across the lounge, and looked at me as I sat. I turned and looked at Herb pointedly, who took a deep breath, stepping forward as he began: "I don't mean to insult you by callin' you kids, so I won't, but you've got so much shit on your shoulders. You have no idea what. The sheer fact that we know what it is makes it unfair, the sheer fact that we can't tell you makes it more unfair. Welcome to your world, sorry it sucks," he informed them sadly as I realized that I hadn't heard Herb give that many speeches before.

He just usually interrupted mine.

I wanted to help him present his argument better, as what he'd just said didn't make a ton of sense, but I'd said this one was all him and I meant it, choosing instead to tune him out, checking my phone, looking at the base security and typing up a message to Boojack to tell him what had happened with Bakuda.

"But, what you didn't have before you have now," he continued. "Two people, who want to make it better. Not gonna make it perfect, not gonna stop a lot of the big things from happening, and I can't even tell you about the big things because, oh my god," he lamented. "So much I can't tell you, cause if I tell you, it changes everything, and I don't want things to change right now. So much so, that I let you be accomplices to a kidnapping." He sighed. "Yes, look at me, I made you kidnap a child. I'm sorry."

The ringing silence that statement created pulled my attention back as I tried to go over what he'd just said. "Wait, what?" I asked, attempting to reel back the half-heard conversation and coming up with nothing. "What'd you just say?"

"Oh," my friend said, looking back at me. "Oh, you oh," he responded, surprise flashing across his face. "You did forget."

Wow, that was helpful, I thought. "Forget what?"

"Diana?" he supplied.

I trolled through my memory, trying to remember a character called Diana, getting nothing. The only Diana I could think of was not of this universe. "Wonder Woman?" I hazarded. His expression didn't change. "Who?"

"You know," he said in a manner that suggested I really should. "The wicked good precog." There's no precog named Diana in this world, I thought as he continued "Who can see multip-"

Oh, he must mean, "Dinah Alco-OH FUCK!" I swore, shocking the group of teens. "HOW THE FUCK DID I FORGET ABOUT DINAH! Fuck fuck fuck fuck!" I dropped my phone, hands springing to my head in horror.

"Sorry," Herb commented, a little surprised, but not nearly as upset as he should have been. Did he realize it when he picked up Bitch and Imp? I thought. He must've, no way would he- "I thought you were just going along. I'm sorry bro." He sounded like he forgot to grab his wallet when we went out to see a movie, not condemned a girl to drug addiction and torture!

"It's been like a year man," I tried to reason, more with myself than him. "I kind of. . . Fuck," I finished not even able to say aloud that I'd forgotten the bank job was a distraction for kidnapping a preteen cape. Grabbing my phone from the ground and searching online, there it was, bold as fucking brass: 'Mayor's Niece, Aged Ten, Kidnapped by Armed Gunmen!' I wanted to throw the damn thing against the wall, but that wouldn't help anything. Springing to my feet I began to pace, company forgotten. "Okay, now she's with Coil," set the situation, figure out what we can do. "But we don't know where and they've probably started working on her by know."

"She kinda needs to be there right now," my . . . teammate advised.

"No!" I retorted, "She really doesn't need to be!" No location means no op. I can't save someone if I don't know where I need to go to do it. I can't do anything to save her until I find that out first, and the only way to get that right now is through the Undersiders, who are. . . right. Glancing over at them, most were eyeing me cautiously. Tattletale's eyes were wide, with fear, guilt, maybe shock? Fuck it I don't really care right now. I stalked back over to my seat, plopping down in it, trying to search my memory of what I knew about Coil's base. It was underground, had a parking lot, which these kids ended up confronting the Slaughterhouse 9 in, and was near construction or under it, though all of that info came after the bombing and after Leviathan wrecked half the place, which told me nothing right now.

Seeing that I'd sat down, Herb turned back to the Undersiders. "So, you guys are accomplices to a serious issue. Kidnapping."

Seeing their wariness shift to confusion I explained, "The bank job was a distraction-"

"To kidnap one of the most powerful precogs out there-," he interrupted.

"Who is the mayor's niece," I finished. "Fuuuuuuuuck," I added to myself, still unable to understand how I'd missed this. If I was being honest, I had an idea. I'd started reading this stupid story about a year ago, and I'd been so focused on helping Taylor and Panacea in the past few days I'd had a serious case of out-of-sight, out-of-mind for a lot of the secondary characters, like Brandish.

"Did you know?" Grue asked Tattletale accusatorily when it became clear I wasn't going to continue.

"No!" she practically shouted. "I knew it was a distraction, we were hitting a bank in the middle of the day, of course we were a distraction; it's why he was paying us so much. I didn't know it was for that! I'd have turned him down if I knew! I . . ." she trailed off, looking as horrified as I felt.

Regent looked on, face blank, as Bitch leaned against a wall, unhappy.

"You get him the drugs too?" Break asked her pitilessly, her eyes going wide as she looked at him. "Cause their pumping her full of them right now."

"What drugs?" Grue asked, looking between the two.

"That's not fair man," I interceded. "She wouldn't've been involved, or she'd've figured it out if she had been. Dinah's precog gives her odds of the likelihood of any event, but doing so hurts her," I disclosed to the others. "Once a day or so and she's fine, but past that it results in a feedback effect that gets worse the more she uses it, like when Tattletale overuses her powers, but much faster. Coil, your boss, is getting her addicted to opioids: it both blunts the pain she gets from powers overuse, and lets him use her withdrawal symptoms to convince her to use her powers for him, a metaphorical stick, the carrot here being her 'candy'. Fuck."

"Jesus Tats," Brian muttered, Aisha adding, "That's fucked up!"

"I didn't know!" Tattletale pleaded.

"Now here's my thing for you guys," my teammate told the group, getting their attention once more. "The reason I let that happen, and yes, I let that happen. Knew exactly what was going to happen, I'm a dick, yes, hate me all you want."

Well, I guess this wasn't something he just realized. I'd assumed with how he'd reacted to the bombing, he'd forgotten about it too. Not that he'd planned this since day one. "We are going to have words later," I coldly informed him.

He waved at me dismissively, "Yes, we will." He turned his focus back on the teens. "It's because I needed you to understand that, yes, you were makin' money, yes, you were doin' this amazing thing, but the boss you're working for is a complete and utter ass who constantly rapes one of your best friends."

"WHAT?" yelled Bitch, Aisha, and Grue, Regent's eyebrows shooting up in surprise.

"And forces drugs on children," he continued, "after he kidnaps them. There's a reason why he does this, but it's best if we just, I don't know, kill him, but he's really protective and his power makes him a bitch to off."

"I have a plan to kill the asshole," I told the group, "But I need to know where he is first."

"And we don't," he added. "And hey, what do ya know, he sidesteps things. Quite well."

I elucidated, as Herb was being so obscure that it was borderline malicious. "Coil has time power bullshit. Calls it fate control, but he splits the timeline, aware of what happens in both futures as they happen, and closes the one he doesn't want. It lets him ask any question, do anything, and then close out the timeline with the knowledge of what happens in the other one while nothing's happened in this one. He's fond of, after a meeting is successfully concluded, going with whatever timeline gave him the best result, splitting it again, and having the person who he just finished talking to tortured in one timeline for information while in the other they leave peacefully."

Grimacing, I continued, "He then goes with the peaceful timeline with all the information he's gained from the torture timeline. To kill him I'll need to know where he'll be, and a day. I set a pre-set time, not in reaction to anything, but of my own will, and put it a day or so in the future as he splits and chooses lines pretty quickly, so in twenty-four hour he's guaranteed to do so at least once, locking in the timeline. Then I hit him at the set time, so no matter what decision he splits, I'll hit him in both timelines. Once he dies in one, he's forced into the other so if the attacks aren't at the same time, he'll use the knowledge he gained from the first time I killed him, split time again, and try two different tactics, going with whichever works best, or doesn't make him die, same thing really." I told them, finding comfort in explanation.

"This is why we picked you guys," Break informed them. "Because you're basically decent people and you're reacting in the way you should. You're going 'Oh no! this is horrible!' and you're right. You know what else is horrible?" he asked, pulling out the glass face from his pocket, the sharp edges of it scraping against the metal of his gauntlets, "This. Know what else is horrible? Your lives. Know what else is horrible? All of it. All of it, just this entire thing and we want to help make it better." He put the face back, commenting, "While having a little fun, less at the expense of other people, but still fun." He turned back to them. "But with less people dying, wouldn't it be nicer?" He smiled at them, nearly chirping. "So, recruitment speech, yay!"

The Undersiders looked at his sudden change in mood with no small amount of horror as he finished. "Join, stop all the bad shit that's comin' into your life. I can't tell you what it is yet, but we can save you, and you don't have to go through all of it. Some of it," he corrected. "You really don't want to go through all of it." He looked at their leader. "Especially you Grue, really important for you to join us. It'll save you, up here," he tapped his forehead. "So," Break told them all, "You can sleep on it if you want, but killin' people and stuff? Really deserves a good plan." He looked around at them. "Questions? I'll give answers, as much as I can."

There was a moment of silence as we all looked at him. That's it? I thought. Vague threats and 'things will go well for you if you join'? Really you dick?

The teens looked at each other, silently trying to decide who should go first. Grue stepped forward, warily. "Why me?"

"Pain. Suffering of immense proportions that you won't have to go through." My teammate told him, which really didn't answer the boy's questions. "And if you think you think you know what I'm talking about, crank it up a lot."

I couldn't leave it at that. "Do you know what Second Triggering is?" I asked him, getting a head shake of no in response. "Look it up. You'll understand."

"You do it," Break told him, deciding to throw subtlety out the window. "Regent, because eventually you'll be happy. Very, honestly, happy."

"Um, yay?" the teen responded. "You too?" Yeah, he's not sure what Herb just said.

"Aisha," my teammate continued, addressing her not-presence on the arm of the couch. "Yeah, pretty much the same thing. You handle all the shit well, but I want you to be happy." She didn't say anything. At least, I think she didn't.

"Bitch," he plowed on. "You're wicked awesome, you really are. You just need people to understand and I've probably said way too many words for you to even care. Join. That's it."

"And Tattletale," he addressed the shell-shocked girl, who was taking his words worse than anyone, probably because she could see everything he meant underneath what he was saying in more detail than she liked. "You can read me like a book, so me compadre, when I speak, I don't hold much back. I'm kinda an emotional individual. I ate someone today."

"The fuck?" Aisha asked, falling off her perch in shock.

"It wasn't my proudest moment," he agreed, not breaking eye contact with Tattletale. "Stuff I need to work on."

"He killed the bitc-cunt who tried to kill your brother," I explained to the thirteen-year-old, not used to having to censor that word that way.

Break continued, staring at the Thinker, "You know, just by readin' and listenin' to me that I'm not a bullshit person. I'm a fun person, I love to hang around things, but this?" he indicated the pocket holding the glass face. "Is bullshit. And I don't like bullshit, it's messy, and you guys are stuck in a bullshit situation, and you guys are gonna end up doing some bullshit things. But I don't want you to, so help us out. Join our group, and enjoy the perks of being the better bad guys."

I felt compelled to define, "We're Heroes of the mythic variety, not the modern cops and robbers types that plays games that ruin civilian lives."

"I love you guys," Break addressed them, as if I hadn't said anything. "And I don't want any of this bullshit to happen to you. You don't know why I love ya, but I do. Kay? You're, like, important to me. So join, and don't be bitches about it." He was met with silence.

I stood up. "Right, good speech, you guys need to get to bed and I need to have words with my. . . teammate."

"I'm going to the principal's office," the man in question snarked. "I'll be okay."

"Dude," I told him, not looking at him. "Just shut the fuck up right now." I continued addressing the teens, "Each of these rooms has two twin beds. Tattletale, can you take the one with Taylor so she has someone if she needs anything?" The Thinker nodded and got up as well, happy to have an out. "Bitch, Imp, you guys can take another room."

"Why?" Imp's not-voice asked petulantly, an underlying tone of fear running through that single word.

"Because you're both girls, and your power means that you have to actively try to annoy her, and you know better. if I stick Bitch with Regent, she'll hurt him, and if I stick you with Regent, Grue'll hurt him."

"Sounds about right," Regent added, "Sorry about earlier," he apologized to Imp, looking in the wrong direction.

"Grue and Regent, you're the last room, for obvious reasons." They all looked at me, Tattletale near the door to her room, but the rest all just sitting there, staring. "Leave. Now," I growled. And they were gone.

I turned back to the man that I had considered my best friend and confidant, my voice cold with anger. "Herb. Buddy. Pal."

"Compadre!" he added, a tremor of apprehension in his voice. Good.

"Shut the fuck up." I hissed. "When, exactly, did you remember the Bank job was a distraction for the kidnapping and torture of a ten-year-old girl?" I wanted to believe that he, like me, had completely blanked on it and was talking a big game for the teens, that maybe he'd realized after the fact, and it wasn't until today that it was all real, but I wasn't nearly as sure as I wanted to be.

"When we got here?" he responded simply, confirming my initial fears.

"And by here, you don't mean this hotel, do you?" I asked with a deep sinking sensation in my chest.

"Nope."

He must have had a good reason though, something that excused this. "And the reason you did not see fit to remind me of this at any point in the past, I don't know, five days was what, exactly?" He motioned towards the rooms the Undersiders were now in. "You do that like it excuses something." I bit off the beginning of an unpleasant laugh.

"Extra incentive for them to join," he explained, as if that made any sense at all.

"They didn't need that when their boss is planning to kill them all!" I wouldn't shout, that wouldn't solve anything.

He had the temerity to shrug. "Yeah, but, stuff."

"Oh, stuff, of course, the most extensive of rebuttals." I took a deep breath. "No, not stuff, we had Boojack as our distraction, we could have just as easily sent him to stop Coil's men, or start the fight earlier and led the fight there, stopping the kidnapping from happening. I could figure out a way to make it all work if I'd known," I proposed, but it didn't matter, because I hadn't known. Because I hadn't been told. "The fuck is wrong with you?"

"Well, while we're talking, we're running out of time. We need to go save a girl before she gets totally hooked on some drugs she doesn't need." He countered, as if this was somehow all part of a larger master plan, as if that was any way relevant to our current discussion.

"Okay, cool, I'll go get her right now." I retorted, calling his bluff.

"Again, why we need them," he said, motioning towards the rooms again. Like that meant something.

Yes, he really doesn't get it, I thought. "You do realize," I informed him, voice controlled, "That with proper medical care, or improper as it were, she'll be addicted in days, if not hours."

"I know," he affirmed nonchalantly.

"And it's going to take them weeks before they could tell us where his base is."

"I know." Again, in the same tone of voice.

I would not punch him in the face, no matter how punchable it looked right now. "So you're not saving her from anything, are you?" My voice had gone cold again, but I didn't care.

"Not right away, no," the asshole agreed.

I had to know, "What, conceivable, part of you thought this was a good plan?" I wondered aloud.

"Ya know, when you think about it," he observed.

"Yes?"

"And it's a concept," he continued unabated. "And you don't really put actual things behind it."

"Like Reality?" I offered.

He nodded. "True. You go with it. And then. . . oops."

I sighed. I would not hurt my friend unless I had a good reason, and relieving my frustration with his complete lack of thought wouldn't help him. It would be like kicking a dog the day after it did something, it wouldn't link the pain to the act emotionally, and he'd just gone on about how emotional he was. "Oops is, I counted the hours wrong and overpaid an employee. Oops is, I stubbed my toe getting out of bed this morning. Oops is not getting a ten-year-old girl taken by a sociopath, and hooked on FUCKING OXY!"

He nodded sagely. "You're right, but, silver lining-"

"It better be fucking Mithril." I sneered.

He hedged, "Probably not, maybe gold."

"What?"

"Yeah, Gold," he decided.

"What the fuck is it?" I demanded.

He held up a hand. "When we save her, she'll be highly indebted to us and we can probably get her on our side once you, or Panacea, do your healing shit on her."

I just blinked at him, boiling ice in my veins. "One," I bit out. "That's not how debts work. You can't let someone get in danger, just to make yourself look better when you save them. Second of all, in case you've forgotten, ya fuckin' moron, I'm immune to precognition, which means that she can't help us on anything that I'm even slightly involved in."

"God, I keep forgetting about that," he responded, still with a voice lacking any human empathy or concern, but I wasn't going to respond to that. It was a distraction, and I started to wonder how many of them he'd used on me these past few days.

"Third, her power doesn't give you a vision, it gives you probabilities," I explained, like I was talking to a small child, only small children were empathetic. "Which, again, when you throw me into the mix-"

"Doesn't count," he completed, like I'd corrected his math on a restaurant bill's tip.

"Yes, ruins everything. Fourth! If her power hurts her to use, and is going to be fucking useless there was no reason for her to go through any of this fucking shit."

He just nodded. "Yep."

I waited for him to say something, anything else but he just stared at me, waiting for me to continue. I obliged. "So here's what's going to happen," I asserted quietly.

"We wait a week, we're-" he started.

I silenced him with my power, the words dying in his throat. "No, we've seen what happens when you just talk. Now you listen. If you remember anything that I seem to have forgotten or not mentioned you are going to tell me," I instructed calmly, so far past the point of anger and just sick of his nonsensical shit that I reached a higher plane of not giving a single fuck.

He held up a hand and I dismissed the bubble of null sound around his throat. "Should I tell you now?" the older man questioned.

Good, start a beneficial habit. I nodded, "What did I forget?"

"I don't know, what did you forget?" he asked smiling, trying to make a joke out of this entire clusterfuck.

"I don't know," I responded, not taking the bait. "Is there something that I haven't mentioned that you believe to be important, like the enslaving of a small child, that I could go fix?"

"Right now? Hmmm," he responded, pantomiming thinking.

I waited a few beats, but he just continued his act. "Alright then," I stated icily. "If you think of it, or think of something in the future, you are to tell me. Immediately. And not attempt this cloak and dagger shit, because, as we've seen, you suck at it."

"I never said I was good at it," he observed placidly.

"I'm glad we are in agreement then." I responded pleasantly. "Though I wonder, if you knew you were bad, you did it at all."

He finally tried to defend himself, stating, "I thought eventually, you'd, like, remember."

I smiled at him, and his attempt to make his lies my fault. "You know me, I get focused on shit." He nodded in agreement. "Regardless, you think of something, you tell me, just to double check," I told him in conspiratorial voice. "That way this shit doesn't happen again." I waited, but he didn't respond, though he tried to say something as I started talking, and I plowed on through. "Because if it does, I will beat you bloody, heal you, and repeat, for as long as it takes for you to learn to not play games with the lives of children."

"But again," he countered, motioning towards the bedrooms. "It gave them extra incentive."

Really I raged internally. FUCKING REALLY. YOU THINK THAT MAKES IT OKAY!? But I had a realization, that I just had to share. "Oh, so, thought. When Dinah can no longer reliably predict the future because of the actions that I take, and her powers seem faulty, there's a not insignificant chance that Coil will decide she's not worth the trouble, and put a bullet in her brain." I looked at him as his eyes widened, and he froze, though he controlled the rest of his reactions. "Didn't think of that, did ya?" I asked in a stage whisper.

"Nah, wasn't up there," he responded in an uncaring tone, as if I'd pointed out that his shirt and pants didn't match.

"Yeah," I agreed, trying to match his unconcerned tone. "Yeah. This, this is why you need to run shit by me man." He mm'd in agreement. "You've got the breadth of ideas, I have the depth."

"Construction site, underground, tunnel," he said. I couldn't tell if he was thinking out loud, or if this was yet more of his pseudo-cryptic bullshit meant to put me on my back foot, as my attention was forced away from him and on to decoding his sentence fragments, and what they represented.

"While that does narrow it down," I agreed, and he gave no reaction whatsoever to my words, the lack of which was obviously a controlled response, so it was probably the latter. Damnit man, I raged, keeping my expression calm, friends don't play these fucking mind games with each other! "We don't know which base he'll be in, if he even has more than one, whether it's a current construction site or one that's been delayed, or one that's started after the storm hits."

"No," he disagreed. "It's current."

"If that's true, and I have nothing other than your word that it is, that narrows it down, but not nearly enough."

"Tattletale actually knows where it is," he responded in a thoughtful tone.

I quirked an eyebrow. "Right now?"

"Yes."

"No, she doesn't," I disagreed easily, remembering this much of the story. "He's keeping her as far away from his main operation as possible. It's only after it happens that she gets allowed that close, given the amount of work she has to do for his organization, but that's not for another few weeks."

He stopped, thought, and then agreed. "You're right, he met her in a different place." Not even a hint of remorse at the fact that he'd asserted and reasserted facts that I was supposed to take as gospel to plan around, not coaching them in any kind of 'maybe' or 'I think' language.

Again, I wondered where else I'd been mislead by his insistence of fact on what was merely hazy recollection.

Finishing this tangent and returning to my point, I reiterated. "So, if I seem to be forgetting something, mention it. I might have already accounted for it in my plans, but you mentioning it gets us both on the same page, and avoids the kind of FUBAR that you've led us into. Okay?"

He didn't respond. "Ohhh-Kay?" I repeated.

"Not everything," he disagreed.

"Like. What?" My voice lost its pleasant façade in an instant.

He didn't seem concerned. "Stuff I'm not sure about yet," he replied absentmindedly. Like he hadn't just done that thing. Like mentioning maybes for me to check wasn't in direct violation of the spirit of my request, while giving himself a loophole he could put a highway through.

"Run it by me just in case," I whispered.

"Mmm, I'll think about," he responded instantly.

I started twitching, wondering if I was going to need to beat my best friend to a pulp right now. I didn't want to do it, and I'd heal him, but he needed to understand that I wasn't fucking around. "If it results in another child being tortured-"

He cut me off, "I don't think there's anymore child torturing, maybe child dying, but not torturing."

I stared at him for a minute, as he waited for my response. "If it results in a situation like this, you will hurt for it," I promised softly. "You're my friend, so I won't kill you, but this is not okay."

He sighed. "I know, I get it, and come on, duh, of course it isn't." I wanted to point out that it apparently wasn't 'duh' considering that at the start of our little. . . dialog he had been defending his position. His insinuating that he always thought it was unacceptable was a tacit lie, and I hated it when my friends lied to me, but he looked like he had more to say, so I waited. "It's 'so not okay', that I get," he responded, mocking my statements through his tone of voice, and through the drastic oversimplification of his sins.

"Then why did you do it in the first place?" I asked him, mocking his mockery, trying to keep calm.

"Again," he responded, dropping the affectation. "Certain things have ta kinda just happen."

"No they don't!" I shot back. What did he mean by 'again'? He'd never brought up this point before, because it was made of stupid. "We don't have to hit the Stations of Fucking Canon. We don't want to hit every single important point, and the points that we're going to hit, like the storm, and the visitors from out of town, we can't fucking stop! They're external threats, but everything else we can stop, or fucking change, we do, because we really should!" Wait, I thought. Is this why he wanted Taylor in the Undersiders? Just because it happened in canon? I want to ask, but if that's true, I will hurt him, and I really don't want to do that right now.

"Can I ask you a small question thought?" he asked. "If she doesn't get kidnapped, how do we find him?"

"Well, if the ten-year-old girl wasn't kidnapped and enslaved with narcotics, after the storm hits, Lisa will still get brought in to help streamline his operations in stage two of his plan." Herb made a noncommittal noise, like I was somehow wrong, without even bothering to use fucking words. "Yes, it would be simpler this way because he'd drop his guard, but no I wouldn't want a child to suffer to make our jobs just a little easier!"

He nodded in agreement. "Understandable," he said like, like, fuck I don't know. Like we were discussing something unimportant!

"Okay," I said, settling the matter. "Fuck man, just. . . fuck." I sighed, feigning more relaxation than I felt, body still taut and simmering with rage, at him, at me for trusting him, and this entire fucking situation, but he'd head to bed and I'd have time to cool off. I pointed at the last bedroom. "That room's yours, it's like midnight, go and get some sleep. I'm gonna stay here and, I don't know, keep fucking watch."

"For what?" he asked confused.

"Fuck, I don't know," I said, truly wishing he would just leave for the first time in my life.

"'Cause with what's going on, people are slightly preoccupied," he explained.

It hurt to say it, but I replied honestly. "Maybe I just don't want to look at you right now."

He laughed, like he hadn't just fucked me over and tried to stain my goddamned soul with his thoughtless, misguided actions. "Okay lovebutton, I'll see you," he told me as he left, closing the door behind him.

I snapped a sound bubble around the room as I roared "FUUUUUUUUUCK!" The air around me whipping in my useless rage, air claws ready to strike, to tear, to rend. Whatever the fuck I'd felt after failing with Panacea, this was fucking immeasurably worse. I'd fucking trusted that motherfucker to have my back, and he'd been treating it like a fucking game, even now that he'd claimed to realize just how 'messed up' the situation fucking was. I'd work with him, and have him back me in a fight, but never again when it came to planning, to leading, to doing the fucking right thing. He was the first true friend I'd had in over a decade, and fucking this was how I learned I couldn't really trust him to be honest with me, like I'd always tried to be honest with him. He'd planned to let a child be tortured from the very beginning, and didn't even feel bad about it, the fucking bastard. I flipped a chair upright with wind and sank into as the tears came for the first time in years, as, just like when I was a kid, just as it seemed I always was, I was truly alone.

 

[Leecifer]

Impediment 4.5

An indeterminate amount of time later, I pulled myself together, feeling drained.

Okay, it's just me, and I need to save the world.

As I walked around, picking up the furniture that I'd blown over with my accidental wind blast I could almost physically feel the weight settling on my shoulders. Lovely. I needed to work on my powers, but I had no one to heal, and hitting myself to drain my shields would probably be taken badly by the kids if they saw it.

Hitting and healing Break might help with both, my mind supplied, but I wasn't going to do that. For my current persona's set all I had left was bug control. . . hmm. Tapping into it I felt Taylor's presence, which seemed to direct its attention onto me, full of muted and confused feelings of fear, pain, and oddly enough, muted hope.

Keeping that running, I noticed we'd attracted some insects outside the window, and quickly sent the growing swarm on their way. With that done I kept the connection open, sending back feelings of safety and protection to her, trying to screen out my own rage at Break, loneliness, and my concern over the state of her injuries.

As I felt her relax I tried to focus on individual insects, seeing through their eyes to check up on everyone subtly, but it felt. . . off. Taylor's own power felt like it was mimicking me, connecting to every bug I tried to directly control, so I gave that up until I could talk to her about what was going on with her powers.

With my known abilities, as far as I could train them right now, I was stuck. The downside of only being able to copy with physical effects meant I couldn't practice them subtly, as they all had a certain level of flash that I didn't want the teens to see. Explaining why I had Shadow Stalker's or Grue's powers was not something I wanted to deal with right now, as while I was a Blindspot, Tattletale could still try to figure me out with her own intellect, so I settled on reading.

Odd sounds still filtered in through the window from time to time, what I assumed were the bombs continuing to go off.

I finally found how to turn on the low-level base A.I., buried as it was on page one thousand, two hundred and twenty-seven out of one thousand, five hundred and fifty-three. Looking at the way it was written, I started flipping back through the manual, finally putting together something that had been bugging me the entire time.

Mentally reviewing what I read, I rearranged the chapters in my head, and suddenly they made a lot more sense. It looked as if someone had taken this document and cut and pasted the chapters together in a nonsensical mishmash, disabling the search function, and I still hadn't found what should've been the introductory section of this manual.

Wondering what the hell Break had done at his meeting with Cauldron, I turned on the AI, and finished sending Boojack a message explaining what was going on, telling him to lie low. I toyed with the idea of asking him if he'd known what his creator had been planning with Dinah, but BJ seemed lacking in personal agency, probably due to all the weed he smoked, so asking him would do nothing other than further upset me. After that it was back to reading. I wanted to go out and do something, save some people, hit some bases, train, something, but I needed to guard my teammates while they slept, just in case we had massively overestimated the Undersiders. It wouldn't do to continue onwards, only to find that Regent had hijacked them while I was gone.

It was with an internal sigh of disappointment that I saw Tattletale sneak out of Taylor's room, creeping towards Herb's door. I dropped a sound bubble over the common room where I sat, clearing my throat. She yelped as she jumped, looking at me in fright. "What are you doing, Sarah?" I asked tiredly.

"Nothing!" was her immediate reply. Riiiight.

I sighed, pointing at a chair as I got up. "Have a seat, you want anything to drink?"

She complied, and after I got us both a glass of water I sat, looking at her. "What were you doing?"

She took a drink, glancing at me. "I wanted to talk to you."

I raised an eyebrow, finding that highly unlikely, prompting her, "Okay, talk."

I waited, as she looked at me, trying to see something in me, "Did you know?" she finally asked, subdued.

"About your Trigger event? Yeah," I nodded. "It wasn't your fault."

She gave a shocked look, before she shook her head "No, about Dinah."

My expression must have darkened, given how she flinched. "Sorry," I sighed. "No, I didn't know. If you'd asked me about her during the bank heist, I could've told you about it, but I was worrying about Taylor, and Panacea, and to a lesser extent your team, and I forgot. If Break had mentioned it, I would've made sure she was never taken, but he didn't. Not even once." Which, now that I thought about it, meant it was probably pre-meditated, and he wasn't lying this time about having lied to me in the past, which had been a distinct possibility. Fuck. "It's not your fault either, though it's both of our responsibilities to try to save her."

"I'm not a hero!" she shot back, defensively.

"Are you saying that if you could save her, you wouldn't?" I asked, giving the girl a measuring gaze. "I'm not asking you to storm Coil's base with me, but if you knew where she was being held, and telling me wouldn't definitely get you killed, would you risk it to save a ten-year-girl who wanted her parents to be happy so hard she Triggered to try to find a way to fix their marriage, and make them a family again?"

Sarah looked down at her drink. "That isn't fair."

I gave a hollow laugh, "Life isn't fair. Fairness is a human construct that we impose upon the universe because we wish it to be so. It's up to us to make life fair, or as much as we can, because reality doesn't care about fairness, equality, or even morality. It's only by our actions that we can do our best to stop injustice, and without our efforts, all we have is entropy and decay, moral, intellectual, and physical."

She stared at me. "Sorry," I apologized. "I just hate it when people use that phrase that way. Like by saying it that means they're excused from doing anything. Still, you didn't answer. If it put you at some risk, and all life is risk, would you help me save her?"

"Why do I need to be the one to do something?" she demanded, still not answering.

"If not you, who? You have the capability, the power to do something about it. I'm not asking that you sacrifice yourself for everyone, especially because they wouldn't return the favor but," I hesitated. The best example would be to point out that someone could have done something to save her brother, but that would be too personal right now, so I went down a less . . . raw route. "But if someone could have stepped in when Coil's men grabbed you. If Velocity was on patrol and saw you being taken, wouldn't you want him to step in?"

She immediately objected, "But he's a hero, that's his job!"

"No," I disagreed. "His job is working for the Protectorate, doing what they tell him. What he is, is a hero, as far as I can tell. You're working as a villain Sarah, and only under direct threat of death, but what are you?"

She said nothing, not looking at me, so I turned back to reading the base manual, reading up on the features of the basic AI. It was nothing on Dragon, more like a high-powered Alexa, though the features it was supposed to take care of, everything from running cleaning bots to firearms ranges, were all things that our base didn't have, so why were they in the manual. I continued reading for half an hour before Tattletale spoke again. "Aren't you tired?" she questioned, staring at me.

"I don't need to sleep," I informed her, continuing to read.

"How? Are you even human?" she muttered to herself, but loud enough for me to hear.

I responded without thinking, still puzzling over the AI conundrum. Holding up my arm, I mentally commanded my costume to pull back, revealing my skin. "Would you like to feel?" I offered.

"Wh-What!?" she sputtered. "You don't just say things like that!"

I looked up at her confused. "Why not? If I'm a human I should have a pulse. I'm assuming you have basic medical training, it's dead useful to know, pardon the pun. If I'm human and not some kind of Tinker android or something I should have a pulse. Ergo," I indicated my raised arm, pointing at my wrist with the hand still holding my phone. "Plus, synthetic skin is usually hard to get just right in sci-fi, so there's that as well." She looked at me in disbelief. "Why? What did you think I meant?"

"I-you-argh!" she articulated, which didn't explain anything. "You're insane!"

Not knowing where that came from, I still wouldn't let such an obvious straight-line pass. "This coming from the girl who listens to the voices in her head? Go to bed Tattletale, there's a lot to do, and not enough time to do it in."

"This isn't over!" she promised, going back to bed. I suppressed a smile until her door closed. Her parallels to Panacea were amusing, and as I washed her glass and put it away, I finally realized what she'd thought I meant.

"Teenagers," I rolled my eyes. "Everything's an innuendo." I took comfort in the fact that I wasn't that bad when I was her age, though I did have a completely different mess of problems, so that's probably why.

<AB>​

I was just finishing up the AI section, which was actually closer to a Virtual Intelligence, reading about all the features that I couldn't use, when I knew the door opened, and Aisha had crept in, moving next to me and reading over my shoulder. Glancing over I saw she'd left the door open a crack, and made a note to talk to her later about the mechanics of proper stealth, leaving things as they were so you left no trace of your passage. After a minute, and a muttered "The fuck is that?" from behind me that I didn't actually hear, she left to go into the small kitchen, rummaging around the cabinets.

"Would you like me to get you something to eat, Aisha?" I asked, causing her to jump, silverware clattering on the hardwood floor as she yelped "Holy shitballs!"

I got up, walking over to where I knew she had backed up against the counter. "Remember, Break and I can see you, now," I told her, quickly taking stock of the pre-loaded kitchen, "peanut butter and fluff work for you?"

"What?" she asked, eyes lighting up as showed her the jar of marshmallow creme that had been on one of the higher shelves. "That's a thing? Hell to the Fuck Yes!" she practically shouted, before covering her mouth in fear. I cocked an eyebrow at her. "If your friend can hear me, I don't want to wake his ass up," she whispered.

"He's a deep sleeper," I reassured her, "Just don't yell a lot more and you'll be fine." Making two of them, and getting us both a glass of milk, I sat down at the table with her. We ate in silence before she asked, "So the kidnapping thing?"

"Didn't know, would've stopped it if I could." I said, after I finished my bite of the sticky concoction.

"Good," she nodded, taking another bite. "Gebbing a kib hoobed on drugs, fugged up," she said around the sandwich.

"Aisha, don't speak with your mouth full. It makes you look stupid and makes it hard to understand what you're saying," I gently rebuked.

"Sowwy," she responded, finishing and reiterating "Getting a kid on drugs is fucked up."

I nodded, "Yeah, when it comes to adults, I don't really care. As long as they know what they're taking, and are doing of it of their own free will, it's not my business. Kids aren't old enough to make those kinds of decisions, and haven't finished developing, so might get messed up either bodily or in the head by it. Voodoo Pharmacology is bullshit though."

She looked at me in confusion. "What? Magic drugs? That a thing? I mean, I didn't know they made this awesome shit," she indicated her sandwich, "So fuck me, right?"

I laughed. "No, Voodoo Pharmacology is the 'the drugs made me do it' defense. That you aren't responsible for what you do when you're drunk or high. They fuck with your head, sure, but at your core you're still you, and still responsible for what you do when you're on them. You might not like what you did, but you still did it."

She gave me considering look, "So, you don't care if grown-ups do shit, but what about if they have a kid?"

I shrugged. "Then we're back to the Voodoo Pharmacology. If you get drunk and don't take care of your child, then I'd judge you just as harshly as if you did the same sober. Child Protective Services is a thing for a reason, though, like a lot of bureaucracies, they run into problems of corruption and limitations from outside that disallow them from working effectively."

She looked at me. "Um, in English?"

"Which part?" I asked, reminding myself I needed to drop my vocabulary a bit.

"The CPS part. Burau-whatever, that's like, the man, right?" she asked.

I smiled encouragingly. "Pretty much, Aisha. So, because of the way government stuff works, 'the man', you get people that don't do their job because nothing bad happens to them if they don't. Also, you get people yelling and complaining, probably lying to try to get something, so that people who are trying to do their jobs can't do the thing that the place they're working for was made to do because they're afraid their bosses will throw them under the bus instead of doing their jobs. So, you have a group that's supposed to look out for kids, but you get stuff where they don't do their jobs, and leave kids in horrible shit, or they do things they're not supposed to, because they're the ones in power so they couldn't possibly be in the wrong and they mess up kids lives when everything was cool. If parents can use drugs and still be good parents, fine, but most can't, and I'd say they're bad because they're bad parents, not because of the drugs."

She nodded. "Okay, I feel ya. But," she hedged, "What if they're like, pregnant. Should they get high then?"

Ah, I thought, What you really want to know. I looked at her, feigning confusion. "If I don't think kids should do drugs until they're adults, why would I think they should do drugs before they're even born?"

"Yeah," she said, more to herself than me. "That's fucked up."

We finished eating, and I took the dishes to go clean up. "Hey, Lee?" she asked, continuing as I turned around. "You're okay. You're friend's a fucking asshole though."

I sighed, "Not gonna argue with you on that one," I affirmed. "Go get some sleep Aisha, I'll make breakfast at eight."

"Not gonna turn down that shit! Can you make pancakes?" she pleaded.

I shrugged, we had milk, eggs, and Bisquick, so why not. I smiled, "Sure."

She fist pumped. "Fuck yeah!" she crowed, practically skipping back to her door. "Haven't had someone make me breakfast in weeks!"

My smile became a bit fixed as I was reminded just how bad her situation was. I considered canon before realizing that there was actually no reason for her to go back to her fucked up home. Grue was so concerned with getting her to be able to move in with him legally, but what was the point when her power made people ignore her very presence? I rolled my eyes as I sat down, opening up the guide, marking it down as yet one more strike against letting the leader of the Undersiders plan anything.

<AB>​

Another two hours, and hundred pages, later I heard a door open again. Looking up I saw Bitch walk out, permascowl in place, dog at her heels. She matched my gaze, glaring at me. "It's not even dawn, do you need something?" I asked.

She didn't break eye contact as she took a few steps forward. "You and Break, who's in charge?"

I wanted to glance over at the door to my teammate's room, but stopped myself. She thinks in dog terms, I thought. Which means dominance games. Yay. "I am."

She snorted, a sound rich with disbelief. "Then why didn't you do something. He betrayed you, but all you did was talk."

"I talked," I informed her, "Because hurting him wouldn't do anything. If you'd asked me who the leader was yesterday, I'd say we're partners." Keep it short. "Now I don't."

"He said he wanted to help us. Do you?" she asked, getting to the point. I nodded in response. "Why?"

She still hadn't broken eye contact, so neither did I. I had noticed that her dog had moved away, and increasing my hearing, I detected it moving behind me. What's your game? "Because I think you're a good person, and the people who were supposed to help you as a kid, didn't, so I will."

Her eyes narrowed. "You don't fucking know me," she stated, as the sounds of the dog's breathing deepened, probably growing under her power.

I shrugged, standing and putting my phone away, expression carefully neutral, not breaking eye contact. "I know your Trigger event. The dog, Roll, Rex, whatever his name was, didn't deserve to die, and it wasn't your fault."

She got in my face, growling. "You're all talk, just like her!" I stood, not reacting, ready for whatever she did. "You think you're fucking strong?"

"Yes."

She swung at me, a right hook aimed at my face, but her form was atrocious. I leaned back, dodging the telegraphed blow, stepping around her as I grabbed her wrist, viciously twisting it backwards and behind her, making sure not to use my powers. The dog, now the size of a small horse, leapt for me, jaws open. Yanking her in the path of the dog, it broke off its attack, coming up short. She tried to elbow me with her free arm, which I also grabbed, twisting it behind her.

The dog tried to dart around her, knocking over a couch, but I twisted her to use her as a shield. It backed off whining. Switching my grip to hold her with one hand, I grabbed the girl firmly by the throat with the other, twisting her backwards. "Just because I talk doesn't mean I won't act, Bitch," I growled in her ear. "And if we're talking strength here, you're the one who's weak, relying on your dogs to do your fighting. Get better, and you won't need them to save you."

Shoving her towards her companion, I calmly waited for her response. I didn't want to kill her dog, but if she was stupid enough to have it try to kill me, I'd return the favor. It took a few steps forward before she commanded, "Brutus, come." It immediately stopped, returning to her side, flesh sloughing off as she got it a bowl of water and returned to her room, not looking at me as she did so.

I sat down while she moved, taking my phone out and pretending to ignore her, not relaxing until she closed the door. "I hate dominance games," I lamented to no one in particular, walking over and grabbing some of the matter that Brutus had shed, examining it. As I turned the flesh over in my hands, it ever so slowly shrank. Using a wind claw, which I carefully controlled, taking the time to try to recreate it as a single blade instead of the triple slash I'd copied from Stormtiger, I tried to cut it. After a couple tries, I managed it, the smaller section shrinking, dissipating into nothingness as the larger shank still shrunk. Well, I guess Bitch isn't going to revitalize the Korean restaurant industry in Brockton Bay. Is that racist? I mused.

Tossing the not-meat to the side, I continued reading, interrupted, yet again, less than an hour later. I heard my teammate getting up, and sighed, putting away my phone. Despite the shit he pulled, he was still my friend, and he'd have my back without blinking.

I turned to look as he opened the door and practically slinked out, looking around. It was awfully early for him to be up though. "Hey Break," I called tiredly. "What's up?"

His head snapped to me, and he gave a wide smile, his body language all wrong. "Oh no," he told me, voice smooth to the point of almost being slimy. "I ain't that kiddy pimp."

I looked at him in confusion. Did he just call Herb a pimp who specialized in children, or a child who is also a pimp. Either way, eww. But he wasn't done. "I'm Curtis baby," he said, lazily snapping his fingers, a humanoid leopard coalescing behind him. "And that's my boy, The Hurt."

 

[Leecifer]

Impediment 4.6

I looked at the two of them, oozing malice, before I made the connection. "Oh, you're the new replicant, cool," I observed, outwardly relaxing.

Curtis went still as the jaguar-man growled. The replicant turned, addressing it. "Oh, he hurt you," he turned back to me, motions languid. "You want to be the first of our. . . encounters?" the man inquired, smiling nastily.

I looked at this display and sighed internally. Of. Fucking. Course. This day hasn't sucked enough, now I'm going to need to kill a monster wearing my friend's face. When we get back to base, we're having a talk and maybe getting him a counselor. I wonder if I could hire Yamada. I felt nothing but disappointment looking at this dark reflection of what my friend could have been, prepping Stormtiger's claws. It was a trick Break hadn't seen me practice, and if Curtis, like Boojack, had his progenitor's memories up till his creation, it'd be something I could use to catch him off guard. Outwardly I sighed. "Okay, I'm not sure what deviation of. . . Herb's base personality you are, but know that unlike him, if I have to, I will fucking kill you in an instant. Understood?"

Curtis took a swaying step forwards, hands flexing in anticipation as he practically purred, "Challenge. . . Accepted." Fuck. "This is gonna be," he announced, flesh shifting and changing, sprouting black fur. "Nice." A pure black tiger stood before me, growling as it leapt for me, claws outstretched. I didn't bother getting out of my seat, lifting my arm up, sending a single air blade to gut him, chin to groin, in the blink of an eye. The added force of the cutting wind knocked him off course, the leopard-man Stand winking out of existence as Curtis died in an instant, his corpse landing with a heavy thunk at my feet.

I sighed.

What the fuck was I going to do with a pure black tiger, whose entrails were probably staining the carpet even now? A motion out of the corner of my eye got my attention, another air blade ready. Grue opened his door took a step inside, and froze, looking between me and the corpse in front of me. "Go back to your room Brian, I'll take care of this. Do your exercises next to Regent."

"How. . .?" he asked, not looking away from the dead melanistic tiger.

"With your physique, you have a daily exercise regimen."

He made no motion for a moment, before backing up and starting to close the door, not turning around. "Okay."

I just stared at the corpse for a minute, checking that the sound bubble was still in place before I couldn't suppress my laughter any longer.

It was not a happy sound.

After all of this, all this bullshit, I got attacked by fucking not-Herb as a black fucking tiger of all things. Once that petered out, and I once again felt drained, I walked over to the landline calling up the hotel's assistance.

"Hi, yeah," I told them. "Through a complete unexpected series of events, I have a dead black tiger in my room, and it's bled all over the lounge rug, could you send someone to take care of it?"

They were confused, but said they'd send someone up. A few minutes later a very apprehensive young woman was at my door with a trolley. She was quite helpful, and I helped her maneuver the corpse, as well as lay down a new rug, tipping her a hundred. Her last question took me aback.

"What do I want you to do with it? Um. . . can you have it made into a rug?" I asked. Maybe Curtis would think twice of trying to kill me with a reminder of how I'd swatted him like an errant fly the first time at his feet. "As for the rest," I shrugged. "Whatever you want? Thanks!" I gave her my PO box number and wished her a good day.

Sitting back down, I was at a loss on what I should do next. It was still too early to start making breakfast, and I couldn't focus on the manual. It's just one thing after another, I groaned internally. I leaned back and relaxed, setting an alarm for an hour later, and tried to meditate. Clear my mind, and all that shit. Bakuda was dead. Couldn't have happened to nicer psychopath. Break had apparently planned on Dinah getting taken in some twisted 'it happened in the book, so it has to happen now' deterministic bullshit, so I couldn't lean on him for support anymore. When it came to minor characters, like Purity, he seemed to have no problem mucking about with canon, but I couldn't trust his actions on the protagonists and secondary characters. I'll deal with that later. I went through my breathing exercises, and subsumed myself in them until my alarm went off.

Muting it, I dropped the sound bubble and got started on pancakes, eggs, bacon, the works. Yesterday sucked, so hopefully a nice breakfast would make this day go better, or something. Turning on the TV as I worked, I saw the bombings had continued, without seeming rhyme or reason, though vague reports about Asians with bombs in their heads made me roll my eyes, wondering if the E88 owned the local news station. Like that won't cause mass panic, and get racial tensions ratcheted up, I mused, flipping pancakes, adding chocolate chips to the batter on a whim. Focusing on my task, I jumped, blades ready when I heard a voice from my elbow comment, "Chocolate? Fuck, Is it my birthday or somethin'?"

Glancing over I didn't see Aisha as she leaned over the plate of flapjacks, sniffing. She reached for one, and reacting on instinct I lightly smacked her hand away, internally confused at how I was able to do that when I couldn't actually see her hand. "Those are for breakfast for everyone. Take a shower and grab some clothes from the dresser, I can smell you from here. Your power doesn't cover that up."

"Fuck, it doesn't?" she asked. "Hadn't noticed it at home, Mom- Yeah. . ." trailing off, she sniffed herself. "Shit! Ya, I'm kinda fuckin' ripe. Don't start without me!" she called, bounding back to her room.

Rolling my eyes, I finished up, knocking on everyone's doors to get them up. Tattletale answered immediately. Taylor had woken up during the night, but was out of it, and had fallen back asleep soon after. Grue had been waiting in his room, and Regent asked for five more minutes. Shrugging, I moved on. Bitch got up, giving a small nod when I told her I wasn't sure what she wanted Brutus to eat, so hadn't made him anything. Break woke up blearily, looking around himself. "Where's my next replicant?" he asked, confused.

"He tried to kill me," I informed him. "I returned the favor. I'm better at it than he was."

He had the decency to wince. "Oh, that night kept getting better, huh?"

"Apparently. I made pancakes."

He perked up at that. "Fuck yeah, I'll be up in a few."

Going back to Regent's room, I poked my head in. "It's been five minutes Jean-Paul, time to get up."

He groaned, rolling out of bed. "Whatever, mom," he grouched.

Smiling, I quipped back, "Just don't call me dad," closing the door to block the pillow that he threw at my head.

The Undersiders sat down with us, eating in a scene that was downright domestic. I tried not to preen under the praise of my cooking from the teens. It was sadly, not to last. Regent used his power to twitch my arm, laughing as I got maple syrup in my face from a flying bit of pancake. My own power activated without me meaning to, lashing out, coping his power, the 'physical effects' restriction satisfied by my own body being controlled by such a margin I didn't get a choice in the matter. I sighed, now I had a human Master power, and things were going so well, but I guess I needed to get this done.

"Regent," I addressed him coldly and quietly, the jovial atmosphere disappearing in an instant. "I despise human Masters. That was your one. I could say that if you do that to me or anyone else on my team without their express permission I will hunt you down and have insects consume you slowly over the course of hours, my knowledge of anatomy allowing me to extract maximum pain as I eat you alive for as long as your mind will hold out, as my range far exceeds yours, but I won't, because I'm a Hero. Instead, I'll just do what I'm planning to do to your father, since you'll have decided to stoop to his level, which is shoot you in the head at extreme range with a sniper rifle. Remember, being able to fly means I never have to worry about finding an optimal position. And if I am Mastered to the point that you can pull my metaphorical strings, I have contingencies that will take care of it for me, and at least one of them is immune to your power."

The Master in question looked back cockily, hand waving dismissively, though it appeared a bit forced, and opened his mouth to respond, cut off as something wet hit his shoulder. Confused, he looked up into a pair of meter wide jaws, opened on either side of his head, Enter having manifested and shifted to a smaller, but still prehistorically large, crocodile, jaws ready to snap shut. Regent shakily put his hand down and looked back at me.

"So, we aren't going to have an issue. Agreed?" I asked.

"Agreed!" he squeaked, flinching as Enter disappeared into nothingness.

"Good," I smiled widely, glad that was taken care of. We continued, though the teens did glance at me occasionally, and the atmosphere didn't truly return.

Break, probably trying to make up for last night, offered to get the dishes. As he passed by Bitch, he almost absently reached out and scratched the back of her neck. She growled, turning to glare at him. "Stop molesting the newbies," I chided him, not really caring if he got himself in trouble at this point, but offering a token rebuke out of duty.

He shrugged. "Just showin' some love." Everyone stopped and stared at him at this declaration. "What?" he defended. "You don't like hugs and shit. Are y'all that damaged?"

"Dude," I commented. "Phrasing."

He rolled his eyes. "I'm sorry Le-"

"No," I cut him off. "Whatever you're gonna say, no. Shush."

"But, come on!" he whined. "Hugs, team-building, spreading that positivity!"

Regent held up a hand, "Can I not be on this team?"

"None of you are on the team yet," I informed him.

"Think of this," Break addressed the body controller. "You'll be able to touch all the hot chicks, I mean you'll also have to touch the nasty ones, and some dudes, but anyways, hot chicks in there somewhere."

He was waved off. "Pass, done that already."

I felt compelled to add. "Yeah, I'm not going to make a comment on the hotness levels of our underage not really team members."

Break looked at me, confused. "What? Not them. If we're spreading the love we're gonna need to hug everybody."

I shot back, "I know you just want to hug Purity."

"The Nazi?" Tattletale asked, looking at him. "Oh, eww, that's just wrong."

He nodded unrepentantly. "Oh definitely her, I want to give the big circle-"

"I'm gonna go check on Taylor" I told the teens, talking over my friend.

"-and the really tight hug," Herb continued unabated. "And the hug that just caresses you all-"

I closed the door behind me, muting his words as I walked to where Taylor was still sleeping, sitting on the other bed and using my bug sense to prod her into walking up. She stirred, blinking wearily, accepting her glasses as she sat up with a groan of pain. I grabbed a cup from her room's bathroom, filling it with water and handing it to her, along with the one of the pills the doctor had left. She took them and I sat down, waiting for her to talk.

"What. . . What happened?" she asked. "I remember the bombs, and running, and pain, and you weren't there," she accused, weariness blunting her anger. "You said you'd be there, and you weren't!"

"Taylor," I told her calmly, "I was on the other side of the city, and dealing with something delicate, and I was there in twenty minutes."

"You were?" she asked, more to herself. "Thought that was a dream, like when you're about to die and everything seems nice. But I'm not. Pain means I'm not, unless," her emotions were a chaotic mess over our shared sense, vacillating wildly between depression, hope, confusion, anger, and more.

"I was," I asserted. "I tried to call you back, remember?"

"Oh, the phone!" she cried, suddenly alert, and I threw a sound bubble up to keep us from being interrupted. "I broke your phone, I'm so sorry, it was really nice, and really expensive, and you were kinda an ass when you gave it to me, but you weren't wrong which just made it worse!" she babbled. "But we were running and then there was a bomb and it vacuumed everything and, and I dropped it when I had to grab onto that sign to keep from getting dragged in too and, and now it's gone and there's no way I can pay for it and stop laughing I'm serious!"

I couldn't help myself, my guffawing laughter derailing her panic attack. I held up a hand, as I got myself under control, the utter ridiculousness of her statement just striking me as weirdly hilarious after the last few hours, though also incredibly sad. "Taylor, your being safe is worth more to me than any stupid phone," I informed her. "I'll get you another one, I'm just glad you're okay."

At this, she suddenly broke into tears, which made no sense whatsoever. Her emotions were mostly happy, but still mired in that chaotic mess, so it was probably the lingering aftereffects of the concussion, though the doctor had said the dangerous period had passed. I wondered if I should do something, or just let it pass. Choosing the second, I got her some tissues, handing them over as she collected herself.

"I'm sorry for being mad at you," she apologized. I shrugged, not taking offense to it in the first place. With her abandonment issues, if she thought I had turned my back on her, it was only understandable she'd be pissed. "I remember pain, worse than anything, and then everything felt better, and there was screaming, but it wasn't me."

"Oh, that was Bakuda," I explained. At her look I kept going. "Herb killed her as I was getting you out of there and healing you. For specific things I need detailed info, but I have a general healing application which I used. The doctor said you'd been healing for a week after I'd been using it for an hour on you."

She winced. "You mean I feel this bad after a week, that-wait. Killed? He killed her?" she was aghast.

I didn't really see the problem. "If he hadn't, I was going to, but I was busy making sure you were safe." She looked at me horrified. "Neither of us take kindly to seeing someone we care about hurt."

"Did, did you kill her because she hurt me?" she questioned quietly, sounding scared of the answer.

I sighed, looking at her. "Well, if we're being honest, she wasn't going to just hurt you, she was going to torture your teammates in front of you, then torture you, before finally giving you to Oni Lee to be repeatedly raped, and for that, yes, unquestionably yes, I would kill her. But that's only just yet another reason why we were going to kill her to begin with."

Putting a hand on my teammate's shoulder, I spoke kindly, but with surety. "She was insane, Taylor. You saw that yourself. That kid that got liquified, the bombs she planted in people's heads? That's another reason she had to die. We did it for a lot of reasons, her targeting you just made it an immediate thing instead of a planned strike later. She's bombed the entire city, and now that she's dead her remaining bombs seem to be going off randomly."

Almost on que, the sound of a distant explosion was heard through the closed window, a plume of yellowish-green flame rising up over downtown. "Oh god," Taylor whispered, voice thick with guilt, "this is all my fault!"

"What?" I asked, completely confused. "Fucking how?"

"If I wasn't there, none of this never would have happened," she stated with dread. "If I wasn't on your team, you wouldn't've killed her. Everyone that died is my fault!"

I blinked at her, a bit taken aback. "Holy shit Taylor, I didn't realize you were a precog, why didn't you say so earlier?"

"Huh?" was her reply at what must have been, to her, a complete non-sequitor.

"Well, you'd have to be, to know that all of this was going to happen just from you joining, and for you take sole responsibility for it. Anything else would be the height of arrogance. You must also be a powerful Master, making Bakuda implant all those bombs in the people her gang was supposed to protect. And making her program in a deadman's switch. And making her ambush your teammate to capture you. And to make the Undersiders go looking for Bitch. And to make us come to help you. And to make Herb kill her."

I shook my head in mock amazement. "Wow Taylor, what is free will in the face of such awesome power? I say that, of course, because unless you are directly controlling their actions, there's no logical way you could be responsible for the actions of others." I gave her an unimpressed look, as she gaped back at me. "Besides, the bombing was going to happen no matter what, it was a distraction to break Lung out of PRT holding, the revolving door that that is, only now the following detonations are random instead of tactical, and most of their conscripts are busy fleeing and trying to get medical help instead of following the ABB's orders."

"Wait, Lung's free?" she asked, scared.

"Really?" I asked in disbelief. "After all that, that's what you focus on?"

"He's going to try to kill me for what I did to him!" she responded, trying to dodge the question. I rolled my eyes. Fine, but we're having this discussion later.

"He's really not that big a deal," I commented, getting a disbelieving look of my own. "No, really, if we hadn't messed with the timeline, you'd have taken him down in about a week and a half pretty much on your own, after taking down Oni Lee with the help of a sniper team. For Herb or I, if we really went at it? No contest."

"How?" she finally demanded, after processing my declaration.

"You or us?" I tried to clarify.

"Yes!"

"Well, for Oni Lee, you know how he seems to teleport, leaving behind an ash clone?" I asked, continuing at her nod. "Well, you hit him with a swarm, like ya do, but notice that when he teleports the bugs travel with him, immediately letting you know where he is. With the help of a sniper team that you're working with, you can immediately tell them where the real version is. He's used to taking a second to survey the area before teleporting back in with no-one knowing where he is. In that second, you ID him and they snipe him."

"And Lung?"

"Well, at the time the villains had made a truce to take down the ABB, since the threat to the city they posed was getting extreme and they were making a bid to take it all over, so you were working with Newter," I explained. "He's a Case 53, a real one, and he's an anthropomorphic newt who secretes hallucinogenic slime. Lung was going all rage dragon, and had scaled up, but mucus membranes are mucus membranes and you covered your bugs in Newter's slime. It would kill them in minutes, but you had them divebomb his face, crawling up his nose and against his tear ducts. Enough got through and you dropped him, but he was going to be back up in minutes. After calling Lisa and checking that he could regrow anything, you tore out his eyes."

"I wouldn't do that!" she practically shrieked, before suddenly getting introspectively worried. "Would I?"

"Well," I reasoned. "You had him down, but he was going to be back up before the PRT could secure him, and you knew he'd regrow anything you take off of him. He was still covered in steel scales and extraordinarily hot to touch at the time, and trying to heal from the venom in his nostrils. How would stop him from getting up and killing you, Newter, who's injured and unconscious, and Bitch, who's also injured?"

"Oh god, I would," she whispered to herself. "What kind of hero am I?"

"The kind that's willing to do what's necessary to protect people. The kind that's willing to match your foe's brutality. The kind that I am," I said simply.

She looked at me, the chaotic mess of emotions on her end of the bug sense settling a bit as she did so. "Okay, anything else I should know?" she questioned with forced calm.

"Um, well, I had Lisa call your dad to-"

"You what?" she cut me off, panicking once again.

I rebuked her gently. "Taylor, you were seriously injured, and we were laying low. I had her call him and say you were out with friends when you got caught by the edge of blast, but you were okay. He knows you're staying with friends, and you getting back late makes perfect sense because they've stopped the busses because they found bombs on them, so-"

"What!?" she interrupted again.

"They only found three more bombs after the first exploded, and only a few people died, so it could have been way worse. Either way though, the bus system is down," I finished explaining. We sat there, her looking at me, completely at a loss for words. "So. . . school's out. So there's that. . . are you okay?"

Her emotions over the connection spiked at my question and she started laughing and crying uncontrollably. "Yes, No, I don't know! I'd just robbed a bank and everything was okay, and I met Emma and I didn't care for the first time in forever, and then I realized I was friends with villains, and then we went to find Bitch and I thought I was going to die, and then we won, but we didn't because we were idiots, and then I knew I was going to die, and then you were there and it didn't hurt anymore, and you were there, all hot with your muscles, and then I woke up and I was safe, and now the cities being bombed, I don't know what's going on anymore!" she finished.

"Um. Wait. What?" I asked, wondering if I heard what I thought I'd heard.

A flash of panic came across the connection. "I don't know what's going on." She shrugged helplessly, after pausing a second too long. "It's just too much."

"No," I clarified, "right before that."

She went bright red, sputtering. "I, I didn't say you were hot. Or your muscles were."

An awkward silence spread between us. "Well," I finally pronounced, "Since we've established that, me and my muscles are gonna go. There's clothing in the dresser, find something that fits you, and get changed."

I dropped the sound bubble and was out of the room in a flash, not wanting to deal with any of that for as long as I could. Until she was eighteen, at the very least.

Closing the door behind me, my teammate was still going on about hugs. "and really, hugs almost saved the world. Coke almost had it with that hands across the world thing but if it were hugs, if it were hugs, how could you say no? Like, you get a Palestinian to hug an Israeli, and yeah, both thinks the other's gonna stab them in the back, but when they don't, and they didn't do it to you, which they probably would, but if they didn't either, then that's something good, and you can spread it all over!"

"Has he been doing this the entire time?" I asked, walking over and making some more coffee.

"Yes!" was the response from Lisa, Brian, and Aisha.

Regent nodded, obviously not as sick of Herb's antics as the rest. "Man's got some good points."

"I have a new messiah." The man in question grinned at me.

"Does that make Regent the king of kings?" I mused. "Nevermind."

"Wait, I like that!" the villain in question objected, to the groans of the rest.

We lounged a bit, Bitch was getting a bit restless, but the rest were willing to watch the developing situation on TV. The Protectorate appeared not to be doing anything. As usual. It was a bit later that the door opened and Taylor started to walk out, freezing as she saw us all hanging out, mostly unmasked. "Hi?" she offered to the collective stares, looking to me for help.

I shrugged, "Long story short, they know you're working with us, they're cool with it, and might join the team at a later date."

Lisa added smugly, "I knew you were really working for them the entire time."

I ruined her all knowing image by leaning over and tousled the Thinker's hair, to her great annoyance. "Sure ya did. So, Taylor, you're still going home and resting for a few days." She started to protest, but I cut her off. "You'll be back on your feet faster than you would normally, but you still need to go home and rest for three days at least, and take three of these a day," I instructed, picking up the bottle the doctor had left. "It'll make your dad feel better as well. Give me a call when it's been a few days and you're ready to go back into the field. Okay?" She hung her head and agreed, and I continued "Good, Brian and Lisa will make sure you get home okay."

Taylor glared at me petulantly. "I can make it back okay."

"Possibly, but one, you're still concussed, even if it's healed, and that's about the same as being a bit drunk, or so I'm told. Second of all, someone needs to drop you off, and given how you've been hurt if you ever want your dad to let you hang out with your friends again they need to go talk to him, and Herb and I can't be the ones that do it."

The man added, only somewhat helpfully, "Yeah he'll be all like 'What did you do to my daughter,' and I'll be all like, 'Nothing, I don't have a dungeon, I don't know what you're talking about!'"

I gave him a confused look, "You don't have a dungeon."

"That you know of," he sniffed.

"We live in the same secret base!" I retorted. "Ugh, anyways, Tattletale, you and Grue take her home, give her dad a comforting lie, and, if you want to, I can check your base for bombs with my bugs with Regent and Bitch. Taylor could theoretically do it, but in her unfocused state she might miss something."

"I'd rather you didn't," the Thinker grumbled.

I shrugged. While I didn't want anything to happen to them, Taylor would be safe, and they should be fine.

My teammate wasn't so laissez-faire, prompting, "Wait, so, you want to die? You're perfectly fine going home, chilling, eating some pizza, going to your separate rooms, lying down in bed and then when you're asleep that's the trigger and the bombs go off and you're dead." He looked to me for help.

"No one on our team will be in the blast radius, even if I don't want them hurt, I'm not gonna press them on it," I contested, though he had a point.

"I'm gonna fuckin' press them on it," he asserted. "'Cause they're being moronic kids!"

Lisa looked between the two of us, "What?"

"If I can work with you to both help you and society, I will, but at this stage, I only care about you a bit." I explained. "The 'go out of my way to help you' kind of care, not the 'possibly alienate you because I care more about your safety then how you feel' kind. You want to work with us? Great, I'll help. You don't want to and end up dead because of it. That's unfortunate, and I would be saddened by your deaths, but I'll focus my efforts on people that want to be helped." Mind you, I was still going to check their base even if they told me not to, but I wasn't going to tell them that. Herb was right, though I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of agreeing with him after his. . . revelation only hours ago.

"Me, on the other hand," Herb countered, "I understand that you're still children sometimes, and your brain development, though altered by shards, ain't done yet."

"That isn't to say you're stupid," I added, "just your lacking in experience to see all angles of a problem and may overestimate your own tactical abilities, see last night's debacle."

Herb furthered his argument, "And when I was your age I was all like 'Hey, I know it all' and I don't care if I sound like your god-damn father but if I have to pull you over my goddamn knee and smack ya ass, I'm gonna do it 'cause you're gonna do the right shit!"

I looked at him in the wake of his comment. "That sounds a bit pervy man."

Herb waved me off, "I'd be a perv if I used a spike paddle and they were strapped to a horse."

I wanted to argue the point, but I noticed that his comment had short-circuited the kids' indignation at being treated like, well, kids, so I went along with it. "Wherever you choose to draw the line is up to you, but I'm pretty sure you're just debating degrees of perv by that point, but right, rah, father-figure, whatever."

"Yeah, Whatever," he firmly agreed, turning back to them. "You're gonna motherfuckin' get your shit swept, ya gonna do it so ya don't die from somethin' stupid as 'I don't wanna'! Are ya done? Any Questions? Good? Then let's do this! God-dammnit people." He finished, mostly to himself.

With the blank looks he was receiving, I stood up, taking my role as the leader. "Not to give you guys orders, but here are your orders: Grue, Tattletale, get Lady Bug home safe. Regent, Bitch, show me exactly where your base is so I can double check it. Imp, honestly do whatever you think is best but watch out for bombs. They don't need to see you to kill you. I'd prefer you stay with Grue, but there's no way I can make you, or even check with him to see if you did. Herb, you get Enter and check our base for surprises. Okay, let's go."

My partner nodded, spreading his arms wide, "And hugs? Anyone for hugs. 'cause I do love ya, like you're my kids, but I love ya." There were no takers "Must be the shards," he commented, "makes 'em have an aversion to hugs."

I rolled my eyes. "Right, it's the shards, whatever, let's go."

Grue held up a questioning hand. "What's a shard?"

"A discussion for another day," Herb told him. "Let's go!

 

[Leecifer]

Impediment 4.7

We all broke into different groups as we left the hotel, Herb turning into a velociraptor and taking off, Brian flagging down the taxi I called for Taylor as Lisa hid her mask under a large pair of shades, refusing to unmask to me. After they left, I shifted my costume into full Vejovis gear, walking with the other two.

We took off down the fairly empty street, casually walking, Brutus unleashed but keeping pace with Bitch. After a couple minutes Regent spoke up. "So, walking with us, doesn't that mess up your image, associating with known villains and all that?"

I shrugged. "What villains? You're not in costume. You're just two teens that got caught in the edge of a blast, and I'm making sure you get home safe, since I'm not doing anything else and haven't been contacted by anyone to help."

He nodded his head, "So, between us, Taylor, and apparently Panacea if Tats was tellin' the truth, you sure are hangin' out with a lot of teenagers. Makes ya think."

I ignored his implications, playing the question straight. "Before this I was a teacher, which means I'm used to teens."

He perked up, "What'd ya teach?"

"Unofficially, Not Foreign languages."

"That's not what you teach, that's what you don't," he informed me, confused.

I shrugged. "Same thing. High school subjects aren't that hard unless you teach advance placement, and even then, not really. I've got a teaching cert, and was working on another, but for. . . reasons, it's no longer valid. Do you have your GED?"

He shook his head. "Pops wasn't big on, well, anything that wasn't him, and it wasn't like we ever got truant officers. Every day was Ferris's for us. Saw what was on it when Brian was working on his, didn't look that hard."

"Get it," I told him, "Then you're qualified to be a substitute teacher."

His stride paused a second, before he continued on, asking mildly, "That's it?"

"Yep."

He gave a snort, "No wonder high school sucks."

I matched his with one of my own. "Like you ever went."

"I've seen TV," he defended.

"That's usually exaggerated for effect." He gave me a look, "Though not always," I acceded, "see Lady Bug."

"You both talk too much." Bitch growled.

I rolled my eyes, stopping, the other two stopping with me. I turned to face her, looking her in the eye. She started to turn away, so I put my hand on her shoulders, tightly. "I treat you the way you understand, same for him. You're different. You treat all your dogs the same?"

She didn't say anything, just glared. "I asked you a question." I reiterated calmly.

"No," she spat.

"Exactly," I told her, letting go and continuing to walk as if nothing had happened.

Regent tried not to laugh as he kept pace, not quite managing it, which was probably on purpose. We'd made it into the docks when he spoke up again. "So about the, you know?"

I tried to think of all the things it could be, finally responding, "I really don't"

"You know," he said leadingly, adding when I didn't get it, "The S-word."

"Oh, shards, what about them?"

"What are they, you know, of?" he pried.

I shook my head. "Not gonna tell you."

"Oh come on, please?" he begged.

"No."

"I'll be your friend," he promised.

"I'm good."

"Pleeease?" I didn't respond. "Pleeeeeeeeease?"

"I threatened to cover Tattletale's mouth with skin with my healing ability if she didn't stop pushing me. All it takes is skin to skin contact," I informed him, pulling my glove off, "Don't make me do it to you."

He feigned indignance, "You wouldn't!"

My hand flashed out, hitting him lightly in the back of the head. His eyes went wide as his hands went to his mouth, sighing in relief that it was still there. He glared at me as Bitch chuckled, and didn't say anything else for the rest of the trip.

Getting there, I had to give Coil props for base design at least. If I hadn't known this was their base, I never would have guessed that someone lived in this seemingly abandoned warehouse. Reaching out with my bug sense, I got a response from a large amount of spiders. Directing them, along with everything else in the area, I swept them through the place, getting a three-dimensional image of the location, peering through their eyes whenever I found something I couldn't ID from shape alone. Regent yelped, stepping back from the entrance as he saw the swarm flowing through his house, quickly retreating back to my side. It took a few minutes, but by the end I was sure Bakuda didn't leave a bomb, informing them as much.

Pulling out most of the bugs, leaving only a small population, completely harmless, and only there to keep worse things out. I pooled most into a swarm a few yards down the street. "That's a whole lot of nope," Regent commented, staring at the gathering.

"Yeah, side effect of Bug Control, you forget they can be dangerous, since you control everything they do," I explained as I figured it out, understanding the disconnect as I toggled the power, letting go and reaffirming my control on the group. "Thing is, if she's not there, they go back to their instincts. It's why she didn't see a problem with having twenty-seven black widows in the empty area your loft didn't take up."

"That's. . . a lot," he commented mildly. "And she really doesn't get squicked? Huh. 'Cause I saw a couple beetles in her hair, and yeah, I'm good."

"Precisely. Powers, especially Thinker powers or anything with sensory feedback, attenuate their user's brains to maximize use."

"What's that mean?" Bitch asked, surprising us both.

"Powers change how you think. Yours help you understand dogs, Lady Bug's make her comfortable with bugs."

"Wait," Regent asked, holding up a hand. "Do my powers screw with my head?"

I looked him in the eye, asking calmly, "Are you saying some part of you doesn't see everyone walking around as flesh puppets, just waiting for you to pull their strings?"

He blinked, before smiling weakly. "Noooo?"

I rolled my eyes, taking off, calling back to him "There's your answer!"

<AB>​

Taking a roundabout route back, the city, while not in chaos, was certainly in a state of emergency. Checking before we'd left the hotel, there had been no statement from the PRT other than a "stay in your homes" and "do not panic", which was so boilerplate it probably did more harm than help. I honestly didn't like them, but more info might save lives, so I bit the metaphorical bullet and gave them a call, only to get a "please hold on" and elevator music. After five minutes of this, I changed my route and flew towards the PRT building, half a dozen guards out front pointing their sprayers at me.

"Hello good sirs!" I called, amused. With my speed they'd never hit. "I have intel that your superiors would probably like to know, but I'm on hold on my phone. Could I just tell one of you, and go on with my day?"

One of them called something on his radio, the guards all lowering their weapons as the one on the radio, presumably their leader, waved me over. "What is it, sir?" he asked, earning brownie points for politeness.

"One of my contacts heard Bakuda, the ABB's bomb tinker, bragging that she'd gone on a recruiting spree, by kidnapping people and surgically inserting special bombs into her head. Something happened, and now they're going off randomly."

He nodded. "Thank you, anything else?"

I stopped and thought for a second. "Before the bombs go off, they seem to cause pain to the subject, though with Tinkertech that might not be reliable. If the Protectorate are willing to risk it, you could cut down on problems by having the doctor that's removing them team up with Clockblocker, so if the bomb started to go off, he could freeze the victim and get the doctor to safety. You wouldn't be able to save the person, but it would let you remove the implanted bombs with minimal risk to your surgeons."

There was silence for a moment, the full-face mask of the PRT troopers masking any response. "That. Would that work?" he asked.

I shrugged, "When he freezes someone, he freezes everything they're wearing, so that should also freeze the bomb. Easy way to check, have him freeze someone and try to move their clothing. If you can't, it's frozen too, and if something that loosely connected is frozen, something implanted should definitely be frozen as well. Power are tools, not just weapons. Your sprayers could probably put out fires, even if that's now what you use them for."

The PRT officer nodded slowly. "Thank you, sir, I'll pass that on. Anything else?"

"That's all I've got officer, have a nice day." I gave him a friendly nod, which he returned, and I walked away before taking off, pleased at this positive interaction.

After moving out of eyesight, I headed back towards base, the area around it clear, but a couple of police cordons set up around bomb blast sites a few blocks over, though there wasn't anyone manning them. Landing lightly and walking inside, I found Herb in the computer room, reading news stories. "Hey," I called, and he nodded, closing what he was reading.

"Hey," he called back, turning to face me. "So, we need to train. I need to get better, and you've got the fighting shit down better than I do. Help me Obi-Lee Vejovis, you're my only hope!" he declared, grinning.

My first response would have been 'of course, let's go do this!', but I hesitated. I didn't understand exactly how Herb's cloning worked, other than they gained his memories at the time of their creation, but what happened when they died? Did they get a new dump of information when they reformed? Herb didn't get their memories, Shadow Clone style, when they died, or he'd have known Curtis had tried to kill me, but if they got his, the better to 'help' him, any training I gave him, I'd be giving Curtis, who I had no guarantees wouldn't try to kill me next time. I didn't hold his clones attempts to take me out against him, though we needed to have a talk about that later, but it was too much of a risk. "No."

His face fell. "Dude. I know I messed up, but, I want to fix it!" he pleaded.

I wanted to lie and tell him some BS about him needing to train on his own, and figure out some things on his own so he wouldn't just do what I thought he could, but he was my friend, still, and deserved my honesty. "Herb, when Curtis reforms, will he get the training I give you?"

"I don't know," he replied unhelpfully. "But, you're like the GI Joe crew of superheroes. Aren't you a teacher? I'd be a great student. I'd be that urban child you could reach out to and teach me! Get all Michelle Phifer on me!"

I looked at him, not knowing what the hell he meant, but considered the problem before me. Curtis seemed like an ambush fighter, so what I was considering should be advice he couldn't use. "Okay, here's something to consider. You get stronger the longer you fight. Once you reach a certain level of strength, you can use it to move quickly as well. Look into a style that's heavy in movement and strong blows. You'll need to be able to dodge blows at the start of the fight, and that speed will, once you get stronger, let you hit in a way that most super strong capes don't seem to, since they prefer to just slug things out, moving slowly even when they don't have to. If you can, get Boojack to help, so you learn how to dodge a brawler. I'll heal your bruises when you're done. Sound good?"

He smiled. "Thanks man. Again, sorry about everything."

I waved off his apology. "For whatever reason, your clones aren't really you. I don't hold them against you." I knew he meant more than that, but that wasn't something I was ready to forgive. Herb left to go harass his replicant and I checked my e-mail, finding a request to meet with my lawyers as they'd found a few clients for me to use my Fleshsculpting on, even with the state of emergency. Arranging to meet them that afternoon, I killed time working on air claws.

Making just one came pretty quickly, but anything more than that, or creating them in any direction other than from my hand was impossible. Sighing, I tried to pull apart the mechanics of the creation, feeling out with the power to understand how the constructs functioned. Creating one and holding in place was difficult, like holding back a hiccup, interrupting what almost felt like a natural process. Once I got that in place, picking it apart was a finicky process, like watching your hand move and trying to figure out all the little muscle twitches that made it function. As far as I could tell the shard created a wedge of vastly heightened air pressure, using the power to keep it from dispersing. From there the hardened air pressure was pushed forward, moving air around it and creating the blowing effect.

Finding the mental command that moved hardened air pressure, I immediately tried to reform my flying platform idea, but even focusing entirely on it, pushing it as fast as I could, it moved at a walking pace, creating great gusts of wind as it did so.

Sighing, I dispersed it.

The cutting edge of the claws were tiny, and while I could make them long, creating a blade with a bit of effort, it was still so miniscule that imperial measurements were insufficient, its width and depth maybe measured in micrometers, even if it was a meter long. Visions of calling it "Invisible Air" just toscrew with people amused me as my phone's alarm went off, telling me it was time for my meeting with Quinn Calle. I shook my head, dismissing the invisible sword. I could never pull off an armored dress anyways.

<AB>​

Making sure to fly low on my way out, I left the base, heading towards the office of Eldington, Raul, & Calle, waving hello to the secretary, whose name I should probably learn at some point. He led me to a meeting room, where I only sat for a minute before my lawyer walked in. "Good afternoon, Mr. Calle," I greeted, standing to shake his hand. "What do you have for me today?"

He shook it firmly. "Good afternoon Vejovis. Given your. . . demonstration, we have some clients who have facial scarring. Standard plastic surgery can reduce the scarring, but rarely removes it entirely. From what we've determined, your method does, and leaves no trace. This has interested quite a few people but given the current state of the city, many are leery of coming here." His tone dropped to just above a whisper. "Also, thank you. My wife and children are on vacation, and one of the busses she regularly takes is one where they found a. . . device."

I smiled, dropping a sound bubble between us. "You're welcome. This'll continue for about a week before the villains get sick of this and work together to take down the ABB, and I'm going to see if I can help them. After that thing are supposed to calm down, but a 'storm' is coming in the middle of May. Whatever it is, it sounds bad, worse than the bombings."

He, to his credit, controlled his reactions, paling slightly. "Should I be here for-"

I shook my head. "No. Not if you can help it. People who should know will be informed when I get better intel, but right now it's vague warnings."

Quinn took a deep breath, letting it out with a sigh. "Again, thank you. After this maybe my wife will listen to me more often," he joked, mouth quirking in a smile.

"One can only hope," I agreed. "So, patients to see, money to make, right?"

He nodded, motioning for me to sit, leading in an older woman with a healed knife wound, the line faint, but still there, breaking the curve of her cheek with the indentation. It took all of ten seconds to heal, and I added a couple seconds of the "Get Better" treatment, just as an extra.

The bags under her eyes healed up a bit and she sat straighter, taking out a mirror and smiling experimentally, hand feeling the unblemished skin. From its placement, I realized, smiling probably pulled at it. She thanked me and walked out, a bit of a spring in her step. More followed, each one fairly minor, each one happy with the treatment. After only half an hour, Quinn came back in without anyone.

"That went a lot faster than I thought. There's one more, and do what you can, but," he paused. "Are you familiar with the villain Acidbath?"

"Not really?" I remembered him as being Birdcaged, and hurting Scion a little, but being a general asshole. "I assume with a name like that, he burned people with acid?"

"Indiscriminately," I was informed. "I have a contact who was part of the group who originally tried to arrest him. Just, do as much as you can. Thank you." He turned and left, coming back with a man with a covered face, who sat down and hesitantly removed the bandana covering his face. I controlled my reaction as I looked upon a visage from a horror movie. Face almost completely melted, part of his chin having dropped down and bonded with his shoulder, one eye covered by distended, runny looking skin.

Barely any facial tissue was unmarred, and I winced, having to ask. "I'm sorry, but do you have a picture before you were attacked? I need an image to work with." Both men, who had looked disappointed but accepting what they probably thought was my apology for not being able to help, brightened a bit at my question. The man pulled out a phone, gloved fingers bringing up a photo of a man smiling with a decently attractive brunette. Looking at him I could see, barely, the resemblance between the photo and the ghoulish figure before me. Taking a breath and concentrating, I laid a hand on his cheek, choosing to start on his shoulder. Focusing on the seam where chin and clavicle seemed to connect, I carefully had the skin separate, pulling it back and unfusing it. Even moving slowly, I occasionally pulled wrong, opening up the flesh to muscle, which I healed, continuing the process.

Once I'd separated it, the flesh hanging loosely, I focused on pulling it back, glad that while acid ruined skin, it had apparently left the bones and musculature intact. "This is honestly a job for Panacea, and if you can, get her to double check this. She's got a full diagnostic suite, while I'm working blind."

The man who I'd been working on, who had been staring at himself in a mirror Quinn had set up, bit out an unhappy laugh. "I don't have that kind of money, or that kind of pull. Even this is. . . It's worth it, even if you stopped here though." I paused. "Please don't," he begged, panicked.

"Calm down man, I'm going to keep going, but Mr. Calle, don't charge me for this one." I told the lawyer. "I don't normally do charity, too much 'you did it for him, why not me' bull, so let's call this a teaching experience for my powers. Okay?"

The lawyer looked at me, surprised, nodding. "We've had requests for you to heal people, especially with the bombings. Does that mean you won't?"

I considered the problem. "Demand I get paid like a top tier surgeon, and I won't do it without Panacea to check my work. Hell, I'd honestly be assisting her, so if you can get them to agree, take 2/3rds of what I get paid and put it in an account for her once she reaches adulthood. She might think working for free all the time is noble, but all it does is make people devalue you."

"She doesn't get paid?" the man I was working on asked. "But, it costs tens of thousands of dollars to be seen by her!"

I continued pulling back the skin, bringing it around his face in an amorphous blob, glancing between the photo and the man as I pressed my powers in general terms to conform to the picture, slowly, making sure I didn't mess anything up. "Which would be news to her. I worked a shift with her, and the hospital refused to even pay for our lunch, there's a video of the confrontation online."

I'd uncovered his left eye, milky with damage, as he said, "That's bullshit! She-what?" he cut himself off as I copied his right eye onto his left. My power emplacing the design without me understanding it in the slightest. I copied all the fiddly bit as well, tear ducts, eyelid, eyebrows, the works, just mirroring it to try for symmetry. "I can see," he breathed, his mouth still slack, lips malformed, but I'd get to those next.

"Well, that's the point of having an eye. Kinda useless otherwise," I quipped, leaning back, glancing over at the clock. I'd been at it for longer than I'd helped everyone else combined, but I was learning a great deal. "Could I have a glass of water or something?"

Quinn, jumped up, returning back a moment later with a bottle. I accepted it gladly, taking a deep drink before continuing. Working on his mouth, it was a bit finnicky, a lot of soft tissues, and I muddled my way through it, happy with my work after 15 minutes of molding. The rest of the face was much easier, tightening, smoothing, shaping, and sculpting it with increasing ease. He had very little hair left, but it was enough to try to reseed, the black box that was my power letting me just go 'more of this' all across his scalp. After two hours of work, start to finish, I looked between the picture and the man before me, and they were pretty much the same, though the luster of his eyes were all off. It took me a second to realize the man was holding back tears.

Glancing, I saw his neck was scarred, and by this point that only took a few seconds. "So, do you have more or was it just your face? Because I've got time, and we might as well make a clean sweep of this." He looked at me in disbelief before haltingly taking off his jacket. Arms and hands scarred, several of his fingers stuck together at points. His chest had less burns, lessening down to just above his beltline, which was untouched.

Taking another drink, I started on his hands, unsticking and smoothing them out as I went, working up one arm, then another, working ever faster. His chest was easier still, taking care of more skin in a few minutes then I'd worked on in hours. Giving him his chest hair back, I blasted a few seconds of my general health setting and leaned back, stretching, spine cracking. "So," I smiled, "Better?" He sniffed, staring at himself, wiping at his face. "Ah, allergies," I nodded, "heard they get bad this time of ye-"

I was cut off as he lunged forward, grabbing me in a hug, saying "Thank you," over and over again. I patted the somewhat sweaty man on the back awkwardly, waiting for him to be done. After a bit he let go, apologizing.

I waved him off. "Don't worry, I understand. Not personally, but metacognitively." Sitting back, sipping my water, I waited for Quinn to show the man, who I realized I'd never gotten the name of, out, promising to meet him for dinner. The lawyer returned, sitting down, letting out a breath that visibly surprised him.

"That," he observed. "was impressive. You'd said you could," he defended to my raised eyebrow, "but seeing it. Thank you."

I shrugged. "It was the right thing to do, just tell him not to mention that I waved my fee. Even doing so once is enough to get people begging for you to do it for them, and then getting angry at you when you don't. Doesn't matter if it's special circumstances, everyone believes they're special, and it's enough to bait the social reality types."

He looked like he wanted to ask what I meant, but changed the topic. "With what you've done, are you comfortable doing vanity cosmetic surgery?"

"Yes?" I asked, confused. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Some people, when they've really helped someone, wouldn't want to do so for what they would deem lesser reasons," he elucidated carefully.

I snorted. "I'm doing this to make money. I might help someone occasionally, but I'm planning on using this to keep the lights on and free up time to go do general heroics. How much did I make today?"

He checked his tablet. "Just over fifteen thousand, though you'll make more per person now that you're a proven commodity."

I nodded, "Exactly, that kind of money will fund myself and my team, and I can do a lot more than just scar removal, though that last job was a learning experience."

He passed me a paper, with a list of plastic surgeries. "Which of these would you be comfortable with?" he asked.

Looking over it I commented. "So, I probably won't be able to actually do a face lift as I think it's normally done, but I can do pretty much the same thing. Same for the other lifts. Arm lift? That's a thing? Oh well. Okay, Rhinoplasty, that can't be what it sounds like," I told him.

"It's more commonly known as a nosejob," he commented, amused.

I shrugged. "Then why don't they call it that? I can do that though. Otoplasty?"

"Ear."

"Easy," I retorted. "Only thing I'm not sure about is Lipo. I don't create mass, just move it around, so I have no idea how I'd make that work. Also, Labiaplasty? No. Just no. Also, not doing the male version, which yes, I might be able to do, but I'm not gonna."

I looked at him meaningfully, and the interest that had glimmered in his eyes disappeared as he shrugged. "Whatever you're comfortable with. That alone will be more than enough. I have to ask though, you healed Acer's eye, could you do others?"

"Could I? Probably, but anything internal I'm working blind on. He didn't expect it back, and if all I'd been able to do was just appear normal without actually restoring sight, he still would've been happy," I revealed. "I could do more, but unless I study a hell of a lot more, I can't make any guarantees that it'll work, and maybe even not then. Have him gloss over that too, the eye couldn't see because it was covered or something."

Quinn nodded, standing up as I did as well, shaking my hand. "Thank you for what you've done. I'll contact you when you have more clients ready, would you be available on the 20th​?"

I thought about my plans, and nothing I knew of happened that day. "Barring an emergency, I'll see you then."

I walked out with a spring in my step, waving happily at Acer on my way out, glad that I'd done something unequivocally positive.

 

[Leecifer]

Impediment 4.8

I sighed, reading medical texts as I tried to keep an air blade formed without concentrating on it. Getting home, I'd healed Herb and Boojack of their bruises, had dinner with them, and settled down after they'd both headed to bed. I could make the blade, and mentally treat it like a sword, moving it as I moved my hand, but as soon as my attention was drawn to something else it destabilized, blowing wind in every direction as the air pressure equalized.

Because of this I was working on keeping it stable while working on something that demanded my attention. If I could understand a piece of biology, I could theoretically recreate it. I wasn't going to start playing around with it until I could get Panacea to check what I was doing, my efforts equivalent to cave-painting next to her Botticelli. Regardless, it was worth spending time working on, if only to learn how to learn how to do it, and I thought it was coming along pretty well. After several hours, I could manifest, hold, and dismiss the blade at a thought, and had grown to understand quite a bit about the structure of a number of body parts, human and otherwise.

Dawn broke, and my partner rose, sitting down with me to eat the breakfast I'd made. Getting an air blade stable enough to cut vegetables for an omelet being a kind of training all its own, though we might need a new cutting board. Shooting down his offers to help him train, he accepted them easily, adding, "Can't blame a guy for tryin'."

Stretching, and heading to a different area then the spot Herb & Boojack were sparring, I manifested the sword, going after an abandoned train car, the rusted steel parting with little difficulty under my strikes, the shimmer of the condensed air the only clue of the blade's existence. I focused on the edge, trying to thin it while keeping it stable, succeeding slightly, but short of some laboratory tech, I couldn't say how well I did. After the thinning though, a couple of my cuts were fine enough that my targets seemed to remain intact until I pushed them, coming apart easily. "I am the anime now," I quipped to no one in particular, amused at what I'd developed.

Considering my weapon, I tapped into my forcefield power that I'd copied from Glory Girl. I'd learned how to use it to reinforce weapons, if blunt their edges, and now I'd learned to create a weapon. It was only common sense to combine the two, but I let go of both immediately as my hand seemed to catch fire.

Tamping down my panic and reminding myself that I was immune to fire, I took a deep breath. Manifesting the blade again, I carefully started to cover it in a force field, the area I'd covered catching fire in the deep purples and bloody reds that were the colors of my power. I slowly extended the field down the blade, outlining the nigh-invisible air construct in unnatural ghostly flames, the heatless blaze flickering next to me. I stared at it, giving it a few experimental swings. The air around me rippled as it swung, blowing the gravel about, and just looked absolutely freaking cool on top of everything else.

Taking a stance, I swung down at the side of the cut-up boxcar as hard I could with a shout. The blade cut into the side, but not smoothly, the force of the blow draining the field covering it with the sound of a muffled cannon. The blow pushed me back slightly as it flung the multi-ton piece of steel off the rusted rail it sat on, air gusting away in every direction from the impact, the train car crashing into another two dozen feet away, crushing it with the force of the blow, an ungodly screeching of metal nearly deafening me, ringing through the railyard as the impact was well outside of the sound bubble I'd set up for training. My sword's flames dimmed, becoming a shifting red and purple outline, though the flickers of incandescence started to appear as I felt the field gain in strength again, ethereal but undeniable, the light of them glimmering off the broken glass around me.

I looked at the destroyed mass of steel, the cut I'd made standing out starkly, an open wound in the metal clearly made by some kind of strike. Dropping a sound bubble around it I pulled out Purity's Lightform, blasting it repeatedly, until all was left was an unidentifiable mess. Barely feeling the beginning of a drop in that power's reserves, I let it fade, flying away before anyone came calling.

<AB>​

Back at base, reading more medical texts, my phone rang. Surprised to see it was Panacea, I answered immediately. "Good," I checked the time, "morning Panacea, how are you?"

"I don't like being blackmailed," was her curt reply.

"Um, neither do I?" I agreed, concerned. "Who's blackmailing you?"

"You are!"

"Um, no I'm not?" I disagreed slowly, wondering what the hell she was talking about.

"Yes, you are!" she insisted, leaving it at that.

I sighed, lamenting the communication skills of the average American teenager. "Panacea, why do you think I'm blackmailing you?"

She gave a harsh laugh. "You said you wouldn't heal anyone unless I was there. If you wanted to talk you could have just asked! I thought you were better than that!"

I sighed, harder. "Panacea, in case it slipped your mind, I don't have your diagnostic power. I, quite frankly, have no faith that if I worked with anyone else, and they made a mistake in their diagnosis, they wouldn't throw me under the bus and blame me when I healed something wrong because they gave me bad intel. I know you, and know you never would do that to me, but I've worked in exactly one hospital after getting my powers, and it didn't exactly fill me with confidence in their morality. Add to that all the weird stuff I'm sure they're trying to heal, and the possibilities of getting stabbed in the back are more than I'm willing to risk."

"Oh," was her subdued response. "Well, if you wanted to help, I'm at Good Samaritan. They're the ones that told me about what you said."

"I'll be there in a few minutes," I promised.

"Thanks," was her response before hanging up.

On my way out, I ran into Boojack and Herb, both battered, both smiling. "Hey man, could we get some heals?" my teammate asked. "And did you hear that crash? We think it was a bomb."

Healing both their bruised bodies, I told them, "That was me. I'll explain later. I'm going to go heal people with Panacea."

Herb laughed, "Have fun with your girlfriend then! Tell her I said hi!"

I glared. "Do you want me to heal you again, because it's kinda sounding like 'Hey Lee, you don't need to help heal my training injuries, the pain'll help me think more clearly!'"

Boojack laughed at his creator as he backpedaled. "No dude," the man said quickly. "I know you don't want to bang her when she's 16. But 18? You're planting that seed."

"Can we not talk about me planting seeds. At all. Ever?" I replied firmly, walking out, and taking off, trying to scrub that conversation from my memory. Focusing on my task, I was grateful for modern technology. The satellite view of Google maps was so useful for finding places while flying, and a few minutes later I landed in the commercial district, walking in the front door of my destination. I was quickly led through a maze of corridors until I saw a familiar white and red cloak. The nurse that showed me the way left, and I waited for my friend to finish healing the sleeping woman, before speaking up. "Hello Panacea, how can I help."

She looked up with an expression of, happiness? Annoyance? I wasn't sure what, and it passed by too fast for me to identify. "Follow me, they've set up a circuit." She looked around and seeing whatever she was looking for, and approached me a bit closer than was exactly comfortable, especially with such a determined expression on her face. "But before we start. What happened that night? I don't want to talk about it. Okay?"

I shrugged. It was only the night before last, no need to be this weird about it, and if she didn't want to talk about it, I'd respect her wishes. "Okay." I looked at her, noting the slight bags under her eyes, obvious now that she was this close. "I'm good for ten hours, then we both need to go get some rest. I was up late getting kids out of danger, and it looks like you were pushing yourself as well. We'll both stop at," I stepped back, checking my phone. "Nine-thirty, get some dinner, and you're going home to sleep. I'm willing to put in another shift tomorrow, but we have no idea how long this is going to keep going and need to pace ourselves."

"But, but what if someone needs my help while I'm not here?" she argued.

I shot that down, parrying with, "Then they'd be in the same position as if you'd worked yourself to the point of exhaustion and passed out, only this way the hospital staff can plan around it." I put a hand on her shoulder to try to get her to understand the importance of my point, something I'd been trying to figure out how to bring up. "Any healing you do is a net positive, and you're being a person with needs of your own isn't a negative thing. We don't judge the Wards for not running themselves ragged patrolling, or for doctors having time off, you shouldn't hold yourself to a standard that literally no one else is held to."

"Hell," I scoffed, "Miss Militia doesn't even need to sleep, but she's not working twenty-four seven. If you have to view it that way, think of the extra people you'll be able to heal by getting me to help, and the numbers should even out a bit. So, ten hours, we'll only take twenty minutes for lunch if it makes you feel better, and we'll heal a ton of people, more if we're talking metric instead of metaphorical. Okay?"

She looked conflicted, before holding out her hand. "Tell me you're being honest."

I smiled, taking her the offered limb in a gloved hand of my own. "Panacea, making me take a lie detector test all the time? The lack of trust wounds me deep." I pressed her fingers to my bare cheek so she could read me. "I'm being honest Panacea, I didn't want to heal without you because you're the one I trust to have my back here. I think you're being foolish about pushing yourself too far, but understand why, and want what's best for you. I didn't mean to blackmail you, didn't think of it that way, and if I had thought you would I would have said something specifically about that. Now, let's go be heroes, and heal people, okay?"

She pulled her hand back, walking past me, pulling her scarf up around her face. I fell into step with her, and spent the next several hours wading through some of the strangest injuries I've ever seen. We worked through them all, the only words passed were her instructions on how to heal my next patient. One man, early forties, had lost a leg to shrapnel that grew and crystallized what it hit, his limb a quartz sculpture. I looked at Panacea, knowing this was well in her wheelhouse, able to regrow the limb completely, but she shook her head sadly, not wanting to reveal the extent of her abilities.

I was tempted to do it myself. Pulling bugs for biomatter I could copy the other, undamaged limb, flip it, and create it, having her take care of all the fiddly bits. If I pretended this was an aspect in which my power outpaced hers, it would work. That was something that I needed to talk to her about though, not do in the middle of a shift, so instead we removed the stone limb and kept him from bleeding out by sealing the stump immediately.

Moving on, she helped me sidestep some problems, such as when one patient, a teenage girl, had been impaled by a spike of cement, but her internal organs were flipped in positioning, something that apparently sometimes happened but wasn't on her chart. That let me heal her correctly, instead of, well, it would've been bad.

We worked as night fell, only once being pulled away from our circuit as a bomb went off that burned people pretty badly. Panacea's diagnostics identified they had phosphorous flakes still imbedded in their skin from the blast. Any attempts to remove these flakes would ignite them, further burning the victim, and the natural healing process would try to push the foreign substances out, which would, again, ignite, burning the victim. After the first patient was treated by staff, only to burst into flame and die, the rest were sent to us. In the face of her power though, the substance was quickly converted and subsumed, reinforcing the victim's bones and teeth instead, dumping the excess, bonded so as to no longer be pyrophoric, into the bladder.

As Panacea cursed Bakuda, I had to admire the dead Tinker's ingenuity, the same way one might appreciate the inventive applications of chemistry involved in the creation of mustard gas. Finishing off by repairing the burned skin, we worked through the baker's dozen of surviving victims before moving on.

It was almost ten thirty when we finished, handling a few cases that couldn't wait until tomorrow. Stepping out I sighed, glad my costume was auto-cleaning. "So," I addressed my tired co-healer. "What do you want to eat?"

She looked up, surprised. "You don't have to." At my unyielding stare she shrugged. "Not Asian?"

I laughed, looking up places that were still open. "Steakhouse it is." She started to say something, but I cut her off. "Nope, you said not Asian, so that's what we're doing. Take my hand."

She hesitantly reached out, squawking in surprise as we lifted off into the air in defiance of physics. "How?"

"I train to find new uses for my powers. Not to say you don't, but from what I've seen, very few people bother experimenting with their abilities." We'd risen above the level of the buildings as I headed towards the restaurant. "I mean, at least you think about it."

She tore her gaze away from the city, our positioning giving her a sense of flight that being carried by her sister probably didn't inspire. "You mean you know about. . .?"

I shrugged. "No specifics, but the things you could do with microbes alone would be damned impressive. Original timeline you only really started cutting loose when you were fighting a Tinker-plague, and you stopped yourself before you got really impressive because you weren't in a good headspace. You never even came close to achieving your full potential, but even then, you came farther than a lot of people who were in much better positions. Name a hero, and I could probably tell you a number of ways they could at least try to improve themselves."

She looked thoughtful as we started our descent, not saying anything as we walked in, and were immediately given a seat, which caused a few people to complain, but the others told them to shut up. We ordered our food, and finally she lost whatever inner argument she was having and said, "Glory Girl," staring intently at me.

"So," I started, dropping a sound bubble, "Her main power's force-fields, right, so-"

"What?" she interrupted. "No it isn't, it's an Alexandria pack-" She stopped herself. "No, you said you saw everything. Forcefields?"

I nodded. "Did she ever go through power testing?" Panacea shook her head. "It's probably a bud from Manpower's shard." That got me another look. "Okay, as powers develop and learn new ways of using their base abilities, they bud off and look for new hosts to learn from. The children of capes are around danger more than most, so are likely to Trigger for a whole host of reasons, and if they Trigger, they normally get a bud from their parents or close family."

I waved a negating hand, "There's more to it, like shards pulling from other nearby shards when they Trigger for secondary abilities, but that's going off into territory I'm not so sure about. Her emotion-based abilities are probably because Gallant was at the game she Triggered at, which is also why he's immune to her Aura."

She took a moment to process that. "So, your powers, you triggered near me?"

I shook my head. "If anyone asks, yes, but really, no. It's complicated, and I'll tell you later, but for now it's something that isn't terribly important. So, Glory Girl, her forcefields are what carry her, letting her fly, create kinetic energy for her to create the illusion of super strength, and take impacts for her. It takes a few seconds to recharge after taking a hit or hitting something else. It's why her weakness is double-tapping, or any kind of automatic weaponry, which she's been fortunate to avoid so far."

"Thing is, repeatedly draining the field may increase its strength, like a muscle being used. Also, while it's invisible, she could probably extend it to others, to carry," I motioned towards Panacea, "or to use as weaponry. I won't demonstrate that, because we're in a restaurant, but covering an item could let her hit harder than she already does. There's also the entire 'always hitting things at full strength' problem. A lesser strike might not drain her shields, leaving her no longer vulnerable to counter-hits."

She looked thoughtful as she considered her response. "Velocity."

"He's limited in how he effects the rest of the world?" I asked rhetorically. "Get Dragon to whip up some containment-foam grenades. He runs past at super-speed, pulling the pins and dropping them. They start moving at normal speed after he drops them, and explode, neutralizing his target after he's already moved on."

"Armsmaster?"

I paused. "Well, he's a jerk, so don't tell him, but he's a miniaturization specialist? Have him outfit his bike with tech instead of working so hard on his halberd. He's so focused on making that one piece of kit the best it could be, he's hit the point of diminishing returns a while ago. Just think of the number of things he could put in his bike, armor, maybe a secondary ranged weapon? Or, idea, just pair him with the other Tinkers in the Protectorate and all of a sudden their unwieldy or impractical ideas are suddenly doable."

"How much time have you thought about this?" she demanded.

"Glory Girl, an afternoon for the ideas, the other two I'm just spitballin'," I admitted. "But the fact that they're so focused on quantification of observable affects instead of exploration of base causes and new applications from that, really limits them. Same thing's happened to most of the Social Sciences, but that's . . . hmm." I trailed off.

"Maybe it's a factor of our increasingly technological society?" I questioned. "Our focus on software instead of hardware limiting the populace to think about what to do with what they have, instead of trying completely new things?" At her confused look, I shrugged, a bit chagrined. "Sorry, tangent. What I'm doing isn't that hard. Hell, if the PRT paid attention to PHO they might find some new uses all their own. Not all of them would be exactly PR friendly, like making Clockblocker a trap-based assassin, but hey, ideas are ideas."

"I'm sorry, what?" she asked. "He's-" she cut herself off, our food arriving, continuing at a whisper once the server left. "How could he be an assassin. I've met him! He stops people, but he wouldn't kill them!"

I took a bite of my filet mignon, appreciating it, even if the price would've made me blanch without my current revenue streams. I waited for her to take a bite of hers, obviously not responding until she did so. "You've seen the video of the truck that hit the paper he froze?" She nodded, chewing. "Now imagine a person running into time-stopped fishing line." She froze, paling. "Or, if he can freeze an object, but not a person it's touching, then something he can throw and wrap around someone, like adding a weight like a yo-yo, so it hits a person and wraps around them, then he freezes it, and they now have thin lines with absolutely no give to them holding them in. The first idea someone else came up with, the other is, again, just a thought, no idea if it would work." I took another bite. "This is really good."

"How?" she demanded. "How can you just sit there and talk about this? That's horrible!"

I quirked an eyebrow. "You've really got to get over this thinking the worst of people thing. Just because he could doesn't mean he would, but it's better to have tools you never need to use instead of not having the tools you do. I'm not suggesting he does that to street-level thugs, but isn't there like a bio-tinker that specializes in plant monsters? Blaster, Blister, Boldo? Doesn't matter," I said shaking my head.

Gesturing with my fork, I made a stabbing motion. "Using lethal force against killer plant monsters is just kinda common sense. Also, if they'd tested his powers extensively, the entire truck paper thing would've never happened. There's a difference between thinking about something and doing it, and any morality system that judges a person by nothing more than their thoughts, is one that can't work unless you can read people's minds. Otherwise, only the honest people get in trouble, as the dishonest ones just lie about what they're thinking." I considered the problem. "Also, anyone who judges you by your thoughts is probably a massive hypocrite, projection being a thing and all. Thoughts do contextualize actions, yes, but it's by your actions that you truly judge a person, not what they think. Though, with enough actions, you can usually determine someone's thoughts, and they're usually not what they claim their thoughts are either."

She really didn't have anything to say to that, and quietly ate. After we were done, she asked, "You don't do casual, do you?"

I shrugged. "I don't lie to people I like, so, maybe?" She looked at me, visibly tired, as I realized I'd done it again. "Sorry, if you want me not to talk about stuff like that, please say so. Um, so, we did really well today? Have you even seen half of what we ran into before?"

She gave me a thankful smile, shaking her head no, and we chatted about healing, the methods to handle problems, and generally talked shop over dessert. We were told the owners comped our meal, and when I offered to pay anyways, I was turned down. We left, flying back to her house, the lights still on inside even though it was close to midnight. "Thanks for helping," she said as we landed. "Will you be back tomorrow?"

I smiled. "I said I was going to, and I do my best to keep my word. An hour to get to bed, eight for sleep, and one to get up and ready," I measured. "See you there at ten? And do you need a lift getting there?"

She smiled back. "Ten it is, and Vicky'll probably want to take me. I'll call you if she doesn't. Good night Vejovis," she said, giving me a quick hug before turning and walking to her house.

"Good night Panacea, I'll see you tomorrow," I called back, taking off into the ocean of obsidian that was the night sky.

<AB>​

I flew back, spirit high, swooping down and landing with barely a whisper as I entered the base. Herb was there, reading what actually appeared to be the base manual. Good on him. He looked at me, starting to say something before visibly stopping himself, asking instead. "So, date went well?"

I sighed, my good dimming. "I healed a lot of people working with Panacea, made a bit of money, but the PR gains were probably much larger."

He smirked at that for some reason, the ass. "You said that that noise was you?"

I blanked for a second, grinning. "Right! So, Stormtiger's air claws, once you deconstruct it, is pretty much just a shitty air blade. Because of that, I built a sword," I manifested it, the air shimmering where the blade existed, but little else was apparent. It still got a whistle of appreciation from Herb who, once I concentrated on seeing his powers, was borrowing my own Power Sight to view it clearly. "But then I thought, I could use Glory Girl's forcefields to cover weapons, and thus," I activated the power, ghostly flames slowly dancing down the length of my weapon.

"Holy fuckin' shit that's awesome," he exclaimed. "That's what did that to the traincars?"

I swung it through the air, the force of its passage creating a breeze that ruffled his clothing. "Yep."

He gazed at it in awe. "It's complete bullshit that I can't copy your copied powers; I hope you know that, because I want one."

"Sorry," I replied unrepentantly, heading past him to grab some supplies from the workshop and back out to the area of the trainyard we'd set up to train. After putting together some targets, I worked on creating, not the air claws which dug out furrows when they hit a target, but blades like my sword that cut a thin line. It took a few hours, but I was able to get them to form and fly at my target, the damage less visible than their original use, but far deeper, cutting a full foot into concrete before they lost cohesion, instead of the four-inch-deep and wide furrows.

After that I started working on the next weakness of the technique. My attacks all originated from me, but there was no actual need for them to do so. The mental maneuvering to make that happen was another thing altogether though, and despite working until dawn, all I managed was creating them a few feet away to my left or right, blades arrowing in on my target, but I had to relearn how to aim them in that manner every time I pushed them a bit further away. I started to get annoyed at my slow progress, but soothed my ego, as in a few hours I'd done more with Stormtiger's power than he'd probably done in a year.

Heading back inside, and making breakfast, I grabbed one of the base's flashlights, adding a few things to the outer housing, effectively bejeweling it, tinker style. Finishing that I flicked it on, the bulb gone and instead the batteries lighting up the outside LEDs. It looked like Tinkertech, and when I manifested my sword, covering it with my shield, the flaming blade seemed to emit from the flashlight completing the illusion. Satisfied, I stowed it in a pocket and headed out, ready to practice flying as I 'patrolled', though if I saw any actual crimes, I'd be shocked.

Out for a while, I was getting a handle on my acceleration and deceleration, turning, and all of the things I'd need to be able to do at speed to really utilize the power when a bright white light caught my attention.

Even in the day Purity was blinding, my own powers dampening her incandescence as she flew right for me. I stopped, readied for an attack, but instead she came to a hard stop a dozen feet away, calling to me, "Vejovis, we need to talk."

 

[Leecifer]

Impediment 4.9

Normally when a woman says 'we need to talk', like Purity had just informed me, I'd either been dating them or working for them, and wasn't that an uncomfortable realization, so I was thoroughly confused at what she wanted. "Okay, what about?"

"Are you going to change things, for the better?" she demanded.

That's out of left field. "Yes? I'm a hero, that's kind of in the job description."

"And you think I could be one too?" she pressed.

As was that. "Unless you've joined back up with the E88, I'm pretty sure you already are. Stopping crime and protecting people and so on," I contested, really not seeing where this was going.

That took her aback, for some reason. "You said you were recruiting. Are you still? I've had other offers."

I responded without thinking, "Yeah, but Kaiser's a controlling dick."

"How do you know it's Kaiser? Have you been stalking me!?" she demanded, looking panicked.

"Well, you're not Asian, and you don't look like a complete dumbass, so it can't be the ABB or Merchants," I remarked. It seemed stunningly obvious to me, so I really didn't understand her response. "The Protectorate is led by self-righteous assholes, so they wouldn't recognize actual repentance if it filed the proper paperwork and slapped them in the face with it, and you're not a complete waste of potential, so you wouldn't join Uber and L33t. Pretty much leaves one group." I paused, waiting for a response, but just getting shocked silence. "And yeah, still recruiting heroes if you're interested."

Purity visibly steeled herself, her emotions so open and honest it hurt. "I do. Vejovis, I want to join the Penumbral Defenders," she professed, looking at me pleadingly.

I floated to her holding my hand out. "Glad to have you on the team." She hesitantly took it, firmly grasping it and giving it a shake as I wrapped us in a sound bubble. "Break, the other member of our team, and I currently don't have any operations in the works, and with Kaiser putting the word not to talk to you, I know you probably don't have any yourself."

Her grip tightened, expression strained.

"We have a contact scouting out locations, and when we have a lead we'll give you a call," I continued, not commenting on her tense state. "If you need anything, give me a call. You're part of the team Kayden, and we don't let our teammates suffer if we can help it." She looked at me with wide eyes. I shrugged. "Yeah, I know who you are, but I wasn't going to say anything about it. My name is Lee Elric, and I wasn't going to use my knowledge about you to try to pressure you to join. It would've been wrong."

I clasped her hand with both of mine. "So, if you need something, don't hesitate to ask. I might not be able to do whatever it is, but I won't play quid pro quo bullshit games. In the meantime, if we find an ABB target, how should I get ahold of you?" Letting her go I let her dart backwards a few feet and get control of her breathing, which had quickened as I talked.

"I," she started, shakily. "I don't know. Do you know where. . .?"

I shook my head. "No, I don't know where you live. I could probably find it if you want me to, but you're a hero, so I didn't see the need. If you have a cell-phone, just call me, and I'll have your number."

"I'll do that," She agreed, "Thank you." And with that she was off like a shot, a trail of light arcing into the distance. I wonder if Herb is going to be annoyed that I talked to Purity again without telling him. I mentally shrugged. Whatever.

<AB>​

Finishing my flight practice, at least with Glory Girl's method, I landed at Good Samaritan, ready for another shift. Panacea was surprised to see me, which was odd, but I let it go. Her pleased smile, though quickly hidden, reassured me that she was in a better place than in canon, and I matched it with one of my own. We worked throughout the day, getting off just before nine, heading for Italian instead, having made the reservation over lunch. "This place looks expensive," she prevaricated as we landed. "I'm not sure I could pay for this."

I rolled my eyes, leading her in. "With how much we're making, we're good."

"I'm doing this for free. Are you getting paid?" she asked after we were seated, a hint of accusation in her tone.

"Yes?" I asked, feigning confusion. This was something that she'd have to get over, and I may as well lay the foundations. "Just like any other surgeon would. In fact, I made sure that's the pay rate I'd get, no more, no less."

"But," she responded, stopping as she had to form an argument. "What if they can't pay?"

I shook my head. "I checked, this is coming out of a government disaster relief fund, just like the pay for all of the other nurses and doctors." She looked like she had an objection ready to go, but I could guess the general thrust, and thus pre-empted it. "Volunteering is nice, but if you want reliable, regular work you need to pay people. The only reason you can volunteer your time as much as you do is because someone else pays for all of your expenses like food, housing, clothing, medical care. If you were twenty and had moved out of your parents' house, you couldn't help at the hospital like you want to, because you'd have to work a different job where you wouldn't be as effective to pay for food and shelter. It's basic economics. Now, I will happily debate this with you, and would like to later, but would you prefer to do that or just relax after a difficult shift with your co-worker?"

She struggled with herself, sighing as she admitted, "I'd rather just relax."

I smiled, "I'm not going to lie to you Panacea, which means if you ask me difficult questions, I'm going to give you my answer, not a comforting falsehood. That being said, let's put that aside. Those patients that were turning into grass, you told me how to fix it, but how did it happen in the first place?"

After paying the bill, and hiding it from Panacea to her resigned acceptance, we headed out. The people with cameras that had gathered outside were annoying, but we ignored them as we flew off, landing and arranging to do it all over again the next day.

That night I took an hour to figure out our finances. If we were going to have actual members, using a single account probably wasn't the best. Futzing around, I found that Bay Central Bank had actually filed my paperwork and the Penumbral Defenders had their own account. Making a sub-account for Vejovis, Break, Enter, Purity, and The Lady, Bug, I dumped 5k in each, further increasing our debt to Cauldron, but we'd already more made this month's minimum payment from my efforts, and then there was the 30k Herb had made 'consulting' for 'Witch's Brew Security'. Subtle.

After that hum-drum bit of logistics was taken care of, I got to the fun stuff and worked on seeing if I could add any other powers to my 'sword'. It wasn't stable enough to add Speed Zones to, and shifting to Shadow or Lightforms disrupted the blade, bringing the forcefield with them, but leaving the condensed air behind, the forcefield then collapsing as it had nothing to hold onto.

What was interesting, was that using Grue's Shadow Propagation on the blade clad it in darkness, but no other effect seemed present. Shifting my free arm into Shadowform though, remembering that Shadow Stalker's power didn't play well with his, revealed that the blade could touch me even in that state. Past that I practiced more with the unclad blades, forming invisible edges farther and farther away, and flinging them at ever more acute angles compared to myself.

I realized that I kept focusing on my sword to the exclusion of all else, and wasn't that a thought full of Freudian meaning, but it would let me use some of my extra powers under the guise of Tinkertech. Thinking of Zelda, and anime in general, I paired my sword with my ever-increasing speed in creating wind blades to create a seeming 'pressure wave' or something equally ridiculous.

Forming a blade on top of the shielded wind blade of my sword, moving both as one, I let the top one fly on a ballistic course as I swung the base layer like the weapon it appeared to be. Several hours of practice later let me form and release them with a thought, the sun rising on metal targets that looked like they'd been put through a woodchipper. Happy with my progress I headed inside with the gathered scrap, right into Herb who had cooked breakfast, a big grin and puppy dog eyes lying in wait.

"Look, I got you some breakfast, and I know you're always busy, but how about you and I train?" I groaned looking at him. I may have been thinking of certain techniques that he could learn that I could counter easily, but someone else would have problems with. He looked so hopeful, like a puppy afraid of being kicked, and while I wouldn't let any moral decisions up to him, he'd always had my back martially.

"Fine," I ground out, his previous actions, terribly as they be, not mattering to how well he fought. "After breakfast."

<AB>​

Moving out to a different abandoned area, I stood opposite of my friend. "Okay, power training. Your natural powerset lends itself to a more intellectual fighter, which sadly you aren't."

"What'd ya mean?" he asked. "I'm no Einstein. Taking other people's powers and beating them with 'em doesn't sound that snooty."

"Okay," I challenged, "you have Hookwolf's power. Now how do you out Hookwolf, Hookwolf?"

"Well, I'd turn into a rolling thing of sawblades and tank him!" he declared. "Panzer bitch!"

"So, roll into a ball and hit him. Really?" I questioned, raising an eyebrow.

He shrugged, giving no other response.

I shook my head. "Ironically, I would probably do better with your choice, and vice versa. If you're going to rely on it in battle, you need to do a lot of research, constantly asking yourself 'If I had this guy's, or girl's, power, what would I do with that? How would I use that power to defeat the person who's had that power for years?' While your Abaddon shard may give you a more powerful version of their power, letting you win a straight power vs power, Harry Potter vs Voldemort connected wands kind of fight, anyone who isn't a moron isn't going to keep that going head on until they lose. They'll run, move, and strike you where you're vulnerable. Quick question, your power, does it tell you where the powers you're copying are coming from?"

"Not a clue," he responded, shrugging, "haven't really worked on it."

I thought for a second, nodding to myself. Floating into the air, I told him, "Close your eyes and point at me. As I fly around, I want you to focus on my power and keep pointing at me." He pointed at me, eyes closed, and I took off, slowly rotating around him. He didn't move at first, slowly pointing in my general direction, sometimes right at me, sometimes just in my general direction, but only once in the wrong direction. He lost track of me over and over, but after thirty seconds he'd get my general location again. Wrapping him in a bubble of silence, he jumped, eyes opening as he said something. I dropped the bubble saying, "You were actually doing pretty well, but we need to eliminate as many senses as we can to isolate the one that is only yours. Give it a try again."

This time though, he had much greater difficulty. Still able to point in my general direction, but with almost a full minute between reacquisitions. I let sound return to him, his furrowed brow indicating he'd found something out. "Dude," he complained, "it's like tracking a ghost in a field of fog."

"You found me," I disagreed, "but with the time and effort it required, it's not something you want to use in battle. Not yet. Maybe if you were in a Stranger fight, and if you train it more, but right now? No." I informed him, to his disappointment. "So, homework for later, look up the major players and do the 'if I had their powers' game, and maybe browse the Parahumans Online forums for ideas. Second power, cloning. Theoretically that makes you a one-man team, but yours are different enough it's more like, well, a supervillain organization actually, with specialized members. The lead time is hurting us here, waiting for the rest to arrive, so, that leaves your Peak Condition, which just lets you skip the training montage, and avoid spending the hour or three a day you'd need to keep you, to borrow my little brother's term, SWOL. Then there's your Stand. Summon him and keep him near you please."

He complied, and I looked at the man's connection to the not-a-person with my Power Sight, the power of Herbert's Abaddon shard making the ethereal flames of his power appear almost real as he copied his Stand's powerset, and sometimes more than real. I continued, "Right, this is how you're going to get the majority of your reliable powers. Immunity is a passive power, so not something you can use with skill, and you've been training your hand to hand to best use your Vampirism, that get stronger as you fight power of yours, right?"

He nodded.

"Okay," I said, taking a stance. "You were supposed to work on dodging, so dodge." Running forward, I threw a punch, telegraphing the hell out of it. He dodged easily, and the pattern continued. I pulled my punches that impacted, and his return blows didn't heal him in the slightest, only draining my shields when they got through. I'd instructed him to dodge only, but I rolled with it, keeping my speed at the edge of what he could handle, increasing mine as his power increased his.

Kicks were thrown, dodged, and caught, punches and elbows aplenty shot out, and his conservative fighting style let him dodge more than I expected him to, though the one time I clipped him in the ear, he went full berserker, training forgotten until I dodged long enough for him to get a handle on himself, going back to his normal style once more. As we kept going his style tightened a bit, but as he got stronger, and I matched it, even my pulled punches were getting dangerously strong. I backed off, using my flight to escape whistling blow, his grin showing he thought he won.

"Pretty good, right?" he prompted eagerly, smiling smugly.

"Not bad," I agreed, the lead time before it was useful long enough to leave me worried. "We never really sparred before, but from what you'd told me, you're not just the berserker you used to be. When I clipped you, is that how you used to be?"

He nodded, chagrined. "Yeah, sorry, got a bit dazed and kinda just reacted."

"It happens," I said, but tempered the excuse, stating, "But that's what training's for, so even dazed you can fight how you want. I do have one question, does your Vampirism fade if you get a bit distance, but are still fighting?"

He shook his head no. "As long as I'm still in a fight it works, yeah?"

I shrugged, "Just wondering why you didn't use your Mover power."

He snorted in disgust. "Dude, doing the whole Hulk thing out here is really gonna mess up our secret training."

I raised an eyebrow, flying back a good distance, landing in the gravel. Making sure I wasn't flying, I pulled on the Super Strength aspect of my shields, channeling it through my legs as I crouched, leaning forward. With a grunt I launched myself forward in a spray of gravel, my shields draining as they spent their energy. Flying in a flat parabolic arc I closed the distance in an instant, landing right in front of him, fist out and missing him by inches as I swept past him, skipping awkwardly to bleed of the momentum I hadn't spent in a strike.

Floating back to him, his eyes wide, I landed, shields back to full.

"Now take a swing," I instructed, and as soon as he started to I pushed off with super strength, backwards this time, opening the space between us, landing and skidding in the gravel a little as I stopped. Walking back once again I instructed, "Leaping is in whatever direction you can push off, not just up. Getting the direction just right will probably take some work, as will landing, but it'll let you choose the pace of the fight." Left unsaid, was that this strategy would be utterly useless against my Air Blades. Getting in close, fast, and hard would result in nothing but getting cut to ribbons against a threat that you couldn't see and could appear in the blink of an eye.

As far as I could tell, every major threat had a love of theatre and dick waving that I found downright idiotic, but it meant that Herb would be fine. Against the S9, that kind of weakness could get him hurt, but that was months away. I hated pulling this Machiavellian bullshit, teaching him with obvious weakness I could make use of, but I couldn't trust him on this, and until I could I had to play it safe.

Putting him through his paces, running him back and forth for several hours, working on landing from leaps and blows that utilized the momentum from the jump before calling it quits, and leading the sore parahuman back inside. We both drank heavily from the water dispenser on the fridge, rehydrating, as I healed him as best I could.

"Okay Herb," I addressed him, taking a seat. "I need to know what happened with Cauldron. I was letting it go, but something happened, and you gotta tell me before it bites us both in the ass." That, and I can't trust your judgement anymore, I thought, but didn't say, So I can't trust that you have that avenue of attack covered.

"Well," he said, looking thoughtful as he started cooking. "I went in, we talked, and then I went out."

Fucking really? "I'm going to need more than that Herb," I responded, deadpan. I wanted to be angry, but I was really just disappointed.

He sighed. "Okay, honestly? I went in, and they were all sittin' around the table, all 'we're so awesome and we're so powerful and we control the world's destiny!'" he continued in mocking tones. "And I was just like, 'oh, I so want to just shit on your table'."

"Please tell me you didn't actually shit on their table," I begged. He gave me a disbelieving look. "It was our Worst Day Ever, and we were being pushed to make the worst choices possible. Let's be honest, with you, nothing is guaranteed."

He shrugged, taking it as the compliment it wasn't. "Fair enough, I was tempted, but then the doctor opened her mouth and was all like 'you're a new cape and blahblahblah and we're gonna need your help, savin' the world and all that shit'." He gave a dismissive snort. "And I'm sittin' there and we're talkin' about savin' the world and I'm like 'more than happy to', and they're all 'awww'." I looked at him, doubting heavily that Doctor Mother, Numberman, or Contessa would ever go 'awww'. He continued unabated, "And then I pissed people off, like I normally do, sometimes, if they're too serious."

"That does seem to be a talent of yours, yes," I agreed dryly.

"So, they gave me bottles, the stuff we wanted, then I left. Yay! Oh!" he exclaimed. "We really should think about distributing them eventually."

I sighed, as I had the distinct feeling that he was leaving something out, but I was in a 'but you never asked' bullshit devil scenario, and I hated those, so I just addressed the current issue: "Find some candidates and we'll look them over. This isn't the kind of thing you can undo man. We're giving them Triumvirate level powers,"

"Which is kinda cool," he agreed, excited by the prospect.

"But requires us to be careful," I prodded.

"Yeah, definitely not givin' one to Taylor's dad. He's not-"

"We've had that discussion, I agree," I cut him off. "There's no need to be rude."

"I'm just sayin' he's a broken guy," Herb hedged, doing the very thing I just asked him not to. It's like he doesn't even care. "I'm not mad at him, he's just broke. But. Yeah. I already. Yeah. Hmm." He started several times, going nowhere. "Hmm." He paused. "Hmmmm." He paused longer. "Hmmmmmmmmmm."

I growled, "What."

"Okay, so, I'm just thinking," he proposed immediately, like he'd been waiting for me to ask. Which he might have. "Mine, which are awesome, or at least one of mine needs to go to someone who is highly devoted to me. I think I may have screwed that up." He looked at me in silence for several seconds. I started to worry exactly what he may have done, but realized that worrying over it wouldn't help in the slightest. We sat there. In silence. For a minute.

I finally broke, "Would you like to share with the class?" I inquired, using my best teacher voice.

"Oh, oh, okay," he said immediately, again. "The Undersiders, they're upset."

"I wonder why," I mused. "Besides, they all have powers, so you couldn't give them one anyways."

"That's not what I wanted to do," he defended. "But, I mean, Taylor wasn't there for it. Yay. But there are a couple people around them that are highly susceptible to me giving. . . interesting information to. Ala, bottle." He laughed, and I really didn't see why. Nerves? "Um. But. When." Definitely nerves. "But when I'm getting bad stuff said about me constantly, nobody's gonna want to trust me," he whined.

"Don't," I started, thinking, Don't pull this shit and maybe that won't be an issue again, but I had another thought. "Did you think you were going to get people on your side that were friends with the Undersiders?

"It was an idea," he admitted. And we've seen how well your ideas go.

"One, I don't think they have any unpowered friends at this point. Second of all, you shit in that pond pretty effectively when you told them you set them up to condemn Dinah to her canon fate."

"Taylor does," he argued, and it took me a second before I realized he was trying to refute my first point. "Tattletale has a bunch of people under her that are really-"

"Not at this point, no," I argued.

"Not now," he dismissed scornfully. "But eventually."

If that's what you were thinking, why did you use present tense dumbass, I noted, as he obviously covered his mistake only slightly better than my little brother when he was in his 'I knew that' phase. "Maybe, though we want to make sure anyone we bring in is more loyal to us than Tattletale, as we're going to be using her to vet people."

"Of course!" he exclaimed, "that she will! Good idea! This why you're, like. . ." he trailed off.

I resisted the urge to ask 'I'm the what?' voicing my surprise to his ill-hidden surprise at my idea, "You didn't think about using the rule sixty-three'd Sherlock Holmes to find out if the people we want to give superpowers-, okay, wow. This. This is why I need you to run shit by me man."

He gave a self-deprecating, and obviously forced laugh, "Well, you know, I was just thinkin' about a couple years down the road or somethin', us havin' children and jokin' about that. I've got my Purity, that's all I need."

What does that statement have to do with anything we were just talking about? I mentally raged at his complete non-sequitur. "When we have kids, if we have kids." I corrected. "Assuming Goldenrod doesn't completely obliterate us, our kids will probably trigger easily, maybe even be Abaddon Triggers, I have no idea how any of that works. Our shards will eventually bud, and maybe they'll get variants of our powers?" I hadn't the foggiest of ideas what was going to happen on that front, and Herb seemed lost in thought.

I waited, and was starting to debate poking him when he shook himself. "I'm sorry, I was caught up in, ya know, Purity. I was thinking flowers, chocolates, silk sheets. No! Those eight thousand count ones. Either way, definitely red."

I figured that was my cue to end this particular conversation. "Please don't sexually harass any of our prospective teammates. I want no part of this, I hope you know."

"I know, but thanks for the training," he offered, changing the topic, again. "I didn't think of half this stuff."

I shrugged. "We're getting into serious fight time, you need to not suck, because it might get you actually killed."

He nodded. "Yeah, going up and eatin' things is not the best way." Which wasn't exactly your strategy before. What is he talking about? I thought.

"Yeah," I agreed, shooting him a look. "That was Curtis's strategy. Now he's a rug."

He gave me a 'sorry?' look. "Either way, thanks. What're ya doin' next?"

"A hospital shift with Panacea," I replied calmly, waiting for his inevitable response.

He laughed. "Have fun with your," he paused at my stare, "totally non-romantic fellow healer who only happens to be teenaged and a member of the opposite sex?"

I nodded, "Thank you, I will," and left him to his own devices.

<AB>​

The rest of the day was spent with Amelia, who was increasing distracted by something. She didn't say anything, and I finally brought it up over dinner. "Panacea, what's up?"

"Huh?" she asked, looking up from her Pescado Vallarta. "Nothing. Nothing's wrong."

"You've barely said anything since we've got here, what's up?" I pressed.

"Why," she stopped, thinking. "What is this?"

I looked around, unsure exactly what she meant. "Um, well, that's fish in mango sauce, we're in a Mexican restaurant, and we're getting dinner before I drop you back home and we both hope they find Bakuda's lair and stop the bombing so we don't have to do this all again tomorrow." She looked at me like I was being obtuse. I sighed. "You're going to have to be more specific Panacea."

"This," she motioned between us, "What is this, you're coming to help me every day and then we go out to dinner, and Vicky can't decide between getting upset and protective and. . . something else, and I don't even know how to feel about this. Why? Why do you care?"

I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. It was probably best to just handle that last question. "Do you want the simple answer or the more complete answer?"

"Simple," she decided after a moment. "Simple is best."

"To put it simply, I want to help heroes. The Protectorate has been giving me the cold shoulder, and I don't even know where to begin on asking around to find Bakuda's lair, which leaves me with trying to help with the aftermath, ergo healing. I enjoy working with you, and you are a great help in developing my powers, and even at one-third surgeon pay, it's still a decent amount of money to be made. I know you, and how you like to push yourself with no regard for yourself, which can be just as bad as it is good, so by working with you instead of trying to be a stupid authority figure and dictating what you should and shouldn't do I can help keep you from burnout."

I motioned to the restaurant. "This is part of that, a place where you can relax, away from stressing influences, be it your sister's accidental Aura exposure or you adopted mother's cold indifference. Furthermore, this makes sure you get at least one good meal, as I'm pretty sure if left to your own devices you'd make yourself something basic, like peanut butter and jelly, and sack out. I know you skimp on lunch, I do too because we're busy, and I'm pretty sure you do so on breakfast as well, so this is enough to keep you going, not to mention the psychological aspects of eating good food. You are worthy of care Panacea, because of who you are, and if that means working at a hospital and going out to dinner with my co-worker, that's a burden I'll shoulder gladly," I finished, smiling.

"You. But. what do you mean one third pay?" she finally asked, latching onto the emotionally safest part of what I'd said.

I shrugged. "Well, I know you won't take pay for what you do right now, so I'm taking my pay and splitting in three. One share goes to me, and one to you, since we're partners in this, and the third also goes to you, since you're the senior healer here, and you're teaching me. It's held in escrow until you control your own finances, so until you're eighteen unless you choose to be an emancipated minor. What you do with it is up to you, whether you give it to charity, use it to help someone else, or accept it as the just reward for your hard work which is essentially what all pay from a job is on a basic level."

"You," she sputtered. "You can't just do that!"

"Pretty sure I just did," I responded blandly. "You can't touch it until you're older, and if you still feel that way about it, just donate it back to the hospital. At the very least it'll give you a nice tax credit, which is just the government rewarding you for doing what they want you to with your own money."

She glared at me, not continuing the conversation, having obviously recognized that I was right and unable to come up with an argument that would work. It was just like Taylor being undercover, I'd challenged her to come up with an actual argument against her placement on the Undersiders, and she hadn't brought it up since then. That or she forgot, which was doubtful. I didn't bring Taylor up though, just because it might be seen as gloating, and wouldn't really help anything.

Amelia's rancor was blunted by the food, and by the end of the meal she'd gone down from angry to generally annoyed, which made sense since she'd lost. Very few people lost arguments gracefully when they were teens, and I'd be understanding, given her age. Flying her back, she started to not quite stomp to the door, stopping halfway there as she sighed. "See you tomorrow? I'd understand if you don't want to."

I held back a laugh. "See you tomorrow Panacea." She sighed, harder, shaking her head as she strode inside and closed the door. Taking off into the night, I thought about doing more power training, but between my meeting with Purity and my conversation with Panacea I needed to start looking for an ABB stronghold to go after. It would make a good team building exercise at the least, as there was nothing like combat to help the ex-nazi get over the fact that Break and Enter were both black.

Landing in a dark alley, I switched from Vejovis to Boardwalk, giving a tough sounding "What?" to no one in particular, to get in character. Covering my forearm in a Speed Zone, I used it to ride the wall to the roof, turning to shadow to move rooftop to rooftop through ABB territory. With Bakuda neutralized the ABB's 'recruitment drive' had stalled pretty hard, a sizable number of the conscripts running to try to get the bombs out of their heads.

Confusingly, a majority had apparently stayed with the gang, maybe believing that Lung could stop them from exploding, maybe out of fear of what happened if they ran, which was silly given they had an unstable bomb in their heads, or maybe they were just weak-willed sheeple. Whatever the reason, Lung had a larger army at his beck and call and was pressing the Merchants and the E88 for more territory, though not nearly as well as they had in canon.

That being said, there were apparently a few more triggers running around, of note was a new member of the Protectorate, an Asian woman who could turn into shadow and build things from it. The Merchants apparently had someone new, but casual eavesdropping didn't give me any info. Flitting across rooftops I found a building that showed some promise, with the watcher in the only open window, the rest blacked out.

Watching it for a bit, the front door opening to let in an ABB group without them knocking was a dead giveaway. Launching myself across the street, I landed on the roof, taking cover in the shadow of an air vent as I sat down, cross-legged, and started connecting with everything that creeped or crawled within. Building an idea of the location, it was an ad-hoc armory. Definitely a place to hit, though I'd need to make sure that Kayden stayed at a distance. I wasn't sure that her Lightform, while possibly tougher than normal, would be up to concentrated small arms fire.

Watching the general patterns of everyone inside, someone knocked on the door, another ABB most likely, though by the movement of the guard he was surprised. I started to turn some bugs to see who when something happened, and the world shifted, like a moment of real-life lag.

The world seemed to skip as I got the sense of fire and my eyes burned, whatever the power was passing past me too fast to see. Checking inside through my insects, everyone was down, the guns gone, the safe open, and every door in the place wide open. I found the one of the walls now had an image, but bug eyes were not meant for seeing clearly in a hurry.

Dropping down through the roof, and hurrying past gang members all clutching the backs of their necks, I turned the corner and saw it. Emblazoned in fine calligraphy was one word, ÆONIC, the O a clock set to midnight. Slipping out my phone, I called the raid in to the local cops as I started to leave, the responder telling me that authorities were already on their way as flashing red and blue light pulled around the corner. With response time that good, I'd realized I must have been caught in some serious time power bullshit, and the cops practically fell out of their cars to pull their guns on me, shouting at me to get down.

I dropped into shadow as I stowed the phone, calling back "Um, this wasn't me. I just got here. Some dude named Æonic hit it first."

"We're taking you in for questioning anyways! Get on your knees and put your hands behind your head!" one of them yelled harshly.

"I'm literally standing here, telling you it wasn't me. There's an entire safehouse filled with ABB back there, shouldn't you worry about them?" I asked. Intellectually, I knew they were trained to handle everyone as a threat, but when you had people that could literally sneeze lava, maybe the battle lines drawn, guns at the ready, hollering at the obvious parahuman response wasn't the best?

"I said get on the ground and put your hands on your head asshole, this is your last warning!" the same idiot screamed. Maybe it was the costume, and they were reacting to me being black. Theme, not skin color, I internally amended, though that might be it.

Boardwalk's general setup screamed villain or vigilante, on purpose, but that appeared to be backfiring right now. With Acoustokinesis I could hear someone suggesting they not point guns at me to him, as I might be a hero, good on that guy, but Officer Screechy McBellowsalot told him to not question his orders and put his gun back on me or he'd be up for insubordination. Ahh, corruption and abuse of power of Law Enforcement, the meat and potatoes of any crime-ridden city.

Looking through the lights shining at my mask, eyes adjusting, I could barely make out the guy in charge; he was Asian, older, and pissed. Not sure what his problem was, but fuck it, the golden rule was a thing for a reason, and I'd respond to his unfairness with my own. Time to sow some dissension. "Fuck you," I told him, flicking him off, "Just because I'm taking down the guys that pay your fuckin' bribes doesn't mean you should have ta be a fuckin' bitch about it."

His gun fired, but the round passed harmlessly through me as I fell backwards, flicking him off with both hands, laughing as I fell through the pavement, disappearing from sight as several others opened fire. My arm tingled as I passed near a power line, twisting out of the way, dropping into the cool darkness of underground, flying away, wondering Who the hell is Æonic?

 

[Leecifer]

Impediment 4.x (Interlude: Herb)

Herb sat down in the abandoned house, thinking to himself about his first day in Brockton Bay, which had only now come to a close. This day has been an emotional roll coaster trip on acid. At least I'll get Chinese, unless, who knows? he sighed internally. We're definitely in Worm, and Lee is going to take this so fuckin' serious. His friend took everything seriously, so Herb, thinking about it, made an affirmation. I'm gonna need to be the fun-time guy or he's gunna fuckin snap. He's gonna try to save the word, which needs to be saved, and so much shit is going to go down, and it needs go down. I need to make sure I save the Undersiders. Lee's gonna be focused on at least Taylor, so, what do I do?

He leaned back, musing: The bank, it all starts at the bank. That poor girl. So, plan time. I really should've finished the story faster, what the hell was happening when I stopped? He searched his memory. Right, the S-9000, that fuckin' shit show. Okay. Undersides need to be saved, but to get to them, and to get to Coil, I have to sacrifice a little girl. Shit. Fuckin' shit.

Dear Lord, he prayed, hoping for something. None of his prayers had ever been answered, but fuck, maybe here, now, he'd get something to help. I'm about to be a demon amongst angels. Please give me strength to come back from this, for I am truly sorry for what I am about to do.

He thought about Lee, how he worked, and had a sinking realization. I can't speak her name. he realized. If I mention Dinah, even once, he'll latch onto that shit, and act, and he can't if this is gonna work.

He took a deep centering breath, needing to show nothing by the time Lee got back. Okay. I'm here. Let's have some fun. Getting up, he grabbed the first aid-kit he'd found, busting it open and hoping nothing had expired, applying the wound cream he'd found to what was left of his injuries. Beating the living shit out of the Nazis had pretty much healed any real injury he'd had, and this'd take care of the rest.

Looking at the surprisingly well stocked kit, all he could think was, Dear god this world is full of so much fucking violence if this is a standard medical kit. Fuck it, just channel my dad and enjoy this shit. Relaxing, he'd thought about his day with that view, a necessary evil. For a supposed 'Worst Day Ever' it had turned out not half bad. They'd gone space diving without a suit, let alone a parachute, and fought every single gang in the city. Despite what Lee said, the PRT didn't count, they were like cops, but more so. Dangerous, yeah, but not quite gangs. You could negotiate with gangs after all.

They'd kicked ass all over the city, tickled the dragon, and while yeah, they hadn't been able to save Taylor, it was probably for the best that she got her powers. He even fucked up those bitches that fucked with Taylor. No, he thought, immediately repelled by what he'd done. I hit little girls. That's fucked up! Taking another breath, he submerged himself in his father's view of the world again. They disrespected Taylor and got what they fucking deserved. The fact that this place didn't have power really sucked though.

Herb twiddled his thumbs, waiting for his bro to get back when a point of light appeared in the air, lengthening first into a bar, and then into a rectangle. On the other side stood a guy in green and white skintight suit, with cape, hood, and sleeves, the hood and sleeves lit up, as well as the mask. Looking him down and back up, the muscles were obviously fake, like those skinny dudes who wanted muscle, but not enough to work for it. The guy spoke with a deep, calm voice, like he was trying to be a white Morgan Freeman. "I need your help, to save the world," he intoned in a way that he probably thought was dramatic or something.

It clicked for Herb who this was, and he voiced his displeasure. "Oh they sent you, you stupid fuck! All right, let's go." He stood up, pushing past the guy whose idiocy and glory-hound dumbassery had unveiled Cauldron when he tried to one v one Echidna.

"E-Excuse me?" the moron in question asked, confused, his mind probably not used to someone who wasn't fallin' over themselves to suck his dick.

On the other side of the Portal, Herb looked around, the white walls, floor, and ceiling with fluorescent lighting just rubbing him the wrong way. One would never've thought they did experiments here that woulda made the Nazis blush. "Gotta admit," he told the guy who won the superpower lottery and did jack-all with it. "Much cleaner than I thought it would be. I mean, ya know, anyway. It's really weird. And clinical."

The flying fuckup led him down several passageways, not saying a word, floating 'cause he was apparently too good to walk, which might be why he had to pad his suit. Eidolon opened the door and led Herb into a conference room. Seated to his left was Number-man in the nerdiest of office wear. Herb had never seen someone who had actually worn a pocket protector, at least not since he'd watched Revenge of the Nerds, but this was a day of firsts after all. Contessa was seated to the left, looking all hot n' shit in her fedora/suit combo. Doctor Mother stood, because of course the only unpowered person here would feel the need to take a power pose, holding a clipboard and in a white jacket and skirt.

"Uhhh," he groaned. "Okay, you want to recruit me, you want me to do stuff, you're all dumb motherfuckers tryin' to kill Zion, which is his actual name, idiots." He informed those gathered. "Um, yeah, sure, I'll help." He shrugged. "Where's my shit?"

Silence greeted his, let's be honest, perfectly reasonable statement. Dr. Mother took the lead, because of course she did. "We have your power vials, what else do you require?"

"Money and a place to live, would be nice too," he told them. Really, for a secret organization, they were surprisingly dumb.

She nodded. "I'm sure Number Man can provide you with what you need. He looked over and the guy was tapping away at a tablet, and actually hadn't stopped since Herb had walked in, which was really fuckin' rude. The dude was looking right at Herb, but just kept tap, tap, tapping away.

"Kay, little man," Herb asked, trying to be nice. "Can you please stop typing? It's literally annoying while people are talking."

"I'm doing what you asked," was the emotionless, almost robotic response from Poindexter.

"You can pause, for just a moment, listen to the conversation, be part of the class," Herb shot back, the lack of any emotional response from the nerd pissing him off. "Or are you the dick who sits at the back of the class and knows everything and just is a dick?"

He didn't stop typing.

"You're a dick," Herb concluded. "Jesus." The dick shot a glance at Contessa, still typing, who shook her head, relying on someone else to get shit done for him, another strike, if he needed one. "Oh, you're expecting her to know everything? She doesn't," he informed the typing tyrant. "She knows enough, but not enough. She's dumber than shit in hell when it comes to the golden guy in the sky. Can, okay, so," he started, getting his thoughts in order. "You guys suck, you guys suck bad. You're fucking pieces of shit. All those Case 53's all that experimenting? Dumb on you. So stupid," he finished, shaking his head in disgust.

Eidolon spoke up, finally. "How do you know all of this?"

That was easy. "Because I'm better than you. Period. That's why you called me to help, am I not right Miss Contessa?" Herb asked, addressing the only person not to have said a goddamn word. "By the way, you're hot."

With that, the rest of those assembled looked at the precog, who gazed back at them. "With him, the path shortens by twenty-seven steps," she responded simply.

"Twenty-seven? That's not enough, but ooh," he remarked, getting an idea. "Contessa, can I ask you somethin'? Just a little, quick thing? Are you sometimes coming up blank when you think about me?"

"No?" she asked, genuinely confused. The first emotion she'd shown since he walked in. Thinking, before a look of surprise flashed across her stunning features. "Sometimes. How?"

He just smiled back at her enigmatically. "Oh yeah, not just twenty-seven steps. Give me the Vials, I'll be amazing, and all y'all fuckers can just, not get in my way?"

There was more silence, except for the fucking tappin' from Numberman, who asked like he didn't have a care in the fuckin' world. "You need an identity. What is your villain name?"

"Hmm," Herb thought, tapping his chin. "Ya know what? 'cause what I'm about to do, I'm gonna be called Break. And Enter." He added, remembering his Stand. "Break and Enter, sounds like a tag-team. Like Wrestling! Oh I'm so gonna have fun. This is gonna be the greatest life ever!" he said, hating all the shit he'd have to wade through to get there. Not like this group had any room to talk though.

Eidolon sounded like he was grimacing behind his mask, which just made everything better, as he intoned "Saving the world is not about fun."

Herb scoffed. "Yeah, look who's talkin' and helpin' destroy it." Eidolon took a step forward, but backed off when Contessa's hand rose, staving him off, the little bitch. "Look guys," he addressed the Cauldron agents. "Could you show me more of the base at least? I mean so far it's nice, clinical, wooo so white. But isn't it supposed to be like, scary and literally, well, I'd like to have more fun. I'd like to see what you got goin' on."

Doctor Mother opened her mouth to speak, brow furrowing, probably to try to tell him off but Contessa beat her to the punch. "In return, you will give us twelve hours warning on the next Endbringer attack." Her fellow agents looked at her in shock, her calm expression betraying nothing.

"Wait. What?" sputtered Eidolon, voice still deep, but sounding like a person instead of a movie trailer.

"Twelve hours?" Herb asked back, considering. Lee probably remembered the exact day, his memory was weird like that, so it shouldn't be that hard. "Sounds fair," he acceded. "Which one?"

The collective stares were turned on him as Contessa clarified, "The next one."

Herb nodded. "Will do, and don't worry, it's not the Simurgh."

Contessa moved towards the door, Herb obviously supposed to follow, so he had to throw out one last tweak. "So, where's your competent member?"

"Alexandria is busy," Eidolon bristled.

Guess I know which one's his fave Herb mused. Prolly 'cause he wants to fuck her, don't see why myself. "Nah, I mean Legend," he clarified. "That bitch dies like a chump,"

"How?" Alexandria's cunt-hair cling-on demanded. No, that's not fair. To Alexandria. That suggests she'd let this pissant prissy motherfucker get that close.

"Like you care," Herb scoffed, practically getting pushed out the door by Contessa.

"My dear, so hands on, and we've barely met," he teased the South American beauty. "So spicy."

"It's the next step," she told him simply, and boy did that kill the mood.

"Just," he started, trying to think of some advice to give her, 'cause she was a good person, just with her power. . . "Don't be so stupid," he told her kindly. She didn't seem to respond, because of course she didn't.

He tried to make small talk as she led him through corridor after corridor. At some point he passed by someone invisible, the power to make mostly insubstantial clones offered up to him. He ignored it to continue makin' on this cutie that he was all alone with, to sadly little effect, but she was obviously one of those chicks who held her emotions close, so he had to just keep trying. After a few identical passages they turned a corner and entered a hallway with glass walls, monstrous looking beings in cells all the way down.

Walking with her, passing by the humans mutated by Eden's power, their powers offering themselves up for his use as he passed. He couldn't help but comment, "So these are your Case 53's, your experiments, your slap at humanity."

"These are people that would have died without our intervention," Contessa countered. "They owe us their lives, and even though they won't remember it, they pay off that debt by helping us help others."

"Admirable," he agreed. From that perspective, he could understand why they were doing it, and even if it was wrong, he knew he wasn't going to be convince her. "I wasn't lying before," he informed her, diverting the conversation. "You are cute. Like, really cute. Hotter than I thought you'd be." He considered her. She made that suit work. Probably had it tailored for maneuverability, but that didn't stop her from looking fine. "Old enough too," he mused to himself, looking at her. She looked back, and was that a hint of challenge in her eyes?

"While you're here, if you could help us with identification, that would be of great importance," she proposed, using her feminine wiles to get him to help her.

Hell, why not. It's amusing when they think they're playing you, he mused, nodding and looking in the nearest cell. Inside was what looked like a humanoid alligator, the power to move instantly through water begging to be used. "Water teleporter," he informed her, moving on as she made a note. "Implants suggestions, but needs to do so through another medium. If she touches other's hair with her own she can control it, all hair, kinky. Shape change, but only through regeneration. Can manipulate electricity, but only above a certain voltage, and needs line of sight. All around vision, but can still see through his eyeballs if he detaches them, prolly why he has so many. Literally feels the pain of others, which has gotta suck. Is made of and can manipulate dust at like thirty feet. Is that dude made of. . . eww. Um, if he covers someone in his. . . substance he can puppet them, but only pre-pubescent boys, because of course. Wonder if he's Catholic. Becomes the element he touches, boring. Grows crystals on what she touches that can explode. Controls internal Parasites. Really? A werewolf chick whose power is proportional to the phases of the moon? Unoriginal much? Makes minions out of the clay he's made of, and can regrow it by eating earth. Is just a person with wings, how is that a real superpower? Eats dreams to gain people's memories. Boar dude gains super momentum when he charges. Slight probability manipulation, so, you know, flight risk. Cat chick releases pheromones that puts mammals into heat, that's gonna get her in trouble. Just straight up is a griffon. Can explode, and reforms an hour later. This dude is just made of cloth. That's it. Ugh, how many more of these are there? Is a humanoid insect. Can breathe poisonous gas, but not like, out, just it doesn't affect him. Heat vision, but it's pretty weak. Creates air, but only when there isn't enough. This asshole makes a field which blocks out sensory powers. She-"

"Subject 2601?" Contessa interrupted, narrowing her eyes. "Yes, that is bad."

"Could you give them names?" he asked, hoping that she'd see why calling them by numbers was a bad thing. "They had names. They were people before you screwed them up. They deserve names."

"They decide their own names upon their release. What is better, a name given to you by your captors, or the name you choose for yourself?"

Herb sighed, "Then how about lettin' em decide now."

Contessa frowned, and even that was cute. "But their memories are erased before they are released. If they remembered that, they'd remember us, and compromise our security."

Herb had to laugh, like that was going to be the thing that compromised them. "You'll learn some other day," he promised her. It was fun playing around with her, but with her damn power, he couldn't be sure if he was talking to Contessa or just what Contessa's Power told her to say, which was a cryin' shame.

"Thank you for your assistance," she told him, bowing her head in thanks.

"Any time you need some ass-istance, I'll be right there for you," he replied with a wink. Even if this was all some power shit, at least he'd enjoy himself. She led him back out, through more identically boring hallways. "We should go out on a date someday," he offered. "I'll treat you nice, we'll go out, with like, flowers, wine, Barry Manilow. Nothing ruins a mood like Barry Manilow."

"We'll see where our Paths take us," She responded, with maybe the hint of a smile.

"It will happen in the future," he promised. "You just don't know it yet. You might see a lot of things, but our love, is just budding." Herb paused, considering his plans. "Not sure how my wife is gonna deal with that though."

"You're married?"

"Not yet, no," he reassured her. "But Purity will marry me."

Contessa's sure steps paused for a second, resuming with no trace of hesitation. "The Neo-Nazi?"

Herb smiled, looking forward to the challenge. "Yeah." Walking next to Contessa, he almost wished her Path to Victory said, 'you must have wild passionate sex with this incredibly handsome man in front of you', but that'd be too easy. The power was right there, waiting to be used. Hell, he could feel it offer a Path to Contessa Falling in Love with You, sixty-eight steps, like it'd been offering suggestions in the back of his head the entire time, but he ignored it. If he was going to do something, he'd be the one fuckin' doin' it damnit.

He figured they were almost back, so he tried for that brass ring, something nice to part on. "If I slapped your ass, would you be mad?" he asked, smiling.

She looked back, and simply said, "No."

"You wouldn't," he groused. Contessa was a good person, but the reliance on the power offered up to him he just didn't get. "That's just stupid. Can you think for yourself? Fine, let's go." He said, opening the door back to the conference room.

In it Eidolon and Doctor Mother stood, Numberman was still tapping away, but on the table was a very large silver suitcase and a bag containing a suit, gauntlets, and holy crap are those what I think they are!

Grabbing the costume and heading to the attached bathroom with a barely repressed squee of glee, he changed into a ballin' supervillain outfit. The dark suit was nice, a tag mentioning how it was bullet and knife resistant, and made of 'smart fibers', whatever the hell those were. The royal purple undershirt was awesome, and the gold tie really brought it together. The clear mask, patterned with scales was really nice, and managed to hide his teeth and features pretty effectively. The gauntlets fit him like, well, a glove, but the shoes, the shoes! He'd never been a sneakerhead, but ever since he'd seen those commercials all those years ago he'd wanted a pair. Laced up and ready to rock, he took a step out, thinking that these Cauldron guys might not be so bad, only for Eidolon to comment, "Are you done being childish?" and for Numberman to still be typing.

Herb sighed, even when he wanted to be nice, he couldn't. "You know I don't know much about you four eyes," he told the geek to end all geeks as he walked towards the conference room door, "Dickcheese over here," he jerked a finger towards the green goblin, "is an ass. Big time ass. A selfish, self-centered-"

"I'm standing right here," Eidolon interrupted, patience obviously at an end. Which made two of us.

"Oh," Herb said, not caring. He could feel the guys power's the catalogue of abilities available to him, and with that much power the world was in trouble? Fuck that guy, and the high horse he rode in on before sticking it up his ass to keep the stick company. "Like I was trying to hide the fact that you're an ass, from the other, smaller ass. I'd offer you toilet paper to wipe your-"

"Door me to Break's previous location," Contessa politely intoned, a portal appearing in the hallway as Eidolon advanced on him. Like he could do anything. Turning his back on the father of the giant fucktards, he saw the portal led to a dark room, an odd purple glow coming from something there. As he neared the Door a hard to see figure stood up, the purple glow coming from a strip down it's arm, levelled at him.

"Stop! Who the fuck are you?" Lee's voice called.

Glad to be rid of these assholes, barring Contessa, Herb stepped through the portal, telling his bro "Dude, it's me! Look at this baller costume! And check this out! Adidas Superstars!" Holding up his foot to show off their magnificence, and seeing the uncomprehending look on Lee's face, he explained "I've always wanted a pair!"

Lee obviously still didn't understand, but he was happy that Herb was happy, which was sweet. "Your case," he heard Eidolon call from behind him.

Turning around, mildly distracted, he asked, "What?"

"Your vials you idiot," the moronic master who couldn't even use his powers correctly called back.

"Oh right!" Herb told him, his own happy tone underlying how much of a soppin' wet pussy rag he knew Eidolon was. Contessa, the darling, tossed Herb the case, her throw perfect, of course, passing right through the portal, the weight of the thing surprising him as he stumbled. Lee, jumpy as he was, and the day we'd had Herb couldn't really blame him, dropped something on his arm, and Herb barely had enough time to notice it was a knife as it blurred into a blurred streak, passing right by him. Glancing over his shoulder he saw a steak-knife buried to the hilt in the green blunder's shoulder, the don't-care-bear going down like a bitch.

The look on Contessa's face though, was priceless. The shock, fear, and general dumping of her ass out of her bubble was delicious as she cried "WHAT? That wasn't supposed to happen!"

"Clairvoyant, who else is there?" Doctor Mother snapped, having completely lost control of the situation, something she better get used to. If Herb knew Lee would make things this fun, he would've brought him to the meeting in the first place.

Another voice, a new one, weak, like from lack of use, called back "There isn't anyone else in there just. . . Chinese?"

"Doormaker, close the damn door!" the woman in charge practically shrieked as she lost control of a situation she never had in the first place, the portal closing to nothing.

Herb stared at me friend, a wide-ass smile on my face. Shit like this is why he loved him. Lee probably had some complex plan to handle all sorts of shit, but in the end almost killed Eidolon and scared the crap out of Cauldron. Good man.

His best friend stared back, panic and embarrassment written across his face, wooden spoon held at the ready on some weird ass probably super inventive use of powers. "Um. Oops?"

 

[Leecifer]

Spoiler 5.1

Returning home from my. . . less than optimal outing as Boardwalk, I found Herb still training with Boojack, figuring out low-altitude three-dimensional movement. He and his Stand were jumping back and forth, trying hit and run tactics on BJ and his Stand, Jackhammer, Herb getting out of range of his Stand and unable to double-jump, inadvertently body slammed a train car.

Only stopping for a second to patch them up, I headed straight for a computer to try and see if I could find information on Æonic. ParaHumans Online only provided a couple threads on him, but nothing certain could be gleaned. Opinion on the cape was mixed, as he apparently had taken to saving people from bomb blasts by freezing time in a bubble and moving everyone around.

He then would hand out cards with his number in case they wanted to join his supervillain gang.

It was confusing a lot of people to say the least. Thinking about it, that's probably what hit me while I scouted out the base, though he must've had at least a twenty-five-foot range to get me stuck in time from his was at the front door. If he had found me, I would have been defenseless.

I growled in annoyance, time-based powers were such bullshit. He apparently wore a Victorian suit and had a clock for a head. I hoped they meant as a helmet, but this was Worm, so who knew. Making a note to snipe anyone I fought if they wore a suit and vest combo, I closed the window before heading to a different part of the trainyard, switching to my Vejovis costume, setting up my gun firing contraption, and settling in for a night of tanking pistol rounds while trying to get through the base manual.

The only thing I found that was useful was the section on how to use the base's kitchen. The drawer under the oven was a warming drawer, instead of just storage, apparently. I was tempted to use my sword while getting shot, but if I accidentally drained my shields while getting shot in the chest, well, I'd probably be okay, but there was no need to risk it.

Some time before dawn, both of my shields were about ready to split, at the stage the first one was earlier that week. Intrigued, I tried to focus on holding one together as I alternated shots, a mental sensation to trying to hold, not quite water, but that slimy toy stuff. Gak? Gooze? Something like that.

As my shields grew in strength, straining, the one I was ignoring split into two, both stronger than when I'd first started, but not by much. The one I held onto though, that one grew in power, strengthening, straining, and as I brought it to the front, taking hit after hit, I got the sense of crystallization as it settled, stronger, tougher, better.

Turning to take the shots on one of my new shields, I tried to focus on this new development. Moving the crystalline was a ponderous affair, easily taking several times longer than before, and equivalently more focus, but it was doable. Moving back to take hits on it, I blocked a bullet, only for the shield to remain untouched. Frowning, I took another, then another. Finally walking up to the pistol, I took it out of the device, and emptied the remaining magazine into the crystallized shield on my right hand, one shot after another, until it clicked empty.

Grabbing another of the magazines I'd had my insects load, I laid a Speed Zone down the gun barrel, taking aim and firing. Still nothing. Another Zone was laid down. Nothing. A third. Nada. A Fourth? That did it, the sensation of the shield cracking and shattering.

I had a moment of doubt. Did I just break it, like, for good?

But, a couple seconds later, I could feel it starting to reform. It took longer than the other, more malleable shields I had, but once it restructured, it felt measurably stronger, tighter built, more settled. Shooting it again it shattered, but not as completely. Over the course of the next hour the rebuilding time shrank by ten seconds, until my enhanced bullets weren't enough.

Layering a fifth layer, what my earlier calculations indicated would have been equivalent to a fifty caliber Anti-material round, I shot once, having to grip tightly to not have the pistol tear itself out of my hand.

The shield shattered, taking five minutes to rebuild itself, still with that feeling of incremental improvement. I wasn't sure if I was relieved or impressed that it took that level of firepower to drain my shield, though with that amount of recharge time, the actual threshold where I could take shots without it draining was far, far less. The Speed Zones weren't quite exponential, but they were close enough that the difference between four and five layers of enhancement meant I'd probably have to either try a lot of different guns, or a whole lot of math to maximize the training time. Shrugging, I shifted it to protect my head, resuming practice getting shot, which just sounded wrong.

Continuing on until dawn had fully broke, I'd made some more progress, but I just felt drained. Half a pot of coffee and some breakfast helped, and now I had a forcefield I could designate for my sword alone, so overall a win. As I got ready to go back at it my phone rang the chorus to 'You're Gonna Go Far, Kid'. "Is it your girlfriend?" Herb asked from his place at the table.

"It's Taylor, and Panacea isn't my girlfriend. She's underage!" I shot back as I took it out of my pocket.

"Right, your mistress," he nodded.

"Fucking how does that work?" I demanded as it rang again.

He grinned. "Well, she's the villain, so she's obviously the mis-"

I shut him up as I dropped a silence bubble on his head with a snap of my fingers. He grinned wider as I answered the phone. "Hey Taylor, what's up?"

"Hi, um, I'm feeling better, and the. . . my other friends told me what happened," she responded before hesitating. "You said that if I needed training, I just needed to ask." She paused, waiting. I waited as well. If she wanted something, she needed to learn to go for it. "This. This is me asking."

I smiled, voice warm, "Then we'll train. How well healed are you?"

"I'm fine," she responded far too quickly.

"Not what I asked," I rebuked gently. "Are you completely uninjured, sore as if from overexertion, sore from bruising, or does just lying down and not doing anything still hurt? We're going to train no matter what, but I need to know exactly how we're going to train."

"Oh," she muttered. "Bruised, I guess."

I nodded in thought. "Okay, we'll do it tomorrow. If you could meet me at the abandoned northern ferry station at dawn tomorrow, we'll begin your training." She started to object but I cut her off, "In the meantime I want you to move around and see if you're still hurt, but haven't noticed it yet. I want you to think about your power, and all the uses of it you can think of, get a notebook or something if that will help. Don't worry about testing, we'll do that tomorrow. Most of all I want you to practice emoting. Put on your mask and practice displaying emotions in the mirror."

"But, why?" she complained.

"Because I have a couple techniques I can help you learn, but you need to be able to display emotions if you want people to think you're a hero, Taylor. Armsdick can get away with it because he already has fame and public opinion behind him, but if you want people to like you and think of you as something other than someone to be wary of, you need to be human, and that means displaying emotion." I emphasized.

"But. . . I'll feel silly," she groused.

I let that statement hang for a moment. "Taylor, I fly around in a skintight outfit, you think I don't feel silly sometimes. I'd rather go with armor, full kit, enclosed helmet, and at least three different weapons, but I have to settle for a single utility belt, because that's what people want to see." She mumbled something that the phone didn't quite pick up. "What?"

"Nothing!" she squeaked.

It had sounded like something, and her response further indicated that, but I let it go. "Right, do those three things, and I'll see you tomorrow morning for training. Okay?"

"Okay," she responded, sounding a little disappointed, probably because I didn't drop everything to go help her train right this moment. Still a teenager, I reminded myself.

Hanging up, I looked over at Herb, who had moved to hear the conversation, but hadn't said a word. Dispelling the now useless bubble of silence I gave him an expectant look. "So, are you still gonna go heal with Panacea tomorrow?" he asked.

I looked back in confusion. "Yeah, I'll train with Taylor for a few hours, and give her something to work on while I go help heal people. I scheduled it specifically so I could do both."

He nodded sagely. "Right, don't want the wife to know you're cheatin' on her with some villainess, good idea."

Whelp, I walked into that. Taking the high road, I flicked him off and walked out the door.

<AB>​

After a bit more flight practice, buzzing rooftops and only running into one, I landed at the hospital early. I refused to heal anyone until Panacea showed up, but casual inquiry revealed that there were a few people with superficial but disfiguring injuries recuperating. Taking a minute to check with Quinn that it would be covered by my agreement with the hospital, charging an hour's worth of pay per patient, I promptly did the rounds, fixing burns, scars, and other skin-deep injuries to kill time. I refused to do vanity adjustments on principal, though I did give out my Lawyer's number if they were interested in paying for such things instead of having the taxpayer do so. I'd finished, and was twiddling my thumbs, having to point out to one insistent young man that everything he was badgering me to do I could do the opposite of and may be inclined to do so if he continued to harass me.

It was there that Panacea found me, walking in and giving me a questioning look. "What?" I asked, standing up.

"Why am I hearing about you doing plastic surgery?" she asked slowly.

I shrugged. "I was bored and it's the one thing I can do without your help. It was mostly things that'd scar pretty badly, and was covered by the fund. You ready for another day of healing?"

She looked like she wanted to say something, but stopped herself, nodding and walking past me to the circuit the medical staff had set up. Things progressed pretty well after that. Apparently, Oni Lee had gotten a hold of four of Bakuda's grenades and had been using them to great, or horrible, effect. Burned by fire, cold, electricity, and acid, those that weren't outright killed we were able to save, working through last night's backlog for hours until we were down to the trickle coming in from the still constant low-level bombing. When we'd not had anyone that needed our specific level of help for an hour, I convinced her to hit up the oncology ward, Panacea's walking of me through the process hopefully helping alleviate the boredom I knew she felt dealing with that particular malady.

We finished our shift, had a nice dinner, though several times she started to say something, expression serious, before she stopped herself. I wanted to ask what she wanted to say, but we had time, and it was probably best if she came to it herself. At least I could wait until after the bombings were over and the general tension pervading the city had relaxed. I was about to leave when she said, "Wait."

Landing I looked at her expectantly. She stood in front of her house, visibly struggling with herself, and after a minute she steeled herself, and inquired, "Why haven't you asked?" I looked at her, waiting for her to expand on that. "What happened that night, with Vicky, you haven't said anything about that. Not even once!"

I responded simply, somewhat perplexed, "Because you asked me not to?" I thought it was obvious, really, but apparently not. "You know I'm willing to help if you need it, and the situation isn't spiraling out of your control anymore, so if you don't want to talk about it for a few weeks. . ." I shrugged. "Okay."

She looked at me uncomprehending, and I sighed. "Panacea, you are one of the few people who I respect. If you tell me something, especially in private, I'll assume you're being honest. I hate those 'I said one thing, but I really meant something entirely different, and it's your fault that I wasn't honest, that I didn't have the spine to say what I really meant, and you didn't somehow read my mind' people. It's a coward's tactic where someone wants to get what they want without having to take responsibility for wanting it, and they keep the option open to change their mind retroactively to claim they never wanted it, because they didn't technically ask for it, and if it turns out worse than they expected, they can blame the person who gave them what they originally wanted."

Grimacing at the overlong explanation I'd just delivered, I apologized. "Sorry, but I can't stand that shit. Too many of my problems have come from people needlessly lying to protect their own fragile egos and delusions. So, you asked me not to talk about it, so I assumed you needed time to figure things out yourself and trusted you to come to me when you did want to talk about it. Was I wrong?"

"No," was her immediate reply. "It's just, I kept expecting you to, and you didn't so. . ."

"So you were wondering why I hadn't," I smirked. "You should know by now, I'm not like most people Panacea." I paused. "Wow, that sounded arrogant, but you know what I mean. I'm not normal, never have been, though if I were the norm things might be a lot better, which I know is arrogant as all hell, but not exactly wrong. I'm not normal, so general social expectations don't really apply consistently. Honestly, due to the nature of powers, let alone the Triggering process, I'd be surprised to find that more than half of parahumans are what people consider 'normal.' You're not, I'm not, Glory Girl seems to be, but I don't know her well enough to make that call. Brandish sure as hell isn't, your adopted father is depressed enough that he isn't, though without that he might be, and the . . . intel I received didn't really cover your Aunt's family, so I've got nothing there." I shrugged.

She looked a little lost. "But, isn't being normal a good thing?"

I snorted, "Yeah, says the normal people. Seriously though, it's through our differences that we tend to push boundaries and find out what's best in every sense. Honestly, I could talk for an hour about that, but it's late, and you need to head to bed. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

She nodded, giving a soft, "Thanks, see you," before heading inside. Looking over I could see Glory Girl staring at me from the second story window, though she closed the curtain when I waved at her. Shaking my head, I took off, headed for home.

<AB>​

Settling in, I considered Taylor's training tomorrow. I wanted to believe that she'd do what I'd asked, but there was a good chance she wouldn't. Either way, if I was going to teach her how to make bug clones and speak through them, I needed to figure out how to do it myself. After a pass over the trainyard to grab a swarm, I settled in and tried to recreate arguable the most inhuman use of power she displayed in canon.

Bug clones, or at least the rough version, took three hours, a quarter of that was spent looking at videos of army and fire ants to figure out the intricacies of making bug structures without crushing the ones at the bottom. Getting those with wings to provide lift helped as well, but coordinating the entire thing gave me a bit of a headache, both creating and looking through their eyes requiring my utmost attention. It got easier as I practiced, but the stress of trying to control that many at once, even in just a general sense, not directly puppeting them, still hurt to try to manage.

Relaxing my control, and getting a snack, I attempted my second task, swarm communication. Playing around with the noises my swarm could make, I was able to raise and lower the sound, and took separate insects, making them make all the noises they could. Eventually I compiled what I got into a mental library of sounds I could attempt.

Experimenting, seated so I could focus, I was able to create somewhat recognizable sounds, but trying to make actual speech was well beyond my capabilities. The muddled mess was only understandable to me because I already knew what I was trying to get the swarm to say. With a pounding migraine, and dawn an hour away, I stopped there, letting the swarm disperse, sending them all back to where I'd gathered them.

As I got up, body feeling heavy, I thought about the other way that Taylor had used her power, the technique that had truly made her Skitter, the unfeeling villainess that would do anything to achieve victory. It was a trick I was probably never going to teach her. Connecting to the insects around me, I hesitated before I dumped the pain, the anger, the frustration, every single negative feeling I had out into the ambient swarm. The emotions drained out of me, agitating the insects but leaving me feeling an almost supernatural sense of calm and peace.

As fast as I could I reversed the process, taking them back into me, shivering and feeling wrong. That, that, had been dangerously easy. An easy out to any negative overwhelming emotion I might feel, but it wasn't me, wasn't right, on a deep and visceral level. As much as I hated feeling that way, negative emotions had a source, and it was by the presence of those emotions that I could identify the source, and deal with that shit. This was the reason I'd never really liked harder drugs, or even excessive use of the softer ones.

Keeping yourself from feeling for longer than just the duration of an emergency or a single night was playing with fire, the longer you didn't feel, the harder it was to go back. I'd flirted with that before when I was younger, but it was an evil, a sweet poison that killed those who indulged, slowly and by degrees until who they were before was dead. Realizing exactly what the effect was, and looking at Taylor's actions in canon, paired with this ability to outright get rid of unwanted emotions, her decisions suddenly made a disturbing amount of sense. After a quick shower, I headed off to the meeting site. Hopefully, with my support, not only would Taylor never be Khepri, but she'd also never truly become Skitter either.

 

[Leecifer]

Spoiler 5.2

The fact that Taylor was early really shouldn't have surprised me, I was giving her training after all. Opening my Bug Sense I immediately pinged off of her network, following the threads of power to where she was hiding in an alley. Dropping down into it, I saw her looking back, expression relieved and nervous. She was in exercise clothes, the bulging backpack she picked up probably containing her costume. "You're early," I commented, turning my back to her. "Change into your costume and we'll head to where we're training."

"Right here?" she sputtered, confusion and embarrassment coloring her voice.

I looked through the bug on either end of the alley. At this hour, and in ABB territory, even if only a few blocks in, no one was around. "Unless you want people to see Vejovis flying about with Taylor Hebert, yes. If you want to go public, I'll support you, but I'd assumed that you wanted to keep your identity a secret."

"Right," she rebuked herself, needlessly commanding "Don't look," as I heard the backpack's zipper and the rustling of cloth and silk. A few moments later she announced, "I'm done." Turning back, she continued, in costume, "Okay, let's go get training!" raising a fist in determination a half second after she finished her declaration. It looked awkward, and a bit forced, but was still better than she'd been earlier.

I smiled, offering my hand. "You've been practicing displaying emotions, good."

She took it, responding, "You said I needed to do it, and you wouldn't show me some stuff if I didn't."

Lifting off, taking a slightly wavering flight path to conceal our destination, we headed towards the area I'd cleared, along with some supplies we might need. "I know, but I can still be happy you did so. I assume Grue still gave you the basics of street boxing this time around?"

"Yeah, but he's a lot better than I am. I'm not sure I'll ever be as good as he is," she professed, making no motions other than talking.

"Nod when you agree with something, and shake your head if you disagree," I instructed, coming in sight of our landing. "And if you're unsure about something, shrug. If you can add hand gestures without affecting what you're doing, do so. And you'll never be able to beat him in an unpowered boxing match, but by the time you're fully trained, you will be able to beat him in hand to hand."

She looked at me in surprise as we landed, obviously wanting to question that, but holding her tongue. "So," I gestured towards our section of trainyard as I enclosed us in a sound bubble, "This is where you'll be training until I can find something better. We'd be doing it at our base, but Herb has a 'no bugs' policy, and it's technically his place, so that rules out training there. Now-"

"You're the railyard wrecker!" she exclaimed, completely derailing my speech.

I blinked, "I'm sorry, what?"

She gestured to the trainyard, "For the past week something has been tearing up the railyard at night. PHO has a thread on it. They've found piles of spent ammo and bullets smushed flat, but no one's heard a shot. People have seen things moving, and a couple days ago something wrecked a train car with enough force to smash it into scrap, and everyone heard it, but it was the only time they heard something." At my look she paused, before shrugging, "I've been at home, and bored, what did you expect me to do? That was you, right?"

"Most of it," I admitted. "The shapes might've been Break and Enter, but most of it's probably me."

"But how did you destroy that train car, are you that strong? And how'd you keep people from hearing the gunshots?" she queried, confused.

We were completely sidetracked by this point, so I asked instead, "Do you want to talk about this, or do you want me to start training you?"

She started to say something, before stopping herself, considering. "If I ask, will you still train me?"

"Yeah," I nodded, "But we'll have less time. We need to stop before ten, since I'm working at Good Samaritan healing people injured by the bombs. That and of course, I don't want you to share what I tell you, as if the wrong people knew things could get. . . bad. But I won't lie to you, and if I can answer, I will."

"Then I want to know," she declared. "How did you do that?"

"Like this," I told her, pulling out the pistol from the pouch at my back, dropping a sound bubble over it and firing it twice at a train car forty feet away, dropping a sound bubble over that as well between shots.

Holstering my weapon and dismissing the bubbles I was about to explain it as a secondary power, which was technically true, when she beat me to the punch, excitedly declaring, "You're a power copier!"

I froze, and I felt a spike of fear from her as I did so, her words coming out in a torrent, "I'm sorry, it's just that no-one's supposed to have more than three powers, and you already do, and that looked like, sounded like, sound control, or maybe something to do with air pressure, and Lisa told me about how you stopped them from getting killed by glass that night, and about how you said your powers weren't what they looked like, and about how you probably stopped us from getting hit in the bank too, even though you still got hit, which she said means you're limited in use, but that means you have to have at least four, which everyone online says you can't, but if you could copy other powers then you'd only have one, and that would explain why you have my power, because even when people have similar powers they never have the same power and I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything!!!"

Well, I knew she was smart, I chided myself, pissed that I'd slipped up and given her more than I was ready to at this time. It's the reason, okay, the third reason, I recruited her. I walked over to her, and she froze, terrified. "Taylor," I said gently. "Why are you scared?"

"I just guessed your secret, and then you went all cold, and you looked angry. Aren't you upset? Y-you feel upset!" she stammered.

"Taylor," I tried again. "I'm not upset with you. You're smart, it's one of the reasons I recruited you, I just didn't want to let that particular cat out of the bag just yet, even to my teammates. Yes, I can copy powers, not all of them, and if I want to do anything other than monkey see, monkey do level repetition I need to train and experiment on my own. I don't want people to know because if they think they know what Vejovis's powers are, they'll plan on how to counter them, and if things get bad I can bust out an extra power and play it off like I was hiding my true power the entire time. Also, people with powers tend to get a bit prissy when you copy theirs."

"I don't mind!" she protested. "Wait, you said Vejovis. Does that mean you have more than one identity? Are you Æonic?" she pressed, now that she knew I wasn't going to react badly and, I don't know, kick her from the team or something.

I shook my head, "No, I don't have any time-based powers. Yet. Why did you think that?"

She shrugged. "Well, he saves people and then gives them a business card." She dug into one of her belt pouches, taking out the card I'd given her. "Seems like something you'd do." She looked at me, pausing before bringing up a hand to point accusingly. "If you aren't Æonic, who are you?"

I took a breath, shifting my costume, my domino mask growing as the material around my collar extended up to cover my head, darkening as it did so. Shifting mindsets, I puffed my chest out a little, crooked my arms and legs a little, and shifted my balance so I was leaning slightly to one side. Giving that chin-jerk, I roughened my voice as I said, with the hint of a sneer, "Hey Bug Chick, name's Boardwalk. You one of those goody-two shoes bitches, or do you actually get shit done like me?"

She staggered back. "What the hell, you, you changed!"

I dropped the persona, straightening up again. "Well, yeah, it'd be a poor disguise if I was identifiable."

She walked closer, shaking her head as she looked me over. "No, I mean, you kept your, my power on when you did that, and you changed, like you felt like a completely different person!"

"Just refer to it as my power, not yours, it'll keep you from slipping up in the field. And, um, yes?" I more asked than said, not getting her confusion. "Boardwalk is a mental construct that I built to slip into for things I can't have Vejovis linked to. Vejovis will try to recruit Boardwalk, and while they will work together, he'll never join, his dislike of authority enough that he'll balk even if Vejovis seems on the up and up, or will until I no longer have need of a deniable asset." I didn't really understand what the big deal was. "It's just acting. Both my parents were professional actors, and I spent a lot of time in the theatre. It's not that hard, people do it all the time, I just do it on purpose, and with more skill than most, though I'll admit that might just be hubris."

"But then," she started, debating with herself, "Which one is you? Have I been talking to you, or just you playing a part?" The unsurety and vulnerability in her voice and over the connection was borderline painful.

I dismissed my mask, pulling back my hood as I looked her in the eye, putting my hands on her shoulders. "Taylor, they're both me, just different facets with different traits exaggerated. Vejovis is me with my more traditionally heroic traits turned up, more likely to work within the system and lead from the front. Boardwalk is me with my more, to be a bit crude, 'fuck the police' traits turned up. He's the borderline vigilante who's pissed that he's the one that has to bust his ass to go shut down the, ahem, 'motherfuckers fuckin' up the streets, struttin' around like they own it, 'cause the police ain't doin' shit', or something to that effect." I paused, trying to find the correct words.

"Think of how I act when it's just people I respect, like when we were eating the take-out from Fugly Bob's, versus in public when we were in the restaurant ordering said food. One was me, Lee, just relaxing with friends, the other was Vejovis, putting on a show of casual heroics, humanizing our superhero identities in a way that the Protectorate would never bother with, possibly because they actually think they're better than everyone else. I don't lie to people I respect, though I also expect them not to lie to me in return. You are my friend, don't doubt that, ever."

She gave me a hesitant nod, her emotions an utter mess over the connection. I took a step back, shifting to jeans and a t-shirt, giving her a moment to collect herself before I continued and gave her something to focus on. "You were right, I nabbed Cricket's sound control, which is what lets me silence things. I also have Stormtiger's air control, and dear god is that guy a failure when it comes to living up to his potential."

"How?" she asked, voice still strained, but I didn't comment on it.

"Well, you've probably read up how he has 'air claws', right?" I prompted, waiting for her nod before continuing. Turning to a nearby train car I demonstrated, using the motion that I copied, sending out three unstable ribbons which cut into the car with a loud tearing sound before exploding as the destabilized.

She jumped, looking around, "Should you be that loud?"

I looked back, grinning. "Why should I be worried?"

"Someone will've. . ." She trailed off, thinking. "You've silenced us, haven't you, like you did your gun?"

I nodded. "Exactly, if you go more than fifty feet in any direction you'll pass the barrier. Sounds can get in, but not escape, so look at this damage. Nasty right?" She looked at it, gulping, and nodded.

I couldn't help but grin as I gave into the urge to show off. "Come stand behind me," I instructed, sitting down on a thin sheet of hardened air. She stared for a second as I sat on nothing before coming to stand right behind me, looking over my head at the train car. Reaching over I had her put her hands on my shoulders, explaining, "I need to know exactly where you are. This is a work in progress." Covering her with one of my shields, just in case I completely screwed this up, I started manifesting blades in front of me and to my sides, one after another, until the air practically shimmered. I could feel her look at them through the changing pressure on my shoulders and the feedback my shield provided, but she kept her hands planted. "By your command," I quipped.

"What?" she asked, distracted.

"Say fire when ready," I dictated.

"Oh. Fire?" she asked.

I hmmfed. "Say it like you're the captain of a starship, about to unleash hell upon your opponents. Come on, have fun with it," I teased.

She gathered herself before imperiously ordering "Fire!"

As one I shoved the blades forward and into the damaged traincar, forcing them through steel, detonating them in explosive blasts of wind, the structuring tearing and cracking as the cuts were forced open and pieces were propelled in every direction, large chunks of metal skidding past us as I deflected them around us and the pile of supplies I'd set up. After half a minute all that was left was cut up scrap, torn and scattered in every direction. "Holy fuck," she quailed, gazing upon my handiwork. "Stormtiger could do that!?"

I laughed, pleased by her reaction. Holding back all the time was annoying, and having an audience to play to was highly amusing. I could see why so many capes went full theatrical, but you never went full theatrical. There was a great difference between the stage and the battlefield; 'all the world's a stage' being one of those sophistic statements which got misapplied all the time. "If he wasn't such a dumbass, yeah. But then again, if he wasn't such a dumbass, he wouldn't have teamed up with literal Nazis."

I stood up, hand Lighting, as I used my air control to replicate crude telekinesis, gathering the scrap up into one large pile. It was inefficient, and noisy as all hell as I kept dropping pieces, but it did the job. "But having giant piles of cut up scrap is a bit of a tell for powers that I'm not supposed to have, so blasting it to an indistinct mess with Purity's power is required." A few blasts of Light later, using sound control to provide hearing protection for both of us, the pile of cut scrap was a crushed together mass, parts of it glowing orange from the heat generated by the repeated tearing and crushing.

Taylor stared dumbly at the result as I led her over to a cleared off portion of ground. "You need a moment?" She shook her head, focusing on me, and I moved forward with the lesson. "So, hand to hand speech, female version. People like to say men and women are equal, or that they are the same. On a mental field, nature versus nurture muddies everything, as well as psychology being more art than science, the brain being the device which modifies itself, but the nature of sentient beings to self-improve means that it's probably possible, though usually not true in the current western setup. On a physical level though, they are different, and saying anything else is not only a bold-faced lie it's a downright dangerous one."

Looking her in the eye, I stated with conviction, "Women are physically weaker than men, full stop. One of the world's strongest unpowered woman went to a bar and arm-wrestled the regular joes there and lost, hard. Yes, the strongest women are stronger than the weakest men, but she's not going to be fighting the weakest men, and mistaking a technically true theoretical for commonplace reality is a good way to get killed. Some people will tout women as having higher stamina but not only does that not matter in combat, since most fights never last more than a minute, but if you had an average man holding back to using the same amount of force as an average woman going as hard as she could, they'd be at best even, at worst he'd still last longer."

"With this in mind, straight up power techniques are not going to help you at all, and while teaching you the basics of fighting was good, Grure was teaching you to fight like a man, which wouldn't help you in the long run. Honestly, if he got a spine, Greg Veder could kick your ass in a fair fight. With that being said, he doesn't, and you should avoid those kinds of fights if you can. To quote, honestly I don't remember, 'If you're in a fair fight, someone fucked up'."

I started pacing. "Don't block when you can dodge, don't grab when you can strike, and always, always, be aware what happens if you lose. If it's a friendly spar, there's a certain threshold you shouldn't pass. If you'll get captured, but your opponents are honorable, there's a certain threshold you shouldn't pass. If you're fighting, and the price of failure is torture, rape, and/or death, there is no threshold you shouldn't pass. Serious, do or die fighting isn't romantic, it isn't heroic, it's dirty, and risky, and if you can avoid it, by all means do so, unless the consequences for doing so are worse."

Shaking my head, I told her, "If you've heard about how 'you learn to fight so you don't have to', that's because once you understand what is actually involved in fighting, you'll understand what's on the line, but also why that's only kind of true, but that's philosophical ground we don't have time to tread today, and we need to focus on the basics. You are no stronger or tougher than the average human, and while I have plans to rectify that, that's at least six months in the works, and a whole lotta shit is going to hit the fan before then. Your competence in fighting will be from your speed and flexibility, not your strength and durability. Take out your baton."

She stared at me for a second before shaking herself, taking out her weapon, extending it. "Now, weak points, regular fights you'll go for the nose, temple, back of the head, chin, kidney, and ribs. Wrists if you want them to drop something, though that's getting into the realm of trick shots, and back or sides of the knees if you want them to go down, but with your height you'll have to drop down to hit that unless you're fighting someone really big, in which case you're already at a massive disadvantage. If you're in a serious fight, add in eyes and throat, but blinding or killing someone should only be done if they would do the same to you."

"Not the chest?" she asked. "or the groin?"

I shook my head. "Punching verses swinging gives different avenues of attack, and the solar plexus is one of the targets that you can hit easily in a straight on thrust, but if you're swinging and dodging you'll want targets you can get the most leverage on, or strike at when your opponent's not directly squared up in front of you. As for Groin, you run into the Women's Magazine problem."

"What's that?" she asked hesitantly.

"There's a sizable percentage of the female population that believes they're smarter than men, and thus tell each other things about men without ever actually checking with one, or if they do it's usually with a man that wants to sleep with them, so the man agrees to whatever stupid thing they come up with to try and get into the woman's pants. Fifty years ago, you had a similar problem on the other side of the gender divide, with some men thinking women were lesser and inferior, and certain things were 'women's work' and below the attention of the 'superior sex', but with time, while the misogynistic population were rightly judged for their bullshit and shrank, the misandristic population was given a pass and grew. Hell, most people don't even think misandrist is even a word, while almost everyone knows what a misogynist is. That's why you get those '20 things that'll drive men wild' articles, which if you actually read, make you wonder if the writer has ever talked to a man. "

"Now, you're probably wondering what this has to do with fighting?" I asked, but instead of nodding, Taylor just looked thoughtful, so I pressed on. "Because of this you get a lot of 'common knowledge' things that a sizable portion of women take as gospel, but are actually either completely baseless, or only true a small percent of the time. Groin shots are one of those things. The average guy will probably fold, but unless the guy has a pair big enough to be its own power, it's a harder target to hit then you'd think. Most of the times it does get hit by women, the man doesn't even know he's in combat, and thus isn't prepared for the pain, which presents all sorts of moral problems, and makes those 'victories' less than useless for telling other women how to handle actual combat scenarios."

"Thing is, you're not going to be fighting office workers, at best you'll be fighting thugs, at worst monsters in questionably human form," I warned. "These are the sorts of people who live combat, so they'll never truly let their guard down if they even suspect you're a threat. They'll be able to shrug it off, and while they might be hurt, they'll stop playing around. Capes seem to love the theatre of their own importance, playing with their foes if they think they're winning, and while that gives you time to formulate a strategy to take them down, it's a time you only have because they let you have it. Hitting there is a dishonorable move, as you are essentially attacking them in a sexual manner, even if you don't see it that way, and they don't consciously think of it that way."

"Because of that," I stressed, "unless you're ready to incapacitate or kill them in the next few seconds, if you don't know that strike will work, don't try it. It gets mentioned by military training because their objective is to kill, but as a hero you're held to different standards."

I tried to think of a suitable comparison. "Imagine you were in a fight with L33t and he tried to take you down by trying to shove his fist down there." She shuddered as I felt her sick horror over the connection of our shared power. "Yeah, that sense of disgust and violation, how you'd think of him for doing that, that's generally what guys feel about getting struck in the groin. They don't display it because they've been trained practically since birth not to, and to not think that badly of women in general, usually to the point that it never hits the level of conscious thought, and that's not even touching all the programming they get about never showing weakness from both genders, so they laugh at the pain instead, or just get uncomfortable for reasons they find hard to put into words. If the alternative is torture, rape, or death, then of course, go for it, but by that point you should be ready to kill them. Because by even attempting that, you've now escalated the fight to the point someone that'd let you go is now going to make you pay."

I took a few steps away from her. "With that lovely topic out of the way, temple, nose, chin, eyes, throat, back of the head, ribs, kidneys, and back of the knees. I want you to try to avoid my strikes while trying to hit me in turn. I'm protected by Glory Girl's forcefields, so you won't hurt me, and I'll keep my strength to human levels while starting slow. It'll take a serious hit to drop them, so don't worry. Ready?"

She nodded, taking a position with her Baton as I started walking towards her. She didn't move as I approached, and she ducked out of the way as I swung a lazy punch for her head. I took another swing and she dodged again, staying out of my reach. Is she doing that stupid thing, I pondered as a third blow was dodged with no counter, reminded of a female friend of mine who wanted to spar, wanted to learn how to fight, but never would attack, turning the entire thing into a protracted dodging exercise. She never gave me anything other than a silly 'I don't want to hurt you' BS excuse, despite the entire point was to learn so she could handle herself against someone she did want to hurt. Taking another swing, overextending myself, my fears were put to rest as Taylor ducked under my arm, baton striking my ribs enough that it might smart if it'd gotten through, only for her to spin, a second blow to the back of the head, hard enough that it might have dropped my regular shields as she put her entire body into the blow, the crystalline barrier holding firm.

I spun on my heel, smiling, leg up in a kick, but she pushed herself backwards and missed it by inches. "Good!" I beamed. "Now let's see how fast you can go!" I called to her, upping my speed as she dodged, on the edge of panic, but keeping it under control as she hit me in the back, putting her entire body into the blow, draining one of my shields as she did so, but unable to dodge my follow up, taking the strike, but moving with it, hitting the ground but lashing out with a vicious kick at my knee, which I dodged, laughing.

<AB>
​

An hour later I called our spar over, Taylor collapsing with an, "Ohthankgod. I think my bruises have bruises!"

I smiled as I walked over to the supplies, grabbing the cooler and carrying it over. Sitting down on air, I popped it open, handing her a bottle of water and a fried egg and bacon sandwich as she removed her mask. She gulped down the water greedily before tearing into lunch. Looking at her, I saw a couple of bruises forming on her face, and internally winced. I'd known we'd been going pretty hard as we progressed, but I was glad that I was a healer.

"You want me to patch you up?" I offered. She touched her jaw, where she'd almost dodged an elbow, and winced before nodded. As I leaned over and reached for her face she leaned back, confused and wary. "Taylor, I need skin contact and your gloves aren't made to come off easily. I'll either need to touch your face, or you'll need to take off your costume if you want me to heal you."

She froze, before nodding to herself, "Panacea's power, right." Closing her eyes she leant towards me, and I had to move my hand so I didn't accidentally poke her in the eye. Giving her the "Get Better" treatment she sighed as the bruises on her face shifted colors and disappeared, her hesitance disappearing into a cat-like contentment. After a minute I pulled my hand back, and she started to lean to follow before pulling herself back, blinking and turning back to her sandwich. "That. That was good. Thanks."

I shrugged. "I probably should've started with that, so you could spar in top condition. We went a bit harder than you really should normally, but I'm a healer and going that intense helps you pick things up faster. You've gone from, 'can probably take down a thug' to 'can take down your average streetfighter'," I guessed, my experience spotty from trying to avoid such people in my old life, mostly successfully. "Anyone with serious training could take you down if they took you seriously from the start, but most Villains don't. Don't try hand to hand with anyone who has a Brute rating though, stay the hell away from them and use your powers. Well, more than you already were."

"What do you mean?" she asked innocently.

I grabbed control of the bugs she'd stuck to my arms and legs, flying them over to dance in a circle around her bottle. She dismissed them, blushing. "This is why your power pushes you to conflict," I explained, "because through it you come up with things like that. You did last time around, but it was farther down the road. It took you twenty minutes, but you started inventing new techniques to keep up with, which lets us skip that lesson."

"You kept getting faster as we fought," she interjected. "I thought I had you, then you'd spin or dodge or something and it was like I was back to where I started. How fast are you?"

Biting back a snarky comment equating to 'faster than you', I instead offered her a hand up. Taking it, I pulled her up, grabbing her bottle and resting it on my seat, pulling her to a clear spot. "Okay, go after me, like usual, but I'm just going to push you, open handed, so you'll get a sense of my unpowered maximum speed. Or at least as fast as I can go without hurting you." She looked hesitant, and I wondered if it was the fact that we were doing this unmasked, or if she was worried about getting hurt, despite what I'd said. "I'll heal you again afterwards," I promised, and she made up her mind, nodding, so definitely the second.

She took a step forward, but I dashed in before she could start to close on me herself and set the pace, dodging under a blow to whip a hand to her shoulder, pausing for just an instant to lessen the blow as I made contact, before pushing her, hard.

She stumbled, but turned on her foot, the other lashing up in a kick. Lightly catching it, I pushed it to the side, spinning her around in the opposite direction before placing both hands on her back, shoving her away again. She turned as she stumbled, baton coming up, the bugs on my limbs helping her track me, but I tapped the bottom of her arm, lifting the blow up before pressing a hand to her side, sending her flying once more.

The trick here, was not going 'I am attacking now', but merely having a goal and moving, practically without thought, which would just get in the way. I had to admit I was impressed with how she was keeping her balance, as I kept pushing, several times lifting her off the ground entirely. Her emotions, however, had spiked into panic after a minute and she was starting to lose cohesion of techniques, her calculated reposts devolving into wild swings. Diverting a blow while settling the swarm she was pulling at, I tripped her, catching her before she hit the ground letting her down softly as I took a step back, letting her collect herself.

She shakily got to her feet. "That was not cool." She declared, trying to head back to where we'd sat, flinching as I caught her when she swayed losing her balance. She glared as she hung onto me, directing her to a seat of air. "You said you weren't going to use your powers." I looked placidly back at her. "Bullshit."

"Skill," I countered, "Combined with a male body at Peak Condition. I'm honestly strong enough I probably deserve a level one Brute rating, two or three with my costume on, but while I'm at the top end of human capability, I'm still on the scale."

She frowned, looking a bit green around the gills, relaxing a bit as I healed her. "The way you said that, is that one of your powers? Who did you take that from?"

I shook my head. "It's one of mine, but I didn't copy it. It's one of my original set."

"That is so unfair," Taylor complained, "I had to do so much running. Wait, what did you look like before?"

I looked down at myself. "A third of the muscle mass, heavyset, and I needed glasses."

"Your power fixed your vision? Why couldn't mine," she grumped.

I rolled my eyes. "I work with Panacea, I'm pretty sure she'd fix your eyesight if you want me to ask. Then you could Clark Kent it up, though you'd need a lot more acting training to pull that off." I smiled at her, only to get a blank look. "It would be a thing that could help hide your identity. After all The Lady Bug could never be Taylor Hebert, Taylor Hebert wears glasses!" The look continued unabated. "It's an alternate universe thing," I finally sighed, pulling my hand away, having healed any damage I'd done with my demonstration. Her look of annoyance told me she didn't appreciate inside jokes she couldn't get, but oh well. "So, power use. Can you get your notebook?"

That got her attention, as she jumped up, rummaging in her backpack, returning with a notebook and a pen, looking at where she had sat with trepidation, cautiously lowering herself until she rested on the invisible surface. "Okay," she started, looking over her list. "I was thinking, to start with, I could make, like, human shaped swarms that might distract my opponents, like Grue did with his darkness."

"You mean like this?" I asked, grabbing a collection from nearby and forming them into one of the bug clones I spent time working on last night.

She looked at it, eyes narrowing, prodding at it with her own power, riding my connection to them which felt. . . uncomfortably intimate. She looked down, hair obscuring her face as she mumbled to herself. "Oh, that makes sense, so, maybe." She called another swarm, building it like mine, before she started tweaking it, making improvements here and there which my own power gladly copied.

When I made an improvement of my own, she quickly copied it as well, though my improvements were much less frequent and less impressive than hers. I grabbed a few moths, turning them into the whites of pseudo-eyes if you didn't look too closely, which she copied, figuring out the positioning, which was helped when I took out my phone, turning on the front facing camera and holding it in front of her, allowing her to work on creating expressions, a technique which I in turn copied, and tweaked where I could.

We went back and forth, working on the power for the better part of an hour, until we had what looked like honest-to-goodness people made of bugs. A bit disturbing if you looked closely, but definitely passable as a Case 53 at a casual glance if you could get them clothes. Or just find the right colored insects.

Taylor was practically vibrating with excitement as I sat back, impressed. This level of progress, even with my level of dedication, would've taken me weeks to get right. I wished I'd nabbed Kingmaker, just so I could give Taylor other powers, and let her loose on designing improvements to them.

"Next!" She declared, happily crossing off something from her list. "I'd tried to see through their eyes before, but it never made sense. I was wondering if you knew how?" she turned to me, puppy eyes only magnified by her glasses.

"Give it a shot now," I tried, a sneaking suspicion on what was happening.

She looked a little unsure, "But, aren't you going to tell me how?" I motioned to the two swarm clones. "Ok, so, I, what!?" she sputtered, connection to her construct twisting and shaping as she raised one hand, then the other, before turning her head back to me, eyes unfocused. My own power lazily reaching out and copying her improved method of insect sight, which built the gestalt picture I normally had to build one at a time, all at once. "How did you know I could do that?" she demanded. "How can I do that?"

I bopped her on the nose. "Look at me with your eyes if you can Taylor, anything else is rude." She blushed, eyes focusing as she dropped, no, lessened her focus, the insects in her clone still looking at me, but not as intently. "When you were out of it back at the hotel, I was checking in on everyone through the insects in the room and your power piggybacked onto mine. I think your power learns when it sees me trying a new trick, and vice versa. Those clones, the basic ones, took me an hour to figure out, and you figured out how to do so in seconds, so-"

"I'm sorry!" she interjected. I looked at her, confused. "You spent all that time working on it and I just copied it in -hey!" she complained as I bopped her nose again.

"You're being stupid. You're not stupid, so stop being stupid," I chided, smiling. "I worked on them so you could copy them, and you doing so that fast is impressive not offensive. Besides," I waved at the clones, forcing mine to wave back at us. "You've improved them so much, I feel like I should be the one apologizing for copying your work."

"You helped!" she countered. "No, really, I was just trying to make them person-ish, you're the ones who gave them eyes!"

Rolling my own, I kept the conversation moving. "Either way, powers with sensory components probably let their users learn techniques from other users, so I shouldn't use my air control near Stormtiger, or do this," I manifested a humanoid expression of Grue's power, "In front of the Undersiders, in addition to all the questions I'd have to tell them I wasn't going to answer. You think Tattletale's bad now?" I asked, shivering, to her laughter. I checked my watch. "We've got about forty-five minutes left. Then you can travel with me to the hospital if you want to, and I'll ask Panacea to fix your eyes, but in the meantime there's something else I want your input on." I set a timer, in case we lost track of time again. "We'll do emoting lessons later. You've progressed enough that I think I can trust you with this," I hesitated. Should I? I debated. Yes, she's shown she'll listen.

"Before we start though, there's one thing I'm going to tell you that you can do, that you've already started doing, but that you need to get a hold of, and only do in crisis situations, as it's one of the major things that gets you branded a Villain." Turning to look at her, her eyes were wide with worry, and I pressed on. "You've been shunting your emotions into your insects, Taylor, and you need to stop."

"I don't, well, not really," she hedged. "Why is that bad? It helps me keep in control. It's stopped me from- It's helped me not reveal I had powers!"

Feeling out her connection to the swarm I focused on it in a way that I hadn't before, picking apart the details, the nuances of its ebb and flow. It was hard to see at first, but now that I was actively looking, the use of the technique was obvious. She was doing it even now, probably having done it so much she didn't realize she was doing it anymore, though it explained how she was able to go months without going out, even with her power constantly pushing her towards conflict. Inspecting it as I looked at her, she was forcing out her anger, her guilt, her nervousness, her crippling depression, the emotional slurry thick as sludge and just as cloying now that I'd noticed it. Not wanting to think what might've happened to me if I'd opened my emotions to the swarm when she'd been around instead of just pushing emotions across it to her, I considered my response deeply.

Sighing, moving so that I was kneeling in front of her, I put my hands on her shoulders for maximum effect. She needed to understand before it destroyed her, so I looked her in the eyes, stating slowly "And if that's the only time you did so, we wouldn't necessarily be having this conversation, but I've seen how things go, Taylor. Things are going to get bad. The bombings? The bank job? Those are easy to deal with compared to what's coming down the line. It'll settle down in July, but the next few months are going to be one horrible situation after another. I'm working to ameliorate the problems as much as I can, but I'm not going to be strong enough to stop them by the time they'll hit. Tattletale told you about Dinah Alcott?" She cast her gaze down, nodding sadly, eyes suddenly bright, the emotions of hurt, guilt, and self-hatred pouring into the swarm.

I kicked myself for not having recognized how bad things were, when I was easily able to read her feelings but she only could when I hit an extreme level of emotion. "Taylor, look at me. That wasn't your fault. You didn't know what was going on. I'm partially to blame. I was so focused on making sure you and Panacea were okay I forgot about it, which isn't your fault either. Herb's more at fault, for knowing about it but not telling me because of some deterministic bullshit, but ultimately that was Coil's doing. He gave the order. He is the one perpetuating the situation. He is the one profiting from it. He is the one I'll kill for doing so. But think about how you feel about that situation, and how easy it would be to dump all those feelings into the swarm, leaving behind what feels like calm determination, but it's not, it's emotional numbness."

Sighing, I addressed the elephant in the room, not braking eye contact. "You're doing it right now, though you probably only notice when you get rid of everything. At first you'll dump your emotions when things get really bad, when you get blindsided by complications, or in the middle of fights to help you plan, but as more and more of your life gets bad, without any end in sight, without anyone you feel you could trust, you'll do it more and more until you can barely feel them at all. It lets you do some pretty objectively brave things, Taylor, but it's not bravery, it's sociopathy. I know it's tempting, I did it when I figured out the trick, but it's wrong. Our emotions, good and bad, are what make us human. Getting rid of them, no matter the reason, makes you something less. Master your emotions instead, Taylor, control them, like you control the swarm, don't run from them because you're afraid. You're a Hero, and that doesn't mean being fearless, it means doing what you think is right despite the fear. Okay?"

She nodded, the flow from her into the swarm cutting off in fits and spurts as her expression suddenly twisted up and she lurched forward and hugging me around the neck, burying her face in my shoulder as she repeated, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, it just hurts so much," over and over again.

 

[Leecifer]

Spoiler 5.3

I scooped up the crying girl from my kneeling position, her holding onto me like a limpet, arms locked tightly around my neck, and sat back down with her in my lap, patting her on the back and letting her get it out of her system. Seriously, almost half the time I have a conversation with this girl I end up making her cry. Thinking about it though, maybe I should have advocated she pull back on it slowly, instead of her facing it full blast like this. I opened my mouth to say something, but thought better of it. Going from dumping half of your emotions somewhere else to taking them on all at once, It's the emotional version of going cold turkey, no wonder she flipped so fast, and it'll help in the long run, but it's got to suck right now.

I waited for her to calm down a bit before continuing, "Dumping your emotions isn't necessarily always bad, in combat scenarios or when dealing in high-pressure situations I'd advocate it if you can't control yourself, but it should be a tool, training wheels to get used to those things and handling those situations on your own, not a crutch you rely on. For now, if you're in combat, or dealing with enemies directly, go for it, but when you're alone, or relaxing, or with me, I don't want you to. Okay?"

She nodded, not letting go. I sighed, trying to think of something that would help distract her. God knows that when I was depressed all those people who left me alone to somehow pull myself out of it on my own did far more harm than good. "So, want to learn something else cool? Like the clones?" she nodded again. "So, you can also hear through the bugs, though I haven't figured that out yet, but I'm pretty sure you could figure it out. What I have been working on, with limited success, is making the swarm talk."

Taylor stilled, and paying attention to her over the bug sense I could feel her confusion and interest. Making my clone walk over, which took a lot of concentration, I implemented the technique I'd been working on, making my construct talk, but it came out "ella aylrrr, I ann rry allinng iss wwayy, ull I'm ass al ill!" I sighed. "Still working on hard consonants, I was going for 'Hello Taylor, I can try talking this way, but I'm bad at it!' It needs work, but you're better on improving stuff than I am."

She didn't move from her position, but her Swarm Clone walked over, and made a number of noises. I sat there until she herself quietly asked, "Can you try some more words?" her voice hesitant and fearful.

"Of course," I responded warmly, trying various things, getting a laugh from her when I attempted to make it sing, badly. She figured out T's getting an insect to hiss in a manner which somewhat replicated the sound, which helped things a lot. We continued on in this manner, her attention focused on the task at hand until my alarm went off, causing her to jump in my arms. I dismissed my swarm back to where I'd gathered them, Taylor following suit.

"We need to go," I told her, "I have to go do a shift at the hospital." She shook her head, not letting go. "People need me to keep them from dying, and Panacea needs me to keep her from overworking herself." She shook her head again, though not as strongly. "Taylor, Panacea needs my help, just like you do. If she told me not to help you I'd do it anyways, though she hasn't. Now get back into costume and I'll see about her healing your eyes, okay?"

She got up, not saying anything, putting her helmet on and facing me. "If you want to get rid of some of your emotions when you meet Panacea, I'll understand. While she isn't your enemy, she isn't your friend either, and I understand that. Just don't do it all the time."

She took a deep breath, and I felt her once again dump some of her emotions into the swarm. "Thanks," she said, voice steady. "It, it hurts, and I didn't realize that I was doing so much of it. I don't want to stop doing it, but I will." She looked up at me, voice skeptical. "Are you sure about Panacea? She did try to hit me with a fire extinguisher."

I shrugged. "She was panicking, and I might've just finished shaking the foundations of her worldview." I could practically feel my teammate's stare. "Yeah, I know, it's a bad habit of mine, but hey, I don't hold you trying to swarm Herb and I with bugs when we first met against you,-"

"Sorry," she interrupted.

"Don't worry," I waved off. "But by that token, you shouldn't really hold it against the healer for trying to non-lethally neutralize you to get some answers. I'm not saying she'll apologize, but all that means is you're more mature than she is."

She nodded, happy with that, taking my hand as we took off, flying above the city. "The emotion thing, is that why you wanted me to show more?"

I shook my head. "No, I hadn't realized it was as bad as it was until I brought it up and really looked. It was because once you can see, hear, talk, and generally interact with people through your bugs you'd naturally stop emoting entirely, which makes you seem inhuman. It happens because you start treating the swarm as an extension of your own body, but it meant that you displayed almost no emotion from your real body, though I suppose there was another reason for that happening. Add to that if your clones emote instead of just standing in place and talking, people will treat them as more human, and yes, I know they're not, but people naturally personify things," I defended at her look. "If your clones emote, people will like them, and thus you, more. So teaching you how to emote will help the entire not-a-villain thing."

We flew in silence for a minute, starting the descent when a flash of white, red, and gold caught my eye. Glory Girl, carrying Panacea, landed a dozen feet away, seconds after we did. "Hello Glory Girl, Panacea, how are you?"

Glory Girl flinched, a blip of Awe starting to seep out before it disappeared, Panacea staring at The Lady, Bug. "Been better," the girl in white and gold called back, stiffening a bit as I walked over to them, Taylor trailing behind me, dumping nervousness into the local insect population. "Um, Vej, isn't she a villain?" she asked, pointing at the girl behind me.

Vej? "Please, call me Vejovis," I responded. "And The Lady, Bug is a probationary member of my team. If you have any proof that she was involved of any criminal activities I would be interested, but short of that please don't slander my teammate." Glancing around at the people watching I dropped a sound bubble, miming a yawn. "Ask Panacea about her current mission, just for the love of god don't tell anyone if you ever want to be included in anything that I plan in the future." Dropping the bubble I turned to Panacea, "Panacea, if I could ask a personal favor, my teammate was injured in one of the bomb blasts, and you are a better healer than I. If you could heal her, especially restore her eyes to correct working order, I would be most grateful."

She looked at me for a second before nodding, walking over to Taylor, and I dropped a sound bubble around them to keep anyone from hearing. "About that night," Glory Girl started, stopping at my raised hand.

"Don't worry about it, I don't need a public apology," I told her, "and as long as it doesn't happen again there shouldn't be an issue."

She looked at me, before glancing around at the crowd, phones out, and nodded. "It won't, thanks. Um, would you have time later? To talk?"

I thought about everything that was going to happen, the Somer's Rock meeting in three days, and winced. "Can it wait until the entire bombing thing is over, or at least next week? My sources say things are going to start happening soon, and I need to get ready for it."

"What's going on? Can I come?" she asked as I tried to imagine the villain meeting with Glory Girl in attendance, and my mental model blue-screened.

"No," I responded, getting a pout in return. "That doesn't work on me Glory Girl, and if I told you, then it wouldn't exactly be secret, would it," I motioned to the cameras. "Come on, operational security is a thing."

Panacea and Lady Bug walked back, the healer drolly commenting, "Your teammates eyes are healed, anything else you'd like me to do?"

I shook my head, "No, let's go save some lives. Lady Bug, I'll see you the same time in two days."

"Not tomorrow?" she asked, disappointed.

Tomorrow was the day Curtis was going to reform, and I didn't want her anywhere near that clusterfuck. "I'll be busy," I told her. "The twenty-second." She nodded, shoulders slumping a little as she turned to leave. "Remember to practice" I called, which caused her to perk up a little as Panacea and I headed inside, Glory Girl waving goodbye to her sister.

Inside Panacea shot me a look. "What?" I asked.

"Her system was a mess. What did you do?" the healer demanded.

"It wasn't me," I defended automatically, amending at her glare, "She's been using her powers to keep herself from feeling unwanted emotions, I showed her why that was a bad idea, and the backlash from stopping doing so did a number on her. Thank you."

Panacea looked away, muttering, "Don't worry about it." We were led to the beginning of the circuit, and fell into the rhythm of healing, our particular brand of wound repair particularly useful in healing the energy damage done by Oni Lee. Maybe it was just the repeating pattern of healing, but a couple of times I lost focus, only snapping back when Panacea poked me. "Are you okay?" she asked after the third time. "Have you been sleeping enough?"

"I've been getting the rest I need," I reassured her, glad that I didn't need to sleep. She didn't look convinced, but let it go, and I forced myself to focus between healings to not mentally drift off. After I dropped her off, after our shift, I swung by Quinn's office, ready to make a lot more money.

Striding inside, I was led past several conference rooms that sounded full of people, to a small chamber, a chair sitting next to one of those old-style psychologist beds, a desk at the back. Quinn popped in a minute later, giving me the procedure. "You'll stay here, with myself and an aide as a witnesses to prevent potential. . . problems, and," he pointed at the corner of a room, indicating a security camera, "Everything will be recorded, only to be viewed in the case of an allegation of misconduct. My aide will send the clients in one at a time, whereupon I will provide you with a written description of the desired outcome, as well as a picture for reference. Please only change them in accordance to what is written, as that is what they paid for, and after each consultation, my aide will walk the client back, whereupon she will bring the next client. Of note, do not call the clients patients, as with how the laws currently read, this is not a medical procedure, and thus allows my firm to sidestep a large number of regulations, saving us time, and you money. Any questions?"

I took off one of my gloves, placing it on the desk and sitting down. "When do we start?"

He smiled, and poked his head out the door, calling for his aide to get started. A minute later two middle aged women walked in, a brunette in her late thirties and a red head in her early forties. Quinn passed me a folder, indicating that the older woman wished an arm, body, and breast lift. "Not easing me into this, are you?" I quipped.

He looked back, one eyebrow raised. "There is a reason we have two witnesses."

Rolling my eyes, I instructed, "Please disrobe, you can leave shoes and jewelry on if you wish."

"What?" the pa-client asked, suddenly unsure, the other woman looking scandalized.

I started to talk, but Quinn cut me off. "Mr. Vejovis can heal, but for best results must be able to observe the effects. This is why he insists on working with Panacea while healing, as she can perform flawless diagnostics with a touch. For more external procedures, like the kind you have paid for, he does not require her assistance, which is how we were able to contract his services."

She nodded, hesitantly disrobing as I looked at the reference images, fixing them in my mind. "Your hand please," I requested.

"You don't need to touch. . .?" she inquired.

I shook my head, "Any skin-to-skin contact is enough." She placed her hand in mine and I got to work, looking at her anatomy and comparing it to the reference material, superimposing one over the other and making all the changes necessary. I required her to turn around, continuing, my work, and before two minutes had passed we were done, giving her a shot of the Get Better treatment to finish it off.

She looked at herself disbelievingly in the mirror as she redressed, commenting "I look ten years younger!" her still silent companion nodding in agreement.

Once again, Quinn beat me to the punch. "The changes are permanent, but please remember that you are not, actually, younger, and will still age." Could I? I considered. After a certain point most aging was merely telomere degradation after all, so it was possible.

She huffed. "I know that, but still, let a woman have her delusions," her wide grin belying any offense.

As the Aide led both women out, Quinn asked me quietly, "Can you?"

Turning my head away from the camera and throwing up a bubble I responded. "Probably. Panacea would be the one to talk to, but I don't really see why not."

Quinn blew out a breath as I dismissed the silencing effect. "Something to think about later. Much later. It is my professional option that you do not mention the possibility to anyone. While your capabilities are generating interest, I'd rather not have my children taken hostage over the possibility of eternal youth."

"No such thing," I scoffed, "after all my power is only skin deep without help, and even then, it's only healing."

He nodded in return. "Good, I'm glad that's settled." From there I handled a procession of people, men and women, for a large number of tweaks, changes, and low-level reshaping. A couple of times a client sprung an additional request on me, for Quinn to shoot them down, and only once did they take it badly, and older man who at first tried cajoling, then whining, and when he moved on to threatening to sue for not doing what he asked was security called and he was escorted out of the building.

"I could've handled that," I pointed out after he was dragged out.

Quinn shook his head, "Then he could claim assault, and even with ample evidence, it would waste time and money dealing with his spurious accusations. Our security firm is trained to handle such situations, and has a working relationship with Law Enforcement that you, to be blunt, do not."

I nodded, accepting the point. Looking at my portion of today's work, I let out a low whistle. "So, we both did well for ourselves Mr. Calle."

He nodded. "Yes, I believe you're going to be bumping me up a tax bracket. Or three. Not that I'm complaining. When would work for you?"

"Is that still recording?" I asked, pointing at the camera. He turned to the desks' computer, shaking his head in my direction after a minute. "Word is the Villains are going to start to move, with the ABB stirring up enough trouble to get the military involved if it keeps up. I'm planning on helping them out, spirit of cooperation and so on," I told him, dropping a sound bubble before I started, just to be sure. "Which will let me sound out any members that wish to no longer be employed in . . . extra-legal organizations. I'll be somewhat busy, but by May 4th​, after nightfall, things should have calmed down, or at least have died down enough. I may need to reschedule, but it should be free."

Quinn stood up, offering to shake my hand, "Good to know. May 4th​ it is. See you then."

Shaking his hand, I dropped the bubble and retrieved my glove, heading out the door. It was almost eleven as I flew off, dropping down into an alley and sinking into the ground, changing my costume to Boardwalk before emerging down the street, almost coming up in a building but nudging myself over as I started to poke my head into a kitchen. "Fucking rats!" someone called, the sound coming out a thin window on the other side of the wall as I emerged. Slapping a Speed Zone on my arm and riding up to the roof, I started patrolling.

Hearing gunfire I darted off to it, and found myself watching a fight between a bunch of E88 and ABB, the second group attacking the first, the building the Neo-Nazis were defending on fire, but the Asians weren't able to make much progress. I called it in to the police, and was told they were aware of the confrontation. Ten minutes of sustained fire with no police lead me to believe that they weren't coming. With no police to try to protect I noted the location for a later date and left the two criminal groups to have fun killing each other. I was trying to find somewhere I could take down with Herb and Purity.

<AB>
​

A couple hours later, it was the dead of the night and I was deep in ABB territory, finally with a possible target. The first two had been an apartment building where the group I was following all lived, and a group visiting their family who were holed up respectively, but this one looked promising. The group I'd been tracking had entered the front door, followed by another squad a few minutes later. My tracking bugs had shown they'd gone inside and started moving about, doing something.

From the opposite building I started building a picture, much easier with the imaging trick I'd picked up from Taylor. It was a three-story apartment building, the bottom guarded, the people there not quite on alert, but more aware then guards not expecting action normally were. The third floor had been cleared out and possessed quite a few beds, and almost looked like an ad-hoc barracks, several gang-members asleep, though most of the beds were empty.

The middle floor though, was much more interesting. In addition to weapons, there were maps of the city set up, the gang territories outlined, along with thumbtacks holding up possible targets. Taking a minute to look them over, I saw the building the ABB had hit earlier as one of the points of interest. Noting the others, I looked around, seeing two of the group I'd been tracking talking to someone, making notes on another map, the other three reloading magazines.

Holy shit, I realized. This must be an operations center. There was even a guy with almost a dozen cell phones, calling people and getting information on things. Damn, I wish I understood Japanese, I lamented, not being able to make heads or tails of the garbled speech my insectile spies picked up. Unfortunately, it looked like Lung wasn't a complete dumbass, as while the map detailed E88 and Merchant positions, along with Protectorate patrol routes, there was nothing on other ABB bases.

I was getting ready to move on, maybe find another base as a backup, when a windowless van pulled up into the alley next to the building, six people in full body armor and guns piling out and moving on the front doors. They're going to steal my kill! was my first reaction, stepping on a Speed Zone to launch myself across the street, landing softly on the rooftop. Well, not my kill, but I was here first! I amended as I heard a flashbang go off below me, followed by gunfire.

Dropping through the roof, I landed as the sleeping gang-members woke, scrambling for weapons. I took the first one down with a punch to the temple, grabbing and dropping him on a Speed Zone to trip another gang member with a shotgun, riding the same Zone to him to knock him out as he tried to aim at me from the ground before leaping over a bunk bed to hit a third foe, all while gunfire rang out below.

Clearing one half of the floor in a few more seconds, the walls between several apartments having been knocked down to form one long room, I approached the door, as they had left the central hallway intact. I emerged into that passage in full Shadow, a salvo of fire passing through me from the waiting ABB. Running down the hallway, the gang-bangers increasingly panicked fire doing jack-all, I was among them in an instant, shifting hands, feet, elbows, and knees to Light as I attacked them from within their formation, one idiot killing two of his fellows by trying to open fire that close.

With them down I jumped down the stairs, a baseball bat passing through my Shadowed head as the girl hiding at the bottom of the stairs tried to take me down, only for me to yank it from her hands with glowing fingers and thrust the butt into her nose, dropping her. The group around the set of stairs going to the first-floor opened fire as I dropped fully into Shadow, except for one foot that kicked the girl out of the way, the tangible limb taking a bullet they fired at me and dissipating a shield.

Their distraction was their undoing as a grenade flew up among them, bouncing off a crouched gunman's head before detonating and shredding the guards, my own air control saving the phone station and the girl. Footsteps pounded up the stairs, the lead attacker turning the corner and opening fire, the bullets impacting the wall behind me.

He stopped, looking down at his gun as I stood there, arms crossed.

The person behind him tried as well, to no effect, and a third person, a woman, shot me in the head with a pistol. "If the first two couldn't hurt me, what makes you think you could. Pattern recognition, ya fuckin' morons," I taunted. "Get some."

The second guy looked down and away, in the direction of the parked van. "Um, it's a dark dude in black. We shot him, but the bullets went straight through 'im," he reported back.

Noticing they all had ear-pieces, I grabbed the sound from one, bringing it to my ear and enhancing it, the voice distorted and tinny, "You sure it's a guy?"

I looked at the gunmen, all were in bulky body armor, the image of a clock set to midnight painted on the front, the letters F W over it and B T below. The guns they were armed with looked to be the same type that I'd seen in the ABB armory. The lead guy spoke, not taking his eyes off me, his gun lowered but ready. "Oh yeah, dark, but parts of him are glowing, all sorts of colors, and the glow moves."

"That's Boardwalk," The voice responded. "He's hit the Merchants, not sure if he's a hero."

I walked over to a chair, all of them training their guns on me, a woman from below calling, "Ya boys need help?"

The lead guy shouted back, "We're good, Brenda."

"Don't mind me," I commented, shifting out of Shadow, but ready to drop back into it if I needed to. "I'm just takin' a seat while you sort this out. Also, if her name isn't Brenda, good on you, if it is, use fuckin' codenames. It's just common fuckin' sense."

They didn't really know how to handle that. "He's right," their handler commented. "We'll talk about it when we get back to base."

"Um, are you Boardwalk?" the second guy asked, not sure what to do with his gun, pointing it at me and then thinking better of it, only to think better of that and point it back at me, starting the cycle all over again.

I shot him an unimpressed look. "Yep."

"Um," he asked, the leader letting him handle this. "You a hero?"

My look didn't abate. "Yep."

"Um," he repeated his favorite word. "Shouldn't you be, like, trying to take us down or something?"

"Are you villains?" I asked, wondering how deep he was willing to dig this particular hole.

"Um, we work for one!" he bragged.

"Dammnit Carl!" another person downstairs called.

I sighed, standing up. "I'm assuming you work for Æonic?"

"Yeah!" he boasted. "We're part of Bell Tolls!"

The leader corrected, with the air of someone who'd had to do this several times before, possibly today, "For Whom the Bell Tolls, we're part of For Whom the Bell Tolls, Carl."

"Ah, it tolls for thee!" I responded, understanding the name.

"FUCKING FINALLY!" Their handler shouted, causing the gang members before me to wince in unison, the speaker probably Æonic himself. "Someone finally fucking gets it!"

"Nice, very ominous, but a better fuckin' overarching message than most gangs when you consider it in the full fuckin' context." I added, appreciating the artistry but trying not to break character. "So, I took out the top level, you took the bottom, and we both got this one. Share the intel and split the loot fifty-fifty?"

"No way!" Carl objected. "There's like six of us and one of you!"

I laughed, "Or what, you'll shoot me? Ya already tried that dumbass. I took out the reinforcements, and distracted the guys who had you pinned. It's fair."

"We could,-" he started, stopping as Æonic interrupted him saying "Shut up Carl, do it."

Smug with my win, I was surprised as all three gang members went white, the lead yelling "OH SHIT!" Turning I saw, standing just inside of the window, the dark body suit, demon mask, and washed out grey and red flames of power of the Asian Bad Boyz assassin, Oni Lee, finger hooked on the pin of a grenade.

 

[Leecifer]

Spoiler 5.4

"IT'S ONI L-" the leader of Æonic's strike team shouted, both myself and Oni Lee staggering as I saw a flash of Sand and Bright Blue Flame, the sounds and light changing as if someone flipped the channel on a television, the dark calm suddenly riotous with sirens and the flashing red and blue of reflected police lights. Time seemed to crawl as we both moved. I grabbed a fistful of Light, sending a concussive blast towards him while dodging the streak of Flame he hurled my way, Oni Lee pulling the pin right before my blast tore into him, blood arcing from him as he impacted the window, grenade exploding and sending shrapnel in every direction, my air control deflecting any from hitting me. The blood turned to ash, as I heard a pin drop from behind me.

Pushing Glory Girl's flight as I leapt forward, turning, another Oni Lee was behind me, one grenade primed on his bandolier of six, each one different. I'd only started to gather another shot when it detonated in an eruption of high explosives, sending me flying through the wall, my shields draining as I was hurled, impacting back first on the building across the street with a gasp, cop cars all over the road below me. A streak of Flame heralded Oni Lee's appearance right in front of me, another streak as what I realized was the real him left, the clone pulling the pin on a grenade he'd ripped from his bandolier, this canister white with a blue snowflake on it.

Hitting the clone with the Light I'd gathered, he flew back into the building, dusting, but the fucker dropped the grenade right before I hit him, the cylinder twisting in the air as I panicked, kickstarting Purity's flight as I started to rise. It wasn't fast enough as the Tinkertech went off, the temperature dropping so fast it hit absolute zero and bounced, the solidified gasses closing in on me as I rocketed upwards, insanely glad I'd taken temperature Immunity.

Lifting above the street he appeared again, uzi pointed at my head, teleporting away as I hit the gun, sending it firing off to the side, my other hand striking him in the throat, the clone clutching its crushed trachea as it dusted. Fire, Acid, Lightning, Cold I thought, remembering the countless people he'd maimed with his bombs. Along with High Explosive and Frag, that's his loadout, and only electricity can really hurt me. I was so glad we'd killed Bakuda before she could give him time grenades.

Grabbing Light with one hand, I felt the displaced air as he appeared behind me. Turning and blasting him back, he let go of another grenade, red with a fire symbol, but I was ready. My other hand slapped the orphaned ordinance to the side, which erupted into a firestorm a second later. I could feel the heat, but it wasn't in the you need powers to survive this zone, and this time I'd followed the fucker's teleportation. Seeing him looking up at me from a nearby rooftop, I Saw the Flame of his power streak towards me, turning to follow it as it flew past, blasting the clone that'd appeared with the lightning grenade as I pulled out of its range, but he'd already gone. Why each one in turn? I thought, eyes following the stream of power that was him down to a rooftop, charging both hands with Light.

He appeared, this time over me, with the acid grenade, dark green with a lime yellow water drop. I almost blasted that one, until I realized what he was doing. They're highly visible on purpose. Bakuda uses them to inspire fear, but Oni Lee? Fucker's testing me, seeing what I try to dodge. Out of all four of his special grenades, the acid did the most damage, raining down on everything below him. I was currently over a rooftop, so I tanked it, grabbing onto it so he couldn't let go, the caustic cloud covering us both, melting the clone's costume and flesh before it turned to wet dust, the acid that rained down on the rooftop only eating away cement before dissipating in ash itself.

Following the path of his power to a water tower, I spotted him hanging onto its supports before teleporting right in front of me, knife out. His power left immediately as the clone swung at me in midair, and as I dodged it, kicking the copy to the side and letting it fall to its death, and I threw Light at his new position on the ledge of a building. The double helix trailing blast of incandescence slammed into his position, detonating with a flash, a streak of power flitting out as it exploded. My second blast hit his new position almost as soon as he appeared, his power streaking out simultaneous to the explosion. My third, fourth, fifth, and sixths strikes followed suit, his teleportations ever faster, but my ability to grasp and deploy my attacks quickly was picking up as well.

With a trail of crisscrossing power he darted across the rooftops, clone after clone appearing and being blown to ash as he streaked towards me. Oni Lee appeared facing me, but I was ready with a blast. I'd hit the bastard at least once, his bodysuit torn and one of the horns of his mask broken off. My Light hit him as his power streaked by me, blood blasting out from the impact, and I felt a series of hammering blows to the back of my head the instant I blasted the clone before me, not enough to crack the crystalline shield protecting that part of me. Turning I saw another of him, Uzi now leveled at my face, smoking. I blasted him, but he was long gone, the clone's blood turning to ash. How? I questioned as his power bounced back and forth like a demented pinball across the rooftops.

I opened up my air and bug control to try to get some feedback as I tracked him, but he was moving too fast to tag with anything less than a full swarm. He didn't have time to turn around to hit me that fast, so- but my thoughts were cut off as three of him coalesced almost simultaneously, all facing me, two in front, the displaced air from the one behind me the only warning of the third. All three swung at me with knives, targeting my neck, my back, and my stomach.

If we were land-based, I'd have been hard pressed to dodge all three, but with three dimensions to move in I twisted in mid-air, body parallel to the ground, dodging two while striking the third, flying even higher as a fourth appeared below me to swing at my stomach. I need to get away, I need to fight him on my terms. Purity's blasts, while powerful, were nowhere near fast enough to hit the assassin.

I pushed Purity's flight to try and work how I wanted, but it refused to do more than send me hurtling along, almost out of control. Cursing my lack of practice with it, another Oni Lee appeared in my path, explosive grenade pulled. Spinning myself in the air I blasted my flight downwards, having to change direction again as his power streaked by, another Oni Lee in my way, frag grenade this time, pulling the pin as he turned his head to look at me.

Every time I tried to pull away, he was there.

I pushed downwards, dropping into full Shadow, my momentum slowing as it ways did when I went fully incorporeal, and he was there, electrical grenade in hand. I was barely able to shift back to Light to get away as it exploded, muscles spasming as one foot was caught at the edge.

Trying to escape into a building just had him appear where I was headed, setting off a grenade and killing anyone inside. I tried shifting to full Shadow again, but every time I did he pulled that fucking electrical grenade. He knows I realized, a sinking feeling in my gut. He knows Shadow Stalker can't ignore lightning, and that form slows me down too much to escape if I'm flying!

Trying to get away, I pushed full bore towards the ground, hoping to turn to Shadow right before I hit. My chosen spot was thick with cops, guns at the ready, and I hoped one of those dumb shits could pull their heads out of their asses and quit gawking long enough to shoot him before he pulled the damn grenade. He appeared within their ranks, both hands pulling the pins on all four of his special canisters, the police too busy looking surprised by his arrival to do anything. I pulled up, pushing both my modes of flight to get away from the blast, the screaming behind me telling me what happened.

The blast wave hit me, sending me spinning as I could feel myself on the edge of panic. He appeared again, and I blasted him away, dodging his knife as the air filled with bullets from the police below. I had to get away, I couldn't win this fight. Worst of all, my power was at the back of my head, whispering, pushing me to just take his power for my own. Show this emotionless killer how to really use his power to its fullest potential, and it was really fucking distracting.

I flew up above the buildings, and six of them appeared in a ring, each one pulling a different pin. Another ring appeared above and below me, all doing the same thing. I panicked in that column of suicide bombers, mind working frantically. No matter which way I flew wouldn't be fast enough to get out, and I could only push four, six max away before they exploded, killing me. In that panic, that reaching for any solution. My brain obliged, something that had been bugging me about my flight clicked into place. Glory Glory's flight was Aristotelian in nature, an 'I want to go this way, so I do, and that's it' method of flight. Completely intuitive, and not how flight actually worked at all.

Purity's however, was Newtonian, 'for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction', was the name of the game, momentum was a thing, and I had to push something away from me to move. I'd been trying to fly a rocket like a broomstick, no wonder I was having problems. More importantly though, that meant when I flew, I was pushing something away, and the only reason I was only using my feet to fly is because I was being a fuckin' moron.

Snapping my hands out, I grasped the Light, pushing it out like I did with my feet, but moreso, a torrent instead of the thin stream I subconsciously used. It was almost akin to the beam I'd used to write my name in that Merchant safehouse, but a firehose instead of a faucet. Blasting similarly from my feet, I spun, spiraling out light in every direction, ascending on a column of Light high in the air.

I could feel my reserves draining, but it brought me up, even as he grew the column again, and again, over a dozen of him popping into existence directly above me to stop my rise, all primed to blow as I brought my hands up, the spirals of light blasting into them, cutting through them, his power barely escaping down and out as they detonated into a firestorm I pierced, twitching but whole. I could do this, I could win, I thought as I heard the screams hundreds of feet below, as he detonated more grenades, killing the police far underneath me.

I was tempted to just leave. I beat Oni Lee, he moved onto easier prey, and I knew I could kill him if I tried hard enough. I could take the win, leave and get home safe, eliminating him later on when I was better prepared. The persona I wore pushed for that, hard. Boardwalk hated fuckin' cops, taking the power, the pay, the prestige and doing nothing while criminals ran rampant, officers happy to harass people for shit they said online while rape gangs acted with impunity. The fact that cops targeted vigilantes, who they knew wouldn't shoot to kill them because of their morals, while ignoring the criminals the vigilantes targeted out of the pigs' cowardly fear, breaking their oaths without punishment, enraged him.

But, as I told Taylor, while Boardwalk was a facet of me, he wasn't me, and while some of the cops dying below were assuredly crooked, and others were just as bad, looking the other way because it was easier, there were those that were still trying to do the right thing, even if they knew they'd get passed over for accolades and promotions, because it was the right thing to do, and they were the ones I'd risk my own life to protect. Hanging there, I knew what I was going to do, even if I didn't like it. "Fuuuck," I sighed, a resigned calm settling on me as I cut my flight, toppling backwards to start falling back towards the small war being waged below me.

Pulling once more on the Light, I blasted downwards, distantly noting the presence of something small floating in the air as I passed it, but I focused on the task at hand. I saw my target popping back and forth, almost exclusively using acid grenades, the monster, raining caustic death and disfiguration on the police as most ran, but some stayed and fought. Those were the ones he targeted, the ones with a spine that fought so their brothers in arms could escape, the ones I needed to save.

Remembering my own pistol, I pulled it out, layering the barrel with Speed Zone after Speed Zone. I only had six bullets, never reloading it after my demonstration that morning, and I had to make them count.

He appeared in front of a young woman, probably just out of the academy, and she immediately shot him in the head. She, however, missed the second clone right behind her, Uzi leveled at her head. I didn't, and my gun bucked, almost at the edge of my strength to hold, the bullet hitting the clone hard enough to throw it backwards like I'd punched it at full strength, its chest dissolving into blood, then ash. "Run!" I yelled to her, enhancing the sound, "I'll fight him! Get to safety! Break sight lines!"

She staggered, having turned in time to see me pulp the clone, then looked up at me, nodding as she bolted, running for the cover of a nearby alley. Following the chain of clones, I saw three in a row all about to toss acid grenades down into a street full of cops. I shot the grenade of the middle one, the device exploding prematurely as it tore his hand off, the burst of gas fouling the throws of the other two. Another appeared on a car in front of four officers, one older officer who'd lost his helmet being almost carried by another two as the last checked for clones in the wrong direction. My bullet almost caught the fucker as he started to pull the pin on the acid, but his power streaked out as it hit, a cloud of acid spewing towards the officers. A gust of wind was sent to push the cloud away from them as I turned to follow the trail of power, blasting with Light, almost catching him, only for that clone to crumble in the blast, the streak of power obscured in it, and I realized I'd lost track of him. Three appeared around me, all reaching for acid. I shot one of his cold grenades as I rocketed upwards, freezing all three as I rode the cold front, the cops below me dodging the sudden ice storm instead of acid rain.

As he appeared in front of me, pulling yet another acid, police below in range to get rained on, my remaining calm shattering as I fucking snapped. "That doesn't work on me you fucking moron!" I thundered, ripping it from his hand with one hand while I pistol whipped his mask, shattering it, shoving the stupid fucking thing down his stupid fucking throat, breaking his teeth in the process as it exploded around my hand, his body melting before turning into ash, sparing the cops below me.

Spotting him appear I snapped a shot as he stopped and turned, but his power moved right as his head snapped back, brains turning into ash in the air. His power rippling through the air above him, leaving half a dozen clones that turned their Uzis on me, hosing me down with bullets, which hurt like a bitch but couldn't do real damage, unable to get through the impenetrable 'leather' I wore.

Reading the patterns in the air, I zig-zagged through the onslaught, using air control to force a path open as I followed the real him across the street, starting to keep up with him as he moved, pushing my flight faster and tighter with every second, and even though I was dropping below half on my reservoir of Light, he needed to die.

Chasing him across the streets, his clones started pulling grenades and tossing them at me as fast as they could. Good. Fucker's scared. Weaving around the haphazard throws, I got a line on him, and shot at him with Light, almost hitting him, but that was never my plan. Rocketing past the streak of his power as he dodged, I cut my connection to the Light, falling as he turned to try to find me now that I wasn't glowing like a small sun. Before he could spot me I fired my last fucking bullet into that fucking acid grenade.

I pulled on the Light, taking flight and avoiding a rooftop as the grenade exploded, but it did so a half-second before he teleported, the clones he left behind easily trackable as a series of acidic clouds. Stopping a couple dozen clones later he turned, harness partially eaten, the green grenade nothing but the top assembly hanging uselessly. His power shot forward and there were eight of them, all with knives swinging towards me, but I blasted forward, stowing my gun as I shoulder checked one of my attackers, ripping the clone's Uzis from its belt, shooting the others as they reached for their guns, and hitting a few more copies before the weapon came apart in my hands.

I've got this! I mentally crowed, buzzing another, and stealing his gun to kill three more, Oni Lee now moving away from me with every teleportation. "Run, ya fuckin Robot!" I taunted as I chased him across the streets. The cops had taken cover and he was denied his soft targets, it was just him and me, and he'd seen how that ended up for the last hundred attempts. Ducking into a building, I followed him, plowing through a window with a fistful of Light, blasting him as he made another clone and escaped, but not for long. I couldn't do this forever, but I didn't need to do this forever, I only needed to hit him once.

Crashing through another building, following through several apartments, laughing like a madman, I was almost on him, my blast about to hit him and end this, when a blue beam lanced out, knocking into him and out of the path of my shot, the blast detonating on a far building. Before I could track the shot my flight suddenly plowed me face-first into the ground, shifting myself to Shadow at the last second. Pulling back out and flying high, I spotted Oni Lee teleporting towards a figure in steel armor, while a smaller blonde girl in white and green made motions with her hands. No! I thought. I fucking HAD HIM! But as I saw him teleport next to the two, hand reflexively pulling at his ruined acid grenade to no effect, dissolving to ash as he realized what happened and reaching too late for his electrical grenade, my priorities shifted.

I could get him, I could kill Oni Lee, but the assassin was not playing around right now. If I didn't get there ASAP, those kids were going to die, and out of all of them, Dean and Missy were the two I didn't want hurt. Seeing the Ward's powers flaring, I arced towards them, but suddenly my path was disrupted, throwing me further up in the air. What the fuck? I thought as my tendril of red and purple incandescence lashed out at Vista's green and yellow twisting spires of Flame, ripping off a portion for myself. I saw what was happening as I felt a new power come online. The girl below me was panicking and laying down twisted space all around their position on the rooftop. Against any other foe it might be an effective tactic, but against a sight-based teleporter, all it did was trap them as they cut off any avenue for help or escape.

With her power shooting through me, I read the space like a map, plunging into it and riding the streams ever closer as I saw Oni Lee pause, glancing at me before turning his attention back on the children before him as he slowly unsheathed his long knife. Blasting hard, I twisted around, through, and down, Gallant's blasts towards me pulled off course as I blitzed the pair of teens, reaching them right as two Oni Lees with knives out, each pulling the pins on HE grenades, appeared ready to kill the distracted Wards. I plowed into the clones, breaking my momentum on their faces as their necks snapped, unleashing my gathered Light to blast them backwards. They hit Vista's power as they detonated, the flames of their ordinance highlighting the shaped space in twisting ropes of destruction.

I dropped my flight to use my training in ground combat, as the situation was quickly devolving into one where I needed to fight more on instinct then planning. Gallant turned to blast me in the face, but I saw Oni Lee's power streaking in and grabbed the teen's arm, twisting it roughly to hit the newly forming clone, the ninja streaking out untouched, Oni Lee not spending any more time in close quarters than he had to, which I'd realized was a hundredth of a fucking second. Gallant's power knocked the copy backwards as it exploded into fire and I tagged the two Wards with bugs.

I tracked Vista as she moved to strike me, twisting out of the way as Oni Lee streaked back in, creating a clone with Uzi drawn. Pushing Vista into Gallant as he tried to take a swing, unbalancing the older hero, I grabbed the Uzi's magazine, jerking it in an arc towards myself as the copy pulled the trigger, blowing away the Oni Lee in quickly ashing brains, bone, and blood. Another Oni Lee formed behind Gallant, Uzi at the ready, and I used a blast of Light to flip myself directly over the armored hero, bracing my hands against his shoulders as I swung out a flying heel drop hard enough to snap the clone's neck. Pushing off him and blocking a haymaker from Gallant as I landed, I had enough.

"I'm on your side, dumbass!" I yelled, seeing his power flare as he tried to fire another blast, while I tracked Oni Lee. Kicking Vista out of the way of a clone with a knife, I yanked on Gallant's arm to shoot the clone as it pulled a pin. I need more reach I thought, trying to maneuver around the two heroes.

"You were killing people!" Vista yelled back as the blasted clone erupted into lightning, and I realized she was utterly useless in this fight. If the girl had a fucking knife she could do something, but right now she was just a target.

"That was Oni Lee, Missy!" I shouted back, grabbing the back of her costume and using her as a counterweight as I twisted, kicking another clone away, glancing as it flew upwards and exploded. I was surprised to notice we were only a few blocks away from the Medhall building. How far did he run?

"What!?" she cried out as I spun her the other way, putting myself in-between her and Oni Lee as twelve of the assholes opened up with Uzis. The bullets pinged off Gallants armors and quickly overwhelmed my bodily shields, hurting like a bitch as I fired a Light blast over my shoulder into the gathered gunmen, disrupting the firing line.

"He was never this bad before!" Gallant called, as I tossed Vista at him, he caught her as I shoved a glowing hand right next to his head, blasting another Oni Lee behind him. Two more appeared and I got one, but the other exploded as I punched him, fragments blasting outwards. Sound control countered some of the overpressure, but fragments stilled drilled into me as I rocked back, hurting something fierce.

"He was never losing before!" I growled, needing more reach as the clones started appearing further apart. I'd wanted to save it for Vejovis, but I needed it NOW. Moving on autopilot, I retrieved my TinkerTech flashlight, flicking the switch as I manifested my sword at the same time three copies appeared in a triangle in front of me, the front one pulling a knife while the back two pulled pins. I swung the sword with a roar, the ghostly flaming weapon impacting fully into the lead clone with a cannon blast of sound, reducing him to a bloody pulp in an instant, the force of what was left of him blasting the other two back as Vista swore.

Following the power, I didn't bother waiting, decapitating a clone as it formed, the next three clones sporting identical bloody slices on the sides of their necks. Yes! I tried keeping my sword in his power as it flowed past me, but it stuttered, dropping him behind the point of my compressed air blade before it moved on, the clone looking surprised as it darted forward, impaling itself, but that was a bust. The same thing that kept Oni Lee from telefragging others meant I couldn't do the same to him.

The flames started dancing along my sword as the shield recharged, and I knew we needed to leave as I cut down three more clones, all trying to dodge the blade with increasing success. Infinite mobile attacker versus perishable static defense? We lost unless I could surprise him again. He'd wear us down as I spent myself protecting these two fuckin' children, but there was no way in fuck was I going to leave them to die. I was down to maybe fifteen percent Lightform reserves, but that would be more than enough to get us to safety.

"Gallant," I barked. "Call the Rig, have them drop the shields, we're getting the fuck out of there. Missy, make a corridor from here to there, we need to outpace his line-of-sight teleportation, which means we need to move stupid fast."

Gallant yelled into his comms to do just that as two dozen Oni Lee's appeared around us in a wide circle. I couldn't spiral with the two of them here, so I moved as fast as I could, cutting one down and using it's Uzi to mow down several more. Gallant blasted two, and Missy even shoved one into warped space, sending him falling over the edge of the rooftop as it sliced her arm with its knife, but the last one got its grenade off.

Gallant shoved Missy forward as the clone exploded behind him, shielding her from the blast as gouts of electricity poured out, grounding themselves through the Hero as he screamed. The lights in his armor shorted out as he fell, and she rushed to him as more clones appeared to do it all again. The last of my shits now fully spent, I jumped over Gallant and Vista, spinning as I let the Light pour off in cords from my hands, elbow, knees, feet, spiraling in every direction but below me, ripping into the clones and destroying the roof around us, as well as the buildings nearby.

"Can't move," Gallant bit out as the building shuttered and started to come apart below us, "Too heavy." That tore it, we were evaccing now.

"Missy, hold onto Gallant," I ordered, picking him up as I stowed my sword. She clung to him and I wrapped him, and by extension her, in my shield, blasting off in a pillar of Light, manifesting invisible air blades in the glare, the rooftop becoming a kill zone as I cut the remaining clones to pieces, Tinkertech detonating as containment was breached.

As I rocketed upwards, Oni Lees appeared one after another, but I must've done something right, as every single one was distanced by me as soon as they appeared, unable to do more than stare as his power struggled to keep up, the eye-watering brightness of my Light throwing off his ability to place himself as close to me as he obviously wanted to.

We flew high above the city, the base of the Protectorate an apple sized sphere far below our feet as Oni Lee streaked towards us, the oversaturation of the structure's colors dropping as the shields fell. Space Warping less effective with more people? I thought, only the four of us anywhere within close to a mile in the air. This should be perfect. "Missy! Tunnel to the Rig! NOW!"

The space in front of me twisted, as I changed my grip, hands reaching around to hold Missy tight as we sandwiched the injured Dean between us. I reached into my connection to the Light, using the same thrust I'd used from my hands and feet and pushed that connection across my shoulder blades, down my legs, and covering the planes of my back, the pressure inside building to unbearable levels as I forced open the connection.

Oni Lees appeared all around us, pulling every pin they had, all ready to blow.

The world shuddered as I let go of the pressure and Light crashed out from behind me in a tide as the world around us seemed to darken, vision warping as we crossed the city in seconds, a roaring in my ears as I followed the tunnel of space right down to the front of the Rig, turning and burning Light in the other direction to slow us down as we landed in an entrance bay, all three of us sliding across the floor as I let them go, Vista on top of Gallant skidding further in as I turned, hands Lighting as I lay there, ready in case Oni Lee followed.

Looking back the night had turned to day, a small sun over the city, a path of slowly fading radiance leading down from it to our current location, the floor I'd slid across scored and twisted. Medical Personnel and PRT troopers poured in as the door out slammed shut, the heavy steel stopping Oni Lee from ever trying to blast his way in. I relaxed, and it was only then that I noticed that Vista was bleeding heavily, from her left leg and arm, chest, and head, and Dean's armor was streaked with blood as well, slowly dripping out of the joints.

As I thought that I should go help, the troopers formed a line separating us, pointing a line of foam sprayers at me as medics rushed over with stretchers, having to pry Vista off of Gallant to load them up and carry them away. I stared at the door they'd been carried out of as I was nearly overwhelmed by my emotions.

Seeing the two of them limp and injured hammered in how narrowly they'd escaped death. Gallant at least had been fully armored, but Missy had, what? A visor, a partial breastplate, along with shitty greaves and vambraces? From what little I'd seen, she obviously didn't know how to use her armor to enhance her blows or deflect weapons.

I felt concerned, disgusted, and outraged, though it was all muted by an oppressive feeling of fatigue. They'd put a fucking thirteen-year-old kid out on patrol with almost no training while a gang war was raging, the monsters. I'd bet that pseudo-dress she wore wasn't even fucking Kevlar.

I was broken from my thoughts when Miss Militia came striding out, ever present gun at the ready. My power sight kicked in. It was a Projection, limited to Weaponry the User Could Carry and with a block on Tinkertech. Big surprise. Before I could think to restrain it, my own power copied it, the physical manifestation requirement satisfied as it flowed from an assault rifle to a small taser pistol in her hand.

Part of me had to laugh at the stupidity of such a move. Straight electricity would mess me up if I went Shadow, but the prongs of her weapon would find no purchase on my armor until then. "Boardwalk," She called stiffly. "You are under arrest and will submit to questioning for your attack on Law Enforcement officers, and your part in the injuring of the Wards Gallant and Vista."

I blinked, sure I'd heard wrong, taking care to frame my response as Boardwalk, having lapsed back to Lee as I sat there and saw the two members of the Wards I cared the most about hurt. Reverting to my base as I'd sat there, tired and numb. This, though, sparked both of me back to life, though I wasn't exactly sure that was a good thing.

"I'm fuckin' sorry, I must have hearing damage or something, because I know you didn't just say you're fuckin' arresting me for killing cops, when I just risked my goddamned life saving the assholes." I tried to rise unsteadily to my feet, stumbling and falling as the PRT forces stood there, watching. My second attempt was marginally better, wincing at the pain in my ribs. I'd never cracked one before I got here, but if I had, it'd probably feel like that.

My legs were shot through with pain as well. Fuck, now that the battle high had faded, everything was sore, except maybe my head, but that was throbbing for an entirely different reason, as her expression didn't change and the PRT goons tightened their grips on their sprayers. My last hope that I had actually just misheard them disappeared like one of the dozen Oni Lees I'd just killed. And yeah, I killed them. Over, and over, and over again, until it was almost boring. Even if they were going to come apart seconds later, I knew how his power worked, each of those clones, however short lived, had been him, so if I wasn't a killer before, I sure as hell was now.

I looked at the cowards in front of me, willing to abuse their position and use violence against those who wanted nothing more than fuckin' help. To fuck over potential allies all because a paranoid idiot commanded them to. My dislike of authority, the cornerstone of Boardwalk's construction, deepened as I saw everything I hated in front of me, and I felt myself sinking deeper into the persona. If they'd asked me to come with them to help patch me up, they could've tried to hold me while putting on a good face, and this might've gone differently, but straight to imprisonment? Fuckin' amateur hour up in this bitch.

Yep, this is how they're playin' it, I told myself, even my own internal voice reverberating with Boardwalk's growl now. This shit never would've happened in New York. Legend would've handled this shit like an actual hero. "You can't be sayin' that, because otherwise you'd be fuckin' blamin' me for the fuckin' cops stupidity in surrounding a building where fuckin' Oni Lee, armed with fuckin' Tinkertech Ordinance, was stuck in fuckin' time with no other plan then 'shoot him a lot', which, yeah, was fuckin' my plan too, but I'm livin' goddamned artillery and can take a bomb or thirty-seven and only someone who was completely fuckin' retarded would reward the guy who risked his goddamn fuckin' neck saving your fuckin' child soldiers when they got in over their fuckin' heads with this shit!"

She flinched at that last comment. Good. It wasn't mine clearing, but playing storybook hero against real killers had 'bout the same fuckin' survival chances. It was only because Oni Lee was bound to Lung that things hadn't gone to fuckin' shit before, and he seemed to have slipped that fuckin' leash tonight. A part of me wanted to yell at them, scream at them how they weren't even doing their fucked-up job right. Sending kids out to fight actual criminals, especially without an adult to back them was fuckin' stupid.

To do so in a borderline conflict zone was past negligent and right in the middle of what the fuck is wrong with you lake, at a depth of were you dropped on your head as a child?

But that kind of rhetoric was Lee, maybe with a dash of Boardwalk. I'd settled into Full Boardwalk, who took to heart a few lessons I'd been presented with while getting the shit kicked out of me by life even if Lee didn't like it. Apologize for nothing that wasn't your fault, take what was owed you, and let them dig their own graves.

"Your claims will be reviewed while you are in custody," Miss Militia replied, who looked like she wanted to believe what she was sayin', but knew it was bullshit. She was getting orders from someone up the chain, probably Piggy, but I didn't give a shit by this point. I looked at the door to the outside, and the fuckin' submissive militia warned me "That door is electrified, they all are. If you try to phase through it, you won't like what happens."

I laughed, loud, long and harsh. "So this is the Protectorate, sock puppets of the PRT. Must be why you wear the bandanna, so no one can see Piggot's hand tickling your tonsils. I get blindsided by two fuckin' supervillains, do my best to save cops, save your junior squaddies, but as soon as you think you've got me in a fuckin' corner, out come the threats. What heroes you are. I hope you're proud. At least some of the villains got some fuckin' honor."

"Like Marquis," I said, rambling, trying to get the room to stop spinning. "Too bad he got his ass Caged, but fuck it, who knows how long that shit'll last." I wanted to say a number of other things, but those were more Vejovis than Boardwalk, though that did give me an idea. "Vejovis was fuckin' wrong, you're worse than the fuckin' pigs. I was a fuckin' dumbass for ever thinkin' I could join you." I laughed again, disappointed that even without Armsmaster present to fuck things up, they were just as bad as I'd feared, the pain of my emotions making my voice raw, as the pain in my body was making me cough uncontrollably.

Recovering, I glared at the assembled forces facin' me. "Not only that, you aren't paying any goddamned attention. I'm not a knife in the dark, like Sophia. That little bitch would've peed herself and ran for cover, leavin' everyone else to die, spinnin' a line about those that die bein' 'weak prey' while ignoring her own cowardly ass because she's so used to hiding in the dark she's allergic to the Light of Truth."

I grinned behind my mask, "Me, I'm not a fuckin' blade in the dark, I'm a goddamned shadowed Sun, and while you can hide and shade yourself from it, you can't cage the Light, you submissive cunt." I pulled Light from my reservoir, the pain of my injuries fading. I barely had any left, but I had enough.

The sheepdog fired her taser, and if I was insubstantial enough for the wires to fly through me it might've worked, but she'd shown her hand as a threat, and lost the surprise needed for it to work. I turned my back on the Protectorate, in every sense of the word.

I could feel the sprayers activate, the containment foam reaching out to encircle, trap, and contain me, but I let the Light shimmer across my back, pushing the tide backwards, and on itself. A sprayer above me tried the same thing, but another glimmer of Light from my head shoved that back, covering the nozzle in its own mess.

Reaching deeper into the Light I gathered it to me, unstable and dangerous, but bending to my will. I'd shaped it once into a breaching charge, this wasn't much difference, except scale. I needed to breach the barrier in front of me, a full three feet or so thick from the markings on the wall when they'd closed it. I paused, the blast needed to break through that would kill everyone in here, which meant I didn't need a blast I needed something else.

Fuck it, I thought. I managed to get myself trapped in this goddamned mess trying to help those kids, and they were safely gone. If everyone here but me died. It would suck, but I'd make it work. With that in mind, and wondering if this was the last actions of Boardwalk before I was forced to retire the identity, I busted everything out. The light would blast, but I needed something more, something better.

I needed to cut, to dig, to focus my efforts for maximum effect.

I was aware of people moving behind me, but I didn't care, the mass of Light in front of me blinding to anyone not of the Light. Using air control, I manifested a blade, then twisted it, broadening it, solidifying it with the crystallized shield from my head. I looked at the shape in front of me, pulsing with power, and started to spin it, slowly at first, then faster, and faster, wisps of errant light spiraling off it and bathing the area in radiance.

"You think you can cage me, with your threats, your corruption, your traps? Fuck all ya'll!" I yelled, enhancing the sound of my own voice to let everyone hear what I had to say, charging forward, my footsteps shimmering with Light as they ate away at the floor. I rammed my construct into the door with a scream of tortured metal, and it started to dig, but barely.

I let loose the Light, the explosive substance pushed out the tip, hitting the door and blasting a hole which the shaped blade widened, over and over again. The wisps of exotic matter not consumed but channeled down the ridged drill, further eating away at the obstacle before me. "My Light cannot be contained, for it is the sun," I ranted, delirious with pain, and tiredness, and just being done with this stupid fucking place, "and my sun will burn through anything that seeks to hold it, you motherfuckers pretending to be heroes."

The door continued to give, and I felt impacts against my back. Not sure if they were shooting me with beanbags, or straight up bullets. The radiance from my back lessened any blow I took. Now I was a foot in, and picking up speed as I went. I was halfway out of what Light I'd gathered, but it should be enough. It had to be enough.

"Look upon a true hero, and quail in fear like the pussy bitches you are." I taunted, passing the three-foot mark and still going, the door thicker than I thought it was. Fuck it, either this would work or it wouldn't. If it didn't. . . fuck these clowns, I was going to drop them all into darkness and take out ever motherfucker who got in my way.

This? This was me being nice.

I jerked as something hit me hard, almost draining my crystalline shield and slamming into me like a hammerblow, followed by another, then another, but I wouldn't stop, couldn't stop. With a jerk I felt the leading edge give, Light escaping in a plume before I contained it, my construct having drilled through to the other side, and I smiled. Stepping back, enough Light left for one hell of a flashbang, I declared, "My Light is unquenchable, for mine is the Light that will pierce anything in my way!"

Wrapping myself in a shell of air and sound I twisted the construct, inverting to spread out the Light as much as I could, mixing with the air and reacting all at once into a massive explosion, which tore the hole even wider, metal glowing as I dashed out, the Rig's shield an unpassable barrier in front of me, but not an electrified one.

Resolved that I'd never step back here in any identity I leapt out over the waves, turning to face the hole I'd bore through their impassible door. Two turrets with cameras turned on me, spewing foam, but it was fuckin' useless. I used the last of my Light, not enough for even a single blast, to cover the backs of my hands, flipping off both cameras as I plummeted, the Light deflecting foam back on the turrets as it accelerated me towards the ocean far below.

The last of my Light faded as I hit the water with what would have been bone-crushing force, had I been anything but a Shadow.

 

[Leecifer]

Spoiler 5.5

As I sped through the water, all I felt was tired. Switching to my Vejovis garb, my enhanced eyes barely spotted the shore moments before I plunged into it. I stopped, still made of insubstantial shadows, before shrugging, guessing the location of our base and heading that way. After a bit I noticed that apparently, I didn't need to breathe when in Shadowform, which was a nice plus, though the lack of sensory feedback was annoying. Tapping into my bug sense and using them to scout, and using them to figure out my own position, I found I was a couple blocks away from Winslow, way off base from my target. Rising up out of an alley, careful to avoid powerlines, I solidified, leaning against the wall as I took a deep breath and collected myself.

Jumping as my phone rang, and biting back a swear at the pain the movement sent shooting through my chest, I fumbled it, catching it with Aerokinesis. Plucking it out of the air I answered it as I dropped a sound bubble over me. "Hey Taylor, not a good time," I wheezed. The pain in my chest had lessened, but whatever struck me in the back felt like it broke a rib. Or three. Maybe five.

"Oh god, are you okay!? I've been calling for the past half an hour, but you weren't picking up! I thought you were dead!" Probably not that much reception underground, I reasoned.

"I'm fine," I coughed, correcting, "I'll be fine. Protip, never step foot on The Rig unless you have a plan to escape."

"What!? What happened?" she demanded.

"I got Gallant and Vista to safety from Oni Lee, and the Protectorate tried to arrest me, attacking me when I um, informed them of their failings that led to the situation in question and expressed my discontent with their response," I explained, which was technically correct, if leaving out the entire cussing them out stuff, and the part where I used the F word in a similar manner to a valley girl using the word 'like'.

"Is that why you blew a hole in the door and jumped out?" she asked equal parts horrified and saddened.

"I, I'm sorry, what? How did you know I did that?" I asked, slumping back against the alley wall, which also hurt, but hurt less.

"Uber and L33t recorded your fight and streamed it," she told me. "I was. . . studying when it started. I'm on their mailing list, research the opposition and stuff, not that they really count."

I thought back to the thing I'd passed when I'd dropped out of the sky to save the police. "Oh, that must've been one of their camera drones."

"That's all you have to say?" she demanded.

"Um," I responded, taking a breath to respond before hissing in pain.

"Are you okay? No, you already said you weren't. Do you need to go to the hospital? Can you go to the hospital? Is there anything I can do?" she asked, concerned but obviously feeling helpless.

"I should be fine," I responded, trying to mask the pain in my voice. "Have a power for that. Honestly, the worst injury I have is when Miss Militia kept shooting me in the back. I think they might've been RPGs."

"MISS MILITIA SHOT YOU IN THE BACK WITH AN RPG!!!" she shouted.

I shrugged, which also hurt. "I'm not sure, I was kinda distracted. Don't shout, you don't want to wake your dad," I admonished, taking to the air, Glory Girl's shield carrying me up weightlessly as I started to fly towards home, easing some of the pressure on my back. "I got a copy of her power, so I kinda want to return the favor, but I won't, 'cause Hero."

"What happened?" she asked quietly. "I saw the fight from when the explosions started, but how did you end up trapped in time with Oni Lee?"

In time? I thought, but, with how everything had changed all at once, that tracked.

"Right, so I've recruited Purity, who hasn't been a Neo-Nazi for two years after she divorced Kaiser," I informed her, talking over her objections. "And I was looking for an ABB safehouse to hit with Herb and her, a teambuilding exercise to get her over the fact that he's, you know, black, and I found a communication center. . . thing. But while I was watching, a strike team bust in the front door, and I figured since I was there first, I'd go in through the roof as Boardwalk and we'd split the take, share intel, all that. Turns out they were part of Æonic's gang, For Whom the Bell Tolls."

"It tolls for thee," she finished. "Better than the ABB at least. So he's a villain? People aren't sure online."

"Yeah, but maybe in the 'villain that robs villains' Robin Hood vein? Either way, we were talking about how to split the take, when Oni Lee showed up. How did L33t know to film it?" I asked, interested in something to distract me from the low-level pain even flying didn't completely stop.

"I don't know. People think someone called the cops instead of the PRT, or that it was a trap for them. No one knew you were in there. I. I didn't like finding out that way," she told me.

"You're in the Undersiders, and until you're fully on the team there's a lot I can't tell you." I countered. "Besides, this was a scouting mission gone wrong; I didn't plan to fight Oni Lee. If you saw the fight, you saw me trying to get away."

"You were?" she asked, confused. "I thought you were faking. Why didn't you just use Brian's darkness to hide and get away? Lisa said Oni Lee's power was line of sight."

"I. . ." I had to stop in mid-air. "I didn't even think about it. It wasn't one of Boardwalk's assigned powers, so I didn't even-God I'm an idiot!"

"You're not!" she protested, which was nice of her. "You just, um, got too focused. Makes me feel better actually. Not that you got hurt!" she corrected. "That you make mistakes too, you know?"

I groaned. "I'm not perfect Taylor, no one is." I spotted Herb, but not, leaning casually against the doorway into the base. "I need to go take care of something. I'll be fine, see you tomorrow. It's almost dawn, go to bed."

"Oh, okay. Um, Bye. Please stay safe!" she responded, before hanging up.

I stowed the phone, Seeing Curtis and following the strand of his power that pulled off to find The Hurt on a nearby rooftop. A single air blade ended the Stand's life. A second made sure, and countered the effects of the Fake Death power it had, the Stand having been playing possum, actually killing it with that one. "Curtis," I said, landing several meters away, a not-insignificant part of me wanting to decapitate him and deal with him in a week.

Manifesting an array of blades, I dictated, "Here's how this is going to go. You're going to answer my questions. If I like your answers, you live. If I don't, you die. If you summon The Hurt, you die. If you threaten those I care about, you die. If you hurt those I care about, you'll die, and continue dying for a year straight until we revisit this issue again. Understood?"

He held up his hands, smiling that oily smile, not reaching his eyes. "Cool your roll, hot stuff. No need to get all serious. I feel you."

"When you die, what happens?"

"Nothin'" he replied with a languid shrug. At my unimpressed stare he continued. "Nah man, a whole lotta nothin'. Hangin' out in nothin'. Waitin's only thing a cat can do. That, and think 'bout what I'll lay down when it's my time to shine."

"What do you want?"

"A challenge," he smiled, all teeth. I manifested another blade. "Not you, man. It'll be a while 'fore I'm on your level. Maybe a tussel now and then, but no claws, I promise. I want to hunt," he laughed. "I've seen Boardwalk, you know what I mean. There's no point if there's no thrill, and I want the most dangerous of game."

"Capes," I replied, unimpressed with what I saw before me. What decision would lead Herb to become. . . this? The Replicant smiled again, but it was cold. After tonight though, I could see the use of an assassin, but he needed to be leashed. I didn't have a way to do that yet, but I'd have to treat him like Herb had wanted to handle Bakuda: give him an outlet.

I looked him in the eye, mouth quirking into a smile that matched his. "Ever been to Vegas?"

<AB>​

With Curtis gone, and having made sure he'd gone, him and his Stand turning into cheetahs before dashing off as I tracked their path from high above, I finally relaxed. I'd sculpted him to his specifications, a mix of a young Eriq La Salle and young Michael Jackson, the Jheri Curls he asked for apparently normally needed chemicals, but whatever. I'd been surprised when he asked for Tiger eyes, and my warning that there was a fifty-fifty chance I'd screw up and blind him by accident only seemed to excite him. It'd worked, though they were actually just housecat eyes, but whatever.

Looking online from my phone, Taylor was right, L33t had tasked a drone with filming the fight, though it was barely able to keep up with me. It was oddly hard to focus on, and watching the confrontation Boardwalk looked a lot more impressive than I felt. The fact the video lacked of ability to see that washed out streak of Red and Grey power I'd tracked giving Boardwalk the appearance of almost precognitively good reflexes, and the music accompaniment was a nice touch. Helped drown out the screaming at least.

Interestingly, as the fight progressed the trails of light my blasts left changed, moving from the white double-helix of Purity's power to a solid trail of multicolored light. The leading edge of my blasts were still pure Light, but the trails almost looked prismatic, color further saturating the attacks the more I used them.

The fight with the Wards made me wince though. I'd done what I had to, to keep them alive, but I hadn't realized how hard I'd had to be with them. The frag grenade I'd gotten hit with in the face was the first thing that had really done a number on the kids. I'd been so focused on moving as fast I hadn't thought to divert the shrapnel from them, and I could see Vista get hit, but the entire thing was a blur.

The escape, up and out, was impressive, L33t commenting that it looked like whatever the cold grenade used, it was flammable, however that worked, which combined with the fire grenade made something like a fuel-air bomb, which had in turn blown out the windows of the Medhall building, which was just a cryin' fuckin' shame my inner Boardwalk commented.

The video continued, with L33t talking about the tech of the grenades and guessing at my sword. Shaped exotic matter from my power kept in place with a magnetic field? I thought. It's not a lightsaber, it looked like it was on fire dumbass, a thought echoed in the comments. What was interesting was when The Rig lit up with alarms, the camera focusing on the door as it started to glow red and bulge outwards, the light of my drill almost blinding it. The explosion from outside was a lot more impressive than I though it'd be, and they captured my jumping out and giving both barrels to the turrets before disappearing into the waves, comments arguing if Boardwalk was dead, and what had happened.

Good. Fuckers deserved the PR black eye this was going to bring down on them.

Lowering myself down to the ground, landing on shaky feet, I shifted to casual clothing as I dismissed my flight, making me feel even heavier than when I'd dealt with Curtis. I took a step towards the door, but my legs weren't quite up to full yet. I staggered as I identified myself, undoing the lock, which I'd made sure not to key Curtis in.

I was looking forward to breakfast, and maybe reading for an hour or two before going out and making an appearance as Vejovis as the edges of my vision fluttered. Frantically looking around for whoever was attacking me, everything started tilting crazily as I lost my balance, darkness closing in around me.

<AB>​

"He's coming around, and should be up in a moment. He said he was getting enough sleep!" a girl said, the voice familiar.

I felt someone put their hand on my head and I reacted without thinking, grabbing and twisting, as the person over me squeaked in fright, pulling them to me as I grabbed them tightly by the throat. I immobilized their hands with one of mine while the other was ready to choke, holding them fast against me and facing them away, my body moving smoothly without any input from my sluggish thoughts.

"I told ya not to do that when he was wakin' up," Herb commented blandly.

I opened my eyes, blinking at the brightness.

Glancing around I determined that I was laying on the couch in our base's lounge, Herb sitting in one of the chairs looking at me smugly. Looking down, I saw that my hostage was a very annoyed looking Panacea in civilian clothing.

"Um. . . hi," I said, not really sure what to do at this point. "Fancy meeting you here."

"Let me up!" she hissed back, and I released her, giving her a bit of the Get Better healing so she didn't have any. . . interesting bruises to explain to her family. I'd already had that conversation enough times already with previous female friends, thank you very much, because no one believed I was actually teaching them how to fight, which involved sparring.

"I, wait, what did you, no, not important, why did you lie to me!?" she yelled down at me once she got to her feet, somewhere between hurt and pissed, though the two might've just amplified each other with my luck. "You said you never would!"

I held up a hand. "Um, I just woke up, so can you give me a sec. Also, pretty sure I haven't."

"Yes you have!" she insisted. "You said you were getting enough sleep, but you had so many fatigue poisons you should've slept for days, you fucking hypocrite!"

That hurt. "I'm not a hypocrite; I don't need to sleep!"

"Everyone needs to sleep!" she countered.

"Miss Militia doesn't," I reposted, not sure if the term Noctis Cape was an actual thing, or one of those WoG, would provoke negative reaction if used by the wrong people, phrases.

She looked livid. "YES SHE DOES! EVERYONE DOES!" Herb, the asshole, sat back in his chair and looked like he wanted fucking popcorn.

"Wait, really?" I asked, mind waking up at this new intel. I didn't think she needed to, but Panacea was the medical expert here. "You've seen her biology?"

"YES, SHE-" she started to yell, catching herself "You thought she didn't sleep at all?"

I shrugged, as this was news to me, but the story didn't really focus much on her. "No, I thought that was just an excuse so assholes wouldn't demand she works twenty-four seven."

The healer pinched the bridge of her nose as I tried to sit up, only for her to push me back down. "Stay, you still need to rest. I cleaned your body but your brain is still feeling the stress. Miss Militia doesn't need to sleep but she needs to rest, which you haven't been doing. Hypocrite."

I sighed, not really liking having to talk to her with my current height disadvantage. "I'm not a hypocrite," I countered. "I thought I was getting enough rest, you knew you weren't getting enough. But I feel that I'm unfairly excluding my partner from this delightful conversation. Break, why did you bring Panacea to our secret base before she joined the team?"

Herb snorted. "Yeah, no, I'm sorry. I found my passed-out friend right outside the door and thought, 'Ya know what? I'm not gonna bring the person who he needs the most, who can heal him, because, I don't know, he might be dying of some weird shit to some random hotel.' I thought, 'No, bring in my best friend, make sure he's comfortable, check his vitals, and run and get the most important person out there!'"

"But, operation security you moro-" I started to object, cut off by Panacea.

"Hey! Your friend was worried about you! Don't speak to him like that!" she chided.

I goggled at the thought of Panacea defending Herb, the self-avowed villain who'd allowed Dinah to. . . Ugh! The asshole in question chimed in, "Yeah, don't speak to me like that. I am concerned!"

Panacea waved to him, behind her, not able to see the shit-eating grin he was sporting. "See!"

There were so many things I wanted to say, but whatever, she was here now and apparently I need to rest occasionally, giving up with an, "Okay."

Boojack chose that moment to come out of his room, reeking of weed. He took in the situation, before looking over at me, asking "Who's the kid?"

I sighed. "That's Panacea, Boojack."

He nodded to himself. "No shit? You healed me. Thanks." Turning to me he proceeded with what he obviously actually wanted to ask: "Do you have any more weed?"

I look at him. There was no way he'd gone through all of it already. "I gave you a duffle bag full!" I exclaimed.

He shrugged unrepentantly, "Yeah, but it's been like two weeks."

"I gave you two!" I reminded him.

He started to respond, an expression of deep thought gracing his features, before brightening. "Oh, right, I hid the other one! Can't remember why." And with that he moseyed on back to his room.

Panacea looked between me and the now closed door, disbelieving, finally asking, "What the hell, you gave him weed? Are you a drug dealer?"

I looked at her, offended at the implication. "In exchange for beating up Nazis? Yeah."

This, apparently, was not the answer she was expecting. "Wait, what? Isn't he a hero?" she asked plaintively.

Right, she's still touchy about the entire 'villain' thing ". . . Ummm. . . Not really?" I finally hedged, not wanting to lie to her.

Herb however, took this as an opportunity, springing to his feet and taking a strongman pose. "No, we are proudly villains!" he declared.

Panacea, if anything, looked more confused.

"They. . . okay. He," I tried to explain, pointing in Boojack's direction, "Just wants to be left alone, but will fight for weed, so has been working on the team, though not really part of it, and he," I pointed to Herb, who was cycling through strongman poses like he was in a competition, something undercut by his wearing a formal suit, "Is one of those self-described villains that doesn't actually do anything evil that I told you about. I've learned not to fight him on it."

Herb, still posing, retorted, "Yeah, you don't fight me because you know I'm a villain!" He shifted again, turning his back to us as he showed off, I don't know, his biceps or something? Again, his suit jacket obscured most of his muscles. "I am no Shredder, but I'm sure as hell Michel Knight."

I looked at Panacea, who didn't seem to understand him either. She took the initiative on this one asking, "Shredder, you mean the cartoon with the turtle ninjas from Earth Aleph?"

He turned back to face us, nodding, "Yeah, he's a dick, I'm not Shredder."

Panacea and I shared another glance, this time I bit the bullet, asking, "Who's Michel Knight?"

He looked between us, incredulous, "Knight Rider? He's actually a villain."

"Really?" I asked, only knowing he had a smart car named Kit or something.

Herb responded earnestly, "Oh yeah, Michel Knight is actually a villain. He's wanted by, like, sooo many people."

That didn't sound like it gelled with what I'd heard about the plot of the show. "But doesn't he save people and shit?"

He nodded, "Yep."

Like a bolt from the blue, it hit me, and I had to check to see if the cause of so much friction between us could be something so stupid. "Oh god, is that why you think you're a villain? Early eighties television? If it is, it explains so much."

He nodded again, like it was obvious, "Yeah, we're like the A-team!"

"The A-team were not villains!" I objected, Panacea just looked confused.

Herb shook a finger at us in negation, "They were considered villains though, by all of society."

"No, they . . ." I paused, dimly recalling the opening theme, on those channels that ran old shows. "'Sent to prison for a crime they didn't commit, they promptly escaped to the LA underground. Still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one can help, if you can find them, you can hire, the A-tea- Damnit, you're right!"

"Yeah, and then there's Airhawk!" he laughed.

"I've never even heard of that one, but fine, I believe you." I gave holding up a hand in defeat. "What was with the eighties?" I started to muse, pausing, "It was the eighties and not the seventies, right?" He nodded, so I continued. "What was with the eighties and all of the vigilante heroes?" Panacea looked at me, shrugging helplessly, but the answer filtered in through my tired mind. "Oh, right there was a crime wave or something and the cops weren't doing anything, so we wanted someone that would."

Panacea looked between us. "What are you guys talking about?"

I responded quickly, not wanting to get into the alternate dimension thing, "Things from before either of us were born."

"Fall Guy! Fall Guy was the shit," Herb added unhelpfully, off in his own nostalgic little world.

"Anyways," I pressed, trying to move the conversation along. "Panacea. I'm okay, I'll meditate or something."

"Why don't you just sleep?" she asked, eyebrow raised.

I shook my head, "That takes eight hours, and there's too many things I need to do."

"Dude, you need actual sleep right now," Herb chimed in.

Sighing, I looked up at him, "I think I dropped at dawn, how long was I out?"

"Four hours," my teammate informed me.

Shrugging, I started to get up. "Good enough."

Panacea pressed me back down, insisting, "No, you're still exhausted. You need to rest. I've taken care of your body, but your brain needs to recover as well!"

I looked back at her, trying for a more emotional argument, since she wasn't listening to logic. "But, but I have to go with you to heal people in an hour. And then dinner, which I enjoy. And then try find Bakuda's Lair. Just a lot of shit to do in not enough time to do it in."

"You don't need to heal with me, you need sleep," she insisted, smiling.

Well, at least she wasn't angry at me anymore. "But I-

"Reeeeest," Herb interrupted, moving to stand behind Panacea. "Listen, the healer," he started, pausing to mouth the words 'your girlfriend', "says to sleep."

"Dude," I said, in warning tones. Giving me shit was one thing, but saying that kind of thing in front of Panacea would turn our working relationship nine kinds of awkward, and I was already apparently dealing with that sort of problem from Taylor. I really didn't need it from her either.

Panacea shook her head, thankfully missing the subtext, insisting "No, he's right." I glared at him as he gave her a significant look, and mouthed 'I know you want to fuuuuuu,' punctuated with a pelvic thrust. Panacea, unaware, continued, "You need to listen to your friend."

Herb was having a field day with this shit, adding, "Yeah, and honestly," mouthing 'the love of your life', "Really has important stuff for you to listen to. Get some sleep. Remember, she really knows what's going on in you." He finished patting her on the head with his gauntlet like one would child, adding in another pelvic thrust between pats.

"Okay," I said as I glared at him, manifesting an air blade behind Panacea, slowly moving it upwards. Herb, with my Power Sight, saw the rising edge and removed his hand from her head, still grinning. "I'll get some more rest, but I'll still meet you for dinner, okay?" I gave in to her, dismissing the Aerokinetic weapon.

She nodded, smiling again, before looking around. "Sure, do you feel a breeze?"

"Someone must've left a window open," I commented drolly. "Do you need me to give you a lift to the hospital?"

Herb shook his head "Don't worry, she can ride me." I glared, that one wasn't even subtle and he was over twice her age. Not even the kind of thing you should joke about. "Have you ever rode a dinosaur lizard thingy? It's quite awesome."

Panacea gave me a questioning look, obviously not really sure what he meant, or if she should be offended. "He can turn into Dinosaurs. It's one of his powers," I informed her blandly.

"How does that work?"

I shrugged, "Powers?"

"You could find out as I do it," Herb added, as he turned and walked out the door.

"See you tonight!" Panacea waved, starting to follow, "Get some rest!"

A moment later I heard her surprised voice calling, "How do you get that big?"

I laid there, considering that comment. I hope he's actually turning into a dinosaur, or I'm going to beat the crap out of him. A moment later I heard a saurian trill.

Oh thank god.

 

[Leecifer]

Spoiler 5.6

Laying there, trying to do nothing while my brain healed, was boring. Explosions were still going off, and time was slowly ticking down to the inevitable Endbringer attack. Thinking of the things I could be doing was frustrating, because I knew that probably didn't count as 'rest', but I literally couldn't stop. I considered playing around with Aerokinesis or my newly acquired Space Warping, but Panacea had been clear, I needed to rest both my body and my mind.

Ugh.

Getting up from the couch I headed towards my room. Other than walking through it to use the shower, I hadn't had any cause to be in here, and I looked over at the bed, which looked comfortable enough. The small wave of dust that came off it when I flopped down the sheets was a bit much, I groused internally as I laid on top of the covers, trying to relax and meditate, finding my center and all that fun stuff.

I stayed there, focusing on trying to not focus, body relaxed, as I lost track of time, keeping my breathing slow and steady. A noise rang out and I jumped as my phone rang the instrumental of 'Sharp Dressed Man'. My thoughts were sluggish, but quickly picking up, leaving me feeling oddly refreshed. "Good," I checked the bedside clock, surprised to see it was three p.m., "afternoon Mr. Calle, what can I do for you?"

"I've been contacted by the PRT," he started. My stomach sank, did they figure out that I was related to Boardwalk? "They've decided to reach out to everyone they can, given last night. . . events. Would you be interested in helping them in their efforts, and if so do you have a preferred role?"

I sighed in relief. "About time. I believe that both myself and The Lady, Bug would be quite proficient in bomb detection, and disarmament, provided we were furnished with someone to walk us through the process."

"But how. . . Ah, yes, I'd forgotten your other abilities, my apologies. You can control insects that well? In that case you should definitely be of use, and paid commensurate with your use of course. From what I've seen The Lady, Bug appears to be young. Do you wish to set up a similar situation as you did with Miss Panacea?"

I nodded, then stopped, remembering he couldn't see me. My brain wasn't quite up to one hundred percent yet. "Yes, but with the ratios reversed as she is the junior partner."

"Of course," he responded smoothly, a couple of questions following confirming my availability.

Not even five minutes later I got an e-mail, asking for me to show up at the PRT office in half an hour to start working. I called Taylor, who answered it on the first ring. "The Lady, Bug, would you be available to assist me in finding where Bakuda has hidden her bombs? From a safe distance of course."

"You mean going out during the day with you?" she asked, suddenly nervous. "But what about the entire undercover thing? Won't us both going out doing hero things ruin that?"

"With the Truce coming, all it will do is make you look ahead of the curve," I started to tell her, interrupted by her question of "What truce?" I stopped and thought, this week was just kind of skipped over by the time skips that happened in Worm cutting down on my foreknowledge, though I wondered how much last night's fight had thrown off everything.

"The villain groups are all meeting the day after next to discuss a truce," I revealed, "putting aside their personal problems to eliminate the ABB before the National Guard comes in. Brockton Bay is worse than most cities when it comes to gang-fighting, but it's gotten to the point the national government is going to get involved soon, well, soon for the government, but even then that's two or three months before the Bay is put under martial law, which would be bad for all the villains."

"Oh," she responded. "Yeah, the video has over a hundred million views already."

I winced, oh yeah, that's going to affect things. "So maybe sooner. Regardless, can you be in costume and meet me at the edge of the commercial district in fifteen?"

With her affirmation, I started to go talk to Herb, but hesitated. He'd be of more use with the rest of the regular heroes, but knowing him that's exactly where I didn't want him. Not only would they not take his "I'm a villain!" performance well, the chance that he'd say the wrong thing, if only to needle them, was far too high. Leaving a note that I was going out and would be back tonight, I grabbed some cold pizza from the fridge and wolfed it down before flying out the door in Vejovis guise.

From the air I scanned the insect population, drawing out the gnats from below me in a grey cloud that struggled to keep up with my moderate pace. Spotting Taylor suited up, I swooped down, smirking, and grabbed the hand she was waving, pulling her up with me. She gave a strangled squeak as I did so, shifting her to be flying parallel with me. She reached over and smacked me with her free hand. "Don't do that!" she rebuked, voice softening. "I'm glad you're alright Lee. Do you have a self-healing power too? Who'd you get it from? It couldn't be her, everyone says Panacea can't heal herself."

I shook my head. "No, Panacea's the one who patched me up."

"Oh," she responded, "Um, so finding bombs? Is that why you have the swarm, Lee?" Her power overlaid mine, taking control of the gathered insects in much finer detail, smoothing out the flight patterns and doing something that let them move together faster after a few seconds, which I gratefully copied.

I nodded as we flew, getting a few looks from below. "We're using them for identification of devices, and we can grab some beetles for manipulation if we need to. Remember, Taylor, from here out I'm Vejovis, and you're The Lady, Bug." She apologized, and we continued on, slowly flying over the city, the swarm growing at a slow trickle until it was several thousand strong, enough that I could maybe fit them all in a van if needed. As we entered Downtown I remembered what I'd grabbed on my way out, handing her a new cell phone. "Here you go, since Bakuda anti-blew up the last one." She gave an embarrassed, "Thanks," as she stowed it.

While we descended in front of the PRT building a few minutes later I compressed the swarm, keeping them a hundred feet above the street as we touched down. The officer at the front nodded to me as I walked up. "Vejovis, Lady Bug, if you'll come with us." He looked upwards at the dark cloud hanging in the air, the sound of buzzing barely perceptible, but still perceptible. "Please leave your. . ." he paused, "Insects outside." I smiled and nodded.

The Rig might've been quite difficult to break out of, but this building? I wouldn't even need to break character. Taylor looked to me, concerned as she hesitantly started to release her nervousness into the swarm. I nodded to her, trying to convey that we'd both be fine, and I understood why she was leaning on her swarm to manage her emotions. If all I had was insect control, and no insects, I'd be nervous too.

Following the officer inside, we were led to a meeting room where we were left alone. Taylor started to say something, but I shook my head, mouthing 'wait'. It was another few minutes when a different PRT officer in full combat gear walked in. "Sorry," he said perfunctorily. "You're early. I've been told you can help us find bombs?"

I nodded, "It'll look like a biblical plague, unfortunately, but we both can perceive the insects we control in three dimensions, so by having them carpet an area, we can see in all the nooks and crannies, finding anything that would normally be hidden or hard to see, as long as it's not borderline airtight. We can also control beetles to try to defuse things if someone can tell us what to do."

He stood there, black helmet masking his facial expression. Whoever thought that was a good idea obviously never read the Evil Overlord List. "That would be very effective," he replied after a moment. "I'll get the team. How long can you do this?"

"Till nine tonight, and dawn until nine in the morning tomorrow," I responded. "After that it'll depend on how things develop." Taylor nodded behind me. The officer, who I realized didn't even have a name tag, just a tag that read PRT ENE, told us he'd go assemble a team, leaving without saying anything else. A few seconds later another officer opened the door, leading us back outside. Minutes later a team of six came out, the lead one probably the one who said he'd get a team.

Is it to stop villains from identifying individual members and hunting them down? I mused, looking at the team of six, along with the four door guards. Other than height and slight differences in build they were nearly identical.

We stood there, looking at each other for a minute, before the leader, who sounded like the same person, though the mask muffled his voice, asked, "Are you going to begin?"

I looked around. "Right here? Sure." I glanced at the crowd, jerking a thumb towards them. "But shouldn't we warn them first?" The trooper gave me a blank look, or, well, just didn't say anything. I sighed turning to those assembled.

"Greeting good citizens!" I boomed, calling on what my little brother had called my 'teacher voice'. I winced, thinking about how I'd probably never see him or my mother ever again. Or any of my family outside of maybe my father, now that I really thought about it. I must've been projecting my emotions, since I felt Taylor's concern, but waved a hand to her that it wasn't important.

"I, Vejovis, and my teammate, The Lady, Bug, are working with the Parahuman Response Teams to help track down un-activated TinkerTech devices that may have been hidden in the area. As such, we shall be utilizing our insect control to attempt to feel out the surrounding area. They are harmless, but if you'd rather not be touched by a hundred gnats, please head inside until we have moved on with our search. Thank you for your cooperation!" I lowered the swarm, not expanding the mass to make my point. Quite quickly the street emptied, except for a brave few souls, phones out.

I took the swarm, and directed them, the mass moving like a slow grey explosion as they covered everything in front of us, building a mental picture. Extending them out in every direction for about a hundred feet, I blinked as I felt something with wires and metal. Feeling it out, I felt an inscription in part of it which read "Bakuda" with a little picture of a cartoon bomb, circle with a line out of the top, the top of the line with slashes not touching surrounding it. I put my face in my hands as Taylor commented, "Really?"

"What is it?" the PRT goon practically barked.

"Found one," I shrugged, sighing as all ten started looking around, as if it were easily visible. "This way," I commented walking down the street, crossing the crosswalk, then walking over and down and alley, pointing at a cardboard box halfway down. "In that."

The officer looked back, maybe incredulously? His body language was generally unhappy and hostile, but I wasn't the best at determining that sort of thing, and unlike Taylor he didn't try and display it at all, so I had no clue. He didn't even say anything, so I couldn't even go on that. I thought about offering to have some insects remove the top of the box, there weren't any connections from the bomb to the box, as far as I could tell, but if he was going to be a jerk about it, I wasn't going to offer more help than was asked for.

At least I'm getting paid, I comforted myself, and Vejovis happily and actively working with the PRT after Boardwalk told them to sit and spin would help separate their identities. With this kind of treatment, I might've said screw this and just gone and done this on my own. Which might be the point, I realized. The PRT worked against capes. With the exception of the Protectorate, who reported to them. They might've been trained to see parahumans as the enemy. Lovely.

He checked, yelling "Shit!" when he found it. Really hurt by the lack of confidence. He spoke into his comms, which the gnats picked up as "Burrows, ge- -er he-!" My powers copied Taylor's as she listened in, clearing up the communication, and I gave her a thankful nod. 'Burrows' knelt down over it, talking to someone over comms, she walked him thro-Holy Shit is that Dragon? Yeah, listening in it was. Cool.

Dragon walked the officer through the disarmament process, which took a few minutes. Deploying the swarm, keeping them within a hundred or so feet of me at all times. Underselling my powers to potential foes? Just common sense. Did the PRT count? Absolutely. As both of them walked back, calling in a pickup of the device, I cheerfully asked, "Ready for the next one?"

Both men froze, Burrows asking uncertainly, "Next one?"

I nodded. "Yeah, it's in the undercarriage of a car the next street over, parked close to the intersection."

The commander, who never gave me his name, grunted. "Two, four, five, go with Vejovis. Three, six, you're with me, while ladybug shows us the bomb.

I blinked. I'm sorry, you give me the metaphorical stink-eye, lead me to have to come up with a policy on what to do on the spot, and then after I've shown you how you haven't even done a cursory search around your main building you think to both give me orders and try to separate me from what is effectively my sidekick? You sir, can go fuck yourself! What I said instead was, "Ah, No. The Lady, Bug and I work together. We shall listen to you, of course, as you are the relevant authorities, but we shall not be splitting up."

His stance became aggressive. Well, more aggressive. "Are you questioning my orders?" he growled.

I smiled coldly. "Are you presuming to give me orders, officer? I was under the impression that we were working as outside consultants, to better help you and the city, not sworn officers under your command." Even when I'm trying to be fuckin' helpful, they're pricks.

"Sir," one of the other officers spoke up. "The briefing."

The commander stiffened in anger, before leaning back. "Fine, consultants, what do you suggest we do?"

Must've been one hell of a briefing, I pondered. He wasn't getting off that easily though. "As long as it does not split us up, put us in danger, or would put us in a position where. . . misunderstandings might happen, I'm more than willing to follow whatever procedures you might have. You, or whoever you were talking to on comms, is the bomb expert here," I smiled coldly.

The leader struggled with himself, before snapping out, "Show us the bomb, find the next, if there is another, then wait for us."

Smile not moving an inch on my face, I nodded and then strode past him, Taylor on my heels. We pointed out the next device as the swarm spread out, keeping clear of sidewalks and roads after giving them a once over. There wasn't another one in range, so I started walking down the sidewalk, Burrows and the one who spoke up left behind to defuse it.

After a block I found something affixed to the bottom of a fire escape, turning down and pointing at it when it was in visual range. The commander looked like he wanted to say something, but held it in. Waiting for Burrows to come back, I scanned the area, finding nothing else, so worked on forming words with bugs on the roof. ~Sorry about this,~ I spelled with a bit of effort. ~I expected them to be nicer. At least we can get some practice in like this.~

Taylor looked at me and I smiled widely, and fakely, to everyone. "Well, this is quite the experience, isn't it!" I chirped, irritating of the commander who was watching me like a hawk. The bugs formed words under her control. ~It is okay,~ she spelled out in return. ~This is not your fault. We are just trying to help. Are they always like this?~

~No, the last time I talked to the PRT they were rather nice and respectful. I assume that just like regular police, or, for example, teachers, you have some bad apples that spoil the barrel.~ I had to stop my head from tilting when I tried to make italics.

I got a sense of sad discontentment from Taylor as her bugs spelled. ~That blows. I thought, since they worked with the Protectorate, they'd be better.~

Thinking in three dimensions was a bit difficult, but was becoming easier in time. I made a hand with the index finger extended, waving in a chiding motion, causing her to giggle. "Something funny?" The commander growled.

"Someone on the next street wasn't looking and walked straight into the insects. He didn't react well," I lied easily.

Again, I got the sense he wanted to say something, but held himself back. ~You should know that just because they work for the government doesn't mean they're good people,~ I formed in gnats. ~Dauntless and Battery are probably nice, but don't trust Miss Militia or Assault.~

~I can't believe she shot Boardwalk! ヽ(ಠ_ಠ)ノ Who does that? ~ she wrote in return.

I rolled my eyes, teens and their emoticons. Technically I'd started it, but still. ~She'll follow effectively any order her superiors give her. They say to arrest the person that saved the Wards from dying? She does it. They say to stop him from leaving, no matter what? After a taser and bullets don't work, time to bust out the RPG and hope it doesn't instantly kill, and if it does, she was just following orders, which is amusing, because she doesn't look like a Nazi.~ After a second I dismissed the wall of text gnats. ~Sorry, still annoyed.~

She responded ~RPG! I'd be more than just annoyed. How can you work with them the very next day? I wasn't even there and I want to swarm these Jerky McJerkfaces!~

~Jerky McJerkfaces. Really?~ I critiqued, keeping her formation and building off of it. Feeling her rightful embarrassment at such a weak insult, I continued, ~A) Their leadership is the problem, not necessarily the rank and file.~ I dismissed that point and made another, trying not to congregate too many bugs in one place, in case someone was watching. ~B) Boardwalk has a beef with them. I, Vejovis do not, and even if I was trying to recruit him, he hasn't joined the team so I don't have grounds to be outraged on his behalf.~ ~C) While we do have to deal with these assholic evil minion rejects who have the personality of a statue, except for their leader who is like one covered in pigeon droppings, the bombs we find save lives.~ ~D) we're getting paid to do this. Yes, that includes you, no, you can't get to it until you're in control of your own finances for legal reasons.~

~Can't you give it to me now, just under the table? ~ she pleaded.

I sighed without meaning to. "Waiting for the other two to come back," I informed the commander. ~No! Bad Lady Bug! That way lies villainy! Besides, if you need something, ask. You have a discretionary budget for heroing-related needs.~

~Wait, I do!!?!~ she wrote, pushing excitement into the swarm to keep her body language neutral. ~Can I get some Darwin's Bark Spiders, they ha~ was as far as she got before I took control of the swarm.

~Yes. Thank you for reminding me, I was going to get some so you could have them weave some silk and have Parian, the cloth Rogue, help you design a suit that's more PR friendly for things like this.~

I struggled not be affected as Taylor practically dumped giddy happiness into the swarm, spelling out in five-foot-tall letters ~THANK YOU!~ Her happiness, practically infectious, helped the time pass quickly until we called it a day, finding over fifty bombs as we meandered across downtown.

Dropping her off in the commercial district, I sent her new phone the pictures I'd taken of useful contacts, as well as forwarding her the account information for her budget. "How much can I spend?" she asked.

I shrugged, "There's five grand in there, but if you need more just ask. I trust you not to waste it."

Her eyes went wide, "That's more than I got from the Undersiders for helping fight Lung!"

"Yeah, but it's not that much when you start hitting and clearing safehouses." She stared at me, with just a hint of accusation. "I wasn't in danger. Anyways, you could deposit the money they gave you into that account. Money from villains is spoils of war for heroes, just walk-oh right, you robbed the bank. Hmmm. Use the five grand for personal purchases, and I'll handle the finances until the entire undercover thing comes out. Yeah, that'll work." She was still staring. "Are you okay?"

She shook herself, giving me a quick hug. "Thank you so much. I couldn't say anything there but, just, thanks."

I patted her helmet. "Don't worry about it. You're my teammate, and I take care of my friends." With a wave I flew off, heading towards Good Samaritan to make Panacea got a decent meal and someone she could talk healing with, letting her de-stress after the clusterfuck of injuries my last fight had probably generated.

Landing on time, and looking around she was nowhere to be found, so I waited. After ten minutes I finally went inside, asking the front desk for her they said she was almost done. Half an hour later, she walked into the lobby, yawning. Seeing me she straightened, striding over, stating, "We need to talk."

After a moment of Déjà vu, and wondering if there was a class or something that all women attended, I motioned for her to go ahead. "In private," she clarified.

We left, her taking my arm as had become habit and I took off. High above the city I turned so her back was towards the PRT HQ and the Rig, and dropped a sound bubble. "What?" I asked when she seemed to be second-guessing herself.

She took a deep breath, looked me in the eye, and informed me: "I know you're Boardwalk."






AN: Darwin Bark Spiders are ridiculous.

 

[Leecifer]

Spoiler 5.7

I took a second to process Panacea's revelation. "Okay, I'm going to neither confirm nor deny that, but why do you think so?"

"Someone showed me the video, and I know how injured you were. You'd already healed some, but you had electrical burns on your legs, more one than the other, just like the video, and that's in addition to your bullet impact shaped contusions, though they were already healing, hairline fractures in your arms and legs, bruised organs, and on top of that half your ribs were broken!" she declared, working herself up, as I held her at arm's length. "Why didn't you tell me? What were you thinking getting into a fight like that!?"

I nodded. "Yeah, that'd do it." I considered the difficulties of having this conversation in a restaurant, and made a snap decision, starting to fly towards home base. "I'm making dinner."

"That's not an answer!" she contested, glaring at me.

"No," I rebuked, as I thought my meaning had been clear. "It's what I'm going to do while I give you the answer." That it let me consider my answer on the way back was also a plus.

Landing and walking into the base, mind spinning, I considered the hard sell, the entire 'I need you to join if I'm going to tell you my secrets' gambit. No, I decided, as even thinking on how I'd do so left a bad taste in my mouth. Honesty and trust it was, but first, "Burgers work?" I asked her, checking the fridge.

"Fine," she agreed, impatient.

I considered taking my time getting ready, finding her lack of patience childish, but maybe I shouldn't tease her right now. A few minutes later they were sizzling away and we both had a glass of water. I turned, leaning against the counter. "Okay, before we start, I won't lie to you, but if you tell people what I tell you, it will turn out badly."

I saw her eyes narrow, and guessed her thoughts, "Panacea, you should know by now that I wouldn't threaten you. I won't be doing anything bad, but Boardwalk had to fight his way out of the Rig after he saved the lives of Vista, Gallant, and countless cops because they were going to throw him in a holding cell, and who knows what would've happened to him after that. If they find out where he is, let alone if you effectively unmask him, I'm not sure what they'll do, but from what I've seen, it won't be good."

She struggled with herself, finally stating, "Heroes wouldn't do that Vejovis."

"So you're calling me a liar. Nice Panacea. Nice." I waved away her protest, grabbing a laptop and accessing the base's intranet, getting the cleaned-up copy of the Armsmaster confrontation Quinn had sent me. Putting it down in front of her I pressed play as I finished making dinner, refusing to answer any more questions. Plating the burgers as the video finished, I slid hers in front of her as I sat down. "So. Heroes wouldn't do that, but what makes you think the Protectorate are heroes? I sent the director of the local PRT this video, as well as the video I have of the Bay Central Bank fight, if you want to see it, and absolutely nothing has happened. Armsmaster is still officially the head of the Brockton Protectorate," and hadn't that been a shocker when I looked it up this afternoon, "and while it's stopped them from going after us, officially, over his actions, The Lady, Bug hasn't received so much as a single apology for being attacked by the then leader of the government-backed 'hero' team. You're a hero Panacea, would you really put yourself on the same level as him?"

I ate my burger, hurt and angry. I knew breaking Panacea's years of conditioning from Brandish was going to be difficult, but I seemed to have made almost no progress whatsoever. She stared at her meal, not touching it. What, I thought, my food's not good enough because I'm not a perfect hero like you think you are? The sheer pettiness of that statement broke the mental line I was on. No, that's unfair. She's being unfair too, but that's no reason to- "I'm sorry," she said quietly, interrupting my thoughts. "You've never lied. I wish you had actually, but you haven't."

I put my burger down, pleasantly surprised, but masking my thoughts. "Alright then. You have questions? I have answers, but as you said, I won't lie, even if you'd prefer me to."

"You're Boardwalk." It wasn't a question. I waited until she gave me an annoyed look, realizing it as well. "How?"

I shrugged, switching out costumes and personas. "How do ya think Panny?"

She blinked, nonplussed. "You're. . . a shapeshifter?" she guessed.

I chuckled, popping off the mask and putting it down, smirking. "Only the threads, try again."

Her brow furrowed, "Multiple personalities?"

I dropped the Persona, laughing. "Not everything is powers Panacea, it's just acting."

"But you had different powers!" she protested.

I turned my hand to Shadow, poking it insubstantially through hers. "I have quite a few powers."

She rejected my statement, declaring, "But no one has more than three!"

I turned my other hand to Light, "I do, Break does, I think there's a villain named Circus that does as well. And let's not even get started on the Triumvirate." I didn't know their exact powers, but to be that strong they had to be multi-'talented'.

"Are you a Tinker? Is your power linked to your costume? Different suits have different powers, and they are your power?" she queried, trying to find a way for me to confirm to her worldview.

I blinked. I hadn't thought of that, and it would make an excellent cover story if I needed one. Unfortunately, I'd made a commitment to stay honest, even if I was the only one that'd know I broke it. Shaking my head, I shifted my costume to my civilian garb, dismissing and summoning the Light and Shadow, before doing the same thing as Vejovis.

"Are you like Eidolon? You can only do three at once?" she tried plaintively, trying to understand what I was doing in the context of what she knew to be fact.

I winced. "Please don't compare me to that idiotic glory hound," I responded, keeping Light and Shadow going as I levitated off the ground, Glory Girl Style, while manifesting a speed zone that moved my chair back.

She looked at me, before shaking her head. "How-No, I don't want to know. So you're both. Why?"

"Deniability," I replied, motioning towards her dinner. "Eat before it gets cold." Sitting down on a layer of air I continued, smirking at her noise of frustration as I did so. "I'm a Hero, but as we've seen, those who claim the title abuse it, and there are those who would seek to stop me, either because they have evil intentions, or because they are scared of the darkness in their own hearts. They think of what they would do if given the same power and see the same intentions in all others, ignoring that by acknowledging and controlling that darkness one can overcome it, instead of running from it like a scared child. The fears manifest in different permutations, but it all stems from those two sources."

"Because of that I needed two identities," I waved, one hand in Vejovis' white cloth glove, one in Boardwalk's black studded leather. "One to be the hero who helps those in need and is allowed to do so, and one to be the hero who walks in the shadows to fight villains in ways that those with villainous tendencies have made socially unacceptable. Hookwolf, Oni Lee, and others have unequivocally killed enough civilians that, if they were tried for their crimes in our justice system, as our laws say they should be, their prison terms would be in the triple or quadruple digits. Honestly, those two should have been tried in abstentia, as much as I dislike the concept, and the only reason they wouldn't have a death sentence is that New England is extraordinarily far left on the political divide. In a fair world, they would have kill orders on them, though after last night's fight Oni Lee might, but I'm not holding my breath."

"If Vejovis went after them half as hard as they go after unpowered people, there'd be cries for his head. Of note is that villains go easier on heroes, since they know the kind of response say, killing a Ward would provoke, but if some unpowered kid pulls a knife, let alone a gun on Hookwolf, and didn't back down, he'd kill them, but the media here cares nothing for those people. Normal people fighting villains? There are quite a few in positions of power that have effectively made such a thing laughable, borderline unthinkable," I nearly spat, "and if someone in their desperation makes a final stand and dies, they're just considered stupid. If they make a stand and Trigger though, that gets attention, because now they matter, and they'd probably survive as fighting someone with unknown powers is a risky proposition, causing their would-be killers to back off until they're sure they could still defeat their victims. "

I subsumed myself in Shadow, letting the Light shine from beneath. "Boardwalk though, he'll never be accepted as a hero, and that's just as how he likes it, even though he is one. He wouldn't be a crazed vigilante, doing the 'all criminals deserve one thing, death' bullshit, but he'd be willing to match his foe's level of violence. He'd capture the Undersiders, maybe rough them up a bit, but after Skidmark tries to shoot him in the head with a pistol, Boardwalk might capture him, might permanently maim him, or might just kill him depending on the circumstances. Vejovis has no such options at present, and thus can be caught up by the 'surrender or I'll kill this hostage' scenario. Boardwalk would just kill the bastard, and try to save the innocents, but if they die, he'll disgustedly state that their deaths are on the people who killed them, not the people they were being used to leverage, and anyone who claims otherwise is a fuckin' moron."

Panacea replied after a moment of thought, "I couldn't do that."

Yet. "I'm not asking you to," I assured her instead, letting go of the power and sitting there in my Vejovis guise, sans mask, "and if I felt like I had to, and you said no, I wouldn't force you to."

She sighed. "What happened last night? I saw the video, but that was just the fight, not what led to it." I got her a coffee as I covered the lead-up, leaving out the part about recruiting Purity, knowing how much that would further derail the conversation. I finished with my escape, and sat back, waiting for her response.

"Thank you," she finally said, continuing at my confused look. "For saving Gallant and Vista. Vicky was-, I'm not sure how she'd take it if he died. You didn't have to, and with what you said about Boardwalk, you, I don't know, had to go against what he was supposed to do when you did it, but thank you for doing it anyways."

I nodded, "Dean and Missy are Heroes, and saving heroes is my mission, not that of any identity I might use to further that end. I was willing to throw away the work I'd put in building Boardwalk's identity to make that happen, and would again, if needed."

She started to smile, before a frown crossed her features. "Wait, is Vejovis another identity?"

I shifted to civies as I smiled. "In public, yes, but when we're just hanging out, I'm just me, Lee Elric, the man who will save the world, no matter what I'm wearing."

She blinked at me, not sure how to respond. "That's. . . nice?" she tried. "How? That's, the whole world? How are you going to do that yourself?"

I shook my head. "Not by myself, no. That's why I'm trying to find and help true heroes, people I can trust to have my back, people like you. It's why I'm recruiting for my team, and the only reason I haven't asked you yet is because there were things you needed to figure out before it would be even fair to ask. That being said, the offer is open once you're sure it's what you want. As for how?" I shrugged. "I'll get by, with a little help from my friends."

<AB>​

Dropping Panacea off back at her house, as Vejovis, we didn't talk, her sister having called her as we left the base and Panacea reassuring the other girl that she was fine, and we'd eaten dinner someplace a bit out of the way, and how did she know that she'd not just gone out like normal anyways? I was tempted to listen in, but that would've been rude, and didn't seem like something that was mission critical. Hanging up she informed me, blushing, "Apparently there's a blog about us."

I shrugged. "We're healers, and that gets attention. There's like, what, a dozen of us in the world that are as open-ended as we are? It's a rare but incredibly valuable power. Heck healing, or the appearance of, is one of the things that a lot of religions are built on."

She shook her head, turning a beet red. "No. I mean it's about us."

It took a second before I understood what she meant, and I tried not to blush in turn. "They are aware that you're a minor, and I'm obviously not, correct?" I inquired dryly.

She took a breath, matching my tone as we landed, "They don't seem to care."

I facepalmed. "Perverts, the lot of them. Wait, how does Glory Girl know about them."

"That is something that I'd like to know," the healer agreed, sighing as she looked at her house, where her sister was once again unsubtly watching us from a window. "Thank you again for being honest," she said turning to face me. "And sorry, it's, it's hard to believe the Protectorate would do that when. . ."

"The media is all about how great they are?" I asked. "Yeah propaganda is insidious like that. Don't worry, you wouldn't be the first to accuse someone of lying instead of believing a harsh truth, and I doubt you'll be the last. No hard feelings. See you tomorrow for healing?"

She nodded, smirking, "Only if you get enough rest! I'll be checking!"

I waved her off, laughing, "Fine mom, I'll get to bed at a descent hour. See you then!" Flying back with a wave towards Glory Girl, I headed to home base to try my hand at Space Warping. Considering it came with a sensory component, I knew I couldn't use it anytime soon, as Vista would be able to sense my work if she came in range. The uses for it I'd copied from seeing Vista in action last night were automatic, as was par for the course with replicating uses of a power I'd directly seen, and reshaping the twists only took a few seconds. The long tunnel formation she'd used to get us to the rig was also useful, if cumbersome, and I worked on shrinking it from a passage leading north, far out of the city, into something a bit more useful.

After only a few hours my alarm went off, and I grudgingly headed to bed for three hours of meditation. I'd figure out the specifics of it soon, and hopefully I'd only need a couple hours every week of rest if I wasn't constantly fighting, but for now better too much than too little.

This time instead of just relaxing into near-unconsciousness I focused on my power, trying to relax into it and focus around it, to catch the details hiding under the vague sense of energy. After a while I started to gain the sense of it. Fire, burning deep within, flickering against unseen wind, but before I got more than just a general impression my alarm went off, prompting me to get breakfast and head to meet up with Taylor for another morning of bomb clearance.

The officer leading the team, who introduced himself as Officer Garnett, was much more respectful, though he was confused on one point. "I was reviewing your previous day's work Vejovis, and I don't see the underlying method to your coverage."

I shrugged, "We were given no instructions other than, 'go find bombs', so I warned the people around us, then we did."

Garnett looked at me for a moment before swearing under his breath, "Fucking Galston," and looking at his phone. "We'll start by clearing the City Hall, and we'll work from there on clearing Downtown. Rivers, Beltran, I want you at the one and eleven of the perimeter of the swarm, warning people." He turned to look back at me as two of the officers jogged off. "We had complaints, now I know why. If you would?"

From there we moved on as we had before until we found the third device, this one booby trapped to go off if you opened it up, if I was understanding the mechanisms inside well enough. Pointing it out got Garnett swearing, prompting me to offer the use of our beetles. "You can do that?" he asked incredulously.

I nodded, as did Taylor. "I informed the previous fellow before we started. Grumpy chap, never got his name." Turning to my partner I motioned in front of us. "Lady Bug, you're better with detail work, do you think you could create a model of the device?"

She shrugged, "Sure." Waving a hand in front of herself insects gathered, forming the inverse of the shape that we could see, the gnats holding in place unnaturally to create the structure. I looked at it, and realized that to someone who couldn't sense insects, all it looked like was cube of bugs. Grabbing the top layer and sending them back into the greater swarm, I pointed out the pull line now suspended in the air.

Garnett hesitated before crouching down to get a better look at it, the gnats we used small enough that they were almost impossible to pick out individually from a distance, the entire thing a seemingly solid grey mass. Taking a flashlight, he shone it in and around the model, highlighting the structure. Calling for their expert on his comms, he soon had Dragon helping him, using a camera to see the structure of what we'd made. After a minute, he pointed out a strand of insects near the bottom. "This one, can you cut it?"

"The red one?" Taylor asked, "Sure." She grabbed a few cockroaches from a nearby restaurant and had them chew through it. "Want me to open it and see if it worked?"

He double checked that the rest of his team had cleared the area before nodding. "If you can." She gathered the swarm and pushed the inside open, the hinge swinging smoothly, pulling the wire in the process. Nothing happened. We waited a few minutes, and still nothing. He sent one of his troopers over, shaking his head when I asked incredulously why they didn't send a drone, responding, "I was informed that these were not technically bombs, and thus we had no need for such."

He laughed at Taylor's indignant, "That's stupid!", nodding in agreement. The squaddie he sent, a woman by the name, or codename, Peterson came back after a moment, what looked like a Tinkertech scanner in hand, reporting that it was dead.

Officer Garnett nodded, "This makes our job much easier. Thank you."

'Do you want to be helpful, or be safe?' I wrote with bugs in the vent of the building to our left.

Taylor looked at Garnett, before writing 'Helpful', adding a moment later, 'He's not a jerk'.

"If it helps, we can split up, though I insist we stay in Comm contact," I said tapping my ear while spelling 'which for us is the range of your control Lady Bug'. "Ours are short range, but we can cover more ground that way."

The commanding officer nodded, calling up the PRT for a few more helping hands, sending most of his current team with Taylor. With that we spent the next few hours clearing half of downtown in its entirety and by the time we called it quits we had over fifty devices defused, with only a handful of detonations, and no casualties. I did have to support a building that had a load bearing wall turned to gas with my strength for ten minutes until the PRT was able to get some supports to prop it up. It might've been longer, but after five minutes I claimed that I was tiring, and didn't know how much longer I could hold it, my strength 'failing' as they set up the supports, which got the lead out of the people doing so.

Dropping Taylor off, I confirmed that the Truce was meeting tomorrow at Somer's Rock, but she didn't know when other than "After 4". Making it in time to meet Panacea, I noticed that Glory Girl, looking oddly nervous, wanted to say something to me. Holding up a hand and pointing upwards, lifting high into the air, she followed suit, the two of us coming to stop several hundred feet up. I stopped the wind when she came level with me, and I wrapped us in a sound bubble. "Okay, we won't be overheard. What's up Glory Girl?"

"Amy said you could get in touch with the guy from that fight, Boardwalk?" I nodded. "Can you tell him thanks? For saving D-Gallant. After what you said that night, I couldn't stop thinking about it, and I, I don't know what I'd do if something happened to him." She held herself as if cold, eyes cast downward.

I floated towards her, putting a hand on her shoulder. Her head snapped up, looking at me, warily, but without hosility. "Glory Girl, Dean is a Hero who deserves the title. I, or those who may be under my employ, would go out of their way to save him and people like him. Even if it means I, or he," I corrected, "have to let Oni Lee get away to do so."

She just nodded, eyes bright. Letting the sound bubble slowly disperse, and releasing my hold on the wind, I nodded back before I dropped down, slowing my fall right before I hit the ground, Panacea waiting.

 

[Leecifer]

Spoiler 5.8

Panacea didn't make small talk as we healed, though when someone mentioned my mornings' activities I did get a raised eyebrow. "I got a few hours sleep. It'll be enough for now!" I defended, to the laughs of the people we were healing. Afterwards we had a quiet dinner out, during which Panacea visibly noticed, and was aggravated by, the people paying attention to us. Being under the spotlight killed her interest in conversation, and I couldn't help but ponder, did she really not notice the attention she had before?

On the way home she finally asked what her sister wanted to talk to me about. "She was under the impression I was in contact with Boardwalk and wanted to send her thanks," I explained. "I told her that, given the PRT is actively looking for him, people who may or may not be working with me would always go out of their way to save heroes like her boyfriend."

"Oh," she responded looking relieved. "Good."

I gave her a questioning look, but she didn't elaborate.

"I didn't ask before, but Vista and Gallant, you've healed them, right?" I asked. I assumed the answer was yes, but it was better to confirm than work on bad info.

She nodded. "They were in bad shape, but they're fine now. Vista had some of the tendons in her arm severed and only had operationality of half the fingers on her left hand, Gallant had localized spinal damage from the electrical blast." I felt a dropping sensation in my gut, had I paralyzed Gallant? "Thankfully the damage didn't extend upwards. Since their brains were fine, I was able to heal them completely." While relieved I subconsciously growled in anger at the situation, prompting her to ask "What?"

I hesitated for a moment, before deciding to just go ahead and say it. "If they'd trained her to use her armor, that wouldn't have happened. She was practically flailing out there. Without you she'd've been maimed for the rest of her life, because she was trying to be a hero when she should've been in middle school." I didn't bother to hide my sneer at the hypocrisy of the program meant to protect young parahumans actively putting them in danger, "It's worse than if she was independent, because then she would've known she had no real support. Sorry," I apologized automatically. "I'm not upset with you, it's just. . ." I sighed, looking for the right words.

"People who have accepted responsibility," I put forward, thinking my way through the issue as I talked, "not have it thrust on them, or taken it because they're just trying to make the best of a bad situation, but actively sought it, and are rewarded for it, but then don't even try to do what they've promised to do, been paid to do, with gold and glory, that is behavior that is lower than even most who call themselves villains."

She didn't have anything to say in response, so we finished our flight in silence. Dropping her off, I told her "I can't heal with you tomorrow, and after that I can't promise anything."

"Is it because I told Vicky tha-" she started, sounding hurt and guilty.

"No, there's a villain meeting that I'm attending." I interrupted.

She blinked. "What."

"Things've gotten bad enough that all the gangs and villain aligned groups are meetings to work together to take down the ABB. Kaiser, Faultline, The Undersiders, Coil, well probably his double but he'll be there in spirit, and some others. The PRT, whose job it is to stop this, isn't calling in the big guns, for whatever reason. Even though, as a national taxpayer funded organization that's literally their jobs. New Wave's just been keeping their heads down, right?" I checked.

"I'm healing," Amelia offered, "But, we're not sure what to do."

"Take the fight to the ABB," I offered simply, "But New Wave. . . they're not really active that much, and this will be bad. So, since there's no heroes that are willing to do what needs to be done, I'll be there as well, under the banner of truce to help them stop the killing. They'll do it to stop the Feds from taking over the entire city, I'll do it to save people, but hey, common goals, different reasons."

She bit back her first response before nodding. "I. . . Okay. Be safe, okay?"

I smiled, surprised that she'd accepted it at that, the eight probable conversational paths I'd predicted, from 'that doesn't excuse working with villains' to 'it's too dangerous', and my responses to each, fading, unused. "Don't worry, if I needed to I could take them all on and escape. I'll still be careful," I added at her glare. Taking off I called down, "I'll tell you what happens over dinner!"

Getting home, I found Herb cooking for himself, having just gotten back from another Cauldron mission. "Beatin' down some dumbass drug-dealers in a jungle somewhere. Might've been Peru," he offered by way of explanation, and I had him clear his schedule tomorrow, his eyes lighting up when he realized it was time for the meeting at Somer's Rock, one of the more useful stations of canon that we could twist to our advantage. "Fuck yeah, this is gonna be awesome!" he crowed.

I nodded, myself worried a little at how it'd go, but fairly confident, "And we're meeting up with our newest team-member tomorrow for lunch, before heading over." I'd texted Purity, and while her grammar was atrocious she'd agreed to meet up with Break and me before the meeting, a meeting she hadn't heard about this time around.

He smiled slyly, "Finally corrupted Panacea, huh?"

What? I thought, before glaring at him. "No, it's not Panacea, and what do you mean corrupted?"

"Well, she'd be out consortin' with villains an' shit, something she'd never do before." He frowned in confusion, "If it's not Panacea, then who? Her sister?"

"No," I snapped, suddenly feeling a lot less charitable. "I wouldn't bring a kid to this! If I could I'd convince Taylor to sit it out in case it gets bad. No, they're an adult, and that's all I'm going to say! You'll find out who they are when they meet us tomorrow."

I walked past him, ignoring his call of "Come on man, I didn't mean nothin' by it!"

<AB>
​

Meditation didn't come easily, taking over an hour to even begin to center myself, trying to understand why I'd snapped at Herb. It wasn't until I'd fully calmed and tried to think of something else that I realized that it wasn't the corrupting Panacea comment as I'd originally thought, as that was him being his normal crude and incredibly inappropriate self. It was the suggestion that I'd bring her to the villain meeting.

With how badly that had the possibility of going.

It reminded me too much of the Protectorate fielding the Wards with insufficient training, unthinking of the possible dangers, and that was a parallel that offended me. If not only had Panacea joined, but had been combat trained, was comfortable with the use of violence, and was using her power to go full Guyver then hell yes I'd love to have that support, but as she was now? It would have been reckless to the point of negligence to bring her along. That wasn't even considering that Glory Girl would've invariably tried to follow and sneak in, and that would've gone as well as a fireworks exhibition in a distillery.

I'd barely dealt with that and found my center when my alarm went off, signaling the end of my three hours of meditation, which hadn't even felt like one. Stretching as I got up, I did feel rested, though had I the time I might've reset the alarm for another few hours, but I had work to do. What I wanted to do was work on my Boardwalk set, but he needed to lay low for a few weeks, and the power testing I wanted to do had the possibility of being. . . explosive. Maybe if it was day I could risk it, but at night using Purity's power would tell everyone where I was.

Reviewing the battle again, watching the footage L33t had taken, now that I wasn't on the edge of passing out from exhaustion, I still looked borderline precognitive, which would be good for the intimidation factor, but tactically I was a fucking mess. I had three powers in that persona, but for most of the fight I'd only used one. From the very first second, I'd been screwing up. Oni Lee behind me? Speed Zone his ass away. Hit the side of a building and needed an out? Drop a zone up the side and press myself into it while I flew, blasting off even faster. Purity's speed combined with the acceleration of my Speed Zones should make me crazy fast, but I hadn't thought of it. Actually, speaking of speed. . . I paused the video and headed to the workshop, building an ad hoc target as I muted the room and tried to pull the smallest blast I could. A pea size piece of light formed in the palm of my hand, shifting unstably, before shooting out in a rainbow line. Streaking across the workshop it impacted the target, blowing out a chunk of the wood.

Walking over to the target and checking the damage, if I had to guess it was like someone had hit it with a blunt pick, the force blasting across a quarter inch diameter area. Walking back and layering Speed Zones down the inside of my middle and pointer fingers, I formed another tiny ball of Light, sending it down the track I'd created, feeling the slightest of kickbacks as it accelerated. The projectile moved more than twice as fast, digging a larger hole in the target, concentrating force without increasing area. Doubling up on the zones I tried again, the kickback noticeable, the trail lacking the bright greens of the previous shot. This shot punched a gouge out of the two-by-fours I'd used to make my target, and the time from firing to hit was almost instantaneous. Doubling up again, Zones shifting from cerulean to azure, I formed another, took aim, and fired.

My hand was jerked back by the unexpected kick the at same time as the center of the target exploded, a hole punched through the two-by-four, sending shards of wood against the back wall. The trail lacked any greens whatsoever and had flown fast enough to possibly rival a pistol. I checked the clock. If I'd spent a single hour training like this beforehand, and half of that was just making the target, I would've had Oni Lee, shooting him too fast for him to realize what was happening. Mind you, I mused, pulling on Miss Militia's power and creating a copy of the pistol I had in a holster on my back, unloading it on the target, it's a moot point now.

A flicker of light caught my eye and I actually looked at the gun in my hand. The 1911 I held was a slightly glowing blood red, the image of an Entity in purple inscribed on either side of the slide. Turning it into a revolver resulted in a similar problem, only the spiked snake was now coiling down the circular barrel.

Cute.

Taking out my real pistol and trying to get it to copy the hardware only resulted in getting my first result. Switching to a twenty-two, an assault rifle, a shotgun, and a sniper rifle in turn, each one had a similar coloration and design. Changing to melee weaponry, I had no better luck. Be it knife, machete, warhammer, or katana, each one had the exact same coloration and motif. Sighing, I changed back to a copy of my real pistol. As useful as it would be, this was a power that would never see the light of day.

My costume's emblazoned Entity was close enough to a Caduceus that it was overlooked, but with this it'd be a theme, and I'd start gaining more attention then I'd like. It also just looked unearthly, obviously something power-created, and I had enough powers from this city without being absolutely flagrant about it.

Shooting both, real and projected pistol, guns akimbo style, was fun even if I would've missed most of the shots if I hadn't cheated with Aerokinesis. As I was reloading my real weapon, though, I frowned.

My pistol was enhanced with a Speed Zone, but it had the same kick as the projection. Pulling my projection to hand and opening the slide, inside the barrel sat a Speed Zone, just like my real weapon, which I could dismiss and reestablish independently. Setting the mystery of if her power was creating powered weapons, or if I was somehow subconsciously using my Speed Zones aside, I dismissed the power, only to have it change into a knife at my belt. I tried again, and it wavered, shimmering like it was underwater, straight lines twisting, before turning into a swiss army knife, the crest showing an Entity.

I groaned, as just like my Arthropod Control, which I tended to leave on rather than deal with the hassle whenever I wanted to use it, Weaponry Projection didn't want to be let go. Concentrating on it and forcing it down, back to wherever my power stored its copies, the weapon vanished in a puff of red and purple smoke.

Wanting to practice, but not wanting to leave, and needing to clean up my mess, I decided to kill three birds with one superpower, taking a seat while I tried to use Aerokinesis to pick up and move the individual pieces in a pile with targeted gusts of wind, getting the gusts stronger and tighter as dawn crested the horizon.

It was. . . suboptimal to say the least. Grumbling I cleaned up most of the mess by hand, made breakfast for the base, and ignored Herb's begging for a clue about our new member. Just to get out of the house, er, base for a bit I dropped by PRT HQ, asking for officer Garnett and then working with his team to help them clear another chunk of Downtown. Overall, it just felt like killing time more than actual progress, but the people's who's lives I probably saved doing so helped stave off the encroaching feelings of wasting precious hours.

<AB>
​

Herb and I walked into the café in downtown, one that I'd actually cleared of a device that morning, in civilian garb. Herb wore his suit, sans mask and gauntlets, which were packed in a messenger bag at his side. I was in business casual, grey pants with a dark purple shirt, which seemed to give my skin a slightly different tone than my red and white costume.

We were shown to our seat, our reservation under the name Anders, though I kept Herb from hearing that as he glanced around the place, and we ordered an appetizer and drinks while we waited. I kept an eye out, spotting the short almost mousy-looking woman as she was shown to our table, her power obvious to my Sight.

I waved, smiling behind my sunglasses, and she started to wave back, smiling, before seeing Herb sitting next to me, looking for who I was waving at. She froze, before taking a breath and coming to sit next to us, smile now forced.

"Please," I said, "before we start, figure out what you want to eat. I'll cover it as a business expense, as this is a team meeting." She glanced at Herb before picking up her menu, hiding her face behind it.

Herb looked between her and me, brow furrowing, before his eyes started to glow white for a second and he hissed, "You asshole, why didn't you tell me?" she stiffened and I saw him panic, continuing, "You never said our new teammate was beautiful!"

She further stiffened behind her menu, before relaxing slightly, putting it down. "I'm ready to order," she informed me. Waving over our waiter we gave him our order, and I took out a small jar I'd faux-Tinkerteched. Pressing a button to turn on the LEDs, I wrapped us in a sound bubble while slightly muting the outside noises for theatrical effect.

"Purity, first name Kayden, this is Break, first name Herb. Herb, Purity," I introduced, pausing so that one of them would take the initiative and get the ball rolling and I could sort out our problems now instead of having it blow up at Somer's Rock.

Purity took the bait first, pointing at Herb. "You never said he was black!" she accused, realizing herself and glancing around, but no one so much as blinked an eye at her racist statement, having never heard it.

I quirked an eyebrow, not commenting on her moment of weakness. "Should that matter? I thought you quit the E88 years ago."

Before she could respond Herb waved me off stating, "I'm, I'm, you, some white," tripping over his words.

I turned to gaze at him in disbelief, wondering if he was having a stroke, as Kayden look at him as well, more confused than offended. "Are you trying to do that crude 'would you like some black in you' line? If you are, you've got it turned around."

It took a second, but I understood, explaining, "No, he's trying to say he's half-black, half-white."

Purity, still confused, replied, "Oh, well that's. . . better?"

Herb nodded to this very racist statement. "Yeah, there's um, cream in my tea?" he smiled encouragingly.

I sighed, rubbing at my face at his pitiful display. "Coffee Herb, cream in your coffee is the phrase you're looking for."

He froze, obviously mentally berating himself, "Yeah, yes, that. Um. You are amazing, you know that, right?"

Purity just looked even more confused. "What?"

"Sorry, yeah," he winced again. "Wow, um, I lo-, no not that, yet, you're special. That's what I was looking for."

Looking to me for help, she asked helplessly, "I'm sorry, what?"

"You know, stuff. And things," he added.

I needed to stop this train-wreck, for my sanity if nothing else. "Right, so ignoring my suddenly non-erudite friend, he was the one who was telling me about how you'd quit the Empire and that we should recruit you onto our team." I said, embellishing a little to try to throw my partner a bone. "Apparently, he's more nervous about this then I'd thought he'd be, but whatever."

"When you meet the sun," Herb elucidated. "Course you're nervous, it's the bringer of life." We both turned to look at him, as he bit his lip to stop himself from saying more.

"Um," I added, "How about you just let me talk for this bit?"

"Yeah, sorry, just. . ." he trailed off, a wistful expression on his face.

"So, how are you doing?" I asked her, turning to exclude him from the conversation until he got his shit together.

Purity, obviously desperate to have some normality in this conversation quickly replied, "I'm doing fine. What was it you wanted to talk to me about?"

Our food arrived, and I toggled the 'device' until he left, going over the general plan, and expected parties, finishing with, "If things go really bad, l want the two of you to fight your way out with those that don't want to fight. As they are right now, I can hold out until you're clear, then I could escape. I'd probably get hurt, but nothing that's not fixable. You two being there would negate the threat though, as while I'd want you to get to safety, they might think you'd immediately join the fray."

Purity frowned, "No. If I'm on this team, I'll fight with you!"

I shook my head emphatically. "No. You get to safety in the air and blast our foes from afar or you don't fight at all. You've got kids to take care of Kayden. We don't."

"He's right," Herb said, looking her in the eye. "You've got people who need ya, and you need to be able to go back to them."

"Why go at all, if it's going to be so dangerous?" she asked, not addressing what we'd just said, something I was beginning to believe was an endemic trait in Brockton Bay.

"Kayden, you're a hero, but I'm also trying to redeem those branded as villains who have accepted the appellation, even though it isn't true. As far as I know Kaiser, Hookwolf, and Alabaster are irredeemable assholes, but can the same be said about everyone in the E88? Night and Fog are programmed by Gazelleshaft, or whatever they're called, and I'd help them if I could, but I don't have the resources to do so right now."

The woman was staring at me, unnerved, "How do you know that?"

Smiling slightly, I merely stated, "I have my sources," before I shook my head and continued, my speech. "Thing is, If I'm going to in the future, I'll need bargaining chips to use on the PRT to get them to both leave me alone as an independent, and to accept that the 'Villains' I'm working with are really trying to redeem themselves. Their cooperation with helping to end a city-wide threat could open the door to doing so, let alone adding legitimacy to the truce being across the standard battle lines of heroes and villains, and not just the villains being villainous jerks. The fact that I'll release a statement to the press afterwards will reaffirm that and add a sense of safety to the situation that this city desperately needs, since the government heroes haven't said a god-damned thing other than claiming 'we're working on the issue.'"

"We're doing the best with what's available to us," Herb added, finding his eloquence. "but at the same time. . . actually, no, we're just straight up doing the right thing!"

"Exactly," I agreed. "And if you can think of anyone in the E88 that might want to come to the side of the angels, or even could be convinced to turn over a new leaf, I'd be grateful. I know some of them, like Rune, weren't there when you were, but maybe you could talk to them where I couldn't." I shrugged. "I'm not demanding results, just that you try your best."

Purity looked down at her lap, nodding. "I can do that. Yes, I'm in." I saw Herb's eyes light up with excitement and quickly silenced him as he mouthed 'Group Hug!', only to realize that he'd been muted, glaring at me accusatorily, mouthing 'asshole!'

 

[Leecifer]

Spoiler 5.9

"With how tense things might get, I need you to be professional," I told my companions, now in costume as we approached Somer's Rock.

Purity frowned, offended, an expression that I could only read as my Power Sight dampened the Light from her power. "I don't know what you think I'll do, but I can be professional!"

I blinked in surprise, pointing at the other member of our party, "What? No. I was talking to him."

"I know. If you need me to be professional, I'll be professional," Herb nodded sagely. I gave him a look. "No matter how much of a fuckin' dumbass they are," he amended. "I'll try to swoon this wonderful morning sun another day."

"You do that," I responded dryly, ignoring Purity's somewhat uncomfortable "Um?" Walking in, the inside was as dingy as the outside, and I was glad my powers made me disease-proof. A large table was set in the center of the floor. Waving happily to the bartender, who scowled in return, I took a seat at one end of the table. The waitress walked over, pushing a notepad at me, on which I wrote down 'cola'.

Looking to the other members of my team Purity shook her head. "I don't want anything. Thank you."

Herb smiled at Kayden, reaching into his bag, producing a bottle. "I brought water. Fiji."

She looked at him, surprised, before nodding, taking one as she visibly realized that he too could see her, giving him a tentative smile. The waitress plopped my drink in front of me, looking at me in confusion when I handed her a twenty and held up a hand when she moved to give me change. Her expression didn't lighten, but it might've un-soured.

Maybe.

A little.

A minute later the Undersiders walked in as a group, Grue and Tattletale at the front, both freezing when they saw us. Grue recovered first, moving with most of his team to take seats at a side table, starting to glance at Taylor before stopping himself. Tattletale didn't move, staring at me before wincing, turning to look between Break and Purity. Kayden was keeping an eye on the teenagers while Herb tried to make small talk, both of them standing away from me, leaning against the bar. As Herb made a comment on how he wondered if Kaiser's power to create blades was a comment on how he felt like he needed to compensate for something, and Purity tried not to smile, the Thinker loudly declared: "Bullshit. No. This is just Bullshit!"

I smiled as Herb finally noticed the Undersiders, the man checking that no one else had showed up before giving them a smile and a wave. "No need to swear," I gently but firmly rebuked.

The purple-clad teen looked at me in outrage, motioning towards my teammates, "But! She's-!"

"Tattletale, she hasn't been a member of the E88 in two years, that's why she's sitting next to her teammate, who happens to be African-American." I looked at her, narrowing my eyes but unable to suppress a smirk. "Tattletale, are you a racist? Is this a tale that needs to be told? What would other people," I looked significantly at Grue, "think about how your racial bigotry might affect your teammates. Do we need to be worried about Grue, or anyone else that's covered in black? Does the red of my costume make you think I want to open a casino?"

"You need to shut up," She ground out, pointing at me, but making no move to get closer.

I put a hand to my chest, sighing in mock sadness, my words carrying the hint of a threat, "Honestly, it's you that needs to, little miss 'Psychic', or do we need to revisit what happens when you speak before you think?"

Tattletale gave an inarticulate noise of ill-repressed rage before stomping over to her teammates, while Regent chuckled. I looked at Purity and nodding my head towards Taylor, indicating her as the person on our side and someone to protect if things went bad, and got an answering nod in return.

A few minutes after that I heard the clanking of steel from outside. Sure enough, the metal man himself walked in, twin statuesque blondes on either arm, with a cool confidence which shattered as soon as he stepped through the doorway, armored in an interlocking lattice of blades, and saw who was waiting for him.

My Power Sight Saw the Iron and Steel flames of his power as Metal Creation, with the same warp and weft that my power informed me meant the ability was Safety Locked, or Manton Limited in the local parlance, just as Vista's power was. His face was mostly covered, but the parts that weren't were red with rage as he saw Purity sitting next to and conversing with Herb, likely easily reading her repressed amusement and blatant dismissal of him. As he struggled with himself the blades of his costume grew slightly, causing the twins to let go, which was all my power needed to grab a copy of his power.

The leader of the local Neo-Nazis stepped fully into the bar, turning away from my teammates, freezing once more as he saw me casually sitting, likely in the spot he had planned to take. Turning to the other end of the table he strode over in what I'm sure he thought was an imperious stride, but just looked like a metal peacock strutting to me. He sat smoothly at the foot of the table, trying to make it the new head, commenting, "I didn't expect to see any heroes here," making the word sound like a slur. The rest of the E88 contingent came in, all of them looking between Purity and Kaiser in confusion before settling in the seats behind him.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I was under the impression that this was to discuss a truce, which is why I'm present, even if the Protectorate are too stupid to send a representative themselves," I commented blandly.

Kaiser looked like he tasted something sour, but only said, "I'm glad to see you were wise enough to answer my call," causing Herb to laugh.

He didn't attempt any additional sophomoric power moves and sat there in silence, ordering a drink. Looking over the German Appreciation Club contingent, I Saw their powers. The twins in fantasy Valkyrie armor both had Personal Size Manipulation, which allowed them to grow themselves, and Projectile Size Manipulation to shrink incoming missiles, changing the strength of the affected item accordingly. An older man in a simple costume had a Friction Field paired with low level Personal Force Enhancement, the field smoothing and enhanced the motions of his allies while hindering his foes.

Hookwolf had an alternate form, the name of the power not translating smoothly into English, giving him a core he could generate metal from, which he then controlled, and could stow his body into. With this versatile power he chose to make a wolf made of hooks, and nothing else. I looked at this waste of potential and was sadly unsurprised. No wonder Stormtiger and Cricket were his followers, all three had awesome uncapped powers they did nothing with.

The last woman in their group was clad in a black cloak, hood, mask, bodysuit, and high heeled boots, leaving only her eyes exposed. Her power turned her into a #####, the word if it was a word, not registering in my mind, only getting the sense of screeching clicks and the sensation of feeling something on a sense I didn't possess. The ##### form was limited to prevent identification, forcing her into a human form if observed. Her opposite number was dressed similarly, except male, lacking the heels, and was clad in greys. His was the power of Physical Dispersal, manifesting as a particulate cloud, along with a sub ability to convert matter into more particulates to heal himself. These two, who must be Night and Fog, didn't seem to care much about what was going on.

As Kaiser and I sat, and he did his best to ignore my presence, like a small child, a man in a full-body black & white costume strolled in who had no powers whatsoever. The costume's only decoration was a white snake pattern that started around one ankle before wrapping up and around him as it seemed to coil- oh, I get it. Anyways, it coiled itself around his body, resting itself over the top of his face. I stared at the actor pretending to be Calvert, and hid a sigh of relief.

I'd known Coil was going to send a double, but I had been worried that he'd equip his stand-in with a camera and comms, allowing him his usual shenanigans, but from the skin-tightness of his costume, to the point where I could see the man's ribs, that wasn't going to be an issue. The double looked between Kaiser and I unsure, before moving to take a position in the middle, probably trying to pull off the whole 'Last Supper' thing.

Given the way the table had been set up, diagonally across the floor, it didn't work.

Not-Coil nodded to me, which I returned pleasantly, and to Kaiser, who gave the barest of nods in return, clearly annoyed that he'd been addressed second. I rolled my eyes. More positioning bullshit, I thought, though I could just barely hear Herb behind me, enhancing the sound to listen in as he quietly gave a blow-by-blow commentary to Purity on all the social dominance moves as they were made, his assessments pretty much in line with mine.

Next to enter was a woman who looked to be about my age, wearing an interesting mix of armor and cloth, a welding mask on her head, but pushed up revealing her face, with a long black ponytail trailing behind. From a combat perspective, I could see the design choices. Her armor was practical, and her gloves looked weighted, which would help enhance any hand-to-hand combat she got into. The cloth, giving the illusion of a dress, was cut in a way that wouldn't hamper movement, but possibly hide the positioning of her legs.

The design would've been indecent had she not been wearing armored pants underneath, but it gave the entire thing a feminine appearance, which I appreciated. Her Blue and Red flames of Severance blazed around her, and peering at it further my Sight informed me she was limited to non-living matter as a safety precaution, just like Missy and Kaiser. Faultline stepped in, her team behind her, and she, just like everyone else, froze when she saw me.

Actually, I realized, it wasn't me she was staring at, but Herb. She gazed at him, eyes narrowed, before turning and walking to sit to the right of Kaiser, giving a half-hearted sneer at Tattletale. The four that followed her were interesting.

First was obviously Newter, the Orange and Yellow Aura around him giving him Physical Enhancement as well as the ability to create Hallucinogenic Slime both based on the fire-bellied newt. Gregor the Snail had the Grey and Brown aura of Chemical Manipulation, limited to his own internal structure, as well as Physical Enhancement of his own, patterned off snails. I had to wonder if this was the Thinker Entity's hand at play, making her powers take after themes found in our planet's ecosystem, instead of the Warrior Entity's more basic and blunt 'Go fight stuff!' approach, or if it were just coincidence.

The other two were Scion Triggers, and following my theory weren't animal aligned at all. The first wasa woman in a red and black fire suit, wearing an odd gas mask, who had the Yellow & White flames of Pyrophoric Chemical Projection, and the smaller blonde girl in a mask holding the first woman's hand had Green and Blue flames that burned in fractal patterns that were hard to look directly at. The girl's Pocket Dimension held tight around her, constantly rewriting reality around her feet but retracting as she moved. My power wanted to grasp onto it, almost drawn to it, but I held it back.

As far as I was concerned, copying villain powers was fair game, but copying hero powers I didn't need was something I wouldn't do now that I had my identities set up. Faultline and her crew, despite their mercenary nature, where at least possibly heroes, so I'd afford them the benefit of the doubt for now. Looking at her, I noticed Labyrinth staring at me behind her mask, her secondary power of Dimensional Sensing a spotlight latching onto my costume. She started to walk towards me, but Spitfire herded her to the table Gregor & Newter had claimed, while the older woman shot me a hostile, questioning look as if I should explain myself.

Next was someone who could only be Æonic, confidently striding in as if he hadn't a care in the world. Thankfully his head wasn't a clock, but instead a full-face helmet, the front white with a clock design, hands set to midnight, two dark spots where his eyes were, the sides of the helm textured to look like oak. He sported a full Victorian suit: Black jacket and pants, with a closed silk vest patterned with pocket watches, under a clean white shirt, a white jumpsuit under it covering his neck and hands. Seeing his power made my eyes water, the strength and intensity of the flames something that I'd only seen in Herb.

The inferno his power made was Electric Blue and literally Sand, flashing into a new position every second exactly. Not only that, but he appeared to have four powers, which should've been impossible, whatever I told Panacea. He had a Temporal Bubble, which was what Boardwalk probably got caught in, Glimpse, which was detailed as combat precognition, Schrodinger, which was medium-scale quantum super-positioning, and-

What. The. Fuck. My thought process crashed to a halt as the words "Peak Condition" flashed across my mind, a power I was very familiar with as it was the same power Herb and I had! I missed whatever he said to the villains gathered, casually sitting to my left, commenting in a voice that seemed oddly familiar, "Didn't expect to see heroes here. Awesome."

"If it's a truce to stop the city from getting blown up, I'm all for working with the other side," I responded automatically, trying to process what I'd just seen. "The Protectorate would be here if they weren't complete morons." At my comment he turned to look at me sharply, before he shrugged, waving off the waitress. As he did so I shot a glance to Herb, who was also staring at him in thought, but shook his head at my look. Grue moved and sat to my right, looking between Æonic and myself. I shrugged back, not able to answer whatever his question might be.

Before he could ask regardless I heard a familiar voice calling, "Sup Bitches! The Merchants are here so we can get this party fuckin' started!" Standing in the doorway was Skidmark, and Squealer, along with what looked to be a goblin with pink skin. The Pink and Grey guttering flame of the goblin's Adaptive Armoring was barely present, his Enhanced Malleable Physiology almost nonexistent. I looked at what must be Mush, and as I peered deeper into his power, I Saw that nowhere in his power was there the form-locking component that Gregor and Newt had. As far as I could tell, staring at the components of his power, he looked like that because he expected to look like that, and his power complied, which was just depressing.

He caught me staring and shied away from my gaze, looking ashamed, and the sound of a chair hitting the ground broke my focus. The 'track'-star pointing at Grue and demanding to know why he was there.

Faultline, expression bored and neutral, though with an undercurrent of hidden attention, directed a hand towards the head of the Undersiders and responded, "His team hit the Brockton Bay Central Bank a week ago. You could just ask Vejovis. He failed to stop them." I smiled broadly and nodded, which got odd looks from several of the capes. "They've gone up against Lung several times in the past and they're still here, which is better than most. Not even counting the events of a week ago, Grue knows about the ABB and he can share that information," her eyes flicked to Herb, before she focused back on Skidmark, "with the rest of us."

"What about this shit felcher?" Skidmark asked, pointing at Æonic, who just laughed. Again, I got a sense of Deja-vu, the sound just felt off.

"I've hit ten of the angsty baby boy's strongholds this week," the boy, and it was a boy, bragged. "All you shits have done is hide in your hole and run away from your problems, but nothing new there. Bitch," he taunted, his crude language at odds with his refined costume.

"What'd you call me ya fucking knob gobbler!?" Skidmark demanded, fists going up.

Æonic laughed again, shaking his head. "If I wanted I could take you pissant junkies down in less time it takes you to blink. But we're here under truce, so I won't." With his power he could I realized, and I mentally commanded my costume to invisibly cover my exposed skin, just in case things went bad.

Skidmark, with what few braincells he had left, pointed at me instead, trying his luck a third time demanding, "What about you! I know you shouldn't be here ya scrotum-licking fudge-packing wanker!"

On one level I wanted him to keep going, as he was getting increasingly inventive, but we needed to get down to business. To defeat, the Huns! my brain completed, which wasn't exactly wrong. I smiled, making sure to show more teeth than was necessary.

"We're under truce, as Æonic said," I replied, "and if we weren't I would immediately try to take you down, as people who peddle drugs to children are just above rapists to me," I commented pleasantly. "And if, by some miracle, I wasn't able to subdue you, I'd just kill you, which is the far easier proposition. Though given that none of you have managed to pass through the revolving door that is our current legal system yet, I'd rather not."

I opened my arms, indicating those gathered. "But that's not why we're here, so take a seat like a civilized person, or slink out the door like a coward. Your choice."

As opposed to sitting next to the white supremacist, and just taking the very next seat down the table, which sat across from Coil, like I'd meant he should, Skidmark pushed over another chair, muttered about this being bullshit, and sat at a booth away from the rest of us. I rolled my eyes at the move, thinking, There was no reason for him to try kicking others out in the first place unless he wanted to start shit, or as a power move against Kaiser, which was just stupid as the man has the ego of a spoiled toddler. Now fecal-stain's whining about racists. I bet if he were a woman she'd be bitching about 'The Patriarchy'.

As the waitress put the chairs back and took everyone's orders, I sipped my watered-down soda and waited. Right as it looked like we were finally going to get started a smug voice called out "I'll be taking a seat, I think." Glancing over I saw a man in a red mask and top hat, the Eggplant Purple & Seafoam Green aura of Transposition surrounding him. As he walked in, his three companions followed him in, all clad head to toe in red and black.

First of all, there was a girl with stylized sun decals. Her main power was Stellar Creation, with a secondary of Stellar Negation, capable of normalizing heat and radiation to earth normal levels within five feet of her if she tried, the Bright Yellow & Burnt Orange of her aura dimly extending in that range around her.

The other man, whose costume was bulky and angular body armor, to the point he looked almost like an old video game character, possessed the Brown and Grey aura of Momentum Infusion, Safety Locked to inorganic matter, which I hadn't seen in a Cauldron Cape before. Behind all of them was a six-armed gorilla, who didn't appear to have any powers whatsoever.

I knew it was Genesis, but my Power Sight, for better or worse, didn't work on projections. Sadly, the fact that I couldn't follow the trail of power from a projection back to the Master who created it meant that The Siberian wouldn't be as easy to neutralize as I'd hoped. As I considered this, I didn't pay attention to the byplay Trickster had with the man pretending to be Coil. It was even odds they were already in his employ, and this was all a show to announce their presence to the city and to explain why they were working with Coil at a later date.

Not-Coil took the Gendo Ikari pose, which wasn't nearly as effective without glasses, and spoke smoothly from behind interwoven fingers as if he were an actor reciting lines, which he probably was. "That should be everyone. Seems Lung won't be coming, though I doubt any of us are surprised, given the subject of tonight's discussion."

"The ABB," Kaiser added completely unnecessarily, which, flexing my Acoustokinesis, I could hear Herb explaining to Purity that her ex-husband was doing so because: "God forbid someone else in the room talks without him getting the last word in."

"Over four hundred individuals confirmed dead, and well over a thousand hospitalized," Not-Coil paused, voice losing a bit of his smoothness as he improvised, "And the death count being as low as it currently sits, as well as the populace not understanding the impact of how bad the situation could otherwise be, is solely due to the efforts of Vejovis, as well as Panacea." I was still going to put a bullet in Coil's brain, but this actor seemed like a nice enough dude, I mused, giving him a thumbs up.

He nodded to me, continuing with his pre-prepared lines, "We have armed presences on the streets. Ongoing exchanges of gunfire between ABB members, the E88 defending themselves, and the combined forces of the police and military. They have raided our businesses and bombed places where they even think we might be operating. They have attempted to seize our territories, and there's no indication they intend to stop anytime soon."

"It is inconvenient," Kaiser added, and I could pick up a snort of laughter from Purity at Herb's "Told you."

Faultline agreed with disgust, "They're being reckless," which wasn't wrong. If they'd gone for some gains and then pulled back, they could've taken a bit more territory and waited for their next opportunity, using their explosives frugally. Instead they'd gone all or nothing, and it's what would lead to their destruction as a power in the city, just as in canon.

Not-Coil nodded to Faultline, "Which is the real concern. The ABB can't sustain this. Something will give, they will self-destruct sooner or later, and they will cease to be an issue. Had things played out differently, we could look at this as a good thing. Our problem is that the actions of the ABB are drawing attention to our fair city. All of the new Triggers are also flocking to the Protectorate instead of taking more reasonable offers. As they are mostly minorities, and given the disposition of the most visible criminal power here, this is not unexpected." Kaiser smiled unrepentantly. "All of the new Triggers, with one notable exception." He nodded to Æonic who gave a careless shrug, gaining the surprised attention of those assembled. They assumed he was just hiding until now and seized on the opportunity, I realized. Not that he went from 'I have powers' to 'I'm running a gang' in a little less than a week.

Not-Coil sighed dramatically, continuing as Kaiser tried to comment, talking over the man, a move which again caused Purity to suppress a laugh. "But it is worse than just an influx of bothersome heroes. Homeland Security and the military will soon establish a temporary presence to assist in maintaining order. Heroes will flock to the city to support the Protectorate in regaining control of matters. It will make business difficult. Then, the confrontation happened a few nights ago, which I'm sure you've all seen. The PRT are on high alert, and there are rumors that one of the Triumvirate will be coming if things don't improve soon. Not only that, but we have ten days before martial law is declared."

I blinked at the deviation from Canon. This was new. "Bakuda is at the center of this," Grue added, the two of us having discussed this, and how it would be better for everyone if they didn't know that the Penumbral Defenders and the Undersiders were responsible for her death. "Lung is the leader, but this is her doing. She 'recruited' by orchestrating raids of people's homes while they slept, subduing them, and implanting bombs in their heads. She then used those bombs to coerce her victims into kidnapping more. She had no less than three hundred in total, before something went wrong. Every single one of her soldiers knows that if they don't obey, then as soon as Bakuda solves whatever went wrong, she can detonate the bombs. Any who haven't fled are willing to put their lives on the line, because the alternatives are either certain death or watching their loved ones die for their failure. Taking her down, and whatever is controlling them, is our ultimate goal, but she claimed she's rigged her bombs to go off the second her heart stops, so it's a little more complicated than a simple assassination."

He grabbed something from his jacket, the details of what it was obscured by his darkness, and I resisted the urge to tap into his power to see it. Withdrawing a set of CD cases he continued, "She videotaped the ambush she pulled on my group a week ago and left it behind when she ran. I've made copies. Maybe you'll find it useful for getting a better understanding of her." Motioning for Taylor, she handed out a disk to everyone at the table before taking her place. Æeonic's body language showed surprised amusement, Faultline looked approving, Trickster looked bored, Not-Coil showed nothing, and Kaiser accepted it like a king receiving tribute.

"So," Not-Coil said, cracking each knuckle on his right hand individually. That seems. . . odd. I observed. Does Coil do that and the actor copied him, is the actor embellishing, or was the actor told to do that, with Coil setting that up as something that Thomas Calvert doesn't do so Coil can't be him. "We're in agreement?" the actor asked. "The ABB cannot be allowed to continue operating."

Everyone agreed in their own way. I half-considered giving an "Of course!" worthy of M. Bison, but simply nodded.

"Then I suggest we establish a truce," Not-Coil proposed. "Not just everyone here, but between ourselves and the law. I would contact authorities and let them know that, until this matter is cleared up, our groups will restrict our illegal activities to only what is absolutely essential to our businesses, and we will enforce the same for those doing business in our territories. That would let police forces and the military focus entirely on the ABB. There would be no violence, infighting between our groups, grabs for territory, thefts, or insults. We band together with those we can tolerate for guaranteed victory, and we ignore those we cannot cooperate with."

"Just saying my group won't be getting directly involved in this without a reason," Faultline spoke, ever the mercenary. If she fought me I'd try not to kill her people, but I had a feeling she was just angling to get paid. "We won't be going after the ABB unless they get in my way or someone pays my rates. It's the only workable policy when you're a cape for hire. Also, just so we're clear, if it's the ABB paying, my team's going to be on the other side of things."

"Unfortunate, but you and I can talk after this meeting is done. I'd prefer to keep matters simple," Not-Coil immediately responded, magnanimously, before anyone else could get a word in, as he'd surely been told to, "You're okay with the other terms?"

"Keeping on the down-low, not kicking up a fuss with other groups? That's status quo with my group anyways," the woman nodded.

The actor nodded. "Good. Kaiser?"

"I think that is acceptable," Kaiser agreed, head held high and not quite looking down his nose at us.

"I was talking to my group about doing something not too different from what Coil just proposed," Grue spoke, nodding a head towards me, "Yeah, we're cool with it."

"Sure," Trickster said, "not a problem. We're in."

"I can spare some time," Æonic quipped.

Those assembled looked at me expectantly, though Kaiser was trying not to be obvious about it. I smiled, this time warmly. "If those with power wish to act as heroes, I will always help them." I grabbed my business cards and tossed one to each of the leaders present, only cheating with air control a little to get them to stop in front of each person, placing a small stack in the center of the table. Kaiser didn't pick his up, but one of the Valkyries did, and, while they pretended they weren't interested, the rest disappeared up sleeves and into pockets as well.

With that done, everyone shook hands with everyone else, Kaiser making a show of not shaking my hand, the little bitch. I made a point of walking over to Skidmark and shaking his hand, to his surprise, though I was glad my glove was self-cleaning.

As we all took our seats once more, Not-Coil moved to close the meeting. "Then that's our major piece of business concluded tonight. Anything else before we go our separate ways? Offers, announcements, grievances?"

The E88's uninspired guard dog decided to bark, "I've got a complaint." Hookwolf waited until everyone's attention was on him before continuing. Drama Queen. "My complaint's with her," he announced, looking towards the Undersiders, which considering that there was only a single guy at their table, didn't help in the slightest. He probably wasn't referring to Imp, who I couldn't see drinking Alec's soda, but still, that left three other girls.

"What's the issue?" Grue asked calmly, subconsciously producing more darkness.

"The crazy one, Hellhound, she-"

"Bitch," Bitch interrupted him, establishing social dominance like a boss, "only the panty-ass heroes call me Hellhound. It's Bitch."

"Don't fucking care," Hookwolf growled, probably only subconsciously aware of what just happened. "You attacked my business. Set your fucking dog on my customers. Lucky I wasn't there, whore."

Really. Whore? That's the best you got? I wondered, then chided myself, asking for originality from Hookwolf. The guy who named himself literally the thing he was. That would be like Kaiser calling himself Steelblade, or Purity saying her name was Lightblast.

From Grue's look he had no idea what Bitch was doing, another mark against his leadership skills. While Herb went off and did stuff all the time, he wasn't my subordinate, as Grue obviously considered Bitch. "That's the kind of risk you run, doing business in Brockton Bay," Brian remarked. "Capes can and will get in your way, hero or villain."

Hookwolf glared at him. "It's a matter of respect," he said, like he would give anyone that wasn't white the very thing he was asking for. "You want to fuck with my business, and we're not at war? You let me know if you've got an issue, first. Let me decide if I want to move shop."

I cut off Bitch before she could escalate this. "Oh, does this mean you asked permission of all the other groups before you set them up in the first place? You get the respect you give Hookwolf." I informed him, ignoring his growl. Honestly, the only reason I didn't call it cute was I knew he'd lose his shit. "Besides, Snake-man just finished talking about how during the truce we'd strip down to the minimum of criminal activities. If you're asking for complete compliance and cessation of activities, does this mean that you'll stop harassing gays and minorities. Or the Merchants will stop selling drugs. The truce is on general crime. I won't go out on patrol, but if I see you trying to make some strange fruit, I'm going to beat your shit in."

I looked around the room, addressing everyone, ignoring his schoolyard "I'd like to see you try." "Individual capes are known for having some things they can't abide," I explained capturing their attention. "For me in particular, it's rape. If the Wolf and the Bitch want to duke it out on their own, fine, but with the truce we won't be bringing our teams to the fight each other, and let's not pair up people that can't work together. Now, given that we have about a week to get this done before this city is turned into even more of a war-zone than it already is, we should abide by the very terms of the agreement we just shook on. Everyone got that?"

As most of those present nodded, Kaiser, who had been getting increasingly annoyed at how Not-Coil and I seemed to be running the meeting, ground out, "You're not in charge here, hero."

I looked at him as if he were particularly thick. "Neither are you, dumbass. Hey Skidmark, you get the jist of the truce?"

"Fuck you!" he called, but his response was lacking in the victimized anger he normally mainlined.

"Not my type, but did you get it?" I volleyed back, smiling.

"Fuck yes I got it you shit-sniffing hobo-wanker!" he called, sounding surly.

I smiled wider, this was too fun. "See, even the meth-head got it. I'm sure your people will figure it out, being the superior race and all. Do we have anything else to talk about that wasn't already covered by the truce?" No one said anything. "Good! When you guys, and gals, get ready to raid something, gimme a call. If I find something, I'll try and get word to your organizations." I beamed a sunny smile at everyone, standing up, the other leaders standing with me. Kaiser, probably not wanting to follow my lead or something, remained seated.

Not-Coil walked over to Trickster, who'd joined the rest of the Travelers. For a second, I considered walking over and trying to pre-empt him, but I don't have anywhere that could hold Noelle, much less help her, so that'd be something to take care of the future. Seeing Æonic beeline for the door, I followed him, Herb and Purity falling into step behind me. I needed to find out who he was, and why he was breaking what I had assumed were rules of the world the same way we were.

"Hey, Æonic!" I called, encircling the four of us in a sound bubble, "I need to ask you something."

"Yeah, what is it?" he responded, turning around, and what was bothering me about him finally clicked.

"Charlie?" I asked, narrowing my eyes. "Charlie Rycroft?

"What the fuck!?" he sputtered as an accent I didn't realize he had been faking dropped. "How the fuck do you know my name!?" my little brother demanded.

 

[Leecifer]

Interlude 5.x (Interlude: Chuck)

Charlie Rycroft sighed as he got up, stretching. The injuries he'd picked up during his first night in Brockton Bay still hurt, even three days later, though popping a pill helped, and he had enough for the next month, easily. He busied himself around the apartment he'd rented deep in in E88 territory as Benjamin Franklin the 8th​.

Having to shill out almost a grand to avoid a background check had been painful, but he had a lot more, though he wasn't going to be repeating the experience he'd gone through to get it if he could afford to.

He laughed to himself at the pun.

A quick shit, shower, but still no shave, dammnit, and he was ready to face the day. He was tempted to spend another day hiding out, but if he stayed inside for another hour with no one to talk to he was going to go nuts.

Well, more nuts.

He still had no idea how the hell he got here, and why the hell this world was so messed up. Sure, superpowered villains, but come on, no one thought to snipe? That was like, combat one-oh-one! Camping was the move of a total newb, but this game was rigged, so why the fuck not?

Opening the drawer he'd stuck a small armory in, covered by a few t-shirts he'd picked up, he considered taking along a weapon. Go out without a weapon, or run the risk of getting harassed by the cops. Chuck snorted, grabbing an SMG, slinging its harness to be covered by his jacket. I'm in Nazi territory, the cops aren't gonna do shit.

Half an hour later, surrounded by skinheads, he couldn't help to remark to himself, Well, I wasn't wrong. "Who the fuck do ya think you are kid, carrying a piece in our city!" the lead baldy asked, shoving Chuck back, only for another to shove him forward back into the center.

He was surprised that he wasn't as scared as he should be. A part of that was the fact that he was six-foot-five, and the thug, might be six feet, so he had to look up to threaten him, but it was more the lack of firepower.

The thugs somehow knew he was carrying, but they seemed to think it was pistol. A couple of the thugs had pistols, but other than that it was knives and sticks, making Chuck the heaviest armed person here, and ever since he'd gotten here, all the lessons on martial arts and marksmanship his brother had tried to teach him had just clicked.

Pfft, I can take 'em, some part of his mind observed, as the rest of his mind screamed ARE YOU HIGH! to that suicidally overconfident voice.

"I don't want any trouble," he said instead, raising his hands to chest level, ready to grab his gun if he needed, but he really didn't want to. This was the last safe, well, safe-ish part of the city, and he had a feeling that if he wanted answers, he had to stay here.

Gunning down a bunch of the local gangsta's would probably be the opposite of helpful.

"Then give us your piece, and your money, and we might let you go. Be glad you aren't a nigger." The thug peered at him. "You're not a Jew, are you?"

Like I'd say yes if I was! Chuck thought, mind spinning to try to find a way to de-escalate the situation. Maybe if they think I'm part of their tribe or something?

His face screwed up in disgust over what he was about to say, though he guessed he could sell it as disgust at them for what they were suggesting. "Do I look like a fuckin' kike?" He just felt dirty saying that, but if it let him walk away? Fuck it.

"Fine, give us your gun and your wallet and you can go," the leader informed him, like he was doing him a favor, as if Chuck was just going to do that.

Like I can believe that. Sure, just give up your gun and you'll be safe. That always goes well! Shit, I need to go on the offensive. "Fuck you Dumbass, I thought this was E88 territory, and you're shaking me down like I'm some fuckin Jap? That a tan, or are you just a particularly creamy ape?" he accused.

Repressing his gag at his language, Chuck glared at the leader. As the other Nazi's started looking at their leader thoughtfully, he had to congratulate himself, deciding to study that database of racial slurs was paying off, even if half of them made no sense.

Like, Darky, yeah, they had dark skin. Unoriginal as fuck, but what did you expect from racists? Their powers of observation were literally skin-deep. Coon though, that made no sense. Racoons were just as white as they were black, if not more, though they were mostly grey.

Did they think black people were really inventive, had a lot of dexterity, or maybe stole stuff from trash cans?

As the leader started to sputter incoherently, one of the other Neo-Nazis was staring at Chuck in a way that worried him. Grabbing his phone, the thug held it up, looking between it and Chuck, before his eyes went wide. "Holy shit it's him!" he yelled, showing the guys on either side of him, who looked at the phone before looking back at Chuck, happy about it.

"Fuck, it is! That's BadBoySlayer888!" one of them yelled, the phone getting passed around. Chuck repressed a wince. He did not want to get connected to that clusterfuck. The leader looked at the phone, before he looked at Chuck, impressed and a little scared.

"Fuck, I'm sorry man, I didn't know. Why didn't you say you were one of us?" the asshole actually goddamned apologized.

"I'm not!" Chuck said before he could help it. They looked confused, and some looked hurt, and what did hurt racists do? Nothing good, that's for sure. He clarified, "I haven't joined E88, but I don't need to, to kill some fuckin'," he paused, trying to think of a good one, "Ching Chong Chinks!"

As the crowd roared in approval, he had to keep himself, from just grabbing the gun and opening fire on these pieces of human filth.

What kind of person thinks what I just said is good!?

Though he had his answer, fucking Nazis, and the almost worshipful ways a couple looked at him made him want to vomit. The worst part was the fact that the adulation was still adulation, and the approval made some part of him feel good, which just made the rest of him feel worse.

"Ya mean you did that without anyone backin ya?" one of them asked, impressed. Chuck's uncaring shrug just made them like him more.

. . . Yay?

<AB>​

The next afternoon Chuck was back in his room, trying to lay low.

On the bright side, he now knew he was safe here. On the other side, he couldn't walk more than three blocks without some asshole happily saying hello to him, which just made him feel worse every time it happened. For the third time that hour someone knocked on his door. Somehow they'd found where he'd lived, and kept dropping by to congratulate him for killing people for what they thought was the color of their skin.

He didn't grab a shotgun, mostly because he was worried he'd shoot the Darwin Award contestant who came to express their amazement at his disgusting act of racism. He growled as he opened the door; "Wha. . ." He trailed off, staring at the three distinctive Nazis in front of him. To the left was a guy dressed in only baggy pants with vanity chains like some emo teen and a tiger mask. To the right was a really fit blonde chick covered in scars with a metal cage over her head, mostly obscuring her face. Front and center though, was a greasy looking guy, also shirtless, wearing jeans, boots, and a metal wolf mask.

From his research, especially focused now that he seemed to be skinhead catnip, Chuck recognized the E88's heavy hitters, Stormtiger, Cricket, and Hookwolf. "Hi?" he squeaked.

Hookwolf stared up at him, and Chuck realized that being taller than the crazed killer might not be a good thing. "Heard a bitch here said he was the one that made that video. You him?"

Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit. "Yes?" Chuck hazarded, voice breaking a little.

Stormtiger snorted. "Doesn't sound like it."

"You show me proof, or I show you your heart," Hookwolf informed the teen. There was a growl to his words, but almost a bored one.

"Um, sure, gimme a sec?" Chuck asked stepping back, Hookwolf following before he had a chance to close the door. Not like that would help versus someone who could turn into a wolf made of hooks! Mind you, as far as names went, it was one of the stupidest goddamn things he'd ever fucking heard. Stahlhund, Kettensage, hell Direwolf would have been better, since his form was as big as one, and if you fought him you were in dire circumstances.

He wasn't going to tell the crazed killer that to his face though, but still, where's the creativity? At least Stormtiger was a kind of tank AND he could kinda make storms. Sorta. He finished his critique as he found the blood-stained jacket and panda mask, hidden in the back of his closet. Bringing it out Hookwolf grabbed it, sniffing it before tossing it to Stormtiger, who did the same, nodding. Do they have super smelling or something?

"What's your power?" Hookwolf demanded.

Chuck froze, thinking if he should lie, but then he'd have to show off, so it wasn't worth it. He shrugged instead, trying to make his voice sound tough. "D-Don't have any." That got their attention, the two men glancing to Cricket, who nodded.

And they can tell if I'm lying? Then why the fuck did they need my jacket!?

All three looked at him, impressed. Well, probably. Their faces were covered. He hoped they were impressed. Chuck felt like he should say something. "Didn't need powers, just shot 'em and they died like," he paused, about to say dogs, but that guy called himself a wolf so that might not work, "the yellow bastards they were."

"We could use people like you for the cause. Join, and we could get you healed and killing Coolies by tonight," Hookwolf offered, a lazy interest in his voice, along with confidence that there was only one possible answer.

Because, if he wanted to live, there was.

Fuck, Fuck, Fuck, Fuck, Fuck! Chuck panicked. They're dragging me into this, and this feels like an offer I can't refuse. Fuck. Think! Why did I choose a third-floor apartment? Can't jump out a window. Not that it would help, dude turns into a wolf made out of hooks!

He tried to figure out how to get out of this situation. Dudes look like they're the 'noble white warrior' types, let's go with that. Settling into that mindset, the response was obvious. "I'm honored, but I gotta ask, the healing, does it leave scars?" He knew it didn't.

The chick took out a fucking kama from her back, but instead of attacking him flipped it over, pressing the base to her throat, buzzing "No, it doesn't".

Jackpot. "Then I'll have to turn you down. I took these wounds in battle, and I want to feel them heal, and remember what I did wrong so I won't make the same mistakes next time." He doubled down, noticing the scars all three were almost proudly sporting. "And without scars, how will people know I am a warrior. I don't exactly look like it yet."

They exchanged glances, and he hoped to god he hadn't overplayed the part. "Take off your shirt." Hookwolf demanded.

Well, if they're gonna kill me, doesn't matter if I'm shirtless. He complied, Hookwolf almost negligently reaching down and ripping off the bandages as Chuck fought not to make a sound at the pain. The killer looked at his wounds before nodding.

"Not bad. You'll be fine to fight in two weeks. You'll join then," Hookwolf announced, sounding like he was smiling. With that he turned and stalked out the door, Stormtiger following him, trying to look bored just a little too hard.

Cricket lingered, giving him a once over. "You're out of shape," she buzzed, "But I'll get you fighting fit soon enough. Then we'll have fun."

She left as well, which was good as Charlie wasn't sure if he should be offended because she called him fat, or, well, that almost sounded like flirting, and he had no idea how to take that.

<AB>​

Chuck walked down the darkened street, frustrated, the panic that had been growing for the past few days at the back of his head making itself noted.

He'd had two weeks to get the hell out of dodge, but as soon as he'd left the next morning, he'd noticed he'd picked up a tail. They were making sure he was around to join, or they'd probably kill him. To get away he needed to Randy Newman this bitch.

Unfortunately, finding friends who weren't Neo-Nazis was proving to be fucking impossible. This night he'd managed to shake his tail, heading downtown, going to a club to try to meet someone who could help. The first red flag should've been when the bouncer had stopped him from getting in line to get in, but instead of telling him to scram like the ones before, told him instead to go right inside.

"What the hell, you're letting a fifteen-year-old into the club?" one of the women in line had complained.

Fuck you too! was his immediate response, but before he could say anything the bouncer shot back, "When you've killed half the people he has, you can bitch, bitch." Fuck, that dude's cool! Chuck thought, heading inside, not making the connection.

Turns out, he found, the club was not somewhere to make friends. Between the bad lighting, the loud music, and the drunk people, friendly conversation wasn't gonna happen. Most people wouldn't give him the time of day. Those that would. . . well, while the offer to get blown in the bathroom was tempting, and he was still seventeen, not fifteen, but she only wanted to do it because of the entire killing Asians thing.

He knew, because she nearly panted it, which killed the mood pretty fucking quickly.

After two hours, and increasingly disturbing offers, he'd left and headed back to his apartment. It was the early hours of the morning, not even twilight, and the streets were pretty empty. He started to head to the crosswalk, but he noticed the power-box on the sidewalk was blinking. It stood out to him, because he'd never seen them have any light on them whatsoever. When it started beeping he started backing up. The ground rumbled, and he thought Fuck this, turning and running. A moment later he heard a deep grinding and ran faster, the ground shaking, the stone of the sidewalk starting to come apart.

Leaping over part of the sidewalk that had split open, cracks appearing, he ran like hell as his footing started to loosen and disappear, the cars on the street sliding back the way he came, before a small thunderclap went off behind him, the force of whatever it was picking him up and tossing him down the street.

Landing and rolling, burning off momentum in that weird way his body sometimes moved in this place, he sprang to his feet and looked back. Where used to be an intersection was a deep hole, Rubble, steel, and even some cars had been tossed in every direction, destroying the buildings closest to the blast and riddling everything around the site with debris. He heard a tinny ringing, but nothing else at first, his hearing slowly coming back as he started to hear the screams of people in the buildings, and from elsewhere in the city as he heard explosions, whooshes of flame, cracking noises, and a whole lot of other things.

Deciding he wanted no part of this he took another street to go home. As he ran, he passed people coming out of their homes, looking around, and generally getting in his way. He ran out of breath after a couple blocks, stopping to pant as his chest hurt. As he bent over, he noticed a light under the parked car he was leaning against. It shown for a second, a brown light, and then started blinking.

Blinking lights are never good, was his thought as he pushed himself to run again, pushing harder as it started fucking beeping. He yelled "Run!" as he fled, his legs felt leaden, but he pressed on, pushing past confused people and cursing his hatred of PE. It was only a second or two later that the beeping stopped and there was a great squelching sound.

Turning to look as he leaned against a light post he saw the cars, walls, even the people that had stopped to stare behind him had lost all color three inches above the ground, the affected area having turned a dark brown, and looking to be made of the same material. The phenomena had spread out from the light in a hemisphere, and the asshole he'd had to push past a few feet back's legs were affected, the man's face scrunched up in confusion. The entire street seemed to freeze before it all collapsed, everything losing cohesion as the smell of mud hit his nose. The building nearest the, fuck, was that even a bomb? collapsed, stone and masonry collapsing into the street, splashing mud in every direction as the man started screaming, his bottom half liquid.

As Chuck fell backwards something bounced by him. Reaching over to see what it was, the man's screams of pain petering off to nothing, he brushed off the mud to find he was holding a woman's foot, cut cleanly above the ankle and bleeding into the mud.

Dropping it Chuck vomited, unable to handle what the fuck he was seeing. After a minute where he didn't break down, just wanting to go back home, real home, to a place where there weren't bombs that turned people to fucking wet dirt, he picked himself up, took a deep breath, and turned on his heel to go back to his fucking apartment. He spared a glance for the man, but he was dead, whether of shock or blood loss, he wasn't sure, but it didn't really matter now.

Deciding that apparently the streets were a fucking deathtrap. He started taking alleys, another building collapsing into the mud behind him.

That seemed to work, and he was two blocks away from safety when he tripped on something that he couldn't see, a beeping coming from right beside him.

"Fuck me!" Chuck swore as he bolted, pushing everything he had to get away as he heard a soft foomp and gravity turned sideways. Lunging to the side he clung onto a dumpster, he looked down at a black sphere hanging twenty feet in the air in the middle of the alley, pulling everything to it. The loose trash was drawn in, a trashcan bouncing off his head, making him see stars as he held on.

After a second, the pull increased, and the dumpster started to slide backwards, towards the fucking singularity. Climbing to its top, side, whatever, Chuck jumped to hold onto a pipe attached to the side of the building, the dumpster picking up speed before it lifted off, crushing with a horrible sound as it fit itself into the basketball sized sphere.

The metal beneath his hands started to bend, bolts popping loose as Chuck climbed to the right, up, away. Part of the pipe gave way, tearing and falling into the sphere, the mooring coming loose faster than he could climb as he heard breaking masonry and screaming. The pipe finally gave, and he flew back, flailing arms catching hard on a fire escape, which shuddered and started to groan and deform. His arms were on fire and his entire body felt heavy, his legs feeling like someone was squeezing them all over.

The fire-escape tore itself out of what was left of the wall while he tried to climb it, not even getting more than a few feet away. As he was pulling back towards the hole in space, feeling his body squeezed, knowing he was going to die, the bomb cut out, and he was sent flying, landing on the concrete alley floor, and skidding as he heard something thunk like a dropped anvil, only worse.

He laid on the ground, laughing, and crying, and just so done with this fucking place.

Shakily getting to his feet, his legs felt like they were one massive bruise, but he could still walk. Gingerly stepping towards where the sphere had been he saw a tiny circular hole in the ground, maybe the size of a golfball, the concrete around it shattered. Taking out his phone he shone a light, and it went deep, farther than his light could carry. Finally looking around he saw the walls had been ripped away, as had been everything inside that wasn't tied down. He heard sobbing, and the groans of the building on either side and decided that he didn't want to stay there any longer than was necessary.

The universe does things in threes, Chuck reassured himself. That's three. I'm safe. I just need to go back to the apartment and go to sleep.

Getting home, he pushed his way towards the front door. People were in the streets, moving everywhere. On one level that was fucking stupid, but apparently staying home could make you just as dead.

He didn't want to think of what happened to people that had been in the mud-ed buildings.

Chuck entered his apartment building, cursing the fact that it was on the third fucking floor with every step, legs throbbing in pain in time with his heartbeat, lifting his pants slightly showing his flesh already turning dark, everything bruised. Fumbling with his keys, he opened the door, wearily locking it behind him.

Stumbling in, he relaxed, glad to be home. Finally.

He sat down at his desk, turning on his laptop to find out what the fuck was happening. Taking a deep breath, he was interrupted as his phone rang. He started to check his cell, only to realize the sound was coming from his bed. He let his landline ring, they could leave a fucking message, only to freeze as he realized he didn't have one.

Turning to look, he saw a black box sitting on his bed, the source of the sound. A holographic display appeared over the box, stating:

For: BadBoySlayer888, The best of hugs!​

From: Bakuda, The best part of the ABB!​

Then the box started screeching. A horrible tearing, angry not-noise that dragged nails across the chalkboard of his sanity. From the box emerged. . . His brain refused to see exactly what they were, just going: It's a Tentacle. Let's call it a Tentacle, and nothing else. The Tentacles reached out from the box, grasping at everything. One raked across the wall, dark blue fungus springing up wherever it touched. Another Tentacle grasped onto his pillow, wrenching it back into the box, which wasn't a box anymore. Yes it is! his mind told him. But if obviously wasn't, it was a- It's a BOX, just like those are Tentacles. He started to get up, to run, to get out, but his bed was between him and the door, as the Tentacles reached out towards him, questing, screeching, Staring.

I should have just gotten eaten by that fucking black hole was his last thought, as certain death reached out to grasp him.

<AB>​

Charlie found himself floating in space, but not outer space. He hung, bodiless, in a place with no beginning or end. Prismatic clouds drifted all around, twisting, and changing, but in a kinda peaceful way. Am I dead? Did it get me? Is this, well, it isn't hell, is this Purgatory? Not having to run for his life was nice, but in an hour or two, this was going to get boring fast.

After a minute, or maybe an eon, he had no frame of reference, something in the distance moved, the clouds flying past him away from it, or he moved towards it, again, no way to tell how. Something happened, and he reached a break in the mist. It was an open column in the clouds, and he passed over a mountain range that encircled a lake, the hole in the fog extending eternally upwards over it. Either he was tiny, or the mountain range was fucking huge because it took a while. Eventually, he passed it and flew out over the lake, which was glowing, full of shifting blues and greens, with hints of reds, yellows, and every other color in it, including ones that he'd never seen before, and couldn't think of words to describe.

He flew on, formless, looking around without eyes, until he reached the center, slowing to a stop. He waited, for an immeasurable age, and felt more than saw something moving. The mountain range started to move, spinning and shifting. As the largest mountain moved, rising into the air his mind reorganized what he was seeing, and if he still had breath, it would've caught in his throat. The mountains, the coils of a spiked snake so big he couldn't understand, shifted, a head, the size of a moon, a planet, the sun, the goddamned solar system, rose to stare at him.

Jörmungandr? He thought, getting a sense of bemused negation from everywhere at once.

As it stared, something absolutely tiny detached itself from its head, so miniscule he could barely make it out. It moved towards him, slowly, with painstaking care. As it inched towards him it grew, slowly, from something the size of a speck of dust, to a blue stone he could hold in his hand, to something as big as he was. It grew, larger and larger, as it slowly moved towards him, only he realized it wasn't taking its time, it was rocketing towards him so fast it was blueshifting. As it came closer he felt the air around him shaking, his vision blotting out before the crystal big enough to kill the dinosaurs, and growing.

He wanted to scream, to run, to escape, to laugh hysterically this ridiculous amount of overkill but he couldn't move, just float in this prismatic hell as a snake the size of the universe killed him with a rock big enough to destroy the sun! Just as the crystal, shifting from blue to a prismatic riot of multicolored death, was about to impact him, the world was consumed in flames of Neon Blue and Sand, and he felt a sense of amusement, mixed with Anticipation.

<AB>​

The flames cleared, and he froze, a Tentacle an inch away from his face, but completely still. The screeching had stopped, and everything in the room was unmoving. Sliding away from it from where he'd fallen, he got to his feet, feeling good. Far better than he had any right to.

Glancing out the window, he saw a distant bolt of lightning reaching up from the city into the sky, but heard no sound. Walking over to his window he looked out and saw that everything, and everyone, out in the street was frozen in place.

A bit of movement caught his eyes and he saw people at the end of the street milling about fearfully as they stared at the frozen people. One guy was actively pulling at his arm, held in the air in front of him, which was completely motionless.

Holy shit. Did I stop time? Looking at the Tentacles, hanging in the air, he grabbed a wooden spoon and approached one of the limbs, poking it. Immediately the spoon started to sprout blue mushrooms. Jumping back and letting go of the utensil. It hung in the air where he dropped it, fungal growth halted.

Okay, What I'm holding still has time. Good.

He stared at the Tentacles.

. . . I'm fuckin' leaving.

He wasn't sure how long this was going to last, so, ducking around and under the things that tried to kill him, he made a circuit of the room, packing as much as he could. Between two duffle bags and a backpack, he stuffed them full of money, weapons, and the things he didn't want to leave behind like his laptop. It only took a few minutes according to his phone, which had no signal. Bags packed, he looked at the Tentacles and they Stared hatefully back. Shuddering, he unlocked the door, leaving, and locking it behind him, knowing there was no way he was getting his security deposit back.

Climbing down the stairs two at a time, he was almost at the front door when the sound came back, making him jump. The screeching was back, and if anything, it sounded angrier, if that was possible. Running out the front door he looked up, seeing long, thick Tentacles, teeth gnashing in rage as they whipped out the window of his room, growing quickly.

People outside were stumbling, looking up, standing still while screaming in fear, and generally doing everything you weren't supposed to do in the horror movie tonight had become. Chuck ran as the Tentacles flailed, gabbing a woman who shrieked out in pain so hard he thought her voice was going to snap. Another Tentacle flailed down, and he dodged it, only for a third to grab him around the arm and he knew why she was screaming, for he was as well. His nerves blazed in fire as he was dragged upwards, inwards, the Tentacle tearing and worming its way in him, devouring him as it pulled him back to his room and the BOX which opened its swirling Maw and-

He stumbled, arms flailing, as the third Tentacle missed him, grabbing an old man as he screamed with a pain Chuck knew. Blinking, heart hammering, he started to run, only for another Tentacle to wrap around his throat, devouring its way up into his brain, eating his thoughts, his mind, his soul-

Falling on his ass the Tentacle whipped by, grabbing a metal pole and ripping it from the ground, wires sparking as fungus started to sprout along the paint, but not the rusted metal. Getting up, he swayed, but started to move again, dodging one Tentacle as it whipped by. They were going after him! He dodged a second and a third, only for a fourth to spear through his chest, Devouring-

With a force of will he broke from that reality, vision, future, twisting out of the way of the spearing Tentacle. I get it! I'm leaving! Running out of range of their growing limbs, running faster than he believed was possible, passing between people and vaulting over cars, the thing's SCREECHING reached a fever pitch before cutting out, leaving only the blessed sounds of explosions, chaos, and screaming.

He needed to get somewhere safe, as he'd gotten his second wind, and then some, but didn't know how long it would last. As for safety, that hotel he'd stayed at his first night seemed to be something straight out of John Wick, and if anyplace had checked for bombs, it would be there. He jogged in that direction, breaking into a bounding run, body light as he practically loped along, heading downtown.

Downtown was, if anything, worse and in a fit of why the fuck not he turned down an alley, taking a few steps up a wall before jumping onto a fire escape, swiftly climbing to the top. Running across the rooftop he reached the edge, following his instincts and pushing off as hard as he could he took a flying leap, near effortlessly crossing the thirty feet of street, foot smoothly landing on the ledge of the building as he continued on with a laugh and a smile.

After what he'd just survived, this was nothing.

<AB>​

He'd checked in, though they hadn't recognized him. The fact that he was grinning like a madman probably didn't help. He couldn't help it, this was the best he'd ever felt in his life! It was no wonder people got addicted to near-death experiences if this was the payoff! Humming to himself he checked in, dropped his bags on his bed, and stretched, bouncing on the balls of his feet, bursting with energy. Taking a deep breath, he centered himself, heading into the bathroom to clean off some of the mud, concrete dust, ash, and general grime from his face.

Washing it off, the water turning brown and red as it ran off him, he finally calmed. Looking into the mirror though, his heartrate spiked. He wasn't, well, him! The face that looked back at him appeared to be chiseled from stone, jawline sharp enough to cut steel, and not an ounce of fat to be seen.

Holy shit! I'm a Chad!

Stripping his shirt, which he realized was practically painted on, having to rip it to take it off, his gut was gone, replaced with. . . is it a six pack if there's eight? No wonder he was feeling good, apparently Super Space Snake Scales were like ultra-steroids.

That or some of the drugs he'd taken had been steroids.

And had taken a week to kick in.

Without exercising.

Is it bad that Super Space Snake Scales are the more likely answer?

Shaking his head, he sat down, shirtless, at the room's desk, taking out his laptop and turning it on to try to find out what the hell was going on.

He took out his phone to try to do the same thing.

He put his face in hands, exhaling at the ridiculousness of all of this.

He checked out his muscles, because honestly, he'd never had muscles like this before.

He stretched his arms out, releasing the last of the tension.

He looked outside, seeing his reflection in the window.

All six of him.

He was sitting in his chair, but he looked like something out of the Matrix, one of him leaning forward and looking up news sites, which had no idea what was going on, doing the same on his phone to similar results, feeling his muscles which felt solid in a way that he hadn't expected, putting his head in his hands, stretching, and looking out the window, all of him merging into each other like he was noclipping. The other five of him stopped what they were doing and turned to look at his reflections, merging into a single him.

What. The. Fuck.

He heard a chiming sound, three of him looking around for it in different directions, the sound coming from nowhere and everywhere at once.

"ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?" he demanded, ready for the next bomb, but nothing happened.

There was the sound of the chime again, and he heard someone female exhaling. 'Installation complete!' the voice, sounding somewhat British, informed him. 'Good evening Sir!'

"Um, who are you?" he asked the air.

'I am your A.I!' it responded cheerfully, a window opening in the air showing an attractive woman in black rimmed glasses, business attire, dark red hair contrasting with her bright green eyes and pale skin.

Turning his head moved the window, and moving his hand in front of his eyes showed it was not actually in the air, but somehow overlaid on his vision. "You're a computer program?" he asked, disbelievingly.

The woman laughed good naturedly, covering her mouth as she did. "Oh, no. I am an Abaddon Intelligence. Where are my manners? Introductions are needed. I am temporal shard, designation: Centauri, here to assist my user in the Primary's mission. In particular the destruction of Entity, designation: The Warrior!'

 

[Leecifer]

Outreach 6.1

Looking at my brother, who was apparently Æonic, I couldn't repress my grin. "Dude, it's me! Lee!" I jerked a thumb towards Break, "And that's Herb!"

He stared at me, hard, before shaking his head. "No way, you look nothing like him. You're too swol!"

I laughed, wondering where the hell he'd come from, but happy to see him nonetheless. "One, go fuck yourself. Two, like you have room to fuckin' talk!"

"Holy shit it is you!" he said, more to himself than me.

"What's going on?" Purity asked confused, looking between us. "Do you know each other?"

"Yeah!" I responded, slinging an arm around his shoulder. "He's my little brother!"

"Who got fuckin' ripped! High five!" Herb added, holding his hand up, which Charlie stepped forward and hit after a moment's hesitation.

I looked around, noting the stares from the villains starting to leave. Dropping the bubble, I told Charlie, "This is not the optimal place to discuss things, why don't you come with us to a more secure location, Æonic?"

He hesitated, before nodding, accent back as he too saw the villains, "Of course, where should we meet?"

I held out a hand. "We'll show you, it'll be faster."

He grasped it, body going taut as I levitated us an inch off the ground. "What the fuck?" he hissed as he looked down.

"The three of us can all fly, it's easier," I commented.

Herb winked at Purity, "Shall we?

Purity nodded to him professionally, taking off, Herb giving me a thumbs up before turning into a pterodactyl, following her. I lifted my little brother, and we took off into the sky.

Landing a few minutes' walk from the base, Charlie looked at me, asking "So you're the-"

"Yeah," I cut him off. "I was training."

He nodded to himself as Purity looked around. "Where are we going?" she asked unsurely.

"Back to our humble abode, madam," Herb responded, grinning.

She looked around again, expression still skeptical, "In the railyard?"

"It does mean we can't get delivery," I responded.

"But I'm a decent cook, so that's no big!" he reassured.

I agreed, "He is, better than I am."

Charlie nodded, adding, "Same."

She quieted down, but as we approached the base, the outside a rusted wreck, she slowed again.

"Vejovis, unlock" I commanded, a light playing over my face before the door opened, revealing the homey interior. Walking inside without waiting, I headed towards the meeting room we'd never actually used before, the other three looking around as they followed.

"Just this floor?" Charlie asked, snorting at my nod. "Mine's better." Rolling my eyes, I shifted my clothing to business casual, taking the chair at the head of the table. "Okay, that's cool," Charlie admitted, taking the seat to my left, as Purity and Herb sat to my right. My little brother looked at me, before shaking his head. "Fuck, it is you," he commented, reaching behind his head, the full clock helmet opening up as he took it off.

He looked like he'd aged five years, but in a good way. All of his baby was fat gone, leaving a very different face, though the mouth, nose, and eyes were still the same if you looked for it. Sighing he ran his gloved hand through his hair, messing it up from the uniform dome it had compressed into. Herb popped his mask off, and Purity, looking to me for confirmation, dropped out of Lightform after I nodded. "Okay, I gotta ask," I inquired, "how did you get minions?"

He smirked, "Craigslist." I stared at him in disbelief. "Nah, just fuckin' with ya, I've been recruiting people I've helped. Figured if they come in liking me, they'd be more loyal."

"Wait, you got a gang?" Herb asked. "How long have you had powers?"

"A week," he shrugged, laughing at Herb's "Fuckin' white people."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Purity asked the darker-skinned man, glaring at him.

"What? No!" Herb responded, holding his hands up. "Um, what I mean is, sort of, normally, he really went fast and just got everybody around. Like seriously? A week? Seriously?"

Charlie shot me a look, and I motioned between the two mouthing 'He likes her'. My brother nodded, before stopping and frowning, mouthing 'Nazi?' I shook my head, outright telling him, "She left two years ago." He shrugged as Herb continued covering his ass. "So, you've gone villain?" I asked my brother, not censuring, just interested.

He gave me a disbelieving look. "Have you seen the cops here? They make Chicago look clean! Besides, here you can actually make a gang and nothing happens. Fuck yeah I'm doing that!"

"Have you claimed territory yet?"

"Not yet," he shook his head. "Not sure where to start. And how."

I shrugged, "I might have some ideas."

"Aren't you a Hero?"

"Okay, so, yes, but no-" I started to explain.

"Oh, thanks! Now I understand!" he snarked.

"Shut the fuck up and let me talk," I responded without heat. "Hero is a massively loaded term, especially here. Villain is almost as bad, but not quite. When someone says Hero, it could mean a lot of different things. It could mean the Superman, Batman, Dudley Do-Right super good guy who'd never do anything bad, let alone kill. The kind of moron who would capture a mass-murderer and turn him over to the cops, even if they've already escaped before, and somehow considers themselves blameless when the asshole breaks out and does it all again." While this universe didn't have a Joker, it had people who were arguably worse. They weren't going to have another Christmas, if I had my way.

"It could mean those 'go out and punch bad guys in the face' types who abuse their power and piss away their potential," I continued, waving around us. "Like most of the 'heroes' in this dimension, who-"

"Hey!" Purity objected, having finished her interrogation of Herb. "I don't waste my potential!"

I gave her a bland look. "You can fly and fire off blasts of Light. Have you done anything to try to figure out new applications after you figured out how to 'move fast and shoot stuff?' When things calm down I'm going to be working with everyone to find new ways of using their powers to increase their combat potential, and possibly find non-combat applications."

She looked confused, "Non-combat?"

Suppressing my desire to snort derisively, I reminded myself that it wasn't her fault, both her shard and this world's views having helped shape that particular blind spot. "Yeah, off the top of my head I could be the best exterminator, ever. Herb could help scientists understand how dinosaurs actually worked, let alone the uses one could find for an intelligent T-Rex. Charlie can stop time. I really shouldn't have to explain the dozens of ways that could be useful. If we can find a non-combat use for your power, even if you decide to retire from fighting, you'll be set for life."

My little brother appeared to be deep in thought. "How could his power be useful?" she asked.

"Seriously?" I asked, incredulous. "Okay. Firefighting, Bomb-Defusal, Surgery, Three-Dimensional Construction, Art, Search and Rescue, Entertainment, Prison Guard, do I really need to go on?"

"No, I understand," she replied, a little chagrined.

"Right, so, where was I?" I asked, mostly to myself. "Yeah, the meaning of the term 'Hero'. It could mean those self-sacrificing types, who take the blame for things that they didn't really do, like Hercules, Spider-Man, or Anakin Skywalker. With great power doesn't come great responsibility intrinsically, but they get god complexes. Then when shit happens that they couldn't have known about, they get some messed up martyring 'it's my fault' philosophy that destroys their lives."

"It could mean the older type of hero: someone who's human, and tries their best, though their faults constantly undercut them, like Iron Man, Sigurd, or King Arthur. Though most of their problems could be solved by open and honest communication." That could be said about most things, but so many people refused to just talk because of their own fear.

I shrugged. "For me though, and this might be hubris, but I'm the kind of Hero from the Myths of Old. The kind that has the power and the will to do what needs to be done, ultimately beholden only to myself. Musashi, Beowulf, hell, the original hero, Gilgamesh are all those, and while I'm not there yet, give me time!" I proclaimed.

Purity looked between Herb and Charlie. "Is he always like this?"

"Yes!" the chorused.

I winced. "Sorry, bad habit. I like to give out my complete thoughts so as to avoid misunderstandings."

"He preaches," Herb translated.

"No I don't!"

He nodded emphatically, "Yes, you do."

"No, I-"

"Not to interrupt your lover's spat," Charlie interrupted, smirking. "But I need to get back before someone on my crew does something stupid."

"Right," I responded, understanding. "Carl."

He was taken aback by that. "How!? Fuck it, I don't want to know." He sighed, turning to fully address me. "Before I leave, the final boss, The Warrior: It's fucking Scion, isn't it?" I nodded as he leaned back. "Fuuuuck."

"What?" Purity asked. "Final Boss?"

I considered how to put it, before shrugging and just told her straight. It'd been working out so far after all. "Eventually Scion will go crazy and try to kill everyone. Not for the next two to fifteen years, according to precogs who can see him. But yeah, take how hard it is to kill an Endbringer, and then, like, five times that bad. Maybe twenty."

Purity stared at me, going pale, "WHAT!?"

"Jesus man!" Herb rebuked.

I didn't quite get the problem. "What? By next year, tops, we'll be able to kill Behemoth."

"WHAT!?"

Herb looked at me, wide eyed, hands up in a cringing position.

Charlie however nodded, smiling, "Oh, okay. Good."

She looked at us like we were both absolutely insane, turning to Herb, nearly begging, "Please tell me he's joking!"

Herb winced. "I'd like to, and I'd like to reassure you, but he's not wrong, just a little too explain-y today."

She looked at him before she took a deep breath, centering herself before looking at me. "How?"

"Well, first of all you need to understand the Endbringers themselves," I started. "They're multiversal constructs. It's why they can tell physics to go screw itself. They're actually made of crystalline layers, with every layer supposedly five percent tougher than the previous one, and at their core we're talking two hundred layers." Charlie cocked his head to the side, thinking with a frown.

"Yeah, we're talking galaxy level mass if that was true, and supposedly even the arms, which only have a three percent increase per layer, would need thirty trillion atmospheres of pressure to damage fully. That's why that intel is complete bullshit, and an excellent reason why you can't rely on Thinkers to fight things created by powers they share a source with. Those facts might be true, from a certain point of view and leaving out a lot of important details."

I shrugged. "Are they multiversal? They'd have to be, and they are crystalline so they've no real biology to take advantage of, but the same source that confirmed the first Thinker's intel that gave the hard numbers on the layers said a glassing orbital strike could take one out, so their exponentially increasing toughness couldn't be a thing. Even if it was I've got at least three ways to kill one, but we don't want to take one out 'til we're ready for the next one. So-"

"The next one!?" Purity demanded.

Herb looked at me pleading, "Please don't dump it all. Not right now."

I looked at him, considering his words. If this had been day one, or even before the bombing I would have deferred to him. Purity was his project, but after Dinah, I couldn't trust him. For all I knew he'd do something like let Jack Slash get to Theo, just because it happened in canon. He said he was going to st- my thoughts froze. He didn't actually say he was going to stop doing that. He said he had his reasons, he expressed regret, but he never said he was going to stop. Oh Fuck Him.

I repressed a sigh and growl as Purity looked between the two of us. If this was Bakuda, or someone like her I'd let him screw up with her, but Purity was a hero, a latently racist one, but at her heart she was good, and I wasn't going to let him screw her up like he had Dinah. Let him flirt? She was an adult, she could handle that on her own. If she really didn't want him to she'd tell him to stop like an adult and he would, because he was like that. When it came to important things though, I was going to do what was right, and if Herb had a good reason why, I'd listen, but I was done doing things just because he asked.

I looked at her, a sad grin tugging the corner of my mouth, and shrugged as Herb's eyes went wide. "What? Did you think there were only three?" Charlie looked like he was going to say something, but shook his head. "Yeah, there's a bunch, but we only have intel on the first six, so we need to be ready for anything by the time we start that ball rolling," I explained. "Hell, after some training, Purity, and if your powers work like I think they might, you could be able to, if not kill, then fight off Khonsu, the fourth one, on your own." I grinned, looking around at them.

"He'd definitely need some Tinkertech assistance," I jerked a thumb at my little brother, ignoring his smiling objection, "But each one of us could fight off an Endbringer solo once we're at our peak." I pointed at Herb without looking at him, "Behemoth, and maybe Leviathan," Charlie, "Tohu, the fifth, and maybe Leviathan." Purity, "Khonsu, and Bohu, the sixth, if Tohu's tied up, as they work together," and finished with a thumb to myself, "The Simurgh."

"You're crazy. You're all crazy. I've joined a team of crazy people," she commented helplessly as she sat back in her chair. "How do you know all of this?"

"That answer is long and complicated. The short version? We're time travelers from another dimension," I bullshitted, though from a certain point of view it was true. Then again, from a certain point of view Anakin Skywalker was killed by Darth Vader. "A dimension where the golden age of heroes never happened, where there are no powers, where Reagan broke the USSR with economics, it didn't fracture with infighting as its mid-level members sought to secretly use parahumans to take over their own territories. Some of the people where we live heard about what happened, will happen from your perspective, long after it was over, and are incapable of helping. Something happened, and Herb and I found ourselves here, as well as apparently my little brother and my father. We-"

"Wait, Dad's here?" Charlie asked, looking around like our father was waiting to pop out from behind a chair.

"I'm pretty sure, but he's being cagey about meeting. You know how cautious he is. Besides, he's got like no combat related powers," I responded. "It's probably making him even worse than usual. Imagine if I said I wanted to meet, but you weren't sure I was me, and you couldn't stop time."

He nodded, "Point."

"So-" I started, only to be cut off by Purity this time.

"Wait, you saw what happens? How far? Were my kids okay?" she asked, unsure and vulnerably, but hoping.

I sighed. "Okay, so, first thing. Herb and I, and Charlie now, and maybe our father, have already derailed the regular timeline, possibly irreparably, which is a good thing. The ABB isn't making nearly the same progress, Coil's assets are being undermined, and the confrontation between Boardwalk and Oni Lee never happened in the version of the future we saw. Oh, side note, Boardwalk straight up didn't exist before. He's not on the team at this time, and after what he said the Protectorate tried to pull, he's never joining them, but he'll assist us if he's free."

"I'd like to have a few words with him," she stated menacingly, sidetracked as I'd planned. "I've heard rumors that he's claiming to by my child with, Skidmark." She looked ill at the thought alone. "As if I'd ever have sex with. . ." she stopped herself, looking around. "And I'm not that old!"

"With Skidmark? I don't blame you!" Herb agreed. "That foul-mouthed junkie scum isn't fit to lick your boots!"

She nodded quickly. "Yes. Exactly. Junkie. That's what I meant."

"From what he's told me, he's been asked about that, and has denied it every time. Wherever that rumor started, it wasn't with him." Suspiciously specific denials were denials after all.

"Fine. Sure. But even if it won't happen now, what happened to Theo and my little Aster in that future?" She asked, trying to stay on topic. Herb looked pained. "That bad? Please, tell me," she pleaded.

Sighing, I did as she asked. "Okay, so in the way this originally played out Scion, um, triggered after two years, as those with the power to see the future knew that if they waited the full fifteen years, we'd lose against him. The world is currently breaking down Purity, those out there who could stop it can't or won't, and without us interfering, they don't. In fifteen years, things would've gotten so bad you would have had no chance of beating him, so they kickstarted the apocalypse."

"In the short term, after the ABB is taken down, Coil unmasks the entirety of the E88, which he's probably still going to do, so you need to move your kids right after the truce ends, if not before. They can stay here if you want, but CPS is going to do some downright illegal things otherwise, and it'd be easier to keep them out of the way then have to kill some people following bad orders to get them back." I looked to Herb, who nodded, smiling comfortingly at her.

"But things in that timeline got bad, and after Kaiser fell, the group split into The Pure, led by you, because you took his poisoned offer, and Fenrir's Chosen, led by Hookwolf. You were forced to abandon Theo, so he'll Trigger, for reasons that aren't going to happen. He does, taking the name Golem and joining the Wards. After that . . . are you sure you want to know? It's not going to happen. We won't let it."

She took a deep breath, nodding. "Yes. Even if it isn't I need to know." I looked to Herb, who was subtly shaking his head no, but this ultimately wasn't his decision.

"So, you know the Slaughterhouse Nine?" I started, her eyes went wide. "Yeah, they come here recruiting. Still will, but we're going to kill them all." I stood up, pacing, not wanting to look at her, knowing this was going to be bad. "In that timeline though, Jack Slash, Bonesaw, the Siberian, and Hookwolf, who've they've recruited, escape. They grab a Tinker and get cloning, emerging out of hiding a year and a half later as the Slaughterhouse Nine-Thousand, which is hyperbole, with just short of three hundred members. They have nine clones of every member they've ever had who's died, with the exception of Gray Boy, who they can only make one of for some reason. He traps you, Kayden, in an endless, torturous loop, with Jack Slash taking Aster to raise her and mold her into one of them, to twist her into a monster. Aster dies instantly in the attack on their cloning facilities, before they can get started on her." I looked at her, and instantly regretted it.

Kayden stared at me, face white, mouth open in horror, tears streaming down her face, emotions laid bare. Herb reached out to grab her hand, and she flinched, but didn't pull away. I stood there, looking her in the eye and promised her: "Kayden, that's not going to happen. In the original timeline humanity barely squeaked out of complete destruction, and was reduced to a borderline feudal existence. That was because almost everyone looked out for themselves first, last, and only. When Scion started his purge, only a tiny fraction grouped together to fight, the rest sure that if they were the ones who were attacked, they'd somehow do what no-one else could and win, letting that monster in golden skin destroy their competition first, so complete was their arrogance and self-delusion. The Birdcage was opened, and a lot of heroes and villains fought to try to stop him, dying in the process because no one would lead, every single one of them either trying to offload the responsibility to someone else or so concerned with their own egos they refused to work with others to save the world."

"Billions burned, Kayden, turned to dust in golden light as Earths in multiple realities were scoured. Over half of the people on Earth Bet lost their lives in the first day of his rampage. In that timeline a hero, not even yet an adult, had to sacrifice theirself, their sanity, throwing open the gates of their power and mind-controlling thousands of parahumans in an all or nothing battle as their brain eroded under the stress of their own unbound abilities, losing the ability to read, then understand speech, then faces, degrading farther and farther, losing everything that made them, them, made them human, as they struggled to hold on just long enough to kill the golden god before he killed everyone."

I grit my teeth, anger at the atrocity that was the canon ending fueling my words. "I will not let that happen! I will save this world if I have to drag it kicking and screaming to do so. I am a Hero! I have the power to save the world, and the will to do so, even if I'm damned by those I protect. That is what we're here to do. Not fight in some stupid dominance game over race, creed, or nation, not make a profit, not just save the people around us, like Aster and Theo, but making a world that all children can grow up safe in Kayden. We are here to save the world, nothing more, nothing less, and in that we don't need your help, for even if you walk out that door we'll still do our damndest to save you, but with you we could do so much more! Save so many more! That is what the Penumbral Defenders are, for even in the shadow of an impossible foe we'll stand, fight, and win, because if we don't, No One Will!"

Herb stood up and slammed his hand on the table angrily, "That's enough!"

I looked at him, not understanding what the hell he meant. He knew that's what we were going to do, or at least I thought he did. Shelving that worry, I focused back on Purity. "It has to be."

 

[Leecifer]

Outreach 6.2

I left the room to recompose myself, Herb talking quietly to a shell-shocked Purity. Charlie followed me after a minute, holding his helmet loosely under his arm. "So, we're in Worm. Kinda wish I read it now."

I gave a short laugh. "Yeah, but I didn't expect this to happen when I asked you to." He nodded. Taking a deep breath, I turned to face him. "What I don't get, is why you're here, not that I'm upset by that, but it ruins my only working theory. Herb and I did a silly Choose Your Own Adventure prompt, and Dad did as well, and while it's a stupid thing, it's the only one we all had in common that no-one else did." He froze, eyes going wide. I continued on, suddenly suspicious, "Our powers are straight from that, and from what I can tell, reading between the lines, dad's powers matched what he chose, though he's lying about it to the public, pretending to be a social Thinker instead of a precog. You didn't though, so do you have any idea what happened?"

He gave a nervous laugh. "Yeah. About that."

I stared at him. "What did you do Chuckles?"

"I may have done the same thing when you and Herb went to go get dinner. Allegedly." He winced, defending himself, "You left your computer open and it looked interesting!"

I gave him an unimpressed look. "What options did you choose, I already know your powers." It was more of a demand than a question.

He scratched the back of his head. "I don't really remember?" He winced again at my glare. "Okay, um, I took some of those bad start things, and the powerless start, because it had the whole 'nothing to something' thing I like, plus it gave so many points."

I put my face in my hands, groaning, "You took the 'the world wants to kill me' option with the 'no power' option. Do we need to talk about your latent suicidal tendencies?"

"Hey!" he objected. "It turned out okay!"

"Dude! You took the 'I have no powers and I must scream' combo!" I buried my face in my hands again. "Okay, let's go down the fucking list, if I can remember them, since you don't! Do you have a nemesis? You'd have to build them."

"Nah man," he reassured. "That was way too much work."

"Thank god for your laziness then!" I growled. "Is your ass being hunted by anyone?"

"Not from the villain part, but there was the rainy slenderman and the blonde girl who was missing part of her face. They gave a lot of points, but I can stop time!" he smiled.

I looked at him. "Endbringer Target and Slaughterhouse Nine?"

"Yeah! That's it!" His face fell, "Oh, oh shit."

I sighed. "Yes, 'oh shit'. Okay, uh, what do you remember from what you've read of Worm."

He shrugged, "Just what you told me. I told you I didn't read it"

I groaned again. "I thought you meant you hadn't finished it. Okay, you said you had a base?" he nodded. "Okay, did you take the thing that made you part of the overall plan?" He shrugged. "The one with Tattletale." Another shrug. I sighed. "The blonde chick on the tightrope."

"Oh, her. That's Tattletale? Nice bod," he grinned. "Yeah, took that!"

"She's underage!" I rebuked.

"How underage?" he asked. "'cause I'm seventeen, and a villain."

"Her power makes her Sherlock Holmes on crack. More crack," I amended. "Did you get Cauldron vials?"

"Three of 'em. No idea who I'm going to give them to though. Any ideas?"

I shook my head. "Sorry, just be careful, those will be damn powerful, and only work on people who have no powers. Did you get Blindspot? The one that hides you from precogs."

He nodded, "Yeah, I read what that 'Path to Victory' thing did! I don't want any of that!"

Breathing a sigh of relief, I asked, "Did you get Negentropy? The eternal power option?"

"Fuck no, did you see how much that cost? What kind of retard would pick that one!" he responded instantly. I just looked at him. "Oh. Sorry. Really? You could've gotten an awesome power, another vial, and a follower for that many points."

"I think long term," I ground out.

He shrugged. "Can't think long term if you're dead." He flinched at my glare. "Sorry, but it's true."

I motioned for him to put his helmet on, shifting back to Vejovis guise. "Come on, I'll fly you back to your base."

He followed me out, taking my arm, the two of us lifting off into the sky. "So, don't take this the wrong way," he said once we'd risen above the city. "But I really don't want to join your team. I mean, I have my own group, and I just realized that maybe saying this when we're this high up was a bad idea."

I laughed, waving him off. "Like I'd drop you." He looked at me. "Like, for real instead of just messing with you," I clarified. "Nah, that makes sense. Probably better this way. We can work together, but the PRT wouldn't take 'heroes' claiming territory that well, even if we literally make life better for everyone in the process. Keep your crime to the Amsterdam model and I won't have a problem."

"The what?" he asked, confused.

"People want to do a lot of the things that are illegal, because the laws that are regularly broken were mostly made by authoritarian virtue signalers, just look at the 'war on drugs'. If you set up places where people do illegal things, but in non-stupid ways, there shouldn't be much of a problem. Standardize your drug trade, making sure the product is clean and uniform, and don't sell on credit while only selling to adults," I explained.

"Provide places to get high with medical staff to administer the harder drugs and make sure that everyone's safe. Similarly, don't let people gamble on credit, and don't gamble yourself, making sure your organization is neutral in the process. Prostitution? Needs to be voluntary, which should go without saying. Past that, provide them medical care, keep the girls safe, require the use of protection, and an inspection of the client to avoid disease. Also, again, no credit. Providing a safe, reliable way for people to feed their vices will cut down on regular crime and make you a lot of money."

I considered a few general rules, settling on, "No kids, no violence for anyone who isn't an actively consenting party, like a well-regulated fight club or something, and no putting people in debt cuts down on almost all the problems you could have. People will still do stupid illegal shit, but with you there, they'll be minor nuisances at best."

"The cops and the PRT are corrupt as all hell, but love themselves some status quo, so after the initial uproar things should quiet the hell down. Take some territory and lie low. Leviathan is coming here in the middle of May, not sure exactly when, and after that the city will unfortunately be wrecked enough that swooping in and claiming it'll be child's play. After we fight off the Slaughterhouse Nine in the beginning of June, it'll be a lock, and we can look into expanding both of our organizations, probably into Boston." I finished. "So where's your base?"

He pointed to a church almost at the top of Captain's hill. "You've thought about this a lot, haven't you?"

I shrugged, descending. "Not really."

<AB>​

Dropping him off and exchanging numbers, I found out that the church had been closed and he'd re-opened it as a Universalist place of worship, which honestly kind of fit. I was introduced to the 'priest' on duty, who I'd recognized as the leader of the raid that'd gone bad. After a somewhat awkward conversation, as the leader got his head around a Hero knowing what Æonic was doing, and being cool with it, I left, returning back to base. Herb and Kayden were gone, which left me free to relax.

I spent an hour typing up the bare-bones of a press release I wanted Quinn to put out for me, detailing the truce, why it happened, why a Hero was going along with it, and what to expect. The return e-mail exuded resigned acceptance, but promised it would be out in a few hours with some minor corrections I was fine with. After making dinner, I was surprised to find that I'd received a missive from The Neutral Party, asking to meet, with a time and place to do so the next morning.

After a couple hours of meditation, I settled in to continue reading the Base Manual, and tanking shots, my Weaponry Projection easing the slowly growing need to scrounge more ammunition for me in order to continue training my shields. None of my shields split, but not only had I found the armory, a hidden switch in the computer room needed to be pressed to open it, I'd finally found what looked to be what was supposed to be the first chapter of the base management document, over three dozen chapters in, just in time to leave for my meeting shortly after dawn.

Heading to the location, I found myself in front of a skyscraper downtown. Giving the receptionist the information I'd been given, I was shown to a meeting room on the twenty-sixth floor. Walking inside there was a man in a black suit, leather gloves, and what looked to be a motorcycle helmet sitting at the end of a conference table, flanked by a pair of very large men in suits, concealed pistols evident by the bulge in their jackets.

I Saw the Black and Silver flames of his power, similar in intensity to Herb or my little brother, confirming who he was. The Likelihood of someone else having the combination of the astral projection of Trance, the inability to be tracked of Recordless, and the advanced precognitive direction of Destiny Weaver, were so small as to be insignificant.

"Hi!" I waved, not sure how to address him. Physically he didn't have the same body type as my father, lacking the broad-shouldered build, but from the CYOA he chose to drop-in to a pre-existing person. It was honestly an odd feeling.

He flinched, before giving a deep sigh, turning to one of the men behind him. "Please guard the entrance. This discussion needs to have utmost privacy." The man nodded, he and his opposite walking past me, closing the door behind them, a green light turning on over the door a moment later. "I suppose the name 'Jack Rycroft' means something to you?" he asked, voice somehow unmuffled by his helmet.

I nodded, "He's my father." He made no motion in response, so I took a risk. "Aren't you?"

Sighing again, hanging his head, he acknowledged, "In a manner of speaking." Reaching up, seeming to fight himself, he took off his helmet, the face that stared back at me unfamiliar, but the resigned look of annoyance all Dad. Grinning back, I took off my mask with a 'ta-da' motion. He stared at me, looking me over before focusing on my face. "Your Mother was right," was his only comment. "You do look better without all the fat."

I winced, but that kind of statement was the kind of thing he did. Blunt, and meant to be a compliment, but my father only noticed subtext when he focused on something, never noticing how his own subconscious warped his phrasing to be insultingly cutting. Honestly, while I appreciated the fact that he tried not to lie, he didn't need to be such a dick about it. I dealt my own harsh truths liberally, but at least I did so on purpose. Mostly. I walked over, taking a seat next to him. "So?" I started, waving at him. "How does the whole 'Insert' thing work?"

He sighed once more, shrugging. "It's... odd. I took over someone's life. I'd almost say I killed him, but he's still here," he tapped his forehead, "Which I'm not sure how I feel about. I think if I wanted to, I could have gotten rid of him, but... no. I avoided killing anyone in the service, thank God I never had to. It makes me wonder how much of what I am now is... me." He paused, looking at me. Really looking at me. "You've already had to kill, from what I've seen. I. I'm sorry."

I matched him, shrugging and sighing, though mine was less tired resignment and more of an uncaring negation. The Rycroft sigh was a complex method of communication, almost on level with the Uchiha 'Hn'. "They were men and women who lived by preying on the weak. The Merchants sell drugs to children, the ABB have forced prostitution brothels, and the E88 are literal Nazis. They've made their choice. I have the ability to stop them," I finished, the rest of the sentence obvious.

It was his turn to wince, sighing in unfortunate agreement. "and while it isn't your responsibility, that wouldn't matter to either of us, because we're here. And you're here now to ask me to join your group?" I nodded. "I don't think that's a good idea," he told me, "I know how to run coffee shops, not capes."

I froze, the words of grateful welcome as we started to truly work together dying on my lips. "I'm sorry, what. Why?"

He looked at me, face grim. "I can do more to help by remaining The Neutral Party, and I have no way to fight. As much as I'd like to help, it's an unacceptable risk for almost no benefit." He sighed with sad humor. "And that's how I know Medhu is still in there, because he's all about risks, but he's got a point."

I didn't let my disappointment show. I'd hoped he would've joined, but my father wasn't the frontline type, or even the leadership type, though, even then, he could've helped elsewhere. But, but he was my father, and he probably understood this more than I did. It was a damn shame, because he was far better than I was at balancing logistics and strategy than I was, but only if he had time to think, and I could've used that, but, again, had to trust his judgement. The only way I could beat him in RTS games was to harry him, hitting him on multiple fronts faster than he could respond. Given enough time to plan, and if he could control the flashpoints, I lost almost every game.

Together though, we were a force. Growing up there was a game we played, Urban Assault, which had a cooperative mode that let two players control the same faction. He'd stay back, managing the larger strategy, minding the base, preparing defenses while I took control of our forces, piloting the ships directly while managing the offencive. Even on the highest difficulty, when the computer just said, 'screw it' and cheated, we still won four times out of five. I leaned forward, knowing that while he was resistant to a direct confrontation, he could be redirected as long as you didn't go against his underlying reason for choosing a position. "Okay, then use your precog to help direct us," I tried.

His flinched, "How did- Right, you're the one who helped me choose them. Sorry," he waved a hand. "There's still a lot of Medu's personality coloring, tainting, shading? The person I took over, Medhu, went through a lot to try to keep that a secret, even if he didn't think things through." A statement that was a damning indictment from my father. He frowned, nodding to himself. "That could work."

"You cou-" I started, cut off by his raised hand.

"A minute please." I waited the full minute, as he'd asked. "Yes," he finally said, looking up, a wry grin pulling up at his features oddly. "You're going to hire me, as The Neutral Party, to contact a paranoid precog for help. The Nazis think I have one on payroll already, thanks to Medhu's. . . overreaction. As such he- no, she will pass on information to you. You will, of course, negotiate an exclusive contract with her, and if the E88 had done so in the first place, instead of demanding her contact information, she would have of course have been amenable, but," he shrugged with a 'oh well' sigh, "They choose not to pursue that track at that time. Pity." His grin was all Jack, before settling into the more neutral expression he'd been reverting to.

I nodded, seeing where he was going. "And given that she is a precognitive, any attempt on your person to try to force that information she would pre-empt, or have the situation reversed in short order. That works. What's this precog's name?"

He grinned, mischief in his eyes. "Ms. Voyant."

I looked at him. "Her first name wouldn't be Claire, would it?"

"You must have a touch of the sight yourself!" he fake congratulated. I gave him a gimlet eye. "Okay, how about Ann?"

I frowned. "Ann? Is that short for something?"

"No."

I gave the sigh of the long-suffering, knowing this was a trap. "What's her last name?"

"Ticipation, of course!" he laughed.

I gave a groan, the cranky uncle of sighs. This is why we don't let him name things, I reminded myself. Might as well cut off that future a bit more. "How about Weaver. Like Fate Weaver, the name of her power, not that anyone else will get it," I proposed.

He shrugged, still laughing. "That works. You've negotiated a deal with Weaver, and thus will be the only one who has secured her services. Information which I will only share if someone asks."

"Okay, that works. Now, have you heard about the Truce?"

He nodded, "I read this evening's paper tonight after I woke up this morning. You sure you can trust them?"

Snorting, I shook my head. "Hell no, but I won't turn my back on them, and it'll help me recruit any who aren't there by choice. But because of that, we need to find the ABB Safehouses. Your precog, can you see the future where we find Bakuda's base and then direct us there?"

He shook his head in reply. "That's not how it works. I can choose options, but I see how things will turn out twelve hours later. I can't choose completed tasks that require information I don't have. But. . ." He paused as he thought, steepling his fingers, and I leaned back to give him time. "I can use the results I see to better choose paths. I could. . . No," he frowned. "I can't see you or anything you do. There's someone else I can't see either. It may be Boardwalk."

"Oh, right. I'm a Blindspot, as are you and Charlie, so tha-"

"Wait, Charlie's here?" he asked looking around. "You didn't say anything about him in your e-mail!"

I nodded. "Yeah, along with Herb, but Herb's not a Blindspot. Chuckles is Æonic, though I didn't find out until yesterday. He didn't come in the same way we did. But that's not important, right now. I, hmm. . ." I thought trying to find a way around the problem. "Right, so, possible futures. You call Herb and have him get everyone together, sans Charlie and myself, and have them go explore," I paused, pulling out my phone and pulling up a map of the city. "These blocks in destructive detail to find ABB Bases, to report back to you, without our involvement, the results, which you can see. With that information, you do the same thing with the next sector on the map."

He nodded, pulling out a pad of paper from his suit, along with a fancy-looking pen. "That could work." As he looked into the middle distance, the blacks of his pupils expanded, covering his eyes entirely, a silver star sparking to life in the center of his now dark orbs. His power expanded as well, in a wave that billowed out in every direction, passing through the walls, curling oddly around me. As I leaned back, I created a larger void in his power, which increased again when I poked the thin bubble of Black and Silver fire all around me, every space I'd occupied one his power couldn't. After few seconds it faded, and his eyes returned to normal, scribbling down something on the paper.

Leaning over to read he explained. "Here, four-fifty-six Oak. Kaiser finds a location, one of their Brothels, and Sundancer dies, whoever that is. Two of the teams find nothing, one of which is captured by the PRT. The fourth doesn't stay on track but finds an armory at thirty-seven Hale Road, and fights Lung. Purity is killed by Hookwolf, and Break and Enter kill Hookwolf, Crusader, and Lung, setting the city on fire. Less than an optimal future."

I shook my head in agreement, noting the locations. "One which won't happen. Alright, next set of blocks," I requested.

He objected. "First, some coffee, this might go on for a while."

My father ordered and we remasked, a nervous young man wearing a jacket from Mahatma Grindy entering a few minutes later with a cardboard tray of coffee and a bag of pastries.

After the repast, over which my father took pride in the quality of the coffee, as he apparently owned the company, we moved to continue the search. Finding five more locations in the next four 'dives' as my father called them, I made note of where and what they were, along with the response from the ABB. After the sixth, he emerged from his trance, teeth clenched in pain as he wrote out what he'd seen. "Are you okay?" I asked, looking at him worriedly.

"Never done more than three or four dives at once. Think I found why," he gritted out. I waited for him as he took a deep breath, shaking his head. "Hokay, ahhh, yeah." After a couple more deep breaths and he opened his eyes, his pupils large and the hint of something silver in the center despite him not using his abilities. "Do you recall how you warned me not to buy that disadvantage, the one that hurt if you pushed your power?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "That it?"

"I'm about to find out!" he informed, eyes going black once again. The fire in the center of his eyes had grown, from pinpricks of flame to circles nearly as big as his iris, each seeming to send inch long threads of flame out like tentacles that quickly were pulled taut. "Gah!" he cried, his eyes mostly returning to normal. "Mother-fracking piss bucket! That was a mistake! That's it for today, and maybe tomorrow. I need some downtime," he growled, hand snaking out, writing down three more locations, even as the other pressed hard against his eyes.

"Alright Jack," he told himself. "Stop at six, unless you want to feel like someone broke open your skull with an ice-pick through your eyes." I gave him a minute to collect himself. He motioned to the notes, eyes still covered, his free hand shaking slightly. "Have we given you enough to work with?" he questioned.

I looked at him in concern, nodding, before catching myself and telling him. "Yes! Definitely. More than enough!"

"Alright, I'm going to go home and lie down. If this passes I'll be able to help tomorrow, but not this much. I need to pace myself," he groaned, holding his eyes. "Okay?"

I hesitated, offering, "I can heal you a little, see if that helps."

He waved a hand dismissively. "Sure. Give it a shot."

Reaching out and exposing a fingertip, I touched the back of his neck. As I gave him the Get Better treatment he sighed, uncovering his eyes. His pupils had overtaken his iris, a wide silver flaming circles in the middle of the dark abysses that used to be the whites of his eyes. "Thank you. That helps. Now I just have a migraine instead feeling like I headbutt a pack of rhinoceroses. Rhinoceri? You understand what I'm saying."

He put on his helmet, wincing as he reached up and pressed a hidden switch, then sighed again in relief, "And that's better. I believe our business has concluded for today. Weaver will be in touch with you again tomorrow if she feels better. Thank you, for your business." He hesitated, "And thank you for finding a way I could help. I want to do more, but. . ."

"You have no fighting powers," I finished. "Don't worry Dad, this will be a massive help. Don't push yourself too hard tomorrow either, and definitely not past the pain point. I'm going to have enough trouble getting all the villains to work together, and these locations will be more than enough to get us started."

I started to get up to leave, but he held up a hand. He had a final question. "So, we've come here, but what about where we left? Are they missing us, or is this a situation where time runs differently? Like the Witch and the Wardrobe. Narnia. Will we live a lifetime here and go back to where we left off with our lives? I just. . . I just don't want to think of leaving Laura alone."

I shrugged. With as much as I had to do, that had been a line of thought I'd been studiously avoiding. "If there is a way, when things calm down we can look into finding Mom. There's cross-dimensional powers out there, and one might get us home. For now though, we have to worry about more immediate threats."

 

[Leecifer]

Outreach 6.3

Intel in hand, I was ready to begin gathering people together to start the ball rolling on this Truce. There was only one problem: out of the six groups, only two of them had actually sent me an e-mail. Grue's e-mail message was the uninspired "This is my e-mail address," along with his e-mail address, which was the same as the address it was sent from. Trickster's, meanwhile, was "Thus I invoke myself!" whatever that meant. Unfortunately, I now needed to get word out to Coil, the Merchants, Faultline's Crew, and the E88. Of the four, I had no idea how to contact Coil, and honestly didn't want to bother. Starting with the easiest, I headed northwest towards the Midway, finding a group that would've looked homeless if it weren't for their tacky clothing.

Bums had a certain aesthetic after all, even if it was accidental.

Dropping down in front of them, they froze. "We weren't selling drugs!" one of the women squeaked. She looked anywhere between mid-twenties to mid-forties, depending on when she started using. I just floated there, not actually touching down.

"Suuure, you weren't. Have you heard about the Truce?" I asked, getting blank stares in return. Sighing I looked around, spotting a newspaper box. Those are still a thing? I thought, before shrugging. Front and center was the story "Heroes and Villains Work Together to Save Brockton Bay!" which I pointed at it.

It took them a full minute to read it.

"So, you're working with us?" an older man asked, teeth rotten, face scrunched up in confusion.

I shrugged again, "Don't sell to kids and I won't care for now. What I really want to know is where Skidmark is. I, through my sources, have found myself in possession of intel he has great need of."

I received blank stares.

"I have information he would find most useful?"

Still nothing.

I sighed, "One of my friends told me something cool, and I want to tell Skidmark."

"Why didn't you say so?" the man asked, giving me directions. "Ya wanna buy somethin'?" he asked hopefully.

I rolled my eyes. "Sorry, I don't do drugs." I did reach into a pouch and pull out my wallet, handing him a twenty. "For the help. Thank you!"

He just looked at it, surprised as I took off to follow his instructions. Finding the location took a bit, but, "The warehouse across from the broken up seven-eleven with the tag that Jimmy left on the side," was easy enough once I figured out that they were actually talking about an abandoned Shell station, and that Jimmy spelled his name with a g, two i's, and only one m.

Walking inside I felt the swish of air, barely catching a baseball bat that was headed for my skull. Looking at the person who swung with a raised eyebrow, I casually crumpled the hollow metal in my fist.

"Oh. Um. Sorry?" the girl, who must've been all of nine said, smiling at me from her position on top of a milk crate. "I heard there was a Hero, and I thought it was one of the bad ones!"

I blinked at that. "Shouldn't you be in sch- right they closed. I'm looking for Skidmark, I have information for him."

"He should be in da back with cousin Sherrel!" she chirped.

I had to ask, "Does your cousin know you're guarding the door?"

She shook her head. "I'm supposed to be helpin' her, but that's so booooring! The guy who was supposed to be here guardin' said he was going to smoke some weed. Why would someone smoke weeds?" she asked, tilting her head in confusion. I was still trying to think of a way to tell her why when she started laughing. "Oh! Your face! I know he's getting high. Still makes him a poopy guard though."

"Poopy?" I asked, words coming unbidden as my brain restarted.

"Well, I'm not supposed to say swears like Sherrel's boyfriend! That's what my mom says!" she informed me disapprovingly, as if I should be ashamed for just asking.

Sighing, I handed her the bat back, Crushing the top evenly to make it a long cudgel. "That makes perfect sense. Check who you're hitting first, just in case it's someone who won't go down, like Aegis or Armsdi- Armsmaster."

She looked at me like she knew what I almost said and was judging me, before grinning brightly, revealing that she was missing a few teeth. "Okay, Mister Vejovis!"

I patted her on the head, walking deeper into the warehouse, following the sound of power tools and swearing, both equally high pitched. As I walked closer, I found myself facing the gaudiest looking armored van I'd ever seen. The swearing was coming from below it. "Isabella Ann Bailey!" the voice commanded in tones that sounded like someone had gotten a whiff of helium. "I know you're out there! Hand me the three-fourths torque wrench!" A greasy feminine arm waved from below the front. Looking over I found what she wanted, handing it to her. "Thank you!" she replied huffily, quickly using it to do something.

I couldn't resist. "No problem, my dear," I responded calmly, maybe deepening my voice a tad for effect. "Is there anything else you desire?"

The ratcheting immediately stopped. "Isabella?" the woman who must've been Squealer asked, fear tremoring her voice.

"If you mean the young blonde girl, she's still guarding the front, the original guard left to get high. She tried to cave my head in with a baseball bat, the little scamp. She apologized, and I believe is still there, trying to protect you," I reassured the Tinker.

"Oh, okay," she replied, slowly sliding out from the car, revolver trained on me. "Isabella!" she called out, voice shrill. Shriller.

"Yeah?" came the faint reply.

"Why aren't ya here, like I told ya!" Squealer, well, squealed.

"It's borin'!"

I sighed, as the Tinker got ready to try to pierce my eardrums again.

"Little Miss, if you could come over here, you won't have to shout." I called, enhancing my voice a tad.

"Okay!" came the call, the sound of small feet running up as she turned the corner, skidding to a halt, baseball bat held behind her, but listing to the side over her shoulder.

Squealer went pale as she saw the smushed end of the bat. As she looked at me, I shrugged. "I crushed the end, it was only fair to make it a better weapon once the misunderstanding was dealt with."

The Isabella nodded as she told the Tinker, "Yeah, he was really nice! Not like your boyfriend at all! Maybe you should date him instead!"

Squealer went red, "I could neva' do that to Skidsy!" she glanced at me, and I accidentally met her eyes, which just turned her redder. Having never considered the possibility I truly looked at her. I did have a bit of a thing for Wrench Wenches, the ability to truly focus on objective tasks and the ability to prioritize projects over social niceties when the second was not needed both appealing to me, and the fact that she was… well built were both points in her favor. However, the voice, the drug addiction, the lack of forethought, or any discernable intelligence whatsoever, and the abysmal taste she had in men all made that a hell to the fuck no.

I glanced back at Isabella, who had seen me looking and smiled encouragingly, turning to a pout when I shook my head no. "I'm actually here to talk to him," I informed the Tinker, getting her attention. "I've gained information on the location of ABB strongholds we could strike. However, I haven't received an e-mail from the Merchants and thus have no means of contacting you, so I came in person. If you could please send me a message on the email on my card, I could help coordinate everyone's efforts."

I realized I'd done it again and was about to simplify when Squealer nodded. "Oh, right. Sure!" Raising my estimation of her, slightly, she flounced over to a plastic case, opening it up to reveal a laptop. Closing the diagnostic program, she reached into one of her belt pockets, pulling out one of my cards and typing up a quick e-mail.

Receiving it, I read aloud "Thanks for being nice to my cousin!" I smiled. "No problem, she's adorable. Thank you for your assistance. Once I'm in contact I'll send everyone a message on possible locations." Squealer looked red again, probably upset that I read the e-mail out loud, and I walked out, ruffling Isabella's hair as I passed her.

The little girl started to follow me when Squealer yelled, "Isabella! You stay here where I can see you!"

"But you're under that stupid car all the time!" she responded.

"It's not a stupid car, it's my baby and ya know what I mean!"

The girl asked, with a tone of fake confusion hiding mischievousness "If that's your baby, then why does Momma say that Aunt Clara's surprised you don't have one already?"

"ISABELLA!"

<AB>​

Looking online as I flew over the city, I found Faultline's Crew had an e-mail address, so I sent one off to them asking if this is the one they'd like to receive mission intel on. Waiting for a response, I stopped at a downtown restaurant to get an early lunch to kill time. The waiter asked if I was really working with Villains, so I shrugged responding "To take down a group who, by the amount of death and destruction they've cause, should all have Kill Orders? Yes. If that's what it takes to protect this city." I glanced at the other people listening in. "My people should've released a press statement. If you have further questions, please ask them."

I still hadn't received a reply, so I called Taylor after I took to the air once more. "Hey, Lady Bug," I told her as soon as she picked up. "How's things?"

"Oh, um, pretty good. . . You?" she asked, stumbling a little over the social niceties.

"Pretty good. I found some Intel on the ABB, but I'm having some difficulties in getting everyone to communicate. Can you ask Tattletale where I can find Faultline?"

"Oh, sure." She responded, the sound of her walking and asking faint. "Um, she says it's a club called Palanquin," I couldn't quite make out what Lisa was saying, but it sounded like a lot more than that.

"Anything else?"

"Um, no. Not really," she reassured, walking away from the ranting Thinker as I tried to hear what she said. Was that my name? "Do you have time to train today?"

"Probably not. We'll see about tomorrow, but we'll probably be going after the ABB then."

"Oh… okay." The obvious dejection in her voice tugged at my heartstrings, rearranging my schedule.

"I'll drop by the Undersider's hideout this evening," I corrected. "I need to drop some stuff off there anyways."

"Oh, okay!" she echoed herself, this time hopeful.

"I'll see you later, stay safe."

"I will!" she promised. I hung up and found the address, heading over to it and landing out front. The club was closed, sign dark, but after knocking on the door for a bit I heard the lock slide. An orange-skinned Case-53 opened the entrance, the Villain subtly tense. "Hey man, what's up?"

"Newter, right?" I asked, and he grinned and nodded, happy to be recognized. "My contacts have found the locations of ABB bases, but your boss never sent me a message, so I need her to, to help organize everyone. Also, if she could ask Coil to do so as well that would be great."

He blinked. "It's been, like, a day dude. How did you get those so fast?"

"Hired a precog," I shrugged.

"Aren't they like, super expensive?" he asked, scratching the back of his head. "Or, like, work for the government?"

I smiled. "I know a guy who knows a girl. I was waiting for the PRT to get their heads out of their collective asses, but they appear to be stuck, so that means I need to step forward, so I am. So, ask your boss to contact me? And Coil as well?"

He smiled. "Sure thing bro!"

I held out my hand, "Thank you."

Newter looked at my head in trepidation. "Um, my power is pretty heavy-duty drug sweat."

"And my costume isn't permeable," I told him, still holding my hand out. And I'm immune to all poisons, but let's not share that anytime soon.

"Oh!" he smiled wildly, giving my hand a firm shake. "Cool! See you around!"

"Same," I responded, taking off.

<AB>​

I received an e-mail from Faultline a few minutes later, along with Coil's contact information, which wasn't exactly what I wanted, but worked just as well. That left the E88. Joy. I toyed with the idea of just walking into the Medhall building and asking to speak to Max Anders, but with Purity on the team, and his narrow, narrow mind he'd assume that she told me, ignoring any evidence to the contrary.

Landing instead in front of a bunch of skinheads, who glared at me, I jovially requested, "Hello, I have information for Kaiser and he has neglected to give me a way of contacting him. Can one of you," I almost wanted to say 'fine fellows' but that was too much, even in jest, "Members of the Empire Eighty-Eight either put me in contact with him, or with someone who can?"

They spread a little around me, weapons coming out. Did they not get the memo that I was a Brute? "You can tell us, race-traitor," one of the morons told me.

I sighed. "I am currently working under Truce, so I will not strike the first blow. I will however, strike the last one you will ever have. Either tell me where to go or call someone." One of them pointed a pistol at me. I rolled my eyes, pulling my own out, layering five Speed Zones inside it. "Mine's better," I replied blandly, shooting a trashcan, which promptly jerked back, the back exploding, peppering the wall behind it with debris.

"Shit, Tinkertech," one of them swore. I looked blandly at what I assumed was their leader, given how the others looked to him, who glared, trying not to gawk at the trashcan like some of his men. "Make the call," he told someone else, who took out a phone. I stood there, waiting, until from down the street and around the corner, I could hear two men arguing. The second man's voice was dismissive, but the first was firm, ending the conversation, and displayed absolute calm. Turning the corner, I saw the calm man, by his expression, was, Kreig, the older man I'd seen at the Truce meeting. The other man, with tight Yellow and Red flames, had the power of Skill Theft, Via Eye-Contact, Physical Contact, and Observation of the Skill.

What must have been Victor, a designation which would have been merely uninspired if it wasn't also his actual name, thus pushing it into dumbass territory, was clad in black pants, black and red boots, and a black breastplate over a red shirt. He also had black fingerless gloves and a black and red mask, the eyes and top open to show off his Aryan blonde hair and blue eyes. Looking at him, he looked back, his power trying to make contact through my eyes, to steal my abilities from me, but bouncing off.

Must be the mask I thought, not really angry, just disappointed. Not even a single damn day and people are already trying to test and break the agreement. This is probably why Heroes never work with Villains en masse short of Endbringers. I gave a mental sigh, Fine. Cross him off the list of possible redemption. He thought my Hero status bound me to act with honor, but the restrictions of honor only extend to the honorable. You want to play Villain? Let's play, Outlaw.

"Try to steal my skills, Victor, and I'll kill you for breaking the Truce," I called out cordially, though I didn't smile. Kreig shot the cape an angry look, but the thief shrugged like it didn't matter.

"You started it," he called back smugly, with the tone of someone who is lying, knows they're lying, knows you know they're lying, and believes they will still get away with it, "harassing our men."

"I came to ask how to get in contact with your organization and haven't touched them. If a simple question is what you consider harassing, you must have awful luck with women," I retorted, annoyed that my own agreement to a Truce they seemed to not honor brought me here to deal with scum as equals instead of giving them what they obviously deserved. His antagonistic actions were so incredibly petty and short sighted, I honestly was hard pressed to understand why he'd do it. Then again, the same could be said of racism.

I hated using labels to explain actions, but he was a Nazi.

As his power reached out to me again, connecting this time, starting ever so slightly to leach my manual dexterity, I levelled the pistol at his head. He seemed unimpressed, though his confusion at the gang-member's scared reactions did still the miniscule drain. "If you try to steal another of my skills, I shall shoot you once. If you do so again after that I shall reclaim them both from your brain physically, and I shall be in the right, as you broke the Truce your leader agreed on."

"I don't know what you're-" Victor started to sneer, only for his partner to grab him and drag him a dozen feet away.

Kreig quietly but forcefully rebuked the younger man, though I didn't flex my power to fully listen in in case Cricket was hiding nearby, and felt my shifting of the sound, as she could probably do. After they were done, they walked back, and the older man waved for me to lower my weapon which hadn't moved past tracking the Villain, which I did.

"What do you want?" the experienced Villain, asked when he was a dozen feet away. Victor, meanwhile, smiled at me again, though he now seemed almost offended as he looked at the ground between us.

If I had to guess he was sure that he'd, I don't know, take my ability to fly, leaving me confused and defenseless while he closed the distance before I could shoot.

Dumbass.

I stood straight and formally informed the older villain, "I have been working to help end the ABB, as per our Truce, and have leveraged some of my assets to gain intel on the location of ABB strongholds."

"Then tell us and get the hell out of here, Bug Boy," Victor sneered.

I didn't look at him. "Kreig, please tell your thin-skinned thief to mind his manners. I will not go out of my way to antagonize him bup blebly-" my tongue caught on itself as Victor's power lashed out, lessening my ability to speak.

My power flashed through my body and copied the immoral ability, the physical effects plain enough for my own power to activate. I whipped my gun upward, shooting him in the hand, blowing it off, along with part of his forearm. The flesh pasted as it was hit by the equivalent of an anti-tank weapon, most of the force continuing on to break the pavement, the stump spraying red as he fell to the ground in shock.

The thugs watched, frozen, as Kreig looked between us, unsure, but didn't attack. The older man did get ready to fight as I strode forward, towards the moron who was screaming and holding what was left of his arm while he writhed on the ground.

"Sobby, but he thtole an abilbty, and I beplied as I plomised. I'm baking sube he doethn't die." I stumbled over the words, and I was tempted to shoot him in the head. Just like Regent, he couldn't control himself, and now I had another power I would never use.

Unlike Regent I had no qualms killing this mad dog. 'Pulling' off a glove with my teeth, I touched Victor's arm, covering the bloody ragged stump of his forearm with skin, stopping the bleeding, and giving him enough Get Better to keep him of dying of shock or blood loss, though he was still moaning like a bitch.

Stowing my gun, I put the glove back on, the others watching, other E88 arriving nearby but not approaching, as I ran through exercises like 'Toy Bot" and "She Sells Sea Shells" for several minutes until my ability to speak clearly returned, having only had the slightest of drains. I looked disdainfully down at the pathetic excuse for a cape still whining at my feet.

"Oh pull yourself together you petty little thief. Your wife will heal you when you get back. And for the love of god, get thicker skin. I don't know, steal the social armor off a streetwalker or something. I couldn't even get through telling you that I wouldn't resort to violence or powers first, and would not be the one who, so upset that I lost the simplest of social battles that I would lash out like a child, when you went ahead and did so, ruining the entire point what I was trying to say! Oh, and just so you know, if you steal skills from me or any of my team again, I will kill you, Truce or no."

I looked at Kreig, who was watching me like a hawk, his power already wrapped around me, but while the air resistance was primed to kick in, it was not actually active enough for me to copy. "You, I have no problem with. You seem professional, and that I can admire. If you ever decided to change sides, you should give me a call. In the meantime, as I said, I found the location of ABB bases. If you, or someone in your organization could send me an e-mail, I could start coordinating everyone. So far, the only people I haven't heard back from are the E88, and Coil."

I reached into a pouch and he stilled completely, ready to strike, relaxing minutely when I took out another of my cards. "In case Kaiser did something silly like shred his in a fit of pique, here's another. If I have not heard back from him or his people by," I checked my phone. "Six tonight, I'll start making plans without him or your organization, which would be a shame considering the firepower they can bring to bear." I glanced down at the still moaning villain at our feet. "Not counting him."

Kreig shot me a resigned look, "You aren't going to give me the addresses, are you?"

I shook my head, smiling. "I would, but then Kaiser would rush in for glory, or to look like he's the strongest, or something silly, which would ignore the entire point of the Truce. Sorry, no, once we've determined the strike teams I'll supply the information. Not before."

He nodded. "Had to ask. Do you have any other business here?"

"No, telling you this was the only reason I visited your territory. Have a nice day." I held out my hand, and after a moment he shook it, his grip strong, but not 'I'm so macho' crushing like I'm sure Victor would have tried.

Generally happy with this interaction, I took off, flying back to base to take a shower and wash off the scent of idiocy I might've picked up when Victor bled on me.

 

[Leecifer]

Outreach 6.4

After a thorough shower, I was surprised that it wasn't even noon. Then again, the meeting with my father had happened at seven o' clock. The man was a ludicrously early riser, and I wasn't really sure what to do. I could go heal, but I had a feeling my public statement about my working with Villains would attract unwelcome attention, or even worse, the press. I shivered theatrically as I toweled off. They would still get in the way, though that nixed that option. However. . .

"Hello Vejovis, what do you want?" my friend, the flesh-sculptor, asked intently, picking up on the first ring. She sounded a bit annoyed and I had a feeling it was my fault.

"Hi Panacea," I answered, ignoring her implication that I only called her when I needed something. She wasn't wrong, but addressing it now wouldn't help anything. "It won't be today, but I've got information on ABB bases and we'll be striking them tomorrow. If we need your help, can we come to you for healing? I can keep someone from dying, but more than that is beyond me right now." A waited a beat, but she didn't answer. "They might be Villains, but they'd be working with me to help stop the bombings."

She hmm'd. "I will, but only because they're helping. And only if you're there."

"Deal. I was going to do that anyways," I promised. "Sorry about not being there today, I-"

"It's fine," she cut me off in a way that said it wasn't. "I understand. Just. . . be careful."

I smiled, "I will be, see you tonight." Hanging up, I thought about what I could do. Looking around the base I couldn't find Herb, and I doubted I could convince Boojack to train, so that left training myself, something which I could do just as easily at night with less chance of attracting attention.

I paused in my pacing as I remembered my promise to drop by the Undersider's base, and got to work with a smirk. Five hours and a short shopping trip later I'd gathered everything I needed. The look on Tattletale's face when I answered the door to their base with a backpack and two duffle bags packed with supplies was well worth the effort.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" she demanded, obviously hating herself for having to ask.

"Merry Christmas!" I smiled.

She just blinked at me. "It's May!"

I shrugged, "Meh, close enough. I bring presents! Come on, let me in." She stepped aside, glaring at me, not saying anything. "I'm not a vampire Tattletale," I chided teasingly, stepping inside and rustling her hair, letting go of one of the duffle bags to do so. I kept it up with a Glory Girl's power, having figured out I didn't need to touch something with my hand to surround it with a Lift Field, so letting it hang, touching my leg, was enough for a moment.

Ignoring the 'floating' bag, she smacked my hand away, and huffed, "I knew that!", and pushed past me, leading me to their common room, announcing, "It's Vejovis!"

Taylor was waiting for me, relaxed and without her helmet, while Imp and Regent played an FPS. Grue stood in the entrance to the hallway that held everyone's rooms, not relaxing, and Bitch was nowhere to be seen. As Tattletale moved to stand next to Grue she turned, arms folded, and addressed me, "Well?"

"Where's Bitch?" I asked, looking around.

I got a shrug from Taylor, the others not responding, though Regent was complaining that Imp had paused their game, looking at an empty chair instead of where her power was, right next to him. "She's out," Tattletale informed me.

Nodding, I replied, "Oh, in the warehouse with her dogs. Makes sense." Ignoring Lisa's growl of annoyance, I unslung my backpack, dropping it next to the duffle bags on a table that still held the remains of take-out. "So, we're going to be hitting some of the bases I found today, tomorrow, but you guys need an upgrade. For your previous cops and robbers play-fighting you were fine, but this is going to be war, or the closest you'll hopefully see for. . . let's say a month and half."

Tattletale started to ask a question as soon as paused for breath, but I talked over her. "As such, you need to step up your game. After this is over I'll be wanting Taylor to work with Parian to get you all some proper armor, but these will have to do. They won't last more than a month, but you should all have replacements well before then."

Reaching into the bag I pulled out the copies of the Undersider's costumes I'd extruded from my own. I figured if I could make discrete parts of my own costume, it stood to reason I could make other costumes as well. It'd taken a while, and I had the nagging feeling that if something happened to one of the pieces, they all might be affected, but we were fighting gangbangers, not capes for the most part, and any weaponized exotic effects the ABB might have had died with Bakuda. Packaging the costumes in snowflake adorned wrapping paper however was just to mess with them, and I had the feeling most of them might not've had too many proper Christmases anyways.

I tossed Grue a large package, which he opened carefully. He hesitated before taking his helmet off, weighing it and the new one he pulled out of the box in either hand, the only difference was mine came with vents to channel his darkness like he'd wanted. The teen frowned. "It's too light."

"But stronger," I promised. He looked at me skeptically. Motioning for him to put it on a table, I took out my pistol and drew down on it, firing once to impact the eye covering, the theoretically weakest part. The helm went flying away to impact the far wall and deflecting off, getting enough distance from the bounce to hit another, before finally landing and rolling along the ground with a clatter.

Tattletale picked it up, turning it over to show Grue the undamaged helmet. She focused on it, brows knitting as she studied it. Seeing her power, I watched as it tried to contact the helmet, pushing straight through it as if it weren't there. Lisa made an angry sound, like an enraged chihuahua, glaring at the object as her tendrils of power retracted before they carefully wrapped themselves around the helmet, almost but not quite touching. She then looked at me, her power passing through me, before doing the same thing, but as I shifted position it lost its hold. She growled cutely, focusing on my weapon instead.

With an idea what she was doing I put it down on the table and stepped back, which got me an annoyed glare, as she realized that I knew what she was doing, and trying to help, which I'm sure she thought she didn't need. The Thinker repeated the process she had previously, some of the tendrils of power finding purchase, but most having the same luck, especially along the barrel. I looked deeply at her power, my Power Sight Seeing it in as fine detail as I could push it. She was building a model with what she knew, trying to use her power to figure out the rest, using the facts that blind spots in her power existed as information and trying to cover them with her own guesses. Clever Girl.

"If I shot that pistol," she finally asked. "What would happen?"

I couldn't repress a smile. "You'd break your wrists. Everyone in this room would, except for me."

She took a step towards it, stopping herself, gritting her teeth as she requested, "Can I see?"

Grabbing the weapon, I popped out the magazine. Clearing the chamber and catching the round, to Grue's small nod of approval, before tossing it to her. She squawked as she tried to catch the unexpected projectile with one hand, tossing up Grue's helmet to free her hands.

She fumbled the weapon, and took an extra second getting a hold of it, then, twisting around like a dancer, she barely caught the helm with her extended foot before it hit the ground, freezing in that position. Regent gave a polite golf clap while the power-blob that was Imp whistled in appreciation. Giving Regent the finger, the Thinker reached down and grabbed the helmet with her free hand, tossing it back to Grue.

Looking over the weapon, weighing it, the blonde teen hit the slide catch absently, taking it apart, muttering to herself, "Needs to be cleaned, odd wearing." Managing the pieces, she checked them individually, freezing when she looked down the barrel. "Bullshit."

"What?" Grue asked. "Is it Tinkertech?"

"People keep on using that word," I added, smiling at her. "I don't think it means what they think it means."

Absently putting the gun back together she shot me an accusing glare. "You know Boardwalk!"

I shrugged, "It could have been Skidm- who am I kidding, he doesn't have that much inventiveness. Yep! He won't join my team, but we help each other. He's gone dark since he had to break out of the Rig after the Protectorate tried to imprison him for saving Vista and Gallant."

"How does that work?" Imp asked, speaking over Regent's "Well that's rude."

I shrugged, responding to both: "He pissed someone off in power, not sure how, and they decided that was worth breaking their own rules, as well as common decency and the rites of hospitality over, so he blew open their door. Miss Militia apparently shot him in the back with an RPG, or so he says. Had a few cracked ribs that were probably from it. I wouldn't expect to see him until this all blows over, but he did me a few favors before he dropped out of sight."

She handed me back my gun, which I stowed, handing her a present. She gave me a look that read as 'really?' I grinned unrepentantly as she unwrapped it, frowning as she looked at what I'd given her. She held one piece of it, the design of her domino mask embedded in what looked like clear cloth with three holes in it, the transparent fabric only visible when it folded in on itself. She gave me an annoyed look and turned around, clearly mentally debating with herself before taking her mask off so I couldn't see her face, putting the new mask on hesitantly. Pressing the clear portions to her skin, she froze as it stuck together, quickly taking it off and then putting it on slower before fully donning it, wrapping the clear fabric around her head and neck.

Turning back around, she looked as if she were wearing her old mask. Touching what looked like bare skin she frowned. "What is this?"

"It's hard to explain, but it's cut-proof, and pierce-proof, so while a shot to the head might crack your skull and maybe give you a concussion, it won't be an instant kill anymore. Now you won't die like you would've tomorrow. You're welcome. Well, that and whatever team you're on won't be hitting that location," I added, to try to put her at ease. It didn't seem to work. "Don't worry, I wouldn't go through with a future that would end in your death unless I absolutely have to."

"This is the shit!" Imp crowed, distracting me. Glancing over I not-saw Aisha had grabbed her present, black leather armor embellished with dark red and white flame designs covering the girl who I was pretty sure had stripped in front of me while I was distracted. Hopefully she'd just forgotten I could still somewhat see her. She was holding a mask I'd patterned off those of the Vizards, red and black tribal designs over a grinning white kitsune face. Placing it over her own face, the mask formed a seal with the hood of her armor, completely protecting her. "This is like fuckin' Christmas plus my birthday with a kickass Sunday on top!" she shouted, giving me a quick hug, then ran off to Regent's room, still visible from the central room as I didn't see her stand in front of his full-length mirror, making "Hwah!" and "Kapow!" noises as she struck poses.

Rolling my eyes, I tossed Regent his costume, who, when he found it to be a one-to-one copy of his own with the same clear material to cover exposed skin, shrugged. "You have good taste at least."

Nodding over to Taylor I said, "Your costume is better than these, so I didn't get you one." That and if something goes wrong, I don't want you hit by it. The fact that giving them these also let me track the Undersiders down if need be was another plus, the ethereal threads of my costume pointing out from my chest towards them if I focused to See them.

The Arthropod Controller shrugged, unconcerned, "It's okay."

Nodding, happy that she was showing maturity, I had a thought. Checking with my Bug Sense she was dumping disappointment into her swarm, as well as a bit of what could be jealousy. Ah, oh well, she's still a teenager. I sent her feelings of comfort as I opened up my other bags, pulling out the rest of my presents.

"So, you guys know the unwritten rules, right?" I checked, and waited for the chorus of nods, manfully not jumping as Imp giving a snort from my elbow. I might be able to See past her power, but she was still damn sneaky.

As everyone looked to my right and my eyes could finally focus on her Grue's sister said, "Yeah, they're bullshit!"

I waved a hand in a maybe gesture. "Day to day, they're actually a good idea, but they're guidelines, not laws, and like the Geneva Conventions, they only work as long as everyone follows them. The way to keep people following them is to have them enforced by everyone else, especially by having everyone break them in regards to the ones who broke it originally to take them down. They're set up as a kind of a MAD scenario."

Imp looked up at me, expression hidden, "But those assholes are always pissed."

"It stands for Mutually Assured Destruction," Tattletale chimed in, obviously happy to be the one explaining something. "You don't do something that would kill someone, because you'd get killed at the same time."

The Stranger nodded, "Oh right, like Nukes. Okay."

"Anyways, as the current standard of conduct are in abeyance-" Imp elbowed my hip. "Since no one is following the rules and everyone's trying to kill everyone else, holding back is stupid. As such, it's time for an upgrade. They're gonna try to kill you, and you need to be able to, if not return the favor, then put them down harder than you usually do." I could feel Taylor's trepidation through the Swarm. "I'm not saying you have to kill people, but you'll have to injure them more than usual, since they think they'll die if they don't kill you. It's a messed-up situation, so I'm providing you the tools to make the best of it. First of all, Grue." I pushed the large box with his name towards him.

He frowned, taking off the wrapping paper and opening the box. "Grenades? No. Flashbangs? My power does the opposite of this."

"Which lets you use them effectively!" I told him. He looked confused while Taylor and Lisa both had looks of understanding. "Place your Darkness around someone, then toss one of those in and create a hollow in it right where they are. They get hit, but everyone outside is fine, then you either drop the Darkness and let the rest of the team hit your disoriented targets, or plunge their disoriented asses back into Darkness."

"Or," Taylor chimed in. "Do both." I gave her a confused look as Tattletale grinned widely. "Well, he can make people out of his power, so he has that level of control, and if he can see his opponents he can cover them with it, which blacks them out and still gives us a target to hit!"

"That's brilliant!" I responded genuinely. "Or the opposite, as the case may be." Imp hit me in the arm for my pun, grumbling about dad jokes, but it was worth it. Brian looked at the case with new eyes, considering them. "Don't waste them, but if you need more I can get them, I've got a contact." Cauldron did technically, but it was the same difference at this point.

"What about me!" Imp asked excitedly. "Do I get something else? It's cool if I don't, this costume is bitchin', but... please?"

I patted her hood. "Puppy dog eyes work better if I can see your eyes Aisha, but yeah, there's something else." Grabbing a long package, I handed it to her, smiling at her inability to repress her excitement as she practically vibrated. Wrapping paper went flying as she stopped holding back her power, making it seem to appear from thin air to my senses. "HOLY SHIT YOU GOT ME A FUCKING SWORD! YOU'RE THE FUCKING BEST AND I'LL STAB ANYONE WHO DISAGREES! I CAN DO THAT NOW 'CAUSE I'VE GOT A FUCKING SWORD!"

I maneuvered myself subconsciously to avoid the un-seeable blade as she tackled me in a hug. "Watch the edge," I warned, unable to stop from smiling. She repressed her power to show everyone her new weapon, the sight of her waving it caused everyone else to take a step back. I caught the edge, thankful that my costume was cut-proof. "Don't swing it around like that Aisha. It's not a toy, it's a weapon, and you need to treat it as such."

Looking her in the eye as I let it go, she nodded vigorously. "Why is it glowing?" Regent asked.

Imp looked down at the weapon, having not noticed the Speed Zone I'd laid on one side, running down the spine of the blade. "Did you get me a magic sword?" she whispered. "'cause if you did. Fuck. I don't know what I should do, but it won't be fuckin' enough!"

I shook my head. "No, it's a Speed Zone. From Boardwalk. Grab one of the knives."

"You got me knives too! Best. Day. Ever!" She reached into the box, taking out the scabbard I threw together and the three knives I'd formed. It'd taken a bit to create the blades correctly with Kaiser's power, but I'd been able to try some of the things I'd read about how to arrange the crystalline structure of the alloys exactly how I'd wanted and choose the exact materials.

It'd taken far too long to use in a fight, but the fact that Kaiser hadn't taught his men how to fight with European-style blades he himself created seemed like a massive missed opportunity just for the branding alone. Not that I'd mention it to him. The irony of using his power to arm a black girl was amusing though.

Returning with the sword and knives I took both from her, placing the smaller blade into the space right above the sword's guard. It slid neatly into the groove cut into the Jian, and, aiming it at the wall, I pushed it forward, hitting the Speed Zone and firing it off like an arrow, the only sound a faint scraping of steel followed by a loud thunk as it buried itself in the drywall. Aisha gave a high-pitched squeal before falling backwards, unmoving.

"Um, is she okay?" Regent asked, looking at her. "Because if she's not can I have her sword?"

"I will cut you!" Aisha called up, lifting an arm and flicking him off. "I'm just too happy to stand. MAGIC SWORD!"

"It's not-" I paused, considering it.

"Knew it!" she crowed.

Laughing, I continued, "No, it's powers. It's another Speed Zone, like my pistol. I was considering how the term magic may or may not apply to what we do. "Just be careful pressing it against something large, because it'll move the sword, and you, instead."

Aisha sat up immediately. "Gimme!" Leaning down and handing the blade to her, she immediately rolled over as she pressed it into the ground, being pulled away, skidding across the linoleum with a, "Wheee!"

Shaking my head, I took out Regent's present, walking over to him to give it since he didn't seem inclined to get up himself, lazy bastard. I had to step over Imp as she skidded back the other direction, now riding the sword, her cut proof costume allowing her to do so easily as it levitated over the ground like a deadly hoverboard. Handing him the package, he looked at it skeptically, trying to figure out what it was. He casually unwrapped it, though his motions were oddly controlled. Frowning in confusion, he looked at his gift. "You gave me books? Boring."

"Anatomy books," I clarified. "So you could find all of those little things that could do a lot of damage if they just. . . twitched the wrong way. Also, consider this. Good trigger discipline is to keep your finger off the trigger until you're ready to fire, but most thugs don't have that. If they don't then all it takes is a single pound of pressure, a single pull of the finger to fire the gun. Combine it with an unexpected noise and a slight arm movement and as long as they don't know you're there? Suddenly the thugs are arguing because Carl shot Bobby and there's chaos in the ranks."

He nodded, smiling, "I like the way you think. You know that makes you a shit hero, right?"

I smiled back, showing my teeth. "I'm a hero because I want to be, not because I have to be."

He shrugged, opening one of his new books, "Whatever lets you sleep at night."

Rolling my eyes, I walked back, giving Tattletale her package. She opened it up, revealing a bare metal case. Looking at me she flicked it open, before gazing down at the contents and stiffening. "This is a sniper rifle. You are giving me a collapsible sniper rifle."

"Yes it is," I affirmed. "Check the barrel."

She cautiously pulled it from the foam it was seated it, looking down it, seeing the Speed Zone sitting innocuously inside. Carefully, it was replaced in the with slightly shaking fingers. "Are you insane?" she asked with forced calm.

"Coil's going to be fielding sniper teams, so any stigma will be overlooked, and with your power you'd be one of the best out there. You'd know the gun, how your target's going to move, all the conditions. It just seemed natural," I shrugged, not seeing the problem.

"This will kill people," she reiterated.

"Yes. It's a gun. That's what it does. If you want peace of mind, then don't shoot them in the chest or head and they'll probably survive. Also, just pointing it out, they're going to try to do the same thing to you, Sarah. Lung might not because he could consider you not worth it, but the rank and file, let alone Oni Lee, are going to do their level best to kill you."

"I don't..." she stopped, struggling with herself.

"If you don't want to use it against people, fine. With your power, trick shots should be easily doable. Use it to take out cars, enemy weapons, whatever you want to. I'm not telling you how to use it, just that it's yours to do with as you wish. If you sell it off to help fund one of your contingencies, that's fine too. I'm giving you the tools I think will help you survive. I'm not going to make you use them if you don't want to," I reassured her, which apparently solved her internal debate.

"Okay… Thanks." Her response was an off mix of relief and grudging respect as her attention was drawn back to the weapon. I turned to Taylor, giving my teammate her present.

Opening it, and seeing it was a long knife and pistol, Taylor looked up at me. "Same thing I told Tattletale," I confirmed. "The pistol has one level of enhancement, so it'll hit harder, but won't hurt Lung when he gets going. Remember the three levels of fights?" She nodded. "What we'll be heading into will be the third. If you're captured and not saved before the fight's over they will rape or kill you. It's a when, not an if. I'll be there as fast as I can, but depending on the situation, that might not always be fast enough. You can rely on me to come to help if I can and know you're in trouble, but all it takes is once for things to go irreparably wrong."

The seriousness of the moment was ruined as Aisha came flying by once again, going "Wahooo!"

We both watched her ride past.

"Right, so, new trick for your powers. Grab the pistol," I directed, and she did so, looking at it cautiously, almost as if it might bite her if she wasn't careful. "It's unloaded Taylor; Lisa will show you how to use it. Now, I want you to pay attention to your insects." Grabbing two tiny spiders, I dropped one on either end of the slide. "So, think of where these two are in space. Think about it making a line. Now," I reached out and gently grasped the barrel, moving the gun, aiming it at a wasp, which I'd moved to land on the far wall. "See how the spiders make a line that intersects with the wasp?" She nodded as I held the weapon steady. "Good, now I want you to look down the sights. Get all three dots to line up in a row."

She did so moving around me and shifting her head to get it just right before blinking in surprise. "It's aiming right at it. How?"

Letting go of the pistol I smiled. "You know how. Your bug sense lets you see things perfectly in three dimensions, which is far better for aiming firearms then the mark one eyeball. There's more to it, like having to worry about bullet drop and things like that, but even without any training you're a preternaturally good shot. You never really pursued it, but as long as you can tag something with an insect, you've essentially got super-accuracy with any firearm. It was probably your dislike of their innate lethality that stopped you, but in a real fight like this, any pure advantage you can get is one you need."

She sighed, nodding. "Okay. But, don't I need ammo?"

I snapped my fingers, loudly announcing, "I knew I forgot something!" Laughing at her unamused look I reached into my bag, taking out several boxes of rounds for both her weapon and Tattletale's.

<AB>​

Getting back to base, having left behind Rachel's presents, I checked my e-mail. Coil still hadn't sent me anything, and Kaiser, or someone working for him, sent me a textless email, the subject only reading "Vejovis". I shrugged, at least they did as I asked. Sending out a general e-mail to everyone, I laid out my information in general terms, asking for possible team configurations. A few minutes later I received reply from Kaiser to everyone demanding restitution from me for my "unprovoked attack" on his minion.

"Either you were lied to, or you are being deliberately obtuse." I typed in return, including everyone in it just as he had. "Victor attempted to steal my ability to speak. Be glad I did not kill him outright. What is it your people say? 'The Jew cries out in pain as he strikes you'? While I believe that to be untrue, the point still stands when it comes to your people."

He swiftly responded that it was the Polish who had that phrase, though he didn't call them Polish, along with the team rosters as a fait accompli. Considering he put together a team consisting solely of himself, Hookwolf, Stormtiger, Cricket, Crusader, Alabaster, Night, Fog, Purity, Gregor, and Bitch.

My response of "Ha. Ha. Ha. No." should have been obvious.

His angry response that they were non-negotiable I ignored, leaning back in my chair to try to consider good combos. Newter, Gregor, and Sundancer would all work well with Herb or I, both of us immune to heat and poison. If I could finagle it I wanted Trickster on my team so I could try to de-Ziz him, breaking whatever future the Simurgh had planned for and left hidden commands to trigger upon reaching.

I doubted it would be as easy as just talking to him once, but I had to at least try. I couldn't see if her power still affected him unless I saw her as well, and that was a. . . less than optimal option. No matter what, Taylor was going to be on my team, and Purity was going to have Herb as backup. Also, Victor wasn't going to be teamed with either of us. The kind of arrogant stupidity he'd shown meant it was a certainty that he'd pull something to try to soothe his fragile ego, and then I'd have to kill him, because I kept my word.

As I shuffled names around for the better part of an hour, Coil deigned to enter the conversation. I had to admit, he provided a much more politically balanced team spread, with at least two high ranking members each. Team one combined Kaiser and the twin Valkyries with Newter, Bitch, The Lady; Bug, Sundancer, and myself, along with a Sniper team from Coil. Team two was Herb, Purity, Crusader, Kreig, Rune, Genesis, Gregor, Mush, Coil's snipers, and Regent. Team three consisted of Æonic, Victor (who of course spelled his name with a k just to be edgy), his wife Othala, Trickster, Faultline, Spitfire, Squealer, Hookwolf, Stormtiger, Cricket, and a squad of six mercenaries from Coil. Team four was Skidmark, Grue, Tattletale, Alabaster, Night, Fog, Labyrinth, Ballistic, and another squad of mercenaries from snakey, who wasn't on any team, but provided enough firepower that no one was going to complain.

A couple of e-mails later Bitch was moved to Herb's team, as he'd be able to put up with her dominance shit better than I would; Spitfire moved to watch Labyrinth's back, though Faultline had the professionalism not to outright say so; and Squealer moved to be with Skidmark, for obvious reasons. I asked for Mush to be on my team, which provoked confusion from the others, but he was moved anyways.

Finally a message was sent to Grue alone, suggesting that the midget ninja watch Tattletale's back, which would keep both of them safe and out of trouble. Happy with the teams, I sent each group a location to hit. Remembering that Bakuda's workshop was hidden in a drug distribution center, I made sure none of us hit that any of those, as every time my father had seen a team hit one, someone died. While this would mean the bombing would continue for a few days longer, the teams needed a shakedown raid to iron out the problems in working together.

We also all needed locations that we wouldn't be able to steamroll, as that would ignore the entire point of this exercise.

I gave Herb's team the address to a warehouse casino they'd turned back into a storehouse: somewhere they couldn't just blast to bits, and tight quarters on top of that.

Charlie got a barracks which was too widely distributed for him to just freeze completely.

Grue got a brothel, which was still operating as one, which would mean civilian targets they couldn't just blow away. It would be a good test to see who on the team would flinch from killing innocents.

My team got an armory, the firefight something that'd hopefully pin down the close-ranged fighters and make them think in different directions. I'd warn Herb, but otherwise going in blind like this would help me get a better read on everyone's abilities while the people I gave a damn about would still be protected.

It'll be a trial by fire, but to reform Villains, that's what's needed.

 

[Leecifer]

Outreach 6.5

Meeting Panacea for dinner out, the only comment she made on my plans was, "So, you'll be fighting soon?"

I placed a sound bubble for my response as I mimed a silent yawn, dismissing it immediately after I spoke, "Yeah, tomorrow is the first, but we probably won't find what we're looking for on our very first mission." Which was true, at least in part because I didn't want us to find it on our first outing.

She nodded, turning the conversation back to her work healing, describing the techniques she'd had to innovate to reverse the process of pseudo-petrification one of Bakuda's bombs had inflicted, turning those affected into living statues that would die in a few weeks from starvation if Panacea hadn't brute force reversed the process, having to do it all at once or the victim would re-petrify.

That night, after a few hours of meditation and more shield practice with a projected rifle, I now had four malleable force fields in addition to the one crystallized barrier. The various Villain groups had arranged to strike our targets at ten that morning, each team meeting ten minutes prior to the start of our combined operation to try to hit them simultaneously, the diverse makeup of the teams meaning no one could try and steal a march on the others without either abandoning the other teams or going in with just a few fighters.

Before heading out, I stopped by one of my old practice sites, gathering the torn up and blasted remains of a train car into a pile, using my strength and my shields to blunt the ragged edges with my gloved hands. Trying to grab them all with my power to help me lift it didn't work, forcing me to realize that I could affect only individual pieces if they touched me, so short of just rolling in the rusted metal that wasn't going to work. Tearing the side off another abandoned car I beat and warped it into a bowl, piling the loose metal inside, glad I'd planned on arriving half an hour early so I wasn't late.

That I could lift, and did so, careful not to tip it as I flew over the city, landing in the location Kaiser had dictated: E88 territory a few blocks from our target. It was still twenty minutes before the arranged time, but two men, one carrying a long bag, both wearing military grade armor, complete with full helmets, with a patch of a white snake on a black background stood waiting. Nodding to them, as they looked at the truck-sized bowl I was carrying with wariness, I reached out with my Bug Sense, finding Taylor hiding in an alley a few blocks away. Grabbing a bit of swarm to spell 'I'm here!' she nodded, starting to walk towards me.

Turning the corner, she looked at the mass of rusted metal and stopped, looking between it and myself. 'Mush' I spelled in ants underneath an air-conditioning unit, causing her to tilt her head in thought, before nodding, walking over to stand next to me. "Vejovis," she greeted, trying to act professional.

"Lady Bug," I nodded back. A minute later a shape leaped down from a rooftop, Newter rolling as he landed. The snipers started, and I had to stop myself from flinching, but Taylor didn't seem surprised in the slightest.

"Hey guys!" he waved, walking over to a wall and leaning against it. "Wasn't sure this was the place. What's with the wreck?"

"I'll explain when we're all here," I deferred. He shrugged, pulling out his phone and playing a game while we waited. Sundancer was next, walking smoothly up to us, hesitating when Newter and I waved hello, giving us a firm nod in return, saying nothing. A few minutes before we were supposed to all be here, A kid in a hoody walked up to us, my Sight informing me that it was Mush.

"Hello!" I called friendly, causing him to jump as he pulled the hood tight. He looked up at me warily, not saying anything. "Your power, it lets you collect loose matter into armor, right?"

He shrugged glumly. "Yeah. I guess." Taylor and Sundancer, looking down at him in surprise.

Reaching up I grabbed the edge of the bowl, casually bending it down to the sound of tortured metal. "Could you use this? I blunted the edges so it wouldn't cut you."

Mush looked at me suspiciously, before looking at the pile of scrap. "Wouldn't cut me anyway," he muttered, maybe to himself, maybe to me, I wasn't sure. Edging towards the pile, he slowly reached an arm into it, the limb stretching and deforming into fleshy tentacles that attached themselves to the pieces, bringing them over to him and across his form. My own power casually reached out and copied it, just in case I needed it later. I had a feeling that if I completely repressed it I'd turn back into myself into what Mush was, but it would probably be best to nab that one Traveller's human shapeshifting power first, just in case it didn't reset me completely.

He gathered more and more into himself, quickly growing into an amorphous pile of shifting rusted metal. "Okay, can you control your shape this way, or is it just a general thing?" I asked, peering at his power and knowing the answer, but interested if he knew it.
The pile shrugged. "I can control it," he said, tone sad, his wet-sounding voice coming from the center of the mass.

I rolled my eyes behind my mask, as if he knew what his power could do, why hadn't he done so already. God save me from uninspired pessimists. "That's great!" I replied warmly, pulling out my phone, my original phone. The one that had all my D&D and Pathfinder books on it to reference, as I'd not found the equivalent here. "The armoring should make you effectively bulletproof, and if you can control the shape, we can do all sorts of interesting things, but let's start simple for this first run. Let's go humanoid, since it's the form you're used to." I pulled up an image of an Iron Golem, turning to show him. "Something like this, probably no more than eight feet tall so you won't have to hunch indoors, and enlarge the fists a bit for better striking."

He did so, slowly, moving the metal around, the plates rubbing against each other with an occasional screech that made me wince, a large mass of metal still on his back making him look hunchbacked. "Drop the extra material Mush, I eyeballed it so if you don't use it all, that's perfectly fine."

The metal behind him sloughed off, falling with a loud clatter. I flew around him in a circle, looking at the effect as he leaned away from my gaze. "Good job. Now, how fast can you move like this?"

The golem hung its head. "Not very fast."

"Lift your right arm," I commanded, and he did so slowly before letting it drop. His power was flexing, but it wasn't anywhere near its limit, though I had no idea how I knew that. "Again, faster." He did, noticeably faster. "Mush, we're going into combat, and you'll be fighting side by side with me. Move with purpose. Now again, as fast as you safely can." He lifted it, about as fast as a normal person could, which considering he was eight feet tall and made of steel, was more than enough. "Okay, good! Now-" I paused. "This is going to be loud, so you might want to cover your ears."

Newter shrugged, doing so, as did Taylor and Sundancer. Looking over at Coil's snipers one of them nodded to me, tapping the part of his helmet that covered his ears. I turned to the metal bowl, ripping off a long metal strip, three feet by eight feet, and straightened it out. Covering it with a shield I plunged it into the torn-up street at our feet, driving two feet of it underground.

Stepping back and dusting off my hands, I turned to look at Mush, ignoring Netwer's wide eyed look. "Okay, so, do you know how to box?"

Mush shook his head as his body language sagged. "No. Sorry."

"Good," I told him, causing him to look up at me in confusion, his head expressive in the way I'd been teaching Taylor how to be. "As you are now, you'll be better with a momentum-based style that doesn't work well with standard human physiology." I took a fighting stance, pulling my fist back behind me exaggeratedly. "Copy me." He did. "When you strike, do so like this," I instructed, shoving my fist forward as I twisted my hips, putting my all into the blow, almost overextending myself.

He copied my move, having to take a couple of steps forward as his trash-can sized fist almost pulled him off his feet. "Exactly!" I congratulated. "Now, do the same thing to the target. Again everyone, going to be loud."

Mush took position, copying his earlier stance, driving his fist forward into the metal with a sound like a car crash, the metal shearing from the impact and hitting a nearby wall shattering a few bricks. The Merchant looked from his fist to the wrecked metal in wonder. I walked up behind him, slapping him on the back, causing him to jump. "Good job! I knew it was right to want you on this team! One last thing."

"What?" he asked, sounding almost fearful for some reason.

"I know you're called Mush, but it just sounds, well, insulting," I commented without scorn, scratching the back of my head. "Skidmark I can kinda understand, as he lays down 'marks' that make things 'skid' across the ground, and Squealer is the squeal of tires, but is there something else I can call you? Like, Golem or something?" I asked, motioning between the image on my phone, him, and his reflection in the glass of the nearby building.

He looked at his reflection, not saying anything.

"Golem?" I asked, trying the name.

"Huh?" he said, turning back to me. "Yeah. You can. If you want."

"Golem it is then," I confirmed holding out my hand. He just looked at it dumbly, before I stepped forward, grabbing his, and giving it a shake.

Hearing something clanking down the road, I looked over to see Kaiser and the twins, Fenja and Menja, walking towards us.

"If you're done making a racket, we should get on with this," he commented, looking scornfully at Mush. "And who's this pile of rust supposed to be? The Merchant's trash-thing?"

As the man beside me slumped, shoulders forward, I smiled at the tin toddler. It didn't reach my eyes. "Ah, Kaiser, only five minutes late! This is Golem, and he'll be helping us today," I said with false cheer. Max couldn't let anyone else have a moment? Really? "Weren't your people known for their punctuality? Oh, right, my apologies, that was the Italians. Well, better late than Nazi! Sorry, Never. Well, we better get going if we want to make there in time."

He sneered at me, before turning his back, striding off towards the location, calling arrogantly, "Don't get in my way, hero."

As he strutted away imperiously I motioned to everyone to form up. Taylor trotted over, Newter and Sundancer following, the sniper pair behind them. I pulled insects in from around several blocks around us, causing most of the party to stiffen as the Swarm curled around them, not making contact. "If they want to go first and attract fire, we'll let them. From what I know all three have powers that let them deal with small arms fire. Newter, I know you're not bulletproof, so I want you to stay near Golem, and use him for cover if you need to, as he's essentially a walking tank right now. If there's an innocent, and you can get to them without getting hurt, I want you to hit them with your hallucinogens and get them to safety if you can. Lady Bug, screen yourself with Golem as well, and take the Swarm, you're on scout duty and communication." She tilted her head in confusion. "Listen with them and use bug speech to keep everyone informed."

"Bug speech? I don't speak beetle, bro," Newter commented, raising an eyebrow.

"Will do." The swarm buzzed around us, approximating English with alien overtones, and he jumped several feet in the air, looking around.

"Sundancer," I continued as if nothing out of the ordinary happened. "How comfortable are you with this level of fighting?"

I looked at her intently as we started walking far behind the Nazis, waiting for her to respond. "I'm not," she finally admitted.

"Violence at all or just killing?" I tried to clarify.

"Killing. But if I have to-," she started.

"-I'll plan so you shouldn't have to," I cut her off, her helmet turning towards me. "You create suns, right?" she nodded. "Not the best match up with Bug Controllers, but I'll see if we can find something for you to do. Stay close to Lady Bug and we'll use them as deterrents for now. After this we'll work on something else."

I turned to talk to the Snipers, and one waved me off. "You guys have a location you want me to drop you off at?" I asked anyways. The one without the rifle leaned back and whispered something to his partner, who nodded.

"Sure," the spotter said, uncaringly, "If you can." Flying over I grabbed them by their jackets, lifting them effortlessly up above the rooftops, following their directions to a building across from our target. Dropping them off I could distantly hear the heavy footsteps of Golem, and the guards outside of the Pawnshop the ABB were using as a cover for their armory were looking around, several swatting at the insects that were starting to fill the air.

I flew high, taking an overwatch position. Kaiser and the twins were thirty feet ahead of the others, striding like he didn't have a care in the world. Turning the corner onto the street, he made it a few steps before the guards spotted him and opened fire, bullets sparking off his full plate of blades, the other two seemingly unaffected. As the women in Valkyrie armor shrunk the bullets to insignificance, my own power copied theirs. The two women shared their power, so even though it took from both, I only received one version myself.

Interesting.

Golem turned the corner, the other three behind him to avoid the fire. Piggybacking off Taylor's power I saw inside as the ABB scrambled to get weapons, setting up a heavy machine gun inside the lobby while the three customers scurried for cover. Those further inside stopped reloading magazines and doing maintenance on weapons, picking up the functional ones and grabbing grenades.

"It's a weapons storehouse" The swarm buzzed to everyone, the Nazis pausing for a moment in surprise before continuing on, Kaiser informing Fenja and Menja to be ready. The ABB were focusing fire on Kaiser, but another group was moving to head out the back entrance, the interior wall separating the pawn shop from the apartment building behind it having had doorways cut into it.

"Taylor," I said to the insects around me, "relay my orders. Sundancer, take the alley to your left. The building on the other side of the store is a front. Drop a sun in front of the door to stop them going out that way and circling around. Newter, watch her back."

I dived down as the two of them split off from my group, putting myself between them and the enemy as the guards uselessly pouring fire at Kaiser, spotted the pair and took shots at them. Tanking a couple of bullets that drained my shields, I focused on my new power and allowed one round that would have impacted my costume to be shrunk, my wind control made sure the two behind me weren't shot in their dash for the alley.

Pulling myself back up, I resumed overwatch. As Kaiser walked in range of the machine gun it opened fire, the twins stepping forward growing slightly and taking the shots, metal clad arms raised to cover the exposed parts in their chest armor as even the reduced projectiles drew pinpricks of blood from the skin not protected.

I grabbed both Fenja's and Menja's growing power, which was different then the shrinking one, as Kaiser raised his arm, a wall of iron springing up from the sidewalk and blocking the fire. With a wave of his hand the wall sprouted spears, extending into the store, killing over a dozen people within, including the civilians that had taken cover.

As someone on the second floor opened a window, pulling the pin on a grenade to toss it down, Coil's team took the shot, killing the woman who fell backwards. Her grenade exploded and killing two more in the room, the other four at least injured.

Sundancer was almost at the end of the alley, waving Newter to back up as the ABB got ready to head out the back door. Grabbing a portion of the Swarm I shoved it inside, sending the flies into their eyes as I stung their necks with wasps, causing them to waste time as they flailed. I could feel Taylor's power make minute corrections to keep the harrying insects on target and was thankful for it, her ability to tightly control them still far outstripping mine.

Sundancer's power flared as fire blossomed in her hands, my power reaching out and capturing Stellar Creation, trying to also grasp her secondary power but sliding off, its passive nature giving me nothing to latch onto.

The baseball sized star drifted over until it was hanging over the sidewalk outside the door. Growing to beachball size, it set the trash on the street on fire, the sidewalk directly below it shimmering as the stone heated while the asphalt bubbled. Pulling the swarm off the squad and sending them upstairs to harass the people on the second floor, the first group got up, one of them reaching for the door and pulling his hand back with a cry of pain as he grasped the suddenly hot doorknob.

One of the gunmen pulled open the curtain on a window only to stumble back as light brighter than day flooded the room. Another one started shooting out the window, trying to hit whatever was out there, just wasting ammo. They all flinched as the window shattered, flooding the room with an oppressive heat, a couple of the insects on the windowsill dying near-instantly as I pulled them back.

Kaiser was inside now, summoning spears and blades to kill his opponents in the store, the twins screening him from front and back. "Relay message to all inside," I commanded. "Surrender and you will be arrested. Use lethal force and we shall respond in kind."

"Are we really going to kill them?" Taylor asked, unsure, behind Golem, who'd reached the entrance. Coil's Snipers were busy killing anyone on the upper floors they could see.

"We won't but Kaiser will unless we can get them to stop, and the only way we can is if the ABB surrender," I told her quickly. "Relay the message, now."

I'd do it myself, but I could only get a single group of insects to talk if I wanted to follow the rest of the fight, lacking the multitasking skill the 'voice from everywhere' required, and controlling sound in that many directions without it being obvious was beyond me as well.

As she did so, an ABB squad left a nearby building, moving straight for the alley Newter and Sundancer were in, guns drawn. I dropped down, pushing hard to increase my speed, yelling, "Take cover!" to my teammates as I landed on the lead element, crushing his skull with my heel as I did so. Sundancer hid behind a dumpster while Newter climbed the wall in a few seconds, escaping to the roof.

The ABB were shocked by my presence, letting me kill another two with strikes to the head that drained my shields before wrenching the weapons from the last pair. Grabbing them both by the throat I lifted up in the air, clearing the edge of the building. Holding them towards Newter, as they reached for their knives, I commanded, "Spit." He blinked before doing so, splattering both of them in the face.

As the terrified expressions on the ABB attackers slackened I dropped them on the roof, telling the orange man, "Strip of them of weapons, I'll have more."

He nodded and I dropped back down the alley, landing next to Sundancer who eeped. "Can you do two suns?" I asked.

She nodded, offering, "I normally don't, but sure."

"Put another deterrent at the other end of the alley."

"Some are surrendering on the third floor" Taylor relayed to us, Sundancer glancing my way.

"Tell them to drop their weapons," I instructed, lifting up and following her connection to find them, sunward in the building. Heading over I pulled my arms in, flying feet first into the window, those inside crying out in fear as the glass shattered. Looking around there were seven people, six women, varying ages, and a boy. "Tell Kaiser to wait on hitting the third floor," I instructed as swung out at the wall, draining a shield to blow it out, leaving a gaping hole as the people inside cowered. "Let's get you out so you live," I told them, grabbing the closest two, an old woman and the boy who clung to her.

Ducking back out over the sta,r I saw through the bugs as Kaiser glanced upwards from his position on the second floor as Taylor told him "ABB surrendering on third floor. Vejovis is pulling them out. Hold position."

Spears shot up from the floor around him and his guards on the second floor to pierce the ceiling and skewer the people on the floor above as he snarled "You don't command me, girl!" Luckily, he hit the wrong room, one the snipers had mostly cleared, only killing a woman with an assault rifle who taken cover behind a fridge and had been trying to shoot Coil's men. The Nazi gave a viscous grin as he heard the cry of pain and blood ran down the spears from the corpses he's pierced, thinking he'd killed those I'd been trying to save.

Right, the lead Nazi doesn't play well with others, I reminded myself, glad I hadn't gotten those surrendering killed, but by how he picked up the pace as he cleared the floor, I didn't have time for two more trips. Dropping the two next to Newter who looked ready to spit again I shook my head. "They surrendered, watch but don't incapacitate."

He shot me a questioning look, but I'd already taken off. Looking back towards Taylor, she'd taken cover behind a car as Golem was taking care of another squad that'd shown up, having shoulder checked the car they'd tried to ram him with, hitting them as they spilled out and raked him with fire. His blows were hard enough to either incapacitate or kill, but he wasn't going for directly lethal head blows, which was a good sign.

Flying back in the room with those surrendering, I landed, seeing Kaiser ascending the stairs with only a single wall separating us. "Everyone grab onto me!" I ordered. A couple moved towards me, the other three hesitating. The leader of the E88 heard my order, head turning to look as he waved his hand, the wall between us sprouting spears that shot towards us. Pushing my Aerokinesis I knocked them off course, thudding into the walls to our sides. Kaiser's head tilted, as if confused before moving his hand again.

More spears appeared, but by this time the last of the surrendered ABB had grabbed onto me and I flew back through the hole, weapons extending and hitting nothing but furniture. Flying to Newter I dropped them with the first two, Kaiser reaching the third floor and having Menja bust the door down, breaking the spear that had grown out of it that was holding it shut.

As he looked in the room I'd evacuated, an ugly expression stole across his face, deepening when he looked in the room he'd speared from below and seeing the bullet wounds from the snipers in the skewered ABB. "Stay here, stay quiet," I told the frightened people I'd pulled out, flying down to the front I waited as Kaiser stalked out.

"Where are the prisoners?" he demanded, twins flanking him.

I looked back at him, wearing a smile as a mask. "Secure."

"I'll be the judge of that," he sneered.

"No, you won't," I pleasantly reposted, minutely turning my head to look down an empty alley down the street.

He waved a hand and the wall of the alley rippled, blades filling it. I snapped my head back to glare at him, my stance hostile. "There, best to make a clean sweep of the filth," he told me, a vicious smile in his voice. After a moment, where he seemed to be waiting for me to do something, he snorted in disgust, "You should've known better than to go against your betters." With that he sauntered off with his minions.

Golem stood next to Taylor, the two of them watching as he turned the corner and walked off. The insect I'd tagged him with kept moving, picking up his comment of "See my dears, the poor fool was powerless to stop my might," the two of them tittering in obviously practiced unison.

Rolling my eyes I flew back to the correct alley, carrying the people I'd captured down while Taylor gave Sundancer the all clear. After my third trip the snipers waved at me, and I brought them down as well. They gave me a nod of thanks and headed off, not saying anything while they were still in my insect's range. Bringing down everyone I looked at the two incapacitated members. "Newter, how long will they stay out?"

He shrugged, "I don't know, an hour? I got 'em pretty good." The young man gave me a chagrined grin.

I waved him off, reassuring, "Don't worry about it, you did what I asked." Turning to the group I inquired, "Is there anything you could tell us, other locations, where Bakuda's lab is, Lung's next target, things like that?"

A couple of them gave up addresses, all but one of which I already had, but thanked them for anyway. Not really knowing what to do with them, I called up Tattletale. "R Pea," I told her, giving her the all clear through the cypher she'd come up with.

"How? Ugh, never mind. L Kiwano. What do you want?" was her annoyed response.

"Outside or inside?" I asked, wondering if she needed help.

"Inside. What do you want?" she growled.

"So, I've got some prisoners, and I'm not really sure what to do with them. Do I call the PRT or the cops, because I'm not the biggest fan of either in this city, and I'm not sure who's supposed to handle them."

"PRT, because of the bombs. Obviously," was her biting reply. "Is that it?"

"Pretty much," I smiled. "How did things go on your end?"

There was the sound of a rifle firing. "Still going. You?"

"Just wrapping up. I'll leave you to it," I told her, hanging up. The insects inside had found the stores of cash, along with the weapons and ammo that were still intact and were carrying them all out into a pile in front of us. The three villains watched the materials flow out, Newter grinning as the cache grew.

Turning to those that had surrendered, I grabbed a phone from one of the blissed-out gunmen. "Call the PRT, have them come get you. They'll be able to take the bombs out of you before Lung realizes you're alive and detonates them in retaliation, assuming he even has that capability." The fact that we'd had a full assault without a single one of them blowing suggested he didn't.

Once I'd gotten everything out, I had Taylor divide the cash up five ways while I motioned towards the weaponry. "Spoils of war, people. if you want anything, go for it. Just don't grab explosives if you don't know how to use them." Newter smiled, claiming a shotgun, while Sundancer took a pistol. Golem looked at the light machine gun they'd had packed away, looking to me for permission. I nodded and pressed his hand to it, fleshy tentacles reaching out and pulling it into his palm.

"No, man," I said, and he started to put it back. "Put it on the top of your forearm." He stopped extruding the gun, shifting it instead. He moved it so the top of it was sticking out, barrel pointing down his arm. "Exactly, that way the hot spent shells won't get stuck and you can still punch things!"

He nodded slowly. "Huh, never thought of that." Grabbing a box of ammo for it, he pressed it into the bottom of the arm, disappearing into the rusted steel. His metallic face frowned in concentration as thin vein-like tentacles moved over the top of the weapon, threading the belt of ammo into the feed. When I he stepped back I rolled my eyes and tossed him the other six boxes of ammo which quickly disappeared into him.

Taylor finished, grabbing a box of ammo as I directed her insects each give us a bundle of cash bound by spider silk. "And this is our bonus for a job well done and not walking away like a complete asshole. It's almost lunch, you guys want me to get us some food and talk tactics for next time? This was pretty touch and go, and I don't want things to get as risky as they did today."

"I'm not sure," Sundancer hedged.

"Do you have somewhere you need to be?" I challenged. "We're doing this again tomorrow, as we have more locations, and we need to figure out synergies. Kaiser Soze and his arm candy will do their own thing, and the Snipers are opportunists, but we could figure something out that will let us stop problems before they become problems. Besides, I'm buying."

"Well, if you're buying, I'm in!" Newter laughed, shoving his bundle of cash in his pocket along with a box of shells as he slung the shotgun across his back. Sundancer sighed, nodding as well.

 

[Leecifer]

Outreach 6.6

Having taken everyone's orders for Fugly Bob's and gathered the unclaimed loot, I took off, leaving Sundancer, Newter, Golem, and Taylor behind to make their way to the place Taylor and I had trained. Dropping the assorted weaponry off back at base, I got everyone lunch, along with a bag of supplies, and landed in the trainyard only a few minutes before everyone showed up. Putting down my Tinkertech looking jar, and flicking the switch, I dropped a sound bubble and waited. As they walked around a train car and saw me sitting there on my phone, food laid out on a table, Sundancer and Golem, formerly Mush, froze.

I looked up, having seen them through the insects, and waved. "Come on, before it gets cold."

"Um," Sundancer said, motioning to her helmet. "I can't eat without unmasking." I motioned for her to come closer, taking out one of the items I'd extruded from my costume out of the bag I'd brought. I passed it to her, a masquerade mask, black with a red sun corona all around the outside edge. I tossed Taylor one as well, this one red with black spots. "Really?" the Traveller asked. I shrugged grinning.

"Just walk out of sight and change Sundancer. You're a white girl with blonde hair and blue eyes, but not stupid enough to think that means something special. There, everything that would have been revealed already is. Now come on, your food's getting cold, and cold burgers are just kinda meh."

She stood stock still staring at me.

"I do research on everyone. You're not the only one far from home, but important secrets should not easily be revealed. Now go change so you can eat," I directed, her stomach growled, and she slowly walked behind a train car to change.

Watching her through the bugs, I saw her start to lift off her helmet and stopped paying close attention, happy that she wasn't just going to leave. Instead I focused on Golem, who was looking at the folding chair in trepidation. "Just drop the metal off to the side, you can pick it back up before you leave if you want to." He did so, reverting to man-goblin form, looking unhappy about it. "Question: when you're all armored up, can you still eat and everything?"

He shrugged. "Um, Maybe. I don't know. Never tried."

"Well, if you don't like how you look, grab some of the gravel and make a body you like more," I suggested.

He immediately did so, forming a body similar in size to mine, sitting down and opening the box with his name on it, looking at the burger. "You actually got me a Challenger," he observed, staring at the novelty-sized burger, stunned.

I shrugged. "You said you wanted one."

"This isn't your handwriting," Taylor observed as Golem stared at his meal. "Did you actually order for us by our cape names?"

"Yes?" I asked, not really seeing the problem.

She sighed into her hands, "What if someone did something to it because they're villains?" she asked.

"I didn't order Kaiser one. Sundancer is new here, so no worries there," I stated, nodding to the girl in question as she walked back. "People like Newter, plus I think he's immune to poisons and stuff because he's a 53. I'm a hero, you're a hero, and I ordered the last one for Golem, not Mush, and I'm pretty sure he's immune to all that stuff too. There's no problem here. Go get changed so you can join us for lunch Lady Bug." She nodded at my words, heading off to switch out her helmet for a mask.

Eating in companionable silence, it was easy to forget I was breaking bread with people that, if things went really bad, I may one day need to kill. As they were right now, they were weak enough I'd never be pressed that far, but it was a cruel irony that, to keep them alive through this, I was going to train them to make them dangerous enough that I might be forced to remove them if things got bad enough.

Finishing up, putting my leftovers off to the side because that burger was ridiculously large, I walked over to the area I'd cleared, everyone else looking at me from their seats. "So, power optimization, contingency planning, and maximum survivability in a full combat scenario. Which do you guys want me to start with?"

Newter raised his hand, "I'm for surviving!"

Getting nods from the rest, I took a teaching pose. "Okay, so, versus street level thugs you have to worry about four attack types from three different vectors. You have close quarters, where you have to worry about blunt force trauma; from fists, baseball bats, hammers, and other bludgeoning weapons. Slashing weapons, which are mostly knives, and piercing from guns."

"You're talking about this like it's a video game," Sundancer commented, frowning and crossing her arms.

"Most games need conflict and competition, and thus pull from real combat. Art imitating life doesn't make it any less true," I countered. "There's long range, which is mostly guns, from pistols to rifles with shotguns and apparently machine guns in the mix. Luckily we're not dealing with bows, so th-"

"Why is that a good thing?" Newter interrupted. "Wouldn't that make things easier?"

"Arrows are quiet flying knives. What blocks bullets might not work on arrows and vice versa. That's why it's luckily, it narrows down the things you have to worry about defending against." I paused, "Though the nickel nazi seems to be pretty free with friendly fire, but you should be able to see that coming. Either way, third vector of attack would be area of effect weapons, which seems to be limited to grenades, but we can't trust that's all we'll find. On the bright side The Lady, Bug is the best trap-spotter you could ask for. Golem," I called causing him to jump. "The only one you might need to worry about is grenades when you're armored up. You found that when you were taking on that entire squad single-handed, right?"

The Merchant looked down, nodding to himself, the barest of grins on his pebbly features. "I did, didn't I?"

I nodded, "You did. I'm not sure how the overpressure from a grenade will affect you, but if you pull the pieces tight, you should be fine. Your weakness will probably be energy dama-"

"Seriously?" Sundancer snarked. "Are you actually gonna talk about it that way?"

"Like you have room to talk Miss 'I have fire immunity'!" I shot back.

She frowned. "I don't, I just don't get burned by my own suns."

I sighed, Seeing her secondary power which did both. "Why doesn't anyone in this dimension use fucking science!" I groaned into my hands.

"What was that?" she asked angrily, while Taylor frowned and Newter laughed at the byplay. Golem was off in his own world.

"I said 'Did you ever test that'?" I 'repeated'.

Sundancer looked at me like I was stupid. "How would I test that? By getting burned? I'm not going to do that!"

I walked towards her, taking my lighter out of its pouch. "You don't have to burn yourself." I flicked it on, putting my hand high over the flame, lowering it until I got the 'this is enough to hurt, but you have powers' sensation extreme heat gave and yanked it away. "Just to the point where it starts to hurt. Also, I'm a healer. You'd be fine in a second even if you did burn yourself." Flicking it off, I tossed it to her.

She caught it, looking at it warily. "You'll heal me?" I nodded. She took off her glove, flicking the lighter on after the third try. Hesitating, she slowly put her hand two feet above the flame, lowering slowly, her look of apprehension growing as her bare palm got closer and closer to the flame. Her expression gradually shifted from wariness, to confusion, to wonder as she placed her skin directly in the fire, flames playing between her fingers, and nothing happened. As I watched her do this, playing with the fire, my own power reached out, carefully, almost tenderly, wrapping the aura of her power with my own, but as she pulled her hand away it dissipated into nothing.

She looked up at me, then blinked, as if surprised by what she was seeing, "What?"

I shook myself, wondering what the heck was happening with my own power. "So I was right," I responded smugly.

Sundancer tossed the lighter back, pouting, "No need to be an ass about it."

I caught it, smiling. "Sorry, didn't mean to come across that way." Taylor was looking between us, frowning. I had no idea why, so I got back on topic. "Right so, Golem. Golem!" He looked up at me. "Physical damage you can take pretty well, but things like heat, cold, and lightning damage might hurt you."

Sundancer just shook her head.

"It'll probably be effected by whatever your armor is made of," I continued, "For instance, if you sucker-punched Lung after he'd lit himself up while covered in steel, you'd probably have a bad time as the heat would conduct. But stone? You'd probably be okay for bit. Got that?"

He nodded, then caught himself. "Me? Fight Lung?" he questioned, unsure, but with an odd sort of hope.

"Not for any length of time," I warned. "Once he gets strong enough to break your armor or start breathing fire, you'd lose, but at the start of the fight as a one-and-run? I don't see why not," I proposed.

He was off in his own little world again, so I turned to Newter. "Are you tough versus anything? Blows, cuts, bullets?"

He shrugged, smiling at the show I was putting on, taking a sip of the soda he was holding with his tail. "A bit of all of the above, but not by a lot. Once I've dried out I'd probably burn, unlike Ms. Sunday."

"It's Sundancer," she asserted, glaring at him.

"Okay, hot stuff," he winked, smiling when she started growling at him.

I considered what I should do. Making the masks I'd started to feel like I was getting close to the limit on how many things my costume could make, but I should be good for two more full sets, maybe three, but I'd have to check a few things first. "Children, behave," I chided. "Newter, you don't wear armor because you use your own sweat as a weapon, right?"

"Yeah, I'm so awesome even my sweat is useful!" he boasted.

"More like slime," Sundancer murmured. Newter pretended not to hear her.

"Okay, Sundancer, your costume, what is it made of?" I probed.

She deflected, "That's kind of personal."

"So, leather with a thin cloth underlayer, right?" From her reaction I was spot on. "So, minor blunt, little slashing, and almost no piercing protection," I sighed. "I can go talk to some of my people to see if I can get something for both of you. It'll only last a couple weeks at max, but it's the same stuff I use. Can't be cut or pierced short of Tinker bullshit and I'll see if I can work in some bludgeoning protection. And also check if she can make something that lets your... fluids through Newter."

"I'm not gonna say no to free stuff, but why?" Newter asked. "You just met us."

"We're on the same team and you guys don't seem like Villains," I replied. As he opened his mouth I clarified, "You don't seem evil, or even generally dickish. I don't really know you, which is why the stuff I'll give you has a time limit, but yeah, I'm a Hero. I take care of my teammates, even if it's just temporary."

The orange man shrugged, "Whatever floats your boat, bro. I've made more today than I have in, like, a month."

"So, that covers survivability," I stated, starting to pace again, "moving on t-"

"What about the bug babe?" the Case-53 asked, jerking a thumb towards Taylor, who shrank under the attention.

"We've already had this discussion, since she's on my team. My real team," I amended

Sundancer looked over at her confused, "I thought you were with the Undersiders?"

"I am!" Taylor protested.

"How does that work?" Newter frowned.

"She doesn't do anything evil, and if she robs the occasional bank, allegedly, then as long as it can't be proven I don't care," I supplied.

"You sure you're a hero?" he asked incredulously. "'cause that sounds pretty not-heroic."

Rolling my eyes at the increasingly familiar question, I dragged the conversation onwards. "Yes. Next thing, power optimization. Newter, you've volunteered. You're generally tougher, climb up walls, have a tail, and hallucinogenic bodily fluids. That it?"

"Pretty much," he nodded, tapping a claw against his chin.

"How sharp are those?" I asked, pointing at said claws.

He waved, "They're good for if I don't have a fork, but that's it."

"Can you make fluids on demand?" I pressed.

"Can't everyone?"

I rolled my eyes. "You know what I mean. If you're like, 'I need to spit a lot', can you keep doing it?"

He shrugged. "Yes? I'm a Case 53 man, I don't have anything to compare to."

"Well, that's a bust," I remarked. "Costume colors? And any design requests?"

"Black and red!" he declared. "What? They're good colors!" he defended at the Traveller's accusatory glare.

"Sundancer," I called, getting her attention. "I'm assuming you want black and red as well?"

She gave him another glare before nodding, primly stating, "Yes, please."

"Will do. So, strategy. If Lung shows up, run, but cover each other. Golem, if you can hit him hard and fast, do so, but I'd rather have you safe then him punched. Newter, he burns out poisons pretty quickly, but they can be useful, just ask The Lady, Bug."

He turned to give her a considering look, "You took on tall mad and scaly?"

"Alone," I added, getting a quick glare from her, as I talked the girl up. "And she won."

"I had help!" she objected.

"By help she means one of Bitch's dogs knocked him down for twenty seconds to let him succumb to enough poisons to kill a herd of elephants, getting the dosage just right to put him down without doing so permanently," I explained to her continued annoyance. "I was all ready to step in, but I never needed to."

Now all three Villains were looking at her with respect. "And you had her scouting?" Newter asked, looking at me as if he doubted my sanity.

"When she gets going, she fights less like your normal cape, and more like a biblical plague. Kaiser wanted to take point and would've pitched a fit like a tired toddler if she upstaged him that easily," I commented calmly, which did nothing for her blush. "That being said, Golem, if Lung shows up he'll go straight for her, since she's the reason he was in PRT custody in the first place. I need you to get her to safety and protect her. She has a lot more range than he does, but doesn't have your toughness. Will you do that?"

"Are you sure I can?" the Merchant asked doubtfully.

"I wouldn't ask if I didn't think you could."

He took a breath, nodding slowly. "I'll try."

"Not good enough. You will or you won't. Pick one," I rebuked sternly.

He visible steeled himself, "I will." He looked up at me, taken aback at my smile and thumbs up.

"So, Lung shows up, Golem might punch him but will protect The Lady, Bug. Newter, if you can, slime him, if not get to safety. Kaiser will be doing his own thing, so just don't get in his way. Sundancer, you and I will take him on." She looked at me incredulously. "His heat protection ramps up as he does," I told her, remembering her hurting him with one of her suns in canon. "As such, you can lay down more heat than he can handle. I'll handle the physical side, using hit and run to keep him occupied and from charging you. We don't need to beat him, we only need to hold him long enough for our reinforcements to show up. Break might not look it, but he could take Lung, and with Purity, you, and I supporting him, even if he goes full Rage Dragon, we can still put him down."

"What about Oni Lee?" Taylor asked, looking at me in concern.

"Less straightforward, just as doable," I replied without hesitation. "In this case, Lady Bug, Golem, your roles are reversed. We'll both swarm him, and I think that as his gear travels with him, if we put ants in his pants, they'll move with him."

"So they move with him, what about it?" Sundancer asked, "They're still just bugs."

I laughed, "Spoken like someone who's never fought The Swarm, though most people can't just make the most overpowered bug-zapper in existence. The important part is that we can sense the insects around us in three dimensions. Lady Bug, if you'd take out your firearm."

She did so, holding it a little awkwardly. I grabbed my empty soda bottle, directing six insects to sit inside it in a line. Sundancer looked unimpressed by the weapon and Taylor's obvious inexperience with it. "The Lady, Bug, six rounds rapid as it drops, if you will." I spelled out 'shoot it six times after it starts to fall' with insects so she would understand.

Casually tossing it in the air, she stared at it with laser intensity, gun held loosely, pointing down at the table. As soon as it started to fall the gun snapped up and she shot it again, and again, and again, until every insect inside it was dead and the shredded remains fell to the ground.

Newter let out a low whistle, "How much did you guys practice that?"

I smirked, "We didn't." I considered telling them that this was probably the first time she'd even fired a gun, but that would've been too much for the anthropomorphic newt and the girl who casually created stars to believe.

"So, Oni Lee, as I'm sure we've all seen, goes for sudden overwhelming firepower. Golem could probably tank his knife, uzi, and frag grenade, but the fire, cold, and lightning grenades would mess him up. As such if we can tag Oni Lee, then The Lady, Bug can snipe him as soon as he gets close, and even if it's already just a clone by the time the bullet hits, he'll die before he can do anything. Newter, you have no defenses against him, so lay low or get to Lady Bug. Sundancer, make a star immediately. He has no protection against fire, and if he can't get close, he can't bomb you. Kaiser will do. . . whatever Kaiser thinks will help himself, and while he's failing completely I'll harry the ninja while we set him up to get sniped by the Lady."

I shook my head, "Fighting Oni Lee is like playing Rocket Tag: all it takes is a single good hit to win, but he can do the same thing to you. We'll fight to drive him off, but if we take him out, awesome. Priority one though will be making sure he doesn't kill us. So, sound like a plan?"

I got a round of nods, Newter mock complaining, "But in all your plans I don't get to work with the hottie!"

I sighed as Sundancer looked like she was trying to set Newter on fire with the power of her mind alone. Without her shard, to be specific, as I realized I had to be.

"So! Figuring out powers!" I announced, standing up. "Sundancer, I can probably do more with yours then I could the walking drug factory. Come over here so you don't melt the man," she hesitated. "Or so you don't melt, The Lady, Bug, who hasn't been hitting on you."

That got her walking over, Newter whining, "Come on man, don't be like that."

I shook my head. "Dude, you need to find a woman who's immune to your power, or even if you could get in her pants, you're likely to overdose the poor girl."

Both female's faces screwed up in disgust as he thought, nodding sadly. "Damn, never thought about that. That blows."

"Sorry," I shrugged, walking a good fifty away from the rest of them. I turned to face Sundancer, who had followed me, stepping back a couple dozen feet. "Go for it, nothing big, any idea we want to try we need to do so on a small scale first." After a moment's hesitation, she nodded, putting her hands together, forming a golf-ball sized star.

I could feel the temperature spike intellectually but wasn't bothered by it as my own Immunity kept me comfortable. My own power once again extended and wrapped around hers, not pulling a bit of it off like it did when I copied a power. It was almost as if it was trying to get the shape of it, similar in manner to Tattletale's when she was trying to get around my Blindspot ability.

Focusing on the task at hand I asked, "Do you have to do that to create a sun?"

"Huh?" she asked, confused. "What do you mean?

"Every time you make one you clasp your hands together. Is that something you have to do or just something you've just started doing?" I inquired.

"Um, I'm not sure," she admitted. I waved for her to try again and she started to clasp her hands again.

"No, try it one handed," I insisted. She closed her hand and when it opened she held a tiny star in her palm which she moved up to join the first. "Now with an open hand." She gave me a questioning look, before looking down at her hand. Her aura pulsed, gathering at into a single point before seeming to spark into another sun.

I walked closer without meaning to, my power having almost completely surrounded her, but I looked past that at the stars she made, trying to figure out exactly how it worked. She focused on her hand, doing it again and again, levitating the burning motes up, each new, tiny star forming on a different part of her hand to float up and away before she tried again. As she continued she formed each one faster and grew them more quickly as well from spark to a softball sized sphere. As she formed one on her pinky she looked up, startled. "What the hell!" she practically yelped.

"I know, right?" I asked, considering all of the implications of what I was seeing. In canon Sundancer creating or moving a sun always seemed slow and ponderous, but like everyone else in this stupid place it looked like she'd only used her powers when she had to and never experimented. She killed Echidna, but if I remembered the story she only could because they had it trapped. If she could learn to do so faster, the speed not being dictated by a preset within her dead shard but her own skill? This definitely had possibilities.

Possibilities on the scale of an Endbringer!

"No! How are you so close!?" she demanded.

I looked up at her, my own face only a foot away from hers, broken from my thoughts by her panicked tone. I took a half step back, apologizing, "Oh, sorry, was I in your personal space? Sorry. I get focused sometimes."

"NO!" she cried. "You..." and words failed her so just pointed at me. Well, not me, but right beside me.

Looking over I realized I was standing in her impromptu constellation of over two dozen orange sized stars, something in the back of my head informing me that I should have ashed by this point if I didn't have Immunity, now that I was paying attention. I also noted that I had been unconsciously floating over the bubbling rock below me as I 'walked'. "Oh, right. That." I went to go rub the back of my head, elbowing one of the suns accidently and finding it somewhat solid.

Screw it.

I casually leaned on a star. "You're not the only one with fire immunity. Why do you think I knew how to test for it?" I quipped.

Reaching over I pushed on one of them, moving it out of my way with a bit of effort. "So. You can make them in different places, and you were getting faster. That's interesting."

"No! you don't get to just, I don't know, push a sun like it's no big deal!" she fumed.

"It's a small sun, practically minuscule," I dismissed, trying not to smile. "Not even a stellar phenomena, more like an astral peculiarity."

"Not the point!"

Looking over at the other three, Newter was grinning as he watched this, Taylor looked interested, but not really surprised, and Golem was staring at me with wide eyes. Checking the bug sense Taylor was dumping her panic, concern, and frustration oddly enough. "There's a reason I lead my team," I replied enigmatically.

The girl in front of me lifted her hands in an aborted strangling gesture. "I am so done with today. Do you have any more revelations on the power that I've had for years?" Sundancer entreated, lifting her arms more to rest her head in her hands.

I paused in thought, "Well-"

"I WAS BEING SARCASTIC!"

Looking at her I gave a 'sorry' shrug. The girl let out something between a sob and a laugh, prompting, "Fine, lay it on me."

"Well," I said slowly, "why do you only make spheres?"

"Because suns are spheres?" she enunciated with severe annoyance, looking at me as if I was being stupid.

"And?"

She growled, "And what?"

I shrugged, "What does that have to do with my question?"

She extended her palms upwards, fingers slightly curled in the universal sign of 'how can someone so stupid exist?' "My name is Sundancer. I make Suns."

"Says who?" The other three were looking back and forth between us like watching a tennis match.

The Cape held out one hand, created a cue ball sized star and pointed at it. "I do!"

"So you just made it up," I nodded sagely.

"ARGH! Did someone else name you Vejovis?" she demanded.

"No, but I know what my powers are, by trying to do other things and failing. You've gone full confirmation bias, thinking the first thing you did was the only thing you could. You can make stars right? Have you tried other stellar phenomena, like a black hole?"

She looked down at her palm, frowning, and her power started to flare and invert. I had a moment of complete panic as I launched myself forward, slapping her hand down and breaking her concentration. "ARE YOU HIGH!? YOU DON'T CREATE A BLACK HOLE IN YOUR HAND IF YOU WANT TO KEEP THAT HAND!"

She looked hurt, "But, you just said-"

"We are surrounded by stars. Grab one of the tiny ones, push it up as high as you can, then try to invert that!"

She froze, slowly nodding. "That's probably safer." I manfully resisted the urge to shout No Shit Sherlock! watching instead as she lifted it high above us before concentrating on it. Her power flared, inverting, but nothing happened. She shook her head, observing, "I can't, maybe if it were bigger?"

"Hell no," was my immediate command. "I don't know the exact compression rate, but if it was pinprick size you could probably control it before it got out bad. Is that the edge of your range?" she shook her head. "Keep pushing it up until you hit the edge and expand it to bowling ball sized, that should be still in the safety zone. If the black hole is too big, and you're not immune to its power, it will instantly kill you." As well as everyone in the city. She paled, staring up at the distant light.

"I think that's as far as I can get it," she announced. "I still can't reverse it."

"Okay, now shrink it down to golfball sized and see if you can make it explode."

"What!?" was the cries from both her and Taylor.

I looked between the two of them. "If she can supernova them, that's a very powerful weapon, but that's why we're doing it at minimum size and maximum range." 'And I can use aerokinesis to shield us' I spelled out for my teammate.

Marissa frowned up at it, power once again flaring. It expanded in size, before shrinking and expanding once more. "I don't think I can."

"Then just dismiss it," I suggested, the distant faint light winking out of existence. "So it's not a true star, following those rules, unable to push them into other stellar phenomena. But back to my point. You only make spheres. Why not try a rod?"

There was a beat before Newter called, "That's what she said!" adding, "Ow!" when Taylor bounced a can off his head.

She sighed, "Okay, but this is the last thing I'm going to try."

I nodded, "Sure, today."

The Traveler gave me a death glare before looking down at her hand. I wanted to suggest she didn't need to start there, but I'd given my word. Another star sparked, this one growing to an inch in diameter before it started to bulge. It was slow going, but the top expanded out farther and farther, petering out as a four-foot-long cylinder. "And now you have a sword made from the sun itself," I informed her with a Cheshire grin. She immediately grabbed it, swinging it at me and smacking me in the arm, before dropping it in shock where it floated in place.

As she looked at it, my own power finished whatever the hell it had been doing for the past half hour, and pulled back with the power of Stellar Negation in its grip. I blinked as I realized I'd just copied not only her active power, but her passive one as well.

 

[Leecifer]

Outreach 6.7

I covered my shock fairly well, though I did get a spike of concern from Taylor.

I shouldn't be able to copy passive powers, they have no physical effect, I thought. Even Victor's thinker power had the physical effect of causing low-level brain damage. Could I get them if I just spent time watching them in use? If that's true then there's so much more I could do. If I watched a Tinker work, could I gain their ability? Dear god, the combos I could make. I could see Tattletale's ability trying to make sense of me, if I just watched her do her thing could I get that ability? That's practically cheating! I love it! I tended to use my Power Sight sparingly, the lightshow was generally distracting, and my shard warned me if I really needed it. Maybe I could-

"Vejovis?" Sundancer prompted, looking up at me in concern as I jumped. "You okay? You were staring at nothing for a couple minutes."

I shook myself, "Sorry, lost in thought, but I promised I wouldn't say anything else today, so I won't." Taking out my phone from a pouch in my costume, using Sundancer's passive power to keep the unshielded device from melting, I checked the time. "It's only two, but we're probably going to be doing this again tomorrow, so we should probably call it quits for today."

"The fighting or the training?" Newter called, well out of range of the field of small suns we stood in.

"Both," I replied, using my hand to move a thumb-sized celestial body aside to walk back to Taylor, Golem, and him. "Can you dismiss these?" I asked the star-creator, dropping my flight when I was over hot gravel instead of melted stone.

She did so, following me. The ground she'd been standing on was two perfect circles of gravel in a smooth puddle of melted stone, the stone cooling, darkening, and solidifying in circles right before she stepped on it. As soon as she stepped off the gravel she'd been on before it glowed before melting into lava. She must not realize she's doing it, I mused.

It was something to bring up later.

Turning to the rest of my team I continued, "Everyone should be long done by now, and I'll see what my precog can tell us about the locations we got, as well as any other she can rustle up. We should be at it tomorrow, even if the other teams are content to rest on their laurels, though that's doubtful. Villains are such prideful creatures after all," I smirked to them.

Newter looked like he was going to say something, but probably realized that doing so would just prove my point. "Will our duds be ready by then? Those things normally take a while if they're more than a mask."

"Powers defy common supposition, which might be why parahumans act like they do half the time. Actually, that's a thought. Is it the wizard paradox? Oh well, discussion for another day," I shrugged, "See you all tomorrow. I'll send you all the location, be there at ten-thirty so we can get you outfitted before we start."

They nodded to me, Taylor hesitating. 'Can I stay?' she spelled, relaxing when I nodded. She settled back into her chair, and Golem looked between me and the pile of rusted metal, his weapon poking out.

He sighed, starting to get up and walk away before I called, "Golem, aren't you taking your armor and weapon with you?" He looked surprised, before heading over, assembling himself into his iron golem shape, gun back on his arm before stomping off east towards Merchant territory.

Taylor started to say something, but I held up a hand. Newter had doubled back and was watching us. "Something you want?" I called in his general direction.

He scurried back, moving on all fours surprisingly fast, coming within spitting distance to us. Glancing over at Taylor, he stood up, looking at me, before shaking his head and smiling. "You can spot me too? Yeah, thought so. You trust her?" he asked, jerking a thumb towards my teammate.

"With my life," I responded instantly, not even needing to think about it. "Why?"

He nodded, satisfied with the answer. "You didn't hear it from me, but Coil told boss-lady he'd give us, or anyone else, a bonus if we offed you, Break, or Æonic. She didn't say no, because he seemed like he'd get all 'how dare you turn down my offer' and we aren't gonna, but I thought you should know."

Not entirely unexpected, as we're completely new and upsetting his plans, but I didn't think he'd be that aggressive about it this early. "Thank you," I told him, considering. "I appreciate it. In return, when this all calms down, ask your boss to set up a time I can come by and talk. I've been researching powers, and I have some intel she might find interesting." His eyes widened as I grabbed insects to form the Cauldron symbol in the air.

"Fuck, really?" he swore. I gave a single sharp nod and he grinned. "Glad I did this then, see ya Vejy, Bug Babe!" He scampered away quickly, making a bee-line (newt-line?) for Faultline's club.

"Do you really?" Taylor asked, interested.

I nodded. "Yeah, but because I'm a blind spot to Precognition, I can talk about it, but you couldn't without them noticing. The people that are responsible for it have an omniscient cape and a powerful precog on staff, which is how they've stayed hidden the past few decades." I stretched, getting ready to move onto my next project, looking over to ask Taylor her opinion on what to start with only to see her staring at me. "What?"

"The Illuminati is real?" she demanded, before her eyes went wide and she clapped a hand over her mouth, looking around.

"Essentially yes? Not really Illiminati. They're not that... competent? Well-staffed? Coherent? But they won't care as long as you don't mention their actual name, so let's just call them the... Cape-inati." She gave me a look of exasperation. "What?" I asked, "The stupider the name, the better in this case."

I waved a hand in negation at her worries, "Don't worry about them. Herb does some jobs for them occasionally, and they're trying to do the right thing, they've just got the combined creativity and long-term planning ability of a kumquat. We'll talk about it later, right now I want your help designing costumes for Newter and Marissa."

"Who?" she asked, still struggling with what I'd just said.

"Newter and Sundancer."

"Did you just... ugh," she groaned as she started to pull her emotions out of the swarm. Her shoulders slumped and she leaned against the table. "How can you handle this?" she inquired, sounding more tired than anything else.

I blinked. "Handle what?"

"This! Fighting! Killing people! People trying to kill you! Working with that bastard! Everything!" she cried out hands raised in frustrated anger.

I sighed, sending feelings of comfort over to her. "Fighting is something I've always been good at," I disclosed, chuckling. "For a bit I was convinced that I was evil, for that and a whole bunch of other reasons, but that's not the point. I got into so many fights in high school it wasn't even funny. Never started a single one, but you know when two kids go at it, or a group goes after someone, and everyone just stands and watches?"

She gave me an angry nod, having been the target of just that.

"I didn't," I told her. "Never did. Got into so much trouble for interfering and not letting that shit just go. For not letting the 'proper authorities' take care of it, even when they were blatantly not doing that. It got to the point that I studied a bit of law, I started pointing out legal precedents for my actions, and, like magic, the administration no longer had an interest in steamrolling me."

"One time in high school, these two girls got into it in the cafeteria before school, which is where I'd hang out. They were pretty equally matched and started fighting. As long as people are matched, I honestly don't care, as half the time fighting it out makes things better for people, especially teenage boys. This was like that, until one got the other on the ground and started slamming her head into the floor. Everyone was just watching, but I got up and pulled her off before she could get more than another couple hits in. She then tried to scratch my eyes out, but she was frenzied, and I had technique, so I had her hands secured behind her back and sent someone to get a nurse while I marched her down to the principal."

"The psychopathic bitch was screaming rape most of the way there, and if I'd not been as big as I was, or had my rep, I probably would've gotten attacked by some white knight because of it, and she would've gotten away to lay down her narrative first," I remarked. "You know how bad that can be Taylor. Also, you need to remember that no one wants to believe they're the bad guy, so the people who attacked me would've backed almost anything she'd said to justify their own violence, no matter how stupid it was." I shook my head. It'd taken me a while to understand all of that, and it wasn't a fun experience learning it all.

"We got there, and she made up this huge story about how I beat the girl she'd beaten unconscious and was dragging the bitch off after promising to rape her. Worst part is, at first, they still believed her. However, it was her word versus her victim, when she regained consciousness, myself, which only had weight because of all the times I'd stopped fights before, and a couple of other kids who stepped forward. The other thirty in that caf refused to say anything and got pissed at me when I named them as being there, dragging them into it, and only then admitted to seeing it. I'm well aware that if I hadn't established a track record of handling things aboveboard, and if the others hadn't spoken up, I would have been screwed."

I'd dodged a bullet there and it was one of the steps on the path that led me to understand just how many people refused to do their job, and how such corruption compounded. Standing up like that was risky, and I knew that every-time I did it, there was a chance it'd ruin my life because evil people needed to think of themselves as good, and would attack anything that provided evidence to the contrary.

"Day to day life stuff, I worry and second guess myself something fierce. Social shit, if I don't have a plan in place, I'm not that great at. But direct conflict? Then I stop caring about what ifs like that. I still feel fear, but it didn't stop me then, and doesn't stop me now. It's why I can't stand people that do nothing. That's why I handle things like this well. Because I have to," I sighed.

"People trying to kill me? That sucks, but I refuse to do nothing. Killing people? I'm not gunning down innocents Taylor, I'm killing people who would gun down innocents, or worse. It's only those that are conditioned to emotionally react instead of thinking that can't tell the difference between a person defending themselves from a murderer, and the murderer. Working with Kaiser? It'll let me save more people, but with the things he's done, after things calm down, and if he's still alive, I'll try to bring him to justice myself. If that's not possible, I'll kill him. I don't want to, but I will, but that's months away."

She looked at me, not exactly fearful, but full of trepidation, and I smiled to try to break the social ice that'd seemed to form between us. "In the meantime, I can do small things that completely undercut him to help negate the aggravation of working with such an unmitigated douchenozzle. Do you know Kaiser's power?"

"He makes blades," she hazarded, not seeing where I was going. I held my hand over the folding table and lifted it, one of the stylized knives I'd made for Aisha lifting up blade first from the rippling plastic surface. "No way," she breathed, smiling. "That's just, the best."

I finished pulling it up, breaking the thin wire extending from the pommel into the table as it finished, offering it to her, handle first. "She'll probably have lost one by this point," I observed. "Here's a replacement."

Leaning back, I sighed. "I don't like hurting people Taylor, and if I didn't need to fight anyone, I'd be a lot happier. So, let's work on something better instead of brooding over it. Kaiser's power isn't blade creation, it's metal creation. Golem's power lets him take material and build a body out of it, and he was doing okay with scrap, but can you imagine how effective he'd be if he had purpose-built armor?"

I extruded a small iron golem figurine out of the table, tossing it over to her, smiling. The corner of her mouth quirked as she looked down at the model, and slowly nodded.

"I've got some ideas," she admitted, a grin spreading over her features.

<AB>​

It took us until the sun was starting to set, but we, and by we I mostly mean Taylor, had designed new costumes for the rest of our team. She accepted my explanation of why I hadn't made her a new costume fairly easily, though she did reaffirm that I'd get her a costume from Parian. The lack of limitations on materials let her design some pretty out-there suits for the Villains as I utilized hardened air constructs as mannequins. As we finished and were putting the costumes away, she stopped, looking at me. "Did you copy their powers?"

"Whose powers?"

"Everyone's powers. Or, everyone on the team."

"Well," I coughed into my hand, pulling on the twin's powers to grow to eight feet tall. "Mostly."

She grinned for a moment before tilting her head to the side. "Not Newter's? Is it because he's a Case 53?"

"Yes, but not because of that. Faultline's crew don't seem to be actual Villains, and I try not to copy the powers from Heroes if I don't need to. Copying yours lets me support you, and while I have more power, you have far more skill." I ignored her blush as I considered, "Not sure if I'd copy Netwer's form, or just the effects on my fluids. I need a physical effect to copy powers, so I'm pretty sure I can't do Thinkers or Tinkers, but a lot of things are up in the air. Master's and Strangers are pretty hit or miss. Glory Girl's weird fear/awe aura isn't something I could grab, not that I'd want to, but when Regent tried to mess with me I picked it up for my own."

"So you could?" she gestured to herself, then lifted her arms, as if she were a puppet on strings.

"Would you like me to?" I retorted.

She immediately gave a slightly panicked "No!"

I held my hands up in a 'there you go' gesture. "Then I won't, it's not a power that I wanted, nor one that I'm going to use if I can help it."

She frowned, debating with herself. "If, if you need to, to practice, that's okay," she volunteered.

I shook my head. "No Taylor, it's a power I have, but not one I even want to consider getting used to. Powers that directly control people, either their minds or their bodies completely, it's not something that I approve of, nor is it something I want to be tempted with. Other powers however," I manifested a softball sized star in my hand, "I have no qualms with."

She looked at it, blinking. "It's... cold, and... purple?"

I smiled. "Nope, Sundancer has two powers, one to make the star, another to lessen the effects." My brain caught up to what she had said. "Wait, purple?"

Looking down at it I saw that instead of the reddish orange of the sun that I was expecting the star in my hand was indeed purple. Specifically, it had a blood red core with purple flames coming off it as it, I don't know, cooled? That wasn't how fire worked. It contrasted nicely at least. "Well... Shit."

"Is it supposed to be like that?" she asked cautiously, looking concerned.

I dismissed the oddly colored star, making another while focusing on creating Sundancer's sun, only to get another blood red and purple sun. The third through sixth attempts yielded similar results. "Not again," I moaned into my hand.

"Again?" she asked, yelping as I projected a pistol and tossed it at her. Looking between the coloring of the pistol in her hands and the sun hanging in front of me as I slumped on the table and groaned she asked. "Are those your favorite colors, and you're using those by accident?"

I shook my head. "Not really, it's the color of my power. For some reason it likes to use those when it can. For certain things I can't make it like the original, or else that would be green and black."

She looked down back at the pistol, eyes wide. "Is this Miss Militia's gun?"

I shrugged, head still buried in my hands, "My copy of it, but yeah." I shifted it to a revolver in her hands with a snap of my fingers, eliciting a sound of excitement.

Looking over at her with an eyebrow raised, she looked away. "Just never thought I'd get to touch it, even if it isn't really hers." Rolling my eyes, I tried another star with the colors reversed, which took a little effort, but was possible. It didn't seem to affect the usefulness of the ability, but felt a little odd for a reason I couldn't describe. "Wait," she called. "The color of your power? How do you know that? Can you see powers?"

Whups. "Yep, but it lets me unmask anyone in their civilian identity, so I don't exactly advertise it," I admitted.

She paused, nodding to herself, before shaking her head and asking the question I assumed was next. "What do my powers look like?"

"Grey and yellow," I replied, and she looked incredibly disappointed. "Listen, I'm not sure why certain powers have certain colors. Trickster's was eggplant purple and seafoam, what does that have to do with transpositioning? Yours is the color of chitin, along with a wasp yellow. Hints at your insect-based power with a bit of an understated danger display. It looks nice," I reassured her, not sure why I had to, trying to find something to distract her.

Powers, something about powers. "So Sundancer's second power," I started, manifesting a sun and pushing it ten feet away and growing it to beachball size. "It lets me protect things from heat and radiation, and has a range of five feet, try throwing this." I grabbed one of her scrapped designs for Golem's new armor, balling up the paper and passing it to her. She looked at it considering, before tossing it at the star. As soon as it left the range of my power a few feet away from the sun it burst into flames, the ash blowing away before it hit the ground.

"Oh," she commented, eyeing the 'safe' distance around me. "Good to know, you had ideas for it?"

I started to respond, before I checked my phone. "We can work on power testing for two hours, but after that you need to go home and I need to go have dinner with Panacea. Without me there to assist she's probably stressed by the increased workload healing people."

She shrugged, "I could come."

I raised an eyebrow. "Wouldn't your dad worry if you didn't come home until after midnight?"

"I'd say I was sleeping over at my friend's house," was her defense.

It would let me leverage her creativity for power use, I considered. And it might help her and Panacea get to know each other. Taylor really needs friends her age. Non-Villain friends, I amended. "I'll ask her," I told Taylor, to her annoyance. "I'd ask you if she wanted to be here for your training, it's only fair." Texting Panacea I quickly got a response of 'I'd rather not.' Shaking my head, I told her, "Sorry, she says no. When you're not seen as a Villain the answer will probably change, or maybe we all could do something else. So, powers."

I waved for her to get up and follow me to the flat area of glassy black rock that had formed from Sundancer's experimentation. "Less things for me to worry about protecting," I explained as I pulled upon the Traveler's power.

Creating a star on a fingertip like Marissa had was step one, and I dismissed it to leave a clean area to work on. Flipping my hand over, I concentrated, forming one on the back of my hand instead.

"Is that what you were going to ask next?" Taylor questioned from beside me, watching intently.

I nodded, trying to make another one farther away from the back of my hand. It took a bit more effort but was doable. Clearing and trying to make a third even farther took even more concentration. The fourth, a foot away, was the hardest by far, and a fifth a foot and a half had me almost sweating in concentration.

Dismissing it, I sighed, sitting on hardened air to think, and gesturing for her to do so as well. "First data point, It feels like it gets harder to create the farther away it is from me."

She nodded, "Can you only make them from your hands?" Thinking about it I stick a leg out, creating one just above my toe, and making more in a line up my leg, with four circling my knee, before going up my thigh. "Um, Lee?" she asked, breaking me out of my concentration. Looking at her she motioned below me as the rock underneath my leg started to glow from the heat.

I dismissed the suns, using Marissa's power to cool the ground, which looked like a shimmering dark hole beneath us as the obsidian melted and reformed. Concentrating on the Stellar Negation I could feel it wrap around Taylor and I, letting everything else to be affected normally. "It's starting to get dark, and this will attract a lot of attention, so I want to try one last this with this power." I stood up, wanting to step back to keep her away from danger, but with Sundancer's power being used correctly, next to me was ironically the best place to be.

Creating the long shaft of star that Sundancer had, I concentrated further, giving it detail and shaping it into a scimitar of flame. "Wow," she breathed, looking at it intently, the weapon looking to be something made of pure magic. Wanting to show off a little, I folded it backwards on my arm, creating a segmented gauntlet incasing my limb in stellar armament. I took a few practice punches with it, my star-clad arm swiftly striking the air.

I smiled as I looked down at my new weapon. This was the power that one shot Echidna. Thinking of an excuse to use when I brought it out would be difficult, as it was obviously power created, and in my colors, not Vejovis's, but with this I might be able to fight an Endbringer.

 

[Leecifer]

Outreach 6.x (Interlude: Purity)
Trigger warning: The ex-Nazi is racist. And so are the current Nazis. Shocking, I know.

Kayden Anders, safe in the purifying light of her power, paced on the edge of a rooftop as she waited and worried. She was at the location Lee had sent her, where the rest of the group of villains would be meeting. She didn't like the image that presented, having worked so hard to try to distance herself from that life only to now be working together with them again. Even Herbert called himself one, though she couldn't find anything that he'd done worth the title. She supposed it was a sign of his black blood, that he wore that title with pride would fit in with his people's brutish nature. It was his superior white heritage that kept him from doing anything vile, obviously.

Herbert Winslow. That man is a walking contradiction, she thought, torn between frustration and interest. Yes, his non-white parentage showed in far more than the color of his skin, but at the oddest times it didn't. Take for instance his interest in her. She wanted to say it was obviously because of the… tendency for blacks to lust after white women, God knows she'd heard enough about it back when she was married, but that wasn't what Herbert was doing. While what he was doing was more pleasant to deal with than the lewd suggestions she'd been expecting, it left her unsure.

Kayden knew that she wasn't the most attractive of women, it's why she had been so taken in by Max. His piercing blue eyes, disciplined body, and just the man himself had surprised her by his interest. That someone that attractive would even give her the time of day let him blow through her emotional defenses like they weren't even there, and she hadn't even noticed. It's what had taken her almost a decade to get over, realizing that Max didn't see people, he saw tools and assets. Back then it hadn't even crossed her mind that he mainly wanted her for her powers. She'd been so foolish. Looking back on it, that knowledge of his coldness, something that was so hard for her to keep in mind when she was around him, that's how she knew his offer to let her take over the E88 after a year of returning if that's what she desired was as empty as his heart. He was arrogant, yes, but he'd have a plan if she held fast to her convictions when the time ran out.

Max always had his plans.

She knew she lived moment to moment, day to day, and she knew it wasn't good, but it was just the way she was. You couldn't fight your nature, really. It had taken her getting pregnant with her little Aster to look where she was going, and to leave the Empire, though it didn't come easily. She supposed she saw some of that present-ness in Herbert as well. Maybe that's why I get along so well with him despite his race?

She shook her head as her thoughts turned back to him. Large and muscular to Max's aristocratic strength, and she supposed he was attractive, in their way. Herbert liked her, that much was obvious, and his attempts to woo her were… refreshing. Max's compliments were beautiful fakes, like those buildings they would build for movies. You believed them, and they warmed your heart, but were completely meaningless. Herbert's... weren't. They were over the top, but she had so expected to hear the crude come-ons his people spat that the earnest, almost childlike compliments he paid her affected her just as much as Max's poetic flattery.

No, she thought. He didn't give her compliments, expecting something in return like Max did. It was almost like he was saying something that was just true. Like it would be silly to even question it, and she wasn't sure how to feel about that.

Two of the group had arrived; Regent and Hellhound, who called herself Bitch of all thing, from that children's gang, and she still was uncomfortable with idea of such a thing existing. The boy she wasn't sure about, but the girl, despite her distasteful name, was dangerous. Her dogs, transformed into large, monstrous beasts, stood around her, sniffing the air.

Kayden felt like she should go down there and talk, but she wasn't sure what to say. These were children. Teens, yes, but she had been their age when she Triggered, and it wasn't something that kids should go through without an adult to help. That's not quite true, she reminded herself. Herbert had talked about how he and Lee had taken them under their wing.

He had admitted that he had made a mistake when first introducing himself, and they looked to Lee more than him, but took responsibility for it. She sighed, as his people were supposed to be prideful brutes, not admitting the fault they rightfully deserved. Then again, as she kept having to remind herself, he was only half black, so that might have been why. She sometimes wondered if Brad had Black heritage as well, or even worse, Arab, given how he liked to use those hooks of his.

She turned as she saw something flying towards her in the distance. She hoped it was Herbert, as there were only a few minutes before they were supposed to start, and she had hoped that he wouldn't be like the rest of his people, constantly late. She was somewhat disappointed when she saw it was instead the group she used to call allies, and still hoped to call friends. James and Justin were standing on a large flat piece of concrete, between them stood the girl who went by Rune.

The young girl had joined after Kayden had left and could apparently control large objections if she put her symbol on them, which Kayden could see the strength of. A traitorous part of her wondered what it would be like to work with her, as Kayden had been the only flier the Empire had had. Eric could glide with his air control, but it wasn't really the same, no matter what he said.

Justin gave her a wave, and she responded with a professional nod, stepping off the ledge, flexing her power to slow herself before landing with almost no outward effort. Looking over she saw a pair of men standing underneath an awning, obvious Coil's. From an alley came what must be Gregor the Snail. She always felt pity for the people whose bodies had been changed by their powers, even more so for the ones who lost their memory. To not even know one's race wasn't something that she would wish on anyone, even the Asians.

Rune landed nearby, a large glowing symbol beneath her feet as the thick concrete slab settled on the asphalt. "Good to see you Purity!" Justin called, voice only slightly muffled by the knight's helmet he wore in costume. "I heard you didn't join us, but I guess I heard wrong. I'm glad you're back; it hasn't been the same without you."

She couldn't help but smile. Justin was always so nice. She hated to ruin his good mood, but better from her than from someone else. "I'm sorry Crusader, but I turned Kaiser down. I'm a hero now, and I'm only here because we have a common enemy. I joined Vejovis' team."

Crusader's tone darkened, "Oh, is that why he said you were with a nigger? I'd heard about that, but I didn't believe it. I know you and Kaiser had some disagreements, but that's no need to fuck a-"

"I'm not!" she objected, offended he would even suggest such a thing! She'd see too many girls dirty themselves just to hurt their exes and she'd sworn never to do something like that. Doing so hurt the women even more then it would hurt the man they used to be with, and worse made all those barbarians think that all white women would sleep with someone else, just to get back at the person they used to love. "How dare you think I would ever-"

"Peace," James stepped in, raising a hand to them both. "He didn't mean to suggest that, right?" he gave Justin a significant look, and the man nodded, though with his helmet on Kayden wasn't sure if he really meant it. "And you know how this looks Purity."

She sniffed, "I thought you'd know me better than that, Krieg," but she could understand what he was saying. "I'm sorry though. I joined Vejovis' team, not Break's. I didn't even know his team had a black until the morning before Somer's Rock. The fact that he was only half-black is the only reason I didn't walk out immediately." That and she'd already turned down Kaiser, but a woman without her dignity had nothing.

"And where is the porch-monkey?" Crusader asked, looking around. Purity crinkled her nose in distaste. Racial slurs like that were something that spoke of low intelligence, which is why the inferior races used them. Kaiser had understood that, but it was something that most of the Empire disagreed with her on. From a nearby alley a six-armed gorilla came out; Genesis, Herbert had called it, called her, Kayden corrected.

"I didn't mean that literally," Crusader said, with a snort.

Krieg sighed, "This is Genesis, she's from The Travelers." He checked his watch. "It looks like it's time."

Kayden could hear the smirk in his voice as Crusader announced, "Should've expected as much from a coo-"

He cut himself off as a dark shape shot down between them, yelling "Wazzup my niggahs!"

He didn't, Kayden thought as Break, fully in costume, touched down in front of them, cracking the sidewalk with the impact, and smiled broadly. How he landed that hard without even seeming to notice mystified Kayden. Even if he was a Brute he should've still had to bend his legs. He went from falling to standing without any problem. What are his powers?

"Everyone's here? Awesome! Let's get this party started!" the dark-skinned man stated, turning on his heel and striding off towards their target.

<AB>​

It was almost three blocks before Justin spoke up, getting sick of following Herbert, even if Rune was the one moving him. "What the fuck makes you think you can lead us?"

Herbert turned and blinked, still smiling, sure in a way that seemed similar to Kaiser but lacked the inherent pride her ex held. She'd've said that was a bad thing, as it was right to be proud of being better than your inferiors. On Herbert though, it seemed right.

"Because I am?" the half-black man asked, as if he didn't understand the question. Kayden would've been tempted to believe he was ignorant, as his kind usually were, if she hadn't spent a not quite un-enjoyable few hours with the man as he calmly pointed out the social dominance moves her ex-husband had tried to make, badly.

She was ashamed to have found them impressive, when she was younger.

No one with Herbert's ability to read people would miss what was being said to him. If it wasn't for his insistence that Lee was in charge of the Penumbral Defenders she might have worried, but some part of the man recognized his own inherent failings and let his superior take charge, and while she might have difficulty respecting him, she could respect that he knew his place.

"I meant who put you in charge, nigger?" Justin pressed. Rune looked like she was going to say something as well, but James put a hand on her shoulder, his face neutral, but it was obvious he was paying close attention to the byplay. I wonder why he did that? The others just watched.

"You did, when you followed me," was Herbert's immediate response. "And we're almost there so I guess we could talk strategy here. Good job."

Kayden could swear she could hear Justin's eye twitching, like it did whenever he got upset. "What would an ape know about strategy?" he challenged.

Herbert nodded solemnly, "You're right," he agreed. Crusader was taken aback, but just as he was about to respond Herbert turned towards Genesis. "Next time, more Butterfly."

Completely surprised by this unexpected statement, the ape-person responded with a woman's voice, but with an unidentifiable accent, "I don't know what you're talking about."

Herbert just nodded. "Sure ya don't. Next time, Butterfly," he repeated completely in control, having the air that Max always had when he showed he knew something you wanted to keep hidden. No, he was lacking the sharpness, the dangerousness that was hidden if you weren't his target, but was all too obvious if you were. Was the ape, girl, thing a shapeshifter? Kayden wondered, looking at it. Now that she stared, the creature's features weren't quite what they were back at Somer's Rock. The eyes were a bit smaller, and the fists just a bit bigger, but if she hadn't been looking for it she never would've noticed.

Did he see that, or is this something they knew from the other timeline? She thought, but as Hellhound stepped forward Kayden broke herself from her thoughts. "What makes you think you're strong enough to lead?" the teenager demanded. "Vejovis I'd follow, but not you."

Herbert smiled at her, but it was...off. Maybe it was that odd see through mask he wore but his mouth just seemed a bit too wide, and his teeth a bit too sharp, and it unsettled her. The three dogs around Hellhound growled and closed in around her. Another, deeper, almost reverberating growl came from Herbert, who hadn't seemed to move a single muscle, staring back at Hellhound. It caused the hairs on the back of her neck and the sheer animalistic malice of it caused her to take a half a step back, along with everyone else.

Hellhound looked down and away, her monsters backing off from what some part of Kayden was tempted to say was a worse monster. That, like everything else in the past few days, was such a disconnect from what she thought she knew about the man that she was just confused, and she didn't like it. How could the barely leashed predator in front of her, the kind that Brad wished he was, be the caring man who'd been there for her in the face of her future daughter's death? How could he be the man who was actually tongue tied by her beauty, and truly meant it?

She wanted to write it off as his being just insane, but she'd met insane, heck, she'd worked with insane for a few years, and she was glad Dorothy and Geoff weren't on this team. Whatever Herbert was, he wasn't insane. She could see his reasoning whenever she talked to him, or afterwards when she thought about it, but that just made it worse. As Hellhound backed off he relaxed, the growling stopped, and his grin seemed to shrink to again be happy, warm, and human.

That broke the tension, and Justin stepped forward. Kayden winced. Justin never liked looking weak, something Kaiser had taken into account, and now he was going to react badly. She wanted to do something but wasn't sure what to do. "You're nothing more than a beast," he accused.

Herbert cocked his head like a dog, confused, which didn't help the comparison. "Well, of course I'm a beast. A beast of a badass!" Crusader looked like he wasn't sure whether to yell at the man or give up and walk away, deciding dealing with this as not being worth it. The sheer childishness of Herbert's statement made it so easy to forget that, just a few seconds ago, a part of her had been frozen in fear of him. Looking around it was clear that while Justin had moved on from that moment, no one else had.

"Place we're hittin' is right around the corner," Herbert said, clasping his hands together. "Looked like a warehouse from above. We should get into teams, so who's grouping together?"

"We're good," The two men who were probably from Coil said, heading for an alley, one boosting the other up to the fire escape before kicking down the latter for the other.

"We're a team," James said, indicating the Empire. He shot her a glance, not quite looking right at her and she shook her head. He nodded subtly in reply. She always liked that about James, he was always a professional.

No one else said anything so Herbert announced. "Regent, Bitch, you two are together along with..."

"Me," Genesis said, clearly not wanting to be on the same team as Herbert. A part of Kayden couldn't blame her, as he seemed to know her secrets and was willing to share them openly. She knew what that was like from working with Max.

Gregor nodded to himself as he walked over next to Herbert and her, "Then I believe I am with you two." His voice wasn't slug-like like she expected. He almost sounded like her Nordic uncle, so he was probably originally white. She realized that with the exception of Herbert, and possibly Genesis, the entire team was white. The thought comforted her. "I can-,"

"Mix chemicals and spit 'em, I know. Just go for containment if you can. Can you do the foam the PRT uses?" Herbert interrupted the Case 53.

Gregor blinked, before nodding and responding as if nothing odd had happened. "I cannot, and without the counter-agent that would be ill advised. I can do my own version of it though."

Herbert nodded, "Then do that. Try not to get shot, but if ya do Vejovis can heal you no prob." The member of Faultline's Crew nodded to that, and the half-black man turned to address the Empire. "You three hit the far side while-"

"We're not going to the back of the bus, nigger. That's your place," Justin interrupted, tapping Rune on the shoulder and directing her up. She hesitated before she lifted their platform and flew them towards the front entrance.

"Uh, okay," Herbert told himself, turning to face the two teens and the shapeshifter, as gunfire started from their target and Purity could make out Crusader's ghostly clones falling through the bottom of the platform, ten-foot spears leading as they dropped on the Asians below. "I guess you guys go through the back and use the loading bay doors to get in, since they're not using them."

This, this was what Kayden was talking about. He wasn't crazy and wasn't being disrespectful even when others were, like the rest of his race would've been; he had a reason for saying what he did. He had seen Rune's platform and figured out a way for her to get in, but Justin didn't even bother asking like Herbert said Lee did. Hellhound nodded, understanding too, turning and jogging off, Genesis lumbering afterwards, as the boy, Regent, whined, "He didn't say we had to hurry!"

"Hurry!" Herbert called to Regent's groan of frustration. He looked to Kayden and Gregor. "Okay, we'll go high. We'll go high and go in through the skylight. So, Gregor, Enter and I'll carry you in and you stay up in the catwalks."

"Enter?" Gregor asked, only to jump backwards along with Kayden as an eight-foot-tall brute appeared behind Herbert as if he'd been standing there all along. The man, creature, thing, was terrifying. Its dark skin was actually scaled, just like the dark green alligator skin pants it wore, and the smile it gave seemed to be nothing but canines.

"Stranger?" Kayden couldn't keep herself from asking.

"And more," It growled back confidently, the sound reverberating from her skull straight down her spine. This she believed, could be the source of the growl from earlier. Or they both could, but the taller one was closer to that primal state than the merely half-black Herbert had been.

She looked between them and wondered if they were half-brothers, the taller one fully black, lacking the civilizing influence that Herbert had. Yes, that would make sense. Of course, he wouldn't have the decency to admit he was there and skulk about, though looking at the...man in question part of her wanted to say stalk instead.

Herbert glanced up at his half-brother, annoyed, and continued, "We'll be carrying you in Gregor." He moved to one side of the snail-man, Enter taking the other, the two of them easily lifting the smaller man, whose placid expression showed repressed worry.

Without saying anything they leapt as one, easily jumping the four stories to the top of the building next to them as easy as if they had just stepped onto a curb.

Kayden stood there for a moment, looking at that. Nothing that she'd heard about him, and she was realizing how little that was, told her he could do that. She shook herself, immersing herself fully in the purifying light, letting it carry her up to follow her teammate.

By the time that she'd caught up with Herbert, his half-brother, and Gregor they'd already made it to the top of the building and were looking at the dirty skylight. Rune had lowered her slab to the ground as Justin had killed the guards, something that she hated that they were forced to do, but understood.

They wouldn't stop, and wild animals needed to be taken care of.

There were sounds of gunfire from within, from the back entrance where the roar of Hellhound's beasts reverberated. Enter's form rippled as he turned around, shifting to something she vaguely recalled from one of Theo's books when he was younger. It was darker than it should've been, which seemed appropriate, as it swung its hammer-like tail down, destroying the glass and sending shards flying down. From the screams that came back up at them, he'd obviously hit something.

Herbert grabbed Gregor and jumped in, a dark shape following him in, the dinosaur gone. Flying in after them, Kayden spotted Gregor on a catwalk, taking cover as he lobbed a glob of something at a group of ABB firing towards the back. As soon as it struck it expanded into a greenish mass, covering the gunman completely.

Her attention was called off to the side as Herbert shouted, "Double People's Elbow!"

Both he and his half-brother fell faster than should be possible, landing elbow first on two different Asians who collapsed with a crack. More opened fire on them and Enter staggered as he was shot several times in the chest, Herbert staggering from shots as well, but unlike his half-brother he wore a shirt which seemed bulletproof. Both of them launched themselves forward, breaking their momentum with their biceps on the ABB's necks. When they turned around, she saw Enter's chest was once again unblemished.

A bullet whizzed by her head, reminding her that she was in a fight.

Taking off, she started to rain down blasts of pure light on the uncivilized barbarians below her.

<AB>​

As the battle wound down, Kayden was impressed. She'd never seen most of the people she was working with in action before, but they were worryingly effective. Justin and James had worked together like the professionals they were. Rune had torn open the front of the warehouse, allowing the snipers to work freely, though from the girls' reaction when they shot past her, that had been accidental.

The ABB had used the maze-like structure of the warehouse to their advantage to take cover, but Justin had turned that against them, his ghosts freely able to pass through them to kill those beyond. Regent had joined Gregor on the Catwalks, sweeping his arms to divert the ABB's fire into each other below himself. Hellhound and Genesis had worked together, Gregor directing them as they prowled the corridors.

Kayden worried about the shapeshifting girl, who looked heavily injured, but she was sure Lee could patch her up, so that was alright. Krieg was favoring one side as well, a hand pressed to his ribs, but Monica could heal him as soon as he made it back to Medhall. One of Hellhound's dogs was limping, but its master didn't seem concerned, and the girl was notorious for caring for her beasts more than she did people, so Kayden wasn't worried either.

Herbert though...he had worried her. He seemed to not be taking this seriously at all. He'd gotten more and more violent as the fight had progressed, getting more exuberant as he had done so. He and his brother had also shown off their ability to turn into dinosaurs with brutal results.

She still felt green remembering how he'd turned into a four legged lizard with spikes covering its back, before tucking itself in and rolling down a corridor, impaling and crushing ABB, the six corpses stuck to its back when it straightened out, falling to the ground around him as he turned back to being human.

As the dust settled, she landed on a catwalk, overlooking the battle as she let her hold on the light lessen. A part of the wall she didn't realize was a door opened up, an ABB with two smg's snarling "Die, nyeon!" drawing down on her. Time seemed to slow as Herbert shouted "No!"

He launched himself across the warehouse, but she'd seen how fast Herbert moved during the fight, and he'd never get to her in time. He could change direction mid-air, or speed up, but she'd been keeping an eye on him and he could only do it once a jump. As she blasted herself backwards and up with what little Light she had as she scrabbled for more, she hoped she could get enough distance to be missed by the spray of fire, but that was more luck than anything else.

Herbert accelerated, as she knew he would, but it still wasn't going to be enough. She was shocked when he got faster and faster, blurring from the speed until it was hard for her to follow him. He hit the gunman as he was about to fire with the sound of a meaty explosion, Herbert stopping instantly as the Asian seemed to transform into a spray of gore, the metal wall opposite Herbert being torn to shreds from its impact

Kayden continued flying backwards in shock, missing whatever Herb said to the splattered meat that was all that left of her possible murderer. He lifted his mask and spit on it, before sliding it back down and smiling, but it seemed forced.

Motioning for everyone to gather, he took a step off the catwalks, landing easily and walking towards the front. There was no sign of the snipers; Kayden assumed they left once the fighting had appeared to end. "Good job team!" Herbert announced, clapping his hands together. "Bitch, your dog's okay in there, right?"

The girl with the distasteful name nodded once. "Good," he continued. His eyes flickered over Genesis dismissively before seeing James' injury. "Krieg, you good enough to get to Othala?" he asked, concerned.

Justin, not liking how Herbert seemed to be taking the leadership role again, challenged, "This is why we don't listen to niggers. If I was running this he wouldn't've been hurt."

Herbert cocked his head in what Kayden realized was a practiced show of confusion, calling Justin's bluff, "Wait, you listened to me? I musta missed that part."

He looked angry and started to take a step forward, but James put his free hand on his shoulder, "Remember the Truce."

Justin, embarrassed at losing his composure like one of the inferior races, turned his back on Herbert and walked away. Kayden could understand his position, but he did ignore Herbert, so he couldn't exactly blame the man for James' injury. Rune, poor girl, just looked confused, following Krieg who gave Herbert a single nod and walked away as well.

Herbert turned back to the group, and Kayden realized that Enter had disappeared again. Did he leave or is he just hiding once more? She hated Stranger powers and was glad the Empire didn't use them. It made everything so much more difficult.

Herbert was giving Genesis a significant look, and she was glaring back at him. Kayden originally pegged the shapeshifter as white, but the way the girl had thrown herself into battle, that kind of temper and lack of care for oneself meant she was probably Hispanic. That wasn't too bad she supposed.

"Oh wow," Herbert commented blandly, looking at Genesis' torn up body, which was bleeding onto the concrete. "That form's all wrong now. Butterfly next time. Remember, butterfly."

She bristled at this proclamation, "How did you know I was a shapechanger?"

Herbert did that head cocking thing. "Noooo, you're not a shapeshifter." She isn't?

Genesis stilled. "Yes I am."

"No, you're in a wheelchair somewhere, this-" Genesis disappeared, as if she had never been there in the first place, no trace of her but the bloodstains left behind. What? Was she an illusion? But she couldn't be, since she left the blood behind. Kayden dimly remembered hearing about powers that could let you make things that didn't last. Did she make a puppet body? Herbert sighed, as if he expected that to happen, "Sheesh, I wish they'd just listen." He looked at the four of them that were left considering.

Regent shrugged back, "So what's next boss-man?"

"Hmmm. Hungry. Bored. We got this down." Herbert announced. "Not too many people dead. Ya'll had fun. Definitely can't wait to do this again, but we got to do it better, and the truth of the matter is, we're gonna have to make sure they listen to us. Thank you guys very much by the way."

Hellhound shrugged modestly, "You follow the leader, it's how the pack works. Empire's dumb shits."

Kayden wanted to say something. While Justin had been... assertive, he meant well, and Rune and James had done a very good job. Herbert nodded in agreement with the girl, "Pretty much. We'll make them follow next time. We'll all have to work together, 'cause we're gonna need to break them out of that before they get someone killed."

Again Kayden wanted to speak up, but she could see his point of view. It's not like he was asking them to follow Enter after all. While his white blood might be diluted, it was still there. Looking at how he'd lead the rest, it was obvious to see. The boy, Regent, gave Herbert a look while motioning to the dead and unconscious Asians around them. "Someone important." Herbert amended, though he really didn't need to. It was obvious what he meant. "The two of us will get everybody something to eat, then we chill out at Bitch's place, and help take care of her puppies."

Hellhound hesitated, before nodding and giving Herbert the address, Gregor begging off to return to his group, which was polite of him. He definitely must have been white before he changed. Once it was just her and Herb, moving over rooftops, heading to Fugly Bob's, a place which served good food once one got over the borderline obscene name, she spoke up.

"You did well," she said, starting off with a compliment. She was still surprised by the broad grin and open, honest, joy at that simple comment. Kaiser wouldn't've even said so much as a thank you, she thought, not really listening as Herbert praised her own performance. "I was a bit put off by how you didn't seem to care about any of our side's injuries though."

Herbert, jumping rooftop to rooftop, and sometimes on nothing at all, waved away the criticism. "Kreig's gonna go see Othala, Bitch's dog was fine, and that wasn't really Genesis, it was her projection. No one's dead, no one's dying. I'm fine, you're fine, the kids are fine. Next time I'll make sure no one gets hurt at all."

The looks they got ordering were odd. There were the normal hostile stares she had gotten used to from being allied with the Empire for so long, but as they waited many of those changed to confusion as she made small talk with Herbert. While she knew it wasn't something she should do, she couldn't help feeling a bit of a vindictive thrill at seeing their consternation, especially when the two of them left together.

She was surprised where they landed. An ordinary looking warehouse showed itself to be full of dogs of all sorts, but not feral as she feared. They started to swarm the pair until a quick whistle from Hellhound pulled them off. With as many animals as were living here, uncaged, she was taken aback by how clean it was. It was nothing compared to a professional facility of course, or at least what she thought one would look like, never having been in one, but with this many animals and only a single teenage girl to take care of them there wasn't the waste strewn about that she expected.

Walking over, the girl was unmasked and didn't seem to care. The boy, Regent, was as well, playing a game on his phone. He perked up, "Foods here? Nice."

Sitting down to eat, it was companionable. Herbert unmasked as well, and she lowered her light, keeping it enough to still obscure her features. No one commented on it, and she was thankful. Herbert might trust these children, but they were still children, and as such couldn't be trusted with secrets if she could avoid it. "Will Enter be joining us?" she asked. She'd noted Herbert hadn't ordered anything for his half-brother, which would be inconsiderate if he were around, but she supposed he was somewhere else.

Herbert blinked before shaking his head, confirming her suspicion. "Nah, he's got his own thing."

She frowned, "So he left without saying anything? That's rude." But not unexpected, given his heritage. If anything, it showed how much more civilized Herbert was. Herbert, obviously not wanting to speak ill of his half-brother, merely nodded.

Things continued nicely until she took one of her chicken fingers and made to offer it to one of the dogs, only for Herbert to quickly and firmly to reach over, grasping her wrist and lifting it back up to the table. He was being gentle, but firm enough that she couldn't stop him as he said, "Nonononono! Ask."

Kayden started to object but was cut off by Hellhound, who shook her head, "They don't eat people food, says the wrong thing."

She wanted to object, but she could see the girl's point. It was why most minorities couldn't understand fine dining after all. She rebuked herself from getting upset. Herbert was right, he just was more… physical than she was used to, his heritage showing once more.

She sighed to herself, as that, too, did make sense. He was Lee's lieutenant after all, and he was definitely a step up from Brad. Settling herself in to watch the byplay at the table, she was glad she'd joined the Penumbral Defenders.

They were very different from the Empire, but that was a good thing.

 

[Leecifer]

Outreach 6.8


In a good mood, I dismissed the… the Star Fist, folded fire wisping to nothing around my arm. With my Negation I could wield the construct's heat precisely, so a miss wouldn't do anything, but being struck by it would be like getting punched by the sun.

"So!" I told Taylor, turning to face her. "What do you want to work on? For the next," I checked my phone, "one hundred and two minutes, I'm yours. We could focus on something you could do, or we could try to figure out one my powers, just nothing that makes light."

"How many powers do you have?" she asked incredulously, eyes widening at what she just said, "If you don't want to tell me, I understand."

Rolling my eyes, "There are a few I'm never going to use, but on the docket for things I want to get better with, or at least find uses for, right now? There's Skidmark's Speed Zones, Stormtiger's Aerokinesis, Cricket's Acoustokinesis, Shadow Stalker's Shadowform, your Arthropod Control, Glory Girl's Personal Forcefields, Grue's Shadow Propagation, Kaiser's Metal Control, Vista's Space Warping, which I needed to copy to save her-"

"That's how you got to her!" Taylor exclaimed, thumping her fist on her open palm, "When Boardwalk got to her. People just thought you got lucky!"

I nodded. "Yeah, but I have a feeling if I used it near her, when she wasn't freaking out, she'd be able to feel it like you do with your power, or something to that effect," I explained. "Lastly, I've got the Twin's Personal Size Manipulation, but I can't do too much with that without drawing attention, I-"

"Can it make you smaller?" she interrupted. I started to shake my head no, before taking out the power and giving it a shot. Nothing happened. I shook my head no to her "Oh," of disappointment. "Wait, why didn't you mention Miss Militia's weapon, what about that?"

I shrugged. "Lift it up in front of you." She complied, having held onto it since I'd given it to her, and I cycled it through a variety of weapons, all with the same color and motif. The battlehammer did maker her stumble, as I'd forgotten she didn't have my strength, but I shifted it to an escrima stick so she didn't get hurt as she righted herself. "First of all, there's not much I can do with it that isn't just research. It's really straightforward, more than almost any other power I've heard about or seen. Second, the colors are distinctive which means I can't use it in one identity if I ever want to use it in another, and if I were to use too many of the same colored powers in too many different identities, it'd lead to a common thread between identities I don't want linked. Third, see the design?"

She looked down at the shortsword in her hands, a Purple Entity etched into the design, seeming to coil around the Blood Red blade, "Yes? It's the same thing as your costume. It looks...familiar, but I'm not sure why."

I frowned in confusion, wondering why she'd say that. Trigger visions, I realized, wondering if Miss Militia would recognize it. It was something to worry about later. "There's effectively a world-wide Stranger effect by something that looks like that. If it gets broken Taylor, bad things will happen. Because of that, my version of her power isn't going to see the light of day. I can get away with the fake Caduceus, but Boardwalk has no such decoration for a reason."

She nodded to herself. "Okay, I won't ask. Um, do you have anything else my power can do?"

Looking back at her I raised an eyebrow, "Last time wasn't enough?" I cut off her stuttered apology, leaning over and messing up her hair. "I'm messin' with you Taylor. Relax. Honestly, not really. Pair spiders with things that can carry them and use their thread to tie things up, down, whatever. Also, if you cover a bug with a substance, you can use them to deliver it. You used Newter's slime to drop Lung, and later on Vaseline and Pepper spray worked pretty well, and I think there might have been a few others but I can't remember. Other than that, I've got nothing. If you want more, you'll just have to figure it out on your own, though I'll be here to bounce ideas off of if you want."

She put a palm to her forehead, "Pepper spray! Why didn't I think of that!"

"You did," I smirked, "just later."

"Shush you," she groused, but gave me a small smile. "Vejovis is your main, um, cape?" I nodded. "Then we should work with that."

I took some time to lay out what I knew about the force fields I'd taken from Panacea's step-sister. Taylor had a few ideas, such as extending a force-field onto someone, like I'd do to lift them, and then letting go of them physically while keeping that shield over them to control their flight remotely. However as soon as I broke contact with a person the field around them dropped, no matter what. We did find a few unexpected things, like how my Lift field also could block an attack while holding something up, and keep them airborne, but If used to enhance a blow physics would kick back in and it'd drop. Nothing new we tried worked, like her suggestion that if I used my 'weapon' configuration on something living, it might lock them in place, the beetle we tried it on easily still moving.

As our time started to draw to a close, Taylor was disappointed. "Nothing we did worked!" she huffed.

"Yeah, but we've learned a lot of stuff that won't!" I replied cheerfully. At her glare, which probably stemmed from her believing me to just be humoring her, I elucidated, "No, really! We've tested a lot of theories and collected a good bit of data. Imagine if I was in the middle of a fight, desperate for an advantage, and I tried to cover someone in a weapon field, hoping that it would paralyze them. Instead all it would do is give them an opening to hurt me. I wonder if it would enhance their own strikes?" I shook my head, refocusing on trying to make her feel better, "We can check that later. My point is, now I won't do that!"

She sighed as she nodded, mollified, helping me put away the table and chairs in a nearby train-car. As I flew her back to a location she could fully de-costume she asked, "When should we meet tomorrow?"

I thought about it. "I'll pick you up at ten-ten, and I'll plan for the raid to happen at eleven. That should give us enough time to swing back to our training area and collect Golem's new armor. Should we arrive together? Yes," I decided before she could answer, nodding to myself, "You're publicly on record as part of my team, and having us arrive separately won't do anything positive. Ten-ten work for you? If it's earlier I'll call you, okay?"

She shrugged, "Sure, but what if we're not going after the ABB?"

"Then we'll do group training with anyone who wants to come," I replied easily, adding to address the feeling of concern I was getting from her through our shared power, "Kaiser won't. His idea of team tactics is 'everyone support me'." We landed were she pointed, and I turned my back to her as she grabbed a hidden backpack, looking through the bugs around us. "Stop," I held up a hand until there wasn't anyone on the street that'd pass by is. "Okay, change, no one's coming," I informed her, pulling my power out of the bugs in the alley.

I waited patiently as she swapped uniform for civvies. She stopped making noise, and I waited for a couple seconds, about to ask if something was wrong when she said, "Okay, I'm done." Turning around I saw she was in baggy jeans and a sweatshirt that hid her frame. "Um, I'm a little sore from everything we did today, could you heal me up a little like you did from our spar?"

She didn't look injured, but maybe she fell awkwardly during the mission and found she was bruised when she changed? It wasn't so late that she'd get in trouble getting home, hopefully, but strange bruises would raise questions she might not have answers to.

"Sure," I answered, mentally retracting the palm of my glove and grabbing her hand. I focused on the general 'Get Better' treatment for a moment, giving her enough to have healed any bruises she might have, looking up to see her leaning forward oddly. "Um, See you tomorrow?" I asked, not sure what she was doing.

She just blushed for some reason. "Yes, uh, tomorrow, see you then."

I took off, trying to put whatever the hell that was out of my mind.

<AB>​

As I started to descend in front of the hospital a few minutes early, my enhanced hearing picked up someone speaking, almost as if they were behind me, saying, "Have you seen the Healer? Lung wants her." Looking around as I halted my decent. There was no one near me.

What the hell? I thought, turning. "There she is," the voice said, sounding male, with a trace of an Asian accent. Looking down I spotted four men coming from an alley down the street from an alley close to the hospital entrance. As soon as I spotted them the sound cut out, but I quickly reestablished the connection. "Grab her quick and look out for her boyfriend."

I'm not her boyfriend, she's, like, sixteen! was my first thought, quickly followed by, Oh these guys are so dead. I got ready to divebomb them like a fuckin' hawk before I paused. No, this is going to turn into a PR thing.

It had been somewhat freeing, working with the villains to take down scum hard. A certain clarity of purpose and tactics, as dead opponents couldn't shoot you in the back. However, while Taylor was uncomfortable with real violence, but acknowledging the need for it, I doubted Panacea would be so understanding. Looking at the front of the hospital I already saw a couple people with phones out. On one hand, these people need to get a life, on the other, good.

I hovered above, watching the ABB squad get close, the leader pulling out a pistol, while another pulled a rifle, the other two pulling knives. Rifle-dude started looking around, but not up for some reason. Did they forget I fly? The four of them broke into a jog towards her and I started my drop. Panacea looked up at the men, confusion on her features, taking a step back as the pistol-wielder reached for her, weapon pointed at her chest as he yelled: "You're coming with us, Gaijin!"

I landed foot first on his hand, breaking it as the pistol went off and hit the thin layer of air I'd put in front of Panacea. Seeing where it crumpled it would've missed her, but I wasn't going to take any chances with her getting hurt. The thug pitched forward as I hit the ground, the force from the blow throwing him into my flight assisted rising knee, which sent him backwards, and hopefully knocked him out.

The rifle wielder turned his AK-47 towards me, and I caught the front with my hand as it was pointed at my chest, placing a plug of air in the end of the barrel. The ABB thug, identifiable by his colors, pulled the trigger, the gun thudding as the bullets were stopped before the barrel cracked, fire escaping out of the break. Yanking the weapon from his hand I stepped forward and punched him in the gut, causing him to fold as I felt ribs crack, but not snap.

Careful Lee.

I didn't want to pull a Glory Girl here, even if they deserved it.

Turning, gun in hand, I used it to block a knife, raising an eyebrow at the thug.

"Really?" I asked, backhanding him as he went down in a heap. Looking at the last attacker, he glanced down at the four-inch blade in his hand and turned to run. I tossed the gun at his legs, tripping him as I followed, grabbing his hands, just after he hit the ground. I wasn't in a rush. Picking him back up, ignoring his useless struggling, I floated back to Panacea who was looking down at the downed men.

"Why?" she asked me in disbelief.

I assumed she meant why they attacked her, so I shook my head sadly, half speaking for her, half speaking for the cameras, "Because they were ordered to. Because today was the first day the ABB's started to lose. Because you were vulnerable. Bad people do bad things Panacea. They always have a reason, but it's rarely a good one."

As the hospital's security rushed out, far too late, I motioned for them to cuff the thug I'd captured. "Panacea, please don't heal them fully, but can you make sure nothing I did was lethal? I was in a hurry."

She nodded, moving between the four, each one passing out as she did so. "Nothing they'd die from, I put them to sleep." The Security staff cuffed them as well.

Turning to them I asked the man who looked to be in charge, "Do we need to stay here? I'd rather not have more show up when they find out the first group failed."

The older man looked around, before nodding, "That'll be fine. We'll post someone out here."

"You couldn't have known this was going to happen," I reassured, both of us knowing that was bullshit, but it played well to the crowd, and to which he gave a small, grim smile of thanks, expression turning serious as he looked at the ABB.

Turning to Panacea, she took my arm and we left. Flying higher to avoid detection, I brought her back to base.

She sat while I cooked spaghetti, seemingly in shock, and I supposed this might've been the first time a gang actually made a move on her, the backlash from the PRT and New Wave staying their hand before this point. I broke her out of it a little as I pushed a cup of tea into her hands, murmuring "Drink, Panacea, you'll feel better." She did so almost robotically, looking up at me after she finished the Chamomile.

"Why?" she started, before shaking her head as if clearing it. "No, how did you know they were going to do that? Did it happen...before?"

I picked being where things happen as my Gift, and an interdimensional space snake gave it to me? Yeah, that's not gonna help. "No, I was just at the right place at the right time. You've set up a predictable schedule, and there are those out there that would exploit it Panacea."

"Amy," she said, "Call me Amy." I shot her a questioning look. "I talked to Vicky, she told me about... after, after that... call me Amy."

I pushed her plate in front of her. "Then call me Lee, Lee Elric, but only in private please." She started to say something else, but I held up a hand. "Eat, then we'll talk."

The garlic bread was a bit crispier than I was going for, but it was a decent meal. Finishing up, I cleared the table, getting us another round of tea. Panacea accepted hers, sipping it. "I'm sorry for freezing up," she finally said. "I, I'm just not used to, to that." She shook her head angrily. "I was better at the bank, I should've done something!"

I sat down across from her, "Well, how many fights have you been in before?"

"What?" she asked, my question taking a second to process. "A few, but I was better last time!"

Quirking an eyebrow, I asked sardonically, "You mean when you knew who you were fighting, knew you had back up, and had several minutes to psych yourself up? I'd hope so." She glared back at me for that, but it was embarrassed anger. "Ambushes work because most people don't react that quickly to sudden violence ,and are caught flat-footed. Unless you've got that innate fighting instinct, which you really don't Amy, which isn't a bad thing, you need to train to get used to it."

Sighing, I leaned back and took another sip of my Earl Grey. "The training sucks, and if you want me to when things calm down I can help you with it, but it's not something to be ashamed of. The guys that tried to jump you did have a bit of that, through probably informally, and even then if I really wanted to I could've killed them all before they had a chance to hit me once. Unless you have a power set up specifically to do non-lethal take downs, it's a lot harder to do a soft take-down than a hard one."

She looked at me, brows knitting in confusion. "If your power's anything like mine, can't you put them to sleep?"

"I said I wasn't going to use my healing offensively, and I won't without a damn good reason," I reminded her, a little annoyed that she'd think I'd break my word that easily. "Besides, the time they spend healing from their injuries might help them reevaluate their life choices."

Taking another sip, I waited for her to respond, but she was lost in thought. I continued, "I think, for the duration of hostilities, it would be better if Glory Girl were to stay with you. She'll deter any more attempts and could get you to safety if Oni Lee or Puff the Angsty Dragon decides to visit personally. If they do though, call me!" I urged. "Break and I, along with anyone else we could get in a hurry, will come fight him off."

"You aren't going to tell me to stop healing? It'd be safer," she inquired, gazing at me intently, trying to read my response.

I made no effort to hide it, giving her an incredulous look, "Would you do so if I asked? No, Amy, you want to go help people, and it is a thing worth doing even now, especially now. I'll try and make sure you're not vulnerable, but I'm not going to tell you not to do something unless the negatives would outweigh the positives. You want to heal, you still like to heal, and you're doing a lot of good in doing so. If you could get the rest of New Wave to protect Good Samaritan, that would be best, and it's not like they're actually doing anything useful, but I doubt they'll go for it. Glory Girl though, I know we can depend on."

Amelia nodded, smiling a little. "Yeah, we can." She sighed, "So, today you started fighting. I healed some of the...survivors."

"Which team?" I asked. "Probably wasn't mine." She looked over at me, question clear on her features. "The people that surrendered to me were unhurt, and Kaiser did his best to kill everyone we fought, especially the people that surrendered."

She looked aghast, "What!?"

"He's actually evil Panacea." I shrugged. "Dude's a literal Nazi. He's on team one, same as me, and wants to establish dominance, so he's doing so by being as reprehensible as possible," I explained tiredly. "At least, I hope that's what he's doing. If I had to guess I'd say he's trying to show how I won't do anything, because he's 'more powerful'." A second option clicked into place as I spoke, "Or he's trying push me until I try to take him down, which is a fight he's sure he'll win."

Giving a low chuckle, I informed her, "He wouldn't."

"But why work with him in the first place?" she demanded. I just looked back at her. She sighed, "You told me, to recruit people. Is that happening at least?"

I nodded, "I believe so, though not entirely on purpose. I was just trying not to be an ass. you know Mush, from the Merchants?"

"No...oh, wait, the trash guy?" Amelia looked confused. "Why him?"

"The Adaptive Armoring guy," I corrected. "I've started calling him Golem, at first because calling him Mush just sounded insulting, but now that I'm thinking about it, it's also building an identity other than what he had with the Merchants. Skidmark probably won't take it well, which will just push him away towards someone who doesn't treat him like shit, which is me."

"As far as I can tell he's only with them because he's uninventive, and when all he was doing was grabbing whatever was closest, that was mostly trash, and that combined with his appearance lead to only the Merchants giving him the time of day. His base appearance was changed by his power, a look which is...unappealing, but druggies don't care about that sort of thing. I don't give a shit about that either, just his character, which, while depressed, doesn't seem to be actually villainous. I'm giving him another option than working with drug dealers, setting myself up as the other side of the coin."

"That's... good?" she commented, seemingly not sure what to say.

I shrugged. "Honestly, most of it was me trying not to be a dick and showing him a way to better use his power to be more useful to the team. The rest is stuff I thought of after the fact." I got a disbelieving look. "No, really. I knew he could grab things to make a body, so I grabbed a bunch of scrap metal and asked him some leading questions to test my theory. After that it was a few questions to make him into a pseudo-iron golem." I showed her the picture of him I'd taken, then of the drawing of the Iron Golem I'd used as a base.

"That, and a few pointers, and boom, Mush is a force to be reckoned with. Combine with the fact that I'm not gonna call someone I'm working with Mush, and I suggested Golem, which he agreed to, though now that I think of it he might've possibly just done that because he didn't want to disagree with me or something. Either way, I'm not calling him Mush. After that, he was effective, and received the respect his contribution was due. I'm really just guessing, but worst-case scenario, Mush turns on me, and I have to take him down. Even at his increased efficiency it'll be easy. Best case, Skidmark overreacts, and that's not a longshot, which means that Golem is pushed towards people who don't treat him like, well, garbage." I opened my hands in a 'what comes will come' gesture, trying not to smirk at my accidental pun.

"So you're recruiting a villain by accident? I really shouldn't be surprised. Who else is on your team?" She asked, shaking her head and accepting another cup of tea.

"The pewter peacock brought his twin Valkyries, Fenja and Menja, as his bodyguards. The three of them are essentially a sub-team all their own. Coil sent a sniper team, but they seem like okay people. I took command of the rest, there's Ta- Lady, Bug, of course."

Amelia shot me a questioning glance, but then did a bad job of concealing the roll of her own eyes, echoing my "Of course," for some reason.

Ignoring it, I continued, "Along with Golem and we also have Newter from Faultline's Crew and Sundancer from the Travellers, and they're both, um, okay?"

She didn't say anything, just gave me a look, obviously not believing it.

"No really," I defended. "Hell, if the PRT had gotten to Newter first he would probably be part of the Protectorate, or the Wards, not sure how old he is."

"And Sundancer?"

I winced. "Dimensionally displaced and prioritizes trying to get to her home dimension with her friends over saving people. If someone could offer her what she wants, she'd do pretty much anything. All the Travelers are like that. Coil is offering it, but he can't deliver and that's going to go badly later. She's a good person, I think, just...unattached to this dimension, like most of her group."

She folded her arms, "Oh?"

I shrugged, "Um, probably? I've only been working her for a day. She's not Kaiser, but that's not saying much. I'll probably get a better read on her later. She's probably not going to join, but hopefully I won't have to fight her." Shrugging, I disclosed, "I'd win, easily, but she isn't evil, and I'd rather not hurt her if I don't have to. Same for Newter and Golem."

Amy sighed, nodding. "Okay. Just, don't trust them. They're villains, and not like Break."

I smiled, glad that she'd gotten to the point that she was comfortable with the concept of my working with 'Villains', and the conversation turned to more mundane topics, like healing super-cancer.

 

[Leecifer]

Outreach 6.9

Panacea and I flew back to her house shortly afterwards, landing just short of midnight. As she turned to me to say goodnight the door to her house slammed open, Brandish in full costume striding out. "Get away from her!" the woman barked, glaring at me with open hostility.

Panacea's head snapped towards her adopted mother, the girl taking an unconscious step behind me. As I watched Amy's the older woman's expression turn uglier, I Saw her. White and Orange flames lapped angrily at the air, her Hard-Light Weapon Projection waiting to be used. Her Hard-Light Sphere Form was primed and ready to go as well. As I looked at her power I noticed that the secondary form had no exterior means of perception. Hopefully this wasn't going to be knowledge I needed. From the open window on the second floor I saw a flash of White and Gold as Glory Girl spotted us, quickly disappearing.

"Good Evening, Brandish, have I done something that warrants such a reaction?" I asked politely. I knew my good manners would further upset her, but by this point I knew getting her as an ally was probably not going to happen. If this was unfolding how I thought it might, then this confrontation wasn't for her, but for her daughters.

"You know what you did!" the New Wave Changer hissed, hand flexing as she stalked forward, stopping ten feet away from me and halfway across her front lawn.

My first response, which I quashed, was anger. That was such a bullshit response it wasn't even funny. If I knew what I did wrong, I wouldn't be asking, would I? And if I did, and was playing coy, was that supposed to make me suddenly admit it? However, if Brandish was pulling out this level of dishonest argumentation right off the bat, then this was a planned, no holds barred ambush and was meant to put me on the back foot with no desire for a peaceful conciliation.

I hated social combat, and that's what this ultimately was. I stilled my emotions, keeping my face blank as I tilted me head in confusion, commenting in a carrying voice so Glory Girl could hear me from inside the house. "I believe that I don't, or else I wouldn't have asked. Would you care to enlighten me, or are you just going to continue throwing vague condemnations my way? If it's the second, by all means, keep going, I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually."

"How dare you talk to me that way you villain!" she spat. "You kidnap my daughter and act like nothing's wrong?"

I blinked, "I'm sorry, both of those statements are incorrect. First of all, I'm a Hero, registered and everything, just like you. Second-"

Brandish tried to interrupt me, but I kept on talking over her "You're nothing like me!" like she hadn't said anything, continuing, "I didn't kidnap Amelia, I stopped her from getting kidnapped and then we went to go get dinner, like we have for the past week and-"

Brandish tried to interrupt me again by saying "And you just happened to be there?" but I kept on rolling, "I wouldn't accuse others of being rude if you can't keep yourself from interrupting me while I'm responding to your question. Twice. Now if you can-"

Brandish tried to interrupt me a third time, saying something that was probably both rude and slanderous. I'd stopped paying attention, finishing my statement with, "please restate both of your statements without trying to talk over me I would be most grateful. Make that all three of your statements." I smiled pleasantly, waiting for the contemptable harridan's response.

A rather unpleasant friend of my mother who believed herself to be the ultimate moral authority over all, especially those younger than her, had the habit, tactic if I was being honest, of talking over people she considered her moral inferior. It had worked, at first, my own confusion stopping me, though that wasn't her intended result. She instead relied on the social programming and manners of others to make them shut up and allow her to dominate any conversation, as speaking over someone so blatantly was rude and to the point that even children were taught not to do so.

This underhanded technique meant she could shut down anything that proved her wrong by talking over them to introduce something else the other person needed to respond to, demanding they address this new factor before the first one could be handled, talking over her victims and claiming that they were ignoring her if they tried to go back to the previous topic. The fact that, if you thought about it, her constant interruptions of others put her below those she tried to belittle and command on the maturity scale was one she never seemed to understand.

The trick to counter this tactic, which I learned after a great deal of experience with it, was to put together a mental script and just read off of it despite what the interrupter said. Brandish reacted to it about as well at that woman had, only Brandish seemed to believe she could take me in physical combat once she lost in the social arena. Just like Victor, I realized, which did nothing to help my estimation of the hard-light harpy.

An ugly snarl crossed her features as her power flared and a sword of hot white light sparked to life in her hands, looking to be made of frozen lightning. I had no qualms with my power greedily reaching out and grabbing a copy of it for myself. If she thought to use it to intimidate even a nominal peer she was losing to verbally, especially in a non-combat setting, then she was in no way a hero. As she started to take a step forward, Glory Girl, flying out from behind her, shouted, "MOM! What the Hell!?"

The worst member of New Wave didn't even look at her daughter, just commanding, "Victoria, get inside! You should be in bed!"

Glory Girl looked at her mother, then at Amy hiding behind me, then at me. I just shrugged. "Mom, Vejovis is one of the good ones! Why are you doing this?"

"No he isn't!" she rebuked. "He kidnapped your sister!"

I held up a hand, "I quite obviously didn't."

"Like anyone would believe a villain!" Brandish spat. "You're all alike!"

I started to object but Glory Girl looked at me pleadingly, shaking her head. I nodded once in return, gesturing for her to go ahead. Brandish glanced between us, her scowl deepening. "Vejovis isn't a villain mom!" Glory Girl informed her plaintively. "I told you they were out to dinner, like they do every night because they're both healers and talk about healer stuff. Why do you keep saying he's bad?"

"I'm sure he only heals people for money, and he's making your sister do the same thing! I talked to the hospital!" she accused.

"Yes," I admitted, continuing to talk over her "See, he admits it, he doesn't even feel bad!" I had to wonder if she did this in the court-room, and if so why the judge allowed it. Ignoring her incredible rudeness, I explained loudly, "I'm taking money for my labor, just like all of the other medical staff there. Evil monsters, the lot of them. Doctors and nurses should all work for free and be grateful for it, just like lawyers! Oh, wait."

She gripped her sword as she snarled, "That's different." I waited for more, but the moment dragged, with her eventually adding, "Nothing to say in your defense, villain?"

"No," I responded patiently. "I was just waiting for you to back up your claim. As a lawyer, you of all people should know that claims made without evidence can be disproved just as easily. To counter your argument, I merely need to state that there is no difference. There, we've provided equal amounts of evidence, and," she started to talk over me, but I kept on speaking. "If you called the hospital you're surely aware that between the two of us we're taking a single surgeon's pay, despite doing the work of over a hundred, on top of doing things no surgeon ever could, or did you just not want to mention that inconvenient truth? Also, can you please stop trying to interrupt me, it's quite unprofessional, and more than that just plain rude."

On an intellectual level I knew why she was going after me, but it still pissed me off something fierce. Yes, the woman had unresolved trauma, but it'd been at least sixteen years and she was an adult. The part of me that constantly tried to screen situations for bias to keep me fair by going 'what if' and switching the race/gender/age of the things I saw pointed out to the rest of me that was feeling somewhat bad over poking that sore spot that if this was a man who responded to a polite woman the same way that Brandish was reacting to me, he'd get no sympathy from society. Deciding to split the middle, I allowed myself to feel a little bad, but the forgiveness that feeling would've bought her was long gone.

I continued being perfectly calm and polite, fully in control of my own emotions, as not only was it the right thing to do, but the one thing that pissed off an emotional person most of all was when you didn't come down to their level and illustrated how badly they were acting. Unfortunately, people ruled by their emotions usually didn't apologize when shown this, they just doubled down, because you committed the crime of hurting their feelings, while they hypocritically held themselves blameless of any feelings they hurt.

So I stood, waiting for the next baseless accusation, ignoring the growing headache this situation was creating. Brandish complied, as she snarled, "You're all smooth words, but that's because you have something to hide." And there it is. "You seem to be spending quite a lot of time with a sixteen-year-old girl for a man in his what, thirties? Forties?"

My first response was to tell her to go fuck herself with her insinuations that I only cared because I wanted to sleep with Amelia, but I checked myself. She hadn't actually said that, just suggested it so much that it still was probably legally considered slander. I was sure however that if I defended myself against her implied threats of sexual malfeasance, she'd use that to try to condemn me by claiming that's not what she meant but that my defense obviously made me guilty of it without any other proof needed and with no need to worry about silly things like context. While that line of reasoning made no logical sense, we'd obviously not be in this situation if she was rational. As anything I said would be used to prove I was, I don't know, the second coming of Marquis, there was my response. I stood silently, obviously waiting expectantly. "Well, what do you have to say for yourself?" she demanded.

I sighed and turned to Glory Girl, "Does your mother have short-term memory problems? I ask because I literally just said that claims without evidence were worthless, and I didn't even hear a claim that time, just her incorrectly guessing my age."

"Don't speak to my daughter you pedophile!" Brandish commanded, abandoning all pretense of civility.

"What the fuck, mom!" Glory Girl swore, flying away from her mother as her Aura spiked for a moment before she wrestled it back down. "What is your problem!?"

"You're too young to understand! Get inside now, Vicky!" Brandish practically shrieked, the lights turning on in houses around us.

I sighed, "Amelia, you should probably go stand by your sister. Your adopted mother seems to realize that baseless slander isn't working-"

"Will you shut up!" Brandish yelled, darting forward as she was seemingly pulled by her sword and stabbed for my chest.

I twisted out of the way, grabbing and tossing Amelia towards her sister with a call of "Glory Girl, catch!"

Brandish landed next to me, swinging her sword at my exposed back, but I could feel the disturbance in the air as she did so. I stepped forward twice to avoid the swing and sharply turned to face her, hands held loosely at my sides.

"Attacking my back while I get your daughter to safety?" I asked, some of my emotions escaping my control at the thought that she could have easily hit Amelia. I twisted out of the way of a stab, then stepped back as she tried to swing her weapon into me. My face was calm but voice was cold, "And you call me a Villain. For shame."

She screamed in mindless fury, executing a sloppy vertical slash, which I dodged, before she shifted to a small sphere of light, likely expecting a counter, which I didn't respond with. The crazed cape spent about half a second like that, emerging in an instant with her body in a completely different position, already starting a horizontally swing at the gap in my defenses my non-existent counter would create, and for an unexpected hit even if I hadn't. At least, it would be a hit, if I couldn't fucking fly! Swinging around her with Glory Girl's flight as fast as she could swing her sword was child's play.

For all of her supposed experience as a parahuman, her combat technique sucked.

Another overhead slash was dodged, the extension of its effective range as she allowed herself to be dragged forward by the descending sword could have surprised me if couldn't See her power and she hadn't started the fight showing she could do so. She shifted back to her shielded sphere form, coming out of it a half second later with a stab. This time I copied her secondary power, adding the unique defense to my rapidly growing list of powers I couldn't use without outing myself as a power copier. I wasn't sure what combination of the cape's behavior, the hypocrisy of what she said, the sheer baseless dishonesty of it, the actions of this woman in the future that would not be, and the aftereffects of Glory Girl's Aura spike pissed me off so much, but I knew for sure that this pitiful excuse for a parahuman had no claim on the title hero. If it weren't for the witnesses, I'd be tempted to see if she was resistant to her own power.

The stab was dodged, as was the follow up swing, which scored the pavement with a loud sizzling sound. "I don't want to fight you, Brandish," I called out to her, tone bored as a seven-foot-tall man and a blonde woman came out of the next house over, both in costume, having taken the time to suit up. Being able to see through insect eyes made it much harder to be blindsided, but on the bright side the Pelhams just seemed to be trying to figure out what was going on, so I continued, "Evidenced by the fact that I haven't struck you once, despite all of the opportunities you've given me."

I sidestepped another slice, the woman telegraphed every blow, as she snarled in un-earned confidence, "You can't stop lying can you?" As she sphered I looked back at her sister and brother-in-law with an upside down 'what can you do' shrug as I flipped up and over the concentration of light that was their sister to land facing my opponent on her other side.

I looked directly at Lady Photon as I slowly mimed punching Brandish as she came out with a stab where I'd been a half second after she disappeared, which seemed to be the fastest she could shift forms. The Sphere, while a powerful defense, left the user blind while active, and the parahuman trying to dismember me had apparently never bothered to account for that rather glaring weakness. Brandish caught sight of me out of the corner of her eye, and turned, slashing at my eyes in what would be an unquestionably lethal strike. Every attack before would have been bad if it hit a normal person, but with Panacea on hand I wouldn't have died. This was different.

"Enough," I called, catching the blade with my hand. My uniform negated the edge, the impact drained the shield on that arm, and my Immunity negated the burning heat. I stood there casually holding the sizzling blade in my gloved hand, looking down at her in disgust. She gaped at me before her face twisted hatefully and she manifested a second blade in her other hand, which I promptly caught before she could thrust it through my face, draining that shield as well.

I was done with this fight, and by the expression on her daughters' faces, they understood what their mother had just tried to do. "I have done nothing to you, saved your daughter from being kidnapped by the ABB, and have been met with insults, lies, and physically attacked for it," I declared formally, voice carrying down the street.

"If you were not family of one I count as friend, I would have subdued you, and would have been legally justified for meeting your unprovoked attempted murder with lethal force," I continued, my voice easily drowning out hers as she tried to shout imprecations about my character in reply. "As such you will end this farce, or I will actually engage you in the combat you so desperately seek, which for the last fucking time is not something I wish to do!"

Brandish let go of her weapons, stepping back and Sphering. She reappeared, thrusting a hard-light spear for my heart. Before it could cross the distance where I could yank it of her hands and break her arms, the tip was stopped as it impacted a thin sheet of light that sprang up between us, Lady Photon's forcefield separating us. The idiot looked at the wall in disbelief, turning her head to see her sister floating, hand raised. "Sarah! What are you doing?"

Lady Photon looked at me impassively and I nodded in thanks, taking a step back and letting my hands fall back to my sides. She turned her attention back to Brandish asking "Carol, what are you doing? Fighting in the middle of the night? What's going on!"

"He kidnapped Amy!" the lawyer lied.

Lady Photon looked at Amelia, standing right beside her sister, then over to me. "We had dinner, just like we normally do after her shift," I remarked. "Panacea is a better healer than I am, and I learn a lot from talking to her. I ha-"

"I'm sure you do," Brandish interrupted, voice full of disgust as she tried to insinuate ill intent on my part. This time I let her, as without her previous tirade, it would seem jarringly nasty when compared to my own politeness. Lady Photon frowned at her sister.

"I have to wonder," I tried again. "If Brandish was so concerned about her daughter why she didn't call her."

"I did, she didn't answer!" Brandish rebutted.

I gave her a disbelieving look. How is a lawyer this bad at arguing? Wait, lawyers have time to think of their core arguments and think try to predict their opponent's counter arguments, and maybe I'm moving too fast? "Okay, that seems pretty easy to check. Can, I don't know, Manpower check her phone?"

"You've obviously deleted that call from her phone," she rebuffed.

I threw up my hands, "I meant yours. And if you won't let your brother-in-law check then we're back to unverifiable claims by the woman who attacked me for no provable reason! Or are you just banking on your sister blindly believing you to cover that pesky 'innocent until proven guilty' problem? How are you a Lawyer?" I asked, honestly confused.

Brandish sneered, "You're just sa-"

She was cut off as Lady Photon covered her in a bubble of light, muting her. The leader of New Wave sighed as she muttered into her hands "It's too early for this." She looked over at me, "Vejovis, I'm sorry for...whatever this is, but can you please leave? I don't think this is going to get any better with you here. Sorry."

I gave an understanding sigh in return, bowing at the waist to her. "I understand. Sorry for waking you, even indirectly." I turned my back on Brandish, who was ranting at me silently. If she broke through the field to try to kill me, I'd feel it. "Glory Girl, Amy, sorry if this made things worse. I was just trying to help."

Glory Girl glanced at her mother, before she shook her head, "Don't worry Vej, not your bad." Amy nodded.

"Good night," I told them, crouching down and pulling on my strength to launch me up as hard as I could, augmenting my flight as I took off like a shot up into the night sky, not so subtly informing the rest of New Wave that I'm this fast, and was going easy with Brandish. What happens if I don't?

<AB>​

Arriving back at base, and seeing that Herb was asleep, I was left wondering what I should do. Sending Dad the information on the new location the surrendering ABB had given me only took five minutes, and after only an hour's worth of meditation, I felt well-rested, but restless. Creating all of the pieces of Golem's armor, even taking the time to do the best possible job for it, took a bit, but I sighed, checking my phone to see that it wasn't even two in the morning.

Groaning, I moved to project a weapon, only to feel that it already existed. Feeling out where it was, I left the base and lifted up, moving around to triangulate on its position. Frowning in thought, I thought about what was in the northern suburbs, only to realize that I'd never actually gotten my pistol back from Taylor. Rolling my eyes I recalled it, a bolt of Purple and Red shooting up into my hand. Whups. Apparently, it had to travel through the intervening space. Hopefully I didn't break a window. Or a wall.

Landing I tossed the pistol around a corner, summoning it back to me. The power came back around the corner and reformed into a Ruger. Well, that doesn't help. At least it seemed to take the path of least resistance, so it probably just flew out a window. Sure, let's go with that.

Considering it, I projected the weapon into its own auto-fire assembly, small enough that I could still hold it and satisfying the restrictions of the power. Dropping a sound bubble and checking around with insects to make sure I was alone, I set it to fire at me every few seconds, moving around in something almost akin to a slow dance, taking the impact on a different shield each time. Concentrating on the bubble, I could barely feel the sound around me as the gun went off, only for my sound bubble to negate it. Focusing on it I could feel my own power working without my direction to lessen the sound of the gunshot when the sound-waves entered my ears, likely just enough to stop hearing damage.

I wondered how long it'd been doing that. Belated, I remembered that firing most guns without ear-protection almost guaranteed a small degree of hearing loss, the ringing in your ears signifying permanent damage. With all of the guns and fighting around me, I hadn't heard that once after that first day, except for when I actively suppressed it. Was I doing it subconsciously or was that my Shard at work? I'd known it could act on its own, intellectually, but hadn't actually seen it doing so. At least not so blatantly, I corrected, recalling the use that had let me get the jump on Amelia's would be kidnappers mere hours ago. What else is it doing? I wondered.

"Um, thanks for protecting my hearing?" I spoke to the empty air, getting no sign of response. I hadn't spent the points to be able to talk directly to my shard, using them instead to gain my Immunity power, but it would've been nice. Shrugging, I turned my attention back to my power-assisted sense of sound. It was a faint enough feeling that I had to fully concentrate on it, always there, but such that it wouldn't distract me. Speaking to myself, trying different sounds, I felt how they...tasted? It was a foreign sensation, and not one that was easy to classify. I frowned, trying to replicate the sounds I heard, and completely incapable of doing so.

Try as I might, my Acoustokinesis let me manipulate sound, but not create it. As such I started manipulating the repeated sound of gunshots instead. Silencing it was easy, something I'd been doing for a while. Making it louder was just as easy, though doing so started to make everything vibrate. I Pushed it even louder, my own power kept me safe from the effects, but the gravel at my feet shook. I took a deep breath and pulled on the power as hard as it would allow me to, grabbing the sound of the gunshot and pushing it as loud as it could go.

A wave of pressure slammed into me as my projected gun vaporized, knocking me off my feet, the buildings around me collapsing as the brick turned to dust. The silencing bubble held, barely, and I laid there, my shields having protected me from the worst of it. I felt sore in a way that was hard to describe and my shields were drained.

What. The. Fuck. I thought about what the hell just happened and gave a groan as I realized what I'd done. Sound is just repeating air pressure. Push it loud enough, and it's like hitting something with a series of explosions... I'm a moron.

I started to get up, only to realize that I was flying when my hand went straight through the cement, the ground underneath me powder. Taking a deep breath, I fell into it, dropping down and finding the bottom before surfacing. Everything within the perfect sphere of the sound bubble I'd made was shaken apart to bits. A piece of hot, twisted metal I'd found at the bottom was in my hand as I shook the dust off it, my costume cleaning the dust off of me on its own. Whatever what I held originally was unrecognizable as the sound deformed and hammered into unidentifiable scrap.

Cricket is a dumbass.

However, if sound control, pushed far enough, could do this, I was grateful for it. Flying up and away, the destruction was in a complete circle, the building appearing to have been sheared where the sound was stopped by my bubble of negation.

If I hadn't set up limitations?

That could have been...bad.

Slotting it away as an unexpected 'fuck everything in this general area' attack, I rose, only to spot someone else flying slowly over the railyard, only visible by their form outlined by the light of downtown. Pulling on my Power Sight, the figure blossomed in White & Gold flames. Glory Girl? Coming up above the heroine, I trailed her only to realize that she was following someone else, a girl wreathed in Bone White and Blood Red power.

Surrounding us with a sound bubble, I slowly and silently descended behind her, leaning over her shoulder and whispering, "So, why are we following Amy?"

 

[Leecifer]

Outreach 6.10

Glory Girl shrieked in surprise, turning to face me, not even leading with a strike, which was just sad. I really needed to work on this girl's combat style when I had some time. "Who? Vejovis? What are you doing here?" she almost shouted, before glancing back down to Panacea, looking relieved that the healer continued as if she hadn't heard us.

I floated away from her, keeping pace with Amy as she walked towards my base. "I asked you first."

Glory Girl pouted in what I'm sure she thought was a cute manner as she followed, and I gave her an unimpressed look. "After you left, Mom and Aunt Sarah really got into it," she explained. "Like, I could get that maybe she might not like you, 'cause you're a guy and you're hanging out with Ames and she didn't like Dean at first either, but that totes wasn't what her problem with you! She was sayin' things that weren't even close to true, and even tried to say that you attacked her, but Aunt Sarah saw the beginning of the fight and called major BS on that."

She winced, looking at me gratefully, "Thanks for not fighting back bee-tea-dubs. I get that you would've so been in the right if you did, but she's my Mom, you know?" I nodded in understanding. "And after, like, the fifth lie mom got caught telling, Aunt Sarah told her to get her life together, which was savage but is so true because that was not like adulting at all! But then after she left Mom grounded both of us and said that we weren't allowed to talk to you, or see you, or do anything with you at all! She even told Ames that she wasn't allowed to heal anymore, which is so not cool. Healing is like what she does!"

"She could do more than that, but I get you," I agreed. Glancing down, Panacea had reached the base and had a hand raised to knock, but was hesitating as she looked for a spot that didn't look like it'd give her Tetanus. Waving Glory Girl over, I started to descend, dropping the sound bubble as I turned off my Power Sight, the flames of their power dissipating into nothingness.

"Vejovis. Unlock." I called, causing Amelia to jump. Looking at her I realized that she was carrying a small suitcase in addition to her backpack, my Power Sight having obscured them when it was active. I had a sinking feeling about what this could be about, and I really hoped I was wrong.

She was looking between her adopted sister and I, confused. "Hello, Panacea," I started, getting the ball rolling on what I'm sure would be a delightful conversation. "Isn't it a bit early for house calls?"

Amy looked at me, steeling herself, "Can I stay with you for a few days?"

Usually I like it when I'm right, I noted. "I'm not saying no, but why?"

She sighed. "My m-...Carol said a lot of things after you left. About...about my father." Staring me in the eye she didn't so much as ask as confirm, "You know who he was, don't you?"

"Yeah I do. Come on in, this is gonna take a while." I walked into the base, calling over my shoulder, "And I know Herb took you right here, but this is supposed to be a secret base, so please don't lead anyone else here. Glory Girl I'm sort-of okay with, but I'm quickly accruing a list of people that have tried to, or will try to, kill me and I'd rather they didn't know where I lived."

"Who?" Glory Girl asked, floating inside following her sister.

I counted off on my fingers "Kaiser, Lung, Coil, your mother, Oni L-"

"Hey!" she objected. "Mom didn't try to kill you!"

"Tea or Coffee?" I responded.

She looked confused. "What?"

"It's like three in the morning. I took a nap," I shot Amy a look, who gave me a slight smile, "But I doubt either of you have. We don't have soda, so for caffeine it's either tea or coffee."

"Coffee, two cream, five sugar," Glory Girl replied, shaking her head. "Don't change the subject."

"So coffee candy for you, Amy?" I asked. I felt a creeping sense of unnatural guilt quickly followed by hatred, and my head snapped back to Glory Girl, who flinched from my expression as the feeling disappeared. "Glory Girl," I informed her coldly, reigning in the unnatural rage. "I do not mind you being here but while you are you will not Master me. Do I make myself clear?"

She had the good grace to look ashamed. "Sorry, just don't ignore me."

"I'm not," I started, talking over her objection, "I'm getting us something to drink before we talk, and I'm focusing on doing that first before I get distracted." I sighed, turning back to my co-healer, "Coffee or Tea?"

"Coffee, just cream," she said, not getting involved.

I motioned for them to sit down at the kitchen table, and a few minutes later we all had our drinks. Sipping my black coffee, not needing the caffeine but having long ago gotten used to the taste, I started, "Glory Girl, did your mother know my power set?"

"What? Maybe? She knew you healed. And flew I guess. But she didn't try to kill you!" she asserted.

"Let's assume she knew what I told the PRT," I continued. "That means healing, bug control, and a general Alexandria package like you. Nowhere in there was the degree of cut resistance, or anything about heat resistance. She attacked me with a plasma sword. For all she knew, her first attack, an attack on someone who had not ever threatened her, would've done anything from cut off my arm to the bone, to cut me in half. I only blocked because she was try to slice open my head, and even Panacea couldn't have saved me if I hadn't had hidden defenses."

"She knew you would dodge," Victoria replied dismissively.

I blinked at her. "Have you received any combat training Glory Girl?"

She shrugged! "My uncle showed me some stuff, and Dean has too, what's that got to do with anything?"

Sighing, I put my face in my free hand. "That's a no. Glory Girl, the expectations and responsibilities you have when wielding a deadly weapon are much different than what is normally considered when punching someone. Would you punch an E88 thug as hard as you could?"

Looking at me like I was crazy, she physically recoiled, "What? No! That'd kill him!"

"And if you did, but the person dodged it would be the same as if I took a gun and shot Gallant, but he dodged, or it bounced off his armor. You're saying that your boyfriend shouldn't be mad if I tried to shoot him in the head because I knew he'd dodge, or his armor would take care of it? Right? Or if I were to shoot you, but only once, then you'd just shrug and be all smiles?" I questioned, sour expression on my face. God I hate moral myopia.

"That's different!" she immediately shot back, stiffening as she realized what she said.

I gave her a moment to realize she just echoed her mother, before asking, "How?"

"It...You...She's my mom!" she finally admitted.

I nodded, "Which is why I didn't return her murder attempt in kind, which is what it was by the end Victoria. I had assumed that she was counting on using Panacea to keep me from dying if she hit me, but those last blows? The ones for my head? Those would've been instantly fatal if I didn't have hidden defenses."

"Glory Girl," I sighed, "I'm as strong as you are, if not more so. You've seen how fast I am. Imagine what would've happened if I decided to do something simple like kick your mother's knee at full strength." Panacea looked down at her coffee as Glory Girl paled. "I wouldn't do that, Brandish isn't enough of a threat to me to require that kind of response, but she was calling me evil and suggesting I was some sort of sexual predator. Would that kind of person, the person she was claiming me to be, hold back?" I shook my head, reaching behind me and taking out my pistol, both girls stiffening as I placed it on the table, pointed away from them. "And I wouldn't even need to do that. All I'd have to do is back up, wait for her to come out of that sphere, and shoot her in the leg."

"But you wouldn't!" Victoria reasoned.

I nodded, my voice cold, "No, I wouldn't, but she didn't know that. Hell, I could've swarmed her with a couple hundred wasps; it would've been even easier, and she'd be just as dead as if I'd shot her in the head. My point is that she came out looking for a fight and got increasingly nasty when I didn't give her what she wanted, which she escalated to trying to maim me, then kill me." Glory Girl looked like she wanted to object but couldn't find the words to do so with. "She was trying to manipulate me, and you in doing so. She was trying to provoke me into offensive actions, so she could fight me."

Holding up a hand, palm raised, in an explaining gesture, I explained, "If I lost, as I assume she thought I would, assuming she didn't kill me, she likely would have claimed I attacked her and tried to get me railroaded in court. If she lost, she could use that to try to turn you against me for 'attacking her unprovoked and trying to kill your mother' or something. Either way, she wins, I lose, and you stay under her control, Amelia. You being there, Glory Girl, complicated things, which is probably why she kept insisting you leave and why she waited so long before attempting to kill me."

I looked the blonde dead in the eyes. "If she was anyone other than family of one of my friends, I would've taken her down, as well as anyone else that attacked me unprovoked, before dumping the lot of them off at the PRT to press charges, because that's what a Hero would do."

I leaned back, opening my hands, voice controlled. "Not that they've probably mentioned it, but New Wave has attacked people they didn't like in their own homes before, and I'd rather not open myself up to that, as if they corner me in my own home, I may not hold back."

"NO!" Glory girl shouted, spiking Awe without meaning to. "They'd never do that!"

I quirked an eyebrow as she pulled back her power, not mentioning it, but if she did it again I was going to kick her ass out. A flash of motion caught my eye and I saw Herb launch horizontally out from the hall towards Glory Girl, fist swinging forward to hit the sitting girl in the back of the head while he screamed "Fuck!"

As my conscious mind stuttered in shock at this complete non-sequitur, Glory Girl had already pushed me enough that my combat instincts were up and running. I couldn't get up and block him in time, which meant I had to stop him from a distance. Almost unbidden my Aerokinesis sprung to the front of my mind, forming a rapidly expanding disk of air an inch behind her head, solidifying an instant before he hit.

His fist impacted the surface at speed, his arm breaking almost apart on impact, grotesquely folding in on itself as flesh pulped and bones snapped, one piercing the flesh to stick out like white arrow shaft. Herb hit the ground with a meaty thud, eyes wide as the two girls started to realize something had happened, jumping up in almost slow motion. I noted distantly that Glory Girl had tossed her mug to the side, porcelain shattering on the hardwood and spilling sugary coffee everywhere.

As quick as the moment came, it passed. "Fuuuck!" Herb yelled in pain, holding what was left of his arm.

"Dude, what the fuck!" I yelled, overriding the girl's own reactions.

"She, here, fuuuck!" he cried inarticulately.

I took a deep breath, putting my coffee down and walking around the table over to him, Panacea staring at him with wide eyes while her sister tried not to vomit as she stared at the mutilated limb. "Why in the ever-loving fuck did you try to sucker punch Glory Girl, when she was sitting in our base, drinking fucking coffee? The fuck man!?" I tried not to shout, and failed.

He was looking at his arm, having gone partially into shock, which he deserved. "She. Base. Invading?"

That I understood, he thought the sisters were somehow invading and he was taking out the heavy hitter first. The sheer hypocrisy of that statement pissed me off. "Oh that's ripe coming from you. You're the one who brought Amelia here in the first place, but now she's back you think that's grounds to attack? Fuck you."

He shook his head, "No. Sister. Angry? All I heard was no! And then I felt a sharp thing in my head... There was yelling man!" he finally said, Peak Condition pushing him back out of shock like it had for me when I was Boardwalk. He blinked, then looked at the hardened air shield he'd punched, which still had some blood smeared on it highlighting the impact crater directly in the center of it. "What'd ya use?"

I gave a significant glance to where Vicky was standing behind me without moving my head. "Force fields."

He cocked his head, confused. "When did ya get forcefields?" I just looked at him, shocked that Mr. 'I'm so great at reading subtleties' missed that. I swear to god Herb, I will hurt you if you blab my secrets. As I glared at him I swear I could see the thought click in as he went, "Sorry, so sorry, sorry."

I sighed, trying to find a good explanation. "Just because I'm finding new uses for my power, doesn't mean it's a new power," I 'reminded' him.

"Right, that's why I'm apologizing," he agreed, getting up. "Sorry." He looked down at his ruined arm, moving it slightly and wincing as the flesh shifted and jiggled like an arm shouldn't, blood slowly pooling below it as it dripped down his arm to fall from his twisted fingers. "This is kinda weird."

I sighed, harder. "Okay, take a fucking seat. Panacea can you heal him so he can put on some clothes and talk like a fuckin' adult." Panacea looked back at me, before looking back at Herb and realizing that all he was wearing were boxers, having probably jumped straight out of bed when her sister had spiked her emotional manipulation field. "He's not gonna fight, he thought she was here to attack one of us, and he was woken up when she spiked her 'not-a-Master' power."

Herb turned to her, shrugging and wincing, "Yeah, it's not like you have a massively overprotective sister that my friend has been hanging out with."

"I'm not overprotective!" the overprotective sister in question objected, still looking green.

All three of us looked at her in disbelief. "Yeah, ya are,"; "You are very protective, but that's not bad,"; "Sometimes," we responded at once.

The Brute took a seat, pouting, while Amy repaired Herb's arm. I grabbed some paper towels and cleaned up the blood, gore, and coffee as the healer frowned. "Your powers...are helping mine?" the redhead questioned, confused. "Where is it getting the biomass?"

"Same place any creation power gets mass," I absently responded while I cleaned up my friend's spattered flesh and blood and reminded myself that Herb was fine. "They convert energy stores into matter, E equals M C squared and all of that fun stuff in reverse." I looked up from the blood I was cleaning off of the three-foot-wide air disk and saw the sisters staring. "What? It makes sense and the powers can't truly violate basic thermodynamics, they just use a ton of power to manipulate things on a small scale."

Panacea shook her head as she turned back to healing as Victoria frowned at me, "How do you know that?"

I shrugged as I realized I'd over-explained again. In my defense I might've been a bit off-balance from the near-fatal misunderstanding. "Can't tell you right now without bad things happening."

She pouted again, which if I was into teenage valley girls might've worked, but I preferred dark, smart, and snark-... Not looking at Panacea I made Glory Girl another coffee after I finished cleaning. As I put it down she was poking the now near invisible disk. "What is this?"

I shrugged, "Forcefield?" which was true, in a sense.

"But it's invisible."

Sighing I took a seat, sipping on my room temperature caffeine. As Herb left to get changed "The best one's are," I quipped, before snapping my fingers and dismissing it in a gust of air that I directed away from the girls and down the hall without touching anything. A deep breath later I continued. "Okay, where were we? .. .Oh right, your family's habits of attacking people in their own homes."

"They wouldn't!" Glory Girl objected, though not nearly as strenuously as she had last time.

"Well, they'd hardly have told you about it if they had." I turned to Amy, "Now, you had a question about your lineage?"

Panacea glanced at her fuming sister, who looked like she wanted to continue, but was holding back for her sibling. "Yes. Who were my parents?"

"I only know one, but you should be able to figure their identity out on your own," I deflected. "Riddle me this: Why did Brandish adopt you?"

Amy looked pained, and I repressed a passing urge to give her a hug. "I don't know why, but she had to," the healer told me. "Her and aunt Sarah talked about it tonight."

I glanced over to Glory Girl, who wouldn't meet my eyes. Things must've gotten bad after I left. I hate domestic disputes. "Okay, do you know when you were adopted?"

"When I was six."

"And what happened around that time in or near Brockton Bay?" I asked. "This would've been back when New Wave was The Brockton Bay Brigade."

She shrugged, and I turned to Herb who was walking back in the room, clothed this time, "Since you're up, can you grab me a laptop?"

He shrugged, "Yeah, sure." After he'd walked behind them to go get it, he gave me a double thumbs up with something that looked like a tentative smile crossed with a grimace.

We waited, and I got myself another coffee, nixing my idea to try warming my old one with a hidden tiny star. Herb returned with the laptop and a bottle of Wild Turkey. I took the computer and shot him a questioning look for the booze, but he shook his head. "Here," I told them, handing them the device, "look up what happened in two-thousand and two-thousand-one around here."

I sat at one end of the table as Amelia typed into the computer, her sister literally hovering over her shoulder. Herb grabbed four glasses and sat down, waiting, while I opened the base manual on my phone, starting to work through the newly discovered first chapter. I really wished I'd found this glossary of terms a while ago and found myself flipping back to understand what was said, which only confused me even more as the things it was listing how to use we didn't have!

I was halfway through the my confusing research when I heard Amelia give a soft "no."

Glancing over at her, I saw her looking at the screen, face pale. Glory Girl looked sickly horrified. Having Marquis as a dad should be that bad. Walking over to her and exchanging confused looks with Herb, I peered over Amy's shoulder, opposite of Victoria. I saw she had a news report open about Nilbog of all people. "Why are you looking up that asshole?" I asked, even more confused.

Amy looked sharply, up at me, "Isn't he my father!?" I blinked at her, before laughing at the ridiculousness of it. "It's not funny!" she said, on the verge of tears.

"Nilbog isn't your father," I told her, putting a hand on her shoulder as I dragged the computer over, typing in 'Marquis captured' with one hand, hitting enter. The first result was a news story detailing the Brockton Bay Brigade's win against the villain Marquis. "He's your father."

I looked over her shoulder as she and her sister read the new story. As it detailed the 'valiant battle' against Marquis the group that would become New Wave waged, 'Storming his base' a picture of a mansion with a destroyed front door and spikes of bone protruding from the wall in a few places putting that to lie. There was a picture of him, in cuffs, being put into an ambulance.

"What is he wearing?" Vicky demanded, squinting at the picture.

Squinting, I tried to remember the interlude that described this event. "I believe it's a silk bathrobe. They kept your sister out of the story, but they beat Marquis by noticing he was protecting a closet, and Brandish used that fact to pin him down and stab him in the chest with her plasma sword. It's a favored tactic of hers, apparently. After they found Amy Marquis gave himself up so they wouldn't hurt her, willing to go to the Birdcage if they promised to take care of her." Whether or not they did is up to debate.

I sighed, "So, letting New Wave know where I live? I'd rather not. You wouldn't do anything Glory Girl, and neither would your sister, but your parents? You can't tell me they wouldn't." I took a seat next to Amy, as they both gazed at me in shock, obviously looking like they wanted to say something in their family's defense but not sure what it would be. "New Wave tried something well, new, by eschewing their secret identities. Unfortunately, they, like a lot of other people who claim to be honorable, only followed the rules when it served their own needs."

"I'm sure they excused what was their greatest victory by later saying that since they didn't have secret identities, they shouldn't have needed to respect those of their foes. It's why when that E88 thug killed Fleur when she wasn't in costume, which was murder, well if you've looked into it you've seen that there wasn't the outcry one would've expected from someone blatantly breaking the unwritten rules." I sighed, shaking my head, "That was because the Brigade became famous for taking down their arch-nemesis by doing exactly that, only worse. Fleur was attacked walking down the street, Marquis was attacked at night, in his own home, when he wasn't expecting it, when they expected him to be unable to defend himself. The only reason he wasn't was that he'd just finished reading his daughter a bed-time story because she was having trouble going to sleep. Not only that, they played off Marquis' refusal to hurt women by having their front-line fighters belong to the class of people he refused to injure."

I leaned back. "Amy, I trust. You, I'll give a chance because of what I've seen of your character. Your mother? I would've been hesitant to, but after tonight? No." I wanted to add 'sorry' but I really wasn't. I sat there, giving the girls a chance to formulate her response.

"So, my father is Marquis," Amelia sighed. "That, that explains a lot."

"What do ya mean Ames?" her sister asked, looking down at her. "That doesn't explain, like, anything!"

"You know how much Mo- how much Carol hates Marquis. He's been in the Birdcage for a decade and she still got upset when dad brought him up after the first time Lee helped me heal!" she objected, and I blinked, not realizing that my actions had sparked strife in her family that quickly and feeling a bit bad about it. "If I'm his daughter, was she just expecting me to turn out just like him? Is that really what she meant by mali principii malus finis?" Harmful start harmful end? The hell? Did Brandish think saying 'bad blood' in latin somehow made it true? "Just because Marquis is my father? That's not how it works! That's not how any of that works! I can literally see brains, that's not how that works!" she nearly screamed, almost shrill in disbelief.

"Mom's smarter than that, she's a lawyer!" Glory Girl tried to reason, but her words lacked the weight of conviction. I wanted to say that smart people could believe stupid things, but I could practically hear Herb going 'Not the time man, stay out of this', so I glanced over at him, and he was indeed giving me a look which said exactly that. "Besides, you know she loves us!" Victoria added, sounding desperate.

Amy shook her head, crying, "No Vics, she loves you! She's been clear about that. She tolerated me until I started 'turning evil' like my father!"

Victoria, now crying as well, hugged her sister, "I'm so sorry Ames! This is like, the worst!"

I sat there, feeling so awkward. Should I give words of encouragement? Leave? Give them a hug? Anger, arrogance, or apathy I could handle pretty easily, but anguish? Not a ton of knowledge on how to help someone else with that, mostly because I wasn't used to people being this vulnerable around me, and I knew that I was weird enough what helped me probably wouldn't help them. It was made worse by the fact that I actually gave a shit about Amelia, and surprisingly about Victoria as well, so I didn't really know what to do, but wished I did.

I silenced myself as I repressed a groan. I didn't know what I was going to do, but I knew what I wasn't going to do. There was no way I could kick them out now. If only I'd not talked like I normally did, explaining things that people didn't want to be explained, even if they really needed to be, I could've convinced them to let me rent a hotel room for them or something until this all blew over.

However, I knew I couldn't as they cried and held onto each other as if they were each other's only lifeline in stormy seas. They shared the pain of a terribly but undeniable truth that reshaped how they understood reality, a pain I was far too familiar with. One I also knew from experience that was going to leave them vulnerable and crash them hard. While I'm sure I could still convince them to leave if I needed to, I could no longer do so without hurting them.

Me and my stupid mouth.

<AB>​

After about half an hour they were pretty much done. I wanted to offer words of understanding and comfort, but still really didn't know what to say. Cleaning up the kitchen as Herb produced a bottle of whiskey and poured it into the glasses he'd gotten earlier, three fingers worth in two, almost filling the others, I sat down across the table from them.

"So," I sighed, getting tired, tear-bright looks from both of them as they sniffled. "I never actually said you could stay here, so I am saying it right now. We've got a few open rooms and you can stay here as long as you need Amy. Glory Gi-"

"Call my Vicky," she interrupted.

I nodded. "Okay Vicky, stay here tonight, and if you really want to you can stay longer, just know that if you do so, Brandish will probably try to kill me. Again. She..." I trailed off, trying to figure out how to phrase it.

"She what?" Victoria asked tiredly.

I sighed. "Do you want me to be nice, or be blunt?"

Herb passed me one of the half-filled glasses, pushing the two full ones to the sisters, as well as the bottle.

Vicky looked at the glass in front of her, before taking it in one motion and downing the entire thing, breaking off into coughs as her sister took a swig before grimacing. After Victoria stopped coughing, she gave me a teary smile, "I could use some nice right now... and some water?"

"Okay," I nodded, getting her some. I took a sip of my whiskey and waited until after she took a drink of water to look her in the eye. "Brandish cares a great deal about you, your wellbeing, and your safety. As such if you spend time around someone that she has declared a Villain she'll both take it badly and assume that you are only doing so because I did something to you, not by your own choice. After all, you're a good daughter and good daughters listen to their mothers. There's nothing you can do to convince her otherwise because anything you do to prove her wrong is obviously something I told you to do."

She tried to object that that made no sense, and I held up a hand. "Yes, it's not rational, but a large portion of adults believe that anyone more than twenty years younger than them isn't capable of making logical decisions, especially ones that counter what said adults, with their age and experience, have chosen to do. They feel that, as adults, they don't need to justify themselves, their positions of power and respect being enough that they shouldn't be questioned, especially when attempting to do so would just prove the younger person right, which would hurt the adult's pride, though they don't consciously realize why they feel so offended. They just lash out at it, like the children they call their opposition, ironically enough. The same adults also usually dismiss what people who have twenty plus more years of experience than they do think, because those old people are obviously out of touch, or senile, or something. It's really just an 'I'm right, and I'll make up whatever excuse it takes to get you to accept it' mindset. It was used against them, and they hated it, but now that they have the power they're going to use it against everyone else."

Glancing over at Panacea I continued, "I had asked Amy to ask you if you could hang out with her while she heals as protection, now that the ABB is desperate for healers, but she obviously didn't get the chance, so I'm asking now that I have the opportunity. However, if you stay with her all the time, it's a when, not an if, that Brandish will come to, um, claim you and drag you back home. If that doesn't work I would not be surprised if she tries to tail you back here, to try to force a confrontation, and maybe attack me for daring to steal her daughter or something similar."

I sighed. "If you're staying at home, and just meeting your sister for her hospital shifts, she might pitch a fit, hell, she'll probably ground you and tell you not to, but, well, you do have an Alexendria package. It's not like she can stop you without hurting you, and I doubt she's that far gone. It's not pleasant, but it's an option. If you can't watch her back I'd ask her to not go healing now that we have the added threat of Brandish trying something, but if you sister decided to do so anyways I wouldn't stop her, and just ask that she wears a tracker." I looked at Panacea. "There's a decent chance they'll try to take you again, and once I hear about it I would go kill the people that took you, but I'm worried about what they'd try to do to you in that interval. It's something the two of you need to decide soon."

Speech done, I leaned back as the sisters whispered to each other. I wanted to eavesdrop, but this was a decision they had to make. Herb stood up, walking over to them and giving them both a hug, which neither of them knew how to respond to. "I'm sorry girls," he told them, nodding to the bottle, "That's yours, I don't want to see it tomorrow." With that he went to bed.

The two of them looked to me. "I don't' think you're going anywhere else tonight, and Brandish already thinks I'm evil incarnate, what's a bit of underage drinking on top of that?"

Vicky nodded, refilling her glass and topping off her sister's, before the two of them started to quietly debate again. They went back and forth, from the body language Amelia was telling her sister she was fine, and Vicky disagreed. After almost an hour, and several more drinks, they came to a decision, Amy seeming to have lost. Victoria turned to me and smiled as she swayed slightly in her seat, "I'm staying!"